Little Red and the Wolf

by Alison Paige

  She squeezed, gently, her thumb massaging over the hard pebble of flesh at the tip. She caught Annette’s nipple, pinched and rolled it between her thumb and finger. Annette moaned, her eyes closed, her back arching her firmer into Maizie’s grip.

  Maizie’s own breasts ached for attention, her erect nipples rasping against the sheet. Her heart hammered in her chest, her pussy flexing, needy and ready. She slid her fingers under Annette’s bra strap, pushed it off her shoulder and slipped her hand underneath.

  Like rose petals, Annette’s skin was satiny soft, even where she was hard, puckered and velvety. A zing of heat tingled over Maizie’s body, shooting straight to her sex, opening her legs to Annette’s persistent caress. Annette’s hand slipped to the apex of Maizie’s thighs, expertly stroking her pussy through the sheet. Her juices soaked through in seconds, molding the sheet to her so the details of her pussy were palpable.

  The feel of a woman’s breast in her hand was sinfully erotic, so new, so soft, so sensitive to her touch, Maizie wanted more. She leaned in, cupping underneath, offering up the excited nipple to her mouth. Maizie flicked her tongue, tasting the powder-sweet flesh.

  Annette gasped then thrust her breasts toward Maizie, her body begging for more. Maizie opened her lips and suckled Annette into her mouth. The addictive texture rippled over her tongue, hard and soft at once. Maizie’s gut clenched, tightening muscles low on her body.

  Annette’s breast filled her mouth, molded to the squeeze of her hand, warm, supple. She caught the nipple with her teeth, gave a small nibble that made Annette gasp, then pulled back.

  Annette licked her lips, her eyes fluttering open to meet Maizie’s. “God, that felt good. I want to do the same for you.”

  She reached for the sheet still fisted at her neck. Maizie let go, allowing it to slip to her lap, exposing her naked breasts.

  “You’re so beautiful, Maizie,” Annette said, her gaze fixed on the hard nipple of one breast. She didn’t hesitate, reaching out to her, smoothing her hand over the sloping contours.

  Her small hand cupped underneath, held the weight of her. Maizie had never been with a man whose hands were as small and delicate as Annette’s. The difference was oddly exciting. Her soft palm, her slender fingers, the perfect mix of pressure and gentleness only a woman could know, Maizie found herself pressing into Annette’s touch.

  Even as Annette’s hand kept a delicious rhythm on Maizie’s sex, she leaned in and took her breast into her mouth. Maizie gasped at the moist suction, tingles racing over her skin, heat flooding through her body. Her tongue toyed with Maizie’s hard straining nipple, flicking and swirling, drawing it in.

  Maizie’s sex muscles flexed, aching to be filled. She braced her hands into the mattress on either side of her hips, unable to deny the pleasure Annette stroked through her. The overly sweet smell of her perfume, her long hair tickling her belly, her skin silky smooth, the sensations were maddening.

  Maizie looked down for a moment and watched the sweet feminine face pressed to her breast. Her little ear with its silver hoop earring, her smooth skin and pouty lips. She watched Annette’s tongue toy with her nipple, noticed her long mascara-covered lashes shadowing her cheek. She was a woman. The sight was all wrong and all the more erotic.

  Maizie’s brain spun with a heated mix of sensation and reason, but it wasn’t natural. Not for her.

  Her body had a mind of its own, wanting anything, everything, recognizing satisfaction in any form. But Maizie’s brain couldn’t allow it, couldn’t let go of instinctive preferences.

  “No.” Maizie’s voice was barely there, her breath hot and panting. “Stop. I can’t. Annette, stop.”

  Annette drew back from her breast, her fingers still caressing Maizie’s pussy. She licked her lips, her eyes hooded. She drew close to Maizie’s lips. “But you like it.” Her voice was husky, her lips brushing Maizie’s. “I can tell you like it.”

  “Yes. I like it, but not…not this way. This…this… No, no, this isn’t…me. Shit.” Annette kept stroking her, Maizie’s hips pressing toward her touch despite herself. She couldn’t think.

  “Annette…” Maizie grabbed her wrist, pulled her hand from her sex. “Please. Stop.”

