Alpha Male Incorporated: Take Control (18 page)

“Sweetheart, I have to be honest, your spunk turned me off when I first met you. I couldn’t stand how you battled me at every turn, but now that I know you’re my
Unique
woman I love it. It makes my blood pound through my veins. I can only imagine how good we are going to be together for the rest of eternity.”

“Uni…
Unique
woman,” she sputtered, eyeing him. “The rest of eternity…”
Holding her gaze with his, Thorsten nodded. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Raya. We both know that you do. I know Sahara had to fill you in about it by now. She wouldn’t have kept it a secret from you.”

“I’m not pretending,” she answered, softly narrowing her eyes. “Sahara hasn’t told me a thing. Why would we spend our time talking about you, anyway?”

The shock of discovery hit him full force, making him momentarily speechless in his surprise. Raya wasn’t aware of the connection. She didn’t know about being a
Unique
woman. He would actually be the one to tell her. Sahara hadn’t ruined it for him like she had done for Zander and Sabrina. He wasn’t a man to ever take the safe route, so he would jump in feet first.

“I thought my cousin-in law might have told you about it because she’d already been through it, but she didn’t do it. Maybe Jax made her keep quiet.”

“Will you stop talking in circles?” Raya suggested, the words ripped out impatiently from her mouth.

“Be careful how you talk to me, darling.”

“You have no right to talk to me like this.”

“I have every right in the world. You belong to me,” he said calmly, but with a hint of warning buried within their depths.

Raya’s voice hitched in her throat as her tongue came out and moistened her bottom lip. “I don’t belong to you. I belong to myself.”

“See, that is where you are wrong, my love,” he corrected. “You’re mine. You’ve been since the day you were born into this world. The apple birthmark on your wrist links us together. Like I told you earlier, you are a
Unique
woman. The most prized possession to an Irizarry male. We cherish our mates with everything in us as vampires.”

“No!” Raya shouted, moving away from him. “Stop, I don’t want to hear anymore. I’m not your mate. You have the wrong woman. Stop telling me all of these lies.”

He smiled, but it was one of a predator hunting its prey. “I can’t stop. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I have tasted your blood. It’s flowing through my veins right now. The first part of our bond has taken place.”

Her hand fluttered to the spot he had bitten the other day at Sahara’s house. “I remember feeling a sting, but this isn’t possible. I can’t do this with you. There has to be a way to break our link or whatever you call it.”

With lighting speed, Thorsten pressed Raya’s back flat against the wall by the door before another word left her luscious lips. His brushed his thumb over her pulse pounding away at the side of her throat. He felt her fear but it wasn’t as crippling as she wanted him to believe.

“Our link can only be shattered if we both want it and then I’ll fall to the ‘sleep of the dead,’” he said, looking into the dark brown depths of Raya’s eyes. “We need each other, so I’m not able to break anything. I might not have wanted you before, but now things have changed for me.”

Lowering his head, Thorsten brushed his mouth across Raya’s surprised lips. The taste of her mouth was a divine ecstasy; it continued to send shock waves throughout the entire length of his body.

Teasing Raya’s lips open with his thrusting tongue, Thorsten tangled it with hers. Her lips were warm, moist, and inviting. They pushed him to strip them both naked and shove his cock deep inside of her tight pussy, but he couldn’t.

Raya was innocent, pure, and untouched like every
Unique
woman was supposed to be. Only her mate could introduce her to the steamy, pleasure-filled world of making love.

Trailing his hand down her side, Thorsten raised his mouth from hers. He gazed into her liquid brown eyes filled with a hint of fire. “Give me a do-over?” he whispered.

“What?” her husky voice stammered.

“I want to take you out on another date. If you noticed, I’m asking and not demanding you do it.”

Shaking her head, Raya cleared her voice and spoke again. “Listen to me. I can’t let you believe we are going to have more than what’s between us right now.”

