Hidden Crimes (34 page)

She smiled. Admitting this couldn’t have been
easy for a play-the-field guy like him. He smiled back. Possibly,
she looked a little smug. She distracted him by rubbing the gland
again.

As she did, an idea occurred to her: one her
imagination found so compelling her inner muscles squirmed
together. “I guess when this gland is swollen, being sucked feels
especially good.”

Nate inhaled. “It isn’t the easiest spot to
reach, since it’s on the base.”

“Is that a dare?” she teased.

He actually flushed when she ran her pointed
tongue around her lips. Laughing, she shifted her hands to his
hips.

“Stay where you are,” she warned as she
dropped down in front of him.

Beneath her knees, the long grass was cool
and damp. Knowing he liked her assertiveness, she gripped the
waists of his jock and trousers, and yanked them past his hips.
Because his legs were straddled, neither garment fell. She had,
however, succeeded in exposing his cock and balls.

She thought he looked nice in the moonlight
too.

The ridges of his torso muscles were very
clear, his erection monolithic from this angle. She saw the redder
patch at the base of his cock. It was the size of a fifty-cent
piece, two strong veins feeding it. With a hum of anticipation, she
dragged the flat of her tongue up it.

Nate swallowed a moan and dug his hands in
her hair.

This was fun, for sure. She pulled the head
toward her mouth and slid her lips over it. That drew more
heartfelt groans from him; especially when she stretched her tongue
down to work his special spot. The sweetness of his pre-ejaculate
washed over her taste buds.

“Evina,” he said, hips rocking to her as her
head rocked down him. “God. Don’t make me go just yet. I want to be
inside you.”

She gentled her motions, but it was
impossible to stop when he reacted this enchantingly. The power was
so heady it sang in her blood like wine. No alpha could have
refused it. She ran her hands up and down his trouser legs, knowing
the instant his knees started to wobble.

She pulled back with a last lick up him.
“Enough?”

He took her hands, helping her to her feet.
The second she was on them, he bent his knees to align their
heights. His body slapped hers back into the tree, his mouth
claiming hers for a blistering kiss. That went on long enough to
make her head spin.

“Whoo,” she sighed when he let her go. She
felt like she’d been plundered. Her heart pounded in her chest like
a tribal drum. She was glad to hear his thumping at the same
rate.

He dropped his sweaty forehead onto hers.
“Can I let go for this?” he asked. “Will I scare you if I do
that?”

Scared was the last thing she was
feeling.

“Please,” she said. “Don’t hold back.”

His hands glided to her bottom, fingers
tightening around her ass cheeks. He hiked her into place, waiting
for her to lock her legs and ankles into a helpful position. He let
go with one hand, moving it between them. Evidently, he wanted to
do the honors when it came to entering her. He adjusted his cock
against her, setting the silken head where she was wettest. The way
his penis trembled might have been the sexiest sensation she’d ever
felt.

Before they left her, his thumbs and fingers
caressed her labia, seeming to savor their soft cling on him.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Oh yeah,” she promised him.

He reached above her, taking hold of a
jutting branch. Evina slid her hands up his back to wrap around his
shoulders.

His eyes caught fire as he pushed into
her.

The thrust might have started slow but it
ended emphatically. He let out a little grunt as he finished
sinking. Loving that, Evina rubbed her face across his neck.

“That isn’t all you’ve got,” she
whispered.

He drew his thickness back to her brink, the
noise that accompanied this a barely audible whine. His gaze
searched hers.
Yes
, she thought.
Give me
everything
.

Perhaps he read the mental message. He let
himself off his leash.

If a person could fuck like a dervish and
make love at the same time, that’s what Nate did to her. Evina met
his fervor with her own, digging her heels into his butt and
driving her sheath down him. Now that she knew it was there, she
wondered how she’d missed the swell of his gland. It seemed to get
bigger with every stroke, its entrance slicked by the excitement it
pulled from her. The spot was hot in more ways than one. Nate cried
out as she tightened deliberately on it.

“Shh,” she warned, recalling they weren’t in
the actual wilderness. Nate couldn’t seem to comply.

