Tempting the Enemy (25 page)

“
You
are what I want.” Did he even know the way his eyes glowed when he watched her? That when his voice was so gruff, she could feel it and all the longing he had in it? That he was stealing parts of her heart with every word? “I want all of you. For always.”

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And that was the crux. He wanted a promise she couldn’t give. A mate to stay at his side. Who could help him lead. As much as he knew of her people, there was one fact he could never understand. Would never believe.

They were
all
slaves.

But she could give him the one truth that whispered in her heart. Indisputably, Instinct or not, it was something not even the Tribunal could force her to keep silent. “Then take me, Pale, because I’ll never want anyone else.”

His eyes shifted Wolf. The sight gave her heart the slightest trip before it began galloping wildly in her chest.

Would he pounce on her now, like he had in the shower?

All that power moving within her instead of so close she had screamed for it and been left empty.

She waited, watching him for any sign.

Finally, his shoulders relaxed, millimeter by millimeter. Relief allowed her to sigh the breath she forgot she was holding. He lowered himself onto all fours at the foot of the bed, slowly crawling toward her, gaze locked on hers.

His movements were sinuous, even with his hard angles and broad muscle. He settled on his belly next to her, then leaned onto his side. He set his head on one hand and lay there. Letting her look her fill as he picked up the ends of her hair and twined them through his fingers. His eyes smoldering, he said only two words. “Prove it.”

Unable to look away from him, the very slow synapses in her brain couldn’t quite figure out that he had challenged her. When they did, need flickered into a taut, fiery rope from her heart to her womb to her moistening sex.

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He would satisfy. He would fulfill.

Giving Instinct free reign, she let go of her final mental restraints. Eyes open, she leaned forward and kissed the Wolf.

Chapter Fifteen

He let her nuzzle into him, even raised his chin to fit her better, but that was all. She wanted more. Fire waited inside her, she could feel it straining to escape, but soft, chaste kisses wouldn’t set it free.

She whimpered against his mouth, a sound she couldn’t remember making in her life, but frustration covered the embarrassment.

His hand cupped her cheek—finally—but did nothing to pull her closer. She scrabbled her hands on his shirt, trying to lift the fabric up, but her hands shook and her claw caught the weave, slicing through it. Yes, that would work.

Another tear, the fabric parting enough to slip her hand in and touch his warmth.

He caught her at her wrist, pulling away from her kiss with a faint growl. His eyes glowed, dangerously aroused. “If we do this, it’s forever, Jade. Be sure.”

“I am,” she answered, meaning it from her soul.

She found herself on her back, Pale leaning above her, her hands on either side of her head where he pinned them, the blankets shucked down to her waist between them. If looks could ravish, she’d have been devoured, just as he promised. She arched upward, desperate to rub her body along his. Everything hurt, as if it strained to be next to him and couldn’t reach. Her breasts ached, the nipples hard and stinging. Worse even than the night in Dee Tenorio

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the shower, the core of her throbbed, wet and swollen.

Empty. Painfully empty.

A hard thigh planted between each of hers, supporting his leverage. Brief relief came when she slid her leg up the solid pillar of him, but the duvet she’d at first reveled in had become a net, holding her away from what she wanted. She tried to shake it off, but without her hands, all she achieved was more friction to her over-sensitized body.

Slowly, like a man sinking into water, he lowered his hips, his weight settling onto her. Through the twisted bedding, she could feel his erection jutting hard against her thigh. Jade groaned, arching up for more of him.

While she felt frantic, he seemed to have all the patience in the world. One arm at a time, he lowered himself to rest on his elbows, his full length above hers. But he didn’t kiss her again. Wouldn’t let her kiss him. Jade settled for rubbing her face against his jaw. Smooth, hot skin fed the need, just as the rush of his scent filled her senses and soothed the hunger.

“Why did you shave?” she asked, though her voice sounded fevered. Breathless.

“Didn’t want to hurt you,” he whispered and for the first time, she understood his control was costing him. His voice was practically a hiss.

