by Ana Calin
“Do I make myself clear?” I demand.
Princess
HE STANDS THERE LIKE a king, telling me what I can and cannot do.
“Really, Nero? That’s what’s on your mind right now? I’d be more worried about the fact that serpents sent spies to this town to do crazy shit to people. Hell, maybe they’re even after the Council.”
“Which is exactly why I asked you—and all the other high-born women of Darkwood Falls—not to start dating or even flirting with outsiders just yet. Because I saw this coming.” His eyes are blazing at me. I wish I could defy him, but I know he’s right. I deserve the ‘I told you so’ that’s written all over his face. I bite my lip, tighten the towel around me and cast my eyes down.
“I’m sorry about the way I came on to you tonight, by the way. It was shameless, I know, but I wasn’t myself.” Damn, this is awkward. I’m overwhelmed with emotion, a fact I’m trying to hide at the same time, which is exhausting. I feel shame, and anger, and hope and anger again. What the hell am I hoping for? Isn’t it clear enough that Nero Wolf has remained cold as ice to me? That I’m nothing more than a one-night stand, one he didn’t even want? He wouldn’t have never slept with me under different circumstances.
“No, you weren’t yourself. But none of this would have happened if you’d listened to me in the first place.”
My head snaps up to him. His golden eyes narrow when he sees the red hotness in my cheeks and the frustration in my gaze.
“It’s so easy for you to tell people what they should do or stop doing, isn’t it? Tell them to stay put until their turn comes to be subjected to your scrutiny, and then scoff when they’re restless about it. You made it clear from the start you suspected that I leaked to Sullivan, that I knew more about his dealings with the serpents than I was telling you guys. I was frustrated, angry, feeling powerless.”
“That’s true. What happened tonight is proof that you’re, well, clean.”
“Eureka.” I would open my arms to make a point, but the towel would fall off of me. “Well, I should probably go change, restore some of my dignity by putting clothes on.”
“You want to see me repent for having mistrusted you.”
“I want to see you crawling at my feet, not just repent.”
“You go change, Princess. I’ll use the time to assess the surroundings, make sure everything’s clear until my men have taken their position to protect the manor.”
“Wait, you can’t roam about the house, at least not before you’ve studied those plans I gave you. I don’t want you running into my father.”
“First of all, I would sniff out your father a mile away, like, right now, I know where he is in this house. I recognize his scent because it’s got something of yours, and it’s easy for me to trace. And secondly, I’ll use my werewolf sharpened senses to inspect the surroundings, without even leaving this room. But I need to focus really hard to comb an area as wide as possible, and that means that I’ll do something that looks like meditation. If I’m still at it when you come back, don’t talk to me. It shouldn’t take long, and I’ll be back with you.”
I nod and start toward the chamber adjacent to mine, a small room that I use as a dressing space. Picking a nightgown takes almost as long as picking a cocktail dress, because hell, the insanely sexy Nero Wolf is right next door in my room, and I want to be appealing to him. It’s one of the ways I’ll punish him, not only for his mistrust, but also for his coolness after we made love. Because that’s what it was to me. Love-making, and it was beyond my wildest dreams, I never even imagined intimacy with a man could feel this good.
I want Nero to crave me, at least half as badly as I crave him. At least I can make him drool a little. I don’t know if it’s gonna make me feel any better, but at least I’ll be doing something about this storm of emotions inside of me, this draining sense of need.
When I return to the bedroom I’m wearing a long silk nightgown—I chose a long one because I can’t be obvious in what I’m trying to do. It’s one of my favorite ones because the fabric is special quality, and stays true to the shape of my body. It feels like a river of silk flowing on my skin, making me look like a nymph.
Nero is standing at the window with his back at me, the leather jacket stretching on his broad shoulders. I stop by the bed and watch him, a god standing still in front of the big arched window, the velvet curtains aside. He seems to peer out into the night.
