Unveil My Heart (Wiccan Haus Book Seven) Read online

  “I’ll calm down when that thing tells me what the hell she thought she was doing,” Blaine snapped, pointing at Sarka. “Why was security holding Hayze? Why was he damn near dragged in here and what the hell has he done so wrong to warrant such treatment?”

  “Oh my. Is this your significant other?” Cemil asked with a smile.

  Blaine stepped back with a shake of her head. “Ah, no—I—we’re—”

  “Are you staking a claim, then?” Cemil batted thick eyelashes at her as if silently daring her to speak what was in her heart. His question was like a bucket of water from the Arctic.

  “I—What she was doing—” A thick arm around her waist silenced her.

  “Let it go,” Hayze growled low. “This is expected of Sarka. It’s nothing new.”

  “You shouldn’t be expecting something like this! This is supposed to be a business, for heaven’s sake, not the MMA tryouts!”

  “It doesn’t matter. Let’s go. This shit is starting to burn.” Hayze told her as he glared at Sarka. Without another word, he grabbed Blaine’s hand and led her out the room and toward the second set of elevators. The very same ones she’d tried to use before but couldn’t get to work.

  Blaine allowed him to lead her as she peered over her shoulder, her gaze locked on Sarka, who had stepped out the room and was staring back at her, unfazed. Out the corner of her eye, she watched as Sage and Myron emerged from the office, satisfied smirks on both their faces. A mischievous smile played over Cemil’s handsome face and he twiddled his fingers at her. Then, as the elevator doors closed, locking her and Hayze in, she swore she heard Sarka say, “It’s done. It’s up to the jack-ass now.”

  What and who she was talking about, Blaine hadn’t a clue. But she was certain the siblings and Myron were a bunch of asylum escapees. The Better Business Bureau would be hearing from her the minute she got back to the mainland.

  Chapter Six

  “A HUNDRED LIFETIMES COULD PASS and I swear Sarka would still be the same mean-spirited bitch she is today.” Hayze slammed his room door closed behind Blaine and crossed to the bathroom.

  “What’s her problem with you anyway?”

  He grabbed the tiny bottle of shampoo off the sink and a towel, and then peeled out of his shirt, dropping it on to the bathroom floor. “A few years back she mistook my aura for that of the vampire who broke her heart. When she had a heart, anyway. Ever since then she’s hated me.” He scoffed, “Every chance she gets she makes my life a living fucking hell.” He stumped to the shower and turned it on. “One of these days I’m going to forget she’s human.”

  “Were you in a relationship with her?”

  “Hell, no. Until you, I’ve never wanted a relationship with anyone.” Hayze unfastened his belt and kicked off his shoes. “I didn’t mean that any other way except how I said it,” he clarified, slipping out of his jeans. Had his power been up-to-par he would have waved his clothing away with a flick of his wrist. Stripping like this made him feel a little too damn human.

  “I—I understand.”

  His back to the bathroom door, Hayze brushed his hands over his matted hair and thought about calling up a massive lightning storm to strike the malicious bitch down. Sarka, the witch, had done some things to him over the past years, but this took Anubis’s scepter.

  He had been waiting, like he’d been doing over the last couple of days, for the daily concoction of fruits and herbs that Sage prepared for Blaine when Sarka and her goon squad had cornered him. Of course, he could’ve thrown the guys off of him easily, but not without risking someone getting hurt. And, he and Rekkus were already on bad terms; if he had hurt two of Rekkus’s men, it would have only made things that much worse. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was a setup. He pushed his boxer-briefs down and kicked them to the side. But what would she get out of this? To see me humiliated? A dry laugh escaped him. Yeah, that would about do it.

  “Hayze?”

  He turned, his hands fisted on his hips. “Yeah?”

  “Ah, oh…sorry.” Blaine backpedaled out of the bathroom. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were taking a full shower. I thought you were only going to wash your hair.”

