“Thank you.”
Gently, he turned her until she faced him. “It feels so good to have you in my arms.” Leaning down, he kissed her quickly and then returned to her lips for a more thorough kiss, his tongue sliding into her mouth like a lover.
She moaned softly and molded her body to his, putting her arms around his neck as she opened to him.
His taste rushed through her as her senses recognized him, her mate. Her loneliness was gone then, replaced by home and warmth. He filled the Ben-shaped space in her heart.
When he broke the kiss he looked into her eyes for long moments before smiling. “I hope you’re hungry. I cook when I’m nervous.” Keeping hold of her hand, he pulled her toward the dining room and sat her in a chair. “I’ll be right back, the salmon should be done.”
He ducked outside through sliding glass doors and opened a grill on his back deck. The man had grilled in January. Okay, then.
Smiling, she watched him come back inside and put a plate of heavenly smelling salmon on the table between them. Plates and bowls filled with all manner of vegetables and other side dishes littered the entire tabletop.
“Wine?” He held up a bottle of white wine and she nodded. Pouring it, he indicated the table. “Dig in.”
If she’d been human, Tegan doubted she’d have much of an appetite. Her nerves jangled and she was wary and concerned even as being with him was comfortable. But her wolf needed the calories and protein so she dug in.
“This is really good. You’re an excellent cook.”
“Thank you. My mom and dad owned a restaurant in Renton for twenty-five years. My sister runs it now. We’re all good cooks.”
“Really? I’d love to go there. That is, well, if you’re going to expose them to me.”
Sighing, Ben put his fork down and looked at her. Surprise bit into him as he realized he felt her agitation acutely, like it was his own. “Can I feel what you do?”
Wary, Tegan nodded. “There’s a link of sorts between us. When we’re in the same room we should be able to feel emotions from the other one. Strong emotions more so.”
“Okay. Then I can feel how upset and uneasy you feel. And I’m sorry. I don’t want you to be hurt or upset. This is all way over my head but even if you were a woman I was merely dating I’d want them to meet you. I’m very close to my family. I haven’t told them about this mating thing, but it’s more that I don’t quite know how to describe it than my being ashamed of you. I’m not. Confused as hell, but not ashamed of you. You’re beautiful, Tegan, strong, smart.”
Her eyes met his and she let out her tension, nodding.
They ate and talked around the elephant in the room until Ben stood and held his hand out. “Let’s just talk about all of this. Okay?”
Standing, she took his hand and followed him into the living room where they sat on the couch together.
“I’m still shocked after last night. I can’t lie. It took me by surprise and I don’t quite know how to feel about it all. But I know that I’m strongly attracted to you and I want us to see each other. I meant it when I said I wanted to get to know you. I can’t say I love you. I don’t know you. But I want you. So much my hands start shaking in the middle of my day when I think about you. And I like you. That’s a good start, isn’t it?”
“What are you saying?” Tegan eyed him cautiously, afraid to hope just yet.
“I’m saying I’d like to continue seeing you. If this is some kind of magical fated mate thing, it should work out that after we’ve known each other for a while, things will just move to the next step. Everything we talked about last night before we had sex still holds true for me now.”
“And what if I don’t want that?” Tegan pushed up from the couch and began to pace. “What if I don’t want you to toy around with me while you decide if I’m worth being with?”
Panic surged through him for a moment at the thought of her walking away.
“Tegan, I don’t plan to toy around with you. Well, I’d like to use toys on you, but I truly want to get to know you. I think you’re worth being with. But for me, marriage is for when you love someone. And I don’t love you. I’m sorry if that’s hard to hear but I just met you. It takes time. I want to spend that time. Can’t you meet me halfway here?”
Sighing, Tegan went to look out the window and he followed, needing to touch her. He stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders. The scent of her body, the sweet smell of her shampoo tickled his senses and made him slightly crazy with need.
“I can’t say I understand what this is like for you. I’m not a werewolf. I only know how I feel and what I can sense through the link. I believe in this mate thing more every second I’m with you. I don’t want to hurt you. Can you help me get through this?”
“Yes. I’ll try.” Her voice was quiet and he wanted everything to be okay, wanted her to turn to him with joy in her eyes.
“Are we okay?”
She shrugged. “How the hell should I know? I hope so. I think so. I can’t not be a werewolf, Ben. My family is going to want to meet you. Those who haven’t already. We have a ceremony. I can put that off for the immediate future, but my family is important to me and I want you to know that going in.”
“I understand and respect that. I’m close to my family too and I want you to meet them. Let’s take this one step at a time. We didn’t start off in a traditional sense but we can make this work.”
She turned into his embrace and he buried his face in her hair, the tension and panic waning as her scent lulled him.
“Will you stay over tonight? It’s closer to Cade’s from my house than from yours,” he spoke softly, his fingers sliding through her hair.
“I want to try and help you through this but I have feelings too. I need to be with you. If we’re going to be serious and have a relationship, I can. But I need to know for sure what you want.”
