Naughty Bits

by Lacy Danes

  “The only reason your mom never liked me was—”

  “She still doesn’t, ya know. Just sayin’.”

  “Was because she knew, despite all the girls I had to choose from, the only one I wanted was you. And just like you, she couldn’t trust that I wasn’t my father’s son.”

  “Oh.” It took me a second to process that. “Me? You never—”

  Anthony leaned forward and caught my gaze. His voice came smooth and rich like thick, melted chocolate. “I’m not a kid anymore, Mattie. I don’t want to play games. I know what I want. Give me a chance.”

  My heart skipped a beat, and a warm tingle raced down my spine. Every instinct inside me told me he was speaking the truth, or he thought he was. But I’d never considered Anthony as a possible mate. His Purist upbringing had kept him firmly in the no friggin’ way category. But now…?

  “Excuse me.” I pushed to my feet, tossed my napkin on the table and grabbed my tiny clutch purse.

  Anthony blinked, brows tight above violet eyes. “Wha—where’re you going?”

  “To the ladies’ room,” I said as though I wasn’t really just escaping an uncomfortable situation. “Do you mind?”

  “Oh.” He glanced toward the restrooms and back. “But you haven’t answered my question.”

  “I’ll be right back, Anthony. Sheesh.” I shook my head and made a beeline for the restroom.

  Thank goodness the long, narrow room was empty. I tossed my clutch purse on the sink counter and paced. “Shoot, shoot, shoot.” My voiced echoed off the tile walls. Bad enough I was reduced to talking to myself but now I was doing it in stereo.

  “Okay, pros—He’s an alpha. Check. He’s sexy as hell. That’s always nice. He’s amazing in bed. A must—naturally. He makes me laugh and listens to me, asks my opinions and takes my advice…sometimes.”

  I stopped and closed my eyes, resting my head against the cool tiled wall. He had a lot of great attributes for a mate. But he was raised Purist and could a person really turn their back on their upbringing? In a moment of crisis how could I ever be sure he wouldn’t fall back on old habits?

  “Wow, this place is huge.”

  I think I screamed. Anthony’s very male, very loud voice startled the breath out of me. “What’re you doing in here?”

  He strode past me to the far end of the restroom, checking out the stalls and then pausing at the tampon dispenser on his way back.

  “Hel-loo?” I said when he seemed to be enjoying the tour a little too much.

  “What do you need a room this big for?”

  “Anthony.”

  His gaze snapped to mine, suddenly serious. “I figured you were in here doing one of your pros and cons lists. I’m looking to sway the tally.”

  “It doesn’t work that way.”

  He grabbed my hand and turned, leading me back to the last stall with the handicapped plaque on the door. He twisted the little silver lock behind us and backed me to the wall.

  “If anyone comes in…We’ll get thrown out if they catch us,” I said even as he unbuttoned my blouse and slipped his hand in to caress my breast. My breath shuddered with the delicious warmth and pressure.

  “Then you’d better not scream this time.” His free hand brushed the long strands of my hair from my neck and he leaned in to press his lips to my collarbone.

  “I don’t scream.” But I did moan at the featherlight kiss and the sharp nip that followed.

  I bent my knee between his legs and he rocked his hips forward, stroking the hard line of his sex against my thigh. My hand slipped between us; I couldn’t help it. I wanted that thick, long shaft in my palm. I wanted to wrap my fingers around it, feel its length, its hardness. But his dark slacks allowed only a muted experience.

  He had my blouse unbuttoned to my skirt in seconds and pushed the collar off my shoulders. It caught at my elbows but he’d already moved on, scooping my breasts from the cups of my bra. The cool air-conditioning chilled my skin, pulled my nipples tighter. His thumb brushed over one and then the other, sending quick jolts of pleasure through my body. He pinched and rolled the hard nubs between his fingers, and my breath caught; a sweet pinch of pain in a wake of tingling pleasure that filled my breasts.

  Heat swelled inside, blossoming out from the center of my being, flooding my veins, sizzling through my sex, making me wet and ready. His head dropped to suckle me, his strong mouth drawing on my breast, teeth nipping, tongue teasing over the tight puckered flesh. My back arched, offering more of myself as I worked his belt and zipper.

