InsatiableNeed

by Rosalie Stanton

  “Pumpkin, if your theory’s correct, this is the same asshole who’s calling upon the services of a demon to make people come to church.”

  She inclined her head. Point taken. Still, if what Zeth said held any water, and the room lodged within the tiny church was indeed used as a catch-all for O’Brien the Wonder Slob, it still begged the question as to why he’d keep one corner from seeing a speck of dust.

  Then again, having spent every other weekend of her childhood with her father and very religious stepmother, Raegan could appreciate that some of the more fundamentalist types had hang-ups when it came to sex.

  “Have you found anything?” she asked.

  “I’m sure I would if I knew what the hell I’m looking for.”

  “Anything on Jezebel. Or something like Jezebel. Or demons. Or demon summonings. Or how to cancel a demon summoning.”

  “Gee. That really narrows it down.”

  “Shut up and look.”

  A long sigh sounded from Zeth’s lips. “Yeah, I’m looking. But I hate to tell you, Rae, I don’t think this is gonna have the ending you want. Like I said, this place doesn’t look lived in. Seems to me if O’Brien is planning something big and nasty, he’d keep his research material somewhere else. Somewhere he could, oh, I dunno, find it.”

  Raegan cursed. Damn it. She hated it when he had a point. “But there has to be something here. If he’s doing this thing, there has to be evidence for it, right? And this is the only other place in the whole goddamn church.”

  “Don’t know that for certain.”

  “We’ve looked everywhere else!”

  Zeth shrugged again. “Again, we don’t know that for certain. Have you ever snooped around here before?”

  “No, you idiot, but Harriet said it’d be here.”

  He looked at her, arching a brow. “Oh that’s right. Tell me again, what did Harriet say?”

  “To come look in here.”

  “And?”

  “And nothing. That was it.”

  “She said the demon rites books would be in this room?”

  “Yes.” Raegan paused, frowning. Trying to garner straight information from a Seer, one determined not to fuck with the natural order of the world, was difficult, putting it nicely. Putting it not-so-nicely, it was only slightly easier than trying to make a cat sit still for a sponge bath. “Well, no. Yes. Kinda.”

  “Oh, that clears things right up.”

  She balled her hands into fists, one of the last strands of her precious patience snapping in half. “She said what I was looking for was in this room.”

  Zeth snickered. “Yeah. That’s Harriet for you.”

  “So it has to be here.”

  “Yeah. Unless there’s something else you’re looking for.”

  “There’s not.”

  He laughed again and shook his head, his gaze finding hers over the piles of clutter. “Harriet is a lot of things, but one thing she isn’t is Little Miss Upfront. So there’s something you need to find in here. Fantastic. Unless she said what it was, we’re wasting our time.”

  Raegan swore. “Well, fuck.”

  “There’s an option.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “All you have to do is ask.”

  Heat crashed over her. She felt dizzy but shoved it aside. Something was wrong. Aside from the obvious, Zeth had never spoken to her that way, except for the earlier “pants down” comment, but that was more a retort to her verbal fuckup than a pass. And it wasn’t as though he hadn’t had ample opportunity to come on to her before. In the brief period between meeting him and discovering what he was, she’d all but thrown her panties at his face—or rather, she would have if things had ever gotten that far. But for all his shortcomings, Zeth had never been so blatantly forward.

  Maybe she was misreading him, but she didn’t think so. The look in his eyes was different. Hot. Molten.

  “Uhh…Zeth?”

  “Mmm?”

  “You know the…Jezebel thing?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you think she might have…uhhh…”

  He didn’t seem to be listening to her, now coming toward her, his long, strong legs taking powerful strides.

  “We should get out of here,” Raegan murmured. Her gaze had landed on his mouth. “Jezebel…she could trigger at any moment.”

  “Mhmm.” That was a definite purr.

  “Zeth?” God, her voice sounded so weak and heady. Her gut knotted and she pressed her thighs together, doing her best to ignore how slick and wet she felt. How very aware she was of Zeth’s proximity.

  “Yeah?” he replied, his voice husky.

