“Consequences aren’t about me making arbitrary rules, they’re about you and me working together as a team so you do as well as you can in school, and then in your job. Your instructors will be asked who of each graduating class they recommend for hire, and even if you’re their best student, they won’t recommend someone who can’t make it to class on time.”
She didn’t get it. I tried again. “Eventually, you may make a name for yourself, so customers will wait however long they have to for the magical stylings of Lexi Washington, but you have to make a name for yourself, and if one stylist is always running on time, while another is always running behind, and both are equally skilled… who do you think they’ll make an appointment with?”
She crossed her arms. “I was at my sister’s house. It doesn’t count.”
I wanted her to see me as fair, so even though I very much thought it counted, I decided to leave it up to her. “When you decide, if you decide, that you deserve consequences, you'll come to me and we'll handle it. This isn't about me being a dictator, it's about us helping you succeed in school and life.”
She uncrossed her arms. Crossed them back. “You’re kind of an asshole sometimes.”
I grinned. “Just sometimes?”
“It was fine.”
It wasn’t, but we weren’t going to keep arguing it. “You slept okay in the plug the other night?” I hadn’t intended to make her sleep in one for a while — if ever — but she’d done it on her own so we needed to talk about it.
“I missed you.” She sighed. “My sister doesn’t understand boundaries, so I learned way more about her and my mother than I ever wanted to know, but it appears they’re both a big fan of the butt stuff. Do you think that’s a genetic thing? Etta says it doesn’t seem to hurt her like it does other people, and she seemed surprised I’ve made it to a couple of fingers with you.” Her scent was suddenly horrified, and she rushed to add, “I don’t kiss and tell! She tricked me into telling her you’ve made it to two fingers and I didn’t hate it!”
I tried not to laugh, and managed it for a few seconds, but then I couldn’t hold it back. She went indignant on me, which made me laugh even harder, but I managed to cut it short to tell her, “I love you, Lexi. Yes, you’ve come along at a nice pace, but it’s been so long since I broke someone in, I don’t think I realized.”
“Broke. Someone. In.”
She said it completely monotone. Her dark brown eyes seemed to go even darker, and her scent let me know she was pissed all to hell and back.
“It’s a figure of speech, Lex. I’m sorry.”
She didn’t say anything, and I had a suspicion she was too hurt or pissed to risk talking without getting emotional.
I shook my head. “That was callous. Cold. I’m truly sorry. I have a zillion excuses, ranging from prison talk to the way we deal with the sweetbutts, but none of that applies to you.”
Still nothing. I tried again. “I fucked up. What do you want to hit me with?”
Finally, she responded, but it was more of a shout than speech. “I don’t want to hit you!”
“I can’t unsay it. I hurt you, and I’m sorry. You can hurt me back, if it’ll make you feel better.”
“It won’t, and you’re just going to have to live with hurting me, just as I’ll have to live with the fact you said it.” She squeezed her eyes closed, and her shoulders slumped. “It’s also possible I’m being a prude again, but it still hit me wrong. It hurt.”
“How about this — when you get a new bike, or you rebuild the engine on an old one, you’re careful with it until everything gets seated and sealed. If you go too fast, it’ll seize. Take it too easy, the rings won’t seat. You have to warm it up slow and watch how hot you get it the first thousand miles. You have to be careful at first so you can drive the hell out of it later. It’s called breaking it in, but it just means you’re taking care of it.”
“That isn’t the way you meant it.”
“I spoke without thinking, and it wasn’t fair to you, nor was it the way I feel about my time with you. You’re infinitely more valuable than a motorcycle, but that’s much closer to the way I feel. I’m getting you used to me and taking care not to hurt you — and trying to give you lots of orgasms while we’re at it.”
“Okay. Whatever. I’m done with this, but please don’t talk about sex with me like that again.”
Fuck, did she have any idea how hard that might be? She was right, though. Seeing it from her point of view, it was harsh.
“Like you said, I’m an asshole sometimes. I’ll try to do better.”
24
Lexi
* * *
What had possessed me to tell him about wearing the plug while he was gone? He put the same plug into me after we ate, gave me more orgasms than I could count, but then started working me up without tipping me over before he showed me a bigger one.
“If you say Brussels sprouts while I’m putting it in, we’ll take it out and put the one you have back in, but I think you can handle this one.”
By this time, I was frantic with need and would’ve agreed to just about anything.
“Can I play with myself while you do it?”
“No, but I’ll fuck you once it’s in.”
My body reacted before my brain engaged, and I went to knees and chest before I even realized I was going to.
My entire body shuddered when his finger swiped between my lips once, twice. Two fingers sank inside, and my groan was seven octaves lower than normal.
And then the plug came out, the bigger one pressed in, and I had to focus to keep from squirming away from it.
“Breathe and relax, sweetheart.”
Etta had told me to push out, and when I did, it slid right in. I squealed and possibly screamed when the widest part opened me, but then it was in and I needed him inside me.
He didn’t make me wait — he was granite hard and fatter than I remembered, and he pressed faster than he had yet, but I wanted it. Welcomed it. Craved it.
