Alyssa's Wolves (Wolf Masters, Book 4) Page 6

“Hey.” He stopped a few feet away and watched as she climbed warily from the front seat. Michael stuffed his hands in his pockets and shuffled like a teenager in the gravel.

  “Hi yourself,” she murmured as she shut the door. Her jeans hugged her to perfection, and he kept his gaze low, wondering how long it might take to peel them off her … if he had the opportunity.

  “Can we go somewhere and talk?” He lifted his gaze to hers, her sky-blue eyes penetrating his soul.

  “I was going to suggest the same thing.” She smiled, and her perfect white teeth sparkled at him. Her lips were so pink, even though he knew she didn’t wear lipstick. She barely wore any makeup at all. And she didn’t need it. Her skin was so smooth and perfect and unblemished it would be a shame to cover it with some girly powders and rouge.

  The wind kicked up, and Alyssa hugged her coat tighter.

  “Let’s go inside. It’s too cold out here.” Michael reached for her hand, and she placed hers in his palm. Sparks flew from one of them to the other and back, but Michael kept himself in check and pretended he didn’t notice.

  He tugged her closer and headed for the back door. With any luck his parents would make themselves scarce for a while.

  Thankfully, he was correct. Not a soul was in sight. He knew they were in the house, but they must have gone to their bedroom to give Michael and Alyssa privacy.

  “Can we go to your room or something?” Alyssa looked around, a grimace on her face. “I feel like we’re putting everyone out lately.”

  “Of course.” Did she not realize how dangerous that idea was?

  He’d be lucky if he could avoid plastering her to the inside of the door the moment they entered and taking her against the wall.

  Deep breaths. Control yourself.

  As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Alyssa headed over to the window and stared out across the rolling hills of land. “It’s so beautiful here. Can you see it? Or is it so normal to you that you can’t appreciate the view?”

  “No, I see it.” Michael didn’t take his eyes off his mate’s ass. He wasn’t lying. The view was perfection.

  She whipped around all of a sudden and glared at him. “Were you looking out the window at all?”

  “Nope.” No sense lying. He grinned and tipped his head to one side. “Sorry.”

  “I love your family—”

  “They are as much your family now as mine. Don’t you know that?”

  She smiled and came over to sit on the side of his bed. With her feet dangling, she kicked off her shoes, and then she scooted back, tucking her legs beneath her Indian style before she glanced back up. “I’m sorry. Do you mind?” She gestured to his bed with both arms.

  Baby, you can sit on, in, next to, over, under, beside, or across my bed any damn time you want. “Of course not.”

  Michael pulled out a chair from under his desk with trembling fingers and prayed she didn’t notice how nervous he was as he sat.

  Alyssa cleared her throat, intent on continuing. “What I mean is … your family has been the best thing to ever happen to me. And I admit I’m worried about messing that up. The last thing I want to do is muddy the waters where your parents are concerned. I adore them … love them.”

  “How would that ever change?”

  “If something went wrong between us I suppose.”

  “Babe, nothing is going to go wrong. It doesn’t work like that. It’s like fate. We are destined for each other. It’s not like we’re teenage humans, and the novelty is going to wear off and leave one of us needing to move out. We’re wolves. We mate for life.”

  “What if…” She bit that damn bottom lip again and glanced at the ceiling. Her voice was nearly a whisper when she continued, sticking her hands under her butt to hold them still. “What if you don’t … I mean what if you aren’t pleased with… Oh, shit.” He’d never heard her cuss. And she hadn’t either apparently because she quickly covered her mouth with one hand, her eyes wide.

  Michael couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped his lips. “It’s okay, Alyssa. You are allowed to cuss. I do it all the time.”

  She relaxed infinitesimally but let her gaze wander around the room as though searching for a secret exit or hoping she could push the eject button and be flung from the house.

  If he had a clue what she was trying to say, he’d gladly put her out of her misery, but he was drawing a blank.

  To urge her to continue, he prodded, “What won’t I be pleased with?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he had a suspicion.

