He turned to ask Vanessa if he should sleep on the couch when she let out a long guttural snore. Mmm. He might be the only man on the planet excited to spend a night listening to his partner’s buzz-saw snoring, but it was such a relief. The quiet in his house had made it feel as empty as it was. He chucked everything in his hamper without even taking the three-point shots. Exhaustion was kicking his butt, and he had a snoring wolf in his bed.
Chapter Thirteen
It was like that first time she woke beside him…only this time there was no “Oh, hell no.” She didn’t open her eyes, but she ran her hand along his naked pecs.
“Oh, hell yes,” she murmured. Mmm. Dane. She could get used to this.
Mine. So mine.
He chuckled, and his hand stopped her descent down his washboard abs. Threading his fingers through hers, he lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles.
Vanessa opened her eyes to see his laughing gray ones, staring down at her. “You didn’t sleep with earplugs in?”
His grin widened. “Oh, I definitely did. I’ve been awake for twenty minutes trying to decide if it was worth waking you to get feeling back in that arm you slept on.”
“You should have just gnawed it off.” She turned her head and bit softly into his bicep.
His pupils dilated, and his breath caught for a second before he tried to breathe normally and play it off. His scent gave him away, of course. “Please tell me you’re not in heat anymore.”
And there it was…that reminder that there was this animal side to her that he wanted nothing to do with. Pulling her hand from his, she sat up with a sigh. It was fine. They didn’t need to solve all their problems right away. They were together. That was what mattered. And eventually, she wouldn’t be in heat, and they’d go at it like they both were…and it would be amazing. And it’d be right here. In his giant bed.
Gazing fondly at the bed, she said, “I like this. It’s so huge.”
“That’s what she said.” He sat up beside her, flexing his hand with a wince as feeling must’ve been returning to it. She snored, and she cut off circulation to his limbs. She was a total winner.
“So, what should we do today?” she asked. Her hormones weighed in with: pillow fight. Followed by less pillowy and more naked fighting. She inhaled. Oh, he smelled so good…and this whole room smelled warm and like both of them were good and aroused. Mmm, Dane.
Mine.
Not yet. But soon. Hopefully. Or she’d go nuts.
“We should eat breakfast,” Dane said.
“That’s a euphemism, right?”
He laughed. Okay, clearly not. Damn. “I think I have some stuff that’ll work. Eggs weren’t on the list, but what about bacon?”
Even his voice was sexy. It was all morning rough, and anything he said sounded like an invitation to carnal activities. Oh, she was definitely still in heat. It was awesome. She turned into his chest, wrapping her arms around him. He’d propped himself on his elbows, but he shifted sideways and slid one arm around her. “We’re only hugging,” she told him slowly, meeting his gaze.
One side of his mouth quirked up. “Okay, so long as you’re not hugging anyone else like this.”
Ducking her head, she nuzzled his chest. He smelled amazing. “Mmm.”
“Bacon is okay, right?” he asked, his lips brushing her forehead as he dipped his chin.
“Bacon is fantastic.” If by bacon you meant his muscles and the heat of his skin—then, yes, bacon was fantastic. She pressed herself closer. “We really don’t need to be wearing clothing to hug.”
His other arm came around her, and he pulled her to his chest, trapping her against him so the situation didn’t become clothing-optional.
She sighed and tried to relax. Last night, he’d been hot for her—when Jordan was around, and she’d been exhausted enough that her brain had argued louder than her libido, even if she still sort of wanted Dane. Now, this morning, she’d had a full night’s rest—her body was ready and rarin’ to go. Jordan could be in the living room, and she wouldn’t care if he heard Dane and her getting it on. Well, later, when she and her Alpha could never make eye contact for whole new reasons at meetings, it’d be awkward.
“Prude,” she muttered.
“I have a great-aunt Marianne who is a prude. She told me red licorice was the devil’s candy because of its shape. I haven’t eaten licorice since then.”
“Mmm, the things I could do with licorice.”
