Loving Laney Read online

  Cooper chuckled. He hurriedly climbed off the bed and she watched through heavy-lidded eyes as he picked up his jeans. Reaching into one of the back pockets, he pulled out a small foil packet. The jeans dropped back onto the floor as he tore the packet open and used both hands to fit the condom onto his thick shaft.

  Then he moved back to the bed, climbing on top of her. All of a sudden she couldn’t breathe. Having him on top of her like this was suffocating, and although he was careful to rest his weight on his elbows, she felt smothered.

  A whimper of distress left her lips and he paused, the tip of his cock brushing her entrance.

  “What’s wrong, sweet?” he murmured, kissing her neck gently, soothingly.

  “I can’t breathe, having you over me, I-I can’t.” Just like that he was lying beside her on the bed and she took a deep breath, the panic dissipating to be replaced with a keen regret.

  “Maybe this was a bad—” She lost her train of thought as he rolled her onto her side, her back nestled against his front, and raised her leg, moving it backward to rest on top of his, opening her to his touch as his hand once again stoked the flames of her arousal.

  “I’m not a gentle man, sweet. I don’t know how to be. But I do know how to stop. Anytime you want me to stop, you say the word and I will. Understand?” He waited until she nodded, and then pressed the tip of his cock against her entrance.

  Sharp, intense pain stole her breath as he entered her, but just as quickly as it had appeared it began to fade, leaving a dull throbbing in its place. Although she was exquisitely tender, there was no hesitation as he pushed his way inside her. Gentle but relentless, he moved slowly, allowing the walls of her passage to stretch gradually to accommodate his large girth.

  “Hold on, sweet,” he panted before pulling out then thrusting fully inside her. Laney let out a low moan at the pleasure of his heavy cock filling her, caressing nerve endings that hummed in enthralled delight.

  His finger moved back to her clit, strumming it lightly, as if he were aware of how sensitive it was.

  “Sweet, you’re so tight you’re sucking at me, each time I move out you suck me back in. The feel of you is indescribable, it’s hot velvet, liquid sunshine and I love it.” He moved faster, harder and something inside her unfurled, a deep pressure so odd that for a moment she stiffened.

  “Ride through it, sweet, don’t think, feel. Feel me inside you, loving you, pleasuring you. I was made for you.” His finger moved over her clit, pressing down firmly. Laney arched back into him, thrusting herself on his cock, burying her ass against him.

  Then she felt it happen, her passage pulsing, clenching down on his shaft as she wailed through her orgasm. He joined her, yelling her name as he stilled, pulsing inside her until together they collapsed, sweating, panting and well satisfied.

  *

  Laney moaned as something moved behind her. She didn’t want to move, could stay lying in this position forever. But it wasn’t to be as she was turned, rolled onto her back, her legs pulled apart. She came fully awake with a whoosh of shock as a warm cloth was applied to her sensitive lower lips.

  “What are you doing?” she screeched, her eyes zeroing in on the man lying beside her, cleaning her folds.

  “Soothing you, sweet.” He patted the top of her mound lightly with one hand as he washed her gently with the other. “This little pussy had a lot of attention tonight, now it needs a little TLC.”

  “Umm, I think I can take care of that,” she said desperately, reaching down to try to wrestle the cloth away.

  “But you won’t.” He glanced up at her and she gulped at the possessive look in his eyes.

  “Look, Cooper,” she began uneasily, trying to sit up. Clothes, she needed clothes. One could not conduct a serious conversation naked. She was sure that was a rule, and if it wasn’t it damn well should be. Shit! Where were her clothes?

  “Lie down, gorgeous, you must be feeling sore. Besides, I want to take care of you.” His soft Southern drawl was so damn sexy her pussy tingled in response.

  “Look, I can take care of myself. I think…I think it’s time you left.” She tried to firm her voice, to keep it steady, while inside her wolf howled in disapproval. Was she mad! Reject him? A Greek god who caused her body to scream with rapture one moment, then treated her as if she were precious the next.

