Hot Pursuit (12 page)

That look on her sexy stranger’s face definitely did something to her insides. Ignore it, she ordered herself, getting grouchy from the pain in her hand and uncontrollable reaction to this man. She started when he put his hand on her wrist.

“What?” she demanded, suddenly pissed.

Why was he standing so close? Why didn’t she get a grip and take control of this situation, give him an order, remind him this was her shop and she was the boss?

He slipped her mug from her hand and set it on the edge of her sink.

“Let me see,” he whispered. “This is my fault. I scared you outside and should have realized I’d do so. I get a bit too focused when I’m working on something.”

“You startled me,” Angelina insisted. “You didn’t scare me.”

The stranger lifted her hand in his. When he brought her hand to his lips and kissed her right next to skin that would soon blister, Angel shot her gaze to his.

“My fault again. You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who scares easy.”

Where was the rough-and-ready, dark seducer who had entered her bathroom just a moment ago? Although just as sexy, this side of the stranger, suddenly polite and considerate, was doing the same wicked number to her insides. She caught herself staring into his eyes a moment longer than she should and looked down, sliding her hand from his.

“You’re right. Nor am I an idiot,” she added for good measure just in case he was up to something. Which of course he probably was. Gorgeous men didn’t just appear out of nowhere, ready to do her grunt work, without a reason.

“What’s your name?” His breath scorched her not-already-burnt flesh.

She studied his face, wishing she knew what deception looked like. “Angel.”

“Are you the Angelina whose name is on the bookstore?”

“Everyone calls me Angel.”

“Are you one?”

She smiled in spite of herself. “No.”

“Me, neither. My name is Wolf. And now is when you should be scared.”

“Wolf?” But she didn’t have time to question him about his name.

He placed his cappuccino next to hers. Those muscular arms she’d been drooling over wrapped around her. That powerful chest packed hard as steel pressed up against her body. Wolf tilted his head as he lowered it, his dark green eyes attentive until his face blurred before her.

Did he think she would balk? Was he intentionally cornering her in the confines of the bathroom to try to scare her? Or was he the kind of man who liked forcing his women to submit?

Regardless of what type of man he was, Angel had every intention of showing him what kind of woman she was. And she was definitely the type of woman who wanted her man to be a certain way.

It was amazing how well their bodies molded together. She wasn’t a tall woman, and when she’d gone out with men six feet or taller it had been awkward, if not uncomfortable, kissing each other. Wolf was the perfect height.

Angel leaned her head back, opening for him, and the kiss turned from enticing to savage in seconds. She ran her hands against warm skin stretched taut over tight muscle. Her dry hand slid over smooth flesh, and her wet hand sizzled as heat between them dried it instantly.

Her hands pressed against his solid body, pushing into his shoulders. Angel pressed her body flat against his, and instantly her nipples were hard, aching, and she was torturously aware of the swelling in her breasts. He was turning her body into a throbbing mess. Angel needed to know she was putting him in the same miserable state of unbearable need.

He slipped his hands under her shirt and up her bare back and pressed her closer against him. There wasn’t enough air in the bathroom, and she grew light-headed.

“How far are we taking this?” Wolf asked, moving his lips over hers.

“If you have to ask, then you probably aren’t the right kind of guy for me,” she answered, not bothering to open her eyes.

His response was a growl that set her insides on fire. It was too much. The pressure inside her was damn near so intense she would come right here in the storage room bathroom. No way would he control her body like that. She didn’t know this man. He knew nothing about her. And if he did know her, he would understand that she called the shots, in every aspect of her life.

Angel pressed her hands against his chest and pushed, then pushed harder when he only grunted. Wolf lifted her against his body until her feet dangled between his legs as he stepped backward into her storage room.

“The door,” she murmured, pointing out that it was still open.

Wolf lowered her, and the ride as her body slid down his damn near turned her legs into wet noodles.

“In a few I’ll fix this light for you.”

