Bound to the Billionaire

Chapter Eighteen: Tightly Wound

 It's hard to have  a conversation in wolf form. And maybe that's okay, because I didn't want it. I didn't want my human brain to take the shape of his explanation, I didn't want my human mouth to form arguments and I didn't want to my human energy wasted on bullshit. Stupid bullshit. So, I laid there on his bed, my snout stretched out on my paws, giant tail whipping like a cat's. And Nico paced, naked in front of me. Every muscle on display. 

When I squinted my eyes, I imagined the inky black fur. I imagined the curve of his shoulder as it ran into the wiry muscles that made up his arms. My mind ran over the powerful legs and oversized paws. His black eyes hidden in the shadows of the room make me think of the golden eyes, glowing, Piercing. Like when they looked at you, they cut. When I look3e at the man, I saw the wolf.

He paced, a hand wound in his thick hair that shimmers in the faraway glow of the living room, the door now cracked open.  A whimper bubbled up in my throat, more reflex than conscious thought. God, how I wanted to put this all away, how I wanted to touch him,  hold him. I wondered if the longing rested in my eyes, because Nico stepped toward me. He looked Adonis-like so close, a palette of colors. The red that gently crept into his face. The bronze of his pretty skin, the coal-black of his eyes. I wanted him. He sighed, shifted all the weight on one leg. "You have a pretty wolf, but I'd love to hear your human voice. I want to be able to talk to you, with your voice."

I turned my head toward the wall, let my eyes settle on the stripes. I wanted to stop thinking about how warm and how pretty he was. But those eyes were burned behind mine. 

He crept his fingertips onto the bed, and then smoothly, his body followed. As lithe as a cat, first his arms and then his legs. Often, when men joined me in bed on their cheap mattresses I was tossed me into the air. I expected that with Nico, to be thrown against him and jolted into his lap. But in this form, I was sturdy and in this penthouse, there wasn't a cheap mattress in sight. 

He ran his hands through my fur, stroked my ears that flopped over, too big for my head. "Can you shift." His eyes fluttered, a smirk gently pushing up at his rosy cheeks. "So I can kiss you." Don't tempt me. I let loose a growl, but my heart thudded at the thought, and my wolf faltered. My wolf loved him. He had to love him. Already, a string of drool slid from my parted lips. 

My wolf was weakening, and by extension, so was I--I mean s**t, we shared the same body, same brain, same 'soul' if you believed that schlock (I mean, I guess I do). I closed my eyes as he rubbed between my ears. "Dimitri, please?" My neck arched, reflexively. I was supposed to be distrusting, seething. Bastard pack. I needed to be angry. I couldn't give in.

But my wolf let go. He knew, he had to, that Nico would turn him soft, and so, like a spring being sprung, I was hurled back into control of my body. That flicker of pain. The shrinking of bone, the pulling back of fur and the roll of soft, stretchy skin spreading across me. I was back now, lying flat on my stomach, the blankets soft soft and cool against me. Me, my old body, all light little bones and a light wiring of muscles. It was odd, to be so small again. 

And naked,  naturally. 

I wiped the drool from my mouth. "Do you think my pack is a...a 'bastard pack?" I paused and then added, "Or whatever?" I had to cut the sincerity of the question so he couldn't tell how much I cared.

"No," he said, and my stomach clenched because I wanted to believe that butter-smooth voice. I needed to. "Seth and I had a relationship, but he wasn't for me. I knew there was someone in my future. And I could never do the things he wanted. He's wrong, about supreme packs and weak packs. He's wrong alphas being conquistadors. I have nothing but admiration for the pack your father built. And I have nothing but admiration for you."

I edged away, looked down at my hands with the red silk sheets fisted within them. Yes, I wanted to drop down in them, curl up against the hard edges and soft strong curves of Nico's body. No matter how much I wanted to fight the physical desire for him, with him nearby, I couldn't. I was drawn to him. 

So I wasn't going to try, I decided. For some reason, with that glowing look he casted, I simply couldn't. The word admiration  broke the last thing inside me I held to fight him. I was going to let myself believe him, I had to. His cologne clung to the air, this sweet forbidden smell.  "Do you mean that? Or are you just saying that so I don't run away?"

Those eyes, gripping mine. His big hands and his warm skin against my shivering shoulders. In those moments, I wanted to inhale him. 

He kissed me, strong. It was a shock, how gently he had my wrapped up in his strong arms, the sudden hot throbbing rush that filled my body. A lot of romance books use the word yearning. Desire. Passion. And while I'm not a flowery guy, that's it. That's what I was experiencing, filling me up like steam in a kettle. For so long, I'd wanted to burst. 

So I did. I pulled his lip between my teeth, clamping down just enough that I felt him falter back the smallest bit, most likely completely involuntary. And then he pulled me closer, snatched my upper lip in his teeth in a way that drew blood. The smell of iron made me twitch, the spark of pain melting me insides. 

This was all physical. Right now, I had tucked my brain away. The threat of his teeth and a mark on my throat being so imminent, was, at the moment, a little hot to me. I'd always had the bad habit of skirting danger, getting so close that I could touch it. I would hold my fingertips over candle flames, waiting for the kiss of pain. I mean, I was already dancing madly on the lip of financial ruin, so I wouldn't be adding very much more to my doom if I ended up this man's puppet (not that I was planning for that, of course. Hopefully, you've caught on to me being a little devious.  I dug my nails into his back. "Whatever," I repeated, pushing Bastard Pack into the very back of my brain. I would mess with that. Later. And oh how, I would mess with it. 

Nico's eyes flared. In his gaze, I felt like prey. And it didn't feel so bad, being his. I still had all the energy pent up in me from the fight we almost had, and I was ready to use it. To claw and scrabble and be weakly put into my place. I wanted to go somewhere I could tuck my brain into a suitcase and think no longer. 

"I think I've been wound a little tight," I said after unlocking my lips from the sweet, hot oasis that were his. I fluttered my lashes, cast my eyes aside toward the luxurious bed posts. "I'm thinking too much. I think I just need to....relax."

"Well," he said, "I think I can unwind you."