“A magic spell...you’re just full of surprises. And yes, the wolf thing has me unsettled for sure, but if you’d seen half the things I have, knowing they were committed by a human and not a wild predator, you wouldn’t be as surprised by my lack of freak-out.” She handed him the last plate and pulled the stopper in the sink full of sudsy water.
“What I can’t believe is that you’ve kept this a secret for so long in a world full of cell phones and satellites.”
“My dad’s hybrids help with our cover here in town.”
“The dogs?”
“Wolf-dog mixes. He makes a point to take a couple of them into town from time to time. People see them. Then the howling and occasional sightings are easily played off. Our ranch butts up against the state park, so we have miles and miles of protected land where no one is allowed to hunt.” He dried his hands and gestured to the living room. “How is your aunt doing?”
“She’s fine. Still a little woozy and tired from everything. I told her she didn’t need to get up. At least for now, she’s listening to me.”
A spark seared his arm when he came in contact with a sliver of flesh on the small of her back. She must’ve felt it too, because she hurried forward, breaking their contact. Disappointment flooded his body at the rejection... or was it fear. He’d seen her desire for him in the truck. Feelings like that couldn’t be mistaken for something else. But she could be scared. Just because she said she wasn’t didn’t mean she wouldn’t lie to make him feel better.
She’d straight up said she was being nice because he’d helped them. Maybe that was the only reason. Maybe as soon as she got what she wanted, he’d just be the wolf-man again and she’d be brandishing another cast-iron skillet. Life didn’t usually follow the path of a fairytale.
Didn’t mean he couldn’t try to push it in that direction, though. He was a werewolf after all. Magick was in his blood.
Emma couldn’t shake the attraction she felt. The touch at the table when he’d brushed back her hair. Then again when he’d touched her back as they’d left the kitchen. She was attracted and horny. And he was cute. A werewolf nonetheless, but still damned hot. She shouldn’t be thinking about him. That was the last thing she needed clouding her judgement. But every time she looked at him, breathed in the spicy scent of his aftershave, her legs went to jelly and her panties dampened. Then there was the memory of his sleek hard body in the moonlight just before she stole his truck and electrocuted him.
Problem. Major problem. His family wanted to erase her memories and Hollis and Grimes wanted to steal her father’s wealth and connections. And Noah...Noah seemed like he wanted something completely different. He wanted her. Only her. Not Emma Carrington, daughter of a billionaire crime family, but Emma Carrington, a girl who’d been starved for affection since her father removed the only human on earth from her life who had ever loved her—Lucy.
Emma craved the way Noah looked at her. The way his eyes followed her through the room as if he’d never get tired of staring. Then there was his touch. Electrifying. That was the best description she could come up with. It was like every nerve in her body fired when he touched her. She wanted more. She wanted much more.
The question now was...would he give it to her?
She sat down on the center cushion of the couch and held in a sigh of relief when he took the cushion on her right. The foam of the seats sank and their legs touched, sending that same spark of desire coursing through her body. She licked her lips, trying to decide whether or not to kiss him now or wait and see what he did.
Fate didn’t let her contemplate long. One of his hands cupped her face and slid to the back of her skull, cradling her head ever so gently as he covered her mouth with his. His other hand slid around her waist and tugged her body closer to his.
Her fingertips slid up his taut arms toward his neck and she threaded her fingers through his wavy hair. She pulled him closer, opening her mouth, inviting him to take more. The invitation was not ignored. His tongue swept through her mouth, tangling with hers in a battle of desire. Both of them gasped for air as Noah pulled her into his lap as he laid back against the arm of the couch.
One of her knees slipped between his legs, making her hip rub against his very stiff erection.
He groaned into her mouth, nipping at her lip with his teeth. Then his hand moved to her ass and pulled her higher up onto his chest, grinding her throbbing sex against his, her lycra yoga pants not affording much of a barrier against his jeans. She could feel him as though she were naked and wished she was.
His mouth trailed from her mouth, down the side of her neck, feathering her skin with light kisses and nips. He tugged her shirt off her shoulder and kissed his way down onto her collarbone.
Emma let her hands explore the contours of his body, slipping her fingertips beneath the hem of his shirt and tracing the lines of his sculpted ab muscles. She’d wanted to touch him there since seeing him last night. If she was being really honest, she’d wanted to touch every part of him since last night.
“How far do you want this to go?” he asked, between breaths.
She could feel his heart pounding against her chest, nearly in time with hers.
“Is it going to do something to me?”
He chuckled as he pressed his lips to her shoulder again. “I sure hope so...but not in the way you’re thinking.”
A giggle slipped from between her lips as his comment registered. “I want as much as you will give me.” The words spilled from her lips before she could think them through, but they were still the truth. She couldn’t deny the attraction she felt.
He pulled her mouth against his again and claimed it with an animalistic growl that made her body tremble with excitement. He stripped off her shirt a second later and massaged her breasts through the thin lace of her bra. His fingers worked her nipples until they stood at attention, pressing against the constricting lace.
She moaned into his mouth and slid her palms along the lines of his sculpted chest, then down until she felt that deep indentation near his hip that led below the waist of his pants—that “v” that drew a woman’s eye like a moth to a flame.
