by Moira Rogers
He tore his mouth from hers and panted against her ear. “Come again. Come again, and then I want to be inside you. I want to feel you ride me, feel you come around my cock so hard I can’t do anything but follow you.”
His words made it impossible to hold back or deny him, and she growled as another dizzying wave broke over her. Her arms tightened around his neck, and she nearly bucked off his lap. “Jack! Jack, I need you --”
The world tilted again as he rose and lifted her hands again. For several breathless seconds he held her trapped, her hands high over her head and her body still shaking with pleasure. “Tell me. In my lap, or over the table.”
“Y-Your lap.” She needed to kiss him, feel his heart beating near hers.
The rasp of a zipper filled her ears, and he turned her and dragged her back into his lap, this time facing him. His cock was trapped between them, and he pressed one hand to the small of her back and ground against her with a hoarse moan. “God, you’re so damn hot, Ginny.”
“Shh.” She dropped her arms around his neck again and lifted her body until the head of his cock brushed her pussy. “I want to make you come, too. Let me make you come.”
His jaw tightened as he grasped her hips. “You can do whatever you damn well please to me.”
Ginny held her breath and slid down his shaft slowly, relishing the hard thrust of his body into hers. When every inch of him was buried inside her, she rocked gently. “What now?” she whispered and closed her teeth on his stubbled jaw. “Tell me.”
“Ride me, sweetheart. Like you did last night.”
“You feel so good.” She nestled her face into Jack’s neck and nipped at the warm skin there. Her hips rolled over his in a slow, torturous rhythm that sparked the tension inside her again. “You’re beautiful.”
He smoothed his fingers up her back and tangled them in her hair. “Kiss me. Kiss me and come with me.”
Ginny jerked his mouth to hers and drove her tongue past his lips as she moved faster. He needed her release just as she needed his, so she angled her hips so that her clit rubbed the base of his cock. She came suddenly, clenching around his cock, and Jack threw back his head and roared his release. It seemed to go on forever, and she moaned into the damp skin of his shoulder until the pulses of pleasure had mostly faded.
She didn’t dare meet his eyes. He kept pulling when she wanted to push, making her open up to him. No, that wasn’t fair. She chose to let him see the things he sought, but only because the damned man had somehow managed -- in less than a day -- to be something she didn’t want to lose.
A wise man knew when to retreat, and Jack had always fancied himself a wise man. The flare of panic in Ginny’s eyes drove him to the bathroom, where he could hide long enough to give her some space.
Some space. He’d always known she’d be hard to hold, but now that he had his hands on her, he wasn’t letting go completely. So he took his time washing up and getting dressed, and only emerged when he heard Ginny moving about the kitchen again.
He found her at the stove, dressed and poking at his half-cooked, congealed omelet. “Guess I’m starting over,” she said ruefully, her voice light.
“Guess so.” He offered her a smile. “Want some help?”
“Could you fetch me a few more eggs from the larder while I chop more vegetables?”
“Sure, I could --” A noise tickled his ears, and he stopped and tilted his head as it resolved into hoof beats, approaching fast.
A moment later she heard it, too. “I’m expecting Roy,” she told him quickly. “He’s going to handle the chores while Ollie and I round up the strays.”
Jack tried to relax, but a night in Ginny’s bed had hardly predisposed him to feeling reasonable. He took a step back and tilted his head toward the door. “I’ll go and make sure.”
She slid the skillet off to one side of the stove eye and reached for the rifle by the back door. “I’ll come with you.”
The growl escaped him before he could stop it, but asking Ginny to hide in the kitchen while he protected her would be futile -- and probably piss her off. And this is the reason you want her, he reminded himself as he strode to the door with her close by his side. Because she’s strong enough to help you protect the pack.
When they stepped out onto the front porch, it wasn’t Roy riding up. It was Hazel, on one of Lottie’s best bay mares. Ginny raised a hand in greeting, her cheeks turning pink.
Hazel raised a hand in return, but her eyes were all for Jack, as was, he suspected, that tiny, amused smile. “Well. This is a surprise.”