“Fuck,” he groaned, jamming hard into her.
“Jesus, Evina!”

The branch he was using to improve his
leverage began to crack. “Fuck,” he repeated, gripping it closer to
the trunk.

Evina licked the sweat running down his
corded neck, then nipped his lower lip. A tiny nick of blood hit
her tongue.

Most shifters had a thing about blood and
sex, the combination a cross between a fetish and an aphrodisiac.
Werewolves weren’t immune, apparently. She licked the drop from his
lip, and his cock surged an inch longer. He’d reached the last
millimeter of his control.

His cock jerked and went stonelike.

“Damn it,” he cursed, abruptly yanking it out
of her.

She didn’t think he was angry; he wasn’t
panting the right way for that.

“Let go,” he demanded, because her legs were
still hooked on him. His voice was harsh. “Turn around and face the
tree.”

Understanding what he had in mind drove a
spike of arousal through her pussy. She dropped her legs and
turned, dug her cat nails into the bark, and arched her rear up for
him. She loved when they were face to face but didn’t hesitate to
offer herself this way. She craved it too. Whether she was thinking
like a woman or a tigress, he’d earned the right to ask. They’d
been a team today, and he’d led them to victory. Now he would claim
his prize. He growled, the sound pure admiration for the picture
she was making.

Then he kicked her ankles another foot
wider.

That made her cry out, the sound unmistakable
for anything other than arousal. He surged up to her, his taller
body hard behind hers. God, he was hot. Panting, urgent, he fit his
cock against her and drove inward. Caught in her own heat wave, she
moaned at all that steely maleness entering her from a new angle.
Nate didn’t have the patience to let her adjust to it. He started
going at her the instant he was in. He felt so thick, so strong,
his pumping motions even more frantic than before.

“Good?” he gasped, the word shaken by his
thrusts.

“More,” she pleaded, arching her hips to
him.

She knew this was what he wanted, to be urged
to take her without restraint. He slapped his hands on top of hers,
wolf nails sinking into the bark with a solid thunk. That increased
his leverage too.

“Unh,” he said with a massive thrust that
lifted her to her toes. “Evina . . . Evina . . .”

She came: tight, sharp, the sweetness running
up her nerves in bursts. Her climax truly seemed to drive him
crazy. Pistoning like this was a race he had to win or die, his
clenched thighs wedged hers wider. He mouthed the back of her neck,
canines taking hold of the delicate skin.

She knew he wanted to bite her like his beast
would, wanted to hold her captive when his seed erupted.

“Yes,” she cried, starting to crest
again.

“It’s coming,” he said. “
God
. .
.”

His cock and his gland pulsed inside her at
the same time.

This was constriction. This was a pressure
that drove her to the primal edge of being too taken. The first
jets of his seed flooded into her, his hips jamming all the way in
again. His ejaculation cast a spell on her responses. Suddenly,
too taken
was exactly right. Her pussy convulsed around him,
tightening the fit even more. Snarling with pleasure, Nate yanked
one clawed hand free of the tree and clapped it over her labia. The
heel of his palm ground her clit back over her pubic bone, an
increase in stimulation she wouldn’t have guessed she needed.
Need
didn’t matter much to Nate. He was all about making it
better.

Thinking that was a good example to follow,
Evina wrenched her hand free to wrap it over his. She made sure the
joint pressure of their palms rubbed his now grossly swollen
gland.

The orgasm detonated for both of them.

His teeth bit down, his tongue coming out to
suck the mark. As it did, their auras merged like wildfires. His
thrusts were only deep then, lightning-quick inch-long jerks that
kept his prick way up in her core. His jaw was clamped on her neck,
his groans of bliss singing down her vertebrae. He came until he
couldn’t come anymore, then continued to milk out her pleasure.

She was a little sorry when his canines
released her. Her healing powers were back online. The sting faded
in seconds.

“Evina,” he gasped, the first intelligible
speech he’d gotten out for a few minutes. “God, I love you.”

A pang she hadn’t known she was holding onto
dissolved when he said the words.

Her knees were understandably shaky. Needing
help staying upright, she rested her cheek against the tree trunk.
Judging by the bark’s texture, it was a birch.

