Beast Untamed: Beasts of Bodmin Moor, Book 3 (7 page)

He didn’t reach out to her, didn’t click his fingers or make those cooing sounds people tended to do when faced with a reluctant dog. The fact that he’d take the time, have the patience, meant so much to Erin that she couldn’t stop the warmth filling her chest.

Not taking his eyes from Willa, Nathan asked, “How old?”

“She’s sixteen months.”

“What spooked her?”

The six-million-dollar question, Erin thought, and hoped he wouldn’t press so she wouldn’t have to lie to him. “She’s just a little skittish with strangers.”

The way Nathan eyed Willa, and the way Willa eyed him back, prompted Erin to wonder if there was some sort of communication going on between them that went far deeper, sounder, than any normal contact between man and dog. It was the strangest feeling and akin to the kind she had at the oddest moments around Nathan. It made her want to relax her defenses a little, to lower that barrier she had constructed around herself. There was something about him that she couldn’t quite put a label on. Did Willa sense it too?

She let her attention float between man and dog. Nathan’s green gaze had darkened, his expression intense and focused. Her dog was curled tight into her leg and was quivering badly. Erin was about to bend and reassure her, but Nathan stopped her in her tracks.

“Why don’t you give her a minute?”

Nathan barely moved, just crouched there on her kitchen floor while he and her dog had a staring match. Willa barked twice, tried to get farther behind Erin. “She’s really scared. Why don’t I put her in the sitting room and—”

“She’ll be okay. Won’t you, girl?”

Willa sat bolt upright, as if on alert. She whined a little, glanced up at Erin, and then began moving slowly across the kitchen. Her tail was between her legs, something Erin hated. She’d seen Willa like that too many times to count.

Seconds later, Willa stood in front of Nathan. Her tail was still down, as was her head, but she looked up at Nathan with doe eyes.

“Why don’t you hand me some treats?”

A surprised Erin was already reaching for the biscuit tin. “What are you? Some kind of dog whisperer?”

Nathan chuckled. “Far from it. Sometimes all it takes is a little patience. There’s a good girl,” he said, offering Willa one of the treats Erin handed him. “Nothing here to be afraid of.”

Erin knelt beside Nathan, stroking along Willa’s flank. “That’s the fastest I’ve known her to accept someone she doesn’t know. You’re a miracle worker.”

“She knows I don’t mean her harm. It’s that simple.”

Well, not entirely, Erin thought. She’s got too much baggage in her short life to trust that easily. But all that really mattered right then was that Willa was now down on her belly enjoying the treats Nathan fed her, interspersed with a stroke and tickle between her ears.

Erin looked up and met Nathan’s gaze. The man had spent time patiently getting to know her dog when he could so easily have simply ignored Willa. Hadn’t someone once said that you could recognize the heart of a man from the way he treated animals?

It was enough to persuade Erin that she could take the final step toward short-term intimacy with Nathan, and she let the last of her reservations slip away.

She wanted him. He wanted her. It was for one night. Her eyes were wide open.

“You said something about coffee,” Nathan said, still scratching between Willa’s ears. “I’ll need a shot of energy for the drive back to my place.”

Erin smiled. “I think I can manage that.”

His eyes gleaming dangerously, he took her hand and pulled her to her feet. Willa showed her displeasure at the withdrawal of her biscuit source by nudging Nathan’s leg.

“How about your bedtime treat?” Erin said, distracting her dog. “Out you go first.”

She opened the back door to the yard and Willa shot out. Nathan came up behind Erin, nuzzling at her neck.

“You smell good. I meant to tell you that earlier.” His arms came around her from behind and he drew her back against him. He inhaled, deeply. “Yeah. You smell really good.”

She placed her hands over his and wriggled back against him. She could feel his erection nudging against her back and the contact sent shockwaves of awareness from her hardened nipples straight to her pussy.

She ground against him, sliding her hands along his wrists and lower arms, taking care to keep the movement slow and seductive. She’d never taken the initiative with a man before, but now she reveled in it. Just as she did the hitch of Nathan’s breath, the thump of his heart against her shoulder blades.

