Six Months (31 page)

“But that’s not—”

“Quiet,” he interrupted.

I blinked in astonishment—Reno had never spoken to me that curtly. His eyes looked like static and I tried to hold his gaze. But then I saw something soften in his features, and his brown eyes melted like dark chocolate.

“Yeah, you fucked up a few times. But I’m not going anywhere. That’s what makes me different from every other guy you’ve met. I’m a Shifter, and we don’t walk out on our women. You’re not your mother. You’re human. You make mistakes. So you made a few bad choices. Does that mean you don’t deserve happiness? Why are you setting me up to be ‘that’ guy? Something you may not know about me is when things get tough, I get tougher.”

“You can’t fight my battles.”

“Dammit, April. Let me in!”

“I once told Trevor that I wanted to be taken care of, but you know what? He was right. You’ll never learn to stand on your own feet if someone else is holding you up. I have to fix what’s wrong in order to deserve what’s right. I don’t expect you to understand it because you can be so damn bossy!”

His lips twitched. “You done?”

“
No
,” I said, finally getting my second wind. “You don’t seem to understand that this isn’t going to work out. What happens when I turn forty?”

“Then we have a kickass party,” he said softly, his eyes roving down to my mouth.

“And you’ll still look the same.”

“Maybe I won’t. I’m an old wolf, April. The years are catching up with me.” He sighed and lowered his eyes. “I had a woman a long time ago and she left me for another Shifter because I couldn’t get her pregnant. She went into heat four times and nothing. Maybe that doesn’t mean anything in your human world, but that’s a big deal in mine. I never told my brothers because that’s not the kind of thing a man wants to spread around.”

“How do you know you were the problem?”

“Because she got pregnant right away with the new guy.”

I knew Reno had a past, but it hurt to see it still followed him. Now I understood how he felt about my ex because suddenly I wanted to find that woman and wring her neck.

“I’ve always wanted a good woman, but it just never played out that way. The older you get, the tougher it is with Shifters. The women go after the young, virile men if they can’t mate with an alpha.”

I smirked and touched the sleeve of his shirt. “You’re virile.”

“Getting women isn’t a problem; it’s keeping them. I don’t tell them I’m sterile because I don’t ever let it get serious enough that I have to. But I’m telling
you
,” he said, his voice softening.

“You can’t get serious with me, Reno. I’m mortal. I’m not going to live hundreds of years like you will.”

“You don’t think it kills me to know I’ll have to watch you get older? I know a Mage who owes me a favor—I can find a way to bring you into our world.”

“But I don’t want to be one of you. I like who I am. I don’t even know what the heck a Mage is, but I don’t think I’d be okay with becoming something I’m not… just for love.”

I clamped my mouth shut and the energy in the room became electric.

Reno tilted my chin up and his sexy mouth stretched into a smile. “Did you just say what I think you did?”

“That I don’t want to be an immortal?” I said coyly.

His thumb stroked my jaw and insatiable desire bloomed throughout my body. “No. That last word you just said.
Love
.”

My lips had barely parted to conjure up a good argument when his mouth crushed against mine. It wasn’t rough and demanding, nor was it soft. Reno explored my mouth with his lips, working his way to my chin where he planted a soft peck. The feel of his bristly face and soft mouth became an argument that I couldn’t win.

“You want to say that again, princess?”

Oh, boy!
Do
you!
my inner voice screamed excitedly.

I gave her the middle finger.

“No. I didn’t mean it that way, Reno.”

His warm hand slipped beneath my shirt and caressed my back. That was the moment my spine turned to jelly and I was all his.

“Sure didn’t sound that way.” He unzipped my black pants and they dropped to the floor. I stepped out of them and kicked them aside. The house wasn’t so quiet when it filled with the sounds of wet kisses, quickened breaths, and soft moans. Reno filled me with desire and I soaked him in like a sponge.

“They’ll be back soon,” I whispered. My heart raced like a greyhound on a track.

“They’ll be hours,” he promised through a kiss, stroking my tongue with his in slow, possessive motions. His thumbs hooked around the thin string of my panties on each hip and he pulled them down.

Reno’s body felt solid beneath my touch, like granite. I’d never felt a man so fit. I reached up and held on to his broad shoulders.

“Princess, that’s not where I want your hands.” His forehead tapped against the wall and his breath heated my ear. “Unbuckle my belt.”

A rush of exhilaration heightened my craving for more. It was his voice—the one I couldn’t resist. I stood before him fully exposed from the waist down, feeling even more desire than I had our first time.

I separated the leather from the latch and waited. I knew Reno liked to be in charge and part of that was giving detailed orders. I could have just unzipped his pants and continued with the obvious, but that would have taken away his illusion of control.

“Undo my pants,” he said in a raspy voice.

I stared at his shoulder, using my hands to feel my way to the button, and then I slowly dragged the zipper down. I knew how much he liked slow motions, so I took my time.

His breath felt like an Arizona wind against my neck. He shifted his head so that his lips were grazing along my earlobe. “Tell me what you want.”

Would he do anything I asked of him?
I remembered our first night together, and yeah, he would.

“Shift.”

He jerked his neck back. “What?”

