Authors: Morgan Fox
His fingers softened their hold on her hips, leaving behind deep impressions in her skin. “I’m not here for you to just jump on and ride like there’s nothing between us.” Staring down at him, she didn’t speak as he said, “If we do this, we do this my way. I don’t think I need to remind you that I’m not Dominic, so if a hard, carefree fuck is what you want, remove yourself from my bed, Megan, and wait for Dominic to arrive. I’m sure he’d be more than willing to fuck you like a whore, if that is what you want.”
Stunned. That was how she felt, mortified even. He’d said her actions where that of a whore. Her coming to his room had been an enormous mistake. How had she misunderstood his need for her, her need for him? Confusion once again pelted her like hail from a violent storm.
Trembling, she began to move off his lap, muttering, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come. I can see you don’t want me.”
He blocked her retreat. “You’re not listening to me, Megan. I want to make love to you. I want to be buried inside you so damn deep.” He briefly closed his eyes, a fierce growl scraping at the back of his throat. As he opened his eyes, they were shimmering vibrant silver. “But I won’t just fuck you. Being with you means more to me than simply shoving my cock into your cunt.” He cupped the side of her face. The fingers of his other hand molded around the back of her neck, tugging her close enough that she felt his warm breath on her face. His eyes were so intense and mysterious they appeared frighteningly sexy.
Her pussy throbbed, the inescapable need building like a volcano preparing to erupt. If only apprehension hadn’t choked back a response. The animalistic prowess beckoned her like a drug she longed to be addicted to. “I want you, Megan. I need you.” She swallowed hard. The arousal his passion exuded drew her toward him, alarming and consequential. The fevered chill in his words penetrated deep into her soul as he said, “The question is…do you want me?”
* * * *
Megan was incredibly self-reliant, and he knew he would never be able to make her want him unless she truly did. Reyes held her in his hands, holding his breath as he waited for her to give him a reason to claim her lips, to taste her as he had done before. This time, he would taste her without Dominic in the room. This time, he would have her all to himself.
If only she would give him her blessing…
Reyes stared at her pale face. He watched her searching eyes through the reddish blonde glow of her lashes, downcast as she studied his chest, avoiding meeting his gaze. Her jaw flexed and tightened as she swallowed, an exaggerated motion.
He inhaled the scent of her uneasiness that filled his nostrils. If he hadn’t smelled her apprehension, he would’ve still felt how scared she truly was, known the reason was due to the anxiety rippling through her at the idea of giving herself over to someone. He wasn’t willing to take anything if not everything, so he’d wait patiently for her to accept him, even if it took forever.
Reyes didn’t want a fling relationship with Megan. He craved something both emotionally and physically consuming, and deep down, he felt she needed the same thing. His life had been filled without either of those wonders. Reyes would be damned if he allowed himself to experience anything other than a whole relationship with her, body, mind, and soul.
Megan’s voice quivered as she told him, “I don’t know what to say.”
Reyes exhaled a harsh breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “I guess if you don’t know, then that’s all the answer I need.” He released his hold on her. “You should leave, Megan.” The threatening growl that rumbled past his lips set him on edge and tingled along every nerve in his body, warning him of an impossible, but required, need to give her an option, a choice he was doing his best to offer her. “I’m barely able to control myself as it is, and if you don’t go…” He bit the inside of his mouth, fighting back the urge for his claws and teeth to emerge. He turned his face away from hers, anger soaring to new heights in his mind. Damn, he hadn’t realized he’d feel this way at her rejection. He never realized he’d needed her so damn much.
“Go, Megan. Once Dominic figures out we’re not at your place, he’ll come here.”
Maybe he can give you want you want because you don’t seem to want a damn thing from me.
Megan’s body shivered as she began stroking the tips of her fingers over his hard stomach, teasing him with her touch as she confessed, “I don’t want Dominic. At least not right now.”
His brows pinched together as his gaze lingered on hers.
She licked her lips. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. I shouldn’t want this. I shouldn’t want you the way I do. I need to resist you, but I can’t find the strength.” A tear slid from the corner of her eye, and she quickly wiped it away. “I never wanted to be told I had to be with someone because of duty or anything else. I wanted love, Reyes, and I’m afraid that if I give into this”—she flipped her hands between them—“whatever it is, I’ll never find true love.”
He cupped her face in his hands, his gaze laced with carnal heat. “Who says we can’t find true love together, Megan? Who determines who can and can’t love each other?”
She shook her head as more tears rolled from her eyes.
His heart pounded like a runaway freight train, slamming in his chest and ears, deafening him to every sensory perception except the warmth and feel of Megan’s touch. “Would it be so awful to give us a chance? To share yourself with me, allow me an opportunity to know the real you?” She trembled in his arms. Damn, he wanted to kiss her tears away. “I’ve tried to deny what’s inside me, instincts I wish I could ignore, but I can’t. Megan, please tell me you feel them, too, tell me you share the same ache in your heart each time we are apart.”
Her eyes continued to water, and her throat rolled as she swallowed. In slow, painful shakes, she resumed denying the connection they shared, fighting him even after hearing his heartfelt declarations. Why couldn’t she just accept that they were a mated pair?
“Megan, please. Say something,” he pleaded, brushing back a strand of her hair. Cupping her cheek in his hand, he trailed his thumb over her trembling lower lip. At his touch, she pressed her lips tightly together and released a heavy, heart-wrenching sigh. The sound of her internal struggles had him hating the emotional distance building between them.
