by Lauren Esker
"Julie Capshaw, will you do me the honor of being my wife?"
"I'd be delighted, you smooth talker, you." She gave him a long kiss, tasting herself on his lips. Then she propped her head on one hand and smiled wickedly. "I did, however, think I was getting more romance with you, not less. What happened to wolves being bundles of roses and moonlight? Even human males can manage a marriage proposal that involves, oh I don't know, a ring, instead of 'Hey, babe, can we tie the knot' twenty seconds after sex."
"I was too swept away by your beauty to wait around for a ring."
"Well played, wolf-boy," she smirked. "Well played."
Damon sobered. "I'll get you a ring soon. A dozen rings, if you want them."
"One will do nicely, thanks." She let her head settle back to the bed. It was too warm to bother pulling covers over them, and she was too blissed out, anyway. "My mother will be delighted that she gets a wedding to plan. I think I'll just leave most of the details to her."
"I'm sure a Wolfe-Capshaw wedding won't be the source of any friction between our families at all."
"Hush, and let me bask in the warm glow of being properly affianced for at least a few minutes before you ruin it with reality."
A peaceful, contented silence settled between them. Through the open window, a lawnmower droned somewhere in the neighborhood.
"I thought of something I might want to do," Damon murmured. His fingertip stroked her skin, tracing lazy circles.
"Is it a sexual position? Because I think I might need a slight recharge period first."
"No. Well ..." He grinned. "Not yet. No, I do have an ambition, but I've never really talked to anyone about it. Not even Vanessa, and certainly not Dad."
"Tell me," she encouraged him. "You can tell me anything."
"I want to be a writer," Damon said. He dropped his gaze away from hers. "Is that ridiculous? I used to write a lot, but I stopped when I went to high school, and I never really started again. I've never even been to college; I don't know what I could possibly have to say that anyone would want to read—"
Julie hushed him with her fingers against his lips. "Damon, college or not, you're one of the smartest, most well-read people I've ever met. Of course you can be a writer if you want to be. I'll go out in the morning and get you the best, shiniest laptop I can find. Or an old Underwood manual typewriter, if that's more your style. Whatever you want, it'll be yours. I can run my b&b, and you can have a writing studio of your very own downstairs."
"I think we might be a ways out from that yet. Also, I'm not sure if we can afford a laptop right now."
"I bet we can find you a refurbished one for not too much. If that fails, we can scour garage sales for old typewriters. And the backyard looks like it would be wonderful for sitting in. We can have Dad and Terry make a gazebo for you, to keep the rain off your typewriter."
"So you don't think that makes me ..." His fingertips, still tracing patterns on her skin (which, she now realized, were actually words), stilled in the middle of a loop. "Less manly. Something. I dunno."
God, he'd sucked up such toxic ideas of manhood from his dad and cousins. "Of course not," she said. "You defended us all against the Renners and your father. You're the alpha of your pack. Haven't they all accepted you now? Even your dad?"
Damon shrugged. "They have, but ..."
"And anyway," she went on, leaning in to kiss him gently, "I don't care, Damon. Whether you're an alpha or not, whether you spend all day on a laptop or not, you're my mate and the alpha of my world. And that's all I need you to be. Do what makes you happy, whatever it is. That'll make me happy."
His hand slipped lower. "I can think of another way to make you happy. Unless you still need that break you mentioned ..."
"I'm needing it less and less," she murmured into his mouth.
Some time later, with sweat drying on their limp and sated bodies, Julie lay stretched out alongside him on top of the covers. The smell of fresh-mown grass, the cries of children playing in the street, and the distant rumble of a tractor came in through the open window. Between them, the channels of the mate bond were as open as they could be. Damon's lazy contentment lapped over her, along with the gentle tingling of her satisfied body.
There would still be challenges ahead of them. She was not naive enough to expect their dreams to fall into their laps with a struggle. There would be difficulties, and disagreements, and probably arguments and tears.
But there was also the promise of love and companionship, stretching out ahead into an infinitely long, infinitely inviting future.
Julie wormed her way a little closer to Damon, stretching her body alongside his: shoulder to hip, skin to skin.
"I'm looking forward to building a future with you," she whispered into his notch-edged ear.
A shiver passed over his skin. He rested somewhere between sleep and waking, drifting along in a comfortable half-doze.
Julie pressed herself against her mate, senses thrown wide open to his, and let his sleepiness lap over her in waves, until she floated together with him, united in mind and body.
One flesh.
One soul.
Together.
Always.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing! I would love to know what you thought about it; you can leave a review on my Amazon page or email me: [email protected]. You can also follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/laureneskerwriter.
I would particularly like to know if there are any characters in this book you’d like to read more books about! Do you want a book about Gray, or Vanessa, or Terry maybe? Do Brad and Barry deserve mates of their own? (Still on the fence about that one myself!) Email or review with your vote!
If you’d like to be notified of my new releases, you can sign up for my mailing list by clicking this link: http://eepurl.com/btVi2X.
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Also by Lauren Esker
Handcuffed to the Bear - A bear-shifter ex-mercenary and a curvy lynx shifter searching for her best friend's killer are handcuffed together and hunted in the wilderness -- can they learn to rely on each other before their pasts, and their pursuers, catch up with them?
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Many thanks to Lia Silver for encouragement and advice. If you enjoy plotty shifter romance with plenty of humor and action, check out her books — they're great!
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About the Author
Lauren Esker is a writer and graphic designer who lives in the trackless wilds of Alaska. Well, okay, not quite trackless—actually she’s on the highway not far from Fairbanks, Alaska’s second-largest city (for certain values of city). She and her husband own eleven acres in a former gold-mining district, and share their home with a variety of pets. She also enjoys reading, gardening, and art, which she teaches at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.
Lauren writes non-romance science fiction, fantasy, and comics as Layla Lawlor, including the graphic novel Freebird, an affectionately humorous look at life in Fairbanks. She writes m/m romance as Layla M. Wier.
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Cover photo credits: Guy in hoodie - © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Nejron; Wolf - © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Colette. Cover design by Layla Lawlor.