Wolf at the Door

by Christine Warren

  “What’s wrong?”

  He watched her mouth as he spoke, eyes shining with hunger and humor and devilment. “I didn’t want to push myself on you, sweet Cassie.” His murmur was dark and rough, another sort of caress. “You seemed . . . displeased by my earlier attentions. I wouldn’t want to trespass where I’m not invited.”

  Cassidy knew he was right. She knew she’d spent quite a bit of energy keeping him at arm’s length, and she knew she ought to continue to do so. But he tasted so good and he smelled so amazing and his mouth felt like heaven on hers and what harm could one more little kiss do?

  She whimpered and leaned toward him, like a flower to the sun.

  Quinn chuckled and eased a fraction closer, his tongue tracing the parted seam of her lips. The teasing touch made her breath catch in her throat. How did he do this to her? Why wasn’t he doing entirely different things to her? Things that involved nudity and sweat and unlikely feats of gymnastics?

  Impatient and incautious, she scooted closer to him until she nearly climbed into his lap. Poised there on all fours, she pressed into the kiss. Her insistence won her about three seconds of actual mouth-on-mouth, full-fledged kissing before he pulled away again.

  It wasn’t enough.

  She opened her eyes and her frustration rushed forth. “What? What’s wrong? I thought you were attracted to me. Last night you could barely keep your paws off me even while I was running away, and now you’re pulling back from a kiss? I didn’t even get any tongue!”

  “You noticed that, did you?” He settled his hands on her hips and grinned back at her. “I’m afraid that last night did make an impression on me, love, no matter what you might think. What if you change your mind on me after a bit?”

  Cassidy made a strangled sound and tried to drag his mouth back down to hers. She knew this was a bad idea, knew Sullivan Quinn was the wrong man for her, knew the last thing she wanted was to get involved with a politician, but her body didn’t care. His kiss had hit her like a drug. Now that she had tasted him again, she wanted more. “I won’t change my mind.”

  “So you say.” The moment her lips brushed the surface of his, he pulled away. She groaned. “But I’m afraid I find it hard to trust you at this point, Cassie love. I need a bit more in the way of reassurance.”

  Cassidy froze, and her lashes parted to eye him with suspicion. “What kind of reassurance?”

  The grin that stole over his face screamed of wicked satisfaction. “Nothing painful, I assure you . . .”

  Cassidy weighed his potential price against the magic of his kiss and shivered. Damned if he wasn’t worth at least hearing the bargain. “Go on.”

  “Accept my invitation to have dinner before the lecture.”

  Okay, she’d been expecting him to demand a kinky sexual favor, at the very least. Whips and chains. Liquid latex. Perhaps a really big bowl of Jell-O. Or maybe something a bit tamer, like a full-body massage or a strip show. Something that put her in the role of catering to his desires. But a date? That was almost enough to snap her out of her haze.

  “Why?”

  “Because.” He reached out and caught a lock of her hair, curling it around his fingers while he watched her. “I’ve decided that what I wanted from you last night is not what I want from you now.”

  “You don’t want sex?”

  She sounded so horrified that he laughed. Personally, she didn’t see the humor in the situation.

  “Of course I want sex. Lots of it, Lord willing. The kind that makes it difficult to walk afterward. But I want more than that.” He used the gentle grip on her hair to urge her closer. “I want you to agree to see me again. I’ll not lay another paw on you, Cassie love, until I know you won’t run from me before I’m good and finished with you.”

  Cassidy tensed her muscles to keep herself from melting into a puddle all over her sofa. “Finished with me? Like a bowl of cornflakes?”

  “Oh, no,” he said, and she could have sworn he purred it. “Nothing so boring. Though I do intend to gobble you right up.” He tugged her even closer until she wound up straddling his lap.

  “So I really am Little Red Riding Hood, huh?”

  She saw a flash of teeth and the spark of whiskey-gold eyes. “Did you ever wonder what the big, bad wolf really wanted from little Red?”