  Annette straightened, blinked. Her brows creased, her bottom lip pouting, she avoided Maizie’s eyes. “Sorry. I thought you were liking it. I didn’t mean to force you.”

  “You didn’t force me,” Maizie said, fighting to catch her breath, to calm the pound of her heart, the need storming through her body. “I should’ve stopped you sooner. Maybe it’s the virus. But I’m with Gray. Not even sure what that means, but I can feel it and this…this is wrong. Not just because you’re a woman, but…”

  “Oh. I hadn’t thought about that. Shoot.” Annette’s eyes stretched wide and hopeful. “Will you at least bite me? We don’t have to have sex for you to turn me.”

  Maizie couldn’t help the smile tugging at her mouth. What an odd world she’d fallen into. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. Not now. I’m not sure how I feel about being…what I am. I don’t feel right condemning you to the same fate until I do.”

  Annette’s hopeful smile faltered, but after a deep breath she forced it brighter, though the expression still wasn’t convincing. “I understand. You and Gray are a lot alike, I kind of figured. Maybe in a few weeks or months you’ll change your mind.”

  “Maybe.” Maizie smiled, hating the disappointment edging Annette’s tone.

  “Thanks.” Annette’s smile flickered as though she fought to keep it on her lips. She stepped back, fixing her bra, slipping into her blouse. “I’d say I’m sorry about trying to seduce you, but I’m not. I love Gray, but I had to try. I know how you feel though, so you don’t have to worry about it happening again.”

  Maizie’s cheeks warmed. She pulled the sheet to her neck and smiled. “Okay.”

  Annette grabbed her glasses and twisted her hair into a bun as she left. “Gray won’t be back from his meeting with Mr. Cadwick for another hour or more. So if you need anything use the intercom. Some of us don’t have super-werewolf hearing,” she said, teasing as she closed the door behind her.

  Ravenous, Maizie devoured the triple-decker peanut butter sandwich and downed the tall glass of milk before she even considered a shower. She took her time under the hot water, memories flashing through her mind. They were skewed through the eyes of her wolf-half, cloudy and ominous as though something about them was important. She couldn’t put her finger on it, though. She’d dried her hair and finished dressing before it hit her.

  “Cadwick.” The memory crystallized in her mind the moment she said his name. Those papers, what were they? Maizie’s gut told her they were nothing good. Annette had said Gray was meeting with Cadwick now. If she could reach Gray maybe he could use his business connection to get the wolf of a man to leave Granny and her land alone.

  Maizie raced to the phone on the opposite side of the bed. The intercom buzzed and buzzed, but no one picked up. She couldn’t wait. She had to find a way to contact Gray before his meeting was over, a cell phone or pager number—something.

  She ran full-out down the long halls, her footfalls echoing off the high ceilings and paneled walls. She found the enormous staircase leading to the foyer and took the steps three at a time. Tall entry doors in front of her, archway to parlors and living rooms to the right, Maizie turned to the wide double wood doors at her left.

  She’d seen Annette emerge from this room the first day Gray had brought her to the mansion. She’d glimpsed bookshelves and thick carpeting behind her through the open door and a large oak desk. Had to be his home office.

  She knocked first. No answer. She knocked harder, pounded, still no answer. Maizie tried the door. It clicked open and she slipped inside.

  The desk she’d seen through the open door was the smaller of the two. Stacks of papers, open file folders and sticky notes covered the top, chaotic organization. Maizie guessed the desk belonged to Annette. There was a large flat-scree
n monitor in one corner that matched the one in the corner of the other, larger desk.

  Maizie glanced at the larger sleek wood desk, neat and tidy with its dark leather desk set. She could almost see Gray sitting behind it, scowling as he scribbled notes or sent out important emails to one of his high-powered connections.

  Her belly quivered, a smile pinching her cheeks. She tore her thoughts from silvery hair and hard muscles with decided effort. She circled around Annette’s desk and searched for an address book or a speed-dial button on the phone. There had to be some quick easy way for Annette to contact Gray.

