While the Wolf's Away, page 17
“This is so peaceful,” she said. “So nice to relax like this after dealing with the cases you have to handle.”
“It is. We all love to come out here. Eventually we’ll teach the kids how to paddle, but it’s great for romantic interludes too.”
She raised her brows at him.
“Not that I’ve had any.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Okay.” They drifted for a moment, letting the breeze push them along. “Does the lake freeze over in winter?” she asked.
“Yeah. So that means ice-skating.”
“Now, that I can do.”
He smiled. “Good. That was something we all had to learn to do. The kids are learning too.”
“You said you go whitewater rafting?” she asked.
“Oh yeah, we have a couple of places we go. Have you done that?”
“Nope, but I would love to try. The kids are too little, aren’t they?”
“Yeah. We go when our shifting isn’t an issue, and we take turns watching the kids.”
She smiled. “I can see you are good with the kids.”
“We always volunteered to work with the kids at special events when we were on the police force in Seattle. I think a lot has to do with being shifters, sure, but some of it has to do with parent issues growing up. At least for me.”
Elizabeth didn’t say anything to that, but he could see the thoughts churning. Instead of following that line of conversation, though, she said, “So you go whitewater rafting with your friends?”
“Yes. It’s more fun with all of us there, and we all have a good time with the kids too.” He smiled, remembering the last time they went. “Corey gets into more trouble because he’s not afraid of anything. Or he likes to pretend he isn’t. I’ve seen him jump straight in the air when he was a wolf and a butterfly landed on his nose. And then he quickly looked around to see if anyone saw him being so un-alpha-like.”
She laughed. “I can just see it. Do the three kids ever flip the alpha role among themselves?”
“Oh, sure. When Corey was lost, Angie was all alpha until he returned home. She had taken on the role and bossed Nick around as soon as Corey had disappeared. Someone had to be the boss. When Corey returned to the pack, it took him a while to resume his position as top wolf among the siblings. We’ve never witnessed that before, so it has been a real learning experience for all of us.”
“I bet. Especially for Corey.”
“Yeah, he was reluctant to stray from home for too long after that. Now he’s back to his indomitable self.”
She laughed.
They enjoyed the peaceful solitude again. He’d paddled out here countless times, even with a couple of kids in the boat, or with one of his buddies. But being with Elizabeth made it extra special.
When they were closing in on the island, they steered straight to the shore, head on.
“Okay, what we need to do is everything in reverse to get out. Stay low and slide your hands along the gunwales, or ‘gunnels’ some call them, for support. Take a step at a time, keeping your feet placed on the center line of the canoe. Then you can stabilize the boat for me, and I’ll walk the entire length of the canoe to get out.”
“Whoa,” Elizabeth said as she stood up, wobbling a bit and pinwheeling her arms for balance. “Okay, I got this.” She leaped out, hands raised above her head like a champion boxer when she found her footing. Her excited laugh was contagious.
David followed, and they carried all their gear up to the campsite. Then they carried the canoe up to a spot under the trees since they were going to spend several hours there, though he had thought of staying overnight if Elizabeth liked the idea. He figured even if they didn’t, they could use the tent for extracurricular activities, if the mood struck. And man, did he ever hope the mood struck.
He pulled the Arctic wolf towels out of one of the backpacks and set them on the bench he and Owen had hand-carved before Candice had come into his life. Cameron, Faith, and Gavin had made the other.
“This is so neat,” Elizabeth said. “It’s like your own private getaway, minus the cabin.”
“Yeah, we had fun doing it. Did you want to run as wolves first? Then swim?”
“Then make love?” She motioned to the sleeping bag and tent.
He smiled. “Great minds…”
“That sounds good to me.” She moved into the woods to strip off her clothes and shift into her wolf.
Even though they hadn’t heard any sounds of anyone out here, that didn’t mean they didn’t have to be careful. Anyone could pull up in a canoe of their own at any time. But this particular evening, he heard no one talking, didn’t smell any smoke from anyone’s fire, and there was nothing to indicate anyone else was here.
Still. He joined her in the woods, quickly jerking off his sandals and shorts, boxer briefs and T-shirt, only to see her shift and stand there watching him hungrily as a wolf. He smiled and shifted. They greeted each other as wolves do, as if they hadn’t been together all this time. It was just an innate thing and he loved it.
He took off running, Elizabeth at his heels, as he showed her the rest of the island. They explored all the nooks and crannies along the shoreline first. When they came to an area full of stacked rocks, she ran back in the woods and shifted, then hurried back to the shore so she could stack her own rocks. At first unsure as to what she was up to, he quickly shifted, joined her, and helped add more rocks—seven in all. Once they had made their own creation, they shifted back into their wolves.
They raced around the whole island, chasing each other back and forth. Sometimes they had to swim along the shore where the trees were growing down to the water’s edge. And then he took her for a slower inspection of the interior of the island. A few trails had been made—wolf trails, all of them carrying the pack members’ scents. But he smelled a bear too, a black bear’s recent scent, and David paused, Elizabeth stopping right beside him as they both sampled the air, their tails held out still, their ears twitching back and forth as they listened for any sign that the bear was still there.