  Nudity had never been something that bothered Hayze, but it obviously bothered Blaine, so he snatched a towel down off the rack and raced after her. “Hey, let me take a quick shower and I’ll be right with you, okay? We should still be able to have that picnic or if you want, I heard there’s an apple orchid somewhere around here. Maybe we could go find it. After all, you know what they say about an apple a day?” He chuckled and grabbed her hand, pulling it away from the doorknob. “Sit. I promise I don’t bite anymore.”

  If only she knew how true that statement really was.

  Blaine’s face was as red as a Maui orchid. “You—you should go put some clothes on,” she said hurriedly, “Like, right now.”

  “I would love to, but I have to wash this crap off, remember?”

  “Oh, you said it was burning; is it still?”

  “Not really. Now it’s tingling.” Hayze raked his fingers through his hair again and brought it down between them.

  Blaine took his hand and sniffed the substance coating his fingers. “What is that?”

  “I don’t have a clue, but it feels like sludge.”

  “It smells good. Like jasmine…” She leaned in and took a stronger sniff. “And roses. I smell roses. Don’t you?” Excitement was growing in her tone even as her voice took on a slightly huskier quality.

  “I don’t care what it smells like. I’m washing it off. Are you going to wait?” Why was she staring at him like she wanted to gobble him up? To be able to read minds once more, Hayze would’ve made a deal with Cerberus to stand guard in his stead at the River Styx for a thousand years.

  Blaine nodded, her hazel eyes smiling with mischief. She reached up, her warm hands slinking around his neck and then slipping down over his right shoulder and bicep. She was following the path of his birthmark—his Anubi marking. “Your tattoo kicks ass,” she whispered, her nails tracing the lines, and stirring the sleeping jackal that called the blackness within home. It was weak, but it knew the touch of its mate. The jackal lifted its head and would’ve roared in triumph had it not been so weak.

  Hayze could feel the jackal moving languorously under his skin, warming his body, one with him. “You think?”

  “Sure do,” she crooned, brushing her lips across his shoulder, which shocked the sand out of him. “It’s unlike any tattoo I’ve ever seen.”

  “That’s because it’s not a tattoo. It’s more of a birthmark.” It came out a throaty whisper as her head dipped and she ran her nose slowly across his pecs, continuing to trace the lines of his mark as digits trailed lower.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, you remember I told you about my ability to transform into a jackal? Well, all Anubi have a tattoo similar to this one. It’s where our jackals reside.” He adjusted the towel around his waist and tried to step back from her, but she followed.

  Blaine briefly intertwined her fingers with his before using the tips of her nails to trace the path the tattoo took up his right arm, over his shoulder, across his right pec, and around his neck. “Are you still taking a shower?”

  “That was the plan.” Hayze leaned back away from her. “Give me a few minutes, okay?”

  She nodded, her hand gliding slowly up to her nose. She closed her eyes and sniffed. “I could join you.”

  “Are you all right?” Something was definitely wrong here.

  “I’m feeling lucky,” Blaine replied with a girlish giggle.

  “Wait, did you offer to join me in the shower?” Her actions with his mark was weird enough, but asking to join him in the shower? That proved it.

  “I was joking. I’m fine.” She didn’t even blush as she pushed off the door and moved toward him. “That’s a lie, actually.” She slipped up next to him, ducked beneath his arm and curled her body around Hayze’s like she was a kitten and he was
a toy covered in catnip.

  “Is it?”

  Blaine rolled her body against his, turned and rubbed her breasts against his bare chest, and then slipped her hand around his neck, pulling his head down to hers. She closed her eyes, and smiled at him as she inhaled deeply while rubbing her groin against the terry cloth towel covering his cock.

  “Hayze, you can make me feel better.”

  Every ounce of blood in his body rushed to his dick. He’d never in his life been as hard as he was right now. Hayze shook his head to try to dispel the cloud of desire she was surrounding him with. In the time he and Blaine had been getting to know one another, she had never done more than tangle her pinky finger with his and she had immediately told him it was a mistake. The woman was adamant that if she tried to have a relationship with him, it would end badly because of her horrible luck. So, this change came as a welcomed and confusing surprise.

