[Southern Arcana 3.0] Deadlock (17 page)

Her body responded too quickly to his touch, and she didn’t care. She’d been hungry for him before; now, she was starving. “I feel better,” she answered breathlessly. “Good.”

His eyes sparked with an interest echoed in the subtle shift of his emotions. “Good’s good.”

There was nothing between them this time, no reason to turn and walk away. Carmen took his other hand, folding both of hers around it. “This is going to sound—” No, she wouldn’t apologize, and it couldn’t be ridiculous, not with him looking at her like that. “I missed you.”

The corner of his mouth kicked up as he stroked his thumb up and down the side of her throat. “Don’t hear that very much from women who’ve spent more than a couple hours with me.”

“So you keep reminding me.” She tilted her head, baring more of her neck. “I think they haven’t figured you out yet.”

“And you have?” The callused pad of his thumb swept down toward her collarbone, then up the front of her throat. His fingers were warm against her nape. “What have you figured?”

She swallowed hard. “That you’re not crazy. You just hurt.”

His smile faded, and his hand stilled. “I think I’ve hurt so long that I might be a little crazy.”

Maybe they both were. It couldn’t diminish the heat that blazed inside her at the thought of his mouth on hers. “I’m an empath, remember?” Even as she spoke, Carmen reached up to guide his head closer. “I’d be able to tell.”

He froze with his lips almost touching hers, and no amount of urging could budge him. “What else can you tell?”

Dominance pulsed between them, and every beat of her heart answered it with growing arousal. “You want me to submit,” she whispered. “To let go of everything that isn’t you and feel.”

“Mmm.” His fingers tickled the back of her neck as he twisted his wrist, twining the damp strands of her hair around his hand. “Just enough wolf in you to bring it out. This isn’t a human game. It’s not about power. It just
is
.”

“I know.” He evoked it like no one else ever had, that quiet instinctive need to belong completely to someone. “It’s not control. It’s caring.”

“Always.” Hot breath spilled across her cheek as he shifted his lips to her ear. “It’s always about caring, but it can be about dirty goddamn fucking too.”

Blood roared in her ears, and her hands began to tremble. “You say that like they don’t go together.”

Laughter spilled out of him, low and dark. “Oh, sometimes they do. But not everything is about fucking.”

No, not everything. “Alec?”

He tilted her head back with the fingers curled in her hair, and his short beard lightly chafed her jaw as he pressed a kiss beneath her ear. “Yeah?”

“Sometimes, you talk too much.”

“That so?” His teeth scraped against her skin. “And here we are, doing the one damn thing I’m not half bad at talking about. But if you don’t like it…”

Before she could respond, he bit the spot where her neck curved into her shoulder, a rumbling growl of pleasure washing over her along with his intense satisfaction.

The forceful caress stole her breath, and she whispered a curse. “Just to clarify, we’re not starting something we’re not going to finish, right?”

“Not unless you decide to stop it.”

It was all she needed to know. She rose on shaky legs, his hand still clutched in hers, and tried to pull him up beside her. When he resisted, she growled and climbed onto his lap. “Maybe I’m going to bite you now.”

Alec just smiled and slid one hand around to the small of her back, edging her shirt up. “Take this off.”

Nothing less than a command. She watched him as she drew the thin cotton up, hesitating just before it bared her breasts. He narrowed his eyes, his gaze dark and hot, and she shivered and stripped off the shirt.

He leaned forward without a word and tugged his shirt up and over his head, baring tanned skin marked by one or two thin scars and the black ink that curled around his arm and the back of his shoulder.

She ached to taste him, so she traced the hard line of his shoulder with her fingertips, then followed the same path with her mouth.

An approving noise vibrated up from deep in his chest as he caught her hair in one hand and stroked the bare line of her spine with the other. “Gonna bite me or not?”

“Impatient.” She breathed the word against his skin. As soon as it was out of her mouth, she bit him—hard. He sucked in a breath. His hands tightened, one pulling her hair and the other dragging her hips to his.

He was hard under her, aroused. Nearly giddy with her own arousal, Carmen licked his shoulder before lifting her mouth to his ear. “You make me hungry.”

