Mated By Fate by Christa Wick

Chapter Two

Lana woke in her bedroom,relief flooding through her that she had only been having one of her always weird, often terrifying, dreams. Body limp, she tried to brush the cobwebs from her mind. She remembered a man in the dream, tall and beyond masculine. He had told her to stay, his voice sinfully deep and vibrating with lust.

She furrowed her brow, searching for the part of the dream that had scared her. He'd touched her, his hand firm and possessive, but also gentle. He'd kissed her, his mouth like a firebrand. She felt herself getting wet as she concentrated. Her hips shifted against the bed, her butt digging into the mattress as tension mounted between her legs.

When her thighs tightened in need, she turned on her side and inhaled deeply to center her thoughts. The room's scents piggybacked on the fresh air she dragged into her lungs. Crisp bed linen she'd changed that morning, the smell of her shampoo, something sweet...

Caramel…dripping…hot.

Jerking her head back, Lana opened her eyes.

Sitting in her reading chair, the man from her dream leaned forward, the sides of his forearms resting against his knees. Memories flashed like lightning inside her mind. His name was Seth. The dark chocolate eyes had been possessed with an eerie green light and she was certain she had seen fangs.

"Feeling better?" His lips parted in the ghost of a smile, revealing nice, evenly spaced, human teeth. Completely incapable of savagely rending flesh.

Had she hallucinated the whole thing?

As she proceeded to fall down a rabbit hole of second guessing, the door opened and the gingery blond stepped into the bedroom. "Hey, boss,” he rumbled in Seth’s direction, barely sparing Lana more than a cursory glance. “Em is a few minutes out."

Seth didn't acknowledge him, just continued staring intently at Lana. He dropped one hand along the side of the chair, snagging her wallet from her book bag. The way he flipped it open straight to her ID told her he'd already sorted through the wallet's contents.

He tilted his head, his gaze drifting between her and her driver's license. "Lana Howard, twenty-eight years old, five-seven, hair black, eyes green."

"Except it rhymes with sauna," she corrected his pronunciation of her name automatically before a nervous hiccup of air left her. "What are you going to do to me?"

His gaze raked over her, lingering at the swell of her breasts and hips. Just as he had in the elevator, he wet his bottom lip hungrily, then he took a deep breath through his nose. His eyes drifted shut, the firm, swollen lips parting before he looked at her again.

Seth shifted forward just enough to drag the chair to the edge of her bed, his hand coming down on the mattress to grip its side as he asked quietly, "What would you like me to do, Lana?"

For one wild second, she pictured his handsome face buried between her thighs, his tongue running the length of her pussy before it disappeared between her wet folds to probe so deeply its pressure caressed her spine. She forced back the image and the sensations it caused. She couldn't let her freakish attraction to the man cloud her thinking. She was in danger. No sane, law-abiding person acted like Seth, which meant he was crazy, a criminal—or both.

Pushing her fear aside, she calmly looked him in the eyes. "I-I want you to leave."

A flash of emotion crossed his expression, his gaze almost hurt over her request. It was gone a second later, however, replaced with an impressively unreadable poker face as his hand surfed closer to her body.

Her breathing faltered, before picking up in speed—a development that didn’t go unnoticed by Seth.

With a soft grin, he traced the air in front of the feminine swell of her chest before stopping over one erect nipple. Instantly, the heat of his palm penetrated her blouse and bra, the sensation tightening the skin on her breast until a deep, sweet ache overwhelmed the flesh between her legs and her hips twitched.

"Please…don't." Swallowing, she pressed her lips together to stop their quiver. As much as she should have been, she wasn't afraid. That first bite of gnawing hunger she'd felt in the elevator upon smelling him still tormented her. It deepened by the second, twisting down through her stomach to wrap and squeeze around her uterus like a fist.

Meeting his gaze, she repeated her order. "Leave. I don't want you in my home.”

Seth pulled his hand back, surprise momentarily widening his eyes before his features quickly hardened, determination and challenge filling his expression.

"Pretty little liar." His knowing gaze penetrated her. His forehead nuzzled her hip. "I can smell your cream, feel your heat."

Putting both palms flat against the mattress, he leaned in, his nose starting near her head. He brushed the tip against her forehead, traveled along the slope of her nose. Moving to her mouth, he took a leisurely lick, nipped her chin. Reaching her breasts, he pressed his face against the fabric guarding her cleavage and breathed deeply.

