I should have been afraid. I thought I would beterrified.
Instead, the sight of them and my raw red skin took my pleasure to the next level.
“You like my claws, don’t you,” he growled from behind me and kept on pushing and pulling me until every other thought fell away from my mind. Only he remained—including the claws on him that I couldn’t look away from. My skin was bloody in a few places, but the pleasure had numbed the pain completely. I just held onto him and let him have his way with me, crying out at the sight of his claws, at the feel of him inside me, at the way he moaned, just as loudly as I did, until…
Beep, beep, beep.
Everything came to a halt. Even my heart stood still for a long moment.
My eyes opened to the high ceiling of my studio apartment. It took my mind a good minute to catch up and realize why I wasn’t bent over the kitchen counter, with claws digging in my waist and Dominic thrusting himself inside me.
My God, a dream. It had been a dream.
I sat up, a mix of a million emotions making my body shake. I was covered in sweat, breathing heavily, and my alarm clock kept on beeping, and my apartment was empty.
No pancakes. No berries. No Dominic.
But my panties were soaking wet.
“Damn you, wolf-ass,” I growled at the walls, suddenly so mad a black veil fell in front of my eyes the moment I stood up. I pulled up my pajama top, too, as if I was really expecting to see claw marks around my waist, but my skin was just as pale as usual. Just aspink.
“A dream,” I reminded myself. “It wasn’t real.” Just a stupid dream. The tenth dream I’d had in the past month and a half since the last time I saw the wolf-ass. It was bad enough that he was in my mind all day every day. He had to haunt me in my sleep, too.
I should have known it was a dream the second I saw those pancakes. I didn’t make pancakes. I could barely make an omelette on my days off. But I’d been so desperate to feel him that I hadn’t even questioned the absurdity of the situation—Dominic waking up inmyapartment in the morning. Plain ridiculous. He hadn’t even been at the office since he and his brother burned down that building in San Francisco. Just the thought of that night made me shiver, but I’d gotten used to ignoring it by now.
Or, at least, I was pretending I’d gotten used to ignoring those thoughts until I actually succeeded.
Forty minutes later, I was showered, dressed, and on my way to work. I lived ten minutes away from the ODP Headquarters by foot, and it was already November. The cold air helped a lot in clearing my head, so by the time I arrived at my desk, the dream wasalmostcompletely wiped from my mind.
Almost.
“What’s got your cheeks all pink?” Hunter asked, grinning ear to ear. Patricia and Eva were still not in—five minutes until our shift really started, but Hunter was known to pop up early from time to time.
“The cold,” I said, pointing up to the ceiling, since we were a level underground. “What’s got you in such a good mood this morning? And you’reearly, too.” I wiggled my brows.
“Guess you could say I had a…busynight, last night,” he said, dusting off his shoulder.
“No way,” I said, pushing the screen of my computer to the side to see him better. “Who was it? Give me the details.”
Hunter immediately stood up and came to sit behind Eva’s desk, which was right next to mine. Like that, we were close enough to hear each other whispering.
“I met her at a park yesterday when I was out jogging,” he said in a rush. “Which was saying something because I looked like shit. Sweaty and gross.” He wrinkled his nose.
“Sweaty men are sexy,” I said with a nod, as if I knew exactly what I was talking about.
“She thought so, too.” He grinned, his brown eyes sparkling with excitement. “We chatted for a while and walked around the block a couple times. She’s a jogger, too—and yes, sweaty women are definitely sexy.”
I high-fived him. “Damn, Hunter.”
“Her name is Lynn and she’s human. Works at a marketing firm, even though she studied law. And—check this out—she just broke up with her abusive boyfriend a few months ago, so she’s looking toblow off some steam and experiment.” He said it all with a knowing grin that made me burst out laughing.
“Experiment. Hmm, that sounds—”
“Amazing. Exactly what I’m looking for. No strings attached—justexperimenting,” he announced. “I’ve been looking to experiment with women for a long time now. Guys are a subject I’m well familiar with. But women…” He wiggled his eyebrows again.
“I can’t believe you got so lucky, you prick,” I said, feeling a little bit envious, too. I was happy for him—I really was. He was in such a great mood, it was obvious he’d loved every second.
And…crap, I wanted that, too.