“You’re doing it!”
“I’m not sure this is going to stop a bullet,” she told him when she’d reached what felt like her brightest setting.
“I’m less concerned with that,” he told her. “You can obviously protect yourself without trying or thinking when the need arises.”
“Then why even bother with all of this?”
Kaleb locked eyes with her as she dimmed her light and then said, “Because I think, somehow, someway, you’re going to be how we track down Dante and take him out.”
She couldn’t imagine how that would possibly be the case, unless Kaleb’s pack of werewolves needed an otherworldly-type flashlight to illuminate the darkest corners of Yellowstone while they hunted, but she didn’t question him.
She didn’t want to or need to, not now.
All she wanted was to pick up where they left off last night.
If Lucy lit up brighter than the sun in response to Kaleb touching her, it wouldn’t matter. Not out here. They didn’t have the length of Main Street to worry about in these woods, and the only neighbors around, Kaleb’s brothers, weren’t going to call the sheriff if they noticed his cabin brightening like a spaceship was landing inside of it.
“Come here,” she suggested in a sultry, beckoning tone that wasn’t lost on him.
The corner of his sexy mouth tugged into a knowing grin and as he slowly neared her, he asked, “Like this?”
“Closer,” she invited him in a whisper, feeling the heat of her sudden arousal flare deep in her stomach. Anticipation was a hell of a stimulant and she felt instantly alive, every cell in her body poised to receive his touch. She repeated, “Closer,” and he stepped right in and smoothed his large, warm hands around her waist and down her back until he was cupping her ass in his hands and grinning at her.
“Like this?” he breathed.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “Exactly like that.”
Chapter Thirteen
KALEB
Kaleb was getting used to her light. As he kissed her, standing with Lucy in his arms in the middle of his living room, he almost couldn’t believe it. She felt like a dream. She felt like his recurring dream. In fact, he knew that Lucy Cooper was his recurring dream come to life. She was real and here and the more time he spent with her, he knew that she was his. Meant to be. His one true mate. Even if Troy couldn’t see it yet.
Lucy was also getting better at controlling her light and brightness. She wasn’t blinding him. She’d dimmed down to a soft glow that felt like thirty watts, if he had to put things in lightbulb terms. She really did look like a goddess, but she was more than that to Kaleb. She was the one woman on earth and in all of the Fist that he’d like to spend the rest of his life with. And he’d start with tonight.
He ran his fingers through her silky, blonde hair that was shimmering with golden light, helping guide her head to tilt so that he could deepen their kiss. She tasted like sugar, which was new and it made him grin as he drew his tongue softly across her lower lip before pressing in for a long-held kiss.
When he grazed his fingertips down the sides of her tender neck, the slight, breathy moan she let out was so beautiful that he felt his entire body stiffen, hard and poised for her. He loved how warm and soft and inviting she felt, her body the complete opposite of his. Even dressed down in a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt, she looked feminine and pretty, vulnerable and dainty, but knowing that she could very well be stronger than any of them was an equal turn-on. He couldn’t wait to discover the full breadth of her otherworldly abilities. But for now…
…he couldn’t wait to get her upstairs into his bedroom.
She let out another breathy moan as though she was melting more and more in his arms, as he took firm hold of her slender hips and held her tightly against the hard length of his muscular body. He wanted her to feel the effect she was having on him, feel his hardened body beneath his jeans where he was pressing against her. When he felt her lips peel back into a smile, loosening their ebbing and flowing kisses, he knew that she was probably thinking—and feeling—the same thing he was. How well they might fit together once they got their clothes off.
Would they, though?
He was tempted to ask her directly just to see what kind of breathy, sexy response she might have for him, but why risk it?
Instead, he scooped her up into his strong arms, literally sweeping her off of her feet, and she giggled, holding her arms around his shoulders and smiling up at him.
He carried her to the foot of the stairs before she could ask where they were going and then started ascending them. But as he set his foot down on the forth step, Lucy’s light flared blindingly bright then flickered like a firestorm and the next thing he knew they were both on the upper landing.
It had felt like a warm bath of light so strong and deep that it swept through his dark soul.
She’d wiped through this dimension, using another—the astral—and here they were.
“How did you—?”
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I just thought it and it happened.”
“But you took me with you,” he pointed out.
“Maybe because we’re touching?” she suggested.
It was incredible and he had every intention of exploring the ability, but not right now. He’d squirrel it away in his mind for now.
As he carried her into his dimly lit bedroom, moonlight pouring through the double-windows at the back of the room, Lucy brightened her body a bit more so that there would be no need to turn on the nightstand lamps. He laid her down on the bed and before joining her, tore off his tee-shirt.
She didn’t let him unfasten his belt. She wanted to do that part and was already on her knees at the edge of the bed, pulling leather from metal. Once she’d unbuckled his belt, she unbuttoned his jeans and pulled his fly down, and with a few eager shoves, pushed his jeans down his legs so that he was standing in a pair of tight, gray boxer-briefs, his jeans tangled around his ankles, his boots still on.