  “We should go.”

  “Okay.”

  “You’re about to do something. I’m about to do something. And I don’t like you so I really don’t want you to do this.”

  He swallowed hard and nodded. “Lead the way.”

  So she did. She totally did. Well, she did if leading the way consisted of leaping into Zeth’s arms, wrapping her legs around his waist, and tugging his mouth up to hers. If leading the way meant rubbing herself wantonly against the hardened strain of his denim-clad erection and sucking his tongue into her mouth. Zeth growled and seized her shoulders, pulling her flush against him and nipping at her lips.

  And that was all it took. Zeth’s hands on her body, his tongue in her mouth, his scent in her nostrils—all it took to remind her what she was here to do, and specifically not here to do. All it took to remind her who she was, who she was with, and how very much she wasn’t the sort of girl to throw herself at werewolves.

  “Stop,” she gasped, trying vainly to pull away from him. “Stop!” She tugged him up for another kiss and thrust her pelvis against his. “God, Zeth, let me go!”

  “I’m trying,” he snarled, sounding miles away from the seductive purr of just a moment ago. She would have contemplated the swift change were she not so desperate to get as far from him as possible.

  “Try harder!” Raegan snapped.

  “It’d help if you could stop touching me!” He concluded by fisting the loose material of her blouse and ripping it clean off her body, his mouth breaking from hers to kiss a wet path down her throat.

  “Zeth…” Her stomach tightened in ways that it should not tighten. God, she was wet. She was on fire. Every nerve blazed, and he couldn’t touch her enough. “Stop touching me!”

  “Are you deaf?” Zeth growled, his teeth nipping at her breasts before ripping her bra away. “I’m trying.”

  Raegan trembled. Every time she attempted to shove him off, she wound up foiled by treacherous hands that tugged him closer and a mouth that felt hexed to want nothing more than his kisses.

  I can’t stop. Oh God, I can’t stop.

  And from the way he made quick work of her clothing, it didn’t take much to guess where they would end up.

  Jezebel.

  It had happened. Jezebel’s spell had taken over, and she was alone with the one person she should definitely not be alone with. God, why hadn’t she thought this through? Why hadn’t she been smarter?

  O’Brien had sealed her fate. She was alone in a room with a devastatingly sexy werewolf, an annoyingly untouched mattress, and her mind had no control over her body.

  Definitely time to panic.

  Chapter Three

  “You make me sick.”

  He knew Raegan’s words were spoken out of fear and a need to protect herself, but damn, that didn’t mean they didn’t sting.

  Of course, responding with a crude, “Yeah, and this is all so fucking fun for me,” while his hand dove into her slacks to rub her cotton-clad pussy likely wasn’t the best move, but then again, he wasn’t really in control of himself at the moment.

  “I don’t know. Is it?” Raegan demanded. “You’re always coming on to me.”

  “Someone has a big ego.”

  “Hard not to when you’re rubbing your big something else against me!”

  Zeth bunched her panties to the side,
his fingers delving into her warm, molten center. Fuck. “Jesus, you’re wet.”

  “It’s the spell.” Her voice wobbled, but didn’t lose the fire. “It’s happening.”

  “Uh huh. And the spell’s making you all hot for yours truly.”

  “I hate you.”

  There it was. Raegan’s defenses hard at work, piecing into a wall she could hide behind. That wall had been the bane of his existence since the first day he had to face her, knowing she knew what he was. And though he understood she was lashing at him out of a need to protect herself, he couldn’t help but feel his own instinct of self-preservation kick in. While she felt incredible in his arms, her warm cunt beckoning his eager fingers, he didn’t want her like this. He didn’t want her kicking and screaming. He wanted her only if she wanted him.

  Stop. Stop. Gotta stop.

  No good. His body had betrayed him, his lips getting precariously close to her pert, pink nipples, his hands behaving of their own accord. O’Brien had summoned the demon, and Jezebel’s curse was in effect. Struggling was a futile effort.