“I liked it.” The prickle against her skin had felt like dozens of caresses at once.

“Next time,” he replied, nuzzling her back finally.

She shuddered at his breath on her neck. Leaped against his weight at his hot lick against her pulse.

“I want to touch you.” She almost moved him, bracing her feet to the mattress and lifting her hips.

“Remember what I told you about Wolves in Heat?”

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Unpredictable. Dangerous…

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” she whispered, a wisp of pain getting past the desperation.

“Not on purpose,” he agreed, running his fangs along her neck. His tongue caressed one particular spot gently before he settled to suck.

She arched hard this time, her feet pulling the sheet and blanket from between them another few inches. His hold on her wrists tightened and he made a sound she could only call a pleasured growl.

He’s enjoying this!

She thrashed harder, rucking the blankets farther down until the bare skin of her belly met the rough edge of his jeans. He sucked harder at her neck.

“Pale!” The blankets were a nonissue now. She drew her knees up on either side of his hips, fitting herself to the hard ridge her body instinctively craved.

She wanted to claw the clothes off him. Wanted them torn to shreds until there was only golden skin and sweat.

And she wanted it
now
.

“Easy, Jade.” He drew her hands over her head, grasping both her wrists in one hand so he could trail the other over her arm. She whimpered again beneath the gentle caress. Gentle wasn’t what she wanted. What she knew he could give. But he gave her no choice and she could only lie there, watching him as his eyes mapped her breasts as if he were making plans for every centimeter before him.

Time seemed to stop as he drank in her fair skin against the rose red of her nipples, each an excruciatingly turgid point. His smile spread with each shift of his gaze.

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If she’d thought him devastating before, there were no words for his appeal now.

I wouldn’t have guessed he had dimples…

His large palm settled gently over one mound. She held her breath, trying to remain still, but he was so slow, she thought she’d die before he finished cupping her.

“Perfect,” he rumbled, testing the weight. His thumb circled the hard peak, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. No matter how she tried to stay still, her trembling increased to a quake.

“Please, Pale. Do…
some
thing.” Anything to salve the need.

His smile faded, but she could tell his pleasure hadn’t. His eyes remained trained on hers as he slowly, torturously, grazed her right nipple with his bottom lip.

She would
not
whimper for him again.

His tongue snaked out to lap at her, wrapping around the edge and pulling the tip into his mouth. A soft tug and he let go. And smiled.

So he thought he could play with her? She clasped her legs around his waist, rolling her hips against him. He winced, but she didn’t think she’d hurt him. His big body rocked against her, the pressure sending bolts of excitement through her where he rubbed into her heated folds. Oh, yes, this was better. She pressed her hips to his again, reveling in his reactionary thrust.

Wet heat encircled her nipple, playfulness gone. He suckled, hard, and when she arched this time, it had nothing to do with pushing his boundaries. He let go of one hand—or he lost his grip, she wasn’t sure—but rather than fight him, she slid her fingers into his hair and pulled him closer. Sounds she’d never heard before filled her ears. Deep growls she could feel in her own chest. His 222

Tempting the Enemy

hand found her hip, gripped tight and guided her to roll into his thrust so she could feel him from her aching entrance to the throbbing point that made her gasp. He switched breasts, the cool air on the abandoned tip a stark sensory jolt.

He ground against her, but it wasn’t enough. She needed more. Him. Inside.

Her other hand slipped free, leaving her one of two options. Tear the clothes off him. Or grab whatever she could reach and hold on…

The remaining fabric of his shirt gave way with little resistance. She filled her hands with his smooth skin, pulling him down to her. “More,” she breathed, thrashing as he slid down over her belly.

Distantly, she heard the tray crash off the end of the bed, but all that fully registered was the scrape of claws on her hips, warm hands holding her thighs open wide. A dark, wet kiss made light flash behind her tightly closed lids. His tongue slipped between the folds of her sex, curving through her, soothing and tightening the tension in her body, both at the same time.