“Fuck, Erin,” Nathan grated against her ear. “For pity’s sake, let me have you.”

She tilted her head, enjoying the way he planted openmouthed kisses on her neck. Seconds later, with her legs in danger of losing all feeling, she turned in his arms. She met his lips as they slanted over hers and slid her arms around his neck. His hands moved to cup her backside, and he pulled her up hard against his erection. The breath caught between her ribs, and all she could do was moan with pleasure.

Willa jumped at her back, pushing her at Nathan. The dog barked before bustling back into an attack position, displaying her teeth in a snarl.

“It’s okay,” Erin said, coming out of his arms and bending to take Willa’s head in her hands. “It’s okay, baby girl.” She looked up to where Nathan stood in the doorway, a dark look on his face. “She’s protective. She doesn’t like anyone touching me.”

Nathan’s frown deepened. Erin hoped to heaven he wasn’t going to press the issue and ask why. But since he was on a promise of sex, she imagined that, in line with most every other man on the planet, there wasn’t much in the way of thinking going on in his head right then. At least not of the variety that didn’t involve getting her naked, and pronto.

True to her expectations, he remained silent, and Erin breathed an inner sigh of relief. After locking the door, she calmed Willa down with a few steadying strokes of her glossy fur, then put her down for the night in her bed and gave her the nighttime chews.

While Willa was distracted, she beckoned Nathan through to the sitting room and closed the door. Since the stairs were in the corner of the room, Erin led the way over. Nathan took her arm as she reached the first step.

“Do you want to tell me what that was about?”

Damn it. Why did she have to have a man with a thinking brain, when for the first time in her life she was focused on sex? “Like I said, she’s protective.”

“Did someone hurt you?”

The intense look on his face, the dark promise of retribution that shone from his eyes, made Erin shake her head. “No. At least not in the way you think.”

How easily the lie had tripped from her tongue. But even if she were ever to tell anyone about her past, which she didn’t intend to do, this was neither the time nor place for such a confession.

Nathan ran his hand through his hair. “Erin, you need to know that you were right about me.”

She frowned. “How?”

“That night, at the hotel. You said that no woman in her right mind would allow herself to get involved with the likes of me. You were right.”

“I can’t be in my right mind, then, can I?”

“If someone has hurt you before, then you need to understand how it is with me.”

He thought she’d been hurt emotionally by someone who had let her down. While he was correct on one level, Justin had let her down, he was way off course if he thought Justin had broken her heart because she loved him.

While she appreciated Nathan’s concern, she didn’t welcome his need to point out the obvious. That he wasn’t a forever kind of guy.

She faced him squarely. “I’m not stupid, Nathan. I know how things are. You don’t stick. I’m fully aware of that, and also that this is a one-off thing. It suits me just fine. You don’t hold the prerogative on one-night stands.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’re a woman who makes plans. You’re searching for your place, somewhere to put down roots and make a life.”

She cocked her head. “Well now, you’ve got me figured out so well, haven’t you? And anyway, what if that’s true? What does it have to do with you and me going upstairs and having sex?”

“For some women, having sex changes things.”

“Not this woman.” Erin laughed, hoping Nathan hadn’t guessed that this was her first attempt at having plain and uncomplicated sex. “Yes, I’ve got plans, and I want to put down roots somewhere in the not too distant future. I want to make a new life for myself and for Willa. A man who sticks around doesn’t feature in those plans, although I intend to have some very scorching and meaningless sex along the way.

“You should know something about me, Nathan. I haven’t had sex for a while, and I haven’t been that bothered about it, to tell the truth. Now, I’m suddenly bothered, and you happen to be pushing all the right buttons. But there’s one thing I need to make clear, and I have to be sure that you understand.”

He only raised his eyebrows.

“This is a one-night-only deal. It’s all I want from you, and all I’m prepared to offer. Right now, there are things in my life I need to focus on, and a man in the equation is not one of them. You have to understand that.”