“Good thing.” Angel grabbed him by the shirt when he finished locking her door and dragged him into the store.

Thankfully there weren’t any fine citizens of Zounds outside her store on the street when she continued dragging Wolf along the far wall to the door that opened to a flight of stairs. If she was going to have sex with a complete stranger, it wouldn’t be among boxes or in a small bathroom. She would have him in her bed.

By the time she reached the top of the stairs, Angel was so turned on she turned around and wrapped her arms around Wolf’s neck while he was still on the top stair.

She was eye level to him and searched his face for a moment before narrowing her eyes. “You don’t have a wife or girlfriend stashed away anywhere, do you?”

“I was about to ask the same of you.” He looked away first and stared around them. The flight of stairs opened into the middle of her living room. “Quaint,” he mumbled.

“Quaint?” she snarled. “Mister, I promise you nothing about me is
quaint.
” She spit out the word as if it were something terrible, and it was to her. Her old aunt Harriet was quaint. Nana Matisse had been quaint. A word Angel’s father had used when trying to find a nice way to describe the old, unmarried women in their family. She would never be quaint. “And I promise I have no wives or girlfriends stashed away anywhere.”

Wolf snapped his attention back to her, and his dark green eyes smoldered. His hair was the same color as hers but fell in soft waves that were so damn sexy she ached to tangle her fingers in them. Angel wondered what he’d do if she grabbed his hair and pulled. He might go by “Wolf,” but something told her he would be more like a bear. She grew even more soaked thinking about it.

“I have no wives or girlfriends stashed away, either,” he growled, and grabbed her around her ribs.

Wolf lifted her in the air and took the last step into her home. The staircase opened into the middle of the living room with half a wall built around it so there wouldn’t be a gaping hole in the middle of the room. That addition had been made when Angel was a toddler and she and her parents had lived above the store. Otherwise, very little had changed in the home she grew up in, other than her parents were no longer here.

Some might call her short, but she wasn’t skinny. Wolf lifted her as if she were a child, holding her before him as he walked at will into her home. A small voice issued a tight warning that this man was not only a complete stranger but also an incredibly strong and capable man. It was all of those attributes that made him so appealing. But even in her fog of lust, she saw it made him equally as dangerous.

Without waiting for his next move, she reached up and grabbed both sides of his face. She held him as he continued walking and kissed him. To hell with all the precautions. Angel was thirty-one years old, a business owner, and successful in her small town. Her life might not be perfect, but she was in charge of her own actions. And at the moment, rough sex with this stranger sounded so good she could barely wait to have him buried deep inside her.

She deserved this. With Cortez trying to suck the life out of her when otherwise she might be making a decent profit off her store, life could be better. A diversion like this was exactly what she needed.

Wolf turned his head to the side, leaving her breathless.

“Bedroom.” His voice was rough, tormented.

“Couch,” she managed, and struggled to be free.

“You sleep on your couch?”

When he lowered her to the floor, she felt how hard his cock was in his jeans. She daringly pressed her palm against the swell in his pants. A rumble rose from his throat, and his expression bordered on dangerous. Angel’s heart raced as she stared up at him. Her palm turned damp, but she didn’t move her hand. Had she taken on more than she dared with this man? With this stranger?

“No. But it’s closer,” she said bravely. He wouldn’t see her as anything other than wanting this without any hesitation. And she did. More than her next breath. She looped her fingers inside the top of his jeans and tried pulling him forward.

“Why me?” Wolf didn’t budge. He raised his hand lazily and dragged his finger around the swell of her breast, then tapped her hard nipple through her shirt. “Do you make a habit of dragging strange men up to your lair, Miss Angelina?” he asked darkly.

Her breath caught in her throat as she lost herself in his smoldering gaze. She didn’t remember when anyone had last used her given name. Angel might not be the best name in the world, but it was a lot better than Angelina. For some reason, the way he let her given name roll off his tongue with a seductive growl fueled her fire.

