The Chosen Sin (10 page)

Well.
This was a nice change.

Someone knocked on the door and Daria backed away from him.

Maldita sea!
Damn it.

“Come in,” Alejandro shouted, trying really hard to keep the snarl out of his voice.

Gordon stuck his head in. “Your bags.” He dropped their packs and jackets on the floor near the door and disappeared.

When Alejandro turned back around, Daria was out in the small garden. She stood in the center of the greenery, hugging herself and looking like she was deep in thought.

 
 
DARIA studied the small, enclosed area. She guessed every apartment had one of these flourishing gardens. Ivy climbed the stone walls and flowers bloomed in profusion. A small table and two chairs stood in the corner, flanked by two statues of angels reaching their little porcelain arms toward the sky.

A small bird landed on the top of the wall and chirped at her. “Wow,” she breathed in amazement. It took off with a soft flutter of wings.

Above her head, the twilight deepened to early evening darkness much quicker than was natural. The falseness helped destroy the magic of this place a little for her.

Life under this dome was very seductive, even for her. It had to be even more so for a Chosen who hadn't had the sunlight on his skin for years.

She watched as faint little stars began to twinkle. Somewhere under the dome, Sante could be looking up into that same artificial sky this very moment. It brought home how close she was to him now.

She walked to the wall and reached out to brush her fingers across the ivy. Amazing.
Perplexing.
This dome probably could be called paradise, but it wasn't. It couldn't be. Financed and run by Sante, it had to be more like hell than heaven. They just had to uncover the reason for this place. It had to benefit Sante in some way. He was not an altruistic person. That was clear enough. He was a cold-blooded murderer who would do anything to get what he wanted.

Daria closed her eyes as she remembered Julia's pleasant round face smiling at her, her eyes sparkling with mirth. The image faded to Julia with her throat black-and-blue, her eyes vacant, cold and dead, brown hair plastered to her forehead and limbs at unnatural positions where she'd fallen to the foyer floor.

Daria opened her eyes, feeling that familiar burst of rage running through her veins. Anger had become a close friend since Julia had been murdered.

She rested her head against the wall, letting the cool stone ground her and calm her. “I'll get him for you, Julia,” she whispered. “I promise.”

Vengeance for Julia's death was so close she could taste it, like something bittersweet on the back of her tongue.

Noise came from the room behind her. She turned in time to see Alejandro pull his shirt over his head. As it did every time she was treated to that tanned expanse of smoothly muscled chest, her mouth went dry. Even though her mind and emotions screamed,
No, look away
, every last of inch of her body cried out,
Yes, please fuck me now
when they saw that man's chest bared.

It humbled her to realize how much a slave she was to her hormones. Alejandro Martinez had always had a fine body and he still did. A prime male specimen that would make any woman drool.

“Overhead, off,” he said. The bright light in the ceiling flipped off. The softer bedside table lamp remained on.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled off his boots, leaving him in only his jeans. After he got the second boot off, he flopped back on the bed. His dark skin looked sinfully good against the red comforter.

Daria had an urge to go in there, climb on the bed, and lick every available inch of him. She was pretty sure he wouldn't push her away. No, she knew he wouldn't. Alejandro wanted her and she wanted him, but she had damn good reasons to resist.

He turned his head to the side and caught her gaze. All-consuming heat glowed in his eyes. He was being careful with her, giving her room to breathe. It was clear all he really wanted to do was strip her clothes off and act out every one of his carnal thoughts.

She should let him.

They needed to make this convincing, after all. They were supposed to be a couple. Not only that, they were supposed to be mated—the Chosen's equivalent of marriage. Mated pairs slept together, exchanged the oils of their skin, the scents of their bodies. She and Alejandro already had the scents of each other on them from the Choosing, but they had to make sure it stayed that way.

Through this, she could rationalize fucking Alejandro. It was for the mission. For the job. It was a sacrifice that had to be made for the ABI.

