Damned and Desired (8 page)

She glanced at Dante and tried to hide her concern. He had his arms crossed and had a scowl across his face. “Sakari.” She introduced Dante and Valdon.

He tried to get up and winced. “What happened?” She and Valdon helped him sit up. The tan-colored animal skin wrapped around his waist looked peculiar and sexy at the same time.

“Why are you wearing that?”

Leaning on Sakari for support, he glanced down and rubbed his face with his hand.

“Can you keep a secret?” He grinned, looking a little intoxicated.

“What kind of secret?” Sakari asked, worried. Would Valdon kill this mortal if he knew something about them? No, don’t tell us any secrets, she willed. “You never told us your name.”

“Brad.” He glanced down at his fur again, tugging on it to make sure it covered him. He smiled. ”Yeah, that would take some explaining.”

“What do you remember?” Dante asked cautiously. He flashed Sakari a warning look but she wasn’t sure why.

He looked up at the moon as if it held a clue. “I was out for a ride on my Harley and a stroll in the desert, sort of. And an animal attacked me. I think.”

“What’s a Harley?” Sakari asked.

Brad turned and stared at her. “You don’t get out much, do you?” Rubbing his head, he pushed away from Valdon and tried to walk, stumbled and fell.

Valdon turned to Dante and pointed in the direction of the portal. “Leave now.”

The firmness in his voice and his position was not to be challenged. Dante nodded and marched off into the shadows toward the portal.

Brad got up and staggered farther away. “Need to drive home,” he said, not noticing Dante leaving.

“Hey!” Sakari ran over to Brad. He was trying to climb onto his motorcycle, then realized he forgot something. “You can’t drive that thing.” He couldn’t walk straight, never mind drive a machine with only two wheels.

“Need my helmet and boots.”

“No, you’re injured. We’ll take you home. You can’t drive this thing now.”

Brad appeared to consider that for a moment, then exhaled. “I think you’re right.

But I still don’t know what you were doing out here.” He leaned on his motorcycle for support. The fight had obviously drained him but Sakari knew his strength and power would soon return.

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Damned and Desired

“We were driving back to town and saw a commotion off the side of the road,”

Valdon said. “We stopped. Must have seen the animal attack.”

“Must have,” Brad pursed his lips together. It didn’t look like he believed their story. “I think it was a coyote. Weird. There was a guy though, having sex.”

Valdon shot her a look and she quickly thrust a thought toward Brad’s mind, a sensual image of her and him lying on the sand naked with Valdon observing and jerking off. “What other guy?” she asked.

Brad rubbed his forehead and looked around. “Never mind. My mistake. And what happened to the other guy who was with you?”

“Had to leave,” Valdon said.

Brad made a face as if he didn’t like the answer but thought it better not to ask why.

Valdon glanced at her and gave her a slight nod of approval. She let out a breath of relief. Then the sparkle in Valdon eyes gave her an unmistakable message. He wanted her to seduce Brad.
Here? Now?

At least distract him more with her thoughts so he wouldn’t remember the fight with a shapeshifting coyote. She gave Valdon an understanding glance but this mortal had already proven he would remember. Her powers weren’t dependable for controlling his memory. What was different about this human?

Still she needed an offering because she’d lost so much during the incident with Austin. She had Valdon to assist her if things went bad like they had with Austin. Then she reached out with her thoughts and touched his mind. Sakari formed a clear image of her and Brad deep in the throes of passion. Right there in the middle of the desert, naked, arms and legs meshed, lips pressed together. Heated flesh pleasuring each other in wicked ways. She and Brad entangled on the ground, hands, fingers exploring, muscles tense, bodies straining. Then he was straddling her face, knees pressed in the soft sand while she eagerly took the full length of his cock into her mouth. The details of the seductive images were getting her worked up. Caught up in her own mental picture, trapped by her own bait, her pussy quivered.

She tensed. How could she possibly have sex with a man like Brad and not have an orgasm? If she had sex with him now, she didn’t know if she could stop her body from finally indulging in the senses. Look at him, she wanted to shout. Every nerve wanted to scream she was on the edge of an orgasm. She stroked across his chest in slow, rhythmic arcs, moving lower, sliding beneath the fur to grasp his engorged cock.

