Vice (Fireborn Wolves Book 1) Read online

  She giggled. “What do you read for fun?”

  “It’s been a long time. Maybe I’ll pick up Frankenstein.” He stopped playing and a heaviness settled over him that made her heart ache.

  “I know what it’s like.” She slid in next to him. “I buried myself in school and work for years. It starts as an escape. It’s safe. There’s routine. But eventually it takes over and that’s all there is.” He frowned at her. “I say we make a pact, right now, to do something fun every day for as long as I’m here.”

  The corner of his mouth curved toward his ear and his eyes twinkled. “Deal.”

  She threaded her fingers and stretched them over the keyboard. “Fun thing number one, I am going to show you what this bad boy can do.”

  “The piano? You play?”

  “My parents insisted all three of their children suffer refinements that included music. I chose piano.”

  He scooted to the end of the bench to give her room.

  With a deep breath, she positioned her hands and allowed her fingers to dance across the keys, playing Mozart’s Piano Sonata 16. She was cheating, she knew. As a werewolf, she was endowed with unnaturally fast speed and agility, which made the finger positioning far easier for her than it would have been for him. But she held nothing back, showing off to her full potential, at one point, leaning her head back to smile cheerfully at his awestricken face. By the time she finished what she could remember of the piece, he’d stood up and was staring openmouthed.

  He slow clapped through her final note. “Take a bow, Laina. That was truly extraordinary.”

  She shrugged. “I try.”

  His laughter faded to an expression far more serious. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I’m training your dog.”

  He shook his head. “It’s a travesty.”

  Before she could respond that she rather liked him and his dog, his phone rang.

  “Nate. He needs me in the club. I’m sorry but I have to go.”

  “The fate of an overachiever.”

  “Thank you for the entertainment.”

  With a few cordial words, he left the house again, looking tired and empty. Milo jogged to the closing door and whined. “Come on, boy. Let’s go to bed.” The dog turned and followed her.

  As she topped the stairs, her cell vibrated in her back pocket. Silas. “You need to finish testing Kyle. You’ve been there too long. If he’s Jonah, he’s pulling you in deeper, clouding your judgment.”

  “I will. I haven’t had a chance. The man works constantly.” She chewed her lip. “He passed test number one. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

  “Get it done, Laina, or I’m pulling alpha on you.”

  She ended the call, knowing what she had to do.

  “I walked and fed Milo for you,” Laina said when Kyle finally walked through the door just after nine the next night. It was the first time he’d ever been late for a session. “He couldn’t wait. He’s already curled up in his new crate.”

  “Thank you. I’m sorry I’m late. Important meeting. I couldn’t leave.”

  There was a time she might have chastised him for not doing his duty as a pet owner, but she’d come to believe Kyle would never miss a walk with Milo on purpose. He looked positively beaten.

  He poured two glasses of Scotch and handed her one, then led the way outside to the pool deck. He slumped into a chaise lounge and stared up at the moon.

  “Rough day?” she asked, taking the chair beside him. It was a beautiful fall night, every star visible in the clear sky.

  “Our online magazine subscriptions are flagging. The analysts say we need to do something to break through the noise, gain some publicity,” he murmured.

  She waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. “And you don’t want to do that?”

  His eyes shifted to hers and he shook his head slowly. “I don’t want to talk about it. I know it’s late, but will you just sit here with me for a while? Your presence is… grounding. I’m beginning to think it’s some kind of drug.”

  “I’m a drug?”

  He closed his eyes. “Lately the only time my life seems real is when I’m with you.”

  She took a fast sip of air, her heart warming at his words. She could relate. As she leaned into the cushion of the deck chair, she felt safe and relaxed. A breeze coursed over the pool, the heated water lapping foggy against the fall night air.

  “What were your parents like, Laina?”

  She raised her eyebrows, surprised at the question. When she didn’t answer right away, he added, “I’m just curious what a nuclear family is like when they all live together.”

