Your Treat or Mine (4 page)

He didn’t know whether to be
pleased or irritated when she took off, sprinting, running around headstones
and barely avoiding the scattered branches on the ground. The human part of him
knew he couldn’t spend the whole night chasing the woman around the cemetery.
The beast relished the run.

Thankfully the man was smarter
than the beast. Riley decided to increase his pace and stop playing with the
woman. No longer could he extend the chase simply to satisfy his beast.

Rikard’s command thundered
through his mind. He had to get the female back to the security room so he and
Vittorio could figure out the real reason she’d come to their combined
families’ burial plot.

Chest heaving, she darted past a nineteenth
century sculpture of an angel. He saw her glance at the angel and grimace. She
turned, glanced over her shoulder and caught his gaze.

Riley couldn’t help but smile.

She stumbled, obviously surprised
by his actions. He pounced before she could correct herself.

Pure satisfaction radiated
through him when his fingers closed around her upper arm. “Mine,” he rumbled as
he lifted her off of her knees and into his arms. He knew both his words and
his actions had taken her by surprise by the stillness of her body in his arms.

He was more shocked by the depth
of his body’s reaction to her presence. He went hard all over.

Riley gritted his teeth and
thought about the latest Super Bowl. When that didn’t calm his raging need, he
thought of cold, uncomfortable ice. Unfortunately he imagined the woman in his
hands was holding the ice in question and running it down his chest.

Damn!

He turned and headed back to the
small building that housed the security room. Riley hadn’t taken more than five
steps in its direction when she spoke. “You know I can walk, right?”

He ignored her. He knew it was
best not to talk in his current condition.

“Look I know I’m not exactly
trustworthy here, but I promise not to run anymore. So, will you put me down,
please?”

Knowing the pixy in his arms
wasn’t going to leave him alone, Riley decided to answer her. He shook his head
and glanced at her feet. “No shoes.”

“Oh.” She was silent for a
moment. “So you’re carrying me because I’m not wearing any shoes?”

“Yes.” He saw her roll her eyes
to the heavens, but decided to ignore her actions.

“I could put my shoes back on.”
She dangled the items in question to make her point.

Riley thought about it for a
moment. It was very poor idea. The very image of her strapping on those “fuck
me” platforms had his cock jerking in need.

He looked down at her. “No.”

She parted her beautiful lips,
ready to argue with him. Riley felt himself being drawn to her. Slowly, he
lowered his head as he lifted her higher against his chest. Her eyes widened as
he descended. It was then he realised what he was about to do.

He lifted his head and almost whooped
in joy when he saw the mausoleum. He indicated the building. “There’s no point
in putting on your shoes since we’re almost there.”

It took her several moments to
lift her gaze. It hadn’t escaped his notice that it had taken her a few seconds
to process his words because she was staring hard at his mouth.

Riley almost groaned out loud.
She was trying his patience, responding to the dangerous heat that simmered
between them.

The moment his booted foot
touched the bottom step that led to the building’s entrance, he released her,
placing her softly on her feet. She swept a small hand through her fiery locks
and smiled shyly at him. “Thank you.”

He watched her, trying to figure
out what to say in response. “You’re welcome,” just didn’t seem to cut it in
his mind. So he told her a truth wrapped in a lie. “You shouldn’t thank me. It’s
my job to keep you safe and secure long enough to us to finish our
investigation.”

She stiffened beside him in
anger. He could smell the acrid emotion that suddenly drenched the air. Amelia was
pissed off.

They both glanced up as a third
person joined them on the steps. Vittorio peered at both of them, no doubt
trying to figure out what had happened between them. “Welcome back, Ms.
Amelia,” Vittorio murmured, took a single step forward and reached out for the
woman. That was all it took to get Riley incensed. A low warning growl cut
through the air, stilling Vittorio as he took his second step. He lifted his
head and glared hard at Riley.

He searched Riley’s gaze for a
moment. “Get your…self under control,” he said through clenched teeth.

Nostrils flared, Riley took
several breaths before finding the strength to speak to Vittorio. “I’m fine,”
he murmured once he had his bestial nature under wraps.

Vittorio searched his face,
looking for the lie in his statement. After a moment he nodded, satisfied that
Riley really did have his wolf under control.

When Riley received Vittorio’s
nod, he turned back to Amelia and grabbed her arm to pull her close to him.

Riley knew he needed to step away
from Amelia, give his body time to adjust to the adrenaline pumping through his
veins, but he couldn’t find the strength to leave her side. There was something
about her that called to him, brought every bestial desire to the surface. And
his human side was not strong enough to ignore the call.

“Riley?” Vittorio called softly
as Riley dragged Amelia down the hall and to the tiny room where the security
screens played.

“We need to search her,” Riley
said in reply to the implicit question he heard in Vittorio’s tone. Vittorio
wanted to know if Riley was capable of keeping his beast under control so as to
not frighten the woman. The truth was Riley didn’t know if he could do that. He
only thing he was certain about was the need to find out what she was hiding.

To conduct the strip search, he
required Vittorio to be in the room. At least according to the corporate
handbook.

He spun the woman around,
desperate to get his hands off of her. His beast was running wild, clawing to
get to the surface. With his animal nature flowing so hotly, Riley found both
his senses and emotions were open.

Not
good. Really not good.

There were so many—too many
churning emotions running through Riley. The strongest one was need. It was
relentless and base. And feeling Amelia’s supple skin beneath his fingertips
was doing nothing to curb the hunger.

The only thing keeping him from
losing his control was the knowledge Amelia felt the same hunger he did.
Beneath her fear and irritation was the faint aroma of desire. And it was
growing.

