“I should shower, and change…” she protested.
“We’re just going to the Wolf Whistle Diner. Unfortunately, Blue Moon Junction doesn’t have any fancy restaurants. It’s all pretty casual around here. No need to get all gussied up.”
As they walked to his pickup truck, Lainey didn’t need to glance back at the house to see if everyone was staring at her through the kitchen window; she could feel their eyes boring into her back.
She settled into her seat, breathing in Tate’s warm, musky smell. As they pulled out, he held his hand out of the pickup truck window and waved in the direction of the boarding house. Shamelessly, everyone in the window waved back. They weren’t even trying to hide the fact that they were spying on Lainey and Tate.
The Wolf Whistle Diner was only ten minutes from the boarding house, but when they pulled up in front of the restaurant, there was a long line of people standing outside. Tate frowned. “Well, that never happens. I didn’t account for all the people who are in town for the wedding.”
He turned to Lainey. “I’m dying to show you off to everybody, but there’s plenty of time for that. I have another suggestion for tonight. You know Henry, Marigold’s fiancé? He owns a house that he inherited from his family, but ever since he moved in with Marigold, the house has been sitting empty. He gave me the keys to the house tonight. I thought you might enjoy a rare moment of privacy.”
“Sounds like a winner,” Lainey said. She and Tate, just the two of them together in a cozy little house? Forget dinner, she’d go straight for dessert.
Her stomach growled in rebellion at that, and she winced. Okay, first dinner, then some dessert, then some man-candy wolf shifter for an aperitif.
As they drove, Tate called to order pizza for delivery to Henry’s house.
I am going on a date with the handsomest man in the world, Lainey marveled as they headed to the north side of town. And he likes me. He really likes me. And the way he’s looking at me, he means to strip off my clothes and do terrible, indecent things to me…I hope.
She felt her cheeks heating, and the warm rush of arousal pulsing through her veins.
Nervous, she cleared her throat. Make conversation. Don’t just sit here like a rock. “How’s everything going with the family?”
He sighed. “Great, except for Megan. She’s been sneaking around, disappearing and not saying where she’s been, like the day that you rescued Felix from that tree. I’m pretty sure that she’s sneaking off to meet this little punk she went out with a couple times before I put a stop to it. Frank Sinclair, from the notorious Sinclair family.”
Lainey frowned. This was sensitive territory, she knew.
“Is Frank dangerous?”
“It’s pretty obvious he’s been involved in the vandalism that took place out at the Beaudreau mansion. His reputation in high school wasn’t great, dating a new girl every week. Most of his pack live in Morgan County, which borders my county and Blue Moon county. The Sinclair family are notorious bullies and braggarts, and Frank is apparently such a grade-A jerk that even his own father won’t talk to him these days, which takes quite a lot. Frank quit working for his father, moved out of the county, and his family barely speaks to him these days.”
“Why is he here in Blue Moon Junction, then?”
Tate shook his head. “Good question. Supposedly, because everyone in the pack is expected to attend the Alpha wedding as a show of solidarity. Really, though, I think he’s here because he’s sniffing around my sister’s tail.” His fingers tightened on the steering wheel as he said it, knuckles going white.
“So what does Megan say about all of this?”
“She stuck up for him at first, tried to say he was a good guy, he’s just misunderstood, I won’t give him a fair shot because he’s a Sinclair. She claims they only hung out as friends, and she says she’s broken it off with him after I ordered her to, but I don’t believe it. What?” he demanded, when Lainey winced.
“Well, she’s eighteen. There’s just a point, unfortunately, when you have to let people make their own mistakes. The more you try to control someone, the more you risk pushing them to rebel. God knows that’s what happened with my parents.”
“But I’m not your parents,” Tate protested. “I actually care about Megan and want what’s best for her.”
“I get that, but think back on how you were when you were eighteen years old and anyone tried to tell you what to do. That’s an age when you think you know it all, and it’s only time and painful experience that teaches you otherwise. She may end up having to get her heart broken to find out you’re right. At which point, you most definitely should not say I told you so. You should act surprised and supportive.”
