Touch of Seduction Read online

  “But books like these?” he teased, waving one of the trade paperbacks in the air.

  She shrugged, smoothing her hands down the front of her sweater, doing her best to school her features into an expression of cool, womanly confidence. Rolling one shoulder, she said, “What can I say? Women have needs, too, you know.”

  He gave her one of those fallen-angel kind of smiles. One that was slow and smooth and dangerously suggestive. Then he winked at her. “Just for the record, if you ever need help with those needs, you just give me the word.”

  “That wasn’t a come-on,” she said primly, the heat in her face flaming hotter. “And I don’t happen to need a man’s help.”

  From one instant to the next, his eyes shot from playful hazel to deep, golden amber, the glow burning brighter…hotter, as if someone had cranked up the gas. “You like to go it alone, then? Wow. Kinky.”

  Olivia gritted her teeth. “No…I just…what I mean is, I don’t need—” She broke off with a sharp sound of frustration, knowing that anything she might say was only going to make it worse.

  His voice turned deeper…huskier. “Not that the idea of you getting yourself off doesn’t do it for me. Because it does. But you know, Liv, there are some things that are just better when you let someone else lend a hand.”

  It took a moment before she could think of a suitable response, the provocative words dazing her, as if she’d just been dealt a sensual jolt of pleasure. They hit her low in the abdomen, where she felt hot and empty, a heaviness there that felt like a gnawing, aching need. Finally she wet her lips and managed to say, “I realize this might come as a painful shock to you, Aiden, but I disagree. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I think the whole sex thing is a little overrated.”

  He winced, pulling his hand down his face. “Now, that’s just not fair,” he muttered, his rough voice sounding somehow pained.

  “Fair?”

  “Comments like that are the equivalent of waving a red flag in front of a bull. Just makes a guy want to charge in and prove how good the ol’ sex thing can really be, when it’s done right.”

  Ignoring the loaded remark, Olivia opted to steer the conversation back into safer territory. “So do you like to read?” she asked, following him as he picked up two of the suitcases and carried them into the bedroom.

  He sent her a look over his shoulder that said he would let her get away with avoiding the sex topic for now—but not forever—and said, “Yeah. I’m a big Rowling fan, as well as Koontz and King.” Setting the bags on the upholstered bench at the foot of the bed, he turned to face her, his thumbs hooked in the front pockets of his jeans. “But I like to play, as well.”

  She arched a brow in perfect imitation of his own. “Play what?”

  “Piano.”

  “Are you serious?” she said with a quiet laugh.

  He smiled a little, as if to say he knew how hard it was for her to reconcile the idea of a guy like him being cultured enough to play the piano, and guilt had her lowering her gaze, her face prickling with shame. She took a deep breath, knowing she should apologize, but when she lifted her gaze again, her mind stuttered to a jarring stop. Aiden was pulling off his T-shirt, his muscular arms raised in the air, his biceps bulging as he shamelessly revealed his enticing abs, followed by the smooth, sculpted planes of his chest. Olivia’s jaw dropped, while drool collected in the corners of her mouth. She might have even whimpered a little, but hoped the hungry sound had been only in her head. Working for her voice, she somehow managed to ask, “Wh-what are you doing?”

  “Getting ready for bed.” He tossed the T-shirt over the back of a chair, then reached for the top button on his jeans.

  “Whoa,” she breathed out, holding up her hands. “Stop right there, buddy. You are n-not sleeping in here.”

  His eyes smoldered under the heavy weight of his lashes. “Why not? You got a snoring problem you don’t want me to know about?”

  “No,” she practically growled. “I do not have a snoring p-problem. I j-just—”

  Before she could finish, Jamie rolled over in the bed. Sounding half-asleep, her niece said, “Livie never snores, but she talks in her sleep. Weal loud.”

  “Is that right?” Aiden asked with a husky, impossibly sexy burst of laughter, his long fingers scratching lazily at his chest.

