by Laina Kenney
“I enjoy a good chess match,” he said as they sat down on either side of the old marble chess board. The old carved stone chess pieces were already set up.
Emma flashed a shy smile as she sat.
“I’ll try to be a good opponent, but I haven’t played in ages,” she said.
“The pleasure is in the company in any case,” he said.
The game was a secondary concern, and Emma backed him into a very bad situation on the board simply because he was distracted by his beautiful mate. The flutter of her eyelashes, the sweet curve of her cheek, and the way she chewed on her tender lower lip as she considered her next move derailed his normal thought process until the quick flash of a grin on her face awakened him to the fact that with both knights gone he was in danger of losing his queen to her predatory bishops.
He sat up and pulled his attention away from her sweet scent and back to the game, but it took him several more moves, and the loss of all of his pawns before he was able to relax his guard a little.
“Checkmate,” he said, and she grinned and tipped her king.
“You could have beaten me a lot sooner if you had just sacrificed your queen,” Emma said.
Kuhr shook his head.
“I will never sacrifice my queen,” he said, and his voice was close to a growl. The idea did not bear thinking about. “I would accept a forced surrender, but only if the Alpha pair were the last two black players and every warrior was slain.”
Emma cocked her head and looked at him, and only then did he realize what he had said. “Wow, you’re serious about chess.”
Kuhr cleared his throat and said nothing.
Emma stood and almost made it past, but he snagged her wrist on the way by and pulled her off her feet. She squealed and flailed and ended up on his lap with his big arms wrapped around her and his face bare inches from hers.
“You did that on purpose,” she accused.
“Of course.”
Chapter 5
His smile was bordering on smug, but it looked so good on him that she almost smiled, though her heart was beating like a frightened bird. “I am a hunter. It is rare that my chosen prey will escape me.” His voice was a low rumble that melted her bones.
“I thought you were a bodyguard.”
She felt his lips curve against the skin of her throat. “It is my pleasure to guard your body, but I am many things. You will know them all in time.”
His lips moved and heated pleasure burst inside her. She gasped. What was he doing?
“Do not expect an apology,” he murmured against her throat.
Emma did smile then. “Of course not. Why would you apologize for getting me right where you wanted me?”
He laughed a little, and the deep sound vibrated in her body, setting off fireworks in her nerve endings.
“Exactly my thought.”
His hand on her cheek was gentle, but his eyes were a blazing blue flame. She shivered as his fingers slid down over her throat and rasped across her collarbone.
“It is your decision, your desire that guides me. But you will have to state your wishes out loud, at least this first time.” He waited for a moment, but she couldn’t say a word. “Only yes or no would be enough to begin with.”
A thrill coursed through her, and she wondered if he felt it. How was she supposed to know what she wished for? She hadn’t ever received it yet.
His lips curved up.
“Do you know what you want, Emma?”
She moistened her lips with her tongue, and his eyes kindled into a mesmerizing cobalt glow.
“Not exactly. I mean, I don’t really have a pattern to go by.”
His hand stilled on her lower back. “You are saying that you have never had your most secret wishes granted by any man?”
Emma thought it over and shook her head no. Unfortunately, that about summed it up.
“Ah.”
He looked up at the ceiling, and she clutched at his arms. She didn’t know what she wanted, maybe, but she knew she didn’t want him to leave. She would never be able to explore this breathless, jittery beautiful feeling without him.
“So, we may have to make a small adjustment already. Perhaps if I were to whisper suggestions in your ear, and you could let me know yes or no.”
She nodded again.
“I would like to hear a yes from you.”
“Yes.”
His eyes flared brighter, if that was possible. How did he do that, anyway?
“Where should we begin, my Emma? With a kiss?”
For a moment, she couldn’t speak for the deep longing surging through her blood. She took her flagging courage in hand. “With a kiss.”
“It would be a pleasure.”
His head lowered so slowly that by the time he was close enough, Emma was ready to scream with the rising tension.
“Well?” she demanded when he hesitated.
“Hard and quick, Emma? Soft and slow?” His voice trailed off as his lips brushed her cheek, her ear, the contact soft, hot. “Or long enough and hot enough that you forget your own name?”
“Oh,” she breathed, disappointed when he pulled back. “Yes, long and hot. I already forgot my name until you said it.”
The blue of his eyes was mesmerizing.
“Yes,” she said, arching involuntarily toward his touch.
His hand settled over her breast with a firm possessiveness. He fondled and squeezed, learning the shape and softness of her while she gasped and trembled. His eyes almost glowed with heated intensity, and Emma leaned closer.
His tongue swept past her lips, and the dark taste of him burst in through her in a deep tingling thrill. The kiss pulled her under as her world narrowed to focus on the brush of his tongue on hers.
Emma tried to resist the sweep of feeling tugging at her to let go, but it was beyond her. Bare toes curled as her thoughts quieted. She wound her fingers in the longish hair at his nape and held him in place when he would have pulled back.
