Yearnings: A Paranormal Romance Box Set (102 page)

“
I doubt I want to know, but I’ll bite.” She could guess the answer. Better at being the wolf. Maybe she just wanted him talking. If he kept talking, she’d stop thinking, looking, and wanting. “Better at what?”

“
Better at the hunt.” He straightened and noticeably swallowed. His eyes narrowed, sending shivers racing under her skin. “I thought I asked you to go back to Beatrice.”

Leigh half laughed. “If I had, you’d still be dangling off the side of this train.”

He pushed off the wall and stalked closer, crowding her backward. “You’re playing with fire by staying here, Leigh.”

She would not be intimidated. He stared at her, contemplating something. Leigh glared back, standing her ground. She knew he was right. That didn’t mean he got to bully her. “You think that because I didn’t before, I won’t resist you now. Is that it?”

“
I don’t think. I know.” His devilish smile tripped her pulse. “I dare you to prove me wrong.”

Leigh took two steps back. Grant followed, bracing an arm at either side of her head. “I’m not afraid of you.”

He dipped his head low so that she could smell and feel his minty breath. “Good.”

His mouth was so close. Warm flutters skittered down her belly, tickling between her thighs. She should leave. But she wanted to stay. She wanted to stay and prove to him and to herself she could resist him.

Liar. She flat-out craved his hands on her body. She wanted his mouth to show her what those eyes promised. Tossing her virtue aside for one night of pleasure would be stupid, and she had no doubt, would be a choice she’d long regret. It would be stupider to tell herself he was not as broken as she imagined, and could love her the way she needed to be loved.

“
What you do to me is dangerous, Leigh.”

She couldn’t form words past the thudding in her throat.

“
You make me want impossible things. You make all the pain, all the present, all the past vanish.”

Leigh shut her eyes. She hated his words. She didn’t want to be his escape. She didn’t want broken. She wanted whole, complete, forever, or nothing at all. She’d lived her life in perfect happiness. Even one little sidestep into foolishness over Henry was favorable compared to desperate. When she opened her eyes again, Grant shocked her, kissing her full on the mouth. His deep groan rumbled into her mouth and set all that flutter inside her on fire with need.

He was like a storm crashing over her. Thunder and rain. Hope and pain. Leigh succumbed to the force of it, realizing how badly she wanted—needed—to be drenched. She wound her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his. He captured her in his arms, spun their bodies so that his back fell against the wall.

“
Leigh,” he breathed on her lips. His stubble scratched. His lips soothed. His tongue drove torturous pleasure through her body with his slow, suckling kiss. “I have nothing, Leigh. I am hollow, I know. But I swear, if you let me, I’ll give you this.”

Leigh pulled his mouth back to hers. Shut up. She wanted him to just shut up before common sense gripped her and stopped this glorious storm. Shocks plinked through her limbs and shivered up her thighs. A wave of sensation pulled over her. Rational thought drowned away.

She no longer cared what he wasn’t, or what she was. She craved the hush at the end of this storm, and only he could bring her to it. Her hands found flesh under his tattered shirt and she explored. Grant broke their kiss to trail bliss down her throat. His hand laced into her braided hair, his thumb on her jaw. He tipped her head and sucked her throat, his teeth grazing the spot behind her ear.

Leigh instinctively brought a leg up so she could press her pelvis closer to him. His hips answered in kind, pressing his erection against her. So big, so hard it hurt. Hurt, but she wanted more. More but not outside, inside. Skin on skin.

She opened her eyes, pushed him back, and tore at his shirt. Some of the material gave under her pull, already torn. Grant needed no further encouragement and pulled the shredded thing off. Leigh exhaled, seeing his wide chest. His muscles strained. Fresh looking scratches drew her hand. She reached for him. He stopped her, taking her hand.

“
How?”

“
The wolf or the shift into it somehow marked me.”

“
It’s the same symbol from my dream.”

