While the Wolf's Away, page 6
“The restaurant employees are bound to notice it at some point,” David said.
“It’s kind of off to the side where others park to visit another couple of businesses,” Elizabeth said. “One is a service station. So it might not be noticed for a while. Besides, they think we’re going to Seattle, right, Sheri?”
Sheri’s eyes widened. “We’re not going to Seattle?”
“Nope.” Elizabeth rested her head on David’s shoulder again.
David glanced out at the sliver of moon hanging among the boundless stars. “When I would look out at the moon at night, or in the morning, watching it grow in size from the new moon to the full moon in Ely, I wondered if you were ever watching the night sky and seeing the moon and stars way up north in Yellowknife, thinking of me.”
“It’s funny that you should mention it now when we never talked about it during our Skype sessions, but yeah, whenever I saw the moon, I felt closer to you, knowing we could be enjoying it together at the same time, as if I had my head on your shoulder, and you had your arm around me, just like this.”
“We’re really not going to Seattle?” Sheri said again, still sounding shocked at the news.
They all laughed.
David could understand her confusion, and it was a good thing. It most likely meant everyone else in Kintail’s pack believed he and his partners were still in Seattle too. That would be the first place they’d look. Which was good, since they didn’t really try too hard to hide who they were. They even had a new name for their PI business near Ely—White Wolf Investigative Services. That might give them away, if Kintail and his men ever discovered they were living in Minnesota and not in the state of Washington.
“Just wait until you get there to see how beautiful it is,” David said. “You’ll love it.” He might have been responding to Sheri, but his heart was talking to Elizabeth.
“Yeah, but that’s what I was thinking about Seattle. The Pacific Ocean, the forests…” Sheri sounded a bit disappointed.
David suspected she’d done all kinds of research for information about the area and had been looking forward to living there. “You won’t be disappointed, I promise.”
When they arrived in Calgary, they all took a bathroom break, drank some bottled water, ate some snacks, topped off the plane’s fuel tank, and then they were on their way again.
David called to give Cameron a status report. “We’re on the second leg of our journey.” It was late, and they wouldn’t get into Winnipeg until three in the morning. Amelia was flying again, and Slade would take the six-hour shift to Ely after that. “If Kintail comes after us, we think he’ll go to Seattle. It doesn’t seem as though his pack knows we’re in Ely.”
“Okay, good show. But we’ll have to keep alert,” Cameron said.
David glanced at Sheri, then quickly away again. He knew Cameron was thinking she might be the bigger problem. “I agree. I’ll call you in the morning when we arrive in Ely, unless you want me to wake you at three in the morning when we arrive in Winnipeg.”
“Yeah, you can wake me. I would rather know you got into Winnipeg all right.”
That was the thing about the PI partners. They were like the Four Musketeers, always looking out for one another.
“Will do.” David tucked his phone away, pulling Elizabeth closer until she finally fell asleep. David dozed a bit, too, while Sheri slept in the seat behind them. He was restless, though, waking every couple of minutes. He wondered how it would go with Sheri. His pack would welcome her—she was Elizabeth’s best friend, after all—but would Sheri feel like it was home? He hoped so. Maybe Slade and Sheri would even hit it off.
But Sheri was going to have to tell her family before long that she was safe with Elizabeth—in Seattle, of course—and not to worry about her.
No matter what, David was glad they had all made it out without any real trouble. He smiled to think of just how angry Kintail would be when he learned of the deception. It served him right for not allowing Elizabeth to see David while she needed to be in Yellowknife for her grandmother.
Chapter 7
“What do you mean, Sheri told you she and Elizabeth were going hiking and you haven’t found any sign of them on the trail?” Kintail roared, furious Bentley botched such a simple task.
“I’m sorry. I texted Sheri, and she said she and another friend—” Bentley said.
“Another friend?” Kintail couldn’t believe it. How hard was it to follow one woman around Yellowknife and make sure she didn’t run?
