Chapter 2
2
Melissa screamed and wrapped her arms around her tattooed rescuer’s waist as the motorcycle nearly popped a wheelie tearing down the back alleyway. He grasped her arm, as if to make sure she wouldn’t let go.
“I’ll hang on, you put both hands on the handlebars,” she shouted, squinting her eyes as the blur of trees and houses whipped past.
His abs were hard as rock under her fists. In fact, she was pretty sure his entire body strained with solid muscle. He looked like he worked hard with his hands. The worn work jeans and stained t-shirt were sexy in that rough and scruffy kind of look that was way too much her thing.
But she needed to get away from the ‘bad boy’ attraction. It had only landed her in trouble.
She twisted to look behind them and caught a glimpse of the blue car that had brought the mafia assholes to her apartment. “They’re onto us,” she yelled.
Her rescuer hit the gas again and they screeched around a corner, skidding out. He slipped between two buildings, around a corner. She couldn’t keep track of where they were going—the dumpsters and buildings flashed by too fast. She had to squeeze her eyes shut against the wind.
In another moment, he screeched up a driveway and leaned the bike all the way to the side, skidding under a garage door halfway in flight. In a flash, he dismounted from the bike and yanked her off. The garage door had already reversed directions to come down, shutting them in.
She wobbled on her heels and tugged her skirt down over her ass. Her heart rapped against her ribs in a painful rhythm. They were in a huge garage. More of a workshop, actually, with saws and a workbench. Shelves lined every wall, stacked with paint, solvents, tools, supplies of every kind. Was this his workplace?
Her rescuer stalked toward her. Everything about him screamed scary tough—the bulging muscles of his arms, the tattoos that sprawled from under his short sleeves and even decorated his knuckles, the five o’clock shadow on his sturdy, square jaw, the menacing snarl of his expression. Seriously—he didn’t look any more trustworthy than Jeremy or the assholes who’d been waiting at their place for him. Had she been right to leave with him?
She wobbled on her heels. “Who are you?”
He passed her and jerked open a door. “Get inside.”
Right. Not the time for introductions. She scooted past him, trying to ignore the size of his muscles as she brushed his hard body, or the way her body reacted to his nearness. A flush of heat washed over her, warming up her icy fingers and face, thawing a fraction of the fear that nearly overwhelmed her back in that closet.
Of course she tripped, her heel catching the carpet as she passed him. He caught her elbow to stabilize her and she fell against his chest.
Wow.
He had slate gray eyes that were striking against his tanned skin and sun-bleached hair. As they stared at each other, his nostrils flared. The gray irises flickered to pale ice blue.
She gasped.
He shoved her away from him and blinked, averting his head. She wondered why he tried to hide his wolf—he’d already acknowledged what he was.
“What color are you?” she blurted. “I mean, when you shift?” It was a stupid question to ask. She ought to start with his name or how he knew Ben, but the glimpse of those lupine eyes had her curious.
He twisted back to look at her. The irises had returned to gray.
“Silver.”
A ripple of something went through her body—excitement, maybe. She suddenly desperately wanted to see him in wolf form. She knew he’d be incredible. Powerful and terrifying. Beautiful, even.
But no. She needed to stop this. Tamp down any attraction she had for the hot male who looked like trouble. She needed to start finding nice, upstanding men attractive. The kind without tattoos and worn-out jeans. The kind who wore ties to work and saved their money in tax-free retirement accounts.
She’d worked all year to get herself out of the party lifestyle. She’d taken the test to become a real estate agent and cut back her nights as a bartender. She’d been so close to getting rid of Jeremy and getting a real start. Now there were people trying to kill her because of him.
“You hurt?” The guttural voice sounded right behind her and she jumped and spun. Amusement flickered on his face.
She stuck out her hand, pulling out her best professional real estate agent persona, chin jutting high. “I’m Melissa, and you are?—?”
His jaw tightened. Apparently, he didn’t like that. He ignored her hand and walked to the bookshelf in the small, dimly lit room. “Cody,” he said gruffly. He shoved aside some books and withdrew a gun, which he tucked in the waistband at the back of his jeans.
