When Silas pulled up to the tiny yellow house that matched the address Manahan gave him, he had to smile. For Meredith’s hardheaded attitude, her home was ultrafeminine. Freshly planted pansies lined both sides of the walk, and a wreath of grapevine and huckleberry graced her door. The front porch was tastefully decorated with potted plants and trees. He pressed the doorbell next to the cherry red door.

He heard shuffling and then the lace curtains moved aside. A muffled curse came from somewhere behind the peephole. The door didn’t open. He imagined her standing there, hoping he’d go away.

“Meredith, I’m so sorry,” he said through the door. “I should have called, but I was distracted. I had a break in the case today.”

After a short beat, her voice called back, “Just a minute.” There were running footsteps, scrapes, and a loud thunk. She cursed.

“Are you okay?”

A few seconds later the deadbolt gave way.

The puffy pink bathrobe she wore was stained at the collar with the remnants of what he thought was mascara, but Meredith must have washed her face because she wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup. Only her red-rimmed eyes gave away the truth that she’d been crying. Her hair was pulled into a messy ponytail, the ends still curled as if it had been done earlier. And her shoulders slumped.

Mine. The word came quick and firm and with the overwhelming urge to care for the woman in front of him. It was a possessive thought, uninvited, but it barreled into him nonetheless. Goddess, what could he say to her? He stared at her for an uncomfortable amount of time, then cleared his throat with a good hard cough.

“Can I make you something to eat?” he asked.

She laughed.

“If you don’t have anything to cook, I could order something. You need to eat. We need to eat… and talk.”

“I waited for you.”

“I went to see Ryker about the heart. It turns out he was the demon who was with Soleil last night.”

Her mouth popped open, and a tight inhale lifted her chest. “Shit on a shingle.”

He nodded. “With a vomit burrito on the side.”

Her countenance changed immediately, and she reached for his shoulder, guiding him toward the kitchen. “Come on. Let’s see what we’ve got.”

“You sit down,” he said. “After the ass I was to you tonight, let me prepare something.”

As it turned out, Meredith’s homey décor extended right into her refrigerator. Silas found the barely touched remains of a roast chicken and a good selection of fresh vegetables. He sautéed some asparagus and whipped a couple potatoes.

“Nothing says home like a roast chicken,” she said absently.

“I can’t really cook. Not like my friend Logan anyway. But I survive on the basics.” He brought the pot of potatoes to the table.

Meredith spooned a heap onto her plate and licked some off her thumb. “I’m barely proficient at cooking in general, but I can bake. You should taste my pie.”

“I’d love to taste your pie.” The words tumbled out of his mouth, latent sexual energy charging ever word. Easy Silas, he thought. A slight blush stained her cheeks.

“Would you like some wine?” she asked, her voice high and tight. She bent slightly as she rose from the chair and her robe buckled, giving him a delicious view of the inside curve of her breast. The lower half of his anatomy kicked in appreciation of the view, and he placed a napkin over the evidence. Fuck, he wanted to be inside her, to bury his face in the coconut scent of her hair. Which made no sense because she wasn’t exactly inviting his attention. She was dressed in a fuzzy pink bathrobe that might have been a prop on Golden Girls. Why then was the wolf inside begging him to take his attraction to the next level? The thought of being with her made his body ache and his head swim. But that was the thing. He wasn’t attracted to her clothes or even her appearance. It was the whole package: her smell, her smile, the fact that she’d cried over their missed date.

“Please. Wine would be great,” he said.

She returned to the table and filled two glasses.

“So did you dismantle Ryker or what?”

“No.”

“No? After what we saw last night, I’m amazed you could show any restraint at all.”

“I have no right to be protective of her. Soleil’s a big girl. She can make her own choices. But I did go to see her, to question her about Ryker, make sure he wasn’t responsible for the sulfralite.”

“And?”

“She gave me Nickelova’s heart.”

Meredith froze. “What?”

“She told me last night’s activities were her way of bartering with the demon for the heart. He’s an incubus. Sex is his currency.”

He left out the petty details. Meredith didn’t need to know how Soleil had basically asked him to come back to her on her terms. It wasn’t going to happen.

Meredith paused, her glass of wine halfway to her lips. “She still loves you.”

Silas snorted derisively. “No.”

“Yes. She allowed that demon to do those things to her for you. With that heart, you can control Nickelova. Ryker would never have given it to you without her intervention.”

“You don’t know that.” Silas sipped his wine. “And I think we can agree, Soleil seemed to enjoy every minute of the process.”

