Chapter Seven

Oh, shit. Not again.

Yes, please, thank you.

Honor couldn’t seem to make up her mind. Was he the best thing she’d ever tasted and the one thing she needed more than breath right now, or did she need to kill him and leave his carcass for scavengers more desperate than the pack?

Then that little roll of his hips against hers really threatened to turn the tide.

Hell, it threatened, promised and carried out. One minute she was contemplating how his head would look posed on a spike in the flowerbeds next to the front door, and the next, she clung to him like a honeysuckle vine, arms and legs twined around him as she tried to get as close as she possibly could to the source of her arousal. Damn heat. Why Lupine women couldn’t have a normal female menstrual cycle, Honor had never understood. No, she had to go through a monthly bout of nearly uncontrollable lust and a frantic desire to mate every single time she ovulated. How was that right?

Logan didn’t seem to mind. His arms closed around her and hitched her higher against him, until her legs wound around his waist and his hips could grind directly between her legs. That felt good for all of seven milliseconds before Honor wanted more. She gritted her teeth against the urge to sink them into his flesh—something a male Lupine usually took as an invitation—and concentrated on remembering to breathe. That lasted five milliseconds. At that point, she gave up on good sense and reached for his shirt collar, grabbing hold and wrenching her hands apart until his buttons popped open and scattered about the floor of the clearing.

Three milliseconds later, she felt the impact of her back hitting the rough bark of a tree trunk and a distinct draft as her T-shirt tore down the middle and fell to hang limply off her elbows. If the man kept this up, she’d have to live permanently in her wolf form for lack of clothes.

That didn’t seem so bad, though, not when he was nibbling a path from her mouth, down her throat to her breasts. She felt the little stings of his teeth against her skin, followed by the heat of his tongue laving the wounds, and the pressure of his mouth as he sucked her skin against his teeth. She’d look like a hickey map of the Milky Way by nightfall, and she couldn’t have cared less. All she cared about was getting her hands on him and easing the burning ache between her legs.

Her hands clenched in the material of his shirt, and she shoved it off his shoulders and arms, tugging furiously until it gave up and fluttered to the ground beside them. Then her hands were on him, exploring the smooth expanse of muscle and skin, the furring of hair across his chest, the tight, flat discs of his nipples. She wanted to taste him, but he was too bloody far away, so she memorized his textures as if she were blind and he was her very own form of Braille. When her hands slipped below the waistband of his jeans and her nails scraped intricate patterns in the skin at the small of his back, he roared and shifted, tearing open the fly of her own jeans until he could slip his hand inside and plunge two long fingers deep into her slick heat.

“Logan! ”

Her cry sounded choked and harsh to her own ears, but it was the most she could manage when her world was exploding behind her eyes like summertime fireworks. She tilted her hips to take him deeper and then moaned in frustration when he pressed knuckle deep inside her. It wasn’t enough.

“More. Now. ”

He didn’t answer, but the rough rumble in his chest sounded like approval to her. Shaking with need, she reached between them for the button on his jeans and popped it open, only to encounter another one. Her eyes widened incredulously.

“Button flies? ”

He growled in frustration and used his free hand to yank open the next button. “I know. Never again. ”

The third and fourth buttons gave easily, practically leaping out of their holes to avoid their owner’s ire. As soon as the stiff denim parted, his cock sprang free and Honor all but wept in relief. Her hand curled around it, stroking down the length and back again. He felt amazing, hot and thick and achingly hard and she needed him inside her. Now.

Giving up the last of her restraint, she ducked her head forward and sank her teeth into Logan’s shoulder, directly over the spot where she’d bitten last night in the kitchen. Holding on, she released her grip on his cock only long enough to unzip her own jeans. The rasping sound seemed to echo around them, then her jeans fell away under his hands and her legs were winding back around his waist. She reached again for his cock, but he was there before her, guiding himself to her liquid entrance. He paused briefly, his hot gaze capturing hers, before he tightened his hands on her hips and plunged deep.

