Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 60481 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60481 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
She didn’t twist to look at me. She stared straight ahead, breathing hard, and I couldn’t miss the note of panic in her wide eyes.
Maybe it was the waxing moon that made me brazen. Maybe it was my wolf, pushing me to get past the barriers to claim her.
“I want more from you, Clio. I know we made a deal. I know you don’t want to take any risks where JT’s involved. I get that. Maybe you think I’m not old enough. Not serious enough. Not worthy. All I’m asking is for you to give me a chance here.”
I wound her hair around my fist, holding her captive without pulling. I was fucking her hard and fast now, like she’d demanded. She worked her wrists free of the bra manacles and fisted the sheets, and she was panting, making little cries each time I drove in.
“Okay, yes… yes!”
I put a little pressure on her hair. “You gonna let me in?”
“Yes! Yes, Sam!”
Fuck.
Mine, my wolf snarled.
My balls drew up, and I came hard. Shoving in deep with a shout, I filled the condom with streams of hot cum. I shifted my fingers at her hip to between her legs, rubbing her clit. “Come for me, Clio.”
She bucked, muscles spasming around my cock, making me nut some more when she clenched and released in the perfect pulse of her climax.
I stayed inside her, as the room spun and swooped.
Claim her. Mine. Mine. Mine!
I pulled out before I did something rash, like sink my teeth into her shoulder to forever mark her as mine.
It was still too soon.
Clio pushed up on her elbows, then flipped onto her back beneath me.
I should have turned away. Should have shoved down my wolf. Instead, I stared at her, all my desire to claim her, to consume her, shining in my eyes. In my wolf’s eyes.
She gasped, kicked back, so she scooted across the blankets away from me.
Clapped her hand over her mouth and stifled a scream.
20
CLIO
* * *
I surged to my feet, so the bed was between me and Sam, heart pounding in my throat.
Sam’s eyes had changed, the same as Ted’s used to when he was mad or when we had sex while the moon was full. Ted’s used to turn from brown to green.
Sam’s glowed pale blue.
My heart hammered against my chest. “Y-you’re one of them, aren’t you?”
He blinked. Didn’t move. Barely breathed. And didn’t evade. “Yeah. I’m a wolf.”
“Get out.” I hastily picked up his clothes and threw them at him, his shirt bouncing off his bare chest and falling to the floor at his feet.
While he held his jeans, Sam held his free palm out. “Easy, Clio. I’m safe. I’m the safest man in the world for you.” His voice was low and soft. Gentle, even.
I shook my head, looking away. Oh my God. I wasn’t scared. I was pissed.
I’d been so stupid! How had I missed the signs?
Sam was crazy strong, just like Ted. He had that same cocky swagger I’d assumed was because he’d ridden on the back of a bronc and survived. It was no wonder how he’d done that now. He’d climbed up the rafters to sit beside JT. He hadn’t been the least bit afraid, just like JT. That wasn’t normal!
“Hey.” Sam kept his voice soft. He hadn’t moved, as if he were afraid one slight twitch, and I’d freak even more.
I felt like puking. Like running. Like he’d tricked me.
I pointed toward the door. “I want you out. I…I don’t…I’m not doing this again. Never again.”
Sam’s brows lowered. “Did he hurt you?” There was a sharpness in his tone that told me he would make Ted pay if he had.
The question knocked the wind out of me. My frenzy to get rid of him and the panic in my body vanished in an instant, replaced by a wall of grief that crashed into me, nearly knocking me down.
It was heavy, bending me at the waist, so I had to put my hands on my thighs for support.
Yes, Ted had hurt me. But not the way Sam thought.
“Did. He. Hurt. You?”
At his even sharper tone, I glanced up.
Sam’s still had that ice blue glow. He was ready to rip another wolf’s throat out for me. His anger on my behalf calmed me a little more.
Somehow, it drew a line of separation between him and Ted, even though they were both wolves.
I shook my head. “No. Not like you think. He ripped my heart out, but he didn’t physically hurt me.”
Sam’s expression shuttered. “Do you still love him?”
I felt strangled for a moment. Did I? Was that what all this grief represented? Love that I’d run from and missed?
I remembered how it felt to have Sam jump in and have my back tonight at the fall festival. When he’d grabbed dinner for us, I didn’t have to think of it. Him with all the kids. With me. I felt supported, like he was trying to be a partner. Something I never–ever–felt with Ted.