hidden talents (9 page)

“They were wonderful.” Adam wagged his head and laughed. “Sometimes

they joked that a cuckoo had snuck me into their nest. We could be pretty different in our attitudes, but as much as they loved each other, they loved me more. They added their love together for me. It was an awesome way to grow up.

When they died, it made me think about what I ... wanted out of life.”

Ari knew he"d meant to say what he wanted out of
marriage
. She gnawed her lip and looked at the sidewalk, hard pressed to imagine a more different model for the wedded state than the one she"d had. Her parents had been in agreement but not in love - not that she could tell, anyway.

The gulf between her and Adam felt impossibly awkward. They reached the steps of his building and went up them in silence.

“Keys,” he said, letting go of her hand to dig them from his pocket.

Why was watching him work a lock intimate? Despite the confidences they"d just exchanged, this hadn"t been a date. Ari wasn"t heading up these stairs for a good night kiss.

When he opened the door to his apartment, the stillness inside informed her they were alone.

“My aunt and uncle must have taken Ethan home,” he said.

He rubbed the front of his pants legs like he was nervous. The motion drew her attention to his zipper. Adam had an erection. Not a small one either. The pressure of its fullness outlined it clearly against the cloth.

“Sorry,” he said, noting where her slack-mouthed stare had landed. “That fight with Nate got to me. It"s a werewolf thing. Testosterone and all.” He swung the door closed behind them. “I"ll just shut up now.”

She caught his arm to stop him. “That boner isn"t just for Nate. Your fight was a while ago.”

He smiled wryly down at her. “True. Also Nate wouldn"t know what to do

with it.”

“I do,” she said, and cupped it in both hands.

He let out a sound surprisingly like a purr. His palms slapped the paneled door to either side of her head. Braced then, his hips rolled into her rubbing, causing her pussy to turn molten. “You sure you want to do this?”

Ari dug in harder and sank down to her knees. “You have
no
idea,” she assured him.

His desire for her must have been stronger than his desire to argue. He helped her with his tab and zipper, then pulled out his cock for her. She hadn"t gotten a good look at him last night. He was big and dark and his swollen veins made her lick her lips. Ten inches might not have been an exaggeration. From her current perspective, he had quite the monolith.

“Your hands are in my way,” she observed.

He made a sound like she was going to kill him. A small clear bead seeped from the opening in his tip. “I don"t want to shove too far in.”

“Don"t worry, honey. I"ll tell you when to hold yourself again.”

She hadn"t meant to call him
honey
. Hoping he hadn"t noticed was probably futile. Since he didn"t comment, she could pretend it was no big deal. In any case, the picture he presented was too yummy to turn from. Once he let go, she steadied his shaft herself. She didn"t suck him immediately. Instead, she lapped him, lollipop style, from his pulsing base to his quivering satin tip. His groans were her inspiration, his clenching thigh muscles her best praise. “Do you like your balls played with?”

He grunted in answer and planted his feet wider.

She licked his ball sac and tugged it, then massaged the smoothness behind it with firm fingers. His musky smell flew up her nose, the hint of cedar dilating all her veins. If that weren"t enough of a turn-on, his prick stood more vertical, the freaking Empire State Building of erect penises.

“Please,” he groaned. “Take me in your mouth.”

She didn"t have to remind him to hold himself. He pulled his shaft down from his belly and steered it between her lips. The head was smooth as it breached her, and so hot that if she hadn"t been drooling for him already, she would have then.

“Oh God,” he moaned, pushing carefully. “Ari.”

What was it about grateful guys that flipped her switches so thoroughly?

Since he was taking care of the non-deep-throating, she dragged his pants to his knees and worked her fingers into the muscles that were bunching admirably. She sucked him deeper, licking at his grip on the lower part of his shaft.

“Shit,” he gasped, clearly liking that.

His legs were spread too far to pull his cargo pants to his ankles, but she could still drive her hands inside them over his calves. His body rolled as she squeezed them, his sweaty palms squeaking on the door.

“I don"t -” he said, then had to stop when another sensual undulation took hold of him. “I don"t want you to finish me this way.”

