Finding His Mate

by M. L. Briers

  From the way her heart skipped and beat within her, he knew that the need for his touch was getting stronger. There was a fire within her blood that she wouldn’t be able to fight against much longer. He saw her lips part and wet his own. Damn he wanted to taste her, to cover her lips with his and kiss her until she submitted to him, gave her whole self up to him completely. He would spend an age exploring her body, a lifetime nestled between her thighs making love to her.

  Dex reached up and brushed his fingertips down her cheek. The tender stroke caused her to pull in a slight breath as her lashes fluttered open and he saw the desire in her eyes just briefly before she snapped out of it.

  Oh crap!

  “Sorry I was miles away.” She pushed her palms flat against his chest to push away from him, but he held onto her for a moment longer, indecision gripped him. He didn’t have the heart to let her go right then, he wanted to taste her lips, delve into her mouth, but she’d come so far so quickly he didn’t want to spook her.

  “Hold on.” He was a little more forceful this time as he lifted her against his body, and she gave another little gasp that he could imagine hearing when he was buried deep within her, and that caused his arousal to twitch within his jeans. He turned them on the incline and made sure that her feet were firmly placed on stable ground before he reluctantly let her go.

  “Thanks.” She muttered, keeping her eyes down away from his.

  “You’re welcome. I wouldn’t want you to kneecap me or something if you slipped again.” He teased, trying to lighten the mood between them and he saw the grin spread across her face as she gave a silent chuckle of amusement.

  “What did I do to you before?” She asked on a wince that came from guilt and not really being sure she wanted to know.

  “Tried to rip off my nipple, but I’m sure it survived the torture.” He teased her again and she snorted another chuckle.

  “Sorry.” She still hadn’t raised her eyes to his, but he took it as a good sign that she was still in a good mood with him.

  “Don’t give it another thought, my nipple is probably just grateful that it’s not my balls, you really went for that one yesterday.” He watched her shoulders bounce up and down and caught the gentle laughter that escaped her lips and was grateful for it. It sounded like music to his ears.

  “Shall we say its lunch time and my body can get a reprieve until the next assault?” He noted that she looked appropriately guilty and couldn’t hide the amusement that ran through him.

  As she still hadn’t met his eyes, he ducked his face below hers and encouraged her answer with a rise of his brows and she gave another embarrassed chuckle.

  “Fine. Food and I’ll try not to damage you any more today.” She whirled away from him and started off with carefully placed feet, back towards the car as he followed on behind her.

  Having been practically chased away from her breakfast this morning, Kate was grateful for the bounty that Zoe had packed into the basket. Having eaten her fill of good food, Kate lay on her stomach on the blanket, propped up on her elbows as she picked at the grapes that sat in a bowl in the midst of the picnic that had been almost picked clean between them.

  It surprised her that she had enjoyed lunch with Dex. He was pretty easy going when he chose to be, and very good company. They had started by chatting about the project that she was here to oversee, and ended up talking about their respective lives.

  Dex was lying on his side, propped up on his elbow watching her snag grapes and pop them into her mouth as though she were a thief hiding her ill gotten swag and he couldn’t help but smile.

  “What? Do I have something…?” She brushed her fingertips over her mouth rubbing away any traces of food that might be there and he grinned at her, shaking his head.

  “There’s nothing there.” He assured her and she smiled back at him, her eyes lingering on his a little longer than perhaps they should have. He looked relaxed to her, and she liked him like this. A little more than maybe she should, she thought before turning onto her back and starring up at the autumn sky and the clouds that chased each other across the light blue background.

  A breeze swept her hair into her face and she lifted her hand to remove the stray strands but found his fingers were there before hers. The brush of his fingertips against her cheek sent a rush of heat through her body and a tingling across her skin that she couldn’t deny.

  There is an attraction here. I do like him. She admitted to herself, turning her eyes to gaze up at him. God I want to feel his lips on mine. Just once, just to see how they feel…

  Kate reached for his hand, he wasn’t sure if she was going to brush his fingers away and deny the connection between them or not, but when his fingers caught around hers and her lips parted on a breath caused by the jolt inside her. He dipped his head and brushed his lips over hers in what could have been her imagination, it was so gentle and brief.

  Kate lifted her head and followed his lips upwards. She wasn’t nearly satisfied by the brief touch. He felt her lips against his and he shouldn’t have been surprise, but he was. His wolf roared to life within him with the understanding of their mate’s actions and he growled the beast back down.

  ‘Mate.’

  Not yet my friend, Dex cautioned the animal against false hope. Kate might have initiated this kiss, but he could feel how tentative her lips were against his.

  Dex teased her lips apart with his tongue and when she opened for him he dipped inside her warm mouth, lightly brushing his tongue over hers, slowly enticing her to relax, which she did, and then he deepened the kiss, a slow dance of his tongue against hers, like lovers bodies pressed and moving against each other on the dance floor, he explored her desire for him.

  Oh god more… Oh god he’s my boss!

  It took that cold bucket of water on her libido to have her pulling back from him. The tension flooded through her and Dex reined in his wants, needs and desires. Allowing himself just a brief moment to savour her lips before he drew his head away from her and gazed down at her expression, she seemed caught somewhere between desire and mortification, and he quashed the urge to chuckle.

