Charming the Beast (Purgatory #3)(33)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“Then why do I smell your blood?”

Damn enhanced senses.

“Because I was cut in the battle,” he said smoothly, “but not bit. Save your worry for Chloe. I’m fine.”

Connor marched into his office. “Why do I need to worry for Chloe? What the hell have you got planned?”

Ah, now anger was in the guy’s voice.

“We have to bring in Keegan,” he said. This should be obvious. “To get him, we have to use something he wants.”

Right then, the only thing he seemed to want was Chloe.

“Sonofabitch,” Connor muttered.

Chloe entered his office. She’d sidled up behind Connor. She looked between the two men, and Eric could practically feel her nervousness. “You should get some rest,” he told Chloe. “There’s a…lot coming.” Talk about a serious understatement.

She headed toward his desk. Her hands flattened on the surface and she stared into his eyes. “Is there any chance that I can ever live a normal life again?”

He didn’t look away from her. “I’ve always thought normal was way over-rated.”

She swallowed.

Connor’s hand curled over her shoulder. “Come on, Chloe.”

Her fingers slid over Eric’s desk. She didn’t speak again, but Connor did. He stopped on the threshold and looked at Eric. “You don’t want to see what happens if I’m pushed too far.”

Actually, no, he didn’t want to see that.

Connor shut the door. When Eric was sure that no one else was about to barge into his office, he took off the coat he’d grabbed from his SUV. The coat that had been covering him the entire time he’d been in Holly’s lab. The coat had gotten soaked with blood, and he had to pry it away from his shoulder.

Without the jacket, the holes in his shirt were obvious. The werewolf’s fangs had torn deep into him when the guy had made that bite.

Fuck.

It was a good thing he’d prepared for this situation…He wouldn’t be transforming. At least, not any more than he’d changed in the past.

Chapter Ten

Chloe wasn’t talking.

And Connor didn’t know what the hell he should say to her.

They were back in the room she’d been given at the Para Base. Chloe was sitting on the bed, her shoulders hunched, staring down at her hands.

Eric was planning to use her. To dangle her as pretty bait to pull in that bastard Keegan.

I can’t let that happen.

Because the last time that Chloe had gone out on one of Eric’s missions, she’d died in front of Connor. There was no way he could let that happen again. It wouldn’t happen.

“I know what he’s planning.” Chloe’s head tilted back, and she stared up at him. “You don’t need to stand there and try to figure out a way to tell me.”

“Chloe…”

“It’s obvious. If Keegan really is like you and Duncan, then Eric will do anything he deems necessary in order to bring the guy in. So he’ll use me and try to get Keegan to come rushing into whatever trap he has planned.” She stood up. “But Keegan doesn’t want to do anything but kill me. I mean, that’s obvious right? He broke my neck the last time he saw me. I don’t think the fellow is exactly driven wild by love for me.”

“I think he is driven wild,” Connor said carefully. “By jealousy.” And this was on him. Connor crossed the narrow room to stand by her side. “I marked you, and he knows it.” His hand sank beneath the curtain of her hair. “If I’d kept my hands off you—” He broke off, because he didn’t want to say the rest.

Her sad smile told him that she already knew. “Then he would have marked me? Right? You think he wants me? As a mate?”

Yes, he did.

“But I can’t even shift, I—” Her eyes widened. “My scent. That’s what you’ve all been talking about. What David Vincent was saying. My father changed my scent so that the male wolves would be drawn to me.”

Like a moth to a f**king flame.

“But now the scent is different,” Chloe said. “Because you marked me.”

Grimly, Connor nodded.

She jerked back. “Oh, my God.” Her hands wrapped around her stomach. “You—you didn’t even want me, not really, did you? It’s all about that stupid scent! Whatever, he did to me, it messed with your wolf’s instincts. You didn’t even want—”

“Let’s get one thing real clear.”

She gazed up at him.

“I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone in this world. I told you, your scent didn’t work on me the same way because I’m part vamp. So me, wanting you…” He nodded. “That is just me wanting you. Me needing you more than I need anything else.”

“Th-that’s the way I feel about you. I wanted to be with you. Wanted to know what it was like to give in to a desire like that, just once.”

“Once isn’t all we’ll have.” Because he had no intention of letting her go.

And right there, in that little room, the memories surrounded him. He’d had her on that bed. Been driven out of his head by her touch and her silky body. He wanted her then. Always. Wanted to plunge into her again and again.

“Connor?”

His jaw was clenched and his c**k shoved against the front of his jeans.

“You can compel me, can’t you?”

“I haven’t.” He didn’t want her to think that her desire for him hadn’t been real. The feelings they shared—they were one hundred percent real.

“But…you can. Vampires can compel their victims if they take their blood.”

Yes, that was how it worked. But he’d tried to be so careful. Always keeping his bloodlust in check. He knew that werewolf blood was supposed to be particularly dangerous, particularly addictive, to vampires.

“I’ve never compelled anyone,” he said. “And I don’t plan—”

“I want you to compel me.”

Now she’d shocked him.

“I want you to compel me, and then I want you to teach me how to resist the compulsion.”

“Baby, that can’t be done.”

She rubbed her arms. “It has to be done. Because if Keegan is like you, then—then he can compel me, too. I have to be able to break away if he tries. I don’t want to wind up being some kind of sick puppet for him.”

Now he had to touch her again. The pain in her voice pierced right through him. “I’m not going to let that happen.”