Miles’s Redemption

Chapter 2

Miles glanced over at Kareena and opened his mouth to ask for her address but closed it when he saw she was fast asleep. He nudged her a couple of times without getting any response. It looked as if his would-be mate had passed out, which didn’t really surprise him. She was more than a little drunk. If she’d been a werewolf, the amount of alcohol she’d consumed wouldn’t have had any effect on her. His kind had to drink a crap load of it to get drunk. Enough to more than likely give a mortal alcohol poisoning.

He nudged Kareena again, but she didn’t awaken. All she did was let out a soft snore. Well, so much for taking her home. She hadn’t given him her address before she’d fallen asleep. And since he couldn’t get her roused, that left him with only one option—

he’d have to take her to his penthouse. Hopefully Kareena wouldn’t wake up in the morning and be too upset about it. But it wasn’t as if he he’d just dump her into the street somewhere. She was his mate, his to protect and care for.

Being inside the small, closed space of the car with Kareena made her scent stronger and had Miles’s libido going haywire and his mating urge riding him harder. The need to claim her as his beat at him, but he wouldn’t. For one thing, she wasn’t in any condition for him to make love to her. And for another, she was mortal and had no idea he was a werewolf. He’d have to tell her the truth about him before he let things get too far. Hiding it wouldn’t do him any favors. He’d learned that with Jaden’s mother. She hadn’t taken the news too well.

But that hadn’t been the reason why she’d left him when she’d first become pregnant with Jaden without telling him about it. It had been his inability to give up his quest to find the foretold one who would rule over all the werewolf packs. For a great many years, he’d looked for this special werewolf, wanting to use him or her as a figurehead so Miles could rule. That was behind him now, though. Jaden, his own daughter, had turned out to be the foretold one. There was no way he’d do anything to hurt her. She was the love of his life, as was her unborn child.

Miles glanced over at Kareena as he arrived at his penthouse. And now he had his mate to add to his list of people he’d do anything to see happy. His sister, Saskia, who was also the leader of the Protectors who watched over the foretold one, was right up there as well. She hadn’t been for years, but with the new leaf he’d turned over, he was working on rebuilding the connection he’d once had with her.

He parked in the underground garage. Miles scooped Kareena into his arms from the passenger seat before he headed for the elevator. Once it arrived, he stepped inside and hit the button for the penthouse. On the ride up, she snuggled deeper into his arms. She felt right. He ached to take her pouty lips in a searing kiss, but he wanted her awake and aware when he did that.

At the very top floor, the elevator doors silently slid open. Miles walked the short distance down the hall to his door. Easily holding Kareena with one arm, he unlocked it and pushed it open. After stepping inside the penthouse, he kicked the door shut with his foot. He didn’t bother to turn on any lights since he could see in the dark as if it were daytime.

Inside his bedroom, Miles pulled back the covers on his bed and put Kareena down on it. He took off her shoes and tucked her in, leaving her completely dressed.

Undressing her wasn’t an option. It would only upset her if she were to wake up and find herself only in her panties and bra. There was also the fact that it would just make his mating urge worse, seeing her almost naked. He was just a man and could take only so much before he lost the tenuous hold he had on his control.

As he straightened, Miles felt his cell phone vibrating in his jeans pocket. He’d turned off the ringer in anticipation of his date. Deciding to answer it out of the bedroom so he wouldn’t disturb Kareena, he quickly left the room and shut the door behind him as he took out his phone.

He smiled when he saw it was his daughter calling. “Hello, Jaden.”

“Hi, Dad. So how did your date go? Is she your mate? Did she set off your mating urge?”

Miles chuckled. “One question at a time. In answer to your first one, the date didn’t go.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean she stood me up. She sent me an email just before she was to meet me, saying she couldn’t make it. She wanted to set up another date, but I won’t be doing that.”

“All right. We’ll just have to try the other matches that came up on Dirk’s dating service.”

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

“Dad, you can’t give up so soon just because your first date didn’t go as planned.

Your mate is out there waiting for you to find her.”

Miles smiled, even though Jaden couldn’t see it. “I already found her.”

There was a short stretch of silence, and then Jaden asked, “What did you say?”

“I said I already found my mate. She arrived at the restaurant where I was to meet my date.”

He had to pull the phone away from his ear when Jaden let out an excited sounding shriek. In the background Miles heard Leif complaining about Jaden bursting his eardrums with her yelling. His daughter ignored her mate.

“I’m so happy for you, Dad. I knew you’d find her. So what’s she like? When will you see her again? And most importantly, when will I get to meet her?” she asked excitedly.

“Calm down, Jaden. You’re almost a week away from your due date. Do you want to have your baby right now?”

“I’m fine. You’re just as bad as Leif. He thinks anything and everything is going to start my labor. The baby will come when it’s ready. Now tell me when you’re going to see your mate again.”

