The soft, tender pang of her earlobe caught between his teeth was quick. Fleeting. And all the more potent in its rush. “You wouldn’t have a chance against such a creature, sweetheart.” She felt the words more than heard them and then noticed that he had paused to consider the very sensitive skin just below her ear. The place that she knew still bore Luke’s passion mark. But he didn’t take it. Not just yet. He simply studied it. “At least not if he wanted you badly enough.”
His tongue, just the very tip, warm and moist and very talented from all indications, traveled up the skin he had just admired. Exactly where his brother’s had. And then it disappeared. Just in time for his lips to brush hers.
“Has the animal in you ever wanted anything so badly that the human woman in you would do something wrong to have it?”
His eyes were level with hers, his mouth still teasingly close to her lips. His hand still embedded in her hair. Holding her where he wanted her, just as his twin had. Chloe couldn’t hide her expressions from him with him restraining her like this. All of her fear and excitement and desire were right there in front of him. It showed back at him through her eyes and through the coloring of her cheeks and the red, splotchy patch of nervous natural rouge that had begun on her neck and chest.
He was staring more deeply into her than he had in her fantasy. And like the warm, wet excitement that she would be unable to keep secret from him were he to force her to spread herself open for him, Chloe knew that Caine was watching her become more aroused and intrigued right before his eyes.
Chloe shook her head to answer his question. And licked her lips to try and speak. His eyes immediately went to the tip of tongue that she had inadvertently shown him with her motion.
“Have you, Caine?”
His eyes were still on her mouth. But not the mouth in her fantasy, this time. These lips, it was almost acceptable for him to taste just moments into their human courtship. She could feel the movement of his chest as he breathed in and out, wanting him to break the smallest of societal rules and allow their mouths to explore one another. His excitement forced him to breathe in a motion that resembled panting, or at least she would have thought were it one of her wolves this close to her.
Exactly like Luke panted against me…
That thought danced through her mind and Chloe felt a tiny gasp take hold of her at its conception. Identical physical attributes between the men, she was ready to accept. But to have them both possess such similar signs of sexual arousal and expression with her was more kink and decadence than Chloe had considered.
More quickly than that thought had formed, one of Caine’s hands had released her hair and had come around to slip two of its fingers between her momentarily parted lips.
They probed just inside her mouth. Gently at first, and then more savagely as he didn’t find what he wanted within the first few seconds of his search. Chloe’s first instinct was to clamp down and try and prevent the digits from entering her, but she waited the urge out and it soon turned into something very different.
His desire infected her somehow. It made her want him to have what he needed. And so she let him find what he was looking for with his curious and demanding hand.
Chloe barely touched the tips of his fingers with her tongue. But she did it deliberately and with enough conviction that it caused him to bring his eyes up from her mouth to her eyes.
She tongued his fingers as he studied her eyes. Relaxed her jaws and took them fully into her mouth. Began to taste them when they first hit her tongue. As soon as she detected his flavor, she rounded them again with her tongue and began a slow, pulsing suction on the long, masculine phallic symbols he had forced between her lips.
It could have been considered obscene had it been any other man who had just done this to her. But just as she had told him, Chloe had read everything the man had ever written. And she wanted to think that the word obscene didn’t even exist in his vocabulary when it came to sex and physical love.
Caine didn’t mean anything vulgar or degrading with this action. If what he had written had
any
basis in fact as far as the way the man felt about sex and animal attraction and its relationship to human passion, Chloe knew exactly what he was doing.
He was exploring her. Letting her taste and explore him. And arousing them both indirectly, simply with his attempts to let them familiarize themselves with one another. Flirtation.
Foreplay.
Animal style.
At least Chloe hoped that was what the man was doing. She tried very hard to keep the possibility to a bare minimum that he was the victim of a serious finger-sucking fetish.
Or sucking fetishes in general, although Chloe had no aversion to any form, position, or action with regards to the sexual act.
She just hadn’t tried them all yet. And Damon Caine could just be the man she could lose a few more virginities to if he was what he appeared to be.
He pushed that little hope closer to conclusion as he eased his fingers out of her mouth and took them into his own. Tasting hers with his.
