Beast Denied (6 page)

She headed over to the breakfast bar and snatched up her cell. Since she couldn’t find her keys, she tipped the contents of her bag onto the counter.

So he thought she offered herself like a piece of meat, did he? That she should stop hanging around in bars? Damn it to heaven. One time,
one time
, she’d done something even remotely reckless and this was how it turned out.

Okay. Maybe it hadn’t been the best way to go about it, but she was damned if she’d apologize to anyone. It wasn’t entirely her fault she’d gotten herself tangled up with a couple of morons.

Having located her keys, she stuffed everything back in her bag and thought about the implications of what Tynan had told her. Had they picked her up purely by chance? Or had there been some motive that went beyond casual sex? She didn’t see how. Especially considering she’d chosen Seth’s hotel on the spur of the moment. How could they know she’d be there?

Bloody hell. Leave it to her to deviate from the norm, and what happened? It all came tumbling down and bit her sharply on the ass.

Maybe it was a sign she should stick to the tried and tested.

With that thought in mind, she locked her apartment and headed out.

If it was casual, uncomplicated, albeit extremely satisfying sex she wanted, perhaps it really was better to stick to the devil you knew.

Chapter Four

Naomi stood in Nathan’s doorway and raised her eyebrows. “Are you alone?”

“Yeah.” He looked over her shoulder to where her car stood creatively askew across his driveway. “Everything okay?”

She waltzed past him into the hallway, where she shrugged out of her coat.

Nathan had built his home several miles from town, preferring the solitude of the moor. The house was like something out of
Architectural Digest
. Sleek clean lines, minimalist furnishings and oozing masculinity. Just like its owner.

“So what’s got you all steamed up?” Nathan led the way through to the state-of-the-art kitchen, fitted out with monochrome appliances and decor. He opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of pinot blanc.

“Your moronic friend, for one.” Naomi plopped her bag on the black granite countertop, then hopped onto a barstool. “And thanks for telling him my business, by the way.”

In the middle of uncorking the wine, Nathan raised dark brows. His expression told her she didn’t have to elaborate. “You did that yourself. Running out of Seth’s place with your panties around your knees.”

His comment hiked her simmering temper. “Oh, for God’s sake. I didn’t have my panties around my knees. And isn’t anything sacred around here? I can’t even blow my nose without people knowing about it.”

Nathan took down a glass and poured her some wine. “Comes with the territory of having people care about you.”

“I care back, but I don’t go sticking my beak into your business, or Tynan’s.” She took in a breath and blew it out. “I happen to think what you do is your own concern, and that you have the intellect to sift through the dross and do what’s right for you.”

Nathan slid the glass toward her. “And you think a threesome with a couple of undesirables is right for you, that it?”

“Of course not.” She watched him take a beer from the fridge and uncap it, thinking about Tynan’s abject refusal earlier when she’d offered him one of Nathan’s stash at her place. “I didn’t know they were undesirables, did I?”

Watching her, he took a swig from the bottle, before hopping onto a stool opposite. “Which is exactly my point. And Ty’s.”

“Apparently, he hurt his face when I shoved him.” Naomi sipped her wine, hoping it might help allay the queasy feeling in her stomach. Every time she thought of last night, she couldn’t quite shake the knowledge that she’d had a damn lucky escape.

“Yeah. Hotel clerk said he was nursing a shiner to go along with it,” Nathan said conversationally, bringing the bottle to his mouth.

“Do you think this is connected with Seth’s security problem?”

Nathan raised a shoulder. “We’re just covering all the bases.”

Confirming what Tynan had told her. “The Council won’t have to know about it, will they? My grandfather?”

With another pull of his beer, he narrowed his eyes. “Not at the moment. Like I said, we’re just checking things out right now.”

She squirmed in the seat, tipping her glass from side to side while contemplating the implications if a link was found. She’d become a doctor to help her pack and the community into which they had integrated. If word got out that she sought kinky outlets to appease her sexual urges, she might, at the least, be made a nudge-nudge oddity, and at the worst, she could actually lose patients.

Naomi had worked too long and hard to let that happen. But it really was nobody else’s business what she did in her personal life, was it?

Looking up, she found Nathan eyeing her.

“What?”

His slow grin answered her question, but he shrugged. “Just wondering if you came here for conversation, or because that threesome went belly up.”

She glowered at him, pushing away the image of Tynan that flashed in her head. “Maybe both.”

He tipped his beer. “Works for me.”

