[Southern Arcana 3.0] Deadlock (35 page)

A chuckle spilled free. “Every victory party needs a voodoo chef. John makes some damn good food, you know.”

“So I’ve heard.” She leaned her head on his shoulder. “What are you thinking about?”

“You.” One arm looped around her waist, and he tugged her to his chest and turned around slowly, away from the lake. “Right there. That’s where it happened.”

Her cheeks heated. “Where I ran like an idiot and fell asleep on you?”

“Where an empath up to her ears in feral instinct looked at me and saw safety.”

It was exactly what had happened, the only reason she’d ever allowed herself the luxury of rest that day. “What should I have seen?”

“A bastard. A stranger. A killer.”

“Nope.” She stroked his arm soothingly. “You tricked everyone else, but there’s no fooling someone who can see inside you.”

“And understand what she sees.” His chin came to rest on her head. “Everything’s going to change now. It’s good. It’s been a long time coming. But God almighty, Carmen…what if I’m not up to this?”

“Up to what? Making sure that all the people in your care, under your authority, have the opportunity to live their lives as best they can? That they have help when they need it, and someone to make them stop if they step over the line or hurt others?”

“No.” A whisper, fading into the night. “What if I’m not up to figuring out all the ways the world needs to change?”

There had to be things she didn’t even know about yet, but she knew where to begin. “The need, Alec. There have to be people out there who need your help, even if they think they can’t ask for it, or they don’t know how. Start with that. Then, the injustice. Every time someone expects special treatment or a different set of rules because of money or their family name.”

“We could spend the next decade on that.” He kissed her temple and then her cheek, his arms tightening around her waist. “Franklin finally told me where the money’s coming from, and Dade said there’s more if we need it. Enough to establish clinics throughout the Southeast. I was hoping you’d organize that, since I don’t know where to start.”

“I have a few ideas.” Carmen spun in his arms and looked up at him. “You can do this, honey. Just think of all the reasons you didn’t want to have anything to do with it in the first place. You can change them now.”

“
We
can change them now.” A full moon hung heavy overhead, reflecting the white glint of his teeth as he grinned down at her. “I’m going to marry the hell out of you, Carmen Mendoza. You’re not getting away. You’re mine.”

The perfect time to lower her walls and let him back in so he could feel her delight at his words. “Good. If you marry me, I won’t have to chase after you.”

His amusement curled around her, followed by his pleasure at the touch of her empathy. “I thought we had it pretty well established that I’m the one chasing you, no matter where you run.”

“Mmm, that’s what I let you think. You chased me until I caught you.” She stretched up until her lips brushed his. “Sneaky, right?”

“Mmm, sneaky. And bullshit.” A soft growl, and he nipped her lower lip. “Don’t pretend you don’t love getting caught.”

She loved everything, every part of being with him. Words failed her, but that was okay. She nuzzled her face to his and let him feel it instead, bypassing her clumsy tongue altogether.

For once he had the words, and he whispered them against her lips. “Love you. Love every damn bit of you.”

Contentment flooded her, a curious peace edged with excitement. “Your house is full of people. How am I supposed to drag you to bed right now?”

“Who needs a bed?” Teeth scraped her earlobe, a sharp bite as dark promise wrapped around her. “I’ll give you a head start this time.”

Anticipation and arousal curled through her, smoke from a building fire. “That’s wicked.”

“That’s nothing.” He released her and took a step back. “Wicked is what happens when I catch you.”

“
If
you catch me,” she countered, her mind already whirling with the sensual possibilities.

“I’ll always catch you.” Quiet. Sure.

The rest of Carmen’s life stretched before her, a continuous wave of good and bad, joyous and sorrowful, just like everyone else’s. This was what would make it perfect—unwavering devotion.

Love.

She turned and ran for the barn with a laugh. Every quick stride echoed her heartbeat, singing through her blood along with the joy they shared. Alec would catch her, and she would show him the moon.

The night, the
world
, was theirs, and all that mattered was the two of them.

