She heard the water turn off, the shower door opened, and she sat there staring at the wall while she imagined Wrath using a towel to pat all over that sexy body of his to get dry. Seconds ticked by into a good minute.
“I’m done with my shower.” His husky voice startled her, sounding close.
She twisted her head to stare at him over her shoulder. He had a towel wrapped around his waist but wore nothing else. He stood by the dresser, bent and pulled out a fresh pair of boxers. Their gazes met when he straightened and faced her.
“I’m going to drop this and put on my boxers. You might want to close your eyes.”
She gave him her back instead, stared at the wall once more and heard him rustling around. She counted for thirty seconds and shifted her body as she changed positions to sit facing him again. Wrath had put on loose black boxers and picked up the towel he’d dropped. He gave her a half smile, returned to the bathroom and threw the wet towel over the top of the shower. He stepped back into the room.
“I’m going to grab that sleeping bag and pillow from the hallway where I dropped them when I heard you scream.”
He opened the door and stepped into the room. She saw his back there were multiple scratches with fresh blood running from them. The blood he’d washed away hadn’t just been Vengeance’s. She gasped. He turned and frowned as he stared at her.
“Your back is bleeding.”
He shrugged. “I was lucky.” He walked out of sight.
Lucky? Did he really just say that? What is so lucky about having deep scratch marks on his back?
He returned carrying the bedding, used his foot to close the door, and tossed everything on the floor. He crouched and unrolled the sleeping bag.
“Aren’t you afraid someone will open the door and hit you with it? You’re kind of close.”
He shook his head. “Vengeance will leave first thing in the morning but we have a few hours before they’ll be able to transport him. He won’t get past me if he manages to escape from Brass and wants to try to claim you again.”
“Oh. Do you want me to bandage your back for you?”
He tossed down the pillow and straightened to his full height. His dark gaze swept the room before he walked to retrieve the small first-aid kit he’d used earlier to clean and bandage her wrists. He moved closer to her with the box in hand.
“That would be nice if you tend my wounds. Thank you.”
She accepted it when he held it out. He sat on the floor in front of the bed. She scooted closer and put her feet on each side of his hips. Her hands trembled slightly when she opened the kit, placed it on the bed next to her, and removed what she needed to clean and bandage the injuries. One look at them made her wince. They looked painful but weren’t bleeding too much.
“He scratched you badly.”
“It is our way when we fight.”
“What did it mean exactly when he wanted to claim me? I get that he wanted sex but it was more than that, wasn’t it?” Lauren wanted to be distracted from the fact that she was about to touch him and he was so close.
Wrath tensed. “It is always something that should be agreed to by both parties. What he did was try to force it upon you and it’s wrong. He wanted to claim you as his mate.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s similar to your human marriage but in Species’ terms it means for life. You only mate with the one you have strong feelings for. Species commit until one of them dies. After a time we scent imprint our mates. With some it happens very fast while in others it may take a few weeks.”
“What does scent imprint mean? I’ve never heard of that before.” She blew on the cuts she cleaned in case they burned. He didn’t flinch and his voice remained calm when he spoke.
“It is to help form a bond between mates. A male who scent imprints a female will only want her scent around him and she will only want his scent around her. It comforts each of them, smelling like their mate. Once it happens they can’t stand the way others smell.”
“They stink?”
He chuckled. “Not exactly, but others smell wrong or bad to a mated couple. I don’t know how else to explain it. They just need each other and no one else.”
“I read that a few women married a few of your guys. Did it happen to those women? You know, like me? Did they get all weird about the men’s scents?”
He glanced back and flashed her a grin. Amusement twinkled in his dark eyes. “No. They don’t have our sense of smell or memory of scents. We are strongly dependent on our sense of smell. The couple you would have heard about the most is Ellie and Fury. She loves him and he loves her. When we mate we are very caring of our females. He will make sure she never has a want or need he will not fill.”
Lauren was impressed. “That sounds kind of cool.”
“Do you want Vengeance to claim you?” Wrath turned his head toward her, the look in his dark eyes almost scary, his expression downright pissed.
“Hell no. I can tell you right now that if he’d claimed me it sure wouldn’t have been for the rest of my life. Well, maybe the death do us part would have worked because I would have killed him the first chance I got.”
Wrath relaxed. “I would have killed him if he’d forced you to mate with him. You could not kill one of us unless you got your hands on a gun. We are too big, fast, and strong for someone your size to do any damage otherwise.”
Lauren couldn’t disagree. “Yeah. I saw that. Thank you for fighting him and saving me. I was terrified.”
“I know. I smelled it on you strongly.”
Lauren finished putting on the last bandage. “Well, I shouldn’t smell like fear anymore. I feel safe with you.”
Wrath inhaled deeply and his body tensed. His gaze dropped to her lap to stare between her thighs. He inhaled again slowly and a soft growl burst from his parted lips. His eyes widened when he met her gaze.
“You’re aroused.”
She felt the color drain from her face. “What?”
He rolled to his knees, gripped the edges of the cot, and sniffed again. The color of his eyes seemed to darken as she watched. His lips parted, a deeper growl came from him, and she saw those sharp fangs of his when he bit his lower lip.
“You’re scaring me,” she admitted.
“You’re aroused. I can smell you, Lauren. Why?”
Shit. He can smell I’m turned-on?
She wasn’t about to tell him she’d been watching him while he touched himself in the shower or admit what a turn-on it had been to see him masturbate.
He tilted his head and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. Another growl eased from his throat. He moved closer to lean down and Lauren gasped when Wrath dropped his face onto her sweatpants-covered thighs. He inhaled again as his face pressed tightly against her lap and a low rumble came from him.
