“I would imagine it does.”
She held out the bottle. “Then have some with me. I discovered I don’t real y want to drink alone.”
He could imagine what Roarke would say about that plan, but Aidan thought he could handle it. Whatever the maid had added to the water in the Jacuzzi clung to Emma’s skin, disguising her scent. “I’l get a glass.”
Having wine wasn’t the worst idea in the world in another way. He walked into the large dining room and over to a cabinet where several goblet choices hung by their stems. Alcohol tended to mute his genetic problem, so he might actual y become less aroused by sharing the wine with her.
Then he came back to find her curled up on the end of the sofa nearest the fireplace, her bare feet tucked under her and the hotel robe representing the only barrier to touching her warm body. His chest began to itch.
But he had the goblet in his hand, and changing his mind now would make him seem indecisive. He shouldn’t care what she thought of him, but ... he cared more than he wanted to admit.
Now he had to decide where to sit. Roarke would advise him to choose the sofa opposite her, which put a brass-and-glass coffee table, plus a couple of heirloom-quality vases, between them. But Aidan figured that would make him seem like a coward, and besides, the wine bottle was on her side of the coffee table.
So he walked over to where she was sitting, eased down onto the smooth leather at the opposite end of the sofa, and reached for the wine bottle. He must have been paying more attention to the slight gap in her robe than to what he was doing because he bumped the wine bottle instead of grabbing it, and it started to go over.
Emma gasped and leaped toward it. She never would have made it in time, but he did. His many Were gifts included reflexes that made his sudden movements a blur, even when captured by the fastest camera shutter in the world. As kids, he and Roarke had tested it. Aidan caught the bottle before a drop of Lafite Rothschild spil ed.
Emma took hold of it a split second later. Stil clutching it, she stared at him. “I’ve never seen anybody move that fast.”
“I have good reflexes.” There was nothing wrong with his eyes, either. Her wild leap from the sofa to catch the bottle had loosened the tie holding her bathrobe closed. He had a perfect view of her creamy br**sts. Her n**ples, soft and ful from the warmth of her bath, were the color of a rosé. He longed for just one taste.
If she hadn’t recently immersed herself in a commercial y produced bubble bath, he would have been aroused beyond al reason by the temptation of that open robe. He would have taken her right then and there. No power on earth could have stopped him, other than her refusal. She wouldn’t have refused. When Aidan was in ful command of his sexuality, no woman had ever said no.
But the aroma of flowers did nothing for his libido. He was operating completely on visual stimulation, which didn’t stir his sexual needs nearly the way her natural scent would have.
Yet he was stirred. His mouth grew moist, and his c*ck stiffened.
“Oh. Sorry.” She released the bottle and pul ed her robe together.
He had a brief glimpse of her soft n**ples tightening before she blocked his view with thick terry cloth. Whether her n**ples had reacted to the air or his glance, he couldn’t say. Her cheeks were pink, but that could be from embarrassment, as Wellas desire.
“I should have put on clothes instead of the robe.” She avoided his gaze as she tightened the sash. “I brought pajamas that cover me from head to toe, but after that wonderful Jacuzzi, I wanted to snuggle into this robe. It’s so thick and soft.”
She looked up. “But it’s completely opaque, and I didn’t think—I didn’t mean to be seductive, Aidan. At least I hope I didn’t.”
His tailbone ached, and the backs of his hands prickled. He had two choices.
Kissing her thoroughly—and not just the quick peck she’d given him on Wednesday night—would temporarily stop the process. If he fooled his body into thinking it would eventual y get what it wanted, his shift could be delayed indefinitely. He might even be able to put it off completely. Yet that seemed like such a selfish route to take.
On the other hand, if he didn’t kiss her, he would have to leave the penthouse and surrender to the shift somewhere in the middle of Grant Park. He’d be forced to strip down outside in the snow and hide his clothes somewhere they wouldn’t get stolen. He didn’t like those conditions worth a damn. But he’d brought it on himself.
He should just swal ow his pride, head for the park, and accept that Roarke was right. He’d been an idiot to think this would work.
