Page 22

LUKAS

L ukas leaned his forearm against the wall of the elevator and his forehead against his arm. He’d faked the good-time laughter and teasing banter for the rest of the night, and it had put him in one seriously bad mood.

Worse, he still couldn’t shake Elliette’s kiss or Rogue’s lingering frost. He might not have been drunk when it all went down, but he definitely was now. How did a night of team building and bro bonding go so fantastically wrong?

Elliette must have left the club immediately with her girls because he hadn’t spotted her again.

So, all he wanted to do now was go to bed, sleep off the whiskey, and pretend he hadn’t fucked up in the worst way possible, doing irreparable damage to his oldest friendship and giving Elliette ideas that would hurt her in the end.

God , why had he succumbed?

But Lukas didn’t really have to ask himself that question.

The reason for everything lay in his years of restraint—first because of her age, then because of his fate— coupled with the way she’d looked in the dark: beams of silver light pulsing across her face, her head tipped back, long chestnut hair curling down her back, those wide hazel, gold-flecked eyes staring up at him…

She’d always been beautiful. Now, she was irresistible.

Still, he should have been able to resist the incessant and aggravating draw she had on him. He was an ascending alpha, for fuck’s sake. He should be able to subdue his urges, just like he did with every other woman who crossed his path.

The elevator doors opened, and Lukas stepped silently out onto the thick carpet. He took three steps toward his door, then heard a muffled scream from the adjacent apartment. Elliette?

He broke into a run and was at her door in two seconds flat. Ear against the door, listening.

“What are you doing here?” Elliette shrieked, but she wasn’t talking to him. There was someone in the apartment with her. Lukas could smell the man, and it wasn’t anybody he knew.

The berserker inside of him bristled, preparing for a fight.

“Came by for a couple more shirts,” the man said. “And I found these in the drawer.”

Now, Lukas realized who it was. Her asshole ex-boyfriend, Daniel Dickwad.

“Do you have some kind of alter ego you forgot tell me about?” Dickwad asked, his angry accusation filtering out into the hallway and raising the small hairs on the back of Lukas’s neck.

“What do you care?” she cried. “Now, give me those!”

Lukas kept his ear pressed to the door, trying to decide on the right move to make. He didn’t like the panic in her voice, but he didn’t want to barge in on something that was none of his business, so long as she wasn’t in actual danger.

“And you can’t just come in here without advance notice,” she protested.

Lukas felt a surge of pride, hearing her fight back.

“This is my apartment,” Dickwad reminded her.

“I could have been getting out of the shower,” she said, and the image those words conjured both piqued Lukas’s interest and fanned the flames of his temper.

“I’ve seen you naked before,” Dickwad said. “Though…not with the lights on, of course.”

His response was clearly intended to throw more salt in her wounds. The idiot thought her a prude, but Lukas knew different. He put his hand to her doorknob. Should he barge in and defend her? Should he get the hell out of there, go back to his own apartment, and smother himself with a pillow?

“You said I could use the apartment until I found my own place.”

She sounded pissed. Good for her. She didn’t need him to defend her.

“And how is it you’ve suddenly got the nerve to wear that dress?” Dickwad asked, changing the subject to something he apparently found more pressing because his tone was still accusatory.

Lukas heard the faint sound of Elliette’s inhale right before she said, “I went to the Velveteen.”

“ Psh . Sure you did,” Dickwad said, but it didn’t sound like he believed her.

“I did,” she said primly. “I met someone, and that’s where we went. ”

“Lying to get back at me? Come on, El. That’s beneath you.”

“I’m not lying. He’s hot , and he…uh… likes this dress. So, I wore it for him. And we were… We were all over each other. Right there in the middle of the club.”

“ You? ” he asked sarcastically.

“Yes. Me.”

“Right,” Dickwad said with a snort. “So, where’s your new man now?”

By then, Lukas had heard enough. He whipped open the door. “Right here.”

Elliette yelped.

Dickwad whipped around. “Jesus! Who the hell are you?”

Lukas made a quick assessment: Dickwad was nine inches shorter than him, blond, with perfect teeth that Lukas wouldn’t mind rearranging. But instead of doing that, he purposefully let his gaze slide past Dickwad’s shoulder as if he were no more significant than an insect.

Elliette stood a few feet behind her ex, steadier on her feet than she’d been at the club. She clutched a black silk negligée and several pairs of thong panties to her chest.

“Elli, babe,” Lukas said. “You okay? I heard you scream.”

“Fine,” she said, but her voice shook.

