My heart stopped.I set down the glass, held my breath, listened to the soft pad of bare feet descending from the second floor, coming closer, toward my study.
She appeared in the doorway.
She was different tonight, not the vulnerable woman who had sought comfort after Stephanie’s murder.This was the fierce Lena I remembered from our first hate-sex, all fire and demand and hunger burning in her eyes.
She wore a silk robe, loosely belted.Nothing else, if I had to guess.Her hair was damp from the shower, her feet bare, her expression stripped of pretense.The scent of her desire hit me before she spoke, cutting through the smoke and leather and whiskey.My cock stirred against my thigh.
“I need—” She stopped.Swallowed.Started again, her voice rougher.“I need more.”
My wolf howled triumph.
I rose from my chair slowly, letting her see every inch of the predator she had beckoned.Her breath caught as I crossed the room, as I stopped close enough to feel the heat radiating from her skin.
“More what?”
Her chin lifted.Defiant even in her wanting.“Make me feel alive.Make me forget.”
I understood what she was asking for.Not the slow, tender intimacy of last night.She needed intensity tonight.Needed the pain and pleasure intertwined until there was no room left for grief or fear or anything except sensation.
And underneath the need, I could see it, she was using me.Using my body to punish herself, to punish me, to burn away the rage she still carried.She thought this was revenge, fucking the man she hated until she felt nothing at all.
Let her.Let her use my body.Let her take her revenge between the sheets.As long as she stayed.As long as she kept coming back.I would give her whatever she needed, and count myself lucky for every moment she chose to spend it on me.
I could give her that.
“Do you remember your safeword?”
Her eyes widened with surprise, then understanding.“Yes.”
“Say it.”
“Paradise.”
“Paradise,” I repeated.“Say it, and everything stops.No questions, no hesitation.Understand?”
She nodded.
“I need to hear you say it.”
“I understand.”
“Come with me.”
I led her through the hallway to my bedroom.The same bed where she had cried in my arms.The same sheets where she had slept curled against my chest.But tonight would be different.
Tonight, she wanted to burn.
I closed the door behind us and turned to face her.She stood in the center of the room, chin up, shoulders back, waiting.The silk robe gaped at her throat, revealing the shadow of her collarbone, the rapid flutter of her pulse.The room smelled of her desire already, that heady sweetness cutting through the leather and woodsmoke and whiskey I had carried from the study.
My wolf stirred, scenting the air.She wants us.She came to us.She chose this.
“Take it off.”
She reached for the belt.Let the silk slide from her shoulders, pool at her feet.Stood before me naked and unashamed, and my wolf snarled approval at the sight of her.
I pulled my tie loose from my collar.Walked toward her slowly, letting her see the hunger I wasn’t bothering to hide.
“Hands.”
