Impulse

Chapter Eight

He woke with Sera in his arms.

Julio buried his nose in her hair and inhaled with a groan. “You smell good.”

“I smell like you” was her husky reply. She tilted her head back, arching her throat toward him. “I like it.”

“I’m not that much of a narcissist.” She smelled like shampoo, sunblock and salt. “It’s got to be you.”

“If you say so.” Her eyes drifted open, sleep glazed but amused. “I slept like a baby in your guest room, you know. It smelled like you too. Just enough to know I was safe.”

“So you want to keep sleeping with me?”

She traced a fingertip along his collarbone. “You shouldn’t ask me that. I’d spend days in this bed with you, if you’d let me.”

His dick hardened. “Can’t. We’re checking out today. Still have a few hours, though.”

“Yeah?” A little wiggle, and she had her hip pressed up against him, rubbing teasingly. “Are you going to make me beg, or are you going to play with me?”

Julio slid his hand over her hip, his fingers brushing her stomach. “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out what you need, the stuff you might not even realize.”

She caught his hand and held it in place. “Uh-uh. I don’t want to be screwed for my mental health. I don’t believe in sexual healing, and even if I did, it doesn’t sound very fun. Just be, right?”

“Just be.” He rolled her to her back and leaned over her. “I don’t want us to have sex because we woke up in the same bed. I don’t want to need a convenient excuse.”

Sera stared up at him, her face surrounded by wild strands of hair that had escaped her braid during the night. She took one slow breath, then another, as if she was working up the courage to say something. When she finally did, nervous vulnerability showed clearly in her eyes. “Promise me that you’re doing all this slow seduction and dominance stuff because you like it, not because it’s what I want.”

He could give her that. “I promise, sweetheart.”

Lifting her head, she brushed a soft kiss to his lips. “I said yes that first night. To everything.

I’ll tease and I’ll flirt, but I’ll do anything you want until you decide you don’t want that responsibility anymore.”

“I know.” What he didn’t know was whether responsibility was something he could ever walk away from again.

She was still watching him, wide-eyed and uncertain. “Did I—” Her teeth dug into her lower lip, followed by a quick swipe of her tongue. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” He indulged himself by caressing her cheek and jaw. “You did everything right.”

Her eyelids fluttered shut, and she lifted her chin into his touch with a quiet sigh of pleasure.

“Sometimes you touch me like I’m… I don’t know. Something good.”

“Only sometimes?” He’d have to do better.

Her nose scrunched up, as if she thought he was teasing her. “I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

She laughed and blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I always like the way you touch me, but sometimes it’s soft, but still strong.” Her voice fell to a shy whisper. “It makes me feel safe.”

It made him feel like he wasn’t running away after all. Like he was doing something right. “I think I get it.”

With her eyes still closed, she turned her face toward his hand. “Are you sure? Because if you’re not doing it on purpose, be gentle with me. My heart’s not as tough as the rest of me.”

Nothing seemed like a remotely adequate response. He could reassure her, but what did any of it mean? Either they were ready for it, or they weren’t.

He eased back. “I’m not doing it on purpose, but I can stop anyway. If that’s what you want.”

She swallowed and caught both of his arms, holding him in place. “No. Not unless I’m the only one feeling…something.”

Because he didn’t know what else to say, he kissed her nose. “Breakfast. Want to go out?”

“Waffles.” She wiggled out from under him and bounced to her feet. “With whipped cream and strawberries. And bacon. And coffee.”

“You don’t have to cook every meal, Sera. You should take it easy.”

She capitulated without argument. “Then you pick a place while I pack and take a shower.”

He’d fucked up, but he couldn’t help it. He’d been honest, and that was all he could do. “Take your time.”

“It won’t be long.” She paused in the doorway and smiled at him. “I still want waffles, though.”

When she’d gone, Julio sat up and curled his shaking hands into fists. He’d tried to go slow, to be careful, and it didn’t matter. She was open, vulnerable to him. That meant he could hurt her, and it was the last thing he wanted to do.

