“I’m incredibly flattered,” he murmured.
She couldn’t help but grin. “You should be. Because I’m beginning to entertain some really naughty thoughts about you.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-five. And you?”
“Forty-one. I’m a lot older than you are. I feel slightly perverted.”
She dropped the robe, letting it pool around her feet in a spill of royal blue silk.
“Now I’m feeling a lot perverted.” He wondered if he’d ever actually been as hard as he was at that precise moment. How long had it been since a woman’s body had affected him so deeply? She was a whole lot of contradictions all rolled up into one really appealing package. Her eyes were wide and bright and definitely filled with mischief and no small amount of independence and power.
Her breasts were not large. He usually preferred large-breasted women, but her perky little barely B-cups made his mouth water. Those strawberry-pink nipples with silver—platinum, he guessed, given their resistance to silver—rings dangling from them made him hot. No innocent miss there. No, those rings made him want to unleash the things he’d kept deep inside for a very long time. He raked his eyes over the series of tattoos—words from the old language—down her body, over those long legs to the petite feet with those red-hot painted nails. She was a lot of things in one woman and that was incredibly beguiling.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said in the quietest of voices and she stood, rapt, as his hands went to the buttons of his jeans and popped each one open. She wasn’t even sure she could blush, she was so spellbound by the sound as each button popped free and a tiny bit more of his body showed.
My! No underwear. Who’d have thought that a man like Gabe, who seemed all business, would be going commando? A shiver ran through her. He shoved the pants off and got rid of them and his shoes and socks.
They stood there facing each other, both naked and intensely aroused. Somewhere in the back of her mind she felt guilty for being this turned on by another male and it seemed odd to her that with the mate bond she could be so utterly devastated by his presence. She chalked it up to the whole Anchor thing. She couldn’t explain it any other way.
“I really have to touch you, Tracy.”
She nodded and stepped out of the robe at her feet, toward him. And when their bodies touched, Tracy felt faint. The intensity of desire and connection between them was overwhelming.
“What is this?” he murmured just as his hand went into her hair and angled her head to receive his kiss. And it wasn’t just a kiss, it was a ten-car pileup. A collision of two people meshing into one. His mouth was insistent and he devoured her, took from her and delivered back in spades. His lips were hot against hers, tongue sure and steady as it slid into her mouth and stroked against hers.
His taste was intoxicating and consumed her. Took over her brain and her body and sucked her under like a siren’s song.
“Oh god. Please, fuck me, Gabe,” she all but sobbed when he broke the kiss to move his mouth—his hot, carnal mouth—to the spot just under her ear. Her legs nearly buckled.
“I will, little rebel, I will. Don’t rush me.” The words were murmured, his lips against her skin, and all she could do was writhe. “I have plans for every inch of your body. If I can only have you once, I’m going to burn my name into your skin.”
He wasn’t even sure where the hell the words came from but once he’d touched her, it was like instinct had taken over. He certainly meant what he’d said. He wanted her to think of his lips just there, at the place where her jaw met her neck, before she fell asleep each night. Wanted his fingers splayed over her hips to brand into her memory forever because damn it, if he couldn’t have her, he’d damn well have part of her memory.
A sense of desperation crept into him as the thought of only having her once registered. How could he live for the rest of his life only being able to make love to her one time? Knowing that another man had her every night and day? He knew it was madness to feel that way, knew she belonged to another. But he felt it nonetheless.
Dropping to his knees before her, he caught the scent of her desire in full force and it rocked his very foundations. He growled as his wolf agitated against his human skin, wanting to claim her.
Tracy looked down at him, her hands shaking at the intensity of her response. She slid them into his hair and it felt cool and soft against her skin. His mouth was like a brand against the tattoo at her inner hip. The growl that issued from deep inside him wrapped around her and called her own wolf into a state of tension and need. It frightened her, the way he made her feel. It was wrong! She shouldn’t feel so intensely attracted to anyone but Nick. But she couldn’t help it. Her need of him took over every cell in her body. Did Nina feel this way with Cade? No wonder she looked at him the way she did sometimes. Still, Nina seemed to manage it and be loving and totally devoted to Lex. All Tracy could do was hope that it would lessen after the anchor bond was fully in place.
He pushed her back onto the bed and moved to her, giving no quarter as he loomed up and over her, taking a nipple into his mouth, his teeth grabbing it, pushing her into that place where pleasure and pain are only a breath apart.
Her clit throbbed in time with each pull of his mouth. His weight over her eased some of the anxiety she’d been feeling. His hands were stroking over every inch of her skin as he feasted on her nipples.
Pulling back he stared at her, his lips wet from her, his breath heaving. “What is it? Why do you make me feel this way?”
She was beyond words and all she could do was shake her head and make a distressed sound. He kissed his way down her belly and her thighs were already trembling when he pushed them all the way open and took a long look at her pussy.