“Sorry it took me so long to park.” Lukas pushed farther into the apartment, making his way to Elliette while knocking Dickwad aside.

“Hey!” Dickwad cried out, indignant.

Lukas ignored him and continued moving, straight for Elliette, hopefully putting on a show that Dickwad wouldn’t soon forget. The guy needed to know what a mistake it was to cast Elliette aside .

“What’s with the lingerie?” Lukas asked on a low rumble. “Were you planning to give me a fashion show?”

“Um…” She looked wildly back and forth between Lukas and the dickwad. “Daniel found them in my drawer. They’re…uh…new.”

Interesting. That must have been what her ex had been referring to when he asked about her alter ego. Apparently, he’d never seen her in anything so sexy. Not the lingerie. Not her dress. And not naked with the lights on.

Lukas would have to dig into the meaning behind that later. For now, all he wanted was to make his point and chase the guy off, preferably without having to use force.

“You can model them for me later,” Lukas said, and he slipped one hand behind her neck and the other down over her ass, yanking her close against his body. “This time of night I’m more into un dressing.”

Elliette’s eyes widened.

“So, are we picking up from where we left off at the club?” Lukas asked, hoping Dickwad would get his dual message: this woman is desirable, and you are the loser.

“What?” Elliette’s obvious discombobulation was amusing, but Lukas wished she’d get with the program a little quicker and play along.

“You do know he’s a berserker, don’t you?” Daniel sneered.

Elliette didn’t answer. She just stared up at Lukas with dancing eyes.

“She knows,” Lukas said, without glancing back at the guy. “She likes to walk on the wild side. Don’t you, babe? And if you don’t know me by name, then I take it you’re not a hockey fan.”

“Are you saying you’re a friend of her brother?” Dickwad asked. “Well, look out. He’s crazy protective. ”

“Of course he is.” Lukas tucked a lock of chestnut hair behind Elliette’s ear and felt her shiver.

“I’m sure Evan Rogan would have my pelt if he knew half the things I wanted to do to his sister.

” Then to Elliette he really pushed the envelope and asked, “Have you been preparing yourself with your new toys, like I taught you?”

Blood rushed into her face so fast she looked like she was going to blow.

“For fuck’s sake!” Dickwad cried out in frustration. In fact, it was amazing he was still standing there and hadn’t left.

Lukas ignored him, keeping all of his attention on the woman in his arms, and he went for the gusto. “Because tonight, I want to have your cunt and your ass. Do you want that, baby?”

Before she could answer, or say something that would give away his ruse, Lukas kissed her.

She opened for him immediately, and he drove his tongue inside. This was both a blessing and a curse. It solidified a memory that he could take with him for the rest of his life, but at the same time, it would haunt his dreams forever, always knowing what he’d lost.

Dickwad grabbed Lukas’s shoulder and yanked him away from Elliette, breaking their kiss. “Don’t talk to her like that!”

And there it was. Lukas had needed him to initiate the physical contact. It was what he’d been trying to provoke. Now, he had license to do what he’d wanted to do all along.

Lukas threw him against the wall and held him by the throat. He didn’t feel even the least bit sorry when the guy’s face began to turn purple.

“You forfeited your right to have anything to say about this woman,” Lukas growled, and he could tell from the way Dickwad’s eyes were bulging that the berserker wolf was also starting to make its appearance. “You fucked up. You lost. I won.”

Lukas glanced over his shoulder at Elliette, who had her hand over her mouth. “And you like it when I talk dirty, don’t you, babe?”

She lowered her hand and swallowed hard. “Yes, honey.”

Yes, honey. Christ.

“Now, put Daniel down, please,” she said.

Lukas pressed his lips together in frustration. He wasn’t ready to let the guy go, but couldn’t deny Elliette either. So, he released him, jerking his claws down from around the guy’s throat and not-so accidentally shredding the front of his shirt.

Daniel staggered and caught himself against a crystal globe that was balanced on a wooden stand. It rolled off and shattered against the floor.

“You can’t…break in and…assault me in my own…apartment,” Daniel said, rubbing his neck.

Lukas, who had started to return to Elliette, rounded on him again.

Dickwad scuttled backward, his eyes huge.

“I didn’t break in,” Lukas said. “The door was unlocked. I heard my woman scream, and I rushed in to discover you’d been rummaging through her lingerie drawer like some kind of pervert.”

“I’m a lawyer,” Daniel said.

“Apologies,” Lukas growled. “Like some kind of pervert lawyer.”

Dickwad grimaced. “What I mean is, I’ll have a lawsuit drawn up before dawn.”