Panama City Beach hadn’t been a basket of puppies and rainbows, but the reception they got in Orlando was downright chilly.

A group of men were waiting for them at the hotel. Either someone was talking about Julio’s impromptu tour of the Southeast, or someone at the hotel recognized his name.

He sized them up as he unbuckled his seatbelt. “Stay in the car, Sera.”

Her gaze tripped over the wolves. “What do you want me to do if one gets past you?”

Surely they wouldn’t. “They’re looking to assert dominance. Coming after you would be weak, beneath them.” He flicked the keys hanging from the ignition. “If that happens, leave me behind and get the hell out of here, ’cause it means all bets are off.”

Sera slipped her seatbelt off and reached across the seat to squeeze his hand. “Be careful.”

“Nothing to it.” He climbed out of the car and engaged the locks before closing the door.

“Gentlemen.”

The wolves fanned out as he approached, blocking off the parking lot exit. There were four, total—two fit blonds in bland business casual, a thin, dangerous-looking redhead dressed like a redneck, and the obvious leader, a thug over six feet tall whose bulging muscles strained the seams on his cheap suit.

The leader stepped forward, his gaze a hairsbreadth short of an outright challenge. “Julio Mendoza. You didn’t call to say you were coming to town.”

“No, I didn’t.” Nor was he expected to, but he let it lie. “Is that a problem?”

“It is when you bring trash with you,” the redhead muttered.

The leader lifted a hand to silence him. “It’s polite,” he said, giving the words an edge of a growl. “Or are you only interested in talking to outcasts and mutts?”

Julio forced a smile. “It’s polite to look people up when you roll into town—which was my full intention. Are you suggesting I needed to call first for permission?”

“No.” It was a blatant lie, and the wolf didn’t bother to hide it from his expression. His face twisted into something ugly. “You’re supposed to be the one who gives a shit about us.

Jacobson’s so perverse he’d let us all burn, and that new bastard doesn’t know how to be a wolf. But you’re one of us. So why don’t you act like it?”

If he didn’t shut this down now, things would get real ugly, real fast. So Julio stepped closer, right up in the man’s space, and stared at him. Hard. “Say what you want about me—I’m here and ready to kick your ass for it—but don’t talk shit about my friends.”

The suit’s hands fisted. “If you were half the man your uncle is, you’d be doing your job.

You’d be fighting for the wolves instead of dicking around the country with a coyote slut.”

“For dickheads like you?” He wouldn’t throw the first punch. He would not. “I prefer people with manners.”

It was the redneck who snarled, some control on his temper snapping. “You’re a fucking disgrace,” he spat, anger turning his face as red as his hair. “At least Alec Jacobson and Andrew Callaghan are only bent enough to screw human bitches. The only good coyote is a dead—” It didn’t matter that the leader was a few inches taller than him and probably a few pounds heavier. Julio grabbed the lapels of his cheap, ill-fitting jacket and threw him at the redneck with a growl. They hit the ground but sprang up, ready to fight.

Good. So was he.

Sera had no intention of driving away to leave Julio to his fate, even if she was utterly confident in his ability to prevail in a four-on-one fight. The wolves facing him had violence in their postures and hate in their eyes, and she’d known from the moment he first spoke that they wouldn’t be satisfied with words.

Instead of preparing to flee, she’d called Anna. “Now they’re talking a lot of shit. Mostly about me.” The running commentary diffused her nerves. Made it easier to breathe as she watched Julio. “They’re not saying anything really creative, though. I’m a coyote slut who’d be better off— shit.”

“What?” Anna demanded. “What’s happening?”

“Julio just picked up the biggest one and threw him at the others like a bowling ball.” Her heart pounded its way toward her throat as Julio punched the flannel-wearing redneck in the nose. “Oh my God, Anna, promise me he can handle all four of them.”

