Rhyannon Byrd - Primal Instinct 04 (14 page)

Running her tongue over her lower lip, she did her best
not to dwell on that particular thought…or to drool over the hard muscles
moving so sinuously beneath his dark skin. But God, she’d had no idea that a
man could actually be built like that. Of course, the second the thought fired
its way through her brain, she realized her mistake. Aiden wasn’t a man. He was
something other…something more. And from the looks of the bulge beneath that
white cotton, a lot of it appeared to be between his legs.

And there you go obsessing about the guy’s crotch
again! Get a grip, woman. This is getting ridiculous.

Pressing her hand to her forehead, Olivia coughed,
striving to sound normal as she said, “Uh, shouldn’t you get dressed?”

“Should I?” His low voice reminded her of a sensual
purr, thick and dark and sexy, his hazel eyes heavy lidded as he watched her
with a strange, searing intensity that had chills dancing over her skin.

She pulled her brows together as she studied his
hypnotic expression. Quietly she said, “Are you trying to seduce me, then?”

The wicked smile that slowly curled across his mouth
did something funny to her pulse, the rushing sound outrageously loud in her
ears. “Is that what I’m doing, Liv? Seducing you?”

“I told you before,” she said carefully, surprised by
the hoarseness of the words, “that I’m not all that impressed with sex.”

A deep, husky burst of laughter rumbled up from his
chest, the provocative sound making her realize that she’d never really noticed
how bone-meltingly sexy a laugh could be. “Yeah, well—” he tossed the comb back
onto the dresser and gave a laid-back kind of shrug “—that’s probably because
you’ve been having sex with the wrong kind of guys, honey.”

Even though she knew she should have been mortified by
the conversation, Olivia couldn’t help but laugh herself. “I hate to admit it,
but you’re probably right.”

“What happened with the dickhead ex, anyway?” He moved
to the foot of the bed, where he must have placed his bag before taking his
shower.

Olivia pulled her sheet-covered knees up to her chest
and wrapped her arms around them. “Chris was a divorced dad whose son was in my
class last year. Turned out he thought I’d make a good stepmom, but wasn’t all
that interested in ‘satisfying himself exclusively’ with a woman like me for
the rest of his life. His exact words, no less.”

“You’re kidding me,” he grunted, shooting her a dark
look from under his brows. “That’s some kind of joke, right?”

A bitter laugh broke from her throat. “Trust me, I
wish it was.”

“What a prick.” The masculine look of outrage on his
beautiful face did wonders for her wounded pride. “And you actually liked this
guy?”

She rolled her lips inward as she turned her attention
to tracing the floral pattern on the comforter. “He was my slice of normal.”

“Slice of normal? What the hell’s that mean?”

Glancing up, she tried to explain. “I’m the lone human
in my family, Aiden. Chris was…well, he was where I thought I belonged. The
human boyfriend who could offer me a nice little human life. My slice of
normal.”

He pulled on a pair of boxers under his towel, then
tossed the towel onto the end of the bed. “But did you like him?”

“We seemed to have a lot in common,” she said with
another soft laugh, eyeing the discarded towel. She wanted to pull it against
her face, where she could have a deeper pull of the Watchman’s dark, alluring
scent, and she had to force herself not to act on the impulse. “And Chris and I
got along well,” she added, lifting her gaze to find him pulling a pair of
faded jeans out next. “I really wanted to like him.”

With his mouth curled in a cocky smile, Aiden gave a
sarcastic snort. “That’s a telling answer,” he drawled as he pulled on the
jeans and buttoned the fly.

“Yeah, I guess it is. But it’s the truth. His son,
Nathan, was adorable, and at first Chris seemed like the perfect guy. It wasn’t
until I caught him…” She paused, her voice trailing away as she realized what
she was doing, pouring out her heart to a guy who could easily run for the King
of the Studs. “God, I don’t even know why I’m telling you this,” she admitted
with an embarrassed laugh, hiding her face behind her hands.

“Aw, don’t be like that. I’m dying of curiosity over
here, Liv.”

