In the Heat of the Night Read online

  The iron railings of the headboard screamed as the handcuffs rattled. The entire bed shuddered as his hips jerked off the bed.

  Reaching down, Serena cupped his balls in her hand, rolled them around, and squeezed them.

  He tried to thrust his cock deeper into her mouth.

  “Oh, no,” she mumbled around a mouthful of cock in a low voice. “You tortured me. Now it’s my turn to play.”

  After twirling her tongue around the head, she lapped a wet trail down one side of his cock then back up the other. Again, she sucked the head into her mouth. Again, she trailed her tongue down one side and up the other. “Ummmm. Better than an ice cream cone. More like a lolly pop, my own personal sucker. What flavor are you?”

  She sucked on the head again. “Passion fruit.”

  Kearnan clenched his fists and jerked against the handcuffs again. The railings rasped and groaned. “Damn it, Serena. Stop playing.”

  She chuckled. “But I like to play. You got to play with me.” She sucked his cock deep into her mouth, but before he could thrust deeper, she pulled back and tickled the base of the head with her tongue. Then she nibbled her way to its base and sucked first one ball and then the other into her mouth.

  Hips jerking, Kearnan groaned.

  Serena blew on his balls. “Do you like this?” she teased. “Does it make you harder? Are you ready to come?” A deeper growl was his answer.

  Serena licked his balls—first one then the other. She sucked them into her mouth and rolled her tongue around them. Lifting her head, she looked into his eyes. “This is for handcuffing me to the bed.” Then she bent over and nipped him at the base of his cock—hard.

  The iron railings on the headboard shrieked then gave way. Kearnan grabbed Serena, tossed her onto her back, captured both hands in one of his, and rolled on top of her. He spread her thighs with his knees, and ground his cock against her wetness. The handcuff dangling from his wrist rubbed against her forearms.

  He stared down at her. “You bit me. You bit my dick!”

  “You kidnapped me and handcuffed me to the bed without asking,” Serena snapped back as she bucked and tried to dislodge him. “I’ll bite you again if I have to.”

  A slow smile appeared on Kearnan’s face. “Promise?” He dipped his head and nipped her neck. Then he slid his knees between her legs, parted her legs wider, and plunged inside.

  Serena arched into his thrust, answering it with her own. She shuddered as he nipped her shoulder. Kearnan was wilder than he had been last night, and she loved it. His hips ground into hers, and he growled when she seemed to try to shift away from him.

  He stopped moving and rested all of his weight on her. “Mine. You’re mine, Serena. Say it.”

  “Yours, Kearnan. Only yours.”

  An arrogant smile on his lips, Kearnan began to move again.

  Serena let herself go. Her orgasm was shattering.

  When she dug her nails into Kearnan’s back, he pumped hard twice and stiffened. Then, burying his face in her neck, he relaxed.

  Chapter 7

  As Kearnan rolled off of her and onto his back, Serena snuggled against his side, nuzzled his chest, and inhaled. The odor of man and sex teased her senses. How she loved the way he smelled! The soft hair under his arm tickled her shoulder. She licked the fine sheen of perspiration from his skin. “Ummm.” He tasted pretty good, too.

  Her stomach growled.

  Kearnan’s chuckle rumbled. “Hungry?”

  Serena nipped his chest. “I spent almost an entire day and night in a wolf den. I’m barely out for half an hour, tired and hungry, barely able to think straight, you kidnap me. Except for a drugged mug of tea and a couple of glasses of water, I haven’t had anything else to drink or eat in over thirty-six hours.” She pushed up onto an elbow and looked down at him. “Instead of feeding me, you handcuffed me to the bed and had your evil way with me. You’re lucky I haven’t started gnawing on your leg.”

  Kearnan grinned. “Don’t blame me for not having anything to eat. I had a tray of food with me the first time I came in here. You’re the one who decided to attack me instead of eating.”

  Serena’s stomach growled even more loudly. “Well, I’m not attacking you now. Feed me.”

