Cash [Pyrate's Treasure 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (5 page)

* * * *

Cash watched his mate’s expression for another few seconds. He felt her trying to move beneath him, but he was afraid to continue quite yet. He was so close to the edge of his own control, and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her by being too rough. He was able to hold his own hunger under control until her pussy began to clench around his cock. Then he began to move.

He eased his cock out of her sheath until only the head remained within her wet, silky grasp. Then he pushed deep again just as slowly. As his hips slowly pushed in and out, his fingers traveled to the peaks of her breasts and took possession of her nipples. He rolled them between fingers and thumbs, watching with pleasure as her eyes widened in response.

On his next slide out and in, Zoe’s breathing stopped, and then she arched her back and hunched her hips in silent supplication. Though he wanted nothing more than to plough her fast and hard, he kept his movements slow and easy. Guilt at taking her without any foreplay and romance still bothered him. He vowed that next time he would make it up to her.

“More, Cash. I need more,” Zoe whined.

She wrapped her legs around his hips and began to move her hips in opposition to his. Her innocently sexy move shredded the last of Cash’s control.

Sliding his hands from her breasts and under her shoulders, he began to fuck her in earnest, each stroke faster and harder than the one before. Zoe responded, making sexy little noises as she moved with him, which made him even wilder.

With his wolf demanding he claim his mate, Cash leaned in and licked at the spot where his mark would go. In response, the silky, wet walls of her pussy convulsed around his cock as she came. Unable to hold back any longer, his jaw jerked, and his teeth sank deep into her flesh. Her blood flowed into his mouth and across his tongue, and he swallowed her essence into his body, making them one and claiming her for all their lives as his mate.

Zoe screamed as orgasm crashed through her a second time. Cash relaxed his own control, and, after licking his mating bite closed, he roared as his cock jerked and spewed his life fluids deep inside his mate.

Once he knew his body would follow his brain’s commands again, he raised his head so he could see his mate’s face. Her eyes were closed, her skin was damp and flushed, and she was gasping for each breath.

“Zoe? Are you okay, gypsy? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

He watched her eyelids flutter before they opened, and she looked up at him. For the first time he realized her eyes were purple, a deep grape-jelly color. His heart stuttered when he saw they glistened with unshed tears.

“Are you okay?” he asked again when she did not answer him.

Then she smiled. “Can we do that again soon?”

Cash’s heart began to beat again as he chuckled. “Yes, my mate. Whenever you want.”

Zoe took a deep breath and sighed. Lifting one hand, she slipped it between them and raked her fingers down the center of his chest. “Now?”

Cash’s cock twitched with renewed interest, but before he could answer, someone began pounding on the hall door.

“What the fuck?”

“Cash, are you in there? Is Zoe with you?” Silver’s voice filtered through the thick wood door.

With a sigh, Cash pulled from Zoe’s pussy and rolled out of bed. Pausing at the foot of the bed to scoop up his shorts, he slipped them on as he stomped across the room.

Opening the door just wide enough to glare at his cousin, he growled, “What. Do. You. Want?”

“Goldie wants to see you in the library.”

“Tomorrow,” Cash said, wishing for the first time in his life that he did not live in the same house with the rest of his family.

When a gentle hand rubbed down the center of his back, he stiffened for a second and then relaxed into her stroking touch.

“She would not send for you unless it was important. We’ll come back up here afterward and start all over again,” his mate whispered against his shoulder before brushing several kisses over the skin. Her hand continued to stroke up and down his spine from the nape of his neck to the top of his shorts.

When the fingers of her other hand slid under the front waistband of his shorts at his hip bone, he sucked a breath as his cock twitched and began to lengthen. “Tell her we’ll be down in an hour.”

“You have ten minutes,” Silver said, giving Cash a look that said there would be big trouble if he did not obey.

“Oh, all right, ten minutes,” Cash grouched before slamming the door in his cousin’s face and turning to his mate.

He frowned when he turned and found Zoe was no longer beside him. She had moved across the room and was picking her clothes up from the floor.

Cash watched her graceful movements for a moment, wishing there were enough time to return to bed to show her some slow, easy loving. Reading nervousness in her body language, he crossed to stand behind her. When she straightened, he wrapped his arms around her middle and nuzzled the side of her neck.

She froze at his touch. A second later, she turned within his arms, wrapped her arms around him, and buried her face in his chest. Hot tears splashed on his skin in the next instant.

“Gypsy? Mate, what’s wrong?” He leaned back, trying to see her face, but she clung to him as tight as a kudzu vine.

She did not answer. But the tears fell faster, and she began to shake within his grasp. Something was definitely not right here, but he had no clue what.

“Zoe, you’re scaring me. Please, talk to me,” he pleaded as he tightened his hold around her.

* * * *

Zoe could not look at Cash. She could not tell him what was wrong. How could she when she did not understand it herself?

Instead of speaking, she shook her head and tightened her hold on her man. And he was her man. No matter what he had said about their first time together being without romance, she had thought it had been perfect. Until his cousin knocked on the door.

She understood he had responsibilities to his family and his pack, just as she did to Luka, but she did not want to leave this room. She wanted to hole up here and make love again and again and again, until she knew every sensitive spot on his body and how to please him in every way.

Finally, her crying slowed and stopped. But she still could not look at her mate. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, rubbing her wet cheek against the dampness of his furred chest.

Cash did not immediately respond. His hands slid to her shoulders and held her in place as he stepped back. Then one hand slipped across her shoulder and up her throat. With two fingers, he lifted her chin, forcing her head up until she looked into his face. His expression was one of concerned fear as he stared down at her.

