Half an hour later, Bracken strolled up Madisyn’s driveway, sparing her candy-apple-red Fiat a quick glance. The retro car suited her. It was an old model, though, and there was no denying that it was on its last legs. She needed a new one soon, which he’d see to. But not yet. He wanted to spoil her, but she’d only feel like he was trying to buy her. For now, he’d hold back.
He rang the doorbell and waited. Moments later, the door swung open . . . and there she was in a simple yet still-flattering getup—a slim-fitting shirt and skinny jeans that accentuated every curve and made him just want to lick her right up.
She always managed to look stylish, even when wearing casual clothing, and her makeup was always perfect. At first glance, no one would be able to imagine that she’d ever do anything that would risk snapping her nails or messing up her hair. That would be their mistake.
If Bracken hadn’t been expecting the move, he would have jerked when his wolf sharply lunged for her. Not that he blamed the beast for wanting her so badly. “Hey,” he said simply, softly, but there was a wealth of intimacy there.
She pursed those lips he badly wanted to bite. “You gave me longer than I thought you would.”
He’d known she’d expected him to do something clichéd like wait for her outside the shelter with flowers and then spirit her to a restaurant where he could wine and dine her. But that wasn’t how things were going to go. They weren’t dating; they were slowly meshing their lives. That meant he needed to be in her personal space and not be someone who took her places and then dropped her off at home.
Greedily drinking in the sight of her, he stepped forward. “Can I come in?”
After a small hesitation, she moved aside to let him pass. “How’s your head?”
“Fine, thanks to Ally.” Turning to face her as she closed the door, Bracken took a deep breath and inhaled her scent, filling his lungs with her. He itched to touch her. Take her mouth. Lick. Bite. Mark. Leave a permanent imprint of his teeth on her lower lip. He did none of those things because, again, he knew she expected it. He wanted her off-balance. Wanted her wondering when he’d finally make his move. “The scratches on your cheek have healed.”
“They were gone within a couple of hours.”
His eyes drifted down to her neck of their own accord, seeking the bite he’d left there. Bracken felt his face harden. She’d covered it up. His wolf unsheathed his claws, and a growl rumbled in Bracken’s chest.
Sensing his issue, Madisyn said, “I wasn’t ready for all the questions the mark would have raised. I didn’t mind Makenna and Dawn knowing about us, but I didn’t feel like sharing my business with the rest of the shelter and—” She threw up her arms, annoyed with herself. “Why am I explaining myself to you? I don’t explain myself to people.”
Bracken’s lips quirked, and he moved closer, invading her space but still not touching her. His wolf took an impatient swipe at him, wanting to be closer to their mate, but Bracken ignored him. And then his fingers suddenly became hot and wet as he felt her pussy, slick and tight, around them. Again, it was a sensory memory, but he could feel it as if they truly were buried inside her right then. His cock, thick and aching, throbbed to be in her. Fuck.
Spitting a silent stream of curses at his wolf, Bracken asked, “Have you eaten?” His words came out thick and curt with arousal.
“Yes, hours ago. But I was just about to have ice cream, if you want some.”
He smiled at the begrudging note to her invitation. She wanted him there or she would never have let him cross the threshold, but he sensed that she found it awkward to share her space. “I won’t say no to ice cream.” He followed her into the kitchen, where she dug out a tub from the freezer.
“Cookie dough okay?” she asked.
He relaxed into a chair, replying, “Sure.”
Madisyn felt the heat and weight of his gaze as she scooped a few dollops of ice cream into two bowls, proud that her hands weren’t shaking due to the overwhelming tension thickening the air. She set both bowls on the dining table and then took the seat opposite him.
She took a moment to study him. Lounging in his chair—shoulders straight, head up, gut sucked in, legs spread, taking up as much room as possible in that way dominant male shifters did—he looked cool and casual and completely at ease. More relaxed than she’d seen him in a long time. Yet he didn’t come across as any less menacing. In fact, it kind of felt like being in the same room as a jungle predator—one that was watching and waiting to see what you did, biding its time until it was ready to pounce.
