by J. K Harper
A shiver tickled down his spine and back up again as every nerve ending he had roared to life. Oh, god, yes. This was going to be a fast and furious meeting of their bodies. The kind of meeting they loved, the kind that hadn't happened for months now. Ravenous for one another, their wolves would press their human sides into the background so the more sensual animal instincts could take over.
He kicked the door shut and pushed her up against it. His body didn't feel like his own to control. It felt wild, on fire, and filled with a primitive desperation. Desperate to touch his mate, to mark her, to claim her as his so thoroughly she would never forget it.
So she would never leave.
Lia allowed herself to be pushed hard against the door, her gray eyes smoked into darkness with her desire. He saw her wolf there, guiding her, savagely enjoying the dance between them. It roused him even further.
“My sexy she-wolf,” he said into her neck, kissing it and then nibbling her ear lobe, which made her tremble and raised little goose bumps of pleasure on her neck. She loved having her ear lobe nibbled. It was one of the secret spots that set her on fire every time. He nipped at it again, first lightly, then harder. A honeyed moan fell from her divine mouth, the mouth that could do things to him that should be outlawed. She shoved her own head back against the door, exposing her neck to him. He could see the hard beating of her pulse, could hear it thundering through her body with his heightened wolf senses. Tracing her pulse with his tongue, he very lightly bit down on the small throbbing of it.
Lia wrenched out a gasp. Her entire body melted into him, her soft curves fitting perfectly against his hardness. Her breasts swelled against his chest, making his nipples harden and his cock tighten in anticipation. Connor slid a hand down her left side, his mouth still playing with her neck. His fingers found the flare of her hip and spread there, lacing over her generous curves as he pictured holding her hips tight while he bucked into her.
Lia gasped again. The sound sent a zing straight to his cock, which was actually beginning to ache.
“Sweet woman,” he muttered against her hair, which smelled like fresh snow and whipping winds and fragrant pine trees. “Need you under me. Now.”
“Mm-hmm,” she agreed in a breathy little moan that did nothing but arouse him more. “Now. Please, yes. Connor, love,” she said, and her voice went to that pitch that never failed to get him. The pitch that said she was hungry, she was wanting, and she needed him more than she needed anything or anyone else in the world.
Without warning, he lifted her up onto her hips, sliding his hands under the gorgeous ass he'd been staring at all day. Laughter rolled out of her, though it was as breathless as her voice had been. She wrapped her legs around him and tucked her arms around his neck, kissing him and inhaling his scent with a frantic impatience that had him so hard he wasn't entirely sure he'd be able to walk.
God, this was going to be good.
“Please, Connor,” she said, a begging note holding onto her words. “Please.”
Carrying his mate's sumptuous body tucked against his, he turned and headed for the small living room with a very plush couch they'd scrimped to buy a few years back. “Not going to make it to the hot tub, love,” he murmured against her bright hair, hearing his wolf roughen his voice.
“Don't care,” she said, voice gratifyingly ragged as well. “Need you now.” Her scent spiked into the air, its sweet desire flooding him with a feral appetite he knew meant his wolf was fully in control.
Connor was breathing quickly enough to feel a little light-headed. Reaching the couch, he gently tumbled his mate onto it. She sprawled back, her limbs loose and welcoming, her eyes following his every move with her own hungry desire. Keeping her gaze locked on his, she ran her tongue over her upper lip in what he knew was an unconscious set utterly sexy move while she reached down to unzip her pants.
His brain promptly fell out and onto to the floor. Pushing away memories of the past few months of insane work schedules, pecks on the cheek sufficing for the mutual ravishments he vaguely remembered they used to engage in on a regular basis, and the soul-killing knowledge that she was leaving for greener pastures, he focused on this deliciously naughty, forbidden-feeling moment. All he was aware of was his mate, his luscious, amorous mate, spread out on their couch, as eager for him as he was for her.
Driven by a powerful need he knew he'd denied for too long now, he reached for her and started to tug her clothing over her head. “Damn it, woman, too many layers,” he muttered, drawing a giggle from her. He loved hearing her laughter. She'd graced him with it many times today in a musical cadence he'd half forgotten. Finally getting her silky smooth skin freed from her several upper layers, Connor helped her remove everything else with an urgency that had them both laughing even as they worked faster.
When his mate was stripped and every sweet curve exposed to his half-lidded gaze, she simply said, “Your turn.”
Connor proceeded to remove his clothes in record time, heedless of ripping them in his wolf-strengthened haste. When done, he stood in front of the couch, every inch of him trembling in anticipation. God, he missed this. Reaching one hand toward her, he gently traced a single taut nipple with a feather-light touch, fascinated that it hardened even more under the gentle tip of his finger.
Lia's smoky eyes closed as she let out a husky groan. Connor's blood seemed to heat in his veins as he watched color suffuse her skin. She always flushed lightly when she was aroused, something that always heightened his own excitement. His touch set his mate on fire, and it showed. Biting his lip to keep from moving too quickly, wanting the moment to last, he forced himself to circle her nipple slowly with his finger. Lia's plump mouth opened a bit, the sight sending a new wave of desire traveling through his body like molten lava. Connor's hand shook from the effort it took to not simply reach out and take her.
