“It’s my job, Mom,” Talbot put in as he sank into a chair. “Goodbye, Marley.”
Ignoring her son, Talbot’s mom kept focused on me. “Would you like to stay for dinner, dear?”
“I’d love that.”
Talbot sighed.
I wasn’t just winding Talbot up – although that was a serious plus point – I was genuinely curious. I had never seen the domestic side of wolf life before. You tended not to. Werewolves kept to themselves and kept humans out. I was also curious about what this said about Talbot’s personal history. He lived in an expensive, if thoroughly sterile, apartment, his mom lived in the poorest part of town in a place that could not be more homey. Every surface was crammed with family pictures, knick-knacks and gee-gaws.
With a mother’s dexterity, Talbot’s mom washed and dressed his wounds. She had clearly done this before, and I wondered how much of a brave face she put on for her son’s benefit. He could take care of himself, but a parent’s worries never end.
“It’ll just be us tonight,” said Gwen – she insisted I call her Gwen. “Used to be a big family here, you know, Marley. But kids spread their wings and fly the nest.” She smiled at me. “I daresay you’ll learn one day.”
“Do you have a lot of kids?” I asked.
“Six,” replied Gwen. “Two with Talbot’s father and four with my other mate. They mostly stay in touch. Not quite like Talbot. He’s done so well for himself.”
Talbot blushed at his mom’s pride as she laid the table for three.
“You’ve always lived here?”
Gwen nodded. “Talbot keeps offering to buy me a nice place somewhere but I can’t leave. This is where I raised my pups. That chair is where Talbot’s father breathed his last – didn’t even know he was gone till the baseball finished and he didn’t turn off the TV. This is my home. It’s a bit big for one person, I know – sometimes seems selfish to keep it – but Talbot helps me with the rent.”
From the way she said it, I could guess that ‘helps me with the rent’ meant ‘pays the rent for me’. I certainly wouldn’t have thought Talbot was a bad son, but I had never thought about him as being any sort of son. In the brief time I had known him, he had just been Talbot – handsome, confident, quick-witted and one hell of a fighter. It was strange to see him like this. And also rather lovely.
As we sat down to dinner, the front door opened and a pair of pretty werewolves in their late teens entered.
“Hey, Mom, I…” The female wolves took me in and looked at Talbot, who squirmed in discomfort. “Did Talbot bring a girl home?”
“She’s a friend from work,” Talbot insisted irritably.
“Pleased to meet you,” said the first woman. “I’m Emmy.”
“And I’m Maria.”
“Marley.”
“Cool name. Sorry for being curious but he never brings girls home.”
“This isn’t technically my home,” Talbot pointed out.
“Oh nonsense,” said Gwen. “You’re here often enough. I don’t know why you have that posh place. There’s plenty of space here, and your room’s still…”
“I need that posh place,” sighed Talbot, “because some people would like to kill me and I’d rather they didn’t come here.”
Gwen smiled. “Such a good boy. Are you staying to eat? There’s plenty.”
Emmy and Maria joined us and the conversation swirled and ricocheted in various directions dictated by their youthful energy. There was some subtext going on that I thought was as much for Gwen’s benefit as mine. I got the impression that Emmy would rather her mom not know that Talbot had bailed out her ex-boyfriend, and when Maria left later that night, it was with more money than she had come in with following a surreptitious word to Talbot.
That was often the way with families who grew up in the rats’ nest. Getting out was hard and when one of a family did, then they made it easier on everyone else. I doubted Talbot ever complained about taking care of his family. It probably would never have occurred to him to do anything else.
After dinner, Emmy and Maria waved goodbye and I stood to follow them. “I should probably be getting off.”
“Oh no.” Gwen shook her head dismissively. “Stay for a drink.”
“It’s quite late.”
“Then you should stay the night,” said Gwen decisively. “A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be wandering these streets alone.”
“Marley can take care of herself,” smiled Talbot, but I didn’t get the impression he was pushing for me to leave anymore.
“What an attitude,” scolded Gwen. “There’s plenty of room here. You can have Tyler’s room.”