Those eyebrows drew together in a scowl, and he ran his hand over his head again. “How is it you always manage to blindside me? I think I’ve got you pegged, and you fucking blindside me.”

Erin slipped her arms up around his neck. “How about we go and enjoy some of that scorching and meaningless sex before we manage to kill the mood completely? Hopefully, it will clear your head a little.”

His arms came around her. “How long?”

“Hmm?”

“Since you had sex.”

There was no way she could call the last time with Justin sex. She shrugged. “It’s been several months.”

Before she could dwell on the night that had changed everything, the wind was knocked out of her when Nathan swept her into his arms. “Then it’s time to end your drought.”

He thundered up the stairs, and Erin clung to him. Sex had never been on her list of priorities, but she had a feeling that was going to change. If she was going to break her abstinence, she knew there would be no better man to do it with than Nathan Quinn.

“Which way?” he demanded when they reached the landing and he was faced with a choice of left or right room. Erin pointed to the right and her room at the front of the house. It was fascinating to be held in a man’s arms like this, swept up as if she weighed nothing and carried like she was some precious plunder.

Of course, that was down to Nathan’s caveman appeal, and the inherent alpha traits he displayed. Right then, she was his woman to possess. But the thought didn’t scare her, or concern her in any way. He was so different from the man she had run from. Nathan had nothing to prove, and likely had nothing to hide. He was his own man, and lived according to his own rules. He was commanding, demanding, and sexy as hell. She wasn’t scared of him. She was excited by him. By the energy he emitted. The energy of a predator…

That word again. It always seemed to pop into her head when she was around him, and it should have terrified her. Right now, it only intrigued her.

Once inside her room, he set her down. He pulled her against him and kissed her. He turned her around and slowly…oh so very slowly…drew down the zip of her dress. Since Erin preferred not to heat the bedroom, she shivered a little as the cool air brushed her flesh.

The light from the street lamp filtered through the gauzy curtain. Erin had a heady moment of relief that she hadn’t put the bedside light on when they’d entered otherwise the houses across the street would be getting a good eyeful just about now.

With the zip of her dress released, Nathan slid his hands inside and around to cup her breasts.

“You don’t play fair, sugar.” His breath whispered along her neck, stimulating every nerve ending.

“Why not?”

“Wearing a bra to cover these.” He squeezed his palms around her lace-covered breasts. “A man wants easy access.”

Erin dropped back against him. “I would have thought a man like you wouldn’t have trouble divesting a woman of a simple bra. Maybe I’ve misjudged your prowess.”

In retaliation, he squeezed a little harder before shoving the bra cups up above her breasts and getting himself a handful of bare naked flesh.

Erin pushed herself into his hands, moaning softly when he squeezed her hardened nipples between his thumb and forefinger. Big solid fingers, she thought, closing her eyes and dropping her head back against his shoulder. And a man who knew what to do with them.

He continued to manipulate her tender breasts, his breath deep and labored against her ear. She protested and opened her eyes when he slid his hands away. Then he grabbed the hem of her dress and swept if off over her head, taking her bra with it.

He threw the garments aside, and reached for her breasts again, then slid his hands down the front of her body to toy with the lacy edge of her panties.

Erin held her breath, wanting that first touch of Nathan’s fingers against her throbbing pussy, but he stopped.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, tilting her head back to meet his gaze. “Why did you stop?”

He was silent for a moment, a questioning look in his eyes. His expression was somewhere between confusion and resolve. “I haven’t stopped.” He wrapped his fingers around her arms and turned her to face him. His gaze raked over her. “I just want to do things differently,” he said gruffly. “With you, I want more.”

Chapter Six

Before Erin could ask him what he meant about doing things differently, Nathan hoisted her into his arms and carried her to the bed. She clung to him, wrapping her legs around his waist and enjoying the feel of his hands on her backside while he held her steadily.

