by M. L. Briers
“At least I’m mindful of other people’s feelings. You can’t even be bothered to pay your mate a compliment without prompting.” Max declared and watched his beta’s jaw slack open. What could he say? He couldn’t very well deny it as it would look like his mate was lying.
“Just sort out your own mating problems and leave mine to me.” Doug snorted, stabbing his fork into a slice of beef with gusto.
Darby and Lisa eyed each other across the table, neither one wanting to openly acknowledge their amusement at the two males trying to better each other, in what had started out as teasing banter and quickly turned into mine-is-bigger-than-yours.
“So you admit you’re having problems?” Max wasn’t about to let his beta get the last word. Doug tossed his fork onto the plate and stared over the table at his alpha.
“Not as many as you, obviously.” Doug snarked back and Lisa almost choked on her food as she snorted a laugh.
“Do you want to take this outside?” Max growled back and Doug shrugged his broad shoulders.
“Anytime…”
“And this is what dinner time turns into around here? No wonder poor Lisa feels unappreciated.” Darby announced breaking the tension in the air between the two males and putting some amusement back into Lisa’s eyes. “Two bitching, whining men, acting like children. You should both be ashamed of yourselves.” Darby berated them, and saw both men frown at each other, before the tension slipped away.
“Sorry Lisa. It really is a great meal.” Max announced.
“Yes love, it’s a great meal.” Doug offered and Lisa couldn’t help but snigger.
“And again you were last.” Max muttered, although he made sure that everyone heard him, especially Doug who had reached for his fork and had faltered in his annoyance. Choosing to offer his friend a dark glare of reproach instead of a comment, for fear he would be berated again.
Darby and Lisa looked at each other. Neither one could help the sniggers that spluttered from them, as they fought to rein in their amusement.
Once Doug and Lisa had gone home Max immediately excused himself from her company and stepped into his office leaving Darby with sole possession of the remote control.
It had taken her a while to settle down, a feeling not unlike an itch that needed scratching, or something she needed to do that had been nagging her brain, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on, kept her antsy and her finger working on the channel shift button until she felt slightly more at ease in being alone with her own company.
It was obvious that the big bad wolf wasn’t going to make another appearance and she both thanked her lucky stars, of which she had many, and cursed her lot in life at the same time.
While it was true that she didn’t particularly want to be mated to a Lycan, an Alpha, or any man right now, it didn’t put a stop to her body and mind being drawn to the damn man.
Over dinner she had found that one look of those deep chocolate eyes had her heart dancing a samba within her chest. One glance at his large hands had her mind imagining exactly where she would like him to touch her, and the sight of the muscles and sinews playing under the tanned skin of his forearms had her aching with a need that she wanted no part of, and yet desperately did.
Even now as she watched one of her favourite Hollywood hunks, rescuing the damsel in distress and saving the world, she found herself comparing what her Alpha had in abundance that the heartthrob to millions around the world could never hope to achieve, and she sighed in knowing that it didn’t matter who it was, on screen or off, she would never feel an attraction to another man the way she felt it towards Max.
Nestled into the soft overstuffed cushions on the well used sofa, she closed her eyes to the movie and tried to let her mind clear of any thoughts related to anyone of anything in her life. Picturing her happy place, a meadow in the middle of the summer, wildflower’s in bloom, long grass gently swaying with the soft warm summer breeze, and the fluffy white clouds that chased each other across the warmest blue sky, she found herself looking at a figure in the distance, slowly gaining ground towards her, and realised that it was Max…
The jolt to her body made her feel as if she was falling and she jumped and grabbed for something safe to hold onto. The pain that shot through her hand happened at the same time as the muttered dark curse, and she snapped her eyes open to find herself in Max’s arms, the look on his face registered as pain in her mind and then she put two and two together with her injured hand.
“Do you just like hurting people, or is it just me you take your aggression out on?” The deep growl in his tone told her he wasn’t best pleased, and she shifted in his arms to try to squirm free of his hold, but he just tightened his lock on her.
“Why did you put your face in the way of my hand?”
“It was your fist, and you fell asleep…” He started to explain, but she wasn’t that interested in his reply, just that he stopped holding her. Her body was going crazy, as if all her Christmas’s had come at once.
“I was not asleep…”
“I know when someone is asleep and you were.” Max offered, and it felt more than strange to be having this bickering match whilst being in his arms. He was just standing there, in the middle of the room, not moving, just holding on.
“Fine. I was asleep…” She acknowledged, even though she was sure she was only in her happy place that he had invaded. “Can you put me down now?” The irritation in her voice didn’t go unnoticed with him, but still he liked the way she felt in his arms. He had even taken the opportunity as he reached down to lift her up to scent her skin and he wasn’t yet ready to put her down.
“I could…” He offered the words, but made no move to release her.
“And yet here I am, being manhandled by a Lycan…” She sighed dramatically for his benefit. She had to admit, if only to herself, that it felt so good having him this close, being pressed against his body, and with the warmth of him seeping into her, that she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted him to let her go just yet.
