by Abby Knox
“I wish that were true.”
“Sit down,” she said, sniffling. “I brought you something.”
That was not what Bobby expected. “What?”
“Just do it,” she ordered. Bobby finally listened and sat down on the stairs. Then he watched as Penny tromped down and opened the door.
In trotted the yellow Lab that had led them to Gavin and Chas.
“This is Sam,” Penny said, as the yellow dog trundled up the stairs and nosed Bobby in the face. The dog was significantly cleaner and better smelling than earlier. He was also wearing tags. “I got him cleaned up for you. He’s your therapy dog.”
Bobby didn’t know what to say but followed the dog’s urging to pet his neck and scratch behind his ears.
“You’re crazy; this is a stray. How do you know it doesn’t have diseases?”
Penny scoffed. “With all the wild animals you’ve eaten and played with over the years, do you think we should be concerned about that?”
Bobby shook his head. “Thank you, Penny.”
“You’re welcome.”
They sat together in a brief, comfortable silence for a moment. Then Bobby said what needed to be said. “Penny, the police are gonna be looking for me. I killed Manny, in case you forgot.”
Penny spoke sharply and slowly so he would fully understand. “About 78 people in New Orleans called 911 or animal control today to report two huge wolves running through the French Quarter and elsewhere in the city. Then within that same hour, a man was attacked and killed in what was clearly an animal attack. The police don’t even know you were there.”
Bobby shook his head and his words came out unsteadily. “How do you know all this?”
“Because Gavin and Chas took me to the hospital to get my ear stitched up, and we told the doctor everything. The police were called, and we told them the basic facts. About how a wolf came into the shop out of nowhere, Manny had his gun on the wolf and was going to shoot it, I tried to stop him, but he fired a gun at me, and then the wolf snapped and attacked Manny.”
“That’s crazy,” Bobby said, petting Sam’s blond fur.
“But,” Penny said, “it’s the most plausible explanation, isn’t it? We’ve spent our whole life learning how to lead the general public toward the most believable explanations for these kinds of incidents, have we not?”
“Great,” he said with a shrug. “So I’m not in trouble with the police. Yet. But it’s going to happen again, and maybe the next time, you get killed. As it is, I’m a monster, and that is all you will ever see when you look at me.”
Penny grunted in frustration. “You don’t get to decide what’s best for me. And you don’t get to decide what I see when I look at you. If you think that, you’re no different than old Lionel DuChamps trying to set me up with the blond haircut trust fund son of some asshole friend of his.”
Sam the dog nudged Bobby’s face and licked. Bobby muttered. “So, then, what do you see when you look at me? Do I even want to know?”
Penny squeezed in next to Bobby on the stairs and joined him in petting down Sam, who showed his appreciation with plenty of licks.
“Bobby, when I look at you, I see my rock. You are the reason I am alive today. Over and over again, you have saved my life. Whether in middle school or on the hunt, or in real danger like we were in back there at the tattoo place. You are the biggest damned hero of all of the wolves, and don’t you ever forget that.”
Chapter 12
Bobby
Bobby felt the lump in his throat. “Shut up.”
Penny laughed. “No, you shut up.”
“I love you so much, Penny. You’re all I think about, every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to sleep, praying I don’t have nightmares about getting you killed. But I gotta let you live a better life.”
Penny said in a trembling voice, “Bobby, I don’t want to spend my life shopping for dresses or going to brunch or waiting on clients who can’t decide between leather or leatherette sofa upholstery. Fuck all that. I want to run with you until our goddamn paws fall clean off.”
Bobby stopped petting Sam and turned to Penny. Her eyes were shining in the dim light. He took her hands in his.
“If I kiss you, there’s no going back. If I kiss you, then I’m going to touch you. If I touch you, then I’m going to take off all your clothes. Then I’m going to devour you, and then I’m going to get you pregnant. Once I cross the line, mating is all I want to do.”
Penny wiped a tear from her eye. “My whole life, that’s all I ever wanted. I’ve only ever wanted you.”
