Haunted Wolves: Green Pines, Book 2

by Moira Rogers

  Her gaze locked on his mouth, and she licked her lips. “Yes.”

  He followed the path of her tongue with his own and reveled in the shuddering breath she drew. “Draw your line, sweetheart.”

  Her wrists flexed in his hands. “I don’t have any left.”

  His heart lurched in his suddenly tight chest. “At all, or for me?”

  “No.” She laughed gently. “I have more lines than ever. But not here, and not with you.”

  No, not lurching. Exploding. Pain wrenched through him, sharp and abrupt, like something broken being snapped into place. Her trust made him worthy, and her need made him whole. No words could encompass what she’d given him with that lighthearted laugh, so he didn’t try to summon any.

  He just kissed her.

  Lorelei opened, parting her lips to meet his tongue, and melted against him, the soft lines of her body molding to the harder planes of his. He licked her lips, licked her tongue, drowned in kissing her until they were both breathless.

  “I could eat you alive,” he whispered, dragging his mouth to her throat. “So many places I want to put my mouth.”

  She tilted her head with a moan, baring the delicate arch of her neck. “You’ve already made me wait too long.”

  He slid both hands under her ass and hoisted her until his hips fit hers, his cock slicking against welcoming heat and the proof that she was burning as hot as he. “You’re wet,” he rasped. “Not as wet as you will be.”

  Her feet slid over the backs of his legs as she clawed his shoulders, and her hips thrust against his. “Now.”

  “No.” He bit her throat instead, growled his satisfaction against ravaged skin.

  The sharp bite of her nails subsided into soft, teasing caresses, and she nuzzled his temple. “Last time, I was so hungry, I had to touch myself.” She slipped one hand between them. “Want me to show you?”

  The only thing he wanted more was to be inside her when she started, but he got a chokehold on his self-control and grinned at her. “Silly question.”

  She froze, her expression soft and wondering. “Your eyes turn gold sometimes when you look at me,” she whispered. “Did you know that?”

  “No.” It was a struggle not to close his eyes, not to try to hide how close he was to the edge. “You rile up my instincts, love. You always have.”

  “Love,” she echoed, brushing her thumb over his cheek. “Let me feel it.”

  He seized her thumb between his teeth and rocked against her again. “Feel what?”

  “All that instinct.” She caught her breath. “Show me what it means.”

  Reason slipped through his fingers. He’d wanted to go slowly with her. To be careful, to be gentle, to woo and cherish and be the hero he thought she wanted. But his body ached and the woman who had gone so pliantly soft against him wasn’t begging for his control.

  Hoisting her higher, he tormented them both with the slide of his shaft over her clit before bending his head to suck one nipple between his lips.

  She responded with a stifled cry. “Harder.” Her fingers tangled in his hair, holding him close, and he plied the hardened peak with his tongue, growling.

  Then he thrust into her.

  She went tense in his arms, but only for the span of a heartbeat. When she relaxed and opened her eyes, the usual blue was shining gold in the dim moonlight.

  “You feel it too,” he whispered, savoring the way she wrapped around him. “More than bodies. More than people.”

  “Colin.” As much a plea as an answer. She slipped her arms around his neck and clung to him, and there was nothing to do but answer her with another thrust, too fast, too abrupt, but so good.

  The wolf agreed. A growl rumbled in his ears, his own, as instinctive as the need to bury his face against her throat and savor her trusting submission. So open to him, so hungry and willing, and he wanted her in his bed next time, under him, surrounded by his body and his scent and utterly and completely—

  “Mine.”

  Her moan turned into something desperate, animal, a wordless demand for more. She arched into his next thrust, meeting him with a snap of her hips and her teeth in his shoulder. He snarled and encouraged her with a bite of his own, closing teeth over her pulse as he drove deep.

  “Colin!” His name shuddered out of her, strained and low.

  No time for finesse. He gripped her hips and angled them so he could grind against her clit. “Louder. I want to hear you come.”

