Eyes Like a Wolf Read online

  I let out a long, trembling breath and shook my head. “You're my brother,” I said at last. “I'm sorry, Richard, but that's what it really comes down to. Blood or not, we were raised as siblings. I need you to stop this now. I need you to get off of me. To get out of me. Please understand I can't…can't let my own brother fuck me. I just can't.”

  “We're not truly siblings, but we are of the same breed—the Amon-kai,” he countered. “And blood is thicker than water, Rachel. There's a bond between us that can never be severed. You'll never be satisfied until you let me in, until you give yourself to me completely. Only when you feel my cock buried deep in your willing pussy and my essence filling your womb will you find peace. One day you'll understand that.”

  “But not today. Not now. Please, Richard.” I could feel the hot tears welling in my eyes. I just couldn't do it—couldn't let him go through with it. “Don't do this to me,” I told him, my fear overwhelming my pleasure at last and letting me think clearly. “I love you, Richard, but there are some things I can't forgive. Don't…don't rape me.”

  My words had an immediate effect on him. He pulled out of me abruptly, leaving me intact, and rolled to one side, breathing heavily with one arm over his eyes. I curled myself into a ball and pulled the edge of the bedspread over me to hide my nakedness.

  “I'm sorry, Richard,” I said, my throat thick with tears. “But I can't…we can't let ourselves do this. It's…it's wrong in so many ways. I think we should try to forget this happened and…and just go on like before.”

  “Just pretend I didn't almost claim you?” he asked bitterly, lifting his arm to look me in the eyes. “Pretend my cock wasn't just halfway buried in your cunt? I suppose next you'll say we should go out on that ridiculous date your fiancé has planned tomorrow night and pretend we give a damn about Charles and his little cousin.”

  “I do give a damn about Charles,” I said, but my voice didn't sound as strong as I wanted it to. “And…” I sat up, being careful to keep the bedspread wrapped around me. “…I think we should go out. We need to do something normal. I love you, Richard, but we've gotten too wrapped up in each other since you came back into my life. We need to get out and see that there are other people in the world.”

  Richard's face looked haggard—the face of a lost soul. “You don't understand. Even now, you don't understand. There's never going to be anyone else in the world for me besides you,” he whispered in a low, wounded voice.

  “Richard,” I reminded him as gently as I could. “I can never be yours. I'm engaged to another man, and besides, I'm your sister.”

  “My sister in nothing but name,” he said bitterly. “But fine. You want to go out and spend time with other people, we'll go. I'll even do my damnedest to show Charles's cousin a good time. I can be very charming when I want to be.”

  “So I've noticed,” I said quietly.

  Richard got off the bed, careless of his nudity. I had to look away from his muscular body because of the lust the sight kindled in my belly.

  “You'll see,” he said. “The bond that was formed when we were children is already too strong to break. Nothing but death can separate us now, and I promise you, by the end of the evening, we'll both be wishing we were dead. It's going to be painful, in more ways than one.”

  Chapter Ten

  “So, Charles tells us you're an actress.” Richard leaned forward and put an arm around the back of Ursula's chair, smiling charmingly. He was dressed impeccably in a dark charcoal suit and a bottle-green tie that brought out his eyes. We were sitting, Charles and I on one side and Richard and Charles's cousin, Ursula on the other, at a small rectangular table draped with spotless white linen in the imposing gold and scarlet-draped dining room at Bern's.

  “I can tell just by looking at you that the camera must love you,” Richard continued. Somehow he managed to make the compliment sound sincere and to look truly interested in his date's vocation.

  Ursula blushed becomingly, obviously overcome by my adopted brother's charm. “Well, I've just had a few bit parts here and there,” she murmured modestly. She was a natural redhead with a creamy complexion and a stunning figure that looked poured into the little black dress she was wearing. Beside her, I felt frumpy and overdressed in the slinky, pale green silk dress that usually made me feel so sexy and sleek. Even the Jimmy Choos Charles had bought me that exactly matched the dress didn't help. Besides, they hurt my feet.

  “Ursula had a speaking part in Faces in the Mirror,” Charles chimed in helpfully.

  “Oh, yes, I loved that movie. You were…” Richard snapped his fingers, “You were the waitress, weren't you? The one with the mentally-challenged brother and the cocaine habit?”

  “Yes, that was me.” Ursula blushed again and smiled, clearly pleased.

  “Well, that was an amazing performance.” Richard smiled at her and casually reached out to brush a lock of silky red hair out of her eyes. I felt the burn of jealousy all the way down to my fingertips when his well-shaped hand lingered just a little too long on her pale skin. “Tell me,” he said. “What do you think your character's motivation was when she grabbed the gun?”

  “I thought about that,” Ursula said eagerly. “I mean, I think she was frightened—terrified, actually. I had to put myself into her shoes when I did that—I literally had to scare myself.”

  She was scaring me for sure, but Richard continued to hang on her every word attentively, as though she were the only woman in the room. I wanted to pull her silky red hair out by the roots, but I restrained myself and crushed the impulse. What was wrong with me tonight?

  Charles leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear, “Well, those two seem to be getting along famously. I think we've got a match.” He patted my knee under the long, white linen tablecloth, making me flinch.

  “Uh, yeah,” I made myself say, trying to inch away from him a little bit. For some reason, I didn't want to be near him tonight, and it wasn't just that I had gotten used to being near Richard, either, or so I told myself. In fact, it had nothing to do with Richard's predictions of doom if we tried to see other people. It was just that…I wasn't in a very touchy mood tonight. Wasn't in the mood to be pawed at.

  Just then the waiter, dressed in black pants and a spotless white jacket, came to take our order. Bern's is one of those once-a-year places where you go for your anniversary or where you take a major client if you want to impress them and you have money to burn. Their menu is full of aged steaks, ultra-fresh exotic seafood, and they have something close to seven thousand selections on their wine list. They even have a magnum of wine that belonged to Napoleon that costs as much as a luxury car. It's been on the menu for years. Charles, who was a wine connoisseur, speculated about it every time we went.

  Generally I loved going to Bern's, although I couldn't help secretly thinking that it was an extravagant waste of money. I mean, the restaurant could talk about specially raised, organically fed cows, aged meat, and exotic sauces all they wanted to, but they still, in my opinion, couldn't make a steak good enough to charge a hundred dollars for it. Money was no object to Charles, however, and I stared blindly at the menu, trying not to notice Richard's flirtation with Ursula as he ordered.

  “Let's see now…” Charles mused. “I think I'll have the special chateaubriand with the pinot noir reduction, a Hawaiian red salt baked Okinawa sweet potato, and the grilled asparagus au poivre on the side.” He looked up at me, one eyebrow quirked. “Darling, what would you like?”

  “I'll have the filet mignon, extra rare,” I said, trying to sound interested in what I was ordering.

  “Really?” Charles looked surprised. “But you never order red meat, and you certainly never eat anything rare.” He tsked disapprovingly. “What about your usual charcoal-grilled salmon paillard salad, darling?”

  “I'm not in a salad mood tonight,” I snapped, trying not to notice the way Richard whispered something into Ursula's little pink shell of an ear that made her giggle. Then I looked apologetical