Alpha Male Incorporated: Take Control (14 page)

“What did you do to her?” he demanded. “Tell me now!”

He hated Raya how tested him at every turn and he still wasn’t quite sure where things would end for them, but Cordelia had no right to hurt her. Cordelia’s jealousy could be lethal when it came to Raya. She would kill her in a blink of an eye. Raya would be no match for her.

Raya knew nothing about his past involvements and it would stay that away. His ex-lover hated humans and never found a problem with hurting them for her own amusement. Cordelia smirked at him, but didn’t give him an answer.

“Answer me,” he demanded, tightening his grip. She might look fragile but that was the deception she liked to reflect towards mortals. She was strong and very vindictive.

“Baby, you know I like it rough,” she purred, leaning towards him. “Meet up with me later and we can do it anyway you want. Have you really forgotten the time we moved the bed across the floor in my bedroom? It was so fucking amazing.”

“I don’t care about any of our past encounters. Tell me what you did to my mate!”

Cordelia snickered. “Your pet is okay. I only messed with her mind a little about you. Remember, my gift is mind games. I love putting doubts in people’s heads. How can you possibly think she’s worthy of you?”

“My relationship with her is none of your business, Cordelia. I’m warning you to stay away from her. She’s off limits to you and your childish games. Don’t you dare touch her,” Thorsten warned in a low voice. “You will feel a world of pain if you don’t.”

Eyes flashing, she jerked her arm away from him. “The sweet, innocent little Raya August is no match for me. I wouldn’t have to do much to send her running from you and into the arms of the hot guy who brought her home from the bar. If I’m correct, I think his name is Alec. He looked like he wanted to do all sorts of nasty things to her body. I could feel his need to get Raya into his bed.”

Alarmed, Thorsten moved back from Cordelia. “How long have you been following Raya?” He hadn’t sensed her presence anywhere around them. The primal need to protect what was his from a predator kicked in full force. He wouldn’t let his ex-lover hurt his woman.

Cordelia stood up and walked over to him. Bending down, she planted a kiss on his mouth then whispered in his ear. “I’m not wasting my time following her. It’s you I’m after. You should have never pushed me out of your life. You dumped me for a worthless woman and I will make both of you pay for your careless mistake. I’ll see you later, lover,” she said, then moved away.

Turning in his seat, he watched as Cordelia practically glided through the restaurant, drawing every male’s attention as well-practiced sexuality oozed from every pore in her body. Fuck! What in the hell had he done? Cordelia wasn’t an obstacle he had expected to derail him from Raya.

A wave of apprehension swept through him. He had to get Raya to accept her future sooner than he had planned, because if he didn’t get her under his protection there wasn’t any other way he could safeguard her from Cordelia when he wasn’t around.

He wasn’t in love with Raya, but she was his responsibility and soul mate. He was bound by some unknown power to protect her with his life and he would do it.

Where was Raya anyway? Thorsten wondered.

She should have been back from the bathroom by now. He needed to make sure everything was okay with her. Pushing his chair back from the table, he got up from his seat and made his way towards the bathroom, but was stopped by his waiter before he got halfway there.

“Mr. Irizarry, are you looking for your date, Ms. August?” the young man asked him.

What was going on? “Yes, I am.”

“Here, she told me to give this to you.” The guy handed him a slip of paper, then hurried from him in the opposite direction. He looked at the note, then flipped it open to read the cursive handwriting.

I was coming back to the table to tell you I wasn’t feeling well and wanted to leave, but you had company. I should have known you wouldn’t be without a female for too long. I didn’t want to interrupt the two of you kissing, so I called a friend and he’s coming to pick me up.

Enjoy the rest of your evening.

Raya

Instant anger set in as Thorsten balled up the piece of paper and shoved it in the front pocket of his slacks. How dare she call another man to pick her up from their date? His first thought was she had called Alec to come and get her away from him.

No, he wouldn’t stand for Raya leaving him. He hadn’t done anything wrong and he was going to tell her those exact words. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed her number, but she didn’t answer.