“God,” he whispered hoarsely and his mouth was there on her, against her, insistent and fervent. She’d already been so close to coming just at his first touch that when he pushed a finger into her and flicked the tip of his tongue over her clit her climax hit her so hard it jarred her teeth.
But he didn’t stop until he’d pushed her into a second climax that wrenched her gut and made her see stars.
And he was up and over her again, lips on hers. Her legs wrapped around his waist and she opened to him, tightening her grip to hold him to her.
“Please,” she said through the kiss.
“Please what?”
“Please fuck me. I’m going to die if you don’t.”
“I don’t want this to be over.” The yearning in his voice tore at her.
“It has to be. I can’t feel like this, it’s not right.” Tracy knew that this thing between her and Gabe was something other than the anchor bond. Knew that it was deeper than that and it scared her as much as it seduced her. She had a mate, he was in the other room and she was in love with him and committed to him and she could not let herself fall any further into this thing she shared with Gabe.
“I know. But damn me, I want it forever,” he gasped as he pushed his cock deep into her hot embrace.
“Oh my...” she said faintly as he filled her and began to move. She closed her eyes to keep from staring deep into his. It was too much. He saw into her too deeply and she didn’t know what to do with all of it.
Each time he plunged back into her body she felt like he possessed a bit more of her. She pushed the panic down, worried that if she didn’t, Nick would feel it and burst into the room and then what?
The pleasure was mind-numbing and all-consuming and she tried to turn off her mind and heart and just feel.
Gabe was convinced he’d never felt anything as good as the way her pussy surrounded his cock as he fucked into her body. The silk of the skin on her inner thighs slid over his hips each time he thrust deep. He wanted her to open her eyes, to see into those mossy depths and know her. Her body welcomed him in a way he’d never f
elt before and even clenching his teeth and reciting his mnemonics from the bar exam for commercial paper did not help.
He had to come and right then. His cock didn’t care if he wasn’t ready for it to be over. Her body had pushed him past endurance and when it hit him square in the balls, it also hit him in his heart, in his gut and he threw his head back and gasped out her name as he came deep within her body in pulse after pulse of pleasure.
He stayed inside her as long as he could and finally rolled to the side, chest heaving, his arm over her waist, fingers entwined with hers.
After some minutes of silence, he moved to sit and leaned down to kiss her. His eyes were sad. It tore at her and she wanted to make him all right. Wanted to comfort him. But she couldn’t. It wasn’t her place.
“I’m going. I’ll see you tonight at the joining.” He paused a moment, tracing a fingertip over her bottom lip. “It’s just the Anchor forming, Tracy. That’s all.”
She looked into those deep brown eyes and nodded. “Of course. Thank you.”
He laughed as he got up and pulled his clothes on. “Sweetness, thank you. I quite enjoyed myself. I’ll be happy to get to know you better as your Anchor.” He went to the door and turned to her one last time. “It was just the bond.”
He said it twice but she wasn’t any more reassured. She just hoped that the bond lessened because she wanted him again, his hands on her. Right then. Pushing it away as hard as she could, she nodded. “Of course. I’ll see you later tonight, Gabe.”
He waved and left the room, shutting the door behind him.
Gabe walked straight out of the apartment, knowing that he smelled of Tracy’s sex and her body and that if he’d gone to Nick right then it would have been hard on him.
From what he understood, most of the time the Anchor left for a while to let the mated couple reassert their bond anyway.
Or so he told himself as he tried to put as much distance between himself and Tracy as possible before he let his wolf take over and challenge Nick Lawrence for his mate.
* * *
Her thoughts racing and unease gripping her guts, Tracy threw herself into changing the sheets on the bed and opening the windows. She wanted to try and get rid of the scent for Nick’s sake. And for her own.
Giving herself a bunch of tasks was better than thinking about what had happened. She showered and tried to erase Gabe’s scent from her skin, but she couldn’t erase the memory of his touch, the way his lips had felt on her own. He had burned himself into her, just like he said he wanted to. Guilt beat at her.
She loved Nick. Period. She loved Nick Lawrence and she was his mate. She was just unaccustomed to the whole anchor bond thing. Still, she’d talk to Nina about it when she saw her at the Pacific Pack house later that night.
An hour later, scrubbed and calmer, the bedroom airing out, Tracy sought Nick. Standing in the doorway, she watched him work. Took in the expanse of his back, of the way the muscles moved as he typed. His hands were really beautiful for a man who’d probably broken a finger or two at least half a dozen times. He wore headphones to listen to music but she could tell he was distracted. She tossed a paperclip at his head and he jumped and turned in her direction.
When he saw it was her though, he relaxed and took the headphones off. His smile sweet and a little tentative, he said, “Hey. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. How about you?”
He stood and walked to her, relieved that there was only a slight scent of sex on her. He’d heard when Gabe left the apartment and had given her time. The washing machine was on in the background and he smelled fresh air so he knew she’d opened the windows.
