Dangerous Games (Riley Jenson Guardian 4)

Another shudder ran through me. I might be sexually adventurous, but even I had my limits, and this was way, way past anything I could ever imagine wanting. And I couldn't help feeling sorry for her - though I'm sure my sympathy would be the last thing she'd want.

She obviously enjoyed what they were doing to her, so who was I to turn up my nose at another's wants or needs? Hell, that was the very reaction I'd spent most of my life righting.

"Who from the Hellion Club recommended you come here, Ian?"

"Maisie, the owner. She saw my need. Said she understood it."

"And why did she recommended this club? Aren't there others?"

"She said, her brother specializes."

Her brother. Another link in the chain, or just a coincidence? As I opened my mouth to ask another question, footsteps echoed in the hall outside. I waited, barely daring to breathe, hoping those steps would keep going right on by.

They didn't.

As the door began to open, I sprinted across to the huge wheel and slid in behind the cover of the water trough.

The man who came in was the man I'd seen carrying the whip earlier. But behind him was Jin. He must have taken a shower since I'd last seen him, because he looked fresh, and no longer smelled of sweat and sex and jasmine. Or maybe it just seemed that way because the tall whip carrier's scent was all blood and sweat and musky man, and it was powerful enough to overwhelm any lesser scents.

The two of them stopped just behind the woman. Jin raised a hand and casually slapped the woman's beaten buttocks.

She moaned, as if in pain, and yet the scent of desire sharpened tenfold.

"What do you want, Jan?" Jin slapped her again, harder this time. As the woman whimpered, he breathed deep, as if sucking in the sound.

A chill went through me. He'd done the same thing when he'd broken the bones of the baby vamp who'd attacked us, too.

Maybe he was some sort of energy vampire, as Quinn had suggested. But if that were the case, why was I still reading him as human? He couldn't be both - it just wasn't possible. Once you'd stepped over the threshold of life to undeath, you read as a vamp, regardless of what you'd been in life.

"More," Jan said, twisting agitatedly against the ropes holding her, unable to see but obviously trying to.

"I legally cannot give you more, Jan."

"But I paid," she panted. "Please - "

"No."

"Please."

It was desperate, that sound, and it made me shiver. Because it was all too easy to imagine that sound coming out of my mouth. With the full moon rising, it was totally possible for me to get that desperate. I'd been there before, thanks to Talon and his insane determination to get me with child any damn way he could, and I knew from that experience I would do anything - take any amount of punishment - to get what the moon and my body demanded.

And if I kept fucking Jin, that just might be where I ended up. He liked pain - could possibly even feed on it - and a werewolf was capable of taking a whole lot more in the way of punishment than a mere human.

I bit my lip, and decided, right there and then, to get the hell out of this place as soon as possible. I might want to catch the people responsible for sacrificing the women, but there were still limits to what I would do for the Directorate's cause.

The sound of flesh slapping against flesh, and the moan that followed it, had another tremor running across my skin. Jan might want what they were doing to her, might have paid big money for it, but all I wanted to do was get up and smack them all.

Then go find Kellen, who was into common old everyday sex, and fuck his brains out.

"Are you willing to pay more for your needs, Jan?" Jin asked. "Are you willing to go all the way?"

All the way? Something about that phrase had warning lights flashing. I mean, how much more could any human - male or female - take?

Obviously, a whole lot more if the sudden surge of desire and desperation coming from Jan was any indication. "Yes, yes," she said.

Jin glanced at the big man beside him and smiled. It was a cold, pleased thing, and sent ice slithering through my soul. There was nothing remotely human in that smile. Nothing even resembling humanity.

"We have another candidate, Marcus."