by Shannan Rhys
Just as the thought crossed his mind, she practically dropped her jaw and sucked him all the way into the back of her throat, and he stopped being able to breathe or think. She was milking the head of his cock down her throat, and that little groan she made undid him.
He slid his fingers into her hair, pulling the dark strands off her face so he could see into her eyes as he came, and as she drank him down. Fuck. Ash ground out her name again and again as he sagged against the door. A wave of warmth took him, washing him in a deep, hot emotion he’d never felt before. It overwhelmed him. Took his breath.
God, this woman.
Helena kept sucking on him while the last wave of his orgasm finished and he thought he might have to collapse. But when she pulled off him and stared up into his eyes, she finally smiled.
“Did I do that right?” she whispered, her hand still stroking him. “I read about that, y’know. About deep-throating. I’ve always wanted to try it.”
“Shit,” he panted. “You’ve never done that before?”
She shook her head, not letting up with her hand. “Did I do it wrong?”
“Holy fuck, Helena. You did not do it wrong. It was damn perfect.” He put his hand along the side of her face, stroking her hair. “I don’t think I’m gonna walk for a week.”
Her smile was back. He loved that smile. It made his chest feel warm and right.
“That’s not as much of a compliment as you think it is,” she said, running her fingers from his dick down to the top of his boot.
A rap on the window portion of the door startled him so much his heart felt like it hammered its way up into his throat. He turned, filling the little window with as much of his chest and shoulders as he could manage.
He heard Helena fumbling around for her shirt, and he pulled his pants and boxers up, looking straight in the eyes of Tyson Herrick. Ty had a big, shit-eating grin on his face, but at least he wasn’t looking at Helena.
“You finally get out of jail?” Ash said, nonplussed by his friend’s appearance. He noticed a few of the rest of the crew making their way up the dark stairs.
“Yeah, and no thanks for checking in on us.” Tyson’s grin disappeared. “No charges, by the way.”
“Eli told me they wouldn’t be pressing charges.” Ash looked down, trying to find Helena, but he couldn’t see her. He whispered toward the dark of the house, “Did you find your shirt?”
“I found yours,” she whispered back.
“That’s okay,” he said toward where it sounded like she was hiding. “I don’t need it. You wear it. Let me know when you’re decent. I think Tyson wants to come in.”
“Who’s Tyson?”
“Come on, man,” Ty called, tapping the window again. The doorknob turned. “Let us in. We can’t go back to the bar tonight.”
“It’s okay,” Helena said. “You can let them in.”
He could finally see her, curled against the shadowed door to the living room, wearing his gray Long Rock County Fire Department T-shirt and looking so damn sexy he was desperate to send his friends away.
“She said we can come in.” Tyson pushed through the door and Ash stepped back, coming over to Helena’s side and pulling her into his body as all his friends piled into the foyer where he’d just had the best blow job of his entire life.
It was weird.
“You heard that?” Helena said, the end of her sentence sounding a little strangled. He held her tighter, hoping it wouldn’t be too weird with his friends there.
Oh shit. They heard her talking. That meant...
Tyson’s grin got bigger and Ash gave him a hard look. The things he’d said to her… Those had been private.
“Let me in, jagweeds,” said an angry voice from behind the group. Finally, the last of his friends came in and closed the door behind him. JT Walker. Joe’s little brother. It was the magnificent seven. And Helena.
Dammit. He just wanted to be alone with her.
“Why are y’all over here?” Ash asked, rubbing Helena’s arm and feeling warmth roll through him.
“We’re all leaving in three days.” Tyson kept his hands out. “We gotta hang while we can, or we won’t see you for who-knows-how-long.”
“Well, I kinda have other plans.” Ash looked down at the girl beside him and, for the first time in a long time, felt the warmth of belonging. Whew. It was heady.
Part of him liked having Helena around the guys. It felt as if she belonged, as if they belonged. But a bigger part just wanted to keep Helena to himself.
