“Listen to me, Anya, what happened that night will never, ever happen again. I swear it to you. The next time I touch you it will be in gentleness. Hours, baby.” One hand cupped her face as his expression twisted.
Anya couldn’t stand it. She didn’t want to see gentleness on his face now. She didn’t care.
“You break your promises, remember, Del-Rey?” she whispered painfully. “Did you break your promises to Sofia?”
“I made no promises to Sofia,” he rumbled. “Stop this.”
Her head jerked up as she forced herself to contain the pain rising inside her. It hurt. It hurt to the bottom of her soul to see that woman in his arms, to know he had pleasured her, spent hours doing so, and she hadn’t deserved so much as a few moments of foreplay.
“I’ll be more than happy to stop it.” Her breath hitched with the pain. “As soon as you leave my room. I have a party to get ready for, remember?”
“You do not order me, Mate,” he growled. “Don’t make the mistake of believing you do.”
Anya watched his eyes flash, the black deepening, showing a hint of raven’s blue as his expression tightened, his hands flexing on her arms as she felt herself backed into the wall.
“Oh so fierce, Del-Rey,” she snapped. “I catch another woman in your arms, a woman you spent hours fucking, and I shouldn’t feel cheated? Doesn’t work that way. You cheated me and you know it and now you expect me to just accept that things will be different? That you can control yourself? Go to hell!”
“Keep running your mouth, Mate, and we’ll see how fast that mating heat can jump back into your system. Don’t push me like this.”
“I dare you!” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
Cassandra had warned her: never dare a Coyote. She’d been pushed past the point of caring. Sofia had had what should have been hers. Hours of pleasure, and she should just calmly accept it?
“What the hell did you say to me?” His voice deepened, roughened.
“You heard me, Alpha,” she sneered. “I dare you.”
It was the wrong thing to say. He’d warned her years ago never to dare him. He took dares and bets seriously. Both challenged that core of animal genetics within him, and in some situations, well, in this situation, he had no intention of pulling back.
He jerked one hand from her arm, speared it into her hair and jerked her head back.
“You little witch,” he snarled down at her. “You’re not pissed off because of some long-forgotten affair with Sofia. You’re pissed because you believe she had something you didn’t.”
“She had plenty that I didn’t,” she ground out. “She had a man. What the hell did I have, Del-Rey? Slam, bam, knot you, ma’am? It sucked. And you sucked for daring to allow me to walk into my own bedroom and see that affront to the paltry excuse for sex you gave me.”
Enough was enough. He growled low and hard, his lips coming down on hers, his tongue striking sure and deep past the parted curves, as she met his kiss and gave her own.
Her nails bit into his biceps for long, shocked seconds as he felt her lips close over his tongue and her hungry moan filled the room.
There it was. Fuck. Hell. Control. He vowed control. Had sworn for eight months he would love her slow and easy if he ever had the chance again, but all he could do was devour her mouth, her lips.
The glands at the side of his tongue throbbed fierce and hard as he fought to push back the animal rising inside him, striving for satisfaction. Nearly nine months without her. Too many months, too many weeks craving her. He could count the hours if he could clear his head enough.
She drew on his tongue, moaning that soft, feminine little sound of hunger that he remembered only in his dreams.
He pumped his tongue between her lips, fucking her mouth with it as she sucked at it. The mating hormone flowed free now, drawn by the heat of her mouth and the unique taste of her kiss.
He could feel fire gathering at the base of his spine. His balls drew tight and hard beneath his cock, and his muscles locked as he fought for control. Fought to please his fiery little mate.
“Damn you.” His lips jerked back, moving over her jaw, nipping roughly as she arched in his arms. “You’ll drive me insane.”
He jerked at the neckline of her snug sweater, pushed it over her shoulder and attacked with lips and tongue the mark he had left between her shoulder and neck. He stroked it; he sucked at it. He worked his tongue over it and scraped it with his teeth, as his other hand moved from her hair to the hem of her sweater and pushed beneath it roughly.
She was his. His mate. His sweet, tempting little Anya. So soft and defiant. A challenge and a pleasure. She was the perfect mate for him, smart-mouthed little hellion that she was. He loved that about her. She gave him that spark of challenge he needed and kept him on his damn toes.
He intended to keep her on her back.
He picked her off her feet, one arm behind her back, the other at her hips as he laved and caressed the sensitive mating mark.