Sane. Exactly what he wasn’t as he cupped the back of her head and tilted her face to his.
Insane, that was more like it—for a thousand different reasons.
He kissed her anyway.
She had soft lips. Soft and warm, and they tasted like the cherry ChapStick she’d tossed into her bag a few miles back. Her hand slapped against his chest, fingers splayed wide, then fisted around his shirt as she moaned, low and hungry.
He wanted to delve deeper, bite her lip and slide his tongue into her mouth. Instead, he lifted his head and fought to slow his breathing. Sera’s fingernails dug into his chest as she voiced her protest in a snarl of loss and caught his lips again.
He reacted without thought, tightened his fingers in her hair and pulled her head back. “Sera.”
She went still. Not just quiet, but utterly still. Even her breathing stopped for one tense moment, and in that moment her power washed over him in a shuddering wave. An alpha’s magic challenged. Hers was sweet and accepting, clinging to him even as her breath escaped on her rushed apology. “I’m sorry—”
“No, I am.” He stroked his thumb over the shell of her ear. “Not about kissing you. I’m not going to apologize for that. But I shouldn’t have done it here. Now.”
“I don’t have very good control.” A confession. A tortured whisper. “I’m so freaking tired of fucking humans. I eat them alive.”
He knew there were human men who could handle fucking shifters—people did it all the time, Mackenzie for one—but Sera seemed caught up on what she wanted versus what she thought she should want. “What you want isn’t so complicated, sweetheart. You’ve just got to let go.”
She shivered. “Letting go is how you drown.”
He still had the taste of her on his tongue. “Not letting go isn’t worth it.”
“No one’s ever caught me.” Her whole damn body trembled with nervous energy. “Last time I let go, I fell forever.”
Her eyes were deep and still despite all that energy. “Does that mean you’re going to hold back now?” he asked.
She fought the grip on her hair, tugged against it until she could nuzzle his chin. Not a very human gesture, and he could feel the feral edge of her coyote beneath the surface. “I don’t know how to let go a little. Don’t ask for it if you don’t really want it. It’ll change this trip. It’ll change everything.”
It sounded like an ultimatum and a promise. It sounded like a warning. “We’ll find out,” he whispered. “Tonight.”
Warm breath feathered across his ear. She licked the lobe, then closed her teeth on it with a quiet growl. “The clerk inside is staring at us.”
“Do you blame her?” After another heartbeat, Julio released Sera and started the car.
“Probably wondering whether she needs to call the cops on us.”
After retreating to her side of the car, Sera gave the attendant a cheerful wave. “Maybe she was enjoying the show. You’re hotter than any of the softcore stuff on cable.”
“If you say so.”
“You don’t fool me, mister. You look like a man with a healthy stash of porn.” Her seatbelt clicked into place before she turned to eye him. “I’m thinking…busty cheerleaders in short skirts? Or is that too vanilla?”
“I’m all about variety,” he told her solemnly. “Busty cheerleaders are well-represented in my collection, but I would never limit myself so severely.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught her grin. “I stick to the Playgirl stuff. Oiled-up men aren’t really my thing, but at least they go for the hunky ones.”
He flashed her a knowing grin of his own. “And you like the men in uniform, right? All the ladies do.”
“You mean like McNeely?” She whistled as he steered the car out of the parking lot. “That is one fine hunk of wolf. Too bad he’s got a big dumb crush on Giselle.”
After Wesley Dade’s conveniently telling remark, they’d probably spent the weekend in bed together. “That’s your type, huh? Tall, dark and handsome?”
“You have to ask, when I just tried to climb into your lap in a parking lot?”
“You’re the one who brought it up.”
She laughed. “You’re tall, dark and handsome, Mendoza.”
“You’re mostly right, Sinclaire.” He adjusted the rearview mirror so the slanting sunlight wouldn’t blind him and pressed his foot harder on the accelerator. “I’m not particularly tall.”
“You’re taller than me.” She reached across the seat, and her fingers brushed the back of his neck in a caress almost as teasing as her words. “But not too much taller. Which would come in handy, if you’d ever considered bending me over furniture for dirty sex.”
The car swerved as his grip tightened on the wheel. It wasn’t hard to call forth images to match her words—her naked, rounded hips, pale skin under his hands, and the smooth, endless expanse of her back stretched out before him.
Her fingertip snuck under the collar of his shirt. “If you were taller, I’d have to stand on phone books or something.”
That bare touch on the back of his neck hardened his cock. “Arrive alive, honey. Hands to yourself.”
Another laugh, but she eased away. “And this is why everyone in New Orleans thinks we’re going to spend the next week having sex. They all know I can’t keep my hands off you.”
A horrible, truly inspired idea hit him. “What if you have to?”
“Keep my hands off you?” He could almost feel the weight of her gaze on him. “Maybe if you handcuff me to something.”
Yes. “Or if I told you not to touch me until I said you could.”
Her breath hissed out. She squirmed in the seat, her cheeks flushing with arousal. “Who says I’d obey?”
Instinct. “I say.”
“So tell me.”
He laid his hand on her leg. “Don’t touch me, Sera, not once. Not until I say you can.”
Her power licked over him in a gentle wave of prickling warmth. A quiet test, a challenge he answered with his own rush of magic. Sera arched her head back, her mouth falling open on a moan of pure, throaty pleasure.
It did nothing to alleviate his arousal, and Julio stifled a groan. “Is that a yes?”
“Yes.” A whisper. A promise. “I won’t touch you. Not until you say I can.”
His hunch had been right—it turned her on even more. Good. Maybe it would also afford him the opportunity to regain some self-control. “All right, then.”
Her leg tensed under his hand. “So not fair that you get to touch me.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I’m the only one getting hot and bothered over here?”
He chanced a glance her way and slid his hand from her knee. “Oh really?”
She laughed, a sound full of lazy pleasure in spite of her impatient words. “If I look, I’ll be too tempted to touch.”
“Then stop fishing around for me to tell you you’re gorgeous. You know you are.”
“That’s not—” He almost heard the click of her teeth snapping together. She shifted positions again, crossing her legs. “Thank you.”
It sounded sincere, though edged with something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He let it go. “We can stop in Pensacola or keep on until we hit Panama City Beach. It’s not far to either, so I’ll leave it up to you.”
She only hesitated for a moment. “Panama City Beach, maybe? Do we know where we’re staying?”
He spent all day, every day, making plans. Preparations, asking and answering questions.