“So I heard,” Tyson said, but someone punched him from the back of the group.
“Ass,” JT hissed.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Sullivan.
There were general murmurs of approval, but Tyson was enjoying this too much. He loved seeing Ash squirm. They were practically brothers, or Ash would have punched him in the face for insinuating that he’d heard Helena giving head.
“Do you have alcohol somewhere?” she asked, her voice more chipper than he would have expected. But he didn’t like the smile on her face. It was the same one she’d been wearing when she walked into Joe’s Bar earlier in the night. The one she’d pasted on for someone else’s benefit.
“Helena, you don’t have to.”
“There’s a liquor cabinet right around the corner,” Tyson said with a big smile. “In the living room.”
“You have any bourbon?” She looked up at Ash, and his heart constricted a little. Yes, she was hiding again, and he didn’t like it one bit. Not when she’d been so uninhibited with him a few minutes ago. He wanted that Helena back.
“Head on in and I’ll be there in a second,” he said, pushing her into the living room.
When she was gone, he stepped up to Tyson and looked at his friends each in turn. “Look, guys. I’m glad you’re out of jail. Let’s hang tomorrow night. Tonight… like I said… I have plans.”
The sound of the door opening shocked him, but that was undoubtedly JT. He knew, sometimes, you had to stop Tyson before he did something stupid. Like attempt to play grab-ass with a chick who knew about fifteen different martial arts.
Sullivan grabbed Tyson by the shoulder and made eye contact with Ash. “We didn’t know you’d have a girl here,” Sully said. “Or we would’ve left you to your…plans.”
“I didn’t even know,” Ash found himself saying, as his friends filed out of his foyer. He followed them out to the porch. “But you find a girl like this, you don’t let her out of your sight.”
“Yeah, we heard,” Tyson said with a smirk, and Ash found himself taking the swing before he knew what he was doing.
Fortunately, Ty dodged quick, and Ash basically whipped his fist through the air. All for the better. If he’d really hit his friend, there would have been some kind of scene. He just wanted to get back inside to Helena. But he really hated hearing anyone talk about her like that. Especially Tyson.
“Call us in the morning,” Sully said. They filed down the sidewalk, likely toward Joe’s Bar again, where their trucks must still have been parked. Ash waved, heading back through the door and locking it behind him.
He hated that Helena had done this amazing thing for him, and his friends…well, Ty…had made a mockery out of it. She really had given him the best head he’d ever had in his life—better than he’d thought possible. She would now be the face he saw behind his eyes whenever he thought about the best sex he’d ever had.
And they hadn’t even had sex yet.
But Ash already knew.
There was something special about this girl.
Chapter Six
Helena poured a hefty glass of bourbon and downed it in a few swallows before the sound of Ash closing the front door registered in her brain. The guys were gone. His friends. Most of them had seemed fine, except the one he’d called Ty. That guy was a douchecanoe. He’d heard what she and Ash had said to each other. Heat flared into her cheeks again and it wasn’t from the alcohol. She never did anything this rash.
Ever.
Up until tonight, Helena Quade’s life had been completely planned out. She’d intended to keep rising in the ranks of the pack, gaining more responsibility at the ranch. That had all gone to hell in a Hobonichi when her grandfather had basically fired her.
Find a wolf mate, he’d told her.
She downed another finger of bourbon, trying to drown out the old man’s voice. Where was Ash when she needed him?
He was her treat to herself, and damn if that man didn’t taste as good as he looked. Just because spontaneity wasn’t her middle name, didn’t mean she couldn’t rock a one-night stand. She could and she wanted to.
Every time that man touched her…heck, every time he looked at her, the world seemed to fade and her heart skipped a beat. Even through the fog of the excessive amounts of alcohol she continued to pour down her throat, the only thought on her mind was Ash—and her desire for him to touch her again.
