Free Animal Attraction by Charlene Teglia Page B

shifted me more sideways on his lap, tilting me back on the couch’s armrest.
    The change in position arched my upper torso, making a display of my breasts. He seemed to enjoy the effect, content to study the picture I made without touching for a long pause. Which of course began a rising heat of anticipation that grew as the moment dragged out, until my skin felt tight and flushed and my nipples budded into aching points, as if begging for attention. “Maybe you love it a little,” Zach added, giving me a knowing look.
    “This part doesn’t suck,” I mumbled. And then the word vibrated in my head, making me flash onto a fantasy of Zach’s mouth closed over my nipple, licking and sucking. Desire curled low in my belly. Bad choice of words. Or good, depending on how I wanted to look at it.
    I shook my head to clear the haze of lust that was forming there and covered myself with my hands. “Can we take a time-out? I’m losing track of the conversation.”
    “Time-out implies you want the clock to pick up again later.” Zach gave me a very slow, sexy grin that made its way to his eyes and made them gleam with amber light.
    “You like that idea?” I didn’t have to ask, but I did anyway. Although flirting with a werewolf I didn’t intend to sleep with yet probably meant the heat flaring between us had fried a few of my mental circuits.
    “Yes. I’m not done with those. I’ve barely seen them.” He stared pointedly at my hands doing an inadequate job of hiding my breasts.
    “We just met,” I pointed out. “You shouldn’t have seen them at all.”
    “And yet, I’ve seen and touched.” He placed his hands over mine, touching my breasts again by proxy. “If that bothered you, I wonder why you were squirming under me and making those little moaning noises. None of which sounded like ‘no.’”
    I blushed dark red, all the way down the way redheads do. I started searching around in vain for my shirt to hide both my breasts and the scarlet wave of embarrassment engulfing my skin. “Fine, I have no self-control. What happened to my shirt?”
    “I took it off.” Zach’s lazy good humor irritated me, especially since it made him sound sexier.
    I scrambled out of his lap and turned my back to him while I found my fleece pullover and slid into it. My nipples felt tight and puckered against the fabric, my breasts loose and accessible without my bra.
    I turned back around and folded my arms over my chest. My eyes fixed on Zach, specifically the very attractive picture he made sitting with his legs slightly apart and his silk shirt open so it made a frame for his mouthwatering chest and abs. “Could you button up, please?”
    “Am I distracting you?” He quirked a brow at me, clearly already sure of the answer. Fine, he could make me say it out loud, I didn’t care, but I needed him to cover up or my mouth was going to be too busy to talk and I doubted I’d hear anything he said over the hot blood roaring in my ears.
    “Yes.”   It came out a lot more emphatic than I meant it to. Zach started to refasten the buttons, but he didn’t rush. I gritted my teeth and waited until he was finished. “Thank you.”
    He patted his lap in silent invitation. I shook my head and took the chair. Safer. He frowned, and his obvious displeasure bothered me a lot more than I expected.
    “Sit with me. I won’t attack you.”
    The tone of command in his voice resonated as if triggering a hardwired response. I got back up and sat beside him. I kept a little space between us, but the fact that I’d obeyed him shook me. It showed in my face and my voice.
    “So alpha isn’t just a title.”
    “No. And you already knew that.”
    I nodded. “You could make me choose you,” I said, putting one fear into words.
    “That wouldn’t be much of a choice, would it?” Zach scowled at me and leaned over to cup the side of my face with one hand. “I could’ve persuaded you to let me take you on this couch, even though we both