Lifemate Connections: Eryn

His voice was a harsh croak, so different from the warm richness of the voice that flowed through her mind.

She glanced at the guard, eyebrow raised. 'Do you think I'm kidding?'

'I think you're capable of anything.' He settled back against the wall, arms crossed and obviously ready to enjoy the show. 'And I don't believe you gave him permission to speak.'

'You are so right.' She returned her gaze to Grey. 'He needs to be punished.'

'Do your damnedest,' Grey said flatly, his eyes gleaming with cheeky challenge.

You'll regret that. It's just a shame I have to hurry. She ran the whip up and down his cock. 'I could strike this until to you bleed, but that would lessen my fun and shorten proceedings a little too much. Perhaps, then, I should try a gentler form of punishment.'

'Perhaps you should,' the guard agreed eagerly. 'Make him experience pleasure, then make him watch someone else achieving the pinnacle he is denied.'

Now there's a self-serving suggestion if ever I've heard one. She looked back at Grey. 'That's sounds like an excellent idea.'

His amusement flooded her mind. As long as you promise me the pinnacle later, he said, I can endure a long foreplay.

Done deal. She dropped to her knees and took him in her mouth, moving him up and down as she turned to the guard and held his gaze. His nostrils flared, and his breathing quickened, as he undoubtedly imagined her doing the same to him. Arousal and desire stung the air, so thick every breath was filled with it.

As the salty taste of Grey's semen began to touch her taste buds, she withdrew and rose. 'You,' she said, pointing the whip at the guard. 'Come here.'

She'd never seen anyone move so fast. 'Kneel,' she demanded, as he drew close.

He dropped to his knees, his eyes glowing fiercely as he stared up at her expectantly.

'Do not look at me,' she added, flicking the whip across his cheek.

He looked down. She reached back for the Taser, and added, 'Release yourself.'

His thick groan was accompanied by the sound of a zipper being pulled down.

You men are all the same, she said to Grey. Put the little head in control, and common sense flies out the window.

Well, in this case it's understandable. You look like every man's vision of paradise.

She couldn't help smiling. Thanks. And I think I'll use that.

Feel free.

So she did. 'Prepare to enter paradise,' she said to the guard, then reached forward, tasering him unconscious.

'Guard number two down. It's safe to come in, Jack.'

She turned once again to Grey, her gaze skating across his body, taking in all the damage she really hadn't allowed herself to fully see.

She touched a hand to the deep cut across his stomach—

one of many that decorated not only his stomach, but his chest, arms and legs. They'd all stopped bleeding, but the bruising underneath was just beginning to come out. Shifter or not, he'd be sore for days. 'God, you really do look like shit.'

Chain rattled as he tried to reach out and touch her. But the chains pulled him up short and he hissed in frustration.

'Damn it, all I want to do is fold you in my arms and hold onto you, and that's the one thing I can't do right now.'

'Jack, bring bolt cutters with you.' She rose up on her toes and brushed a kiss across lips that looked swollen and sore.

'What did she—he—do to you?'

He grimaced. 'She took what I once denied her.'

She touched a hand to his cheek, staring into the ethereal beauty of his eyes, seeing anger and something else, something that gave her heart wings. It was recognition of fate. Surrender to what was yet to be explored. 'I don't understand.'

'Nor should you, because not a lot is known about face shifters.' He hesitated, taking a deep breath. 'For a start, not all of us are fertile. Of the twenty that I work with, less than half the men have the ability to father children, and less than a quarter of the women. I'm fertile, as is Marcia. But the females of our race have an additional restriction—they can only get pregnant with another face shifter.'

'And Marcia wanted you to father her child.'

He nodded. 'I told her I would not waste my seed on someone like her.'

'You said that, knowing how unstable she was?'

'Yeah.' He shrugged. 'She wanted the truth, she got it.

She's hated me ever since.'

'Did she try the other fertile men?'

'Yes. And got much the same response.'

'So why fixate her hate on you?'

'Because I was her first rejection, and up until that moment, I'd been pleasant to her. She probably believed I liked her.'

'So this—' She indicated the chains and his spread eagle position. 'Was a way of taking advantage of you? To try and force conception?'

He nodded. 'She drugged me and took your form. I couldn't help reacting.'

She frowned. 'How did she even know about us?'

'She was at the bar when we met.' He hesitated. 'You remember seeing a striking blonde holding court in the corner?'

She nodded. That was where she'd forced an introduction with Harrison. No wonder she'd caught that brief scent of death—she'd been standing mere feet away from the murderer!

'That was one of her forms. She said she also wore her true form.'

Which was the dark-haired woman she'd seen in the corner booth. 'I saw her talking to the last victim that night, but made the connection far too late.' She hesitated. 'How did she catch you?'

'She came to my hotel as you.'

'How? I never touched her.'

'It only has to be the lightest of touches. You probably wouldn't have even noticed.'

'But you knew I was drugged.'

'Yeah, but I also know that the drug can effect every shifter breed differently. I thought you'd overcome the effects and had come to give me hell.' He shrugged ruefully. 'As you said, when a naked woman steps into the room, the little head takes control and common sense flies out the window.'

The sound of footsteps began to rattle across the concrete in the other rooms. She smiled and dropped another gentle kiss on his lips. 'When this is all over, remind me to kiss the rest of your bruises better.'

'When this is all over, you're going to finish what you started here,' he said, dropping his gaze to his fading erection.

'Gladly,' she said. 'But first, let's go catch that mad hermaphrodite.'

* * *

Eryn accepted the coat Jack handed her with a grunt of thanks. The night air had gone from merely bitter to freezing, and even though she already wore one coat, it just wasn't enough. Especially now that Grey's warmth no longer pressed into her back.

Her gaze roamed across the night, searching for some sign of Grey. He'd left a few minutes ago to get into position, and had disappeared into the shadows as easily as a vampire.

Obviously, there was a lot more to face shifters than anyone knew. But he'd promised to be close, promised that under no circumstances would Marcia get near enough to hurt her. She trusted that promise.

She just didn't trust Marcia.