Tempting Whispers: The Kategan Alphas 6 (7 page)

In and out, she sucked in air, squeezing
her eyes shut as sweat beaded her forehead. His deep voice was so soothing
though, and the hand on her back moved slowly around and around. She repeated
what he said as a mantra in her head until finally, she breathed in a deep
breath that actually felt like it reached all of her lungs, then let it out on
a long whoosh of air. She felt much better, back to herself, and very angry.

Sitting back, she swiped his hand away
from her. His jaw clenched and rocked to the side, but fuck him. What did
he
have to be mad about? She stood and got in his face, or the best she could,
considering he had several inches on her.

“Why the fuck did you do that? And
without telling me? Without my damn permission?”

He crossed his arms across his big
chest. “I had to, Vanessa. I had to see where he was at on this.”

She threw up her hands. “So much for
trusting me. So, tell me, did he agree to a divorce since
you
asked him
about it? Did he agree to sign the papers and fax them so kindly to the
Justicars Headquarters for me?” She crossed her own arms, but that didn’t make
her feel better, so she squeezed her arms with her hands until little throbs of
pain reared up.

“No; no, he didn’t,” he said softly.

She laughed the sound bordering on
hysterical. “Oh, great. Now he knows where I am. Isn’t that just dandy. You
know, this is all my fault. I never should have trusted you. I never should
have even come here.” God, she felt like crying and hitting something and
screaming all at the same time.

But she did none of those things.
Instead, she calmly turned and strode to the door. Her hand curled around the
handle just as a much bigger hand flattened against the door. She stared at the
wood door, her jaw tight. “Let go.”

“Look at me, Vanessa.”

She studied the deep lines of the wood
where veins were darker than the rest.

“God dammit, just turn around!”

Fine, she did. He stared at her, then wordlessly
mouthed something, running an agitated hand through his hair. “I had to and I
can still help you. I can still protect you.”

“Oh, really?” she asked, sarcasm locked
on heavy. “How do you plan to do that? Really, I want to know.”

He lifted his hand as if he was about to
say something, then dropped it with a slight shake to his head. “I’m going to
contact your father and try that route.”

She clapped her hands together. “Brilliant!
And when he tells you he won’t void the contract that’s now doubled the size of
his land?”

He ground his jaw to the side. “Then I’ll
think of something else.”

She chuffed and wished her heart didn’t
feel like it was breaking. It did though. It was one thing knowing she’d never
be able to get a divorce from Joseph and another entirely to see the Justicar
Brayden, a man much smarter than herself, especially in the way of the law,
tell her he’d ‘think of something else.’ Yeah, right.

“I think we’re done here,” she said, her
voice hollow.

“Vanessa...”

She turned and paused with her hand on
the door. She laughed suddenly, the sound low and raw. “You know, I thought I
was pissed with your reaction after we kissed, but this—
this
is so much
worse.” She turned the door handle and left, happy he didn’t call after her. At
least, she wished that made her happy.

Chapter 7

Vanessa tiptoed downstairs, no easy feat
in high heels. The house rested with a quiet that you’d expect in a house where
no one lived here. Not a TV was on, not a radio, and no murmurs of conversation
could he heard, and it wasn’t even late. Which was great for her.

She went to the wooden side table near
the front door and picked up Brayden’s black leather wallet. Weird, it was such
a normal thing for a man to leave his wallet by the door, but it still seemed
odd to her. Maybe because the way Brayden acted wasn’t so normal, at least to
her. Yet, she was beginning to learn many things about him weren’t as she’d
thought. Such as, that like any normal person, he kept his keys and his wallet
on the side table by the front door, and that he could be very kind if he
wanted to be.

She smirked and opened the wallet then
peered over her shoulder quickly to make sure no striking gray eyes stared her
down. All clear, she rifled through and pulled out a hundred dollar bill.
Normally she might feel guilty about something like this, but not now; not
after that fight with him this morning. God, it hurt so bad to know he’d gone
behind her back like that. She didn’t even want to think about it, because every
time she did, she pictured her fist connecting with his jaw. That was a
half-truth. She really didn’t want to think about it because every time she did,
her chest squeezed like a force pushed at it and her eyes got all wet. Fuck
that and fuck him. She didn’t need him.

