by Tasha Black
“None of them are as lovely as you, Veronica,” he told her softly.
She smiled, but he could tell she was still thinking.
They reached the old academy building in companionable silence, got out and walked to the main door.
“It’s late,” Veronica said as she slipped her key out of her pocket. “We’ll have to stay quiet so we don’t wake the others.”
“Do you want to go for a walk?” he asked, placing his hand over hers to stop her from opening the door. There was something magical about the night. He couldn’t let it end just yet.
He felt the sizzle of energy between them, stronger than ever at the gentle contact.
She smiled up at him and nodded.
They headed off toward the field without saying a word. The long grass rippled in the breeze - a sea of green under a blanket of tiny faraway stars.
He took her hand in his, awash in satisfaction when she squeezed his hand back.
What he wanted might not be so very far out of reach.
At last they reached the trees.
Veronica walked a bit more slowly as they set off between the first two maples and into the darkness of the woods.
Lobo slowed as well, allowing her to set the pace.
“I was thinking about what you said earlier,” she told him, as if the privacy of the trees were all that was needed for her to speak. “About how most people were lovely, if you gave them a chance.”
Lobo nodded, but kept his mouth shut.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the world that way,” she said. “My dad left when things got a little complicated in my family.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Lobo told her.
“It’s fine, it was a long time ago,” she said.
But he could still hear the hurt in her voice, and feel that faint shimmer of pain in the air around her.
“Anyway,” she said. “I’ve only had one serious boyfriend and he was kind of a jerk. I know those two are not exactly a perfect cross section of masculinity, but… I guess I’ve found it hard to let a lot of people in since Ralph and I broke up…”
“Canines aren’t the only ones who learn best from actions,” Lobo observed.
“Yeah,” Veronica said with a grin. “I guess that’s true. And that’s why…”
She stopped and turned to face him.
“I’m sorry I shut you out, Lobo,” she said. “If actions speak louder than words then you’re probably the best friend I’ve ever had.”
“One of your two best friends,” Lobo corrected her, though his heart was soaring from her admission.
“What do you mean?”
“Biscuit,” he told her triumphantly. “Biscuit saved your life.”
“And you saved his,” she told him. “And my job.”
It was true.
And if this wasn’t his moment, so help him, he wasn’t going to get one.
“Veronica Nunez,” Lobo said, trying not to let his voice shake with emotion. “I have cared for you since the day we met. I choose you as my mate. Will you have me?”
There was a moment of stillness.
In the darkness there was only the outline of her darling face, and the sounds of the night birds in the trees around them, punctuating the steady burble of the creek.
“I’ve only had one real relationship, and it ended very, very badly,” Veronica said uncertainly.
“If it had not, you would be mated to another by now,” Lobo observed.
“Hm,” she said.
“I have had no real relationships,” he told her. “At least not romantic ones, not until I met you. And now I will never have another.”
“You’re so sure,” she wondered.
“I’ve known since I saw you with Zeus, that very first day,” he told her softly. “I had already dreamed of you.”
“Y-you what?” she asked.
“I dreamed about you,” he told her. “And now I’ve found you. Will you have me for your mate?”
She nodded her head up and down as if she were in a trance.
“I need you to say it,” he urged her.
“Yes,” she told him. “Yes, I will be your mate, Lobo.”
28
Lobo
Lobo thought his heart would explode with joy. She was his, and he was hers. She would not send him away.
The air between them crackled with electricity. He could sense her need for him coming off her in waves. She craved his touch, nearly as much as he yearned for hers.
And now that her heart and mind belonged to him, claiming her body had gone from a longing to a biological imperative.
He pulled her close and leaned down to brush her lips with his.
She sighed with pleasure.
Just like last time, he felt the wash of awareness, as if the kiss allowed him better access to her emotions.
Love you, want you, need you inside me…
He was choked with the passion of her response. She loved him. He was whole now. He was hers, forever.
But he wasn’t about to wait another second. He slid her t-shirt over her head and laid it on the ground. Then he pulled his own shirt off and laid it beside hers, slid off his shoes and shimmied out of his jeans and added the jeans to the makeshift bed on the grass.
When he looked up he saw Veronica rolling her shorts into a pillow.
He drank in the sight of her generous curves. Her honey skin glowed pale in the moonlight, interrupted only by her dark underthings.
“Lie down, my love,” he told her tenderly.
She lay down and smiled up at him.
I trust you.
Again his heart surged as if he would die.
He lowered himself beside her, cradled her cheek in his hand.
“I love you, Veronica,” he told her, unable to contain the words any longer.
“I love you too,” she told him solemnly.
He kissed her again, this time with all the bottled up passion he’d hidden away when he thought he was facing death or deportation.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging as if she would never let him go.