At the side of the bed, he kissed her, long and slow and deep. So that when he released her mouth, she was a swirling mass of need. He lowered her to the mattress, not releasing his hold on her while he spread her out along it. Erin reached for the tie that he’d already loosened and pulled it from around his neck. Since he’d unfastened the top button of his shirt, Erin touched her fingertips to his collarbone before unhooking the rest of the buttons. She helped him out of the shirt, her breath hitching at the sight of his muscular chest, with just a light covering of dark hair spearing its way down and out across his pectorals. She noticed the tattooed band around his upper arm, made up of tiny Celtic knots.

When she tried to reach for his trouser button, he patted her hand away. “Not yet.”

With that wicked gleam in his eye that never failed to shoot her hormones into the stratosphere, he hooked his fingers around the sides of her panties. Taking his time, he drew them down until the top edge of her pussy was visible.

She had a moment to wish she’d taken time to visit the nearest salon for a wax, but he kissed her again, lowering himself over her. She opened her legs to accommodate his lower body, enjoying the brush of fabric against her inner thighs.

There was something decadent and sensual about being virtually naked beneath a man who wasn’t, and Erin shifted to feel that soft sweep of cloth over her thigh again.

“You keep doing that, sugar, and I’m not going to be responsible.”

“For what?” she asked breathily, giving another slight wiggle.

He slipped a hand beneath her hips, bringing her up closer to his cock. “Feel that?”

She bit her lower lip and smiled. “Hard not to.”

“Yeah, well, I’m planning on being inside you when I shoot my load. So you’d better lay off with the wriggling and teasing.”

Although the mood was playful, Erin sensed that beneath Nathan’s words lay a warning that he wasn’t to be messed with. She knew he was a man used to being in control, getting his own way, and a distant tinkle of warning bells went off in her head. She wanted to establish some ground rules, just in case.

Maybe she did it to test him, or maybe she did it to reassure herself, but she brought her hands to his chest and deliberately met his gaze. Then she shifted her hips and intentionally ground against his thick, hard erection.

He sucked in a breath, his gaze narrowing. Erin held his heated look. “You need to understand how it is with me, Nathan,” she said parodying his earlier words. “I’m a woman who doesn’t take orders too well.”

He stared at her, then his mouth hitched into a slight smile. “Is that so?”

“It is. And for me, sex is a two-way partnership.”

His fingers traced along the side of her rib cage. “What other kind is there?”

“Everything we do needs to be mutually agreeable, just so you know.”

He frowned. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Erin nodded, smiled. “I want to touch you,” she said, sliding her hands over his powerful shoulders. “I want you to touch me.”

“Yeah, well. So far we’re on the same page.”

His forefinger circled lightly around her breast, coming ever closer to her hardened nipple. She sucked in air and held her breath when he took that nipple into his mouth. Still he circled it, this time with his finger and tongue. Dampening the bud, then trailing the moisture around the plump softness of her breast.

Erin arched up, giving him more. She slid one hand down his back, enjoying the heat of his flesh against her palm.

His finger continued to make those slow, torturous circles around her nipple, then he moved his hand from her breast and smoothed it over her lower ribs, her stomach and down to cup her mound.

Erin arched more, pushing herself into his palm.

“Fuck, sugar. You’re hot. Damp.”

He said the last word on a groan of male satisfaction and slid his middle finger beneath the crotch of her panties. His fingertip toyed with the entrance to her slit, tiny little flicks against her heated folds that made her want to beg him to just get the hell on with it.

After several more excruciatingly teasing movements against her flesh, he withdrew his hand. Bringing his hand up, he touched his tongue to his fingertip, all the time making sure to keep his gaze on hers. Then he brought his hand down and tapped his fingertip against her bottom lip, before sliding his finger inside her mouth and along the inside of her bottom teeth.

She scented rather than tasted herself, and reveled in the predatory gleam in Nathan’s eyes as he watched her.

“You need to know how good you taste, sugar. So that when I go down on you, you’ll have some idea of the pleasure you’re giving me.”

Oh damn. She’d never known anything like this. Never had a man talk to her during sex before. It was erotic, wicked, and it was turning her on like nothing she’d ever experienced.

