Wolver's Reward (22 page)

She shivered. Good. She liked the tickle of
his tongue. Using the tip, he slowly drew a trail up the center of
her body to the space between her breasts. She arched her back,
turning slightly to offer one of the delightful little buds and
rewarded him with a tiny gasp of pleasure when he took it in his
mouth.

Her skin was as sweet as her mouth. So pale
and smooth and delicate, it was almost translucent. It reminded him
of the fine china Kat set her table with at Christmas. The first
time he saw it, he was afraid to touch the treasured plates and
cups, afraid his big, clumsy hands would inadvertently crush the
flimsy porcelain.

Leaving her breast to return to her mouth,
River knew he'd found a treasure of his own. Just the touch of her
fingers running through his hair sent a jolt of desire zinging
through his body and as the kiss deepened, her hands began to roam
further on their own path of discovery, leaving a trail of fire in
their wake.

Her fingers traced the places most female
hands avoided, the physical scars of his past. He remembered the
pain of every one of them and those memories brought with them the
faces of the wolvers who inflicted the wounds. There weren't many,
but there were enough that he hated for them to be touched and he
usually made that clear to any full moon lover who dared to do more
than skim a hand across them on their way to someplace else.

But with Reb, it was different. She was
fragile and delicate and this was her first time. He didn't want to
frighten her with his snarls and snaps and so, when her fingers
lingered on those places of ugliness, he said nothing.

The fire in her hands turned to soothing
warmth as she explored those ridges and divots of flesh. The soft
pads of her fingers measured the length and depth of each one and
as her fingers continued their sensitive dance, she showered his
face and neck with kisses. The tenderness in her touch and in those
kisses was almost too much to bear. He didn't want her pity.

His wolf felt it, too. Each wound, each
indignity had been shared and felt by his wolf. It whimpered softly
each time Reb's hand discovered another damaged place to touch, but
whether it was in longing or in fear, River couldn't tell.

When he could stand it no longer, he rolled
to his back, bringing her with him and encouraged her to straddle
him, but when she tried to lean into him again, lips reaching for
his, River held her back with his hands at her waist. He used his
thumbs to massage the firm muscles above her navel. His fingers
played along her ribs, hands moving slowly up her body until he
reached her breasts. Small and delicate like the rest of her, they
were the perfect fit for his hands. He kneaded them, molded them to
the shape of his palms, and felt the buds of her nipples harden in
pleasure when his rough thumbs stroked over them. And all the
while, he watched her face.

Her eyes were closed, lashes soft against
cheeks flushed pink with rising desire. Her lips, plumped and
reddened from kisses, were curled into a blissful smile. Her chin
lifted and her head fell back, arching her body forward. Putting
more pressure against his hands at her breasts, she began to rock
against him, finding pleasure in the friction between them.

He reached for the button at her waist, undid
it and the zipper to expose the edge of another pretty pair of
panties like the ones she had on before. Only this time they were
pink and the triangle of fabric he exposed spurred him to expose
the rest.

River moved Reb yet again, this time not
quite so gently.

~*~

"Oh," Reb squeaked when the pleasurable
sensation she was feeling between her legs was suddenly removed and
she was turned and tossed onto her back.

She'd barely had time to bounce against the
mattress, before River was stripping her slacks down her legs and
tossing them across the room.

He stood over her and stared down at her
mostly naked body and the look in his eyes sent a flush of feverish
pleasure coursing through her body. She'd seen a similar look on
other males, usually right before dinner, and that thought sent
another shiver through her. River was hungry, hungry for her.

"Oh," she said again, this time in
anticipation.

He licked his lips as he traced the outline
of the bikini cut undies she wore. Her skin burned with his touch
and she whimpered a little when his finger skipped the place she
wanted touched the most. Her stomach muscles clenched and her
breath caught as his finger traced a second course around and this
time stopped to trace a line up her center between her legs.

"Sweet," he whispered, "Sweet and ready."

And she was, oh dear heaven she was, so it
was a bit of a shock when he rose and didn't drop his jeans, but
fell to his knees at the edge of the bed. Her undies disappeared
down her legs and she watched them follow the arc of her slacks,
over his shoulder and across the room.

"Now," she thought, "Now here it comes." But
River didn't drop his jeans.

His hands slid between her legs, running
roughly from her ankles to her knees, spreading her legs as they
went. She was lifted, pulled to the edge of the bed and was about
to lift her head to see what was happening, but his head bowed
first and when his tongue lapped along the same line as his finger,
it wasn't her head that came off the bed. It was her hips.

Darla had never shared what this little
tidbit of sex was about. Her own dabbling fingers had never made
her feel like this. There, she had control. Here she had none. It
was all in River's sucking lips and lapping tongue. Her body
quivered with it. Her hips twisted and turned trying to get away
from the overwhelming sensations, yet seeking them at the same
time. She wanted this, and yet she was afraid; afraid of the
spiraling fire that was overtaking her body, afraid of being
consumed by all that was River.

She moaned. She whimpered. And then his
finger slipped inside her, curled inside her, and her hips matched
the rhythm of its thrusts. She could no longer think. She could
only feel. Her whole body tightened in anticipation of what was to
come. River's thumb touched her clit, and she exploded.

Heart stopped, breath ceased, brain shut
down, and her soul was suddenly set free.

The lack of air made her gasp and she opened
her eyes to see River staring at her with an odd look on his face.
It was soft and gentle, yet a little confused. It made her
nervous.

Her heart began pounding and it was still a
little hard to breathe. "Did I do something wrong?" she asked and
then shut her eyes at the stupidity of the question.

His bark of laughter made her embarrassment
worse. He must have seen her hurt, because suddenly, everything
went quiet.

"Babe, look at me."