She should consider it a good quality in him that he wanted to know more about her before fucking her. She would die if he was backing out and changing the direction they were headed.

“You’re the first,” she admitted.

He continued running his finger over her breast as he studied her with eyes so dark the core of danger might have lain deep within them. “Then again, why me?”

“I don’t want to talk,” she decided. “Ask what you want after. You want this as much as I do. We’re single consenting adults. So shut up and fuck me, or leave.”

Wolf studied her for a moment. He let his head tilt to the side. It was an action he appeared to do so absently it almost seemed he grew tired of holding his head upright and it simply fell off balance without him realizing.

Angel barely had time to register the determined look that crossed over his face before he grabbed her and flipped her around. His hands were on her, forcing her to bend over. She reached in front of her, desperately trying to grab ahold of anything in order to maintain her balance. Her palms slapped against her coffee table at the same time that her knees gave out.

His knuckles pressed into her flesh, and he found her button and zipper on her jeans, undid them, and forced her jeans down her legs. They tangled at her ankles as leaned into her, his thick, muscular body covering hers. She was suddenly kneeling on her coffee table, and her hands were forced forward. Angel clung to the edge of her couch. Then his fingers were inside her. His body was over hers, preventing her movement. All she could do was hold on.

It was all she could do not to fall between her coffee table and couch. At the same time, sensations tore through her that she’d craved for too long.

“Is this what you want?” he whispered over her, and shoved his fingers deep inside her.

“It’s what we both want.”

“How would you know what I want?” There was a sneer in his voice she didn’t like.

Angel tried twisting but he held her captive. His hold on her waist was relentless. His fingers twisted inside her, and his knuckles brushed over the sensitive folds at the edge of her entrance. When fingers brushed over her clit, she cried out and managed to push both of them backward.

There wasn’t time to step out of her jeans. He held on to her so her back pressed against his steel chest. Her mind was too clouded with need to worry about their positioning. Maybe she should have agreed to the bed. Wolf had her in a hold so submissive, leaving her with absolutely no control or ability to touch him. Maybe her brain was such complete mush at the moment she didn’t mind him running the show, but it would be nice to have made that decision on her own.

It was by sheer willpower, even as he continued tormenting her and leading her to the edge of her climax, that she managed to speak.

“If you didn’t want this, too, you would have left,” she hissed through clenched teeth.

Wolf chuckled over her. He thrust one more time, this one fierce, driving, thrusting deep inside, and her world toppled.

Angel exploded. Her orgasm tore through her igniting shades of lavender and mahogany that faded into each other before finally everything threatened to go all black. Not once had she passed out from an orgasm, nor had she ever soaked herself or anyone else to the extent she did now. She was flying, the eruptions continuing inside her. It took a minute, maybe more, to register that he was still fucking her deep and hard with his fingers.

Then she was floating backward. Strong, capable hands lifted her. Her jeans slipped free from her ankles. Without asking or confirming she wanted to take things further at this point, Wolf cradled her in his arms, nestling her close to the strong beat of his heart, and walked into her bedroom as if he’d known where it was all along.

Angel’s heart pounded with a lot more velocity than Wolf’s. When she stretched out on her bed, her orgasm ebbing but her body extremely sensitive and ready for the next round, she thought it was time to sit up and take control of the next round. She would in a minute. Lying in the middle of her bed was so damn comfortable.

Someone pounded on her door downstairs, and Angel flew to a sitting position.

Years of working the family business allowed her to clear her head instantly. She’d been interrupted from almost everything imaginable to take care of the shop, although stopping in the middle of what would have been for sure mind-blowing sex was a first.

“What the hell?” she whispered, glancing at the clock next to her bed.

Wolf appeared equally alert. Angel saw the protector in him come through strong as his entire body tensed. “Are you expecting someone?” he asked.

She scooted to the end of the bed. Wolf didn’t try to stop her.

“Of course not. The store doesn’t open for another two hours.”

“Delivery perhaps?”