Page 291 of Pucking Feral: Part Two

Ivy rolls toward me, her laughter tapering into breathy hiccups as she props herself up on one elbow.

"So, Val." Her eyes are wild in the moonlight, pupils blown wide with the latent ferality still simmering beneath the surface. "Does this count as you catching me?"

I raise an eyebrow.

"Or did I catch you?"

I exhale through my nose. "Perhaps."

Her grin widens and she pushes her hair back, water dripping down her face and onto the grass. "And so the big bad wolf got taken down by a tiny omega with pepper spray and a duffel bag full of underwear."

"The pepper spray was cheating."

"Not if it wasn't against the rules."

She's right.

This little omega has outmaneuvered me at every turn since the moment she cracked me across the skull with a fire extinguisher, and the fact that I keep being surprised by it says more about me than it does about her.

"You caught me," I concede.

Her grin softens. "But you did save my life."

My lips curve slightly. "I suppose I did."

Her eyes drop to my mouth.

I don't move. I don't let myself, even as she lowers her mouth to mine.

She won.

The prize, if she wants it still, is hers alone.

Her lips are freezing, mine are numb, and we both taste like river water, the blood from where I bit my tongue, and the faintest trace of capsicum from the pepper spray she blasted into my face.

It's everything I ever dreamed it would be.

Her hand finds the side of my jaw and holds it there, her thumb pressing against the hinge of my bone, and the kiss deepens as I open my mouth, my tongue darting out to lick my blood off her lips. She makes a soft sound against my mouth and my hand finally comes up to cradle the back of her skull, fingers threading through her wet, tangled hair.

The second kiss is warmer than the first.

The third is fire.

She bites my lower lip. I growl at her. She grins against my mouth and does it again, harder.

"Careful," I murmur.

"Or what?"

"This wolf might bite back."

She pulls back just far enough to look at me, her ocean eyes inches from mine, her swollen lips curved in a dare.

I catch her mouth and bite. Just enough to make her gasp and arch into me, her fingers curling in the ruined fabric of my turtleneck.

Her body presses flush against mine on the cold grass, every inch of her soaked and shivering and perfect, and I pull her closer with both arms until there's no space left between us. My hand slides down the curve of her spine and settles at the small of her back, holding her against me while she kisses me like she's trying to eat me alive.

My other hand tangles deeper in her wet hair, tilting her head to change the angle, and she whimpers against my mouth.