Oh God.
It took only seconds for Zeth’s facade to melt. “Oh, Raegan.”
“Please?”
The next thing she knew, he’d slid his hands under her shoulders and lifted her into his embrace. Raegan linked her arms around his neck and swallowed him in a kiss.
Zeth whimpered, his hands dropping to her ass, squeezing her encouragingly as she began to bounce on his cock with renewed enthusiasm. “Raegan,” he whispered, nipping at her lips. “God…”
“Keep touching me.” She wiggled against him. “Zeth…keep touching me.”
He smiled kindly, wrapping his arms around her to hold her to his chest, and her heart melted.
“I’ll never stop.”
Raegan cupped his cheeks and kissed him, banishing her thoughts.
She wouldn’t go anywhere, and she felt so tired of fighting. The rest didn’t matter, not right now.
Not so long as Zeth held her.
Chapter Six
Mated.
Zeth lay still for a few minutes, his cheek pillowed at Raegan’s breast, his lungs sucking in air with deep, hearty breaths. Mated. To Raegan Pritchett. He was certain stranger things had happened, but for the life of him, he couldn’t come up with one fucking example. It wasn’t as though the prospect of making the blonde spitfire his had ever crossed his mind—at least not with any serious ambition. Not with any sort of delusion that she would ever consent to a claim of ownership.
Now, tucked in the embrace of a woman he’d always wanted but never thought to have—a woman who didn’t necessarily hate him, but certainly didn’t love him—Zeth found himself contemplating things he’d never seriously considered. The considerations and methodologies that went into wolven mating rituals had been a large part of his upbringing, stressing the importance of ensuring the woman to whom he tied himself was someone he loved.
Because wolves mated for life. No ifs, ands or buts.
Raegan Pritchett was his. Christ, the thought should have terrified him, or infuriated him, or done anything but charge him with a strange rush of excitement. Whether or not he loved her was in the air—after she discovered what he was, he’d never thought he’d get close enough to try. Then again, he’d never anticipated a demon spell that preyed on its targets’ guiltiest fantasies. A demon spell that would make them fuck like rabbits.
Zeth groaned. Despite having fallen over the edge more times tonight than he had since that first week he discovered masturbation, he felt his body stirring, felt a familiar rush singe his veins and coax his cock to life.
Perhaps it was a better idea to keep thoughts regarding the future postponed right now. Raegan hadn’t said anything since coming apart in his arms, since reaching for him, demanding closeness without anything but a pleading sob. Obviously she knew what had transpired, about claims and what they meant, but he didn’t want to break the calm between them. For the moment, the world was still.
He had her pussy around his cock, her arms around his neck, and her shallow breaths tickling his ear. He didn’t need to worry with what happened tomorrow until tomorrow.
Until then, he had the opportunity to make love to her and attempt to put all the nastiness behind them. He had the opportunity to appease his guilt by making amends.
Only a fool would reject the tacit offer of a second chance.
“Raegan?”
“Mmm?”
He grinned, thrusting his hips forward just enough to earn a squeak. “You awake?”
She tensed briefly, then sighed and tightened her hold on him. “Even if I wasn’t, my engine is still a go-go. I’m going to be walking sideways for a week.”
“You sore, baby?”
Raegan nodded when he pulled back. The look in her eyes, for the first time since being triggered by the thing the goddamned priest had summoned, was wholly, unabashedly her. As though Raegan as he knew her had returned after running a last-minute errand. The woman he saw reflected everything he knew about her—her strength, cushioned by her fears. Her wits and resilience, even when faced with incredible odds. The lengths she’d go to for her job, surviving only on the wisp of a promise it would one day lead her to justice. Raegan hadn’t joined Higgins’ staff at All The Above because she enjoyed writing fluff pieces for conspiracy theorists. It was the only somewhat respectable profession she could seek that allowed her to realistically tail leads that would perhaps guide her to the answers she’d sought since her friend’s death. That combination—the willingness to put herself in unsavory situations for the sake of gaining knowledge and her fear of wherever said knowledge might take her—made her one hell of a force to be reckoned with.