“He can handle them,” she answered instantly. “Look, he told you to stay in the car.

Whatever else you do, you stay there, okay?”

Sera gripped the door handle and winced as one of the blond wolves landed a rough hit to Julio’s side, but Julio barely seemed to notice. “I’m not stupid,” she whispered, hating herself for what she was instead. Weak. Useless. “I’m a liability. I’m getting in the way of what he’s trying to do.”

Julio spun and butted heads with the tall blond—literally. The man staggered back, and the one in flannel grabbed at Julio’s shirt. One blow knocked him loose, and he stumbled toward the car in an effort to catch his balance.

Julio charged him with a wild-eyed roar. They landed on the pavement in a full-on skid, sliding several feet before crashing into the front fender of the car.

Sera could hear her own rasping breaths filling the car. Power thundered over her, a dominance that sang in her blood and vibrated in her bones. Or maybe that vibration was the car shaking as the red-headed wolf tried to crawl away from the brutal punishment of Julio’s fists.

She could vaguely hear Anna’s voice from her phone, and she struggled to focus, to tear her gaze from the perfect storm of protective violence in front of her. “One of them got too close to the car,” she told Anna. “I don’t think he liked that.”

Anna swore viciously, and keys jingled in the background. “They’d better hope he doesn’t kill any of them.”

The huge wolf in the suit tried to pull Julio off the one in the flannel, earning an elbow in the face for his trouble. Then Julio climbed to his feet, nudged the man on the ground with his foot and faced the others.

They backed away.

Sera made a choked noise. “Oh, he’s amazing. He’s…” Her opposite. Her match. Violence and strength and all the hard, dangerous things in life. She groaned and closed her eyes. “I wish you were close enough to shake me. I’m about to go on a submissive bender.”

Anna sighed. “If he’s winning, I’m hanging up. I’d rather not share this moment with you, no offense.”

“Anna?”

“Yeah, honey?”

Outside, one of the blond wolves bolted. The other fell to his knees, the silent gesture an acknowledgment of power and a willingness to submit that defied human words.

She understood the feeling. “I think I’m a little bit in love with him.”

“A little bit,” Anna repeated slowly, her voice devoid of surprise. “Call me later.”

“I will,” Sera promised, and barely noticed the soft click on the other end of the phone. Julio was watching with disgust as the remaining men gathered their flannel-clad—and now bleeding —friend and began helping him across the lot.

He bent by her window and waited for her to lower it. “Are you all right?” he rasped.

“Yes,” she whispered, unable to look away from him. The human bits of her were slipping away, lost to the rising satisfaction of her coyote. Her phone slipped from her fingers, and she fumbled blindly for the door lock.

Instead of opening her door, he circled around to his and climbed in. “They won’t be bothering us anymore, but I think we gathered some attention. We’ll have to find another hotel.”

His shirt was torn, and blood splattered his lip. She waited for him to settle into the seat before sliding over to brush her thumb across his chin. “Are you hurt?”

He shook his head and watched as the attacking wolves packed into an SUV and peeled out of the lot. Then he released a breath and leaned his forehead against the wheel. “I mean it, are you all right?”

In a heartbeat she went from weak to strong. From useless to needed. Shifting closer to him, she slipped a careful arm around his body and dropped her cheek to the back of his shoulder.

“I’m all right,” she promised, letting the words float from her. She found the skin of his upper arm and stroked it softly. “I don’t care what they say about me. That was bullshit. I’ve heard worse.”

“Fuck.” His fingers tightened around the steering wheel until it creaked. “Fuck. ”

For all she knew, the last time he’d been jumped by shapeshifters was when he and Kat had been kidnapped by the mercenaries the psychic cult had hired. She kept touching him, kept holding him—but didn’t push. If she tried to make him talk, he’d shut down.

So she slid her hand down his arm to cover his fingers with her own. “Will you let me drive?”

His breaths were coming in pants now, and he nodded. “Anywhere, I don’t care. Just get us out of here.”

