by Reina Torres
“I love your legs, Paige,” he prowled after her on the bed, “open for me, baby. Show me how pretty you are.”
He watched her skin flush with heat, the pale peach of her skin warming under his hot gaze.
She swept her tongue over her bottom lip and touched her palms to her knees and gently drew her legs open under his hungry gaze.
And his tiger crawled along with him, fur just under flesh.
He heard Paige’s soft gasp and met her eyes from less than a foot away.
“I can see it,” she sighed, “in the way you move.” Paige reached out a hand and touched his bare shoulder. She moved her palm over his skin. “I almost expect to feel the fur of your tiger under my hand.”
Devlin shifted his weight and sat his hip down on the bed, laying himself out beside her, his gaze now a warm amber as he flexed his body beneath her hand. “Later,” he promised her, “let me love you and you can see my tiger later.” His voice rumbled in his chest when she trailed her fingers over his chest. “I need you, Paige.”
He leaned closer and watched her eyes.
She leaned back against the pillows and reached out her hand to urge him closer.
And closer he was, rising up on his hands and knees he moved between her legs, his arms caging her in beneath him.
He leaned forward to press a kiss on her lips, a soft brush of sensation that had her digging her elbows into the bedding to raise herself up to return the gesture.
Devlin lowered his hips and pressed against her, swallowing her surprised gasp as she felt the heavy evidence of his need rock against her, stroking between her folds.
He felt her body rise up to press back against him, and he could feel her natural instincts surface like a living thing under her skin.
Paige drew up one foot and then the other, opening her body to his touch.
He fed from her lips, eating at her moans, nibbling at her sighs, all the while rocking between her legs.
His skin was slick, wet where she felt his stokes near the tops of her thighs. It felt like liquid fire licking at her skin.
His lips closed over her earlobe. “That’s you, baby,” he slid his hard flesh between her legs, “all that heat is you.”
Devlin lowered his hips on the next long stroke and she felt his length score her body with his need, felt the heavy press of his balls against the open lips of her sex.
She opened her mouth to speak and lost the train of her thought. So, the words she spoke rose up from both impulse and need. “I’m so empty, Devlin. So terribly empty.”
He tucked in his knees, pressed them in under her backside, moaning as he moved. “Do you want me inside you, Paige? If you do, I’ll give you what we both need.”
She reached up a hand and smoothed his hair back from his face. “You mean the mark?” She dropped her hand back down and traced the skin along the side of her neck.
She saw how he watched her fingers, how his eyes looked like liquid amber, shifting in the darkness of the shadows across his face. “It’s necessary isn’t it?”
She saw the tick of a muscle in his jaw, saw the roll of muscle under his flesh. Heard his voice nearly claw itself out of his throat. “It can wait.”
Paige pulled him closer, rubbing her cheek against his chest. “I don’t want to wait. There’s something between us, Devlin. I’ve felt it from the moment I looked into your eyes. I don’t fear you. I don’t fear what’s between us.”
Taking his hand in hers, she drew it down her side, over her hip, and under her thigh. When he turned his hand, digging in his fingers under her leg, lifting it up and over his hip, she arched into him. Her skin was tight, hot, itchy.
His chest rubbing against hers, turning her pebbled nipples into aching points. Devlin’s breath on her throat, his tongue painting his desire on her skin.
“Devlin?” Paige lifted her other leg and slid her heel along the back of his thigh. “Devlin,” she sighed, “I need more.”
She felt him shift above her, along her… felt his hips roll back and the length of his erection slide deeper, harder between her folds.
“I’m going to give you more, Paige, but you don’t have to take the mark.” His voice was rough as if the tiger within him was trying to drown out his words. “I won’t force it on you.”
“It’s not force if I’m wanting it and you, Devlin.” Her hips rose up under him and left them both panting. “Please.”
Devlin went still against her. “Don’t move, Paige.”
“But,” her words were breathless, “I want-”
“And I’m trying to be gentle.” He turned and looked at her, the upper corner of his mouth curled up, showing her a long, curved fang. “But if you rub that pretty pussy against me again, I won’t be able to hold back.”
He watched her face, wondering if he’d shocked his innocent wife. He saw her cheeks flush with heat before the color spread down along her neck.
His eyes feasted on the rush of color on her breasts and the way they rose and fell as he watched her.
Paige trembled, but he wasn’t sure why and he certainly didn’t have the control to speak much at all. Every inch of him needed a release.
Needed her warmth around him.
Needed to hear her voice screaming his name.
But he needed her softness too. That part of her called to him somewhere deeper than the need to bury himself in her until she came apart all over his cock.
And then she touched him.
Her hand slipped between them, wrapping around his shaft, squeezing him ever so slightly.
Stars formed behind his eyelids as he felt her slide her hand up towards the tip. “Paige,” he curled his hips and slid his length through her hand, “it’s going to feel like this, when I’m inside you.”
Her breath hitched in her lungs as her gaze lifted to meet his.
