Ellie's Wolf (17 page)

Quill’s eyes and nostrils flared as he inhaled. The muscles beneath her hand flexed and bunched. He bent so his lips grazed her ear. “Soon,” he whispered.

It was more than two hours before Ellie could return to the room with its pristine white bed. After the ceremonies and the signing of the marriage certificates, they sat down to supper. Platters of steaks piled high were passed around the table followed by baskets of bread and bowls heaping with salad made of lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Ellie had expected to bask in her husband’s scent and the glow of her newly married state, but she was wrong. She spent the meal with Connor in her lap, cutting his food into bites small enough for a toddler and coaxing him to eat. Tommy was between her and Quill, chattering non-stop. He seemed to take great delight in calling Quill “Dad” and asking him about hunting. Tommy was determined to be a great hunter when he grew up, which he decided would be in five or six years. Quill seemed to take equal delight in his adopted son and his plans, but every now and then, he smiled over Tommy’s head at her, and she felt desire bloom afresh each time their eyes met.

When they were finished with supper, Ellie moved Connor off her lap to help collect the dishes to be washed, but Paint waved her off. “You can leave Connor and Tommy here. Kitchen cleanup is for us unmated men,” he said.

Ellie stood uncertainly. Quill smiled at her and took Connor by the hand. “Why don’t I take the boys out and give you a little time to get ready for bed?”

At the word ‘bed,’ Ellie’s face flamed. It was hours before dark! “Okay.”

He tapped a cool finger to her hot cheek. “I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

“Okay,” she said again.

A few minutes?
How long will that be
? she wondered. She hurried out to use the facilities and then climbed the stairs to her room. Ellie was agonizingly aware of the sunlight pouring over the bed from the window that faced west. Make love with a near stranger for the first time in broad daylight? The light would show every blemish of her body. The stretch marks she’d collected from Connor’s birth were horribly plain against her skin. Quill’s body—and she’d seen every bit of it, thanks to his disinclination to wear clothes—was perfect, from narrow, muscled waist to broad shoulders to long legs. If she was under the covers when he came, he wouldn’t be able to see anything.

Fingers trembling with nervous anticipation, she rushed to unbutton the bodice of her dress. She had unfastened only the top few buttons when the door opened and Quill came in. A spike of nerves punched her stomach. Her fingers clenched the dress closed over her breasts.

He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him with a barely audible click. Then he turned to her, and she saw his fingers were trembling at his sides.
He is a virgin
, she thought, with something like relief.
He must be a little nervous too
. A knot in her chest loosened, along with her fingers on her dress.

“Quill.” She found herself standing close to him without remembering moving. Silence fell between them as they gazed at each other. Ellie felt awkward staring at him, but it kept her eyes away from the bed. She wanted him, but now that the moment was at hand, she wasn’t sure what she should do. Did he expect her to lead the way? She swallowed. “Quill. Um, do you mind if I…I mean, can I touch you?”

His thick eyelashes swept over his cheek in a flutter of golden brown. “Yes, please.”

The fabric of his shirt irritated her smoothing hands. She wanted to feel his skin. For a man who liked being the next thing to naked, he was wearing a lot of clothes right now. He kept his eyes closed as she stroked over his chest and shoulders, his breathing not quite steady.

“Quill. Will you kiss me?”

He opened his eyes to look down at her, and a rough laugh broke from him. “You only have to ask.”

His lips were warm against hers, only a light brush. “When I first came in, you were frightened,” he murmured. “Now you aren’t. Why?”

“Because it’s you. I don’t need to be scared with you.”

“No,” he agreed fervently. “You don’t ever have to be afraid with me. And especially not
of
me.”

His next kiss was deeper, hotter, wetter, and she sank into it. She loved his arms closing around her. He was tall, and his arms were strong and powerful, enclosing her completely. Some women might have felt trapped by a man surrounding them so thoroughly, but Ellie felt safe with Quill wrapped around her.

The feel of his knuckles brushing over the tops of her breasts startled her. While they kissed, he had continued unbuttoning her dress. It was broad daylight! He would see those ugly stretch marks! She tore her lips from his.

“Wait! Quill, wait.”

He froze. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing! We should draw the drapes.”

He glanced at the window. “Why?”

“I don’t want—” Ellie broke off, floundering. “I don’t want anyone to be able to see us.”

“We’re on the second floor,” he pointed out.

