Rutledge Werewolves 1: Scent of Passion (10 page)

He felt like howling his dismay. His brothers meant well, but privacy was not a strong commodity around here. Flings, casual affairs, those had privacy. A mate, particularly his mate, the first woman to join their family since their mother died, would in itself negate any privacy he had hoped for.

Making his mind up in an instant, he stopped where he was. Sophie paused beside him, not having noticed his brothers. She was eagerly looking around the large house and gardens.

Artemais smote his brothers with a glare. As the eldest, he had felt responsible for his brothers until they all reached adulthood. The glare he gave them was not a new one for them. It reminded them
he
was the eldest and
he
was in charge.

The three brotherly grins that came from that glare were taunting and feral. A clear challenge. Artemais frowned again, growling low in his throat. William, the first to truly understand, touched the shoulders of Samuel and Dominic, saying something to them. Both brothers turned back to look at him again. They both nodded, then smiled brilliantly.

“Later,” he saw them mouth through the glass. He nodded, realizing he could only gain a semblance of privacy for himself and Sophie. The rest he would deal with later.

His brothers taken care of, and knowing they would never dare to follow him out into the woods, Artemais turned abruptly.

“Change of plans,” he curtly told Sophie.

Keeping his pace at a stride Sophie could keep up with, Artemais headed towards the huge forest surrounding the house. He knew once his brothers had finished inundating Sophie with questions they would slip back into the background, allowing them some measure of privacy. But as hot and horny as he felt, he couldn’t trust himself to wait that long.

He needed his mate now.

Chapter Thirteen

Sophie stared at the truly enormous house that would undoubtedly be one of her baby’s homes. Still undecided about whether she could live with Artemais, or whether she should hold out and try to convince him to live in the city with her, she pushed the thought back in into the dark depths of her mind.

Instead, she concentrated on the truly beautiful house in front of her. Made of brick and wood, it had a comfy, homey look to it, even though it stood three stories tall and could compete with some mansions she knew.

There was obviously more than enough room to raise a passel full of children, her mind hinted strongly. Pushing aside that wistful thought, she let her eyes soak up the huge old house.

She could only partially see all the space around the back of the house. The front garden was fairly barren, but huge. Around the edges was heaps of room to plant a vegetable garden, or maybe some flowers. The grass overflowed everywhere, soft and safe for babies to learn to walk, run and play everywhere.

She barely noticed when Artemais stopped just shy of climbing the stairs up onto the porch. The house seemed perfectly maintained; evidently the boys had taken their family home seriously. Only the gardens looked neglected, and even then, the ground was safe, the grass fairly well cut. It appeared more neglected from her woman’s perspective—with no flowers, no vegetables, nothing decorative except the healthy green of the grass.

The lawn was neatly trimmed, the weeds were only straggling around the edges, not completely overrunning the garden. It was the bareness that offended her feminine pride, in her mind’s eye she knew how magnificent this garden
could
look, and so its bareness became an eyesore to her, personally.

Before she could question Artemais on why no one had given time or love to the garden, he began pulling her in another direction, around the back of the house.

Laughing, she followed where he led.

“What is this? I thought you were all hot and ready to jump my bones? Did you forget something important you needed to show me?”

Artemais grunted.

“No. My brothers were waiting to ambush us. It would have been hours before I could drag you away. But I’m adaptable, I just decided on a small change in the plans.”

Sophie shook her head and chuckled at him.

Five minutes later, Artemais led her into a small clearing, the beauty of which stole her breath away.

A thin brook trickled by the side of the clearing. The grass was so lush and green it looked as soft and comfortable as moss. With huge old trees towering over them, Sophie could well imagine this clearing looking the same down through the past thousand years. Purple and blue wildflowers grew beside the stream, and Sophie could tell simply by the way Artemais’ shoulders had relaxed, and his breathing had softened that this was a special, private place for him to relax and think.

She wasn’t surprised at all when he dragged her into his arms and kissed her fiercely. She had dreamed of this man for weeks, remembered every heated caress, every deep, drugging kiss. She had fantasized about him every single night. Closing her eyes, she leaned into his heat and let herself get lost in his mouth.

After a moment of blissful passion, he pulled back slightly, breathing heavily. Still dazed, she could only listen to his words.

“Do you have any idea how often I dreamt of this these last few weeks? How every night I would taste you again? Feel you again? Be driven insane by your caress? Only to wake up cold and alone?” His words came from deep in his soul.

Sophie shuddered, tempted beyond belief by the seductive quality of his voice. She knew what he felt, could feel the truth in his words and conviction in his heart. He wanted her and if the seductive tone of his voice and heat in his words were any indication he would be a formidable opponent.

While she might convince herself she could hold him at bay for a time while she learned more about him and their situation, she was not a fool, and knew that her body would not be able to resist his seduction for long.

Sophie groaned, feeling herself grow damp at the heat and desperation his words and her thoughts brought. Giving in to her body’s desperate desire, she gave herself fully into their kiss. In that moment, nothing else mattered except his mouth, his tongue thrusting in and out of her, teasing her, beckoning her, tempting her.

Arching herself up into Artemais’ heat, she felt his hugely erect cock, and rubbed herself against it.

They both groaned.

Without letting her mouth go, Artemais guided her down onto the soft mossy ground, and lifted her shirt. Palming her nipple through her lacy bra, he groaned as it instantly became erect.

“Oh my,” she gasped, trying to keep a hold of her thoughts, trying to make sense of her instant, hot reaction. The memories of her erotic dreams superimposed themselves over her memories of that one night. Her brain brought forth a million erotic ideas of what she could do, what Artemais could do to her to drive her wild.

