He knew then that he could do this with her, even release into her as needed, and he began to relax. And all because of her, because she kept bringing him back to how this was an act between them, despite the circumstances.
Suddenly he felt movement and Engles was there, na**d and aroused, levitating to place himself behind Angelica. “We’re sharing, whether you like it or not.” Engles’s dark eyes were wild and glazed.
But something primal erupted within Reyes. A flush of heat flowed through his body and he saw through a red film that now covered his eyes. He levitated well above Angelica, then launched at Engles, catching him hard in the chest so that he flew backward between the two posts.
Reyes landed on top of Engles in the pool just a few feet from the table. With his weight holding Engles down, Reyes rained punches at his enemy. Fury raged through him. He found Engles’s throat and gripped him hard as he continued to pound his face, shoving most of his head below the waterline.
Reyes shouted, “Don’t you ever touch what belongs to me!”
“Enough!” the metallic voice called out.
At the same time, two sets of powerful hands grabbed Reyes from behind, hauling him off Engles. Reyes tried to wrench free, but the men were part of Engles’s security staff and built like tanks. Still Reyes fought, especially since Engles rose to his feet in the pool, as all the men were now, his eyes dark with rage.
Reyes, stop! You’ve got to come back to me. I’m scared.
Angelica. Shit, in his fury he’d left her alone and unprotected.
He stilled as he turned to stare at her.
She was still on her knees, though at the edge of the table, and very naked. But the security team now levitated in the air around her and he couldn’t reach her.
She shifted her gaze to something beyond him. Look out! she shouted within his mind.
He didn’t see the punch coming. Engles caught him on the jaw and he saw stars.
Chapter Six
Angelica slid off the platform, jumped into the shallow water, then leaped toward Reyes. She’d half expected the security team to stop her, but they didn’t.
When she reached Reyes, now held upright by Engles’s men, his head lolled.
She reached for him, but Engles grabbed her arm and jerked her in his direction. His face was bloody and swollen, but he smiled. “I have you now. And there’s nothing Reyes can do about it.”
But there was something Angelica could do and right now she didn’t give a damn for the consequences. She relaxed in Engles’s grip and turned toward him. Adopting her most submissive pose and voice, she said, “What a powerful man you are.”
He pivoted just enough. She leaned into him, and because he was so used to servility she was able to lift her knee in a hard jab. She caught him just right, because his eyes widened, then his mouth. He buckled and fell over on his side into the water once more but came up sputtering and holding his crotch.
The security team grabbed her as well.
Engles called out on a pained hiss, “Take them to the interrogation room. Now!”
But the metallic voice began to laugh, then called out, “You will do no such thing, Engles!”
Scorpion issued his own set of orders, sending Engles and his security team away. Angelica knelt in the cold water, supporting Reyes’s head on her lap.
Scorpion’s metallic voice once more called out. “Slave, try to bring your master around. I need a word with him!”
Angelica patted Reyes’s cheek. She shivered as much from the icy water as from the knowledge that the head of Starlin, an extremely powerful Ancestral, was only a few yards away. She had no doubt that Scorpion could do anything he wanted to either Reyes or herself.
“Master, you must wake up. Please wake up.”
She started rubbing his arms, chest, and shoulders vigorously. “Wake up, master.”
After what seemed like ages, Reyes finally came around. And once awake he leaped to his feet. “Where the f**k is Engles?”
Reyes, calm down right now. We’re alone with Scorpion. Don’t give us away.
He pressed a hand to his face. “Scorpion, my apologies.”
“The fault is Engles’s. He did not have permission to disrupt the show and he’s being punished as we speak. However, I was still extremely well-entertained. You stood up to Engles when no one else dared.
“I’ve had my eye on you for decades and have watched your excellent progress as a slaver. I believe you have tremendous potential in my organization and I’ll be frank: I’m looking for a much more intimate association with you.
“I expect your attendance at the masked ball tomorrow night, and if all goes well I plan to reveal myself to you.”
Angelica was stunned and the chains told her Reyes was as well.
Reyes frowned. “But even Engles doesn’t know who you are.”
“Engles will always have a specific role in my organization, but I’m looking for something very different with you. And there will be requirements which I expect to be obeyed.”
Angelica wasn’t surprised when Reyes bowed slightly and said, “Anything you wish, master.”
“Excellent. And now you may go.”
There was nothing elegant about the way Reyes simply picked her up, then shifted to altered flight, both naked. Unfortunately, as anxious as Reyes was to get her away, he moved too fast and pain pierced her skull.
She screamed. Reyes, it hurts.
He pulled back immediately, but the damage was done, so that by the time they arrived back at his bedroom she was dragging him toward the bathroom, where she promptly threw up. Naked, bent over a toilet, and vomiting. Exactly the way any woman wanted her man to see her.
Reyes was nothing but kind, however, as he stroked her back and apologized repeatedly for being so thoughtless.
This time, however, as she siphoned Reyes’s power, she recovered much more quickly, so that within half an hour she sat next to him on the couch in his sitting room, both wearing robes.
He kept shaking his head. “I can’t believe what Scorpion said to me, that he’s been watching me and has plans for us.”
“Sounds like he wants you for his boy toy.”
Reyes grimaced. “I have no doubt that’s his intention.”
“I’d tease you if the whole thing wasn’t so horrible. But it also seemed to me that Scorpion wants to bring you in as more of a partner than just a member of the board.”
Reyes rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s what it sounded like, but why?”
Angelica shrugged. “Like he said, he’s been watching you.”