  She shuddered again. Her head hit the tree as she arched, tense and silent, a coil wound too tightly. Tiny tremors shivered through her, the teasing warning of her release.

  “Let go,” he whispered, and she did, her heart thundering as she came, clenching around his cock. The bliss of it dragged him toward the edge, but he fought back the haze long enough to fix her face in his mind—slack and relieved, full lips parted on a silent cry.

  Beautiful. His.

  She opened her eyes—glazed, still hungry, and shadowed by something predatory. Possessive. “Yes.”

  Pleasure drove his eyes shut as he sank into her. Shorter thrusts, harder, each punctuated by a growled grunt and her helpless gasps, each winding him tighter and hotter until he was the spring, coiled and dangerous. Nothing would feel better than shattering to pieces, buried inside her.

  Inside her.

  Hell.

  With his final scrap of conscious thought, he jerked free of her body, but it was too late to stop the inevitable. Groaning, he buried his face against her throat as release pulsed through him.

  Lorelei panted against his cheek, her fingers threaded through his hair. “Oh my God. I forgot.”

  “So did I.” Disease hadn’t worried him since the day he’d been reborn as a wolf, but leaving a child behind him—some days he didn’t know what would be worse—a child who knew him only through sporadic visits, or one who grew up the way he had, eating vending-machine dinners in the back of a pickup truck while his father buried dead bodies a few yards away.

  He’d never come this close to forgetting before.

  She shivered. “Are you all right?”

  He managed a jerky nod and eased her away from the tree. He had to lock his legs to stay on his feet, but it was better than grinding her into the rough bark. “Are you?”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  She sounded dazed. He shifted her weight to support her with one hand and curled the other in her hair so he could ease her head back. “Hey, there.”

  For a moment, all she did was blink at him. Then she smiled, and her bafflement gave way to a laugh. “Hey.”

  Leaning in, he kissed those laughing lips, kissed her until the awkwardness of the moment gave way to warm affection and a pleasant afterglow. “Let’s go find a warm bath and a soft bed.”

  “You can’t carry me.” She unwound her legs and dropped, her body slowly sliding along his.

  He tightened his arms before her feet touched the ground and grinned at her. “Wanna bet?”

  “Fine, you could. But you don’t have to.”

  “Who said anything about have?” He kissed her forehead and closed his eyes. “I don’t want to let go of you.”

  “So get me back to the house.” Her lips brushed his jaw. “Get me in your bed.”

  With that as motivation, he couldn’t just carry her. He’d run the whole damn way.

  Lorelei woke with dim light seeping through the blinds and her hair in a damp tangle on Colin’s pillow.

  The relief of the broken spell might have dropped her into exhausted sleep all by itself. Combined with the events of the past week, she hadn’t stood a chance. She’d nodded off halfway through a warm shower, cradled against Colin’s chest, his arms around her.

  She’d never felt so safe, so hopeful. As if things really might be okay.

  Colin’s arm tightened around her, and he murmured sleepily against her neck, the words low and incomprehensible.

  She stroked the back of his hand with a soothing hum, then whispered, “It’s
almost morning.”

  “Almost isn’t actually,” he muttered, his breath tickling her skin. “I like having you right where you are.”

  Smiling, she rolled over to face him. “Did I say I was going anywhere?”

  “You’re not?” He squinted at her, and she thought she saw the beginnings of a smile playing around the corner of his mouth. “You fell asleep on me pretty fast last night.”

  “Hmm. Observation or complaint?”

  “As long as you don’t have any complaints?” He grinned. “Smugness.”

  How could he feel anything but smug after their run in the woods? She’d been so focused, so hungry, that nothing else registered, much less mattered. Nothing. “Then I guess I should feel pretty pleased with myself too.”

  “Mmm.” Colin eased her onto her back and leaned in to nuzzle her throat. “You ran, and I lost my head a little.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to?”

  He moved on to feathering kisses over her collarbone. “As long as it isn’t too much for you. I don’t ever want to scare you.”

