by Lauren Dane
Tenderness he hadn’t been aware he’d been capable of rushed through him. His wolf approved of the look and feel of her. The strength in her inner thighs, the way her hair tumbled around her face.
His woman looked well pleasured. Lips swollen from kisses, skin still flushed from orgasm. Her eyes were heavy lidded. So pretty. All his.
He wanted to roll around with her in this bed until it smelled of them. She brought all his alpha tendencies to the fore. He wanted to claim and rut. Wanted everyone in a fifty-mile radius to know she was his.
For those hours it was just the two of them. The following day the gossip would be in full swing. Everyone would know what happened, right up to the point that Jace drove her to her family and then home. Across the hall from his place.
Katie Faith kissed him again, nipping his bottom lip. “Stay here with me. All the politics will still be there in a few hours.”
Of course she knew he’d been thinking about wolf crap. He grinned. “Don’t you worry, darlin’, I’m not going anywhere.”
To underline that, he cupped her breasts and thought of yet another reason why this position was a favorite.
She quaked and tightened all around his cock and they both moaned softly. She added a grind and a swivel each time she took him all the way inside. Pleasure tore through him, digging in.
There was only so long he could deny himself. He wanted to last hours and hours, but the depth of what she made him feel drowned him. So delicious and sticky sweet he had to gorge and gorge instead.
He stretched his fingertips out to brush over her clit each time she ground herself into him. Each stroke she was hotter inside, wetter. Her skin sheened with sweat, the scent of her desire laced with her magic rose between them.
She let her head fall back as she began to climax around his cock, as her inner walls grabbed his so tight he had no other choice than to follow, coming in what felt like wave after wave for ten minutes.
He still saw stars as they managed to untangle and settle on the bed as they caught their breath.
“Wow,” Katie Faith croaked.
He managed a nod of his head. Wow, indeed. He got to his feet, pulling her up after himself. “Pie, beer and round two.”
“You’re really handy.”
Chapter Eleven
Katie Faith surely hated the alarm when it went off at six thirty. She purposely had the base on the dresser so she’d have to physically get up to turn it off. She’d fallen back to sleep enough times to be late for things and get in trouble. The lesson was she had to make herself start moving to overcome her deep and abiding love of sleep.
Jace’s eyes came open and she snarled when she noted they were clear and ready for the day. “No way are you a chipper morning person.”
He grinned, stretching as he rolled from bed.
“Oh god. You are. You’re one of those people. You love to watch the sunrise, I bet. Not because you haven’t made it to bed yet, but because you’re up and jogging just to watch it.”
He laughed, looking ridiculously gorgeous as he sauntered toward her bathroom. She knew she had bed hair and morning breath and he looked like a cologne ad designed by horny ad execs.
She’d have bought five bottles of it immediately.
Instead, she had her own exclusive supply right there.
Though. She cringed when he started peeing. “Close the door!”
Laughing, he did as he finished. Gross.
“I draw the line at using the toilet with the door open. Just so you know,” she told him when he came back out.
“My face was between your thighs right before my cock was inside you and you draw the line at hearing me pee?”
She tried not to look too devastated that he put a shirt on. It helped that he referenced something so happily true.
“Yes,” she said, closing the door. “As you can see,” she called out, “I will also close the door when I pee. It’s just a service I provide. I also expect you to put the seat down.”
She brushed her teeth quickly, groaning when she remembered she had a lesson at Miz Rose’s. Getting the shower water started, she grabbed a towel and jumped in.
“I guess I had you figured for a morning person,” he said, sliding into her tiny shower along with her.
“Stop that!” She re-routed a questing hand at her nipple. “No time for morning sex. Miz Rose doesn’t tolerate tardiness or any other foolishness when it comes to her lessons.”
He pouted and she told him to stop that too. And then he gave her a saucy little smirk when she wagged her finger at him and realized he’d do whatever he wanted because he was a werewolf.
And a really dominant man. One who was confident enough in his own power to give her space to fight her own battles—though he might have frowned a lot while he did.
Which, as it had turned out, rang her bell. Like school was out.
“I can smell when you’re turned on,” he said, sliding his body against hers.
“I can only take so much sexy from you. You’re going to fry my circuits and then what good will I be?” Laughing, she held her hand out as she finished rinsing off and left him to finish on his own. “Anyway, you were getting dressed a few minutes ago. Or was that a fake out?”
“I was going to head back to my place to shower but then when you turned the water on I knew you were in here naked and slick and why would I not come in here? Where else on God’s earth would I be but right here to look at you all slippery and grumpy.”
“I’m not a morning person. I hate mornings. But that’s when I have to get up to work. And since this whole stupid business between me and Darrell happened, I’m sure every single person within a hundred miles of here knows by now. I’ll do some brisk business at the Counter. It’s already warm so I’ll be selling a lot of vanilla Cokes and milkshakes.”
He got out, crowding her as she finished slathering on lotion. Of course, he followed her as she got dressed, leaning in to kiss her. Or take a sniff.