  “I don’t have any … um … experience … with men, I mean. I might not measure up to what you’re used to and then—”

  She froze when a sharp laugh escaped his lips. Her face fell. Michael jumped up, the chair flipping over behind him as he dashed to the side of the bed and climbed up to face her. “Hang on…” Damn boots… Michael pulled them both off and then faced his contrite mate head on. He had to work to get his legs to bend the way she had, but finally he sat in front of her in the same tangled fashion she’d contorted into.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh. I wasn’t doing it at your expense. You just shocked me is all.”

  Alyssa’s face turned bright red, and her gaze dipped to his lap before embarrassment caused her to jerk her eyes to one side instead.

  His cock leaped at her naiveté and inexperience. The fellow wanted her worse than anything in the world.

  “First of all,” he began, “you could never ever do anything in my bed that wouldn’t ‘measure up’ as you put it. There is no measuring to be done. I would never, for a moment, compare you to any other woman I’ve ever met. In fact, in your presence, I can’t even remember any other person in the world anyway. You wipe my mind blank just by being in the room. Besides, I haven’t been with anyone since the day I met you. It seemed … like I would have been cheating on you after that day.

  “Second of all, it makes me shake with pride and tenderness that you have no experience with any other men. I adore that. Not that it would matter if you did, but the idea that I’ll be the only man you ever have inside you makes my cock swell with need.”

  Alyssa flinched at the crude word.

  “Sorry, you’ll have to excuse me and humor me with my language. I’m pretty blunt in the bedroom. I’ll try to tone down my language for a while until you get used to it.

  “And lastly,” Michael reached to run his fingers through a long strand of golden hair, “there is no ‘and then’ as you put it. I wouldn’t and couldn’t walk away from this. It’s permanent. There’s no going back. You’re mine. I want you so bad I can taste it.” He leaned closer, knowing he was pressuring her but unable to stop himself. He wanted to taste her again right now. Press her into the mattress and feel her curves beneath him as he kissed her.

  Alyssa had other ideas. She leaned back. “Okay, but, there is still that little problem of me having another mate. I know what I felt. As much as everyone keeps glancing at me sorrowfully, the poor girl who mistakenly believes she scented her mate, you are all wrong. What happens when this other wolf comes forward? Hell, what happens if he doesn’t? Do we just tiptoe around on eggshells our whole life?”

  Michael sat back and gave her the space she needed.

  He took a deep breath. “We’ll deal with it when and if it happens.”

  “No.” She spoke sharply and abruptly. “That’s the problem. We have to deal with it now. You made yourself perfectly clear that you weren’t willing to share me. How is that fair to him?” She shivered. Her body shook so violently the entire bed moved.

  She had a point, damn it. He’d not considered that perspective. Suddenly he realized how wise his father was to insist Michael talk things over with Alyssa.

  “You’re right. I’ve made you worry about that eventuality, and I take the blame for that. Being with two people has never been a dream of mine, not even two women. I’ve not even experimented in that area, as I know some of my brothers did in their youth. However, it would be
unrealistic for me to insist you are mine and mine alone considering the track record of my family. It must be one of those strange things that hit the men of my generation or something.

  “Secretly, I must’ve been hoping it would pass me over, but if you truly believe there’s another mate out there for you, then you’re probably right.”

  “Oh.” He’d shocked her. Her mouth hung open.

  “Have you been thinking about this being a ménage, babe?”

  “No. No.” She shook her head, her cheeks reddening again. “God. I can’t even ponder the idea of having one mate, let alone two. It’s completely out of my comfort zone.”

  “One? Or two?” he teased, grinning at her.

  “Both.” She swatted him playfully, and he grabbed her hand on reflex.

  Michael tugged her fingers up to his mouth and kissed each one, barely a brush of his lips on her knuckles. Alyssa stiffened and sucked in a breath. When he reached her pointer, he sucked the digit into his mouth and released it with a pop. The affect was just as he’d suspected. Alyssa’s arousal shot sky high. He could smell her sweet cream even through her jeans.

