focused entirely on the wolf. On Luc. They’d become one and the same. Luc as wolf. The wolf, Luc.
What she did wasn’t for her own pleasure, her own physical satisfaction.
This was all for Luc.
Tia stroked herself, her fingers slipping ever so slowly in and out of her slick and greedy flesh, the sounds wet and hungry, even to her own ears. Hips lifting to meet each silken thrust. Clit begging for attention, standing in the way of every outward stroke, blocking every slow, wet slide into her welcoming cunt.
Her breasts ached. Her nipples twisted, budded into tight, needy points. She rubbed her palm against them, pinched and tugged, found a rhythm that matched her other hand.
Tia felt it and welcomed it. The strange, rippling, stretching, itchy sensation across her arms, down the length of her legs. Her skin literally crawled across her bones, a feeling she linked to her impending orgasm.
This time, though, the crawling grew stronger, and, with it, the sense of something huge, something just beyond her reach. It overwhelmed the sensual pleasure of stroking herself so intimately. Cried for recognition, for acknowledgment.
The wolf yipped and stood straighter, rising up on its forelegs so that it arched over the footboard. Then, with a single leap it jumped up on the bed and sat beside her.
Watching.
Tia felt the mattress dip with the wolf’s weight, sensed his tension, his massive control as he watched while she pleasured herself. She could have reached out and touched his head, stroked behind his ears, even touched his long, powerful legs, but to do so would somehow break the spell the animal seemed to have woven about her.
She turned her head in order to see his eyes. Intelligence gleamed in their amber depths. Sentience. Tia’s limbs felt strange, disconnected. She pinched harder, faster at her swollen nipples. Her fingers flew now, circling her clit and dipping inside her slick and greedy cunt. She drew her knees up higher, raised her hips slightly off the bed to meet the thrust of her own fingers. The wet sounds of penetration were practically lost in the pounding of her heart, the rush of her quick, panting breaths.
The sound of the wolf’s slow, even breathing.
So close to coming, so completely caught up in her own arousal, Tia closed her eyes, concentrated on the slide of her fingers deep inside herself, the pulsing rush of blood in her veins. She accepted the presence of the wolf and then put him away, out of her mind. She tightened her focus, became the clench of her vaginal walls, the tight ache deep in her womb, the need to touch here, to slide her fingers there.
Her breasts ached and she pinched harder at her own turgid nipples, bruising the dark tips, imagining the wolf’s hot tongue sweeping across her breasts. At the moment the thought entered her mind, she felt him. Felt the animal’s steamy breath, his rough tongue licking the soft curve of her left breast, felt…no. It wasn’t the wolf. It was Luc beside her, leaning over the bed, taking her nipple between full lips, suckling the sensitive bit of flesh between his sharp teeth, biting…
Tia screamed, arched into her climax, scrabbling at the bedspread beside her with one hand while the other pressed down hard between her legs. Her entire body pulsed and clenched with the force of orgasm. She felt the hot gush of fluids between her legs, the crawling, stretching, toe-numbing sensation that made her feel as if she’d suddenly grown too big, too sensitive for her own skin.
Gasping, Tia opened her eyes and glanced quickly to her left. Of course there was no wolf, no sign of Luc. A whimper caught in her throat, a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. Masturbation with her fantasies as active participants? Good lord, she really must be losing it. Damn.…
She lay back on the satin cover and let the final tremors of her climax recede. Waited for her heart to return to its normal beat, her breathing to resume its usual slow and easy pattern.
Why did she dream of wolves? And why, now that she knew him, had Luc become part of those dreams?
Well, the answer to the second question’s easy enough. A lifetime of fantasies capped off by the real thing. Amazing how the real thing was better than any fantasy she’d ever concocted, and all they’d done was kiss.
Damn and double damn. That led to even more fantasies. What was it going to be like when they finally had sex? There was no maybe about it, no doubt in Tia’s mind that it would happen, sooner or later.
Preferably sooner. Her body still thrummed with her fading orgasm, but where was the languor, the sense of completion? If anything, she felt needier, almost desperate to have Luc deep inside her.
With that thought, Tia’s pussy clenched and a low, dull ache spread through her womb. She pressed her hand against her swollen labia and imagined Luc’s tongue stroking her there, his large fingers probing.
His cock filling her, ever so slowly. So completely.
Moaning aloud with frustration, Tia rolled off the bed, grabbed her makeup bag, and headed for the bathroom to shower. It was almost four. Luc had seen her travel-worn and weary, yet he’d still responded to her. It might be nice to show the man that she knew how to clean up. Even nicer to see how he’d react.
Luc checked his watch. Still on time, in spite of the beer he’d stopped for at the neighborhood bar where he’d met Tinker. At least Tink appreciated the problems facing Luc…and Tia. No one else, except Ulrich, had a clue.
Luc knocked on the door and waited. When Tia didn’t respond, he tried the handle. The door swung open. Luc was certain he’d locked it before he left, but he stuck his head through the partially opened door. “Tia? You here?”
No answer. Luc stepped into the living room. The bathroom door was closed but he heard the shower running. A trail of clothes from the living room to the bedroom told him Tia’d most likely taken her nap in the nude.
Images of Tia unclothed might be a little bit much for his overactive libido right now.
As much as he wanted her, as desperately as Luc’s body needed hers, it was too much too soon. She had no idea the secrets he carried. Until he could level with her, explain her birthright as well as his role in her mother’s death, Luc knew there could be no true intimacy.
Once she was fully Chanku, their minds would link, their thoughts meld. It was part of the bonding process, should he take her as mate. Luc paused in midstep. The image of himself as wolf, covering Tia’s wolven body, made him hard again. As though he’d been able to lose the erection since the first time he saw Tia this morning.
He’d never taken a woman as wolf. Never experienced the intimate bond Ulrich had told him of. The concept intrigued as much as it terrified. Luc carried too many secrets in his head, and all of them would belong to Tia once they mated as wolves.
Finding out how her mother died while Luc fucked her senseless wasn’t the romantic scenario he imagined.
Damn. How the hell was he ever going to tell her? Telling her about Chanku was going to be difficult enough.
Luc leaned over and picked Tia’s blouse off the floor and then grabbed her denim skirt. Her bra was next, a black, lacy thing, then a tiny pair of black thong panties. Every item of clothing was imbued with her scent and her panties felt suspiciously damp. He hadn’t imagined her arousal. He held the evidence in his hands.
It wasn’t easy, but he resisted the desire to hold her panties to his nose. He couldn’t risk it. Not now.
Not after what had happened earlier. He’d never come so close to losing control. Thank goodness Tia had stopped him. On the edge sexually, he’d been bare seconds from shifting. His behavior more wolf than human, his lovemaking ferocious, not tender.
He wondered if the bite on Tia’s neck had left a mark.
His mark.
Another thought intruded as he stood there in the middle of Tia’s living room with her clothing clutched to his chest. Were the others from the pack invited to dinner tonight? Ulrich wouldn’t do that to Tia and Luc,