But what the hell. She needed an outlet for the excess energy, and tonight he was hers.
His lips slid to her cheek, her forehead, her right ear, then back to her mouth, his breath enticingly heated. Strong, warm hands wrapped around her, pulling her from the wall and into a tight embrace that Skylar wouldn’t have wanted to escape, even if she could have. If this was to be a union for only one night, and spent with a stranger, her body and her mind were willing.
His hands slipped under her shirt, his sexy, masculine warmth chasing away the chills riddling her lower back. She hadn’t been wrong about him being like an inferno, and she found his heat thrilling.
He kissed her with wild abandon as his hands moved up the length of her spine, working their incredible magic. This is what she wanted, what she had always wanted—to give herself over completely and accept everything in return. Strangers had a certain kind of freedom where sex was concerned. Relative anonymity worked in her favor here.
When he paused, allowing her a breath, she shook her head. Through swollen lips she whispered, “Nowhere to run this time, ranger.”
Their sense of connection careened through Skylar like a shocking current of wayward electricity. Streaks of fire filled her chest, her belly, ending up as an ache between her thighs, in a place that had never been reached or addressed like this by anyone.
Unable to restrain herself, Skylar jumped into Harris’s arms, caught easily by this man who seemed to possess the strength of two. Wrapping her legs and arms around him with her body pressed tightly to his, she said, “No wolf here for us to chase, unless it’s you.”
Harris, with his devastatingly handsome face and a body like living sin, gave a heavy sigh as he turned for the bed.
*
He could have been wrong, Gavin thought as he laid Skylar on the mattress and leaned over her quivering body. Wrong about catching a whiff of something buried inside this woman, far beneath the perfume and outward perfection, that caused both man and wolf to need her so greatly. But his hunger wouldn’t be assuaged. Skylar Donovan had become the embodiment of an addiction.
Though he didn’t know much about her or her life, he’d already figured out one thing: she was cutting herself loose from old ideas and hindrances, and using him to do it. She also, it seemed to him, had something to prove.
They met here with the impact of two clashing thunder clouds. He couldn’t see enough, taste enough, get enough of her. Perhaps this test of his personal limits is what made the affair so dangerously thrilling.
His wolfishness was growing more substantial by the minute, a reminder about how close he was to being moon-whipped.
He hoped that being with Skylar, and the depth of emotion that entailed, wasn’t a self-destructive act. He wanted to be here, now. In the darkened room he’d gather the willpower to hold back his inner beast. He’d do anything for this chance at being more like the kind of man he once was.
“Light.” Her request was a groan of anticipation.
“Not yet. Feel me. Feel everything, my lovely Skylar, in the dark.”
In the light, you might see me for what I am.
He didn’t tell her how easily he saw details in that darkness—her face and her expression, if not the color of her eyes. He watched her chest rise and fall, noted the outline of her breasts beneath her shirt and the hardness of her nipples. He heard her heart pounding out a crazy rhythm that mirrored his and laid his hand on her chest to feel the beat.
Her eyes fluttered shut.
“Yes. That’s it.” He tugged her shirt over her head, confronting her sensuous bareness for the second time that night, and with the determination to see this encounter through.
The question was how much time he could take.
Slow wasn’t going to cut it. Neither were lengthy explorations or the kind of long, lingering foreplay he’d have given an eye tooth for. He was riled up. His blood thrashed in his veins, and inside that blood a beast swam upward, in search of moonlight.
“Can’t wait,” he groaned, reaching for her zipper, entranced by the sound of that zipper sliding downward and the thought of what lay behind it.
“Don’t.” She lifted her hips to help him peel the jeans off. “Don’t wait.”
Her shoes hit the floor, along with her pants. Gavin’s fingers hesitated on her flimsy panties. “So fragile and feminine. These things are made for a man to appreciate before he tears them off.”
The lace slipped over her thighs soundlessly, and she kicked the panties aside. Seconds later, she was off the pillows and going at him with the hunger of a lioness in heat.
Pulling him down, she tore at the buttons on his shirt that were left from their last unscheduled meeting in a bedroom. Yanking the shirttails from beneath his waistband, she went for his belt buckle.
He helped her with that, wild and ready to burst. Feeling high as he floated on waves of raw sexual greed.
“I can do this.” He voiced those words aloud without meaning to, knocking back a rising growl.
“Did you doubt it?” she asked through lips that were for him the highest form of pleasure. “Because I didn’t.”
On her knees on the bed, her hands flew over his pants, finding the zipper, easing it down. But she wasn’t willing to wait for him to undress completely. His bare chest and what lay behind the zipper seemed good enough for her at the moment.
Instead of lying back down to prepare for the entry of his hardness, she again wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Unfurling her long legs, she curled those legs around him, leaving the spot he’d dreamed about entering poised above his pulsing erection.
“Don’t stop. Don’t wait.” She whispered her command in his ear and nipped at his earlobe with her sharp little teeth.
Gavin groaned and spat out an oath. “Christ!”
He lifted her up with his hands beneath her firm, naked ass. In one smooth move, she was on her back on the bed, her thighs open for him, with nothing in the way that might remotely have stopped their joining.
