by Christa Wick
It was all part of the clean-up. Joshua had apparently blown up the sedan—on purpose—and we couldn’t risk anyone having seen the Jeep anywhere near Rouchfort at the time of the blast. The sedan itself wouldn’t have been traceable either. We weren’t criminals, but we often had to adopt the same methods they used to keep our secret hidden.
I shoved the house keys in my pocket, threw a feeble smile over my shoulder and headed out on foot for Joshua’s house a mile away. I wore my combat boots, one foot dragging after the other as I marched resolutely toward a likely doom and even more probable heart break.
Reaching the house, I stopped at the front gate and looked down the long drive. Joshua lived alone in a two bedroom ranch that had a separate garage and another outbuilding behind that. I could hear a radio playing—classic rock that was older than either of us.
The sound wasn’t coming from the house. The garage door was up, its interior occupied only by Joshua’s bike, workbenches and tools.
Opening the gate, I walked down the drive, passing the house and garage. Joshua was sitting on a bench in front of the outbuilding, a portable radio in the grass by his outstretched leg and some grease covered engine part on the bench in front of him.
His nose lifted. He turned his head, a smile forming as he detected my presence.
“Afternoon, catnip.”
Throat too tight for words, I smiled back, the expression shaky and uneven.
“Don’t be shy,” he teased, his chin jerking at the open space on the other side of the bench.
Slowly I approached. His nose had to have told him I was no longer in heat.
So why hadn’t he said anything?
“What…what are you working on?”
Other questions piled into a barricade at the back of my throat until breathing became impossible.
He tilted his head at the outbuilding. “See for yourself.”
A huff escaped me. He was behaving oddly. Certainly he wasn’t as bad as the old Joshua, the one who supposedly was crazy about me but never acted like he actually wanted to be around me. But he wasn’t exactly acting like he wanted to be with me at that moment—not in any meaningful sense.
I pushed off the bench and walked around to the side of the outbuilding where there was a rolling door standing half open. The dusty windows provided enough sunlight for me to see an old Volkswagen van, its body covered in gray primer and a coat of gray dust from where the vehicle had been sanded after holes in the body were patched.
“Wow,” I whispered as Joshua came up next to me, his shoulder brushing mine. “How long have you had this?”
“Since before I came to Night Falls,” he answered. “Lived in it my first year here.”
“That was the year before Braeden and I arrived?”
“Just about,” he answered, stepping close enough I could feel his breath on my neck.
“How come I’ve never seen you drive it?”
“Because I don’t,” he answered, his hand landing against the center of my back to gently coax me forward.
I turned and looked at him. “So you’re fixing it up to sell?”
My lips slammed together as soon as the words were out. I made a sucky negotiator. I already sounded too eager to buy and I wasn’t even sure it was for sale.
His brows lifted playfully.
“Come on,” I said and pushed at his chest. “How much?”
He curled his hand around mine, keeping it trapped against him as an indignant expression settled over his handsome face.
“When it’s done,” he answered, “it’s yours.”
I tried to take my hand back, but he wouldn’t let me.
“Some sweat equity would be nice,” he went on. “I imagine you have some specific color ideas for the paint and the interior—which, to be honest, there is no interior at the moment.”
“I’m not in heat anymore,” I blurted.
The corners of his mouth lifted and his eyes crinkled with a sly smile. “Yeah, I sniffed that out before you even reached the front of the garage, catnip.”
I pulled away, walked up to the van and stuck my head inside. He had been one hundred percent serious when he said there was no interior. There wasn’t even a seat for the driver to park his or her ass on.
“So, uh…what’s that mean?” I asked, still looking anywhere but at him.
Coming up behind me, Joshua wrapped his hands around my hips in partial answer. Giving a light tug, he pulled me closer, the prominence of his hips pressing at my bottom. Sliding a hand around my stomach, he smoothed his palm upward and coaxed me into straightening my spine.
