Page 63 of The Agent and the Outlaw
I nodded. “It does not stop me from wishing things were different.”It does not stop me from wanting you. It does not stop me from needing you. It does not silence the part of me that wants to have a family and a safe haven with you, that dreams of walking away from everything to be yours forever.
She seemed to take my meaning because her voice had lost its teasing edge when she replied. “Nor I.”
We were silent for a beat, listening to the muted, snow-covered sounds of the street under the carriage wheels. I opened my mouth to say something—any one of the unspoken things that had been circling my head for the last few weeks—but words seemed to fail me. Unable to stop myself, I reached forward and pulled her to me, covering her lips with mine.
21
CHARLOTTE
He came back.Not for me, exactly, but he came back, nonetheless. Was that enough for me? In this moment, I didn’t care. The scent of him in my carriage elicited a kind of primal response in my body—my mate has returned.
Ridiculous.
His kiss was fire and ice at once, and I met him with the full force of my desire, which only seemed to have grown in our time apart. I slid my hands up his neck and threaded my fingers through his hair. For a moment, everything between us other than this was forgotten. I tilted his head back and scraped my teeth along his jaw, drawing forth a deep growl that sent vibrations of need along every one of my nerves. A low moan escaped my throat, spurring his ardor. I nibbled at his ears while I hastily tugged at his coat, sliding cool palms beneath his shirt to his warm, bare chest. Every part of me was aflame.Dieu, I wanted him—this surly, complicated man. Now and forever.
“Charlotte.” His voice came out in a rough tremor.
“Antoine?”Why have you come for your father and not for me? What are your feelings for me? What are your feelings for my being a werewolf? What will happen to us?I ignored the trepidation and the dark thoughts that circled my mind.
“Shh,” he whispered, caressing my breasts through the bodice of my gown. “If your words are anything but filthy ones right now, keep them to yourself.”
I smiled, until his hands slid to my thighs and he bunched my skirts in his fists. I reached for the falls of his breeches and straddled him on the seat of the carriage. I nearly lost myself at the feel of his straining erection pressing against my sex. My composure, already frayed and failing, snapped. I gripped his hips and rocked against him, pulling forth from him a moan that was sweeter than any sound I’d ever heard on earth.Fate be damned—I’m going to have this man.
“Charlotte,” he panted. His fingers fumbled with the bodice of my expensive gown. The silk was like water in his calloused fingers, making it difficult for him to untie, unlace, and unpin me. I struggled with the buttons on his breeches, eager as I was to bare him to me.
With a little growl of frustration—one that sounded alarmingly lupine—I ripped the front of his breeches, scattering the damned buttons across the floor. I let out a triumphant laugh and saw the glaze of lust in his eyes sparkle. With a wolfish grin, he did the same to my dress, ripping it clear down the front. I squealed with laughter.
“This dress cost me a fortune,” I huffed, ending with a whimper when he took my nipple into his mouth.
“Send me the bill,” he murmured, sucking gently. I gasped and writhed on his lap, reaching down to wrap my hands around his hard cock. He swore, lewder and more guttural than I’d heard from him before. I slid my hands up and down, mimicking the movement of the carriage as the wheels jostled us back and forth. Already, I was close.So close.
“Charlotte,putain de merde!You must stop. I want you, my love—I need you.” He slid a finger through the warm, wet folds of my sex and growled his desire. “You’re so wet,l’amour…all for me. How I’ve dreamed of this perfect pussy since you left me. It’s all I can think about. Late at night, alone, I fantasize about the pleasure that lives here.” He pushed me back off his lap and against the wall of the carriage. Dropping to his knees, he licked at the insides of my thighs, working his way up to the pearl of my pleasure. I squirmed beneath his touch.
“This teasing will be the death of me, Antoine,” I whimpered. “Kiss me like you mean it.”
He grinned up at me and dove forward, sucking and licking at the apex of my sex until I was almost ready to come apart. He would have continued, but I pulled his face up to mine for a fervent kiss, then wrapped my legs around his waist.
“I need it all, Antoine,” I demanded. “Give me everything.”What does that mean? What am I asking of him?
“Everything,” he agreed.
I grasped his cock and guided him inside my ready heat on a satisfied moan from us both. It was exquisite—magnificent. He moved slowly at first, seemingly unaware of the words as they fell from his lips. “I’ll give you everything, Charlotte. Anything.Putain, oui, chérie, juste comme ça.My life, my heart, my soul—they are yours.Yours.” My cries cut through the night, and I pushed him back against the opposite wall of the carriage, grinding on top of him with volcanic lust. He reached up to twine his fingers through my hair, sending a jolt of lightning from my scalp down to my sex.
“Harder, Antoine,mon amour!” I cried. He needed no more encouragement. He lifted me and turned me around, bending me over the seat in front of us. He stroked my breasts and pinched my nipples, and my knees buckled.
“How hard,petite?” He slapped my ass, and the sweet sting elicited a thrill and a curse from me.I need him. I need him. He is mine. I am his.I tried desperately to regain my sanity, then abandoned it entirely.
“My body mourns the loss of you,chéri,” I pouted, wiggling back against him. “It would be cruel indeed to leave me so unsatisfied.”
He slid into me again—Dieu, I would never know another man like this—and I moaned a litany of filth that made him groan.It will never be this way again. There will never be another Antoine. Eventually, you will be parted by time itself.Whispers of fear and regret echoed through me, but I chased them away with the explosive pleasure of each thrust. I would worry about everything when I wasn’t joined with the man I loved.
The man I loved.
“I will never let anyone hurt you,mon amour.I will never let another man have you. You are mine. Your body is mine. Your heart is mine. All of it,” he grunted, driving into me. He reached forward to find the peak of my pleasure and I almost screamed. “You are mine, Charlotte.Mine.”
“Yes,” I panted. I felt my body draw up, as an archer draws a bow.
“Say it,” he begged. His clever fingers had worked me to the point of combustion.