  As Kearnan sat up, Serena scooted over to the edge of the bed. The handcuff dangling from his right wrist bumped her thigh. She glanced back to the bent iron railings of the headboard. “You broke the bed.”

  An arrogant smile appeared on Kearnan’s face as he unfastened first one then the other handcuff and tossed them on the bed. Wrapping his arm around Serena’s waist, he pulled her onto his lap and kissed her. “It was worth it.”

  His hand slid between her thighs.

  She was still swollen and wet.

  He nuzzled her neck. “You’re still in heat.”

  Serena’s stomach rumbled again. She nipped his shoulder and slid off his lap. “I’ll be in heat for the rest of the week. Sex later. Food now.”

  Turning, she sashayed into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She had more than one need to satisfy.

  Kearnan’s nostrils flared as he watched her swaying hips. After the door closed, he lifted his fingers to his nose and inhaled. The rich, musky aroma shot bolts of electricity straight to his groin, and his cock stirred. Chuckling, he dropped his hand and rose to his feet. Serena was right. Food now. They both needed to keep up their strength.

  As Kearnan rose, his sensitive ears registered the sound of rushing water. Serena must be taking a shower. That would give him time to stop in his room to grab some clean clothing for both of them. As much as he loved seeing Serena naked, he’d never be able to control himself long enough for her to eat. The scent of her heat was far too enticing.

  “I’ll be in the kitchen,” he called and headed out the door. “I have a couple of steaks in the refrigerator.”

  Serena’s stomach growled at the sound of Kearnan’s voice. She hoped they were big steaks.

  Grabbing the shampoo, she squeezed a dollop onto her hand. As she worked it through her hair, her mind drifted back to her thoughts from earlier that morning and Kearnan’s arrogant high-handedness. How she loved it! Her werewolf side reveled in his domination. Male werewolves could become very arrogant and heavy-handed when claiming a mate, especially if she was in heat. Kearnan had been far more gentle than most male werewolves would have been. She’d seen some female werewolves emerge from a heat mating battered and bruised. Their males hadn’t been unscathed either. In every case, both had been extremely happy.

  “Ah, hell, Serena. Be honest with yourself,” she muttered to herself. “You’ve been fantasizing about Kearnan for months. True you never pictured yourself handcuffed to a bed.” She shivered. Handcuffed to the bed. Gods, but the sex was better than anything she’d ever imagined. She rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and grabbed the conditioner. “And I thought he was human. Why didn’t I know he was a werewolf?”

  Because you spent as little time as possible with him, ditz, answered a snippy voice in her head, and when you were around him, so were the wolves. Their presence hid his.

  “But what about the staff meetings,” Serena muttered back. “The wolves weren’t at those.”

  Her stomach rumbled even more loudly.

  She sighed. “I can figure this out later. Time to eat.”

  After rinsing her hair again, Serena turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. She wrapped herself in a towel, bent over, and wrapped her hair in another.

  Straightening, she spied her reflection in the bathroom mirror. A now frowning Serena stared back at her. She should have realized Kearnan wasn’t human. Damn, but she’d worked with him for three years. Wolves or no wolves, he shouldn’t have been able to hide his true scent from her that long.

  Serena pulled the towel from her hair and began to comb it. She’d thought a human had played her body with such skill and finesse. Kearnan certainly acted like a human, even in bed. He’d had her helpless and spent hours pl
aying with her body to prove his point about human love. Still, he’d released her and offered to let her leave before making love to her. The sex hadn’t been the mindless, hormone driven mating it could have been.

  But Kearnan wasn’t completely human. He was a werewolf, like her. This morning, when she’d bitten his cock, his reaction had been immediate. She still couldn’t believe he’d had the strength to break the iron bars of the bed’s headboard.

  A shiver danced up and down her spine then dove for her groin. Even satiated as she was at the moment, she shuddered, anticipating the next time they made love.

