Craved by an Alpha (12 page)

Tomorrow was for regrets.

Today was for living.

His tongue stroked the seam of her lips and she opened for him, earning a low husky growl as her reward for complying with his demands. She angled her head and tangled her tongue with his, the taste of him taking her back to that night a decade ago, when she had given herself to him and he had given himself to her. She moaned and clutched his shoulders, pressing her nails in as she clung to him, riding the storm that swirled in her veins and blasted through her, passion that burned hotter than it had back then.

It consumed her and she could only surrender herself to it, to the intoxicating press of his fingers against her bare hips and the fierce demand of his lips on hers. He groaned and slid one hand around to the small of her back, pinning her against him. It wasn’t enough for her. She broke free, ignored his growl as it echoed around the small low-lit cave, and cut it off when she tugged his top back off over her head and tossed it away from her. Her bra followed it and he moaned, his gaze dropping to hungrily devour what she offered.

“Eloise,” he murmured and grabbed her arm, dragging her back to him. His mouth claimed hers again, a wild edge to his kiss that told her she wasn’t the only one lost in the moment, no longer in control of themselves.

She needed more than his kiss though.

She needed all of him.

Eloise stroked her fingers down his chest and stomach, moaning into his mouth as his muscles tensed, sending a fiery shiver bolting through her and all of the fire in her veins rushing to her belly. She made swift work of his trouser buttons as her lips clashed with his, their tongues duelling. When the last button gave way, his cock sprang free and she groaned again as she rubbed her palm down the length of it, from the crown to his balls.

Cavanaugh shuddered and moaned, his big body quaking against hers. His shaft jerked in her hand and she stroked it again, teasing him with the leisurely and light caress. He seized hold of her hips and guided her backwards, but she stopped him in his tracks by cupping his balls, rolling them in her fingers. His lips froze against hers, his breathing ragged as she stroked him again, circling his length with her fingers and slowly gliding up and down. He was bigger than she remembered, hot and heavy in her hand. She rubbed her thumb over the crown, smearing the pearl of moisture into his soft skin.

He groaned and his fingers tensed against her hips. He liked that.

She smiled and kissed him as she stroked him, teasing him by alternating between light and slow, and hard and fast. He breathed hard against her lips between kisses, the scent of his arousal heavy in the cold air. She moaned at the same time as he did as he began walking with her again, inching her back towards the sleeping bags.

Eloise stopped him this time by turning with him, and seemed to surprise him by backing him towards the warm blankets, because he groaned low and long, a pained look on his face.

She pressed down on his shoulders and he obeyed, sitting on the sleeping bags and staring up at her, his cock jerking against his stomach. She slipped her fingers into the sides of her knickers and slowly eased them down her thighs, her eyes never leaving his.

“Eloise,” he whispered, his breathing coming faster and his pupils gobbling up his silver irises.

He palmed his length, the sight so sensual and wicked that it tore a moan from her. He did it again, his big hand wrapping around it this time, stroking himself as she undressed for him. She rubbed her thighs together and moaned as she realised how slick she was already, hungry for him. His eyes darkened and he drew a deep breath, his gaze turning hooded. He could smell her desire just as she could smell his. There was no denying that she wanted this and so did he.

And there would be no denying her either.

He was going to do things her way or not at all.

She kicked her knickers aside and walked towards him. His throat worked on a hard swallow, his sexy Adam’s apple dipping beneath the fine layer of silver stubble that coated his jaw and neck. She kneeled when she reached the blanket, placing one leg on either side of his and straddling them.

He reached for her.

She denied him and ran her hands up his thighs, to the top of his grey trousers. She tugged them down, not stopping until they were at his knees, and then ran her hands back up his legs, over the toned muscles of his thighs. They quivered beneath her touch.

Eloise shuffled closer to him and settled herself on his thighs. She pressed her hands to his chest, pinning him against the rock wall, and kissed him again. He growled into her mouth, seizing control of the kiss in an instant, his hands questing over her thighs. She expected him to shift them around to her bottom and draw her against him.