She pulled out of his arms and marched to the window. “I want them closed.”

“Okay. Whatever you want.”

His long arm reached above hers to help pull the drapes closed. The room wasn’t dark, but comfortably dim. She turned back to him. “Where were we?”

He stood back, and his green eyes glanced over her. “Ellie, am I doing something wrong? You seem uncomfortable.”

Ellie opened her mouth to make an excuse. But why should she fib? Something her aunt, Anne Gray, had told her right before her wedding to Neal came back to her now. She advised her lies between a husband and wife never ended well. She looked up at Quill.

“You’re not doing anything wrong. It’s me.” She looked down at her fingers worrying a button. “I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed in me.”

His jaw dropped. “Me? Disappointed in you? How?”

“Well, I’m not eighteen anymore.”

“Me, neither. You don’t think I think you’re
old
?”

The confused disbelief in his voice made her smile. “No. It’s just…My body isn’t perfect. I’m still too skinny, and I have marks on my stomach and sides from the pregnancy. They’re ugly,” she finished in a small voice.

“You thought closing the curtains would keep me from seeing that? Ellie, I can see in the dark just fine.”

Breath whooshed out of her. “I forgot that.” She turned back to the window and jerked the drapes back open. “Fine. Then I want good light to be able to see you too.”

Quill backed toward the bed, unfastening his shirt buttons with swift fingers. “That’s fair. I don’t like wearing all these clothes. I’ve been wanting to get rid of them all day.”

She was almost too shy to watch him undress. Almost, but not quite. He tossed the shirt over the back of the chair and toed off his boots, kicking them aside before unbuttoning his jeans. Ellie gulped when she saw he wasn’t wearing underwear. Gazing at his perfect chest and belly didn’t embarrass her too much, but seeing his penis, thick and straight, spring out when he pushed his jeans off his hips sent a riot of blood into her face. He turned to place the folded jeans over the chair with the shirt, presenting her with a view of his tightly rounded backside.

“Ellie?” Quill had turned back and was studying her without any embarrassment or self-consciousness over his naked arousal. “Are you okay?”

“Uh-huh.” She giggled a little over the squeak in her voice. “Are you?”

A smile bloomed on his face. “I’m alone in a bedroom with the woman my wolf chose for my mate. She’s my wife now, and I can smell how much she wants me. Yeah, I’m okay. Come closer. Touch me.”

She left her position by the window. “Should I get undressed?”

“Not yet. This is your time to do whatever you want to me.” He put his hands behind him and leaned against the edge of the bureau by the bed. “Touch me.”

Ellie watched him shut his eyes. Her hands itched to explore the warm skin painted gold by the rays of the sinking sun. He was wonderfully made, a beautiful composition of color and texture. She started her exploration at his shoulders, stroking over the ridge of muscle there and down the slope of his chest to the rippling plane of his abdomen. His muscles jumped under her fingers. She hesitated when she came close to his penis. It was thick and straight, and the flaring head was dark with blood. He had only a sprinkling of hair at his groin, and his chest and stomach were as bare of hair as her own. He was so different from Neal.

No, Ellie
, she told herself.
Don’t think of Neal
.

She inched her hand closer to his penis and glanced up at his face. His eyelids drooped, but they weren’t closed.

“Yes,” he whispered hoarsely. “Touch me. Please touch me.”

Her hand was able to circle around the base of his penis, but just barely. He wasn’t quite as long as Neal, but thicker.
Stop thinking about Neal!
He let out a groan that made her realize she had tightened her hand. She let him go with a squeak.

“Sorry!”

“Don’t stop! Do it some more,” he begged.

Touching him was addicting. Moving her hand up and down his penis was amazing, but what made it even better was the way his breath jerked when she did it. Every time she stroked from his base to his tip she felt her own desire grow hotter. Holding him in her hands was only a prelude to what she really wanted.

“Quill,” she whispered, “are you ready? Let’s go to bed.”

His eyes shot open. “Not yet! I haven’t touched you at all yet.”

“That’s okay.” The need to have him moving inside her was almost vicious. “You can do that later.”

He grasped her hands to keep her from pushing her dress off her shoulders. “No. I want our first time together to be perfect. We don’t need to rush. We have all night.”

She glanced at the window where the sun was very low but not yet set. It wouldn’t be full dark for another hour. She drew a deep breath to control her body’s yearnings. “Okay. What should I do? Shouldn’t I undress?”