At last his need for oxygen began to battle his need to kiss her forever. Reluctantly, he left her mouth, kissing his way down her neck.
Veronica shivered.
Good.
He smiled and kissed his way between her breasts.
“Oh,” she sighed, as he popped open the clasp at the front of her bra.
He peeled back the fabric slowly. He’d never actually opened a birthday present, but he felt like he finally understood the feeling.
Her breasts sprung out, eager as puppies for his touch.
He caught one bouncing nipple between his teeth and nipped gently, then stroked it with his tongue and sucked.
Veronica arched her back and whimpered.
Encouraged, he tried the same on her other breast. Somehow, tonight, teasing and toying with her beautiful breasts was even more exciting than it had been the first time.
Human males in movies and books indicated that mating with new and different women brought greater excitement.
But Lobo was already beginning to see that this could not be right.
Knowing that Veronica loved him, that she wanted him, stoked his lust. He dreamed of a day when they would have done this a hundred times, or a thousand - when he had refined his methods of pleasuring her to such an extent that tonight’s efforts would seem rudimentary in comparison.
Except that being with Veronica could never be rudimentary.
As if to demonstrate this surety, she gasped and arched her back, sinking her nails into his shoulder blades.
He felt such a wave of sympathetic lust from her that he was unable to restrain from pressing his aching cock against her thigh to give himself some slight relief.
She moaned and wiggled.
So big, so hard…
He abandoned her breasts, kissing his way lower, lower, until he was nuzzling the fragrant satin between h
er thighs.
“Oh,” she whispered, stilling.
Please.
He could not deny her, even if he’d wanted to. He hooked his fingers under the waistband of her underthings and tugged.
She lifted her hips, allowing him to remove them completely.
When he returned to her he was nearly breathless with desire.
Veronica, his Veronica, lay naked and writhing with need before him.
He lowered his head to taste her.
Veronica whimpered as he slid his tongue along her opening without penetrating.
Her exquisite flavor burst on his tongue - spicy and rich, he couldn’t get enough of it.
Veronica mewed and whined as he spread her open with his hand and lapped at her.
He was insatiable, he wanted, needed to taste every drop.
But with each lash of his tongue the sweet dewiness only multiplied until he was nearly drunk with it, and sweet Veronica’s sounds of pleasure were quickly devolving into cries of anguish.
“Poor darling,” he crooned against her thigh.
Please, please, please…
“Please,” she moaned out loud.
He nudged a finger between her folds, reveling in the welcoming heat of her, his cock throbbing jealously.
Veronica’s thighs trembled.
He moved his finger in and out slowly.
“Oh,” she whimpered.
He lowered his head to lick around his fingers.
When he felt her sex begin to tighten around him, he slid his tongue up to search for the epicenter of her pleasure.
He found the sweet little nub and licked eagerly, delighting in its lovely texture, stiff and pliant at once.
Veronica moaned excitedly.
He wrapped his lips around it and sucked gently while working it with his tongue.
She cried out again and her thighs stiffened.
Then he felt her entire sex convulsing around his finger, squeezing and massaging his hand and tongue as she sang out her pleasure into the stillness of the night around them.
29
Veronica
Veronica opened her eyes.
Though her body was still floating on waves of ecstasy, fulfillment allowed her mind to focus on something other than chasing the tantalizing pleasure.
Lobo was watching her, his gaze as intense as a tiger’s.
His lips were glistening from her juices and the idea of his unsatisfied need somehow made her frantic again, though she was still in the throes of her climax.
Please, she thought, unable to voice the words of her longing for him to possess her, to fill her to bursting with himself.
His jaw tightened as if he had heard her and he crawled up to her, pressed his forehead to hers.
“Please,” she managed to whisper out loud.
She felt his heat against her and for a moment she was almost afraid. He felt so huge, it seemed impossible that he wouldn’t split her open.
But she was so wet he managed to press inside her slowly, slowly, until she was filled with him.
“Veronica,” he whispered through gritted teeth.
She felt him throb inside her as he held himself still.
She searched her mind for the right words, but came back to the only one she could make her mouth form in the heat of her desire.
“Please,” she whispered back, jogging her hips slightly to encourage him to move.
He groaned and obliged her instantly, sliding nearly out of her only to plunge back in.
She found herself beginning to see stars again as if she were going to climax a second time.
“So good,” he murmured. “My mate, my glorious mate.”
His words pushed her over the edge.
She barely managed to wrap her fingers around his huge arms to anchor herself before she was flying apart again. This time the pleasure was more intense and her heart felt as if it were expanding to enfold the entire universe.
Her mate, he had claimed her. They had claimed each other.
Lobo cried out and threw his head back.
She felt every throb and frisson of his ecstatic climax.
And then she felt something else, a light breeze in the air, or a wavering in the universe.
Good, so good, Lobo said.
But he hadn’t said anything.
