Where There is Hope [Taos Wolven Mates 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (13 page)

Her stomach clenched when she thought about it. Why not? What kind of life did she have to go back to, really? She had nothing. Hell, she didn’t even have a cat. Hope had nothing but an empty apartment to go back to, and she didn’t even know how long she would have that.

Would it be wrong to make such a momentous decision in such a short time? Did she even have the right to tell them she would do it when she wasn’t sure how she felt about them?

Whatever it was about their physiology made it possible for them to know she was the one for them, but it wasn’t the same for humans. There was no strange and wonderful power, or source, that guaranteed that they were meant for her, that this would all work out in the end. Just because the men were certain she was the one for them meant nothing.

Yet, she still kept coming full circle to what did she have to lose? The answer was nothing, the way she saw it.

Slowly, Joran began to unbutton her blouse, his mouth moving slowly over every newly exposed inch of skin. She gasped when his warm mouth closed over her taut nipple. He moved with her, almost like dancing until she felt the backs of her knees hit the bed. Her dress fell in a puddle at her feet while Joran stood staring at her, rapt.

“You’re so beautiful, Hope.” He looked down at her belly and her rounded hips, his expression filled with desire. “You don’t know how long I’ve dreamed of finding a woman like you.”

Reaching up, he cupped her breasts, which luckily hadn’t started to sag yet and weighed them in his hands. His thumbs skimmed over the hardened peaks, and she let her head fall back on her shoulders.

“Yes, baby. Arch your back. Thrust those ripe little berries up toward my mouth.” He leaned down to take a nipple into his mouth once again. Hope whimpered at the contact. She couldn’t wait for him to take her. Part of her wanted him to grab her, throw her down on the bed, and ram his cock inside her so deep she wouldn’t want to go home—ever.

She was almost there now. Hope thought of her empty home, her empty life and wondered if it would be so wrong to live the dream. Hope brought up her hands, her fingers thrusting though his hair as she drew his head closer.

Joran reached up to take her hands in his. Pulling her hands away from his head, he straightened. His eyes glowed with a strange iridescence that would have frightened her had she not already experienced his gentle touch.

Moving quickly, his actions little more than a blur, Joran ripped the clothing from his body. His boots landed across the room with a thud and before she knew it, he stood before her naked.

Hope could do little more than stare at his utter male perfection. Broad shoulders tapered down to a wide chest and narrow washboard abs. His thighs were thick, muscular, promising to drive his hips into her with hard abandon.

Slick, liquid heat seeped from her pussy to coat her thighs as she looked on, her throat dry. Swallowing thickly, Hope reached out to touch the long, thick erection that sprang forth from its nest of curls.

With a low growl, Joran sprang forward, grasped her by the waist and lifted her off the floor. “Don’t.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “I’ll lose control if you touch me now.”

Gently, he placed her in the center of the bed and came down over her. The heavy weight of his cock pressed against her thigh, wetting her leg with pre-cum. Hope reached down to grasp his hard length in her hand, and he groaned.

“Please don’t do that to me, baby. You’re driving me mad.” Slowly, he kissed his way down her body, his lips and tongue dancing over her quivering flesh.

“Don’t tease me, Joran,” she begged. “I don’t know if I can take your teasing.” She didn’t. After everything that had happened to her today, Hope found that she couldn’t wait for him. She didn’t want to wait for him to thrust inside her. In fact, she needed him inside her more than she’d ever thought possible.

“Shh…baby.” He breathed the words against the cream-soaked flesh at the apex of her thighs.

“Oh, God!” Hope never expected the near-electric shock she felt when he slid his tongue through her wet slit. She screamed when he drew her sensitive clit into his mouth and suckled. Fisting her hands in his hair, she tightened her thighs and held him to her as she came for the fourth time that day.

Aftershocks shook her as he crawled back up her body. His mouth and chin glistened with her cream as he leaned down to kiss her and give her a taste of her own arousal.

After another long, drugging kiss, he reached between them and guided the head of his cock to the entrance of her empty channel.

Hope felt her eyes go wide as he pressed into her, his cock stretching her as Braxton had done earlier in the day.

“Gods, you’re tight, baby.” The words came out almost a grunt. “Your cunt grips me tight, like a wet glove.” His cock moved a bit inside her, and she sighed.

“Please, Joran. I’m not a little doll. I won’t break if you thrust yourself inside me the way nature intended.” It was a fact that she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t break into a million little pieces if he didn’t start moving.

Joran leaned down and kissed her so gently that tears filled her eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Hope smiled up at him and cupped his cheek. “I doubt that anything you do can hurt me after that wild ride with Braxton earlier. You’re bigger than him, but not much.” Leaning up, she kissed him. “Now get busy, mister.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a grin just before he pulled out and slammed back in.

She wasn’t positive, but Hope was pretty sure her eyes crossed at that. “Yes, Joran. God yes!”

After several strokes, Joran threw her legs over his shoulders, changing the angle of his thrusts. His cock seemed bigger, thicker, and rubbed her in places she’d never felt stimulated before. Thrust after thrust, his cock rammed into her, stroking the bundle of nerves just behind and below her navel.

Heat blossomed in her middle. Currents of white lightning rushed through her blood as he reached between them and stroked her clit. Fire burned through her, moving up from her feet to engulf her in the flames of ecstasy while yet another orgasm washed over her as he threw back his head and gave a throaty growl. Wave after wave of pure sensation threw her over the edge of reality until finally, her body went slack and she lay beneath Joran, quivering with aftershocks.

Joran looked down at the woman he intended to mate and smiled. Her lashes made red crescents on her creamy skin as she lay beneath him catching her breath. Leaning down, he lapped at one pert, rosy nipple and grinned when she groaned.

