Play of Passion

CHAPTER 29

Indigo wasn’t entirely sure how they made it from the bath to the bed, but she surfaced to find herself warm, dry, and sprawled on her front on the bed, with an equally relaxed Andrew on his back beside her. Of course, one of his hands was on her butt, stroking in a way that said “mine” more strongly than words ever could.

Finding strength from somewhere, she poked him in the arm. “What was that?”

He squeezed the globe he was caressing. “Really excellent sex.”

Her wolf growled, but it was all pretend. Drew had wrung the mean out of both of them. “You were trying to sex me into submission.”

“Did it work?” A lazy grin as he turned to look at her. “I was just being me.”

It was very close to what he’d said at the start. “I’m not going to suddenly accept all the dominance bullshit.”

“Did I ask you to?” Blue eyes narrowing. “But if I’m learning how to deal with a lieutenant with a milewide streak of stubborn and a tendency to put up walls of ice, you better fucking learn to deal with a tracker who isn’t about to let you walk all over him.”

That made her roll her eyes. “The only steamroller I see around here is about six feet two and two-hundred-plus pounds of muscle.”

Instead of adding fuel to the fire of his anger, that made his eyes turn warm. He shifted to throw one leg over her, petting her exposed body with an even more possessive hand. “You broke my heart when you said I didn’t know about foreplay.”

Her lips twitched. “Yes, you’re terrible at sex. Terrible.” That was why she was lying here with melted bones and an inner wolf who was so dozy, she was sprawled out in complete abandon.

“Hmm.” A kiss pressed to her shoulder. “I guess I should work on that.”

She was about to reply when he moved so that he was braced over her, supporting himself with one arm bent at the elbow, while he reached down to part her thighs with the other. The heat of his chest burned, and she sighed at the pleasure of having him so close. “If you tell me you’re ready again after that, I’ll have to call you a liar.”

“Well, now, Lieutenant, I take that as a challenge.”

She jerked as she felt the hard, silken heat of him nudging at her. “Drew . . .” Exhaustion forgotten, she raised her bottom a little, wanting him inside her. She loved the way he felt, loved the way he touched and stroked and petted.

“Uh-huh.” Still teasing her with the barest touch of his cock, he kissed the back of her neck, the top of her spine, stroking a single maddening finger around the place that was damp and hot and ready for his penetration. “I need to regain my pride.” More kisses down the line of her vertebrae, his hands gripping her hips. “Give you that foreplay.”

She shivered as his unshaven chin brushed against her lower back, as his lips touched the dip of her spine, his tongue flicking out to wet the spot before he blew a hot breath on it. “Mmm.” It was a sound of lazy pleasure as he shifted his body farther down the bed . . . and then he was gone.

Confused, she was about to turn when he gripped her ankles and tugged her until her hips were on the edge of the bed, her feet touching the floor. His hands moved again—to the backs of her thighs. Spreading them, he blew a breath against her. “What do you like, Indy? Licks”—quick, catlike flicks against her screamingly sensitive flesh—“nips”—the feel of teeth on her clitoris, her brain hazing over—“kisses?” Wet and hot and all consuming, his mouth claimed her, his tongue sliding into her in a teasing thrust before withdrawing.

She was trying to find air when he stopped, said, “So?”

“What?” she managed to gasp.

“You didn’t tell me what you liked. I wouldn’t want to get it wrong.”

She could feel him laughing, the demon. “You have no idea who you’re messing with.”

He rubbed the roughness of his chin against the soft skin of her inner thighs, licking and nipping in a way that tormented without offering relief. “I think I like this kind of foreplay.”

Indigo went to pull away, determined to grab him and ride him to exhaustion. But he felt the tenseness in her muscles and tightened his hold. Then his mouth delivered on the teasing. She hadn’t thought he could wring more pleasure from her already sated flesh.

She was wrong.

He seduced her with that wicked, laughing mouth, licking and stroking and teasing until she was on the very edge.

When he pulled away this time, she arched her back, inviting his possession. His thighs met the backs of hers an instant later, his body entering hers in a tight, slow push. Biting back a cry at the intensity of the sensation, she clenched her fists on the sheets.

He pulled her up until she could brace herself with her palms flat on the bed. “Am I hurting you?”

“No.” Never.

Then there was only the slick glide of flesh on flesh, heated, sensual murmurs, and the most searing pleasure.

Indigo came to wakefulness close to dawn, not the least surprised to find herself all but buried beneath heavy, warm male. Drew, she’d learned during the night, was a shameless bed hog—but he liked to keep her with him, so instead of being pushed off the bed, she was instead pulled under him, his thigh between hers, his hand on her breast, his face nuzzled into her neck.

