The Copperheads were going to learn a really harsh lesson about underestimating people.
Or ever coming near his mate again.
14
Dani paced next to the fence that surrounded the main spread of Dragonclaw, rubbing her hands up her arms as she watched a thick, ominous thunderstorm rage in the east.
Off in the direction Reno had gone less than an hour ago.
Thick cones of lightning spread across the sky and connected to the earth below as if to the rhythm of her still-beating heart.
She was worried sick. Not because she feared for Reno’s safety, but because there had been something feral, something deadly in his gaze after he’d saved her from the wolflike men as they’d suddenly appeared to take her.
There was still a lot going on that needed an explanation. But more than any facts or details, Dani needed to know why his gaze seemed to electrify whenever he was angry or when he looked at her.
She also needed to know what was going on between them.
After last night, when he’d been so sweet and comforting she could get misty-eyed just thinking about it, she hadn’t been able to shake her thoughts of him. Her want and care and desire for him were at a breaking point. She couldn’t ignore the fact that her childhood love was right here and that he still acted like a possessive lover even though he insisted on staying distant from her.
How did he really feel about her right now?
There was the whine of an engine in the distance, and she narrowed her gaze to see Reno blazing across the plains at a breakneck pace, still driving the same ATV he’d used to chase after the men in the first place.
Reno pulled up to the fence, switched off the engine, and hopped off.
Energy seemed to radiate around him as he moved, and Dani looked him over, afraid of what sort of trouble he’d gotten into. It was something she’d gotten used to as a kid, though. Someone would bully her, Remi would find out about it, and then he’d reappear an hour or two later covered in cuts and bruises without any further explanation.
But aside from a few strange singe marks on the arms and cuffs of his denim work shirt, he looked completely unhurt.
And still extremely pissed.
“I thought you were returning that to those guys you went after,” Dani said, talking from the other side of the fence.
Reno looked at the ATV, then shrugged. “They didn’t want it back after all.” Then, with a deft motion, he hefted himself over the four-foot fence, landing lightly on his feet at her side.
His gaze wasn’t so much icy now as it was electric-blue, the color of blue neon signs. But maybe that was just the storm clouds behind him.
“At any rate, they won’t be around to bother you ever again.” Then, with a huff, he took off toward the ranch.
Dani ran after him, confused by the tense air that hung around him and needing more than just the knowledge she was safe for now.
She grabbed his hand, and he stopped, not looking over his shoulder at her. “What happened anyway? I was worried sick about you. And then you just reappear, telling me everything is fine like I should just accept that as an answer?”
Reno tensed. But to her surprise, his fingers wrapped around her hand, clutching her tightly. “I was taking care of things.”
“Taking care of things? Taking care of things like you did ten years ago?” She didn’t want his protection just to have him leave her afterward every time.
If love meant abandoning people, even to protect them, she didn’t want it anymore.
But she did want Reno.
He finally turned to look at her, his body still pointed away like he would run at any moment. But he stayed. And his eyes, though full of emotion, were a little less angry. His clothes were wet, clinging to his masculine form, and just the light contact of his hand on hers made a sensual heat start to pool inside her.
“That was different back then.”
“Different how? As you see it, the ends justify the means even if it means neither of us gets what we really want.”
His expression shuttered, then blazed open again as his gaze raked down her, taking her in. She felt seen and wanted along with a million other things that couldn’t be explained with so much care and time and history between them.
“I did what I had to do.” The pain in his voice echoed the pain in her heart from losing her best friend.
But they were here now. Nothing was really lost. Not yet.
“I know,” she said, taking a step toward him. He inched away as if afraid of getting too close to her. Why would he feel that way? “But what about just now? What about the next time? Will you still run from me, Remi?”
Light rain began to fall over them, tickling her skin with purifying coolness. The lightning had ceased in the east, leaving the ranch quiet except for the dull roar of raindrops pattering on every surface around them. The earth smelled fresh, of new grass and new beginnings.
When could their story finally un-pause as it should have all those years ago?
“I don’t deserve to be called that name. Not anymore.” He looked down at Dani as she reached him, and she boldly put her hands on his chest, feeling his heartbeat race beneath her fingertips.
Her own heart was going to explode out of her chest any moment now, but she couldn’t stop.
“You’ll always be the you that I loved when we were kids. Only now, you’re much more than that.” Reno’s arms came around her as she spoke, pulling them closer together. Like two comets that passed each other once long ago only to be orbiting each other again, destined for a collision course. “You’re Reno. Big and tough and keeping everything to yourself. And hot,” she added, feeling herself blush as cool raindrops wet her cheek.
“So you loved me back then?” The curiosity and sudden interest in his voice tickled her eardrums, and his hands holding her hips held her a little more tightly.
She nodded. “But I couldn’t forgive you for running away like that. I tried to for so long, but the memory of us never made sense with the person who could coldly disappear like that. And then, since last night… those thoughts have been slowly going away. Knowing that there was a reason behind it and not that I was just baggage to be cast aside.”
