She didn’t have to guess at the cause but she couldn’t force herself to stop obsessing and get some sleep.
She needed to be sharp tomorrow, needed to prove herself worthy of her son. To be useful when the lucani went to rescue Alex.
But she couldn’t sleep because she’d worked herself into a state of complete panic.
Until that damn wolf had walked through the doggie door.
Then she’d actually felt her muscles begin to relax. All because she knew exactly who this wolf was.
Now with her hand stroking his pelt and his head on her lap, she felt her nausea ease and the dizziness disappear.
Because of him.
He couldn’t take away the fear, though. That remained a cold lump in her stomach, a raw ache in her chest.
But having Kaisie lying on the couch next to her made everything else settle.
And that should’ve been a scary thought.
Too bad everything else in her life was even more terrifying.
“We have to succeed tomorrow,” she said, knowing he understood her. “And if we don’t, at least Alex has to know we tried. I can’t let him believe I abandoned him to that monster.”
Kaisie’s wolf whined and shook his head.
Amazingly, she knew exactly what he couldn’t say.
“Yes, he could think that. He’s only a boy. Whose mother has done awful things. Horrible…”
She’d done them to save her son, yes, but the blood of two young Etruscans was on her hands. The men she’d hired to kidnap her test subjects had been less than honorable.
“I know I should’ve known when I hired them. But Alex was dying. And I was naïve enough to think those men would simply release those young people. I didn’t know they were going to kill them. I should have. I know I should have.”
It was why she’d expected the lucani to simply kill her and be done with it.
She’d begged the lucani king, Colerus Luporeale, to promise her Alex would be well cared for, should anything happen to her.
He’d agreed without hesitation.
Which was why she was fully prepared to die tomorrow to ensure that Alex got out with the lucani. They wouldn’t care if she didn’t— Well, that wasn’t completely true.
For some reason, the women here had rallied to her side. Probably only because she was Alex’s mother. But they wouldn’t miss her.
She’d also spoken to Tamra privately and coerced a promise from her. Alex would have another woman in his life to mother him if she didn’t come back. Yes, he would miss her but eventually…
She sighed and Kaisie whined again, drawing her gaze back down to him.
In the darkness broken only by the soft glow from the television, she stared into the wolf’s completely human eyes, so green they reminded her of spring grass.
Such beautiful eyes.
She’d harbored a hopefully well-guarded secret since she’d met Kaisie, one she really hoped no one ever discovered.
She thought he was wonderful. Sure, his manners could use a little polish and his hair needed a trim. And he definitely needed to shave that scruff off his face.
But the man was strong, fiercely loyal, smart as all hell and steady as a rock. Everything she’d always thought she wanted in a man.
She waited anxiously for the minute he walked through her door every day, longed to hear his deep voice, even though all they did was argue.
Oh, she realized he felt a faint spark of attraction for her. She wasn’t an ugly cow with warts who weighed three hundred pounds.
She knew men usually were attracted by the red hair and the haughty looks. But the only men she’d known growing up had been introduced to her by her Mal grandmother or her Mal-brainwashed parents. Men who cared only for wealth and power and what she could mean to their careers.
They didn’t care that she was a damn good scientist, that her dream date would be dinner and a show or that she loved to read to her son.
But she and Kaisie would never get beyond attraction. At least, he would never. She’d already lost half her heart.
And she wished he’d shift back into his skin so she could tell him to take her to bed. To take her mind off what was going to come tomorrow.
She’d never had sex just for pleasure. Sex had always been a duty, a chore. Sometimes it hadn’t been consensual, though she’d never said no. If she’d ever said no…
She’d be like her older cousin Marie, spending her days staring out the window of her apartment in Manhattan, her mind a vast field of nothing, wiped clean by a spell to make her docile.
Marie was the perfect breeder. She’d already produced three Mal for the man her parents had sold her to.
Grace did not want to become Marie.
“Kaisie…”
She wanted him in his skin. She wanted him to take her to bed. To treat her like a woman instead of an object. She wanted, at least for tonight, to have sex that didn’t leave her sobbing silently in the shower afterward.
But she couldn’t ask. If he turned her down, she might not recover. She really didn’t know why he was here.
She sighed. “I guess I should try to get some sleep. And so should you. I’m better now. Thank you. You don’t have to stay any longer.”
He growled, the sound low and deep but not scary. He was arguing with her.
Familiar ground.
“Don’t dare start with me, Kaisie. I just…don’t want to fight.”
With a huff, the wolf scrambled off the couch and stood in front of her. She expected him to leave then. Instead, he started to change.
It only took seconds for the wolf to become a gorgeous man. A flash of brilliant color. A smudging of reality and then there he stood.
Beautiful. He was absolutely beautiful. The man was forty-four years old and he had the body of a man twenty years younger.
She let her gaze linger on his chest for several seconds. Broad, well muscled and lightly covered with dark hair, the skin darker than her own. Her lips parted to draw in breath and she tried not to sigh.
Instead she lifted her gaze to his face.
Her eyes widened.
