by Alexis Davie
One of Nico’s hands grabbed the nape of her neck, and he pulled her head down to kiss her, growling into her mouth, and Penelope was over the edge. She climaxed with a cry of Nico’s name, her juices spilling on his member as he continued to thrust into her: once, twice, three more times, and she felt him release his seed inside her core, his hardness brushing against the bundle of nerves that overwhelmed her with pleasure.
After their bodies had finally stilled, Nico gently, carefully, helped Penelope lay down beside him on the bed, and she immediately wrapped her arms around his chest. She grinned against his bare skin when his arm circled her shoulders, pulling her even closer than she already was, kissing the top of her head and allowing his lips to rest there.
Penelope had no idea of what awaited her tomorrow, or any day after. She didn’t know if the gray wolf was dealt with, or if he would ever try to attack her again. She didn’t know what would happen with her work. She only knew that Alana would probably bring Rex over soon, and he and Penelope would stay with Nico until they were sure she wasn’t in danger anymore. Maybe even after that. Maybe they would stay here forever, she and the two males she would do anything for.
For once, Penelope wasn’t afraid of going to sleep—she wasn’t afraid of the dreams she might have. Because for once in her life, she knew that she would be safe. She knew that, no matter what, Nico would always protect her. Destiny had brought them together when she had needed him the most, and after what they had just shared, she knew they had been meant to find each other.
For the first time in her life, Penelope went to sleep without fear of what her dreams might show her. With Nico by her side, she could face anything.
* * *
THE END
Rain and Drizzle
1
Grayson felt drawn to the beautiful dark-skinned brunette sitting at one of the barstools of Rain and Drizzle as soon as he walked into the place.
He had been in this sorry excuse of a bar a couple times before, and most of those times, he had been dragged here by his best friend, Sam. He hadn’t really enjoyed any of those experiences. There were always too many people invading his personal space all at once, and the music was so loud that it made his ears throb. He usually had to force himself to not throw his drink at some random jerk who had thought it was fun to pick a fight with him just because.
For some reason though, this same sorry excuse for a bar had seemed like the only appropriate place for Grayson to come that night. After the fight he’d gotten into with Sam during the last pack meeting, he had simply wanted to go somewhere he could unwind, preferably without his best friend breathing down his neck and babying him like he tended to do whenever Grayson’s temper got the best of him.
His plans for the night included getting absolutely hammered to unwind from the worst day he’d had in the last couple of months. Then, he planned on stumbling home while he debated whether the hangover he’d have in the morning would be worth it.
He never expected to lay his eyes on such a beautiful woman the moment he stepped through the bar’s doors.
Grayson felt a tug in his stomach when he saw the brunette, almost as if someone had attached a magnet to him and was now using another magnet to draw him closer to her. He made his way through the crowd; his eyes fixated on the woman while he continued to close the distance between them. When he was halfway through the place, the woman suddenly glanced in his direction, locked her gaze onto his, and smirked, beckoning him.
This is a bad idea, Grayson thought. He hadn’t even had a drink to ease himself into any kind of conversation, much less a conversation with a woman who kept looking at him over the brim of the glass in her hand, like she knew exactly what she was doing to him. She probably did.
Grayson groaned to himself. What in the world was he doing? He’d never felt the need to approach women when Sam dragged him here. Even if this gorgeous brunette humored him long enough to hold an actual conversation with him, what would he even say to her? It had been years since Grayson had flirted with a stranger, and even longer since he’d had sex with a stranger he found attractive.
But he couldn’t stop moving towards the brunette.
When Grayson was only a few steps away from the woman, she glanced away from him and turned toward the bar, maybe ordering another drink. For a moment, Grayson thought she had lost interest in him, but then the woman stared at him from the corner of her eyes, and Grayson could see the challenge in them:
Make it worth my time.
Oh, she was definitely calling out to him.
In a second, he was standing in front of her, and she turned around in her barstool to give him her full attention. Grayson found himself staring into her deep brown eyes and at the beckoning smirk still on her face.
He almost couldn’t believe the entire male population in Rain and Drizzle hadn’t been surrounding her when he’d first seen her, offering to buy her drinks or to take her home. Even now, the stools around her were mostly empty, with only one or two occupied, while the rest of the people in the bar danced to the loud country music. Maybe she’d already rejected every single guy who had approached her, or maybe all the men had been terrified to even come close to her.
Her expression reminded Grayson of a siren or another similar creature. She looked like she could devour him whole before he even had a chance to realize what was happening, and after she had left behind all of his bones, she would wipe the blood off her face with a napkin and move on to her next victim.
Grayson suddenly felt like his blood was thrumming with excitement.
“How come I’ve never seen you around before?” he asked, his voice just loud enough to be heard over the bar’s absurdly loud music.
The woman sighed and shrugged her shoulders, the smirk still on her face, her eyes glancing up at him from underneath her long, dark eyelashes. It gave Grayson the chance to admire the dress she was wearing—dark red, almost as if it had been soaked in blood—and the way it hugged her sculpted body, the way one of her slender legs was crossed over the other one, the way she held her drink—as if it were some kind of weapon in her hand.
