Page 44 of The Mating Need
Chapter 9
She couldn’t have envisioned a betterplace to finally make love with Troy. Her best friend. Herprotector.
Soon to be her firstlover.
Jenny lifted her face to him and parted her lips. Triumph flickered in his dark gaze, then his mouth descended, hot and hungry, before she could say a word. He cradled her head and deepened the kiss. It felt like all the floodgates had opened, allowing them to indulge in what they both wanted, both needed, since the first night they’dmet.
Barely banked desire flared inside Jenny, then she felt all her resistance to the moment fade, replaced only with pureneed.
She opened her mouth wider to his probing tongue and then flicked her tongue over his, tasting apples and cinnamon and dark hunger. Growling low, Troy pulled her closer and crushed her mouth beneathhis.
Jenny pulled away, panting, touching mouth made swollen by his possessivekiss.
“I don’t want gentle,” shewhispered.
“Damnit, I wanted to wait for a bed. I wanted to wait for candlelight and roses and champagne, all the things you deserve. For the romance you deserve.” He splayed his fingers across her chin, his thumb grazing her lips. “I wanted to wait. I can’t. I’ve waited too fuckinglong.”
Cranked up from passion, Troy looked feral, taut with sexual need. She didn’t fear him. Not Troy, the wolf who craved her body and held herheart.
“I don’t need a bed. I have the sun as my candlelight and the earth as my bed, the way I want it. And you.” She kissed him again, pulling him down atopher.
This was real. This was life, not the bubble she’d encased over herself since her parents died. Since meeting Troy, her life had changed. Before Troy, it was day to day survival. He brought a spark back into her life, a sense of belonging. Now she needed skin to skin contact. Only withTroy.
His touch made her shiver with awareness. “Aren’t you wearing too many clothes?” hemurmured.
Since the near rape in the alley, she seldom got naked in the wild, only briefly when she shifted from one form to the next. Times when she’d bathed in a river or creek, Troy always gave her privacy, turning his back and keeping guard on theshore.
Being nude in human skin meant being vulnerable. But this was Troy, who had saved her in the alley, who watched over her and would protect her with every last breath in hisbody.
At first, she fumbled with the buttons on her shirt. So much easier to shift into wolf than undress in front of him. Memories surged of the dark alley, the Skin who’d ripped her blouse, making her feel powerless andweak…
She stopped unbuttoning her blouse and dropped her gaze. Troy’s hand was on herchin.
“If you’re not ready for this, Jenny, tell me. I would never rush you. I want you badly, but I don’t want you scared.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “I could kill those Skins for trying to violate you in the alley. Remember, you’re strong, Jenny. Stronger than them. Stronger than me aswell.”
She forced herself to relax. “It’s thisprocess…”
“What if you shifted into a wolf and shifted back withoutclothing?”
The thought crossed her mind. Jenny smiled. “You read mymind.”
“We can both do it, if thathelps.”
After living in the wild for two months together, shifting as wolves, the process came naturally. Jenny shifted into her wolf, feeling the rush that always accommodated the change, the thrill of power, the wash of sensessharpening.
Wagging her tail, she looked at Troy, now also in wolfform.
Troy shifted back first to Skin, and sat on the blanket fully nude. Still in wolf form, she stared at him, the scent of him flooding her nostrils. Such a magnificentmale.
“Keep looking. You know you want to.” He patted the blanket. “But I’d rather you look at me while you’re in Skin aswell.”
When she didn’t move, he lay flat, his belly and dangling bits exposed, the most vulnerable position for awolf.
“You have the power, Jenny,” he said in his deep, seductivevoice.
Jenny understood. Troy was fast, but the power was in her hands. Leisurely, he stretched out on the blanket, hooking his hands behind hisback.
“Look all you want, sweetheart. Take your time. I’ll be ready when youare.”
