It was a gaze that spoke of need and yearning and ... possession.

Lifting his hands, he framed her face in his hands, pulling her down to kiss her with an aching sweetness. Sophia sighed. She didn’t know what she had done for fate to have dropped this delectable man into her arms, but she intended to savor every moment he remained with her.

Her hands smoothed over the corded muscles of his chest. His skin was a warm, silken temptation, and with a moan of need, she moved to trail her lips over his face and down the strong column of his throat. Her stomach clenched in fierce need, her wolf delighting in the clean scent of male skin.

“You taste of heat and sunshine,” she whispered as she continued her provoking caresses.

“I’m supposed to be tasting you,” he growled, his hands clutching her hips as he sought to regain command.

Such an alpha.

“Do you object?” she whispered, moving steadily lower.

“Oh, hell no.”

“What about this?”

“Sophia,” he rasped as she reached the rippling muscles of his lower stomach.

“Mmmm?”

“I’m a Were who has wanted you for a very long time,” he ground out. “I need to be inside you when I come.”

She gave a throaty chuckle, oddly pleased by his words. Not that she was done with her playing. Deliberately rubbing her body back up the length of his body, she savored the electric sparks set off by the friction of their naked skin.

It’d been so long since she’d felt such overwhelming desire. Hell, she wasn’t sure she’d ever needed a man like she needed Luc. Her every nerve felt alive, sensitized to the point she thought she might combust.

“You can’t have wanted me that long,” she murmured. “We’ve only known each other a week.”

Without warning he lifted her hips, stealing her breath as the fierce jut of his erection settled in the damp heat between her legs.

She arched, the persistent throb in her sex rejoicing as the wide tip of him slipped just inside her body. But instead of shoving himself home, he clutched her hips and regarded her with smoldering eyes.

“I met you a week ago,” he said in thick tones. “I’ve waited for you all my life,” he murmured.

Oh shit, she was in trouble.

“Luc.”

“Now ... my turn for some torture,” he informed her, drawing her toward his waiting lips. “I want you begging before I’m done.”

With a wicked smile, Luc branded her lips with a kiss of pure hunger. The taste of his wolf on her tongue sizzled through her, setting off small fireworks of pleasure.

Then moving his mouth over her face, he stroked down the length of her arched neck. Sophia’s fingers dug into his shoulders as he tugged her upward, catching the pouting nipple between his teeth. She gave a soft growl as he licked and suckled her, her head tilted back at the insistent bliss pulsing through her. He turned his attention to the other breast, deliberately urging her desire to a fever pitch.

She needed to get him inside her.

She needed to be so deeply connected to him that they reached paradise together.

But even as she struggled to slide onto his waiting cock, he was ruthlessly hauling her up to her knees. With a strangled moan she glanced down to watch his mouth explore the clenched muscles of her stomach, his tongue darting out to send shivers of delight through her.

She moaned, her heavy lashes lowering as he stroked over the curve of her hip and down the inside of her thigh.

Okay, she could take a small detour before riding him like a cowboy.

Then his seeking lips found her moist cleft and any logical thought was destroyed. Oh, this was good. This was fan-freaking-tastic.

Struggling not to topple backward as his tongue stroked the highly sensitive flesh, she speared her fingers in the thick satin of his hair.

There was something a bit naughty about straddling him as he expertly tongued her, although she intended to become a whole lot naughtier before the night was over.

She hadn’t forgotten those handcuffs he’d mentioned....

Still holding her hips, Luc found the core of her pleasure, gently sucking as the magical pressure began to build.

“Luc, I’m close,” she gasped.

“Yes,” he muttered, guiding her back so he could position her over his straining erection.

Then, slowly he penetrated her damp channel.

Sophia hissed as she pressed herself ever deeper. She had logically known he was large. All over. But as he stretched her to the limit, she had to admit she hadn’t actually considered the sensation of being impaled by such a generously proportioned shaft.

