by Maddy Barone
She raised a hand to smooth his tumbled waves of hair back from his sweat-covered forehead. “Wow,” she breathed. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”
He lifted his head to look down at her, still inside her. “Like what?”
Feeling awkward, she shrugged and fixed her stare on his broad, burly shoulder. “I don’t know. So nice.”
“Nice?” He sounded disbelieving, almost hurt. “Only nice?”
She fisted her hands in his hair. “Really nice.”
He managed to roll off her and kiss her gently. “We need to do that again soon, so I can improve. I thought it wasn’t bad for a first try,” he murmured, sounding sleepy. “Not for a while, though. Dawn is only two hours away. We have all our lives to get better at making love. Sleep, Mel.”
And she wondered, hearing his steady breath in her ear and feeling his comforting weight against her, if he had been a virgin. And if he had, where had he learned to lick her like that? She suppressed a giggle. He thought he needed to improve? She couldn’t imagine him getting better at it. But next time she could show him what she’d learned from Rob. With Rob she’d hated it, but she thought it might be fun to see if she could make Snake moan the way he’d made her moan.
Feeling lighthearted for the first time since her mother smashed her dreams of having her family together again, she laid her head against Snake’s shoulder and let herself fall into sleep.
Chapter 8
Mel jolted out of sleep when vigorous pounding sounded on the door. She reached automatically for her pistol and nearly poked Snake in the eye.
“We’ll be out in a few minutes, Stone,” her husband said and then smiled down at her. “Good morning.”
She was naked! The flash of awkward embarrassment dissolved in memories of last night. She stretched her naked body in a languorous yawn. “Good morning.”
“Ready to head back home?”
Home. The Flying D would always be her first home, even without the mother she expected to bring back in triumph, but her home was with Snake now. “Yeah. Let’s stop at the D for a day or two and then head up north to your place.”
His smile told her he knew what she just said. He bent his head for a quick kiss. His hair tickled her breast in the most gloriously teasing way. “As soon as some of the Pack arrive to escort us home, we’ll leave.”
That’s right. Mel remembered Quill was going to send some of his friends back for them after he and Ellie got to the den. She rose from the bed and cast around for her clothes. With only a breechcloth and moccasins to put on, Snake was dressed in no time. She had to wind her breast wrap over her chest. Normally it took only a few seconds, but with Snake watching her with possessive curiosity, it took much longer.
“Pity,” he said, “to cover them up. So pretty.”
She snorted, pulling on her jeans. “Ha! Bouncing around in the saddle with no support? No, thank you.” She grabbed her blouse and found she was missing a button. “Dammit,” she muttered, remembering her careless haste last night. Could she cover the gap with her leather vest? No, that might be too hot. She dug through her saddlebag for her dirty but whole shirt. She put it on with a face. “Sorry about the smell.”
Snake leaned forward to inhale deeply at her throat. “I love your smell.”
“You’re nutso. But I like you anyway.” She gave him a quick kiss, stamped her feet into her boots, and belted on her pistol. “I feel kinda bad about leaving a dirty bed for the people who live here.”
“We can leave money.”
“Yeah.” She stood for a moment, staring down at the bed where Snake had done such wonderful things to her. She didn’t want anyone else to lie between those sheets. “Snake, you strip the bed. I’ll see if there are any spare sheets.”
“You want to change the sheets?”
She wasn’t sure if he was surprised, appalled, or just trying to understand why she wanted to do it. “No, I want to take the sheets with us.” She tried to explain. “They’re special. They’re ours.”
“Okay.”
She found sheets in the wooden chest against the wall, and she and Snake quickly re-made the bed. She folded the soiled sheets and moved to put them in the saddlebag. Snake took them from her and held them to his nose.
“What a beautiful scent,” he said with a smile, tucking them into the saddlebag.
“Eww! Seriously nutso,” she said, but she smiled.
The smile died when they walked out of the cabin into Mike’s accusing glare. “What?” she said.