“I’ll buy some tomorrow.” He hugged her tighter. “The point is, a guy wearing only a pair of boxers, which I regret—though not enough, who wants you so bad he can’t see straight, isn’t a prude…in the strictest sense.”
He did want her. That much was rather obvious.
“I missed you,” he said suddenly.
And the intensity of her lust ebbed slightly. “You did?”
“Yes. I was going to drive over to Jordan’s last night and drag you back here.”
She wrinkled her nose. “That sounds…touching.”
Laughing, he said, “Yeah, well, that’s why I was still formulating a better plan when you arrived.”
“I missed you too.” Saying it left her feeling vulnerable, and the urge to run was back—even if she’d also run back to him when she’d fought through this need to panic.
“I heard you killed Jordan’s blender.”
“It was asking for it.”
“I’ll run and hide mine in a moment.”
She grinned and snuggled into his arms. If they kept talking like this, maybe eventually this hug would feel like a hug. “I need clothes. We should go grab some when we go out.”
“We shouldn’t go out.”
She tipped her head back so fast she hit his chin. “What? No! I’ve been trapped at Jordan’s for a week. It’s either been work or his house. Work or his house. Dane, I need out. Your blender is at stake.”
“Not today. We’ll let your pack check for that truck and the Lycan I nicked while we stick close to home.” Him using the word “home” made her body flush, and her heart beat faster.
“We? You’re not going in to work?”
“No. I called in sick.”
She scowled, but if he was staying home… “Okay, but we should seriously do something or the next time I hug you will be less PG.” She’d make sure she tore off her clothes first. She’d tear hers off and tear his off…and, oh, hell, she needed a cold shower.
“I have a puzzle we could put together.”
She laughed. Maybe if they could keep a sense of humor about this…
…
“I thought you were kidding,” she said, two hours later. The scowl was back. It was turning him on. As was every time she leaned across the table to put a piece into the puzzle, and her shirt would hang open. He kept closing his eyes and thinking of his great-aunt Marianne. Only Vanessa had ruined licorice for him in a whole different way. What could she do with licorice? He didn’t want to know. Well, he did, but… Great-Aunt Marianne. Glaciers. Puppies. Kittens.
He took a deep breath. Hopefully Jordan would drop off her clothes, soon…real soon.
It’d sounded good to have her all to himself for the day and even crowd it under the guise of keeping her safe, but then he’d realized she’d be wearing his clothes. None of his clothes looked like that on him, and he knew she wasn’t wearing any underwear. She looked like she’d just crawled out of bed, and he wanted to drag her back there.
Then, whenever she found a corner piece she’d do this little dance that shouldn’t have been erotic, but this was Vanessa—and she had the long slim body of a runner, and she moved like she could avoid disturbing the air. The only loud thing about her was her snoring. Otherwise she moved softly and sensually, and her victory dance hit him like a striptease.
Ice cream. Old people in bathing caps. Porcupines. Math tests.
And he’d thought doing a puzzle was a good idea.
“Did you already have this wolf puzzle or did you buy it just to mess wi
th me?” she asked, leaning across the table.
Great-Aunt Marianne. The pope. Banana slugs. Clam chowder. Waterfalls…crap, now he had to pee. “I already had it.”
“This wolf…looks just like this guy named Rodin from my old pack near Portland—Multnomah pack. Hah! Corner piece!”
He closed his eyes for the dance.
“You know…you’re not really helping much with your eyes closed.”
He opened them to find her grinning at him with raised eyebrows. She knew. Of course she knew. He probably smelled like he was ready to drag her onto the table and have a taste of the real devil’s candy. Vanessa was all sweet and sin wrapped up together.
What could she do with licorice? And was it regular licorice or the rope kind?
Snowmen. Prostate exams. Antarctica. Cubism. Feathers…damn…feathers were sexy.
“Rodin?” he repeated, concentrating on the pieces in front of him.
