STORY EXCERPT

No matter how warm and gorgeous the afternoons had been, November had begun and snow was right around the corner.

It was probably inevitable, but Egan had featured as the hero in the storyline of her subconscious mind, a knight in shining armor who had wild wolves for pets. She didn’t quite know where the wolves had come from or what they represented in her mind, but she loved nature in all its wildest forms, and the wolves had been beautiful.

She walked up the little hill to the small neighborhood park, and her heart was in no way surprised to see Egan sitting calmly on the bench as if he waited for her every morning like this.

She raised her camera and snapped his picture without thinking. With the mist curling around his legs and the tall pines on the hill behind him, he looked like a warrior waiting. He looked like a part of her dream still.

“I’ve never seen anyone so beautiful in person,” she said.

“I am not beautiful. Males are not beautiful.”

Bliss snapped another shot to give her time to deal with the happiness bubbling in her soul.

“As the photographer, I say you are.”

He rose to stand and his slow smile made her stomach flutter. He looked even bigger than she remembered, broader and more muscular. His vivid green eyes were bright in the early morning.

“Then I bow to your expertise. Shall I pose?”

She lowered the camera.

“Are you making fun of me?” She couldn’t tell.

“No. I am enjoying you.”

His voice lingered on the word “enjoying,” and a thrill tingled deep in her body. She only wished he was enjoying her in every possible way.

Bliss looked away, then back to his face. He had his head cocked to one side, a half-smile curved his lips, but it was the tenderness in his eyes that had the heat rising in her cheeks.

He stepped close and stroked a cool hand down her hot face.

“Bliss, it doesn’t have to happen all at once.”

“But you’re—” She gestured to encompass him, meaning his looks and his maturity, everything about him. “And I’m—” She shrugged when words failed her.

He seemed to follow the winding trail of her thoughts.

“You are young and lovely.” He pulled her hand to his lips for a smooth kiss. “I am years too old and too hard for you, but you stir something in me that I thought was lost.”

She shook her head but he continued.

“I ask only that you give me a chance to be what you need me to be. I want you, make no mistake. Your sweet body makes me hard as a rock.” His eyes gleamed green in the soft dawn light. He really was too beautiful. “I have a desperate need to taste you, to please you. But I will take only what you give me. I have earned my control in battle. I will try to tempt you into my arms at every opportunity, but you can decide our final timetable.”

She grimaced. She wanted to tell him that he was assuming a lot, but what came out was, “That’s not really fair to you.”

Egan laughed and drew her closer. She settled against his warm chest in a wonderful full-body hug, heart thumping with excitement.

“Fair doesn’t enter into it,” he said. His lips nuzzled her temple and she sighed. “You draw me like a magnet. I like the feel of you in my arms and my heart is happy in your presence. Any scraps you offer me are more than I would have. I am not suffering, Bliss.”

“I want to offer you everything. I’m tempted every minute,” she muttered, half annoyed and half puzzled. “I even dreamed of you.”

He eased back a little and she laughed at his surprise.

ADULT EXCERPT

Half a block down from the restaurant, Egan tugged her off the sidewalk and into a little neighborhood park. The streetlights were lit against the growing darkness, but the park was quiet, deserted. Her peep-toe flats meant that she could feel the cold dampness of the dew, in spite of the unseasonably warm evening, and she shivered.

“Bliss.”

His voice was rough with lust and the message quivered in the swollen tissues of her pussy. Her sweet moisture rained down in welcome.

His nostrils flared and his eyes seemed to glow with a wild intensity. His big hand burned where it slid up her back.

“Egan.” It came out as a squeak as he backed her up in a delicious slow motion stalk until her back met the textured bark of the old tree. His wide chest, scarcely less hard than the tree, came up against her tingling breasts and one strong solid thigh insinuated itself between hers. He moved his body and set off little electric shocks in all over her nerve endings.

The heat of his body made her arch and her breasts rubbed against him, the layers of silk in between no barrier at all. She gasped involuntarily as sensation shot down to her swollen pussy. She was ready to beg him if she could get the words out, but she wasn’t sure what to ask for. And they had barely gotten started.

Thumb skimming her chin, fingers curling around her vulnerable throat, he tilted her head up and fastened his carnal mouth to hers and then there was no more thought, only a delicious erotic fire flaming in her blood.

He whispered something in a language she had never heard and then dove in for another long, deep taste. And all the while, he massaged her pulse with one hot hand and plucked and rolled her stiff nipple with the other. His hard chest kept her pinned to the tree, holding her still for long drugging kisses while she rode the strong column of his thigh with increasing desperation.

“Egan, please,” she said, and her voice was low and smoky, so different that she was surprised.

“Please what?”

He pinched her nipple just then and she undulated against his body. His eyes seemed to glow, catching and reflecting light in the semidarkness. The sight of his tanned hand on the creamy pale skin of her breast sent a wave of sweet heat through her.

He slid his face down the centre of her body until his mouth was over her mound and his hands roamed her thighs. She gasped in shock when his head disappeared under her skirt.

His fingers slid her damp panties aside and his thumbs parted her. The featherlight stroke of his tongue froze her in place, eyelashes fluttering uncontrollably.

The second swipe electrified her into a silent scream. Her head fell back and her body curled toward his mouth in a slow sensuous reflex.

His tongue dipped inside in a tiny tease and she cried out.

“Tell me what you like.”

Bliss blinked, but her thoughts were swirling like his clever tongue and she couldn’t form a reply. She couldn’t breathe or think.

“Talk to me,” he said, and his voice was muffled and vibrating against her pussy.

His teeth scraped and the sensation shot through her blood, but it wasn’t enough. She stared up into the leaves of the tree above but she couldn’t focus. He was making her blind and desperate.

“More,” she said. It was the only word she knew.

He nuzzled into her and slurped at her wet flesh. The sounds of his enjoyment were muffled, indistinct. One finger teased her, brushing round and round at her throbbing entrance.

When he slid his finger up and in, she whimpered. He curled that finger and pressed and she detonated on a wave of intense heat. She could feel her internal muscles closing around his finger, gripping and caressing.

His low growl pulsated against her most intimate flesh. His whole face pressed against her where she was wet.

She grabbed a handful of thick hair at the back of his head and tugged at him. He was still under her skirt and didn’t seem in any hurry to leave. His mouth never stopped moving.

“Get me someplace where we can finish this.” She rolled her hips against him in an ageless demand. “Somewhere not public. And I mean now.”