Under Orders (3 page)

As a child Anna had
spent hours in the study, where floor to ceiling book shelves groaned under the
weight of too many books to count, waiting for her parents to return from one
of their many trips. It had been there she had been told the news of their
fatal car accident when she had been just twelve. An accident she still felt
responsible for. Had she not made that wish…

“Anna, are you listening
to me?” The edge of command and authority she hadn’t heard from her beloved Grand-pops
in far too long pulled her back to the here and now.

“I’m here, no need to
shout Grand-pops. And, yes, I am fine. No need to worry over me. That’s my
department. I’ll come and see you on Sunday, as usual … Yes, Grand-pops…”

They passed the next
half hour catching up, and by the time Anna finally hung up the sun was shining
right into her windows. It was going to be another scorcher of a day, and she
would be late for work if she didn’t hurry.

She couldn’t deny the
tiny spark of excitement. She had been summoned again. And she was going to
piss him off by not following orders. It was too hot for office attire, and, as
part of their client meeting was at a posh hotel, Anna was going to dress for
comfort.

Let’s see what the high
and mighty Jonathan would do about that.

****

“Right, that’s settled
then.” Anna flinched when the American client grasped her hand between his
beefy ones and pulled her a bit too close for her liking. All through the meal
he had not so subtly stared down her cleavage, and Anna had begun to wish that
she had worn something more conservative.

Not that her summer
dress was revealing exactly. The pretty halter dress had a high neck, which left
her back exposed, flared out over her hips and ended just under the knees. It
was light and airy, and whilst she normally did not wear anything underneath
she had donned her strapless bra and matching thong set, so she knew she was
adequately covered for the business meeting.

Still, it hadn’t stopped
any of the men round the table from taking a far too close interest in her
cleavage, and Jonathan had wasted no time in taking advantage of the
distraction. Anna had bristled inside at the proprietary manner in which he had
kept placing his hand on her shoulder. It only seemed to serve to egg the other
man on, and despite his wife sitting right next to him, he had continued to
openly flirt with Anna. She in turn had done her best to ignore the lot of them
and had struck up a conversation with the wife. Anna had become so engrossed in
quizzing the older woman about her children—she had really opened up to her at
the mention of them—that she had almost enjoyed herself.

At one point she had
looked up to see Jonathan watching her. Approval had replaced the thin lipped
way he had greeted her on arrival. His eyes had swirled with a myriad of
emotions she hadn’t been able to decipher, their ice cold disdain replaced with
the warm pool of a Mediterranean Sea. Her skin had heated under his quiet
regard, and an army of butterflies had danced in her tummy, until he’d broken
eye contact and turned business-like once again.

Finally released from
the clutches of the visiting client, Anna breathed a sigh of relief and turned
to leave.

“Not so fast, little
one. We’re not done yet.”

Jonathan’s voice had
dropped an octave, and Anna’s insides clenched in need. She was a sucker for a
deep, commanding voice, and pitched this low, that almost growl had her already
damp thong soaked in her own arousal.

She just had to be close
to him, it seemed, for her body to ready itself. She closed her eyes and took a
deep breath, willing her hormones to behave, but it was useless. His warmth
seeped into her bare back as he pulled her back against his long frame with one
hard arm around her waist. His slight and ever present stubble scraped along
her neck, awakening every female cell in her body, and she moaned when he took
her earlobe between his teeth and bit down.

The sharp pain focused
her attention solely on him, and the rest of the crowded restaurant faded away,
until she was aware only of his hot breath on her neck.

“You can’t fight this,
little one. I can smell your need. You want this as much as I do.”

Her heart shuddered to a
stop, before it started beating so fast she felt faint. His grip on her
tightened, and he kissed her neck in just the right spot to turn her knees to
jelly.

From somewhere she found
her voice. A breathy, need filled version of her voice, but at least she
managed to say something.

“No, I don’t.”

He went still, and she
could feel him smile against her shoulder, before he stepped back. Bereft of
his body warmth and despite the humid day, Anna shivered. He traced a finger
down her exposed spine, and slowly the noises of the restaurant faded back into
her consciousness. Her cheeks heated. People were staring at them, stood as
they were in the middle of the room.

Jonathan would draw
glances wherever he went. His commanding presence filled any room he entered,
women and men alike drawn to him like moths to the flame, but Anna refused to
fall under his spell again. She had no intention of becoming another one of his
conquests. While sex with him would no doubt rock her world, he also had the
ability to rip her heart to shreds. How she knew that, she couldn’t even begin
to explain to herself, and then there was the danger she sensed. It surrounded
him like an invisible cloak. Her nightmares had started again since their first
encounter. Nightmares that hadn’t plagued her since childhood, and Anna did not
think this was a coincidence.

No, she had to get her
feet to move and get away from him.

“The meeting is over,
and I need to be back at the office, so…”

His smile was sin itself,
and Anna balled her hands into fists to stop herself from reaching out to him.
With his dirt-blond hair falling messily over one eye and that bad boy smirk on
his handsome features, he looked good enough to eat, and of course he knew
that. He pushed his hands into the pockets of his Armani suit and simply looked
at her, until she dropped her gaze to the floor.

“You have the afternoon
off. To spend with me of course, and I have no intention of letting you slip
away a second time.”

“And I have no intention
of sleeping with you.” She whispered the words and took a step back and away
from him. For every step she took he matched her easily, the predatory way he
stalked her turning the earlier butterflies into a swarm of buzzing bees. Short
of running away from him at full pelt, she was stuck, and even then she
wouldn’t get very far. The high heeled strappy sandals she wore looked pretty,
but she would break her neck if she tried to run in them.