Yeah, right.
She rolled her eyes.
What an inconvenience.

She walked into the room and closed the garden doors behind her. As she passed the foot of the bed, she tried her best not to allow her gaze to eat up every square inch of him.

God, she was pathetic.

She picked her bag up off the floor. It looked like there was running water in the bathroom and a shower. All she wanted was a shower and to get into her pajamas. It was early, but she was so damn tired.

Alejandro sat up on the bed and turned toward her. “Are you changing your clothes?”

Oh, yeah, those already-warm brown eyes were smoldering.

“Yes.” She took a step toward the bathroom.

“You didn't change in the bathroom this morning. This morning, you did it right in front of me.”

“And your point is?” Casting an annoyed glance at him, she halted in the middle of the room. “Brandon was in the bathroom,” she replied with patience. “I didn't think you'd mind. It's not like it's anything you haven't seen before.”

He gave a short laugh. “You have no idea how bad you tempted me this morning, do you?”

“What does that mean?” She canted her hip and let her bag hang at her side. “Do you think I owe you something now?”

“No, that's not what I think. I'm pointing out that you don't know you're catnip to me.”

She drew a careful breath. “Look, I won't do it again, okay? Both of us are in a bad situation right now. I said I wanted to try this with as little intimate contact as possible, but—”

“We have chemistry, and we're both attracted to each other.”

She nodded. “Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want to fall into bed with you.”

“Again.”

She shrugged and sighed. “Again.” The weight of the bag grew too much and she let it fall to the floor.

He frowned. “You look tired. Do you need to feed
?”

“The hunger is gnawing a little,” she admitted. She was doing her best not to think about it.

“Go take a shower. You need to feed and then sleep. When I was first Chosen, I had to feed at least twice a day.”

“Alejandro, what was that whole thing about your blood mother that Carlos was talking about? ‘Rampant and resilient heterosexuality'?”

A dark expression crossed over his face and he looked away. “There's not much to tell.”

That meant there was a lot to tell. She just stood there waiting for him to spit it out.

He glanced at her and sighed. “She was into some really kinky stuff, that's all. Lucinda likes men to be . . . together. She likes to watch. If you're a man in her inner circle, you're expected to play her little sexual games.”

“What? You mean, like perform for her pleasure?”

He nodded. “Yeah, she's got a whole
playroom
set up. Whips and chains, you know. Everyone watches.” His fangs flashed. “I'm not the submissive type. But sometimes she'd lock a man or a woman in place in that room and let everyone play. They were like a thing to her, a thing to tease. She got off on watching them get fucked.”

“Were you ever one of her . . .
things
?”

He shook his head. “Like I said, being submissive isn't my deal. Demanding it from others . . . yeah, that's more my speed. So I played once in a while.”

She shivered, imagining letting Alejandro play with her. Letting him do whatever he wanted. Oh, yeah,
that
was a worthy sexual fantasy. “So, uh, did you ever
play
with a man?”

He gave her a look so violent that she took a step backward. “I wasn't lying to Carlos when I told him that's why I didn't take her up on her offer. I have nothing against homosexuals. Whatever makes you happy. I
do
have something against being made into a sexual submissive and being treated like a trained dog.”

“I believe you.” She raised her hands. “Hey, even if you'd done it, I'm not the type to judge.”

“Go take a shower so you can feed and go to sleep,” he said carefully.

Grumbling more at the fact that a feeding sounded really good to her than at the fact she had to do it at all, Daria picked her bag up and headed into the bathroom.

8

AFTER a long, hot shower with the mineral-enriched water of the dome, Daria emerged from the bathroom wearing a pair of briefs and a tight T-shirt. She hoped it wasn't too catnippy since she didn't have much else to wear.

The pulsing heat of the water had made her body tingle and relaxed her muscles. All she wanted was to crawl into bed and sleep. “Bathroom light, off,” she mumbled as she yawned.

Alejandro had turned off the bedside table lamp, but artificial moon glow lit the room. She found she had excellent night vision now anyway.

