Two Wolves for Cat (Paranormal Shapeshifter Werewolf Romance) Page 4

  Still in wolf form, Jayce broke cover and padded around the back, staying in the deeper shadows as much as he could. This early in the morning he wasn’t as bothered about being seen as he would’ve been in broad daylight. Most people were in bed and if they happened to look out their windows and see a large wolf skulking about, they dismissed it as an ordinary wolf scavenging for trash.

  Food, he needed food, and clothing. Some form of vehicle. Nothing flashy, though, he thought as he eyed the options. He needed something nondescript, something that wouldn’t stand out to the cops even if the owner reported it missing.

  Clothes were easy to find. Jayce padded into the street past the diner and made his way around the back to peek his wedge-shaped head over into the first backyard. Bingo. In front of him was a clothesline laden with all sorts of fabric goodies. Thank the moon for people too tired to get their laundry in before night fell.

  He backed up and launched himself at the top of the fence. A study in lupine elegance. Not. His body slammed into it with a heavy thud, and as it squeaked in wooden protest, he scrambled over the top with more determination than elegance.

  Landing heavily, he shot a look up at the house, expecting a light to snap on at any minute. He’d made enough noise. Seconds passed and nothing happened. No lights, no curtains twitching.

  Owners must sleep at the front.

  Jayce breathed a sigh of relief. At least no one had seen that. His usual grace had deserted him thanks to the injury yesterday, and the run hadn’t done him any favors. He needed to eat and eat soon. But food meant breaking in someplace unoccupied and paws weren’t so good for opening fridges. No, opposable thumbs were the order of the day, which meant he needed clothes.

  Jayce approached the line, checking out what was on offer. There was enough here to provide a change for both him and Ryder and a couple for Cat. He pulled jeans and shirts from the line, the pegs snapping and pinging off to disappear into the darkness. Quickly he amassed a pile and rolled it into a ball to be carried.

  Now, underwear. Women were funny about the stuff. No doubt Cat would like a couple of sets. He moved along the line and sat under the lingerie pegged out, his eyes widening. He’d never seen so much underwear in one place. Black silk, red satin, a set in innocent white lace which reminded him of Caitl…then his eyes went from wide to bugging out of his head.

  Screw innocent. The white lace panties were crotchless.

  Holy hell, what I’d give to see Cat in something like that. Can I get away with taking them and pretend I didn’t know what they were? Jayce jittered from paw to paw as he thought. All other considerations aside, the white set were the only ones which hadn’t been worn yet, his sensitive nose easily picking up traces of scent on the others, even after washing.

  He couldn’t…could he? Much as he had fantasies of Cat in revealing underwear, he knew deep down Cat would not wear crotchless panties. She was more strawberries and champagne. More slow romantic sex in front of a roaring fire. More virginal white satin, confetti in the hair he’d just removed a delicate tiara from…

  Longing slammed into him broadside and stole his breath. Jayce had always considered himself a “wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am” type of guy. Even though he’d fantasized about Cat before, it had never taken that route. Romance and marriage? With Cat?

  All the things he couldn’t have.

  Shaking his head Jayce snapped himself out of it. Like his other daydreams and fantasies, that one was going nowhere and he knew it. In a rush of decisiveness, he raised up on his haunches to pull the underwear delicately from the line, trying not to tear it with his teeth. Fate though, had other ideas.

  The panties came off easily, dropped to the grass to be retrieved, but the bra hung on with the tenacity of a terrier. A low rumble filled Jayce’s throat as he shook his head, trying to dislodge the damn thing, his paws backing him up across the lawn. The line bowed, the white lace bra pulled as taut as an arrow until, finally, the clothespin from hell snapped with a loud “ping.”

  Oh, fuck. He didn’t get chance for more than a silent curse as the line twanged, the peg disappeared off into the bushes and the whole lot came down on his head.

