Shift Work (Carus #4) by J.C. McKenzie Read Free Book Online Page A

wouldn’t have minded playing the hero in your case.”
    “Kept my head? Don’t you mean I kept my attitude?”
    “With you, it’s the same thing.” He leaned down and pressed his lips against mine. Warm and pliable. His tongue slipped into my mouth and stroked. The mountain lion inside purred, compliant and content, but not calm. She wanted more. I wanted more.
    “Do you think…?” I started.
    “Do I think what?” Tristan kissed my neck, scraping his teeth gently along my nerve endings and rolling his tongue in sinful circles to taste my skin. His hands slid up my back again, under my shirt, sending a wave of delicious tingles along my spine.
    “We could… Oh, I don’t know.” My head dipped as Tristan’s mouth moved lower.
    “Yes, you do.” He nipped my shoulder. “Just say it, Andy.”
    “Go further, without…” I paused again. Heat pooled between my legs. Tristan’s hands moved in slow circles on my back. His mouth created a dull ache in my core, which hummed in tune with his tongue. I pushed him away. “I can’t concentrate when you’re doing that thing with your tongue.”
    “That’s the point, Andy,” he said. “You think entirely too much sometimes. Just feel.”
    “Can we… just feel …without bonding?”
    Tristan’s lips twitched. “Of course.”
    “How far?”
    “How far what?” His hands rested on his hips, standing with his legs shoulder width apart.
    “Tristan. You’re being difficult, you know exactly what I’m trying to ask.” Sex for power or manipulation was one thing. I’d shamelessly used my body as an assassin, but back then, I’d been a shell of who I was today, and I certainly wasn’t proud of my past. Sex with a potential mate was an entirely different situation—one filled with vulnerability, a need for trust…and boundaries.
    “Maybe I want to hear you say the words.” He reached forward and traced a light path down my cheek with his finger.
    “How far can we go?”
    Tristan paused to study me, his angelic expression inviting. “As far as you want.”
    I hesitated. Could it be possible? Had I waited this long for no reason besides my own fear? My heart stopped. “All the way?”
    “Mmhmm. All the way.” He gathered me in his arms again and leaned down to kiss me.
    “But, I thought…”
    Tristan kept his hands on me, but drew his mouth away. “I’m glad Wick practiced restraint, for more than the obvious reason, but I’m not him. I have a couple hundred years of control on him. It’s you I’m worried about. What’s to stop you from gnawing on my neck halfway through? I can’t promise to behave if you do that. No Were’s control is that good.”
    Tristan probably had no qualms with me biting him. I snorted. “Puh-lease. I chain down and contain a beast . You and your hundreds of years as a control freak have nothing on me.”
    “Then there’s nothing to worry about.” The corners of his mouth tipped up.
    “Then…why…” I bit my lip and looked away. Why had he held back? Why hadn’t he pushed for more? He was an alpha, dammit. He was used to getting what he wanted, taking what he wanted.
    Then again, if he had pushed, I probably wouldn’t want him the way I did.
    Tristan ran his finger along my jaw, gently pushing my chin back to centre so I faced him. His sapphire gaze bore into mine; intense, shining, overwhelming. “I wasn’t waiting until you were ready to bond, Andy. I waited for you to be ready to go farther, period. You have a past. A dark one. I respect that. We can stop whenever you want to.”
    “But…” Alphas weren’t exactly the epitome of self-restraint or patience, but Tristan, and Wick for that matter, had greatly changed my perception of what it meant to be truly dominant. It didn’t always result in domineering or controlling behaviour, or pushing someone they cared for well passed their point of comfort.
    “I might be hundreds of years old, and certainly not without experience, but even I know our mating