Surrounded by Temptation (7 page)

But if she became attached to him, she wouldn’t be able to maintain her objectivity. Therefore, she needed a little reprieve before continuing with her temptation testing.

But she was beginning to wonder who she was testing more, her or Rob. The last years of her marriage to Will had been methodical at best, so this uncharted territory with Rob sparked something deep inside her. It didn’t matter. She had a job to do, and she was going to do it.

From the reports she was getting from Thomas on Jack, he was doing well with the medication. Of course, he wasn’t being tested like Rob, but it relieved Ariel that Jack wasn’t experiencing any adverse side effects. It gave her room to focus solely on Rob.

She’d made dinner plans with him for tonight. It’d been over twenty-four hours since she’d last laid eyes on him, and she was feeling antsy. Did that mean she missed him? She hoped not. She tried to tell herself that it was her work she missed. But she figured Rob needed this time away, too. She didn’t need to push him too hard. It wasn’t like every single woman he encountered would drop to her knees and suck his dick or even tempt him subtly. If he did this well with her aggressive tactics then he could survive in a world with less overbearing women.

The thought of Rob being with another woman made her heart race and a cold sweat break out. Maybe it just meant she was possessive of what this man could do for her sexually. It didn’t have to mean anything more.

Surely it didn’t.

The soft knock on the door brought her out of her reverie. She took a deep breath and strode over to it, channeling a self-confidence she did not feel. When she opened the door, her gaze landed on the snippet of chest peeking out from the few buttons Rob had left undone at the top of his shirt. She swallowed, trying to find the saliva that suddenly dissipated. Lord, the man was sex on a stick. Sinewy and tanned from working outside with an aura of barely contained beast radiating around him. Her eyes traveled south as she took him in. His jean-clad thighs flexed under her perusal and she had a sudden urge to rub them. She refrained. Realizing she should make eye contact, she started to look up, but the sight of his dick, hard and straining in his jeans, made her gasp and rather than look up slowly at him, her head snapped up.

Rob’s eyes were narrowed, his jaw working as he seemingly ground his teeth. “You’re practically naked.”

Right. The little nightie. She licked her lips. “I’m covered in all the areas that matter.” She turned to head toward the kitchen, and the groan she heard from Rob reminded her of what the backside of this ensemble looked like. It was lacy blue with matching thong, but where the front hung down just past her pussy, the hem gathered up toward the back, leaving her ass completely exposed. She looked over her shoulder, but was too intimidated to look directly into his eyes. “I hope you like spaghetti.”

She heard the door shut behind her, the click of the lock almost deafening. She gathered some plates and started scooping the pasta onto one when she felt his hands stroke her arms gently. She shivered at his touch and cursed herself for responding so quickly to him.

“You look beautiful,” he whispered in her ear, his breath heating her skin. Then his lips found her neck and she wasn’t sure how she managed to put the plate on the counter instead of letting it crash to the floor.

Ariel tilted her neck, giving him better access as she told herself it was a natural impulse because this wasn’t supposed to be happening. Tonight, she’d planned on testing his will power without ever actually touching each other. Maybe she should’ve started with this test first. Too late to worry about that now.

“The test tonight is temptation without touching,” she panted. Oh crap, he was squeezing her sides and grinding his cock against her butt cheeks as he continued to kiss and nip at her neck.

His mouth moved to her ear, and his hot breath fanned her overly sensitive skin. “Then I fail.”

She only had a moment of shock at the guttural sound of his voice before he whipped her around and crushed his mouth to hers. His kiss was rough, his scruffy beard growth abrading her face while his hands fisted in the nightie that adorned her body. God, he was so raw, so animalistic that she was totally lost in him. The little noises that sounded as if they’d come from deep within him vibrated against her, making it difficult for her to continue resisting, but his humming turned into a growl when his wicked finesse wasn’t pushing her into complete submission. He bit at her lips when his tongue didn’t get the entry it demanded.

