“I know.” I eased back and looked up at him, stricken by the stark adoration in his heated gaze. I wanted that look on me for the rest of my life. The realization knocked me senseless for a split second before I assured him, “You didn’t hurt me.”

His hand slid from my nape to cup my jaw. “What I’m saying is that I want you—” He shook his head, closing his eyes for a second. “The past couple of days, I kept praying I wasn’t alone in this. Hoping that you might want more than friendship, too.” His fingertips curled tighter on me. “Please,” he begged, “tell me I’m not alone.”

I swallowed hard, the thickness in my throat making it hard to answer. Adrenaline shot through my blood like lightning. I tipped my head up higher, speaking against his granite jaw, the scruff tickling my lips. “You’re not alone.” My voice was husky with emotion. My heart hammered out a new beat, yearning for him to match my tempo, to harmonize with my body, to melt against my flesh, and make me his own. There was nothing else but the soul-stirring want humming along my skin, vibrating through flesh to my bones.

“Thank fucking Christ,” he murmured against me, exhaling a shaky breath.

For another minute, he squeezed me closer. Not even a ribbon-thin slice of air between us, our bodies happily pressed together in perfect alignment. His heart drummed against my chest, answering my own. I smiled to know I wasn’t the only one losing my shit over this.

He whispered, “I’m afraid, though.”

I finally looked up. Fear skated over his face, tightening his jaw.

“What are you afraid of?”

He huffed out a laugh. “That next time I won’t be able to push Alpha back again.”

“You will.”

“That you’ll change your mind and won’t want me that way.”

“I won’t.”

“Christ.” He cupped my face, pressing his forehead to mine. “Evie,” he breathed on a groan, still swaying to whatever song Nico was playing now, having moved on to another. I couldn’t hear anything but Mateo and my overloud thoughts shouting things like YES and THANK GOD.

I couldn’t focus on anything but the miracle of words spilling out of Mateo’s mouth. He wanted me. Gah. It was almost too much for me to handle. My gaze was fixed on his wide, sensuous lips, imagining what devastation those lips would do to my body, leaving me a wreck of want and completion. I was suddenly very aware that I needed a vag landscaping appointment ASAP.

“Evie.” A subtle warning. When I looked up, his eyes were swamped with heat, his dilated pupils full and dark. “We need to wait to pursue this until after the hex is broken. I don’t trust him.”

I didn’t need to ask who him was. It was more than apparent how little he trusted the wolf. Tomorrow night. I could wait that long. Maybe. Even though I wanted to tell him I was pretty much okay with everything Alpha had said—except the whole ripping guys’ throats out who glanced my way—I didn’t think now was the right time.

“I think we should test the boundaries a little.” I clasped my hands around his neck, luxuriating in the silkiness of his hair on the backs of my fingers and the fact that it was okay for me now to luxuriate in it.

“What do you mean?” He couldn’t keep his eyes off my mouth either. So this wasn’t going to be hard.

I shrugged one shoulder. “I think you should kiss me.”

Pause. His throat worked, then he licked his lips. Yellow rolled across his eyes, promising that Alpha was present and watching me. Very aware of my request. Rather than instill fear, it sparked a desperate hunger that sizzled along my skin, heating me in low, delicious places. I wanted whatever Mateo and Alpha had to offer.

“Just to see if we have any chemistry together. I mean, we might want to keep it friends only if there’s nothing there. Ya know?”

No freaking way would there not be bombs and explosions going off when his lips were on mine. He stopped our swaying, his hands now on my hips, fingers curling in tight.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” But he was already breathing fast. We were so doing this.

“You think I can’t handle the big bad wolf?” I arched a challenging brow, wrapping my arms tight around his neck and pressing my breasts to his chest. Another roll of gold washed over his eyes, a keen look of pleasure. And feral hunger. I dropped my voice to what I hoped was a sexy whisper. “You tell Alpha that if he doesn’t behave, he’ll get no reward.” I skated one hand under his hair, grazing my nails along his nape. “He isn’t the only one with claws.”

His eyes closed on a groan, a frown pinching between his eyebrows. I was sure he was going to protest again, but then he unclasped my hands from around his neck, laced his fingers with mine, and pressed the back of my hand to his lips before he walked off the dance floor, tugging me behind him.

We were headed back toward the bar, but then he took a sharp left down the hallway that passed the restrooms and a supply closet, not stopping till he was pushing open the last door into the storage pantry. The second we were inside, I was off the ground, my ass on top of the beer cooler, his pelvis pressed between my legs, his hands gripping my thighs. And then, his mouth. His fucking gorgeous mouth ghosted over mine.

