What This Wolf Wants (16 page)

Instead he stayed with her through every twist of her body, every shudder, drawing out her release.

His lust was riding so high that Zan felt bruised as he quickly shed his shirt and the sweatpants Jackie had pulled to his thighs. Somehow he still had the presence of mind to rip into his bag and yank out a condom.

He tore it open with his teeth as he climbed up Jackie’s body to kneel between her thighs and sheath himself.

Her legs were limp when he lifted them. He planted a lingering kiss on each creamy thigh before crossing her legs over her belly. The position tilted her hips up and left her wide open. He held on to her folded legs with one hand and parted her damp folds with his other. Torturing them both, he rubbed his erection through her wetness, coating his shaft and stroking her clit.

“Dammit Zan. Don’t make me kill you,” Jackie pleaded and demanded at the same time.

“If you kill me, then I can’t do this.” Zan wasted no more time breaching her body. Pushing past the sensitive ring of muscles that clutched at his invasion, he only managed to get the head of his cock inside her before he had to squeeze his eyes closed against the burning urge to lose himself completely. Pulling out, he thrust back in her moist heat, carefully stretching her, filling her. Another powerful stroke and he was almost there. The fourth plunge had him seated to the hilt and he froze, savoring the exquisite grasp of her pussy. Her inner muscles trembled around him, like a thousand tiny fingers kneading his cock, holding him inside her.

“You’re so fucking tight, you’re killing me. I don’t know…Fuck.” He snarled and gripped her feet, holding them tight as he lost all control.

Lost in a world of irrevocable pleasure, he thrust the hard length of his cock into her in heavy, driving lunges. Being with her, taking her was incredibly hot. The pleasure so unlike any he’d ever known.

He looked down, unable to help himself from watching as he thrust inside her. As he drew free, glistening with her cream, he growled low and rough, possessive. “Mine.” He nipped her toe with his teeth before his eyes once again dropped to where they were joined. Spreading open her dark pink folds, he was mesmerized by the sight of him emerging and then disappearing inside her body. Her clit was exposed as well and, knowing what she liked, what she needed, he used his thumb to stroke the hard bundle of nerves.

“Oh God. Oh God. It’s happening again.” She choked out, her hands flared out, scrambling for purchase.

He shafted her harder, desperately. Tunneling through her sweet sex with everything he had. She made him crazy. Wild with passion, wild with the possessive need to bind her to him forever. He took her fast, faster, with deep, driving strokes that had him at the edge even as satisfaction surged through him when she tightened around him.

“That’s it,” he urged her, praising her. “Come for me, angel. Let me feel you explode around me.”

“Bastard,” she cried out between ragged pants.

Zan chuckled, the sound abruptly cut off when her hands latched onto his hips. Her fingers dug into his skin, her short nails biting into his flesh. Pleasure-pain burst through him, violent sprays of colors blinded him. He took her impossibly harder, his orgasm screaming for release.

No more. He couldn’t hold off any longer. Even as she arched under him, letting out a silent scream, he jerked inside her, coming in almost brutal waves of ecstasy. Convulsing spasms tore through his body as hers shuddered beneath him.

He was sapped. All his strength gone. He leaned over Jackie in a sprawling heap, pressing his face in her neck, his hand deep in her thick hair. He felt her legs move under his ribs and he managed to hunch up so she could uncross her trapped legs, but he refused to move off her. Refused to break their most intimate of connections. He couldn’t. He loved her too much.

Squeezing his eyes against that sudden, but no less certain knowledge, he waited until her breathing grew slow and deep. Zan knew how much she needed sleep, how much they both needed a few hours of peace. When she twitched beneath him as if fighting the pull, he lifted his head.

“Sleep,” he whispered in her ear. “You’re safe with me, angel.

You’ll always be safe with me.”

She shuddered once and then went lax. Seconds from tumbling with her, he silently groaned and eased from her body. After staggering to the bathroom and disposing of the condom, he stumbled back to bed, tucking Jackie close to his chest, his chin on her head. With his arms banded around her waist, he felt a contentment settle in his body, in his heart. In his soul. And then sleep took him under.

