He brushed a hand across my cheek, and dammit if my eyes didn’t close to savour that feeling, because I wanted everything he offered. I’d been out on my own for so damn long. Nan died when I was still a kid, Mum dying when I was finishing high school. “We burn bright, burn hot, and then we’re gone again,” she’d said by way of commiseration on her deathbed in that bloody hospital. I’d been responsible for everything—keeping a low profile, trying to balance the needs of my beast with my own for survival, weathering heats, feeling the pull of instincts no one else I knew felt. My breath came in and out in long shudders, making his arms tighten around me, but my eyes snapped up, meeting his head-on.
“You want to take care of me. You want to control this…heat.”
He balked at the last word, looking stung for a second, before my eyes fell closed. That made sense, I guessed. On paper, it was an accusation, but my voice, it betrayed me, colouring the words with something else altogether—a plea. The opportunity to just surrender seemed incredibly appealing right now, more than him or any of the other guys waiting around. I just wanted someone else to make the decisions and know I was safe.
“That’s what you want?”
My eyes flicked open, the lids feeling impossibly heavy. He studied my face with a terrible ferocity, turning him from a good-looking dude to some kind of savage idol. I squirmed in his grip, thinking I’d somehow fucked up again.
But that wasn’t it.
“You want me to take you through your heat, direct what you do and who with? Take…control?”
“Well, someone needs to,” I said with a sigh, closing my eyes again. This time, I was cradled against that hard chest, held close as I listened to his heart beat. I jumped when his hand went to my hair, Shaun making a soothing noise as he stroked me, waiting for me to relax.
“I’d be honoured,” he said finally, so much time having passed, it took me a while to work out why. “I’ll need you to communicate. I can’t do this if I don’t know what you like and dislike, but yeah, I can help with this.” He let me go, picking me up and placing me on a stool before stepping between my splayed thighs, holding the damn water out to me. “And you’ll need to look after yourself.” His eyes were entirely focussed on my lips as he tipped the bottle up against them. “Drink your water like a good little girl.”
OK, we were back to sexy as fuck. Good to know. My hand wrapped around the bottle, yanking it from his grip.
“Nobody has ever accused me of being a good girl,” I snapped back, belatedly wondering how that would go down.
I needn’t have. A slow smile spread across his face, one filled with hot, hot lascivious intent.
“Well, that just makes things all the better, doesn’t it? Drink your water and then get in the bedroom. The scent of you is enough to drive a man to distraction, but melding with my clothes…” That mouth dropped down to my ear again, the words vibrating all the way through me. “It makes you smell like you’re mine.”
Chapter 10
“I’m not thirsty.”
When I get backed into a corner, flirty Bec and cheeky Bec get shoved to one side and the one true Bec comes forward—bratty Bec. I planted my feet to the floor, crossed my arms to stop myself from reaching for the water, despite the desert forming in my mouth. As my chin came out, I saw it, that reassuring flash in Shaun’s eyes. Of heat, of anger, maybe? No, not that. Intensity, one I couldn’t read, which only made it hotter. This, this was familiar territory for me. That tightening of his jaw, his eyes blazing green, the slow menacing prowl. Yeah, Mumma liked that.
“No?” he asked me in a silky voice as his fingers gripped the bottle.
“No. I can get my own drinks and monitor my own hydration, thanks.”
“Yeah?” I felt his body against mine as he crowded in behind me, a heavy weight there hovering just out of reach. Then a strong hand came over my shoulder, taking the ice-cold bottle and running it over my skin. I shivered as the condensation left a cool trail that felt like it evaporated as soon as it moved away. “You don’t need this?” He reached around, two arms coming over my shoulders as he untwisted the lid, the sharp crack making me jump. “Not even for me? Drink your water down like a good girl, and I swear” —his lips brushed the top of my ear— “to make it worth your while.”
And there it was, all the dark promise and allure I’d fantasised about and never had. Everyone kept asking me what I wanted, but right now, it
was this. His spare hand moved, pulling back only to slip around my waist, pulling me tight against him, enough strength there to weather whatever I threw at him, and I wanted to a lot.
Which was why I spun around in his grip, snatching the bottle out of his hand and took it as my own.
“And if I don’t?” I asked, tipping it slightly, so just a few drops escaped.
“You little minx,” he said, eyes narrowing. “Don’t you tip that water out.”
The rapid patter of droplets on the floor sounded in the room. He reached out for the bottle, but I jerked my hand away, our gazes welded together. The motion also sent more water splattering. For a second, I saw his gaze harden and wondered what the hell I’d done, but just as quickly, this was followed by a smile—a really hot, kinda carnivorous smile. He was the wolf and I was the bunny, but damn me if I didn’t want to be eaten all up.
“So you’re going to ignore your body’s needs, just to spite me?” That sounded harsh, but it didn’t come out that way. He looked pleased somehow by my performance. I shook my head, never able to back down, no matter what ridiculous hill I’d decided to die on. “OK.”
His tone lightened, the tension quickly dissipating as he stepped back, and I was left feeling like I’d lost something. The bottle was plucked from my fingers, to be recapped and put into the fridge, I was sure, but nope, that wasn’t the way this was going to play. Cold, cold water hit my overheated skin, making me jolt, as he poured it all over the shirt he’d leant me. My nipples, already painfully hard, felt like they were about to abandon ship by popping off and rolling away to find a nicer girl who’d beg Shaun for decorous little kisses on their aching points. He smiled as I just gasped, the shock so intense, that was all I could do, and then my reality was driven home rather abruptly.
His grin was gone, his eyes tracing the way the fabric now melded to my flesh, showing every damn curve, like I stood before him naked, but he wasn’t my only audience. Rumbles from outside the glass door, muted but still very much there, reminded me who was watching all of this. My head turned slowly, saw the men shifting where they stood, some hands straying to their cocks, others moving closer, just a step, to catch a better look. He turned me around to more fully display my body to the group of men, his lips at my neck.
“You might ignore what you need, but we won’t.”
Was that a promise or a threat? I shivered, feeling the hard length of his body against mine. Promise, I decided there and then, as his cock ground into my arse.