  An inky eyebrow rose in query as he gazed down at her in amusement.

  “I don’t think so, sweet,” he murmured softly. “Now go back to sleep, you’ll need all your strength to pack tomorrow.”

  “Pack?” She frowned, confused.

  “Yes, pack. I take it you’ll want to take some of this junk with you.”

  “Ahh, I’m not going anywhere.” Had he lost it? Had she let a loony just fuck her rotten? Hey, wait a minute. “And my stuff is not junk!” she yelled.

  “Whatever you say, sweet,” he said in that condescendingly dismissive voice that men often get. Damn arrogant asshole. She shot to her feet.

  “Get out.” She pointed to the door. She wished her hand wasn’t shaking as though she were a junkie who needed a fix, but hey, it was the best she could do. Besides, she was starting to feel a little like a junkie. What would one more round with him hurt anyway? She licked her lips, her gaze roving over his bronzed body. She may well have jumped straight back into his arms if his conceited chuckle hadn’t hit her ears.

  “Sweet, when you try to order a man from your bed, you shouldn’t proceed to look at him as if he’s all your Christmases come at once.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re a conceited pain in the ass. It doesn’t matter how I look at you. I. Want. You. To. Leave. Go!” Okay, now she sounded hysterical. Deep breaths, Laney, deep breaths.

  Damn man merely sat up, sprawling sumptuously against her headboard, the sheet dropping so—oh hell, yes!—he was completely bare. She gulped, raising her gaze quickly to his face. Well, okay, so it lingered a little. After all, she was a warm-blooded female.

  “Get out or I will ring the cops and tell them I have a werewolf in my room, one who won’t leave.”

  “Little one, you’re being overdramatic. Why don’t you come over here and I’ll calm you down.”

  “Ahhh,” she screamed. “Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out!” Laney did the only thing she could think of, she picked up the closest objects at hand and pelted him with them. She could hear the hysteria in her voice, could feel the tears gathering in her eyes, traveling slowly down her face.

  “Laney!” A loud banging had her turning to the front door.

  “Josh,” she breathed.

  “Who the hell is that?” Cooper, who had jumped to his feet when she’d decided to put her baseball skills to good use, stalked toward her apartment door.

  “Laney! Open this door now, or I’m calling the cops!”

  “Leave,” she snarled at the naked man, waving her hand at the large window over the kitchen sink. “Leave now or I’ll let him call them.”

  “I’m not afraid of any cops,” he stated arrogantly.

  “No, but your pack won’t like any bad publicity, and Josh has a cousin who works for the Chicago News. Believe me when I say they’d love the story I’d spin to them.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her as he moved over to where his jeans lay on the floor.

  “Wait a sec, Josh. I’m just getting dressed.”

  “I will come back. This isn’t over.” Anger heated his gaze as he glared at her before he turned and lithely jumped out the window.

  “Yes it is,” she whispered softly as she plastered a friendly expression on her face and went to the door, hoping it was enough to hide the slashes in her heart.

  Chapter Three

  Cooper looked up from the computer screen as his lead enforcer entered his study. Ryan Chance was an intimidating man, carrying an aura of strength and command about him like a second skin. Accounts of his deadly ruthlessness had reached Cooper’s ears long before he’d met him. It was his sense of loyalty and his ability to think with cold calculation under heated conditions that had made him the ideal choice to lead Cooper’s team of enforcers. Cooper also knew that beneath the brutish, cold appearance was a man of honor. Once he gave his word, that was it. There were no half measures with Rye, he was completely in or out. But betray him or his family and he wouldn’t rest until he’d gotten his vengeance.

  Cooper didn’t know what the last Alpha had done to earn Rye’s wrath—he had yet to get the full story from his tight-lipped enforcer. But considering Zachary’s cruel and sadistic reputation, it could have been any number of things.

  During the last two months, Rye and his two younger brothers had been a huge asset to Cooper during his takeover of the Shadowpeak pack. The pack had been in a state of uproar after Cooper had challenged and then killed Zachary, and the Chance brothers had helped him cement his hold over it.