  The question made her sad somehow, made her remember Kyle was raised without a mother. “My mom was a botanist. I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t something growing in our house, trees of all types, green plants, flowers. But it wasn’t just plants… she grew people too. She had this softness about her that brought everyone around her to light, especially my father. Dad was a lawyer. Not the grandiloquent type you see leading class action suits on TV, but a taciturn professional with a narrow focus on a specific niche of corporate tax law. Most of the time we thought he was lost inside his head. Until my mother was in the room, and his face would grow younger, his smile would come alive, and I’d see it.”

  “See what?”

  “The love. The connection that cuts through all the bullshit in life, exposes you for who you really are, without your job or your money, right into your soul. Love looks right through you and loves you anyway.”

  He inhaled sharply as if she’d surprised him. “I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed that.”

  She bit her lip. “Now that they’re gone, I get a glimpse of it now and then with my brothers. It’s a different kind of love, but there’s a permanence that comes with family.” And with pack, she thought.

  “Yeah.” He nodded slightly, brows knit, face tight. She wondered if he had that with Nate. For some reason, she doubted it.

  “We made a pact, Kyle. We said we’d do something fun, every day.” She smiled roguishly at him.

  He groaned. “I’m not sure I have the energy for much fun.”

  “I have an idea.” She looked at the water and up at the crescent moon. “How about a swim?”

  His gaze drifted to her and he arched an eyebrow. “Isn’t it a little cold?”

  Laina stood and pulled her sweatshirt over her head, her white lace bra barely visible in the sliver of moonlight. “Pool’s heated.” She unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down her legs, toeing off her shoes and socks.

  He set down his drink and swallowed hard. “What happened to keeping things professional?”

  “As far as I can tell, we are both off the clock.” In nothing but a bra and a stretch of lace, she rounded the pool and dove in, the warm, clear liquid undulating over her muscles. Breaking the surface, she smoothed back her hair with both hands in the glow of the underwater lights.

  For a moment, he didn’t move, just stared at her from his pool chair, his gaze drifting to the place where the surface of the water lapped over her nipples, purely visible beneath the wet, white lace. His eyelids lowered to half-mast and his fingers moved to the cufflinks of his shirt. He stood and removed his jacket.

  “Laina, we’re too old for games,” he said from the shadows. “I’ve respected your request to maintain a professional distance despite wanting you every minute you’ve been here. If I dive into that water, it won’t be just to swim. Tell me now, if you want me to walk away. I can’t pretend I don’t want you. Not tonight.” His voice was firm and strong. No one but Silas talked to her in that tone, but Kyle’s voice had a much different effect on her than her brother’s. Her wolf woke up. The inside of her skin warmed where her inner beast pressed toward him, then rolled onto her back, whimpering. This was more than vice; it was submission.

  She saw a flash of white as his shirt fell next to his jacket. He was undressing. She owed him an answer.r />
  “I want to see you,” she said.

  He stepped to the edge of the pool, the sight of him making her hiss through her teeth. Her eyes darted to his reflection in the water, the subtle moonlight behind his head. Water, reflection, no aura. Test two and three passed. This was Kyle, and she wanted him. She couldn’t even blame it on the wolf. Her human side was just as interested.

  “Come in,” she said, her voice husky.

  He dug his thumbs into his briefs and pulled them off. She stared at him in all his glory for a moment, breathless from the electric charge that pulsed through her. He jumped into the shoulder-deep water and waded across the pool. As his fingers found her waist and his thumbs stroked between her navel and bottom rib, his gaze raked over her face and settled on her lips. He pressed her against the wall of the pool, the only sound the movement of the water around their bodies and the soft current of his breath. He lowered his face toward hers.

  “There’s something you should know about me,” she whispered into his mouth.

  “Hmm?”

  “I’m strong, really strong. And I like it rough. If something I do hurts you, you have to tell me.”

