Ardeur

by Gavan, Danielle

  It was killing him to do it but he moved slowly at first. His muscles quivered with the strain of fighting his wolf. The bastard wanted to tear into her delicate body and claim her as its own but Brody held his control, thin as it was.

  Ardeur gasped when he pressed harder and his pace faltered. He rolled with her so she sat astride him when he realized that he couldn't control himself anymore. They had to get some distance between his mouth and her skin before he sank his teeth in and marked her as his.

  “Do it. You have to because I can't.” She shifted her hips against him and he groaned at how good it felt. Her movements were full of how nervous and uncertain Ardy was and made it all the better for him. Brody whimpered and grabbed the edge of the mattress to keep from grabbing her hips.

  The subtle rocking grew bolder with each twitch of her hips, each tortured moan that escaped his throat. Her tongue flicked out over one of his nipples and the warm brush of it was the straw that broke his wolf out.

  Brody's hand clamped down on my hips and he ground against me, his back arching off the bed with each stroke. Our mouths were melded together, kissing, moaning and panting until one was indistinguishable from the other.

  I had felt the buildup start in my belly when he'd first kissed me and it had been amazing then. What I felt as he ground our bodies together was bliss. Mind-blowing bliss.

  My teeth sank into his chest as I tried to bite back the scream that came out as a hard groan while stars burst behind my eyes and my body went languid above his.

  All kinds of “hell yeah” was screaming through my brain when I heard Brody shout my name. The burst of his energy on my skin and the release that came again was even better the second time around.

  His heartbeat was frantic under my cheek and told me that he'd enjoyed what we'd just done as much as I had.

  “Goldie, shit.” Brody stiffened under the relaxed drape of my thoroughly satisfied body. He tilted my face up to his and I could see the worry etched across his features. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean - Are you okay?”

  I could see the torment he was putting himself through in his eyes; the feeling that he'd promised not to hurt me and then turned around and been rough.

  The information took a second to register in my hazy brain while I blinked at him. I could feel the anxiety rolling off him in waves despite the slow, satisfied smile on my lips.

  “I'm more than okay, Puppy. I'm amazing. And you,” I let my eyes roam over what I could see of him. “You are fanfuckingtastic.”

  Brody burst out laughing at my compliment and lifted his head to kiss me, his hand running down my cheek in a soft caress. “Only with you.”

  His smile and laughter were better than a big bag full of candies to a kid. I was an addict and he'd just given me the fix I'd needed to totally hook me, line and sinker.

  We lay in the quiet, sun-filled haze of his bed for what felt like forever until he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. “Wanna go see a movie? I feel like we need to go on a date to make up for that huge jump we just took.”

  “Sure. Do you have any idea what's playing? “

  He shook his head and kissed me again before slipping from the bed. The front of him was distinctly wet and brought a blush to my already flushed cheeks.

  “Gimme a minute to clean up and we'll drive in to town.”

  I looked down at my half nakedness and back up at him with a wry grin on my face. “Guess I should put a shirt on if we're going out in public, hm?”

  Brody's laughter floated to me from the bathroom. He came out a moment later with a wet washcloth in one hand and fresh boxers on.

  “You can borrow one of my t-shirts if you want.” He handed me the cloth with a shy smile. “In case you need to clean up or, um, whatever.”

  The rosy blush on his cheeks was adorable and endeared him to me that much more.

  “I'm good, watch.” I closed my eyes, imagined the outfit I wanted and snapped my fingers. When I opened my peepers again a soft pink knit sweater covered my upper body, black jeans fit snuggly to the curve of my ass and tucked into another pair of boots. “Want me to do you too, Puppy?”

  He groaned at my choice of words and shook his head. “No, I'll do it the old fashioned way.” Brody passed to fetch a shirt from his dresser and I pinched him as he strode by with his previously discarded jeans in hand.

  “Nice ass.”

