It builds up, but it doesn’t hurt like it used to. The bond, I guess, or maybe I really am stronger than I thought.”
He dropped a kiss to her temple. “It only gets better from here, I promise.”
“Good.” She snuggled back against him, and her body fit against his, soft and warm. “Do you think they’ll be okay here during the day once we go back to work? Would the wolves from Memphis risk attacking in broad daylight?”
He remembered the look on the de facto leader’s face, the desperation to hold that place no matter what it took. “They’d do damn near anything. But there are other strong wolves here, wolves who can fight, and Shane will find a way to send out a distress call. They won’t be helpless.”
“Good,” she repeated. Her fingers continued up his arm, and she turned her head and licked the inside of his forearm. “Tell me about werewolf stamina. Is it impressive?”
That quickly, his body stirred. “Want me to show you?”
He felt her smile against his biceps. “In loving, excruciating detail.”
The smooth flare of her hip beckoned. Jay slid his hand slowly down her side to her thigh. “Now that we’ve taken the edge off?”
She chuckled and stretched, arching her back languidly. “In our defense, we had days of foreplay.”
“Anticipation,” he declared, “is not the same as foreplay.”
“Are you sure?” She moved fast, lunging over him to straddle his stomach. Without looking away from his eyes, she reached behind her back and circled his cock with her fingers. “You made me come on the kitchen table, you know.”
Direct, powerful. She was a woman comfortable in her own skin, and it made him even harder. “I remember.”
She smiled and stroked him lazily. “You want to know a secret?”
He touched her hips lightly. “Tell me.”
“I wasn’t really that embarrassed when Lorelei walked in.” Her thumb worked slowly up and down his shaft. “Something broke in me tonight when the wolf took over. Something that needed to break a long time ago.”
“You are who you are, honey.” He arched up into her touch. “I like it.”
She tightened her fingers, turning a light tease into intense friction. “I’m going to learn how to be who I am. I still have to hide from the world, but not from myself anymore. And not you.”
“Not me,” he agreed. “Eden?”
“Mmm?”
“Don’t hold back,” he rasped. “Show me who you are.”
Bracing her hands on his chest, she lifted her hips and positioned herself over him, her body brushing his cock. “I’m a work in progress.”
No, she was perfect, whether she realized it or not. “Practice makes perfect?”
“Does it?” She licked her lips and hovered over him, poised teasingly on the edge. “Fuck me, Jay.”
“I did.” He splayed a hand across the small of her back and sat up straight. “Your turn.”
“No turns.” She slid down, taking him deep with a roll of her hips. “Just both fucking. Maybe all the time.”
“All the time?” He bent his head and flicked his tongue over her nipple. “I can do that.”
Her moan bled into a hungry growl, as if the touch had broken some chain on her self-control. She sank her fingers into his hair and dragged his head back, arched his neck until his pulse beat fast and strong under her mouth. Her breath tickled his skin. Her tongue flicked out. Teased.
“Mine,” she whispered, and marked him.
It blazed heat through him, a combination of pain and a warmth that tightened his chest until it ached. Mine. A word and more—a promise. A vow.
He gripped her hips again, letting his fingertips bite into her skin. “Yes.”
She shuddered and whispered another word, one laced with an edge of the wolf. “Mate.”
The second time should have been slower, but the moon was high and hot in their blood. Jay urged her to move, and arched back his head when she circled her hips over his. “Faster.”
“Yes,” she groaned, and then she was fucking him. Fast and wild, skin slicking over his as she rode him, wallowed in him, claimed him and got off on it. She flung her head back and closed her eyes, as lost in him as he’d always wanted to be in her.
Her hair tangled around his fingers as he cupped her shoulders, and he licked the hollow of her throat before sucking the delicate skin between his teeth.
She cried out, and her tempo changed. She rocked her hips, ground down hard, and came with his name on her lips. Jay tightened his teeth, turning