Once we get inside Damon’s limo, the first thing he does is put the divider up. His bodyguard Sam sits up front with the driver, so it’s just us at the backseat. Damon reaches out for me, begins pulling me to his lap and the car’s suddenly in motion.
“Why don’t you look more worried?” I ask.
He easily lifts me up by my waist with his supernatural strength so my legs dangle on either side of his. I quickly wrap my hands around the back of his neck, but I know Damon won’t let me fall. Each time I do stumble—he’s made good on his promise.
Damon catches me.
Every single time.
Damon lifts his eyebrows. “Should I be?”
“Not if you’re confident we’ll get past this storm.”
“I am,” Damon says with a surety I sure as hell don’t feel.
Even now, it strikes me how damn gorgeous he looks. Rakishly handsome, in a rough kind of way. I run my hands through his thick black hair which he grows slightly longer due to my suggestion. I kiss his cheek and the rough texture of his stubble grazes my smooth cheek.
I breathe in his familiar scent—the smell of his soap, cologne and wolf musk, even though I’m not a shifter. Damon tightens his grip around my waist, and that slight tease is enough for my mind to start wandering in dark paths. Would Damon choose the bedroom or our playroom?
I shiver, thinking of all the toys he’ll like to use on me. How Damon would delight in binding my limbs to the St. Andrew’s cross or the dangling hooks on the ceiling and floor, pulling my body taunt until I’m bare and open for his access.
“Thinking dirty and kinky thoughts, Sub?” Damon whispers against my ear. I shiver. “Tell me.”
It’s always like this between us. He makes me feel incredibly guilty and aroused when he encourages me to talk about my fantasies, making me feel like a supplicant at the confessional box. I squirm under his gaze, but he holds me steady, waiting for my answer.
“I’m thinking about you, Sir. Always you.”
“And, what else?” Damon ventures. The bastard clearly enjoys this, but I sure as hell won’t tell him how much I love it when he teases me. “Be honest, Sub, unless you’re purposely begging for a punishment.”
“No, Sir,” I answer. “I’m wondering how you’d take me later, Sir. The scene.”
“Indeed. I have a feeling you were. It’s been awhile since we had some fun.”
Damon’s right. Over the past week, we both had been busy at the office. We only have time for some shut eye or vanilla sex—mind-blowing sex, if you’re curious.
Damon nips at my earlobe, catching the sensitive bit of skin with his teeth. He bites down and I groan. Damon keeps one hand around my waist, while the other cups my hard-on. I moan at the pressure of his fingers on my most delicate bits. I’m about to lean in to his hand, let out my bratty side, but the car suddenly careens to the side.
I nearly fall, but Damon lunges and easily catches me. My heart’s thumping in my chest. I have a bad feeling about this, because it’s almost too good to be true we came out of the meeting unscathed. Damon tucks me protectively close, and his familiar warmth consoles me a little.
The car jerks, and I feel one of the tires give way as the vehicle comes to an abrupt stop.
The divider lowers. Sam pokes his head. I can see he’s already drawn his gun. “Please remain in the vehicle while I check the surroundings, Mr. Raines.”
Sam exits the vehicle, and I huddle closer to Damon.
“Don’t worry, Joel. Sam’s a trained ex-navy SEAL. He’s also a werebear, and they can take a hit,” Damon reassures me.
He begins to stroke my hair, and I think it’s all just a minor incident when gunfire erupts. I disentangle myself from Damon to peer out the window. We’re in the middle of a bad neighborhood. Folks on the street look panicked. The wiser ones start running, others take cover. I spot a figure in a hoodie hidden in a nearby alleyway, the butt of his rifle pointed at Sam.
“No! Sam!” I scream, but Sam can’t hear me.
The gun goes off, and Sam topples over, gun clattering on the ground. A red stain spreads across his front. He’s hit, but not in any vital part I can see. I’m about to unlock the door and run to him, but Damon closes his hand over my wrist.