With his chest against my back, he tugged down the hood on my sweatshirt and ghosted his bristly chin along my exposed neck. My nipples peaked as a warm flush heated me from top to bottom.
“Seeing as it’s only been about twenty-four hours since you finally realized you are in love with me,” he said, his lips following the same sensitive trail his chin had just brushed. “It’s a little soon to be thinking about cubs. So I’m relieved you’re out of heat.”
I turned and draped my arms over his shoulders, my head tilted up to meet his blue gaze. “It’s been longer than twenty-four hours.”
My cheeks burned hotter and I pressed my face against his chest. He wouldn’t let me hide. Threading his hand in my hair, he forced my neck into a slight arch and then his lips crashed against mine.
I yielded quickly, mouth opening, tongue warring with his. I felt the tickle of his alpha and I tickled him back with the same energy. His purr motorboated in his chest, its rhythm erratic with excitement.
His fingers tightened their grip on my hair as his free hand caressed down my side then grabbed a big handful of my round bottom.
Breaking the kiss, I nipped softly at his bottom lip.
“Does that have anything to do with why you dumped me at my house last night?”
“Part of it,” he answered, gently biting back. “You have to understand, catnip. Once you’re in my bed, your never getting out.”
“Never?” I teased.
Joshua rewarded me with another sly grin and a wink.
“Hardly ever,” he agreed. “You know what I mean, love.”
For once, I truly believed I did.
Chapter 25
Clover
Joshua led me inside his home, a place in which I had never been before. While he washed the grease off his hands from working on the van’s engine part, he encouraged me to look around.
“You’ll be living here from now on.”
Trying to hide my grin by showing him only my back, I shrugged. “You’re awfully confident, cat.”
A kitchen towel snapped my bottom.
“I have a lot to be confident about,” he answered, winking when I turned to glare at him.
Using the same towel he’d snapped me with, he dried his hands.
“Don’t pout. If it still hurts when I get you undressed, I’ll kiss it better.”
Trying not to appear too eager, I bit at my bottom lip and turned casually away, then jumped out of reach as I heard him winding up the towel again.
Moving into the living room, I surveyed the spartan furnishings. A television, a coffee table and a recliner were all that filled the space.
Following after me, he offered his own shrug then wrapped his arms around my waist. “I don’t do any entertaining, catnip.”
My mouth and nose scrunched up. “Well, you’re going to start.”
He grinned and offered a few blinks of surrender. “Only if you’re playing hostess.”
#HostessWithTheMostest
“Yeah,” I agreed, standing on tiptoe to kiss him.
Walking backwards, Joshua led me into the hall. He opened the bathroom door, exposing a lot of gleaming white tile and a garden tub with jets. I stared, dumbfounded. Not only was it way too clean for a bachelor’s bathroom, but it had to be almost as expensive as the rest of the house put together.
“Did all the work myself,” he said, his voice turning bash
ful. “Living room used to be twenty square feet bigger, but the tub wouldn’t fit.”
I nodded, my smile turning into a chest-rattling laugh. “How many times did you use it last night?”
He had cleaned off with a hose before we returned to where the Jeep was pared. But I would have been lying if I said there wasn’t a lingering stink throughout the drive back to Night Falls.
Still, I would have gladly cuddled up to him last night even if he had skipped getting hosed down.
“Twice under the shower,” he admitted. “Then an hour in the tub.”
He opened another door to reveal a ten-by-ten room that didn’t have a single stick of furniture in it.
“I do all my tinkering in the garage and outbuilding,” he whispered, lips brushing against my ear as he gave my hip a soft squeeze. “Until this is a nursery, I always thought it would make a good sewing room. And, when it is a nursery, there’s a nice spot out back with plenty of sunshine for me to build you a sewing shed.”