Moving onto his knees between her legs, he watched her while he reached for the sides of her panties. He drew them down, glancing between her legs when the fabric was no longer covering her mound.

She saw his chest expand as he drew in a breath, watched his stomach muscles contract sharply. He pulled at her panties, coaxing her legs up so he could yank the fabric away, along with her shoes.

Naked, she went to lower her legs down but Nathan held her ankles. With her knees bent, her legs wide open, Erin felt a tiny bit self-conscious. Especially since Nathan was still clothed from the waist down.

Still holding her ankles, he lowered his head. Her intimate muscles clenched, and she tried to pull her ankles from his grasp, but he was having none of it. His fingers tightened around her ankles, and he pushed her knees up toward her chest.

He touched his mouth to her heat, withdrew and did it again. Erin squirmed, but in warning, he tightened his grip on her legs even more. He kissed her again, this time dipping his tongue between her folds. Erin cried out at the same time he released her legs. Using his thumbs, he parted her pussy lips, and slid his tongue lightly along her crease.

She arched, moaned, wriggled against him. He only pressed his tongue deeper, then moved it inside her. Her muscles clenched around him, and she jerked when he pressed in a finger alongside his tongue.

“Nathan…” She tried to sit up, to grab at his shoulders and release some of the intensity of what he was doing. But he didn’t stop, seemingly oblivious to her sensual overload. Her muscles felt tight and she knew she was tensing up. She wasn’t sure why, and she wondered if she could stand it, but at the same time she wanted more. So much more.

His lips pressed against her pussy, the pressure increasing with the movement of his tongue, his finger. He pumped lightly, his tongue sliding deep every time his finger retracted, and then he altered the movement so that he released his tongue and pushed deep with his finger. The two-way attack had Erin squirming beneath him and muttering his name over and over, like a sensual mantra that might center her, root her to reality.

Instead she was swept further away, up and along the edge of oblivion. She trembled there, waiting, grasping for a stable line to cling to. For purchase, she gripped the sheet beneath her and simply gave herself up to the erotic pleasure that Nathan offered.

She came. Hard. Fast. Her muscles clenching around his tongue, his finger.

Spent, she lay panting while Nathan refused to cease his ministrations.

Her head spun; her senses reeled. “Nathan.” She tried to lower her legs, but he reached for her knees and pushed them away from her center. “Nathan. You need to…”

Hell. It was building again. That pressure, that tightness at her core. He worked her with his tongue and she grabbed the sheet again, arched her neck, squeezed her eyes shut. Seconds later, she hit the heights, dazed and astounded that she could climax again so quickly after she’d been spun on her axis by the first one.

She relaxed her grip on the sheet, releasing the tension she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, while her intimate muscles pulsed from the aftershock.

Nathan sat back and looked at her, his eyes languid and half-closed. His mouth was slightly open, slick with her moisture, and he breathed long and deep. His chest rose and fell, his skin glistening from the half-light that fell across the room.

Watching her, he slid the back of his wrist over his mouth, then leaned over her. Bracing himself on his hands, he kissed her.

Erin reached down between them and felt for the clasp of his waistband, pleased when he allowed her to release it and slide down his zipper. She slipped her hand into his boxers and found him hot, hard and very big.

He gasped into her mouth and she squeezed him. Then she began stroking him. She felt every muscle in his body tighten before he drew back.

“Why don’t you let me make myself comfortable,” he said, stepping off the bed and yanking off his shoes, trousers and underpants in one easy move.

Erin scrambled to her knees and met him as he came back on the bed. She reached for him again, pushing him back against the mattress. “You do that really well,” she told him, taking him between her hands again. “
Really
well.”

“What?” he asked, tucking his chin into his chest and looking down to where her hands were getting busy. “Eat a woman out? You make it easy, sugar. The taste of you fucking exploded on my tongue.”

She really loved the way he talked during sex. It was raw, exciting and highly erotic. Justin had never talked. He’d just fucked.

She shook away the past and focused on the present. “Well, now it’s my turn,” she warned, and lowered her head.

