by Anna Lowe
“Cole,” she whispered in a husky voice.
The scent of arousal filled the space around them, and for once, he didn’t wonder how the hell he knew what that was.
“Janna.” He held her hand tighter and tugged her up the stairs.
Chapter Eight
Janna wrestled with her inner wolf as they started up the stairs.
We came to talk to him, not screw him!
But her protests were halfhearted, and her wolf knew it.
Not waiting a second longer to bond with my mate! the beast growled back.
Bond. Screw. Fuck. Whichever term she used, the danger was still there. Sleeping with Cole would bring his wolf closer to the surface — a dangerous proposition. But doing so would also bring their souls closer, which might help save him when the transformation began.
Exactly, her wolf agreed quickly. And besides…
Janna tightened her grip on Cole’s shirt, knowing just what the besides was. She was hungry for her mate. Starving. Craving him in a way she’d never craved any man.
“Janna,” he whispered in her ear.
The little control she had left went into making sure her nails didn’t turn into claws and rip off his shirt. Just seeing him at work on the fence from across the property had set her off. There was a brooding kind of animal energy coming off him. And watching him confront the bull tipped her right over the edge.
A good mate! A brave one, who protects what is his! Her wolf nodded eagerly.
If she were in a clearer frame of mind, she might have shrugged the thought away, because she didn’t need anyone’s protection. She could take care of herself.
Except, of course, Cole had rescued her twice now.
Time for us to rescue him.
She let her tongue tangle with his and her limbs give in to his insistent pull. Tasting the animal in him for the first time made her inch a little closer to the end of her wolf’s leash. The voice she’d strained to hear back in the saloon was shouting in her ear, banishing her last doubts.
This man is your mate. Take him. Care for him. Hold him…
Oh, she’d hold him, all right. Wrap her legs around him and care for him like she’d never cared for anyone before.
“Cole.” She meant it as a gentle whisper, but it came out hungry and hoarse.
She had a brief glimpse of his eyes flaring with desire before he crushed her into another kiss. His hand slid up her ribs, grazing her breast just enough to send flames shooting through her soul. But then he yanked away, muttering to himself.
She could sense his inner wolf wrestling for control, though it was still deeply submerged. The battle would turn into full-blown war eventually, but for now, Cole was beating it back. Which gave her hope. If he could keep his balance now, maybe he could hang on to his sanity when the worst of the Change set in.
She grabbed his hand and put it right back where it had been. “I want you to touch me,” she whispered. “To want me. To take me.”
I want you, her wolf echoed with an inner growl.
The tight muscles of his face relaxed slightly, and she nearly cheered. The inner voice was right; she could help his two sides mesh.
And he can help us, her wolf sighed.
How she and Cole didn’t trip over one another, tangoing up those steep stairs, she didn’t know. But somehow, they made it to the landing, stepping from blazing sunlight to the shade of the overhanging roof. A place where they could hide from harsh truths for a while.
Cole was the one who kicked the door open, but it was Janna who dragged him inside. She yanked his shirt right over his shoulders the minute they stepped on the braided rug by the door, then got to work on his pants.
“Janna…” he growled in warning.
“I want this.” She laughed out of the blue. “It’s crazy how much I want this.”
“Crazy…” he muttered, cocking his head at her. He shook his head silently, then backed her against a wall. “Crazy enough to want a guy like me?” He squeezed every hard inch of his body against hers and pinned her arms above her head.
She slid a leg around his and reached out for another kiss.
“Wanting you is the only sane part of all this.” She didn’t expand on all this, because explaining was the hard part, but she could get to that later.
Much later, her wolf agreed.
She started the kiss, but he took over and made it all his. Let her know just what kind of loving he’d be subjecting her to. Hard. Fast. Greedy, but indulgent, too, like the way his hands rushed over her breasts, then slowed down to tease and toy.
“Is this shirt a favorite of yours?” he mumbled.
She shook her head breathlessly.
“Good.” He tore down the front of it, sending buttons flying. He leaned away just long enough to unclip her bra before pushing forward and capturing her once more.
Mine, his glowing eyes said the second before he dipped down.
Mine, she nearly squeaked, but he sucked a nipple into his mouth, cutting the sound off to a muffled moan.
Mine, mine, mine! she wanted to chant, over and over as he worked her harder, then eased off to scoop the flesh of her breast in his hand. Her all-too-small breast in his all-too-powerful hand, yet it felt just right. So, so right.
She dropped her hands to his head. Tangled her fingers in his hair just the way she’d done in her dreams. Made helpless little kitten sounds as he spread his fingers, letting the nipple peek out just far enough for him to pull it into his mouth and suck.
Then his hands fell away to pop the button on her jeans, and it was just his mouth on her breast. His very capable, very talented mouth, moving from one side to the other.
She thumped her head back against the wall, pushing her chest out. “So good…”
“About to make it better,” he murmured out of the side of his mouth.
He slid her jeans and panties down together, freed her from the tangle, and dropped to his knees before her like a penitent man who hadn’t worshiped at the right altar for a long, long time.
“Janna…” he murmured, then leaned right in, pushing her legs apart.
