by Lora Leigh
“Haley, I’m burning,” he warned her roughly.
He didn’t want her to stop touching him. He wanted it to continue forever. But he knew that wasn’t possible. Not yet. He couldn’t let her strip his control, because if she did, then he would take the choice from her. He would mate her, even knowing it was possible she didn’t love him.
She said she didn’t. But he could smell her. He had smelled the emotions, the pheromones breeds and mates created together, and he could smell the subtle scent of it on her. It made him crazy, smelling it, knowing he couldn’t have her, that she wouldn’t understand the animal he was and that he couldn’t force her into the mating.
The animal that stretched inside him didn’t care though. It wanted. It ached. It snarled relentlessly for the taste of her.
“If you keep stroking me, you know what’s going to happen,” he told her.
“Maybe I don’t believe you.” She looked up at him through her lashes, her gray eyes nearly blue as her features flushed with arousal.
With true, pure arousal. This wasn’t heat-induced. It wasn’t hormone-induced. It was her hunger for him. Pure and sweet and filling his senses.
“You believe me, Haley.” He could see it in her eyes, in her expression. She didn’t want to believe him, but she knew it was there. “You think I’ll hold back. That I’ll let you pet and stroke me and keep the need I have for you under control. What happens when I break? When I take that choice from you?”
And he didn’t want to. He wanted to luxuriate in the sensations of her hands on his flesh, touching him, stroking him. If only this.
She stared up at him. “Is it that bad?” Worry filled her eyes and he saw her intentions to draw back, to move from him, to leave him.
“I’ll warn you when it gets that bad.” Ah hell. He was insane. He had passed that point minutes ago, and he was encouraging her to go further?
“Are you sure?” Hesitation filled her now, and he didn’t want her hesitation.
“I’m sure.” He was crazy. That was exactly what he was, insane. The need for her touch outweighed everything else and made him insane to think he could control his response.
“I’ve been dying to touch you,” she whispered as he released her hands and reached behind him to the footboard of the bed, gripping the wood tightly with desperate fingers.
He tipped his head back. He wasn’t going to watch. He couldn’t watch her.
“Touch me then.” He could feel the sweat gathering on his back.
Her touch was like electric pleasure. It shimmered over his flesh, dug talons of exquisite need beneath it, and left him tight, tense, torn between stopping her and begging her for more. He would probably end up begging her for more, that was how damned crazy he was, a true glutton for punishment. Or for pleasure.
“Tell me when it’s too much,” she whispered.
“Gotcha.” He gave her a sharp nod.
Too much had already been done and gone. Too much was the feel of his balls drawn excruciatingly tight and the head of his cock flaring thick and hard, and throbbing like a damned wound.
Too much was when he felt her lips touch his chest and her hot little tongue licking over a spot. That was too damned much.
Haley let her senses become immersed in the need to just touch him. Touching should be okay, she told herself. It wasn’t a kiss, at least, not his kiss. It was just his flesh, just those intriguing little spots and the dampness of his flesh as she felt his flesh heat.
It was moving slowly, hesitantly into the desires that had never made sense where he was concerned. As though without even trying he touched a hidden part of her, drawing it free, and teasing it to be wild with him.
Without saying a word. Without touching her, without tempting her with anything more than a look or the quirk of his lips. He tempted that unknown something inside her.
“I love how you feel.” She touched his hard, rippling abs with her hands, smoothed over them to the band of his jeans and back up.
She tasted him. She kissed his chest, licked at several spots, feeling the ultrasoftness of the tiny hairs against her tongue. Then, in a move more daring than she had ever considered, she raked her teeth over the flesh beside a stiff, hard male nipple.
As though she had flayed him with fire he jerked, a hard, primal growl tearing from his chest as his head jerked up, and he stared down at her.
His eyes were like black velvet, studded with even darker glimmer of lights. How could anything be darker than black? But something was, and it flickered in his eyes, the color overtaking the pupil and giving him a primal, primitive look.
As though the animal were so close to the surface that it would be hard to tell where human and jaguar separated. And she was tempting it. She knew she was.
“Is it too much?” She didn’t want to torture him. She just needed to touch him.
“No.” The word was short, the rasp in his voice was deep as his hands moved from behind him. “But if you can bite, then I can touch you as well.”
She hadn’t counted on that. Just as she hadn’t counted on the throbbing growl in his voice as he said the words.
“How?” She needed to know. “No kisses.”
“No kisses. No little bites.” He bared his teeth, and she should have been frightened of those canines, which flashed at the sides of his mouth. Instead, they intrigued her.
How would they feel on her flesh? Raking over it, creating a flash point of pleasure and heat?
She swallowed tightly as he gripped the hem of her shirt.
“Let me take it off.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “Is that a good idea?”
“Is any of it?” He tugged the hem upward. “Take it off or walk out of here. I can’t stand here and not touch you as well, Haley. That’s asking too much.”
“No kisses?” She was almost whimpering with the need for his kiss though. Her lips tingled, her tongue ached to twine with his.
“No kisses,” he promised.