I buried my face against Joshua’s chest, his shirt soaking up a fresh fountain of tears. He was laying out all the secondary reasons I should consider him as a mate. He had his own place for us to live and it was mostly a blank slate for me to do with as I wanted. And he would change it to make it fit what I wanted.
Looking up at him, I smiled wide. “Isn’t there one more room for me to see?”
Chapter 26
Joshua
Every nerve ending in my body on edge, I led Clover into the bedroom. I had spent the night thinking about her being there, in my room, in my bed, and in my arms. Actually having her standing next to me left me trembling.
No matter how much I shook on the inside, I tried to play the cool cat. I ran a finger along the top of the dresser then pulled open the drawers on the right side one-by-one so she could see that I had emptied them out for her use.
“Of course,” I teased, “As many outfits as I know you have, we’re going to need a bigger dresser—or a second one.”
She bobbed her head. She hadn’t stopped smiling since she asked me to show her this room.
I wondered if she realized just how many things I wanted to show her in this room.
Before I could do that, I had to observe the formalities. Walking over to the window, I pulled back the curtains to let in more sunshine and expose a reading nook with a built in bench. Lifting the latch between the two windows, I pushed them outward to let in fresh air.
Her face lit up, the smile so broad it threatened to stop my heart.
To hell with formalities!
I bounced onto the king size bed, my gaze fixed on her through the veil of my lashes.
“Nice big bed,” I pointed out a little too obviously. Trying to save face, I jerked my head toward the window. “Used to be a regular window. Mattress and box springs wouldn’t fit through the door so I re-framed the window to fit the mattress through and to hold the two bigger panes. Then I added the shelves and bench and an extra heat vent, too, so the seat stays warm in winter.”
Clover covered the distance from the door to the bed, her pert bottom daintily perching on the edge of the mattress once she sat down.
“Of course, I don’t know if you like it soft or firm,” I said.
She responded with a delicate roll of her eyes that made my already throbbing cock swell bigger.
“I’m talking about the mattress, catnip.”
She wiggled the back of her fingers at me. “Skootch.”
I moved until my head was up by the pillows and my feet were down by the end of the bed, hanging off the side so my boots wouldn’t muck up the quilt. Clover slipped off her boots then settled onto her back.
Looking sweet as an angel but also as hot as the devil’s handmaiden, she closed her eyes. After about a second, she started to wiggle like she was testing the fit of the mattress.
All I saw were luscious breasts jiggling and that gloriously thick bottom pushing downward as the hips squirmed side-to-side.
“Verdict?” I asked, my tongue about as swollen with need as my cock.
“I can work with it,” she answered, her wolf grinning at me. “Maybe a mattress topper.”
I squashed a corny reply about how I would like to top her. Maybe a man talked to his mate like that in jest after they had gotten more accustomed to one another, but I wanted Clover to know how much I respected her and how much I wanted to quench every last measure of sexual need she felt. A joke wouldn’t get my message across.
No amount of words could adequately deliver that message. But my tongue had work to do anyway.
Standing, I took off my boots then walked to where her toes danced nervously at the end of the bed. Getting on my knees, I leaned forward and kissed the inside of her ankles.
“There’s something we need to do, catnip.”
She pointed her toes, her knees coming lightly together as a breathless sound escaped her.
Twice I had failed to seal the deal, both times because I meant what I had said before—once she was in my bed, she wasn’t getting out of it. We would belong to one another as long as we both lived.
But I knew she had seen my pulling back the two times as a rejection. I could feel apprehension running through her over the possibility that another rejection was imminent.
“Third time’s a charm, love,” I assured as I rubbed soothingly at the back of her calves, her jeans still on. “It hurt leaving you before. Physically, yes, but a hundred times more in my heart knowing you might never give me another chance.”
She had gone all still except for the tremble that infected her body. The vibrations were slight everywhere except for her mouth. There the bottom lip quivered with remembered pain.
