“Good. So, Zac cheated on you?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you know why?”
She shrugged. She’d been seeing a psychologist since the divorce two years ago. The doctor constantly talked about values and how when two people with the same values meet, they connect because their needs were mirrored. But when their values were too different, that was when things often led to problems. “My shrink thinks our values were too different. Personally, I think he felt inadequate, then blamed me for that inadequacy. He thought the way out of the relationship was infidelity, so that’s what he did.”
“He’s a fucking idiot.”
“Agreed.” She went to pick up her glass, realizing it was empty at the last minute.
“Would you like another drink?” he asked.
Placing the glass down, she said, “No. Thank you. I shouldn’t.”
“Do you have any children together? You and Zac?”
Pain lanced through her heart, but she kept the agony from her face. “No, no children.”
“Do you want any?”
Oh, God, how could it still hurt this much?
“Maybe one day,” she lied. “What about you?”
“No kids, but I would like at least one, I think. If that’s what my wife wanted.”
She nodded and looked down at the table. The change in conversation topic left her feeling raw and exposed even though he knew nothing about the real reason Zac had cheated on her.
“I think I should get home.”
Oliver’s fingers tightened around her hand, drawing her attention back to his face. “I’m sorry if I’ve brought something up that upsets you.”
Shrugging, she replied, “I’m not sure it’ll stop hurting, but it is what it is. Dwelling on things out of my control isn’t a good use of my time.”
The intensity with which he stared at her made her shift in her seat. It was like he was seeing straight through her, down deep into her soul.
Finally, he released her hand. “Can I see you again?”
“I’d like that. You can come around to my place sometime if you like?”
“Okay.”
Picking up her scarf, she wrapped it around her neck, then slipped on her jacket. “I’ll text you the address.” Scooting out of the booth, Oliver stood too, and they walked to the door.
“Where’s your car?” he asked, scanning their surroundings like he thought someone was about to attack.
“In the restaurant’s parking lot.”
“I’ll walk you there,” he replied, his tone telling her arguing with him would’ve been useless. Instead, she turned toward the restaurant. He placed his hand on the small of her back, his protective streak surprisingly enjoyable. It made her wonder whether this came from the fact that he had a younger sister or whether it was because of his professional background.
“What do you do for work?” she asked as they walked.
“I do security for my family’s business.”
“Ah, that explains it then.”
“Explains what?” he asked.
“Why you’re so alert out here.”
His fingers flexed a little. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you did a visual sweep of the street when we stepped from the bar.”
The laugh he gave her sounded a little forced.
Was he embarrassed that she’d noticed?
“Sorry. Old habits die hard.”
She placed her hand on his stomach, stopping him, and let out a breath. He was nothing but muscle and skin—not an ounce of fat on him. She’d been right about how many hours he spent in the gym. “It’s fine. I kind of like it, actually.”
His brows rose. “You do?”
She nodded and snuggled a little closer to his big body. He put his arm over her shoulder, pulling her even closer.
“I’ve never had this before. I’ve never felt like I could rely on someone else. It’s nice.”
He grunted but said nothing more.
When they arrived at her car, she unlocked it and placed her handbag into the passenger seat. She didn’t want this night to end but expecting anything more from him right now was a bad idea. Taking him to her bed was most definitely a bad idea.
“When can I see you again?”
She let out a relieved breath. He was as desperate to see her as she was to see him. Biting her bottom lip, she turned over the idea of inviting him back to her place right now. She knew it was a bad idea, but at the same time, that’s all she wanted. She wanted to have more of this man.
“Right now?” she asked hesitantly. Please say right now.
“What’s your address?”
She told him, then asked, “Do you want to write that down?”
“No need. I’ll remember,” he replied.
Darcey lingered there, caught in limbo. She sucked in a surprised gasp when he leaned down and captured her mouth in a sweet kiss. His lips were soft against hers, not demanding in the slightest. He lingered there, waiting for her to deepen it if she wanted to.
Boy, did she want to.
She opened for him, and he licked into her mouth, exploring her, nipping at her bottom lip with his teeth before sucking the flesh in his mouth and soothing the sting.
Holy shit, the man could kiss. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she pulled herself in close to his body, feeling every single ridge, valley, and peak of his torso. He was perfection, and if she was rubbing against him like a cat in heat now—feeling him through his clothes—she could only imagine what perfection lay underneath it all.
Chapter Seven
Oliver was in so much fucking trouble. Darcey was perfect for him. His wolf tended to agree too. As he tightened his fingers around her waist, he forced himself to take a breath, not to kiss her again. His skin still felt like it was sparking from that first tentative touch of lips, teeth, and tongue. She was perfectly molded to his body, her six-foot height a complement to his six-one frame.
Before he bent her over the hood of her car and followed through on what he wanted to do, he forced himself back, thrilled to see her chest heaving with a need he felt down in his bones.
Pressing his forehead to hers, he murmured, “Come on. Let me help you into your car.”
Once she was settled inside, seat belt in place and the engine started, he shut the door. She rolled down the window, the flush on her cheeks saying it all. And if the reaction she had to him wasn’t enough confirmation, the scent of her lust wafted from the car like a fine perfume—strawberries and cream.
