Once Bitten_Wolves of Hemlock Hollow

by Heather McCorkle

  Those strong arms that I had so often admired wrapped around me, cradling me gently, and at the same time holding so securely it seemed he’d never let me go. Our kiss deepened, became something more like shared breath, as if he could breathe for me and I for him. His hands roamed down my back, cupped my butt, and lifted me off my feet. On instinct my legs wrapped around his waist, trapping his erection against my pelvis. We began to move, to where I had no idea, and didn’t care so long as he didn’t stop kissing me.

  Finally, he sat me down on something cool. Dried flowers crunched beneath my right cheek. The altar. I drew back from the kiss enough to give him a questioning look.

  “Isn’t it a sacrilege or something to do this here?” I asked through a half smile.

  Though I didn’t want to say it out loud in case it was disrespectful, I had to admit, the altar was the perfect height. Ty’s long legs were almost straight and my legs still wrapped around his waist easily. The desire to lean back on my hands and appreciate the view was so strong I almost did it, but I didn’t want to crush any more of the lavender flowers. Grinning at me, he traced my cheek and the line of my jaw.

  “Not at all. The Norse gods appreciate offerings of all kinds, sex included,” he said.

  My tongue lashed out and caught the tip of his finger as it ran along my lips. “I think I could come to really like these Norse gods of yours.”

  When he didn’t pull his finger away I leaned forward and sucked it into my mouth. Head falling back, he moaned. The sound made me wet and for once I didn’t care if he smelled my arousal. I moved his finger in and out of my mouth, tongue flicking along the end of it like I longed to do with other parts of his anatomy. To my dismay, he withdrew his finger and shook it at me as if I were being naughty.

  “Before this night is over, you will come to like many things about me,” he promised, his voice deep and throaty.

  He reached down and slid that finger over my mound of shortly trimmed hair, teasing the outermost folds which were already slick. That one little touch sent dozens of sparks flying through my pelvis like lightning bolts that shot their way to muscles within. My sheath clenched, drawing a moan from me. Gods, I wanted him so bad I couldn’t think. Finger poised over the folds that hid my clit, he leaned down until his lips nearly brushed my ear.

  “You are amazing, Sonya. So open to new ideas, so caring. I want you for who you are,” he whispered.

  The feel of his breath against my ear made me shiver. I giggled. “I know, Ty. You don’t have to wax poetic to me. Though it is nice.”

  A sound between a hum and a contented growl issued from him, exciting me in ways I hadn’t known was possible.

  “In that case…”

  His voice trailed off as his finger slid inside me. Our lips crashed together and we both moaned into each other’s mouths. His finger found a rhythm, pushing in and out of me in a way that left me dizzy. In my mouth his tongue did the same, breath becoming wonderfully ragged, as if pleasing me excited him. I reached down until I found his erection and squeezed the base of it. It was so long, I would need both hands to take hold of it all and it likely still would poke out through my fists. But my second hand was busy holding the back of his neck and I wasn’t about to let go. A gasp tore from him as I began to pump my hand slowly up and down all eight plus inches of him.

  Shock stilled my hand as his finger slid from inside me to rub at my clit. The rhythm he picked up, steady circles around and over it, soon had my pelvis muscles fluttering. Gasps tore from me one after another as he brought me closer and closer to a crescendo I had only ever reached on my own. No man had taken the time to try and make me reach orgasm this way—or any way really for that matter. Sometime during the waves of sensation he had stopped kissing me. I only noticed when his mouth was suddenly over my right breast, his tongue teasing the hard nipple. Arching my back, I pushed my breast into his mouth. With a grunt, he sucked hard, teasing it with his teeth, rolling his tongue over it. All the while his finger worked over me in a furious rhythm that brought me closer and closer. Another of his fingers slid into me and shoved me over into orgasm. My muscles convulsed in tantalizing waves as I came so hard my eyes slammed shut.

  Ty’s mouth moved from my breast to my neck. I tensed but he only nuzzled and licked me before moving up to my ear.