  When she tried to pull her hand back, he didn’t release it. Instead, he set her palm on his thigh and held it there.

  “If I promise to consider this eventuality and alter my way of thinking, will you do something for me?”

  “Probably…” she teased.

  “Let me kiss you. Right now. Long and slow and deep. Not coming up for air anytime soon,” he pleaded. Nearly begged.

  Alyssa smiled, a coy twist of her lips that made him even harder. “All you had to do was ask and—”

  Michael didn’t let her finish. The affirmation rang in the air, and he took advantage before she changed her mind.

  Letting his legs unfold from the uncomfortable position he feared being stuck in for life, Michael rose up on his knees and leaned forward to devour his mate’s sweet mouth and lips. He pressed forward until Alyssa fell flat on her back, her head landing on his pillow, and her legs popping out of their pretzel.

  Angling his head, Michael took possession of his mate’s mouth. It wasn’t the soft, gentle, sweet kiss of two days ago that had mirrored the one from two years ago. No. This kiss was demanding and insistent. He needed to taste her, and he swept inside her with his tongue to reach every corner of her mouth and lips. He even sucked her tongue into his own mouth, swallowing the moan that escaped her as he did.

  God, the woman was going to be the death of him. She had no idea what her tiny little noises and wiggling did to him. His body landed half over her. He let one knee fall between her thighs and pushed back and forth in a subtle request for her to open her legs for him. At least he hoped it was subtle. He didn’t want to scare her, but he needed her so bad it hurt.

  His cock pulsed against her thigh as her legs fell open.

  She grasped his biceps and held on as though afraid she might fall through the center of the earth if she let go.

  When he finally let her breathe, it wasn’t to pull back. Michael nibbled a path across her cheek until he reached her ear. He grazed the lobe with his tongue and let his exhale go straight into the canal.

  Alyssa shook beneath him, the faintest of sounds slipping out of her mouth.

  Backtracking the same path, he kissed his way across her face to torture the other ear in the same fashion. His sexy mate tipped her head and arched her neck to give him better access. She most likely didn’t realize her actions, and he wasn’t about to tell her. He just took advantage and continued across her neck until he reached her shoulder.

  Michael had a death grip on the comforter beside her head, hoping if he held the blanket tight enough he could keep a check on himself and not reach forward to grasp her breast.

  Desperate for more, the new moan in the room was Michael’s.

  The sound must have brought Alyssa halfway back to the real world. “God, Michael.” Her words were barely a mumble. Her fingers dug into his arm, her nails nearly breaking the skin. Too bad he’d not worn long sleeves today. The T-shirt he had on did nothing to protect him from the crescent moon shapes she was branding into his skin.

  The woman had no idea, and Michael would gladly let her brand his entire body with her nails if it meant having her hands on him.

  “What the hell is happening to me?” Alyssa’s words spilled out on a long exhale.

  “We’re mates, baby. This is our bodies’ response to that call.”

  “I’m not even in control of my senses.” She pushed him off her with her clinging hand and looked him in the eye.

  “I hope not.” He smiled. “If you were, I’d be concerned.”

  “Is it always like this?”

  “Do you mean is sex always like this? No. Between mates, yes. But it’s my understanding it’s worse in the beginning. After a few weeks it will calm down a bit. The frenzy that is. The need to be inside each other day and night.”

  Alyssa gasped again. He knew he’d said a lot, shocked her, but she needed to know. This is what it was going to be like.

  “I’m torn.” She bit her lip, and Michael had to close his eyes at the onslaught of emotions that flared inside him. Why did women do that?

  “About what?” he muttered, resuming his nibbling back up her neck toward her mouth.

  “I’m not ready to let you claim me. I need more time. But you are making my body boil and squirm with an awareness I’ve never experienced.”

  Michael set his forehead against hers and smiled. “Thank God. I’d be worried if it were any other way.”

  “All my brain cells seem to have fled, and all my blood has headed … south.”

