CHAPTER FOUR
Adam had begun to ache. Now that he was full of food, rested, feeling restored, he wanted to touch Myra. Feel her underneath him as he had that morning. Explore. She’d convinced him that she hadn’t been upset by his loss of control that morning. Didn’t mean he wasn’t upset by it, but if he got her underneath him again, he could, and would, maintain control. And do some of that exploring.
He had to admit, there were some advantages to this shifter thing, because he knew she wanted him, too. Was open to playing. And maybe it made him an asshole, but once he’d heard she’d had a mate, wasn’t likely to find another, some of his reservations had fallen away. Did it suck more to have had that, and lost it, than to never have had it at all? Jesus, now he was a damn philosopher.
He grunted and pulled the truck back onto the road, heading toward his cabin, not the alphas’ house.
Trust was a slow thing for him, but he had to admit, she’d done everything right so far. Even knowing that she’d handled shit in Arizona, made the tough decisions that had to be made, lessened his concerns about her. About the National Council. Enough that he wanted to let the building heat free, let it burn them up between the sheets. He had a strong suspicion that the two of them together were going to set the cabin on fire, and now that he was actually entertaining the idea, he wanted to get started.
He glanced over, wanting to see her reaction over heading away from the alphas’. She knew. And she wanted. She took off her seat belt and he narrowed his eyes at her, but she scooted herself to the middle seat and buckled back in. Put her hand on his arm.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” She didn’t seem put off by his near grunt. Left her hand where it was. “I’m sorry about your husband. Mate.”
Her fingers curled in a bit harder and he felt a distant wave of sadness, knew it to be hers.
“I’ll never be sorry that we had each other. And I always rejoice when a wolf finds their mate, knowing how special that connection is.” She leaned back against the seat more fully, so that most of her side was pressed up against him. “I wonder what he would have been like as a thirty-year-old man, forty. What we would have fought about and if we’d have taken up gardening or genealogy or what.”
He took one hand off the wheel, gave her knee a comforting squeeze. It was damned weird to be talking about a woman’s dead husband while he was driving her to his house to ravish her. But he wanted to hear about it, wanted to comfort her, take care of her even though he knew nothing would make her loss disappear. He soothed his hand lightly around her knee, his arm resting along her warm thigh.
“I want that for you,” she said, her voice low. “I want you to find that happiness, that connection.”
“I don’t know if I’d survive the loss of that,” he admitted.
She swallowed loudly enough that he heard it. “It’s hard. If we’d been together years longer, I might not have. But we’re hard to kill, this was serious bad luck, so chances are pretty good you’d get to old age together. Mated wolves usually pass within weeks of each other, if not hours, when they die of old age.”
“Hm.”
She smiled, and he caught it in the rearview mirror. They bumped off the road and onto a dirt lane. He slowed, but maybe not as much as he should have, so she snuggled in and rubbed up against him. He was acting like a sixteen-year-old taking his date to the make-out point. But he knew once he got her to a bed, they’d be doing a hell of a lot more than making out. They should have stopped at the store and gotten more food.
Her fingers resting on his arm began to move, rubbing up and down, just a bit. His foot on the peddle got heavier. Her legs spread open a bit wider in invitation. Forcing himself to keep his eyes on the road, he let his hand curl to the inside of her knee, then ease back a bit, up her thigh until his hand was nestled between them. So close to the heat at the center of her jeans, but not quite there. He drew a circle with his thumb and her breathing deepened.
The driveway to his cabin was coming up and he had to slow down in order to take the turn safely with just his left hand, but he did it, refusing to relinquish the hold he had with his right.
She leaned in, put her mouth up against his ear. “I want to know what you taste like,” she whispered.
The soft wetness of her tongue drew his earlobe into her mouth and he had to clench his jaw to maintain control, his gaze glued to the cabin and the spot where he needed to stop the truck. As soon as he hit that spot, he threw the truck into park and turned to her. His hands cupped her face, brought her lips to his and his tongue invaded her mouth before the truck had finished rocking.
Her sweet moan of acceptance, of need that matched his own, somehow managed to both soothe him and fire him up. He slid the fingers of one hand up into her hair, tightened his grip though she wasn’t trying to move. Her arms came around his shoulders, tried to pull him closer. The damn seat belt cut between them and gave him enough annoyance to remember that they didn’t have to be uncomfortable in the truck when there was a cabin with a bed five feet away.
