“I’ll be fine. You, my dear, are the one who needs safe harbor. Let me take care of you. Let me carry your fears and struggles for a while.” He kissed her, a sweet, promise-filled kiss that neither gave nor took. “It’s my privilege as your mate.”
She stifled further sobs. Sophia hadn’t expected to become so entangled with the werewolf, but his gentle words and easy understanding crumbled her remaining defenses. She was so tired of the fight. “Why are you here?” She watched the pattern of rain reflected on the ceiling from the window. “I know you’re attempting to lift the gypsy curse, but why now? You’ve lived your whole life under it, so why all of a sudden are you anxious to ditch it?” She lifted her head to stare into his eyes. “Why did you pick me?”
“I didn’t.” Xavier rolled her onto her back and hovered just above. “The Universe did, or Fate, if you would rather go that way. For whatever reason, we belong together, and it’s all for the better if we come to care for each other by the end of the quest.”
“Is that what you want to see happen?” She brushed a soft blond curl, her breath held as she steeled herself for his answer. “If it’s one of your stunts and you lead me on, only to tell me weeks later you were wrong, I’d be hurt and pissed enough to tell Sterling about you.”
“Know this.” He smoothed the hair back from her forehead. “No matter what else happens, you and I will be together. If we have two hours or two lifetimes, I don’t plan to let you out of my sight, troublesome though you may be.”
“Me? What about you?” Gentle ripples of need tickled her insides as she looked at him. “What if we aren’t successful in lifting the curse?”
He pressed a line of kisses on the skin of her neck. “If All Hallow’s Eve occurs and I don’t have the potion, not only will the curse not be lifted, but I’ll be forced to become a wolf for the rest of my life.” He shrugged and rolled onto his side, his eyes hooded. “You won’t be happy.” The temptation of his naked flesh became too much.
Sophia leaned close enough to run her tongue over his chest. She circled one of his nipples, teasing it into a hardened nub, grinning when he pulled away.
“You’re correct. I’ve grown tired of being alone with my books and fine wines. I don’t want to hassle with fur any longer, especially forever. I want to live life, but not as a wolf.” He brought her hand to his lips, sucked each individual finger into his mouth. “I want to have children, but on the condition they’re free of this curse.”
“If you’re a wolf you’ll have wolf babies. They won’t know any different. Of course, you’d be duty bound to be with a female wolf and that’s not something I’m willing to go through—even for you.”
“Dammit, Sophia.” Xavier’s voice was a low growl as he flung himself from the bed to prowl about the small room. “I cannot live the remainder of my life as an animal. Do you understand? If there’s a chance I can break the curse, I’ll do everything in my power to do it. You, of all people, should sympathize with my desire to be normal.”
The unseen hands of worry twisted her insides. “I’m sorry.” Sophia scrambled from the bed to join him at the window. “If I could change the events in your life, I would, but we have three days left.” She touched his shoulder, winced when he flinched. “We wasted a whole day on the dragon. We should have gone to the museum and taken a tooth from one of the dinosaurs. Surely the line between dragon and dinosaur is a blurry one.”
Xavier turned away to make another circuit of the room.
She hated herself anew for the anguish he went through. With a sigh, she regarded the rain-streaked window. “Let me go to Sterling. I’ll convince him to lift your curse. In exchange, I’ll give him—” She broke off abruptly.
“What? You’ll give the Portal Master what in exchange for lifting my curse?” he questioned softly, his breath warming her ear as his arms went around her waist.
“It’s not important.” Sophia shivered. The excitement that unfurled in her stomach chased away the fear and anxiety.
“Ah, but it is, dear heart. For one moment, you lived in a world full of clarity and fearlessness and allowed your true nature to shine through. Now, tell me.” He turned her in his arms, captured her gaze. “What were you so unselfishly going to give for my freedom? Please indulge me and say it’s not your body.”
“Fine.” She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “I’ll offer my life and my freedom.” She took advantage of his silence to kiss him. When the werewolf pulled her roughly against him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and plundered his lips. Sucked the bottom one into her mouth, fenced with his tongue, and finally rested her forehead on his. “Damn you, Xavier. I want to hide you somewhere that Sterling won’t find you. I want to protect you.” She drew in a long shaky breath, blew it out. “I want you.” She stared him down, conscious of her heated skin, her elevated heartbeat. “You’re like a fever in my blood, and I can’t deny you any longer.”
