“No more than I am,” he shrugged. “Besides…you’re perfect to me.”
“I’ve been with men,” she blurted. “Not by my choice, but—”
He covered her lips with two fingers. “Ssh. I’ve been with women. It was my choice, so that’s worse. You had no control over your situation, okay? But there’ll never be any more women for me. It’s done, Amber. It’s past. For both of us.”
His words took her fears away, made her light-headed and weak-kneed. They would have to discuss everything that had happened to her, her captivity and the horrors she experienced at the hands of Magnum and his evil henchmen. But not today. Today was for everything fresh and beautiful and full of sweet promise.
“I would like to hold your hand,” she said, after a while. “Could I do that?”
He beamed and moved around her to her other side, offering his uninjured right hand.
“No, this one,” she said, indicating his gnarled southpaw. “Unless that would hurt you?”
“You can’t hurt me, angel face.” His slow, sweet smile spread across his face, lighting it like sunshine. “Not anymore.”
She threaded her fingers through his bent ones. “You’re sure, Riley?”
A flicker of something uncertain flashed into his eyes again, his brow knotting. Would he disclose his secret? The thing he didn’t want to tell her yet? She held her breath. But then the look was gone, his tanned forehead smooth once more. I’ve already hurt him somehow. But what had she done? When?
“Damn right, I’m sure.” His voice sounded gravelly and gruff, his wolf speaking for him. The moment of hesitation vanished, and he was the supremely confidant and dominant male he’d always been. What had he wanted to say and hadn’t?
“You’ll tell me one day, won’t you, Riley?”
“One day I will, angel face. That’s a promise, too.”
“You’re making a lot of those today.”
“I’m a wolf of my word, Amber. I keep the promises I make. The ones I make to you are etched in marble. You’ll always be able to count on me.”
***
She sat near him when the gorgeous glass orb, filled with colored gemstones, went up for bid. A foreign, uneasy tension stiffened his normally relaxed body, and he leaned forward, straining to hear better.
Would he bid on that? She wanted it with every fiber of her being, as much, almost, as she wanted the big, delicious-smelling male sprawled next to her. She couldn’t remember ever being interested in a man, let alone wanting one.
Amber glanced across the field at her sister, sitting with Julie and Chance and Brick and Summer and their little twins, but somehow isolated and curled in on herself. Maybe Garnet would like it, too. They could share it. Neither of them had much money.
She tried to gauge the interest of those around her while appearing nonchalant at the same time. Hard to appear casual, though, when Riley’s compelling presence at her side had turned them both into something of a pack spectacle, a new juicy source of pack gossip and conjecture—The Imprisoned and The Destroyed. Perhaps The Ruined applied to both of them, in a way. Although, studying Riley’s self-possessed form, ruined and destroyed were the last words anyone could or should apply to him. Maybe his career had come to an end, but Riley remained a vital life-force. Nothing would stop him. He’d find another path in life and he’d own that, as much as he’d owned the glittering role of major league baseball star. She could learn so many things from this male.
The ripple of hushed whispers around them ceased. Necks seemed craned their way, human ears perked up so as not to miss a whisper that wolf ears would catch. Many pairs of eyes focused on them, some knowing. The whiff of a tantalizing secret seemed to drift upon the air.
The pack alpha’s mate, Betty, approached the display table and raised the glass orb high.
“That globe is so beautiful,” Amber murmured to Riley.
Her words seemed to please him. One of his heart-stopping grins spread across his face. “You like it?”
“Oh, yes,” she breathed. “It must have taken someone so long to gather all those gorgeous gem stones.”
“You want it, angel-face?” His wintry eyes twinkled. “It’s yours.”
“It’s awesome. I’d love it. But…I don’t think I could afford it.”
“You’d bid?”
“I only have five dollars.”
“No worries.” He winked and chucked her under the chin. Even the brief touch of his fingers sent sparks shooting through her. “I’d wager it was made for you.”
