dominance alone. With Josh there’d been instinct, the heady recognition of being with her own kind, a seductive sort of belonging that hid his weaknesses, his flaws.
Julio was beautiful, wild power, mysterious and unfamiliar. Dangerous. The coyote’s submission had nothing to do with mating, but it was still trust. Need. Twisted with her human desire, it was strong enough to intoxicate her.
She should be smart, ease back. Ask what he wanted to do. This was why the damn wolves in New Orleans had turned her away from their fucking BDSM club to begin with. She trusted or she didn’t, no in-betweens, no negotiations, no safewords.
But that was a human game, and this was something else. A game humans would never understand, never should, and she
He held her gaze for several heartbeats, intensity burning in his dark eyes. Then he began to undress her.
It was slow. Deliberate. Practiced, but she’d expected that. Julio Mendoza of the many legendary conquests wouldn’t fumble with the clasp on a woman’s bra. Sera’s breath caught as he slipped the fabric from her body, but it was the hungry look in his eyes more than anything else that did it.
His fingers fell to her shorts, and she almost moaned her relief. “No more going slow?”
He unfastened her shorts and pulled them lower on her hips. “Slower than ever, honey. Up, so I can get these off.”
The words didn’t make sense, but she cared more about bracing one hand against the fridge and the other on the counter. So easy to lift her hips, and he stripped away her shorts.
His lips touched her skin, some indefinable place just under her rib cage, but not quite on her stomach or her hip or her waist. Then he traced his tongue up, between her breasts, all the way to the hollow of her throat.
“Julio…” When she dropped her head back, it thudded hollowly against the nearly empty cupboards. “Can I touch you yet?”
“No.” He skated his thumb over one hard nipple, and this time her moan was frustration and pleasure.
He was going to tease her. Torture her. She was going to love it. “Kiss me? Please?”
He smiled, slow and hot. “Yeah.” His open mouth covered hers, hotter than the kiss in the car. Deeper too, once he’d licked her lips until she opened for him willingly. Julio kissed like he loved how she tasted, like he could spend all night making her squirm on the counter with the suggestive play of his tongue against hers.
He was breathing heavily when he lifted his head and slipped his fingers beneath the lace of her panties.
Oh God, he was going to break her brain. Right here on the counter, while he was still clothed. As turned on as she was, she’d come in under a minute.
Maybe she should warn him. First she had to breathe, which was harder with him staring at her like that, dark eyes as glazed as her own must be. Her words came out as more of a whisper. “I’m not going to last very long at this rate.”
He leaned closer and laughed against her lips. “Sweetheart, that sounds like a promise to me.” His free hand wrapped around the back of her neck and dragged her mouth back to his.
She was so busy moaning that she almost forgot to feel guilty at the thrill she got from the possessive bite of his fingers on her neck.
Julio growled as he slicked one finger over her clit. “Pull my hair, Sera. Let me know you feel it too.”
Her fingers were already clutching the back of his head, and she didn’t remember moving them. But she didn’t care because he’d given her permission. She needed something to cling to as her body pulsed with his next slippery touch, and she was almost embarrassed to be so wet when he’d barely touched her.
Then he eased inside. Deeper, his tongue in her mouth and two fingers working into her like he had a fucking roadmap with a giant X over her G-spot, and now she really was going to follow him around like a lovesick puppy for the rest of her life, because men didn’t-Her eyes shot open and she cried out, the sound lost to his mouth. She twisted her head just enough to draw in a breath. “Right there, right there—oh my God, Julio,
“I haven’t—” His fingers twisted just right, and pleasure fractured so fast she cried out. Not a pretty noise, and she didn’t give a damn. Her whole body throbbed with this orgasm, the release of days of slow-burning tension, and she didn’t realize she was smacking her head against the cabinet with each cresting wave until Julio cupped the back of her head and drew her face into the crook of his shoulder.
Sera shuddered and closed her eyes, shivering every time a lazy aftershock tightened her body around the broad fingers still deep inside her. Gasping for air only dragged the scent of him into her, the human smells of aftershave and cologne and the wild something that meant wolf.
She was in so far over her head. “You’re a dirty bastard.”
“Are you complaining?”
“No.” She took advantage of the proximity of his throat and licked his skin. “Are you using your psychic powers to scramble my brain?”
He tilted back his head. “They don’t scramble other people’s brains. Just mine, and only when I have a particularly intense vision.”
Even with his hand between her legs, the thought of being in his head was a thousand times more intoxicating. She licked her way to his pulse and bit softly. “Did you have a vision of this?”
“Only the highlights.” He brushed her hair back and smiled. “I told you—you’re beautiful when you come.”
Sera let her head fall back and shifted her hips enough to set off wild sparks where his fingers stroked inside her. “If you stay like that, you’re going to get a lot more highlights.”
“Oops.” Julio bit her chin and eased his hand away. “I forgot.”
Teasing play, and it melted her. Sera wrapped herself around him, knees hooked over his hips and arms locked around his back. Nuzzling her face into his neck felt natural, like she belonged there. “I’m touching you,” she whispered. “Please don’t make me stop.”
His voice dropped to a low rumble. “What about that swim you wanted?”
Her coyote yearned for it. Not as satisfying as shedding her human skin and running, but it was still a game.
Then again, there was a very human game to be played inside. Sera edged her fingers under his shirt with a questioning noise. “No sex?”
He freed her grip on his shirt. “Maybe not right now. At some point, though—hell yeah, sex.”
Sera huffed out a laugh and eased away to study his face. “For a legendary seducer, your pants are seriously hard to get into.”
Julio tugged her off the counter, holding her upright when she would have fallen. “I know the value of timing. Is that so bad?”
“No.” Not when her knees were this wobbly. She’d let him throw her onto whatever surface he wanted for as many limb-melting orgasms as made him happy. “Let’s go swimming.”
His fingers skimmed her nipple. “Like this? Naked?”
A tiny shift of her hip rubbed her up against his erection, and fuck. Impressive might not do his dick justice. “Holy hell, Julio. If you pull that thing out, you’re gonna need to handcuff me to something to keep my hands off it.”
He slapped her hand playfully. “Fine. I’ll wear trunks.”
Pity. Leaning in, she nuzzled his throat with a laugh. “If you want to distract me, slap my ass.”
He slid his hand down over her hip to her ass, but he offered her a squeeze instead of a slap.
“Plenty of time, sweetheart.”
Plenty of time, and if he gave her enough of it, she’d scare him off with just how bent she could be. She was, after all, a freak, so much of one that even the mating frenzy couldn’t keep Josh from eyeing her with barely masked disdain.
She wasn’t ready to look into Julio’s eyes and find disdain instead of warm affection. She wasn’t ready for