Exactly what she’d hoped he’d do.
And exactly what his brother had done.
She wasn’t sure if the grip in her hair tightened before or after his mouth smothered hers, but somewhere along the way, she lost the coveted ability she’d once held to get herself out of any situation life threw at her.
The man was most definitely a curious beast. Or at least he was in the oral sense of the word. Chloe was kissed. Chloe was tasted. Chloe was savored in a way that she had never been savored before. Even by his brother’s tongue on her sex. Most importantly, the man now making her his meal found her mouth watering.
Caine didn’t say as much. But he didn’t have to.
His hands told her he didn’t want her to get away from him until he was finished with her. His lips silently started creating the story she had teased him about. They told her of desire and lust and passion so out of control that even the most educated of women and the most successful of men and the most domesticated of animals were helpless to its demands if ever caught in its grasp.
His tongue mated with hers while neither of them was looking. And as if neither of them cared.
Chloe couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move away from him or get his hands out of her hair or his mouth away from hers. Her heart beat out a message that told her she had made love to the wrong brother, even if it had felt so damned close to right that it had scared her. Chloe felt he was the man she had been born to be with as his hands and mouth prevented her from denying that fact. Had Luke stayed with her, had he shown her the affection she had needed after he’d been inside her, Chloe felt certain she could have found it with him. But he hadn’t. It hadn’t been in his nature. At least not in his nature when he was with her.
It constituted the bulk of Caine’s nature. He, like she for him, had been created for one purpose. To make love to her. To give her pleasure and pain and everything in between. Damon Caine was just as strong as Chloe, if not stronger. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally. Chloe had never found a man like this before. Certainly not one who had held her in his arms. And she wondered how she had ever lived without knowing how it truly felt.
An intelligent woman. A PhD. Summa Cum Laude. Strong as an ox if she needed to tote her equipment or a wounded animal somewhere.
Suddenly, rendered helpless.
Chloe had long ago decided that being a strong and intelligent female had come with its own downfalls. Her fantasy had always been to find the man who put her to shame with his strength. A man who could hold his own against her in every aspect of life. A worthy ally in that war they would fight together.
An animal like the one her great-grandmother had created in her mind.
Caine had created very similar animals in his own mind. And Chloe was learning first hand just how powerful such a mind could be when it lived in the body of a man.
Once again his actions, the combination of hold and release, restrain and withdrawal, were a blur as she found her mouth free to draw breath and his fingers massaging tender scalp where he himself had just inflicted pain. Caine’s eyes reinstated their grip as soon as they found hers again. His lips brushed against her mouth once more, without any decided movement toward another kiss. And he smiled.
“They are only stories, Chloe.”
Only stories. And Caine was only a man.
Reality had
never
tasted this good before.
“And my books are fiction as well,” he nodded and slid back across the seat to put the truck back into drive. Chloe wondered how he was managing to remain so calm. How he was so together after what he’d just done to her. The man had reached into her psyche and ripped a hole into everything she knew as rational and sane.
And then somehow been able to let go.
For a moment, Chloe had to wonder which of the brothers she had just tasted.
She wrapped her arms around her body and stared forward. Her pulse pounded from her ears down to her clit and then reverberated into her toes. She was alive. Awake. Aroused more than she had ever been in her life. Ever.
He’d simply kissed her.
Chloe hadn’t had time to think about the rush of courtly anticipation that comes with a first kiss. Neither her body nor her mind had bothered to examine the societal meanings behind what the man was doing with his hands and mouth when he’d taken possession of her. Caine hadn’t touched her breasts. Never once reached for her sex. He’d used no tried and true area of her body to cause her to react as she was. Save for her mouth. Her ability to feel the sharp and pleasant pain of desire.
And her mind.
Every reaction she’d had was automatic. And natural.
And the result of a kiss.
Chloe could not even begin to imagine what
this
twin could do with his body.
Chapter Nine
The lights from a massive three-story farmhouse took Chloe by surprise as Caine rounded a sharp curve and then guided the truck up a driveway that meandered through what appeared to be an equally impressive yard. As far as she could tell in the moonlight the structure was immaculate and flanked by temporarily hibernating vegetable and flower gardens and several other outbuildings and smaller houses. Squinting in the darkness, Chloe turned and surveyed the property without trying to hide her curiosity or her surprise.
