Werewolf in Alaska (Wild About You #5)(23)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

“What if you’d shifted in the kitchen, like you planned? Would you have come back to ravish me?”

“No, couldn’t risk it.” He reached the bed and lowered her to the thick mattress. “But I intend to ravish you, now.”

“Oh, I do hope so.”

“Count on it.” And he reached for her shoe. His undressing technique wasn’t elegant, but it was effective. Her jeans and shoes made it off undamaged, but her panties did not. He didn’t worry about taking off either his shirt or hers. All he needed was access to her wet, juicy . . . ahhh. He sank his c*ck up to the hilt and was rewarded when she moaned and grasped his hips, tugging him in tighter.

“You never did tell me, Jake.”

“Tell you what?” Bracing himself on his forearms, he gazed into her silver eyes. How he loved watching them darken with pleasure as he began to stroke.

“Whether you like werewolf sex better than human sex.”

“No comparison.” Which was true. Nothing compared with this. He changed the angle slightly and caught his breath at how good that felt.

“Because Were sex is better?” Her breathing grew shallow as she lifted to meet his thrusts.

“No.” He picked up the pace.

“Then human sex is better?” She moaned and arched against him.

“Uh . . . Rachel . . .” As she tightened around him, nearly at the edge, and his cli**x hovered, poised to follow hers, lust clouded his brain.

“Tell, me, Jake!” She panted with excitement. Her body, hot and trembling, invited him to plunge deeper.

“Rachel . . .” He drove into her and she came in a burst of glory, her cries urging him on. He moved faster, and then even faster. When he erupted, his release curled his toes. “Rachel . . . sex.”

Sometime later, he rested his cheek against her shoulder, still covered with the cotton of her T-shirt. She slid her hand up under his shirt to caress his back. Her touch was so sweet. He lay there with his eyes closed and soaked up the joy of being with her.

She turned her head and kissed his hair. “I heard you say something right at the end, about the time you were coming.”

“Probably glory hallelujah.”

“No, it sounded more like Rachel sex.”

“Don’t know. Might’ve said that.”

“I think you did.” She kissed his hair again. “Yes, I think that’s what you said.”

He decided not to confirm or deny. But apparently in the frenzy of making love to her, he’d managed to confess his true feelings. He no longer cared about the difference between human and Were sex.

The only female he wanted, Were or human, was Rachel. That had been true even before they’d consummated this love affair, but now it was indelibly burned into his psyche. That could be a problem someday in the future when he had to choose a mate, but he couldn’t change what had happened.

“Jake sex is the best, too,” she said softly. “Just so you know.”

“I shouldn’t be so damned happy to hear that.” His earlier thoughts about causing her pain drifted back to him. He tried to push them away, but they were persistent devils. “I should want this experience to be just okay, so you can leave me and quickly find someone who’s ten times better at pleasing you.”

“You should, but you don’t.” It was a statement, not a question. She continued to stroke his back.

“That’s right. What I’d really like is for you to have no more lovers after me, but that’s completely unrealistic, so I’ll settle for them being less competent than I am.”

“I think it’s good that you’re admitting this,” she said. “We should always tell each other the truth.”

“The truth isn’t very pretty. Now you know that I’m a selfish bastard who doesn’t want another male getting top billing, even if that means you end up with less pleasure in your life as a result. I’m not proud of that.”

She ran her fingers down his backbone. “Why do you suppose I kept pestering you about werewolf versus human sex? I know once you leave me you’ll mate with a werewolf. I don’t want you to have more fun with her than you’ve had with me. So I’m selfish, too.”

He chuckled. “What a fine mess we made for ourselves, huh?”

“I suppose so, but I’m not sorry.”

“I’m not, either.”

“You’re sure?” Her question had a slightly uneasy lilt to it.

“Yep.”

She let out her breath in a whoosh. “That’s a relief, Jake. I was afraid you might be sorry, considering how getting tangled up with me goes against your beliefs.”

“I don’t regret a single second I’ve shared with you. Well, maybe the agony of having you clean my wounds, but even that had its moments.”

“See, that would never happen now. If you hurt yourself, I’d let you handle it.” She fell silent as she continued her lazy caress. “So how many humans are mated with werewolves?”

“Only a handful so far. Why?”

“Just curious.” Her hand grew still. “How has that changed their lives, exactly?”

Jake recognized a leading question when he heard one. He lifted his head to look into her eyes. “It’s changed their lives drastically, Rachel.”

“In what way? I mean, werewolves live as humans a good part of the time, so aside from having your mate shift and go for a run in the woods now and then, what’s so different about living with a werewolf?”

“Everything.” He eased away from her and climbed out of bed. “Let’s take that hike we planned. It’s time you watched me shift.”

“Good. I want to do that.” She scooted off the bed. “I think it’ll be cool.”

“It may not be quite what you think.”

“I’ve seen Ladyhawke. I’m sure I’ll be fine, Jake. You’re not going to shock me, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

“I haven’t seen that movie, but Hollywood’s version of shape-shifting usually isn’t anything like the real event. I’m just warning you that it might be a little . . . unnerving.”

“I doubt it.”

“Okay.” But he sincerely hoped it would unnerve her. Her line of questioning certainly was unnerving him. He didn’t have to be a genius to figure out where those questions were coming from.

After fun and games with the human version of Jake Hunter, she’d begun to convince herself that maybe he wasn’t that different from any human she might hang out with. Perhaps hooking up with him wouldn’t have to change her life very much, after all. She was building castles in the air. Time to bring her down to earth.

Chapter 16

After freshening up and putting on clean clothes, Rachel was in a jubilant mood as she and Jake left her cabin. Jake had appropriated her backpack to carry a couple of stainless steel water bottles, a bag of trail mix she happened to have on hand, and his cell phone.

