Spirit of the Wolf (15 page)

Read Spirit of the Wolf Online

Authors: Vonna Harper

Tags: #Man-Woman Relationships, #Ranchers, #Paranormal, #General, #Romance, #Erotic Fiction, #Erotica, #Fiction, #Love Stories

BOOK: Spirit of the Wolf
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“I know where that was taken,” he said, “the very spot.”
How is that possible?
her eyes said.
At a loss for words, he took the photograph from her and dropped it onto the table. His mind processed what he was seeing and yet it didn’t. With the surrounding vegetation for perspective, he had no doubt of the flesh-and-blood wolf’s size. Even with shadow blurring its features, the piercing black eyes made their impact. Cat had captured everything from the tips of the wolf’s forward-pointing ears to his bushy tail. There was no doubt of the wolf’s sex.
“How far away were you?” he finally asked.
“Maybe twenty feet.”
Twenty feet was nothing. The predator could have covered that in a single leap. Still looking at what he hadn’t fully processed, he tried to force himself to relax. Bottom line, Cat was safe.
Maybe there’d never been a hint of danger.
Maybe the wolf had deliberately revealed himself to her. What did he mean,
maybe?
“Matt?”
“What?”
“You’re tearing the photograph.”
Damn it, she was right. The thing was, he didn’t remember picking the shot up again. Dropping it, he went back to studying the incomprehensible. A bull heading for a corral full of cows had nothing on this living, breathing alpha wolf. Cat’s shot had frozen the beast, but there was no doubting his potential and deadly purpose.
“The prints you found,” she said, “belong to him.”
Hopefully there was only one wolf this size. The thought of any more made his blood run cold. Then he looked at Cat again and chill became heat. His muscles flexed and tightened. She’d taken unbelievable pictures of a massive predator and had shared them with him. Now he had to deal with it.
Had to deal with what was happening to him.
15
 
