“Mine,” I snarled.

Without speaking, Ricki’s head tilted to the side, an invitation I couldn’t refuse. As my own orgasm hit me like a runaway train, I clamped my teeth on the curve where her neck and shoulder met. When a few drops of blood hit my tongue, I realized I’d broken the skin.

I felt her go rigid against me, a wail tearing from her throat, and regret tore through me. Goddammit, I hadn’t meant to hurt her. I swiped the wound with my tongue, knowing my saliva would ease the sting. It wasn’t until Ricki sank her teeth into my pectoral that I realized she hadn’t cried out in pain, but from another climax.

Finally, she went limp against me, both of us wrung dry. My legs gave out under me and we collapsed to the floor.

Her eyes were heavy lidded and her cheeks flushed as she rolled off me onto her side. “Holy shit,” she muttered. “I can’t feel my legs. Do I still have legs?”

Smirking, I licked my lips, tasting the faint tang of her blood, and felt my dick twitch. I closed my eyes, too exhausted to even deal with the condom. “I’d tell you if I wasn’t blind.”

When she giggled, I gathered her against my chest, tucking her forehead against my neck. Now that I’d had her, tasted her, and marked her, I didn’t think I could let her go.

I was so fucked.

I couldn’t move. It seemed Calder had done exactly as he threatened. I was definitely going to feel him in the morning. I let my body mould to his side, my leg curling around his. I studied his torso as I traced a finger across his chest. Now that I wasn’t blinded by lust, I could see little white scars etched in random patterns all over his body. It appeared as though someone had clawed and bitten him everywhere.

What truly caught my attention was the bright red bite mark on the firm curve of his pectoral. Propping myself up on an elbow, I leaned forward to get a closer look.

“Did I do that?” I asked.

He smiled, his eyes still closed. “Oh yeah.” Still, he flinched slightly when I ran my finger over the perfect imprint of my teeth.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured. I’d never done anything like that before during sex.

His lids opened slowly and he watched me with languid green eyes as an expression of satisfaction settled on his face. “I’m not. It was hot as fuck.” He lifted a hand and put a finger on the side of my neck. When I sucked in a sharp breath at the sting of his touch, he winced. “I marked you.”

He rolled so we were chest-to-chest, tucking his face against my neck. At the first hot, wet swipe of his tongue on my throat, I jumped. Calder continued to lick my skin with slow, long strokes of his tongue. It felt weird.

“What are you doing?”

He paused and I felt his lips form a smile against my throat. “Licking you. I broke the skin in a couple of places and my saliva will help it heal faster and dull the soreness.”

“Uh, ok. Apparently, there’s a lot I didn’t know about werewolves.”

He chuckled against my throat, causing me to jump for a different reason. How could I be feeling the first stirrings of desire after two mind-altering orgasms? Calder cupped my ass and pulled me closer. My eyes widened when I realized that he was already getting hard again.

Noticing my reaction, he rolled his hips against mine. “There’s one other thing you should know about shifters, darlin’, we can go all night without a break.”

My body stiffened when I heard the muffled sounds of people passing outside the library door. Shit, it wasn’t locked. I didn’t take another breath until the voices and footsteps faded.

“Maybe we should get out of here,” Calder suggested.

I felt my heart drop. An echo of Donna’s warning about the nature of werewolves and their tendency to screw anything that had a vagina.

“Conner gave me one of the guest rooms for the night.”

The rush of relief I felt at his words alarmed me. I’d only wanted to flirt a little and somehow I’d ended up having the best sex of my life with a man I barely knew.

He said you’re imprinted on his soul.

I flipped off the little voice whispering in the back of my mind and told her to shut the fuck up. Thoughts like that would only result in one possible outcome; me, broken-hearted.

Calder was watching me intently with serious eyes when I emerged from my frantic thoughts. He rolled to his feet, using a tissue to wrap up the condom and dump it in the trash basket. Without speaking, he bent down and picked up his shirt. I felt my heart sink again as he pulled up his jeans, which we hadn’t bothered to remove. I opened my mouth to say something, anything, without a clue as to what that might be. When I realized there was nothing I could say, I sat up and started gathering my scattered clothing.

He scooped me up from the floor and I squeaked, clutching my clothes to my chest. I stared at his jaw, watching as it tightened as though he were gritting his teeth. Carrying me as though I weighed nothing, Calder headed toward the door to the library.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice shrill.

“Taking you to my room,” he answered abruptly.

I started struggling then. “You can’t just carry me through the house NAKED!”

With a low growl, he set me on my feet and wrapped his shirt around me, tucking my arms through the too-long sleeves as though I were a child. Since most of the buttons were now scattered all over the library floor, I clutched the material together over my breasts with one hand and cradled my clothes with the other.

“Look, I think I should just go-“ I murmured.

“No.”

“Excuse me?” Surely I heard him incorrectly.

“No. You’re not leaving.”

I scowled up at him. “Listen, I can do whatever I want and right now I want to leave.”

He stared down at me, something working behind those beautiful green eyes. Then, without another word, he leaned down, planted his shoulder in my belly, and straightened. The world tilted as he settled me over his shoulders like he was carrying a sack of flour.

“Put me down!” I hissed.

“No.”

I tried to kick him, but he just tightened his grip on the back of my legs. Balling up my fists, I aimed for his kidneys and hammered him on the back as hard as I could. All he did was grunt and continue out of the library.

“Put me down,” I demanded, “or I’ll scream for help.”

His answer to my threat was to smack my bare ass sharply. “Hush.”

I’ll be damned if his high-handed behavior didn’t make me wet. It didn’t matter. He had no right to treat me like this.

“Calder,” I said, warning heavy in my voice.

I hadn’t been paying attention to where we were going. I heard a door open, he stepped into a guest room, and shut and locked the door behind him. I began to squirm, trying to figure out a way to get out of this situation, when his hand connected with the other cheek of my ass with a sharp crack.

That was it. I sucked in a huge breath to scream, but it left me in a quiet whoosh when he threw me down on a massive bed. My clothes went flying and his shirt fell open so that I lay on the bed, completely exposed.

“I want to leave,” I stated firmly.

“Liar.”

I pounded on the bed with my closed fists. “Stop giving me one word responses.” I sat up and tried to scoot to the opposite side of the bed. When he grabbed my ankle and dragged me back, I lost it.

I tried to kick him in the balls, which made him smile. The bastard smiled. Then I tried to punch him, which he dodged easily before lunging at me. With very little effort, he pinned my wrists down to the bed and forced my legs apart with his knees. As angry and frustrated as I was, I was also incredibly turned on. How many times had I wanted my partners to take control, to be a little bossy? Maybe I was more submissive than I’d realized, because, as much as I wanted to hate this, I fucking loved it.