Hope was crying now, and Jolie’s heart turned into a big pink marshmallow. It oozed into every spare inch of her chest cavity, choking her, suffocating her. She couldn’t bear to see Hope cry. It was the purest pain she had ever known.
“After losing the eye I was so scared, but he was with me every step of the way. He loved me no matter what I looked like or how monstrous I felt. Total, unconditional love.” This came out as a strangled sob. “And I love him back.”
Jolie squeezed her into a warm, reassuring hug.
“I’ll find him. I promise I will,” she whispered. She knew it was a silly, perhaps impossible vow. But she damned well intended to track him down come hell or high water. Dead or alive, he was now the most wanted dog in the west.
Rolling in raccoon poo was not the smartest thing for Tadpole to do. In Little Dip raccoons were even lower on the food chain than city dogs. Jolie could see where he had tried to circle back, but something was between him and where he wanted to go. Something slithery and rustley, no doubt, that probably regarded him as dinner.
Carefully, she circled, testing the air, the dirt, brush, and bark for his faint scent trail. He was terrified, she could tell by the astringency of his smell. She padded on, on quiet paws until she found him in a small clearing, wedged under a rotten log, his beady eyes nervously flitting from leaf to leaf, branch to branch. He was so focused on the bushes that he didn’t notice her until she was about ten feet away from his hidey hole. She crouched low and slowly drew near. He let out a tiny welcome whimper. She rumbled back in a deep growl. His tail rose and fell in a single thump of friendship. She gave another rumble, slightly warmer this time, then raised her head and howled into the skies. Tadpole shrank down into the moist soil as answering calls came echoing through the trees from distant parts of the valley.
Jolie growled again and waited as he scrabbled out from under his log. He ducked in close to her heels and stuck there like glue as together they headed back en route to the cabin. Nothing was going to hurt him now. Not while he had the biggest, baddest wolf in the forest for a friend.
Tadpole lay content before the wood stove as his squeaky-clean, fluffy fur dried out. His belly was round with the hero’s meal he’d eaten. He had been kissed and hugged and bathed in bubbles by Hope, who now sat on the couch looking at him, amazed he had been returned safe and sound.
“I just couldn’t believe it when you walked up the path with him under your arm,” Hope said for the umpteenth time. “You know, I just knew you’d do it. I somehow felt it deep inside, that you would go out into that forest and find him.” She shook her head, mystified at her own conclusion. “It’s like you know these woods inside out. That’s twice you’ve saved him. Oh, Jolie, I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”
“It was nothing. He hadn’t gone very far.” She resolved to never tell Hope she had decided to wait and watch the forest predators, and follow whatever one looked like it was on the trail of a really stupid raccoon. In the end a fox had led her to the fallen log. And now, here they were, sitting together relaxed on the couch after a big steak dinner, watching the flames dance. It was bliss. The best reward in the world as far as Jolie was concerned. They sat on in contented silence.
“Okay.” Hope eventually broke the spell. “Tomorrow’s another working day for us. The last one, and then it’s Sunday and home. Let’s go to bed.”
The simple domesticity of the statement blew Jolie away. It was pure fantasy for her, yet it was also true. They were going to go to bed, and together, after a homemade evening meal and a few hours by the fire. She was so in love.
She froze, her gaze fixed on the flames without really seeing them.
She was so in love. The thought had come out of nowhere, and hit her like a rocket. In the chest, because that’s where it hurt most, in the chest.
Now she understood those valentine hearts with arrows pierced right through them, except it should be missiles with fiery tails exploding on impact into painfully pulverized hearts.
She became aware she was sitting alone, both hands clutched against her pulverized heart. Hope had headed off to the bedroom, and Tadpole was out for the count before the wood stove. Slowly she rose to follow, still stunned at her discovery. Realizing this love had been tucked away in her heart, her mashed-up heart, all along, waiting for her to look and find it. Why had she never looked there before? Why had she just concentrated on and worried over her wolven instincts rising up to engulf her?
It was so obvious now. This was more than an instinct to mate; this was everlasting, life-bonding love. This was the emotional force that combined the dualities of her existence, the human and the wolf. Hope was the living, breathing epicenter of her life. Now that she’d shaken it all to pieces.
