A Wolfish Tryst at Christmas Read online

  “Naughty boy.” Elizabeth gripped his shoulders and stepped out of the contraption. Despite the urgency that guided her, she took the crinoline from him and shoved it to one side of the room. No sense damaging it, as replacing the thing would be more trouble than it was worth. “It seems you have no patience.”

  “Not where you’re concerned.” Gently, he turned her around. As each hook on the corset was undone and each lace was loosened, her heart hammered, her chest expanding with each breath. Finally, he pulled the stiff garment from her body. It landed with a dull thump against the hardwood, and Elizabeth pivoted to face him. “God, you’re beautiful.”

  “So you say now. For all intents and purpose, I’m mostly covered.” She still stood in two additional petticoats, her camisole and drawers, all made of thin cotton, yet flames licked along her skin in competition with the goose flesh that chased over her arms. “I’ll finish here if you’ll start your own disrobing.” Anticipation and worry lurked at the back of her mind, but she ignored them. Tonight, she lived only for the moment.

  “I adore your spirit, Lizzie.” Blake unbuckled his belt and set it plus the saber on an embroidered chair off to one side. “I pray every day I’ll come back for you.”

  A bit of her excitement faltered. “I refuse to talk of the future right now.” Elizabeth tore at the buttons on the other two petticoats. The cotton cool against her fingers, she shoved the garments down her legs and from her body.

  “Fair enough.” As Blake worked the fastenings on his jacket, he held her gaze. “Over the last few months, I’ve looked forward to your letters. It’s a terrible day indeed if the mail coach is late or the post can’t locate us on the battlefields.” He folded his jacket and laid it on the chair. “I hold one against my heart in my pocket—the one where you told me you didn’t care about my hidden identity, the one where you hinted at your love.”

  Her chin trembled. She’d gotten through to him! “Even though I’d already assured you of my feelings in person, I feared I couldn’t properly express what more I felt in a mere letter. But truly, your being a werewolf doesn’t affect what I feel for you. I wanted to drive home that fact.” A knot formed in her stomach. “As long as you won’t try and eat me during a full moon.” She smiled, though it was shaky. “I’ll give you wide berth during those times when you must transform.”

  A very wolfish grin parted his lips. “Dearest, you know not what you say, for I will, indeed, eat you, regardless of the phase of the moon.”

  The shiver that racked her body had nothing to do with the slight chill in the room and everything to do with being in Blake’s teasing presence. She didn’t know what he meant by that, but she looked forward to finding out.

  He manipulated the fastening of his trousers. “Suffice it to say, I enjoy each of your letters. Your words lift my spirits.”

  “I try to make your day brighter, but sometimes I fear words aren’t strong enough.” Her throat went dry as his trousers hit the floor and he stood before her in his union suit—a one-piece undergarment that was undershirt and trousers combined. A noticeable bulge marred the simplicity of the clothing, and heat once more stirred between her legs.

  “Your intentions and passion come through.” He undid the line of plain buttons on the suit, slipped it from his shoulders and then pushed it over his hips before kicking it away. Blake stood impressively majestic in the nude—his broad chest sprinkled with dark hair that narrowed into a ribbon trailing down his abdomen before ending in a nest of curls, his muscled thighs framing his erect member, which curled toward his stomach. His black socks gave him a vulnerable, mischievous air.

  Elizabeth glanced at that part of him before yanking her gaze back to his face. What had he been talking about? How did a woman converse once she’d seen her man’s glorious member? She wrinkled her nose as she tried to recall the topic. Oh, yes. His letters and how they’d brought the two of them closer. “As I do yours.” Her mind reeled as languid warmth ebbed through her lower body. Urgent throbbing pulsed in her core once more. She needed him no matter the cost.

  “I decided on the way here tonight, quite possibly months ago, I would ask for your hand, Elizabeth.” Blake once again closed the distance between them. He brushed away her hands and divested her of the camisole. It made no sound as it fluttered to the floor. “I want to marry you. I want to look forward to that, keep your image in my mind and heart during the bleak days ahead. Please tell me I can come home to you, to a life together.”