“A woman, not a man. Hans and I saw them eating with her, and when we were getting our burgers—”
Kintail’s blood pressure had to have risen. “Don’t tell me. They gave you the slip while you waited around for your damn food.”
“We hadn’t eaten all day.”
Bentley and Hans wouldn’t have starved to death! Kintail ground his teeth. “And the woman?”
“Nobody I’d ever seen before.”
“Human or wolf?” Kintail wondered if Elizabeth and Sheri had solicited a human’s help.
“Arctic wolf. No one I’d ever smelled before.”
Arctic wolf. “Had to be one of Cameron’s damn pack. Get to the airport now.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kintail seethed. Damn it! Elizabeth had escaped the pack; he just knew it. The one thing he had sworn he’d never let her do—prove she was smarter than him, that she could do as she pleased. Now he had to read the riot act to Sheri, because he was damn sure she’d helped, along with whoever the hell the other wolf was.
Sheri would regret ever earning his wrath.
***
As soon as they arrived in Winnipeg, David texted Cameron.
Cameron texted back: All right, good show. We’ll be managing the office until you get in. Just enjoy the rest, and we’ll have the celebration for Elizabeth and Sheri this evening.
David texted: Okay, sounds good. We’ll be on our way in a little bit. I’ll let you know when we land in Ely.
Cameron: Sounds good. Night, David.
David: Night, Cameron.
David tried to go back to sleep. He couldn’t wait to get home, take a shower, and join Elizabeth in bed. To rest, if she needed it. But if she didn’t…
Elizabeth lifted her head off his shoulder and kissed his cheek and smiled, then closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder again.
Hours later, they finally reached Ely. Everyone sighed with relief. Hugs were given all around, and Slade helped David load the bags into his vehicle.
“We couldn’t wait for the day to come that we could help,” Amelia said, “once Slade and I were part of the pack and learned about you and David. We’ll see you at the celebration tonight.”
“Sounds good,” Elizabeth said, Sheri agreeing.
Amelia and Slade headed home, and David, Elizabeth, and Sheri got into his car. Both Elizabeth and Sheri looked all around as he drove them home.
“So what do you think?” David asked.
“Ohmigod, it’s beautiful,” Sheri said. “So many places to run.”
“Absolutely. You’ll truly enjoy it here,” David said.
“I love it already. Your pictures didn’t do it justice,” Elizabeth said.
“I know. I couldn’t wait to actually get you here so you could see it for yourself. I thought we would have lunch,” he said, “and then all get showers and take a nap, if it works for you.”
“Yeah, that sounds great,” Elizabeth said.
“Oh, yeah, for me too,” Sheri said.
When they finally arrived at the log cabin home, Sheri was in awe. “Did you know it looked like this?” she asked Elizabeth.
“Yeah, David showed me videos of it. But it looks so much more real being here.”
“It’s gorgeous.”
He began getting the bags out of the car and the ladies helped him. Then they walked inside his house and David showed them the open living room, kitchen, and dining area, the bathroom and guest rooms.
Sheri hauled her bags to the room farthest away from the master bedroom and began unpacking. “This is my room! Lunch later. I’m getting a shower and going to bed.”
“Sounds good to me.” David smiled at her, then turned to Elizabeth. “After you,” he said, gesturing down the hall to his bedroom. The look she gave him as she led the way made his heart beat in double time. He knew she could hear it because he could hear hers beating just like it.
***
Elizabeth sighed in the doorway to his room. “It’s lovely.”
He set her bags in a corner and smiled proudly.
The room was decorated in blues—like she loved—and touches of tan and browns. The comforter and curtains were all blue, and even the wolf paintings of Arctic wolves had a blue cast to the snow around them. The bed was king-size and a cedar chest sat at the foot of it, a blue cushion for seating on top. The furniture was dark oak, heavy like a man would like, but had carvings of wolves in the door panels that made Elizabeth feel as though she had walked into a rustic art gallery. She loved it.
