Bound by Blood (Crescent City Wolf Pack Book 3)

by Carrie Pulkinen

  She trailed her fingers up and down his stomach, reveling in the way his muscles tightened and goose bumps rose on his skin. “You’ve got plenty. No one has ever made me feel the way you do.”

  He let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t have a condom.”

  She cupped his cheek in her hand, turning his head to face her. “Go grab my backpack. I’ve got some.”

  With a grin, he hopped off the bed and returned with her bag. “At least one of us is prepared.”

  Unzipping the front pocket, she took out a condom and whisked off the wrapper. “I was hopeful.”

  “Nothing wrong with that.” He took the rubber and rolled it on.

  Positioning himself on top of her, he settled his hips between her legs and pressed his tip against her. She bit her lip as she gazed into his soulful eyes, and he filled her. An electric tingling sensation shot from her center to her chest, and she pulled his face to hers to take his mouth in an urgent kiss as they became one.

  Rocking his hips, he slid in and out, sensuous friction making every cell in her body hum. She clutched his shoulders and hooked her heels behind his thighs, driving him deeper inside her with every thrust. She couldn’t get enough of him. He trailed his mouth from her lips to her neck, searing her with kisses before nipping at her skin.

  His woodsy scent. The salty taste of his skin. The warmth of his body on hers… She was on sensory overload and relishing every goddamn second of it. This man was made to be hers. It didn’t matter that he was human. He belonged to her, and she belonged to him.

  She found his lips with hers and drank in his essence, giving herself to him fully. As he moaned into her mouth, the vibration sent warm shivers running across her entire body. She held him tighter, the orgasm building in her core like a river behind a dam.

  His rhythm increased, his thrusts growing harder and more determined. She gasped as the dam broke and a tidal wave of ecstasy crashed through her body, shattering her senses.

  Tossing her head back, she cried out his name. He groaned in response, a shudder running through his muscles as he slowed his motion and relaxed on top of her.

  He nuzzled into her neck and slipped his fingers into her hair. “I like your haircut. I don’t think I’ve told you that.”

  “Thank you. I like…everything about you.”

  “That’s good to know.” He rose onto his elbows before sliding to his side. “I happen to like everything about you too.” Rolling out of bed, he tossed the condom in the trash and settled next to her again.

  She turned to face him, and he took her hands and entwined his legs with hers—a tangle of limbs and pounding hearts. Sleeping with Bryce was nothing like she’d expected. He was unlike any man she’d ever known, and he’d forced her to reconsider everything she believed about human nature. People could change. Bryce was living proof. He’d taken the hand he was dealt and turned himself into the most amazing man she’d ever met. If he could go from zero to hero by sheer force of will, a rogue could learn to settle down and stay in one place.

  So many emotions coiled and twisted through her soul. Sensations she’d never felt before. For the first time in her life, she hadn’t had sex—she’d made love.

  “I’m glad you decided to stay.” He kissed the back of her hand and gazed into her eyes like he was looking into her being.

  “Me too.” She had so many secrets, and at that moment, she wanted to share them all. To tell him everything about her—her past, her abilities, the werewolves. But she couldn’t. Not yet. If he couldn’t accept that his nerd side combined with his cop side to create his whole being, how could she expect him to accept that she was both a woman and a wolf?

  “How was lunch with Macey? Did you talk about anything interesting?”

  She grinned. “We talked about you. She warned me not to hurt you. All your friends seem to think I’m going to.”

  His brow furrowed. “I don’t think you’re going to hurt me.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Well.” He glided his fingers down her side to rest on her hip, leaving a trail of goose bumps on her skin. “I believe ours are the only opinions that matter in this case. Don’t you agree?”

  “I do.”

  His expression turned somber. “Did you tell her about your trouble with Eric?”

  She drew her shoulders toward her ears. “It didn’t come up in the conversation.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “You should tell Macey. She’d want to know.”