He was about to kick them off and free himself completely, but she ran her warm hands down the firm wall of his muscular pecs, his chiseled abdomen, and began playing with the elastic band of his boxer-briefs. He watched her. Felt her. And grew more and more turned on at the sight of her round, excited blue eyes, the way her expression shifted from interested grins to serious arousal and back again, like she’d never seen a man so perfect.
That’s how Lucy made him feel—like a man—and he realized that perhaps no other woman he’d been with really had.
It was no secret that Kaleb had had more than his fair share of women, but between the element of alcohol and the desperate urgency of knowing the night would soon end, all of his exploits had amounted to two-way validation, he now realized. Kaleb wasn’t a man. He’d never been one. Never been normal, and taking a woman to bed had somehow, in its own ephemeral way, suspended that fact. For the girls, who were seeking a more typical form of validation, they had mostly gone through the passionate motions, while mentally, they’d already been fantasizing about tomorrow morning, next week, and next year, as though the social contract of sleeping together held promises. That’s what they’d really been after. And Kaleb had never lived up to it.
But with Lucy, it wasn’t like that. Everything about how she was exploring the hard, chiseled lines of his body was completely in the moment. She wasn’t begging for promises with her every touch. He could sense she wasn’t thinking about tomorrow or next week or next year. And she wasn’t attempting to escape into him like she had the other night. She was simply present. Innocent and curious. And yet, despite it, he could feel that they were destined to have much more than the mere present together, more than one night. He knew, deep down in his bones, that they would have a lifetime.
He braced the bed with one hand for balance and wriggled one foot then the next out of his boots, stepped out of his tangled jeans, as Lucy squeezed his muscular shoulders, feeling the heat of his skin and strength of his body.
He was careful lowering his weight onto her. She seemed so slender and delicate, but she wanted to feel more of him, all of him, and pulled him down as she spread her jean-clad legs. Her arms were wrapped firmly around his waist, palms against the hard curves of his ass to hold him against her, and feeling her need for him caused a hot flare of arousal to stiffen him even more beneath the thin cotton of his boxer-briefs.
He was dying to merge with her, penetrate into the warm, slippery shape of her core. He thrust his hips, giving her a strong, slow taste of what he’d like to do to her if and when her clothes came off. Remembering the look and feel of her soft curves when she’d lay spread before him on her apartment bed in her lacey bra and panties, he pulled up so that he could look at her.
Damn, she made a tee-shirt and jeans look good. He hooked his large hand underneath the bottom hem of her tee-shirt and felt her warm skin, trailing up the length of her taut stomach. She helped him by working her tee-shirt up and over her head, tossing it to the floor beyond the side of the bed, and Kaleb was delighted to discover she wasn’t wearing a bra, cupping her perky breast.
He groaned at the smooth sight of her nude chest, and as he continued to fondle her breast with his hand, teasing her hardening nipple and delivering a sensual massage, he wrapped his warm mouth around the supple mound of her other breast and began sucking and gently pulling at the nipple between his teeth, again and again.
Her breathing was increasing, growing shallow and urgent in response.
He could easily do this, and nothing more, all night if she wanted. There was something about Lucy that made him feel like he was in no rush. There was no sexual end game. Arousing her with his every squeeze and suckling kiss felt like the main event.
He traveled down the length of her, delivering suckling kisses to her hot skin, until he was angled over her hips. She watched him and when he lifted his dark eyes and met hers, the grin on her angelic face was an unmistakable invitation.
Slowly, savoring her every reaction—the tight sips of air she inhaled, the soft moans seeping out between her pink lips—he unbuttoned her jeans and pulled the zipper down. As he spread the jean flaps of her open fly apart, he saw the black triangle of her cotton panties and groaned. It wasn’t just her shape or the material or knowing how close he was to her most precious place. He loved her scent, which was easy to pick up thanks to his heightened werewolf senses. She smelled sweet and faintly musky, like a healthy woman he’d like to taste.
He pulled her jeans down the full length of her legs, removed her Keds one at a time, and tossed all of it to the floor so that she was spread out topless in black panties. When he returned his salivating mouth to her core, her twinkling blue eyes fluttered closed and she moaned out a breath that was so wanton and sexy he thought he might climax in his boxer-briefs right then and there. But he held himself together as he cupped his mouth over the apex in-between her legs and breathed a series of cool exhales through her cotton panties, drinking in her feminine scent with his every deep inhale.
She made a weak attempt at raking her fingertips through his dark hair, but he was arousing her too greatly for her body to completely work. Heightened arousal was draining her energy, turning her to butter, and soon all she could do was lay there, relaxed for him to play with and explore her body, as she brightened her glow or dimmed it, depending on how much she liked what he was doing to her.
Kaleb hooked his fingers under the top edge of her black cotton panties, teasingly, as he used the fingers of his other hands to edge in along the side, grazing the nude length of her core, blindly feeling out her shape.
She moaned and brightened, and for a flashing second, Kaleb imagined how cute their babies would be, little illuminated cubs. It made him stiffen even harder, his erection now pleading with him to thrust into the hot, wet flowery folds of her body.
