Series: Werewolves of Wall Street Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
I press both hands against his chest and push away. “No! I can’t.”
Noah shakes his head as if to clear it. As if he doesn’t know what just happened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to–”
But then I tug him back down, needing to feel the intense pleasure of our joined lips again.
There’s power to the connection. Every second his lips stroke across mine heals me more.
His free hand strokes across my shoulder then cradles my breast. I’ve never been touched there before. He pinches my nipple beneath the flannel, and I feel the answering tug between my legs.
“Wait. No. Wait…please.” I push at his chest.
A shudder runs through Noah’s body, as if it pains him to stop kissing me, but he sits back and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. His eyes still glow gold.
My pulse races. I want to kiss him again, but I know it wouldn’t stop there. I had chastity culture drilled into me from the time I was a toddler. I know you can’t excite a male wolf and then stop him from claiming you. Not without getting badly injured.
“I can’t, Noah.”
I can’t have sex with this gorgeous male.
I’m not even interested. I don’t know why I enjoyed that kiss so much.
“It’s okay.” Noah moves off me and rolls me back to my side, settling behind me in spoon position, the way he was before. “It won’t happen again.”
He wraps a strong arm around my waist and pulls me back against him. For a moment, I wait, breath held, body singing at his closeness. My heart pounds at his audacity. Is he going to stay in this bed with me? All night?
There’s no way I’ll be able to sleep with him here.
Except he starts softly stroking my hair with his free hand, and it feels so good, I forget about my objections. His breath steadies into a slow, deep rhythm, guiding me into relaxation. The rain outside has slowed to a gentle lull.
I keep my eyes open for a few moments, afraid the visions will come back, but when they drift close, there’s nothing but darkness. Nothing but darkness and the feather touch of Noah’s fingertips stroking my hair. Somehow, by some unknown miracle, I fall into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Noah
Aster’s peach magnolia scent rolls over me like a heady drug. I didn’t mean to kiss her. I meant to soothe her. To ask why she was crying and say the right words to make it right. Not that words are my specialty.
The idea that she might be crying because I am holding her here as my prisoner gutted me. But then she projected words right into my head and said she knew I wouldn’t hurt her.
I shouldn’t be so shocked. We’re obviously telepathically connected. That was how we’ve been dreaming the same dream. She’s a powerful Seeress. Somehow, she’s created a connection into my mind.
She was crying because of something else. Maybe the thing that made her meet me in that tunnel. I wanted to make it better, and then suddenly, I was kissing her.
Not tenderly. Not gently. Not with consent.
I kissed her like a male crazed with passion. Like a wolf who’s met his mate.
The idea occurred to me before—that I’ve been seeing her in my dreams because she’s mine.
She belongs to me.
I have to admit that holding her as she sleeps feels like a fucking privilege. I’m telling myself I’m doing it to keep her from escaping. I’m doing it to soothe away her nightmares or the fits she has when she gets her visions. But those are lies.
Holding her, touching her, breathing in her scent feels like home.
Maybe fate didn’t bring Aster to me to help find my mother. Maybe fate wanted me to rescue her from whatever nightmare she’s living out in that prison tower. Or maybe the moon goddess was connecting two mates.
Fuck. Even though the idea brings a kind of chaotic excitement to my cells, I don’t want to examine this possibility.
Mating the Adalwulf Seeress–their most protected asset–isn’t a possibility for me. I’ve spent my whole life working on this long game to infiltrate them and find where they keep their Moonborn. To try to talk sense into my mother, and if I can’t, to bring down the entire violent cult that indoctrinated her with their warped ideology.
They bred my mother like a slave. They tried to kill me at birth.
They need to be extinguished.
So yes, I will use Aster to get what I want, but complicating this plan with romance? With mating?
Not a possibility.
Chapter Ten
Aster
I ease awake from a dreamless sleep with a deep sense of peace in my body. The scent of a delicious male with amber and pine notes fills my nostrils.
For one moment, it feels right. Like I’m somewhere familiar. Like I’ve woken this way a thousand times, and every time was sweetness.