Seducing a Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Five Read online

  “This hotel is my life. I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to.” He wouldn’t let me. Her father hadn’t ever threatened her, but something deep down in her soul said he was capable. Her gut also said he’d be meaner than a rattlesnake if she tried to leave Choaca.

  They parted ways in the lobby. Julianna crossed the wide lobby and passed the restaurant, the spa, the indoor pool, and the gym the hotel provided for its visitors. On the other side was a marble floored smaller lobby with the hotel’s gift shop. She passed by it as well and continued toward the elevator bay.

  She loved the rooftop suite in the lower tower. Its gold hues and marble finishes on almost every surface easily let her pretend she was somewhere else. Another country. Far away from whatever dealings her father was mixed up in. Far away from his prying eyes and cutting remarks. But that’s all it was.

  A dream.

  Julianna had long given up on finding one special person to attach herself to. She’d substituted work for a relationship. All she needed to be happy and satisfied was the occasional attention of a sexy stranger willing to share her bed.

  She’d had a friend who’d filled that role in her life for several years. But Frank had stopped answering her calls one day out of the blue, and for all of Diana’s internet digging skills, the only answer she could find was a forwarding mailing address to Portugal. She shouldn’t have been surprised, given the infrequency of their meetings, but he’d seemed willing enough at first.

  Every man seemed willing at first. Until they really got to know her.

  She rode the elevator to the top and stepped out into the gold-toned hallway. The door to the room was at one end, and the stairwell entry at the other. She approached the door and pulled the golden keycard from her purse. The little green light on the door handle turned as she slid the key card into place. Julianna pushed the handle down and slipped into the beautiful suite.

  Everything was perfect. The shades were pulled up to reveal the stunning view of the ocean across the entire front of the suite. A pool and terrace were just outside the living room, where she stood.

  Along one side was a grand galley kitchen and the other, closets as well as a small spare bedroom. She wheeled her suitcase to one of the large dressing room closets, then made her way around to the kitchen. The main bedroom was open in the back of the suite along with a massive bathroom capable of making any spa retreat green with envy.

  The gold clock on the wall told her Alex should be arriving in a matter of minutes.

  A quick peek in the fridge showed it had indeed been stocked with the beverages she’d requested. Julianna procured two glasses from the rack above the counter and popped the cork on the burgundy so it could breathe, then set the bottle and goblets on the dining table.

  Next was the music. She tapped the screen on the wall in the living room and the media center software glowed to life. She chose a slow mix of popular love songs from the pre-loaded library and dimmed the lights.

  Perfect. Julianna glanced around the room one more time. Everything was in place for a lovely evening. Once Alex arrived, she would pour some wine. Have pleasant dinner conversation, then retire to the bedroom for what she hoped would be invigorating sex.

  There had been definite chemistry in the club when they’d met. In fact, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since leaving.

  A knock at the door startled her from dreaming about sex. Before she could move, the door latch clicked and Alex walked in—black suit, slate grey vest, royal blue dress shirt, and a smile that nearly made her knees turn to jelly.

  No man had ever affected her like this before.

  There was something intense about Alex that pulled at her. Even the air in the room seemed charged with some kind of electricity. Her skin was warm and an unfamiliar throb started low in her belly. She’d have to ignore her body’s response if they were gong to get through dinner.

  “Glad you decided to join me.” Julianna moved to the dining table and poured wine for each of them. “Would you like a glass of wine?”

  Chapter Three

  Alex took the offered drink and his finger slid along hers in brief contact, but she seared him like a brand.

  Julianna clinked her big burgundy wine glass against his and it plunked the air.

  He sniffed the nose of the thick red and met her eyes. “This…this is my favorite wine.” Alex took in another deep breath and leaned his leg against the back of the couch to stabilize himself. “They grow this varietal in two places in the entire world, and they’re both in Bourgogne.”

  Her eyes twinkled and she put her delicate nose into the giant glass. “Mmmm. Your knowledge of French grapes is a surprising bonus.”

  The place on his finger where she’d touched him seemed to glow in Alex’s mind. He hadn’t prepared for this—not for her knowing him, not for the magick pulling him toward her.

  He pressed the balls of his feet into the floor and leaned back against the invisible rope. Took a slow sip of the rich wine and sighed. “Most women assume I drink beer.”

  She gestured toward the giant glassy kitchen he could just see around the corner. “In case my research was wrong, there’s a selection of craft beer in the refrigerator.”

  “I like wine, I like beer, I like…” you. But he couldn’t say it. “Everything.”

  “I’m glad I could find something to your taste.” Julianna took a long drink from the fat glass and put one hand on the gold leather couch behind her. Her neck tensed when her hand nearly brushed his.

  She had to feel this energy, too. Even if she was human.

  His whole body thrummed with the awareness of her every movement. He moved his finger ever so slightly beside his leg and brushed against her wrist.

  Her fingers clutched the couch and her glass wobbled in her other hand.

  Alex watched her skin pebble as he covered her hand with his. “I like when you catch your breath like that.” He glanced at her and caught the frozen fear on her face. “It’s sexy.”