Yours, he said, laying his head down on her chest. Forever.
“Did you say something?” she asked.
“No,” he said, his voice resonating through her body.
“But, I heard…” She trailed off. It had been a long day. She was probably imagining things.
“What did you hear?” he asked lifting his head, his blue eyes dancing as he gazed at her.
“Yours forever,” she said uncertainly.
“Ah,” he said.
“I know, now you think I’m crazy,” she said. “But you had a hamburger and I had no dinner at all. I’m probably just tired and hungry, and—”
“No,” he told her. “I didn’t say it, but I felt it. Dr. Bhimani said this might happen.”
“She thought this would happen?” Veronica asked in horror, looking around them at the rolled up clothing and the woods. They must have been crazed with lust. There were beds a quarter mile away in the old academy.
“No, no,” he laughed. “She told me that one day my mate might share my gift.”
“Your gift?”
“I can… sense the emotions of the creatures around me,” he said. “More easily if I care about them or if I really try to connect with them.”
“That’s amazing,” she said.
“You’re not scared?”
“Are you kidding me?” she asked. “I’m grateful. From now on I’ll have a leg up on whether or not someone is a colossal jerk. This is like catnip for me.”
So relieved, so grateful…
“Ha, you were worried,” she crowed.
“Maybe a little.” He grinned at her sheepishly. “Any big plans for your newfound powers?”
“Nope,” she said. “I’m more interested in my newfound mate.”
“And I’m more interested in the fact that you didn’t have any dinner,” he told her. “I can’t mate with you all night long if you aren’t properly nourished. Come on, let’s go back and I’ll make you something to eat. Then we’ll find a real bed. You’ll think up a good use for your new gift in the morning.”
She yawned and allowed him to help her up. She liked his plan. It was good to be in love with someone when that someone had such excellent ideas of how to spend time.
They dressed quickly and hand in hand, walked back through the misty field toward home.
30
Veronica
Veronica smiled as she watched Officer Morrison toss a ball for Biscuit in the yard.
Morrison was laughing and Biscuit laughed with her, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth in a most undignified way.
Happy…
It was incredible to feel the animal’s emotions. Truth be told, Veronica would have known Biscuit was happy anyway. He had done very well today. His delight was evident in every movement of his big furry body.
After Percy Reeves was arrested, Captain Henderson had let Veronica know that the training sessions could resume. The first day back had been a little awkward but the students jumped in enthusiastically and made up for the lost time.
The last two weeks had passed quickly. The final training session had ended earlier this afternoon.
Morrison lobbed the ball across the yard and Biscuit flung himself into the air, kicking up dust. His hind legs curled up to his haunches as he sailed heavenward, snatching the ball right out of the air to the amazement of everyone watching.
By the time he landed everyone was cheering.
Proudly, proudly…
Biscuit paused, paws splayed wide on the dirt, to accept his applause. Then he dashed off for Morrison again.
Morrison flung her arms up to greet him.
Veronica was lo
oking forward to pulling Tami Morrison aside later today. She couldn’t wait to see the look on the woman’s face when she told her that she was not only being given the K-9 position, but that Biscuit was going with her.
Veronica was going to miss him so much. The dog had faced his own fears to save her, and she had done the same to save him.
But his purpose was to serve and protect. She could just imagine Biscuit's career searching for missing persons with Tami, saving lives, and helping to bridge relations between the police and the public with his friendly, outgoing nature.
“You’re going to miss him,” Lobo’s deep voice made it to her ears just as his big hand rested on her shoulder.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “But I’m excited for him too. He’s going to have an amazing career.”
“And so are you,” he told her solemnly. “You are very good at what you do.”
“Thanks to your gift,” she smiled.
“You didn’t need my gift,” he said.
“But I do need you.”
She turned to face him.
Happy…
They were all happy, she shouldn’t be surprised, but she felt a pang in her heart anyway. It was so good to be sure of him.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he told her, his blue eyes flashing.
He cupped her cheek in his hand and a flicker of electricity passed between them, a promise of more.
“Soup’s on,” Brooke yelled from the meadow.
Lobo raised an eyebrow.
Veronica laughed and grabbed his hand from her face and dragged him toward the big maple.
Trinity and Hawkeye were spreading blankets on the grass while Conan assisted Brooke at the grill.
The unseasonably mild weather added to the holiday mood. A light breeze carried the scent of juicy burgers across the field.
“You saved some for the canines, right?” Veronica eyed the folding table. She could practically hear it groaning under the weight of so many burgers and dogs.
“Unseasoned, rare,” Brooke said dutifully, pointing at a platter of burgers still on the holding area of the grill.
“Excellent,” Veronica said.
“Grab a plate and come on over, guys,” Hawkeye yelled happily from one of the blankets where he sat next to Trinity.
