More Wicked Alphas, Wilder Nights: Sizzling Collection of Paranormal Romance (Wicked Alphas, Wild Nights Book 5) (10 page)

Dragon shifter Sebastian and very unsupernatural human Lacey felt immediate heat when they met, yet each one brushed it off as mere physical attraction. Besides, he's her boss's boss's boss. But one night at the museum, they find they just can't keep their hands off one another, no matter what the consequences might be....

Doing his damnedest to focus on the conversation with the groom’s father and new father-in-law, Sebastian nodded and chuckled at appropriate intervals. They were both important, generous donors to the Bernal Center. As such, he owed them the courtesy of his attention.

But Lacey’s glorious, delighted laughter kept catching his attuned ear instead, blowing his concentration. Between her laughter, her enticing scent, and the frisson of smoldering attraction between them, all his senses were wire tight.

Finally, after a last round of sincere congratulations and once more thanking them for their continued devotion to the museum, Sebastian gracefully excused himself with the excuse that he needed to circulate and be sure that everything was running smoothly. He barely registered their enthusiastic thanks for the private use of the venue as he turned to locate the burning, vexing focus of his unquenchable desire.

His dragon was going to be the death of him where this woman was concerned. The wild, ceaseless insistence that he get close to her, bury himself in her, taste all her succulent treasures and keep them to himself, frankly was driving him half insane.

Just tonight,
 he silently swore his head.
One night to scratch this itch, get it out of my system, and move on.

Nodding and smiling as he easily sidestepped small clusters of excited, happy wedding goers, Sebastian maneuvered his way across the marble floors of the great rotunda, heading with unerring accuracy to the sound of Lacey’s low, sweet voice. Her exquisite scent pulled him along as it teased at him, urging him forward as if she tugged him toward her with a heated, sensuous leash.

There. Lacey Whitman, rising star curator. His rising star curator, at his company’s own white-hot, world-class Bernal Center. His dragon rumbled with possessive pride. Lacey, his private obsession despite his own avowed wariness of all things female. The sexy yet classy dress she wore for the festivities hugged her curves in silky panels of pale pink rose and soft, burnished copper. A stylish silk bolero jacket just clung to her arms and shoulders, emphasizing the beautiful tapering down to her waist where the form-fitting dress accentuated the luscious hips he’d been longing to get ahold of.

Sebastian felt his cock stir as he headed her way, the fire of his dragon inside blazing with an inexorable arousal. Yet this also felt different than mere physical ardor needing to be assuaged by whatever willing, un-clingy woman he could find. The swell of Lacey’s breasts that he could see as she half turned and gestured to the display hanging from the ceiling of the rotunda snared him with their soft, enticing invitation to stroke and hold and lick and nibble.

Yes. The unbearably gorgeous woman would be the death of him. Unless he could get her alone in the next two minutes.

Sebastian easily covered the last few steps to reach her side. The guests she spoke to noted his arrival, some smiling in flattering greeting while others looked simply awed that he approached them. Whether in dragon form or human, Sebastian Bernal always garnered tremendous respect.

Alerted by the glances in his direction, Lacey cut herself off mid-sentence and swung around to look at him. The immediate light flush that heated her cheeks told him she, too, felt the attraction between them. “Mr. Bernal,” she said, smiling that professional smile despite the pink in her face. “I was just explaining the history of how the museum acquired several of the pieces here in the rotunda.”

Was it just him, or did she sound a shade close to breathless? Sebastian’s dragon rumbled in satisfaction. He liked it.

“I trust you all are enjoying the evening. We’re delighted to be able to host the wedding of the decade.” Sebastian made sure his smile included everyone there, even though every piece of his being was attuned so closely to Lacey for a split-second he literally wondered if he was leaning toward her.

“Oh, it’s such an amazing setting for the ceremony, Mr. Bernal,” one of the women in the group said, brazenly practicing what she apparently thought was her most seductive smile on him. “It was incredibly generous of you to allow the Harringtons to hold it here.”