He slid over, easing her across his lap as he did, and she helped him when his hands started to shake, twisting herself around the steering wheel until she could settle into the driver’s seat.

Driving stick was harder than she remembered. Then again, she’d never practiced with a dominant wolf on the verge of a panic attack shaking in the passenger seat. She whispered a silent apology to Jackson for riding the clutch on his beautiful car and tried not to spare Julio too many worried glances as she picked a street at random and drove away from the hotel.

Fifteen miles away, she helped Julio into a tiny room at an establishment nowhere near as nice as the last one.

He’d been avoiding her gaze, and he ran his hands through his hair as he sank to the bed.

“I’m a jerk.”

Sera went to the door to hang the Do Not Disturb sign and engaged the chain lock for good measure. When she returned to the bed, she knelt between his legs. “Look at me, Julio.

Please?”

“I’m fine now.” He groaned. “It’s all just so stupid.”

She curled her hand around his and squeezed. “You’ve got two choices. Do you want kisses and pets, or do you want the bullshit-free tough love?”

His shoulders began to shake with laughter. “The latter. I bet it’s cute.”

“Oh, it’s damn cute.” She squeezed his hands. “Listen to me, mister alpha wolf. You went through some seriously crazy shit. You don’t want to talk about it? I get it. You don’t want to let other people see it get to you? Fine. But don’t you dare call it stupid. Because if you think you’re stupid because you can’t shrug off being tortured after a couple months, think about how pathetic you make the rest of us feel.”

Julio met her gaze with a shaky sigh, all traces of humor gone. “He wasn’t even coming for you,” he told her quietly. “I would have killed him if he had been.”

“I know,” she replied just as softly. “We are the way we are. It’s how we’re built, the way we’re supposed to be. You need to protect me. I understand.” She pressed one hand to his chest, fingers spread wide over his heart. “I need to protect you too. That’s what you have to understand about me.”

He covered her hand with his, then pulled her into his lap. “Sera.”

She pressed a finger to his lips. “One more thing. I don’t break, okay? I bend. The rest of you stand strong until you shatter, but I ride the rough spots so I can get back up when they’re over. But sometimes that means I don’t learn, because I never get hurt badly enough to teach me a lesson.”

His brows drew together in a frown. “I don’t know what that means.”

Of course he didn’t. She sighed and closed her eyes. “I get it all tangled up. Dominance and submission. Life and sex. I threw myself into you all the way, and it wasn’t fair. I forget that the people worth submitting to… It’s not play, not for you. It’s another responsibility, and I shouldn’t have acted like you wouldn’t take it seriously.”

The world tipped, and she landed on the bed with him looming over her. “I take it seriously,” he whispered. “And you’re worth it.”

Sera’s breath caught. “We don’t have to. I don’t need games to want you. You’d make it hot even if it was just missionary under the covers with the lights off.”

“You’re not listening to yourself.” He leaned closer, until his breath heated her lips. “This isn’t play for me.”

The urge to submit trembled through her. She relaxed into the bed, slid her hands up to his shoulders and then over her head. “What is this?”

He followed the lines of her arms to grasp her wrists. “Pleasure, if you want it.”

Oh God, she did. So much she was shaking with it, so much she wanted to beg him not to stop. But it was always about what she wanted. What she needed. “What do you want?”

“To take you,” he rasped. “To watch the look on your face when I do it.”

She wiggled her wrists, teased him with the hint of a challenge. Forced him to tighten his grip until the strength in his fingers melted something low in her belly. “You want to hear my dirty, shameful secret?”

“No.” He scraped his teeth over her jaw. “But I’ll listen to a little bit of your truth.”

“I’m a simple creature.” She had just enough leverage to turn her head and brush her lips over his ear. “I know you hated the fighting. But you were fighting to protect me, and that made me feel…”

He licked her earlobe. “Cherished?”

