Lycan Christmas Read online

  “Seriously, I don’t want to hit you. Why can’t we just go through the motion without me actually hitting you?”

  “Because you need to feel the move, not just imagine it. I want you to know exactly what you need to do to break the hold. I want you to be able to save yourself if you’re ever in a situation like this.”

  She tried to break the hold again, but he held her easily. Her eyes sparked again, and he smiled.

  “That’s it. I want you to get good and pissed.”

  She tried to back up out of his grip, but he followed her without letting go of her throat. “You can’t get away from me, Melony. Not unless I let you.” When she grunted in frustration, he laughed at her in an attempt to piss her off even more in hopes that she would finally do what he asked of her.

  “Stop it!”

  “Make me,” he taunted.

  Suddenly, she tucked her chin, turned, brought her arm down across his forearms as he’d instructed, then up, and knocked the holy hell out of his temple with such grace and fluidity it would have taken his breath away if he wasn’t trying to stop his brains from jiggling in his skull.

  Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth hung open as she stared at him. “Oh my God! I’m so sorry!”

  He grinned and hugged her to him when she tried to examine his temple, then picked her up and spun her around until she giggled. When he let her slide down his body until her feet touched the floor, the rub of her against him set his blood on fire.

  “That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to get you to do. Don’t be sorry.”

  “But I hurt you,” she whispered.

  “No. You didn’t,” he whispered back next to her ear.

  He’d never get used to the effect her scent had on him. Every time he breathed her in, his knees weakened, his heart thudded, and his body ached to possess her. He nuzzled his nose against her hair—the hint of jasmine 118

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  clinging to the silky strands only enhanced her natural scent—and she sighed.

  The sound was like an invitation, a temptation he couldn’t resist, and it had been entirely too long since he’d last kissed her. Denying himself the pleasure of taking her mouth was no longer an option as his wolf pushed to the surface, and he bent to taste her.

  * * * *

  Lorent’s mouth came down on hers, possessively, urgently, and stoked a fire inside her in two seconds flat. She’d missed his touch, his kiss. She’d missed him. When his tongue slipped inside to taste her, every cell, every part of her honed in on Lorent, lost to the passion sparked by his mouth devouring her, and the rest of the world was forgotten.

  She linked her arms around his neck and pressed against his hard, hot body. When he growled, she took the sound as encouragement and rubbed against him shamelessly, needing to be close to him, craving to be skin to skin with him. As his kiss became even more urgent and possessive, need built deep in her belly and an insistent ache throbbed between her thighs.

  When he touched her, it was as if her very essence melded with his until they became two parts of a whole.

  She wanted him, and if the bulge pressed against her thigh was anything to go by, he wanted her. A moan escaped her throat when he ran one hand along her hip and around to cup her ass. She’d always thought she had a generous butt, but his big hand made her feel small and feminine. His other hand skimmed down her side and stopped just over her tummy, fingers splayed in a protective gesture as if in anticipation. Could he possibly be thinking about her carrying his child?

  While the thought of having his baby was appealing to her, it brought things back into perspective, and just before his fingers made their way to her breast, she broke the kiss with a gasp. Her needy body cried out in denial of the sudden absence of his touch, but the passion-induced fog was clearing from her brain now.

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  He watched her from under thick lashes as she took a step back from him. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I just can’t think clearly when you touch me.”

  “I have the same problem.”

  It was time to lay it all on the line, her heart, her soul, herself. She had to find a way to crack the wall—more like the fortress—he had erected around himself. She sat down, patted the seat next to her, and waited for him to sit down before taking his hands into her own.

  “I want to tell you about my mother’s accident.” She swallowed hard around the lump forming in her throat. “And why I no longer believe it was an accident.”

  The desire that had burned in his eyes only moments ago died, and the serious, more reserved Lorent returned.

  “You don’t have to talk about it, Melony. Not if it hurts you to.”

  “But don’t you get it? That’s why I do need to talk about it. I need to share it with someone else. I need to share it with you.”

  “If you really need to, you know I’m here for you.”

  She nodded. She did know that, but somehow she needed to make him understand that she wanted to be there for him as well.

  She took a deep breath before continuing. “It started out as a day like any other. Mom had gotten up, and we both ate breakfast together—cereal, because as I told you, she wasn’t the best cook in the world.” She laughed halfheartedly. “She made up for it in so many other ways, though. She was an awesome mother.”

  He squeezed her hand in encouragement, and she continued on. “I had planned to go job hunting because the diner I waited at part-time closed down. Mom wished me luck and headed out to work at the local vet’s office.

  She’d never gone to college, since she got pregnant with me at a young age.

  After Dad ran off when I was two, she had to work to support us. She’d always loved animals—must be where I got my love for them. Anyway, she’d recently decided to go back to college to become a vet technician.