His eyes boldly raked over her face, flaring with avarice and so much heat. That look said he wanted to straight-up fuck her right then . . . but he wouldn’t, not yet. And damn if the carnal promise there didn’t send a little shiver down her spine. Madisyn hadn’t ever expected him to train all that dark masculinity and raw sexuality on her. Hadn’t thought she’d ever find herself the center of his intense focus—it was intimately mind-warping. She realized this was no simple visit. No, the seduction had started.
He pulled his bowl toward him. “So you told Makenna and Dawn that we’re mates?”
Nodding, she spooned some ice cream, ensuring she got a big chunk of dough. “Did you tell your pack?”
“Not until just before I came to you.” Bracken’s eyes locked on her mouth as she ate the dessert off her spoon, his cock twitching at the way her cheeks hollowed. It was far too easy to imagine putting something else in her mouth.
“Why wait?”
“I wanted to give you time to tell Makenna and Dawn so that they’d be the first of your friends to know.” Liking that he’d taken her off guard, Bracken put a scoop of his dessert in his mouth, enjoying the combination of chewy dough and cold, smooth ice cream.
Her mouth opened and closed a few times. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to look at me so suspiciously.”
“Dominant male wolves are generally all grr, mine, grr when it comes to their mates. They feel the need to share the news with the world.”
His mouth twitched into a smile. “Grr, mine, grr?”
“Am I wrong?”
“No.” He ate another spoonful of ice cream. “It was hard to keep it to myself.”
“You didn’t even tell Jesse and Zander?”
“They would have told their mates. Mates don’t keep secrets from each other. But you pallas cats sure are a secretive bunch.”
It was a struggle, but Madisyn hid her surprise at his comment. Just how had he found out that little nugget? She shrugged, going for nonchalant. “It’s how we’ve managed to stay under the radar of humans all this time.”
“But as I said, there aren’t secrets between mates. Which brings me neatly to the subject of those sows. They didn’t confront you over some guy.”
“Didn’t they?”
“No. I saw the CCTV footage. They weren’t bitchy females driven by jealousy. They meant business. And I gotta say, baby, it pisses me off that you held back info on people who rammed me with their damn car. Or didn’t that bother you?”
Madisyn sighed. “I couldn’t share everything with you without Dawn’s permission. It’s a shelter matter.”
“We’re mates—”
“And there are no secrets between mates. Yeah, you’ve said that already. And I don’t disagree. But we haven’t mated yet.”
“Semantics,” he bit out. “We are mates. That means if shit goes down at the shelter or shit’s related to the shelter, I want to hear about it.”
“How very serious and forceful you sound. I’m actually starting to feel sorry for you.”
“And why is that?”
“Because it seems that it’s going to take a while for you to realize that your authoritative tone is wasted on me.”
Swallowing back his instinct to pressure her, he instead softly pointed out, “As your mate, I have the right to know of any threats to you.”
“And I’ll tell you in the future, providing you agree not to act on a shelter matter without Dawn’s say-so—that’s something Ryan agreed to when he mated Makenna, even though he’s not terribly happy about it. It’s no different than how you wouldn’t want me acting on a pack matter without Nick and Shaya’s approval.”
Unable to argue that, he instead said, “Tell me about the sows.”
“You haven’t given me your agreement. This situation is different, yes, since the sows struck at you. I’ll tell you what you need to know, and you can discuss it with your pack. Not that you’ll need to—Dawn intends to call your Alphas tonight. But on future occasions, you’ll need to keep the matter to yourself, hang back, and let her deal with it as she sees fit.” Madisyn spooned more ice cream, her eyes on his. “Can I trust you to do that?”
“You can always trust me.”
“Which doesn’t answer my question.”
A muscle in his cheek ticked. “If you ever tell me anything in confidence, I will never share it with others,” he promised. “And unless it would put you in direct danger, I will heed Dawn on shelter matters.”
Knowing that was the best deal she’d get, Madisyn nodded. “The sows are part of the Maverick Clan. They’re from Philly, and they pose as an MC.”
“I’ve heard of them. Haven’t heard good things. What do they have to do with the shelter?”
