“Then what are you waiting for?”

He smiled against her lips. “For you to beg.” Because he needed an element of surrender on her part—he knew he wouldn’t get her total emotional surrender yet, so if he had to settle for this, it was enough for now.

Her mouth fell open. “That’s so not going to happen.”

“We’ll see.” He cocked his head, running his finger along her collarbone. “You didn’t give away the movie tickets I gave you, did you?”

“No. Actually, I was going to suggest we go see a movie together.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do tonight.”

The deviousness in his tone made her narrow her eyes. “I don’t like the way you said that.”

He just smiled before kissing her hard. “I’ll be at your door at six. Be ready.”

“Huh?” She’d thought he would be eager to answer those mating urges that had been riding them both so long.

He cupped her chin and rubbed his thumb along her jawline. “Baby, I want you more than you know. But you’ve had a shock this morning, and it was a blow to your system. What you need to do is go inside, take a long bath, and relax for a little while.” And then she’d be in an emotional state where she could deal with him, because Nick wasn’t “nice” or “tame” in bed. “Then later, you can get ready for our date.”

“Where are we going exactly?”

“We’ll get something to eat—you can choose where we go. Then we’ll go watch that movie you want to see, although I can’t guarantee you’ll be able to concentrate because I fully intend to make out with you the entire time.”

“Sounds promising. And then?”

“There’ll be foreplay. Lots and lots of foreplay.”

“I don’t like foreplay. I say we skip it and go straight to the main event.”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry, you’ll like the foreplay. Then as soon as you beg, I’ll give you what you want.”

She should have guessed he’d be the type to love begging. He was a dominant male after all. Although she’d been with dominant males before, she knew without a doubt that it would still be nothing like sex with a very dominant alpha male—particularly when this male was her mate. She had to admit that she was beyond intrigued.

She knew that some people thought females who enjoyed sexual submission were weak, but Shaya didn’t believe that. How could it make her weak when it took a lot of strength to give up that level of control, to entrust herself and her safety to someone else? Despite that Shaya enjoyed submitting in bed, it didn’t mean that she could easily give up control. No, the male had to be someone she was comfortable with.

Her wolf was just as intrigued about tonight. Having a strong, powerful, dominant mate was what her wolf needed, what made her feel safe and secure. Being sexually dominated by her mate was an extremely attractive idea to her wolf. But Shaya had no intention of making it easy for Nick. Where would be the fun in that? “You really think I’ll beg? Aw, bless your little heart.” Complying was one thing, but begging was a whole other thing.

“Oh, you’ll beg, baby. I can promise you that.”

Shaya snarled at the woman sitting a few seats away who was ogling Nick…just like Shaya had snarled at the waitress in the restaurant, and at the girl who served them popcorn, and at the group of young women who had been behind her and Nick in the line. Annoyingly, the guy was ogled wherever they went. Although it was perfectly understandable, Shaya—much like her wolf—did not like it.

Most of the time, he didn’t seem to notice the ogling, though that was probably because his focus was on Shaya. When he did notice, he never reacted other than to come closer to Shaya or to touch her, almost as if he sensed that it bugged her and that the reassurance eased her irritation. Maybe he did sense it. After all, she wasn’t exactly discreet with her snarls.

The ogling had been a little easier to deal with when she’d rejected the idea of giving him a chance and had kept an emotional distance between them; it had dimmed the possessiveness slightly. But now that she had made the choice to include him in her life, this shit was getting annoying real quick. And so she was cranky.

Maybe her level of crankiness wouldn’t have been so high if Nick wasn’t doing his best to make her so freaking horny she couldn’t stand the feel of her own clothes. At every given opportunity, he was touching her. He licked the bite mark on her neck, or nipped at her mouth, or sucked on her earlobe, or kissed her. Even when he simply brushed a hand through her hair or splayed a proprietary hand on her lower stomach, there was a sensuality and teasing quality to it that made her shudder. In essence, the foreplay had begun the very second she had stepped out of the house to find him waiting on the doorstep. Right now, she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to slap him or straddle him. Her wolf liked the latter idea better.

True to his word, he’d spent the majority of the movie kissing and touching her, but each kiss and touch was featherlike—designed to frustrate her, designed to make her push for more. She had, clinging to him, sucking on his tongue, and unsheathing her claws to dig into his skin and keep him in place. But never did he give in, and she quickly came to understand why: He was communicating to her, her body, and her wolf that he was the one in control; that though he wouldn’t expect her to hold back, and though he didn’t want a puppet, he wouldn’t be pushed into handing over dominance—that the control was his.

In short, he was ensuring there would be no misunderstandings when they got home.

When the movie finally ended, a sigh of relief left her. At this point, her face was flushed, her body felt restless, and she was so wet that she would bet even a human could smell her arousal. Nick’s smile was smug as he noticed her discomfort. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she could scent how much he wanted her, she might have thought he was totally unaffected. Marching down the aisle of seats, she gave him a sideways glance. “You’re an ass**le.”

Nick slid an arm around her waist and pulled her back against him. “I told you there would be lots and lots of foreplay.”

“I thought you meant when the date was over—silly me.”

Smiling at her snappiness, Nick spoke into her ear as they walked down the rest of the aisle with his arm still locked around her. “There’ll be foreplay when we get back too.” He subtly ground himself against her, letting her feel just how hard he was.