“And I know what I want.” She didn’t want to fight the pull between them, not anymore. She wanted to explore the desire he’d awakened. Wanted to seize the moment before it was too late.
In a moment of boldness, she drew a single finger across the tip of his penis and down the faint ridge of the underside of his shaft. He shuddered, eyes half closing.
Encouraged, she wrapped her hand around as much of him as she could, squeezing gently and leisurely stroking up and down his length, stopping only to gather moisture from his arousal to smooth the glide.
“You’re killing me,” he whispered raggedly.
His vulnerability shot a feeling of feminine power through her veins. She sank to her knees and ran her tongue across his slit. His taste surprised her—warm, slightly salty and deliciously male. Sucking the mushroom tip into her mouth, she stroked the length of his shaft.
Twining his fingers in her hair, he lifted his hips ever so slightly in soft thrusts. Groans of pleasure fell from his parted lips and fed her arousal. The deeper and more guttural the sounds he made, the wetter she became.
“Enough!” he growled.
The force of his command sent a shiver down her spine. Wondering if she’d done something wrong, she looked up. The feral hunger in his eyes wiped away her fear.
He lifted her to her feet, hauled her against his body and claimed her mouth. Hard, hot and huge, his erection dug into her abdomen, an insistent distraction. All she could focus on was how it would feel thrusting inside her.
Brice’s hands disappeared beneath the baseball jersey he’d given her to wear to bed. He touched his way up her stomach with possessive urgency. His long, nimble fingers imprinted trails of heat along her ribs, shortening her breaths. Instead of moving upward to her breasts, his palms slid to her back, rubbing small circles in the muscles along her spine, pressing her so tightly against him that she felt as if their bodies would merge.
Her nipples tightened into points so sensitive every rub and scratch of her shirt reverberated in her sex. Heat smoldered in her pelvis. Her body felt uncomfortably hot. She wanted to peel out of her clothes and feel Brice’s slick skin against her bare body.
As if reading her mind, Brice whipped the nightshirt over her head and dropped it on the ground. He leaned back, staring, as if memorizing every line, every curve, every imperfection.
“God, you’re beautiful.”
She heard sincere desperation in his hoarse voice.
He traced along the curve of her breasts, over the fleshy peaks, and strummed her nipples, pulling something between a groan of pleasure and primal yowl from her throat. His own growl answered—fierce, possessive, demanding.
His hands dropped to her ass, kneading the globes in a slow grind instead of the place she really wanted him to stroke. He lowered his face, dotting kisses in the valley between her breasts. His stubbled cheeks brushed against the tender sides. He licked her taut nipple before sucking the peak in his warm, delicious mouth. An electric heat zipped through Cassie’s body, buzzing her head to toe with a crescendoing thrill converging on her sex.
Gasping, she anchored her fingers in the dark waves of Brice’s hair and pressed her hips into him, craving the feel of his body, his strength, his very essence.
His hands took on an urgency, palming a path from her midriff down her belly. He cupped her mound and, through the damp cotton panties, teased her folds. Tension coiled in her body, drawing in every muscle almost to the point of pain.
“I want you. So much it hurts. But if this isn’t what you want, tell me now.” Pure desperation and restraint rasped his voice. “Once I taste you, there’s no turning back.”
How many times had he told her that she was his?
Right now, she was. Utterly and completely.
“I want you, Brice. More than anything. Right here. Right now.”
The triumphant curl of his smile sent a flutter of caution through Cassie’s mind. “Promise me one thing.” She stroked the scratchy stubble along his jaw.
“Anything.” Holding her hand against his cheek, he kissed her palm.
“No biting.”
Brice flinched, and his breathing faltered. Cassie hated the hurt she sensed. He believed her to be his true mate. However, she wouldn’t trust their futures to a misguided fantasy. One day, he’d thank her for keeping him from making the biggest mistake of their lives. His bite would not only bind them together in an unbreakable union but also create a very big risk for an unplanned pregnancy.
