Down & Dirty (Bundle) (13 page)

But when he came back less than ten minutes
later, the waiting had become almost unbearable. He took one look
at her and cursed. “Is it rising again? The fever?”

Hazel closed her eyes and pressed her face
against the side of the worn down couch she’d curled up against. “I
tried to stop it.”

“
You need to eat
something.” Even as he spoke, he moved to the couch and knelt
beside her. “Look at me, Hazel.”

His voice sent heat dancing up her spine,
and she shivered as she turned to meet his gaze. “I tried.”

“
Come on.” He gathered her
into his arms, gentle and strong. “We can go to the bedroom, and
eat later.”

“
I’m sorry.” Even as she
said the words she couldn’t keep herself from pressing her lips to
his bare shoulder.

He shivered under her lips, and his hand
stroked over her hair. “For what?”

“
For not being able to
control it like I should.”

“
And who said you should be
able to control it?”

It had never occurred to
her that she
shouldn’t
be able to. “I’m supposed to be strong.”

His voice dropped to a
husky whisper. “Sometimes, that makes it worse. The
need
.”

She couldn’t help herself. She bit his
shoulder and groaned as that very need became too much to contain.
The wolf wasn’t interested in control, unless it was a prelude to
losing it. Oliver had a power and strength in him that matched her
own, and that was all that mattered now.

He nudged open a door to reveal a sparely
furnished bedroom dominated by a large bed covered with a dark
quilt. “We might be here a while, Hazel.”

She barely heard him. She
wanted to be on that bed, naked. She wanted him behind her or above
her, whichever way would get him
in
her. Her breathing was too fast as she forced
herself to look up at Oliver’s face. “I need you.”

There was something gentle in his eyes as he
laid her down and started undressing. “I know. You will for a
while. Then you’ll feel better.”

Then I’ll feel
worse.
But she didn’t say it out-loud.
Admitting the truth now might make him stop, and her body felt too
warm and too needy for that. She rose to her knees and tugged at
his shirt. “Just tell me you want me for now.”

He moved her hands and freed the buttons. “I
want you.” He kept his eyes lowered, almost as if ashamed of the
words. “I want everything from you, and there’s not a damn bit of
it I should be thinking about taking.”

Her heart pounded. The shirt fell open and
she caught his hands. “Tell me what you want, then. And you won’t
have to take it. I’ll give it to you.”

He told himself not to do it, not to tell
her a goddamned thing, because it wasn’t right. It wasn’t right to
ask her to be a mate to him, not when he was only serving as
temporary relief. But she held his hands close to her naked skin,
and his resolve faded into nothingness. “Let me have you.”

She just smiled and tugged until his fingers
came to rest against her ribcage, just under her breasts. “You
already have me. All you have to do is claim me.”

Oliver reached up, just until his thumbs
skimmed the bottom curves of her breasts. “It wouldn’t be like
before, Hazel. You sure?”

“
I don’t know what it will
be,” she whispered, but her voice held such yearning. “But I think
it’s what I need.”

He spun her around and bent her low over the
bed. “Probably.” His hand trembled as he smoothed it over the swell
of her ass and down to grip her thigh. “It’ll be rough, honey.
Wild.”

Her whimper sounded like pure desire. “I’m
strong,” she whispered, and he knew she wasn’t talking about
physical strength anymore. “Noah wasn’t. Most of the men in town
aren’t. They’re weak. I hate weak.”

“
I’m not weak.” But it was
a lie. He was weak enough to lift the tail of the shirt she wore as
he unzipped his pants. She arched a little, through desire or
instinct, and he slid his cock into the heat of her
pussy.

Hazel panted and curled her fingers around
the quilt. “You don’t have to be so gentle.”

“
I’m not,” he promised. “I
haven’t even started yet, that’s all.”

She snarled. “So
start
.”

“
No.” Oliver moved his hand
slowly up her back and caught her hair in his hand. “Don’t be
impatient.”

Her back arched more sharply as she tried to
rock, to move their bodies together. He curled several shining
locks of her hair around his fingers and tugged lightly. “Be
still.”

Power rose between them, and the scent of
her arousal with it. “Why is this so fucking hot?”

“
That strength you were
talking about.” He rocked into her. “Dominance.”

She trembled beneath his hands. “You’re
strong?”

Oliver leaned over and spoke low in her ear.
“Are you asking me?”

“
I don’t know…” She twisted
her head and bit the line of his jaw with a soft growl.
“Maybe.”

He bit her back. “If you didn’t already
know, one little round of careful fucking wouldn’t have satisfied
you. Not even for an hour.”

Her head tilted to the side
in blatant invitation to leave a mark even as she challenged him
with her words. “Well if you don’t get around to fucking me soon,
I’m going to fuck
you
.”

“
You could try.” Her words
urged him to move, to drive his cock deep inside her pussy. But his
next thrusts were easy. Languid. And quite obviously driving her
crazy.

She snarled and broke free of his grip with
his next thrust, driving her body back to meet his, hard. His cock
ended up buried in her pussy as she ground back against him with a
triumphant noise.

The sensation -- the
satisfaction
-- almost
cost him his control. “You learning to take what you want instead
of always waiting?” he rasped.

“
Yes.” She did it again,
driving his cock as deep as she could with a desperate sounding
moan. “You should be worried.”

Oliver tightened his hands on her hips and
held her still. “Worried about what?”