And then, just the same as if they were running wild in the woods under the light of the full moon, their lips came together and they were free.
“So, do you want to wait until we get married? Like Rosemary and Ash?”
Penny was kneeling on Bobby’s down comforter, tugging at his shirt buttons. Her nipples were at attention, poking through the fabric of the oversized tee-shirt, waiting for his touch. She was the most drop-dead gorgeous female he’d ever seen and he never wanted to see another one. In anticipation of their bedroom time, Sam had been walked and fed and was now asleep on Bobby’s living room couch.
She replied, “Fuck that noise. Unzip your pants. Like, now.”
Bobby had no more words. She was his queen. Their lips clung warmly together like butter on a hot ear of sweet corn in July. He couldn’t believe he had waited so long. He cupped her face in his hands as he knelt in front of her. “I feel like we need to make up for lost time. What do you say we just kiss for a while?”
She smiled. “I like this idea. But not too long. I have needs, you know. So, how do you think you would have kissed me at 13?”
He grinned, picking up on the game she was starting. Holy shit, did he love this woman.
He leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek.
“Sweet. How about 14?” she said.
Bobby leaned in and bumped her nose, gave her a quick peck on the lips. “We’d probably be holding hands like this,” he said.
He laced his fingers through both of her hands and Penny felt herself blush at how badly she had wanted Bobby to hold her hand when she was scared, when she was happy, when she just wanted his attention.
“What about you? What did you want at 15?” he asked.
Penny kept their hands clasped together and inched closer. She moved in slowly and kissed him softly, her lips slightly parted, her lips fluttering closed. Bobby sighed. All this innocent tripping down memory lane was getting him good and rock hard for her pussy.
When their lips parted, she asked him, “How about 16?”
Bobby got an evil grin. “Well now. That would be your sweet sixteen birthday. Remember that party?”
“Of course I do,” she said with a pout. “How could I forget? You all planned that really fun dance party at the Boudreaux estate. Jimmy and Charlene hired that band, there were lights everywhere. Everyone was dressed up. It felt like a wedding, and I wanted you to kiss me so bad.”
“And I wanted to kiss you so bad. Why didn’t I?”
Penny shook her head. “No. We are not doing that now. It’s happening now. I am 16, and so are you. We are walking under the starlight through the garden. Charlene and Jimmy are dancing, under the moonlight. Nobody knew she was sick, yet.”
“That’s right,” Bobby recalled.
“Yep, and you and I took a walk and the band played Bob Marley. And then you danced with me, alone in the garden.”
“I did,” he said. “I should have kissed you.”
“Kiss me now.”
Bobby took Penny in his arms and hugged her close. Then, he climbed off the bed and held out his hand to her. She took it, curiously, before catching on. Bobby pulled her into his arms and they slow danced as Bobby hummed “No Woman, No Cry.”
Penny squeezed in close. She laid her head on his chest and her breath was warm and welcome on his skin through his half-unbuttoned shirt. “That was the first time I notic
ed your shampoo. I liked it,” he said, pausing his humming for the moment as they continued to slow dance. He leaned in and inhaled her scent. Strawberries and cinnamon and ginger.
She sighed. “I loved young Bobby, but I like older Bobby much better. He’s not afraid to ask for a kiss.”
Bobby then let out a small growl in her ear, and he felt heat and need racing through her. He took this moment to turn brazen on her. “No,” he said. “The new Bobby isn’t going to ask. He already knows what Penny wants.”
And with that, Bobby hugged her waist and claimed her mouth. Slowly, deeply. Deeper still until he made her sigh. The tip of his tongue teased her mouth open. He smoothed his hands upward, slowly working his way up until he was fully cupping her breasts through the shirt. Penny caught her breath and let out the tiniest of moans.
His eyes were dreamy as he gazed into her and said, “What about 17?”