  She shivered in the chilly air. Her nipples tightened, ached to know his touch, yet she ignored her physical need in the face of his life-altering request—the question that accelerated her pulse and sent flutters into her belly. “You want to marry me? This is only the second time we’ve met in person.”

  “Yes. Is this a problem?”

  “No. I feel as if I’ve known you all my life.”

  “I feel the same. Trust me, Lizzie.” He knelt and hooked his fingers into the waistband of her drawers. “I knew you were for me six months ago, longed to repeat the one kiss we shared, dreamed that I’d know you as a husband can know a wife, but the war still looms.” His fingers, firm and determined, drew the garment down her legs. Goose flesh trailed in their wake. Then she stood naked before him. “I don’t want the war to shadow what we have together. Please say you’ll be mine.”

  Emotions clogged her throat so she nodded. As she stared down at him, she smiled. Joy bubbled into her chest, mixing with the love she’d known all along. “I’d like nothing better than to be promised to you, Blake.” She shoved the worries of the war to the back of her mind. Tonight was for her and him, a testament to their commitment, a promise to each other. “I wish I could yell out my happiness, but I’d rather not bring my uncle running.” There’d be plenty of time to publicly rejoice later. At least for a little while, she’d cherish keeping the knowledge between just the two of them.

  “Thank you.” He bowed his head and sighed. “I brought a ring with me. It was my grandmother’s, but for now, I intend to show you how much I adore you.” He caressed a path up the backs of her legs. “The sweet scent of you drives me mad.” He pressed a kiss to her curl-covered mound.

  She couldn’t contain the sensations that flooded her—couldn’t name them either. They were too much, too big, too intense. “Is that because of your wolf senses?” There was so much she needed to learn about him, yet it didn’t matter. There would be time. She refused to entertain any other outcome.

  “Yes and no. I’ll explain in time.” He picked her up in his arms, carried her to the bed and then gently laid her upon the quilt. Silently, his eyes shining, he removed her embroidered slippers. They made two distinct thumps on the floor. He rolled her stockings down, first one leg then the other. “Please tell me you want me.”

  “I do.” Elizabeth lifted her arms and sighed when he joined her on the bed, sinking into her embrace, his body covering hers, the hard length of his arousal hot against her thigh.

  “Let me show you what you do to me.” He grabbed her hand and pressed it against him. “Wrap your fingers around it. Feel my desire for you.”

  Elizabeth did as he asked. He was thick in her palm, warm and silky. “Oh, my. It’s surprising and wondrous.” She moved her hand up and down the length. It grew and hardened more. She brushed her fingers over the soft, smooth head. Moisture dampened her fingertip. Did that mean he neared his breaking point? “There’s so much I’m ignorant about.” She wished they had more time together. “So much I want to know, to explore with you.”

  “Careful, else I’ll come too soon.” Blake caught her hands in his. He drew them up over her head then pinned her wrists with one hand. “We’ll have a lifetime for discovery. This is but one night. I’d like the memory to be a fond one.”

  She tried to escape his grip, but he tightened his fingers. A thrill shot down her spine and lodged between her thighs. “Touch me.” Desperation threaded through the command.

  Blake smiled then dipped his he
ad to her breast. He licked and nibbled the outside curve, not enough to bring relief, but just enough to tantalize. When she arched her back, shoving her breasts closer, he took a tight peak into the warm cavern of his mouth. Elizabeth moaned from the exquisite sensation of his tongue rubbing and licking her nipple. Molten heat slid through her veins. She squirmed, and Blake switched his attention to her neglected breast.

  Each pass of his tongue left her trembling, longing for greater contact. She tugged at his hold, and he released her. Elizabeth ran her fingers through his hair, thick and soft. She stroked the back of his head, ran her hands along his shoulders and down the length of his arms, seemingly everywhere, for the sheer joy of touching him. His muscles played under her fingertips. She recognized the banked power he kept tight control on.

  “Blake.”