“Reno, your leg is bleeding and you’re in pain. If shifting heals you, I want you to shift.”

He stepped back, breathing unsteadily as if he’d run a marathon. “My wolf—”

“Won’t hurt me. We’re on good terms and I’m not afraid of him. Please, heal yourself.”

Something wild spun in his eyes and without a word, Reno shifted in a liquid movement of flesh to fur. Standing before me on a pile of clothes was that beautiful wolf with the dark mask on his face. He groaned deep in his throat and I rubbed his soft ears. “Oh, sweet boy.”

When he abruptly shifted back, Reno stood before me naked. I admired his impressive body, feeling a deep yearning to know every part of him. He brazenly reached down and slid his hand between my legs, working me over with skilled fingers. When I moaned, his actions were quick. Reno lifted my left leg and I felt the blunt press of him against my core, anchoring into position. He slipped inside me so fast I made a strangled moan in the back of my throat. I’d never imagined being taken by a man in such an uncompromising and primitive manner.

Reno lifted my other leg and held me against the wall, crashing into me like a violent collision as he went every bit as deep as he did hard. Something wild took hold—I’d never felt so much passion and became consumed by it.

“Look at me,” he said when my head fell back and my eyes closed. “April,
look at me when I take you
.”

A turbulent power rolled in his voice, and I wondered how he could sound so in control when his body felt anything but. I glanced down and as soon as our eyes met, something happened.

A connection formed that had nothing to do with sex. Feeling him deep inside me while we gazed at each other made it like nothing I’d ever experienced.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Our lips almost touched as we moaned and blew heated breaths against each other. Reno rocked his hips faster and faster until it felt so out of control I cried out. My nails bit into his back and all I could feel was the animalistic passion between us.

His simmering eyes looked wild as they devoured me, pupils dilating each time I let out a gasp. I felt my climax coming on and he must have sensed it closing in fast. Reno’s movements became skilled as my legs clenched against him, a ripple of tension and pleasure moving through me. This wasn’t about control where every move was premeditated. This was carnal desire in the raw.

“That’s it, baby. Gimme
everything
you got,” he demanded as he drove impossibly deeper. His whiskers scratched torturously against my throat while his mouth journeyed toward my ear—each word a penetration into my fantasies. “Don’t hold back. Jesus… I can feel you tightening around me,” he said in a ragged breath.

My breath caught and every muscle contracted when I came in his arms. Over and over. Reno kept pumping into me, and when my legs began to tremble, he held me firmly in his grasp, hands splayed beneath my thighs. His eyes widened as I gripped the back of his neck and arched my body, caught up in the animalistic desire I felt for this man. Reno let me ride out the wave of pleasure before he stilled.

I blinked away a few bright flashes of light and rested my cheek on his sweaty shoulder. Spent and out of breath, I planted a tender kiss against his skin and felt him shudder as I blew a cool breath of air on his neck.

Suddenly, I felt him move inside me, still fully erect. “Reno?”

“Yeah?”

“You can finish.”

“Nah.”

I lifted my head and looked at him. His hair was somehow smashed in different directions. I didn’t remember doing that with my hands, but I must have.

“What do you mean by
nah
?”

He turned to walk toward the stairs, still carrying me. “I like being inside you, princess, but two minutes ain’t nearly enough.”

“Reno?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re coming back down to get my panties and your clothes before they get home, right?”

“Nah.”

I jerked my head back. “What do you mean by
nah
?”

“I’m too busy admiring your flowery petals,” he said in a drop-dead serious voice.

I busted out laughing. “Have you been reading my books or are you making fun of me?”

He stopped and his eyes glittered with amusement. “Maybe I’m trying real hard to be the guy in those books for you, April.”

Damn if that didn’t sucker punch me right in the heart.

When a car door slammed, both of us froze.

“My clothes!” I screeched, wriggling my legs frantically until he put me down.

“April!” Trevor shouted from outside. His footsteps hammered up the porch steps and I panicked.

I scrambled toward my clothes and grabbed my pants just as the door swung open. My eyes went wide as I held them in front of me.

But not as wide as Trevor’s.

Then they narrowed and sliced over to Reno. “Guys like you are a dime a dozen,” he began. “You’ll fuck anything in sight. Barely got the door closed and couldn’t wait to get off. Even though she’s hurt, even though she just went through some traumatic shit tonight. You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

Reno walked coolly over toward us and lifted his pants from the floor, yanking them up. Trevor curved his arm in front of me so that I was behind him.

“Get dressed, April. We’re leaving.”

“Over my dead body are you taking her out of this house.” Reno zipped up his pants, not even bothering with a shirt. He moved so slowly that I got dressed even faster.

“Trevor, please don’t start anything,” I said in a calm voice. “Are you hurt?”

He gave me a sharp glare. “You didn’t look too concerned about my well-being when I walked in the door, babe.”

“Then why don’t you tell me how you healed from a bullet wound?” I said coldly, loudly, putting my hands on my hips.

His nose twitched and he slanted his eyes toward Reno. “You want to know why girls like you are so damn sexy to guys like him? You’re submissive.”

I expected Reno to lunge at Trevor, but he didn’t. That’s when I knew Trevor was right.