“I’m starting to have a surplus of houses,” I whispered raucously.
“As long as you only have one home.”
A fresh wave of emotion slicked my eyes. “Oh, August,” I croaked, throwing my arms around his neck.
His calloused hands slipped under the silk fabric of my jacket and pulled me close, pressing my body against his as though to seal me into his skin and erase the distance I’d put between us. Moment after moment passed in this quiet communion.
As the logs crackled in the fireplace, I filled my lungs with his familiar scent and my ears with his heartbeats. How I ever thought I could give up this man was beyond me.
The tendons in his neck flexed under my fingertips. I lifted my head off his chest and craned my neck as his mouth arced toward mine. He kissed me long and deep, stamping the shape of his lips onto mine.
When he started on my neck, I rasped, “Want to go for a swim?” Between what he was doing to me and the fire, I was dangerously close to overheating.
I felt the curve of his smile on my skin. “I didn’t bring any swim trunks. Hope it won’t be a problem.”
I had to clear my throat before I could answer him. “No problem at all.”
Keeping his eyes on mine, he unbuttoned his flannel shirt and chucked it on the couch, revealing a torso honed to such incredible perfection that my hands trembled as I removed my jacket and draped it over the arm of the couch. As he lowered the zipper of his jeans, I walked toward the sliding glass doors and dragged them open, then crossed the stone deck and dove into the dusky pool to cool down.
After I broke the surface, I pushed my hair off my face and stared up at the moon that was brilliant and full, illuminating the dark world surrounding us. A moment later, arms wrapped around my stomach and pulled my back against a rock-hard chest.
A rock-hard everything.
“You’re missing the pack run,” I said.
“I’m here with you. Beats any pack run.” He rested his chin in the crook of my neck and inhaled me slowly. “God, I’ve missed you so much.”
“I can tell. That thing’s going to end up bruising my spine.”
“That thing?” He snorted.
I turned around to flick him.
He smiled roguishly at my fingers before backing me against the tiled wall and scooping me up. “To avoid any bruising.”
He was no longer my mate, and yet I desired him just as much as when he had been. Locking my eyes on his, I rocked against him slowly.
He gripped my thighs to steady me. “Careful, sweetheart.”
I tilted my face to the side to study his expression. “Why? We’re no longer mates . . .”
Hurt darkened his freckles. “You’re my mate in all the ways that count, Ness Clark.”
“I didn’t mean-” I held on to his shoulders, my pale fingers crimping his brown skin. “It came out wrong.” I linked my arms around his neck. “I love you,” I whispered. “Never doubt that.”
Keeping one hand underneath me, he brought his other up to tuck a wet lock behind my ear. “I didn’t doubt it until you left.”
Raindrops began to fall from a dark strip of cloud that moved across the bloated moon, the droplets glittering as they plinked against the glassy surface of the pool.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
He cupped my jaw and kissed me. And for a long, long moment, that was all we did. And it was perfect and beautiful, but I wanted more. I craved more. So I moved against him again.
He ripped his mouth off mine.
Before he could speak, I said, “I’m not in heat.” Sarah had taught me to use my sense of smell to determine my cycle since oral contraceptives didn’t work all that well on werewolves.
A vein in August’s neck began to throb faster.
I shrugged. “In case you wanted-you know . . .”
“In case I wanted to make love to you in this pool?”
Heat crept up my neck. “Yeah.” So much for using the pool to cool off . . .
He shifted his hold on me until we were lined up, then his thumb brushed my skimpy bikini bottom aside before settling against my pulsing flesh. As he waited for me to make the next move, he swiped his finger over me.
Heart pounding like my wolf’s when she scented her prey, I slid him in, inch by slow inch.
His thumb stilled against me, and a shudder went through him. He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they glittered as wildly as the stars rioting around the storm cloud.
“I moved your body,” I said. “We never talked about it, but I moved you.”
“I know, sweetheart. Almost got me killed.” He glided himself out and then dipped back in.