All this was just in her mind and apparently in Brad’s too. Beneath the leopard fur was a sign of his arousal. He gripped the seat of the motorcycle and stared over his shoulder at her with a lustful but confused look.

Moisture dampened her panties with the seduction of this Kithra. Engaged in her imagination, Brad’s hand spread her thighs, lubricated his fingers with her fluids and worked her clit, making it plump and harden. A whimper escaped her lips and she tried to cover it by clearing her throat.

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Kathy Kulig

He locked eyes with her, like a predator ready to pounce.
Who was the predator here?

She didn’t care that Valdon was there, he could watch. She didn’t give a damn. She would take Brad now. His pleasure, not hers, was what she had to focus on.

But her clit throbbed and her pussy muscles clenched, begging for attention. How did this seduction of a Kithra get so out of control so quickly? She didn’t care. She’d have him here, right now. Her hands went to the hem of her shirt. Valdon placed his hand over hers to stop her and continued to walk toward Brad.

Sakari let her shirt fall back into place. Instead she tried to shake off the lust pulsing through her veins.
God, she wanted him and wanted him bad.

Looking pleased, Valdon approached Brad and grabbed his arm. “Come on, I’ll help you. The car’s over here.”

Damn him
. Valdon interrupted just as she had Brad fully tuned to her. She approached Valdon. “Why did you stop me?” she asked.

“You were getting out of control and we need to get away from the portal.” Hell, she could’ve handled it once she got going. And she would’ve enjoyed it too. Maybe too much.

Brad glanced over at Sakari. The lustful look he gave her also let her know her thoughts had reached him. “Wait. I have clothes with me.” He retrieved his boots from under the sage bush, and his clothes and helmet from the bike.

“Bring the clothes. We should go,” Valdon said. They helped Brad into the red Mustang.

When they got to the car, Sakari realized she was about to lose control again. She opened the back door and helped Brad in. She glanced at Valdon. “He’s in no condition to be my Kithra tonight,” she whispered. She told him she was terrified to take this one as her Kithra because she was immensely attracted to him.

“This one has plenty of chi. Once you get home, try again. If you can safely obtain chi from this one, you’ll be able to handle anyone. Here’s your first test.”

Worried that she couldn’t control herself, she planted her hands on her hips. “But he’s injured—“

“He’s practice. And you need a better offering.”

“I’ll practice on a mortal who’s not semiconscious.”

“You’ll be fine as long as you don’t let it get personal.”

“I’ll do the demoness’s bidding.” But she didn’t like it. Sakari understood why, the more she looked at Brad. She was more attracted to him than any mortal she’d known since she had been on Earth. This was a situation she hadn’t thought she’d have to deal with.

“Get in.” Valdon opened the back door for her. She shot him a scathing look before getting in beside her next Kithra.

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Damned and Desired

Brad got into the backseat of the car, praying the woman wouldn’t change her mind about giving him a ride home. His head was spinning and his body weak. She got in next to him which surprised him. The guy called Valdon drove. Frankly, he was surprised that she was letting him, a stranger, a naked stranger in a leopard fur, get into her car. Then again, she did have the bodyguard friend with her. “I appreciate the lift. I suppose you want me to explain this. I had clothes with me. I should’ve put them on first.”

Valdon held them up. “We got them.”

He adjusted the fur so it covered all the vital body parts. No need to scare the girl.

Especially since the sight of her was giving him a bit of a hard-on. His sexual fantasies were out of control. He had sex on the brain.

“You’d only have gotten blood on them,” Valdon said. “You can have someone drive you back tomorrow to get your bike.”

“Right.” That sounded logical. Didn’t it? Brad shook his head, hoping the grogginess would pass.

“Can you give us the directions to your house?”

“Drive back to Sedona and I’ll direct you as we get closer.” Brad rested his head on the back of the seat and half closed his eyes, watching from beneath his lashes.

The car drove along the empty highway. The whole situation seemed too
Twilight
Zone
for him, or maybe he had a concussion.

