She's No Faerie Princess (18 page)

"You won't accuse me of assaulting you or violating you

or using you or anything along those lines?"

He could hear her getting breathless and almost purred insatisfaction. Sliding his hands up the ladder of her ribcage, he nearly wept in relief when his palms covered thesoft swells of her breasts. He registered her involuntarygasp of pleasure and firmed his grip, gently kneading. Christ, she felt better than anything he'd ever touched inhis entire life. He became convinced she felt better thananything any man had ever felt in all of recorded tactilehistory.

"You're not going to… oh!"

Figuring it couldn't be so bad to go bald, he moved hismouth lower, taking her clenched hands with him, andskimmed over the curve of her throat, the gentle rampartof her collarbone, and down the center of her chest. Histongue couldn't resist darting out to sample the flavors ofher varied terrain.

"—to change your… mind?"

Her unsteady question had his beast beating its breast inpure male arrogance. Knowing his touch could affect her,

excite her, bring her somewhere even close to the fever pitch of lust she had stirred in him, had him growling in triumph. Now that he had given himself permission to want her, the desire hit him like a tsunami, dragging him under and washing away every thought and every urge except for the need to get inside her.

"Because I'm not… going through that… again…

Walker
!"

He dragged his mouth over the valley of her breastboneand raced up toward her nipple, closing over it just in timeto have her shouting his name.

God. He needed to hear that again. Now.

He felt another growl rumbling up in his chest and freedher nipple only to attack its twin with equal fervor. Hedrew on it strongly, tongue lashing, teeth scraping. Hesuckled her as if she gave him vital sustenance and hewould die without this nourishment.

Her nipple had already drawn into a tight bead before heeven touched it, and he could smell her desire, hot andfemale and potent. He knew she wanted as badly as hedid. What he didn't know was how or why she kept talkingwhen he could barely understand the English language,much less speak it. Clearly she needed to play a littlecatch-up. Scraping his teeth over the sensitive peak ofher breast, he slid one hand down the gently curvedplane of her stomach and beneath the elastic of herwaistband.

"Because," she panted, persistent and breathless, now trembling from head to toe with need. "Because if you pull that shit one… more… time… I won't…" She

whimpered. "I can't…" Moaned. "Can't…"

She broke off again on a shudder, and ruthless, Walkermoved his hand the last critical inch, sliding over thesmooth, bare skin of her mound, parting her tender fleshwith long, eager fingers, and entering her on a swell oftriumph and greed.

"Walker!"

Her body arched beneath him in a glorious bow ofquivering woman. She poured into his palm, all sweetliquid fire and want. The desire fisting in his bellysuddenly grew claws and dug in hard. Urgency turnedinto emergency and he ripped her last garment away,leaving it shredded on the wooden floor. Tearing hismouth from her breast, he reared up over her and hookedhis hands under her knees, drawing them up and apartuntil she lay before him completely open. Completelyfemale. Completely his.

He saw need on her face, felt it in the way her legswrapped eagerly around his hips, and her hands slid overhis chest to the fly of his jeans, fumbling it open andtugging impatiently at the stiff fabric.

He could give lessons in both stiff and impatient.

Snarling, he shoved her hands away and dealt with thefinal barrier himself, biting back a howl at the relief andtorment of bare skin against bare skin.

He felt his lips pull back from his teeth, felt the ache ofteeth giving way to fangs, and knew his eyes would beglowing a bright, inhuman amber.

"Now!" he bit out, not knowing if the words emerged in

English or in Lupine and not able to care. "Mine! Now."

Fiona opened her mouth, but whether she meant toagree or protest, Walker never found out. With a feralsound of possession he fit himself against her snug, slickentrance and thrust home, the dim echo of his triumphanthowl ringing in his ears.

Fiona screamed.

At least, she thought she screamed, but it was hard to tellover the ringing in her ears and the eerie, Lupine howl ofthe man above her. Around her. Inside her.

