Phantom Wolf

Chapter 16

Sam clearly had no intentions of leaving her alone. Placing a proprietary hand on the small of her back, he scanned the crowd as they walked the cracked sidewalk paralleling the main street. Seeing his scowl, and the pistol he now carried openly, Elementals gave them a wide berth.

He booked them into a single room in a small hotel in a private cul-de-sac. Frying peppers and onions from the little restaurant downstairs scented the air as they climbed the narrow staircase. Inside the room, he set down their packs. Kelly gazed at the sapphire-and-emerald-embroidered quilt on the wide bed.

“Planning to sleep on the floor again, Sam?”

“We’ll see,” he said softly.

Downstairs, he found the corner table by the wall gave a wide view of the restaurant as he sat facing the front. Other Elementals nodded respectfully to Sam but gave Kelly cool looks of disdain. Lust flared in the gazes of a few males. Kelly hunched her shoulders, hating the tight blouse.

Sackcloth would suffice.

“Those guys keep staring as if I’m your toy and they’re next at the sandbox,” she murmured, reaching for a corn chip from the bowl their waitress placed on the table.

His gaze a warning blade, Sam scowled until the interested Mages looked away. He leaned back and took a long pull of beer. “I don’t share.”

“And I’m not a plaything.”

“But you are fun in the sandbox. I always enjoyed the times we played together.” A corner of his mouth pulled upward as he winked.

Blushing, she glanced away. He was accustomed to women tumbling into his bed. Flirting came naturally to Sam, but not to her. Work came first, an effective barrier between her and a potentially hurtful world.

“You look so pretty when you blush. Your cheeks don’t turn pink like other redheads. More like fire, a passionate, living flame,” he murmured.

It hurt so much to hear his seductive whispers, just like those that came from the man she’d known, that Kelly put up a hand. “Stop. This is too much like old times. I can’t do this.”

Sam drew his brows together. “Do what?”

Pain wrenched her insides. Did he truly forget what they’d shared, the passion and the heated desire? Kelly swallowed hard. “Pretend I’m normal, and you’re acting as if you want me.”

“You are perfectly normal, and it’s not an act,” he said softly. He covered her hand with his, the strength in those fingers able to snap a man’s neck now gentle as his thumb slowly stroked her skin.

Like an addict craving a drug, she hungered for more. Sam still held her hand, his caressing gaze turning her nipples hard as pearls. He stared at her mouth with such intensity, she had to squeeze her thighs together to stop squirming.

She knew if she surrendered, she’d end up sprawled naked in bed, those same clenched thighs spilling open as he settled between them...

A wiry metrosexual Elemental in a lavender polo shirt stared at her. He elbowed his male friend and laughed. She couldn’t hear the words but discerned their meaning. Flicking his tongue in a crude manner, the Mage formed an O with one hand, licked his other finger and then plunged it rapidly in and out.

Heat crawled up her cheeks. Shame and humiliation replaced sexual arousal. As she prepared to deliver the bastard a stinging insult, Sam glanced over. Seeing the obscene gesture, he narrowed his eyes.

It happened so quickly, she didn’t see Sam move. And then he was shoving Polo Shirt against the wall hard enough to make the picture frames rattle.

He gave the young Mage’s throat a powerful squeeze. “Got a problem?”

At the gasping head shake, Sam gave a dangerous smile. “Good. Because next time you insult my lady like that, I’ll crush your windpipe, cut out your wagging tongue and shove it up your...”

“Sam!” Kelly hissed.

He glanced over, his gaze softening. “Okay.”

As he released the Mage, the man rubbed his throat and wheezed. “Chill out, man. She’s just an Arcane. Don’t know why they let scum in here.”

Sam gave a thoughtful look. “Right. Scum shouldn’t be allowed in here.”

Wincing, Kelly watched Sam drag Polo Shirt through the restaurant and toss him onto the street. “Adios! I’d leave town now. If I see you again, I’ll rearrange your face.”

