by Zoey Marcel
The wind would blow a paper out of her hand. She would reach for it in vain, fretting as it blew across the way. Then he would move in and traverse the hustle and bustle of passing vehicles to retrieve her paper. Her hand would go to her mouth as she feared he might not make it across the street with his life. But then he would. He’d hand it to her and she would thank him. They’d linger for a moment, lost in each others’ eyes. They would introduce themselves, and he’d invite her to have coffee with him.
Then after a nice exchange of pleasantries, they would get a hotel room together and make love all night. And then he would put his mark on his lovely woman and claim her forever. His little mate would belong to him and him alone.
Bane had heard it said that if you ever want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans. Well, God was probably laughing really hard then, because reality had turned out so much differently than he’d originally expected.
His mate, Jade Flowers, evidently had short hair that was dyed an unnatural color. That along with her tattoos and piercings made her look like a badass punk-rocker chick rather than the angelic blonde and then seductive redhead he’d formerly pictured. While the bad girl definitely threw him for a loop, he couldn’t say he was disappointed. Oh no, far from it. She was bewitching and intriguing.
And she was apparently online right now. His heart raced and his fingers shook, palms growing clammy as he glanced down at the keyboard, trying to decide which letters to type in first. He could scarcely believe it. He was about to talk to his mate for the first time in his life. His long, discouraging search was finally over.
* * * *
Six months ago
Bane Kennedy sat in the coffee shop with bated breath, waiting for her. His hands shook, his pulse was out of control, and he couldn’t stop smiling to save his life. He’d been corresponding online and through texts and phone calls with Jade for the last six months. They hit it off incredibly well and finally decided to meet. He wanted to from day one but had waited to ask to keep from scaring her off.
There she was. She wore a snug, low-cut, white tank top and denim cutoff shorts. From what he could see of her lush, curvy body she looked fantastic. She wore white flip-flops and silver hoop earrings that dangled when she walked or turned her head. Her light-pink hair fell to just a few inches above her shoulders, and it looked glorious the way the breeze blew it when she walked in through the door in the coffee shop.
She was his mate, except he hadn’t told her that yet, nor had he told her that he was a werewolf. He probably should at some point. He would, but they would get around to that later.
Right now was simply about getting to know each other better. Although with all the time they had spent chatting and texting over the last six months, he felt like he knew her so well already. But he wanted to know more. He wanted to know everything about the little woman.
Jade looked to be about five feet three inches. Bane smiled. He was six feet tall. She was such a little thing and so damned cute and enthralling. Just the way her body moved as she made her way toward him had him spellbound and starting to get hard simply from watching her.
She was twenty-six, and he was twenty-eight. He was glad there wasn’t a huge age gap between them, though it wouldn’t have mattered even if there had been. She was the one, and he had been waiting for her all his life.
“Are you Bane Kennedy?” she asked.
Bane nodded with the biggest grin he’d ever worn as he extended his overeager hand toward her. “Yeah, and you’re Jade Flowers?”
“Yeah, I am. It’s so good to meet you.” She gave him a lovely smile that set his soul on fire as she shook his hand and spoke in a sassy, sultry voice that turned him on more than he could stand.
“You, too. You look absolutely stunning.” He reminded himself to let go of the soft, little hand that made him feel so warm and cozy inside.
“Thank you. You’re sweet,” she replied as they sat down together. “You look really good, too.”
“Thanks.”
Tone the grinning down, moron, he thought to himself.
“You ordered me coffee already. How sweet.” Her amazing smile really did it for him.
“I remembered your favorite from our chats.” Hopefully that didn’t creep her out.
“Aw, thank you.”
“I really want to kiss you,” he said plainly. They’d spoken of physical desires during their period of correspondence, so it definitely shouldn’t alarm her any.
Her blue eyes sizzled with temptation, but she sighed, seeming sad for some reason. “I really want that, too, Bane, but there’s something I probably should have told you a long time ago. I’m in a relationship with someone.”
All his dreams came crashing to the ground with that single sentence.
* * * *
Three days ago
Bane could hardly contain his excitement. They were getting married. They’d been dating for several months, and he’d finally popped the question. It had simply been a formality, since they’d already discussed getting married at length over the course of the months that they had been dating. It was love, no question about it. And it was good. Damned good.
He had wanted to buy her an engagement ring to make it official, but Jade worried that she would run into her ex and asked Bane not to get her one. But she made it perfectly clear that she expected one at their wedding. They’d decided to elope and get hitched in Las Vegas and planned on buying their wedding rings once they got there.
It had always been his understanding that women wanted to wear big, puffy white dresses and say their vows in a church or a romantic garden studded with flowers while the sweet chorus of birds serenaded their happy union.
Apparently Jade was different. She didn’t care how they got married, only that they shared their lives together. They decided to be adventurous and make a week of it in Vegas and on the road, going wherever they pleased, just the two of them. Being with her was a sweet, perfect slice of paradise on earth that set him all aglow inside.
