Howl for a Highlander

by Terry Spear

  She was anxious about what would happen with the money Sal had stolen, though. Even more so now, she was determined to help Duncan get it back. Maybe she had a selfish reason for wanting the money returned. She wanted the college to pay for her grant like they’d promised. And she wanted the money returned that the college would have used to pay salaries. What was she to do now, though?

  Maybe if Duncan and his family were wealthy enough, and she was now part of the family, she could visit every palace garden in the world. Maybe she could afford to travel to more exotic places like the Amazon to locate a plant that might help newly turned werewolves to control their shifting.

  She smiled at the thought and ran the tip of her finger over Duncan’s taut pecs. God, he was gorgeous.

  But more than that, he cared about her, even from the moment he’d seen her at the airport and wanted to yank the silver chain around her waist to draw her into his arms. He’d wanted to do so not only for a purely sexual reason, but because he wanted to protect her from anyone who might wish her harm. Sure, from sexual encounters also. She had been a wolf and alone, and she knew that had bothered him from the start.

  She loved the way his dark chest hair rubbed against her sensitive nipples, loved the way his mouth kissed hers, hot and fiery one moment, and brushing tender kisses the next. The way his hands gripped her hips when he was thrusting into her, working her against him in perfect sync. The way his dark brown gaze clouded with lustful intent. Even the way that all she had to do was look at his crotch and his cock would begin to stir.

  She was serious about wanting to play with him as a wolf, just like all wolves did, testing their mettle and finding their position in the pack. She’d never had much of a chance to do that when she was younger. Not with three grouchy uncles who had nipped at her when she was a pup, forcing her to quit biting at their swishing tails or tackling their legs as they stood patiently watching their surroundings, wary of anything that might be a danger to her. Both male and female wolves produced the hormone prolactin, known as the nurturing hormone, which induced them to take care of the pups, to play and feed and teach them. However, her uncles had been more concerned about her welfare.

  She had no interest in frolicking with her uncles now. With Duncan, that was a different story. She knew he could be gentle even if he was afraid he might not be—the big brave Highlander who no doubt always fought to win. She was certain he could tone down his aggression enough to give her a workout without injuring her. If he fought at full strength, or maybe not quite that hard, he’d still give her the sense that she’d had some chance to best him.

  She wouldn’t mind if she had to resort to tackling him unaware or using strategically placed suitcases to help in her conquest. Part of being a wolf was using cunning to rule the day. She smiled and kissed his nipple, then licked and watched as it tightened.

  He didn’t open his eyes, just growled something low under his breath as his hand clamped over her shoulder. Then he said more audibly, “Does the sleepy little wolf want to play some more?”

  “I should check my missed phone call, and we should take a swim before it gets too late, and…”

  “Too late,” he said, his voice already rough with need, as he rolled her over and spread her legs.

  That was one way to wake the sleeping dragon.

  ***

  After an evening of delight, napping for a while, and a meal of shrimp and scallops and a salad, Shelley finally changed into her bikini. While Duncan was changing into his Speedo, she checked her phone to learn who had called her. She figured it was either that bastard Sal or her girlfriend Wendy. But when she saw it was her Uncle Ethan, she was furious. Not with him but with Duncan. Why hadn’t he told her that her uncle had called?

  Not that she didn’t know the reason. Duncan probably assumed that if he’d told her, she might have had second thoughts about mating him right then and there. She wouldn’t have. Well, maybe she would have. If she’d talked to Uncle Ethan, he would have tried to convince her to wait a while longer. The sizzling, sexy mood between her and Duncan would most likely have fizzled. She sighed.

  Still, he could have told her after they’d made love the second time, damn it. While they’d had dinner. Sometime. Her uncle was not going to go away.

  That made her wonder why Uncle Ethan was calling her. He couldn’t know about Duncan.

