As one fell against the other in a fit of giggles, I spotted Pete and his girlfriend doing the whole networking thing. His arm was around her waist and—surprise, surprise—he wasn’t talking. Instead she was talking ten to the dozen to a group of other surgeons, and patted his arm when he tried to say something. The ‘be quiet darling and let the grown-ups talk’ pat that he’d treated me to so often. I couldn’t help the small burst of smugness; served him right to be on the receiving end of crap like that.
A shadowy figure pushed off from the wall and claimed my attention. Claimed? He kidnapped it like a barbarian invader and carried it off back to his lair like some sort of slave girl.
Jared.
He had changed. The suit was the same, the same slightly mussed hair and dark stubble, but the laughing, joking charmer I’d arrived with had gone. He stalked toward me, violence and danger in every line of his body and a feral cast to his features as he emerged from the darkness of the shadows.
My breathing hitched, arousal swimming through my veins thickly as I read the lust in his eyes. Read the hard control written into every line of his body as his hand shot out to capture my wrist, fingers like iron manacles around my tender flesh. He yanked and I stumbled, free hand spread over his solid chest as I caught my balance.
Amber ringed his eyes and a soft growl worked loose from his throat. His free arm wrapped around my waist, holding me tight against him. A little too snug for comfort but I didn’t care. It was the ‘I’ve got you and I’m not letting you go’ kind of hold. His body heat beat at my skin. Wolves obviously ran hotter than humans. I filed the nugget of information away as I met him look for look.
It didn’t occur to me to run, despite the fact that he was a werewolf. A lethal, paranormal killing machine. My mom would have freaked, screaming that I was a couple of seconds from a horrific death at the teeth of a maniacal furball, but I felt…safe.
Desirable. Wanted.
“Dance with me.”
It wasn’t a request, nor did he wait for an answer. Almost before the words had processed in my addled brain he let me go, towing me toward the dance floor with the single-minded force of a tsunami. As we reached it, the music changed, the rhythm that of the tango. He spun me around into his arms where I expected the close hold shuffle to the music I was used to from my previous boyfriends.
Instead he pulled me closer and started to dance. Like seriously dance. Holding me tight in a ballroom hold, he led me into the opening steps of a very saucy tango, smiling a little at my gasp as I stumbled to recall the steps from last year’s dance lessons. With a good partner though, my body remembered faster than my mind and moved of its own accord as he dipped and twirled me about the floor.
He could dance.
He moved easily, with a grace I hadn’t expected, our bodies less than an inch apart as the music surrounded us. He picked a diagonal across the floor, empty save for us. His thigh shoved between mine, a strong column of strength as he turned us lightly and easily. Totally in control of me and my body, he shifted his hold and dipped me back over his arm. His heart beat against mine as he pulled me upright. Our gazes locked for a second until he moved again and we were off.
I loved to dance, loved the feeling of connection with the music and with my partner. But this…this wasn’t dancing. This was seduction to music. Pure, carnal eroticism wrapped in a veneer of civility and sophistication.
Fuck. Me.
I was done for.
He nudged the speed up, the steps faster and the spins tighter as the music built into a dramatic crescendo. At the last minute, he twisted and pulled me into arms. We were nose to nose with our arms around each other. My breathing rasped with exertion as I held his gaze. No embarrassment, just honesty. My br**sts mashed against his chest. The feeling of the crisp cotton shirt, rubbing against my skin above the dress as I breathed, was an unexpected turn on. The music crashed to a close. Applause exploded around us and I blinked, realising that the whole room had been watching.
“No, don’t,” he ordered. I tried to pull free, anything to get off the dance floor and away from being the centre of attention. “You were amazing. Don’t hide.”
I looked up, met his gaze fully. The wolf was still there but I didn’t care. Not even when a predatory smile flitted over his lips.
“Don’t look at me that way, sweetheart.”
“What way?” I couldn’t help it; I pouted a little and widened my eyes for effect. Now I knew that he’d turned Mandy down, and with that dance, I felt more comfortable. Liberated. Sexy.
He grinned, a white flash of teeth that had nothing to do with humour.
“You know. I’m a wolf, remember? Carry on and I’ll be forced to eat you all up.”
“Oh god, I do hope so.”
The comment slipped out before my brain could get in on the act and decide it was a bad idea. The effect was instantaneous. His breathing caught, big chest hitching as darkness flared in his eyes. He’d been hard already, but his c*ck jerked at my words. Pressed together chest to thigh, I could feel every long, hard inch of him.
I wanted some of that.
“Home. Now?” I suggested.
“Hell yes.”
* * *
The ride back to my place was warp speed compared to the ride to the ball. Jared didn’t speak. His tall, muscled body was tight as a wire as he guided the powerful sports car through the streets at break-neck speed. I didn’t argue. I just clung to the seat and watched the streets zoom by. Awareness throbbed between us, making the air in the car thick and alive with tension. Sliding my gaze sideways, I studied him. He was gorgeous, especially with the steely light of determination in his eyes and his jaw set as he put his foot down to eek through ahead of a red light.