The wolf paintings she’d already noticed on the walls were all portraits of his friends and their mates. One in particular caught her attention. A sleek, black jaguar was seated beside a she-wolf, who sat next to Owen. She assumed it was Candice with Owen, but she wondered about the jaguar.
It appeared as though David had truly embraced his wolf half and his pack, and she was glad to see it. When she first had met him, she wasn’t sure he would. It had been a lot to deal with, in the beginning.
A chair sat in one corner; a blue-and-tan-plaid blanket was draped over it.
“I love your bedroom.”
“I know your favorite color is blue.”
She smiled. “It is. It’s beautiful. I like the huge bed.”
He glanced at it, then back at her. “We’ll have to be sure to stick close together so we don’t lose each other in the middle of the night.”
She laughed. She suspected that wasn’t going to be a problem.
He showed her the bathroom, which was in all blues too, though the theme in there was of the woods and lake. There were blue towels, pictures, and the soap dispenser that featured a white wolf. Double sinks in a marble-topped counter, white cabinets, and a mirror that covered the wall. One window looked out on the forest, and it made the bathroom even more elegant, cheerful, and enjoyable.
The toilet was in its own separate little room, and a big walk-in closet opened up next to it.
A glassed-in shower along one wall looked perfect for two. Elizabeth wanted to stand under the warm spray and feel David’s arms around her soapy body. The whirlpool tub in the corner would be great for taking baths with him. Her face went hot, and she suddenly wasn’t so tired anymore.
Then they returned to the bedroom and the portraits caught her attention again. “A black jaguar?” she asked. He had to be a shifter, though she’d never met one before.
“Yeah, that’s Uncle Strom, Candice’s uncle. He’s actually her adoptive uncle, brother to the man who had adopted her when she was young. Once she was bitten and she saw her uncle, she realized right away by scent that he was a jaguar. He knew she was a wolf, too. Talk about a shock to both of them.”
“Oh, I bet. I’ve never heard of a jaguar shifter before.”
“He had been bitten by a jaguar shifter and Candice was bitten by a wolf, so they had two different species in the one family. I guess you don’t have jaguar shifters up in the Canadian Arctic.”
“Not that I’ve heard of, but we had some snow leopard shifters pass through our territory on their way to Alaska. That was enough of a surprise.”
“Snow leopards? I’d never heard of them before. Which makes me wonder just how many different species of shifters there are.”
“Me too.”
“Cameron’s son, Corey, was the one who bit Candice. Before that, he played hide-and-seek in a camping trailer and ended up in a jaguar-shifter day care in Texas. That was the first time we had learned of the jaguars.”
Smiling, Elizabeth shook her head. “He seems like a handful.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
David drew her close, cupped her face, and studied her blue eyes. “I’ve wanted to lose myself in your gaze ever since you left. For real, in person, not just on Skype.”
After a long, searching look, he bent his head just as she reached up for him. Their lips met, open and ravenous, tongues twining, stroking, deepening the kiss, bodies pressing together. Heat rising. Heartbeats accelerating. This was what she’d hoped for with David. It was like a magnetic draw, a pheromone conductor, and he instantly gave her an adrenaline rush. She was his and he was hers, and the world was right.
She slipped his T-shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor. He unbuttoned the front of her shirt, fingers working fast, but instead of pulling it off her shoulders like she thought he would, he slipped one hand inside, underneath the lace fabric of her bra, until he was cupping her breast, his hand warm against her flesh, gently squeezing. She softly moaned, loving his touch, good memories flooding back, but she needed his lips again. She found his mouth with a desperate fervor matched only by his. Their tongues teased, rampant need setting her body on fire.
