The sound grated down Cass’s spine. “What’s funny?”
“She said you can’t touch her.”
“She doesn’t know me.”
“Maybe you don’t know her. I think she got under your skin a tiny bit.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You marked her, Cass, but damn if I don’t smell Harlow Hardison seeping from you.”
“Be careful, Grisom.” The office grew humid, close, as if the air conditioning had died. Sweat beaded on his brow, making Castle wish he could jump on his bike and ride for hours to Joshua Tree or Morongo Canyon. In either place, he could shed his flimsy human skin and release the wolf baying inside his body. However, Castle would go across town, find Harlow, taste her blood again, and take her the way she cried out to be taken. Not soft, not easy, but hard and rough the way he liked it. He sensed the vibe from her and it had been a long, long time since he’d run into a human woman who sought what he enjoyed delivering. In fact, most of the she-wolves he kept company with had an aversion to pain mixed with sex and they only submitted because there was no other choice.
Her scent engulfed him, wreathed Cass’s head with the sweet smell of pain. A kindred spirit.
Hatch said, “Go. I’ll take care of things here.” He seemed hesitant. “She knows what you are.”
“I won’t leave her a mess. We’ve worked too hard to keep our presence a secret.” Cass ruled southern California with an iron fist in that area. Lying with a male wolf left an indelible imprint on human women so if any wolf slept with one, Cass required they take enough blood to stay connected to the female and know her every move. Some wolves resented taking blood because it often became bothersome when the woman showed up demanding more time, more sex, and it took years for the effect to wear off. The steadfast rule served to keep most of the dogs away from anyone other than their kind. Still, if they went out there and fucked around, causing the slightest disturbance, Cass put the offending wolf shifter down without blinking an eye and carried out the blood taking himself.
Ironically, this left him tied to a bevy of women who showed up at The Moat seeking attention. They only wanted to relive the passion they believed they experienced in his arms, unaware the bastard who deposited seed in them lay buried deep in the earth.
It was just such a crowd Harlow had witnessed tonight.
And he planned to make her a part of it.
“I’m more concerned about you being hurt.” Hatch scratched his head. “Shit, Cass, you just jerked off with any number of women out there dying to be bedded by you.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Castle grunted. “You need to pick one to bury your dick in so you stop sniffing around my junk.”
“Kiss my ass.”
Striding to the door, he swatted Hatch’s butt. “A few out there would love to do that.” He chuckled at the look on his second’s face. “Enjoy your evening.”
This time, he left his helmet behind. He wore it for longer rides because he hated removing bugs who committed suicide on his face. He headed to the parking lot where he mounted his bike, wondering what his friend meant. Castle Briggs didn’t get hurt. Sometimes he wondered if his heart was made of stone as he’d watched wolves around him mate and settle down. The idea of following in those footprints made him shudder. “Not me.” Turning the key, he backed out and gave the powerful bike full throttle to Harlow’s complex. If Hatch hadn’t given him an address, he would have found it anyway because Harlow’s scent still lingered in the air mixed with his. The supernatural beast he was discerned it from every other smell in the atmosphere. “Damn, she bit me.”
He followed her aroma to the first-floor apartment she occupied and listened for a moment as she paced. His nostrils flared at the odor of sex and soap. He’d barely tapped the door when it flew open.
“Bastard, what did you do to me?” Eyes sparked with anger.
Cass stepped back to gather himself. How had she known it was him? Humans’ sense of smell was nil compared to that of a wolf. “Take it easy, darlin’.”
“I don’t care what you are or what you think you’re going to do, but I’ll scratch your eyes out if you touch me.”
He walked in, closed the door and turned the lock. “You’re angry because you feel a connection.” One hell of a connection if the way she snuffled air was anything to go by.
Her eyes sought a nonexistent escape while a slender hand rifled brown hair. “Unlock my door.”
“You feel out of control.”
“Get out.”
“You’re wet and I smell desire slipping from you.”
“Go away.” Her shoulders slumped and Cass didn’t like it. His woman had to be strong.
Shit, she’s not my woman! Hell and damnation. “Say leave, I will.”
“Please.”
“Please what?”
“Don’t make me do this.”
“I won’t make you do anything you haven’t already dreamed.”
“You know?” Her back straightened.
He nodded. “I can end your fear.”
Chapter Two
When Castle’s friend had pulled her from the bar, Harlow, uncharacteristically, kicked and clawed like a wild animal. “Let me go, you oaf.”
“Lady, give it up.”
“Fuck you.” The kind of anger burning in Harlow’s belly was new, something she’d never experienced before, and no matter what she did, she couldn’t control the raging fire.
“That is not refined language.”
“Oooh!”
Hatch had deposited her by the car where she scoured the bottom of her bag for keys. Finding them, she unlocked the door, got in, started the engine and backed out so fast she damn near ran him over. Maniacal laughter gushed from Harlow as she shot her middle finger into the air and yelled, “Bastard.” Jesus, what was happening? Her lungs burned each time she filled them with air during the five-block drive to her complex where she swerved into an empty space. Sunroof open, windows down, she had hoped to dampen hot, surging anger until a motorcycle rumbled to a stop behind her parked car. Hatch! How had he gotten on his bike fast enough to follow? Damn! Now the son of a bitch would know where she lived. After securing the car, she got out and cut a wide berth around him.