I shot him a sheepish smile. “Seems like I’m almost getting you killed a lot. Are you sure you’re not better off without me? You’d surely live a much longer life.”
August’s expression became edged with so much fury and pain that I caressed his jaw.
“I didn’t mean to make you angry.”
“There is no version of me without you, okay?”
“Okay.””It’s you and me, Dimples. Always has been and always will be.”
Between the feel of his thick, silky flesh, the scent of spice and rain lifting from his skin, and the timbre of his voice, my heart thundered in my chest. He dragged my body away, then thrust into me, causing the pounding to travel lower. As the rain fell harder, it created a cacophony that drowned out everything but the sound of our hearts.
His lips claimed mine with such violence that his teeth knocked into mine. My legs clenched around him as a thrill began to build in my core, and then a moan tumbled from my mouth straight into his as the sensation overrode my entire system. He pumped harder, and I clawed at his back, the orgasm exploding inside me, striking my veins and muscles, battering my sinews and bones, scorching my skin.
He deepened the kiss, his teeth catching on my bottom lip. As the taste of warmed copper coated my palate, a new wave of pleasure clapped against my thighs and rushed through my limbs, making me gasp his name.
His rhythm turned brisker, more urgent, rough grunts scraping the walls of his throat, causing the flutter behind my belly button to transform into full-on drumming.
“Sweetheart,” he rasped a second before my body undid his.
The water around our bodies rippled, and then it began to glitter as though it were drizzling stars instead of raindrops. It was so beautiful. Everything about that moment was so beautiful. I wanted to immortalize it in my mind for all the years to come.
Still surfing on the wake of my orgasms, I stroked the nape of his neck, watching his features crinkle and smooth as he poured himself inside of me.
Our first time had been special, but this time . . . this time had been spectacular. I hoped it had also been good for August. Maybe he’d had better. I grimaced at the thought.
“I have never had better,” he whispered huskily. “Never.”
The blood drained from my face. Had I spoken out loud?
August blinked. And then color leached from his skin as he looked down at the water that still glittered wildly around us. Oh . . . shit.
I blinked, because his mouth hadn’t moved to form the words, and yet somehow, I’d heard them. “Did I-did you-”
My navel pulsed harder than my core and heart put together.
Was the link back?
I think . . . I think . . . His voice surged inside my mind.
“I can hear you. Why can I hear you?” I asked, barely louder than the plinking raindrops. “Did we just . . . did we just consolidate the link?”
Sadness furrowed his brow. “I think-God, I’m so sorry. I know you didn’t want this.” He pressed his forehead against mine, his fingers digging into my thighs. “I’m so sorry,” he repeated.
For a moment, I held perfectly still, absorbing the significance of what had just transpired. Then, without using sound or breath, I said, I’m not.
He lifted his face off mine.
“Are you sorry, August?”
“No.” His forehead had smoothed. “But I’ve wanted this . . . Well, I’ve wanted this since the tether snapped into place.” He shot me a sheepish smile that made him look more boy than man, but then he shifted a little, and I felt him harden inside me again, reminding me that he was all man.
My man.
His smile turned devilish as he tugged on the tether, reeling my body in until he was fully sheathed inside. That’s right, sweetheart. Your man.
I laughed. “I can’t decide if I like this new skill of ours or fear it.”
“Why would you fear it?”
“Because I’ll have no more secrets.”
“Planning on keeping things from me now, are you?” He grunted, so I flicked him, which just intensified his amusement.
“How am I supposed to surprise you with anything if you can read my mind?”
I’ll act surprised.
I rolled my eyes but grinned.
For a moment, neither of us spoke, neither out loud, nor through the new connection that had opened between our minds. We simply contemplated each other.
Then, “You look happy tonight, Dimples. Are you?”
I cupped his jaw, roughened by stubble and years, and even though I didn’t need to sound the word, I spoke it out loud for the moonlit land to hear. “Terribly.”