That was as close a word as any. Human words didn’t capture the feeling, but she tried.

“Cherished. Safe. Turned on.” She shivered and arched her head back, all but begging him to shift his mouth to her throat. “Like you can fill up my empty places, and that’s before the sex starts.”

“I’d try.” He kissed the side of her neck, then parted his lips and repeated the caress, hot and wet.

Thought scattered, and she pressed her breasts against his chest with a sigh of pleasure.

“You do. You already do.”

Julio held both her wrists with one hand and slid his other down, under the hem of her shirt.

“Say it again.”

An order, for all its gentleness. She squirmed for a breathless moment in an attempt to urge his hand higher. “You get me so hot.”

The noise he made was half laugh, half groan. “You feel it, don’t you? We could stay like this, and it’d still be pretty damn fun.”

“What? Dry hump like teenagers?” She tried to sound outraged, but it was difficult with giddy laughter threatening to spill over. Fun—the one thing that had been missing from sex for so long, because it was harder to laugh with strangers. She rubbed up against him with a throaty moan before biting his chin. “Is all the squirming cranking your engine?”

Another groan. “Actually? You smell really, really good.”

She smelled like some off-brand bottle of travel-sized shampoo she’d found at the drugstore, and maybe strawberry bubble gum. Nothing fancy, nothing that should have put that glazed look in his eyes. Then again, the scent of his skin under the sweat and blood was just as intoxicating. “Pheromones,” she whispered against his jaw. “Lots and lots of pheromones.”

“Mmm.” His hand drifted higher, sliding up to the lacy edge of her bra, and she closed her eyes and focused on the soft drag of his fingertips across suddenly sensitive skin.

He was wrong about one thing. He might not be playing games, but this was play. The beautiful, perfect kind. Not about rules or roles or trying to fulfill someone else’s expectations, but slow exploration and laughter mixed with pleasure. She wasn’t a game to him, because sex was the game, and they were playing it together.

His fingers were still locked around both of her wrists, his hand large enough to cage her easily. She flexed and tugged against his grip solely for the rush of heat that followed.

Anticipation, tightening her nipples and making her so wet she was almost embarrassed. “You like tormenting me, don’t you?”

His palm covered her nipple through her bra, caressing in a slow, firm circle. “Why wouldn’t I like this?”

“I don’t—” The word caught on a whimper, one of helpless need. “More.” That was an easier word to say, and it encapsulated everything throbbing inside her. “More, more, please, Julio. I need more.”

“That’s it.” He dragged her shirt up with his teeth and watched her as he curled his fingers under the top edge of her bra cup.

She hissed in protest and ground up, rubbing against his erection as encouragement to go faster. “You could be inside me already. I’m so past ready, and wouldn’t this be more fun if you were already inside me?”

He smiled, slow and wicked. “Not fun enough for you like this, I guess.”

Too much fun, and perversely even more so when he denied her. The usual twinge of unease didn’t even accompany the thought—not when he was so smugly pleased with himself and her reactions. Maybe she was still a little bent, but he didn’t seem to care.

She wouldn’t care either. Instead she wiggled underneath him. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.

Maybe you should teach me a lesson.”

“Dirty.” They rolled, and she landed on top of him. “Why don’t you be in charge for a while?”

Sera laughed and shoved her hands under his shirt, pushing it up. “You think I don’t know the difference between being on top and being in charge?”

“Show me you do.” He grasped her hips and drew her into a smooth rock over him. “Take off your top.”

Crossing her arms over her body, she gathered up the hem and stripped the shirt over her head slowly enough to make it a striptease. “What else?”

Julio thrust up, and the hard line of his cock rubbed against her. “Your bra. Off.”

She held his gaze as she twisted her arms behind her back and undid each hook, knowing he’d hear the soft clicks. Slow and teasing, like she wasn’t five seconds from grinding her way to orgasm. The bra ended up on the floor, and she cupped her breasts without waiting for permission, eyes drifting half-shut as she pinched her sorely neglected nipples.

