Page 6 of Wolf's Wild Woman

“You think I’m a whore!” I was appalled. And hurt. Deeply. I wasn’t sure why it mattered so much to me what this man thought. I only knew it did.

His growl filled the vehicle. “Don’t you ever use that word when talking about yourself,” he ordered. “My woman is no whore.”

His woman? What did Taylor mean by that, if not that he wanted me in his bed?

“You’re woman?” I questioned.

“My mate.”

I gasped with surprise. He was staking a claim, proclaiming himself my mate. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that; other than, I wanted him. Too much to put him in danger for my earlier actions. Why couldn’t I have met him before the incident with Benji? My emotions were all over the place. I desperately needed to clear my head with a good, hard run. I needed distance right now. From my emotions, from my life. I let my gaze meet Taylor’s. From him.

Taylor…overwhelmed me. He was raw and powerful and so sexy he made me ache. I still wanted to know how he’d gotten those scars on his face and neck. They went far deeper than the surface. The surface scars were nothing. His facial hair covered them and managed to give him a sexy, badass appearance. But the emotional ones? Yeah. I knew firsthand how those blows could stay inside your head and torture you for years.

“I don’t… I can’t… I’m not…”

“You are, but I’ll give you some time to wrap your head around it. For now, I want your address. The James Pack has a no tolerance policy on abusing women. We take it very seriously. I know you saw how Cyan handled the three members of your former pack in the parking lot at the bar.”

I nodded. “Austin Mickel and the Dempsey brothers are troublemakers. Their actions toward Ivy… They deserved what they got.”

“What about you? Don’t you deserve to have someone defend you, Rebel?”

My glance flew to Taylor’s again. There was something in the way he said my name. As if it were the most important word in the world. No one had ever said it that way. And his touch? It made every part of me come alive. What would it feel like when there were no clothes between us? When he kissed me? When he—

“The address,” he commanded.

I thought about the house where I’d grown up. When had it stopped feeling like home? When Rowan died? Or before then? The last thing I wanted was for Taylor to get caught in the crossfire of what I’d started earlier. He deserved a mate who wouldn’t get him killed during their first meeting.

“I asked for a safe place for the night.” It was a reminder to myself as well as the man in the vehicle with me. “There’s nothing left at my house that matters.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, baby,” Taylor growled. “What happened there matters, and I’ll make damn sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“No.” Weak and unsure. “No.” Louder. Firmer.

I took a deep breath and pushed the door open, stripping my shirt over my head as I did. I’d managed to kick off my shoes and undo my jeans by the time he rounded the vehicle and headed toward me.

“Don’t you dare,” he warned.

“You’re not my father, not my mate, nothing to me except a stranger I thought would find me a safe place for the night.”

He growled, and I ignored the way my thighs shook and my channel grew slick with desire. Instead, I kept my head down and made quick work of stripping off the rest of my clothes.

“I don’t need you to defend me. I took care of the asshole who tried to hurt me.” Temporarily but Taylor didn’t need to know that. “Besides, I’m leaving. Leaving this town and this pack. You’re noth—”

He jerked me to him, slid his hands down to cup my ass and lifted. I grabbed his shoulders, and he caught my cry with his mouth, swallowing it with his kiss. He dove deep, tasting all my secrets, even the ones I hid from myself. He laid my soul as bare as my skin. I’d never been so scared in my life. Of losing myself. Of finding myself. Of losing him before I’d really had the opportunity to know him. Of…everything.

I pushed at him and found myself pinned between his body and the side of the SUV. He was hard and thick between my thighs. I clenched my fingers in his shoulders to keep from reaching down and ripping him free of his jeans. I ground against him even as I tried to order my body to still. What was he doing to me?

He lifted me higher, catching my nipple in his mouth. My moan rode the wind, carried by the breeze to fill the night. He palmed my ass with one hand and slid the other around, slipped it between my thighs, his fingers stroking my folds. His thumb rubbed over my clit while he tapped his fingers rhythmically against me. I needed him to touch me. Inside. I needed it like I needed air.

“Mine,” he growled, and a shudder went through me.

“No, I…” I sucked air into my lungs, fighting myself and the need he’d created inside me. “I’m leaving.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” he countered.

I wiggled and pushed my way out of his arms then took several steps away from him, needing the distance to help clear my head.

“Don’t even think about running from me,” he warned, crossing his arms over his massive chest. “I see the wild in your eyes. I see the passion lurking inside, ready to be free, too. When I get you under me, you’ll burn us both alive.”

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