by R. J. Blain
“Laying it on a bit thick there, Jake.” I stepped into the room, spotted the fireplace with two cozy chairs in front of it, and decided I knew where I’d be spending most of my time when I wasn’t in bed confirming I lacked any ability to keep my hands off him.
Damned man.
Jake chuckled and closed the door behind us before locking it and setting the room keys on the stand in the entry. “My first plan was about ten times worse and just a really bad idea, and I would have cleared out our saving account pulling it off.”
We had a savings account? “What savings account?”
“The one we opened after we came back to Baltimore after the London fiasco, Karma.”
I frowned, turning to stare at him. “I don’t remember that.”
“We’ll ask Mellisa about that when we see her. We went to the bank and merged several accounts and set up several savings accounts. You wanted savings accounts with specific purposes, so we did that. You even gave them weird names in our banking login.”
As that was something I would do, I believed him. “This just establishes I am not in my right mind.”
“That’s what the psychologist is for, and she’ll be here tomorrow. I am concerned you don’t remember a basic like that, though. It took two hours out of our day, and you were about ready to bite my head off over it.”
“Why was I ready to bite your head off?”
“You wanted to go home and explore, I think. Or establish dominance over the tub. And the bed. And everything we own.” He smirked at me. “You were a little territorial. And once I did get you home, you took your frustrations out on me, but as I am who I am, I thoroughly enjoyed it. You were pretty cranky in the bank, though, so maybe you blocked it out because you don’t like losing your temper in public, and you were muttering a lot of curses when the bankers weren’t around.”
Crap. “I took my frustrations out on you?”
“Rather aggressively and with your teeth. I enjoyed it. I’m hoping to enjoy more of that kind of attention tonight, although I will handcuff you if you get too rough with me. I like when you bite. I don’t like when you bite so hard I am at risk of having my throat torn out. When you’re at your best, there is a very fine line between the two. Handcuffs are useful for that, as I get you exactly where I want you, and they keep you there for a while.”
My eyes widened. While we did have a tendency to get rough, which was a two-way street, I hadn’t thought I’d been getting that rough. “Should I grovel for forgiveness now?”
“No. This is where you get rough and bite, and I put you in cuffs should you get too rough. You didn’t do anything wrong. You just get wild when I successfully provoke you, and I like it. The way I see it, I deserve to be bitten repeatedly for my contributions to our problems. As we can’t really get blood everywhere, I’ll probably just cuff you out of the gate and enjoy myself far more than I should. We’re very frustrated people, and we need to become less frustrated through extended displays of affection. Between displays of affection, I figured we’d talk, make certain we’re on the same page so we are both happy in our marriage, and otherwise stop any more problems before they start.”
Time spent in being tossed around the pack and occupying their varying holding cells had helped with some of the frustration issues, although we’d both dodged serious talking in favor of adding to our general counts of property destruction. “I don’t want to destroy such a pretty room, by the way.”
“I will be challenged taming you, but I’m looking forward to it. I’m of the opinion that naughty vixens enjoy dominance battles in bed. So, I figure I’ll try just calmly surrendering to see if you stay as rough. If surrendering doesn’t work, I have my handcuffs, and I’m willing to use them. Of course, now that I’ve told you that, you’ll probably antagonize me into using them because you like it.”
I really did. “I have issues.”
“Your enjoyment of being cuffed is not an issue. It’s a kink, and honestly, it’s fairly tame as far as kinks go. It’s worth noting you trust me with the cuffs, and that’s a big deal to me. I suspect if anyone else cuffed you like that, you’d turn into a terrified psychopath hellbent on escaping.” He smiled at me, grabbed the blanket off one of the chairs, and wrapped it around me. “Now, you sit in that nice chair while I get you some treats and get the fire started. We’ll relax, talk, and then I’ll get on to the taming portion of our evening.”
When Jake said he wanted to talk, he meant it, and he’d chew on it worse than a dog with a bone until he got his way, so I sat, cuddled in the blanket, and prepared for the inevitable disaster our conversation would be.
In his quest to pamper me, he’d arranged for a basket full of fruits, chocolates, and champagne, along with meats and cheeses. If we ate everything in the basket, we wouldn’t have room for anything else. “That’s excessive.”
“My first plan was worse.”
“Give me the strawberries, only enough of the Champagne to sip at it until you can make me some hot chocolate, and if there isn’t hot chocolate in the basket, the basket is a lie.”
“There is hot chocolate, but it’s not in the basket. There’s also coffee and tea.”
“Let’s start with the hot chocolate, and we’ll see about the coffee later.”
Chuckling, Jake grabbed the Champagne bottle, which was a smaller bottle that matched our drinking speed, which was half a glass sipped at over the course of several hours. He popped off the cork, and I marveled he kept a hold on it rather than sending it on a destructive flight across the room.
“Okay, that was impressive. I would have broken half the things in here trying that stunt.”
He poured me half a glass, poured some for himself, and headed deeper into the room. “I’ll return shortly with your hot chocolate. Try not to drink yourself under the table or make yourself sick on the strawberries.”
I grabbed a strawberry and bit the tip off. “I’ll think about it.”