The woman literally lowered her head so she could look up at Sebastian from beneath her eyelashes. It made her look drunk and idiotic. Sharply curbing the desire to tell her to find some other rich fool to hook her avaricious claws into, he awarded her his best gallant smile. When he murmured the pat lines about how the center would be opening to the public for weddings and other events beginning in the fall, the woman’s cooing gush of appreciation nearly made him lose his patience. Masking his irritation, he turned to Lacy.

The unmistakable heated flare of Lacey’s interest tickled at him. His dragon pushed at him to claim her and drag her off to his lair. Forcefully shoving down his baser instincts, Sebastian merely said, “Please, everyone, keep enjoying the center. The bar is open, and the docents are present for more private tours and to answer any questions anyone may have. I hope you enjoy the rest of the evening. Now, Ms. Whitman,” he said, turning decisively to Lacey. “The bride and groom have a few specific questions about your area of expertise. I need to steal you away. The rest of you will have to excuse us.” He smiled, executing a gentlemanly bow to the group, all of whom laughed and waved them on. Except, of course, the woman who wanted more of his attention. Her eyes glared daggers at Lacey as Sebastian turned his back on them, putting his hand on the small of Lacey’s back to guide her away.

And that sort of response was why this encounter with Lacey would be only for one night. Women were like that. He didn’t need the drama. His dragon angrily muttered at him that Lacey was nothing like the others. Since his dragon side had been the one to get him into trouble before, Sebastian ignored it. Lacey was female. Enough said. This was a one-time thing. It was merely to thoroughly satisfy the promise of the tempestuous, steamy kiss they’d shared the other night before being interrupted.  

He fully intended he and Lacey would this time enjoy one another’s bodies with no disturbances. Besides which, if his desire was thwarted once again, he was likely to blast the museum with a frustrated, red-hot breath that would literally burn it down.

He doubted the board would in any way appreciate that.

As he whisked them both away, Lacey’s rich voice teased his senses as she said in a skeptical tone, still a little breathier than usual, “I saw the bride and groom not ten minutes ago hiding behind the statue of Ixchel. They were making out like they were teenagers instead of a newly married couple.” She shot a sidelong glance at him as he maneuvered them toward the hallway to the administrative offices. “I highly doubt they want a private tour right now. A private room seems more like it.”

The gorgeous laughter that flipped him inside out rippled beneath her words. Her hip bumped against his as she gently sidestepped another small group of people. From the swiftness with which she moved away from him after that happened, not to mention the tantalizing spike in her sweet arousal that he could smell, told him she was putting on an act for everyone as well.

“No, they don’t,” he admitted without shame as he steered her away from the rotunda to the corridor that led to his office, nodding at the security guard who blocked anyone from attempting to explore into that part of the center as they swept past. “But I certainly need a private room with you.”

She half halted, causing his hand on her back to slide closer to her waist as the momentum carried him past her for a step or two. He looked down at her as she came to a complete stop, allowing the full scope of his interest to show on his face as he gently stroked his fingers just above the front of her hip bone. Lacey inhaled sharply at that, her gorgeous indigo eyes widening as she looked at him. Her masses of blonde hair, caught up in some fancy hairdo, just begged to be let down to flow around her shoulders.

Sebastian tried to bite back a groan at the thought, but she must have caught it. She swallowed hard, her pulse leaping beneath the soft skin of her neck in a way that made him want to lick her there.

To claim her.

Damn his insistent, primitive-minded dragon.
Only sex,
 he reminded himself roughly. This was only about having sex with this amazing, gorgeous woman that he couldn’t get his mind off of. No claiming would be involved.

The faster they could get to said sex, the easier it would be to control his increasingly unruly dragon side.

Forcing himself to still touch her with only his hand on her waist, he said in a tone so low it was close to the sound of his dragon growling, “I suggest you keep walking with me. Because if you don’t keep moving, my sweet beauty, I’m going to push you up against the wall in this hallway and kiss you until you can’t think straight. And since we’re still in view of the rotunda, I don’t think that’s a very good idea. Do you?”