She opened her eyes, though, and gave him a look that smoked his entire body. “Connor,” she whispered, his name both a command and a question. “Connor, now. I'm so ready for you. I need to feel you inside me right this second.”
A half growl of pure instinct burst out of him as he obeyed his mate. In one quick move, he was on the couch with her, spreading her legs with one hand, guiding himself to her waiting heat. Her scent reached him, all wild desire and invitation, and he didn't wait another second.
Lia cried out his name as he drove himself into her hot, slick center. He was so hard he was half afraid he would burst before he could fully enjoy the sensation of finally, finally being inside her again. Lia wrapped her mile-long legs around him, their smoothness riding his back as her fingers pushed down on his shoulders. Her lips sought his again, demanding, wild with need. He pushed his tongue into the sweetness of her mouth, tasting her, swallowing her breathy cries.
She arched up from the couch, her hands pushing down on his hips to take him as fully inside her as she could. A heavy, ferocious sensation built inside him, spreading over every inch of his body, guiding the movements he made with blind, aching instinct.
Lia pulled back a bit, opening her eyes again to look at him. He saw the same animal awareness in her face that he felt, the same single focus on only this moment, only their urgent movements together. She was close, he knew. He could tell from the bright redness in her cheeks signaling the explosion about to ignite within her.
“Now, love,” he gritted out, feeling his own approaching fast. “With me, Lia. Come with me.”
She started to close her eyes, head thrown back, but he snarled, “Look at me.”
Startled, she opened her eyes again. They were almost black, the usual light gray beautifully fogged with her immense need. His command sent her over the edge, her fingers tightening on his hips as she called out his name in a voice more wild wolf than woman.
Connor felt her heat spasm around him, and it was enough to shoot him off. He burst within her, her heat and his mingling, their cries draping over one another and echoing through the small room. Their combined scen
t crowded his senses, making him want to roll his eyes back in his head. But he stayed with her, keeping his eyes open and on hers, knowing he shouted her name as he bucked into her. He felt her fingers holding so hard onto his hips he knew there would be bruises later. The thought made him spasm harder as their sweat-slicked bodies slid together.
“Lia!” he howled, his pent-up need and fears and love and longing all blending into that one word as his vision hazed over with the force of his powerful orgasm. She responded in kind, her face completely transformed into an untamed, unfettered display of pure joy and release. Connor's head whirled as he rode it to the sweet, throbbing end, holding his mate's ecstatic gaze the entire time.
Finally, as the last pulses faded away and Lia's body softened beneath his, he relaxed his weight onto her, crushing her to the couch, breathing so hard he saw stars shoot before his vision. She held him hard to her, inviting him to cover her with all his strength. To protect her, to let her know he was there simply by the fact of his body over hers, pressed into her as if trying to mingle their very DNA.
“I love you,” she murmured into his chest, her words echoing in his heart.
His wolf murmured back in pure male satisfaction, his sides so combined he barely knew where the wolf ended and the man started.
They lay tangled in a boneless heap on the couch, Lia's breathing eventually slowing to a more even pace along with his. Long moments later, Connor was halfway toward sleep when Lia's phone rang from somewhere in the pockets of her discarded clothing. She immediately tightened a bit beneath him, but he protested softly, “No. Stay with me.”
She sighed, but said, “I need to get it. Could be something important.” The languorousness was already slipping away from her voice as the driven woman began to come more to the forefront than the unbound wolf.
He tightened his arms around her, but she said, “Connor.” Her tone edged toward unyielding.
Quietly, he let her go. She moved out from under him and searched for her cell, managing to grab it and answer on the final ring. His wolf sat back, ears lowering a bit, as Lia's professional voice answered the call with a briskness that belied the fact she'd just been screaming his name in sheer abandon moments before.
Her responding words and the growing focus of her expression sliced at Connor. She slid a glance toward him, then guiltily looked away. Cold seeped through him, pushing away the heat they'd built between them. When she ended the call, she spent a long time staring at the phone, face lost in a concentration that had nothing to do with him. She finally looked over at him, her expression tightened up into the Lia the Wolf face he'd seen her use so many times in court.
“That was the DC firm.” Her tone was carefully neutral. “They need me sooner. There's been a development in the case, and they want to get it taken care of before the holidays if they can.”
Unable to stop himself, Connor said, “You aren't supposed to leave for another two weeks. What about the winter solstice pack run? The holiday party at the den?” Our own holiday, he wanted to add, but he bit off the words.
He saw something shift behind her eyes, but her face stayed firm. “Connor, they booked me a flight already. For tomorrow morning.”
“I see,” he managed quietly, although his wolf howled with anguish inside him.
He couldn't stop her. This was her dream. This was the life she'd planned out before she ever met him. He would not take that away from her. If he did, she'd resent the hell out of him the rest of her life, if she even stayed anyway.
Wolf still baying with agonized defiance and loss inside him, Connor just nodded. “Right. Okay. Better get you packed now, love.” His voice managed to stay steady as well. One professional to another.
“Okay,” she whispered back, her voice just as quiet.