  “Ooofff!” Jayce landed on his lupine ass in the middle of the lawn, the bra adorning the top of his head like an elegant hat. And, as if things couldn’t get worse, a light snapped on in the back room of the house in front of him and the curtains twitched. Jayce stilled, channeling his inner garden gnome. Nothing to see here, folks, just a big wolf sculpture some idiot left in your yard…

  “Maud, there’s a dog in the back yard wearing your bra on its head. Big bastard as well.” The voice of the guy at the window was sleepy, his puzzled expression visible even from where Jayce was sitting.

  Just a dream, go back to bed. He ignored the instinctive insult at being referred to as a dog. Couldn’t the idiot see he was a damn wolf?

  Another voice answered, clearly audible. Christ, are these people deaf or do they often carry on their conversations in shouts? “Don’t be daft, John, dogs don’t wear bras. How would they do the clips up with their paws? Come back to bed, you gotta get up early in the morning.”

  Yeah, John, go back to sleep.

  Jayce held his breath as the guy at the window paused, frowning at him, then disappeared. The breath whooshed out of his lungs in a rush and he flipped the underwear off his head, rolled all the clothes into a ball and picked them up in his mouth. Now to find food.

  “Ryder?” Cat backed away from the advancing male. The look in his eyes was one she’d never seen before—hard and feral, focused intently on her. She couldn’t work out if it scared her or whether the shiver running down her spine was excitement instead.

  A dark excitement she had no business feeling. She couldn’t help it; she’d always had a thing for the Vanirs. However, picking between them might not be a problem. Rumor said they shared everything.

  Another shiver hit her. The thought of having both their attentions did strange things to her insides. Her stomach churned but she didn’t feel sick. Warmth spread out from the cradle of her pelvis, softening her body as every feminine instinct locked onto the man stalking toward her.

  Singly they were handsome. Together they were devastating. She wanted that, she wanted them…both of them, to look at her as Ryder was now as he backed her up to the tree—like he wanted to take her right there up against the rough bark. But she didn’t just want Ryder. An image of him on one side and Jayce on the other, both touching her, their lips on her skin, filled her mind…

  I am one sick little puppy.

  “Yes?” His voice was as flat and hard as his look. He took another step toward her. His body was taut with tension and his skin rippled like heat rising off the hot sand. She recognized it. His change, held just under the skin and only just under control.

  “Are you alright?” She managed to avoid getting pinned between him and the tree, stepping around it instead, one hand on the trunk as she negotiated the tangled roots backward.

  “No.”

  “What’s the matter? Are you hurt?”

  The thought hadn’t occurred to her before and instantly Cat kicked herself. What if he’d been injured in the bar fight as well?

  “Yeah.”

  He didn’t stop moving, following her around the trunk with nothing human in his eyes. Amber leached into the green color and she knew she was looking at Ryder’s wolf, speaking to the beast within. Swallowing, she kept moving. She’d never heard of anyone but an alpha or a feral doing this before…channeling the wolf without changing form.

  Her body tensed, her instincts torn between the sexual potential of the situation and the fight or flight instinct. The human in her recognized a predator when she saw it and demanded she run but the wolf inside recognized a virile male, a potential mate. The beast zipped and struggled to be free, to slough off the human form and rub herself up against Ryder, to entice him into claiming her.

  She didn’t know if the Vanir brothers, wolves witho
ut a pack, had gone alpha being on their own. The former was the better option because if he was feral, she was in a world of trouble, one that ended with her throat ripped out.

  “Where? Where are you hurt?” Worry raged with indecision as she slowed down. If he was hurt that could be the reason she was seeing the wolf in his eyes. But her granddad had always told her to run, and run fast, if she ever saw amber in a man’s eyes.

  He won’t be in control, sweetpea. It’ll be his wolf. And the wolf don’t care about nothing besides its own needs.

  Needs… what sort of needs? She had her own needs. Just thinking about those sent liquid heat surging through her body to pool low in her stomach. Even worse…she felt the dampness between her thighs as Ryder took a deep breath. His lips curled back as he drew the air over his tongue, tasting it, tasting her.

  “Here…I hurt here.” He sidestepped abruptly to trap her between the rough bark and his bigger body. His hand dropped to his crotch and cupped the massive erection there.