  Dropping the comb, Serena went back into the bedroom. Next time. Her heat would lessen rapidly now that the moon was waning, but she’d still need sex to satisfy the urges flowing through her blood. Her only other option was the thrill of the hunt and taste of warm blood at the kill. But, sex with Kearnan was better. Not even the thrill of the hunt, the smell of fear rolling off of her prey, or the taste of warm blood pumping into her mouth when she made her kill was better. Kearnan had concentrated on her pleasure first, made her come over and over before he satisfied himself. He told her he loved her. He was a man to keep, a werewolf to keep. He’d claimed her as his, declared she was his. Only one question remained in her mind. Why hadn’t he mounted her the way a werewolf claims his mate?

  “Why bother yourself worrying, Serena,” she muttered to herself as she loosened the towel and let it drop to the floor. “He’s a male. As Grandmother always said, “Considering how predictable our males are, they’re damn unpredictable.”

  Looking around the room, she spotted the clothing she’d worn two days ago lying on the bed– freshly laundered and folded.

  She grinned. “He does laundry. If he’s a good cook, he can be as unpredictable as he wants. I’ll keep him anyway.”

  After placing Serena’s clothing on the bed, Kearnan had taken the time to stop in his room for a pair of clean sweat pants and tee shirt so he was just dropping a couple of thick steaks onto the broiler when Serena joined him in the kitchen.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and hugged him. “Smells good.”

  He leaned back into her and poked a steak. “I just put them on.”

  “And you can flip mine over right away. I like my steak rare—the bloodier the better.”

  Kearnan flipped the steak and said, “Fresh lettuce and other stuff for salad is in the fridge.”

  Serena snorted. “Rabbit food! No thanks. Just meat for me—lots of it.”

  “A woman after my own heart.”

  Serena hugged him again, and a spicy scent enveloped her. She inhaled. Then she stretched up on her toes and sniffed the back of his neck. “It’s the cologne. Damn it, your cologne hides the werewolf scent. That’s why I didn’t know.”

  “You better step back if you want your steak bloody rare, Sweetheart. My mind wanders in other directions when you’re sniffing me.”

  Serena stepped back. “Why use cologne to hide your scent? Without it, the only ones who would know would be other werewolves.”

  Kearnan dropped the steaks onto two plates, grabbed them, and headed for the table. “Because I don’t want other werewolves to know what I am. I like my privacy.”

  Serena followed him across the kitchen. “Who would bother you? A male werewolf who wants to be left alone is left alone.”

  Kearnan set the plates on the table, turned, jerked Serena into his arms, and kissed her—thoroughly. He sucked her tongue into his mouth and mated it to his while he cupped her buttocks and pulled her against his erection. When he finally released her, Serena’s knees wobbled, and she was forced to grab his forearms for support.

  Kearnan buried his face in her hair and inhaled deeply. “Less talk,” he growled, “more eat. Your scent is driving me wild.”

  With those words, he guided Serena to a chair and set her down. The tantalizing aroma of seared steak wafted upward. When her stomach roared again, all thoughts not dealing with food fled her mind.

  When Serena stabbed her knife and fork into her steak, Kearnan relaxed his guard, sat down, and started on his own meal. The last thing he needed right now was Serena asking too many pointed questions. She hadn’t rebelled when he claimed her, and she showed no inclination to run away from him. She could find out the truth about his past and ancestry after their relationship was on solid footing—preferably after three or four children had been born—maybe.

  Chapter 8

  Alex Whitehorse reached over and changed the radio station—again.

  “Damn it, Alex, let the radio alone. It’s not like we have a wide selection with all these mountains around us.”

  “If I want your opinion, Josh, I’ll ask for it. You should have stayed at home to care for the pack. I could have driven down myself. How much farther?”

  Josh switched the radio station back to its original station. Dwight Yokum’s voice filled the SUV. “According to the directions we got at that minimart, we take the next left onto Oak Canyon Road then another left when we get to the Oak Canyon Preserve sign. And the pack is fine. The council won’t allow someone to assume your position just cause we’re gone for a couple of days. You need to learn to relax.”

  “I’ll relax when you pay attention to your driving and don’t miss the turn.”

  “You can not force Serena to mate you, Alex. Why don’t you choose someone else? There’s not an unmated woman in the pack who would turn you down.”

