Ariel (12 page)

“Brandi—stop. I want you to come back to my bed, look me in the eye, and share your damn feelings with me.”

Brandi barked out a laugh and shook her head. “That’s not what you want. You just want me to make myself into an emotional doormat so you can pat yourself on the back for the good deed you’re doing taking care of me. Well, tough shit, buster. I’m not an emotional doormat. I’m exactly what you see.”

She started out the door, but changed her mind and turned back.

“And don’t bullshit me about your
feelings
. There was a reason you picked the hard-ass soldier over the fluffy girlie-girl and the too passionate scientist. I see your emotional reticence in bed exactly for what it is, but guess what? I don’t mind, Gareth. I actually like the emotional wall you put up between us. It makes all of this way easier than it would have been with some smart-ass kid like Junior Calder. I might have been tempted to kill him in his sleep for his stupid lines and that’s no idle threat from me.”

“You can’t actually believe I’m that cold. I have feelings. Why do you think I don’t have feelings?” Gareth asked, truly offended.

Brandi glanced back over her shoulder and snorted as she took the first step out the door. “Maybe you do have feelings hidden somewhere deep inside, but your dick doesn’t run on them. Judging from your silent proficiency at sex, you’ve probably had more emotionless fucks over the years than I have. But like I said before—I don’t mind the emotional distance. You get the job done plenty well enough for me, and it was way better this time without using the condom. I’d forgotten how good unprotected sex was.”

“You still didn’t let me kiss you on the mouth.”

“Please…dude. I hardly know you. And what I do know, I barely like. However, I do respect you. I’d also probably kill for you which means you’ve earned my highest form of loyalty. If you’re worried about your rep as a stud in your pack, I’ll say nothing to anyone except how it was great of you to help me out with the burning thing.”

“You don’t like me?
Why the hell don’t you like me?
” Gareth demanded, his voice rising at her words.

He found it impossible not to be surprised by the news. Yes, he realized Brandi wasn’t the typical female early on. That didn’t mean he had to accept Brandi’s coldness, her lack of need to cuddle, and her jumping from his bed the moment the deed was done enough to make her sexually satisfied. Well, what about him? He never got enough. He never took or asked for what he most needed from their exchanges.

Oh sure, he got off just fine, but regular sufficient fucking was never the same as…well
really
getting there with a partner. It had been a long damn time, but he knew what he had been doing with the young werewolf was only a fraction of what was possible. Brandi gave him her body, but never once gave him anything of herself in the process. Being with her was as emotionally unsatisfying as using his own damn hand to relieve himself.

“I am not putting up an emotional wall. If you want to know what I want most right now, I want you to sleep with me—without having sex,” Gareth said firmly.

Brandi sighed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Don’t do this emotional crap. Whatever voice in your head is telling you shit about how it’s supposed to be, tell it to shut the fuck up.
This
is how it is. You and me—getting it done—and going our separate ways afterward. This is how we started. This is how we’ll finish. Any time you want to get out of this obligation, just call Junior. But he’s always wearing a condom. I’d hate to think of all the oozing ya-yas that braggart has been in.”

“No. I will not be calling anyone to take my place with you,” Gareth said.

“Good. I don’t really want you to. You’re an okay guy and I really am grateful. Maybe one day I can return the favor and do something so selfless for you.”

“You can return the favor today. Come back here and sleep with me,” he demanded, his tone growing sharper.

“No can do, Gareth. But I’m glad we cleared the air and had this talk. It’s better to stay honest with each other. I’ll see you in the morning. Night,” Brandi said quickly, fleeing the room before the ego-bruised beta came after her.

Gareth’s surprising neediness was one more unwanted complication. She was full up on all she could handle.

***

“Heidi, come back up here. There was no need to return the oral favor. Now I’m up again and you need to crash. My dick’s going to be dragging the dirt tomorrow as it is.”

Giggling, she climbed back up Ryan’s body and into his lap. He was leaning against the headboard in the perfect position. Putting one arm on each side of his head, she pressed her lips to his until he groaned. Then diving into his mouth, she reached a hand between them to help impale herself.

His hands came out to help and drove her hips down hard on his erection. Stars burst behind her eyes as he filled her completely. His corresponding kiss was full of desire—real, honest,
give-it-to-me-now
desire. Since her conversion to a werewolf, she could never do it well enough, or often enough, to slake the burning within her—until tonight.

The absence of a condom had made a world of difference. Relief made her as giddy as desire to do it again made her wet. She rocked happily on Ryan’s hardness inside her while he groaned in her ear. Guilt had her slowing.

“I’m sorry for making you do this again. I couldn’t help myself. Just this one last time and then I swear I’ll leave you alone.”

Ryan chuckled at her apology just before he felt her tighten around him. “I don’t want you to leave me alone. I just want us to sleep for a few hours so I can do this with more energy. Climb off for a minute. This position is not going to do it for either of us this time.”

“
Climb off? Seriously?
”

Laughing, Ryan lifted her body off his protesting one and to the side of the bed. “Yes. Now get on your knees. We’re finishing this werewolf style.”

“No thank you. I prefer to see who’s doing it to me. I don’t like it that way,” Heidi said, biting her lip.

“You will with me—I promise,” Ryan swore. He ducked quickly behind her and lifted her hands to the edge of the headboard. “Grip the headboard hard, honey. Now spread your knees and let me in. Hmm…that’s perfect.”

Heidi closed her eyes and sniffed. It was Ryan. Her body settled into ease. When he slipped inside her body from behind, her needy channel moaned in welcome like always. As he slowly thrust, his hand came around to the front and ran through her curls over and over, barely brushing against anything interesting. As his thrusts got a little more aggressive, her heart hammered, but she tilted her pelvis until Ryan was hitting against the perfect spot. Little stars danced behind her eyelids. The man was beyond talented…and willing…so willing.

