When I reached for my door handle, she wrapped her much smaller hand around mine and looked at me with those big eyes. “I don’t want to be alone,” she murmured.
I wasn’t stupid enough to question her sudden compliance. My wolf howled in agreement, wanting to care for her.
I threw the vehicle in reverse, turning around to pull into my garage instead. I tried to pull my hand away so I could get out and go around to her side, but she held on firmly, climbing over the gear shift so I wouldn’t have to let go.
That was how I carried her into my house—her face tucked into my neck, her arms wrapped around me. I quickened my pace, anxious to get her upstairs and in my bed where I could wrap my body around hers and ensure she got the rest she needed.
I took the steps two at a time, holding her easily with one arm to pull down the covers when we got to my bedroom. Alyx loosened her hold enough so I could remove her shoes and kick off my own before crawling in beside her.
We said nothing. I simply held her, petting her with gentle caresses across her back, her arms, her thighs, her shoulders as she clung to me. I allowed my wolf to rise to the surface; he needed to care for her, too. To nuzzle and soothe and protect.
Because for a brief time, she was mine.
Chapter Eight
Reid
For the first time in my life, I took a woman into my bed with absolutely no intention of doing anything more than holding her. I would have been content to lay there with her in my arms for as long as she needed. She fit so perfectly against me, her body molded to mine. Soft where I was hard, yielding where I was not.
Mate, my wolf breathed.
Yeah, I know, I finally acknowledged, but we both knew my acceptance changed nothing. Beyond these walls, I was the Reaper. But here, now, I was anything she needed me to be.
I could feel the rise and fall of her chest against me, the warmth of each breath skimming against my collar and beneath my jaw. With her arms and legs, she held me in place as if I would try to run if she let go.
There was no chance of that. I wasn’t going anywhere.
I continued to stroke her back, gentle pets meant to soothe and calm.
Just when I thought she had finally fallen asleep, I felt it. A brush of her lips beneath my jaw, so light I was certain it had been unintentional. Then it happened again. The softest kiss, at once tentative, tender, and searing.
I stilled my hands as she shifted her body against mine, a slight but unmistakable rub of her full, firm breasts against my chest.
She licked at my skin, tasting me. Once. Twice. And just that quickly, my need to comfort became something darker.
Arousal flared to life and simmered in my blood. My dick grew hard and heavy, aching to fill her and make her forget everything but me and what I could make her feel.
Reason warred with lust and primal instinct, holding me back from doing just that. No matter how much I wanted her, taking advantage of her vulnerability was wrong.
“Alyx,” I rasped, my voice gone growly with my wolf so close to the surface. “Alyx, stop.” I closed my hands around her upper arms and lifted her up to look at me. “You don’t need to do this.”
In the dark, her amber eyes glowed as if lit from within. “Yes, Reid,” she whispered. “I need this. I need you.” With soft, warm hands, she cupped my face, stroking nearly a day’s growth. She didn’t seem to mind.
“I’m here, baby. You have me. Let me hold you, take care of you.”
She dropped her hand to my chest, then lit a path of fire down my abs as I sucked in a breath. When she closed around my now-throbbing length, I couldn’t withhold a hiss. It felt so good. A mate’s touch. Magical. Electric. It took everything I had not to rock my hips into her hand.
“You want me,” she whispered.
“Not like this.” It came out harsher than I had intended.
The hurt in her eyes was instant and immediate, sending a sharp blade of pain through my chest. She pulled her hand back and pushed away, twisting from my grasp.
* * *
Alyx
Reid’s blatant rejection was a hard slap of reality. With three simple words, he had managed to strip away the warmth of his bed and his body, leaving me feeling exposed, chilled, and utterly humiliated.
“Alyx.” He reached for me, but I was already halfway across the room. “Alyx, please.”
I paused briefly at his bedroom door, but I did not turn around. I couldn’t. I was too ashamed.
“I’m so sorry, Reid. I thought ...” What had I thought? That he wanted me? Because he had been nice to me? Because he had shown compassion?
I was such an idiot!
Embarrassment and anger welled inside me, the telltale sting in my eyes a warning. When I let my energy reserves get too low, I became emotional, and I would be damned if I let myself cry in front of him.
He might think there was something more to this than a desire to take advantage of the opportunity to experience a few hours of non-thinking bliss in a man’s arms. There wasn’t. I wouldn’t allow it. I had just wanted to feel alive again—in Reid’s arms—while I could. Clearly, I had been mistaken in thinking that was something we both wanted.
I pulled open the door and practically flew down the steps with but one thought—to put as much distance between me and Reid MacIntyre as quickly as possible.
“Alyx!” he bellowed from above.
For a moment, I hesitated. Part of me wanted to obey his command, but a larger part took back control and ignored him, picking up speed with every step, sliding along the hardwood flooring in my socks. Screw my shoes. He could shove them up his pitying ass for all I cared.
As fast as I was, Reid was faster. He caught me at his back door, yanking the bolt locks back.
“Alyx, stop.”
“You said that already,” I said through clenched teeth, struggling with the damned locks. “I get it, Reid. Don’t worry; the pity party is over. You did your good deed for the day. Now let me go.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“Fuck you.” I pulled free another lock.
