For Life (5 page)

“I know that you’re safe here with me, and this is where you want to be.”

Damn him for his cocky attitude. “I wasn’t thinking that. Don’t pretend you know me, wolf man.”

Josie relaxed his body and slowly allowed some space between the two of them.

When he took a step backward, her jaw dropped. Maura remained pinned to the wall.

Her body didn’t move and nothing held her there. She looked down, tried leaning forward and let out a yelp when she saw her feet dangling underneath her with nothing but air between them and the floor. She slapped her palms against the wall.

“What the fuck?”

Josie crossed his arms over his chest. Long, corded muscle stretched in his forearms and he stared at her, his expression turning sober.

“
Lunewulf
territory is on the next mountain,” he began slowly in that deep baritone of his. “And the highway running between our packs is still a few miles from where our territory begins. Are you telling me that you didn’t intentionally run toward our pack?”

“I-I…” she stammered, frantically looking at the floor and then struggling to look over her shoulder. “How am I hanging here?”

“Because I put you there. Answer the question.”

Maura stared into his dark eyes. Josie was quite possibly the best-looking werewolf she’d ever laid eyes on. His smell bordered on dangerous, with just enough lust and determination mixed in to make his scent damned near intoxicating. He didn’t blink and his gaze didn’t falter. With this magic of his, he was invincible. The kind of werewolf who would make an incredibly dangerous enemy. That reality shouldn’t be turning her on so much. Being pinned to the wall should have her pissed, not wet.

“I knew Heidi was here,” she said quietly. She forced herself to relax, accepting that however he did it, she wasn’t going to move until he decided to move her. At least he wasn’t hurting her. “But I didn’t enter your pack. I found a cave. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.”

“You knew I was here.”

“Yes. I remembered you from when I came here with Heidi before she mated with Nicolo.” Obviously Pete remembered that day too. Some of their pack witnessed his humiliation on the day that Josie suspended him in the air and then let him drop to the 23

Lorie O’Clare

ground, announcing that he was being punished for abusing her. It had been the first time anyone had ever stood up for her, and it had been a stranger. Pete mentioned that he’d claim she ran off with her lover. He’d use the one day she’d felt a small amount of victory over him against her and claim there was something going on between her and Josie.

Hatred must have twisted her expression. She dropped her gaze when he suddenly looked at her differently.

“Your mate is a waste of werewolf flesh,” Josie snarled.

Her eyes burned, but she wouldn’t let him see her humiliation. “We all make

mistakes,” she said lightly, trying to shrug while stuck to his wall.

“This isn’t a mistake.” He moved closer, touching the tip of her chin.

His gaze smoldered, the heat burying deep inside her. All anger washed out of her.

Her current situation demanded too much of her attention to think about Pete. She licked her suddenly dry lips. “What isn’t?”

“Keeping you here.”

“Are you going to keep me on this wall until I agree to stay?”

“Possibly.” He made a slow trail from her chin to the tip of her collarbone.

“It would be hard to eat stuck here.” She fought not to shiver against his touch. She was anything but cold.

“You’re sexy as hell there though.” He kept his finger pressed against the tip of her collarbone while making a show of devouring her with his gaze.

“I’d look just as good if you let me down.”

“Oh?”

“Yes.” She was entering dangerous territory here. His scent changed immediately.

He took a step backward, keeping his finger at the base of her neck. She moved from the wall and floated in the air just in front of him.

“Shit.” She let out a very undignified squeal and grabbed at him, clawing at his bare chest.

“Trust me.” His expression grew serious.

“I don’t even know you.”

“You can’t smell good from bad?”

“Obviously not.” Or she wouldn’t have a mate who willingly dumped her on the side of the road.

“Making mistakes doesn’t mean you can’t see something good when you’re staring at it.”

She looked up into his gorgeous face. “Damned cocky wolf man.”

He raised one eyebrow and her tummy did flip-flops. God. His scent kept getting muskier, creeping inside her, filling her until her pussy swelled and throbbed.

