Shifter's Claim (The Shadow Shifters) (16 page)

Then strong hands touched her shoulders, softly at first, just the tips of fingers running rhythmically over her shoulders. Instantly, heat flowed from that point down, just like the fountain above the tub. His hands were oiled, she realized as she sighed, when they flattened on her back. His fingers gripping her shoulders, pinching nerves, uncoiling muscles, and soliciting a deep moan from her.

Now her breasts did tingle, the lips of her vagina were throbbing. His hands moved down, fingers fanning over her sides, drumming over her rib cage. She couldn’t help it, she sighed again. Then his thumbs were at the base of her spine, rotating, pressing inward until she actually gasped. Her entire body tingled, nerves on end in anticipation of his next touch.

“You ready to thank me yet?” he whispered into her ear.

If she hadn’t already experienced the rush of heat and complete shift from not-really aroused to OMG-definitely aroused, Priya might have questioned who was actually giving her the massage, at least before he spoke. But she knew who it was, knew damned well who was touching her, who was driving her crazy once again with his touch.

“No. This is a breach of contract. I’m supposed to have Dana, the highest paid massage therapist in the world. Not you,” she replied, the complaint not matching her breathless tone.

He had the audacity to chuckle, arrogant jerk. But his hands were a godsend, as he pushed past the towel to cup her buttocks, kneading each mound with tender efficiency. She wanted to rear back, to lift her hips from the table, or get up on her knees and let him inside. Priya closed her eyes then, thinking of how long it had been and how it seemed like forever since she’d really been sexually satisfied. Too damn long was apparent.

She heard the opening and closing of a tube once more, sighed as she felt the splash of warm oil slapping directly against her skin this time. His hands slid sinuously over her buttocks once more and Priya sucked in a breath. Heated spikes soared through her body, landing with sharp intensity at her clit and she silently wished for her bullet so she could find some relief.

As if he’d heard her prayer Bas’s hands slid lower down her crease, dipping inside, coming out, then going inside once more. It was a tease, her teeth gritted in response, a vicious and painful tease.

“I know how to make you thank me,” he said, his voice going deep, his fingers following to touch the tight ring of her anus.

“I do too. You can go get Dana and then get lost. Thank you very much.” Sarcasm came naturally even as erotic tingles performed a little dance at the base of her spine. He wasn’t going to touch her there, he couldn’t.

And yet he did. The pad of one finger pressing with gentle force until it breached the entrance and Priya moaned.

“Uh uh, that’s not what I’m going to do,” he replied just before pushing the sheet down a little farther.

With pleasure so intense she had to catch her breath, Priya bucked up off the table at the touch.

“Relax. If you don’t like what I do to you, I’ll run right out and get Dana. I promise.”

“Like I’m going to believe that,” she said on a soft moan and then tensed as that finger went deeper. It was a wicked sort of pleasure, a no-please-don’t and yes-don’t-stop type of enjoyment that she never imagined she’d experience.

He startled her when he stilled, his voice serious and a bit forceful. “You can trust me, Priya. If I say I’m going to do something, I’ll do it.”

Why those words meant anything to her Priya had no idea, but they did and she murmured, “I know,” before pressing back against his hand in search of the mysterious delight.

“Open for me,” he told her after a few minutes. “Let me all the way in.”

Oh, god, she was not doing this. She never imagined in her wildest dreams doing something such as this. And yet, her legs parted, her muscles relaxing as she waited, anticipated, hungered.

When his other hand slipped from her cheek, which he’d been holding securely, she sighed. His talented fingers slipped right past the first hand to plunge deep into her core and she gasped, her own fingers clenching in the pillow beneath her. Bas worked both fingers inside different entrances, simultaneously. Everything around her became a blur as she floated through the haze created by Bas’s erotic massage.

“Did you know that when you become sexually excited your pupils dilate?” he asked, pulling out of her center with one finger and pressing deeper into her anus, with another. “Not a lot so that you look like you’re frightened or possibly injured. But enough so that I know there’s a change in you. Your breathing changes, coming in shorter hitches.”