Meredith swirled her wine in the bottom of her glass.

Silas pumped his knee, anxious he might have upset her. “I’ll use the heart, but I hate what she did to get it. I can’t respect someone who does something like that. And the thought that she did what she did in some twisted way for me? It makes me sick. I don’t want to be responsible for what we saw. If anything, it makes it worse.”

“You’re not responsible.” She met his gaze and held it. “You’re not.”

“I know.” He shrugged. “Besides, what Soleil does or does not do is not my problem. In fact, at the moment I’d rather not think of her at all.” He reached across the table and brushed the back of her hand with his fingertips. “I don’t love her anymore.”

“No?”

“I find myself smitten with someone else.” He eyed her intently.

“Smitten?” She raised an eyebrow, her gaze dropping to where his fingers stroked her hand. Her bottom lip tucked between her teeth. Did she feel the electric charge building between them? Sense the tension like smoke in the air, growing thicker until he could hardly breathe?

“I enjoyed kissing you today,” he said, locking eyes with her. “I think you enjoyed it too.”

“I did, but…”

“But?”

“We work together,” she said softly. “A physical relationship between us would be inappropriate. It’s against department policy.” She blinked rapidly, leaning back in her chair although keeping her hand exactly where it was, under his.

Silas nodded. “You’re right.” He traced the veins along the underside of her forearm. She shifted in her chair. He could imagine her thighs pressing together under the table, and his erection throbbed to ease the cause of that particular affliction. He circled her wrist with his hand. If he didn’t take her right now, he’d never forgive himself.

“The problem is, Meredith, I don’t give a fuck about department policy.”

* * *

Meredith hadn’t expected things to get physical this fast. An hour ago, she thought he’d stood her up. But as Silas rose from his seat and rounded the table to stand in front of her, the evidence of his desire was impossible to ignore. Her eyes widened, and her cheeks warmed. But it was what was going on inside of her that made her heart race. A dull ache blossomed deep within her core, a vigorous storm of heat that made her squirm in her chair.

He tugged her wrist hard and fast, lifting her from her seat. The front of her robe brushed against his chest. “Oh,” she said. Goddess, she was still wearing the dreadful pink robe. Without a stitch of makeup and with her hair pulled into a careless ponytail, her appearance was hardly flattering. But the fire in Silas’s eyes only burned for her. By some miracle of the goddess, she’d bewitched him.

Her lips parted as she searched his face for any sign of insincerity or uncertainty. There was none. “It seems I don’t care much about department policy either.”

He threaded his fingers into her hair, cradling her neck. His lips grazed her pulse, working their way up to her ear. “I want to be inside you, Meredith. I want to make you whimper.”

“Maybe we should wait.” Was that her voice? She did not want to wait.

He ran his nose along her neck, inhaling deeply. “I don’t think we should wait.”

“As Alpha, I suppose you’re used to getting what you want,” she whispered, his arousal a sweet spice in her nose.

“I am.” His mouth hovered over hers. “But what I want is for you to want me too. I want more than a fling. If you’re not ready for that, you’re worth waiting for.” He took a half-step back. The gap that formed between them left her cold. The small distance was almost painful.

Her resolve toppled like a house of cards. “I don’t want to wait.” Sweeping forward, she rose on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. Meredith wasn’t a virgin. She’d been kissed before. But this kiss was different. As he responded to her advance, his mouth was territorial as if he was marking her as his own. His lips on hers were desperate and wanting. The kiss tested her boundaries, his tongue staking claim to every corner of her mouth, his massive body bending her backward in his arms. She melted. Hot, wet heat bloomed between her thighs. Whatever he needed from her, she was all in, unconditionally.

She needed this. If she were honest with herself, she’d pined for Silas for a long time. His intense attention made her feel like a queen, like someone had pulled back the shades on her life and let in the sun. She moaned.

His fingers skimmed the neckline of her robe, between the soft pink and her skin.

“I could change into something more… something else,” she whispered. She leaned back as he worked his way down her neck to the sensitive skin between her breasts.

“Are you kidding? I love you in pink,” he murmured into her skin. He untied the belt of her robe, spreading the sides wide.

He pulled back to look at her, a growl rumbling in her chest. “You are incredible, Meredith. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

She laughed, her eyes rolling toward the ceiling. “Well, not the most beautiful. I’ve seen your ex-girlfriend naked.”

