I held tightly to my stomach as it cramped and growled. The hunger was intense; much like it had been the previous night when I’d lost control. A mix of emotions stormed my system.
I smiled wickedly and crooked my finger in invitation. The elevator arrived with a ding, and the doors slid open. Arys grabbed my hand and pulled me in after him. He eyed me carefully, as if I were the unpredictable one.
“I wonder if feeding would have kept this from happening to you,” he said thoughtfully.
“And me shifting will alleviate your need.” I felt giddy, as if I’d had too much wine.
“Possibly.” He appeared thoughtful but was easily distracted when I licked my lips in obvious invitation. “You’re a dangerous woman, Alexa. I don’t think you know how powerful your allure is.”
“Well, it’s not my allure that has me itching to feel you.”
I reached for him, the contact of our skin producing an electric tingle throughout my body. A gasp escaped me when a jolt filled me with pleasure. He sighed. All resistance left him as he grabbed me tightly in a bruising kiss.
The elevator slammed to a stop, and I startled until I realized he had stopped it. I wasn’t keen on the locale, but with the silky softness of Arys’s skin beneath my fingers, I could make do.
Where our skin made contact, the sparks burned. My fingers pushed under his t-shirt, and ten steady streams of energy hummed against his bare skin.
The warmth of his mouth found what remained of the previous bite wound above my collarbone. My pulse beat hard beneath the surface. He lingered there, and I froze. I remembered what his fangs felt like buried in my flesh. The matching scar on my left breast throbbed in time with the other. Pressed tight against him, I still didn’t feel close enough.
His hands were low on my hips. They brushed the sensitive patch of skin just below my bellybutton. If I were a werecat, I would’ve purred right then.
I knew he wasn’t going to bleed me right there, but damn, I wanted him to. The hunger swept through us like a hurricane, and I tugged at his shirt to feel more of him.
His lips hovered over the healed bite, his tongue played lightly around it. As I neared the point of no return, he pulled back.
“If you do this now, you’re going to regret it later.”
For a moment, I was confused. My thoughts followed the wolf’s instincts rather than logic. Why would he stop now?
I blinked at him. “What?” I asked in a sultry tone.
“Think about it, Alexa. You don’t love me. You love the wolf pup. If we keep going down this path, you will lose everything with him.”
He was pulling away because of Shaz? I fought to wrap my mind around my white wolf. He was in my heart, but my feelings for Shaz were drowning in a sea of power and hunger.
“Since when do you care about Shaz?” I challenged him to have a damn good reason before he rejected me.
“I don’t.” His tone was short and clipped. He moved away from me and pushed a button. The elevator resumed its descent. He added begrudgingly, “I care about you.”
The genuine affection came as a big surprise, like a sudden slap in the face. He was in this for the high. The woman in me wanted to believe that he spoke the truth, but I knew better. My wolf, on the other hand, was outraged. I was an unclaimed female with needs and desires.
The elevator reached the main floor, and the door slid open. Arys glanced at me and headed for the lobby.
“You can’t just leave me like this,” I called after him. “You did this to me.”
Outside, the rain fell in a steady rhythm. I caught up to him halfway to the car. I was pissed that he could just walk away from me. His hunger was bringing me to my knees, and I wanted to slap him or bite a nice chunk out of his thigh.
“Come on, Alexa. This isn’t the time or the place. Get the keys out.” He walked a few steps ahead of me.
The night air was warm, which made the rain bearable and even calming. Though, the coldest shower on the planet wasn’t about to cool me down.
I pulled my keys from my purse, grinned mischievously, and said, “Is this what you want?” I dropped them lewdly into my bra, and I heard myself say, “Come and get it.”
Arys crushed me against the front of the car, and I loved it. Laughter pealed out of me, tinged with the growl of a wolf. On tiptoes, I leaned up to taste him.
He pulled back so that I only made contact with the soft indent beneath his lower lip. As I gently traced his bottom lip with my tongue, I felt him shudder. The power grew between us. He leaned into me again until I lay nearly flat against the hood.
“Stop pushing me, wolf.” His eyes were intense as they bore into me, and he bared his sharp fangs, white in the darkness. “You know damn well how bad I want to give it to you right here. We make the most beautiful combination in every single way.”