Gazing upward, Brice seemed to search the heavens for something. Patience, perhaps. Or maybe he was simply contemplating if Cassie was worth all the aggravation.
“I promise. No biting.” His thumb traced the bow of her lip. “Tonight.”
“Thank you.” She stretched her neck as Brice nuzzled and kissed his favorite spot behind her ear. He was a man of his word, so she let go of any fears of becoming pregnant and repeating her mother’s life.
Instead, Cassie gave herself to the sensation of soft, hot kisses at the hollow of her throat and the delicate tease of Brice’s fingers along her upper thighs and pelvis. Her body shuddered, alert to every sweep of his hand and lick of his tongue.
Expectancy charged the night air. She could almost hear the crackle.
He knelt before her and kissed her stomach, then pressed his face against her skin and breathed in her scent. He moved his nose lower and lower until he reached her mound.
The anticipation was nearly unbearable. Every touch, every kiss, every time he breathed against her skin, sizzling currents of need and want shocked her core. Her sex clenched in a maddening frenzy to be filled.
“Brice,” she whimpered, embarrassed to be so wantonly needy.
Hooking his thumbs inside the waistband of her panties, he inched them down her legs until she wished he’d rip the damn things off. She’d never felt so aware of her body. It was as if Brice had flayed her skin, laid bare her nerves and plugged them into a light socket. By the time she stepped out of her panties, she was panting.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
“Pleasuring you.” His tongue slid along her folds and her body melted. Brice’s hands clasped her ass, steadying her while his mouth devoured her sex.
Cassie shivered. An indescribable pressure rose inside her core. Her hips rocked in a rhythmic dance to match Brice’s lavish licks along her sex with maddening precision.
Cassie knotted her fingers in his hair. More, she wanted—needed—more.
“Oh, God,” she gasped as his warm, wet tongue speared inside her. The undulations of pleasure he unleashed were so strong, so intense, so incredibly primal that she cried out in an unintelligible language.
She closed her eyes, giving in to the excruciating bliss. The orgasmic force shattered every cell in her body. It must have, because her entire being came undone. If not for Brice’s strong arms and muscular body anchoring her, she would’ve simply drifted into oblivion.
“You okay, Sunshine?” Brice swept damp tendrils from her face.
“Mmm,” was all Cassie could mumble. Beyond delighted, her entire body whirred.
Brice stood, his hands still supporting her unsteady legs. “You are amazing.”
“So are you.” She laved her tongue over the scars at the base of his neck and moved up and over his chin to capture his lips. He tasted of salt, raw masculinity and her.
The control he’d shown moments before evaporated. His hands, his mouth, his rock-hard body crushed her against the boulder. Possessive. Demanding. Needful.
Invigorated by his touch, she felt heat course through her again.
Lifting her leg against his hip, Brice thrust inside her. Pain ripped through her sex. Cassie cried out, digging her nails into his back as her whole body tensed.
Brice stilled. His expression darkened to
confusion and then...regret?
He started to pull away.
“Don’t.” The sultriness of her voice came from a dormant place he’d awakened. “I want this.” She clasped his face in her hands. “I want this with you.”
He didn’t look convinced. “Cas, you should’ve told me this was your first time.”
“Why does it matter?”
“I would’ve done this right. Champagne. Candles. Rose petals scattered across a nice, soft bed.”
“I don’t drink, so the champagne would be wasted.” She laced her fingers behind his neck and wrapped one leg and then the other around his waist, using the boulder at her back as leverage. “I wouldn’t want to stain the sheets, so I would’ve vacuumed the rose petals from the bed. And candles can’t compare to the moon and stars above us.” She nipped his lower lip. “I can’t imagine a more perfect time or place than right here, right now. With you.”
Brice smiled that heart-stopping, soul-tingling smile and kissed her. Slowly, deeply until she was lost in the sensation of his mouth, his skin, his very presence.
