Her Wanted Wolf (20 page)

The door to the small cluttered room swung open. Drew stepped in dressed
in human garb and her world tilted on its axis. A fiery blaze shot through her
blood at the sight of him.

“Ready?”

Oh yes, her were was more than ready. Sabine dragged in a shaky breath,
drawing in the potent masculine bouquet he emanated. A thin black shirt clung
to his wide shoulders and the prominent ridges in his chest and arms. His legs
seemed longer encased in a rough blue material and the scarred leather boots
emphasized his large feet.

He’d turned into a stranger, an appealing stranger. She itched to strip
away the barriers. A feverish heat spread up her thighs and she let out a soft
throaty mewl, the call of a female to her mate.

Drew’s eyes heated, and the molten honey of his were’s eyes shifted
across his brown pupils. His nostrils dilated when the rich ripe scent of her
arousal filled the small room.

He flashed her a wickedly carnal smile, and everything in her melted.

“You okay?” He pulled her close. “Greta told me the good news about
Balthazar.”

Flustered by her reaction to him, she eased back, but he held on tight.
Sabine grasped for the familiar. “Where are my sisters?”

“They’ve settled in guest quarters until they choose accommodations that
suit them better. They’ll have their privacy, and they’ll be close enough to
your father, if needed.” He paused and stared down at her with a probing
intensity. “Are you coming with me?”

Tension held his body rigid, and the blazing emotion in his eyes took her
aback. Drew seemed to be holding his breath.

She grasped for words to respond coherently. A strained silence filled
the room as he waited. All she heard was the thudding of her heart and Drew’s
measured breathing.

Stomach fluttering, Sabine unconsciously reached for him. Drew took her
hand, buried his face in her hand, and kissed her palm. At the gentle caress,
Sabine curled her hand around his face. It was all the answer he needed.

Drew’s face split into a happy relieved grin, he placed his hand in the
middle of her back and all but marched her out the door.

“What’s your hurry?” she stuttered.

Drew laughed and urged her determinedly down a hallway. “You said yes.
I’m not giving you a chance to change your mind.”

She almost tripped over her feet trying to match his long stride. “I’m
willing.”

Drew dragged her with him through the door and out into the night. “I
know, honey, but with you, nothing is ever easy. You’ll talk yourself out of
being with me, but I’m giving you fair warning. I won’t let you.” He opened the
door to a rugged vehicle and motioned for her to hop in.

She dug her heels into the ground. “Won’t let me! It’s not for you to say,”
Sabine sputtered contrarily.

Drew sighed wearily. “Sabine, we’re going.”

Sabine let out a yelp when Drew snatched her off her feet, tossed her
into the dark cab of the vehicle, and climbed in behind her. He started the
ignition, and they soon left the village behind.

“Where are we going?”

“To the house I built further up the mountain.” He maneuvered the vehicle
expertly, which to her was nothing more than a box with wheels.

“As the alpha of our pack, shouldn’t you remain at the central den?”
Sabine clung to her seat to anchor herself in place.

He spared her a searching glance. “My pack is a little more independent
than most. They don’t come running to me about every thorn lodged in their paw.
They know when it really counts, I’m there. Is that what you really want to
talk about?” Drew swerved left, drove over a bridge at a bone-rattling speed,
and careened up a hill.

What was she supposed to ask him for Heaven’s sake? Male-female
interaction was a mystery to her.

Sabine sought refuge in the mundane. “I wouldn’t have asked it if I
wasn’t interested. Isn’t it dangerous to be so isolated? Someone could creep up
on you.”

“If you want to play the avoidance game, I’ll play along. I didn’t say my
house was built on a random spot, now did I? We have safeguards in places which
we will discuss when I familiarize you with the lay of the land.” He pulled to
a screeching halt before a sprawling building. “We’re home.”

Yes,
he
was home.

Sabine stared at Drew’s house. Constructed for strength and permanence,
as individual as the man, it had none of the traditional carvings that weres
etched onto their exterior walls to proclaim their pack affiliation. It blended
into the landscape, standing like a sentinel at watch. Now she understood what
Drew meant that the placement of his house wasn’t by chance. It was a
watchtower.