  “If you do not let go of my cock with that karate grip of yours I am going to come, and I really do not want to do that yet,” he whispered.

  Dancing back from the delirious edge of bliss, I released my grip, rubbing the head of him as I did so. He moaned and muttered something dirty in Icelandic. A giggle slid from me as I realized he had called me a dirty goddess. Lips hovering above mine, he groaned.

  “Gods, I love your laugh.”

  Too choked up to respond, I pressed my lips to his in a slow, sweet kiss. One hand behind my head to cradle it, he laid me down on the altar. Lavender crushed beneath me, the slightly oily but wonderful scent wafting up around us. After a moment, Ty’s lips moved from mine. He kissed and licked my skin from my neck down to my navel, moving slow and steady. My muscles clenched and quivered as my skin ignited from the attention. Tongue flicking down my belly, he moved lower.

  Pausing at my hairline, he looked up at me. “I need to taste you,” he murmured.

  A man had never taken the time or effort to go down on me. I’d only ever seen it in porn and dreamed about it. Yes, I’d had horrible, thoughtless lovers, I know. Believe me, I know. Rather than answer, since my voice failed me yet again, I pulled my feet up until they rested on the edge of the altar and spread my legs for him. Ice-blue eyes locked on mine, he sank down between my legs. His tongue licked over my opening, making my body buck up off the stone. The moment I settled back against it, his tongue slid inside me. That wonderful, soft probing over my most sensitive parts drew a cry from me that sent birds flying from the trees overhead in a flurry of shadows.

  Uttering a very pleased sound, his tongue withdrew and his head lifted. He took hold of my hips and gently pulled me down closer to the edge of the stone until my legs were hanging off. Licking his lips, he gave me such a pleased look that it sent a shudder through me. Poised only inches from my opening, he paused. My tolerance for waiting and resisting fled. I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him to me. He slid slowly into me, easing in until he was buried balls-deep inside. Never had I felt so full, so complete. Thoughts scattered out of my reach as he began to move in and out of me.

  At the height of every thrust his tip touched a place deep inside that felt so amazing it made my vision go white. It began to drive me wild. Unable to hold myself up any longer, I lay back on the rock, head held up enough to watch him work over me. Gripping my hips, he pumped in and out of me. The lengthening shadows of twilight played across his glistening chest. One of his hands moved up my body, across my stomach, to caress my left breast. His hungry eyes devoured me as if he couldn’t get enough of the sight of me. That look drove me almost as wild as the feeling of him moving inside me.

  My breath soon became ragged and I realized with a start that I was nearing orgasm again. That new spot he kept hitting deep within was about to throw me over the edge of something entirely new and powerful. I cried his name.

  Hand moving back to my hip, he growled through a smile. His thrusts sped. Gasping now, I arched my back up off the rock. Ty leaned over me, a hand going behind my back to hold me against his chest. Two more hard thrusts and the world exploded as an orgasm tore through me that started deep inside and rippled all through my sheath, pelvis, and even my abdominal muscles. In the midst of those waves, Ty followed me.

  He nuzzled against my ear. “Sonya, oh Sonya.”

  We lay like that for some time, clinging to each other as if reluctant to allow the moment to pass. Impractical as it was, I didn’t want him to withdraw from me, ever. After a while, he gathered me up in his arms. I wrapped my legs tighter around him, not ready to be separated yet. Without withdrawing from me, he lay me down in the grass and n
uzzled into my hair, his weight barely settling on me.

  “We will have to do that again soon, and much slower next time,” he said.

  The sound of his voice, all euphoric and spent, made me happier than I could ever remember being. Arms going around his back, I pulled him tighter against me.

  “Slower? Why, Ty, do you intend to torture me?” I teased.

  Pushing upright enough to meet my gaze, he gave me the most devilish grin I had ever seen. “I do indeed.”