“You feel more centered than you did before. I shut down the link as much as I could earlier. No offense but I really didn’t want to feel you being with someone else. But I did feel you having a good time. Three times actually.”
Tracy blushed furiously. “Okay, that’s enough of that topic.” He laughed.
“Are you all right?” she asked him softly, reaching up fingertips to feather through his hair.
Exhaling, he nodded. “I am. I am because it’s the last thing to help us start our life together. You’re safe and I’m relieved.” He took her hand and they went into the living room.
“I spoke to my real estate agent, he’s one of the higher-ranking members of Pacific. I’ve got him scouting out homes for us with nice views of the city and close-in—my needs—and big yards suitable for dogs—your need. He’s going to get us some listings together and we can start looking tomorrow. Is that all right?”
She warmed as her heart filled near to bursting with love for him. “Thank you. I know you’ll love Milton. He couldn’t stay here though, he loves to run. So I’m going to ask Nina to babysit him until we can get a bigger place. At some point I need to get back up to Seattle to figure out what to do with my house and my store.”
He looked at her, feeling the sadness at the mention of selling her business. “Baby, have you considered keeping it and hiring some other staff to run it for you?”
“I don’t know. I can trust Charity, she’s full-time anyway and I know she’d welcome the extra money. And there are a few of my staff that I could hire on full-time. I’d have to run the numbers to see what my profit margin would be. But what would I do here?”
“We just lost our accountant not too long ago. Didn’t you say you did the accounts for Cascadia?”
“Yes, and I can help until you hire someone else on, but I’m not an office-job kind of woman, Nick. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m the facial-piercing type. My hair is frequently odd colors and I like to come and go as I please. You can’t do that unless you own a funky business like a record store or you help with the books when your brother is the Alpha.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, your brother-in-law is the Alpha. Like Ben is going to care if your hair is what—blue? Pink? And that damned brow ring is growing on me. It’s sexy. But you could open up a record store down here if you wanted. A second Spin the Black Circle. That could be good.”
“I’ve thought about it. I need to do some research to see what’s down here already. There aren’t a whole lot of independent record stores anymore so if there are two or three in a city this size, that’s already filling that niche.”
“Take your time. Hell, be a woman of leisure if you want.”
She laughed. “Well, thank you, but no. I like working, I just need it to be what I like. And eventually we’ll have children and a flexible schedule will be a must.” She froze at the look on his face. “You do want children, don’t you?”
“Yes. Yes I do, and I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen. But the thought of a little girl with your eyes and those freckles just makes me happy, baby.”
She released the breath she’d been holding. “Oh good. I want them too. In a few years.”
“We’ve got time. So now that we’ve tap-danced around it, what are you going to do about the joining?”
“What does she say?”
“What do you mean?”
Tracy looked at him, annoyed. “Nick, do I look slow to you? Of course you called her and told her what happened. What did she say?”
“Am I that transparent? I just wanted to talk to her, to let her know you were upset. It was nothing more than that.”
“Oh yes, we mustn’t let sweet Sarah get her fee-fees hurt. God knows how fragile she is. You know, she is an Alpha female, Nick. She can hang with the big dogs. She can certainly talk shit like one.”
“Tracy, she really isn’t like that. She was caught off guard and she’s really upset that you overheard her saying all of that about you. She doesn’t want you to get the wrong idea and she desperately wants you to like her. It’s important to her. Family is important to her.”
“Uh-huh. So back to my question. What did sh
e say about the joining?”
“She would be horrified if you didn’t join the Pack because of what you overheard her say in what she termed today, a moment of jealous lunacy. She wants you to be a part of Pacific. You’re my mate, that in and of itself is important to her. She’s the Alpha female. But she’s also my sister-in-law and she wants you to feel welcome. Lastly, she really wants to get to know you. She knows you’re coming to a new city and will need new friends and a family to fill in for yours since you’ll be a few hours away. She asked me to see if you’d give her another chance.”
Now that she’d experienced the intensity of the anchor bond she understood Sarah’s behavior a lot better. It still bothered her that Sarah had said the things she did, but what else could she do? There was no place for Nick in Cascadia. Lex wasn’t just an Enforcer but the Enforcer. He was the bar that other Enforcers strove toward. And Nick was born to be Second in Pacific. Tracy was the youngest of six, she had the freedom to do what she wanted. And she wanted to be with Nick.
“I still don’t like her. But I’ll go tonight to see what she says to my face. I want this to work, Nick, I really do. Because I love you.”
He smiled and she felt his relief.
“Now, I have a problem. You smell like another wolf, which makes me want to fuck that right out of you. In addition, you smell like my mate, which also makes me want to fuck you. You are deliciously sexy and each breath you take pushes those sweet nipples against your shirt, showing me those rings. Refer back to my previous proposed action.”
“Why, Nick, would you care to retire to the bedroom to have wanton hot monkey love?”
He threw back his head and laughed. “No, baby. I want you to get those jeans off and bend over the arm of this couch right now. I feel the need to christen this room.”