Then, thank God, she heard the door open and close. Heard the voices filter outside. They were leaving. Moments later, Ash came up beside her at the cabinet and took the empty bourbon glass from her hand, set it on the shelf next to the bottle, and pulled her close. “Hey,” he whispered into her hair. “Sorry about that. Can I make it up to you?”
“You better,” she said, forcing her tone to sound untroubled. She wanted to enjoy this, not dwell on the fact that she’d humiliated herself in front of Ash’s friends. They were gone now. She was safe to just enjoy the ride.
Her skin tingled where his hand brushed her lower back. Warmth flared from her center out to the very tips of her fingers and toes. The scent and feel of his shirt on her body, on her breasts, heightened her awareness of him even more.
“You have any more lists to start on?” He grabbed her hand and tugged her toward a dark hallway.
She followed with a smile and a hitch in her breath. She was about to get what she wanted. Him. Even her wolf was in accord with her choice for the night.
“What kind of list did you have in mind?” she asked, surprised at the sultry note in her voice.
“Well, I don’t think we got very far on that last list.”
She half-tripped on a rug in the hall, but Ash’s large hands on her waist kept her upright and moving toward the door at the far end. She loved how he anticipated her.
“The one I Googled?”
“What was next?” he asked, maneuvering her into his room.
She closed her eyes, trying to think. It was really hard to think with his arms wrapped around her, stealing away her breath. Stealing all rational thought.
“Um… I can’t think when you hold me like that,” she whispered.
“Like this?” He tightened his grip until she was flush against him, and looking straight into his eyes. There was a long, charged moment of chemistry passing between them, and she couldn’t breathe with him like this. Let alone think.
“Yes,” she breathed.
He walked her back until her calves touched the bed, and laid her down, staying close, keeping eye contact. She glanced up at the shadowy ceiling and smiled as he pulled the T-shirt over her head, baring her breasts to him again and discarding the thing that smelled so much like him. But his mouth was on her in an instant, making it harder to think again, and leaving a trail of hot kisses from her neck down over her breasts and all the way to her waist.
“Tell me about your tattoos,” he murmured, tracing the lines on the one that spanned from her right hip all the way to the side of her breast.
“Purple orchids are my favorite flowers, and the lines do this really neat ripple effect when I dance.”
“Dance?” he growled, squeezing one of her nipples until she gasped.
“I belly dance in shows and competitively,” she drawled, loving the jealous heat in his eyes. He shouldn’t be jealous, but it was nice to be wanted and desired, especially when no one in her entire family could give a flying flip about her.
He rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, sending sparks directly to her already throbbing clit. His mouth caressed the other one and her mind went blank as the sensations of his lips and tongue nearly sent her over the edge. “Ash, please.” She needed a little more. If he’d just put his hand between her legs and press down, she’d come like an uncorked champagne bottle.
His hand abandoned her breast and traced the sweeping lines etched into her left hip. “What about this one?”
“It reminds me of my mother. I don’t see her much anymore and I remember Dad used to bring her lilies every week. The lilies were before they gave up on being together.” After Helena’s high school graduation, her dad had moved back to a bunk house on the ranch. Mom had stayed in town, in the house where they’d raised Helena, but their daughter had chosen wolf life and it had broken Mom’s heart. That house was still full of so many memories—some good, some bad, and some heartbreaking. She could still hear her mother screaming, They hate me. I can’t live in your world. Her dad had packed a bag and left that night. The night Helena had found solace in the Ranch.
“They don’t get along?” Ash asked, pulling her out of her painful thoughts.
Helena sighed. Her parents were complicated. Human and wolf relationships were impossible in her pack. “They get along fine.” She paused, trying to decide on an acceptable lie. “My mother refuses to leave her career and my father refuses to leave the ranch. They’re still married, but they carry on separate lives.”
“Sorry,” he whispered against the skin right above her navel.
“It’s fine, really. Now you know. One tattoo is for me and one is for my memory of when things were good.”