Becoming stronger every time he
placed his hands on her.

He glanced over his shoulder as
Vittorio entered the room. He closed the door behind him and locked it. No act
had ever sounded so final.

Vittorio didn’t move from the
door. He was waiting for something. Finally, Riley realised what it was.
Vittorio was waiting to make sure Riley was ready to continue. He nodded his
head in agreement, and Vittorio stepped to Amelia.

“Ma’am, we’re going to need you
to talk to us. Tell us why you were sent here?”

She sighed. “I already
told you. I was sent here to find—”

Riley cut her off. “Trust me,
sweetheart. You don’t want the wolf’s cock. Something tells me you can’t handle
it.”

Amelia’s face turned bright red,
no doubt as a result of embarrassment and anger. She clearly knew which wolf’s
cock he’d been talking about. And she didn’t like his implication one bit. She
parted her lips, getting ready to give him a piece of her mind when Vittorio spoke.

“I know this is going to be a
great inconvenience, Amelia, but we’re going to have to search your person,”
Vittorio interjected.

Amelia jerked her attention away
from Riley and smiled at Vittorio. The smile made Riley want to rip his best
friend’s throat out. “I understand you have a job to do,” she said softly. She
lifted her hands and spread them out, indicating her body. “As you can see I
don’t have much to hide.”

“You might not have pockets,
Amelia, but we all know you’ve got several places to hide things, dangerous
things,” Riley murmured.

She stared at him numbly for
several seconds, no doubt trying to process his words, trying to figure out if
he really was implying what it sounded like he was implying.

And then her eyes tightened in
rage and she took a step forward.

Vittorio swept forward, his
handsome face moulded by concern, and intercepted her before Amelia could rail
at him.

More the pity, Riley thought. He’d
never seen anything hotter than Amelia, angry, getting ready to tear into him.
He couldn’t help wondering if she was that passionate between the sheets.

Definitely!
She would probably burn his cock
the minute he slid into her.

Riley watched the two of them as
Vittorio explained, in hushed voice, that they were required to search her to
find out if she was hiding anything dangerous. She started to protest, but
Vittorio firmly repeated it was required.

She didn’t like it one bit but
she was resigned to the inevitable. The feeling was pretty much written on
Amelia’s expressive face as she looked up at Vittorio.

“Amelia, if you would please
stand here,” Vittorio said gesturing to the middle of the room.

Feet bare, Amelia strode across
the room. The sight of her naked feet reminded Riley they had to search more
than her person. He sought out her neglected shoes and basket. When he picked
up the items the air in the room stilled. He turned to find Amelia staring at
him in horror as a deep flush climbed up her face. A quick glance at Vittorio
informed Riley the were-tiger was watching Amelia, waiting for something.

 
He held the basket out. “I’m going to begin by
looking through this.”

Reluctantly, Amelia nodded her
head in agreement.

Vittorio strode across the room
to stand across from him. Together they reached into the basket and pulled out
an item. The second Riley’s fingers closed around his target he knew he was in
trouble. He lifted the item and stared at it in surprise. It was a large, dark
purple glass dildo complete with surprisingly realistic veins.

A sputtered cough caught Riley’s
attention and he glanced sharply at Vittorio to see the other man staring in
surprise at the flavoured lubricant in his hand. As one they turned and looked
back at Amelia. She was red faced with embarrassment, and slowly inching away
from them.

He dropped the dildo, strode
across the room and grabbed her. She stared up into his eyes with a mixture of
anxiety, fear and desire. He basked in the last emotion, surprised she would
feel that way towards him, especially after all they’d already gone through
that night.

He lifted her hands and held them
in his palms. He brushed his fingers over her wrists, taking notice of her
rapid pulse. Then he lifted his other hand and ran it through the thick strands
of her lustrous, auburn hair. She closed her eyes, moaned and tipped her head
back when his fingertips brushed across her scalp. Riley gritted his teeth
against the hard desire that filled him at the sound. Instead, he focused on
straightening out the wavy strands until they fell around her shoulders. When
he was satisfied, he removed his hand and returned it to her wrist. He lifted
her arms until they were flush against the wall. Before she could figure what
he was up to, he handcuffed Amelia to the light sconce above her head, grasped
the pins that had fallen from her hair, and shoved them in his back pocket.

When Riley stepped away from her,
he heard the low sound of Amelia’s angry growl. She’d just realised what he’d
done.

 
Vittorio glanced from Amelia’s bound figure to
Riley. He smiled at Riley before turning back to Amelia. “You have some very
interesting things in your basket, but the item that caught my attention was
this.” He held up a small rolled piece of paper.

Amelia stared at it silently. If
Riley had to make a guess he would say the human had no idea what Vittorio was
holding. So Riley asked the question he knew she wouldn’t. “What exactly is
it?”

Vittorio held Amelia’s gaze when
he answered. “It’s a map of the burial ground, complete with the names and
titles of certain plot holders.”

Amelia jerked hard against her
binding. Riley felt his stomach plummet before filling with unease. While he’d
listened to Rickard’s decree that they search the female, he hadn’t believed they
would find anything on her.

Already Vittorio had proved him
wrong.

“What else are you hiding?” he
growled, the disappointment and anger warring with the little common sense he
knew should be at the forefront.

“I think it’s time for that
search,” Vittorio said and strode across the room. Riley reached out and
grabbed his friend’s thick arm when he was halfway to Amelia. A sense of
possessiveness had flooded him at Vittorio’s words. Enough so, that he knew he
couldn’t let his best friend and flat mate put his hands on her without his
permission.