Zeth respected the hell out of her. Had he ever told her that?
“I need you again,” he murmured.
“I know.” Raegan smiled. “It’s okay. I think I’m good for another round.”
It was as close to an admission of want as he’d get, and strange as he found her sudden lack of resistance, Zeth would be a fool to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially when he knew what that mouth could do. Perhaps the mating had softened her, but he didn’t think so…and he wasn’t sure he’d like her as much without her edge.
More likely, she’d come to the same realization he had.
“Lay back,” he said, his cock slipping out of her. He grinned when she mewled in complaint, and nipped at her lips before dropping a kiss across her shoulder. “You’re gonna love this.”
“Promises, promises.”
“Fuck, but you’re pretty.” Zeth licked one of her nipples. “That is, when you’re not yapping.”
Raegan scowled. “Hey!”
“Could be mated to someone much worse, I suppose.”
“Damn right you could,” she grumbled, which turned into a moan when he cupped her pussy. “N-not that it matters.”
“No?”
“Once this is over…”
He sighed, mentally finishing the sentence for her. It seemed they weren’t going to let the topic rest, after all. Of course not, because Raegan’s mind never switched off, and she couldn’t help but keep placing at the emotional distance game, no matter what transpired. “Once this is over, I’m one dead mutt. Are we back to this song and dance already?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You know that if you kill me it doesn’t undo the claim, right? Once mated to a wolf, there’s no going back.”
“Liar.” Raegan scrunched her face up. “There has to be some spell that undoes it. This is the twenty-first century. You’d think that some warlock or sorcerer or whatever would’ve come up with an antidote to ‘dumb wolvies who claim before they think’ by now.”
Zeth chuckled, dropping kisses along her stomach as his mouth migrated southward. “I suppose it’s possible,” he lied. “Like you said, twenty-first century and all.”
“See?”
“Then again,” he continued, “fucking with a wolf’s mate is serious business, especially to those who’ve already mated and had a few litters by now. Any attempt to sever the bond between us and my relatives won’t be too happy. Face it, Rae. You’re stuck with me.” He pinched her clit and smirked when she and arched off the mattress. “Forever.”
“I’d sooner dive off a cliff,” Raegan ground out, though without the venom he suspected she was going for.
“Yeah, but you’re one tough cookie. That’s the sort of thing you could probably survive.”
“There isn’t anything about you that I don’t hate.”
Zeth shook his head. “I don’t think that’s true.”
“Try me.”
“With pleasure.” He nudged her clit with his thumb and suppressed a laugh when she trembled and thrust into his touch.
Raegan opened one eye and peered at him. “Don’t take my actions here as anything but sex fever. This does not disprove my hating you.”
Zeth just chuckled again, settling between her legs. “Maybe you do.”
“I do.”
“And yet, you find yourself myst
eriously attracted to me.” He ran a finger between her pussy lips and grinned madly when she whimpered in approval. “Don’t you?”
Raegan blinked stupidly. “Huh?”
“Mysteriously attracted to me.”
“In your dreams.”
“Too many to count.”
“What?”
He didn’t answer. Instead he spread her pussy lips wide and favored her skin with a long sultry lick. “You have such a pretty little cunt.” Zeth purred as Raegan about bounced off the bed. “My girl…”
“As long you keep that up, I’ll be your anything.”
His eyebrows perked. “Oh really?”
She was silent a beat, then swore as though just realizing what she’d said. “No. That was the spell talking.”
“This is a first for you, isn’t it?” He slid two fingers inside her, his eyes flashing dangerously. “No one’s ever tasted you here.”
Raegan shivered. “I’ve had sex before, Zeth.”
