TOL2 Kiss of the Werewolf Read online

  Another heartbeat passed and he lowered his mouth onto hers. Her lips were soft, petal-like, and a tiny whimper of pleasure vibrated in her throat. Her response encouraged him and he slanted his face, sinking his lips more firmly onto hers. He rested there, the tip of his tongue venturing out to taste her.

  She whimpered again. The sound rippled through him, urging him on. He pulled back slightly and brushed his lower lip against hers.

  Meg’s chest rose and fell heavily. Her body was rapidly melting open under Jie’s kisses and from the contact of his solid warmth around her. At first, his explosion of passion had startled her. He’d seemed so staid, so reserved. But as he’d moved his lips up her arm, tasting her so sensuously and so heatedly, her startlement dissolved rapidly into surrender.

  She parted her lips, moaning softly in her throat as his tongue slipped inside, sliding urgently against hers. Never before had she so deeply lost herself in a kiss.

  He deepened the kiss, his tongue swirling with hot demand against hers. A groan vibrated in his throat, conveying the pent up desire she felt him unleashing.

  His body covered hers, pressing her breasts down, pushing her back into the pillows.

  Suddenly he pulled away from their kiss. Reaching one hand under the covers, he pulled something out. She realized with horror what it was. Fluffy. She’d forgotten about her bear, which spent every night getting further buried in the bedclothes as she slept. The heat of embarrassment tingled in her cheeks. He’d certainly get turned off now. “That’s Fluffy.” She heard the sheepishness in her voice. “I’ve had him since I was small.”

  Jie held Fluffy in front of him. “Hello, Fluffy. I’m pleased to meet you.”

  To her relief, there was no teasing in Jie’s voice. He sounded as polite as he had when speaking to her or the customers in her shop. However, the fact that she was a grown woman with a stuffed animal in her bed was no less mortifying under these circumstances, especially considering that Ben used to tease her mercilessly about Fluffy. “I’m so embarrassed,” she said, wishing the bed would swallow her up.

  “Don’t be, Megan. If you’ve kept him this long, he must be very important to you.”

  “My parents gave him to me shortly before they died.”

  Jie nodded. “I understand.” He leaned over and set Fluffy gently down on the night table. “You stay here, Fluffy, where we won’t crush you.”

  Meg sighed her relief, her tension easing. “Thank you for not laughing at me.”

  Jie reached up and smoothed back her hair. “That is not something to laugh about, considering what happened to you. Fluffy obviously is an important connection to your parents.” He leaned into her and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “I have several of my parents’ books,” he went on. “I feel that they are a tangible connection. I would be devastated if anything happened to those books.”

  His tenderness nearly overwhelmed her, and once again the salty sting of hot tears crowded her eyes. “Maybe I was right after all,” she said softly. “Maybe you really are an angel.”

  He caressed her hair again and nuzzled her cheek with his lips. The contact sent sparks of heat straight into her already pulsing sex.

  “No,” he murmured against her skin, “I’m a flesh and blood man who wants you very much.” He shifted against her, his erection pressing into her thigh, as if to emphasize his words. He kissed her again, feathering the tip of his tongue along the soft underside of her jaw.

  Meg felt her body melting open all over again under the moist heat of Jie’s mouth. Suddenly, however, he tensed.

  Her stomach lurched and she was certain she’d done something wrong. “Jie, what is it?”

  “I just remembered I don’t have ... anything with me.”

  For a moment, she was puzzled and then she understood. He was worried about getting her pregnant or about disease. “It’s all right,” she said. “I’m on the Pill. I started having bad problems after Grandfather died. From the stress, I suppose. I went to the doctor and she prescribed them for me. It’s not as though I’ve needed them for this, however. It’s been a very long time ...” She trailed off when she felt him grow even more still. As if she could read his thoughts, she felt his jealousy heat the air around them. The need to explain overwhelmed her. “He was my only boyfriend ever ... well ... until ... you.”