“Is it?” Ginny turned to Jack, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Hey, maybe after breakfast Hazel could ride over to Ollie’s place with you. I’m sure she’d like that.”
Ginny’s blush had nothing on how pink Hazel’s cheeks could turn. Jack shot his new lover a quelling look before he stepped off the porch and strode forward to catch the mare’s bridle. “Why don’t you hop down and have breakfast with us, Hazel?”
The girl would be every bit as dominant as Ginny once she’d grown up a little, but for now she followed his suggestion, sliding easily from the horse’s saddle. She was tiny, the top of her head barely coming even with his shoulder, which was probably why he kept forgetting how old she was. “Here,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’ll put the horse in the stable and come along in a few minutes.”
Ginny had already gone back inside when he turned toward the porch. He found her in the kitchen, transferring an omelet to a stoneware plate. “Ready for breakfast?” she asked brightly.
Jack glared at her. “What in holy hell, woman? I am not dragging that girl over to Oliver’s ranch with me, for about five hundred reasons you can probably figure out.”
“I know.” She handed him a steaming mug of coffee and kissed him gently. “But she deserved it. Sit down and eat before it gets cold. I’m not making another batch.”
He set the mug on the table with a soft thud and reached out to grab her arm. He dragged her back against his chest with a growl that turned into a moan when his lips found hers. She was impossible… and he loved it.
She kissed him hard and bit his lip, then wiggled out of his arms with a wicked smile. “Breakfast now. More kissing later.”
“Fine.” He dropped into the chair as he heard Hazel’s footsteps on the porch. “Do me a favor, Ginny. Stick close to home and your rifle today, except when you’re out with Oliver. None of those assholes are going to risk pissing him off, but if some of them slip by me, I don’t want you getting hurt.”
She cracked an egg into a bowl and arched an eyebrow at him. “Fair warning, Jack. I’m shooting the first son of a bitch who tries to start something with me.”
He hadn’t expected anything less, but it wouldn’t help if they came at her as a group. Which they would, the sorry bastards. “That’d be great if they were going to line up and wait for you to shoot them.”
She waved her cheese grater at him. “Don’t start with that. I’m not some helpless little flower.”
“She’s not,” Hazel supplied not-at-all helpfully from the kitchen doorway. “She shoots pretty damn good, too.”
Jack ground his teeth. “How well she shoots is not the question, Hazel. It’s how many people she can stop.”
Ginny pointed to the table. “Omelet, Hazel.” Her gaze slid back to Jack. “Would it make you feel better if I got my stock settled and spent the rest of the day in town at Lottie’s?”
Even if Hazel hadn’t nearly tripped over her chair in shock, Jack would have recognized what a large concession she’d just made to his protective instincts. “That would make me feel considerably better.” And considering the conversation he was planning on having with Oliver… He shot Ginny a sly look. “Especially if you’d let Oliver accompany you and Hazel on your ride over.”
Her eyes twinkled, and she nodded solemnly. “I think that would be wise, Jack.”
In retrospect it was hard to understand how he’d never noticed Hazel’s crus
h before this. Her cheeks flushed again at the mere mention of Oliver’s name, and she dropped into her chair with a little annoyed noise. “You told him,” she accused Ginny. “That’s not very nice.”
She snorted. “He couldn’t figure why none of his and Lottie’s machinations could persuade you to fuck some nice little boy in town. Trust me, I did you a favor.”
The color in Hazel’s cheeks deepened and she scowled. “Who says I haven’t fucked some nice little boy in town?”
Jack froze, his gaze darting back to Ginny as his eyebrows climbed high enough he imagined they were about to collide with his hairline.
But Ginny ignored his stunned look as she passed Hazel a mug. “I’m not talking about some human you’re amusing yourself with, though I’d wager a year’s profits there haven’t been any of those, either.”
“There are some,” she retorted, but Jack could smell the lie. She knew it, too. She wrapped her fingers around the mug and sank lower in the chair. “There was one. I still don’t see what makes humans so different.”
There were plenty of reasons having sex with a human was nothing like sex with another werewolf, but Jack wasn’t sure he was up to listening to a recitation of them over breakfast. “This sounds like the sort of thing you ladies can talk about without me.”
