Layne

I stir in darkness. I’m not sure what jolted me awake—some kind of animal noise.

There. I hear it again. It’s a snarl. A wolf snarl.

Where I am and what’s happened floods in. I throw the covers back and climb out of bed as if my body is compelled forward by some unseen force.

I unlock the door before I remember Sam’s warning.

I could hurt you, Layne.

I don’t believe it. Yes, I see a struggle in him, but I can’t believe he’d hurt me. Not when he’s trying so hard to keep me safe.

A low, continuous growl comes from the darkened living room. I pad down the narrow hall in my bare feet and stop short, my heart constricting.

Sam’s asleep on the couch—if I can call it sleeping. He’s obviously in a nightmare. His lips peel back from his teeth, feet pump like he’s running.

“Sam?” I go to the couch and stand over him.

He doesn’t hear me, doesn’t wake. His head thrashes from side to side and his fingers close in a fist.

I lay my palm on his chest and try again. “Sam?”

“Mmm.” His breath evens. He covers my hand and takes a deep breath, his muscled chest lifting and widening.

Satisfied I’ve interrupted his nightmare, I slide my hand out from under his, but he immediately grows restless again.

I drag my lower lip through my teeth, debating. Should I wake him?

He kicks out one leg and gives an unearthly snarl. Sweat beads on his forehead.

“Sam.”

He snatches out in my direction and grips my upper arm. He mutters something I can’t understand, lids fluttering over rapid eye movement.

“Sam, you’re having a dream.”

He makes a wounded sound and drags me forward until I fall on top of him, my body sprawling over his on the couch.

He gives a long shudder and his entire body falls quiet, breath slowing. His arms band around me. He’s not a huge guy, but damn, he’s strong. I can’t move more than a half inch in either direction. I squirm around, certain the weight of my body and my movement will wake him, but it doesn’t.

I lay my head on his chest, not because I plan to stay on top of him for the rest of the night, only because it’s just too inviting to resist.

As soon as my head is nested under his chin, my own body relaxes. The sound of his heartbeat under my ear soothes me like a baby asleep on her mother’s chest.

Sam mutters something again, and I think I catch my name, but I can’t be sure.

“What’s that?” I ask.

No answer.

I squirm again, testing his hold on me, but I’m still imprisoned by the steel bands of his arms.

Fine.

I’ll just doze here until he moves them. Surely he’ll wake soon and realize what he’s done.

Sam

I emerge from the pit swallowing me, burying me alive. Darkness lifts, the sun glows warm. I run through a meadow, chasing another animal. No, not an animal. A female. Layne.

She laughs, her long, straight black hair flying out behind her in a curtain. She twists to look back at me, to make sure I’m following and I laugh, no longer a wolf. I catch her around the waist and spin her through the air, letting the warm rays of the sun hit us both. We fall to the soft flowered earth. I’m on my back and she’s on top of me. Her legs part and she straddles my hips.

The soft, warm happy moment takes on a different pitch. A much hotter tone. Her berry lips part as she brings her mouth to mine.

I thrust up into the notch of her thighs, grip her ass with both hands and pull her hips down over mine.

She lets out a little mewl and it makes my cock rock hard. My hips snap as I grind her heat down along the hard ridge of my cock in my jeans.

She was wearing a dress, but now it’s morphed into boxer briefs. I slide my hands down into them to squeeze her bare ass.

A ray of sunlight shines directly in my eyes and I blink.

And choke.

Not a dream.

Layne is, indeed, on top of me and my hands are down her shorts. Light shines in through a window in the mobile home.

She pushes on my chest like she’s trying to get away from me.

I jerk beneath her. As if I’m still in a dream where my body won’t obey what my mind commands, I can’t seem to release her. In fact, my hands tighten on her ass, squeezing that plump flesh in the most proprietary way imaginable.

“Sam.”

How long has she been saying my name?

I hold her captive and thrust up again, helpless to stop myself.

Her breath catches and—fate help me—she grinds down on me. Her cheeks flush pink with sleep, long hair fans around her face.

Was she resting here? How in the hell did that happen?

“Fuck, Layne,” I groan. “You feel so good. I’m trying to let you go, but I just can’t.” Another thrust. I sweep my fingers lower, between her legs.

Goddamn. She’s wet for me. I mean, really wet.

“Beautiful Layne. My sexy scientist,” I croon.

She pushes against my chest, arching her back up until she’s sitting astride me. I have an awe-inspiring view of her round breasts beneath my t-shirt, almost tempting enough to shift a hand from her ass just to cup them.

But no. Not when I have her right here. I thrust up again. Her moist heat grinds over my desperate cock.

And she is grinding. It’s not just my hands moving her, but she’s rocking her hips, rubbing her clit over my bulge.

I can’t fuck her. I can’t.

I’ll have to settle for the next best thing. Tasting her. My lust-addled brain can’t figure out how to get the boxers off and keep her on top of me and it drives me mad. I grip her waist and lift her, sliding her up over my face. Then I rip open the crotch of the boxer briefs at the seams.

She gasps but doesn’t fight me.

She wants this.

That, more than anything, excites me. Spurs me on. I’m dying to give her pleasure, to satisfy her.

My wolf needs to please her.

I lick the seam of her pussy, opening her. Her responding moan makes my cock so hard I’m sure it will break off. She squirms over my face as I tongue her clit. I hold her hips in place as I lick and nip her labia, penetrate her with a stiff tongue.

Her inner thighs grip my head, the trembling in them only ratcheting up my own burning need. I suck her clit and she screams, thighs squeezing even harder. I keep going and she keeps screaming, screaming, screaming. Coming, coming, coming.

“Sam, Sam, please!”

At last I release her from the whip of my tongue and she falls forward to catch the arm of the sofa, exhausted.

Something in me snaps. The control I’d been holding by telling myself it was okay to give her pleasure, just not to take it, falls away. In a flash, I’m on top of her.

We’re on the couch, then the ground. I have her pinned down, my cock out and ready.

She looks up at my face and screams.

Not the throaty cry of pleasure she just treated me to, but one of real terror.

Her arms fly up to ward me off. She pushes the heels of both palms against my throat.

Surprise chokes off the growl I didn’t realize I’d been issuing. I throw myself to the side, off her body.

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

I lost control. She must’ve seen fangs and thought I was going to kill her. Which actually, could happen. My wolf wouldn’t mean to hurt her, but a mating bite to a human could be fatal. Fuck, I need to be careful.

I try to reel back the wolf, but he’s already crazy with lust. Instead, I shift completely, busting my clothes at the seams.

Out.

Out.

I need to get the fuck out of here before I hurt her.

Need to run. To flee.

I launch for the door, but can’t open it. Unlike Jackson’s house where I’ve lived for the past ten years, there’s no doggie door here. I race a circle around the room, my hind legs scraping off the walls.

Window.

I leap and smash the glass and screen on my way out.

My legs beat a path away from the mobile home, straight up the mountain, into the woods.