AMatterofLust Read Online Free Page B

club. Lucid was more
subdued tonight, the deep, jazzy blues music in the background creating a
sensual, laid-back vibe. It was a night for murmured conversations, lounging on
the couches that lined the dance floor, sipping red wine. A night for languid
sex, the kind that went slow and deep and long.
    He probed the club once more, hoping this time he would find
her, but he knew Rena wasn’t there. He could sense her absence, feel the empty
void where there should have been a font of electrifying life. He turned his
attention back to the bartender. She wasn’t there now, but that didn’t mean she
wouldn’t be there at all. “When will she be in?”
    “Hard to say,” the bartender said with a shrug. “She doesn’t
usually come in on Sundays, but with Rena you never know. She loves this place
and I think she comes in sometimes just to be here.”
    Something in the man’s tone, in the gleam in his eye, made
Trask wonder if he had some kind of relationship with her other than
professional. A feeling he had no name for swept over him, filling him with
something close to rage. Had she slept with this man? Did she care for him?
Rena was his. He would not share her.
    “’Course,” the bartender went on, oblivious to Trask’s
violent surge of emotion, “if she had a life maybe that would be a different
story.” The bartender eyed him closely and Trask could feel the weight of the
man’s regard. “You were here last night.”
    “I was.” He wondered what the man was getting at.
    Some of the bartender’s cheerfulness faded away and he
became serious. “Be good to her. She’s a special lady.”
    Trask read the man’s aura, trying to unravel the tangle of
thoughts and feelings he found there. Affection, anger, warmth, loyalty, it was
so much and he could only marvel again at the wild complexity of human nature.
“You are…” His voice trailed off as he searched for the word. “Protective of
her.”
    The bartender inclined his head slightly in agreement and
smiled. “She’s my friend.”
    Trask could see that the word meant a lot to him and he
respected the man’s devotion to Rena. “I will do my best.”
    The bartender seemed satisfied and he nodded to Trask before
walking away to serve other customers.
    Trask leaned back in his seat, clutching a beer he only had
the vaguest memory of ordering. Where could Rena be? He had to see her again.
He needed to taste her one more time. The memory of her lust, like vibrant
honey in his veins, washed over him. She was so perfect. Alive. Free.
Uninhibited. And she had tasted so very, very good. She had somehow managed to
calm some of the constant, insatiable craving within him and he wanted more. He
could almost feel her in his arms again, her naked flesh pressed against him,
the sultry chorus of her moans as he thrust into her. He wanted a whole lot
more of that.
    “Hi,” an overly seductive female voice said close to his ear
and his gaze slid toward the sound. A generically pretty, petite woman stood
beside him, an overly bright, wolfish smile plastered on her face. “You look
like you could use some company,” she said, and slid onto the empty chair
beside him.
    Her hungry gaze raked over him and Trask’s eyebrow rose in
amusement. This woman thought she was a hunter. Out of curiosity, he dipped
into her and was unsurprised to find a shallow well at her core. It wouldn’t
take much for him to bend her, twist her, convince her to do things she’d blush
about for the rest of her life and never willingly admit out loud. He could
take her lust to places that would forever haunt her dreams. Show her the real
power of a hunter. And what it meant to be prey.
    He turned away from her, disgusted with himself and annoyed
by the chafing vibrations of her lust. She was nothing like Rena. His Rena was
no moppet to be used and then tossed aside. Her personality and strength of
will made that impossible. He didn’t think she’d acquiesce to anything he suggested
unless she