CHAPTER EIGHT

 

Simone could barely remember the rest of the meal, or the walk back to the house. Her mind had been on Adam, and what his secret—or secrets—might be. Though Leigh had tried to keep the conversation flowing at first, in the end she’d simply stopped.

At the front door to the house, Simone paused.

“Monie, remember what I said, huh?” Leigh squeezed her arm before turning and walking away.

“You sure you don’t want to be here, too? Protect me from the big bad wolf?”

Slipping into her car, Leigh smiled while she shook her head. “I’m not even sure you want to be here for this. But I know you have a rock hard head and you won’t let it go, so…” She shrugged and closed the door, starting her car on the second attempt.

Simone crept inside, taking off her shoes as she made her way up the hall. At her bedroom door she looked inside and paused, thinking on all of Leigh’s warnings. It sure would be simpler to just pretend nothing happened, and go back to her old life of singing to nobody. But that also meant having nobody.

Yep it sure would be simple. But it would be anything but easy. It would, in fact, be about as far from easy as a Mother Superior.

Instead, she turned to look back up the hall. And almost jumped out of her skin, seeing Adam standing there, with a cold fire lighting his eyes and a wild cast to his smile.

“Why don’t you ever shift?” She blurted it out before she even thought about it. “You’re a wolf too, right? Like Leigh?”

His nod was so small and quick it was almost impossible to see. “She’s my cousin. It’s a family curse.”

“Curse? Apparently everyone else loves it.”

He prowled forward, the steel in his eyes flashing a warning at her. “Not I, little one. It’s ridiculous. Such primitive behavior, howling at the moon, chasing bunnies, sniffing each other all over.” He curled his top lip as he stopped right before her. “Be thankful you’re only human.”

“Hey! Watch what you say about my kind, mister.”

“I meant in the sense that human is the only creature you are. You don’t need to process the world through two sets of senses. You don’t need to reconcile the animal within. Suppress that mindless beast.” A small shudder ran through him.

“You, sir, don’t get to speak for me. Yeah, okay, I’m human and nothing else. But that doesn’t mean it’s all simple and clean for me, either.”

His laughter dug into her skin like a bee sting. “Please, Simone.”

She grabbed his shirt and pulled down, standing on her tip-toes as she did, just to get closer to his face. “You ever been human? I mean only human?”

“Unfortunately not.”

“Then you don’t know, do you?”

Gradually, the anger in his eyes cooled, and he quirked his lips into what looked like a genuine smile.

“All right. You have me there, little one.” He worked his shirt out of her grip, straightening it when he’d freed it.

“So?”

Raising one eyebrow, he fired a fresh smirk across her bows. “So?”

“So why are you the only wolf ever to hate being a wolf?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know where you got the idea that would be any of your business.”

Simone grabbed a hearty handful of Adam’s cock, through his pants, noting it was fully hard. “Maybe it was when you got this business all up in my business.”

There was no mistaking the look of surprised pleasure that washed across his face. Simone made the most of it, seeking out the thick head of him with her thumb and rubbing just below it. The low hum that oozed from his throat got her pussy all slicked up again.

“So tell me, big man. Why do you hate being a shifter?”

His breath grew shallower with every pass of her thumb. With his eyes closed he reached across and curled his hand around the back of her neck. It seemed as much about holding himself upright as holding her close. When he finally spoke it was ragged, more gravel than hum.

“I…can’t…”

“Can’t? Or won’t?”

Adam shuddered all over, as if his legs were going to give out on him. Finally he growled—a full-throated grumble of sound—and grasped Simone’s hand, wrenching it away from his package.

“Does it matter? I know you don’t have the senses of a wolf, but surely even your pitiful human ones can tell this is beyond painful for me.”

Simone couldn’t help but recoil from his anger, though she didn’t feel the slightest physical threat from him. She even managed to let his scornful words about human senses fall by the wayside. Because what she could tell without question was that, no matter what his words said, he clearly did want to tell her. To unburden himself.

With tiny steps, she closed the gap she’d opened, reaching for him as she moved. His eyes flashed at her with some kind of heat. It could have been anger, but she was willing to bet—her life, maybe—that it was arousal.

When she slid her hands up his arms, he jumped at her touch, like he wasn’t even aware she’d moved.

“Adam, you can trust me.”

