Little Wolf (37 page)

He turned his head to rub more of his scent into Nathaniel’s skin. He couldn’t remember ever asking permission to do so, but he could recall doing the same last night without any clear intention, and Nathaniel had allowed it then. He stopped and lifted his head when Nathaniel’s other hand came to rest at his back. Nathaniel was watching him, barely breathing, while Tim was taking in so much air there were sparkles at the edge of his vision and he couldn’t be still. Nathaniel’s scent was everything Tim had ever wanted to know, and he could decipher none of it.

He put his face against Nathaniel’s skin again and flinched from his own words. “I had sex.” Nathaniel’s hold on him tightened, with pain, not surprise. Tim wanted to bite him. He didn’t see how that would fix anything, but the impulse was so strong it had to be instinct, yet he didn’t fully trust it. He stuck with words. “It was nice. I could do it again.”

“Tim.” Nathaniel managed a word at last.

Tim shook his head to banish everything in Nathaniel’s voice. “But I don’t want to. I don’t want to have sex. I want to have sex with you.”

Tim could feel the animal in Nathaniel trying to get out and hated how easy it would have been to push and keep pushing until Nathaniel lost control. He didn’t want him to lose control. He didn’t want him to hurt about that too.

“Yeah, okay, I knew that before. You knew that before. The whole town knew that before.” Tim brought his head up and left it there, throat bared. “What I mean is now I want to have sex—” He swallowed. “—and more, with you. Just you.” That’s what he’d learned almost the exact moment Albert had kissed him. Albert had been wonderful, but Nathaniel was all that plus something bigger, something greater. Tim was meant for greater. He’d been raised for it, and he’d take it if it was offered. He could handle it, maybe.

It would have been easier to face Luca than to meet Nathaniel’s eyes, but Tim did it. The molten gold made him sigh in shaky relief. He eased his chin up when Nathaniel pressed his hand to the side of his throat, but Nathaniel didn’t kiss him.

“It isn’t nice when you touch me.” Tim’s voice was scratchy. The air itself or his vision seemed to be curling at the edges. Nathaniel had touched Tim like this for weeks now, and Tim hadn’t thought about it, what it meant, because he hadn’t had nice to compare it to. He should have known he wouldn’t be attracted to nice. Kind, yes, stupidly, stubbornly thoughtful, fuck yes, but not nice. “It’s overwhelming.”

Nathaniel exhaled. Tim took it for agreement. “I didn’t know what that meant before.” Tim still wasn’t sure he did, but he had a better idea at least, not that he was going to talk about Albert any more right now.

“He didn’t overwhelm you?” Nathaniel’s broken, hoarse voice was almost unrecognizable. The effort it took him to speak was palpable. Nathaniel must have spent most of the day as a wolf.

“Not like you.” It was true, but that was only part of why Tim said it. The rest was for how he hoped Nathaniel would react. Nathaniel did not disappoint. He leaned down to inhale against Tim’s pulse, his lips on Tim’s skin, his breath hot. He slid a hand under Tim’s shirt and held it against Tim’s stomach as if he somehow knew exactly where Tim had been most splashed with come.

“Yeah, okay.” Tim didn’t care if he was getting the nonverbal cues confused or not. Nathaniel was welcome to scent mark him as much as he wanted as long as it ended in fucking. Tim moved while he still could on his weak legs, and hauled Nathaniel closer by his shirt. He didn’t fool himself about his strength. Nathaniel had let him do it, and that was the best thing that had ever happened up until Nathaniel made a noise of frustration and pulled at Tim’s shirt.

Tim shivered and then blinked as Nathaniel tugged his shirt free of his head and threw it behind him. His collection of charms hit his chest, and he lowered his arms in a stunned sort of daze at Nathaniel’s intense study of his body. It only lasted a moment, one moment of Tim worrying all over again about his skinny frame and colorless skin, and then Nathaniel was back against him. He panted against Tim’s shoulder, moving his mouth in what felt like kisses over the freckles. Maybe he followed a trail of them up to Tim’s cheekbones, because that was where his mouth went next. Tim gasped and tried to speak, and Nathaniel kissed him with a low noise of satisfaction.

It was like before, except a hundred times better, with Nathaniel pressed to his naked skin, and Nathaniel’s hands smoothing over him. Fires were raging, sweet smoke filling his lungs. Tim closed his eyes and moaned like the practically virginal bitch he was. Nathaniel hadn’t touched him like this the first time, and the second time Tim had been too distracted to focus on anything but not getting to touch in return. He raised his hands to the nape of Nathaniel’s neck, then his back. Cotton prevented him from touching skin, but he couldn’t seem to think of a way past it. Nathaniel was still kissing him. Tim parted his lips and tilted his head back, and Nathaniel groaned against Tim and bruised his mouth.

