Wild Embrace (19 page)

Stripping off the boxing gloves, she left them in the little hollow in the tree trunk where she'd found them and headed toward the
scent. She found him under her aerie, a stunning wolf whose fur rippled with gradations of color and whose eyes were an intense amber. Standing proud and strong, his ears pricked, it was clear he'd heard her coming.

Desiree wanted desperately to stroke him, to tumble with him to the earth, to just nuzzle her face to his throat. Folding her arms, and tensing her abdomen in an effort to still the butterflies, she tapped her foot. “You took your time.”

Light fractured. The wolf dissolved as she watched, turning into a gorgeous, sexy man who was bare to his smooth, pettable skin. Nakedness after a shift was nothing unusual among changelings, but this wasn't Desiree's usual packmate. This was Felix, who scrambled her brain cells and made her thighs clench as her inner muscles spasmed on emptiness, her body instantly wet and ready.

Breath catching in her throat, she closed her eyes. “Put on some damn clothes!”

“Um, where do you expect me to get clothes?”

“Grr.” Making her way to her aerie tree by memory, she opened her eyes only when she was past him. Then she climbed up and, once inside her home, found a pair of sweatpants Jamie had left behind one day when her fellow soldier decided to run home in leopard form. She'd thrown it in the wash with her own stuff, so it was clean. Chucking it down to the gorgeous naked wolf below her aerie, she jumped back to the ground.

Felix froze in the act of pulling on the sweatpants. “Wow,” he whispered, his eyes wide. “That was incredible.”

Her cat wanted to purr. Ordering it to behave, she rose up from her landing crouch. “Not that I don't want to bite your butt, but maybe you should finish dressing.”

Hot red color on his cheeks, he finished pulling on the sweatpants over that very bitable butt. Then, to her surprise, he turned to face
her, his arms folded across his chest. And though his eyes didn't meet hers, his posture held a stubbornness that told her he wasn't going to back down. “You didn't come to the planting area today.”

“You said you didn't want to see me anymore.”

“No, I didn't. You decided it would be better for the both of us.”

Desiree opened her mouth to argue . . . and realized he was right. They hadn't really discussed the future, just the fact that perhaps they were bad for one another. “Damn it.” She went to shove her hands through her hair, remembered it was tied back, and curled her fingers into tight fists. “Did I pull rank?” She was infuriated and frustrated both.

“No,” Felix said. “I think thinking you know best is just a natural character flaw.”

“Grr.”
Claws slicing out, she glared at him. “Did you come here to pick a fight?”

He paused for a second before nodding slowly. “Yes.”

“Yes?” Desiree stared
at him. “Submissives do not pick fights with dominants.”

“Is that what we are? Dominant and submissive?” Shoulders tightening, his skin smooth and healthy over rippling muscle. “I thought we could be more.”

Courage, she thought again, he had so
much
courage. It shattered her defenses. “I'd like that, too,” she said, her voice husky. “But I'm afraid of hurting you.”

His skin grew taut over his jawline. “A relationship will never work if you're constantly pulling back. Either I can handle you full throttle or I can't. End of story.”

She went to open her mouth to argue, closed it. He was right. A true relationship needed to be in balance. Blowing out a breath, she flexed her fingers. “We've been rushing things.” Her claws slid back into her skin. “I know part of that is my fault, but part of the fault is with you—for being so damn irresistible.”

A hint of a smile on his lips, that slightly full lower one tempting her to indulge. “I agree we've been rushing, but I can't slow it down when I'm with you. Any ideas?”

“No hanky-panky for the next week,” Desiree said, though her
leopard was in rampant disagreement. It wanted Felix. Wanted to bite and lick and mark. “We date like we're fourteen-year-olds on our first dates.”

Lines marred Felix's forehead. “No.”

“No?” She put her hands on her hips. “I'm trying to figure out a solution.” Attempting to give the trust between them time to build to the point where they could try sexy things again without worry. Because she wanted to try all kinds of sexy things with Felix.
All
kinds.

“Sixteen-year-olds,” he said. “Who aren't ready to go all the way. Nothing below the waist and the throat's out for now.”

A smile built inside her. “Done.” Entire body relaxing, she allowed herself to caress him with her eyes, saw his breathing alter, sensed his scent change as he became aware of her petting gaze. “I want to lick you,” she said on a purr. “But there shall be no licking tonight. Sixteen-year-olds do not lick at the start of a date.”

“Want to watch a movie together?” Felix asked, his rich brown eyes meeting her own for a single, glorious second as, around them, the trees rustled in a cool night wind.

“Yeah,” she said and turned to the tree. Claws out, she clambered up and was on her porch before she remembered her date wasn't a cat.

She peered over.

Standing at the foot of the tree, the large trunk bare of any handholds, Felix scowled and sliced out his claws. As she watched, he copied her ascent
exactly
, using the same grips, the same foot brace positions. He wasn't anywhere near as agile as even a young leopard, but he made it to the porch without slipping.

