Wolf Among Sheep: A Paranormal Werewolf Romance (Roadside Angels Motorcycle Club Book 1) (9 page)

He was clearly exasperated with her, and she hated that they were back to fighting again, but this was too important to let it go.

“Why can’t you see that there may be things you all are discounting that could be significant?”

“What makes you think we have discounted anything?” His voice had turned dangerously low, as he let her go and walked back to the window.

Throwing caution to the winds, she strode after him, grabbing him and turning him to face her, which was no small feat, given his size. She had clearly taken him by surprise, and he stood before her, obviously reining in his emotions.
Fine by me
, she thought, and plunged on with her argument.

“What if there are people keeping wolves here illegally? And what if they’ve lost control of them? What are you going to do...wait till someone else is killed before you act? If I can break this story, not only will it be good for me, but you will have put these people on notice, and maybe get the attention of some of the government offices that are responsible for wildlife preservation in Arizona, and they can join forces with you to end the problem. I mean, do you have anyone in this town, aside from you, who can handle wolves?”

He didn’t answer but turned away, and Tammie felt the rebuff like a slap in the face. She turned away as well, barely able to contain the whimper of pain that crowded her throat. She really did mean nothing more to him than a one-night-stand, she realized.
How could I have been so stupid as to think he would be any softer towards me just because he fucked me blind last night? Men don’t see sex the way women do,
she thought, remembering a conversation she and Emily had had about that very subject a few months earlier.

“I think you’d better go, Lex,” she said, her voice carefully neutral, to hide the turbulence inside. “We’re done here, obviously.”

She had never seen anyone move so fast. Before she could take another step to the door, he was in her face, in her personal space. “Is that really what you want, Tamara? Look me in the eye and tell me you want me to leave.”

She opened her mouth to say the words, but the lie wouldn’t come. Instead, she backed up, away from him, unsure of his temper.

“You’re asking too much of me, Tamara, to expect me to let you walk into danger!” Now he was trying to reason with her, but she was having none of it.

“I’m asking you to leave,” she snapped. “Whether I want that or not is immaterial. I’m not asking you to protect me. I don’t need protecting!”

“Yes, you do!”

He grabbed her before she could back up any further and kissed her again, his mouth hot and bruising on hers. She couldn’t resist him, and when he pulled her to the bed, she let him push her down onto it and drag her jeans off her legs. Then, she let him tug her panties down and bury his face in her muff. She let him bring her to a screaming orgasm while he was still fully dressed. She let him come back to her gasping mouth to kiss her again and to share her taste with her. His scent was all around her, and it stole her breath and her mind.

“I need you to be safe,
ma petite
,” he told her, his breath coming hard, as she reached up to pull him down to her. “I can’t let anything happen to you.”

“Lex, I’m a reporter. Danger is part of the job sometimes. I can’t let you or anyone else coddle me. I have a job to do, and I’m not going to run away from it. And if you really hope to convince me that you and the other people in this town aren’t hiding some deep, dark, dangerous secret, you’ll let me do it properly!”

Tammie hoped she could get him to see her side, even as she wondered why he felt a need to protect her, and why, despite the evidence to the contrary, she kept hoping he had some feeling for her. His need to protect her was a fierce emotion, she could tell, as strong as his need to make love to her. And now, with his scent and his power pushing at her, she was as turned on as she had been angry, and she wanted their fighting to stop. She knew how to change his mood, too. So, when he pulled her to sit across his thighs on the floor, she reached up and caressed his cheeks.

“Do you really want to fight with me, Lex?” she wondered aloud. “Do you really want me to think you only use sex to distract me and shut me up?” She ignored the twinge of guilt at that second question, knowing that that was exactly what she was setting out to do.

“I don’t want to fight with you any more than you want me to leave, honey,” he confessed, catching her hand in his and kissing the palm tenderly.

When he moved on to nipping her fingertips and sucking on the middle finger, she was moaning and wondering how he had managed to turn the tables on her, so that she was the one being seduced. He drugged her with his kisses, and when she demanded that he strip, he laid her tenderly on the bed so he could obey her. Her eyes bulged at the sight of him, as though she hadn’t seen him the night before. His body was thick with muscles, and the one that was currently making her drool was pointing at her, as though she were his target. She reached for him, unable to resist the need to touch him. When he urged her face closer, she instinctively opened her mouth to take him in.

