Tressie_Lockwood_-_Tempting_A_Wolf.pdf

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Cover art by Amira Press © October 2008

Amira Press

Baltimore, MD 21216

www.amirapress.com

ISBN: 978-1-935348-01-6

No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means,

including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and e-mail, without prior written

permission from Amira Press.

Chapter One

For two years, she had watched him. Her sister’s boss. He stopped by the house every now

and then, ostensibly to pick up papers Renee had been working on, but Tameca had her own

theories about why a man so fine, so made for a woman to bow in submission at his feet,

would bother coming to his employee and not the other way around.

Tameca often blocked out that he might want Renee, and so he chose any excuse to see her

more often than three days a week, her work schedule. And what man wouldn’t want Renee?

She sighed with her cheek pressed at the corner of the wall between the hallway and the

living room of their tiny home. While Renee tilted her head to discuss something found on

one of the sheets of paper, her long sheet of perfect hair fell forward over her shoulder. The

sunlight caught it just right. Marcus would be a fool not to notice that and everything else

about her older sister.

Tameca tugged at her unruly hair. On any given day, if it wasn’t frizzy, it was limp. Today

was a frizz day. She reached up, not taking her eyes off Marcus, to smooth it down with both

hands. The movement brought her attention to her breasts. Too big. She groaned in

frustration.

To her shame, the sound caught Marcus’s attention. He gave a slow, sexy grin that set her

body on fire. He turned in Tameca’s direction. “Well, hello, Tami.”

Her heart threatened to stop at both his nickname for her and the timbre of his voice—deep

and seductive.

“Leave her alone, Marcus,” Renee warned.

He ignored her sister and strolled over to tower above Tameca. The top of her head came to

his nose. He was a good height at somewhere around six-foot-five, above average, but not

too tall.

He played with a lock of her hair, probably fighting not to frown in confusion at its wildness,

she thought. “And how’s my little mocha beauty today?” he whispered. “Did you miss me?”

I’m twenty-five, not an impressionable teenager , she reminded herself. The pep talk meant zip. He

smelled too good. Not cologne, or not only cologne. There was an animal scent to him,

something wild and untamed. She longed to rip her clothes off and beg him to take her.

She tried playing it cool instead. “Hey, what’s up, Marcus?” She flattened her back against

the wall and folded her hands behind her. She wanted to be cool, but the knack had all gone

to Renee. Instead, she was a dumpy, plump woman, still a virgin at her age. Not normally

down on herself to the extent she was feeling now, she figured it was Marcus’s fault. He

brought out the worst in her.

His deep brown eyes, almost black with intensity, narrowed as he looked down at her. He

rested an arm beside her head and moved so close that the heat of his body alone produced

the wetness in her panties.

His gaze dropped to her lips. She alternated between licking them and chewing the bottom

one. His head lowered until his full lips were a fraction of an inch from hers.

“Do you wonder what I think about you?” His breath warmed her mouth.

“W-What’s that?”

He shifted his hard, muscled frame, which caused his thigh to brush hers. She had to fight

not to spread her legs in invitation to him. The flick of his eyebrow toward his hairline was

an indication that he knew how he affected her.

“I wonder what your mouth would taste like, whether you would be sweet and intoxicating.”

To her relief, he turned his head after he spoke, but he soon ran his nose along her neck. As

if she had no command over it, her head tilted back to expose her throat to him. “Because

you smell like you’d be delicious,” he declared.

Before her knees could give and she sagged against him, Renee jerked him away. “Marcus,

get the hell away from my sister! I told you, she’s off-limits!”

Why, why, why! Tameca fought a groan of frustration. The man got her wet and excited every

time he came to their house, but he never did anything other than tease her. So unfair.

When he pushed his hands into the pockets of his slacks and strolled toward the front door,

Renee directed an angry glare at her. “I told you he wants one thing and one thing only,

Tameca. Besides that, he’s out of your league. Now, stop encouraging him!”

Encouraging him? Men did not line up at her door to spend time with her. There was no

manual written on how she should seduce him, not a man like Marcus and a woman like her.

So, at what point had she been encouraging him?

“I didn’t do anything,” she grumbled. “If you want him so much, just go ahead and jump

him. A man like Marcus wouldn’t be a problem for you to get.”

Renee looked over to Marcus, who appeared not to be paying either of them any mind. She

bet he was straining his ears to pick up their conversation despite the look of disinterest. Nor

did he look like he needed to take a cold shower, which is what Tameca felt she needed to

cool down her raging lust. Her sister hooked her arm and dragged her along the hall and into

the kitchen. Tameca rolled her eyes. There was more than enough distance between them

and Marcus to keep him from overhearing. Renee was being dramatic.

“Tameca, it’s your hormones, your desire for him that’s driving him.”

“What are you talking about? A man like that can have any woman he wants, and you said

yourself enough times, he’s all sex.” She shrugged. “From where I’m standing, he doesn’t

have to be provoked. And I still maintain that I didn’t do anything this time or any other.

You act like I’m breaking the damn law just to look.”

Renee paced away, clenching her fists at her sides. “I don’t want this life for you.”

“What life? What are you talking about, Renee?” She glared at her sister. From the first

moment Marcus had begun to tease her and she had started to lust over him, Renee had

gone into “Mama Bear protecting her young” mode. The attitude seemed blown out of

proportion, especially given that Tameca was not a young innocent who couldn’t look out

for herself.

“I can’t explain it to you. Look, when you lust over Marcus, he picks up on it. Men like him

are more attracted to women who want them. A blind man can pick up on the vibes you

send out.”

Tameca crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t have to be insulting. I still say there’s

nothing wrong with looking. But quit worrying. He’s what, thirteen years older than I am?

Rich. Successful and sexy as hell. I know he’s out of my league, okay. I’m not going after

him. Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but I’m not the prettiest woman on the block.”

Capturing her in a bear hug, her sister crooned, “Aw, baby, you’re beautiful, and you’ll find

the right man soon. Not a sex-crazed wol . . . ah . . . man like Marcus. Trust me.”

Tameca wiggled in the viselike grip. “Okay, okay. You can stop with the mothering, Renee.

Message received.”

Renee laughed and left the kitchen to see her boss off. Tameca sank into a chair and rested

her head on her arms. She prayed her sister was right, that she would find someone.

Unlike her sister, who didn’t seem to care if she herself found a steady guy, Tameca longed

for someone special in her life. The men picking up Renee from one week to the next were

varied and many—all of them sizzling hot. Yet, from conversations she’d had with Renee,

the woman didn’t have a drop of feeling for any of them. They were no more than bedroom

fun or someone to spend an evening with at dinner, taking in a movie, or dancing. What

Tameca wouldn’t give for just that much.

After the slam of the front door reached her, Tameca looked up to see her sister as she

strolled back into the kitchen while flipping through a stack of mail. “Bills, bills, bills. Not!”

“Not what?” Tameca spotted an orange and black postcard in the stack. “What’s that?”

“It doesn’t concern you, Tameca.” Renee would have thrown it into the trash if Tameca

hadn’t leaned over the table and snatched it away.

Ignoring the comment, she read the glossy card. “A Halloween Bash! At Marcus’s mansion!

Oh, wow, are you going, Renee?”

“Not on your life. I can just imagine what goes on there.”

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