In moments of drawn breath and Nathaniel’s face against his forehead, Tim swore, “Oh fuck,” but didn’t release him. He had a hard cock with Nathaniel’s name on it and inched his legs apart to make that clear. Nathaniel backed him into something. The couch, Tim thought, but possibly the counter. He didn’t look. Whatever it was, it steadied him, and then Nathaniel’s mouth opened over his throat and Nathaniel said his name.

Just a whisper. “Little Wolf.” It could have been a question, but Tim had had enough of Nathaniel’s patience for the time being and snarled at him. Nathaniel’s response was to let Tim feel his teeth. Dangerous but blunt human teeth, there to offer warning before Nathaniel began to mark him. The kiss was fierce, hard suction over Tim’s pulse where his blood was already throbbing and his skin was soft and thin. Tim made a pitiful, hungry sound and grabbed Nathaniel with all his strength. He shut his eyes as everything in his body came alive and pride sparked and raged through his blood. He had nothing to compare it to, but he wanted all of it and more, and then Nathaniel pushed a hand down between them to cup Tim’s dick.

Tim tried to warn him that the scent and the pressure and that mouth were going to make him come. He truly did. He gasped something that wasn’t any kind of word, and Nathaniel, evil, amazing Nathaniel, softened the kiss. He placed individual kisses over the flesh he’d bruised, before finding the most sensitive spot, the one that wracked Tim with shivers, and gave him another kiss there. Without even a growl as warning he sucked over a bruise already blooming, deepening the mark and his claim with a viciousness Tim cried out for. Everything vanished but Nathaniel’s mouth and the careful motions of Nathaniel’s hand until Tim was trembling, blinking putty in Nathaniel’s arms, barely aware he was still on his feet. The room was too bright, his skin too sensitive, and he whimpered without taking his hand from Nathaniel’s neck.

He’d come in his pants again. He would have darted away in shame if Nathaniel would have let him so much as try. He pulled Tim closer.

Nathaniel put his teeth to Tim’s ear. “Don’t apologize.” His voice was not steady. Maybe it was the new musky scent Tim had contributed, or the heady hints of blood rising to the surface from the hickey he’d given Tim, or the scratches Tim had left in Nathaniel’s skin, little red welts of desperation. Tim thought he was flushed but couldn’t tell with everything so hot, with his skin still buzzing and a new mark stealing his attention. The hickey was pounding, impossible to ignore even without Nathaniel continuing to place soft kisses over skin probably blooming red and purple already. Nathaniel was pleased. Of course he was, territorial alpha asshole.

“You aren’t the one who came in his pants twice,” Tim slurred at him, but stumbled forward for another kiss. Nathaniel licked his mouth open but left him waiting.

“Only twice?” Oh, Nathaniel could be mean too, especially when he was jealous and hurting. His mouth was over Tim’s, but they weren’t kissing. “He didn’t make you?”

“I don’t want him like I want you.” Since he wasn’t getting a kiss, Tim ducked his head to bite at Nathaniel’s shirt, then released dry, flavorless cotton. “Fucking t-take me already, Neri,” he stuttered, but shut up when Nathaniel went for his fly. Tim should have had an offense, or at least tried to grope him. Instead he hiked a leg up, then didn’t know how to feel when Nathaniel ran his fingers through the mess Tim had made in his underwear before stroking Tim’s dick. The touch was slightly painful, and Tim wasn’t hard anymore, but Nathaniel exhaled loudly as if it was very good for him.

He raised the hand covered in Tim’s spunk and rubbed it into the mark he’d just left at Tim’s throat. His gaze went there too, then slowly came up to Tim’s face. Tim had no idea what he looked like, but Nathaniel, of course, was perfect. Tim dropped his leg and opened his mouth again, but there was still no kiss.

“Big Wolf,” Tim pleaded with him. Making demands was beyond him when Nathaniel’s gaze went so hot and soft. Tim didn’t know what it meant, but he recognized the rich, dark satisfaction clinging to Nathaniel. Tim opened his eyes wide.

“Only me?” Nathaniel pressed, as if Tim weren’t a fucking wreck from his mouth and scent and the barest touch of his hand. Tim remembered how to scowl and pulled a hand from Nathaniel’s skin to wave it in front of his face.