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For Life

“You misunderstand,” he said quietly, his baritone deepening and rushing over her like a warm breeze. “I know I’m not making a mistake keeping you here.”

“You predict the future too?” She looked down at the floor and her feet dangling beneath her. It dawned on her that she’d relaxed though, her hand simply resting on his bare shoulder.

“Nope. Just sure of the present.”

“Probably because your feet are on the floor.”

She wasn’t sure why she gripped his shoulder harder when he moved his finger.

But he grunted, grabbing her attention.

“You need to trust me.”

“I do,” she said, although her voice wavered.

Josie chuckled. At the same time she drifted higher into the air until she looked down at him instead of eye to eye.

“Oh shit. God.” She tried clawing at his shoulder, but could no longer reach it.

“All I ask is that you trust me.” He looked up at her and his hair touched his shoulder. It was straight and smooth, so black and shiny. His watchful gaze left her face and he looked at her head-on, which had him now staring at her breasts.

Her nipples puckered. It was like his gaze sent prickles over her flesh, making her breasts swell and grow, eager for more attention.

“I trust you.” She willed him to look back up at her.

He didn’t. “No lies.”

Maura let out a sigh, forcing herself to relax. It was the most bizarre experience floating in the air, unable to make herself go forward or backward, up or down. She hated losing control. But the only way to regain it would be making Josie believe she trusted him.

“I trust you,” she said, emphasizing each word.

Slowly she floated to the floor. The hard floor pressed against her toes, and then her heels. She looked down, moving one leg and then the other, then turning. He’d released whatever invisible hold he had on her. If there was any way to learn his tricks, she would love to do it.

“I learned as a pup,” he said quietly.

She crossed her arms over her chest, although she doubted any shield would work against him. “If I think something, you hear it?”

“Yup.”

“What if you’re in a group of werewolves?”

“It can get annoying.”

“I bet.” But also be one hell of a weapon. “Your pack leader must love you.”

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“I’m not sure about that. We’ve known each other most of our lives.” Josie put his hand on her shoulder and guided her into a small kitchen. The faint smell of meat woke her stomach with a growl. “There’s been a few times when he’s hated my guts.”

His fingers scorched her skin right through her shirt. Heat washed over her flesh even when he quit touching her. “That’s how it is with best friends.” She needed to stay focused on the conversation. If her thoughts wandered in the direction of that hot body of his, he’d hear every word. Giving him the upper hand like that didn’t sit well with her.

“I don’t have best friends.”

“Why not?”

“It’s safer that way.”

“Sounds lonely.”

Muscles rippled under his dark skin as he pulled a couple steaks out of the

refrigerator and then tossed them onto the broiler. She watched him bend over. Buns of steel flexed against his jeans. He closed the broiler and then turned the knob on the oven.

“Lonely is a state of mind.” He faced her, a strand of hair again covering one eyebrow. “And feeling sorry for yourself is a weakness. I’m not into being weak.”

“I can see that.” She itched to move that strand of hair off his forehead. But if she thought about touching him, he would know it, not to mention she didn’t want to fill the small kitchen with the smell of her lust. “I’m not into being weak either. You’ve caught me in a predicament. But I’ve been in them before, and I can get myself out of this one.”

He tilted his head slightly, studying her. He branded her with his gaze, leaving her skin feeling hot and prickly wherever he looked.

“Tell me what happened.” He moved closer and then reached for her hair, which fell over her breast.

His knuckles brushed her nipple as he gathered her hair in his hand, and for a moment she couldn’t think of a damned thing to say. Closing her eyes, she reminded herself that she was still mated, and doing anything with this male was not an option.

Not to mention the all-important fact that he was a Malta werewolf and she was
lunewulf
. Their packs hardly got along.

“My mate is insane.” She forced a light laugh, waving her hand in an effort to make light of it.

His grip tightened on her hair as he twisted it around his fingers. If she moved, she’d have to yank her hair free first.

“Go on,” he instructed.

She didn’t look up at his face. Although staring at his broad chest made it just as hard to think. Talking about Pete was the last thing she wanted to do, but it might keep 26

For Life

her from doing what she really wanted. And running her hands over all that steel muscle would take her places she probably shouldn’t go.