Determined to simply not follow his lead, Sophie decided to up the stakes a little. If Artemais could palm her nipples, she too could explore his stunning body.

Lowering her hands, she swiftly unbuckled his belt and opened his fly. She dipped her hand into his briefs, and gently, but firmly clasped his massively hard cock in her hand.

Sophie barely registered that Artemais had stopped his playing, so focused had she been on the warmth and strength of his cock. She could circle his width in her hand, but only just. He was long, and purely, beautifully masculine. While she was no blushing virgin, Sophie felt awed by Artemais’ length. They had been so caught up in the moment that night, so desperate to wildly fuck each other they had never taken to time to get to know each other softly.

In that moment, Sophie swore to herself that very, very soon she would take some time to learn Artemais in a softer, more intimate manner.

For now, however, merely touching him drove up her lust, making her wish for nothing else but for him to plunge himself inside her, taking her over and over again. Knowing that she was a few well-placed strokes away from coming, having undergone a six-week personal foreplay session each night, Sophie figured it well past time to get the ball rolling with Artemais, as he merely stared down at her, mouth agape at the liberties she was taking.

Stroking his hot length, up and down a few times, she scooted down his body so her mouth rested near his cock.

Breathing softly over him, letting the heat of her mouth rest just a small thrust away, Sophie smiled and looked up the length of Artemais’ body to catch his eye.

The blue of his eyes had darkened, so instead of being the rich, clear blue of a summer sky, they now were the deep, royal blue of twilight, just before darkness overtook the earth.

Sophie grinned at the strange way her mind worked. If her analogy were true, then
she
was the darkness about to take over her lover.

As her mouth enclosed the head of his cock, Artemais growled his approval low in his throat. Sophie palmed his soft balls, wishing she had the patience to truly take her time here. But her intentions were to drive Artemais to the brink and let them both take their pleasure now.

She left his balls to cup her hands around his cock. Sucking fiercely, she began to pump his length.

Before she could even set up a rhythm, Artemais had grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back up. Briefly worrying about grass stains, Sophie grinned cockily as he held her in place by lowering himself to trap her from the waist down.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t you like my ministrations?”

“Honey, after six weeks of erotic dreams that have been driving me nuts, no way am I letting you suck me off first time around. What say we save that for the third or fourth go about? Hmm?”

Effectively silenced at the thought of having three or four orgasms this afternoon, Sophie simply stared up at this man. She would have questioned his inflated ego, if she didn’t know he had so much stamina. So that night hadn’t been some fluke or release of a long celibacy? Then how could he get erect so fast?

Artemais kissed her with a fierce, pent-up passion, effectively halting her thoughts. Arching up into him, Sophie fumbled, trying to grasp him once more.

“No Soph, don’t. If you do, this won’t last more than a second.”

“I want you right now, Artemais. I don’t want the pretty words or the sentiment. I’ve been dreaming of you every night. Six weeks of foreplay is enough, don’t you think? I won’t break, just do it now.”

Artemais growled his approval and ripped her shirt up over her head. The sunshine speckling through the trees helped lend some heat against the chilly breeze that had her nipples peaking again. When Artemais’ mouth closed over one of her nipples, Sophie suddenly felt too warm, too hot.

“Artemais,” she cried out, arching into him, desperately seeking some relief.

“Did you think of this?” he growled out, hungry for more of her reactions, “Did you think of me taking this nipple? Suckling it? Taking your clit? While I was looking for you? Waiting for you?”

Not even waiting for her answer, he pushed his jeans off his legs and left them on the moss. Not missing a beat, he thrust his hand down her silky panties to lightly flick her engorged clit. Crying out, she arched up into his hand, his mouth, the heat of his possession.

Stroking her, crooning to her, Artemais drove her up to her peak, then bent his head, sucking her clit into his mouth. Gently, but firmly, he bit down onto it, forcing her over her climax. Crying out her pleasure, writhing in the grass, Sophie was incoherent in her passion.

Catching her breath, she started unbuttoning Artemais’ shirt. Fumbling, she tore a few buttons, scattering them on the ground. As he lifted his head, she caught his gaze with her own flushed face.

“I need you now,” she choked out, “hot, hard, inside me now.”

Instantly, his lazy gaze turned sharp and hot. He shoved her jeans down, fully off her legs, taking her panties with them. As Sophie finally got his shirt free, Artemais had discarded his briefs. They both stared at each other for a second. Each soaked up the beauty of the other, thanking God for the perfection of their lover.

Spreading her legs wide, Artemais fondled Sophie’s damp slit, checking one last time she truly was ready for him and enjoyed the way she cried out, arched into his hand. When she grabbed his arm, pulling him down on top of her, he knew she felt too impatient to need any more foreplay.

“Now,” she murmured, demandingly, confirming his suspicion.

Eager as she, he held himself still for half a moment, enjoying the tense excitement of this moment; then he thrust directly into her in one long, fierce, claiming lunge.

She was tight.

She was hot.

And she was so wet he nearly came there and then.

Kissing her fiercely, he palmed her nipple, tweaking it and enjoying the cries of delight she made. Thrusting into her, slowly and steadily, he breathed deeply, willing himself to last.

“Now,” she cried, writhing. “I don’t need you to be gentle Artemais. I need you
now
!” she demanded, scratching his back.

The slight pain made him lose any semblance of control he had retained, and he thrust harder, deeper, on the verge of climaxing. His loss of control seemed to spur her on, making her climax once more. He roared his release, throwing himself after her.

Spending himself inside her, feeling his seed shoot deeply into her, reminded him that Sophie was bearing his child, his son. Sophie was his true mate in all ways. Lying down on top of her while he caught his breath, he enjoyed this rare moment of total peace, here in his favorite spot in the woods, with his woman.