  She paced across the living room floor with her turned-off cell phone in hand. She’d only turned it on to see who had called her, then got the shock of a lifetime and hurriedly shut it back off in case her uncle tried to call her again. He wouldn’t have called her unless…

  Wendy, damn it. Wendy had to have told Uncle Ethan that Shelley was rooming with a hunky Highland wolf. She might not have done it on purpose, maybe letting it slip because Uncle Ethan was worried about Shelley being alone on the island.

  Great. Just great.

  Duncan’s footfalls padded along the carpeted hallway, and she steeled her back. This would be the briefest wolf mating in history before a big-time fight occurred.

  ***

  Duncan knew as soon as he saw Shelley glowering at him—arms crossed beneath her breasts, back stiff with indignation, and cell phone in hand—that he was in deep shit. Yet, he was still having a devil of a time concentrating on her anger, as he took in her barely there bikini. He’d had his hands and mouth and tongue all over her breasts just an hour ago, but that didn’t matter. He was ready to slip the small scraps of shimmering blue material down and start all over. Already her nipples were poking against the fabric. He knew, without even smelling her arousal, that his eyeing her was preparing her for another bout of sex with him.

  Trying to get his mind back on the issue at hand, he didn’t regret not telling her that her relative had been the one to call when they were getting ready to consummate their relationship.

  No sane man, no matter how noble, would have been dumb enough to tell her that a relative was calling, and did she want to speak with him? That they could have sex some other time.

  Or had she already talked to Campbell? Had he upset her? Hell, no way was one of her relatives going to tear apart their newly formed relationship.

  “Shelley—”

  She shook the phone at him. “You could have told me that my Uncle Ethan called.”

  So it had been one of her three uncles. “I forgot. After we made love…” Twice. “I’d planned to tell you about it. Did he counsel you that he intended to make me pay for taking advantage of you?”

  She gave a little huff of a laugh. “Get real. I haven’t talked to him yet.”

  The tension drained from his tension-filled posture.

  She noticed. Wolves noticed every physical reaction, no matter how slight. She also relaxed. “He’s going to be pissed.”

  To Duncan’s relief, she seemed to have lost her irritation over the whole issue.

  Then she looked down at his Speedo. Hell if he didn’t react to her perusal. Instantly.

  “If you want to play out our fantasies in the ocean before we don’t make it that far, come with me,” he said, his voice damned rough with feral need. He hated how little control he had over his body when he was around her.

  Even if she wasn’t about to move, he was ready to grab her in his arms and force the issue. He wanted to play out the water fantasy—the one she’d suggested before they had come this far.

  As small as his swimsuit was, the fabric was expanding to accommodate his growing arousal. But he figured he’d pop right out of it soon.

  She gave a little snort of laughter, left her phone on the table, and murmured, “I’ve never seen a man this close up in a Speedo, but I don’t think it’s going to hold you for long. I want to play wolf to wolf with you. That’ll teach you to keep my phone calls from me.”

  He lifted her into his arms and stalked outside and across the hot sand, the dark enclosing the island and sea. “Wolf to wolf?”

  “Not in a sexual way. Just in play. I want to let my inner c
hild out.”

  He chuckled, darkly amused. “Whatever would please you, Shelley,” he said, leaning down to nuzzle her cheek. “Anything at all.”

  “He’s not going to like this,” she said softly. “My Uncle Ethan, I mean.”

  “As long as you don’t regret what we’ve done.”

  She smiled at Duncan, flicking a nail lightly across his nipple. “I’ll let you know after we try to fulfill our water fantasies.”

  “I won’t worry, then.”

  She laughed. “I doubt you worry about anything with regard to facing another wolf or man.”

  He was very serious when he said, “I worry about your happiness, Shelley. If this causes problems with your family and it upsets you, it upsets me.”

  She gave him a rueful smile. “I wanted this as much as you did, and I’m not changing my mind, no matter what any of my uncles say.”

  With her body rubbing against him, he couldn’t concentrate on the conversation any longer. “I think I picked the wrong-sized swimsuit. This feels like I’m about to burst out of it at any minute.”

  She grinned up at him. “That makes me think it’s just the right size.”

