Savage Hunger: Savage, Book 1 (5 page)

His gaze returned to the bed, easily big enough for the two of them. But something told him the temptation that would represent was dangerous. Lying next to her, feeling her, smelling her…shit, maybe he
should
just take the floor.

Sienna stepped into the room and glanced around with a critical eye. “This is my room?”

He opened his mouth to inform her they’d be sharing, but changed his mind. She’d figure it out soon enough. Besides, better not get her all pissed off and then leave, who knew what he’d come back to?

Crossing the room to the dresser, he pulled out one of the drawers. “Go ahead and get yourself settled in. Here’s a T-shirt you can throw on for bed. Unless you want to sleep in that dress.”

She made no effort to catch the shirt he tossed at her.

“You have clothes here?” she asked skeptically.

“Not mine personally. All our safe houses are stocked with them. We need to be prepared to stay for awhile.” He shut the drawer. “There are also some packages of underwear in there. Not exactly the silk and lace type of stuff, but I bet you can pull it off.”

Sienna’s face reddened and the glare she turned on him should’ve had the effect of a cold shower. Instead he found himself getting hard. Dammit, what was it about her that turned him on? She could be scrubbing toilets and he’d find it sexy.
And this is why you’ve stayed away from her for the past six years.

“When are you going to tell me more about you guys?” she asked as she tucked back a strand of hair that had fallen free.

Before he could answer, his gaze caught on the flash of silver. He stepped forward and pulled her hand forward, circling her wrist with his fingers and touching the thin bracelet that lay there.

His chest tightened and he frowned, lifting his gaze to hers again. “You still have this?”

A pretty flush filled Sienna’s cheeks and her mouth tightened. “It went with the dress.” She tugged her wrist away and cleared her throat. “You didn’t answer my question.”

All thoughts of the bracelet and what it symbolized abandoned his mind and he bit back a sigh. “No, I didn’t and I don’t have time now. We’ll talk later.”

“Wow, that sounds a bit like déjà vu,” she mocked, her fists clenching and her mouth tightening. “How much later? I’ve been dragged to a safe house by men dressed up like G.I. Joe on crack. I mean, come on already, Warrick. I think I deserve an explanation.”

“You’ll get an explanation later, Sienna. And then I’ll get mine,” he warned her but felt no triumph when her face lost color at his warning. Turning he headed toward the door. “Because you
will
explain to me just how the hell you’re involved with this goddamned mess.”

Chapter Four

The door closed shut with a firm thud, the sound making her flinch as it sealed her fate.

Sienna licked her lips, her heart still pounding from everything that had happened in the last few hours. It was almost too much to take in. She shouldn’t be here—couldn’t. Dammit, there was a ticking clock!

She’d planned to pay cash for a flight to Boston in the next few hours, not be stranded in some random safe house with a bunch of federal agents who worked for the shifters. If Warrick had been telling the truth and that’s really who they were…

A shiver ran through her body and she wrapped her arms around her stomach, letting her gaze drift around the room.

God, she couldn’t have predicted this yesterday. Any of it. The crazy existence of beings that could shift between wolf and human, or that Warrick would be back in her life and just as enticing as before. He still made her knees weak and her pulse go wacky.

She had to try and escape, but even if she broke the only window in the room and hopped through it, where the heck would she go? They were literally in the middle of nowhere. She wasn’t even quite sure what city they were nearest to, only that it smelled like cows and country.

Not to mention the fact that she would be lucky to get a quarter of a mile before Warrick caught up with her again. The guy had always seemed to be one step ahead of her, even when they were kids. Playing tag had always been a big joke—she’d be lucky to get a few inches ahead. And he’d always found her during hide and seek, swearing he could smell the cookies on her breath a mile away.

Sienna sighed and walked to the small bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. A gurgle of disbelief fled her throat at her reflection. “My God.”

Scowling, she washed her face clean of smudged eyeliner and mascara, then the rest of her makeup. She plucked the few remaining pins from her hair and shook free the few tendrils that still lingered in the chignon.

Then she finger combed the strands and scowled, almost wishing for her brush. But then that would look like she was trying and, dammit all, she did
not
want to give Warrick the impression that she was trying to look good for him.

And she’d actually thought he’d been about to kiss her? Ha! Then again, six years ago she’d probably looked worse than this and it certainly hadn’t deterred Warrick that night…

The image in the mirror morphed into a younger, eighteen-year-old version of herself. So naïve and so completely in love with her older brother’s best friend.

She gripped the counter as pain stabbed her chest, and bit her lip to control the memory that threatened.
No.
No
, she couldn’t think about that night. Images flitted through her head. One after another in rapid-fire succession.

Desperately she tried to block them, think of something else, but it was already too late…

“Prom was invented by the devil,” Sienna muttered, clutching the edge of her fluffy pink prom dress as she stumbled down the darkened road in high heels.

Her tears had long since dried up, leaving what she was sure were unflattering streaks of mascara down her face. She knew she should still be afraid—out walking the highway alone after midnight—but right now, she was just a little too pissed off and shaken.

When she’d asked Dayle to go to prom, she couldn’t have predicted this. But then maybe she should have, seeing as what had just happened in his car fifteen minutes ago.

Headlights bounced on the road up ahead and she stiffened, hoping it wasn’t Dayle coming back to pick her up. When she’d climbed out of his car, she’d been pretty sure he’d gotten the message about her removing his genitals with pliers if he tried to follow her.

The car slowed and she muttered a curse when it swerved to the side of the road in front of her, spraying gravel just inches from her feet.

The fear from earlier resurfaced, tightening her throat as she stumbled backward. He
had
come back.

A door slammed and a tall figure strode swiftly toward her. “Sienna?” a male voice said sharply.

