A Conquest Like No Other (2 page)

Chapter
Two

The club below the hotel was
packed. The usual excited energy that always swamped Viper when he entered the
expansive area had his need rising. It was the promise of many orgasms at the
hands of his chosen partner for the night.

His eyes scanned the club, his
fae
powers allowing him to see better in the dimly lit
room. He was looking for someone in need of his company. While many would
consider him a man whore because of his need for a different woman each night,
he still had standards. He never approached a woman who was already in the
company of a man, and he always asked the women if they had a partner waiting
for them at home. Again his
fae
magic allowed him to
pick up their lies.

The first sweep of the club had
his previously hard cock deflating. The warm pussy it stood erect for was
absent. His body had spoken, ignoring his mind’s stubbornness. Nikki was the
only woman his body wanted to sink into. No other woman would do. And that
pissed him off to no end.

Though Viper should have known
this would happen. He’d seen it with Devil after he met Gabby. His brother’s
mind hadn’t realized that Gabby Winters was his mate, but his body had. Before
even understanding the importance of Gabby to his future, Devil had been unable
to look at another woman without comparing her to Gabby. He had then later
warned Viper that once he met his mate she would be the only woman able to
fulfill his needs. Viper hadn’t believed him at the time. His mindset refused to
allow any woman that sort of power over his life and body’s desires again. It
would seem he would be eating his words after all.

As if to highlight the point,
Viper felt a hand on his shoulder just before a body pressed into his. He
fought hard against the need to step away. Instead he forced himself to
concentrate on what she was saying. “Hi, handsome. I was hoping I would see you
here tonight.”

Looking down at the woman he had
bed only a few weeks ago with her best friend, Viper was shocked by what he saw.
The woman he’d previously seen as gorgeous and sexy, now appeared plain. Her
blonde hair was as fake as her breasts, and her aura, while proudly displaying
her desires, made his skin crawl and his own aura recoil.

“Not tonight,” he dismissed.
Pulling himself away from her touch, he added, “In fact, not any other night.
I’ve met someone.”

Disappointment swam in her eyes,
but thankfully she accepted his excuse. “Well tell her she’s a lucky girl. And
if things don’t work out, I’ll be around.”

Not bothering with a response,
Viper walked off in search of a stiff drink. He was one pissed
fae
. The outcome of tonight’s outing hadn’t been to his
liking. Not only had his mate outwardly rejected him, but the one thing that
had never let him down had betrayed him. His cock had never denied him his
pleasure, but now it would seem that, like the fates, it too was going to limit
his pleasure to one woman.

Whiskey in hand, Viper made his
way toward the VIP area. He and his brothers had a table permanently reserved
there, and that was where he found two of his brothers, Judge and Chaos.

“Where’s Nikki?” Judge asked
after Viper had taken his seat. While his concern for Viper’s mate was as a
friend, it had Viper’s back up.

“She’s at home,” he snapped. “But
you don’t have to worry about her. That’s my job.”

“You left her alone in her house
after she was kidnapped and threatened?” Judge demanded, standing from his
seat. “Are you that desperate to cling to your playboy ways that you have no
regard for your mate’s safety?”

While he couldn’t deny some of
the mountain lion’s accusations, Viper wouldn’t sit by and be accused of not
taking care of his mate. “For your information, cat, the only reason I abided
by her request to take her home was the fear she carried in her eyes,” Viper
spat, ignoring the fact that the words he’d just spoken were not completely
true. He needed her to leave as much as she wanted to. If only for him to
realize exactly what she was to him. “As for her being left alone, she’s far
from it. Though it’s none of your business, I have a car parked outside her
house, as well as one on either end of the street. No one will be getting near
my mate!”

“Calm down, both of you,” Chaos
cajoled. “Viper, Judge is only concerned for Nikki’s well-being. His worry is
borne out of friendship.”

“Don’t bother, Chaos. You saw as
well as I did where Nikki stands in the
fae’s
eyes,”
Judge stated, staring down at Viper before taking his seat again. “We both saw
you scoping out the women as you walked in. Don’t bother trying to deny it.”

Viper looked over at his friend
and brother. He saw the disgust in his green eyes. It wasn’t unwarranted,
either. Viper had been trying to deny his future with Nikki and continue on
with his playboy ways. Everyone at the table knew it to be true.

“You’re right, Judge,” Viper
conceded, leaning forward on the table. “I was pissed at the fates for giving
me another mate. I still am. You both know what happened with Maya. I never
want to experience that again. So, yes, I would like to hold on to the idea of
taking a different female to bed each night rather than having to commit to one
person again. But it seems that no one but Nikki will do.”

“Viper, I’m never going to claim
to know what it’s like to lose a mate, but for someone who has known of his
mate for ten years, I can tell you the more you fight the mating bond the
harder it will become for both of you.”

“How have you done it? Knowing
who your mate is but not claiming her.” Judge voiced the one question the three
brothers had been desperate to ask Chaos.

“It’s been hard, but thankfully
my body and mind are in agreement. When I first met her, she was too young and
innocent for my dominant ways. As I’ve watched her over the years, I still have
concerns about my size. I have the same blood the Greek Titans carried, only
older. I’m huge by anyone’s standards, and to say that my mate is small would
be an understatement,” Chaos explained, divulging a little more information
about his mysterious mate. “My body and mind carry the same worry, making
withstanding the mating bond a little easier. But they aren’t in agreement for
you, are they, Viper?”

“No,” he said truthfully to the
only people he could admit such things to. “My body only wants Nikki, while my
mind is stubbornly refusing to accept the fates’ offering.”

“Then you need to stay away from
her until your whole body’s on the same page,” Judge stated. His gaze met
Viper’s, challenging him to argue. When Viper said nothing, Judge continued,
“She needs strength and unmoving commitment. She’s been through too much to
have a mate demanding her loyalty when he’s unwilling to give her his.”