She smelled their sexy, musky scent, her panties already moistened from his touching her so tenderly yet so fiercely. Her blood was on fire as his free hand slid down her back and cupped her bottom. He worked on the button of her jeans, then slid the zipper down. She shimmied, helping him pull them off, kicking off her shoes in frustration when everything got tangled up. She needed to be naked. Needed to feel his body against hers. Forget the shower. When he slid his hand down her back and into her bikini panties, squeezing, she knew she had to have this now.
Recollections of all the nights they’d been together in hotels came rushing back. His tenderness and loving ways. His concern about making it good for her while finding his own pleasure. It seemed like only yesterday they had been together like this.
She moved her mouth from his and began kissing his jaw, his throat, his shoulder, his pecs. He smelled the same as before, the same delightful scent of male and wolf, but of his unique scent too. She licked his nipple, and he shuddered. He kissed the top of her head. Then he was reaching for his buckle, and she pushed his hands away, impatient, unfastening it herself and pulling off his jeans, leaving him in just his boxer briefs. She looked down at him in awe, remembering him as she knew he was remembering her. He hadn’t aged a day since she’d seen him last, courtesy of their lupus garou genetics and extreme longevity.
His head dipped and captured her mouth again, his hands cupping her, pulling her snug against his hard body, his erection a steel rod between them, almost as if his briefs and her panties didn’t exist at all. She rubbed her body against his, soliciting a low growl. She loved feeling him against her and wanted him inside her, but like the last time they’d been together, they couldn’t go that far, not unless they wanted to be committed to each other forever. And she knew as much as she wanted that to happen, they needed some time to get to know each other. Really know each other for the first time, living together, seeing if they were truly compatible for the long run. There was no divorce for wolves.
But she couldn’t keep her hands off him just as he couldn’t keep his hands off her. Tongues tasted and teased. His hands were on her breasts, squeezing, enjoying them like she was enjoying his hands molding to her hot flesh. She didn’t think she would ever get enough of him. She’d worried it had been just her imagination. That he’d wanted her because she had freed him as a hostage. That he’d felt a little lost because he was a wolf and hadn’t known how to deal with it. But she worried no longer. They had a sexual connection that couldn’t be quenched easily. A fire that had ignited between them from the minute they’d seen each other and had only burned brighter since then.
He paused to slow down the kisses as if he were afraid they would get this over too quickly and he wanted to savor every moment with her. While she was ready for quick and fulfilling and then being ready to do it again. And again.
She slowed down, though, not wanting to overwhelm him with her enthusiasm or put him off. But slow didn’t seem to be working for him, either, and the passionate kisses resumed with him sucking her tongue and her nibbling at his lips, sucking on them, pressing her body against his. Rubbing him to feel his erection straining for release.
He finally unfastened her bra and dropped it to the floor, and then he was pulling down her panties and they fell next to her bra and the rest of their clothes. Then she was pulling off his boxer briefs and running her hands over his rigid erection.
She didn’t even know how it happened, but she was in his bed and he was in it with her, kissing her, his hands everywhere, his mouth following, licking her nipples, savoring each morsel, then moving lower, nibbling and kissing his way down her belly.
He reached between them and began to stroke her feminine nub with precision. Her entire body lit up and she strained toward him, needing this, needing him. He kissed her mouth again, and she felt the passion fill her whole body with hunger. She ran her hand over his arm, urging him on, feeling his strong bicep, admiring the rest of him, fit, healthy, his face sporting some whiskers, his eyes heavy-lidded, his mouth full and demanding against hers.
“I missed you,” he whispered, and she tasted every word, including the regret that he hadn’t been able to be with her physically since she’d left him.
“I missed you too.” She gazed up at him, his expression somewhat sad now, as if he was afraid something else might take her away from him, and this—these special feelings they had for each other—would be cast aside. Again. “I’m not going back to the pack. I won’t, I promise.”
“We are meant for each other. I would just mate you now and—”
His fingers moved inside her and her body screamed yes. She closed her eyes and willed herself to be strong. “We need the time to get to know each other.”
