by Laina Kenney
His laugh moved his semi-hard penis inside her and she drew in a shallow breath as sensation glittered up from where they were still joined.
“Would you like to scream?”
Quick as a snake he rolled them so that she was staring up into his extraordinary face. His eyes were fixed on her throat with a heat that singed. He nudged against her and her body responded with a gush of heated fluid around his hardening shaft.
His grin flashed in the cool darkness. She knew he had felt her response. How could he not? But since he seemed to like it, she only felt a little embarrassed. Why shouldn’t he know how much she wanted him?
He nipped her bottom lip and swirled over the little sting with his tongue.
“Never before, Maressa. It was never like this before you. You take me higher than I thought possible.”
She sighed into his mouth.
“It can’t be me. I’m normal. I’m blaming this on you. Or, if anything, I think it’s the combination of us together.”
He played at her lips with his. “What is this? You are still able to think? Let me see what I can do about that. I seem to recall you would like to scream.”
His clever hand slid down, thumb teasing her tender swollen clit. He pushed up from inside her and she moaned loudly. One arm anchored her hips to his.
They rolled and twisted together on the rug, following no rhythm but their own. He slid his hands under her and grabbed the top of her shoulders for leverage. She gripped with hands and body, wherever she could.
The speed of his thrusts increased as he came, the violent jets of his release shooting heat through her nerve endings until she screamed at the viciousness of the pleasure that overtook her as the world faded away.
* * * *
Ives looked down at his mate, passed out from an excess of pleasure, and his heart turned over. He winced as he withdrew gently from her body but she barely stirred. She was exhausted.
A grimace crossed his face as he stroked one finger over her vulnerable pulse and down to her delicate collarbone. Her skin gleamed like a fine pearl in the low light as he tucked her close to his side.
Even now, when he had just left her body, his blood burned in his veins and both his cock and fangs were long with the desire to mark her.
He wanted his rights as her mate. Until she wore his mark, he would be constantly warning off other males, and since she worked among human males daily, he knew he would spend the next few weeks in a murderous mood.
If he was honest with himself, he didn’t want her working in the bar again until he had the firm right to react strongly to any male who came too close and tried to put hands on what was his. He might not kill. It was possible he could summon the control to deliver a warning first as humans seemed to expect, but he wanted the right to shed blood for her.
He was aware that human males were expected to be calm and to allow other males near their mates without challenging and slaying them, but his wolf wasn’t going to stand for too much of that, especially if those males reeked of alcohol.
He stifled a growl as his wolf lunged against his control.
If his wolf had anything to do with it, any male touching his mate would draw back a bloody stump. That would be an unmistakable warning, and it would satisfy his vulfen instinct, but he thought perhaps it was still too violent for a human. He would have to ask his friends in the Cadre if they had a clearer knowledge of what was normal to humans.
Vulfen males would understand as soon as his mark was on her that touching her would be a guarantee of death, but humans didn’t have such a clear system to guide them.
Not that the lack of a bite mark would stop him from protecting his mate, but it would smooth the way if she understood that human rules weren’t going to apply to his ancient instinct.
His intellect won in most situations, but in the case of an unclaimed mate, he couldn’t make any guarantees. And he was not a politician, not a poet.
How could he make a human woman accept something so completely foreign? Would words ever be enough to make that explanation?
The laws they lived by were necessarily fierce. The vulfen people represented not simply another culture, but another species. It would be an impossible conversation.
He watched the rise and fall of her breathing and shook his head. He would figure out the right words if it took him the rest of his life. His instinct wouldn’t allow him to leave her unclaimed for long. He wasn’t giving her up.
And since his mate was human, it looked like he would be shopping for a ring.
Chapter 4
Maressa awoke to light and warmth. She was naked and wrapped in a soft blanket in front of a crackling fire. The light flickered gaily over the colored stones of the huge fireplace.
Ives was propped up on his elbow and gazing at her, so close she could have kissed him.
Maressa relaxed and just looked into his eyes. Heavily lashed and a blue so dark it was a shade off navy, they seemed to glow with a light of their own in a face that would make angels weep. If she looked too long, she might weep herself.
With sweat drying on his tanned, muscular chest and his thick hair mussed by her desperate gripping hands, he was a snapshot of male perfection, a fantasy come to life.
What was a man like that doing with her? She was a normal, average woman, with far less than an average amount of experience with men. She could handle men in the bar, of course. A smile and a clever quip went a long way toward soothing the inevitable bruised pride, but she didn’t take it seriously and neither did they. She didn’t take them home.
She thought about it and couldn’t make it work in her head. It didn’t make sense on any level. On a regular day, a gorgeous man didn’t choose a nice normal woman, take her home, and give her multiple screaming orgasms until she dropped out unconscious.
He could make her body sing, no question. Her hormones lit up around him until she hardly recognized her own body, but he probably had that effect on any number of women.