“They’re looking for someone who used to stay there. Daisy. They believe I know where she is, which I do. The Alpha wants her badly. When I wasn’t inclined to share Daisy’s location with the sows, they felt the need to communicate their displeasure about that.”
“And who is Daisy to the Alpha? Someone he wants for a mate?”
She shook her head. “Someone he wanted to snatch from another bear clan as an exertion of his clan’s dominance over theirs.”
Bracken stilled with his spoon halfway to his mouth. “What?”
“Each new Maverick Alpha takes a female from the clans under their control. The guy’s not looking for her because he cares for her. He’s doing it because her getting away makes him look weak. It could give the others the idea of rebelling or fleeing, and he needs to nip that in the bud. Going back home with her will make a point that running away is pointless.”
Disgusted by the clan’s behavior, Bracken felt his mouth tighten. “You’re right—going back home without the female will weaken him. An Alpha can’t show weakness around predators if he intends to maintain control. They won’t just drop this and return to Philly.” He pointed his spoon at her, insisting, “If any of them turn up here or at the shelter, you call me.”
“If they come at me again, they’ll be off solid food for six fucking months.”
Bracken’s mouth twitched. “Yeah, I don’t doubt that you can deal with the sows just fine. But this isn’t a simple case of Madisyn versus some bears. They hurt you. They drew blood. Instead of accepting defeat, they crashed their fucking car into me. My pack will never let that go, and the Phoenix Pack are just as pissed about the whole thing. If any of the clan shows up—and they will—you don’t try to deal with them alone. You call me.”
Understanding the situation was a lot bigger than she’d realized, she relented. “Fine.”
Bracken gave a satisfied nod, relieved she hadn’t fought him on it. She was so used to dealing with things on her own that calling on anyone for anything would be a big adjustment. “I know Taryn and Trey offered you a place in their pack. You turned it down. Why?”
“You’re full of questions tonight.”
“This is how two people get to know each other.” And Bracken wanted to know every single thing there was to know about his little cat. Wanted to know her better than anyone else ever had or could. “Why would you want to go it alone? Why would you want the risks that come with being a loner?”
“It only sounds odd to you because you grew up in a pack. I’ve always been a loner.”
“When you mentioned your parents last night, you talked about them in the past tense. What happened to them?”
Dropping her spoon into the empty bowl, she swallowed. “Plane crash.”
“How old were you?”
“Twelve. I was on an overseas school trip, so they decided to go on a trip of their own and . . .” She rubbed her arm. “When it landed, the plane exploded on impact. No one survived.”
Their deaths had left a huge void, especially as the loss was so sudden. Returning from a trip to hear that her parents were dead had taught her that nothing was certain, that things could be taken from you in the blink of an eye. Losing her parents took away a little of her innocence and made her look at the world differently. It no longer felt like a secure place. She never bothered to consider the future, because she’d learned that one’s path could change so drastically so very fast.
For a long time, she’d thought it was better to hold back from people than to love them—then it wouldn’t hurt so bad if she lost them. As such, she’d doubted her ability to form healthy relationships, but that had changed, thanks to her friendship with Makenna and Dawn. Still, she had a habit of keeping people at bay even though a feeling of incompleteness taunted her. She knew she wouldn’t be able to do that with Bracken. Knew he wouldn’t allow it. It both scared and comforted her.
Bracken took her hand and linked their fingers. “I’m sorry, baby. Were they originally part of the Olympus Pride?”
“No, they were from a pride in New Zealand.”
“And the pride didn’t come for you after your parents died?”
“Nope. My father was dating another female from the pride when he discovered that my mother was his mate. I don’t know exactly what happened, only that the female was jealous, kept bitching at my mom, and it got real ugly. Eventually, my mom and dad left the pride. It wasn’t a difficult adjustment for them, since our kind live like humans anyway so they don’t live on territories like many other shifter groups do. It just meant they didn’t have protection.”
“And that there was no one to care for you when they were gone.” His spoon tinkled against the bowl as he scooped the last of his ice cream. “I don’t like that you’ve been alone all this time.”
