She shook off his hand, her eyes narrowing. “What the hell does that mean?”

He reached into the side of his Speedo to pull out a small key.

“This.”

She snorted, unimpressed. “A key?”

“I lifted it from Kirsten when she was trying to stick her tongue down my throat,” he explained.

If looks could kill, he’d be dead on the spot.

“And why would you need her key?” she managed to ask between gritted teeth.

She was beautiful when she was jealous, he decided.

Eyes glowing with emerald fire. Her hands clenched. Her breasts heaving as she struggled against her wolf.

Of course, she would be even more beautiful stretched across the nearby bed, her body softened with pleasure and her legs spread in invitation, he acknowledged.

His hands brushed up and over her bare shoulders. “Once it’s daylight I intend to search her lair.”

“She couldn’t have shot at me.” Her voice became husky as his fingers followed the plunging neckline of her bikini top. “The sun was out.”

“She could have an accomplice,” he said, already having considered the fact that the vampire could be using a less-flammable partner to throw them off track.

“Hmmm.”

She tried to sound skeptical, but he didn’t miss her tiny gasp of pleasure as his fingers slipped beneath the fabric of her swimsuit to find her nipples already beaded in anticipation.

Subtly he nudged her backward, herding her toward the bed that had featured in a hundred fantasies over the past four nights.

“After that I have a date with Morton.”

Her lips curled into a mocking smile. “Is there something you want to share with me?”

With an impatient motion, he yanked off the tiny top, cupping her swollen breasts with a gentle reverence.

“A golf date.”

She groaned, her hands reaching to grasp his shoulders. As if she was having difficulty standing.

He knew the feeling.

“You play golf?”

“How hard can it be?” he muttered, distracted by the spectacular sight of her rosy nipples that quite literally begged for his kiss.

“Fine.” She cleared her throat. “If that’s all.”

Grasping her by the waist, he lifted her just high enough to toss her into the middle of the vast bed.

“Not nearly.”

CHAPTER 6

Sophia shuddered, lifting herself on her elbows to regard the man standing over her like an ancient conqueror.

She should be pissed.

How many times had she warned him not to act like a caveman?

And yet, she’d not only allowed him to drag her to her bedroom, but she hadn’t made so much as a peep when he’d ripped off her top and tossed her onto the bed like she was some sort of spoils of war.

Perhaps it was because she was so damned consumed by her cravings she couldn’t think of anything but getting that hard, bronzed body on top of her.

Sucking in a deep breath, she struggled to regain command of the encounter that was swiftly escalating out of control.

“Have you been sneaking into the nectar?” she husked.

The dark eyes shimmered like polished ebony in the moonlight, his hands not quite steady as they tugged off his tiny Speedos.

“I don’t need nectar to be on fire for you,” he growled, his massive erection growing even larger as she studied it with an avid gaze. “These past nights have been unbearable.”

Her heart stopped beating as he sprawled on the bed next to her, the heat of his naked body like a furnace.

“This is a very bad idea.”

“Not as bad as denying what we both want.” His wolf glowed in his eyes as he reached for her hand, pressing it against his arousal. “Feel what you do to me.”

“Luc.”

Unable to deny temptation, she wrapped her fingers around his shaft, exploring down to the heavy testicles before slowly skimming back up to find the broad tip that was already damp with his seed.

“Dios.” He shuddered, exposing a claw to slice through the string holding her swimsuit bottom together. She parted her lips to protest the destruction of her expensive clothing, only to have a groan escape as he spread his palm over her bare ass, his fingers squeezing her flesh in promise of pleasure to come. “Hour after hour I lay in my bed, hearing you pace the floor while the scent of your desire filled the air.” He peered deep into her eyes. “Do you know what it cost me not to come to you? Not to ease your need?”

She knew the torment of having him so near and yet too frightened to admit her growing desperation for him.

“Then why didn’t you?”

His hand stroked up her back, cupping the nape in a gesture of comfort.

“My first priority is keeping you safe,” he reminded her, a thin layer of sweat forming on his brow as she gave his cock a slow pump. “I can’t do that if you don’t trust me.”

“And that’s why you haven’t tried to seduce me?”

He gave a strangled chuckle. “That and I feared you might slice my balls off.”

Smart, smart Were.

He knew precisely what to say.

And how to touch, she acknowledged as his fingers moved from her nape to trace the line of her throat.

“Why tonight?”

“I’d like to tell myself it’s because you have come to accept I only want what’s best for you, but the truth is that I’m not a saint,” he confessed, the rasp of his breath filling the air. “I need you so badly I’m not sure I can survive another night without you.”

Without warning his hands shifted to grasp her hips, rolling her until she was lodged on top of him. Pleasure jolted through her as her already damp flesh was pressed to his thick cock.

“Holy hell,” she moaned.

“Tell me you want this, Sophia.”

She glanced down at his impossibly handsome face that was hard with barely leashed passion.

She’d fought this moment for so long. Ever since he’d walked into Sophia’s Menagerie.

Only now, however, did she realize that it wasn’t her fear of being used to simply pass the time that had made her wary of allowing him into her bed.

But something much darker and far more dangerous.

Something that she couldn’t fight any longer.

“I want this,” she whispered.

His hands skimmed to cup her breasts, studying her with the measuring gaze of a wolf.

She didn’t know what he was searching for, but she sensed that it was important.

“Tell me that you want me,” he prodded, rolling her tender nipple between his thumb and finger.

Oh ... God.

“I want you,” she breathed.

“Luc.” His voice was thick with need. “Say my name.”

“Luc.”

“Now let me taste you.”

She planted her hands on either side of his head, lowering her body until he could plant an openmouthed kiss at the base of her shoulder. She shuddered, rubbing against his hard erection as his tongue ran a wet path along the line of her collarbone.

He clamped his hands on her hips, holding her tight against him while refusing her the relief of moving.

“You aren’t going to regret this in the morning, are you?”

She gave a husky chuckle as she turned her head to stroke her lips along his jaw, delighting in the rough scrape of his whiskers. She didn’t doubt he had to shave more than once a day to look civilized.

The thought was oddly erotic.

“Will you?”

He hissed in pleasure. “No, but I don’t want to be kicked to the curb because you blame me for taking advantage.”

“No one takes advantage of me.” She nipped his bottom lip. “And I’m not a silly juvenile who doesn’t know what she wants from one minute to the next. I’m a full-grown Were and I want you.”

A moan was wrenched from his throat as his lips traveled over the curve of her breast, at last latching on to her aching nipple.

Her eyes squeezed shut as a raw, savage pleasure raced through her.

“Oh ... God, yes.”

“You like that?”

Like it?

Hell, she accused him of being a caveman, but her urges in this moment couldn’t be more primitive.

Give her a club and she’d make sure this man never left her bed.

“It’s perfect,” she whispered.

“You’re perfect.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen me during a full moon,” she teased with a small sigh. “I earn my title of Queen of Bitches.”

“I like that you’re a bitch.” His mouth tormented her nipple, lapping and nipping until her fingers dug into his shoulders. “And that you’re not afraid to speak your mind. And that you’ll kick ass when necessary.”

She shuddered, his soft words as much an aphrodisiac as his skillful touch.

Gods, she was on fire.

After waiting for so long to ease this burning ache, she had planned to enjoy a slow, mind-numbing seduction, but the pagan need to have him buried deep inside her was rapidly reaching a critical level.

As if sensing she was tumbling out of control, Luc pulled back to study her with a gaze that sent tiny tremors down her spine.