“
About me.” She looked back
at him, and her golden eyes held nothing but hot, possessive need.
“Do you really want me to take what I want?”

“
You have to test
yourself.” He pushed the loosened shirt up and leaned forward to
lick the spot between her shoulder blades. “You have to test
me
. That’s what this is
all about.”

She looked away, and her
hair spilled forward to hide her expression. Her panting breaths
filled the room as she squirmed in his grasp. “If you don’t start
moving again I’m going
kill
you
.”

He urged the shirt over her
head and down her arms. Then he brushed her hair back, guiding it
over one shoulder as he trailed his tongue over the bare expanse of
the other. “Don’t talk, Hazel.
Act
.”

A moment later she did, wiggling free of his
body. She moved fast, with a hoarse growl working its way free as
she twisted on the bed and rose to her knees. Then she pounced.

Her body collided with his
and he barely had time to grasp her hips again before they hit the
floor. He held her above him and grinned, pleased by her show of
strength and aggression. Maybe she needed more than the sex, the
mating. Maybe she needed
him
. “Feel better?”

“
No.” Her fingernails dug
against his chest and she rubbed against his cock, her movements
inexperienced but determined as she tried to find the right angle.
“Not until you’re inside me again. Not until you’re fucking me.
Until we’re fucking each other.”

Her words fanned the flames inside him even
more than her impatient squirming. He helped her move and groaned
when she started to slide down around him. “Jesus.”

She was panting before she’d taken more than
half of him, her mouth open and her face slack with pleasure. Her
body trembled and she stopped for several seconds before lifting
and rocking down again, working his cock into her with tiny, choked
sounds of need.

The floor was cold under his back, and the
rough wood scraped his skin as he arched up, thrusting into her.
“You want slow?”

A shudder wracked her, and the clenching
heat of her body tightened impossibly around him. “No. I don’t
know.” She leaned forward, and her hair tumbled over her shoulders
to tickle at his chest as she dragged her tongue across his nipple.
“I just want you.”

Oliver shifted her a little, just enough for
every rocking motion to rub her clit along his shaft. “You want
slow,” he repeated, the words a declaration this time instead of a
question.

Her teeth closed on his chest. She whimpered
and lifted her head again. “I thought mating was all fast and hard
and crazy.”

“
Not once you take the edge
off.” She stared at him with eyes the deep, rich color of
well-oiled leather. Those eyes were too big and round, too filled
with a soft fascination he barely recognized… or remembered. “It
can be easy. Good.”

“
Is the edge off?” Her
mouth dropped to his neck this time, and he held her there as she
licked over his pulse. “Part of me wants to do this forever, but
the rest of me…”

Oliver sat up with a smooth, controlled
movement, his other hand keeping her hips tight with his. “Fast and
hard and crazy?”

She bit him without warning, marking his
neck with a possessive noise. “I want you to do things to me that I
don’t even have words for. It’s a little terrifying.”

The quick little bite sent a shiver of
pleasure rushing up his spine, and Oliver turned his face to hers
with a low moan. “I can teach you the words,” he murmured hoarsely,
“or you can just show me. I’ll do them, Hazel. I’ll make you
scream.”

Her hips moved, and she was rocking against
him again, faster this time. Needy. She spoke between rough pants
with her eyes fixed on his. “What about you? You said -- said you
wanted things. From me.”

“
Yes.” The word came out as
more of a growl, and she tightened around him. “After you come
again, I’ll show you. So many things I want to do.” He coaxed her
into a faster pace, watching her face as she moved over him. “I
want to lay you on the bed and put your legs over my shoulders. I
could fuck you so deep that way.”

She moaned and dropped her head back,
revealing the smooth, graceful arch of her throat and the pale skin
that already bore the rising mark of his teeth. “How else? How else
do you want me?”

He licked the faint bruise and hissed
against her skin when she ground against him. “I like having you in
my lap like this, and I liked bending you over the bed. Any way I
can look at you, feel you.”

She caught his gaze with her own. She
scratched her nails against his chest with a smile. “What if your
cock was in my mouth? Would you like that?”

Oliver growled and bit her again, his teeth
sinking into the unmarked side of her neck. “Can’t deny you that
when I fully intend to put my tongue inside you before I let you
out of this house.”

She cried out, going tense in his arms. The
tiny little rocking movements of her hips turned hard and unsteady
as she rode him in earnest, chasing the orgasm he could already
feel tightening her body around him.

And then she came. Her mouth dropped open
and she choked on his name as she came apart for him, gorgeous and
wild and so damn hot around his cock that he gritted his teeth
against the urge to follow.

It didn’t matter. The wet, pulsing heat of
her body pulled him after her, and his forehead dropped to her
shoulder as release took him. He wrapped his arms around her and
rocked up until the last waves faded, leaving him trembling and
exhausted. “Are you all right?”

“
Mmm.” Her head tipped
forward until her face nuzzled the side of his neck. “Do you have
food in the kitchen? I could make us something to eat. You must be
almost as hungry as I am.”

Almost on cue, his stomach rumbled
insistently. “Maybe hungrier,” he admitted. Still, he didn’t want
to move, to lose the intimacy of her skin against his. “In a
minute.”

She giggled, a soft sound with a wicked
edge. “Oliver? If we stay like this I’m going to lose my
self-control and start wiggling, because I’m pretty sure I’d just
have to look at you and I’d come again. I’m that riled up.”