“A little more,” she said into his mouth and pressed her lips to his again.
Kuhr circled his thumb over and around her nipple and rolled it slowly between his fingers even as he licked and nibbled at her lips.
“If you’re not careful, I could become addicted to that,” Emma gasped, then lost her breath on a long slow moan when he repeated the incendiary caress.
“Addiction to something beautiful is not so very bad. I would like it very much for you to be addicted to me. It would be my pleasure to fulfill your every need and have you always coming back for more,” he said. “I will be happy to provide for your needs.” He scraped his teeth along her throat, and she moaned again.
Oh, he was that good.
Emma’s held fell back and she sighed as his lips traveled down her throat to her collarbone. He was hypnotizing her with his touch, soft and lingering and then hard and intense. He varied pressures constantly so she couldn’t find a balance.
How did he know the exact spot to nip to make her crazy?
He licked and swirled his tongue in circles that burned on her flesh and inside. Her body responded with a flood of hot cream that dampened her panties.
One big hand settled on her breast and rubbed gently back and forth while waves of sensation crested and crashed in her blood, bringing her up in a dizzying climb.
She wriggled and fought to get closer, to tempt his hands into a more intimate exploration, but he kept to his maddeningly slow pace.
“Oh, how did you—oOh, hurry up,” Emma breathed, writhing. Her heart pounded, and her body heated under his mouth and hands. As good as it was, she knew something even better was coming, and she couldn’t quite reach it.
“You asked for long, and I am not a man who rushes through the important things,” he whispered against her throat, breath hot on her skin. He licked and nipped her, and the spot under his mouth throbbed and burned. “I take my time.”
“Rush just a little for me,” she demanded, but he only laughed and continue
d his leisurely exploration. When his teeth grazed her collarbone as one hand cupped her between her thighs, she trembled as fire rose in her veins.
“Kuhr!” It came out high and wild, a primal cry, and he responded with a kiss that burned her memories of another man to ashes. He was the only man in the world, and he was in her arms. Now, if she could just get him to hurry, she would really be getting somewhere.
* * * *
The whole world revolved and came to a halt while he explored the textures of her mouth once more. The spicy sweetness of her taste seduced him deeper and deeper still until they were locked together in passionate exploration.
Heat rose up between their bodies in shimmering waves. He teased and coaxed her with every trick in his arsenal, and when her shy tongue followed his lead back into his mouth, Kuhr had to hang on to the discipline of the battlefield just to keep his claws from emerging. She went straight to his head and pushed the boundaries of his control. With every gentle touch, she taught him more about himself and blasted all his prior rules out of the water.
He had been on edge for months, with no end in sight. Until she wore his mark, he would be in the grip of the primal mating instinct.
He licked her skin and savored the taste. Perhaps even after the mating, with a mate so beautiful, he might need some time to settle in and get used to her power over him. His lips curved against her skin. It would be no hardship.
Kuhr heard the clock chime the hour and stopped, panting. He forcibly uncurled his fingers from his mate’s waistband and pulled his lips from her soft belly by force of will alone.
When she moaned in protest and tilted her hips up to him in primal surrender, he almost caved. Her scent called to him, and his cock throbbed with every hard beat of his heart. His body was more than ready to answer her need.
“I want as much as you want, my beautiful girl,” he said, teeth clenched against the most bitter disappointment. Her sweet spicy taste was in his mouth, and he did not want to stop, but he needed more time, damn it. “I do not have time to do you justice. I need to be out patrolling to keep you safe, not in here indulging.” He nipped the gentle curve of her belly and reveled in the fingers tugging his hair in fierce demand. “I want hours, days, not minutes.”
“It would only take minutes at this point,” she panted in feminine outrage. He groaned and dropped his forehead to her belly. He knew he should be back out on patrol, but he wanted nothing more than to stay right where he was.
“You tempt me beyond reason.”
Chapter 6
Emma wriggled under him to get in a better position, and the soft rug tickled the skin of her back.
His touch set her nerve endings alight with a heat that burned clean. She wanted him more than she could have imagined.
Why did he have to be so damned noble?
She dragged one of his hands back to her breast when he would have moved away.
Her thoughts tumbled like dice in a cup as his clever fingers stroked and shaped. Her breasts were small, but from his avid expression, the bead of sweat on his forehead, he didn’t seem to mind.
He brushed across her tightly beaded nipples with his hot palms over and over, rasping gently until she wanted to beg for a harder touch.
She took a breath to ask him, and he stole it by rolling both pink nipples strongly between his fingertips. He repeated the action, and she cried out as bright heat flashed down through invisible connections to make her pussy spasm with a demand as old as time.
Arching and moaning she felt the dripping wetness her body produced to capture his attention. When his nostrils flared and his face creased in a slow devastating smile, she knew he had realized it, too.
“My Emma.”
