Page 3 of I Hate Myself For Loving You (Wolf Mates #7)

Chapter Three

“S o when are we going to stop behaving as if we don’t know each other, Avery?”

Avery leaned back, bracing herself on his hard forearms. His rugged face, always suspiciously pale for the amount of time he spent in the sun, loomed in front of hers. “I never said I didn’t know you,” she hissed, finally losing the control she’d promised to keep.

“Then you’ve told the Adams you’re privy to me in, er, the most carnal of ways?” he taunted, but didn’t elaborate.

Her cheeks burned. “That’s no one’s business but mine. It has nothing to do with what’s happening here at the Adams’. However, if you choose, you can give me up. Go crazy,” she dared him, defiantly letting her gaze slip to his.

Lassiter’s hand slid down her spine, resting on the curve of her ass. The hip hugging jeans she wore now seemed terribly snug, making the heat of his bulk an entity she wasn’t willing to encounter. His tight, full body press kept her from thinking clearly.

“So, that was just a weak moment for you last year in California? I meant nothing to you, is what you’re saying?

I’m some cheap lay to be discarded at whim?

” His tone was light, but the underlying anger in it was there too.

She sensed it in the way he said discarded.

Eyes like melted chocolate stared into hers, daring her.

To do what, she didn’t know.

To say what, she knew even less.

Oy. No, it hadn’t been like that at all.

It had, however, been very foolish on her part, and when all was said and done, she’d left California for less humiliating territory with her tail between her legs, literally.

“I’m saying it happened and it’s over. What’s happening here has nothing to do with California. ”

His head dipped as he rasped his tongue over the smooth column of her throat, evoking her raw nerves to dance to life. “Do you always bed the men you hope to annihilate for your cause ?”

“Do you bed the women who hope to annihilate your cause to prevent them from coming out on top?” she shot back snidely.

“I was on top, as I recall.”

Avery’s body trembled, not only with the memory of their one-time encounter, but with the idea that she wasn’t trying very hard to keep another from occurring. “No, Lassiter. You know?—”

“I know nothing, Avery. I know we screwed our brains out and the next day you were gone. Your replacement didn’t have nearly the ass you do, especially when he chained himself naked to a tree.”

“I had business to attend to elsewhere. Now I’m here and we meet again. You on one side and me on another. That’s not news. We had no business doing what we did.

So could we forget that and move on like adults?”

His fingers swept over the underside of her breast and his mouth lingered over hers, the tip of his nose just touching her own. “Sure we can,” he answered cockily before taking her lips to his, nibbling the soft flesh.

“Good,” she muttered, more to herself than anyone else.

Rotating her head away from his, she said brokenly, “That means—well, it means—that you have to—ohhh…” she murmured, distracted by the slither of his tongue, silky and hot, cool and sweet all at the same time, slipping between her lips and devouring her senses.

Her mouth parted like the Great Divide, opening in acceptance, letting his tongue wreak havoc with her body.

His chuckle was low when Avery responded, returning the kiss fully by arching into him.

Long fingers dipped into the top of her baggy sweater, trailed over the top of her cleavage, teasing her nipple with an elusive wisp of a swipe.

He lingered, caressing the skin and kissing her with a greedy mouth that demanded she comply.

Lassiter’s hands delved deeper, popping a nipple out of her lace bra and rolling it between his fingers.

Avery’s groan was long, shuddering, tormented by the electric shots of pleasure that flew between her legs with rapid fire. Liquid and like molten lava, she found herself wrapping her arms around his shoulders, pulling him in closer, inviting him to relieve the burning ache in her.

His fingers found the buttons of her sweater and deftly opened them, parting the material to pop the clasp on the front of her bra. He roamed over the swell of each breast, moving from the soft texture of skin to the harder, rippled texture of her nipple.

The internal battle for supremacy was losing in the wake of Lassiter’s hands.

Strong, callused, expertly moving from breast to breast, massaging them in sensuous circles.

She shivered, relaxing into him, straddling Lassiter’s thick thigh and rubbing against it with a slow slide. The friction of her jeans, coupled with his long fingers teasing her nipple, left Avery wet, squirming, and she clung to him.

When he dove for her nipple, latching onto it and sliding his tongue along the rigid flesh, Avery sighed, leaving a residual squeak to slip out in its wake. His mouth was heaven, his tongue raspy and hot, lapping at her aching nipple.

Her trembling was supported only by his solid hold on her, keeping her from melting on the spot. The sharp sound of the zipper on her jeans sliding down mingled with her exhale.

Lassiter sinuously slid a hot hand over her abdomen, circling her navel with his forefinger, trailing it over the top of her bikini underwear. Slipping under the silk, he wasted no time spreading her flesh, roaming over the lips at the apex of her thighs, wet and hungry for his touch.

She bucked against his hand, letting the heat of it hold her captive, absorbing the delicious torment he stirred.

When his finger found the hard, swollen nub of her clit, she bit her lower lip to keep from howling. Lassiter fondled her clit with gentle passes, then slid a finger into her passage, allowing a moment for her to adjust before thrusting with firm strokes.