  She wasn’t breathing, and he moved his hand up her arm, gauging the response of her body. Her mouth dropped open and her lip rested on the edge of the crystal glass.

  “Put your wine down.” He leaned in, just a touch, and whispered, “I’m going to kiss you.”

  Her glass moved a little lower, but she still hadn’t begun to breathe. The magick, for him, glowed just under the surface, everywhere their skin touched. If it was anything like that for her, she wouldn’t have felt its like before.

  “Julianna,” he dropped his voice. “Put. The. Wine. Down.”

  Her head turned toward his and she lunged for his lips. The wine goblet dropped from sight and he heard it thud against something soft.

  When her lips touched his, her breath seemed to restart, and she angled her head, molding her mouth against his, deeper and deeper.

  A gust of magick, deep and wild as the wind across the sea, took him by force and his wine glass clattered on the edge of the table, then struck the floor and shattered behind him. But he couldn’t break the kiss. He’d just as soon stop breathing as stop kissing her.

  Alex gripped her shoulders and walked her backward, away from the broken glass, gasping for breath between the frantic shifting of her lips against his.

  Her hands fumbled with his belt and the front of his pants, and the cool contact of her skin against his throbbing cock made him gasp.

  “Don’t,” he whispered against her lips. “Not yet.” He kissed around the side of her jaw and down her neck. “I want to taste you first.”

  Julianna moaned when his fingers grazed her erect nipples through the soft fabric of her dress, and all his resolve went out the window. The magick buzzed around him and he pulled the dress and her strapless bra down, popping her breasts out into the open. They were round and heavy, and her nipples were the perfect peachy pink.

  He latched on to one, and the way she sucked her breath in, combined with the way the magick dizzied him, made the blood swell in every part o
f his body. His cock was painfully hard in his pants and he wished she would’ve freed it, against his wishes.

  Both his hands were busy at the moment.

  “Are…you…done…?” she panted and sank one hand into his hair, threading her fingers into the short waves and lighting his skin on fire.

  Alex leaned back, letting one nipple pop out of his mouth. “Why? Am I not as stimulating as you would have liked?”

  “Stop talking.” Her breath came in such short bursts, he was afraid she might be hyperventilating.

  He looked down and realized that she had snuck one hand under the red fabric of her dress, bunched between her legs.

  Alex slipped one of his hands to meet hers, and they tangled fingers, reaching around the lacy fabric of her panties, deep into her sex. The sharp gust of air she took in sent a shock straight to his dick. He reached for the front of his pants, her wetness slicking his fingers, and her hand followed his.

  Julianna had her fingers around his cock before he could even get his boxers rolled down his hips. She pulled him toward her center and banged back against the giant glass window. Lifted one leg and brought the head of his dick right into her.

  He growled at the contact and thrust forward, all instinct. When Alex was all the way inside her, he paused, his nose in her neck, her leg up on his hip, and gulped big nosefuls of the scent of Julianna. Everywhere. On his skin, in his nose, in his blood.

  Her breath against his ear started a pulse inside him that drove him into her, over and over again. She chanted his name as he thrust deeper and deeper.

  “Alex,” she whispered. “Oh, Alex. Fuck. Alex.”

  His name on her lips almost undid him. He could feel the coil of orgasm readying deep in his abdomen and he slid his hand between them, finding her pleasure center.

  “Come for me, Julianna,” he sighed into her neck.

  With his fingers on her sex, he could feel his own rhythm increasing, almost against his will. He needed to be deeper inside her. Have more of him in her. Alex wanted to fill every part of her.

  The building tension loosed when she screamed her climax and pounded one hand against the glass. He came inside her, growling wordless things and half afraid that he would be a wolf at any moment.

  She wrapped one arm around his neck and lowered her forehead to his shoulder. Without either of them moving, the lights suddenly snapped from their bright glow to a dim, sexy ambiance. Behind Julianna, Alex could see out the window, for miles, onto the dark ocean.

  He panted for a moment, watching the white surf of the waves crash jagged slashes against the beach.

  The completeness of that moment was tainted by the fact that what he really wanted wasn’t the woman wrapped around his body, but something that lay far beyond their eyes, across that water.

  What was he doing to her? Fuck. The stupid magick. He’d promised Maggie he wouldn’t have sex. Just get the tablet Julianna always kept with her—in that damned black notebook case of hers—and get the hell out of there.

  Fuck.

  They’d tried getting someone on the housekeeping staff, but Julianna never left the tablet anywhere. It was always with her.

  And now he’d had sex with her.

  Let her call his name. Let her think he was here for her.

  But damn, he did want her.

  Alex slid one last time into her as his hardness went away, and she kissed the side of his neck in what felt like an afterthought. Gods, and he loved the feel of her, the smell of her.

  Plus, the magick never lied.

  Did it?

  Why else would he have had sex with a woman he barely knew after two sips of wine? The fucking magick. But she wasn’t a wolf, so she didn’t know what it was. How the hell was he supposed to explain this to Maggie?

  Don’t complicate things, he’d said. Just let me get in and get out, he’d said.

  Although, to be fair, he’d definitely gotten in. And out. Just not in the way he’d thought.