Then he swept his hard gaze over the onlookers, suddenly absorbed in their meals except for a few women, who sighed in apparent admiration, and Polo Shirt’s companion, who dropped money on the table and ran after his friend.

When he resumed his seat, Kelly shook her head. “Was that necessary?”

Sam gave a mild look. “What? Taking out the trash?”

“You didn’t have to make a scene.”

Rolling his muscular shoulders, Sam shrugged. “If I didn’t, others would take his place. They won’t bother you anymore, Kel. I always protect my own.”

Barely leashing her temper, she scowled as Sam bit into a crunchy taco. “You’re acting and sounding like a bad B-movie hero.”

He swallowed a mouthful of taco, his expression mild. “Funny. I always thought I was more the A-list type.”

“I fight my own battles. I don’t need your protection. I’m not a spineless coward they can push around.”

Speculation in those hazel eyes now flared with intent. “You never were a spineless coward. But you were naive and sweetly innocent in the ways of men.”

He’d taken that innocence and turned it into experience in taking her to the heights of pleasure. Tension steeled her spine as she leaned forward, feeling the electricity spark between them.

“Sexually inexperienced before, but not now. I can handle guys like that.”

“When you’re with me, you won’t have to. When I saw how that bastard was humiliating you, I had to teach him a lesson.”

“Dial down the testosterone, Sam. I never enjoyed domineering males.”

“Once the bedroom door was closed, you did.”

His satisfied smile made her flush. Deep inside, her feminine side felt aroused at the memory of Sam, insatiable, sexually aggressive, uncontrollable. Dominating her thoroughly in the bedroom. Sam responding to the sheer desire in her eyes, fisting a hand in her hair as he bent her over the bed’s edge and took her from behind like a wolf.

Sam, his ragged breath echoing in her ear as he pushed her from one shattering climax to another, refusing to stop, making love to her until they both lay exhausted.

Sam, the sexually dominant male turning tender and endearing as he pulled her into his strong arms afterward, stroking her cheek as they shared their hopes and dreams.

That was in the past. A fantasy.

Fantasies aside, she resented him playing the shining knight. She could take care of herself. “I’m not the girl you once knew, who’d fall into your arms if you snapped your fingers.”

“No, you’re not,” he murmured. “But can you handle what I want to give you now?”

She locked gazes like a bull touching horns. “I can take whatever you want to give. Are you willing?”

A dangerous smile touched his wide, full mouth. The kind of smile that lured women into opening their thighs. “Maybe you couldn’t in the past, when you were innocent.” Sam’s voice deepened. “But now...you’re more exciting, spirited, stronger. The kind of sensually mature woman who makes a man wonder what she’d feel like splayed naked beneath him.”

Kelly choked past a sip of beer. “Try it. Not going to work.”

“I enjoy a challenge.”

The husky intent in his voice stroked over her shivering skin. Once he’d whispered words of passion, his big hands caressing and coaxing her until her shyness and control fractured. Daring her to reach beyond her inhibitions, coaxing her into the heights of unbridled sexuality.

Sam leaned forward, flames dancing in his darkened eyes. “Do you? Because I won’t lie, Kel. I want you so badly right now, it’s hard to breathe. You think that asshole turned me aggressive? No. It’s being around you and the thought of that bed upstairs. Manners and politeness go to hell. I turn into a man with one thing on my mind....”

Breath caught in her throat at the dangerous glint in his eye. “Dragging you upstairs and getting you naked into that bed. Making love to you until we’re both panting and exhausted. I want to make you sweat, make you tremble, make you scream, and just when you think I’m done, I’m going to push you harder and harder until you scream again. And again.”

His voice thickened. “I want to make you mine. So I’ll ask you again. You up for the challenge?”

Beneath the table, Kelly pressed her thighs together, feeling the space between them grow warm and moist. So long since fire had raced through her blood, arousing her until her own clothing felt tight and restrictive and every breath constricted her lungs. If he didn’t take her soon, she’d die.

Her voice dropped to the barest whisper. “Oh, yes. So get ready.”

The past hadn’t escaped them after all. Because it was here, vibrant and alive, in all its fervent need, Shay realized.

