Wild Hearts 2: Wild by Night

by Jodi Lynn Copeland

  “Truthfully, if you had the chance to be here alone with Duane right now and were able to put aside those complications you mentioned, even temporarily, would you take advantage of the situation?”

  Candy set her bag on the floor and squatted to dig through it, frowning over the question in the process. It was absurd, since it would never happen, and therefore she decided to answer with candor. “Sure, I would. I’d push him up against that sink basin you were sitting on before, tear off his clothes and proceed to rock his world. Since Duane isn’t any too likely to come into the ladies’ room, I won’t waste my time waiting for any of that to happen.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Candy, sweetie.” A voice too deep and masculine to be Carrie’s responded from somewhere behind her. One quick inhale, which had both her heart and her hormones hammering into action, told her just who the owner of that husky voice was.

  Chapter Four

  In one swift move, Candace shot to her feet and spun around to glare at Duane. Her eyes were alive with aversion and his blood sizzled in response. He’d had second thoughts about taking Carrie up on her offer to get him alone with Candace and then to watch the bathroom door for as long as he wanted privacy. Now that he was standing here, about to be alone with Candace, those doubts were long gone.

  “What the hell are you doing in here?” she snapped.

  He tried not to smile, knew it would anger her all the more, and yet he couldn’t help it. She was just too damned appealing when she was riled up. Always had been. “Carrie invited me.”

  “She what?” Candace looked from Duane to Carrie and her glare turned deadly.

  Carrie grabbed onto the handle of her duffel bag, and darted for the door. She flashed an innocent look as she pulled it open. “Oops… I just remembered I promised to bring Mom a fresh glass of wine. Gotta go.”

  The door closed behind her and Candace turned back to Duane, nostrils flaring. “She’s going to die.”

  So was he, of an explosively hard cock, if she didn’t stop with the nose thing. It took her level of appeal and turned it into a thing of danger, one that called forth all of his baser urges and made him want to forget about talking things through first and getting down to action. He wouldn’t risk that, not now that he had her alone where she’d be forced to listen.

  He moved his gaze higher, to the simmering heat that filled her auburn eyes, and tried for levity. “Good to know I’m not the only one you plan to do in tonight.”

  “What do you want, Duane?”

  Easy. He wanted everything he’d never had before—a family of his own, a place to call home, someone to love and who would love him in return—and all with her. She wanted it, too. She might have had those things before, might still have them, but the way she’d acted toward him at the club that night in Braxton told him she wanted more. That night her feelings, her hunger for him had been clear for all to see, in her eyes, her face, the carnal way she’d danced against him. While she might not be letting those feelings, that hunger for him show so overtly these days, it was still very much alive in her thoughts, in the words she’d spoken to her sister.

  Duane took a single step closer when he burned to take so many more than just that one. Five would put him directly in front of her. Six would have him buried inside. He’d get to six eventually but first he had to get her admission that those things he’d overheard in her thoughts and just now in this bathroom were true. “What I want, Candy, sweetie, is the same thing you do. The same thing we’ve both wanted for years.” Emotion flickered in her eyes and he allowed a small smile. “Yes, years. I’ve wanted you since you were old enough for it to be legal. I’d always hoped you felt the same; sometimes I felt like you wanted to say something or do something to let me know for sure, but you never did and, until last winter, I was never certain of your feelings. I am now, just as I’m certain about my own.”

  Her anxiety level shot up with those words; he knew it did because her warring thoughts of what to deny and what to confess pummeled into his mind like a freight train. She clearly decided to deny it all, as her gaze narrowed and she said, “I told Carrie that I wanted you, note the past tense.”

  “That’s not what you said, sweetie, and it wasn’t meant in the past tense either.”

  “I am not your goddamned sweetie and it should have been.” With a last cutting look, Candace turned her back on him and squatted down to her gym bag. Jeans and a sweater tucked in the crook of her arm, she stood, turned back and nodded toward the door. “Now if you don’t mind, I need to change.”