She’d never had a lover attempt to claim her so totally. But, she thought, opening her heart a fraction, she could get used to this kind of affection. Because whatever he took, he gave back with staggering generosity.

Stroking her fingers into his hair, she thought over what he’d said. Because he wasn’t just affection and laughter and play—as she’d understood for the first time on the mountain two days ago. He was the pack’s tracker, with all that denoted. He was also a very, very strong dominant. He was absolutely right to demand that she learn to deal with him as he was learning to deal with her.

Her wolf growled, unhappy at the idea of bending for any man.

But was it really submitting, Indigo dared ask for the first time, if the man was bending toward you in return?

Having been wide awake since around three a.m., Hawke finished reading the latest draft of the proposed new building/ land agreement in which SnowDancer was to be a silent partner and was about to push away from the desk when his phone beeped. Seeing the caller ID, he reined in his impatience. “Lucas, what is it?”

“We got hit with the Pure Psy e-mail last night,” the DarkRiver alpha said, “and a couple of our juveniles came to me with stories of being approached in online chat rooms.”

Hawke’s wolf peeled back its lips at the boldness of the group. “Juveniles okay?”

“Just insulted,” Lucas said, a thread of pride in his tone.

“I’ve got Dorian watching the chat rooms in case they try again. We might be able to get something out of it. I’ll keep you updated.”

Hanging up after a few more words, Hawke fired off a quick note to Drew with the new information, then strode to the door. He enjoyed being inside less than even most changelings, but this work was as important to the health of the pack as his more physical protection. So—his lieutenants by his side—he’d learned to do it well.

But, having cleared his desk, and with Indigo more than capable of holding the fort—and Riaz in charge of the security/ search patrols in the mountains today—he surrendered to the wild hunger within and headed out for a run in wolf form. Several early risers among his pack saw him but none broke into his solitude. They all understood that, sometimes, a wolf needed to roam on its own.

However, he’d barely cleared the doorway when he caught a scent that instantly ruffled his fur the wrong way. She smelled like autumn fire and some rich, exotic spice. Far too potent a scent for someone so young, someone from whom he should keep his distance. Instead, he drew the spice-laced air into his lungs and ran at a ground-devouring lope that brought him to a small rise from where he could watch his prey.

Wearing a small pack and carrying what looked like a sleek holographic camera, she walked down the track that would eventually bring her to one of the midway areas in den territory, where he knew she’d parked the car she’d signed out of the garage for her trips to and from DarkRiver land. But it would still take her a couple of hours to reach that spot at her current pace.

When she stopped and raised her face to the dewy morning sunlight, releasing her breath in a long, slow exhale, he went motionless. Her unhidden joy at being in the stark, stunning beauty of the Sierra Nevada sang to him, and it was a dangerous pull. He should step back, should move in the opposite direction.

He should.

He turned and angled down through the trees until he appeared on the path beside her instead. Jerking back in surprise, Sienna stared at him with wide eyes. When he did nothing but wait for her, she continued on the trail, shooting him small looks filled with suspicion until it became clear he was intent only on keeping her company.

Then her stride relaxed, and they walked.

In silence.

It had been over a week since the day Andrew had ambushed Indigo in her bath, and he was feeling cautiously optimistic. The lieutenant wore his scent in her skin and, from what he could tell, wasn’t worried about it. Aware how long it had taken his brother to gain the same concession from Mercy, Andrew allowed himself a little swagger—because that acceptance meant Indy’s wolf was starting to get over its uncertainty when it came to him.

Of course, part of it likely had to do with the fact that the lieutenant was turning out to be as possessive as any male changeling. He wore her scent in his skin, too—along with more than a few marks. And he was very, very happy—no, delighted—with the whole state of affairs, he thought, grinning as he touched the love bite on his neck.

Their packmates, of course, found the whole situation highly entertaining, a welcome break from the constant vigilance of the security patrols in the mountains. The techs had found only three more transmitters after the main sweep, and it was looking like they might have unearthed most if not all of them, but SnowDancer wasn’t about to lower its guard when the Council had dared invade the very heart of the pack’s territory.

Of course, that didn’t mean wolves stopped being wolves.

Andrew dealt with the ribbing with a grin and a shrug, while Indigo scowled. Neither response had any effect on the gossip—or the good-natured advice Andrew began receiving from the women in the pack.

“Give her her space,” a dominant female advised him, “but not too much.”