After she’d stormed away, Vanessa had
quickly realized that she didn’t have as much time as she’d originally thought
to carry out her dreams. Not with Joseph now having some idea where she was. So
first thing, she went through her mental list of wants. First, she wanted to go
clubbing. She’d love more than anything to have a group of girlfriends to go
with her, to laugh and drink with while dancing their asses off, but she had
none of that. So instead, she’d put on the sexy little black dress she’d bought
with a pair of black heels and dabbed on some mascara and lip gloss. She’d
scrunched up her hair so it looked wild and sexy like bed-head. The soft
rustling fabric of the dress clung just so against her bare skin, and she had a
lot of it. A stringy thong was all she wore under the dress and the low-cut
front certainly didn’t leave room for a bra, not that she really needed one
with her barely-there breasts.

Second, she wanted to have awesome,
jaw-dropping, scream-from-the-top-of-your lungs sex with a hot man. If luck
sided with her tonight, she might be able to cross out number one and number
two at once. Three, she wanted to enroll in college. And four—this goal she’d
really thought long and hard on—she wanted to taunt Brayden. She glanced at his
driver’s license and smirked. Make that Brayden
Erickson
. She wanted him
to drool after her, to get so hot for her that he’d do anything to touch her,
then she'd turn him down. She’d take his ‘Get off me, Vanessa’ and shove an ‘Oh,
no thanks, Brayden’ right in his face after he panted for her. It was a petty
goal, but one she looked forward to. It’s the least she could do with the fact
that he’d telephoned her ‘mate’ without asking her. Not that she would have
agreed to it anyway.

A sound reached her ears and she tensed,
her breath freezing in her lungs so she could use all her senses to listen. The
sound was of a footstep on the wood floor, the slight compression of wood from
having weight pressed upon it. Wide-eyed, her gaze darted to the top of the
stairs and she stayed frozen. If he came out of his bedroom and looked down
over the stairwell, he wouldn’t see her. Another groan from the floor came and
she tiptoed into the dining room on the right, flattening against the wall
closest to the stairs so he wouldn’t see her. She stayed that way, her heart
beating frantically hard, so hard she had trouble hearing over it. She breathed
in quietly through her nose until her heartbeat settled, then she heard a door
open and close upstairs. The breath she’d been holding blew out in a whoosh.

She kept her eyes trained on top of the
stairs as she strained on the edge of her toes to the front door. God, she hadn’t
felt this kind of excitement in a long time—that she might get caught. And get
caught by the gorgeous Brayden. Her body grew hot at the thought, but she
sighed with disappointment. It wouldn’t be worth the trouble. The man didn’t
have a passionate bone in his body. Okay maybe a little one—she’d been on the
other side of his kiss, if only for a moment. It had made her feel weak,
breathless, and hot all at the same time. She wanted more of that; and tonight,
she was going to get it. Just not from Brayden Erickson.

She flipped the deadlock and winced as
the metal mechanism sounded like a mini-explosion in the deathly quiet house.
The lock of the door handle proved much softer, nearly silent as she turned it.
Before she left the house, she sent one last look up the stairs, somehow wanting,
hoping, and hating for him to be standing there ready to stop her and be the
one she’d escape into a world of pleasure with. No one stood up there though,
only the shadows moving from the moon casting off the trees outback and
splaying through the window.

She turned and quietly closed the door.
The blue car was parked next to his SUV in the garage port. She ran across the
yard, a goofy grin on her face as her pulse pounded with fear and excitement.
Upon closer inspection, she realized this wasn’t any car. It was a Mercedes-Benz.
It looked sharp, sleek, and more than a little badass.