He growled and shoved his fingers deeper within her. “Yeah, but I know how to a read a woman. Your lovers were too fucking polished to ever try anything this…spicy.” He solidified his point with a long lap of her clit before sucking her completely into his mouth. “Mmm. No. This part of you. This is mine.”
“Uhh…”
“Tell me.” His fingers found a steady rhythm thrusting in and out of her sopping hole. He dropped a kiss across her inner thigh and nibbled at her skin. “Tell me this is mine.”
“Fine. Sure. It’s yours. Just put your mouth where I want it.”
“And where do you want it, Rae?”
“Fuck you.”
He laughed outright. “Gladly. Just tell me where.”
It felt really hard to focus on telling him to go to hell when she only wanted to grab his head and rub herself against his mouth.
“Tell me where, Raegan, or tell me what I want to hear.” He winked and drew her clit into his mouth again. “Tell me this pussy belongs to me.”
Raegan’s eyes fluttered shut as a strangled mewl tore through her throat. If she started talking, she wouldn’t stop. She’d tell Zeth enough to make her a laughingstock. How good he felt. How he awakened emotions within her that had long since died and how much that scared her. She’d lived so long on her own, the idea of needing anything, anyone, terrified her. And yet, under his hands, her skin hummed with something other than trepidation.
Holy fuck, how in the world had this happened within a span of…how long had they been here, anyway? How had she gone so quickly from resisting to melting at his touch? How had she found the strength—the stupid, drunken bravery—to cast out everything that had been important to her just minutes before?
Allowing someone in was bad business. She knew it. She stood by it. She would never believe anything else.
Except Zeth did a damn good job trying to convince her otherwise.
He was more than a business associate. More than a source, more than an annoyance she had to tolerate for the sake of getting a good piece of paranormal gossip. And Raegan knew that street went both ways.
He might pretend to not care one way or another, but for the way he lit up when he saw her, she knew better. He’d thrown his entire existence into question—he’d tied himself to her forever, and he was perched between her thighs, sucking on her pussy and demanding that she promise that all of her belonged to him.
All of her.
The spell. It had to be the spell. Only, no, the point of O’Brien’s plot was to make sure his victims’ bodies were controlled while their minds remained free, that way flawed human logic would piece together the deeds as something they’d talked themselves into. So what was it that made Zeth need to hear she was his? The claim? No, everything she’d read indicated claims didn’t do anything but play on emotions that already existed.
Would Zeth even want to reverse the claim if they could? What would it mean if he didn’t?
And what would she do then?
“I’ve lost you.” Zeth pouted, removing his fingers from her soaked flesh and resting his cheek against her thigh. “I’m down here trying to give you the stars, and you’re somewhere else.”
Raegan’s body cried out immediately at the absence of his mouth, thrusting against him. “No. No! More. Need you. Need…”
“Need me?” he echoed, sliding a finger inside her. “You weren’t even paying attention.”
“I was thinking.”
“See? That’s my point exactly. You shouldn’t be able to think while I’m eating your pussy.”
His words made her skin blaze. “I was thinking about you, if that makes any difference.”
“Yeah, but it definitely went beyond ‘Zeth good. Want more Zeth now.’ You looked far too pensive.”
He shouldn’t be saying words like pensive when nestled so attentively between her thighs. It turned her on, and that in itself felt somewhat worrisome.
“Zeth good,” she replied, stretching a leg over his shoulder. “Want more Zeth now.”
“Now you’re just being ornery.”
Okay, first pensive, now ornery? Raegan whimpered and trembled hard, her hands sliding down her body to frame her pussy. “Please.” She arched beneath him. “I’m all… I need you. Please.”
“You need me?” Zeth smirked and ran his finger up and down her damp slit, missing her clit by fractions of millimeters, and driving her out of her mind. “Where do you need me, baby?”
Could he say that in any way and not sound like a Playgirl wet dream?
“Zeth, please.”
“You gonna pay attention this time?”
“I was before!”