  Eighteen

  A loud pounding on his door woke Brody out of a sound, dreamless sleep. He'd been up late watching movies with Ardeur the night before and had finally stumbled to his own bed, bleary eyed and beat after putting sleeping beauty in her own bed around three that morning.

  The pounding grew louder and he opened his eyes to glance at the alarm clock on his bedside table. It read seven and judging by the sunlight streaming through the windows, it wasn't evening.

  “Four goddamn hours.” He muttered to himself as he found the jeans that had been dropped on the floor and slipped them over his nakedness. The zipper and his manhood narrowly avoided each other while he hurried to put his pants on and walk to the door at the same time.

  Brody yanked the heavy oak door open to find a very angry angel at the other end of a sucker punch that connected with his jaw and kept going. The force of the blow knocked him back inside the room to sprawl across the floor in a daze.

  He shook himself off and vaulted back to his feet. For a wolf, he was agile as a cat and it paid off when his left hook connected solidly with Rae's chin.

  “What is your problem?”

  Rae rocked back on his feet and hit the other side of the hall with a loud thud when his head connected with the stone wall. Bits of plaster rained down from the ceiling and dusted his shoulders with a fine white powder.

  “My problem, Cujo is you waltzing in here and getting all hot over Ardy when you haven't seen her since you were children.”

  Brody had little time to brace himself before the other man tackled him at the waist and took him to the floor. Another solid punch landed, this time to his nose, and a crunching sound preceded the starburst of pain behind his eyes as his nose shattered.

  The pain cleared his mind of any fog that might have been left over from his short nap. He flipped Rae onto his back, hauled off on him with a right and was rewarded with a satisfied crunch and rush of blood of his own.

  “The same could be said for you, jackass. You haven't seen her since you screwed up her life and suddenly you have the right to claim her?” Brody punched Rae three times in quick succession and the angel kept coming back for more. Finally having enough, Brody punched Azrael hard enough for the sound of his teeth rattling to echo in the room. “I've been looking for that woman in every waking moment of my life since she disappeared nineteen years ago.”

  “I suppose you think that gives you the right to walk back in to her life and play hero? You have no idea what she's been through, the horror of her life before she came here.”

  Brody landed one final punch to Rae's ribs and backed off him. “What do you think we've been doing the last three days, Rae?”

  Azrael rolled his eyes at him and Brody knew exactly what the angel had been thinking with that one simple gesture.

  “We've spent most of the time talking, getting to know each other again.”

  “Sure you have. I saw you leaving her room early this morning with your shirt in your hand and your pants undone.” Rae dabbed at the trickle of blood from his nose and winced at the pain the gesture caused.

  “Not that it requires explaining, but Brody's shirt had marinara on it from the dinner I made him last night. The dinner is to blame for his pants being undone too.” Both men turned shocked expressions toward where I stood in the doorway in the oversized t-shirt I'd borrowed from Brody. “Seems my boyfriend's eyes were bigger than his stomach and he ate too much.”

  Brody was sitting on the edge of his bed, his fingers gingerly feeling the broken terrain of his nose. The amber glow of his eyes cast shadows over his cheeks and made the
blood covering his upper lip glisten.

  “Aww, Puppy, that's gotta hurt.” I glanced at Rae but held my position. The angel still looked plenty pissed and liable to strike at anything that came near.

  Remiele's gentle voice startled me as she came up behind me and surveyed the scene. “Well don't you two boys look smart?”

  The men glared at each other until Brody growled and turned to Remiele. “First time is free. Straighten your brother out or his ass is mine next time.” He looked at Azrael with golden, wolfish eyes. “I don't know what you think you're entitled to for fixing what you screwed up in the first place, but know this, I love Ardeur and I'll fight for her with everything I've got.”

  Out of everything Brody had said, the three words that stuck with me as I crossed the room to him were the ones proclaiming his love for me. I wrapped my arms around his waist and turned my face up to his bruised and bloody one.

  “You do? Love me?”