Keeping the hold in her hair, he drew back on the kiss, giving her soft nips on her lips when she tried to pull him back in. He kissed her cheekbone, the corner of her eye. Moved back far enough to meet her gaze.
“Inside.”
She nodded as much as she could. “Inside.”
He moved back and they both released their belts. He hopped out of the truck, turned to help as she scrambled behind him, took the hand she offered and moved to the cabin. As always, his senses were on alert for anything wrong in his territory, but nothing concerned him. He saw her glancing around as well, her nose twitching in a way that he was slightly appalled to find adorable. He increased his pace, took the steps in one quick leap, and pulled her through the door.
The door slammed shut and he brought his mouth back to hers. She met him fully, her hands scrabbling at his shirt hem until he felt them on his bare skin. He cupped her bottom, used his hands to keep her steady while his body pushed her back, step by step, until the backs of her legs hit the bed. Her hands were curled up under his shirt, around his shoulders, pulling him down on top of her. He caught himself so that he didn’t crush her, pulled his mouth free.
“If you let me go, we can get naked.”
“Okay, good, naked is good.” She released him and went for his belt buckle. He had to laugh, a sound he wasn’t much used to. He leaned back, kneeling above her, and took her in. Hair going all sorts of directions; his fault, he was pleased to know. He supposed the color would be called something fancy, like chestnut or copper. He just liked the way it felt in his fingers as he’d feasted on her. Her eyes bright with heat, with need, for him.
“Been a while, sweetheart?” he teased, pulling his shirt up over his head. She had the belt off and moved to the button of his jeans.
“Maybe a bit,” she laughed, meeting his eyes. “But mostly the credit goes to you for being hot and sexy.”
He gave a quick laugh of surprise while she tugged his jeans down his hips. She was unlike any woman he’d ever been with. Ignoring her sound of protest, he slid off the bed, toed off the shoes he’d forgotten about, finished the job with the jeans, taking his boxers with them. Her hand arrowed straight for his cock and he found himself laughing again. Jesus.
“Uh uh.” He knocked her hand away. “Your turn.”
She did a sit-up and started on the laces of one boot, while he worked the other. They raced, but her fingers were nimbler than his and she was tossing the boot aside seconds before he managed to do the same. She’d pulled her top halfway over her head by the time he was unbuttoning her jeans. Thankful she wasn’t wearing a belt, he curled his fingers over the top and dragged them down her hips, with her help. She kicked them off and he swung a leg over, resuming his kneeling position above her.
“You should come down here,” she encouraged, her hands gliding up the sides of his legs, curving around to his ass.
He slid down beside her, putting his mouth at the perfect level to suck on a pouty nipple. She arched up, giving him more of her. At the first taste, he was lost. He flicked and sucked, nibbled and tasted, then switched to her other breast, nuzzling the space between gently with his unshaved chin. She fisted her hands in his hair and moaned his name, a sound so sweet he needed to hear it again. He reached a hand down her body, teased her curls, kept going to find her slick and needy.
She moaned his name again and he couldn’t help but smile into her breast. He kissed his way up to her mouth while teasing her slick hole with his finger. Her nails scored down his back, the tiny sting urging him on. When his lips found hers, her tongue thrusting into him impatiently, he entered her with his finger. Her hips bucked up into him, wanting more. He complied with another finger and pressed the palm of his hand against her clit.
Tearing her mouth free, she stared up at him, panting, eyes fierce. “I want to suck you.”
“Wait your turn.” He kissed her again, his fingers fucking in and out of her. She reached down, curled her hand around his, pressed on his fingers until they found the right spot and she shattered, crying out a thin wail. Music to his ears.
He slid down her body, pulled her wet fingers into his mouth, licked them clean, then turned to the source. He licked her opening, pushing in with his tongue against the squeezing of her muscles. Looking up her body, he watched her head thrash back and forth as the orgasm redoubled. He licked up her slit, pulled her clit between his lips and gave it careful attention with his tongue. She sobbed out, her body going lax except for her hand, which had made its way to his hair again and was tugging at him.
Reaching for the table, he fumbled with the drawer.
“Werewolves don’t need condoms,” she gasped.
He’d read that on the website, but using one was habitual and he’d forgotten. No sexually transmitted diseases, and he would know if she was in heat. Applying that term to a human had seemed appalling to him at the time, but now he was thrilled with the benefits. Smiling, he went back to his activities.