She teetered over him. Teetered in every sense of the word as his thumbs spread her slick folds and his tongue slipped in.
The mewing sounds she’d been making went to all-out bordello songs, and she vaguely wished they’d closed the door. But a closed door would have shut out the clean desert air, and that wouldn’t be right. Not with her wolf so close to the surface. Not with her dusty cowboy, who seemed a part of the outdoors. A tiny sliver of fresh breeze whispered in, carrying a thousand scents and sounds. The buzz of a bee around the flowers on the sill. The quiet snort of horses in the stables below.
“Cole… Yes… Ah…”
It seemed that every time she tried to communicate how good it felt, he lapped deeper, trapping her words into gridlock that couldn’t budge forward or back. Her body was about as useless, too. A good thing for his hands clamped over her hips and the bulk of him parked in front of her boneless limbs.
Cole had two fingers inside her before she knew it, and the dual rhythm of his tongue and the drive inside pushed her closer and closer to the edge. She grabbed his shoulders and let her head roll to the side as her wolf dreamed of a mating bite, and she barely held back her cries as he took her higher…higher…
Cole moved like a man who knew everything about pleasuring a woman and wanted to try it all out on her, A to Z.
“God, Cole,” she cried as muscle after muscle clenched. A total meltdown, and he was nowhere near done with her.
“Come for me, Janna,” he growled.
“Cole!” she squeaked, then bit her lip to keep the sound from traveling too far. She choked down all the desperate, animal noises building inside until she came with a deep, husky moan. “Cole,” she murmured as her knees buckled.
He slid up her body as if commanded — slid easily, like he’d done it all his life. Over her mound, between her breasts, and up along her neck until h
is chin was tucked over her shoulder and his arms held her tight. His fingers stroked her hair like it was the finest, most exotic silk, and his chest lifted in a sigh.
She’d never felt so cherished. So special. So…renewed.
“Cole…” She guided his chin left and met his lips in a kiss. A kiss that tasted of passion and desire and…and…her. He tasted of her, and just like that, she was on fire again.
“Got a bed in this bunkhouse, cowboy? Or are we going to screw right here on the floor?”
For a second, his look was pure danger that turned on every aching nerve in her body, but then a cheeky cowboy grin came over his face again, and he was all Cole again, all charm.
“Lady’s choice.”
She laughed. “What if I say both?”
His eyebrows shot up in a surprised look her mind captured and parked among the greatest memories of her life: the most blazing sunsets, the most sidesplitting laughs, the biggest, warmest smiles.
He blinked a little, then grinned. “As you wish, ma’am. As you wish.”
Chapter Nine
Cole took a deep breath before Janna nodded him over to the bed, trying to keep himself under control. He’d just about slung her over his shoulder to get her up the stairs, then pulled the rip-her-shirt off stunt that shocked him. Since when did he drag women off onto his turf and tear off their clothes?
But this was one part of impending lunacy he’d be glad to run with as long as Janna was on board with the plan. And man, was she on board.
I want you to touch me. To want me. To take me.
He was a goner the minute she’d spoken the words. They’d hijacked the thinking part of his mind and let instinct take over, and now instinct was taking her to the bed. Not the floor, because somehow, it seemed very, very important to hang on to the last few threads of civilized man left in him. Critical, almost, that he not cross that invisible demarcation line.
So he backed Janna over to the bed and tilted her down, and she went willingly. Enthusiastically. Spreading her long, lean, naked body out under his hungry gaze. Trusting him completely. Which was crazy, because he didn’t even trust himself.
“Hey.” She smiled, wrapping an ankle around his calf. “Time to lose the jeans.”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
“I wasn’t asking, cowboy.” She grinned, making his hard-on even harder.
He slid the jeans off slowly, fighting back his darkest urges. Promising himself he’d keep control of whatever it was inside him that kept trying to grab the reins.
Take her! Claim her! Make her ours!
He almost snarled at the voice in the back of his mind. No way. No how. He would make love to Janna the way he wanted to and she agreed with, and no other way.
Show her! Take her! Now! The voice became a roar when her eyes widened at the sight of his hard-on springing free. His nostrils widened, catching the sticky-sweet scent of her desire. The scent threw his mind into the same dizzy spin he’d experienced when he’d first tasted her. Sex used to be all about touch and feel; suddenly, smell and taste were part of it, too. Which might have made him worry if the sensations didn’t drive him so wild.
He stepped into the space between her legs, and when she wiggled back and propped her heels on the edge of he bed, exposing herself to him completely, he growled. Really growled, though Janna didn’t seem to mind.
I need you, too, her eyes said. Eyes that were wide and wild, but a little worried, too, like they harbored some terrible secret he really, really didn’t want to know.
He stood transfixed for a moment, undecided between dropping to his knees to taste her again and prowling over her prone body to nestle his cock at the entrance to her soft folds. Or flipping her over and going at it on all fours, like the voice in the back of his mind kept voting for.
He cocked his head at her. Lady’s choice.
He didn’t say the words aloud, but Janna seemed to know just what he meant.
What if I said all three? her saucy grin asked.
She broke the stalemate a second later by reaching out and pulling him down for a kiss. A deep, greedy kiss she broke a second later with a barely suppressed gasp.
