shoulder hard, he flinched. “Hey, what was that for?” “You don’t get to blame yourself for other people’s actions.” Her wolf fully agreed. “I won’t allow it.” The fierceness in her tone surprised him so much, he found himself smiling. “Is that right?” “Yes." “I am not stupid.” She patted his chest patronizingly. “No, of course not. You just have bad luck in the thinking department.” Scowling, he turned on the ignition and began heading back to her house. Unfortunately, he got there to find his mother, Kass, and Sansa was waiting outside the motor home. Surprised by their anxious expressions, he exchanged a confused look with Tasha. No sooner had they got out of the car than the three females were in front of them. “My God, I saw what happened to the salon.” Kate studied Tasha, rubbing her arm. “Are you okay, honey?” “You saw what happened?” Onyx
Though Onyx’s expression was reprimanding, he kept his voice low and sensual. “Don’t make me bite you again.” Her pupils dilated, and she took an unsteady breath. “Oh, you liked it, did you?” Her snort said, Don’t flatter yourself. He placed his mouth to her ear. “I can smell your arousal, Shay.” The tips of her ears were suddenly as scarlet as her cheeks. “What I really want is to taste it again. What I want more than that is to be inside you. You have no idea how badly I need it.” “Then what are you waiting for?” He smiled against her lips. “For you to beg.” Because he needed an element of surrender on her part—he knew he wouldn’t get her total emotional surrender yet, so if he had to settle for this, it was enough for now. Her mouth fell open. “That’s so not going to happen.” “We’ll see.” He cocked his head, running his finger along her collarbone. “You didn’t give away the mov
Tasha snarled at the woman sitting a few seats away who was ogling Onyx…just like Tasha had snarled at the waitress in the restaurant, and at the girl who served them popcorn, and at the group of young women who had been behind her and Onyx in the line. Annoyingly, the guy was ogled wherever they went. Although it was perfectly understandable, Tasha—much like her wolf—did not like it. Most of the time, he didn’t seem to notice the ogling, though that was probably because his focus was on Tasha. When he did notice, he never reacted other than to come closer to Shaya or to touch her, almost as if he sensed that it bugged her and that the reassurance eased her irritation. Maybe he did sense it. After all, she wasn’t exactly discreet with her snarls. The ogling had been a little easier to deal with when she’d rejected the idea of giving him a chance and had kept an emotional distance between them; it had dimmed the po
Tasha was a calm, practical female who was not reduced to being tongue-tied and shaky at just a guy’s presence. But as she and Onyx stood in the hallway like two cowboys about to have a showdown, it was exactly what happened. His intensity and power wrapped around her like a cloak—not just his power as an alpha, but his masculine power. It seized and overwhelmed both her body and her mind, and she felt totally captivated by it and by him. Tasha's need to have him and be taken by him was primal and potent, making it hard to keep her breathing even and her hands steady. Her mouth was suddenly bone-dry, and her heart was pounding. He hadn’t even touched her, and yet she felt owned at the possessiveness now blazing from his eyes. Then he spoke, and his even, deep, authoritative tone made her and her wolf snap to total attention. “Come here. Last night, I pounced on you. This time, I want you to come to me.”
Tasha woke to the feel of a hot mouth kissing her nape and a large hand sliding up and down her bare thigh. Images of last night flashed in front of her eyes, feeding the need that was building in her system. A moan slipped out of her when Onyx's hand dipped between her legs and his finger slid between her folds. But when she shifted to try to take that finger inside her, he withdrew his hand—a message that he was leading here. Cheeky shit had done stuff like that all night. When an impish idea whispered into her mind, she smiled. “God, that feels so good, John,” she rasped. Instantly she was flipped onto her back and there was an extremely pissed male draped over her. As she laughed uncontrollably beneath him, realization dawned on Onyx. He narrowed his eyes. “That was sneaky. And who the fuck is John?” “No idea. I was just paying you back for teasing me—again.” He spoke against he
As she entered the room, Royd straightened from where he’d been leaning against the wall and came toward her wearing a devilish grin—yep, he had every intention of flirting with her to annoy Onyx, just like he did to all the mated females to provoke their mates. Well, it wasn’t so much flirting as delivering cheesy lines, but it had the desired effect on the mated males. She halted him with a look. “Royd, if you value your life, you won’t aggravate him right now.” Not while Onyx was being forced to cope with her being in the presence of a number of males, particularly when two of them were unmated. Possessiveness would be haunting him, just as it did her when Sansa was around. Royd, to her surprise, raised his hands in surrender and dropped his smile. “Okay, fine, but I was just going to give you a little kiss. If you don’t like it, you can always return it.” “Royd." “Watch it, blondie,” warned
Tasha had always been good at defusing situations and calming tempers, which was ironic considering her own temper was pretty bad. However, defusing any arguments that occurred between Tala and Sansa took a great deal of effort—something Tasha had quickly come to learn over the last four weeks. As such, she was tapping her foot impatiently while she stood between the two females in the living area who ranted at each other, pointing fingers and scowling. Meeting her mate’s gaze, who was sitting on the sofa looking both amused and exasperated, Tasha a struggled not to laugh at the insults being exchanged. Sansa had done exactly as Trevon had said she would—she’d tried extremely hard to become close friends with Tasha. But when that hadn’t worked, she had instead taken to trying to provoke Tasha with sugar-coated insults and backhanded compliments that had been so cleverly delivered they sounded totally innoce
A few hours later, Tasha was sitting on her sofa drinking coffee and watching with a smile as Kass lay protectively where Ara was playing with his toys on the carpet with Royd and Tala. Although Ara wouldn’t be able to use his gift of healing psychological scars until he was much older, he still oozed a feeling of safety that attracted anyone with such scars. It was safe to say that Kass had some. As was often the case, the living area was pretty crowded. Tasy, Trevon and Ethan were on the sofa. Lreta and Kate had each taken an armchair. And Tao and Sansa had each dragged in one of the dining chairs. Sansa had also brought in a spare chair, and Tasha was pretty sure it was supposed to be for Onyx—who was currently in the kitchen speaking with Eli on his cell phone. Tasha had to give it to her, the bitch was certainly persistent. She supposed that in Sansa's eyes, it was Tasha who was the one interfering. Sansa had most likely view