She lifted her hands from his chest and raised her arms slowly, allowing him to draw the shirt from her. Sensuality wrapped around them heavily, saturating the air with lust and hunger as he tossed the material aside and stared down at her.
The white lace camisole she wore in place of a bra adequately covered her, sort of.
“That’s cheating.” There was no grin, there was only need in his eyes to see her. “Let me take it off, too.”
She could feel her nipples rasping against the lace, urging him to do just that. She licked her lips nervously and lifted her arms for him again.
He drew the lace covering from her, the material stroking over her nipples drawing a ragged groan from her. As he tossed the material aside, his hands caught her wrists, holding them over her head as he stared down at her.
“I want to suck your nipples.” The blunt, blatant hunger in the words caused her womb to clench in response. Like a punch to her stomach, firing her nerve endings and sending pleasure streaking through her body.
She wanted him to suck her nipples. Her nipples wanted his mouth on them. She ached for it. The flesh between her thighs heated for it. She felt weak, dazed, arousal pouring into every cell and whipping over her nerve endings.
“If I weren’t a breed,” he told her then, “if I were just a man, I’d lay you down and tempt you with my mouth. I’d suck your pretty nipples until the dark pink blushed a pretty rose. Then I’d go between your thighs and lick the sweetest cream, and know your arousal is just for the pleasure I can give you.”
Haley watched the regret that filled him as he stared down at her. He held her wrists easily in one hand. With the other, he cupped the rounded mound of a breast, the tip of a finger stroking over the ultrasensitive, hardened peak.
Haley shuddered. She leaned her head against one of her arms as he held them both over her head and stared up at him.
“I’m going to melt to the floor,” she whispered. “We need to stop this.”
“I’m still in co
ntrol,” he rasped.
“But maybe I’m not,” she gasped.
“I’ll keep you in control.”
His hand lowered from her breast to the elastic band of her lounging pants.
“Let me.” He pushed them over her hips.
Haley stared up at his face. No man had ever stared at her with such need. Even in the height of sex, the few lovers she’d had hadn’t looked at her like this.
She trembled as she let him push the loose material over her hips. She watched his face as he stared at the white-lace panties she wore. The French-cut, hip-high panties matched her camisole, and they were damp, wet with her need.
“Ah, Haley.” His tone was guttural as she watched in shock as he knelt in front of her.
He had released her hands, but what the hell was she supposed to do with them? The bed. She gripped the footboard as his hands clasped her hips. His face was only inches from her, her flesh covered only by the lace of the panties.
“You don’t shave here?” One hand lowered, the backs of his fingers stroking over her mound.
“No.” Shock gathered in her voice that he would ask her.
She had tried it, once, and hadn’t liked the sensation.
“Good.” He crooned, his fingers stroking over her again. “So good. I want to feel your soft curls against my face. Can I do that, Haley? Can I feel your sweet damp curls against my lips? I promise, no tongue.”
And she stood there. Stared down at him. And like a woman who enjoyed walking the edge of insanity, she let him draw the panties down her legs.
“You have spots, too.” His voice was nearly strangled as he stared at her. And she did have. Freckles over the tops of her thighs and her hips. Not many, a few here and there. But enough.
“I want to lick them.”
She watched his jaw bunch.
“I want to taste you.”
He leaned closer, both hands gripping her hips now as he neared the dark red curls between her thighs. Haley had forgotten how to breathe, she was certain of it. Why else did she feel so light-headed, so dazed? So aroused. It was like a fire burning beneath her flesh now, searing her, destroying her senses.
“Haley,” he breathed her name against the damp curls, against the engorged bud of her clit, and she jerked, much as he had when she rasped her teeth over his chest.
She knew that pleasure now. Like a strike of brilliant, white-hot heat tearing through her.
“Haley,” he breathed again. “Get the hell out of here.”
It took long, disbelieving seconds to understand what he was saying.
“What?”
“Go,” he growled, his eyes still on her as he licked his lips, his tongue swiping over them. “Get away from me, Haley.”
“Noble.”
“I’m going to lick that sweet cream. I’m going to bury my tongue inside your pussy and to hell with your anger or your hatred later. Get the fuck away from me.”
She shuddered, shaking with the need she couldn’t seem to control. She couldn’t move. How the hell was she supposed to get away from him?
“Go!” His voice hardened.
The deliberate control in his movements as he released his hands from her hips was frightening. His expression, his eyes as he stared up at her, sent her stumbling back from him.
There was lust and hunger, then there was the pure, unbridled desperation she saw in his face. He would do it. And he was close, so close.
What had she done to him?
She jerked back farther, bending to snatch her clothes when he crouched over them, his gaze brimming with fiery, intent lust.
At that point, Haley all but ran from his bedroom. As she glanced back at the doorway, she nearly changed her mind. Nearly went to her knees in front of him and took everything he had to give her.
In one hand he held her lace panties to his mouth and nose, his eyes were closed, and his expression, his expression was pure, wicked pleasure.
