Primal Desires (20 page)

S
ofia lay with her eyes closed while Jason got dressed, and she tried to go to sleep after the door closed behind him. She'd never felt so drained; her muscles burned with weariness. Yet her mind raced, and after a while she couldn't take the thoughts chasing around in her head any longer. She wanted Jason to come back and began counting the seconds he was gone.

When she grew disgusted with her neediness, she got out of bed, put a matching short robe on over her black nightgown, and went out onto the patio. A few breaths of brisk night air helped clear her head. She stared up at the beautiful night sky until she heard a footstep.

“Can't sleep?” Sid's voice asked out of the darkness. The vampire stepped onto the patio. “Me, either. With all the psychic turmoil flying around the place, I doubt if anybody's asleep.”

“You've been crying,” Sofia observed.

“You, too.”

Sofia nodded. “I hate living on an emotional roller coaster.”

“It's been a rough week.”

Sofia recalled their earlier conversation by the fountain. “I talked to Jason about fathering the baby. It didn't go well.”

Sid wasn't disappointed. “That's okay. I think that plan's pretty much on hold for the moment, anyway.” She looked concerned. “Did you two have a big fight over it? Is that why you've been sending out so much hysterical energy?”

“There was a bit of stress during that conversation,” Sofia answered, “but my hysteria came from something else.”

Sofia explained to Sid about her father, and the plan to save him. She thought Sid would be pleased by what she told her, but the vampire woman looked worried when Sofia was done.

“What's wrong?” Sofia asked. “Don't you think it will work?”

“I think that Jason Cage might be the wrong person to ask to break your dad out of Gull Bay.”

Sofia was confused. “Why? He agreed with the plan.”

“He's Family, and the Families have different rules about dealing with mortals than the Clans do. The Families do not directly interfere in mortal matters. He got in deep trouble for trying to save the world once already. I don't think his people will take kindly to his interfering again.”

Sofia sank weakly onto a patio chair and she swore—at life, at herself. What had she done?

Totally miserable, she looked up at Sid. “I saw how determined he looked when he left. I don't think I could stop him now even if I begged him. How much trouble have I gotten him into? What do I do?”

“Talk to Lady Juanita,” Sid advised. “Maybe she can think of something.”

• • •

“If you're looking for Jason, he just left,” Cathy said when Sofia entered the central meeting room.

“I know.” Sofia tapped her forehead. “It's impossible for me not to know where he is.”

There were several others in the room with her cousin. Mike and Harry Bleythin, Antonia, and David Berus were there, along with Lady Juanita and several people whose names Sofia couldn't remember.

“I'm glad you're here,” Cathy told her. “We were discussing a plan to rescue our missing relatives.”

“Cathy's come up with something we believe will work,” Harry said. “We want to know what you think of it.”

Of course they had more than one crisis to deal with. Sofia felt almost selfish for putting her concerns first, but Jason's well-being meant more to her than anything else—even more than her father's freedom. She closed her eyes and tried to bury the pain of the loss beneath its usual layer of scar tissue.

“Are you ill?” David Berus was suddenly beside her.

“No.”

Everyone's concerned attention was now on her. She tried to smile reassuringly at them, but couldn't manage it. Cathy, Mike, and Harry all came toward her, but she gestured for them to sit down.

She wasn't used to asking for help, but for once, she didn't hesitate. She looked to the Matri. “Lady Juanita, I did something that's going to get Jason in terrible trouble, and you have to help me stop him. Please.”

The Matri didn't show any surprise. “But the plan to help your father sounds workable.”

“After we made a few suggestions and alterations to it,” Mike added.

Cathy gave Mike an annoyed look. “Mike means he insisted he be the one to go into the prison with Jason.”

Mike brushed a hand through Cathy's hair. “I'm not letting my mate anywhere near a bunch of dangerous convicts. Besides, I owe Jason one.”

“You don't understand,” Sofia said. “Jason will be in terrible trouble if he does this. His people will punish him, and he knows it. He's being noble, which is lovely, but I can't let him go back to jail for breaking somebody else out.”

“Of course, he's Family,” Lady Juanita said. “He's so much like one of us that I'd forgotten the restrictions he lives under.” She looked steadily at Sofia. “My dear, because he is Family and I am Clan, I have no authority to forbid him to do this.”

“He's doing what's right,” David said.

“His Matri won't see it that way,” Mike said.

“True,” David looked at Sofia sympathetically. “You and I may not approve of the way the Families choose to deal with mortals, but they have their own good reasons for their policies.”

“Well, I think my uncle deserves to be broken out of jail,” Cathy spoke up. “Come on, people! Let's think of a way to get this done.”

“The solution is perfectly simple,” Antonia said. “Isn't it, David, my love?”

David looked at her and laughed. “I
am
Clan Prime. Rescuing mortals is what I do.” He told Sofia, “I am not as strong a telepath as Jason, but my ability will suffice for the assignment. May I offer myself as the means for righting the wrong done to your father?”

Sofia's heart sang with gratitude, and she threw her arms around the big, blond vampire. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you!”

