Sleeping With the Wolf (7 page)

They were both a little awkward trying to turn their bodies to face each other without straining Taye’s wounds. Taye put his large hands on her delicate face to pull her lips against his. She was rigid for a minute, her hands fluttering helplessly before settling lightly on his upper arms. Taye could feel her uncertainty in her stiffness. He delicately probed at the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue and after a hesitation she opened her mouth. Wonder and excitement flooded him when his tongue glided against hers and his kiss turned from tentative to hotly demanding. One of his hands went beneath her hair to cup the back of her neck and pull her harder against him. He felt her hands clench on his biceps and began the torturous task of letting her go. He refused to frighten her off.

He
would not
make her hate him. He stared down at her flushed face and tried to find the words to apologize, but she put her hands around the back of his neck and pulled his face down, and kissed him with as much hunger as he had kissed her. Her scent held traces of feminine desire, and if her hand hadn’t grazed the wound on his back he might have forgotten about Des waiting in the hall, forgotten his empty belly and the fact that he was too weak to mate with her and dragged her under the covers. He let her go, and made himself lean back against the headboard, his eyes closed and his breathing shakier than it had ever been.

“I’m so sorry!” she said in a strangled voice. “I’ll go get supper!”

Then she bolted out of the room, leaving him wondering what she was thinking. Was she sorry she had kissed him? He wasn’t. He was planning to do it a lot more.

*

Carla was so dazed by the kiss she almost ran into the man talking to Des in the hall.

“Oh, sorry,” she blurted. She had hurt Taye by grabbing his shoulder. The kiss had made her forget all about his wounds. He had taken his large warm hands away and leaned back practically groaning in pain. Carla cringed inside. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. Of course, she hadn’t meant to kiss him either. Boy, he could kiss. Holy cow, could he kiss!

Des nodded at her. The other man sniffed and smiled. Carla glared uncomfortably.

Could they actually smell that she and Taye had kissed? Her panties were wet. Maybe they could smell that? What was wrong with her? Taye was a killer. But … He could have raped her last night instead of giving her space. And he could really kiss … She walked down the hall, immersed in lines for the next verse of her song. “
The wolf kissed
me…
”

Des said a something quietly to the other man before following half a step behind her into the empty dining hall, and directed her into the kitchen with a nod to the open door.

The kitchen was pretty good-sized, with an indoor brick trough under a half-open window that was apparently a fire pit, and a row of big metal sinks along another wall.

There was a man already there, or actually a boy, since she didn’t think he was older than sixteen or seventeen, laying out dozens of steaks on the metal island. The designated cook for the day? He was young but already tall and muscular, and in a few years he would be as handsome as Taye. He wore a leather apron that covered him from collarbone to knee. His long thick black hair was in a ponytail that ended right over his tailbone. She stared for a moment at his bare backside visible between the edges of the apron. Clothes were apparently optional, but at least he had the good sense to wear an apron in the kitchen.

“Hi,” Carla said brightly. “I’m Carla.”

The young cook watched her blankly with vivid blue eyes as she took a small steak and put it on the grill that was propped over the coals of the fire pit, and selected a second steak, the thickest and largest one on the counter, for Taye. She was sure the cook wanted to say something to her, but he kept his mouth shut, just looking at her sullenly from under thick black brows. Maybe he didn’t like her coming in and taking his steaks?

Maybe he didn’t like the fact that she and Taye hadn’t … Carla sniffed at herself. All she could smell was the cooking meat. Her stomach growled.

“What?” she finally said after enduring several minutes under his intense stare.

“Is it true you’re not going to cook for us?”

Des growled, and the teenager tipped his head back in that disturbing gesture of showing his throat. “Watch your mouth and show the Lupa some respect,” Des snarled.

Carla swallowed. “I asked, Des.”

“It’s not his place to question you, Lupa.”

Carla flipped her steak. “Well, maybe I should answer anyway.” She waved the large sharp grilling fork at the young man, making him step smoothly back. He must be one of the wolves. Humans just didn’t move with that kind of feral grace. “I’m willing to take my turn at cooking, but I don’t plan to do it every day. Where I come from we don’t cook over open fires, and just because a person is female doesn’t make her a cook. But,” she added prudently, “that’s up to Taye.” Speaking of whom … She slapped the second steak on the grill. “What’s your name?”

