her wolf close to the surface of her skin. His own wolf responded, his hands petting at her as the warmth of her body burned through his damp clothing to brand his skin. When the two of them separated at last, they stripped quickly and walked into the bathroom.
This wasn’t about seduction but affection, but when Kenji stepped into the shower behind her and put his hands on her hips, his soul shuddered. Eyes burning, he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in the curve of her neck.
“Hey.” Melting into him, Garnet closed her hands over his. “You’re warmer than the water.” It sounded as if she was smiling, her voice husky.
He swallowed the lump in his throat with effort, then lifted his head from her neck and tugged her impossibly closer. “And you’re still tiny.”
A soft laugh that eased him; his tough Garnet was coming out of the grief that had gripped her since the moment they understood what Russ had done. “Why is that a surprise?”
“You’re so huge, Garnet.” Taking the shampoo, he poured some into his hand, put down the bottle, and worked the fresh-smelling goop into her hair, touching her with the possessive tenderness he’d always felt for her and her alone. “Like this raw wave of strength. I forget you’re not that big in actual size.”
“Good.”
He chuckled at her smugly pleased response, nudging her forward so she could wash off the suds. Obeying, she waited until her hair was clean before picking up the soap to quickly slick it over her upper half. Then she turned to Kenji, doing his chest and shoulders while he washed his hair.
Kenji had always understood that if Garnet didn’t cooperate by keeping her distance, there was no way in hell he could fight his response to her—so, for the first time in an eternity, he didn’t even try. As he didn’t try to keep his eyes from drinking in her petite but perfectly formed body. Water ran down his face as he lowered his gaze to her breasts, sliding up a hand a heartbeat later to cup one taut mound.
“You are so beautiful,” he said roughly, running the pad of his thumb over her nipple. “I can’t keep this to pack skin privileges.” What use was it trying to hide his need when she’d already figured it out? Figured out that he’d do anything for her. “I want to bite and suck and adore. Order me to go.”
Goose bumps breaking out over her skin, Garnet rose on tiptoe to nip at his mouth. “I seem to recall asking you to stay.” It was a husky reminder, her next nip of his mouth sharp and dangerous. “You going to tell me what’s been hurting you for so long?”
His gut grew tight, pleasure crashing under a roaring wave of ice. Unable to look at her as he admitted the brokenness in him, he used the excuse of washing off his face to turn into the spray, then gave her his back. “Soap my back.”
She kissed his spine instead, curious fingers tracing the brushstrokes that made up his tattoo. “What does this mean?” Her fingers dancing over the katakana he’d had inked years ago, the characters deliberately stylized to fool the casual eye into not seeing them as characters at all.
Perhaps in some hidden part of himself, he’d wanted a packmate to figure it out, betray his secret so Garnet would know what she was to him. But for the most part, he’d been careful when he shifted around others, made it so no one ever had enough time to truly focus on the design that wasn’t a design at all. “I taught you this combination once.”
“It’s been so long . . .”
He imagined her frowning in concentration behind him as she mapped the characters with a fingertip. Each brush made his body tighten, his claws pricking against his skin and his wolf’s fur so close to the surface that it was almost as if she stroked her fingers through his pelt and not over his human skin.
“They’re written oddly,” she murmured. “If this was straight, and this wasn’t so deep . . . it would be ga.” Triumph in her tone as she decoded the first syllable. “Hmm, that looks like it makes the ga into a long sound. This one . . . hah! Got it. It’s the n sound—”
Sudden silence.
And he knew she understood, saw that he’d written her name next to the kanji for ai .