She broke the kiss when she placed me gently on the bed, then climbed on top of me and turned off the bedside lamp.

I looked at Lauren and felt like I was stuck in some erotic, thrilling black-and-white movie. Her curls fell around her incredibly pale face, making it appear even more striking. With her on top of me, the cut of her gown pulled away from her body. It was loose enough that my gaze was drawn to the swell of her white breasts.

A new wave of desire filled me. The anticipation speeded up my pulse, made my heart beat faster. Could she see me as well as I could see her in the dark? But before I could ask, she grabbed the front of my shoulder holster, pulling my face to hers.

She kissed me, gently at first like the brush of a moth's wing. I pressed into the kiss, begging her for the depth my mouth craved, my body craved. She pushed me down on the pillows, her pale face looming like some dark beauty. With both hands she grabbed the strap of the holster, and before I could tell her not to, the leather snapped.

"There are things I want from you, Camz," she said, words like a susurrus wind tickling autumn leaves. Lauren's 's power rode the air and pulsed against my skin like a clinging mist.

Her voice sent chills up my spine, encouraging my body to rise to meet hers.

"Things that might frighten you," she whispered against the fall of my hair. Her hand traveled the front of my body. She placed her hand between my legs, and even through the jeans, I could feel the weight of her power. The promise of what we were about to do.

The wolf stirred, rising in me like some great wave. She pushed near the surface, but instead of threatening to break through, she waited. I placed my hands on Lauren's hips, sliding them up the curve of her body until I cupped both of her breasts.

Her dark eyelashes fluttered.

"You won't frighten me, Lauren."

"Are you so sure?" Her body went inhumanly still. I sat up and caught her shoulders. Lauren let me push her onto her back.

I climbed on top of her, grabbed a handful of her gown, and tugged. The buttons popped in a small orchestra of ripping thread and little pings as some of them hit the wall. I pressed my mouth against her collarbone, nibbling lightly. Lauren moaned.

Her hands were cool as she raised my shirt and stroked my stomach, but instead of taking off my shirt she tucked her fingers under the waistband of my jeans. At the touch of her fingers so dangerously close, I reached down to unbutton them. I was going through far too many clothes these days. And I hate shopping. I don't mind the new clothes, but I don't enjoy trying to pile-drive through a maze of shop-crazy women. This little werewolf is not that courageous.

Her mouth was suddenly against the side of my neck, tongue lingering over my suddenly thudding pulse. "No." She pushed my shoulders and I fell back.

Lauren didn't bother to unbutton my jeans. She caught the two folds of material and jerked, dragging them down in an achingly slow manner. The line of my black satin panties showed against my pale skin. She lowered her head, planting kisses across the jagged slant of my hipbone.

"Are you afraid?" she asked.

"If saying I'm afraid will get your mouth between my legs, then yes, I'm afraid, very afraid."

Lauren's laugh vibrated against me, caused my spine to bow. She licked a slow path across the top of my underwear, sealing a kiss against my skin. The muscles in my stomach contracted, rigid against the pleasure. She placed those small kisses on the lower half of my body until her hands slid up over my hips, across my ribs.

"Lauren," I moaned. "Please..."

"Please what?" Her words were muffled against my thigh.

"Make love to me."

"We will get to that, my love." The lilt in her voice told me she was amused. Her velvet tongue slid across my thigh.

"Are you laughing at me?" I groaned, frustrated and desperate.

She slid her fingers across the hollow between my thigh and groin, then slipped two of them effortlessly beneath the damp satin that covered my crotch. The edge of one finger brushed my clit, and I gasped again, but it didn't stop there. She teased my opening, stroking back and forth, making the muscles low in my body contract, making me wetter than I already was. But I didn't need to be any wetter. I was ready.

"Lauren!" I said, somewhere between a pant and a growl. I dug my hands into the comforter on the bed as I yelled, "Please!"

She did what I wanted her to. She gradually, oh so gradually, eased two fingers inside of me.

"More," I begged. "Lauren." I moaned as her fingers glided over a very pleasurable spot. "I need more." My hips rose as her long, slender fingers hit the back of my cervix. Caught between pleasure and pain, I didn't want her to stop.

Need. I was a throbbing, pulsing, aching thing filled only with need. I needed her, my entire body trembled with need, but this, this was too slow, and too small a taste of what she was capable of doing to me. I craved chaos and oblivion, while she gave me order and acute awareness. Desire burned between my legs. Lauren fanned that flame, made it burn brighter, more painful as she drove her fingers in and out of me. Each stroke was excruciatingly slow, making the fire stretch and grow until I felt as if it would consume me. My body ached for release.

"So wet."

My muscles contracted. She hit that spot inside me and slowly began to withdraw.