In a soft whisper, she said, “I’m so sorry, Reyes. I just can’t offer you what you want.”
“You must feel what I feel.” He needed to know that he wasn’t alone, had to at least know that she knew they belonged together.
Nodding, she told him, “I do feel something, but it’s not me that’s feeling it.” Shifting her weight, she sat to the side of him and stared back into his eyes. “It’s the damn wolf.”
He glanced up at her. His heart sank heavy with surprise. “The wolf is part of you, Megan, it’s who you are.”
“No!” She twisted, pulling the sheet up over her body, blocking her supple breasts from his view. “It’s not. I’m not the wolf. It’s merely a piece of me, but it does not define who I am.”
Finally, he was figuring her out. She was scared that he only wanted her because of the wolf instinct. Why hadn’t she just told him that? “So you think that giving in to the instinct is like giving up that part of you that’s so independent, so human?”
She glanced away, her body ridged with tension. One thing he had learned over years in political circles was the ability to read body language, and he was reading Megan’s loud and clear. She was terrified of losing that part she harbored that made her feel normal, that part that told her she could have a relationship without wolf DNA provoking her choices. She clearly believed the instinct was making her want him and he her, but that was incredibly far from the truth.
His tone was iron-fisted and serious as he said, “Megan, I think there is something you should know about me.”
She twisted, glancing at him from over her shoulder. Her emerald gaze grew brighter due to her glossy, tear-stained eyes.
He sat up, pulling her effortlessly onto his lap, cradling her against him. The rush of his sentiments slammed against his ribs like a jackhammer. “I finally found a woman that I want a future with and I couldn’t be more pleased with who I was chosen to find.” His fingers wrapped around the back of her neck. The soft strands of her hair tickled the skin of his fingers. “I’m falling in love with you, Dr. Shaw, and no amount of mating bond chemistry can replicate those emotions. Wanting to fuck you at the drop of a hat, yes, but I’ve never heard of the bonding making two people actually love each other. That’s for our souls to work out. Megan, my feelings are genuine, and they have nothing at all to do with our bonding.” He smiled at her wide-eyed, mouth-hanging-in-a-giant-O expression. “In case you missed it the first time, allow me to repeat myself…I’m falling in love with you.”
Chapter Eight
Dominic felt the prickle of intense, watchful eyes before he ever saw who the curious gaze belonged to. Years as one of the best hunters and trackers of his pack had given him almost a sixth-sense ability. The moment he’d stepped over the threshold of the clinic and the sliding glass doors closed behind him, he felt them, knew the incisive stares causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end were not of the friendly variety.
Lilly…
His mind quickly sprang to the image of Megan shivering like a frightened child in Reyes’s arms, babbling incoherently as she regained her composure. He’d wanted to kill, maim, and destroy the being responsible for hurting his mate. Never had he felt such a primal need to cling to Megan, soothe and guard her like a priceless treasure.
The vampire bitch had practically beaten Megan to death, bloodied her face and pulverized her body. Recoiling at the memory of her ribs snapping back into place, the bones of her legs and pelvis realigning, he thanked his lucky stars that she was a lycan with superhuman strength and could heal quickly. The pain, however, was still real and watching her go through the trauma of mending her broken body had his nails piercing into the skin of his palms and his mind racing with the need for vengeance.
He would have gladly cried for her if it would have eased her suffering even the slightest. Thankfully, the only scars left behind were the ones that Reyes was much more equipped to handle. Then again, perhaps Megan would disagree and the damage done to her psyche might in fact be worse than the pain of broken bones. He didn’t know. Emotional connections were not his thing.
He suddenly cringed, grinding his teeth together, his hands balling into tight fists as he pondered the outcome if Megan had been bitten by Lilly and infected like Sebastian had been. He was still a little fuzzy on the specifics in regards to how his alpha had been cured of the mutation. Megan wouldn’t tell him precisely what she’d witnessed, and it hadn’t helped that when he asked her about it, he was also being a cock-swinging asshole, a characteristic he was seriously going to have to change if she was willing to reciprocate what he felt in his heart.
He’d figure out what to do with Reyes when he crossed that bridge. Gruffly sighing, he felt confident that Megan would only see Reyes as a man too old for her. After all, she’d been attracted to Dominic once before. Surely, he could use that to his advantage. It also didn’t hurt that he was an animal in bed and could make her come like a never-ending erupting volcano.
Unsurprisingly, his cock stirred, and he knew it might be a long night if Megan was still in the same condition as when Reyes had taken her home. His hand might have to do his dirty work this evening, but he had absolutely no doubt that it would be Megan’s face and body he thought about while he stroked his cock to release.
Groaning, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys. He pressed the button to unlock his truck, scanned the parking lot quickly from left to right, and glanced under his truck and into the backseat as he took hold of the door latch, still aware of the presence lurking about. Hopping into the front seat, Dominic closed the door and began backing out of the parking spot, pretending to be unaware of his unskilled stalker. From the scent wafting into his nostrils, the person watching him was not but a pup, an untrained wolf tracking after him.
What a joke
.
What kind of idiot sends a simpleton to come after me?
Dominic circled the parking lot slowly. The passing of twilight made it necessary for him to use his headlights. Not because he couldn’t see, but more importantly, he hoped to blind the wolf lurking about and catch him off guard. There weren’t many places to hide. The trees surrounding the parking area were small and sparse, leaving a number of cars that could be used for cover.