“What the—?” I stared, slack-jawed, at the rows of silver barbells that pierced the underside of his cock from head to base.
“It’s called a Jacob’s ladder. Do you like it?”
Transfixed, I ran my fingers over the barbells. “It looks painful.”
He shuddered, and his thick purple crown grew slick with arousal. “I won't lie. It hurt like a son of a bitch.”
“Was this the reason you walked like a drunken cowboy for weeks on end?”
“Yeah,” he gasped, rocking against my fingers.
“Why would you do this?” Some dancers at the club had nipple piercings, and I even knew one dancer who had her clit pierced, but they did it to enhance their sexual pleasure. Reed was just as sexually inexperienced as I was.
“I did it for you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, I overheard you telling Cami that you love men with pierced cocks.”
“What?” I blinked in confusion. “I never said that—” A distant memory tugged at the back of my mind. “Are you talking about the time when Cami tried to set me up with Leo?”
Reed gave me a puzzled look.
Oh, God. “Reed, I was joking.” For some inane reason, Cami had been trying to set me up with her ex-boyfriend. Knowing Leo was pierced, I’d said sarcastically that my ideal man was tall, long-haired, tattooed, and had a pierced cock.
I’d had no idea that Reed was eavesdropping. And even if I’d known, I’d never imagine he’d take my words seriously and do something so insane.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I was just kidding about wanting someone pierced.”
Reed’s blue eyes widened. “You mean… you mean…” His erection deflated. “Jesus, I feel like the biggest fucking idiot right now.”
I couldn’t take my eyes from the barbells. “I can’t believe you’d do something so crazy… so painful…”
He dragged in a deep breath. “Isn’t it obvious, woman? I love you. I always have.”
The raw emotion in his gaze took my breath away.
He loves me.
Wait. What? No. My inner alarm shrieked. This was supposed to be fun. No emotional attachments. Passionate love made people crazy. I saw my mother’s lifeless body in my mind’s eye.
I sat up in bed. “This isn’t happening.”
“What?”
“Leave.”
“But…” His face twisted with confusion and pain.
“Just go now,” I said so loudly the mirror over my dresser shook and the curtains over my window fluttered.
Reed slid off the bed and bent down to grab his pants.
Oh, God. He had the finest ass of any man I’d ever seen. Forcing my gaze away, I threw my comforter over myself.
“We’ll act like this never happened.” Things could go back to the way they were.
Reed shook his head. “I can’t do that. I love you.”
I scooted back on the bed until my spine hit the headboard. “Reed, I love you too—”
“I knew it. I knew you felt the sam—”
“—like a brother,” I lied softly. “Even though we aren’t blood siblings, I’ll always think of you that way.” It wasn’t true, but I needed him out before we did something we could never come back from.
“What about…” He motioned between us.
I tugged the comforter tighter around me. “A mistake.”
His eyes narrowed. “You liked me touching you. I know you did.”
I opened my mouth to deny it but couldn’t. “Just leave.”
“If I did or said anything to upset you—”
I interrupted him. “You didn’t. Just go.”
His shoulders slumped, and he turned toward the door.
“Don’t go anywhere, cocksucker,” a deep raspy voice ordered.
Reed spun around at the same time a huge, naked man emerged from behind my curtains.
Certain the guy was an alcohol induced hallucination. I closed my eyes and opened them again. The man was still there.
No, my shocked mind amended as I stared into his glowing yellow eyes. Not a man. A monster. A nearly ten-foot monster with jagged fangs and rippling muscles that enveloped every inch of his body down to the massive erection he sported between his brawny thighs.
I opened my mouth to scream.
The monster brought one of his fingers to his lips. “Neither of you move or make a sound.” His voice rang with an otherworldly tone that reverberated inside my head.
I tried to bolt from the bed and found I couldn’t move a muscle.
Oh, God! What’s happening? Fear skittered down my spine.
Reed was a statue next to my bed. His terror-filled eyes were wide. “Run,” he mouthed.
“I can’t,” I mouthed back. My breath came in sharp, shallow, pants. Somehow the monster was in total control. What will he do to us?
As if reading my mind, the monster bared his fangs in a smile made of nightmares.
13
Hunter
My dancer and her roommate stared at me with mirroring looks of horror. The frantic pounding of their heartbeats rang in my ears, while the acrid tang of their fear burned my nostrils.
Normally, I’d eat that terror and pain up like a pancake breakfast, but not when it was coming from her.
My mate.
I wanted her to look at me the way she had back in the club. I wanted her to look at me the way she was looking at that human.
Snarling, I scowled at Reed.
Color leeched from his tanned face. To his credit, he didn’t flinch from my gaze, but I sensed his rising panic and desire to protect my mate. It was the only reason he still drew breath.
When I’d first arrived at the house, I’d been enraged to scent a male’s arousal through her open window.
Driven nearly insane with fury, I’d dove through the window, intent on eviscerating my rival.
But then I’d clawed the curtain open and found my mate stretched out on her bed with her roommate’s face trapped between her thighs. Her gay roommate.
Shocked, I’d struggled to make sense of what I was seeing.
From weeks of stalking Lee, when I was supposed to be watching Javier, I knew everything about them. I’d seen the way Reed rejected every female who made a pass at him, and I’d seen the way my dancer bossed him around like a younger brother.
The two of them screwing didn’t make sense. What did make sense was that she was still under Javier’s compulsion and she’d jumped the first available male her age. It was a testament to her beauty and allure that not even the gay roommate could resist her.
I still wanted to kill him for touching what was mine, but I also knew he was part of her family unit and she’d be devastated at losing him.
This was lost on my beast who thrashed under my skin, trying to take control. Kill him! Mate her! Breathing hard, I fought to stay in control. I knew if I fully shifted, I’d end up murdering them both.
“More! More!” My dancer’s cries drew my attention to the bed where they writhed together. Her thighs were spread around that cocksucker's face as he licked and sucked her the way I longed to do.
Transfixed, I crouched down, watching him run his tongue along her plump lips with more enthusiasm than skill. The sight of her bare pussy gleaming with her lust and his saliva electrified me.