"Laur," I pleaded, holding myself on my elbows. My vision blurred around the edges. In a move too quick for me to register she tore the satin underwear away with an angry hiss. She put our faces dangerously close, keeping her hand between my legs.

"Camila." Without warning she shoved her fingers inside of me. This time, there was no order, no teasing, no careful restraint. She simply fucked me with supernatural strength. Her lips were hot where they met mine, and wet, like she had just licked them. Her mouth was unyielding, with nothing chaste or gentle about it. I opened to her, spreading my legs wider, slipping my hand under her gown. I cupped her breasts and her nipples stiffened like tiny darts. Distantly, in some part of my mind I managed to hear the wooden posts of the canopy hitting the wall.

I drove my nails into her and Lauren broke the kiss, rearing back with a hiss that revealed her fangs. I tugged at her clothes trying to pull them from between our bodies. It took me a moment to realize that Lauren was bracing herself with her knees, and the gown was stuck under her.

The only way to get the dress up was to tear it, so I lowered my shields and focused on the wolf, calling her. Her warm energy pressed against the inside of my skin like soft fur. I wasn't aiming for a full shift. What I offered her was a peek through a door with a chain and lock. Control is strength. If you can't control your beast, it will control you. Some days, it's an internal battle for dominance. How much the wolf fights depends on how badly she wants out. If she wants to investigate or munch on something in the immediate surroundings, it's a little more difficult to sway her. Fortunately, Lauren wouldn't show up on the wolf's radar as food. The wolf craved life, a fresh kill, not the undead.

Energy spilled down my arm, into my hands. I gazed at her through the eyes of the wolf.

Lauren spared a glance between our bodies. When she raised her face, the look she gave was challenging.

I got a better hold of the gown, digging claws into it. Her laugh thrummed through me when she saw my transformed hands and she pushed against me, forcing my hips to meet her thrusts.

She buried her face in the bend of my neck. "I had no idea just how untamed you are."

My claws tore through the velvet and it gave way. The side of her dress slipped off to expose a long line of flesh from ankle to torso. Though she might not have been wearing a bra, her dark lace underwear stood out over her body like a cloud trying to obscure the moon. I grabbed a fistful of the material at her shoulders, tearing it away. I snaked my arm between our bodies, grasping her underwear. The underwear tore more easily than the dress.

All the while, her fingers never ceased their rhythm.

"I may be a vampire," she said calmly, "but I cannot expend this much energy without feeding soon."

She shoved her fingers deep inside me, curling them, pressing into my deepest corners.

When I had enough breath to speak, I said, "Problem."

Lauren began flicking her fingers over that spot as I writhed beneath her. "Yes?"

"I..." I had to grab on to something. My claws pierced the mattress as my spine bowed. "Can't do... Ah, fuck!"

Lauren's voice was a hell of a lot more even than mine. "You can't do what?" she asked, obviously amused again.

I wrapped my legs around her as she sat back on her knees, keeping the new rhythm she'd found. She slid a hand beneath my ass, raising my lower body off the bed. At this angle, her fingers went deeper. I'd never gotten off on penetration. I'd enjoyed a woman's fingers inside of me, but no woman had ever made it feel quite so mind-numbingly pleasurable.

Lauren read my body and my hips bucked against her hand.

"Camz," she said, and I fought against my fluttering eyelashes to look at her. Her fingers flicked again, and this time I had to close my eyes to keep them from rolling. Lauren laughed as I jerked helplessly. "Save your breath," I felt the heat of her breath against my clit, "you will need it."

She covered me with her mouth, sucking lightly at first, and when that awarded her with a moan, she sucked harder. Her fangs pierced that sensitive skin, and I was too taken with the pleasure to care. The tip of her tongue glided over my clit, as fast as her fingers had inside of me. The orgasm wasn't gradual. It didn't build and slowly spill over. It pierced me and tore a ragged half-moan half-scream from my mouth.

Lauren didn't let me catch my breath. She pushed me further, into the abyss of pleasure so wondrous, it hurt to feel it. My claws convulsed in the mattress. I hadn't let the shift take me over completely, but I hadn't exactly pushed the beast out of my hands and eyes. My canines lengthened, sharpened, and I could no longer hold her at bay. She intended to take her chance to get out.

There were sounds, sounds of destruction as my claws tore sheet and mattress, springs popping, and the sounds of a woman's screams caught somewhere between ecstasy and agony.

A part of me understood whose screams they were, understood I was the one screaming, but I no longer cared. The orgasm stripped away all my precious control. I tried to cling to the fragments of it, but it was too late. I tried to hold the wolf at bay, tried to shove her back into her invisible crate somewhere inside of me. She'd found the weak spot, discovered the door in my shields that the orgasm had opened further. She shoved her furred body against that door, fighting with everything she had, wiggling and squirming in her frenzy to get out and run amok.

The wolf burst from my skin and the darkness swallowed me.