  Hayze slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her flush against him. “I could do that, but what will I get in return?”

  Blaine turned in his arms, slithered up and down his body, and gyrated her supple ass back against him. “You’ll get lucky, baby.”

  Maybe it was the way she drawled the endearment that snapped him out of his delusion, or maybe it was her pinching his nipples. But the fog of lust circling them, parted instantly. Hayze gripped her arms and held her away from him. “Look at me, Blaine.”

  “No, look, I want to touch you,” she sang the words as she batted her thick eyelashes up at him. “I want to feel every inch of you.” Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes dreamy and hazy with lust. There was also a thin sheen of perspiration over her face and neck that he wanted to lick off.

  Blaine leaned down and sniffed at Hayze’s hands, then pitched up on her toes while pulling his head down. He tried holding her at arm’s length, but she had found a new strength and determination human women didn’t possess.

  “Son of a bitch.” He yanked his head away from Blaine as she took a strong whiff of the goop that was now dripping down onto his neck and shoulders.

  “God, I’m so wet for you, Hayze.” She wiggled, trying to get closer to him. “Let me taste you.” She licked her lips, sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and nibbled on it. “Please?”

  The scene in the lobby moments earlier played in his head. “That conniving little…” Blaine stroked his cock through the towel with one hand while palming one of his ass cheeks with the other. Hayze’s knees nearly buckled under him.

  “Make love to me, Hayze. I can feel how hard you are for me. Touch me. See how wet and slippery I am for you.”

  If he were anyone else, he would’ve come right then. There was something sinfully sexy about a woman who knew what she wanted in bed, but this was just wrong. His Blaine would never act like this—not willingly, anyway.

  Hayze scooped her up and carried her to the bathroom. Before she could protest, he shoved her in and closed the door. Using the sash from his robe, he tied one end around the knob and the other tight around the nearest knob on the dresser.

  “You’re going to thank me for this later, Blaine. I promise you will.”

  He wanted her to want him, and to need him with the same desperation he needed her. But he didn’t want it like this.

  “Hayze, open the door, honey. I want to hold you,” she called from the other side, her voice doused in sexuality. “Don’t you want me? I thought you wanted me. I’m ready now. Open the door. You can have me any way you want, baby.”

  Hayze stared at the bathroom door, not totally sure he should trust what he was hearing. He turned with a growl, and made a beeline for the exit. “I’ll fucking kill her.”

  The guests were staring at him as if they thought he’d lost his mind, and perhaps he had, but Hayze didn’t care.

  “Did you forget something?” Myron said with a giggle.

  “Go to hell.” Hayze tightened the towel around his waist and continued through the lobby. Rounding the last corner, he shoved the door to the office open. It made a loud bang as it bounced off the wall. Three of the four members of the brat pack were accounted for, but he zeroed in on the only one who was of any concern to him at the moment. “What the hell did you think you were doing?”

  Sarka tossed him a droll look and went back to a magazine she was reading.

  Hayze stomped further into the room, slapped his hands against the desk and said, “You’ve done some low shit before, but this is below even you.”

  “Calm down, Hayze,” Cemil said from his perch against the far wall.

  “Calm down? Have you all lost your damn minds?” Hayze glared from Sarka, to Cemil, to Sage, and back to Sarka. “What happened? I thought you didn’t do love potions. Is your word worth absolute crap now?”

  Sarka shot to her feet, the magazine slipping from her grip. “Don’t you ever challenge my word, you Anubi piece of shit! I said I would never make a love potion and I haven’t!”

  “Tell that crap to Blaine. She’s so in love all of a sudden, she can’t see straight and it all happened after she got a whiff of this shit you poured on me,” Hayze groused. “Explain that.”

  “I don’t have to explain a damned thing to you,” Sarka said, rounding the large desk, one hand balanced on her black clad hip.

  “Like hell you don’t. Where my mate is concerned, you will explain even if I have to make you.”

