by Dunbar, Natalie; Glass, Seressia; Jeffries, J. M. ; Banks, L. A.
Jarred took another step closer. He was only a half-inch away from her. “More than anything.”
She tiled her head at him. “Have you ever been with a wolf?”
“I never wanted to be with one before.” He pushed a strand of hair off her cheek, answering her with a silky smile. The tip of his finger left a trail of fire on her cheek.
Solange’s knees buckled. She turned her head to avoid seeing the stark desire burning in his black eyes. A bit of common senses finally raised its ugly head. This could be dangerous. “We shouldn’t be doing this,” she murmured through a haze of desire. We don’t know each other.” Heat spiraled out of control from the core of her soul outward to each nerve in her body.
“You’re not getting away from me now.” He smiled. “I think we know each other just fine.” He ran his finger along the ridge of her chin and down her throat.
Her body trembled, and the intensity of her emotions frightened her. “This might be a mistake.”
“Maybe, but we’ll never know until we do. I’m willing to find out.” He kissed her neck, licked her.
Solange felt the tip of his hot tongue against her skin. She dug her nails into her palms to stop herself from reaching out, but she knew the battle had been lost a long time ago.
“The only mistake is not letting our attraction play itself out.” He nibbled the spot where her shoulder connected with her neck.
A shuddering sound escaped her lips. Heat danced up her spine. She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could mark his seduction up to one of her flights of fantasy. But Jarred was flesh and blood real, not one of her nocturnal musings. He was so different from the males in her pack. He never looked at her with pity.
“Tell me you don’t want me.” He licked her lips, pressing hard against her.
“I don’t think I can.” Once started, she couldn’t stop. Not now.
“This is how much I want you.” Jarred guided her hand to the bulge in his pants, and then pressed her hand to his erection.
He felt so powerful and ready. She took in a quick breath, hoping some witty comeback would spill from her mouth, shattering the mood. But her trusty brain failed her. Probably because the old girl was in cahoots with her heart. She wanted him. She wanted him in a way she had never wanted any of the males in her pack. She was lost.
Jarred slid his hand over the exposed skin of her stomach. Her crop top and skirt gave him easy access to her body. His warm hand teased her flesh and eased upward beneath the crop top. Her belly quivered under his touch. Deep down inside, the beast growled and curled around, demanding to be released. A howl built in her throat, but she forced it back. She didn’t want to scare him, to send him fleeing from her. She curled her hands in his hair.
Taut skin stretched over his cheekbones, and his eyes radiated passion. Her heart demanded she give herself to him without reservation. She would deal with the wreckage in the harsh light of day. Tonight they belonged to desire.
Jarred held his breath waiting for Solange to push him away, to deny him, but the words never came. This is insane, he thought. He should take himself out of this place and run for all he was worth.
The velvet texture of her skin consumed him. He eased his fingers up her stomach, until the tip of his finger connected with the curve of her breast. He moved with deliberate slowness, enjoying the touch of her skin, the hardness of her nipples. Her head lolled back against the door, and her eyes closed. For a moment her face seemed to phase into something else, then returned to normal. He buried his face in her hair. She wasn’t going to send him away. Her body was responding and eager to complete what they started. His whole body trembled from the sensual overload.
She leaned toward him, and he fondled the sweet fullness of her breast. Her nipples beaded with anticipation.
Jarred drew in a harsh breath. Her lips had parted, revealing the tip of her pink tongue as she moistened her lips. He kissed her, drinking deep of the honeyed sweetness of her mouth. She responded in kind, her tongue touching his.
“Come on, Solange,” he whispered hoarsely, “tell me you want me as much as I want you.”
She fit her body closer to him, molding to him. “I didn’t run, did I?”
“No, you didn’t.” He laughed and slipped his hands around her waist. He raised her shirt over her head, tossing it aside to gaze in wonder at her breasts. They were lush and beautiful. High, firm, and round, they were his ideas of perfection. He stroked her rosy nipples with the pads of his thumbs.
