by Kamryn Hart
Derek let his hand slide farther down Willow’s waist, to her hip, back to her squeezable ass. She tensed at his touch, but not in discomfort. It was anticipation. Her arousal was setting fire to his nose. She made his senses go haywire. Another little moan escaped her lips as she snuggled closer to him. Derek had to remind himself he didn’t have a stupid-ass condom, or he would have fucked her right then and there against the brick wall of an empty alley. Instead, he kept holding on to his self-control as he showed her to his bike in the club’s parking lot.
The black Fat Boy gleamed in the moonlight, looking dangerous and ready for a race on the asphalt. His leather jacket was where it always was, safely sitting on the seat of his bike.
“Nice ride,” Willow said as she walked forward to examine it. But her face fell. “No helmet?”
“Like we even need helmets,” Derek remarked as he grabbed his leather jacket and held it out to her.
She shook her head. “You keep it. I’ll take my Thunderbird.”
She pointed out her turquoise Ford Thunderbird, which Derek had to admit was pretty fucking cool, but he couldn’t shake the surprise he felt at Willow turning down a ride with him. Was she scared of bikes or something?
“Are you serious?” he asked.
Suddenly, she couldn’t meet his eyes. “Wolves may be stronger than humans, but they aren’t invincible. We can still die.”
“Wow, that’s some serious shit,” he mocked. “What’s the big deal? We didn’t have anything to drink and we have killer reflexes. It’s fine. Nothing’s going to happen.”
Willow went rigid. Her scent was still strong with an indescribable need, but it was slightly soured now. She was upset. Unsure.
“I’d feel better if you drove with me in my Thunderbird,” she said quietly.
“I’m not leaving my fucking bike,” Derek replied, irritated.
Willow fidgeted with the skirt of her dress like she was debating on if she wanted to argue with him or give in. She finally looked back up at him. Her brown eyes were hard. “Fine. Have it your way.” She softened her tone. “Just be careful, okay? I’ll follow you.” She didn’t wait for him to reply as she walked over to her Thunderbird, turned on the lights and started the engine.
What a weird woman. He had offended her over something as stupid as a shifter wearing a helmet on a motorcycle. Like hell was a car accident going to do him in. He’d see it, avoid it, and if he couldn’t, he’d bail before he got hit. He’d done it before. His life had consisted of many car chases over the years.
Then again, she couldn’t have been too offended. She was still coming with him. She still wanted him to fuck her.
He should drop this crazy shifter before something happened. She was too interested in him, asking questions like she was trying to get to know him. But he had come too far to back out now. He was too eager to fuck her. Just this one time, he’d take a woman that was a bit troublesome. Something inside of him told him it’d be worth it. If her scent was anything to go by, the sex they’d have would be fantastic. It might be the first time he will be left totally satisfied. Maybe she would even sate that inexplicable hunger and void inside of him that no woman had ever been able to fill.
Whatever it was, something was special about Willow Sipe.
Chapter 5
WILLOW’S HEART WAS POUNDING as she followed Derek down the roads of Boise. It was pounding for a couple reasons. First and foremost, she was shocked. She had found him at last, her Fated Mate. She had all but given up hope when she decided she needed a vacation to get away from Casey. She didn’t expect to go into heat for the first time in her life as soon as she arrived in the city, and she definitely hadn’t expected to find her Fated Mate the night after. It was perfect timing. He was already easing the ache she had felt for Casey for so long. It was everything she had hoped it would be. She knew it was him the moment she saw him. In heat or not, there was something about Derek that called to not only her body. He called to her heart. Moon as her guiding light and witness, Derek was her Fated Mate.
