we have enough time for a proper ravishing?”
“This may be our only chance, Chief Ancheta. You going to waste it?”
“Nope.” Hunger echoed through the bond between them as he locked an arm around her waist, lifted her and dropped her on top of the blessedly bare dresser. “I know better.”
“Good.” She sank her fingers into his hair again and dragged her nails across his scalp teasingly. “What’s involved in a proper ravishing? It can’t be handcuffs, since I see you’ve forgotten them again.”
“Time,” he declared, the words muffled as his lips met her throat. “And effort. Mostly the effort. With a dash of creativity.”
She’d never been this impatient with any other man. Or maybe she’d simply never been this impatient as a woman. She was more now, a woman and a wolf, an alpha burning for her mate, and Jay’s soft, slow touches stoked arousal and frustration in equal measure.
Foreplay took too long, the wolf decided, and Eden had torn open her shirt before the thought finished. She grabbed at Jay’s belt with a growl. “Less time, more effort.”
He caught her hands and twisted them behind her back. “You can’t choose one over the other, or it isn’t a proper ravishing.”
“Oh.” Jerking at his grip did nothing. He had all the leverage and she didn’t really want to escape, but trying still got her hot and bothered. “So educate me,” she whispered. Challenged. “Show me how you ravish your mate.”
He kissed her, slow and wet, his tongue following the line of her lower lip. It was raw, unchecked lust, and she shuddered under the assault and pressed her lips together, fighting the natural urge to open to him.
His laugh blew hot on her mouth, but instead of becoming more insistent, his caresses gentled. Slowed.
It only stoked her hunger. Her pulse throbbed throughout her entire body, pooling need between her thighs and setting her nipples to aching. She arched her back, struggling to reach him, to rub against him. Jay relaxed his hold enough to let her, and growled when she pressed her breasts to his chest.
“Too much clothing,” she whispered, coaxing. He still had her hands trapped, and his fingers tightened when she tried to move. “Bra’s in the way. I want your skin against mine.”
He released her, ran his fingers up under her shirt to unhook her bra. “Take it all off, then put your hands back where they were.”
She slid her half-ruined shirt down to pool on the dresser and took her time with the bra, wallowing in his hungry expression as she peeled the fabric from her skin. “You want my hands somewhere, you better put them there. Because I’m going for your belt again if you don’t stop me.”
“Impatient,” he rumbled, pushing her wrists back to pin them at the small of her back. “Leave them there.”
Eden laughed and bit his chin. “And you thought I was joking about the handcuffs. Better invest in a spare pair, because I think I like misbehaving.”
“You could misbehave,” he agreed. “Go for my belt. Go wild, Eden. But then you’ll never know what I plan to do next.”
Oh yeah, he knew how to tame her. Not brute strength, but clever words. Whispers that stirred curiosity to life, and even the wolf could be patient for a little while. Her next nip was playful, teeth scraping along his jaw before she licked him, nuzzled into his chin in a brief moment of quiet submission.
“That’s right.” He combed his fingers through her hair, tugging just enough to tingle anticipation up her spine. “Remember…” He opened her pants and pushed them down, easing them under and off her body. “Hands behind your back.”
She twisted her fingers together as a desperate reminder, all too aware of how the posture thrust her breasts out. There was something dirty about being naked while he wasn’t, something that should feel vulnerable but was instead empowering. She felt it in the way his breath hitched when she arched her back, and the jump in his pulse when she eased her knees apart.
Desire. Lust. And a look in his dark eyes that eclipsed both. Eden wet her lips and tilted her head back, leaving her throat as exposed as the rest of her body. “Show me what comes next.”
Jay held her gaze as he leaned down and licked the spot between her breasts. Good, but not enough. She whimpered and twisted, keeping her hands tucked at the small of her back but urging him toward her nipple. “Please?”
He