“It’s kind of off to the side where others park to visit another couple of businesses,” Elizabeth said. “One is a service station. So it might not be noticed for a while. Besides, they think we’re going to Seattle, right, Sheri?”
Sheri’s eyes widened. “We’re not going to Seattle?”
“Nope.” Elizabeth rested her head on David’s shoulder again.
David glanced out at the sliver of moon hanging among the boundless stars. “When I would look out at the moon at night, or in the morning, watching it grow in size from the new moon to the full moon in Ely, I wondered if you were ever watching the night sky and seeing the moon and stars way up north in Yellowknife, thinking of me.”
“It’s funny that you should mention it now when we never talked about it during our Skype sessions, but yeah, whenever I saw the moon, I felt closer to you, knowing we could be enjoying it together at the same time, as if I had my head on your shoulder, and you had your arm around me, just like this.”
“We’re really not going to Seattle?” Sheri said again, still sounding shocked at the news.
They all laughed.
David could understand her confusion, and it was a good thing. It most likely meant everyone else in Kintail’s pack believed he and his partners were still in Seattle too. That would be the first place they’d look. Which was good, since they didn’t really try too hard to hide who they were. They even had a new name for their PI business near Ely—White Wolf Investigative Services. That might give them away, if Kintail and his men ever discovered they were living in Minnesota and not in the state of Washington.
“Just wait until you get there to see how beautiful it is,” David said. “You’ll love it.” He might have been responding to Sheri, but his heart was talking to Elizabeth.
“Yeah, but that’s what I was thinking about Seattle. The Pacific Ocean, the forests…” Sheri sounded a bit disappointed.
David suspected she’d done all kinds of research for information about the area and had been looking forward to living there. “You won’t be disappointed, I promise.”
When they arrived in Calgary, they all took a bathroom break, drank some bottled water, ate some snacks, topped off the plane’s fuel tank, and then they were on their way again.
David called to give Cameron a status report. “We’re on the second leg of our journey.” It was late, and they wouldn’t get into Winnipeg until three in the morning. Amelia was flying again, and Slade would take the six-hour shift to Ely after that. “If Kintail comes after us, we think he’ll go to Seattle. It doesn’t seem as though his pack knows we’re in Ely.”
“Okay, good show. But we’ll have to keep alert,” Cameron said.
David glanced at Sheri, then quickly away again. He knew Cameron was thinking she might be the bigger problem. “I agree. I’ll call you in the morning when we arrive in Ely, unless you want me to wake you at three in the morning when we arrive in Winnipeg.”
“Yeah, you can wake me. I would rather know you got into Winnipeg all right.”
That was the thing about the PI partners. They were like the Four Musketeers, always looking out for one another.
“Will do.” David tucked his phone away, pulling Elizabeth closer until she finally fell asleep. David dozed a bit, too, while Sheri slept in the seat behind them. He was restless, though, waking every couple of minutes. He wondered how it would go with Sheri. His pack would welcome her—she was Elizabeth’s best friend, after all—but would Sheri feel like it was home? He hoped so. Maybe Slade and Sheri would even hit it off.
But Sheri was going to have to tell her family before long that she was safe with Elizabeth—in Seattle, of course—and not to worry about her.
No matter what, David was glad they had all made it out without any real trouble. He smiled to think of just how angry Kintail would be when he learned of the deception. It served him right for not allowing Elizabeth to see David while she needed to be in Yellowknife for her grandmother.
Chapter 7
“What do you mean, Sheri told you she and Elizabeth were going hiking and you haven’t found any sign of them on the trail?” Kintail roared, furious Bentley botched such a simple task.
“I’m sorry. I texted Sheri, and she said she and another friend—” Bentley said.
“Another friend?” Kintail couldn’t believe it. How hard was it to follow one woman around Yellowknife and make sure she didn’t run?