  Duane shrugged, not about to let the venom in her tone deter him. He knew just how insincere her hard attitude really was. As much as she liked to pretend to be callous, she was a big softie at heart and, if he voiced that aloud, she was liable to knock him on his ass. “Go right on ahead. It’s not like I’ve never seen you naked before. Besides, I have X-ray vision. I can see through your clothes any time I want.”

  Her hard look relented as her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. She shut it to breathe, “No way.”

  Yeah, there was no way and it also seemed there was no end to the things he could tell her about himself and have her believe. He laughed shortly and risked another step toward her while she was distracted with her thoughts.

  “I was joking, Candy. I don’t have X-ray vision.” He let his gaze drift to the fullness of her lips then farther to her chest. The pale scars visible on the rise of her breasts momentarily tightened his gut. He forced himself to move past that area, to take in the rest of her wondrously curvy body in the snug gown. He’d seen her dressed in everything from her hospital scrubs to a tiny string bikini, yet something about this dress called to him more than anything else, aside from her birthday suit, ever had.

  He’d told her she looked amazing earlier. What she really looked was edible. His tongue moved by itself with the thought, licked across his teeth and over the sharpening points of his incisors. Just being this close to her, watching her expressive face, inhaling her intoxicating scent had the wolf in him attempting to emerge.

  He shouldn’t move any closer, shouldn’t even stay in this room for fear more than his teeth would begin to transform. He didn’t want her to think for an instant this thing between them, his need to take things to the next level, had anything to do with his being a werewolf. It didn’t, at least not beyond the way that change had opened his eyes, made it clear that if he was ever going to have those things he wanted most he needed to act on them. The change had helped to set his priorities straight, gave him the strength to follow through on feelings he’d had for years, but that’s all it had done.

  And that was why he should leave now, because he wasn’t thinking with feelings, at least not completely. He was letting his inner nature pull at him, letting the throbbing ache of his cock rule him. He should leave, walk out the door and let her ponder what he’d said so far, but he couldn’t. Instead, he took three more steps forward and caught her chin in his hand.

  Candace’s wide-eyed look returned in an instant. She attempted to take a step back only to run into the lockers behind her and whisper out a curse. Duane smiled, aware of just how trapped he had her. Even more aware of just how much she wanted to be there, forced to put her fears aside and own up to the truth. The reality of that was in the way her eyes darkened to gold, the way her breath came out as anxious puffs of air, in the subtle tremble of her lips.

  He set her chin free to stroke his thumb along her cheek. “I might not have X-ray vision but I remember perfectly what you look like naked. I remember just how long and smooth and silky your legs are. How you have that tiny pear-shaped birthmark on your inner thigh. How when I run my tongue over that same spot, it makes your head tip to the side and the rest of you quiver.”

  He moved closer still, until her breasts rubbed against his chest, and allowed his hunger for her to be reflected in his voice as a needful rasp. “I like it when you quiver, Candy. I like the throaty sounds you make when I stick my tong
ue deep inside you. I love the way you growl and dig your nails into my shoulders when I suck on your clit.”

  The anxious puffs turned to ragged breaths and her tongue slipped out, dabbing at her lips. Duane grunted in the back of his throat and swallowed down the raw burst of need that coursed through him, pulling at his control with her artless move.

  Struggling to continue in a voice that wasn’t half as commanding as he suddenly felt like being, he rubbed his thumb over her soft, moist lips. Her nostrils flared. He flared his own back, inhaling her cloying scent. It was laced with far more than a citrusy perfume now. It was thick with arousal.

  He grinned at the knowledge, at how hot she already was for him. “But you know what I really love, sweetie? I really love how you can stand there and try to deny your feelings for me and yet be so wet and needy all you can think about is pushing me to the floor so you can fuck me. Or maybe you want to have me up against the sink the way you told your sister you would do if we were in here alone. I dare you to go ahead and do that. I promise I won’t stop you.”

