Dreamer (21 page)

Too angry to talk, she pressed her lips together and gripped
her hands into fists.
What's wrong?
Seriously
? He’d flaunted one of his lovers in front of her like it was no
big deal.

“Shan?”

Frozen, she watched the lights and people of the Egyptian
Temple District grow bleary as her eyes filled with tears. Gods, she hated
crying when she was upset. It made her feel so weak.

He gently stroked her arm, and she jerked away as far as she
could in the confines of the car. “Don't you fucking touch me.”

“Shan, it's not what you think.” The tone of his voice
dipped so low it seemed to vibrate deeper than the engine as he pulled out of
the parking lot.

“Oh, really? Gee, how could I misinterpret a woman kneeling
before you and sucking your finger like it was your cock?” She gripped the door
handle so hard it creaked. “Is that what you're into? Women degrading
themselves in public for your amusement?”

His lips narrowed, and he looked back to the road. “We'll
talk when you've calmed down. Nothing I'm going to say is going to reach you
when you’re pouting about something you don't understand.”

Pouting? What an asshole. He’d been the one pouting because
she wouldn't let him carry her like a child. Thank the gods she hadn’t. The
thought of running into Maria while being held in his arms made her want to
hurl.

What he meant was he would seduce her until she couldn't
remember why she was angry. So fucking weak, even now she craved him like a
drug. All she wanted to do was pull him around her and have him tell her he
loved her. But that wasn't going to happen.

****

As Shan stomped up the stairs of the loading dock to the
door of her apartment, Devon snatched her up and held her against his chest.

“Let me go!” she yelled and pushed at his arms. “I'm not a
child. I can walk up the stairs by myself. I don't want you touching me after
you let that woman do that to you in front of me!”

“Quiet,” he whispered into her ear, and her body warmed at
his touch.

Fighting the desire, she pushed at him again, this time
really trying to put her strength behind her fists. “Get off me.”

“Someone's tried to get into your apartment. Stop being a
bitch for a moment and lower your shields just a tad.”

“Put me down first.” She didn't want the sensation of his
body against hers when her shields went down. Having him this close to her
already ripped at her self-control, and she hated the power he had over her body.
He needed to know that he couldn't order her around, and stripping off his
clothes and riding him in the stairwell wouldn't reinforce that point.

Without saying another word, he set her gently on her feet
and stepped away. He ignored her glare, and she tried to lower her shields
slowly, gagging at the smell of shit, pain, and fear that rolled over her.

“Shields back up,” Devon said in a tight voice. His big
hands curled into fists, and his whole body radiated menace and tension.

“What is that?” She wanted to go upstairs and brush her
teeth about a thousand times to get that foul taste out of her mouth.

“Demon of some kind. I've never smelled anything like it
before. It's...diluted somehow.” He ignored her expression of disbelief and ran
a hand over his mouth. “Normally they wouldn't be sloppy enough to leave their
scent all over. I keyed my shields to snag and hold the aura of anyone that
tried to break them.”

“Shit,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. The
familiar shadows of the silent warehouses became menacing places for evil to
hide. Wrapping her arms around herself, she strained to hear anything beyond
the ticking of the Barracuda's cooling engine.

“They left that...funk as a calling card. To let me know
they know where you live.”

“What are we going to do?” She hated having to rely on him
for her safety but had to defer to his experience.

He scanned the entryway from floor to ceiling. A brush of
his scent moved over her, and she took a quick inhale of his spice. It cleared
the foul tang from her mouth, but she refused to acknowledge how her body
associated it with strength and comfort.

“They couldn't breach my shielding, so we stay here. It's
better than moving you somewhere else and exposing others in case of an attack.
This might have been an attempt to flush you out into the open.”

She’d been going to suggest that they go to her parents’
house, but the thought of her quiet childhood street turned into a
slaughterhouse held her tongue.

“Stay behind me, please,” he added with a look that took all
of the request out of the word and turned it into an order.

Gritting her teeth, she shivered as they moved through his
warding. It wrapped around her body and caressed against her in a solid stroke.
Her breath came out in a rush as his aura moved over her breasts and gave her
nipples a harsh tweak. A moment later it felt like a mouth was licking between
her legs and she stumbled, catching herself against the wall with a gasp as the
phantom touches vanished.

“What the hell was that?” she said in a squeak.

“Just my shields checking you.” He flicked on the panel of
lights at the base of the stairs that would illuminate different rooms of her
apartment. “Why?”

His wide teal eyes let her know that he was well aware of
what the shields had done to her. “It felt creepy. Like a pervert trying to cop
a feel on the subway.”

Not taking the bait, he gave her his nerve-grating smirk
again that said he saw right through her lies. “I'm going to lower my shields.
You might want to strengthen yours so you don't feel like I'm...touching you.”
His voice lowered to a deep base purr on the last word.

Keeping the image of that bitch on her knees before him, she
steeled herself against his charms. They reached the landing to the main
entrance of her home, and the energy of a shield shivered over her. This time
his energy twined up her legs with a brush of silk and rubbed over her inner
thighs.

He watched her carefully, analyzing her reaction to the
magic. Firming her lips, she stepped out of the warding and tried to curl her
lips into a disgusted expression even as her panties grew damp. Her crazy
reaction to him was so not fair.

“You have messages,” he commented as he walked through the
living room like he owned it. Big, predatory, he scanned every inch of the room
before moving deeper into the rest of the apartment.

