by Vivian Arend
Damon cleared his throat, and she jerked back, face heating as she realized she’d been staring.
Drooling, you mean, her wolf teased.
Shut up, she snapped in embarrassment, shocked her wolf was being so forward.
She blinked hard to refocus, and Damon was kind enough to ignore her faux pas, going on as if she’d never faltered. “I do have some experience with fine liquors, yes.”
“Business or personal?”
“Both.”
She hesitated. Curiosity made her want to ask more, but at what point would the questions be rude? He had no reason to explain. He was there as a favour to a friend, giving up his time to ease her fears.
Damon read her mind. “I should’ve mentioned it earlier, but I was being a bit of an ass. Don’t worry, I meant it when I said you’re not keeping me from anything. I take assignments like you do, and I’m between jobs. I’m an efficiency checker.”
Interesting. “Official, or undercover?”
His grin widened. “You don’t know how nice it is to not have to explain what I do. You’ve probably read all about it.”
She’d already mentally shuffled through three or four different options, but just because she understood what the job might entail, it didn’t mean she wasn’t interested in his version. “I’d love to hear more, and how it connects with rare, vintage liquor.”
Damon poured them both another shot of whisky. “It’s not that exciting. Human Resources contact me, usually after there’ve been financial shenanigans.”
“Shenanigans? Oooh, the big words are busting out.”
“Eloquent, that’s me.” He raised his glass in the air. “I go in as a new hire, kind of like a Bosses Undercover TV show. I can spend up to a month training my way through the system, and at the end of it, I issue a report on where there are gaps, and who’s the weakest link. My wolf side helps make the job a little easier. He’s pretty adept at finding the loose cogs in an organization, and for the rest, it’s a glorified acting job.”
She asked a few more questions, and he told her stories, including some high-roller drinking escapades. That led to her sharing about the adventures she’d had while on assignment when she wasn’t being stalked by creepy cats. Damon listened as if fascinated, refilling their glasses from time to time,
The fire crackled and the whisky slipped down smoothly, and she felt far more comfortable than she’d imagined possible after such a short time with another person.
She’d started with the wrong impression of him, and the new information made their attraction that much more…attractive. The urge to do something about the simmering heat between them grew hotter the longer it burned.
A lull in the conversation settled in. Comfortable, though, not awkward. They both sat and listened to the fire, her eyes on the flames, his on her.
Because, damn, she was easy to look at. Intriguing, too, in so many ways.
Addie swirled the amber liquid in her glass and sighed mightily. “Well, drat. I feel like a fool.”
Damon waited for more clues. Things were going far too well for him to leap in after that kind of comment. He’d be sure to misstep and put them back at square one, and with how skittish she was, he’d hate for that to happen.
Two steps forward, one step back still meant progress.
She met his gaze, a smile on her lips although her lips twisted slightly as if embarrassed. “After hearing about your job… I’d made some assumptions about you, earlier.”
Ah. “You thought I was some shiftless jerk.”
Her head tipped sharply in acknowledgment, and her smile widened. “You’re not at all shiftless.”
He laughed. Damn, but he liked her. “But I’m still a jerk?”
“What, you won’t admit you’re a bit of an asshole?”
“One hundred percent asshole. Hundred ten percent if I’m really trying, or when my wolf gets in the way.” Damon sniffed his whisky, appreciating the low buzz in his veins caused equally by the high-proof alcohol and his proximity to one very attractive woman. “Although, right now it’s just me.”
Addie wrinkled her nose in the most adorable manner. “Does that comment have something to do with what happened last night?”
His surprise vanished rapidly as he realized there wasn’t much that slipped past her. Of course his momentary panic from last night came to mind. “That’s right. You never forget anything.”
“I forget lots,” she insisted. “I can be as careless and forgetful as the next person. Also, if I work at it, I can replace details in deliberate memories I don’t want with other ones. Takes a lot of energy, though, which is why I don’t watch a lot of news reports or scary movies.”
He stretched out his legs, propping his feet beside her on the couch, toes rubbing her thigh. Deep desire struck again, combined with a unique pleasure. They’d been flirting instead of jumping forward full tilt, in spite of the intense sexual attraction between them.
He was enjoying it. The long game. Going slow.
Another rush of fire lit her eyes as he deliberately stroked her leg.
“Your wolf?” she prompted, her voice fluttering.
Damon took a sip as he considered his words. “We don’t get along,” he admitted.
Addie sat forward in surprise. “How can you not get along with your wolf?”
He shrugged. “It’s been like this since I was a teen. Sometimes things are fine and then others, I don’t know how to control him. So I tend to ignore him and keep that part of me under wraps. It’s safer.”
“Safer isn’t always the best,” she whispered, causing a low buzz of protective instinct to flare higher. He wanted to make that sad tone in her voice go away. But she lifted her gaze to his again and smiled as what seemed to be a deep-held secret slipped from her lips. “I get how being a shifter isn’t all it’s cracked up to be at times. My wolf side causes me troubles too,” she confessed.
Damon raised a brow.
“Both my parents are Omega wolves, and it’s—difficult.”