  “Oh.”

  He was too close. Way too close. So close she felt the heat from his skin burning through her… his shirt. A loose shirt which was, somehow suddenly too tight and itchy. Locked in Ryder’s amber gaze, she couldn’t move, not even to pull at where her top was stuck to her sticky skin.

  Pressing closer, the muscled wall of his chest brushed her breasts. Her heart pounded as he leaned in. He was going to kiss her. He had to kiss her. And she needed that more than she needed air to breathe.

  “So, little wolf, you going to take care of me? Play nursemaid like you did for Jayce?” His voice was a dark temptation, the words whispered bare millimeters from her lips. She followed as he moved, pressing her back against the rough bark, as though her lips were connected to his by an invisible cord. Ryder lifted a hand and planted it beside her head, leaving a gap for her to slither out of if she wanted.

  Never run from a wolf. They liked to chase.

  She looked into Ryder’s eyes and knew she was caught between a rock and a hard place. He had no intention of letting her go. Running would only inflame the situation, and the arousal pressed against her soft belly, more.

  She didn’t want to run. She wanted everything he had to give and more. The trouble was, she wasn’t sure what his everything was. The women in the pack who’d known them—known them in the intimate sense that was—before they’d left went all dreamy-eyed or hot and bothered whenever the Vanir brothers were brought up. The dark pleasure to be had in their arms was only hinted at, with no details given. So her imagination had run wild. Every fantasy she had revolved around these guys, kept safely under lock and key in her head so people wouldn’t realize how deviant she was. Now that door was unlocked and wide open.

  She opened her mouth to reply, but didn’t get the chance. Ryder leaned down and claimed her mouth, blowing away the last of her defenses the instant his lips touched hers.

  She moaned helplessly, her body welcoming as he pressed her back into the tree. His kiss was hard and ruthless, plundering her lips as he caressed her curves. Down and then up, his hand sliding under her T-shirt. A rumble of surprise vibrated through the solid chest against hers as he remembered she wasn’t wearing a bra. She whimpered as his fingers brushed the sensitive skin of her breast. She wanted more, always more.

  “Mine.” His voice was a dark whisper against her neck as he placed feverish kisses along her tender skin, fire following his lips. His thumb swept the curve at the underside of her breast making her gasp in reaction.

  “I want to taste you. Then I’m gonna fuck you.” The crude words whispered against her ear sent an illicit thrill shooting through her. She shouldn’t be doing this; Jayce might be back any minute and she knew how he felt about her. Too nice. Go home and play with your dolls. She could still feel the roughness of his palm on her cheek the day he and Ryder had left home, and that comment had haunted her for years.

  “Screw him,” she muttered. If Jayce didn’t want her, Ryder sure as hell did and she wasn’t saying no.

  “Screw who?” Ryder asked between kisses, dragging her leg over his hip and grinding the hardness of his erection right where she ached the most. “Jayce? Forget him, his loss. My gain.”

  His hands closed on the hem of her shirt and slowly drew it over her head. His eyes, amber and gray in the silver moonlight, burned with desire. Her hair fluttered in a silken cloud around her, the soft brushes making her bite her lip as she watched his expression. The tips just reached her nipples. Tight buds in the cool night air, aching for his touch. He didn’t make her wait long, leaning down to flick his tongue over one.

  She swore, her head dropping back against the rough bark of the tree trunk as Ryder nibbled and licked her breasts. Tension built in her slender body as anticipation coursed through her. Her nipples ached for him to close his warm mouth over her, but he didn’t. Nearing desperation, she arched her back in invitation, offering more of the soft globe to his roving lips.

  He chuckled, reading her intent. “Not yet, little wolf. I’ve waited a long time for this so now I’ll make you wait.”

  As he spoke his strong fingers smoothed down the curve of her hip, angling inward to tease the line where her thigh met her body. “And, believe me, it’ll be worth it.”

  He leaned back, holding her at arm’s length as he drank in the sight of her. Hot shivers raced over her skin. She stretched, showing off and offering herself to him. The heated look in his eyes drove the tension in her body higher. All she wanted to do was press against him, rub herself against all that toned muscle like a cat and demand he fuck her.