He’d shaved. No, he’d trimmed. He’d cut off the scruff but still had dark stubble covering his chin and upper lip. She couldn’t believe he’d left it as an affectation. He probably just hadn’t wanted to take the time to shave completely.
Oh my Blessed Goddess, she’d never seen anything so sexy. It accentuated the rugged lines of his face and set off his wide green eyes.
He’d also cut his hair, not short, just long enough to show some wave.
Her stomach clenched with a hunger so fierce, she almost didn’t recognize it for what it was.
She’d never wanted anyone before. Oh, maybe as a silly teenager, she’d imagined herself in lust with a boy from the exclusive prep school her parents had sent her to.
But at twenty, she’d learned just how cold sex could be. And she’d learned to submerge any hint of desire.
All those long-repressed longings roared up now with the fury of a hurricane.
Which didn’t make any sense. She’d known this man less than a month.
And it didn’t matter.
He didn’t say anything as he reached for her, just wrapped both hands around her head and pulled her forward to meet his kiss.
She froze as his lips met hers, her eyes wide as his mouth moved over hers. Soft. Gentle. Enticing.
She hadn’t known what to expect but it certainly hadn’t been this melting warmth. His lips caressed hers, not forcing her mouth open but not static either. He kissed her, his lips in constant motion, roaming over hers, tasting her.
And she tasted him. Male heat and the faint bitterness of alcohol.
Maybe it was the alcohol making him want her.
Did it matter?
No. She needed him now.
Her lips began to soften and she tilted her head so she participated rather than just let it happen.
Her arms lifted and curved around his
shoulders. The warmth of his body hit her like a blast furnace, seeping into her skin. Forcing unfamiliar emotion to simmer in her blood like lava.
With a tug on her hair, Kaisie tilted her head back even farther, his mouth leaving hers to bite and suck at her neck. Her skin stung wherever his lips landed and she knew she’d have bruises come daylight. She didn’t care. They could be healed easily enough because they weren’t deep. And maybe she’d let them stay because he’d given them to her in passion.
With her fingers clenched in his hair and her body pressed against his, she shut off her brain and gave herself over to the demands of mind-numbing sex.
And the feel of his swelling cock trapped between them.
Her arms tightened around him, as if afraid he’d try to get away. Which didn’t seem very likely. His hands had slipped under her sweatshirt to spread across the bare skin of her back. She felt each of his fingers press against her and she wanted him to hold her harder. To lift the worn cotton over her head so he could put his mouth on her breasts.
She didn’t know why she wanted that, had never wanted another man to do so. But her breasts ached and her nipples hardened into tight nubs that demanded his attention.
As if he’d read her mind, or maybe it was the way she rubbed against him, he cupped her breasts in his hands, kneading the mounds and taking her breath away.
She gasped, stilling as she tried to absorb the sensations he created.
“Do you like that?” He spoke against the hollow of her throat, his breath heating her skin. She shivered in reaction. “Yeah, I think you do. Hang tight, babe. It’ll get better.”
With a few deft movements, he stripped her top over her head, leaving her bare from the waist up.
Grace had a moment to panic as his gaze dropped. She’d had two children. Her breasts weren’t as firm as they’d been years ago. And while she didn’t consider herself fat, she did carry a few more pounds than she wanted.
Her skin was pale but littered with freckles, a defect her mother had agonized over when she was a child. She was marred. Imperfect.
Is that what Kaisie would see too?
Her breath caught in her throat as he continued to stare at her without speaking. His expression had gone taut and she couldn’t tell if he found her lacking or—
“Tinia’s teat, you’re fucking beautiful.” His hands molded to her breasts again, his thumb and forefinger pinching the nipples until she thought she might implode.
Or come. Something else she’d never experienced from a hand other than her own.
Her knees threatened to buckle but she locked them, her hands settling back on his shoulders to help her balance.
She wanted to speak, to tell him she felt the same way about him. That he made her weak-kneed and hot and wet between her thighs. But she could only stand there and watch him lower his head to wrap his lips around one nipple and suck it into his mouth.
Oh gods. Her knees did buckle then but Kaisie wrapped an arm around her waist and held her upright while he sucked and nipped at her breast.
Heat washed over her, electrifying her skin and making her sex throb. Her head fell back as he switched sides, thoroughly pleasuring that nipple as well.
She’d never imagined how good sex could be and this was only foreplay. If he stopped now, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to pick up the pieces.
Clinging to him, she concentrated on the feel of his lips, the press of his muscled thighs against hers and the thick hardness of his cock brushing against her stomach.
Her hips shifted restlessly, trying to ease the ache between her thighs. She wanted him to lift her and impale her, take her hard and fast and leave her sated and breathless.
But Kaisie obviously had other ideas.
With a final lick, he pulled back and caught her gaze, those green eyes even brighter. “Tell me you want me. I need to hear you say it.”
She swallowed at the harsh sound of his voice but her body responded with a shiver of pure lust. “I want you. On the floor, the couch, against the wall. I don’t care. Just take me. Before I collapse.”
He barely gave her time to breathe before he sealed his mouth over hers and kissed her until she started to float.
