Wild Hearts 2: Wild by Night

by Jodi Lynn Copeland

  Once more her tension slipped away as his luring scent filtered through her senses and into her mind. Her heartbeat slowed to a rhythm of desire and her inner thighs heated while her pussy flooded with the juices of expectancy. Back in the church, Duane had worked his magic on her, made her ache to touch herself, to stroke her clit and ease the restless burning in her sex. It had to be magic making her feel those same things now, because, before she could even consider what she was doing, her hand was beneath the covers and touching a heavy, naked breast.

  She stroked her fingers over an erect nipple and the breath caught in her throat as an answering pool of wetness seeped from between her thighs. Tugging at her swollen nipple, she kicked back the covers and moved her free hand lower, to the edge of her slit and the damp curls that concealed it. One finger moved inside the slick, open valley of her cunt, piercing her core with a pumping thrust and she nearly came off the bed at the exquisite sensations that coiled through her.

  My God, she felt ready to come, and all from a simple stroke. But, no, it wasn’t from a stroke. It was from Duane. From the heat of his potent gaze, from the knowledge that he watched her fingering herself. From the magic he worked over her senses.

  Damn it, she would not succumb to that magic!

  No matter how good it felt to touch herself under his watchful gaze, no matter how wickedly naughty, and yet somehow so very right, she couldn’t give in to his sexy goading smile anymore than her own forbidden desires.

  Cursing her moment of weakness, Candace jerked her hands from her body and narrowed her eyes toward Duane. “You have two seconds to speak your mind and after that I am coming over there and hurting you.”

  One. Two. More silence.

  Maybe he was working on the right words and needed a few extra seconds.

  Three. Four. Five. Still more silence.

  Damn him! Why was he acting this way? He had to know by now his magic had failed, that, as much as she ached to reach down and finger fuck herself into mind-numbing climax, she wasn’t going to do it. So what was his game plan then? Was he angry that his efforts at seducing her with his mind alone had fallen through and was trying to frighten her? If that were the case, then why had he told her not to be afraid of him less than eight hours ago? He’d never been the kind of man to say something like that and not mean it. But then she’d also thought he wasn’t the kind to hurt her or break into her home when he knew damned well he wasn’t wanted.

  Son of a bitch, something had to be done. She wasn’t going to spend the night stuck in a limbo of wanting to fuck herself and wanting to kill the man responsible for getting her in that mindset in the first place. Or better yet, fucking that man himself.

  But, no. She didn’t want to do that. She just wanted him out of her room.

  What if she went over there and he used it to his advantage? What if he said she’d come to him voluntarily and therefore she was his to do with as he pleased? Once he started, she’d never be able to stop him. She wouldn’t even want to, no matter how logical it might be.

  Shit. She couldn’t go over there. Her only hope of getting him to go away without causing any more havoc on either her mind or body was to ignore him, pretend as if she couldn’t care less if he watched her sleep. Pretend like her pussy wasn’t on fire with the need for just one more thrust. Oh, hell, for a whole lot of them.

  “Fine!” she snapped, her body’s state of arousal fueling her words with passion. “You don’t want to talk, then stay there all night and watch me sleep. I’ll warn you though, I snore like a banshee.”

  Flopping back to the mattress and onto her stomach, Candace burrowed against her pillow and closed her eyes. She opened them immediately, knowing how pointless it was to even bother with trying to sleep. She would never sleep with him here, not when she felt his gaze boring into her back, his scent threatening to overtake her logic. Not when she couldn’t stop thinking about the fact she was naked beneath the covers, naked and stimulated and burning to do something about it.

  It was a pity she hadn’t installed a Clapper. She’d always wanted one of the automatic light sensors when she’d been a kid. If she had one, she could just clap her hands, turn on the lights and take care of the situation. Not that she really thought a little light would sway Duane into leaving but it sure couldn’t hurt. It might even—

  A rustling sound brought her rambling thoughts up short and she drew in a sharp breath and rolled back over, half expecting to find a werewolf lying in the bed next to her. Much to her relief and maybe just a bit to her sorrow, there was no one in her bed and Duane was still in the corner, still watching her. Still driving her nuts and making her feel wet and achy.