Maura inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with his all-male scent. “I humiliated him by going to our pack leader and asking to be let out of the mating.”

“Why did you do that?”

She bit her lip. Her insides were full of Josie’s scent. He stood close enough to fill her vision with dark, rippling muscle. There was no seeing past him, not when she stood this close. And his fingers, softly caressing her hair, distracted her further. Her pussy throbbed. Her breasts swelled and her tummy filled with butterflies. None of the reasons for going to Bob’s seemed important anymore, not with this sexy hunk of a werewolf standing inches in front of her.

“Because I was sick of it,” she hissed and grabbed his arm, exerting an effort to make him release her hair.

Josie moved quickly. His fingers slid free from her hair but then he grabbed her wrist and yanked her forward. She fell against his chest, feeling like she just hit a brick wall. It knocked the wind out of her and made her heart flutter a mile a minute. He would be one hell of a fucking aggressive lover.

“When was the last time he fucked you?” he whispered above her head. He pressed one hand in the middle of her back, holding her against him. His heart beat solidly in his chest, and she felt his words as well as heard them rumble inside her. “How long has it been since you’ve slept with a werewolf at your side?”

His second question slit through her heart. It was that obvious how much neglect and abuse she endured. “It doesn’t matter.” She shook her head slowly and watched strands of her hair cling to the black, curly, coarse hair on his chest. “He doesn’t love me and doesn’t want me. That much is clear.”

“How long since you’ve been fucked?”

She lifted her face and looked into his dark, penetrating eyes. “You can’t gather that information by sniffing through my brain?”

He took a moment to answer and then growled before he spoke. She smelled his frustration. “Not when you aren’t sure of the answer yourself. You haven’t had sex in quite a long time, have you?”

What was the point in denying the truth? Slowly, she shook her head, then looked away from that determined stare of his and instead focused on the stove, which had begun warming the room and filling the air around them with the smell of cooking meat. Although sniffing it out over Josie’s powerful aroma wasn’t an easy task.

“Do you not like sex?”

His question surprised her. “Of course I do.”

When she met his gaze she realized he’d already guessed that much. His gaze grew possessive, his scent aggressive.

“Then you begged for it.”

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“I don’t beg for anything.”

“Not even when you want it more than you want to breathe?”

“I shouldn’t have to beg for sex.” And if they kept up this discussion, she had a feeling he’d be willing to prove that to her. “Besides, what bitch wants to fuck a male who always smells like he’s just been fucked by someone else?”

Josie growled with the ferocity a werewolf displayed right before he sent his fist through a wall. She moved without thinking, jumping out of his way. His outraged expression softened immediately. Nonetheless, instinct kicked in hard. Run—get away from this huge, powerful werewolf. She knew nothing about him. If he had a nasty temper, he was twice Pete’s size, and with strange magic backing his strength, she’d have no way of defending herself.

Josie grabbed her as thoughts of bolting out of the kitchen hit her. With enough ease that it scared her, he lifted her off the floor—at least this time using his hands—and placed her on the counter next to the stove. Her ass hit the smooth wooden surface. He spread her legs with his body and leaned into her. The back of her head hit the cabinets behind her. She reached to shove him away, attack if necessary. The smell of her panic only elevated the intense need to react to his actions. No matter that he was at least ten times stronger than she was. Maura would fight for her last breath if necessary. No werewolf would ever hurt her again—no matter what it took.

“I will never hurt you,” he whispered into her face, his eyes so close to hers she swore she saw into his soul.

And she hated that she trembled, that his words made her eyes sting, that the salty smell of her nervousness clogged the air between them.

“Okay,” she whispered. And even then she choked on the one word. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the pain away. Pete wouldn’t ruin her—she wouldn’t give him that power. Just because this werewolf showed a bit of aggression—hell, it was in their nature to be aggressive—she wouldn’t flinch, wouldn’t jump like a terrified bitch and run with her tail between her legs. And she hated herself when she realized she’d almost tried to do just that.