“It looks like you have your own town.”
She hadn’t meant to say the words out loud, but the low chuckle that came from him as a result made her glad that she had. The main house itself looked large enough to house several families. She wondered what the property would look like in the daylight as she watched Caine open his door as she reached for her own door handle.
“Wait.”
Her hand froze on the handle and her look froze on him. As he held her eyes with his own, a long, thick finger, one she hadn’t yet tasted, was pointing at her with an air of authority that suggested that she should do as he said due to some danger or other situation that he needed to take care of before she got out of the truck.
Chloe let her hand rest in her lap and watched him close his door. As she waited for some signal or word that it was all right for her to get out, she quickly surveyed the yard in hopes of spotting the wolf or rabid dog or killer possum from which he was protecting her. It was very quiet and extremely dark in the cab of the truck and Chloe felt goose flesh begin to pucker as the heat disappeared quickly once the engine was off. She leaned forward, not having seen where Caine had gone, but found nothing.
Her door opened so quickly that she gasped and jumped as he offered his hand to her. The smile of amusement that lit his eyes over his startling her with his simple act of manners made Chloe have to stare at him for a moment before she could get her feet and her own hands to work. When she finally did manage to get her hand to reach for him, the strength with which he urged her to the ground made her own coordination or facilities unnecessary. He hadn’t jerked or pulled at her, but instead had somewhat gathered her out of the truck and pulled her very close to his side before he closed her door. As if he had somehow known how sore and stiff she was.
“You can’t wander around alone out here, Chloe.”
The grip of his hand on her side had been reaffirmed as he spoke the words. His look told her not to argue with him.
For her own sake.
Chloe was confused. “Caine this is the woods, for God’s sake! And if there is one place in which I’m comfortable, it’s miles away from civilization and telephones and T.V. Really, I’d think that by your knowing my profession, you’d have some idea of my abilities and familiarity with animals,” she teased. She ignored the look he was giving her and stood her ground instead. “Caine, I am not stupid and I’m not some city girl who needs to be put on a leash.”
For some reason, perhaps the intensity with which his eyes bored into her, Chloe suspected that it wasn’t any run of the mill four-legged beast that Caine was worried about.
Something in her gut told her she was right in this assumption, but the researcher in her craved in-depth information and proof. And the woman in her knew exactly how to extract said information from a man such as Caine appeared to be. As they crossed the yard, she somehow managed to pull her hand out of his, causing him to stop and turn to face her.
“I can take care of myself, Caine.”
His newest look was annoyed but not angry as he reached for her hand again. When she quickly jerked her fingers out of his reach, the look changed colors.
“Chloe.”
That was all he said. Just her name. But the tone and the look that accompanied it made Chloe feel as if she was seven years old again and her daddy had just scolded her for trying his patience.
The Freudian in her had always loved that tone.
She crossed her arms on her chest and stared back at him. Questioning him silently as to who the hell he thought he was. His face didn’t tell her a thing except how angry he was with her having defied him.
He breathed out long and frustrated and moved closer to her, causing her to unconsciously step back. She immediately and silently cursed herself for letting the action seem to intimidate her. Her being a worthy opponent against him would most likely be a major turn on for a man like Caine. Chloe raised her head and squared her shoulders as she continued to meet his gaze.
She watched his eyes soften just a bit as he looked at her.
“Chloe, please.”
That tone. And that word again.
The man’s similarities to another beast she knew seemed endless.
His hand reached for hers again, but waited just inches from her fingers for her to take it. Chloe kept her arms crossed and looked down at the fingers that she wanted everywhere all at once on her body.
Just as soon as she taught him who really was the boss.
She began to let her mind play with the concepts in his novels as she made him wait for her decision. The fear that his human wolf hybrids held for the alpha’s wrath were they to disobey him was definitely exciting to her. As was the idea of the females’ helplessness against such strength. But standing next to the man who had created such fables and myths in his head made Chloe consider another possible message that she and many others may have missed in his works.