  The corner of his mouth lifted. “You won’t hurt me, and I won’t hold back.”

  His lips crashed down on hers, tongue diving into her mouth as if staking a claim. She let him in, her hands finding the back of his head, gasping for air as they repositioned to go even deeper.

  She hitched a leg over his hip, his erection pressing into the thin wet lace between her thighs. The weightlessness of the water and the grip of his hands helped her wrap the other leg around him without effort. Their mouths melded as she hooked her ankles behind his back. He ground his thick length against her, the ridge where his shaft met the head reaching just below her navel.

  He cupped under her ass, his massive erection circling against her belly. Hand coasting up her ribs, he squeezed her breast through the wet lace of her bra, thumb coaxing the nub to a hard peak. His touch traced the lace under her arm and to the center of her back where he unclasped her bra and paused from kissing her, panting heavily, to toss the wet lace aside.

  She reached for his face again, but he caught her wrists in his hands and spread her arms, the angle forcing a subtle arch to her upper back. “You are beautiful,” he said. He sucked a nipple into his mouth, rolled it over his tongue, bit it gently. A guttural sound came from deep within her throat.

  “You like that? God, Laina, I want to bury myself in you. I want to make you scream.” He released her wrists and cupped her breasts with both hands, the water lapping against their skin.

  She kissed him gently and bit his bottom lip until he groaned.

  “Upstairs.” He carried her out of the pool still wrapped around his hips. “I want to do this properly.”

  She ran her nails down the muscles of his back as he walked her, dripping, through the house and up the stairs to his bedroom. He rolled her onto her back on the bed and slid her panties off.

  She reached for him.

  “Let me look at you first.” A deep need to please him ignited within her and she froze. He placed his hands on her knees and spread her legs. “Put your hands behind your head.” She did, although the position made her feel exposed and vulnerable. Her skin prickled with heat under his gaze. He placed a finger in the hollow of her throat, trailed his touch down her breastbone, over her stomach, and between her legs. She arched into his touch. He kept going.

  “Please,” she said, aching with need for him. “I want you inside me.”

  His touch traveled to her center. “Oh, God, you’re wet.”

  Placing a knee on the bed, he positioned himself at her entrance. It had been so long since she’d had sex, her body tightened around him. He took her slowly, gently.

  She grabbed his hips and pulled him deep, hip to hip. He grunted. “You weren’t kidding about liking it rough.” He began to move in earnest, bracing himself on his elbows.

  As the pleasure built and her need took over, she thrust back, taking things to the edge of pain. He moved faster, his breath quickening.

  “Not yet,” she said. Straightening one leg, she flipped him over, lifting his considerable weight from below. He grunted as his back slapped the mattress.

  “Strong,” he murmured.

  “Yes.” She pressed his wrists to the mattress, rose above him, circling her hips. With his arms pinned above his head, she slowed things down. He tried to free himself, his face registering surprise when he couldn’t.

  “Let me touch you,” he said. She instantly released his wrists.

  Lifting her by the waist, he flipped her over onto all fours, slapping her ass playfully. She growled, planting her elbows. He hitched his fingers under her hips and hoisted her bottom up, sinking back into her and leaning over her body.

  “You are mine, Laina Flynn,” he said into her ear. “Tell me I don’t have to share you with anyone.”

  She met his eyes over her shoulder. “You don’t.”

  “Good. I couldn’t bear it.” With that, he pounded into her, his hips connecting with her backside again and again. “Come for me, baby. Come for me.”

  Whatever hold he had over her, her body obeyed his command. She shattered around him, howling with pleasure, hers giving way to his.

  When the last of the aftershocks rippled through them, he rested his forehead on her back and trailed kisses up her spine. She collapsed on her side, legs trembling with that stretched-out, used-up feeling she previously had only associated with shifting. He helped her under the covers.

  Tucked into the curl of his body, her mind blanked under the gentle caress of his fingers in her hair. “Stay with me tonight,” he said. “In here.”