Glaring at his back, she grabbed her phone off the cluttered
kitchen counter and quickly checked her messages. One from her dad letting her
know that he would be at the hospital tonight and her father would be there to help.
Apparently there had been a rash of children being admitted in comas, and they
needed all the support they could get. Holding the phone to her ear, she
grabbed a package of steaks out of the freezer and set them on the counter to
thaw.

The coil of tension in her belly eased. At least her parents
would be somewhere safe tonight. Switching the phone to her other ear, she set
an onion on the counter next to the steak and grabbed a beer out of the
refrigerator. Taking a deep drink, she leaned against the door and tried to pay
attention to the droning voice of one of her client's ordering a set of
necklaces for his daughters.

The last message was from Daisy. Some vague memory of her
friend flitted through her mind, but it quickly vanished at the tone of fear in
Daisy's voice. “Shan, I need you to call me ASAP.” She hesitated and took a
deep breath. “Please make sure Devon can't hear you. It's important.”

Staring at the phone, Shan jumped when Devon spoke up from
behind her. “Something wrong?”

“What?” She gripped the phone and moved into the living
room, putting the counter between them.

He shrugged and hauled his overnight bag onto the counter.
“You look spooked.”

“Maybe you're used to demons trying to break into your
house, but for me, it's unnerving.” She took a deep drink of her beer and
fiddled with putting the phone back in the charger. How was she supposed to get
alone to call Daisy back? Maybe she could go into the bathroom and call her.
Hell, it wasn't as if it was any of Devon's business who she talked to. “How
did they figure out where I live?”

Unzipping the bag, he watched her down the rest of the beer.
“Could have been any of a thousand different ways. A spell, a prophecy, or they
could have been watching me and wondered who you are.”

“Well, isn't that fantastic.” His strong hands flexed on the
counter, and she couldn't help but think of that woman pressing her face into
them and kissing his palms. Anger and jealousy burned through her and made her
next words sharper than she intended. “Must be hard for them to keep up with
all the women you're sleeping with. You should probably call them and let them
know. It should only take you the rest of the night.”

Knuckles turning white, he gripped the sides of the bag.
“I'm going to strengthen the wards. When I get back, you and I are going to
have a talk.” He began to jerk plastic baggies filled with different colored
powders and a bronze knife out of his bag.

“I thought no one got in?”

He ignored her and cleaned the blade of the knife with a
dishtowel. The hard line of his jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth. With the
beer sending a buzz through her bloodstream, she tried to suppress the sudden
flash of guilt. How dare he act like he was the offended party? It wasn't as
though she had men coming up to her on the street and dropping to their knees.

The silence thickened, and she set her beer bottle down on
the coffee table with a thunk. Some of the magazines stacked on the table slid
to the floor, and she crouched to pick them up, grateful for the excuse to do something
other than stand there and wish she could take her words back.

So attuned to his body already, she could actually feel when
he left the room. Leaning her forehead against the couch, she tried to gain
control of herself. With all her heart, she wanted to run to him and yell at
him then make love wherever they happened to be.

Her pride demanded that she put some distance between them.
A quick glance showed that he had left the living room. She grabbed the phone
and ran into the bathroom. Feeling like an idiot, she locked the door and
started the shower running. A few weird clicks and chirps sounded on the line
before her call went through. The beer in her empty stomach churned, and she
let out a large burp while it rang.

A loud burst of harsh static blared through the line then
Daisy asked in a rough whisper, “Shan?”

“Honey, you sound like shit. What's wrong?”

“Is he nearby?” They both knew whom Daisy was talking about.

“No, but he won't be gone for long.” She checked her
reflection in the mirror as steam slowly clouded the edges.

“Good. You need to be careful around him.”

“What are you talking about?” She watched the confusion and
hurt fill her face, and she turned her back on the mirror.

“Alice warned me about him.”

“Who's Alice?”

“The Domme I studied with. You met her at the club. She
knows Devon. Shan, he's really bad news.”

Slumping to the cool tile floor, she drew her knees up to
her chest. “What are you talking about?” she said again and hated how small and
uncertain her voice sounded.

“He has a stable of women that he keeps, and he controls
every aspect of their lives. He's one of those 24/7 masters who keeps his women
as slaves. Shan, he demands that his subs act like a slave every second of
their lives with him. Doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants, with whoever
he wants.” Daisy's voice turned soft. “You can't let him do that to you.”

“I don't believe it,” she whispered as tears trailed down
her cheeks. The scene on the sidewalk made horrible sense now. That woman must
be one of his slaves, begging him to come back to her. That would explain the
collar and the pleading. Rubbing her eyes, she cursed herself for not standing
up for herself and letting him send her away to wait for him like a
well-trained puppy.

“Really?” Daisy's voice grew hard. “Are you telling me he
hasn't dominated you? That he isn't bending you toward his will already. It
starts with little things, like making you dress up in clothes he likes.”

She sucked in a shocked gasp of air. There was no way Daisy
could have known he did that just this morning. “But if he has all these
slaves, how come he wants me?”

“Because of who you are. Controlling someone as powerful as
you would be a real feather in his cap.” Daisy coughed and held the phone away
for a moment while Shan sat there in stunned silence. “You need to get away
from him and stop letting him manipulate you into being his play toy. Come to
my house where you'll be safe.”

She briefly considered the idea, but quickly dismissed it.
“I can't.” She wrapped her arms around herself as tears ran down her cheeks.
“It's…complicated.”

“Shan, I want you to come to my house right now.”

Grabbing a handful of toilet paper, she blew her nose and
said in a thick voice, “Really, I can't.” A deep rumbling voice could be heard
in the background over the phone. “Who's there with you?”