  “Can you smell me?”

  Candace closed her eyes and swore under her breath. Why the hell had she asked that? It had to be because of his comment at the wedding rehearsal, about how he knew she’d been wet and wanting him in that closest long before he’d touched her, about how he could smell her arousal even as they were walking down the aisle.

  Once more Duane remained silent. If he was going to respond to any of her questions, then it should have been that one because, in its own way, it sounded like she might be interested in whatever it was he’d come over here to offer. So what was up with his silence? Had he grown tired of her lack of action and fallen asleep?

  The idea eased her some, enough to have her opening her eyes and moving to the side of the bed. Gripping the top cover around her, she stood and, with held breath, moved to the light switch next to the door. She might be feeling a bit bolder but she still wasn’t about to go over there and confront him in the dark.

  Turning her back on him long enough to flip the switch, she swiveled back, blinked at the suddenly intense light…and laughed out a disbelieving groan.

  There was a wolf in her bedroom all right but that wolf wasn’t a werewolf or a living creature of any kind. It was an almost life-sized stuffed animal.

  Candace crossed to the window and the wolf that sat beneath it, staring at her through yellowish-green glass eyes. This fuzzy, lifeless, almost cute stuffed animal is what had scared her? Even worse, what had turned her on until she couldn’t stop from fingering herself?

  Okay, so maybe there hadn’t been any magic ruling her actions, maybe she’d just been horny since leaving Duane at the church and had used the idea that he was behind her behavior as an excuse to touch herself.

  That still didn’t explain the smell. She had smelled Duane. It had been his scent that had first stimulated her. Hadn’t it? Was it possible she’d seen the wolf’s outline and allowed herself to make up the scent? But no, she’d smelled it before she’d seen the stuffed animal. There had to be some other excuse. Some excuse that explained how the animal had arrived in her bedroom in the first place.

  She did have a few cherished stuffed animals left over from her childhood and even a few more recently given to her by hospital patients but none of them were wolves. It could be Carrie’s but, if it were her sister’s, that still didn’t explain what it was doing in her room. Why it would appear tonight of all nights and why it would have to remind her so damned much of the one man she was determined to forget—sexually, if physically wasn’t a possibility. Whatever the reason, it would have to wait for tomorrow. Maybe Carrie could tell her something then or, at the very least, get the animal out of her sight.

  * * * * *

  The moment Candace’s bedroom light came on, Duane had darted out of view of her windows and into the shadows that surrounded the outer city limits house. He knew better than to come around here this time of night, this time of the month, when the moon was almost full and his longing to barge into her bedroom and make her his nearly painful.

  He hadn’t been able to stop himself. He had to see her. Had to know if she’d accepted the gift he’d asked Carrie to give her. He’d spotted the wolf in a department store window next to the restaurant where he’d shared dinner with the rest of the wedding party. Everyone but Candy, that is. He’d thought th
e animal appropriate for a number of reasons—one of which was to offer her comfort from her many bad dreams and sleepless nights and another was to get her used to the idea of having a wolf in her life full-time.

  Aware Candace wasn’t the type to be swayed by gifts or, for that matter, even accept them, particularly from him, he’d asked Carrie to give it to her under the pretense it was from her. Thankfully the younger sister wasn’t half as obstinate as the older and had quickly agreed.

  The wolf was now in Candace’s bedroom. Not in her bed the way he craved to be, but in her room at all was a step and, if what he’d just witnessed through her window were any sign, a big one at that. His cock expanded further, throbbed as the image of Candy fondling first her large, rigid nipple then her sweet, dripping pussy filled his mind. He’d never expected her to respond so overtly to the wolf and he’d never expected himself to have such a mind over body struggle to turn away from her actions.