Chapter Fifteen

Unfortunately, contentment was the last feeling he woke with. Still half-asleep, he stretched out an arm, searching the bedding blindly. Though the spot Jackie had lain in was still warm, she was gone.

Anger and fear had him shooting straight up. The sense of panic didn’t ease until he caught sight of her suitcase just as the squeak of the shower as it turned off reached his ears. He flopped back on the bed, calling himself every kind of idiot.

Of course she hadn’t stolen away in the night while he’d been sated and deep asleep. She might be hesitant about accepting Zan’s claim—who was he kidding? She was flat out refusing—she wasn’t one to sneak out to get away from him. She would go toe-to-toe and tell him point blank how she felt. Hadn’t she already done so? Several times in fact, taking strips of his pride every time she walked away.

Yet he still battled forth, taking a perverse pleasure in the challenge, knowing how much sweeter victory will be when he finally changed her mind. And damn. While he might have possibly-just-only-briefly thought their first time together had been an explosive fluke, last night changed that. And according to his brother, sex between mates only got better. Hotter.

But only if affection was there.

A crease formed between his brows as an unbidden memory surfaced. A conversation he’d had with his father back when he’d been a young and arrogant pup. Actually, not much older than Joe or Scott were right now. Zan couldn’t understand why his father would choose a desk job in the military when his shifter abilities could be such an asset in the field.

Not to mention the excitement and adrenaline rush field work was. The sneaking, the hunting and finally, taking down one’s prey.

The high was incomparable.

His father, lounging back in his home office desk chair, had listened with quiet patience as Zan had ranted on. When Zan had finally run out of steam, Carl only appeared slightly confused. “Why would I ever want to leave when everything I’ve ever wanted, ever needed, is right in this house?”

Zan had snorted at that, unbelieving. Thinking his father was whipped. Then his father smiled, warm, confident, and not a little smug and it had made Zan pause. “Son, when you find the one you love more than your own life, want more than your next breath, your perfect mate, sharing your life with her will be the greatest adventure you will ever have.”

Zan had rolled his eyes with all the cocky derision of his youth.

“Please. Nothing beats a good hunt. Taking a mate’s no big deal.” His father had laughed. A full belly laugh that had brought tears to his eyes. “Boy, where have you been for the last fifteen years? It’s not just the initial taking, it’s the keeping. Every time I upset your mother I have to use everything I have, all my skill and persuasive abilities, to bring her around. It’s a hunt almost every damn day. And the rewards,” his father’s grin turned sly. “Well. It’s an addictive fulfillment that far surpasses any adrenaline high you’ve ever experienced in your spy games. Nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to having your true mate in your life and raising a family together.”

Zan had left shortly after, feeling a bit ragged at the edges. His father had always seemed so calm, so sure of himself. And while Zan loved his mother, he’d never understood how such a confident man could possibly be satisfied with what Zan thought was a submissive woman.

It wasn’t until then he realized he didn’t know as much as he thought he did about his adoptive parents. Evidently a lot more happened behind closed doors, and not just of the sexual kind, which he so didn’t want to even think about.

Over the years he’d become more restless. He’d taken more, harder missions, thinking the more dangerous the hunt, the more his beast would be soothed. Only it had proved the opposite. Both man and wolf had craved more, until Zan had been forced to lie to his leader about what he could and couldn’t handle. And controlling his wolf had become harder to handle.

Until he’d scented Jackie. And damn if the snarly creature hadn’t rolled over on it’s back in ecstatic joy. The man hadn’t been too far behind.

It had taken over ten years for Zan to understand what his father spoke about. Wooing Jackie was taking everything he had. Her moods were mercurial, her temper quick. She was so smart, so passionate in everything she did, and so damn sexy that just thinking about her made his blood heat. Yeah. He wanted her bad. Loving the temperamental, sexy doc was going to be the death of him.

Jackie chose that moment to exit the bathroom. Her long hair was down and still damp from her shower. But glory be, she was wearing a dress. In a cherry red with little white designs throughout. Zan felt his mouth dry up. Far from risqué, the dress had cap sleeves, a scooped neckline and fitted waist that flared to her knees. Despite taking her one more time just before dawn, she now appeared demur and untouched, while he was hard enough to pound spikes.

Sweet enough to eat. Again. And he wanted to. Desperately. In three greedy bites.