“And then rip his heart out with my fangs.”
“Er, maybe not that.”
Tate’s grim smile was not particularly reassuring, but then again, if Frank Sinclair was fool enough to mess around with the teenaged sister of an Alpha after he’d been warned off, then he should be prepared to face the consequences.
The truck glided to a stop in front of a small, logcabin-style house set among swaying pines. The sun dipped towards the horizon, painting the clouds in watercolor shades of red and orange and yellow.
The pizza arrived just as they were pulling up. Tate tipped the driver generously, unlocked the door, and followed Lainey into the house.
The cabin was small and cozy and definitely had belonged to a bachelor. There were deer heads on the wall, moose antlers and big bass mounted on plaques. The kitchen table was an old barn door set on a sanded swirl of tree branches.
They carried the pizza out to the back porch, where they sat side by side on the porch swing and watched the ruby glimmers of the lowering sun as it plunged below the distant pine tree tops.
The pizza was delicious, the tomato sauce tart and tangy and a perfect counterpoint to the golden ooze of the melted cheese. Normally, Lainey was a girl who savored her food and lingered over it, but she couldn’t stop thinking about what was to come. She still wasn’t at the point where she felt comfortable getting naked in front of a man. Not even Tate, who, she was coming to realize, she truly trusted.
Nervous, she set down the crust of her pizza and patted at her mouth with her napkin. “That was delicious, thank you,” she said. Ugh. She sounded like she was reading from an etiquette book.
Tate didn’t seem to mind. “There’s plenty more where that came from,” he said, with a sensual glint in his eye.
Her heart caught in her throat.
She wanted him so much it scared her. She was afraid of how much she was falling for him in such a short time, afraid he’d break her heart, afraid he’d change his mind.
She willed her mouth to move.
“So, is yours a big pack?” she asked in a bright voice.
I’m stalling, she thought to herself. I want to rip his clothes off with my teeth and lick him from head to toe, but I can’t get past my fear.
“No, it’s pretty small, like the county we live in. It’s my family and a couple of other families in the pack. There’s also a panther tribe out there, and a pride of mountain lions. No bobcats, though…yet.”
He paused, then his gaze drifted into the distance, and the good humor drained from his face. “I became the Alpha a lot sooner than I expected, or wanted. My father was killed by a rogue Alpha trying to take our territory.”
Lainey drew in her breath sharply.
“I’m so sorry.”
His nodded curtly, his face set in grim lines now. “He issued a Death Challenge. Of course, my father had to take it, or leave the territory and our family, never to return.”
“A Death Challenge…my God. It’s very different in the city,” Lainey said. “I don’t know the last time someone’s issued a Death Challenge in Philly. Several decades, at least.”
“I know. It is very different here in the parts of the country where we still hold on to the old ways. It can be brutal and unfair, although no more brutal and unfa
ir than it is in the city, with shifters acting just like humans, climbing to the top by destroying each other financially, making a fortunate at the expense of others, putting money and blind ambition before family, all while trying to deny their true natures.”
“That’s very true. My parents are living examples of that.”
“This was a crazy rogue who had been driven from his own pack. My father should have stepped down as Alpha and let me take the challenge instead, but he refused. Stubborn pride. That’s an Alpha for you. After he died, I challenged the rogue, and killed him.” His face was grim, lines of pain etched in it.
Lainey felt his sorrow and anger as if it were her own, as if his emotions flowed through her like radio waves, as if they were melded into one person. It was a dull, throbbing, red pain that burned just below the surface.
“My father and my mother were high school sweethearts. My mother grieved herself to death after he died. Her heart just gave out and she died in her sleep a few months after we buried him. Ever since then, I’ve thrown myself into work and taking care of my family. The only time I started to get close to a woman…” His face twisted into an expression of disgust. “She was a wealthy wolf shifter from Miami, and I met her while she was on vacation up here.”