“Fuck, you’re so tight. Feel so damned good.”
His hands gripped my hips and he sank into me until I squealed again — he was too deep!
He pulled out, changed angles, sank into me again, and pulled out before he hurt me.
“Again!”
“You aren’t in any position to be givin’ orders, Half-pint.”
“Please!”
“That’s better.”
He gave me what I wanted, and before long I was jerking around while his oh-so-hard length filled me over and over. I writhed all over, completely out of control, screaming his name. He was inside me. Owning me. Taking me. Driving me higher and higher until I thought I’d die from the pleasure, but still, he gave me more.
I didn’t understand what was happening when the plug came out and something else pressed into my bottom.
Not at first.
But when I felt the head slide in, and realized he was inside me, I froze on the outside, but my insides went crazy with an orgasm I can’t describe. It was mental and anal, with nothing touching my clit or pussy.
Nothing in my life had prepared me for the overwhelming need, desire, craving, fire. Bubbles was in my most forbidden place, where no one had been before, and it was naughty, and beautiful, and so fucking right I wanted to cry — but because I was overwhelmed, not from pain.
Because it was uncomfortable and wrong — and oh-so-right —but it didn’t hurt. At all.
“How?!”
“I’m skinny, sweetheart. I’m gonna push in a little more. Ready?”
“Fuck yes. Please!”
He didn’t stay in me long before he was back out and the plug was in me again.
“On your belly, sweetheart. Legs together tight.” He put the condom on while I got into position, and he mounted me without warning his legs outside mine, squeezing them together.
I gasped when he plunged into my pussy, and wished he’d let me play with myself, but didn’t bother asking.
He stopped moving. “Gonna go fat now. Stay relaxed. You good?”
“No I’m not good! You got me all hot and bothered and you’re talking!”
My next noises were unintelligible, because he fucking grew inside me, like a balloon, but fatter instead of longer. I sucked air in and tried to speak, to tell him I was okay and to do it again, but words wouldn’t form.
He didn’t need me to tell him, though. He went fatter, and fatter, and fatter. I squirmed and pumped under him, and reached for my clit.
“Hands where I can see them, sweetheart. You’ll come when I get you off, not when you do.”
“You said you’d stop being an asshole!”
He chuckled. “Said I’d try, not that I’d stop.”
Eventually, he went too fat and the stretch hurt, but I didn’t want him to stop. He must’ve used his sense of smell to figure it out, because he finally started moving inside me, and I could only chant the word yes over and over, with the occasional fuck thrown in.
Finally, he hammered me harder and faster than I thought possible, with his fist around his cock so he didn’t go too deep. Every time I’d try to play with my clit, he’d order my hands back out to the side, until I was begging for an orgasm, but he kept at it, fast and hard with no release, driving me higher and higher until I thought the top of my head might come off, but still he didn’t give me a release.
Until he reached around with his hand and changed angles inside me, and my consciousness exploded. Or imploded. Either way, it was as if Bubbles and me were one being, experiencing the world in colors we’d never seen before, savory sweet tastes I’d never imagined, and the most wondrous smells in impossibly vivid detail. Every sense was heightened while every cell in our bodies was bathed in bliss, and we were joined in every way possible — physical, mental, emotional. We were one, and it was beautiful. I hung in the bliss, experiencing it with him. Loving him, his wolf, and the being the two of them made up.
When it was over, I was crying and had no idea why.
“Are you okay?”
I turned on my side and curled into a ball against him. He wiped a tear and looked concerned, but his eyes were filled with liquid too, though he wasn’t crying.
“I’m overwhelmed. I love you so much. What was that?”
He held me tighter. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt so connected to someone.”
His cock slid out of me and I moaned in protest. I didn’t want to lose him inside me, but the plug was still in my bottom and I was still full.
So full.
“Oh. The plug! It’s too much!”
He made a shushing noise and rubbed my back. I tried to relax into him, but my muscles spasmed and tried to push it out.
“Okay, sweetheart. I gave you a bigger one when I came out of you, but we’ll go back to a smaller size. Try to be okay with it while I clean the other one and lube it again.”
“Don’t want the other one! Please take this one out!”
He didn’t say another word, but did exactly as I asked. I yelped when it came out, but then relaxed so much, I thought I might sink through the mattress and into the earth.
He chuckled, kissed my forehead, gathered stuff, and went to the bathroom. I have no idea what happened after that because I crashed until morning. I’m sure he probably came back to bed to hold me, but my off-button engaged and that was it.
25
Bubbles
* * *
I had no idea what happened during our orgasm. I needed to talk to someone, but it would have to wait because I needed to get back to Lexi.
I disposed of the condom, cleaned the plugs and myself, and carried the second largest plug back into the room, but she was crashed. Hard.
I put all the plugs away and crawled into bed with her. I’d call Tex tomorrow and ask him what the fuck had just happened. I know sometimes two wolves experience freaky connection shit, but I didn’t think it was supposed to happen with a human.
Lexi’d be driving herself to school, so she needed to leave my house by seven to be sure she was there by seven twenty. Class starts at seven forty-five, and she needed time to park, walk in, and get settled. I didn’t know what time she’d set her phone’s alarm, but I set my clock for quarter till six.