His hands slid over her skin as he slowly sat up and eased his tongue between her fingers. It rasped over her nipple, hot and wet, and he squeezed the fingers of her other hand tighter on her flesh.

“Oh, oh hell—” The duality of sensations made the room wobble. Rasping pleasure from his tongue on the left and a sweet edge of pain on the right as he pinched her own fingers until she moaned. She was panting before she realized it. Begging. “Take me. Take me, I don’t even care how, please, I want to be—” Yours.

He growled and popped the button off her shorts. “Naked.” Even as he breathed the command, he was arching up, digging his wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans.

It was the first time she’d thought about condoms, and that froze her in place for a heartbeat before lust overcame hesitation and she squirmed off his lap to shed her clothing. It didn’t matter if she hadn’t remembered—he had.

She kicked her shorts and panties off the bed, then gathered his shirt in her fists and finished the job the fight had started, tearing the fabric from his body.

Julio had already opened his pants, and his hands shook as he rolled the condom down over his cock. “Come here.”

For the first time she disobeyed. Instead of crawling over his lap she licked his newly bared shoulder, then trailed kisses down the flexing muscles in his upper arm. His erection was enormous—maybe not porn-star ridiculous, but thick enough that she might need to learn new oral-sex techniques.

If he’d let her get her mouth around him. Right now he was stroking his thumbs over her shoulders, and she knew he was ready to grasp tight at any moment and pull her back into his lap.

Shivering, she closed her teeth on his biceps.

He snarled her name and pulled her astride him, one hand splayed across her back. “I want you.”

“So take me.” She nuzzled his throat, shaking with the restraint it took not to lift her hips and drive down onto him. “Anything you want.”

He hissed in a breath as his cock rubbed against her, and he lifted her far enough to position himself. “Anything?” The muscles in his arms flexed, and he began to lower her slowly.

The sensation stole her breath. He was thick, all right, solid and wide and pushing into her as her body yielded in slow motion. “Anything,” she gasped, and tried to rock down faster, to end the torturous friction along neglected nerves with one rough thrust.

But he held her tight, his eyes drifting shut as his throat worked. “Slow.”

Sera whimpered and licked his lower lip. “Not that your ego needs any help, but you’re really damn big.”

“Too big?”

She laughed against his mouth. “No, you cocky bastard.” He surged an inch deeper, and she caught her breath and clutched at his shoulders. “Not for this, anyway.”

He growled and held her closer, pressing her chest to his. “You’re so wet.”

“Getting wetter every time you growl.” His open pants rubbed against her thighs as her hips settled against his, and the fabric made it even hotter. As if he needed her so hard, so crazy, that he couldn’t be bothered to undress.

He’d gotten her naked, though, and she liked that too. “This isn’t what I expected,” she whispered against his cheek. “I thought you’d bend me over and ride me like a Discovery Channel special.”

His answer was a tease and a promise. “Not this time.”

“Evil bastard.” Her knees against the bed gave her leverage, but he wasn’t letting her ride.

There was nothing to do but feel him, hard and huge inside as she squirmed in helpless little rocks.

A low growl rumbled in his chest, and he slid one hand to the small of her back, tilting her hips closer so her clit rubbed the base of his cock. “You want something? Take it.”

The slippery friction set off trembles, and she whimpered and pressed her forehead to his shoulder, not ready for release to claim her. Not when she’d dreamed of this a thousand times, when he’d been her fantasy for almost a year. She had to fix every bit of it in her mind, savor the slide of skin and the way his hands felt when he touched her with confidence and command.

She had to make this last forever.

Julio’s mouth was everywhere, licking and nipping at her throat and shoulders. He bent her back until he could close his lips around her nipple, sucking hard, and thoughts of forever shattered into need and now. She cried out, scrambling to clutch at the back of his head, and her plea came on a sob. “Fuck me. Please, please, Julio, please fuck me—” He lifted her hips and slammed her down—hard. So hard it should have hurt, and maybe it did. Not as much as his shoulders had to hurt when she raked her nails across them with a snarling cry. The roughness snapped the leash on self-control, and she surged up and bit his chin in rough challenge. “Fuck me.”

