Turning her head, Katrin studied Jarvis’ profile. He lay on his back, the comforter tucked under his arms and exposing his perfectly chiseled chest. His breathing was slow, almost lazy. He breathed through his mouth and with each exhale it sounded like a soft rumble.
Sexy, she thought. Even in his sleep, Jarvis sounded and looked like a deadly predator. Katrin ached to drag her fingers through his soft blond curls. She wanted to brush them off his forehead and away from his face. If she woke him up, they would make love again.
At that thought her insides swelled. What she wouldn’t do to fuck him again.
Doing her best not to drag the comforter off him, Katrin slipped out of bed. She was instantly covered with goose bumps as she trod barefoot across the slightly worn carpet. She shivered and bit her lip, the swelling inside her stubbornly refusing to go away. Her pussy wasn’t the only part of her throbbing. Her heart beat painfully in her chest as she glanced around the room for her clothes.
Leaving was the right thing to do. These Cariboo lunewulf were too civilized for her. She’d heard the growls said under the ranch hands’ breaths. Katrin was too wild. They acted shocked that she’d injured that male out in the meadow. What the hell was she supposed to do, belly-up?
But then, God damn it, she had to meet Jarvis. The way things changed when she sniffed him out last night wasn’t what she’d expected. It was like sniffing out her mama’s sheets when she put them on the line to dry. They were always so clean, with the loving aroma of her mama. It was a fresh smell. The smell of happiness. Katrin had almost forgotten what that smelled like.
Now she had to leave. Her littermates left her at the ranch because they thought she’d fit in. They believed because she looked more like a Cariboo lunewulf that the werewolves on the ranch would accept her as one of their own. Jarvis called her his little red Cariboo.
Her heart was pounding. Her insides did that fluttering thing again. She would have to run from him, lose someone else in her life she cared about. Her heart wouldn’t be able to handle much more of this loss.
Katrin swallowed a sob. Fucking tail! She would not cry over Jarvis. She hadn’t known him long enough to cry over him. Besides, the moment he sniffed out the truth, learned she wasn’t pure Cariboo, his feelings for her would change. Once he learned she was half Malta werewolf, the most despised breed of werewolf on the planet, he would turn his tail and deny knowing her.
Fueling her mind with thoughts to piss her off helped curb the sadness. Jarvis would wake up and breathe in her scent and demand answers if he smelled how nervous and sad she was right now. He would smell her lie if she fabricated an answer. She had to leave before he realized she wasn’t in bed next to him.
Grabbing her clothes from where they’d been tossed on the floor, she set her jeans and shirt right side out.
“I hope you’re out of bed because you wanted a shower,” Jarvis said with a low growl.
Katrin spun around, ready to agree with him.
Someone pounded hard on the motel room door and she shrieked.
Jarvis was out of bed so fast she swore he went to a standing position before his feet hit the floor.
“Get your clothes on,” he whispered, bending over and picking up his jeans.
“They’re human.” Katrin stared at the door, then glanced at the window with the heavy curtain. She had been certain Toubec had found her but there wasn’t a Cariboo on the other side of that door.
Jarvis already had his jeans pulled on and was zipping them. “Were you expecting someone?” he asked, giving her a quizzical look.
She half expected the Toubecs to learn her whereabouts. If she told him she wasn’t expecting anyone to pound on the door, it wouldn’t be the truth. He would smell her lie the moment the words were out of her mouth.
Whoever was outside pounded on the door again. “Open the door, Prince George police. Open up now.”
Crap! Katrin scooped her backpack into her arms and searched the room. “I’ll be in the bathroom. Tell them I’m already gone,” she hissed, and ran naked around the bed to the bathroom.
“What?” Jarvis asked, smelling concerned. He then bellowed when there was a third knock on the door. “I’m coming,” he yelled.
Katrin searched the bathroom frantically when she had the door closed behind her. “Oh no,” she wailed in a desperate whisper as she looked around the small room with no windows. Suddenly she was so claustrophobic she cracked the bathroom door before realizing she might be giving her presence away.