He rattled off a long string of meaningless syllables. At her blank look he translated.

“Blue Sky at Midday. Call me Sky.” He glanced at her steak with warning. “Your meat is burnt.”

She pulled it off the fire and smiled with satisfaction. “No, it’s cooked. Just the way I like it.” She couldn’t help but laugh at his horror. “See? You don’t want me cooking your steak.”

She took Taye’s steak off the grill. It was lightly browned on both sides, hopefully just the way he liked it. Sky showed her where the potatoes were baking in the coals at the far end of the fire pit and the pot of carrots hanging above them. She piled a tray with food for the two of them and when she lifted it she let out a grunt at the weight. Des waved a hand at the dining room. A few men were beginning to gather. One of them came over. Like the other men in the dining hall he was stark naked. Carla focused on his face, not letting her eyes go lower. He looked familiar. He had been with them when they walked home from the Bride Fight. Jay? Jason? He took the tray and carried it for her back to Taye’s room. Des led the way briskly, his too big cotton pants fluttering with his speed, but the closer they came to Taye the more reluctant Carla was. How could she face Taye? She had flung herself so deeply into the kiss she had hurt him. Maybe he thought she had done it for revenge?

The door of room 121 opened before they got there and a couple men came out.

They stared at Carla and held the door open for Jay to carry the tray in before going off down the hallway. Jay set the tray down on the table and he and Des left. Carla had to steel herself to look at Taye. But she didn’t see him right away. The room seemed full of men. Her eyes skipped over them, trying to not see their nakedness, and found the old-fashioned pot-bellied stove sitting past the window. Taye was crouched beside it, feeding it small pieces of wood. Tears came to her eyes. She was always cold, and winter hadn’t even started yet. Taye had said something about a stove to help her keep warm, and here it was. Even after she had hurt him he took care of her.

He stood up and turned to face her with a small smile. She let her eyes slide down his bare brown body and sighed with relief when she saw that he was wearing cut-offs. The gouge below his belly button still looked angry and raw, but the gash on his thigh was definitely healing. He held out a hand to her and she went to him. It felt good when he pulled her face to his chest and kissed the top of her head.

“The stove is for you,” he murmured. “I hate to think of you being cold.”

Carla forced the tears back. “Thank you.” She meant it, and she wanted to show her gratitude but wasn’t sure how. Strange. A day ago she would have bitten him rather than let him hug her. She suppressed the impulse to kiss him. There were other men in the room, all looking at them with interest. The urge to run her hands over his muscled chest was so strong she backed out of his embrace and stood before the small fire with her hands spread to the heat.

She smiled at all the men, and let her eyes linger on Taye. “Thank you. This is wonderful. Thank you all.”

The men—there were only three of them, not the crowd she had imagined—all smiled happily back. One of them wore a carpenter’s apron around his waist that he was putting tools into. It looked ridiculous, considering he was naked. “We’ll start collecting more wood, Lupa. By the time the snow comes we’ll have enough to keep you warm all winter.”

This was prairie land. Carla hadn’t seen very many trees when she and Lisa had walked to find help for the … Plane crash survivors! She had been so wrapped up in her own problems that she had forgotten them. “Taye!”

He came quickly at the urgent note in her voice. “Yes, sweetheart?”

“The plane! There were other survivors who need help. Oh, God! I forgot all about them. We have to help them!”

“The plane?” Taye blinked. “You truly fell out of the sky? I thought Ray was only saying that.” Now he shook his head. “Where did you fall, sweetheart?”

“It was west of here. Me and Lisa walked south for a few hours before we found a road. County Road 30. Then we walked east for almost two days until we got to the farmers.” Carla wanted to say something bitter about the farmers who had sold them to Ray, but suppressed it and went on. “We told them about the plane crash, but they pretty much ignored us. Maybe they went to the plane crash after…”

Taye shook his head. “I doubt it. The Odessa farmers wouldn’t go so far from their homes. But we’re wolves and we go where we please.” He looked at the men. “Find Des and send him to me.”

