by Lauren Dane
Her hands slid up her belly and cupped her breasts. She moaned, low and sexy, and need, sharp and nearly painful, sliced through him.
“So, you know, I’ve missed you. Like, really missed you.” A smile curved her lips and she sat, pushing her chair back enough that he could see most of her body. Especially the way her graceful fingers kneaded and rolled her nipples.
“Are you wet?” he asked as he freed his cock one handed and stroked it lightly.
“Mmm, let me see.”
He nearly choked as he watched her fingers slide down her belly and disappear between the lips of her pussy and draw out again, glistening.
“Yes. Yes I am. Talking to you, hearing your voice and seeing your face makes me this way. When I put my fingers up into my pussy it felt so good, Shane. I need to come.”
It wasn’t like he’d never had phone sex but this was different. He wanted her desperately but he couldn’t touch her. He’d have to settle for her touching herself on his behalf while he watched.
“Keep playing with your nipples but put those fingers back in your pussy. I want you to fuck yourself nice and slow for me. Can you do that? Spread your legs wide so I can see everything.”
He watched, mesmerized as her fingers slid in and out of her pussy. He heard the wet sounds and the sense memory of her scent came to him, sharp and sudden. He wanted to come too but not until she did. He didn’t want anything to take away from the sight of her right there, just beyond his physical reach but his nonetheless.
“Baby, is your clit hard? Swollen and needy? I can remember how it felt against my tongue. The taste of you, the way you got so wet just for me.”
Her whimper made his cock jump against his palm and a bead of semen pearled at the tip. He slid his thumb through it, groaning at the sensation, imagining her mouth there instead of his hand.
She held herself open with one hand, displaying the darkened folds of her pussy to him while she fingered her clit with the other hand. She gasped. “Yes, hard and swollen. I need, oh God... I can’t stop it.”
Her hips bucked against her fingers but her gaze never left the screen, never broke from his.
He stroked his cock. Already just a razor’s edge away from climax and it wasn’t more than a few breaths before he came, her name on his lips.
She touched her lips with her finger tips. “I love you, Shane. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Christ, what a woman,” he murmured as she signed off.
* * *
It went on like that for a week and a half. Phone or video calls every night when he rushed home from work just to see her or hear her voice. He’d never found himself so willing to disconnect from work before but by three or so each day he’d found himself wrapping up mentally and he’d walked away from his office without looking over his shoulder no later than six.
He liked Megan Warden a hell of a lot. She was funny. Fierce in many ways. Intelligent and insightful on top of beautiful and totally self-assured. No other woman compared. God knew he saw hot women by the dozens every day at work or just out and about in town but none of them held his interest at all.
At times he resented that. His loss of attraction for all the women he’d been so interested in just weeks before. But more often, as the calls went on, he began to accept his feelings and attraction to Megan weren’t just the bond but that he really did enjoy her company. She’d be a compelling woman no matter what.
He had to see her and she wasn’t volunteering to come back to Vegas. Not that he could blame her. She seemed to be going out of her way to let him have the time he needed and he had promised to visit her in Seattle. So he made plans to fly up and spend a week in her territory so to speak.
But he couldn’t be gone for a week or two like he wanted because he didn’t have the coverage at work and deep down, in truth, he just wasn’t sure if he could give her that time in Seattle. Cowardly? Maybe. But he decided to start with three days and four nights to see what happened.
The flight was short enough that he could leave Thursday night after work and arrive in two hours and come back early Monday morning. Enough time to be with her, to touch her and smell her and roll around with her but not too much. He could retreat if he needed to.
He planned to meet her in just a few hours in baggage claim. Funny, sort of full circle from where they’d met before. And then dinner with her family. God knew he was nervous about it but what could he say? She wanted to introduce him to the people who mattered to her. That was important. He was important to her, which made him proud.
Chapter Nine
Megan was glad to have the distraction of the two young and handsome men flirting with her at baggage claim as she waited for Shane. Her hands would have been shaking had she not been holding on to her purse so tightly and focusing on being witty while making it clear she was waiting for her special someone.
She felt him before she saw him, but kept on chatting with her admirers. It wasn’t about playing a game, but she didn’t want to leap on Shane and jump his bones in the middle of the airport. She didn’t want to scare him away. The trip was important. He was taking a small step into her life and she obsessed about doing it right.
“Boys, I think you might get your drool all over my wife if you stand so close.” Shane’s arms encircled her waist and he pulled her back, into the warmth and solid muscle of his body and she nearly groaned aloud at how good it felt.
She turned her head and met his gaze, just as his mouth claimed hers for a kiss. Everything in her melted as she opened for him. He kept her pinned to his body, back to front as he devastated her mouth, took and took and gave in return until she nearly fell over at the overwhelming sensation. Mine.
When he let her go, the sounds all around them returned slowly but she never took her gaze from his.
“Hi.” She was proud she could speak at that point and the wicked man he was, she saw he knew his effect on her. His smile was smug as well as sexy.
“Hi yourself. You taste good.”