“Yep. Rodin. He looked like this only he had a bit of a limp from this time I went into heat, and he misunderstood the difference between come hither and stay thither.”
The rage built in him quickly. If he found out this guy’s last name, he’d kill him, as fast as he could…or maim him severely at the very least.
How many Rodins could there be?
He cleared his throat. “What did you do?”
“Told him to take a flying leap…and then he did. There were a whole bunch of idioms he experienced. He should have looked before he leaped too. One minute, he was jumping toward me…and I just stepped aside, and he went sailing over this ledge I’d been standing near. He landed on his feet, but he broke one of them.”
Well, okay, maybe he could leave this one alone. It sounded like she’d handled it. And Jordan had said she wasn’t attracted to anyone else besides her scent-match.
“But that wasn’t the funny part,” she said.
He raised his eyebrows, but continued fitting pieces together. Vanessa’s sense of humor might be broader than his. Though admittedly, he didn’t mind that the guy had a broken foot to show for putting the moves on Vanessa. He’d break anyone else’s foot in the future who tried it, or thought of trying it, or sat too close to her… Okay, he needed to ease up. He blinked forcefully and worked on matching what looked like a talon.
“Our Alpha had sent us out to scare off a mountain lion who was hunting too close to a natural trail. Rodin and I were on our way back when he’d…gotten interested and subsequently gotten a short stop after a long drop. It was early morning, and this trail is big among the senior community. He’d shifted and was swearing up a storm as I stood above him, still on four feet, and he was so busy being pissed and checking out his foot that he didn’t see these speed-walking octogenarians heading straight for him. There he was…naked…and cursing me with every word he knew, and this little old lady pokes him with her walking stick and yells, ‘Colleen, I told you to put on some lipstick before we went out…and here it is raining men.’”
He fought a smirk as he worked on the edges of the puzzle. “Did you go for help?”
“Sort of. I went and grabbed my clothes and a phone and took pictures of them with Rodin to pass around the senior center. No one messed with me the rest of that cycle. In fact, the next cycle, the pack paid for my trip to Reno. My Alpha said it was unrelated, but I think he was relieved when I came up here.”
“You were in heat when you were in Reno?”
She looked through her lashes and smiled. “Yes…and I’d finally turned twenty-one.”
His palms were sweating.
“Of course, I wasn’t really that interested in any of them, and I was more of a tease back then.”
She leaned across the table to grab a piece right in front of him.
Icebergs. Rodeo clowns. Taffy…no, taffy was no good.
Okay, screw waiting.
Dane’s phone started buzzing against the table beside him. Christa. Damn. “I should get this. My sister told me a couple days ago if I didn’t answer the phone when she calls, she’d bring Mom on her next drop-by, and she mentioned you weren’t dressed for guests when you’d met.”
“Why didn’t you tell her I wasn’t around anymore last time?”
“I was sorta hoping you’d be around.” He answered the phone rather than explain that there’d also be no way he’d admit to his baby sister he’d screwed up a relationship that fast—even if things were looking good now. “Hey.”
“Is Vanessa there?” Christa asked.
“Geez, you’re nosy, squeaky.”
“She is, isn’t she?”
Vanessa snickered on the other side of the table.
“Maybe.”
“I’m coming to dinner!” Christa hung up.
He sighed and glanced over to see Vanessa white as a sheet. “What?”
“Your sister is coming?”
He shrugged. “She likes you. She said that.” His gaze traveled down her body. “Hopefully Jordan drops by with your clothes or she’ll wonder how tawdry our relationship is.” If only. The one thing about the last miserable, hellish week was that it put them one week closer to her being out of heat. And when she was out of heat, their relationship would be a helluva lot less complicated. He’d know he wasn’t just anyone to her.
Hopefully.
That was his working theory.
“Yeah, but… Hah! Corner!”
At least that was the last corner. He closed his eyes and pictured octogenarian speed-walkers.
True to her word, Christa arrived that night as the sun was setting.
“I don’t like you driving home in the dark,” he said as he opened the door.