E
ven before Matt moved, Cat sensed what he was going to do. Feeling as if she might explode, she backtracked. Arms at his sides, he stepped around the coffee table and headed for her.
“Don’t.”
Going by his expression, he either hadn’t heard or her warning hadn’t penetrated. He’d started changing in indefinable ways from the moment she showed him the oversized-wolf cave painting, His eyes had darkened until they mirrored the wolf’s, and his gaze had grown predator-sharp. Even without fangs, he seemed less human.
Warning herself not to look at his erection, she reached behind her for the nearby recliner. Her fingers brushed an arm, but instead of trying to put the stupid, useless barrier between them, she stood her ground.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.
“What we both want.”
Damn the man for being right! No way could she deny that along with distrust, fear, and confusion, heat warred for her attention. He was still human; she didn’t dare lose sight of that. But the human was being swallowed by something else.
“Just because you’re turned on doesn’t mean I am.”
“Yes, you are.”
“How can you say that?”
“I can smell you.”
Smell.
No doubt, then, that his senses were sharpening because her sex
was
becoming fluid and was warring for her attention. “I just took a shower.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Going by his rough tone, she guessed talking was becoming difficult. Even as she tried to process what that said about what was taking place in him, she gave thanks for her confusion. After all, how could she possibly want to fathom everything?
Even as he closed in on her, she fell in love with Matt’s smooth stride. He didn’t simply walk—he glided. With every step, his thigh muscles strained the jeans. His legs couldn’t possibly be becoming larger and yet—
Powerful male hands reached for her. Alive with emotions she had no words for, she watched as her wrists disappeared under his fingers. He gripped her hard and harsh, the message clear.
Today was all about having his way.
Drawing her arms around his waist so she was off balance and hard against him, he thrust his crotch at her. “Take it.”
Demand he leave me alone. Lie and say you don’t want him.
“Not like this. Matt, it won’t work. Our clothes.”
Holding her at arm’s length, he looked down at her. Trepidation and anticipation warred within her. Even drunk she’d never felt like this.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Strip.”
Maybe she should point out how hard that would be without the use of her hands. Instead she waited. Watched. Hummed.
“You heard me, Cat. Enough with the clothes.”
She tried to lift her arms only to surrender to his greater strength. Drumbeats echoed inside her. When finally he released her, she remained in place before him. The compelling beats seemed to be coming from him.
Fluid and confident, he stepped to her side and grabbed her braid. “Do it.”
He applied just enough pressure that she had no choice but to look upward. The ceiling offered neither comfort nor explanation. Lost in sensation, she started in on her blouse buttons. She’d debated cutting her hair short only to chicken out because she was afraid that would take more work. Braids and ponytails were easy and practical.
Today she acknowledged another reason for keeping the length.
Done with the unbuttoning, she pulled the shirt out of her waistband and shook it off her shoulders, which was no easy task. Instead of helping, he continued to keep her off balance until the garment fell to the carpet.
“Bra.”
The drumming inside prevented her from being sure she’d heard him correctly, but what did it matter? She had no use for clothes this morning. If not for his hand between her shoulder blades, she might have fallen backward. Trusting him when she knew she shouldn’t, she accepted his support while she fumbled with the damnable fastening. Finally the bra lay on top of her blue cotton top. Her breasts felt as if sandpaper had brushed over them.
“Enough,” she said to the ceiling. “This is killing my neck.”
Without a word of apology, Matt pushed against the back of her head. Even as relief streamed through her neck, she nearly begged him not to release her braid after all.
Not trusting her reaction if she looked into his eyes again, she tackled her jeans. Her hands hadn’t been this unsteady since she’d taken the pictures. Dispensing with her jeans was relatively easy. On the other hand, the idea of standing nude in front of Matt terrified her. The only thing she knew about the panties she still had on was that they ended just shy of her navel.
“What about you?” she asked. “Am I the only one who—”
“I do what I do, when I want.”
Unless you aren’t sure what you want,
she silently finished for him. The photographs half a room away dominated the space. They had something—maybe everything—to do with Matt’s mood.
Thinking to mention her concern, she faced Matt full-on. The moment she did, her heavy breasts and the juices in her pussy stopped her thoughts. Matt had become a mountain, a fierce beast, nearly inhuman. Granted, he still wore everything he’d had on when he’d walked into her place, but she could see through the layers to the truth about this man she’d once thought she knew.
“I . . .” Not sure what she’d been going to say, she drew her braid over her shoulder and started fingering it. Her other hand zeroed in on her cunt. The ache in her neck didn’t matter—only the one laying claim to her cunt did. Sex, soon. Sex, different and yet familiar.
As if he’d tapped into her thoughts, Matt’s gaze narrowed. She’d once watched a cougar slink toward an unaware rabbit. Torn between wanting to warn the rabbit and letting the cougar do what nature had designed it for, she’d stared. And stared. Achingly slow movement had ended with a burst of power and speed. Her hand clamped over her mouth, she’d watched the cougar tear the rabbit apart.
Matt’s stance reminded her of the cougar’s.
With a thumb hooked through her panties’ waistband, she reached out to touch the recliner. On the heels of an indrawn breath, Matt grabbed her and threw her into the chair. She landed awkwardly low on her spine with her breasts shaking and her feet sliding on the carpet. Grabbing her panties, he ripped them off.