“Your shirt needs to come off,” she said, pulling away from his mouth for a moment.
He complied and they were quickly skin to skin. Absolute perfection.
A quick motion unhooked her bra. She arched her back, lifting high enough for Noah to pull it free from her breasts and toss it to the floor. His hands closed around her waist, dragging her higher onto his chest until his mouth was even with her swaying breasts.
When his lips closed around one of her nipples, she gasped for air. He sucked and licked and pulled, holding her against him with one arm and slipping his other hand between them. His fingers trailed down her stomach, tickling until he reached the hem of the yoga pants she was wearing. He didn’t stop there. His fingers continued their downward descent until they slipped between the wet lips of her sex and found the object of their desire—her swollen clit.
She jerked against his hold, a wordless scream on her lips as an orgasm rushed through her, exploding like a thousand firecrackers all at once. It took everything she had not to make the walls of the Thompsons’ living room shake. Lucy was down the hall and she didn’t need her barreling out of the bedroom, waving her crutches, thinking something terrible had happened only to find them both naked from the waist up and Noah’s hand down her pants.
He moved his hand, giving her throbbing sex a short reprieve from the exquisite torture his fingers had brought. She panted for breath and buried her face in the pillow above his head while his mouth hungrily continued to sample her breasts.
A moment later, Noah grabbed her ass and stood with her still half wrapped around him.
“How?” she gasped, wrapping her legs around his waist and locking her ankles together. There shouldn’t have been any way he could’ve lifted her and his body the way he did.
“There are perks to having a little magick in the blood.”<
br />
“Show-off.”
He smiled that adorable kiss-me-I’m-so-cute grin and Emma couldn’t resist.
She planted her lips against his again as he walked with her down the hallway, careful to keep her knees from bumping against the walls.
“Which room?”
“The last one. Lucy is in the first one,” Emma whispered into his ear, nipping at his earlobe and relishing the shiver that skittered through his entire body. Big, strong, wolf-man could be brought to his knees with a touch of her teeth.
He groaned, twisting his ear free of her mouth as he entered the last bedroom at the end of the hall. As soon as the door shut behind them, he put her down and stripped her of her yoga pants in one swift tug. She stepped out of them and stood quietly, tense and waiting for him to make the next move. She was naked. Exposed. Feeling more vulnerable than she’d ever felt with a guy before.
Why did he affect her so strongly? Why did she dread the idea that she might not see him again after all this ended, after she and Lucy disappeared?
“Don’t be sad, beautiful. I told you I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he said, his voice barely louder than a murmur. He stepped closer and caressed her face with his knuckles. “I want you more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life.”
A single tear rolled down her cheek. Her heart broke, knowing she wouldn’t get to stay. She was a realist. Her parents, Lucy, her bodyguards, none of them had allowed her to grow up to be anything else.
Noah thought he lived with the stress of his secret hanging over his head, but it was nothing compared to the life she’d lived. To the life she had to run from. People didn’t try to kill Noah VonBrandt. But if she stayed... they might.
Right now. In this moment. She wanted a small taste of what she knew she’d have to give up. She wanted him more than anything, too.
Emma let her mouth turn up into a smile. “I want you, too. So much it hurts.”
Chapter 16
They moved to the bed and Emma lay on the soft quilted comforter. Her pulse raced and every nerve ending in her body was attuned and anticipating his touch. Noah was everything she wanted in a man. Intuitive, stubbornly protective, gentle, yet strong enough to handle her baggage without freaking out. The werewolf bit was still going to take some getting used to, but so far she hadn’t seen many downsides to the supernatural heritage he claimed—except that his family wanted to perform magickal brain surgery on her. That was a bit of an issue.
Noah’s lips twitched. “I want to taste you.”
“Isn’t that what you’ve been doing? All I have to do is close my eyes and I can still feel your lips on my skin.” She took a deep breath and scooted to the middle of the bed.
He followed, his movements predatory and smooth as he climbed onto the mattress from the foot and wrapped his arms around her thighs. A gentle tug slid her down the length of the large bed and he settled himself on the floor on his knees, his face eye level with her sex. His warm breath on her bare flesh made her womb clench and sparks cascade throughout her body. Tension coiled in her stomach. It wouldn’t take much to make her implode into the dimension of ethereal space known as the female orgasm.
“Close your eyes and you will feel it again,” he said, his deep voice rumbling against her thigh.
A needy gasp slipped between her lips, but she pressed her eyelids tight and shivered, waiting for the first touch.
He lapped at her slit, and a sexy-as-hell moan sent vibrations through her core as his well-defined arms tightened around her hips, preventing her from escaping his tongue for even a second.
“You taste like honey, Emma. I’m going to make you come so hard, you’ll be hanging on to that comforter for dear life. Then I’m going to do it again.”
She gulped, mentally making her fingers release the wads of bedding she’d already bunched up.
His tongue delved into her sex and then pulled out, swirling instead around her throbbing clit. A moan rumbled in her throat, but she swallowed it. Noise wasn’t an option. Lucy was down the hall, but Noah wasn’t going to make it easy.