Again Jolie stretched out beside Hope as if on a morgue slab. All her actions in preparing for bed had been slow and deliberate as her mind frantically scoured the small print of her heart’s secret contract with Hope. She was looking for a loophole in some sub clause that would let her slide out of these painful, unmanageable feelings. To return to the safe blank her life had been before this woman appeared at her office door. If there was a loophole, she couldn’t find it. She lay there tight and terrified as Hope snuggled down comfortably for the night, resolving to sneak away and hunt when she was sure Hope was asleep.
“Jolie?” The whisper fluttered in the darkness.
“Yeah?” she murmured back, her voice thick.
“Thank you again.”
Jolie smiled bitterly into the enveloping gloom. “I told you I’d get him. I’ll always keep my promises to you.”
There was more shuffling, and suddenly Hope was leaning over her. She held Jolie’s gaze intently before closing her eyes and slowly, and surely, lowering her mouth to gently kiss her.
Full lips cupped Jolie’s in an exquisite, moist heat. The soft pressure on her mouth stole her away for a heart-stopping moment. She was mesmerized by the shyness of Hope’s kiss. Jolie’s lips parted in a small gasp of wonder and the pressure was increased. Jolie was being thoroughly kissed.
Hope knew what she was doing. She knew how to kiss, and she wanted to kiss Jolie very much right now. She also wanted to test something out for her own satisfaction.
“Mmm,” she hummed happily as she finally broke away. “That was very, very nice. I think I like kissing you.”
“Again,” whispered Jolie, totally spellbound, “again.”
And she melted into Hope’s arms.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Hope was flat on her back. Oh my God, what just happened?
Her hands, buried in Jolie’s thick hair and pinning her mouth to hers, was probably a clue.
“Again,” Jolie had sighed and turned into her arms. So she had kissed her again. This time harder, longer, trailing her tongue tip across Jolie’s upper lip. She had teased her, glorying in the trembling, raw emotion pouring off Jolie’s body.
This was what she wanted to know. What it would be like to hold Jolie Garoul, to touch her, to savor her like this. And she’d known Jolie wanted this, too. She had known since that clumsy kiss in the trees.
For Hope this was a momentous decision. This was the first time since her anesthetized libido had shaken itself awake, that she felt brave enough to take a chance. Her cancer diagnosis had seized her with crippling fear and cold dread. Now she was en route back to her old life, and she wanted Jolie to show her the way. She felt safe with this dangerous, enigmatic woman. She knew her moods and was sensitized to her bizarre ways. Hope wanted to be sexual again. She wanted that part of herself back. It used to be such an important part. Now it was time to reach out and reclaim it, and Jolie Garoul was her chosen lover.
So she’d kissed her, and found herself being passionately kissed back.
At first Jolie’s kisses were clumsy. She seemed even rustier than Hope. But with gentle coaxing and learning by example, Hope soon had her kissing her just how she liked it, sweet and slow, with tasting and sucking. And litt
le nips all along her jawline, down to her shoulder to that sensitive spot that made her shiver right through to her backbone.
Mmm. Good girl, Jolie.
Jolie was a very quick study and in no time she had Hope clinging to her neck, moaning in her ear. She pushed Hope onto her back and lay over her to drop kisses all over her face. Jolie became conscious of the soft swell of breasts pushing up against her chest. Hope had full breasts. Jolie had noticed them that first day when she hadn’t cared who the newcomer with Andre had been. Hadn’t realized this was her new assistant, not some passerby to secretly ogle. Now those breasts cushioned her, soft and sensuous. She kissed down Hope’s throat to her cleavage, as far as the pajama top allowed. Hope crooned approval at the silken trail. Jolie hesitated, her lips sucking lightly on Hope’s breast bone. With nervous fingers she fumbled with the tiny buttons on Hope’s flannel top, and froze as the material tore slightly. She cast an anxious look up to Hope’s flushed face.
