Midnight Temptation

by L Ann

  The raw hunger in his eyes took her breath away. She shifted restlessly beneath him, her breasts swelling, nipples tingling in anticipation.

  “Deacon …”

  “This is your last chance to put the brakes on this, Starshine,” he cut in, his voice rough with warning. “Once I get a proper taste of you, there’s no going back. I’m going to want everything.”

  In reply, she pulled her hand free from where he still had it pinned and curved it over his jaw, the stubbled growth scraping against her palm.

  When his mouth caught hers, he surprised her with the gentleness of his kiss. On some level of awareness, she could feel his hand on her skin, skimming over her ribs beneath her top until his fingertips reached the soft underside of her breast.

  “Are you sure?” he asked against her lips.

  Gemma nodded and his hand moved up, curved over her breast, fingers stroking over the already hardened tip. The movement raised her top and she felt the cool air touch her skin.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he murmured. “I’ve imagined how you would look.” He bent his head, ran his tongue in a circle around her nipple. “How you would taste.” His teeth closed over the sensitive peak and he gave a gentle nip, then soothed the sting away with his tongue.

  Gemma couldn’t hold back a moan, arching her back to chase Deacon’s mouth. He chuckled, his breath raising goose bumps over her skin.

  “Tell me what you want, Gemma,” he whispered, his hand finding her other nipple, rolling and tugging it gently between his fingers until she whimpered.

  His wolf pawed at his mind.

  Want her … need her … take her.

  Demanding, growling, pushing images at him of her splayed beneath him, writhing against him. Her scent weaved around him, adding to his struggle to keep control, to take it slowly, to not scare her.

  He knew this was her choice, her decision, but he could still smell her anxiety, her fear and that, mixed with her desire, was driving his own need to possess her higher and higher.

  “Are you sure you want to do this, Gemma?” his voice was husky. Please don’t say no.

  “Don’t stop now.”

  Deacon didn’t think he could stop, not now he had the taste of her skin on his tongue. He wanted inside her, needed to feel her tight heat around him.

  He claimed her mouth again, plunged his tongue deep and groaned when her fingers tangled into his hair and dragged him closer. Her breasts rubbed against his chest, skin to skin, and his wolf rose to the fore, forcing him to throw back his head and howl.

  The unexpected sound made her freeze beneath him, eyes widening in sudden fear.

  Fuck! Think! He scrambled for control, fought his wolf’s primal need to mate with the woman in his bed, and dipped his head to nuzzle her throat.

  “Who’s your favourite Scooby Doo character?”

  “Wh … what?” He could hear the rapid beat of her heart, the scent of her fear swirling, rising.

  “Scooby Doo.” He ran his tongue up the column of her throat. “Favourite character.”

  “Ummm.” The scent of her fear receded, her heartbeat slowing, as she considered his question. “Shaggy?”

  “Huh … mine’s Scooby.”

  He shifted down her body, lapped a lazy circle around one nipple before drawing the peak into his mouth. Her fingers returned to his hair, holding him against her. Deacon smiled, and slid further down, hooking his fingers into her sleep shorts and tugging them down her legs.

  She tensed.

  “What about Family Guy?” he asked, gazing up the length of her body and continued to undress her. He threw the shorts and her panties to one side. “Come on, Starshine, don’t keep me hanging.” He ran his fingers up her inner thigh, spread her open to his hungry gaze.

  “St-Stewie.” The name left her mouth on a gasp when he leaned forward and licked the core of her. Her back arched on a moan.

  “Figures you’d like the psycho. I like Brian.” He lapped at her again, his tongue flicking, swirling, almost purring with delight when she cried out his name.

  “Deacon … please.” He pushed one finger, two, a third deep into her, stretching her, his thumb joining his tongue in a sensual dance on, over, around her clit.

  Her cries echoed through his mind, merged with his wolf’s growls, and then she was there, panting, tensing, arching, falling over the edge. And all the way he licked, sucked, lapped up her passion.