The thought of Tate with another woman made Lainey’s hackles rise, literally. Claws shot from her fingertips, and she let out a low growl before she got a hold of herself and quickly sheathed them.
Tate, fortunately, didn’t seem to notice. “I think, looking back, she just wanted the prestige of being with an Alpha. After we’d dated for a few months, I found out she’d been looking into boarding schools. She thought if we were together permanently, I’d agree to send all of my younger brothers and sisters away to boarding school.”
Lainey was horrified.
“When I confronted her about it, she said that of course she was going to pay for it. She even offered to let them come home for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Both. That was mighty generous of her.”
Lainey groaned at the thought. “How long did it take you to show her the door?”
“About five seconds, after I finished laughing so hard I cried.” He put down his fork. “That was two years ago. I haven’t dated since.”
“So that’s why you’re so out of practice,” Lainey teased.
“Oh yeah?” his eyes glinted with mischief. “Is that a fact? I seem to remember that I made a certain kitty cat purr pretty loudly the other night.”
“Really? You don’t say. How did you do that?”
He leaned forward, cupped her chin, and tipped her face up to look at him. “It started like this.”
He nibbled at her lower lip, and she moaned in pleasure, a feeling of delicious heat rushing through her. Her purr rumbled up in her throat, and she squirmed in her seat, feeling an urgent pulsing between her legs. He brushed at her lips, and she moved forward to kiss him, but he pulled back slightly, still holding her chin in place.
He grinned devilishly. “Out of practice?”
“All right, you jerk. It wasn’t so bad.” She moved forward to kiss him, but he pulled away again, with a big smirk on his handsome face.
“Wasn’t so bad?”
“Oh, don’t try to play hard to get, Tate,” she snorted.
“Maybe I am hard to get.”
She felt emboldened. Normally, she never took the lead when it came to sex, but there was something about Tate…
In one swift move, she climbed on his lap and straddled him, facing him, and bent down to nibble at his neck. He groaned in pleasure, and as she sank down onto him she felt the rigid length of his erection pressing against her crotch.
“Hard to get, or just hard?” she said, pressing against him.
He looped his arms around her and cupped her buttocks with his hands as she kissed and nipped at his neck. He gasped with each nip, and she could feel his erection jerk up against her, sending answering pulses through her pussy.
“You do not fight fair. I’ve had a hard-on since the day I met you.” He groaned, pressing her against his crotch. “Must you torture me?”
“Yes, I must. It’s fun,” she whispered into his ear, and then took his lobe in between her teeth and nipped at it gently.
“All right, that’s it, you feline devil,” he said, and stood up, sweeping her into his arms as he did so.
With his shifter strength, he made her feel as if she were made of gossamer. He carried her into the house, into a rustic bedroom where he gently set her on a bed with a red and black flannel quilt. There was a lamp with a burlap shade by the bedside, and he turned it on, bathing the room in an amber glow.
He stood by the bed and pulled his shirt off as she kicked off her sandals and wriggled out of her jeans.
She paused for a moment to admire him in the warm light. His body was magnificent, that broad chest tapering down to that narrow waist and flat stomach, the treasure trail of curly brown hair starting at his navel and plunging down beneath the waistline of his jeans.
Would he taste salty, or sweet, or both? She quickly unbuttoned her shirt, sliding it off. She wanted to hear him groan in pleasure and shout her name.
Swiftly, she swung her legs off the bed and then sank to the floor in front of him. She kissed his stomach, running her tongue along the grooves of his six pack abs as she grabbed the waistband of his jeans and unbuttoned it.
“Oh, God, baby. You’re going to make me come in five seconds…” He gasped as she kissed her way down the treasure trail and unzipped his jeans at the same time.
The helpless desire in his voice ignited a spark that flared up inside her, turning to a sizzling fire. The way he wanted her made her feel incredibly sexy, sweeping away all of her doubts and fears.
“Good,” she said boldly. “I want to know what you taste like.”