Just looking into his eyes, her breath caught in her throat and her heart melted. The connection between them was warm and intense.
Man, she was in trouble.
“How long was I out?” she asked, and the husky tone of her voice sounded like an invitation even to her.
He stroked a hand over her cheek.
“Two or three minutes, no more,” he said. “Long enough for me to start the fire and get a blanket.”
His fingers played gently in her hair.
“I would be pleased if you had slept longer. You need the rest. Your body needs to recharge.”
She couldn’t argue with that, but she needed something else a lot more. She sighed and stretched.
His eyes travelled down her body, heated. His hand followed the path of his eyes.
“You are beautiful.”
She smiled a little and arched into his touch. She didn’t understand it but she liked that he thought so. She certainly felt beautiful under his hands.
“That incredible accent didn’t come from anywhere near Boston,” she said dreamily. “You’re French.”
“I was born in Paris.” His eyes were still tracking his touch, mapping her body with gentle precision. “It was a few blocks in the wrong direction from Les Halles.”
“The old market? I’ve been to Paris, once. Maybe I went through your old neighborhood.”
Ives’s hands tightened and his eyes jumped to her face.
“I grew up wild in the gutters and back alleys of the city. The people in my area had little humanity and less hope. There wasn’t a person there I trusted, except for my father. Eventually, he was able to get us out of there. I hope you did not see the neighborhood where I grew up. It makes my blood run cold to think of you being forced to take a single breath in that pitiless place.”
She heard a wealth of pain in his words, more in the words he didn’t say. She laid her fingertips on his cheek.
He leaned in and kissed her, quick and hard.
“Do n
ot think less of me for my origins, Maressa. My father was a wonderful example and I have worked to become a good man, a man who makes my father proud.”
She framed his face in her hands. It pierced her heart that he could doubt how she would see him. She knew what kind of man walked whistling down an alley with a guaranteed fight at the end of it, to save a woman he didn’t even know.
“I see you. I know what kind of a man you are. Whatever your beginnings, you came out of that as a man who would risk his life to protect others, a man who would save a stranger in a dark alley. I’m here with you, aren’t I?” She gave a baffled half-laugh. “I don’t go home with just anyone.”
She wiggled her eyebrows and batted her eyelashes and was rewarded when his chiseled lips quirked up in a grin.
“I know it,” he said. His teeth flashed in a lightning grin and that charming dimple winked in his cheek. “There was no male scent on you at all. Just pure tempting female.”
“What are you talking about? Is your nose really that good?” she teased.
His eyes widened then narrowed with purpose. She didn’t know what he was thinking but her heart pounded in sudden alarm.
Chapter 5
She was looking right into his face when a curious rainbow shimmer changed him into a huge black wolf. Her hands gripped the furry sides of his muzzle and he yelped and jumped back.
She sat up quickly and pulled the blanket around her.
“You bastard. You’re not even a man. What are you?”
He whined and stepped closer. She held up a hand to ward him off.
“Don’t even think about it. What the hell are you?”
She felt tears starting and bared her teeth to keep them back.
“How could you? We just—I just slept with you and you’re not even a man! Is this some kind of a joke?”
He shimmered again and knelt before her as a man.
“I am a man and a wolf. My people are vulfen.”
“Your people? You said you grew up in Paris! Paris is a city full of humans!”
She was shouting and sobbing. He grabbed her and pulled her up against his chest. She struggled for a moment before her arms went around him and clung.
“Please, Maressa, it is no joke. You must not cry. Call me names. Call me anything. It rips my heart to know that I have caused you to shed a singled tear.” He cradled her against him and she burrowed in. “You must not cry.”
“I can’t.” She sniffed. “I can’t stop. I don’t know how to stop. I don’t know what you are.”
“Maressa, you are breaking my heart in two. This is only the beginning. It can work between us, you will see. Just give me a chance.” He pulled back, smoothed away the welling tears with his thumbs, leaned in to kiss her wet mouth. “Give me a chance.”
“Stop,” she said. “If you talk any more, I’ll give you another chance even if it doesn’t make any sense, just because I want to so bad.”
“I hope that you do want to,” he said with a painful tenderness. “It is only right between us.”
“Right now there is nothing between us,” she said and spoiled it by sniffling. “We’re not even the same species.”
“There is truth between us,” he said, his hands like iron bands around her arms. “We are compatible. I understand that it will come as a shock.”
“A shock? I can’t believe this. How can it be that—what are you, a werewolf? There really are werewolves? I thought that was just in movies but I felt your fur. There really are werewolves. Why didn’t you bite me?”
“I wanted to,” he muttered and she stiffened.
“Back off,” she said and held up a hand that shook. “No biting.”
He lifted his hands, palms out, and smiled as if to say that she was safe. She might have believed it, except that his fangs were still prominent and the tips of his fingers glinted as if with claws.
Maressa cleared her throat and dashed her tears away with impatient hands.