Whimpers escaped without ceasing when he dipped into her entrance, lapping as if he’d found the sweetest of water. Jade clawed the pillow behind her head, panting and trying not to scream when he’d slip back to the top and suck on the sharpest point of her need, then head back down to dip inside her. Over and over again, until she was sure this was madness. A dream. A wild, desperate fantasy.

“Sing for me, little Wolf,” he murmured, gently gliding his fingertips over the wet lips before parting them. He found the small pearl there, caressed it with his Dee Tenorio

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tongue…then sucked it between his lips and drew on it as he had her breast.

Her brain completely disconnected from reality.

Colors such as even she’d never seen filled her mental vision. She clamped her legs around his shoulders, lifting herself to his mouth, shuddering now as the Heat he’d ignited in her became the conflagration she’d sensed inside, filling her at every point, then overflowing until she felt like a star of light, streaking through the sky.

When it finally ebbed, when she sagged back down to the bed, her throat was raw and her body languid. Boneless.

Not even her own.

She opened heavy lids to see Pale sitting on his haunches, a smile of complete self-satisfaction on his face.

Considering her current state, she couldn’t quite blame him.

He licked his lips, a Wolf to the core, and shrugged out of the torn shirt, baring his wide pectoral muscles and the dark hair sprinkled there. It arrowed down the center of him, over the ripples of his abdominal muscles and disappeared into the waist of his jeans. His hands moved to the button there and her gaze snapped back up to meet his.

“You didn’t think we were finished, did you?”

The fire in her began to build again. Stronger. Faster.

The hollowness at her core ached more than before. Since she couldn’t quite speak, she simply let her eyes follow the lengths of his arms to where he’d freed himself from the bonds of his clothes. The denim still clung to his hips, but loosely because the zipper had been pulled down all the way. In his hand, being stroked slowly, was the heavy erection she’d felt but never been free to claim. Blush 224

Tempting the Enemy

colored, thick and definitely urgent, she waited for the sense of concern to swamp her as it had in the shower.

Nothing came, nothing but curiosity and want.

Deep, unquenchable want.

Pale waited. For a signal? Some sign she should know how to give, but didn’t? The Instinct he was so insistent on didn’t seem inclined to fill her in. Words didn’t come to mind, nothing that didn’t sound stupid or naïve, and she had no intention of asking for direction.

He’d led enough. So she did the most direct thing she could think of.

Sliding her legs together, once, twice, she parted them in invitation and waited.

He didn’t move, but he definitely looked at her, open there for him. Tempted to cover herself, she slid her fingers downward to the dark curls still moist from his kiss and her release. His eyes followed the motion and she noticed he’d stopped breathing. Interesting.

Her fingertips found her flesh. She quaked at the contact because her nerves felt like live wires, but it was worth it when the hand he held himself with tightened and his big body shook as well. She stroked herself, sliding her fingers the same way he’d moved his tongue on her, and just kept from rolling her head in delirium. When her finger slid inside, though, he finally lost his restraint.

Roaring forward, he took hold of her hand and came down on her, pinning it over her head. “Temptress,” he growled against her neck, his fangs pressing into her skin.

Lower, his erection pressed against her entrance, far thicker than her own slender touch. “I hope you’re ready, Jade, because I’ve got very little control left.”

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It probably wasn’t wise, but she felt reckless. She pulled his face up to hers with her free hand and met his glowing gaze. “You don’t need any.”

She took his mouth for her own.

He pushed inside, taking her as well.

She gasped against him at the inexorable movement, her eyes stinging as her body stretched around him. She could feel him on all sides, the thick head of him tunneling forward inch after inch. Her claws sank into his shoulders as something deep inside tore away and he finally stopped.

They both took a shuddering breath, but he ended his with a kiss, soft and chaste and so different from how their bodies strained to fit together. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“You’re not,” she lied. But it was a good lie. The pain was fading, leaving only a sense of fullness in its wake.