Maybe it was. She certainly wasn’t the same woman Brice had startled from her bed.
“Skipping out of your own party?” Gavin Walker’s soft voice lilted through the quiet room.
Cassie lifted her head from her hands. “I needed some downtime.”
“I expect today has been bittersweet. I’m sure you’re missing your mother, and mine.”
Cassie bit back her tears. “And Brice.”
Gavin sat in the seat across from her. “I hoped the party would fill some of the void.”
“I don’t know most of these people.” She cringed at the strain in her voice. “Why are they here?”
“For you,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because Brice loves you.”
“I didn’t let him claim me before he left. A lot may have happened since he’s been gone. He may have found someone else.”
“I know my son, Cassie.” Gavin patted her hand with a gracious smile. “Nothing could change his mind or his heart where you are concerned.”
“I’d feel better if he would tell me that in a card or letter. It’s been three months and not a peep. What if something’s happened to him?”
“Relax, hon. The Woelfesenat would’ve informed us if Brice became ill or had been hurt. Put your mind at ease. He’ll be home soon.”
“And if he isn’t? Brice said that he had to claim a mate by Christmas or you’d banish him from Walker’s Run.”
“He told you about that?” Gavin swiped his hand over an embarrassed grin. “Brice and I were at odds when he came home. I said some things that I shouldn’t have because I was desperate to keep him here. I would never turn him out. Walker’s Run is a part of his soul, just like you are.”
“Thanks, Mr. Walker.” Cassie stood to hug him.
Gavin embraced her warmly. “I’ve always wanted a daughter,” he whispered in her ear. “So I wouldn’t mind if you called me Dad from time to time.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Cassie said as her heart pinched. “I’m not mated or married to your son.”
“Brice declared his intention, so the rest is just icing on the cake.” Gavin tucked her arm beneath his, twitching his nose. “Speaking of cake, let’s go cut yours.”
* * *
Cassie wiped the steam from the bathroom mirror, ignoring the water seeping from her eyes. Brice had missed her graduation and her party. And the cherry pie she baked this morning was still on the counter, untouched.
She’d been so sure that he would show up tonight. It hurt that he hadn’t. Without a way to communicate with him, she had a hard time fending off the doubts.
Cassie lifted Brice’s jersey from the hook on the back door and slipped it over her head. The soft fabric against her skin always made her feel close to him.
She closed her eyes and hugged herself. “Brice, when are you coming home? I need you.”
After several minutes of silence, Cassie stepped out of the bathroom and walked down the hallway to the bedroom. Climbing into bed, she heard a noise in the kitchen.
A tiny starburst of hope erupted in her chest. Squelching it, she tiptoed into the kitchen, baseball bat in hand—just in case—and flipped on the light.
“Brice?” Cassie’s voice faltered.
There he stood, his arm shielding his eyes.
“Oh, God. I’m sorry.” She dropped the bat and reached for the switch.
His hand closed over hers before she doused the light. She wanted to hug him, kiss him, but wasn’t sure what he wanted.
“I see you found the pie.” She nodded at the half-eaten dessert on the counter.
“I couldn’t resist.”
Finally. His voice—not the one stored in her memory, but his real voice—bathed her ears.
She didn’t allow herself to luxuriate in the hum of his Southern baritone. It was too soon to fall back into old patterns. She needed to know if anything had changed for him in the months he’d been away.
She grabbed the coffeepot and went to the sink to fill the carafe to have something to do with her hands. “Everyone will be glad you’re home.”
“What about you, Cas?” He slipped behind her, shut off the water and took the glass pot from her shaky hands. His presence wrapped around her in a gentle persuasion, coaxing her down from the peak of her anxiety. “Are you glad I’m home?”
“Of course.” Trying to express the deluge of feelings would turn her into blathering idiot. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You weren’t too happy with me or my kind when I left.” His cheek brushed against her hair. The sweet familiarity broke open the ache she had carried in her chest since the day he’d left.
His strong arms circled her waist. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” Missed him so much she thought she might die from the heartbreak. Those first few hours and days, when she felt completely and utterly abandoned, were the worst she’d ever known. Then one day a profound sense of Brice had electrified her being. Inexplicably, she had felt his relief, then pure, unadulterated joy. He passed one thought before the connection faded. I love you.
At the time, she hadn’t known if the moment was real or imagined. She still didn’t know.
The tenderness in the whisper-soft kisses he planted along the curve of her neck was a salve to the rawness she’d lived with for the last few months. But she didn’t want simply to cover it up, pretend it wasn’t there anymore until it festered into a poison that infected her body, mind and soul. “You left me.” The words burned her throat. “You promised never to do that.”
She might not have believed him at the time he made the oath, but she remembered it every single day he was gone.
His warm sigh scraped her skin, and her body responded with sweeping masses of chill bumps. He gave her enough room to turn in his arms, but he didn’t step away. Brice’s brow wrinkled beneath a tumble of hair. His eyes peered at her, sharp, guarded. “I said I wouldn’t leave you to fend for yourself, and I didn’t. I made sure you had a home and reliable transportation.”
