Page 19 of Venice Heat (Urban Heat 2)

Darkness descended.

“Shae? Shae, open your eyes. Okiru. Wake up.”

She blinked at Eiji. Concern creased his brows and darkened his eyes. He raised her in his arms and carried her into the room to lay her on the bed. She breathed deep and yelped in fear, rolling away from him.

“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.” He reached a hand out to her, but she scooted farther down the bed toward the opposite side from where he stood. She inhaled again and smelled it, that scent so familiar and yet terrifying. Scanning the room, she couldn’t identify what it was. Eiji stirred into her line of sight, but he made no move to approach her. “Do you know who I am?”

She licked her dry lips.

“Shae, do you know my name?”

“Eiji.” Her voice came out hoarse, and she remembered crying out in pain so long, but no one had heard or come to help. Not even Eiji. Although she’d sobbed nonstop, it surprised her when water clouded her vision. She scrubbed a hand over her eyes and glared at him. “Why are you here now? Why couldn’t you come when I needed you?”

“Gomen. I would give anything for this not to have happened to you.”

She blinked. Did he know? Of course he didn’t. He probably thought that bastard had attacked and raped her, nothing more. The next minute he’d be telling her they needed to call the police and report Darryl, but she knew help from the authorities—help from anyone—was now beyond her.

“He should have killed me.” She hung her head, and Eiji appeared by her side in a heartbeat. He drew her onto his lap, but this time she couldn’t mistake the scent. She screamed and scratched his arm. Unlike Darryl, Eiji didn’t force her to stay in his embrace. He let her find her footing and back away until she bumped the wall. The exit from her bedroom lay on the other side, behind him. “You’re…you’re…”

“I’m not one of them,” Eiji said, his tone low.

“Liar! I can smell it. I can smell everything, and it hurts like a mother!” She pushed the back of her hand to her nose. “That scented thing in the bathroom is killing me. I smell you, Eiji. You’re a shifter. You smell just like Darryl!”

His broad shoulders slumped as he stood before her, but he made no attempt to close the space between them. “I am a wolf shifter, but I’m not one of his pack. I am what you call a rogue wolf, like my cousin Izumi was before me.”

“Your cousin?” She frowned.

“The one I told you about, the one who died, the reason I came to America.”

The shooshing, and she whimpered. Eiji patted the air in a gesture for her to stay where she was. He turned toward the bathroom, and she had the thought to escape, but all the strength she’d used to stand abandoned her. The most she could do at that moment was sink to the floor and try to stay awake.

Something cracked in the bathroom as if

Eiji had ripped the air freshener from the wall. She knew it had been screwed into place. He came back with it in his hand and carried it from the room. How could he bear the smell? A few days ago, before this mess happened to her, she’d loved it. Now her stomach turned, and her nostrils burned.

In the kitchen, water came on, followed by a few clicks and bangs. The refrigerator door opened and closed. She capitulated to gravity. The thud from landing face-first on the floor sounded dull, but she passed out nonetheless, and when she opened her eyes again, she lay on the bed. Eiji sat on the side, removing her clothes.

“Get off me,” she screamed and hit at his hands. He caught her wrists in a grip she couldn’t escape from. The humiliation of meeting a second man she couldn’t beat was too much. She kicked out, aiming for his nuts.

Eiji swiveled his hips to the left with the ease he’d used that night he blocked a punch. She hated him.

“Stop fighting me, Shae. You are still ill. If I don’t help you, there’s still a chance you will die.”

“It’s better if I do.”

He glared at her and shoved her down with her hands at her sides. For some reason, with him so close yet not touching, she felt even more vulnerable than she had with Darryl. Eiji, with his quiet self-assurance, his air of being there but being far away at the same time, pissed her off and drew her to him.

“I don’t want this.”

“You will live, and you will be wolf.”

“No!”

Without ceremony, he stripped the last of her clothing from her and left her naked. She peeked into his face as he turned to toss the dirty garments on the floor. Not even a hint of desire cracked his visage. That should reassure her, but it irritated instead. She checked his crotch. Fucker didn’t have a hard-on either. What does it matter? I’m losing my sanity.

Eiji left the room, and she began to shiver. At first she thought tossing a sheet over her, covering the goose bumps that had popped out along her arms and legs, would do it, but then her teeth chattered, and she gasped for breath. Just as panic set in a roaring fire in her belly so strong she had no energy to scream, Eiji reappeared and put a cup of some foul-smelling black liquid to her lips. She managed to get a floppy hand lifted.

“Get that away. It stinks.”

---