Rescue in the Smokies (Durham Wolves) Read online

  “Wolves mate for life, Juliana.” He said her name like a caress. “I need you to understand the implications of us making love.”

  She nibbled on her bottom lip, felt her brow scrunch up. How big a deal could it be? It was just sex. She really wanted him to shut up, get naked and take her over that precipice she remembered from yesterday. No one had ever affected her like he did. She wanted to do it again. Now.

  “We call it a claiming. When we meet the right woman, we know, instantly. Our bodies react chemically. Everything about you calls to me. Your scent, your body, your mind…” He glanced away and took a deep breath before turning back.

  She let him continue. He needed to get this out, whatever it was. She felt like she understood on a visceral level. After all, wasn’t she reacting rather violently to him also?

  “What I’m trying to say is…this isn’t just sex for me, Juliana. When I take you, it’s for good. I won’t let you go. You won’t want me to. Your body will need mine as much as I need you after we mate. Perhaps more so.”

  If he wanted her half as bad as she wanted him right now, it’d be enough to sustain them for a lifetime. But she needed to clear her head. Think. Was he saying this was a commitment for him? Just having intercourse with her was enough to make a lifetime promise?

  Could she do that?

  Could she not?

  Of course, that was ridiculous. Then again, everything that had happened for the past day and a half was impossible. Still, there was no way she could commit to a man she barely knew, especially one that turned into a wolf.

  “I swear to you, Juliana, to love and adore you for the rest of our lives. It’s a process that grows over time until a mated pair can’t even imagine life without the other. However, I won’t take you without you understanding the implications, the intensity of the pledge I’m making to you. There’s no going back. No regrets.”

  Juliana eased out from under him. His arms held him rigid above her, and she scooted back until she was sitting, leaning against the headboard.

  “So, you’re saying we can’t just have sex right now and move on? You don’t do one-night stands? Are you a virgin?” The thought almost made her gasp. This did not seem like a man who had no experience.

  “No, I’m not a virgin. Yes, I’ve had one-night stands, but not with the woman I knew was my mate for life. You are that woman. All bets are off. This is different.”

  She froze. Different? This was most assuredly different. Even in the limited relationships she’d had, she’d never felt anything near what she felt right now, and he wasn’t even touching her. The man made her squirm. Her sex wept. Her heart pounded. Her palms sweated.

  His intensity, the look in his eyes—grave, serious, kind, loving… All those qualities combined to melt her resolve. She wanted him. So bad. More than she’d ever wanted anything before in her life. But she was human. Did humans have that sort of reaction?

  “Why do I feel so drawn to you? I’m not even a…”

  “Shapeshifter. It just happens that way. Even though you’re human, your body knows deep inside that you belong to me. Our pheromones call to each other. Just like animals have for centuries in the wild. Humans don’t heed that call. Their ability to reason supersedes anything so carnal. Nevertheless it’s there in your soul, an innate draw to mate with the right being.”

  His words sucked her in, drew her to want to touch him. Run her hands over him. It seemed so reasonable. She knew if she so much as stroked a knuckle over his cheek it was all over.

  Do it. With shaking fingers, she ran the tips along his jaw, his brow, his chin. And then she wrapped her palm around his head and whispered, “Okay.”

  Sergius released a long breath and tugged her back down until she was flat beneath him. Her shirt rode up, became trapped under her. It felt suddenly too tight, confining.

  “Way too many clothes here. I want to feel you against me,” she mumbled. She crossed her arms over her chest and jerked her tank top over her head.

  She lay under him in just her shorts and panties.

  Nerves skittered across her skin, pebbling it with goose bumps. Following his gaze, she glanced down at her breasts. Her nipples stood at attention, but they were small. It registered that he hadn’t seen her before, as much as he’d explored her in the cave. It had been too dark.

  “Don’t look at yourself like that.” He took her chin in his hand. “You’re so perfect.” With a finger, he wiped her brow, brushed the frown off her face with a touch.