  Julianna let the bottom of her dress fall back into place and leaned against the window, her eyes hazy and glowy, and a smile on her face. Her swollen breasts still hung over the top of the strapless dress, calling his name.

  She exhaled long and slow. “Oh, Alex.” She rested her hands on his shoulders and shook her head. “You have no idea how much I needed that.”

  A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth and arrogance rose inside him like a flag. “Maybe I did know.” He leaned his forehead against hers and the magick crackled around him, drawing him into her again. “I needed it, too.”

  The sharp rap of a knock on the door startled him, and a strangely familiar voice called out, “Room Service!”

  Julianna’s features tightened and she glanced around the room. Panicked, she had stopped breathing again, and Alex shook her.

  “Breathe,” he said.

  She gasped and shook her head. “No, they can’t see this.” Her hands scratched at her dress, pulling the fabric up, over ravaged nipples.

  “It’s ok. I’ll get the door.”

  “No!” Julianna pulled at his pants, shoving his dick back into his boxers. “You’re no better.”

  The rap on the door again. “Room Service. Miss Rossi, your dinner.”

  She stumbled past Alex. “Shit, I told them—”

  But the click of the lock stopped her, and the door swung open.

  Niko Lupescu, clad in the blue coat of the hotel staff, backed his way into the room, pulling a silver cart packed with trays of food.

  Alex and Julianna both froze when Niko’s mouth dropped open.

  He prayed to Fate that his friend would be able to keep his sarcasm to himself. Alex was never going to live this down.

  Chapter Four

  Julianna sprinted across the living room from the window, holding her sagging dress high enough to cover most of her chest with one hand and smoothing down the skirt with the other. Heat warmed her cheeks and the waiter with their dinner didn’t look uncomfortable at all.

  In fact, the asshole looked like he was about to crack a wide smile. Jackass. She’d just hired him two days ago.

  He should be more respectful.

  “Quit standing there, Nicholas, and set the table,” she barked, gesturing toward the waiting dining table. “Now,” she added when he still didn’t drop his gaze from Alex. Rolling her eyes into the back of her head, she made her way around the couch and froze when glass crunch beneath her stiletto.

  Fuck. Her heart flipped in her chest. The burgundy was everywhere. She gasped for a breath and her skin went clammy. How could she have been so careless? Her goblet lay unbroken next to the couch on the floor. Wine had stained the carpet and the couch cushion.

  Alex’s glass hadn’t made it onto the table and was in shards all over the marble dining room floor. Julianna sucked in another breath, trying not to release a screech. She’d lost enough control as it was, she didn’t need to sound unhinged as well.

  “Just wait.” She raised a hand toward the still unmoved waiter. “I’ll get someone up here to clean this first. Give me a moment. Don’t walk on the glass.”

  She didn’t turn to face either of them.

  It was bad enough the staff had seen her in a compromising position, but now they’d be talking about how she’d wrecked a five thousand dollar a night rooftop suite. Her father would hear the chatter and…

  Julianna couldn’t think about that now. Even the disgust and shame her father would rain down on her later couldn’t erase the fact that she’d just had the best sex of her entire life.

  The. Best. Ever.

  She wanted sex again, but her carefully laid out plans for the evening were shot to hell. Routine was her friend. Julianna depended on it.

  It always came through for her.

  What the hell had happened tonight? She was better than this. Emotions never clouded her judgment. Yet, somehow this man seemed to turn off that entire lobe of her brain.

  Tiptoeing through the glass, she hurried down the kitch
en and around to the bedroom. Julianna sank onto the mattress and lifted the receiver from the hotel phone. She dialed Diana’s number.

  “Diana Cortez, how can I help you?” Her PA’s voice rang through the speaker.

  “Diana, it’s me.”

  “Ms. Rossi, are you okay?”

  “No. Yes. I…I need you to bring a housekeeping cart up to the suite. A glass broke and wine is everywhere.”

  “I can have housekeeping up there in two minutes, just—”

  “No. I need you to do this. I can’t have more of the staff involved. It’s bad enough the room service waiter saw what he did.”

  “Yes, ma’am, of course. Don’t worry about anything.”

  “Diana…”

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  “Thank you,” Julianna whispered.

  “Anything for you. I’ll be right there, just changing out of heels into the pair of converse I have in the closet of my office.”

  Julianna hung up and laid back onto the mattress, staring up at the gauzy beige canopy. She took slow methodical breaths, inhaling and exhaling while counting in her mind. Everything about this night was starting off wrong. She’d practically leapt onto the man and then they’d had sex against a window.

  A window.

  Who did that?

  Not her.

  Thank God Diana was willing to get her hands dirty. The maids would be suspicious of her PA taking a cart, but at least they wouldn’t know what was happening, or that she, their boss, had let herself get so caught up in the moment, she’d become careless.

  At least now there was a valid reason to hide for a few minutes and gather her thoughts before facing Alex or that waiter again.

  Alex watched her shimmy out of the room in that hot damn dress and turned his back on Niko. The Chicago wolf undoubtedly still wore the same big grin, and Alex didn’t want to have to smack it off his face. “Shut up, Niko.”

  “What? I didn’t—”