  “Not yet.” He kissed her again, only this time, urgency guided the meeting. A new intensity had entered his embrace, one that heightened the sensations racing through her body. His lips, firm in their command, manipulated hers, and when she went pliant and opened for him, he prodded her tongue with his, bossing it as he explored her mouth, her gums, her teeth. He bit her bottom lip, his teeth much sharper than they’d looked earlier. When she hissed in protest, his kisses gentled. He licked at the wound and the prick of pain subsided. “I apologize,” he murmured against her mouth. “The animal within is anxious to mark you. I do so want to claim you.”

  Mark me? She had no idea what that meant, but his hands on her body, his lips on hers, and the hard heated length of him against her thigh played havoc with her capacity to think clearly. Elizabeth clutched him closer. Blake drifted a hand down her body. He parted her legs with a knee. Then he slipped his fingers through her wet folds. Every stroke made her tremble. Unfamiliar pressure coiled in her belly and sank deeper into her core, where it turned into unrelenting, pulsing need.

  “Blake!” How was she to survive the torment? How did she make it end?

  He ignored her cry. Instead, his fingers climbed higher until they brushed her swollen sex. Intense sensations overwhelmed her. Elizabeth dug her fingernails into his shoulders. She had no idea a man’s touch on that part of her body could do such wonderful things. Tingles danced through her nerve endings. Her breasts were heavy and ached with need. As she arched her back, hoping for relief, Blake increased his play, rubbing, circling, and tugging at the center of her pleasure.

  “Please, Blake, I need…” She didn’t know what she needed—only that he was the one who could stop the torture.

  “There will be a bit of pain, Lizzie.” Blake’s voice rasped in her ear.

  “I don’t care.” Her desire for him vastly outweighed the threat of discomfort. She disregarded the whispered rumors she’d heard of the act and caught his face between her palms to stare into his eyes. “Love me.”

  “I will.” He gave her a searing kiss that heated her skin while he spread her legs wider. “So soft.” The tip of his member bumped against her entrance. “So warm.”

  She clutched his shoulders. The weight of him pressed her into the mattress. When he thrust into her, Elizabeth’s world was no longer the same. A sharp prick of pain seemed to tear her body asunder. She gasped and stiffened. At last, she’d moved into the next stage of her life, and she belonged to him.

  “Are you hurt?” His question sounded harsh, a testament to the control he fought for as he held his body weight on his forearms.

  “No.” She shifted her hips and let her body accommodate his length. His fullness stretched her, filled her, but it wasn’t uncomfortable and the pain quickly faded to be replaced by a tingling excitement. She wriggled, taking him in as far as he’d go. Every precious inch fit her passage as if made for her. “Actually, I’m quite well, thank you.”

  “Good.” Blake stroked a tendril of hair away from her face. He withdrew then pushed inside her again, soon establishing a rhythm. “Lift your legs slightly. Yes, like that.” He grunted as he continued to pump into her.

  Elizabeth held him between her elevated knees. She soon learned that if she tilted her hips, she received the most enjoyment from his thrusts and he went deeper within her core. Desire built inside. She dug her nails into Blake’s upper arms. The pressure coiled in her body fractured. Each time he slid into her channel, pleasure spiraled throughout her body, and her sex heated. Her thighs trembled. Her breath hitched.

  “Please, Lizzie, I can’t hold off any longer.” He pressed his sweaty forehead to hers, his breath fanning over her cheek.

  “Oh, Blake.” She closed her eyes and concentrated on the feel of his lean body sliding over her softer one, on the grate of his chest hair against her sensitive nipples, on the crisp, clean scent of him, on the rasp of his breathing as he held onto his sanity. As much as she wanted this moment to last forever, she knew it was only temporary. “Blake…”

  He shoved again. She stiffened as her world shattered, tilted on its side. White light erupted behind her eyes. A wave of bliss washed over her, different than anything she’d ever known. It tingled through her, warmed her from the inside out, and consumed her. Elizabeth parted her lips to shout his name, but he kissed her, taking her cry into his mouth.

  Once more he thrust. This time he moaned. He wrenched his mouth from hers, nuzzled the skin where her neck met her shoulder and bit down hard.

