Page 30 of The Red Room
“Come,” he says, gently pulling me toward the doors.
Dimitri steps into the light, his stance as firm as his vacant expression. He’s clad in his usual attire, a black blazer and white button-down fighting the stress of his broad chest and shoulders. His bald head gleams in the subtle glow of the streetlights, and the tattoo just below his ear becomes visible.
“No one in or out,” Nik instructs, patting Dimitri’s arm as we pass. He doesn’t say it in Russian. No, he for some reason wants me to know what he is saying.No one in or out.Once I go inside the club, I won’t get out untilhelets me. Locked in tighter than the hatch door in his loft. Fortified enough to keep wolves from running rampant in the streets of Los Angeles.
The large man only nods in acknowledgement.
“Hi, Dimitri,” I say with a smile and slight wave.
“Good evening, Ms. Nat,” he replies, his voice unexpectedly soft. Nothing like the unapproachable bouncer I met my first time here. I can’t help but wonder if Dimitri is also a werewolf and where the hell they’d find chains big enough to fit around his tree-branch wrists. More importantly, how someone as big as an eighteen-wheeler could somehow become even larger during the transformation. Nik stood at least three feet taller if you count his ears perking upward. Then I remember last night. How Dimitri saved me during the full moon, his skin intact and free of cracks or tears. He wasn’t fighting off some shift the way Nik did. Dimitri is, as far as I can tell, human.
He opens the doors to Völk, allowing us in, and when they close, it sounds as if we’re being sealed inside a bank vault. Some of the staff are behind the bar, cleaning and checking each bottle of alcohol, while others fill the main floor, mopping as far back as the DJ booth. Nik releases me and claps his hands together. A thunderouscrackechoes and grabs the attention of every potential werewolf here. They all stare at him at first, but ultimately direct their confused gazes to me. Fourteen, no fifteen pairs of eyes, all train on me standing as close as I possibly can to Nik. I’m half expecting a dinner bell to ring and for their human teeth to give way to a set of razor-sharp fangs.Great job, Natalie.Dinner at the wolves’ den and you’re the main fucking course.
“Leave us,” Nik demands, and I let out an exasperated breath. He tilts his head when they depart to the backroom. “What? You thought I brought you here for them?” Nik chuckles, leaving me to feel the heat of my cheeks glowing red.
“No,” I state plainly. “That’s—that’s ridiculous.” Yes. Yes I did think he brought me here and was ready to present me like a box of Chinese takeout for the starving creatures on his payroll. Here I am, wandering willingly I might add, into a room full of creatures that’d sooner feast on my insides than let me fumble my way out and live to tell the tale. How fucking stupid could Ihave been to trust this man, get on his motorcycle, and let him drag me back to the place I’m not quite sure I’ll ever unsee when nightmares outdo peaceful sleep.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you, Natalia.” Nik seems to contemplate for a moment, his brow furrowing together. Then, as if on cue, a grin works from one side of his face to the other, small dimples emerging next to each curved lip. “But, if you were on the menu,” he says and inches closer to me. “I don’t like to share my food.”
I smack him in the arm, my fingers stinging from the firmness of his bicep. “That’s not funny.”
He grabs me by my hips, pulling our bodies close enough to feel the heat blistering off him like a volcano set to erupt at any second. His mouth to my ear, he whispers, “And who said I was joking?”
Before I can say anything else, Nik lifts me from the ground, and my legs take a comfortable position around his waist. He buries his face in the maze of my long brown hair, eventually finding my neck. He nips at the skin, lips parting wide enough so he can sink his teeth on the sensitive flesh from my ear to my shoulder.
“Nik,” I gasp. “I—”
“Don’t worry. I won’t bite hard.”
Hard? As in hard enough to pierce through my flesh? Give me the mark of the beast Lenny warned me about? Then again, I’m somewhat curious to know how a bite like that might feel. Would it sting? Burn? Instantly poison each vein until I was the same sort of monster fearing a full moon? Another nibble, this time lower, and I’m not only forgetting my train of thought, but my own fucking name.
“This is where you’re supposed to be right now, Natalia,” he says between neck kisses. “Not at some dive bar. Not withLandon. You came with me for a reason. But I need to hear you say it. I need to know this is where youwantto be.”