“Damn.” The word was wrung from his lips at the look in her eyes. “Paige, baby, I-”
At first, he thought her eyes looked like glass, reflecting the aching need inside of him, but then he saw the shifting color of her hazel eyes, mimicking the amber of his. He knew when her tongue darted out to lick her bottom lip he knew he was long gone in love with his innocent wife.
“Inside me, Devlin. I want to feel what it’s like to have you push inside me over and over and-”
One hand holding him off the bed, the other covered her hand and together they pushed the tip of his cock between her slick folds.
Her eyes widened as she felt her body stretch to surround him, pulling him in just enough to feel her shudder against his skin, and draw him deeper into her body.
Devlin took their joined hands and lifted them to his mouth, sucked her fingers between his lips as he lowered his hand to her breast, his fingers plucking gently at her nipple, trying to draw her deeper into the spell of desire.
“Devlin, more.”
But it was his wife, her luscious curves, and her innocent need, that had him wrapped around her as her body stretched around him and wept at his intrusion.
And when he was all the way inside her, his shaft held tight by her heat, he let out a groan that shook them both from head to toe.
“Paige, it’s always going to be like this.” He looked down at her when she remained silent and expected to see hesitation in her eyes.
She tilted her hips, just an inch or two, seating him even deeper than before. She couldn’t have known, the words dashed through his thoughts, just how to move… just how to hold him.
His tiger paced inside of him, somewhere in the darkness. Instead of making a demand, he gave Devlin the answer.
Instinct, he told his human. Nature. Destiny.
“Yes,” Devlin felt the truth of it in his bones, “destiny.”
He looked down at his mate, and felt everything inside of him shift. “Hold me, Paige, wrap yourself around me… and hold on.”
She didn’t question him or hold back.
Paige wrapped her gorgeous body around his as he stretched over her, leaning into
the mattress. The first stroke was a long slow push of his hips, the second made her sigh, as he picked up speed it seemed as if every stroke of his length inside of her pushed a breath from her lungs.
And suddenly they were breathing together, moaning together… and as his fingers fisted into the bedding near her shoulder, climbing together.
The tremors he felt weren’t just hers, they rolled through both of them, trading energy and need back and forth in a tug of war they were both winning.
Her eyes snapped open and her inner walls clamped down on him, pulling a keening cry from her lips.
Devlin felt his fangs extend, scoring the inside of his upper lip as he fought to ignore the need that rode along his spine. It was too much, too soon.
But his mate surprised him yet again. Grasping the sides of his face, her fingers held him tight and with some kind of other-worldly strength, she drew him down toward her.
He was ready to give her a kiss and keep it at that, pushing them both over the edge without the mark, but Paige had other ideas.
She turned her head to the side exposing the pale sweep of her neck and shoulder.
It was as close to words as either of them were able to manage, but an invitation he wasn’t going to refuse. Devlin felt her tremble on the edge of her release and he was only too happy to join her. One last forceful thrust and they both fell into the release they were searching for.
Paige’s fingers dug into his shoulders as if she could climb even higher than he’d taken her, and the only way he could hold her down on earth were his fangs in her flesh.
They slid into her like need, seeking the hot blood just beneath the surface. Paige bucked against him, her nails drawing blood from his skin.
He could barely move.
Holding Paige against him, he laved his tongue over the fresh mark, making her shiver in his embrace. Devlin breathed in and smelled their scents mingled together, her tangy sweet mixed with the sharp spice of his skin.
Together, the way it was meant to be.
Chapter Six
Devlin was awake before the sun, his eyes studying Paige’s face as she lay asleep with her cheek on his shoulder. He felt the delicious ache of exertion in his muscles and the sweet feeling of surrender in his soul.
Paige shifted against him, drawing her leg up until her thigh brushed his rigid flesh.
He reached down and wrapped his hand around her leg, enjoying the languid sigh he heard from her lips, his fingers massaging her flesh, reaching around to the rounded curve of her backside.
Her skin was warm, pliant, and when he squeezed, pulling her tighter against his body, she sighed and her eye fluttered open. “Morning.”
It took just a few seconds for the warm flush of her skin to darken into a rosey-red flush as Paige looked down and saw their naked limbs entwined and their blankets on the ground.
She tried to sit up to grab the blankets, but her arm was under his shoulders.
“Leave them,” he took her chin in his hand and pressed a kiss to her lips, “I like the look.”
Paige leaned her forehead against his shoulder as if she could hide her nakedness as long as she didn’t see it.
He answered her silly efforts by lifting a hand and tracing the tips of his fingers from her shoulder to her hand. “Why do you want a blanket, babe?”
He felt her frustrated puff of breath on his shoulder.
“I can keep you warm if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Devlin felt her sudden inward gasp of air and knew he’d hit the nail on the head.
They rolled over, Devlin bringing her along with him until he was again on top of his wife.
She lost some of her hesitation as his cock pressed thick and heavy against her clit. And when he rocked his hips against her, Paige raised her hands up and brushed her thumbs over his nipples. “I wasn’t worried about the cold,” she sighed with a smile in her tone, “I have plenty of padding.”
He heard the slightest bit of worry in her tone. “Hey, be nice to my mate,” he warned her.
