Lion's Dangerous(Kings of the Jungle #1)(31)

Jude swore. "Anything else?"

"Only a warning."

He narrowed his eyes. "From Hawk?"

"No, from me to you. I saw that one-sided fight and while I missed what happened after, I can guess. But I wasn't the only one to see. By the end of the night, the entire city's going to know one of the Kings has claimed his queen. I don't want her running around like she's a free agent. You know how that will look. Put a mark on her."

Clenching his jaw, Jude said, "She's not ready."

"Then get her there. Ready or not, she needs the protection of the law."

Cavin didn't add that unless she bore Jude's mark, the Kings-that Jude-wouldn't have any right to pursue retribution if anything were to happen to Lily. He didn't have to. Jude knew damn well the price he would pay if he had to act on his own.

He glanced up at the balcony overlooking the social area of the club. Blue bulbs in the light fixtures were meant to simulate the color of the night sky over a jungle. The Jungle didn't need the Red Room's clients but the two clubs were technically in competition so Cavin had extended the lounge to a series of rooms known as the sky boxes. Each room opened onto the balcony. Those who desired would find beds and equipment and if they were very lucky, they'd also find a willing, eager bottom tied up and waiting in hopes of being fucked. Preferably by a stranger. It was a popular kink with the club's humans and shifters alike. Was it Lily's kink?

He could take her up there, feast on her curvy body. Images of her spread out with her ass in the air, her pussy wet and open, jacked him up to a new state of arousal. He'd been uncomfortable before. Now, the stiff ridge of his cock crossed the line into painful and fury snaked into his gut as he realized what it could mean if she was into anonymous encounters beyond the whipping post.

"Has she gone up to the sky boxes?"

Cavin smirked at his snarl. "She never sticks around long enough for anybody to talk her into bending her rules. No sex. Not for her."

Jude took small comfort in the knowledge he hadn't heated her up for another man. Maybe Summer's theory had some merit and Lily preferred women. No. When he touched her, when he squeezed the high, firm cheeks of her ass, she got goose bumps for him.

Opposite him, Cavin's focus shifted to something over Jude's shoulder. A server with short hair and long legs murmured an apology for her interruption and presented a small, square envelope. Jude pressed a few bills into the server's hand and withdrew the notecard, which bore the club's logo, the gold foil emblem of a roaring lion. 

She wants to meet you in a sky box. Condom and mask.

The note was written in Ares's bold hand. She could only be Lily. Triumph surged through him, quickly followed by the realization that she hadn't demanded his presence, but the attention of a man unknown to her. His lion clawed. Knowing there would be no denying the beast its right to claim, he stood and pocketed the note.

Cavin leaned back and lifted his glass in a salute. Ignoring it, Jude climbed up to the balcony. Once upstairs, he selected a lion's face from a basket of masks and snapped it into place.

It didn't take long to find her. Somehow, she'd slipped past while he spoke with Cavin. She'd had enough time to arrange herself and when he stepped into the room, she was kneeling at the foot of the bed, her back to the door. The sight of her sent his heart slamming against his ribs.

Blue light made her hair look indigo, like a midnight waterfall down her bare back.

He almost missed the blindfold she wore, a length of black fabric knotted behind her head. The black bled into the darker swatches of her hair. The thong she'd worn on the floor downstairs was gone, revealing the full span of her heart-shaped ass poised above her calves and the vulnerable soles of her feet. Conscience tweaked at the base of his skull and he hesitated with the door half-closed behind him.

He knew her identity. She expected anonymity, but he knew. He almost turned on his heel and left, knowing this was no way to stake a claim, no way to ensure their mating wouldn't dissolve in bitterness and resentment. But, fuck, if he left, his instincts would eat him from the inside out. Every time he saw her, he would remember the way her muscles drew taut while she anticipated the whip. The way she relaxed into the deep heat of the landing blow. If he accepted her invitation and buried his cock in her willing pussy, he'd remember even more. The squeeze of her slick heat around his dick. The arch of her back. The pitch of her moan, if she was a vocal lover.

He could have her and leave, and then later approach mating from a place of honesty, but that road led to its own problems, at the forefront of which the fact that she would still be unprotected until she agreed.

Raking his fingers through his hair, he cast a frustrated look around the room. A mirror occupied the wall to his left. A cabinet and, above it, an array of toys suspended from hooks occupied the wall to his right. Tooled leather harnesses hung beside riding crops, studded gloves and skeins of rope. He wasn't an indecisive man but this choice froze him.