Seducing the Wolf (27 page)

He hung over her for several moments, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his arms shaking on either side of her head. She gazed up at him, languidly running her foot up and down the back of his muscled calf. She felt lusciously boneless and satiated.

He leaned down and kissed her, a soft, tender kiss that was in stark contrast to the fiery explosiveness of their lovemaking.

Lifting his head, he wrapped his arms around her and gathered her close, spooning her with her back against his heated chest and her ass nestled against his heavy shaft. Even without an erection, he was still impressively large.

She closed her eyes as his fingers reverently stroked her hair, brushing damp tendrils off her face. He murmured endearments to her, his voice so dark and decadent it sent delicious chills through her.

“Was I too rough?”

“No.” A smile curved her lips. “I like it rough.”

A low, sexy groan rumbled out of him. “You drive me crazy, Taylor. I lose all self-control with you. I can’t get enough of you.”

That makes two of us
, she mused.

His lips grazed her shoulder. “I know it’s kinda late to be asking, but are you on the pill?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“No?” His voice was laced with surprise and something else. Something like…hope. But that didn’t make any sense, of course.

“I can’t take birth control pills,” she explained. “They make me violently ill. And it’s a pain in the ass trying to remember to swallow a pill every day when I’m on tour.”

“So what do you use for birth control?”

“IUDs. They’re convenient and effective.” She glanced over her shoulder at Manning. “What about you?”

“I always wear condoms,” he assured her. “And I get regular checkups, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

She nodded slowly. “I trust you.”

He held her gaze. “You’re the first and only woman I’ve ever made love to without using protection.”

It shouldn’t have pleased her to know that. But it did.

Turning away, she stared across the room at the waning rays of sunlight streaming through the windows. “I don’t normally…” She trailed off, searching for the right words and coming up with nothing eloquent. “I don’t do this. I don’t cheat.”

“I know,” Manning murmured. “That’s not who you are.”

She sighed. “Yet here I am. Cheating.”

“You belong here, Taylor. You belong here with me.”

She was silent. She knew better than to argue.

His arm banded around her hips, pulling her even closer to him. “I want you to have dinner with me and my family.”

Taylor swallowed a hard knot of emotion. “When?”

“Tomorrow night at my parents’ house. Mom and Dad really want to see you.”

“I want to see them too,” Taylor whispered.

“Then come to dinner tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at six-thirty. All right?”

She nodded slowly. “All right.”

Manning gently kissed her shoulder, his hand sliding over the curve of her hip to stroke her thigh.

She closed her eyes, relishing his touch. “By the way,” she drawled, “since when does Manning Josiah Wolf play golf?”

He chuckled softly. “Since he became a mad scientist who relies heavily on investors to help fund his company’s important research and development. Since he grudgingly came to accept that major business deals are made on the golf course.”

“Ah.” Taylor nodded sagely. “So he learned to play the game—literally and figuratively.”

“He did.” Manning paused. “But he draws the line at joining a country club.”

Taylor laughed. “Of course he does. Belonging to a country club would hurt his street cred, and we can’t have
that
.”

“Damn straight.” Manning nipped her shoulder.

Taylor grinned. “Remember that time you and your family went on a ski trip for Thanksgiving? When I asked you if you knew how to ski, your reply was, ‘No. I’m from Atlanta.’ As if being from Atlanta disqualified you from knowing how to ski.”

“Being from the hood disqualified me,” Manning said, chuckling. “I should have clarified that.”

“I knew what you meant.” Taylor gave him an amused look over her shoulder. “Anyway, I seem to recall you handling yourself pretty well on the slopes when we went skiing together the next year.
I’m
the one who kept falling on my butt.”

“You were so adorable,” Manning reminisced, his eyes soft and warmly affectionate. “The way you squealed and flapped your arms as you were falling down. The way you sat there in the snow and just laughed until I couldn’t stop laughing with you.” He grinned. “Of course, the only reason
I
was able to stay off my ass is that I took skiing lessons so I could impress you.”

Taylor smiled at the memory. “Well, I was impressed.
Very
impressed.”

Leaning down, Manning tenderly brushed his mouth across hers. As their lips clung, she could feel his penis twitching against her butt.

“Are you hungry?” he murmured.

“I could eat,” she admitted. “But I don’t feel like going anywhere.”

“I’ll order room service.” He winked. “We can stay in bed and feed each other.”

She smiled. “Sounds good.”

As she turned away with a lazy sigh of contentment, he nuzzled her nape, his hand wandering down between her thighs. When she felt his thumb on the hood of her clit, she shivered and closed her eyes. As he slowly rubbed the sensitive knot of nerves, her hips began to undulate.

“I hated seeing you and Caitlyn together.” The breathy words were out before her brain even registered that they were coming.

Manning’s thumb stilled for a moment. “I’m sorry about that.”

Taylor flushed, licking her lips. “I know I have no right to care—”

“You have every right.” He parted her folds and slid his middle finger inside her, making her gasp. “I don’t want you to think I hopped from your arms to hers.”

“That’s what it looked like.” Taylor quivered as he gently stroked her sex, sending shocks of pleasure through her. “It was”— she struggled to gather her thoughts —“upsetting to see you having lunch with her the day after we’d slept together.”

“I know.” He withdrew his finger, then she felt the head of his cock at the slick entrance to her body. “I wanted to meet her for lunch to tell her I can’t hire her. I thought—” He pushed into Taylor, groaning harshly as her muscles rippled and contracted around him, stretching to accommodate his girth.