  Olivia sighed, then pushed her hair back from her face. “Jamie, baby, you need to go back to sleep. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Jamie said around a wide yawn, while Olivia walked to the far side of the bed, leaned down and kissed her cheek, making sure the blankets were tucked in around her body. “Can I have a story?” Jamie asked. “The one you tell about the princess and the dragons?”

  “Of course you can, sweetheart.” With her back to Aiden, she sat on the edge of the mattress, her tension easing as she smoothed Jamie’s soft curls back from her forehead. “Once upon a time,” she said, “there was a…”

  WHILE OLIVIA WOVE a magical tale of fire-breathing dragons and a princess named Jamie, Aiden went into the living room and called Noah over his unit’s secure line, letting him know where they’d stopped for the night. He wanted to grill the guy about Kellan, wondering just how reckless the Lycan had been during their earlier fight with the Casus, but knew Kell would be in the truck with Noah…and able to hear anything he said over the phone. Better to wait until he could get the human alone.

  When he was finished with the call, Aiden walked back into the bedroom just as Liv was moving to her feet. He leaned his shoulder against the wall and watched her, taking a moment to simply enjoy the way she gazed down at the little girl with such love. When she shifted her gaze toward him, he was careful to keep his voice soft as he said, “I’ll pull the sofa in here and sleep on that, so you and Jamie can have the bed. But I’m not sleeping in the other room. We need to bunk down together for safety. It’s stupid to take unnecessary chances, especially when I don’t have any of Kellan’s gadgets on me.”

  “Gadgets?”

  “His custom-made security alarms,” he explained. “Guy’s some kind of techno genius when it comes to that stuff.” She nodded, busying herself with one of the bags he’d brought in earlier. Aiden could scent her tension in the air, the subtle vibration melting into his body, almost as if he was a predator on the hunt…and it felt good. “So I was wondering if there was a reason you didn’t want to sleep in the same room as me. I mean, other than the fact that I obviously make you uncomfortable.”

  Instead of denying it, she pulled her lower lip through her teeth and slanted him a curious look. “Like what?” she asked.

  “Some guy who’s gonna take exception to you being here with me?”

  Her gaze slid away and she gave a quiet, nervous kind of laugh. “Uh, that would be no.”

  “What about Jamie’s dad? Won’t he be looking for her?”

  She shook her head. “He left Monica before Jamie was born and has never even met his daughter.”

  “And you’re serious about no boyfriend?”

  “Yes.”

  Staring at her delicate profile, Aiden searched for any signs of deceit. When she glanced at him again and caught the way he was looking at her, a warm blush covered her cheeks. “What is it?”

  He blew out a rough breath. “I just find that really hard to believe, Liv.”

  “What?” She ran her hands up and down her biceps, as if she was cold. “That I don’t have a boyfriend?”

  “Yeah.”

  She shrugged, turning back to the suitcase. “Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s the truth. I ended my last relationship over a year ago.”

  Without meaning to, Aiden heard himself ask, “What happened?”

  Another soft laugh fell from her lips, but this one had a brittle edge to it. “Let’s just say that he wasn’t the man I thought he was.”

  Aiden wanted to press her for details, but held back, not knowing what to make of the unfamiliar burn in his chest. It had flared at the thought of her with this unnamed male, as if the
idea of her being with another man actually mattered to him. Shaking his head at the bizarre, completely unfamiliar concept, he watched as she sent a longing glance toward the bottles of shampoo and conditioner she’d set on the dresser. “Go on and take your shower,” he murmured. “I’ll watch over Jamie.”

  She stared down at her niece, clearly undecided.

  “Liv, look at me.” He waited until she’d shifted that smoky gaze back to his face, then said, “I’d rather die than hurt a kid. And I’m sure as hell not going to let anything happen to this one. If you’re going to make it through this, you’ve got to start trusting me.”

  “I know that,” she whispered.

  “So go on, then. I promise I won’t let anything happen to her.”

  She pulled out some clothes, then grabbed her toiletries. When she reached the doorway she braced one hand against the doorjamb and glanced over her shoulder. “Thank you, Aiden. For everything. I promise I’ll figure out a way to repay you for all of this someday.”

  “Not necessary. And if you need any help in there scrubbing your back,” he drawled, giving her another wink, “just let me know.”