The rise of an orgasm Avery shouldn’t be having lashed at her with a careless abandon. Small tendrils of smoke gave way to an inferno of sensation, clawing at her gut and settling between her legs.

She rode his finger, focusing all of her attention on the rigid pleasure it brought, while his mouth tugged at her nipple. Her hands grabbed at the thick locks of hair on his head, clutching and driving them into his scalp as the wild need for release took over everything else.

When his teeth grazed her already sensitive nipple and the heel of his hand caressed her clit, Avery whimpered, then let go with a heave of air. The pressure of her climax suspended and held her in its grip, then slammed into her with hurricane force, making her knees buckle.

Lassiter’s firm hold on her never wavered. When his skillful ministrations seized Avery, she collapsed against his rock-solid frame, blowing out a gush of air and clinging to him for support.

Dragging her upward, Lassiter stood her up to face him and smiled. “So, I guess we’re going to do the ‘this was a mistake’ thing again, right?”

Avery’s lips wouldn’t move, her throat desert dry. She shook her head. Christ, what was wrong with her? What was it about this man that one moment had her wanting to slice his balls up and serve them as paté on a cracker, and the next melting like so much butter in his hot hands?

Gathering her focus, Avery looked into his dark brown eyes and gave him a saucy smile. “No. It’s never a mistake if I come .”

His eyebrow slid upward, but his impassive face remained calm, letting her know he wasn’t going to be ruffled by her smart mouth. “Well, at least someone did.”

“The right someone,” she shot back through clamped teeth.

He stepped back from her, letting his arms fall to his sides. “That someone is still not going to get what she came here for. Whether she lets me play with her fun stuff or not.”

“Yeah? Well, that street goes both ways, stud! Playing with my fun stuff doesn’t mean I’m going to stop harassing you until you go away.”

The implication that she’d come to win by any means, even if that means was trolling, finished it for her. It simmered in her brain, boiling over.

Her temper did what it always did. Flared, zinged to an all-points bulletin, and then spilled out of her mouth. “Screw you, Lassiter! I don’t give a shit how many bulldozers you have or how much money you throw around. I’ll see you in hell before I’ll let you trash any more of the Adams’ land!”

Swinging around on her heel, Avery clomped out of his shabby trailer and into the night, letting her anger give her access to shift.

The morph of bone led to the ripple of muscle and tufts of fur appeared on her arms as she bent to allow the flow of her change. Her clothes fell away, pooling on the ground, shredding with the force of her growth.

She shook her now furry head, the snap of her ears satisfied her that she had indeed completed the shift. Once on all fours, Avery lurched forward, hitting her stride with a light jog, then allowing her fury to fuel a fast-paced trot.

The fucking son of a bitch.

The goddamned, thick haired, hard bodied, rippled abbed son of a bitch.

How dare he even imply she was willing to hock her wares for an environmental cause.

Though, she just couldn’t figure out why her cause didn’t stop her from allowing him access to the wares in question.

* * * * *

“Screwyou. Screwyou,” Bud chirped from his cage across the room.

“Okay, I get it. Shut up already,” Lassiter warned testily. “Don’t make me take your bird bath away, pal.”

Damn it. He hadn’t meant for things to get carried away. Avery had a way about her that either had him cocked and at attention, or so pissed off he couldn’t see straight. Her defiant arrogance, her flashing blue eyes, her rigid posture lent to a lust that took on a life of its own.

She wasn’t what everyone was calling beautiful these days. Her lips weren’t overblown, but soft and supple, nonetheless. Her body almost too lean and her hair, always falling down around her heart shaped face in unruly, silken strands of blonde the color of wheat in the sunlight, was always a mess.

Her nails were short and sometimes ragged—most likely from all of the chaining herself to inanimate machinery. Her clothes were anything but what he’d recently seen labeled as trendy on TikTok or Instagram.

Avery didn’t much care for female finery, he supposed. She didn’t wear what the current fashions were, but none of that stopped him from wanting her just the same.

She did things to his man parts no woman should be allowed to do.

It could be called indecent, and all she had to do was show up.

After almost a year since their last meeting, he still warred with the urge to hunt her luscious ass down and make her submit to him.

Yet, there she stood at his door, fresh faced and blonde, fighting the obvious urge to wallop him in the teeth and it started all over again.

She turned him on. Her scent made his nostrils flare and his unrelieved cock swell, straining against his jeans. She engaged every last sense he had, and it infuriated him to find that he couldn’t keep his hands to himself.

Avery smelled like a warm summer breeze laced with a hint of jasmine. It clung to his nose and lingered there. Bringing his hand to his face, he caught the remnants of her desire on his fingers. Tangy and sweetly laden with the thick cream of her satisfaction.

In exasperation, he shoved a hand in his pocket. Fingering the well-worn, rumpled piece of paper that never left his hands, the reminder of why he was on Adams land to begin with, Lassiter resolved to get a better grip on his loins.

No one, not even Avery-juicy-lipped Palmer, was going to keep him from achieving that.

No one.