“Stay there!”
Teeth clenched, she struggled not to let his size and fierceness overwhelm her. Had she ever felt this helpless, this alone?
Alone
. How could that be when Matt was here with her?
“It’s the wolf picture,” she said. Her breasts flattened out, making her erect nipples even more prominent. She didn’t try to close her legs, because Matt wanted her like this—exposed and vulnerable. “It has some kind of impact on you. An influence. I felt the same way when I saw the wolf.”
“You don’t understand.”
Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, what did it matter?
He planted his hands on the armrests and positioned himself between her legs. Much as she ached to touch him, she didn’t because what if she did something to set him off?
“I didn’t want to come here,” he said, his tone husky and raw. “I knew it wasn’t safe.”
“For who, you?”
He nodded, then frowned as his attention slid from her face to the rest of her. “Maybe you too.”
“Then leave.” It wasn’t what she wanted to tell him. “Get out of here before you do something you’ll regret.”
The corners of his mouth lifted, but she’d never call that a smile. “Wrong, Cat. I’m not going to regret this.”
Working slowly, he braced his arm on the chair back on either side of her head. That done, he too-slowly leaned into her. Blanketed her body with his. Despite her resolve, she tried to escape by pressing her body into the recliner. He was fully dressed in contrast to her nudity and too strong for her to stop him from doing whatever he wanted.
He wanted sex. He’d said he could smell her, but she wasn’t the only one giving off base messages. She’d never seen him more aroused. What did that make her, his prey or fuck partner?
“You aren’t going to leave. That’s the last thing you’d do now,” she said.
“A predator never backs down,” he told her.
“That’s how you feel, like a predator?”
He answered by baring his teeth. Knowing what he had in mind, she nevertheless turned her head to the side and exposed the side of her neck. Too late, she tried to change direction only to freeze as his teeth raked her flesh. Her fingers digging into fabric, she drew a mental picture of how he looked standing over her. All-powerful.
A jolt of pain nearly made her cry out. Now her mind’s eye pictured his teeth fastened over her tendon. If he’d drawn blood, would the taste propel him to bite even harder?
She’d concentrate on breathing; yes, that’s what she’d do. She wouldn’t acknowledge the fiery knot in her belly or the warmth leaking out of her to stain the recliner. Most of all, she’d deny what Matt was turning into.
He’d stopped biting and was lapping at her neck before new possibilities started forming. Granted, he’d become everything the word
macho
represented; that didn’t mean he’d stopped being human. Her imagination had gotten away from her, nothing more than that. Relief dampened her lashes and made her eyes burn.
Then he pressed his hands against the outer sides of her breasts and her tears dried. “Your freedom has always been important to you,” he muttered. “Your independence.”
Hot, she dug her nails into the recliner. “So has yours.”
“You wanted my body but not the rest of me.”
Was that true? “That cuts both ways, Matt. The few times I tried to get you to talk about personal things, you shoved me away.”
“Did I?” He didn’t sound convinced or as if he cared. “There’s no shoving me away today, is there?”
The firmer the pressure against her breasts, the more the sensation resonated in her core. Squirming, she reached for his wrists only to have him knock her hands away. Instead of going back to what he’d been doing, he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her higher onto the recliner. His features blurred as he again leaned over her and lapped at one nipple and then the other.
“Oh, God!”
Matt repeatedly bathed her nipples. Mewling like some lost kitten, she raked her nails over his forearms. Her world swam, and her pussy tightened.
“Matt, oh God, Matt.”
Closing his teeth over her right nipple, he lifted his head a little and drew her breast upward, sending something hot grinding into her belly. Desperate to regain some measure of control over her senses, she arched her back. He continued to pull.
“Shit, no. Please.”
When he released her, another heated wave assaulted her. Instead of trying to get away, she offered her other breast to him. His tongue roughly flicked her nipple. Mindless, she grabbed hold of the hair at the top of her head.
You’re killing me,
she came too close to admitting.
Then he was gone. Disappeared. Leaving her to drown. Too confused to move, she listened for the sounds she both needed and feared. Seconds later, his heavy breathing told her he’d stepped behind the recliner. Other sounds left her with no doubt that he was taking off his clothes. Tearing at them really.
It
was going to happen.
Hands she both worshipped and feared grasped her shoulders. Matt hauled her about until she was crosswise on the recliner with her head dangling over the side of one armrest and her legs over the other. Then he forced her arms over her head. When he let go of her, her fingertips brushed the floor. Blood rushed to her head. She could only hold it up for a few seconds, and each time she did, her attention went to his naked form. Even upside down, he looked incredible.
Overwhelming.
He gathered up her breasts. “Mine.”
Her flesh was stretched over her belly and hip bones, sending uncontrollable sensations to that part of her body and from there to her totally exposed sex. Despite her conflicted emotions, she’d give anything to feel his hands on her there.
“This is how you should always be. Accessible to me.”
Talking while in this position was nearly impossible, yet she had to try. “Just hanging there waiting for you? You don’t give a damn about my needs.”
Muttering something unintelligible, he switched his focus from her breasts to her ribs. Working strong and slow, he ran his fingers over the ridges and valleys. Weak and frightened, she tried to lift her arms so she could guide his journey.
“My head. It’s killing me.”

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