  He smiled, a feral look entering his eyes. “You’re gorgeous. Better than I ever imagined.”

  She tilted her head, her feminine curiosity piqued. “Why, you think of me often?”

  He moved down her body, leaning in to place a kiss on her shoulder, on the tip of a breast, before sliding to his knees in front of her and pressing his lips against her soft stomach. She gasped, the brush of his stubble-covered chin against her skin sent a bolt of lust through her so strong her knees buckled.

  “I got you, baby,” Ryder murmured, his strong arms holding her and urging her to lean back. A large hand cupped the back of her knee to lift it and loop it over his shoulder. She bit her lip, heat washing into her cheeks as she considered the sight she must present. Naked as the day she was born, legs spread with one hooked over a hot guy’s shoulder, his lips dangerously close to her pussy.

  “Hmmmm, yeah. Much better than my dreams.”

  His first lick across her folds made Cat jump a little in surprise. With his second, he swept his tongue from her aching pussy up to her clit, opening her with one long, determined sweep to tease the tiny nub of flesh. Her bones melted as the warm wetness of his tongue surrounded her clit. Oh hell, it felt fantastic, far better than she’d imagined. And he was only just getting started. With his third lick, he circled the entrance to her pussy, then stabbed as deep as he could, fucking her with his tongue as she cried out and clutched his shoulders.

  Her pleas did little to sway him. The soft moans and muttered curses just seemed to urge him on. His large hand supported her knee hooked over his shoulder, holding her open for his lips and tongue as he ravished her. She groaned as her clit ached and her pussy clenched at his attentions. Her hands lifted, seeking and finding purchase around a branch above her as Ryder nibbled and licked, alternating paying attention to her clit with sliding his tongue as deep as he could into her needy pussy.

  The small clearing filled with the sounds of sex. Then it all became too much, her body stiffened as the tight knot of pleasure in her loins expanded, her clit and pussy aching in rhythm with it.

  “Oh my god, I’m gonna c—”

  Ryder drew her clit into the warm cavern of his mouth and flicked the tip of his tongue rapidly back and forth over it. Pleasure exploded in Cat’s body. She cried his name, her hips jerking against him as she came hard. Heat surged through her veins in waves she couldn’t stop, didn’t want to
stop. She’d never had an orgasm so intense, so immediate.

  Her head rolled back against the trunk as Ryder dropped her thigh, standing and wiping his mouth in the same movement. Gathering her into his arms he kissed her again. She could taste herself on his lips, an earthy-musky taste that wasn’t unpleasant, just different.

  “You taste wonderful. See what you do to me?” He pulled her up hard against his erection, still constrained by his boxers. “You make me so hot. You know what I’m gonna do now? Turn around sweetheart.”

  Cat shivered and did as she was told, leaning her hands against the trunk as Ryder kicked her feet further apart. If she’d been asked how she’d seen her first time with him, she wouldn’t have picked this…up against a tree in a forest while on the run. As Ryder dipped his knees and ran the thick head of his cock over her pussy lips from behind, she had to admit it was as hot as hell. Far hotter than any of her fantasies had been by a long shot.

  He felt her little shiver of pleasure, chuckling softly by her ear. “You like that, kitty-cat?” he murmured and pressed his thigh against the inside of hers to open her legs further. Cat didn’t have time to answer. All her attention focused on where his cock rubbed against the lips of her pussy. Christ, he was big. She swallowed, suddenly nervous. He wouldn’t fit all that inside her, surely? He’d split her in two.

  “It’s okay, just breathe.” His voice was a soft murmur of reassurance as his hand snaked around her belly, seeking her clit. “I wouldn’t hurt you for the world, Cat. You can stake your life on that.”

  She bit her lip as his fingers moved against her, clever and sure as he wrung a response from her body she didn’t think was possible. Not after such an intense orgasm. But within seconds a moan bubbled over and escaped her lips, a familiar heat setting up low in her belly.