“I am not manhandling you, I was merely…” Max’s tone got considerably deeper, and she didn’t know if that was with annoyance or desire, but either way it was as sexy as hell.
“Well then put me down.”
“Fine.” He growled and tossed her through the air towards the sofa. Darby instinctively knew she was in for a soft landing, but it still didn’t stop her heart from racing, or her panic level notching up right to the point where she hit the softness of the cushions and practically sank into sofa without so much as bouncing.
“Jerk!” She snapped at him, tossing her hair from out of her face and glaring up into his dark eyes.
“You seem to bring that side out in me, I wonder why?” He growled back at her.
Darby scrambled to her feet. She might like to take a pot shot at his nose right now, but she knew that any such endeavour would probably leave her with a broken hand, and yet it was just so tempting to give it a go.
“Don’t even consider it.” He growled down at her, taking a long step towards her and closing the gap between them instantly. His whole body leaned down over her, and she suddenly felt as if she was surrounded by every inch of him.
“Consider what?” She snapped up at him, she’d considered a lot of things, which one did he have in mind?
“Using your magic on me again, it won’t end well for you, Darby.”He growled down his warning, seeming to get closer to her with every word, as if he couldn’t prevent himself leaning in towards her just that little bit more each time, or was it she who was leaning in towards him?
“Define end well?” She looked up at his face, but saw only those dark chocolate eyes, getting darker by the second, fixed on hers and pulling her into their darkness.
“Why don’t I just show you?” His palms cupped her cheeks and he brought his lips down on hers in a crushing, punishing, and demanding assault that not only made her gasp a breath at the rush of pleasure that coursed through her, but with the intensity of her
own need that she didn’t know she had.
Max felt her lips part on a gasp and demanded entry, no sooner did she grant it then his desire turned from one of devouring, to one of savouring and exploring, gentle but demanding, controlled and yet fiery by nature, he claimed her mouth with a passion that shocked her to her very core.
She didn’t know when she had leaned against him, she only knew that her hands were running over the hard muscled chest that lay under the fabric of his top. That her hips searched for something as she pressed herself too him and felt the steel desire of his erection against her stomach, and when she felt his hand leave her cheek and roam down over her body leaving a fiery trail, until he pressed it flat against the small of her back, holding her to him, she nearly melted on the spot.
There was no way in hell to deny what her body and mind were telling her to do. She wanted to climb up his body naked and wrap her legs around his hips, take him inside her and ride like the damn wind, and yet she also wanted to run her tongue over every inch of his body, tasting and caressing him as she went. And if that’s what she was feeling, what the hell was he feeling right now?
If she could just stop kissing him for long enough to form a coherent, rationalisation of why this was wrong again, she just might stand a chance of fighting her desire for him, but right now, she didn’t give a damn.
She felt his hands slide down her body to her backside, felt him palm her cheeks, and felt her body being lifted up the length of his. Her hands went to the broad muscled shoulders and she held on, as her legs wrapped around his hips and she tightened her hold on him until his arousal pressed against her sex with a jolt of pleasure as he rubbed over her and made her moan with the need and desire it created within her.
Darby felt the cold hard press of a wall at her back and was grateful for the solidity it brought her. Free to let her hands roam, she fisted the hair at the nape of his neck with one hand, and roamed back over his chest with the other.
Light teasing kisses that allowed her to catch her breath one minute were followed by a heady devouring of her mouth and sense’s the next. The constant teasing pressure of his arousal against her as she moved her hips against him made her ache with a need to take him inside her, let him fill her, and ride towards a release that she so desperately desired.
“Max…” She moaned against his lips, and at that broken contact his lips travelled down over her throat and around to the pulse that beat only for him.
“I can’t not have you, and yet if I have you…” He breathed against her ear, before his teeth nipped the lobe and her hips thrust harder against him. “We’ll both be lost to it. Darby.” He growled against her neck, nuzzling into the curve where her neck met her shoulder and where he so desperately wanted to place his mark in her soft skin.
“I don’t care, Max.”
“You don’t even like me, sweetheart.” He growled against her neck, trying desperately to keep his wolf back, to rein himself in. This wasn’t what she wanted, no matter how much he might want her, she didn’t want him, and he had to remember that.
“I don’t not like you. Damn, I can’t think…” Max thought for the both of them, and no matter how much his wolf protested within him, he found the willpower to release her from around him.
Slowly he lowered her down the wall, trying to keep her body from running the length of his. He kept his forehead against her shoulder, and then moved his hands to the wall either side of her body, so that she was still caged in, with nowhere to go, because he was still in two minds about claiming her.
“I want you, Darby, but not like this, not when you don’t even know whether you want me or not, not just for tonight, but as a mate for life.” He pushed back away from her, turning and using every ounce of his willpower to walk from the room. “Use the bedroom I put you in earlier to sleep.” He growled out over his shoulder, desperate to put some distance between them before he turned back around and took her right there up against the damn wall.