  He released her hair and slid his hands over her shoulders, down her goosefleshed arms, to close around her hips. She felt his fingers flex against them, as if testing her softness. Ruthlessly, she suppressed a whimper and went for the smart-aleck retort.

  “A really good recipe for zucchini bread?”

  He shook his head slowly, close enough that she could feel his breath against her mouth. Her tongue broke free of her control and came out to wet her lips. His gaze fixed on the flash of pink, and Cassidy heard the beginnings of a rumble in his chest. She felt it, too, with the force of an earthquake.

  Still hovering with his lips nanometers from hers, he reached one hand up to cup the side of her face. “He wanted what I want, Cassie love. Complete. And total. Surrender.”

  The punctuation to each demand came from sharp, intensely erotic nips to her trembling lips. He moved too fast for her to catch him in the real kiss she longed for. In a second she was going to commit a felony just for one more taste. She strained closer.

  “Just agree to have dinner with me,” he breathed, nuzzling her lips, taunting her, “and you can have that kiss you’ve been begging me for.”

  “I don’t beg,” she managed, fighting for breath.

  She lost when his eyes glinted and his lips curved in a textbook illustration of wickedness.

  “Want to see if I can make you?”

  As much as she would have loved to wipe the smug smile off his face, she had other plans for his lips.

  “All right,” she whispered, straining to get closer, willing to give up a lot more than dinner to feel his mouth on hers once more. “Fine. Dinner. Please.”

  He shifted her a fraction closer, let her feel the tickle of his mouth on hers, let her taste the sweet spice of his breath, then gave a deep chuckle. “There now. Was that so hard?”

  Cassidy didn’t answer. Driven to the breaking point by his ruthless teasing, she did the only thing she could think of. She grabbed him by the back of the head, hauled his mouth down to hers, and kissed him with the full force of her passion.

  Fifteen

  Quinn’s chuckle quickly disappeared into the stark hunger of Cassidy’s kiss. Apparently, once his little vixen decided on something, she got right to it. Enthusiastically. He didn’t plan to complain.

  Grunting in satisfaction, he met her eager kiss with demands of his own, slipping his hands from her hips, one wrapping more securely around her waist to press her close, the other sliding up the long trail of her spine to cup the back of her neck. Her skin felt hot and soft and inviting. Surprisingly silky strands of fiery russet hair tickled his palm as he stroked her. He couldn’t wait to have those soft tresses wrapped around him while he stroked into her.

  That brought out a growl, which she swallowed eagerly and offered back in the form of a quiet moan. She began to squirm, and he resisted her movements at first. Right up until her agile shifting brought her knees around his hips, her ankles behind his back and the seam between her legs into perfect alignment with the increasingly uncomfortable zipper of his jeans.

  God, she tasted sweet! The soft, flowering essence of honeysuckle flooded his senses just as it had the night before. It danced across his tongue, filled his nostrils and seeped into his skin. He wished he had her bare again, to increase the rate of absorption, but he refused to sacrifice the kiss for that. He needed the kiss.

  He needed all sorts of things from this woman, and now that he’d won the argument, he had no intention of waiting to collect. He had her promise that this would not be the end of them, and he trusted her to keep her word. Especially since he knew where she lived.

  Quinn deepened the kiss again, hands dropping to her hips to
settle her more firmly against his erection. She felt amazing and mind-bending as she kneeled over him, but he was willing to bet she’d feel even better stretched out beneath him. Executing a lightning-fast roll, he flipped her to her back on the soft cushions of the sofa. He felt her surprised gasp and the subtle melting of her body under his. Her arms clung to him, and her hips cradled his, her knees still bracketed around him. It felt like heaven.

  It felt even better when her hands slid over his shoulders and up the back of his neck to thread through his hair. Her nails rasped across his scalp and sent electricity racing down his spine. He shuddered and dove more deeply into her. One hand stroked up her hip and under the hem of her sweater to explore the pale, silken skin of her torso. The touch of his fingers against bare flesh made her whimper, but a shy, delicate miss she was not. She let go of his hair and began to slide his sweater up over his stomach to his chest.

  The Hallelujah chorus began to play on infinite loop inside his head.