Lady, he felt huge, stretching her, filling forgotten cornersof her body and her soul until she thought she could feelher seams unraveling. It was glorious and enthralling andexciting and terrifying. Beyond any experience of herlong, pleasure-filled life.

And if he ruined it later by accusing her of somethingdevious, she might have to castrate him.

That was her last rational thought. After that, all she coulddo was feel. Feel the width of his body stretching hers,the pounding impact of his thrusts, the heat of his hard,masculine form moving powerfully over her.

Her head fell back, too heavy to support. Her handsgripped his shoulders, desperate to find a purchase in themadly spinning universe she had entered. Herepresented the only stable thing left, and she clung withall her might, twining her legs about his hips, locking herankles together for better purchase. Her hips cradled histhrusts for a few short, mind-blowing seconds before her

control snapped. She went wild beneath him, writhing and bucking, desperate to have him harder, deeper, faster, more. She wanted everything he could give her, and then she wanted him to give more.

He didn't seem to have any problem with that. His big,hard body vibrated with tension and excitement, proppedup on the hands he had planted beside her shoulders. Less to spare her his weight, she thought, and more togive him leverage to thrust. If she'd been able to pull hernails out of his back, she'd have applauded the decision. Instead, she just pulled him closer and whimpered herapproval.

Goddess, would she ever have enough of him? Shecouldn't imagine it, couldn't summon up the memory ofwhat it had felt like not to have him inside her. Everythingpast, everything future, everything around had ceased toexist, and there was only Fiona and Walker and theferociously building tension coiling inside them both.

She struggled for air, struggled for breath, struggled forleverage to lift her hips harder against him, to take himdeeper. On a strangled growl, she felt his muscles tightenfurther, felt him shifting, reaching down to grasp her hipsand lift her higher. He inched forward, reset his kneesagainst the floorboards, and braced her against histhighs, taking away the last of her leverage.

She lay there, spread before him like a banquet. Herhands slipped from his shoulders to flop uselessly to thefloor. Air eluded her lungs. He had her completely at hismercy, until it seemed that even her ability to drawbreath, to move, to live, to be, depended on her lover'swhim.

He shifted, the hands on her hips pushing her away withaching slowness. She felt him slipping away, sliding fromher body, and made a noise of panic and distress. Herhands reached out, slapping at his, fighting to stop hisretreat and keep him inside her. He ignored the mildannoyance and slid out, out, out, until only the tipremained, hugged tight by her liquid warmth.

She heard a pitiful mewing sound and wondered vaguelyif it could have come from her. It wouldn't matter if it had. She needed this man more than she needed her nextbreath, needed the filling, stretching presence of his bodyinside her. Completing her. She would beg if that waswhat it took. Pride didn't matter compared to the heat andwonder and glory of mating her body with his.

She shuddered, wound tight and frantic. Forcing her eyesopen, she gazed hazily up at him, righting to focus. Hisface was set in hard lines, all planes and angles etchedby control and power and lust. In that harsh frame, hiseyes blazed so brightly she could have sworn she felt theflames licking her skin. The light in them burned gold,tipped with red, inhuman and unholy and beautiful. Shewanted to drown in them, to burn in them and rise againlike a phoenix.

"Walker," she gasped, desperate and trembling, "please!

Stars!
 
Please
 
!"

He made her wait, one breathless, aching moment thatfelt like eternity with his body poised at her entrance andthe fire of his eyes consuming her. His fingers tightened,digging into the flesh of her hips, biting and bruising andclaiming. Slowly, deliberately, his head lowered, movingcloser until his blinding eyes hovered just inches from

hers. She felt his breath hot and moist against her skin,

and she shook with need and passion.

His lips curled back, exposing a glistening length of fang,and when he spoke, his voice sounded rough and feral,rumbling with aggression and wild with magic. His oneword marked her as surely as a brand, and shewelcomed it with dizzy relief.

"Mine."

