Page 35

“I was gone almost as long as you,” Wolf says.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” He gets out the ointment and starts to massage it against my palms. The cool, slick ointment feels like it immediately goes to work, soothing the pain away. Or maybe that’s because my body is reacting to Wolf’s slow and careful touch. His fingers work in gentle circles over and over my skin. My veins begin to tingle with his ministrations.

“They arrested me for somethin’ I didn’t do.” Wolf lowers his head and his fingers still.

I still haven’t had time to process all of that. I don’t know what I do or don’t believe. All I know is that I can feel his pain and it hurts me.

I stand up suddenly, not thinking, deciding that I won’t be thinking at all for the rest of the night. “Get up and take your shirt off,” I tell him.

He lifts his brows while grabbing at the hem of his shirt. “Well, if you want, I ain’t gonna say no.”

“Don’t get any ideas.” My face feels hot. I feel like my face has been gradually warming up this whole time and I didn’t notice until now when he’s removing his shirt and throwing it onto the floor of the bathroom. “I want to see if you’re hurt anywhere else.”

Wolf spreads out his arms. I can’t take my eyes off him. My mouth opens a little and my breathing deepens as my eyes roam from his fingertips to the tight tendons in his wrists, to his powerful biceps and strong shoulders. His muscular chest is covered in ink. It’s been ages since I last saw that tattoo and I forgot how beautiful it is, how it flows over and accentuates his pecs. It’s the face of a wolf done in a sort of tribal design, black and gray, with the snout sitting just in the middle of and below the pectorals. The thick ears stretch up to his collarbone. Two sharp, pale blue eyes gleam out, the eyes of the proud hunter.

There are similar, smaller wolf tattoos on each upper arm and shoulder, done in a more conventional style.

I forget what I was doing. I reach out to him and set my hand on his chest, on the wolf’s forehead. Wolf’s muscles twitch and his heart thuds hard. He is solid and alive under my touch.

He grabs my wrist and pulls me into him, slamming me hard against his rock-firm body. My breath catching, adrenaline beginning to flow through my veins, I raise my face to his as he’s lowering his to mine. His lips clamp on mine and his tongue thrusts for the back of my throat. He’s demanding, overwhelming, taking and taking, causing me to whimper and cling to him. I hold onto his shoulders, needing him to ground me as his lips force themselves harder and harder on mine. He grabs my waist in his huge hands and grinds my hips against his. His huge cock strains against his pants, drilling into my lower belly.

My pussy throbs hard and I feel my wetness soaking into my panties. The wet fabric clings and rubs my folds, adding to my urgency. All at once, there’s nothing in this world that I want more than to have him, to take and be taken.

He grasps the hem of my shirt and lifts up. “Want to see if you’re hurt anywhere else,” he growls, giving my words back to me.

I pull my arms out of my shirt and stand there before him in my bra. His eyes roam all over me, leaving burning-hot trails in their wake. Doubt steals in. I wonder what he sees, what he makes of the body that’s changed so much since the last time he saw it. My breasts are fuller and less perky. There’s loose skin on my stomach and stretchmarks.

Having a child changed me, made me softer. I won’t ever regret having Artie. Despite everything, I will never regret my son. He is absolutely one of the best things to ever happen to me and probably the most important, too. But I do lament that I’m standing here looking no longer as tight and new as I once did.

“Fuck,” Wolf groans. “You’re beautiful.”

My breath catches. Does he really mean it? Is it pity?

There’s no time to ask, no time to do anything except believe him as he strips off the rest of his clothes. I yank at my own clothes, whimpering when I can’t free myself fast enough. My thighs are wet with my own juices.

Wolf hooks an arm around my waist and kisses me for a savage instant, then pushes past me and turns on the shower. His hands clamp around my waist again.

“Wait,” I protest. “The ointment will wash off.” It’s a stupid thing to say and I wish I was able to make myself shut up.

“Apply it again later,” he says huskily, then steps into the tub. He pulls me in after him.

The initial touch of the water shocks and I yelp, and then it starts to get warmer. With the water pouring down all around us, running over our bodies like the hands of a lover, Wolf grabs me and kisses me again and again until I can’t breathe. His rough hands squeeze and massage my breasts, rasping over my nipples, and they harden under his touch. My hips writhe helplessly against his.

There’s so much sensation, so much to feel. It’s overwhelming. I can’t hold all of it. It flows through me, washing my mind away, leaving me free to accept what I feel and what happens.

So when Wolf suddenly goes down to his knees in front of me and pushes my thighs apart with his broad, strong hands, I’m ready. I slide my fingers into his wet hair and hold on as he begins to lick me. Slow at first, with long strokes that press his tongue flat. I lean my head back against the shower wall as he picks up his pace, the licking growing shorter and faster. Deeper, too. His big tongue delves deeper into my folds, pushing them apart and lapping up my juices. He makes groans and growls of satisfaction as he drinks me in.

My hips rock, pushing myself against his face. I grind on his tongue as he licks my swollen clit. Then, his lips close around it and he sucks.

A wild, sharp burst of pleasure erupts from deep inside me, exploding out of my core. Muscles clenching, toes curling, my head falls back limp. My nails dig against his scalp. If it hurts him at all, he doesn’t seem to notice. He keeps at me, feasting, suckling my clit like he just can’t get enough.

I try to say his name. My lips are clumsy. I don’t have any breath. My words are whimpers as he glides two fingers up my inner thigh to my pussy. My entrance literally aches, that’s how bad I need him.

I slap my hand down to grab his wrist and pull him more to me, bringing his fingers to where I so desperately need them to be. He presses two of them against me and I moan, and then they slide into me.

My pussy clenches around them and that’s enough. That, and his mouth greedily sucking my clit, and the water raining down on us, and the stress of the day, and memories of him from six years ago, and everything else, pushes me fast over the edge. My hands slap against the wet wall, grab at his shoulders, as my body spasms out of control with my orgasm. My awareness narrows down to just him, his big body holding my ass against the wall while I cum. I clench on his fingers until it feels like they’re a part of me.