***

Sebastian’s point blank suggestion sent shock waves through Lacey. Mouth suddenly dry, she attempted to swallow, then licked her lips. His intense gaze shot straight to her lips. Then he looked back into her eyes, and she nearly swallowed her tongue. His expression hadn’t changed, but the heated waves of energy rolling off of him and washing over her had. The hallway seemed charged with crackling fire that raced through her, leaving her nerve endings alight. His provocative, presumptuous, extremely arousing words from the other night echoed in her head.

You will want to feel my touch, Lacey. My fingers on your skin. Stroking, traveling along your body, dipping into every curve and rounding over every soft swell. And you won’t want me to stop.

She looked back up at him now, almost instantly wishing she hadn’t. Something was changing in his eyes. The green flecks seemed more pronounced. Brighter, somehow. The sheer desire that sizzled between them—it was palpable. Like a living thing. As if he was calling to her, driving her toward him with some sort of indomitable force. A force she really, really wanted to give into, despite her rational side contending that this was only the road to emotional danger and professional madness.

“I’ve been watching you all evening. Wanting you.” The liquefying deep bass of his voice quickened her breathing despite her attempts to control her ridiculously aroused body. “And I always get what I want.”

That self-assured note managed to shake Lacey back to a semblance of her usual strong self. “Oh, really, Mr. Bernal? Always?”

She really didn’t mean for that to be a leading question. But the sudden blast of hunger in his eyes, and what she could swear was a deepening intensity of his addictive scent bathing her in his outrageously primitive pheromones, clearly told her she’d just thrown down the gauntlet.

“Yes, Ms. Whitman.” He prowled closer, trapping her with his stunning eyes. “I do in fact always get what I want.”

“Is that a fact.” Her voice sounded like she was panting a bit, darn it. Not exactly like the cultured, professional employee she strove to be. “And what exactly is it you want right now?”

Another step, and his face was inches away from hers. Her rational side instinctively battling for control over the body that desperately wanted to find out exactly what it was he wanted to have, she could hardly breathe as his proximity struck a match to the hot flicker of sheer lust she’d been attempting to douse all evening.

“I thought I made that clear the other night, Lacey. I want you.” The sheer male possessiveness in his tone sent a knee-knocking shiver racing through her. “I want to taste you. To touch you. To hear what your voice will sound like when you can’t say anything other than my name.”

With each descriptive word he said, Lacey’s brain cells promptly fell over and played dead. Acutely aware of the pulse banging in her throat, which she knew he noticed because his eyes strayed to it with an expression she couldn’t quite decipher, and her rapid breathing that she just couldn’t seem to control, she tried one last weak plea for rationality. “We—we already discussed this. You’re my employer. You hold a position of power over me. This isn’t something either one of us can do.”

She sounded thoroughly unconvincing even to herself.

“Oh, yes, it is.” His hot breath brushed over her cheek as he added in a whisper, “No consequences for either of us. I promise that. And no regrets. Just stolen pleasure as I bend you over that desk of mine, as I’ve been fantasizing about doing all evening.”

Oh. My.

Well, in that case, all her protests about propriety were really unnecessary.

“That…sounds just lovely,” she said like an absolute idiot, her libido roaring through her like an out-of-control freight train.

“Excellent,” he replied, his lips just grazing her ear before turning and hustling them toward his office.

Lacey struggled not to topple over as Sebastian propelled her down the wide hallway. Her every sense surged within her, electrifying her body to the point that it felt almost painful. As he strode alongside her in his ridiculously gorgeous tailored suit, the formal vest and tie matching the soft umber tones of her own fancy dress, she could absolutely understand why nearly every woman at the ceremony had been sliding glances at the man like they wanted him to lick them like as if they were ice cream.

She was pretty sure he’d just promised he was about to do that to her. Right now.

They reached his sumptuous office in record time, Sebastian barely pausing to press his hand against the small, tasteful security panel beside the door. The panel lit up as his handprint registered, the door slid open, and the dark, fierce, wildly alluring man gently yet firmly escorted her in. The door whooshed shut behind them, encasing them in a sudden bubble of utter stillness as the faint sounds of the reception snapped off into silence.