  They’d barely made it into the surf where the water rose to Duncan’s waist when his fingers were sliding her bikini top down, exposing her breasts to his mouth and tongue as she wound her legs around his thighs to hold on while he tortured her exquisitely.

  She tried to reach for his Speedo, to free his straining cock, but he wouldn’t let her. “Wait,” he said, so raggedly that she knew he was ready to erupt.

  Whether it was the warm sea, the friction between their bodies as the gently rolling waves moved her against him, or their scanty clothes that turned her on so much, she was ready to climax with barely any help from him.

  She leaned away from him as he yanked her thong down, dipped his fingers deep inside her, and stroked her nub until she was ready to jump backward into the waves. Oh God, this was a fantasy come true.

  He growled her name and jerked his Speedo down only enough to release his cock. Before she knew it, he was inside her. She was riding him up and down, the buoyancy of the water making this one sexual encounter she wanted to repeat over and over again until they left the island.

  “Tell me you have an indoor swimming pool with doors that lock where we can spend every night before we retire to your room in the castle, Duncan,” she huskily said.

  He moaned something under his breath—something Gaelic, she thought—that sounded beautiful to her ears, even if he was only cursing again. She rode him as he held her hips and brought her down on him as forcefully as he could, considering the way the water contradicted the motion. Their mouths kissed, and their tongues tasted and tantalized, licking the salty spray from each other’s skin.

  She knew she’d never experience sex like this again, not anywhere but with him here. She vowed that if they got the money back from Sal, she and Duncan would come here at least once a year to relive the heady experience of sex in the warm waters of the Caribbean. They would take leisurely walks in the forest with colorful parrots chattering in the foliage, swim with the rays and schools of brightly colored fish, fight pirates on sailing excursions, sail on catamaran dinner cruises designed to celebrate a sunset at sea, and just enjoy each other in a bed built for two.

  She dug her fingers into his back and bit his lower lip with a gentle nip as she felt her blood heating, her climax nearing. She felt his impatience as he drove into her, his own body surging close to completion. Just a little higher, just another thrust, his pelvis rubbing hers until she clenched so hard, the intensity of pleasure driving her to the swell of the peak. She felt she was going to implode if she couldn’t reach the top soon.

  He quickened his thrusts, deepening as he licked her chin, one hand shifting, slipping around her bare buttock, touching her between her legs where his cock was thrusting inside her. He suddenly growled out her name as she crested the wave, shooting his hot seed inside her. She shattered in his arms, her muscles clamping down on him with heady contractions. Her body limp and sated, she clung to him, head against his chest, tongue licking salty drops of the sea collecting on his skin.

  “Hmm, lassie, you keep that up, and I’ll have to start all over again.”

  “Is that a threat or a promise?” she said, her voice thready, raspy, tired.

  He chuckled darkly. She hoped he hadn’t planned for her to walk through the sand to get back to the villa, not as boneless as she felt. Nor that he expected her to tackle him as a wolf now. She was ready to snuggle and cuddle with him for several hours before she did anything else.

  He held her for a moment, letting her ride him for a few more seconds, then slipped out of her, yanked up his Speedo, and tried to retie her string bikini top, without much success. She laughed. “Just hold me while I do it.”

  If she’d tried to stand on her own two feet and tie her bikini with the waves pushing against her, she would have been swept away, as unsteady as she was. As it was, she had a difficult enough time retying the top. Having him eye her with predatory interest didn’t help. She swore he was ready to make her come all over again, with very little rest in between.

  “Do you still want to play wolf to wolf?” he asked, his eyes smoldering with lust.

  She was too limp to play well and couldn’t believe he’d be raring to go. She wondered just what would happen if they did play wolf to wolf, because from his hungry expression, she didn’t think he meant just to play.

  “Maybe later,” she said, smiling up at him.

  “Later?”

  “Yeah, after I’ve had time to sleep a little. Then I’ll be ready for you.”

  “Hmm, all right. It’s a date.”