“Harlow, wait.”
“Advise your boss to stay the hell away from me or I’ll call the cops.”
“He gets what he wants.”
“And you all let him?”
“He’s, shit, he’s…“
“He’s what, an asshole?” Harlow had never been so irritated. What was it about the man she’d met briefly that got under her skin and robbed her of self-control? The spot he’d touched on her bare back flared to life. “Shoot.” She rubbed the place absently.
“You’re marked.”
Her head shot up. “Marked?”
“You belong to him.”
“You’re crazier than he is.”
She got her key in the door, turned it and backed in. “You all just stay away from me.”
“After tonight, none of us will touch you.”
“Look, Mr. Grisom, hightail it back to where you came from and don’t show your face around here again ever.” She needed to wash her sweaty body. Especially the spot on her lower back that continued to become warmer and warmer. It felt as if her skin crawled. She took another step back to close the door.
Before she did, the man rattled Harlow’s world.
“He’s the alpha wolf and he takes what he wants.” Hatch reached and pulled her door closed with a thud.
His words registered through anger that still reigned in her head. “Lord!” Surprise assaulted her mind replacing the fury; however, Harlow wasn’t as shocked at what Hatch had said about Castle as she should be. “Shit, shit, shit!” Distress triggered alarms along every nerve ending. “Calm down, calm down.” Perhaps animal magnetism engendered her reaction. Maybe her base desire to be handled roughly… Oh Jesus, she wanted him! What would the creature do to her? What
things would he make her do?
Harlow’s wanton response to the man disturbed her more than her fear of what he was.
Showered, she paced and remembered stories from many countries she’d recently toured. Before deciding to live in San Fernando Valley, Harlow had used some of Jeff’s settlement to realize a lifelong dream of traipsing across Europe searching out folklore. On visits to Greece, Jamaica and Haiti, she listened to tales. She figured that one day something would become known if half of what she heard held a grain of truth. In fact, an avid reader of mythology and strange historical occurrences, she hoped humans weren’t the only living, breathing, intelligent beings in the world. Why would God have bothered creating a universe only to populate one tiny part? Aliens? Well, she didn’t want to run into one, but a werewolf or vampire, hell it didn’t seem so farfetched after what she’d learned.
She sucked in drafts of air prevalent with odors she’d never discerned before. One she knew beyond any doubt belonged to the culprit she couldn’t clear from her thoughts.
Now Castle Briggs stood in her living room offering to end her fear.
What overwhelmed Harlow was how biting him at the restaurant felt right and, damn, from some dark place hidden deep inside, the need to have him bite back rose to the surface in a cloud of lust. Staring at him, remembering the taste of his blood, her body ached for his touch, and she wanted him to restrain and take her any way he wanted. God, what Harlow envisioned doing for him!
The reason she and Jeff Hardison weren’t together was that he couldn’t satisfy her any longer. They discussed it and she had implored him to try new things, things that made her wet thinking about them. At Harlow’s constant pleading, he had tied her up, spanked her and rendered pain a handful of times yet it still lacked what she truly desired. Harlow loved it but discerned Jeff’s uncomfortable attitude toward the role of dominating and soon sex with her began to turn him off altogether, sending him elsewhere to seek solace. Harlow never blamed him but she resented his attempt to hold on to her when she required freedom from the melancholy pervading her life.
The idea of experimenting more scared her and it didn’t help that Jeff had repeatedly called her sick and pathetic. Harlow wasn’t sick—she wanted to feel more. Her husband couldn’t stop her from entertaining sexual fantasies. The man in front of her released something inside, making her more aware than ever of being alive.
Nevertheless, fear riddled her mind as she sniffed the air.
What the creature unleashed in Harlow frightened her much more than what he was.
Jesus, Mother and Mary!
* * * * *
Damn, she was hotter than hell with anger smoldering in her dichromatic eyes. Castle took note of peaked nipples under the tiny white tee she wore. Long, shapely and tanned legs emerged from a pair of royal blue paisley silk shorts riding low on her wide hips. Damp brown hair touched her neck where he watched her pulse beat.
“You wear men’s boxers?” Christ, what a question at a time like this, a time he should be calming her. “They turn me on.”
“Go to hell.”
“You want to call the cops?”
“Why? After what I witnessed outside your restaurant earlier, you probably own them.”
“Some of them.” He shrugged. “I keep the peace when they can’t.” A few men of law aware of him and his kind were at his disposal and compensated very well for their silence.
“By beating the bad guys up?”
There was nothing left to hide. “The big, bad wolf creeps out and breaks their spines in two.” Her shoulders remained straight and the way she looked at him made his animal chomp at the bit. She was human and belonged to the man, though she would soothe the beast. She trembled before him and Castle wanted to hold Harlow, make her understand he would deliver only what she craved. “Nothing in my world will harm a hair on your head.”
She covered her mouth with the back of her hand. “What are you?”
“You already know.” He took a step toward her.
“Don’t.”