“We’ll be out in ten minutes,” Jarvis was saying.
We? Why would Jarvis suggest he wasn’t alone in the room? Katrin closed the toilet lid and collapsed on it, her mind whirling. Of course Jarvis wouldn’t understand the ramifications of telling them she was still with him. She hadn’t fully explained to him last night why she had left the Toubec ranch.
Jarvis pulled open the bathroom door and stared down at her. “I didn’t have a chance to tell you how beautiful you are first thing in the morning.”
She was sitting on a closed toilet, naked, hugging her backpack. Her hair had to be one solid knot. As much as she wanted to tell him he was full of shit, she didn’t smell his lie.
“You need your vision checked,” she mumbled.
Jarvis laughed. “And unfortunately, my beautiful red Cariboo, we need to leave.”
“The police are gone?” She hadn’t bothered sniffing the air and did so now. She only smelled the two of them. “They’re gone,” she said disbelievingly. “Why were they here?”
“Apparently the humans who run this motel don’t care much for werewolves. They want us out.” Jarvis leaned against the doorframe, appearing relaxed, smelling so as well. His eyes were incredibly alert, however, when he stared down at her. “The young man who checked us in last night didn’t know the owners had such a problem with other species renting out their rooms.”
“Oh.”
“We’re supposed to leave discreetly so none of their human customers will know there were werewolves here.”
“How do we do that? Tiptoe out of here?”
She liked it when he smiled. His blue eyes glowed and his clean, happy aroma made him appear gentle. Katrin almost believed, looking at his face, that there was nothing to worry about.
“I plan on walking,” he offered casually and focused his attention on her hair. “Do you have a brush in that overstuffed backpack of yours?”
Katrin unzipped the side pocket where she’d hurriedly stuffed her toiletries. Jarvis’ hands felt so good in her hair as he gathered all of it at her nape. He was creating a world of sensations that tightened her insides. At the same time she was a whirlwind of nerves. She couldn’t help thinking the police were outside waiting to take her back to the ranch.
Jarvis didn’t look up when she handed her brush to him. He took it and began brushing her hair. In spite of the mass of confusion in her brain she tilted her head, arched her back and enjoyed Jarvis taking care of her.
Katrin lost track of time as Jarvis continually ran the brush through her long hair. It took her a moment to realize he’d stopped and the water was running in the tub. Jarvis took her hand and turned her to the tub.
“We don’t have time for this,” she reminded him.
“We will always have time for me to clean my beautiful female,” he said with a soft baritone.
Katrin shivered. Jarvis was going to make it really hard to leave him. He kept his strong hands protectively on her naked body as he urged her into the tub.
No male had ever treated her like this before. It certainly wasn’t what she expected out of Jarvis. Her sire and mama had always cleaned each other, in their fur and flesh. But they had been mated.
Mated.
“Shit,” she hissed. She had one foot in the tub and one on the carpet and almost fell on her ass.
“Whoa,” Jarvis said in that soft, way too calm tone. “Not so fast, my little red—”
Katrin rushed out of the tub and tried moving
around him. She grabbed her backpack. “We can’t. I mean you can’t.”
His large, warm hands felt so good on her body. It didn’t matter if she suddenly smelled panicked. All that mattered was that she flee out of that damn bathroom.
“We can and I can.” Jarvis scooped her up with one incredibly strong arm and pressed her against his hard chest.
She wasn’t that light, or small. Jarvis easily held her sideways with one arm wrapped tighter than a steel belt around her middle. As tall as he was, her feet left the ground. Katrin had never known a male capable of grabbing her so easily. Maybe she’d lowered her defenses too much. Somehow Jarvis believed he had the right to heave her off the ground. If her reaction to him would subside just a bit, Katrin knew she’d be able to regain control of the situation.