She wouldn't. She couldn't. If she did, she'd
cry with shame. How many times had she heard her mother say a Mate
must never lose control and Reb had just lost it. Big time.
Completely and humiliatingly. She turned her head away.

She felt the bed sag as River crawled up
beside her. His fingers touched the side of her chin and gently but
firmly made her turn to face him.

"Baby, open your eyes and look at me. Both
eyes," he insisted when she only opened one.

"You're too close. If I open them both,
they'll cross." She heard him snicker, adding insult to injury,
stupid upon stupid.

She felt him back away, but not by much.
"Open," he ordered. "I want you looking at me when I say this."

She opened both eyes. "Fine, get it over
with."

River held her face in his hands so she
couldn't turn away. His thumbs played over her cheeks. He looked
directly into her eyes. "If that was wrong, then it was the most
beautiful wrong I've ever seen."

Reb blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Watching you come apart like that was
beautiful, so beautiful I almost came apart just watching you and
that's never happened to me before. You were beautiful before,
Babe, but looking at you now, lying naked in my arms, you're more
beautiful than ever, and I'm glad it was me that brought that out
in you."

"Really?"

"Really."

Reb's world righted, and the sun in that
world came out brighter and happier than the silly painted one
shining down from the corner of the room. River thought she was
beautiful. He thought the emotions and sensations exploding inside
her were beautiful and she wanted that beauty again.

She looked up into the face of the best thing
that ever happened to her and grinned.

"So, what about you? Don't you want to be
beautiful, too?"

He started to laugh. "Just let me get my
jeans off, Babe."

Her fingers were already at his belt.

And when the time came, he was beautiful. He
brought her body to those frightening heights again, only this time
it was better because he was inside of her sharing it with her. She
didn't worry when she came first. It gave her a chance to enjoy the
beauty of him. His jaw tightened, his face contorted almost as if
he was in pain. He pounded into her and she felt his fire build and
explode, felt him as his body stiffened, shuddered, and released.
Her body absorbed the impact of that release. She curved around him
and held him close.

Meeting River had begun a journey of firsts;
her first awakening of interest in the opposite sex, beyond mere
curiosity; her first date; first kiss; first feelings of sexual
arousal and orgasm; and wonder of wonders, the blessed sensation of
a male's body entering hers. Reb had heard the talk, knew the
mechanics, knew her body would respond to a male's touch the way
nature intended, but no one ever told her it would be like
this.

This was more than a pleasurable experience
for her body. It was more than a release of sexual tension. This
opened more than her body to the wolver resting his weight against
her.

She'd felt him, not just his body, but River,
the man and wolf who dwelt inside. She'd felt the mysteries that
she'd seen in his eyes, mysteries he kept shuttered away from the
world. She'd felt his pain and his sorrows. She'd felt his
loneliness and his fears. But mostly, she'd felt his joy in being
with her. In their joining, she shared those things and in sharing,
eased the burdens he carried, brought light to his darkness.

It was a heady feeling, this new knowledge of
the power she carried inside her. There should be a name for it, a
glorious and beautiful name that would encompass everything she
felt, but for once, the vocabulary given her by her parents was
lacking. There was no word to describe what she shared with
River.

A frightening thought occurred to her. Was it
always like this? Or was this only part of her gift as a future
Mate? There was no one she could ask, no one with whom she wished
to share this extraordinary feeling that was, for now, solely
hers.

"You okay, Babe?" River rolled from her,
leaving cold where there had been warmth.

He remedied that by curling his arm around
her and taking her with him so that her front pressed against his
side. It was warm. It was comfortable, but it wasn't enough. As if
he read her thoughts, he moved again, shifting her upper body onto
his. Her head now rested on his shoulder, her nose nestled against
his neck. Her small breasts fit perfectly beneath the squared
pectoral muscle of his chest. Her hand rested on the other side,
over his heart. Knee bent, she curled her leg over him to increase
their closeness.

"Better?"

"Yes, River, I'm fine." As fine as she'd ever
felt before. As fine as any wolver female could feel. She was where
she belonged.

She felt his body relax into sleep and she
closed her eyes to share that, too.

It was a journey of firsts that ended with
another. For the first time in memory, Reb heard her wolf sing.

"Beautiful," River murmured through the fog
of sleep, proving to Reb that he'd heard it, too.

"You're my first and my only," she whispered
as she joined him in sleep.

~*~

With the restless movement of his wolf, River
awakened to hear Reb's murmur quite clearly. He didn't know why
those words should stop his heart, but they did.

Wolver females had no virginity to lose, no
barrier to break. Sex was as natural a part of life as eating and
drinking and sleep. Only the mating bond was considered special,
and only because it allowed the bonded pair to breed and bear
young. There was nothing particularly special about being a
female's first.

Unless, a female's first time was something
she would remember. He'd never heard that, but then he'd never paid
much attention to women's talk. They tended to gossip about who was
fucking who, and who was falling in love, and who was destined to
mate, and other crap he had no interest in.

He was Reb's first and he was happy for that,
proud that after waiting all this time, she'd chosen him. To most,
it probably wouldn't seem like much. First time sex happened every
day, but for someone as fine as Reb to choose someone like him
seemed more like a gift and he would treasure it. If he was right,
and females thought about such things, then maybe Reb would
remember and treasure it, too.

Her coming apart like that was another gift
he would remember. He'd never seen anything like it on the face of
a woman before. She looked like he'd taken her to heaven and she
didn't want to come back. He felt terrible for laughing, but it
struck him as funny, her thinking something so beautiful had to be
wrong.

He was her first, but he wouldn't be her
last. There would be others for Reb once he was gone, others until
an Alpha was found for her to mate and then she would be that
Alpha's forever.

His wolf didn't like that
idea. It snarled and snapped, and growled, "
Mate
."