of boring suddenly.
Caleb felt like he needed to defend his lack of décor. “It’s not much. But it was waiting for you. You can do whatever you want to this room. To the entire house I mean.”
She rolled her eyes. “You keep getting ahead of yourself. Remember, I have an apartment in Chicago. A job. A floundering career.”
He pulled her against him. “I haven’t forgotten. I’m just saying. If you were to stay. If you were to move into this house. If you were to agree to be mine…”
She lifted a brow. “Then you’d let me add pictures to the walls?” she teased.
“Exactly. Or anything you want.”
She stared at him for a long time, her lips lifted in a contented smile. “You realize how crazy this all sounds. No one brings a woman home after one day together and promises them the world.”
He lifted a hand to play with one of her loose curls. “Shifters do. They often do it in less than an hour. The only exceptions are when we meet someone who isn’t familiar with shifters and needs to take some time to let it all sink in.”
“An entire hour?” she joked. “Why wait that long?”
He wiggled his brows. “That hour is spent fucking until neither party can lift a single limb. Then they promise each other the world when they finally come up for air.”
She laughed, the sound making his dick hard all over again. He hoped to God it wouldn’t take too many days to convince her she was his. He wasn’t sure he could survive much longer. And he certainly didn’t think he could put off having sex with her for many days. Eventually he would cave.
Yeah, they really needed to talk tomorrow morning. He needed to grow some balls and lay down all the cards. To wait any longer would only make things worse.
Tonight he would steal for himself, holding her in his arms, breathing in her scent in his bed, against his pillows, filling his room with her essence. He needed this.
Without breaking her gaze, he backed up, pulling her across the room toward the hallway. As he drew her toward his bedroom, he nodded in both directions. “Guest bath. Office. Spare bedroom.” He reached the end of the hallway and tugged her through the doorway. “Master bedroom.”
For a moment, he considered dragging her straight to bed, but it had been a long day. They’d worked several hours in Marge’s house, and then he’d gone for a run in wolf form. He needed a shower. And he wasn’t about to take one without her.
She said nothing about his room as he passed straight through it and into the master bath. As soon as they were inside, he released her to turn on the shower. His bathroom was the best part of the house, in his opinion. The shower had two dark tile walls, but the other two walls were glass, and the enclosure was deep with no door.
Elena was glancing around when he reached for the hem of her shirt and drew it over her head. “I guess we’re going to take a shower now,” she joked.
“Seemed like a good idea.”
“And then we’re going to sleep together in your bed.”
“Yep.”
“All that without having sex.”
“Right.” He released the clasp of her bra next and slid it down her arms. “Not saying you won’t find the need to scream out my name several times, but I can make that happen without penetration.”
“Do I need to point out again that we’ve practically already had sex. Just because you haven’t entered my vagina with your penis doesn’t mean you can claim some sort of virginity.”
He chuckled, loving her sweet conservative proper terms for their sex organs. “I’m clear on that. Once again, let me point out how damn hard it would be on me if you left me after I’ve been inside you.” He popped the button on her shorts and then dragged them over her hips.
She was trembling when he slid his hands up her amazing body and cupped her breasts. Her voice was soft when she spoke. “I hate to admit this out loud, especially while you’re touching me and I’m naked, but I’m starting to understand what you’re pounding into my head.”
He exhaled slowly as if he’d been holding his breath for two days. In a way he had. It was unfortunate that he had to break contact to remove his own clothes, but he did so as quickly as possible and once again