Wolfishly Yours (27 page)

“Rummage through Etienne’s trunks. Your husband is going to need more than the clothes on his back during this voyage. I think he’s worn the same trousers two days in a row.”

Despite his protestations or dire warnings, Armand liked Gray. Livi could see it in his eyes, and that warmed her heart more than a little. She nodded her head in agreement. “
Oui
. That sounds like a brilliant plan.”

Gray had never experienced a moonful in closed quarters. Not with others who could learn his secret if he exposed it unwittingly. A little help might be in order, perhaps. She called to Armand’s retreating back. “Do you know where I can get some whiskey?” she asked.

He turned back, one eye squinting as he appraised her, his gaze incredulous. “You insult me, Livi,” he said with a smirk. “Do
I
know where to get whiskey?” He scoffed.

She rolled her eyes at him.

He winked. “I’ll take care of it.”

She would never repeat it in public, but she was grateful for having at least one ne’er-do-well brother on board right that very moment. She might have need of that whiskey. Or Gray might, at least. She couldn’t have him howling at the moon through the portal in their room. That simply would not do.

This was for the best, Livi had no doubt. As the day progressed, she’d watched Gray pace the deck of the
Aspire
as though it were a cage. When she’d asked about his anxiety, he’d laughed off her questions and mumbled something about stretching his legs. No, as the day went on, she had no doubt about what she needed to do. He’d thank her in the morning. At least she hoped he would.

As the moon sank low over the ocean, Livi and Gray made their way to Armand’s quarters. She knocked softly on the door.

“C’m in,” her brother called from inside.

Goodness. Livi knew that slurry voice. Armand was already foxed. Hopefully, he’d left enough for Gray.

After shooting her an amused look, Gray pushed open the door, then preceded her into the room. He chuckled when he took in Armand’s relaxed pose where he lay sprawled across the bed. “Tipping it a bit early, aren’t you?” he teased.

Armand pointed to the portal, where the sky was darkening. “A lame attempt at escaping the pull of the moon.” He held a bottle out to Gray. “One for you?” He tipped the bottle with one of his fingertips and, if not for Gray’s quick reflexes, it would have been a puddle on the floor.

Gray caught it in his strong grip and held it out to Armand. “Thank you, but I need to keep my wits about me tonight.”

Armand narrowed his gaze. “On a night such as this, the last thing you need to keep about you is your wits.” He nodded toward the bottle that Gray kept, trying to foist upon him. “That’s for Livi, not for you,” he finally said, giving Livi a dramatic wink. “Just as you requested, m’dear.”

A puzzled expression settled on Gray’s face.

“I’ll explain it later,” Livi promised. If Armand’s current state was any indication, her brother would be asleep within moments. “We should get to our quarters before the moon rises much higher,” she warned. The last thing any of them needed was for her husband to sprout a tail and pointy ears in the corridor of the ship. She took the still-outstretched bottle of whiskey from his hands.

“Do we need that?” Gray asked, as they stepped from Armand’s cabin to the outside.

Livi locked her brother’s door, then pocketed the key. “We might,” she hedged. “Better safe than sorry.” Then she started toward her quarters, knowing Gray would follow right along.

“Livi, the last thing I want to do is lose my inhibitions with you.”

But losing a bit of his control was exactly what he needed; it was best for everyone. Livi stopped in her tracks, then reached up to cup his face. “You’re not worried you’ll harm me, are you?” She snorted, hoping to lighten his anxiety just a bit. “You’re worse than an innocent on her wedding night,” she teased.

“Very amusing.” He slapped her bottom. As she scurried toward their cabin, he called after her, “I’ll get you for that.”

“Promises, promises,” she sang.

He growled and ran after her, a low rumble in his chest as he followed her through their doorway and into their cabin. She locked the door behind them and said, “Turn around.”

The apprehension on Gray’s face returned tenfold. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to hold the key in my hands all night. I imagine I’ll have better things to do with them.” Heat crept up her face as his gaze darkened with lust.

“Why didn’t you say so?” He spun away from her and counted to ten.

Livi kicked up the corner of the rug and tucked the key beneath it. Then she pulled the stopper from the whiskey decanter and poured a glass. She held it out to him as he turned back around. “Drink,” she instructed.

Gray shook his head. “No. I told you, I want to have my wits about me.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and began to tug his boots from his feet. He followed with his coat and waistcoat, and then his cravat. He tugged his shirt over his head and let it land like a fluttery bird on the floor.

