Sanctuary Lost

by Moira Rogers

  She drank the whiskey without pausing and slammed the glass down with a shudder. “So everyone already knows there’s something going on even though I barely have it figured out?”

  Abby smiled a little. “We can hear your hearts pound when you look at each other, sis.”

  “Cheater.” She shoved the glass across the table. “I need more booze if I have to consider you being able to hear when I’m attracted to someone.”

  Abby drained her glass and refilled them both. “Or nervous or scared. Sometimes it’s hard to tell. But not with the looks you two have been flashing each other.” She lifted her glass again, but hesitated before drinking. “Tamara wanted Joe to go through the transformation. He did, and she ditched him a month in. Said it was too much to handle.”

  “Shit.” Brynn reached out for the glass again but didn’t drink. She stared at the amber liquid and tilted the glass from one side to the other. “Was she his Guide?”

  “Yeah. They were together, and that’s usually how it works.”

  “So what happened? Did someone help him?”

  She nodded. “Keith and Gavin, mostly. He wouldn’t think about binding himself to anyone else.”

  “Yeah. I can see why.” Brynn stared at the glass for another second before tossing the alcohol back. “Damn it, Abby, what am I supposed to do? I could stay away from him…” Liar.

  Her sister shrugged. “Just take it slow. You’ve got so much crap going on right now, anyway. Just don’t forget that he’s…intrigued.”

  She opened her mouth to demand a more explicit definition of “intrigued”, but Abby tilted her head and glanced toward the door in a way Brynn had already grown to recognize. Keith was home. Which meant Joe was here.

  Which meant she was out of time, and starting to feel a little warm from the two generous shots of whiskey. Brilliant, Brynn. This is all amazingly brilliant.

  The front door swung open, and Abby smiled as Keith walked in. “How did it go?”

  The look he gave Abby was the kind of thing people wrote poetry about. He looked tired and worn, but his eyes warmed as they found Abby and his smile was just for her. “About as expected. You okay?”

  “Mmm. We busted out the booze.” She held the bottle aloft and shook it. “Want some?”

  “Shit, yes.” The answer came from Joe as he stepped through the door. His gaze slid immediately to Brynn, and then away again. “Make mine a double.”

  The knowledge that every person in the room could hear the way her heart skipped a beat was too much. Brynn rose to her feet and forced a smile as she backed toward the kitchen. “I’ll get more glasses.”

  “I’ll help.” Joe followed her, and that made it ten times worse. She felt his presence like a tangible warmth against her skin as she crossed to the cupboard and yanked it open. She stared at the glasses and tried to think of something besides how badly she wanted him to cross the room and stand behind her, wrap his arms around her and nuzzle his face against her neck…

  It’s all casual. You keep telling yourself that, Brynn.

  He did step up behind her, reaching past her to the topmost shelf and the row of tumblers there. “Did you talk to Abby?”

  Her body moved without her permission, leaning back just enough to press against his chest. “Yeah. She took it better than I’d expected.”

  He laid a hand on her shoulder, and his voice deepened. “I guess she knows you and your reasons better than I do, then. I’m glad she’s not upset with you.”

  “Joe?”

  His lips brushed her temple. “Yeah?”

  Her heart hammered so hard she could hear it. “I don’t think I can drink anymore, or I’ll be trying to climb into your pants. I’m actually sort of seriously considering it now.”

  She couldn’t see his face, but he choked out a noise that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a groan. “You’re going to get me killed, honey.” He lowered his lips to her ear. “Are you staying here tonight?”

  Brynn wasn’t staying here for five more minutes, not if Joe would take her home and take her to his bed. She closed her eyes and rubbed her ass against him, and there was no doubt that he wanted her. “If I go home with you, you’re not sleeping on the couch.”

  His hand slid around her stomach and edged under her shirt to stroke her belly. “Not sleeping on the couch,” he rasped. “Let’s go have a drink, and then get the hell out of here.”

  It was the best damn idea she’d heard in months.