Her cry, all hoarse triumph and blatant challenge, rang through the clear air around them. Logan grunted and leaned into her more heavily, pinning her to the rough tree trunk as he began thrusting inside her.

Honor squirmed to get closer, ignoring the scrapes and patches of raw skin the rough tree bark left on her back. Her awareness encompassed no more than him. Logan. The man against her, around her, inside her. The man who felt like home, whose body had been made to fill hers.

She thrust back at him, frantic to take him, all of him. His cock stretched her wide, filled her to the heart, and still she wanted more. She braced her hands against his shoulders and pushed, trying to get the leverage to increase the force of his thrusts. He growled a warning and pushed her hard against the tree. She snarled in his ear, but before she could bite, he shifted. His hands snaked down between them and spread her thighs even wider. He hooked his elbows behind her knees and pressed her legs up and back, and she felt his next thrust in the back of her throat.

God, he felt incredible inside her. Hot and thick and hard and so perfect her head spun with it. She felt the truth pounding at her in time with his movements, but she shoved it back in fear. She did not need or want this right now. Sure, her life sucked these days, but it sucked on her terms. If she gave in and accepted the truth she could feel haunting her, her terms would cease to exist. She knew it as surely as she knew her own name. The only terms Logan Hunter intended to play by were his own, and Honor knew that giving in would cost her more than she was willing to pay.

She could feel his muscles tensing beneath her clutching hands. She felt the slickness of sweat and of blood where her nails had bitten deep and carved furrows in his broad back. He began to thrust harder, if that were possible, to quicken his motions until he moved with blurring speed and force and Honor had to abandon her efforts to keep up. She simply held on for dear life. Higher he drove them, and faster, until Honor could feel the tension twist in her belly like a tightened rubber band, ready to snap.

She forced her eyes open and met his gaze. His eyes looked hot and wild, glowing a feral gold with hunger and instinct. She knew what he was about to do, and she couldn’t let it happen. Her body tensed, the first wave of orgasm gathering inside her, preparing to break. Logan growled in response to her body’s instinctive tightening and his hands bit deeply into her hips, leaving bruises where tanned fingers gripped creamy flesh. He shifted abruptly and forced her hips to tilt upward until the base of his cock rubbed against her clit as he thrust, and Honor broke.

The climax seized her by the scruff of her neck and shook her like a disobedient cub. Her pussy clenched around him, milking his cock in hot, slick motions, dragging him into ecstasy behind her.

She felt the moment of his explosion and twisted her torso to the side, raising one arm to deflect his bite, catching it on the muscular flesh of her bicep, rather than on the shoulder where he’d been aiming. She heard his muffled roar, but his jaw had already clenched shut around her arm and he couldn’t pull away. He mouthed the skin as his body emptied itself inside her, a growl rumbling low in his throat. Honor hung there, pinned between the tree and his shuddering body for endless minutes until his tension eased.

He raised his head to glare at her, brown eyes still glowing an amber gold with the aftermath of his climax. “You shouldn’t have done that. ”

“You shouldn’t have tried to mark me. ” She shivered, suddenly aware that they were all but naked outside in the stoneyard in the middle of winter. Never mind that steam billowed off them in a hazy fog; she wanted her clothes.

“You are mine. ” Logan shook her, staring into her eyes as if he could will her to agree with him.

“I don’t belong to anyone. Least of all you. I bear no man’s mark, and I intend to keep it that way. ”

He snorted. “What are you? The Virgin Alpha? I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but your name isn’t Elizabeth. ”

“It doesn’t need to be. ” She shoved hard at his shoulders, and he grunted, but didn’t release her. “Let me go and get the hell off my property. We’ve said everything we need to say, and I need to go take a frickin’ shower. ”

His jaw snapped shut loud enough for Honor to hear the click. When he spoke from between clenched teeth, it sounded as if it came from a wolven larynx, not a human one. “Not yet. I’m not done. You will be my mate, Honor. No matter what I have to do to convince you. ”

He carried her to the floor of the clearing and went ahead with the convincing. All Honor could do was moan.