He pressed his lips together so hard they formed a white line. Eventually, he relaxed them enough to squeeze out a few words. “I believe you, little one. It’s myself I can’t trust.”

Simone hooked her fingers into his thick hair and pulled. “Open up to me, mister.” She used all her weight to pull his mouth down to hers for a soft kiss.

For a moment, he held firm. Then, with a sweet and scary growl, he took her request literally, parting his lips and devouring her mouth. She’d wanted truth and honesty from him. She’d expected it to come in the form of words, but it was there in every moan he uttered, and every caress he blessed her with. And she would never turn her back on it. Except to let him take her from behind again.

Adam slid his mouth down to her throat and the entire heat of his body seemed concentrated in that one spot. Simone threw her arms around his neck for fear of either flying away or simply melting. His breath coursed into the open neck of her impractical top like a waterfall of lust.

“Yesss.” She had meant to yell it but it came out more as a whisper, with a moan chaser. She fisted his thick hair and sliced a speedy hiss from deep inside his chest. He returned the favor by spearing his fingers into her hair and rolling his wrist, right behind the small gap of her neck. With a rapid jerk he brought her scalp to life, kinking her head right back until she could feel his eyes and his mouth and his breath over every pore of her throat.

She needed her legs around him. Not for safety, and not for balance. Simply to pull him closer, grind his body against hers, exactly where she needed him. The fire between her thighs needed dousing, like right fucking now. She locked her ankles around his ass and eased her pussy up against the huge hardness of his cock.

“Come on, baby. Let go.”

She could have simply thought the words and he’d probably have heard them with those crazy wolf senses. But the moment she spoke, he tightened up again.

“Adam, please. I’m so fucking wet. I need you inside me.”

“No, no… I can’t.”

“Don’t you fucking dare, you asshole. We’re fated mates, whatever the hell that means. I think it means you have to fuck me.”

He sank his teeth so deep into her neck she wasn’t sure if he meant to turn her to jelly or turn her away. But when he tried to pull her legs apart and drop her to the floor she found a little of the wild animal inside herself, taking the back of his shirt in her fists and holding on like it was the last glazed donut in the world.

“If you turn me down now, mister, they will be finding parts of you in the woods for decades.”

“Simone, I’m warning you. You don’t know what you’re asking.” He tried again to detach her fearsome thighs from his waist area. When that failed he moved his hands up to her shoulders and pushed her into the wall, trying to get her off him.

Simone released her hold on Adam’s shirt and instead drove her nails hard into his back, dragging them like claws over his shoulders, really digging in through the fabric. The big man stiffened and hauled in the sharpest breath she’d ever heard, even turning his face to the ceiling as if he was about to howl.

Everything slowed, at least in Simone’s head. Adam brought his face back down to hers, the silver of his eyes nudging that little bit closer to blue. But it was his mouth that had her mesmerized…and terrified. As if it was a creature in its own right, he had his top lip curled up, the brilliant white of his teeth glinting through like a predator stalking her. The room seemed to tilt, and tingles of sensation ran through Simone’s body, focussed on every spot they touched. As if he was vibrating all over at a speed the human eye couldn’t see. And for the first time, she wondered if maybe—just maybe—she should have listened to him.

There was something, like another presence in the room. A sound she could feel more than hear. And it was all over her body, from her neck down to her desperate pussy. It was a sound too low for her standard old human ears to hear.

It took a moment before she realized what it was.

Adam was growling.

Oh, god. It was like a diesel-powered vibrator against her. She still couldn’t make out any sound, but where his thick cock pressed against her panties, the sensation was unbelievable. And that was through layers of fabric.

She ran her fingers over his shoulders and beneath his arms, bringing them together again around his waist. Whether he was losing control or just desperate to get closer to her, she couldn’t tell, but he ground his chest against hers, forcing her backbone into the cold wall behind her.

Simone knew it was a heavy moment. One that could tip the scales either way. Intense erotic pleasure, or utter rejection. But she wasn’t about to back down just because he literally had the strength to tear her apart.

She ran her clawed fingers gently up his back and hooked them around his shoulders, lifting herself to where her clit could press on the tip of his cock. If only they were naked the moment would be perfect. As she lowered herself against him, she ran her hands back down. Without warning, she dug them deep into his back again, harder than before. She couldn’t be sure but it felt as if she’d managed to draw a little blood, even through his shirt.