“And the promotion your mother offered me?” Cassie fingered the edge of his cable-knit sweater.
“I’m not involved in the resort’s management, Sunshine. My mother wouldn’t put someone in a position if she didn’t have every confidence of success. Not even if I asked for a favor. Whatever she offered, you earned. But if you aren’t happy with the additional responsibilities or aren’t getting the experience you wanted, we can look for other alternatives. I want you to be happy, Cas.”
“Even after what I said to you?” She couldn’t look at him for an answer. Already teetering on the edge, if she lifted her gaze from her feet she just might fall.
“Did you mean it?”
“No.” Cassie pressed her cheek against his chest. The horrible, shameful things she’d fired at him had come from fear and confusion.
Brice held her, tight and secure, and her fears of falling into oblivion subsided in the safety of his arms. “Baby, you were frightened and overwhelmed. Probably in a state of shock, as well.”
“Then why did you leave?”
“You needed time to sift through your feelings, time to learn to trust yourself and to trust me.”
“Do you still feel the same for me?” She held her breath, knowing her entire world rested on his response.
“No.”
Cassie’s stomach dropped to the floor, yet everything she’d eaten seemed to rise in her throat. She struggled to break free of Brice’s hold before she threw up.
“Easy, Cas.” Brice gently pushed up her chin, but she wouldn’t open her eyes. “What I feel for you grew stronger every day we were apart.”
His words soothed Cassie’s tumultuous stomach. His long fingers curled around her hand and he placed it over his
heart, beating a strong, steady promise. “Didn’t you sense me? Hear me? Feel me, whenever I thought about you?”
“I thought it was my imagination.” Brice’s mother had tried to answer Cassie’s questions about the phenomenon. The explanations fell short, not because of any lack in Abby’s attempts to encourage her. What Cassie had needed, wanted, was Brice’s assurance.
“The mate-bond kept us connected.” He kissed her knuckles. “It will always keep us connected.”
A thrill replaced the ache in her chest. “I heard your voice in my head at my graduation.”
Brice gifted her with a devilish smile. “You were the most beautiful graduate I’ve ever seen.”
“You were actually there? Not in my head?”
“I wouldn’t miss one of the most important days of your life. And I have no intention of missing any of them, ever.”
Emotion nearly overwhelmed her. Even though she didn’t see him at the ceremony, to know he watched and supported her as she accepted her degree almost made up for the months of separation. “Why didn’t you come to me after the ceremony or at the party?”
“Today was all about you. If someone had seen me, we wouldn’t have had a moment’s peace, and the magnitude of your accomplishment would’ve been lost in the chaos.” Hands on her hips, he drew her close, brushing a light kiss over her mouth. A tease, a test, a temptation.
She had one last doubt to extinguish before giving in.
“The full moon,” she began.
“Rises tomorrow night.” He wound her hair around his finger, rubbed the strands against his cheek.
“You’ve been gone for three.”
His gaze locked onto hers. Those blue and green eyes clear and true.
“I understand you needed a partner during the full moons, but I need to know if there were any other times.” She dropped her head. “I don’t want to wonder.”
“There hasn’t been anyone but you, Cas.” He paused until she looked back at him. “I swear.”
“I thought you had to have sex during a full moon.”
“If you had completely closed yourself to me, I would’ve gone berserk because I want you. No one else can give me what you do, and when I finally reached you through the mate-bond and you let me in, that opened a whole new level of intimacy for us. Those nights you thought of me touching you, loving you, those weren’t dreams, baby. That was our mate-bond, and what we shared is real as it gets.” He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a velvet box.
“I love you, Cassidy Albright.” Down on one knee, he flipped opened the cover to reveal an exquisite solitaire diamond in a platinum setting. “Will you be my mate? Through good times and bad? From now until we are no more?”
Cassie cried. Not the wrenching sobs that had raked her soul when Brice left, but giant tears of happiness. She’d have been a fool to say anything but “Yes.”
Brice slipped the ring on her finger. “We’ll have a ceremony, as big or small as you want. Whenever you want, wherever you want, but tonight, I’m going to make you mine.”
He stood, picking her up. Cassie wrapped her legs around his hips and kissed him, pouring every ounce of her heart and soul into him.
He carried her into the master bedroom, never breaking contact with her lips until he lowered her to the great big heirloom bed.
“What about the taboo?” she asked.
“The old bedding is gone. I bought a new mattress set, and Rafe helped me get it here while you were at the party.” Kicking off his shoes and socks, he shucked out of his sweater. “This one is all ours, baby.”
He lifted the hem of her nightshirt, inching it up slowly over her abdomen. He kissed the slight curve of her stomach, laving a path to her belly button, then blew a warm breath over the moist trail. Chills burst forth on her skin while a liquid heat formed in her sex.
He rubbed his softly stubbled jaw across her midriff. The ticklish sweep of his whiskers awakened places recently neglected, except in her dreams.
She wanted his hands, his mouth, his skin. Here, there and everywhere. All at once.