However, he held her with one forearm just under her breasts. They were instantly swollen, needy, greedy for his touch. The frantic thoughts bombarding her brain were assaulted with a lusty need so powerful she was twisting against him, trying to face him. At the same time she kicked out with her legs. The part of her brain insisting she get the hell out of there still had some control over her actions.
Jarvis cupped her ass with his other hand. She managed to turn in his arms, but when had she spread her legs on either side of him? Katrin wrapped her arms around his neck. His mouth was a mere breath from hers. Those cobalt-blue eyes seemed to glow as he looked into hers.
“My female won’t go outside until she is clean,” he whispered and kissed her.
God damn he had skills. Jarvis did things to her equilibrium with nothing more than a simple kiss. Her world tilted sideways. Her pussy was instantly soaked. His fingers stretched her ass and created sensations as he brushed his rough fingertips dangerously close to overly sensitive nerve endings.
She was lowered into the bath before his lips left hers. Katrin’s eyes were still closed and her mouth open when she felt herself submerge into the hot water. Instead of getting in with her, Jarvis knelt next to the tub, grabbed the washcloth the motel provided and ripped paper from a thin bar of soap. He said nothing but meticulously began washing her.
“Do you have anything in your backpack to hold your hair up?”
“No.”
“Then lift it off your back with your hands.”
Katrin resigned herself to do as he asked. Not that he was doing anything terrible. Far from it. She lifted her hair, twisting it into a ball with one hand and held it at the back of her head.
“Every inch of you,” he murmured, his eyes glazed as he paid attention to his task, “is so incredibly perfect.”
He didn’t miss a spot. The contrast of the rough washcloth and hot water, along with his large, calloused hands stroking her, filled her with so much desire she thought she might come right there in the tub. He ran the cloth over her nipple and she gasped. Then his fingers squeezed.
Katrin hadn’t noticed she’d leaned back in the tub until she sprang forward. Opening her eyes, she suddenly gasped for air. “Crap!”
Jarvis’ deep baritone chuckle caressed her senses just as the washcloth tortured her flesh.
“This is how you bathe me?” She tried for accusing.
“It might be from here on out.” His smile was beyond wicked, his scent tantalizing.
“You make it sound as if this will be a regular thing.”
“I plan on getting you dirty often.”
He ran the cloth down her front and between her legs. Jarvis cupped her pussy with the washcloth, and one finger pressed against her clit.
“Jarvis!”
Water splashed everywhere.
Her entire body constricted. Katrin had more energy wound up inside her than she was able to control. From the urge to run, to the manic desire to mount Jarvis and ride him until they both howled their release, the two intense cravings collided in a pool of heated pleasure. She had no control. Hot water sizzled against her tormented flesh. Katrin jerked as his finger hit the spot again and sent her over the edge.
“God damn,” Jarvis whispered.
Both his hands held her, one firmly placed between her legs. He leaned over the edge of the tub and cradled her with his free hand on her back.
Katrin forgot about holding her hair. Both of her hands gripped his between her legs. It wasn’t until her world rocked back into place that she realized she was pressing his hand against her. She had kept his finger pressed to her clit, and used it to rub herself with the washcloth until her orgasm waned.
“I think my sweet little Cariboo is clean,” he growled, his voice raspy. The smell of his lust was as strong as hers.
In the confines of the bathroom, which had filled with steam from the hot water, the smell of sex was so thick Katrin was sure if she could focus at that moment she’d see it floating in waves around them.
She was limp, incredibly sated, and too exhilarated to stop him from lifting her out of the tub and drying her off.
“Use this to dry your hair,” he instructed, handing her the second towel and reaching for her backpack.
Katrin needed to clear the fog from her brain. And as soon as she gathered the energy to do so, she’d take charge of matters. At the moment, she stared head-on at his cock, which pressed hard against his jeans.
Her mouth watered. “What about you?”
He was pulling a clean sweater out of her backpack. His hair was damp and strands of it clung to his forehead and his neck just behind his ear. That incredibly sexy wicked grin was still in place.