  “I’m so small.” She bit her lip, gazed at him in wonder. What does he see in me?

  “I saw you naked yesterday. Did I seem unimpressed then? Why are you so embarrassed today?”

  “It was pitch dark. You felt me. That’s not the same. I feel more exposed now.”

  A quick grin flashed to her gaze. “I see perfectly in the dark. I’m a wolf.”

  She moaned and turned her head to the side. God.

  “Just right. So gorgeous.” Holding himself aloft with one hand, he trailed the huge, work-roughened fingers of his other hand down her neck and circled her breasts. So light a grazing, she could barely feel him. A spiral pattern ensued around first one breast and then the other, never reaching the center—the nipples that ached to be flicked, pinched, nibbled, sucked. God, anything. If he would just touch her…more.

  “I’ve never seen a more spectacular sight. Your skin is so smooth, flawless. Look at yourself. Look at the contrast between your pale, perfect chest against my darker, rough hand. Look, baby. Look what you do to me.”

  Juliana tipped her gaze down from his face to his hands, worshipping her body. He was shaking, his fingers dancing over her skin, barely touching her because of the shiver in them. Sure enough, even the contrast of their skin tones was arousing. Or maybe it was his poetic version.

  “I could stare at you all day.”

  “Please don’t. I need you inside me.” She arched into his touch, grasped the sheet beneath her with both fists.

  He smiled, but kept his gaze locked on her chest as though it were the most wonderful piece of art he’d ever seen.

  A fresh wave of heat sent dampness to the space between her legs. Could she come from this light tickling to her chest?

  “Please…” She tried so hard not to squirm. And didn’t want to beg as though she couldn’t control her body’s reaction to him.

  “Please what, baby? This?” He flicked a finger over first one nipple and then the other. She writhed and arched higher off the bed, a deep moan escaping her lips. God help me.

  Feelings she’d never known existed surfaced. A deep need to be one with the man languidly enjoying this as though he had all the time in the world.

  “We aren’t in any hurry. Just enjoy yourself. I want to make you burn, baby. I want you to come under my touch again and again. I want to mark you. Make you mine with my mouth, my lips, and then my cock.”

  In a blink, Serg straddled her waist and pinched both nipples between his fingers.

  Juliana bucked her torso up toward him, but he held himself out of reach. The only thing he wore was a pair of cotton shorts, but they did nothing to hide the erection bulging in the front.

  Licking her lips, she reached around him and grabbed his ass to squeeze his firm glutes with her fingers. She let her hands trail from there to the front so she could wrap one palm around his erection through his loose cotton shorts while the other weighed his sac.

  Serg moaned and gave her no more than a few seconds of exploration before he snatched both wrists and tugged them over her head. “You can’t do that, baby. I’ll shoot off before I’m ready.”

  “I’m ready.”

  A smile spread across his face. “No, you’re not.”

  She didn’t know how she could be any more ready than she was right now. Her pulse sped. The temperature of her skin rivaled his. And small spasms had already started to spark in her core. She wanted him so bad, her heels dug into the mattress in an effort to arch into him again.
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  “I’m a bit dominant in bed, baby. I like things my way. Not known for being very flexible about it.” He seemed to search her face while he rearranged his grip so that one hand held both of hers over her head, firm against the pillow. The other hand pressed against her stomach, dislodging her feet so she lost purchase.

  He was going to kill her with his fucking words.

  How much more aroused could she get?

  “Prove it. Show me, goddamnit. Just…do something. I’m so horny.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes.” The word came out on a breath. She didn’t know why she should or would, but she did. With her life. And her body.

  “Let me take your choice away. That’s a lot to ask of someone who had their first orgasm yesterday. But I guarantee it’ll heighten your experience to a level that will blow your mind. And it would be so fucking sexy to have my woman, my mate, the person I will spend the rest of my life worshipping, give me that control our first time together.”

  “Choice?” What does he mean? She held her breath again.