  When she finally grew quiet beneath him, he lifted his head and grinned, eyes glowing with pleasure and satisfaction.

  “Snoopy or Mutley?”

  “I don’t care,” she panted.

  Deacon snickered and crawled up her body to take her mouth in another kiss. He teased her lips, her tongue with his, while he kicked off his sweats, and groped around on the nightstand for a condom. He briefly lifted his head to tear open the packet with his teeth and slid it over his erection. Reaching between their bodies, he positioned his hard length at her entrance.

  “We can still stop.” He forced the words out, waited in agonised silence for her response. For chrissake, please don’t make me stop.

  “I want you,” she rasped. “Now!”

  He was buried all the way to the hilt inside her before she stopped speaking.

  Gemma couldn’t hold back her cry of pleasure. He stretched her, filled her, and when he moved with slow leisurely thrusts, her mind completely shut down. All she could feel was him. He surrounded her with his warmth, his scent. When he withdrew, she whimpered.

  “Deacon!” she protested, her hand hooking around his hip, trying to drag him back.

  Deacon chucked, brushed a quick kiss against her lips and rolled away.

  “Wait! Where …” she began, and then felt his hands on her waist, lifting her and settling her above him.

  “Patience, Starshine,” he chided softly, positioning her to his liking and then thrust upwards, the angle sending him deeper than she thought possible.

  “Deacon … “ she breathed his name, bucking her hips, trying to urge him to move faster and he laughed raggedly.

  “So greedy.”

  He caught her hands, pulled them down onto his chest, and slid his own palms up to cup her face so he could draw her down for a kiss.

  “I’m all yours, Starshine. Do as you will with me.”

  Gemma stared down at him, eyes wide. She knew what he was doing. The man beneath her, a dominant wolf, an Alpha in his own right, was going against his nature, handing control of the situation to her. Gemma knew she could easily fall in love with him for it.

  The thought made her freeze, and one eyebrow shot up on the man lying beneath her.

  “Now what was that thought, I wonder,” he murmured.

  Gemma shook her head and moved, rocking up and down, lifting almost to the point of him slipping out and then slamming back down, taking him deeper, deeper. Below her, Deacon threw his head back, the tendons on his neck standing out as he growled, fought not to take over.

  “Oh God, Deacon,” she panted, feeling her orgasm begin to build again. “I want … I need …”

  “Anything you want. Tell me what you need, Starshine. “One hand slid up her ribs, cupped her breast, his thumb brushing over a sensitive nipple. “If I can give it to you, I will. Everything I have, take it all. It’s yours.” His other hand moved between them, stroked over her clit, sending her ever closer to the cliff’s edge.

  She ground against him, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as her back bowed, her head thrown back as she chased the high.

  “That’s it, baby,” he praised, his hips jerking up to meet her thrusts, and she cried out again, falling over the edge and trusting him to catch her.

  Deacon rolled, tugged her hands above her head, pinning them in place and slammed into her once, twice, a third time, his body shuddering with his own release.

  An eternity passed, or what felt like centuries, with only their choppy panting breaths breaking the silence in the room and then Deacon mov
ed, shifted his weight off her.

  Gemma wanted to reach out and clutch him back against her but resisted. Her restraint was rewarded when, a moment later, his arm snaked out to wrap around her waist and haul her on top of his chest.

  “I need to clean up,” he murmured. “But I think you broke me.”

  Gemma woke with a start, heart pounding, breathing loud in her own ears. She reached out a hand and found the bed empty. The place where Deacon had been lying when she fell asleep was cold, suggesting he’d been gone a while. As soon as she contemplated getting up and searching him out, the bedroom door opened, and he slipped silently back inside. She saw his head turn in her direction just before he closed the door and sealed the room back in darkness.

  “Did I wake you?” he asked softly.

  “How did you know I was awake?” she replied, her voice just as low, and saw a flash of teeth when he smiled.

  “Super shifter senses,” he quipped as he slid back into the bed beside her.