Once she’d pulled her hair back into a braid, she tiptoed up to sniff Jace right back, happy enough to hug him as well.
His arms encircled her and he hauled her close with two hands on her ass. “When you smell me it makes me want to strip you right where you stand and fuck you.”
A thrill ran through her.
“Oh?” She’d aimed at nonchalance but it totally came across as oh-my-god-take-me-now. Probably.
“Sugar, you can’t look at me like that. You have to go to Miz Rose’s. She’ll be mad at me too, if you’re late. She scares me,” Jace told her as he flicked open the top two buttons of her blouse before leaning in to rub his face all over her cleavage.
Straightening, he re-buttoned her and stood back.
They both sighed wistfully.
“I’ll be in on my lunch hour. You’ll eat with me,” he said. “Lock your door.” He pointed as they left.
“Why? Who the hell is going to chance coming up here to steal from me? Darrell might be aiming for a confrontation of some sort, but he’s not suicidal.”
Jace kept staring at her until she rolled her eyes and did it, tossing her keys in her pocket.
“Things are going to be crazy for a while. You have an appointment to get to. But at some point, we need to discuss what last night—” he gave her mouth a long look “—means. To you and me and to wolves and witches and all that stuff. For now, expect foolishness from all and sundry with a cock in this town. You know that.”
She sighed. “I do know that. I’m still smarting a little, I guess.”
He brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “That Darrell was a fool?”
Katie Faith laughed so hard she nearly choked on her spit. “Oh no. Yes, it was embarrassing and hurtful at the time. It’s pretty humiliating to be that woman who got stood up at the altar
. But that’s past and I can tell you honestly I don’t have any feelings for him and haven’t for years. Well, disgust. Which is only natural.”
Jace took her hand, kissing her wrist.
He thrilled her to her toes.
“To deny that your power is part of what I love and desire about you would be a lie. It would fail to accept a basic fact. We’re not humans. We’re not all that different, of course. But a few of them are pretty big. Your power makes my dick hard. Like the way your tits jiggle when you slam your trunk closed.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded slowly as she blushed. “Absolutely. Your dorky sense of humor too, for whatever reason.” He tried to look severe, but she saw right through him.
“So it’s okay to admit it makes me wet that you’re Prime? That you’re so strong and fierce, so feared and respected you only have to unfurl your power occasionally? And when you do it makes it hard for a girl to get a breath?”
He cursed under his breath.
But he’d made his point. Because he got that she was bothered about being thought of only for what her power would bring to a family.
And he helped her see it as something beautiful that he cherished.
“Thank you,” she told him before kissing him goodbye and dashing to her car. “See you at two.”
* * *
Thankfully, she was ten minutes early. Which meant she was exactly on time for a cup of coffee and something sweet they always shared before a magic lesson.
She’d stopped by her parents’ yard to clip some roses and dahlias so she headed straight into Miz Rose’s kitchen to grab a vase and put them in water.
“Your daddy is so good with anything and everything green.” Miz Rose breathed in the flowers Katie Faith had placed on a table in the bright kitchen, before sitting down.
“I hope cinnamon rolls are all right. I was in a hurry so I just had to toss them together this morning.”
Katie Faith knew the rolls had been kneaded, left to rise and then kneaded again. Knew, too, that the cinnamon sugar dusted over the top was the very same kind her dad kept in their kitchen in a salt shaker to pour over buttered toast.
“You should get right to telling me exactly what happened last night,” Miz Rose ordered her.
Katie Faith gave her a recounting of what had happened out on the street. “And then Jace got called away to some Pembry/Dooley foolishness sometime after that.”
“You don’t like being the center of this mess.”
“Heck no! I didn’t come back here for that. I left here because of it.”
Miz Rose shook her head. “Foolishness then and now. You can’t pretend away your power.”
“That’s not what I did! When I left here I didn’t think I had much. Now all the sudden it’s the topic on everyone’s tongue. I wish I was just a regular person.”
“Hush yourself.” Miz Rose paused to put another cinnamon roll on Katie Faith’s plate because she was the most awesome and majestic creature on the planet.
Katie Faith took a big bite. She didn’t want to be rude after all and the nap she’d have to take later that day would be worth it for how good these cinnamon rolls were.
“You’re not a regular person. You don’t live in a regular place. You aren’t a regular anything and the male I assume you’ve hooked up with nice and permanent isn’t regular either. Stop pretending like you have any other choice but to be who you are. I don’t abide a whiner and that’s what you’re dangerously close to doing.” Miz Rose narrowed her gaze at her a moment.
Katie Faith drank some more coffee to help the cinnamon roll down, naturally, as she waited, knowing Miz Rose had more to say.
“This power you seem to think just popped out of your back pocket the day before yesterday has always been yours. Each of us, as we grow up here, comes to our full potential in her own way. Your daddy, for instance, was in his late thirties before he really found his place. Your mother, she had it early on. Maybe ten or eleven? She just always seemed so confident in her magic.”