With that slow sexy swagger he’d made an art form, he came around the counter. He placed his hands on her shoulders and pivoted her barstool around until she faced him. Nudging his knees between her legs, he eased her back until she dropped her elbows onto the counter. The action pushed her breasts forward and brought a low groan from Nathan.

“Have I exhausted my allotted conversation time?”

Nathan’s hooded eyes captured hers. “You’re uptight and pissed,” he said, sliding his hands under her arms to place his palms on the countertop. “You’ll be in a better state of mind for chit-chat once we take the edge off.”

Damn it. The man was so bloody arrogantly alpha. But right now, he was exactly what she wanted. And he was right. She was uptight and extremely pissed. Since Tynan had come storming in and questioned her about her sex life, then had gotten her all heated up with that kiss—and what the hell was he trying to prove anyway? He’d as much as said he didn’t want her, that it was all a mistake. Then he’d proceeded to confuse her, anger her.

Nathan leaned over her, his muscular chest brushing against her sensitive breasts. Her breasts responded immediately to Nathan’s touch. She raised her chin, searching for his hot and clever mouth. She needed to feel Nathan’s kiss, in order to destroy every trace of Tynan’s. While she’d always enjoyed kissing Nathan—he was one heck of a kisser—it didn’t pack anywhere near the punch Tynan’s had.

But then she and Nathan had an arrangement, didn’t they? Fuck buddies didn’t need to set each other alight with a simple kiss. All they required was mutually satisfying and enjoyable sex, with absolutely no emotional attachment outside of affection.

She was reminded how perfectly well it worked for her and Nathan when his hands dropped to her knees. He slid his hands up her thighs, slow and firm, and beneath her pant-covered legs, her skin heated. Her pussy responded to his searching fingers, but instead of touching her, he reached for the waistband of her leisure pants and drew them down.

Naomi leaned into her elbows and raised her hips from the stool. Nathan looked down, easing the fabric over her backside and revealing her bared pussy.

“You came prepared, sugar,” he drawled in that dark sexy tone that never failed to get her juices flowing. “Don’t want to waste any time?”

“No point,” she said, sitting back down and lifting her legs so he could pull the pants right off. She wrapped her fingers around the hem of her tee and started to tug it up. “Shall I? Or do you want the pleasure?”

In answer, he tapped her hands away and relieved her of her top. She shook out her hair, letting it fall in curls around her shoulders. Naked, she leaned back on the counter.

Nathan stood back, eyeing her with lascivious pleasure. He shrugged out of his muscle shirt before divesting himself of his pants. Like her, he was commando, and she reveled in the pure masculine beauty of the man.

Broad shoulders, muscular chest, strong powerful legs. His erection stood proud, thick and beautifully long. She wondered briefly why some woman hadn’t snapped him up, despite his fierce intention to remain unattached. A man like him had women sniffing around in droves, but Nathan had never been tempted. Not even close.

She knew that, like her, he had his secrets. A past that had shaped him into the solitary man he was. Some people, she thought, were happiest alone. Just as she was.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Nathan dropped to his knees and pushed her knees apart. He placed his hands on her hips and yanked her forward. Moments later, his hot mouth covered her pussy, his tongue pressing deep and hard.

Her muscles contracted, and she hooked her legs over his shoulders. He worked her hard, his insistent tongue demanding a response. Seconds later, she came, throwing her head back while her breasts thrust into the air.

Relentless, Nathan pushed her further until her momentarily lax muscles began to contract again.
Master of the multiple orgasm
, she thought biting her bottom lip. Nathan liked to drive her hard and fast. She loved that recklessness about him. It suited her while having sex. That way, she didn’t have to think too much. Didn’t have to reason. To remember…

Damn it. She wasn’t going to let her thoughts drift down that lane. It was different now. She was different. But regardless of her determination to drive those thoughts away, an image of Tynan flashed in front of her eyes.

She squeezed them shut, as if the action could block out his face. But the image hovered there…

It took a moment to realize that Nathan was standing over her, his mouth slick with her juices, his chest heaving, cock jerking.

“Bedroom time, sugar.”

Determined to escape into mindless sex, Naomi forced the unwanted thoughts from her head. She slid off the stool, stepped aside and half turned. About to waltz past him, she wasn’t surprised when his hand came out and swatted her backside. She gave the required “ouch” and looked over her shoulder at him, eyes lowered.

While they climbed the stairs, he palmed her ass. She’d often thought Nathan was an ass man, but then he seemed to like pretty much every part of a woman’s body and knew what to do with it for maximum pleasure.

