Desert Wolf

Slipping his hand between her thighs, he skimmed the black lace, seeking the soft feminine folds that lay beneath the filmy scrap of fabric. Paxton made another sound...a surprised, breathy, totally sexy sigh.

He stroked her gently with his fingers, studying each reaction she made. Paxton clutched at the covers and arched her back. The light pressure of his fingers on her sex made her reach for him. In an attempt to hold on to whatever pleasure she was experiencing, she dug into him with her nails.

“Go ahead,” Grant whispered to her, his voice hoarse with expectation. “Enjoy this. Hell, your father might have planned for things to happen this way.”

Paxton’s lips parted as if she might challenge his remark. Grant’s mouth again found hers, sealing off any argument she might care to make.

Her hands moved, sliding up his neck and into his hair to tug him closer. He didn’t need the extra invitation. His hardness, at the moment still tucked inside his jeans, pressed against her hips. She, in turn, writhed on the bed enticingly, seductively, as if she couldn’t wait much longer to accept everything he held back.

But sliding his fingers over her arms made him hesitate. What he found there made him balk. Paxton had a birthmark on her left upper arm, a few inches down from her shoulder. Without having to see it up close, Grant knew exactly what that mark meant. Christ, he had one just like it.

Paxton Hall had a moon mark—a special kind of birthmark that would look exactly like an old bite from a full set of wolf teeth. And moon marks were proof of Were heritage that went way back.

What did she assume that mark was? Wouldn’t anyone question something like that?

“Do you know?” he asked her with his lips moving over hers, hoping she was too caught up in the same sensations moving through him to understand what he was getting at. “Do you understand what this is, between us?”

Realizing there was no way for Paxton to make sense of those words, and feeling way too wolfish all of a sudden, Grant took the fragile ivory skin beneath her right ear between his teeth and bit down lightly, as if teeth were part of the mating game.

He brought his lips back to hers for more kisses, more connection, more fire, tasting Paxton’s heat and allowing the flames she gave off to sink in. Her body moved like liquid sin beneath his. Her mouth was a monstrous delight.

The time had gone for adhering to rules governing wolf behavior. These moments were full and incredibly rich. Here she was. Paxton Hall. A she-wolf in human form. And she was waiting for the very thing he wanted most without realizing it could mean they would never again accept any other partners.

The sting of her nails on his back kept Grant’s wolf tethered, so the man could have his fill of the woman beneath him without interference. Faint traces of the scent of blood filled the air. Her nails were going to leave welts.

With his hands on her hips, Grant pressed his body against Paxton’s, tight to the spot that would soon open and accept him.

She was ready.

He was ready.

To hell, he wanted to shout, with everything else.

As he pressed her into the pillows, Paxton made another sound, one that abruptly brought Grant up from the world of dreams and rapidly fading willpower. It came from deep in her throat. Not a moan, a sigh or an argument against what they were about to do.

No.

Not this time.

Paxton growled.

Chapter 9

Her cowboy drew back as if he’d been slapped. Paxton’s eyes flew open. What had happened? What was wrong?

Grant had stopped moving. His eyes bored into hers as if searching out a reason for his sudden reluctance to go through with what they both wanted. His hand was wedged between her legs with his fingers splayed. He was hard as a rock inside those jeans he wore.

The suddenness of his restraint was a shock to her searing, blistered senses. The room seemed to whirl.

“What?” she demanded, her tone rough with leftover anticipation.

“It’s nothing,” he replied in what was obviously a lie, since his body was still and only his gaze continued to probe.

The interruption in whatever raw passion had brought them together was accompanied by a swift return of Paxton’s common sense. In that moment, she began to feel foolish and way too exposed. She was on a bed in a motel room, almost completely naked, with Grant Wade’s muscled body hovering over hers.

Had she been hypnotized? Mesmerized? She didn’t know this man. Grant Wade was nothing more than a hiccup in her plans, and she had almost lost whatever dignity she’d had in their standoff by being caught like this, with his hand between her legs.

Closing her eyes, she considered how she was going to get out of this situation gracefully and quickly realized there wasn’t any way to accomplish that. She pondered how to salvage what was left of her rapidly dissipating self-control. Clearly, something had caused the interruption in their plans to tear into each other, so wishing they hadn’t been on this bed in the first place was a total waste of time.

Grant had merely come to his senses before she had. Did he expect a medal for that? Would he hold this little slipup over her tomorrow when paperwork crossed his desk? Embarrassment didn’t begin to describe what she was feeling as the man she’d been about to get down and dirty with sat back on his heels. She couldn’t meet his eyes, so she concentrated instead on the way his pulse beat softly beneath his right ear.

Cool air flowed over her without Grant’s incredible body heat to block it. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Paxton finally glared at him.

“You’re right,” she said. “This was a bad idea. I applaud your self-control.”

Grant shook his head. “I wanted this. Wanted you.”

Wanted. Past tense.

“I’m flattered. Really. You’re...” Paxton let that remark dangle for several seconds. “Well, you are very strong, and I had a scare out there tonight.”

She hated how that statement made it sound as though she had been about to use her body to thank him for being there when she needed somebody. Bodyguard sex.

“Fact is, I’m no good for you right now,” Grant said in a low-toned, gravelly voice.

