Page 252

She doesn't ask again.

I follow her into the bathroom. Her hand reaches for the shower, and water starts running as steam slowly fills the room. Ordinary things. Things I thought I'd never see again.

She starts undressing, and I do the same.

Arlene looks at me. “I thought I was taking a shower.”

“We are.”

She smiles.

I follow her beneath the water. The second she's within reach, my hands find her waist. I pull her back against my chest and bury my face against her neck. Sparks race everywhere our wet skin touches.

My wolf rumbles. Mine.

"Ours."

Arlene leans into me as I breathe her in. I press my lips against her shoulder while her hands move beneath the water. She reaches for the shampoo, and her wet hair shifts away from the back of her neck.

I stop.

A moon rests beneath her hairline with a Roman numeral at its center and a sapphire blue gem beneath it. I run my thumb across the gem.

Arlene moans.

I freeze. So does she. My eyes drop to the mark again.

Interesting.

I touch it a second time. Her breath catches, and her body presses back against mine.

My wolf pushes forward. Mine.

A slow, mischievous grin spreads across my face.

"Ours."

I touch the sapphire again. She gasps, legs buckling, and I catch her with an arm locked around her waist.

"Hands on the wall."

The words come out low, rougher than I intended. A command that vibrates through the bond. Her pupils blow wide, gold bleeding to wolf amber, and she turns without argument. Both palms flatten against the wet tile. Water streams down her spine, pooling in the dip of her lower back.

I grip her hips and position myself, cock sliding through the slick heat between her thighs. The first thrust is slow, agonizingly slow. I push into her inch by inch, feeling her pussy clench around me, tight and wet and so fucking hot the sparks between us nearly blind me. The mate bond flares, golden light crackling across our skin where we're joined, and my wolf howls.

"Fuck..." The word grinds out through my teeth. She's gripping me like she never wants to let go, walls fluttering, pulling me deeper.

I reach around. My hands find her breasts, full, heavy, peaked nipples stiff against my palms despite the hot water. I roll them between my fingers, tugging gently, then harder. She arches, pushing her tits into my hands, and I pinch both nipples at the same time. She cries out, the sound bouncing off the tile.

My thumb slides down her stomach, through the trimmed hair below, and finds her clit. I circle it, slow, teasing, matching the rhythm of my hips. She's wet, and not from the water. Her own slick coats my fingers, thick and hot, mixing with the shower spray trailing down her thighs.

I lean forward. Kiss her neck where the mark sits, the sapphire pressing against my lips. She keens. I kiss her shoulder, the old crescent scar on her collarbone, then drag my mouth to hers. The angle is awkward, her back still pressed to my chest, but I take her mouth anyway, swallowing every sound she makes. She bites my lower lip. I bite back.

My pace turns. The slow, savoring thrusts give way to something harder. Faster. I pound into her, hips slapping against her ass, the wet skin meeting with a sound that echoes through the steam. Each thrust drives her forward, palms scrabbling against the tile, and I hold her in place with one hand on her hip and the other working her clit in tight, relentless circles.

"Take it." I growl against her ear. "Take all of it."

She does. She takes every inch, pushing back to meet me, fucking herself on my cock while I play with her nipples and her clit and the mark on her neck that makes her scream every time I brush it. The bond blazes between us, gold and blue and white, sparks racing across wet skin like the shower is throwing lightning instead of water.