  Alex turned to face the woman sitting behind Josh. “Because twelve years ago, when I defeated the other two contenders for pack leadership, you and the other members of the council convinced me to wait for Serena to grow up and then choose her for my mate. As granddaughter of the last pack leader, mating her would cement my position. I agreed. I liked Serena. She was an intelligent girl who seemed interested in pack responsibilities. She knew I was only waiting for her to be old enough to mate.”

  Alex continued to stare into the woman’s eyes. “Before Serena left, she claimed I didn’t love her. Why would she say that? I do so love her. There is no other female I’d want for my mate, to be Alpha female. When she sees me, she’ll know she was wrong. Why else would I chase her half way across the country?”

  “Ah, hell, Alex,” Dave Forrest cajoled from the back seat, “it’s only been three hundred miles.”

  “Shut up, Dave,” Alex snapped. “The last thing I want is advice from an Omega.”

  Dave immediately shrank back into his seat and looked out the window.

  “A good leader does not belittle his followers,” George TwoBears admonished.

  Smashing his fist into his palm, Alex jerked himself around and stared straight ahead. He eyed the dashboard—wishing he could punch it to relieve some of his frustration. But, if he did, his fist would shatter the metal and plastic, undoubtedly causing some kind of malfunction. This SUV was the one luxury he’d allowed himself since becoming Alpha. He didn’t want to break it. Worse, George was right. He should never have lashed out at Dave. Like Josh, he’d been a friend since they were all boys.

  Alex clenched his fists tighter. Damn but he had more important things to do than chase after Serena. Why was she being so fickle? What did she mean he didn’t love her. Of course he did.

  “No matter where his place in pack hierarchy is, each member of the pack is important,” George continued.

  “Damn it,” Alex snarled, “you’re not even pack. If not for Alesandra…”

  “You agreed with the council that he could stay,” Alesandra interjected.

  “She’s right,” Josh added.

  “I don’t need advice from my Beta, either.”

  Josh stomped on the brake. Tires squealed as the SUV slid to a stop in the middle of the road. After jamming the gearshift into park, he jerked around in his seat until he faced Alex. “Wrong. Giving you advice is my job, and you used to listen to me. Ever since Serena ran away, you’ve become more and more obsessed with her. I agreed to help you find Serena, to find out
once and for all if she will mate you. If she doesn’t, you have to choose someone else. The pack is getting restless. If you weren’t such a powerful fighter, at least three different members would have challenged you by now.”

  Alex’s fingers sank through the armrest. “Who are they?”

  “Enough,” Alesandra commanded. “No one is going to challenge you, Alex. Josh, lets go. We have a journey to finish.”

  The two men glared at each other for a moment. Dropping his eyes first, Josh turned his attention back to the road. Easing the SUV back into gear, he took his foot off the brake and continued down the lonely road.

  Behind Alex, George TwoBears turned his gaze to Alesandra. If I were a woman, I would not mate him either.

  Alesandra chuckled then ignored the angry glare Alex tossed over his shoulder. Telepathic communication was especially handy when one didn’t want one’s conversation overheard. If you were a woman, my love, Alex would take one look at your hairy body and run howling the other way.

  George grinned. You don’t seem to mind. Besides, our women are no more hairy than yours.

  Alesandra answered his grin with one of her own. Ever since George had staggered out of the forest and collapsed bleeding from multiple wounds on her cabin porch, her life had taken on new meaning. She had a new reason to live. And, with that reason came the realization that she had made a mistake with Serena and Alex.

  She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. It’s all my fault, George. I thought Serena was falling in love with Alex, that he would be the perfect mate for her. If her parents had lived, they’d have been the Alpha male and female after her grandfather and me. I wanted the same for Serena. In my mind, she was the best choice for Alpha female. If one of the other males had defeated Alex, I’d have wanted her to mate him. But Alex defeated them easily, and he led the pack quite well, exactly as my husband had groomed him to do after Serena’s parents died. Then Serena came of age.

  Alesandra opened her eyes and stared out the window at the passing scenery—a seemingly endless forest of trees, oak, pine, hemlock, birch.