He leaned over her, yanking off her boots one at a time. Then her socks. Then he unzipped her jeans and pulled then down along with her underwear, freeing her legs. A needy groan rumbled from his chest and he knelt at the side of the bed, surveying her as if she were a piece of art. A goddess. “God, Helena, you are so beautiful.” He caught her ankles and pulled until her ass was nearly hanging over the side. He was still half-clothed. It was so…sexy.
Helena sucked in a breath. She knew what he intended, and no one had ever done this for her before. What would his mouth feel like down there? She might come just from the anticipation. He put her thighs over his shoulders and buried his face in her sex. He licked her opening, avoiding the one place she needed him desperately to touch. Warm breath and a hot tongue. By the gods, she couldn’t imagine anything better. Certainly not in this moment.
She grabbed at his blond hair and tugged, trying to get his mouth to touch her again. He did, but this time it was with his fingers. He parted her and his mouth descended, claiming her sex with his tongue. Her body clenched, desperate for more. She moaned, tightening her grip on his hair, bucking against the erotic torture. “A-a-sh, p-please,” she begged.
“That’s it, baby. Say my name. Let go of all of it.” His mouth closed over her clit and clamped down.
Helena’s world split open. Stars blinked in her vision. Wave after wave of pure ecstasy passed through her body, threating to tear her into pieces. His strong arms kept her hips locked in place and he continued to apply pressure, slow long pulls that wrenched yet another orgasm from her and then another.
Tears burned at the corners of her eyes. “Ash!” she yelled out, turning her head to the side as all the pain and disappointment and hollowness her body had gathered since this afternoon ebbed away. And still he didn’t let go. His mouth continued to lick and lap at her entrance until the coiled arousal in her belly throbbed again. “No more. I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.” He breathed against the sensitive skin on the inside of her thigh. “You’re mine right now, Helena. I’ve got you.”
A shudder racked her body. Those words would rip her apart. The tears she’d been holding back seeped from her tightly closed eyes. His mouth closed around her clit again and his hand found one of her breasts. He had a nipple between his rough fingers and then…
Screams ripped from her throat and she
bucked beneath his iron hold. Then she soared into a place she’d never been before. Into a place where the world fell away and worry and pain didn’t exist. Into a place where there was only pleasure and the touch of the man who’d sent her here.
She never wanted to leave. But this man didn’t fit into her plans. He wasn’t a wolf. There would be no new pack to make her feel like she had a home. He didn’t even have a reliable steady job…
What the hell am I thinking? It’s not like he’s asking me to stay. We both agreed to one night. No strings. He’s just making me feel better. All of this confusion was just the alcohol and the tension fogging her brain. Staying with Ash wasn’t an option. It never had been. Damn, though, she’d never come so hard in her life. Ash was just the perfect solution to a heartbreaking stressful day. Nothing more.
He couldn’t be more.
She wouldn’t go there.
He was just what she needed in the moment. Right now. And she wanted him so much. Her body cried out to be filled by him. She tugged his hair and he looked up at her from between her legs. His eyes were dark in the shadows and his breathing was as ragged as hers.
Chapter Seven
This gorgeous woman had come apart in his arms, and all Ash could think about was that their night was almost over. His heart dropped at that thought. Even as Helena lay beneath him, practically squirming in her post-orgasm haze, he kept thinking…
I want to keep her.
As ridiculous as that thought was—they’d just met, barely even talked—he couldn’t help it. It kept popping up and taking him by surprise. The thought had cycled on repeat through his head as she came again and again under his tongue. She had the most beautiful scream.
Thank God his sister wore headphones, or Lisa might have just barged right in and told him to keep it down, even with Helena panting and naked. Their family didn’t have the best boundaries.
He traced his fingers up Helena’s legs and over her tattoos. She made the best noises, those little moans that told him he’d done well. His dick was impossibly hard, but as much as he wanted to take her—was desperate to take her—he didn’t want it to be over.