“Let me in.” He shoved his leg between hers, rubbing his thigh at her core, and she moaned as heat flooded her. He took advantage of her weakness, sliding his tongue in as she made that needy sound. And she didn’t have the desire to even try to stop him. He tasted of scotch and man and she was getting drunk off his kisses.

Her world tilted as she found herself lifted into his arms and being carried across the room.

To the bed.

And she still didn’t care about right and wrong. She needed him as much as he seemed to need her.
I’m just horny
. Although that wasn’t the clinical term for her current state of mind. Her body demanded, and she was powerless.

She landed softly on the bed, his mouth still on hers, insistent. His hands explored her body, but didn’t touch her breasts or her pussy, driving her need higher, making her want him even more than she thought possible.

“Have to taste you,” he grunted against her mouth before kissing his way south. Mercifully, one of his hands finally found her breast and she arched into his touch, moaning his name. “That’s it, angel. So responsive. All mine.”

Mine?
Before she could contradict that statement, Ariel felt a tug against the top of her negligee, and then it disintegrated as it was torn from her body. He sucked one nipple into his greedy mouth and any protest of his claim died on her lips.

Rob ravished her breasts, pulling and tugging on one while he kissed and sucked the other, alternating between the two, making her clit want the same attention. She lifted her hips, trying to make contact, needing to ease the ache that was growing in her.

He tore his mouth away and stared down at her. Gazing into her eyes, he slowly thrust himself against her, grinding his cock into her core as he watched her closely. His intent stare was tender in a way, yet seemed to see right into her very soul, pulling at her defenses and controlling her need with his masterful body.

And he still was completely dressed. The fact that this man could make her want, make her crave, make her
need
beyond all rational thought with only his mouth and hands on her was shocking. Maybe if she got him to remove his clothing, it’d level the playing field somewhat. As long as he stayed dressed, he would keep the upper hand.

She needed that rectified right now.

“Your clothes need to come off,” she whispered, trying to emulate the stare he was giving her but feeling as though she sorely lacked the same ability.

“Yes,” he breathed.

He pushed himself against her one last time before sitting on his knees and unbuttoning his shirt, and Ariel wondered how it was scientifically possible for a man to have this perfect of a body. When he sat up and unbuttoned his pants, she could do nothing but lay there and watch, paralyzed by this powerful presence. He managed to get his pants and underwear down with little maneuvering, so when his cock sprang free, her mouth watered as she remembered the taste of him.

“Not now, angel. It’s my turn.” Her panties received the same fate as her nightie, and the scraps of material were tossed to the floor as he descended. He inhaled, groaning against her pussy, and she couldn’t help but wiggle, her body making the plea for her. He grasped her thighs, shoving them wider apart, and then licked her from ass to clit.

“Oh God, Robbie. That feels, ahh…” He stabbed his tongue into her, fucking her with his mouth as he groaned, the vibrations better than any vibrator she’d ever used before. She gasped, and he shoved his tongue into her faster and brought his thumb down to torment her clit, rubbing circles around it, but not touching it directly. She was so close to coming already that she didn’t know if she wanted him to rub her sweet spot yet, or if she should try to hold out. If she could wait, then maybe she wouldn’t seem like a whimpering, aching mess of a neglected woman. She clamped her lips shut when she felt like she couldn’t control the begging from coming out. She fisted the sheets and stiffened her legs, trying to hold off the inevitable.

Rob growled, squeezing her thighs with bruising strength, then suddenly wrapped his lips around her clit and sucked, batting it with his tongue while he knifed two fingers inside her. She screamed as stars exploded behind her eyelids, her body quaking with the force of her orgasm. He continued his ministrations while she flew and eased back on the intensity as she came off that magical high. When he stopped, she couldn’t find the strength to open her eyes, even when she heard him rummaging around in the nightstand beside her or when she felt him come over her.

“Open your eyes. Look at me, angel.” The soft command brooked no argument. When she obeyed, she had to stifle a gasp. Rob looked at her as if she were his whole world and what they were about to do would be the start of something great. She shivered, not understanding if it was fear of that possibility or excitement.

