by Michele Hauf
“Or so the city slicker believes.”
“They do?” Tryst realized he knew little about the vast and complex world of his breed and how they related to the other paranormal breeds. In the mid-twentieth century vampires had hunted wolves with traps and put a bounty on their heads, but he’d thought that horrible practice long over. Truly, he had led a sheltered life. “You say something to Lexi about your suspicion of Sven?”
“Not yet. You going to see her later?”
Knowing it wouldn’t be wise to reveal their plans for a liaison tonight, Tryst heeled the plow tire.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Liam said. “Let’s keep this to ourselves for now. We don’t want to raise a stink if our suspicions about Sven are not true. Let me check into a few things first.”
“Deal.”
* * *
Lexi traced a finger along the fading pink line Sven’s talon had drawn across her collarbone. Almost healed. She was glad she’d told Tryst to stay away today. She didn’t want him to know how close she’d come to being one of Sven’s chew toys. Tryst would go after the wolf, for sure.
She wasn’t certain he’d come out the winner, though. Though matched in strength and size, Sven was maniacal. Unfortunately, crazy always trumped reason.
Eyeing the makeup she’d scattered along the bathroom vanity, she separated out the various pots of eye shadow, wondering which color would most distract from gold. Or would any color on her lids simply draw more attention to her eyes? She wore makeup so rarely this would prove a challenge just getting it to look right on her face. Maybe the brown?
She sighed, and shoved the lot to the side, leaning over and catching her head against her forearm. “What am I doing?”
She was trying to have some fun, and have a romantic liaison. To get some werewolf sex for herself, from a man who was genuinely into her, that was what she was doing. Something she had every right to claim for herself.
But the pack wouldn’t see it that way.
Would tonight’s meeting with Tryst seal his doom?
“You’re being dramatic, Lexi.” Like Lana. She smiled at that.
Chapter 12
After a leisurely stroll down the iced-over gravel road, Tryst found the Green Fox inn at the edge of a quaint little village and stomped his boots against the mail post before walking inside. He hadn’t shifted because arriving at the inn in wolf shape, then shifting to naked were shape, would not have gone over well with the innkeepers. He was just about to ask after Lexi’s room, when he decided he wasn’t sure if she would have given them her real name.
The woman behind the counter, who looked like everyone’s idea of what a grandmother with rosy apple cheeks and silver hair rinse should be, grinned and shook her head, saying in French that she knew what room he was looking for: the private cottage out back. She directed him outside, patting him on the rear as he left the main inn.
Thinking how much he loved feisty old grannies, Trystan rubbed his ass, made way around the side of the Tudor-era building and found a path that wove through the pine woods. Lanterns lit the flagstone path, swept clean of snow and puddled with water around the glowing lights. A fox darted into the woods, dispersing a spatter of hoarfrost, obviously sensing Tryst’s wolf nature. He knew his werewolf had had a fine meal last night, but was thankful he couldn’t remember such gorge-fests. What he and his werewolf chose to eat—and how they ate it—remained conflicting tastes, that was for sure.
He had arrived at the threshold, ready to knock, when the door opened to reveal a gorgeous woman in a long, slinky red nightgown that hugged her subtle curves and revealed the high mounds of her breasts.
Tryst blew out a breath, taking her in. Luscious black hair dusted about her shoulders and arms, framing her narrow face and calling attention to her red lips. No lipstick on them, all natural and so red. Suddenly he loved the color red. And gold. Her eyes glittered, and they didn’t seem so odd to him anymore.
Liam had said she had a bad side. Hallelujah for the naughty, bad side of Lexi Connor.
When he just stood there, struck by her beauty, Lexi grabbed his hand and tugged him inside. The single-room cottage was lit with candles in the windows and near the high tester bed. A bottle of wine decanted in an ice bucket and two goblets reflected firelight from the hearth.
“Wow. All this for us? Just what are your plans, Miss Chatelaine?”