Katie Faith nodded. Never had she seen a witch more comfortable with her connection to the earth and her magic than her own mother.
“You were always a smart girl. Quick to learn your basics like control and such. But you never wanted to push much past that. When you left here, you tried on being someone else for a time. But that wasn’t you. It never was you.”
“It sucked being me for a while.”
Miz Rose chuckled. “I imagine it did. But you were counting off time when you grew up. One thing to the next, but you didn’t really live them. Not all the way. And when that faithless turdbrain Darrell threw a wrench into your very well thought out life itinerary, it was the best thing to ever happen to you. You ran off, sure you did. And you pretended to be a young woman living in the city for a while. But your magic was always there, waiting. When you came back here, you had to confront all that stuff and you realized you’d left it all back in the past where it belonged. That’s why your magic has been so strong since you’ve come home. You’re in love. For real this time. But you’re confident now. In your appeal as a woman. It’s hard for you to accept that you were important to the Pembrys for the power you’d bring them.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. A lot. I didn’t know how to feel. Not entirely. But Jace said something to me, put it into perspective in a way I hadn’t really considered. I was just tripping myself up.”
“Took you long enough to get there,” Miz Rose muttered.
“I hate that I was blind to it. Not that they did it. Not that Darrell didn’t want me after all. Truly I can sit here and tell you I am so very glad to have dodged that bullet. I hoped that he’d be happy with Sharon and grow up.”
“Well, he’s always been spoilt. You know that. He won’t grow up. First he’s going to have a tantrum. I expect his momma will be the one to finally teach him the lesson he should have learned a long time ago. He does love Sharon. Their kids are dumb as rocks, but cute. He wants his daddy to say good boy and pat his head. You being back is a reminder of his failure. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Which is why you need to work on pulling up more power quicker and then how to control it when you use it right after. I want you working on storing some power. A reserve. You can use a necklace, bracelet, what have you. I use the opals in my wedding ring.”
As a witch, Katie Faith had a well of power and energy, but if she used a lot at once, or got very tired, she’d have a harder time with spells or defending herself if she had to. Keeping reserve power in an object a witch carried on her person, or kept close, was a way to have a spare battery of sorts. For emergencies.
She frowned. “You think I’m going to need to defend myself? I don’t want to start a war. I just want to live my life in my hometown and be left alone.”
“I think you’re going to be one of the most powerful witches this town has seen and it is always better to be safe than sorry.” Miz Rose shrugged. “You blasted a full grown werewolf out into the street yesterday. They’re going to go crazy over you now. So you be as strong and as capable as you can be. That’s the way to be left to your own choices. It’s also a hell of a good reason to be grateful you’re far more than regular. You have choices, Katie Faith. Choices are power. You have the magic to make a lot more of them than most women. Being strong means I make my own damned life even now that I’m old and my kids want to help more.”
Katie Faith laughed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh.”
Miz Rose waved a hand. “You know what I mean. My sons and daughter are all good children. They want to help and do things for me. My grandchildren are the same. All you kids who grew up around my worktable show up and ask if you can drive me places. People bring me food so often I rarely have to cook anymore. My freezer is full. No one can stop me if I want to go to Nashville to see my boys.”
Her “boys” meant country singers Brantley Gilbert and Luke Bryan, both of whom were on constant rotation in Miz Rose’s musical choices. When they came near while on tour, she made a production of it. Shopping, eating at all the restaurants she researched and seeing a few concerts.
A long time ago, Kenny Rogers was one of her boys. But he’d done something to push her buttons, offended her somehow. One day all her Kenny Rogers record albums, 8 track and cassette tapes so lovingly cared for and enjoyed for decades disappeared.
No one spoke of it. Which Katie Faith had always thought was pretty cool.
“I hope to be as strong as you, so when I’m your age, everyone is afraid of me like they are you,” Katie Faith told her. “What is it you have up your sleeve?”
Miz Rose’s eyes twinkled a little, clearly pleased and complimented. Which, thank goodness because she had just blurted it and blurting sometimes got her in trouble.
“I aim to train you so you’re stronger than I ever was.” She paused for a moment. “Over the last two generations witches in this town have given up too much of their power. We used to have a greater say in how things worked around here. It’s our magic that keeps the shifters safe. You’re what we need to underline that.”
“I don’t want to be anyone’s pawn.” That she was certain of.
Miz Rose just rolled her eyes at Katie Faith. “Didn’t I just tell you I wanted to help you be as strong as possible so you could make your own choices? Young people today. Lordy. This silliness between Dooley and Pembry wolves has been in the making for years now. Since before I was born. We aren’t here to make one pack stronger than the other. We’re here to make Diablo Lake a safe place. A haven. They’ve all used us like chess pieces. Not just shifters, but our daddies too. Foolishness.”
“I guess we better get to work making me super witch.” Katie Faith grinned.
* * *
Ninety minutes later she unlocked the front door at the Counter for Miz Rose. “I’ll get some coffee brewing,” Katie Faith said as she headed inside, turning on the lights and the sign in the front window.