Holy crap.

Bigger really was better.

And when a man knew what to do with such a fine, fine instrument, then it was nothing less than a gift to women.

Briefly savoring his deep, steady pace, Sophia at last placed her hands on his chest, rolling her hips to meet his upward thrust. She smiled with wicked satisfaction as his fingers convulsively clutched her hips.

He wasn’t the only one with talent.

“Dios, you feel so good,” he panted. “So good.”

Sophia lifted until the tip of his cock was nearly at her entrance before plunging downward. His hips jerked off the mattress, his eyes glowing as his wolf strained to be released.

Sophia chuckled, loving the sensation of being the one in power even as she knew that it was an illusion that he was offering her.

Just as he was offering her the illusion that he was hers.

The one wolf meant to be hers for all eternity.

Abruptly crushing the disturbing thought, she concentrated on the sensation of Luc’s deepening thrusts, her soft pants filling the air as her muscles tightened in preparation for the looming orgasm.

Luc tightened his grip, his face burying in the curve of her neck. Then, still pumping into her at a furious pace, he sank his teeth into her flesh, sending her into a shattering climax.

Sophia shuddered in bliss, convulsing around him as he gave one more thrust and cried out with the violent pleasure of his own release.

Luc rolled to the side, wrapping his arms tightly around Sophia’s trembling body as he struggled to catch his breath. His mind reeled from the astounding pleasure that continued to shudder through him.

Not just the orgasm that had ripped through him with the force of a tsunami, but the feel of her flesh beneath his fangs as he had marked her with his bite.

A damned shame that the mark wouldn’t last. He wouldn’t be at all displeased to have her walking around with a blatant display of his ownership.

Unfortunately even now her skin was healing, returning to the perfect, unmarred silk that tempted him to lean down and sink his teeth in for another bite.

He groaned, his body hardening.

Now that he thought about it, he was tempted to start the whole thing over. This time he wouldn’t let the bewitching Were provoke him into such a swift conclusion.

He intended to take hours pleasuring her.

To have her pleading for release.

And most importantly, to make certain that he had entrenched himself so deeply she would never, ever want another lover.

Snuggling against his chest, Sophia heaved a sigh of contentment.

“That was ...”

“Sensational?” he offered, his lips teasing over her brow and down the slender length of her nose. “Life altering? The best you’ve ever had?”

“Adequate.”

He snorted. The earth had just moved.

For both of them.

“Adequate?”

He lowered his head to deliberately tease the tender spot just below her ear, chuckling as she quivered in ready response.

“Okay, maybe it was above average,” she whispered huskily.

“You’re playing with fire, cara.” Nipping the lobe of her ear, he planted hungry kisses down the length of her throat, pausing to nuzzle the tender flesh he intended to hold in his teeth as he brought them both to an explosive climax. “Shall I remind you of just how good it is between us?”

She groaned, her hands branding a path of heat over his chest and down his stomach.

“It’s coming back,” she assured him. “Slowly.”

For all his brawn, Luc had always been surprisingly intuitive. In truth, it was his ability to read others that made him such a lethal killer.

Any Were could use his teeth and claws to battle his enemies. But a soldier who could predict what his opponent was going to do before he did it, priceless.

It wasn’t intuition, however, that made him pull back to study his companion with a searching gaze. No, this was much deeper. Much more ... intimate.

“Sophia?”

“Hmmm?” she murmured, her hands continuing the path of destruction toward his fully erect cock.

Mierda, he wanted to forget the concern that niggled at the edge of his mind. Surely whatever was bothering Sophia could wait?

At least for a few hours.

Then, as he caught the scent of wariness threaded through the rich spice of her desire, he heaved a small sigh, catching her hand a mere heartbeat before she captured his shaft and put an end to any coherent thought.

“There’s something on your mind.”

She flashed a deliberately wicked smile. The kind of smile intended to divert any red-blooded male.