She was ready to beg, plead, say anything to get him to push inside and ease her terrible emptiness.
“Please, Kuhr. I need you.”
He groaned when she cupped his cheek.
“Please.”
He moved then, and she was pushed farther down into the soft pile of the rug and under his hard body.
She tensed at the rush of sensation, the firm pressure as her thighs parted to cradle the width of his hips and the hard ridge of his penis pressed against her soft center.
“Emma?”
His voice was deeper than she thought possible, concern evident, but she didn’t have time for talking.
“Yes, Kuhr.”
She reached up and grabbed handfuls of his thick hair. Breathing hard in anticipation, she pulled him down to press a luscious open kiss on his gorgeous mouth. She wanted more than he was giving.
He took over the kiss immediately, stroking inside her mouth with his stiffened tongue again and again while she moaned, and his hips rocked against her. The thin fabric of her panties was no real protection against the blazing heat of his body, but she didn’t want to be protected from him.
Emma panted into his mouth and lifted her hips to meet his in silent demand.
Damn the man. What was he waiting for?
She raised her hips against his and wrapped her legs around him. He groaned and broke the kiss to nuzzle her throat, his rapid breaths brushing her skin with moist warmth. He licked, then nipped hard and she gasped.
“Emma, yes?” he asked, nudging against her swollen clit. His meaning was unmistakable.
“Yes.” And then when he didn’t move she said, “Yes, now!”
He shoved her skirt higher and tore her panties off. The metallic rasp of his zipper was loud in her ears, but she welcomed the sound. It signaled that he was ready to provide relief from the relentless ache of excitement he had created in her body.
She pressed closer, trying to tempt him.
If only he would hurry.
Then his hard, hot penis was at her gate, and he pushed inside, inch by glorious burning wet inch.
She moaned and clutched at his hips, trying desperately to accommodate his girth, struggling to pull him farther in. He pushed again, and she dug her nails into his hips when the fat crown of his rod bumped that throbbing spot inside.
“Oh, there,” she whispered, and he moved out a little. “God.”
Her moan of disappointment turned into a little scream of pleasure when he surged heavily inside again, right against that joyful spot. It was intense, pleasure and agony so close that she writhed in his arms.
He lunged in over and over, groaning rhythmically, targeting that internal button. His velocity and the drag of his body hair against her sensitive clit threw her like a spring uncoiling up and over into a dazzling climax of sound and sensation where the only thing she knew was that she would never again be only Emma.
Chapter 7
After depositing a sleeping Emma into her bed, Kuhr gazed at his mate with her hand curled by her soft cheek. So gentle, so trusting in spite of what had been done to her. He rubbed his chest where the deep ache she brought to life in him centred. He wasn’t a romantic man. He was a straight-up killer in defense of his people, but knew he would wake up happy and give thanks every day of his life for her sweet presence next to him.
The feeling was so new it was almost painful.
He would protect her with everything he had. He lived a life of teeth and claws against guns and knives, and so often conscience wasn’t even part of what he did, but he would have to find a balance of removing the threats and living inside of the rules her sweet nature would be able to accept in him. He almost groaned.
Was this what it meant to be truly mated? That her sense of right would effectively put a leash on his wild nature? How did mated males live with that and still fulfill their sworn duties to their Alpha and their people?
She moved slightly, snuggling deeper into the soft pillow, and her hair gleamed like gold in the low light. He sat on the edge of the bed and stroked a strand of shiny blonde hair with one finger.
A soft feeling he could not name stirred inside him, and he knew that whatever compromise he was called on to make for the happiness of his mate, he would do it gladly. As l
ong as she could forgive him and understand that her safety came first, always. If they could meet somewhere close to the middle, they could do very well together.
He left her with an unfamiliar sense of reluctance.
In moments, Kuhr stood watch outside his mate’s home in the shadow of an ancient maple tree. He felt torn in two opposing directions. He wanted to be beside his beautiful, sexy mate holding her close and sleeping off their explosive union, but he had left her to stand alone out in the night and wait.
Against his better judgment, he had given in to her sensual demands and brought them both to a pleasure so strong that he knew she had branded him as much as the subtle scrape of his fangs had branded her. Whether or not she would become a wolf, accept him, and become his mate as well as his lover, time would tell. Those issues whirled in the back of his mind, but he had a more pressing concern that had driven him out of a soft warm bed beside his new mate and into the cool, ocean-fresh wind.
He didn’t know if it would be tonight or tomorrow night or six months down the line, but he knew that the men who had attacked his mate would return. Both he and Officer John Commander agreed on that point, and when the men did come, they would find him waiting.
His teeth flashed in a grim smile. When they came, they would quickly find that a warrior of the vulfen Clan Sidarov was not so easy a catch as one small human female. Kuhr would be happy to teach them that lesson.
His claws sprang free to follow his thoughts. If the drug dealers survived his lesson, John could have what was left of them and welcome.