Leaning into the window, he stole another kiss.
Pull away, you bastard, he mentally chastised himself. With a lot more effort than he thought would be necessary, he straightened. “I’ll meet you at your place.”
Nodding, she let out a little breath and rolled the window back up. He watched her back out of the space and drive away. The walk back to the car would help to calm him down. He wasn’t usually in the habit of sleeping with human women. There was too much of a complication with the whole ‘I’m a different species thing’ but at the same time, he didn’t think his wolf would let this one walk away, especially not after tasting her.
He ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck. So… much… trouble,” he muttered to himself, picking up the pace. When he arrived at his car, he got in and started off in the direction of the address Darcey had given him.
He felt like shit for lying to her about his age, but it was a necessary evil. He could pass for a very young-looking thirty-five-year-old because he certainly couldn’t tell her he was really a late-model nonagenarian and not expect questions. But that was a problem for another day.
When he arrived at her building twenty minutes later, he found her waiting for him outside a low-rise apartment building. Although his wolf was howling that their female was unprotected, he shoved that instinct away. He didn’t need to scare her with the crazy overprotective side of himself. That slip-up in the bar had been enough.
Locking his car, he
stalked toward her, backing her up against the wall and drawing a small yelp of surprise from her lips. He captured the sound when he kissed her, plunging his tongue inside her mouth, trying to get a visceral reminder that she was safe. That she’d been safe waiting outside for him. That it wasn’t going to happen again.
Darcey moaned and circled her arms around his neck. She tugged at his hair, drawing a raspy moan from his throat. Hooking a leg around his waist, she pushed herself against his hips, the skirt of her dress riding up. As much as he wanted to take her right here, right now, his human brain kicked in and reminded him they were in public. Wrapping the other leg around his waist, he carried her inside.
“First floor,” she whispered into his ear, biting down on his earlobe. Her teeth in his flesh sent his lust into overdrive. He powered up the stairs, and when he arrived at the top of the landing, she pointed to apartment number three. Darcey made quick work with the keys, unlocking things with the kind of efficiency he appreciated.
When the door was finally shut behind them, he took her to the floor. He couldn’t wait for a bed or couch—he needed her that badly. Taking off his jacket, he watched through half-lidded eyes as she writhed beneath him. Fuck, she was the perfect woman for him. She had ample breasts that led to a narrow waist and flared hips. He let his hands graze where his eyes had, skimming them down her thighs to her knee-high boots.
He got rid of them quickly, then resumed regularly scheduled programming, capturing her lips with his own, plunging his tongue deep. She accepted all of him, clawing at his back for more. Running his hand up the inside of her thigh, he swept it to the heart of her, feeling the heat coming through the panel of her panties. His cock strained against its confines, the pain it caused helping him to focus a little more.
Pushing aside her panties, he slid one finger through her folds, making her kick her head back and exposing the delicate column of her throat. Leaning down, he licked the length of it, feeling her pulse flutter against his tongue.
“Oliver,” she moaned as he slid his finger into her heat.
He groaned, dropping his head to her shoulder. Fuck, she was perfect. Her scent—strawberries and cream—wrapped around him as she bloomed before his eyes. He added another finger, pumping them in and out of her until his whole hand was soaked with her arousal.
Darcey began touching herself, cupping her breasts through the top of her dress. Oliver swallowed back his growl. If he thought she was perfect before, she’d just catapulted herself into goddess territory.
Not that he’d had a lot of relationships with women.
He wasn’t wired for casual sex like Riley had been.
Most male werewolves weren’t. They were driven by the biological imperative to find their true mate and settle down, and Oliver wasn’t any different.
He snapped back to the here and now when Darcey pulled down the front of her dress, exposing her breasts to him. With a growl he couldn’t contain even if he wanted to, he attacked one, sucking and biting it through the sheer fabric of her bra. She arched off the floor, her back a sinuous curve that thrust her breast into his mouth ever farther. She clawed at his back through his shirt as he continued the assault on her pussy and her nipple.
She came without warning, her inner walls constricting around his fingers, the ripple of her orgasm throbbing in time with her pulse. Her arousal dripped from his fingers, and he knew he couldn’t wait any longer.
Withdrawing from her body, he sat back on his heels and stared down at her. Darcey’s legs were splayed, split apart so he could see how soaked she’d gotten for him. Her chest was heaving as she took in ragged breaths, trying to get more oxygen into her lungs as the last of her pleasure ebbed away.
Shucking his shirt, he enjoyed the way her green eyes flared. They tracked down his chest, his torso, to the waistband of his pants. Not wanting to torture either of them anymore, he stood and undid the button on his jeans. Darcey was standing in front of him a moment later. Their eyes met, and what he saw in them was indescribable.
“Let me,” she said in a low voice.
He removed his hands, letting her take over. His gaze was fixed on her mouth. She bit down on her bottom lip as she worked his zipper down and sprang his cock. She wrapped her hand around it without waiting, making a desire so strong his knees almost buckled. He weaved a little on his feet.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Her hand on him was fucking addicting. Closing his eyes, he took a moment to absorb all the sensations—the firm stroke, the twist of her wrist at the top, the little whimper that escaped her mouth.