  He lifted his hands high and let her strip the garment off him, not even waiting for her to toss it aside before he reached for her again. He hadn’t liked the break in their kiss necessitated by the removal of his sweater, and he hurried back for more as soon as his head came free. He dipped toward her mouth, but an eddy of scent rose from the heated skin of her throat and distracted him. He changed course at the last minute and went after it.

  She mewed a protest as his lips slid past hers and kept going, but he couldn’t stop now. Not when the flushed, satin warmth of her skin was so close. Roughly, he shoved the collar of her sweater aside and buried his face in the crook of her neck. He inhaled deeply and felt the same swirling head rush as if he’d just slammed back a liter of whiskey. A growl rumbled up from his chest, and he opened his mouth to taste her.

  Glorious. Fresh and sweet as April sunshine, but a thousand times more delicious. His tongue swirled over the tendon on the side of her neck, and he felt her shiver beneath him. He loved that. It made him feel ten feet tall and bulletproof, even without his were form. It stirred the hunger inside him to new levels and let loose his beast.

  That beast wanted to devour her, bit by juicy bit, consume her until his senses were so full of her, he couldn’t take any more. He had to rein in the urge to bite into her delicate flesh. He had no idea if she could take the sort of damage a Lupine female could. Instead, he closed his teeth over her shoulder with infinite care, biting down just hard enough to leave a faint impression of his teeth in her skin. His breath caught in his throat as he waited for her reaction. It came in a flood of heat and a low, shuddering moan that echoed in his ear.

  Thank God. Now he could slip his leash with a clear conscience.

  He tugged roughly at her sweater, yanking it over her head and throwing it somewhere in the vicinity of his. The sight of all that creamy woman had him wiping his mouth to counteract the drool. He couldn’t remember a sight so beautiful. Her gorgeous, feminine curves stretched out beneath him, encased in burgundy lace that dipped low over her breasts and lifted them to his hands and mouth. And—praise God!—the bra fastened with an invitingly simple clasp nestled against her chest.

  She beat him to it, her fingers already on the little tab of plastic. She flipped it open and began to peel the cups away from her skin, but he stopped her. This was his present, and he wanted to do the unwrapping.

  He held his breath as he took over. His eyes met hers for a moment and read an equal heat before falling again to the treasure under his hands. He revealed her breasts with reverent attention, the sight a marvel of pale mounds crowned by tightly beaded nipples of dark, sandy rose. Again, his mouth watered and he leaned down to her as if drawn by an irresistible magnetism.

  A taste. Just a taste.

  So he lowered his head and tasted.

  Cassidy went into meltdown the moment his lips closed over her breast. She felt her entire universe distill down to the liquid burn of this man’s mouth drawing at her sensitized nipple. She could all but trace the spread of the fire from one nerve ending to the other, from her breast to her belly to the very heart of her, already melting and liquid with arousal. No man had ever been able to do this to her, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about this one’s ability to render her into a pile of trembling goo with little more than a touch.

  The fiend had timing, though; she had to give him that. Just as the flicker of unease crossed her mind, his tongue curled around her nipple and tugged, sending her mind winging off to parts unknown. Her senses took over control of her body and threw an under-new-management party. She wrapped her arms around Quinn and arched her back to encourage the warm, rough suction at her breast. With her palms pressed against his back, she could feel the rumbling of a growl too low for her to hear and the twitch of heavy muscles pulled taut by arousal.

  She knew how that felt. Her own body shook with tension as his mouth skimmed across her chest to latch onto her neglected breast. The hands that had clenched tight around her rib cage to hold her in place began to skim across the surface of her torso. Fingers explored the dip of her waist, the soft, slight rise of her belly, and the stiff metal button at the waist of her jeans.

  He flicked it open with one hand in a move so quick and graceful she might not have noticed it if he hadn’t slid the same hand into the new opening to tickle the small mat of curls at the top of her mound. She definitely noticed that. Her hips arched into the touch to encourage further exploration. He looked up as his fingers slid down, and their eyes met again, amber burning into gold. She saw her own needs mirrored there with stark clarity. He wanted her, intensely, desperately, consumingly. Which was about half as badly as she wanted him.