She probably should have started with thank you instead of calling him on his manners, but now that he’d snubbed her, her spine had gone even straighter. She looked around the dank man cave and sniffed. “Is this your place?”
His eyes narrowed. “Sorry it’s not the Taj Mahal, princess. I didn’t know I’d be hosting Ben Stone’s hoity-toity human sister-in-law.” He sneered the word human like it disgusted him.
She bristled. Did he think because Ben was rich, she was too? “I appreciate the rescue, but you don’t need to entertain me. If I could just borrow your phone—” She’d dropped hers in the closet when he’d grabbed her. She needed to warn Jeremy about those guys before he got killed. She may not love the guy, but she owed him her life.
He already had his phone out and up to his ear. “Yeah, I got her.”
She heard the intonations of a male voice on the other end. Was it Ben? A slice of fear ripped through her. What if this guy hadn’t been sent by Ben? Maybe it was another enemy of Ben’s, like the South American pack that had tried to kill her twin Ashley last year? He hadn’t told her anything other than that Ben Stone had sent him. And he sure as hell looked like trouble.
She inched toward the door.
“You didn’t tell me how bad her trouble is.” He paused as Ben said something. “Yeah, Junior Rabago and his guys… you know—the mobster. They were camped out at her place. They own one of the local dispensaries—push heavier drugs through it. I found her hiding in the closet and got her out of there, but they saw us leaving. Don’t think they can trace us, because we lost them and the plates on my bike aren’t good… Yeah, I’m ready for them, if they come.” He peered out the blinds without moving them.
It wasn’t a good sign that the plates on his bike weren’t good. Definitely another lowlife. She leaned her back against the door. She wanted to hear this conversation, in case it was with Ben, but also needed to be ready to run.
Cody glanced over and narrowed his eyes, as if he knew exactly what she was doing. “You didn’t mention she was human.” Again, he said it like she was a stinky piece of dog poo that he’d gotten on his shoe. He stalked toward her with an expression of dark intent.
This time she heard the response from the other speaker on the phone loud and clear. “ You got a problem with that? ” That definitely sounded like Ben.
“No.” Cody threw a hand out next to her head to lean against the door, caging her with his body. Awareness lit up her skin, a wash of prickles heating everywhere he came close to touching her. “Where do you think you’re going?” he growled.
“Hey. You’d better treat her right,” came Ben’s bark from the other end. Her brother-in-law was as gruff as this guy—he just seemed more refined because he wore a suit and owned a half billion dollar company.
Cody lowered his face, almost leaning his forehead against hers, eye to eye. She had a feeling it was a wolf thing. He probably wanted her to drop her gaze and submit, but the challenge only made her grit her teeth and stare back with more daring.
“If I’m going to keep her safe, she’s going to have to follow orders.”
“Mistreat her and there will be hell to pay,” Ben gritted. “Put her on the phone.”
Cody flicked his brows and held his phone to her ear. She snatched it away from him and ducked under his arm, stalking away with the haughtiest pride she could muster, which of course, was ruined when she tripped again on her damn high heel. Fucking shoes! She kicked them off.
“Hi, Ben,” she said breathlessly.
“Melissa. Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay. Just… scared.”
“Who were those guys, do you know?”
“No. Jeremy and I weren’t really talking since we broke up. We just sort of cohabitated out of necessity.”
“Dammit, Melissa, I said I would help you buy a house.”
“I know, I know. I’ve been looking. I was already half packed to move out.”
“Listen, Ashley and I will fly back early and?—”
“No,” she interrupted. “Do not cut your honeymoon short for this. I’m fine. Cody got me out of there.” She flicked a glance at her hot rescuer. “You don’t need to come.”
She already hated herself for needing—once again—to be rescued by her sister, whose life was always together, who always did the right thing. If Ashley and Ben came home early on account of her, she would be the asshole who ruined their honeymoon for the rest of their lives.
Cody peeked through the closed blinds again. He looked so damn alert and capable, like a bad-ass Navy SEAL, or Special Ops agent. If he was truly on her side, she’d be safe.