“Thanks,” I said. I didn’t want to argue with Gwen – she liked the company and, frankly, I liked hers. She reminded me of my own mom, and I wondered at how other people’s mom’s can make us nostalgic for our own. I really needed to call my mom, it had been too long.
We sat by the fire awhile, chatting, Gwen extolling the virtues of her eldest boy – not that I needed to be sold on them – and then, as the shadows lengthened, she yawned.
“That’s bedtime for me. You two stay up as late as you want. Talbot, show Marley Tyler’s room. If she needs it.” I decided not to look at that last sentence too closely.
With Gwen gone, Talbot shot a rueful smile at me. “Sorry about this. But you did insist on coming with me.”
“And I’m very glad I did,” I said, nursing my drink. “Your mom is awesome.”
Talbot smiled, genuinely pleased. “She is, isn’t she? She downplays it, but to look after the family in this house… By the time I was ten there were six of us kids, plus her mates, plus revolving grandparents in the attic. She cooked and cleaned and cared for us all. She talks about how I help her now, but it’s nothing to what she did.”
“Do you think you’ll ever have a family like that?” What the hell was I asking that for?
Talbot shrugged. “I hope so. I love my pack. And Kessler and Reed are like brothers to me. But family is important.” He smiled. “And I know Mom would like to be a Grandma again. She’s got four grandkids already but she always wants more.”
“You’d be a great dad.”
He scoffed. “Oh yeah. Who doesn’t want a dad whose life is in danger every day?”
“But you’d always be there,” I said, firmly. “You wouldn’t ever let anything happen to them. That’s a pretty big part of being a father.”
We both sipped our drinks, almost embarrassed by the turn the conversation had taken.
“It’s late,” murmured Talbot, looking at me in a way I had never seen before.
I nodded. Suddenly, it felt hot. You could cut the tension with a knife. “Are you going to show me Tyler’s room?”
There was a pause before Talbot answered. “Do you want me to?”
I shook my head. “No.”
Chapter 14
In any other circumstances, going into Talbot’s childhood bedroom – shared with at least one sibling – I would have been a lot more curious, looking for pictures of him as a boy, trophies won at school, treasured toys, etc. But at that moment, there was no space in my mind for anything but Talbot himself. In fact, nothing else in my world.
As the door closed behind us, he took me in his arms and kissed me, a kiss I gratefully returned, pressing my body tight against his. He felt so strong against me, so masculine, and I felt so safe in his arms. I’d never been a girl who was afraid to walk the streets or face down armed and dangerous people who were bigger than me, and yet, over the past year, I’d lived in a different kind of fear. I wasn’t afraid of what might happen to me, I was afraid of who I was, what I had become. Perhaps I had been afraid that nothing would ever happen to me again. Talbot made those fears melt away. With him, I felt safe from the darkness in myself.
He pulled back to look at me. “Just in case I forget to say it later, you are incredibly beautiful.”
The backs of my legs touched the little bed and we folded up onto it, him on top of me, still kiss
ing my soft mouth and drawing sweet crooning sounds from somewhere in my soul. I wasn’t sure what I had expected of Talbot. Kessler had been all happy energy, eagerly bouncing me to ecstasy time and time again, which was a reasonable reflection of the man he was. Likewise, the brooding and unpredictable Reed had fucked me like a wolf, ferocious and dominant as he battled each climax from my body. Tonight, I had witnessed Talbot taking out three of the most dangerous wolves in the city, almost single-handed. But I had also witnessed him with his family. Perhaps I should have been less surprised by his gentleness.
Our lips barely parted as we unbuttoned each other’s tops. He revealed my trembling breasts, small and firm and packed away in a practical sports bra – tonight had, after all, started out as business. I revealed the fabulous contours of his muscular torso, across which I ran questing fingers, feeling the rough edges of his bandages. Even alongside Kessler and Reed, Talbot had an incredible body, so much power packed away in that tight, sculpted package.
As I stripped the shirt from his back, he raised me into a sitting position so he could do the same, undoing my bra at the same time and letting my tits spill forth. He did not bother to look, too caught up in kissing me, but his hands palmed the small handfuls and delicate fingers traced my nipples, which hardened beneath his touch.