He took his time. Nipping at her thigh, lingering kisses along her belly, and up the valley of her chest. He spent long minutes on each breast, feeling her body slowly regain its energy, its need as he enjoyed his journey. He stretched out on top of her, nuzzled into her neck, kissing her throat until he worked his way back to her lips. She opened for him, welcomed him back, accepted his body in the cradle of her legs as she teased her tongue with his. He slid into her, his cock jumping at the first feel of her slickness, her tightness.
He moved, enthralled by the feel of her, the taste of her, the sense of her. He broke the kiss, shook his head, picked up speed, felt the quickening in his balls that signaled impending release. Myra was watching him, and he growled at her, determined to take her over again. He palmed her breast, tweaked her nipple. Her breath caught, and her eyes rolled back. He leaned down to her ear.
“So fucking beautiful.”
Myra felt the words as much as heard them, growled into her ear almost like an accusation. She couldn’t believe that he’d brought her so high, so fast, after her first orgasm. She needed to come again, needed to feel him fall with her. She dug her heels into his ass, lifted up to meet him thrust for thrust, clenched her inner muscles tight.
“Fuck,” she heard him whisper, and smiled.
He bit her earlobe and it was there, crashing through her so hard she had to fight to hold on until she heard him shouting in release as well. Then she let go, and flew. She may have blacked out. Or maybe it just felt that way with a ton of male werewolf laying on top of her as she struggled to breathe. Not that she was complaining.
She played with the shaggy ends of his hair—did he hack it off himself with a knife or something?— and tried not to think too hard. For a minute there it had seemed like her soul had shuddered. But then she’d felt Adam pull back just a bit. She didn’t blame him for holding himself back when it had become so intense, but was surprised that they’d connected well enough that she’d felt it. Or even that he’d felt the need to do it at all, had felt so much that it had scared him.
He rolled to the side, but he brought her with him, so that she was half laying on top of him. Now it was him playing with the ends of her hair while she scratched idly at his chest.
“That was nice,” she teased.
He grunted. “Flowers are nice. That wasn’t nice.”
“Hmm. It was…excellent.”
“Wine is excellent. That wasn’t excellent.”
“Okay. What was it.”
“Phenomenal. Stupendous. Outrageously fucking hot.”
She laughed. “Yes, all of those things. Are you sure you weren’t an English teacher?”
His eyes went sad as he traced a pattern of circles on her arm but didn’t say anything for a minute.
“My brother was going to be an English teacher. He died before he got that far.”
“I’m sorry. That must have been very hard for you and your family.”
“He was the only family I had left. Turned out to be better that way.”
“I guess that’s one way of looking at it. I think maybe that’s part of why they chose you. Hillary, the other wolf who survived, she didn’t have any family left either.”
His chest froze beneath her for a moment before he resumed breathing. “It’s my fault she got hurt. Raped. Turned.”
She looked up at him, didn’t like the bleak guilt she saw on his face. She propped herself up on his chest so that he couldn’t look away from her, thought about how she wanted to say what needed to be said. His eyes grew wary as he waited.
“I guess so. I’m still working out what Hillary’s punishment should be.”
His eyes went hard. “Punishment.”
“Yes, for not reporting what had happened.”
He growled. “Care to explain that?”
“Well, when we went to Arizona, we found a little girl who’d been kidnapped. We think they were holding her until she was old enough to try and turn. Hillary told me it was her fault that Alexis had been taken and her parents killed. If she’d reported the Cages to the police in the four years she’d been free, Alexis wouldn’t have been hurt.”
“You would blame her for that?” There was real anger in his voice, and his hand on her arm had turned from a caress to a controlled grip.
“No. Would you?”
“Fuck no!”
“Then why would you blame yourself for the same thing?”
He blinked at her. His body, which had tightened, relaxed under her.
“It’s not the same.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was first.”
“How does that change anything?”
“Because if I had stopped them, neither of the girls would have been taken.”
“I refer you to your anger a minute ago. You can’t have it both ways.” She studied him. Cocked her head. “I know what this is. You’re sexist.”
He stared at her some more, frowning.
Laughing, she nodded. “That’s totally what this is. You think because you’re a guy, you should have handled it differently than she did.” She cupped his cheek with the hand that wasn’t propping her up on his chest. “Adam, you did the best you could under extraordinary circumstances. No one blames you for how you handled it. I have the duty of doling out blame, responsibility and punishment here. That is officially my job. I’m telling you there is no blame on you.”