  Tonight he had no choice but to do just that, turn away and return home alone.

  Tomorrow was another day though. Tomorrow he’d take the next step in ensuring his loneliness would soon come to a permanent end. Tomorrow he’d infiltrate himself into her thoughts throughout the wedding and reception, convince her to dance with him many more times than just that first obligatory dance of the wedding party and soon, very soon, replace that stuffed wolf with a much larger, warmer, responsive one.

  Chapter Three

  “It’s all about resolve.”

  After pulling on her robe, Candace tossed open her bedroom door and started toward the kitchen, chanting the words to herself.

  That stupid wolf might have made her panic and then get turned on but that was last night when she’d been tired and out of sorts. This morning she was relatively alert and ready to face the day ahead, no matter how bad the latter half of it might be.

  “Morning, sunshine.”

  It was all about resolve, Candy repeated the words silently, this time in regards to her younger sister’s cheerful morning attitude. Morning people had serious issues but she wasn’t in the mood to point them out to Carrie right now. Instead, she forced a not-quite-sincere smile and made her way to the cupboard. She grabbed a mug, filled it from the pot of coffee on the counter and sat at the table across from her sister.

  The coffee was steaming hot but the scintillating aroma was too much to ignore, particularly in her quickly returning irritable state. She took a long swig, almost enjoying the way it scalded over her tongue and down her throat. After taking a second tastebud-numbing drink, she set the mug on the table and looked to Carrie. “Did you put a wolf in my bedroom?”

  In the midst of bringing a spoon laden with oatmeal to her mouth, Carrie halted her arm’s progress and shot Candace an odd look. “Ah, no. Did you find one?”

  “I woke up last night and it was watching me.”

  “A real wolf was in your bedroom last night, watching you?”

  “I don’t mean watching me, watching me. I mean…” What, that a stuffed animal was spying on her as she slept, making her hot and horny with its supposed magic and stimulating scent? Yeah, that sounded rational. “No, not a real wolf. It’s stuffed. It’s a big stuffed wolf and it isn’t mine. I don’t like it and I don’t want it.”

  “Well, it isn’t mine, either.”

  “It is now.”

  The hasty retort pulled a frown from her sister followed by a shudder. “A big stuffed wolf magically arrives in your bedroom in the middle of the night and you want to give it to me? Very sweet, sis, but no thanks. That’s just a little too creepy for my taste.”

  Carrie returned to her oatmeal and Candace watched her eat in silence. Her sister’s reaction seemed to speak to the fact she had no connection with the wolf but if she didn’t, then it meant someone else had been in her room last night. Someone or something had planted the wolf there in the hopes of gaining Candy’s attention, in the hopes of making her react to its commanding presence and intensely knowing eyes by fondling herself. In the hopes that, when she thought back on it this morning, she would grow warm, wet and wanting all over again.

  Right, they had. And she was officially losing it.

  Candace straightened in her seat and forced herself not to rub her thighs together against the wet heat gathering between them. She was not turned on by the idea it really had been Duane watching her, just as she hadn’t been aroused for that reason last night. She was merely…in need of a topic change. “Fine. Since you don’t want it or know where it came from, I’ll throw it out.”

  Carrie’s attention snapped from the oatmeal bowl to Candace’s face. “No!”

  So much for changing the subject. How could she when it was obvious by the passion in her sister’s response that she had everything to do with the wolf? At least, its presence. Where Carrie had come by the animal was another question and one that Candy could well guess the answer to. What she couldn’t guess is why her sister was covering for Duane. Carrie liked Duane, of course, but Candy was family by blood and that should be worth something, damn it. “Why not? You said you didn’t want it.”

  “I don’t but that’s no reason to throw it out. What if it’s important?”

  “To whom?”

  Carrie lifted a slim shoulder in a shrug and focused back on her bowl and making oatmeal hills with her spoon. “I don’t know. I guess whoever put it there.”