Even though he didn’t want her to stop—didn’t want her to ever stop—he picked her up, spearing her legs around his waist. Her hot pussy was against his shaft, the fight against his wolf’s will to brand her as theirs, a losing one.
They made it to the couch this time, and he laid her down. Standing back to watch her shimmy out of her panties was going to be burned into his memories now. Every sweep of her legs, every pump of her hips drove the erotic nail farther into his brain.
He needed this woman.
This woman who smelled like strawberries and cream.
And he needed her now.
“There are condoms in my bathroom vanity,” she breathed.
He wanted to tell her he couldn’t get her pregnant, but he knew it wasn’t that. The number of sexually transmitted diseases among humans was astronomical, but he couldn’t give her any, and she couldn’t pass any onto him.
But it wasn’t like he could drop that bomb along with the bonus dirty bomb of ‘Hey, I’m a werewolf, so it’s all good’ on her. Instead, he stood and walked into her bathroom. He found what he was looking for and ripped the foil wrapper with his teeth. Sliding the latex sleeve onto his cock, he returned to Darcey, finding her exactly the way he left her.
Crawling up her body, he positioned himself, his cock nudging at her entrance. He kissed her mouth and whispered, “Thank you.”
She frowned. “What for?”
Sweeping his fingertips down her skin, he murmured, “For this. For sharing this with me.”
The kiss she gave him was possessive. Clearly, he’d said the right thing.
“You’re welcome, now fuck me. Please.”
With a wicked grin, he flexed his hips, sliding into her heat with a slow, torturous stroke. In unison, they groaned. Darcey slid her hands down his back, digging her fingers in when he withdrew a little.
“Oliver, please,” she begged on a whimper.
He thrust into her again, this time going deeper. Her inner walls clamped down on his dick, making him see stars. “Do that again,” he panted.
She did, squeezing his cock and making his orgasm boil up on the periphery of his pleasure. After that, a frantic need came over him.
He needed to come inside of her.
He needed to mark her as his.
But then he remembered the condom.
His wolf howled in outrage. It wanted its mate, and it wanted to mark her now.
Wait! Mate?
He shook his head. Surely, she couldn’t be his mate. She was human. He’d always assumed he would find a female werewolf that would be his true mate. But then Darcey rolled her hips, and all thoughts of werewolf or human, true mate or not, left his brain as it short-circuited.
Doubling down on his efforts, he thrust deeply into her. Darcey absorbed each and every one of them, her fingers digging into his skin all the answer he needed if she liked how he felt inside her.
“I’m coming again,” she panted not long after, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment. When they reopened, her seafoam green eyes were unfocused. She was getting lost in the sensations he was creating.
“Fuck, come for me, Darcey. Come hard on my cock.”
Her fingers tightened to the point of pain before releasing as she found her pleasure.
Drowned in it.
Died in it.
The sensation of having his dick compressed sent him over the edge, and he chased her o
rgasm with her own. Unloading into the condom was a long process as more and more pleasure rocketed up his spine. When his hips stopped moving independently of his brain, he looked at Darcey.
She was wearing a sexy little grin, but her gaze had that sleepy quality to it. “I can feel you everywhere, Oliver.”
Yeah, he could feel her everywhere too. He kissed her, lingering there, stroking her tongue with his, making her whimper and her inner muscles tighten around his still sheathed cock. Pulling free of her body, he stood and disposed of the condom, then picked her up and took her to bed.
As he pulled up the quilt, she mumbled, “Stay?”
“Yeah, I’ll stay.” He kissed her temple, her soft snores already filling the room. Back in the living room, he found his pants and slipped his underwear back on. Rifling through his pocket, he found his phone and sent Hunter a text, letting him know he wasn’t at the pack house overnight in case anyone was wondering. Given how late it was, he didn’t expect a reply, but one came anyway.
Hunter: Up with Grace who wet the bed. Will see you tomorrow. I hope you’re staying out for a good reason.
Oliver played with the idea of telling his brother and his alpha, but then, he probably already knew. He never stayed away from the pack house. He was beta of the pack, and as such, he was responsible for so much, including security.
Hunter: Stay out. One night away won’t make a difference.
How the fuck did he know what he was thinking, wondered Oliver.
Putting his phone back into his pocket, he walked back into Darcey’s bedroom and slid in beside her. She curled herself around him as soon as he was settled, her head coming to rest on his chest. Her blonde hair was fanned out against him, tickling his skin. Picking up a few strands, he brought them to his nose and inhaled her scent.
Where had this woman come from?
Chapter Eight
Darcey woke the next morning sore and satisfied. Oliver had woken her again at around three o’clock for round number two, and she’d been more than happy for the disturbed sleep. Oliver’s arm, which was banded around her waist, tightened as he awoke. His erection was between her ass cheeks, not a demand but merely there.
The Helheim Wolf Pack Novellas: The Complete Collection Page 25