His jaw swung open before he forced his mouth shut. “Well, damn. Talk about rare vintages.”
She nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m one in a million. Well, not really—there are others like me, but since Omegas are the least common ranking, the odds of two being mates and having a kid is even more needle in the haystack.”
He’d met maybe three such pairs in all the extensive travels he’d done. Omegas were the heart and soul of a wolf pack, and worked with their Alphas to keep the potentially feral and aggressive members under control. They tended to end up mated to powerful Alphas, not other Omegas.
“And you got something from them, right? Some kind of mind reading? Or the ability to—” Wait a minute. He shook a finger at her, more in fun than a real accusation. “You’ve been cheating and using your supernatural powers to make me behave.”
“Ha.” Her laugh burst free like a helium balloon shooting skyward to freedom. “If this is you behaving we’re in big trouble.”
He winked. “You have no idea.”
The fire crackled, and he glanced into the flames, tiny fingers of red and gold waving at him. His thoughts remained focused on the petite woman sitting across from him. How she coped with…whatever it was that bothered her. Not knowing what she was suffering through made him twitch. He could fix it, he was sure he could.
He needed more information. Damon was just ready to ask when she beat him to the punch.
“Tell me one thing,” Addie whispered.
He paused.
She’d linked her fingers together and was twisting them back and forth. “It seems as if there’s a connection between us. That’s not an Omega, spooky-wooky proclamation, by the way, and maybe I’m wrong, but…” Addie locked eyes with him, golden flecks flashing against the pale brown. “Here we are, two wolves stuck at the end of the universe, or whatever you called it. We’re both out of our element. And sometimes—call it what you will, fate or karma—sometimes people get tossed toget
her for a reason.”
Every word she spoke drove a blade farther into his core, as if she were a finely trained surgeon cutting straight to the deepest, killing hurt.
Especially when she went on. “Tell me one thing about you that’s a secret. Something you wish you could share, but you can’t so you hold it deep inside until it feels as if you could explode—”
“My mate died.”
He hadn’t expected that confession to escape. Neither had she, from the expression of sheer horror rearranging her face. The instant the words left his tongue Damon wished he could take them back, yet there was an enormous relief at having said them.
“Oh, God, Damon, I’m so sorry.”
Tears pooled in her eyes, and Damon reached up a hand in protest. “It was a long time ago. It’s okay. She wasn’t… I mean, it’s sad, and I hate that she’s gone, but we weren’t already mated. We were young, and—”
God, he was making a mess of this, yet as he closed the distance between them and settled at Addie’s side, he was glad this weird-ass evening had happened. It had been a long time since he’d talked about Caitlin. Not even his best friend knew this story.
Addie caught hold of his arms and gripped tightly. “Go on.”
“I had a girlfriend,” he shared, “back in my teens. We started dating when we were thirteen, and nothing got too heavy between us, but I knew Caitlin was the one.”
Sorrow shone in Addie’s eyes.
Damon shook his head. “We were sure it would happen, but in the meantime it was nice, having a secret that belonged just to us. People knew we liked each other. Heck, we went on a few double dates with my best friend Jim and whoever he was seeing at the time, and he thought we were mostly friends. There’d been none of the struck-by-lightning wolf-connection stuff that happens sometimes. We always figured it would happen when we got old enough, but then—” He swallowed hard. “We got mugged on the way home from a movie.”
“Oh, no…” She closed her eyes, body stiffening as if bracing to hear him out. Then she focused again, her wide brown eyes offering him a solid point to cling to as he found the strength to go on.
He couldn’t bear to tell it all, so he kept to the general details. Just the facts. “I was full of myself like only a sixteen-year-old alpha-wolf can be, and when the thieves asked for our wallets, I was stupid. I didn’t hand everything over. I went after them, instead. Knocked two of them to the ground as quick as a wink, damn near strutting when I turned back to discover the third had run in fear. But in the process, he’d shoved his way past Caitlin and slammed her into the nearest wall. She hit her head hard enough there were complications, and that was it. She was gone.”
Addie squeezed harder, her touch centering him. “I’m so sorry.”
“If only I hadn’t been a cocky bastard.”
She took a deep breath. “Oh, Damon, it wasn’t your fault. The ones to blame are the bastards who came after you in the first place.” Her eyes dipped downward for a moment as if she was reluctant to continue, but she lifted them and met his gaze firmly. “I’m sorry you don’t have her in your life. I really want the best for you.”
It was the darnedest thing. They weren’t simply platitudes she was tossing out—he felt them to his soul. “I know.”
He reached up, intending to wipe away the lone tear trickling down her cheek. The one that had escaped as he’d poured out his foolish heart.
She twisted from his touch, and a sharp pain struck his chest. “Addie?”
Chapter Seven
He looked as if she’d kicked him. Dammit, she was a fool. Addie caught hold of him, squeezing his arm over his sleeve, refusing to let him pull away.
“It’s not you,” she blurted out, scrambling to find the words. “That difficulty I mentioned, the one my Omega parents gave me? One skill. One lulu of a talent that made me pull away.”
“Go on.” Damon waited, far more insecure than she’d seen him to this point. Even when he’d been sharing his deepest pain he’d spoken clearly, but now? He sounded broken.