Drew climbed out, walked around the truck, and opened the door.

“Come on.” Drew lifted her out and stalked down on the cut stone path
marking the way to the front door with a silent Sabine in his arms.

“You’d think you faced the gallows by the look on your face.”

He set her on her feet, used both his hands to push open the gleaming
wooden doors, and stepped inside. A click caused light to flood the empty room.
She paused hesitantly on the doorstep. Sabine had the feeling the moment she
stepped over the threshold, she’d never be the same.

The huge interior was luxuriously alien. Enormous brown high backed
benches and chairs covered in hides were set in several groupings around the
room. A fireplace, faced in natural stone, tall enough for a man to stand in,
took up most of one wall. What she assumed was the kitchen, had reddish copper
pots hanging from a metal bar fixed to the ceiling, and gleamed with metal
implements.

It was too much to take in, so much to learn.

“Come on in, Sabine. I’ll show you where you can clean up.” With each
passing moment, the differences in their lifestyles became more obvious. The
clothes he wore, the house he lived in, the conveniences he took for granted, all
added to the barriers between them.

This was his world. She didn’t belong here.

Sabine trailed after Drew with a few tentative steps.

Drew looked over his shoulder, took her hand, and tugged her down the
hallway.

Would her lack of experience leave him dissatisfied, or worse, would he
make comparisons to his former lovers?

She hung back, unsure how she should act for the first time in her life.
“I think I’d like a bedroom of my own.”

“Nope, you’ll sleep in my bed because that’s where you belong. You know
that, don’t you?”

Ever honest, Sabine confessed, “In theory, I imagined I could have sex,
but now the reasons why I would seem so cold and calculating.” Sabine looked
everywhere but at him. She was dithering, and she was not a ditherer. She was
changing already and she didn’t like it.

Drew chuckled roughly and gripped her upper arms. “There was nothing cold
in the kisses we shared earlier.” As if to prove his point, he leaned in and
nipped her lower lip. His tongue flicked across the fleshy pad before he let it
go.

Sabine mustered up a sneer for form’s sake and mumbled, “A moment of
madness. It has passed, thankfully. It was all because of the adrenaline
pumping through me.” Sabine tried to shrug off his hands but he held on. Her
eyes flew up to meet his.

His face was bland, but she caught the gleam of laughter in his eyes.
“We’ll have to goad you back to the brink of adrenaline-pumping insensibility,
won’t we? I wasn’t the only one lost in that kiss. Was I?”

Sabine’s toes curled into the hated footwear on her feet. She shook her
head. “No you weren’t, but you’re no gentleman to remind me.”

“No I’m not. I’m a were who’s got his mate all to himself for the first
time, and she’s wasting precious time avoiding what we both want.”

Sabine’s body ran hot and cold, blazing for him, and icy because their
first mating was about to take place. The were in her didn’t care, but her
woman’s pride balked at the swiftness of the deed merely to solidify her
position. The dratted man had her moods swinging from feverish neediness to
indecisiveness.

Drew pulled her up a short flight of stairs. “It’s almost dawn and we
need to get some sleep if that’s what you prefer. The elders will start to
convene when the sun sets tomorrow. You’re going to be a seven-day wonder
amongst my pack.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Great, I’m going to be paraded around like a
prized kill. Just show me where I’ll be sleeping.”

“Here is
our
bedroom.” He pushed open a pair of frosted glass
double doors and stepped into a vast room. A bed covered in a rich masculine
royal blue dominated the space they’d entered. Six elongated pillows stood at
attention at the head of the bed, encased in crisp white bordered in the same
blue. Sabine would give anything to rest her tired body on its plump inviting
mattress.

“Let’s get washed up.” He urged her gently through a door and she went
with him like flotsam carried along by a speedy current into a second room.

The walls sparkled in glassy blues and greens, similar to the bottles she
collected. A deep tub with elaborate silver spigots stood against one wall. Her
eyes widened at the sight of the orchids scattered at random around the room.
Sabine had never seen an actual tropical plant before. They seemed otherworldly
in comparison to the wild flowers which blanketed the hills with the coming of
spring each year. She’d admired them in photographs culled from the magazines
they’d stolen and drawn rough replicas of them. She rubbed a waxy leaf between
her fingers. The spongy texture took her by surprise. Taking a sniff at the
pale green flower with its magenta heart, she was surprised it had hardly any
scent.