Peeking at him through her fingers, she watched as he
slipped on a dark green T-shirt that did amazing things to his eyes.
“Seriously, Aiden. It’s not like you’re even interested. You’re just
being…nice.”

“Trust me,” he muttered under his breath, his
attention focused on his bag as he zipped it closed, “I’m not particularly nice
to women. And after last night, you should have figured out that you’re wrong
about the not being interested part, as well.”

Tilting her head to the side, she tried to read his
expression. “I so don’t get you.”

“What’s not to get?” he asked, shooting her a sideways
look as he grabbed his gun from its hiding place on top of the wardrobe.

“It’s just…well, I would think human women would be
boring for a man like you. Not to mention the fact that you don’t like humans
to begin with.”

Olivia wondered if she kept repeating that particular
truth as a way to remind herself to keep her head, or if she just liked the
twinge of pain it inflicted. Before she could decide on the answer, he shocked
her by saying, “Actually, I prefer them.”

Though he’d averted his gaze, Aiden could feel
Olivia’s confusion as she tried to come up with a logical reason for why he
would prefer sleeping with a species that he hated.

“I don’t understand.” Soft, nearly silent words. “Why
would you prefer them?”

“Because they’re safe,” he muttered, checking the clip
on the Glock.

“Safe?”

Rolling his shoulder, he struggled to put the truth
into words as he reached behind him and slipped the gun into the waistband of
his jeans. “They don’t get to me. Don’t make me feel anything I don’t want to
feel. They’re just…there.”

Her breath sucked in with a shaky gasp, and Aiden knew
exactly how she’d taken the telling statement. Knew she was thinking the worst
of him—that he was a user, a bastard. Which was pretty much the truth. He
wanted to say something to make her understand that she was different, but what
could he say that wouldn’t make it worse?

Better just to change the subject before he ended up
saying something he would really regret. “So this ex.” He refused to say the
prick’s name. “Didn’t he mind?”

“Uh, mind what?”

Slipping his wallet into his back pocket, he ran his
tongue over his teeth. “The fact that he couldn’t get you off.”

Her eyes went wide. “How do you know that he didn’t?”

Aiden shot her a crooked smile that felt tight on his
face. “If he had, you wouldn’t keep claiming that sex isn’t really your thing.”

She frowned, looking for a moment as if she would tell
him it was none of his damn business. But then she exhaled a soft breath of
air, her irritation seeming to bleed out as she said, “I don’t really know if
he knew, since we didn’t talk about it. But maybe…maybe that’s why he felt the
need to get his jollies elsewhere.”

“So he was an idiot as well as a prick,” he snorted,
wishing he could have just five minutes alone with the guy. That was all it
would take to repay the bastard for hurting her.

“Pretty much.” She shrugged, her eyes dark with
emotion. “But I tried to make it work. I mean, it wasn’t like I didn’t…make an
effort.”

Aiden knew exactly what she was attempting to say.
She’d tried to enjoy sex with the worthless prick, and as her soft words melted
into him, something hot and thick twisted through his insides, the powerful
sensation as foreign as it was disturbing.

That’s because for the first time in your life, you’re
actually jealous.

Whoa. Sagging back against the wall, he scrubbed his
hands down his face as he tried to wrap his mind around that stunning
realization.

Knowing this was going to spell trouble, Aiden wanted
to laugh it off as some kind of cosmic prank, but the truth was hard to deny.
And to make it even worse, he wasn’t the only one who was dealing with that
ugly green monster. No, his beast was suddenly focusing on Olivia with a
fierce, possessive purpose, its guttural voice snarling within his head that
she was his. He forced himself to look away from her, but the damage had
already been done. The provocative image of her sitting there in the midst of
all that soft white bedding, her hair tousled, cheeks still warm from the heat
of her blush, already had his dick as hard as a friggin’ spike. His gums burned
from the weight of his fangs, the animal in him more than ready to come out and
take matters into its own greedy hands.