“I’m going to seduce you,” she said, sliding a hand up his shirt and tugging open the top two buttons. “You okay with that? Or is this too forward?” Her sexy pout abandoned, she wrinkled her mouth into a frown. “Hell, it’s too forward. I don’t know what I was thinking—”
“No, not. Just. Right.” He wasn’t forming multisyllabic words because she’d stolen the breath from him, and he wanted to take it all in. The candles. The wine. Her. Red. “You. Pretty.”
“I think the cat has your tongue, wolf. What’s become of the big strong outsider?”
“He’s been dazzled senseless,” he offered. And suddenly the word he hated most felt softer and less cruel. “You’re so beautiful, Lexi. What did I ever do to deserve you?”
“You’ve always been yourself, true and brave, from the beginning. Nothing is sexier to me than an honest man.”
Bracketing his hands at her hips he held her back to look at her. Sleek black hair spilled down to her breasts, and slid over the red silk. Beneath the silk her nipples were hard and her fingers glided there to touch them, testing him with the subtle tease. His icy princess had certainly thawed.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered. “You’re not saying anything.”
“Because everything is right.”
He leaned in and imprinted a kiss between the twin curves of her breasts. Smelled like cinnamon there. He nipped her soft breast. Lexi tilted back her head and sucked in a breath.
“Look at me,” he whispered.
She gifted him the odd gold gaze that should have warned him off, but instead it only made him draw her closer and slide his hands up along her silk-covered back. If no other wolf would have her, then good for him. She was his. Let no man take her away from him—or risk death.
Tryst wanted to ask after her father but cautioned himself against breaking the mood. She’d tell him if there was trouble, and hell, she couldn’t be in such a playful mood if the principal was in dire straits.
“Wine?” she asked.
“Sure. But only if you let me drink it from your mouth.”
Making a noise of satisfaction, she poured wine into a goblet. Dipping a finger into the glass, she sucked the liquid slowly from her skin. Tryst swallowed. All systems alert, and he was heading for some serious shred, full speed ahead.
Lexi sipped the wine and stepped up to him, holding the goblet stem between her fingers. From her kiss, he tasted the wine and drank deeply of her, taking her moans into his breath. He couldn’t hold her tight enough. He wanted to mold her against his form and learn her curves and lines as they fit to his.
“So good,” he whispered. “Mine.”
She took another drink and set down the goblet. He dove in for another taste and wine spilled out of her mouth and onto his chin. She licked the trail, following it down his neck where the tease of her tongue tightened his muscles and shot electric tingles throughout his system.
Tonight was the night he needed to have sex until he was sated to keep the werewolf at bay. He could let out his werewolf, but it wouldn’t be fair to Lexi. That was something he generally saved until after he’d gotten to know the woman well. And could she ever have sex with him when he was wolfed out and not feel lacking? He wouldn’t do that to her.
Hell, he was getting ahead of himself. A gorgeous woman insisted on tasting every inch of his flesh—she had found his nipple, bringing it to a hard pebble.
“Lexi, you make my body shiver.”
“That’s a good thing. Take off your shirt. I want to lick every inch of your crazy hard muscles.”
“Sounds… Oh, yeah…”
“You have so many muscles. This might take me a while.”
“Take your time.”
Buttons popped from their stitches as Lexi tore away the shirt from his chest and tugged it down and off his arms. He’d never liked that shirt, anyway. Her tongue wandered along his shoulder and dipped to the crease between his arm and chest. The slick of her tongue hit an erogenous spot on him. Crazy, good. Relentless in tasting him, the sweep of her hair over his skin and the spicy cinnamon scent made him crazy for more of her.
“Your werewolf have a good run last night?” she asked.
“Uh-huh. Still wants out tonight.”
“Then I’ll have to do something about that for you. You need to be sated, yes?”
He murmured a satisfied noise, finding words unavailable as he slid the thin red straps from her shoulders and down her arms. The gown followed, over her small breasts and her hips to land at his feet. She arched against his body, pressing her chest beneath his, for he towered over her. But a perfect fit, nonetheless.
“I’ve never been with another wolf,” she said.
“Really? Wow.” Knowing that really made him want her.