“That was the best experience of my life.” He couldn’t help confessing that to her as she continued to shiver.

Hope smiled, tried to open her eyes and failed. “Mine, too.” She groaned again. “I can’t move. I think you may have killed me.”

Chuckling, he rolled off her, taking her with him to lie across his chest. Pressing a quick kiss to her forehead, he swatted her rear. “Time to get up, sleepy head. We shouldn’t have taken the time to do this as it was.”

It was true. He had taken the time to make love to her when others were in danger. It was unforgiveable.

“There is no need to worry, Colonel. The general has already transported down to the surface to warn the others. In fact, the alpha suggested that all of the women be transported up here for safety. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough energy stores for that
and
a confrontation.”

“Eep!” Hope grabbed at the coverings and yanked them over her. “Get out of here! I’m not dressed.”

“I am not in the room, Hopeful. I am a part of it.”

“Great, just great. Now I’ve had a computer see me getting it on.” She looked up at the ceiling. “You better not keep taped records of that sort of thing.” Sitting up, she ran her fingers through her hair. “Leave it to me to get involved with two…two…Good grief! I can’t even say it.” She waved her hand in his direction then continued. “Men…things that have a ship that thinks for itself.”

“I am a sentient computer, Hopeful. I am not programmed to judge. Please do not let this discomfit you.”

Joran searched his closet, found he had nothing appropriate to wear on the surface, and interrupted their conversation. “I have no clothing here.” He looked down at the floor and grimaced. Had he really cut her dress open with his nails?

Grabbing her things, he stuffed them in the recycler. “Can we get some clean clothing? Have you provided meals for everyone and is Sara out of the infirmary?”

“Yes, I have clean clothing ready for you both.” Carella answered at least part of his question both verbally and by providing clean clothing for the both of them. “The others have been fed, and Sara is with her sister and brother. She is doing fine, I might add.”

Joran thought the computer sounded proud of herself, but didn’t say anything. The last thing he needed was to mention that and have Hope start going on about how the computer had seen them naked, among other things.

“Thank you, Carella. As soon as we’re dressed, please notify everyone of your intent to transport and set us all down where Braxton is, please.”

“Of course, Colonel.”

He led Hope to the bathing chamber and stepped into the sonic shower. Waving his hand over the control pad, they stood looking at each other as the energy surrounded them, cleaning the sweat and dirt from their bodies. After two minutes, they stepped from the chamber and donned their clothes.

“I still don’t see why women have to wear all these underthings,” Hope complained as he helped her dress. Carella left out the corset this time, but she did provide every other type of underwear the women wore. “I’m glad that the computer didn’t make me another damned corset.” She shook her head as he tied the waistband of her petticoats. “I refuse to wear one of those torture devices.”

“That’s okay with me, Hope,” he said as he drew her dress over her head then traced her frame through her clothing. “I like feeling nothing but pure woman beneath your clothes. I like to think that all of the boning you’re going to get will be from Braxton and me.”

He chuckled when she blushed and turned away to fasten the twenty or so buttons that climbed up the front of her dress. After they were finished dressing, they left his room to look for the others.

“Please stay where you are, everyone. Transport will commence in twenty seconds. Please prepare yourselves.”

Joran glanced at Hope. “I have to change or the transport will kill me. Promise me you won’t faint again.”

Fear flashed in her eyes for a split second before Hope took a deep breath. Giving a sharp nod, she stepped back a pace and gave him some space. “I’ll be fine this time. I promise.”

“Six, five…”

Carella continued her countdown as Joran closed his eyes, pictured his midform and changed quickly, before it was too late.

“…Two, one.”

With a flash of light, they all appeared in the middle of a room filled with other weres and one woman holding an infant.

Joran quickly changed back into his human form and smiled when he saw Hope standing a foot or so away, her eyes closed. “Alpha, I come to fight by your side,” he said, bowing his head in the traditional greeting. Wrapping his arm about Hope’s waist, he drew her under his arm. “This is Hopeful. She is Braxton’s and my mate. I hope you will welcome her into the pack and protect her as you protect us all.”

Lorcan stepped forward, held his hand out and grasped Joran’s extended arm in a warrior’s greeting. “As the Gods will it, so it shall be done.”

“Your son is well?”

“My son is strong and healthy. Thank you for your concern.”

“My thoughts are with you and yours always, Alpha.”

At Lorcan’s nod, Joran could see that the man tired of tradition. He had said many times that he wished they would all act more human so they would not stand out. It made sense, but it was a difficult thing to achieve after hundreds of years of strict formality on their home world.

With the formalities over, Joran wanted to get down to business. Perhaps it was the warrior in him, but he was certain at least part of it was the wolf who wanted to protect his mate, or perhaps, like Lorcan, he too, had tired of the old ways. “Braxton has filled you in?”

He hoped so. The last thing he wanted to do was make his sensitive mate relive the horror she’d experienced in Robio and Dradon’s barn.

“He has,” Lorcan said with a nod.

Leading them further into the room, he brought the women together with his mate and new child. “Ladies, please keep my mate, Dana, company while we plan a course of action.”

Taking Hope’s hand, Joran kissed her knuckles before turning her hand over and placing an opened mouth kiss to her palm. “We shouldn’t be long.” He winked. “Get to know the ladies. I don’t know how long we’ll have to stay here.”

He placed his finger over her mouth when she would have said something. “Shh, baby. I’ll be right over there with the alpha and all of the other men.” He waved his hand. “See? Braxton is there as well.” Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to her ear. “Relax. All of the women save Dana are human and she
was
human until about a year ago. No one here will hurt you. Pretend you’re at a dinner party.”

“Yeah,” she muttered. “It’s a dinner party where one of the guests just might be a salivating cannibal dog-thing.”