STORY EXCERPT

“Shelby.” Con looked conflicted. She watched as his fingers curled and uncurled, as his chest lifted and fell. He wanted to say something, but it was as if the words couldn’t work themselves beyond his lips. Her stomach knotted into a ball of anxiety. Whenever those words finally escaped, they were probably going to be some doozies.

“Hell!” Swearing loudly, he crossed the open floor between them with such speed it made her head spin. She gasped and tried to retreat, but her back knocked into the door. There was no escape.

“Don’t, sweetheart,” he pleaded, his gaze desperate. “Don’t fight me.” His big, rough hand cupped the back of her neck. His thumb rubbed tender circles on her skin. That smell, those overpowering notes of fresh-cut grass and summer, invaded her nose. The momentary prickle of fear fled. Gazing up into his honest, pleading eyes, she understood. His eyes displayed a scary emotion with which she was intimately familiar. Con wasn’t trying to hurt or force her into anything. He simply didn’t know how to ask for what he wanted without making himself vulnerable to rejection. This abrupt come-on was just a defensive reaction.

Shelby wasn’t sure why, but the overwhelming need to bow her head suddenly took hold. She glanced down and lowered her chin, twisting her face just enough to show Con the side of her neck. Above her, he growled. The unexpected noise shocked her. How the hell was a human making that kind of sound?

In the next instant, he tipped her chin and lowered his face. His eyes, once a warm chocolate, now glowed a mysterious shade of amber. That alone should have given her pause, but she discovered the mesmerizing color made her weak in the knees and desperate for his touch. Her eyelids drifted together as Con teased his lips across hers. Lust blossomed in her core.

Toes curling, she slid her hands up his big, strong arms and welcomed his searching tongue. He groaned hungrily as he captured her mouth. The little vibrations rippled down her throat and into her chest. She mewled like a kitten and clutched at him, wanting more of him. He deepened the kiss, his tongue swiping and dancing with hers until they were both panting and shaking.

As if electrified, she buzzed with arousal. This was such a new feeling. Oh, she’d been hot before when making out but nothing like this. Shelby was on fire and couldn’t breathe. Only the sensation of Con’s palms gliding across her skin assuaged the burn. “I need…I need…”

“I know.” Con pressed his lips to her forehead and crouched down to pick her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and cried out as his lips fell to her neck. He kissed and sucked and licked that sweet spot there until she hovered on the brink of coming. It was the most deliciously wild thing she’d ever experienced.

With his fingers tangled in her hair, Con tilted her head back even farther and nipped lightly at her neck. She rocked against his hard body. The towel had come loose and was bunched between their bodies. Con’s rough palm cupped her bare breast. He was so surprisingly gentle as he touched her. His thumb stroked her stiff nipple. She responded so easily to his skillful hands. Already, she was so wet and hot.

“Come to bed with us, Shelby.” Con’s lips were against her ear now. He pressed a tender kiss to her temple. “We need you, Shelby. We’ve been waiting so long for you.”

We? She pulled back quickly and knocked her head against the door. Con winced and rubbed the sore spot she’d just created. “Are you all right, sweetheart?”

She dragged his hand away from her head. Pinned between his massive, muscular body and the door, she felt sorely at a disadvantage but pressed forward. “What do you mean ‘we’?”

Con seemed reluctant to answer. “I mean me, Ty, Chuck, and Al—all of us.”

She didn’t miss the way he’d switched his words there at the last. Was there some other housemate she hadn’t yet met? Regardless, she wasn’t about to give him what he’d requested. She had standards, and hopping into bed with three men was so far beyond them it was incomprehensible. “I’m not that kind of girl, Con.”

His brow furrowed. “What does that mean, Shelby? I wasn’t aware that I’d implied you were somehow less respectable by asking you to come to bed with us.”

“You’re joking, right?” She tried to figure out how he’d gotten such a warped idea of what was right and wrong. “Men sharing a woman is wrong, Con. It’s not normal.”

“Who said we were normal?” His eyes flashed that strange shade of amber again. “Did you ever think that what you call wrong we consider the most normal and wonderful thing in the world?”

“I…” She didn’t have an answer for that one. “It’s not for me, Con.”

“How do you know, Shelby?” His head dipped, and he dragged his nose against the curve of her throat right up to her jaw, inhaling deeply as he went. “Your scent tells me differently. It’s much stronger now, but earlier, during dinner, I smelled it, too. Even then, your body recognized us as the mates you need just as our bodies recognized you as ours.”

“Mates?” Shelby’s world was spinning. The amber eyes. The way each man had such a unique scent. The way Con had growled earlier. Their bizarre connection to the wolf, Alex. What the hell was going on in this cabin?