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  “When she’d first brought the idea up to me, she’d been hesitant, thought she was too old to be chasing after dreams. But I encouraged her to do it if it was what she truly wanted, and she finally did. She’d been so happy when she’d first started her classes. She’d come home, and I’d help her with her homework. It was nice to be able to repay her for all the years she’d helped me.

  “But within a few months, things started changing. She became less enthusiastic about the classes, withdrawn, and talked about quitting. She tried to play it off as a simple case of changing her mind, but something hadn’t seemed right. She started getting calls late at night, and would leave home at all kinds of late hours. When I questioned her, she’d just laugh and tell me Dr. Carson—the DVM she worked for—had given her more responsibilities and she was helping with emergency calls.”

  “And you didn’t believe her?” Lorent asked.

  Melony shook her head. “My mother never lied to me. I had no reason to doubt her, but for some reason I did.”

  He leaned toward her and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “That’s called instincts, honey. You should always listen to them.”

  She nodded in agreement. “I know that now. The night of her accident, she got a call and told me she had an emergency at work. She kissed me good-bye, and that was the last time I saw her alive.”

  She could feel the tears gathering behind her lids and knew it wouldn’t be long before they slipped down her cheeks. She leaned against his chest and sighed in the safety and comfort of his arms when he wrapped them around her. He gave her the courage to continue, to say out loud what she’d never told anyone before.

  “I got a call from Dr. Carson the next morning. He told me he was sorry, but there had been an accident, and Mom was dead.”

  The tears fell freely now, and her body shook with the effort to remain calm so she could tell him the rest. Fighting back the sobs, she took a couple calming breaths before continuing.
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  “Later, I found out she’d been attacked by one of the feral dogs they’d been keeping at the office. Apparently, it had been brought in the day before 121

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  by a stranger and was supposed to have been put down that evening, but hadn’t been for some reason or other. No one could explain to me how it had gotten out of its cage or how it had disappeared from the office after killing my mother.”

  She leaned back and looked up into Lorent’s hazel eyes. “Knowing what I do now, you can understand why I question what happened to her.”

  He nodded and wiped the tears from her face with his thumbs. “Yes. I understand, and I think you are probably right to doubt that it was an accident.”

  “Is it my fault? Did my mother even have the scent, or was she killed because I had the scent? Now I think it was a rogue that killed her and could smell me on her.”

  “If your mother was as wonderful as you say, she would not want you to blame yourself for any of what happened to her.”

  “Yes, I know, but it’s hard to forgive myself for possibly being the cause of my own mother’s death.”

  “Melony. You cannot blame yourself for something that you had no control over. What’s in the past is in the past. You must focus on the future.”

  “Logically, I know this, but it doesn’t stop me from feeling guilty or from wondering that if I am right, where is the bastard that killed my mother? If a rogue killed Mom, I want him punished.”

  Lorent’s eyes suddenly looked haunted, and she squeezed his hands gently. “You are no longer a rogue. You are a good man.”

  He stared at her with such sorrow in his eyes, her heart ached.

  “Tell me,” she whispered. “Tell me what haunts you so.”

  “I can’t.”

  She stood. “I’ve opened my heart to you. Told you something that I’ve never told another, will probably never tell another. If you care for me, if you want us to have a future together like I do, you have to trust me. I cannot be with you if you cannot trust me.”

  “I do trust you, Melony, but I can’t tell you. You’ll hate me, and I can’t bear that.”

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  She cupped his cheek. “I won’t hate you. I care for you, Lorent. I want to be with you. I want to see where the future leads us, but I won’t lie. I can’t be with a man who keeps himself from me. In fact, I’ll be wide open with you. I love you. But I can’t be with you if you don’t believe that I will love you no matter what you’ve done, no matter what you do.”

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  Chapter Sixteen

  She loved him? Lorent wanted to jump up and shout in joy to the heavens, wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, wanted to make love to Melony right then and there, but hadn’t she just said she couldn’t be with him if he didn’t tell her about his past? How could he do that? If he did, she’d hate him. And did he love her? He wasn’t sure because he didn’t know what love felt like. He cared about her, didn’t want to lose her, would protect her with his own life, but was that love?

  “Melony, please don’t ask this of me.”

  “I’m sorry, but I have to. I’m doing it for both of us.

  He stood, tugged her to him, framed her face with his hands, and brought her lips to his. She tasted sweet, but the sweetness was tinged with sorrow—sorrow caused by him. Just tell her. He couldn’t.

  He deepened the kiss, and she whimpered, but willingly opened her mouth to him when he ran his tongue along her bottom lip.

  Suddenly, white-hot need and fear shot through him in equal measures.

  Claim her. Claim her now before it’s too late. The wolf cried out in his head, and the instinct and urgency was too hard to deny this time as it overwhelmed his sensible brain. Everything she’d just said to him rushed from him, replaced by the need to touch her, take her, make her his in every way. He skimmed his hand under her shirt and cupped her breast over her bra. When her nipple pebbled instantaneously under his fingers, he sank to the floor, dragging her with him, and pinned her under his bigger body without breaking the kiss.