“No, let me do that.”

A shudder shimmered through her when he undid the last button on her dress and eased it down her arms. It stopped at her hips, clinging stubbornly. Her breast wrap seemed to confuse him for a moment. Then he found the end tucked under one layer and pulled. Ellie raised her arms so he could unwrap her.

Quill grinned, a brief flash of white in his sun-tanned face. “This reminds me of Christmas in Omaha.”

“Of what?”

“Christmas,” he repeated. “Unwrapping presents.”

He tossed the breast wrap away and stared at her breasts. They felt swollen, the nipples hard little points. The place between her legs was wet and needy. How long would he want to look at her before he was finally moving inside her? Part of her need was purely carnal, and some came from not wanting him to examine her too closely. She opened her mouth to coax him but paused when she saw his face. The delight and awe there lessened her embarrassment.

“So beautiful,” he murmured, cupping her breasts in his big hands. “But look at the marks the wrapping left on them.” He dipped his head to kiss one breast and then the other. “Poor things.”

She almost giggled, but he closed his mouth over one nipple and gave it a gentle tug, and she gave a choked sigh instead. He jerked his head up.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No, it’s good.”

He tilted his head curiously. “What does it feel like when I suck on you?

“Like hot wet wool—the softest wool you can imagine!—wrapped around me and pulling…It’s hard to explain, but it’s nice.”

He went back to her breasts, licking, sucking, and nipping until she almost wanted to scream from it. She was so much shorter than he was, though, that he had to bend in an awkward crouch. She impatiently shoved her dress off her hips and broke away from him. Dressed only in her shoes and her panties, she backed up to the bed and waited until he’d had his fill of looking at her. His gaze went to the white of her panties, lingered for a few moments on the stretch marks she was so embarrassed of, and then lifted to her face.

Ellie swallowed. “It would be better if we were on the bed, don’t you think? You’re going to get a stiff neck like that.”

He moved forward until he was almost pressed against her. “Okay, sit down.”

When she obeyed, he knelt and removed her shoes one at a time. Then his fingers hooked into the sides of her panties. He looked at her with one eyebrow raised as if to ask permission. Dry mouthed, she nodded and untied the waist string.

“Lie back,” he urged.

She did, with her bare feet still on the floor, and lifted her hips for him to slide her panties down. A moment later he gently pulled her knees apart and moved a little closer to the side of the bed. His curls tickled her as he bent to kiss one of her stretch marks.

“Is this what you think is so ugly?” he asked.

Ellie lifted her head to look at him kneeling on the floor between her knees. She nodded.

“They’re not ugly. They’re battle scars. In the Clan, battle scars are honored.” He kissed another on the other side of her waist. “My beautiful, beautiful Ellie, my brave mate.”

His finger circled one nipple, slid over her belly to the hair at the top of her thighs. She was excruciatingly aware that she was spread open and he was kneeling inches away, his finger sliding through her soft pubic hair. When his finger grazed over the little nub of flesh that ached to be touched, she gritted her teeth to suppress a moan. When his finger paused just outside her opening, she couldn’t keep a moan back.

“Quill, don’t stop. Touch me.” It was, she realized, what he had said earlier. “Touch me. Inside.”

He stretched over her to kiss her lips then went back to his kneeling position on the floor. “Okay? Ready?”

“Yes!”

Instead of putting his finger inside her, he put a hand under each of her knees and scooped her legs up to sit over his shoulders. She squeaked and clutched the coverlet.

“Quill! What are you doing?”

“Relax, it’ll be good for you. Can you open your legs a little wider?”

His hands slid under her hips to pull her closer to the edge of the bed. The position put her opening right at his mouth. She began to say something, but just as her mouth opened, his tongue licked along her slit and plunged inside. All that came out of her was a breathy groan. Oh, heavens, it felt amazing. And when he moved up a little and licked that nub of nerves at the top of her slit, she almost squeezed her thighs closed on his head. And then he
bit it!
She found herself trembling right on the edge of orgasm. He had barely touched her, and she was ready to explode. While his tongue rubbed and licked over all the most sensitive places her body had, his finger slipped inside. It moved, testing her vaginal walls with a delicate touch until it found a spot that ripped a guttural moan from her. It was good; it was really good. How had a virgin learned to do that? Neal had never—