He’d turned the phone off with a comment about hating the sound of a phone in the wilderness. But he admitted they were helpful in an emergency. Anyone watching the two of them setting off down the trail would assume they were simply day hikers out to enjoy an Alaskan summer day.

Not quite. By the time they returned to her cabin, she would have seen something few humans had. She suspected that Jake wanted to scare her a little with this shifting business. Maybe it was a test, and if so, she intended to pass it with flying colors.

The more time she spent with Jake, the less ridiculous she found the idea of mating with a werewolf. She was an artist who lived an unconventional life. She spent long hours in an isolated workshop, so logically she’d be a better candidate for an alternate lifestyle than a corporate type.

Lionel’s presence in her life could present a challenge, but she might be able to get around that. Other humans had done it. She’d read enough of Duncan MacDowell’s book to believe that Were-human pairings weren’t the unmitigated disaster that Jake insisted they were.

She’d love to be able to talk with one of those humans, but she couldn’t do that. She wasn’t supposed to know what she knew, so that kept her trapped in silence. Jake was her only source of information, and his view was biased.

And yet, as they set out on the narrow trail he’d chosen, Jake in the lead, she wondered if his views were as rigid as they had been a few days ago. They’d had some really hot sex, and some cozy shared moments of friendship. He seemed as crazy about her as she was about him. If she was willing to consider the possibility of this mating business, then perhaps Jake could be swayed.

First, though, she had to show him that his shifting demonstration wouldn’t freak her out. She was slightly apprehensive—anyone would be—but this was Jake. She’d keep that in mind during the transformation and all would be well.

They arrived at a fork in the trail, and Jake turned back to her. “I was planning to take the left fork, but I just remembered that you sent Lionel out searching for wood.”

“I did. Sorry about that. I was only thinking about giving him a job so he could both earn his regular wage and get out of our hair.”

“Yeah, I know. But I’d hate like hell to run into him.” Jake adjusted his sunglasses, which made him look seriously hot, and glanced through the trees. “Do you have any idea which way he might have gone?”

“No.” Then she had an inspiration. “But surely he’ll want to stay close to his truck so he won’t have far to carry the pieces.”

Jake’s smile flashed. “An obvious point I completely missed. He’s nineteen. He’ll want to conserve energy. If we hike a good distance down the trail, either trail, we’ll be far beyond where he’d go.”

“I’m sure we will.” She was dazzled by how gorgeous he was. The dappled shade lovingly caressed his broad shoulders, and his worn jeans seemed custom-made for his lean h*ps and tight buns. Now that she’d sampled the rugged beauty of a werewolf in human form, she couldn’t imagine being satisfied with anything less. Jake would simply have to see things her way.

“Then we’re off. Let me know if I’m going too fast for you.”

“I’m fine.” She blessed the long legs she’d inherited from her mother’s side of the family. Although she couldn’t match Jake for sheer athleticism, she could keep up if he didn’t go any faster than this.

If she hoped to snag herself a werewolf, she’d have to demonstrate some stamina. Once again she wondered if the other humans tried to keep up with their more physically gifted mates or if they’d reached an understanding about human limits. If there wasn’t a support group for human mates of werewolves, there should be.

She chuckled to herself. If Jake could read her mind right now, he’d have a stroke. But if he imagined that he had total control of what would happen between them, he had a lot to learn about her.

“What’s so funny back there?”

She’d just suggested that they should always tell each other the truth. Time to put up or shut up on that score. “I was wondering if there was a support group for human mates of werewolves.”

He came to such an abrupt halt that she almost ran into him. His shoulders rose and fell with his deep inhale and exhale before he turned to face her. With his sunglasses and forbidding expression, he looked like a cop about to hand out a ticket. “That’s not the solution we’re going to choose for this problem. If you’re thinking in that direction, then you—”

“Need to think again.” She laid a finger against his perfectly sculpted lips. “But isn’t the point of brainstorming solutions to consider all the possibilities?”

He wrapped her hand in both of his and eased it away from his mouth. “That isn’t a possibility.”

“Why not?” She couldn’t see his green eyes behind the sunglasses and she thought he might have worn them on purpose as a shield. In the shade of the fragrant evergreens, he didn’t really need them, which was why she’d left hers at home. “Don’t you want me?”

His jaw tightened. “That’s not fair. You know I do.”

“Then take me. Make me your mate. It’s not like we’d be the first to do that.”

“I don’t care if a hundred Weres have taken human mates. It’s still a huge mistake, and I won’t contribute to the chaos it causes.”

“What chaos? Duncan says the pairs that are already mated are living in harmony with their Were families. Someone named Emma is mated with a werewolf named Aidan, and—”

“Yes, and they’ve already had a baby born of that mating, but no one can predict if the kid will be Were or human. Her parents won’t know, and she won’t know until she reaches puberty. Can you imagine the stress of that on a family? On a young female?”

“I suppose it would be unsettling not to know until it happens, or it doesn’t.” She wondered which the child would wish for. Would she want to turn out like mom or dad?

“That’s my point. Emma and Aidan have chosen that stress for themselves, which is one thing, but they’ve also chosen it for a baby who has to live with that choice, like it or not. I won’t do that.”

Rachel wasn’t ready to give up that easily. “Why did they make that decision to deal with the stress, do you suppose?”

“They claim to be soul mates who belong with each other.” Jake’s voice faltered for the first time. “I can’t . . . I don’t really believe that’s true.”

“Why couldn’t it be true? And if it is, their child has the benefit of two parents who are devoted to each other. That’s huge, probably more important to the kid’s well-being than the Were-human dilemma.”

“That’s a judgment call.”