“God, I need you inside me. Now, Cole.”
He grinned despite the throbbing ache in his cock.
“You know how often I dreamed about you saying that to me?”
She tilted her chin up, making her hair cascade back. “Really? Dirty dreams? Why, Cole Harper, I didn’t think you were the type.”
“Then you must not know me very well,” he countered.
“No? Then let me get to know you better.”
God, it was fun, to go back to the easy banter they’d enjoyed at the start. Before his world upended and everything went askew. He finally felt whole again. Balanced. Complete.
Well, close to complete.
Janna wrapped her legs around him and whispered, “Take me.”
The rest came without thinking. He claimed her mouth with a bruising kiss and settled his weight over her body as naturally as though they’d assumed the position a thousand times before. He grabbed a condom from the bedside table, rolled it on, and let his burning cock slide a hard trail down her stomach, across her folds, and finally—
“Cole,” she moaned as he thrust in. Deep, deep in, in one hard, hungry slide.
He sucked in a lungful of air and dropped his face to her shoulder, panting there for one silent second.
Will not hurt this woman. Will not hurt her…
It became a chant as he pulled back then pushed forward again, relishing her hot, tight hold on him. Relishing the sensation of her body stretching to accommodate him and take him deeper every time.
“Yes…” she murmured dreamily. “Yes…”
The sticky-sweet scent was strongest at her neck, and he got high on it as he set into a rhythm she met with little bucks of her own.
“Yes… Please…”
His steady slide became a feverish pound, but Janna just dug her heels into his ass and spurred him on. Gripping the headboard hard, she opened her mouth in silent cries as beads of sweat appeared on her skin. She tilted her hips right and let him scrape along one side of her slick channel, then the other. She spread her legs wider and grazed his back with her nails.
The pinch in his balls became the best kind of about-to-burst agony he’d ever felt, right on the razor’s edge of pleasure and pain. He drew her knees over his shoulders, lifting her clear off the bed. Pounded harder and harder, groaning her name.
She mumbled incoherently and swung her head from side to side, drowning him with her heavenly scent. He burrowed against the skin of her neck, and everything in him screamed for him to bite. Janna’s body screamed that, too, as she exposed the soft, sinewy flesh of her neck to him.
An artery pulsed in time with his thrusts, and it mesmerized him. Hypnotized him, practically. He reached a hand to her forehead to tip her head even farther back, unable to resist.
Bite her! Claim her! Make her mine!
Temptation. Instinct. Desire. Each wrapped around the other, singing the same song.
Take her! Claim her! Bite!
“Cole,” she groaned, exactly at the same time.
He twisted his fingers in her hair and ran the other hand down the line of her neck. Sniffed and found exactly the right spot.
The right spot for what? a distant part of his brain asked.
He had no idea, only that biting her there was what he had to do. What she wanted him to do.
“Yes…” Janna mumbled, digging her nails into his back. “Yes…”
He spread his jaws wide. Tipped Janna’s head even more, then dipped down and scraped his teeth over her throat.
God, that felt good. God, he wanted more.
“Yes…” Janna panted so hard, her chest rose and fell.
He nipped at her skin and jolted at the shot of electricity that sent through his soul. If a little nip could do that, a bite would be better, right?
Bite,
the inner voice agreed. Bite deep.
It was all so dreamy. So intoxicating. So tempting.
“Cole…” Janna urged him on.
She was close to coming, as was he, and he wanted nothing better than to bury his cock to the hilt and bite at the same time.
Then Pip barked outside, and both their heads swiveled toward the open door. A momentary distraction that made him gulp.
Holy shit. Had he just been fantasizing about savaging Janna’s neck?
He saved the inner lecture for later and tucked his chin a safe distance from her throat. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on finishing what he’d started. Sliding in and out. Reaching deeper and deeper. Letting the windstorm of desire rise inside while he tunneled further into the heaven that was Janna.
“Janna,” he croaked. One muscle after another went stiff as he held on, milking his high as long as he could.
“Cole,” Janna breathed, shuddering at exactly the same time.
His whole body shook as he came, and a warm wave washed over him. His chin dipped, and he dropped onto her, spent and empty and yet fuller than he’d ever felt. Of love. Of belonging. Of hope.
He closed his eyes and breathed it all in. Pretended there wasn’t anything scary about the emotions she unleashed in him. He held her tight against his chest and listened to her heart pound.
“Janna,” he whispered, stroking her hair into place. He said it over and over, drowning out the sleepy voice in his head.
Mine, the deep voice mumbled. Mate.
Chapter Ten
Janna snuggled closer to Cole, all but purring in contentment.
Wolves don’t purr, her inner beast hummed.
She ran a finger down Cole’s arm, tracing the cords of muscle that ran this way and that.
Purr, hum, whatever. She felt good.
Real good, her wolf agreed.
“Can I get a rain check for sex on the floor?” she murmured.
When Cole lifted his head to look at her, a long line of muscle stood out along his abdomen. The clouds in his eyes had settled to a warm, calm gray with a golden glow around the edges, like the sun about peek out from the trailing edge of a winter storm.