Desire Unchained (4 page)

wet lash. Her raspy tongue caught on shredded flesh. Pain streaked through him, but he’d

suffered worse while playing with some of his rougher bedmates.

“I’ve wanted to taste you for so long,” she murmured against his nipple. “But you never

so much as looked at me.”

“That’s because after years of fucking my brother,” he growled, “you were damaged

goods.”

She continued to tongue his chest, even sucking lightly on his caduceus pendant, and he

wondered just when the torture would begin, because all this was doing was turning him on.

Yeah, it was messed up, but shit, he was an incubus, capable of getting it up under the worst of

circumstances, and the female in front of him was throwing off arousal like she was in heat.

“We’ll see who is the damaged one.” She dropped to her knees, eyeing the blood on his

thigh. And he knew. Oh, shit, he knew exactly how his suffering would go down.

Every noise that filtered through the wood and iron door made Runa flinch. She should

rejoice at the knowledge that Shade was being tortured. She should volunteer to help. But damn

her heart, she wanted to save him.

So she could kill him herself.

Except, she hadn’t come back to New York to kill Shade. She’d returned to her

hometown with military orders to gather intel on a demon hospital, and to locate an ex-soldier

and Aegis Guardian who hadn’t been heard from since reporting the existence of the hospital.

The Army feared he might have become a traitor not only to the United States, but to the entire

human race. And when the U.S. Army’s Raider-X Regiment issued an order, you followed

it—and not just because they’d planted a microdetonator in your brain. No, the supersecret

military unit inspired loyalty by giving “special humans” a purpose and a sense of belonging in a

world that had rejected them.

She hadn’t been rejected, but her situation had guaranteed that, without help, The Aegis

would have killed her, but probably not before she slaughtered countless innocent humans.

Fortunately, her brother, a high-ranking officer at R-XR, had known exactly what to do the night

he found her bleeding to death in the alley where she’d been attacked. The Army had saved her

life, had even attempted to prevent the lycanthropic virus from taking hold. They’d failed, but the

side effects of their experimental treatment turned out to be handy.

She still turned into a giant, slavering beast three nights out of every month—a beast with

no control over her actions and very little memory of what took place while she was in beast

form. But thanks to the Army, she could also turn into the beast any time she wanted to. Even

better, when she changed form intentionally, she retained her humanity and could control her

actions and remember everything once she returned to her human form.

Laughter bubbled up from somewhere, female laughter, followed by a long, drawn-out

noise. An erotic growl.
Shade
’s erotic growl. She’d know that sound anywhere. So what, they

were torturing him with sex?

That bastard. She hated him. But she was pretty sure that just before the werewolf attack,

he’d saved her brother’s life. And, truth be told, probably hers, as well.

Runa had met him when she’d been at the lowest point in her life. Twenty-five years old

but feeling double that, she still hadn’t gotten over the death of her mother four years

earlier—how could she when her mother had died alone and miserable, thanks to Runa? But

more recently, her best friend had moved to Australia with her new husband, Runa’s coffee shop

had been only days from closing, and her brother had been dying. Arik had, in fact, been dying in

her house, and the only reason she wasn’t with him was that he’d insisted that she tend to her

shop and employees, who would soon be jobless.

One of her employees, a pierced, green-haired girl who called herself Aspic, had been

razzing Runa about never taking risks, which was probably why her business had failed in the

first place. No risks in love, business, or life. And where had that gotten her?

Arik might have been dying, but he’d
lived.
Should she be struck by a mysterious disease

that killed her by slow measures, would she know the satisfaction of having truly lived life to the

fullest?

The answer to that had been painfully obvious, especially because guilt had been killing

her as surely as whatever had struck down Arik. She had denied herself anything that even

resembled pleasure with the ruthlessness of a religious zealot. How could she allow herself to

experience what she had denied her mother?

Not a day had gone by that she didn’t think about how she’d ruined her parents’ marriage

and sent her mother into a downward spiral of depression. No matter how many times Arik tried

to tell her that she needed to forgive herself for telling their mother about finding their father

with another woman, she couldn’t. Because Arik didn’t know her secret—that deep down, Runa

feared that she hadn’t done it out of concern for their mother.

She’d done it to hurt their father.

The day Shade walked into her life had been the day she’d wondered, for the first time, if

she would have anything to live for once Arik was gone.

He’d sauntered into her coffee shop, huge, impossibly gorgeous, black motorcycle boots

thudding on the floor, his leather pants and jacket making that soft rasp, the pirate earring in his

left lobe glinting in the light. His right hand had been tattooed, as well as the right side of his

throat, and she’d wondered if tats on his arm had connected the two.

All female eyes latched on to him. All male eyes had averted.

“Oh, fuck me,” Aspic whispered. “All. Night. Long.”

There was no looking away from him as he moved to the counter, his gaze locked onto

Runa’s.

Aspic started to pant, honest-to-God pant. “Here’s your risk, Runa. Take it. Make a move

or I swear I will.”

He stopped in front of Runa. “Coffee.” The word rolled off his tongue as if he’d said,

“I’d like to give you an orgasm.”

“Yes,” she whispered, because he could give her … oh, right. Coffee. She cleared her

throat. Twice. “Regular, tall, or grande?”

“Whatever your largest size is.”

“Do you have a brew preference?”

“Strong and hot.”

“Milk? Soy or dairy? Cream?”

“Hell’s freakin’ bells.” He planted his palms on the counter and leaned in. “Just.