  His body relaxed against hers, and she sensed his relief. “You don’t have to explain, Megan.” His voice sounded guilty, but his fingers still curled tenderly in her hair. “I have no right to ask.”

  “I want you to know, if it helps. We started dating shortly before I graduated college. We were together for a couple of years after that. But when he got offered a job in San Francisco, I couldn’t bring myself to go with him. I couldn’t leave Lao ye. I wished he’d waited for another job or had wanted to stay. But he really wanted to go.” She sighed. “Perhaps if I’d loved him enough, I’d have gone with him.” It felt strange to be telling him all this, especially in such heated moments, but it also felt right.

  Jie was silent and she wondered what he was thinking. Several moments passed with him saying nothing and simply caressing her hair. “Perhaps if he’d loved you enough, he would have stayed,” he said finally.

  The simple statement shot through her. She’d never thought of it that way, and yet it made perfect sense. Another frisson of heat coursed through her and she snuggled closer Jie, closing her arms around him. The strange thing was, she’d barely known Jie an entire day and night, and yet she knew deep in her bones that if he asked her to go somewhere else with him, anywhere in the world, she’d go. She also sensed he would have stayed with her to help her with Grandfather, that Jie would never have put her in the position that Ben did.

  “You shouldn’t have had to make such a choice, Megan.”

  Exactly what she’d thought. In that moment, she fell helplessly, hopelessly in love with him. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I was right not to go with Ben to San Francisco,” she went on. “Only six months after he left, he’d called to tell me he’d just gotten engaged to be married.”

  “Ah, I see.”

  Meg heard pain in his voice and hoped it wasn’t more jealousy.

  “I feel for you, ai ren,” he went on. “I have been through pain like that myself.”

  Jie’s use of an endearment with her sent pleasant warmth rippling through her body. The warmth, however, was followed by a sharp stab of jealousy. If he understood what she’d gone through, he’d obviously had a serious relationship himself. “I don’t want to pry,” she said, knowing full well she wouldn’t get relief from the green-eyed monster until she did know.

  Jie brushed the pad of his thumb across her cheek. “I want you to know everything about me, Megan.” He continued to stroke her cheek, his touch moving with sensual warmth down the side of her neck. “Not long after my parents died, I started my medical training in Beijing. Su Lin was a fellow student. I was lonely and craved companionship. We married without knowing each other very well. As time passed, however, and Su Lin learned of my sympathy for the Tibetan cause, she grew to hate me. She was completely in agreement with the destruction of the Tibetan peoples’ world and customs. I find it reprehensible.

  “Our marriage lasted seven years. Five years ago, she demanded a divorce. I agreed, of course, so that she would be free to find someone whose political leanings matched hers. I was very fortunate that she cared enough about me at least not to report me. I could have ended up in a gulag as a traitor.” He sighed, remaining silent for several moments. “Just as you said earlier, perhaps if I had loved her enough, I would have been able to put my personal feelings aside.”

  The thought of anyone hating Jie because he had sympathy for those who were suffering angered her. The thought of this gentle, kind man being in a prison camp horrified her beyond words. “You shouldn’t have to do that, ever, Jie,” she murmured, working to keep the anger from her tone. “If you love someone, you accept them, even if you don’t like everything
about them.”

  Jie bowed his head, his fingertips resting delicately on her cheek. “You’re very kind, Megan.”

  Megan heard an undertone of deep distress in his voice and her heart melted. How he had suffered himself. “It’s just true.”

  “I suppose there is another way to look at our losses,” he said after another moment.

  “How’s that?”

  His fingers flattened on her skin until he was cupping her cheek. “The way to see it is that we weren’t meant to be with those others ... because you are my destiny and I’m yours.”