The sharp hiss of his indrawn breath was music to her ears.
She tugged his pants down, and his boxer shorts slid down with them, freeing his thick cock. A pearly drop of pre-cum glistened on the purplish tip, and she swept her tongue over it. It was salty with just a hint of sweetness.
He tangled his fingers in her hair, and said huskily, “Yes, baby. Oh, yes.”
Lainey grasped the base of his shaft firmly with one hand, and with her free hand, gently cupped his testicles. His wiry pubic hair tickled her palm.
She could feel desire pulsing through her from head to toe. His cock was magnificent, thick and veined and throbbing. She wanted it inside her, filling her, ramming into her, but even more than that, she wanted that magic power that came with making a man melt into a puddle of lust.
She took the head of his cock into her mouth, slid it in several inches, and then moved back out, holding perfectly still for a moment. She could feel his muscles tensing.
“Please, baby,” he begged. “Please. You’re killing me.”
She slid his cock into her mouth again, all the way this time, taking him deep and sucking hard. At the same time she began moving her hand up and down his shaft, and with his hands he guided her, and his breath came faster and faster until he shouted out “Oh, my God! Oh, yes!” and exploded into her mouth, flooding it with his thick, salty cum. Eagerly, she lapped it all up until she’d sucked down every last drop.
Then she let his still-hard cock slide from her mouth, and he knelt down, scooped her up in his muscular arms, and deposited her roughly on the bed, his eyes glazed with desire.
He slid on top of her, pinning her to the bed with his muscular weight, then moved his hand down to cup one of her breasts. She still wore her bra. He unfastened the front snap and it sprang open.
She melted beneath him, turning boneless with her burning, overwhelming need for him.
His mouth closed around her nipple, laving it with his tongue until it stood up in a stiff, hard peak. Then he scraped her sensitive flesh ever so gently with his teeth, and she gasped with desire.
While he fondled and kissed her breast, his hand moved down, lightly skimming the su
rface of her flesh. His hand felt electric, her flesh coming to life beneath his feather touch. Nerve endings all over her body were lighting up like lights on a Christmas tree. He’d turned her body into one big erogenous zone. The swell of her belly, the inside of her thigh…she felt as if the mere brushing of his fingers would be enough to make her come.
He had more than that in mind, though. His fingers dipped below her waistline, sliding between her legs and dancing over the wet petals of her pussy. As he suckled her nipple, he gently traced his finger along the outline of her lips. The multiple sensual assaults made her moan in pleasure and urgent need.
“You like?” he murmured into her breast.
“Ohhh,” she whimpered helplessly. The ability to speak had fled.
He began rubbing the swollen pink pearl of her clitoris with the pad of his thumb, and lightning bolts shot from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. She was quivering beneath him.
Struggling, she managed to form words—or rather, one word.
“Please,” she begged. “Please.”
“That’s what I’m here for, baby. To please you.”
Then he somehow managed to reach into the pocket of his jeans, while continuing to tease and torment her throbbing clit with his thumb. He pulled out a condom packet, ripped it open with his teeth, and swiftly slid it onto his cock. Good lord, had he stayed hard the whole time? Lainey wondered, her mind clouded in a sensual daze.
He moved up, lying on top of her now, sinking into her softness. The head of his cock nudged between her lips, pressing against the entrance to her tight, wet tunnel.
She laced her fingers on the small of his back, urging him inside her.
With a swift thrust, he was in her, his thickness filling her, stretching her.
“Oh, baby, you’re so tight,” he groaned.
He moved his hips, thrusting into her rhythmically, until he was buried deep inside. Lainey felt molten lava pooling inside her, and she moaned wordlessly into his ear, sinking her fingers into his flesh. He pumped harder and harder, until the heat inside her exploded into a million white-hot sparks, and she climaxed with a shriek of pure pleasure. She could feel her muscles clamping on his cock, spasming, and then he joined her in orgasm, shuddering and groaning with release.
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