  Sergius leaned down and nibbled a path to her ear, gently licked the lobe and dipped his tongue inside to send a chill straight down her body.

  He whispered, barely audibly, “Let me restrain you, baby. Force you to come at my hand, over and over again until you can’t take it anymore…and then I’ll give you my rock-hard cock, hard and fast. Let me make you want it so bad you can’t stand another moment without having me inside you, pumping my seed into you. I’ll make you beg. I’ll make you know with all your heart and soul that you belong to me, always and forever. You’ll never want another man to touch you again.”

  The moan she emitted was long and deep. Her eyes fluttered shut. She couldn’t speak. Her throat felt closed, almost raw as though she’d been screaming for hours. Her mouth was dry. Her tongue couldn’t even gather enough saliva to lick her lips. All she could do was nod. Even opening her eyes wasn’t a possibility. The stimuli created by sight would make her cry with need.

  “Say it, baby. I need more than a nod. Tell me what you want.”

  Oh God, he was good at this. Was this the foreplay women always complained about needing? ’Cause obviously none of them had met the right man.

  All doubt fled. He didn’t have to restrain her to have his way with her. She was his already. Irrevocably. Did he not know that?

  “Tie me up. Make me yours.” The words were murmured so low even she could barely hear them echoing in her head. They burned in her throat. Saying them out loud sent a new pool of moisture to dampen her panties. She wiggled her ass against the sheets. It was the closest she could come to relieving the tension growing between her thighs.

  When he pressed her belly into the mattress again, she squeezed her legs together.

  “Hold still.” He let go of her hands abruptly and leaned over to the bedside table. When he righted himself over her, she never even had a chance to see what he had retrieved because the first thing he did was cover her eyes with a soft material. The dim room went black.

  He lifted her head a few inches and tied the swath of fabric behind her. When he laid her back on the pillow, his hands tangled themselves in her hair and spread the long, messy locks around her. “Love your hair, baby. It’s fiery, like you. I want to see it spread out all over my pillowcase while I take you.”

  Her arms still lay limp above her head. She hadn’t even remembered their existence until another strip of fabric delicately tiptoed up her inner arm and reached her fingertips. Serg wrapped the material in a figure eight around her wrists, and then he tied it off beyond them to the headboard. The languid speed of his movements did not match the haste she felt or the rate of her heartbeat thumping wildly against her chest.

  “Beautiful.” He kissed her lips briefly and pulled back, leaving her reaching her tongue out into thin air in desperation. She needed to taste him again. “Relax. I promise you the best sex of your life. Well, to date. It’ll get better and better later today, and tomorrow, and the next day.”

  “Too much talking.” She bit her lip again.

  “Oh? Hmmm. I can make this last all night if I want.”

  His threat did nothing to slow her libido.

  “In fact, every time you complain, I’ll back off. Slow down. Make you wait longer. So I suggest you keep those soft, provocative lips sealed until I either ask you a question or tell you when you can start begging.”

  A low groan escaped her parted lips, unbidden.

  “Oh, those sexy little sounds you make are permitted.” He chuckled, the vibrations coming closer and closer until he nipped her neck and trailed a line of kisses down her throat and across her chest.

  When his lips closed over a nipple she bucked her hips. He’d lowered enough that her clit rubbed slightly against his stomach through the material of her shorts.

  Instead of rising away from her reach, this time Serg flattened himself onto her and rested his torso against her sex. Her legs were pinned together still and she couldn’t get the friction she so desired against her clit.

  It was hard to concentrate on her lower region, though, when a pattern of torment began on her chest. One nipple was sucked deep into his mouth, seeming to encompass almost her entire globe. He plucked at the other, making the bud stand at attention, and then grasped it between several fingers and rolled it back and forth.

  “Ugh, Serg—”

  “Uh, uh, uh.” His fingers and mouth disappeared, adding fuel to her desperation.

  She ground her teeth together to keep from pleading with him prematurely. The roller coaster of emotions was sheer torture.