Ben cursed. “You need to stick with Cody. Do everything he tells you. He’s alpha there, do you know what that means?”
“Not exactly.”
Ben blew out his breath. She heard her sister say something in the background and then her voice came on.
“Am I on speaker?” she asked in a low voice.
“No.” Melissa walked to the far side of the room, facing away from Cody, as if that would prevent him from hearing her conversation.
“Hey, wolves are all about the pack order, you know. So he’s going to be overbearing and dominant. He’s the boss, if you know what I mean. Just try not to let it get to you.”
She snorted, looking over at Cody, who had crossed his arms over his massive chest, watching her with those assessing gray eyes.
Yep. Overbearing and dominant.
Her pussy clenched again. But that wasn’t right. It was Ashley who was into the authority figure type, not her. She just did bad boys. Or used to. Now she was doing suits and ties. Business owners or CPAs. Or maybe a nice lawyer. A dentist, even.
She couldn’t stop herself from looking over at Cody again. Her pussy felt hot and wet under her skirt. An image of that well-built, tattooed man pushing her over the seat of his motorcycle and spanking her ass flashed before her mind and she flushed and turned away.
His nostrils flared and he shot her a surprised look. The edges of his lips curled.
Holy hell. Did he read minds?
Ben returned to the line. “Melissa? Give the phone back to Cody.” He was a man of few words, her brother-in-law. No please or take care .
But he did take care of her, she had to admit. His offer to buy her a house had thrilled her. She wasn’t going to let him buy the house outright. Just help her with a down payment. She’d get a house she could afford once he got her started. She knew just what she wanted—a CJ Steele house. One of the lovingly restored houses in Colorado Springs’ oldest neighborhoods. She adored the CJ Steele company’s work and admired the hell out of Steele, the up and coming real estate mogul who had made a small fortune buying and flipping houses over the past eight years. Her dream was to be his agent.
She handed the phone back to Cody and listened to another terse exchange before he hung up.
He sent a speculative gaze in her direction. “You’ll stay here until it all blows over.”
Only because he already had her off-balance and she didn’t want him to have the upper hand, she curled her lip and looked around as if the place wasn’t up to her standards. As if she hadn’t already been living with Jeremy, the slob of the year. The place wasn’t bad, but it could use a good cleaning. And it was a typical man cave. Small, basic, everything in dark colors like hunter green and navy blue.
His brows slammed down and he stalked past her. “I’m sorry it doesn’t suit you, princess. Next time I’ll make sure to rent a mansion for your sleepover.”
The word sleepover sparked a nervous flutter in her belly as it became real that she’d actually be sleeping here with this meathead. She glanced toward the bedroom. There was only one, as far as she could see. His place had used all the square footage on the workshop/garage—at least fifteen hundred square feet. The inside was just a combination kitchen/living room, and a small bedroom and bathroom, as far as she could tell. Another eight hundred square feet. And yes, the realtor in her had assessed the property and its approximate market value—about one hundred and fifty grand—the moment she’d walked in.
“May I use your phone? I have to warn Jeremy.”
His eyes narrowed. “Your boyfriend?”
“Ex.”
“Don’t you think he already knows? I’m guessing you weren’t the one who got on the wrong side of Junior Rabago.”
She pursed her lips and held out her hand. “Please? I don’t want him to come home and get shot, okay?”
Cody’s fingers flexed into a fist before they reopened and dug his phone from his pocket. “What are you doing with a guy like that, anyway?”
She frowned. Who was he to judge her taste in men? Especially when he didn’t look like the kind of guy you’d bring home to Mother, either? The fact that he was right irritated her even more. “Your phone?”
He scowled and dropped it in her palm.
She dialed Jeremy’s number, but he didn’t pick up. Of course he might be afraid to answer a number he didn’t recognize. She hit end and texted him.
Don’t go home. Mafia-looking guys at our house. ~Melissa
He didn’t answer. Was he already dead? What was the money they wanted paid by Friday?