He drove down the desert highway and watched Jade with her feet up on the dashboard like she often did as she sang along to the Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” The song was absolutely perfect, and he had the strongest urge to pull the car over and take her in the front or backseat. It really didn’t matter, just so that he could feel her body against his, skin on skin, as he moved his cock inside the pussy he’d fantasized about for so long.
He was a virgin. He’d saved himself for his mate, but he’d done his research on how to please a woman. He hoped it worked okay, though experience would have probably proven to be a greater asset to him. Still, he was determined that his mate and she alone would be the only woman he ever held. It was his gift to her, and it had moved her nearly to tears when he told her this.
Jade wasn’t a virgin, and while it saddened him to know this, he knew he was the only man she had ever loved, and to him that was the most important part of all. She could give him no greater gift than her love.
Bane had planned on taking her for the first time in the bed of a hotel room on their wedding night, since he wanted everything to be just right and feel special to her. But hell, right now seemed pretty damned special to him. All the songs about sex that played on the radio weren’t helping his libido any. They egged him on until he ended up pulling the car off the road, parking it, and shutting the engine off.
The Eagles definitely knew what they were singing about. He seriously wanted to sleep with Jade right now in the desert with a billion stars all around.
She looked at him curiously. “Why did you stop?”
“I need you bad.” He caught her up in his arms and lavished her with a slow, deep kiss that sent sparks shooting off throughout his body as every cell crackled to life with fiery awareness. He reluctantly broke the kiss and unlocked the car door. “Come on. I want to make love to you beneath the stars.”
“Aw, that’s so romantic.” Jade got out of the vehicle almost as quickly as he did.
She took his hand in hers and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you for saving yourself for me.”
He gave her a smile, feeling a bit coy despite his excitement. “I hope I don’t disappoint you.”
“You won’t. You’re hot, and I love you.” She laid her head on him as they walked into the desert. “I just hope I don’t disappoint you. It’s your first time, and I want it to be good.”
“It will be. I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life.” He kissed the top of her head.
“I can’t believe you waited for me.” She caressed his chest through his shirt as they walked, seeming sad all of a sudden. “I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you.”
“That’s all right, princess. I’m just glad I get to be the one who holds your heart.”
She pulled him into a kiss and started to raise his shirt, groaning when he stopped her.
“We’ve got to walk farther. I don’t want anyone to see us,” he warned.
“Bane, you tease, it’s dark. No one will see.”
“Love, honor, and obey,” he joked, tickling her.
She snickered and nudged his side. “We’re not married yet, and I don’t do that obey thing.”
He let out an exaggerated gasp. “You don’t? Well, how is this going to work?”
She slapped his arm and he grinned.
They walked a ways from the car, so no one would see them. It felt right walking beneath the moonlit sky while he held the hand he was always meant to hold. It looked like another world with the large, nearly full moon hanging in the sky as it cast its reflective light on the barren premises.
Bane thought he heard footsteps and stopped to listen carefully. Hearing nothing more, he glanced over at his fiancée and saw the silhouette of a striking goddess pulling her top off over her head beneath the illuminated darkness of the moon-stricken wasteland.
No amount of dreaming or fantasizing could have prepared him for that. She walked slowly toward him and stopped. A hot, pulsing charge of energy bolted down to his very interested groin as he watched her slowly unclasp her bra and bare her chest to his hungry eyes. The silver-blue beams of moonlight cast an ethereal glow and the heavenly patterns of light scattered like magic across her full, gorgeous breasts.
Bane had to muster some form of brainpower from somewhere off the back burner in his mind in order to realize that he should probably make some kind of effort toward undressing, too. He whipped his shirt off and tossed it aside. It made a light, almost soundless plop when it hit the dust.
He couldn’t see her eyes because of the way Jade stood in the dark, but he could tell by the way she stared at him and her breathing changed that she was aroused by what she saw. They kicked off their shoes and socks simultaneously as they locked eyes and took in the physique of their partner.
Unable to bear another moment away from her, Bane took swift, light strides toward the woman he was going to marry. Their movements were slow and magical as their bodies pressed against one another, and he moaned when he felt the bulbous mounds of her breasts squish against his skin. They shared a slow, meaningful kiss that took on a mind of its own once his hands found the button and zipper on her jeans.
Her breath caught and their breathing accelerated, as did the magnitude of the kiss when her fingers found his own fly and worked it open. Their jeans came off with a quiet swoosh that no one in the world heard but them. This was their time, their moment, and their night.
Bane felt a jolt of excitement when he lowered the panties down her thighs and heard them drop almost silently to her ankles. When he slowly brushed her smooth pubic mound with the backs of his fingers, her soft, elated gasp made his loins burn and ache with need.
Jade moaned against his lips when he cupped her crotch and held his palm there, soaking up the erotic heat of her sex. She was utterly intoxicating.
His pulse quickened and his breathing hardened when she pulled his briefs down carefully. His eager cock sprang free from the retreating cotton, and the night air felt cool on his aroused balls.
