2. Chapter Two

What are you doing, what are you doing, Wyatt, what the fuck are you doing?

Biting my bottom lip, I stared at the Do Not Disturb hanging from the door handle of the hotel room. Raising my hand to knock, I dropped it to my side, shaking my arms like I had pins and needles.

Deep breath, you can do this. This is what you want. This is on your list.

I’d never done anything like this before.

Which was why I was here, doing whatever this was. New life, new me, and all that jazz. I was in the middle of a road trip across the country, to hopefully purchase a brand-new life for myself. One that I had chosen on my own. No parents or academics or government agencies telling me what I was going to study, what project I was going to work on, or who I was going to work for. A life where, for once, I got to make all my own decisions.

I had more letters behind my name than most forty-year-olds could boast. At age twelve I had started my first year of college. I had more certificates, diplomas, and accolades than would fill one wall.

But this–tonight–was just for me. From now on, everything I did, every decision I made, was what I wanted to do.

And you decided Dallas would be the place you would explore your freaking sexual side?my giraffe huffed delicately.

Stop making sex a dirty word! I huffed back, annoyed. We were stopped for the night when I got the notification. And, this alpha is perfect for crossing a few things off my list.

Perfect to get us murdered. And don’t get me started on your damn lists. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Your alpha mother would not approve. My giraffe was such a snob sometimes.

Please don’t bring my mother into this.Nothing could deflate my dick faster than thinking about my controlling, domineering alpha mother. Rolling my eyes, I shushed my giraffe. The Taboo app vets people thoroughly, you know this. And the security system is top notch. I should know, I helped design it. Now hush, I’m nervous enough. It’s not every day I lose my virginity.

Should have done that in college like a normal person. He sniffed.

I was twelve! Ew! Gross! They have laws against that, you know? Take a nap or something, will you? I don’t need you in my head, killing the mood.

Running sweaty palms down my slacks, I didn’t know why I was so nervous. My virginity was just one more thing to mark off the list. And not even a big thing at that. It was just a burden, an annoyance to be rid of. Just something to get over and done with. No strings, no attachments, no hassles. And with any luck, a whole lotta pleasure.

Even though I was still a virgin, and very sexually innocent–especially for a twenty-four-year-old–the alpha from the app had stirred desires in me that no one ever had before. Despite having no practical sexual experience, I knew that I wanted–needed–certain things when it came to sex. Well, in theory I knew I wanted them, because I’d never actually tried any of them. Yet.

When I had been approached by the Taboo app designers to help build a state-of-the-art cyber security system, I had known this would be a perfect place for me to make some of my fantasies a reality. And when one of their investors had pulled out of the deal, I had gladly invested my own savings, making sure I was a silent partner. I didn’t need my colleagues, other professors or my students, to find out I was part owner of a kinky app.

The app was designed to bring kink minded individuals together for a scene, or a random hookup. No names, no small talk, no expectations. Just two consenting adults, playing.

Being a genius meant I had done an extensive deep dive into the world of kink, so that I would know what to put on my personal list of things I wanted to try. All my hours and hours of research didn’t do me much good, since I had no practical experience. The best way for me to really learn about my sexual side was to actually do things. And I wanted to do all the things. Okay, maybe not all, but I had an entire page of things.

Obviously, we couldn’t do them all tonight. Losing my virginity was numero uno. If I got that out of the way, all the rest wouldn’t be so awkward. At least that’s what I told myself.

My body tightened with anticipation and nerves. I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth again, a nervous habit I couldn’t seem to break, and nibbled on it. I hadn’t expected to be so nervous. My stomach was fluttering like a heroine in some cheesy romance novel. My palms were sweaty, and I rubbed them against my pants a second time.

Before I got the nerve to knock–or run back down the empty hotel corridor–the door opened and I forgot how to breathe.

He was beautiful.

He leaned casually against the door jamb, his dark, dark eyes hard and assessing. He wore a pair of low slung, navy pajama pants that looked soft to the touch. His chest was bare and broad, his heavily muscled shoulders wide. They stretched from one end of the doorframe to the other, filling the space with his bulk.

And he was freaking tall. I had to look up to meet his eyes and that rarely happened. As a giraffe shifter, I was freakishly tall for an omega, standing a few inches over six feet. But this alpha stood three to four inches over me.

He was big. Wide, but not fat. Nope there was not an ounce of fat on him, and I licked suddenly dry lips, even as my mouth watered with want.

Wolf!My giraffe hissed at me, panicked. Honestly, what they were going on about was beyond my comprehension. Wolf shifters were the most common shifters in the United States. He wasn’t the first shifter we had ever met, and he certainly wouldn’t be the last.

It’s fine!Go away now!

The alpha’s abdomen rippled with hard, mesmerizing muscles, and my hazel eyes quickly counted them. Eight. The man had an honest to Goddess eight pack. Four big, hard delicious looking muscles on each side. Dissected perfectly down the middle by a thin trail of midnight dark hair, liberally mixed with some steel gray strands.