Her eyes flicked up to the windows of
the house, but no face loomed so she unlocked the car door, got in, took a deep
breath, then started the car. The inside of the car was way too nice. Leather
seats, a touch screen GPS system; all the gadgets on the dashboard were black
and shiny and even the wheel looked fancy with its two-toned colors. Black at
the top and bottom and the same cream color on the sides to match the leather
seats.

She didn’t have time to sit and ogle the
car so she moved fast, backing up, then shoving the car into drive and pulling
away from the house. It was no use going slow. If he heard anything, he might
have heard the roar of the engine starting, which the confines of the detached
garage seemed to amplify all too well.

She peeled off across his circular
driveway, rolling down her windows so the cool air whipped her hair across her
shoulders and neck like a teasing caress. Then she flicked on the radio,
choosing a station playing pumping hard beats and cranked the baby up. She
headed to the club and howled out the window into the night.

She headed into downtown feeling alive,
beautiful, and confidant, like she could rule the world; nothing could stop
her. The cool breeze chilled her cheeks; the techno pounding beats of the song
blaring blocked out everything else around her until was just her and her grin.
She pulled into the parking lot across from the club she’d eyed when she’d
first gotten into town, haggard and looking for a job. She’d seen it and knew
she had to try it at least once.

She took a parking ticket from the
little meter box and the bar blocking her lifted swiftly. Ten dollar parking,
per hour, cash only, read the sign. Ouch; but, oh well. Tonight would be worth
the dip into her little bit of money.

She parked, grabbed the small purse she’d
bought at the mall and zipped across the street to Vision Nightclub. A line of
glammed up gals and guys waited outside between red movie theater partitions.
Vanessa had her first wave of doubt as she eyed that line. The line meant she
wasn’t getting in. The line didn’t move, which also meant the club was probably
full and most likely, only a handful more people might get in before closing.

Still, she crossed to the sidewalk and
headed down toward the entrance. People glanced her way, some girls giving her
dirty looks as if to say ‘if we can’t get in, you can’t either!’ They were
probably right, too. She kept her chin held high and walked up to two tall,
broad-chested men who looked like they spent a lot of time in the gym.

She put on her best smile. “What’s it
take to dance in this place?”

The bouncer didn’t look fazed by her
smile. “Fifty dollar cover fee and a wait in line.”

“Damn,” she muttered.

The bouncer next to him elbowed his
buddy. “Let her in.”

Bouncer number one looked at number two
in disbelief. “Why the hell should I?”

Bouncer number two winked at her. “Beautiful
women are always welcome in the club.”

She didn’t want to blush, but it
happened anyway. “We got a line of hot babes, Carl,” replied bouncer one.

“None without a fake tan and a shit-ton
of makeup. Just let her in.”

After some grumbling, bouncer one lifted
the hook on the velvety red rope and she passed through, giving bouncer two a
bright smile as he held the door open with her.

“Have a good time, babe.”

“Will do,” she promised and winked back.

As she made her way into the club, she
realized she was closer to reaching goal number two pretty quickly. Though the
bouncer wasn’t hot so much as attractive, and he certainly didn’t get her
hormones pumping like Brayden did. Oh, well, she sighed and squeezed her way
into the club. The pulsing music, the dark atmosphere with sweeping and
blinking blue, pink, and red lights instantly enthralled her. The club had a
rectangular dance floor packed full with bodies, people throwing up their hands
and cheering on a DJ who worked the turntable on a small stage up above.

Smiling, she took it all in. There was
another floor above her and people crowded against the railing, dancing in
place and swinging their hands in the air to the pulsing, hip-shaking rhythm of
the music. Vanessa waded her way through the pile of bodies down a short flight
of stairs to a bar. She didn’t mind waiting for the bartender to see her
because she moved in place to the music, grinning like a fool. Finally, the bartender
spotted her and she ordered a hurricane. She’d never tried one before but she
heard it had lots of alcohol in it and she planned to get shit-faced tonight.
One couldn’t go clubbing and not loosen up a bit, right? She paid cash for the
drink and sipped her sweet and very strong tasting hurricane as she made her
way back upstairs to the main dance floor.