“I will humor you for now,” Fane told her with a grin. “Moving along, love, I will bite you on your neck. Rest assured, Luna, I am a werewolf but at least I’m not a vampire. My bite will not last so long as to drain you of your blood, only long enough to take enough blood to swallow and leave my mark on you.”
Jacque was quiet for a moment. She took a deep breath, then said, “I’m not even going to ask about the vampire comment. I’m just gonna let that one slide by without so much as a wave or glance. What I will give my attention to is this whole leaving a mark on me bit. I get that when you bite me you'll get blood in your mouth and yada yada, but how are you going to leave a mark on me?” Jacque asked him with surprising composure.
“I’m not really sure how I leave a mark on you. I think it’s just a part of the whole supernatural part of bonding. The mark I will leave is the visual symbol that you are mated,” he explained. “The final warning to other males that you have been bonded is smell.”
“I’m going to smell? Please tell me I’m not going to stink, ‘cause I don’t do stinky, okay?” Jacque implored him.
“No, Luna, you are not going to stink. To other Canis lupus you will smell like me because you have taken my blood, and I will smell like you when I have taken your blood. Once we have consummated our mating, the smells will intensify greatly,” Fane explained.
“You just had to throw that last curve ball in there, didn’t you? Well, don’t get your hopes up ‘cause I’m not going to swing at it,” Jacque told him haughtily.
“So this whole biting thing is done in private. Why?” she asked.
“Would you like me to bite you on the neck in front of your mom?”
“Point to you. You’re right, there is no way that mouth of yours is coming near my neck in front of anyone, not my mom and especially not your parents,” Jacque said.
Oh crap, she thought, I have to meet his parents. She felt panicky at that thought yet she didn’t know why. She hadn’t been nervous when she'd met Trent’s parents. She heard Fane growl as he caught the thought of Trent in her mind.
“Oh shut up already, you over possessive, royal, Romanian pain in the backside. It’s not like I’m thinking about him biting my neck,” Jacque said sarcastically.
Fane stood up and sat next to her on the bed. He leaned closer and swept her hair away from her neck, revealing the markings on her shoulders and neck. Fane traced the marks and let out a low growl. Jacque shivered at his touch and found that she couldn’t quite keep her breathing even. Actually, she felt like she might pass out at any moment. What came next almost sealed her fate.
Fane leaned even closer and whispered in her ear, “I would hope you were not thinking of him biting your neck. I assure you that once I do you will never have need to think of another again.” And then he gently placed his lips on her neck. Jacque didn’t even try to suppress the small moan that came out of her tightly closed lips. But naturally, Fane could not leave well enough alone. After he kissed her neck, he pulled his lips away playfully and gently nipped her.
Jacque jumped and turned to look at him breathlessly, putting her hands up as if to ward him off. “I, um...” She shook her head and rubbed her face with both hands as she struggled to get her thoughts and words to cooperate with her mouth. “Now I understand why that part is done in private. Thank you for demonstrating.”
Fane grinned at her wickedly. “I could demonstrate again. It is proven that people are most likely to remember things when done three times.”
“Nice try, Don Juan, but people remember things they are told three times, not things they do,” she countered.
“We could test out the theory to see if it applies to actions as well. I’m all for scientific study,” Fane teased.
“Well, you’re out of luck because I suck at science and therefore do not enjoy it,” she said matter of factly.
Fane leaned forward again and this time Jacque leaned back, but this didn't deter him, he just grinned and leaned closer.
“So you mean to tell me, my micul incendiu (little fire), you did not enjoy my demonstration? If you did not, then I did not do it correctly and I would feel obligated to try again.”
Closing her eyes, Jacque immediately thought of a wall shielding her mind and then she came up with plan. Evasion is not working, time to move on to plan B. If you can’t beat’em, join’em. Let me just see if I can give him a taste his own medicine and just maybe it will throw him off his game and then I can retreat. You know what Jen would call you right? she asked herself. Yeah, yeah. I’m a chicken s_ _ t, so be it.
Her plan of attack decided, Jacque stopped leaning back and instead leaned forward. This did indeed confuse him and make him back up a tad. Encouraged by the little victory, she got a little bolder and scooted her body closer to his. Fane’s brow furrowed and she could tell he was wondering what was going on, but he did not move, just sat very still. Jacque decided the angle she was currently in was all wrong for her scheme so she got up on her knees and scooted around until she was directly behind him. She was sitting on her legs with her feet behind her. She placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned close until her mouth was right beside his ear.
Fane shuddered and that made her grin. Take that you little seducing hound, she thought to herself. She let her breath flow over his ear as she told him. “How do you like them apples, wolf-boy?”
Fane scooted forward to get away from her mouth and she could see the rise and fall of his back – he was breathing quickly. She found herself rather intrigued by his behavior. She could not think of a time that Trent had responded to her like that…Oops. She'd let her wall down during that thought.
Fane stood up so abruptly that Jacque fell forward and had to catch herself to keep from falling on her face. She looked up and saw Fane pacing her room quickly, in obvious agitation.
“Fane, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to hear that. I wasn’t trying to think about the physical part of my relationship with Trent, I was merely comparing your reactions…” Jacque tried to explain, hoping to calm the wolf currently wearing a hole in her carpet.
“Jacquelyn, you are not helping,” he told her with a growl. “I realize you do not understand the intensity of my feelings for you, but I cannot change my nature. In the wild, wolves mate for life, and a male wolf will kill any who tries to take his mate. It is the same with my species. I realize this Trent,” Fane said his name in obvious repugnance, “was a part of your life and you can’t change that. It’s not that I dislike him as a person, it’s just that I am jealous of the obvious affection you felt and still feel for him. I don’t like the fact that you were intimate with him, when that is my right alone.” Fane closed his eyes and took slow, deep breaths, pressing his fingers on the bridge of his nose.
When he looked up at Jacque, she could see the struggle going on inside him. He wanted to honor her and give her the space she needed because she had not grown up with his kind, he could not expect her to just accept his ways without compromise. But his wolf did not see things in such muted colors. He thought in absolutes. Jacque was his mate, she belongs with him and no other, her thoughts should be for him alone, and she should give herself to him completely just as he was giving himself to her completely.
Jacque got up off the bed and walked to him. This time she was not trying to beat him at his own game, she was not trying to seduce him, she only wanted to reassure him. In that moment, she realized she wanted to be his and she desperately wanted him to be hers and no other’s.
She put her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest. Fane answered her unspoken thought. “I am only yours, my Luna. I was yours from my first breath and will be until my last.”