The other reason her heart was pounding was because of how stubborn Derek had been about not needing a helmet while riding his motorcycle. Yeah, she knew wolf shifters were strong and had great reflexes—she was one of them—but she lost her parents to a car accident. Wolves weren’t invincible. She wanted her Fated Mate safe. Maybe she could have just explained her reasoning instead of getting pouty and running to the safety of her Thunderbird, but she didn’t feel like she could tell him. As anxious as she was to get to know her Fated Mate, he didn’t seem eager to open up to her. He was restrained in what he did and did not say. She could tell all that was really on his mind was fucking her. She would have been lying if that wasn’t the biggest thing on her mind too. After they met in Derek’s hotel room and satisfied their burning need, he’d be more receptive.
Her body was stuck in a constant state of tingling. And heat. She was so hot. Like, sweating kind of hot, but she wasn’t sweating. She supposed that was why they called it being in heat. All she could do was hope she didn’t melt before she could touch Derek again. Before he was inside of her.
Oh, God. She couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to have him inside of her. She was itching with the thought. They couldn’t get to his hotel room soon enough. She had never needed anyone like she did now, like she needed him.
Why had the Moon decided now would be the time for her to go into heat? Was she going to be claimed and impregnated on the same night? It was all happening so fast, and she was running right to it with open arms. Maybe it should have frightened her, but her Fated Mate, the possibility of her own family, it all quelled any fears she might have had. She was ready for this. She had been ready for it for years. This was the fix she’d been waiting for. This was the Band-Aid that would heal the wound Casey left behind. She would finally be over him. She didn’t know Derek yet, but they would have a lifetime to fix that. Besides, she knew all she needed to know. Derek being her Fated Mate alone was good enough for her.
The Moon was answering her plea after all these years, and she would have been stupid to ignore it—not that she thought she would have been able to even if she had wanted to.
Willow laughed when she recognized the hotel Derek was staying in. It was the same hotel she was staying in. Sherlton Hotel. It was decent, affordable. It was kind of low key and small, but a nice enough place. What were the odds she and Derek would have picked staying at the same hotel though? It was another sign of fate. Tonight was the night she had been waiting for.
When she was parked and got out of her car to meet up with Derek again, she had a huge grin on her face. She was giddy over the coincidence of them staying at the same hotel. The moment he looked at her with hot, hungry eyes, her grin faded, replaced by lust. The space in between her thighs was a furnace. Derek’s lips quirked up into a satisfied smirk. The look on his face was fierce. His underlying actions were fierce. He had the kind of presence that belonged to an alpha. She hardly knew her Fated Mate, but she could tell that much. She always thought the Moon would have paired her with another beta wolf, like Casey, but she was wrong.
Maybe Nick was right after all. She had been holding on to Casey for way too long. It was time to forget about him. Her Fated Mate was the alpha wolf in front of her. He was the only wolf who deserved time and space in her heart right now.
Willow’s legs were trembling and her panties had been soaked through an hour ago. She walked forward, anxious to touch Derek. Her arms holding on to the crook in his elbow, his hand around her waist, she didn’t care what it was. She needed some sort of physical contact, no matter how fleeting, until they could make it to a room where they could get some privacy. Honestly, she wouldn’t have been against him taking her up against a wall right there and then. It was late enough that not many people were out. They would probably go unnoticed. She found it a little strange he hadn’t done that, actually. He wanted her as badly as she did him, but for some reason he was restraining himsel
f, determined to get to his hotel room. Maybe he was kind of shy? That didn’t seem likely.
Derek reached out and pulled Willow into him. Her breath hitched as she pressed her splayed fingers against his chest. She wished he was shirtless so she could run her fingers across his skin. Derek’s warm hands were at her back, and then he lowered them down to her ass, gently kneading her flesh and making her hotter—if that was possible.
She moaned, digging her fingers into his chest. She panted. “Either take me right here and right now or get me to your room.”
There was a low growl in Derek’s throat. He was struggling with this need as much as she was. Why didn’t he give in and take her? Why take her all the way back to his hotel room when they could have already joined and sated their insane hunger?
“Let’s go,” he said, his voice low and gritty.