“You were never baggage to me, Dani,” he said earnestly, pulling her into his chest and sheltering her from the storm. “I loved you too. You were my best friend and the only person I ever trusted. If I had known of a way to get you out, or at least to tell you how I really felt, I would have. I swear.”
“I believe you.”
Then his hand slid up her back, entwining with the hairs around the back of her neck and drawing her gaze up to meet his. His eyes were light again, full of warmth and something much deeper toward her.
“I want you with my whole soul, Dani. I wanted you back then, and I’ve wanted you every damn day since, even as I believed I might never hold you again. For years, I’d hoped you moved on…” He growled, the sound rumbling in her chest. “But I was selfish. I still wanted you even though I knew you were better off without me.”
“How can you say what’s better for me or not?” She met his eyes boldly even as the promise of his full lips and hungry eyes lingered above her.
“I can’t stop until I’m certain you’re safe. There’s more going on here than I can explain.”
She reached her hands between them and tugged on his shirt, pulling him closer to her. His fingertips continued to brush the sensitive nape of her neck, and she had to suppress a groan of want even as her emotions blazed with surety.
“Is anyone ever really safe, Reno? Something terrible could happen at any time, to either of us, and we would have no control to stop it.” The advice given by her mother long ago repeated in the back of her head while Dani spoke, enlivening her and pushing her toward the only thing she’d ever truly wanted for herself. “The belief you can save me from everything, protect me from everything, is only going to keep you from ever living for yourself. So what are you really ru
nning from?”
He growled again and pulled her into him so they were chest to chest, her body trapped against his. A thrill went through her at his utter closeness, his utter maleness, as he held her like a man holding the whole world in his arms.
He’d sacrificed so much for her. They’d both sacrificed.
It was time to live.
“I’m running from myself, Dani. Running from the fear that the second I hold on too tight to you and decide I can never let go, something will tear us apart again.”
“No one can predict what will happen tomorrow. The world could end in an instant. Or it could keep going for another million years, and we’ll be lost to time, nothing but dust, and all that will have mattered is what we chose to do with the time given to us here and now.” She leaned up on her tiptoes, still inches away from his face, pulling herself upward with her hands on his chest. “So tell me now or stop stringing me along, Reno. What. Do. You. Want?”
“You.”
At that, his lips crashed over hers, harsh and possessive and dominant as their mouths melded together, made wet from the drizzling rain. A shockwave of need coursed through Dani’s insides as his tongue thrust past her already parted lips to enter her mouth, stroking and filling her.
She felt alive and hot everywhere all at once. And after a moment, her knees began to wobble, the tension in her legs from standing on tiptoe a little too much.
Reno pulled away and growled, his hands squeezing her ass and lifting her to him. She giggled, then sighed as she wrapped her legs around his taut midsection, feeling his hard body against her in ways she’d been fantasizing about since the moment they’d reconnected in that dark alley back in town.
“It’s always been you. My Danielle. My photography-loving, sunrise-hating girl. My best friend. My mate.”
She wasn’t sure what the last part was exactly, but she knew that, at least for the moment, he saw her completely. Understood her. Trusted her, and she trusted him back.
And when he leaned in to kiss her neck, the short stubble of his five-o’clock shadow tickling her wanting skin, she melted into his arms, arching back in sudden pleasure. The rain continued to pour, heavier now, and it pattered across her shoulders and arms and face as he continued to explore her hungrily.
“I’ve held back too long. But now you’re mine.”
The dark, almost unhinged way he said it made Dani wonder if this wasn’t how he’d really felt for her all along.
But he just continued to kiss her, making slow strides in a direction she couldn’t see while the world stopped and his kisses made her feel heaven on earth.
At some point, the rain had mixed with tears she didn’t even know had been falling down her face until she’d tasted their saltiness on her lips. But she didn’t care. She just let the passion of the moment overwhelm her as she relished in the sensation of Reno all around her.
However the past had gone, whatever it had taken from them, it could stay where it was for the time being.
Right now, she needed all of him. Everything he was willing to give. She wanted to take the next step they had never been able to take all those years ago.
Her heart fluttered with excitement and wonder and anticipation.
If he was this overwhelming with just a kiss, what was the man she’d pined after for years like in bed?
Dani was going to find out.
15
Reno practically kicked down the door of his own house in his insistence to take Dani to privacy. Somewhere they could finally be with each other in ways that had occupied his waking dreams and fantasies for years.
From the night they’d kissed after prom, he’d known she was his mate.
And now, kissing her again, the truth that they were fated for each other was brighter than the noonday sun, burning into his very soul.
He continued to lick along Dani’s neck, sucking harshly on her skin to the reply of her soft sighs, knowing he was going to leave marks but not caring anyway.
He’d mark her everywhere by the time they were done. Kiss her and love her and pleasure her until she was breathless and panting his name in arousal and exhaustion.