Coffee.” His intense gaze roamed over her figure in a blatant appraisal that should have

infuriated her but only made her heart beat faster. “Though I might be tempted to try something

sweeter.”

Aspic nudged her with an elbow and then stepped forward. “Runa’s a little shy. Do you

have a motorcycle? Because she loves motorcycles. Bet she’d love to see it.”

“Aspic!” Runa’s cheeks burned with mortification.

“Runa,” the leather man said softly, as though testing the feel of her name on his tongue.

“Would you like to take a ride?”

“She’d love to,” Aspic said, and plopped his coffee in front of him.

Runa shook her head. “I don’t think—”

“Good,” he said, as he threw down a ten-dollar bill. “Keep the change. Let’s go.”

Before she could utter a protest, he grabbed his coffee, came around the counter, took

her hand, and led her toward the back door. She planted her feet at the threshold. “Look, Mr.

…”

“Shade.”

Odd name. Then again, she worked with a girl who called herself Aspic. “Mr. Shade.”

“Just Shade.”

“Shade, then. I’m afraid I can’t go anywhere with you.”

He cocked one black eyebrow and pushed open the door. “Who said anything about

going anywhere?”

“But, you said ride.”

Her flowing skirt whirled around her calves as he whisked her into the side street and

toward the alley. “Yep.”

Panic flared. This man could be a serial killer or a rapist, and here she was, half his size,

be-bopping into an alley with him. “I can’t—”

Suddenly, she found herself against the wall of the building, his body pinning hers, his

mouth against her ear. Both of his hands were on her shoulders … what had he done with the

coffee?

“I can smell your desire, Runa,” he murmured in a coaxing, seductive tone. “You’re

blooming for me like a flower.”

He rocked his hips into her. The erection behind the fly of his pants massaged her belly,

promising an experience she’d never forget. The man was sex on legs, an overwhelming mass of

muscle, testosterone, and sensuality for which she had no defense. Nothing had prepared her for

something like this. She doubted any woman could be prepared for Shade. At least not mentally.

Her body was preparing itself without her go-ahead.

Her breasts tingled and tightened, her heart pounded frantically against her rib cage,

and a rush of liquid dampened her panties. She squeezed her thighs together to relieve the ache

between them, but that only made things worse.

The situation was rapidly tumbling out of control, and as his tongue swept along her neck

and his hands stroked her hips, she found she couldn’t care.

He fisted her skirt and drew it up to her hips. “Do you want this?” He nuzzled her throat

and pressed a thick thigh between her legs, creating the most delicious pressure. “Tell me to

stop, and I will.”

This was her out. Her chance to get away from him. To go back inside her failing shop

and then home to her dying brother. On the way home she could get robbed and shot. Run over

by a taxi. Stabbed in a subway station.

And she’d die knowing she should have taken a risk for once in her life.

Shade’s fingers slipped between them, stroking her core over the wet fabric of her

panties. “Well?”

“Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

A low, sensual rumble came from deep in his throat as he kissed her. Not a proper kiss,

but a lick across her lips and then a deep, hot meeting of tongues that had her panting and

clinging to his jacket as if she would never let him go.

The rip of fabric registered in her ears, alongside the hum of passing vehicles, the

laughter of someone on the sidewalk. None of it mattered, not even the flutter of her panties

against her legs as they fell to the pavement.

God, this was crazy. Sex with a stranger in an alley. In the middle of the day.

A moment of clarity punched through her sexual haze as he unzipped his pants. She

stopped him with a firm grasp on his wrist. “Why me?” she rasped. “There were other women in

there, prettier, sexier—”

“I sensed your need.”

It was a strange answer, but then he was pushing against her entrance despite her

restraining grip, and she didn’t care why this whirlwind had happened. Instinct took over, and

she wrapped her legs around his waist and groaned as he eased the tip of his erection inside.

“Oh, man,” he breathed. “You’re so tight.” He pulled back a little, and then pushed

inside again, just the head. The mild stretching sensation eased into a shimmer of pleasure as the
crown of his penis worked the ring of nerves at her entrance.

“Wow.” She arched her back, and he slid his forearm behind her, cushioning her spine.

“More. I want more.”

As though he’d been waiting for permission, he thrust deep, destroying her pleasure with

a wave of pain. He froze, his expression tight. “You okay?”

“Fine,” she managed, as the pain faded. “It’s just been a long time.” Years, in fact.

She’d lost her virginity her senior year of high school to a boy who swore he loved her, but two

days later he’d loved someone else in the same way.

“You should have told me,” he growled. “I could have been gentler.”

“Just finish it,” she said, and with a harsh curse, he started moving inside her.

There was no slow buildup like she’d expected. No mildly pleasant stirring of sensation.

No gradual warming.

There was an instant shattering, an explosion that would have had her screaming if he

hadn’t slapped a hand over her mouth. His powerful thrusts rammed her into the building but

she didn’t care, couldn’t care, because she was coming again and he was shuddering, moaning,

jerking in a powerful release.

When they could both breathe again, she lowered herself to her feet and he pulled out,

tucking himself swiftly back into his pants. Warm, tingly fluid dripped down her leg, blasting her
back to reality.

“Oh, my God. You didn’t use a condom.”

“I’m sterile, and I’m not a carrier for diseases.”

“Still—”

He silenced her with a kiss. When he drew back, she felt dazed. He took her hand and led

her toward the shop’s rear entrance. Just before she reached the door, a flash of lightning

sizzled through her veins.

“Oh!” She gasped as another orgasm rocked her body. Shade held her through it, his