“I’ve had Makenna and Dawn.”
“Now you have me.” Done with his dessert, he pushed aside the bowl and leaned forward. “How could you be suffering from touch-hunger if you had a boyfriend?” His wolf’s upper lip curled at the mention of the other male.
Her brow furrowed. “Are you going to spend the whole night peppering me with questions?”
Taking in the tension bunching her muscles, Bracken sensed . . . “You don’t want to tell me about him. Why? Did he hurt you?” Because Bracken would kill him if he did. Hunt him. Shred him into tiny pieces.
“Look, it’s in the past.”
“Not when it’s affecting your present. Why were you dealing with touch-hunger if you had him?”
Madisyn bit the inside of her cheek. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him it was none of his business . . . but it was, wasn’t it? She didn’t want to tell him, though. Didn’t want to admit just how much of an idiot she’d been. But she knew that he wouldn’t let this go. “It’s a long and very embarrassing story.”
Bracken brought her hand to his mouth and nipped at her fingers. “I have time.”
“Have you ever heard of PlusOne.com?”
Not expecting the question, he frowned. “The dating website for shifters?”
“Yes. I was talking to a guy on there for about five months. A shifter named Lucah Finch.”
The sneer in her voice eased his wolf’s jealousy. “I don’t recognize the name. What kind of shifter is he?”
“Lucah Finch is a lion shifter here in California. As for the person who’s been pretending to be him on the dating website? I’ve got no idea.”
Bracken did a slow blink. “Say that again.”
“After we started communicating on PlusOne.com, Lucah also began calling and texting me each day. But he didn’t want us to video chat, and he always had a reason why meeting up wasn’t convenient. I knew something was wrong.”
“Wait, you’ve never met him?”
Madisyn shook her head. “Before I even replied to his very first message, I researched him. His profile seemed legit. When he started giving me bullshit excuses for meeting up, I dug a little deeper. That was when I found the holes in his profile. Lucah Finch truly does exist and really is part of the Winter Pride, but he’s also been in a coma for a while now.”
Bracken flexed his fingers, every line of his body tense. “You’re saying that somebody created a fake profile on a dating website . . . and spent five whole months playing you?”
“Sadly, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Bracken swore. “You should have known there was something wrong about the situation when he first made excuses not to meet you.”
She held up a hand. “I don’t need a lecture, Bracken. I’ve given enough of them to myself.”
“I wasn’t going to lecture you.” But he did feel like shaking her, because she let it go on for five months. Knowing she’d shut down if he voiced that, Bracken instead said, “I’m assuming you confronted him. What did he say?”
“He claims that everything he shared with me was the truth and that he just lied about his identity.”
“Do you believe him?”
She snorted. “Fuck, no. I blocked his number, reported him to the website, and deleted my PlusOne account. Part of me wanted to hunt the fucker, but that would have meant wasting more of my life on him, which he probably would have gotten off on—I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.”
“Why the hell would you use a dating website? It’s not like you struggle for offers from guys.”
“Someone at the shelter recommended it. It was how they met the guy they imprinted with. I thought I’d give it a try. Figured it wouldn’t do any harm. And how wrong was I?”
Bracken rubbed the knuckles of their linked hands back and forth under his jaw. “You were faithful to him,” he realized. “Even though you’d never met him, you were faithful to him. That’s why the touch-hunger hit you.”
“Yep.”
“You cared about the guy, didn’t you?” Black jealousy lanced through him, and he barely held in a growl.
“He’s not real.”
“Was it him who bought you that bracelet?” Because if so, Bracken wanted it gone.
She skimmed her finger over the pretty, expensive jewelry. “I won it.”
“You won it?”
“Through Cosmo magazine.” She pointed at the coffee maker. “Won that too, along with a year’s supply of coffee after entering a Walmart prize drawing. Also won my TV in a sweepstakes. You haven’t heard Makenna call me a walking lucky charm?” He gave her what could only be described as an indulgent smile, and she felt her eyelid twitch.
“You won those things because you entered the competitions, not because of luck.”
“You don’t believe in luck?”