  She sighed, positioned her head in the nook of his shoulder, and fell fast asleep.

  Sixteen

  When Laina woke, she was being bopped in the nose by a wet snout that protruded from beneath a set of giant brown eyes. Milo blinked at her unapologetically. She must’ve forgotten to lock his crate last night. He stomped and wagged his tail before licking her face.

  “Eww.” She wiped the kiss away.

  “You can hardly blame him. You are positively delectable.” Kyle hovered over her, using one arm to slide her under him and kiss her forehead.

  She smiled. “Kyle… Did you mean what you said last night?”

  “Remind me what I said.” He gave her a wry grin.

  “You said I was yours and you couldn’t bear for me to be with anyone else,” she whispered. “Was that just talk in the moment, or did you mean it?”

  “Oh, yes, I meant every word.” Any hint of humor left his features and he held her eye contact as if he were searching her soul. “How about you? Any hesitation to agreeing to those terms?”

  She closed her eyes and smiled. “None at all.”

  “Good.” His arm slid under the arch of her back and he shifted between her thighs.

  “What about Milo?”

  “Milo can wait.” Indeed, Milo did wait, although Kyle’s lovemaking was quick and efficient, sending Laina over the edge in a matter of minutes.

  In the aftermath, though, Milo whimpered softly. “He really does need to go out,” she said. “I can take him.”

  “No. Get dressed. I’ll come with you. There’s something I want to show you.”

  The world’s fastest shower later, Laina met Kyle in the backyard where he was already waiting with Milo. “So, what did you want to show me?”

  “It’s back there, in the woods, behind the fence.” He pointed to a gate on the other side of the expansive yard.

  “Let’s run, Milo needs the exercise.”

  “What? Why?”

  She grinned before breaking into a jog as much for her own sake as for Milo’s. Her wolf was unusually close to the surface, and she was desperate to burn off the raw energy. Milo loped easily beside her, but Kyle struggled to keep up. She tempered her pace.

  How could she possibly have entertained the idea he was
Jonah? Sure, he was athletic, but his gait was slightly uneven and his pace was entirely human. When she reached the back of the massive yard, she slowed to a stop.

  Huffing, Kyle rested his hands on his knees. “Running. Isn’t. My. Thing,” he said between breaths.

  “What is your thing?”

  He grinned and scratched the back of his head, the look of vulnerability returning to his features as his eyes shifted to the side. “Bossing people around. Isn’t it obvious?” He nodded toward Hunt Club in the distance.

  “I don’t believe it. It doesn’t suit you. You can barely boss Milo around.”

  She met his eyes. The morning sun made them blaze butterscotch with just enough flecks of green and brown to remind her they were hazel. The smile faded from his face. For a moment she felt like the polished veneer he commonly wore moved aside and she was staring straight into his soul. He cocked an eyebrow. “Bossed you around well enough last night.”

  “I stand corrected. I rather like your bossiness under the right circumstances.”

  He straightened, fully composed. “Come on. There’s a trail back here.”

  He led her to a gate in the fence at the back of the property, where they melded into the woods on a narrow dirt path that twisted and turned. An intense peace came over Laina as the forest swallowed them, the songs of birds overhead joining the whirr of cicadas and Milo’s panting. Behind her, Hunt Club became a distant memory, completely concealed by the auburn, evergreen, and saffron colors of early fall. There was nothing else. No traffic. No voices.

  “How much land is yours?” she finally asked, curious as to how far they could go.

  “Just over five hundred acres.”

  Her eyebrows shot heavenward. “Why on earth do you need that much property?”

  “I’d like to turn this Hunt Club into a resort. Horses, tennis, skeet shooting, snowshoeing in the winter.”

  “I thought Hunt Club was a lifestyle club, essentially liquor and women.”

  “It is, for now.”

  “You want to make it something more?”

  “Maybe. Nate’s not a fan of the idea.”