He'd slipped into bed and pulled the covers back on the side closest to her. He looked luscious lying there against all those crimson sheets and pillows. In fact, the sight stopped her dead in her tracks. “Can't we do this somewhere other than the bed?” It was far too suggestive.

“The only chairs are the heavy wrought iron ones out in the garden. Do you want to go out there, or sit on the floor? It won't be as comfortable.” He patted the mattress. “Come on, Daria, you need to feed and sleep. Anyway, remember we need to be exchanging our scents as much as possible. We need our skin touching.”

Work, work, work.

She climbed into the bed. His body heat had already warmed the mattress and the spicy male scent of him enveloped her. He pulled her toward him and wound his arms around her.

All he wore was a pair of cotton boxers she could feel rubbing against her skin. His luscious, fantasy-inducing chest now lay flush up against her. Her nipples tightened and her cunt grew wet and warm. She wondered if Alejandro understood the power of his chest. Hell, he could succeed in world domination if the planet in question was comprised mostly of women.

Despite herself, she let out a shuddering sigh at the sensation of his body against hers. She would never admit it aloud, but being with Alejandro made her feel safe and protected.

She snuggled herself against him, finding a place for her head under his chin where she lay her ear to his chest. Daria closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat. Every muscle in her body seemed to go limp as though she'd just had a massage. Exhaustion stole into her mind and made her thoughts come sluggishly.

Alejandro brushed his hand through her hair. “Hey, Daria,” he murmured. “Don't go to sleep. You still have to feed.”

It took her a moment to answer. Her eyes fluttered open. “Uhn. I know.”

The hunger and her fatigue warred within her body, but it was a struggle that barely registered in her mind. Her arm lay across Alejandro's strong, warm body, her own body cushioned by the soft mattress.

Fatigue was winning.

If she hadn't been so physically shattered from the changes the Choosing had wrought in her, she would have regarded Alejandro as far more of a stimulant than a relaxant. The hard planes of his body invited further exploration. If she'd been anything but completely whipped, that would have excited her sexually and upset her psychologically because of the conflicting desires between her body and mind.

As it was, all she could do was lie in the protective circle of his arms and let his heartbeat lull her into the exhausted sleep her body demanded. She felt so heavy . . .

“Daria?”

“Mmmm?” She let the undertow of her weariness pull her under.

 
 
ALEJANDRO lay awake, staring into the darkened room, with one of the biggest hard-ons of his life. Daria had fallen asleep in his arms. In her drowsiness, she'd inserted a long, slender bare leg between his thighs. She probably wasn't even aware that she'd done it.

Her smooth skin rubbed very close to his cock and every single muscle of his body had sprung to awareness because of it. One of her hands rested on his side, and his nose was buried in the scent of the damp hair at the crown of her head. Her luscious breasts pressed against his chest. Almost every part of their bodies touched.

“Shit,”
he muttered under his breath. How the hell was he supposed to sleep while this aroused? This woman would drive him insane before they could see the mission through.

Temptation lay in his arms, but he would do his best to resist it. The Choosing had exhausted Daria and she needed sleep. She needed to feed, too, but sleep seemed to be her body's priority at the moment. Because of that, Alejandro couldn't indulge his desires.

You could make her beg for it,
the darkest part of him whispered. He had the right veil for that. Alejandro suspected Daria really did want him. All he had to do was exert the right kind of veil . . . and she'd be his. Willingly. Wantonly. Hell, she'd beg him to fuck her until she couldn't see straight.

Even without his veil, he could do it. He could roll her over and cover her body with his, kiss her awake. Kiss her until her body woke up and her sweet cunt primed itself for his cock. He could pull off her clothes and trail his tongue down her body until he hit her creamy pussy. Lick her until she moaned for him, until she shuddered and came for him. She'd beg for him to take her then. Beg for him to part those endless legs of hers and sink his cock deep inside her. With or without his veil.