Ellie's Wolf (19 page)

“Good morning, darlin’.”

Ellie shivered at the intimate note in his voice. “Good morning.” She glanced at the window, surprised by how bright the sunlight streaming into the room was. “What time is it?”

“Mid-morning.”

Her jaw sagged for a moment. She looked at the window again. “So late? I just now woke up!”

“Well…” His grin was positively wolfish, and not ashamed in the least. “I kept you awake most of the night.”

“Mama. Mama, guess what.”

Connor had been tugging on her arm for several seconds. She smiled down at him. “What, baby?”

“I’m not a baby!” he protested.

Fond pride rose in her. Her baby was becoming a little boy. Before she knew it, he would be a young man. “Yes, Connor?” she corrected herself.

“I slept in the bunkhouse last night.” His little shoulders went back with self-importance. “With the grownups!”

“Was it fun?”

His snub nose wrinkled. “Cousin Snow snores and so does Paint. And Mr. Dirk farts in his sleep.”

Ellie glanced at Quill and saw him struggling with a laugh too. “Well.” She cleared her throat. “Sometimes people do that, but it’s not polite to mention it.”

“Connor, let’s leave your mama alone for a bit so she can get dressed.”

Quill came to lift the boy to his shoulder. He bent to run the backs of his fingers over Ellie’s cheek. “We’re leaving right after lunch.”

“Already?”

“I want to get you to the safety of the den as soon as possible. If we ride at a steady pace, we’ll be there in four days.”

* * * *

A few hours later, Ellie hugged Mel and Sara goodbye in the ranch yard. There had been a flare of temper from Sara when Stone tried to command her to go with them to the den, but having gotten her way, she was all smiles now. Ellie mounted her horse and stifled a grunt of pain when her groin pressed into the unyielding saddle. Quill handed Connor up to her.

“Sore?” he asked in a soft voice, stroking a hand over her calf.

“A bit,” she admitted.

He smiled up at her. How a smile could be both bashful and wolfish at the same time she didn’t know, but he managed it. “Me, too, actually. Never engaged in that particular exercise before. Maybe we overdid it a little last night.”

She blushed and shrugged. “Well…”

He caught her hand and kissed her fingers. “But it was fun.” He laughed softly, probably at her renewed blush, and turned the subject. “I’ll be scouting ahead this afternoon,” he told her. “Paint and Sand will take turns riding with Tommy. When you get tired of holding Connor, call Snow. He’ll take him.”

Ellie waved at Snake and Stone as they rode down the road to the arch in the fence. Snake looked as happy as she’d ever seen him, but Stone was gloomy. She wondered if that meant Mel spent the night in bed with Snake. What had happened last night between Sara and Stone? Maybe if she’d stayed another day or two at the Flying D, she would have found out. This morning had been too busy organizing and packing the food supplies the Dirks gave them for her to find a private moment to ask them about their wedding nights. In only a month or so she would see them again, and perhaps by then, Sara would have fallen in love with Stone. She considered that as her horse climbed the slope. Sara seemed pretty determined to not like Stone, but she married him. Ellie hoped things would work out for them. She’d always had a fondness for Stone.

By sunset, her sore crotch hurt even more. Maybe she and Quill should have stopped after the second time last night. Or third. She had loved Neal and enjoyed his lovemaking. After nearly six years of marriage, she’d considered herself a woman of experience, but Quill had done things to her she’d never imagined. He made her body feel things she’d never felt. She giggled to herself. She had fully expected Quill to be awkward and fumbling. Instead, he had shown her what to do. And he had done it
so well
.

She shifted her weight in the saddle. Even though she was sore, desire dampened her panties as memories of last night passed through her mind. Quill had been insatiable and each time he’d caressed her, she had gone up in flames of need all over again. But surely they wouldn’t make love tonight. There was no privacy, especially from men with the sharp hearing of wolves.

Paint reined his horse in to walk with hers. “We’ll be stopping soon. You look pretty worn out. Should I take Connor?”

She smiled at the one-eyed man. “No, I’m fine. We made good time today, don’t you think?”

“Sure.” He looked to the northwest. “Looks like we might get some rain tonight or tomorrow.”

Ellie didn’t see any clouds or anything that would indicate bad weather to come, but she believed him. Wolves probably knew more about the weather than could be seen. “I hope it won’t be a storm. Connor doesn’t like them.”

Paint gave her dozing son a quick glance. “We’ve been lucky so far with the weather on this trip. But I bet the farmers and ranchers wouldn’t mind a bit of rain.”

“It’s dry,” Ellie agreed. “A nice light shower would help settle the dust. I feel like I have half of Kansas embedded in my clothes.”

“And starting tomorrow night you’ll have Nebraska in your clothes.” Paint adjusted his eye patch with a flash of a smile. “Camp’s right over that rise.”