Taking off his watch, he laid it on the coffee table. He’d never worried much about it before, but she’d made him more aware of losing it. “I’m going out.”
“Out where?”
“For a walk.”
Her voice rose in alarm. “Without your watch? Are you planning to go someplace where you’l be mugged?”
“I won’t be mugged. I just would rather not take a chance on losing the watch.” He wanted to leave without wearing his topcoat, which was one more thing that could be swiped while he was in wolf form, but then she’d get even more suspicious. He opened the foyer closet and took out his topcoat.
“Aidan, you can’t leave.” She hurried over to him, her bare feet whispering seductively on the carpet. “This is because I flashed you, isn’t it? You’re afraid you’l do something you’l regret.”
He shrugged into his coat. “Or something that would be unfair to you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You said it yourself on the plane today.” He chose his words careful y as he buttoned the coat. “We’re from different worlds, yet we’re inconveniently attracted to each other. If I acted on the impulse I have right now, I’d be doing it with the knowledge I was only ... using you.”
“For sex?”
“Yes.” He met her gaze. “For sex. Pure, unadulterated sex. Nothing more.”
She swal owed.
“You deserve more than that, Emma. So I’l go for a walk and get myself under control. You’l be safe here, and I won’t be long. Maybe an hour or so.” He started for the door.
“Wait.” She caught his arm. “It’s snowing out there.”
He glanced down at her hand on his coat sleeve. Such a soft smal hand to wield such immense power over him. “No problem,” he said. “I like the snow.”
“So do I. Let me get dressed and I’l go with you.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “That would defeat the purpose. I’m trying to put some distance between us. You need to stay here.”
Her grip tightened. “So do you.”
He made the mistake of looking into her blue eyes and seeing the hunger there.
He gave her as much truth as he dared. “Emma, you don’t know me at al .”
“I know enough. I know that you’re the kind of man who would rather walk off his sexual urges than take advantage of a woman he has no intention of making part of his life.”
“It’s what any decent—”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Actual y, you’re wrong about a lot of things. You say I deserve more than pure, unadulterated sex. In the long run, when I choose a life partner, that’s true, but I can’t think of anything I’d like better tonight.” She gave him a saucy look. “For research purposes, of course.”
Lust speared through him, and as he stood there fighting it, his pelt began to grow.
“You want to find out how the wealthy do it?”
“Could be.”
“We have sex the same as everybody else.”
“Somehow I doubt that’s true of you.” She moved around in front of him and began unbuttoning his coat. “You’re much stronger than I am, so you can shake me off and go out that door if that’s what you real y want.”
He clenched his jaw as his teeth began to ache. “It’s not about what I want. It’s about what’s best for both of us.”
She finished unbuttoning his coat and slid her hands up the front of his shirt.
“Maybe unconsciously I wanted to seduce you by wearing only this robe.” She gazed up at him as she lightly massaged his chest. “You intrigue the writer in me, Aidan. But you fascinate the woman in me. There’s something of the animal in you.”
She was on target with that one. He hoped his chest hair hadn’t curled up past the open neck of his dress shirt. He had about ten seconds before the buttons would pop from the strain of his growing pelt and the powerful muscles forming beneath it.
He had to go now.
“I want to undress you, Aidan.” She unfastened the first button. “You’re so masculine, so—my, you do have a lot of chest hair. So soft, so sexy.”
Too late. He’d hesitated, and now he’d never make the lobby in time. He had one option left, and he hoped it would stil work for him. “I need to kiss you, Emma.” He cupped the back of her head and slid his arm around her waist. “Hold very stil .”
“Aidan? Your teeth are so white and so—”
He used what little control he had left to lower his head and kiss her gently. Easy now, light pressure. He could only tease her mouth with his, because if he kissed her ful y, he’d draw blood. His canines were sharp enough.
She was so innocent, so trusting. Dear God, he hoped he hadn’t waited too long.
If he shifted now, in front of her, she might never get over the shock of it. What if he stil craved her after the shift? Would he take her while he was in wolf form?