  Cooper nodded to him as Rye took the seat opposite him.

  “I’m glad you’re here. What do you know of Leonard Paterson?”

  Rye looked startled. “Leonard Paterson? Why?”

  “I just received a call from him. He wanted to introduce himself, suggested that we should meet in person.”

  Rye frowned. “I wouldn’t trust him. He was a good friend of Zachary’s, which basically means he’s an asshole. Anyone who could be friends with that sick son of a bitch would have to be.”

  “Hmm, I managed to put him off for the moment by explaining my intention to try to reform the Western States Council. Told him we’d be approaching him in the near future about a meeting.”

  Rye thought for a moment. “If he was a member of the Council, we could find out more about him, perhaps keep a closer eye on him. All I’ve heard are a few whispers, rumors of violence. I haven’t met many of his pack, just a couple of his enforcers, and they looked cold, hard, ruthless. Leonard comes across like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, and it makes my skin crawl. I never saw him much. He and Zachary liked privacy when they met up, usually at Zachary’s house.”

  “Hmm, see what else you can find out about him, will you?”

  “Consider it done.”

  Cooper nodded. “So did you want to see me about something?”

  “Ahh, yes, actually, I wanted to talk to you about my sister.”

  “Your sister?” Cooper sat back in surprise, raising an eyebrow in query. He had heard very little about Rye’s sister, and curiously what he had heard hadn’t come from Rye or his brothers. Admittedly he hadn’t really given it much thought. He’d been too busy trying to strengthen his hold over the pack. “She lives with another pack, doesn’t she? Did you want to go visit her?”

  He watched in interest as the normally calm enforcer shifted nervously in his chair. Rye eventually realized what he was doing and stilled, straightening his back. That one gesture, part defiance, part nervousness, reminded Cooper of a certain little blonde firecracker. Damn, he’d been trying to forget that little hellion and the night they’d spent together. Unfortunately, that was as difficult as watching American Idol hopefuls squeal out high-pitched notes. And almost as painful, he thought wryly, feeling his cock thicken against his jeans.

  When Cooper had gone home with her that night he’d fully intended to take her away with him. He didn’t like the fact that she was alone, it simply wasn’t safe. Then she’d thrown him out and he’d been furious, had stormed off with injured male pride, determined to return later and steal her away.

  But once his anger, and his libido, had cooled, he’d realized that he’d be bringing her into a volatile situation, a situation where he couldn’t guarantee her safety. She was safer where she was for the moment, even on her own, and all of his time and energy had been needed to establish himself as Alpha of the Shadowpeak pack.

  He’d underestimated just how long it would take to stabilize the pack, had been arrogant in his assumption of his ability to assert his dominance and leadership. The pack had required all of his attention, and establishing a new werewolf among them during his takeover would have been dangerous for her, as well as creating a distraction for him at a time when he needed to focus. Still, he could have sent someone back to her, to force her to go back to her own pack.

  Yet how did he know that her pack wasn’t an unsafe place for her to be? She’d obviously left for a reason. The way she’d spoken of being bullied played in his mind. Plus, he hadn’t been sure who to send. He now trusted the Chance brothers, but that trust had taken time to build up, on both sides.

  He was being uncharacteristically indecisive about her, and he didn’t like it. His hold over the pack was more secure now and his trust in his enforcers had grown. He’d send someone for her, establish her as a member of the pack, then get on with being the Shadowpeak Alpha without guilt and worry weighing on his mind.

  “Well, no, well, sort of.”

  Cooper frowned at the other man’s uncustomary indecisiveness.

  “You see, Delaney doesn’t actually live with another pack.”

  Cooper frowned at the mysterious answer. “Then where does she live?”

  Rye cleared his throat, looking over Cooper’s shoulder. “Out in the human world. Over a year ago we helped her escape from here, and she’s been living on her own with the humans. Now that Zachary is gone,” Rye spat out the previous Alpha’s name, “it’s time for her to return. I don’t like her being out there any longer than she has to be.”