“Believing in luck stops people from taking control of their lives. It makes people leave decisions to chance. I’m not saying that the belief in good luck is a bad thing—it’s what drove you to enter prize drawings and stuff like that. It’s probably also helped you succeed in other ways. But no, I don’t think it really exists.”
Not something she hadn’t heard before. “I was pronounced dead once.”
His mouth dropped open. “What?”
“Yep. When I was ten, a truck hit my school bus and knocked it into the river. I couldn’t get out. My parents came to identify my body, and I snored.”
He blinked. “You . . . you snored?”
She nodded. “I’ve been hit by lightning. Went right through me. Hurt like a bitch too. A few years back, I was supposed to go on a cruise, but my alarm didn’t go off, so I got up too late and missed it. The ship sank two days into the cruise. I also once had construction scaffolding fall over me. But the pieces fell around me, almost framing the shape of my body. I could go on and on with stories.”
Bracken sank into the chair. “Shit.”
“Yeah.” Amused by the stupefied look on his face, she said, “It’s my turn to ask questions now.”
“What do you want to know?”
Madisyn was surprised that there was no guarded glint in his gaze. If anything, he looked pleased. She wanted to ask about his childhood and years in Arizona, where he’d lived up until he joined the Mercury Pack, but she knew that speaking of his family would be hard for him. “Do you like being an enforcer?”
“That wasn’t what you wanted to ask,” he accused softly. “I can talk about my family without breaking down. My childhood was normal enough, I guess. My parents had a pretty mellow relationship. Out of my two sisters, I got along better with Ashley than I did Kim, but we never had huge fallouts. Not even after Kim handed my pack’s business to a reporter. She apologized, and I let it go because, you know, I loved her. We weren’t the tightest family in the world, but we were . . . just normal.”
She’d expected to hear a little sorrow in his voice. It was flat, emotionless. “How come you left your childhood pack?”
“Me, Jesse, and Zander suspected that the Alpha was involved in the disappearance of some of our family members.”
“Was he?”
“No. Turned out our relatives were taken to a game reserve that was run by a shifter and a human. Working with Nick and Derren, we tracked the bastards, who are now dead. Rather than return to our old pack, me, Jesse, and Zander remained with Nick, an Alpha we could truly respect and follow.” Bracken nipped at the tips of her fingers again. “After the attack at the drive-in, my old Alpha didn’t dispute my right to have my family buried on my territory. There wasn’t much left of my father, Kim, or Ashley’s mate to bury.”
Her chest tightened at that. “Did executing the extremists help?” she asked, her tone gentle.
“No. I wasn’t looking for justice—there is no restitution for what they did. And I doubted it would give me peace. But the fact was that my family deserved to live, and those fuckers deserved to die. So I made it happen.”
She gave a slow nod of understanding. “I’m sorry you lost them.”
“So am I. The need to track and kill the extremists was like a niggle in the back of my brain. It never stopped. Never eased up. Then the bastards were dead, and it was gone. And my wolf—who’s always wanted you—went from obsessing over hunting them to obsessing over having you. I didn’t know if it was real or if he just needed to cling to something. Now I get it. He needed the one person who could anchor him, anchor me.”
It surprised her to hear that his wolf had wanted her before now. “I don’t think I’ll make a very good anchor. I’m not the most stable of people.”
His mouth curved. “I like that you’re a nut.”
“A nut?”
“Yep.”
“Funny. You always seemed irritated by me.”
“Right back atcha.”
She lifted one shoulder. “You annoyed me a lot more in the beginning.”
“But not so much nowadays?”
“You grow on people. But then, so do moles.”
He laughed, and the sound surprised him. “Does that mean you would have given me a chance if it hadn’t been for the mating bond?”
Standing, she took the empty bowls to the sink. “You’d have wanted a chance?”
“I told you after making you come that I didn’t want anyone else touching you, remember?”
“Yeah, but that was just because you marked me.”
He shook his head. “I had a taste of you, and for the first time in a while, I felt something more intense than the anger I’ve been living with since the extremist attack. But it wasn’t enough. I wanted more. I don’t know how much more I would have pushed for—I didn’t feel that I had a lot to give anyone.”