  She was so fucking sweet when she avoided crude words. He couldn’t help but tease her. “Your pussy is hot and wet and needy?”

  Alyssa gasped, but when she lifted her torso subtly against his knee, he knew he’d caused the reaction.

  “Yes.” The word hissed out of her mouth and surprised him. How bold his little mate was getting.

  “Want me to fix that for you?”

  “What? How? Now?” She stiffened, her eyes wide. “I’m not ready.” She shook her head back and forth.

  “I’m not suggesting anything other than you letting me relieve the pressure you’re experiencing … here.” He cautiously set his palm against her sex and pressed into her clit.

  Alyssa’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she moaned louder than she had before. A truly distinct sound of abandon.

  “I promise to keep my pants on. Just let me make you feel good, babe.” Michael rubbed his palm in tiny circles against her jeans until she couldn’t keep from lifting into his pressure.

  She was so fucking sexy, even fully clothed, and in that moment, he knew he’d never get enough of her as long as he lived. Fuck the theory that in a few weeks the frenzy would lesson. There was no way he would ever look at his mate from across a room and not want to tear her clothes off and fuck her against the wall.

  When he took her mouth again in a long drawn-out kiss, Alyssa melted beneath him. Her fingers relaxed their grip on his arm, and she even let them wander to his chest. On a gasp against his mouth, she surprised him. “Take your shirt off.” Her gaze locked on his.

  Certainly.

  In two seconds he’d whipped the tight cotton over his head, straddled her legs with his own, and hovered over her trapped body, letting her gaze wander over his chest.

  With the barest hint of contact, Alyssa reached with both hands and explored his pecs, his abs, and then his nipples. “Do you like that?” The tips grew hard under her touch, and he flinched.

  “Love it, baby. You don’t have to ask. Everywhere you touch me makes me hot. Horny.”

  “This isn’t fair to you. I’m teasing you.” She didn’t look in his eye but stopped the dance of her fingertips near his waist.

  “Fuck fair, Alyssa. I would give up sex for life if it meant you kept touching me like that and looking at me with that sense of awe in your gaze. Do whatever makes
you comfortable. I have nothing but time. Explore away.” Michael had no idea where all these chivalrous words were coming from or how he intended to live up to them, but deep down he knew he loved this woman, had loved her for two years, and he would do anything in his power to make her happy. Including keeping his dick in his pants.

  She stopped short of his jeans and cruised back up his chest with flat palms, squeezing and molding her hands to his body.

  “You’re like one of those marble statues and just as hard.” Alyssa had no idea what she was doing to him with her words.

  He had to grit his teeth to keep from coming in his pants.

  “Kiss me again?”

  God, she was precious. A mixture of innocence and curiosity with a dash of boldness.

  Michael leaned forward to take her mouth again and let his body fall to her side once more. This time, his leg landed over her entire torso, and his hand rested on her stomach, splayed with his fingers just beneath her breasts and reaching to the edge of her jeans.

  He could feel her heave for air as he kissed her, demanding entrance again with his tongue and pressing his palm against her belly.

  He wanted nothing more at that moment than to see her come undone. And he didn’t care that it would not be reciprocated. He could take care of that later in the shower. For now, he wanted her to just feel, not worry about him or sex or mating or claiming, just feel.

  Murmuring against her lips, he told her what he intended to do. “I want to see you come, Alyssa. I want to make you orgasm against my hand. Will you let me? Will you let yourself relax and trust me? I won’t even unbutton my jeans. I’ll make you feel so good you’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven.”

  “Yes.” The word was breathy, and he wasn’t sure she knew what she was agreeing to. The last thing he wanted was regret later on her part.

  “Tell me. Tell me what you want.”

  Alyssa’s eyes sprang open, and she gazed into his own, her deep-blue depths pleading with him.

  “Tell me,” he repeated. “So I’ll know I didn’t cross the line.”

  “Make me come, Michael. Whatever that feeling is, I want to experience it right here right now … with you. I ache.”