"I've never gone to bed with a woman before."
She arched a brow at that.
"To sleep," he clarified. "I've never spent the night with one."
"Never?"
He shook his head.
Boy, they were a lot more alike than she would ever have imagined. "Well, you're never too old for new experiences. Well, maybe you are, but in most cases that's a true statement."
His scowl deepened to that familiar level. "Is everything a joke to you?"
"No," she said honestly as she led him toward the bed. "But humor is how I get through the horrors of my life. I mean, come on. It's laugh or cry and crying just takes too much energy that I need to make it through the day, you know?"
She let go of him to braid her hair.
Wulf took her hands in his and stopped her from plaiting it. "I don't like for you to do that."
She swallowed at the hungry look in his midnight eyes. She had an odd sense of deja vu here in his room with that look on his face. Even though she shouldn't, she liked to see the fire in his dark gaze. Liked the sensation of his hands on hers.
Or better yet, the sensation of his hands on her body...
Wulf knew he had no business being with her, no business sharing a bed or anything else, and yet he couldn't keep himself from it.
He wanted to touch her skin for real this time. Wanted to have her legs wrapped around him as he let the heat of her body soothe his weary heart.
Don't.
The command was so strong that he almost heeded it, but Wulf Tryggvason had never been the kind of man to listen to orders.
Not even his own.
He tilted her head up so that he could see the passionate heat in her green eyes. It scorched him. Her lips were parted, welcoming.
He skimmed his fingers down the line of her jaw until he buried them in her strawberry-blond hair. Then he took possession of her mouth. She tasted of warmth.
She pulled him close, her arms tight and demanding as she ran her hands over his back. His body stirred, his cock hardened immediately.
Groaning, he picked her up in his arms. To his surprise, she lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist.
He laughed at her response even as the heat of her body stung him. Her core was pressed against his groin, making him well aware of how close that part of her was to him.
Her eyes dark with passion, she tugged his shirt off over his head.
"Hungry, villkat?" he mumbled against her lips.
"Yes," she breathed to his delight.
Wulf laid her on his bed. She reached down between their bodies and unzipped his pants. He growled deep in his throat the instant her eager hand reached down and touched him. The sensation of her fingers stroking his shaft shook every part of him. She even remembered how he liked to be touched. Stroked.
He almost felt like weeping from the miracle of that. Maybe he should have taken an Apollite or Were lover centuries ago.
No, he thought as he buried his lips against the column of her throat and inhaled her rose scent. They wouldn't have been Cassandra, and without being her, they, too, would be lacking what he needed.
There was something about this woman that filled him. That made him burn in a way no other ever had.
Only for her would he breach the code that forbade him to take an Apollite to his bed.