“You'll be dripping wet for me. Breathless.” He whispered into her ear, then gently nipped at the lobe, sending another zip of fire straight to her core. “Then you'll be ready for me to be inside you, Sara. Do you want that? Answer me.” His voice held the implacable command of an alpha.
“Yes! Please, yes, Rafe. Yes.” Her voice was a babble punctuated by the sharp, small breaths she took. Her chest heaved against him.
“Good,” he said. He claimed her mouth again, first soft, then more powerfully.
Rafe let his demand ripple from his lips to hers, seeking entrance. He felt her surrender against him, her body pliable yet still gripped by the tension so ready for release. Putting her hands around his head, she pulled him to her, kissing him back so hard he thought he felt teeth. He let an approving chuckle vibrate against her lips, enjoying the buzzing feeling it caused.
He followed the curve of her breasts with his hands, teasing and kneading them a bit. The tiny sounds coming from her mouth turned him on more than he'd thought possible. He was so ready for her he could barely hold himself in check. But again, he wanted to hear that gasping hitch in her voice, know the flush would rise over her chest and face, feel every inch of her skin tremor beneath his mouth.
He wanted to taste her when she came. He needed to run his tongue over her hot, wet lips and catch every drop when she reached that point and cried out again and again.
Then, he would slide deep inside his woman and claim her as his mate.
His wolf agreed, spinning eager, ecstatic circles in his mind, lashing a sheathed paw just at the frenzied edge of Rafe's consciousness.
Letting his hands slide down farther, he caressed Sara's hips, the soft skin over her stomach. Then his fingers touched the excuse for a skirt she'd worn. He ran one finger underneath the waist, causing her to jump a little. Impatient, he then simply tugged the entire skirt up so it bunched around her waist.
“Hmm,” he said, low and pleased. She shivered under his touch, which pleased him more.
Rafe curved his palm over her skin in a gently waving motion, fluttering from one side of her hips to the other. Another small moan, more breath than sound, escaped her. The silky darkness of the ridiculously tiny scrap of panties covering her felt smooth under his hand. He'd bet they were very pretty and feminine.
Reaching down with his head, Rafe snagged the delicate material between his teeth and ripped it off her.
“Oh!” Sara's shocked voice skittered through the alley. Rafe cocked an ear toward the street. The weekend night crowds enjoying themselves on the town were nowhere near this tucked-away corner.
“Hush.” He swirled his hand over the small mound just above the slick center of heaven he longed to enter. “Just feel me. Lose yourself in it, Sara.”
He slid a finger down her cleft. Wet, eager, lips plumped out on either side, allowing his finger to slip through her soft folds with ease. Sara inhaled through her teeth, making a hissing noise of sheer desire. Just above her entrance, he paused his finger. Very slowly, he made little circles, right on her clit.
Sara's back arched off the crate and her hands gripped the edges of it where her legs dangled over. He nudged his head down and took in her scent, letting it flow over him with its beautifully spiced tang. His wolf bellowed in his mind, ecstatic to be this close to her.
With his finger, he continued the small circles, making them slightly firmer with each rotation. The muffled sounds she made as she tried to conceal her gasps hardened him almost painfully. Quickly yet gently, he pulled her legs over his shoulders, curving his arm under and around so his finger could still tease and stroke the soaking wet little button rocking her into sensory overload.
“That's better,” he breathed. Slowly, so slowly she made sounds of protest and tried to urge him closer, he nestled his head in between her legs. Nuzzling her, finger still swirling around her clit, he flicked out his tongue and ran it down through her satiny folds, then back up.
“Rafe.” His name fell out of her lips quietly but with such intensity he wondered if she was about to shatter into pieces that very second. Inarticulate noises followed. He smiled into her center, rubbing his lips over hers, before getting down to serious work.