  Chapter Eight

  His words caressed her with an almost physical force, touching her so deeply inside, tears pooled in her eyes and slipped out, unhindered. “Jie, do you really believe that’s possible?” She and Danny had often talked about such a possibility for each of them. When Danny met David Pearce, she’d seen by the love and passion that had ignited between them that it was possible. Danny and David adored each other, and every day they had together was special for them. The more time she’d spent with them, the more she’d craved such a relationship for herself. She just hadn’t been so certain it could happen to her.

  Jie leaned his face closer, his breath warm on her skin. He pressed a kiss to her lips, the touch delicately soft and warm, yet burning with need. The kiss lasted only a moment. He pulled away, remaining so close to her, she still felt his breath pulse warmly across her lips. “I don’t only believe it, Megan. I know it to be true. The universe, or whatever force brings people together, knows our hearts before we do.”

  Her hands still rested on his back. His bare skin was warm against her palms, making her aware of the hard chiseled muscles that rose and fell with each ragged breath. “I can’t imagine a better destiny,” she whispered, hearing the catch in his breath at her words.

  His hand slid delicately down the side of her throat and came to rest palm down on her upper chest, his fingertips resting lightly on the ridge of her collarbone. “I hope you will always feel that way,” he said.

  His touch on her chest, so close to her breast, set her heart crashing wildly. Her body trembled both with complete nervousness at being on the verge of opening so intimately to a new man and with the raging desire he roused in her. Just the clean masculine scent of his skin and hair made her shiver pleasantly and feel as if she were the luckiest female on the face of the earth.

  Her breathing deepened yet more, and the moon’s light spilling through the window highlighted his hand on her chest, rising and falling with her ragged breathing.

  “Megan,” he whispered, “I don’t want to push you at all. I will do only what you want.”

  His tender statement fueled her arousal and she nearly moaned. She wondered if it were truly possible that she was as safe with Jie as he made her feel. She reached up, sliding her fingers into his hair, loving the sleekness of it against her fingertips. “I want everything.” Her voice was a trembling whisper, and she slid her hand to the strong, warm column of his neck, silently urging him with subtle pressure to kiss her again.

  Her other hand slid down to the small of his back, her fingertips tracing the valley of his spine between the two ridges of muscle on either side. She resisted the urge to slide her hand under the waistband of his pajama pants.

  Without another word, Jie lowered his face, slanting his lips over hers. The kiss was tender, as before, yet the same passion that had been there when he’d trailed kisses up her arm seethed under the surface. He slipped his tongue between her lips, tasting her with gentle yet barely concealed fervor.

  The moist warmth of his tongue sliding languorously against hers sent trails of heat spiraling down her body, ending in the moist juncture between her thighs. His hand slid downward, coming to rest on her breast, over the thin cotton of her tank. With great tenderness, he squeezed the swell of flesh, then sought her nipple, which he tugged between his thumb and forefinger.

  Jie lifted his lips from hers. “Do you like that?” he whispered in a ragged voice.

  She nodded her head against the pillow, arching her torso. Her tank slid up her ribcage, stopping at the underside of her breasts. Wordlessly, she took hold of the hem and lifted it up, exposing her breasts. She pulled it the rest of the way up, cast it aside, and looked at Jie from under heavy lids. She surprised herself at her own boldness, but he’d set something loose inside her and she was helpless to stop.

  Jie was staring down at her, his simmering brown eyes widening. “Megan,” he breathed, his chest rising and falling raggedly, “you’re so beautiful.”

  In spite of the wanton way she’d pulled off her shirt, she felt her cheeks redden. The awe in his voice was unlike any tone she’d ever heard, and she felt herself falling under its spell. “Thank you.”

  Jie lowered himself down again and kissed her. He slid his tongue against hers and then pulled away, continuing his kisses down her neck and chest. Each hot touch of his lips sent her further into the erotic abandonment into which she’d fallen. She laced her fingers into his hair, following the movement of his head.

  With his hands, he gently pushed her breasts together. He lowered his mouth to one nipple and suckled on it. After the tip had hardened, he dragged his tongue across to her other nipple and laved it to tingling peak, repeating the same thing several times until her sex tingled so furiously, she though she would come just from the passion he was unleashing on her breasts.