  “I trust you.” But a shard of guilt splintered through her, along with a tiny, mocking voice. If you really trusted him— She shut it down with a shake of her head. “And I’m not delicate, Colin.”

  “No, you’re strong.” The kisses drifted lower, shivery hot caresses between her breasts. “That’s why I worry. Tough people don’t always admit when things are too hard. I should know.”

  She slipped her fingers into his hair. “What if I wasn’t strong? Would that change the way you feel?”

  “Not a possibility.” He glanced up, dark eyes curiously intent. “Anything you can tell me, any weakness, any fear, anything…it’ll only make you that much stronger. Because you’re still here.”

  Was she? There were huge parts of her past and her soul that she not only hid from everyone else, but from herself. If that didn’t make her weak, what did it mean?

  “You’re still here,” he whispered again, the words tickling over her skin. “That’s what strong is. Not never falling down, but always getting back up.”

  Exactly. But that wouldn’t make sense, so she smiled instead. “I’m feeling contemplative, but you could distract me.”

  “I’m a little hurt that I haven’t already.” But the words were teasing, unlike the intense glow in his eyes, and he returned to his slow, lazy kisses, as if he meant to explore every inch of her body with his mouth.

  His lips grazed the curve of her breast, then hovered over her nipple, and she pulled his hair with a soft growl. He growled back and gave her only the tip of his tongue, the barest tease.

  Lorelei swallowed a moan and arched as she stretched her arms above her head.

  Colin lifted his head and looked at her for a long, silent moment, his gaze sweeping up her body to her fingertips. “You’re in my bed.”

  She slid her legs against his and relished the way he felt, hard and rough. “Yes, I am.”

  That simply, the golden glow rushed into his eyes. He surged over her, weight braced on hands splayed wide on either side of her elbows. His breath came quick and fast, and the heavy weight of his erection burned against her belly. “I have very uncivilized urges.”

  “Tell—” A shift of his hips cut off the words, and she shook her head. “No, show me.”

  He bared his teeth, his smile feral. “Turn over, and I’ll do both.”

  He wanted it wild, and so did she—with an urgency that sent a thread of fear racing through her. Instead of obeying, Lorelei lunged up and bit his shoulder. He growled and looped an arm around her waist, flipping her onto her belly. “Bite me again,” he rasped, a dare and a plea.

  He had one arm wrapped around her, under her, and she followed the strong line of his biceps with her tongue in one long, slow stroke. “No.”

  Warm, low laughter curled around her as he bit her, closing his teeth on her shoulder hard enough to set marks before releasing her. The sharp nips continued—on the back of her neck, her shoulder blade, down along her spine, all the way to the curve of her ass.

  Lorelei shuddered.

  The mattress shifted as he rose and dragged her up with a strong grip on her hips. To her knees on the edge of the bed, where he rewarded her with another teasing lick before his fingers curved around her inner thighs. “Still like being in my bed?” he asked in a rumble, his mouth against her hip.

  Wound tight with anticipation, she could only answer with a whimper and a pleading rock of her hips. It must have been enough, because he slicked his fingers over her and followed the stroke with the lash of his tongue.

  Firm and slow, insistent. Perfect. He licked her clit, explored her folds. Teased her with thrusts and gentle, sinuous caresses. She felt herself opening, body and soul, lured by the heat. The need.

  Colin would own her if she let him. All she had to do was say—

  “Yes,” she moaned.

  He delved deeper, licking until her legs started to shake before adding his fingers, broad and strong. She whispered his name, but the sound came out choked and frantic.

  “Again,” he commanded, crooking his fingers. “Louder.”

  She clamped her lips shut.

  Growling, Colin bit her inner thigh. “Again.”

  He curled his fingers, and any thought she had of denying him fled. “Colin!” The urgency of before was nothing compared to this—sweet, tense pleasure and a desire only he could sate. She bucked her hips and cried out when the tension snapped, quaked through her like the shudder of thunder after a bolt of lightning.

  “Fuck, Lorelei…” He was over her again somehow, clutching her to his chest as he dragged her hair away from her neck. “I love the noises you make.”