  “Tell her what? That I stupidly attempted to climb an electrical tower while trying to get away from an abusive ex-boyfriend? I’m her big sister. I should be taking care of her. She doesn’t need to know I can hardly take care of myself. Anyway, that mess is over now.” If he would stop bringing it up, maybe she could put her past behind her and focus on making a future with him.

  He propped himself on his left elbow and used his thumb to fiddle with the ring on his right hand. “She’s your family. You’re lucky to have to that.”

  Alexis was damn lucky; she knew that. But she didn’t know how to handle people who actually cared about her. This new life she was trying to make…staying in one place for good…would require baby steps. She was finally willing to accept that she could change, but he couldn’t expect her to dive right in and act like she’d been here all along. “What about your family? Where are they?”

  He let out a sigh, untwined their legs, and rolled onto his back. She immediately missed his warmth and scooted closer to rest her hand on his chest.

  “My mom is at Autumn Winds Nursing Home. She has Alzheimer’s.” A mask of sadness covered his features, and his eyes grew distant.

  She sidled next to him, pressing the length of her body to his side and propping her head on her hand to catch his gaze and keep him grounded in the present. “Do you ever see her?”

  “I visit her every week.” He stared at the ceiling. “Most of the time, she doesn’t even know I’m there. She…” He inhaled a shaky breath. “She doesn’t remember she has a son.”

  Her own mother had died when she was six, and she would give anything to see her one more time. To ask her the questions that had burned in her mind since she discovered she wasn’t human. But for Bryce’s mom to be alive and not recognize her own child… She could imagine the hole that must have left in his heart. “I’m so sorry. That must be hard.”

  “Yeah.” He inhaled a quick breath. “How do your healing abilities work? Could you…?”

  She smiled sadly. “No. I can only heal physical wounds. Diseases…” She shook her head. “I can’t. I’ve tried.” Her wolf made her immune to disease, so she had no need for the ability to heal them. “Is she all you have left?”

  He looked at her and rested hand on top of hers. “My dad died of a heart attack three years ago. He was seventy-six. My mom started going downhill after that. She couldn’t live without him. They had such a strong bond. So much love.” A small smile curved his lips. “No matter what life threw at them, they always made it through because they had each other. And believe me, life threw some pretty wicked curve balls.” He laced his fingers through hers. “Family is important. Don’t shut your sister out.”

  Family. It was hard to believe she actually had one now. “I know you’re right, but I don’t want to be a burden on her. Luke’s already giving me a job, and…”

  “Family is never a burden.” He swallowed. “I had a brother. He was six years older than me.” He sandwiched her hand between his palms and raised their hands to his lips. “He killed himself when I was seventeen. Overdosed.”

  “Oh, Bryce. I had no idea.” Her throat thickened. “And then you saw me in the hospital, and you thought that I…I’m so sorry.”

  His eyes began to glisten, so he blinked and shook his head.

  “And then Michael… How do you do your job when it’s so personal? How do you handle it?”

  He laid her hand on his chest and rubbed his ring. “It’s why I do it. The bullying is part of why I b
ecame a cop, but I became a negotiator so I could help people. So I could keep it from happening to anyone else.”

  “Because no one helped your brother?”

  “I didn’t know anything was wrong with him. He…” He paused and blew out a hard breath. “He had severe chronic depression, and he suffered in silence for years. Nobody knew. At least…I didn’t know. I hadn’t exactly mastered my people skills back then, so I wouldn’t have recognized the signs if he’d broadcasted them. He put on a mask around his friends and family. Pretended to be happy. To be someone he wasn’t.” He laced his fingers through hers. “His smile never reached his eyes, though. I should’ve…” He pressed his mouth into a hard line. “Not a day goes by that I don’t regret not knowing. Not helping.”

  Turning his head toward her, he pinned her with a heavy gaze. “If he had opened up and let me know what was going on, I might have been able to help him.”

  “But you didn’t know.”

