Tempting Whispers: The Kategan Alphas 6 (8 page)

A DJ with a deep, sexy voice spoke into
the mic and the crowd went wild before he did some fancy whirling sounding
thing on his turntable and rolled them into another hip-thrusting rhythm. Oh God,
it felt so good she just wanted to scream. She finished her drink way faster
than she knew she should considering she never drank, deposited it on a small
table with other empty drinks, then squirmed her way in between the bodies, and
lost herself in the rhythm of the music.

Eyes closed, she swung her hips, dipped
her knees, raised her hands and found a sort of freedom in her heart she’d
never experienced before. She felt so
alive
. Suddenly, a strong arm
wrapped around her waist, and panic rushed through her making her breath catch,
but one look over her shoulder found a good-looking human with gelled up black
hair wearing too much cologne. She didn’t care; she danced with him. He swayed
with her, spun her out the best he could in the tight space, then twirled her
back into his arms where they writhed together, chest to chest, thigh to thigh.

The song ended and she cheered along
with the rest of the crowd. The man grinned down at her and stuck his hand out.
“Tony. What’s your name, baby?”

Her skin crawled just a bit. She wasn’t
used to anyone calling her names like that, but it wasn’t his fault. “Vanessa.”
He held her hand in his and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, which
embarrassingly, made her giggle. He grinned even wider. She had to practically
shout over the loud music as she said, “I’m gonna get a drink.”

“Let me buy it for you, baby.”

She shook her head. She didn’t know him
and she’d heard enough stories about the kind of shit men could do to a woman’s
drink, so she headed to the bar with a little wave and ordered another
hurricane. She paid for it, started sipping on it through the tall straw and
danced to the music. She spotted Tony coming down the stairs after her; he
lifted his head in greeting.

The effects of the alcohol were doing
its job. Her body felt looser, warmer, and lithe. Her eyes felt hooded, like
they didn’t quite know if they wanted to stay open or not and that was fine
with her. She felt sexy as she rolled her hips under the spinning lights up
above; she felt anonymous. Tony smiled down at her and spun around her, his
hand settling on her hips. She wasn’t completely comfortable with his hands
there. At first, she stiffened, but his hands didn’t glide forward, up, down or
anywhere else so she relaxed and leaned back into him, sipping away at her
hurricane.

“You’re gorgeous,” Tony said in her ear.

She smiled like an idiot. No one ever
called her gorgeous, or pretty, or cute or babe, for that matter.

Her head seemed to spin in time with
dancing lights painting the dark room in circles of pink and white. She let
herself relax into Tony, and when his hands spanned across her stomach she bit
her lip in disappointment that sparks didn’t fly. Damn, it wouldn’t be him. She
finished her drink, turned around, and smiled sadly.

“Sorry, but I have to go.”

“What? Come on baby, things were just
getting good.”

She shook her head, deposited her empty
glass on the bar, then waved goodbye to Tony and started wading back upstairs.

“Fucking bitch!”

She stiffened, but kept going. Now
that
nickname she was totally used to. Joseph called her bitch. Or fucking bitch
most of the time. He never even used her name.

It must be the alcohol, but as she made
it back in with the heavy pile of bodies, she’d nearly forgotten all about the
human’s barb. This time, her eyes were alight with something. She felt loose
and sexy enough to do it. She danced her way through couples and groups of
girls looking for a man who’d spark that something special deep inside, that
something she’d felt dreaming about Brayden and then really felt when she
kissed him. That one kiss made her wet and eager to try more, taste more.
Tonight, she’d get it one way or the other—hopefully.

A tall figure came down the stairs from
the upper floor. Now that was a man; tall, broad shouldered, but not with the
bulky weight like the bouncer outside. She liked muscles, but not
serious-looking muscles; it just wasn’t for her. This man wore a white T-shirt
which must have been what initially drew her attention to him. The white shirt
seemed to glow in the dark room where most everyone wore darker clothes. He
waded through the dancers and she bit her lip as she made her plan of attack.
Did she ask if he was here with someone first? Did she just ask him to dance,
then do some heavy grinding?

His face still clung in the shadows; the
sweeping lights never seemed to illuminate him. A few women darted glances,
then full on smiles up at him as he passed. Then it dawned on her. He was
coming right toward her. Shit. She struggled to get her sloth-slow brain to
come up with an idea on how to nab him; he had to be the one. He was the only
one who’d caught her eye this whole night. And after two hurricanes, she easily
felt like making out with someone. She giggled a little, but that died a moment
later.

The white shirted man came into view,
pushing a dancing kid out of the way and ignoring his protest. He stepped in front
of her and, in an instant, she recognized the piercing gray eyes, the long
ridge of his nose, the hard line of his slightly stubble jaw.

“Oh, hell,” she whispered, glad she had
put down her empty hurricane glass ’cause she would have dropped it just then.
Brayden came into full view, his tall body hard. Angry tension radiated off him
in waves. Others seemed to recognize it too, because they subconsciously moved
away, parting around them in a circle.

“What the fuck do you think you’re
doing?”

Her heart pounded hard and way too fast.
He cussed. Brayden didn’t cuss. Except he had twice now with her, and each time
it made her a whole lot scared and a whole lot more excited.

“Dancing.” She knew her answer came out
as a whisper, but his vampiric hearing picked it up easily because he stepped
closer, his teeth actually clenched and bared.

“You’re coming home with me.” He moved
to grab her arm but she stepped back, bumping into some dancers. She mumbled an
apology and shot him a dirty look.

“No, I’m not. I just got here.”

His lips closed and his eyes seemed to
get angrier, his entire body harder. God, why did that excite her?

“You’ve been gone for over an hour.”

