“Don’t you dare! Sara will kill me if you go to prison.”

He let her pull him back. His arm brushed her breasts and the gasp was out of her mouth before she could even think about stopping it. His eyes locked with hers. She still had her hands on his shoulders. On a whim, she slid them up his neck, cupping his chin. He was so gorgeous. She felt the strength of him under her hands. The power of the wolf just inside his skin.

He was a piece of ass and he was interested in her.

Maybe she’d been looking at this the wrong way. Maybe she should go to what she knew. Science. How did attraction work? Why could one man force her to knock him on his ass, while another made her want to drop to her knees? Well, there was only one way to find out.

She took a deep breath and pulled him toward her.

Conall stared at her mouth and it didn’t seem like he was breathing at all. “Miki…”

“Shhh. I’m testing a theory.” And then her mouth was on his. And, yeah, this was definitely different from when Troy kissed her. She’d felt nothing but panic and the slightest trace of revulsion with Troy. But when her tongue connected with Conall’s all she wanted was for him to crawl inside her. She leaned back against the stoop, Conall right there with her. Over her. His hands sliding around her back. His arms wrapping around her. She realized he was keeping her back off the hard stone stoop. And every time his tongue stroked hers, she felt it all the way to her clit. She wanted this man. In fact, she had to have him. Preferably now.

She pulled her mouth away from his. She needed to say something sexy and romantic with a mere hint of her vast intelligence. Something that would entice him into bed.

But what came out was, “I wanna fuck.”

Conall groaned and buried his face in her neck. “You’re killing me, Mik,” he finally managed. “Don’t do this if you’re just messing with my head ‘cause you’re still pissed or…”

She rubbed her cheek against his silky hair and decided to just go for it. So what if he probably wouldn’t want her after all this was over? At least she could say she had a good time. And she knew Conall would be a good time. A really good time. She was tired of being respectable and normal. It was boring, and she did need to get laid.

So what would Miki the Bartender do here? Easy. She’d be honest. “Do you know what one of the wolves protecting my house back in Texas told me?” she whispered in his ear and she felt his entire body vibrate against hers. “He told me I moaned your name in my sleep. And I realized my hand smelled like I’d been masturbating all night long. No one’s ever done that to me before you. No one but you.”

Conall slowly untangled himself from her. He didn’t look at her. Instead, he pulled away and sat on one of the lower stoops. He dragged his big hands through his hair and she watched him stretch out his bigshoulders. Miki sat up and reached her hand out to touch him.

“Don’t. Touch. Me.”

Miki frowned, a little bit hurt. “Why?”

“Because I’m doing my best to control myself. And if you touch me I’ll fuck you right on this stoop, and I don’t want to do that to you in front of your friends. So, don’t touch me right now.”

“I see.” She scratched her neck. “But you know, we can go back to the hotel and then you can fuck me anywhere or any way you want.”

Yeah. That was clear. The next move was his.

Miki stood up and walked back into the house. She got as far as the coffee pot before she felt herself lifted off her feet and thrown over Conall’s shoulder. The entire room cheered as they left. She waved at Amy who drunkenly gave her a thumbs-up.

Conall arrived at the SUV in what seemed like seconds, then he opened the door, dumped her in, and stopped only long enough to say, “Not another word from you. Not one.”

She watched as he went around the SUV to get in. She was almost positive he had no idea his fangs were out.

Chapter Thirteen

Surprisingly, he wasn’t pulled over. He used to ride sportsbikes that could hit two hundred miles per hour and he was pretty sure he’d never gone as fast on one of them as he did in the SUV. But Miki finally pushed him over the edge. He prayed she didn’t back down now. He wasn’t sure he could take it. He’d almost dragged her into Craig’s bathroom and took her there, but he forced himself to get under some kind of control. Although the wolf was having a full-on fistfight with the man in him.

Tires squealed as he turned into the hotel parking lot and took the first spot he saw. He got out, went around to the passenger side, and dragged Miki out. She didn’t say a word as he tossed her over his shoulder and went into the hotel. The hotel staff watched him quietly. He knew they wanted to say something to him about carrying a woman into their four-star hotel as if he were a caveman. But he knew none of them had the guts to say a word. He could only imagine the expression on his face.

But Miki was torturing him. Whether she meant to or not, she was torturing him. And until he was buried deep inside of her there would be no rest for him. No solace. No peace.

He didn’t even wait for the elevator. He took the stairs up ten flights and wasn’t even out of breath by the time he got to his door. He swiped his keycard, went in and tossed Miki on the bed.

She seemed unfazed by it all as she watched him with those inquisitive brown eyes. He didn’t want to make the same mistake he’d almost made that morning. So he went to his bag, dug through the few clothes he had packed, and grabbed the brown paper bag of condoms Sara had shoved in it as he walked out the den door. At the time he thought she was simply being hopeful.