“Don’t. Don’t look at me like that.” His voice had deepened, the growl of the wolf coming through. Need? Or anger? I wasn’t sure, but when he turned his head to spear me with a glance, I knew. Heat and hunger swirled in his almost totally amber gaze. Only a thin sliver of blue remained around his pupil, the human colour almost swallowed up by the wolf.
Fear spiked, running down my spine like a pianist caressing the keys, and I found my hand in front of my mouth like some sort of gothic horror her**ne. Shit. Had I made a mistake? Did he see me as less a hot lover and more an all you can eat buffet…but not in the fun way? Perhaps…
Cue mouth, brain on lockdown, legs clamped together to stop me peeing myself in fear.
“Shit, you are more into dogs… My mom was right, I’m so going to end up a snack,” I whimpered as we pulled into my road. The big, powerful car slid to a stop outside my little house.
“What?” His brows snapped together, then his expression cleared. “Nononono.”
He pulled on the handbrake and reached for my hand. I watched blue leech back into his eyes, until the amber was a mere ring around the edge. It was fascinating. I couldn’t help reaching out, wonder making me forget my fear.
“I’m not into dogs, German Shepherds or otherwise. I just said that to get a rise out of my boss. And you are going to end up as a snack, make no mistake about that.” His voice was low and intimate as he cradled my hand, the stroke of his thumb over my skin mesmerising.
“I am?”
“Ohh yeah. I might be a wolf, but I’ve got a cat’s taste for cream.”
He moved like lightening, his free hand cupping my nape to pull me toward him until our lips were mere millimetres apart. A thrill shimmered through me, chasing away the remnants of fear as my heart-rate picked up again. I wanted him, pure and simple. My p**sy clenched hard, my body signalling it was totally onboard with that plan. I was hot and wet. Ready for that wild ride against the wall he’d promised me.
He took a breath, as though tasting the air, and groaned against my lips; a deep, masculine sound of pained need.
“Get your keys out,” he ordered, letting me go and throwing his door open. I climbed out of the car on shaky legs. As I delved into the depths of my purse, he looped an arm around my waist and hurried me up the short path to the front door.
The porch light was out and as soon as we hit the darkness, he turned me. Plucking the keys from my hand, he claimed my lips in a torrid kiss. I moaned, the sound lost under the sensual assault, and crowded closer as our mouths mated. Eager for more. Everything…anything he wanted, just so long as he kept kissing me in that Iwannafuckyousobad sort of way.
His hand drove into my hair, scattering the pins that held it in place. He groaned in satisfaction as he wrapped the long strands around his fist. Held in place I could do nothing to stop the assault on my lips. Not that I wanted to, parting them when he crowded closer and nipped my lower lip in demand. I gasped, the start of the soft sound audible in the darkness before it was muffled by his mouth.
Tilting his head, he thrust his tongue past my lips, stroking and sliding along mine in a sensual interplay that sent the blood zinging around my veins. Heat spiralled, firming my br**sts and peaking my n**ples where they pressed against his broad chest. The twin mounds ached as the need to be nak*d, to have nothing between us as he moved over me, filled every cell of my body. Arousal drew an arrow down through my core, the rubbing of my stiff peaks inside the satin bra cascading into a fierce ache in my p**sy. I kissed back, mating my lips to his as I drove my fingers through the short spikes of his hair. Hair I’d been dying to muss up since meeting him.
“God, Eloise, you’re killing me.”
He broke away, his words a pant against my mouth. Pulling on my hair, he ran his lips down the tender column of my throat and urged me backward. A metallic click sounded behind me and a second later we stumbled through the door into my hallway.
Chapter Four
The soft light of the kitchen further down the hall illuminated his face, a near-feral mask of hunger and male need as he shoved the door shut behind us. Then it was game on. He growled and dragged me closer, his kiss harder, more dominant as we turned, falling against the wall. Hands, his or mine, I couldn’t tell which…didn’t care…tore at clothes.
His jacket hit the floor as I pulled his shirt free of his pants, trying to undo the fiddly little buttons between hot, open-mouthed kisses. Another nip of my lower lip stilled me, the inferno in my veins all but overwhelming as he shoved my hands aside and ripped the front of the shirt open. Buttons pinged against the wall, a sharp counterpoint to the soft sound of delight in the back of my throat.
“Amused?” The growl was back as I ran my hands over his exposed chest, waiting for him to rid himself of the remnants of the cotton. He didn’t. Instead he loomed over me, a dark and dangerous shadow with blue-amber eyes as he looped a hard finger into my cl**vage between the girls. “Do you like this dress?”
I froze, caught like a rabbit in the headlights, easily reading his intention. It was the dress; expensive, classy, and…and… I’d never had a guy so desperate to get nak*d with me that he ripped the clothes off my body. Fuck it. I lifted my chin, daring him with my expression.
“Do it.”
He grinned, a white flash of teeth in the darkness. The canines were a little more elongated than they had been earlier but I didn’t care. He wouldn’t hurt me… I knew that as surely as I knew that tomorrow I’d be walking a little funny.