“This next item is spectacular,” Betty called out, starting the auction for the beautiful piece. “Look how it sparkles when you hold it up to the sun. Like holding a handful of jewels. Let’s start the bidding at one hundred dollars.”
Riley leaped up from the blanket, even as Amber grabbed his jeans’ leg to try to yank him back down. “One dollar!” he shouted.
“One dollar?” Betty frowned. “We’re not doing a reverse auction, Riley. It doesn’t work that way.”
Miss Claire and Miss Fern walked over and flanked her on each side. “It does today, Elizabeth.”
“But that doesn’t make sense.”
“Sure it does.” Miss Claire took the auction gavel from the hand of the alpha’s perplexed mate. “We’ll get this one.”
With all his considerable athletic grace, Riley sidled closer to the auctioneer’s table before Amber realized what he was about. “Seventy-five cents!” he shouted.
Miss Fern frowned at him. “We can go in reverse, if someone else wants to bid.” She paused to shoot a dramatic wink at him. “But we can’t throw all the rules out the window, Riley. I hereby proclaim you can’t bid on your own item.”
His own item? Riley had found the gorgeous glass globe and painstakingly filled it with all those superb gems? Had he made it for her? Of course, he had. She could come to no other conclusion. And they’d changed the auction rules so she could bid on it!
All eyes turned in her direction once more. Her first gut instinct was to shift and flee into the forest to hide. But pride and gratitude filled her, renewing her inner strength, her sense of self-worth. A male as magnificent as Riley wanted her that much?
Mate. Mate. Mate!
Her wolf danced around, basking like a rock diva in reflected esteem.
Amber rose from the fuzzy blanket and stood on shaky feet. She rarely called attention to herself, but she could not let Riley down, and she could not let the moment pass. Pretty as the gorgeous glob was, she only had eyes for the man.
Riley stared at her, willing her to take another step forward, but reluctant to let her venture where she hesitated to go. He turned back to the elder ladies. “Can I buy it back, then?” he demanded. “If you won’t let me bid?”
“Nope,” said Miss Fern.
“Not for seventy-five cents, anyway, young man,” Miss Claire interjected. “Nice try, though.” She gazed pointedly at Amber.
Riley made a big show of patting his pockets. “Amber, can you help me out here, please?”
Her face flamed. “You know I don’t have nearly what that’s worth.”
“You have enough,” he assured her.
“More than enough,” Miss Fern said.
“Everything I’ll ever want or need,” Riley added.
Miss Claire winked. “Bid’s seventy-five cents, Amber. Do I hear fifty?”
“Fifty cents?”
“Fifty cents from Amber Northridge. Going once, going twice, going three times. Sold! Sold to Amber for fifty cents. Congratulations, lovey. Come up and claim your prize.”
On shaky feet, Amber approached the auction table. Miss Claire passed the globe to Miss Fern who held it out to her. Suddenly, Amber knew what she had to do. She took the glittering, gem-filled orb from Miss Fern and set it back on the table, staring at Riley.
“This is my prize,” she murmured. She reached for his shirt sleeve and yanked him toward her. Wrapping her a
rms around him, she drew him closer, until she could feel the pounding of his steady heart against her own. His summertime scent bathed her, swaddled her in a cozy blanket of comfort and warmth.
He gazed into her eyes then beamed at her with his patented slow grin, more radiant than the sun. Her smile broadened as he lowered his head again, coming in for the kiss. His lips met hers, spectacular and electric, as everything between them was and would be, soft but possessive. Their breath mingled. Her knees wobbled, but he held her up, held her steady, as he always would. She could always rely on him to have her back. She gasped for air when he ended the kiss reluctantly at last. The pack broke into wolf whistles and applause, stamping their collective feet and calling for another kiss.
Amber stared out at the assembled pack. Her turn.
“I claim this male for my own,” she announced. “There is no better man. No more beautiful wolf. I claim Riley Morgan. I claim my mate.”