He brought her here as his date, and she should have left with him. Instead, Cordelia showed up out of nowhere, placing a non-existent claim on him. Turning on his heel, he stormed past the customers inside and made his way out the door.

Standing outside, the valet ran up to him and he handed the kid his car ticket and waited for his Jaguar. While he was waiting he dialed Raya’s number again, but still didn’t get an answer.

“Shit,” he cursed, snapping his phone shut.

She wasn’t going to pretend she hadn’t been out on a date with him tonight by ignoring his calls. If he wasn’t out in the open with so many people around, he would just flash to her house and confront her. However, he couldn’t leave his car here with valet parking attendants. There was no telling what kind of fun they would try to have with it.

His patience started to lessen the longer he waited for the valet to pull up with his vehicle. He couldn’t waste much more time just standing here. He had to get to Raya’s house.

As he was turning to ask another employee what was taking so damn long with his car, the young man pulled up and got out.

“What in the hell took you so long?” Thorsten demanded as the valet got out of the car., “I have somewhere to be and you might have made me late.”

The stunned guy took a step back from him, alarm plastered across his acned skin. “I…I—”

“Shit, never mind. Move back,” he growled, shoving past the flustered boy. “I don’t have any more time to deal with you.” Just as he turned to leave, Thorsten heard Raya’s voice in his head saying she knew he didn’t know how to treat people and he turned back around.

“Sorry about my outburst,” he apologized. “Thank you for bringing me my car.” Thorsten moved away from the shocked valet driver.

Going over to his baby, Thorsten got behind the wheel. He didn’t waste a second before he sped away from the restaurant’s curb and drove straight for the person he needed to see.

“Thank you for the ride. I didn’t want to bother Sahara because she lives so far away from the restaurant,” Raya said, standing next to Alec on the patio. “You’re a good friend.”

An almost hopeful glint came into his gray eyes. “I never mind helping out a beautiful woman. Besides, you already know I wanted us to form a closer relationship but Cedric told me you weren’t interested in dating anyone. Is that true?”

Cedric was right, but she wasn’t about to give her brother credit for anything. “My brother really doesn’t know that much about my dating life.”

Alec wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her against his body. “Does that mean you’re willing to go out on a date with me?”

Not wanting to give Alec any encouragement, she moved away from him and went over to the other side. Alec was a great friend to her over the years, but she wasn’t seeking out any kind of romance with him. She was still trying to get over the sting of coming out of the bathroom and seeing Thorsten kissing another woman.

Was she just a pawn to make the blonde jealous? Did he take her to that particular restaurant so the other woman would see them?

She wouldn’t be used as a chess piece in any game he was playing. If Thorsten thought she would, then he had another thing coming and she didn’t have a problem setting him straight.

“Raya, there was no need to move away from me. I apologize if I upset you in any way,” Alec said, coming to her and placing his hand on her shoulder.

For a second time, she shook off his unwanted touch. “It’s getting late. You should go. I have to get up early tomorrow.”

Turning, she moved through the patio doors into her living room. She had enough with her disastrous evening with Thorsten. She wasn’t in the mood to listen to Alec asking her out on a date.

“Are you sure?”

Spinning around, she glared at her friend, ignoring the shadow of annoyance that crossed his tanned face. “Yes, I’m positive.”

She turned into the living room and found Thorsten staring at her, and she jumped back. “Care to tell me why you ran out on our date?” he demanded. She would have sworn Thorsten’s eyes had flashed at her.

“You were—”

“Raya, is there a problem?” Alec’s voice asked behind her. She felt his body heat against her back as Alec looked over her shoulder at Thorsten. Alec was tall at six-feet-two, but Thorsten had him by several inches.

“Don’t ask her if there is a problem concerning me, because you have absolutely nothing to do with our conversation,” Thorsten said, his eyes darting over her head to Alec’s. “Why are you still here anyway? Weren’t you only supposed to give her a ride home and then leave?”

“Who the hell are you?” Alec demanded before she could say a word.

“Thorsten Irizarry, and you are…?”

“Alec Mars.”

“Well, Alec Mars, I’m telling you now. It’s time for you to leave and don’t come back. Raya isn’t interested in you.”