  Were we really going to do this? The thrill of possible discovery raced through my blood, made my heart beat faster, my skin tingle. Lord, I hoped no one came in…and I wished someone would.

  With his cock free, thick and heavy in my hand, I stroked the length of him, a bead of pre-come wetting my palm. His breaths were quick and shallow and his body a solid mass of tense muscle, his kisses near frantic with need. The risks of our erotic tryst vibrated through every inch of his body, charged the air between us.

  He hiked my skirt to my waist and took my small panties in both hands. A quick tug and I felt them loosen, another and they dropped to the floor. I opened my legs as wide as I could and he lifted me, using the wall behind me as leverage. The smooth hot tip of his cock pressed between the slick lips of my sex and—

  “Umm, are you okay in there?” someone asked outside the stall.

  We froze, his cock stretching the entrance to my body, making the muscles of my sex flex, trying to pull him deeper. “Uh…uh-huh,” I said.

  I bit my bottom lip to stop a moan when Anthony suddenly let gravity impale my body with his. He filled me fast, too fast, shooting a searing mix of pain and pleasure through my body. My lungs squeezed, my breath caught. He froze again, buried balls deep inside me.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered, breathless, trying not to move, his lips brushing my ear. He held his body so still and tense my fingers couldn’t dent the flesh across his shoulders. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I had to be inside you. I’m so sorry.”

  I squirmed on his cock, my pussy adjusting, flooding with cream, muscles flexing. I couldn’t take it. I turned my head and bit his ear. “Fuck me, already.”

  And he did.

  He rocked his hips, pounding sensation through my sex, electrifying my skin so every part of me hummed with the feel of him driving in and out of my body. Sweet friction built the pressure, coiling my muscles, tightening through my chest. My fingers fisted his hair, his face buried in the crook of my neck.

  Someone turned on the water and someone else flushed a toilet. The room roared with sound but nothing could drown out our howling cries of release.

  Seconds later when our passion was spent and blood flow returned to our brains, a palpable silence filled the restroom. Then someone crumpled a paper towel and a woman’s heels clicked-clacked across the tile floor. The door out to the restaurant opened and swung slowly closed.

  “Let’s pay the check then get out of here,” I said. “And, ya know, never come back.”

  “Right.” He put me on my feet and we dressed like frantic teenagers whose parents had just pulled into the driveway.

  I grabbed my ruined panties and opened the stall door. A quick peek to make sure the coast was clear and I tiptoed over to the sink to where I’d left my purse.

  “Mattie?”

  I turned in time to see him tuck in the last of his shirt. “Yeah?”

  “How’s that pros and cons tally going?”

  I sighed. He looked so hopeful, his shirt wrinkled, hair mussed. He’d tried so hard and well, hell, I liked him. I winked and let my smile have its way. “Heavy on the pros side, love. Definitely heavy on the pros.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  “SO YOU AND ANTHONY A THING NOW?” BRAD asked, his arm loose around Amy’s shoulders. Friends of both my brother and Anthony, they were part of the older crowd I’d shadowed as a kid. I had to admit, I got a stupid kind of thrill being part of their group now.
>
  “We’re, uh, exploring our options,” I said, feeling like the new girl on a date with the star quarterback.

  The group dynamics had changed over the past ten years since I’d last seen them. Brad and Amy were mates; I could see it in the way they touched each other, always some part of their body in contact with the other whenever possible. But more than that, I could smell it. A melding of individual scents to create something new and unique to the couple by the simple act of accepting the other as mate. Werewolves didn’t need a formal ceremony or even a verbal declaration. It just happened. Life mates.

  Brad chuckled and tipped his chin toward the other side of the clearing. “Yeah. Looks like Anthony’s exploring a few options on his own.”

  I looked over my shoulder. The Gathering took place every year in a thousand-acre animal reserve in rural south western Pennsylvania owned by the were wolf council. After more than fifty years of Gatherings the forest had succumbed to our needs and now trees refused to grow in the football-sized field we used to set up fire circles, food tents and run carnival type games for the kids.