I crawled up the bed, cupped the side of her face and forced her to look at me. “I love you, Clover. I’m pretty sure I screwed up, but I thought I needed to do what I did to keep you safe and so you would never again feel that I only wanted you because you were in heat.”
“Keep me safe?” she whispered.
“Protecting harmony within the pack is a means to protecting you—that was part of why I left you at Holly’s to speak to Braeden. However long it was going to take to get his blessing, I was willing to wait and work for it.”
“The other part of it?”
My hand eased from the side of her face then down her ripe breasts to cup the pussy I’d been salivating over for far too long. “You let me claim you, there’s no going back. I needed you to understand that.”
Slaying me, her tongue snuck between her barely parted lips and licked at the top one. My eyes dragged shut and a shiver snaked through me.
“Catnip…love…”
She rolled. My hand rolled with her. I gave a hard squeeze and she moaned, her breath warm and sweet against my face.
Damn, she was intoxicating. She didn’t need to be in heat to smell like the whole world to me.
Tightening my grip, I leaned in and covered her mouth with mine. Kissing Clover, I rolled her onto her back. My palm and fingers kneaded her mound through her jeans, working her into a hot, wet mess.
Fisting the bottom of my t-shirt, she tugged it upward, her soft growl knocking around between our mouths. I backed out of the shirt then seized the button on her jeans. Unthreading it with one hand, I coaxed her legs apart with the other.
Kneeling between her thighs, I bent down and took the zipper pull between my teeth. Slowly I unzipped her, my hands working the flesh of her full thighs through the denim. The lower the zipper went, the more I could smell her cream.
My stomach growled and my cock throbbed. I had been starving since that first taste up at the cabin. I wanted to feast on her for days.
When the zipper was nestled at the bottom, I fisted the sides of her jeans and peeled them and her panties down her full hips, over the thighs I wanted to bury my tongue—and then my cock—between, off the calves and onto the floor.
Cross checking the urge to plant my face against her mound and lick until she begged for mercy, I
worked my way slowly up her body, starting with another inside kiss to each ankle. Lips and tongue teased their way up, searching for the hidden spots that would make her giggle or moan.
I could see she had as big a need beating inside her as throbbed throughout my body. She had rucked up her blouse, her hands clenching the fabric as her biceps crowded the lush breasts together, the pale skin and dark, rose colored nipples hidden from my view.
Mouth hovering over the split of Clover’s labia, I scraped my bottom teeth upward and watched her squirm. Reaching up, I crowded out her hands, fisted the fabric of her shirt and pulled her into a sitting position. Straddling her outstretched legs, I stripped the blouse away and freed her beautiful breasts with their hard tips that pointed at me like two small homing beacons.
I needed to suck on those tips, needed to tongue her clit and finger her lovely tight hole until she screamed my name with complete abandon.
First I needed to kiss the soft, pliant mouth.
I pushed Clover onto her back once more. Draping my torso over hers, I propped myself on one elbow and cupped her chin with my opposite hand. I had her face and most of her body immobilized.
Despite yesterday’s terrors, she stared up at me with complete trust. My chest swelled with pride at having won her regard.
The first kiss I planted on her full lips was as sweet as she was. The second one had more bite—and a lot of tongue. With the third kiss, my hips surfed against her soft curves.
Her fingers curled around my biceps, her nails digging without breaking the skin. Her thighs parted to hug my sides. A needy sound twisted her throat in knots.
Brush my cheek against hers, I chuckled. “For a she-wolf, you sure do mewl pretty.”
Both her hands condensed into fists and bounced off my arms as she growled at me. “We’ll see who’s mewling at the end, cat.”
With another laugh, I accepted the challenge.
I eased down her body in agonizingly slow inches, stopping to kiss her collarbone then trace the valley between her breasts with my tongue.
Wrapping a hand around each heavy breast, I squeezed, testing for which of the two was the most sensitive. Her left hip and shoulder shot upward. Grinning, I slid my mouth over to the nipple on that side.