Hardly able to speak after a remark like that, she said, “Thanks for the heads-up,” and shoved him away.

Rolling sideways, she edged off the bed and stood. Any attempt to cover herself would have been absurd, so she planted her feet near the air conditioner wearing nothing but her fancy lingerie.

Grant Wade stared at her for a long time before reaching for his shirt. There were, Paxton noticed, only a few buttons left.

Having him stand there with his chest exposed and his six-pack visible made her uneasy all over again. This guy was one of the finest specimens of manhood she had ever seen. She had let that go to her head, and promised herself not to let that kind of lapse happen again.

Seeing him tomorrow was going to be a bitch.

Her cowboy turned from her to retrieve his hat, but didn’t leave the room. Did he have more to say? Anything to explain the awkwardness of the situation? Because that might have made her feel better.

“That thing you assumed was a bear. How did you happen to see it?” he asked, foregoing any mention of what had nearly transpired here, just several moments ago.

“That’s it? All you want to say to me?” she fired back, sure this was strange timing for a complete switch in subject matter. Yet, because Grant seemed serious, she answered his question.

“I was driving along the dirt road I assumed led to Desperado, and the thing came out of nowhere.”

“You thought it was a bear—why?”

“You saw the dents it made in the car.”

He nodded. “You mentioned that the animal looked at you.”

“Through the windshield.”

“Then what did it do?”

“It went away.”

“You didn’t do anything? It just went away?” he asked.

“The thing was there and gone in several very frightening seconds. I’ll admit to panicking and maybe forgetting a few details.”

“Did it have a shape?” Grant asked.

Paxton shook her head. “The whole thing happened very fast. Seconds. All I saw was a dark blur.”

“So you didn’t actually see what this thing was?” he pressed.

“I’m not Sherlock Holmes. I had no desire to stick around and find out exactly what that thing might be. Are you suggesting it might not have been a bear?”

“No. Nothing like that. I’d just like to get the word out for folks out that way to be on the lookout.”

Again, she found this conversation odd in terms of timing. On the plus side, however, Grant hadn’t chastised her for the spying business or alluded to the fact that she might have gotten what she deserved for flaunting his warnings about going to Desperado on her own after dark.

“Look,” she said, glancing to the bed. “We made a mistake, like people do from time to time. Hopefully what happened in this room tonight won’t hinder our negotiations.”

Grant Wade went to the door and paused with his hand on the knob. Over one broad shoulder, he said, “Are you feeling okay, Paxton?”

She considered shouting, No. Actually, I’m standing here in my underwear, feeling like an idiot. What do you expect?

She said with effort, “You’ve helped to ease the fright that thing gave me. So, thanks.”

He waited, as if unsure about how to respond to her remark. Then he nodded and left the room, closing the door softly behind him as though nothing had happened, or almost happened, between them that deserved any kind of explanation.

Paxton’s legs gave out the second she heard the door snap shut. Holding on to the air conditioner for support, she parted the curtains and looked out.

When Grant reached the parking lot, he looked up at her with a somber expression on his handsome face that caused a reactionary ripple between the thighs the man had nearly been on intimate terms with. Grant Wade was gorgeous, for sure, and had almost made her forget herself. Throughout history, good-looking guys like this one had ruled what happened on motel mattresses.

It just happened that Grant’s willpower had won out tonight in the absurd onset of lust between a couple of strangers destined to oppose each other over her father’s will.

“Let that be a lesson about future negotiations,” she muttered, feeling slightly unnerved.

Stumbling sideways, she face-planted on the bed, listening to her skyrocketing heartbeat begin to slow down before bouncing back up to make sure the door was locked. After that, she was back at the window, expecting to find Grant still out there, perhaps feeling as foolish as she did. She was unable to explain why the fact that he wasn’t in that parking lot left her feeling disappointed.

The truck was gone. He had gone. Only his scent lingered in the room, and Paxton closed her eyes as she breathed it in.

“All right. Okay,” she said with finality. “What’s done is done.”

That truck wasn’t going to magically reappear because she wished it would. Nor could she replay what had happened and give it a better outcome. So with her dad’s will in mind, Paxton turned her thoughts to more serious possibilities for Grant Wade’s behavior and his sudden disappearance.

What if it hadn’t been willpower that ended their near-miss lust fest? What if he had been messing with her?

Maybe Grant supposed he could chase her away by combining the fine arts of shame and seduction. Maybe he planned to have sex with her and then talk her into caving on her requests. Kiss her into giving him what he wanted. Corner her into pursuing new negotiations by proving himself the better negotiator.

What if he had somehow planted that bear on the road to Desperado, hoping she would turn around and head back to town?

He had, after all, been out there. He had found her on the road.

Then what? He planned to take advantage of the situation and play at being a white knight for a damsel in distress?

Paxton sagged against the wall. If any of those things proved to be true, Grant Wade would be a devil in disguise. A monster.

“Unfair tactics hidden behind such a pretty face?” Paxton grumbled as she stared at the empty space where the blue truck had been parked.

“So you know, Mr. Cowboy, I’ve always been stubborn, so I will take up this challenge and be here in the morning. Just you wait and see. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

If Grant had somehow manipulated the whole second half of this long day for his own benefit—the ride in his truck, the meal at the café, chasing her in the desert in the dark, the kiss and what else had almost happened in this room...

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