“I never liked these,” Hope murmured, uncaring about the ripped button. She shifted slightly to help remove the top. Jolie ripped the garment into shreds and sent it sailing to a distant corner in seconds flat.
“Oh,” Hope blinked in surprise. Her pajamas weren’t quite ready to be dust rags either. Jolie stripped her own T-shirt over her head, kicked off her panties and lay nude over Hope’s body in one quick, choreographed move.
“Oh.” Hope gasped again as her skin bloomed against the flushed heat of Jolie’s flesh sliding across her breasts and belly. Her curtain of long, dark hair delicately flowed over Hope’s throat and shoulders.
Jolie realized she was living her dream from the other night. She fell onto Hope’s soft warmth, encased by her arms and thighs, but she had to be careful not to bite. The kisses and licking and sucking were transporting her out of her body with delight. Jolie wanted to possess Hope in every way possible, to take her and hold on to her forever. No biting, no biting.
“Ow! Stop biting.”
“Huh?”
“They’re nipples, not gumdrops.”
“Oh. Sorry,” she mumbled shamefaced into the valley of Hope’s glorious breasts. She raised her head. “It wasn’t really a bite,” she said earnestly. Then she growled as Hope’s scent filled her and she was once again lost.
It was hard to control her beast side; her need to mate with Hope was overwhelming her. Again Jolie latched onto a wondrous pinktipped gum drop and she drew it into her mouth, unable to resist nipping, just a little. Hope moaned and arched. Jolie smiled around the plump strawberry nipple, smug that she was learning all Hope’s secrets. She rolled her tongue and flicked, and was rewarded by another gasp. Jolie was addicted. She moved from one breast to the other, tugging with lips and teeth, soothing with long, lazy sucking. Jolie was just beginning, just savoring the taste. She had waited a long time to find her mate, and now she had all the time in the world to enjoy her.
Hope was hot and writhing, liquid and befuddled. She hadn’t foreseen this. Yes, she’d wanted sex, but sex as she remembered it.
Not this crazy explosion of her insides into hot Jell-O that oozed out of very interesting places. Jolie was inexperienced, Hope knew, because she was just the opposite. And yet here she was, on fire under Jolie’s mouth. And now her hands were on Jolie’s shoulders pushing her down to where she so needed her to be. Jolie was shaking, struggling to hold back a tremendous carnal energy; it sparked from every pore of her body. Hope knew she was cradling a hand grenade, and she had already pulled the pin.
“Please, Jolie. I need you to touch me there…” she murmured, somewhere in between coaxing and begging. She didn’t really need to do either; her pajama pants soon went the way of her top, ripped from her body and tossed aside. Hands cupped her bare buttocks and raised her off the bed and Jolie burrowed between her thighs with a contented growl that hummed all along her flesh. Then a long, firm tongue speared her, beginning a slow, delicious torture, and the hand grenade went off in Hope’s head.
Her first orgasm was heavy and deep. It came too fast and almost frightened her with its intensity. She cried out, bucking and twitching, impaled on the tongue that flickered and pulsed inside her.
Jolie clung to her, her fingers biting into Hope’s bottom. She wasn’t going to let her go anywhere. Exhausted and sweaty, Hope twisted and turned, trying to pull away.
“No. Done,” she rasped, “all done.” Her answer was another deep growl that vibrated through her sex up into her belly and out along her trembling thighs. Jolie moved to hunt out Hope’s timid clitoris, latching on to its base and nuzzling it, until it swelled to meet the tip of her tongue.
“Oh.” Hope’s head collapsed against the pillow as her clitoris took control of her universe. “God, I’m gonna die…” But her hips were pushing hard against Jolie’s mouth, demanding more and more.
This was not the way it was supposed to happen. Her fuzzy thoughts tried to make sense of the whirlwind her bed had become.
She had no control over anything. Jolie was on a rampage all over her body. She came again, quicker than she’d ever managed before from clitoral stimulation. She wasn’t sure if these flash-flood orgasms were a cheat or a mercy. Again, it wasn’t an issue as Jolie dipped her head and proceeded to lap at her sex.
