Tristan tensed in arousal, watching Kalli slink down his body, slowly stripping him. Her warm breath teased his rigid thick cock. But he was mostly fascinated by the clouds of passion that lurked within her eyes. While most people didn’t dare look him directly in the eyes, she did so with reckless abandon, challenging him to come to her.
As much as he wanted her warm lips wrapped around the length of him, he first needed her to feel loved. After the rough way he’d taken her earlier, in an alcove of a ballroom, nonetheless there was nothing he desired more at the moment than to simply care for her.
“Come, Kalli,” he breathed, ignoring his pulsing need. Content with her compliance, he led her to the steaming water, and shut off the spigot.
Kalli allowed him to help her into the bath. She’d been so close to swallowing him whole, while kneeling before him. The scent of his masculinity enticed her, driving her craving to lick every inch of his body. But at his words, she acquiesced, allowing him to lead her into the heavenly vessel that awaited them. He always seemed to know what was best. Was he ever wrong? The question spun through her head as she relaxed, submerging into the sublime paradise. It was just what she needed, and he knew it. She found herself staring at him, wondering how he knew just about everything.
He quickly followed her into the bubbles, but lounged into the opposite side. As if sensing her impending protest at the lack of contact, he tugged on her feet, as his feet rested on either side of her hips.
Kalli gasped, slipping deeper into the tub.
“Give me those pretty feet.” He began to inspect her perfectly pedicured, metallic blue painted toes. “You think too much.”
“What?” she muttered.
“I can see you thinking, chérie. Whatever it is, you just need to accept it.” He smiled knowingly. Rubbing her insoles, he was rewarded with a grateful moan. “You ladies with those high heels. As much as I enjoyed taking you from behind with you wearing nothing but stilettos, and damn you were hot by the way, I wouldn’t last five minutes in those torture chambers.”
Kalli laughed. “Hmm…somehow I think you’d manage it. After the past couple of days, I’m wondering what exactly you can’t do?”
“I’ll be happy to teach you my tricks.”
“I just bet you would. Something tells me that I’d enjoy your lessons.” She brushed one foot over his thigh playfully.
“The secret is taking advantage of all life gives you,” he mused.
“Work hard. Play even harder?”
“Something like that. But it’s more. Take you, for instance. I’ve thought long and hard about why you took those pills. But it’s deprived you of your nature.”
She quietly listened.
“Tell me about South Carolina, Kalli.”
“I told you most of it. You know how it is in a pack. You’re not just raised by your parents. My mom, she’d somehow managed to live in that hellhole. My Dad was verbally abusive from as far back as I can remember, but Mom was the one who protected me. When she died…I was alone. The Alpha, Gerald, he was nothing more than a bully. And by the time I was sixteen, my body was starting to look less like a child’s. So I guess that was his cue to send for me one night. Of course, I went, because who says no to the Alpha?” Kalli quieted, as if she was reliving the horrifying experience.
“Did he rape you?”
“No, thankfully. He grabbed for me, ripped my shirt off, tried to maul me…but I fought him. I managed to grab one of those old-fashioned phones he had sitting on his desk; smacked him in the head with it. Of course, that earned me a good backhand. And that’s when he informed me of my ‘role’ in the pack. Guess he didn’t want me tainting his precious bloodlines. A few days later, I took off for New York City. Hid out. Got through college. You know the rest.” She absentmindedly ran her hands up and down the tops of his calves.
Tristan forced every muscle in his body to relax as he listened to her recount what had happened to her. Strung out in anger, he tried to focus on her and not his own feelings.
“You know, I’ve been alive for a long time, watching the way most packs have progressed. These days we welcome hybrids, outlaw forced pairings and matings, et cetera. I can’t take away the pain, but I’ll promise you this,” Tristan said, a serious expression washing over his face. “If this Gerald is still alive, he won’t be for long.”
As Kalli listened, she didn’t bother telling him no. She wanted Gerald dead; the wolf in her screamed for his throat.
“When did you first shift?” He changed the line of questioning while still staying on the topic he wanted to learn about the most; her past.
“Not until my sophomore year in college.”
“How’d you manage that?” Most wolves had shifted by their early teen years.
Kalli bit her lip, embarrassed to tell him what she’d done to thwart it. “I starved myself.”
“What?” Tristan asked incredulously.
“I know, it’s awful. I ate barely enough to sustain myself. But if I’d let myself change while in the pack, you know I’d have been raped within a full moon. Whatever… it worked. Of course as soon as I left, I started eating normally again. Still, it took a couple of years for my system to recover. And then one day, I just couldn’t stop her.”
“And?”
“And I found a safe, isolated place for me to shift in upstate New York. I’d shift alone,” she admitted, knowing he’d ask her if she wasn’t forthcoming. “But when I started taking the CLI about two years ago, it was the first time in my life that I could really stop hiding. Well, I guess I was still hiding, but it was in plain sight. People could sniff me all they wanted, and for all intents and purposes, I was human. No wolf to be found.”
“Well now you can stop hiding. I mean it, Kalli; I won’t let anything happen to you. You can stop taking the pills,” he stated flatly.
“I don’t know about that, Tristan.”
“You need to learn to trust me. Do we need another lesson?”
“I think your lessons could be addicting,” she smiled. “Seriously, I know you’re there for me. It’s just that, my wolf, she scares me. Well maybe not her exactly as much as the actual shifting. I’ve only shifted by myself…alone. Believe me when I tell you that it has unequivocally sucked, for lack of a better term.”
“Maybe you just need a good teacher.”
“A strong virile Alpha, perhaps?”
“Yes, someone who’d love nothing more than to see an enchanting she-wolf in the forest. With that raven hair of yours, I can’t wait to see your coloring.”
“I need to think about it,” she hedged.
“Better think fast, chérie. After the summit tomorrow, we’re heading up the mountains for the next week or so. Full moon is coming in a few days. I reckon if you don’t take any more of those pills, you might be able to shift. It may take a little more time for you to be able to shift on demand though. It’s not nice to mess with Mother Nature.” Tristan leaned forward, letting his hands roam up to tease her inner thighs. His fingers magically massaged her. Nearing the apex of her legs, he trailed back toward her feet, purposely teasing her need.
Kalli sank further down into the tub, actively seeking his hands. “Ah…” she sighed in frustration, trying to concentrate on what he’d been saying. “Mother Nature, huh? Is that right?”
“The Alpha is always right,” he joked, leaning back again.
Unable to take a second more of his teasing, Kalli sat straight up. Her hair fell forward as her tiny hardened tips poked through the long wet curls. She leaned over, crawling toward him on her hands and knees, until she was face to face with Tristan, mere inches from his lips. Her knees straddled his as she leaned over to kiss the hollow of his neck. Seeking to break his restraint, she continued her assault, pressing her lips everywhere but on his. As she brushed a kiss over his eyelid, she felt his hands on her waist pulling her toward him. She leaned into his ear. “I need you in me…now,” she whispered.