AUDREY #2
“I didn’t tell him about the accident in the arena,” I explained.
“I didn’t want him to worry—you know?” More like, I didn’t want him to know how I’d fucked things up by getting myself taken to a hospital.
Having my healing witnessed by Audrey. I’d recovered completely by the time I’d driven to the ranch, grabbed a shower and threw out my bloodied clothes.
I aimed my most charming smile at her. “He already thinks I’m wasting my life in the rodeo.”
I give her a wink, stepping into her personal space.
She responded to my nearness, some of her disapproval dropping away and sympathy creeping in. “Yes, I did pick up on some of that.”
I knew she was a smart one.
I give her a lazy shrug. “I’m the black sheep of the family.”
I was the third Wolf son. Rob was the alpha and Colton was the beta.
He was two years older than me and had enlisted fresh out of high school.
He was off saving the fucking world as a Green Beret, but he knew his place, knew he’d have to return to the ranch eventually, especially after the urge to mate hit.
Rob and Colton were the heir and the spare.
I was the third wheel. I would never hold rank in the pack.
I’d known that forever. And when our parents had been killed…
I’d hidden the pain with a who-gave-a-fuck attitude.
The second I graduated, I’d also left the ranch, made my own way. Became the champ on the back of a bull.
My last name might be over the archway at the entrance to the ranch, but I wasn’t needed here.
I was just the fuck up. I’d proven that again coming back.
Audrey wasn’t here to get in my pants. She’d made that clear as fucking day.
She was here because she was smart. A doctor.
She questioned. She wanted to know the truth.
I couldn’t tell her the truth. It would destroy the pack. While I didn’t feel like I belonged, I’d do nothing to hurt the Wolf pack. Nothing. So while I needed to push Audrey away, to get her back in her little car and on the road back to Cooper Valley, she wasn’t going to go without answers.
Answers I couldn’t give.
There was only one way I could think of to keep from telling her the truth.
Distraction.
It was time to lay on the Wolf charm because one way to make a woman forget that she’d encountered a quick-healing wolf was to make her forget her own name.
I might be a fuck up in some things, but I certainly knew how to do that particular trick. My wolf? He thought that was a mighty fine idea.
I grinned and her blue eyes widened. “Besides, I wanted you all to myself. What brings you here? Couldn’t resist Boyd Wolf, darlin’?”
She frowned. “I came to see to your injuries, just like I said.”
I tucked my forearm against my side, like I was covering the wound.
“Nah, I told you, I’m fine.” I inched closer.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret.” I was using my best bedroom voice.
“I’m not the kinda guy who submits for examinations.
In fact—” I let my hands settle lightly on her waist. “I prefer to be the one in charge.” I dropped my head, bringing our foreheads close. “Doing the examining, I mean.”
Her mouth fell open. She quickly shut it, licked her lips. The way her little pink tongue flicked out… fuck. This was supposed to get her distracted, not make my balls tighten and turn blue.
She lifted her hand as if to touch the spot where the horn had pierced but stopped just in time. I took hold of her fingers, pulled them to my chest. She gasped.
I growled, and she whipped her head up to mine at the sound.
“I… um.” She tried to tug her hand free, but I wasn’t letting go.
When she stopped trying to pull away, I loosened my hold but moved her hand over my chest so her fingertips could graze the line of my pectoral muscle. Goosebumps rose, my cock swelled. My wolf howled.
She was watching her fingers, and I couldn’t miss, even in the dim light since I had excellent vision, that her pupils were dilated. That thrum at her neck… it had picked up.
I inhaled deeply, breathing in that peach scent. And more. “You’re sweet everywhere, aren’t you, darlin’?”
Yeah, her pussy was going to be so fucking sweet. Sticky sweet because she was wet. I didn’t have to slip my hand into her panties to know for sure. This close, with only the earthy scents of the barn as a distraction, I couldn’t miss her arousal.
“I… I came to—”
“You haven’t come yet, Audrey,” I murmured, cutting her off. Keeping her hand, I walked forward a step, forcing her to retreat. I turned, so we were facing the opposite direction, then walked her so her back was pressed against the side of the barn. “But you will.”