Wrath wanted to howl. The scent of Lauren’s need drove him nearly insane. He knew she was alarmed at having his face buried in the seam of her thighs while he breathed in her feminine scent but he couldn’t draw back for anything. She smelled so good he couldn’t force his body to move.
Blood rushed to his dick, filled it, and he had to spread his legs to make room for the massive hard-on he suffered. The desire to shove her down, tear her clothes from her body and fuck her was so strong he had to grip the bed until his arms shook from the strain. She’d be terrified if he didn’t regain some control. She was human, not a Species female, and he didn’t dare try to tempt her into sharing sex with him the regular way. He’d terrify her by snarling and showing pure dominance. It wouldn’t impress her to show off his strength.
He took another deep breath, groaned, and battled for logic to take over. He hadn’t been with a female in a very long time and they’d always been Species. He no longer trusted himself after the years of being drugged. Sex had turned into a brutal battle of wills and that was why he hadn’t tried to initiate sex with anyone since he’d been freed. He doubted even a Species female would want to take him on. He couldn’t be sure it would be safe.
Memories flashed of those human women, lying on beds with their legs spread wide while they’d used their fingers and sex toys on their own bodies. The images had aroused him as the machine forced his seed from his body. He opened his mouth to breathe through it but Lauren’s scent was strong enough to taste. It just made it worse. His dick throbbed painfully, the desire to fuck her intensified, and he whimpered.
Don’t
, he ordered his body.
Take control.
Another memory flashed, a foggy one of trying to attack a human female, a real one, and it cooled his desire. The day he’d been freed from captivity he’d been high on the Mercile drugs he’d been forced to take, enraged by what they’d done to him, and he’d gone after an innocent because he’d hated all humans.
Brawn had fought him to protect Becca, his mate. Wrath had been too confused to understand their bond in his altered state. He’d just seen her human body and wanted to kill her in a fit of revenge. It haunted him, always would, and his body relaxed. His dick stayed hard but he managed to leash his desires.
“Wrath?” Lauren’s voice shook with fear. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t want to scare her, refused to hurt her in any way, and that helped calm him. She had a need and he wanted to meet it. He could do it without losing control. It would be a test and he wanted to tackle his fear head-on for her.
He made a decision. He was Species. Strong. A male in control of his own body, free, and no one could make him hurt anyone else. Lauren was so sweet, she scented so good, and he was curious.
Chapter Six
Wrath lifted his face and Lauren was shocked at the pain she saw in his dark gaze.
“You smell so good.”
His voice was super deep, gruff, and should have frightened her. She admitted experiencing some fear but he wasn’t hurting her. His behavior was more shocking than terrifying. Her body heated up more as they stared deeply into each other’s eyes. He was so close she could have just lifted a hand to touch him, and time seemed to stand still.
His breathing increased and he seemed to be searching her gaze for something. She just wasn’t sure for what. He growled and his hands released the edge of the bed to lightly settle over the top of her thighs. Fingers rubbed and slid upward to the waist of the sweatpants, where they hesitated. He suddenly pushed. She landed flat on the mattress. His fingers hooked the waistband and he tugged. She stared down at him, his gaze held hers, but she didn’t protest.
“I won’t hurt you, Lauren. You smell so good.”
“Wrath?”
She didn’t know what to do but she didn’t want to tell him no. A little voice reminded her that she shouldn’t be considering having sex with a stranger, something she’d never done, but Wrath was different. That whole rule about not even kissing a guy until the third date suddenly seemed pretty outdated and stupid when someone as sexy as Wrath was so close and she wanted him so much.
“Close your thighs for me.”
She hesitated for a second but did it. Her body felt alive, ached, and the desire that darkened his intense gaze was reason enough to do as he demanded. She pushed her legs together and lifted as he pulled the material over her hips. It slid down her thighs until he removed them.
Lauren knew she should twist away and tell him to stop. He was New Species, a stranger, and she didn’t know much about him but desire overtook common sense. She couldn’t ever remember being more drawn to a man. She was sick of regrets—she had a lot of them but this wouldn’t be added to her list.
He dropped the sweatpants on the floor, removed her socks too, crouched over her, and gripped her knees. “Open up for me. I won’t hurt you.”
“I…” She was self-conscious about her naked body and especially of showing him her sex—spread open for him to examine. No guy had ever really looked at her there. She’d always been too embarrassed and they hadn’t exactly pressed the issue. Curiosity was strong though over finding out what he’d do.
“Are you afraid of me?” He sniffed. “I don’t smell fear.”
Her cheeks grew warm. “I, um, the lights are on and they are pretty bright.”
He frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“You want to have sex, right? Can we turn down the lights first? I don’t want you to see me.” She pushed the shirt over her lap to hide her bare lower half.
“Why?” Confusion was an easy emotion to read on his face.
“Nobody has ever really looked at me down there and if I spread my legs…you’re on your knees. You’re going to get a really good view.”
“Your face is a bit red.”
“I’m embarrassed. My sexual experience isn’t, well, I haven’t slept with many guys and the ones I did, they didn’t want to see me with bright lights on. I can’t say I wasn’t upset by that. I’m a little overweight and aware of how I look naked.”
“Open up for me. I want to see you and I think you are very attractive.”
“You are curious?” She could understand that. “Have you ever seen, hell, are you…” She couldn’t say it. Wrath was way too attractive to be a virgin.
He sat back on his heels, frowning. “Am I what?”
“Have you seen a girl naked before? I never really thought about it before but you were locked up for a lot of years. All of your life, from the stuff I read. I guess it was like prison.”