  “Doesn’t make it hurt any less. Suicide doesn’t stop the pain. It passes it on to someone else. Don’t shut Macey out of your life because it isn’t as perfect as you’d like it to be. She loves you no matter what.”

  She snuggled into his side and draped her arm across him. If only her healing powers worked on broken hearts. “That ring isn’t yours, is it?”

  “It was my brother’s college ring. He’d just graduated when…” He let out a hard breath. “I wear it to remind myself why I do what I do.”

  “And because it keeps him close to you.”

  He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her even closer to his side. “That too.”

  A familiar ache expanded in her chest, and she closed her eyes. “I used to have my mom’s wedding ring. It was a simple, gold band, but it meant a lot to me.”

  “What happened to it?” His chest vibrated against her cheek.

  “I pawned it.” She buried her face in his neck, the shame of losing her connection to her mother twisting a knife in her heart. “I was broke. Hadn’t eaten in days. I used to steal people’s junk that they’d thrown to the curb and pawn it, but the broker wasn’t interested in the busted bicycle I tried to sell him. He offered me fifty bucks for the ring and gave me a month to buy it back.”

  “You didn’t make it in time?”

  “No, I did. I came back three weeks later, but he’d already sold it. I lost the one thing I had of my mom’s for fifty bucks.”

  “I’m sorry. I guess he wasn’t willing to track down the buyer and try to get it back for you?”

  She laughed dryly. “No, he wasn’t, but I hear you about family. I’m going to do my best to repair my relationship with Macey. She’s all I have left.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Bryce woke and reached for Alexis, but the bed was empty. Panic fluttered in his chest. He’d dumped so much on her last night…his fake persona, his family, his brother’s death. Had she changed her mind about staying? Decided he carried too much baggage? He rose onto his elbows, and light shining from beneath the bathroom door eased his fear. When he put his hand on the bed where she had lain, her warmth remained in the sheets.

  Her sweet scent lingered on the pillow, and he pressed his face into the fabric, inhaling deeply. The bathroom door swung open, and Alexis stepped into the room, wearing nothing but a towel. His mind flashed back to the first time he’d seen her in a towel, and he smiled. Not a single bruise marred her skin now, and she was finally opening up to him. Letting him into her world.

  “Now you’re doing it.” She strode across the room and sat on the edge of the bed. The towel slid up until it barely covered the important parts, and heat pooled in his groin.

  “Doing what?”

  “You’re sniffing the pillows. And smiling about it.”

  He swung the pillow behind her back, clutching it with both hands and pulling her to his chest. “You smell good.” He nuzzled into her neck and took a deep breath. The scent of his soap mixed with a sweetness that was all Alexis, making his mouth water to taste her.

  She laughed. “I smell like you. What’s with the citrusy shower gel?”

  “I like it. Especially when it’s on you.” He trailed kisses up the curve of her neck to take her earlobe between his teeth.

  She shivered. “Don’t you have to go to work?”

  He tossed the pillow onto the bed and lay back, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Not for a few hours. It’s six a.m.”

  Her gaze traveled the length of his body before settling on the tent he’d made of the sheets. She grinned. “I don’t start my new job until Wednesday. Mind if I do a little exploring?” Her fingers brushed his stomach as she slid the sheet down. “Or do you have something you need to be doing?”

  His core contracted, and his dick twitched beneath the sheet. “The only thing I need to be doing right now is you, darlin’.”

  “Darlin’?” She unknotted the towel from her chest and tossed it on the floor. “I’ve never let anyone call me that before.”

  Damn, she was gorgeous. All fair, flawless skin and delicate curves. He’d call her anything she wanted him to if she’d crawl into bed and press her supple body against his. “Would you like me to stop?”

  “I like it coming from you.” She tugged the sheet from his legs and climbed on top him.

  Every nerve in his body hummed as she lay against him, coaxing his lips apart with her tongue. She tasted like mint toothpaste, and as he wrapped his arms around her, he couldn’t seem to hold her close enough. He needed to be in her. To be one with her.