  My eyes found Anthony after a quick scan through the three hundred or so faces dotting the field. My stomach rolled then twisted tight.

  “I don’t know how you girls do it,” Amy said. “I couldn’t share Brad with anyone. It seems so, I dunno…unnatural. Oh. Not that I’m prejudiced or anything. I mean, if that’s what makes you happy. Some people are just…different. Right?”

  I nodded, still watching the three nymphets clustered around Anthony. They were pretty, all of them—long-haired with bright eyes and tight, shapely bodies. They laughed when he spoke, pressing against him, touching him. Though Anthony’s hands stayed firmly in the front pockets of his jeans.

  “The way your dad felt about giving everyone a voice—women same as men—never pegged you for a future Purist when we were kids,” Brad said.

  “I’m not.” I was mad, upset, and when I’m upset I get blunt. “Anthony and I are fucking. That’s it. Obviously, our lifestyle choices make anything more than that impossible.”

  “That’s a relief.” Amy sighed. “I love Anthony to death, but for years his father’s been pushing him to seduce females who have either money or power, or both.”

  “He’s damn good at it too,” Brad said. “The guy’s either a wild man in the sack or he’s hung like a friggin’ donkey.” I knew the answer to that. I kept it to myself.

  Brad traced a finger down the arm Amy had nestled against his side. I don’t think he realized he was doing it. I looked away. I hated being jealous, but I was.

  “Actually, I’m a little disappointed in Anthony. I thought he’d stand up to his father. But those women all think he’ll choose one as his life mate and he has yet to do it.” Amy pointed to the brunette on Anthony’s left. “Candice was so sure he’d choose her, her body started producing mating pheromones. Now her offer’s kind of…out there, waiting for him to make a decision. Bet it’s the same for the others. Once their body starts the process they can’t turn it off until he commits to someone.”

  “And if he doesn’t commit he gets them all for as long as he wants,” I said, glancing back at Anthony.

  “I’ll admit,” Brad said, “if I didn’t know better I’d say he finally caved to his dad and started collecting women for a new Purist pack.”

  “You sure he hasn’t?” I said. A chill iced down my spine. Was I supposed to be the newest member? A sixteen-member pack had a lot of power and it’d go to whoever I chose as my mate. Even if Anthony never committed to me he’d still have the benefits that came with my choosing him.

  Brad scoffed and shook his head. “I don’t buy it. He’s never been into the Purist scene the way his dad and the others are. You ask me, I think he’s been holding out for someone special his whole life.”

  Amy turned soft, romantic eyes to her mate. “Aww, that’s so sweet.”

  “Yeah. Whatever.” Their sappy lovey-dovey crap made me ill. My foul mood might’ve had something to do with it, too. Hard to say.

  “It’s not fair these stupid mating pheromones don’t work the other way.” I could feel my scowl narrowing my eyes. “A man’s mating pheromones can overpower a woman’s. He can force her to be his mate, but not the other way around. Unfair!”

  “Yeah,” Amy said. “That, periods, bloating and PMS, totally unfair. What else is new?”

  At least he couldn’t force me into a Purist pack. Committing to me would free the other women to rescind their offers. Bye-bye harem. But how close had I come to choosing him? I would’ve been trapped just like those girls fawning over him must be. My stomach roiled. I couldn’t keep thinking about it.

  “You’re Mattie, right?” I turned at the sound of a masculine voice behind me and almost strained my neck.

  “Yeah. I’m sorry, do I know you?” The guy was seven feet if he was an inch, lanky but toned. He was cute though, with long sun-bleached hair, spiky ends brushing the tops of his shoulders, and skin bronzed so perfectly he looked like he’d been dipped. He reminded me of an ad for sunless tanner.

  “Awe-some,” he said, very surfer dude. “Name’s Brodi. This here’s my bud, Samson. Word is you’re lookin’ for a mate. Like fast, right? Well, uh, me and Samson might be able to help you out.” He shrugged. “You know, if you’re willin’ to make a couple…allowances. Right?”