Emotion passed over his eyes. He didn’t want to think about the mark, clearly, or any of it. Leigh had no trouble dropping the matter, particularly when he put her hand on his hard stomach. His skin was hot. The deep
v
contours of his chest begged her eyes downward. A thin trail of hair picked up her attention, taking it all the way down to his belt. Leigh tugged at the buckle. Again, Grant helped. He whipped the thing off and opened his black pants.

An unspoken agreement passed between them. For now, they would just be. Just feel. Just touch. Leigh embraced the ephemeral moment as a gift and grew bolder. Leigh immediately found what she was looking for. His erection jerked in her hand. Her body moistened, throbbing. This is what she wanted. Him. All of him. She would not fool herself ever again when it came to a man. She might regret this for every night to come, but she would make sure she had a lot to regret.

She reached for the buttons on her blouse. Within quick seconds they stood naked, skin pressing to skin and sending Leigh back into the oblivion of pure, mindless pleasure. Grant bent and captured one nipple in his mouth. Leigh gasped, shocked at the hot, sweet delight his mouth gave her, spiraling down her waist, sparking more hot fire between her legs.

No, not a fire. A hunger. His mouth teased the hunger, whispering promises to her body. She knew what would come, but also didn’t. Grant scooped her into his arms, kicked near a bench and within a couple jerky motions laid her onto a nest of bedding on the carpeted floor. The train’s motion became more exaggerated. A worry threatened at the edge of her mind, but before it could gain ground, Grant’s mouth took over.

He captured the neglected nipple, massaging her full breasts. Leigh arched, moaning, mindless, sensations sweeping over her. The hunger between her thighs grew more and more demanding. She fingered her hands into his hair, pulling him closer, needing more. So much more.

“
No,” he whispered, pulling away.

Leigh whimpered.

“
Shh, princess. I have a secret to show you.”

She practically melted then and there. His hands ran down the length of her body. Leigh moved to cover her breasts feeling exposed under his stare as he backed his body down, lower and lower. Grant pulled her hands from her breasts, binding her wrists atop her stomach with one hand as his tongue found her hip. She didn’t resist his hold but couldn’t resist wriggling under the ticklish tremors his licking sent through her body.

“
I think I’ve already heard about this secret,” she said, impressed with her own boldness.

He gave her wrists a little twist. “Not from my lips, princess.”

Princess. This time the word was an endearment that wrapped around her heart. Grant sucked the flesh of her inner thigh into his mouth and moaned. Leigh bucked in surprise. She never imagined such pleasure. The softness of his tongue, the vibration of his moan! His mouth snuck up her thigh, so close to the heat of her sex. So very close to the hunger. Her hands instinctively fought for freedom. Her hips moved toward the promise of his tongue. Would he? Oh, Jesus, yes! He would. He did. He suckled her flesh. He laved up one side and down the other. He adored her core with long, delving licks.

Heat flashed through her body. A sweet need built in her sex. She needed more. So much more. She grew mindless to the need, her thoughts darting for ways to get closer, deeper.

He set her hands free and Leigh immediately clutched for his head. She pushed her hips forward and pulled his head closer. Grant moaned again. The sound reverberated through her. He pulled away, licking upward, flicking the top. Leigh cried out from the intense pleasure.

She needed more. So much more. She might die without the invisible demand of her body being satisfied.

Grant gripped her thighs, pushing them up over his shoulders, massaging up the length from her cheeks to her ankles, marking her with memories. Branding her with his firm, possessive touch. That touch slowly slid into her core. Sparks of sensation rushed through her. The deep craving became satisfied.

In and out, he drove his fingers in slow strokes, licking the topmost of her mound.

She wanted to touch every inch of him and leave something indelible behind, too, but at the same time could not stop him. Something no other woman could ever compare to, something like what she felt now. She couldn’t fathom how she could return this bliss to him, but followed her body’s demands. Giving into the deep, driving emotion, Leigh scratched her nails over his shoulders, down his arms.

She opened her legs wide, trying tell him she was opening herself to him completely.