  Why in the world he’d agreed to come on this stupid ass field trip was beyond him. Fuck knew he’d pumped his cock to the thought of Raegan’s succulent pussy squeezing him in all the right places enough times to warrant a moment’s worth of hesitation. Tonight, she’d said. O’Brien was making his move tonight. Tonight Jezebel would come and take away their ability to say no. And here he was, trapped with the gorgeous, maddening Raegan Pritchett, flicking her clit with his thumb, listening to her heady breaths alongside her scathing words. Zeth might have wanted her, but he didn’t want her like this. Not like this.

  But there was shit he could about it.

  No cash register to rob. No boss to kill. Only a woman who drove him out of his mind, warm, wiggling, and…well, not willing, but he wasn’t in a position to stop.

  The only thing he could do was revel in the fact that Raegan’s participation was just as fervent as his own. That meant she’d fantasized about him, too. Enough to want him, even if she didn’t admit it. That, at least, meant something.

  “Zeth, stop!”

  He growled and put all his energy behind the will to obey her command. His body, rather than listening, instead coaxed her legs to the ground long enough to rip off her pants. Her slip-on shoes flew off as well, as though propelled by force.

  “I swear, Zeth,” she spat. “I’m gonna take one of my silver bullets, engrave your name on it, and shove it down your throat.”

  “Goddammit, woman, you’re the one who brought me here!”

  “Not for this!”

  “Stop yourself, if it’s so easy.”

  “I can’t!”

  He smirked in spite of himself, nipping at her breast. If she was going to try to make this his fault, he wouldn’t go down without a fight. “Think the lady doth protest too much,” he commented. Raegan’s eyes blazed and she raised a hand, presumably to smack him. Instead, her fingers wove through his hair.

  “Bullshit,” she replied weakly.

  “Oh really? Enlighten me.”

  She didn’t respond at first, her face falling as though only then realizing what was about to happen. Her vibrant brown eyes went wide with fear—pure, unadulterated fear. Fear, Zeth could understand. Hell, he could even respect the sentiment. Yet the other thing blazing within those eyes set his teeth on edge, poking the tense beast within his chest.

  Something even an infant could recognize as disgust.

  Raegan sniffed miserably, her fingers raking down his chest and dancing closer to the jackpot in his pants. “Oh God,” she pleaded softly, though with whom, he couldn’t say. “Not this. Not you. Please!”

  And for whatever reason, that was it. The last straw. Zeth wasn’t so enamored with himself to not understand the difference between forbidden fantasies and hardcore desires, but damn it, it wasn’t as though this had been his idea. She was the one who had come to him, who had begged him for help, who had pretty much led him to this cursed place by the shorthairs. Her hatred for his kind notwithstanding, he knew she had been attracted to him at one point. Treating him like a leper now—when he could do shit to help himself—just encouraged his inner alpha to come play, the human side taking seat in the peanut gallery.

  He shoved guilt aside. She wanted him to be an asshole? Fine. He’d show her an asshole.

  “Mmm, Raegan. Gotta say, for a girl who has no interest in me at all, your scent is—”

  “Don’t you dare say anything nasty.”

  “So I shouldn’t comment on how warm and…gooey you are?” He leered, then ripped her panties away for good. Stupid things just got in the way. “Think you might have a thing for the big bad wolf.”

  “You’re disgusting.”

  “And yet,” he drawled, sliding a finger between her pussy lips. “You’re dripping with honey, honey.”

  Zeth tapped her clit before she could attempt to kick him across the room, and couldn’t keep himself from chuckling when she moaned.

  “It’s the spell,” she whimpered. “Jezebel…”

  He just laughed.

  “Stop that!”

  “Stop what? Finding your excuses amusing? Don’t think so.”

  “I hate you.”

  “Fair enough.” Zeth flashed another grin, shoving back his creeping sense of tact. This was her choice. She wanted him to be the bad guy—hell, she needed him to be the bad guy—and he’d give it to her. “But oddly, that doesn’t make you any less wet for me.”

  “You did this,” she hissed, her head rolling back as she stepped out of the pool of fabric that had wrapped around her ankles. “You…freak.”

