NocC 003 - The Ancients 02 - Bonnie Vanak - Mated to the Wolf - Harlequin 2011-11 by Nocturne Read Free Book Online

nails into his arms, screaming his name as something dark and sinful burst from her.
    Grayson tensed and then his big body bucked. With a hoarse shout of her name, he shook, his warm seed jetting inside her. His penis grew harder and thicker.
    Collapsing atop her, he pillowed his head on her shoulder. Hot breaths feathered against the damp coolness of her neck. After a while, he lifted his head with a smile of pure masculine satisfaction. The conqueror who’d captured his prize.
    When he’d parted their bodies, she expected distance and emotional space. But instead, he kissed her temple, tasting the salt of her body. He licked the dampness from her skin, his tongue wonderfully warm and soothing. His tongue lapped away the moisture.
    Samantha curled into his arms when he finished, the cold air stealing over her body. She lay in his arms, sleepy and sated. Sore in some places, tender in others, her body felt well-loved. There wasn’t an inch Grayson had ignored. He rested his chin atop her head.
    Love. Wrong word. Sex wasn’t love and she had no heart left. The demon had filled it with blackness, chinked up the shattered remnants with the quest to kill. Love died the day her mother gasped her last breath.
    The thought sent a chill chasing back into her body. She shivered. Grayson tugged the covers over them, and stroked her hair as her eyes closed.
    As she fell into a dreamless sleep, she felt slightly empty inside, as if something had been yanked from her very soul.
    Must be my imagination , she thought.

Chapter Six
     

    Cold air brushed over Samantha’s bare skin as she stirred, trying to gauge her surroundings. Dying coals lay in a stone hearth. She felt wonderfully alive and rested and free for the first time in weeks. Lighter, as if a heavy burden had lifted. The soft morning light peeped through a crack in the curtains.
    Wriggling her toes, she glanced down and realized she was naked. Strange. She’d always slept with her clothes on, just in case she had to make a quick exit.
    A warm, hairy thigh tangled with hers. Panic shot through her. Raising herself up on an elbow, she stared down.
    And remembered.
    A muscled backside and the tautness of firm buttocks faced her. Grayson lay amid the covers, fast asleep. Light spilled onto the curve of his unmarked cheek, glinted in the tousled locks of his black hair. He radiated heat like a furnace, keeping her feeling warm and safe.
    Her body felt wonderfully sore and alive. A soft smile creased her face. It had been paradise. Something amazing had happened between them. A bond forged, like that between a wolf and his mate. They’d made love…no, had sex.
    Sex. Purely physical. No mate. No bond. Couldn’t be.
    Samantha jammed a hand through her tousled hair. Well, Grayson warned that they had to be lovers for the Society to drop the hunt against her. It was done. Now she must seize the advantage, get out while he was asleep. No wind raged against the windows. The storm had stopped.
    Samantha gently tugged her leg, but Grayson had hooked his muscled limb around it. She lay down, wriggling free, but then he rolled over, snagging an arm around her waist, anchoring her to the mattress. Frustrated, she yanked away.
    His eyes flew open. No heat flared there, not even the amusement she’d come to expect. Instead they were watchful and hard as gray steel.
    “Going somewhere? And here I thought you’d stay a while, seeing we have a connection now.”
    “There’s no connection. It was just sex, nothing else.”
    The lie sounded false even to her. He’d been her first, and she could never forget him, or this night.
    A warm male palm skimmed down the arch of her back, coaxing a shudder of pleasure. He cupped her hip, then slid over the curve of her ass. He squeezed lightly, pressed a finger between her legs. Samantha couldn’t help her groan of pleasure. Even now, in the cold dawn light, he made fire come into her body.
    “Just sex?” He leaned over, his expression intent.