  He quieted my laughter with a languid kiss. As he drew back from the kiss, his body lifted and he pulled out of me. I let him go only because my arms were too weak to hang on anymore. To my surprise, he lay down beside me, put an arm around me, and drew me in against his side. I’m not sure what I expected, but cuddling had definitely not been it. A few moments later he propped himself up on an elbow and began playing with my hair. The thoughtful look on his face worried me a little.

  “You are a wonder, and I do not just mean the amazing sex,” he said.

  “I’ve been called a lot of things, but never that.”

  He laughed as his hand began to trail down my arm. “I mean it. You captivate me, make me think and feel things I have never felt before. And you took to shifting as if you were born to it, a true natural.”

  The vulnerability in his tone made me want to look away, but I didn’t. Partly because his eyes were following his fingers, and partly because I couldn’t look away from his face. The lack of lines between his brows and the grin told me he was completely at ease with saying such a thing to me, and that he didn’t expect an answer. That relaxed me in a way I hadn’t expected.

  “Well, it’s nice to be a natural at something, considering my fighting skills suck as bad as my grasp of Icelandic.” I took a breath. “You think I’m safely through it, then? No risk of insanity?”

  “Quite safe.”

  Fingers splayed across my hip, he went tense and suddenly sat up. Dread filled me as I realized I hadn’t even thought to cover my birthmark.

  “What is this?” he asked in a mystified tone.

  My hand went to cover it, but he caught it, stopping me.

  “Nothing. Just a birthmark.” I tried to make the words sound light but panic crept into them.

  He leaned over me, getting a closer look.

  “No, it is more than that.”

  Gentle fingers traced over it, making me both want to cry and scream. No one ever touched it. Hell, no one ever wanted to. I froze, terrified of what he would say next. The silent perusal stretched on far too long.

  “Some call it a port wine stain, but really, it’s just a birthmark. Not a rash or anything. You can’t catch it,” I said.

  He shook his head. “This is the Sowilo rune. You are marked, Sonya.”

  Chills worked their way through me. “Marked?”

  The gentle touch of his fingers over the mark almost seemed to burn. I pulled away, sinking deeper into the grass, but he didn’t notice.

  “It means something, the Sowilo showing up as a birthmark. I cannot remember what exactly, but this coupled with the fact both of your parents descended from old bloodlines is not a coincidence. There is a book in my office back at the university that might tell us more. I will have to get it. I wonder if this is what Vidar wanted to talk to me about? But how could he know…”

  It took a moment for his words to sink in. He wasn’t fearful or disgusted of my mark, he was fascinated by it. The two other guys I had got naked with in my life had both thought it was weird, or ugly, a flaw to be covered.

  “Means something?” I asked.

  Taking me back into his arms, he pulled me close. “Yes, but I cannot remember what right now. It is something from an ancient text. All in time. Vidar will be here soon enough. Hmmm…”

  He nuzzled my hair.

  “Must be the endorphins from the fantastic sex making my mind foggy.”

  I couldn’t argue there. As the fear of his disgust or rejection over my birthmark faded, the high of the endorphins kicked back in, leaving me feeling as though I floated in a sea of pleasure. This man was so amazing on so many levels that I wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t a dream. But then, I had become an entirely different species to find him. Despite all I had been through, if Ty was a dream, I didn’t ever want to wake up.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Ty

  The light pouring through the sunrise-style window on the wall beside the tub caused red and blue to dance across the bubbles of Sonya’s bath. Her gaze was cast out over the view of the back gardens with the lake stretching out beyond it. Soap bubbles teased her chin as she repositioned within the claw foot bathtub that sat in my loft. The image of her blurred, then disappeared. I wiped the steam from the glass shower walls yet again, desperate to watch her a little longer. For at least the fifth time that afternoon, I was tempted to go to her and ravish her again. But after last night’s amazing sex and the marathon session this morning, I did not want her thinking that is all she was to me.

  So I forced myself to stay put, rinse the shampoo from my hair, and be content with the memory of our multiple sex sessions. And oh, what memories they were. This morning proved that she already possessed a varúlfur’s amazing endurance. But it was more than endurance. It was like we were synched.

