Page 46 of Wolf Desired
“You still don’t understand the concept of knocking,” she said, slowly turning those bright hazel eyes on him from where she sat on the mattress on the floor. A mattress that hadn’t been here a few days ago. Tiernan had probably brought it down to her.
“I understand it. Just don’t care to do it,” he said, his wolf nipping at him to move closer to her, to take in her sweet scent. He didn’t even know what the fuck he was doing here. If anyone should be seeing to her, it was Tiernan. Despite how much Maddox wanted her, Tiernan needed her.
She rose from the mattress and approached him with a fire in her eyes. That stirred him more than the long legs he envisioned wrapping around his waist as he’d thrust into her, or those plump lips he wanted to see sucking his cock.
“Leave, Maddox,” she ordered.
Strong. This female was strong.
But still vulnerable. He couldn’t leave her unguarded. “I don’t like you staying down here alone. You’d be safer upstairs with a roommate. Rafe, perhaps. He doesn’t like humans.”
She took another step closer. Decisive. Undaunted. His cock twitched.
“Or does he?” he asked, again wondering why her scent had been on Rafe.
“I don’t think Rafe knows what he likes,” she said, raising more questions.
Maddox wanted to move toward her, to reach out and pull her in so he could kiss her until his lips grew numb, but he stood in the doorway, not sure what to do.
“Not all shifters hate humans,” he said, hoping that might help ease the situation.
She tilted her head, waves of blonde hair cascading seductively over her shoulder, making his cock press against his pants, begging to be released.
Her eyes traveled over his body, pausing a second as she stared at his hard length. One corner of her mouth kicked up while her eyes lifted, and she stared at him as if she planned to stare him down. He could swear she had some alpha in her. Either way, they’d have fun together.
And that was all. There couldn’t be more between them. He would not risk her.
“I’m fairly sure Tiernan and you don’t hate me,” she said. “The jury’s out on Rafe, despite. . . recent events. So that makes maybe three out of twenty-one here. Fourteen percent, Maddox. Not a reassuring number.”
“Okay, a lot of shifters hate humans,” he conceded. “But that’s because they haven’t met any good ones.”
“And you have?” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“You.”
Her mouth opened, forming an ‘o’, but she said nothing. His answer surprised her, maybe as much as it did him. He’d never spent so much time with a human before and never had any desire to do so.
Except with her.
Artemis pivoted away from him, those lush tresses hiding that sweet smile he loved. He’d known there was something special about her from the first time he’d seen her in the line of humans. The human men had glared, whispered insults about the shifters, not aware that every shifter could hear them. She didn’t contribute to their juvenile behavior and instead had made eye contact with him and the other shifters, like she was eager to get to know them, despite the fear that had poured from her. She never once looked down on any of them. Artemis had a pure heart, a rarity in both of their worlds.
Until that moment, Maddox never thought he’d feel joy again. When Isabella had died, his bond to her broke, plunging him into a pit of despair so deep that he’d given up trying to climb out. He still didn’t know how he’d survived. Most shifters succumbed to the break of a blood-bond and followed their mates into death within a year. He had expected that would be his fate, even prayed for it at one point when the pain had been so extreme. But his wolf had held on. Now he understood why, beyond any doubt. Though he’d loved Isabella enough to blood-bond her, he hadn’t realized until he’d met Artemis that Isabella hadn’t been his fated mate. Artemis was.
“Can I ask you something, Maddox?” The softness in Artemis’s voice pulled at him. She seemed so vulnerable at that moment. His wolf lifted its head with pride inside, knowing this female—his female—needed him.
“Anything,” he said without hesitation. And yet he hadn’t moved into the room or closed the door behind him, as he desperately wanted.
“Anything?” she repeated with a smile, which warmed him down to his soul.
Maddox couldn’t resist. He waggled his eyebrows. “Anything, angel. I’m yours to command.”
She rested her hand on his arm. The feel of her skin against his. . .. Electric. His entire body sizzled with the need for more of her.
With a jerk, she removed her hand, shook her head and cleared her throat like she suddenly remembered what she was supposed to be doing. “I just have a question. Maybe a problem, depending how you look at it.”
