Desert Moon (The Wolves of Twin Moon Ranch Book 1) (11 page)

Whether it was him or her who initiated the turn, he didn’t know. All he knew was that a minute later, she was on her hands and knees and he was bent over her from behind, running his hands over smooth feminine flesh that begged for instant gratification. He skimmed his palms over her shoulder blades, then followed the line of her ribs around and up, until he had her breasts cupped in two perfect handfuls. They were the only thing about Lana that might be called small or delicate—but they were perfect, just like the rest of her.

That was about as far as the man’s mind got before the wolf took command of his human body. He growled right into Lana’s ear—
Mine! Mate!
—pulled her hips close, and let his cock slide home.

Part of him wanted to pound his chest and roar as he sank in to her then pulled back and hammered home again.
Mine!
Another withdrawal, another powerful thrust.
Mate!

He found a better grip on her waist, and pushed in again, sliding hot and deliciously deep. His wolf was pushing Lana hard, but she didn’t give any sign of protest. On the contrary, she rammed her hips back to meet each push with a moan.

Yes
, she grunted in his mind.
There’ll be time for gentle later. I want this now. Exactly this.

He pulled back until the very tip of his cock played at her entrance, torturing himself as much as her before plunging back in. She was slick and yielding and hot, and when he paused to relish the moment, her inner muscles squeezed hard, bringing him right to the edge of climax.

She released, letting him retreat, then return so she could do it again. He sank into her over and over, swimming in the glory of the sensation. Each time, she cried out her approval, her voice high and sweet in the dry desert air. “Ty!”

He kept his mouth shut, afraid of what he might say. Lana would be all right, but what if he blurted out something like
Love
or
Mate
? Was he ready for that?

Yes!
his wolf sang.
Yes!

They repeated the move again and again until they were both humming with the pleasure of it. A moment later, the steady metronome went wild, tipping from perfectly timed pleasure to sheer overpowering need. When his final thrust hit deep, he exploded inside and took Lana with him into a hot, screaming free fall he never wanted to end.

They sank to the earth and lay clasped tight, panting. Time became a blur, as if the laws of physics were trying to catch up with what they’d just done. His body blurred, too, going from warm and languid to increasingly heated, until his the wolf sprang out, finally freed for his turn. Lana shifted, too, and they hit a second wind, taking off on another wild chase that brought them in on a wide arc of the hill until they came in sight of the cabin where he caught her at last.

When they paired as wolves, every cell of his body howled with the thrill. Never, ever, had he been with a woman in both human and wolf form, let alone in the same night. As a wolf, he could unleash his animal side without fear, but it felt right that they’d let their human bodies unite first. Because this was more than a moonlit romp. It was a prelude to something bigger and better. The desert, the night, the stars—all of them leaned in and smiled with that same promise.

Then he and Lana were curled together on the ground, nuzzling their thick necks in a lazy, intimate dance. He lost himself in her, letting the line between their bodies blur. Wolves weren’t big on pillow talk—thank God—but they were masters of the post-coital nuzzle.

Lana’s tongue caressed his ear for long, languid minutes, melting his insides. She was incredible. And she was his. The realization should have ripped through him like a bullet, but it spread slowly, like an oil lamp gradually illuminating the truth. As if it were inevitable, and he’d known all along.

Because everything was clear to him now.

May, all those years ago. The year the pump house burned down. She’d visited the ranch back then. How, why, he didn’t know. The critical thing was the date. That was the first time his father had taken him along to answer a call for help from another wolf pack. Twelve years ago.

He’d come home and caught the faint hint of a scent carried by the wind. He’d lost his heart to a phantom—the one wolf whose scent promised the kind of bond only possible with a destined mate.

Twelve years ago, Lana had visited the ranch, but she’d left before he returned.

The phantom and Lana were one and the same.

He buried his face in her neck, trying to hide the tremble inside.