Kind of like she was doing now. Priya bit her bottom lip so hard she thought she might indeed draw blood.

“I can also smell your arousal. As the wetness coats your lips a smell so fucking sweet fills my head and I can hardly concentrate.” Two oiled fingers sank deep into her center this time, while one eased slowly from her anus. “That’s never happened to me before, Priya. I’m always in control of my mind, my body, everything.”

His words floated somewhere around her as Priya fought to hold onto her sanity while his fingers dismantled everything else about her. She needed him inside her at this moment, needed all of him, whether it be his fingers or his dick, she simply needed more than she ever had in her life. Moving, she rubbed her taut nipples against the sheets, resisting the urge to slip her hand between her legs to work her clit.

“I was always in control, until you showed up,” he continued, as he dipped the fingers from both hands inside of her once more, until it felt as if they were both rubbing against each other deep inside of her.

Her thighs shook as his name slipped from her lips, her eyes closing, opening, her body fighting for release.

Her hips bucked involuntarily and he pulled his fingers out halfway until they created a rhythm. A rhythm that was making breathing harder, talking almost impossible, and hating Sebastian Perry outrageously contradictory.

“Will you lose control with me? Will you let go and let me please you? Damn, I want to please you, Priya. I want to please every inch of you, pretty girl.”

He’d moved so that his lips were once again at her ear, his fingers deep inside of her. His tongue snaked out, licking her lobe once, then twice, until she gasped.

“Will you please just hurry?” was her response. “Goddammit, just hurry!”

He pumped her faster, licked her in long, hot strokes as he did and Priya thought she was going to explode. Instead she pressed her knees against the table, coming up slightly to increase the pressure of his strokes. She was almost there, her arms even shook now, her breath coming in deep pants as he worked her thoroughly, his tongue tracing a hot path along her skin, delving deep into her ear. She felt like Bas was completely covering her, as if she were a prized instrument and he was playing the hell out of her. She strained against the pain that rippled right along the sweet edges of impending ecstasy as she remembered who he was and why she was here. The thought was so powerful, the realization of how wrong they were and how right this felt, warring inside her like true rivals, she gasped, shaking her head and closing her eyes. Lowering her head to the pillow she waited, it was coming, that fall over the cliff of ecstasy was in sight. Just a few more strokes, just another lick of his tongue, another whisper in her ear and …

“What did you just say?”

“Where? I’ll be right there.”

What the hell? Priya turned back, wondering at Bas’s words, at the complete stilling of both his hands. He was talking to someone and it clearly was not her. His brow wrinkled, his lips stretching into a straight line as he listened, to what or who Priya had no idea. In the next instant he was pulling his hands away from her, cursing as he turned to grab a towel from the other table.

“Get dressed and go straight to my room,” he told her.

By now she was sitting up on the table, staring at him in disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about? And where are you going?” she asked, watching in complete incredulity as he moved toward the door.

“Do what I said, Priya. Go to my room and stay there until I come get you.”

He was gone then and Priya cursed like she’d only ever heard a drunken Levi Drake do before.

Chapter 14

The control room was on the level just above the bunkers, encased in cinder blocks and bulletproof steel doors on the front and around the corner on the side. Not only was a code required to obtain entrance, but there was a specially made key to fit each door. The key had been made by a shadow whose day job was as a locksmith—kudos to the shifter database that X created and routinely updated. The only persons with keys to this room were Bas, Jacques, and Syfon, the leader of the blue team.

When Bas let himself in, Jacques was already there, seated in one of the tall control chairs, staring at the many closed-circuit monitors that climbed the wall in front of him. The monitors covered every hallway in the resort and the elevators on a regular basis. There were cameras everywhere, so with a few keystrokes the view could be switched to outside a specific suite in the spa or the storage room in the kitchen. There was nothing at Perryville that Bas could not see at any moment he desired to do so. Right now, Jacques was scanning the complete perimeter, which consisted of a three-mile radius immediately surrounding the resort, as well as the extended acreage under his ownership, going deep into the forested end of the canyon. While the building itself was kitted with an electric alarm system, there was also an underground trigger system in place for the outdoor areas. Atop the roof of the main building were sniper points for five of their best trained to take a first look.