  Maizie reached for the phone in the opposite corner from the computer monitor when something on the desk caught her eye. An open letter, paper clipped to its envelope, the golden letterhead glinting in a stream of sunlight. She recognized the name, Judge Charles Woodsmen, from Granny’s Green Acres phone bill. The nursing home tracked both incoming and outgoing calls for security reasons.

  She hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, figuring the guy was humping for reelection votes or something. Was it just a coincidence he knew Gray? She scanned the letter.

  Gray,

  Enclosed are the papers and procedures we discussed for gaining guardianship of Ester Hood. I spoke with her over the phone and I don’t foresee a problem supporting an argument for mental incompetence, provided there are no family members to protest your filing. Should such a dispute arise, I will of course fully examine their argument. In the meantime, as you surmised, you will retain full control of the holdings. All sales and transfers undertaken during this time will not be easily overturned. I hope this information is of use to you.

  I look forward to our game on Sunday. I’ve got a new seven-iron I’m dying to try out.

  Sincerely,

  Chuck

  Judge Charles Woodsmen

  District Judge

  Pittsburgh County Courts

  Maizie couldn’t breathe. She swallowed hard, her heart pounding in her ears. She’d been right all along. Gray was after Granny’s land.

  “What’s this?” Anthony Cadwick took the stack of papers from Gray, glancing every few minutes back to the crowd of reporters milling around the spot of his soon-to-be riverside restaurant.

  “A copy of an amendment from the township zoning board, stating that the sale of property will be kept to a two-acre maximum for residential, eight acres for commercial. Passed at last night’s meeting. Unanimously.”

  Cadwick pinched his fat cigar between his fingers and yanked it from his mouth. His gaze slid to Gray, brows tight. “Ya don’t say. When’s this get filed?”

  “Monday.” Gray loved the smell of defeat in the afternoon. “Goes into effect in sixty days.”

  Cadwick grunted, scanning the papers. “That’s fast.”

  “People want to keep a lid on growth. Keep the community quaint. Rural.” Of course they didn’t realize they wanted to control growth until Gray had pointed it out to them. Once he told them about Cadwick’s plans for superstores and parking lots, his battle had been won.

  “Buncha tree huggers like you. No wonder you like it there.” He shoved the papers back at Gray, crumpling them into his chest.

  Gray rolled the documents then held them in his hand at his side, the other hand slipped into the front pocket of his slacks. Cadwick’s sore-loser display only made the victory all the sweeter. “Glide’s a quiet town. Good people. I’ve made friends.” Several of them sitting on the zoning board. “Yeah, I like it there.”

  Cadwick shoved his cigar back between his teeth and turned to stare at the reporters hammering his PR man with questions. “Look at ’em. Wettin’ their panties about my riverboat casino. Not one question about the restaurant or the twenty other businesses that’ll benefit from the boat docking here.”

  Cadwick made his voice high, mocking. “How’s Mr. Cadwick gonna have a riverboat casino when the state won’t pass the gambling laws?” He snorted. “Idiots. Always two steps behind. Do I look like a man who doesn’t consider every contingency? Do they think I got to where I am—that I built my business—by being stupid?”

  He turned to Gray, pinching the cigar out of his mouth again. His eyes narrowed, a telling grin pulling the corner of his mouth. “What about you, Lupo? Do you think I got to where I am without thinking ahead? Without planning for state laws, politicians and township zoning boards?”

  Gray’s jaw tightened, his fist squeezing the worthless documents. He’d been afraid of this. Cadwick must’ve gotten Granny to sign. It’s the only way he could have beaten the system, had the sale grandfathered in. Damn it, when had he done it? Gray had checked on her yesterday.

  Cadwick wouldn’t be able to resell the land, but that wouldn’t stop him from developing it himself. Even if Gray could close the loophole, it’d be too late. His beast roared inside his head, angry, frustrated. But he kept his face an empty mask. He wouldn’t give Cadwick the satisfaction.

  Cadwick laughed, chewed on the end of his cigar. “Just like old times, huh, Lupo? You always took a little too long to figure things out. Hell, even Donna got tired of waiting around for you to realize you were losing her. Though, God knows why she was with you to begin with. You didn’t deserve her.”

  His expression sobered, Cadwick gazed out over the river. “If she had belonged to me, she’d have never gotten away.”