  Candace bit back a groan at her sister’s continual avoidance of an honest answer. Since when had she gotten so good at keeping a secret anyway? It used to be, she’d overhear something and the rest of the family and most of the city would know it by nightfall. The Carrie of old couldn’t be so far gone.

  Perhaps it was a simple matter of throwing out a little reverse logic. “No one put it there, Care.”

  Carrie looked up, eyes narrowed, and tilted her head to the side, sending the blonde ponytail that had seemed a permanent fixture on her head since puberty swinging. “So you think it just got there all by itself?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know. I just don’t want it. If you want it, fine, go into my room and get it. Otherwise it’s going out with the garbage on Monday morning.”

  “What are you going to do with it ‘til then?”

  “I thought I’d bring it to the wedding with me as my date. What do you think I’m going to do? I’m leaving it where it is.”

  For an instant, Carrie’s eyes lit with relief and then that look passed and she scooped a spoonful of oatmeal into her mouth, muttering an “Oh,” in the process.

  Between the momentary flash of thankfulness and the same relief that seemed to fill her sister’s mumbled response, Candace immediately regretted her hasty words. She didn’t want that animal in her room until Monday. Only now she could hardly remove it without risking her sister’s wrath in the form of twenty knowing questions; starting with if she was moving it because it bothered her and ending with if that concern had something to do with who she thought its presenter might be.

  Maybe that was Carrie’s whole point—trying to get Candy to admit it bothered her because it came from Duane and brought all those thoughts of him she tried to push away to the forefront of her mind. The idea made sense and fit with her sister’s persona perfectly.

  At twenty-three, Carrie still managed to hang on to a spark of youthfulness and energy. She also hung on to a penchant for getting bored too easily and constantly trying new things. It was the reason she was still in college with no real direction after five and a half years and, Candy was willing to bet, the reason for her behavior now. In typical Carrie fashion, she’d gotten bored yet again and decided to take up matchmaking as her latest endeavor. Candy could guarantee this endeavor was doomed to fail. As she’d told her older brothers numerous times through the years, she didn’t need help with her love life or lack thereof. She for damned sure didn’t need anyone pushing her in Duane’s direction.

  Candace opened her mouth to tell her sister to stop with the matchmaking attempts. Before she could do so, Carrie s
tood and said, “You’d best get in the shower soon. Mom and Gracie said they’d be here a little before ten to pick us up and, knowing you, you’ll need at least an hour of shower time before you’ll be nice enough to associate with anyone.” Then, before Candace could so much as respond, Carrie placed her bowl in the kitchen sink and left the room.

  * * * * *

  Idle chitchat had never been her thing. As Candace sat in the day salon, waiting for the beautician to finish her hair, she remembered why. Because between women that chitchat typically turned to one of two things. Men or shopping. The latter she could handle. The former, however, was the current topic and she feared at any moment the conversation was going to come around to her and Duane.

  “I still can’t believe he’s going through with it,” Jan, Kelsey’s best friend, said in regards to Nate and the fact that up, until a year ago, he’d been all but a sworn bachelor.

  “I can.” Sitting next to Kelsey, Darla Anderson sniffed. She swiped at her misty eyes and smiled. “When he was a boy all he ever talked about was how he was going to grow up some day and have a big family of his own. I’m just thankful he found the right woman to give it to him.”

  Kelsey looked past the nail technician, who was coating a second layer of polish on her nails, and laughed. “In my case, I’m just glad I found the right man.”

  The women fell into laughter over the way she’d emphasized ‘man’. Even Candy had to give in to a quick chuckle recalling how Nate and Kelsey had met. He’d been operating under the guise of a woman and, because of the way her body reacted every time they’d touched, had managed to convince Kelsey she was a lesbian or at least bisexual.

  If only her own problems were so simple, Candace thought. She could handle being attracted to another woman far easier than being attracted to another species. Needing to get her mind off thoughts of Duane, she said to Kelsey, “I’d tell you that was a fluke and my brother’s the sweetest guy you’d ever meet but then you already know him better than that.”