“What took you so long? We’ve been ready to go for half an hour.”
She glanced over at Snake. “Uh, sorry. We had to make the bed.”
Mike’s face went red under his dark tan. Mel flushed too at the realization of what he must be thinking.
Mike turned away. “Don’t tell me that!” he said. “I’m your brother, for God’s sake.”
Mel headed to her horse, already saddled, and began to fasten the saddlebags to the saddle. “Go leave some money on the table.”
Snake and Stone waited behind her as Mike stalked off to the cabin again. Stone spoke, his confusion evident. “Why doesn’t he want to know you made the bed? Seems like a polite thing to do.”
“I think it’s the fact we made love in the bed that bothers him.”
Even though she was pretending she wasn’t listening, Mel choked.
“Oh,” said Stone. Then, “Why would that bother him? You and Mel are mated. And married, too, so what does he expect you would do in bed?”
Mel mounted and tapped her heel into her horse’s flank. Before she was out of earshot, Snake murmured to Stone, “She said it was nice. Only nice. I think I did something wrong.”
Why would he think that? He didn’t do a thing wrong last night. If anyone did something wrong, it was she. He lavished pleasure on her, more than she ever experienced before, but she’d done nothing for him. Tonight she would do anything he wanted. If, that is, they had privacy.
The cabin door slammed shut behind Mike, and he all but stamped his way to his horse. She cleared her throat and waited for her brother to mount up. Mike cast her a narrow-eyed glare as he did so. She knew it would annoy him, but she smiled and waved anyway, and the smile turned into a grin when he turned his horse and started off at a fast clip.
They camped outdoors that night, so there was no privacy. She and Snake lay together under a shared blanket, looking up at the stars glowing in the midnight-blue sky, fingers entwined. The scent of the doused coals lingered in the air.
Knowing Snake could hear her well enough with his wolf hearing, Mel whispered, “Last night was wonderful. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Silence, filled only with the sighing of the wind in the grass, reigned for a long minute. Just as she was about to speak again…
“I’ve been thinking about it. You came only once. I finished too quickly, and you didn’t come when I did.”
Even in the dark Mel could feel her face heat. She wasn’t a prissy lady like Ellie, but who talked about these things? Besides, if Mike heard any of this, she’d die of embarrassment. She cleared her throat. “I came before, when you were, um, you know.”
“Once isn’t enough.”
She forgot to be quiet. “What?”
“Shh.”
She lowered her voice. “Once isn’t enough? Snake, I hardly ever did that even once, and it was never like that before.”
He shifted to raise his head and look down at her. “There was a difference? Like what?”
“Before, with Danny, it was like the recoil from a popgun. With you, it was the kick from a forty-five caliber. What are you smirking for?”
He lay back down, hiding his smile against her neck. “I guess I’m glad you think I’m a big gun. What about with Rob?”
“It didn’t happen with him.” Even those first few nights, when Rob didn’t demand things she didn’t like, her body didn’t respond to him. “Maybe I was too uncomfortable.”
“Yeah, ma
ybe. Taye says we need to be sure our mates are enjoying themselves if we want her to come.”
“That’s your boss, right?”
“My cousin, Taye. The Alpha. We call him Chief, and his mate is the Lupa.” He was quiet for a while. “Tell me more about Danny Bell. Did you love him?”
The dry grass they’d trampled to lay their blankets on poked into her shoulders and butt when she shrugged. Maybe she should feel awkward telling Snake about Danny, but last night chased her shyness away. She felt like she could talk to him about things she normally didn’t even want to think about. Why was that? Was it the expression of tenderness she saw on his face? The one that made her believe he really cared about her?