  SHAKING HER HEAD at his outrageousness, Olivia shut the bathroom door behind her. She showered quickly, and within ten minutes she was dressed in her favorite ratty pair of navy sweats and a gray tank top, her towel-dried hair hanging loose around her freshly scrubbed face. She was ready to race for the covers, but the instant she opened the door, she found Aiden sitting on the sofa that he’d pulled into the room, thumbing through a dog-eared copy of one of her favorite erotic romances.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped, while Jamie snored softly from the bed, obviously out for the count.

  Without taking his eyes off the page, he said, “I was curious about what you like.”

  “What I l-like?” she stammered.

  The low rasp of his voice stroked her skin like a sensuous touch as he quietly said, “You know. Sexually.”

  Something isn’t right here, she thought, only too aware of the differences between them. Men like Aiden Shrader never even looked twice at women like her, and they certainly didn’t admit to being “curious” about their sexual fantasies. Olivia had always been too plain for that. Her older stepsister, Monica, had been the jaw-dropper in the family. Tall and perfectly proportioned. Then there’d been her younger stepsister, Chloe, who was so tiny and slim and ethereal. From the time of her father’s marriage to Monica and Chloe’s mother, Olivia had always just…been there. Stuck in the middle. Average, except for the overly top-heavy part. She supposed her hair and eyes could be considered assets, but had always felt as if they were kind of wasted on the rest of her.

  And the rest didn’t add up to much. Especially when you threw in the shyness and the stammer.

  Still, she had her pride, and she wasn’t going to just stand there and let a man like Aiden poke fun at her, pretending he was actually interested in what got her off. Tears pricked her eyes, her throat burning with a sudden rush of anger. “I get that you don’t care for humans, Aiden, but that’s no reason to be mean.”

  When he slid his gaze up from the pages of the book, the smoldering look in his glowing amber eyes made her shiver. “Mean?”

  “You’re making fun of me,” she accused, fisting her hands at her sides.

  “And you’re making assumptions, Liv. I was serious about what I said.” He shrugged one shoulder, looking almost embarrassed. “I just want to understand you better.”

  Olivia blinked, feeling as if he was suddenly speaking a language she didn’t understand. “Is this…some kind of j-joke?”

  Setting the book aside, he rolled up off the sofa with an animalistic power and grace that made her heart race…her chest burn. Muscles coiled and flexed as he stalked toward her, bunching and stretching beneath all that tight golden skin. “You really think I’m making fun of you?”

  She nodded, her mouth watering as she watched him move. Feeling the need for retreat, she took a step back, and then another, until she had walked herself right back into the bathroom.

  And Aiden just kept coming closer.

  “Why do you think I kissed you tonight?” he asked in a husky rasp.

  Shaking her head a little, Olivia struggled to concentrate past the deep, rhythmic pulse of desire that was arcing through her body, prickling beneath her skin. “I…I don’t know. But it wasn’t because you wanted to have s-sex with me.”

  “’S that right?” He snorted, then muttered, “You know, in some twisted way, this is pretty funny.”

  “What’s so funny about it?”

  “It’s funny,” he said in another low, delicious rumble, “because I’ve wanted to fuck you since the second I set eyes on you.”

  Her heart tried to lodge its way into her throat, not only from the shocking claim he’d just made, but from the way he suddenly moved farther into her space, closing in on her with his heat and the tantalizing scent of his body. And God, did it smell good. Warm and musky and male, like something wild and earthy that could be found only in the hidden depths of a dense, dark jungle. Something primal and raw and a little terrifying, it was so damn delicious. “Wh-what are you doing?” she gasped, flattening herself against the wall.

  “Making the first of what is no doubt going to be a long list of mistakes where you’re concerned.” The hard, sensual look on his face was the most erotic thing Olivia had ever seen.

  She wished she had the nerve to follow through on the 1,001 fantasies burning through her brain, but all she could manage to choke out was a soft, trembling “Then be smart and d-don’t do it.”

