Darian smiled. “I’m glad.”
“Don’t worry,” Cara said slipping her hand from his. “I understand what you were trying to say before. I won’t do that again and put you in that position.”
His smile fell. “I don’t get the feeling you do know what I was saying.”
Cara carefully wrapped the bulb of the snowing city in the bag. She wished he wouldn’t demand going back over it all but, she supposed it would be best if he confirmed that he didn’t want her.
“Tell me what you think I meant.”
Her face burned but she refused to continue avoiding his gaze. “You don’t want to mate with me.”
“Yes, I do.”
The heat in her cheeks stung with the added humiliation he was adding with his denial of the truth. “Women don’t want men the way you said I would have to want you. It hurts for the woman during mating. I don’t understand why you won’t just admit that you don’t want to mate.”
“Cara, there is more than pain for the woman during mating. It feels good for the woman too.”
Cara clenched her teeth. “I love this present. Thank you.” She started to stand but Darian stopped her. “Jules told you that I’m training. I agreed to resume after lunch. I don’t want to keep them waiting.”
“They’ll wait, Cara,” Darian said.
She could see he was upset. The vein at his forehead was pulsing.
“Do you trust me at all?”
“Yes. I trust you when you said you’d let me leave if it was what I really wanted. I trust that you’re going to let me help to fight Aldrich.”
Darian’s nostrils flared, his gold eyes intent on her face. “Will you trust me enough to show you that it doesn’t all hurt?”
Cara stiffened, she couldn’t help it. And she could see in Darian’s eyes that it upset him to see her react the way she was. “How? Do you intend to mate with me out here?”
“I want you to let me touch you.”
The look on Aldrich’s face as his hands opened and closed when he’d ordered her to strip came to her mind making her feel sick.
He’s not Aldrich.
“If you don’t like it you can tell me to stop.”
Cara didn’t understand why he was insisting on this but it seemed important to him. “Okay.”
Darian stood and closed the door leading back into the bedroom. When he returned, he straddled the bench as he sat down facing her. “Come here, Cara,” he said and gathered her in his arms.
She waited for him to continue but he was just holding her.
“I know that a hug doesn’t hurt,” Cara said turning in his arms to unpeel his arms from around her. His arms tightened around her keeping her where she was.
“I’m just waiting for you to relax.”
“Oh,” Cara said. “I’m relaxed.”
He exhaled and his hot breath tickled the skin on her neck. “No, you’re not. You’re tense. I won’t hurt you.”
Cara again remembered Aldrich and that look on his face.
“Stop it,” Darian said surprising her. “Wherever you’re going in that head of yours, stop it,” he said his voice full of authority. “Look at me. Stay here in this moment with me and decide for yourself.”
She nodded. “I’ll try.”
His eyes lowered to her mouth and he slowly came closer keeping eye contact with her until his lips touched hers. She nearly broke the kiss to tell him to stop making fun of her. She knew a kiss didn’t hurt, but as he ran his tongue over her lower lip, Cara felt herself leaning into him.
Darian sank his fingers into her hair as he continued to kiss her. The sensation was like getting away with a stolen cookie, delicious and too good to feel sorry about it.
His tongue pushed inside her mouth and she opened up to him as his tongue caressed hers. An intimate caress she didn’t know she’d like so much.
When his warm hand cupped her breast through the shirt she was wearing she drew back in surprise.
“Does this hurt, Cara?” He asked, his voice sounding oddly thick.
She looked down at his hand as his thumb began to circle the peak. It didn’t hurt. In fact, it felt good and strange too. As if there was a string running from within her breast to the place between her legs. Every tug and pinch sending an electric pulse through the string.
“My father would kill me if he knew I was letting you touch me like this,” Cara said surprised at how breathless she sounded.
“Your father will never raise a finger against you again. Forget him right now. Do you like the way this feels?”
Cara nodded.
“Good,” he said in that same thick voice that made the center of her body begin to vibrate and stir. His hand remained on her breast but the other began to open the buttons of her shirt.
She sat up a little straighter. Cara looked at his face trying to stay in the moment and not think about anything else. He was looking at his hand with a warm honey hue to his golden eyes. His eyes met hears as he lowered his head. His mouth closed around her nipple. His hot tongue flicking her tight bud as he sucked her into his mouth.
The string inside was on fire with heat and electrified sensations that she didn’t know what to do with. She gasped as she continued to watch him sucking on her breast.
“Darian,” she gasped as that feeling continued to intensify. His mouth crossed to her other breast where he sucked and licked her with long hungry strokes. That feeling was growing stronger, it was good but it also felt like some kind of pressure.
“You’re so beautiful, Cara. Mmm,” he said sucking her deeper into his mouth. “You taste so good.”
Her breathing was coming even faster.
“Darian, something’s wrong.”
He withdrew from her breast. “Does it hurt?”
“I don’t know. It’s kind of like raw nerves gathering.”
Darian made a groaning sound as he clenched his teeth together. His hand ran up her thigh and rounded over the mound between her legs. “Here?” He asked.
Cara nodded. The heat of his hand was penetrating her pants and panties and the feeling was still growing.