“I loved him in the beginning. I really did. We were young, and neither of us had much idea what to do in bed.” She couldn’t help but smile at the memory of their first few awkward couplings. “Everything I knew came from watching the cows and bulls. Everything Danny knew came from his father’s lecture. So we knew the basics, just not much more. We had only a month together before the accident. After that, we couldn’t do anything in bed. He never walked again. It made him angry.” She closed her eyes at the memory of Danny’s bitterness. “The accident wasn’t my fault, but Danny blamed me for everything else. When I gave him a bath, the water was too cold or too hot. When I wheeled him in his chair to sit outside on the porch, I wasn’t careful enough. If I went out to the ranch to visit my brothers, he complained about being left alone. If I stayed home, I was smothering him.”
Snake brushed his knuckles over her cheek in silent comfort.
“I know now that he was just unhappy at being crippled. He couldn’t adjust to his new life after being young and healthy. He hated being helpless. After he was better, I stopped sleeping on the couch and started sleeping in the bed with him again, but he hated that too. He told me to go get another bed. Maybe he felt bad for not being able to have sex anymore.”
“His fingers and mouth still worked, didn’t they? There’s things a man can do to satisfy his wife that don’t take his dick.”
Mel flashed back to last night and cleared her throat as heat built in her. “Well, I guess he didn’t know about that. Neither did I. The bulls and the cows don’t do any of what you did last night.”
Snake chuckled, a sound of male satisfaction.
She cleared her throat again. “I think he expected me to repudiate him and marry someone else. And there were men who strongly hinted I should leave Danny and marry them. But I couldn’t do that. I’d sworn to be with him for better or worse. He kept telling me to go out, have some fun. I thought he was trying to be nice, but I wonder if he wanted to get rid of me for while so he could…”
He must have heard the heaviness in her voice. “Could what?”
“Kill himself,” she whispered. “There was a dance in the old town hall that night, the night he died. I told him I didn’t need to go. I could stay home and read a book to him. We used to do that. He liked to have me read a chapter out loud to him, and then he’d read the next chapter out loud to me. Those are my favorite memories of Danny after the accident. But he insisted I go to the dance that night. I felt kind of guilty, having such a good time without him. It was a fun night, but when Tom escorted me home, we found Danny in bed, dead. I don’t know what happened for sure. Maybe he had a heart attack or maybe he took too many of those expensive pills for the pain. It seemed like the pill bottle was emptier than it should have been. But he died alone, while I was off dancing with other men.”
“And Mike and Mord teased you about it.” Snake sat up.
“Wait! Where are you going?”
“To punch Mike in his smug face,” he replied.
She grabbed his arm. With his strength she knew he could have shaken her off easily, but he let her pull him back down. “Relax, Snake.”
“Your brothers made it sound like you killed Danny.”
“Yeah, they love to tease me. That’s just the way little brothers are, right? Do you have brothers?”
“No. My mom died when I was really young. But I have tons of cousins. They tease, sure, but not to hurt me. I’m going to set Mike straight, and Mord too. You didn’t kill Danny. It’s sad he died that way, but you didn’t do it. They shouldn’t try to make it sound like you did.”
Relief filled her, mixed gratitude and something close to tenderness. “Snake, you’re really special.” The words, coming out in a rush, surprised her. But they were true. “You really are.”
“Me?” Snake snorted. “You’re the special one. I can’t wait to show you off to the Pack and Clan.”
The prospect of meeting a whole bunch of wolves made her swallow. “Can’t wait,” she said.
He must know how she felt because he kissed her hair. “It’ll be fine. They’ll like you. Just go to sleep. It’ll be at least a week before we get to the den, maybe more depending on how long it takes for the escort to get to the D, so you can relax until then.”
Mel nodded against his shoulder. “I survived the Fosses. Your family will be a breeze. Good night.”
She was almost asleep when she heard him growl, “Fosses.” But she drifted off before she could respond.
They rose early the next morning, packed up camp, and headed out. The ride home went quickly. They passed through The Empty without seeing anyone, and as the weather remained nice, they didn’t take over any other houses or barns. That meant she and Snake didn’t have privacy for anything more than cuddling and holding hands, but Mel found she liked cuddling and holding Snake’s hand. And it gave Mike no excuse for bellyaching about cooing lovers.
