Ellie’s lips opened on a shaky sigh which he drank into his own mouth before sealing it over hers and gently stealing every thought from her head. He curled one strong hand behind her head and held her in place for long, heated moments, while he used his skillful mouth to lead her to a level of pleasure that was shocking and unfamiliar.
When Rylek finally drew back to look at her, Ellie found that her hands were pressed firmly to the hot, damp silk of his shirt, and his heartbeat was pounding like her own.
“Rylek?” she whispered questioningly, her voice high and breathless. It was nothing less than an invitation.
The sound seemed to inflame him. His dark eyes blazed with intensity. He leaned toward her again, his eyes fixed upon her kiss- swollen mouth, but suddenly a tray of sweets came between them.
Rylek bared his teeth at the audacity, his roped muscles tensed and ready, but he reluctantly moved back so that the tray could be placed on the tiny table. The handsome blond man, who had escorted her date from the restaurant so efficiently, added small cups of dark coffee to the feast of desserts before them.
The man smiled. “Perhaps you wonder how I can get away with interrupting Rylek when he is so captivated by his chosen companion?” He obviously addressed Ellie. “But you see, I am Beta to his Alpha, one of his seconds you might say in America. And a cousin also. Valeri Sidarov, always at your service.” He bowed from the waist and disappeared quickly around the corner as the chef, who was obviously his father, came and shooed him away, muttering darkly in Russian.
Rylek seemed to relax again when Valeri left.
“Please, try some of the chocolate mousse at least. My uncle is a very talented chef, and this recipe is his own. He is justifiably quite proud of this masterpiece. It is a favorite indulgence of many beautiful ladies.” His smile was slow and blatantly sexual, as if remembering all the ways in which he had personally indulged beautiful women.
Ellie felt a flush of wild heat inspired by that smile, but instead of climbing across the table into his lap, she took her self-control firmly in hand and turned to the dessert. She scooped some of the dark mousse onto the spoon and tried a tiny bite. Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head as the incredible taste exploded in her senses. Dark and velvety smooth with just a hint of…cinnamon spice? It was nothing short of decadent.
Ellie moaned softly, and scooped up another bite, this time letting it melt and slide down her throat. Her eyelashes fluttered and drooped until only a sliver of blue shone through. She dug in to the rich dessert with enthusiasm, moaning her enjoyment until finally the small crystal dish was empty.
Surfacing at last from her absorption with the chocolate treat, Ellie looked up into black eyes blazing like an inferno.
As Rylek watched Ellie enjoy the delicate dessert, his hands clenched on the edges of the little table to keep from grabbing her. He wanted to pull her curvaceous body onto the tabletop and devour her in a few intense, delicious bites. Her scent, spiced with the delicate arousal that had beckoned him closer all evening, was somehow both familiar and, at the same time, irresistibly mysterious to him, though he was certain they had never met before.
If she were a vulfen female, he would have called her his mate and spent the next several hours claiming her body in every possible way, but it was unheard of for an Alpha to mate a full human. How could a human female, even one as undeniably robust and healthy as the beautiful Ellie, survive a full vulfen mating with a powerful Alpha? No, it could not be.
Her stunning blue eyes slid to half-mast as she licked a smear of chocolate from her lips, and his cock throbbed in answer, aching like an open wound. His mind might question, but his hungry erection had no doubts whatsoever about her suitability as a partner. His cock had responded with pounding fullness hours earlier to the first sight of her sweet curves, the first brief inhalation of her womanly scent, and had remained stubbornly hard and ready ever since.
And now it was all he could do to keep his fangs from dropping as he watched her eat, another unconscious sign of his body’s approval of this unlikely human woman. He wanted so badly to sink his fangs into the tender nape of her neck and mark her permanently as he shafted her deeply from behind. It wasn’t helping his tenuous control that he had to watch her sensuous reactions while consuming food he
had provided for her.
In the vulfen world, providing food for the females and young was both a duty and a privilege for the male. It was a matter of honor to the male that his female was fed first, and as such, it had become a firm part of the ritual of first mating. Young male wolves in the grip of the first change fantasized about feeding and fucking their chosen female. A female enjoying her food was as much a sexual symbol to them as bared breasts and a soft pink pussy, and just as deeply appreciated by the males.
In contrast, a male who denied food to a female while eating it himself was reviled by all vulfen, instantly challenged for his female and often killed outright. Such a thing had never been heard of in any of the Russian Clans he ruled, in his lifetime or his father’s, but he knew of a distant clan where it had happened.
The puny human man who had accompanied the beautiful Ellie Bradley to Sidarova and then refused to provide her the proper finish for her meal was only lucky that the other vulfen males present had been ignorant of the reason for Rylek’s challenge at the time. Had they known of it, the human might not have escaped him so easily with the aid of his Cadre of vulfen warriors in the restaurant that night.
A soft moan escaped from Ellie’s pink lips as she consumed the last bite, and Rylek’s stiff cock flexed in response. He wanted to be inside her when she made that sound more than he wanted his next breath. He wanted to sample the chocolate mousse from her nipples and the soft skin of her belly, let it melt into the hot folds between her thighs and then drink it from her body, mixed with her own creamy essence. He wanted to spend days and nights with his face, his fingers or his cock buried in her fragrant female warmth. He stifled a groan and gripped the table edge, praying that he could keep from grinding it to powder.
At that moment, Ellie looked up into his eyes, and his breath stopped in his throat at the arresting sight of the pleasure in her soft
blue gaze. She looked like a deeply satisfied woman, and that quickly, his legendary Alpha control disintegrated.