Reluctantly, she handed the phone back and looked around the small living quarters again. How long would she be here?
“I need to get my purse and clothes at some point. Do you think those guys are gone from my place?”
Cody frowned. “There’s no way in hell you’re going near your place, not until I know it’s safe. I can pick you up a few things at Walmart or something.”
“Walmart?” She actually had no beef with Walmart, but he’d pegged her as a princess, so she was playing the part.
A tic in his jaw signaled his irritation. He stepped toward her, and she took a step back, half thrilled, half worried she’d bitten off more than she could chew. He gripped her upper arms. There was domination and authority in the way he held her, but his touch wasn’t rough. In fact, the heat of his large, work-roughened palms on her skin sent flames of desire licking through her.
“Baby, you’ll wear what I get you, or you can trot around in your panties for all I care.” He leaned closer to her ear. “Actually, I would prefer the latter.”
She worked to swallow, heat suffusing her core. Whether it was from his touch or the suggestion of strutting around half naked in front of him, she wasn’t sure.
Cody inhaled and caught a whiff of Melissa’s arousal. In a flash, his vision domed, the beast within him roaring to the surface.
What the fuck?
He blinked and released her, stepping back, away from her sexy little body. Yeah, she was hot—all soft curves and smooth skin with a beautiful face to match, but her personality left something to be desired. She was clearly stuck-up. And human . That ought to be enough of a turn-off right there, not that he minded sex with a human female now and then. It’s just that his taste—whether in she-wolf or human female—ran more toward tougher women. The kind who liked it rough and understood the rules—that he didn’t commit or make any promises. The sex was gratuitous, for their mutual pleasure, no strings attached.
“I can’t wear cheap, ill-fitting clothes to show houses.”
Real estate agent. It figured. He should’ve pegged her profession from the start. He had enough experience with agents. Bloodthirsty sharks, all of them.
“You won’t be showing houses. When I said you’re staying here, I meant inside this house at all times . If you think Junior Rabago won’t wait for you at work, honey, you’re not as smart as you look.”
Consternation puckered her beautiful face. “Cody, I have houses to show. I won’t go to the office, but?—”
“ No. ” He made his voice as hard and forbidding as he knew how, not that the girl seemed to respond to his alpha dominance in any way. Which was another source of irritation. For the fortieth time, he kicked himself for making a promise to Ben Stone.
But no. Even as he imagined walking away from her little drama, he knew, promise or not, he’d protect this woman with his life, even as maddening as he found her. She didn’t deserve whatever kind of trouble was falling down around her ears. Besides, there was something magnetic between them—some chemistry that was highly unusual between a shifter and a human. He was dying to explore it.
She lifted her chin, her big blue eyes challenging him. “How are you going to stop me?” She sounded a little breathless, which sent a kick of lust straight to his cock. He caught a whiff of her arousal again and was suddenly sure she had an inkling how he’d stop her, and wanted a taste of it. Maybe there was one way she responded to alpha dominance. The best way, in his opinion.
“I’m thinking, maybe something like this.” He brought his hands to her waist and turned her, then picked up her small, smooth hands and placed them on the wall, one at a time. Like before, just touching her bare skin fired his inner wolf. He stroked his palms up her arms to her shoulders, savoring her soft skin. He slid them down her sides until he reached her hips, then he lifted one hand and brought it sharply down on her ass.
Her sharp intake of breath made his cock throb. “I think your sister warned you about me,” he rumbled in her ear, his voice deeper and more gravelly than usual.
The silly girl didn’t know wolves have excellent hearing. Walking to the other side of a room didn’t preclude him from hearing every word of their conversation.
She didn’t answer, but appeared to be frozen, listening intently, waiting. He caught no sign that he’d intimidated her. No, all he got was interest. That’s what he’d smelled when she was on the phone, too. Good, that was the way he wanted it. He’d feel like a douchebag if he genuinely scared her.
“If you try to leave here, I’ll spank you until this perfect ass is pink and your sweet little pussy is dripping wet.”
