Tangle of Need

Leaning down until his face was a bare inch away, his breath hot against her skin, Riaz said, “Because it’s too late for that, and you’re not the casual type. You never have been. Just like me.” Crushed rocks and broken glass in his voice.

It was instinct to curve her hand over his nape, to pet him as he’d petted her. He let her touch him, let her claim skin privileges that were becoming ever more complicated. She’d thought she’d figured everything out in Venice, but tonight, what he’d done, it had touched the secret, idealistically hopeful part of her she’d allowed no one to reach for so long, it was a forgotten memory. The fact he’d already done so, when their relationship had hardly begun, it had her stomach in knots, her heart thumping against her ribs.

And then there was his dominance.

He spread his hand on her throat just then, curving it in a gentle hold. “What’re you thinking that’s got your wolf so wary?” he asked in a low murmur, rocking once against the molten heat of her.

She twisted up in instinctive response, had the pleasure of hearing him hiss out a breath between clenched teeth. But though he stroked his hand down to lie possessively over her unfettered breast, he didn’t take the next step, the one that would’ve left them tangled and sweat soaked. “I got used to bending,” she admitted, fighting her pride to expose what a fool she’d been.

“With Martin. I had to bend to make him happy.” It had taken place so slowly, she hadn’t understood the corrosive ugliness of what was happening. Small things, she’d thought, things that didn’t really matter—after all, the man had risked everything to save her life. Until she’d realized she’d begun to bury Adria to please Martin. “He was nowhere near as strong as you.”

Riaz snorted. “You’ve been busting my balls since the instant we met—I sure as hell don’t think you’re suddenly going to flutter your lashes and simper at my every word.”

Wolf and woman both blinked at the ridiculous image. “It’s not that simple.” She tried to find the words to explain. “Martin made me weak … No. That’s not fair.” There had been two people in that relationship. “I weakened myself to make him happy. I’m terrified I’ll do the same with you.” That was her flaw, no one else’s.

Molding her breast with strong fingers, Riaz leaned down to take her lower lip between his teeth, releasing it oh-so-slow. “So you want to end things before they begin?” A harder squeeze, a deeper hint of teeth along her jaw. “That’s the real weakness.”

She dug her claws into his back when he bit her again. “Do that one more time and I’ll give you a nice new tattoo.”

Lips curving against her neck. “Yeah.” His clean-shaven jaw was smooth over her skin. “I’m not real worried about you bending for me.” Pushing up into a kneeling position straddling her hips, he ripped off his T-shirt and threw it to the floor before coming down over her, hands on either side of her head. “Open your mouth for me.”

“Is that a request or an order?”

A lazy smile that reached his eyes, his mouth capturing hers in hot demand. She rubbed her tongue against his, felt him growl deep in his chest. Shuddering, she pressed her hands to his chest, his muscled body hers to explore. But when she ran her knuckles down the tantalizing line of hair below his belly button and to the top of the jeans that hung sexily low on his hips, he only allowed her to open the top button before tugging away her hand.

“I get to play first.”

He’d ripped her T-shirt to shreds and was tugging off her pajama bottoms and panties before she realized she was his intended toy. Not resistant to the idea and with a few of her own, she pressed a foot to his chest the instant she was bare to the skin. “Get naked.” Very much an order. “I want full skin privileges.” She craved the sweet, hot slide of his body against hers, the hard male angles and delicious weight of him.

A kiss pressed to her foot, and suddenly, she was being flipped onto her front, the cold metal of his zipper biting into her as he settled his weight over her, his cock a hard outline. “No.” Hot denial in her ear, one big hand shoving under her body to tease and tug at her nipple. “I think I’ll be the boss today.”





Chapter 46


“RIAZ.” IT WAS a warning, her claws slicing into the sheets.

Chuckling, he laved a kiss on her nape and—to her surprise—obeyed her unspoken demand, rising onto his haunches, his thighs on either side of her hips. Just when she was about to turn over, he put his hands on her back and began to massage downward from her shoulders, his hands strong, his fingers knowing. She moaned.

By the time he got to the base of her spine, she’d given up even the vaguest thoughts of rebellion. “You have two dimples here.” A wet, luscious kiss to each that made her moan.

Apparently fascinated by the spot, he licked each dimple, rubbed his cheek against her skin. “I shaved especially for you.”

Her toes curled. “I appreciate it.” Though she was in no way averse to the rough scrape of his stubble, it melted her that he’d taken the time.