He abruptly stopped groping her, twisted her around, and urged her forward with his hand low on her waist. She matched his hasty pace into the hotel and up the stairs. All she could think about was him touching her, but she did manage to notice the room number he took her inside. It was the room next to hers. The Moon wasn’t pulling any punches tonight.
Derek had just barely shut the door behind them, and then he was on her. He moved so fast her head was spinning. She dropped her purse on the floor. He pressed her hard against a wall. His hands were holding her wrists captive to either side of her head, and his legs were slightly parted as he pressed his pelvis into her, making it impossible not to feel his erection digging into her stomach. He laid off before she could react by rubbing against him. He kept her hands captive, but he bent down and crashed his lips onto hers with a force akin to addiction. Once he started kissing her, he couldn’t stop.
Willow squirmed, wanting desperately to tangle her fingers in his dark as night hair, or to maybe run her fingers across the stubble that scratched at her lips. He was in total command of this kiss, of everything going on. She was a bomb waiting to explode. Each touch, each caress of his lips, was tipping her further and further to the height of pleasure. His teeth were on her upper lip, then her lower lip. When their tongues met, Willow matched him stroke for stroke. He tasted good, so good. Spicy, cool, and fresh all at the same time.
She let out helpless and quiet moans against his lips. She stopped trying to free her hands from his iron grip and let him wash over her, do with her as he would. It all felt so good. This was nothing like kissing Casey.
Casey.
She banished the thought.
Abruptly, Derek gathered her hands above her head and held her by the wrists with one hand as he used the other to travel down her side. He pulled her skirt up, caught the edge of her underwear and ripped off the fabric with a flick of his powerful wrist, demolishing it. She felt the burn of fabric for an instant before she was consumed by her lust again. Her heart was pounding, her arousal was running down her inner thighs. She was whimpering. Her legs were being shaken apart by the needy earthquake racking her body.
“I need you,” he whispered into her ear. His breath was hot and moist on her skin, sending another wave of shivers through her body.
“I need you too,” Willow replied with quivering lips.
He growled. “Right now.”
He unzipped his jeans, freed his erect dick, and grabbed for a condom sitting on top of a cupboard near them. So that was why he was fighting so hard against taking her sooner. Willow wanted to complain. The last thing she wanted was a piece of latex separating his flesh from hers, but she didn’t get a chance to say anything. He let go of her wrists, slipped on the condom, and used both of his hands to hoist her up by her hips, pressing her into the wall and crashing into her with his body as he lifted her higher, his cock now at her entrance.
Gasping, Willow wrapped her legs around him for more stability, making the sensation of his dick pressing into her slit even more intense. He didn’t give her an opportunity to acclimate. He bucked into her. Hard. He was inside of her with that one intense stroke. She gasped again, her hands at his shoulders, digging into his leather jacket. She tried to arch her back, but he was holding her so tightly against the wall it was impossible. He thrust into her again and again with an intensity that might have been painful if her body wasn’t screaming for more.
She was whimpering with each thrust, unable to form words. She was so close to orgasm. She could feel shallow pulses in her body, preparing for release. Condom or not, this moment with Derek was the most powerful thing she had ever felt. This kind of connection, immediate chemistry, was one of a kind. It might have helped that she was in heat too, but everything that had happened tonight told her it was more than that. Everything screamed that Derek was her Fated Mated.
Just before her orgasm hit hard, Derek pulled out, holding her hips away from him. The sudden motion didn’t even register because her body was filled with such sweet release. She tried to continue clinging on to him with her legs, but she didn’t have much strength after that wave of ecstasy. She was lightheaded. Her pussy was pulsing with aftershocks.
“This isn’t enough,” Derek said. His voice was strained, on the verge of breaking.
Willow was back on her feet, and Derek was tearing off her dress. Literally tearing it. To shreds. She was so filled with pleasure she couldn’t be mad about him destroying her favorite dress. That and it was damn sexy to watch, to feel. This Fated Mate stuff was no joke. If this was how Nick felt about Gwen, Willow didn’t know how he had managed to stay away from her as long as he did. No wonder he was a moping mess when he tried. This wasn’t anything to mess around with.