He stretched out on top of her with the tip of his cock against the doorway to what he knew would turn out to be a delight beyond belief. Letting go of his control, he was inside her in a single thrust. He groaned, sighed, cursed silently as the exquisite softness surrounding him threatened to overtake him and give his darker side away.
He let the growl out, and felt better for it. She laughed. But the lightness was short-lived and only the briefest release from the growing sexual tension between them.
Desiring more friction of skin on skin, Gavin’s hands grasped hers. As their fingers entwined, his lover made a soft moan of satisfaction that made his blood boil.
Any touch was going to do it for them—fingers sliding across fingers, palm resting on palm, lips meeting. But Skylar Donovan would have it all, and this was just the start.
When he moved his hips, she responded in kind, grinding against him provocatively, wrapping her molten femininity around him.
Gavin closed his eyes.
Drawing back, he waited…waited while his pulse beat like a drum in this throat and he ached all over with the buildup of the pressure of long withheld needs.
He’d gotten this far, barely. His inner animal was rising, growling, urging him to hurry this along and get to the good part. The part where all three of them would be joined.
Gathering his strength, corralling his body’s urges, Gavin thrust into her again. This time she cried out as she reached for him. He remembered the feel of her nails raking his skin the last time they’d been on the verge of intimacy, and the sting of cool air meeting with warm injured flesh. The minor discomfort kept him focused.
He liked it.
His next plunge went deeper into her body. Eyes still half-shut, heart hammering, he repeated the action of pulling back, collecting himself and then burying himself in her plush heat over and over.
Moving faster, harder, he created a rhythm and kept it going, putting all of himself into every move as he stroked her fiery i
nsides until he sensed, felt, absorbed the shudders that rocked her as her body hurled the mother of all sensations forward to meet him.
She let out a groan that became a cry. Arching her back, limbs rigid, she hung on to him, both inside and out. With sharp nails, she scored his back, digging into him as if clinging to the moment in every way possible.
Pain and pleasure merged in a rush of color behind Gavin’s eyes. The scent of blood wafted in the air. His blood. But it was only a little, and it somehow fit the degree of intimacy they were sharing.
He ground himself into Skylar Donovan, pelvis to pelvis, hips to hips, his length fully embedded in her wet, flaming heat. And when her orgasm claimed her, he held her there…pinned her there…with Skylar writhing beneath him in blissful agony and the wolf inside him begging for release.
Skylar’s voice rang out with a silence-shattering cry. When he could take no more, Gavin groaned and backed up, afraid to let himself go, not knowing where that might lead.
Embroiled in the emotion, spurred on by the fight, the wolf inside him soared through his veins, seeking a way out, a way to share in this taking. But it wasn’t time for wolf play.
Skylar belonged to the man.
Chapter 9
Drowsy, Skylar woke to darkness. Still drifting hazily with the slow rhythms of a long overdue sleep, she stretched her legs, wincing at the intensity of the aches stiffening her body. She winced again after discovering the vacant warm spot in the space beside her on the bed.
She was alone.
No. Not alone, her senses told her.
Tired enough to only turn her head, she saw him. Against a thin crack of light, he stood silhouetted at the window in a way that seemed part of a familiar dream. Highlighted by the light of outside electrical bulbs, the man who had fulfilled her sexual cravings several times over stared out the window with his back to her. A guardian. Her incredible protector.
“You’re still here.”
“Yes.” He glanced over his shoulder, his voice igniting her internal furnace in the same way it did every time she heard it.
Though her body tried to rebel against the fatigue making her limbs heavy, it was no good. Real sleep had eluded her for so long, she didn’t stand a chance against it.
“Thanks,” she whispered, shutting the vision of him off, letting herself, lulled by the presence of her lover watching over her, fall toward the luxury of another forty winks. No dreams interfered with her rest. No call from the mysterious distant male came, because she had found and lain with him.
When Skylar next woke, it was with a start that signified change. She shot her hand out, searching again for warmth next to her. Not finding it, she sat up. Harris wasn’t beside her. He wasn’t at the window. Without having to search further, she knew he had gone, and that he’d left her recently. Maybe only minutes before. His scent remained strong—in the air, ingrained in her lungs, clinging to her skin. His taste was in her mouth and on her bruised lips.
The pinkish light of dawn streamed in from the gap in the curtains.
Well, okay. He’d disappeared, and she deserved the no-excuses abandonment for both her risky behavior and for wanting more of him than he was willing to give. She had to face facts. Harris had been a heck of a one-nighter, but with the arrival of dawn, that one night was over.
She sat up slowly, her skin cool now that their heat had faded. Her throat felt dry. Her body signaled the needling pains of having been well-used. For all that, she appreciated that Harris had stayed with her until daybreak. The thought of that small consideration was comforting.
“Don’t worry,” she said with a glance at her chill-riddled nakedness already beginning to show faint purple marks. “I’m not stupid.”
Their night of passion had been driven by lust, and nothing more. After the first round of mind-blowing sex, they’d gone at each other like animals, free to explore and be explored. Free to be wild, and hold nothing back. That would have shocked Danny. Her ex wouldn’t have been able to cope with the things she and Harris had done. The big bad cop might have wondered how she’d known about half those things.