“You’ll find this easier if you have a few drinks,” she said.

“Find it easier to bed my wife? I sincerely doubt that.”

***

Find it easier? Livi had lost her bloody mind if she thought he’d flummox this up. The day he claimed his wife would be a day to remember. Not a day that he was so foxed he couldn’t string two thoughts together, much less a memory. Absolutely not.

She sat down on the only chair in the cabin and crossed her pretty little hands in her lap. “That’s too bad. I thought we might be able to play a little game.”

A game? His ears almost twitched. “What sort of game?”

She looked everywhere but at him, and the area above her nose wrinkled as she scrunched it. “I’m a little nervous,” she said, as though confessing to a priest. She began to wring her hands together. “I thought a few drinks might make you a bit more pliable. Less… scary.”

“I scare you, Liv?” He got to his feet and approached her. “I’d never harm you. I don’t have to claim you at all tonight, if you don’t want. It’s not too late for you to lock me in like you did Armand.”

“I want to be with you, but I’m worried.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “Humor me?” she asked. “Play my game?”

Gray sighed heavily. “Tell me the rules.”

“Sit,” she said as she pushed him down into the chair.

Then she ran her soft little hands across his naked chest, and his manhood immediately responded. “Liv,” he growled in warning when her fingertip slid across his nipple. “Take some of those blasted clothes off, will you?” he asked as nicely as he could under the circumstances. He put his stocking feet up on the table and crossed them. “I’ll watch.”

Gray didn’t know what he’d expected, but the pull of the rising moon was nothing compared to the pull of Liviana Hadley.

She held a full glass out to him. “For every item I remove from my body, you’ll have to take a drink.”

He could play her game without getting foxed, couldn’t he? Of course, he could. He’d been drinking ever since he was old enough to tip back a bottle. Gray tossed back the contents of his glass. “What’s coming off first?” he asked, a grin tugging at his lips.

***

Livi took a deep breath and kicked off a slipper.

Gray arched a dark brow at her. “That’s all I get. A slipper?”

She refilled his glass. He lifted it to his lips and talked around it. “I suppose this will get me another slipper.” But he drank it anyway.

She kicked off the other slipper, and it sailed across the small cabin to thump against the wall.

“Shh,” Gray warned. “I believe that Irish priest is on the other side of that wall.”

“He might want to find other accommodations, then,” Livi said. “Because I have a feeling things might get a little loud in here.”

Indeed, the sound of growling had a way of permeating the walls.

“Only if I do it correctly,” Gray said. Then he drank the next glass she poured for him. He leaned back in his chair, studying her with those dark eyes of his. “What will she take off next, I wonder?”

She tugged a pin from her hair and let it clatter to the floor.

“Oh, no,” he said, lowering his feet. “That’s not nearly worth the price I’m paying. All of them,” he directed.

Livi’s heart lurched within her breast. But she tugged all the pins from her hair until the heavy mass tumbled about her shoulders. She poured another glass for him. She had his full attention, his gaze both intense and appreciative.

“So pretty,” he said.

His trousers were tented by the length of him, and she had a nearly insatiable urge to strip his trousers off and to feel the swell of him within her grip. She licked her lips at the thought. He needed to drink enough so he’d sleep through the night, sleep through the transformation, and not wake until morning.

Oh, she wanted him to claim her, wanted him to make love to her all night, but he wasn’t accustomed to sea travel, not during a full moon. She couldn’t risk him changing into his wolf form and alerting everyone to his presence on the ship. That would be a disaster. For both of them. “Drink,” she said.

Gray tipped the glass back and drained it dry. “What’s next?” he asked with a smirk almost as big as the twinkle in his eye.

Livi spun around and presented her back to him. He quickly worked the fastenings of her gown until she was able to slide it down her arms and over her hips. Then she stepped out of it.

“I do love the green garters,” he said slowly, licking his lips. “Can they be next?”

She pointed to the glass. He refilled it himself and downed the whiskey in one quick swallow. She untied one garter and rolled her stocking down her leg. When he drank another glass without her urging, she bit back a grin. How nice to know she affected him so. She’d have to remember that on nights that weren’t ruled by the moon.

Honestly, this game of hers was affecting her as much as it was him. Her belly clenched each time his eyes landed on her body. And her drawers were wet with wanting him.