He did the opposite.

He slipped his hands between her legs and kept travelling upwards, to their apex, where he swept them over the top of her thighs. She moaned and kissed him harder, aching to have him touch her most private place. She needed his hands on her. She flexed her hips, eliciting a low moan from him, and his thumbs brushed her inner thighs again, stroking the neat curls covering her mound.

“Cavanaugh,” she whispered, willing to give him what he wanted if he would then give her what she needed.

He smiled against her mouth and kissed her as he dipped his hands between her thighs and stroked her wet folds. She moaned at the same time as he did, the feel of his cool fingers against her overheating flesh sending stars shooting through her.

He angled his hand and rubbed her with the pads of two fingers, tearing moan after moan from her lips as she tried to resist rocking her hips. She tensed her muscles and shuddered as she stepped dangerously close to the edge of bliss. It was hard to force herself to relax again but she managed it as she kissed him, using all of her willpower to stop herself from finding release. She wanted him inside her when it happened.

She needed him inside her again.

She seized his hands and pinned them to the wall on either side of his head. He moaned, the sound low and wicked, sending heat curling through her. She had never been assertive in the times they had been together. She had been too caught up in his primal heat to do anything but submit to him.

Now he would submit to her.

Eloise drew back and he stared at her, his grey gaze hooded, his sensual lips rosy from her kiss. He looked more satisfied now than he had ever looked back then, and she hadn’t even brought him to climax yet. She could change that.

She rose onto her knees and pressed harder against his wrists when he tried to move them. His eyes widened and then narrowed, setting her on fire. He approved of this side of her. He wanted to submit to her. Gods, just the thought of Cavanaugh at her mercy had her on the verge of finding release.

He groaned when she brought them into contact, rubbing her slick heat up and down his rigid length, and tipped his head back into the wall, a look of agony crossing his handsome face. She would put him out of his misery, because she couldn’t take the teasing either, not this time.

She rocked her hips upwards, rising higher on her knees at the same time, until the blunt head of his cock pressed into her aroused nub. She angled her body into his, caught the crown of his length and pressed downwards, so it slipped down towards where she needed him.

A moan escaped her when he nudged against her entrance.

Eloise shifted her hands in his, interlinking their fingers but keeping his hands pinned to the wall. She screwed her face up, pressing her forehead against Cavanaugh’s, their panted breaths mingling as she slowly eased down onto his cock, taking him inch by delicious inch into her wet heat. He half-moaned half-growled as the tip of him struck her deepest point and she rotated her hips, making sure he was in as far as he could go.

“Eloise,” he whispered and she gave him what he wanted.

She clutched his hands and kissed him as she rode him, long and fast thrusts that left no part of her untouched by him. He rocked his hips, countering her, thrusting up each time she drove down and pulling away whenever she rose off him again. She moaned into his mouth, lost in the bliss tripping through her as his cock filled her, stretching and completing her. Gods, it had never been like this.

She had never dreamed it could be like this.

He pressed his fingers into the backs of her hands and grunted as he kissed her, thrusting deep into her, sending her soaring out of her mind. She quickened her pace, breathing hard between each frantic clash of their lips and fierce meeting of their bodies. Each brush of his body across her sensitive nub sent waves of tingles spreading through her, upwards to her belly where they swirled together, steadily building towards a crescendo.

She released his hands, gripped his shoulders and groaned as she rode him, desperately seeking release. He grasped her backside and seized control, helping her maintain a ferocious pace as he drove every inch of his cock into her, taking her harder.

“Eloise,” he grunted and she pressed her cheek against his, unable to do anything but moan as she soared higher, spiralling upwards, almost within reach of her climax.