God, the man is beautiful. So beautiful in fact, that it’s all too clear he’s more than just a man. He’s a magnificent beast, unusually tall and broad-shouldered. When he shifts, he turns into a huge wolf with fur so black he seems a devil with shiny golden eyes.
I wonder if he can feel my eyes slip down his frame as he stands there, peering out into the darkness, using his werewolf senses. Surely, like Drago, he can see the thick forests, the mountains, even the movement in them thanks to his superhuman werewolf abilities.
Now what do I do? Right, he said that he’d come to me when he’s done scrutinizing the territory. I better make sure he finds me in a position that would make him want me again, or at least in a situation where he’ll find me attractive. That’s the only way for me to save a little bit of face after the shameless way I came on to him and had him take me.
I lay down on the soft bed, cringing every time it squeaks—it’s an original vintage canopy bed, and creaks and squeaks come with the territory. But Nero doesn’t move an inch. I lie down, hitching up the lower part of the gown in such a way that it falls sexy on my thigh. I put one knee up, lying on the big soft pillows with my hair spread around me.
And I wait.
And wait. For minutes, but apparently Nero needs time. I’m a bit worried that means he’s found something, that Dad and I are truly in danger. But then I close my eyes and let his energy float to me, mingling with mine, and I feel safe. Safer than I’ve ever felt.
His energy does me good. My lids fall heavy, I let go of control, and tiredness fills me. It’s been a long hard day. Started out with me defying the new mayor, enraged at his refusal to accept my resignation, then all the drinking at the pub, then the entire chaos that happened when Nero discovered the pub was full of serpents’ acolytes and then... Jesus, then me shamelessly hitting on my boss on the first day I met him. That’s not counting all the times I heard his deep, slow voice on the phone while he tried to get some truth out of me that he wanted to hear. I thought I’d hate him back then. Turns out that damn love hormone, oxytocin, is filling my veins now like crazy. I may be falling in love with him, fast and irrationally.
A thought soothes me—Tonight, even if only for a little while, we were lovers. I may not be anything special to Nero, too many women have wanted him in his life, maybe no woman can impress. Except the one he will imprint on one day. I have no control over that, so I might just let go, try to keep the memory of what happened alive for as long as possible. Unlike werewolves’ memory, humans’ fade tragically quickly.
CHAPTER III
Nero
The perimeter is finally clear. My men are in place, and Drago is overseeing security tonight. I pull out my cell to call him and set up the meeting with the pack for tomorrow, turning around just the moment he picks up.
“Yes, Nero,” he says, but I can’t talk, staring with an open mouth at the scene in front of me. The beautiful Princess Skype lies asleep in her bed on the dais, silky waves of red hair spread over the soft pillows around her. Her plump cherry lips are slightly parted, her small nose flaring imperceptibly as she breathes in.
By God, she’s so beautiful, like a Sleeping Beauty. The white silk gown flows like a milky river over her firm round breasts, sloping down her flat abdomen to her thighs. She has one knee up, the silk falling off her finely muscled leg.
“Nero, is everything all right?” The alarm in Drago’s voice stirs me from my trance.
“Yes, I, yes.”
He pauses. He must sense it in my voice. I realize I have the same dreamy voice he did
when he first fell for Arianna.
“What the hell, Nero,” he breathes. His tone betrays that he understands exactly what happened—that I have imprinted on a woman.
“Let’s set the time for the meeting tomorrow. We’ll talk about the rest when we’re face to face, alone,” I say.
It takes only a few moments to set the meeting, then I cut the call. I walk slowly to her bed, and lower myself on the edge.
Fuck me, will I ever get enough of this? Enough of staring at this woman? My heart fills with a strange kind of thirst that can only be satisfied by staring at her continuously, without even blinking. But there’s also something else. There’s... a strange kind of gentleness.
I raise my hand and trace her cheek as lightly as I would with the petal of a rose. She’s so delicate, so fragile. And I put her through hell for months as I prepared my entry to Darkwood Falls City Hall, even if indirectly. I put her under pressure because I was certain she’d been hand in hand with Sullivan, the former mayor. I was wrong, now serpents’ acolytes are after her, and I don’t even want to imagine what they would have done to her if I hadn’t stepped in tonight.