“Actually, Kareena is here at my place.”

“Then what are you doing talking to me on the phone?”

Miles chuckled. “Well, she had a little too much to drink at the restaurant. She was there with three of her friends, celebrating one of their birthdays and another’s breakup from her boyfriend. From what I heard, he was a bit of a jerk. I offered Kareena a ride home, and she passed out in my car before I could get her address. She’s asleep in my bed right now.”

“Then I guess you haven’t claimed her yet, which is good.”

“No, I haven’t. And why is it good? I thought you wanted me to be mated.”

“I don’t mean it that way. It’s just that, as the foretold one, I have a rule I like male werewolves to follow when they find out their mates are mortals. No claiming her until she knows exactly what you are so you can give her the choice.”

“Okay,” he said slowly. “This is something new to me, but I had planned to tell Kareena first, anyway.”

“Good. I’ll let you go now. I can’t wait to meet your mate.”

After saying good-bye, Miles ended the call and put his cell back in his pocket.

Drawn to Kareena, he returned to the bedroom. She was still fast asleep. He stepped closer to the bed and stared down at her. He traced her features with his gaze, memorizing each one. She really was pretty, not supermodel pretty as the females of his kind were, but she was no less gorgeous to him.

Figuring it would be a long night, Miles brought one of the armchairs from the sitting area of the bedroom closer to the bed at the side Kareena slept on. He wanted nothing more than to get under the covers next to her and hold her close as she slept, but that would only push his luck. Now that his mating urge had kicked into high gear, he was guaranteed to have erotic dreams of Kareena and would continue to have them every night until he’d claimed her as his own. Still in a semi-aroused state—something else he’d have to suffer through until he’d made Kareena his—he was already walking too close to the line. It was better to be uncomfortable on the chair than closer to temptation.

Miles settled onto the chair’s thick cushion and slouched into a somewhat more comfortable position. He continued to watch over Kareena for a few hours before he attempted to fall asleep. At least with her here in his bed, she’d be the last thing he saw when he went to sleep and the first thing he’d see come morning.

Something had caused Kareena to slowly rise out of the deep slumber she’d been in.

Hovering in between sleep and wakefulness, she rolled over to her side and tried to sink further into sleep’s warm embrace. She didn’t want to get up yet. She wanted to stay where she was.

Again something brought her back to wakefulness. This time she cracked open her eyes then immediately regretted it as she closed them once more. There was only dim light inside the room, but it was enough to make the headache she had throb more painfully in her temples. It felt as if someone had taken a jackhammer to her head. She rolled onto her back and swallowed. Her mouth tasted as if something had crawled inside it and died. It was also dry.

She then remembered her time out with her friends. She’d had way too much to drink, especially after working long night shifts. Kareena usually knew better and stopped before she got drunk. Now she paid the price for the overindulgence.

A noise that sounded unmistakably like a male moan—not of pain but of pleasure—

had Kareena cracking open her eyelids once again. The first thing that hit her was that she didn’t recognize the room. She turned her head, and her gaze landed on the large man sitting in an armchair fast asleep. The position he was in was bound to give him a sore neck. She also remembered him from the night before at the restaurant. His name was Miles.

Even though the sudden movement made her head feel as if it were about to fall off, Kareena bolted upright. She looked down at herself and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw she still wore the clothes from last night. The last thing she remembered was Miles putting her in his car so he could drive her home. She then cringed when the memory of her telling him he could spend the night with her at her place surfaced. All that alcohol had made her bold. She’d basically propositioned Miles. Thank goodness he was gentleman enough not to take advantage of a shitfaced drunk woman who threw herself at him.

Miles moaned again, and the sound seemed to go straight to Kareena’s pussy, making it clench to be filled. The masculine noise was definitely of pleasure. He still slept, so he must be having one hell of an erotic dream. Even though she told herself not to look, she did. He had a hard-on that caused a large bulge in the front of his jeans. She knew men had five erections, on average, at night while they slept. This obviously was one of them for Miles.

She licked her lips as she tried to guess how big he was by the size of the bulge. Yup, he appeared to be just as large there as the rest of him. An ache deep inside her pussy throbbed as wetness pooled. God, the idea of jumping onto Miles’s lap and taking what she wanted was one sexual daydream she wished she could act on. Just the sight of him sleeping in the chair turned her on.

He groaned, and his nostrils flared slightly as he drew in a deep breath. Kareena bit back a gasp as Miles’s eyes snapped open, and for a split second, they appeared to almost mutedly glow. It happened so fast she wasn’t sure she saw what she’d seen. She soon didn’t have time to think about that any further as Miles sat up straighter and leaned closer in her direction. He drew in another big breath as if he smelled her.

“Ah, hi,” she said. Figuring her breath had to smell as bad as her mouth tasted, she tried not to say too much.

“Hi,” Miles said with a drop-dead gorgeous smile. “Did you sleep well?”