  Rae had reached the door and turned to glare at us. “You hurt one hair on her head, Poochie, and I'll have you eating my boots.” He looked at me and sighed. “One hair and he's Hamburger Helper. If you want him, I'll try to respect that. It's your decision.”

  “One more insult and it's your face and my boot.” Brody wrapped his arm around my shoulder protectively and looked down at me. “Yeah, I love you, but I'm not going to push you. I promised you slow and that's what you deserve.”

  Remiele smiled at me and poked Rae in the side when she felt him gearing up to launch further insults at Brody.

  “Oh, no, you don't. Hush with the insults and start apologizing.” She nudged her brother with an elbow to his bruised ribs. “You assumed things were more than they are and we all know what they say about people who assume.”

  “They get their asses handed to them?” Brody laughed until he too was poked.

  I tucked myself into his side and turned my eyes up to him with a pleading look.

  “Shake on it, please?”

  Azrael stood grumbling by the door with what could only be considered a pout. His full lower lip stuck out noticeably from the top one and I could see Remiele fighting not to laugh at how ridiculous her brother looked.

  “I mean it, Ardy. One hair and ow. Remi.” He looked at his sister and frowned at her for poking him in the ribs again. “Whatever.”

  Brody's eyes searched mine for a moment before his right hand left his side and took the one Rae held out for him to shake. I heard the grumble of, “Damn it” under his breath and smiled against his side.

  “If you two will excuse us, I need to talk to Ardeur. In private.”

  I let him steer me toward the only chair in the room and settled in his lap. The soft click of the door shutting a moment later told me we were alone.

  “Are you okay?” My fingers touched the bruise forming on his cheek and I kissed the abrasion on his jaw.

  “Of course, just give me a sec to pop this back in.” He grunted while he adjusted his nose back into place. “Son of a god-forsaken whore, that hurts every damn time.”

  Fresh blood trickled out to coat his lips and I raised a glowing hand to his face. The white light flared when my fingers touched the broken bones and healed them. When I moved my hand away, his beautiful face was once again whole and free of blood.

  “Now, about this whole loving me thing.”

  Brody laughed and bent his head to kiss me quiet.

  “Hold that thought. I need to clean up and then we can talk.”

  He stood and put me back down in the chair before he strode to the bathroom and cleaned the blood from his chest.

  I took advantage of the time Brody was in the bathroom to rifle his drawers and pull on a pair of his boxers. When he came back from the bathroom, it was to find me fumbling with the waistband.

  “What? Don't you dare laugh at me, Puppy.”

  “Goldie, baby.” He bit his lip and I could tell he was trying desperately not to laugh. “I have some drawstring shorts that might fit you better.”

  Brody burst into full-blown laughter, which earned him a scowl from me. I couldn't really be angry with him when I knew how ridiculous I looked in his oversized boxers.

  I pulled off the shorts and traded him for the new pair he passed over.

  “That's better.” My fingers were in the final stages of tying a bow in the string when I turned around to see his ass being covered by the shorts that had just been on my own. “Nice.”

  He smiled at my comment and stretched out on the bed with the covers pulled aside for me.

  “Come here. I haven't had enough sleep yet and I don't want you anywhere other than in my bed right now.”

  My hand covered a jaw-cracking yawn that negated my protest of not being tired as I crawled under the blankets. The residual heat trapped in the sheets from his earlier slumber wrapped around me. Brody spooned himself to the back of me and tucked the coverlet tight around my shoulders.

  “Now, about what you said earlier.”

  Brody laughed and snuggled in closer. “Shush and close your eyes. We can talk about it later.”

  Puppy had the most comfortable bed in the world in that moment. The wolf blanket wrapped around me made it even better and I fell asleep easily in his arms.

  I woke up some time later with my nose pressed firmly against Brody's chest. His thick thigh and a wealth of blankets were firmly wedged between my knees.

  It took a couple of minutes of careful maneuvering to extricate myself from the stifling tangle of bedclothes, but I managed it and pulled back to look up at his face. Brody was sound asleep and his peaceful look made me smile.