We needed a little time to talk in the morning — but after her shower and coffee. My little Half-pint is a grumpy bear in the mornings.
My clock went off before hers, and I turned the bedside light on before pulling the blanket and sheets off us both. “Up, my little bundle of morning grumpiness.”
“Fuck you. I don’t need to be up yet.”
She curled into a ball and put her head under the pillow.
I took her pillow from her.
She put her arm over her eyes.
I adjusted my voice so she’d know I wasn’t fucking around. “Up, Lex. It isn’t a suggestion. I won’t tell you again.”
She sat up and glared at me. “It’s fucking five forty-six! I can sleep another hour! Leave me alone!”
“Into the shower. I’ll have your coffee ready when you get out.”
She glared at me, but she went.
I put her coffee on the vanity while she did her makeup, and she gave me another glare. That was okay — she’d be better after the coffee kicked in.
Except she wasn’t. I called her to breakfast, expecting to see my happy girl, but she was clearly still pissed. Not just grumpy. Pissed.
She sat at her chair and took a bite of bacon. “This isn’t going to work. You can’t just threaten to beat my ass because I don’t do what you say.”
I told her I’d wanted us to have a chance to talk this morning, and then did the math for her — laying out when she needed to leave my house, and why, and thought that’d clear everything up.
But still, she argued.
“I can pull into the parking lot at seven thirty-five and almost always walk into class before they count me tardy. I’m not getting there at seven twenty.”
“Almost always isn’t good enough. Seven twenty gives you some play room in case there’s a wreck, or traffic you weren’t expecting. It also lets you get into the room and settled before class starts.”
“I don’t need to settle.”
We argued all through breakfast. When she finished hers, she brushed her teeth, grabbed her bookbag, and left a few minutes before she had to. I followed her out and she glared at me. “You don’t have to go in this early.”
“Don’t have to, but I can. I’ll follow you and make sure you get in okay, and then head to work. I’ll send a prospect to watch you get into your car this evenin’ and make sure no one follows you. Where are you goin’ between work and school?”
“The store to buy food, and then my apartment to eat.”
I shook my head. “Let’s hold off on that. Eat at the RTMC restaurant and I’ll tell them to put your meal on my bill. I’ll try to get away to eat with you.”
She glared at me, said, “No,” and backed out of my driveway.
I didn’t stop her from leaving, but I followed her to school as promised.
And then I went to work and stewed. She wasn’t being reasonable.
I called Tex at ten and told him about our argument that morning before I told him about the crazy-wild orgasm we’d experienced the night before.
“You don’t smell any fae on her?”
“No.”
“Something’s there. She has enough magic to respond to yours. If she don’t know who her daddy is, you may not be able to find out. A vampire might be able to taste her blood and tell you, but I’d probably just accept it and move on. She’s been through puberty without changing into anything, and you say she smells human, so…” I could almost see his shrug from across the distance. “But you’re a fucking idjit if you lose her over when she gets to class. Step back and let her figure it out. Spank her ass for tardies, sure, but let her fuck up and make them. She’ll figure out how to get there on time.”
“But if she’ll just listen to
me then—”
“She’s nineteen damned years old and she knows everything, kinda like you when you were that age. Let her figure it out, son. Be her boyfriend, not her motherfuckin’ daddy.”
“I want you and Sparkie to meet her. Bud met her at a party.”
“Yeah, and he says she’s cute as a button, and you have your hands full with her. He’s pretty damned happy for you.” His voice softened. “So am I. It’s about time you found someone to make you happy — so don’t go and fuck it all to shit and back.”
I thought about it until two, and I washed up so I could be waitin’ for her when she came out of class at two thirty. She saw me sitting on my bike behind her car when she neared, and slowed, but then pulled her shoulders back and walked to me without looking away, like she was trying to show the big bad wolf she was badder than him.
My wolf wanted to accept the challenge and spank her ass right there, but I pushed him down and told her, “I’m sorry. No hittin’ the snooze, but when you wake up and when you leave is up to you. You’ll still get your ass paddled for a tardy, but I’ll let you figure out how to get here on time.”
I could practically see the wind go out of her sails. She’d practiced some big speech, and now she couldn’t give it to me with every ounce of attitude she possessed, but she still wanted to.
“I love you, Lex. I’m gonna fuck up, and so are you. I’m in this for the long haul. Are you?”
She looked at her feet a few seconds, and her eyes were misty when she looked up. “I love you too, but you have to stop being an asshole.”
“I’ll try. No promises.”
“You weren’t tryin’ not to be this morning.”
“I was trying to help you better yourself, but you’re gonna have to figure some of this shit out on your own. Today’s special at the restaurant is country fried steak with mashed potatoes and fried squash. Want to join me?”
“That sounds wonderful, but do they have takeout? We need to talk.”
Her last sentence sent my heart into a nosedive, but her scent didn’t warn me of trouble so I hoped it didn’t mean what it usually does. “Sure. We can get it and go on a picnic, or we can eat in the office.”
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