“No, no, please, Jolie, you’re killing me.” Hope pulled at her weakly but insistently. Jolie slowly crawled along her body and stopped inches from Hope’s face. Nose to nose, Hope could inhale the musky scent of her own sex on Jolie’s lips and breath. Her chin and cheeks shone with it.
“More.” Jolie’s eyes glinted as she lowered her mouth for a long, deep kiss. Hope clung to her. Very slowly and steadily, two long fingers pushed through Hope’s outer folds, sliding inside her in one long, easy thrust. Hope gasped into Jolie’s mouth, and her inner muscles spasmed around the intruding fingers as Jolie began to fuck her. The crushing kiss swallowed sighs and cries until Hope had to break away for air.
Then her moans filled the room and Jolie moved her mouth down to a full, heavy breast, pulling the nipple into her mouth and sucking on it roughly. She moved from one pinched tip to the other, swathing them with the flat of her tongue, nipping the areola, gorging on the abundant, silky flesh. Hope rocked easily on Jolie’s fingers, so she added a third and pushed harder to fill her. Hope’s clitoris proudly popped again, demanding attention, and Jolie stroked it gently with her thumb.
Hope crested, her inner walls clutching Jolie’s fingers in a death grip. She arched with a ragged cry as wave after wave crashed through her, finally beating her back down onto the mattress, totally spent. She lay there sweating and gasping for air.
She managed to croak out a sincere promise. “If you touch me again, I swear I’ll hit you with the bedside lamp.”
“I want more,” Jolie whispered, her breath hot and sticky in Hope’s ear. “I want all of you. Forever.” Her words came out low and harsh with raw emotion.
“There’s no such thing as forever, and you’ve got all I can give.”
Hope was exhausted. Even as she murmured the words she was slipping into a semi-comatose sleep. In seconds she was dead to the world, replete and content, and thoroughly blissed out.
“I want more,” Jolie told the dark.
“I came five times last night,” Hope happily declared the next morning. She giggled as Godfrey choked over his coffee. They were holed up in the kitchen together while the Garouls sat in the next room.
Another family ballot had shooed her from the meeting and into the kitchen for an early coffee break where she was pleased to find Godfrey loitering.
She watched him try to compose himself as he formulated at least a dozen questions in his head while mopping his chin.
“Were you alone?”
“No, I wasn’t,” Hope blustered indignantly. “As if I’d tell you that. I was with Jolie,” she confessed, shy now after her earlier brag.
“I knew it. I just knew it. Andre owes me fifty bucks.”
“You bet on it? I am hurt an
d appalled, and you owe me a cut.”
“Deal. I only bet that you’d fall for her charms here in Little Dip, not that you’d go on a sexual marathon. Talk about a comeback.”
“I had no idea it was going to turn out like that either, or I’d have run from the room after the first time.”
“There’s something about this place makes ’em more…virile.”
Godfrey gave Hope a lascivious wink and they both dissolved into giggles. “So spill. Who started it?”
“She did. No, well, I did. But she’s the one who wouldn’t stop. I swear she nearly killed me—”
“Oh my God,” Godfrey trilled. He loved a good bodice ripper.
“I ache all over. I can hardly move. I don’t know what I started, Godfrey. I’m not sure how much I can take.”
“Oh, you can take it all, baby. This is great news. The old horny Hope is back.”
“The old horny Hope was begging for mercy. I swear I never had sex like it in my life. Do you think it’s because of the cancer and I’m still below par?” she asked, very seriously.
Godfrey frowned. Obviously Hope was unaware of the lycanthropic link with the Garouls. It made them very intense, devoted lovers.
He tried to make light of it. “Too much for you, huh?”
Jolie had to be the one to enlighten Hope as to what kind of mate she had taken. Though part of him thought it might have been better if Jolie had prepared Hope before leaping on her, he had no doubt Jolie was incredibly attracted to Hope and cared deeply for her. She probably had right from the start, if she’d had a name for what she was feeling back then. Perhaps it would have been better if their emotional bond had been allowed to develop before they moved so frantically into the physical. But then emotions had never been Jolie’s strong suit, and here in Little Dip she had been coiled tighter than the spring in a detonator.
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