Psy & Changelings 11 - Tangle of Need

“Behave.”
    She might not have been a lieutenant, but neither was she a submissive. Not telegraphing her actions in any way, she brought up her knee at the same time that she snapped forward her head.
    Rearing away, Riaz blocked the groin strike, but the dual attack distracted him enough that she was able to free herself. Slashing out with her claws before he could regain his balance, she scored four perfect lines across his chest, shredding his tee. Red seeped into the edges of the white fabric, but the cuts weren’t deep. Only enough to remind him that he was playing with a strong, dangerous woman, not an untried girl.
    Tugging off the torn T-shirt, he threw it aside. “Now,” he said, stalking her with slow, prowling steps and an unblinking stare, “I’ll have to do more than just bite you.”
    Oh, God.
Seeing his nostrils flare, the tang of her arousal thick in the air, she fought the primal urge to pin him to the earth skin to skin, and shot him a deliberately provocative smile. “I don’t see you anywhere near me.”
    He laughed … right before he lunged at her. The solitary reason she got away was because she danced left and into the deep pool created by the convergence of two streams. Coming up a second later, she saw him crouched on the verge, watching her, his head angled in a very wolfish way. “I don’t want to get wet.”
    “Good, I’ll stay in here then.”
    Thick black lashes lowered to hood his eyes. “I just saw an eel swim past.”
    She jerked. “No you didn’t.” Except what was that brushing her leg? Yelping, she jumped a fraction to the right, glared at him when he chuckled. “You’re making it up.”
    A grin that was all teeth. “Come out and I’ll only bite you a little.”
    She shuddered against the impact of him so playful and more than a tiny bit dangerous. That was it, she was a goner. Dead and buried.
Don’t give in.
It was a command from her wolf—who understood that the male stalking her was having fun. So was she.
    Treading water, she shook her head. “Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think so.”
    Shrugging, he dug his now-bare feet into the grass and settled in, watching her with that same unwavering and unquestionably predatory focus. “It’s right behind you,” he said a minute later, the tension between them a thrumming bowstring. “With a friend.”
    She spun around, backed up. “Lia—”
    “Gotcha.” He hauled her out of the water and pinned her to the soft grass in a single powerful move.
    Nipples rubbing against the exquisite friction of his chest hair, she wrapped her legs around the possessive intrusion of his hips. “You just wanted me close enough to grab.” She scratched lightly at his shoulders with the very tips of her claws.
    Arching into the caress, he said, “I’m a wolf. What did you expect?” He slid his hand between her thighs with a boldness that intoxicated. “Let’s play a different game now.” Thumb and forefinger slick with the creamy evidence of her welcome, he rubbed the taut bundle of nerves that was her clit.
    Shuddering, she said, “Yes,” and tugged his head down for a kiss that ended with his tongue in her mouth and his fingers pushing inside her in hard male demand. “Let’s.”
    AN hour later, Riaz’s hand trembled as he stroked it over the damp silk of Adria’s hair, her face peaceful in sleep. His beautiful, prickly, wounded Adria had fallen asleep in his arms after the playful dance of their loving. He understood what that meant, knew he’d reached a part of her most people didn’t even realize existed.
    It was only fair.
    Because she’d reached deep into his soul, too, to places he’d thought would remain forever barren. Quite simply, he was happy. Cautious eyes,claws and all, Adria made him happy. He’d worried his wolf would fight him, fight how hard he’d fallen for her, but the predator in him was delighted with the lover who had become a friend … and who now owned a great big chunk of his heart. It nuzzled against her as he indulged his bone-deep need for skin privileges by caressing the sweep of her back.
    “You’re mine, Adria Morgan.”
    It was a punch to the throat, the discovery that he was still capable of such a visceral depth of emotion. Finding then losing Lisette hadn’t withered away the part of him that felt a wild possessive tenderness toward the long-limbed goddess in his arms, and where once he would’ve seen his feelings for Adria as a betrayal, he now saw them as