She took a deep breath. “When I touch people’s skin, or they touch mine, I feel what they’re feeling. It can be…devastating. And invasive, and I didn’t want that to happen to you. That’s why I reacted like that.”
A deep crease formed between his perfect blue eyes, and she could see him thinking through what her explanation meant.
Waiting for him to respond was torture.
Damon shook his head. “But when I arrived, you kissed me. And in the study, we kissed again.”
She’d given that a lot of thought, too. “Both times were a surprise, and that was the most powerful emotion you were experiencing. And I don’t mind knowing what you’re feeling during a sexual encounter, but it’s very intimate. I don’t want to overstep my boundaries. I want to touch—”
She broke off, not wanting to admit any more.
If he pulled away, she’d understand. Having someone stroll through your most secret self wasn’t an everyday event.
Damon stood and paced a few steps. In spite of appreciating why, she fought to hide her sigh of sadness.
“We slept together,” he pointed out.
“Wolf and human. As long as one of us is shifted, there’s a barrier in the way.”
He laughed softly as he faced her, a hint of a twisted smile on his lips. “Karma’s a bitch, right?”
“Sometimes.”
He poured them new shots of whisky, carefully handing her the glass without touching her fingers.
“She’s also a tricky lady.” Damon settled on the couch again, his thigh tight against hers as he leaned back and stretched one arm along the back of the couch. He raised his glass. “No skin, right?”
“Right…” What was he up to?
He tipped back his drink, waiting until she’d done the same before stacking their tumblers together and placing them aside.
Then he laid a hand on her shoulder, tugging her to face him. “You interested in an experiment?”
Heat radiated from where his hand rested, but nothing untoward happened on an emotional level. “Does it involve wandering the halls searching for cold spots where the damned still cling to the earthly place of their untimely demises?”
Damon grinned. “That’s on tomorrow’s agenda. Tonight I thought maybe…”
He slid his thumb back and forth, stroking over her shirt. He might as well have used a Taser on her; the electric response of her nerve endings was off the charts.
“You’re…touching me.”
“Over your clothes.” Concern and restrained passion slipped around her like a protective cocoon. “Any negative reactions?”
“Other than my mouth has gone dry and my heart is pumping fast enough to drive a motorboat, no reactions at all,” she offered drolly.
He hummed in approval, his gaze following his hand as he trailed his fingers down the front of her T-shirt. Caressing the curve of her breast, slowing as his fingertips slipped over the tight tip of her nipple. “You said there was a connection between us. There’s one hell of an attraction, for sure.”
Addie groaned as he pinched, arching into his touch as he opened his palm and cupped her. “That feels amazing, but we can’t… I mean, I feel guilty.”
Damon chuckled as he leaned down and pressed his lips to the upper slope of her breast. “Guilty because we’re going to fool around?”
“I can’t touch you,” she complained. “Except over your clothes.”
“Maybe, maybe not, but why are you rushing?” Damon slipped off the couch and between her legs, pushing them apart so he could kneel in front of her. “Focus on the experiment. Put your hands on my shoulders and keep them there.”
He waited until she’d obeyed, the cool fabric warming rapidly under her fingers from the heat driving off his skin. But that layer, as thin as it was, protected her. A flutter of need rippled through her as he leaned forward, rearranging his hand so the full weight of her breast was cradled in his palm.
Lust
-filled eyes met hers as he licked his lips. “I’ve been dying to do this.”
He pressed his tongue to the material, and a wet spot appeared on the beige pyjama top. The sight gave her goose bumps, but more potent was the sensation of moisture. Of heat. They tangled her senses, and desire grew as he closed his lips around her nipple and sucked.
“Oh Lordy, that’s good.”
Addie gave up protesting in favour of wallowing in hedonism. Her head fell back, and she pushed toward him, wanting more. Locking her fingers in place so she didn’t interrupt as he nibbled on her through the fabric. Tight coils of pleasure unwound into spirals, connecting her breasts and her core like the ends of a kinky internal Slinky.
After a few passes from side to side, the fabric was wet enough to cling when he lowered his hands to her thighs. His mouth and lips remained in place to torment her with the sweetest of pleasures, while his fingers glided up her legs in precise ovals, each time inching closer to where she was aching to feel him.
So slow, infinitely slow, like the drags of his lips and the touch of his teeth. When he finally brushed his fingers over her sex, it was worth it. Addie squeezed her eyes shut and debated if opening her legs wider and rocking against him would take her to a climax faster, or if it would be wasted energy.
She was already close.
“Eager,” Damon teased, his mouth against her breast. Her nipple tingled, and she tugged on his shoulders, trying to get him to return to where she needed him. “I like eager,” he murmured as he slowed his pace.
“Don’t stop,” she begged. “You don’t know how long it’s been since anyone’s fingers but mine have been down there.”
“I’m not stopping, just…” He adjusted position, his hand cupping her more firmly as he magically found her clit through the layers and kept rubbing. Only now his groin bumped her shin, and the thick weight of his cock pressed against her as he rocked. A sharp grunt of satisfaction escaped before he returned to driving her mad.