shoulders. The shirt she wore was huge and hung on her like a curtain. Long luxurious legs were folded together and tucked neatly. Yeah, she looked like a high school kid instead of the alluring stripper he now knew her to be.
“Seth brought your things from the club,” he said, putting her purse and the bag with her clothes and shoes in it near one of the dressers on the opposite side of the room.
“He sucks as a guard, you know,” she told him when she’d scrambled off the bed to grab her purse. “You shouldn’t have been allowed to get near that stage or me, for that matter.”
“I’m his supervisor,” he told her. He moved to his dresser, taking his cell phone from his pocket and putting it along with his keys on the surface. “And you should have stayed at Havenway.”
X had thought the same thing about Seth earlier, but after seeing the shifter already near his vehicle he realized Seth had known he was there all along. And maybe the shifter was doing just as he’d said:
“I can go back now if you’d let me out of this gray cell you’ve created for yourself.”
He turned to her then. “You think my house is a cell?”
She was reading something on her phone, her brow furrowed, and for an instant, just a quick second, X scented her fear. In the next moment it was gone; she’d squared her shoulders, put the phone on the dresser closest to her, and flipped her hair over one shoulder.
“You’re kidding, right?” She shook her head. “No, you don’t kid, nor do you laugh. Okay, yes, this is a cell. It’s cold and impersonal and clearly designed to keep people out.”
X frowned, hated that her assessment sounded damn close to the truth. “And you were named psychotherapist when?”
She shrugged. “Just an observation. So look, I’m tired. I need a shower, then I plan to sleep. How long do you plan to hold me captive this time?”
He hadn’t held her captive before. Sure, he’d locked her into a room at Rome’s house, but that was for her own safety. X could say that keeping her here tonight was for the same reason. Rogues had been to Athena’s before. X knew this for a fact, because Sabar’s savior drug was being sold there. Diamond, the stripper he’d met a few weeks ago and who’d subsequently been killed, had worked at Athena’s. She’d recognized the drug with the mysterious symbol on its package. Yet tonight, of all nights, they’d come straight to Caprise’s dressing room. Why?
That was a good enough reason to keep her here, in his house, in his bed. But if he were totally honest he’d admit that this was where he’d wanted her for quite some time. Fate had just played into his hand. Since she’d been back Caprise had become his one weakness. Sure, he’d denied that fact for the first few weeks of her return, but X wasn’t in the habit of hiding from the truth. He wasn’t in the habit of hiding at all. In fact, he hated like hell that he couldn’t go back to Athena’s and kick some Rogue ass. But for tonight he’d have to leave that to the guards.
“Take your shower then you can sleep in here.”
“You don’t like to answer questions, do you?” she said with a tilt to her head as if she were actually studying him.
He folded his arms over his chest, not trying to avoid the hardening of his dick at the sight of her long bare legs and nipples poking through the cotton of that shirt. However, he was definitely trying to keep her busy little mind off him. Because it was one thing to want Caprise in his bed, another to want her in his life. Especially that part of his life he didn’t even want to claim himself.
“You ask too many,” he snapped.
Her gaze dropped, rested on his crotch, and X felt an extra burst of arousal. She was tempting him, daring him to cross that room and fuck her again. And he could do it. He wanted desperately to do it. But he didn’t.
“Get your shower and get some sleep.”
When he was walking past her to leave the room she stopped him.
“You don’t scare me, Xavier. Your big badass routine doesn’t scare me,” she told him.
As thoughts of what he wanted to do to her played like a movie trailer in his head, X could only sigh. “It should.”
Chapter 7
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID AND I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. SEE YOU SOON.
X frowned as he read the text message that had just come through on Caprise’s phone. Because it was his nature, he picked up his own cell and punched in the number the text came from. He also emailed it to himself with a note to do a trace first thing in the morning.
The sound of water still running in the shower gave him an extra few minutes. And while X knew it was probably one of the biggest breaches a man could inflict on a woman, he looked through her purse. Among the variety of female things she also had a small handgun and a tube of Mace. As if she knew she needed to protect herself. But from whom? The person who was sending her this text, most likely.
Suddenly he wanted to know who this person was, what he or she was to Caprise, and what she’d done that they knew about. And X wanted to know right now. Putting down both phones, he left the bedroom and entered the bathroom. She hadn’t shut the door all the way, part of her I’m-not-afraid-of-you stance, he figured. So X pushed his way inside.
Through the lightly steamed glass he could see her silhouette. His body tightened. She lathered the soap in her hands then rubbed those hands up and down her arms. Her long nimble fingers scraped up her neck. She held her head back and let her hands cross her shoulders. When they came down to cover her breasts, X’s breath hitched. She was gorgeous, there was no other accurate way to describe her—even though that seemed kind of cliche.
He took a step closer, his fingers moving quickly to undo his pants. Cursing because his boots were still on, X bent quickly to untie them and kick them off. When he stood again she was facing him, her luminescent eyes staring at him through the glass. Slowly he pulled his shirt over his head, pushed his pants down, and stepped out of them.
She stepped under the showerhead then and let the water sluice over her body, rinsing the soap suds away. Knowledge that he was watching her was alive in her gaze, the fact only making X hunger more. Every inch of his body was taut with need, his dick jutting outward as if it were reaching specifically for her.
When she switched off the water X reached for the door handle. He opened it and she stepped out, coming to stand so close her nipples brushed over his chest, his dick slapping against her stomach. His hands went immediately to her neck, his thumbs rubbing along the line of her jaw.
“You’re such a tease,” he whispered.
She touched a still-wet finger to his bottom lip, rubbing along its contoured edge. “And you can’t resist me” was her soft retort.
Her body was a wanton sex machine, just humming with desire. If he put his hands between her legs at this very moment he’d bet everything he owned that her plump folds would be wet and waiting for him. He could lay her on this floor right now and fuck her brains out and she wouldn’t do a thing to stop him.
Yet her eyes, even alight with her feline heritage, said something just a little contradictory. She was studying him, watching everything he did, hearing every word he said with extra-sensitive ears, dissecting this entire situation with a formula only she was familiar with. What did she want from him? Was this all she expected? He hoped so, because it was all he had to give. Questions assailed him as her finger traced his top lip. He extended his tongue to lick the pad of her finger, and she smiled.
“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into here, Caprise. I’m not who you think I am.”
Her response was to toss her head back and chuckle. He watched long sheets of hair dripping to the floor, flowing behind her. Just as she’d said, he was unable to resist, so X lowered his head and kissed along the exposed line of her neck. When her hands slapped against his shoulders, her long nails scraped along his skin, she whispered in a husky aroused voice, “And you have no idea who I am. That makes us even.”