His fingers curled around the back of her neck, holding her in place so she wouldn’t try to get away. “Baby, I think you’re lying to yourself. I know the truth. I can feel how much you want me because your mouth may tell me one thing but your body betrays you every single time we are together.”

“I’m not going to sleep with someone because my body is lonely. I still have control over my mind, vampire or no vampire. I won’t let you do anything to seduce me into your bed.”

Lowering his head, Thorsten gently nibbled at Raya’s bottom lip then lifted his head. He smirked at the glazed look in her beautiful eyes.

“My love, I won’t have to seduce you into doing anything. You will be begging me to slip my cock between those beautiful brown thighs of yours.”

Raya moved her head from side to side as much as his grip on her neck would allow. “You’re wrong,” she denied. “I won’t beg you for anything…
ever
!”

The predatory side of him burned to make his mate take back her words. She would beg him to take her and a whole lot more before their little game of wills was over. She would become his forever.

“Do you really think in all of the centuries I have been alive that you’re stronger than me?” he asked, letting go of her neck. “And you’ll be able to resist me?”

“There’s no doubt in my mind,” she said with a smirk on her full mouth, a glint of determination in her eye.

“Why don’t I put you up against your own words?” Thorsten suggested, wondering if Raya would take him up on his challenge.

“Thorsten, you need to leave. I need to get back to work.”

He tilted his head to the side as one of his hands slid up her thigh and underneath her skirt. “I don’t think so, beautiful. You dared me to prove you wrong and I can’t leave until I do.” He smiled, showing her a hint of fang.

She gasped and tried to push him away, but he only pressed his body against hers. “Please don’t bite me.”

He flicked his tongue against her earlobe as his hand slipped further between her warm thighs. He wasn’t craving his mate’s blood at the moment. He wanted to show her something entirely different.

“I won’t bite you again, at least not today, but I can’t make any promises about next time.”

“Irizarry, there isn’t going…oh, my God,” Raya moaned as his thumb brushed over her clit through the fabric of her silky panties.

He was dying to know what they color were. In his mind, they were firecracker red to match her fiery personality. Now wasn’t the time to test out his theory, he needed her to admit to something else first.

“Tell me again how much you don’t want me or this,” he demanded as one of his fingers worked its way into Raya’s tight pussy.

Damn…she was burning his finger. His cock throbbed and ached as it grew another inch inside his tailored slacks. Fuck. If Raya kept making him this hard every time he was around her he might have his pants made looser in the front.

“No, I won’t do it,” she whimpered as her hand wrapped around his bicep.

“Yes, you will.”

He tugged on her ear with his teeth, making her body jerk as he slipped another finger halfway inside her slick opening. Thorsten swore his cock had never been this hard, and the woman who pushed his last button caused it. Talk about karma.

“Please, stop.” The words were said so low that Thorsten’s keen hearing almost didn’t hear them, but he felt the war of emotions raging within her.

Her new feelings towards him were confusing, as was her unexpected response to his touch. If he couldn’t show Raya he had self-control now it might be the end of the road before he even got a second chance to prove himself to her.

“Okay, sweetheart,” he answered. Easing his fingers out of her body, Thorsten retracted his fangs and took several steps back, giving Raya the space her mind craved.

“I apologize for moving so fast. I shouldn’t have piled all of that on you.”

Moving away from the wall, Raya went around him and put more distance between them. “You’re wrong. I’m not like Sahara or Sabrina. I’m just not. It wouldn’t make any sense for me to be your mate. We don’t like each other.”

“Raya, I’m not wrong. You’re a
Unique
woman, which makes you my mate. Nothing is going to change because I won’t give you up for anything.”

She stared at him with rounded eyes filled with disbelief. “How do you know…never mind. This is just too much. I had a normal childhood…well, as normal as it could be with a workaholic father and a mother who left us when I was in seventh grade. But, this is on another level. I’m not built to be involved with a vampire. Why me?”

He wanted to go to Raya and assure her everything would be fine, but he had to let her work through this. He couldn’t force or trick her into wanting to be with him. Now, he might use the art of seduction to tempt her body, but what vampire wouldn’t do the same thing?

