Warrior Wolf (Protection, Inc 4)

“You can have me now.”

“Yeah.” His eyes glittered with an intensity that was both wolflike and very Nick. “Yeah, fuck what we didn’t do before. Let’s take what we’ve got right now.”

She shivered with delicious anticipation as he moved against her, his steel-hard cock sliding against the wet heat between her legs. Then he thrust into her, drawing a cry of startled pleasure from her lips. From his, too.

“Raluca,” he gasped. “You’re so hot inside.”

She didn’t need to ask if he liked it. She could hear and see and feel how much he did. She did, too. She’d previously found penetration both disappointing and over far too fast. This was different. Nick positioned himself so he rubbed against her sensitive bud with every thrust, sending waves of ecstasy down her every nerve.

She moved to meet him, letting her body take over, not caring what she looked or sounded like. All that mattered was the moment, his pleasure and hers. His love and hers. She could feel the bond between them, a matter of heart and soul as much as body, vibrant and alive. They’d fought it as hard as they could, but they hadn’t done so much as a crack of damage. It was as unbreakable as it was irresistible.

“I —” Nick was thrusting hard, panting. “I can’t —”

She was on the brink of another climax, her entire body yearning toward it as much as his was about to be swept away by it.

“One more,” Raluca gasped.

Nick’s jaw clenched, and she knew that if she’d said “ten more” or “a hundred more,” he’d have done it. But he gave one more hard thrust, and a burst of pleasure blossomed within her.

Her head fell back, her eyes fluttering shut as she let her climax wash over her. She heard and felt rather than saw Nick’s own climax, his hot jet within her, his growl of satisfaction. Then he lay panting beside her. A moment later, they both reached out to hold each other close.

Raluca touched a lock of his black hair that had fallen across his forehead. It was damp with sweat, and very soft. “I like your hair. It’s like silk.”

Strands of her own hair lay draped across his chest, as if silver rain was falling on the forest. Nick gently tugged a strand. “I like yours, too. It’s smooth, but like metal, too. It feels strong.”

“It is.” Raluca smiled. “I expect you and Lucas don’t discuss hair care, but I can tell you that both he and I need special shears to cut ours. All dragons do.”

“No, that’s not really a guy topic. Not here, anyway.”

“You think about it, but you don’t speak of it,” Raluca teased. “I am certain that Rafa takes great care with his.”

Nick laughed. “I take that back. He does, and he is the one guy who is totally fine with admitting it. He claims it’s a lion thing — you know, his mane shows his masculinity — but I think between being a Navy SEAL, a lion, and the size he is, he just doesn’t worry about anyone thinking he’s girly.”

Raluca’s dragon abruptly stirred within her. Now is your chance! Ask Nick what jewelry he would consider manly.

Raluca suppressed a snicker, then realized that she’d have to satisfy her dragon or never hear the end of it. Besides, she too wanted to adorn Nick with silver.

“I understand that jewelry is more commonly worn by women in America,” Raluca said cautiously. “But I would very much like to give you some. It’s important for dragons to bedeck their mates —” At Nick’s look of alarm, she amended it to, “Bedeck could be only one piece. But I would wish you to wear it always. And it should be silver.”

“Umm.” Nick looked doubtful, then brightened. “Something punk?”

“Show me examples of ‘punk,’ and I will seek out something suitable.”

“All right. Tomorrow, maybe.”

They lay together in cozy, companionable silence, and then Nick’s eyes flickered. Raluca looked at him curiously. He too seemed to be bracing himself to inquire about something important that he thought she might not like to hear.

“Ask,” she said. “As we agreed. No guessing.”

“Oh, it’s nothing bad. I didn’t want to make you feel self-conscious, but I was wondering...” Nick touched her throat. “Your voice is different. Ever since you said you wanted me, as I am. It was the other time we had sex, too. I like it — I mean, I like your regular voice, too — but...”

At first Raluca didn’t know what he meant. Then she realized what had happened. For a panicky moment, she wasn’t sure if she could do it again. But when she spoke again, it was not in her practiced chime, but in a deeper, more natural tone. “This is my regular voice. The other was vocal training, to make me sound like people imagine a princess should. I wasn’t sure I even remembered how to not do it, until now. I suppose more of my true self is returning to me. I barely even know what that is, though. As far back as I can recall, I was trained to be ‘the princess.’ I was

never allowed to be just Raluca.”

“Fuck.” Nick shook his head. “Being royalty is a lot more fucked up than I realized. I thought I got it from what Lucas told me, and how he was before he met Journey. And I know your story — some of it, anyway — but I didn’t realize till now how it must have felt.”

“You have everything you could want,” Raluca said. “Every material thing, that is. But you can’t leave, and you can’t make choices, and you can’t be yourself. Uncle Constantine controlled everything I did. Everything. I had a closet full of beautiful dresses, but he had selected them all, and every day he had my maid lay out the one he wished me to wear. He gave me tutors who taught me how to speak and how to move, and then he told me what to do and what to say. And every day of my life, a little bit more of what made me myself was taken away.”