Free Animal Attraction by Charlene Teglia

an objective, I decided, it was driving me over the edge of sanity. Why didn’t he strip my shirt off, tear my bra away, fill his hands with the flesh that ached to be touched?
    But Zach seemed determined to move slow. One part of my brain acknowledged that as a good thing, given how uncharacteristically fast I wanted to go. And that sent a chill of trepidation down my spine. Was this what I wanted to be? A mindless creature of need, heedless of consequences?
    “No,” I whispered.
    “Yes.” Zach kissed me again, light, soft, slow, as if he had all the time in the world and was content to spend it doing nothing more. “You can trust the wolf in you, Chandra. You have sound instincts.”
    “Then why didn’t my Spidey sense warn me about you?” I grumbled against his mouth.
    “It did. You knew I was something to watch when I came into your store.” He kissed me again, harder this time. “You were planning ways to take me down if I tried anything.”
    That surprised a rueful half laugh, half sigh from me. “No, I wasn’t. I figured you could take me, so I was planning my escape.”
    “What does your Spidey sense say now?” Zach licked at the corner of my lip while he slid a hand up my rib cage, teasing me, tempting me.
    “It says you won’t mean to hurt me,” I said, the unaccustomed mix of fear and desire making me more blunt than I intended. “But I think you will, anyway.”
    “Harsh.” Zach drew back, sat up, and pulled my shirt over my head. He left the bra just covering me, but it was loose and open and we both knew how easily he could push that aside when he wanted what was underneath.
    “I don’t think so.” I stared up at him, confused by the swirl of emotions he stirred. “I think your intentions are good, just not necessarily good for me.”
    “You are what you are, Chandra.” Zach held my eyes while his hands moved up, under my bra, cupping and shaping my breasts with his palms. “I didn’t make you this way, but I plan to make you accept it. You can’t fight yourself, not when the change comes.”
    “I love it when you talk dirty.” I narrowed my eyes at him, pissed that he was touching me so intimately, caressing my breasts and brushing his thumbs over my nipples as if he had the right to make me squirm and respond, when he had his own agenda and his own vision of where I fit in it.
    “You think I want to talk about this now?” His eyes darkened almost to black and his hands on me turned hard, demanding. “You think I don’t just want to peel you out of your pants and get your naked body under mine?”
    “Uh . . .” I wet my lower lip, suddenly afraid I was going to get what I’d asked for, and his gaze zeroed in on that little movement. Then his mouth was on mine again, devouring, ravaging, his tongue driving inside, hot and sweet with an edge of dark, sexual threat. He could take me if he wanted to, right here, right now, and I wouldn’t fight him.
    But I wasn’t ready even if my body thought I was, and he knew it, and he eased back by degrees, gentling his hands and lips until he was just holding me intimately. I lay still except for the tremors of desire and alarm that ran through me, my breath coming in pants, my heartbeat so loud I thought it echoed in the room.
    “That’s what I’m afraid of,” I said finally into the silence. “I would have let you inside me, even though I don’t know you and don’t want a mate and don’t know if I could accept the consequences.”
    “You know me better than you think.” Zach teased my nipples, a light, sure touch, pleasurable, undemanding. “You knew I wouldn’t take this further than you wanted me to.”
    I shrugged, and the movement made his hands do distracting things to me. “Maybe not, but you’re still on top of me.”
    “We can change that if it makes you uncomfortable.” He slid his hands away, a disappointment and a relief, levered himself up, and then pulled me back into his lap. I noticed he didn’t