Slow, so slow, lower and lower he moved until he was even with her hips, his forehead almost touching the cushion of flesh above the bone. Another deep breath and he groaned. The sound vibrated against her mound.

“It makes me crazy when you lie to me, woman.”

Her thighs tensed, her lower torso starting to tremble as her drenched pussy squeezed at nothing.

Growling softly, he looked up. “Want to keep lying, baby? Your body is telling me a whole different story.”

That was because her body was clearly possessed at the moment—fevered, over-sensitized, and so turned on, she could barely see straight. Stubbornly, she pulled her knees up and tucked her legs against her body to control their shaking.

God help her, she was drenched and only getting wetter with each word he uttered. Contractions gripped the muscles of her sex, intensifying her need every time he snagged and held her gaze captive.

For some mystifying reason, she didn’t even care that Seth’s colleague was also in the room, watching them with an increasingly puzzled expression, his frown deepening with each passing minute.

Given how relentless Seth was being with her, she would’ve thought this wasn’t unusual behavior for him. Perhaps it was. Maybe whatever madness was overtaking her was plaguing him as well.

Either way, Seth was right. She wanted him in her, spearing her with that thick, unyielding shaft he had pressed against her stomach in the stairwell.

Have you completely lost your mind, woman?

Right…this was wrong. And crazy.

Crazy wrong. He had her trapped in her bedroom. She should be thinking about escape instead of wrestling her arousal.

She pulled her attention from Seth—with considerable effort—and looked over at the ginger and honey scented watchdog manning the door. "Can't you make him go? You tried to stop him earlier. Can’t you talk some sense into him? Or at least convince him to let me go?”

Seth growled again, this time like a dog protecting a bone when the other man shifted position behind him. Eyes narrowed, Seth flexed his shoulders and squared off, jaw set, fists clenched. Even without the warning snarl that followed, it was clear as day that Seth was more than ready to fight his friend.

Over her.

A smile ghosted the other man’s face. “I believe he just answered your question for me.” Taking his wary gaze off Seth for only the briefest of moments, he turned to her and added, “By the way, name’s Denver. Nice to meet you, Lana.”

He drawled out her name, saying it slowly, and correctly—clearly to piss off Seth. Quite effectively, judging by Seth’s swift reaction. His hands fisted into the mattress on either side of her, gripping so tightly she was certain the sheets would rip if Denver pushed him further.

“Wh-why are you telling me your name?” This could not be good. She'd watched enough cop shows to know that could only mean one thing if the attackers didn’t care about their victim knowing their identities. "Y-you're going to kill me, aren’t you?" she whispered.

Seth whipped his head in her direction, all the intensity draining from his face. He sank back into the chair. "No one is going to hurt you, Lana. You’re safe. You are more precious to me than you can understand at this moment."

She kept the dubious whimper crawling up her throat in check. For some reason, she sensed it was important to him that she believe him.

She didn’t, couldn’t believe him. Right?

Instead of acknowledge his words, which would require her to analyze her own bewildering thoughts where this stranger was concerned, Lana simply wrapped her arms across her chest, protecting herself as his earnest expression tried to worm its way inside her head and cuddle up with her thoughts.

When Seth continued to watch her, clearly wanting a response, she chose to pivot and take back some control, "If you want me to feel safe, why won’t you leave like I asked? That would make me feel safe."

Denver chuckled in surprise. "The woman’s got balls. And a good argument. You’re clearly freaking her out, so why don’t you go downstairs to wait for Em?"

Seth snarled, "I'm not leaving her in here alone with you."

Denver gave him a bored grunt. "Don't worry about me, boss. Big girls aren't my thing."

Lana took a sharp breath, tears stinging her eyes. Bad enough one of them was crazy and holding her captive, but did the sane one have to be rude?

She looked away from both men, her gaze moving to a corner of the ceiling where she had allowed an orb weaver to take up residence.

Whatever happened, she sure as hell wouldn't let them see her cry over insults she'd heard hundreds of times before throughout her life.

Suddenly, Seth rose and trailed a shockingly gentle knuckle down the side of her arm. "Don’t listen to him, baby. He’s lying through his teeth." Squeezing her shoulder, he added softly, “I do need to go downstairs, but I’ll be right back. Denver may be callous, but he won’t hurt you…beyond your feelings, at least. You have my word.”

With one last comforting look for her, and a killing glare directed at Denver, he left.