Page 21 of Destined By Dragonblood (Blood Born #2)

Ashley

T he locker room door shut silently behind me, erasing Dolyn’s presence from my skin.

My hands shook as I tore off the robe, my mind at war with my body.

I’d been aware the second he’d spotted me bent over the bench, and reborn arousal had caused my core to clench in need.

Master Vanni had been the first man to touch me in over twelve years. The first to give me a climax through pure pleasure alone. I’d wished to linger in the bliss of another step toward healing, but Dolyn had attacked him.

My stomach knotted, bile bubbling up my throat at the memory of his fist connecting with Vanni’s face. Swallowing a few times kept me from vomiting, but the nausea remained as I struggled to dress in my work clothes.

Seeing the two men alongside each other, touching even in anger, the stare that had latched them together immediately after they’d tumbled to the floor, had my instincts insisting I slither between them.

I’d burned with desire to have one of them—both of them—buried deep inside my body.

But Dolyn’s brutality toward Vanni meant to instill pain without pleasure had also put me on edge.

Vanni had called him by name, but I wasn’t about to question their connection when every patron stared at us.

I’d chosen to re-robe and had put distance between us, saving my questions for later. Fleeing the lounge hadn’t been enough space to stop the conflict battling in both parts of me.

I grabbed my bag and hurried to the door leading into the club’s reception area but paused before touching the handle.

Had the bouncers dragged Dolyn out there? Did Vanni wait along with them to check on me?

Had both men been…playing me?

I shut that thought down as both of their touches gave me assurance they’d done no such thing. Vanni and Dolyn cared for me. Wished to protect me with animal-like inclination. And yet they would battle in anger over who had the right to touch me.

Off-kilter and torn between residual fear from my past and desire I’d never experienced before, I sagged against the wall, unsure of what to do.

A knock sounded from the door leading into the lounge opposite me.

Vanni stuck his head in. “Ashley?” His low tone soothed my heightened nerves and relit the heat in my core.

A hint of dried blood smeared over Vanni’s cheekbone, the beginnings of a bruise already discoloring his usual olive complexion. Other than that, he appeared to be fine as he stepped fully into the locker room.

I glanced beyond him but couldn’t make out much of the lounge behind him before the door shut quietly, leaving us alone.

“He’s being held in my office,” Vanni informed me, as though he’d read the question in my mind. He crossed the locker room, and energy snapped between us, familiar and yet different—more intense, as though our intimate contact had somehow brought us closer together.

I’d clearly read too many fairytales.

He peered down at me, his dark brow furrowed.

I gently touched his bruise, my hand still shaking. He held his breath as warmth crept up my arm from the physical contact between us. “Are you all right?”

“Are you ?” he asked with a rushed exhale.

“I think so?” I tried for a smile, one he didn’t offer in return.

His hands clenched and released at his sides. “Can I…”

I dropped my bag and stepped into him, laying my cheek against his bare chest between the straps of his harness.

His heart beat heavy in perfect time with mine, the musky scent of him flooding my nose and causing unrest between my thighs regardless of the comfort I received from being pressed against him.

My inner turmoil calmed enough that I drew a breath without hindrance for the first time since Dolyn had hurt him.

Vanni settled his arms around me, nose in my hair, a shudder ripping through him. “He’s your stalker, isn’t he? The man you met on Saturday.”

“Yes. Please don’t call the cops on him.”

“Security already did.”

I heaved a heavy exhale, exhaustion creeping in thick enough I couldn’t think straight. Tears clogged my throat—hazed my sight. A sob rose past my lips, and I clung to the only unmovable rock I had in my life.

Vanni didn’t shush me or attempt to stop my rolling emotions, simply allowed me a different type of release than the usual he gifted me.

Nothing made sense anymore. My heart and body were torn in two directions, and I had no clue what to do about my feelings for both men.

I didn’t even know Dolyn, yet sensed a strange connection with him, as though our souls had been entwined before time.

And nothing had ever felt more right than Vanni’s hands on me, his arms holding me close, and the thump of his heart beneath my ear.

Any fear I’d had of skin-on-skin touching had long since disappeared with this man.

I should have been glorying in the next step toward healing, but the mess with Dolyn didn’t allow for any happiness or satisfaction.

My tears eventually quieted, and Vanni gently cupped my cheeks in his palms to lift my head.

I blinked up at him, the desire swirling in his eyes—my need to close the distance between us and taste his lips—mirroring his.

“Ashley.” He swept his thumb across my lower lip.

I shuddered. “Green, Master—Vanni. Please kiss me.”

A small shift on his hold angled me perfectly for his descending mouth.

“Mr. DiLoreto?” a man called through the closed door beside us, and I huffed, pouting.

Vanni heaved a sigh and stepped back, cupping my elbow. “Yes?” He lifted his voice in return but didn’t take his focus off my lips.

“Cops are here.”