Nathaniel caught Tim by the wrist and focused on Tim’s palm, urgently still at the sight of the faded ink. After a long moment he looked into Tim’s face. “You wrote my number on your hand?” he rumbled. There were many reasons Tim could have written the phone number there, his own security if there had been a threat, for one. But Albert hadn’t thought that was the reason. Neither had Tim. Nathaniel’s scent went so far beyond satisfied that Tim didn’t have words for what it was. “You marked yourself.” Nathaniel was no longer asking. “You marked yourself with my number before you ever went out there.”

“You never said I couldn’t!” Tim defended himself. “Nothing in the rules said I couldn’t claim myself!”

He was unprepared to be dragged up against Nathaniel’s body. Under his hands he had the impression of flexing muscle and a long, deep shudder. Nathaniel might have been nuzzling Tim’s hair. Tim did not know what to do about it. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t a kiss either, or more making out, or actual sex.

The fact that Nathaniel was aroused and hot to the touch and yet was choosing to nuzzle was upsetting. Not totally upsetting, because it felt good to feel his arms wrapped tight around Tim’s body, and there was something tremulous and shy in the whispers of his breath through Tim’s hair, but it was nonetheless annoying, because it wasn’t kissing and it wasn’t fucking. Tim licked his lips before leaning his head out of nuzzling range. “Are we doing this out here?” he started to complain but then fell silent at the fuzzy, happy sound of his voice.

“No.” Nathaniel brought Tim’s hand up to his mouth. Tim’s body began to respond even before Nathaniel kissed his palm. “No. We are doing this in my bed.” Nathaniel tugged him in, and Tim’s legs started to get weak all over again. Nathaniel probably knew that too. He was frustrated and jealous and had an erection Tim ached to feel against him, and yet he was taunting Tim with every word.

“Bed?” Tim squeaked. Someday he was going to be able to pay Nathaniel back in kind, but this was not that day.

Nathaniel radiated satisfaction and lust in waves so overpowering Tim had to fight not to nod along. Intoxicating was suddenly a word that made sense to him. He squirmed at the naked longing in his own scent and the way Nathaniel was eating it up. Nathaniel was puffing breath and flashing teeth. “My bed, where I’m going to mark you again.”

“And then fuck me, Neri. You had better goddamn fuck me too.” That was the only condition Tim could think to make. He squirmed again to hear himself and thought fleetingly of Luca and what he would have said to that. But then Nathaniel met his stare, and Tim drifted in and tilted his head up.

“Timothy.” Nathaniel spoke against his mouth, then stopped to drag a different sort of kiss across Tim’s lips than the kisses they’d shared before. It lingered. It promised. It
praised
. Tim’s heart thudded into his ribs. He stretched up for another, and Nathaniel’s hand splayed across his back.

“I don’t think I’m going to make it there.” Tim meant to taunt Nathaniel in return, really he did. But there was teasing, and then there was telling the sheriff of Wolf’s Paw that he had Tim hard again, and the sweet rush when Nathaniel understood. Nathaniel huffed, amused, but a moment later Tim was hoisted up and pushed against his own bedroom door.

He had no memory of Nathaniel carrying him the short distance down the hall, but they were closer to Nathaniel’s room and his bed than before, so that was fine with Tim. The display of strength wasn’t exactly a turnoff either. Nathaniel took hold of Tim’s hands and held them to the wall while he bent down to lick and bite at his mark. It felt so good it almost hurt, or it hurt, so it felt good, felt like
more
, and Tim shuddered. He wondered if most people in bed with an alpha like Nathaniel normally had his hair-trigger problem.

“Nathaniel.” Tim was unable to make his voice louder than a whisper. His entire body throbbed when Nathaniel sucked at the bruise he’d left, but he jerked his hips forward when Nathaniel raised his head to swipe his tongue across Tim’s inked palm. Tim had thought Nathaniel weakened before, but he must have been mistaken. Nathaniel had never been more godlike, and the pleasure on his face was all for Tim and the reactions Tim couldn’t hide. “Oh fuck, you’re enjoying this aren’t you?” He’d gotten Tim speechless and hard with that hickey and he knew it. He was reveling in it. That was the scent, bigger than satisfaction, close to happiness. Tim frowned but panted into Nathaniel’s mouth when Nathaniel came in to kiss him. He was deadly and he was after something. “Are you trying to make me come in my jeans again?” Tim slid the question over Nathaniel’s jaw without the challenge behind the words he’d intended.

Nathaniel nosed Tim’s chin up, then placed deliberate kisses down the column of his throat. Tim sank his teeth into his bottom lip. Another mark meant he definitely would not make it to the bedroom.