He thrust home, deep and hard. Fiona's entire bodyarched like a drawn bow and she screamed, a high,keening wail that shook her and threatened the glass inthe windows. Her whole world exploded, a detonationthat reverberated the heavens and left her limp, drained,and shaking. She had no strength left, could only watchwhile the man above her threw back his head andhowled. She felt him pouring into her, filling her with heatand magic as his ancient, primitive cry of life and claimingechoed to the ends of the universe.

CHAPTER 14

If Walker found the guy who'd snuck up behind him andwhacked him with a slab of marble, he'd give him atalking-to. Just as soon as he remembered how to speak. Or move. And just as soon as he managed to figure outhow it had happened.

He'd just taken a Faerie princess as his mate.

Just thinking it made his stomach sink and his heart rise. His mind… he didn't know what it was doing. It had torealize how ridiculous it sounded, the idea of a betawerewolf with a royal sidhe for a mate. It made about asmuch sense as a beta fish mated to a bald eagle. Unfortunately, Fate didn't seem inclined to care.

Swallowing a groan, Walker turned his head to bury hisface in his mate's slick, bare neck. The scent that hadtortured him the first time he'd seen her filled his headwith exotic spices and flowers. Now it smelled less liketorment and more like home. Unable to resist, he partedhis lips and nibbled the sweet, salty skin.

She twitched, skin jumping and heating at his lightesttouch. Maybe this mate thing really did offer someadvantages.

Fiona groaned and let her heels thump to the floor. "Arewe dead?"

Walker rocked his hips, savoring the feel of her lingeringquivers around his still-erect cock. "Doesn't seem like it."

She didn't open her eyes, but her brows furrowed. "Yousure? What about rigor mortis?"

Walker's head shot up and he stared down at her,aghast.

The laughter started somewhere in the vicinity of herbelly and boiled to the surface like a geyser until hecouldn't do anything else but join in. He collapsed backon top of her in a big, boneless heap of satisfied Lupineand savored the feel of her pressed skin to skin against

him. Well, against all of him above the line of his jeans, which still hugged his thighs. That was as far down as he'd gotten them before he'd fallen on her like a slavering beast.

Grumbling, he tried to maneuver his hands down farenough to get rid of the offending fabric, but he keptgetting distracted somehow. The feel of her damp,flushed skin and the curves and valleys of her limp bodyseemed a lot more interesting than a pair of stubbornjeans.

"Okay, so maybe we're not dead," Fiona managed. She sounded breathless, but he wasn't sure if that was because of what he was doing to her or because she hadn't gotten her breath back yet from what they'd already done. "But I'm still pretty sure that all my nerve endings below the neck are at least comatose."

He grinned. "Let's just check and see."

"Whoa there, Silver Chief." She planted her hands against his shoulders and pushed, trying to dislodge his mouth from the sensitive underside of her breast. "Even the first string gets to take a breather when the buzzer rings."

His tongue slid up the plump curve and circled her nichednipple, leaving a trail of heat and moisture. "I think I feltthe earth move, but I don't remember hearing any bells, Princess. I'd say we've still got some game to play beforehalftime."

"I should have known better than to try a sports metaphor with a man." She pushed harder, and he just ignored her harder. Yet more proof that they were meant for each

other. Fate knew its stuff on this mating business.

"Walker, come on. Reality is beginning to intrude here.

My butt is getting cold."

Sighing, Walker released her nipple with a pop and gaveit one last affectionate lick. "All right. I'll get us to thebedroom, but it's going to take me a minute. My legshave to grow back first. And once they do, I'll have to getthese damned jeans all the way off."

She opened her eyes, violet gems sparkling at himthrough the inky veil of lashes. "I could make asuggestion," she said slowly, "but it's the kind of thingthat would have made you accuse me of treachery,murder, and abusing kittens a few hours ago."

He winced, and she could have sworn she saw himblushing again. "Okay, I should probably apologize forthe way I acted earlier. But in my defense, I neveractually accused you of abusing kittens."