  For the first time in my life there had been no nightmares, no waking up screaming from the horrifying images in my head. The only thing there was a feeling of calm and, oh yeah, love.

  My lips brushed his in a soft kiss and, when I looked up, my eyes locked with his. A smile spread across my lips and I leaned in to kiss him again.

  “Hey.”

  Brody took a deep breath and hugged me tight. “Hey. Sleep well?”

  The smile on his face was the best thing I'd ever woken up to. Not even the joy of being freed from Shade could top that one smile. “I could get used to this, Puppy. Very used to this.”

  I went searching under the blankets to wrap my arms around his back and came up against where the edge of the blanket was neatly trapped under his solid weight. “Come under here with me.”

  “Actually, I need to go to the bathroom.” A kiss glanced off the tip of my nose and he was off the bed like a bat out of hell. He hadn't been fast enough for me to miss the obvious tent in his boxers though and I smiled wickedly as the bathroom door shut behind him.

  “So, um, about that conversation you avoided earlier?”

  The sound of running water told me he was washing his hands and a minute later the door opened again. Brody crossed to the chair we'd sat in the night before and ran his fingers through the thick brown scruff of his hair. “Yeah, what's up, Goldie?”

  “You said you love me.” I leaned forward and picked at invisible fuzz on the blanket while I chose my words. “Did you mean it or was it just for show because of Rae?”

  A low growl rumbled between us, his face turned serious. “Goldie, don't even mention that son of a bitch right now, alright?” He scrubbed his hands over his face and my heart fell at the hesitation to answer the other part of my question. “As for the other part? Yeah, I love you. More than anything in this goddamn world.”

  I swung my legs off the bed and before we knew it, I was planted firmly in his lap with my arms around his neck. “I love you, too.”

  Brody opened his mouth to interject and I pressed a finger to his lips to quiet him. “I'm not saying it because you did. I'm saying it because I really, really love you.”

  The way he sucked my finger into his mouth and wrapped his tongue around it sent a shiver of desire down my spine. It tightened parts of my body that weren't used to feeling the way he made them feel.

  “I, u
m, need to use the bathroom.” I was off his lap and shutting the door behind me before he could protest or stop me.

  Brody watched her walk away, his eyes fastened on the curve of her ass as it swayed with each step. That ass - damn it's fine. He overheard her say something about no more fighting with Rae and snorted to himself as he walked over to the dresser. Yeah, right, no fighting.

  “If that dumbass touches me, Goldie, it's on.”

  Ardeur's laughter rang out from the bathroom and she emerged a moment later, fumbling with the strings on his shorts. “On like Donkey Kong, huh?” She growled in frustration and looked up at him. “You know, I'm seriously not liking being this small today. Help?”

  “Of course, baby.” He pulled her over and did up the drawstring right quick. A gentle nibble on her ear brought her even closer and he had to duck away to avoid Ardeur's hands as they reached for him. “No way, not right now. I've got plans for us.”

  Brody winked at Ardeur and turned his back to pull a fresh pair of jeans and a shirt from his dresser.

  Watching him dress was both a pleasure and torture. Puppy looked damn fine in his denim and leather. Looks fine without them too.

  “Plans? Anything I can tag along for?” I glanced at my outfit and chuckled. “After I change, of course.”

  I'd gotten better at controlling my new-found powers over the last couple of days thanks to the hours of practice every afternoon with Remiele and Tate. The two of them had taken to mentoring me since I refused to go near Rae.

  Changing my clothes from his baggy shorts and shirt to a pair of tight-fitting dark blue jeans, light pink t-shirt, black vest and leather boots took no more than a thought.

  “So, what's the plan for today, Puppy?”

  Brody took my hand and led me outside. It was the longest, most quiet walk of my life until he sat down on the grass beneath my favorite tree and pulled me down into his lap. “We need to talk.”