Several weeks of professionalism, of sharpness and impatience, most of his month spent in the courtroom, and then a text appearing from him the week before the full moon, plans made to spend it together. He had an apartment in the Templeton, one of the toniest high-rises in the city, much more in keeping with her initial assumptions. Vanessa tried to remind herself that there was nothing special about being fucked in his bed, for he had undoubtedly fucked countless other women there as well.

Still, the bed had been the scene of the crime, and it had felt more intimate than a hotel room.

Her absence the previous month must have still been on his mind as he kissed his way down her body, the smell of another man rankling in his brain for who even knew how long, for despite his previous refusal, once she found herself beneath him, up on her knees, his knot pressed to her insistently.

“I’m going to wear the smell of you like a fucking coat,” he groaned into her neck, teeth nipping at her skin with increasing pressure as she clung to his broad shoulders.

When he’d told her he was going to bounce her on his knot that long ago day, she had thought it was vulgar hyperbole, but it turned out to be quite literal. She was splayed over his hips, her knees pressed to the bed, each of his hands gripping her ass, bouncing her on his cock. He brought her down fully on each downward stroke, pressing into the knot that had been swollen practically from the moment she’d arrived.

“Every wolf in this city is going to know you belong to me, rabbit. My knot is going to smell like your pussy all month long.” She squeaked in surprise when he abruptly changed their positions, keeping his cock buried within her as he rolled them to the center of the huge bed. “Up on your knees for me, babydoll. I’m going to fuck you the way I should have from the start.”

He pressed into her slowly, pulling her hips back until she was flush to him. His knot kissed the lips of her sex and she whined, once again hating how good he felt as he began to rut into her; puzzle pieces that had been carved together from the same imperfect block of flesh.

“This pussy was made for my mouth and my cock, Vanessa. Mine. I’m going to lick this pretty little clit and keep you dripping in my cum every month, and there won’t be another wolf that can get close to you.”

She was on elbows and knees, and he stretched over her, her back pressed to his chest, hips pumping into her ceaselessly. Every thrust was hard and deep, a jolt that rattled her teeth, punctuated by the way his balls slapped into her.

“I should bite you now,” he growled against her hair, hips pumping, pushing his nose into the dark tangle until his mouth grazed her shoulder once more, and she whimpered at the thought. He had a hand pressed at her throat, his big, huge hand. His fingers easily spanned the circumference of her neck, tightening with just enough pressure for her to feel it, and her blood thrilled at how helpless she was beneath him. “Sink my teeth in and claim you. Is that what you want, rabbit? Are you going to take my knot like a good little bitch?”

“No,” she wheezed. His fingers teased her clit, trapping it between his knuckles and pulling until she cried out, his broad fingertips rubbing circles around it that winched her tighter and tighter. “I’m a wolf, Mr. Hemming, not your bitch. I’ll bite you back. I’m hot shit, and you need to work for it.”

Other wolves would have been angry, she knew without question. The moon made their blood hot and their tempers short, and being rejected by a potential mate wouldn’t have been taken kindly . . .

but Grayson only laughed, sounding delighted.

“Always with the smart fucking mouth . . .”

The pressure of his cock was unceasing, the slap of his balls as loud as a thunder crack, and soon she was gasping, shaking through her first orgasm of the night beneath him. Vanessa realized he’d been waiting for her to tip over the edge before making good on his promise. The strangled cry that ripped from her throat as his knot popped into place could most certainly be heard in the lobby of the building, eighteen floors below. She moaned again when his teeth sunk into her shoulder, not quite breaking the skin, not claiming her, but hard enough to leave their mark. A deep groan when his cock erupted inside her, his knot pulsing at the lips of her sex as his balls emptied. His fingers were still circling her clit as he pumped, pulling the pleasure out of her until she collapsed under the weight of it. The second, shallower orgasm nearly made her stomach cramp as it ripped through her, and she clenched again around his knot.

“Mmmmm, squeeze me just like that. Your cunt is going to milk me dry.”

She felt like an overfilled wineskin when he carefully eased them to the mattress, curling around her protectively. His mouth was hot as he kissed her neck and shoulders, tilting her chin up and back

so that he was able to reach her mouth, and the experience was so much different than the other few times she’d let a man do this to her, she thought she might weep.

“What’s it like?” she murmured against his skin a short while later, every slight movement causing a tug where their bodies were tied, his knot still swollen within her. “Coming from a family like yours.”

She had done her homework since the previous month. She’d known he had a wealthy, connected family when she’d started at the firm; she hadn’t realized how connected he was, nor that his family basically ruled their own town.

He chuckled against her hair. “The first-year law student learned how to use a search engine, I see.” She slapped his chest as he laughed, tugging her infinitesimally closer. “Being a Hemming in Cambric Creek, you mean.”

When he didn’t respond for a long moment, she sighed. You should be following his lead. Getting too close doesn’t make sense when this is just a work fling.

“It can be rough.” The unexpected rumble of his voice made her jump, and the arm around her tightened. “Most of the time, it’s fine. It’s whatever. We’re living our lives. My dad made sure we had that option.” The tips of his fingers skated down the line of her spine with a featherweight pressure, his palm flattening out at the small of her back. “Every once in a while though . . . it can be hard. He told us when we were kids that everyone would be watching, no matter what we did. Watching to take their cues from us, watching us to lead so that they could follow. And then when we screwed up, they’d be there watching with knives.”

“Was he right?”

“Oh yeah,” he snorted. “He’s always right, annoyingly. It is expected that my brother will run for office. It’s expected that I’ll take the bench. It’s a lot of expectations for a small town.”

“Is that what you want to do?” she asked, craning her neck to see his expression. “Be a judge?”

“There is no money in that, and I have very expensive tastes.”

Vanessa laughed, considering his immaculate tailoring, the fine dining and expensive champagne, all the little things about him that whispered quiet luxury.

“Yeah, you sure do.”

“Do you want to come with me for the turn? I have a cabin out on Shadowbend; it’s nice and quiet.

It’ll ruin you for having to suffer through turning in the city.”

“When you put it like that, how can I say no?”

His hand skated down the front of her body, pausing to circle a nipple with his thumb. Vanessa bit her lip as she pebbled beneath his touch, stretching her neck out to push back against him as he gave her other breast the same treatment. His fingers walked down the plane of her stomach, slipping between her thighs and curling into her heat, rolling gently over her clit. He continued to tease and play with her until she was bucking against his hand, the tug of his knot was not as painful as it had been earlier, and when she came against him, his cock slipped free. She’d barely been able to catch her breath once the deluge that spilled from her was cleaned up, for he was hard again and ready for her. Rolling her to her back and hitching her legs over his shoulders, he seated himself to the hilt on his first thrust, as if his cock were sliding home.