Which turned out to be Kaisie lifting her off her feet and swinging her into his arms. He had no trouble taking her weight, making her feel sexy and desirable with every kiss, every touch.
With their lips fused, he started to walk. She thought he’d go for the couch but he headed for the small bedroom at the back, where the queen-size mattress should be more than big enough to accommodate two people. At least, it’d seemed huge and empty to her this past week.
Now with Kaisie coming down on top of her, she barely even noticed the bed because all she could concentrate on was him.
He’d released her mouth again to let his lips travel. From her jaw to her neck and below. He stopped to tease her breasts again while his hands worked at her flannel pants. The pants had seen better days and she didn’t care if he ripped them off, even if they were favorites. But he treated them as if they were expensive lingerie, easing them down her hips and pushing them to her feet where she finally kicked them off.
She hadn’t been wearing underwear and the cooler air hit her overheated skin, causing goose bumps to rise.
Without saying a word, Kaisie rose to his knees, lifted her off the bed and pulled down the comforter and sheet to place her under them.
Sliding in after her, he surprised her with a smile, visible in the dim light from the bedside lamp she’d turned on earlier. Alex had trouble sleeping in the dark and she always left a nightlight on for him.
It was a habit she’d taken up herself. Did he have a nightlight now? Was—
“Hey, come back to me, Grace. You can’t do anything right now except be here with me.”
She refocused on his smile, forcing herself to return it. She knew hers probably looked unnatural and she couldn’t hold it anyway. Not when he ran a hand down her body, stroking her like she’d stroked his pelt earlier.
And scattering her thoughts when he let his fingers brush over her clit.
Her eyes began to close as her hips arched into his hand, trying to get him to stroke her harder, to get her off and ease this ache.
“I need you to make me come.”
“I will, sweetheart. Just not yet. Open your eyes and watch me.”
His voice held a note of command she didn’t care to disobey. She looked up then, followed his gaze to where his hand hovered over her mound. She kept her pubic hair trimmed close and her pussy lips bare. The skin there felt sensitive and swollen, throbbing in anticipation.
She drew in a deep breath then held it as his hand closed the short distance between them. His fingers slipped between her thighs and she let them fall open another few inches. She thought he’d hurry now but his fingers only grazed along her folds, setting off sizzling jolts of sensation that made her sex clench.
She moaned, the sound loud and slightly embarrassing in the quiet of the little house. But Kaisie’s mouth curved in a masculine smile and he bent to nip at her breast then lower, on her hipbone as he let his fingers play along her slit.
Her hands twisted in the sheets, frustration and lust a heady combination. Her body felt lightning-struck, her nerve endings sizzling and popping under the skin. She almost forgot that she could touch him. She’d never been allowed to do what she wanted in bed before.
As if he’d read her mind, he whispered in her ear. “Touch me, Grace. I won’t break.”
She froze, unsure what he’d like. Should she reach for his cock, wrap her hand around it and stroke him? Or could she pet his body like she’d done with his wolf earlier?
“Grace, don’t think. Just do it.”
His voice had hardened, whether with lust or impatience, she didn’t know. So she lifted one hand and put it on his chest. She stroked her fingers through the crisp hair as she would his pelt. And felt his chest expand as he drew in a deep breath.
&n
bsp; “That’s right. Put your hands on me.”
Her other hand rose and joined the first then she lost herself in the pleasure of touching him.
His fingers stilled, resting on her thigh while she began her exploration of him. First, she stroked across his shoulders, warm skin stretched over strong bone, then down his arms, muscles taut.
Back to his chest where she let her fingers pluck at his nipples, her gaze darting back to his when he sucked in a sharp breath.
“Harder.”
The word escaped between his gritted teeth, making a smile curve her own lips. He liked it when she rolled the pointed nubs between her fingers. It showed in the way his eyelids fell and his head tilted back. With more confidence, she scraped her nails down his stomach to the mat of dark curls at the base of his cock.
She carefully avoided making contact with his shaft, afraid to touch him there without an explicit command. She didn’t want to hurt him or displease him in any way. In her experience, men wanted what they wanted when they wanted it and only how they wanted it. What she’d wanted had never mattered.
“Do you… Should I…”
She didn’t know what he wanted and every insecurity she’d ever had about sex now raised its ugly head.
Her chest began to ache and she felt out of breath. She took a deep breath but couldn’t seem to get enough air. She knew she was starting to hyperventilate, knew she needed to calm down but couldn’t seem to stop.
Tears welled in her eyes as she watched Kaisie’s eyes narrow. Blessed Goddess, why was he here? What did he see in her that had brought him to her bed?
Was she just a willing body? Someone he knew wouldn’t say no? Did he—
His fingers began to stroke her and her body responded with a fresh surge of lust, sweeping her fears away in a heated rush. Moisture slicked her lower lips, her sheath tightened, begging to be filled.
“Kaisie.”
“That’s right, sweetheart.” He coated his fingers in her moisture, his thumb pressing against her clit with steady pressure. “I’m right here. Nobody else. Just me.”
He slipped one finger between her folds and into her tight channel. She hissed at the invasion and her hands reached for his shoulders again as her body buzzed.
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