  Chapter Five

  Joe ignored everything but the pounding of his heart and Brynn’s as he pressed her against the door of his cabin. The moonlight silvered her skin and made her eyes gleam, and all he wanted was to hustle her into his room and keep her there as long as possible.

  No one will interrupt us. From the way they’d practically fled the house, their intentions were clear. Keith wouldn’t be happy, but Joe didn’t particularly care.

  Yet another voice, this one of caution, stilled his hands on her shoulders. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  She smiled, and it was sweet and gorgeous and not the least bit innocent. “Can’t you tell how much?”

  He’d been able to tell for weeks. “Doesn’t make it okay not to ask,” he whispered, reaching behind her for the doorknob. “Have to double check.”

  “Fair enough.” Her hand landed on his, holding it as she reached up with the other and wrapped her fingers around the back of his neck. “Good manners are sexy.”

  “It’s not about manners, honey.” It’s about regret. He shoved the thought away and pressed his lips to her temple. Cindy will be her Guide, and when she’s done with her Initiation…

  Her words echoed his thoughts. “I know I’m going to be asking Cindy all these questions, but I don’t feel like running over and asking her anything right now. So you can tell me if there’s anything I need to know about sex with hot werewolves.”

  “Maybe, with a new wolf.” He grinned slowly. “But I’m not a new wolf.”

  The grin worked its magic, and it was hard not to feel smug about the tiny breath she sucked in. Her fingers tightened in his hair a second before she leaned in until her breath fell hot against his ear. “You telling me all that superstrength and stamina and damn unfair senses don’t make things different?”

  It was his turn to draw in a sharp breath. “Makes it different,” he rasped. “But not dangerous.” He drew a finger down her cheek to her throat. “You’ll see.”

  He heard her swallow. “Manners are sexy, but so is knowing when to throw them out the window.”

  He turned the knob and backed her into the living room. “Does that mean you want me to drag you off to the bedroom? Or do you want a little seduction? Wine and candles?”

  “Candles are nice…” She curled her fingers in the hem of her T-shirt and tugged it up and over her head. Her bra looked like it didn’t quite fit and was nothing more than plain white cotton, but he had to close his eyes for a moment when he saw the way it hugged her breasts. “But I don’t need any more alcohol. So you can seduce me here, or the bedroom…or anywhere you damn well want.”

  Joe lifted her, urging her legs up around his hips, and kissed her hard as he headed for his bedroom. He kicked the door open and dropped her back on the high bed, her hips still level with his. “Bed. Definitely.”

  Brynn stretched her arms over her head and arched a little. “Perfect.”

  He reached for one shoe and then the other, dropping them both on the floor. “You’re not really drunk, are you?”

  “On two shots?” She laughed as she propped herself up on her elbows and watched him through the fall of her hair. “I hung out with the business majors in college. Do you have any idea how much they can drink?”

  He cocked an eyebrow and tossed her socks over his shoulder. “I was a Green Beret, honey. Are you trying to tell me about hard drinkin’?”

  “I guess not.” She was breathing faster now, every breath straining her breasts against that ill-fitting bra
. She shifted her weight and reached for his shirt. “This needs to go away now.”

  He exhaled slowly as he tugged the cotton over his head, then urged her to sit up. “As long as you’re tipsy but not drunk, I feel duty-bound to inform you that this bra is hideous.” He reached for the hooks and snapped them open with one hand. “You need something like…Italian lace. Red, maybe. Or pink.”

  “Yeah, I noticed a definite lack of lingerie stores here in Red Rock. Everything I’ve got now is pretty much borrowed, until someone has time to go ransack my apartment…”

  Her distraction was obvious and flattering. Joe flexed as he stretched his shoulders, and chuckled when her eyes widened. “Maybe I can get around to that sometime after the full moon.”

  “Mmm.” Her hands followed her gaze, sliding over his stomach and up until she could flatten her palms against his chest. “Don’t get distracted by my underwear drawer. I’m not as wholesome as my sister.”

  “Thank God for that,” he told her, his voice low and solemn. “I like my women a little kinky.”