He clutched her knee, moving her leg in the process, and hooked it around his hip. When she looked down at his cock in his hand, poised at her entranced, she noticed he’d put on a condom, realizing that was what he’d probably been searching for in the nightstand.

He pushed into her slowly, letting go of her knee and his cock at the same time and propping himself up above her. He panted, and she gyrated beneath him, trying to entice him to push into her fully. He felt hard and thick, but she was too wanton to care if it’d hurt.

His head fell to her neck on a groan. “Stop, angel. Lemme work it in.” He started rocking against her, pushing into her in increments that only drove her crazy. She reached up and grabbed his ass while wrapping both legs around his hips, pulling him toward her. “Fuck, fuck!”

“Yes!” She thrust against him and rotated her hips, inviting the sting of being fully penetrated.

It was enough to unleash his beast. Well, not technically—he was still fully human, but he sank down on top of Ariel, slid his hands underneath her shoulders to hold her in place, and then he started pounding into her. She clawed at his back, seeking purchase, and anchored her knees against his waist. And just felt. Felt Rob fuck her, possess her, own her.

Take her.

With that thought, heat flooded her core and her vagina convulsed around his cock as she flew into her second orgasm.

“Fuck me, you feel like heaven.” He licked a line from her neck to her ear and sucked on her lobe. “Again,” he demanded. Rob shifted his angle and thrust into her harder, faster, and she was powerless to deny him. Her body was his to command, and she gave him what he ordered, this time screaming as she came.

He shouted, riding through her peak, and still he was relentless. He pulled out and dove, his mouth latching onto her pussy, and he mauled her as he ate at her again. She didn’t think it was possible, but he was determined to wring every climax her body had to give. It took longer this time, her body shaking with indecision, not knowing if she could do it again but aching for it. When she finally came, she felt as if her body reached a state of euphoria unlike any other, the high the sweetest experience of her life. Barely aware, she felt her body turning as Rob placed her on her hands and knees, and when he entered her again, she was still coming from before. He pounded into her with near brutal force, and all she could do was ride the high. She heard a hoarse-sounding cry and realized it was her. She’d screamed so much that her throat was hurting.

Then with a roar that shook her, she felt Rob stiffen behind her and shove impossibly deep. He lifted her up so that she was sitting on his lap and held her down onto his cock as he came, his hips jerking with the force of his climax.

When the both collapsed onto the bed, Ariel was so physically and mentally exhausted that she couldn’t fight the sleepiness that was coming over her.

The last thing she heard was Rob whispering to her as he stroked her arm.

“You are so amazing. Rest, my beautiful ma…”

The rest was lost in the darkness.

Chapter Seven

Waking up with Rob’s body cocooning hers made Ariel feel like melting into him a little more. Which was exactly why she’d slithered out from the bed, threw on some clothes, and decided to work in the main house.

She wasn’t an idiot.

If she’d stayed, she would’ve been at his mercy. Probably having more sexual relations. Granted, her body would’ve enjoyed it—she
was
deliciously sore this morning—but her heart, er, her head would’ve been fighting the attraction. And she needed her head focused on her task. A task that was not exactly why she was here, but more peripheral. She argued with herself that gaining this knowledge would help with her primary objective—stabilizing the Woods’ aggressive mating needs—because it’d help her grasp everything as a whole. And it was a question that niggled at her from day one.

Where did these cat shifters come from?
That was what she needed to learn. And why hadn’t anyone asked this question before? As far as she thought, everyone in the know just accepted them at face value since the history of their kind died with Thomas’ parents. But her scientific mind just wouldn’t concede to that. She needed concrete evidence that supported one of her theories. And said theories ran the gamut of far out possibilities, which were barrowed from comic strips, Area 51, and government lab experiments gone awry. She had other less dramatic theories, like gene mutation, or infection, or a combination of both of those things, or many other theories. She knew she was grasping at straws, but she had to start somewhere.

She’d been at it for hours, locked in the office, skipping breakfast, and hadn’t discovered anything to suggest any theory was more superior than the others. It was frustrating because she was searching blindly, but she had no other choice. She was in the middle of reading werewolf legends when she heard the handle jiggle on the small office door.