“Why did you show me? I have to know. Why me if it’s such a big secret that no one has even heard of you guys? Why me?”
Ives cupped her chin, lifted her face. When she tried to pull away, his grip tightened.
“I am vulfen, not werewolf, and you are my mate. My one mate.”
His voice was fierce almost willing her to accept the outrageous claim. She couldn’t come up with an adequate response to that.
“I did not know if I would ever find you,” he continued, “but when I saw you the instinct rose up in me like a wave. There can be no denial. You are the most precious person in the world to me.”
“What about me? I’m a human,” she said then looked at him, stricken. He nodded in affirmation and her shoulders lost a little more of their tension. “I’m human. So how do I know you’re my mate? How do I know you’re it for me? Humans can marry over and over again.”
“I hope you feel the pull between us, not just the heat, but that warm connection linking us together. I hope it stirs your blood to hear my voice. I hope you look into my eyes and feel your heart beat quicken. I hope this because all those things happen for me when I look at you. I love you, Maressa.”
She gasped and pushed at him.
“You can’t say that, it’s too soon for that!”
Ives shrugged.
“I say it because I feel it. Love at first sight, Maressa. It is real. I know.”
She stood up and began to pace back and forth.
“You think this should be so easy. What do you expect? That I’m just going to say I love you, too, and everything will be fine? I can’t do that. I might have been able to get there. I don’t know—I do know that I can’t say that right now.”
“I never asked for easy, Maressa. I just want you to be honest about the tug between us. Call it a possibility if that makes you feel better, but don’t try to tell me how I feel. I know,” he said again.
She just shook her head. She wasn’t good at the dating game, and he wasn’t even a human man.
“I cannot blame you for being doubtful when I tell you I am not human.”
She pointed a shaking finger.
“I’m not doubtful. I know what I saw and felt. I had your face in my hands and I got a good clear look at fur and fangs. I saw your eyes glowing in a dark alley. I can believe what I see and still not believe it, if that makes any sense at all. Sorry, I’m feeling a little scattered right now.”
She shook her head in wonder.
“I have about a million questions, but first I need to think about this.”
Ives groaned ruefully.
“Don’t think, Maressa, feel. I am giving you the truth because I want you to know that you can trust me, to be able to feel deeply for me. I want you to fall head over heels in love with me even knowing that for me it is fate. For me there is no question. And as I see it, the only question for you is, does your new knowledge change how you feel about me, how you could someday feel about me?”
She was silent while her thoughts whirled in a mad jumble. She looked into his eyes and waited for something to come to her, some direction, some way to make sense of everything she had seen.
“Nope,” she decided. “I won’t be able to think right now. You saved my life and now I see you in the role of the hero. You fried my brain with the sex thing and then the wolf thing. My mind is battered and fried, like curls of calamari and I just can’t think. Sorry.”
He winced and laughed.
“A lovely description. I may never be able to consume calamari again.”
She laughed, too, but stopped because the tears were still too close.
“What does this mean?” she asked seriously. “Nobody knows about you, do they? It’s a total secret. You must be so careful all the time about keeping your secret.”
He nodded and she shrugged tightly.
“Well, I know about that much, anyway. My sister and I have been in hiding most of our adult lives. We’re not in trouble, or anything. We’re not criminals. But since we’re revealing our d
eepest secrets, I suppose it’s only fair that I should tell you mine.”
Chapter 6
She curled up in the blanket and leaned back against the couch. He took his place beside her while she told him about witnessing her stepfather’s murder and seeing the face of his murderer while the man had rifled through his pockets.
She had to stop for a minute after that. He reached for her hand and gripped.
She ignored the tears that tracked down her cheeks and told him how she had dragged her little sister out of the house and through a maze of yards and dark alleys in the black of night to reach the bus station with nothing more than a little cash and the clothes on their backs. She had done it all in her skirt and high-heeled boots and hadn’t even known it until she was already on the bus.
Ives’s face hardened and fang tips gleamed, but he said nothing.
“Put the fangs away,” she said and her voice was thick. She cleared her throat. “It was years ago.”
“For me, it just happened. You’ll have to learn to live with me, Maressa, fangs and all. The thought of my mate in danger, and at a time when I was on another continent and nowhere close enough to protect her life, angers me. It enrages me that I could have lost you before I even knew you existed. I could have walked through this life alone believing that it was my destiny. It triggers my beast, and my control is precarious, but I will never hurt you.”
His eyes had begun to glow faintly.
“I get that. But there’s nothing you can do. It’s over. My stepfather’s family searched for us, I’m sure, since his house and all his money, his things would belong to Bliss, but I couldn’t risk her life to go back. I don’t know why he was killed. I don’t know if it had something to do with business or with my stepfather’s family. I didn’t know who to trust. She’s my responsibility and I couldn’t risk her.”
Ives took her hand and brought it to his lips. His fangs were hidden and she couldn’t feel them on her skin, but when he spoke she could hear the tremor of rage in his voice.