  He felt her warm breath on his skin a moment before her tongue traced a teasing little circle around a nipple. She scratched her fingernails lightly down his side as she did it again. “What does a Green Beret werewolf think is a little kinky?”

  He wove his fingers into her hair. “I’m a wolf, baby. We scratch and bite.” He fought a shiver as she raked her nails over his skin again. “Some of us more than others.”

  “Hell, I’m not a Green Beret werewolf, and I scratch and bite.” As if to prove the point, her teeth closed on his skin just to the left of his nipple. He stiffened when she bit him, and she laughed and soothed the spot with her tongue. “What else?”

  His control wavered. He dragged her head back and growled against her jaw line. “You have to watch the biting, sweetheart. Do it too much, and it’s as good as a brand. You’ll be stuck with me.”

  “Stuck with you?” Her voice sounded breathless and unsteady. “I’m not—I don’t think I understand…”

  “Everyone will think I belong to you.” He meant the words as a warning, but they came out sounding like a harsh plea.

  The silence between them felt heavy and tense, even though Brynn’s fingers never stopped their slow, maddening caress. Finally she pulled back just enough to meet his eyes. “Do you want to?”

  Joe swallowed, then let go of her and backed away a step. He’d convinced himself that, if Cindy would be Brynn’s Guide, he could handle everything else she asked of him. “What happened to friendly sex? No big deal?”

  Something flashed across her face—pain or vulnerability or maybe even rejection—but she was good at controlling her expression. It was gone a heartbeat later, replaced with a fixed smile that looked strained around the edges. “I’m sorry. I got a little carried away.”

  He ran a shaking hand through his hair. “Damn it, Brynn. Will you stop trying to be so damn sophisticated and worldly for five minutes and tell me what it is you want?”

  That got an honest reaction out of her. Brynn scrambled to her knees and clutched her bra against her chest as she glared at him. “That is some condescending bullshit right there. But if you’d like me to blunt it up for you, sure. I want to have dirty fucking sex with you with an intensity that sort of freaks me out, because guns and muscles and hero shit has never turned me on before, but suddenly now I can’t think of anything but you.”

  He steeled himself, tamping down the surge of emotion that rose at her words. “That isn’t what I meant. You just can’t seem to decide whether you want to take me for a tumble, or warn every other woman in town away from me.” He caught her arm as she jerked away. “So which is it?”

  “I don’t know.” The words were low and desperate, and he knew she was lying. She knew, too; he saw it in her face before she looked away and squeezed her eyes shut. When she spoke, it was in a whisper so soft he almost couldn’t hear her. “I don’t want to share you. I want you to myself.”

  He hauled her toward him, catching her when she might have tumbled off the bed. His mouth landed on hers, firm and demanding, opening her lips so his tongue could slip inside. Her hair spilled around them like long threads of silk, and he pulled the cotton bra away so he could smooth his hand over her skin.

  She moaned, the sound mostly muffled by his mouth, and for several long minutes she seemed content with nothing more than kissing him. As aggressive as she’d been about initiating sex, she seemed more subdued now. Not submissive, exactly, and certainly not passive, but willing—even eager—to let him take the lead.

  Joe climbed on the bed, pressing her back into the pillows, and trailed his lips down the soft curve of her neck. “I’ll be careful. I swear it, Brynn.”

  Her sigh was one of pleasure, and she tangled her fingers in his hair and tilted her head back a little more. “I trust you, and I’m not going to break.”

  He’d throw himself off the roof before he hurt her physically, but he wasn’t sure if that was what he’d meant at all. “I know.” He scraped his teeth over her skin and fought a groan when her body jerked under his. “Tonight’s just going to be something good, honey. You need that. We both do.”

  “We both do,” she agreed, and the way her voice trembled made his fingers tighten around the button of her jeans. The fingers of her free hand traced over his shoulder and down his arm, following his biceps. “You never did tell me what else you kinky Green Beret werewolves like. Are we talking Discovery Channel and hair pulling? Or, like, whips and chains and leather skirts? I didn’t pack any vinyl, just so you know…”

  He yanked the button free and nudged her zipper down slowly. “Good thing I have plastic wrap in the kitchen,” he joked.

