Gently, Tate leaned on her until the backs of her knees bent at the edge of the bed. Guided by his hand at the small of her back, she slowly felt herself reclining in a half-sitting, half-lying down position onto the mattress. Tate braced himself on his arms above her, looking into her eyes. She saw the focus of his wolf staring out, making Tate's eyes glow behind their darkness. Carefully, he urged them both farther up the bed until they lay completely on it. Silence held them in thrall the entire time, although Claire's heart beat so loudly she was positive he had to hear it.
“Claire,” he said in a casual voice.
“Mm?” She wondered if it was possible for her heart to beat its way out of her chest.
“How attached are you to your clothes, darlin'?” His voice hoarsened. Lowering himself to one elbow, the other arm still bracing above her, he trailed a fingertip along her side.
Sucking in a sharp breath at his touch, Claire shook her head, slightly confused. “I have other clothes. Why?”
Tate smiled and hooked a finger beneath her blouse. “Because I want you out of them, now. But I don't want to make you too mad at me just yet.”
Despite the nearly overwhelming sensations zipping through her tensed, ready body, Claire stuttered out a small laugh. “If you make me mad, guess you'll just have to pay the price for it.”
Tate groaned. “Don't tease me like that. Oh, god,” he muttered. Closing his eyes for the briefest second, when he opened them again their rich glow stole Claire's breath. “I can't hold back anymore.”
Arching herself into him, pressing her breasts against his hard chest, she urgently replied, “Then don't.”
With another small groan tearing out of his throat, Tate ripped her blouse off in one move, sending popped buttons zinging off all over the bed and onto the carpet. Claire gasped from shock and a sharp, aching spike in her wild desire. Her panties immediately flooded with hot, wet warmth. Tate gazed down at her breasts, encased in a lacy rose-colored bra, with the worshipful attention of a man who was aware of nothing else in the world at the moment. Muttering a low swear word, he reached down to cup one breast in his hand.
Claire uttered an inarticulate cry, thrusting herself into his hand as her nipple stiffened just from the touch of his fingers on her bra. Hot swirls of feeling puckered her nipple even more as he began to play with it through the silky fabric.
“Christ, Claire,” he muttered. “You're beyond stunning.” She closed her eyes, spinning in the sensations his light touch caused. “Claire, beautiful woman, look at me,” he suddenly demanded.
Dragging her eyes back open, she stared back at him, feeling as if a lit firecracker was bouncing around inside her, beautifully enflaming everything it touched.
“Am I going too fast here?” His voice was heavy with need.
“No.” She shook her head hard to emphasize it. “Not fast enough,” she added, reaching up her arms to him and pulling him down to her for another long, deep kiss.
Tate said something but it muffled in her mouth. He tasted just like his spicy chocolate scent, all smoky and rich and exploding on her tongue. This time, though, his hands explored her body. One lingered on her breasts, exploring first one, then the other. His other hand traveled down her hip, tracing her leg through her pants. He slowly swirled his fingers, heating small infernos under her skin and eliciting more small cries from her.
He was so strong. So exciting. So—so
him.
Mine,
her most primal part thought in a firm rush of possessiveness that left Claire breathless.
Mine.
***
Tate wondered if he might pass out from the sheer intoxication of Claire's kiss. Feeling her soft, supple body beneath his, so pliant and open, was shutting down all thinking in his brain. The bewitching scent of hers, that wild pure snow scent that also enveloped him with the sense of his home, suffused him on all levels.
Breath catching in his throat again as he pulled back a bit to look at her gorgeous face, he felt the spiraling desire rocketing through him. Slowly. Take it slowly.
Claire growled just the slightest bit, startling and arousing him at the same time. “More,” she demanded, and pulled his face back down to hers, greedily exploring him with her lips and tongue.
After another long moment lost in the kiss, Tate pulled back again with reluctance. Just as she protested, though, he slid his hand around her back and managed to fumble off the clasp of her bra. The strap loosened, freeing her breasts. Claire half sighed, half groaned, the sound lengthening Tate's cock ever more and forcing his control to be tightly leashed. Otherwise, he'd just rip off the rest of her clothes and plunge into her sweet, willing warmth.