  She felt good under him, as if she belonged there, and he wished time would stop at this very moment so he could stay like this with her forever.

  How could one tiny woman make his guilty soul soar free in hope that it had been washed clean of past sins and was worthy of the love she offered him?

  He drank from her mouth, breathed her scent into his lungs, absorbed each cry he tore from her with every caress.

  Her hands came up between them, and just when he thought she might push him away, she stroked her fingers over his biceps and linked them 124

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  around his neck, drawing him closer, welcoming his touch, silently asking for what he craved. He slid her shirt up far enough to expose her breasts, and when he trailed kisses from her mouth, along her jaw, then nibbled his way down her neck, his breath hitched in his lungs when he saw the lacy scrap of pink that barely hid the treasure he sought.

  He flicked the front clasp open and groaned when her breasts popped free. She gasped, and he looked up at her, knowing his eyes were glowing brightly, reflecting the same passion-glazed fire that burned in hers. He’d never wanted anything more in his life than he wanted her right now. Before he let reason invade the moment, he bent and sucked her nipple into his mouth, curling his tongue around the tight little peak. She cried out, he growled low in approval, and when she scraped her nails against his scalp, he insinuated one of his thighs between her legs.

  She arched up against him, and his cock throbbed and pulsed in need.

  He’d never been this out of control, never felt such urgency about anything in his entire existence. He had to have her, had to claim her, had to love her.

  * * * *

  Melony felt as if she was flying, soaring in a sky of ecstasy. Every time Lorent sucked her nipple into his mouth, her legs clamped around his thigh, and she throbbed low in her abdomen with each pull of his lips. He pinned her to the floor with his bigger frame, but she didn’t feel trapped. His weight on her was a delicious aphrodisiac, a perfect blend of his dominance and her willing submission.

  He laved one nipple and then the other, over and over, until she was sobbing in pleasure, digging her nails into his scalp, encouraging him to continue with the sweet torture he was inflicting upon her with his tongue, lips, and teeth. Suddenly he reared up and took her mouth again in a hot, demanding kiss as he ran his palm down her belly and stopped when he came to her navel piercing.

  He ran one finger around the tiny pink butterfly and growled in her mouth. His touch seared her, and she barely noticed when his palm 125

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  continued lower or when he undid her jeans and slipped his hand inside, under her panties. But when his finger slid over her slick folds and rested on her clit, her eyes flew wide.

  He broke the kiss, but stared at her with glowing eyes, his face so close to her own she could feel his hot breath fan over her cheek with each ragged exhale. They stared at one another, frozen in time for several moments, and then he moved his finger again. She moaned—a long keening sound, a strange sound to her own ears, a sound she instinctively knew only Lorent could drag from her—and clutched at his shoulders.He dipped his finger, the tip entering her then sliding up and over her clit once again, and growled low and long.

  “You are so hot and wet, just for me,” he whispered. He dipped his finger again, then trailed it back up over her clit, where he danced it around the tiny bundle of nerves in a slow, lazy circle.

  She panted hard. “Lorent! I feel like I’m going to explode into a million pieces.”

  He kissed her gently, swirling his tongue around hers, mimicking the movement of his finger on her core. She bucked against him in wild abandon, forgetting about why the
y shouldn’t be doing this, yearning for what he offered.

  He kissed her ear. “Then shatter for me, sweet Melony. Let me give you pleasure.”

  His finger dipped and stroked and dipped and stroked until she thought she might pass out from an overload of pleasure surging through every nerve in her body. The delicious ache in her lower abdomen built, and when he bent his head and took her nipple in his mouth, she flew apart into a million pieces. She clung to him as he wrung every last cry from her lips, and lay quivering under him in numb bliss. Yet while her climax had been mind-blowing, she felt empty, as if something were missing. And it was. Lorent hadn’t been inside her, where she’d wanted him, where she’d craved him most.

  He stared down at her, his body taut and ready to take her. His erection pressed boldly against her as if demanding what it wanted, and she wanted to 126

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  give him what he wanted so badly it hurt. But suddenly, good old kick-you-in-the-ass logic stormed through the passion-glazed wall in her brain like an army laying siege to a castle. She tried to sit up, but he refused to move.

  “Let me up, Lorent.”

  “That’s not what you were saying a minute ago,” he said through gritted teeth as if he was in pain.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let this go so far. I meant what I said earlier.”

  She gently shoved at his chest.

  “Don’t shut me out.” He squeezed his eyes closed for a moment, and when he opened them, the glow was barely discernible.

  “I’m not shutting you out.” She reached up and cupped his jaw. “I would never shut you out. That’s the whole point.”

  When she shoved at his chest again, he rolled off her and was instantly on his feet in a smooth, fluid moment she envied. He held his hand out to her, and she hesitantly took it and let him pull her up.

  She turned away from him to fasten her bra and right the rest of her clothing with shaky hands.