Connor pushed his wolf back as hard as he could as he rose from the couch and slowly began to dress. If he hadn't, he knew he'd grab his mate and never, ever let her go.
But he had to let her go. He had no choice.
4
A blizzard raged outside the darkened windows, hurling snow and windy gusts against it as Lia worked. She ignored it, focusing instead on the paperwork before her. Her new office was big, although of course not nearly as grand as those of the higher-ranked attorneys here. One day, though, she'd get there. The firm had welcome Lia the Wolf with open arms.
That is, they had her come into the office the second her plane landed and shoved a giant pile of work her way, demanding without saying as much that she work around the clock with the others on the case to get the essential parts done before Christmas rolled around. She'd expected no less. Putting on her can-do face, she got to work. Aside from a quick text to let Connor know she'd arrived safely, she hadn't even had a chance to call her mate till late that first night. He'd answered groggily, and she'd felt instantly guilty for waking him. She knew he would be on call for the clinic starting in just a few hours. He needed his sleep.
But she wanted to hear his low, warm voice. To feel it wrapping around her like his arms had just the night before she'd left, keeping her safe with their circle. To know she still had a connection to him despite her choices.
Being in DC was exciting, it was a huge accomplishment, it was her dream. It was also so damn far away from Connor she was startled. Even though the winter holiday season was in full swing here, with impressive displays of lights and decorations in every window and street, carolers singing in the building's lobby as she slipped out from the office at dinnertime to grab something from a nearby fast food joint, she barely felt any holiday cheer.
Well, obviously it was far away from Durango. Geographically as well as philosophically, she thought. Throngs of importantly busy people, the energetic buzz of something always going on, the political whirl surrounding her on every street corner, every office, every newspaper she barely glanced at as she raced into the office by five a.m. and didn't leave till well after midnight, only to do it again the next day.
Yet the real distance she felt from her mate—that, she hadn't expected. Not after the blazing hot reconnection they'd shared after their glorious morning skiing through the trees on the mountain, weaving in and out in the brilliant sunshine, their laughter pealing out together.
Her wolf whined, low and nervous. She was used to cities in her wolf form due to her upbringing. But she hadn't realized five years spent in a much smaller area would make the city now seem too loud, too crowded, too busy. Almost too overwhelming.
Damn it.
Huffing to herself as she worked, Lia forced aside all thoughts of beckoning amber eyes, a smile meant only for her, a roughened voice calling out her name with an urgency and need she missed. That she craved. That she needed, with every tiny bit of her being.
Damn it.
“These, too,” a voice startled the hell out of her as another stack of papers thumped onto her desk. Her wolf snarled in her mind, reflecting Lia's run-ragged state since arriving here a week ago. “Can you look through them before leaving tonight?”
The cool eyes of another member of the team on the case regarded her a bit challengingly. Her wolf snarled again, a little closer to the surface. Lia returned the cool stare with an even chillier one. She'd already recognized the deadly serious atmosphere here. Succeed or perish on your own, as far as the firm was concerned. You were to get your job done, no questions asked, whatever toll it took. And there was definitely no such thing as friendship with any of the other employees here. She'd sniffed out that venomous pressure here during her first interview, one she recognized from her law school internships at other top firms. Her years with Joe had made her soft. She'd close to forgotten how brutally thin the atmosphere at the very top could be.
Intellectually, she'd known perfectly well what she was getting into. Yet not having the support of the one person in the world she most wanted to see at home each night was a hell of lot harder than she'd expected. She'd relied upon Connor's strength more than she'd realized.
She only no
w actually understood he probably did the same. Her wolf huffed softly at that. Yes. Mate needs mate, the softly accusing voice floated through her mind.
“Of course I can get this done tonight,” she answered smoothly, raising an eyebrow back at the other associate in similar challenge. “Not a problem at all, if it's a little too much for you to handle right now.”
His mouth tightened as he took her testing barb. Although this was part of the survival game, Lia felt slightly sick to her stomach as she said it. She'd really forgotten just what it was like to have to defend one's territory with every weapon at one's disposal, no matter how low or potentially nasty. For a longing moment, she thought of Joe again. He'd always insisted everyone in his small office get the job done right for their clients—but they worked as a true team, supporting one another along the way.
Funny how she hadn't really appreciated that while she had it.
Buck up, she snarled to herself. You've barely been here one week. Get it together, Lia the Wolf.
Her wolf snarled back at her, the sound filled with a deep unhappiness. She sent an image of Connor's wolf, strong and playful and waiting for her, tongue lolling out in wolfish laughter as he pounced on her in the snow. No head games, no tricks, no battling for top spot. Just mates, together. As they should be. Always.
Gritting her teeth and keeping her cool facade firmly in place, Lia stared down the other associate until he snapped, “Get it done tonight,” before he turned on one heel and strode out of her office into the hallways of the firm, which were insanely busy despite it being ten p.m.
Lia sucked in a fortifying breath and turned back to her work, trying as hard as she could to ignore both the longing images her wolf continued to send and the gnawing emptiness in her own suddenly conflicted heart.
This is my dream, she savagely reminded herself. I want this. I've always wanted this. Right?