“Alyx, come here.”
“Fuck. You.” I flipped the last lock and opened the door, only to have it slammed shut soundly before I could get a foot out.
I felt his heat, his power, against my back as he caged me against the door.
“Let me go.” My voice was quiet and cold as ice.
“No.” His was even quieter, hot enough to melt ice.
“Kiss my ass.”
“I intend to. Right after I paddle it for being so goddamned stubborn.”
I turned around to find his green eyes glittering, the heat in his gaze unmistakable. “Sorry, Reid. That limited time offer was made and rejected. I don’t need your pity fuck.”
His expression grew even darker, and I swear his eyes glowed. “Pity fuck? Is that what you think I’m going to give you, Alyx?”
I swallowed hard, shrinking against the door. The shiver that ran the length of my spine and set up shop between my legs had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the raw power that radiated from him.
Reaching down deep, I summoned my courage and lifted my chin. “What else could it possibly be?”
“I was trying to protect you, Alyx.”
“Protect me? From what?” I asked, unable to control the tremor in my voice.
Reid closed the small distance between us, crowding me until his breath was my breath. I raised my hand, heading for a full slap across his face, but he caught it easily.
“From this.”
Without warning, his mouth closed over mine, hard and demanding. He invaded and plundered and took with a kiss so hot that I had no choice but to melt before him. Every thought, every feeling was driven from my mind. Never had I felt a man’s kiss branding my very soul, but his did.
He pulled away suddenly and my only thought was, “No!”
“Tell me to stop, Alyx,” he pleaded, his voice ragged. “Tell me to stop now and I
swear I’ll find some way.”
I looked into his pleading eyes even as I felt his big hands at my hips, flexing. I wanted to. I wanted to tell him to fuck off, that I didn’t need him or his sympathy. The truth was, I wanted him more. I did need him. I needed him so badly in that moment that if he should stop, I wasn’t sure I would survive.
So, instead of pushing him away, I wound my arms around his neck, grabbed the hair at the back of his head, and pulled him closer. With an arch of my back, I pressed my breasts against his hard chest, the pressure against my stiff nipples both a blessing and a curse.
As though from far away, I heard the sound of the locks being secured behind me. Then I felt his strong hands cupping my bottom, lifting me. I wrapped my legs around his waist instinctively, trapping his rock-hard erection against my wet, aching core.
“Damn you,” he growled as he took me back upstairs, practically tossing me onto the bed, then looming over me before I could even think of trying to escape again. “I wanted to do the right thing, Alyx, but you’re making it fucking impossible.”
He yanked my shirt over my head, his eyes glistening with barely contained hunger at the sight of my heaving breasts. “I don’t do gentle.” With a flick of those long, strong fingers, he unclasped my satiny black bra and peeled apart the sides, replacing the garment with his hot, rough hands.
I sucked in a breath, the sensation sending a sharp bolt of lust right between my legs. “I don’t want gentle. I want you.”
He cursed again as he skimmed his thumbs across my hardened nipples, tight peaks that had become the center of my sensory universe. With another growl, he then lowered his head and drew one into his mouth. He made wicked little circles with his tongue before pulling back and blowing softly, only to plunge my nipple into his mouth again, stinging me with sharp bites that were quickly smoothed away by lavish strokes of his tongue. His rough, demanding, glorious tongue.
I grabbed fistfuls of his hair and pulled him closer, demanding more. Big, calloused hands caressed my flesh as if he were committing every dip and curve to memory, leaving a trail of fire along my skin and stoking the inferno that had taken up residence in my core.
With a groan, he switched to my other breast, taking it mercilessly with his mouth as he furiously worked to tug my pants over my hips.
He pulled back long enough to sear my flesh with his luminous green gaze. It was the gaze of a predator who had just captured his prey, intent on devouring me.
Rather than fear, I felt only anticipation and arousal. My sex throbbed, slick and achy, smothering all logic and reason, reducing my world only to him and the need to have him.
“Fuck.” The word was a strangled curse when he caught sight of my black thong, tracing one finger along the edge briefly.
“Damn you,” he swore again, his words muffled against my skin as he hooked his finger and ripped through the material as easily as if it were made of tissue paper. Then I felt the glorious rasp of those calloused hands against the sensitive skin of my inner thighs, sliding impatiently on a direct path to where I needed him most.
“Ah, Alyx, you’re so fucking wet for me. I swear I could come from just touching you, baby.”
He sucked my breast back into his mouth hard. It felt so good. Sharp teeth that had me wondering if they had gotten larger scraped and nipped, sending more erotic bolts straight between my legs.
Which is exactly where his hot mouth went next.
Need, the likes of which I had never known, electrified my entire body.
I tightened my grip on his hair and dug my nails into his scalp, lifting my hips boldly and without shame, demanding that he take more.
In a move that made my vision go white, he rasped that rough tongue of his along my swollen flesh, lapping at me as a cat licks cream.
“Fuck,” he growled again. “I knew you’d have the sweetest pussy in the world. Like fucking candy.”
He forced my legs farther apart, burying his face, nose to chin while his powerful shoulders pushed against the backs of my thighs.
