“You shouldn’t worry about that since we’ll be in your house until you go home. I won’t be around other women.”

“We still have to stay here? I’m marked by you and carry your scent. Aren’t I safe from being a walking sex toy?”

He cocked his head and then nodded. “You should be safe but if we do go anywhere you aren’t getting out of my sight since we aren’t mated. You’re just marked with my scent. Some bastards might still go for you.” He raked a heated look over her body. “You’re very tempting, Mika.”

Her eyes lowered down his body and saw he wasn’t soft anymore. His c**k was growing hard as she watched the bulge under the towel lift it slightly. Her eyebrows arched as she looked into Grady’s eyes.

“Let me guess. Werewolves have good recovery time?” He nodded. “Excellent. We’re very sexual.”

Mika smiled at him and rolled onto her back, stretching out. “Lucky me. Want to play nice and slower now?”

The towel dropped to the carpet as Grady got on the bed and crouched over her until he caged her under his body with his arms and knees but they weren’t touching.

Mika moved first, reaching up to open her hands on his chest. He had hot skin. He was hard bodied but his skin was soft and she ran her hands over his ni**les, loving the feel of him. The cool drops of water made her lift her head to open her mouth and lick at some between his ni**les.

“Babe,” Grady softly sighed. “You’re playing with fire.”

“So burn me up.” Her hands slid to his shoulders and she tugged.

Grady lowered his bigger body until he was totally on top of her. He braced enough of his weight to not totally crush her under his large frame. Mika spread her thighs wider to give him room for his h*ps to snuggle against her body. Her legs lifted and she wrapped them around his firm ass. Grady moved his h*ps and she felt his arousal pushing against her still-wet and welcoming pu**y. She wiggled her hips, feeling the hard press of his c**k right there, and wanted him to enter her.

“Condom,” he said softly.

Mika bit her lip. “I’m on the Pill and I’m clean. Are you disease free?” She saw something wild flare in his eyes. He shook his head and then nodded.

“Damn,” he rasped. “No, I don’t have any diseases. We don’t catch them. Our physiology is different enough from yours that most diseases can’t be passed on to us. I can’t come in you. It’s too dangerous right now with mating heat. You’ll scent stronger of me and it’s the kind of scent that could get us in deep shit.”

“Deep shit sounds bad.” She smiled at him. “Of course I like trouble.” He suddenly laughed and his dark eye color lightened again. It amazed Mika how the man’s eyes could change color so quickly. She was learning that emotions lightened and darkened them. Smiling back at her, Grady caressed her cheek.

“I wouldn’t trust myself not to bite you while I was f**king you. My control isn’t the greatest when I’m in heat. Without a condom it would feel too damn good. We’d be stuck with each other forever. During sex all kinds of hormones and chemical changes are happening in my body that weren’t present when I marked you. If I lost control and bit you during sex all those would be introduced into your bloodstream. It would bind us together and make you my permanent mate.”

“Ah. That kind of deep shit.”

He nodded. “I wish I could risk it. I hate condoms and I want to feel you so damn bad I hurt. I just can’t risk making you my mate.” Pain at his words hit her. She’d heard him tell her uncle he wanted a werewolf woman as a mate. It shouldn’t be any skin off my nose, she reminded herself, if he doesn’t want me on a long-term basis. The problem was, she was too strongly attracted to him and the idea of him settling down to have babies with some literal bitch made jealousy rear its ugly head inside her.

Grady was a great guy and he was fantastic in bed. Mika rolled her h*ps again, wiggling until she felt the head of his c**k pressed right where she wanted him. “Pull out and put on a condom in a few minutes…but right now I want to feel just you. It feels different.”

“You don’t have to tell me the difference between a condom and skin, babe.”

“Just let me feel you.”

“It’s a bad idea.”

“Just a few minutes and then put on the condom.” She paused. “They irritate me and make me a little sore. I’m usually in long-term relationships with men I have sex with so I’m not used to using them since I’m on the Pill.” He nodded. “I’m dying to know how it would feel with nothing between us.” He pushed into her and Mika knew heaven as his c**k slid home. Her lips parted to release a moan of sheer rapture. Her nails raked his shoulders and she tightened her legs around his h*ps so her heels dug into his ass. The sensation of Grady’s cock, with nothing between them, was the most wonderful thing she had ever experienced. He was fuller, the sensation was different without latex, and as her vaginal walls gripped him, Grady groaned softly. She met his intense gaze. He looked hungry and wild, if eyes really were the windows into someone’s soul.

“We’re f**ked,” he rasped.

She squeezed her muscles around his c**k again. Grady’s eyes widened and then he pulled back. She thought he was leaving her body, withdrawing from her totally, and she had to halt the urge to cling to him to keep him there but she released her death grip around his h*ps with her legs so he could move away from her. Grady almost withdrew completely but then he drove his h*ps into hers, plunging his c**k into her deep and hard, pushing her body into the bed.