“I told you what I want. You and I, exclusive, serious. Can we see what happens tonight and go from there? I’m not leading you on. I do want you. Very much.” Every few words he paused to kiss a different place on her neck, pushing her hair to the side.
Melting into him she sighed, half contented, half unsure. Each time he touched her, she wanted him more. She knew it would be the same for him. Felt guilty in a sense that part of his attraction to her would be based on their new DNA and the mating than just plain old-fashioned lust. Still, as Grandma was so fond of saying, fate was fate. You sucked it up and got to it or you wallowed but wallowing never got you anywhere.
“I can stay. I always carry a duffel with me. It’s in my car.”
“Good.” He hesitated and looked into her eyes. “Tegan, I need you. I need to touch you, hold you. Be inside you.”
A shiver of need ran through her at his words, at the feel of thinly disguised desire emanating from him, rolling off his body in wave after wave. She managed a shaky nod.
Holding a hand out, he kept his eyes on her until she took it. The house was a split level and she followed him up a short flight of stairs and down a hallway to his bedroom. It was warm and masculine, like he was. Black-and-white prints hung on the wall. Upon closer examination, the photographs were sexual, sensual—the long line of a back, the shine off a black stiletto heel, a wrist wrapped in a cuff. Heat flushed her skin as she slowly walked from frame to frame.
“You’ve got a whole side to you I never imagined. You’re a sensualist, Ben. These are amazing.”
“You like them?” Pleasure lit his face.
She nodded. “I really do.”
“I took them.”
She turned to look at him. “More surprises. Well.” One brow rose as she turned to look back at the wrist in the cuff. Jealousy rose within her. How the man could think she’d be sleeping in the room where some picture of another woman he’d dominated hung on the wall was
beyond her.
Jealousy knifed through Ben and he realized it belonged to her. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head but he took her chin in his hands. “Tegan, you either submit to me or you don’t. I asked you a question. I expect you to be totally honest with me and I’ll do my best to do so with you. Now I felt it, I felt your distress and your jealousy. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I hate this.” She stepped back out of his reach.
“Don’t hold yourself away from me, Tegan.”
“Fuck you, Ben! God. You know I didn’t plan this. I didn’t plan to have a nice sexual interlude turn into a claiming. I spent a lot of time on my own, doing my own thing. You fuck me and walk away and want me back on your terms and now you want me to spill my guts on your terms too. It isn’t always about you, Ben. Not everything is about your goddamned expectations.”
Standing there, Ben watched her through hooded eyes. “Submission isn’t going to be a game, Tegan. We’re in my bedroom, this is my domain. Part of our agreement. Your well-being is my job just as your pleasure is my job. You aren’t letting me do that job when you won’t be honest with me. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”
Her annoyance began to turn into something else as she met his eyes, and even her agitation at him began to fall away as he fully owned his power as a dominant man. His vehemence moved her even as the sharp and yet even tone of his voice made her pussy wet. Suddenly, she wanted to know just what he’d do to punish her disobedience.
Ben’s agitation at her refusal to submit suddenly dissolved as he watched her face and knew she was deliberately pushing his limits to see how he’d react. Of course his woman would be a willful submissive. He wanted to laugh but kept his face impassive as he circled her body.
“Are you going to tell me, Tegan? Or—” he leaned in close to whisper in her ear, “—are you being naughty on purpose to see what happens?”
Her bottom lip caught between her teeth and he smiled, standing back. “All right then. Strip off and kneel at the foot of the bed. I’ll be back.” Without looking over his shoulder to make sure she obeyed, he walked into the hallway, heading into the room next door.
Taking his time, he got hold of his rampant emotions and his near-overwhelming need for her as he looked through his toy drawers to find just what she needed. He’d gone to his favorite toy store earlier, on his way home from work and picked up some things just for her. He grabbed those and the blindfold and looked out the window for another few minutes as he planned out just what he’d do to her.
Tegan removed her clothes with trembling hands. She wasn’t afraid of Ben Stoner. No, she yearned for him, wanted him to take her in hand and let her know he’d take care of her no matter what. Needed to know he’d make things all right and cherish her above all others.
How he handled himself with her that night would set a tone and Tegan hoped like hell it would be the right one. Because that woman’s hand in that cuff made her furious in a way only a mated wolf could feel. If she was just dating Ben, those pictures wouldn’t have even made her think twice. But her wolf didn’t want any reminders of other women before her.
Kneeling, she waited. He took his time and with a small smile, she went inward and found a calm place, her hands clasped at the small of her back.
That’s how he found her when he came back into the room, kneeling there looking so beautiful it made his chest hurt, flame-red hair loose about her shoulders, eyes closed, peaceful.
But she knew he was there and slowly opened her eyes, focusing on him. “Good. You ready to talk to me yet?”
She rolled her eyes and he had to bite his cheek to keep from smiling. The woman needed to be taken in hand in a major way and he could not wait to do it.
“Fine. Stand up.” He moved to a chair near the door and sat. “Come here and bend over my lap.”
Gracefully she gained her feet and swayed to him. She was pretty tall but he was as well, so she folded herself over his lap, her ass in the air, belly against his cock.