  I shifted my gaze to Samson. The anti-Brodi. He couldn’t have been more than an inch taller than me. The top of his neat, dirt-brown hair barely reached Brodi’s shoulder. With paler skin, a heavier build and a freckled face, Samson’s dark brown eyes said timid, beta, whereas Brodi oozed alpha male.

  Samson slipped his hand into Bodi’s larger, long-fingered grip and dropped his gaze under my more dominant stare. He tucked his free hand under his arm, hugging himself and shifted his weight to lean into Brodi. Suddenly Samson’s body language wasn’t saying beta as much as it was screaming I bat for the home team.

  They weren’t the first today to throw their hats into my ring, so to speak, but they were definitely the most interesting. I struggled not to let my smile grow too wide, not to let the crazy laughter tickling up my throat color my voice. “Thanks for the offer, but—”

  “She’s taken.”

  The group of us turned to see Anthony striding toward us, butterscotch hair waving over his shoulders, thick arms pumping at his sides. His blue silk shirt gave his eyes an unearthly luster that I noticed even at a distance and clung to his chest and arms so every roll of muscle made my heart race. The crazy desperation I’d felt swamping me a moment ago vanished. Lord, what he did to me.

  “Am not,” I said. Yeah. Clever. That’s me.

  Anthony’s hypnotic violet eyes shifted to Brad and Amy. “Guys. Thanks for entertaining my future wife. You won’t mind if I steal her away.”

  Reaching out he snagged my hand as he passed, not even breaking his stride. Like a boat on water my body turned and followed, my brain too stunned to protest. We needed to talk anyway, to end what was going on between us before it went too far and I stupidly found myself joining his stable of women. But the power that swirled around him, the warmth and strength of his hand, the confidence in his stride, it was all too intoxicating. Damn, I was sunk.

  Twenty feet beyond the tree line into the forest Anthony spun me around, pinning me against the fat trunk of an oak. His face nestled against my neck, warm breath and hot kisses snaking ribbons of heat along my skin that pooled fast between my thighs. “Drives me crazy to see all these other guys sniffing around you.”

  He pressed his body against mine, sealing us from chest to groin so I knew exactly how happy he was to be alone with me. “And yet you managed to contain your mental distress long enough to tighten the leashes you’ve got on your current pussy supply.”

  He raised his head, the upper part of his body separating from mine, and looked me straight in the eye. “I didn’t ask those girls to offer to be my mate. I don’t even know why they did. I’m not gonna be me
an, though. What am I supposed to do, commit just because they offered? Doesn’t it matter what I want?”

  “What you want?”

  “Yeah. Don’t I get a say in who I spend the rest of my life with?”

  Wow, that sounded familiar. “You didn’t seduce them, make them think you were interested in life mates?”

  His brows lifted, a dimpled smile tugging his cheeks. He chuckled, looked away and back again, a bad-boy glint in his violet eyes. “Yeah, I seduced them. I like to fuck. But I never offered to be life mate to any of them.”

  “Right.” God, I wanted to believe him, but everything I knew about Purists told me he was lying. He had to be. It was what they did.

  The lines across his forehead deepened, tightening his brows and turning his smile serious. “You’re the only one, Mattie. Ever. If they sensed I wanted a life mate then they sensed my feelings for you.”

  He pinched my chin between his thumb and forefinger and brought my mouth to his. I let him. Even as our lips touched and he coaxed mine to part, somewhere in the back of my brain I knew dictionaries were quickly switching the picture next to the word chump with mine. But I couldn’t care.

  He just smelled so damn good, like fields of sweet hay after a spring rain and musky human male. I was swamped by the scent of him; every breath took him deep inside me, flavored my tongue, made it hard to think. My heart raced, hot blood flooding my nerves, tingling through my senses. He rocked his hips, reminding me his hard cock was thick and ready, pressing against my belly. It’d take zero convincing to have him naked inside me. And I wanted him inside me, filling me, making my body melt and my sex muscles spasm. The very thought of it made me wet.

  Crap! I turned my head, breaking the kiss and gulping air while I could. “Anthony, stop. I have to think of my pack. It’s over. You’re not right for me. I have to choose someone else.”