“I like the sounds you make,” he said, nuzzling his face into her neck before sliding the bra straps down her arms and off. As the gorgeous fullness of her breasts tumbled free, Tate groaned himself. “Christ, woman, you're going to kill me.”
Claire smiled, running light fingertips over the nape of his neck as the green of her eyes glowed with rich desire. Then Tate nestled his face into her breasts and gently sucked one raised nipple into his mouth. She arched her back into him, her breathy cries and moans urging him on. Tasting her sweet nipples one at a time, he gently swirled them with his tongue. She pushed his head into her, making him ever more bold. Light nips at her breasts with his teeth excited her more, to judge by her immediate response.
“Don't stop,” she said. “Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop.” The nearly breathless chant drove him on. He splayed his fingers around one breast, still biting the nipple, amazed at how the simple act of tasting her there set his brain on fire and made his body shake.
“Not stopping now,” he said. “No way. Well,” he pulled back to look into her face again, which was flushed and needy, “except maybe to do this.”
Coming onto his knees so he straddled her body, he ripped off his own shirt, making more buttons fly onto the bed. Claire giggled and gasped at the same time, though her eyes darkened to a deep, smoldering green. “That's a nice shirt you're ruining there, cowboy,” she said, voice caught between teasing and craving.
“Don't need it for what I'm about to do.”
Claire's breath caught in her throat as she continued to stare at him, pulse battering against the side of her neck. Tate smiled at her, then slowly inched himself down her legs so he could reach the zipper on her pants.
***
Feeling like her heart was trying to bang its way out her chest, Claire drank in the sight of a shirtless Tate with all the avidity of a woman long parched. The muscles rippling along his arms shot small shudders of desires racing along her skin, as did his stunning chest and abs.
Not that she was shallow, but wow, was the man utterly gorgeous.
When his hand reached for her pants zipper, she felt light-headed and spinny. The soft snicking sound as he slowly drew it down sent a new flood of warmth through her belly and her already desperately aching clit. She throbbed so hard between her legs it was nearly painful.
“Tate,” she said, voice low and feral.
She didn't have to say anything else. His eyes caught on hers as he started to shimmy her pants down her hips, then completely off. Only her panties remained to cover her. The look in his eyes as he took a long moment to examine her body told her he was barely holding onto his control.
She didn't want him to.
“Tate,” she said again, reaching her hand toward him. Gently dragging her fingers against his own hard nipples and down his sculpted chest, which made him gasp, she said in a low, urgent voice, “I want you. Right now. Don't hold back.”
His entire face rippled with a quick succession of emotions, from surprise to pleasure to pure lust. With only the barest of grins to signal his intentions, he reach down and tore off her panties. The shredded fabric got tossed to the side. Taking a moment to travel his eyes down and then up her body, Tate then stood up on the bed, legs on either side of Claire's stretched out, utterly naked body.
“Anything you say, darlin'.” With that promise, he shucked off his jeans, staying balanced with an oddly catlike grace above her.
Claire's jaw slowly fell to her chest as she stared up at Tate, standing naked above her in all of his glorious maleness. Her brain completely fuzzed out for a moment at the sight of his lean, strong legs, the narrow waist topped by rippling muscles, and that gorgeously engorged part of him she was suddenly desperate to touch. Reaching out to him, struggling to sit up from the softness of the bed, a tiny gasp tore out of her throat when Tate suddenly jumped back down to stretch his body along hers. His long, hard shaft pressed up against her inner thighs, which she parted with a needy moan. But Tate shook his head at her, letting just a touch of that teasing grin play at his lips.
“Let me lead you, darlin'.” His whisper teetered at the edge of control, but she was fully aware he knew what he was doing. With a quick nod, she breathlessly waited for his next move.
With one hand, Tate grabbed both of hers and pulled them over her head, where he lightly held them together. Claire gave a token struggle to test his strength, then another. He tightened his grasp in small increments, still watching her carefully despite the roiling need she saw almost completely surfaced in his eyes. But she let a pleased smile linger on her face so he knew how she felt about being held down by him.