She licked her lips and dove in a little deeper. She put her hands on Bobby’s chest, caressing the pectorals, and worked her way down and around to grab his ass. Her tongue explored his mouth. The heat was building as Bobby’s hands began to squeeze her tits firmly. Soon he was lifting up the hem of her shirt and rubbing the bare skin of her rib cage. His hand explored upward some more. She was braless, and his hands claimed her velvety breasts.
“These are mine now,” he said of her breasts. “All mine. To do with as I please.”
Penny flushed as he teased her tight little buds with his thumbs.
“At 18 I wanted to tell you I loved you. I was going to tell you, but I waited like a dummy,” he continued.
“So tell me,” she said with a whisper of urgency.
“I love you, Penny.”
“I love you, too, you big dummy.”
Their hands explored each other’s torsos with need and their lips claimed each other’s until they simply could not wait any longer.
She unbuttoned his shirt; he pulled the tee-shirt off over her head. And then without warning, Bobby scooped Penny up off her feet, swung her around, kissed her one more time, then tumbled her onto her back on his bed.
“Finally, Penny LeFleur in my bed.”
She smiled a devilish smile. “And now I’m in my twenties and I want one thing. Take those pants off and let me see your Little Bobby.”
She was saucy, and he loved it. But first, he made her gasp by yanking off Gavin’s board shorts and belt she was wearing with a couple of swift moves. Now she was utterly naked in his bed. Bobby gazed down at her and let the vision of his copper-haired queen sink in. It seemed too good to be true.
He leaned over her and latched on to her rosy pink nipples, making Penny gasp and moan his name.
“Oh, Bobby!”
He massaged her breasts and suckled a little while longer and finally said, “Until now, I’ve only heard you say my name like that in my wet dreams.”
She grinned and took one of his hands and guided it lower. “Well, now you’ve got a very wet reality. Hope you know what to do.”
He was at first taken aback by Penny’s brazenness, but his mind turned to mush when he felt her soaked pussy in his hand. “Penny, you’re so fuckin’ wet.”
“And you’re as hard as all get out, mister. What are you waiting for?”
Bobby replied with simply the word, “This.”
And with that, he attacked her neck and sucked, kissed, and nibbled. He blazed a slow, sizzling trail in this manner all the way down her breastbone to her belly. Here, he palmed her lower stomach and took a moment to admire the soft, supple skin and luscious, welcoming curves. “Right here. Damn, woman. I’m gonna put so many babies in here.”
She was so ready for it, she was now rocking her hips upward toward him, yearning for him to fill her up. “Now. Do it now. I can’t wait another minute.”
He laughed and kissed her navel. His hands spread her legs wide, and he inhaled a deeper, more musky version of her strawberry scent. “First, a taste.”
Penny cried out in pleasure as his lips tasted her fruit for the first time. Her juice was luscious, and he was going to have more than a taste. Bobby got drunk on her sweetness as she writhed underneath him. He stroked her folds, savoring every inch of her with his tongue. He found her tight little clit and worked it over with his mouth, then flicked it with his tongue, sending a shock wave of pleasure through her.
“Fuck me, Bobby,” she moaned. “I’m ready.”
Instead of heeding her pleas, he continued to stroke her sweetness with his mouth, claiming her most sensitive spots with his lips, devouring her with his tongue and occasionally—ever so gently—with his teeth. His gentle nibbles, combined with the feel of his beard between her thighs, were more than she could bear.
“Bobby, I think I’m gonna come. I don’t wanna come without you,” she pleaded breathlessly. “I want you inside me when I come for the first time ever.”
Bobby obliged. The next moment, he was sinking his shaft into her pussy and sharing with her the taste of her juice. He went slowly, proud in knowing he was the first to cross her finish line. She whimpered in pain just slightly as he pushed past her hymen. He paused, but Penny was over it in half a second and pulling him in deeper. Her ankles were clasped around his back, cradling him in as tightly as she could.
“That’s a good way to get yourself knocked up, little lady.”
“God, let’s hope so,” she moaned. Bobby reached down and thumbed her clit as he thrust into her, ensuring they both came at once.
