by Mari Freeman
He sat up, easing her back onto a pillow as he did. She curled up on her side, hugging the pillow. “Nell.” He shook his head as she opened her fawn-colored eyes. Her golden curls were a wild mess spread on the white sheets.
She batted her eyelashes to clear the sleep and Trent about lost it. He loved this woman. How could he resist her?
“I can’t.” He spoke the words but his hand drifted to the curve of her breast. He could make out her nipple under the thin t-shirt she wore. He ran his fingers down her side, shooing a couple moths as he went. “I can’t.”
She rolled onto her back, stretching out her legs, stretching her arms over her head, giving him a full view of her body. She reached out her hand. Trent had still been nude from his change when he’d collapsed onto the bed. In hindsight, sleeping with her in his naked state wasn’t the smartest move for a man who needed to keep his distance from this particular temptation. Nell was not a shy wallflower. No. She reached right for his aching cock and wrapped her small fingers around it.
A satisfied smile crossed her lips as she stroked him. Trent thought his head was going to explode. His mind was reeling with years’ worth of fantasies of Nell Ambercroft in his bed. The swing set had been nice, but it had also been unexpected and the sex driven by his wolf. Now she was supple and sweetly willing. He had an opportunity he never thought he’d get. To relax and explore her.
She released his swollen cock and sat up long enough to strip off her shirt before falling back. Her breasts bounced with the movement. They were full but not huge. He ran his hand over her stomach. Her tummy had a lovely swell at the bottom of her abdomen. He loved the curves. All her curves.
He caressed her skin, making his way back up her side and taking the weight of one of her breasts in his hand. Her fingers found their way back to him, cupped his balls and lightly squeezed. Trent closed his eyes and let his head fall back. For a moment he knew he should object, stop this madness. He knew what was going to happen. He would never be able to forget her like this. He’d be driven mad trying to stay away, continually yo-yoing in and out of her life. In the process, he’d drive her mad by his weakness and lack of resolve.
As much as he wanted to be strong enough to walk away, at this moment, with her naked and stroking him, he wasn’t able.
He leaned down and kissed her with all the emotion and expression he could deliver. He probed her hot mouth with his tongue, exploring, taking. She cupped his head, eagerly returning the kiss. He felt her desire and her need. He shifted and pressed his body to hers, wanting to feel as much of his skin touching hers as possible. Using his knee, Trent pushed her legs apart and then wriggled between them. He covered her, could feel her from his lips to his ankles. Her smell, a combination of sage and morning dew, was imprinted in his brain.
He was mated.
He pulled away from her lips and kissed the sides of her face, one cheek at a time. From her cheeks, he brushed his lips over one earlobe, sucking it gently into his mouth, blowing light breaths in her ear. She shivered under him.
Her neck tasted earthy and fresh, her skin clean, no perfumes, no unnatural scents to infiltrate his sensitive sense of smell. It made him want her even more; his cock was about to burst and he’d not even made it to her breasts yet.
“God. Trent.” She pushed on his shoulders to hurry him along.
“Hush. Just feel, baby.” Moths were flitting around overhead, uncertain where to land with his body covering hers. A couple landed on his back and somehow that felt right as well. “Just feel.”
She arched under him, urging with her body. He licked over a collarbone, inching down, touching and teasing her neck as he moved. When he finally reached her breasts, he raised up to look at them. Her nipples were taut from desire, the color of brown sugar. He reached out a pointed tongue and flicked over one hard peak.
He heard her sharp intake of breath and drew that nipple into his mouth. She was writhing. Her hips moving under him were an invitation that was hard to ignore. But he wanted to take his time, to love her body, to give to her this one slow, relaxed experience.
He moved to the other breast, peppered light kisses across the top, brushing her nipple with his lips then rubbing his face over the soft, golden skin. He wanted to drive her to new heights, to push her enough to see a bit of her Demon.
He looked to the bedside table. “Nelly, I can’t believe there are no toys sitting out.”
