He blinked. "Er . . ." And then told the blunt truth. "I'm not good at giving up control in bed."
A chuckle, a glimmer of amusement in those golden eyes. They'd turned leopard on him, he realized, but she was a leopard well pleased, willing to let him play. "Where are you good at giving up control?" A flick of her tongue over the pulse in his throat. "Obviously not in the forest. Hmm, how about on the kitchen table - "
As if he needed any more erotic images to torment him at night. "Mercy."
" - in the shower - "
Mercy's skin, all wet and slippery. Her body pinned to the wall by his. His hand clenched in her hair and he took her mouth with raw possession. When they parted, her lids were at half-mast, that teasing smile still curving her lips. "Definitely the shower, then."
Shuddering, he ran his hands over her back to squeeze her buttocks. "You trying to make me crazy?"
"Everyone needs a hobby."
His fingers touched her core. Hot. Slick. So ready. She moved against him, her words breathless when she said, "Now, Riley."
Since he was about to burst out of his skin from the molten buildup of pleasure, he took her down to the grass without argument. Except this time, he made sure he was on the bottom. She braced herself over him, all red hair and sexy, sexy mouth. That mouth curved again as he closed his hands over her hips. "I need a Stetson."
He waited.
"So I can ride you like a cowgirl."
The visual almost made him come. "I'll buy you one for Christmas." He didn't know where he found the willpower to say that, because she'd raised herself up on her knees and was brushing the damp heat of her core over and across him. "Mercy." He pulled her down to sheathe him. She could've resisted. She didn't.
Instead, she moved above him in a sinuous curve of fire and gold, her beauty bathed in sunshine. The fire fractured minutes later. And Riley's wolf could do nothing but watch her as pleasure gripped him tight, then broke him wide open.
Chapter 26
In an ordinary - if coolly upmarket - section of the city, not far from the Palace of Fine Arts, a brown-eyed, brown-haired man walked into a corner store and paid the extravagant markup on a number of cleaning supplies. "Emergency," he told the old lady who whispered to him that he could get a better deal at the supermarket a few blocks away. "New apartment has slime mold." He made a face. "My girlfriend's threatening to go back to her parents if I don't clean it up right now."
The old lady smiled and patted his arm, wishing him the best of luck with his girl. He grinned and tipped his baseball cap at her. There was nothing at all remarkable about him. The corner store manager forgot him as soon as he walked out, and had he, for some reason, needed to check the security footage, he'd have found that the stranger had somehow managed to either have his back to the cameras or his head bent, shadowed by the bill of his cap.
The same scene, or a variation of it, was repeated throughout the city. The customers all bought different things. Innocuous things. So long as you didn't put them together.
Chapter 27
Mercy nuzzled her face into Riley's neck and breathed deep. He smelled of earth and forest, heat and man. Beneath her, his body was warm, muscled, the silky-rough hair on his chest teasing the sensitive skin of her breasts.
He lay there and let her kiss his neck, the line of his shoulder, the dip below his throat, his hand lying loosely on her lower back. She wasn't fooled. It was a possessive touch. But she figured she'd let him get away with it this once - he'd earned it. And he'd earned more than a little petting.
When she raised her head and nipped at his jaw, he lifted his lashes a fraction, but didn't say anything, his hand stroking over her bottom.
"So," she said with a slow smile.
He raised an eyebrow, his gaze now holding a distinctly wary look.
"How do I compare with wolf females?"
"You're hoping I'll tie my tongue into knots trying to answer that, aren't you?"
"Damn." She propped her chin on folded hands. "Busted."
He pinched her butt.
"Hey!"
"You deserved that."
Maybe she did. But - "You didn't answer my question."