His next kiss was hard and left her reeling. “And you wonder why I don’t wish to remain in wolf form.” He drew her onto the bed, and brushed the slender fingers of one hand over her hip. “In light of this new information, I feel I must inform you of an important fact.”
Sighing with frustration, she lightly tugged on his chest hair. “It better be important, werewolf, because talking is not something I want to do at this moment.”
“Thank the gods I’ve finally cracked that rocky exterior.” He shot her a smug grin as he fumbled in a pocket of his soft pants. “I wouldn’t say our trip was unsuccessful.”
She squinted at the small object he held aloft between his thumb and forefinger. “What is it?” Sophia adjusted her glasses and looked again. In the faint light, the object resembled a highly polished…molar?
“This, my skeptical, sexy gargoyle, is the tooth of our dragon friend.” He rested offering on the swell of her left breast that peeked over the top of her shirt. “Do you remember when I threw the punch that knocked Braeden to the floor? He spit the tooth out, and I grabbed it as we grappled.”
With a cry of pure joy, Sophia pounced on him and showered his face with kisses. “That’s brilliant! No wonder you picked the fight.”
“I was duty-bound to fight him for his rough handling of you. If he attempts it again, I won’t leave until he’s dead.” He claimed her lips in a savage kiss.
Sophia giggled when as his goatee tickled her skin. “I can’t say I’ll never doubt you again, but this is your best work yet.”
“Oh, I haven’t begun to show you my best, darling girl.” He gripped her hips and pulled her across his chest. “Give me enough time and you’ll sing my praises for the next forty years or so.”
“I’ve told you I’m not easily impressed. There are way too many unresolved loose ends before we stumble into a happy ending, if there is such a trivial thing.” Still, her spine tingled with excitement at the possibility. She captured his face between her palms. “In all honesty, I don’t want to see you shift into a wolf again. It’s painful to watch, and scary, so let’s rid you of the curse, hmm?”
He blinked rapidly, as if he wanted to clear his eyes of tears, but it was too dark for Sophia to be certain and surely, big alpha men didn’t cry. Xavier smiled. “You talk too much, woman.” He dropped a kiss on her collarbone. “Please feel free to show your admiration for my genius in any way you choose.”
“Xavier….” She squeaked as he slipped his questing fingers under her sleep shirt and fondled her breasts. “Xavier!” Sophia scrambled for the tooth, held it tight in her fist. She stared at the werewolf, her breathing heavy then, putting her lips against his ear, she whispered, “First one to my bedroom gets to undress the other.”
*****
Her heart pounded in time to Xavier’s heavy tread on the stairs. As soon as the words left her mouth, he’d vaulted from the bed as if it were on fire. A smile tugged at her lips as she followed with a more leisurely gait. She’d let him wait a bit longer, tease him in retribution for all the tormenting he’d done
to her in the last few days. Still, anticipation swirled inside her, turning her from a once calm, semi-rational being into an emotionally crazed woman who couldn’t wait to get into her man’s pants. Her smile widened as she paused in the bedroom doorway.
He lay sprawled on her bed, his hands behind his head and his long legs crossed at the ankle. “I beat you.”
“So you did. Damn, I wasn’t fast enough.” Her mouth watered. Warmth gathered between her thighs as her gaze swept over him to pause at the bulge at the front of his pants. She pushed the door shut and clicked the lock. “I guess this means I’ll have to let you take off my clothes.” She ignored the flutter of alarm that attempted to claim her attention. Her need for the werewolf never wavered.
“It’s bad form to break a promise.” Xavier slipped from the bed to join her in the middle of the room. His eyes gleamed in the weak light streaming through the blinds from a street lamp. “If you wish to change your mind, I won’t object—much. There’ll be plenty of opportunities.”
“No. Life is uncertain enough. I want no regrets.” Holding his golden gaze, Sophia slowly drew her sleep shirt over her head, tossed it away. Her breasts swayed slightly from the movement. “I want you, Xavier, and that won’t change.” For one terrible moment, she thought he’d changed his mind, but then he growled low in his throat and crushed her into his arms.