  She gasped as his cold leg brushed against hers and he laughed, a deliciously wicked sound that warmed her.

  “Sorry, took a shower.”

  “A cold shower?”

  “It was that or wake you up.” He reached out, pulled her closer in a move that seemed to be becoming a habit, and buried his face against her throat. “But you’re awake now, so the shower may have been a bit redundant.”

  She could feel his erection pressing against her bottom and tried to stem the instinctive fear that tried to rise. Deacon nuzzled her throat, seemingly oblivious to her inner battle, and ran his palm over her stomach and down to the apex of her thighs.

  “I knew one taste of you wouldn’t be enough,” he muttered. He curved his fingers around her thigh and pulled her leg back so it rested on top of his, spreading her thighs for his questing fingers.

  The building fear disappeared the second his fingers slid across the slick wet heat of her arousal.

  “I love how wet you are for me.” His erection nudged against her, teasing her and then easing back. “It is for me, right?”

  She breathed his name, pushed back against him and he laughed against her throat.

  “We should have done this a long time ago.”

  ~ Mine. ~ His wolf growled at him as he took her body for a second time. ~ Want her. Keep her. ~

  ~ Ours. ~ He corrected.

  “Yes,” she whispered, reaching back to wrap an arm around his neck so she could pull him closer and kiss him. “Want you, too,” she panted against his mouth.

  Deacon groaned, wound his arm around her waist, holding her close as he thrust into her from behind.

  Wait. Had his wolf spoken out loud? The idea that she’d heard his wolf talking was ludicrous. They weren’t mated, his wolf wasn’t bonded to her. He must have spoken out loud without realising.

  He stopped moving and she wriggled against him.

  “Don’t stop.” He chuckled at the whine in her voice and jerked back into movement, driving them both to another orgasm.

  Once he’d disposed of the condom and cleaned up, he lay back beside her. Gemma moved so her head rested against his shoulder and draped one arm across his stomach.

  “How do you do that?” she asked.

  “I’m going to need a little more information to be able to answer that,” he replied.

  “Make me feel normal.”

  “I don’t.” He brushed a finger down her cheek. “I just make you forget why you think you aren’t.”

  “Thought she was in your bed and you were on the couch?” Shaun’s voice stopped Deacon as he stepped out of the bedroom.

  He shrugged. “She sleeps better if I’m nearby.”

  His brother caught up to him, and they moved toward the staircase together. “That’s because she trusts you.”

  “It’s like you said. I was the one to get her out of the cage, that’s all.” Do you even believe what you’re saying?

  Shaun laughed. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

  “I’m guessing you don’t.” Deacon glanced at his brother. “You know, just because you found your mate, it doesn’t mean the rest of us are looking.”

  “I wasn’t looking. Cassie found me.” Shaun’s hand landed on his shoulder, forcing him to a stop.

  Deacon sighed and turned to face his twin. “Spit it out.”

  “It’s obvious there’s something going on between you. I’ve never seen you give this much attention to a female.”

  “It’s not like I’m overrun with options,” he muttered, shaking off Shaun’s hand and moving toward the stairs.

  “So, what? You’re just entertaining yourself until something else comes along?”

  She was not a moment’s entertainment! His wolf growled.

  “That’s not what I said,” Deacon snapped, then sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. “My wolf wants to claim her,” he admitted softly.

  “What about you? What do you want?”

  “I want Damien’s blood.”

  “Deke, be serious for a minute.”

  “What makes you think I’m not deadly serious about that?” he asked.

  “All right,” Shaun replied patiently. “Aside from that. Do you want the same as your wolf?”

  “It’s that simple, huh?” His lips curled up into an amused smile.

  “These things usually are.”

  “For you and Cassie it was, you mean.”

  “I’d hardly call the last few weeks easy, but it can be for you and Gemma.”

  Deacon grunted. “There is no me and Gemma.”

  “Deke, I can smell your bullshit from a mile away.” They reached the bottom of the stairs and turned toward the kitchen.