Tracing his fingertips over the creamy curves of her luscious ass, he delighted in watching gooseflesh rise in the wake of his touch. No one else would ever touch her this way. He stopped a moment as the thought came into his head and pushed it away.
He stroked a hand over her spine until she relaxed completely, her hands curled softly on the floor near her head.
Quickly, he delivered four sharp smacks to her ass, where thigh met the apex of her pussy and the curve of her cheeks. She gasped and then moaned softly.
“Mmm. Such a pretty shade of pink. So, tell me, Tegan, why are you feeling jealous? What have I done to make you doubt me?”
When she didn’t answer he delivered four more. Her pussy was so wet the backs of her thighs glistened and her honey scented the air. He realized though that, because she was a werewolf, she had a very high capacity and he did not want to risk harming her. So to get around the issue, he realized what he could control.
“Spread your legs wider.”
She complied quickly and he drew a fingertip through the slicked folds of her pussy until she arched her back with a sigh.
“No, not yet.” He moved his fingers away and smiled at the frustrated sound she made. “Tell me, Tegan.”
“No!”
He picked up the vibrator he’d bought earlier that day and turned it on low, just for a moment. He knew she heard it because her body stiffened briefly.
“Stand up and move to the bed, keep your back to me.”
When she hesitated a moment he knew he’d finally taken a step in the right direction. He walked behind her, laying the vibe on the bed in her view and pulling the blindfold from his back pocket.
He tightened the blindfold around her head, making sure it was light tight and comfortable. Leaning down, he blew over her nipple and smiled when a soft whimper escaped her lips.
Her skin felt more alive than it ever had. The warmth of his breath over her nipple sent shocks of pleasure straight to her cunt. The inner walls of her pussy throbbed, her clit was swollen and achy and she knew she’d just engaged in a battle with a man who was going to not only make her tell him what was wrong but beg him to let her come.
“Bend forward. Palms flat on the mattress. Stay standing. Spread your thighs.”
She obeyed each command, the sensory deprivation adding to the extra sensitivity of her skin. The cool, soft cotton of the comforter under her hands comforted her, the nap of the carpet against the bare soles of her feet brought them alive with sensation.
She heard the snap of a bottle opening. Cinnamon painted the air. Warming lube. Her breath caught as he reached around, his body wrapped around hers, and drew a slick fingertip around each nipple. The tingling began immediately and she sighed.
Until the pinch of first one clamp and then the other bit into her nipples and she drew a breath and pushed it out. Letting the pain flow into pleasure, letting the pleasure rise up and use the pain.
The whir of the vibe sounded again and he must have touched it to the metal chain that held the clamps as the vibrations hummed up through the metal and into her body.
Totally unexpected, the crack of a paddle sounded as the percussive waves moved through her ass and pussy.
Genius. The man was a wicked genius.
The sound of his zipper played down her spine and a whimper of need escaped her lips. That whimper turned into a cry as his cock slammed into the slippery cleft of her cunt, stroking hard and deep three times and pulling out, leaving her breathless.
Then the vibrator, directly on her clit and then his cock. Over and over until she was a quivering mass of muscles.
“Tell me, Tegan. Tell me and I’ll let you come. I’ll fuck you and we’ll make this better.” His words, whispered in her ear, echoed through her, playing on her need to confide in him. Her need to come. Her need
for his cock inside her body.
“I hate other women you’ve fucked being on the wall of a room you’re fucking me in! It feels like a notch on your bedpost and I want to be more than that!”
The edge of subspace left her words slightly slurred but clear enough.
He placed the vibrator directly on her clit and pressed into her body, fucking into her with short, hard digs. First one and then the other nipple clamp was removed, and blood and feeling rushed into her, throb, throb, throbbing with erotic pulsebeats. His free hand moved to grip her hair, holding her in place as orgasm slammed into her with force, subsuming her mind and body as it wrung her out.
She felt the rasp of his zipper on the back of her thighs, against the sensitive skin he’d paddled. It made her feel alive. His body tensed, his grip in her hair tightened and he came with a grunt, holding himself deep within her.
Some long moments later he pulled out and removed her blindfold, placing it with the other things he’d used, at the foot of the bed. He helped her to stand and kissed her softly.
Pulling the comforter back, he motioned for her to get in and slid beside her.
“The pictures are of models. None of them are women I topped. In fact, I took them before I got into the scene. Part of a photography course at a local community college. I suppose it was a sign, something that flipped my switch even then before I fully understood what I was. I can take them down if you want me to. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable here, not ever.” He kissed her forehead. “You are more to me. Enough that I want you to tell me if you feel bad. I don’t want you to hide things from me.”
A smile hinted at her lips. “Even if it gets me punished like that?” Oh he’d broken her all right. Well and truly. He was a man she could submit to proudly and completely. Not that she’d suddenly become easy and sweet. That wasn’t who she was. But he’d earned her submission that night.
A surprised laugh barked from him. “You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you?”
Tegan shrugged, feeling heavy and sated. She snuggled into his body and he held her against him easily.