About the Author

How do you make a Moira Rogers? Take a former forensic science and nursing student obsessed with paranormal romance and add a computer programmer with a passion for gritty urban fantasy. To learn more about this romance-writing, crime-fighting duo, visit their webpage at
www.moirarogers.com
, or drop them an email at
[email protected]
. (Disclaimer: crime-fighting abilities may appear only in the aforementioned fevered imaginations.)

Look for these titles by Moira Rogers

Now Available::

Red Rock Pass

Cry Sanctuary

Sanctuary Lost

Sanctuary’s Price

Sanctuary Unbound

Southern Arcana

Crux

Crossroads

Building Sanctuary

A Safe Harbor

Undertow

Coming Soon:

Wilder’s Mate

Sabine

Kisri

He’s the last man she should ever want. She’s the last woman he can ever have.

Crossroads

© 2010 Moira Rogers

Southern Arcana, Book 2

Coming from a family with psychic gifts, Derek Gabriel was aware of but separate from the dangers of the supernatural world, until a rogue wolf shifter stripped away his humanity. The change he barely survived didn’t drive him insane, but the cultural bias against him as an inferior transformed wolf might. And it doesn’t help that he’s fallen for the daughter of the most powerful wolf in the country.

Almost from the moment she was born, Nicole Peyton started planning her escape from the strict confines of elite shapeshifter society, an old-fashioned world where women are valued only for their bloodlines and bank accounts. In New Orleans she has a bar she loves, friends in decidedly low places, and a smoldering sensual tension with an incredibly attractive and deliciously unsuitable man.

Their forbidden longing erupts into unbridled need—until Nick’s sister burns into town with a strike team hard on her heels. Saving her means Nick has to play by the Conclave’s rules…and give up the man she is growing to love.

Unless Derek does something completely crazy—issue a challenge that could shake the foundations of their world.

Warning: This book contains forbidden lust, strip poker, instinct-driven sex in odd places, devious shapeshifters, and love and loss in a world of paranormal politics and supernatural schemes
.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Crossroads:

Color flamed high in her cheeks as she growled and covered the space between them with quick steps. “I’m angry. I’m angry because it’s easier.”

He reached out and caught her shoulders in a gentle grip. “Easier than what?”

She looked up at him and laughed almost hysterically. “Easier than completely and utterly losing my shit.”

“Oh, Nicky.” She felt so tiny as he slid his arms around her, delicate and fragile. Even knowing that seeming weakness was deceptive, every urge in his body clamored to find someplace safe to hide her away from the world and the misery in it.

But it was her world. He didn’t know the first damn thing about protecting her from it.

Her teeth scraped his arm through his sleeve, and she stumbled out of the circle of his arms. “I’m sorry. I just—I’m losing it.” Her eyes had gone wild, and she dragged her shirt over her head as she kicked off her sandals.

Too late he realized what the power gathering around her meant. “Are you going to run?”

“I have to, Derek.” Her skirt billowed to the ground, and she tore at her underwear. “Come with me. Please.”

“Of course.” His instincts wouldn’t let him stay there while she ran off by herself. Derek tugged his T-shirt over his head, anticipation prickling along his skin. The heat that preceded a change stole through him, something hot and heavy and tinged with a lust fueled by Nick’s naked body.

Her wolf must have been close the surface, because she’d barely hit the ground when the air around her shimmered and then pulsed with energy that washed over him in a hot wave. She stood before him, a small gray wolf who shook and pawed impatiently at the grass under them. Derek yanked at his belt and kicked off his boots, itching with the need to join her.

The change was usually easy, but he’d never done it in front of Nick before. He was far too aware of his body’s reaction, of the fact that he was hard and aroused and shaking under the force of the magic. Closing his eyes, he sucked in a breath and reached for that flickering bit of power inside him, the animal waiting just below the surface.

It felt like magic because it was. Pleasure pounded through him and his skin tingled, and he crouched down and gave in to it. The most natural feeling in the world, because now he was
free
…

Instinct lifted his face, and the wolf howled pleasure at being let loose. When his exultant howl faded, he found Nick watching him. After a moment, she yipped and took off toward the woods.