Tasting her offered a delectable pleasure he'd never found elsewhere. Pushing against her sex, he swept his tongue up and down her hungry cleft and tasted her. Sweetly tart ambrosia exploded into his mouth as her increasingly higher-pitched sounds brushed past his ears. With his other hand he reached up to wet his own fingers, then to find her breast. He rolled her hard little nipple between his slicked fingers, letting her pleading little cries wash over him.
“Come for me,” he said into her soft folds, letting his voice vibrate over her clit.
Sara bucked so hard on the crate she thought she might pitch herself off it, taking Rafe with her. His tongue and finger working in her quivering, insanely needy pussy were about to catapult her right over the edge and into screaming bliss. She felt it building, rising with each breath she took. She took one long, shaking breath, held it. A long, shuddery exhale, followed by another inhale, feeling the orgasm about to break over her. His tongue lapped at her juices and he turned his face from side to side, letting his shadowed stubble graze against her hypersensitive flesh while his finger crooked itself inside her in a beckoning motion that zapped whatever magic spot existed just there.
The peak burst over her, fragmenting reality for long, incandescent seconds. She heard her own keening cries, calling his name, almost sobbing with the head-shattering tidal waves of ecstasy pounding through her entire body. They raced through, swelling to a crescendo that had her vision explode into little sparks on a field of darkness. Eventually, gently, it lapped away, leaving her with tiny aftershocks and a languorous sense of floating.
She slowly came back to herself and found her hands somehow on his head, pressing down, gripping his hair in a way that had to hurt although he didn't seem to notice. She'd straightened her legs out past his shoulders, toes pointed as the orgasm rolled through. Letting out the barest whisper of a giggle, she let her body relax into slack contentment as Rafe lapped up the last ripples.
He lifted his head and looked toward her. Although she couldn't fully see his expression in the covering dark, she sensed immense satisfaction radiating out from him.
“Did that work for you, pretty little wolf?” His rich, deep voice scraped over her, sending more tiny shivers darting along her nerve endings. Her clit tightened and she knew she would come again for him, could probably come again right this second if he put his lips on her once more, impossible as it seemed.
“Yes,” she murmured.
“Good. Because I'm about to take my own pleasure in you, Sara. I want to feel you come again when I'm buried to the hilt in you.” His whisper heated her skin as he moved up over her, nipping at her hip bone, licking her belly, gently closing his teeth over one nipple, then the other. “I want to feel you clench around me, tightening those muscles inside you around my cock right before I explode in you. Can you do that, Sara?” He licked at the tip of one nipple again, sending relentless shivers down her skin.
“Uh-huh.” Her voice whimpered, body still limp from the head-rushing orgasm but quickening again at his every word.
He stood up, wrenching a small cry from her as his mouth left her breast, and shed his jeans. Despite the lack of light, her night vision allowed her enough to see he was commando underneath them. His gorgeous, fully engorged shaft sprang out, catching her eyes and causing her to lick her lips in sheer reflex.
A small gleam let her know a grin crossed his face, then he ducked down. She heard rustling to the side of the crate, then a crinkling noise. His hands busied themselves for a second on his cock, and she realized what he was doing. A flush raced up her skin as she realized he'd gotten a condom out of her purse. She opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it, stepping to her and leaning down to catch her hands to her sides.
“I knew you'd have one with you as
soon as I saw you in there.” He lowered himself to her, careful not to put any weight on her yet. “But it was always, and only, for me. Sara,” he said with a groan, drawing out her name. He captured her mouth with his, and rational thought once again spun away from her.
He slid her down a little farther so her cheeks just hit the edge of the crate. Releasing her hands after a little squeeze, he fisted one of his hands very gently in her hair, then kissed her again. She could taste herself on him, mixed in with his own Rafe appeal, and eagerly tangled his tongue and lips with hers. With his other hand, he reached between them and nudged at her entrance again with his fingers. She made a muffled noise into his mouth as two fingers explored the slickness, caressing and stroking and pushing in to his knuckles. The stretching sensation made her ache for him even more.
“Please,” she whispered. Uninhibited need roughened her voice.
“Yes,” he said, and guided the thick tip of his cock into her.
