Given that he was perfectly nude, lying atop her bed, she thanked goodness her own body was underneath the covers. She wasn’t sure whether to be happy or upset that he’d fallen asleep on his stomach, but she couldn’t help appreciating the hard contours of his body, from his well-corded back to his firmly sculptured ass to his strong thighs and calves. Dear Lord, the man was sheer perfection. Michelangelo’s David paled in comparison.
She’d somehow fallen asleep with her hand on his shoulder and now let her fingers voluntarily wander down the length of his back. Curious, she couldn’t resist, indulging in the experience of touching such an amazing male. Gently, she pushed into a sitting position as she continued to slide her hand over the cheek of his bottom and onto his thigh. Squeezing her legs together, she forced herself to concentrate as her arousal peaked. No internal conflict plagued her as the impulse to touch him took over her thoughts. Neither wolf nor human, she simply was a female who very much wanted the desirable male in her bed.
Tristan flinched slightly, awakened by the touch of her hand on his back and the sweet smell of her excitement. Shifting back after she’d fallen deep into REM sleep, he had to force himself to calm down. He could have sworn he’d been hard all night. This morning, he feigned sleep, knowing that if he opened his eyes, she’d go tearing off his bed like a scared alley cat. But when she skimmed over his butt with her fingers, he swore his steel shaft threatened to catapult him off the bed.
The subtle flinch alerted her that he could be waking up, and she didn’t want to be in bed with him when it happened. So she snatched his shirt off the bed. Now dry, she slid it over her head and slipped into the bathroom to freshen up. After brushing her teeth and hair, she tugged again at the too large underwear that clearly had stretched out and no longer wished to stay on her hips. Losing the battle, she let them fall to the floor and decided to go without, resigning herself to a pantyless morning. Because his extra-large shirt fell down over her thighs, she felt relatively covered. Ready to face her Alpha, she cracked open the door.
She wasn’t sure where Tristan had gone when she exited the bathroom, but she was hungry and wasn’t waiting for him. Within a few minutes, she quickly found the kitchen and the ever-important coffee machine. She turned it on, popped in the coffee pod and started opening cabinets looking for mugs. Setting two cups on the counter, she opened the door to the refrigerator and pulled out creamer then continued looking through the clutter for the eggs. She felt ravenous, and needed protein. “Come on, where are you, little eggies? Tristan has to have eggs. Everyone has eggs,” she mumbled, talking to herself.
“Tristan does,” he told her with a grin, surprised to find Kalli rummaging around in search of food. Despite taking a cold shower, he was instantly hard again at the sight of her lovely bare ass which peeked at him from underneath his shirt. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to take her from behind and slide deep into her warm heat. The temptation was great, but he restrained his desires.
Kalli jumped at his voice, quickly turning around. “Hi, um, I was just going to make us something to eat,” she said nervously.
“By all means,” he agreed confidently, walking by her wearing only a towel around his hips. His erection tented the fabric, and he made no attempt to conceal it.
It was nearly impossible to ignore both the charisma and raw sexuality Tristan exuded. Slowly, Kalli’s eyes roamed up and down his lean torso, astonished at the audaciousness he exhibited while wearing practically nothing. His hair, dampened from the shower, fell shaggy over his eyes. Hardened abs rippled down toward his low slung towel. Struggling for the words that never came, she couldn’t help her natural reaction, which was to look him over one last time. Embarrassed, she just knew that he knew that she’d just looked at his groin area, which appeared to be growing. Oh God. She rubbed her hand over her eyes and smiled to herself. What was it about this man? Get it together, Kalli. Say something.
“Um, okay then, so the eggs.” She opened the refrigerator, careful to hold on to the shirt so it didn’t ride up again.
“Like what you see?” he asked seductively as he set a coffee mug next to her hand, proceeding to wait for the next cup to fill.
“What did you just say?” Shocked, she grabbed the egg carton and quickly stood up, banging her head. She turned around holding the package in one hand, rubbing the sore spot on her head with the other.
He set his eyes on hers, taking the eggs and putting them on the ledge. She backed into the counter as he caged her, pushing her body flush against his. “I said…Do. You. Like. What. You. See?” he whispered into her ear, accentuating every word.
She sucked a breath as a million pithy responses filled her head. But the hard bulge pressed against her body and her dangerously hard nipples made it impossible for her to speak coherently.
“Um.” God, she felt like a complete idiot. Eight years of college and all she had was ‘um’?
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he replied playfully, kissing her ear softly. He reached over to grab his coffee cup, which made him press against her even harder.
She sucked a breath at the welcome intrusion. There was a part of her that thought he might kiss her. Immobilized against his hard torso, he had her exactly where he wanted her, or rather, where she wanted to be.
Instead of kissing her, however, he wrapped his fingers around the clay handle and walked away with a broad smile across his face, without saying another word. He proceeded to sit down at the island, and switched on his i-Pad, checking his email as he pretended to ignore her. When Kalli turned around again to make the eggs, he let his eyes drift to her soft supple cheeks that strained to stay covered by his shirt. The hem teased higher as she bent over slightly to turn on the stove. Damn, this woman was killing him.
Tristan could not remember the last time he’d slept naked with a woman. Sure he’d fucked many, but not truly just slept with one. He’d stayed wolf as long as he could, treasuring her trust, teaching her that he wouldn’t hurt her. But now that she was healing and walking around his home like she belonged here, he felt the pressure in his chest along with the ache between his legs.
They’d forged a bond last night, and he didn’t want to rush forward and scare her off. At the same time, he knew she was withholding information. Something small, perhaps, but it was there. Bringing his full attention back to his tablet, he tapped out a quick email to Logan asking him to run a full security clearance on one “Kalli Williams”. He wasn’t a fool. The woman may have been a brilliant vet, but he found it coincidental that she just happened to be at the fire.
She could have gone any direction that day when she decided to take her break, but she’d passed his club. Why not just call right away after she’d rescued the snake? And then there was her hesitation to tell him about the wolves and what they looked like. He understood that she was in serious danger, but she had to have known the minute she saw them that they could find her based on scent alone. She said she didn’t know them personally but her eyes held a terrifying trepidation, a foreboding of sorts, as if she knew exactly what they were capable of doing to her.
And then there was the odd way about her mannerisms, which suggested she’d spent time around a pack. He could tell that she was aware of protocol from the way she’d bowed her head submissively to him when she’d first caught a glance of him in the bedroom. Sure, she’d snapped out of the spell, dragging her eyes to his, but it had been forced. It was as if she was trying to hide the fact that she’d been around an Alpha in the past. Her ‘tell’ gave her away. She’d acted on instinct when she’d averted her gaze. But the confident posture she’d then adopted had been rehearsed. Like an actor playing the role of a prizefighter, it might have been believable to most audiences, but not to a champion. Others might not notice, but he knew. It was the little things that always gave people away, no matter how much they believed the lie.