“I’m trying,” she told him as she drew circles and curves on his bare flesh with her fingers, “old habits die hard.”
“You’ll see yourself the way I see you, Paige. We were made for each other,” he assured her, “keep that in mind for now.”
She considered his words and nodded, his hands echoing his tantalizing touch across her skin, from the undersides of her breasts to the sides of her body where they found the hidden ridges of her hipbone under her curves. “And what are you keeping your mind on, Devlin?”
Leaning forward, he hooked one hand under her hip and canted her just the littlest bit as the fingers of his other hand slipped between her legs. “My mind is firmly on you, Paige. I can’t wait to take you again and have you screaming my name.”
Her breasts flushed an even deeper red, making her the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen… again. Seeing his mate flushed with arousal made him want to roar. His tiger was in full agreement, and then some.
“Didn’t you get enough of that last night?”
He saw the way she reached up her hand to feather over his mark, and he felt his erection thicken between his legs.
“Enough?”
He leaned over and nudged her fingers away with his nose before he replaced her tentative touch with the warm weight of his tongue.
When he lifted his head back up he heard her gasp, and knew what she was seeing.
His tiger watching her from his eyes with amber pools of wild curiosity peering down.
“Never enough, Paige. I’ll never have enough of you.”
His voice was thicker, growling from a place deep in his gut and from the depths of his soul.
“What about you, Paige? Was last night enough for you, wife? Are you tired of me so soon?”
He replaced his searching fingers with the swollen head of his cock and felt her body stretch around him.
She tried to answer and only managed a soft keening cry as her body wept around him and pulled him deeper. Paige wrapped her legs about his hips when he pushed his last inch into her heated depths, and he pulled her up against him and rocked into her body as he feasted on her lips.
Paige tilted her head back enough that her hair trailed over his arm, seducing him again with its silken touch.
Devlin traced the edge of her jaw with his lips, feeling her squeeze him tighter as he lifted her again and again before driving back into her body.
The loud bleat of her cell phone cut through the haze in Paige’s head, but she was so close, tightening her arms around his neck as the alarm continued on.
She reached out a hand to turn off the alarm and only succeeded in creating a harder angle for each stroke robbing her of breath, but still that alarm!
Devlin reached out to the bedside table. He picked up her phone, slowing his deep thrusts to a slow curl of his hips.
She caught sight of the Caller ID and stopped.
“Paige?”
She heard the concern in Devlin’s voice and leaned forward, touching her forehead to his cheek. “It’s my father.” With a curious blush on her cheeks she shifted her body and moved to sit beside him on the bed. Swiping the button to answer her phone, Paige touched her hand to Devlin’s chest, silently asking for a moment.
He did one better. While she began her conversation, he covered her hand where it laid against his chest, giving her his support.
“Hey, Dad, I-”
“Look, Paige, you need to come back here.”
“Dad-”
“I’m sorry, Paige. I know this is all kind of crazy, but… I take it that you haven’t been watching the news or reading the paper?”
“Well…”
“Please, no details. I don’t think my old heart could take it, but look. There’s been a lot happening, even overnight. I hate to ask,” he blew out a breath, “but I just want to make sure you’re safe.”
“Dad?” She heard such an odd tone in his voice, not just concern for
her but real fear and more than his share of anger. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No, sweetie. Not you, but there have been some ‘developments’ and I think even your… I think Officer Kerr would understand. I can send you a car-”
“We’ll be there in less than an hour.”
Paige looked at Devlin and saw his smile and a little shrug. Of course, he could hear her father on the phone, his hearing could probably pick up a pin dropping outside in the rain. “Devlin will bring me back to see you.”
“Good, good,” she heard the first real sound of relief in his voice, “I’ll see you soon. Love you, Paigey.”
“Love you too, Dad.” Paige set the phone down beside her on the bed. “You heard all of that, huh?” She didn’t even wait for an answer since it was obvious. “I can see I’m not going to be able to sneak anything by you.”
He laughed at her slightly bitter tone. “Not likely, but you can always try. I wouldn’t mind frisking you from time to time.”
Paige laughed and moved toward the edge of the bed, crawling on her hands and knees toward the bathroom.
Devlin took a long look over her bare body, smoothing a hand from her mid-back and over the curve of her backside, purring as he finished his perusal. “Let’s go see your dad, because after that I’m bringing you back here and this time-” he sat back as she set her feet on the rug, “no more interruptions.”
Paige walked toward the bathroom and caught sight of Devlin watching her when she looked into the mirror on the wall. “You can dream, Devlin, but my life has never been my own.”
His smile was almost a self-assured grin. “Now it’s ours.”
The trip back to the Mayor’s house didn’t take long, but the anxiety she felt made it seem interminable. Even her favorite music station on the radio didn’t have much of an effect on her nerves. Paige kept her hands busy during the drive, worrying the fabric of her skirt beside her knees as she struggled to keep her mind off of the sound of worry in her father’s voice.
“Sorry,” she muttered as they turned onto the last street, “I’m not much company.”
Devlin took a hand off the wheel and reached over to her, touching his palm to the side of her face. “We’ll deal with whatever this is, Paige, together.”