I furrowed my brow. “What’s that?”
He gripped my shoulders and spun me around. “The keys to your new place.”
“What?” The shop windows were dark, but the signage on the door said J&J’s Bookkeeping and DIY Taxidermy.
“When I heard Joe was closing up shop and moving to Costa Rica, I leased the space for you before anyone else could snap it up.”
My jaw dropped and I tried to blink away my blurring vision. “You leased this place? For me?”
“If you don’t like the location, we can look someplace else, but I know how much you like watching the saltwater taffy being pulled and thought you might enjoy it here.”
My heart felt as if it might burst out of my chest. I’d always dreamed of opening my very own apothecary shop, where people could walk in and try my lotions and potions, and I could make personalized recommendations. Online is great, but brick and mortar is better. And now, Travis was making those dreams come true.
When I didn’t speak right away, he took my silence to mean I had concerns. “If the taxidermy thing bothers you, just know that Joe’s wife, Jo, was the taxidermist, and she died a long time ago. Joe never got around to changing the sign.”
“No, I love it.” I spun in his arms, lifted on my tiptoes and kissed the hell out of him.
He laughed against my lips. “How do you know? You haven’t even seen the inside yet.”
“Because everything my man does is perfect.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Travis
“Idoubt this is necessary, Travis,” Daphne said, checking my restraints. “I trust you completely.”
“I’m done having this conversation.” We’d discussed this countless times before, and I was over it.
She frowned at me in her blue skincare mask, hair piled high on her head except for one long curl that had escaped its confines. I wanted to reach up and tuck it behind her ear, but I couldn’t exactly move right now.
“Easy, fella,” she said, sensing my dark mood.
I gave a low growl.
The full moon was less than thirty minutes away, so I wasn’t taking any chances. But I wasn’t happy about it either. Lying on the Alpha bed like this, my wrists bound by thick leather cuffs and chained to the rings on the bedposts, I could feel the moon’s pull heating my blood.
The need to impregnate my female through whatever means necessary was getting stronger with every passing minute. Andmy patience was already tightrope thin. Soon it would be unbearable.
Several weeks ago, Viktor had fashioned the restraints in his workshop and came out to the house, blow torch in hand, to install them correctly. When I asked him if he thought they’d hold, he’d rolled his eyes and said they were used by bears during mating season, so restraining a wolf was a no-brainer. It was widely known that bear shifters liked it rough, so this information was somewhat encouraging.
Daphne was humming as she headed back to the bathroom and then the water turned on. I couldn’t decide if I liked that she didn’t seem worried or pissed off that she wasn’t. Although I couldn’t see her from this angle, I knew she was finishing up her elaborate skincare routine. She’d even started me on a simple one. On more than one occasion, we’d sat in the adjoining sitting room, face masks on, reading our books. But I had no tolerance for that bullshit tonight.
This was the sixth full moon I’d experienced since meeting my mate, but the first one we were going to spend together. This human woman was my heart and soul, and I’d just as soon gnaw off a limb than cause her any pain when my knot flared inside her. She was also a brilliant alchemist and believed that her special concoction had more than a snowball’s chance in hell of working.
I hoped to the moon she was right.
I tracked her like prey as she came back into the bedroom, dark hair cascading past her shoulders. She’d loosened it for me, knowing how much I loved it splayed on my pillow when she was beneath me and how it gave me something to grab when I took her from behind. Neither of which I’d be doing tonight. Was she purposely trying to set me off?
Wearing a long, sheer robe, she lowered the pulley holding up the wrought-iron chandelier and began lighting six of the thirteenwax candles. Each one represented how many full moons would occur during our first year together. She’d had Viktor’s friend Angus craft it for her at the shop. I swelled with pride that my human mate respected and adopted some customs of my kind.
That wasn’t the only thing swelling, I thought wryly, noting the thin sheet tenting over my lower torso.
Daphne tugged on the chain to raise the chandelier back up, and it cast a warm glow around the room. Her robe gaped open, and I saw those gorgeous tits and the luscious curve of one hip. Fuuuck. This was torture.
Daphne approached the bed, her gaze landing on my sheet. “Are you ready to get started?”
“I’vebeenready,” I rasped.