Sara's slicked walls pulled him into her, surrounding him with a gorgeous pressure that almost had his eyes rolling back in his head. Rafe slowly pushed his full length into her hot, tight center, gauging the strength of his thrusts by the sounds she made. Slowly she encased him until he was in all the way. He stayed still there for a moment, enjoying the tremors spreading from his swollen cock through the rest of his body as her heat and wetness held him fast.
Sara wiggled her rump just a bit on the crate, flexing her inner muscles around him and causing a new, stronger wave of sensations to travel up his cock and out the top of his head. Biting back a sharp gasp, he pulled back an inch. She protested, and he chuckled.
“I'm still here,” he said in that deep growl he couldn't seem to help right now. “You want me back?”
“Yes!” She shifted under him and put her hands on his hips, trying to push him back down on her. Her fingers played across his skin, then sank in as she sought to bring him to her. “Please, Rafe. I need to feel you all the way in me.”
Bracing his hands on either side of her shoulders, he pulled out more, then thrust in hard and fast. Relentless yet with a smooth tempo he picked up naturally just seconds after being back inside her body again after so long, Rafe pumped into her. He plunged in to the furiously throbbing root, then pulled out to the very tip, almost fearing he would lose her completely. He managed to keep contact with her, settling into an ancient, almost unbearably pleasurable rhythm that had them both gasping.
Sara tucked her head into the hollow between his chin and shoulder and fastened small teeth onto the skin there, nipping and sucking at it. For a brief moment he wondered if the little vixen planned to mark him with a hickey, then he didn't care. She could bruise his entire body with bite marks, claim every inch of him. He welcomed it.
She laced her legs around his back and held on tight to his shoulders as he drove into her again and again, led by his consuming need and the frustrated longings of a year. He felt himself thickening more as his orgasm mounted closer.
“Ah, yes.” He groaned into her bright hair. “That's it, yes, babe, there.” His voice was cracking, losing control. He was beyond caring. He and the wildest part of his wolf merged, driven together by the mating frenzy. Rock hard, he claimed his mate with savage thrusts she eagerly welcomed. He felt her sweet, tight, wet walls contracting around him, heard the rising pitch in the noises tumbling out of her throat, and knew she was about to crest again right along with him.
It roared through him with the force of a freight train, beginning where he connected to her, racing out to his fingertips, curling down through his toes. Lights exploded in his head as he spurted hot and hard into her, her legs gripped down tight on his back and hips, each squeeze riding him and wringing out another slamming wave of rapture.
Lost in it, Rafe cried out her name. He could feel Sara's own orgasm rippling over him, spasming its way along his length. Her fingers dug so hard into his shoulders he thought she might dent them. Holding on as long as he could, he bucked with the sensations until they ebbed away.
Arms shaking a little from where they still braced on the crate, he grazed her lips with his, silently marveling at their petal soft feel. Carefully, he lowered himself onto his forearms, his breath still juddering in and out of him. He felt her legs relax around him as her little spasms eased away. Her grip on his shoulders loosened, then fell away as she wrapped her arms around his back instead and pulled him down to her. Her sweet breath filled his ear and he could feel her heart hammering under his chest.
They lay like that for long moments. Rafe kissed her her collarbone and neck, tasting the light sheen of perspiration there. “Mm,” he said, his voice rumbling into her. “You taste good everywhere.”
She breathed out a laugh and ran her her fingers down his spine and onto his ass. As she curved her hand down over him, she said, “You've got to be uncomfortable in this position.”
Rafe let out a full-bodied chuckle. “I didn't notice until now. You were distracting me.”
With a final, lingering kiss on her plush lips, he pushed himself back and out of his awkward half-kneeling, half-sprawled position. He might feel a little stiff in the morning—but it sure as hell had been worth it.
Slowly, Rafe allowed outside noises and smells filter in again. People walking and laughing on the streets, appetizing scents drifting over from some of the many nearby restaurants. And the unmistakable mingling of two people who'd just had heart-stopping sex.