The taste of him was like an aphrodisiac to her, winding her up, making her cream slide down her channel, needing him the way she needed to breathe. He tasted sweet and spicy, almost like he smelled. She lapped at him, licking the head of his cock, as though it were a lollipop. She had read enough erotica to know what they said men liked, and although this was her first time, she was going to give it her best shot. If she could make him lose control, she would be in seventh heaven. And if the sounds he was making as she took him in as far as she could were any indication, she was doing fine.

“Tamara, honey,” he groaned, “you’re driving me crazy.” His moans of satisfaction were music to her ears. “If you don’t stop soon, you’re gonna make me shoot my load all over you.”

His words gave her pause, because even though she wanted him to lose control, she wanted him to come inside her, to lose himself in her soaking depths. She moaned, as she licked him one last time, before she let him push her back against the sheets and come down over her, kissing her as he did so.

“Are you sure you’re not sore, honey?” His voice was tender in her ear, as he kissed her there.

“I’m fine,” she whispered, raising her legs and fitting them around his waist.  

When he fitted the head of his cock at her opening, she hissed with excited anticipation and used her heels to urge him further in. When he resisted, she nipped his bottom lip and squeezed him between her thighs, demanding his taking, pulling him in until he let go of his control and plunged into her.

His cock pierced her over and over, hips slamming into her, breath coasting over her cheeks, and hard arms wrapped around her. His grunts and groans of passion stoked her own lust. She pushed up to every retreat of his hips, keeping the connection, ratcheting up her need, and fucking him as wildly as he was her. He sped up, his thrusts growing harder and deeper, if it were possible, and he seemed to shimmer again as he flooded her contracting womb with his seed.

“Aaaagggggh!” His fulfilled exclamation set her off, and she rocketed up into space, her eyes rolling back in her head. She thought she would pass out from the absolute pleasure of his cock pulsing and thrusting inside her. She was wild for him, taking him in all the way and searching blindly for his mouth so she could take him in there as well. His kiss was electric, zapping her with high voltage need, making her come again. He swallowed her scream, and they clung together, panting, their bodies humming and replete.

After they recovered, she let Lex take her to the shower and though they wound each other up to fever pitch with their kisses and caresses, he refused to take her again.

“It’s too soon,” he protested, “and I’m sure you’re sore. I can wait, and it’ll be even sweeter when we come back together. I promise.”

He kissed her on the mouth, drinking from her the passion he had stirred up. Then, they dressed, and he took her for a quick meal at the diner. The place was crowded, not surprisingly, and all the talk was of the dead man. Bret, who was his next of kin, was a haunted shadow of himself, and Ginny seemed to be taking over at the till. No one seemed to mind that their food was not served as promptly as usual. In fact, some didn’t seem to have much of an appetite, preferring to drink instead.

When the sheriff walked in, the whole room fell silent. Tammie felt awareness heat her skin, and she tuned to find Lex watching her, his eyes gleaming.

“Evening, folks.” Dave Putnam removed his sheriff’s hat and looked around at the people. “As some of you know, Bob Rose was killed this morning over by Arrojo Valley Creek. I’ll need to talk to anyone who spoke to him yesterday, or who saw him at any point during the day. I’ll set up in Bret’s office, and you can all come see me there.”

Tammie looked at Lex and saw how she would get a foot in the door.

“I’ll have to speak to him, Lex. I spoke to Mr. Rose yesterday morning and told him some of my suspicions. Maybe someone overheard...maybe his office is bugged. I’m sure that once I tell the sheriff that, he won’t mind hearing the rest of what I have to say.”

She stopped, hoping he would give her his blessing, even though she didn’t need it. She wanted more time with him, and if they fought, there would be no more.

Lex sighed. His eyes shuttered, and she could not read their expression. His words were spoken without inflection, but she would take them, as they represented a compromise that gave her hope. “Okay. Share your theories with him. Tell him everything you’ve heard or found out. Then, I’ll take you back to your hotel.”

That last statement made her wonder if he was telling her their little affair was over. She hoped not—though she would be prepared. Stifling the disquieting thought, she took her place in line and finally ended up sitting across from the sheriff. He asked the usual questions, and she told him that when she left, Bob Rose had been alive and busy. Then, as he wrote in his notebook, she told him her theories about the wolves, about the dog fighting, and about her idea that those two might be connected.

He looked up from his notes, spearing her with a thoughtful stare, which she endured silently.  Then, he went back to writing, saying as he did, “Thank you, Ms. Gibbs. I’ll be in touch.”

She believed him—though she couldn’t say why. She left feeling lighter, even though the issue was a serious one. Lex was waiting for her in the front, and they walked out together. He drove her back in silence, and she assumed he was still fuming at having to let her do her job. She almost chuckled, but knew it wouldn’t go over well with the mood he was in. When they got to the door, she thanked him politely for dinner and turned to let herself in.