Adam’s inaudible growl became a yell of pain. The whole world spun like a carousel on cocaine as he dragged her away from the wall. He dug deep into the flesh of her thighs with his long fingers, gliding them higher with every rushed step he took. By the time they’d reached the sofa he had her panties in his grip. And when he’d finished tossing her unceremoniously onto the cool leather cushions, he still had them in his grip. Only now they were in pieces.

Simone had no time to even contemplate the shock of being stripped bare down there before Adam clawed at her skirt, tearing that from her body with as much ease as he had the panties.

She was now completely naked below the waist. It had taken him five seconds.

“I fucking warned you, little one…”

Barely had he bitten out the words than he landed on his knees. Between hers. For a moment he drew in short, punching breaths through his nose, making random movements with his head. Oh, god…he was scenting her. Like prey.

He seemed to lose control of his eyes for a second before he curled his top lip up in that weird sexy scary grin he had. Simone held her breath, completely unsure if she was in any danger.

Adam hauled her leg up to his mouth and bit into the tender flesh on the inside of her knee, pulling a mad squeal from her throat. He salved that little wound with his tongue and worked his way up her leg, biting and sucking, drawing closer to her wet heat with every kiss he planted.

Simone expected a tease. A little hover, maybe a cool breath, or even the classic move of switching to her other leg and repeating his actions. What she never expected was for him to open his mouth so damn wide, and to drive his tongue deep inside her slit with a power and a hunger like she’d never felt before.

She shrieked—an actual horror-movie scream-queen shriek—as he clamped his mouth over her clit and hummed, scratching his hands up the length of her thighs. Every sensation her body could conjure, he was pulling them inward, centering them on her most tender flesh, as if he’d given her pussy some kind of internal gravity.

Simone’s hands seemed to be affected as well. She could have sworn she never told them to move, yet there they were, clamped around the back of Adam’s head, fisting his hair, pulling his face into the juicy plumpness of her pussy. She squeezed harder every time he bit down on her clit, and released only when he did.

The swabbing of Adam’s velvet tongue was heady like tequila, and the scratching of his sandpaper stubble hit her like lime and salt. His attention forced her to feel everything around her—everything in the world, it seemed—so strongly and so sharply even her bountiful body might not have room to hold the sensations. And when he hooked his big, strong hands around the tops of her thighs, right beneath her hips, and bent her upward, she almost lost herself completely.

The first tingles of climax crept through her, but before they’d even begun to gather properly, a new sound came into being. Two parts chainsaw, and three parts dinosaur. If not for the nirvana of Adam’s mouth on her clit, she might just have run away and hidden.

It was that predatory growl again, only this time she could actually hear it. Soft and throaty, as old as time itself. The wolf within him was jostling for prime position. Even the flesh beneath his skin seemed to ripple, a tsunami of lust trying to find an exit.

Simone locked her eyes on Adam’s. The sheer depth of need shining from within him was beyond perfection. She had felt needed before, but always for what she had, not who she was. Never once had she felt so desired. So integral.

Adam turned his head and swabbed her all over, covering every minuscule point of her pussy. Every pore, every fold, every tender millimeter. Even from her viewpoint she could see the glistening of his hunger all over her skin.

When he curled his top lip up even further and pressed his teeth against her mound, she whimpered with want. And when he drove two fingers deep inside her she cried out with need.

But when he ground his thumb over her clit, she could hold back no longer. An enormous firework of ecstasy erupted inside her, sparking out through every nerve ending. Her voice seemed to take on a life of its own, pouring out of her in a keening moan of pleasure, and it seemed destined not to end until she’d emptied her lungs.

As the rich aftershocks of orgasm sent her body jittering, Adam pulled his fingers out from within her. He sucked each one languidly, his brow rippling as he savored her.

“Hell, little one, you’re a goddamn delicacy.”

“Uhm…”

Before she could form a word to follow up her brilliant grunt, Adam stood, tearing his shirt from his body like it was made from tissues. His sensual grace shone through in every movement as she studied the hard lines of his body.

The shriek of his zipper sent a fresh mix of fear and need through her. It was like a clawed hand being dragged down her spine, hard enough to hurt in that way she loved.

