Carnal Secrets (The Phoenix Pack #3)(9)
Author: Suzanne Wright

Pissed-fucking-off, Nick caught the bat and yanked it toward him. He’d expected Shaya to try to keep hold of it, expected that his move would have tugged her to him. It didn’t. She let go of the bat and made a dash for the living room—God knew what weapon she was hiding in there. Not wanting to find out, he flung the bat aside and dove at her.

When a hard body folded around Shaya and tackled her to the carpet, she growled a string of profanities. Unsheathing her claws, she twisted her body slightly and took a swipe at Nick’s face. The prick was fast—he dodged the move and then clamped his hand around her wrist, pinning it above her head. Most likely suspecting she would try the same move with her free hand—he would be right—he shackled her other wrist. Then he locked his teeth around her shoulder in a very dominant move. Not biting, not breaking skin or marking…just cautioning her, snatching her full attention. It worked; both she and her wolf froze.

Putting his mouth to her ear, Nick spoke quietly. “I know you’re pissed at me, and I don’t blame you, but we need to talk. I’m going to sit you on the sofa, and we’ll discuss this like adults. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Choose.” When she sank her teeth into his arm, he got his answer. Of course he could throw his dominant vibes at her and suppress her, but he would never do that to his mate. Not seeing any other option to calm her down, he used his free hand to put pressure on her baroreceptor in the carotid artery at the base of her neck where it met her shoulder. Pretty soon, she was limp beneath him.

As Shaya woke to find herself slumped across the sofa, she frowned in confusion. That frown deepened when she saw that Nick had moved her armchair so that he was now directly opposite her and watching her with shrewd eyes. It took only a split second to recall what had happened—he’d sent her into the land of the fairies when she wouldn’t talk with him. She was actually kind of surprised he hadn’t simply used his dominant vibes to suppress her. Huh.

Abruptly she sat upright. And that was when she realized something else. Her wrists were secured together in front of her with black fur-lined cuffs. She gaped at him. “Oh, you sick bastard.”

He winced. “I was hoping I wouldn’t need to use them…but I can’t say I don’t like the look of them on you. Notice that I didn’t pin them behind your back. I don’t want you uncomfortable. I just want us to be able to talk without you grabbing a bat and swinging it at my head.”

“Thanks for the small mercy,” she spat with heavy sarcasm.

Wearing a forlorn, hopeless expression that plucked at Nick’s heart, she dropped her head and her shoulders sagged. Then she was sniffling. Shit. Guilt prickled his skin. He did the only thing he could do. He rose from his seat and went to her. Shocking the shit out of him, she suddenly sprang to life; she stomped hard on his foot, used her wrists tied in front of her to deliver a mean blow to his jaw, and then kicked his kneecap hard, making him stagger backward. Before Nick could reach for her, she was up and heading for the kitchen.

Nick should have been pissed—not only had she played him by acting the sad, stoic victim accepting of her fate, she had run from him. Instead, he found himself smiling at her deviousness. He could respect deviousness.

He was going to catch her. Shaya knew it. That didn’t mean she was just going to lie back and take this shit. That wasn’t who she was. Still, it was no more than five seconds later when a hard body folded itself around her from behind and she was tackled to the hardwood floor, pinned onto her stomach with her arms squashed beneath her. This was familiar. “Get off me, you son of a bitch!”

“You’re fast, I’ll give you that.” Nick grunted as she jammed her elbow into his rib cage. He placed more of his body weight down on her, but if anything, that only intensified her struggles. “There’s no point in doing this, baby. Stop.”

She snickered, forcing herself to ignore the authority in his voice. “Fuck you!” She reared her head back, smirking as it connected hard with his forehead, and he cursed again. When wooziness momentarily came over her, she realized that that might not have been wise.

“Christ, woman, will you stop!” That move had hurt like a bitch. Ignoring the trickle of blood he could feel spilling from the top of his forehead, Nick trapped her cuffed wrists above her head. “I swear if you don’t stop struggling, Shay, I’ll spank your ass.” She didn’t stop. Of course she didn’t stop. So he slid his free hand down to rest on her ass. Well, “rest on” wasn’t quite accurate. More like he’d cupped her ass. He could say with all honestly that it was the hottest ass he’d had the pleasure of touching.

“What the f**k?” Shaya wished she felt as outraged as she sounded.

“Stop trying to fight me or I will spank you. Don’t test me.” He was hoping she did. “I never make a threat that I don’t intend to follow through.” Did she stop? No. She tried to head-butt him again. Nick tsked and sharply brought his hand down on her ass, smiling when she gasped and froze. “I told you not to test me. Or maybe you wanted me to do it.” He placed his mouth to her ear and spoke in a teasing tone. “Maybe you like that. It’ll be no hardship for me to spank you again, so if you don’t like it, quit fighting me.”

As much as she hated to acknowledge it, there was no way that Shaya could get out from under him. She was just so tired, and he was so strong, the ass**le. Her wolf lowered her head and tail, acknowledging his dominance. Shaya couldn’t bring herself to openly admit defeat to him, so rather than speaking she simply went lax beneath him.

“Very good.” Nick’s voice was thick with the lust he felt at watching her submit. “Now, we’re going to slowly stand up.” He should have known that she’d try to run again. He should have expected it merely because the female could clearly be counted on to do the exact opposite of what he told her. Being much faster than she was, he caught her easily enough, looping an arm around her and pulling her back against him. “Now that wasn’t very good behavior, was it?” The crazy bitch bit into his arm, kicking him wildly. Grunting, he slung her over his shoulder and landed a harsh slap on her ass as he stalked back to the living room.

Shaya’s outraged gasp turned into a lengthy growl. “Put me down, you ass**le!” She clawed at the skin of his lower back.

“Just so you know, I like it rough. But I should point out something. You’ve used your claws and teeth a few times on me. If you do it again even once—whether it’s out of anger or not—my wolf is finally going to rise to that and push me to mark you right back. With the mating urges beating at me and your scent wrapped around me and your skin under my hands, I know for a fact that I won’t be able to resist biting you any longer. If you don’t want that, stop.”