“Stay here. You’re only human, Joel. Even if that’s silver, if I’m fast enough, we can get a shifter healer to get the bullet out of Sam. Can you do that?”
I’m not happy. I’m so sick of being weak and human, but Damon has a point. “Okay.”
“I’ll keep him safe, Mr. Raines,” says Jerome, the driver. It’s no surprise Jerome has a handgun ready.
“I’ll be fast,” Damon promises. He kisses me on the forehead, and then sprints out.
“Here, sonny.” Jerome hands me a spare gun. “You know how to use one?”
“Yeah.” Damon’s been taking me out to the shooting range to practice. Ever since Remy’s kidnapping, Damon and Ethan decided to reserve one day a week to teach Remy and I to shoot. Talk about a strange double date. And our awesome reward for learning how to shoot? They took us to Ethan’s gorgeous ranch in the mountains. Not bad at all, considering.
Still, I kept my eyes glued to Damon’s figure. Oh God. He wasn’t wearing any kind of bulletproof vest. I’ve seen Damon heal instantly from minor cuts, but I know a silver bullet aimed at a weak spot like the heart could instantly kill him.
My mind began to race with a thousand questions. Who was after us? The council? But they couldn’t be that obvious. Could it be one of the angry shifters, or groups of them, who send me hate-mail on a regular basis?
I mean, get over it, self-righteous bastards who only want Damon for his status and wealth. Damon picked me. It’s tempting to write back to them and encourage them to expend their creative energies elsewhere, but Damon tells me I’ll only be fanning the flames.
How far will those crazies go? Worse, the Supe Council is on their side. Any psycho shifter is a more suitable mate as opposed to a mere human in their eyes.
“Damon, hurry,” I whisper, suddenly panicking with terror.
What else can I do? Think, Joel. Be useful to the man you love.
I curse myself for reacting so slow. Damon left his cell phone behind, so I pick it up, scroll past a list of names, and quickly dial Ethan Drake’s number. Remy answers on the first ring.
“Ethan Drake’s phone,” Remy says. It’s good to hear a friend’s voice, but I need Remy’s mate.
“Remy, this is Joel Cash. Put me to Ethan. Please, it’s an emergency,” I beg.
I pray to God Ethan isn’t stuck in some kind of long-winded business meeting, because he’s the only one who can help Damon.
Remy doesn’t ask why. “Hold on, Joel.”
Ethan’s voice comes on next. “Joel, what’s wrong?”
I quickly explain and give him a condensed version from our meeting with the Supe Council to the present.
Ethan doesn’t waste time. Like Damon, he’s pragmatic and thinks fast on his feet. “Where are you both?”
“Jerome, where are we?” I ask. Jerome rattles off an address from the GPS in the car. I repeat the address to Ethan. “Got that, Ethan?”
“Help will arrive in ten minutes. Stay in the car, like Damon says because he’ll kill me if anything happens to you.” Ethan cuts the line.
Ethan last words send a warm flutter through my insides, but now wasn’t the time to be practical.
After I speak to Ethan, Damon reaches Sam, and quickly checks for a pulse. Praise the Lord, Sam groans. Damon helps him up, but the shooter from the alley points his gun again. He doesn’t shoot immediately, and I figure he has orders not to badly injure Damon. Damon’s the prize bull.
The waiting is killing me. I can’t wait any longer, so I unlock the door.
“Joel, wait!” Jerome warns, except I’m out in the open.
The shooter sees me, changes targets, but I have my gun out. I’ve never shot anything but beer cans and painted targets. My hand shakes, but I remember to stop. Breathe in and out, and calmly take the shot. My gun roars, and the shooter lets out a cry. I shot at his shoulder, so he’ll definitely heal.
“Joel, what did I tell you?” Damon demands, and then he sighs at my glower. “Help me get Sam up.”