She laughed, turning in his arms to wrap hers around his neck. Tiptoeing up, she kissed his nose briefly. “Good. I like to hear these things. God, I missed you.”
He squeezed her tight for a moment and she breathed in as he did, their bodies pressed together.
“So who are your friends?” He jerked his head and she remembered the two who’d been flirting with her.
“Oh them? Just a way to keep my mind off how long your flight had been delayed.”
They laughed behind her and she felt Shane’s jealousy ease through their link.
“You have nothing to worry about.”
“Good.” He turned a glare on her flirty companions and then tugged her toward the conveyor belt. She waved at them over her shoulder and Shane grunted.
She snuggled into his side as they waited for his bag, just loving being with him after being apart for nearly three weeks. Her wolf did summersaults inside her human skin at his scent.
“How was the flight?”
He kissed the top of her head. “Long. I must have looked at my watch every forty seconds. I thought I’d never get here.”
“But you’re here now. I’m so glad.”
“So we’re going to dinner then? At Lex and Nina’s house?”
“Don’t sound so nervous. Honestly I limited it as much as I could and Lay helped. It’ll just be Lex, Nina, Lay and Sid and my parents. My grandmother harrumphed at me and said she’d see you before the weekend was up. I know you met her briefly before but I can’t wait for you to spend some time with her. You’ll like her. Or she’ll beat you up. My grandmother isn’t one to be ignored.” She laughed.
She felt his tension ebb a bit as he reached for his bag and pulled up the handle. “Okay. I’m trusting you. And then we have sex, right?”
Grabbing his hand, s
he tugged him toward the escalators so they could take the skybridge to the parking garage. “Duh. Like a whole lot.”
* * *
He saw the low-slung, candy-apple-red Mustang and grinned. “Hmm. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised but I expected you to have a truck or something more hardy.”
She rolled her eyes as she popped the trunk for him to put his suitcase into. “I’m as hardy as I need to be.” Her gaze slowly made the circuit from the tips of his shoes to the top of his head. “If you recall.”
He nearly choked as he scrambled to get into the car without his cock popping through his jeans at the visual her comments left him with. Of her below him as he fucked into her body.
“So um, listen, there will most likely be discussion of the binding ceremony tonight. Lex, well, he’s very protective of his Pack and his family and he sees you as one of us now. Don’t be offended, it’s not meant to be that way. He just wants to include you.”
Panic rose a moment, until she reached over and took his hand, squeezing it.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
He felt her melancholy through the link. “Would you like me to do the ceremony?”
“Yes. It would mean a lot to me. But you’d have to run with me. As a wolf.”
He hadn’t run in three years even though there were times he itched to let his wolf surface. Part of him really wanted to see her as a wolf. His own wolf began to respond and he realized there was an integral bit of his soul he’d walled off.
Really he wanted to talk to Layla about things. But he felt conflicted. She’d been very quiet about the situation and he understood. She was Megan’s sister, she had divided loyalties. But in truth, he was very close to her even though they didn’t speak all the time. He felt like she knew him better than most anyone else on earth. Maybe that night when he saw her they could talk a bit.
“I’ll consider it. I truly will. I am committed to you. I want you to know that. A lot of this stuff is sort of foreign to me so I appreciate your patience as I try to get through it.”
She nodded in the twilight reflected through the windshield.
“It’s beautiful up here. I remember from the last time I visited. I get to Portland now and again. My aunt lives there.” He was babbling he knew but he was so ridiculously happy to be with her.
“I love it. There’s so much land around Lex and Nina’s place to run in. There’s a lake and several ground-fed streams. When you come again for a bit longer, we can go to the hot springs out on the Olympic Peninsula.”
“Mmm. You, wet and naked under the stars? I’m so there.”
She laughed and he loved the sound.
They made small talk as she described the area they drove through and he asked questions, carefully avoiding werewolf stuff until he felt like an utter tool. She was so careful to not offend him which he appreciated. But at the same time, he didn’t want her holding back. Stupid for him to expect to have it both ways and he knew it.
“Here we are,” she said as they pulled up a long drive leading up a winding hillside, blanketed with trees. Huge iron gates blocked the way and she pulled to a stop to enter a code.
“Wow, some security system.” The gates slid closed behind them and he scented the wildness, the cleanness of the air, the loam of the forest floor not fifteen feet to the edge of the drive.
“We had a scary few years where this was all very necessary. Things have been peaceful for a while now, but I carried a spare magazine with silver bullets for a long time.”
He exhaled sharply. He hadn’t given it much thought, what she did. But of course she’d have done exactly that. His woman was an Enforcer and he knew enough about werewolf Pack hierarchy to understand just how important her position was to the safety of the Alpha and to the Pack in general. It gave him pause and no small amount of anxiety.
She pulled into a large garage bay and turned to him. “Hey, it’s okay now. I’m safe. The war is over. But even if it wasn’t, I’m damned good at my job.”
Reaching toward her, he grabbed her, bringing her body to his so he could hold her tight as he found his breath. Being separated was hard enough, the thought of her being injured or killed made him nauseated.