He dropped before she could argue, on his knees with her. Their gazes

locked, heating her even more. “Lift your arms,” he said gutturally.

She lifted, and he pulled the borrowed sweatshirt over her head. She was bare beneath it, going braless usually not a big thing for her.

It was a big thing for him. He palmed her and groaned, plucking her nipples with his fingers until she thought she might come from that. He didn"t give her a chance.

“On the floor,” he said, already pushing her down.

Her jeans were halfway down her legs before her brain remembered she

ought to be stopping him. “Wait.”

He pulled off her socks and bent to kiss her hipbone. “I know,” he said. “I won"t. Condoms are only about seventy percent effective for weres, and maybe sixty for alphas.”

Only sixty for alphas? Did that mean he was even more manly than his

detectives?

“You"re not -” She started panting as her cotton panties went the way of her socks. His big hot hand slid deliciously up her thigh. Boy, it was hard to think. “If we start this, you"re not going to want to stop.”

“I will anyway.”

He kissed her into silence, which she discovered she didn"t mind at all. As he lowered his weight to her, she realized he was naked too.
Oh shit
, she thought, because he felt so good. He was big and hard and her hands wanted to play all over him. His chest was hairy, his butt amazingly tight and small. She moaned like she didn"t think she ever had in her life. His cock dug into her thigh like a hot baton, leaking excitement. She was going to be the one who had to be told to stop.

She had a sneaking suspicion he pulled the thought from her head. He flashed a grin and rolled her on top of him. His entryway had a plush dark rug, cushioning for her knees. She pushed up and her hands found his heavy pecs, unable to resist kneading into them like a cat. He was as sensual as a cat himself. His eyes glowed up at her, his incisors jutting lower than his other teeth.

“This is nuts,” she said, her voice more breath than sound. “There are so many reasons we shouldn"t be doing this.”

He seemed perfectly happy to ignore good sense. His hold settled on her hips tightly enough to stir an extra thrill. “Rub you labia up my dick,” he growled.

“Your hands as well. I want all the pressure you can give me.”

Ari"s arousal ran out in a big hot gush. She fell to him and kissed him, writhing against him crazily. That made him moan, and then they both went a little nuts. He got one hand between them, causing a little rubbing war with hers.

When his thumb found her clit and mashed firmly over it, she stopped struggling and let him take precedence. She was so wet they had to work really hard against each other to get enough friction.

“Oh God,” he groaned, his fangy mouth stretching wide on her neck.

“Do it,” Ari said. “Bite me. You"re not going to freak me out.”

“Can"t,” he gasped, and groaned louder.

She got his big blunt tip right against her clit, then curled two fingers under his rim on the other side. He stiffened and shoved at her.

“Shit,” he said. “Too close.”

She didn"t want to move. She wanted to come with him pressing there, like a fucking plum that was going to burst.

“Okay,” he panted, seeing she was determined. “I"ll hold off until you go.

Just try to do it fast.”

The idea that he was struggling did her in. She went with a wailing keen, but coming wasn"t enough. Her body wanted to feel him shoot, no matter how risky the closeness was. She ground down so wildly she might have hurt him. He grunted in reaction but didn"t ejaculate - not even when she came for, like, three minutes.

He was trembling as she finished, eyes screwed shut with erotic agony, blood trickling from his lip where he"d bitten it. Knowing she damn well owed him, she didn"t wait until her muscles recovered. She crawled down his heaving body, combed through his pubic curls with her fingers, and took his throbbing prick in her mouth. This must have felt good to him. His hips came all the way off the rug.

The sound he made wasn"t a word or a growl. She grasped his root and

suckled, giving him everything she had, her tongue, her lips, until she could taste how close he was. The fearlessness of her methods broke him. His hands forked into her hair like claws, his cock shoving into her and thrusting between her tongue and palate. He didn"t go too far, but, man, he went fast and furious. She cradled him as well as she could. Maybe ten groaning seconds later, he started shooting straight down her throat.

He came like she had. Like the world was ending, and this was his last

chance. Wild noises tore from his throat, her name jumbled among them. She sucked him until he stopped pumping, then gently licked the last drop from him.