When he’d looked down into the forest-green depths of her irises and she’d faced him boldly, without fear or hesitation, even after so many years, he couldn’t hold back any longer.
His wolf howled in approval.
And though he didn’t have plans to actually mate her right now, this was the first step to exploring more of the sizzling connection that had always been there but had been ripped apart before either of them could have found out more.
Damn, she was amazing.
He shut the door behind him, kicked off his boots, and made his way up the stairs toward his bedroom, still carrying her easily in his arms, relishing in the feel of her curves against him.
Reno was going to take his time; that was for sure.
“Ah,” Dani hummed as Reno bit down on her earlobe, then sucked gently, rolling the soft skin there back and forth with his tongue. He pressed their bodies tighter together, feeling the heat from her body as she ground her hips against his throbbing length that strained against his jeans.
Dani had been the only one to ever have this effect on him. Even living without her, no woman had taken his interest for even a second. After all, who could possibly compare to the beautiful, fun-loving best friend he’d always yearned for?
By the time he was at the top of the stairs, they were all over each other, pulling at each other’s clothes. He didn’t even make it halfway down the hall as she fumbled with the top of his shirt, undoing several buttons.
The possessive desire to claim her surged inside like a racehorse jumping out of the gate, and he pressed her against the wall, holding her up with one hand while his other grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her.
Dani’s gaze was warm, full of want, and they were both gasping as the energy between them reached a fever pitch.
“So eager you can’t even wait until we’re in my room, huh?” He teased her, kissing along the shell of her ear, the sound of her gasps ringing melodically in his ears.
“I’ve waited ten years for this. So yeah, I guess I am,” she replied between heaves of her chest, which only pressed her breasts against him, teasing him right back.
“Me too.” He kept her pinned, and when she wriggled against him, unable to move, he liked the shock and arousal in her eyes. “But I can’t promise this means forever. I won’t lie to you.”
“Just promise you won’t kiss me and run away. That’s all,” she said, then had the audacity to look down between them where their hips pressed against each other in an erotic way. He wanted to rip apart the material separating them and bury himself inside her right this instant.
He growled and thrust his hips upward against her center, and she moaned loudly, eyes rolling back in pleasure.
It made him angry that she could believe him capable of something like that right now, after everything.
But then again, he’d hurt her deeply once. He didn’t want to hurt her again.
“I can promise you much, much more than that, Dani. I’m going to make you feel everything I’ve wanted you to feel for all these years…” He squeezed her ass a little tighter and kissed her cheek as her unique scent of fresh spring water and Colorado wildflowers filled his senses. “Going to give you more than you can even take, then give you even more. Can you handle that?”
“I don’t know if I have a choice.” Her gaze was lost, hungry eyes unfocused as she sighed again when he sucked the damp skin at the base of her neck. “All I’ve wanted is you.”
“And now you have me.” He came back up to lean over her, holding her full attention. “And until you tell me to stop, you’re all mine.”
She nodded.
And he took her mouth with his again, entwining his tongue with hers and exploring the inside of her mouth until she was writhing against him and groaning muffled sounds until he was satisfied.
He let her hands go, pulled her away from the wall, and strode into his room, needing only a few more steps to cover the rest of the distance. Then he plopped her onto the bed, taking in the silhouette of her curves outlined by his gray sheets, and moved to unbutton the blue shirt she had on over a white tank top.
In spite of his eagerness, he went slowly, unraveling her layer by layer as a sense of wonder came over him. First her shirt, which he set onto the floor in a damp pile. Then her undershirt, which he helped her pull off, leaving her in just her jeans and a blue-tinted bra.
“Dani,” he whispered reverently as he kissed along her arms, going up to her shoulder. Then he kissed across her collar, just taking in the sweet sounds of her desire as he did, before he kissed along the curve of her belly and down to the corners of her hips exposed above the edge of her jeans.
Then he undid the button of her pants and slid the zipper down slowly, watching as Dani’s eyes went wider, her dark hair splayed over the pillow beneath her in tangles.
“This is really happening,” she said, breaths racing. He could feel her heartbeat even without touching her, his wolf senses heightened at moments like these.
“Oh, this is all real. Very real.” A second later, her pants were gone, and Reno began to kiss her legs, starting with her calves and moving up to her thighs. By the time he’d reached the soft fabric of her black panties, he was hungrier for her than he’d ever been for anything in his entire life.
And he was going to satisfy both their cravings.
He threw off his work shirt, leaving him shirtless and exposed to the cool, muggy air in the room as he stroked his finger up against her sex, teasing her clit lightly. Then he reached down to unhook her bra and began to kiss the already hard points of her nipples, sucking on them, then laving his tongue over them in long, eager circles.
Dani just relaxed into the sheets beneath her, looking comfortable and unbelievably sexy right now as he squeezed her breasts, then stroked his thumbs over her nipples, making her moan louder than she had a minute ago.
Rogue Wolf Page 9