  “Make me then.” Her nostrils flared and her brows drew together. “You seem to only throw that mate word around where it doesn’t count,” Sarka snarled.

  If Hayze was a weaker man, he probably would have turned at that point and gotten out of there, but he wasn’t. “You heard me, Sarka. I’m tired of this shit with you. Did that bastard mess you up that bad that you have to take it out on every man who doesn’t pay you a passing fucking glance?”

  “Are you insinuating that I want you?” Sarka laughed in his face. “I wouldn’t screw you with Blaine’s puss—”

  “You bitch!” Hayze stepped to her, cutting her off.

  “Enough,” Sage shouted, forcing herself between the two of them. “Stop this!” She slapped at Hayze’s bare chest, sending him back a few steps. “Blaine was only given an aphrodisiac to make needs that are already present within her stronger. If she had felt nothing for you, then the potion wouldn’t have affected her. There was nothing in it to make her fall in love with you. Neither Sarka nor I would ever force anyone to be with someone against their will. I’m insulted that you would even think such a thing!”

  Sage slapped her small hands against his bare skin again and it stung, which bewildered Hayze momentarily. He’d never felt pain from human hands before. He pushed his private thoughts away. “What am I supposed to think? One minute Blaine can barely look at me without blushing and the next she’s trying to jack me off,” he growled low, his hands clenched at his sides. “You two had no right to interfere!”

  “She was trying to jack you off, so instead you ran down here to pitch a bitch?” Cemil’s laughter cut through the tension.

  “Go to hell, Cemil. Besides, you wouldn’t understand if I drew you a fucking map.”

  Cemil’s laughter died about as quickly as it started. “Really?” He took a step forward and stopped, his bright eyes trained on Hayze. “The only person here that doesn’t understand is you. How you can’t see that Blaine has loved you since before arriving on this island bewilders me. And, to top it off, you really believe if you don’t tell her how you feel it will keep her from suffering?”

  “I never said—”

  “You didn’t have to. Did you forget, Hayze, that I’m an empath?” Cemil shot back. “I can feel a person’s emotions from across the ocean if I see fit. When you called to set this up, I knew you were dying and I knew you were in love. So don’t stand there telling me I don’t understand what you’re feeling.” He pushed his hands through his hair and moved a little closer to Hayze. “The only thing I don’t understand, friend, is why you’re not willing to try to live. Is there a rule
written anywhere that says that after three days, acceptance by one’s mate is not possible for an Anubi?”

  That was exactly the crux of the problem. Hayze had never heard of any Anubi surviving after the three days for acceptance had passed without winning the love of their mate. Why would things be any different for him? But he wasn’t going to get into that with the siblings. They were already too deeply invested in his business as it were. Hayze’s jaw ached, he was clenching it so hard. What gave these human freaks the right to interfere in his business anyway? He had it all figured out, damn it. He was going to enjoy Blaine’s company from a distance and, when the time came, he would let her go and be glad for the time he’d been blessed with. None of them had any right to interfere.

  “All we were trying to do is give her a little courage to do what she wanted to,” Sage said. “I see the way she looks at you and I see how she moves closer to you whenever a female is around, Hayze. Whether you like it or not or believe it or not, she’s in love with you. What you’re planning isn’t only unfair to what the two of you could have, but it’s unfair to her. I had hoped that consummating your relationship would give you a fresh chance.”

  Hayze exhaled a breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding and turned to face Sage. “That’s not your place.”

  “Well, it’s yours and you refused to act so we—” Sarka said.

  “Stay out of my damn business,” Hayze snarled, cutting her off. “All of you. Just stay out of my fucking business.” He moved to the door. Hand on the handle, he didn’t face them as he asked, “How long will this shit last?”

  “Only a few hours,” Sage told him despondently.

  Hayze growled, “Will she remember?”

  “Of course she will,” Sarka snapped with a roll of her eyes.

  His ire boiled. “You sons of bitches, I hope you all reap what you so freely sow.” Hayze slammed the door with such force, he felt the sound roll through the rest of the Haus.