“Later, Shelby,” Con said in a low, commanding voice that made butterflies swarm through her belly. “We’ll explain it all later. Just feel right now. Trust what your heart is telling you.” He held her gaze until her skin prickled with heat. “Trust me.”

Even through the fog of desire, Shelby recognized that some teensy, tiny part of her was screaming the obvious. She needed to run, like, fast. She needed to get away from this cabin and these strange men as quickly as possible.

But the practical side of her brain started to misfire as she did exactly what Con said. She trusted her heart. She trusted him.

Hands shaking, she clasped his face and brought her lips to his. The kiss was simple and sweet but sealed her fate. With a whisper, she ordered, “Take me to bed.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Surrounded by four of the sexiest men the world had to offer, Shelby knew there was nowhere to run. She’d poked the bear—er, wolf—and now she was going to pay.

Her clit throbbed as their competing scents filled her nose. Her pulse kicked up a few notches. Her body warmed as the heat of desire burned through her. She licked her lips and stared up at Ty and Alex who stood on either side of her head and held her arms wide. She glanced over at Chuck who’d taken a position at her left side with that menacing bowl of ice cubes. She gulped before glancing down toward Con who was climbing up onto the island.

He hovered over her smaller body, covering her with his broad shoulders and lean stomach. Her fingers itched to be set free so she could feel the ridges of muscle that she loved so much. The ice cube between his lips terrified her.

“Ah!” Shelby cried out as Con leaned down and dragged the cold cube down the side of her neck. He followed the curve of her body right down to the valley between her breasts. Ty and Alex held her wrists as she wiggled. “No! Oh! Ah!”

Con’s lips moved the ice cube to her left breast. He circled the highly sensitive peak and made her toes curl. He moved to the second and applied the same torment. Just when it was too much, when the ice chilled her flesh to the point of pain, Con moved away and returned to the other nipple he’d just abandoned. Back and forth, he jumped between her aching breasts until she could hardly breathe.

Down below, her clit throbbed almost painfully. She could feel her pussy growing wetter and wetter. It was a combination of being held down by Alex and Ty, of being completely at Con’s mercy, and the wild sensations evoked by the ice that turned her on so badly. She wondered at the kind of wanton woman she was becoming, but it just felt so damn good that she didn’t really care. If this was how good kink could feel, then bring it on!

Con moved even lower down her body, sliding off the island and standing between her open thighs. She’d expected some relief for her tender nipples, but Chuck stunned her by leaning forward and using his warm tongue to flick them. It was heaven and hell, the pleasure of the soothing warmth almost eclipsed by the sting of cold flesh being instantly heated.

When Alex and Ty used ice cubes to trace her pulse points and then make lazy lines up and down her arms, she thought she would die. Three men and three ice cubes worked her into a tizzy while another hot mouth drove her right to the edge. She writhed and moaned and begged for more.

Con’s hands on her inner thighs sent a jolt of awareness through Shelby. She gulped, knowing full well what was about to happen. Even with the warning, she wasn’t prepared for the shocking touch of ice to her most intimate area.

“Con!” She shouted his name and tried to shut her thighs as the ice cube swirled around her clit. He just chuckled and forced her thighs even wider apart. She fought to breathe as the ice cube moved between the lips of her sex and dipped just inside her. “Con! Oh, please. Please!”

The crunch of the cube between his teeth gave her a short reprieve. Seconds later, his ice-cold tongue touched her pussy. It felt so strange to have the strong but oddly cold muscle fluttering over the swollen kernel hidden there. Chuck’s mouth continued to pull at her right nipple and then the left. Alex and Ty dropped their ice cubes and took turns kissing her until she was breathless and dizzy.

Shelby let go and surrendered to her men. She wanted to feel it all. Con’s tongue darted between her folds and fucked her slowly. The tip of his nose rubbed against her clit. Chuck swept his rough palm up and down her belly and plucked at her nipples. Each teasing pinch sent white-hot sparks rippling right down to her clit. Alex and Ty’s tongues darted in and out of her mouth. They nipped at her lower lip and sucked on the tip of her tongue, awakening every last nerve ending.

Con’s tongue began to lash her clit. She held tight to Alex and Ty’s hands as she climbed the heights of ecstasy. Between Con’s tongue on her pussy and Chuck’s tongue on her breasts, Shelby was a quaking, panting mess. She moaned and cried out as that coil of utter joy tightened in her lower belly. Con lapped relentlessly at her pink pearl. With a shriek, Shelby climaxed. Wave after wave of sheer delight rocked her body. She closed her eyes and relished the experience of her four lovers kissing and stroking and licking her body at once.