Pink stained her cheeks. Her exhale sounded shaky. She didn’t look at him, but remained in the position he’d put her, staring at the wall. The heady scent of her arousal told him he’d already achieved the second goal. And damn, he’d never wanted a human this badly before.
“Let me know if you want me to take care of that ache between your legs,” he murmured, then stepped back. His voice sounded rough and deep. “I’d be happy to fuck the princess right out of you.”
He shouldn’t have said it. Not when he’d just gotten her to warm to him.
She drew herself up, yanking her hands away from the wall and spinning on him, cheeks flushed red. “Nice. Real nice.” She lifted her chin and marched right for the front door.
“Don’t do it,” he warned.
She took a final look over her shoulder at him and threw the door wide, taking off running the minute she stepped outside.
His inner wolf took over. Before he could rein himself in, he charged after her, vision domed, the thrill of the hunt upon him. No, the thrill of mating. In a flash, he was upon her, the animal in him roaring to…
Could it be?
Mark.
His inner wolf wanted to mate with her—permanently.
He caught her and carried her back into the house. Her scent filled his nostrils, making it impossible for him to regain control. His body wouldn’t obey the command from his brain to put her down. She was his she-wolf and he needed to claim her, to make her his, to embed his scent in her, forever. With one arm wrapped around her waist, his free hand went under her skirt straight to her core. His lips went to her neck. Without any permission from his brain, his fingers rubbed her clit over her lacy panties.
“Cody!” she choked on his name and the shock in her voice brought his senses back.
“Fuck.” He released her like she was on fire and backed away. “Christ, I’m sorry.”
She whirled, her eyes widening at what she saw. His irises had to be ice blue, showing his wolf. Fuck, were his teeth out, too?
That didn’t make sense. Why would he want to mark a human?
He shook his head, trying to recover his human self, his rational mind.
He held his palms up in surrender. “I didn’t mean to lose control. That was… unexpected.”
As his vision returned to normal, he scrubbed a hand over his face and drew several deep, cleansing breaths. Melissa’s cheeks were flushed, her erect nipples showing through her bra and blouse.
He couldn’t think what to say, except the first thing that popped into his head. “You nearly got fucked within an inch of your life.”
She let out a shaky exhale.
He touched his teeth with the tip of his tongue. They felt normal now, but he knew he’d been about to mark her. The sweet secretion he would’ve embedded in her skin pooled in his mouth.
He glared at her, as if it were all her fault. “Never run from an aroused wolf. Especially not an alpha. It triggers the instinct to claim.”
She blinked.
Way to blame the victim, asshole.
Fucking hell. He’d screwed this situation up royally.
You’re a sorry excuse for a wolf. You’ll never amount to anything. The only female who would ever lower herself to mate you is a human. His father’s sneering prediction the night he’d tossed him out on his ass at age sixteen came ringing back in his ears.
He stabbed his fingers through his hair. Not even a human woman would have an asshole like him. Despite all these years of trying to prove he could make it his own way, he was still as bad as that wild teenage wolf his father hadn’t seen fit to keep in his pack.
“I’m sorry, Melissa. I didn’t mean to force myself on you. Are you okay?”
Her head wobbled around on her neck, and she opened her lips, but no sound came out. He hated seeing her like that, wanted the uppity little real estate agent to return and insult him. But it was probably just as well she kept silent. If they went back to their verbal sparring, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold back—she had his lust on a knife’s edge as it was.
Even with his brain back in function, his cock strained painfully at his jeans.
He walked to his dresser and pulled out a t-shirt and pair of boxer briefs and tossed them near her on the bed. “You can wear these for now. I’ll get you some clothes in the morning.”
She didn’t answer or move. Her breath pumped rapidly in her chest, berry lips parted.
“Are you hungry?”
He half expected her not to answer—he’d deserve the silent treatment after what he’d almost done, but she nodded immediately. He tried to think what he had in the house. Not much. He’d have to go grocery shopping for her too.
Taking care of anyone besides himself was an entirely foreign proposition. As alpha, he’d lay down his life for any of his pack mates, but that didn’t mean he had to worry about their basic needs. They were all young and tough like him.