The rustle of his jeans falling to the floor brought a fresh ripple of nervousness to her skin, but the fierce strength of his hands had a settling effect. He swooped his arms around her, lifting her like a puppy and carrying her through to the guest room. At the bed he placed her gently and kissed her hard.

He kept his momentum going, rolling over her and onto his back. Effortlessly, he pulled her up on top of him and tore off her top as easily as he’d shredded his own shirt.

Simone pressed herself down on the thick heat of his cock as she worked her bra off, all without breaking their deep kiss. Finally naked, she came up for air and raised herself just enough to slot the blunt head of him into place.

With one long, delicious glide she took him deep inside herself, hissing in pleasured pain as he squeezed her hips, dragging all her thoughts and feelings down to where it counted. The bliss of his cock fired off salutes of pleasure inside her, and the hardness of his chest gave her a perfect surface to press on while she ground herself over him.

She dared not look him in the eyes, knowing what power they already held over her. And the easiest way to avoid them was to dive on him and suck his tongue back into her mouth.

The man was everything, and everywhere. With his big hands on her ass, and his big cock inside her. With his hot mouth on hers and his fiery skin beneath her. Not for the first time she wondered if, even with her generous curves, she truly was a big enough girl to take this ride.

But when he started growling again, even more beastly than before, she suddenly had no doubt. He raised his hips from the bed, leaving her feeling weightless for a second, and hooked his clawed fingers over her shoulders. She shrugged, trying to wrestle control back, but he was too strong.

He found her nipple with his teeth and bit hard into the stiff nub. He pulled down on her shoulders, driving her hips against his own and filling her so sweetly it was like a thousand desserts at once.

What an idiot she’d been to think she’d ever had any control with him. Her mind barely completed that thought before the bladed waves of sheer ecstasy pulsed through her body, driven on by the passionate roar of the climaxing man beneath her.

The pulsing of Adam’s hips eased, and she drifted down to him like a dropped feather, landing softly, mouth to mouth. The heat of his skin toasted hers, and the shared sheen of sweat made it so easy for her to glide down beside him.

 

* * * *

 

Aftershocks of pure pleasure kept firing through Adam’s mind and body. Though he’d refused to shift for years, the bursts of sensation sending his muscles into mild spasms were so similar it was frightening.

Damn this curvy goddess and her undiluted desirability. Damn her velvet skin, her expressive eyes, her sumptuous mouth. Most of all, damn the way her luxurious body called to his wolf.

He simply couldn’t get enough of Simone. She was already an addiction. And to stay with her, to keep this thing alive, would be nothing less than substance abuse.

“You okay, Adam?”

Her voice was syrupy with fatigue. All it did was make her even more desirable.

“I’m okay.”

“Can’t sleep?” She nuzzled at his chest, which only served to work her deeper into his heart, into his blood.

He already knew she was his fated mate. Did she have to keep getting more and more adorable?

“I rarely find sleep easily.”

Simone ran her fingers through the hair on his chest and raised her head. “You think maybe it’s because you have a whole other being inside you, howling to come out?”

“No.” He found Simone’s deep dark eyes with his own, and sighed. “Probably.”

“Then why won’t you free him? It won’t scare me.”

“You can’t know that, little one.”

She kissed his chest and worked her way up to his throat. “No. But I believe it. And I trust you, Adam.”

He closed his eyes, hoping it would stem the tears he felt forming. He’d worked long and hard to keep any woman from trusting him like that. Only to find now it was the one thing he’d needed.

Simone laid her head on his chest, and glided a warm thigh up over his waist. She was a delightful solid weight on him, a soft and curvy blanket who held him in place, molded to his form, and gave him grounding.

And then she sang.

Soft and smoky, as smooth as bourbon. Some lullaby or folk song. The words were nowhere near as potent as the sound, or the fact the song was for him alone.

In the beauty of her voice he found a home. A solace he’d never believed in. The woman who’d spawned him had never been one for lullabies. By the time Rose Poulsen filled the maternal role for him, he’d been too old and too jaded for kids’ songs.

But in that moment, Simone enveloped him. In body, in scent, and in sound. She was in his blood already. And with her song, suddenly she bloomed in his mind, in parts he’d considered long dead.

 He kissed her forehead lightly. Before he’d even finished, the sound of her voice faded.

And he slept.