one on the smooth skin of her abdomen after pushing up her tank top. She arched slightly under his touch, eyes closing again, but didn’t protest. Rubbing his thumb over her skin, he felt his nerves fade even as a different kind of tension rose to fever pitch inside him.
“I was babysitting because these cubs are at the age where they need the occasional hard run and I was free. It was fun.” Her purr rose in volume. “You have the best hands.”
Unable to resist the verbal petting, he bent his head and initiated a kiss. Her hand rose to fist in his hair, but she remained lazily quiescent below him. His heart was a roar in his ears as he bit down lightly on her lower lip. A deeper purr, her clawed hand moving to his shoulder to knead gently at him. “Bad kitty,” he murmured.
She nipped at his lips. “Bad girls are more fun.”
He continued to kiss her, taste her, his cock growing harder with each second that passed. When she ran her hand down his chest to scrape her claws lightly over one of his nipples, he hissed out a breath. His wolf wasn’t quite sure whether to worry or wallow in the lightning bolt of pleasure, and he stilled for a second.
“No?” Desiree asked, licking her tongue across his lower lip.
She was such a cat, he thought, wondering if she’d lick him everywhere. “I like it,” he said. “Wolf’s just thinking about the claws.”
“Okay. While you’re thinking, I’ll just enjoy myself.” She shaped his pecs, ran her hand down his side. “Do sixteen-year-olds do this?”
“I was too shy at sixteen.” He’d barely made eye contact with girls. “But I say yes.” He loved her hands on him.
Desiree’s smile grew deeper. “Me, too.”
Kissing her again, he enjoyed petting a cat who was enjoying him in turn. It was slow and sexy and for the first time since they’d come together, neither one of them made a misstep that caused things to end prematurely. When it did end, it was because they drew apart, conscious of not making the same mistake and rushing things again.
His erection was at breaking point by then, but it was a good pain, a pain that told him they were getting this unexpected relationship right.
• • •
A week later and things were still going well. Felix and Desiree hadn’t had a lot of time together because of conflicting work schedules, but the time that they had, they spent with one another. Still, Felix wanted more.
Which was why he was outside Riley’s office right now.
SnowDancer’s senior lieutenant and Drew’s brother was standing by his desk looking at a holo-map projected onto the right wall, but glanced at Felix the instant he entered the doorway. Dark haired with deep brown eyes and a solid build, Riley exuded a sense of innate stability and calm. That didn’t mean he wasn’t deadly—he was probably one of the few wolves in the pack who could go up against their alpha in a real fight.
“Felix,” he said in greeting, his body clad in an olive green T-shirt and black cargo pants. “You need some more bodies for the replanting?”
“No.” Felix leaned his back up against the wall by the door. “I was hoping to talk about the schedules.”
“You’ve earned whatever time you want off,” the senior lieutenant said over one of those wide shoulders. “Consider it done.”
“That’s not it.” Running a hand through his hair, Felix said, “Is it possible to coordinate with DarkRiver?”
Riley turned, giving Felix his full attention. “Explain.”
Felix felt the push of Riley’s quiet but intense dominance against his skin, but it didn’t intimidate; his wolf was nearly as comfortable with the lieutenant as it was with Riley’s far more playful younger brother. “It’s tough for me and Dezi to see each other,” he said. “She’s been on night shift the past three days, and I have to work days.”
Nodding, Riley rubbed his jaw. “I guess Mercy and I didn’t really notice it because I could set my own schedule,” he said, referring to his own feline mate. “Leave it with me. I’ll need to discuss it with Hawke.” A slow smile. “I bet neither Lucas nor Hawke thought of all the flow-on effects of interpack dating.”
“I’m glad we’re doing it, though,” Felix said with a smile of his own, his heart doing damn backflips inside his chest at the thought of his cat.