The true power in the struggle to mate and breed, it could be argued, was held not in the one pursuing, but in the pursued. Chloe felt exactly that kind of power the moment he lowered his voice and
asked
her to obey him. It occurred to her that even though the male of any animal can indeed use force on his mate, if it wasn’t for the object of his desire, he would feel no need to pursue.
Chloe grinned seductively and knowingly at the creature in front of her without reaching for his hand. The one she was somehow controlling simply because she was a member of the weaker sex.
“Did you fucking get lost?”
The voice was sexy and deep and the words had been growled in a resonance that made Chloe’s nipples hard.
Again.
And very much against her will.
Luke Caine stood looking down at them from the top step of the porch. Legs planted shoulder width apart and hands crossed even more defiantly than hers had been.
Caine turned to face his twin and Chloe stared silently at the two beautiful men in front of her.
God damn.
Chloe was scared and excited all at the same time and freezing to death and for some ungodly reason as she stood there, she felt very much like an expensive entree.
Between two equally ravenous men.
“She wasn’t sleeping fully dressed, Luke.”
Chloe felt the brush of rough, demanding fingers on her skin. They dragged themselves down her neck and grasped at her breasts on their way down to her sore, aching pussy. He didn’t care that she was hurting. She could see it very plainly on his face. Luke would hurt her even more if the urge arose in him and her cries would not be of delightful pain this time. And he didn’t care that she was hurt because he hadn’t felt what she did. Chloe’s heart had found all of this simply from the look he was using on her.
Apparently, his soft side wasn’t something that stuck around for very long.
“I know how she sleeps, Caine.”
If the mutual attraction between her and Caine had been a being, real and tangible, then the entity that circled around her now and seethed from and between these two men was screaming for her to take notice of its duality in rage and love. And the statement Luke Caine had just made sank its razor sharp teeth into her throat and started to bleed her with the regret it made her feel.
He was angry again. As he had been the first time she’d tried to make love to him. But this time, she considered that his anger was being provoked by the activities that he had instigated and allowed to take place. She also considered that he might be angry seeing her with Caine, but that wasn’t the vibration she was receiving from the man in front of her.
She wanted to see something in his eyes that told her that he had felt at least a mild affection for her or that he had felt at least a hint of the bond to her that she had to him. But Chloe found nothing of the sort in his gaze. In fact, judging from the look Luke used on her as she stepped closer to Caine, she would have thought that the man had never even made love to her.
She tried to shake off her confusion and hurt over Luke’s coldness. It didn’t seem to work. Caine ascended the first step of the porch and then stopped to turn and look for her. Chloe quickened her step and caught up with him, her eyes never leaving the scarred face of his brother.
“Hello, Luke.”
Caine stopped when she spoke to his brother. Chloe managed to stand her ground when Luke moved closer to her and leaned forward.
She could swear that the man drew in a breath of her scent.
Luke Caine didn’t care about her. This was obvious in his eyes. Besides, Chloe knew that had he cared, he would have stayed by her side for at least a little while earlier that night. And it would have been he who had come to get her in the middle of the night and not his brother whom she had never met. But he didn’t care about her. It didn’t even faze him when Chloe backed away from him to stand closer to his twin.
His lack of fondness for her hurt her more than anything he could have done to her body. Physical pain, Chloe could take. Even enjoy from the right man.
But the emotional pain that came from finding that a man who had been inside her body had felt and continued to feel nothing for her was the kind she had never wanted. Luke Caine had lied to her. His actions and his attitude while he’d made love to her had deceived her once again.
Or more accurately, she suspected, Luke had lied about how he felt when he’d fucked her. And her first impression of him, when Chloe had deemed him unfeeling and wrong for her, had been much closer to the truth.
To be honest, Chloe wasn’t sure if she should ever listen to another feeling or vibration she got from a Caine man. Even the one reaching so protectively for her now.
As if she did indeed have a choice in the matter.
The fingertips weren’t demanding, but neither were they compromising this time. Chloe wouldn’t or couldn’t take her eyes off of the beautiful, damaged man in front of her. The one who would never know how badly he had hurt her heart with a single encounter.
Her hand slid itself into Caine’s.