Chapter Twenty-One
Nikki felt her heart thundering as Joe walked them into her bedroom and placed her gently on the bed. The way he looked at her was intoxicating. The mixture of tenderness and hunger was impossible to resist. Impatient to feel him against her, for the heat and rush, she gripped the hem of her sweater and stripped it over her head.
She had a moment to regret that she hadn’t had the time or the money to shop for sexy lingerie to make his eyes light up and his brain seize.
“You’re thinking again… Overthinking,” he growled.
She laughed. “Not really. I just wished for a second that I’d had time to wear something special for you. I dressed for a break-up and not a seduction.”
He grinned at her. “Consider me seduced. You could wear a damn flour sack and still be the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen.”
“White cotton beats a flour sack at least,” she said.
“Nothing’s sexier than being naked,” he pointed out. “It’s not what you wear, Nikki. It’s how you take it off.”
She took the challenge. Reaching over to the nightstand, she flipped on the speaker and found the right music on her phone. The low, bluesy strains of guitar filled the room. Letting the music play, she settled into the rhythm, swaying with it as she reached behind her and unfastened the simple bra she wore.
It would have been easier to let it fall. Instead, she caught it with one hand, holding it in place. The art of the tease, she thought, was all in delaying gratification for both of them, even if her cat was anxious to hurry up and get to the good stuff. Moving her hips, she arched her back and then smiled when she heard him growl again.
Looking up at him, she asked, “Isn’t this what you wanted? It’s all about how you take it off, right?”
“I should have been more specific… It’s about how fast you take it off. If you have any attachment to those clothes, get rid of them now or so help me, I will shred them,” he warned.
The frisson of excitement she felt at that growled warning had her shivering in response. It also had her hurrying. She shed her bra, tossing it onto the floor and feeling the heat inside her spike even higher as he roamed his gaze over her breasts. Her cat wanted to primp and show off for her mate. It didn’t seem like Joe or his lion were willing to be patient enough to let her do that though.
“The rest of it, Nikki. I want you naked,” he demanded.
Letting her hands fall to the waistband of her jeans, she undid the button and the zipper, then shoved them over her hips. She lay back to take them the rest of the way off, but didn’t have to. Joe grabbed them and yanked to toss them on the floor. Laying there in nothing but her simple, unsexy cotton panties, she felt like a goddess simply because of the way he looked at her.
“I think this works better if we’re both naked,” she chided playfully.
“You don’t have to ask twice,” he answered as he began kicking off his boots.
When he stripped his shirt off, Nikki’s mouth went dry. She’d seen him naked before. Just the night before, in fact. So it wasn’t a surprise that he was perfect, but it wasn’t any less potent for having already been seen. Every sculpted line and ridged muscle that rippled beneath his tawny skin made her want to sink her teeth into him. When he shucked his jeans, displaying his powerful thighs and the cock that she craved, Nikki’s desire heightened further.
“Hurry,” she urged, reaching for him.
“No more teasing? No more waiting?” he asked the question as he lowered himself on top of her.
“No… I need to feel you inside me,” she breathed.
Joe reached between them, sliding his hand over her thigh and up to the seam of her sex. She was wet and ready for him. He groaned when he touched her. “You have no idea what you do to me,” he breathed.
“Show me,” Nikki challenged.
“I want to claim you, Nikki. I don’t know if my lion and I can do this and not claim you,” he admitted gruffly.
Nikki didn’t say anything, just placed her hands against his chest and pushed him back far enough that she could turn over onto her knees. The position was a tacit agreement, submitting to him. “My panther and I were hoping you’d say that.”
His answering growl as his hands gripped her hips firmly had Nikki dropping lower onto her arms, lifting her bottom just a little higher. She shimmied her ass in front of his face, the invitation clear. There was more than one way of putting on a show for him. But when she felt him against her, the blunt head of his cock pressing slowly into her, any thoughts of teasing him fled. One thought alone consumed her. More. She needed him inside her, filling her, claiming her.
When he thrust deep, seating himself fully, Nikki couldn’t hold back the ragged moan of pleasure. Pressing her face into the pillow to muffle the sounds, she cried out with each retreat and advance. Her body trembled with ecstasy as he drove into her again and again. But when he grasped her upper arms, hauling her up until her back was pressed to his chest and his lips hovered over the tender flesh at the juncture of her neck and shoulder, Nikki tumbled over the edge.
As she climaxed, her body clenching around him, her hips moving of their own volition as she tried to wring every drop of pleasure from the moment. His teeth closed over that spot. They clamped down hard, fangs piercing her skin. The pain mingled with the pleasure but it was so much more than that. In that moment, with his claiming bite, it wasn’t simply their bodies that were connected but their very souls. She could feel the connection growing, expanding, twining itself like a million invisible threads around and between them.
His hips bucked against her and the flood of heat as he came inside her triggered her own pleasure anew. Nikki let her head fall back against his shoulder and rode the wave of it with him until they both collapsed onto the bed, spent and boneless.
As she looked at him, Joe smiled up at the ceiling. “You’re mine now…and as much as I love saying that, there’s one thing I like even better.”
“What’s that?” she asked, her voice still breathless and quavering.
He turned to face her. “I get to say that I’m yours… And neither one of us has to be alone anymore.”
She was overwhelmed with the tenderness she felt for him in that moment. For the last six months, since her parents’ deaths, she’d locked down all of her feelings—the good and the bad. It wouldn’t be easy sifting through all the things she still had to deal with emotionally, but there was one thing she had to tell him. “I love you. It isn’t just the claiming, or the destined mate thing, Joe Miller. I love you because you are simply the best man I know. Thank you for ignoring all of my baggage and fighting for us.”
“I love you, Nikki, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life taking care of you, Sarah, and any cubs we’re lucky enough to have together. And I promise you this, I won’t leave them…even if the worst happens, I won’t leave them.”
Nikki moved closer to him, settling against his chest while his arms locked around her. Her life wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he was.