* * *
CORA
Watching the door to the antechamber shut, she sighed deeply. She hated that Vasi was right, but she had been more than a little heedless with Finn’s health and wellbeing. He was not built for her world and she had ignored that because it was inconvenient to getting the job done. She just wanted him with her as she worked the case and didn’t think of the consequences. Because when looking out for only herself, the consequences would be fairly minimal, or at least manageable. Once affairs of state get involved, however…
From the corner of her eye, she watched as Finn rose from his seat and headed to the closet. He returned moments later stripped of his social armor of coat, jacket and tie, his strong and chiseled frame deliciously displayed by his A-shirt and trousers that cost probably as much as her car. It was like her eyes abandoned any semblance of decorum as they slipped over his artfully messy hair to his mischievous blue eyes and perfectly groomed beard all the way down to his surprisingly cute bare feet. He was made for a good time and damn if she didn’t want to indulge a little. She wouldn’t, of course, but she definitely wanted to.
After pouring more wine for both of them, she retreated to her corner of the couch. “Better?”
“Much,” he agreed as he moved over to the other end of the couch, far enough away to be proper but almost close enough for her feet to touch his unreasonably muscular thigh.
The intent, unflinching way he watched her as he sipped his drink gave her ideas, of the sweaty, naked variety. That I am going to ignore, she reminded herself. “What?” she demanded when the silence failed to provide her the barrier she’d hoped for.
His voice was soft as he stared at the wine swirling in his glass. “You said something earlier and I’m curious.”
“About?”
She was snared in his gaze as he watched her over the rim of his glass. “What would you change if you could? About all this. What do you wish were different?”
Cora tittered nervously, and her eye roll should have registered on the Richter scale, but even that wasn’t enough to fully quash the smile that was currently holding her lips and dimples hostage. The man was a menace and it was hard to be a badass when he made her want to bat her lashes at him and pout like a damn schoolgirl. “Goddess…”
“Well?” he prompted, nudging her feet with his knee.
If he’d been anyone else, if this had been any other job, if, if, if… “Doesn’t matter, does it? I mean, if wishes were horses then beggars would ride.”
“What does that even mean?” He laughed and drained his glass, immediately pouring more for both of them.
Her answering smile felt hollow and forced, but she gave it to him just the same as she accepted her glass. “Means that you can’t always get what you want.”
“Your family?”
She shook her head, unable to catch her smile before it fell completely from her face, hoping she could hide its absence behind her wine glass. “No, not at all,” she answered softly. “I was never gonna be what they wanted.”
“Your marriage then?”
She snorted, drank more wine. “Fuck no.” It had been a mistake, but she treated it as a learning opportunity. Most of the time. That was not a conversation she wanted to get into at the moment.
“That bad, huh?”
Cora rolled her shoulder and took another healthy draught of her wine, draining her glass and setting it on the floor in front of the couch. “Another in a long series of disappointments.”
“Like me?”
The question, so gently posed, kinda snuck up on her. Much like the questioner. She’d desired him for so long from afar, content to live her life with just another in a line of celebrity crushes, and then she tossed her professionalism out the window and slept with him. And now, when he looked at her? Like she designed and hung the moon and stars solely for his benefit? Her chest hurt at little at the strength of her desire to give him the world.
“No,” she replied, eyes closed to shield her from the man in front of her, knowing that if she looked, like Perseus to Medusa, she would be forever damned. “I’m mad about that, actually. Life would be a lot easier if I found you disappointing.” She swung her legs over the side to sit on the couch properly rather than run the risk of facing him.
“I’m sorry?” he offered with a tentative grin that made his eyes crinkle at the edges.
Gods, she was tempted….
“You should be, dammit,” she grumped, crossing her arms and affecting the most pronounced pout she could muster.
“Be that as it may,” Finn nudged her with his shoulder, “you still haven't answered the question.” She sat there silently, likely out of spite as much as melancholy, and only looked down at him when he laid his hand over hers on her knee. "All right, then. How about I answer for you?”
He turned on the couch to face her, using his free hand to bring her eyes to his when she refused to look at him. It was torture staring into the face of the sun, all perfect searing heat that brought life and killed with equal measure. “Go on, then,” she challenged, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I wished that night, you know. The one we met? Well, re-met. Whatever.” He shook his head before getting back on track. “I wished I was just a regular guy who picked up a beautiful woman and maybe stayed the night and bought her breakfast.” The pink tinge to his cheeks and the way he kept glancing at their hands broadcast his reticence to share this info with her.
“Guess that didn’t work out so well.” She chuckled self-consciously at his unspoken compliment, eyes falling to her lap.
“I don’t know,” he ducked his head until he regained the eye contact and straightened back up, “this hasn’t been so bad.”
Cora’s eyebrows made a break for her hairline and the sheer audacity of his statement had reduced her to a squeak of disbelief and mild outrage.
Finn threw back his head with a loud bark of laughter, shifting his whole body until his leg from the knee down pressed along the outside of her thigh. It was intimate but not overbearing, and she loved that he did such things for her seemingly unconsciously. “In some respects,” he emphasized. “But without that, I would have never reconnected with you, and it hasn’t been very long, but I’m kinda partial.”