She didn"t think she"d ever done that, or enjoyed it so much. He tasted good to her, her own special sex dessert.

“God,” he said as she crawled back up beside him.

She couldn"t do anything but hold him while they both tried to catch their breath.

“Mm,” he finally said, recovered enough to stroke his hand down his spine.

The petting felt really nice. Ari wanted to fall asleep, just let down her guards and sink. Knowing that wasn"t a good idea, she rubbed her face across his chest hair instead. Maybe in a while they could do that again.

“Why didn"t you bite me?” she asked. “Would it have hurt me too much?”

“Not exactly.” He trailed out a lengthy breath. “It hurts some, but most weres who do it think the pain"s a turn on.”

“Then why hold back?”

His hand caressed a path to her butt. “Biting to draw blood links lovers together, until one of them changes form again. It makes ... their attraction to each other contagious. If I were aroused, you"d be too.”

Ari smiled against his pec. “That"s already happening.”

His amazing body shifted under her. “It would happen more intensely. It"s not usually a good idea unless a couple is ... comfortable with each other.”

By
comfortable
she was pretty sure he meant
serious
, like his parents had been. Which why would he be about her? Or vice versa? She wasn"t here to find Mr. Right. Even if she had been, she didn"t believe in that. Lovers came and went.

Friends were for keeping, if you were lucky. Just because Adam got her hotter than any man ever had didn"t make him her forever pal. Men like him didn"t stick by women like her that long. Nobody stuck by women like her. To think they would was like a dog asking to be kicked.

Despite her thoughts, when Adam groaned and sat up, she wished he"d kept on holding her.

“We need to shower,” he said.

She didn"t think he meant together.

“Don"t be nervous,” Adam said.

This was interesting advice, considering how jittery he was. The yellow cab had dropped them in front of a Greek temple sort of building. Three tiers of marble steps ascended to a grand facade, which resembled the Metropolitan Museum, thanks to its towering columns. The white stone that clad it appeared to glow - and possibly did - in the rosily setting sun.

“This is City Hall?”

“Central Library,” Adam said, pointing out the chiseled letters that stretched across the triangular pediment.

A large shape glided toward the roof and landed, probably a gargoyle. When Ari squinted, she thought she saw more dark heads and wings roosting there.

“The Mayor is also our Librarian,” Adam said.

The way he said “Librarian” made it sound important. Even uttering the title had rattled him. He tugged his nice sport coat straighter and buttoned it, after which he resettled his shoulders and started up the steps. Ari"s shorter legs had to work to keep up.

“Will he have you fired if he doesn"t like your request?”

“No,” Adam said, his expression going even more uptight.

Ari decided to shut up. Adam had borrowed a dress for her from Ethan"s

mother, Maria. Fortunately, it was lightweight. She didn"t sweat it up too much climbing all those steps.

She was used to public buildings having security, but no guards were posted behind the revolving entrance door. Maybe nobody dared intrude here without permission, or maybe the library was protected magically. Ari"s skin
was
tingling as they went in.

“This way.” Adam directed her up yet another flight of white steps.

The Central Library seemed abandoned. They passed no one but a few giant old paintings - classical scenes of nymphs and gods who were up to no good. The Mayor"s office was on the second floor. A figure eight lying on its side was the only identification on the frosted glass in its door. The faint flowery smell Ari had noticed everywhere in Resurrection was stronger here. It wasn"t cleaning fluid or perfume. Here, outside the office, a whiff of woods and grass joined the flowers.

Adam filled his lungs for courage and knocked lightly on the door.

It swung open without anyone touching it.

“Come,” said a low male voice.

Ari"s knees threatened to buckle. She didn"t know why. The voice was

pleasant but ordinary, as was the man who sat behind the battered schoolteacher"s desk inside. He shut the file he"d been reading and smiled at them. He seemed young for a mayor. Thirties maybe, with short brown hair and crinkling eyes. His jaw was strong, his nose slightly crooked. He gestured them toward guest chairs that hadn"t been in front of his desk a moment before.