He pressed his bulging dick against her stomach, and she let out a delicate, happy moan. Her nails digging into the underside of his tight buttocks when she grabbed them thrilled him to the core. He would remember this night with her always.
Her breath caught suddenly when his middle finger dipped into her moist slit and skimmed the forbidden cream therein. His finger lowered and poked gently at her vagina without venturing in. That’s where he would go, and his throbbing erection couldn’t wait.
Jade quivered slightly when he started to trace slow circles around her wet pussy. He wanted in now, but with the lush female body before him, he couldn’t think of missing the chance to explore it first.
“Bane,” she whispered as her lips parted and her eyes closed in apparent ecstasy.
Curious and immensely turned on, Bane sank his finger into the tight, wet heat of her cunt. The way she gasped and her head rolled back while he fingered her there made his nuts tighten. His hard, aching penis would fill her pussy, and the hot, humid hole would caress his sensitive cock with each and every one of his thrusts.
He pulled his finger out of her and pressed the pad of his thumb to a soft nubbin he could only guess was the woman’s clitoris, if his research was anything to go by. He grazed it, enjoying the scintillating sound of her tiny whimper.
A worrisome thought crossed his mind. What if he couldn’t get her off for a long time, or not at all? Their first night together would be ruined.
“Show me how to touch you,” he whispered and kissed her head.
“Mm, that sounds wonderful, but next time,” she whispered back as she pulled him to the dusty ground with her. “Tonight I just want to feel you deep inside me.”
Bane groaned and nudged her onto her back with a kiss as he endeavored to take the lead. Perhaps Jade should, since she knew more about this than him, but she seemed hot and bothered to feel his body on top of hers as they made out slowly.
“Are you sure the pill is working by now?” he asked.
She smiled at him and brushed his cheek with her soft hand. “I’m sure.”
Bane took his turgid cock by the base and rooted around her damp cunt until he found what he was looking for. With a steady push of his hips and a slight guide of his hand, his dick became enveloped by private heat and wetness. She was tight, so tight, like a vise that would never let him go. He drove his penis forward, realizing there was more space in there for him. He kept going until his erection filled her vagina completely and his scrotum came to rest against the curvaceous perfection that was her ass.
“Oh, Bane,” Jade breathed. She seemed utterly possessed in that moment. “You feel so good inside of me.”
Bane had to smile at this. He’d waited his whole life for this moment, and he was glad he got to share it with her. She was his first, and that truth was sealed in stone forever.
“Oh God, so do you, Jade. This is even better than I could have hoped for. You’re so beautiful.” His left hand skimmed the side of her body, fingers paying special attention to the underside of her breast, which seemed to make her crazy with pleasure. “You’re so tight and wet.”
They shared another kiss, and then he began a slow, mind-blowing fuck inside her vagina. They said nothing more to each other during the rest of the encounter. Only the subdued sounds of salacity went out into the cool darkness and evaporated into thin air. They were alone, completely alone.
His pacing quickened but still remained rather slow and controlled. He didn’t trust himself not to blow right away, not tonight during this first time with her.
She rocked her hips, meeting each steady thrust, and entwined her legs with his so they were connected like winding ropes of licorice.
Bane said her name aloud just before he came. The quiet way he breathed her name evolved into a possessed outcry as he plunged as deep as he could into her pussy and flooded her depths with the hot flow of his release. He came inside a woman, his woman, and filled her with his seed.
She grinned up at him and ran her hands up his strong arms in obvious admiration.
“You just about killed me.”
Jade touched the tip of her nose to his, and his eyes closed as the familiar fragrance of iced tea and suntan lotion floated up his nostrils. He loved the way she smelled and the perfume she wore.
He had to claim her, but he should probably wait until after he told her he was a werewolf. She might not believe him, and when he showed her she could reject him and walk out of his life forever.
He would get around to telling her eventually so he could claim her, but not until after the honeymoon. Although resisting the all-consuming urge to put his permanent mark on her was going to be damn near impossible, somehow he must. He didn’t want to spoil their honeymoon with panic and screaming once he showed her his wolf counterpart. Hopefully she accepted that side to him, too. He knew Jade was a very live-and-let-live kind of person, so maybe she would be fine with it.
Bane heard footsteps and quickly pulled out of her. A man was approaching them in the darkness. A cop, maybe? Well, as much as it would suck to get arrested for messing around in public just when they were about to tie the knot, it would certainly be an improvement on getting mugged.
Then again maybe he was just being paranoid. It could simply be a nice person out for a late walk in the middle of nowhere.
He helped Jade up and looked to his jeans for his handgun. Oh for Christ’s sake, he’d left it in the car. Idiot! Lord knows who this jackass is coming toward us.
The man stood a couple of inches taller than Bane, and his body structure showed him to be a freak of nature. He resembled a Greek god who felt his status as an Olympian wasn’t impressive enough and decided to add bodybuilding on top of being a powerful deity.