Wolf's Hunger (Mafia Monsters #5) - Atlas Rose Page 0,73

me.

That sexual agony…

I’d wanted him more than I wanted anything else. I still wanted him with the same kind of fire in my veins. I wanted them all…My eyes adjusted to the murky gloom, making out the outline of the doorway that led into the club.

I reached out, grasped the handle, and turned it. The squeal of hinges cleaved through the darkness before I closed the door behind me. Silence filled the space. Cold, lonely silence. “Phantom?”

There was no answer, no sound of anything.

Just silence.

I moved deeper inside the club until the flicker of tiny white lights came to life from the floor. I froze, my heart hammering. The lights were barely there, giving me nothing to go on as I scanned the darkness.

“Don’t be scared.” Church’s voice echoed all around me.

I spun, searching…and froze as the darkness shifted. “Church?”

I stumbled forward, but he lifted his hand, stopping me cold.

“The others? Where are they?” I asked, scanning the club.

“Doing what they do best,” he replied as he lifted some kind of tiny black remote. “Hunting…keeping you safe. No one will harm you, Carina. Not after tonight.”

Music came from the speakers, the beat slow and erotic as a man’s voice echoed through the speakers. “Do you like it?” Church murmured as the beat rippled through the empty club. “It’s called Wicked Games.”

I couldn’t speak, couldn’t fucking breathe as he stalked toward me. The tiny white lights gave me just enough light to see…Christ, he was spectacular, with a long-sleeved open-collar shirt and pants that clung to every delicious curve of his body.

Lust tore through me. I didn’t have to look down to know that deep Unseelie glow pulsed from my chest. I knew what he meant. Phantom would kill the rogue pack and everyone they worked with for coming after me—he’d kill them all. My heart clenched with the thought.

“He left me to take care of you. Left me…to explain.” Explain? “You wanted to know where I went.” Church stepped closer. “That day I deserted you in the mountains.”

“You wanted to know…now I’m going to tell you.”

He moved slowly, rounding the end of the bar, and stepped into the open, his head lowered, eyes downcast. “In my own way, Carina.”

It was the first time I saw them…really saw them. I scanned the darkened area, praying this wasn’t a dream.

“First, I’m going to tell you, and then…if you’re still here, and if you…want me, then I’ll give you what you need.”

My heart hammered until it was all I could hear.

“Sit, Carina…please,” he whispered, awkward and nervous. How someone who looked like he did could be nervous, I’d never know.

I swallowed hard and stepped backwards, bumping against the rise of the platform where the dancers performed. But it was too late now, too late to do anything but what he wanted.

“If you want to run, I’ll understand.” He stepped closer, finally lifting his gaze to meet mine.

Pain blazed in his piercing blue eyes, the cutting stare illuminated by the tiny white floor lights. The kind of pain when you bare your soul. The kind of pain that made you desperate…desperate enough to bare his body…for me.

22

I sank onto the plush velvet lounge as Church stepped closer. His fingers worked the buttons of his shirt, revealing a sculpted chest as his hands moved lower. Still that song throbbed in time of his movements.

His muscles rippled in ways I’d never seen. I swallowed hard, mesmerized, as the floor lights captured the sleek, predatory way he moved toward me. “I went to the closest town, to a bar, and found someone who’d…use me.”

Jealousy tore through me as that Unseelie power flared. I clenched my jaw, but that did nothing to hide the curl of my lip.

I shook my head.

He winced at the movement. “I let men hurt me, Carina, let them dominate me. I need them to control me, need them to…”

I slowly pushed up from the lounge as he stepped onto the dance floor, his shirt sliding from his massive shoulders to fall in a heap.

“Do you think you can handle that?” he asked, those blue eyes sparkling like crystals. “Think you can handle me searching for that…”

“Is it only men?” The words slipped free before I knew it. “That can give you what you need?”

He didn’t answer, but there was a flare of desperation that collided with that predatory power inside me. He stilled as the power burned brighter. His nostrils flared, his eyes glinting with both fear and defiance. “I don’t do it