His growl grew louder, more intense, and his hands gripped her waist, spanning the area from hip to lower rib. “The most beautiful, Meredith.” He didn’t break eye contact. “There is no one I’d rather be with than you. No one.” His gaze traced her flesh, her face, her collarbone, her belly button. She could feel him look at her, the heat of his stare a palpable thing. His perusal finally abated at the red mound that marked her sex.

From her waist, he skimmed up her sides to cup her breasts, his thumbs flicking her nipples. The hard pearls responded to his touch, and she tilted her head back, knees going weak with every electric pulse he sent through her.

“Do you like this?” He lowered his lips to her flesh. Goddess, his tongue was an instrument. He fondled one breast while his mouth toyed with the other, coaxing her nipple out even farther. He made sure to give the opposite its due.

“Silas, by the goddess,” she whispered, her eyes closed, her face tilted toward the ceiling. “I’m on fire.”

He skimmed his hands down her sides to rest on her hips, then lowered to his knees in front of her. His nose traced the porcelain flesh of her lower abdomen. “Let me help you with that.”

He spread her with his fingers and licked up her center. Meredith moaned and arched, bracing herself on his shoulders. It wasn’t only the pleasure of the act itself that drove her wild. This was Silas, the First Alpha, subjugating himself before her. The idea that he wanted her, wanted her enough to do this, was an intense thrill. She felt worshiped.

Her body rocked against his mouth, her moans growing in intensity. He didn’t let up. He licked and sucked, while she writhed above him. Like a pot boiling over, she swelled above the edge, her entire body stiffening, then spasming as her orgasm overflowed the sides of her being, too much to contain.

He stood, sweeping her into his arms. “Bedroom,” he demanded.

“Down the hall and to the left.”

Content in his arms, she leaned her face against the soft cotton of his shirt. He found her bedroom and lowered her onto her comforter, pushing her robe off her shoulders. She tossed it aside, completely exposed.

“This is hardly fair,” she said, eyeing his clothed state with reproach. She sat up, legs spread and bent at the knee, and reached for his belt.

“You are a sight, Meredith. By the goddess, I have to be inside you.”

She freed his cock and pulled his pants down over his hips. He was big, long and thick. On impulse, she leaned forward and licked up his shaft, enjoying the growl she elicited. Everything about the way he looked at her made her feel like a goddess, like she could undo him with a wink of her eye. She wrapped her lips around his cock, sucking him deep into the back of her throat.

With a rumble that might have been a purr, he unbuttoned a few buttons of his shirt, enough to pull it over his head. She held eye contact while she worked. Goddess he tasted good, the masculine scent of his skin arousing her once more. She stroked the heavy weights between his thighs while he shimmied out of his pants.

“Meredith, you don’t know what you do to me.”

“Please,” she whispered, “show me.” Lying back she held her arms out for him. He crawled between her legs, pulled her hips off the bed. She was no delicate flower, but the sheer size of him was intimidating. She spread her legs wider.

He pressed against her opening, then worked his cock into her with small circles of his hips. She gasped and tensed around him, each thrust stretching her to the limit. At last, when he was completely inside her, he stopped and closed his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“When I take what’s mine,” he whispered, “I take it slowly. I savor every minute.” He kissed her slowly. “Being with you feels right, like you’ve always been mine and I’ve always been yours. Does it bother you that I say you’re mine?”

Her gaze met his, and her arms and legs wrapped tighter around him. “No,” she answered genuinely. “I feel the same way.”

He thrust into her hard and quick. All she wanted was for him to be deeper. She raised her hips, breaking a sweat as she moved beneath him. Hips rising and falling like a machine, she became more animal than human, working with his movements to meet him thrust for thrust. Everything became sharper, more real.

He reached behind her knees and hooked her legs on his shoulders. In this position, deep and exposed, she lost all control. She gave herself over to the rhythm, screaming his name as another orgasm ripped through her.

The room rippled with light and heat that seemed to radiate from their connection as his body pulsed above her. He lowered her trembling legs. Tucking her face into the spot where his neck met his shoulder, she rode out the aftershocks, while her fingers stroked along his spine. All her worries about Alex, Nickelova’s heart, and her new job were gone, replaced by her hyperfocus on the man in her arms.

“I’m glad you became my partner, Meredith,” he whispered.

“I’m not your partner, remember?” she said breathlessly, a wry smile turning the corner of her lips. “But I’d like to be your girlfriend.”

He smiled down at her. “Done. What a beautiful way to start a relationship.”