by RJ Blain
In the years I had known Andrea, I’d never seen her wear anything other than business attire, and her choice of a worn t-shirt and faded pair of jeans made me conscious of the fact I could show up in court and do my job as long as I could find a suit jacket.
I sighed and buttoned my shirt.
“You’ve been a wolf too long,” Andrea informed me, closing the distance between us. “It’s crooked.”
“I’m going to just blame my headache for this,” I replied, unbuttoning my shirt and hoping I’d get it right without embarrassing myself further. Before I could try again, Andrea batted my hands away.
I froze as she ran her hands across my chest, straightening the silk to her satisfaction before working on the second button from the top. Brushing my shirt smooth again before reaching for the next button was unnecessary, but I enjoyed her attention almost as much as my spirit beasts did.
Andrea laughed. She ran her hands up my chest to touch my throat with her fingertips. “You’re purring.”
I hadn’t realized I was until she mentioned it. The heat in my scent had likely already betrayed my state of mind, although she didn’t seem bothered by my desire for her. The feel of her skin against mine made me shiver, and I flexed my hands, tempted to touch her to discover how much she liked it.
“You need a shave.”
I grunted my agreement. “Shower, too.”
“You’d drown if you took one right now, Sean. I’ll make you some coffee, and we’ll play the rest by ear.”
I drew in a deep breath, my nose flaring to catch Andrea’s scent.
Her state of mind, apparently, wasn’t much different from my own.
“Coffee can wait,” I growled through clenched teeth. There was a lot I didn’t know about my new circumstances, but I remembered my fury over anyone other than me touching Andrea when she had been a wolf. I hadn’t known who she was then, but her scent was branded in my memories, and I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
I needed to take her and make her mine, and my willingness to resist putting my hands on her evaporated with her touch. My breathing hitched, and drawing on my cheetah’s speed, I wrapped my arms around her slender waist and yanked her to me.
Too many nights I had dreamed of Andrea, wanting to kiss away her scowls and listen to her breathless cries. My mouth covered hers, and she kissed me back, weaving her fingers into my hair so I couldn’t escape her.
I kissed her until I was dizzy from the lack of air and the pounding in my skull crested until my ears rang. I slumped against her, resting my head on her shoulder while I fought to catch my breath. Every time I saw her, her delicate physique brought out my instinct to protect her and roused my desire to make her smile.
Her hands slid out of my hair and wrapped around me, pulling me close until she supported most of my weight. “You’re shaking.”
Closing my eyes, I focused on drawing slow, deep breaths. “I feel terrible.”
“Ritual sickness,” Andrea murmured, and she tilted her head to kiss my cheek. Her lips were warm on my chilled skin. “You’ve been a wolf too long.”
I turned so I could press my nose to her throat and breathe in her scent. The alluring aroma of her arousal lingered, stirring my spirit beasts despite my throbbing head. Once I felt even a little better, I’d resume where I had left off, but instead of just kissing her lips, I’d leave no part of her untouched.
I wanted her, and I wanted her to know it.
Her throat was soft and warm beneath my mouth, and I teased her with the tip of my tongue. Andrea arched against me as a strangled cry escaped her lips. The heat in her scent strengthened and a shudder ran through her. My eyes widened at her reaction, and I froze, listening to the hitching of her breath and her quiet gasps.
Her small hands fluttered and tangled in my shirt, and a single press of my body against hers sent her sprawling onto the bed. I went with her, one knee bracing my weight while I leaned over her, my mouth still pressed to her throat.
There were so many things I wanted to do with her, and the way she melted beneath me, her breaths coming in short uneven bursts, drove me to explore her throat with gentle kisses. Each time my mouth touched her, she made a soft, mewling cry.
Andrea tilted her head back, her lips parted and her eyes closed. She squirmed beneath me, and her hands clutched at me. Emboldened by her reaction, I seized her wrists and pinned her arms over her head without removing my mouth from where I kissed the side of her throat.