Not a flirt, nor experienced in seduction. So she’d said. Not true. As they ate dinner, Shay watched her with growing hunger. He saw her pulse beat wildly at the base of her slender throat. He itched to stroke his tongue over that jumping pulse, feel all warm, soft female skin as he stroked her naked flesh.

Kelly moistened her wet, red mouth with the tip of her tongue. She looked flushed, hot. Oh, man, so very hot.

Shay set down his beer, his blood surging straight to his groin. He stood, the chair toppling to the floor.

“Upstairs. Now.” He hardly recognized his voice, deepened by sexual urgency. His cock hardened painfully inside his jeans.

With languid grace, she stood. Each sinuous sway of her hips sent blood surging straight to his groin. Seeing the other men watch, he turned and shot a warning glance.

Mine.

Upstairs, he pulled her into the room and slammed the door shut with a hard boot kick. Breathing jaggedly, Shay pinned her to the wall, desire cranked up to a frenzy at the flush of sexual heat on her face, the glittering arousal in her blue eyes mirroring his own.

“I want you so much,” he muttered. “And I’m no gentleman, Kel. So if you know what’s good for you, you’ll run into that bathroom and lock the door and stay as far away as you can before I touch you.”

Shay released her. “You have two minutes. Maybe less.”

Breathing hard, she gave a sultry smile. “I never did like what’s good for me.”

They tore at each other’s clothing. Shay peeled off boots, socks and shirt. Then he reached for the buckle of his belt and slid his pants down and kicked them off.

Thick penis erect, Shay held on to his control by a bare thread.

With a soft sigh many a silly man would take as surrender, she slipped off her panties and bra.

Not surrender, but a fracturing of barely leashed desire. With a rough growl, he lunged, pushing her naked body back onto the bed.

Her lips were warm and soft, as delicious as he’d remembered. He could kiss her all night, if it meant holding her this close. Shay cupped the back of her head as he devoured her mouth, licking and teasing.

He reached for her, but this time Kelly was the one touching him, her eager hands pulling the sheet off, her palms flattened against his chest. Her mouth against his skin, trailing tiny kisses over the hard line of his jaw, his throat.

A sharp intake of breath as she saw the silvery stretch of old scar tissue on his thigh. “What happened?”

Speechless, he went still. Words evaded him after the freshness of the nightmare still lingered, the piercing cries of Kelly’s screams.

Her soft palm rested on his thigh. “The fire?”

A quiet statement. He nodded.

Moisture gathered in her eyes. Shay reached up and wiped a tear threatening to spill from her eyes. “Don’t cry, sweetheart.”

“It hurts me to see you like this,” she whispered. “I wish I could have helped.”

Shay held her gaze, willing her to see the truth. “You did help. My memories of you carried me through. You sustained me when I found it impossible to take the next step. You gave me a strength I never knew I possessed.”

Kelly bent her head and kissed the scar tissue, her soft, warm mouth sliding over a wound that had never fully healed.

Those tender kisses chased away past pain and banished the horror of what happened. She kissed the inside of his thigh, the hunger inside him growing to the point of pain.

Kelly stopped and stroked a finger along the underside of his rigid cock.

Shay dragged in a deep breath as she encased his erection in her hand and took him into her mouth.

Closing his eyes, he let his head drop back as her sweet mouth caressed him.

Oh, gods, the exquisite pleasure of Kelly, her scent swimming in his nostrils, the softness of her lips against his aching flesh, the little humming sound she made. Like a cat with a bowl of cream, her little pink tongue delicately flicked the rounded knob of his weeping cock.

Desperate to get inside her, he pulled her away. Kelly sat back, red hair tumbling around her shoulders, pink suffusing her cheeks. His gaze dropped to the lush swell of her breasts, her dusky nipples standing to points. She looked so pretty. So sexy. Shay felt the last of his control fracture. Fisting his hands, he fought to control their shaking.

And then he reached for her again. His Kelly, his intoxicating drug he thought he’d gotten out of his system for good.