Jesus.

It was a barely-there brush, a slow airy sweep. I leaned forward on a whimper, seeking his mouth, needing a hard, blistering kiss. But he quickly backed away out of reach. Lifting a hand, he slipped his fingers around my nape and took hold of me in a firm grip.

“Let me lead, Evie,” he growled against my mouth, his voice so deep and dark, I whimpered. A soft but definite command from Alpha, not Mateo. He needed control. Got it.

“Uh, okay.”

I was sure I looked like a lust-crazed idiot, jaw slack, pulse pounding, my eyes fixated on his mouth. A teasing smile spread across his face a split second before he leaned in again.

Then he finally put those sensuous lips to really good use. More sweeping and slow nips. His mouth coaxed me gently, but his hands held me hard. I combed my hands into his dark, silky hair. That was all it took to earn me a groan and some tongue. And some aggression.

Yes!

I felt like the Incredible Hulk trying to break out of my skin, but instead of angry Hulk, I was horny Hulk. I hummed on the first taste of him, the flavor of whiskey and cinnamon and dominance blazing into my senses. I stroked my tongue inside his mouth and scraped my blunt nails against his scalp.

“Fuck.” His hand on my thigh tightened, then he jerked me forward till he was seated between my thighs, pressed up against me.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. This is heavenly.

Arching my back, I pressed my boobs against his chest and locked my ankles right above his perfect ass. He couldn’t get away if he tried. I’d just hang on like a monkey. But he wasn’t trying to get away. No. His drugging kisses morphed into the bruising, brain-melting kind. A throaty groan rumbled from his chest to mine, putting my girls on full alert. My nipples saluted with gusto. I rubbed against him, needing friction, really not giving a shit if I was acting like a cat in heat. He didn’t seem to mind.

“Evie, Evie.” Another thrust of his tongue, then a nip of my lip with his teeth. “What are you doing to me? Christ.”

I didn’t recognize myself, my blinding desire for him driving me like a freight train on fire. One kiss from him had unlocked a closeted vixen who wanted and needed only him. Mateo was the key. Alpha was the welcome mat. And I was loving the hell out of walking through this door, pushing my werewolf over the edge. I wanted us to go together.

His hands were everywhere. He ground his pelvis against me. Wowza! His dick was hard and ready and right there. It had been a long time, so my little lady was getting really excited about where this was going. Was I really going to have sex on the beer cooler in our bar pantry? Hell yes, I was!

I jerked his T-shirt up enough to slide one of my hands over his chiseled abs. He hissed in a breath and grabbed my wrist.

“Evie, we should—”

The door to the pantry popped open, letting in light from the hallway. We both jerked our heads to the door, our bodies and arms still tangled all over each other. Violet stood there with a shit-eating grin on her face, one hand on her hip.

“There you are, Sis.” She took in the scene with casual nonchalance. “Seriously hate to break this up, but it’s about that time.”

I stared at her, blinking, trying to remember what day it was. “Time for what?”

She snorted. “Jules said thirty minutes.” Then she closed the door.

I let my forehead drop to his chest. He slid his hot palms up and down my back, one hand easing up to the back of my head below my ponytail.

“You have plans tonight?” he murmured into the crown of my head.

When I could finally think through the horny fog in my brain, I remembered what Violet was talking about. “We just need to do a round tonight.”

I pulled back, catching confusion glinting through the lust darkening his expression, his breath still coming hard.

“Like a witch’s round,” I explained, still reeling from unfulfilled need. “For energy.”

Licking his lips, he massaged his hands back down my back with soothing sweeps. “You do this often?”

I’d never had a friend who wasn’t a witch and didn’t already know what this was. Sure, I’d had human friends, but other than JJ, none of them knew what we really were, so that information was privileged. There was a kind of contentment warming my middle in sharing this part of me with Mateo.

I unlocked the death grip my ankles had on his ass and let my feet dangle down. Sorry, beer cooler. No sex for you. Or me, unfortunately.

“We do it monthly, actually. It helps center our magic, rejuvenate.”

He inched back, but not too far, sliding his hands from my shoulders down to my hands where he held onto them. “I didn’t know witches had to do that.”

“Not all do. My sister Isadora is a Conduit, so her magic allows her to move energy any time she wants and from anything. The rest of us need a little group help.”