“You’ve tempted me beyond reason.” He kissed her, took possession of her lips as if he already owned them. “Now it’s my turn to torment you.” He stroked his fingers over her bare back leaving tiny flames in his wake.
“That’s not fair.” She rubbed her cheek on the soft hair of his goatee, enjoying how it tickled her skin. “No complaints here.” She nipped a line of kisses along his strong jaw, teased a spot just to the right under his chin. When he moaned, she did the same to the other side, before trailing her tongue down his throat to play at his collarbone. His masculine taste triggered a craving for more.
With a few indecipherable words, he scooped her into his arms and carried her to the bed, laid her down, then joined her on the mattress, his body covering hers. “Your skin is so soft, like velvet, or…” A wicked grin parted his lips. “Ice cream.” He licked a path over the column of her neck, blowing lightly on the moistened skin.
Sophia shivered at the exquisitely cool sensation.
“Mmm, like that, do you? Perhaps I should continue.”
Before she could form a witty comeback, her world spun crazily to the side. Xavier pushed her arms over her head, claimed her lips in a kiss so hard their teeth clicked together and left her gasping for breath. When he moved down her body to tease her nipples, she arched her back giving him greater access. He licked each bud, circling the tips until she lay whimpering beneath him. She tried to free her arms, but he held her wrists with one hand, his elegant fingers a gentle bond. “Xavier, enough. I need to touch you.” Desperation clung to the words.
“Not yet.” He released her wrists in order to trail kisses down her chest, biting the soft flesh near her belly button. “There’s so much more I want to do.” He hooked a finger into the elastic waistband of her plain cotton panties and gave it a little tug. “Tell me what you want.”
Sophia’s eyes crossed as he smoothed his palms over her legs, drawing the underwear down inch by inch. He placed kisses on her belly, her hips, his goatee scratching the sensitive skin of her inner thighs. The heated wetness between her thighs increased. Did he notice? “I want you. I need to feel you inside me, now.”
“Patience.” He finally separated her from her panties and dropped them on the floor. “You aren’t ready.”
“I am.” Sweat formed on her forehead. When he pressed the heel of his palm against her mound, she nearly jumped off the bed. “Xavier, please.” She writhed against his hand. He eased a finger along her folds, teased her entrance, while tormenting her swollen nub with his thumb. Ripples of pleasure emanated from that spot, and like disturbances in a pond and flowed upward to encompass her whole body. Pressure built inside, coiled with the deadly accuracy of a snake, striking in the form of thousands of pinpricks of light and feeling. “Good lord.” Stars formed behind her eyelids as her inner muscles contracted around his fingers. She moved her head restlessly against the pillow, opening her eyes to look at him.
His grin was wide and purely, unequivocally male. “Now, you’re ready, except next time we won’t go this fast and the orgasm won’t be so small.” Leaving the bed long enough to remove his loose-fitting pants, Xavier soon returned to kneel over her, caressing her skin as if she were the harp and he the musician. His arousal pressed urgently into her stomach.
“Paybacks can be hell, werewolf.” Sophia wrapped tentative fingers around his hard length then grew bolder as he nodded encouragement, moving slightly to provide her greater access. “You’re quite something, aren’t you?”
He was silky soft and hot to the touch. She caressed each wrinkle and pucker of the skin, traced the vein on the underside of his member, laughing when a shudder shook his body.
“If you continue, there will be an early ending to this play.” His voice held a fair amount of strain. He jerked in her hands as his eyes rolled back in his head.
She rubbed her thumb over his tip, pleased at the moisture she drew forth. “We wouldn’t want that.” She stroked his length, applying pressure then exchanging it for feather-light touches until he growled and claimed her lips in a frantic kiss.
“For all that’s holy, woman, let me love you.”
In response, she wiggled her hips against his. He gave a cry of masculine triumph and shifted his weight onto his arms as he positioned himself over her. Sophia opened her legs wide. Her heart raced. Her blood pounded loudly in her ears. “Love away, wolf boy.” She gripped his shoulders, dug her fingernails into his skin until she was sure she’d leave marks. The tip of his erection bumped her entrance, seeking permission. Sophia lifted her hips, gasped when he slid easily into her slick channel, sighed as he buried himself to the hilt. She shifted slightly to accommodate his size, marveling at how well they fit together. “Xavier…” The darkness swallowed the single word.