Saliva filled my mouth as I stared at him, and all the blood rushed from my brain to my cock. It throbbed inside my slacks, hard and demanding. Pushing insistently against the zipper, demanding to be set free. Inhaling, his scent washed over me, and slick pooled at my hole. Musky, earthy, it was the most delicious thing I had ever smelled.

My eyes scanned over his wide shoulders, down biceps bulging even in his relaxed state, then moved back up to take in his features.

He had a hard face, severe and unsmiling. Rigid, with a dangerous air. His nose was a perfect straight line, his lips a little thin but firm. Eyes that were so dark they were nearly black stared back at me, one eyebrow raised in a silent question. Or maybe amusement, by the look in his eyes.

His hair was cut short on the sides, longer on top, and brushed back from his face. It was thick, a mixture of black and gray, and my fingers twitched at my sides. I wanted to bury my fingers in that thick hair. Feel its texture against my fingers. Would it be silky soft, or coarse to the touch?

His hair might give a clue to his age, but his body looked like it belonged to someone much, much younger. Fuck me. My eyes traveled over his pecs, and the dark and gray hair in between them. Down those abs–what did you have to do to get abs like that?–to where his pants sat low on his hips. Showing off the sharp indent of the beginnings of his vee. That was the spot that made me weak, and I’d always wondered what it would be like to lick someone there. To smell them.

He looked me over just as intently, one thick finger idly flicking his bottom lip, perusing me like I was a piece of meat. Maybe I was. He didn’t smile, just looked his fill at his leisure, and I fought the urge to hunch my skinny shoulders forward. To wrap my arms around my slim waist and duck my head, letting my too-long curls hide my face. Hiding behind my hair was a coping mechanism I’d picked up long ago.

“You’re late.”

His voice was low, husky and growly, but with no trace of the hardness his face held. His voice made goosebumps break out over my skin. He turned to the side, inviting me in, without actually saying the words.

Shuffling past him into the luxurious room, I looked around, taking in every detail. Before I remembered what I was there for. What I wanted. I dropped my eyes in a show of submission. “Yeah, sorry.”

I fought the urge to make up excuses for my lateness, like traffic, or the fact that I almost chickened out and didn’t come at all. That I had sat in my car in the parking lot for fifteen minutes before I had worked up the courage to even enter the lobby. Excuses, all of them. Because deep down, I knew the truth.

There was something inside of me that had wanted to push him, to deliberately disobey his order, just to see how he would react. While I had been talking myself into staying, asking myself not for the first time what the fuck I was doing with my life, there was that place deep inside me that had been late on purpose.

He’d given me an order and I had broken it, knowing I might be punished. Hoping I might be. Just to try it to see how I would react. What it would feel like. There were so many things I wanted to explore in reality and not just from any research I had done. Just so I could know if they were a soft or hard limit, or a yes, please more of that. Spanking was on my list, right at the very top. When I watched porn, the spanking videos had always held my attention. Made my cock grow hard and my hole drip with slick.

I swallowed hard, my thoughts running away from me, and I raised my eyes to see where he was in the room, what he was doing. My gaze held his eyes, dark as a starless sky, and he cocked that brow of his. In amusement or question, I wasn’t sure. Maybe both? Something buried deep down inside of me, a part I’d been too scared to explore until now, seemed to know exactly what his look meant even though we’d just met.

His scent tickled my nostrils and I breathed him in, wanting more. It made me want to wrap myself around him, bury my nose in the crook of his neck and never leave. It was clouding my senses, making it hard to even think.

“I’m sorry, Sir.” The title slipped from my lips naturally this time, unbidden and without me putting a single thought into it.

His hard lips curved into a half smirk at the title. Sardonic. Not quite a smile but not a grimace either. The curve of his lips held just a hint of danger and I shivered when he nodded, saying smoothly, “Better.”

Not really sure what to do with myself, I shuffled my feet awkwardly. Should I sit, stand, get naked? I was so out of my depth in that moment, but my body was humming with anticipation and need. This was so different than I had imagined in my head. So different from reading erotica or watching videos.

He did a slow lap around me, and I stood stock still, not moving a single muscle while his eyes roamed over me hotly. I could feel the heat of him against my back, even though he wasnt quite touching me. It surrounded me, wrapping me in warmth. The wolf in him made my giraffe bristle, even while a part of me wanted to lean into his heat. Wanted to let it wrap around me, until I disappeared, safe from the world in his protective arms.

It was like all my nerve endings had suddenly come to life in his presence. Like my body recognized him for what he was, and it was ready to give myself over to him.

Alpha. Dominant. Sir. Master.

Wolf. My giraffe huffed, nearly breaking me out of whatever this trance was my body naturally fell into under the spell he was weaving. I ignored my inner animal, pushing them as far down inside me as I could. Ignoring them completely.

His breath was hot against my ear, his voice low and rumbling. “Do you want me to punish you, mon petit?”