Riley’s ecstatic whoop of joy and the pleased howl of his wolf could have been heard all the way to New York City, above the roar of a stadium filled with fifty thousand fans, and clear to Miami Beach, where a lone wolf scampering through the surf perked up her ears and smiled.
He snatched Amber by the hand, scooping up the globe and grabbing their picnic basket as he ran. “Let’s get the hell out of here, angel face. Before your brothers decide to make an issue of things.”
Chapter Eight
“That was so brave.” Riley dumped the basket and the blanket on the banks of Hidden Maiden Creek and then, with a touch more care, set down the gem-filled globe before turning back to her. “I’m popping with pride and awe. In front of the whole pack, too.”
Her face heated. Goddess, the male was one gorgeous hunk of masculinity. She could gaze on him forever. But what she’d done, in front of the whole pack…. “I shocked myself.”
“You shocked everyone. I’m bursting with wonder at how amazing you are.”
“I hope you don’t think…. You don’t regret….” He made her so inarticulate sometimes. Yet, he always seemed to know, or understand, her thoughts and emotions. Perhaps that was what having a mate meant. Sometimes he perplexed her. But, deep down, she understood him, too.
“Ssh.” He shook his head, and she ceased her stammering. “I’m incredibly honored. Best moment of my life. And just so you know…I hereby claim you, too, Amber. In case there was any doubt.”
She sighed. “No doubt. No real doubt.” Her hand fisted over her heart. “I may act uncertain, but I feel you here.”
“I’ll shout it to the stratosphere if you need me to,” he assured her. “I may, anyway.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and howled to the treetops. “I claim this brave and gorgeous woman. I claim Amber Northridge. My angel. My life. My mate.”
Dear Goddess. Would she ever stop being completely dazzled by his wonderful, sweet-as-molasses smile? What great teeth he had.
“The better to eat you up, angel face.”
She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, my gosh. Did I say that out loud?”
“Not sure. But I’m always attuned to my magnificent mate.”
Ah. The smile again. Broader, sweeter, slower. Such beautiful, sensual lips. He could put them anywhere on her he wanted. Suddenly, she wanted them every place, his lovely mouth gliding all over her waiting, willing flesh. Making her shiver. Warming her. Heating her blood. Pleasuring her. Satisfying her hungry wolf. A wolf who had never before accepted sustenance from the hands—or mouth or cock for that matter—of a male.
“Uh-huh.” Riley made a show of spreading out the blanket and taking care to smooth all the wrinkles, including invisible imaginary ones, from it. So, so slow. Giving her all the time she needed and more. “First…tell me you really want this. Our mating.”
“Yes.”
“And that you won’t be afraid of me. Ever.”
Amber stiffened. He’d reassured her so many times. But how could she promise him such a thing? His touch didn’t fill her with revulsion like the others’ had, and no longer made her want to run and hide, to stiffen in panic, to whimper in terror. In fact, just the opposite. Whenever he drew near, she wanted, needed, to drag him closer still. She wanted his touch. Pined for it, like her wolf whined for it. But she had no track record for comparison of how things should be between males and females. Other than the evil visited upon her, she had no experience at all. And when the evil happened, some horrible male grunting, sweating, and rutting above her, the activity sent her to a secret, closed-off place inside herself, where all was icy, all was numb. Where she couldn’t think, couldn’t feel, couldn’t experience what was happening to her on a conscious level.
But she wanted to feel again. With Riley. She wanted to feel everything.
“I won’t ever hurt you, Amber. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.”
She nodded. She realized he believed that. On some level, she believed him, too. But…all she’d ever known at a male’s hands was humiliation and pain. She understood males craved sex, needed it so badly it made them crazed sometimes…so they had no compunctions about taking what they wanted, with or without consent, no matter if they were destroying the woman they rutted on in the process.
But what about females and sex? Until Riley had arrived in Los Lobos, looking so good and smelling so divine, with his wintry eyes and boyish smile, she’d had no interest in males at all. But Riley…. Just thinking about him touching her, fantasizing about him as she lay in bed at night, had her hot with need, aching between her legs, wet and hungry for release.