“You know what happened in
Nikki’s past, don’t you?” Viper demanded.

Judge nodded. “Yes, I did a
little digging after Gabby confirmed that Nikki was hurt by a man. It’s not a
pretty read, and unfortunately the guy is protected by prison walls.”

“I want to read the file,” Viper
pressed.

“Not until your head and body are
in agreement,” Judge stipulated. “I won’t have you going to her and claiming
her out of a false sense of duty. We all saw how that nearly ruined Gabby and
Devil. I won’t let that happen to two more of my friends.”

Viper may not have liked his
brother’s imposed conditions, but he could concede that he didn’t want to go
through what Devil and Gabby had. Or for Nikki to be hurt like Gabby had before
Devil came to his senses.

Devil had claimed Gabby but
refused to give anything of himself to her. In Devil’s mind, she was his mate
and that was all there was to it. She just had to accept it and him. There was
no two ways about it. It took Gabby being kidnapped for his brother to realize
exactly how much she meant to him.

Viper knew he already had a whole
set of restrictions placed upon his relationship with Nikki, without his own
sense of preservation. She’d been hurt by a man before and therefore lacked the
trust in the opposite sex to be open to building a relationship with him. He
had to be stronger than his fears so he could help Nikki through hers.

With this realization came a
sense of peace. It also carried anger at the hurt Nikki had endured at the
hands of this unknown male. Viper’s hands itched to wrap around the man’s neck
and erase him from his mate’s life. But as Judge had already pointed out, the
man was in jail. So instead he would have to concentrate on building his mate’s
trust in him, as well as her own sense of well-being. But first he needed to
ensure that his whole being was on the same page.

****

As soon as Nikki walked into the
ER she was approached by the head nurse on duty, Sharon. “How are you feeling?
You’re still quite pale,” she assessed.

“My head still hurts slightly but
nothing I can’t manage,” Nikki replied, trying to ease her friend’s concerns.

She had taken the previous day
off, as suggested by Viper. Her head hurt, so she hadn’t told a complete lie
when she called in to the hospital and claimed to be suffering a migraine. As
for the pain now being slight, well, that was an outright lie. Her head
pounded, but she couldn’t stay at home for another day with nothing to do
except think.

“Well, I’m glad you’re back and
just in time to hear some good news,” Sharon said, pulling Nikki from her
wayward thoughts. “They’ve made a decision about the pediatric position.”

That had Nikki’s full attention.
A couple of months ago, a nursing position opened up in the pediatric ward. It
was a role Nikki had wanted to fill for years now. She’d finally worked up
enough courage to ask Sharon for a recommendation. But she wasn’t alone in this
pursuit. At least two of her other nurse friends were going for the same
position. Both, like Nikki, had gained an interview. Nikki knew she would be
happy for either of her colleagues to get the job. She just really hoped that
it was her.

“Come on, then, Sharon, don’t
keep me in suspense. Who got the job?”

****

A week later, Nikki was still
walking on air. The happiness she felt about her new role was evident for all
to see. It carried over to her home life as well. Usually when she was alone
with her thoughts they would return to her attack, which often resulted in her jumping
at her own shadow. Her nights were generally filled with nightmares as she
relived each punch of Paul’s fists and slice of the knife over and over again.

But Paul no longer starred in her
dreams. In place of the usual fear swamping her, pushing her further into
darkness, she was seeing a light. A light that lit every corner of her mind.
And she knew who was responsible for it…she just wasn’t sure how she felt about
it. Instead of waking in a sweaty mess brought on by panic, she now woke hot
and on edge, her body reaching for something she wasn’t sure was within her
power to provide.

A man she knew only by his first
name had managed the impossible and scared all her demons away. Her dreams,
instead of filling her with terror, were filled with sexual heat. The kind she
had read about rather than experienced. In her dreams, he made her feel
sensual, like a woman who deserved everything he was offering. He obliterated
her nightmares, replacing them with erotic images. When she was at home, he
consumed her thoughts, making her feel less alone and safer in her own skin.
This man, who she had only met once, managed to vanquish her fears without
being physically present.

Forcing her mind back to her job,
she walked into her last patient’s room. “How are we feeling today, Emily?”

“She’s a bit sad, Nurse Nikki,”
the girl’s mother, Charli, replied for the girl who wore her upset for all to
see.

“Why? What’s happened to put that
look upon your beautiful face?” she asked the six-year-old.

“Both her Nintendo and iPad need
charging, and silly me, I forgot to bring in the chargers,” Charli again
responded to her question.

“Is that all?” Nikki smiled. “I
know a boy just down the hall who has his Nintendo charger. I bet you he would
allow you to borrow it. Plus I keep a charger for my iPhone here at the
hospital, which I’m more than happy to lend you. But it will cost you.”

“Really? What do I have to do?”
Emily asked, showing some interest in life for the first time since Nikki had
walked into the room.

Looking at the girl’s mother, she
said, “What do you think, Charli? Will one of her pretty smiles do?”

“I think that would do just
nicely,” Charli said before standing and gently tickling Emily. “Do you think
you have one hiding in there somewhere?”

The girl’s giggle was music to
Nikki’s ears. She’d grown attached to Emily in the two days she had been in
hospital. The poor thing suffered severely from seizures, gaining her a
diagnosis of epilepsy. Since being admitted, Emily had had three seizures that
Nikki knew of. The doctors were trying desperately to tweak her medication in
the hope that they could offer Emily some semblance of a normal life. Charli
had her own set of hopes. As a child, she too had suffered as Emily did. By her
twenties, the seizures had stopped. This was her dream for her daughter.