He held off, and nudged her panties down her hips and thighs. As he did, Lucy spread her legs more and more and by the time he’d thrown her panties off the side of the bed, she was deliciously open for him.
He returned between her legs, drinking in the sight of her sex, as he gently traced his fingertip up and down her glistening core. Her scent was intoxicating and soon, gauging the increasing intensity of her moaning breathing, he tenderly penetrated her with his finger.
He could feel her clamping, hot and wet, around his finger and the groan he let out in response said it all. He wanted to plunge his erection deep inside of her and feel the exact same thing as he filled her completely. He groaned again at the thought. God, she was sexy.
As he continued to thrust his finger, gently sliding it in and out of her tight body, he brought his warm mouth to her sensitive mound, pressing the slippery pad of his tongue against her hot spot, and she let out a riling moan that sounded like music to his ears.
Licking and sucking her most sensitive place, his finger gliding in and out of her, testing how deep he could go, he knew he was bringing her there, towards the hot brink, and so he kept his rhythm slow and sensual, hoping her body would build into an incredible explosion that he’d be able to feel from the inside.
She was breathing hotly now. Her hips bucked up at times then melted back into little thrusts against his mouth and finger. The way she was moving was damn near the sexiest thing he’d ever seen and when he lifted up to sneak a peek at her expression, he saw a big, beautiful grin on her face, her eyes closed, and her head turned and tilted to the side.
“Don’t stop,” she breathed in a heady moan and he quickly returned his tongue to her body.
When he did, she let out a melodic moan that told him she was on the brink, so he quickened the thrusting massage of his finger and drew slippery circles where his tongue pressed against her.
Then it happened. It felt like her entire core flared open for him then a series of hard clenches clamped around his finger and she cried out. Her thighs clenched around the sides of his head, knocking him silly, but he didn’t stop, only groaned into her body, adding a vibrating texture to the many sensations he was giving her.
“Oh, Kaleb!” she cried out as the final swell of her orgasm rushed through her.
He kept on, being sure that her body had been rung of every last erotic drop before he lifted up. As soon as she calmed from writhing in pleasure, that’s what he did, running his large hand over his wet mouth and chin before joining her.
When he did, he scooped her into a cradling hug, pulling her against his chest as he laid on his back. Her mouth found his and she kissed him, and he loved how loose and sleepy she was. He hoped she was still tingling from head to toe, and by the looks of her golden glow, it was a pretty safe bet that she was.
He closed his eyes, enjoying it with her, and she wrapped her warm hand around his hard erection, the cotton of his boxer-briefs the only material separating her skin from his.
But he caught her hand before she could stimulate him further and said, “I never meant for tonight to be about me.”
He sensed her smile as her hand loosened. He laced his fingers between hers, bringing their hands to rest on his chest.
He must be crazy to have stopped her. Since when did Kaleb not want to get off?
Crazy indeed.
Or…maybe…
…he was in love.
Chapter Fourteen
LUCY
The next morning, Lucy woke with the warm sun shining on her face as fresh air breezed through the bedroom. She almost couldn’t place where she was until she felt Kaleb’s warm, muscular arm wrapped around her from behind. He was spooning her, his nose nestled in her long, blonde hair, and it all came rushing back.
The pleasure he’d given her last night.
Selfless, unbridled pleasure.
She smiled. God, he was good.
She knew she would be in trouble with this one. A lot of trouble.
The best kind of trouble.
She’d never had it like that. Lucy didn’t exactly get around, but she’d certainly had her moments, and up until last night with Kaleb, the kind of foreplay she’d experienced when it involved a guy going down on her, tended to be just that—a social etiquette courtesy, a gesture, a check-point to graze over in the rush to get to actual intercourse. But Kaleb hadn’t been like that at all.
It blew her mind.
And it wasn’t just his selflessness or his talent, though those had definitely left a strong impression. If Lucy felt blown away by anything, it was the unshakable feeling that Kaleb had meant to show her that the pleasure he could give her was only a physical expression of a much greater fact. Maybe she was overstepping her bounds or blowing the night way out of proportion, but she felt as though he might have been trying to show her that he loved her.
Was that crazy to wonder?
Maybe it was and maybe it wasn’t. Only time would tell. Now that they’d spent the night, she had to figure that his true colors would quickly emerge. She’d either join the Courtney club and turn into an obsessed psycho who craved recreating a fleeting moment from the past, or…
…or Lucy’s night with Kaleb would be the start of something real and lasting, the beginning of her own lifelong love story.
She could easily lie in his bed forever, the rest of the day at least, and return the incredible pleasure to him over and over again. The idea brought another smile to her face, but then reality crashed in all around her.
Dante had to be back in the Fist. He’d nearly killed her, using her best friend Whitney as a vessel to commit the dark deed. The sheriff despised her. And someone had broken into her apartment to let her know that they held her responsible for the deaths of her parents. The man who had really killed them had been audacious enough to sit in her section of the diner. Other than having Kaleb Quinn in her life, her world had tilted off-kilter on its axis, and she didn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel no matter how brightly she could make her skin glow.
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