How had such a fiery, seductive woman managed to make a place in life as though she had never been? She was everything he never knew he wanted until she had showed up on his doorstep.
He kissed her and ran his tongue down her neck to the tops of her breasts, to her nipples and back to her mouth. She tasted sweet, like fruit and spring rain.
“Jarred,” she moaned. “I want you so much.”
“I want you.” His heart pounded. Blood pulsed through his veins. He ached to possess her.
Solange writhed under his touch. A soft moan escaped as the weight of his pelvis ground ribbons of pleasure into hers. Her knee to slide up his leg, the material of his pants a rough caress on her skin. Breathless, she began opening his shirt as her fingers gently stroked each button. After a moment she become emboldened enough to transfer the delicate caress to his heated skin. Her fingers grazed the smooth planes of his chest and she felt his stomach clench against her torso. Each hard muscle she touched contracted beneath her feather light attention. Jarred’s breath hitch as she trailed her mouth down his chest gently biting one nipple.
Heat engulfed him, along with a level of possessive desire he didn’t know he owned. Insanity. He wanted more than her body, wanted her surrender. He wanted her every part of her body and her soul. He needed to excise Malcolm Temple from her memory. Jarred arched. His skin was on fire. “Solange.” His voice became garbled, strangled by a moan. Her graceful fingers had freed his pants buttons; her pulsing grasp forced another moan from him as he closed his eyes.
“Tell me what you want, Jarred?” she murmured.
“I want… I want…” His brain shut down. He couldn’t think, only react. Each touch of her fingers sent shock waves through him and his knees buckled. He allowed a crushing kiss to become his answer. The bed was so far away. “You.” He’d been reduced to one word responses. He’d never been with a woman like this, not one with such roiling passion beneath her calm surface. Her skin, the satiny feel of her exquisite skin, and her deep musky vanilla scent torched his mind.
Unable to stand it any longer, he pushed down her skirt and slid his fingers beneath the pink elastic triangle covering the dark apex between her legs. Her quiet gasp drew his focus to her aching expression. The look on her face made his pleasure-slicked fingers tremble against her. How long had it been since she’d been loved proper? He gently took her mouth. To starve a woman this gorgeous was criminal. Tonight he’d deliver justice… slow, interminable justice, until it incarcerated them both.
“Take them off,” she murmured, her voice so smoky it reminded him of aged whiskey. He knew what she wanted as he looked at her through heavy lids and ripped away the flimsy fabric. A flutter of pink lace pooled at her feet on the floor. His palm smoothed the high swell of her hip. Completely naked, her eyes hunted his, the light from the desk adding exotic shadows to her exquisite frame.
Slowly trailing his hands up her hips, her sides, and slowly over her breasts until she shuddered, he splayed his fingers to cover her jaw, reaching up into her hair to pull her mouth against his. Her lips parted, her mouth eagerly consuming his, her nails dug into his shoulder blades. He could feel the tremor in her abdomen quaking her pelvis as she rubbed her swollen mound against him. Intense pleasure consumed him, and her unmistakable desire blew him away.
Gently pulling her head back, he showered kisses along her throat. She tasted so good, she felt so right in his arms, and the need to be inside her had become an inferno in his groin. His fingers slid
into her wetness eliciting a sharp groan from her that dissolved into a low, throaty growl. Her palms flattened against his chest, her eyes seeking. He watched her drop her head back as he slowly slid down her body, his tongue leaving a hot, moist trail, dipping into her belly button, and forcing her fingers to tangle in his hair.
With a gentle tug, he drew her down to the plush Oriental rug with him, easing her back, his eyes locked with hers, communicating all without words. Nuzzling the slick, velvety curls between her damp thighs, he kicked off his shoes then stripped away his pants and boxers. Her heady taste washed his cheeks and chin, the wondrous scent of her arousal driving him to open her soft folds and gently capture her bud with the tip of his lips.