She glanced to the table and back to him. She looked unsure but her eyes gave away her interest.
“Are they all in the chest?”
She shook her head. “Drawer.”
Trent scooted back up to reach inside the nightstand drawer, his chest even with her face. As he stretched toward the drawer, she licked his nipple. Hesitating, he looked at her just before she bit down. He growled low and closed his eyes. Her lips felt good on his skin. Continuing his quest, he opened the drawer to find two vibrators. He wasn’t exactly inexperienced, but he’d not really used toys in his sexual exploits. He took out a small rubber vibrator. It was clear blue and not much larger than his thumb. It would do the trick.
Resuming his position, he kissed and nibbled each breast again, making sure she was good and bothered. Nell’s body temperature rose. Her breathing increased in pace. And Trent was getting as excited as she was. He moved lower, kissing, licking and blowing cool air across her tummy. Gooseflesh rose in the wake of his attentions. She reached out, grabbing the sheets and arching toward him, urging him lower still.
“I’m getting there. Don’t you worry.” He moved again, down between her legs. She parted them eagerly, looking at him down the length of her body. Her eyes had darkened. Her face was flushed.
“Can I see the Demon, Nell? Can you let that Dragon come partially through? Or do you have to fully change?”
“I can control it most of the time.”
He smiled and cocked an eyebrow. “Most?”
She shrugged. “Halfling.” She raised her hips and rolled them in a sexy, teasing manner. “I could cross the line, fully shift at an unwanted time. But even then it’s not much of a shift compared to yours.”
The thought of Nell shifted and primal made him even more desirous.
She shook her head. “It’s not a sexy state for me though.”
“No?” He pressed a light kiss over her swollen mound.
“Yes. No.” She lifted her hips slightly in invitation to continue, to delve further. “Partial is good. I’m very aware. Once I go into full Demon mode, I’m all instinct. It’s really hard to focus.”
He kissed her again, letting his tongue linger and part her labia before raising his head. “Not good for you when it’s all instinct?”
She whimpered. “Not really. I’m kind of fight-or-flightish. Not sensory like your wolf.”
His wolf would love this. But shifting and sex was not cool. At least not in his mind. There were those who did, but he wanted to feel all this in his human form. The wolf had better night vision and a better sense of smell, but his human skin, his human fingers, were all about touch and feel. Nell Ambercroft had much to touch and feel.
He twisted the little vibrator to start it up. She moaned at the sound of it humming. He touched it to her clit and she spread her legs wider, her scent enveloping him. He kissed her thigh and watched as her sex moistened. She eased her hand down and attempted to touch herself.
“Oh no you don’t. Grab the headboard. Let me play, Nell.”
“Trent. I want to come already. Please.”
He shook his head, letting his lips brush her mound again. “Nope. I want this.” She closed her eyes and let her head fall back. She gripped the rustic iron bars on the headboard.
“Spread for me.” Nell followed his orders. Positioning her legs as wide as she could, opening her treasures for him. He was about to burst. He wanted to lift up and plunge in. He wanted to fuck her right then. But he refrained.
He touched her with the vibrator again, circling her clit and spreading her
wetness. He pressed the vibrator just inside her and then teased her clit with his mouth. She moaned and bucked. He held the toy there, humming away.
“Trent!”
“Can you do it, baby? Can I see your Dragon?” He’d seen hints of it before, the Dragon her father had passed on to her. Her nature. The animal inside that made her more. It was golden and powerful, even if she didn’t have the ability to completely control it.
“If I go too far…”
He moved the vibrator back to her clit, pressing, and she tried to pull away from the intensity. He stayed with her.
Nell let go of the headboard and grasped the sheets. She let her back arch high and let the Dragon show. He saw it first in the lush skin of her inner thighs. Her skin seemed to stretch the smallest bit. Just below the surface, her Demon’s Dragon slithered. It had golden, shimmering scales that pulsed with her Demon magic.