“She agrees,” Antonia said. “Now get your hands off my bondmate, young lady.”

Sofia quickly stepped away from David. “But what do I tell Jason? He isn't going to back off from going through with this mission.”

“You need not tell him anything,” Lady Juanita said. “All you have to do is go back to your room and do what comes naturally to a bonding couple.”

Everyone laughed, but Sofia protested, “I can't lie to him. That wouldn't be right.”

“You don't have to talk to him at all,” Cathy said. “All you have to do is screw his brains out until the mission's accomplished.”

“You're already dressed for it,” Mike pointed out.

Sofia had forgotten she was only wearing a skimpy nightgown and robe, and she blushed. Jason had told her that the reason they kept being distracted by lust from other matters was because of the bonding. She hadn't understood at first, then the need had proved as inconvenient as it was wonderful, and now she saw how this distraction could help them. This wasn't manipulating him, it was saving him.

“All right,” she told the group waiting for her decision. “I can do this.”

“Bite him,” Lady Juanita advised. “And get him to taste you, as well. Keep that up and neither of you will notice the time passing. Now go.” She gestured toward the door. “Jason will be looking for you, anyway.”

She nodded. “Yes. I'd better get him back to our bedroom, fast.”

I
'm so sore, I don't think I can get out of bed.” Sofia ran her foot up Jason's calf. “But then, I don't want to get out of bed.”

She had no idea how long they'd been there. She'd hidden the clock in the nightstand drawer and had kept the curtains drawn. Time kept going in and out of focus as they made love again and again. Whenever they slept, they'd wake up to find food waiting for them, and eating always turned into lovemaking.

“Good.” Jason caught her foot in his hand and started kissing her toes, which she found thoroughly erotic. He also tickled her instep, which got her giggling. The combination of sensations drove her crazy, and she became lost in them until—

“Ow! You bit my toe!”

“I did,” Jason admitted, and did it again.

This time, the lightning bolt that shot through her was completely the opposite of pain.

“Do that again.”

“Gladly.”

He tasted her blood, and she writhed with orgasms from each little wound. When he finished with her foot, he moved to sink his teeth into the back of her leg, then to the inside of her thigh. Every touch took her higher.

His head moved higher still between her legs and his tongue began to make lazy cat laps across her throbbing, swollen clitoris. This delight took her out of herself in an entirely different sensual way, but it was no less intense. Jason's every touch brought her pleasure.

“My turn,” she managed to gasp out after his tongue had worked wonders on her for a while.

He lifted his head to look into her eyes. His smile was teasing. “Sweetheart, was that an invitation?”

“It was a demand. I want to take you into my mouth.”

He didn't need coaxing.

She took her time, slowly sinking her mouth onto his cock, then repeating the process again and again as she teased the swollen head and length with her tongue. She made him writhe and buck just as he had done to her, until she finally let him come.

When he was spent, she looked at him with an expression of triumph and not a little smugness. “I do believe you are wasted, Mr. Cage.”

“Madam, you are wicked,” he told her.

She batted her eyelashes. “I try.”

“Come along.” He got up and hauled her unceremoniously over his shoulder.

“Hey!” she protested as he headed toward the bathroom.

“You said you were too sore to walk.”

“I said I couldn't get out of bed.”

“Well, now you're out of bed.” He took them into the glass-walled shower and didn't put her down until a pulsing, steaming stream poured over them. “And now you're
really
in hot water, mortal.”

She picked up a thick bar of coconut-scented soap and washed his hair, then worked thick lather all over his long, muscled body. He took the bubbling bar and returned the favor, and they managed to make love standing up despite their slippery, soap-covered bodies.

When they were finally finished, Jason carried her back to the bed.

Just as he put her down, someone knocked on the door.

• • •

Jason swore, but went to answer it. She pulled on a robe and hurried after him, handing him a robe before he could open the door.

“Have you no shame?” she asked.

“None,” he answered, but he did tie the belt as he called, “Who is it?”

“Lady Juanita requests your presence in the central chamber immediately,” a voice on the other side of the door replied.

“Damn,” Jason whispered. A Matri's request was the same as an order. He gave Sofia an apologetic look, and an affectionate pat on the fanny. “Of course,” he answered the messenger.

Sofia hurried into the closet to get dressed; the eagerness that radiated from her served to clear Jason's head. He threw open the patio door curtains to discover that it was the middle of a brilliant day. He looked around the wrecked bedroom and scrubbed his hands over his face.

He remembered finding Sofia in the hallway outside the meeting room last night and their returning here. She'd said,
“I want you to make love to me as a Prime.”
When she'd kissed him she bit his tongue and the sharing of blood drove him into a sexual frenzy.

That had been last night, hadn't it?

He looked at her suspiciously when she came back into the room wearing jeans and a red shirt, but she gave him such a deliriously hopeful smile, he couldn't bear to ask her what she'd done.

He had the feeling he'd find out very soon, in the meeting room.

S
ofia barely noticed when the Prime who opened the meeting room door announced her name. The man standing by Lady Juanita's chair took all of her attention. Tears welled in her eyes and she could barely breathe.

