Hard As Steele (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (Timber Valley Pack) (10 page)

             
“They live a few hours north of here.  My father is the Alpha of a pack up there.”

             
“What brought you here to Timber Valley?”

             
“I used to spend a lot of my summers here with my aunt and uncle. They own most of the property around here. Once I got to be in my twenties, I couldn’t live in the same territory as my father, you know how it is.”

             
She stared at him. “No, actually I don’t.” She ate a spoonful of stew.  It was rich and salty and delicious.

             
He winced. “Sorry, I forgot that you’re human.”

             
She laughed at that.  What a bizarre conversation. “Ah…thanks?”

             
“I’ll try to explain how things work with us.  You know how with wolf packs, there’s one wolf that’s the dominant male? An Alpha?”

             
“Yes, I do know that much about wolves.”

             
“It’s similar with us. Each pack is led by an Alpha wolf, who sets all the rules and makes the major decisions for the pack, approves marriages within the pack or between members of another pack, and so on.  Usually the Alpha will father at least one son that’s an Alpha, and some members of the pack may also give birth to Alphas.  Once the younger Alpha has fully matured, by their early to mid-twenties, they generally get married, move away, and start their own pack. It happened just recently with our pack.   My Uncle Vince’s son Max is an Alpha, and he’s still living on the pack’s property, but a decent distance from where my uncle lives.”

             
“I see.”

             
“I’d been working in law enforcement there, so I decided to do the same thing here. I didn’t want to have my own pack. To me, this job and the men in my department represent my pack.”

             
“Speaking of law enforcement, have you found out anything else about the purse that I had with me?”

             
“The purse, and the cell phone, were stolen. They were left in an unlocked car outside of a restaurant in a small town in Wyoming, off I-25. You likely took I-25 to get here.”

             
She shook her head, bewildered. “I do not remember taking them. Still…” she frowned.  “I feel like…I don’t know. Almost as if I were headed here on some kind of incredibly important mission, a mission where the ends justified the means. I just don’t know why I would have taken someone else’s car and purse.”

             
“Is it possible that you were afraid that someone was following you?” Steele asked.

             
She considered that. “I do think I wanted to avoid detection,” she said.  “I don’t know why. I wish I could remember exactly what happened yesterday, when I started driving here. If I could call Katherine, that would at least give me a clue. Maybe I said something to her before I left.  In fact, she tried to call me on that cell phone, the one that I probably stole, so I must have called her from that phone.”

             
She saw a look of discomfort on Steele’s face. She suspected that he really didn’t want to hold her prisoner, and that he felt as if he had little choice.

             
“Fine,” she sighed. “I’m trying to look at it from your perspective. I know how most humans would react if they found out about you, and I know that your people can’t just take my word for it that I would never say anything. I’m not saying I’m happy about it, mind you.”

             
She went back to eating her stew.

             
After dinner, she insisted on helping him clear the dinner plates. She had been raised with manners, after all.

             
Was it wrong that she was enjoying his company, just being close to him? She loved the way that he looked at her, the way he smelled, the sexy low rumble of his voice.

             
Of course, she’d acted like a shameless hussy the last time she’d been with him. She winced at the memory of her behavior. “So, you must think I’m really a skank, the way I behaved when I thought you were imaginary,” she said as she set the dishes in the sink. 

             
He had just fetched a tub of vanilla ice cream from the freezer. He set it down on the sink and peeled off the top.

             
“No, not at all. It made me like you even more.”

             
She turned to stare at him. “It did?” she said, startled.

             
“Yes, it did. I wanted nothing more than to please you,” he said earnestly. “Having you tell me what to do took all the guess work out of it.”

             
She felt heat ripple through her, and an urgent pulsing between her legs.  “Really.  And what do you want now?”

             
“You. More than anything else in the world.” He was staring into her eyes, and as he said it, she knew he was telling the truth. 

             
It was crazy that she still wanted him. He was holding her prisoner.  Oh, and he wasn’t even human.  Despite that, she felt a burning need for him roaring through her body, crackling down her nerve endings like electricity.

             
She really could tell him anything. She sensed it. He’d never judge her. Not the way she looked, not the rolls on her waistline, not her broad soft thighs, not even how much she loved to have sex with him.

“So you liked it when I told you what I wanted?
” she said, her voice gone husky with desire. “Because right now, I really want you to find a creative way to use this ice cream.”

“Take all of your clothes. Now.”
His voice was a deep, sexy rumble, and his eyes gleamed with hunger for her.

Mesmerized, she peeled her clothing off and droppe
d it, piece by piece, on the kitchen floor.

             
“Bedroom,” he growled.

             
She followed him into the bedroom.  He pointed to his bed, which had a red and black flannel blanket,  red and black pillows, and a rough-hewn oak frame.

             
“Lie down.”  The rough command in his voice made her knees go weak.

             
She obeyed, settling onto the soft flannel.  He took a spoonful of ice cream and dribbled it on her breast. She gasped at the cold sensation. Then he bent over her and lapped it off, the warmth of his mouth chasing the cold away. She shivered at the delicious sensation that rippled through her body.