“That’s good.”
“It feels like it’s getting to tight,” Cara breathed.
“Fuck, Cara, you’re going to make me come in my pants,” he said as his hand began to squeeze her.
Cara pressed her legs together when he unbuttoned the button on her pants. “Wait, I thought you were just going to touch.”
“I am,” He said as he pushed and pulled her knees open until she was sitting with her legs spread apart. Darian slid his hand under her panties and his fingers slid in between her folds.
She started closing her legs, knowing she really shouldn’t be allowing him to touch her there.
Darian set his over her leg and in between her feet, effectively holding her open for his fingers to continue exploring her most intimate center.
His fingers circled and teased the sensitive nub at her core, pulling that string so tight it felt close to breaking. Cara grabbed his wrist to pull his hand out, but he was too strong. His teeth were clenched so tight as he continued massaging her. “Trust me, Cara.”
She tried to wiggle away. The feeling was too strong. It was going to hurt when the string broke.
“Cara, look at my hand buried under your panties. You like the way that feels, don’t you?”
Her hips pressed forward against his hand as the string pulled tighter and the nerves nearly burned with sensitivity.
“You’re so wet for me Cara. You’re making me thirsty.” He lifted Cara up onto her feet, and pulled her pants and panties from her waist to her ankles.
She lowered her hands trying to cover herself as he lifted her again. This time when he pushed her legs apart he had her sitting on his hands as he lowered her onto his mouth.
Cara gasped as his tongue delved between her slick folds. He groaned against her as his hot tongue explored her with a hunger that felt so good it snapped the string.
&
nbsp; Her body seemed to burst from the inside out in hot, delicious, pulsing, demanding, sensations that pulled a cry from her as she watched him kissing, and eating her into a magic kind of bliss that obliterated all coherent thought.
Slowly the amazing, all-encompassing, ecstasy calmed to a feeling of deep satisfaction. Darian lowered her gently back down onto his lap. The warm honey of his eyes now a smoldering gold melting pot.
He gathered her close as they both tried to catch their breath.
“I’m glad you trusted me Cara.”
She smiled against his chest.
Me too.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Touching Cara, teaching her about her body and how good it could feel was nearly the undoing of Darian’s control. Somehow, he’d managed not to finish what he’d started, at least for himself. His cock was so rock hard, his desire to sink his shaft into the heat of her center was strong enough to make his body shake.
Never in his entire existence did he want anyone or anything as much as he wanted Cara. His love for Cara was the only possible entity powerful enough to stop him and his wolf from taking her. Her trust in him was more important.
So, Darian held her until her breathing slowed and her heartbeat returned to its steady pace. Her smile and the sated look in her eyes warmed his heart.
“You should go and meet with Jules, and Rafi,” Darian said.
Cara nodded and climbed from his lap.
Darian gripped the bench so hard it began to crack as he watched her bend to retrieve her clothing. He closed his eyes knowing he was still in danger of losing control.
Don’t ruin this. Let her walk away remembering only how good I made her feel.
“Darian?”
“Yes?” he asked.
“What’s wrong?”
He opened his eyes. Thankfully Cara was dressed. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“I apologize for not believing you.”
Darian shook his head. “I know you must have had your reasons. I’m pleased you allowed me to show you.”
Cara’s cheeks blushed a lovely shade of pink. “I am too,” She said cradling the snow globe he’d given her in her arms. She bent forward and kissed his cheek. She dashed away back through the bedroom and out into the courtyard.
Darian stalked through the house and to his bedroom. If he didn’t do something about the steel rod between his legs he was going to get mean, and his wolf was only going to become so obsessed with claiming Cara that he’d be fighting Darian for control every second of every day until he claimed Cara.
In his bedroom where it still carried Cara’s scent from sleeping in his bed he remembered the sweet taste of her, the feel of her slippery heat, and imagined how it would feel when he would thrust inside her. How she would gasp and look at him with the desire she’d shown him only moments ago.
Claim her. His wolf demanded. She’s ours.
He pumped his hand up and down his cock. Replaying the way she’d watched him kissing and sucking on her breasts. The surprise of every sensation that he stirred within her. Then he thought of the way she’d rolled her hips pressing her pussy against his mouth as she came.
At last the surge release found him. His hand holding still as he pumped his cock through his grip imagining he was inside of Cara and she was begging for him not to stop. He finished with a groan of relief.
He cleaned up and then took a shower. The edge of his need was at least taken down several notches but the relief he felt was short lived.
Claim her. His wolf demanded. Claim her before it’s too late.
****
“You have to block those,” Jules said as Cara pushed up off the stone floor of the courtyard. Her lungs were still struggling to fill with air after the powerful kick Jules delivered to her sternum. It’d knocked the wind right out of her.
Rafi stepped between Cara and Jules. “Ease up, Jules.” His gaze hard on the other woman.
“We can take a break if you think she needs it. I was only trying to help. Aldrich isn’t going to be gentle with her if Darian ever let’s her go near Aldrich town again.”
Cara sucked in a full breath at last and the dizziness began to pass.
“He isn’t going to let her,” Rafi said.