A new song came over the loud speakers
and the rhythm spoke to her on some primal level. Her body started swaying,
dipping a little. She had to keep her moves, or what she had of them, under
wraps because she had a feeling he wouldn’t like seeing her having fun.

“Feels like longer than that.” No wonder
people came to dark, wicked places like this, dancing with strangers, drinking
and relaxing in a way that otherwise seemed impossible.

He stepped forward and grabbed her
wrist. Her whole chest suddenly felt heavy and hard to breathe as he yanked her
forward. She knew what he was trying to do. He was going to drag her out of the
club and take her to his boring, perfectly clean house. She wasn’t going to let
him do it. Because of him, Joseph knew she was with him, or at least in
Chicago. Because of him, what little she’d worked toward was ruined. Because of
him, she’d set forth her little goals and began carrying them out. That one she
could actually applaud him for, because otherwise she wouldn’t be here right
now feeling loose and out of control.

She let him tug her wrist and went
falling forward into his chest. He tried to tug her with him, but she
maneuvered just right so her palms landed against the warm soft cotton of his T-shirt.
God, he looked fucking
good
. Like hot damn good in that tee. It was a
normal white crew neck with a pocket on the front. Looked like a five dollar
shirt from a discount store or a Walmart, but on him, she wanted to rip it
apart from the collar down and lick her way down his chest.

“Now is not the time to fuck around with
the mood I’m in. Do you hear me? We’re getting the hell out of here.”

Three curse words now and her knees went
weak. Her fingers dug into his chest and all kinds of hot sensations blew up
inside her. She went wet, her breasts heavy. He was so hard, had strength and
muscles in places she didn’t, that she really wanted to learn about...with her
fingers and tongue.

“Dance with me,” she whispered, her
voice ragged with untapped need.

His body turned even harder beneath her
fingertips. His eyes bore into hers, a whole lot angry, and a little something
else. God, she wanted that something else to be what was making her want to
wrap every inch of her body around him right now until they were fused
together.

“No, Vanessa. Now I’m warning you, I’m
about ten seconds from picking your little ass up and carrying you out of
here.”

A fourth curse word from his
oh-so-controlled mouth. That definitely made her heart skip a beat. “Why do you
care?” she asked.

His eyes narrowed and his jaw bulged. “You’re
under my protection and you snuck out of my house and didn’t tell me where you
were going. Something could have happened.”

Her hands had a mind of their own and
flattened, rubbing up his chest to curl around his shoulders. God, that felt
good. He had hard shoulders with a dip in front where the muscle flared at the
back. She bit her lip as she grew wetter between her legs.

“How did you find me?”

He flicked his hard gaze to her hands
then shoved them away, but she wouldn’t be denied. Not with the warmth flowing
through her body like warm honey. So she grabbed his waist and wanted to moan
at the hard muscle there, but she pressed on until she had her arms wrapped
around him, her breasts pressed flat to the heat of his hard stomach.

And he didn’t push her away, but he did
send her a warning look. “I have GPS in the car. I can track it with my phone.”

“Sounds fancy,” she murmured, her eyes memorizing
the hard plane of his chest. She could just see the outline where his pectoral
met his abdomen. She wet her lip as her mouth tingled to press against that
spot. His body was hard everywhere, so unlike her mate’s.

His lip twitched in an angry way. “How
drunk are you? Do you think you can walk out of here without my help?”

The song picked up its sultry, throbbing
tempo and she started dancing around his big strong body, rubbing her breasts
against him, sliding her thighs around his. She dipped low at a particular
point in the song and grazed her cheek along the button of his jeans, and boy
did he look sexy as hell in jeans. The man should be forbidden from ever
wearing a suit or those preppy golf clothes again, because it was sin to hide
that gorgeous body from view. She dipped just a little more and her nose slid
down along his zipper before she rolled her chest forward and stood.

“Dance with me.” She stared into his
eyes, begging him to give in, to give her this moment.

But now he looked like he was about to
explode in anger.

“I warned you,” was all he said and then
he bent and lifted her into his arms so easily. He sent threatening glares at
everyone until they cleared a path for him. The man acted like he owned the
place.

“Oh, God,” she whispered and buried her
head in his neck to hide the raging fire blazing her burning cheeks. “This is
so embarrassing.”

Well, in a small way it was nice,
because she got to wrap her arms around his neck which felt very hard and
strong under her fingertips.

“God, you’re strong.”

“Shut up, Vanessa.”

She did, but not because he told her to.
She curled closer in his arms because, wow, did he feel warm and powerful. Every
cord of muscle pressed against her felt hard and firm. She heard a door open
then cool air swept her hair back. It also carried his scent closer. She
breathed in deeply, then buried her nose in his neck. His arms tightened around
her, which her body must have taken as an invitation, because she sucked in
that delicious masculine scent then pressed her lips there.

His neck flexed under her lips. “Stop
that, woman.”

She laughed a little. No wonder people
drank. She had no worries, her whole body felt
amazin
g
and she
had a sexy-ass man carrying her like she weighed nothing. It’d be romantic if
he wasn’t walking as fast as he could and every word out of his mouth spewed
with anger. That and his body pulsed with anger like he wanted to hit something
or shout up a storm. Oh, well.

She darted her tongue out and licked at
his neck. Her body and breasts throbbed. He even tasted good, warm and
masculine. Her fingers itched to touch him, so she did. She trailed her
fingertips across the back of his neck then up into his hair. His soft hair
tickled her fingers and she loved the way the slightly curling locks wrapped
around her fingers.

Suddenly, he swung her out of his arms
and propped her up against something. Dazedly, she looked behind her to find
his SUV there. “What about my car?” she said, proud her words didn’t slur; at
least, not to her ears.

He shook his head, unlocked the door,
then grabbed her waist. Every cell in her body flared to life, her eyes widened
and she grabbed his biceps.