  “I did this?” Okay, that pissed him off. Her inner protective wall was one thing, but rearranging history was just weak. Zeth punctuated his outrage with a particularly jerky thrust of his fingers inside her core. Raegan mewled and grabbed hold of his shoulders, squeezing tight. Every move made his dick harder than he thought possible. “Do you have any connection whatsoever to reality, or are you just making this up as you go along?”

  The look on her face betrayed all the things he knew she wouldn’t say. Instead, she came back with a bitter, “Asswipe.”

  “Sorry to burst your bubble, but this was your brilliant idea.” He paused, easing his fingers out of her and drawing them to his mouth. Damn. She tasted like cinnamon and warm apples. His tongue itched to spread her wide and explore. “I just came for the company.”

  She muttered something even his enhanced hearing couldn’t detect, her calf wrapping around his hips.

  “Not like this,” she whimpered, tears shining in her eyes. “God please, not like this.”

  Something within him wrenched. The plea wasn’t completely unlike the one from earlier, but rather than fan his anger, it packed a crippling punch. His heart softened, his inner man shoving the alpha aside. He didn’t want to consider what was going on in her head. “Raegan, I’m sorry. I don’t mean it. We just gotta—”

  “Stop touching me!” she squealed, jumping when he pinched her nipples, his mouth nibbling at her throat. “I swear, Zeth—”

  The alpha surged back with an angry vengeance. “I’m trying. Christ, don’t you listen to a word anyone other than you says?”

  “It doesn’t feel like you’re trying very hard.”

  “Yeah, and I’m sure this is you giving it your all.” Zeth pulled his head back, his eyes narrowing when she suddenly fisted his tee and tore it away without a blink. From where she got the strength, he didn’t know or care. All that mattered was her hands were now on his naked skin. “And hold on a second. How is it that I don’t know that this isn’t all your doing?”

  “My doing?” Her mouth dove for his chest to shower his skin with kisses. Her legs uncurled from around his waist. Then she was moving lower, much lower. His cock strained for attention, aching for her hands…her lips…

  Shit. He was so incredibly fucked.

  “You came to me for help,” he reminded her. “Knowin
g full well what was gonna happen. You stuck yourself with me. Makes for a good excuse, doesn’t it? Can’t keep yourself from fucking me, but at least you can look at yourself in the morning.”

  “You’re disgusting,” she said. Then, as though realizing now where her mouth had decided to venture, she began to shake. “Zeth…”

  “More excuses, now?”

  She was on her knees now, her hands ripping at his belt. And when she spoke, she sounded more like herself. “This is about to get real in a…very real way.”

  “Yeah,” Zeth agreed, his voice strained. She pressed her right hand against his length and rubbed him gently as her other hand pulled at his zipper. Then his cock was free—God yes—and straining for her wonderful, brassy mouth.

  “Hey!” she cried. “Watch it! You nearly got my eye.”

  “Well, then don’t lean in so close, you moron. What’d you think would happen?”

  “I’m not trying to lean in.”

  Yeah, he knew that. Just as she wasn’t trying to rip his jeans down his legs. Just as she had no say in yanking his shoes off his feet. None of this was what she wanted. Message received: loud and clear. But this warring back and forth was between his nature and his humanity was taking its toll. It was one thing to be out of control of his actions; it was something entirely different to be blamed for his every move by someone who not only understood what was happening, but likewise had no control over herself.

  Fuck it. Might as well go for broke.

  “Like you haven’t dreamed of my cock.”

  “You’re depraved.”

  “And you’re on your knees in front of me. What does that make you?”

  Raegan hissed through her teeth and winced when her mouth neared his cock, her lips parting to accommodate him.

  “Hexed,” she gritted out, her tongue indulging in a long lap of his cockhead. “And pissed off.”

  The first feel of her silken tongue rendered him lost. Zeth gasped, his eyes rolling back and his hands flying to her face. “Oh Christ,” he panted, surging forward and forcing his cock farther down her throat. “More. God, more. Take me in deeper.”