I clamp my thighs around him, a steady pulse thumping through my body to the spot begging for him. Yes. Yes, I am right where I want. In his arms. His mouth warming every inch of my skin and even the areas he hasn’t touched yet so attentively. I want to have his palms spread as high as my throat and as low as the bundle of nerves swelling for him. Explore what my dress leaves to the imagination.
A werewolf. A fucking werewolf is doing his best to keep me intact while fighting off the savagery he was bred for. Every molecule of a beast begging to get out. He can rip me apart if he wants, but he doesn’t. No, he only stares at me, his eyes becoming dangerously close to black pools only to right themselves to a familiar golden gleam. Nik’s fighting it. There’s no denying it the deeper I peer up at him. I can see the battle brewing within. The rage he hides behind that irresistible fucking smirk I have grown to loathe simply because what it does to me.
“Say it,” he says again, his glowing eyes boring holes through mine.
I stare back, recounting his words. Can I? Can I really consent to being mauled by him in any way he sees fit? Sure, I’m scared. Scratch that. I’m terrified. But am I really willing to spend the next five years wondering what might’ve happened if I didn’t lose myself in whateverthisis? I don’t know if I can. As much as I’d like nothing more than to give Nik the green light, there’s still a part of me that’s afraid. Not because of the monster, but because of this hold Nikolai Vostik has on me.
There’s a hunger in his gold irises fighting off the black ready to take its place. Something insatiable. Chilling. Fuck, electrifying, even. “You. Are. Right—”
I place my palm on his cheek and silence him, stroking his stiff and bearded jaw with my thumb. “Right where I want to be,” I finish, my voice withering.
Our lips clash together, unable to fight off the hesitation any longer. My mouth opens and he seizes the opportunity to bring his tongue to mine. Swirling. Sucking. Kissing me into submission. Pinpricks skirt across my bare flesh, fielding goose bumps in its place. I moan into him, and Nik, without skipping a beat, carries me to the bar, never letting our lips part.
He doesn’t set me on a stool. No, and judging from the banging and thumps across the floor, Nik throws those in his path to the wayside. When I feel the cold edge of the bar, he hoists me up onto it, and the back of my thighs presses against the polished wood finish.
“I warned you before,” he says, heavy breaths grazing my cheek. “I will fucking devour you.” Nik doesn’t kiss me again but trails his lips down the nape of my throat, kissing the entire way. When he reaches the fabric of my dress, he tugs it down with his fingers, exposing my breasts to the ceiling lights above the vacant bar. He growls at the sight of them, a ravenous groan vibrating from his chest to his partially open mouth. Then, he feasts on each nipple, swirling his tongue around them until both are pointed and begging to be bitten. Pain and pleasure fuse into something I can’t describe. His soft tongue gives way to the teeth closing around the tender flesh. His bite isn’t unbearable. No, it’s just fucking right. And I rock my hips into his, feeling his hard cock grind against me.
“Fuck,” I let out, my body tensing from my fingertips to my curling toes. Everything tightens. Cramps together with each incredible throb pulsing through me. The spot I want him most dampens my dress with arousal, the smooth material now swiping my skin raw with each thrust of our hips in unison.
His face twists into something wicked. A furrowed brow, piercing eyes, and a smile that screams he’s ready to make me hisdobycha. His prey. Tugging the dress up my torso, Nik runs his fingers over my stomach and stops at the skin above my center. “Now. What to do with you?” Nik tilts his head to the side and visibly contemplates. “I could always finish what I started in the alleyway. Or—”
“Please,” I beg with a whimper, my chest heaving uncontrollably.God.The small periods between each breath quickens as he lowers his fingers one agonizing inch at a time.
“—I can make good on my promise.” He pauses, holding his hand dangerously close to my aching pussy. If he touches it again, fuck, even breathes on it the right way, I don’t know how long I can last. Just the thought of it is enough to take me to the brink. But now, I have the heat of his thumb warming the spot slick and ready for him. To have those fingers explore my clit and opening like there’s something he’s damn determined to find. I melt into the bar, becoming one with the long stretch of solid oak. I can’t take much more. I want his hands on me. I need him to cure this painful longing splitting my body in two. There’s no denying it now. I will do whatever it takes if it means Nik keeps his promise and devours every last bit of me.