“Good.” He tugged lightly at her hair. “Come here.”

He kissed her, at once sating and inflaming that hunger. His tongue drove past her lips to slide against hers, his own ardor so deep and sharp that it shook her. She tilted her head, fusing her mouth to his, and battled the urge to lower her shields so she could feel every reaction that shuddered through him.

But she couldn’t keep them up forever, not like this. She broke the kiss, her head spinning. “Have you done this before?”

That earned her a hoarse chuckle. “Am I that bad at it?”

It took her a moment to realize what she’d said, and her cheeks heated even further. “Not sex. Sex with an empath.”

“Once.” His mouth found her jaw, and he left a trail of teasing nips down the line of her throat before dragging his tongue along her collarbone. “She wasn’t very strong. Couldn’t project at all.”

With his tongue on her skin, she could barely manage a husky murmur. “Then this might be different.”

“You holding back?”

“For now.” She licked her lips. “Unless…you want me to let go.”

He urged her head back again, and his mouth found the top of her breast. “Let go. Let me feel what you’re feeling.”

Her breathing hitched. If she did what he asked, it could be fast, maybe even rough, a blinding blur of carnal pleasure.

It might be like that anyway.

Carmen closed her eyes and released her tight hold on control. He’d leaned her back so far that the only thing keeping her from tumbling off his lap was the steely strength of his hand at the base of her spine.

He would hold her.

She arched farther, shuddering through her pleasure
and
his when her nipple brushed his mouth. Teeth scraped the tender bud, followed by the hot swipe of a tongue, so good it left them both groaning. “Christ, you like the teeth, don’t you?”

It was her turn to laugh, and she scratched her nails over the spot on his shoulder where she’d bitten him. “So do you.”

“Most places.” He closed his teeth on her this time, increasing the pressure until just a tiny bit more would have made her squirm away. Then the biting edge of his teeth vanished, replaced once more by the soothing heat of his tongue.

Most attentive men could gauge a woman’s reactions, figure out when to apply a softer touch here, a quicker stroke there. Alec was going beyond that, using empathic feedback to give her exactly what she wanted.

She could do that too.

He was new to the give and take of empathy, but she’d lived with it her whole life. She’d already felt his libido stir at the sight of her on her on her knees, submissive and eager, and she knew they wanted the same thing.

It was part of what made him perfect for her.

She moved slowly, climbing off his lap only to ease between his legs and slide to the floor. She knelt there, her hands resting lightly on his knees, and waited.

Something dark stirred in his gaze, feral and hot. “You’re cheating.”

“But you like it.” She trailed one hand up his leg and closed it around his belt buckle.

Alec dropped his hand to cover hers. “You wrap your lips around my dick, and there’s a good chance I’ll be fucking you over this couch. You ready for that?”

The image made her body throb, and she let the slightest hint of challenge show as she held his gaze. “If I get you in my mouth, I’m not stopping until you come.”

He smiled and released her hand. “We’ll see.”

“Yes.” And then he would know how quickly a storm of ecstasy could gather, how fast and hard it could sweep them away.

Carmen tugged open his belt and unbuttoned his jeans. Desire had built to a roar by the time she closed her hand around his erection, and she moaned as she stroked the pad of her thumb along the underside of his shaft.

He liked it, and it showed. In the twitch of his hips, the way his eyelids drooped and his jaw tensed. Small signs, so small compared to the vastness of his desire simmering just beneath the surface.

She used her tongue first, soft strokes meant to tease more than satisfy, and she trembled when a little more of his calm demeanor cracked, his fingers finding her hair.

He’d wait as long as he could to unleash the full force of his passion on her, and that only made her want it more. To see on his face and hear in his voice what she could already feel burning inside him.

“Harder,” she whispered, and rubbed her head against his fingers for a moment before sliding her lips around him.

His hand did tighten, enough to drag her head back up. Another crack in his control. His eyes blazed, and his breath came too fast. “Take off your pants.”

Carmen rose, her knees weak with anticipation. Her fingers fumbled on the drawstring, but the loose cotton fell easily, leaving her clad only in plain white panties. She half-wished she’d known to don something more provocative, but the feeling vanished when she met his eyes again.