He tilted his head and tsked. And damn if the disgruntled schoolmaster thing didn’t turn her on even more. “You were thinking before.”
“About you, you moron!”
“Ah, ah. Manners.After all, you’re asking me to eat you out. Wouldn’t kill you to be a little nicer about it.”
How could he say it like that? How could he make with the casual while his hand massaged her well into her next life, fingers dipping shallowly inside her every few strokes? How could he be so calm when she only wanted to scream?
Raegan whimpered helplessly. “What do you want from me?”
“Your undivided attention, for starters.” He smirked at her and leaned forward, then tapped her clit quickly with his tongue, wrangling a sharp jerk from her deliciously tense body. “And you gotta tell me.”
“My attention is yours!” She fisted locks of his dark hair and attempted to drag his mouth back to her center. “Zeth!”
“Ah, ah, ah.”
“Zeth!”
“You sure you’re gonna pay attention?”
Raegan all but gnashed her teeth together, her hips swaying toward him in offering. “I was. I was thinking about you.” Which she would most assuredly never, ever do again. Not after they left this room, anyway. But until the spell ended, she felt completely at his mercy. “I was thinking h-how…”
Zeth arched a brow. “Yes?”
“How…” How much she would invest in a vibrator. After tonight, after experiencing so many orgasms, no way would she go through another drought. “How much…”
How much I love what you’re doing to me.
Those words wouldn’t come.
“How much what, baby?” Zeth asked softly, nipping at her wet folds with a playful, easy grin. It amazed her that he could pull that off in the same look. How he could be smoldering and arrogant, but kind and gentle all at once. Was this another effect of the spell, or did Zeth just really keep himself guarded?
“How…” Raegan sucked in a deep breath. “What you do to… I’ve never… Zeth, please.” She thrust her pelvis toward his mouth again and fought the ever-tempting urge to die when he didn’t dive in. “I need—”
His breaths came quicker. “Yes, well,” he replied, clearing his throat, “you still gotta tell me.”
“Tell you?” Her brain felt surrounded by a fog. “Tell…”
/>
“Tell me whose this is.” Zeth tossed her a wicked grin before lowering his mouth to her throbbing clit, and she melted on the spot. Oh God. This was exactly what she needed. His lips around her swollen pearl, his fingers teasing her opening then running a wet trail up her body until he had a breast in each hand. “It’s just you and me. I won’t share your secrets. Tell me.”
God, Zeth should stake a flag on her parts. She was so completely his.
“Yes, yes!” she agreed breathlessly.
“Your pussy is mine?”
If she nodded any harder, her head would pop off. “Yes!”
“Only mine? I don’t want anyone else touching it. I’m a very possessive wolf, you know.” Then, as though threatened by the mere suggestion, Zeth unearthed the most predatory growl she’d ever heard, and his fangs descended again. He ran the blunt length of one incisor gently along her flesh before he drew back and plunged his tongue deep inside her.
Raegan positively howled. Her back arched off the bed, her legs closed around him and she drowned in a sea of pure bliss. He kept a steady rhythm, thrusting his tongue in and out of her soaking core until he replaced it with his fingers then licked his way to her clit. He pinched her nipple with his other fingers, and she felt his lips stretch into a grin when his name pealed through the air and vibrated off the walls.
His fangs didn’t brush her again. Not once. He tongued her into oblivion, doing things to her clit that should be illegal in forty-nine states, but his fangs never touched her. She didn’t know how. Maybe he was one of those guys who could tie a cherry stem into a knot with his tongue. It certainly seemed fitting. That beautiful organ inside his mouth deserved the Nobel Prize.
He stroked her as though he cared. He loved her with his mouth as if he loved her.
And when she met his gaze, the world around her dissolved into nothing. In that second, something changed. Something monumental changed. It reverberated through every nerve in her body. She felt submerged in pure white, blazing with fire, and he remained the only thing keeping the burn from doing her in completely.
InsatiableNeed Page 6