“Try not to get actually sick, but if you get sick, I will nurse you back to health.”
Considering I had a lot of weight to regain, I couldn’t afford to get sick even if I wanted to. As such, I limited myself to five strawberries and savored them while waiting for the hot chocolate, and I only took a few small sips of the Champagne. Jake returned with two steaming mugs a few minutes later, and he set mine on the end table beside my chair before setting his down and lighting the fire.
I wondered if he would have been able to do such a good job of making the wood burn if the hotel hadn’t already set it up so all he had to use was use a long match to ignite the kindling. “Want to bet they would have come and lit that for you if you’d asked?”
“Fool’s bet, mainly because I asked them to prepare the fireplace so I could look all manly for you.”
Well, at least his sense of humor had survived our problems intact. “We’re going to ruin all these nice treats and hot chocolate and Champagne with serious talk, aren’t we?”
“I’m hopeful we can navigate the serious talk without it dissolving into a bickering session, thus being able to enjoy the treats while still talking.”
“That would be quite the improvement.”
“On that front, there isn’t really a whole lot to talk about. I was wrong, and I should have, from the start, told my idiot parents to go fuck themselves rather than trying to make them happy. You paid the price for my stupidity, and you were justified in walking out. All that said, I never once even entertained the idea of cheating on you. Yes, you smelled other women on me. Those women were either co-workers, vics who needed physical contact with someone, or the wives of pack members. Very few of the pack’s women are Fenerec because of the loss of puppies, and the ones who are Fenerec tend to keep their distance, probably because of the general divides between Fenerec and Normals or Fenerec-born. The situation with you has only made these divides worse. I’m not the only one who has wanted a mate in the pack but species has prevented it. The difference between you and them is si
mple. You need a pack.”
I did. Even though I had no idea what most of the howls in my head meant or how to cope with the ghostly emotions that sometimes pricked my senses, but the sensations had glued together many of the broken pieces and allowed me to breathe without waiting to fall apart again. Instead of waiting for the end or drowning under the weight of my misery, I could think again.
The misery and depression still lurked under my skin, but I could stand up against them rather than bend to the point of breaking. I picked up my hot chocolate, blew on it, and took a sip. “Amelia seemed to do well enough outside of a pack, but she wanted one and a mate.”
“I know. She’s been a rogue a long time. I was highly amused when she left the pack, saying she’d rather be on her own than stuck with a bunch of sticks in the mud with no respect for the wolves in the pack or their mates. And by not valuing you because you’re different, they made it clear the pack didn’t deserve her. She went to Florida only until she could get clearance to go rogue again. There are steps Fenerec need to take. I expect it’s only a matter of time before you are evaluated and required to obey those rules, too. I expect you’ll be moved from pack to pack with more care than is taken with wolves, as it’s been established your emotional and mental stability requires pack structure.”
“Because I’m new at being a fox?”
“No, I think it’s because you’re a lot more social than wolves, and much like Fenerec, those instincts develop over time. You haven’t been shifting all that long, so you’re going through the equivalent of our puppy stage. Worse, we have no idea how long your puppy stage lasts, if you’ll have hormonal alterations like our women do, or anything else like that. You’re a great deal more aggressive in bed than most Fenerec women, too. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Fenerec are active, but when you want to go to bed, the instant I show any mutual interest, you’re out for my throat. Personally, I love it, but I’ve learned I better be ready for you or I’m going to bleed.”
My face heated. “It’s your fault!”
He laughed. “I’m okay with that. That means I’m doing something right, and while I’ve gotten a lot wrong, I’ll take what I can get at this point. You’re going to have to wait until we go home to indulge in blatant bloodshed, though.”
“I guess wolves don’t bite like I do, do they?”
“Not quite the same. We do bite, but we usually nip just enough to get the point across. You dig your teeth in and refuse to let go until you’re sure I’m going to cooperate with you. For the record, you could accomplish the same goal with a light nip. Your enthusiasm is more extreme than ours, but as I’m the subject of your enthusiasm, I don’t mind. I heal a lot faster than you do. It does make me wonder why your instinct is to bite as hard as you can. Perhaps foxes have dominance fights with their mates in bed? Or perhaps my little vixen wants me to prove how badly I want her?”
My face burned even hotter. “I’ll try not to bite. I’m sorry.”
“You can bite me, Karma. I like it. I’m a sucker for punishment. And if that’s what’s natural for you, then you should indulge. However, we’re going to establish a few rules.” Jake pointed at his shoulder. “Bite there rather than on my neck when you want me to bleed because I’m not doing what you want fast enough.”
If my face burned any hotter, I would spontaneously combust. “I’ll try really hard not to bite. That hard. Nibble. I’ll try to nibble.”
Jake narrowed his eyes. “I’m not sure I have the fortitude to survive you nibbling on me, Karma. If you start nibbling, you’re going to drive me even wilder than you already do.”
Hm. “Is that a threat, a promise, or both?”
“Nibble on me and find out.”
“You can assume I have accepted your invitation to test what nibbling will do to you after I finish my hot chocolate and have a chance to enjoy the fire.”