Her nails dug into the carpet, her body arched, heaving against the butterfly flicking sensations Jarred delivered. She was a Lup— gentle, patient, drizzled pleasure was rarely afforded her kind… and never on a full moon. The male wolves didn’t have the finesse. Jarred’s maddeningly slow rhythm… a gentle reminder of insanity. Her beast clawed to be freed as she opened her thighs wider and lifted her hips higher. Strong hands firmly held her bottom while methodically laving suckles built her climax to a trembling inner wave. Her honey flowed, and his groan into her wet valley made her writhe with need. When he reached for her nipple and gently squeezed it, her body spasmed and her legs tightened around him. She chanted his name like a benediction, a sharp inhale, broken in half, like her mind.
She tried to catch her breath as he licked his way back to her mouth. He extracted a condom. Breaking the kiss, she just wanted to see him, needed to watch him sheath himself. Never in all her years had she dreamed being with a human male could be so wonderful. Her inner wolf howled as Jarred winced as he unrolled the condom. She was thrilled he wanted her so badly. The sight of him threatened to make her explode.
Staring at each other for a moment, he took her mouth in a slow dissolve the same way he entered her, then suddenly plunged his tongue deep as he plunged hilt-deep into her. Shocked, she could feel him swallow her muffled groan, causing her inner muscles to clench around his hard thrust. She scrabbled at his back, and then held him tightly. Her legs wrapped around his waist, a howl lodged deep within, drowned by wave after crashing wave of pleasure.
Slowly he stroked inside her. “Baby.” Oh yes, she thought. Her internal muscle began to contract as he moved slowly inside her.
Sweat ran down his face, his eyes shut tightly against the spiking sensations, the need to cum about to split his sac. Will had conquered the first spasm as her completion engulfed him, but now there was only the feel of her and the fire they created. There was no going back. He’d been conquered, turned out… one last stroke, buried deep inside her—her face tucked into his neck, his head thrown back, gasping, he was lost in a molten ocean of pleasure.
For a brief moment he didn’t know where she ended and he began as they rocked back and forth while their climax shudders abated. He held her more tightly, possessively, claiming her without words. He prayed she was doing the same.
No matter what it cost him, he had to make sure no harm came to her.
“You didn’t go home last night?” Kenny asked Jarred as he wiped down the bar. Jarred nursed a soda. They were both at the end of their shift. Even the casino was slow. The current round of the tournament had ended, and dispirited losers sat at one end of the bar while the winners sat at the other end nursing their drinks and looking drained. Even the vampire who’d won looked the worse for wear, despite the huge glass of blood sitting in front of him. His fellow winners ignored him.
Jarred grabbed Kenny’s arm. “Were you following me?”
“Calm down.” Kenny twisted away. “Just checking on my investment. Besides, it was hard not to see the way you sniffed around each other last night. Did she change? Did she growl?”
None of your business, Jarred thought with a bubble of anger spreading through him. “If you want this woman on your side, let it go, Kenny. I’m going to get her for you.”
Kenny lowered his voice and bent over the bar toward Jarred. “Dude, is she a five million dollar fuck, or what?”
Solange was priceless, and Jarred knew he would have to come clean with the Temples. No matter how good the sex had been, she’d talked about the Temples as though they were blood family. No matter what Malcolm had done to her, she wasn’t going to betray her family. He admired her loyalty.
“We need her,” Kenny persisted.
“No problem.”
Kenny smiled seductively. “I knew you had magic in those pants.”
Jarred steeled himself not to move, he refused to back down no matter how he felt about Kenny’s behavior. “Jealous?”
Kenny simply grinned, and Jarred finished his soda, pushing the glass away. He half-hoped Solange would just walk by. He wanted to see her, to find out if the sparks between them last night had been real or some sort of dream. He’d never connected with a woman before the way he had with Solange. She frightened him. She had an uncanny ability to read him, and he didn’t know if that was a werewolf thing, or just her. All night long he’d resisted the urge to confide in her, to simply tell her the truth. But self-preservation kept him silent.