  His home had always been his sanctuary. His place to be alone when the world became too much to bear. He’d never realized how lonely he’d been, isolating himself like he had. Now, with Alexis in his bed, her scent lingering on the sheets, her essence filling his space with promises of companionship, he couldn’t imagine a life without her in it.

  She glided her tongue down his neck toward his chest, and anticipation knotted in his muscles.

  “You know,” he said. “You don’t have to move in with Luke’s sister.”

  “I don’t?” She trailed kisses across his right pec and flicked out her tongue to lick his nipple.

  His stomach clenched, and he sucked in a sharp breath. “Not if you don’t want to.”

  “Where would I live then?” She grazed his sensitive flesh with her teeth and sucked his nipple into her mouth.

  Electricity shot straight to dick, his hips involuntarily bucking with the sensation. “You could stay with me.”

  “I could?” She kissed her way down his stomach, his muscles coiling tighter as her lips neared his groin.

  He rose onto his elbows to look at her. “I like having you here, and I plan on spending every free second I have with you.”

  “Do you, now?” She grinned as she took his length in her hand and stroked him.

  His lids fluttered, but he forced his eyes open. She knew exactly what to do. Where to touch. To lick. She was made for him, and he needed her to know exactly how he felt about her. “I don’t know how to describe it, but there is something about you. I felt it the first time I met you, and it’s gotten stronger the more I spend time with you.”

  She stroked him again, and a bead of moisture gathered on his tip. A moan rumbled up from his chest, and she stroked him again.

  “Maybe I do know how to describe it. Alexis, I…”

  She flicked out her tongue to lick him, and the thoughts evaporated from his mind like a fog burned away by the morning sun. He dropped his head onto the pillow and closed his eyes as she took him into her mouth. Warm and wet, her tongue massaged the underside of his dick as she sucked him deeper. Then she slid her head up until only his tip remained between her lips before taking his entire length into her mouth again. A shudder ran through his body as she repeated the motion again and again, pushing him closer to the edge.

  He could barely suck in enough air to speak. “I need you. I…”

  She rose to her knees and grabbed a condom from the nightstand, r
olling it on before she straddled him. Gripping his cock, she guided him to her center and sheathed him before he could finish the thought. Her gaze locked with his, and she rocked her hips, sending searing electricity pummeling through his veins.

  With her hands on his chest, she rode him, her gorgeous breasts swaying with her movements. She was sheer perfection, and the connection he felt with this woman ran deeper than he’d imagined possible. He belonged to her. Every part of him.

  He licked his thumb and pressed it to her clit, and she gasped, straightening her spine and increasing her rhythm. His climax coiled like spring in his core, and has she tossed her head back and cried out his name, an explosion of ecstasy ricocheted through his system and sparks danced before his eyes.

  Breathless and trembling, Alexis collapsed on top of him. She clutched his shoulders and showered him in kisses, and he glided his fingers across her sweat-slickened skin. Her hair was still damp from the shower, and he ran his fingers through it, brushing it away from her face.

  “One of the perks of moving in with me?” He kissed her cheek. “Mornings like this.”

  She lifted her head and smiled. “I’ll think about it.”

  His chest tightened, and three little words danced on his tongue. He bit them back. She said she’d think about it, and he didn’t need to press his luck by saying more. He would give her all the time she needed to warm up to the idea of being his. Right now, he’d find satisfaction in the fact that she was staying in town.

  He held her for another half hour before showering and getting ready for work. Alexis dressed and followed him into the living room, where she gave Sam a scratch on the head and let him out the back door.

  “Mind if I make some coffee?” She kissed him on the cheek and padded barefoot into the kitchen.

  A fluttering sensation formed in his stomach as she made herself at home, opening cabinets, taking out cups, and filling the machine to brew. He stepped behind her and slid his arms around her waist. “Will you be here when I get home?”