  Two heartbeats later, he resumed, having switched nipples. Suck, lick, blow, release. An indefinite pattern kept her toes curled in anticipation.

  “These are the sweetest nipples in the world. You taste like honey. An appetizer to the main course, which will surely be a culinary delight.”

  Was he talking about her sex? God, the man needed to shut up. He was a master with the English language. And rapidly becoming the master of her body.

  Serg released the pinch on one nipple and two seconds later she screamed his name as he lifted off her a few inches and pressed his thumb into her trapped clit. Without warning a small orgasm pulsed through her, the rasp of lace between his pressure and her needy nub enough to push her over the precipice.

  “Oh, baby. That’s so hot. I haven’t even touched your sweet, bare pussy yet, and you’re already giving me a little piece of yourself.” His words tumbled onto her chest, the breath creating a cool line of goose bumps on her sensitive mound. “If this is your reaction, I will have to restrain you more often.”

  She couldn’t comment, which was a good thing, because the last thing she wanted was for him to stop. Please get inside me now. Seconds went by without him removing his thumb.

  “What if I do this?” He moved so fast. One second he was straddling her and the next he was gone. His hands grasped her shorts and panties together and pulled them down her legs and off. “Spread your legs for me, baby. Let me look at you. I didn’t get to see the pink folds of your sex yesterday.”

  Tentatively, she let her legs fall open. A flush rose against her cheeks and spread down her neck and over her rising chest. So exposed. So vulnerable.

  Her imagination of him staring at her naked pussy was more than she could stand.

  “Wider, baby. Let your legs fall open farther.”

  When she didn’t move far enough, Sergius laid his palms against her thighs and spread them as wide as she could stretch, pressing her knees open into the mattress.

  She heaved for breath. He’s gazing at my most intimate parts. Fuck, he’s breathing only inches from my clit.

  “So fucking beautiful. Don’t ever doubt that.” His words puffed air onto her wetness. The effect was a chill that made her shiver. Wetness escaped her center to trickle down between her ass cheeks.

  She twisted her head to one side as if that would keep her from calling out to him
. She even managed to bite into the pillowcase.

  “You’re glistening. So pink. So hot. Your clit is peaking out of its hood, pulsing with need. Are you as tight as I remember?”

  He waited a beat. Did he want her to answer that?

  “Good girl. You want me to stuff your mouth with something easier to bite down on? I’m sure I have another scarf around here someplace.”

  She froze, her teeth clamping onto the sheet. Would he?

  Instead, he pushed one finger into her sheath, the shock so intense she shuddered and had to squeeze her eyes tight behind the blindfold to keep from coming again on the spot. How embarrassing.

  “Oh, baby. Don’t hold back on me. Come for me again. Come around my finger. Come once more and then I’ll suck your clit into my mouth and drag a mind-numbing release from your pussy.”

  Fuck.

  Another finger joined the first; they twisted, and then raked along the top lining of her sex across her G-spot.

  The pillowcase fell from her lips. “Oh, God. You’re killing me.” Her hips lifted off the bed and she held herself rigid. Right…there.

  She couldn’t stop it.

  He made no mention of her indiscretion. “Let it go.” He reached back inside, as deep as he could, and did it again.

  Her body had no choice, as he’d wanted. The pulsing release milked his fingers, waves of surrender given to this man who controlled her mind and her body.

  She gasped for air. Fell limp against the bed.

  And yet she wanted more. How could she? She needed to feel him filling her, driving into her body until they were one being.

  He wasn’t done yet. True to his promise, his lips wrapped around her clit and sucked the little nub into his mouth. Her second orgasm wasn’t quite over. He didn’t let up. His tongue flicked over and over the single most sensitive spot on her body, his mouth consuming her, his fingers pumping in and out of her.

  So close. So close to the biggest release of her life. She could feel it coming. Every nerve ending in her came alive. Her legs trembled. She wanted this feeling to last forever, to be repeated as often as possible until she died.

  More pressure. If she could just mash herself into his open mouth.