“We’ll save it for later,” Ginny offered. “Eat and get out to Ollie’s. Roy should be here any minute.”
Twenty minutes ago he never would have believed he’d be anxious to escape Ginny’s house, but there were some things even an alpha retreated gracefully from. Frank discussions about sex with twenty year old near-virginal werewolves were somewhere near the top of that list.
But he couldn’t help the fleeting thought that came to him as he saddled up his horse. If Ginny were my mate, I’d never have to worry about this shit again.
Chapter Four
Ginny listened to Jack’s horse follow the trail south toward Ollie’s spread and turned a sharp eye on Hazel. “Go ahead. I know it’s killing you.”
“Well, it was before you decided to bring up my sexual history in front of the damned alpha.” Hazel stabbed at her omelet with her fork but didn’t take a bite. “Just because you apparently like discussing sex with him doesn’t mean the rest of us want to.”
“You think you’re mortified now?” Ginny sat down in the chair Jack had vacated, her hands wrapped around her own mug. “If you wait too long to mate, take a wild guess who’ll have to be in your bed instead of mine.”
All the blood drained from Hazel’s face as her gaze darted toward the door. “That’s stupid. Why would he -- there’s no reason for that. He doesn’t have to do anything.”
“He’s the alpha, Hazel. It’s his job.” She stared down at the dark brew in her mug and tried to contain her irrational jealousy. “If you can’t find a suitable mate before your heat cycle peaks, then it’s the alpha’s responsibility to bed you.”
Hazel scoffed. “He wouldn’t have to. One of the boys in town could just take care of it, if it came to that. Besides, with the way Jack was looking at you, I really doubt sleeping with me is anywhere on his to-do list.”
“I didn’t say he’d want to, Hazel. I said he’d do it.” She obviously wasn’t understanding Ginny’s point. “The boys in town are going to circle more and more, honey, the closer you get. By the time the situation turns dire, they’ll have torn each other up over you. Jack can’t let that happen.”
“Oh.” She looked a little queasy at that. “So… I just have to pick one, I guess.”
Ginny reached across the table and squeezed Hazel’s hand. “You have to get right with the fact that Oliver Russell isn’t gonna do it, sweetie. He hasn’t taken a mate, even a temporary one, since his wife died.”
“I don’t want any other wolf,” Hazel whispered, her fingers tightening. “I try, Ginny. I keep trying, but she won’t have anything to do with them. And I know Ollie’s not interested, so I just figured… I figured if she got desperate enough she wouldn’t care anymore, and at least it’d be over with.”
Ginny’s own first mating had been unremarkable and something of a relief. Then again, she hadn’t been in love with a man she couldn’t have. “I’m sorry. The whole thing just sucks, and I don’t know what to tell you.”
Oddly enough, Hazel managed a smile. “Hey, you told me what I needed to know. Lottie’s been talking circles around me for a month now, but she never got around to the indelicate stuff.”
Ginny finished her coffee. “One good thing about it is that mating doesn’t have to be a commitment. Sometimes, the wolves inside us just need it.” She felt her cheeks heat. “I mean, why do you think Jack spent the night here?”
“Uh, because he’s been dumb for you for years and you finally let him?”
She ignored the flash of pleasure the words brought. “Because he was feeling protective and I was feeling… lonely. That’s all.”
Hazel laughed. “Uh-huh. Sure. You keep telling yourself that while we’re being escorted to Lottie’s.”
Ginny rose and began clearing the table. “We’re being escorted to the saloon because Dawson and his cronies have been at it again. They cut my south fence yesterday.”
“Shit. Do you need some help fixing it?”
“I’ll get around to it. The more pressing problem is what bit of harassment those bastards are planning next.”
Hazel seemed unconcerned. “Probably nothing, once the alpha’s done with them. If he even leaves enough of them to make plans.”
His anger the night before notwithstanding, Jack had seemed calm enough that morning. “Hopefully it won’t come to that.”
“He’s the alpha, Ginny. And he isn’t a big fan of people who put his pack in danger. Especially the women.”