When all the time, she’d never truly left.

Oh, gods, Kelly wanted this man all over again, skin to skin, their bodies sweat-slicked and rubbing against each other.

They rolled on the bed, tangling together.

Sam touched her, big, calloused palms skimming up the small of her back, stroking the curve of her spine. “I love it when I get you all wet and ready for me,” he muttered against her mouth. “It drives me crazy to hear those little sounds you make.”

Then he fisted a hand in her hair, bent her head back and kissed her with such passion she could barely breathe. Kelly could think of nothing but Sam, his spicy taste in her mouth as he kissed her hard and deep, his skin slick and firm against hers, the silky hairs on his naked thighs rubbing against hers.

Kelly opened her thighs, exposing herself to him, the first man she’d ever given her body to. Sam slipped a hand between her legs and caressed her, drawing a finger through her swollen folds. Little gasps came from her mouth as she clutched him, her mouth tasting the salty slickness of the hard curve of his shoulder. Kelly nipped him lightly, earning a hiss of breath. With a thumb, he teased her clit and then sank a finger deep inside her. Every delicious stroke worked incredible magick on her, cranking the sweet tension higher until she was panting. She was so close, close...

Sam’s mouth encased one hard nipple. He bit lightly.

Screaming, she shattered, her nails digging into the hard muscles of his back.

Pride and masculine possession shone in his gaze as he sat back, watching her. Sam reached into his wallet and withdrew a foil packet.

Trembling, she lay back, watching him slip on the condom.

His limbs were long and sturdy and roped with muscle. Wide shoulders gave way to the classic V of narrow waist and hips. A few scars nicked the planes of muscle dividing his back.

Then he was nudging her thighs open, settling between them. Desire ignited the green in his eyes. Sam laced his fingers between hers, his muscled weight pinning her down.

The position was sweetly intimate. Sam’s body atop hers, his hard chest pressed against her soft breasts, his sleekly muscled flanks entwined with her slender legs, his heated gaze fused to hers. She was the only person in the world who mattered to him now.

Sam lowered his mouth and dropped a singularly sweet kiss on her lips.

The hard knob of his cock slid against her soaked folds. The slow, teasing move made her grit her teeth. An impish grin, so typically Sam, warned he knew exactly how the motion drove her crazy. Kelly rolled her hips upward.

He thrust hard into her, pushing past the resistance of her tiny internal muscles, sealing them hip and hip. Kelly flinched a little. It had been a long time since she’d had sex.

A long time since she’d opened herself up to a man, let him into the most private part of her body...her heart.

“Ah, gods, you feel so damn good,” he muttered. Concern flared in his gaze. “You okay, Kel?”

She drew a long, trembling sigh. “Now I am.”

Pleasure rippled through her as he began to move. Slowly out and then back inside her, building the heat between them. All the while his gaze was warm and soft on her, the look on his face telling her this was more than sex.

More than making love.

It was reigniting the flame they both thought had died, had wanted to die.

It consumed them, sending them spiraling together into erotic bliss as his hips drove harder and faster. She pushed upward, meeting his frantic moves. Kelly tightened her hands around his as the crisp hair on his chest rubbed against her sensitive nipples. She squeezed hard around him, feeling the incredible pressure build until she cried out and climaxed again, gasping for air, feeling as if she were flying.

And would never descend.

Sam closed his eyes and threw his head back, the corded muscles on his neck straining as he gave one last thrust. His cock twitched inside her as Sam shouted her name. He bucked and shuddered against her.

Wrapping her arms around him, she held him close as he collapsed atop her, his muscled weight pressing her against the soft mattress. Sam’s ragged breathing bellowed into her ear as he pillowed his head next to hers.

Finally he pushed himself off, sat on the bed’s side and disposed of the condom. Kelly felt a sudden chill at his businesslike actions. Was this only sex? Or something more?

But then he joined her again, pulling her into his arms and sweetly kissing her forehead. For a long few minutes, they lay together, Kelly stroking the sweat-dampened hairs on his muscled chest.