  Bracing his hands against the wall, the Watchman caged her in, his rich, provocative scent hitting her full force now. It filled her head. Covered her body like a second skin, enveloping her in a sensual cloud as it mixed with the warm steam that still lingered from her shower. “Trust me,” he rasped. “I would if I could, Liv. But I can’t.”

  She had the strangest urge to laugh and cry at the same time as she stared up into his hypnotic eyes, mesmerized by the swirling, discordant streams of emotion burning inside him. Anger. Hunger. Arrogance. And what she could have sworn was fear. “You really are such a strange man,” she whispered, wondering how he could affect her so strongly when she’d known him for nothing more than a handful of hours.

  His beautiful mouth twisted into a lopsided smile as he tucked a damp strand of hair behind her ear. “Believe it or not, I get that a lot.”

  “I b-believe it.”

  “You’re stuttering again.” His voice was soft, seductive, his touch dangerously tender as he trailed one fingertip along the side of her face, painting her skin with his heat. “You scared now, Liv?”

  For some reason, Olivia felt as if he was testing her, but she didn’t understand what he was after. And she definitely didn’t understand the man. “I’m n-not afraid of you, Aiden.”

  He lowered his hand, pressing his large palm against the center of her chest, his skin fever-warm through the thin cotton of her tank top. “Your heart’s beating a mile a minute.”

  She licked her lower lip, acutely aware of her body thrumming with need, her nipples gathering into hard, tight knots that pressed thickly against her shirt. “You’re playing with me. I get that. I just don’t know what you expect to get out of it.”

  Aiden leaned close, enjoying the way her pulse leaped and her eyes went dark. So dark he could see his own intense expression staring back at him in the luminous pools of violet. “Maybe I just want another taste of you,” he told her, lowering his head until he could press his mouth against the side of her throat. Her skin was warm and soft, a fragile barrier to the succulent heat that flowed beneath the surface. He pressed his tongue to the seductive rush of her pulse, his body burning at the sexy little catch in her breath. “Ever think of that?” he asked, pulling back just enough that he could gauge her expression.

  A small V settled between her brows. “But you don’t even like humans.”

  “
True,” he admitted with a rough laugh. “But I seem to be liking you just fine. And if you don’t believe me, then take a look for yourself.” He gestured toward his lower body with a jerk of his chin.

  Instead of doing as he said, she squeezed her eyes shut.

  He whispered, “Go on, Liv. Look. I dare ya.”

  Trembling, she opened her eyes, glanced down and gave a hoarse, quiet cry of hunger that just made his dick even harder, the brutal ache pounding through all six and a half feet of him. “Jamie’s asleep.” He ground the words out past his tight jaw. “We could shut the bathroom door.”

  She ran her tongue over her bottom lip, a soft tremor shivering through her limbs, the scent of her need so thick in the air he had to mentally claw onto his beast, holding it back from her. “As tempting as that sounds, I’m afraid I’ll have to p-pass.”

  Aiden didn’t say anything. He just fought for control as he put his face close to hers and stared, waiting for her to look at him again.

  It took awhile, but she finally tore her gaze away from his crotch and lifted it back to his face. “You seem…surprised,” she said with a shaky, nervous kind of laugh.

  His chest rose with each hard, slow breath as he studied her from beneath his lashes. “To be honest—” his mouth tilted in another crooked grin “—I’m not used to being turned down.”

  “Especially by women who look like me, huh?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” he grunted, not liking the insinuation in her tone.

  “Come on,” she said dryly, rolling her eyes. “I’m a plateful of leftovers compared to what must be the ‘usual’ for a guy like you.”

  Aiden stared, not knowing what to make of her. He’d never heard a woman speak of herself in such a way. The ones he’d known, for the most part, had been vain creatures, obsessed with their looks and their ability to seduce. But here was this one, trying to tell him that she was…What? Plain? Something to be passed over? When he knew damn well that she was beautiful—sexy and lush and soft in all the right places, and that was just on the outside. Inside, well, she might have been a relative stranger to him, but he’d already learned so many things about her character. She was obviously brave, as well as compassionate and caring. Not to mention fiercely loyal to those she loved.