“What are you sorry for?”

Zoe shrugged, unable to order her thoughts and find the words she needed to explain herself.

“Gypsy, this is just the beginning for us. I’m not letting you go, no matter what. You are my mate. I am your mate. And nothing will come between us,” Cash said with a gentle smile. His deep voice reached deep inside her and soothed the fears that she had not even realized she had.

Sniffing, she hesitantly returned his smile. “We need to get dressed and go downstairs.”

“Yeah, I know, but I don’t have to be happy about it.” Cash gave her a quick kiss before turning and picking the rest of his own clothes from the floor. “Do you want to come with me or wait here?”

Zoe stepped into her skirt and pulled it on before reaching for her bustier. “Unless you have a map to show me how to get around this place, I think I’d better go with you.”

Cash chuckled. “I’ll draw one up for you. Later. For now I don’t know if I can be with you out of my sight.”

Zoe finished dressing before looking at her new mate. He was pulled together with a different shirt and looked as good as he had when she had first seen him. She, on the other hand, felt like anyone who even glanced at her would know what she and Cash had been up to.

Shrugging because nothing mattered as long as she was with Cash, she crossed to his side and took his hand in hers. “Sounds like a plan to me. I’m not sure I can be that far from you either.”

He grinned as he raised their joined hands and kissed the back of hers. Then he kissed her lips for several long minutes before releasing her and stepping back. “Let’s go see what Goldie wants. Then we can come back and start all over again if you want.”

A shiver ran through Zoe at the thought. “Sounds like a plan to me,” she said, purring with a grin of her own.

As they left Cash’s room hand in hand and made their way through the house to the library, her mate kept up a running commentary of which room belonged to which cousin and the purposes of the other rooms. By the time they reached their destination, Zoe had drawn her own mental map, though there were a few blanks that she would fill in later, the biggest one being where the kitchen was. Her stomach was beginning to complain about skipping lunch in preparation for their trip since she had not eaten due to a history of airsickness on past trips.

The library door was closed. Cash did not bother to knock and wait to be acknowledged. He shoved it open so hard it banged against the wall behind it before he marched into the room. His arm around her shoulder kept her by his side every step of the way.

“What is so damned important that it cannot wait until morning?” he demanded loudly with a bit of a growl in his voice.

Cash stopped when he saw there were only three people in the room. Goldie, King Luka, and Silver all turned to stare at him.

King Luka looked stunned.

Goldie looked pissed.

Silver looked like he was going to burst out laughing.

Though he knew he should apologize for his outburst, Cash took a breath and remained silent. Zoe stroked her hand up his back, letting him know she was on his side no matter what. His fingers tightened for a second before he pulled his arm from around her and took a step forward, half shielding her from the room. Whatever was going on, this was his fight. As her mate, it was his duty to protect her.

“Glad to see you could join us,” Goldie finally said after taking several deep breaths herself.

“I was busy claiming my mate.”

“What?” The king growled and took a step in his direction. Cash straightened to his full height and crossed his arms over his chest. No one, not even the King of the Wolves, was going to harm his mate.

“She demanded it, and I will refuse my mate nothing, even if it goes against you.”

The older man stopped and looked past him to his mate. “Zoe, are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Your Highness,” she responded. She stepped forward to stand beside him and again smoothed a hand down Cash’s back. Cash had to fight an urge to throw her over his shoulder and return to their room. “And you? Have you met her yet?”

“Met who?” Cash asked, turning his head to look at his mate. Something was going on between these two, but he could not tell exactly what.

King Luka ignored his question. “I believe so, which is why I need to speak with your mate.”

Cash watched as Zoe nodded as if she understood what was going on. He, on the other hand, felt as if he had been dropped in the middle of a desert without a map or a compass.

“What’s going on?” Cash turned to Goldie, hoping she would answer him.

“Why don’t we sit down,” the king said, as if he was their host instead of the other way around.

King Luka took the seat he had been in earlier and waved Cash and Zoe back to the couch just across from him. Once seated side by side, Zoe slipped her hand into his and held it securely, as if giving him comfort for what was to come.

“I was raised by old-school rules in Europe, which is why I wished to speak to you before I approach your sister,” the king said, leaning forward and resting his forearms on his knees.

“Diamond? What about her?”

“Though I have yet to be formally introduced to your sister, I believe that she is my mate.”

Cash glanced at Goldie, who looked solemn, but noncommittal. Turning back to the king, he frowned with his confusion. “Ooooookay, so why are you talking to me and not her?”

Zoe leaned close and whispered in his ear. “He needs your permission to meet her.” The touch of her breath on his ear sent an electric shiver through him.

“Really?”

“Yes, really,” King Luka answered dryly.

“Yeah, sure, go ahead,” Cash said with a shrug. “Just know that if you hurt Diamond, I will take you down and eat your liver for breakfast.”

“Cash!” Goldie scolded.

King Luka smiled and nodded his head. “I completely understand. I feel the same way about Zoe. Now, if you will excuse me, I believe I shall go and introduce myself to my mate.” With that, the king rose and walked out.

Once he was gone, Cash looked at Goldie and grinned. “That should be a hoot to watch. King of the Wolves claiming Diamond. Oh yeah, it’s going to be quite a show.”

“No, I don’t think it will be,” Zoe responded softly, sounding worried. “He’s facing the toughest challenge of his life, and no one will be able to help him through it. All that will keep him going is the knowledge that his mate is on the other side.”