  She flipped him to the bed and climbed on top of him. “Yes?”

  “Yes. Hell, yes.” He settled his hands on her thighs, his arms tensed with the promise of motion but his gaze lazy. He might let her hold the dominant position all day or snatch it back in a heartbeat—she couldn’t tell from his smile.

  Well, she could tease too. Lorelei settled on his stomach, reached back and scratched her nails up his thighs to his hips. “What about you? What kinds of noises do you make?”

  In response, he traced slow circles on her skin with his thumbs, each stroke edging higher. “The usual. Lots of grunting and snarling and growling and groaning.”

  “All that?” She wrapped her fingers around his wrists and pushed them up over his head. The position stretched her body out over his and left her breasts hovering above his face. “I’m going to be busy.”

  He flexed under her hands, just a heartbeat’s warning, and then he moved. His fingers locked around her forearms, impossibly gentle iron shackles that held her trapped as he sucked her nipple into his mouth.

  The fire banked deep within her flared into liquid heat again. He’d play along for a while, let her pretend to be in charge, but sooner or later he’d seize control—just like this. “Harder,” she pleaded.

  It was his turn to ignore her plea. The caress softened to a teasing lick, and he nuzzled the curve of her breast. “Soft. So soft.”

  He held her arms, but she ground her hips against his flexing stomach. “You’re not.”

  With a laughing growl, he tumbled her beneath him and pinned her hips with his own. “Not even a little.”

  His cock rubbed against her, hot and erect, and Lorelei bit her lip to hold back another whimper. “There.” She arched and shivered through a sudden pulse of pleasure.

  He rolled his hips as he bent to lick her lower lip. “How many times can you come?”

  With him, she could lose count. “A hell of a lot.”

  His eyes blazed as he ground down, rubbing his shaft over her clit in determined rocks. “One more time. One more time before I’m in you.”

  Her vision blurred, and she dug her nails into his back. “Faster.”

  Faster. More. He gave her everything she asked for, sometimes before she asked for it, and she wasn’t the only one makin
g noises now. He rumbled approval with each gasp and moan, and groaned when she scratched him, urging her to do it again with teasing licks and low murmurs.

  She gripped his hips with her thighs, grinding up to meet the gliding thrust of his shaft. Her skin heated as her orgasm built, so fast she barely had time to catch her breath before it was on her, burning her from the inside out. Every fiber of her being was centered on Colin, on sweat and yearning and pleasure. She was wrecked and whole, sated and yet still starving.

  The shaking hadn’t faded when he flipped her onto her stomach. His chest slicked over her back as he reached past her, jerking open the rickety bedside table hard enough to crack the wood. “Condoms,” he muttered hoarsely. “I have some, this time—”

  At least he’d remembered. Something chemical happened to her brain when Colin touched her, the invocation of some animal instinct that wiped away every thought but one. “Hurry.”

  The package ripped and Colin groaned as he rose behind her. She only had time to draw in a rough, ragged breath before his hands locked on her hips and dragged her to her knees.

  And it wasn’t enough, not yet. “Colin,” she growled.

  He whispered her name and drove into her. Lorelei’s hands slipped as she pushed against the bed, trying to get closer. Tightening his fingers, Colin jerked her into his next advance so hard her knees almost left the bed.

  Because he felt it too, that chemical reaction, the unending hunger. There was a word for it, one that lingered on the tip of her tongue.

  Colin covered her, heat and hardness curling around her body as his fist twisted in her hair. He hauled her head up and pressed his lips to her cheek. “Mate.”

  “Mate.” Echoing the word sent waves of power and satisfaction shimmering through Lorelei. He wanted her—her—that much. “Can we?”

  “Can we stop it?”

  That traitorous, panicked voice rose again. They had to stop, because there was so much she hadn’t confessed. “You—”

  He bit the vulnerable nape of her neck, and rational thought dissolved. He fucked her with all of him, all of his attention, all of his focus, his body moving in a perfect concert of strength and grace as he drove her higher and higher.