Page 105 of Dominion
A snuggle. She was actually being cuddled by the dirty-talking tattooed bad boy who had just spanked her ass and put her to bed.
“No, it wasn’t you. It was just everything. This is so embarrassing.”
“Tears are a she-wolf’s weapon,” he murmured. “The scent of a female’s tears makes her mate either go nuclear to protect her, or totally subdued to comfort.”
She chewed on that, wondering what effect a human female’s tears had on a wolf. But her thoughts couldn’t keep up with the exhaustion of the day. She sank into Cody’s embrace, leaning back, her head resting against his shoulder. Her eyes drifted closed, vague thoughts about how she ought to be furious with this overbearing shifter flitting through but taking no hold. Not when she felt so warm and safe for the first time since her kidnapping last year. Possibly for the first time in years.
She woke in the same position, still cradled half-upright against Cody’s chest. The moment she stirred he brought his hand to her head, stroking her hair again. Or maybe he’d never stopped. She blinked at the illuminated clock on the bedside table. It was two a.m. Hours since she’d fallen asleep.
Had he slept at all? Or had he just been holding her like this the whole time?
Wanting to lie fully horizontal, she crawled out of his arms to the bed, curling up with her head on a pillow.
Cody dropped a kiss on her head then got up and left the room.
This time she felt the loss of him even more acutely. His warmth, his scent, though she’d never noticed a man’s scent before. His was particularly pleasing—like leather and pine and strong, hard-working man.
She almost called after him—to tell him he could share the bed with her—but reason returned. That would be a bad idea. She’d already acted like a complete fool, opening her legs and begging him for an orgasm. And he’d made her.
Say my name. Who makes you come?
Even alone in the dark, she flushed at the memory. How had he reduced her to that wanton pleading woman? Stripped her of her pride and brought her right to the brink of ecstasy with just a few flicks of his fingers?
A man—wolf—like him had probably slept with hundreds of females to master that kind of skill. She was glad she’d escaped having sex with him. Never again. No, thank you. A guy like that… well, she was already half lost for him. The intensity of her attraction to him terrified her. She needed to take three steps back and squeeze her knees together real tight. No sex, no flirting. Definitely no more midnight cuddling.
Cody was the epitome of the kind of bad boy she always went for and this time, she was going to resist.
Somewhere out there a nice accountant or engineer would probably love an up-and-coming real estate agent girlfriend.
Somewhere, a nice, plain, boring guy wanted to sit on the couch and hold hands and watchMad Menat night with her.
Why did that sound so incredibly awful?
4
Cody pushed open his front door quietly and carried in the bags from Walmart. The house seemed quiet, and his sensitive ears detected the slow sigh of breath from Melissa in the bedroom. Still asleep. He was glad—she needed it.
He’d slept less than an hour all night. When he’d smelled her tears from the bedroom the night before, he’d been horrified. If they’d come during the spanking, it would have been bad enough, but for her to cry after he thought he’d eased the tension between them—or at least her sexual tension—made him want to smack his head into a metal beam.
He didn’t know the first thing about comforting a woman—had never tried it in his life, but the compulsion had been overwhelming. When she’d fought him off, confirming his fears that she’d never forgive him, he simply couldn’t get up and walk away.
His mate was in need. He had to provide.
That was how it felt, anyway. But he didn’t think of Melissa as a mate. Not even close. She was human, and not his type. They didn’t even get along.
But the chemistry between them, or at least his for her, was off the charts. Once he’d comforted her, he’d been unable to sleep or even rest. Something about her nearness had his blood singing. His brain had gone around and around in circles—about his inexplicable attraction to her, about the trouble she was in, about how he might win her trust so she would follow his orders and he could keep her safe.
He wondered what her ex-boyfriend was like and he experienced violent thoughts toward the guy for putting her in this situation.
He put the milk and other staples in the refrigerator. Finding he had no idea what Melissa liked to eat, he’d stalled at the grocery store, then ended up buying everything in sight.
Behind him, he heard the rustle of movement from the bedroom and then the flush of the toilet. The door pushed open and the soft pad of bare feet sounded behind him.
He continued shoving groceries in the refrigerator to stall as he tried to figure out what to say.
When she didn’t speak either, he turned and reached for one of the bags from Walmart. “Here are some clothes. I’m sure you’ll hate them.”
She reached for the bag. Somehow she managed to look even more beautiful with her hair all rumpled, her cheeks still stained with sleep. His eyes traveled to her lips, which looked bee-stung, swollen, and oh-so-kissable.