“I knew you were smart,” she murmured, “but that was phenomenal.” She knew the speed at which she climbed—that he'd been able to separate out the movements and remember the precise order . . . wow.

A flush on his cheekbones, but his smile told her it wasn't embarrassment. “I like watching you,” he said, and her heart melted into goo.

This was ridiculous. She was a tough-shit soldier. Acting like a teenager. And it felt really good. Slipping her hand into his, she tugged him into her home. It was simple—a two-level aerie, though the second level was only a large, shallow step up from the first. The first level was a living room slash dining area slash kitchenette, with the bedroom on the second level.

Instead of a wall, she'd opted for curtains to block out her bedroom. Most of the time, the curtains stayed open—those who visited were her friends and family. Today, however, she walked over and let them down. It was too distracting to have the bed in her line of sight while a half-naked Felix was prowling around her living area, his eyes wolf-amber with interest.

He stopped in front of the wall she'd covered with framed snapshots of family and packmates. “Is this your sister?” he asked with unerring accuracy, zeroing in on an image of a laughing young woman with wild curls she wore in a short, bouncy cut. “Same green eyes.”

“Yes—her name's Sonal; Sonu to pretty much everyone.” Desiree felt a deep tug of love inside her for the sister who'd been her chatty little shadow throughout childhood, and with whom she still had a fierce bond. “She's off roaming now, seeing the world, meeting other packs, and, to our mother's despair, bungee jumping off bridges.”

Felix turned his head. “Did you do that, too, when you roamed?”

Laughing, she admitted the truth. “Yes. That's where Sonu got the idea!”

Desiree's roaming days had been a time of play, but they had also seasoned her, given her leopard room to grow. And as she'd told Felix, it had only been fun because she'd known she could return to
DarkRiver at any time. Pack was home . . . and this man—beyond the sexual heat between them—aroused the same feelings of belonging and comfort and peace in her.

Because she couldn't be near him and not touch, she put her hand on his lower back.

He stiffened.

Dropping her hand at once, she said, “What?” She hadn't thought that was a sensitive zone, but she'd never dated a wolf before.

Felix's muscles remained tense as he said, “I had an ex who used to touch me there, just like that. She hurt me.”

The simple statement said far more than any florid words. Claws pricking the insides of her skin, Desiree tried to keep her growl from her voice. “Shall I go hunt her down?”

A startled smile before Felix tangled his fingers with her own. “No, but thanks for the offer.”

Leopard happy that he'd accepted it, though it was still snarling at the idea of him being hurt, Desiree told him about the other photographs before ducking into the bathroom for a quick shower to wash off the sweat from her punching session.

Felix asked to use the shower after her.

“I came straight from planting,” he said. “I'll pull on these sweatpants again after, but it'd be good to wash off the day.”

“Here's a fresh towel.”

Smile deep as he accepted it, he said, “I won't be long.”

The water began to run seconds later.

Trying not to think about him naked and wet so close, she busied herself throwing together some food. It wasn't much, just sandwiches and fruit, but Felix's eyes gleamed in appreciation when he came out with damp hair and beads of water still on his shoulders from where he'd missed them with the towel.

She bit her tongue to stop herself from offering to dry him, not sure she could control herself once she started. “Dig in,” she said. “You must be starving.”

They talked throughout the meal, no awkward silences . . . though the sexual tension beneath the surface was a killer, a thread stretched increasingly taut.

Afterward, they sat together in the small love seat she had in her living area in lieu of the flat cushions most of her packmates preferred, and argued about which movie to watch. “I am not watching that,” she said with a scowl. “It's a weird art house flick that'll probably have sepulchral music and no plotline.”

“Snob.”

“You want to watch something with subtitles and
I'm
the snob?” She bared her teeth at him before she thought about it.

He bared his teeth back. “I speak French. Learned it while I was working there.”

“We're still not watching the gloomy movie.” Seated in the crook of his arm, and having kept her hands very firmly to herself, she picked something else. “How about this?”

“You want to watch gory horror on a romantic date?”

Desiree hesitated, then laid it out. Might as well be honest so he knew who and what he was getting. “Told you I'm not good at the romance deal. I'm not very girly.”

“I think you're very girly.” Felix's voice stroked over her, made her shiver.

•   •   •

Watching
Desiree's breasts rise as her lashes lowered, Felix had an epiphany. She was a dominant, yes, and pushy with it at times, but that didn't mean she had endless self-confidence. She had doubts and worries just like him, needed reassurance. Part of him had always
understood that, but he hadn't really internalized it. The dominants always appeared so confident and strong that they seemed not to need anyone.

But Desiree . . .