When they hit the road that would take them to the D, they stopped for lunch. Lunch was dried beef, stale bread, and water they ate standing together at the side of the road. Snake ate quickly and took off in wolf form to scout around, leaving Mel, Mike, and Stone behind to eat more slowly.
“Mel, we’ll be home in a couple of hours,” Mike said in a serious tone. “What are we going to tell Marc and Mord about Mom?”
Mel had to work to swallow her bite of jerky. “The truth, I guess. We can’t lie to them about it.”
“What is the truth? That Mom is a liar and a thief?” His voice dropped to an agonized whisper. “Why did she do it? That’s what I can’t figure out.”
Stone pounded his fist into Mike’s shoulder in some form of manly comfort. Mel had seen her brothers do the same thing to each other. “It seemed to me like she was spoiled as a child and never grew out of it.”
“Did Dad really rape her?” He looked at Mel. “Did he?”
Mel lifted her shoulders helplessly. “I don’t know.” Her experiences with Rob were nothing like making love with Snake, but in the beginning he hadn’t been actually cruel, just rough and overwhelming. “Maybe Dad was rougher than he needed to be. Mama was so young when they got married. Maybe she didn’t know how to handle it.”
Mike nodded, looking down. “Maybe. But she hated him, and she hated the ranch. She hated us too. That’s not how I remember her.”
“Me neither.” Mel went to her horse to tuck the last of the dried meat back in her saddlebag. “Let’s try to remember her the way she was when we were kids.” She almost felt like crying. “It’s better than what she’s like now.”
They mounted and moved down the faint track beside the broken road from the Times Before. Stone nudge his mount beside her. “I don’t want to say anything bad about your mom, but she’s so self-centered, she doesn’t care about anyone else, even her children.”
That hurt because it was true. “Yeah. I’m seeing things in a whole new way now that I know what she’s like. She and Dad weren’t affectionate in public. I just assumed they were private people. She always kept our clothes clean, and if they started getting worn, she’d patch them right away. She insisted on new clothes for all of us at least once a year. I thought it showed how much she loved us. But you know what? I think it embarrassed her to have us looking ragged. She always bought lots of clothes for herself
too, more than she really needed. Dad said he liked seeing his wife dressed so pretty.”
“He loved her,” Stone said.
“I hope so.”
“He did. I think your mom knew it too, by the way she smelled when she said she hated him. The way I see it, the problem was that he loved his ranch too, and she didn’t want to share his love with anything else. She wanted to live in a city with lots of people around to admire her, not a ranch out away from people. She didn’t get that from him, and the only way she could get it is to have enough money. She got the man she wanted, but all he had was that little farm, and she needed lots more money than what he could give her.”
“So she took it from us by making us believe she was in danger of being murdered or mutilated.” Mel wanted to scream at the blue sky, to find her mother and kick her. “That’s not being a little spoiled, that’s so wrong, there are no words for it.”
Stone was quiet for a long time before sighing heavily. “I think Sara is like her.”
“What? No! Sara is a little spoiled, sure, but she has a good heart. She’s really young. I bet she’ll grow up to be a wonderful woman. You just need to give her some time.”
Stone nodded, but his face was gloomy. “She’s only sixteen. I guess it’s a good thing we’re waiting to have our wedding night. What if she thinks I’m raping her?”
Mel felt a flush rising to her cheeks. “Um. Has Taye taught you about how to, um…”
He nodded earnestly. “Yep. The Chief has given us plenty of talks about how to please our mates.”
“Well, then.” She cleared her throat. “I’m pretty sure everything will be fine. Just take it really slow and don’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to. And wait until she’s older.”
“Okay.” Stone gave her a sunny smile that beamed with optimism. “I guess it’ll all work out. The Chief has lots of books about love, and no matter how hard it seems, all those people live happily ever after. It might take me and Sara some time to get to our happily ever, but we’ll make it eventually. Thanks for listening.”