She tilted her head as she made her way back to the table. “Is that why you paused in your pursuit of Shiloh?”
“Ah, Shiloh . . . it should have occurred to me that you’d want to know about her.” Bracken snatched her hand, dragged her to him, and pulled her onto his lap so that she was straddling him. Humming in satisfaction at having her right where he wanted her, he settled his hands on her hips. “It seems like a lifetime ago.”
Madisyn rested her hands on his chest. Solid and packed with hard muscle, it made everything feminine in her do a little happy dance. Despite the topic of conversation being another female, her blood heated at having him so close. Plus, his cock was mere inches away. It wasn’t easy to resist settling her pussy right over it. “I don’t need to know the ins and outs of it all.” She didn’t want to.
“Nothing happened between me and her. You had more with Lucah than I had with Shiloh. We mostly just exchanged text messages. She responded mainly with threats and insults. She was never the one to text first. Not until the end. And when, deep in grief, I didn’t reply to the few messages she sent, she left me alone.”
Using his thumb, Bracken rubbed at the concealer covering his mark on Madisyn’s neck. And there it was. His wolf rumbled his approval. “You wouldn’t have left me alone. If I ignored your texts, you wouldn’t fade into the background. You’d rip me a new asshole. You’d never let me descend into a well of self-pity. No, you’d expect me to pull up my big-boy pants and sort my shit out. That’s what I need, Madisyn. Someone who’ll challenge me. Someone who won’t be careful with me. Someone who’ll make me live. You already do that. You’ve been doing it since we first met.”
Madisyn swallowed. His brooding, hooded eyes darkened with greed as they fell to the bite on her neck again, and the flash of pure masculine satisfaction made her cat sniff haughtily. “I’ll also drive you as crazy as you’ll drive me,” she warned. Her stomach clenched as a languid, sexual smile slowly curved his mouth.
“Sounds like fun.” Lifting her wrist to his mouth, he traced the tattoo there with his tongue. It was a cluster of small objects: a pocket watch, a blue hat, a bottle labeled “Drink Me,” and a bushy striped tail. “Alice in Wonderland.”
“Yes. It was my favorite book when I was a kid.” She almost shivered as he blew over the wet patch of skin.
He flicked open a button on her shirt, and her brow hiked up. “I’m staying here tonight,” he told her, opening another button.
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you now?”
“Yes. We’ve talked. I’ve explained everything. I’ve answered your questions. You’ve answered mine. It’s all good.” And there went another button.
“Still, some would say that this is rushing things.”
“We’re not dating. You know that.” With her shirt finally open, he slid his hands inside and splayed them on her back. “When it comes to claiming you, I can go at your pace. Everything else?” He shook his head. “I already told you, I’ll demand everything.” He yanked her close, squashing her breasts against his chest and feeling the hard stab of her nipples through her lacy bra. “I’ll own you. Already do.”
Fisting her hair, Bracken took her mouth, sinking his tongue inside . . . and there was that sweet and wild taste that haunted him. Fuck, he’d never get enough of it. Never stop craving it. Gripping her hip, he rocked her against his cock. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she let out a throaty moan he felt all the way to his balls. Knowing he was about to fuck his mate, about to shoot his come deep inside her, only made his cock harder.
Madisyn hissed as he tightened his grip on her hair. The moment his mouth had touched hers, her entire body just lit right up. No one had ever kissed her the way he did. He didn’t just stroke her tongue with his. He licked at her teeth, nipped at the corners of her mouth, sucked on her bottom lip, rubbed the inside of her top lip. Devoured her until her emotions were spinning and her brain was just mush—so much so that she barely registered when he whipped off her shirt and bra.
She helplessly rocked against him and, God, that felt good. The sexual aggression pouring off him made her pulse quicken, her nipples pebble, and her pussy clench. Her cat liked how boldly he touched her, liked the greed and possessiveness in his touch.