“Nothing,” Jacques replied to Bas’s yet unasked question.

“Where’s the team?” Bas continued, standing beside the seat he usually took for himself when he was there. He couldn’t sit, could barely focus as two powerful entities battled for his attention—the rogues vs. Priya.

“Five up high, four in the front, six in the back,” Jacques began, giving Bas the rundown. “Two on the humans we caught last night because I’m thinking that’s who they’re coming for.”

Bas nodded in agreement. “We took some of their drugs, their guns, and their mules.”

“And let’s not forget their blood,” Jacques added dryly. “I guess now they want it back.”

“Now that’s certainly not going to happen,” Bas added with a wry chuckle. “Let’s try to take them alive. I have a feeling this is circling back to the explosion in Rome’s zone.”

For the first time since he’d come into the room, Jacques looked away from the monitors to stare directly at Bas. “What makes you think that?”

“A man by the name of Ralph Kensington’s body was found in that building. One of Nick’s earlier reports was that Kensington was in cahoots with Robert Slakeman who owned that building and Slakeman Enterprises. Did you get a look at the serial number on one of those guns we retrieved from the tunnel?”

Jacques shook his head. “Not really, no. I was more concerned with how many there were in comparison to the small amount of drugs that had been left behind and those other two crates that I still can’t explain.”

Which was also a question that needed an answer, sooner rather than later. But more urgent was that serial number. Bas had seen that combination of numbers before.

“The serial number was UK79865 and right behind that were the initials, RSE,” Bas told him. He’d always had an eidetic memory, which totally conflicted with his laid-back, gigolo reputation. It wasn’t something he broadcasted along with other details of his life, but it came in handy, especially at times like this.

“Robert Slakeman Enterprises,” Jacques said slowly. “Arrogant bastard wants everyone to know his handiwork.”

“I’m not surprised. The UK5—the weapon’s nickname as it had been listed in those documents we found when we raided that truck Hernandez was traveling in—is Slakeman’s most coveted creation. The government didn’t want it because of its instability and Slakeman’s sky-high price,” Bas added with a frown. “So Rome’s theory of Slakeman and Kensington selling firearms to the rogues was dead-on, they’re not only expanding their army of dealers, they’re arming them pretty damn sophisticatedly as well.”

“And the expansion starts here,” Jacques muttered.

“No the hell it doesn’t,” Bas said solemnly. “The minute you get a trace on them I want to know. This is one round of questioning I plan to handle myself.” Whoever had the guts to come at Bas head-on was no mule.

Jacques was nodding, moving his body so that the chair swiveled a bit from side to side. “Where is the reporter?” he asked.

That question threw Bas for a moment since he’d been so focused on the guns, drugs, and bastard rogues and exacting a modicum of revenge. “She’s in my room where she’s going to stay, especially now that we may have company.”

“You know I don’t normally question you or what you do in your personal life,” Jacques began, letting his words drift slowly.

Bas looked at him long and hard this time, noticed the recession of his hairline just before the dreadlocks he kept bound at the base of his neck with a black band, snaked backward. He noted the concern in the corners of his eyes and the set of his shoulders, which translated to the fact the man was fully prepared to say whatever it was he wouldn’t normally say. Bas had to respect the guy for that type of honesty, and if truth be told, boldness. For all that Bas liked to dress well and live lavishly, he was a cold-blooded killer and if anybody knew that, Jacques did.

Still, the man he’d known for years continued to hold Bas’s stare as he spoke. “She’s bad news, Bas. Keeping her here is not a good idea, especially under these new circumstances. What if she sees something or hears something? Hell, she might have seen or heard something last night before you even realized she was there. And as a matter of fact, when exactly did you realize she was there?”

“Stop!” Bas snapped, not loudly, but sternly enough that Jacques’s lips clapped shut immediately. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Do you?” Jacques asked. “Because when Rome finds out he’s going to send the order to kill her. Does your plan include that?”