“Incredible.”

He playfully touched her nose. “Yes, you are.”

Sex lowered the barriers between them. She kissed the curve of his shoulder. “I wish we had never known each other before. Then everything would have been fresh and new to us, instead of these dark secrets between us.”

Sam lifted his head, his brows knitting. “What?”

“Real lovers don’t share the past we have. They don’t hide their hurts from each other.”

“I don’t want secrets between us,” he stated quietly.

“Then tell me. Why did your duplicate push your buttons like that? What was he talking about?”

Jaw tensing, he looked away.

“Please, tell me, Sam. I must know. If it’s my fault...” she whispered.

Expelling a breath, he shook his head. “It’s not you. Not your fault. It’s Christmas. I haven’t spent a single Christmas with anyone, except my family.”

Sickening realization hit her. “You visit them...”

“At their graves.” A husky whisper, pain haunting those dreamy hazel eyes. “It’s all I have left, so I go there every year instead of friends’ homes.”

Pressure built behind Kelly’s eyes as she saw the real Sam. The cocky, charming Sam. The cool, efficient SEAL. What a falsehood, when the real man was alone, hiding behind barricades of duty, honor and obligation.

“Go on.”

“That bastard Arcane was right. I’m a sentimental fool. I couldn’t save him, so I try to make up for it. Petie loved Christmas, loved seeing the gifts under the tree. Most of all, he adored hanging the tinsel on the trees. Silver. He said it looked like stars sparkling beneath the lights. He always asked me to sing carols....”

His voice cracked. “Every year, I buy silver tinsel and a little tree and place it by his gravestone. Keep thinking he’d see it from wherever he was and it’d make him smile. And then I sing his favorite carols. Stupid. As if he’d know.”

Stupid? It was the sweetest thing she’d ever heard. A horrid ache settled in her chest as she envisioned him sitting on the ground by his little brother’s grave, cold wind whispering through the cheerful silver tinsel as Sam sang Christmas carols.

So alone, haunted by sorrow...

“Why do you put yourself through it every year?”

He stared at the ceiling. “I don’t want grief and anger to turn into blind hatred. The ritual keeps me normal when I feel like I’m turning cold and empty inside. It connects me to Pete and his ability to love everyone unconditionally.”

Kelly had the odd feeling she finally had seen straight through to his heart. He wasn’t a cold, efficient warrior, but a grieving man determined to keep hatred and bitterness at bay. The navy had molded him into a disciplined, purposeful soldier, someone she thought she’d never connect with again. Truth was, they had plenty in common. Just like her, Sam was lost and alone, but not broken.

Never broken, she thought vehemently.

Raising herself up on her elbows, she dropped a tender kiss on his jaw. “Pete knows. I’m certain of it. You have a generous, loving heart.”

Emotions shadowed his gaze. And then he rolled her beneath him and loved her once more, this time longer, sweeter, slower, until she wanted to never leave.

Recapturing what she’d once thought was lost forever.

Kelly lay asleep on the pillow, long, inky lashes feathered against her pink cheeks. Guarding her rest, Shay studied his lover.

Hell would come with the morning light, and the consequences, but for now, he wanted to banish the future. Banish the past. Live in the present moment.

A smile touched his mouth as he protectively tucked her closer. For a wild moment, he imagined it could be like this always.

He could make love to her through the years and never grow tired. Sam felt plugged into her, electrified when he took her, as alive as he’d never felt before.

The smile faded. In the rosy afterglow of hot sex, he’d made a huge mistake by lowering his defenses and baring his most shameful secret. With others, he’d kept his private life private, too proud to admit he still deeply grieved. Strict boundaries were enforced to keep everyone, especially women, at a distance. Men were tough. SEALs were tougher. And he was impenetrable.

Except to Kelly.

Now Kelly had penetrated the wall, leaving him exposed and vulnerable, just as his father had once predicted. Shay couldn’t afford vulnerability, or losing his heart to her again.

You’re going to have to let her go.

The disturbing thought chased away sleep long into the night.