KADE
The thought of other opportunities to touch and kiss and explore this amazing woman was the incentive he needed to ignore his more primitive urges.
Well, as much as was possible given his face was buried in her sweetness.
He took his time and went as slow as he could. He learned her clitoris was more sensitive on the left side and that she got more excited when he rapidly flicked his tongue over that juicy pearl of flesh than when he suckled it.
He made her pant, made her moan, and still she kept her arms pressed against the wall forming the X he'd commanded from her. Yet, he was her prisoner. Her worshiper. Her mate.
His fingers dug into her hips as he focused his full attention on pleasuring her. Scenting her with his musk. Her orgasm would release her juices, and his pheromones would be drawn into her, mixing her with cells, letting other werewolves know she was taken.
Her body went still, her gasp turning into a long, low moan. He spent delicious seconds licking her, enjoying the pulsations that throbbed against his tongue.
He licked and kissed her very center until he'd memorized the scent of her, the taste of her. It wasn't enough, and he suspected, it never would be.
I'm so in love with her.
The thought snapped him out of his sexual revelry. He'd wanted Lilly since the first time Saul had introduced her into the Moon Pack. He'd made himself believe that she was the perfect solution to his problem. But the truth was, he wanted her, body and soul.
A true mating.
How she felt, however, was another matter entirely.
He pulled up her underwear and pants. He got to his feet, and then zipped the pants and did up the button. She looked shell-shocked, and he loved that he'd made her feel that way, that her satiation was owed to him.
He grasped her arms and pulled them down. He wondered if she'd even remembered they were still there, invisibly pinned like pale butterfly wings against the mauve background.
"Meet me at Donovan's tomorrow night. Six p.m. Wear a short dress. No panties."
"Already doing the alpha thing, are you?" The whiskey sound of her voice made his cock throb.
He licked her bottom lip, giving her a taste of her own essence, and stepped back. He couldn't resist leaning in to sniff her neck. He wondered, just for a second, if he should visibly mark her. Just a little bite, a little suck, and both human and werewolf would know she belonged to him.
"I'm not Saul. He had enough beta to control his alpha tendencies. But I don't. I'll never be a beta—in heart or mind. You understand, don't you?"
"I understand the alpha mentality. All or nothing."
"Good." He turned on his heel, then stopped and looked over his shoulder. "If you're late, I'm gonna spank you."
"Is that a threat to be on time or an incentive to be late?" she asked.
Kade grinned. "Up to you now, isn't it?"
***|***|***
KADE
Donovan's was an upscale steakhouse tucked into one of the nooks and crannies of downtown.
At five minutes to six, Kade waited in the elegant lobby with its overstuffed chairs, abstract paintings, and low lighting.
He'd dressed for her, for his sweet, delicious Lilly, even though he knew the Armani suit and the tailored Eton shirt with its gold cuff links, not to mention the Italian leather shoes, would be the same as wearing a sandwich board that screamed: I'M WEALTHY.
He realized now that he'd had his own shiny pride dented, just a little. I know the alpha mentality. All or nothing.
Why had he chafed at her accurate verbalization of who he was?
Though he would never admit this to another living soul, he had inside him a dangerous yearning: He wanted Lilly to ache for him, to desire him. Just him alone. Screw being the alpha.
It was wrong-head thinking. Still. He knew now that Lilly's body was receptive to an experienced lover—that much had been made clear during the scenting. He had to wonder, though, if she felt something, anything, for him. Even the smallest emotional connection could give them something to build on.
Choosing Donovan's for their first date was a show-off move. He wasn't some lovesick boy, damn it. He wished now that he'd stuck to the T-shirt and jeans and sneakers that he'd seduced her in, maybe asked her to meet at a burger joint. He wondered if she would've enjoyed that more.
"Kade. Well, well."
Shit. He turned from staring blindly at the wall to face the one person he didn't want to see tonight, or any other night: Nicole Mills. She'd introduced him to Donovan's, and it had quickly become one of his favorite places to dine. He should've realized the odds of running into her at the dining establishment, especially on a Saturday evening. Nicole was definitely an advocate of "see and be seen" at the right places.
He found her vanity useless and stupid.
Kade perused Nicole coldly, but she still preened under the attention. She was two years younger than him, beautiful in a plastic sort of way, and the bony side of thin. She wore a red mini with black calf boots. An oversized designer purse dangled off her scarecrow arm. Nicole liked the human standards of beauty.
"Did you miss me?"
He blinked at her. "What?"
"You're here—at our favorite place. Obviously, you're waiting for me." She pouted at him and put a hand on his arm. Her red nails looked like spots of blood against the black of his suit. "I wondered how long it would take for you to come to your senses."
He was dumbstruck. She knew that he'd refused her as mate. She knew, too, that he'd been searching for someone else. How arrogant did the woman have to be to assume he would have no choice but her? Irritation flared.
"We're not mating."
"Don't play coy. Time's up, Kade. The pack's vote is in less than a week. I'm the only one nominated. Why do we have to go through this drama?"