“Are you foxed yet?” she asked as she tugged her last stocking off. He drank three glasses in quick succession, stopping only momentarily to wince on the last one.

“Not hardly,” he grunted. But he rested his head in his upturned palm.

Perhaps her plan was finally working. The last three glasses had her tugging her chemise over her head and shoving her drawers down to her ankles.

He looked supremely satisfied as he noted, “You still owe me for that last drink.”

“I have nothing left to take off, Mr. Hadley,” she informed him.

“I can see that, Mrs. Hadley,” he teased. His gaze roamed her body hotter than any caress could have been. “Hold your breasts in your hands,” he ordered.

She couldn’t possibly do that, could she?

“You owe me, Livi,” he said, nodding toward the glass as he refilled it. “Just pick them up in your hands. Let me watch.”

“You’re a pig,” she said.

“Wolf,” he corrected.

She did want to keep him drinking, didn’t she? To avoid the pull of the moon. So she did as he requested. Heat built deep in her belly as she lifted her breasts in her hands. Her thumb slipped across one dark peak and her breath hitched in her throat.

“That feels nice, doesn’t it?” he asked. He tossed back another swallow. “Sit down on the bed.”

“Why?” If they stopped now, he would never pass out. He would become a beast and everyone would find out. He wasn’t like her brothers. He hadn’t done this before.

“Because you owe me.” He took another swallow.

The bed was no more than a foot from where he sat so casually, his elbows on his knees while he regarded her. He reached for her hand and took it in his, tugging it down toward her nether curls. “Gray,” she protested.

“Here,” he whispered, his words raking across her skin hotter than any caress. He dragged her fingertip toward that nub that was pounding so loudly in her ears. “Touch here,” he said and he pulled his hand back. He pressed her legs open wide and sat back. He took another drink. “Do it for me, Livi,” he asked. She couldn’t refuse him, not with her blood singing in her veins and her finger playing about the damp folds of her heat.

“Gray,” she protested, but she found that little nub and began to circle it. He praised her quietly, urging her on. Her protests quickly became pants, leaving her mouth unheeded. She didn’t care about the noises she made. She only cared about the way he made her feel.

He licked his lips as he opened the placket of his trousers and shoved them down his hips.

Livi let her fingers circle faster and faster. “You have me so hot, Livi,” he ground out.

Not nearly as hot as she was. Goodness, she would burst into flames any moment. Then she felt it, that buildup that she still didn’t understand, even though he’d provoked it so many times. “Gray,” she cried. And when she did, he reached for her, pulling her up with one strong hand around her back, and brought her to straddle his lap.

“Livi,” he growled as he centered her over his manhood and held tightly to her hips, sliding inside her as far as he could go. He stilled and screwed into her, holding her tightly. He brushed her hair back from her face with tender fingers. “God, Livi,” he growled. His thumb took over where her fingers had been and his lips played along the side of her neck. He nibbled her gently while he coaxed her higher and higher than she’d taken herself, with his length filling so fully.

She rose and fell on him, holding tightly to his shoulders. And just when she felt like she would break, she was flung headfirst over that precipice, the feeling of falling washing over her like warm rain. And just as she came apart, he bit into the side of her neck, his sharp little teeth piercing the tender skin where her neck met her shoulder, marking her as his. He joined her in release, calling out her name as he pulled her tightly down onto his shaft, fitting them together deeper than they had ever been before.

Gray’s chest rumbled with a poorly concealed chuckle. “Don’t ever try to play me again, Livi,” he warned. “I will always win when it comes to whiskey.”

She could barely catch her breath. “I think I won that round, Mr. Hadley.”

He stirred within her. “Then I think we should have another round, Mrs. Hadley.”

Another round? “The whiskey didn’t affect you at all?”

He chuckled again. “Were you honestly trying to get me foxed?”

Figured everything out, had he? Livi shrugged. “I thought it would help with the moonful. It helps my father, my brothers when they’re aboard a ship.”

“You’re the only thing I need to soothe my savage beast, Livi.” Then he rolled her to her back and hovered right above her. “And now, my dear, you are stuck with me for the rest of your days.”

She couldn’t think of anything more lovely. “You only want me to soothe your savage beast, Gray?”

He shook his head. “I want you because I love you, because you have driven me mad with want ever since that first day at Holmesfield Court.” He lowered his head and captured her mouth in a kiss before continuing to their next round and the one after that.