  Cooper sat forward, a sick feeling developing in the pit of his stomach. He had an idea that he knew exactly who their sister was. Intimately.

  “Your sister has been alone out there all this time? Why the hell didn’t you go with her? You should know how hard it is on a wolf to live outside the pack, let alone a female. And for over a year. You’ll be lucky if she’s still alive!” Self-recrimination fed his anger. Was it possible that his little werewolf was Rye’s sister? That she’d been on her own for more than a year?

  Rye’s face hardened at the criticism. “It wasn’t feasible for us to go with her. The best way to ensure her safety was to get her out of here alone.”

  Cooper narrowed his eyes. “Why wasn’t she safe here?” he whispered dangerously. If possible, Rye’s face hardened further, a look of pure hatred darkening his eyes.

  “Zachary hated her. He bullied her mercilessly. Had she stayed, I believe he would have killed her.”

  “Living among the humans may have already done that. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Cooper asked ominously.

  Regret flashed through Rye’s eyes as he lowered his gaze. “Because I didn’t want to call her back into another bad situation, I had to make sure it was safe for her here, I had to make sure that you were safe for her.”

  Cooper nodded. “And now that you’re sure, you want permission to call her back home?”

  Rye frowned. “That’s the thing. I’ve already tried to contact her and I can’t get hold of her.”

  “So you want permission to retrieve her?”

  Rye shook his head. “I can’t even do that, I have no idea where she is. I want permission to go looking for her. Marcus and Jay will stay here, but I need to find my sister, even if it’s just so I can bring her body home.” A tic developed in his cheek, and it was then that Cooper realized that Rye thought his sister dead.

  “Why did Zachary hate your sister?”

  Rye shook his head, his eyes flashing furiously.

  “Who knows? With that fucker, it could have been anything. Because she was smaller than he was? Because she was delicate, pretty, breakable? I don’t know. All I know is that he was psychotic and he would have killed her in the end. I couldn’t let that happen.”

  Cooper looked at him suspiciously. If he hadn’t been Rye’s Alpha, he would never have sensed the lie. Rye knew something about why Zachary hated his little sister. The question was—why was he lying about it?

  Cooper decided to let it go for the moment, his mind churning with the growing certainty that he knew exactly where Rye’s sister was. “Your sister, does she look like you?”

  Rye frowned in confusion. “No, she’s a tiny little thing, only five feet and blonde, why?”

  “And her name’s Laney?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Why? Because I think I know where she is.”

  *

  Cooper stared at the phone on his desk for the umpteenth time that night. Patience was not his strongest quality, and having to stay behind while he sent Rye to collect Laney was surely trying what little he had. All day his gut had been telling him that he should have been the one to go, that it was his duty to find her, bring her home, to protect her. Which was why he didn’t go—because he wanted to so much. Contrary? Idiotic? Maybe.

  There was also the fact that her retrieval would probably go easier without him. She was bound to feel betrayed. She might even try to run. But if Rye could convince her to come back before she found out who he was, he had a better chance of keeping her here. And he was determined that here was where she would stay.

  Still, a burn of worry flared in his stomach, the feeling that something was wrong just would not disappear. He tapped his fingers on the desk. Rye should have arrived by now. It was ten hours round trip, but he’d left around nine that morning. Why hadn’t he called? And why did Cooper care so much?

  Every member of Shadowpeak was important, but they totaled over five hundred and he couldn’t afford to obsess this much about one little female. But he had been this way since he’d left her that night. Nearly every day he would find himself thinking of her, remembering her sweet smell, her gentle touch, the way her coffee-with-cream eyes darkened when she was mad. Or scared. He now understood some of that fear, the wariness.

  Cooper told himself he would feel this way about any female werewolf he’d left alone and unprotected. That it was just guilt, and as soon as he knew she was safe he’d stop thinking about her. He only wished he knew that she was safe.

  The ringing of his phone was a welcome interruption.

  “Brady here.”

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