A growl emanated from his throat. The sensations tickled her stomach, then he slowly withdrew. Sophia reached for him, not wanting him to leave, but he had other plans. He clasped her hands, pressed them into the mattress, and slid his shaft inside once more. “You feel so good.” Soon, he found his rhythm and she met him thrust for thrust. She pushed her hips to his, matching his every move as he pounded into her with powerful strokes.
Her body shook and her skin tingled as the electric dance continued until Xavier’s shouts ended with a partial howl, low and primal. Her cry of completion was small in comparison. She slipped over the edge of reality, welcomed the feeling of weightless floating as she rode the last pulses of pleasure. When she could think clearly, she opened her eyes, conscious of Xavier’s body pressing hers into the mattress.
Not having words that would equal what she just shared, she placed a kiss on his sweaty curls and wiped away the tears rolling into her hair. He stirred against her and her inner muscles contracted. She smiled, inhaled his signature scent mingled with the aroma of lovemaking and sighed.
Hers. Her mate. Always. It was nice.
Chapter Eighteen
“Get out!”
Xavier swiveled around at the pixie’s angry tone and looked sharply toward the back hall of Sophia’s apartment. A barrage of towels, bed sheets, and fleece blankets spewed from the linen closet like a pink and yellow avalanche.
A few seconds later, Sophia appeared, picking up the mess as she went. When she caught sight of him, she smiled. “Hey, stud muffin.” She threw her armful of laundry into a chair.
As much as he hated the moniker, Xavier welcomed the softer side of her. He recalled just how accommodating she’d been the previous evening and returned the grin. “Am I right to assume your good mood heralds the coveted three ounces of magic dust? Did your pixie cooperate?” Hope coated his
voice. Did she notice?
Her grin wavered. “Frieda flat out refused to help me. I can’t very well shake the pixie to get at her magic, can I?” Sophia tugged him into the living room and pushed him onto the sofa. “Listen, Mona’s at the grocery, the imps are locked up, Frieda’s sulking, and Calvin won’t come out while you’re here. I think he’s finally realized he can’t challenge you and he’s keeping hidden, so why don’t we make the best of this tiny window of time, hmm?”
“What did you have in mind?” He had an excellent view down her scoop-necked sweater, ached to reacquaint himself with her breasts.
“I think you know.” She slipped into his lap straddled him. “I’m feeling the need to take my wolf out for another trip around the block, if you know what I mean. The last time went by entirely too quick for my liking.” Her giggle went straight to his groin.
“I know.” He shifted as things grew uncomfortably tight in his slacks. “As much as I’m tempted by your offer, and you have no idea just how much, we have two and a half days left to assemble this potion.” His heart lurched to see the disappointment in her blue eyes.
“Are you sure?” She wriggled against him, grinding her hips into his. Xavier groaned. “I mean really, really sure?” She pressed her lips to his in a teasing kiss. “I can make it worth your time.”
“Damn.” He wrapped his arms around her then spent a few minutes exploring the soft, perfumed skin of her neck. He felt her shivers, caught the pure eroticism of the moment, and groaned again, this time in bitter disappointment at the situation. “Unfortunately, time is something I simply don’t have at this point.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Know this. I intend to explore every inch of your body with my tongue, kiss every pulse point, learn every sensitive spot of your skin until your doubts vanish and the only thing you know is my incredible hunger for only you.”
As he claimed her lips in a searing kiss, he knew she wouldn’t forget so soon. She made a soft mewling sound that rushed through his blood. If it wasn’t for the fact he’d be a damn animal for the rest of his life if they couldn’t make the potion in time, he’d drag the woman to her room and keep her there for days. Everything else paled in comparison to her. He slipped his hands beneath her sweater to tease her lace-covered nipples. He ached to see her naked body, flushed with desire for him. Their last coupling wasn’t enough. He wanted more. “Sophia, let’s—”
Charmed by the Werewolf Page 20