His wolf made satisfied circles in his mind before settling down, content.
Rafe reached down to help Sara sit up. Even in the dark of the alley he could tell her hair was mussed up, and her skirt was still bunched around her waist. He liked her in this state. Disheveled, all because of him.
“Let's get you out of here,” he said, reaching over to find her crumpled top he'd used as a pillow for her head. He handed it to her, letting his fingers stroke lightly along her arms as he did. Her little shiver in response gratified him, despite the slight awkwardness he thought he sensed in her silence.
After they were both clothed again, he tucked her under his arm and guided them out of the alley. A growing quiet blanketed them as they walked, but her hip bumped against his and she stayed right beside him. She pointed him in the direction of her car, since he'd come with Caleb and had no idea where his brother was, although he suspected probably still enjoying walloping on someone at this point.
“Will you drive?” she asked when they got to her small girly car, handing him the keys. He dropped another kiss on the top of her head, then lifted her chin up so he could savor her lips again. She murmured against his mouth, sliding her hand behind his neck and gently pulling him closer to her.
Yet when she pulled back, she wouldn't meet his eyes. Uneasy, he sensed a deeper withdrawing. Feeling a small frown settle on his forehead, he opened the door for her and saw her in. Getting into the driver's seat, he drove them away. The space between them froze with each minute, and damned if Rafe had no idea what the hell to do about it now.
By the time they reached her small house, he knew he'd lost her, for now at least. Huddled into the passenger seat, face turned toward the window the entire, increasingly tense time, her body language gave him a clear message. One, she'd enjoyed herself immensely with him. Two, she'd let loose something she hadn't meant to, and it was now scaring her half to death. Three, she was his. That wasn't even a question any longer. But four, she also wasn't ready to take the final step toward him.
His wolf growled in a combination of exasperation and distress, echoing the dark shadows in Rafe's thoughts.
He parked in her driveway and came to her side to open the door. Guiding her up the few steps to her front door, he waited until she fumbled for her key. Then, leaving his voice as raw as he felt, he spoke.
“Well, Sara?” Nothing else. He wasn't about to throw her a lifeline.
She jolted a little as his tone hit her. The night smelled like rich, loamy earth and the spicy, sexy wolf before him.
/> “Rafe.” Her voice cracked. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I think I—I mean, I love you.”
The night sounds stretched out, barely covering his pounding heart. He heard the truth in her words. Even so, something was still missing.
“But.” He said the word in a voice still scraped wide open.
“There is no but, Rafe. I really love you. I can admit that.” She laughed, a little shakily.
A dry snort left him.
“There's a but in there. I can hear it.”
“I'm yours, Rafe.”
She reached out and took his hands, but he didn't respond to her gentle squeeze.
“I don't want anyone else.” Her voice was a whisper.
“Then what is it?”
“I don't even know,” she admitted.
“Yes, you do,” he said, sudden insistence making his voice louder than he'd intended. Immediately shaking his head, he placed his palms on the sides of her face and kissed her until her breath quickened.
Reluctant, he slowly pulled back. “Yes, you know exactly what's wrong,” he ground out, somewhat more softly. “You need to figure out who the hell you are. I know you're my mate, Sara. But I need you to understand and believe that yourself.”
Her eyes wet, she tried to pull him closer. Shaking his head again, he released her and stepped away. If he didn't leave right this second, he'd fucking blow it again and ruin for good everything he thought he'd just won. She insisted on fighting this internal battle on her own, so he had to let her do it.
Even if it killed him.
Drawing on every ounce of his willpower, he simply said, “Good night, Sara.”
Quickly, he forced himself to turn around and walk home alone before the feeling of being punched in the chest could make him stagger.
Chapter 10
Rafe kept his head to the ground as he trotted. He could smell a very faint wolf trail, but it was too old to pick up much more than it was a shifter. One of the strange wolves who'd been around here last week, maybe. No others beside Black Mesa Pack members had crossed through recently.
Howl & Growl: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 20