  Tension rippled along Gray’s back, pulled his muscles into a tight knot. His hands fisted so hard he knew there’d be half moons in his palms from his nails. Cadwick had guts talking to him about Donna. Even after all these years. Did he think Gray didn’t know?

  A low growl rumbled in his chest. He couldn’t help it. When he spoke the deep resonance made his voice sound deadly. “My wife was never something to be possessed or kept. Maybe if we…if I had remembered that, she’d still be around. She wouldn’t have gone away.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “What’d he say when you asked him about the letter?”

  Maizie shrugged. “I didn’t ask. I just left.”

  Cherri sprinkled the final bit of flour into the churning mixer. “’Course not. Why give Mr. Tall-dark-and-wonderful the opportunity to explain? I mean, he’s pretty much perfect. Gorgeous, smart, rich, romantic. Gorgeous—”

  “You said gorgeous twice.”

  Cherri looked at her. “Yeah. I know.”

  Maizie rolled her eyes. “No one’s perfect.”

  “He does a pretty good imitation.”

  The smell of licorice tickled Maizie’s nose. “Too much anise,” she said with a nod to the mixer.

  “You haven’t even tasted it.”

  “Trust me.” She hadn’t told Cherri about Mr. Wonderful’s other attributes, like his ability to turn women into sex-crazed werewolves who could smell anise and creamed panties at a hundred yards—among other things.

  Granted, he wasn’t the one who’d turned her, but still, she didn’t want to hear Cherri come up with any more excuses for the man. She’d tell her eventually. Probably.

  “I just can’t believe I was right all along. I let my hormones get in the way of my brain. Dammit.” She thrashed a rubber spatula through the bowl of butter-cream icing she held, taking out her frustration. “And poor Granny. How am I going to break this to her?”

  “She really likes him, huh?” Cherri dipped a spoon in the cookie batter and cringed when she tasted it.

  “She adores Gray. It’ll crush her when she finds out he was just being nice to get her land.”

  “I’m surprised how well you’re taking it.” Cherri added more flour and sugar to the batter. “I mean if I thought the love of my life was just using me to nail a real-estate deal I’d bawl my eyes out.”

  Maizie didn’t mention she’d cried the whole way back through the forest from Gray’s house and more than half the drive in from the cottage. She felt as though it was a piece of her heart he’d conspired to steal away with those papers, not just her grandmother’s land. Except Granny still had her land, Maizie couldn�
�t say as much for her heart.

  She was done crying. “What I can’t figure out is this other guy…Cadwick. He made a full-court press to get me to call him if Granny decided to sell. Then I saw him with Granny last night. He had papers with him. They looked official. But I don’t know if he’s working with Gray or if the two of them are competition.”

  “You think Cadwick’s the guy who was tricking your Granny into thinking he was your dad?” Cherri dipped a fresh spoon into the tweaked batter. She tasted it. A smile flickered across her lips.

  “I guess. When I told Gray about Granny thinking Dad was telling her to sell, he seemed genuinely surprised.” Maizie stood and plopped a spatula full of icing onto the sheet cake on her prep-table.

  “Probably because he was surprised,” Cherri said behind her. “I’ve met Gray, Maizie. He didn’t set off any of my jerk alarms. Just ask him about the letter. See what he says.”

  Maizie shook her head, spreading the icing as though it was paint on a clean canvas. “What could he possibly say? He used his connections to find a way to steal Granny’s land. Does it matter whether he went through with it or not?”

  “That depends on you.”

  Maizie glanced over her shoulder. “On whether I think he would’ve used it if things didn’t work with us?”

  “On whether you’re so scared of your feelings for him, you’ll use any excuse to run away from them.”

  Maizie turned back to her cake with an exasperated sigh. “Don’t start that crap again. I don’t have any deep-seated emotional scars from my parents’ death that affect my views on relationships.”

  “You mean any scars you’re aware of.” Cherri came over and leaned a hip against Maizie’s prep-table, still nibbling the last bit of batter from her spoon. “Most crazy people have no idea they’re crazy.”

  “I am not crazy.”

  “That you’re aware.”

  Maizie slanted a look at her. “Cherri…”