He offered her his hand
palm up, and she stared at it for the longest time.

“Trust me,
little one.”

Chapter Three

His hand on her waist
branded her. Every cell in her body heightened in awareness of the man standing
next to her in the crowded lift.

When she’d placed her
hand in his, he’d smiled, and something deep inside of her had simply let go. A
sense of calm had invaded her at his whispered, “Good girl.” She had let
herself be led out of the restaurant and across the foyer into the lift. It was
slowly emptying as they rode up to the very top. When the door finally pinged
open and the smiling bell boy stepped aside to let them through they stepped
into a plush corridor. It was cool up here, the air conditioning working
overtime, and Anna shivered again. Instantly Jonathan shrugged out of his suit
jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

His scent and warmth
engulfed her, and Anna closed her eyes and simply allowed herself to feel. He
chuckled into her ear, and the sound of a door opening had her eyes fly open. She
followed him through into the expensive suite, and then stopped dead. The views
over London were magnificent, and she drank in the beauty of her home town. It
was a glorious day out there, and she smiled at the sight of children chasing a
dog in Hyde Park, tourists hurrying along the busy streets. From her vantage
point up here, it all looked picture perfect. The smells and sounds didn’t
travel through the plate glass windows, and she sighed as Jonathan stepped
closer. He pointed a remote towards the wall and then rubbed his hands up and
down her arms.

“It will be warmer soon.
The cleaning crew always turns the air con too high.
 
I like it cool, but we can’t have you
shivering, little one.”

“I’m okay, really. I
just … just. Why won’t you just let me go?”

He sighed and turned her
around, tipping her chin up to make her look at him. His pupils dilated, and a
curious warmth settled over her. A languid feeling spread through her limbs.
Her heart beat slowed, and her breathing grew thready. She leant into him, his
erection a hard ridge against her belly, which spiked her need for him to fever
pitch, and she whispered his name. He swore and released her so abruptly she
stumbled.

“Jonathan?” she asked.

Tension emanated off his
broad shoulders in almost palpable waves, and he ran an unsteady hand through
his hair.

“You better run while
you can, little one. You tempt me far too much.” The growled reply settled low
in her abdomen and had the completely opposite effect to the one he was no
doubt attempting.

She dropped his jacket
on the floor and stepped close enough to him to touch. A shudder went through
him at the first tentative slide of her hands over the corded muscles in his
back. They rippled under her fingertips, and she indulged herself by running
them over his shoulders and his flexing biceps straining against the thin
material of his shirt.

“Anna.” His warning
growl stalled her exploration for a second. Low and feral, it didn’t sound
human, and she closed her eyes as an image invaded her mind—an image from her
nightmares that should have terrified her. Here, however, in the bright light
of day, that image just pitched her arousal higher. He inhaled sharply in
response to the gush of her essence soaking her thong. It trickled past the
elastic and coated the tops of her thighs, and she resumed her discovery of his
body.
 
Without breaking contact she
circled him until she stood in front of him, so close that their thighs touched
and the hard ridge of his cock pressed against her lower abdomen. She rocked
her hips, and he growled again, low in his throat. His hands fisted in her hair,
and he yanked her head up to study her face.

A ray of sunshine
slanted past the blinds. It caressed the sharp angles of his face like a
lover’s kiss, and Jonathan blinked and shifted them slightly until they were in
the shadows. Not hidden exactly, but not in the direct glare either, and when
he smiled at her, the fangs just confirmed what she already knew, what she had
suspected from the minute she’d seen him up close.

He was too virile, too
perfect, too altogether enticing to be anything else. Unlike the monsters that
had plagued her childhood dreams and seemed to want to stake their claim in her
life again, Jonathan didn’t scare her.

Her parents had died in
the eradication of his race, and whilst she was no slayer, she should be
running away, not drawing closer to him. She rested her hands on his chest, the
warmth she found there, his thundering heart beat under her finger tips
testament to the fact that he was not one of
them.

“Anna.” Her name rolled
off his tongue, as much a warning as a promise, and she smiled up at him.
Standing on tip-toes she slanted her lips against his, needing to taste him, to
prove to herself that he was indeed alive and not a figment of her imagination.

He groaned into the
kiss, and when their tongues touched, he took over. He claimed her, deepening
the kiss, until she fisted her hands into his shirt, clinging on, lest her legs
fail to support her. He released her just enough for her to draw much needed
air into her lungs, before he delved back into her. The scrape of his fangs
across her kiss-swollen lips, the way he held her head permitting her no
movement, the way his other hand trailed to her ass, molding it and pushing her
closer into him, all served to stoke her need into an inferno.

Nothing mattered but
him, the heat they created between each other, the insistent throbbing between
her legs, and she whimpered into his mouth. The action seemed to bring him to
his senses, because he released her and took a step back, his breathing as
heavy as her own, his pupils so dilated his eyes were almost black. He shook
his head and then framed her face in his large hands. He ran his thumbs over
her lips, and his expression darkened when she whispered, “What are you?”

“I would have thought
that was obvious by now, little one.”

He smiled grimly when
she shook her head and retracted his fangs with an audible click that made her
stomach flip flop wildly.

“You’re alive. You
breathe. You have a heartbeat. You can walk in the sun. You’re not a … a…”

“A what, little one? Go
on, say it.” The grip he had on her face tightened, and she couldn’t hide her
flinch. “A monster? That’s what you’re going to say, right?”