“You thought what?” Taylor choked out, fighting to keep the thread of the conversation.

“I thought I owed her an explanation in person. That’s the only reason I was there.” Manning cupped Taylor’s butt, settling her more fully onto his dick as he buried himself to the root.

She bit her lip hard, her hand fisting in the sheet as he began pumping into her. She could feel every rock-hard inch of him, every thrust unmistakably branding her as his own.

She stopped talking and so did he, both of them surrendering to the erotic sensations coursing through their joined bodies.

When Taylor looked over her shoulder, Manning lowered his head and kissed her, licking hungrily into her mouth. She shivered, sucking on his tongue as he reached around her to palm her breasts. His fingers teased and caressed her nipples, shooting waves of pleasure to her core.

She moaned and curved her arm around the back of his neck as he shoved his cock deeper and harder. He felt so good inside her, filling her so completely and exquisitely.

They panted into each other’s mouths as her hips undulated to the rhythm of his strokes. She could feel her orgasm building and swelling as he surged into her, his pelvis slapping her backside. When he reached between her thighs and pressed his thumb to her clit, everything inside her tightened viciously. She cried out as she shattered, her pussy spasming around his erection and making him groan.

As he began spurting hotly into her, he whispered against her ear, “You’re mine, Taylor. You always have been. You always will be….”

20

“
I
can’t believe you’re seriously considering this! How can you even think it’s okay to go to another girl’s prom?”

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” Manning mumbled defensively.

“Not a big deal?” Taylor exclaimed, jumping up from the sofa where they’d been lounging after finishing their homework. She stood over him with her arms folded across her chest, her dark eyes flashing behind rimless glasses. She looked so pretty in his varsity letterman jacket, her hair swept back into a ponytail, her plush mouth slicked with lip gloss. He wanted to kiss her, but he knew she’d probably slap him if he tried. He’d never seen her so pissed.

“How would
you
feel if I’d casually mentioned to you that a senior had invited me to the prom and I wanted to go?” she demanded accusingly.

Manning scowled. “I didn’t say I
wanted
to go. I said I was
thinking
about going—”

“What’s the difference?”

“The difference is that I haven’t made up my mind yet,” he retorted, shoving to his feet. At six three he easily towered over her, more so in his high-top Nikes. “I wanted to talk to you first, but now I wish I never even brought it up.”

“Why?” Taylor challenged. “Did you seriously think I’d be okay with you taking Nicole to her prom?”

“I don’t know, Tay. I sure as hell didn’t expect you to flip out like this.”

“Oh, so now I’m flipping out?”

“What do you call it?”

“I call it being hurt and angry that my boyfriend wants to take another girl to her prom!”

Manning frowned. “I don’t understand why you’re so upset about this. You know it ain’t like that between me and Nicole. I don’t even think of her that way.”

“Why not?” Taylor jeered. “Just because she’s on the girls’ basketball team, you think she doesn’t like boys?”

“Well…” The thought
had
occurred to Manning. Hell, everyone on his basketball team had speculated about Nicole being a lesbian. She was really cute, but she’d never gone out with any guys at school. She’d never even shown any interest.

“Whether she likes dudes or not, it doesn’t matter to me,” Manning insisted. “We’re just friends. She’s cool with everyone on the team.”

Taylor’s eyes narrowed. “Then why are
you
the only one she invited to the prom?”

“I don’t know,” Manning said with a heavy sigh. “All she told me is that she really wants to go, but she doesn’t have a date and she doesn’t want to show up by herself. She said I’d be doing her a big favor—”

Taylor snorted derisively. “I’ll bet.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Taylor ignored the question. “What’s this really about, Manning?” she demanded, eyeing him suspiciously. “Are you bored with me?”

He frowned. “Huh?”

“You heard me. Are you bored with me? Are you bored with our relationship because we’re not having sex?”

“Of course not,” he said vehemently.

“Are you sure?” Taylor pressed. “I know all your friends are getting laid. I’ve overheard them talking about it. Maybe you’re tired of being the odd man out. Maybe you’re tired of dating a girl who doesn’t give up the goodies. Maybe that’s why you want to go to the prom with Nicole—”

Manning scowled. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m just trying to figure out why you think it’s okay to take another girl to her prom! I know it’s not because you’re into that sort of thing. When I joked about skipping our senior prom next year and going somewhere else that night, you were totally cool with that—”

“First of all,” Manning interjected, “there’s no way my mom would ever let us skip our prom. The only reason I agreed to your suggestion is because I know you’re not comfortable at school dances. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t care where the hell we went that night, as long as we were together.”

Taylor was still glaring at him, but now her eyes were bright with unshed tears.

“Hey,” Manning murmured, gently cupping her chin. “What’s really going on here, Tay? Did someone say something to you?”

She jerked out of his grasp. “Don’t try to turn the tables on me, Manning. We were talking about you and Nicole!”

Before he could respond, Taylor’s little brother, Micah, suddenly emerged from the playroom that was walled off from the rest of the basement. Wearing his favorite yellow Pac-Man T-shirt, the ten-year-old scampered up to them.

“Hey, buddy,” Manning greeted him, fondly rubbing the back of the boy’s head. He was small for his age and had the mind of a much younger child. “Wassup?”

“I finished the new puzzle you gave me,” Micah announced, burrowing against Manning’s side like an affectionate puppy.