“If you can get Lorenzo to go apologize to his mother for having been an ass, and reassure her that he’s not going out on shoot-em-up missions with your pack, I will gladly have dinner with you.”
He lit up. “I will do better than that. Fetch Andrea, and come meet me in the parlor in fifteen minutes.”
A short while later, Dominic led a shame-faced Lorenzo into the parlor. Andrea, Stewart and Zoey were waiting.
“Tell your mother why you wanted to join our pack,” he said in a stern voice.
“It’s the best way I could think of to keep you safe!” Lorenzo flushed, shoving his hands in his pockets. “You gave up everything to move here with me, and we live right next to the portal, one of the most dangerous places in the city. On my own I can’t do anything to protect you. But if I was a member of the Blood Oath pack, I’d make enough money that we could live somewhere safer, and nobody would dare mess with my family. And yeah, I wanted to help Cin out too. I thought if we had a bigger place I could…” his cheeks were glowing red. “…Ask her and her friends to live with us or something.”
Andrea burst into tears. Happy tears.
Cin, who had walked into the room un-noticed, said in a small voice “You’d let someone like me live in your house?”
“We would,” Andrea said to her, with motherly warmth, and then Cin joined the hug, and then so did Stewart. And Lorenzo stepped back and said to Stewart “You make my mom happy. You tell really, really stupid jokes, but my mom thinks they’re funny. I guess ‘cause she’s old like you. If you and her went out on a…” he made a horrible face…” date, I guess it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Just don’t tell me anything about it at all.”
And then Stewart was crying too, and they were all hugging and Zoey, who was standing next to Dominic watching them, suddenly had really bad allergies that made her eyes water a lot.
“Shut up, I’m not crying, you’re crying,” she sniffled to Dominic. “I need to go find a dress for dinner tonight.”
“I have a closet full of evening gowns for you in our bedroom.” At her surprised expression, Dominic winked, with a very smug look on his face. “I knew you’d come around sooner or later. I thought it would be sooner, honestly. I’m pretty damn charming, after all.”
“Oh my God, are you insufferable.” But she was smiling as she followed him out of the main house, across the grounds, and over to a very nice Mediterranean style three bedroom with red barrel tile roofs.
Chapter Seventeen
“Before you get ready for dinner, we need to talk.” Dominic backed Zoey up against the velvet wallpaper of his bedroom’s far wall.
“Are you going to make me regret coming in here with you?”
“Definitely.” He grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head. “You made me wait. You drove my wolf crazy. You were so close, but you weren’t with me. I’ve been sleeping alone for three nights when I should have been sleeping with my mate.”
“Your mate? As in, me?”
“Of course, you numbskull. Sexy numbskull,” Dominic added hastily.
“Just checking.”
He bent down and nipped her neck, hard enough to make her yelp – but there was a hot pleasure in it too. “You want to know about wolves and mating? Let me start educating you.” He bit her again, and she moaned aloud. “The male has the right to discipline his mate when called for. And it is called for in this case. You moved on to pack property but refused to share my bed for the last three nights, and it’s cost me in pack prestige, to the point where several underlings thought they could rib me about it. They’re just about healed by now, the disfigurement shouldn’t be permanent, and they won’t do it again. But because of your abandonment, I have the right to discipline you.”
“What?” she cried out indignantly. “Is that true, or are you making that up because you want an excuse to get kinky?”
“I don’t need an excuse to get kinky, you’re my mate.” He tangled his fingers in her hair and gave her head a sharp yank, tipping it back. “But it’s true. It’s an ancient tradition, passed on down the centuries, from when shifter packs lived in secret. But in modern times, we’ve adapted. The female mate gets to pick the punishment. And the male makes sure that she enjoys it.”
Well, this was interesting. “Wouldn’t that just mean that female wolf shifters misbehave all the time?”
“Oh, God, do they,” he said ruefully. “Our females give us a run for our money. But we deserve it. Keeps thing fresh. Now. What punishment do you choose?”
“Uhh…” her cheeks went red. “I’ve always, sorta, wondered what it felt like to be spanked.”
“The way I do it?” He grinned fiercely. “Very, very, good.”
Her heart stuttered in anticipation, and she licked her lips nervously.Of coursehe’d be very, very good. She remembered the feel of those huge, strong, hands on her body, kneading her muscles until she was limp with pleasure. A moan escaped her.
He cocked a dark brow, and God help her if she didn’t just get damp all over again.
“That’s big talk, since I have nothing to go by.” Her voice came out way more breathless than she had hoped.
Dominic’s answer was to run his lips —those sexy, curved lips — down the side of her neck. She shivered and arched towards him, her hands still pinioned to the wall above her head by his hand.
