Siren Song (19 page)

Because she consumed him and he wanted to be near her, if only to experience the sweet torture of not allowing himself to touch. Because even as he tried to figure out the most efficient way to avoid temptation, his libido was figuring out ways to bump into it – hell, crash into it full force. He wanted her desperately.

Claim her,

“
No,” he said out loud, startling one of his employees. Squeezing his hands into fists as his wolf taunted him with something he could not have, he bit out,
She’s a human; I’m a wolf. It would never work out.

You’re the Alpha,
the wolf's seductive words whispered in his head.
The rules were made for you to break; claim her.

No.

CLAIM HER!

The wolf’s demanding roar startled him and he jumped. Glancing around the room, he noticed several sets of eyes staring at him. Scowling, he met each pair of eyes until their owners nervously went back to work and he prowled back to his office, ignoring the secretary as she tried to hand him some messages and slamming the door behind him. He didn’t need this right now; he didn’t need any of this. He had an erection that refused to go away and the scent of Lexi clinging to his fingers. If he didn’t find some semblance of sanity soon he was going to succumb to madness; he was going to fight his wolf to claim her for his own.

The eighteen year old mouse followed the gorgeous lion as he pinned flyers up all over the quad, quietly taking them down as soon as he looked away. Alexandra was sure the gorgeous man was going to turn around and catch in the act of undoing all of his hard work but she had read the flyer and she desperately wanted to be the one who answered the ad. She hated living in the dorm; her parents had allowed her to attend the state university but they refused to allow her to have a roommate.

Well, she had decided to take matters into her own hands and when she overheard the two gorgeous guys from her photography class talk about taking on a third roommate, she had immediately perked up. For some reason, she was utterly fascinated by the bartender and the artist and learning that they wanted a roommate....

It was the perfect opportunity. As long as they didn’t take one look at her and laugh her out of the house. As soon as she returned to her lonely dorm room that afternoon she had called the number and made an appointment to meet with them the next day.

Wearing a plain white t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, hoping to look like an ordinary college coed, she stood on the front step and knocked on the door, nerves and excitement battling in her stomach. If they didn’t answer, she was going to be sick all over the pot filled with dirt but no plant. When the door opened, her jaw dropped to her chest; the one with sandy blond hair was standing there wearing only a pair of boxers, rubbing his bare chest. His hair was standing on end and he looked as if he had just rolled out of bed. “Yeah?”

“
I’m here about the room?” she squeaked, taking in the naked expanse of skin.

“
Cole!” he called out, letting the door slide open the rest of the way while never taking his brown eyes off her, “You’re victim is here!”

She took a step back, her eyes widening in her head, until the nearly naked man smiled, a warm friendly smile that dimpled. “Come on it; can I get you anything to drink? Soda? Gin?”

“
Um, a glass of water would be great,” she replied meekly, entering the masculine domain and leaving the safety of her world behind.

“
It’s odd but you’re the only one who has shown any interest in rooming here,” he said as he led her further away from the life she had known. Glancing over his shoulder, his eyes sparkled with amusement, “Why is that, I wonder?”

“
I have no idea,” she lied, offering a tentative smile to hide the fact that she was lying.

He chuckled, “I think some enterprising little mouse pilfered all of our flyers.”

The other one bounded down the stairs at that moment, wearing a purple velvet smoking jacket and no pants. His golden brown hair hung loose around his face as he beamed down at her and clapped his hands together, “Our little thief. What a pleasure it is to make your acquaintance. Do you think I might have the flyers back?”

She felt the heat scalding her cheeks as she dug into her bag and pulled out the flyers, reluctantly handing them back to the men she had stolen them from. “I figured I’d save you the trouble of letting someone else move in only to discover they were not compatible.”

“
As if you’re compatible?” Dima asked dubiously, glancing at her squeaky clean image. “With us? Sweetheart, you’re as wholesome as apple pie.”

Her cheeks flames hotter but she stood her ground, “Just because I don’t chase after anything in a skirt doesn’t mean I’m not compatible. In fact, it might do you some good to have someone like me to… to add balance, or something.”

“
Or maybe we could corrupt you instead.” Dima said, waggling his eyebrows. Nudging Cole’s shoulder, he leered at her, “We could share her….”

“
Oh, please,” she waved her hand through the air, pretending to be brave when her heart was pounding in her chest, begging her to shut up. “The two of you couldn’t handle me.”

Cole’s laughter wrapped around her, embracing her in its warmth, “I think if anyone can make Dima a better person it would be you. But I’m afraid there’s no hope for me.”

“
There’s always hope,” she said gently, patting him on the arm, not knowing at the time that he was teasing her. Or what form his teasing would take.

“
I’m afraid not,” he sighed, untying the sash of his smoking jacket and letting it fall to the ground until he stood before her, completely naked.

Her eyes widened impossibly in her head as she saw her first nude male and she didn’t know where to look. In desperation, she looked at Dima, whose wicked grin was the only warning she had before he dropped his boxers and they both stood before her, naked as the day they were born but decidedly much more manly.

