by Jaci Burton
Katya wouldn’t mate with anyone she didn’t choose herself. And she didn’t make that choice lightly. To rule beside her would require a strong mate, one who could take care of all the people of Braslieu. She’d yet to find a man like that. No one had ever stirred her mind, her heart and her body.
She shook off her thoughts and forced herself to focus on the project at hand. Now that the initial meeting was over, she had time to settle back and figure out how to handle the Devlins.
They could never find out about her and what role she actually played in the Braslieu family. That would have to remain a mystery, as it was to everyone outside the pack. Royalty were treated differently than common people. She hated that, which was why no one outside the castle knew who she was.
The business arrangements between the Devlin Foundation and the Braslieu family would be best conducted between business associates.
They had to provide funding for the shelter. They had to. The family, while royal, possessed no funds. Their near bankruptcy was a closely guarded secret, and one which she wouldn’t use as a point of negotiation. The Braslieus had never begged for money before and wouldn’t start now. But the safety of all the Carpathian wolves was at stake here, and the government offered no assistance in keeping the hunters from the wolves. Without the help of a wildlife preservation organization such as the Devlins, their future looked dismal.
Katya stood and stretched her back, feeling the need for air. The room seemed to close in on her more each minute. The cottages here were nothing like home. She missed the spacious rooms where she could pace end to end and think.
Grabbing her jacket, she stepped outside, sucking in life-affirming night air. Cool air swirled around her, easing the burdens she carried. Outside she felt part of nature. The pack called to her senses, reminding her of her responsibility.
She’d die to protect them, to assure their continuity.
A cold north wind blew against her face as she walked the long path to the edge of the mountain. Once inside the narrow thicket of trees, she stopped to look up at the quarter moon drifting in and out of the clouds, its lunar force tugging inside her. The urge to run was great. To go home, right now, and hide. The white fog of her breath was visible in the chilled night as she let out a sigh.
If there was any other way to do this she’d never bring outsiders in. But there wasn’t. She’d exhausted every option. Yes, the Devlins were strangers, but she’d researched their charitable foundations and was impressed. The work they did with wolves, especially, interested her.
And no wonder, considering she’d scented both Conner and Noah as lupine. But there was something else, too. When she’d met Conner Devlin she was struck by a feeling of…
…destiny.
Not one to fall for a handsome face and utterly delectable male physique, she nevertheless had to pick up her tongue and tuck it inside her mouth when she’d caught her first glimpse of him.
Very tall, well-muscled, with strong arms, broad shoulders and powerful, long legs. Despite the jeans and heavy shirt he wore, she could see the strong body underneath.
And she wanted.
For the first time in her life, she wanted. Her body had reacted violently, surging to life with a vengeance. Her breasts felt heavy and tight, her nipples pebbling and throbbing with an unfamiliar ache. And her sex had opened, moistened, immediately ready for a cock.
Such physical reaction had never happened before, especially around a stranger. But there was just something about Conner Devlin that called to her.
Kindred spirits? Or the kind she should be wary of?
“There’s nothing like the moon, is there?”
In the split second before he’d spoken she’d sensed him behind her, so his voice didn’t surprise her. But she couldn’t allow her mind and body to wander in thoughts of him. Conner Devlin was already a distraction she couldn’t afford.
She turned and nodded. “Yes, the moon is very special.”
Did he know about her as she knew about him? She wouldn’t volunteer the information, preferring instead for him to mention it. After all, not every lupine had developed the ability to discern a human shifter.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“I’m restless when away from home.”
“I understand that sentiment completely.”
They stared at the moon together for a while, wrapped in a silence that should have been uncomfortable, but wasn’t.
“So tell me, Katya, how is it that you speak such fluent English?”
“I went to college in America.”
He arched a brow. “Really? Where?”
“University of New York.”
“Degree?”
“Biology. And you?”
“Did my undergrad and graduate work at Boston University. Business.”
“I see. A good education for your job, then.”
“You could say that.”
“Do you travel often on behalf of the Devlin Foundation?”
“I do the occasional site visit, but my staff usually handles those.”
“Then why are you and your brother here instead of your staff?”
“The Devlins thought it an important enough venture that the principals should be here to oversee.”
Was that good or bad? “So you’re the decision maker, the most important of the Devlins.”
His lips curled in a smile that was both compelling and dangerous. “You could say that. I’ll be the one making the final decision on funding your refuge.”
His confident arrogance should have irritated her. Instead, she admired it. She’d never found followers to be particularly appealing, yet had never seen an alpha leader in action before.
Except her father. And that had been a long time ago.
There was nothing wrong in fighting for what you really wanted. It was the way of her people, and it was her way. She’d done battle and taken her war to protect the wolves to the very edge many times. Giving up had never been an option.
“Do you have a family, Katya? Husband, children?”
Family. Her throat constricted and she pushed the memories aside. “No. My parents are both dead. I have no husband. Although I have a rather large…extended family. And you?”
