Savage Hunger: Savage, Book 1 (7 page)

His eyes narrowed. “Can’t or
won’t
answer the questions?”

Her heart tripped. She slid her gaze from his and gave what she hoped was a casual shrug. “Fine. If you won’t leave, I will. I’ll sleep on the living room couch.”

Turning, she headed toward the door.

“Couch is taken by Rafferty. But you’re welcome to share a bed with Hilliard or Larson. I’m sure they’d love to have you.”

With her hand on the doorknob, she froze and closed her eyes. What were the chances he was bluffing? And did she really want to walk around the house half-dressed to find out?

“Go to bed, Sienna. You’re lucky I’m willing to take the floor. If you go elsewhere you’ll be squeezing into a twin bed with one of the guys.” He sighed. “Besides, at least you know me.”

Her heart twisted and an ache bloomed in her chest. Her mind flickered back again to her prom night, when she’d pushed down the walls of friendship, exposing her vulnerability and her feelings, and had gotten her heart trampled because of it. That night, though so brief, had meant everything to her—and to him…nothing.

She swallowed hard and twisted the knob on the door almost subconsciously. Not sure what pushed her to say it, she muttered, “Yeah, well I know lots of guys, Warrick. And I’ll get to know Larson.”

The snarl Warrick emitted reached her ears about the same time he reached the door. She blinked in shock at how fast he’d gotten to her as he slammed the door closed again and spun her around to face him.

Awareness sizzled through her blood at his near nakedness—thank God he at least wore boxer shorts. The muscles in his shoulders strained as he leaned closer to her.

Uncomfortable with the naked man-flesh in front of her, Sienna lifted her gaze to meet his savage expression and her stomach twisted with the realization she’d gone too far. She tried to step backward, but there was nowhere to go.

“You’ll get to know Larson?” he demanded icily. Irritation and something close to possessiveness raged in his eyes. “I don’t think so, Sienna. Larson’s not the type to trip over himself the moment you decide to bat your eyelashes at him.”

Fury exploded inside her, blurring her vision and making a snarl of anger escape past her lips. She balled her hand into a fist and pummeled it toward his stomach, but his palm intersected it before she could blink. He curled his fingers around her fist and used the leverage to jerk her forward.

She gasped. “You’re the one who made the suggestion to go sleep with someone else.”

“Don’t push me, Sienna. Get into bed, or I’ll carry you there.” The tone of his voice and the barely restrained ferocity in his face guaranteed he would make good on his threat.

She jerked her hand free and moved past him, her body shaking with anger and fatigue. Screw this. The very minute she got the chance, she was getting out of here. Who cares how far she had to hike. If she didn’t go, she’d probably end up killing the bastard.

Sienna stalked to the bed and jerked back the comforter, sliding beneath the sheets as she cast him another furious glare.

“You know, Warrick, my life was a hell of a lot less complicated before you walked back into it.”

“Thanks for the update, Sienna. Now go to sleep.”

She closed her eyes and ignored the prickle of guilt. Of course Warrick wasn’t the only complication to her life right now. It had been complicated the minute Leo had handed her the jump drive barely twenty-four hours ago. What she’d thought was just another data entry task had turned into so much more.

Sienna bit her lip and shook her head. Who was she kidding? This was all her fault. If she’d followed Leo’s instructions she’d be sitting in Boston right now, not locked up in some safe house under the watch of some bizarre federal agency. Leo had never asked her to try and free the shifters. No, that had been her own not-so-brilliant, half-baked idea.

And now she was screwed.

Clenching her fingers around the blanket, she considered the plan zipping through her head. But could she risk sneaking out when Warrick fell asleep?

She gave a tiny shake of her head. She couldn’t afford not to. The worst that could happen was she failed and got dragged back. The best thing…she made it to Boston.

Trying to relax, she closed her eyes and waited.

“I’m afraid it’s the shifters…they’ve been freed.”

Jocelyn removed her diamond stud earrings and set them on the antique bureau of her lush bedroom, silently repeating the information she’d just been told.

The shifters had been freed?
There were guards. Cameras. Alarms. How in the hell could the shifters possibly have gotten out? An obscene amount of money had gone into this project. And now they were gone…trotting out of the lab like the savage animals they were.

Her pulse jerked and her mouth tightened, if only just the tiniest bit. She reached for her champagne flute, her steady hands not betraying the rage that brewed just beneath the surface. She took a sip, before she turned and stared at the man standing in her doorway.

“The shifters are gone?” she finally murmured, arching a brow.

Robert, her lover for the past year and a half, swallowed hard and gave a stiff nod. “Yes. I’ve sent all my men to find out who is responsible—we suspect an employee of the lab—and to recover the shifters. I’m certain they won’t get far. I promise, none of this will be leaked.”

What a fool he was.
A smile played on her mouth now as she strode slowly toward him, her bare feet caressed by soft carpeting. The silk of her robe clung to her toned body with each step she took. “You’re certain?”

His appreciative gaze slid over her, his eagerness for the seductive evening she’d promised him apparent in the way he licked his lips. “Yes, my love. Please, don’t concern yourself with anything. It’s being taken care of.”

She came to a stop in front of him, and reached out to stroke the smooth lapels of his tux he had yet to change out of. Relief flashed in his eyes as he slid his hands to her hips, his head dipping as he leaned in to kiss her.

Jocelyn moved her knee from the confines of her robe and drove it between his legs, finally allowing her face to twist into a cold mask of fury.

Robert dropped like a stone, gasping in agony as his eyes watered.

“Don’t concern myself?” she repeated lightly and took another sip of the sweet champagne, savoring the bite on her tongue. “Do I look like a fucking idiot to you, Robert? Which employee is responsible?”