“We don’t have to go slow,” she insisted.
“This is the first time I’ve made love to you, in person, in months. I’m going to savor every minute.” He traced his mouth up her breastbone, kissing, then licking the valley between her breasts.
Her nipples tightened in tight, pointy buds, straining for attention. He focused his concentration on nipping the curve beneath her breasts while his hands teased her with featherlight strokes between her inner thighs, coming close to her apex but never quite reaching it.
“Oh, God,” she groaned every time his fingers caressed the crease of her hip drawing down toward her mound. Each caress shot electrified ribbons of desire straight to her core.
He scraped his teeth across her nipple, flicked his tongue against the pinnacle, then sucked the achy bud into his warm, wet mouth at the same time he slid his fingers over her mound. A flood of creamy desire rushed her sex and dampened her panties. The friction of the wet material against her swollen folds was stimulating and frustrating.
“Take them off. Now!”
She heard a soft, sucking plop as he dragged his mouth from her breast. “Sorry, Sunshine. You’re going to have to wait.” Then he devoured her other breast.
The weight of his hand pressed against her mound, only to disappear when she began rocking her hips.
Turnabout was fair play, so she reached between their bodies, sliding her hand down his chest to the button on his jeans, and continued downward to the hard ridge pressing against the zipper. She ran her hand up and down the length, gently squeezing at random intervals.
Brice’s breathing hitched. Something guttural vibrated in his throat, causing her sex to clench. Her clit ached. Her swollen folds throbbed. All the tension in her body bunched between her thighs.
Brice’s lips skimmed the curve of her neck. His tongue danced in the hollow of her throat. She grabbed his face, pulled him to her mouth and fastened on his lips in an urgent, demanding kiss. She delved into his mouth, chasing his tongue, sweeping the inside of his cheeks, tasting a hint of cherries everywhere she explored.
Her short nails scraped down his chest. She tugged at the button on his jeans until it finally opened. She slid the zipper down, separating the teeth one at a time. She slipped her hand inside, loving the warm, velvety feel of hard, sleek maleness against her palm. Everything feminine in her electrified. Her sex became wetter, the clenching fiercer.
Growling a curse, Brice pushed away, shoved down his jeans.
Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of him, standing at the edge of the bed, rigid with desire for her. After all she’d put him through, he wanted her. Needed her. Loved her.
She loved him, too. Always had, she supposed.
“I’m revoking rule number one,” she said. “Prance around the house naked all you want. I promise never to complain.”
A stellar grin broke across Brice’s face. “I’m not going to be the only one naked.” He pounced on the bed and whipped off her nightshirt.
“Not complaining.” She lifted her hips, allowing him to slide off her panties.
“Mine!” he growled, staring at her sex while tracing his fingertip along her seam and brushing her clit.
She groaned, aching for him to fill her completely.
“Get on your knees.”
She did as he wanted, rolling onto all fours in the middle of the mattress. Her nipples pinched tighter and her sex throbbed in anticipation as she felt Brice move behind her.
He brushed aside her hair to caress the nape of her neck with his lips. One hand burned against her hip. The other slid down her stomach and cupped her mound. His long fingers curled, and the first tease of her folds caused her to buck from sheer lightning.
&
nbsp; He entered her from behind, pushing slowly, sinking deeper and deeper until buried to the hilt with his sack pressed into her folds. The incredible sensation of joining with him again in the flesh nearly overwhelmed her. He’d never lost hope in their bond, and she was humbled by the fortitude of his faith in her.
He began thrusting gently and strummed her clit with matching strokes. She clenched, holding him deep inside each time he filled her. This was how he loved her, patient, caring and true.
The hand on her hip dug deep into her muscle. His thrusts came harder, faster, until a frenzy consumed them, driving them further and further over the edge. Her muscles tightened, pulling more and more tension into her sex.
The moment of her climax, she felt a sharp pinch from Brice’s bite. His presence surrounded her body, infiltrated her mind and imprinted on her soul.
Her entire body trembled as a new eruption of indescribable pleasure exploded from her core, storming her senses from every possible direction. She didn’t fear drowning in the pulsing flood because Brice was there with her. He would always be with her. She’d never have to face anything alone ever again.
His teeth remained clamped at the juncture of her neck and shoulder until the last wave of their orgasms subsided. Collapsing, Brice pulled her into the curve of his body, holding her close like a coveted treasure.
In unison, their pants slowed to deep, even breaths and their heartbeats returned to a normal, steady rhythm. After a few minutes, the roar of the tide subsided in her mind.
“I love you, Sunshine,” he whispered in her ear.
Knowing he truly did, she murmured back, “I love you, too. Benji.”
Brice grinned easily. “Guess I need to work harder to convince you that I’m not a scruffy little dog.”
Cassie laughed as he guided her hand to a very convincing part of his anatomy.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from THE VAMPIRE’S PROTECTOR by Michele Hauf.
Get rewarded every time you buy a Harlequin ebook!
Awakened by the Wolf Page 29
