Wolf Tales III. Kate Douglas
dealership. There’s one north of Portland and they’ll have gear. Leather’s safer.” And a hell of a lot sexier.
What the hell was he thinking? Someone was trying to kidnap her, and all Jake could think of was the sweet curve of her ass in tight, black leather pants. What it would be like to peel those pants down over her muscular thighs, bury himself deep inside her welcoming heat.
As if she’d welcome him in the first place. Damn. There was only one way to find out. He had to get her in leather.
Shannon nodded, agreeing with Jake as he continued, selling himself on the idea as much as Shannon. “Let’s just pick up the basics for now, find a place to get some sleep for a couple hours. Tomorrow we ditch the car and buy a bike.”
“Just like that? You think we can do it that fast? Just walk in and pick out a motorcycle and go?”
Jake thought of the Pack Dynamics credit card in his wallet. Virtually untraceable, credit unlimited. “When you’ve got the money, you can do just about anything you want. C’mon. Let’s get the stuff we absolutely need for tonight, then find a place to sleep. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.”
Shannon had assumed Jake meant to sleep in the car. Instead he pulled into a small, neatly landscaped hotel parking lot south of Portland, Maine. While Jake got a room, Shannon gathered up the bags with their purchases. Jake walked back to the car, grabbed the heaviest of the sacks along with a leather overnight bag, and carried them up the outside stairwell to the second floor.
Shannon realized her heart was pounding, and it wasn’t from the short climb up a flight of stairs. Jake had gotten one room, but how many beds? She watched him insert the card key in the lock with what should have been a sense of dread, but instead was pure anticipation.
Jake flipped the handle when the lock clicked and opened the door, but he paused and looked back over his shoulder. For the briefest of moments, Shannon saw something flicker in his eyes, some emotion she’d not seen before, a question? A sense of vulnerability, as if he expected her to turn and run away?
Turning away was the last thing on her mind. Shannon smiled and stepped through the doorway ahead of Jake. The room was small and clean, dominated by one huge bed covered in a thick down comforter.
Shannon’s pussy clenched. Her suddenly erect nipples tingled against the soft knit fabric of her sweatshirt. She piled her bags on a small table in one corner and took a deep breath. “This was a good idea. I’m exhausted.”
That wasn’t all, but how do you tell a total stranger how turned on you are? That he makes you so damned hot all you can think of is stripping off your clothes and tackling him? After she peed. Some things couldn’t be ignored. Embarrassed now, Shannon experienced a moment’s shyness. “I need to use the bathroom, then it’s all yours.”
Jake nodded. He grabbed the remote for the TV and flipped it on, giving Shannon more privacy. She found a toothbrush and some paste in one of the bags and went into the small bathroom. The moment she closed the door behind her, she leaned back against the solid wood. Why, when she had absolutely no compunction about picking up a relative stranger in a bar did her attraction to Jake leave her feeling so rattled?
It made no sense. He was a man. It was obvious he was interested in her. Hell, for some reason most men were, though Shannon really couldn’t understand why. She didn’t flirt, didn’t go out of her way to hunt for a man. They just seemed to gravitate her way, each of them as desperate as she was.
Some she took home, others she ignored. Lately, she’d taken home a few she should have ignored, but they’d seemed so needy.
Maybe that was Jake’s difference. Maybe, for the first time Shannon could recall, she was the one who needed. Jake seemed totally self contained. Other than that brief glimpse she’d had, he came across as a man used to getting what he wanted. Used to being in control. Tia, with all her dreams of wolves, would have called him an alpha male.
“Damn, Tia. What the fuck have you gotten me into now?” Grinning at her own sense of drama, Shannon used the toilet, then checked to see if her legs felt smooth. At least she’d showered and shaved them before her kidnapping. Good Lord. She should be giving thanks she was still alive, not worrying about hairy legs and body odor!
Still wearing her warm sweats, Shannon quietly slipped back into the room. Her dreams of hot sex with Jacob Trent slipped away on a smile. Partially propped up against a mound of pillows, Jake lay stretched out on the king-size bed. He slept, one hand clutching the remote control resting on his flat belly, the other flung over his head. He’d taken off his shirt and partially unzipped his jeans. A large white bandage covered the left side of Jake’s throat and Shannon wondered briefly what injury it hid. She hadn’t noticed it before. His feet were bare. Like his chest, they were dusted with dark hair.
In sleep, the harsh angles of Jake’s face had softened, the worried frown between his eyes relaxed. His light brown hair glowed like old gold in the soft light from the bedside lamp.
It was three in the morning. He’d arrived late in the evening from California, which meant he’d probably been awake close to twenty-four hours.
Shannon slipped the remote out of Jake’s hand and turned off the TV. She lifted his legs to pull the blankets free of their substantial weight, then covered Jake with the quilt. He mumbled something, then slipped lower into the pile of pillows.
Shannon turned off the light and crawled carefully into bed beside him. Jake’s soft breathing soothed her, the warmth of his strong body next to hers gave Shannon a sense of comfort she’d not felt before. She lay there in the darkness, sadly aware she couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually slept with a man. Uncountable numbers had come to her bed for sex, but she’d always asked them to leave when they were done.
This entire day had been one strange episode following another. First Tia’s frantic call, then the kidnapping, then rescue, then flight…now this, whatever this was. Jake’s arm snaked around Shannon’s body and he pulled her close, fitting her ass into the cradle of his thighs. He grunted, buried his nose in her hair and settled back into sleep.
Not the wild and steaming sex she’d imagined just a few minutes ago, but definitely satisfying. Smiling in the darkness, Shannon gave in to her overwhelming need for rest.
Strange dreams followed her into sleep. Amber eyes glowed out of the darkness and a wolf howled close by. At some point she felt too warm and stripped off the heavy sweats. Later, Shannon might have heard a shower running, or was it the rush of a woodland stream flowing over worn rock? She dreamed of dark paths in damp woods, of racing naked through wet grass and tangled willows, leaping streams with a sense of freedom, a strength she’d never experienced. Her heart swelled with joy so pure, so all-consuming, it affected her sensually, filled her soul with passion, made Shannon, for the first time in her life, feel whole.
As if that final, unknown part which had forever been missing had somehow slipped itself into place and completed the puzzle that was Shannon Murphy.
A sound woke her, or maybe it was the quiet. Shannon blinked sleepily and gradually came more awake. Stretching, her body tingling and aroused as if she’d just reached climax, Shannon slowly opened her eyes. Jake stood at the end of the bed, his wet hair combed back from his forehead, lean hips barely covered by a white towel, and his eyes…his eyes glowed amber like the wolf in her dreams. Glowed with desire matched only by Shannon’s.
She’d only known him a few hours. She’d known him all her life. Without hesitation, Shannon lifted the blankets aside and made a space for Jake in the bed next to her. His long fingers loosened the knotted towel and let it slowly fall from his lean hips.
He was only partially erect, his tumescent cock swelling out of a dark nest of hair even as she watched. Shannon licked her lips, imagining that perfect, uncut cock slipping into her mouth. Imagined the taste and texture of Jake’s balls, the feel of his swollen penis moving slowly down her throat. Stretching her lips, teasing her senses with the taste of man. She swallowed and the sound seemed loud in the silence stretching between them.