Each time Madisyn ground her clit over his hard, thick cock, she ached a little bit more to have him inside her. She was damp and hot and could smell her own need. He pulled back, and Madisyn would have chased his mouth for more if it weren’t for the hand fisting her hair and holding her in place.
“I’m staying here tonight, aren’t I?” He closed his hand around her breast in a blatantly possessive hold that screamed Mine.
Madisyn licked her lips. “Maybe.” She winced as he tugged her hair hard enough to make her scalp prickle. Her cat bared a fang.
“I’m staying here tonight, aren’t I?”
She hissed. “Depends what’s in it for me. You’ll—”
“Fuck you. All night. Nonstop.”
“Then you’re staying.”
With a lazy smile, he nuzzled her neck. “Good girl. You know, neither me nor my wolf are particularly possessive creatures.” He put his mouth to her ear. “But I can tell you right now that if another guy touched you, he’d pay for that mistake with his life.” He lifted her and sucked her nipple into his mouth. Head falling back, she arched into him, offering herself. He loved that. Loved how responsive she was. Loved that her body knew it belonged to him, even if she wasn’t quite ready to accept his claim on her yet.
He heard her zipper lower, and then there was a soft moan that gripped his cock. Glancing down, he saw that she’d thrust her hand into her jeans. “That’s it, baby, keep yourself wet for me while I play.” And he did play. Bit and licked and suckled on her nipples, taking as much of her silky-soft, creamy breasts in his mouth as he could. He made a mental note to fuck them one day.
Bracken was about to take a moment to lavish some attention on the brand on her neck, but he felt her thighs quiver. “No, baby, no coming yet.” He set her on the table, ignoring her scowl, and dragged off her jeans and panties. “Don’t move.”
Madisyn might have ignored him just to be contrary if he hadn’t then whipped off his shirt, baring his broad shoulders and lean, powerful build. Oh yeah, she was more than happy to sit there and enjoy the show as he shed his clothes, revealing inch after blessed inch of pure solid muscle. Each time it rippled beneath his sleek skin, she wanted to shudder a little in delight. Those washboard abs needed exploring. Preferably with her tongue.
Naked, Bracken raked his gaze over her in a deliberately slow movement, eyes glinting with sheer male possession. “The things I could do to you . . .”
Madisyn let her thighs slowly spread open just a little. “Do any of those things involve me coming like a freight train?”
His mouth quirked. “They all involve you coming, baby. Now lay back. Good girl.” He skimmed the tips of his fingers over her swollen pussy. “So pretty and slick.”
As he took a seat, Madisyn frowned. “I really don’t need any more foreplay.”
“This isn’t for you. It’s for me.” He lifted her hips and clamped his mouth around her pussy.
Madisyn’s eyes fell shut. Fuck, the guy was good with his mouth. He expertly licked at her slit, circled her clit with the tip of his tongue, and lightly scraped his teeth over her plump folds. Her thighs shook as the friction built inside her, making her groan and buck her hips. And then his tongue was pumping inside her pussy, and she didn’t have a hope in hell of fighting it.
“Gonna come,” she warned. A low rumble of approval vibrated up her pussy, and that was all it took to send her tumbling over the edge. Her claws sliced out and dug into the table as she came with a choked moan.
Standing, he curled over her. “Love the taste of you. I’m going to want more of that later.” Pinning her gaze with his, Bracken lodged the thick head of his cock in her pussy. She inhaled sharply, lips parting. “That’s it, keep your eyes on mine.”
Madisyn dug her fingers into his back as his cock slowly sank inside her. Jesus, he was thick. Her pussy burned as he stretched and filled her until she felt like she’d burst—it seemed to take forever before he was finally balls-deep. Really, really deep. And she could feel every beat of his heart through his cock.
“You good?”
She licked her lips and nodded. “But you got some work to do if you’re going to make me come again. It’s rare that I have multiple orgasms, and you already gave me such a fine one a minute ago.”
Taking that for the challenge it was, Bracken smiled. “I see.” Bracing himself on his elbows, he withdrew in a smooth, slow glide. Then he thrust deep, and her blazing hot pussy clamped down on him. “My new favorite place to be.”