“Harder—
please
,” she begged in a whisper.

“I think you mean deeper, baby,” Ryan whispered back, shifting his upper body over the back of her until each thrust embedded him inside her as far as he could go. Her gasp of pleasure made him dizzy. He wanted to send her over the edge. He wanted to make the damn trip with her. He wanted to do it a hundred times more—maybe forever.

“Okay, let’s try harder too,” he said hoarsely.

He folded one of his hands over one of hers. Then, with accuracy he reached around the front of her and between her legs, cupping everything in his palm. He could feel himself thrusting against his own hand, which always met some base need in him, but it was the scream of climax wrenched from her that thrilled him most.

“Ryan—oh God—aaaahhhhh…”

Closing his eyes at the pleasure of the female in his arms, he buried his face in her neck in deep satisfaction. Marking her was so tempting. Her fragrant skin now smelled like him. He’d filled her so many times with his essence, he knew other males were envious of his enthusiastic lover. But the ancient Black Wolf Alpha would kill him if Matt didn’t do so first.

“Beg me again,” Ryan ordered, pretending she already belonged to him.

“Please don’t stop. I want everything. I want to feel you.”

At her entreaty, Ryan pushed hard and deep and stayed there a moment, until he felt her legs tremble in reaction. “Oh, baby. Just give it all up to me. This time is going to be the best ever. I promise you. When two people want each other so much, the lovemaking can’t help but be outstanding.”

He got a head nod in response as her body finally shattered in complete release. His growl of pride over her obedience to his words was a tipping point inside him. Heidi called out as her hands slid bonelessly down the headboard losing their grip.

“Ssshhh…I have you. Just let me have you…” he whispered.

He had to grab Heidi with both arms wrapped around her to hold her in place. Her surrender was so total, he sniffled into her hair. He thrust slowly and smoothly a few times more to find his own release as she hung limp in his arms.

Then he carefully turned them both until they fell sideways onto one of the bed pillows. He kept them connected, even after Heidi began snoring.

“Finally,” Ryan declared, snickering as he chased her into sleep. He couldn’t bring himself to disconnect from her after what they’d shared, so he didn’t. Sleeping inside her wasn’t quite as good as marking her as his, but it was the closest he could come without risking everyone’s wrath, including Heidi’s.

***

Gareth couldn’t figure out why it even bothered him, but it had taken him hours to stop being mad over the things Brandi had said. He had just finally dozed off when her scream woke him. He was on his feet and running before he was totally awake.

Entering the room where she slept, he found Brandi backed against the headboard and curled into a defensive ball. Seeing the sharp-tongued, brave female reduced to that condition made him want to kill things and people and whatever was hurting her. Her eyes were glassy, seeing only what haunted her mind.

Gareth inched cautiously toward the bed, moving slowly and carefully. When he got to the side of it, he whispered her name gently, only to have Brandi launch herself at him in full attack mode. More years of fighting than he wanted to remember had him snatching her body from the air and body slamming it to the mattress of his guest bed.

Her frightened gaze peered up at him in stunned surprise. “You didn’t have to shoot him six times.”

Gareth felt confusion wrinkle his face. “Shoot who? I didn’t shoot anyone—at least not yet.”

Brandi twisted against the hands which held her. “No. Let me go. I’m not going to watch you hurt him. I have to stop you.”

“Brandi! Wake the hell up! You’re having a dream,” Gareth yelled.

He flinched as another, and a louder, scream came out of her mouth when Brandi left the dream state, but at least her eyes cleared. Then it scared him when she went completely limp in his arms and starting sniffing back tears.

Not stopping to think about what he was doing, Gareth knelt by the bed and gathered her up in his arms as best he could. “It’s okay. It wasn’t real. It was just a bad dream,” he insisted.

Brandi rubbed a hand across her eyes. “No. It was more than a dream. It was some sort of –I don’t know—vision or something. Crazy Crane, the guy who had us all trapped, had help capturing Reed. The guy who shot Reed looked like Reed’s clone. He’s the one who put the silver bullets in him. He’s related to Reed—I just know it. He looked just like him.”

“I see,” Gareth said, but he didn’t really.

Brandi groaned at his attempt to placate her. She hated the pity in Gareth’s voice. “Forget it. I’m a nutcase. I’m sorry I woke you when I called out. Go back to bed.”

“No. I’m not sorry you woke me. It gave me the excuse I’d been lying awake in my room trying to think of for hours. Now move over. No—skip the request. I’m not taking no for an answer this time.
Move the hell over because we are sleeping together
.”

He stood, reached down, and scooped Brandi up until there was room for him in the small guest bed with her. He’d have preferred to go back to the bigger one in his room, but instinct warned him she was a lot less likely to go along with such a plan.

Once he was in bed with her, he turned and laid Brandi down on a pillow. Then he scooped the covers from under her and flipped them deftly over her body to try to offset any physical shock. Lying down next to her, he looked into her troubled gaze as he tucked the covers around her.

“Whatever the fuck you’re going through, we’ll deal with it in the morning—together. After breakfast,” he ordered.

“Okay.”

Nodding her head, Brandi looked away from him. He didn’t like it. Gareth reached out and rested a hand on her waist. “No more bad dreams tonight. I forbid it. Now let’s both get some sleep.”

“Okay. I am truly sorry I woke you,” Brandi said again.

Feeling furious over her quiet obedience instead of elated like he should be, Gareth’s hot mouth on hers swallowed the rest of her lame apology. He gave her no choice but to respond. Even after he broke the kiss, he pulled her against him. He was reeling from the sensual impact.