Two wolves could chase off a bear, but if it was a sow with her cubs, that was a different story. Still, he hadn’t smelled but one bear’s scent and it was male. David doubted a mother bear would swim all the way out here with cubs.
David started to walk again, searching for the most recent scent trail the bear had left behind and still not smelling any other bears.
Elizabeth was right behind him, and he knew she would back him up if he got into a confrontation, but he hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
He always brought an emergency first aid kit with him in case anyone was injured, a flare gun, too, that he could use to warn off the bear. Not to injure it, because they deserved to live in the area as much as the wolves did. But to scare it off so neither of them—the wolves or bears—had to fight. Nonetheless, David’s instinct was to search for the bear, and that kept him moving forward. He found evidence of where the bear had torn red berries off some sarsaparilla vines, his black and brown fur snagged on the heavily spined plant and on a dense thorny thicket of raspberries nearby.
David finally reached the shore, Elizabeth coming up beside him, and both of them saw the big black bear swimming back to the mainland, far away from them and their gear.
They lay side by side on the rocky shore, tails waving, watching the majestic animal paddle away.
David nudged Elizabeth’s face and she licked his nose. He smiled at her, stood up, and waited for her to follow him. But she didn’t move, her gaze locked on the bear, as if she just couldn’t look away, should he return.
David gave her a little woof. She let her breath out, stood, stretched, and joined him. Then they raced back on one of the trails to their camp.
As soon as they arrived, Elizabeth darted past David and splashed into the water. He watched as she shifted in the lake, her silky brown hair floating all around her.
He smiled and raced in after her, splashing her before he shifted and pulled her into his arms. The kiss they shared was soft, wet, and glorious.
“Wow, I never imagined running into a bear here. You didn’t tell me you had bears on the island.” She peppered kisses along his jaw, his neck, his collarbone, her arms wrapped around his waist as they treaded water.
“We’ve smelled them on the island before, but we’ve never actually seen one. And we’ve made dozens of trips here.”
“What else haven’t you told me about?” She raised her brows, but she was smiling, appearing more interested than worried.
“A cougar, on occasion. Moose. We spied a fox once and chased off a couple of coyotes. They were not claiming rights in our territory. The moose can be dangerous, so that was an interesting situation. All of the critters were on the mainland though, not on the island.”
“No alligators or crocodiles, right?”
He chuckled. “No.”
“Okay, good. I can handle about anything else, but the idea a predator might come after us in the water—that’s another story. I didn’t smell any other recent signs of bears, just the one, but I still wanted to make sure he didn’t return to the island.”
“Yeah, I was afraid you were going to want to stay there all night if you had to.”
“No, just long enough to make sure he was far enough away so that we could do this and not worry about him changing his mind and swimming back.”
“He won’t.” David kissed her cheek. “Did you know they say that to be attracted to your mate, you have to think of your mate in an attractive way? In other words, sure, the physical stuff is nice, but it’s your inner beauty that caught my full attention. When I first saw you, when Owen and I were locked up in your pack’s lodge, you had this look about you that said you hated what Kintail was doing with us, that you wanted to help us in the worst way. But you were afraid to help us in the beginning.”
“I wasn’t sure whether to free you or not. It was a dangerous proposition, and not just for me. I had to worry about my grandma, how she would be treated if I was found out. And I could have been putting the rest of wolfkind in danger by letting the two of you loose on the world. But…there was just something about you.” A droplet of water caught on her eyelashes, and he was mesmerized by it. By her. “I knew it was crazy to have such strong feelings for you when I barely knew you, but I did consider that if you ended up in my world in Yellowknife, we could…date.”
She blinked, and David kissed the corner of her eye, catching the droplet before it vanished. “I would have, if it had only been me and I hadn’t had buddies I was worried about.”
“Yeah, I know. And that’s why I love you.”
He hugged her close. “If it had been you and Sheri—”
“Oh, yeah, I thought of her too. That if she had been locked up, I would have done anything to free her.”
“And if you had been caged, she would have done the same for you.”
Tears filled Elizabeth’s eyes. “She did. By helping me to escape Kintail and the pack this time.”
He kissed her again, her mouth against his pressuring him to allow her entrance.
And he parted his lips for her, taking in her tongue, stroking it, tasting her essence as she was tasting his. Her legs wrapped around his hips and she had to feel what she was doing to him, his erection already steel-hard. He ached to sink himself into her, to mate, to make it forever. But until she was ready for that, he would continue to make love to her like this. To enjoy her on any terms until the time was right. Everything he did with her, he hoped, would convince her that he was the only one for her.
He moved his hand to her breast and massaged, the warm water surrounding them, the breeze stirring it, causing little waves to caress them. He moved to her other breast and massaged. She practically purred.