The door opened. “No need to send for me, I’m here, Chief,” said Des. “What’cha need?”

“Put together a small scouting mission. Take five of the boys and send them out to find the place my mate fell. Sweetheart, can you tell us where you struck Highway 30?”

“Well, not long after we came to the road we passed through a ghost town. It might have been called Lexington. That was what the sign said.”

“Find the place and see if there is anyone who needs help,” Taye instructed. “Bring them here.”

Des slanted a doubtful look at Carla. “If you say so, Chief. Sure.”

Taye smiled a small sly smile. “Sweetheart, how many females were on the plane?”

“Grown-ups? I don’t know. Maybe thirty-five? Forty? And a couple kids, I think, and some teenagers.”

All the men gasped. “Can I go?” the man in the apron whined to Des. “I gotta see that many women in one place. Maybe we can find mates.”

“But… ” Carla swallowed. “Some of them died in the crash. And some of them are hurt.”

Des nodded briskly. “Then we need to hurry.”

“Yeah,” said one of the other men darkly. “We have to find them before somebody else does and steals them from us.”

“Get some supper,” Des ordered. “And meet me in the rec room in twenty minutes.

You three can come, and I’ll get a couple more.”

As they hurried out Carla called, “Wear clothes unless you want to scare them to death! Gosh,” she said to Taye. “If Lisa and me had found you first we could have gotten help a lot sooner.”

Taye put his arm around her shoulders. “We’ll do our best to help them. Let’s eat.

I’m starved.”

Carla let him move her over to the table. “Our food must be cold by now. I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right.” He seated her and paused before going to his chair to brush his fingertips down the arm of her blouse. “I know humans wear clothes in the winter because they’d be cold otherwise, but why do they wear clothes when it’s hot?”

Carla paused in cutting her steak to stare at him suspiciously. “Are you teasing me?”

“A little. Wolves prefer to be naked.”

“I noticed,” she muttered, stuffing a piece of cold steak into her mouth.

“Does it bother you so much?”

“I don’t like seeing men I barely know naked. It’s gross.”

“What about me?” he asked curiously. “You look at me when I’m wearing clothes, but you don’t when I’m not. Why?”

“Because,” Carla began, feeling the blush roll up her face. “Good lord. How’s your steak? Not too well done, I hope?”

“It’s perfect. Carla, why? Am I ugly?”

She set her knife down with a thump. “You know you’re not!”

“No, I don’t. I’ve never had a mate before, so I didn’t care if women thought I was handsome or ugly. But I care what you think.”

Carla found herself looking away from him and realized she did this a lot. And she knew why. She just wasn’t sure it was a good idea to tell him that all his hard muscles covered with smooth brown skin made her want to pet him. “You are very handsome,”

she said, studying her plate to keep her eyes busy with something besides him. “In my time women would have been all over you. You would have had your pick of the hundreds following you everywhere you went.”

“Would you have followed me?”

Carla swallowed more cold steak. “No.” She had too much pride for that, but if he were the friend of a friend or someone she met at the studio she might have tried to let him know she was interested in knowing him better. “Eat up. I slaved over that steak for you.”

He obeyed, but Carla wondered what he would say next. “Tell me about the plane, sweetheart. What is it like to fly?”

Carla shrugged. “I don’t know. I flew a lot the past couple years. Some people are afraid of flying. I never was, but I can understand it now.” She fixed her attention on arranging her carrots in neat piles. Even now the memory of the crash made her stomach lurch. “I’ve never been so afraid in my life,” she whispered.

Taye reached across the table to smooth the back of his knuckles over her cheek.

“I’m glad you’re all right.”

Carla nodded and began eating her supper, hoping her stomach would settle down.

Taye watched her and made sure she ate every bite. He ate everything on his plate before gathering their empty plates on to the tray and putting them out in the hall. Just like last night, he leaned on the door and looked at her. Was that only last night? Twenty-four hours ago she had been terrified he would rape her. How could she have changed her mind so fast?

“How are you feeling?” she blurted.