Grant responded, capturing her wrists again in his fist. With a soft smooch, he ended his kiss to her sex and pulled her to sit, legs sprawled. His gaze glittered with hunger for her. The power of it felt heady and the ache between her legs swelled. His mouth glistened. He breathed hard and fast. Letting one wrist go, he pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed her wrist. “Take you hair down?”

Leigh shot one eyebrow up, bemused to be forced to do anything so mundane amid this magic, but amused that her hair was what mattered, and complied. She pulled the tie free and untwined the braid. Shaking her hair out, shivers ran over her skin from the feel of her long hair down her back, spilling over her shoulders. His eyebrows drew together as he leaned forward and buried his face into a thick lock near her neck. Winding his hands into her loose hair, Grant cupped her head and kissed her mouth so deeply that Leigh thought he might make the entire world disappear forever. She returned it full force, arching, giving him every fear, every hope, and curiosity into the long, deep kiss.

She tasted herself in his mouth, surprised at the soft tang of it. His erection pressed at her sex and oh, how good it felt. Her body pulsed expectantly. That is what she wanted. Him, long and hard, inside of her where the ache lived. She wriggled against his dick, wanton under the power of her need.

The world spun, and Leigh landed on the blankets again, her limbs tangled into his. Rough hair on his legs, hard muscle at his thighs. Heart beating from his chest against her. Grant’s icy-blue eyes caressed her face. This was heaven. This was magic. How had she survived so many years not knowing this rapture existed?

“
Are you sure?” he asked.

Leigh laughed breathlessly. “A bit beyond that, aren’t we?”

His eyes narrowed with his wolfish grin. “A bit.”

But he didn’t move. His body waited at her entrance. She was more than sure, more than ready. Even the feel of the tip of him nearly sent her back over into an oblivion of physical pleasure. Leigh held back. This—this very moment—hung in the sky with the stars and the moon and every wish she’d ever made on each one. She needed to remember the touch and feel of it. He wouldn’t move until she said yes.

She breathed him in and memorized every aspect from his labored panting and intense stare, to the slick feel of her core touching to his velvety prick. No man would ever make her feel like this. Only him.

Only Grant.

Leigh ran her hand over her stubbly cheek. Promises shone in his eyes. Untold hopes. She could see the Grant that lived before all his heartache and anger. He would have given her everything, if not for the past. For a small space of time, she let herself believe that is what he would do. He would do all he could to fill the holes inside of him up. He would heal from the past and create a future. With her.

Grinning, she nodded. “I’m sure, Grant.”

The pain wasn’t as bad as she expected. A pinch, more than a tear. The disconcerting part was feeling her body strain to fit his massive size. Right when panic threatened to dissolve the thrill, Grant shifted. Her body relaxed. With soft kisses to her face and soft circles with his hips. Her hunger for more swept back in, full force. She didn’t know what end she sought, but like a hard thirst, she had to find it. Repletion. Satisfaction. Each thrust brought her back to the heights she’d been soaring through. Higher. Wider.

“
Oh, Grant,” she moaned, taking in another deep, slick shove.

Leigh closed her eyes and gave in to the wind running through her body, the swirl and push. Stars sparkled under her closed eyelids. The hunger built. The pleasure climbed, coalescing into a tightness that would burst. Any moment, her whole body would burst. Grant stroked in out of her, pushing her over the brink. She clutched to him tightly, moaning, meeting his hips and like a crash of thunder, her body exploded.

Leigh cried out. Her body quaked, her legs shook. Spasms jerked through her and her body’s thirst got quenched in deep, long gulps. Again and again. Sweet pleasure crashed through her.

In her mind, she saw him, her, the muscular curve of his back, the shape of her thighs as her legs instinctively wrapped around his hips. The bulge of his bicep as he held her lower back, the hollow of his buttocks as he drove into her.

Nothing else mattered. Grant groaned deep and long as his hips stilled inside her. She felt him throb and jerk inside of her, daring to open her eyes to see the look of his climax.