The geyser of pleasure blasted through him; he felt Penny contracting around his cock, milking out his semen. The way that wolf shifters come, coupled with her prodigious wetness, she was sure to get pregnant today.
Glory be.
The sound of banging on the door woke them with a start.
Shit.
Sam the yellow Lab, who had been sleeping in the living room, immediately started barking.
Penny jerked awake in Bobby’s arms and gasped. She looked up into his eyes with genuine confusion. She had the look someone has when they awaken disoriented from a beautiful dream. “What’s going on?”
Bobby wanted to kick some asses clear across the Gulf of Mexico for waking up his girl from her rest. He had big plans for her later and she needed sleep: plans that involved her nipples and a jar of Nutella.
Bobby reluctantly extracted himself out of the bed, away from Penny’s warm, comforting skin. She touched his arm and he nearly had a mind to jump back into bed and hide under the covers until the jerks on the other side of the door gave up and went away. “Don’t answer that, come back to bed,” she whispered.
Bobby murmured and smoothed her mussed hair into place. “Baby, I would love nothing more than to stay here and slide between your legs and shut out the world, but whoever that is is not going to go away, I have a feeling.”
She pouted. There was nothing else in the world like the rosy, pouting bottom lip of his Penny. How Bobby fought the urge to claim it with his mouth. “I’m gonna make whoever it is disappear and then I’m coming right back to suck on that lip of yours.”
Penny’s hand glided toward him under the bedsheet as he sat up, and she gently groped his bare cock. “Just this one lip?”
A crackle of lust surged through him. The idiots at the door continued banging and Sam continued barking.
He winked and replied, “Nah, all four of your sweet lips, sugar. Stay here just like that. I’ll be right back.” He kissed her sweetly, then hopped up to throw on some pajama pants.
But Bobby wouldn’t be right back. Not that day anyway.
When Bobby opened the door, it was the police.
“Robert Mason Jordan,”
“Yes,” Bobby replied flatly.
Bobby heard Penny gasp. He had hoped she had the good sense to stay in the bedroom. But she had seen the cops.
“I told those other officers everything that happened at the tattoo shop. Bobby wasn’t even there!”
“Ma’am, I suggest you keep quiet or I will have
you arrested for harboring a fugitive.”
Bobby heard Penny laugh derisively. “Fugitive! This is crazy!”
But the officer continued, “Robert Jordan, you are under arrest for kidnapping, assault and false imprisonment.”
Bobby and Penny cried simultaneously, “What?!”
As the two officers handcuffed him, he suddenly realized what this was.
Lionel DuChamps had called in a favor, and he was having him arrested for forcibly taking him to the wedding. A wedding that the old man had paid for. A wedding in which his only daughter got married. A wedding that was no doubt going to be the talk of the society pages for months and earn him endless compliments at the golf club.
Lionel himself had cornered Bobby at the reception and implied—albeit subtly—that he had gone willingly and that there had been no way Bobby and Gavin could have dragged his ass out of his house had he not.
If that old man was such a badass, why was he now calling the cops?
Bobby breathed deeply. He had to keep himself from “wolfing out” in front of the cops. If he grew fangs and claws at the moment by letting his emotions take over, it would not end well. For anyone.
This must have something to do with Lionel warning me about his plans to use Penny as some kind of bargaining chip.
Of course, it wouldn’t work, because this was 2018 and Penny had agency, and this was not a society that employed a bride price, as far as Bobby understood.
No, this was a power play. Lionel was throwing his dick around, having a temper tantrum because in the mind of a bitter old man who has everything, Jimmy Boudreaux had gained a daughter, and Lionel had lost a daughter instead of deciding he had gained a son in Ashton.
Bobby turned his head before the officers roughly led him through the doorway. His beautiful girl, loyal to a fault, was standing in the great room watching everything. His New Orleans Saints jersey hung like a dress on her, almost down to her mid-thigh. If she didn’t look so terrified, it would be sexy as hell.
“Baby, it’s gonna be OK. It’s just Lionel being a dick.”
