Chapter 4
4
D espite the cold shower and the fresh clothes, Vanessa still didn’t feel any better an hour after she’d brought Ginger to Vera’s. On the contrary: she felt like it was getting worse, and the feverish feeling turned into a full-blown attack. She was going into heat, and there was no rhyme or reason to it. She’d always known what she would have to deal with all her life. Her mother had prepared her for it, and drilled it into her to find a man to have sex with as soon as she could when her cycle began, or the pain would become too unbearable, and she would lose control. And once that happened, she could easily hurt a human even though she didn’t want to.
Sex had always been a subject openly discussed in the home she still shared with her parents, Maya and Gabriel, and her brother Ethan. Ryder had moved out four years earlier, when he’d mated with Scarlet, a human woman who’d also inherited the satyr gene. Her mother had told her that nobody would judge her if she had sex with a hundred guys as long as she would take care of herself. Ryder had frequented Vera’s brothel before he’d met Scarlet. That was the reason Vera knew all about satyrs, and how vital it was to not ignore the satyr’s needs for too long.
Dressed in the tight leather skirt Vera had given her, her own black boots, and one of Vera’s frilly tops that showed way too much cleavage, Vanessa cast another look at Ginger sleeping peacefully. Her breathing had normalized, and her heartbeat was getting stronger. She would make it. While she felt a twinge of guilt that she wasn’t staying with Ginger to watch her, Vanessa couldn’t wait any longer. She had to go somewhere to find a man to have sex with. Vera would understand.
Vanessa stepped into the hallway and shut the door behind her. As she walked toward the foyer, coming around the stairs, she heard Vera speaking to a man.
“…a recommendation from Chicago,” the man said, the deep timbre of his voice beckoning her like a lure enticing a fish to bite the hook.
A pleasant shiver ran down her spine as she entered the foyer and spied Vera in conversation with a tall stranger. A flame shot through her core, scorching her from the inside. The man was human, an incredibly well-built human with a tall frame, broad shoulders, and muscular arms, and a butt filling out his pants perfectly.
“Whatever your tastes, I have ladies who can satisfy them. What in particular are you looking for tonight, Mr. Whitlock?” Vera asked.
The man suddenly looked over his shoulder, maybe alerted to her approach by the clacking of her heels on the stone floor. He pivoted fully, his chin dropping, his eyes drinking her in, his body motionless as if frozen in time.
His eyes were milk-chocolate brown, his lips full and plump, his nose straight. His hair was black and just the right length to run her fingers through. As she walked closer, she could smell his clean scent, the aroma of a pure virile man. Everything female inside her responded to him. She wanted this stranger. He was perfect.
He suddenly looked away from her and addressed Vera. “I want her.”
“But, Vanessa isn’t—”
Vanessa lifted her hand to interrupt her. “No problem, Vera.” She bridged the last few yards between them with determined strides, until she stood only a couple of feet from the stranger. “I’m available.”
“Uhm, Vanessa, may I have a word with you?” Vera nodded to the man she’d called Mr. Whitlock. “Just a moment, please.”
Vera took her arm and they walked far enough away so the stranger wouldn’t be able to overhear them.
“He’s a new client. This is his first time here. I know literally nothing about him. It’s too risky,” Vera warned.
“I want him. I need this. I’m going into heat, and I don’t know why. Even if I go to a club right now, by the time I get there and pick up a guy, I might already be too far gone. Vera, he’s human. I’m stronger than him. He’s not gonna be able to hurt me.”
Vera scrutinized her for a couple of seconds, before nodding. “Fine. If it will help.”
“It will.”
“Take room twenty-three. I’ll send him up in ten minutes.”
“Thank you, Vera, you’re the best.”
As they returned to the stranger, Vanessa noticed the worry lines on his forehead. She smiled at him. “Mr. Whitlock, I’ll be waiting in room twenty-three for you.”
While she turned toward the stairs, he called to her, “Please call me Cole.”
She cast a smile over her shoulder at him, before she ascended the stairs, feeling his eyes on her back.
“Mr. Whitlock, let’s settle the financial aspect of your booking,” Vera said.