“I move around a lot,” the brunette said, and her voice was the kind of smooth voice Grayson imagined a siren would have: seductive and tempting.
He couldn’t wait to hear more of it.
“Don’t like Evergreen Grove?”
“I have nothing against Evergreen Grove in particular,” the woman answered with another shrug of her shoulders. “I just move around a lot.” She then gestured to the empty barstool in front of her. “Won’t you keep me company during my last night in this nice little town?”
Grayson grinned at her and accepted her offer with a nod of his head, mentally repeating the woman’s words to himself. Even if he made a complete fool out of himself in front of her, at least he knew their paths would most likely never cross again.
He could still have this night to unwind. He could have this one night to forget about work and about Sam and about everything else—he deserved one goddamn night.
“Last night in town, eh?” he asked the stranger. There was a loose curl of her long, brown hair coiled next to her temple, and Grayson resisted the urge to push it behind her ear. He wanted to reach out and hold her hand, stroke her cheek, touch her face. God, he just wanted to touch her.
The brunette leaned her elbow on the surface of the bar beside them and rested her head on her hand.
“I prefer not to stay in the same place for too long,” she said.
Grayson couldn’t imagine what it would be like to just keep moving from town to town, from state to state, maybe even from country to country. He couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to move from the apartment he’d lived in for almost ten years. Not that he had ever thought about leaving Evergreen Grove—or Montana, as a matter of fact—behind. His entire life was here, after all. Besides, if he ever left, Sam would probably track him down and drag him back by the collar of his shirt.
“
What about you, stud?” the woman asked with a coy smile. “Have you been in Evergreen Grove for a long time?”
Grayson chuckled. “Born and raised,” he responded. “And you can just call me Grayson.”
The woman narrowed her eyes at him, but she was still smiling. She left her drink on the bar and then allowed her hand to drop to her lap. Grayson felt his own hand move towards hers, but he tightened his fingers into a fist and then kept his hand at his side.
What is it about her that just makes me want to reach out to her? He had never felt such a strong pull towards something, not even when he and Sam went hunting, much less towards someone. He wondered if she also felt that pull or if the mutual attraction was just in his head.
After a moment, the brunette let out a chuckle and said, “Cora.”
“Cora,” Grayson repeated, savoring the word, letting his mouth memorize how each letter tasted and how they tasted together.
Cora’s hand suddenly wrapped around his wrist, and Grayson felt electricity coursing through his arm and then to the rest of his body, as if she had electrocuted him. He felt exhilarated, like his blood had been replaced by fire.
“C’mon, Grayson,” she said, sending a shiver down Grayson’s spine. He wanted to hear her say his name again and again and again, as many times as he could. Cora left a bill on the bar next to her half-empty glass to pay for her drink, and then she stood up from her stool, her hand still wrapped around Grayson’s wrist. “Let’s dance.”
She dragged him toward the dance floor, which was usually not a place in Rain and Drizzle where Grayson wanted to find himself. Funnily enough though, he wasn’t bothered by all the people dancing around him, nor was he annoyed by his lack of personal space—not if Cora was the one invading it.
Either the music had lowered in volume, or Grayson didn’t find it as irritating as he usually did because he was too focused on Cora’s presence. He couldn’t think about anything other than her hands taking his to put them on her back, her body pressed against his as they danced, her own hands moving to his chest and curling on his shirt, as if she didn’t want to let go of him.
Good, Grayson thought. He didn’t want to let go of her either.
The still-rational part of his brain reminded him that this would be the only time he would ever see Cora. This was her last night in town, after all; he would have to let go of her eventually.
It doesn’t matter, he told himself. He wasn’t looking for romance, not even for a casual relationship, and he definitely didn’t want to deal with the stress of having a long-distance relationship. If one night was all he would ever have with Cora, one night was good enough for him.
Cora’s hands moved to his shoulders and then her arms wrapped around his neck, her temple resting against his jaw. Grayson tightened his grip on the curve of her spine, pressing Cora closer to him. She was the focus of all of his senses; the way she smelled of pinewood, the way her hot breath clashed against the crook of his neck while they danced, the way her laugh echoed in his ears and her long curly hair flew about her head when he twirled her around before pulling her close to him again, the way her body felt as she pressed even closer against him, and the way her deep brown eyes stared up at him, darker yet with what Grayson recognized as lust and desire.
God, he wanted her. He wanted her, and he couldn’t wait any longer.
“Wanna get out of here?” he whispered, his mouth brushing the shell of her ear.
“God, yes, please,” she answered immediately.
Grayson wrapped his hand around hers, and their fingers intertwined as they pushed their way through the crowd and out of the bar.
2
Grayson’s grip on Cora’s hand tightened during the elevator ride to his apartment. He had avoided looking at her since they had exited Rain and Drizzle and gotten into a cab, because he knew that if he saw that lust and desire in her eyes again, he wouldn’t be able to resist her. Instead, he had focused on the streets they drove by, on the buildings he had known his entire life, on the street signs he could recall by heart—anything that wasn’t Cora’s hand in his, her arm pressed to his as Grayson did his best to ignore the warmth radiating off her body.