“
I’m afraid we’re both lost causes,” Dima sighed regretfully, his brown eyes gleaming with challenge as he negligently leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, his legs spread and his... penis just hanging there.

Straightening her shoulders, ignoring the prickling heat of her burning face, she stood before them, “Well, if you want to see me naked, you’re going to have to do a better job than that. Look at you two; you aren’t at all happy to see me….”

Cole’s arms were around her in an instant and he was hugging her, laughing heartily. “Can we keep her, Dima? Please? She’s simply too precious.”

A large palm brushed over her hair and was gone. When she looked over her shoulder, Dima was putting his boxers back on, a rueful smile on his face, “Yeah; we can keep her.”

“
I’m Alexandra.”

“
Hi, Lexi,” Cole grinned, purposefully changing her name, giving her a new one. “I’m Cole and this idiot is Dima.”

“
Um, do you think you might put me down and get some clothes on?”

After several intense days of getting used to one another, they fell into a routine. She was disappointed to discover she very rarely saw her new roommates and life was pretty much the same as before but now she had her own bathroom and she had to cook her own breakfast. Cole and Dima went to class when they felt like it, if they felt like it, and usually stayed out until late at night. Or early in the morning, depending on when they stumbled home.

There were girls, and often Lexi would run into one in the morning, usually sneaking out of Dima’s room. And occasionally from Cole’s. She wasn’t jealous of the girls that shared their beds because, oddly, she wasn’t sexually attracted to them. But she was jealous of the time they spent with Dima and Cole, selfishly wanting them to spend time with her, to maybe help her out of the box she had built around herself.

Sighing, she looked around the empty kitchen and started singing one of her favorite songs, a depressing ballad about lost love and hopelessness. Her mother was so careful to make sure she never sang around strangers, even though she had a beautiful voice. And while Cole and Dima were no longer strangers she couldn’t call them friends, either.

“
What is the heavenly smell?” Cole asked, drifting into the kitchen while rubbing sleep from his red-rimmed eyes. He had barely gotten home and yet he was coming into the kitchen… Lexi could barely contain her smile.

“
It’s pancakes,” she beamed. “Would you like some?”

“
Absolutely,” he said, sitting down at the table, looking nearly dead with exhaustion.

A moment later, Dima appeared, looking even worse than Cole, though Lexi wasn’t sure how that was possible. He plopped onto the chair and propped his head up with his hand, “I was two seconds away from going to sleep when the most delicious smell wrapped itself around me and dragged me from my bed.”

“
Lexi is making pancakes,” Cole answered. With a jaw-popping yawn, he garbled, “She’s making some for me, too.”

“
Can I get in on the action?” Dima asked, his eyes so bleary she wondered how he was even awake but she was simply too excited to ask.

“
Of course!”

After that, they started eating breakfast with her every day, no matter how exhausted they were. Within a few weeks, the three of them were inseparable. Before the year was over, they flew off to Cancun and changed the course of their stars.

Lexi bolted upright in her bed, a cold sweat breaking out across her forehead as she remembered how they become the friends they were today. “No, oh, please no.”

She sang and they became her devoted slaves.

As hot tears burned tracks in her frozen cheeks, as her limbs shook, she blindly reached for her phone, not caring about the things she was knocking down in her desperation to make a phone call. Under her breath, she chanted, “No… no…no….”

After a few rings that seemed an eternity, her mother’s sleep-heavy voice rasped, “Alexandra, what is it? What’s wrong?”

“
How do I release them?” her voice shook as her chest ached from the pressure of trying to hold itself together and not shatter. Her entire relationship with the two most important people in her life outside of her family was nothing more than a dream and now….

“
What in the world are you talking about?” her mother asked. Lexi heard her shift and murmur something to her father. “Alexandra?”

“
Cole and Dima.” It hurt to say their names and she pressed a palm against her sternum as if that could contain the misery. “How do I release them, or whatever it is that Sirens do to let their victims go?”

Her mother took a long, deep breath and then slowly let it out; the delay was killing Lexi and she started to chew on her thumb nail before her mom finally asked, “What makes you think they’ve been… enchanted?”

“
I sang, momma,” she cried. “One day when I thought they were asleep I sang and that was the morning they welcomed me into their lives.” She wasn’t sure if her words were very clear since she was crying so hard; she just hoped her mother would understand enough to help her. “I love them too much to… to enslave them. How do I let them go?”

Her mother let out another long breath before she answered, “Kiss them and give them back what you think you’ve taken from them.”

“
How do I do that? How does one give back something intangible like acceptance? Friendship?” Lexi sniffed then choked back a sob, “Love?”

“
Remember your time together,” her mother explained, her voice soothing and calm, washing over Lexi and easing her pain somewhat. “And when you kiss them, give it all back – all of the memories, all of the laughter, the tears. All of the love.”

Blinded by tears, she squeezed her eyes shut. Her heart was breaking at the thought of losing her two best friends in the universe but what choice did she have? “Will I remember?”