Both of our hands now trespassed lower, undoing each other’s belt and buttons to remove pants. There was no hurry, as there had been with the others, no need to rip clothing from one another in urgency, as if this had to happen now or it might not happen at all – this was going to happen, but it was going to be slow. And wonderful.
Our pants hit the floor and I ran my fingers over Talbot’s underwear, stretched tight around their handsome occupant. I could feel it strain and move against my touch but even now I did not rush. The anticipation was a wild thrill all of its own. Looping my fingers into the waistband of his shorts, I paused, feeling several hundred butterflies fluttering in my stomach. I was as nervous as if it was my first time. Actually, nervous was the wrong word. Anxious might be better – anxious to do this, anxious to be with Talbot, and oh so anxious to please him, to be worthy of him.
With trembling fingers, I drew those tight shorts down his muscular thighs. I had to force myself not to look, to keep kissing him, but as the shorts released their prisoner, I felt it smack against my leg as it sprang free. I squealed into Talbot’s mouth and involuntarily moved my thigh against him, feeling the heat of his shaft on my shivering skin.
As I was about to grasp it, unable to help myself, Talbot shifted on the bed so he could fully remove his shorts, which I could only get down as far as his knees, without releasing my mouth. This action set his cock moving, swaying from side to side under its own heavy momentum, bumping my left thigh, then right knee, right thigh, left again and then…
“Oh!” I squealed like a little girl as it reared upwards unexpectedly and lodged briefly between my legs, rubbing against the hot wet patch on my panties. That thin strip of material was all that stood between it and my heated pussy lips.
The shock had made me break our kiss and Talbot smiled tenderly at me, stroking my cheek. “Calm down, baby. It’s alright. It’s all wonderful.”
My eyes were drawn irresistibly down, my breathing short and sharp. Between us, Talbot’s cock now stood straight up, almost parallel to his ripped abdomen, tall, proud and so strong that it seemed to radiate power as it did heat. I let my fingers run up and down its length like it was a musical instrument, and started to bend my head down – maybe I could get a tune out of it.
But Talbot stopped me. “Not yet.”
His breathing revealed that he was as aroused as me, and I could feel the powerful pulse in his cock quicken with each stroke of my slender fingers. But there was apparently something else on his mind. Gently, he eased me back to the bed, kissing me again, first on my lips but then going lower, down my neck to my chest, kissing between my breasts, down my belly. I gasped as his teeth fastened onto the waistband of my panties and he began to draw them down my slim legs.
My panties were tossed aside and I cried out as Talbot stooped between my legs, his tongue slicking past my nether lips, exciting me beyond measure. He pulled back to kiss at my heated loins, then dipped forward again, going deeper inside me, exploring my elastic tunnel with his agile tongue. As Talbot’s hands stole across my writhing body, I felt myself dissolve into pure pleasure. I was a woman of the world, I had seen shit and been toughened by what life threw at me, I had been with my share of men and done stuff with them that most people only read about in books. But Talbot made me feel like it was all new again. Beneath the feathering strokes of his nimble tongue and the passionate explorations of his ever-moving fingers, I felt tender and teenage, like a girl with her first crush. As he nuzzled against my pussy, his tongue flicking about my engorged clit, he brought me to a trembling, excited orgasm. I felt as if I was floating, lighter than air, before exploding into a thousand shimmering shards of glass.
Talbot looked up at me from between my spread thighs, smiling not with smugness, but with happiness at what he had made me feel. Then his head descended again and I squeezed my eyes tight shut as ecstasy claimed my body once more. I wrapped my legs about his head as Talbot continued to work his talented mouth against me, into me, all around me, digging my fingers into his blonde hair. I whined like a dog as he brought me to another high, keening orgasm, my juices flowing into his mouth.
