Ben
I didn't know what to expect when I got to the Sun Times—maybe that Dani would be giving me the cold shoulder treatment again. Or maybe that she would be brisk and professional and pretend that nothing had ever happened. What I didn't expect was for her to be wearing her shortest black skirt and her highest black heels and looking like a goddess. Oh, don't get me wrong—she still looked professional. The tailored black jacket that went with the skirt and heels was sexy in a severe kind of way but Fifth Avenue to the hilt just the same. But still, she looked amazing.
“Morning,” I said, trying not to stare as I put down my briefcase on my side of the huge mahogany desk.
“Morning, partner.” Dani didn't sit on her side. Instead she swayed over and perched herself on the edge of the desk right beside me. I heard the faint whisper of her pantyhose as she crossed her long, beautiful legs and the short skirt rode up to mid-thigh. It was all I could do not to put my hand on her leg. I wanted to look down and pretend to be engrossed in the contents of my briefcase, but I couldn't do it. I let my gaze wander over her body, helpless to look away.
Dani started to talk about something to do with work—what I didn't know because I couldn't make my brain concentrate on anything she was saying. Then she leaned across me to pick up something off the other side of the desk. When I saw the tops of her full breasts pushing for release beneath the white silk shell top she had on under her black jacket, my mouth went dry.
That was how my Friday started, and it went on like that all day long. Wherever I went, Dani seemed to be there, giving me a view of her shapely legs or full breasts. The way her long, silky hair swished over her shoulders and her heart-shaped ass swayed as she walked was pure sex. Even the way she ate her sandwich at lunch was sexy. When she licked a crumb off the corner of her mouth with her little pink tongue, I wanted to throw her down on the desk and lick every other part of her luscious body.
Everything she did, every gesture she made, seemed purely innocent, as though she didn't know what she was doing to me. But she had to feel my eyes on her, didn't she? I couldn't figure out if she was coming on to me deliberately, or if she was showing me what I was missing. Or maybe she just had no idea how hot under the collar she was making me.
By mid-afternoon I was in serious pain from a hard-on that hadn't gone down all day, and a red haze of frustration hung over my vision. My need for Dani was reaching a fever pitch, and I had no choice but to acknowledge that I wasn't going to be able to work with her anymore—not like we had in the past, anyway. The days of a platonic partnership were behind us, and I hadn't gotten a thing done all day except jerking off in the men's room twice. Not that it helped the situation much.
I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I mean, I'd seen Dani in sexy clothes many times over the years. In fact, I'd often thought she liked showing her body off to me, as long as me looking at her was as far as it went. But now my hands were itching to touch her, and my mouth ached to kiss her all over, just as I had at the Mabon ceremony. I kept remembering how soft and warm and willing her naked body had felt under mine, how tight her soft little pussy was wrapped around my cock, the way she'd gasped and moaned as I'd thrust deep inside her…
“Ben?” Dani's voice drew me out of my contemplation. She was standing by the door of our office, looking at me expectantly.
“Huh?” I realized that I sounded less than articulate and tried to drag my mind out of the gutter. “Yes?” I asked pointedly, as she closed the door, cutting us off from the rest of the news staff.
Dani was biting her full bottom lip, a look of indecision on her delicate features.
“Well?” I asked pointedly, as she walked toward me, still not saying anything.
“Well…” She frowned. “Do…do you think it's hot in here?”
I had the feeling it wasn't what she had meant to say at all, but before I could reply, she was unbuttoning the severely tailored black jacket and taking it off. My mouth went dry all over again as I saw that the white shell blouse she had on underneath it was practically see-through. And she was wearing some kind of a half-cup bra beneath that—something that supported her full breasts without covering the nipples. I could see their stiff, pink points pressing against the thin fabric of her shirt.