Relief rocketed through her so swiftly that her limbs went weak and tears filled her eyes. No. Definitely not her groping bastard of a date.

“Warrick,” she choked out, as her older brother’s best friend reached for her. “How did you find me?”

“Sheer luck.” Warrick’s arms went around her, pulling her head against his chest and her into a snug, warm embrace.

The fear slipped away, leaving an absolute certainty that she was safe now. She was always safe with Warrick.

“Jesus, are you okay, Sienna? What’s going on? Why the
hell
are you out walking alone on a deserted road? It’s almost one in the morning.”

Tears spilled down her cheek as she shook her head. “I am so
not
okay. And I’m out walking alone because my date had his own perverted version of a post-prom party.”

A savage growl erupted from Warrick’s throat, and Sienna blinked, her pulse quickening as she unconsciously pulled away from the fury in his gaze.

Warrick tightened his arms around her, demanding, “Did he touch you? Hurt you?”

“N-not really. But
you’re
kind of scaring me, Warrick.”

In the beam of his car’s headlights, his eyes took on a dangerous glint. “Shit. I’m sorry, Sienna,” he muttered. “Come on, let’s get you into my truck.”

She stumbled to keep up with him as he rushed her back to his waiting vehicle. He helped her inside and then shut the door, walking around to his side.

Though it was almost June, the night walk had chilled her and Sienna flipped on the heat, letting the hot air and the Foo Fighters song that was playing distract her from her dark thoughts.

Warrick climbed in the driver’s side and shut the door, but made no move to drive.

“Were you drinking?”

Guilt sent a flush to her face, but because she trusted him enough to keep it to himself, she admitted the truth. “I had a couple beers earlier.”

His jaw clenched, then unclenched. She could tell he wasn’t pleased. “You’re underage,” he reminded her, sounding like her father instead of a friend.

“Everyone was drinking, Warrick. Chill.” She tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

He caught her wrist suddenly and frowned. “You’re wearing it.”

Her heart thumped harder as she stared down at the delicate silver bracelet with the tiny moon charm that he’d given her for her sixteenth birthday. Funny he’d spotted the bracelet in the darkness of the truck.

“I love it, Warrick,” she finally said. “I rarely take it off.”

A faint smile flickered across his mouth, before it tightened into a slash. “Tell me what happened at the prom, Sienna.”

She swallowed hard and looked away. “It doesn’t matter.”

He shifted in his seat, stretching his arm over the back of the bench seat. She felt the heat of his hand near her bare shoulder. “Like hell it doesn’t. Now talk.”

She glanced up at him through her lashes. When had she stopped thinking of him as her brother’s best friend, and instead as the hot guy who came by the house? It had to be close to a year now. And each time he’d come by, she’d prayed her new crush wasn’t blatantly obvious.

She didn’t want to admit to him the humiliating details of what had happened tonight. She wanted to seem mature and confident, not a naïve little high schooler. Warrick was almost out of college now, a grown man. How was she going to convince him they could be perfect together if he just saw her as an annoying teenager?

“Sienna?” his tone sharpened.

“My prom date figured since he paid for dinner I should put out.” Her cheeks burned with humiliation as she finally made the confession. “I told him no. He didn’t seem to like my answer…so I left.”

Warrick’s jaw flexed. “What happened between him not liking your answer and you leaving?”

Sienna unconsciously rubbed her bare shoulder and shrugged. “Nothing. I got up and left.”

Warrick’s gaze followed the movement of her hands, and he flicked on the overhead light. She bit her lip, realizing her mistake as he pulled her hand away to observe bruises left behind from Dayle’s fingers.

“That’s nothing?” Warrick ground out violently and reached to start the engine. “I’ll kill the bastard.”

“Stop, Warrick!” she pleaded, fresh tears flooding her eyes as she grabbed his wrist. “It’s partly my fault. I knew he had a reputation and I asked him to be my date anyway.”

He turned off the car and moved to face her again. “Why would you ask someone like that to prom, Sienna?”

“Because I knew you’d turn me down.”
Shit
. She hadn’t meant to say that aloud.

Sienna held her breath, waiting for him to laugh or a majorly awkward silence to ensue.

But it didn’t come. Her pulse tripped as she watched his gaze darken and his nostrils flare slightly.

“Don’t say things like that, Sienna.” His words came low and unsteady.

Whoa, maybe this little attraction thing wasn’t one sided. Encouraged, she sidled across the seat of the truck, closing the distance between them as she moved her hand up his arm to touch his bicep.

“Why can’t I say it?” she asked softly. “Is it so wrong to admit I’ve been wanting to kiss you since New Year’s Eve? That when I watched you kissing Rachel Wilson, I wanted it to be me? That every time I see you with a different girl—and there are a lot of them—it makes my stomach hurt.”

“Stop, Sienna,” he muttered, shaking his head. “You’re Daniel’s little sister.”

She thought he was about to push her away as he reached a hand toward her, but then his strong fingers closed around the back of her neck and her skin tingled to life.

Running her tongue over her bottom lip, she threw caution to the wind and risked everything. Including her heart. “Make me, Warrick.”

Conflicting emotions flickered in his gaze. Hot wanting and reluctance. But it was clear which one won out when he dragged her forward with a thick, “Damn you.”

His mouth crushed down on hers, hard and demanding, with no schoolboy hesitancy. Her lips parted on a whimper to accept the dominating sweep of his tongue, and she had her first thought that maybe she was playing with fire.

Everything around her spun and her world narrowed to just the two of them. She didn’t care that she was in over her head. This was Warrick and the moment she’d been dreaming of. She kissed him back, learning from the sensual rasp of his tongue against hers.