  She laughed, low and breathless, and there was something distinctly naughty about the look in her eyes. “I let a guy try to tie me to the bed with plastic wrap once. The idea was much more appealing in theory than practice.”

  “Do you usually sleep with stupid guys? That’s not what the plastic is for.” He levered himself up and reached for the drawer in his bedside table. “See, this is what you use to tie a woman up.” He dragged out several scarves and let them drop to skim over her bare breasts as he moved them to his other hand.

  He didn’t need his enhanced senses to register her approval of the idea. Her nipples tightened under the teasing brush of silk, and she sucked in a sharp breath as her eyes fluttered shut. “I didn’t sleep with stupid men. I slept with overeducated men. Sometimes that’s worse.”

  “Losers come in all shapes, sizes and tax brackets, honey.” He reached for her arm and froze when he saw the wrap around her delicate wrist. Shit. He’d forgotten about her sprain. “This is a bad idea.”

  Her eyes popped open again. “What? Why?”

  He grinned, his ego soothed by the fact that she’d forgotten, as well. “You’re hurt.” His thumb stroked over the bandage. “It slipped our minds.”

  “So don’t tie me up.” She shifted her other hand and slid it down his back. “Save something for later.”

  They should be saving it all for later, for a time when he could think, when his mind wasn’t so scrambled by desire. But he still dropped the silk to the bed and stretched out over her, his lips finding the bare, vulnerable curve where her neck met her shoulder.

  She drew in a breath and let it out on a soft sigh as her fingers drifted lower. Her hand dipped under the waistband of his jeans, and she turned her head so her breath tickled against his ear. “I’m thinking the clothes need to be gone.”

  A sharp, quick tug brought her jeans off her hips, revealing the white cotton panties she wore. “All of them?” he teased as he hooked one finger under the elastic band and pulled gently.

  “I was talking about your clothing.” But she lifted her hips a little in obvious invitation. “Not that you don’t look absurdly hot in nothing but jeans, but they might get in the way of my plans for the evening.”

  Joe drew the cotton down her legs along with her jeans. “I k
now what you were talking about, honey.” He left his own jeans buttoned and in place. “Plenty of time.”

  She braced her elbows on the bed and lifted up a little to watch him. “And what, exactly, are you planning to do to me that’s going to take all this time?”

  He laughed and dropped her pants on the floor, then teased the back of her knee with his fingers. “I didn’t know you wanted a formal program for the evening.”

  “Mmm, no. I’ve got confidence in your experience.” She shifted her leg and rubbed her calf against his side. “I think we can go forward without an outline.”

  “Good to know.” He climbed on the bed, this time stretching out beside her and twisting a lock of her hair around his finger. “I’m better at winging it, anyway.” He used the tip of one curl to tease over her skin, then followed the invisible path with his tongue.

  She responded with a shiver and an encouraging noise. Her hands found his back again, more aggressive this time as she dragged her nails lightly over his shoulders. He swallowed the growl that rose in his throat and stroked his hand down her belly and between her thighs as his lips parted over her breast and he sucked her nipple into his mouth.

  She arched up to his touch, hot and wet, and his fingers slipped against her. This time, he groaned against her skin and caught her nipple between his teeth.

  “Oh, God…” Her hand groped at the back of his head, and she choked on another moan as she shifted her legs apart and rocked into his touch with shameless abandon.

  He barely brushed her clit, teasing more than anything else, and moved to swirl his tongue around her other nipple. He remained there, touching her without deepening his caresses, and waited for her to come to him.

  It didn’t take long. A whimper escaped her and she dug her feet into the bed and arched her hips into his touch. “Joe!”

  He turned his face to her neck. “What?”

  She wiggled a little and somehow worked a hand between them. Her fingers rubbed against his cock through the fabric of his jeans, and she moaned again. “I am way too turned on for teasing.”