Mika cried out in pleasure and her legs wrapped tightly around him again. Their gazes remained locked, Grady keeping eye contact with her as he drove in and out of her again and again. Mika couldn’t look away from the pleasure that was easy to read on his handsome features. She bucked her h*ps and she met him with an upward thrust.

Skin to skin felt unbearably good, too good, and her body tensed, muscles tightening as a cl**ax built inside her.

Her nails bit into his shoulders. Grady’s eyes narrowed, the shape changing just a little, and when his lips parted, sharp, extended teeth were revealed. She screamed out Grady’s name as she came hard, ecstasy tearing through her entire body and watched as his eyes closed when his own release hit him. His mouth opened wider, his teeth grew longer, and she threw up her hand over his mouth, right as he lowered his face into her neck.

“No,” she moaned, still riding her pleasure.

She could feel the sharp points of his teeth against her palm but then his lips closed over them. His face was buried in the crook of her neck, her hand trapped over his mouth as he panted. She shivered in the aftermath. The sex had been amazing. The only downside was that she’d seen him lose control and if she hadn’t been watching him he would have bitten her. He turned his face away from her neck and away from her hand.

She wrapped her arms tighter around him, holding him, and loved the way his heavy body pinned hers to the bed.

“Sorry,” he whispered. He lifted his head and stared down at her, their noses nearly touching.

“Never apologize for making me come that hard. That was mind-blowing. You’re amazing.”

He tensed on her and then relaxed. “If you hadn’t gripped my mouth I would have bitten you. You feel too damn good and make me lose my head.” She chuckled. “We’ll have to buy you a muzzle, honey.” She saw amusement spark his dark eyes. “I think they make them. I know this sex shop that carries all kinds of kinky shit.”

“Really?” She laughed. “I think tomorrow we should go there to buy one for you because I don’t want to use condoms with you.”

His smile died. “You’re serious?”

She nodded. “Do you really want to use them when we don’t have to? Tell me that wasn’t damn good, that you don’t want to do it again and I’ll call you a liar.” The amusement left him. “It was too damn good. I could get addicted to you.” She ran her tongue over her lips. “You don’t want me for a mate, remember? You want a wolf.”

“Your life isn’t here anyway. Where do you live?”

“I have an apartment in Orange County, California.”

“What do you do for a living?”

“I work for the phone company as an information operator.”

“Whose house is this? I didn’t know Omar owned it.”

“He doesn’t. It was my parents’ house when they still lived here. When I was two we moved to Southern California but we’d always come here for a few weeks here and there so they kept it. When they died it was left to me. My mom was a wolf and my father was human but they were mated. They were childhood sweethearts.”

“It’s rare that a were-woman mates with a human guy. Most families wouldn’t allow it. They’d demand he risk his life to change so he’d be strong enough to protect his mate.”

Mika didn’t see any bias in his eyes. He just looked curious. “My mother never wanted to risk his life to attempt to change him. Mom and Uncle Omar’s parents were killed when they were in their teens and Uncle Omar grew up with my father too, so he didn’t protest when she followed her heart to marry the man she loved. Uncle Omar was just happy that my mom was happy.”

“Why did they leave here then?”

“The pack didn’t agree with their union and Mom was worried about Dad’s safety.

My dad had family in Orange County so it was logical to go there.”

“How did they die?”

She glanced away as pain lanced her heart for a moment but then looked back at him. “When I was ten years old they went on a skiing trip and had rented a small cabin.

They left me with Dad’s aunt. There was an avalanche, it happened in the middle of the night and they probably never knew what happened unless the sound woke them before the snow hit the cabin. They were found in bed together when the rescue teams dug them out. The cabin was totally destroyed.”

“So Omar raised you?” He frowned. “I’ve never met you and you’d think I would know if a girl was in his house for all those years. I’ve been around long enough to have seen or scented you when you were younger.”

“No. My father’s aunt kept me. My life was there and Uncle Omar thought it would be safer for me to be with other humans. Every year I come for two weeks. It was always that way before my parents died and that was the agreement he made with my aunt. When I hit adulthood I kept coming every year. I have met some of the pack, of course, but for the most part, he keeps me away from them. I always stay here so it’s not like I live with him. The one time I stayed there since I turned eighteen was a nightmare I never want to repeat.” She laughed. “He and Minnie are very sexually active and loud so I barely got any sleep.”

He chuckled. “We’re very sexual creatures.”

She smiled. “Lucky me, for the next two weeks.”

He grinned. “Have you ever thought about moving here?” She nodded. “The only time I considered it was when my ex and I broke up and I found myself suddenly homeless. Uncle Omar kind of made it known it was a bad idea.

He’s visited me in California often and always scouts out my neighborhood before I move into a place. I guess wolves don’t want to live in heavily populated areas. He said it was werewolf-free so I was safer living there.” Grady frowned. “You were married?”

She shook her head. “We lived together. He wanted to go do the quickie Vegas marriage thing but I said no way because I wanted to live with him for a year first to make sure we’d work out. It was a damn good thing I put my foot down because it’s a hell of a lot easier to pack up shit and move out than it would have been hiring an attorney to get a divorce.”