Her eyes locked with Dominic’s, and they stared at each other, the air sizzling with implication. With heat and desire.
Her gaze traveled his body. He wore faded jeans and a tight white t-shirt. Boots. Hair down around his shoulders. She pushed off the door and walked toward him, seeing the surprise register in his eyes at her forward action. She forced down the nerves that threatened to destroy her plan.
Stopping only inches from where he stood, she pressed her hand on Dominic’s chest, feeling his muscle flex beneath her palm. Fighting the urge to explore his body. The time would come…just not yet.
Jessica started walking again, urging him backward until he hit the wall. He reached up to touch her and she waved off his hand. “Hands at your sides and against the wall.” He hesitated. “Do it or I leave.”
His brown eyes turned almost black. Potent. Hot. She could see the burn of desire in them. Feel the way her aggressiveness turned him on. She could even smell his arousal.
And she liked it. Really, really liked it.
Giving him a sultry look, she threw out her challenge. “You asked me what I wanted last night. In fact, you demanded I tell you.”
“And then I made your wants and needs reality,” he said, his voice husky with desire. “Did I not?”
She ignored his attempt at seduction. She’d come this far, Jessica wasn’t about to hand over control now. “I want to know what you want, Dominic,” she said.
“You,” he said. “I want you.”
She slid her hand down his body and palmed his cock, now hard and more than ready to be inside her. “I know that much.” Her fingers traced the tip of his erection. “You don’t really think I’m going to let you get off that easy, do you?”
A slow smile slid onto his lips. “I was hoping you wouldn’t.”
“What do you want, Dominic?”
“Everything you’ll let me have, mi Hermosa,” he responded. “All of you.”
Lost in the game, the lust, the desire to simply feel his body against hers, she still didn’t miss the implications of his words. “And what do I get in return?”
“Anything you wish,” he whispered.
“Anything?” she asked, a coy smile slipping onto her mouth.
“Your wish is my command.”
Jessica stepped away and took a seat on the bed. “Start by getting naked.” She paused. “Slowly.”
As Dominic reached for his shirt, prepared to do her bidding, Jessica inhaled, feeling the power. Loving the inner vixen come to life. She couldn’t wait to see where it would take her.
Nor could she wait to see just how far Dominic was willing to go. Today and in the future. But whatever the outcome, she was going to enjoy the ride.
Prior to realizing her dream of becoming a writer, LISA RENEE JONES owned and operated a multi-state staffing agency, with sales as high as sixteen million dollars a year. She was recognized by many publications, including the prestigious Entrepreneur Magazine. In 2003, she sold her business to focus full time on her writing.
Since then, she has sold books to four major publishing houses in multiple genres. You can find out more about her busy release schedule at www.lisareneejones.com.
Out of the Shadows by Myla Jackson
Dedicated to my sister,
Delilah Devlin,
whose fanatical love of writing matches my own.
One
“They’re cockier than usual tonight,” TJ Evans whispered to his partner as a gang of five young men ambled down the deserted streets of inner-city Houston, kicking soda cans and talking loud enough to wake even the undead. “As expected. They’re looking for anyone who might have ignored the mandatory evacuation order.”
Ryan nodded in the dark. “Probably getting hungry.”
“Good, when they’re hungry they don’t always think straight.”
It was the witching hour, the time of night you didn’t want to be out on the streets with all the creepy and dangerous people littering the hours between midnight and four.
TJ and Ryan crouched behind the abandoned automobile they’d chosen as cover for their mission. As cops assigned to the Houston Special Task Force, they were responsible for keeping the streets clean of the worst kind of riffraff, and the guys headed their way qualified-young, aggressive and vampires. He recognized them from the sketches at the station.
“Ready, Ryan?” TJ asked.
Ryan nodded and fitted a wooden dart into his crossbow.
About the time he was set, a woman emerged from an evacuated apartment building, carrying a laundry basket piled with belongs.
The vamps whooped and made a beeline for their first unwilling victim of the evening. Halfway to her car, the woman spotted the men, her eyes growing round. She darted a look from her car standing against the curb and back to the doorway as if debating which she could make faster.
“She’s mine.” The short, stocky vamp wearing a black T-shirt and sporting dragon tattoos on each arm led the way.
The woman dropped the basket and dove for the car, fumbling to fit her key in the lock.
“It’s show time.” TJ pressed the stock of his recurve crossbow against his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
The two cops stepped from behind the rusted-out vehicle.
Ryan called out, “Halt or I’ll shoot!”
TJ snorted and sighted his weapon on the man in the lead. “You’re such a rookie.”
But the shout brought the gang of men to a standstill, and they turned toward the two cops. Their leader laughed out loud. “You’re kidding, right? You want us to stop?”
“Houston Police, step away from the woman,” TJ said, his weapon at the ready.
“And who’s going to stop us? You?” The guy with the tattoo dragons threw back his head and laughed, his long white incisor teeth reflecting the light from the nearby streetlamps.
“Can’t say we didn’t warn you.” With his hand firmly wrapped around the grip, his sights targeting the first man’s chest, TJ squeezed the trigger, sending the solid wooden dart straight into the man’s heart.
The laughter died on the tattooed man’s lips and his eyes widened. As he glanced down at the wooden dart embedded into his heart, his body jerked and then jerked again. Within seconds he shook so hard he fell to the earth, screaming, his flesh dissolving into dust until the wind lifted his remains and blew them away.
The other four men stared down at where their leader had been. By the time they looked back at the two cops, Ryan squeezed his trigger, another dart flying into the chest of the nearest man.
TJ had already reloaded and fired off his next round when the gang of three remaining vampires turned and attacked. He was able to fire his last round into the heart of one, dropping him in mid-lunge. Neither TJ nor Ryan had time to reload. They moved back, pulling wooden stakes from the knife sheaths on their belts.
The two vampires left standing leaped onto the hood of the abandoned vehicle and roared, flashing their teeth. The bigger vamp growled and dropped to the ground, stalking toward TJ. “You’re in luck. I believe the only good cop is a dead cop.”
“Is that so?” TJ said. He braced his legs for the attack, adrenaline pulsing through his veins giving him an almost orgasmic rush. God, he loved his job! “We may have a bit of a problem. I believe the only good vampire is a dead vampire.”
The vampire leaped at TJ, knocking him to the ground. For a moment, TJ’s hand loosened around the stake. If he didn’t get it into the vamp’s heart quickly, he didn’t stand a chance. Vampires had superhuman strength and resilience. TJ’s only advantage was his ability to think under pressure. His opponent clamped clawlike hands into his shoulders and leaned forward, his lips peeled back from long, wicked teeth.