She had moved on in one hell of a way.
As for her ranger…
It was possible he’d disappear for good now and would send someone else to drive her to the cabin. Maybe that kind of avoidance was for the best. Facing him today would be awkward. What could either of them say? Thanks for the fuck?
At the moment, she felt satiated and worn out. Sex and sleep had worked miracles to calm her highly tuned nervous system. Nevertheless, it was too bad she hadn’t thanked Harris for the meal she’d ignored in favor of blistering carnal pursuits. She could have used some added fuel now.
The upside of a night with a stranger? Chances were the erotic dreams would stay away now that she’d indulged with a real man who fulfilled the lust quotient. If those fantasies did return, it would prove her overly greedy. In fact, she felt greedy now, with a whole new set of parameters. She wished for Harris to come back and start the circuit all over again—the talented hands, lips, and all the rest.
Listening to the rumble of hunger in her stomach, Skylar sagged against the pillows with her arms crossed over her eyes.
Until the knock came.
“Skylar? Miss Donovan?” a husky female voice said. “Gavin left something for you.”
Gavin?
Wrapped in the blanket, Skylar opened the door to find the woman who’d checked her in last night holding a brown paper bag. She wore the same red vest.
Skylar looked at her inquisitively.
“Breakfast.” The woman eyed Skylar right back, probably noticing the swollen mouth and nakedness beneath the blanket.
“Ranger Harris left this?” Skylar asked.
The woman shrugged. “Before he left.”
Skylar took the bag.
“Don’t get your hopes up, hun. It’s only a couple of doughnuts. There’s coffee in the lounge if you’d care to come down.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
As Skylar started to close the door, the woman said, “He also left the Jeep for you. The keys are under the floor mat. Gavin said he’d get it later and to tell you it’s full of gas.”
Skylar pressed her back to the closed door and let out a sigh. She’d been right in assuming Harris might prefer to avoid her this morning. At least he’d been thoughtful enough to leave her some wheels so that she wouldn’t have to explain about her night in the motel to anyone else on duty with him.
“Aren’t we polite?” she muttered. She tossed the bag on the bed and jumped in after it. Two bites into her first meal since breakfast the day before, she silently thanked her lover for this small reward. She’d have to see him again eventually, when he came for the car, and she equally dreaded and looked forward to that.
Thoughtfully, she stopped chewing and lowered the second doughnut. What if she was being harsh, and there was a positive spin to his actions? Maybe Gavin meant the loan of his car to be read as a promise to her of a future face-to-face meeting instead of avoidance.
Don’t get your hopes up. Hopes can ruin a perfectly good memory.
Moving to the window, Skylar searched the parking lot. Spying the beat-up Jeep, she slid down the wall to sit on the floor.
Somehow, thanks for the fuck didn’t sound as fulfilling or sarcastic as it had moments ago. It sounded more to her like the excuse of two desperate souls dancing around the problem of celibacy and loneliness without knowing how to handle themselves after the night they’d had.
“Who are you, Gavin?”
She posed the question aloud, wanting an answer to that particular question even more than she wanted to finish the food he’d sent. She was determined to banish the coward hiding in the nooks of her own personality. The coward who until last night had kept her true feelings and needs hidden from everyone and who now feared she wouldn’t be able to go back to the way things were before.
Uncontrolled sex with the range
r had been exquisitely satisfying. Damn if she didn’t want more.
*
Gavin hitched a ride with the grocer’s wife as far as the old logging road, and hoofed it up the dirt track leading to Skylar’s cabin.
He’d taken time for a shower, a quick bite and a cup of coffee, courtesy of the motel’s overseer, Marian Smith, who’d refrained from asking questions.
He was fairly sure Marian could keep some things private and would do so. If sharing a room with a newcomer got out, it would obliterate the gossip that he’d achieved monk status as far as women were concerned, and turn the tide on incoming dinner proposals.
He didn’t need that kind of gossip getting around. Though he’d enjoyed every minute with Skylar, he had almost forgotten about the monster he’d faced, and its odd behavior.
He shook those thoughts off in favor of deciding what to do next.
If he’d been thinking with his head, instead of what lay in his pants, he’d have wondered earlier about the fire in Skylar’s old wood stove, which they’d left overnight. The safety of leaving that stove untended should have been a concern. Then again, who could have predicted that Skylar would follow him?
Also, if he hadn’t had the run-in with a wolfish demon and the fright of Skylar showing up and placing herself in danger, he might have taken more time to get to know her.
Instead they’d skipped past all the “getting to know each other” parts, and delved straight into the realm of really incredible sex. Incendiary stuff. Without a werewolf’s one positive perk of nearly miraculous healing powers, he would have had the bite marks from her tiny human teeth to prove it.
But it was a new day, and there were other things on his agenda. Thinking about Skylar any more than he already did would get him nowhere.
He had to find out about that monster.
But first, a couple of stops were necessary. He wanted some background on the Donovans.
Seduced by the Moon Page 7