Page 20 of Rejected Wolf

Morgan’s hands were in my hair, desperately tugging. “Gods, Jude,” he panted into my mouth, gyrating against me.

My head swam with driving need, my heart racing. I couldn’t think, couldn’tbreathe. It was too much! “Morgan,” I gritted out, trying to draw back. My teeth had grown sharp in my mouth, the urge to mark him too strong to resist. “Morgan!”

“I know, me too,” he groaned, sliding his hands down my chest.

I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw, my head spinning. Just because I wanted his body, that didn’t mean I wanted to tie myself to him forever. Right? He said he trusted me, that helovedme, but this wasn’t some kind of fairy tale.True love’s kiss wouldn’t break my curse. I would never be able to trust and love him back. I was too broken for that.

I wasn’t prepared for when Morgan slipped his fingers under my shirt. Without warning, I flinched and jerked back, gasping, and I grabbed his wrists to stop him. Memories I didn’t want intruding slipped in, of someone else’s very unwelcome touch. Cold steel, the prick of a needle, blood and sharp pain.

“S-sorry—” Morgan said, blinking behind those glasses.

Shoving the lingering terror aside, in its place was guilt, burning hot, and I instantly relaxed my grip, rubbing my thumbs over the delicate bones in his wrists. I shook my head, trying to smile, even as my stomach twisted into knots. “Don’t apologize. I just… Nobody ever touches me,” I said by way of explanation.

A little crease formed between his brows. “That’s sad. Everyone deserves human contact—or I guess wolf contact?” He huffed a little laugh.

The smile that crept across my lips was more natural this time, loosening the knot in my chest. I reached up slowly and removed his glasses. I wanted to look at him, really take him in without any barriers in the way. “Can you still see me?” I asked, holding the lenses up to my eyes and seeing the way it made his face all narrow and painfully sharp. I was curious about how they worked, because shiftersdidn’t need glasses, but now was not the time to ask. I set them on the table behind him.

He nodded shyly. “Yeah, it just makes you a little blurry… softer.”

I hadn’t allowed myself to admire his features, not since I woke up in the cave with him in my arms. Looking at him now, at the way his hair curled over his forehead, at the gold and green flecks in his chocolate-brown eyes, it made him more real somehow. He wasn’t just a figment of my imagination or something I’d dreamed up to torment me. This was my mate.

“How old are you?” I asked, tracing the curve of his freckled cheek and along his lightly stubbled jaw, then the outline of his full lips.

When he breathed out, I felt the shuddery brush of his breath on my fingertips. “I’m 25. You?” His Adam’s apple bobbed with a swallow as he tilted his head back and exposed his neck to me.

His eyes drifted shut on a sigh, so he didn’t see my shrug. “Yeah, the same,” I said, though I honestly couldn’t be sure of my age. It wasn’t like I had a birth certificate or anything to record that kind of thing, but it had to be somewhere around there.

Dragging my hand down his throat, I felt his pulse thrumming, so fast the beats all blurred togetherinto a low vibration. It blew my mind that he could simply trust me enough to literally place his life in my hands like this.

I wanted to trust him too.

As I brought my hands lower, I felt Morgan’s softness, his curves, so unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. I lingered briefly at his nipples, pinching one lightly so that it puckered, tight and hard, which made him gasp, his eyes flicking open.

He reached for me but paused, his hands hovering a few inches over my chest. “May I? Touch you, I mean.”

I nodded. I wanted him to, I really did, I just wasn’t sure I could control my reactions. His touch was gentle at first as he watched my face to see if I liked it or not. I was wary, braced for the barrage of unwanted memories to hit me again, but I focused on thewayhe touched. There was no pain. It was soft and sensual, gently exploring, not invading or needling. Just long, slow sweeps of his hands. I relaxed into the sensation and let out a sigh.

“We could… kiss more,” I suggested, moving my hands around to his back and pulling him closer again.

He nodded eagerly. “Yes, let’s do that.”

This time, I let Morgan control the kiss. From his position on my lap, he was slightly above me, and I tilted my head back and followed his lead. It wasn’t as fast or hard, but I thought I might’ve liked it even more like this.It wasn’t so all-consuming. It was the hot coals after a bonfire; still hot enough to blister but subdued enough to last all night. Under Morgan’s tutelage, I learned it wasn’t all or nothing. I could kiss him, maybe even more, without needing to mate for life. It was… nice. Safe.

Morgan continued his slow, careful exploration with his hands, fingering the buttons down the middle of my torso. I knew he wanted to take my shirt off but wasn’t sure how to ask. He licked along my lower lip, though I could tell his attention was still on those damn buttons. What he didn’t know, though, was that I was more comfortable without clothes than I was with them on. Maybe it would help.

“It’s okay,” I told him, reaching between us to loosen the buttons. “I don’t mind.”

I appreciated that he really tried not to be too eager, as he bit down on his lip to keep in the giddy smile, but his fingers shook as he helped thread the buttons through the holes. I started from the top, he started at the bottom, and we met in the middle. Then he pushed the sides of the shirt aside, his eyes drinking their fill, widening as his gaze trailed lower and lower.

“Wow,” he said with lust-drunk awe.

A feeling of pride filled me that he liked what he saw. None of my packmates had ever looked at me with this level of hunger. It stoked those coals into a blaze.

He was being so gentle, just feathered touches with his fingertips, but it wasn’t enough. I took his hands and placed them firmly on my body. “I won’t break,” I said. Although the way my insides were churning, I wasn’t so sure I would survive this, but it was what Ineeded.

Morgan let out a little whimper, then leaned down and licked across my pec, laving my nipple, sending an electric tingle through me, headed south. It was such an animalistic move, and it broke something inside me. My cock ached, throbbing in the confines of these dreadful pants. With a growl, I gripped him under the ass and stood from the chair, marching toward the bedroom. “More,” I grunted.

He let out a squeak but didn’t complain, clinging to me like his life depended on it. When I reached the end of his bed, I coaxed him off and dropped him unceremoniously square in the middle of the mattress. “Morgan, I want to fuck you.”

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