He didn’t say anything so she knelt up, straddled him. “You should go visit them. They’re in Northern Idaho. See for yourself that they’re both doing well now, and neither of them holds you responsible, any more than Alexis blames Hillary.”
His hands came to her hips. “Maybe.”
“I didn’t finish telling you about being National President.” She stroked her hands up his chest, flexed her fingers into his pecs.
“The most powerful werewolf in the country.” He brought his hands up to her breasts, squeezed.
“That’s right. Two more weeks.” She wrapped her hands over his, squeezed harder. “And then it will be a guy from California.”
“Well aren’t I the lucky one?” His fingers tugged at her nipples.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” she agreed, dropping her hands, bracing them on his thighs behind her. She gasped when he tweaked and pulled, felt herself getting wet. But this time she wanted to explore. Taking his hands in hers, she lifted them above his head, their fingers laced, leaned down to nibble along his jaw, up to his ear. She nuzzled into his neck, drew his scent deep into her lungs. His fingers clenched against hers, his muscles tightening in preparation to move.
“No, stay,” she whispered. “Let me taste.” She licked his neck. “Explore.” She worked her way around his chin to the other ear, pulled the lobe between her teeth and bit down gently. “So much to explore.”
His hips pressed up, but settled back.
She moved to the hollow of his throat, licked and kissed, then released his hands to bring hers to his shoulders. She explored the shape, the muscles, stroked his skin while tasting the salty sweetness of his collarbone. His hands rested on her sides but nothing more, letting her have her play.
“So much strength.” She bit his pec, just above the nipple, hard enough for him to grunt, hard enough to see faint impressions of her teeth when she checked. “So much power.” She kissed the spot. “So much integrity.” She pulled his nipple between her lips, enjoying the way his fingers pressed into her hips when she released him with a wet pop.
“I’m currently the most powerful werewolf in the country,” she reminded him. “And you make me feel weak with need.” She braced her hands on his chest, slid her body down, lifting over his hardening shaft, until she could lower her face to his stomach. His hands moved to her wrists, held them gently. She smiled against his stomach, because it didn’t feel like restraint. It felt like he needed the point of contact. “Desperate and hungry.” She gave only teasing nips this time, kissed his navel.
She pulled gently against his hold, moved her hands down his sides to his hips when he released her. “So very hungry.” She spoke with her mouth just above his pubic hair, intentionally heating him with her breath. His powerful thighs pulsed beneath her, his hands going to his sides to grip the sheets.
“Can I taste?” she asked, moving lower, huffing her breath onto his cock. More color had come into it, its length stretching toward her in need.
“Fuck yes.”
She looked up at him, saw her heat mirrored in his eyes. Licked her lips.
“Or I could haul you up here and fuck you senseless,” he growled.
She smiled hugely. “Let’s stick with plan A for now.”
“Only if you—” He broke off when she kissed the underside of his dick, followed quickly by a long lick.
She cupped his balls with one hand, explored his length with the other, while teasing the tip with her tongue.
“Fuck.”
He tasted magnificent and she wanted more. No more teasing, she took in as much as she could, concentrated on relaxing her jaw, took in a bit more. He growled his approval. She hummed as she explored and tasted, sucked and swirled. She could feel his tension, his thighs bunched under her hands, the near constant growl coming from his throat. When his fingers threaded through her hair, she curled her fingers into his thighs, letting her nails bite in.
“Fuck,” he repeated. And then he moved.
He sat up, pulled her in for a hard kiss. She squeezed his cock but he was moving again. Before she could think to react, she was on her knees, hands braced against the wall at the head of the bed.
“Hurry,” she panted, looking over her shoulder.
The look in his eyes grew even hotter. Then his hands were back on her, holding her hips tightly as he pushed into her. She tilted, pushed back against his grip, wanting more.
He gave more. Filled her up, blanketed her body with his, his breath hot against her cheek as he moved within her. The pressure built as his body, slick with sweat, moved over her, his hard length hitting all the right places, his muttered curses in her ear sending shivers through her body. Through her soul.
Bracing one hand on the wall next to hers, he reached his other around and found her clit. A gentle caress, then firmer as she gasped, lost control.
“Adam!”
He flattened her to the wall, pressed into her, over her, around her, until all she could feel was him as he groaned her name. They held still for a minute as the aftershocks of her release pulsed around his softening cock and they fought to catch their breaths. He kissed her cheek, the corner of her mouth, then gently pulled back, his hands helping to hold her steady as she turned and slid back down to the bed.