             
He spooned on more ice cream onto her other breast, the cold sending little thrilling shocks right down to her toes.  His warm tongue swept over the ice cream, swirling over it, and then closed over her nipple, sucking it and then tugging it gently.

             
He dribbled the ice cream in a trail down her stomach and followed it with his warm, hungry mouth, sucking and licking it.

             
“Oh. Yes,” she moaned. “Don’t stop.”

             
“Your wish is my command.”

             
He reached the cleft between her legs, and spooned more ice cream on to her, dribbling it across her heated flesh.  The cold made her gasp.  She bit back a whimper as he set the tub of ice cream on the floor and then knelt down between her legs.

             
He spread her pussy lips open and ran his tongue along the line of dribbled cream.  Heat swirled inside her as he sucked it off, then moved on to her clit, laving it with his tongue.

             
The pressure built up inside her as his tongue caressed her, but just as she felt like she was falling off the precipice, he moved away. She let out a whimper. “Please,” she begged.  “I need to come. I want you so much.”

             
“Let’s come together.  I love it when we do that,” he said.

             
We. He used the word we. It wrapped around her like a strong embrace.

             
He shucked his pants and then knelt between her legs. He reached up, picking up each of her legs and placing them on his shoulders, and then pressed his hard cock between her pussy lips. Then he pushed into her, forcing his huge erection into her tight, slick tunnel.

             
“Oh,” she gasped. “
Oh
.”

             
He began pumping his hips, moving in and out.  She felt the heat building up inside her again, and he pumped harder, slamming into her. 

             
Each thrust sent hot rivers of pleasure rushing through her body, filling her like molten lava. He looked into her eyes as he thrust, his own eyes glazed over with desire.  One of his arms circled her legs, holding them in place, and the other hand moved down, between her legs, caressing the swollen bud of her clitoris. 

             
“Come with me,” he panted. “I need you. Oh, God.”

             
He began stroking her in time to his thrusts, and that finally sent her over the edge. Her body shook and the muscles inside her spasmed, squeezing and rippling on his cock.  A series of explosions rocked her, each one shooting delicious sensation through every nerve in her body, until she finally lay gasping for breath and drenched with sweat.

             
He slid out of her slowly, reluctantly, and she let out a tiny whimper of protest. 

             
“I forgot how good we are together. Ready for round two?” he panted, eyes still glazed.

             
She was about to say hell, yes, but, as if right on cue, the doorbell rang, loud and long and insistent.

             
“Hold on! I’m coming!” Steele bellowed.

He
quickly pulled on his clothes.  Roxanne ran into the kitchen to grab her clothes and dashed back into the bedroom as he went to open the front door. 

Chief Warden Loren Redthorne stood there, along with a wolf shifter that Steele didn’t recognize.

              They’d told him they were coming tomorrow morning, so he was annoyed to see them there that evening. 

             
He stood in his doorway, letting the fur ripple across his face, and his eyes went wolf. His Alpha demanded it; he couldn’t just let these men muscle their way in without making a statement.

Loren frowned at him, and his eyes briefly gleamed, changing from brown to gray and then back again
.

“Hello, Steele. This is Warden Jerrico Redthorne,” Loren said. “We need to talk to you about the human.”

              “Her name is Roxanne, and she’s completely blameless in all of this,” Steele said, with a hint of a growl rumbling up from inside him.

             
“I understand that. However, I have been dispatched here by the Elders because we have a number of concerns. We’ve never had a case before where a shaman failed with a mind wipe, and the fact that it happened sixteen months ago is a major issue. We need to know if she’s discussed this with any other humans.”

             
“Are you addressing the issue with the Silver Forest pack as well?” Steele stepped aside to let them in.

             
“Most definitely,” Loren said. “There’s an Elder and a Warden there today, talking to them. Their shaman has been removed from his position, he will never do another mind-wipe, and we’re finding them a new shaman, in case a situation like this ever comes up again.”

             
They followed Steele in to the kitchen, where Roxanne, now dressed, waited for them. Loren nodded politely to Roxanne.

             
“Ma’am,” he said to Roxanne.

             
She nodded back, looking at them cautiously.

             
Roxanne sat down on one of the stools by his kitchen counter, and Steele sat down next to her. He wanted to grab her hand, to reassure her, but he didn’t want to make his feelings for her too obvious to the Wardens.

“This man has some questions for you,” he told her. “His name is Loren Redthorne. He’s in law enforcement, but a different branch than I am.
  They’re like federal law enforcement, except for wolf shifters.  They oversee legal issues for all the wolf packs across the country.”

             
She looked at Loren, her expression still hesitant. “I see. What do you want to know?”

             
“I’d like you to tell us everything that you remember, from the moment you first saw Steele,” Loren said.

             
Steele sat and listened as she told him about the accident, about how Steele had pulled her from the car and taken her back to the cabin, and how she’d seen him turn into a wolf that night.

             
She didn’t mention the fact that they’d had sex together, and Loren didn’t probe too deeply into it.