She had to force herself to turn and go to her own room. Had to force herself away from him. And she had a feeling running was only delaying the inevitable. He was going to end up in her bed. And he was going to be there soon.
Chapter 7
The night was hell. The next morning was an exercise in restraint that had Noble’s control stretched to its limits. The day was gray, the clouds lying heavy as more snow drifted over the mountains.
There was more than two feet out there, and the city was struggling to keep up as more snow was forecast. Winter was driving in hard and heavy, unlike anything they had seen in years. The winds swirled and moaned as the icy cold tried to penetrate every crack and pore of the house.
Haley had lit the fire that morning. Noble had carried in the firewood from the back porch and watched as she efficiently set fire to the tinder, building the coal bed with the smallest logs before placing the larger ones on it.
She did it the old-fashioned way. She used untreated firewood, preferring, she said, the scent of the wood over the fumes of the chemicals.
And as the afternoon progressed, he found her more and more often in front of the fire, her legs curled beside her as she sat on the thick, heavy rug before the hearth and leaned into the fat, fluffy pillows she’d had stored beside the couch.
She watched the fire as though it held the answers to every question she had ever asked.
Behind her, the Christmas tree twinkled with a million lights, the gaily wrapped presents beneath it gleaming with brilliant colors.
He’d never experienced Christmas. He’d been out of the labs for ten years, but it had been ten years struggling to aid the survival of the breed communities. The feline compound of Sanctuary as well as the Colorado-based wolf breed compound, Haven.
Christmas had been just another day for him, until now. Until he saw all the careful planning and the joy that would have gone into it for Haley.
Decorations filled the kitchen and living room as well as the outside of the house. From the groceries that were delivered that morning, he knew she planned to bake. He knew she was praying the danger would all be over before her family arrived on the twenty-third. He knew there were more presents in her bedroom to be wrapped. A pile of them. And he knew she was fighting the same needs, the same hungers he was fighting.
He stood just inside the living room, having just finished a call from Jonas. They were moving in on the person responsible for the leak in Haley’s identity. The information they were tracking through their own servers as well as spyware slipped into Brackenmore’s and Engalls’s computers was turning up some interesting information.
Information that might end this sooner than any of them imagined.
There was a reason why Uriel had been so erratic in the past years. A reason why Brackenmore and Engalls had found the information about mating heat and ultimately the aging decrease. Mating heat always slowed aging in mates. Because Uriel was definitely a breed, and obviously in mating heat. That damned phenomenon was enough to make any breed slightly off center, but for a hired killer, it could be more dangerous than to most.
“They’ve had a break in the investigation.” He kept his voice low, kept a careful distance between them. “Jonas is certain he’ll have the identity of the person behind this within days.”
She tensed. The fiery scent of her arousal seemed to intensify as he spoke to her.
As she turned, her hair fell over her shoulder, the flames gleaming over it, turning it to fire as well. The sight of it was nearly mesmerizing. Dazzling.
“Within days,” she said softly. “That’s pretty fast.”
Jonas was pushing. He was breaking mandates and laws and working silently to identify Uriel, the hired assassin who had attempted to kill her. Not that he would get caught, even if the spyware was eventually detected.
“Jonas made you a promise to protect you, Haley. He’ll keep it.”
She lowered her head, staring down at her fingers as she twined them together.
“And when it’s over?” She lifted h
er head and stared back at him somberly. “What then?”
“Sanctuary and its backers rebuild the library, restock it, and you get your life back,” he told her.
“The way it was?”
He inhaled heavily, staring back at her, uncertain how to ease the pain he could sense inside her.
“That’s up to you,” he finally told her.
The memory of her touching him seared him then—a flash of heat hotter than the flames as the glands beneath his tongue made it feel thick, unruly. The hormone was growing more potent, torturing him. The arousal was building inside him, and he knew he had only a short amount of time before he was forced to walk away from her or risk destroying her trust in him.
Trust was such a fragile commodity, especially for a woman. He’d known of matings that had worked when that choice was removed. Love had grown, and it had thrived. But he had sworn he would never take that choice from his mate. That he would never take that choice from Haley. But time was running out for him.
The choice had been taken from him a year before, when he first saw that smile. When he first scented her, first felt the glands swelling beneath his tongue and realized what was going on. And he hadn’t left. He had stayed. If he had left, he might have had a choice.
“My choice,” she whispered before shaking her head and lowering it again. “You don’t make things easy do you, Noble.”
“Was I supposed to make it easy?” he asked her, feeling the growing tension rising inside him. “Did you want me to take the choice from you, Haley? Would you have hated me for it?”
Haley stared back at him, having no answers. All she knew was the need that didn’t go away, the knowledge it was never going to go away. She had somehow always sensed that. That Noble would be the one man she would never be able to forget, never be able to get over if she fell in love with him.
And that had been what had held her back.
“I wouldn’t have hated you,” she finally whispered. “But it’s too late for that, anyway. I do know. And knowing changes things.”
“It didn’t change anything last night,” he bit out. “You loved touching me, Haley. Tasting me. I saw it in your face.”