She nodded. “Yeah. This your place?”

“Yes. You kind of fell asleep on me in the car before I could ask you where you lived. I had no choice but to bring you here. Don’t worry, nothing happened. You just slept.”

“Thanks,” she said sheepishly. “I don’t normally drink like that. The late night shifts at work did me in so I was just a disaster waiting to happen.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m an ER nurse at San Francisco General Hospital.”

“That must be a rewarding job.”

“It can be.” Right at that moment, Kareena needed to empty her bladder before it burst. “I need to use the … ah … bathroom.”

“The en suite is just through that door.” Miles pointed to the open doorway across from the bed. “And there will be some spare toothbrushes in the medicine cabinet.”

Kareena nodded as she slipped off the bed and headed for the en suite. She really had to have some killer bad breath if Miles told her where to find a toothbrush. Feeling her face heat with embarrassment, she closed the door behind her. She used the toilet then washed her hands. A look in the medicine cabinet showed a couple of brand-new toothbrushes still in packaging and a tube of toothpaste. She grabbed one of the brushes and the paste and the bottle of ibuprofen she saw in there as well.

She downed one of the pills before she brushed her teeth. While she was at it, Kareena splashed some water on her face. She dried it with one of the hand towels and looked at her reflection in the mirror. She didn’t look too bad for being hung over. It was too bad she didn’t have any makeup with her. Kareena never wore the stuff, but with hot Miles out in the other room and her not at her best, she would have liked to get rid of those dark circles under her eyes. Not much she could do about them, though.

Dismissing how rough she looked, she stepped out into the main room. Miles still sat in the armchair close to the bed. The sight of him almost took her breath away, especially when he ran his gaze over her body as if he wanted to eat her up. She had a wicked thought of his light blond head between her legs, making her come with his mouth.

Kareena yanked her mind out of the gutter and crossed over to Miles. He stood, coming to stand almost toe-to-toe with her. Her gaze zeroed in on his lips. She wanted them on hers. As if he’d read her mind, Miles bent his head until his mouth hovered above hers. She sucked in a breath, taking his exhale into her lungs. With a groan, Miles claimed her lips.

She reached up and put her arms around his neck as his came around her waist and tugged her so she was flush against his body. His tongue swept the seam of her lips before she opened for him. Kareena was more than glad she’d brushed her teeth when Miles thoroughly explored the inside of her mouth, their tongues dueling.

The ache inside her pussy was back and so was the pooling wetness. She pressed herself against Miles’s erection, causing the ache to intensify. She wanted his big cock buried deep inside her. A year was a damn long time to be on a dry spell. And Miles was the man who could end it for her.

He held her tighter, kissing her deeper. Her nipples grew taut under her blouse, the hard points brushing up against his chest. Her body was definitely on board with the idea of having sex with Miles. It was primed and raring to go. Even though she hardly knew him, Kareena was more than willing to hop into the sack with him. He couldn’t be that bad of a guy since he’d taken care of her last night. They’d hardly spoken at that point, and he’d made sure she was okay.

Miles lifted her off her feet so her mouth was now level with his. She moaned as he fed from her lips. Her arousal shot through the roof. Kareena lifted her legs and put them around his waist, locking her ankles just above his ass. Her pussy came down on top of his hard cock. A surge of desire tore through her at the pleasure that contact made. She ground against him, wanting more.

He groaned, turned, and the mattress rose to meet her back. She continued to cling to him as he came down with her and repositioned her to the middle of the bed. Miles’s hips settled more firmly between her thighs as he moved against her. More wetness leaked into her panties the more turned-on she became.

Kareena pulled away from Miles’s mouth and reached up to undo the top buttons on his shirt. “I want to touch you,” she said in a breathy voice.

He lifted his upper body off her to give her better access. “I’ve been dying all night to have your hands on me.”

She made quick work of the rest of the buttons and yanked the ends of his shirt out of his jeans. Kareena spread the material and sucked in a breath. Miles’s chest and abs were lickable with all the ridges and valleys of his well-defined muscles. His broad shoulders flexed as he took off his shirt and tossed it away.

She feasted her eyes on all that bared male flesh. Kareena ran her fingertips over his chest, circling each flat nipple as she came to it. Miles groaned when she reached his six-

pack abs and continued lower. She looked up to see he had his eyes closed, his lips parted as he breathed at a quick pace. In the throes of desire, he made her want him even more.

Kareena reached for the waistband of his jeans, but he brushed her hand away and lowered himself on one bent arm. His other hand worked the first button free on her blouse.

“Not yet,” he said in a gruff voice. His eyes were open to mere slits. “I get to take your top off and explore you. Then I’m going to make you come with my mouth.”

“Yes,” she panted. She wasn’t going to turn down oral sex, or the chance of an orgasm, especially if a man as good-looking as Miles was the one giving it to her.