She loved it. She wanted nothing more than to open for him utterly, to let him consume and possess her in a way she'd never before allowed. Never before known she wanted.
“Yes,” she whispered, the word almost lost in the ragged breathing that filled the room. “Please, yes.”
“Claire,” he groaned her name. Lightly nipping at her ear, her neck, tracing her collarbones with his tongue, he let his other hand slip back down her body. It first fondled her breasts, gently tugging at her nipples, setting off more seismic shudders deep inside her. His hand danced over her ribs, slowly curved over her side, then dipped in to explore her belly button—which made her ticklish, so she arched away from that touch with a tiny shriek. She felt him grin against her shoulder, which he then lightly bit. The sensation of his teeth gently scraping over her skin triggered the desire to feel him do exactly that farther down. Between her legs, where she burned with an aching need to be filled. Something huge built inside her, some sort of frenzy that had her writhing beneath him, thinking of nothing and no one else in the world.
“Now,” she said, a growl making it an order. “Now!”
But he chuckled and shook his head. “You're letting me lead this dance,” he said, raising his head to look into her eyes again. His eyes glowed fully. She knew he was being driven almost completely by his wild instincts. “You have to be patient just a little longer.”
“No!” She practically wailed the word. Thrashing against his hold, bringing her longing hips up against his, she spread her legs so she could wrap them around him, to capture him close to her. But Tate was too quick for her again. His free arm inexorably pushed her left leg back onto the bed. She fought again, until his hand quested right to that one spot her entire world had narrowed down to. Immediately, she stopped struggling, almost holding her breath as she waited for his first touch there.
As soon as his fingers touched her wet folds, Claire cried out from the exquisiteness of it. Tate made a choked sound as his fingers explored her, one slipping inside her while another gently twirled around the hardened little nub above. “Ah, you're so damn wet for me. Christ, woman, you're ready, aren't you.” The richness of his voice was framed with a rough edge. “Ah, god, I can't hold back, Claire.”
“Then don't. Please, please, I need to feel you inside me.” She was begging and she knew it, and she didn't remotely care. All she wanted was to have his gorgeous cock deep inside her, filling her with his hugeness, making her his. “Tate. I need to come.” She barely whispered the words, already so close to the precipice but unable to fall over it until he was inside her.
“That's what you need to come, darlin'? Me deep inside you, filling you all up?” His heavy-lidded eyes looked into hers as he stroked her inside, his long finger crooking in a beckoning motion.
Claire's hips undulated of their own accord, rocking frenziedly in time with his finger. Her thoughts had scattered away so thoroughly all she knew was him, this gorgeous man holding her close, teasing her to the point of explosion with his deliciously talented finger, and her insane need to shatter apart right now.
“Yes!” She half-moaned, half-shouted the word, begging him with her entire body to make it happen.
“Anything for you,” he said in a ragged voice.
Abruptly releasing her hands, he reached down and pushed her thighs apart, his fingers sliding in the slickness that had dripped there. Quickly bracing his hands on either side of her, he looked down with an expression completely feral and hungry. No trace of laughter sparked in his face, focused on hers with razor-sharp desire. A brief moment held them, Claire's entire body quivering in anticipation as he hovered over her, drinking her in like he could never get enough.
Without another warning, he drove his cock deep into her hot center, slamming into her with such beautiful force they both cried out. Just as quickly he pulled back, then thrust in again. Claire was so slick he entered her without any resistance, but the thickness of his shaft brought another cry to her lips, then another. He filled her completely, fitting into her as if he'd been made to do so.
Tate pistoned in and out, holding her gaze with his the entire time. Claire held onto his back with her hands, urging him into her again and again. The enormous swell of feelings rocketing out from that sweet, hot, eager place threatened to spin her head off her shoulders. A haze of solid lust descended over her as Tate's nearly black eyes, backlit by the glow of his feral side, kept her grounded in the moment that was about to explode her into a million spasms of utmost pleasure.