My light and tentative touches made her writhe beneath me, and when Andrea whimpered my name, I shivered. I needed to take her and make her mine, and I battled the throbbing in my skull. I adjusted my hold on Andrea’s wrists, pinning her with one hand so I could trail the tips of my fingers along her cheek.
When my hand reached the other side of her throat, I drew circles on her skin. She gasped my name again, a stronger shudder coursing through her.
Idette touching my neck repulsed me, but my breath caught in my throat at the thought of Andrea’s lips playing against my skin while her breath tickled me. The sound I made was a mixture of a growl and a purr.
I drummed my fingers against her neck, and her entire body jerked and twitched at my touch. Unable to resist the lure of her squirming on the bed beneath me, I covered her body with mine.
I wanted her, I needed her, and headache be damned, I would have her. I growled, let go of her wrists and shunted her farther up the bed. I stalked after her, kissing and nibbling my way up to her lips. Taking hold of her hips, I rolled until she was on top of me.
When I finally broke our kiss, I tangled my fingers in her hair, applying pressure until she tilted her head for me and exposed her throat once more. I began with a gentle kiss before I gently scraped my teeth against her skin.
Releasing her, I tilted my head back, exposed my throat, and let her do with me as she desired.
Fenerec women, I decided, had a rough, wild side to them, and while Idette’s behavior repulsed me, Andrea’s growling and liberal application of teeth drove me to the edge until I was as desperate for more as she was.
At the rate we were going, I was going to die a very happy man before either one of us managed to leave the bedroom.
I was disappointed to learn, however, that taking a beautiful woman to bed didn’t actually cure headaches. If anything, as soon as the euphoria of being with Andrea wore off, the pain returned worse than before my desire had gotten the better of me.
Andrea wiggled beneath me and pressed her lips to the side of my throat. Instead of the burning lust her earlier nips had ignited, the tension flowed out of my muscles until all my weight rested on her.
She didn’t seem to mind, wrapping her arms around me and stroking her fingers down the length of my spine. “We got a little carried away, didn’t we?” she murmured.
I cracked open an eye and glanced in the direction of the alarm clock. Without my glasses, I was too far away to make out more than a blue smudge of light. “It’s blurry o’clock,” I replied, closing my eyes and deciding it no longer mattered. “If you have any mercy in that beautiful body of yours, put me out of my misery.”
“Coffee comes with painkillers. We’ll hope they help,” she replied, squirming in her effort to get out from under me. “You need to let me up, Sean.”
“I like you where I have you.”
“You’re sweet, but you’re getting up, even if I have to drag you out of bed. At this rate, Ramirez and O’Mallory are going to come in here to make sure I haven’t killed you.”
“You can if you want, I won’t complain. I can die a happy man now,” I reassured her.
Andrea nipped my neck in rebuke, and I yelped at the shock lancing down my spine all the way to my toes. “You will not,” she snarled, her teeth still pressed against my throat.
While she didn’t look strong, she rolled us both over and untangled herself from me, snapping her teeth at my throat again in warning. I flinched, and she sucked in a breath, her eyes widening so much t
he whites showed all the way around. “Fuck, Sean. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have, I…”
Andrea wasn’t Idette, but once I started trembling, I couldn’t stop. It took several long, deep inhales before I could force myself to relax beneath her. Andrea rubbed my throat where she had bitten me; the brisk, firm touch alleviated the sting.
When I could keep my voice even and calm, I said, “You have very potent teeth, woman. Very versatile. You have a good bite and a bad bite. I like the good bite. Do more of that one. Right now, if you want. I’m game.”
She stared at me for a long moment before she relaxed and sighed. “I think you’ve had enough for now. Maybe after dinner, if you’re really, really nice to me.”
“Are you volunteering to be dessert?”
“It hasn’t even been ten minutes.” Andrea laughed and kissed my forehead. “I underestimated you, it seems. And here I was worried you had no interest in me.”