He reached out, dragged her across the table, and held her against his hot body, fastening his desperate mouth on hers. He couldn’t hold back a tiny growl when the taste of elusive chocolate blended with her unique flavor, and at that vibrant sound, she shuddered and whimpered in his arms. Her responsiveness to his voice and his hands only led him further along a path which was dangerous to tread, drawing him down into raging heat and hunger and toward the shattering intensity of first mating.
He knew he must not take a fragile, delicate, delicious human for his mate. Her life would immediately be in danger, both from vulfen anger at his rejection of their traditions and from the small group of humans who knew of the existence of his people and hunted them. It was utter madness, but the idea of mating her was taking root in his conscious mind, the ripe seductive taste of her luring him to commit himself, his body and soul, to her alone.
Rylek tried to pull himself back from the dangerous precipice, but Ellie had her slender fingers twined in his hair. His hands explored with a will of their own. Her body was wrapped around his equally as much as his was trying to sink into hers. With an effort, he wrenched his mouth from hers on a heartfelt groan.
The sight that greeted him was electrifying. Her beautiful face was turned up to his, ruby lips slightly opened and blindly seeking his mouth again. The skin he had bared gleamed with the subtle iridescence of a perfect pearl. Her heaving breaths pressed her repeatedly against his chest, and cradled in one big clawed hand, he held a soft rosy-peaked breast.
Damn, his claws were out.
As he watched, riveted, his hand flexed on her supple white flesh and she moaned sweetly, head falling back to expose her throat to him. Rylek launched himself to his feet in a frenzy of lust with Ellie clutched to his chest, and whirled them around the corner into the
manager’s office.
“Out,” he rumbled, and there was a flurry of movement as his seconds, Valeri and Miros, took one look at his claws and changed eyes and vacated the room, closing the door behind them.
Rylek placed his willing captive on the long couch and followed her down, ending up between her pale spread thighs. Exactly where he had wanted to be from the moment he had first seen her. The position made him thrust once involuntarily, and he cursed, his clawed hands still fumbling with her clothes and his.
* * * *
Ellie felt the world shift on its axis, and when it stopped spinning she was on her back with Rylek above her, the ridge of his huge penis pressing hard against her burning, needy core. She was dimly aware that he was cursing steadily as he unwrapped her body from her dress and tore her lacy under things away. She couldn’t help him—she could only writhe, only moan and beg him for anything he would give.
“Please, please,” she chanted breathlessly, and then his name, “Rylek.”
His face was blank, fierce, absorbed, as he took a moment when
they were both naked to gaze at her, lying there with her body open and vulnerable to him. And then he was back, his hard chest rasping deliciously against her breasts, his breath hot in her ear, as he pushed his big cock against her wetness and inside.
The feel of him squeezing inside her firmly, slowly stretching her open, had Ellie hovering on the point between pleasure and pain. She panted and squirmed, trying to accommodate his granite hardness, his incredible size. He eased back for a moment. Then he pushed in again, further, to the full extent of her and held himself strong and deep.
At the rolling wave of sensation, Ellie wailed his name, and his
control seemed to snap. He thrust hard again and again, his big body lunging and bucking, setting up a furious rhythm that rocked her body and his. In her ear, he whispered reverent praise for her lush breasts, her generous wetness and her tight clasp. He called her beautiful over and over, and his voice was so deep and rasping it sounded almost inhuman.
“Come,” he demanded. “Come for me.”
He licked and then nipped the delicate skin just below her ear, and Ellie went flying over the edge into a screaming, crushing abyss. Her body rippled and clutched at his, and Rylek followed her over with a deep roar, pumping his hot seed inside her in long, desperate bursts before collapsing with his face buried against her neck.
His hot breaths gusted heavily in her ear, and his weight pushed her down into the sofa cushions, but Ellie didn’t care. She never wanted to move. She never wanted him to move.
She ran one hand lazily through his hair over and over as tiny spasms continued to roll through her body, content to enjoy this quiet moment with him while they both tried to get their breathing under control.
“Ellie. Beautiful Ellie,” he muttered, and pressed his lips to her throat.
She responded by moving her head slightly to give him better
access. He kissed her again, and pulled his body away from hers in a gush of fluids, giving an audible gasp as he looked down at her body.
“I have injured you,” he said urgently, smoothing his hand over
two long red scratches on her hip.
“Rylek, it’s nothing,” she assured him warmly.
She stretched and arched her back a little. She had never felt better in her life. He must just need to clip his nails. It wasn’t a big deal.
He paid no attention to her words, quickly examining the rest of her. He was gentle but thorough, using only one finger to touch a small red mark on her breast and one high on her thigh. He touched the scratches again and then turned away from her.
He pulled her dress off the back of the sofa and draped it over her body.
“You were all I could have wished for.” His words were a wonderful compliment, but they came out sounding like an apology. Something in his voice warned Ellie that reality was crashing in to derail her little fantasy of happily-ever-after.
Rylek stood and ran his hands through his hair then pulled on his clothes. In moments, he was presentable once more, though his mouth was swollen and his eyes were heavy-lidded. He looked like a powerful medieval conqueror in modern dress, and she couldn’t look away from him.
“Rylek,” she tried, but he silenced her with a gentle kiss.
He pressed his lips to her hand gallantly. “Take as much time as you need to get ready,” he said. “Valeri will drive you to your home.”
With those polite, depressing words, he turned and left the office, shutting the door softly behind him.
She sighed, fighting tears, and rose to gather her scattered clothing. She had caromed from total bliss to total rejection in less than two minutes. That was a record, even for her pitiful love life.
Well, the handsome prince never went home with the slightly overweight average character in the fairy tales, she reasoned. It was always a beautiful slender princess who the prince spoiled and adored.
The thought did nothing to improve her mood.