His taste exploded on her own tongue. Tart, salty and musky all at the same time. She licked the head of his cock, lapping at the pre-come glistening at the tip, then took him into her mouth an inch at a time. She glanced up, saw that he’d stretched his arms back over his head and closed his eyes.

His nostrils flared, and he made deep masculine sounds of appreciation in his throat. Erin hadn’t much cared to perform oral sex in the past. Probably because Justin just shoved his cock into her mouth when he wanted it. But with Nathan? She was actually enjoying it. It helped that Nathan took such pleasure in what she was doing, murmuring encouraging sounds while she worked him.

She stroked him with the inside of her mouth, using her tongue to lightly graze his flesh. She had a moment of panic when Nathan reached down and held her head, but his hold was light, and he let her control the movement.

Until he gave a grunt, his stomach muscles clenching and his cock jerking. He grabbed her hair and tugged her head away.

“Okay. We’d better stop right there.”

He rose to his knees and eased her back against the mattress. His eyes were slumberous as he nudged her legs open and knelt between them.

“Oh hell.” Erin came up on her elbows. “I never asked. You’ve got a condom, haven’t you?”

“Yeah.” Nathan reached toward the pillow. “I’m prepared, sugar.”

She hadn’t seen him place the condom there, but now she watched spellbound as he ripped the packet open with his teeth and rolled the rubber onto his considerable erection.

Suitably attired, he dropped onto his hands and braced over her. “You seemed a little tight when I had my fingers inside you. We’ll take this good and slow.”

His words embarrassed her a little, but more than that, they took her back to a time with Justin. A time when he’d told her she was frigid and cold, and then proceeded to pump himself into her in a frenzied onslaught.

Well, she wasn’t frigid
or
cold. She was a new woman now. A different woman. One who wanted her own needs met, on her own terms.

“I don’t want slow,” she heard herself assure him. “I want you.”

Braced on one hand, he took hold of his cock and guided it to her entrance. “You’ll get me,” he said and blew out a breath. “You’ll get all of me.”

True to his word, and despite her protest, he took it slow. He eased in, and Erin fought to relax her inner muscles against his length and girth. He was a big man, in every way, but she wanted him. All of him.

She knew that going slow cost him. She could tell from the way he ground his jaw, the way he squeezed his eyes shut. Each time he pushed forward, Erin gasped for breath, and he stopped. When she held her breath, he drove forward again. She wanted to tell him to just do it, to be inside her. That while his consideration was appreciated, she didn’t need it. Not with him.

As if he’d read her mind, he pushed all the way. His satisfied grunt coincided with her intake of breath. She tried to relax her hold on his shoulders, but she badly needed something to hold on to right then. He filled her, not only his very amazing cock but…everything. The very air around her seemed to be charged with him. He took up all the oxygen, all her consciousness.

When he started to move, she looked up at him and met his heated gaze. He moved with long, slow thrusts, his eyes never leaving hers. Leaning down, he kissed her. Openmouthed kisses that allowed them to exchange breaths, and all the while he kept up the excruciatingly steady pace.

She slid her arms down his back, needing to grab his ass and make him sink deeper. She widened her legs, wrapped them around his waist and rocked her hips. His gasp reverberated around her mouth.

“Shit. I’m trying to—”

“I know what you’re trying to do,” Erin grated. “I told you, it’s…” She had to break off when he changed the angle of his thrusts, rocking his hips just at the right…hell, hell, hell. Just there… Right there…

The hard slide of his cock against what had to be her G-spot stole what breath she could manage, and with the air locked in her lungs, the room spun wildly. She went with it, her hips gyrating in a frenzied need to grab for whatever place was available to her.

“Nathan…this…I…”

His response was a very male grunt each time he drove deep. He squeezed his eyes shut, his breath hot on her neck. She had time to dig her fingers into his hard ass before she was shot into orbit. Color and sensation flashed behind her closed eyelids and time seemed to be suspended. Only the orgasm seemed real. And Nathan, propelling her toward a place she’d never known before.