“My parents live in Boston. I have three brothers, a sister and a lot of extended family members here and there.”
“That must be nice.”
“I take it you have no siblings, then?”
“No. None at all.” Loneliness surrounded her, the memories thickening like the evening fog. Conner moved in front of her, forcing her gaze away from the mountains onto him. His eyes were like the sky in the winter. Crisp, cool, and utterly mesmerizing.
Her mind screamed danger, her body warmed so fast and so hot she wanted to remove her coat and let the cold air slap some sense into her. This physical reaction to Conner was unnerving and unexpected. She had to keep her distance from him. “I think we’ve talked enough tonight. I’m very tired.”
She turned to walk away, but his hand shot out and grasped her upper arm. Heat burned through her coat and layers of clothing. Unfamiliar urges washed over her. Arousal, desire, want. The need to mate had never reared up before, but primal urges pummeled her.
Why now, and why with this man?
“You’re a woman of great mystery, Katya. I like that.”
Her throat went dry and she struggled to swallow past the lump forming there. She had no experience with men, didn’t really know how to handle a sexual attraction that had materialized out of nowhere. He stood so close to her that if she inhaled deeply her breasts would brush his chest.
The thought of rubbing her nipples against his naked chest nearly sent her to her knees. She fought to still the trembling of her limbs. A deep need to feel the contact of skin against skin, fur against fur, enveloped her. She began to perspire, suddenly too hot for all the clothing she wore.
She searched for words, anything to break the spell he’d woven over her normal sensibilities. “Mysteries can be dangerous.”
He nodded and pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her against his body. “I like dangerous. Do you like dangerous, Katya?”
Her body screamed yes. She wanted danger, wanted to strip off her clothing and run as far and fast as she could, hoping that Conner would give chase.
She wanted the challenge, and the reward at the end.
She wanted him.
Desires like that could be perilous. “There’s no place for danger in my life, Conner. We have a business relationship and we should keep it at that.”
He paused, his hold on her loosening. But then he shook his head, smiled and said, “I don’t think I want to. Do you really want to keep your distance from me, Katya?”
With utter fascination she watched his mouth draw ever closer to hers.
By the time his breath caressed her cheek, her lips had parted and she was ready for him. When his mouth descended gently but firmly over hers, her world shattered in a million pieces. His tongue parted the seam of her lips and slipped inside, gently probing. She sighed, shivered and melted in his arms.
Chapter Two
Conner felt like he’d been slammed against a wall and had the breath knocked from him. Katya sure as hell wasn’t the first woman he’d kissed, but she was the first one to make him feel dizzy and harden him in an instant.
Her body fit perfectly against his, her soft belly tucked against his hip, her thigh pressed against his throbbing erection.
She moaned and snuggled closer, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and leaning intimately against him, opening her mouth for his tongue.
He entered the dark, moist recesses of her mouth as if he’d been waiting a lifetime for this. Her lips were warm, sweet, inviting him to explore. Needing no further urging, he plunged his tongue in again, teasing her with the promise of something wild and untamed.
She trembled in his arms. But it wasn’t from the cold. Even with the layers of clothing between them, she was a raging inferno that flamed his senses.
A part of him wondered what the hell he was doing, entwined in a passionate embrace with a business associate. Katya was a mystery. Maybe that was the appeal.
No, that wasn’t quite right. The appeal was her pliant, lush body sliding against him, the woman scent of her, aroused and spiked with the perfume of sweetest jasmine. The way her mouth followed the movements of his, the tentative way she slid her tongue against his, almost as if she’d never…
She shifted, her sex brushing against his hard thigh, and he lost all train of thought. Accommodating her need, he slid one jean-clad leg between hers until his thigh made contact with her cunt.
The thin leggings she wore offered no barrier. Her pussy scalded his leg and made him burn in another way, a way that had him doing the trembling now.
He’d never wanted a woman so desperately before.
Tugging the zipper of her parka, he yanked it down and slipped his hand inside, searching for the hem of her sweater. His lips still claimed hers, his tongue continuing to dive inside and taste her sweet mouth.
At last he made contact with the hot, bare skin of her belly, feeling it quiver under his questing fingers. He drew the sweater up with the movements of his hand, searching and finding one soft globe unhindered by a bra. Thank God. He’d have had to rip the damn thing off with his teeth if he’d encountered it.
When his palm brushed her erect nipple, she gasped, jerked her head away and stared into his eyes.
Her eyes were glazed with passion, her lips swollen from his kisses. The flush of her cheeks screamed her arousal. She rocked against his thigh and hissed.
In response to her unspoken request, he plucked at the nipple and she sucked in her bottom lip, tugging at it with her teeth as if she fought the sensations hammering away at her. Grasping her buttocks, he moved her against his leg. She threw her head back, revealing the smooth column of her neck. Christ, he could spend hours licking and nibbling at her slender throat. Her lips parted and she panted heavily, her whispered cries driving him near mad with lust.