“Nag. Nag. Nag.” She tipped sideways to look around him.
“Vanessa’s in the kitchen making chicken of some kind.” He’d left dinner to her. There were still a few spices on her allergy list that seemed made up, and she’d seemed less worried about meeting his sister again if she was busy.
“I like her better than Kaylee,” his sister whispered.
“Who’s Kaylee?” Vanessa asked.
Christa’s eyes widened. “Wow, she’s got great hearing.”
She had no idea. “No one!” he said. “You showered, right?” He checked his sister’s clothing for Lucifer hairs. He’d rather not have to drug Vanessa so she could hang out with Christa.
Christa laughed. “I even washed behind my ears, but I doubt she’ll check.”
“No, because of the cat.”
“Oh, yeah, right. I did. And these clothes came straight from the dryer.” Christa walked by him and headed toward the kitchen.
He took a few deep breaths. So his werewolf girlfriend was having dinner with his sister…it was no big deal. Vanessa had agreed to keep that side of her between them for now, though she’d looked slightly hurt. Maybe it went without saying that she wouldn’t tell, and she’d been insulted he’d even brought up the subject. She hadn’t been anxious to admit to him that she was a Lycan, and maybe that went double for his family.
“You finally did that puzzle I gave you for Christmas forever ago,” Christa called over her shoulder as she circled the table, eyeing it. She gave him an amused look before nodding in Vanessa’s direction. “You guys do…puzzles together?”
He shrugged. “Why? What did you think we were doing?”
Vanessa pulled a pan of chicken from the oven. “Puzzles, crocheting…tomorrow I’m thinking of churning butter and making yarn.” She picked up a glass of ice water beside her and took a long drink before rubbing the glass along her cheek. She looked overheated again. Then she glanced up, and their eyes met…and he saw the caged wolf in her eyes.
She really didn’t like staying put all day. She licked her lips. His being a “prude” wasn’t winning him any points, and he hadn’t much cared for that cold shower shortly before Christa had come over.
But they’d stick to the plan.
Because he was stubborn, but also right.
“You know, Dane really likes wolves.” Chr
ista shot him a look—a look that promised hours of embarrassment. She’d brought up all sorts of odd and awkward subjects with all of his previous girlfriends. There’d be a discussion later about how he’d cried during Old Yeller, liked to collect green rocks that he thought were radioactive, and hell, she’d probably brought pictures of him as a toddler in the tub to show Vanessa. Wolves were just the beginning, and her look said as much. Little sisters were even more evil than their cats.
“Does he?” Vanessa asked. “I had no idea.”
“Yep. He used to watch all these nature documentaries. My mom was worried he’d be too dorky to date.”
Vanessa tilted her head and fought a smile. “And here he is—all grown up, and still interested in wolves.”
He knew it was a mistake to let his sister and girlfriend get together. This night was going to be payback for both of them.
“Vanessa really likes wolves too,” Dane said. “She probably knows everything there is to know about them.”
Christa glanced back and forth between them, trying to figure out if there was some sort of inside joke she was missing.
Vanessa narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, sometimes I think I like wolves more than people.”
“Me too,” he agreed.
“Do you?” Vanessa asked. “What do you like about them?”
“They’re fast…beautiful.”
“Primitive? Instinctual?”
“Passionate,” he said. She was all those things when she was in wolf form. It amazed him. If he thought too hard about all this, it seemed like a dream, a crazy fantasy. If someone asked him right this moment if werewolves existed, he’d hesitate because it still seemed impossible. And yet, here she was…and he could see the silver she-wolf in the way she moved and the heat in her eyes.
“You should be careful around wolves, though,” Vanessa said. “They can have a nasty bite.”
“I think I read somewhere that cases of rabid wolves are rare,” Christa said.
“That’s good to know,” he said.
“Have you seen any wolves around here?” his sister asked.
Past My Defenses (Taming the Pack series) (Entangled Ignite) Page 19