“Um.”
That was all she said before I lowered my head and kissed her.
A gentle brushing, soft, as if to learn the feel of those soft pillows of flesh.
I kissed one corner, her mouth open as she began to pant, then the other.
I ran my hand down over her hair, silky soft, then gripped the thick strands at the nape of her neck and tugged.
Not too hard, but she gasped, and her eyes opened wide. But blurry.
I didn’t say anything, just kissed her again. This time, she knew I was in control. My tongue swept across her lip, then delved deep, finding hers. Her free hand went to my biceps, held on.
She tasted sweet, perfect. Leaning forward, I pressed into her. Her soft tits plumped against my chest, and my dick nestled against her belly. My back bent to reach her, our height difference so great.
I growled, grabbed her hips and lifted her up, then pressed her back into the wall again now that our mouths were lined up.
Her dangling legs came up and around, behind me, not long enough to hook her feet together, so her heels hooked against my lower back.
Her pussy, fuck… her pussy was pressed right against my length now, and I felt her heat through both of our jeans.
My hips jerked into her, and she moaned.
I took advantage and nibbled along her jaw, down the line of her neck. She angled her chin up, offering me access. Her sharp little nails dug into my shoulders. Fuck, she was a little wildcat.
I lifted my head enough to take her in. Wet, swollen lips, flushed cheeks, hazy gaze, ragged breath. Her hair was mussed from my hand, and her glasses were crooked. Fuck, yes.
Except, for the first time in my life, I experienced a stab of guilt at seducing her so quickly. My wolf was down—oh boy, was he down, but there was something behind it all.
Maybe because I knew this was so much more than the figurative and literal roll in the hay. This female was my mate—even though it made no logical sense. I hadn’t dared even think that one word… mate. I’d said from the first time I saw her that she was mine, but mate? That word was powerful.
Too fucking powerful because she was human and didn’t belong here or in the pack.
Yet I couldn’t deny the rightness of kissing her.
Of touching her. Having her press against me, hearing the sweet sounds of her pleasure that me and my wolf brought out.
In the past, I’d felt cocky knowing I could get a woman all hot and bothered.
With Audrey, it was different. Hot as fucking hell, but reverent somehow.
As if the sounds she made were precious, were just for me.
And instead of asking her on a date and taking my time to get to know her, I had her pushed against the barn wall, drunk on pheromones. I was everything I didn’t want to be. This wasn’t happy-go-lucky wham bam thank you, ma’am. This was so much more.
I hated myself in this moment because while it was special, I had no other choice.
I couldn’t very well lift my shirt and show her there wasn’t even a mark where that bull’s horn went through my side.
I had to be the asshole who seduced her for a reason, and it wasn’t only because she was mine and I wanted to hear every desperate sound she made, to feel the prick of her nails, the catch to her breath.
No, it was because I had to make her forget all about the fact that I was a fucking shifter and she was human and we’d never be right, no matter how much my wolf said so.
Because of all that bullshit and not because I needed to with every cell in my body, I went back to kissing the hell out of her. Making her forget all about that unfortunate incident. I could get her off and get her back in her car in under a minute.
I lifted my head. She was my mate. I couldn’t be a dick.
She might not be able to be mine and I might not be able to claim her, but I could show her what it could be like between us.
I wouldn’t fake anything. Hell, I’d give it my all, so she’d come like never before.
If this was it, then I wanted it to be as special as I could make it, so I could remember.
Could make it the top of my spank bank file for the rest of my life.
This was perfection, and I had to savor every second.
My tongue swept between her lips, danced against hers. My palms slid down to cup her ass. I squeezed and kneaded those perfect globes as I took my fill of her mouth.
I had to scratch that. I probably would never get my fill. Because tasting her was like an arrival.
The achievement I’d been searching for without knowing it all these years. My wolf nudged me, snarled, agreeing with me not to be a dick and do this right. I couldn’t take from her for a reason.
I had to give.