  “I shouldn’t have…” She rushed to defend her actions. Stupid, stupid and there isn’t a hole deep enough, stupid.

  “But you wanted to…” He offered, not moving back from her yet. He wouldn’t let her dismiss the connection that easily.

  “But I shouldn’t have…” She was slightly wider eyed this time.

  “But civilisation didn’t end because you did, Kate.” He gently brushed his fingertips down her cheek and that worried rabbit look she had been sporting eased slightly.

  “But I don’t want you to think I want…” She bit down on that word. That word that seemed to stick in her gullet it was so important.

  “What?” He knew what. He just wanted to hear her say that one word.

  “More.” She said the word like it was a confession, and he allowed a smile to play on his lips.

  “Do you, Kate?” That question made her lips tremble with the thought of it, the thought of more, the thought of being able to give her brain the night off and just feel, take what he had to offer her and to revel in it.

  One night, one night with him, this man who felt like an old friend, an old lover, someone I could be myself with, let go with… No, what am I thinking?

  “Yes.” She admitted, and she wasn’t quite sure why she admitted it. Now that the word was out there between them, she felt relief as well as trepidation.

  “How much more?” he wanted to ease her into the realisation of them together.

  “I… don’t…” She bit down on her lower lip, as if to silence her words, as if she had said too much already.

  “You do.” His deep tones lulled her racing mind, soothed her racing heart.

  All of it, everything you have. I want to feel you inside me, I want to taste you and touch you.

  “I can’t do this Dex. I work for…” Her mind wouldn’t relinquish that one point th
at was niggling at her, making her mentally squirm, uneasy at the thought that he was her boss.

  “Would it make it easier for you if I fired you?” He teased and she felt the jolt to her mind from her defences.

  “Would it make it easier if I punched you?” She went to sit up. The deep frown etched into her forehead. Dex put a hand against her shoulder to still her.

  “Don’t do that, Kate. Don’t withdraw inside that castle of yours and pull up the drawbridge.” His words hit her like a knife in the heart. Her best friend had told her the same thing not four days ago, that she was hiding from the world and everything it had to offer, retreating inside her little tortoise shell and sucking in her head so she didn’t have to acknowledge the big bad outside world. She didn’t much like it then either.

  “I’m not.” She hotly denied the accusation.

  I have a damn life. I have my… She thought hard. Damn it! Nothing.

  “Haven’t you realised yet that I’m the one who can scale the walls and reach you behind your barricade?” He brushed his fingertips down her cheek again and caused her to swallow hard.

  How the hell did he do that? She wanted to be annoyed, wanted to use that annoyance to push him away on a mental and physical level and yet, there he stayed, firmly in place on the wrong side of her barricade.

  “We’re supposed to be working. You have a deadline…” She went to move again, but her body betrayed her and she stayed firmly in place.

  “Some things are more important, Kate. That’s what you need to come to terms with.” He offered and she shook her head.

  “Mr Thornton…” She put her work hat on, but it slipped right back off.

  “Now you’re just deflecting.” He teased and she really wanted to growl out her annoyance with herself, an honest to goodness growl that would put this man in his place.

  “I’m being practical and professional…” She felt a twinge of guilt wash through her. She was the one who had followed his lips up and initiated the kiss. “Now.” She added on a mental wince and saw the amusement in his eyes.

  “So you chose to seduce me…” He started and she balked.

  “What? Seduce you? I did…” She tried to deny it but he cut her off.

  “Yes, you did.”

  “But I just…”

  “Am I just a toy for your personal use, Kate? To be there for you when you choose to use me for your own…?”

  Kate felt the rush of heat sweep through her, closely followed by the rush of disbelief, and the final straw was the wounded look he gave her.

  Wounded my arse. Manipulative little…

  She lifted her palms to his chest and tried to push him away, but he caught her around the waist and rolled onto his back taking her over with him and she found herself lying on top of him, her knee between his legs and the sudden realisation that his manhood was rock hard and pressed against her mound.

  There was an internal moan of need that flashed through her mind and her hips pressed down out of some carnal need to get closer, but when he groaned with the contact she balked.

  “You really are a…” She bit out between clenched teeth and heard him chuckle, the vibration of his deep tones rumbled through his chest and over her body, and she tried to break his hold around her waist but found it was like steel around her. She decided the next best thing was to go upwards and out from under his arm. Digging the toe of her boot into the dirt beneath her foot she pushed up with her other knee and connected with his groin. She heard his breath leave his body in one long whoosh. His arm loosened around her and it took her a long moment of looking down into his pained expression to realise what she had done, and that she was free.

  Kate squirmed off him as he seemed to convulse slightly upwards from the waist as his hand went to cup his balls. A long slow groan escaped his lips as she scrambled to sit up and gazed down at him.

  Crap! That one I didn’t mean.

  “Dex?” She lifted her hand and went to reach out to him, but she hesitated midway.

  Make him better… somehow…

  The thought went through her mind to rub it better, but she stopped herself before she got near to his groin.