Desire. Hot, pure desire that would burn bright enough to claim them both. “Those too, unless you want me ripping them.”

Yes.
She gasped and clenched her hands into fists at her sides.

It happened fast. His hand curled in the fabric and yanked it away with one violent jerk. He pulled her down to his lap just as fast, her back against his chest and her bare legs spread wide over his jean-clad thighs.

His skin was hot against hers. She arched, need riding her with a grating, almost painful edge. “Bedroom?”

Instead of answering, he gathered her hair and tilted her head to the side so he could close his teeth on the curve of her throat.

Claiming. Marking her as his.

His
.

Carmen cried his name, all thoughts of moving from that spot gone in an instant. “Please. Alec, please—”

He spilled her from his lap to the couch as he rose. “You’ve got until I get my boots off.” The words bordered on a growl. “Then I’m taking you where I catch you.”

One boot hit the floor, and she shoved her hair out of her face and stared at him. He was dead serious—and undressing fast.

She ran.

She made it to her bedroom, but not to the bed. He caught her around the waist and dragged her the last few feet, bending her upper body over the mattress. “I’ve only got one condom. I sure as hell hope you’ve got more around here.”

“In the medicine cabinet.” She laughed, giddy with anticipation and relief. “Lily just bought some. I’ll steal the whole damn box.”

His gruff laughter almost covered the sound of tearing foil. “I don’t know if that’s a warning about your stamina or confidence in mine, but it’s fucking hot.”

“I’ll have to steal them. I don’t have any that aren’t dangerously close to expiration.” She swallowed hard. “It’s been a while since—since I did this.”

Alec’s hand smoothed along her spine, down to her hip and then farther, curling around her thigh as he guided her legs apart. His other hand hit the bed next to her head, and he leaned over her until his voice came from behind her left shoulder. “Want me to ease you back into it?” Wide fingers slipped against her, pushed inside. “Or do you want it fast?”

She couldn’t answer at first, not with his fingers stretching her, intensifying the ache building inside her. “Don’t make me wait.”

His fingers vanished. His cock replaced them, hard and pressing into her, so slow, even though she could see the effort control cost him in the tense arm next to her, could feel it in his steely, unbelievable determination.

He needed to make her feel good, and the strength of that need sent her spinning. “This is what you do to me,” she whispered hoarsely. Then she came, pleasure twisting tight inside before exploding, shaking through her in a rain of fire and satisfaction.

One hard, startled thrust pinned her hips to the bed, and he groaned and slapped his other hand down on the mattress. Both fisted, crushing the quilt as his chest slicked over her back with every panting breath. “Christ, woman. Do you have any idea what
that
does to
me
?”

“No.
Yes
.” Carmen shuddered and bucked, desperate for more. “You’re the one holding back now.”

His hips rocked, a slow glide out and a faster, harder return. He nuzzled her hair from her ear and bit the lobe with a pleased noise. “No making me come before I get to enjoy being inside you.”

“Sex with an empath.” She reached up and clenched her hand in his hair. “It doesn’t have to stop when you come.”

His next thrust inched her along the bed. “Sex with a shifter means it just starts again.”

“See?” She pushed back against him and bit her lip when white-hot ecstasy rebounded through her. “We
are
perfect.”

He made a rumbling noise of agreement and straightened, dragging his fingertips over her shoulders and down her back until his hands found her hips. “Don’t hold back. Let me feel it all.”

It was a habit more than anything, rebuilding those walls. As soon as she dropped them again, she hissed a curse as the full force of his appetite swept over her. He yearned for her, hungered—

Craved.

Under it all, a fine blade of fear lurked, and Carmen made a soothing noise. “I can take you. You won’t hurt me.”

He began to move, and it wasn’t gentle. His fingers tightened, lifting her hips until every thrust rubbed her G-spot. Her hand slipped and her elbows crashed to the bed, arching her back even more. The next time he drove into her, the hot ache inside her twisted tighter, almost to the breaking point.

Almost.

“God, Alec.
Please
.” She was begging, and she didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Only him, inside and around her, so much desire. “So much—”