Life tried to kill me, but I didn’t die.
I only wish I did.
She’ll need some kind of explanation to satisfy her curiosity, but I’ll be damned if I’ll share all my ugly stories of how I got from point A to point B. It would make her sick. And it would take too long, anyway. And it doesn’t really matter.
I am what I am, no matter how I got this way.
My voice comes out flat. “Don’t feel sorry for me.”
“Oh, believe me, what I’m feeling for you right now isn’t pity.”
Her voice has an edge to it. When I glance at her, she skewers me with a look.
She says, “You were just inside me. That means I get to ask questions, and you get to answer them. What you don’t get to do is shut me out and act like I’m irritating you with my concern.”
I’ve never met a woman such equal parts salty and sweet.
I spend a brief moment wondering if a wolf and a lion could be happy as mates, but quash that ridiculous thought as quickly as it came.
“If I don’t answer a question of yours, it’s because knowing the answer would make you less safe. Add that together with the fact that I won’t to lie to you just to make you feel better, and you have me staying silent more than you’ll like.”
We stare at each other. I can tell she’s not happy with that explanation, but she’ll accept it. Grudgingly.
If my erection gets any harder, it will split a seam in my pants.
Holding her gaze, I say softly, “Now lie down and spread your legs.”
There’s a long, crackling moment as she decides whether or not she’s going to obey my command. Our held gazes burn like a lit fuse. Impatience claws at me.
“If you don’t do as I tell you, I’ll put you over my knee and spank your ass until it’s red.”
Her eyes flare in outrage. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
Now she’s even angrier, but she’s turned on, too. She likes the idea.
She likes it as much as she hates me for suggesting it.
When she licks her lips, I almost snap and lunge at her. But I hold myself in check and wait, gritting my teeth against the urge.
I’m right at the edge of my self-control when she lies back against the mattress in one fluid motion and stretches her arms out over her head.
I look at her, breathing shallowly and watching me with wary eyes, her knees pulled up and squeezed together, her hair spilling all over the silk duvet cover, her bare skin smooth and gleaming, and I feel a jolt of possessiveness far darker and more powerful than anything I’ve felt for her before.
She’s my match.
The yang to my yin. The light to my darkness.
She’s what I didn’t know I’d been missing all these years: a soft place to fall.
“You’re beautiful.”
My voice is a harsh rasp in the quiet room. My blood rushes through my veins like wildfire. Heat must be curling off my skin like smoke.
She looks at my face and sees everything, like she always has. In a soft, teasing voice, she says, “I like you, too, wolfie. Take off your pants.”
I rise and stand at the edge of the bed, looking down at her. “You’re not in charge here.”
“No? Hmm.” Her gaze drops to the bulge behind my zipper. “You could’ve fooled me.”
Suppressing a grin, I grasp my hard dick through the fabric of my slacks. “You want to play a game? It’s called ‘See Who Breaks First.’ Spoiler alert: you’ll lose.”
Her voice stays calm, but I see the excitement in her eyes. “You’re awfully confident. Overconfident, I think.”
She parts her knees, opening her legs so she’s exposed, pink, wet, and ready.
I stare down at her. Lust crashes over me like an ocean wave. A needy growl builds in the back of my throat.
She whispers, “That’s what I thought.”
I rip off the rest of my clothing before she could count to three, then settle myself between her spread thighs. I don’t enter her, though. I just press our bodies together, balance my weight on my elbows, and frame her head in my hands.
“I’m not the only overconfident one here,” I murmur, nuzzling her throat. When a little involuntary shudder passes through her body, I hide my grin in her neck.
She slides her hands down my back, gently exploring, then slides them up again and sinks her fingers into my hair. She gazes up at me with hot eyes and a half smile.
With a slight roll of her hips, she says, “So this game of yours. See Who Breaks First. How does it work?”
Her heat and wetness slide against my hard cock, making it throb. Amazed by her, I shake my head. “I think you know already.”
She pretends innocence as she shifts her upper body so her hard nipples graze my chest. “I don’t. I really have no idea.”
She smiles.
I hungrily kiss that smile from her mouth, parting her lips with my tongue and delving deep.
She does the melting thing she does every time I kiss her, sighing into my mouth, her limbs automatically relaxing. Her fingers tighten in my hair.
I flex my hips so my hard cock rubs against the swollen little nub of her clit. She gasps but tries to stifle it.
Bending my head to her breast, I whisper, “No? No idea at all?”
I suck her nipple into my mouth, feeling a savage rush of satisfaction when she moans and arches into me. When I test that nipple with my teeth, she exhales with a shudder and rocks her pelvis into mine.
“So perfect,” I whisper, squeezing the lush fullness of her breast as I lap at her nipple. “You’re so fucking perfect, baby. I love how you respond to me.”
She says my name, the barest whisper of need. It makes me want to let rip a Tarzan yell and beat my fists on my chest.
Then we start to play.
Fingers lazily stroking. Tongues gently lapping. The sound of rushing heartbeats and quickening breaths. My skin mists with sweat as need and hunger grow, but I hold myself back, resisting the drumbeat in my blood growing louder and more insistent with every teasing roll of her hips against mine.
She’s warm and plush underneath me, soft everywhere I’m hard. The sensation of her thighs wrapped around my waist and her bare breasts pressed against my chest makes me feel like a mindless animal.
I want to shove my dick deep into her wet heat and start pounding, but instead I dig my fingers into her ass and start to talk to her, whispering everything I feel.
How much I crave her.
How crazy she makes me.
How not seeing her is torture, and how desperate I get at the thought of letting her go.
Only I say it all in Gaelic, so she can’t understand.
She reaches down between our bodies and curls her fingers around my cock. Rubbing the crown up and down through her wet folds, she whispers into my ear, “How you doing, wolfie?”
“I could do this all day.” I flex my hips. When the engorged head of my cock slips inside her, I stop and give her a deep, lingering kiss.
When we come up for air, she’s panting. “Me too.”
She looks a little dazed, her cheeks flushed and her eyes hazy. She’s starting to shake.
I shift my weight to one elbow and lean down to suck her nipple, gently massaging her ass as I take a mouthful of her flesh.
Her moan is soft and broken. It takes every ounce of self-control I have not to throw her ankles over my shoulders and fuck her until she’s screaming my name.