“I have no problem with you bathing me as soon as we have time.”
Katrin shot up when it hit her he was going through her bag. “I can get clothes.”
He didn’t smell suspicious or even angry when he pulled out clean jeans and underwear for her, then handed her the pile of clothing. She didn’t want to fight over her leaving the Toubec ranch. It would be even worse, though, if he sniffed out the truth that she planned to run to the States. There wasn’t any doubt in her mind telling him that would result in more than his teeth and claws growing. The less Jarvis knew, the better. He didn’t know it and already running would be harder to do now that she knew him. Now that his scent was embedded in her flesh.
“I think you’d look good in these.”
Katrin dressed quickly, zipped up her backpack and walked out of the bathroom to find Jarvis fully dressed and standing in the open doorway facing the parking lot. He turned when she approached.
“Looks like our escorts are still waiting for us.” He walked to her, leaving the door open, took her backpack and slung it over his shoulder. “Don’t smell nervous, little bitch. You didn’t do anything at the Toubec ranch before you left, did you?”
“I just left.”
“You just walked off the ranch.”
More like ran but minor details didn’t matter. Jarvis looked wound tight, the predator on edge. He stared down at her, his expression serious. His scent was barely noticeable. He had reined in all emotions in preparation of going outside. It was a smart move. She did the same.
This was a life Katrin knew well. She focused on his face, masked her own feelings. It took forcing all personal thoughts and feelings out of her head. Since leaving her mountain, she’d focused on doing this many times. A werewolf would react to her scent. The less someone else knew about her the better. Survival depended on it, and she knew how to survive.
“Toubec’s mate wasn’t thrilled I was leaving, but I wasn’t a prisoner there,” she admitted.
He nodded once, turned and took her arm. “Let’s go. Remain silent and stay by my side.”
Chapter Five
Tormented wasn’t quite the word for it. Jarvis could easier growl the emotions he’d detected off Katrin when he’d first told her the cops were still outside. She hadn’t smelled scared or pissed. But definitely not indifferent.
His little female was better at masking her feelings than most Cariboo he’d met. There was something inside her, something stronger than pain, possibly even rage
, that he hadn’t scraped the surface of yet. There might be only one way to get to know the silent, graceful female walking by his side.
“What are you doing?” Katrin whispered, her tone sounding stressed although her scent remained neutral.
He let go of her arm and took her hand. He gave it a slight squeeze as he walked across the parking lot toward the police car instead of away from it.
“It’s better to know the scent of your enemies than to run from them,” he told her.
“What makes you think they are our enemies?” she asked, keeping pace with him.
“That’s what we’re about to find out.”
Jarvis smelled the human cops before reaching them but he still didn’t detect any emotion from Katrin. She’d successfully shut down, a skill someone had trained her to have. He knew his adorable little red Cariboo hadn’t been with many males. She was fresh, untrained. Jarvis knew the scent of a female who had raised her tail for a lot of werewolves and Katrin wasn’t that type of female. So who had taught her to cloak her feelings so well? If she’d taught herself then her life on the run might have been worse than he’d originally thought.
He put the curiosity out of his mind when a smell other than that of humans hit him. The moment he spotted the Cariboo cop, Katrin squeezed his hand. Jarvis hadn’t realized he’d growled. Not that he would apologize for it.
It was the cop who had howled at them outside the grocery store, McAllister. The werewolf in the human uniform didn’t impress him anymore today than he had the first time Jarvis had sniffed him out.
Jarvis edged Katrin behind him when the Cariboo stepped forward. He walked toward them from the police car, which he’d been sitting inside while the human cops had remained standing outside watching them approach. Nice way to conceal his presence until he wished it to be known.
“What do you want, cop?” Jarvis demanded. He hadn’t broken any laws, human or Cariboo, and had no problem making sure this werewolf knew it.
WithHerCraving Page 5