The look of soft affection in his eyes was almost more difficult to see than just his smile. He wrecked her, and he’d barely laid a finger on her. She was pretty sure this was the textbook definition of ‘emotionally compromised’. If this were an op, she would have been pulled from the field and sent for a fitness for duty exam. Deep blue with oblique facets of emeralds, she found her heart losing traction to their pull.
“I wish I’d known this side of you sooner,” he whispered, his fingers framing her jaw before winding in her braids and his thumb light on her cheek. “I wish our paths aligned when we were younger. I wish…” he sighed, licked his lips, leaving them shiny and so damn inviting.
“Yeah?” she prompted as she leaned toward him, toes curling in anticipation as he did the same. The urge to lick her lips as he watched them was unbearable.
“I wish you’d let me kiss you,” he growled, his lips swallowing her moan as she surged against him. The soft heat of his mouth against hers touched off a wave that broke over her slowly, rolling through her and leaving her arching into his touch.
Her awkward sideways angle kept her from fully reaching him, their only connection their lips and her hands on his face, until he came to his knees, strong arms wrapping around her and pulling her to him. It was a few seconds later that he was stretched out on the couch with her draped on top of him like she weighed no more than a blanket.
Finn’s hand in hers as he held her to his chest made her feel so safe, wanted. His kisses unhurried, like there was nothing else he planned to do, ever. The hand that rested on her hip meandered slowly from her shoulder blades down to her ass and back, leaving a mellow buzz that raced across her skin, almost aroused but so very relaxed. Like the day was melti
ng away completely.
“How’s your wish going?” she asked against his neck, her lips and tongue lovingly teasing the spot just below his ear and lobe, leaving him a trembling mess beneath her. He smelled so good, like bergamot and cedar and wolf and she buried her face in the crook of his neck for a closer sniff and maybe a taste test or two.
“Almost perfect,” he exhaled on a shuddering breath, his fingers digging into the flesh of her ass cheek through the silk of her dress.
“Only almost?” Cora looked at him askance as she used his shoulders to leverage herself over him. Unable to decide if she was incredulous or offended more, she was sure her tone reflected the conundrum.
His laugh was silent but heralded by the shaking of his chest as he looked at her, truly happy for the first time she’d seen him. “You’re amazing, you know that? I’m so damn unworthy of even just your smile and you grace me with it anyway.” He hugged her closer, his arm around her waist subtly shifting her up his body until she was all but sprawled over his chest, lips brushing his as he gazed up at her. “This is us,” each word a nip of her upper or lower lip, “no lies, no deceptions, and—if they know what’s good for them—no interruptions.”
Her giggles died on her lips, wilted under the heat of his mouth slotted against hers, a perfect fit. Her tongue found his in a tangle, the growl he gave underneath her giving her gooseflesh. A shimmering unease, a restlessness that danced across her nerves, left her skin feeling too tight and was too warm in her less than substantial dress.
Finn’s clever fingers, found the zipper on her side, finding more than one ticklish spot that had her bracing her hands on his broad shoulders to yell at him. Any reprimand she had faltered under the look on his face, pure, focused want. The sheer single-minded intensity in his eyes gave the blue a golden cast and sent a shiver down her spine that curled her toes.
“Tell me you want this.” His words a rumble in his chest that teased her fingertips. “Say the words.” Even though she was the one on top, he was very much in control.
Cora sighed at the way he bit his lip, a shuddering broken sound just this side of an audible whimper. As if she could ever deny him anything. “I want this,” she relented, each breath feeling like too much and yet not enough. “Please.”
Finn made quick work of her zipper, her dress peeled back like a banana skin, before flipping her to her back beneath him. The warm leather was soft against her back as he settled between her legs. His tank top had disintegrated at some point, leaving him in a pair of gray trousers she planned to ruin, at least a little bit by grinding up against him. The hard ridge of his cock nestled against her softness left her squirming as he leisurely explored her mouth.
His big hands framing her face, he kissed her like he needed it, like it was more important than air. His lips were so soft, the brush of his beard a tantalizing counterpoint, the touch so loving even as he demanded her responses, it wasn’t long before Cora was actively rubbing her pussy against him in search of friction or some blessed sweet relief. Her nipples grew stiff and sensitive, abraded by his chest hair as they moved against one another.
“I wanted to go slow,” he lamented as he bit and then laved a spot on her neck before doing the same to her collarbone as she whined underneath him and sank her claws into the meat of his shoulders. That beard would be the death of her, and she had no problems imagining how it would feel on other parts of her body as he returned his attentions to her mouth.
“Next time,” she panted against his swollen lips, because right at that moment, she wanted nothing more than to feel him inside her with her, all of him. “You have anything?”
Finn stilled as he thought about her question before hopping up from the couch. “Have gun, will travel,” he chuckled as he scooped her up and carried her naked-but-for-her-panties clad form to the bed with her squawking and protesting the whole way until he dumped her onto the bouncy mattress.