  Am I insane?

  “Dex, I’m so…” She didn’t get to finish her apology. His hands reached for her arms at the same time that his black eyes connected with hers and she squealed out as the world spun around her.

  Kate found herself looking up at the sky, but before her brain could comprehend what had happen Dex’s face appeared above her, angry as sin, with eyes as black as ebony.

  “Are you deliberately trying to provoke me?” Her mind flashed to the conversation at her car when he threatened to kill her after she had completed the project, and she swallowed hard.

  “I didn’t mean to…”

  “Castrate me?” He offered on what sounded like a low, deep growl of anger and she winced her guilt back up at him.

  “I was just trying to…” She started to explain, but he cut her off again.

  “Castrate me?” The two tiny ridges that formed on a frown between his eyebrows drew her attention and she felt the urge to reach up and rub them away, but it wasn’t there that needed rubbing better. She wanted to see his smile again. Wanted not to have connected with his…

  Kate couldn’t help the swell of a giggle that rushed through her. She pressed her lips together and tried to admonish herself for it, but it was still there, tugging the corners of her mouth upwards and lightening her eyes as he glared down at her.

  “I’m sorry, Dex. I really didn’t mean…” She couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her mental blockade, and he drew his head back on his neck and narrowed his eyes at her in disbelief.

  “It’s funny?” He climbed up over her hips and sat back on his heels, careful not to lower his weight on her. “I may never be able to get an erection again and that’s funny to you?” He was Lycan. He recovered quickly and he could already feel the blood starting to ease him harder.

  “That would be a waste.” Kate suddenly felt breathless as the image of his naked body from this morning hit her mind like a ton of bricks. “Maybe I should check.” Her hand was on his slight bulge a moment before he even thought of answering her offer.

  The rush of blood to his penis made him groan as her fingers ran along the length of him, hardening by the second under her touch. He watched her eyes flare with the spark of desire, saw the tip of her tongue wet her lips and he went from erect to rock hard in an instant.

  “Jesus, Kate, what you do to me.” He growled as he leaned down and claimed her lips with his. There was no gentle persuasion to his kiss this time, he was demanding entry and she opened for him. Her tongue was eager against his, as her fingers rubbed harder against his length.

  Dex groaned into her mouth, she was driving him crazy with her hand, if they weren’t out in the middle of nowhere on a damn blanket he would be stripping her naked already, but she was human, he was sure she wouldn’t appreciate it.

  Playing just a little couldn’t hurt though, he told himself as he ran his hands inside her open jacket and reached for the buttons of her cardigan, flicking the top one with deft fingers, it sprang open, and she didn’t make a move to object, so he slowly worked his way down.

  The backs of his fingers brushed the thin lace of her bra and he groaned again. He’d been expecting a vest top or tee, but he found her bare skin and worked faster to release her to his touch. His fingers stroked over the smooth skin of her abdomen on the way back up and her back arched to meet him.

  He brushed his fingers under the lace cup of her bra and found the hard pebbled bud of her breast, and when he stroked his thumb over the heated flesh he caught the soft moan that she gave in his mouth. That sweet sound urged him on and he deepened the kiss, devouring her mouth with a passion bordering on possession.

  He felt her fingers work to release him from the binding of his clothes and when she reached in and wrapped him inside her fist his whole body felt the jolt of sensation as she
took possession of him, stroking down his shaft until he broke away from her lips and nuzzled into her neck.

  Dex swirled his tongue over her heated skin, tasting and teasing her, before he closed his lips over her flesh and sucked hard, the resulting jolt to her womb made her moan and wiggle beneath him. Her hips tried to push up, but his legs over hers kept her locked against the ground.

  Her hand stroking the length of his penis had him hotter than hell, and his wolf was trying to push to the forefront within his mind. Without even thinking about it, he had undone her jeans and eased them down her hips to be able to cup her mound, his fingers teased the moist folds and he scented her arousal in the air, as she pressed against him the best she could with his weight holding her down.

  Dex brushed her hand from him and moved over her body. One hand pushed her jeans and panties down over her backside and he cupped the swell of one cheek, as his other hand drew imaginary circles over her swollen nub, and she made that sweet moan against his ear. Her hands reached under his top and her nails gently scored against his skin, over his nipples and down his abdomen and he was all but lost to her touch.

  “Don’t do that, Kate, or I’m going to take you right here and now.” His deeply growled warning had her body alive with the need for him. His fingers spun faster against her, he wouldn’t leave her wanting. He needed to sate her so he could get the hell up off this blanket and take her home to bed and do this properly.

  Kate brushed her fingers back up over his chest. Her mind took in the warning and dismissed it, she wanted him. She needed him and she didn’t give a damn where they were. Her nails scored down over his skin again, making her intentions clear and he growled long and hard.

  He couldn’t help nipping against the soft skin of her throat as he made his way down over her body. Snagging the thin strap of her bra that ran between the valley of her breasts and he pulled it upwards. Her breasts slipped out from under the fabric and his mouth eagerly claimed first one hard nipple, sucking and nipping the pebbled bud until she moaned hard, before he moved to the next.