But I will find out, and I’ll put them through whatever horror they had prepared for her. And then I’ll skin them alive.
By God, her cheek feels like velvet under my rough finger that I never tried to use with so much gentleness before. I can’t help it, and my thumb slips over her plump lower lip, feeling its hotness.
“Oh, God.” I go dizzy with desire. I try to resist kissing her, but the wolf pushes, desperate for a taste of her. She’s sound asleep, she won’t even know, he growls.
I can’t control myself and bend to her, closing my mouth over hers. My eyes shut slowly as my firm lips sink into hers, feeling the heat and softness. She stirs and moans, and I shoot back up only to realize I lost it, and my tongue slipped inside her mouth, greedy for more of her taste.
My gaze slides down her beautiful swan neck to her chest, her breasts, my hand moving just above the silk that caresses her body, along her belly down to her mound. God, how I’d love to be that silk. I want every inch of my big rough palms on this delicate white body, I want to push those finely muscled thighs apart and dip my rod of a cock in the cream of her arousal.
My brain swims in these feelings like in a sea of drugs. I let my powers loose, dulling Princess’s mood in her sleep. If the sensations she feels on her body don’t alarm her, she won’t wake up. Our emotional connection has been building up ever since we made love, and now I can sense her in my flesh. That’s how I know when she’s entered the deepest phase of sleep.
The first thing I do is gently slip my hand under the silk gown, caressing my way up her inner thigh to her.... Oh wow. She didn’t put any panties on after the bath she took. Could it be that she intended to make love to me again?
I wish she did. My fingers slide between her slick folds, and I inhale sharply as I realize my touch arouses her. She moans in her sleep, opening her thighs, inviting me to pleasure her with my hand. I sink one, then two thick fingers inside of her, feeling her hot slick inside sucking on them, pulling me in deeper. Fuck, she wants me, and that makes my cock ache to take her.
Yes, do take her, she’s yours, the wolf demands, showing his fangs. It feels like the right thing to do, natural and good, but I shake my head, struggling to keep a clear mind. I can’t just stick my cock inside this woman while she’s sleeping, just because I feel entitled to. She has to agree, she has to want me.
But she gave herself to you tonight, the wolf insists. Yes, she did, but only because she had to, the drug that bastard put in her drink was going to kill her unless she got an orgasm. Whatever he had planned for her, she could have easily died. Many men think giving a woman an orgasm from her G-spot is easy, but it’s not, and judging by what I felt from Princess, she hadn’t had one before me. The look of utter ecstasy on her face, her widening eyes and her gaze up to the stars like the heavens had just opened up can only mean one thing—she had no idea such sensations existed until that moment.
Elation goes through me. I’m special to her, too, even if only in this little way.
She stirs, opening her legs wider. I swallow hard as she fully reveals the pink folded flesh between her legs, my fingers sunken inside of her, my knuckles glistening with her cream.
My cock aches, desperate for release. I pop the buttons of my fly open and free my erection, grabbing it with one hand while pumping Princess with the other. I’m gonna give us both pleasure at the same time, without actually taking her, I keep telling myself, but as I go on I want more. I need to feel her, even if only a little. She gave herself to me tonight, and she quivered in my arms as she came, she wouldn’t mind if I just rubbed myself against her folds, would she?
I ease my fingers out of her only long enough to throw off my jeans, now standing fully naked beside her bed. Her white cheeks have caught that delicious red of arousal, her lips even redder, her lashes curved beautifully.
With my eyes glued to her, I crawl onto the bed over her, the soft mattress sinking and creaking under my weight, but Princess is fast asleep. She has to be having an erotic dream, and a pang of jealousy pierces my heart—who is she dreaming about? Is it me, is it us?
I sink a hand in her hair, keeping my weight on my elbows. My face is an inch above hers, and my lids fall heavy as I breathe in her scent. A feeling engulfs me like a drug—this is my woman, mine alone, and no one will ever take her away from me. Even if I can’t show her how I feel, for so many reasons, she is mine.