“I’ll see you in the morning, okay?” he said, taking her hand in his for a moment. “In the meantime, please try to stay out of trouble!” He chuckled as he said it, and she retrieved her hand with a pretty smile.

“So far, I’ve been a very good girl!”

“That you have,
ma petite
, that you have!” He winked at her, then laughed softly when her cheeks heated. She was happy that they were ending the evening on a friendly note. She had hated it when they fought, and she hoped things would never go back to that pass again. She only wanted to move forward, with the job—and with Lex.

EPILOGUE

“If the road is easy, you're likely going the wrong way.” ~ Terry Goodkind

Lex ran a hand over his blond hair, sighing in exasperation. Tamara Gibbs was his mate. That realization, which he made when they made love the first time, was now the source of special anxiety for him. Lex had begged her to go back home, especially now that Bob Rose had been found murdered, but as he expected, she had refused. Lex was an Alpha male, and his beast was howling that its mate was refusing to obey.

Lex’s human side knew he couldn’t make Tamara do anything because she didn’t know who she was to him, and he couldn’t tell her without opening the door to more trouble than was already happening. He knew what, or rather who, was behind this new rash of attacks, and he was very afraid that this time more people would die unless he did something about it. He had told Tamara as much as he could, and he told her that he wanted her to be safe, but he hadn’t told her why. She told him she was a reporter on a mission, and that she would be careful, but that she was not running away. He was not surprised.

He sighed again as he prowled around the den he usually relaxed in. The familiar walls, lined with books and paintings, the throw rugs over the hardwood floors, the huge fireplace, all seemed less than calming tonight. His beast was howling in fury that its mate had become involved in the mess in the town. But he didn’t know what to do to get her out of danger. And he couldn’t leave because things were coming to a head, and he was needed to help keep order in the town. The rival biker gang, Hell's Rebels, whose leader had come in to tell them about the body, was most likely going to be questioned—along with his members—about their whereabouts. This was not going to sit well with the locals. It also meant more trouble for his own Roadside Angels, who up until now, had been in the town’s good graces because the members had been helping to keep the drug trafficking and gang crime out of Rojo Arroyo.

However, he knew that the connections to a biker gang wouldn’t be long in coming once people discovered that Bob had not only been bitten, but had been in chains when he was found. It must have been a horrible way to die, and Lex vowed vengeance on the ones responsible. Yet, he had to protect his mate at all costs. He finally sat down in a wide armchair close to the fireplace, remembering how he had had to fight not to shift when they had made love both times. He remembered how shocked he was and how he had thought when she told him she hadn’t done it before that she had meant inviting men to her room. The precious gift of her virginity that she had given him still made his chest ache with emotion.

He wondered why it had taken him so long to recognize her. He also realized all those feelings he had not understood, those impulses to protect her, to fuck her, to mark her, had been signs he had completely ignored. He excused himself on the grounds that he had been raised mostly away from his own kind, had had no friends who had experienced the pull of a mate, and had never had such feelings for any other female. And his hybridity, which had made things worse in the recognition department, also made it imperative that he claim her soon—not only to ensure her safety from others of his kind, but to secure his own sanity. If anything were to happen to his mate now, even before their souls were bound, he would go rabid. The thought of her with anyone else was already making him crazy.

He had known—when she had invited him in after dinner—that they would make love, and he had been sorely pressed to hide what he was from her. She had apparently been seething with the same deeply ingrained lust that had been riding him since the day she walked into the diner that first time. He had barely managed to stop himself from taking her in his truck, and from the very first kisses by the door, he had been hers to do with as she willed. He had had to fight not to shift, especially when he discovered she was a virgin, and he prayed she hadn’t noticed the shimmer as he had orgasmed. He had taken her more than once and had to struggle not to mark her fully. However, he had left his scent on her because he could not help himself. Now, he would always know when she was near.

He sensed that loving her would come easily, and he already felt the first stirrings of an emotion he had never felt before, and which he didn’t understand. He had never been one to believe in love at all, never mind love at first sight; but, the pull he had felt toward her as she had sat alone eating her solitary meal that first night had scared him enough that the next time they met, he had been a jerk. He loved how she met him toe-to-toe, never giving up, facing off against him, and refusing to let his nasty attitude and denials deter her. He loved her gutsy attitude, even though it made him more deeply frightened than he had ever been in his life. Now that he had found the one person he had never thought he would have, he couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t. It was as simple as that.

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Wolf Among Sheep
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