  Turning her face away from his touch, Candace wet her lips again and glanced past him to the sink. She looked back and her throat worked visibly. “I might want that,” she admitted in a breathy voice. “I might even wish for that in some very remote part of my mind but I won’t act on it. Tonight or ever.”

  “Because you’re afraid of me.”

  “Because we don’t belong together.”

  “No, because you’re afraid of me. Because you think I can’t control myself whenever things start to get intense.” That truth was alive in her eyes, just past the glow of awareness was fear. Duane had seen it yesterday but believed he could get past it by way of his hands and mouth and a few carefully chosen words and thoughts, by revealing his own long-time feelings for her. He knew better now.

  There was only one way she was going to get past her worries and accept that deep down he was the same man she’d cared about for years, only a wiser version. It wasn’t by coercing her into having sex with him the way he ached to do. It was by shelving his restless need for her another few days and using the time between now and then to convince her how harmless he truly was.

  Duane returned the pad of his thumb to her shimmering lips, allowed himself one last touch, then dropped his hand at his side and took three steps back. He pushed his hands into the pockets of his tuxedo jacket, not trusting them to behave on their own, let alone remain in their human state. “I’m going to prove you wrong, Candy. I’m going to take you out tomorrow night and show you that I’m exactly the man you remember from a few years ago. Then I’m going to take you home and show you just how intense things can get and how gentle I can still be.”

  Candace nodded then shook her head. Her thoughts were just as at odds. He wanted to reach into her mind, to help her along a little, but he wouldn’t do that. She had to come to terms with things on her own. He wanted her love more than his next breath but only when she was ready to give it her heart and soul.

  She shook hear head once more and said in a voice too calm for her roaming thoughts, “Sorry to disappoint you but I already have a date.”

  The unexpected words brought a laugh into the back of Duane’s throat. Candy didn’t date. She hadn’t in ages, just as he hadn’t and, whether she knew it or not, they shared the reason for not doing so. Because long ago they’d met their match and mate in each other. “I might have been gone these last few weeks but I have it on good authority you weren’t dating anyone during that time. You haven’t dated once since I moved back to Clarion Heights and, as I remember, you didn’t date for years before I left. I find it awfully damned hard to believe you would suddenly have one now.”

  The façade of calm that had come over Candace faded in a blink. She fisted her hands at her hips and narrowed her gaze. “Well, I do. So believe it.”

  “With whom?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “I’m making it my business. I don’t want you going out with just anyone.” Just the idea of her going out with another man made Duane want to find the guy and tear him apart with his teeth. He could never admit that aloud. Relying on a half-truth, he said softly, “I’ve known you for too damned long to see you get hurt.”

  Her cool look faded as surprise replaced it. She schooled her features and shrugged. “If you must know, it’s with Andy.”

  The composure he’d only just managed to attain shattered into a million pieces.

  Bullshit. She was making it up. Kelsey’s sports mogul brother might be every woman’s fantasy to look at and maybe even imagine what he’d be like in the sack but he wasn’t the type to date. He also wasn’t the type Candace would be caught dead with. He was every bit as dominating as Duane had become as of late but he was also the kind to jump from one bed to another with careless ease. “When did you even talk to him? He didn’t show up until a few minutes before the ceremony started.”

  “After the ceremony, when the pictures were being taken. The attraction was instant and, from there, it only took a few minutes to realize how much we had in common outside of the desire to get physical.”

  Duane’s growing temper shot up a notch with her surefire tone. His hands curled into fists inside his jacket pockets, lengthening claws nipping into his palms. She was lying, goddammit! She had no longing to get physical with anyone but him. She also had nothing in common with Andy, sure as hell nothing more than what she had in common with Duane. “And what the fuck exactly would that be?”