“Mm-hmm.” She flashed Hazel an amused look. “Except I’m not part of his pack.”
Hazel tilted her head to the side, her gaze dropping to Ginny’s neck. “Yeah. You keep telling yourself that, Gin. I’m going to go pull weeds for a while. Calvin’s been driving me crazy for the last few days, so I don’t feel like going back to town yet.”
“Ollie will probably be here before too long,” Ginny warned. “Though you could always ask him to take care of your persistent little suitor.”
“No.” Hazel jumped to her feet and shoved her chair back under the table with enough haste to show her agitation. “And don’t you say anything to him about it, either. If I have to convince myself to go pick one of those men, the last thing I need is Oliver crashing around playing hero and scaring them all off.”
Ginny kept her tone breezy. “Hey, protective instincts put Jack in my bed last night. Who’s to say it couldn’t work for you and Ollie, too?”
“Oh, Jesus, Ginny. Quit kidding yourself.” Hazel stopped at the door to the hallway and turned around to give Ginny a serious look, one at odds with the girl’s usual carefree demeanor. “Everyone in this town knows he’s been waiting for you forever. He’s in your bed because he’s half in love with you, and if you haven’t got that figured out, then do him a damn favor and kick him back out.”
She disappeared down the hall, leaving Ginny staring down into the sink. If Hazel was right, then Jack would never understand that, her fondness for him aside, the last twelve hours hadn’t changed her mind. She still couldn’t be his -- or anyone’s -- mate. It wasn’t in her nature, and trying would only leave him disappointed and her…
Heartbroken. Ginny ruthlessly shoved the thought away. Nothing had changed. Nothing.
Now she just had to make Jack understand that.
In spite of the early hour, Jack knew Oliver would be done with most of his chores by the time he reached the nondescript two-story farmhouse the man called home. A yearling calf grazed near the front porch, and half a dozen chickens pecked at dried corn strewn near the henhouse.
He found Oliver in front of the recently painted barn. “Morning, Oliver.”
The man tipped back his hat with his thumb. “’Morning, Jack.”
“I know you’re probably busy, but I need your help. Dawson and his group have been giving Ginny grief again, and I mean to put a stop to it today.”
Oliver kept rubbing neatsfoot oil into the saddle in front of him, and Jack almost missed the quick flare of the man’s nostrils. “Want me to ride shotgun or keep an eye on Ginny?”
“Ginny needs help rounding up her stock. And Hazel’s over there with her now, which’ll complicate issues if someone slips past me to cause trouble.”
“Cut the fence again, huh?” Oliver shook his head and wiped his hands on a rag. “They ain’t got nothing better to do, I guess.”
“Well, they will when I’m done with them.” Jack’s horse shifted nervously, and he realized his tension was beginning to spill outward. Might as well get this over with. “I’ve got something else to ask you. It’s intrusive as hell, but I can’t afford to be delicate about it.”
Oliver arched an eyebrow and waited.
Any attempt at phrasing it tactfully would be wasted on Oliver, so Jack didn’t bother. “Hazel’s going through her first mating soon, and the young men in town are getting ready to tear each other up because she hasn’t picked one of them yet. I’m told it’s because she’s harboring some pretty serious feelings for you.”
“That so?” Oliver glanced around the yard and tugged off his hat. “And you want me to take her on?”
Jack had to bite his tongue to keep from agreeing outright. “While I appreciate the offer, I can’t say as I think that would be good for her. She needs to find someone who cares about her and will take care with her. Maybe if you could just let her down easy, she’d give someone else a chance. We’ve got some decent young men in the pack.”
The man’s dark eyes were inscrutable, but he nodded and promised, “First chance I get.”
Which could mean that afternoon or when Hazel turned thirty. Oliver had many talents, but verbose communication was not one of them. Of course, like all dominant wolves, the man had weaknesses, too -- weaknesses Jack knew how to exploit, considering he shared them. “Sooner would be better. It’s getting hard to keep her protected. I’ve already had to step on a few of the boys pretty hard to convince them to keep their hands to themselves.”