Her scent enflamed him. Her challenge entranced him. Human concerns bled away as he launched himself after her, wanting nothing more in the world than to run at her side.

Nick’s muscles burned. She had to focus on breathing, on drawing in one gulp of muggy night air after another. That was exactly what she wanted, to occupy her mind with something other than the fact that, one way or another, her sister might die.

Even if she hadn’t heard him, she would have sensed Derek behind her, a warm zing of magic that dovetailed perfectly with her own. He felt solid,
right
, with his trampling steps echoing hers.

She knew he’d follow her until exhaustion claimed him, if it didn’t take her first. But it was too hot to run for long, and Nick stumbled over a fallen log and tumbled to the ground under an ancient oak tree.

Letting go of the wolf was easier with fatigue quelling her nervousness. Twigs snapped under hands and feet instead of paws, and she collapsed onto a bed of moss, her chest heaving.

Fire.
If it had only been the pull of exertion, she could have ignored it. But the change burned through her and scraped her nerve endings into a vicious flurry of arousal. “Derek,” she rasped.

It took him longer to regain human form, but soon enough he crouched at her feet, his muscular chest straining under his panting breaths. He looked massive in the moonlight filtering through the trees, a hulking giant of tanned skin stretched over hard muscles. When he lifted his head, she caught a glimpse of eyes still glinting yellow.

His gaze caught hers and drifted down her body, the stare so blatantly sexual it stole her breath. One hand dropped to her ankle, and his large fingers encircled it easily. “Tell me to stop.”

She couldn’t. She
wouldn’t
. “No.”

Derek dragged her ankles apart and dropped to his knees between her legs. He tickled his fingers up her calves as he jerked his gaze to hers again. “Put your hands over your head.”

Sheer primal instinct drove her to obey. She licked her lips and exhaled a shuddering breath. “I need you.”

“Not as much as I need you.” His thumb traced along the inside of her knee, a small teasing caress that vanished when he moved his hands to the ground on either side of her hips. He loomed over her, his wide shoulders blocking out the light filtering through the trees.

His expression was wild. Feral. His gaze locked with hers, and he shuddered. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes.” The answer would have been the same even if she hadn’t been aching to feel his skin against hers, even if they hadn’t spent the last few days learning about each other. “With my life.”

A rumbling noise of approval started deep in his chest and escaped his lips as he lowered them to her breast. His tongue circled the tip in a teasing flick, and he drew her nipple into his mouth with another low noise.

Nick tried to stifle the cry that accompanied the sharp rush of pleasure, but it rolled out of her between clenched teeth. Her back arched off the ground, toward his mouth, and she barely remembered not to move her hands.

She felt the scrape of teeth, then the heat of his mouth disappeared. A low, masculine laugh rose as he nuzzled her stomach and dropped tiny kisses on her damp skin. “I can smell how hot you are for me.”

Something witty should have popped to mind, the perfect rejoinder to his soft, sexy words. “I want you so bad it hurts. I always have.”

He dragged his tongue up the center of her chest before veering off to nip at her shoulder. “And now you have me.”

Do I?
The words hung in her throat as the throbbing need in her body grew worse. Her skin flamed wherever he touched her, but it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. “Derek, please.” Her fingers curled into the mossy earth above her head. “Let me have you.”

His teeth closed on her neck, hard and possessive, and he groaned against her skin and shifted his weight above her. One hand skated over her hip and slipped between her legs, and his fingers stroked through slick folds. He lifted his head and watched her, his face tight. “I want to see you come,” he growled a moment before his fingers centered on her clit.

She thrust her hips up with a whimper. He touched her as if he’d been doing it forever, as if he knew every inch of her already. Desire took over, and she felt him watching as she bit her lip and arched her head back. “Don’t stop.”

He
did
, but only long enough for his thumb to replace his fingers. Then his fingers shifted lower, easing into her as he groaned. “God damn it, Nicky.
Come.
Come so I can be inside you.”