In his bedroom, she climbed onto the massive bed and lay on her back. Nathan went to the nightstand and came to the bed armed with a handful of condoms.

“Someone plans on being a busy boy,” she said, stretching her arms over her head and writhing enticingly while he watched her. “And I thought I was just here for a quickie.”

“I’m thinking I need to get you off at least three times before you even begin to relax.” He dropped the condoms onto the side table and crawled over her. “I take my duties seriously.”

“I’ll say.”

Naomi wrapped her arms around his neck, and he lowered his head to her breasts. Slowly, he began to swirl his tongue around one nipple while using his thumb and forefinger to toy with the other.

By now, Naomi was barely capable of remembering her own name, which was exactly how she wanted it. So she slid her fingers down his back, the play of muscles sensuous beneath her palms. His flesh felt hot, hard and satisfying.

He pulled away, then reached out to the side for one of the packets. Naomi didn’t even try to help. She knew Nathan never wanted her to sheath him. It was something he preferred to do for himself. She’d once wondered why, but reasoned that he, like she, pushed away from the intimacy of certain acts.

So she observed him take care of things himself, watching the rubber glide over his impressive cock while his erection jerked and pulsated in eager expectation. The walls of her vagina clenched, her pussy drenched with her own desire.

He inched down the bed, nudging his knees between her legs to spread them wide. He dropped his hands to either side of her head and lowered over her. The first nudge of his cock against her heat made her gasp. With his gaze on hers, he pushed forward and seated himself fully inside her.

It concerned her a little that she could so easily match his rhythm, but she shrugged it off. They had been screwing whenever the itch took them. Why wouldn’t they be in tune in the sack?

She thanked her lucky stars she and Nathan had hooked up. After last night’s debacle, she had to wonder if her antenna was off in that area of her life. In London, she had only chosen human males—a grand total of two, to be exact—her choice based solely on the fact that each of them had stoked her fire on a purely sexual level. She liked them well enough, but she didn’t feel anything deeper for them. Which suited her just fine.

Apart from Nathan, her only sojourn into sexual adventures since she’d returned to Bodmin had been last night. From now on, she’d stick to what she knew.

And what she knew was currently bringing her to orgasm once more. Nathan’s eyes were closed, his breath hissing through gritted teeth. He speeded up, his cock pumping hard and fast. He let out a cry and emptied himself into the condom mere seconds before she came too.

“Shit,” Nathan hissed. “Fucking came before I got the chance to work you hard.”

Naomi laughed. “Not sure I could have survived if you’d worked me any harder.”

She shifted, encouraging him to withdraw.

“Wait,” he grated. “Give me a second, okay?” It took him a full minute to slide out of her and roll onto his back. He turned his head and looked at her. His dark hair, cropped at the sides but longer on top, combined to make his hooded eyes seem languid. “You get off?”

She wondered that he could have any doubt, seeing as her cries would have woken the neighbors, if he had any. She grinned. “Am I beginning to look relaxed?”

His gaze traveled leisurely up and down her naked body, then he returned her grin. “Yeah. I’d say so.” He sat, swung his legs over the bed and glanced back. “Let me get rid of this, and I’ll see what more I can do to help our esteemed town doctor unwind.”

She watched that sexy swagger all the way to the bathroom and wondered why her thoughts turned to Tynan. Probably because he had that swagger thing going too. In fact, they all did. Caleb, Nathan and Tynan. They’d probably learned it from each other, seeing as they’d grown up together and been thick as thieves all their lives.

When the first-borns had been called away to help another pack, and Caleb had been kidnapped, Nathan had stayed on in South America to try to find out where his friend was being held. Tynan had gone too, but Naomi imagined that being forced to conduct his efforts from behind a laptop, while Nathan was in the thick of the action, would have weighed heavily on someone as proud and fiercely loyal as Tynan.

She felt for him, she really did. His accident had not only limited his physical abilities, as bad as that was for a shifter, but had stolen a fundamental part of his identity, of his purpose in life.

She knew how it felt to be in that position. Knew how devastating such a loss could be. And how it ripped away everything that made you the person you believed yourself to be. The life you were born to live, everything you hoped for, planned for, was gone.

On the surface it would seem that Tynan had fared much better than she had. Or had he? Like her, he had shaped a new life, and while it wasn’t the one he wanted or had been born for, he now excelled at his imposed profession.

She pushed down both the guilt and the little tingle of pride that welled in her chest.