Suddenly she knew what she wanted and when. “I don’t like being indoors, Troy. Not all the time. And I don’t want my first time to be in a strange bed, in a cabin at night. But outside, here and now with you.”
His eyes darkened, and he drew in a breath. “I would never hurt you. I may be a werewolf with enormous strength, but I will be gentle with you.”
She gave a little laugh. “And I promise the same.”
His smile looked seductive, sinful, as he regarded her. Gone was the playful, tender Troy. This Lupine looked hungry, with a primitive male hunger he intended to slake on her.
Troy fisted his hands. “I want to be gentle with you, Jenny. But I don’t know if I can hold myself back. I don’t want you to fear me.”
She tossed aside the apple. “I’m no wilting flower, Troy. You know I can handle myself. And you.”
They both knew she was on special Lupine birth control pills. Ever since the alley incident, Jenny took no chances.
This time, she felt strong enough to face her fears and surrender to the passion between them.
Chapter 9
She couldn’t have envisioned a better place to finally make love with Troy. Her best friend. Her protector.
Soon to be her first lover.
Jenny lifted her face to him and parted her lips. Triumph flickered in his dark gaze, then his mouth descended, hot and hungry, before she could say a word. He cradled her head and deepened the kiss. It felt like all the floodgates had opened, allowing them to indulge in what they both wanted, both needed, since the first night they’d met.
Barely banked desire flared inside Jenny, then she felt all her resistance to the moment fade, replaced only with pure need.
She opened her mouth wider to his probing tongue and then flicked her tongue over his, tasting apples and cinnamon and dark hunger. Growling low, Troy pulled her closer and crushed her mouth beneath his.
Jenny pulled away, panting, touching mouth made swollen by his possessive kiss.
“I don’t want gentle,” she whispered.
“Damnit, I wanted to wait for a bed. I wanted to wait for candlelight and roses and champagne, all the things you deserve. For the romance you deserve.” He splayed his fingers across her chin, his thumb grazing her lips. “I wanted to wait. I can’t. I’ve waited too fucking long.”
Cranked up from passion, Troy looked feral, taut with sexual need. She didn’t fear him. Not Troy, the wolf who craved her body and held her heart.
“I don’t need a bed. I have the sun as my candlelight and the earth as my bed, the way I want it. And you.” She kissed him again, pulling him down atop her.
This was real. This was life, not the bubble she’d encased over herself since her parents died. Since meeting Troy, her life had changed. Before Troy, it was day to day survival. He brought a spark back into her life, a sense of belonging. Now she needed skin to skin contact. Only with Troy.
His touch made her shiver with awareness. “Aren’t you wearing too many clothes?” he murmured.
Since the near rape in the alley, she seldom got naked in the wild, only briefly when she shifted from one form to the next. Times when she’d bathed in a river or creek, Troy always gave her privacy, turning his back and keeping guard on the shore.
Being nude in human skin meant being vulnerable. But this was Troy, who had saved her in the alley, who watched over her and would protect her with every last breath in his body.
At first, she fumbled with the buttons on her shirt. So much easier to shift into wolf than undress in front of him. Memories surged of the dark alley, the Skin who’d ripped her blouse, making her feel powerless and weak…
She stopped unbuttoning her blouse and dropped her gaze. Troy’s hand was on her chin.
“If you’re not ready for this, Jenny, tell me. I would never rush you. I want you badly, but I don’t want you scared.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “I could kill those Skins for trying to violate you in the alley. Remember, you’re strong, Jenny. Stronger than them. Stronger than me as well.”
She forced herself to relax. “It’s this process…”
“What if you shifted into a wolf and shifted back without clothing?”
The thought crossed her mind. Jenny smiled. “You read my mind.”
“We can both do it, if that helps.”
After living in the wild for two months together, shifting as wolves, the process came naturally. Jenny shifted into her wolf, feeling the rush that always accommodated the change, the thrill of power, the wash of senses sharpening.
Wagging her tail, she looked at Troy, now also in wolf form.
Troy shifted back first to Skin, and sat on the blanket fully nude. Still in wolf form, she stared at him, the scent of him flooding her nostrils. Such a magnificent male.
“Keep looking. You know you want to.” He patted the blanket. “But I’d rather you look at me while you’re in Skin as well.”
When she didn’t move, he lay flat, his belly and dangling bits exposed, the most vulnerable position for a wolf.
“You have the power, Jenny,” he said in his deep, seductive voice.
Jenny understood. Troy was fast, but the power was in her hands. Leisurely, he stretched out on the blanket, hooking his hands behind his back.
“Look all you want, sweetheart. Take your time. I’ll be ready when you are.”
Lean and wiry, he had a terrific chest with a faint covering of hair. Everything about him was perfect male beauty.
She glanced at the thick nest of black hair at his groin, and his impressive erection. Whoa. Long and thick, and eager for her.
She wanted to jump him, lick her way up his ridged abdomen, enjoying the taste of him beneath her exploring tongue, then kiss his mouth…and take his shaft inside her…
I can’t wait.
She shifted back. With the shift came the full kick of