He’d never been in this precarious position before. It was uncharted territory.
But, ah, he wouldn’t shift. As she kissed him back and pressed her sweet little body to his, his teeth stopped aching, and his canines began to retract. His tailbone no longer bothered him, either. The insistent pressure he’d felt there had moved forward and now affected his cock. Women were used to that phenomenon. In fact, they seemed to enjoy making it happen.
As his shift gradual y reversed, his lust grew stronger. Her natural scent had begun to filter through the fragrant oils from her bath, and he fumbled with the tie of her robe, impatient to remove it and sniff every inch of her nak*d body.
His topcoat was in the way, and he released her temporarily, stil keeping contact with her luscious mouth as he shrugged out of his coat and dropped it to the floor.
Freed of that burden, he worked her out of the robe.
Yes. At last he could stroke, touch, fondle. He buried his nose in the side of her neck and breathed in as he ran both hands over her quivering skin. She was smooth, warm, moist ... rich. So rich.
The scent of her drove him to nuzzle her br**sts. He’d learned that kisses could disguise his real purpose, which was to breathe in every delicious aroma rising from her body. The more he caressed her, the sweeter she smel ed. He trailed kisses down between her br**sts as he absorbed every tantalizing fragrance along the way.
Dropping to his knees, he cupped her bottom and kissed her navel, but his goal was the downy patch of blond curls just below, where the musky scent of arousal cal ed to him with a siren’s song. When he reached his destination and breathed in her essence, he growled low in his throat.
She trembled, but didn’t resist as he sought her out with a swipe of his tongue.
She tasted as he’d known she would, like the nectar he’d dreamed of al his life and never found in either wolf or woman. He needed more.
“Come down.” Bracketing her waist with both hands, he guided her to her knees, then onto the thick carpet.
Her breath came fast. “Aidan ... there’s a perfectly good bed ...”
He didn’t want a bed. Urging her legs apart, he settled down on the carpet and slid both arms under her hips. Then he took her, burying his nose in her fragrant sweetness and using his tongue to lap, to caress, to arouse in ways that were guided partly by human instinct, partly by the wolf that lay just under the surface.
She responded like the wild thing he’d always suspected she could be. He’d read her books, watched her dance. He’d sensed the sensual creature waiting to be turned loose.
He gave her that freedom. By holding nothing back, by making low urgent sounds deep in his throat, he bid her to writhe in his arms, arch toward his ravenous mouth, and cry out for more. He made her come once, twice, three times before she sagged against the carpet, panting, her body limp and quivering.
The smel of sex fil ed his nostrils as he suckled her gently, easing her back from the last shattering cli**x. His shift was in retreat because he’d fooled his body into thinking relief was at hand. If he’d been in wolf form, it would be.
But he’d pleasured her as a man, which meant he had to fol ow human rules. That meant pretending that he had to avoid pregnancy. Kissing his way back up her moist skin, he gazed into her heavy-lidded eyes. “We need room service.”
She frowned.
“Never mind.” He feathered a kiss over her lips. “You’l see.” Reaching for the robe that had fal en to the carpet, he pul ed it over her and got to his feet. A phone sat on a nearby end table.
Picking up the receiver, he punched the button for the front desk. “A box of Trojans, ASAP,” he said, and replaced the receiver.
A muffled sound made him turn toward Emma. She had a hand over her mouth, but she was definitely laughing.
Crouching beside her, he tossed aside the robe and lifted her into his arms. “Go ahead and laugh. Some of us stil have business to take care of.”
“But room service?”
He carried her toward the master bedroom. “That’s how the wealthy handle these things. I hope you’re rested up, because I have plans for you while we’re waiting for those Trojans.”
Chapter 11
Emma wasn’t going to argue with the man. He’d turned her inside out, and she couldn’t believe she had more to give in that department, but he seemed to know his way around a woman’s body. No man had ever given her an orgasm on the living-room carpet smack-dab in the middle of a luxury penthouse, let alone three.