Lifting her, he set her on the bed and crawled over her luxurious length, taking her breast into his mouth because he couldn’t stand not tasting Lexi Connor’s sweet, cinnamon skin.
* * *
Candlelight flickered in Trystan’s hair, gleaming like gold, ruby and copper. A treasure that belonged to her. Lexi swept his hair across her face and moaned from her core as his attentions to her breasts brought her body to a jittering hum of desire, want and urgency.
He could bring her to orgasm by licking her nipples, she sensed that, and her body hummed in response to his devouring her. She wanted to go slowly, to learn him and explore all of him, but the newness and erotic connection of their skin did not preach patience, and all she wanted was to soar alongside this gorgeous man.
“You’re perfect,” he whispered, his kisses trailing down her belly. The mantra felt real and she forgot that she was broken. “Made for me. Want you badly.”
“You have me, Tryst. I’m yours.”
“Lexi, your skin… How can a girl be so soft? And yet so, so strong.”
Never before had such sweet nothings been whispered to her. Everything he did drew her into him, his wild, rough manliness, his intense contact, his sweet tender words. Could a woman orgasm from words alone?
His fingers played over her mons, toying with her dark curls, and he followed with his mouth, tasting, touching, teasing at her skin, her thigh, along the crease where her leg joined her torso, and down, deeper, to the very center of her. Her body had begun to shiver in anticipation of his next move.
“You afraid?” he asked softly. “You’re shaking. Lexi, it’s all good.” He kissed her thigh and gave her hip a playful bite. “You want me to stop?”
“No!” She laughed because her nerves had gotten the better of her, and since when had cold, hard Lexi Conner been so nervous around a man? Hell, she had been the one to initiate this scandalous night of debauchery. “It’s all better than good. You just make my body shiver, Tryst. I like everything you’re doing.”
“How ’bout this?” He lashed his tongue along her folds and then delved deeper, tasting her slowly.
She gripped his hair and spread her legs wide to receive his attentions. “Oh, yes.”
Conversation was no longer necessary. As long as he kept doing what he was doing… Lexi tilted her face against the pillow and cried out at the gorgeous pleasure that circled her belly and mons and played a crazy beat at her pinnacle.
She’d found him. The man who could please her without regard for her broken bits. And if it never went beyond a wild affair she could be satisfied at having experienced the ecstasy of being kissed, touched and tongued by Trystan Hawkes. A werewolf.
Grasping the bedspread, her heel slipped as her leg muscles went from tense and tight to lax, and then back again. The universe waited to explode at the tip of Tryst’s tongue. He was almost…there…
“Lexi, come for me. You’re so close. I can feel it.”
The subtle, slippery pressure of his finger at her nub set her free. Shoulders digging into the spread, she cried out as orgasm swept her into bliss. This one was strong, quaking in her core and radiating out through her extremities. The shiver turned to a blissful wave. She released her voice because all the goodness exploded out of her and into the universe.
He crawled alongside her, still wearing his jeans, and spread a hand over her panting stomach. “I’ve never seen a more gorgeous thing. When you come it’s amazing.”
She smirked and blew out a breath. “Loud, I know.”
“Yeah, but wow. That’s a lot of energy to come out of such a small woman.”
She laughed and buried her face in his winter-sweet hair. “You said the world responds to the energy we put out?”
“Threefold. Life is coming at you with all it’s got, Lexi. Take it all in and shred the wave.”
“You’re the only man who has ever been able to control me like that.”
“Don’t tell me…”
She nodded. “Never had an orgasm with a man before.”
“That’s just wrong. Lexi, seriously?”
“It’s all right. I know how to take care of myself. But I like it better when you do it.”
“And never with a wolf before?”
She shook her head. “The pack has never been interested in broken ol’ me. Oh, Tryst, that was good.” Twisting her body, she pressed her hot, sex-heated skin to his. “But those jeans have to come off.”
“Not sure it’s possible. My hard-on is making them too tight.”