“Excellent. See? Talking isn’t bad, although I’ll admit, I’m not quite as relaxed as I was hoping to be.”
While everything had fallen apart, I could still figure out the appropriate response to his statement. I leered at him. “I wonder why.”
“You win.”
I laughed at that. “Okay. Do we agree that your parents are asses?”
“We are agreed on that. Frankly, you’ll probably forgive them a hell of a lot sooner than I will. I’m pretty angry at them right now. I might stop being angry at them if you convince me I should stop being angry at them. I’m a little less angry at my father because he taught me how to bring you into the pack.”
“He offered a bunch of keys and his body as a combat dummy. That’s pretty high up there on the groveling charts.”
“You have to make them work for forgiveness.”
I thought about it. “But I’m being bribed with something I might really like, Jake.”
“Okay. I’m tentatively okay with you forgiving my father if he serves as a combat dummy for you, but my mother still has usable kitchen gadgets, their house is still standing, and she might still have a few good towels left. They should earn your forgiveness. Even more so than I need to.”
I could understand his view on the matter.
Without their pressure, we probably wouldn’t have fallen apart in the first place.
“That’s fair,” I conceded. “We will generally permit your father into our space if he brings keys and will stand in as a combat dummy once I’m back into better shape.”
Jake reached over, picked up a strawberry, and offered it to me. “Take it, or I’m going to wait for you to try to say something and shove it in your mouth.”
Giggling, I accepted the strawberry. “I’m not sure that counts as romantic or as pampering, Jake.”
“But it got you to accept my offering of food, which is the first step on getting you into better shape. I will likely file for leave for at least a few weeks while taking care of you. You need me with you, not handling some bullshit assignment. Unless the bullshit assignment involves spending all of my time with you, in which case I’ll recant my opinion about that, but only if you want to do the work involved with the case. After you have your hot chocolate, we’ll look over the room service menu and get whatever we want, and as my father agreed to pay me back, he can’t complain. And yes, I’m hoping asserting dominance over my asshole parents appeals to you. If it doesn’t, I will come up with another plan.”
“We didn’t kill each other while stuck in those holding cells,” I reminded him. If he let me get away with it, I would ignore his commentary about him taking leave or working a case until I had a chance to think it over.
“I was attempting to use my masculine charms to appease you. Did it work?” Jake waggled his eyebrows at me.
“You look like an idiot when you do that.” I raised a brow and sipped my hot chocolate before nibbling on my strawberry. “It may have worked a little.”
“Good. I’ll try to do better. If I’m not attentive enough, let me know. Younger Fenerec define what it means to be hormonal, so I’m going to make the assumption foxes are no different, especially since you tend to start talking with your teeth when you want me to take you to bed.”
I needed to work on that—or just point at the nearest bed rather than open fire with biting. “Do you mean hormonal or horny?”
“I really mean both. It seems foxes may be the same way, something that is a benefit in my opinion. I am willing, able, and ready to do whatever is required to keep my little vixen happy. If you require attention every morning and evening, I am game. We’ll have to work on you asking when you need attention, but if attention is what you want, attention is what you’ll get.”
“That makes me sound needy.”
“You’re not being needy. If anything, I’d like you to be more needy. At the very least, I’d like you to ask for what you want before you become frustrated enough you attempt to tear out my throat with your teeth. I’m not sure if vixens are trainable when it comes to biting, though,” he teased.
I drank my hot cho
colate, stretched my legs out and basked in the warmth of the fire, which had begun to burn in earnest. “We need a new couch, a new coffee table, possibly a new everything on the ground floor. Did we manage to keep anything intact?”
“The kitchen emerged unscathed.”
I glared at him. “Because you had nothing in the kitchen to damage.”
“Apparently, I eat my feelings before I go to the gym in a state of guilt because I ate everything in sight, and then I would order pizza because I had no motivation to go grocery shopping. Then the pizza reminded me of you, and I’d eat my feelings again and return to the gym. I went to work between binges of pizza and gym time. Since working beat going to the gym and eating pizza, I worked more than was necessarily healthy.”
“That explains why you’re in peak physical condition. Spending that much time in the gym tends to be good for your muscles.”
“Exercising that much did not make me feel any better, in case you were curious.”
“I just worked, slept, and sometimes foraged if food crossed my path. I did not forage for much when I did forage.”
“Anyone who has seen you in your peak is aware of that.”
“So, you’re saying you’ve been almost as much of a mess as I have been.”
“Basically. All the pack did was make me more miserable, and the only time things got better was when I was looking for some trace of you. When you were in New York? Let’s just say my pizza consumption and gym time skyrocketed. I was flat-out barred from stepping foot outside of the state without approval.”
“Your parents’ approval?” I growled.
“No. The FBI made sure I stayed in Maryland. I still don’t know why we were put on that damned Hemshaw case, but if I find out who was responsible for that, I’m sending them gifts. It’d been my first time out of Maryland since you went to New York.”
I considered the options, and I could make a guess or two, and it involved the black market Amelia had introduced me to. “Are you going to hate me if you find out I helped murder the fuckwits who shot us in London?”