In no time, Willow was standing naked in front of Derek. She made a grab for his clothes next, but he was already way ahead of her, shedding his clothes just as fast—though he didn’t tear his.
Derek spun her away from the wall, picked her up from behind and placed her on his bed. She automatically reached out her arms and legs to support herself. She felt him leaning over her, his appetite not yet sated. Her body responded to that. She was already getting ready to orgasm again, tension ratcheting up at an alarming rate. Feeling Derek at her back, hovering on top of her with his skin touching hers got her wild. She wanted to turn around, to face him, to run her hands all over him. She was about to move when Derek caught her arms and forced her down to her forearms. He wanted to take her in a very specific way. Her feet were dangling off the bed, her ass high in the air. All too soon, the warmth of Derek’s bare skin at her back vanished.
The transition triggered an uncomfortable chill. She had an undeniable connection to him physically, but there was also some kind of disconnect. She didn’t want to admit it, but it was true. He didn’t let her have any say in this, and it was starting to irritate her. No, it wasn’t even that. There was no emotional connection here. He didn’t want her to caress him. He didn’t want her to kiss him sweetly. He didn’t want her to be an active member in this exchange. He wanted to use her for his purposes and his purposes alone. He wanted to fuck her, but not intimately. She thought for sure he would feel that emotional pull that she did, the need to know her. But he didn’t seem to want that. At all. It was like when she was asking him questions about himself. He didn’t want to share. He didn’t want to tell her anything about himself, and he didn’t want to know anything about her.
What was going on?
The heat of the moment was gone for Willow. She was as cold as ice now, a stark contrast to her body being in heat, wanting the same and only thing Derek apparently wanted. No, this couldn’t be true. She was thinking too much. Expecting too much?
Derek grabbed her hips again as he stood behind her. Her body was so sensitive to his touch it was almost too much. It was like his fingers were scalding her with pure energy, forcing her into a state of heavy arousal and submission. She would orgasm again if he pounded into her whether she wanted to or not. Her mind was going fuzzy like radio static.
Just like before, Derek bucked into her, doggie style this time, hard and unforgiving. She co
uldn’t hold on to her uncertainties because her body reacted the same way it had when he had her against the wall. All she could feel was him. All she could think about was him. She clawed at the crisp hotel bed underneath her as she moaned and panted with his every thrust. Sweat was beading on her skin. She didn’t think it was possible to feel this more intensely than what she felt with him at the wall, but apparently it was. So much energy was surging through her, she screamed when she came this time. It was like ocean waves were crashing down on her body. It was almost like she was drowning. She arched her back severely, unable to control herself in any way as Derek jerked inside of her, finally hitting his own release. If not for the condom he was wearing, he would have spilled his seed inside of her.
Then he bit her.
Hard.
Willow yelped as his teeth dug into the back of her neck. He was curled in on her, and she couldn’t straighten her back. He was buried inside of her, his teeth were stuck in her neck, and he was still pounding into her mercilessly. It was as if he was begging to join her, to fill her with him, with his seed. If he kept up his rough assault, there was a chance he would succeed by breaking the damn condom. If that was what he wanted so badly, why had he used one in the first place? It didn’t matter anymore because she was done. Willow was immobilized. Every move she tried to make created more pain. She wasn’t enjoying this anymore. She desperately needed to be apart from him. It was the exact opposite of the desperation she had to join him moments before.
Her struggle made him dig in deeper. He wasn’t going to let her go. Then she remembered how to speak.
“Derek!” she pleaded. “You’re hurting me!”
Those were the magic words because he let her go the instant she finished saying them. First, she felt the cooling release of his teeth withdrawing from her neck. Then he was no longer hovering over her, and he pulled his dick out of her pussy quickly. The warmth of his body near hers entirely vanished.