He was taller than she remembered, and thinner. And when had he shaved his head? The wary expression on her father's face was anything but welcoming.

Instead of rushing headlong, she stopped in the center of the room and waited, awkward and unsure as silence stretched out around her.

It was Jason who finally said, “What's the matter with you, Hunyara? Don't you recognize your own daughter?” He gave her a slight shove and whispered in her ear, “He's all you want. Go to him.”

Sofia was shocked into movement, more by the bitterness in Jason's tone than anything else. She began to turn to him.

Her father said, “Sofia?”

At the sound of her name, she ran forward and flung her arms around the man who'd spoken. His voice was so familiar. So was the way his arms came protectively around her.

After a while, she noticed that her embrace was just as protective of him, just as strong.

“You've grown up,” he said.

She lifted her head and nodded.

“I'm sorry it was so hard on you,” he said. “I didn't mean to hurt you.”

“I'm fine,” she said. “I really am.” She looked around and saw David Berus smiling at her.

“Thank you,” she said to the Prime. “I don't know how to thank you.”

“The plan was yours; Michael and I merely carried it out. With your father's cooperation, of course.”

“Wait a minute—” Jason began.

“I think we should leave these two alone to get reacquainted,” Lady Juanita announced. “All of us,” she added.

The tug of separation as Jason left was disturbing, but Sofia concentrated on her father.

“Where do we start?” she asked when they were alone.

He looked her over carefully, then met her gaze for a long time. “You're one of us,” he said, and seemed disappointed.

“A Hunyara wolf tamer, you mean?”

He nodded. “I'm so sorry. All I wanted was to keep you from that curse.”

She didn't feel cursed. But how could she tell the man who'd given up his freedom to protect her that he'd done the wrong thing?

“Now you're involved with werewolves and vampires, too, and the dangerous madness is going to continue through the generations.”

“I can't deny it,” Sofia told him. “We just have to cope. Can you—do what I do? Are you a wolf tamer?”

He shrugged. “I have the gift, though I never wanted it. I never used it after my father trained me. I passed it on to you, but I wouldn't let those old men raise my fragile little girl the way I was raised. Before your mother died, I promised her I wouldn't expose you to danger.”

Well, that made sense. Mama was so girly.

“How did you learn the taming?” he asked.

“A vampire taught me.” She smiled at the thought of Jason. “The same vampire who taught Grandpa and Great-grandpa. So I've had the best teacher. I'm not afraid of what I can do. It can help people.”

She explained to him about Cathy, and about everything else that had happened recently. He asked her about the years since they'd seen each other, so she told him what she'd done with her life. He didn't want to talk about life inside the prison. She supposed they'd have to probe those sore spots someday, but now was the time for happy reunions.

She had no idea how long they talked, but at some point, someone brought in a tray of sandwiches and tall glasses of iced tea. Long after they'd finished lunch, another vampire came into the room.

“Mr. Hunyara, if you could come with me, please?” he asked politely. “I'm here to help you work on your new identity, and I need to take some photos before I can go any further with the project. Sorry to take him away from you,” he told Sofia as her father rose to go with him. “How would you feel about becoming a professional dog handler as your new profession, Mr. Hunyara?” the vampire asked as they left.

Sofia smiled, so grateful to the Wolf Clan for putting their well-organized resources at the disposal of her family.
I'm going to have to do something especially nice for them. Lady Juanita deserves much more than a thank-you for this.

Once her father was gone, she remembered Jason and rose reluctantly to her feet. He was furious with her; she could feel it. No point in putting it off a moment longer.

• • •

She found Jason in the garden, sitting on the bench near the fountain. A warm breeze ruffled his brown hair. He was staring at the ground and didn't look up when he asked, “How's your father?”

His concern melted her heart. “Disoriented, I think. He's been out of the world for a long time.”

“I know how that is,” he said. “I'll talk to him, if you'd like.”

“I'd appreciate that.” She hated the strained sound of her own voice, and the hostility that was just under the surface of his. “Jason.”

Blue eyes as hot as lightning suddenly met hers; the blaze of fury nearly burned her to ash where she stood.

Sofia took a step back, but fought off the urge to turn and run away. “I didn't come out here to tame a wolf,” she told him.

“I'm a great deal wilder than a wolf when I let myself go.” His tone was low and even, and really, really scary. “I am Prime.”

“How am I supposed to translate that? Does it mean that I hurt your pride and you're pissed off at me?”

He nodded. “Very.” He was standing in front of her before she could blink. “Why did you do that to me?” he demanded. “Why did you trick me while somebody else kept the promise I made to you?”

“Because I discovered how dangerous that promise was to you, and I wasn't going to let you go back to prison. I thank you for the promise. I truly appreciate your good intentions, but I had to protect you.”

“It's
my
job—my duty and my privilege—to protect you, Sofia Hunyara.”

“Back at you, Jason Cage,” she snapped. “If we're going to have this connection between us, it has to go both ways. We have to be equals in this.”

The fury slowly drained from his eyes, but his expression remained cold. “I don't know if I'm ready for this,” he said. And then he left.