“Aiden, are you okay?” She sounded concerned, and for
some illogical reason the idea made him even harder, the fire in his gums
growing hotter. Molten. And yet there was panic there as well, flavoring the
sharp, visceral burn of lust. He didn’t want this raging desire to mark her,
damn it. Didn’t want to be filled with savage thoughts of possession—of keeping
her and owning her forever. Of having the right to break any asshole who tried
to put their filthy hands on her. That was a bad, bad road, because in the back
of his mind burned the ugly truth that once she really clued in to what he was,
to the things he’d want from her, to the fact that he was a hell of a lot more
animal than man, she wasn’t going to be able to run fast enough.

Not to mention what her reaction would be like if she
ever learned about his past. Learned where he’d come from. What he’d done to
survive. If that didn’t have her looking at him with revulsion, nothing would.

“Seriously, say something. Please. You’re starting to
freak me out.”

Worrying his hand over his mouth, he managed to scrape
out a husky “We need to get out of here.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“You don’t want to know,” he muttered, pushing away
from the wall.

“Yes, I—”

“Just get dressed.” He threw the words over his
shoulder, sweating, shaking, knowing he had only seconds before the tiger was
out of its cage. Literally. And for the first time in years, Aiden honestly
didn’t know if he’d be able to control it. Not when her very proximity tempted
him to do the unthinkable, binding himself to a woman who would end up cutting
his goddamn heart out.

“I’ll be waiting outside,” he growled, and without
looking back, he headed for the door.

CONFUSED BY the Watchman’s strange, turbulent mood
swings, Olivia rushed through her morning routine, then threw on some jeans and
a sweater. When she left the room, she found Aiden smoking a cigarette, his
body all but vibrating with a hard, restless energy as he leaned against the
outer wall of the hotel. “I didn’t know you smoked.”

“I usually don’t,” he muttered, glaring down at the
filter pinched between his thumb and forefinger, as if he was almost surprised
to find it there in his hand. Dropping the cigarette, he ground it out with his
boot. “Come on. They’re waiting for us.”

The instant they stepped into the brightly lit
restaurant they spotted Kellan and Noah at a booth in the back corner, both men
a good half a foot taller than any of the other customers, with Jamie’s little
body wedged protectively between them. Noah sat on her right, carefully cutting
up a fluffy stack of pancakes. He was beautiful, in a dark, fallen angel kind of
way, a menacing aura of danger and violence flowing around him. But the gentle
smile on his face as he talked with Jamie assured Olivia that he wasn’t a
threat to her niece. Clearly, Jamie was already working her charm on the guys,
her face glowing as they gave her their full attention. Then Olivia realized
what Jamie was wearing, and she couldn’t hold back a choked laugh of surprise.
Looking at the gorgeous male standing at her side, she said, “I thought you
helped her pick her clothes out.”

“I did,” Aiden said defensively, sliding her a
sideways glance. “She looks adorable.”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “She looks like a pink
nightmare in that outfit.”

His eyes crinkled sexily at the corners as he looked
toward Jamie. “What’s wrong with it? Everything’s pink.”

Everything was pink, all right. Her niece was wearing
a hot-pink polka-dotted jumper with a magenta-and-periwinkle-striped shirt
underneath, topped off by a strawberry-pink hair band. “Never mind.” She
sighed, knowing he would think she was crazy if she tried to explain that just
because something was a “shade” of pink didn’t mean that it matched.

Though he was still vibing that hot, strange burn of
energy that had come over him in the hotel room, his touch was gentle as he
took her elbow and guided her across the crowded restaurant. As they neared the
booth, Kellan’s head suddenly shot up…and he lifted his nose a little higher in
the air, like an animal searching for a scent. A wicked smile slowly curled its
way across his mouth, his eyes glittering with humor as he looked at Aiden.
“Man, Ade. She really does smell tasty, doesn’t she?”

Frowning and feeling acutely self-conscious, Olivia
slid into the empty side of the booth. “Isn’t there something I can do
about…the scent?” she asked Aiden as he slid in beside her.