  Jie looked up at her face, His heavy breathing filled the air around them. He released her breasts and took hold of the waistband of her pajama pants, sliding them down and off of her in one quick motion.

  Megan felt her cheeks heating again in spite of the feverish desire pulsing through her body. Her eyes never left him, and she watched him take hold of her knees and spread her legs open. Her breath caught when he smoothed his hand over her belly.

  “I’m sorry you’ve had pain here,” he whispered. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you, if you wish.”

  His touch was warm and sent heat radiating into her womb. She felt as if his touch alone could take the pain away. She nodded. “Yes, I do wish.”

  He continued to caress her stomach, his breathing deepening more with each passing moment. “Megan, you’ve already opened your jade gate to me, haven’t you?” He raked his fingertips through the curls on her mound and then whispered his touch down the length of her slit.

  The intimate contact made her shiver pleasantly. She was familiar with the term he used. Yee had used the words of the Tao to teach her about the secret world of men and women when she’d been old enough to learn. She nodded, her lips slightly parted. “Yes, Jie.”

  He slipped two fingertips between the fleshy lips and caressed her moist, swollen clit. His touch burned like icy fire, nearly sending her over the edge. Her eyes fluttered closed and she tilted her head back, arching her pelvis upward.

  Suddenly she felt Jie’s breath pulse hotly on her inner sex. That same toe-curling sensation the touch of his hand gave her swept through her entire body just as he swiped his tongue across the same spot he’d been caressing. Hungry for more, she arched her pelvis upward, giving herself completely to his loving mouth.

  “Mmm,” he murmured deep in his throat. He settled his body onto the mattress, his face pressed to her open sex, accepting her offering.

  Her hands fisted the bedclothes, anchoring her. She felt if she didn’t hold on, she’d spin out, off into space, catapulted from her body by this overwhelming pleasure.

  Jie closed his mouth over her most intimate core, suckling and licking with greedy strokes of his tongue. He slipped a finger inside her, pulsing it in and out as he ate her.

  Her breath came in uneven gasps, deeper and deeper the closer she came to release. The heat was building rapidly and then exploded, practically lifting her body off the bed.

  He didn’t stop. As the waves of release plowed through her sex, he stroked her and licked her in subtle ways that prolonged the sensations.

  Her vision blurred
and she lost all sense of thought until Jie had finally wrung every last drop of her orgasm from her body. She went limp under his mouth and hands.

  He pressed a kiss to her open sex and then looked up at her.

  She stared back at him, unable to formulate speech. Her breasts rose and fell heavily, and she could only lie there motionless except for her heavy breathing, feeling like a satiated cat. Finally after several moments, she felt the power to speak seep back into her. “What can I do for you, Jie?” she breathed.

  He smoothed the palm of his hand up her thigh, continuing the length of her body and over her breasts, his breathing ragged. “Tell me that I can have you now.”

  His fevered request stirred her longing again. “Of course.” She watched him slip off his pajama pants, resisting the urge to turn on the light so she could see his naked body better.

  He dropped his clothing to the side and leaned over her. He settled his muscular body between her legs and lowered himself gently onto her.

  The head of his erection pressed into her slit. She reached down and guided him inside her. Her sex was completely open and moist from when he’d eaten her, and he sheathed his erection deep inside her easily.

  It had been so long since she’d felt a man inside her, the first contact made her gasp.

  He stopped and looked down at her. “I’m not hurting you, am I?”

  She shook her head. “Not at all.”

  His sigh of relief was audible. He leaned down and kissed her, his upper body sinking down onto hers, his arms encircling her and holding her completely.

  She sighed, once again feeling completely safe and held. Her body opened up again, as if it were melting underneath him, and she moved her hips in a rhythm against his, wanting so much to return all the beautiful pleasure he’d given her.