I peered at my master, my insides beginning to twist into a knot, all trace of arousal from our near-kiss evaporated.

“Let’s go get this straightened out, and then we’ll have a nice glass or two of wine to unwind, okay?” Vanni pushed my hair over my shoulder and smiled softly.

My insides swooned over the desire in his eyes, but the tension remained.

Was I healed?

Still broken?

Jenna gave an encouraging smile from behind the desk when we entered the receptionist area.

The security guard led us through a door behind her and up a set of stairs.

My thoughts replayed the last twenty minutes, and my insides continued to shake with the need for rest and lust alike. Forget the glass of wine Vanni had suggested. I would be drinking an entire bottle to escape the conflicting feelings ravaging my insides.

A cock buried deep inside my body would be just as good. Slow, lavish glides against my inner walls heightening my arousal until I climaxed around the thrusting length, lost in pleasure. I would gladly accept every drop of cum gifted to me.

But from which man?

I caught the moan rising up my throat and swallowed as the guard ushered us into what I assumed to be Vanni’s office.

The scent of fire, smoke, and sex flooded my nose, and my gaze landed on Dolyn across the room.

He sat in a leather chair, hands gripping the armrests.

Cops flanked him, both with firm grips on his shoulders.

As with when we’d first made eye contact in the coffee shop, golden fire swirled in the depths of his orbs, terrifying yet beautiful.

Mine.

The same word whispered in my brain, and even though I didn’t understand where the voice originated from, I knew without a doubt my instincts spoke truth.

“Who are you really, Dolyn Kemmerly?” I whispered, starting toward him, but Vanni tightened his hold on my arm, keeping me at a distance.

Longing beyond sexual gratification filled Dolyn’s eyes. “I’m your mate.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Dolyn, enough of this nonsense,” Vanni muttered.

“Miss O’Connor?”

I jerked my head toward the voice to find a third cop stood on my right. “Yes?”

“Can you tell us what is going on here? Mr. DiLoreto’s bodyguard informed us that Mr. Kemmerly has been stalking you?”

“I…” I glanced back at Dolyn to find his stare unchanged.

The trauma of my past screamed I request they take him away. A deeper part of me needed everyone gone—but him and Vanni, the three of us writhing on the floor in a tangle of limbs and grasping hands.

A vivid vision of us entwined so fully I couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended flashed in my mind, catching my breath.

Thighs clenching together and core pulsing, I blinked away the fantasy and glanced up at Vanni. He would be horrified, perhaps heartbroken over my desire to be with them both at the same time.

Vanni stared at Dolyn, but I couldn’t read his thoughts. Eyes shuttered behind the mask of Dom, Master Vanni didn’t reveal a single thing about what was going through his mind.

I refused to hurt him, but I also couldn’t allow Dolyn to be taken away before I had answers to all the growing questions in my mind.

“There has been a misunderstanding,” I said to the cop, hoping my wobbly smile appeared genuine. “Dolyn is…he’s an acquaintance of mine. I—I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have invited him here tonight without Master Vanni’s permission.”

Rarely did an outright lie pass my lips, but I had no other option.

I glanced up at Vanni to find his focus on me, eyes softer, almost as though he understood my dilemma.

“Mr. DiLoreto, do you wish to press charges?” the cop alongside us asked.

He studied me quietly as my pulse thumped in my ears. I held my breath.

“No,” he finally said, and my body sagged, tension leaking from me on my exhale. Vanni released his hold on my arm, another show of trust.

Voices muttered as the two cops left Dolyn’s side, but I shut them out while slowly approaching my stalker.

Who was he really ? Why did I feel as though I knew him, as though we belonged to each other as the voice inside me and his own rumbling one had declared?

The office door snicked shut, but I didn’t turn to see who all had left.

Master Vanni had given me space, but I could sense him behind me, could still smell his delicious musk.

I peered into golden eyes, sensing a giant crack in the earth had opened up before me. I stood on the edge of something that called to the deepest part of my heart and soul.

“Tell me the truth, Dolyn,” I whispered, itching to reach out and caress his face. “What is this between us? This…longing to be close to you? The deep unrest you’ve roused to life inside me that seems unquenchable, something I can’t even put a name to?”

Dolyn studied me in silence before his gaze softened from pure need to gentle assurance. “I am your fated mate, your alpha. I am a shape-shifter, one of two remaining full Blood Born left on this earth.”

I blinked and burst into laughter. “You’re what ?”

“Dragonblood—same as you.”

Yes.

Truth.

My lips flattened. I swallowed hard against my throat closing off at the voice echoing in my head. “I—I don’t…”

Darkness crept in around the edges of my periphery as I suddenly struggled to breathe.

I wavered on my feet, reaching for him, my heart racing and lungs aching for oxygen.

Dolyn leaped from his chair, his strong yet gentle hold on my arms keeping me from harm. For the briefest of seconds, I gloried in complete peace.

I collapsed to the floor and knew no more.