And he did. Staring down at her, his hands went to the belt of her robe. His lips covered hers again, his tongue pushing into her mouth as she moaned in hunger. He made her hungry. Hungry for every kiss, every touch.
Elizabeth arched beneath him as she felt the robe part, felt his fingers at the tiny buttons that ran down the front of her gown.
“Good God,” he groaned as he spread the edges of her gown apart, staring down at the full, hard thrust of her br**sts and their tight ni**les.
Elizabeth flushed heatedly as he stared down at her. She watched his face, seeing the heavy sensuality that shaped his lips, made his eyes appear drowsy, his expression filled with lust and emotion.
“Dash.” She whispered his name beseechingly, her ni**les aching for the moist warmth of his mouth.
“If I touch one of those hard little ni**les I’ll never hold onto my control,” he sighed, watching her br**sts as they rose and fell roughly. “Do you understand that, Elizabeth? I won’t stop.”
She licked her dry lips, staring into the piercing depths of his eyes when his gaze returned to her.
“Then don’t stop.”
Dash felt flames sear his loins at her words. Quickly he turned, sat on the edge of the bed and began to remove his boots. If he didn’t undress before he touched her, then he’d have no more control than what it took to loosen his pants and pull his c**k free before pushing it inside her. Lust raged through him now, nearly out of control as he fought to get the boots off his feet. Behind him, Elizabeth shifted, coming to her knees behind him, her fingers smoothing over his back before halting on his right shoulder.
“How cute.” Elizabeth traced the little mark on the back of his shoulder. “Cassie has a mark just like that.”
Dash stilled. She was tracing the genetic marker that shadowed his skin just below the curve of his shoulder. A particular identifying mark impossible to miss if anyone knew what it was. A paw print. It was a standing joke among the scientists who had coded it. Like a small strawberry birthmark impossible to be rid of.
“It’s the same shape, too,” her voice was a bit amused. “Don’t let Cassie see it. She already claims Dane isn’t her daddy and that she’s certain her daddy has a mark just like hers.”
The blood began to rush to his head, knowledge flooding his brain like a sudden icy drenching. Cassie had such a mark? There was only one way a child could carry a mark like his. Only one way that genetic marker could have been placed. If Dane was a Wolf Breed. But that couldn’t be possible. Could it? A Breed in such a prominent position as the renowned surgeon had been? No. No Breed would ever allow his child to be harmed, let alone attempt to sell her. What the hell was going on?
He turned to face her.
“Are you sure?” He fought to clear his mind. “Absolutely certain?”
She was staring at him, her smile slowly faltering as she saw his expression.
“Of course.” She frowned in confusion. “I raised her, didn’t I?”
Elizabeth didn’t have the mark. Dash knew she didn’t. Her shoulders were a soft creamy shade of perfection, without flaw.
“Did Dane have the mark?” he asked her slowly, somehow knowing that he didn’t.
“No.” Elizabeth shook her head. “No one in his family did. I teased Dane that the doctors must have gotten his sperm mixed up with someone else’s…”
She was talking. He saw her lips moving, bitterness lining her face, but it seemed everything inside him had shut down. He was watching her speak, hearing her, his brain processing the information while he seemed to shrink inside himself in horror.
Artificial insemination. Elizabeth had been unable to conceive because of Dane’s low sperm count. So they had contacted a friend of his, a fertility doctor. Marcus Martaine. He had performed the procedure secretively because of Dane’s pride. The other man hadn’t wanted anyone to know he couldn’t father a child. So they had gone another route.
Dane still hadn’t been happy, though. He had never cared for Cassie. Always saw her as his failure, Elizabeth said. Cassie was a girl but he wanted a son. She wasn’t conceived properly. Didn’t look enough like him. Dane’s list had gone on and one.
Cassie wasn’t Dane’s daughter, though. She was Elizabeth’s. He could smell it. He would have known it if she wasn’t. The differences in the scent would have been too vast if Elizabeth’s egg hadn’t been used. But Dane’s sperm hadn’t been.
“Dash?” She was watching him in concern now as he stared down at her, everything suddenly falling into place.
Dane had to have known Cassie wasn’t his child. That she was a Breed child. He had to have known because he had tried to bargain with her. The information of the marker wasn’t public knowledge. It was a very carefully kept secret for the time being. Dash had made it his business to study every piece of information being given on them. There was a specific marker in a specific location for each Breed. The Wolf Breeds carried theirs on their right shoulders.
“I have to see it.”
Suddenly, he had to be certain. Had to make sure Elizabeth wasn’t seeing a resemblance that was possibly not there.
“What?” She shook her head, bemused. “See what?”
“The mark, Elizabeth.” He gripped her shoulders, stilling her as she moved to turn away. “Show me the damned mark.”
“On Cassie?” She frowned, fear starting to shadow her eyes as she pulled her gown and robe closed.
“Why? What does it mean? It’s just a mark. We asked the doctor about it.”
And of course, Martaine would have lied to the doting mother. It was an experiment. A secretly conducted experiment. One Martaine had obviously told no one about except the father. He would have needed Dane’s help. Somehow, he had talked the other man into the dangerous experiment.
“Show it to me.” He gripped her wrist, dragging her from the bed and into the other bedroom, stopping beside the sleeping child.
“Dash, stop, you’ll wake her,” she whispered.
He ignored her, gently lifting the small strap of Cassie’s gown and baring her shoulder. It was there. A dark shadow just under the skin. A genetic marking of the Wolf Breeds. Had she been raised in the labs, she would have been branded, or tattooed, according to the lab in question, to hide the marker. But she hadn’t been. She had been born to a loving mother and a bastard father. Dash bent close, drawing in the scent of her skin and shaking with the knowledge his brain was finally accepting. It was faint, a bit darker than he remembered. The genetics were obviously recessed much as his were or he would have detected the scent of a Breed sooner. But it was there. She was a Wolf Breed child. But whose?