She slid a hand over the zipper and marveled at the bulge that strained beneath the fabric. “Hurry, I wouldn’t want you to injure yourself. I need to see you, to hold you. Tryst, I want to suck you.”
He shoved down his jeans and a mighty erection sprang up against his stomach. Trystan kicked off his pants and crawled on top of her, crouched like a lion over his prey. Lexi grabbed his thick cock and the expression on his face made her smile.
“My turn to control you,” she said, and pushed his shoulder. He took direction and landed on his back, allowing her to crouch over his body. “We’re going to blast the universe with our energy tonight.”
“Hallelujah!”
She kissed his neck and over the hair that spread across his shoulder. “I love your red hair. It’s so sexy.”
“It’s auburn, never red, sweetie.”
Smirking at his semantics, she moved down to his chest, where fine auburn hairs danced about his nipples. She loved the tickle against her nose. Squeezing the tiny nipple elicited a wince from him.
“Hurt?”
“So good, Princess, so good.”
Hand wrapping about the man’s main control, Lexi moved kisses slowly down his chest, kneeling near his shoulder. He kissed her leg and slid a hand between her legs where she was slick and so ready. His stomach was dotted with freckles and she followed the line of auburn hair down to the fierce, bold shaft that stood upright, demanding attention. Reaching the swollen head of his penis, she licked the mighty, smooth curve of him. His fingers clutched her leg.
She dragged her tongue down his length, loving the salty, masculine taste of his most manly and powerful muscle. It was wide, thick, and she wasn’t sure if he could fit inside her. But she was willing to try because riding him was all she wanted to do.
He parted her legs and she felt the hot lash of his tongue trying to reach her moistness. “Straddle me,” he said. “And suck me.”
Now that was a command she wanted to fulfill. She moved a leg to straddle his head and he pulled her hips down to satisfy his hungers while she moved his length in and out of her mouth, sucking, licking, drawing up his moans, the slow, steady rhythm of his hips asking without demanding.
Wrapping her hand about the base of his cock, she worked him up and down while keeping the head of him in her mo
uth. She was close to another orgasm just from the few lashes of his tongue between her legs, and she could sense him nearing the edge, as well. His shaft grew steely hard and so hot. Beneath her fingertips the vein that stretched the length of him had swollen. His hips shook and the hands clutching her hips dug in hard.
It was all too much, and everything she wanted. As the orgasm twisted in her core, Lexi lifted her head and cried out as her lover mastered her yet again. Trystan reached climax at the same time, his cock held firmly against her chest as he came between her breasts, spilling heavily.
He picked her up and tossed her back against the pillows, a rough move that made her feel controlled in the best way possible. Dragging a corner of the sheet across her chest, he wiped her skin clean, then traced her lower lip and showed her the glisten that had come from him. “Love that you did that for me, Lexi. But we’re just getting started.” With an eager grin that revealed his gorgeous white teeth, he spread her legs and fit his hardness, which hadn’t softened from climax, against her folds. “I need to be inside you, feeling your wet heat. Please, Lexi.”
“Yes.” She reached down and guided him forward, pulling his hips toward her as he entered her and invaded her roughly. He swore and gasped and clenched his jaws as they fit together tightly.
Pistoning inside her, he gripped the back of her neck and brought her up to his chest. She clung to his arms, but couldn’t wrap her fingers about his massive biceps. They were tight and tense, hot with strength as he mastered her, claimed her, filled her. Their bodies slid, skin against silken wet skin, in a harmony of wildness.
Hard to imagine she’d known him for such a short amount of time. Even harder to imagine not spending the rest of her life with him, inside him, surrounding him, possessing and claiming him. And in turn, giving herself away to his mastery. And loving every moment of it all.
Wrapped in a tight clutch, they came together, Tryst’s muscles hard and shuddering against Lexi’s hot skin. Eyes closed she drew in the wild, masculine scent of him, the pungent tang of cinnamon heating the air and the smoky flame from the nearby candle. It was a perfume she would never forget: the scent of their bonding—for as much as they two could bond, considering werewolves should both be in werewolf form to officially bond.