  Cassidy reached up to cup his face in her hands and draw him back to her. She reveled in the way he settled over her, letting her take just enough of his weight to feel covered but not pinned. His broad shoulders blocked out the light, and his hips nestled in the cradle of hers as she parted her thighs in welcome. She could feel her heartbeat speed up and tugged him closer to her.

  Her lips brushed over his, soft and teasing, and her tongue traced the seam of his mouth.

  “This isn’t a surrender,” she whispered, her voice low and breathless in her own ears. “It’s a demand.”

  She released him so that her hands could slide down between them and go to work on the button fly of his jeans.

  “I’m demanding that you make love to me. Here. Now. Until I say you can stop. Will that do in place of surrender?”

  He shuddered, and a surge of feminine pride curved her lips. She raised her hips to help him ease her jeans down, kicking them off one foot and letting them fall to the floor. The power she had discovered she had over him was like a drug, heady and addictive, and she rode the high with abandon. Every tremor in his hard body, every spark of arousal in his eyes, every hitch of his breath in his throat made her want to laugh out loud and shout her triumph. She had taken a situation composed of a dominating man and an unexpected sexual spark, and she had seized control of it. She, Cassidy Poe, had unleashed her feminine power and triumphed on the field of sexual battle. This was a feeling she could definitely get used to.

  That was the last thought to flicker through her addled mind before Quinn knotted his hand in the lace of her burgundy panties and tore them off her with the ease of a feather duster tearing through cobwebs. Holding the ruined lingerie up where she could see it, Quinn stared down at her with an expression of feral amusement and purred.

  “It’s a start. We can negotiate from there.”

  Another day on another sofa with another woman, Quinn might have prolonged their little battle of wills just for the thrill of combat, but not today. Today, he had to have this woman in the next thirty seconds or his head was going to explode. Since he hated to see a sound mind go to waste, he knew he had twenty-seven more seconds to get inside Cassidy’s luscious little body before disaster struck. He intended to waste not a single one.

  He relished the look of shock and arousal on her face when
he tore her panties out of his way and made his taunting little challenge, but not nearly as much as he relished the way her body went all soft and inviting beneath his. He intended to go on relishing that for as long as he could possibly manage, and with any luck, on numerous occasions in the future.

  But first things first.

  Her scent wafted up to him, intensified by her arousal, and he nearly came right then and there just from the mind-numbing power of her honeysuckle heat. It took some serious willpower to maintain his control. He only managed it by burying his nose against her throat and breathing her in while he struggled with the sudden cardboard-stiffness of his jeans. His tongue flicked out to taste her skin again—God, he could live on the taste of her—and a renewed flood of urgency made him settle for pushing the recalcitrant denim down onto his hips and abandoning it.

  Cassidy wasn’t lodging any protests. In fact, her hands stroked frantically over him, caressing any patch of bare Lupine she could reach. The touch of delicate, feminine fingers sent his testosterone into overdrive, and he grabbed her wrists, pinning them beside her head before she destroyed his control.

  “No,” he snarled, holding her in place against her confused struggles. “No touching. Next time. Maybe next time. Can’t take it now.”

  He didn’t give her the chance to launch a protest, just covered her mouth with his and kissed her as if he could consume her. Quickly and a little roughly, he tugged her hands higher and took both in one hand. He needed that free hand for something a lot more important. It snaked down over her arm and her chest, pausing to cup and squeeze a breast, then trailing over her belly to the dark, sweetly scented valley between her legs.

  Their groans echoed together as his fingers dipped between her trembling thighs and slid through the gathered moisture at her core. Her flesh felt hot and swollen and oh-so-inviting as he stroked deliberately over it. The bare whisper of one callused fingertip against her brought a breathless cry to her lips and made her arch against his hand. His caress firmed, as her wetness eased his way and drew him irresistibly to her center. Testing her carefully, he felt how ready she was for him, and the knowledge made it impossible to wait.