“Dani,” I said in a strangled voice at the same time she said, “Ben…”
“You first.” She gestured at me and walked over to the desk to drape her jacket across her chair. She bent over, fiddling with some paperwork and giving me a clear view down the front of her blouse where her breasts hung down like ripe fruit. Her pink nipples looked like suckable red raspberries. I nearly came in my pants.
“Dani,” I began, trying to tear my eyes away from the erotic sight of her nearly naked breasts and failing. “I can't work like this. I mean…”
“Oh!” Her exclamation cut me off, and I dragged my eyes away from her breasts to see her holding up her index finger.
“You all right?” I asked warily.
“No.” She came around the desk and perched on my side of it again, just as she had that morning. “Paper cut—see?” She held out her shapely index finger to show me the thin red line bisecting the pad.
“Sorry,” I said, trying to sound sympathetic and failing. My eyes kept wandering off her finger to other parts of her anatomy. God, I was losing it here!
“Do you think…I mean, would you mind healing it?” Dani looked at me from under her thick lashes, her green eyes full of uncertainty.
“Healing it?” I asked stupidly.
“Sure.” She shrugged. “You know—the way you healed my arm? And those cuts on my thighs?” She held the hurt finger closer to my face. “Please?”
I closed my eyes briefly, willing myself to control the urge to throw her down on the desk and have her right then and there. Was she crazy reminding me of the way I had healed her before? Of the way she had groaned and gasped as I ate her sweet, ripe pussy? Was she trying to tempt me to hurt her again? I could still remember her warm, salty/sweet taste and the way she had grabbed at my hair as I fucked my tongue into her tight, slippery channel, the wild, feminine scent of her cunt as she arched her back to press against my face…
“Ben?” I looked up and realized that Dani was waiting for me to do or say something. Oh, right, her finger. Helpless to do anything else, I took her hand in mine and sucked the wounded digit into my mouth. At once my senses were flooded with her—her delicious scent, her luscious taste—and I felt the tingling heat flowing between us, just as I had the very first time I had healed her. The sexual energy we generated raised the hairs at the back of my neck like static electricity, crackling along my nerves and making my cock so hard I felt like it was going to explode.
“Oh.” Dani threw back her head, her long hair brushing the small of her back, her eyes closed tight in apparent bliss. I could see her breasts heaving, the hard nipples pressing against the thin top as she surrendered to the feeling of my mouth on her flesh. I wondered if she was getting wet, if her soft little pussy was getting all hot and swollen with desire. I put my hand on her thigh, reveling in the feel of her silky skin beneath her pantyhose, and she spread her legs, offering me easy access.
I had my hand halfway up her inner thigh and could actually feel the heat of her pussy radiating against my fingertips when I finally came to my senses. What was I doing? Getting ready to touch her, to take her, to hurt her as I had before? I didn't know what was going on with my partner today, but I knew I wasn't willing to go down that road again.
I forced myself to get out of my chair and get away from her, even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. I went all the way across the room where I stood against the wall, panting.
“Ben?” Dani looked at me, her eyes still only half-focused.
“I'm sorry,” I told her, my voice a hoarse growl. “I don't…don't know why I can't stop reacting to you today. I know we said everything would go back to the way it used to be, but I don't know…”
“I do,” she interrupted me. She sat up on the desk and brushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. “Molly told me—”
“Wait a minute.” I held up a hand to stop her. “You were talking to the priestess of the pack? Why?”
“I had some questions I thought she could answer,” Dani said. “And I…I told her that you and I had agreed to go back to the way things were before. Before we…before Mabon, I mean.”
“And?” I raised an eyebrow at her and dared to walk a little closer.
Dani looked down for a moment, her eyes veiled by the thick fringe of her lashes. “And she said that it might be difficult. Because when a were, uh, claims a woman, it creates a kind of bond—a tie that's not easily broken or forgotten about.”
I frowned at her, trying to understand what she was saying. Was she telling me that I had inadvertently tied her to me that night on the rock under the Hunger Moon? Was she saying that the consequences of my actions were going to follow both of us around forever?