She gasped. “Listen, you—”

“I’ll stay as long as I want to, Mr. Irizarry. Raya was the one who called me for help because you brought another woman on your date with her. She doesn’t want you around. Furthermore, I’ll only leave when she tells me, not you.”

Raya listened with bewilderment as Thorsten and Alec argued in front of her like she was a piece of property. She was sick of Thorsten acting like he had any sort of control of her. It was past time she let him know it.

“Stop it,” she snapped. “My neighbors are probably peeking out their blinds watching all of this.”

“Raya, I haven’t done anything.”

Turning, she touched Alec on the arm. “No, you haven’t, and I want to thank you again for dropping everything and coming to the restaurant to pick me up. But, you can leave now because Thorsten and I have some unfinished business to discuss that can’t wait. How about I call you later in the week? We can make plans to have lunch.”

Alec’s gaze darted from her over to Thorsten. “Are you sure? I don’t feel like I should leave you here alone with this guy.”

“Leave,” Thorsten said. “Like I told you, Raya doesn’t need your help anymore.”

The deeper sound of Thorsten’s voice had her spinning back around to stare at him more closely.
What in the hell was that noise
? she thought.

“Please leave,” she told Alec one last time, hoping he would listen to her. She didn’t want either man to throw a punch.

“Fine. I’ll go, but if you need to talk I’ll be at home grading English papers,” Alec said then eased past her. He stopped in front of Thorsten and waited. “Are you going to move out of my damn way or will I have to make you do it?”

Moving a step closer, Thorsten looked down at Alec and she prayed nothing would happen. She suddenly feared for her friend’s safety from the angry look on Thorsten’s face.

“Thorsten, will you just move and let him leave?” she complained.

He moved out of the way at her request, but only enough so Alec had to brush past him to get out the door. She was going out the door about to tell Alec goodbye again, but Thorsten wrapped his hand around her upper arm and pulled her back inside.

“Get inside the house now,” he demanded.

“What? How dare you demand I do anything?” Before she could react, Thorsten had them both back in her house with the front door closed. It happened in a matter of seconds, which baffled her.

How did he move so fast
?

She jerked her arm away and faced Thorsten, pointing a finger up at him. “Don’t you dare touch me like that ever again.”

“You aren’t allowed to see him again and you won’t keep that lunch date with him either,” Thorsten told her.

“You have no right to tell me who to see when you were locking lips with another woman on our ‘date’. I don’t know why you even came here. Shouldn’t you still be back at
Haim’s
with the blond woman you were with instead of me?”

Thorsten sighed deeply as he continued looking at her. “Cordelia isn’t important. Raya, you need to listen to me,” he said, taking a step towards her, but she held up a hand to stop him from coming any closer.

“No. I went against my better judgment and gave you a chance, and everything went horribly wrong. I’m done talking to you. You know the way out.”

As she turned to leave, a strong hand wrapped around her arm and brought her back around to face him. “I’m glad you’re done, Raya, because I’m not,” he told her. “So you are going to listen to me until I am.”

He hated finding Alec’s scent on his mate’s body. The man’s cologne hung heavily in the air and on the dress Raya was still wearing. He would make sure he never got a chance to set foot in Raya’s house again.

“Thorsten, let go of me,” she told him in a low voice.

He let go of her arm but he didn’t move back. On the drive from the restaurant he tried pretending her leaving hadn’t bothered him, but it had. His attitude hadn’t improved when he arrived at her house and found Raya looking so comfortable with a lesser man.

It pushed him even further to prove to her who she really belonged with. He couldn’t allow her to get distracted by Alec. She was supposed to feel this pulling connection towards him, but she didn’t show any signs of it. Had Cordelia ruined any chance of him having his mate at his side forever?

“Raya, sit down. I want to talk to you about something.” He wasn’t about to leave until she understood more was going on than she realized.

She shook her head. “No, I’m not going to sit down. I told you to leave and I want you to do it. I’m pretty sure there’s a woman waiting for you somewhere. Please, don’t keep her wondering where you are because of me.”