“A woman, not a man. Hans and I saw them eating with her, and when we were getting our burgers—”
Kintail’s blood pressure had to have risen. “Don’t tell me. They gave you the slip while you waited around for your damn food.”
“We hadn’t eaten all day.”
Bentley and Hans wouldn’t have starved to death! Kintail ground his teeth. “And the woman?”
“Nobody I’d ever seen before.”
“Human or wolf?” Kintail wondered if Elizabeth and Sheri had solicited a human’s help.
“Arctic wolf. No one I’d ever smelled before.”
Arctic wolf. “Had to be one of Cameron’s damn pack. Get to the airport now.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kintail seethed. Damn it! Elizabeth had escaped the pack; he just knew it. The one thing he had sworn he’d never let her do—prove she was smarter than him, that she could do as she pleased. Now he had to read the riot act to Sheri, because he was damn sure she’d helped, along with whoever the hell the other wolf was.
Sheri would regret ever earning his wrath.
***
As soon as they arrived in Winnipeg, David texted Cameron.
Cameron texted back: All right, good show. We’ll be managing the office until you get in. Just enjoy the rest, and we’ll have the celebration for Elizabeth and Sheri this evening.
David texted: Okay, sounds good. We’ll be on our way in a little bit. I’ll let you know when we land in Ely.
Cameron: Sounds good. Night, David.
David: Night, Cameron.
David tried to go back to sleep. He couldn’t wait to get home, take a shower, and join Elizabeth in bed. To rest, if she needed it. But if she didn’t…
Elizabeth lifted her head off his shoulder and kissed his cheek and smiled, then closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder again.
Hours later, they finally reached Ely. Everyone sighed with relief. Hugs were given all around, and Slade helped David load the bags into his vehicle.
“We couldn’t wait for the day to come that we could help,” Amelia said, “once Slade and I were part of the pack and learned about you and David. We’ll see you at the celebration tonight.”
“Sounds good,” Elizabeth said, Sheri agreeing.
Amelia and Slade headed home, and David, Elizabeth, and Sheri got into his car. Both Elizabeth and Sheri looked all around as he drove them home.
“So what do you think?” David asked.
“Ohmigod, it’s beautiful,” Sheri said. “So many places to run.”
“Absolutely. You’ll truly enjoy it here,” David said.
“I love it already. Your pictures didn’t do it justice,” Elizabeth said.
“I know. I couldn’t wait to actually get you here so you could see it for yourself. I thought we would have lunch,” he said, “and then all get showers and take a nap, if it works for you.”
“Yeah, that sounds great,” Elizabeth said.
“Oh, yeah, for me too,” Sheri said.
When they finally arrived at the log cabin home, Sheri was in awe. “Did you know it looked like this?” she asked Elizabeth.
“Yeah, David showed me videos of it. But it looks so much more real being here.”
“It’s gorgeous.”
He began getting the bags out of the car and the ladies helped him. Then they walked inside his house and David showed them the open living room, kitchen, and dining area, the bathroom and guest rooms.
Sheri hauled her bags to the room farthest away from the master bedroom and began unpacking. “This is my room! Lunch later. I’m getting a shower and going to bed.”
“Sounds good to me.” David smiled at her, then turned to Elizabeth. “After you,” he said, gesturing down the hall to his bedroom. The look she gave him as she led the way made his heart beat in double time. He knew she could hear it because he could hear hers beating just like it.
***
Elizabeth sighed in the doorway to his room. “It’s lovely.”
He set her bags in a corner and smiled proudly.
The room was decorated in blues—like she loved—and touches of tan and browns. The comforter and curtains were all blue, and even the wolf paintings of Arctic wolves had a blue cast to the snow around them. The bed was king-size and a cedar chest sat at the foot of it, a blue cushion for seating on top. The furniture was dark oak, heavy like a man would like, but had carvings of wolves in the door panels that made Elizabeth feel as though she had walked into a rustic art gallery. She loved it.