He’d had plenty of spontaneous sex with women before, but nothing like this bonfire of sensation Katya had awakened within him. What was it about her that called to him in such a primitive way?
“Come on, baby, let go,” he urged, moving his thigh against her hot pussy.
Eyes widening, she tilted her head forward and clutched his shoulders, riding his leg hard and fast until she shivered and cried out. He captured her moans with his mouth, plunging his tongue between her parted lips and drinking in the sounds and movements as she climaxed.
Tears filled her eyes as she rode out her orgasm. She collapsed against his chest, panting heavily.
As his nostrils drew in the scent of her creamy release, his balls drew tight, his cock searching relentlessly for escape from its confines.
Shit, he needed to fuck her right here, right now, and didn’t care who saw them.
He wanted this woman.
“Katya,” he started, but before he could say any more she pulled away from his embrace and shook her head.
With trembling fingers she zipped her parka, her cheeks turning pink. She didn’t even make eye contact with him, instead spoke to his chest. “Oh, God. I’m…I’m so sorry. I can’t do this, Conner.”
Okay. Step back and breathe. The lady is having second thoughts. Trying for a smile she refused to see, he said, “I think you just did.”
Her eyes closed and heat flushed her face and neck. “That wasn’t me. Well, it was, but… Oh, God, I’m so sorry.” She dragged her hands through her hair and looked at the ground.
“Sure felt like you.” And smelled like you, tasted like you. And he wanted so much more than that brief teasing glimpse of her passion. He wanted to sink so far inside her he forgot who he was.
“It was a mistake and I can’t do this. We shouldn’t do this. We have business to conduct and this…well, it just can’t happen.”
“Why not?”
“It just can’t. It’s not you, it’s me. I can’t explain. I’m sorry, Conner. I have to go.”
He knew from the tense grit of her teeth and the way she clenched her jaw that she had as little control as he right now. He could drag her into the nearby woods and fuck her until they both screamed their release.
He wanted that more than anything.
What stopped him was the fear and wariness he read in her eyes, and the sudden realization that Katya wasn’t very experienced with sex.
How he knew that he wasn’t certain. He just knew. And while fucking Katya would be enjoyable, it could also really complicate his job here.
Glancing quickly at him, she shook her head and turned away. Instead of following her, he stood and watched her hurry toward her cottage, admiring the way her backside swayed.
Shuddering with pent-up arousal, he forced his thoughts away from immediate sexual gratification and fought to gain control over his libido.
When he felt like he could actually walk again, he made the trek back to his room, knowing he’d get no sleep tonight.
* * * * *
Katya took a long swallow of brandy, then shuddered as the liquid burned its way down her throat. Though she doubted the alcohol would help her sleep. Not after what had happened tonight with Conner
How could she sleep? Her body throbbed, her sex wept with need and desire and her nipples were so sensitive that wearing clothes was painful. Riding his leg to orgasm had been exquisite, yet not nearly enough to satisfy her.
What had she been thinking, letting herself go like that? Her actions were uncharacteristic. Completely unlike her. She knew what was at stake when she got involved with a man. Conner Devlin was a business partner, and a stranger at that. Yet she’d thrown herself at him like a woman starving for male attention.
She set the glass down and stood, crossing her arms in front of her and pacing the living room, trying to bury the embarrassment, the self-disgust, as far down as it would go.
What would have happened if Conner hadn’t immediately backed away when she said no? She’d have compromised him, for certain, and by custom forced him into a mating he wouldn’t want.
Of course he wouldn’t want her, other than as a random fuck. They were strangers and nothing more.
But she’d come close to screwing up both their lives. In the future she’d have to be more careful. Her body was primed for mating, and for some strange reason it had chosen Conner as the one.
Ridiculous. Her mate would be her choice, not something conjured up by lupine hormones and the moon. She’d heard that oftentimes a mate was destined, that the one person you know you have to spend the rest of your life with was preordained, and once you met, neither heaven nor hell could stop the mating.
But that was folklore. Her problem was the fact she should have had sex a long time ago and she’d held out. Her body was tired of waiting.
Too bad.
She looked up when she heard the knock at the door, glancing at the clock and frowning. It was one in the morning. Who the hell could it be? Elena had wandered off with Noah, no doubt in the woodland somewhere fucking their brains out.
Her first thought was Conner, but then she dismissed it. Why would he come to her room in the middle of the night? She’d made it clear that what happened between them was a mistake.
“Who is it?” she asked at the door.
“Peter.”
Oh, God. Not now. “It’s late. What do you want?”
“It’s important, Katya. I need to talk to you.”
She jerked open the door, intending to tell him that unless there was some kind of crisis, she wasn’t going to allow him in. “Whatever it is can wait until—”
He pushed his way in and shut the door behind him, his face twisted in rage.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I saw you with him tonight.”
His eyes glowed with anger. Her heart slammed against her chest. “What are you talking about?”