This little human, though? She required more. A lot more. While part of him rebelled at the obligation, some other part needed him to be the one who took care of her. Like no one else on Earth would do it right.
But that didn’t make any sense, since he had no idea what protecting and caring for a human female entailed.
Great, as if he wasn’t already on edge enough.
Melissa shucked her blouse and pulled on Cody’s clothes with shaking fingers.
What had just happened?
She’d almost been taken. Except she knew Cody hadn’t meant to hurt her. He’d half-shifted—teeth long, irises sky blue. She remembered that had happened to Ben before he marked Ashley, and he’d been devastated about what he’d done. Maybe this was why humans and shifters didn’t mix.
What would’ve happened if she’d been a wolf? Or a full wolf, because she and Ashley were one quarter wolf. They hadn’t known it, but their grandfather had been a shifter. After Ben had marked Ashley and she recovered more quickly than expected, they’d taken a road trip up to Wyoming to visit their Grandma Jane to uncover the family secret. She hadn’t said much—the memory seemed painful to her—but she’d confirmed the man they knew as their grandfather hadn’t sired her father. He’d been conceived by a shifter, whose pack had forced him to abandon her because she was human. He’d left her before he knew she was pregnant and she never made any attempt to tell him.
They told Grandma Jane about Ben, but the three had agreed to keep Ashley and Melissa’s parents in the dark about it all unless there became a compelling need for them to know.
Would a full wolf have welcomed Cody’s ‘attack’? No, the situation never would have happened, because she would’ve known better than to run.
She slid her fingers through her tangled hair. Honestly, until she saw the lengthened teeth, she had wanted him. She would’ve parted her legs and let him plunge his huge cock—she was only guessing, but based on the size of the bulge in his jeans, it had to be—right into her core.
So what did the teeth mean? Surely he wasn’t going to mark her. That would mean they were mated for life, and Cody didn’t seem to even like her, apart from the sexual attraction between them.
Regardless of what it all meant, one thing had been confirmed—her instinct that this bad boy was as much trouble as her last boyfriend was dead on. She needed to keep her head, cross her legs, and wait this out. Soon, Ben and Ashley would be back and she could leave the protection of the silver wolf and find someone totally normal. And human.
Except those thoughts fell flat and thin as a crepe. She’d never be happy with normal, would she?
Sighing, she pushed open the bedroom door, the rumble in her empty stomach becoming more insistent than her desire to avoid Cody.
He stood at the stove, somehow managing to look both manly and incredibly sexy as he flipped something in a pan with a spatula. His broad shoulders rippled with muscle, and his torso tapered to a narrow waist followed by the best ass she’d ever seen on a man. There was something about those ripped, worn-out jeans.
Yum. Just yum.
She cleared her throat. “What are you making?”
The way he paused before speaking told her he’d known the whole time that she’d been standing there watching. Well, of course he had. He probably had extrasensory wolf instincts. She wondered what other gifts wolves possessed, apart from being able to jump from two-story windows, catch one hundred twenty-five pounds of falling woman, and drive a motorcycle like the 1970s hotshot Evel Knievel.
“Grilled cheese.”
She snorted. “I should’ve figured that, Walmart boy.” It was a low blow. Actually, she loved grilled cheese, but Cody had decided she was some kind of diva, so she figured she’d play the part just to goad him. It worked.
He whirled, brows down low over his eyes. “I didn’t promise to feed you,” he warned, with a shake of the spatula at her.
She smirked and sauntered forward, pretending he didn’t look scary as hell. Backwards though it was, after what had just passed between them, she’d lost much of her fear of him. She’d seen his limits. “Keeping me alive probably involves feeding me, though, don’t you think?”
His lips pressed together in a thin line. “Don’t push your luck.” He turned back to the stove and flipped a grilled cheese onto a plate beside a whole tomato. He thrust the plate in her direction, without turning to look at her.