When he moved, the rhythm was slow, unhurried. She arched to welcome each thrust, clenching to hold him deep inside.
Cassie had read about how the experience would feel. Even Imogene had explained the mechanics of intercourse.
Despite all that, Cassie wasn’t prepared for the rush of emotion. To experience Brice so profoundly, she could only describe the sensation as a union of their essences. Sharing breaths, sharing bodies, sharing souls.
Soon a sinful pressure built inside her at the crux where they joined. He thrust harder, faster, deeper, lost in the moment.
She was lost, too. Lost in the strength and passion of this man, pouring his all into her, bringing her to the highest pinnacle of ecstasy until she splintered. In that rapturous moment, Brice slipped further inside Cassie’s heart. To the most tender, most vulnerable, most untouched part. And opened her to the very thing that would break her.
Love.
Imogene had warned her to stay away from him. In fact, when Cassie had told her about finding Brice’s hospital room, her mother had insisted that Cassie keep away from all men or suffer her fate. Cassie knew good advice when she heard it, but Brice made her mother’s wisdom difficult to heed.
Eyes hooded, he stilled. Cassie simply stared, knowing that no man would touch her as deeply or completely as Brice Walker.
Bold assertions for a freshly deflowered virgin. Yet she knew it to be true because she would never give her heart to another man. It had foolishly bared its fragility to the one whose ultimate rejection would smash it into irreparable pieces. If she allowed it.
She wouldn’t wallow in self-pity, though. She would be grateful for what they shared.
Brice rubbed his nose against her cheek. “No regrets?”
“Absolutely none,” she said, pulling herself back into the moment of experiencing something spectacular. “How could I regret making love for the first time, with you, under the stars, next to this beautiful river? It was all so natural. Nothing orchestrated. Nothing fancy. Just simple and—”
“Fucking amazing.” The excited hitch in his breathing and his wide-eyed delight said Brice didn’t have any regrets, either.
Yet.
Chapter 33
Brice had known human desire. Knew the wolfan lust a full moon provoked. But he didn’t know this—a want so sharp it stabbed his heart. An excruciating need to fill and be filled that wrenched his soul.
He smiled at the soft streams of sunlight streaked across the face of his sleeping beauty. Coppery eyelashes dusted her delicate cheeks. Masses of curls sprawled over the pillow, and her small hand lay tucked beneath her chin.
All night he’d fought the urge to claim her during each exquisite coupling. Never had he wanted a woman so intensely, so frequently, that he sought the experience again and again and again until they fell into an exhausted sleep.
Cassie had responded to his every touch and at the precipice of each orgasmic triumph, her soul beckoned his. Still, he’d held back claiming her because she opened herself to him only sexually. She wasn’t ready for a mateship. Her will was too ingrained to trust her heart to him.
He’d taken all that she had offered and was grateful.
Last night, he’d teetered on the edge of giving up. This morning, he was thankful not to have had the opportunity to do so.
Cassie’s eyelids fluttered open on a sigh.
Brice’s face ached from the broad smile he proudly wore when she looked at him.
“Morning, Sunshine.” The musky scent from their night of coupling filled his lungs, filtered through his body and nestled deep in his core.
She didn’t turn away from him embarrassed or scurry from the bed. Instead, she returned his smile and his greeting with a husky, “Morning.”
Her skin glowed and his ego grew, knowing he had pleased her well. He looked forward to repeating the performance once they made it through today.
“What time is it?” Cassie yawned.
“Time to get dressed.” The past few days he’d avoided dwelling on his grandmother’s death. Now the inevitableness of his final goodbyes had come.
“You’ll get through this.” Cassie slid her arms around his neck.
Their bodies melded in a tender embrace. Though tapped out and fully sated, he tingled from the contact. He loved the feel of her against him. She was soft and delicate, while he was hard and scarred.
He nipped her ear, smelling his scent on her skin.
Mine!