“Wait, I have an idea,” Raya said suddenly as happiness lit up her already stunning face. “I think you will love it.”

Thorsten hid a smile but was pleased that Raya might be coming around faster than he thought she would. She always sounded so tough, but at this moment she looked so young and excited about her plans for them. He couldn’t image what they could be.

“Are you going to keep it to yourself or fill me in?” he asked.

“You can get the woman from the restaurant to be your mate. I’m not sure if she’s like me, but I saw how she was looking at you. Both of you looked like a real couple together and after you’re with her I can find someone else for myself. If not Alec, then another man.”

“No!” he barked so roughly that the picture on the wall actually shook. “Cordelia isn’t an acceptable mate for me. I won’t ever allow her to share my bed again. Don’t bring her up to me, or Alec for that matter. The human male will never have you sexually. If you talk about him to me, you are putting his life in grave danger.”

She sighed in resignation. “Why did I ever think you would do anything for anyone else? You are all about yourself and nothing else. Forget what the other person might want or need.”

His long strides ate up the distance until he towered over Raya’s smaller frame. Heat coiled and spread though his body as an image of Raya with Alec flashed before his eyes. He knew it wasn’t real.

The vision was only his mind playing tricks, but a blind, burning fear fought to take control. Hunger raged dangerously close to the surface for him to bite her, put his mark on her smooth skin so no other male would come within touching distance of what was his. Since she was his mate, he could bite her now, making their bond tighter. He groaned at the temptation and his fangs slowly descended until they were visible to Raya.

“You promised,” she whispered, placing her small hands in the center of his chest.

“I did,” he acknowledged in a low, graveled voice. “So, don’t make me break it. I will claim you as mine. Don’t put me up against a weaker male who wouldn’t have the chance of surviving a fight against me. My powers are strong and unyielding. I can hurt your friend with a flick of my wrist.”

Thorsten gently brushed his hand over Raya’s hair. “Don’t forget my words,” he warned, then vanished from the room right before his mate’s stunned eyes.

****

Raya blinked, trying to make sense of everything that just occurred in the span of twenty minutes. It seemed like something out of a teenage vampire movie, but this shit was real. Thorsten had actually told her she was his mate. How was any of this possible? Had she been fighting with him for so long that it blinded her to what was directly in her face?

Had Sahara’s warnings about not getting involved with Alec gone in one ear and right out the other one? Her best friend had told her to give Thorsten a chance because he was a good guy and not to judge him for the way he had acted the first time they met each other.

How was she supposed to forget about everything he had done to her recently and allow him to get all Dracula on her?

Despite the fact she was shocked by the news of being a
Unique
woman, she could still feel the warmth of his firm mouth against hers. He had left a burning imprint on her mind. Unconsciously, her fingers reached up to trace her swollen bottom lip.

His sensuousness threatened to pull her into his world against her better judgment. Her face burned as she remembered how much she liked his hands touching her body. She had never allowed any other man to get so intimate with her before.

Impatiently, Raya pulled her drifting thoughts together. She couldn’t figure this out by herself. She knew of only one person who could help her. Rushing over to her desk, she snatched up her purse and then headed for the door as her cell phone started ringing.

Digging it out, she stopped in her tracks at the name showing on the caller ID. Just as her fingers hit the accept button, Thorsten’s voice suddenly appeared in her head.

You’re putting Alec’s life in danger by pitting him against me. He wouldn’t survive an attack from me
. She glanced at the number one final time before tossing the cell phone back inside her purse and rushing out the door.

I have never been the type of girl to follow behind others.

I have always considered myself an individual, almost like a leader.

I never have wanted to be any other way until
I saw you walk through the door.

I don’t know if it was the way you looked.

The way you moved or how your eyes seemed to be staring
Straight into my soul.

But after spending a few short moments in your presence
I wanted something different. Do something
I never considered doing before until