Maybe telling her the truth wasn’t a bad start. He frowned as he pushed away from the bar and stood.
Chapter Three
Jarred stood in the center of Esther Temple’s office. She watched him; her dark eyes sized him up like he was her next kill. His palms began to sweat, but his pride demanded he not avert his gaze. He’d never squared off with a woman besides his mother before. If he weren’t so scared shitless, he’d be impressed with himself.
Her long elegant fingers tapped on the desk blotter. “So you’re telling me the French Quarter has been targeted by the Casino Crasher, who just happens to work for me, over a year ago, and the FBI decided not to inform us about the danger to my children, my employees, or my guests.”
Saying a simple “yeah” was just to disrespectful. Besides, he understood her anger. He’d be ten feet of pissed if he were in her shoes. “Because there’s always an inside man, and I wasn’t sure until a couple weeks ago who the inside person was. For all I knew, it could have been someone high enough up they would know if you found out.”
Julius Temple’s large hand gripped the back of his wife’s chair. “Explain to me how Solange comes into this again?” His prizefighter body drawfed his wife’s chair
Jarred took a deep breath and started again. “When Greg Mills died, my assignment was to bring her in.” He heard the snap of a pencil and turned to Laurel, the security chief sitting next to him. These people could rip him to shreds and eat the evidence. Maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut and do his job. But now he had to be noble. And it was going to get him killed. “I didn’t need to come to you.”
“Why Solange?” Laurel asked.
Jarred hesitated. They all knew her better than he did. “She’s vulnerable.” No one disagreed with him.
“Does she know you tried to play her?” Laurel asked.
Now came the guilt. “She’s not going to betray you, but her life could be in danger. I don’t know how Kenny intends to get away with the money; he keeps a lot of his plans close to the chest. In fact, I think he’s pretty crazy to take on a were pack as powerful as you are.”
Esther yanked on her jacket sleeve. “That man is not going to touch one of my babies. I’ll kill him myself.”
“Which is the reason why I came to you, ma’am.” Along with a sense of guilt for having seduced Solange. Conflict raged through him, he could have just blown his entire case trying to protect Solange.
Solange opened the door and walked in. “You wanted to see me?” She stopped at the sight of him. Alarm spread across her face. “Is there a problem with the bar?”
Esther motioned for her to come inside. “Solange, we need to talk.”
She entered the room; her steps slow, as if she was ready to bolt at the drop of a hat. Her eyes flickered at Jarred, an
d her bottom lip trembled.
As he spoke, Julius’s face softened. “Solange, we’d like you to meet Special Agent Jarred Maitland with the FBI.”
The heat of her stare skewered Jarred. “Mr. Maitland.” Her voice was controlled, but an underlying growl sent shivers down his spine.
“Solange, I really am with the FBI.”
“Why am I here?”
He flashed his badge. He hoped she wouldn’t tell these people they’d slept together. If they knew, no one would ever find his body. “You need to know that the casino is going to be robbed.”
“Robbed.” She shook her head. “No one can rob this casino. No one would dare.” She glanced at Esther as though seeking validation.
“Kenny Brooks would dare,” Jarred replied.
She held up her hands. “The bartender?”
“He’s more than a bartender. He’s the ‘Casino Crasher.’”
Solange glanced at Esther and Julius, then back to Jarred. “How does this involve me?”
How could he tell her she had started out as nothing more than an assignment that had grown into something much more? “My orders were to bring you into his fold as his inside person.”
Solange planted her hands on her hips. “I’m not going to help him rob the casino.”
“I know. The Temples know, but Kenny doesn’t. He thinks you’re a spurned lover looking for revenge.”
“Never.” She thrust out her chin.
Esther gave her a reassuring smile. “We know your loyalty is above reproach, but Special Agent Maitland wants you to cooperate. And we’re going to cooperate with the government,” Esther said quietly. “Special Agent Maitland was kind enough to let us in on his plan, and we have agreed to lend you to him. We have as large stake in getting the Casino Crasher off the streets.”