He kept his pace almost leisurely, but Madisyn felt totally and utterly possessed. His eyes never left hers; they bore into her, told her that she was his, demanded everything she had. Digging her heels into the base of his spine, she arched her back, making him slide even deeper inside her—so much so that it hurt a little but in a good way. She moaned, pussy contracting around him again.
He brushed his mouth over hers as he swiveled his hips. “What’s wrong, baby? You want it harder? Faster?”
“Well, obviously.”
“Then give me what I want.”
She narrowed her eyes. “And what is it you want?”
“I want you to make me a promise while my dick’s deep inside you. I want you to promise me that you’ll call me if any danger ever comes at you.” At her hiss, he gave her thigh a sharp slap. “Look at my face, Madisyn. See how serious I am. I’ve lost enough people. I point-blank refuse to lose you. Promise me.” She didn’t. He pinched her nipple. “Promise me.”
She snarled. “Fuck you.”
“No sense in fighting me on this, Madisyn. I won’t accept any answer other than the one I want. If any danger ever comes at you, you call me. Got it?” She snapped her teeth at him, but he saw the resignation in her eyes. Satisfaction filled him. “Yeah, you got it.” And then he gave her what she needed.
Madisyn held him tighter as he hammered into her pussy, speaking in harsh whispers into her ear, telling her how good she felt, how he loved her taste, how he’d dreamed about fucking her mouth and coming down her throat. “That won’t happen,” she told him.
“You’ll do it, Madisyn. You’ll swallow every drop I give you.” Gripping her thighs, Bracken slammed into her even harder. His balls tightened at the picture she made beneath him, accepting every hard slam of his cock. Eyes sex-crazed, mouth swollen, cheeks flushed, tits jiggling, she made him feel more territorial than he had of anything in his life.
He wanted to pull out and come all over her, wanted to watch his come sink into her skin and mark her. He wouldn’t do that. Not yet. But soon. Yeah, he’d do it soon.
Bracken snarled as sharp nails dug into his nape but didn’t break the skin. “Go on, baby, scratch me hard. Mark me again.” His flesh burned as she sliced into it, drawing blood. His wolf growled, more than satisfied. “That’s my girl.”
Bracken caught her wrists and pinned them above her head with one hand as he kept on brutally powering into her, ignoring her weak struggle. If Madisyn truly wanted to be free of his grip, she’d be free. “I think it’s time you made me come.” The moment she imploded around him, it would happen. He shifted his angle so that his cock slid over her clit with every brutal thrust. “Now, Madisyn.” He sank his teeth over her brand.
Madisyn’s back bowed as white-hot pleasure ripped through her, wrenching a scream out of her throat and making her pussy contract around his cock. Bracken swore and pounded harder, faster. The muscles in his back bunched beneath her hands as he shoved his cock deep and exploded inside her, his hot come splashing her walls. And then, she pretty much collapsed.
Madisyn wasn’t sure what woke her, but her eyelids fluttered open. It was dark. The other side of the bed was empty, but she wasn’t alone in the house. She knew it. And as she looked at the door to the en suite bathroom, Bracken silently strode out. Naked. Skin gleaming with the rays of moonlight that filtered through the blinds.
He stalked to the foot of the bed, flicked the covers off her body, and grabbed her ankles.
She frowned. “Wait—”
He dragged her to him, hooked her legs over his shoulders, and buried his face in her pussy. Mere minutes later, she shattered.
A moan woke Madisyn. It was a long “Oh God, I need to come” moan. And she quickly realized it had come from her. Bracken was moving hard and fast inside her, ramming into her pussy like he’d never get enough.
She wrapped her limbs around him, pretty much holding on for the ride. A ride that made her come twice before he drove deep and came, grunting into her neck.
Demanding hands slid over her as a hot mouth kissed and sucked at her nape, dragging Madisyn out of a deep sleep. She groaned, as tired as she was needy. Was he a damn machine?
“No more,” she slurred. “Later.”
“No. Now.” Spooning her, Bracken hiked up her leg and thrust deep. “Fucking love this pussy.” And then he proved it.