The wolf paintings she’d already noticed on the walls were all portraits of his friends and their mates. One in particular caught her attention. A sleek, black jaguar was seated beside a she-wolf, who sat next to Owen. She assumed it was Candice with Owen, but she wondered about the jaguar.
It appeared as though David had truly embraced his wolf half and his pack, and she was glad to see it. When she first had met him, she wasn’t sure he would. It had been a lot to deal with, in the beginning.
A chair sat in one corner; a blue-and-tan-plaid blanket was draped over it.
“I love your bedroom.”
“I know your favorite color is blue.”
She smiled. “It is. It’s beautiful. I like the huge bed.”
He glanced at it, then back at her. “We’ll have to be sure to stick close together so we don’t lose each other in the middle of the night.”
She laughed. She suspected that wasn’t going to be a problem.
He showed her the bathroom, which was in all blues too, though the theme in there was of the woods and lake. There were blue towels, pictures, and the soap dispenser that featured a white wolf. Double sinks in a marble-topped counter, white cabinets, and a mirror that covered the wall. One window looked out on the forest, and it made the bathroom even more elegant, cheerful, and enjoyable.
The toilet was in its own separate little room, and a big walk-in closet opened up next to it.
A glassed-in shower along one wall looked perfect for two. Elizabeth wanted to stand under the warm spray and feel David’s arms around her soapy body. The whirlpool tub in the corner would be great for taking baths with him. Her face went hot, and she suddenly wasn’t so tired anymore.
Then they returned to the bedroom and the portraits caught her attention again. “A black jaguar?” she asked. He had to be a shifter, though she’d never met one before.
“Yeah, that’s Uncle Strom, Candice’s uncle. He’s actually her adoptive uncle, brother to the man who had adopted her when she was young. Once she was bitten and she saw her uncle, she realized right away by scent that he was a jaguar. He knew she was a wolf, too. Talk about a shock to both of them.”
“Oh, I bet. I’ve never heard of a jaguar shifter before.”
“He had been bitten by a jaguar shifter and Candice was bitten by a wolf, so they had two different species in the one family. I guess you don’t have jaguar shifters up in the Canadian Arctic.”
“Not that I’ve heard of, but we had some snow leopard shifters pass through our territory on their way to Alaska. That was enough of a surprise.”
“Snow leopards? I’d never heard of them before. Which makes me wonder just how many different species of shifters there are.”
“Me too.”
“Cameron’s son, Corey, was the one who bit Candice. Before that, he played hide-and-seek in a camping trailer and ended up in a jaguar-shifter day care in Texas. That was the first time we had learned of the jaguars.”
Smiling, Elizabeth shook her head. “He seems like a handful.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
David drew her close, cupped her face, and studied her blue eyes. “I’ve wanted to lose myself in your gaze ever since you left. For real, in person, not just on Skype.”
After a long, searching look, he bent his head just as she reached up for him. Their lips met, open and ravenous, tongues twining, stroking, deepening the kiss, bodies pressing together. Heat rising. Heartbeats accelerating. This was what she’d hoped for with David. It was like a magnetic draw, a pheromone conductor, and he instantly gave her an adrenaline rush. She was his and he was hers, and the world was right.
She slipped his T-shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor. He unbuttoned the front of her shirt, fingers working fast, but instead of pulling it off her shoulders like she thought he would, he slipped one hand inside, underneath the lace fabric of her bra, until he was cupping her breast, his hand warm against her flesh, gently squeezing. She softly moaned, loving his touch, good memories flooding back, but she needed his lips again. She found his mouth with a desperate fervor matched only by his. Their tongues teased, rampant need setting her body on fire.