“Good morning,” he said, his voice thick with sleep and lust.

“We don’t have much time, Zan.” She crouched next to her suitcase, not looking at him. “If you’re going to shower, you need to hurry.”

Shower? Hell. He didn’t know if he could stand. He dragged his eyes away to look at the bedside clock. Not enough time for what he wanted. Maybe.

She straightened and then moved stiffly to the coffee maker. Her shoulders were back, her body tense. She still refused to meet his eyes.

And he didn’t like that. Not one damn bit.

Silently he rose and padded, naked, to her. When he lightly touched her arms she jolted as from an electric shock. “We don’t have time for this.”

Now he was getting pissed. “Time for what? I just wanted to say good morning.”

“Good morning.”

When she didn’t move, didn’t so much as glance back at him, he felt a snarl rip through his chest. He’d be damned if she was going to pretend last night hadn’t happen. Knowing he was being a little rough, he swung he around, forcing her face up with two fingers under her chin.

The blush staining her cheeks had him feeling like a heel. Damn.

She was embarrassed. But why? “I was hoping for a good morning kiss.” He gentled his tone.

“Oh. Um. Well.” She was so sweetly flustered that his anger drained away.

Women and their zany mood swings. He’d never understand it.

Taking control, he leaned down, brushing a soft kiss to one corner of her mouth then the other. Hers eyes fluttered closed and he cupped her face, pressing his lips full on hers. She softened and he swiped his tongue over the seam of her lips. When she opened to him, he took full advantage, thrusting in deep, and possessive. Her hands wrapped around his neck and she edged up, crushing her breasts to his chest. One hand tangled in her damp hair, the other snaked around to cup her ass, pulling her tighter against him, trapping his erection between them. A groan of need escaped.

He’d only wanted Jackie to look at him, kiss him. But at her touch, that need for affection had quickly raged into a blazing inferno.

He’d just pulled the hem of her dress up to her ass when a heavy fist pounded on the room door. “Hey,” Scott yelled. “You ready yet?” Jackie jerked out of his arms and Zan cursed a blue streak.

“We gotta take the rentals back and eat, man. The plane won’t be serving a seven course meal you know.”

Zan strode over to the door and yanked it open, not at all concerned that his cock was hard and angry. It matched his mood at that moment. “You’re dead.”

“Jesus. Watch where you’re pointing that thing.”

“I’m going to point it in your ass in a minute.” At Scott’s raised brow Zan did a mental rewind. “Wait. That came out wrong.”

“Ya, think?” Jackie came up behind him, a sparkle of amusement in her brown eyes. Her lips were wet and red from his. She had a touch of beard rash that had him scraping a hand over his rough whiskers. While he liked the idea of marking her, especially since she no longer bore his claim on her neck, he’d never desire to hurt her. “Will we be eating breakfast then?”

Scott grinned. “It’s the most important meal of the day. The hotel restaurant serves a breakfast buffet and I’m ready to graze.”

“Great.” Zan turned to Jackie. “You hungry?”

“Hmmm. I could eat.” Her eyes dropped briefly to his cock, making it twitch back to fullness after his stupid comment to Scott.

He forced blood back to his brain and glared at the other man.

“Take Jackie and don’t let her out of your sight. I’ll be down in ten minutes.”

Scott held out an arm. “My lady,” he said, complete with a charming smile that made Zan want to smack the younger shifter.

Her smile was warm and bright as she accepted Scott’s arm, making Zan want to snarl and retract his command. “Might as well take her case.” That way he’d have to keep his grubby paws off her.

“I’ll get it.” Joe appeared out of a door three rooms down, a duffel bag over each shoulder. He tossed one to Scott who expertly caught it, without ever letting go of Jackie. Damn show-off. He growled.

“Easy there, big boy. I think you need a cold shower.” Scott snickered.

“And I think you need to be dropped on your head. Maybe then you’ll gain some sense.” With that Zan wrapped a hand around Jackie’s neck and kissed her quick, hard, and thoroughly. When he pulled back, he was pleased and somewhat comforted at the glazed look in her eyes. “I’ll be down shortly.”

“Okay.”

He smiled at Scott. Well, it was more a baring of his teeth. “With your life.”