  After they returned to the villa and took quick showers, they went back to bed to snuggle and nap. When she woke later to find he was no longer in bed with her, she peered around the room and saw Duncan sitting on his wolf haunches near the door, watching her, panting, and waiting to play.

  He was a large, sturdy alpha male with his brown eyes observing her and his ears perking up as his gaze met hers. He was ready to frolic with her as wolves would.

  She laughed, loving that he was willing to give in to her wishes. “Are you ready to get beat?”

  He smiled.

  Naked, she climbed out of bed and stretched her arms, his gaze taking in every inch of her. The way he was observing her, she figured that if he hadn’t been in his wolf form, he’d have dragged her back to bed.

  Her muscles heated, and she felt gloriously exquisite as every fiber in her body stretched to accommodate the swift change and the freedom it gave her for a brief couple of seconds before she shifted into the wolf.

  She dropped to her pads to face Duncan on all four paws. He was standing now, preparing for her, tail wagging, mouth closed, the slightest smile in his expression, but he didn’t attack. Gentleman that he was.

  She bounced around him first, excited to play as he grinned at her. She lunged, jumping on top of him. He fell back as she bit into his neck with a playful bite. He growled and snapped at her in a mock fight. She jumped away from him, then dove again, impacting with his body. He stood his ground, letting her tackle him, allowing her to bite him. He grabbed at her nuzzle, more in a love bite than real battle. She wanted to throw back her head and laugh, but she growled instead, wanting him to give her real competition.

  His tail was wagging, his ears perked, his tongue lolling to the side. She jumped to tackle his neck and hung her forelegs over his back. With high spirits, Duncan dislodged her, tackled her, and brought her down, licking and chewing on her neck and muzzle. She loved it, loved that he was pinning her down and forcing her to fight him, but still in a sweet way. She doubted he would be half as gentle or loving with his brothers or male cousins. She wanted to see him play with his male siblings, to see how vigorously they fought in mock battle.

  Growling and snapping, she kicked at him with her feet until he lay crosswise on top of her and lic
ked her muzzle, and she gave in. As soon as she shifted into human form underneath his furry body, he licked her nipple and she laughed. Then he shifted also, still on top of her, only skin to skin as humans. “Lass, you are no beta female, if that’s what you’re worried about. Are you ready to retire for what’s left of the night?”

  She lay on her back on the carpet smiling up at him. “You have to fight harder next time.”

  “Aye, I will,” he promised with a sparkle in his eyes, but she presumed he wouldn’t really. Not like he would with his brothers, in any case. Maybe that was just as well.

  He pulled her up from the floor and kissed her lips, his hands roaming down her back and buttocks. “When you crawled out of bed before you shape-shifted, I nearly returned to human form and carried you back to bed.”

  She laughed and squeezed his ass. “I’m glad you didn’t and played with me as a wolf instead.”

  She retrieved her phone and turned it back on.

  “Put it on vibration, in case we get frisky and someone wants to call and annoy us in the middle of the night,” Duncan warned. He slipped into bed with her, spooning her and intending to wait until her breathing was soft and slow—like that of a sleeper who was dead to the world— before he left her.

  He couldn’t tell her what he intended to do, because knowing her, she’d want to go with him. He wasn’t having any of it. This business with Silverman was his job, not hers. He wanted her safe and sound and sleeping until the next time they made love.

  Forty-five minutes later, Duncan was finally able to slip out of bed, believing she was asleep. He watched Shelley for what seemed an eternity, waiting to see if she woke and noticed he’d left the bed. She didn’t stir, too tired from all their love bouts. He breathed in her fragrance one last time—the feminine, musky, sweet scent of her—and damn if his libido didn’t ratchet up a couple of notches.

  Before he changed his mind and began to make love with her again, he headed naked for the back door of the villa, opened and closed it, then shifted. He hadn’t thought he’d be scent-marking his territory on the island, nor would he have if he’d actually had a room at a hotel like he’d first planned. Everything had changed when he had gotten involved with a sizzling hot she-wolf. He was playing for keeps.