Together, we balance Sam between us. God. How long was ten minutes? It feels like an eternity. When we’re halfway to the car, I see a red blur coming at me from the side. I swallow. It soon becomes clear to me it’s a werewolf, and it’s targeting me.
Damon shoves the car door open. “Get Sam and yourself in. I’ll deal with his fucker.”
It’s rare to see Damon curse, or lose his temper like this. I scramble to obey. Sam’s damn heavy, but I manage to haul him in by his armpits. I shut the door behind us, anxious. Damon’s already shifting, and the change rips his expensive suit apart.
He’s an alpha, so it happens quickly. A growl tears out of him. He’s partly shifted, but he easily shoves the other wolf apart like he’s an annoyance. The red beast doesn’t get up, but a couple more shoot out of the alleyway. On fours now, Damon is a deadly force to be reckoned with.
He catches one with his teeth, tosses the wolf aside again like a chew toy, before pouncing on the next. It’s over in a matter of minutes. Damon is the only one left. The sole victor. More eyes peer from hidden corners and...my heart races. More shifters in human form carrying guns, except two military jeep stop next to us and men in black I recognize as Ethan’s security team come out. Unlike these loons, these security guys are carrying heavy ammo.
Damon lets out a challenging scary-ass howl, before padding back to us. A second car arrives, and I recognize the Jaguar as Ethan’s.
“Get in, all of you,” Ethan says after rolling down his window. His security team makes a wall. Jerome and Sam rides in one jeep, and one of the guys in black tell us they know a healer nearby.
Damon and I ride at the back of Ethan’s car. Damon nudges his furry head at me, but I pinch his nose. “You bastard! What if you died?”
Damon whined and aims his yellow eyes at me. If he’s trying to look like a harmless big dog, he’s failing badly, because no matter what, a huge wolf is still a predator.
Ethan chuckles in front. “Where to? Home?”
“Yeah,” I grumble, eyeing Damon who settled his huge head on my lap. Damon opens his mouth, showing his impressive rows of teeth, and then yawns.
“I take it the meeting with the council didn’t go well?” Ethan asks.
I recount the events earlier.
“You suspect the attack was orchestrated by the council?” Ethan asks.
“They wouldn’t be that stupid,” Damon suddenly says. I’m aware it’s now my sexy as hell naked boyfriend lying on my lap, not a furry wolf.
“What’s your next move? I can loan you some of my guys,” Ethan offers.
“Thanks for that. My next move is to make Joel mine as soon as possible. Once he’s officially my mate, no one can break our bonds and our life force is joined. If they kill Joel, they’ll kill me, a contributing member of society. They’ll have no choice but to back away,” Damon says.
“Damon, you sneaky bastard,” Ethan says, chuckling.
Damon laughs, looking up at me. “How are you doing? Okay there, Joel?”
“I’m okay, still a little shaky,” I confess.
Damon looks at me, his gaze serious. I can see the unasked question in his eyes: After all this, are you still all in?
I’m certain if I say I’ve changed my mind, Damon won’t push it. He’ll back off, find a solution. Knowing I wield the power to hurt this powerful werewolf, wasn’t a rush, because no one should possess that kind of leverage over another person. Besides, if Damon thinks a little gun fight is going to scare me off, then he’s dead wrong.
Nearly losing him only reminds me of what I could have had—my happy ending. I know. I was a cynic before I met Damon, but being with him taught me otherwise. That even if we play in the dark with restraints and whips, the path that opens to us might lead us both out to the light.
Damon waits for my answer.
“Life is never boring with you in it,” I eventually say.
“You got that right, Subbie. But if you ever disobey me again and risk your life like that—” Damon breathes hard, and I’m certain he’s about to launch into a lecture. Instead, his gaze softens. “It will kill me, you understand?”
“Yes, Sir. I’m so sorry.” I kiss him on the lips and he brings me close. “But I can’t afford to lose you too.”
“I’m a lucky bastard, aren’t I?
“Damn straight, boss.”