  The words had been snapped out and apparently the harsh tone was enough to set Candace’s anxiety on edge, as her eyes narrowed once more and she scooted along the short row of lockers until she stood a good ten feet away. “Plenty. None of which I need to explain to you.” Her gaze shot to the door then back on him and she ground out, “Do yourself a favor and leave before I call someone in here to make you.”

  He snorted at the absurdity of the words. “Who do you think I would be scared of enough to let them toss me out? And don’t even think about saying Andy. He might get your panties wet but that’s all he’s capable of doing.”

  She flinched but then retorted with a hasty, “Nate.”

  “I’m not scared of Nate.”

  “No, but you are worried about him finding out your secret and how it might affect your friendship. If you make me call him in here, I promise I’ll tell him every sordid detail.”

  “Right, and ruin his and Kelsey’s wedding in the process.”

  “I wouldn’t be the one ruining a thing. You would. You will be if you don’t leave immediately.”

  It was panic talking, Duane knew, making her say or do whatever it took to get him out of this bathroom without touching her again. The odds she would really call Nate in here were slim to none. Still, for the sake of setting her anxiety at ease and potentially keeping a lifelong friendship intact, he’d go. “I’m leaving but don’t think for a second I’m through. We will get our date, Candy. And once we do, you’ll never be able to tell me we don’t belong together again. At least, not do so and mean it. We do belong together and one day soon you’re going to admit it.”

  * * * * *

  He was in her room.

  And this time it wasn’t just a figment of her imagination.

  Duane wasn’t a stuffed wolf sticking to one corner of her bedroom and not making a sound. He was a real, live werewolf advancing on her bed with malicious intent burning in his yellowish-green eyes.

  Candace had experienced fear around him before but, until this moment, she’d never realized how frightening he truly could be. He looked like he wanted to attack her and this time not with pleasure in mind, but brutality.

  “You will not go out with him!” he snarled as he leapt onto the end of her bed.

  Her belly crimped with terror at the threat behind his words and she pulled her knees up and shrank back against her pillows. She tugged the covers tightly around her neck, then immediately tossed them back.

  Damn it
, she would not be scared of him!

  Let him snap at her, let him even come so close as to try and harm her. She wouldn’t let it happen. Never again would he cause her pain.

  Candace pushed up on her elbows and glared into Duane’s glowing wolf eyes mere feet from her own. She gritted out, “I’ll do whatever the hell I want.”

  He bit out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a howl, then crept up further in the bed, his big paws falling on either side of her legs. “If you were doing what you wanted, then you would be doing me.”

  Even if his odd scent was filtering into her senses and working its magic on her hormones—spiraling warmth into her womb and seeping the juices of arousal from her pussy—she would never have sex with him in his wolf form. She would never have sex with him period. “Sorry, but I gave up doing it doggie style years ago.”

  He let out another bark of almost laugher and stalked closer. His eyes lit further, brightened so intensely they hurt to look at, and then he looked away, down at something she could only guess at. “No you haven’t, Candy, sweetie. In fact, I think that’s exactly what you’re hoping for.”

  He moved too fast for her to acknowledge what was happening. The covers were thrown back and his cold, wet nose brushed against her naked thigh. His intention settled in then and her breath drew in sharply, snagged in her throat and left her gasping. His rough tongue pressed down, made its way up her inner thigh to centimeters from the swollen lips of her sex, and that gasp turned to a moan.

  “You want this,” he taunted. “You know you do. Say it. Say ‘yes’.”

  “No-ooo…” Her protest died on a fresh moan as his tongue moved upward, inward, taking advantage of her naked state and probing at her bared cunt.

  His paws came to her thighs, pushing her legs up and out, while his long claws bit into her flesh and shot shards of ache rioting through her. Then, just when she thought she couldn’t spread her legs any wider, couldn’t stand the bite of his nails any longer, his paws moved away and the dampness of his nose brushed over her clit.