One Night with the Shifter. Theresa Meyers

by a line of dark hair that disappeared at the edge of his jeans.

      “Too many clothes.” His low, husky voice rumbled in her ear.

      “When you’re right, you’re right.” She pushed back from him long enough to pull her sweater off in a slow, flirty slide and fling it to the floor. She kicked off her flats and ran her fingers through her hair. Raw desire flared fever bright in his eyes as he watched her hands trail down her sides, then lower to unzip her jeans. She shoved them down her hips to pool around her feet.

      Heat suffused every inch of her skin, a delicious warm glow that kept her from being cold even as she stood in just her bra and underwear. It didn’t take a doctor to tell that he found her attractive; the evidence was there in his face, in his ferocious heartbeat and in the hard line at the front of his jeans.

      “Tag. You’re it.” She smiled, deliberately brushing her lower lip in a seductive slow motion with her finger.

      Ty swallowed hard, but didn’t say a word as he shucked off his boots. She couldn’t wait to find out if it was boxers or briefs. Either way, if he was built below the waist like he was above, she was going to enjoy touching him.

      The moment he pulled off his jeans, Jess realized that Ty was a man who wore neither.

      He stood gloriously naked, his body only marred by a few dark bruises and white scars. The throb at her core thumped harder. Wet heat pooled between her thighs.

      She looked up at him through her lashes as she undid the front clasp of her bra and let the dark blue lace and satin slide off her arms to land on the floor behind her. She crooked her finger at him in a slow come-with-me motion. “This way.” Having the run of the house made Jess bold, or perhaps it was the man in front of her. Something about Ty tapped into her deepest fantasies.

      He didn’t wait for more invitation. He ate up the space between them in two strides, pulling her close to him with a growl that made her quiver. The hair on his chest rasped against her bare breasts, causing jolts of pleasure. His thick, heated ridge pressed against her belly as he kissed her deeply. Jess reached down, grasping his firm length, letting her fingers test the velvety texture. The tip was as slick and damp as she was.

      He pulled back and closed his eyes for a second. “You keep doing that, and we’re not going to make it upstairs.” His voice was raw, a man on the edge. When he opened his eyes, they were predatory, hungry and focused on her. He was breathing hard and his tongue lightly licked his lips. “God, you look good enough to eat.”

      He slid his hot hands beneath her bottom, lifting her. Jess straddled him, wrapping her legs around his lean hips and her arms around his neck to balance herself. He ground the hard heat of him against her damp panties, causing bursts of color across her vision. She gasped at the sensation.

      He groaned. “Last chance. You sure about this?”

      “You always talk this much?” She bit his lip and pressed herself closer until there wasn’t space for even air between them. While it was sweet that he was waiting for her to set the pace, there were times a girl just wanted things hard and fast. Slow could come later.

      Jess wriggled, arching up until she could feel the pressure of him pressed against her with only the thin barrier of fabric between them. “You better put something on now, ’cause I’m not waiting,” she told him as a shudder rolled through her.

      “Got anything handy?”

      “Top drawer in the china cabinet.”

      Ty glanced at the antique china cabinet with the leaded-glass side cabinets and big central arched mirror over a slab of dark green marble. “Interesting choice of locations. You’ll have to invite me over to dinner sometime,” he teased as he carried her with him toward the cabinet.

      Jess opened the drawer and reached to the back, yanking out a box that promptly spilled the contents all over the floor. Thankfully she caught one foil packet between her fingers.

      Ty bent to retrieve the box. “Leave it. We might need more later,” she purred in his ear. His body tightened in response beneath her and he growled, the vibration of it making her breasts ache.

      He turned, hooking his finger in the thin elastic of her panties and pulling them off as he set her down on the dining room table. She was shocked by how cold the wood felt against the heated skin of her bottom.

      “Lie back.”

      “What’re you going to do?”

      He gave her a wicked smile. “It’s a dining table, isn’t it?” He kissed a path slowly, deliberately, down her stomach and across her hip, down along the top of her right thigh. Ty’s beard abraded the tender, sensitive skin of her inner thigh as he kissed and laved a path. His fingers parted her damp flesh, making Jess arch. She could only manage incomprehensible sounds deep in the back of her throat as she raked her nails down his muscular shoulders and arms.

      He nipped the inside of her thigh as he pushed his fingers inside her, making stars pop in her vision. Jess cried out, trembling, her body clenching hard around him as he moved his fingers inside her and laved at the hard pleasurable knot, ramping her body up all over again. He growled, and the vibration of it shot electrical impulses sparking along every nerve, intensifying her desire to feel him. Hard. Now.

      Jess pushed up to a sitting position, her breath ragged. “That’s it. No more foreplay.”

      “A woman who knows what she wants—I like it.”

      She tore open the package, then grasped the rigid length of him and slid the condom over him as she scooted to the edge of the table, grabbed hold of his hips and pulled him into her.

      Jess arched and screamed out his name. Pleasure flooded her system in a white-hot rush, blinding her as he moved within her and her whole body seemed to contract, then blow apart.

      He held her against his warm, solid body as she trembled against him, limp and unable to move. His fingers traced a long, lingering slide down the indentations of her spine. He chuckled, the sound warm and husky. “God, you’re beautiful when you do that.”

      * * *

      Jess smiled against his chest, and it made his heart double thump. He could taste her on his tongue and he was still hard inside her. He’d accommodated her about the condom, but in truth he wasn’t absolutely positive it would work. So he’d used every ounce of willpower he had left to hold himself back until she was satisfied. He was just grateful she wasn’t moving. His whole body was balanced on a razor’s edge, waiting to split into ribbons if she so much as rolled her hips.

      Ty buried his face in her soft hair, enjoying the minty fragrance of it. Maybe Jess didn’t know it yet, but she was meant to be his mate. Mesmers weren’t fickle. Weres mated for life. And she was his now, come hell or high water.

      “I don’t suppose that table is very comfortable,” he said, his tone almost apologetic.

      She pulled back, gazed at him, the sparkle diamond bright in the brilliant blue of her eyes. “A shower should fix that.”

      She sauntered up the stairs ahead of him, swaying her hips, driving him out of his mind. Ty couldn’t resist grabbing her soft backside. “Thought we were going to the shower.”

      “Oh, we are.”

      Jess gave him a sly grin and opened her bedroom door. “Bathroom is to the right.”

      He walked by her, unashamedly naked. “You’ve got quite a spectacular ass yourself,” she murmured.

      Ty held out a hand to her and she slipped her fingers easily into his. A perfect fit. He turned on the water, letting the spray fill the air in her little bathroom with steam as he drew her close and kissed her skin as it grew heated and damp.

      “Let’s hit the shower.”

      They climbed in together and kissed, her tongue and teeth playing and dueling with his as the water beat down over them. Ty ran his fingers over the fine, shimmering beads of water that