“Whatever you do, for God’s sake don’t treat her like a girl. She’s a woman.”

“Andrew, I love you, but you’re the most sneaky, cunning wolf I’ve ever known—use it.”

After several days of this, Andrew cornered one of the ladies. “Not that I’m not grateful,” he said, “but why are you all being so helpful?”

That got him a chuckle, the touch of warm, capable hands on his face, and a smacking kiss. “Silly boy. She’s ours and we love her—and we’ve all worried at how hard she rides herself on behalf of the pack. You make her happy.”

The simple words were a revelation.

So he was ready to handle the next stage in their courtship when Indigo invited him to an official family event.

“Dinner with my parents at their place,” she said casually, as if it wasn’t a major deal. “Evie isn’t back yet, but my aunt, Adria, and her lover, Martin, will also be there. They’re flying in from near the Oregon border.”

Having a vague memory of Tarah’s sibling being much younger, he asked, “Are you close to Adria?”

“Yes.” A smile. “She’s nearer to my age than my mother’s.”

Instinct whispered that there was more at play here than a simple familial relationship, but he kept his silence. It would be far easier to get Indy to talk once he’d met her aunt, gained an idea of what it was that had caused Indigo’s wolf to . . . almost shy away at the mention of her name.

As it was, he found himself surprised by the reality of Adria. The physical resemblance between the three women was startling; standing side by side, Tarah, Indigo, and Adria were almost mirror images of each other at different stages of life. But where Tarah was submissive, Adria was dominant. Where Tarah kissed him on the cheek in maternal affection, Adria gave him a narrow-eyed, assessing glare. And where he knew Tarah relied with open contentment on her mate, there was a real push-pull vibe going on between Adria and her lover, Martin.

Indigo, he realized at once, was far more like her aunt than her mother.

“So,” Adria said after they shook hands, “you’re the one.”

He liked her—but then, he had a thing for cool-eyed, stubborn women. “I am.”

Lines formed on her forehead, her eyebrows drawing together. “You’re not what I expected.”

He knew that wasn’t a compliment. “I have a way of surprising people.”

“Hmm.” The wolf prowled behind eyes a shade lighter than Indigo’s. “I’ve seen you in our sector, but we haven’t spoken. Tell me about yourself.”

As he obeyed the brusque order, his wolf more amused by her bristling protectiveness than anything else, he noticed something. Martin, while standing beside Adria, didn’t join in the conversation. That, on its own, meant nothing—Riley had a way of standing silent as a sphinx beside Mercy. There was, however, never any doubt in people’s minds that Riley was a hundred percent tuned in, not only to the conversation but to every tiny aspect of his mate’s presence.

Something was disturbingly different here.

The stiffness of Adria’s spine when her lover’s shoulder brushed her own, the white lines around Martin’s mouth, the way neither of them made eye contact with the other—the two were pissed at one another. Andrew took that in his stride. Being with a strong woman occasionally meant some fire-works. He couldn’t imagine Indigo without her sass.

His wolf growling in agreement, he continued to talk with Adria until Tarah came over to catch up with her sister. Moving to where Indigo was standing against the wall finishing off an apple, he tugged on her ponytail. “What’s with abandoning me to your aunt the inquisitor?”

She bumped her hip to his. “Don’t say your smile didn’t work?”

“Smart-ass.” Reaching behind her, he patted that ass.

“Watch it.”

“I intend to—later tonight.”

Indigo threw him a quelling glance, but he caught the laughter behind it. “What did you think of my aunt?”

“She’s like an older version of you,” he said with complete honesty. “She’s got her ‘death stare’ honed to perfection.”

Holding her apple core in one hand, Indigo put her other one on his shoulder. “Give me a few years.”

Deeply content at the thought of watching her grow further into her skin, he stood beside her as the others spoke. It took him a little while to realize that in spite of his skill at reading the undercurrents in any given situation, he’d missed something here. Martin and Adria weren’t pissed at each other—only one of them was angry.

Adria put her hand on Martin’s arm . . . only to have it shaken off. Adria’s face betrayed a stark heart pain in the terrible moment before she brought up her shields, cool and controlled once more.

Fighting the urge to punch Martin for putting that expression on the face of such a strong woman, Andrew thought back to the other little things he’d noticed, the way Martin had almost pointedly walked into the room first, saying, “Strongest should bring up the rear, right?”

At the time, Andrew had taken it as a joke between lovers, but now . . . “Who’s more dominant?” he asked, feeling a chill whisper through his veins. “It’s Adria, isn’t it?”