CHAPTER TEN

Ty sucked in a long, deep breath. All those years ago, he’d fallen for Lana, even without having a face to put with the scent. These last few days, he’d done it all over again. And now he knew. It had been her all along. Her, only her.

Maybe he wasn’t a faithless bastard like his father, after all.

He could have beat his head against the ground at his own thick-headedness. How could he not have recognized it sooner? Maybe because Lana’s scent had been so faint back then, masked by a thousand desert flowers. And her scent would also have matured over time.

Matured
. His mind grabbed at the word. That was it. Lana would have been very young back then; him, too. He had to marvel at it all. Fate had hidden them from each other until they were both ready.

Ready to stand up to the wrath of his father? He wrapped his body tighter around Lana’s. Yes, even that. Just a few years ago, he stood up to his father to refuse an arranged mate. Getting his father to accept a sworn enemy into the pack would be even harder, but the reward would be forever. He’d never let Lana slip away again. Never.

His Dad would just have to suck it up. It was his life, his heart.

No wonder he couldn’t get enough of her. He wasn’t just quenching the thirst of a few days—more than a decade of longing was finally finding relief.

An easy, slow-motion feeling washed over him. For the first time in a long time, he felt like destiny was smiling on him. Soon, he knew, she would let him bite deep and take her as his mate—forever. Knowing Lana, she’d have her own bite ready for him, too. His heart skipped as he imagined their life together, with her filling his heart and his home, always there for him with a soothing touch and a smile that lit the fire of his passion. With her, he could truly live and not simply exist.

When Lana pulled away, he let out a whine of protest until she touched him again—with human hands now, stroking delicately around his ears, from the thick ruff of the base all the way to the razor edges. He found himself humming with pleasure as he looked up at her bare form in the moonlight. Disjointed words flitted through his mind, words like
heaven
and
beautiful
and
right
. Not that words mattered; a wolf didn’t need poetry to celebrate love.

Lana bent low and puffed into his ear, then stood and waited on the top step of the cabin. The moonlight cast her bare body in a pale, mystical light. Did she realize they were destined for each other?

He should tell her immediately about the phantom, about the time he’d spent searching for her. He should explain that fate was on their side. But then again, maybe now was not the time, and God knew speeches were not his forte. No, he’d tell her everything once they were inside. Better yet, he’d wait until sunrise. A new day, a new start. A new life together. They would figure out the details soon enough.

For now, though, he would let go and slide into this glorious feast of the senses. He indulged in a long, wolf stretch, hips up and back, shoulders low. He shifted back into his human body as he stepped toward the porch, barely registering the flash of pain that accompanied the change. Still tingling, he tucked his face alongside her cheek, his chest pressed to her breast. Heaven, indeed.

“Sorry,” he murmured.

“You’re apologizing?” she said, waiting for the punchline.

He worked his jaw a little, summoning words. “It was supposed to be slow and…what was it?”

She cupped his face with both hands and kissed him deep. “Sensual,” she murmured, illustrating with her tongue. Jesus, did she have a way with that word.

Slow. Sensual.

Hell, it was worth a try.

# # #

Lana was sweating despite the chilly night air. She had to chuckle at herself. So much for not acting like a bitch in heat.

She sighed, inside and out, and her wolf nodded smugly.
Okay
, she admitted to the beast,
you were right
. If she hadn’t pushed Ty, this might not have happened.

She and Ty belonged together. It was impossible to deny, given the way every electron in her body seemed aligned to Ty’s magnetic north. She let herself glow in the thought for a moment before anxiety butted into her thoughts like a snorting bull. What if she was wrong? What if she was over-interpreting their connection? She took a deep breath of desert air, and though it was dry, it went down smooth and easy. Somehow, it didn’t feel like their first night together. No, this
had
to be right.

Her pulse was racing even now. Just looking at him did that to her. She nearly let out a giggle. Like most wolves, she had a few wild, full moon nights to her credit, but never anything quite like this. To begin with, she’d always kept her two sides apart, human and wolf. But with Ty, she’d crossed over and back, seamlessly. Human, wolf, human. With him, it was one and the same. Her wolf had never demanded anything beyond physical thrills, but now she was howling crazy ballads of love and belonging—and her human side was humming the very same tune.