He tried not to tug her along when they finally walked out of the elevator, though he couldn’t help it when he started to speed up his pace. He didn’t want to scare her off by being too eager, but to his surprise, Cora chuckled and actually started to trot a little so that she could keep up with him.
Grayson pulled his keys from the pocket of his pants and opened the door to his apartment without letting go of Cora’s hand. As soon as they were inside his home and he had closed and locked the door behind him, Cora’s arms were around his neck and her mouth was on his.
If Grayson had felt like he had been electrocuted when Cora had grabbed his wrist, now he felt like he was on fire, like his skin would melt down to the bone, like his entire body would burst into flames. Grayson’s arms traveled down Cora’s body until his hands reached her legs, and he lifted her off the ground and held her legs at his sides, effectively bringing them closer together.
Cora sighed into the kiss, her hands clutching Grayson’s hair as their mouths opened under each other’s, and Grayson couldn’t help groaning when Cora moaned against his lips and then softly bit on his tongue, causing pleasure to course through him. Still carrying her in his arms—her knees pressed to his sides as if she wanted to remain exactly where she was and keep him in place at the same time—Grayson managed to walk towards his bedroom.
He rested a knee against the edge of his bed and gently laid Cora down, moving away from her mouth so that he could kiss her jaw and softly bite down on her neck. Cora shivered under his touch, her hands reaching for his shirt to pull it off him. Once she had helped him take his shirt off, Grayson moved his hands to her back and undid the zipper of her dress, pulling the straps down her shoulders to expose her naked breasts.
Grayson contained a groan, as he nuzzled her cleavage before taking one of her nipples into his mouth, gently lavishing it with his tongue. Cora moaned and allowed herself to fall back against the bed, her fingers threading through Grayson’s hair as she arched up into him. His mouth traveled lower, then lower and lower, and he pushed her dress down her legs until it joined his shirt on the floor. He immediately pressed his tongue against the front of her panties, teasing her through the fabric, listening to her tiny cries of pleasure, as her hands tightened on his hair.
He held Cora’s thighs apart, feeling her smooth skin under his fingers as he pulled her undergarment down and began to lap at her core, already soaking wet from his previous administrations. Grayson relished the taste of her, his tongue delving into her and licking her open in strokes that alternated between slow and fast, even and unpredictable.
He wanted Cora’s tiny cries to become screams. He wanted to hear her shout his name. He wanted to feel her pulse and shake beneath him, and so he continued to lap at her sweet, deliciously wet and throbbing center. When Cora’s legs began to tremble in his arms, her breath quickened, and her hands started to pull on his hair, signaling she was close, Grayson pressed one of his fingers into her core, gently stroking the nub of nerves inside her as his tongue dove even deeper into her.
Suddenly, Cora was tugging on his hair, pulling his head up until he stopped the administrations of his tongue. Her pupils were so fat with lust and arousal that they looked almost black, and the flush on her cheeks—because of her labored breathing—made Grayson kiss her again, letting her taste herself on his tongue.
God, he needed to have her.
Cora cupped his face between her hands. Her entire body was shaking under Grayson as she kissed him, and Grayson undid the button and zipper on his pants to release his neglected member.
“Take me,” Cora whispered against his lips. “Please, take me,” she murmured, wrapping her hand around his engorged hardness and guiding it towards her entrance.
It was all Grayson needed.
He kissed her aga
in, as he slid inside her almost effortlessly, her juices allowing him to slip into her center as if it were made for him, as if they were meant to be connected so deeply. Cora sighed into his mouth and wrapped her slender legs around his waist, their movements falling into the same rhythm as their kisses grew hotter and more desperate.
Grayson wanted this moment with Cora to last forever. He never wanted this to end. He never wanted to stop touching her, to stop kissing her. He wanted to bite her neck and nuzzle her naked skin and wrap her in his arms and lick the sweat off her temples and taste her for the rest of his life.
He never wanted to let go of her.
Cora’s arms surrounded Grayson’s neck, pulling him closer, and Grayson rested his hands on her smooth, bare back, feeling himself near his climax and feeling Cora close to her own release.
After Grayson thrust into her once more, Cora screamed in pleasure, as she reached her orgasm, her body shivering underneath his. It only took Grayson a few more thrusts into her hot, wet core for him to explode inside her with a groan in the form of her name. Cora gasped, her fingers gently caressing his face as if awestruck.
Grayson softly pulled out of her, and they lay together on his bed, their arms around each other. Their ragged, heavy breathing mixed in with the sudden silence in his bedroom. He pulled Cora close to him, her naked back to his bare chest, and he kissed the back of her neck. Her skin tasted of salt and the pinewood she had smelled like in the bar, and Grayson was instantly addicted. He kissed her and licked her and sucked on her naked flesh, feeling Cora giggle against him even as his eyes closed in exhaustion.
This is her last night in Evergreen Grove, a little voice inside Grayson reminded him. You’ll probably never see her again after tonight.
Grayson ignored that voice.