She smelled their sexy, musky scent, her panties already moistened from his touching her so tenderly yet so fiercely. Her blood was on fire as his free hand slid down her back and cupped her bottom. He worked on the button of her jeans, then slid the zipper down. She shimmied, helping him pull them off, kicking off her shoes in frustration when everything got tangled up. She needed to be naked. Needed to feel his body against hers. Forget the shower. When he slid his hand down her back and into her bikini panties, squeezing, she knew she had to have this now.
Recollections of all the nights they’d been together in hotels came rushing back. His tenderness and loving ways. His concern about making it good for her while finding his own pleasure. It seemed like only yesterday they had been together like this.
She moved her mouth from his and began kissing his jaw, his throat, his shoulder, his pecs. He smelled the same as before, the same delightful scent of male and wolf, but of his unique scent too. She licked his nipple, and he shuddered. He kissed the top of her head. Then he was reaching for his buckle, and she pushed his hands away, impatient, unfastening it herself and pulling off his jeans, leaving him in just his boxer briefs. She looked down at him in awe, remembering him as she knew he was remembering her. He hadn’t aged a day since she’d seen him last, courtesy of their lupus garou genetics and extreme longevity.
His head dipped and captured her mouth again, his hands cupping her, pulling her snug against his hard body, his erection a steel rod between them, almost as if his briefs and her panties didn’t exist at all. She rubbed her body against his, soliciting a low growl. She loved feeling him against her and wanted him inside her, but like the last time they’d been together, they couldn’t go that far, not unless they wanted to be committed to each other forever. And she knew as much as she wanted that to happen, they needed some time to get to know each other. Really know each other for the first time, living together, seeing if they were truly compatible for the long run. There was no divorce for wolves.
But she couldn’t keep her hands off him just as he couldn’t keep his hands off her. Tongues tasted and teased. His hands were on her breasts, squeezing, enjoying them like she was enjoying his hands molding to her hot flesh. She didn’t think she would ever get enough of him. She’d worried it had been just her imagination. That he’d wanted her because she had freed him as a hostage. That he’d felt a little lost because he was a wolf and hadn’t known how to deal with it. But she worried no longer. They had a sexual connection that couldn’t be quenched easily. A fire that had ignited between them from the minute they’d seen each other and had only burned brighter since then.
He paused to slow down the kisses as if he were afraid they would get this over too quickly and he wanted to savor every moment with her. While she was ready for quick and fulfilling and then being ready to do it again. And again.
She slowed down, though, not wanting to overwhelm him with her enthusiasm or put him off. But slow didn’t seem to be working for him, either, and the passionate kisses resumed with him sucking her tongue and her nibbling at his lips, sucking on them, pressing her body against his. Rubbing him to feel his erection straining for release.
He finally unfastened her bra and dropped it to the floor, and then he was pulling down her panties and they fell next to her bra and the rest of their clothes. Then she was pulling off his boxer briefs and running her hands over his rigid erection.
She didn’t even know how it happened, but she was in his bed and he was in it with her, kissing her, his hands everywhere, his mouth following, licking her nipples, savoring each morsel, then moving lower, nibbling and kissing his way down her belly.
He reached between them and began to stroke her feminine nub with precision. Her entire body lit up and she strained toward him, needing this, needing him. He kissed her mouth again, and she felt the passion fill her whole body with hunger. She ran her hand over his arm, urging him on, feeling his strong bicep, admiring the rest of him, fit, healthy, his face sporting some whiskers, his eyes heavy-lidded, his mouth full and demanding against hers.
“I missed you,” he whispered, and she tasted every word, including the regret that he hadn’t been able to be with her physically since she’d left him.
“I missed you too.” She gazed up at him, his expression somewhat sad now, as if he was afraid something else might take her away from him, and this—these special feelings they had for each other—would be cast aside. Again. “I’m not going back to the pack. I won’t, I promise.”
“We are meant for each other. I would just mate you now and—”
His fingers moved inside her and her body screamed yes. She closed her eyes and willed herself to be strong. “We need the time to get to know each other.”