  The harsh ring of an ancient rotary-style phone cut through the quiet of the loft. My cell ringtone. I shut the shower off, grabbed a towel to dry the side of my face, and picked up the phone. It was the police getting impatient about my statement regarding the truck bombing. I promised the man on the other end of the phone that I would be in within the hour. I could not have them getting suspicious that I might seek out my own justice, especially since I would. I toweled off, ran a comb through my short locks, and pulled on a pair of boxers and shorts.

  My eyes drank Sonya in without the steamed up wall between us. The bubbles were enough to make me ache. My tongue slid out and ran along my upper lip, dipping between my fangs.

  “Damn, woman, you look fine.”

  I shook my head, grabbed the towel off the leather chaise, and held it out to her. “As much as I would love to spend the entire day making love to you, I have to go to the police station. How do you feel about a ride in my Porsche?”

  For a moment, her eyes widened, a vulnerable and touched look came over her, but it disappeared too quick, as though she were trying to hide it. Grinning, she rose from the water and stood there a moment with suds rolling down her body. I cursed softly in Icelandic and took a step closer. Just before the towel I held could slip from my hands, she grabbed it from me. Very slowly, she wrapped it around her body and tucked the end between her breasts.

  “I’d love to go for a drive with you,” she said, making it sound deliciously dirty.

  Groaning, I grabbed hold of her hips and pulled her to me. We melted together for an intense moment. Long before I was ready, I forced myself to draw back, knowing if I did not, I would not make it to the police station yet again. The look of desire and almost pain in her eyes made me feel a little less desperate for not wanting to let her go.

  “Damn lögreglu. I really did not want to leave this room today,” I said as my fingers ran along the edge of her towel.

  She laughed and turned away. “Best get it over with. Besides, I’d like to see this book you have. Maybe we can stop by your office,” she said as she began to towel off.

  Now there was an idea. I had been itching to reread that book ever since I saw her mark. It bothered me that I could not remember much about the legend, but then it was hundreds of years old and was scarcely told anymore. The book had sat on the shelf in my office for the better part of a decade. Despite my beliefs that Raul was a raging idiot, I could not pretend her having that mark was coincidence. He might not have chosen her because of it, but someone more calculating might have pushed him in her direction. Just before she got her shorts to her hips, my hand brushed across her birthmark.

  “Sure thing,” I whispered in a thoughtful
voice.

  She rose up on her toes, full lips reaching for me. I bent and kissed her, long and sweet. So I did not lose control and tackle her, I kept my fingers tucked into the belt loops of my shorts. The clean scent of soap and shampoo mingled with her spicy scent in a heady concoction that almost made me lose control. Breath coming in short gasps, I spun away, grabbed my T-shirt, and pulled it on. Sonya made an appreciative sound as I walked away.

  How was it I had become so good at controlling all of my emotions except for those involving her? We would be lucky if we made the drive to town in one shot without having to pull over.

  …

  The second I pulled up to the single-story red brick building, Sonya began to breathe harder. Thanks to my varúlfur hearing I could hear it even though she tried to hide it. In a heartbeat, she was out of the car. Her eyes darted from the police cruisers parked out front, to the hint of razor wire around the corner, and back to the road we had pulled off of. I killed the ignition and got out. She jumped when I laid my hand on her arm.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  She shook her head and swallowed hard before answering. “I don’t like police stations.”

  I moved my hand to rest on top of hers. “Because of your dad?” I asked.

  A few measured breaths later she answered. “Yeah. I was just a kid when he was arrested for murder. Too many prison visits when I was little.”

  Gently, I peeled her hand from the door handle, and wove my fingers through hers. She gripped my hand as if it were a lifeline.

  “I am sorry, I cannot imagine how hard that had to be,” I said. Not to mention the fact that she had only recently found out her dad had not killed a man in a drug deal gone bad, but had killed him to save her from being kidnapped.