Nice birch
, she thought, laughing
silently to herself. Nate had turned her into a literal tree
hugger.

Nate wasn’t much steadier. He was hugging
her, his face ducked against her shoulder. They’d straightened some
at the end, but his cock was still snug inside her, his quickened
pulse vibrating strongly there. Evina twisted her neck to rub their
cheeks together.

His slightly bristled skin was wet. His arms
tightened on her waist. His breathing broke with a peculiar
hitch.

“Nate!” She squirmed around before he could
stop her. She touched his cheek, amazed by what she found. “What is
it? Why are you crying?”

His face twisted sheepishly. “Sorry.” He
tried to drag the tracks away on his shoulder, but more fat drops
appeared. “I guess every man fears the wolf inside him, that it
will hurt the woman he cares about. I’m probably more wolf than
most.”

She dried his cheeks for him, knowing better
than to make jokes. “You weren’t too rough, Nate. You did exactly
what I wanted.”

“That’s why it was so amazing. After what
Iseult made me do, you trusted me completely.” He shook his head.
“That isn’t all of it. I’ve been a seducer my whole adult life. I
want to be worthy of how you feel about me. I don’t want to hurt
you in any way ever.”

She ran her fingertips around the hollows
beneath his eyes, searching for the right words to say. “I know you
must have broken a heart or two. You’re the kind of man a woman
doesn’t easily forget. All the same, I’m willing to bet that isn’t
how you get your jollies, and that you’d never deliberately break
mine. That’s all the worthiness I need, Nate. Everything else I
know about you, I respect.”

“I’ve never been in love before,” he
confessed.

She couldn’t help it: her face split into a
grin.

“Oh God,” he sighed melodramatically. “You’re
going to hold that over me, aren’t you?”

“Only secretly,” she teased. “On the outside,
I’ll be perfectly mature.”

“And on the inside?”

“Inside, I’ll be crowing that I’m the Holy
Foods Romeo’s one true love.”

He laughed and the moment magically turned
flawless, a perfect diamond buffed by their shared humor. Evina
didn’t mind that the clothes he’d peeled off her were now so
disreputable the Goodwill would have rejected them. They’d get her
home without being arrested. Right then, that was all she
needed.

Well, that and the honest-to-God ironed
handkerchief Nate gave her to clean up with.

~

Evina’s cubs let out enough of a caterwaul
while running to her that there could have been ten of them.

“Mommy!” they squealed, flinging their arms
around her. “You’re home!

Nate watched her hug them back. She dropped
to her knees on the kitchen floor, kissing them until they squirmed
and giggled.

Abby was the first to push back. “Mommy,
Nate’s friend Tony invited us to a party!”

“Did he?” Evina asked, stroking her
daughter’s curly mop of hair.

“Yes, Mommy. Tomorrow night. He invited all
the tigers you work with, plus Grandmom and Mr. Black.”

Rita and the news producer had been playing a
board game with the twins at the kitchen table—Portals and Ladders,
Nate believed. Though Derrick Black wore a business suit, he looked
surprisingly at ease. He seemed amused but not displeased to find
himself where he was. His tie was tugged down and everything.

“Your friend called here,” Rita said over the
rim of her coffee mug. “Asked specifically to talk to the
kids.”

She seemed to consider this significant.

“You’re supposed to stay home from work
tomorrow,” Rafi informed Nate. “He said you need a play day.”

“He bought us tickets to the planetarium,”
Abby added. “He attached them to Rafi in an email.”

“That was . . . nice of him,” Evina said,
shooting Nate a less sure look.

Nate didn’t know what Tony was up to,
precisely. He could guess, but the lowest ranking member of their
pack had a talent for hiding his sneakiness under more of the same.
Despite that, he didn’t see the harm in this.

Only a monster could disappoint those two
bright faces.

“I’d be happy to share a play day with you,”
he told the twins. “As long as it’s okay with your mom.”

“Yay!” both cubs yelled, which Nate found
incredibly flattering.

His cheeks grew a little hot as he noticed
Rita watching his reaction. Her tone when she spoke was dry. “Your
pack member also mentioned the party would be at your loft.”