“Yeah.” I ran one hand over the front of the shirt, holding his gaze. “It’s distracting, honestly. I can smell you all over me.”

Titus dropped the sheet and pulled me closer by a handful of the borrowed shirt. I laughed and wrapped my arms around his neck, as his hands found my hips, over the bunched waist of the drawstring pants. He kissed me. And his scent swallowed me whole.

“Wait, I thought we weren’t supposed to do this,” I said when his mouth trailed down my neck.

His deep chuckle sent a thrill through me. “I thought this was what you wanted.”

“It is,” I groaned, fighting the urge to abandon words entirely as his mouth traveled over my shoulder, pushing the broad neck of the borrowed shirt out of the way. “But I need to know it’s what you want. In spite of the consequences.” I’d made my point—it was none of anyone else’s business if I wanted to kiss Titus, Alpha or not. But I couldn’t cause him any more trouble, especially considering everything else he was already dealing with.

Titus stood straight, and the heat in his eyes nearly roasted me alive. He pressed the length of his body against mine, and I could feel how badly he wanted me. “Any more questions?” The gravely quality of his voice resonated deep inside me, and I wanted to roll around in that sound. I wanted to hear it in the dark, in the middle of the night.

I wanted to hear it in my dreams.

But…

I put one hand on his chest and took a step back. “Wanting this right now isn’t enough, Titus. I don’t want to be what keeps you from leading your Pride. From getting it officially recognized. From helping all the people who need you.”

“You aren’t the problem,” he said. “The council is the problem. Their rules don’t allow for the fact that strays face a different reality than natural-born shifters. For the reality of mistakes made before we even know they’re mistakes. But at some point, they’re going to realize that their world is changing. That a political power structure that doesn’t support the majority of its citizens—whether or not they’re acknowledged as citizens—can’t stay in power for long. I believe that time is coming, with or without me. With or without you. And I’m no longer willing to pretend I don’t want to touch you just so they might consider acknowledging a populace they have no right to reject in the first place.”

I smiled up at him, my pulse racing in response to his. “You’re hot when you get political.”

His arms slid around me, and the stubble on his chin caught in my hair. “I can recite the US presidents in chronological order,” he whispered.

“That’s a shame,” I whispered back. “You might get laid if you could do it alphabetically…”

“John Adams. John Quincy Adams.” He pulled his shirt off and dropped it on the floor, his heated gaze challenging me to make good on my word. “Chester A. Arthur. James—”

SIXTEEN

Robyn

“—Buchanan.”

I laughed as I pushed him onto the bed, suddenly glad we hadn’t made it past the fitted sheet.

Titus looked up at me, and his grin kindled a fire in low and sensitive places. “Do you need to hear more, or are you convinced?”

I settled onto the bed over him, straddling his hips, and the position gave me a tantalizing sense of control. And another intimate brush with the very warm, very hard evidence of his arousal. “I’m convinced of your alphabetical proficiency, Mr. Alexander. But I might need you to demonstrate a few other critical skills…” I rocked forward, pressing myself into him.

Titus groaned beneath me, and that sense of control swelled into a provocative sense of power. What other noises could I get out of him?

Intrigued, I leaned forward slowly, holding his gaze as long as I could, until my cheek brushed the stubbly length of his jaw. I bit his ear with just enough pressure to draw a little gasp from his throat. Pleased with the sound, I rolled my hips again and sucked his earlobe into my mouth, grazing it with my teeth.

Titus moaned softly. His hands found my hips, and he guided them back, then rocked me forward again, pulling me firmer against him. Tearing a groan from me.

Eager now, I shimmied down the length of his body, dragging my tongue along his neck. His hands slid over my waist and beneath my shirt, skimming my ribs, then circling to my spine. Leaving chills in their wake.

“Mmmm…” I mumbled against his chest, between nibbling kisses. I inched my way lower, trailing my tongue over the peak of his left nipple, then down the hard planes of his chest. Every inch of his skin was stretched taut over well-defined muscle. He was pure power, draped in human flesh and held in check by an iron will I suddenly had the desperate urge to test.

I nibbled and licked my way down his chest, delighting in every groan and inhalation, and the lower I went, the higher Titus’s hands pulled my shirt. By the time I dipped my tongue into the well of his navel, he was breathing in short pants, his hands fisted around the hem of the shirt caught beneath my breasts.

“Robyn…” he moaned, and the throaty sound of my name sent a lick of heat south of my own navel.

Titus sat up, pushing me back, but his hands steadied me as I stood. He pulled the borrowed shirt over my head with agonizing slowness, his fingers skimming my arms as they went. Finally, the shirt hit the floor

He let his hands glide down my sides, warm against my skin, but his gaze was the more intimate touch as it slid over my breasts, then found its way to my face. “God, you’re beautiful.” He pulled me into a deep, hungry kiss, as my hands explored his chest.

Titus groaned again and picked me up as he stood. I wrapped my legs around him, then he turned and placed me on the bed. “Pants,” I gasped.

Titus unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them to the floor. He stepped out of his pants and socks and stood in front of me wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs straining against the demands of his erection.

I started to untie my borrowed sweats, but he pushed my hands away with a growl, and I laughed as more chills slid down my spine. Titus lowered himself onto one elbow next to me. His mouth found my left breast, hot against my sensitive skin, and I buried one hand in his hair, arching into his touch.

His tongue flicked over my nipple, and my eyes fell closed. His hand glided over my stomach, and I caught my breath. His fingers slid between my thighs over my sweats, and when he began to stroke me through the cloth, my hand tightened around a handful of his hair.