Drew used her distraction to pull her top up and over her head.

“I can undress myself.” Sabine slapped his hands away, turned her back to
him, and stepped out of the pants. Though she was most comfortable nude, she
was awash with a sudden bout of modesty foreign to her nature, as she stood
naked before him.

Cloistered in this glossily sumptuous room, with the man who had the
right to take her whenever and wherever he wished brought on a headiness that
weakened her limbs. She was his mate, bound to him by her words. She wasn’t so
confident she could hold up her end of the bargain. Sabine pursed her lips to
stifle any cowardly protest that might slip out.

“Don’t sulk.” Drew nudged her into a wide cubicle and fiddled with some
knobs.

Water spurted out from several metal panels riddled with holes from the
ceiling and walls. Blissfully hot, the streams massaged and soothed the aches
from her muscles. Sabine held her face up to the falling sheet of heated water
and let it wash over her. She took delight in each droplet hitting her skin and
let out a moan. She could get accustomed to this.

“I’ve finally done something you approve of.” The amusement in Drew’s
voice didn’t even irritate her. She was in a happy place.

“Don’t talk to me. I’m experiencing a moment of personal nirvana.” Her
lips spread into a fatuous grin. She couldn’t help it. It was as if a million
tiny fingers were probing her flesh, working the kinks out of her muscles.

Sabine twisted and turned to position particularly weary muscles under
the beating water. It was sinfully good.

Her eyes flew open when Drew’s hands settled on her head. Sabine pivoted
on her heel as suds dripped down her forehead, stinging her eyes. She blinked
when she realized he’d shed his clothes. There was no barrier between them.

Water cascaded over his long lean frame. The fine hairs dusting his chest
shifted in the rivulets streaming down his body.

The intimacy of the situation hit her. She tensed under his hands. His
eyes narrowed, but that didn’t stop him from doing as he pleased. He continued
to scrub the skin of her scalp.

Sabine sniffed suspiciously. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Washing your hair.” He worked up a rich lather in her hair. The suds
stung her eyes, and she blinked up at him. “This promises to give you silky
tresses, but I just like the smell.”

Sabine sniffed. “It smells like green apples.”

“Yeah, it does.” She watched him take up a bar of soap and a piece of
cloth. He began to wash her. He hadn’t touched anywhere which made her female,
but it was just a matter of time. The soft rag slid over her skin in slow
teasing strokes, sensitizing her to his touch, until she leaned into his hands.

She didn’t know what to think or feel. She tingled all over. Sabine
rested her palms on his chest.

“This is not necessary. I’m perfectly capable of bathing myself,” she
murmured in a hoarse whisper.

“It’s permissible for a wolf to groom his mate, even expected.” Drew
informed her gently. “I’d like to do this for you.”

His callused fingers lingered over her breasts. Her nipples hardened into
aching pebbles. Sabine moaned and pushed against his hands and fingers but, to
her consternation, Drew dropped to his knees and started to wash her legs and
feet.

“Consider it a part of our courtship.”

He soaped the length of her legs. The frothy lather slicked his hands and
sent them sliding over her skin in one long caress. Her limbs trembled like a
frightened doe’s under his sensual assault.

“Drew.” His name on her lips was a hoarse whisper.

“Shhh. Let me learn about you. I’d know your scent anywhere, but let me
memorize every curve and indentation you have by touch. I want to know your
body so well, that if I touch any part of you with my eyes closed I’ll know
exactly where I’m stroking you. I’ll carry every lush delicious detail of you
in my mind.”

Her crotch was right there before his eyes, and his breath ruffled the
hair on her mons. The hot air puffed through her labia and wafted across her
bud in tempo with his breathing. Sabine clamped her thighs together to conceal
the juices seeping from her nether lips. She spun around and presented him with
her back in a vain attempt to hide her reaction to that breath-driven caress.