Writhing on the floor, he choked out, “Sienna Peters.”

She turned away, mentally pulled up an image of the petite blonde lab rat. A quiet woman who appeared to be entirely both too smart and too stupid for her own good.

But Sienna hadn’t been alone in this, she wouldn’t have even known about the shifters’ captivity. Someone else must’ve tipped her off, and she had a pretty good idea who that person was.

Her mind calculated the possibilities of what needed to be done. After a moment, she turned around and approached her lover once more.

“I don’t really trust that you or your men know how to fix this, Robert,” she murmured. “Now listen carefully to what I want you to do…”

Son of a bitch.

The clenching of his jaw was the only movement Warrick allowed himself as Sienna moved from the bathroom toward the bedroom door. It hadn’t even been a half hour since he’d told her to go to sleep. Did she honestly think he was that stupid?

Dammit, he’d hoped he could trust her. Had decided to not force her to share a bed with him, because he’d
told
himself he could trust her.

Well he should’ve known better. Should’ve damn well remembered that Sienna had never exactly been the agreeable type. And if he’d learned one thing over the years, it was that you couldn’t trust some women farther than you could spit. And he’d be sure to thank Sienna for the reminder when he put a stop to whatever harebrained idea she’d talked herself into.

Where the hell did she think she was going? They were miles from a main road, and that main road wouldn’t be seeing much traffic this time of night anyway.

He could’ve grabbed her before she’d left the bedroom, but he was going to give her a little rope to hang herself with first, see just exactly what she thought she was going to do.

He waited, eyes closed and ears alert, until he heard the faint click of the front door opening and shutting. Then he was on his feet, moving swiftly and silently through the house after her.

In the darkness he kept his movements stealthy and stuck to the shadows.

A few minutes later he shook his head in dismay as he watched her start jogging—in her dress and heels, no less—toward the main road. His lips quirked in amusement and he was tempted to let her make it all the way there. The blisters might just be punishment enough.

But Sienna slowed down a moment later and he fell back, brows drawing together. Until he saw a familiar glow and heard the beeping of buttons on a cell phone.

The hell she did.

Done with the little game of cat and mouse, Warrick sprinted forward and grabbed her, covering her mouth before she could scream. He snatched the phone from her grasp and disconnected the call before someone on the other end answered, then tossed it to the ground.

“Dammit, Sienna, what the hell were you thinking?”

She stopped struggling and the tension eased from her body. A sob of frustration spilled past her lips to caress his hand.

“You don’t know how much I wanted to trust you.” He turned her around, uncovering her mouth and catching her wrists in one of his hands.

She groaned and shook her head. “You don’t understand, Warrick. I can’t stay here, you’ve got to listen to me.”

“I don’t recall giving you a choice.” He ran his thumb over the inside of her wrist, felt the blood thundering through her veins. “What’s so important that you’d try to hike all the way to a highway? And where the hell were you even hiding that phone?”

He’d searched her back at the lab, hadn’t he? Or maybe he hadn’t. His gaze slid to the top of her dress where it hugged her breasts as realization clicked into place.

The phone wasn’t overly big and it was entirely possible she’d hid it in the bodice of her dress. The one place he hadn’t searched, because she’d bit him.

Coincidence? Hardly.

His gaze narrowed and he slid his palm up her back, holding her tighter. “Just what else are you hiding? If I searched you right now, Sienna, would I find anything else in that pretty little gown of yours?”

The muscles beneath his hand bunched with tension and he could almost smell her panic.

“What do you mean? No, of course not, Warrick. I just like to keep my phone on me.”

Bullshit.
Dammit, there was something else.

“Really? Well you don’t mind if I check for myself?” he muttered.

He lowered his head so that their faces were just inches apart in the darkness. Her perfume, faded now, and the hint of sweat off her skin formed a scent that was seductively feminine.

Initially in the lab it had thrown him, he hadn’t expected to find Sienna there. But now he could place the vanilla perfume as the same one she’d worn for years. Whatever it was didn’t smell expensive or overpowering, but it was what he’d always associated with Sienna…and that made it sexy as hell.

The blood in his veins quickened as every inch of him became aware of the softness of her breasts pressed against his chest.

Need crashed through him, distorting his thoughts and his original plan to try and search her. But that mouth, it tempted him…so lush and sweet…so damn close. All he had to do was—

“
Donovan
.”

The harsh voice cracked through the night and Warrick cursed, stepping back from Sienna but not releasing her.

Nathan Larson stood a few feet away wearing a pair of swim shorts, his arms folded across his chest. “I thought I told you to handle her.”

Warrick’s jaw flexed and he bit back a sharp reply. “I’m taking her back inside now.”

Larson didn’t reply, but stepped closer. Warrick wasn’t surprised to feel the anger radiating off the other man, but Sienna must have picked up on it too as she suddenly clutched his arm and maneuvered herself behind him.

Smart girl.

Coming to a halt in front of them, Larson narrowed his gaze in the moon’s light. “If this is going to be a problem, Donovan—”

“It’s not going to be a goddamned problem!”
Shit.
Warrick fell back a step when Larson tilted his head to the side and simply stared at him.

Warrick clenched his fists and blinked, forcing his tone to be more subservient. “I apologize. I simply meant she’s under my watch, sir, and I won’t let it happen again.”

He felt Sienna’s questioning glance on him, before her hand tightened around his arm.

Just stay quiet
, he silently willed her.
Don’t say a—

“I’m sorry. It’s Agent Larson, right?” Sienna asked sweetly.

Oh for fuck’s sake.

“This was all my fault. I just… I needed air. I probably should’ve told Warrick first, but I thought it would be rude to wake him.”