  Elizabeth clamped her lips together to stifle her scream. The added pain sent her over the edge again, more intensely, and the release swallowed her. As she squeezed him, liquid warmth shot deep into her core.

  Blake collapsed on her, his arms tight around her. She held him just as close, humbled that he’d shared this moment with her but already mourning the fact she’d lose him to war again.

  Seconds ticked by while their breathing returned to normal. Joining with Blake, finally being one with him after all those months of thinking about how it would be, had surpassed even her imagination. Her limbs were pleasantly tired and a dull ache made itself known between residual tremors in her core. She belonged to him. She belonged with him. For however long they had together.

  Elizabeth stirred and a gentle sigh escaped. Blake immediately moved off her, rolling onto his side. She snuggled against him, her cheek on his hairy chest and one hand resting on his flat stomach. “Is it always like this?”

  He held her tight and pressed a kiss into her hair. “The sensations you experienced will be the same, but I won’t mark you the next time.” He leaned into her and licked her wound, tracing it with his tongue. “It will heal by this time tomorrow due to the special wolfish enzymes in my blood.”

  “Oh.” Unaccountable disappointment built in her chest.

  “Why does this sadden you?”

  “I thought it might be a part of you I could see and remember while you were gone. Will you transform into your animal for me?”

  “Not tonight. And certainly not before we’re married. The mark is enough for now.”

  “Oh.” She levered up on one elbow. “What does the bite mean?”

  Blake smiled. The lines of exhaustion and stress in his expression fled. As he stroked the side of her face, tingles danced over her skin. “It means that you belong to me. That my wolf recognizes you as its mate and claims you as his. You’re mine, Lizzie.”

  Her vision blurred with tears. “I’m glad you did that. It makes me feel needed and cherished. I can scarcely believe what we’ve done tonight.” No man had ever cared so much for her. Some might think what he’d done to her as odd or even brutal, but she thought it special. How would she survive without him now that she’d known such wonder in his arms?

  “I… I wouldn’t mind experiencing that mark again, and I definitely want to have—” she lowered her voice to a whisper even though he and she were the only ones in the room. “—relations with you again.”

  His chuckle sent delight through her body. “I’ll bear that in mind.”

  “Blake…” Time flew too fast. He’d soon leave and she’d barely gotten reacquainted with him. Panic
replaced the flutters in her stomach.

  He brushed the pad of his thumb along her quivering bottom lip. “I will come home. I promise.”

  Some of the anxiety left at his touch. “I know you will, and I’ll be waiting for you.” She could do no less. He was her world. “I just wish—” She stopped her thought. He didn’t need to hear her selfish complaint.

  “Lizzie?” He caught a tear on her cheek and wiped it away.

  “Yes?” She tucked her emotions deep at the back of her mind. There would be time enough to dwell on them later, when she was alone. For him she needed to be strong.

  “I love you.” He covered her lips with his, moving gently, as if it were his way of saying goodbye without words—as if he couldn’t say the words. When he allowed her to breathe, he said, “That will never change, no matter how much distance separates us or how much time passes before we see each other again.”

  Elizabeth pressed a kiss to his chest then rubbed her cheek over his skin, wanting to remember what he smelled like. Her body hummed with happiness. “I love you too.” She settled against his side and wrapped her arms around him. “Never forget what we mean to each other, Blake.”

  “I won’t. You’re in my heart, my soul, and I’m in yours.”

  “Will you stay here at the house for a bit?” She glanced at the window. Snow drifted down in fat flakes and made lacy patterns on the walls with the moonlight. The perfect picture of a Christmas Eve night. Emotion clogged her throat. At least she’d gotten to share this time with him.

  “For a little while. I don’t need to depart Corydon for an hour or so.” Blake left her long enough to pull a knitted afghan over them. He took her left hand in his, a forefinger stroking her ring finger. “I’ll put my ring on your finger before I go.”

  “Oh Blake.” She hugged him tighter. How lucky was she to share such intimate moments with him?

  “As soon as I return, we’ll be married. I refuse to wait a second longer than we must to begin our life together.”