She steadied herself against a thick beam of the cabin and looked down across the valley. The deep porch would be as inviting in the heat of the day as it was now. The breeze was stronger up here in the hills, and the rest of the world seemed far, far away.

Ty stepped close, and she couldn’t wait to have him again. On her, in her. All over. Every inch of her body yearned for his touch. “This place is beautiful,” she whispered into his lips.

“You’re beautiful,” he growled.

She chuckled. “You’re purring, wolf.”

“Nmmm,” he murmured, and the sound reverberated in her ear. “Wolves don’t purr.”

“This one does.”

“Then you’re the one doing it to me.” He kissed her purposefully, like he was working his way down a wish list. The next kiss went deeper, promising drawn-out sex that would leave no stone unturned.

As if I have any of those left
, she laughed to herself.

Is that a dare?

She didn’t know what stunned her more—the easy way they could communicate or the playful twinkle in his eyes. Somehow, she’d never imagined connecting that particular adjective with Ty. Him, playful?

Dare taken
, he nodded through the next kiss.

He led her into the cabin, kissed her and deposited her gently on the massive bed, then padded away. Lana heard a drawer slide, the scratch of a match. A faint glow flickered over Ty’s cheeks, then licked blue across the wick of a lantern. She quivered when he blew out the match, the circle of his mouth sending a thrill straight to her core. Playful wasn’t the word for him, now. Sensual was more like it. The man was true to his word.

The lantern revealed a small, simple cabin. Overhead, the open rafters hung with wispy reminders of years past. A masculine hideaway that didn’t hold a female scent. Not a trace.

“My brother and I built this place,” he said, circling the bed with the lantern, his cock erect.

She rolled, following him with her eyes, transfixed by the light and the sight of his body. She wanted to mark him the way he’d marked her, rubbing against him until his scent was indistinguishable from hers.

Ty set the lantern down amidst a clutch of devil’s claws on the bedside table, then settled along her body, matching their lengths. His eyes met hers from behind long, dark lashes that contradicted his rougher edges. Starting slowly, he rubbed her shoulder in circles until she cooed in delight.

“For a wolf, you’re pretty damn good at sensual,” she sighed, combing her fingers through his hair and finding it dewy with sweat.

“You define sensual,” he murmured, letting his stubble scour her breast.

She was getting sucked in way over her head. But oh, it felt good. Never mind the thing about a feud. So her mother had been with Ty’s father, once upon a time. Weird, but okay, everyone had a past. That their fathers had gone from friends to sworn enemies had nothing to do with her love for Ty.

Yes, love. She loved him. She wasn’t sure how it was possible, but destiny’s kind of chemistry wasn’t something you could analyze in a lab. It was the way it was. When the time came, she and Ty would face his father together and show him they were serious.

The question was, would the man listen? And what about the rest of the pack? Who would they side with?

The questions bumped uneasily through her mind. Maybe she was getting ahead of herself. It wasn’t like Ty had declared any feelings for her, after all. From the moment she’d first kissed him, everything had started rolling out of control, faster and faster. So fast that she worried about destiny falling behind. She was a passenger on a runaway train about to jump its tracks and the conductor was nowhere in sight. All she could do was hang on to the wild ride and hope that momentum would carry them through.

Ty’s lips closed around her nipple then, pushing away her anxious thoughts. Though her vision only registered shades of yellow-gray in the lantern light, she’d never felt so immersed in sensation. Ty’s breath at her breast, the honeydew of his tongue. The feel of his short, silky hair between her fingers. A trace of wolf stayed with the man, together with the scent of sage, earthy and fresh. She wanted to memorize every heartbeat of this night. The tickle when he reached the top of her thigh, the heady bubble of pleasure when his fingers slipped inside.

Slow and sensual. The man was a natural.