No emotion. No awkwardness, no suspicions from picking up a stranger in the middle of the desert in the early hours of the morning.
What do you make of that?

Something wasn’t right with his beautiful companion and their chauffer and he was going to find out what it was.

“Where’d you get the fur? Are there leopards in the desert?” Sakari asked.

Brad raised an eyebrow. Leopards in the Arizona desert? He laughed, thinking she was joking—she wasn’t. He stopped laughing and wondered if he was in trouble.

“Where are you guys from?”

They didn’t answer right away. Then she said, “I live in Sedona.”

“You’re accent isn’t Midwestern.”

“No, it’s not.” The finality of her response prevented him from pushing the issue.

Being rude could get him dumped out on the highway.

He caught the scent of her skin, soap with a citrus smell, and also of her arousal.

His animal senses were still acute. Maybe that was why he kept thinking about having 45

Kathy Kulig

sex with her. He wasn’t normally a sex maniac, not any more than the average guy.

After a shifting he retained some of his animal senses, including animal sex drive, for several hours.

Then his mind drifted to thoughts about spreading her legs and lapping her cream while he buried a finger or two into her slick pussy. God, she was turning him on. His cock stirred and swelled.

Easy soldier. Keep your mind off sex. What the hell is wrong with me?
“The leopard pelt belonged to my father.” He stared out the window remembering the first time he put the skin on. He was only eleven. His mother did not allow Brad or his younger brother Jake to watch their father’s transformation or to attempt their own shift. The Norwegian anomaly had terrified her. Brad always wondered if she’d found out about his father’s abilities before or after they were married.

His father noticed that Brad seemed drawn to the leopard fur and had told him that one day he would give that skin to him. The shapeshifting abilities of
Eigi Einhamr
descendants developed around the time of puberty. Brad’s mother probably hoped that her sons had not received the rare Norwegian gene. Brad and his brother rarely saw their father shift into his favored animal form—the wolf—because their mother was so freaked out by it. Jake was the one who snuck out of bed and saw their father shift into wolf form and also saw him shot by a hunter. His brother never accepted this gift as Brad had and they grew apart after their father was killed.

“Was your father a hunter? Did he kill that leopard?” she asked, as they continued down the road, picking up speed.

He didn’t understand why she wanted to know so much about the fur. His mind was foggy and he couldn’t stay focused. Not good. “No, my father wasn’t a hunter. He was killed by a hunter in a hunting accident.”

“How did that happen?”

“An illegal hunter at night thought my father was an animal.”

“I’m sorry.” She winced. “What do you do in Sedona?”

“I work as a physician’s assistant at the Hilltop Health Clinic. What about you?” He paused for a moment to see her reaction. Would she finally reveal something about herself?

She sighed. “I bartend, waitress.”

He nodded. Valdon didn’t offer any information about what he did and Brad didn’t ask. It still didn’t give him a clue as to why she and her friend were out in the middle of the desert at this hour. Just driving by? He didn’t believe that for a second. Well past midnight, there wasn’t a soul out on the road. His instincts told him to keep his guard up. He’d been taught that innocent looking people could be the most deadly. “You okay?” he asked her. His voice low so that maybe the big guy wouldn’t hear.

“Sure. I’m fine.” She glanced at him, looking down at his groin area covered in fur.

“Really fine.”

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Damned and Desired

“Good. Turn here.” He pointed to his street. Valdon made the turn and drove up the winding road, past single story houses. Most of the houses on this street were adobe style with white stucco and red barrel tiled roofs.

Glancing sideways at her, Brad’s focus drifted down to her breasts for an instant.

He rubbed his head with his hand. Looking out the front window, he pointed. “This is me on the right.”

When they pulled up in front of his white stucco ranch house, Brad got out and balanced against the car. “Thank you. I really appreciate your help.” He hated leaving his bike out there but they were right, he was in no condition to drive. He started staggering to his door, when Sakari and Valdon hopped out of the car carrying his helmet and clothes.

He saw Valdon glaring at the woman, giving her some silent message.

Before he had a chance to consider what had passed between them, Brad’s thoughts shifted to images of him drawing her across his lap, his warm mouth pressing to hers in a kiss that had them clinging to each other.