“Why are we training her then? I thought that was the whole point of what we’re doing here.”
Cara nodded still trying to find her voice. “Darian said I could stay. I could train.” She gasped for another breath. “He said I can help stop Aldrich.”
Jules laughed a mean sound. A taunting sound that reminded Cara of Aldrich. “He said you can help. That’s not the same as letting you come with us. If you pack Darian a lunch it’ll be helping. Don’t you see?”
Cara shook her head. “Darian doesn’t play games like that with me. He doesn’t think like you do.”
Rafi smiled at Cara and laughed at the angry expression that sharpened Jules features. “She can help but see the best in him. So soon after such an experience, anyway.”
Cara scowled at Rafi.
“Don’t be mad,” he said still smiling. “I wasn’t spying on you or anything.”
“Then how-”
Jules cut in. “We can smell it. We’re wolves. Remember?”
Cara lowered her eyes hating the way Rafi was looking at her and the way her face was burning. She felt humiliated and exposed. “What happened between Darian and me does not factor into what I’ve said. I know Darian will keep his word to me and I don’t appreciate either of you commenting on matters that are private.”
Rafi’s smile shrank to a straight line, his dark eyes avoiding Cara’s.
Good.
“I bet you are thirsty. I’ll get you something to drink,” Rafi said leaving Jules and Cara alone in the courtyard.
Jules exhaled as she rotated her pointed shoulders. “I’m sorry that I embarrassed you. I know exactly how you feel.”
“You do?”
“Yes. When Darian and I were messing around together I knew the whole pack could practically taste how wet Darian got me. His mouth feels so good. Doesn’t it?”
What a bitch.
Cara latched onto Darian’s assurances that Jules was jealous of Cara’s position as his destined mate and held on tight. She knew that if she was in Aldrich Town, her escort would not allow her to fight back or say anything to anyone who was unkind or trying to upset her.
But she wasn’t in Aldrich Town. Not anymore.
Remind her where she stands. She stands beneath us.
Cara felt stronger, brave with her wolf spirit stand with her. She looked Jules dead in the eye taking four steps to cross through the distance that stood between them.
Jules cocked her head to the side staring back at Cara. “I just kicked your ass. Do you really want to try and face me down?”
“Absolutely.”
Jules’ lips pinched together as her green eyes widened. “I can’t help it that Darian and I have a past together.”
“You are lying.”
“You’re angry because you know that I’m not lying. You’re not special to him. You’re his job.”
Silence her lies.
Her arms pushed out before she could think and sent Jules sliding across the stone floor. Cara looked down at her hands in surprise.
How did I do that?
“Great progress, Cara,” Rafi cheered as he returned to the courtyard. He handed Cara the water. “You missed it,” he called out as Darian entered the courtyard from the opposite side. “She’s coming along well. We can go after him in a matter of days.”
“Go after him?” Darian asked drawing closer to Cara and Rafi.
Cara nodded. “Yes, like you promised. You said I can stay and help stop Aldrich.”
“You can,” Darian said his words coming out chopped and tight. “Not in a few days. You can help after you shift.”
“Right,” Jules said as she picked herself up. “She can lead the pack with you. With two alphas Aldrich won’t be able to escape u
s.”
Cara caught the way his mouth tightened as he listened to what Jules said. “Cara will still need to learn how to work with her spirit wolf.”
“Are you saying I won’t get to fight him?” Cara asked. There was too much he wasn’t saying. It was like he was avoiding answering the question.
“Cara… I promised you I would never let him hurt you. I can’t allow you to be anywhere near him.”
You lied to me.
The burn of betrayal fueled her temper. “You said I could help stop him.”
“And you will.” He reached for her but Cara slapped his hands away.
“How?”
“You’re going to tell us his schedule, his movements in the town. You can tell us if there are any weak points in the wall, or if there are any allies on the inside we can contact to help us.”
The burn lessened as he spoke. It was more than Jules described but still less than what Cara wanted. “I can do more than that.”
“As much as you like,” Darian agreed this time taking hold of her and dragging her close to him. “As long as you are nowhere near, Aldrich.”
Cara glared at him. “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Darian.”
“Don’t make me break my promise and forbid you, Cara. I know he’s hurt you. I know you want justice but I also know that the man himself is poison. He isn’t done trying to hurt you and I’ll be damned if I give him the chance.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cara continued training with Rafi and Jules. After Darian walked away. She didn’t argue with Darian because she didn’t want him to use his alpha authority to command her to stay but she had no intention of standing on the sidelines again and hoping someone else would step up and stop Aldrich.
When training was finished, Cara was dripping with sweat but she was still angry with Darian.
“I just wish we could get her to Aldrich before she shifted.”
“Why?” Cara asked butting into Jules and Rafi’s conversation.
Jules grunted. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t do that.”
“Why do you wish we could go before I shift?” Cara asked again.
“You’re still immune to the poison. You won’t be after you shift,” Jules said. “Getting Aldrich has been impossible because he doesn’t leave. Getting him means getting inside.”
Claimed by Love (A Rizer Pack Shifter Series Book 3) Page 17