Running one of her now free braids through his fingers, he tugged off the colored bead that anchored it and placed it on the table where she'd put a bowl of popcorn. She didn't protest, curling up against him as he slowly, methodically unraveled first one, then all of her painstakingly done braids. Her hair was crackling wild silk over his hands, sticking possessively to his hands and chest.

Desiree, meanwhile, was all loose and limber, a quiet purr under her skin. Not speaking, he continued to pet her until her eyes closed, her pulse languid. “What did you do today?” he asked quietly.

“Ran a patrol,” she murmured. “Babysat five rambunctious cubs for a few hours, punched a bag hanging from a tree, agreed not to pounce on a certain wolf.”

The wolf inside him padded to the surface of his skin, seduced out of its instinctive wariness. “Why were you babysitting?” It wasn't that dominants didn't babysit—they pulled their weight when it came to raising the pack's children. He was simply curious about her.

“Umm.” Rubbing her cheek against his chest, she said, “Can I stretch out over your lap?”

Body hardening, he said, “Yeah.”

Her movements quintessentially feline, she lay down with her head on his thighs, her feet up on the arm of the love seat and her eyes lazy. Colored a yellow-green at that moment, they made it clear her leopard was close to her skin. “Pet me some more.”

He smiled at the demand and, heart thudding, used one hand to continue to play with her hair while he put his other one on the smooth skin of her abdomen after pushing up her tank top. She arched slightly under his touch, eyes closing again, but didn't protest. Rubbing his
thumb over her skin, he felt his nerves fade even as a different kind of tension rose to fever pitch inside him.

“I was babysitting because these cubs are at the age where they need the occasional hard run and I was free. It was fun.” Her purr rose in volume. “You have the best hands.”

Unable to resist the verbal petting, he bent his head and initiated a kiss. Her hand rose to fist in his hair, but she remained lazily quiescent below him. His heart was a roar in his ears as he bit down lightly on her lower lip. A deeper purr, her clawed hand moving to his shoulder to knead gently at him. “Bad kitty,” he murmured.

She nipped at his lips. “Bad girls are more fun.”

He continued to kiss her, taste her, his cock growing harder with each second that passed. When she ran her hand down his chest to scrape her claws lightly over one of his nipples, he hissed out a breath. His wolf wasn't quite sure whether to worry or wallow in the lightning bolt of pleasure, and he stilled for a second.

“No?” Desiree asked, licking her tongue across his lower lip.

She was such a cat, he thought, wondering if she'd lick him everywhere. “I like it,” he said. “Wolf's just thinking about the claws.”

“Okay. While you're thinking, I'll just enjoy myself.” She shaped his pecs, ran her hand down his side. “Do sixteen-year-olds do this?”

“I was too shy at sixteen.” He'd barely made eye contact with girls. “But I say yes.” He loved her hands on him.

Desiree's smile grew deeper. “Me, too.”

Kissing her again, he enjoyed petting a cat who was enjoying him in turn. It was slow and sexy and for the first time since they'd come together, neither one of them made a misstep that caused things to end prematurely. When it did end, it was because they drew apart, conscious of not making the same mistake and rushing things again.

His erection was at breaking point by then, but it was a good
pain, a pain that told him they were getting this unexpected relationship right.

•   •   •

A
week later and things were still going well. Felix and Desiree hadn't had a lot of time together because of conflicting work schedules, but the time that they had, they spent with one another. Still, Felix wanted more.

Which was why he was outside Riley's office right now.

SnowDancer's senior lieutenant and Drew's brother was standing by his desk looking at a holo-map projected onto the right wall, but glanced at Felix the instant he entered the doorway. Dark haired with deep brown eyes and a solid build, Riley exuded a sense of innate stability and calm. That didn't mean he wasn't deadly—he was probably one of the few wolves in the pack who could go up against their alpha in a real fight.

“Felix,” he said in greeting, his body clad in an olive green T-shirt and black cargo pants. “You need some more bodies for the replanting?”

“No.” Felix leaned his back up against the wall by the door. “I was hoping to talk about the schedules.”

“You've earned whatever time you want off,” the senior lieutenant said over one of those wide shoulders. “Consider it done.”

“That's not it.” Running a hand through his hair, Felix said, “Is it possible to coordinate with DarkRiver?”

Riley turned, giving Felix his full attention. “Explain.”

Felix felt the push of Riley's quiet but intense dominance against his skin, but it didn't intimidate; his wolf was nearly as comfortable with the lieutenant as it was with Riley's far more playful younger brother. “It's tough for me and Dezi to see each other,” he said. “She's been on night shift the past three days, and I have to work days.”

Nodding, Riley rubbed his jaw. “I guess Mercy and I didn't really notice it because I could set my own schedule,” he said, referring to his own feline mate. “Leave it with me. I'll need to discuss it with Hawke.” A slow smile. “I bet neither Lucas nor Hawke thought of all the flow-on effects of interpack dating.”