Instead of another hard thrust, he rolled his hips up against hers. “No patience,” he rumbled.

“I like it.”

No patience and no self-control. She’d never wanted so hard without being caught in the grip of the mating urge, but that desire had always held a sick edge of helplessness. She’d submitted to it because she didn’t know how to stop, because biology hadn’t made her strong enough to deserve a choice.

This was choice. It was her choice when she licked his throat and set her teeth there, marking him as the roll of her hips shoved her higher. It was her choice when she planted both hands against his shoulders and shoved with all of the strength in her, driving him back against the bed so she could take him even deeper.

It was her choice to stare down at him, panting and so close to the edge, and give him everything. “Fuck me. Fuck me like I’m yours.”

His jaw tightened, and his nails bit into her skin. He gripped her hips and dragged her closer as he drove up, not just once this time but over and over. Her hands slipped from his shoulders, and she clung to the bedding and moaned every time he fucked up into her.

Four times, five at the most, and it was all she could take. Every muscle in her body seized at once, drawing tight as she strained toward relief. A desperate keening noise escaped her lips, a plea for something, and then her entire body was in movement, squeezing and clamping, and she bit his chest to keep from screaming at how good it felt to come around his cock.

Julio went rigid, his muscles shaking and tense. Then he rolled her beneath him and ground against her with a tortured groan. One hand wound in her hair, and he pulled her head back and bit her as he shuddered.

It was so fucking perfect she rubbed up against him, slicked her pulsing clit against his shaft until pleasure fractured again. Sharp and fast, too fast for another deep, muscle-clenching orgasm, but it still forced a cry from her throat as Julio eased his grip on her hair.

He was panting as he propped himself up on his elbows. “No patience at all,” he murmured with a smile.

Sera laughed and nudged her hips against his. “Who needs patience? We’re shapeshifters.

Don’t tell me you can’t go again if you want to.”

“Of course I can.” His smile turned to a dirty grin. “That’s not the point.”

Her fingertips were still tingling. She curled her toes in the sheets and tried to decide if the sensation was lingering pleasure or something deeper stirred by his smile. “I was too turned on for epic sex. There’s such a thing as too many orgasms, you know.”

“You don’t say.”

Yeah, Julio had probably driven women over that edge before. God knew she’d let him push her into exhausted madness, whether it took a day to recover or not. She slid her fingers down his back and grinned when they bumped into his jeans riding low on his hips. “I take it back.

You should totally tie me to the bed and see how many it takes.”

“Tomorrow. Or the next day or…whenever.” He kissed her softly.

It was a sweet kiss. Warm lips and lazy tongue, the kind of kiss that said he had nowhere to be and nothing he’d rather be doing. Just like his words.

Whenever. Like they’d be together in a week, or a month. Like there wasn’t going to be a time when he couldn’t say, Hey, honey, I’m going to screw you silly tonight. She was reading too much into a tiny word, more than the word should possibly mean, but he was still kissing her, licking her, loving on her as if the fucking had been nice but this was the prize.

She was stupid to fall into it. Josh was out there somewhere, and he’d chase her until he found another coyote to knock up, or he ended up dead. And he was the least of it, because there was only one of him. There were dozens of wolves who would look at her and see something disgusting. A coyote corrupting one of their leaders, an excuse to challenge him, disobey him.

Worse than being a changed wolf. Worse than being human. She was alien, an exotic kink, a dirty secret, and she’d ruin any chance he had at making a difference in their world.

But he was still kissing her. Still touching her, and she’d lied to Anna because there wasn’t anything little about how she felt. She was falling in love with Prince Charming, and midnight would be here before she knew it.