Trent was lost in the exotic, rich feel of that magic. He dropped the vibrator and crawled up her body. Kissing his way up the length of her stomach and chest. Admiring her skin. Her smell had changed from sage and dew to a floral scent mixed with a hint of hot metal.
He captured her mouth with his, kissing her hard. With his hips, he pushed his way inside her. The move wasn’t exactly gentle, but he was on the edge and she was partially shifted. Gentle no longer appealed to him. She opened her eyes and gripped his back, digging nails into his skin. He growled.
She squeezed him as he remained ensconced inside her. He wanted to take just a moment to memorize the feel of her wrapped around his shaft. He was shaking with the effort of not moving.
“Go.” It was little more than a whisper but he followed the command as if she had shrieked it. He pulled out and plunged in again and again. He let himself get lost in the sensations, in the primal bonding that lovemaking could bring.
She made a growling sound of her own and Trent worried that he would push her over the edge to a full shift. He wanted this to be just as good for her. He slowed. “Nell. Baby. Look at me.”
She worked to open her eyes, to focus on him. Bright green irises with a rim of silver and reptilian slits for pupils had replaced her usual light brown eyes. He kissed her. She kissed back as she shifted once more to her human form. She gripped the muscles of his back, pulled away from the kiss. Her body writhed with his every move. Her moans had turned to wanting whimpers. He felt her pussy tighten around his cock.
“Come for me.” He quickened the pace just a tad.
Shit. She was exquisite in this state. Her flushed face was glowing. Her curves sexy and moving with the rhythm of his body. He was going to come first if he wasn’t careful. He leaned in and took a ripe nipple in his lips and bit down gently before sucking it into his mouth.
Nell let out a scream and shoved him as deep as he could go. He felt her explode. He didn’t hold back any longer. He followed her orgasm with his own.
He held her tight. Feeling her body shudder, feeling her heart beat against his chest. Feeling his love for her. How was he going to give her up?
Hot, Hard & Howling
Chapter Seven
She felt his withdrawal long before she felt his body start moving. Nell held her comments as he pulled away. Her first instinct was to shout, yell at him. Insist that she knew better, that she knew he would never hurt her. At least, he’d never hurt her in a physical way. The two of them had been hurting each other for years. He didn’t speak as he slipped into the hall bathroom. She listened as the shower started. Had his father and grandfather really been responsible for their mates’ deaths? Only one person on this side of the mountain would know that bit of information for sure.
Moths resettled after all the commotion of their lovemaking. She inspected one as she lay in the bed. “I have to figure out why you ladies have taken up residence with me. I’m not the best of ecosystems. You must be getting hungry.” She got up and pulled her t-shirt back on and grabbed some shorts. She needed to solve two separate mysteries. Both required the wolf not be hanging around. That was going to be difficult since he was on a mission to protect her from this Crey character.
She stuck her head into the bathroom. She could see his silhouette through the shower curtain. The man was a hottie. His ass was high, tight and round. She wanted to go over and squeeze it. “Can I use your cell?”
“Sure. In my jeans on the back deck.”
Downstairs, she fumbled through his jeans for the phone then brought his clothes inside and dumped them on the table. How to get rid of a determined Werewolf? She dialed her grandmother.
Mi-ma answered on the first ring. “Are you two finished already?”
Nell scrunched her face even though her grandmother couldn’t see it. “Finished? With what?” She didn’t have time to make cute small talk. “I need to talk to you about Trent.” She looked up toward the stairs. “And we need to open this box.”
Nell heard Sonja’s voice in the background but couldn’t make out her words. Mi-ma spoke to Sonja. “That’s what I said. They’re already done.” Was the whole family sitting there waiting to hear about her sex life? “We’ll be there in two shakes of a wolf’s tail.”
“Mi-ma. I need to ask you—” The line went dead. So much for answers while Trent was in the shower. The water shut off. A few minutes later he headed down the stairs.