He had to keep his legs moving, though, to keep them from drifting too far from the shore or the campsite. He could envision getting so lost in kissing her that they would drift off and then have to make a long swim back as either humans or wolves. That wasn’t part of his plan for seduction.
She reached down and cupped his buttocks and gave him a squeeze. He kissed her jawline and her neck down to where the water touched it. He was so ready for her, to bring them both to climax. He should have set up the tent first!
“Ready to go in?” he asked, his words rough with need.
“Hmm, and continue this other ‘discussion’ inside the tent?” She smiled at him. “Only if we’re going to do more of this.”
“I love it when we’re both thinking along the same lines.” He kissed her and then released her. “I’ll get the tent set up for a little bit of privacy just in case some boaters happen by.”
“That sounds like a good idea. I would hate to be caught on camera.”
Then they swam in to shore, and once they were standing on their feet, he swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bench and their beach towels.
“Such a romantic,” she said, kissing the drips of water clinging to his chin. “I love it.”
“Only for you.” He wrapped her in a towel, hating to cover her up but noticing goose bumps from the lake breeze. “I’ll start a fire after we’re done and before we paddle in for the night.” They dried off and spread out their towels on the bench to dry. She helped him with the tent, and it went up in record time. Once inside, he grabbed the sleeping bag, rolled it out, and opened it up. She zipped the tent closed behind them and then they were on the sleeping bag, and without a single word between them, they came together.
He ran his hand over her breasts, his thumb and forefinger rolling a nipple between them, the sweet buds already peaked. He would never tire of this, of her. He slid his hand down her back and then her buttock as they faced each other, resting on their sides on the double sleeping bag.
He bent his head and tasted and teased her nipples with his mouth and tongue. She combed her fingers through his hair and moaned softly as he lavished attention on them.
He swept a hand down her side until he was at her hip, then slipped his hand between her legs. He kissed her as she moved her leg aside for him so he could pleasure her like he’d done before, only this time on an island in the middle of the lake with the loons calling out to each other as the sun began its slow descent into the woods beyond. The water lapped at the shore and the breeze whispered soft caresses against their skin through the screened windows.
He heard the honking of a flock of geese flying high overhead, but the only sound he cared about was the soft gasp Elizabeth made any time he touched her just…like…
That.
Elizabeth’s breath caught, and it was the most beautiful sound in the world.
Chapter 18
David absolutely bewitched Elizabeth. She couldn’t think of another term that better described the way she felt about him. She had never had much of a sexual appetite for male companionship, and she had figured it was just her. But with David, that was the farthest thing from the truth. She didn’t feel that way about anyone else, only him. A heated gaze, a sexy wink, a smoldering smile, and he had her hooked. And it was good. Oh so good. She deserved this, deserved him.
He began to slide his remarkable fingers over her clit and stroked with precision and finesse, working her up to a climax. It was amazing having this experience with him away from civilization, out in the wild, away from the rest of the pack; it couldn’t have been any more perfect than this.
He claimed her mouth again as he continued to stroke her, and she wanted in the worst way to just say screw it and let’s mate. She kept holding back. Why?
Her mind went blank; what he was doing was taking her to another plane of existence. One filled with exquisite pleasure.
She ran her hand over his hip, feeling his buttock, and he worked on her faster, harder, stroking her to completion.
She cried out, the sound echoing across the lake. It made her feel wild, untamed, and every bit an animal in human form—and she loved it.
Then she was straddling him, stroking him as he ran his hands over her thighs, his fingers squeezing in rhythm with her movement, his face tight with need.
She began to stroke him faster, with just the right pressure, enjoying this as much as she enjoyed coming, the way the fading light fell across his face through the tent’s screen door, the way the sun’s golden rays cast oranges and reds and purples across the rippling lake water.
The loons’ intriguing calls were fading, but she heard the sound of an owl hooting from far away and another answering its call.
Being out here like this was a real joy; bringing David to orgasm, the same. She moved off him, still holding on to his flagpole-stiff erection and continued to stroke him. But she needed to kiss him too. And she did, sliding her tongue in his mouth, and he was sucking on hers, caressing her tongue with his.
“Yes,” David gritted out against her mouth, and then he exploded. He pulled her on top of him and just held her close, cuddling with her within his powerful embrace, and for some time they just lay there, listening to each other’s rapid heartbeats and the sounds of the cicadas singing in the tall grasses in the woods getting more raucous.
“God, this couldn’t have been any more perfect,” David said. “Being here with you.”
“ Just beautiful.” She kissed his cheek.
“Are you ready for me to build a fire? Do you want to roast marshmallows?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She wanted to stay like this forever, just glued to him in an embrace, but she knew they needed to paddle back home. Unless they just stayed out here for the night. “But first, a dip in the lake.”
Then she moved off him, unzipped the tent, shifted into her wolf, and ran off to take a dip in the water to wash off. He shifted in the privacy of the tent, too, and joined her.