As he continued, I writhed on the bed like a snake on a hot rock, my body twisting involuntarily in response to the incredible sensations he was wringing from me. His magic tongue seemed to be in two places at once, burrowing deep inside me to discover every sensitive spot, and yet at the same time, lapping at my clit, driving it towards yet more orgasmic delights. His fingers teased my erogenous zones, first one, then two, then three popping into my asshole, working it in time with his tonguing action. At first, I had tried to control the noises I made, aware that his mother was only a few thin walls away, but I soon gave up on that and instead clamped a pillow over my face to muffle my ecstasy as Talbot brought me skillfully to climax after climax.
Such was his generosity, I think Talbot would have been happy to keep pleasuring me all night. But I wanted this to be his night, too, and besides, wonderful though his tongue was, I had a hunch that his body had even more to give me.
Releasing him from my thighs, I gently lifted his head, and he looked up at me, questioning.
“Okay?”
I giggled. “For future reference, when you have made a girl make sounds like a dolphin on its first LSD trip, she’s more than okay. Now get your ass up here.”
Grinning, Talbot quickly crawled up the bed to kiss me and I tasted myself on his lips. Between us, his cock hung, hard and heavy, swollen with its desire for me. It had been patient, and its time had come. After the wonders wrought on my body by his tongue, I was thrilled to discover what else Talbot could do.
Grabbing his thick organ, and marveling again at the strength that pounded through it, I guided him between my legs. Our eyes met as Talbot eased into my well-lubricated core. I caught my breath and bit my lip to stop myself from crying out as he stretched me in the most beautiful way, pushing deeper. Still Talbot stuck to a measured pace, filling me with delectable slowness, his breathing slow and controlled as he mastered his own needs while fulfilling mine. I clung to his ass cheeks tightly, feeling like I was clinging onto sanity.
It was a long journey from tip to base, but finally I felt Talbot’s hips against my own. I had him to the root, and I moaned in delight at the feel of him, throbbing inside me. We stayed like that awhile, our bodies molded together, our hands roaming across each other’s nudity, our lips forever moving against the other’s in a thousand tiny kisses.
Eventually, Talbot started to move against me. I closed my legs about him as he ground his hips in small, aching circles, testing and teasing my body. I came fast and hard, whimpering and working myself into him. By now, I was so turned o
n that I seemed to be coming every few minutes, the slightest movement of him inside me triggering fresh climaxes. It didn’t seem to matter, Talbot was in it for the long haul, using his strength, not to dominate or overwhelm me – which is enough fun, if you’re in the mood – but to make it last.
He poured all his effort into controlling himself and pleasuring me, displaying an extraordinary stamina, remaining hard as iron as I came over and over, working me with blissful slowness into a state of near constant orgasm, a kind of euphoria in which his merest touch was raw pleasure. For a while I went on top, seated astride him, but I stuck to his pace, riding up and down his shaft as if in slow motion. I lay down along his body, feeling his muscles flex against me, feeling his strength, and feeling an intense, warm comfort in his presence. As we rolled back over, and I welcomed his weight back on top of me, I felt safe. Not just physically, but emotionally. I could have wept with happiness.
I could not be sure how long we made love like that, how many orgasms I had, how long Talbot managed to remain achingly, wonderfully hard inside me, forever moving slowly back and forth, giving my body the pleasure it craved. But as time passed, the strain showed on even Talbot and I was ready for the ultimate pleasure.
“Baby, now…” I breathed into his ear.
Even now there were no histrionics, no need for him to pound me into the mattress to reach his own final goal. Our movements against each other became a shade more heated, more intense, and then… Talbot gasped, and to me it was as if we had been submerged together in an oily sea of hot, sticky pleasure. It was not my pleasure, as it had been the rest of the night, and it was not his; it was ours, something we shared. Our bodies seemed to radiate their pleasure – I absorbed his and he mine, and we wrapped ourselves tight around each other to feel that burning orgasm that blossomed between our joined bodies as we dissolved into one.
All that is pretty fucking poetic for a girl like me. But this was a night that moved me to poetry. It was perfect.
There was no need for words afterwards. No need to say ‘That was incredible’ or ‘You’re the best’. Why say something so obvious? We curled up together in beautiful exhaustion and slept.
Her Guardian Harem: Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance Page 11