  “Why did I have to force you to shift yesterday?” Deacon retaliated.

  Shaun shrugged. “There hasn’t been any need for me to shift.”

  “Dude,” Deacon drawled. “I’ll make a deal with you. You can call me out on my bullshit when you’re not spewing bullshit of your own.”

  Both men fell silent and Deacon pushed open the kitchen door. The sound of female voices, laughter and the smell of food hit him.

  The chatter stopped as they both entered, and all eyes turned to them.

  “Shaun!” Cassie was the first to break the silence.

  Deacon snorted a laugh at the way his brother swept his mate up into his arms for an exuberant kiss, leaving her blushing and breathless. Movement caught his attention and he turned his head just in time to see Gemma look away.

  Okay … should he have expected an awkward morning after situation? Was that why he’d woken up alone?

  He watched her as she moved toward the kitchen sink and dumped a glass bowl into the water with more force than he thought was necessary. She stepped from there to the stove, placing more bacon into the sizzling frying pan and reached out for a plate stacked high with buttered bread.

  His lips twitched when she threw a glance over her shoulder at him, eyes narrowed, letting him know she knew he was watching her.

  “I don’t know if it’s the bacon or the woman cooking it that has you looking so hungry, but you might want to do something about it before we all burn from the heat.” Jaden bumped his shoulder as he crossed in front of Deacon.

  Deacon’s eyes snapped to his pack-brother. “What are you talking about?”

  Jaden smirked. “Really?”

  “He’s in denial,” Shaun said from beside him.

  “Fuck off, Shaun,” Deacon replied absently, his gaze drifting back to Gemma who was now loading the bacon onto another plate. “I need some air,” he snapped, and strode toward the back door.

  ~ Coward. ~ Shaun’s voice drifted through his mind and he spun, glaring at his brother. Shaun threw him a taunting smile and bent his head to whisper in Cassie’s ear. Deacon’s eyes narrowed as his brother’s mate turned to look at him, bottom lip caught between her teeth as she tried not to laugh.

  “Fuck this shit,” he muttered.

  Stalking across the kitc
hen, he hooked a hand around Gemma’s arm and pulled her round to face him. She turned, brows pulling together in a frown.

  “We need to talk. Somewhere private. Come with me,” he growled and set off out of the house, not looking back to see if she followed him.

  He strode down the path toward the trees, knew she was behind him by the soft footfalls, and slowed his pace to allow her to catch up.

  “You snuck out without waking me this morning.” Deacon gave her a sidelong glance, curious to see her reaction to his words.

  “I didn’t want to disturb you.”

  “Starshine, you’ve disturbed me from the moment we met.”

  She threw him a startled look and shook her head. “You know what I mean.”

  “Do I?” He raised a brow and turned his head to look at her. “For all I knew, you could have been running from me again.” He kept his voice playful, but part of him worried that was exactly what she had done.

  Gemma looked at him in surprise. “But I didn’t.”

  “Never said you did, Starshine, just that you could have.” He stopped, looked at her and held out one hand. “Walk with me?”

  Gemma looked down, took a breath, and placed her hand in his. His lips quirked up into a faint smile and he set off on a walk through the trees.

  “How are you feeling today? Any regrets?”

  Gemma considered his question, her eyes tracking over his face, seeking some kind of indication of his thoughts. He gazed back at her, features unreadable.

  “Do you regret it?”Did he? Was this walk so he could tell her it was nice, but once was enough?

  Deacon laughed softly. “Haven’t I spent the last month trying to get you into my bed?”

  “I haven’t really given you much choice, have I? I stole your bed, intruded in your space when you were sleeping–”

  “Let me stop you right there, Starshine.” He turned to face her, lifted his free hand to touch her cheek. “Do I strike you as the kind of wolf who’d allow you into my space if I didn’t want you there?” He leaned forward, reducing the distance between them. “Let me tell you a little secret about me,” he whispered. “I’m not that subtle.”