Snorting, I worked my elbows beneath me and lurched upright. “I have a difficult time believing that, now that I have an idea of just how sensitive your nose is, Miss Morgan.”
She blushed. “You were thinking about me?”
“I thought it was rather obvious,” I muttered, reaching for my shirt. It was obvious its days as a shirt were over; buttons were missing and there was a rip across the front. “You’re vicious, and I think I like it.”
“You were really thinking about me? In the courthouse?”
I liked her smile, but the way her face turned pink also appealed, and unable to resist, I brushed the back of my hand against her cheek. “You, Miss Morgan, put me in an awkward position each and every time you walked into the room. If your intent was to drive me absolutely crazy, you succeeded. You have no idea how many men I’ve wanted to take out back and punch for making you smile when I couldn’t.” I huffed, turning my attention back to my shirt. “Please tell me my pants fared better than my shirt.”
Andrea’s cheeks brightened to a cherry red. “I got a little excited.”
I covered my mouth with my hand so I wouldn’t laugh. “I don’t mind.”
“I was scowling because I wanted to take you out back and have my way with you and couldn’t.”
Her declaration stole my breath, and for a long moment, all I could do was stare at her, my mouth open and my head blank of coherent thought. Avoiding Idette’s wrath had consumed so much of my energy I hadn’t noticed Andrea’s true feelings.
What would have been different if I had known Andrea had wanted me all along?
It probably would have been a lot easier to file the damned divorce papers. Idette’s stranglehold on my life would have been easier to escape with help, although it shamed me to admit it.
Judge O’Mallory had made the ultimate difference, helping me take the first real step to freedom.
Idette, however, had been the one to break the chains binding me. Maybe her actions had forced my wolf to bond with me, but with both of my spirit beasts in my head supporting me, I could choose for myself what—and who—I wanted.
Andrea was all I had imagined and so much more. My spirit beasts were content, as was I.
I inhaled, held my breath, and waited until my lungs burned before sighing. “When my head no longer feels like it’s going to split in half, I propose we make up for lost time. If you want to take me out back and have your way with me, I won’t resist.”
“I’ll take you up on that offer,” Andrea warned, narrowing her eyes at me as she looked me over head to toe. I liked the way she smiled. “Surely you have some things you have in mind, too, Mr. Scott?”
I had a lot of things in mind, and only some of them involved taking Andrea to bed with me. Above all, now that I had her, I had to keep her safe, no matter what.
I’d been with Idette long enough to know my soon-to-be ex-wife wouldn’t give up without a fight.
Andrea brought me a new shirt and pair of pants, both of which had her scent all over them. I didn’t mind in the slightest, but I wondered about it, deciding I would ask her after the pain in my head subsided.
While I could have dressed myself, Andrea hovered and made whining noises as I buttoned my shirt. I held my hands up in surrender. “I would have gotten it right this time.”
Narrowing her eyes at me, she huffed and went to work, and I had the feeling she didn’t care about my shirt as much as she cared about being as close to me as possible. The heat in her scent had eased, replaced by the sweeter scent of her contentment.
“Mine,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
“I have no complaints. I will, however, insist you allow me to wine and dine you appropriately.” I lifted my chin so she could fiddle with my collar. “I like this shirt, so if you want me out of it, let me unbutton it first, okay?”
Andrea blushed.
Unable to resist, I wrapped my arms around her and ducked my head so I could rest my forehead on her shoulder, breathing in her scent. There was something wrong with me, because when I touched her, my carefully laid defenses disintegrated.
I needed her to know my fears so I could protect her—and so she could protect herself, too.
“Every time we faced off in court, I was terrified Idette would find out about you,” I confessed in a hoarse whisper. After repressing them for so long, the words came out in a rush, and the anxiety I had lived with for so many years boiled to the surface. “She hated when another woman came anywhere near me. It didn’t matter who or why. I always worried she would know and lash out at someone other than me.”