My head fell back in ecstasy as I floated on wave after building wave of pleasure. Never had I been kissed, licked, and sucked so thoroughly.
Just when I didn’t think I could bear any more, a long, thick finger was pushed inside me and curled, applying pressure to a part of me that had never been touched before. I couldn’t help it. I screamed, clamping down on him as my world exploded.
* * *
Reid
With my wolf dangerously close to the surface, she cried out my name. My name on her lips as I was giving her pleasure was about the sweetest thing I had ever heard. Almost as sweet as her pussy.
I continued to lap at her as she gifted me with more cream, adding a second finger to the first.
Intent on my feast, it took a while for me to register the way her hands gripped and pulled frantically at my head.
I looked up, dazed and drunk. Why was she stopping me? I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to stay buried in the sweetness between her legs forever.
“Inside me,” she demanded breathily. “Need you inside me.”
I hissed. Yes, I could do that. That was pretty much the only thing worth giving up the taste of her for.
I gave her one final, lingering lick as I undid the clasp of my jeans and shoved them down over my hips. I kicked them off impatiently, taking pleasure in the way her eyes widened when they fell upon my cock. It grew even bigger, even harder, under her hungry eyes. When she licked her lips, I nearly came right then and there.
Someday, I hoped she would gift me with the pleasure of wrapping that sassy mouth around my dick, but not tonight. Tonight, I needed to be inside her.
I sheathed myself in record time, which displeased my wolf. He wanted her bare, raw. Wanted to spill his seed deep in her womb, marking her as mine and only mine. Thankfully, my human side still held enough sway over my animal not to do something so foolish.
Alyx had no idea what I was or what she was to me and I couldn’t risk getting her pregnant. Despite the fiery need that burned in my blood and the certain knowledge that she was the only woman for me, I was still adamant that I could not promise that kind of commitment.
She welcomed me, my beautiful goddess, opening her arms and legs to cradle and receive me.
In no time at all, I was positioned above her, the swollen head of my cock poised at her entrance. It bobbed and strained against her impatiently while I fought to retain control.
“Now,” she begged. “Please, Reid.”
I hesitated, my two halves battling for dominance. If my wolf gained the upper hand, our joining would be a brutal, carnal claiming, and I didn’t want that for her.
“Reid. Please,” she pleaded again, reaching between us and wrapping her fingers around my cock.
I growled at the feel of her grasping me, her fingers circling me, her thumb making tiny back and forth movements just under the sensitive head as she guided me into her.
My wolf howled as I pushed inside, inch by agonizing inch.
I inhaled, filling my lungs with the same dark, sweet musky scent that coated my lips and tongue.
“Alyx,” I whispered her name like a prayer. She was damnation and redemption, all at once.
“Yes.” One word. That was all it took.
With one, final rock of my hips, I slid deep, seating myself so fully that my aching balls pressed against her slick heat. It was agony and ecstasy, and so fucking perfect. I had never felt anything like it.
I forced myself to still. Cradling her head in my hands, I brushed the hair away from her face with my thumbs to look into her eyes.
Buried deep inside her, her sheath was a tight fist, flexing and squeezing as she struggled to accommodate me.
For the first time in my life, I felt whole. Complete.
She needs us, my wolf pushed. Bite her now. Make her ours.
As much as I wanted to do just that, I couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair to her. This would have to be enough.
&nb
sp; Alyx squeezed my shoulders. “Reid, please don’t stop.”
“I won’t stop,” I promised. I couldn’t stop if I wanted to.
I kissed her then, long and deeply. With one hand, I continued to cradle her head while I slipped the other down between us and gently stroked her clit to build her up again. I was close, too close, and I needed her right there with me.
Like my dual nature, tenderness and hot, fiery desire came together as she began to move beneath me.
“Easy, baby,” I crooned in her ear as I pulled back slightly then slid forward again. I repeated the process, extracting myself a little farther each time until she could handle a full stroke.
The sounds she made, that incredibly hot mixture of moans and whimpers, had me clenching my teeth, holding back, determined to give her pleasure before I found mine.
I skated on a razor’s edge of control, rocking into her soft, lush body with slow, thorough strokes. I added a few quick thrusts, alternating the speed and power until I felt her channel tightening abound my cock.
Her nails scored my back, making it impossible to hold back any longer.
“That’s it, baby. Let it go. Give it all to me. I want it all.”
My breaths were harsh and ragged as I fought the urge to sink my teeth into the base of her neck and mark her.
I turned my head away and pumped into her over and over again until she dug her nails into my back and exploded around me.
The beast within clawed furiously at the inside of my chest, demanding that I claim her as my own, but I resisted. I couldn’t do that to her, no matter what.
With one, last, powerful thrust, I buried myself to the hilt, her powerful climax forcing my own release. Every muscle in my body tightened as I continued to stroke, prolonging her peak until she shook violently from the force of it.
Spent, I gathered her limp body into my arms, rolling to the side and spooning her against me. The heat of her skin soaked into me like rays of the sun. The silky glide of her hair caressed the underside of my chin.
Going Nowhere: A BAMF Team Novel Page 7
