“Enough,” she said with a growl. “Take me to Jason. Now! He’s my responsibility. Whatever this place is, I can handle it.”
The man dissolved from her grip. One minute there, the next a pillar of black smoke that smelled of sulfur. He returned to human form a few feet away from her. She lowered the blade.
He rubbed his shoulder where she’d gripped him. “No angel, indeed,” he murmured. “Very well, I will take you, but I won’t be responsible for the consequences.”
ChapterThirteen
Jason climbed the steps of Maison des Étoilles mechanically, awake but with arms and legs moving toward the bordello without any conscious effort. When he reached the door, it opened of its own volition. A slight figure with silky black hair and long pale limbs welcomed him inside. She was naked other than a grouping of starlike lights that hovered over her nipples and dripped like icicles down her abdomen and between her legs. Fae magic.
“Welcome.” The smile the fae gave him sparkled unnaturally in the dim light.
“One,” he said. He handed her a wad of cash.
She whispered something into a small microphone in a language Jason didn’t understand. “Is there a name you’d prefer to be called?”
“No names.”
She bowed slightly. “As you wish. Follow me.” She led him deeper within the dark paneled walls and red velvet of the bordello. “We don’t ask your desires here at Maison des Étoilles. Every girl is capable of reading your thoughts. She will adapt the session based on your deepest fantasies.”
“How adaptable are they?”
“Within these walls, we can take on the form of anyone, man, woman, or beast. If you’d like multiples, one can become two, but any more require additional help. She’ll ring me if she can’t accommodate you.” The hostess gave him a wink.
“One… woman is all I need. Thank you.”
Opening a door for him, she fluttered her lashes in his direction. “As you wish. But please understand, our only goal is to please you. There’s no need to hide anything from us here. We are rarely surprised by our guests’ deepest desires.” She turned and swayed down the hall toward the hostess stand.
He stepped into the room, the light from the hall extinguishing as the door closed behind him. For a moment, he was lost in darkness; then a red light clicked on, illuminating a four-poster bed with a gauzy white canopy. A curvy brunette slunk from the shadows, completely naked except for a black mask that covered most of her face.
“Look at those amber eyes. Someone is hungry,” she said. “Veryhungry. We won’t waste another minute.” She reached for his belt buckle.
He shoved her hands aside. He didn’t want to be touched. All he was after was a fast, surgical coupling that would appease the wolf and give him control over his life again. It didn’t matter what she looked like or what she said or did. That wasn’t why he was here.
The wolf was in control as he spun her around and bent her over. It was instinct. Dominance. Action. He reached for his fly and was about to free his erection from its confines when she turned her head, looking at him over her shoulder. Her mask disappeared and the curvy brunette transformed into a long-waisted beauty with caramel tresses and violet eyes that flashed in his direction.
“Selene,” he murmured. The change in her appearance did nothing to quell his desire. On the contrary, it ignited a yearning deep within him. No longer did he want a quick fuck. He wanted to touch her. Wanted to feel her silky skin. He reached out, his fingers coasting along the soft pale flesh of her back.
Her full lips parted in response, a moan spilling over that perfect pink tongue. She pressed her hips back, but he was still fully dressed, and he planned to stay that way. He couldn’t, although he wanted to. Not Selene. Far from being a pleasurable experience, touching the Selene look-alike triggered shock waves that rolled through him like a ball of barbed wire. He could take her and it would satisfy his wolf’s hunger, but it would also shred him. She was too good. Too pure. And he wasn’t worthy. He rubbed at the heavy, sinking feeling in his chest. This was shame, pure and simple.
He staggered away from her.
The Selene look-alike reached for him. “My, my, Selene is a lucky girl.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t say her name.”
The woman stopped. “As you wish. Would you like me to be more aggressive? Your thoughts are conflicted.”
Jason stared at her, torn between scratching his own skin off and taking her up on her offer. Fuck, he was screwed up. He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes.
Unexpectedly, the decision was made for him. The door flew open and light as bright as the rising sun flooded over him. Soleil.
“Jason, what are you doing here?” His brother’s ex-girlfriend entered the room, glowing like she’d swallowed the sun. And of course, in a way she had. Soleil, like all the women at the bordello, was celestial fae. Each had a planet or star that powered their existence. Hers was the sun itself, and the effect was extraordinary. “Do I need to call your brother?”
“No. And I’d appreciate you giving me the same privacy you provide your other patrons,” he said, hands digging into his hair. He was ready to pull the damn stuff out.
“My other patrons don’t have a werewolf acolyte sitting in my foyer demanding to see them, with an incubus demon backup no less. He’s sniffing the customers, Jason. Some of my girls can feel him drawing on their energy.”
“Selene is here?”