She took it and looked down at the tomato, wondering how in the hell he expected her to eat it. Also, there was nowhere to eat. She hadn’t noticed before, but he lacked a table and chairs. Rolling her eyes, she walked to the sofa and plopped down. No wonder it seemed dirty. This was where he must eat all his meals.
A moment later he joined her, sitting in the armchair across from her, his plate stacked with four grilled cheese sandwiches and two tomatoes.
Because she enjoyed needling him, she picked up the tomato. “How exactly do you expect me to eat this?”
The tic showed up in his jaw again. “I don’t care how you eat it, or whether you eat it, princess. In fact, while you’re here, maybe I should put you in charge of cooking.” His eyes slid sideways and she caught the glint of goading in them. “I could use a live-in housekeeper around here.”
That thought shouldn’t turn her on. Especially not after living with Jeremy, who did absolutely nothing around the house. It must be the wicked way Cody looked at her that made her heart tumble and her flesh heat. She imagined wearing a little French maid’s costume and running around to serve him under threat of a spanking while he waited with those powerful arms folded across his chest.
Stop it. Just stop. This guy was another Mr. Wrong. Definitely not the guy for her.
To throw it back at him, she held his gaze, picked up the tomato and took a big bite of it, as if it were an apple. Juice and seeds dribbled down her chin, but she didn’t move to wipe them away.
Cody stared at her mouth, his expression turning hungry.
She jumped, pulse racing, when he leaped to his feet and stalked toward her.
“What are you doing to me?” he demanded in a guttural voice.
She froze, the tomato still gripped in her fingers in front of her mouth, juice dripping down her arm. She wasn’t sure what he meant.
He grabbed the tomato out of her hand and then his mouth was upon hers. His tongue lapped up the juices before his lips descended on hers in a brutal kiss.
She gasped.
He hooked one hand behind her neck and hauled her to stand, body pressed against his, and took her mouth again and again.
Her nipples, bare beneath his oversized t-shirt, puckered and stood up, rubbing against the soft cotton.
When he broke away, he stared down at her like a man possessed. “Are you really sure you want to play that game with me?”
Dizzy with desire, she probably would have fallen over if he hadn’t been holding her tight against his hard body.
She thought about playing innocent and asking “what game?” but they seemed beyond that. Cody had effectively put her on notice—nearly anything she did that might be construed as sexual put her in danger of getting fucked by him. And she bet he fucked hard and rough, like his manners.
She stared at his stubbled chin, not quite able to lift her eyes to his face.
The idiotic part of her wanted to wave the white flag and surrender. Take me! it cried, like the pathetic quick-bonding female she was.
Not going to happen.
She put her hands on his sculpted chest and pushed.
He moved back, but it was after a moment’s hesitation, as if to show her that her feeble pushes meant absolutely nothing to a man—wolf—as strong as him. His eyes bored into her as if she stood there naked.
He brought the dripping fruit to her lips, offering it for another bite.
After his warning, she ought to have known better, but she sank her teeth into the soft meat of the tomato and closed her eyes with the explosion of taste, made all the more potent by her fascinated observer.
He ran his thumb over her lower lip, corralling tomato seeds into her mouth. “You’re not going to last long around here.”
“What do you mean?” Her voice only quavered a little. She licked the juice from her lower lip, missing being mashed up against his body. Despite the ill-fitting t-shirt and boxer shorts ensemble, she’d never felt so desirable in her life. Cody made every cell in her body spark to life, alert, simmering for his touch.
He gripped her hips, fingers firm against her flesh. “I’m already dying to bury my cock deep and pound until you scream my name.”
Her mouth dropped open. She ought to be shocked by his crudeness, but dirty talk must be her thing because the flames of desire only burned hotter. Her breasts ached, swollen for his touch; her clit throbbed in time with her heartbeat.
“I-I can’t,” she somehow managed to stammer.
What she meant was she could. In a heartbeat. But it would be something her old self would do, and she was trying, very hard, to stop being the loser twin and do something right with her life for a change.
He released her and took a step back. Heat still burned in his gaze but as she watched, he produced an expression of scorn. “Then stay clear, princess, or you might find yourself in a compromising situation.”