He thrust deeper and faster and she cried out as her body slammed against his and she shattered into a thousand pieces, fire blazing through her bones and shimmering over her thighs and up her belly. She clutched his shoulders and moaned with each hard meeting of their hips as he thrust more frantically, his forehead pressed against her cheek and his breath hot on her neck.

“Gods,” he groaned and then growled. It rolled into a roar as he shoved her down, pinning her onto him as he spilled himself inside her, throbbing and sending aftershocks of pleasure rippling through her.

His grip on her slowly loosened as he breathed hard, out of sync with her own panted gasps for air.

Eloise sagged against him, struggling to bring herself down. Her bones had turned to rubber and her body felt too heavy to move. He wrapped his arms around her and she pressed her cheek to his shoulder, too tired to move from his lap or untangle their bodies. She liked the feel of him inside her as tiny tremors ran through him and he slowly softened, spent from their lovemaking.

The wind howled across the mouth of the cave again.

Eloise still didn’t care.

She could regret everything tomorrow.

Today she was going to live.

She was going to seize this moment with Cavanaugh.

Even when she knew in her heart that he was right.

There was no way for them to get what they wanted.

There would be no forever after for them.

Cavanaugh lay propped up on his right elbow with Eloise tucked against him, watching her as she dozed beneath the blanket with him. His beautiful, and surprising, fated female. He had wanted her to initiate things between them, but he hadn’t anticipated what had followed. His Eloise had grown stronger and more courageous. He wanted to be proud of her because of that, but in his heart he feared that her new courage and strength was the result of all the pain and suffering she had endured.

He softly stroked a rogue strand of her wavy dark hair from her forehead, smoothing it into the rest, and sighed as he looked at her.

He hadn’t wanted to argue with her, but he was glad that some things were out in the open now and they could find a way to move past them. He needed to find the way to tell her everything else he had wanted to say too. His courage had failed him though, and he had only managed to let her know that he wanted her and that was the reason he had left. She had every right to be angry with him for how he had handled everything, but he hoped that she could forgive him.

Could she?

If he told her that she was his mate, what would she say?

Would she be happy? Or would she be sad because his status stood between them and a bond that was both special and precious?

Most snow leopards never found their mates.

Unlike other shifter species, a snow leopard’s fated mate was always another snow leopard. With their numbers dwindling, their long life spans and their prides spread across the world, it was hard to find their fated mate. Most of his kind found love without finding their mate, settling down to produce offspring and ensure the future of their race. Others scoured the Earth for their fated one, driven by a relentless need to find their other half. Even if a snow leopard travelled to all the prides, there was no guarantee their mate was with one. There was a high chance their mate would be born long after their visit.

But Cavanaugh had found his.

She lay in his arms.

And she had stolen his heart long before he had ever realised that she was his fated mate.

“Why are you staring at me?” she murmured sleepily and yawned. “I can feel you staring.”

“I was thinking.” He dropped a kiss on her cheek.

“About what?” She cracked her eyes open and squinted at him, the start of a smile curving her rosy lips.

“How beautiful you are.”

She shoved him in his chest, making him jerk backwards, and scowled. She thought he was joking. Never. In the short period they had been together as more than friends, he had never told her enough times that she was beautiful. He meant to make up for it now. He meant to make up for a lot of things he had done wrong.

“I was.” He let her see the truth in his eyes as he looked at her, thinking about how beautiful she was, with her honey-coloured eyes, her sweet heart-shaped lips, impish button nose and her hair mussed from making love with him, and her bare body tucked close to his.

“Not just about how beautiful I apparently am.” She cast a pointed look down between them and then looked back into his eyes.

Cavanaugh shrugged. “Call it evidence of how your beauty affects me.”

He caught her right hand and brought it down between them, settling it over his aching hard shaft.

When he released her, she took her hand away, and he frowned and pouted. She rolled onto her back, propped herself up on her elbows and looked down the length of their bodies, towards the cave entrance, her eyes narrowing. He could feel her focus sharpening, her senses growing stronger as she honed them on the world outside.