Nell made her way into the shower and turned the water on as hot as she could stand. She wanted his smell off her. She wanted to think straight. Yes, she wanted him and loved him and needed to understand his history better, but right now her life was at stake and that meant box and murder attempts before hearts and love lives. She’d waited this long for Trent. A few more days weren’t going to kill her. She hoped.
Plotting, she quickly dressed in a tight camisole and loose jeans. She brushed through her hair before twisting it into a knot to hold it out of her face. Having all her hair pulled up gave her a dramatic look. She put on a tiny bit of eye shadow and mascara to complete the image. It wasn’t exactly makeup for going out on the town, but it would work.
He was on the couch thumbing through an old cooking magazine when she got to the bottom of the stairs. His stomach growled. “I’m hungry too.” She went into the kitchen and made a deliberate show of checking the fridge and the pantry. “Nothing here.” She leaned over the bar, letting her crossed arms push her breasts up, giving her more cleavage. “Why don’t you run to Tommy’s and get us a pizza? Pepperoni and black olive.”
He flipped the page. “I’m not leaving, Nell.” He didn’t even look up to see the cleavage.
“We have to eat. I’m starving.”
He closed the magazine and stood. “Then we go together.”
“I have to wait for—”
Mi-ma marched through the front door at that moment with a large tea pitcher in her hand. Sonja and Trina followed behind her like little ducks. Sonja had a big white bag and Trina had two large pizza boxes from Tommy’s.
Of all the times for Sonja’s psychic abilities to be dead-on. She scratched the base of her hairline at the back of her head. Her grandma and sisters started setting out the food, oblivious to Nell’s attempt to rid herself of one wolf.
They ate, her sisters chattering on about the local gossip and news as if nothing were amiss. Trent was back on the couch, listening, rolling his eyes and huffing. Apparently gossip of the local dating scene wasn’t his idea of scintillating conversation.
Nell grabbed him another slice from the box and absentmindedly started pulling off the olives. She caught his eyes on her. She did know her wolf.
It’d been ten years since they’d had pizza together and she remembered he didn’t like black olives. She knew he was allergic to shellfish and that he had a scar on his knuckles from beating up the class bully after he pushed Nell in the hall. She saw those same memories pass through his eyes. She also saw the pain. Did Trent really believe he’d hurt her, possibly even kill her?
Trina poured Nell some more tea. “You remember when I set my back deck
on fire the last time?”
Nell nodded. The poor girl had a fire or two a month. She’d sneeze and the curtains would light up like sparklers.
Trina continued. “That Linda Newcomb, she came rushing over as soon as the fire truck got there.”
Sonja huffed out a laugh. Nell just listened, silently encouraging Trina to keep talking, knowing full well gossip drove Trent out of his mind.
“She practically stripped for Howard Henderson. He had burned his hand but it was no worse than a sunburn, really. Well, Linda basically ripped off her shirt to wrap it up. As if no one knows they’re as fake as that bowl of fruit on Mi-ma’s kitchen table.”
Nell glanced over to see Trent drop the magazine and head to the front door.
Well…outside was better than nothing.
* * * * *
The basement had been nothing more than storage for years, but her father must have spent some time down here. Behind one of the racks stacked with boxes and tomes, she found an old glass lamp. She pulled the table nearer to an outlet and plugged in the lamp, the glow in the room now much more pleasant and golden. She let out a small huff of relief and triumph.
The moths were still attracted to the destroyed box and to Nell’s skin. Mi-ma came down with a fresh drink. Trina followed. “Pizza’s put away.” Both women sat at the table.
Sonja came down shortly thereafter. “So what is it with the moths?”
Trina urged one of the moths onto her hand. “They’re huge, aren’t they?”
“They’re also starting to get on my nerves.” Nell pulled her laptop out of her backpack and set it next to the lamp. She plugged in a wireless access card and waited for a signal. “I need a little more info about these ladies.”
“You can get internet with that thing here?” Mi-ma asked.
“Yep. I can connect to any mobile phone signal in the area. It can be a little slow way out here, but it works.” She typed in a search for the moths. “Came in handy when I was traveling so much.”