I kiss her deeply, rocking my hips and sliding my cock between her folds. It’s driving me insane, and I crave more. Both my hands sink in her hair, cupping her head, my tongue taking possession of her mouth as if making up for the fact that I can’t enter her with my cock.
She moans and squirms under me, and I break the kiss, realizing I’m not letting her breathe. Fuck, I’m being a beast. My need for her is much too powerful, I’ve been squeezing her to my chest, crushing her fragile body under a wall of muscles.
There’s some space between my torso and hers now, but I keep grinding my cock against her soft slick folds, dying to take her. Her perfectly arched eyebrows quiver as she whispers something.
“Nero, ah, yes, Nero.”
I stop, my heart slamming against my chest. That was my name. She’s having an erotic dream about me.
Take her, my wolf urges, using the euphoria now spreading through my body. She wants it as badly as you do, why deny yourself?
No, I can’t. I can’t take her without her knowledge. But she pushes her hips up to me, her body begging me to keep grinding when I’ve stopped, and the craving becomes uncontrollable. My struggle to resist only draws out the wolf, my skin burning and hardening, my eyes glowing, fur sprouting all over me.
Run, I have to run. The wolf has taken over, and he’ll have me plunge my cock inside of her. Yes, fuck her hard, she’s yours, she’s your fated mate, it’s your birthright, the beast pushes. But we live in a civilized world, and women have options. My woman is entitled to her options, and I won’t take her without specific permission even if it kills me.
Thinking to force myself to get out of here, my eyes snap to the window, where they meet their own glowing golden reflection, and what looks like a scene from the ’92 Dracula movie with the beast between the legs of the beautiful redhead, hungry for her. All my muscles tense as I get ready to leap out through the window, running out into the wild, but her legs clench around me.
“Nero,” she sighs, lifting her hips from the bed. One glance down at where she rubs her slick pussy against my cock is enough to make me almost cum, growling deep from my chest. I grip my cock, keeping it in.
“Take me, Nero,” she pleads, and I feel how she connects to me.
It’s the most shocking feeling I’ve ever had. It’s like all the cells of our bodies send energies that lace with each other, our brains forming an open network. I’m inside her dream, in which I’m taking her in my wolf
form.
I could fight my own craving, but I’m hopeless against hers. In her dream she grabs my hips and guides me in. She doesn’t touch me now, but I follow her dream and enter her, pushing her slick walls apart inch for inch.
My fangs piece my lower beast lip, my hands coiling around her wrists as I push her hands above her head. It’s hard enough to keep from cumming as it is, if she touches me I’ll fill her with my seed immediately, and it’s important that she climaxes first. Right now, I exist only to pleasure her.
I drive my cock inside her pussy, trying hard not to growl. This house is big, but the sensations this woman gives me are through the roof, and I might become so loud that the windows quiver.
She moves to meet me, our bodies tangling with each other, quickly finding common rhythm. The dark windowpane reflects the scene, a beast ravishing a princess in a bed on a dais, while the Princess traps him between her long white legs.
She moans, pushing her head into the pillow, her wrists straining against my grip, and I can’t hold it in anymore. I pull out of her before I cum, but I cum hard, driving my fangs into my lower lip until I taste blood to keep from growling. Drago lost his head and poured himself inside Arianna the first time they made love, when he imprinted on her, and she got immediately pregnant. The situation with Princess is much more complicated. She’d hate me to death if I left my sperm in her, and with good reason.
I cum all over the shiny silk on her belly, marking her as mine. I stroke my cock, delighted to the heavens as I watch my seed splash all over Princess. My woman, my mate.
I fall on the bed by her side, transforming back into a human, and relishing the taste of happiness that making love to her left on my tongue. I trace her hot flushed cheek with my finger, then let it slide down her red locks. Her eyes move slow under her closed eyelids, and she breathes deeply in and out.