Darby decided it was tempting fate a little too much to borrow something of his to sleep in, especially as she would be sleeping in his bed, in his room, in his house, and on his land. How many strikes against her did she need? She had already given into the temptation of his body once tonight, and she knew that there would have been no way for her to walk away from that encounter. If he hadn’t of done it for the both of them they might still be enjoying some carnal pleasures now, and just the thought of it sent her body humming in anticipation.
She didn’t believe she had ever wanted anything as much I her entire life. Except for that half eaten bar of chocolate that she had found in the back of the fridge after a three day cleanse, a cleanse that had emptied her bank balance and little else. She remembered the feeling of anticipation she had for that sugary necessity and dismissed it, it didn’t even come close.
She felt antsy and morose. She wanted to go for a ten mile jog and curl up under the duvet as if it was that time of the month, both at the same time. Was it possible to run ten miles wrapped in a duvet and gorging on chocolate? If so she’d do it. Anything to stop this damn feeling, this need, this desperation…
Darby dropped down onto the corner of the mattress and groaned. Desperation, that word had never meant so much to her as it did now. Desperate to get into her jigsaw car, with or without the natural air conditioning he had put in it when he ripped off the damn door, and drive as far away from him as she could get, while simultaneously climbing up his body and wrapping herself around him like a cat that scented your fish dinner.
Damn, desperate was bad. Desperate was… for other people, she told herself as she sprung to her feet with the determination to get through this. He had walked away from her. She was as strong as he was, hell, she was female for starters, and that alone gave her the edge over him.
Mother Nature gave women the honour to have babies for a reason, we might not have muscles like Popeye, but we have tenacity, we have stamina, and we have balls of steel when we need them… Except when all of the above applies to chocolate, and damn, but he was her chocolate.
He was a dark expensive Easter egg, intricately adorned with milk chocolate lattice work, interspersed with a white chocolate detail, or maybe he was just the lavish pools of melted warm chocolate in that chocolate fountain that you spotted the moment you entered the room and slowly drifted towards, like an Olympic hurdler, elbowing everyone else out of the way with grace and flare, and face planted into the first tier with an inward groan of pure pleasure.
Darby sat down again. Now she wanted him and chocolate. Him rolled in chocolate. Just to lick warm melted chocolate of his hard, muscled, naked body…
Darby groaned and planted her face in her hands. This really wasn’t going to work. The more she thought of him, or chocolate, the more she wanted him. How the hell was she going to get through tonight, let alone tomorrow?
She could start with her newly awakened chocolate craving and work on the rest as she went. There was chocolate in her overnight bag in the car, chocolate and clothes, and she could deal with everything else one thing at a time. Baby steps, she told herself as she got up and walked to the bedroom door.
Darby popped the boot to her car, the interior light casting a subdued illumination of the contents. She reached in for the large backpack, anticipating the taste of the chocolate on her tongue and feeling the happy glow that accompanied the thought, just as she felt the Lycan presence beside her.
The hairs on her body stood to attention as they did whenever she felt a supernatural being, but there was no hum to her body, no acknowledgement that her mate was present, and she turned to find a six foot odd, sandy haired younger man staring at her with eyes the colour of the shadows that loomed ominously all around them.
Darby wasn’t getting a good vibe off this one. It could have been the fact that his eyes were already black and staring at her with disdain. The curl to his top lip as he regarded her from head to toe, or the fact that he just stood there, menacing just by his presenc
e, there was just too much to choose from.
When he didn’t speak, it annoyed her all the more, and she felt the need to prompt a word from his mouth in order to know that this guy was real and not some apparition that she was imagining.
“Look, lurky, is there something you want, or are you just going to stand there staring?” She saw that top lip curl a little higher.
“Witch.”
“Wow, state the obvious…”Darby heard the deep, menacing growl and knew that this one was different, he wasn’t like the others, all bark and no real bite, this one wanted to bite. She could see it in his eyes, the dark stare of contempt, and the curl of his lip. Hell, he was already relishing the taste of her between his wolf’s jaws.
Recognising it in his stance, he might have been holding onto his wolf, but it was there, eager and bubbling just under the surface. The darkness that surrounded this Lycan wasn’t something she wanted to feel the full force of hitting her shields; it rolled from him in waves, lapping against them, as if reaching out to find the weakest spot.
“You should leave while you still have the chance.” The venom in his tone made Darby’s skin prickle. The hairs weren’t just standing up on her body they were practically pointing the way away from him.
“Nice idea, tell that to my car.” Darby would have liked nothing more than to snatch up her bag and get back inside the relative safety of the cabin. But she didn’t feel comfortable taking her eyes off of this man, and groping around blindly in the boot of her car, and then backing the hell off from him would have sent out completely the wrong message. The message she could be bullied. that she would respond to his threats, and that just wasn’t in her to admit.
“I’m warning you witch…” The step he took towards her was like a battering ram against her shields. Damn, but he was full of hate.