Julie and Summer described intimacy with their mates as sheer bliss. Other females must think so, too. Miss Kathy, Miss Lonnie, Miss Claire, and Miss Fern sure did. The elder ladies were unabashedly vocal about it. And, between them, they had centuries of experience.
“You will have to teach me, Riley,” she murmured at last. “I’m so hot when I’m with you. So hungry. I want you so badly. My wolf is practically crying. But you have to teach me sex is okay. That it’s a good thing. Not an instrument of horror.”
He bit his lip. She couldn’t tell if he was about to weep. Or if he was trying to tamp down his butter-melting smile. “It’s been awhile since I’ve been with a female, angel face,” he said at last. “Not since my injury. So…I may not remember everything clearly.”
“Isn’t it like riding a bicycle? You always know what to do?”
“Not exactly. Natural instincts should kick in. But….” He shrugged. “You may have to help me. Can you do that?” He winked at her.
“Yes, I think so.” She glanced away from him, and her gaze lit on the globe. “Did you make that for me?”
“Of course, I did. Who else?”
“Show me what you did.”
“To pick the stones, you mean?” His iced-granite eyes glittered. “Okay, so I have to get in the creek.”
She nodded.
“And take my clothes off.”
She nodded again. “I enjoy looking at you naked.”
He winked at her again and loped closer to the water. On the edge of the bank, he began a slow, sensual striptease. She couldn’t tear her gaze from him. This was her fated mate? Holy smokes! How’d she ever get so lucky? She studied him from head to toe, her breasts swelling against her shirt as she watched him. First, he nimbly attacked the buttons of his shirt, flicking each open to reveal another small wedge of tanned torso. The tease became excruciating. She wanted to see more. To feel more. The ache between her legs grew.
He never made it into the stream. Approaching him as he waited on the bank, she steeled herself and then brushed his hands away to drag his shirt open, exposing more of his broad chest. Carefully, she stroked a finger from his collarbone to his navel. Beneath her flattened palm, his muscles leaped in response.
She withdrew her fingers as if she’d been burned. He reached out and took her hand, entwining it with his.
“Was that okay?” she asked. “I didn’t hurt you?”
He returned to the picnic blanket and flopped onto it, yanking her with him before releasing her hand. With a contented sigh, he sprawled flat on his back.
“You’re teasing me, Riley.”
He grinned up at her. “Yeah, I may be, angel face. But I’m not kidding when I say your touch makes me light-headed. I’m too buzzed to stand up straight.”
“Liar.” Amber laughed. “You’re a dominant wolf. And you’re offering me your throat and your belly.”
“Offering you more than that, angel face. My trust. My heart and my soul. Let’s see if you can keep my incredible, intoxicated buzz going.”
Lying on her side, she stretched out next to him. His scent enveloped her. Her head spun. In another second, she’d be crawling on top of him, straddling him, grinding her sex against his to relieve the tension.
“Go on,” he urged. “I won’t break. Touch what you like. Explore where you will.”
She ran a tentative finger up and down his flank, pushing the shirt away and edging closer. His gorgeous scent whirled up her nose, making her even more light-headed and dizzy. She wanted to be nearer to him, closer. Lowering her head, she let her tongue dart out to sample the salty male flesh of his broad, muscled chest. She swirled her tongue around his flat, masculine nipple until he groaned.
She drew back. “Did that hurt?”
“No! Sweet goddess, just the opposite. It’s what I want to do to you. Give you the same pleasure. When you say. When you want me to.” He sat up and removed his shirt to give her greater access.
Amber hesitated then dragged her shirt over her head, baring herself to him.
“So beautiful. My angel mate.”
“I’m not, though.”
“My mate?”
“An angel. I…. You make me…want things.”
“They’re not bad things, sweetheart. It’s as it’s supposed to be.”
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