“You coulda warned me!” she groused as she moved to sprawl herself out in the center across his pillows wanting to look like the sexiest porn centerfold he’d ever seen.
“No fun in that,” he muttered as he kicked his way out of his trousers and pawed through his nightstand for a condom. The look of pleased and stunned shock when he turned back to the bed was worth it, though.
“Oh, I can show you fun,” she purred, drawing her fingertips over her thigh and up her belly to cup her breast. “If you’re interested.”
“Oh yeah?”
It was almost impossible to keep still as he stalked her up the bed, her heart damn near pounding out of her chest as he let some of his predator instincts out to play. Before her eyes, the sweet, gentle man she’d come to know receded to reveal the wolf she knew him to be. He was all slow blinks and sinewy movements and then suddenly he was on her, his teeth in the skin of her neck and his hips grinding into hers as the pillows behind her yielded to the onslaught.
“Fuck, you taste so good,” he growled into her neck as she explored the muscles of his back and shoulders with her nails. She would not be the only one with marks tonight. His fingers teased and tickled her sides as he positioned her thighs to wrap around his waist. “So fucking soft.”
The head of his cock brushed back and forth over her clit as his hardness made itself at home in her slippery folds, sending a cascade of sparks through her as she arched into him. “You gonna tease or you gonna go to work?” she groaned, knowing full well that she was goading a dangerous beast.
His answering dark chuckle trailed down her collarbone to her nipple, his beard making her obscenely hot as it tickled and teased and otherwise made her a whimpering, squirming mess. “Cora,” he breathed, pausing all his movements until she was able to focus her eyes on him, and only then did he slide into her, filling and stretching her around his thick shaft with his name a breathless moan on her lips.
“So fucking perfect,” he marveled, his face a mix of wonder and straight arousal. His fingertips tracing down her nose and over her cheekbones, the moment more intimate than any she’d had in the past. Like he was seeing her for her, and honestly, it was a little too close for her comfort.
She rolled her hips, her whole body an undulating wave that ended in his panted warning growl. “You gotta move, Finn. I need it. I need…” her words left her as he did exactly what she asked by grinding down on her and abusing her sensitive little clit in the best possible way.
“Oh I got what you need, baby,” he boasted, then immediately burst into quiet giggles she shared with him. “Sorry, I had to,” he breathed as he pulled almost all the way out of her body, a whine of displeasure on her lips.
A wrenching gasp was punched out of her as he slid all the way back in, bottoming out against her with a little shimmy of his hips. He took his time with long, slow strokes that had her embedding her claws in his arms or his shoulders, strong thighs clenching around him. His name on her lips was a plea, the filthiest wish she could have ever asked for, fulfilled in so many ways and the feelings of heat and desire that had been pooling in her belly since that very first kiss broke over her in wave after wave of sparkling perfect pleasure.
* * *
FINN
Finn purred with pride as he felt her walls flutter around his cock, barely hanging on as he had been since they started. Fucking Cora was a life-altering event and deserved the utmost reverence. He stilled for a moment both to give himself a quick breather and to let her come back to herself. “Is this real?” he gasped, feeling a little lightheaded and delirious as he looked down over her glorious nakedness.
“Goddess, I hope so, or my batteries are gonna run out.”
His wheezing laugh quickly melted into a moan as he moved within her. “Was that alright?”
“I don’t know, are you done?” she punctuated her question with her body tightening its unbearably perfect grip around him.
“Not by a long shot,” he replied, rubbing his thumb in tiny circles over her still swollen bundle of nerves.
“Mmmm
…” She closed her eyes as her hips rose to meet his touch. “Then we’ll discuss it afterwards.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The moment he began again, sliding all the way out only to push back in just as slowly, he reveled in this sting of her claws on his skin, the way her breath hitched when he hit bottom and rubbed up against her clit. The pressure was intense, a heat that started low in his back and spread through his balls as he moved until he wasn’t able to deny the throbbing pleasure that overtook him, gripping her hips tight enough that she would likely bruise as he emptied his soul into her.
Coming back to this plane of existence, the first thing Finn became aware of was the pleasantly ticklish feeling of her fingers running up and down his back, lightly shaping over each muscle group before moving on to another. It was comforting, sweet. Next was her lips, warm and slightly damp, as she pressed tiny kisses along his clavicle that were just this side of ticklish.
“I’m officially taking you hostage,” Cora mumbled sleepily between nips as she briefly squeezed her legs around his thighs and wriggled underneath him.
Finn snickered weakly and hummed in pleasure as he nuzzled her cheek. He could think of few better fates. “As if family gatherings aren’t awkward enough.”
She made a noncommittal sound as she brushed a kiss over his temple. “Ask me how much I care.”
Her quiet giggles followed him into the bathroom while he dealt with the condom and then waited as she returned from her sojourn as well. He was unsurprised when she returned to his side and moved to sleep on the side of the bed closest to the door. It was probably best he didn’t think too hard about what she kept under her pillow.
A Killing Moon Page 14