“I smelled your blood in the courthouse during the trial,” Andrea said, her voice as soft as mine. “It was from her, wasn’t it? You often had a light scent of blood on you, but I never saw anything, so I wondered if I was imagining things.”
“My shoulder.”
“What?”
“She liked to bite. That time, she had gotten my shoulder. That’s what you were smelling. If I didn’t do what she liked, the first thing she’d do was take a chunk out of me.”
“You’re serious. She bit you like that all the time? I thought you flinched because she had gone for your throat during the ritual.”
I snorted. “What you did surprised me but was nothing like what she did. She drew blood each and every time. I was fortunate she decided on my shoulder instead of my neck during the trial. It’s damned hard to hide the type of bruises she’d leave when she was done with me.”
Andrea tensed and clutched my arms, her fingers flexing and digging into my skin. “I’m amazed you’re telling me this.”
An attorney who couldn’t handle the truth and speak with confidence despite the fear didn’t last long—or give clients the strength and courage to brave the witness stand. I sighed, wondering if my secret shame had been part of what made me excel at helping women and men endure the rigors of trial to get justice for the crimes committed against them.
I understood them far too well.
“You need to know. When she realizes you’re the reason she couldn’t have what she wanted, I don’t know what she’ll do.”
“She still wants you. I could smell it on her when she was dragging you off. I should have killed her then,” Andrea snarled. “I wish I could have, but I wasn’t going to leave you, not with you like that. She had mauled you.”
Idette had, and my body still ached from being thrown into the tree. All things considered, I was amazed my leg continued to support my weight.
“If I had gone for her instead of Douglass Roberts, a lot of things would be different right now,” I grumbled, turning my head so I could nuzzle Andrea’s throat. She made a contented noise and her grip on me relaxed.
“You left to get rid of her, didn’t you? I thought it was because of me.”
I winced. “At first, I needed to hunt. Then I couldn’t think clearly. All I knew was that I had to get rid of her. She was in the way.”
“Of what?”
Something about Andrea’s scent lulled me, and I relaxed against her until she suppor
ted most of my weight. She tightened her hold on me, and I closed my eyes. “I wanted you, and she was in the way,” I mumbled.
“We’ll deal with her. You’re mine now, and I’m not going to let her take you from me.”
I believed her.
Chapter Seventeen
“Mr. Sean Dale Scott, you have a lot of explaining to do,” Ramirez snarled the instant I followed Andrea out of the bedroom. The police captain sat at the kitchen island, leaning back to glare in my direction. She hopped off her stool, stalking forward with murder in her eyes.
Andrea squeaked, bumping into me in her haste to retreat. Slipping my arm around her waist, I pulled her to my side. “You’re too pretty to kill,” I stated, working my way behind her.
Ramirez came to a halt and crossed her arms over her chest. “She is, but that’s not going to save you. Just what did you think you were doing?”
The undisguised anger in the woman’s voice and expression disturbed me. Idette at her worst had the same sharpness of tone and stiff bearing, and I’d seen Captain Ramirez in action.
If she got a hold of me, she’d flatten me, and we both knew it.
“Mrs. Scott thought she’d get her way by biting him.” Andrea stood her ground while I fought my instinct to make a very hasty exit. Before I could back away, Andrea grabbed my wrists and pulled me closer to her, wrapping my arms around her stomach.
I ducked my head, pressed my nose to the side of her throat, and breathed in her scent until the impulse to escape faded.
Ramirez moved within arm’s length of us and sighed. “That explains a lot. How bad?”
“She liked making him bleed,” Andrea growled, and her rage added a bitter heat to the sweetness of her cinnamon. Purring for her sake as much as mine, I rested my chin on her shoulder and watched the police captain.
“You weren’t kidding about the purring were you, Andrea? Relax, Sean,” Ramirez ordered. “While I should kick your ass into next week, I’ll wait. It’s no fun throwing you on the mat if you’re not able to fight back.”