He hesitated and spoke softly. “Darlin’, I and other things like me have always walked beside humans undetected. We’re less monster than men and women who live next door in all the little cul-de-sacs you think safe.”
“Say it, damn you!”
“Will hearing it from me make a difference?” She blinked rapidly, but he didn’t read the kind of fear he thought he’d initially have to deal with. There was something else hidden in their depths. Hunger, raw and unaffected, seeped from her pores.
“Yes.”
“Shifter. Werewolf. Either works but I prefer shifter.” This time Castle closed the distance between them and pulled her hand away from lips he craved tasting again. “Neither of us means you harm.” He touched the small of her back. “I only want to give you pleasure, nothing more.”
Harlow melted against him. “Don’t… Don’t touch me there.”
“Why?”
“It’s…”
Castle gently massaged above her buttocks. “Say what you’re thinking.”
“You’re putting me under some kind of spell and I don’t like it.”
“I’ve marked you so my kind will know and protect you.”
“Are you one of those wealthy jackasses who will try to own me?”
“I’m not trying to own you.” He leaned and kissed her softly before murmuring, “In the bedroom, you will be mine.”
“Afterward, you’ll go and leave me alone?”
“I’ll go.” He brought her hand to his mouth, nibbled and licked her fingers. “Ask me to leave now and I will.”
“If I do ask you to go, no one will come back and hurt me?”
“Never.” He kissed the pulse beating in her neck. “Your skin is so soft.”
“You won’t…”
“Do anything you don’t want.”
“What if I say you can’t come in if you come back?”
He chuckled as he traced his tongue across her collarbone. He continued to rub his hand in a circular motion on her lower back, the seat of her spine, the connection to her nerve endings and the transmitter to her brain and organs. “I’m not a vampire, darlin’. You can’t just say I can’t come in.”
“How’d you know about me?”
“Animal instinct.” Cass was glad he had it.
“How do I stop you?”
He gazed into her eyes. “Now? Or later?”
“Both.”
He kissed her, nipped the still-swollen cut on her bottom lip until she moaned. Swiping blood from the tiny laceration with his tongue, Cass damn near dropped to his knees at the tantalizing taste. He whispered, “Say stop.”
“Just stop?”
“Just stop.” He pulled her fingers to the front of his slacks. “Do you want me to stop?”
“Will I have to call you Master?”
“No, honey, you don’t.” Harlow massaged his dick so gently.
“Ever?”
Cass swept his tongue across her lips, savoring her slow surrender. “It’s enough that you know it.”
“If I want to?”
“Harlow, I don’t play by hard, fast rules. We’ll only do what makes you feel good tonight.”
“And you?”
He knew how to shut her up. She groaned as he covered her lips with his. Their tongues stabbed, tangled and tasted. They searched and discovered lust and desire hidden in every corner. He yearned for more. “Bite me again, baby.” Jesus, he’d let her taste his blood again!
“What if…
“The pain you bring will never be too much.”
“It might.”
“Then I’ll say stop.”
She pulled her head away and pushed back far enough to gain space to lift his shirt up and capture a hard nipple. She sucked and teased the bud with her tongue, setting him on fire. When she pulled the nub into her mouth and bit down hard enough to draw blood, he roared, “Hell yeah!”
Releasing his nipple, she took his hand and said
, “Follow me.”
“Anywhere.” Castle had discovered a piece of heaven—and he already doubted his ability to let it go.
Quite possibly Harlow could deliver more pain than he could bear.
* * * * *
Stop!
The word careened out of control through Harlow’s head.
Cass didn’t scare her, but once he released her caged desires and slipped back onto his barstool, who would take care of her then? He reclined shamelessly naked in a chair at the side of her bed and she had no idea what to do next. She had read things, knew what she wanted to do, but Harlow remained frozen, unable to move or talk. Heat blossomed up her chest, warmed her cheeks as Harlow swept her tongue across lips still tinged with Castle’s blood and savored the exotic taste.
“So many things I want to show you.” Castle spoke softly.
“I’m not sure what you want.”
“Don’t be afraid of your feelings.” He held his hand out. “Come here.”
She walked to stand in front of him.
“Your blush speaks of inexperience.” Castle feathered fingers over her stomach. “I like that.”
“Maybe I can’t do this.”
“You can, and these have to go.” He ripped the shorts from her and pulled Harlow into his lap. “Say stop whenever you’re uncomfortable.” He drew her t-shirt up and over her head. “Damn, you’re beautiful.” He grasped a hank of hair and twisted her to face him. He leaned in and smothered her with a kiss, tender at first, then he shoved his tongue in her mouth as though he could snatch every thought from her mind along with every breath she had taken. Using his other hand, he massaged her breasts, playfully tugged the nipples until she pulled her lips from his.
“More,” she mumbled huskily. Lord, his scent was incredible.
He tightened his hand in her hair and brought his mouth a breath away from hers. “I’ll let you know when you can have more.” Cass’s eyes flickered yellow. “And I’ll tell you when to talk.”
She nodded.
“This time I’ll give you what you want.” He pinched a nipple roughly. “These would look so good in nipple clamps.”
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