“I’ll jump in the shower first.” She nudged him.
“We could shower together.”
“Not a good idea.” She kissed his cheek, and Brice allowed her to roll out of his arms.
Cassie pulled on his baseball jersey.
“I’ve seen you naked,” he teased.
“I’m not as accustomed to prancing around in the nude as you are.”
“You can practice. I won’t complain.” Propping on his elbows, Brice waggled his eyebrows.
“Next time.” Her eyes didn’t smile when she did.
Brice felt a pinch in his chest. “Cas?” he called out as she strode down the hallway. “Is something wrong?”
“Just a little sad,” she answered, closing the bathroom door.
Brice pulled on cutoff sweats, more out of recent habit than anything else, and padded barefoot into the kitchen. The coffee in the carafe of the automatic maker had grown tepid, so he warmed it in the microwave and considered making breakfast. However, if Cassie’s dread of the coming task was similar to his, neither could stomach eating.
The red blinking light on the answering machine caught his attention. Brice’s finger hovered over the Play button. The message probably wasn’t for him. Anyone needing to reach him would call his cell.
If the message was for Cassie, Brice didn’t want to pry, though he did wonder who had called. She claimed not to have friends. Yet Hannah had expressed concern for her, and Shane had nearly challenged him over her well-being.
Jealousy ruffled Brice’s mettle. How close was Cassie to the pack outsider? Did Shane want something more? Had Brice’s sudden appearance interrupted something between them?
Brice rolled his shoulders. Cassie was his mate. Not Shane’s or anyone else’s.
Of course, Brice could just play the message. What would be the harm in that?
The pad of his index finger rested on the silver button.
Embarking on a committed relationship meant showing Cassie respect. He didn’t need to manage every little detail of her life. She wouldn’t appreciate his interference and frankly, he didn’t want that kind of mateship. He wanted one built on trust.
* * *
Careful to avoid the guilty disapproval of her
reflection, Cassie dried her hair. She ached for more than one night of Brice’s lovemaking, and if she wasn’t careful, she just might lull herself into believing it was possible.
But one more night would lead to another. And another and another until she forgot that Brice wasn’t her Prince Charming. Then, when his real princess appeared, he’d turn Cassie out without any further consideration.
Still, she was thankful Brice hadn’t heard the message her new roommates had left. While he showered, Cassie called them back. So excited about meeting her, Cassie’s roommates wanted her to come today. After explaining that she had a prior commitment, Cassie agreed to move in tomorrow.
In the morning, she’d explain to Brice her plans to finish the semester in campus housing. He wouldn’t be happy, but it was for the best.
Taking a deep breath for courage, she viewed her reflection long enough to apply face powder and lip gloss. She grimaced at the bruises on her neck. Instead of miraculously fading, like she’d prayed, they’d turned darker and uglier. She dusted a light coat of powder over them. Unfortunately, the makeup failed as an effective camouflage.
In the midst of yesterday’s turmoil, she’d forgotten to wash the dirty, sweaty, faded scarf. In its present condition, that scrap would be more noticeable than the bruises, and Cassie didn’t want to attract unwanted attention at Margaret’s memorial. Maybe if she sat in the back, no one would notice her or the hideous marks.
Brice strode into the bedroom, wearing a towel around his hips and a serious frown on his face.
“You know—” she pointed at his groin “—I’ve seen you naked.”
That brought a flicker of life to his lips. His unhurried gaze traveled over her. One brow shot up. “You’re wearing that?”
“Something wrong with my dress?” Cassie pulled at the fabric, checking for stains or holes she might have missed.
Brice’s puzzled expression was almost comical. “It’s yellow. Don’t people wear black to a funeral?”
“Margaret loved bright, happy colors.” Cassie smoothed the waist of her simple summer dress. “I’m wearing this for her.”
“You’re amazing, Sunshine.” Brice hugged her, and Cassie smelled her cherry-scented body wash on his skin.
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