“God, Dani,” I said hoarsely. “I'm so sorry.”
“Well, I'm not.” She looked up, her green eyes flashing.
I looked at her, uncertain of my next move. “Dani,” I began but she interrupted me.
“Ben, I think I know a way to cure McKinsey Cullen. A way to turn her from a wolf back into a girl.”
“What?” I shook my head at her sudden change of subject. Sometimes Dani was just too hard to follow. “Have you been studying Doctor Locke's notes some more?” I asked, dropping back into my chair and being careful not to touch her.
“No.” Dani shook her head. “I think there's another way. One that has nothing to do with science or gene therapy or any of that. But I need your help.”
“My help? Why? What do you want me to do?” I spread my hands.
“I can't tell you here.” Dani looked around the office as though there might be someone listening in. “And we can't do it here, either,” she said. “I've got McKinsey back at my place—that's where it has to be done.”
“Where what has to be done?” I asked warily. “And do you mean to tell me you have that huge white wolf locked up in your condo?”
“She's out in my back yard, and when I left she was being very good.”
“But, Dani, she's a very large animal and your yard is tiny,” I objected. “Do you think that's safe?”
Dani gestured impatiently. “She's fine—perfectly safe. But that's not the point.”
“What's the point?” I asked her.
“The point is will you help me or not?” She leaned forward and I breathed in the warm, secret scent of her skin. “Please, Ben, I can't do this without you. I really need your help here.”
“Dani…” I didn't know what to say. I wanted to help her in any way I could, but the idea of going to her home and being alone with her felt dangerous. It made me sad to think about that because once I had spent as much time, if not more, at her place as I did at my own.
Seeing the uncertainty in my face, Dani slid off the desk and sank to her knees in front of me. She put her hands on my thighs, and I felt the fire of our contact even through the material of my pants.
“I'll beg if I have to,” she said in a low voice. She pressed forward, and I could feel the soft brush of her breasts against my legs.
“You don't have to beg,” I said in a strangled voice. “Please, Dani, get up.” Just having her that close and in that submissive position, on her knees before me with her mouth almost at the level of my cock, made me rock hard all over again. I kept thinking of what it would feel like to have her soft, pink lips enclosing my aching hardness, the sweet, hot, wet sensation of sliding into her body. God! I fisted my hand on my thighs. I wanted to be inside her, claiming her all over again, leaving no doubt in her mind or mine that she belonged to me.
“I won't get up until you promise to come to my house after work and help me with this.” Dani leaned forward, her hands sliding up my thighs and working their way dangerously close to my groin.
“Dani,” I said, feeling like my self control was going to snap like a weak and rotten thread at any moment. “Dani, please get up. I don't…I can't…” I shook my head, unable to voice what I was feeling.
“You don't want me? Or at least, not like this?” Dani's green eyes clouded with pain and she started to slide away from me.
“No, God, no!” I grabbed her wrists, holding her in place. “No, Dani, I want you too much—that's the problem. I just…I don't trust myself right now. Not the way I'm feeling.” I lowered my eyes, unable to meet her searching gaze any more. “I hurt you once,” I told her. “I don't want to risk hurting you again.”
“You won't hurt me,” she said softly. I dared to look at her, and her eyes were full. She blinked and a silvery tear slid down one flushed cheek. “Ben,” she whispered, “I trust you. Why can't you trust yourself?”
“How can you ask me that after what happened?” I said. There was a hard, unyielding lump in my throat that I couldn't seem to swallow around. I let her go abruptly. “I don't even know what you want from me,” I said.
“I want you to come to my place after work with an open mind,” she said, getting slowly to her feet. “Promise me, Ben. I know you won't break your word.”
Dani could be relentless when she wanted something, and this was plainly something she wanted. And I had never been any good at saying no to her. I sighed deeply.
“I'll be there,” I said. “What time?”