“It’s the bond. I’m sorry. I know it’s intense for you. I take all this for granted, having grown up in this world. I’m Enforcer which means I’m Second. I’m strong enough to hold my spot. No punk-assed wolf or human is going to take me down. I swear to you.”
He kissed her forehead before he released her. Resentment began to well within him. It wasn’t about the bond, it was that he felt so fucking ill-prepared for all this. It was a part of him as much, if not more than the suburbs and medical school was.
“Nothing for you to be sorry about as long as you’re safe. Now, while I’m nauseated, I may as well go inside.”
He grinned and she chuckled. “Come on then. Layla and Sid are already here so you’ll know a few people and you’ve met everyone else before, even if was twelve years ago or like for ten minutes in LA.”
* * *
He didn’t freak and run away. That was a step in the right direction. She’d prepared Lex as best she could and Nina would help too. Lex wanted to kick Shane’s ass for not just taking responsibility and dealing with the bond, but Nina understood how he felt to a certain extent. Lex could be overprotective and Cade had called four times before she left for the airport. Thank goodness he was on the other side of the country or she’d have a hell of a time keeping them from pinning Shane to the wall.
She led him up into the house and couldn’t help but feel proud even as she wanted him to not be nervous. This was her Pack, her family, her home ground and she’d worked hard to be where she was. She wanted him to like it all too.
“Hey everyone!” she called out as they entered near the family room. Gabby came running and Megan scooped her up into a hug.
“Oh! He’s pretty!”
Shane laughed as she turned toward him with Gabby clinging to her like a monkey. “He is, isn’t he? Gabby, this is Shane, my mate. Shane, this is Gabriella Warden, my niece.”
Shane bowed to them and took Gabby’s hand, kissing it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Your aunt talks about you all the time.”
“Don’t flatter her too much, she’s already nearly impossible to deal with because of how much her father spoils her.” Nina came into the room and took Gabby from Megan. “It’s nice to see you again, Shane. Welcome and I hope you’re hungry. My mother-in-law—” she paused to laugh “—your mother-in-law, has invaded my kitchen and has prepared a feast.”
“Come on then, brace yourself.” Megan looked to him and he kissed her quickly, putting his arm around her waist.
“Go big or go home,” Nina called out.
Layla perked up when they came around the corner into the family room but Megan noticed she held herself back from jumping up to approach them. Shane stiffened a bit. Unsure if he should go to Layla? Surprised at seeing her? Megan wasn’t sure.
“Go on, it’s okay,” she murmured to him and nodded at Layla.
Sid approached and enveloped Megan into a hug. “You’re so awesome,” he said into her ear. “You know it’s nothing compared to what he has with you, right?”
“I don’t. I mean, I guess. All I have to guide me is how I feel about Adam. But I know Layla wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. Or you for that matter.”
Still, she didn’t want to look at them. It was difficult, knowing he shared an older bond with her sister, that he’d created a level of trust she didn’t have with him yet. She hadn’t lied to Sid, she knew Layla would never do anything with Shane outside what was acceptable. It was their intimacy she was jealous of.
“Hey, I haven’t seen you in a few days. Don’t I get a hug?” Layla called out and Megan turned to her siste
r with a smile pasted on her face.
Layla noted it, her posture stiffening a bit before she hugged Megan.
“Enough of this stuff. I’d like to meet my new son-in-law!”
Trust her father to cut through the shit. Henri walked into the room with Beth on one side and Lex on the other. Lex’s eyes cut to Megan immediately, narrowing a bit as he looked between her and Layla for a brief moment and then swung his gaze to Shane.
“Dad, this is Shane, you remember him I’m sure from when he anchored with Layla and Sid.”
Her father shook Shane’s hand and then welcomed him to the Pack. She felt Shane’s wolf respond to her father’s and a rush of lupine energy filled the room. It was exhilarating but Shane looked a bit overwhelmed.
She reached out to squeeze his hand and he clung to her like a lifeline.
“Welcome to Cascadia, Shane. I hope you’ll find the land welcoming.” Lex shook Shane’s hand and then touched his chest over his heart. Tears stung Megan’s eyes at the gesture of brotherhood.
“Hey, everyone’s here. Sorry I’m late!” Adam walked in and Megan relaxed a bit at his presence.
He walked straight to her and gave her a hug, intuiting just what she needed. Someone who was all about her at the moment with no other motivations.
Adam and Shane did that male clap-back-hug thing they do and everyone headed into the dining room where the table must have been groaning under the weight of four hundred pounds of food.
“Jeez, Mom! There’s enough food here to feed a hundred people.”
“I figured you’d be so busy over the weekend you’d appreciate the leftovers.”
Her mother really rocked sometimes.
* * *
“So how are you doing?” Layla asked him as they stood out on the deck overlooking acres upon acres of forest. Megan was off putting Gabby to bed and he suspected, giving him a chance to visit alone with Layla.
“It’s a bit overwhelming. She’s really close to Lex. I guess I hadn’t really understood it until I saw them together. It’s um...a bit intimidating I suppose. He doesn’t like me much.”