Good God. She needed a little more and she’d be sailing.
His fingers slid inside her and his mouth closed around her clit, pulling hard.
Her breath choked in her lungs as her nerve endings fired. The tightness that had been coiled in her belly contracted even tighter and then sent her spiraling into blissful abandon. She pressed her lips tightly together, willing the primal shout building inside to stay inside.
She shuddered through the last wave of her orgasm while Noah rose to his feet, standing between her legs. He’d shed his pants and already pulled a condom onto his cock. Her insides clenched in anticipation, ready and waiting for his hard length to be buried within.
“You are so beautiful,” he said, leaning forward, slipping an arm beneath her ribcage, lifting and pulling her toward the top of the bed as he crawled over her.
She pushed with her feet, helping to propel herself faster up the length of the bed.
He settled his body over hers, his hard muscles fitting against her curves perfectly. She raised her legs, sliding them up his and then wrapped them around his waist, lifting her core closer to his waiting erection.
To her surprise, he grabbed her legs and pushed her thighs forward until they nearly touched her breasts. Then slid inside, slowly and purposefully, filling her completely.
Her heart skipped a beat and she gasped, taking him all in at once. It’d been so long. She was so tight.
God, he felt so good.
“Is this what you wanted, Emma?”
She nodded her head, keeping her lips tightly pressed together, trying to contain the whimpers of pleasure fighting duplicitously against her will to escape.
He drew out her pleasure, completely in tune with her body. His hands played with her breasts, stroking and kneading them until they ached for his mouth. He sped up his thrusts when she could take it and backed off when she felt the overwhelming urge to come apart.
She felt boneless beneath him. Her extremities trembled with the need for release, but he kept it just out of reach. Desire raged inside her and she wanted the second climax he’d promised.
“Please,” she begged, her breathing ragged. Sweat coated her skin from head to foot and strands of her long blond hair were pasted to her forehead and shoulders.
He complied, dropping her legs to his sides and settling into the cradle of her hips. His mouth closed around a peaked nipple. One of his hands slid upward, slipping behind the base of her head while the other ventured south, finding its mark between their slick bodies.
One last thrust and the light brush of his calloused fingers over her already stimulated clit was all it took. It was as if every muscle and nerve ending fired at the same time. Emma arched off the bed, burying her face in the crook where his neck met his shoulder, muffling her scream as she soared into bliss.
His body jerked and stiffened against hers as he chased her pleasure with his release. He muffled the growl that shook his entire body against the curve of her neck.
A shiver ran through her and the tension in his body fled, quickly replaced by a tenderness Emma had never before experienced. . His mouth trailed along her slick skin, pressing kisses against her breasts, her neck, her chin, and then her mouth. He seemed to be in no hurry to flee the bed and leave her wondering if he’d enjoyed it or was satisfied.
“You. Were. Amazing,” he said, punctuating each word with a kiss to her lips.
“Thank you,” Emma answered as another blast of heat warmed her cheeks.
“I love that you are still blushing after everything we did. I have a feeling getting to know the real Emma Carrington is going to be a full-time gig. Though one I’m going to thoroughly enjoy.”
The cutest grin split his face and his blue eyes sparkled with interest. And not just an interest in her naked body or how much money her family controlled, he was genuinely interested in her. Hell, he was protecting her from his family, going ex
pressly against rules that they had been following for who knew how long. He thought he had time to get to know her, but she knew it was an illusion. The second Lucy was back to herself, they would slip away into the ether and she’d never see Noah VonBrandt again. Her heart constricted and she struggled to drag in a breath at the thought.
In less than twenty-four hours, this guy had managed to crack the tough shell she always kept around her heart. She couldn’t fall for him. It couldn’t happen.
“There are things about me that you don’t want to know. We should enjoy the time that we have. Nothing is guaranteed in life.”
He rolled to her side and pulled her with him, nibbling at her shoulder. “Why does that sound like a goodbye?”
“I can’t stay in Somewhere, Noah. There are people hunting me. When the drugs finally clear Lucy’s system today, she will be ready to leave.”
“I already told you I won’t let anyone hurt you. Not my family and not those assholes at Lucy’s house.” He snarled out a growl and Emma gasped, watching his eyes flash gold for a few seconds.
“It’s not that simple. Those assholes will kill people to get to me. I can’t put you or anyone else in danger. Their partners already brutally killed my parents. You don’t know how ugly this could get.”
Noah released her and rolled from the bed in silence. He disappeared into the adjoining bathroom for a few moments. He returned cleaned up, but still naked with a washcloth in his hand.
She stayed silent as he tenderly bathed her thighs and girly-parts with the warm washcloth. The care he was showing was so different from anything she’d experience with any guy before. Usually sex was just sex. After which, each party cleaned up and went about their day, but Noah caressed her body as he rubbed, dragging the tips of his fingers across her skin until her heart began to pound with renewed arousal.
How did he do that? How did he make her completely forget that she needed to slam down the walls around her heart? Instead he opened them wide, showing her how much sunlight she’d been missing for so many years.
To Love A Mate: Somewhere, TX (VonBrandt Pack Book 2) Page 9