Smashed (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #8.5)

“Let’s not make this any weirder than it has to be,” he said, facing me with expectation.

I suppressed the urge to laugh but just barely. I did, however, grace him with a broad, fang-revealing grin. “So no hand job?”

His pulse quickened ever so slightly. I could hear the pace of his heart, and if I concentrated, even the rush of blood through his veins. “Don’t even fucking joke about that.” A blush colored his cheeks, and he tensed. “I’m trusting you not to take advantage of me.”

“Settle down, pup. I didn’t say who would be giving the hand job. I’m sure we can work something out.” With a wink and a snicker, I moved fast, pasting him up against the arm of the couch.

It brought me great amusement to make Shaz squirm. It was so easy. His sudden apprehension tickled my appetite. The random strangers from earlier tonight had failed to arouse my bloodlust quite like the young werewolf did. Having a personal history with him made it that much more enticing.

Face to face, we stared into one another. My amusement faded. The musky wolf scent of Shaz reached inside me to a place where my best memories dwelled. It made me ache for the woman we both shared.

“Last chance to change your mind,” I said, but my gaze had fallen to his throat, and I had no intention of allowing him to make that call.

Shaz didn’t speak. He sat frozen but willing. I reached for him first with a gentle pulse of power. An invisible touch, it elicited the response I sought. Shaz’s breath quickened and he relaxed.

Just a few inches separated us. As close as we were, we didn’t touch. Not yet.

There was a brief space of time where I considered forcing my way into Alexa’s thoughts, making her watch this. It was a cruel idea but one that might encourage a response from her. I didn’t consider it for very long.

The energy flowed between Shaz and me. An erotically charged force, it wrapped him in a cloak of sensuality. If there’d been a shred of resistance left in him, it vanished then. He leaned forward in mesmerized wonder, entirely under the influence of my thrall.

I laid a hand on the side of his face, ensuring his gaze never slipped from mine. Then I slid it up into his hair where I grabbed a handful of soft platinum.

We were fantastically close. I could have kissed him without moving. At one time I had done just that. But it would only take things down a path Shaz was reluctant to walk. Forcing him was not an option. Despite what he might think, I had immense respect for him.

He stared at me with wide, eager eyes. He leaned into my touch, enjoying the tight grip of my hand in his hair. Arousal surrounded him like a puff of smoke. Wisps of it reached to taunt me, testing my control.

With my free hand, I traced a finger over the vein in his neck, feeling the pulse throb beneath the surface. Already I was impatient for the moment when I would spill Shaz’s blood. I longed to have that heady wolf nectar racing through me.

There was only one thing missing. Alexa. With her between us, Shaz and I moved in tandem, anticipating the other’s actions and moving to accommodate. We worked as a team, a natural ebb and flow of power with her acting as the conduit between us. It was magical.

I felt her absence in a poignant way. Finding an echo of my emotion mirrored in Shaz, I jerked myself out of my moment of self-pity.

With more aggression than intended, I tugged Shaz’s head to the side and fixated on the glorious expanse of his neck. The sound of his heartbeat grew louder in my ears. His excitement encouraged me.

Unable to resist the urge, I pressed my mouth to his warm flesh and dragged my tongue over the surface. The clean, salty taste of him unleashed a torrent of desire within me that the human victims from hours ago had failed to do. The ghost of Alexa’s wolf took notice of her mate and pawed at my insides.

Shaz let out the breath he’d been holding in a long, gratified sigh. I took advantage of his lusty response to me and teased him with a slight scrape of fangs. He shuddered and groaned, flooding me with erotic energy that I happily swam in.

There were so many places I could take this wolf if he would only let me. It wasn’t the first time I’d imagined such things. His ferocity and virility made him a very desirable partner. One like Shaz couldn’t truly be victimized. He was much too fierce for that.

Finally I decided that I’d driven the energy level high enough. Needing to extinguish the flame that threatened to burn out of control, I bared my fangs and bit deep. Shaz stiffened and gasped. Blood bubbled up around my fangs, and I withdrew them to capture it with my tongue. The rush of drawing on both his arousal and his blood had my erection straining against my pants.