Ellie would be so glad to arrive at the den. She was more secure in the saddle than she had been at the beginning of this trip, but she still didn’t like riding. And riding with a fidgeting toddler was difficult. She didn’t know what she’d have done without Snow and Paint and the others to help her with Connor.

Snow already had the fire burning when Ellie reached the camp. Paint dismounted and reached to take Connor from her. She had just dismounted when Quill trotted over to her and changed back to his man form. He had no shame standing there as naked as the day he was born.

“Darlin’,” he greeted her in a low, caressing voice.

Just his voice sent a spike of hot need streaking through her. “Quill, you should put on your pants.”

His nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply. His penis twitched, and Ellie felt blood race to her cheeks. He could smell her desire. If he could smell it, then Paint, standing only three feet away, could probably smell it too. She stifled a cowardly impulse to snatch Connor back and hold him like a shield to hide her embarrassment.

Quill leaned close, a hand stroking over her arm. “Did you want to make love? I thought you might be too sore.”

How her voice managed to push past the constriction of her throat she didn’t know. It sounded as though she was strangling when she said, “No! Not now. Not until we get to the den.”

Disappointment lowered his brows. “That long?”

“Please put your pants on.”

He shrugged and turned away to find the packhorse with his clothes. Paint put Connor on the ground. He cleared his throat.

“I’ve noticed that women really want us to keep our clothes on,” he commented in a very casual voice, looking everywhere but at her. “We do it to make the ladies more comfortable. But naked is normal for us wolves, you know? Just like little Connor isn‘t bothered by being naked.”

“I suppose so. But it’s embarrassing for us women.”

He cleared his throat again. “About not making love with Quill. Is it because we’re here too?”

Ellie wondered if the grass at her feet would start to smoke soon with the heat of her embarrassment. “This conversation isn’t proper.”

He turned and looked her squarely in the eye. “Ellie, none of us here are kids. We won’t listen like we did when Taye and the Lupa first mated.”

“What?” she asked, her voice faint. She imagined Taye and Carla making love with an audience of wide-eyed young men gathered around their bed.

Paint glanced down at Connor, smoothing a large brown hand over the boy’s blond hair. “All I’m saying is it’s like the no-clothes thing. It’s natural. If you and Quill go off a little ways for some time alone together, we’ll respect that. Sex between mates is normal. Natural.
Good
. Why should you and Quill wait until you get to the den when you have each other right here?”

“Thank you for your concern,” Ellie mumbled and snatched her son’s hand. “Come on, Connor, let’s find Tommy.”

Oblivious to the adult conversation, her son blithely replied that Tommy was with Sand, they were peeing behind those shrubs, and he needed to pee too.

Paint had mercy on her. “I’ll take Connor.”

An hour later her embarrassment had waned, but Paint’s words stuck with her. Wolves trotted through the camp to the saddlebags that held their clothes, changed into their human forms, and casually tugged on jeans. They didn’t glance around to see if they were observed, try to shield their bodies, or even hurry to dress. She was far more embarrassed by their nudity than they were. Ellie considered that as she ate her supper beside Quill. Until a few months ago, Connor immediately struggled to take off anything she put on him. He had run naked around the Moore house, happy as could be to be unencumbered by clothing. Perhaps the wolves were like little children who had never learned that clothing was required in respectable society? No, they had learned and were reluctantly willing to obey the rules of society when in public. She glanced over Quill, admiring his fine physique as he tried to tempt Connor to eat a bite of the stewed tomatoes supplied by the Dirks. Lovemaking in public was absolutely out of the question. Making love at a discreet distance from camp was a possibility far more tempting than stewed tomatoes.

When Quill came to her after she and Tommy finished cleaning the dishes, she allowed him to talk her into joining him for a night on the prairie a little ways outside of camp. She settled Tommy and Connor on blankets under the watchful eyes of Snow, Sand, and Paint, and collected her own blankets before walking out of camp hand in hand with Quill.

“Are you tired?” Quill asked as they strolled through the dark.

“A bit.”

Ellie tilted her head up to search the sky for the stars and moon, but they were obscured by the clouds. The prairie was an eerily beautiful landscape around them. She tripped on a thick clump of grass, and she would have fallen if his hand hadn’t steadied her.

Without a word, he picked her up like a baby and continued to walk, her blankets draped over his shoulder.

“Quill!”

She could tell he looked down at her. “Darlin’?”

Instead of answering, she trusted his strength to hold her and laid her head on his shoulder. He picked his way through the tall, dry grass for a long time, perhaps twenty minutes, she estimated. Far enough away from the others so they wouldn’t be overheard.
Alone with my husband
, Ellie thought, enjoying the feel of his bare chest against her. At the mere thought, her body began heating
. He makes love so beautifully. Last night, everything he did made my body come alive for him. I had at least one orgasm for each of his. Was it only a fluke? Will he do that to me again
? She expected shame and embarrassment to overtake her at her bold thoughts, but they didn’t come. Perhaps the careless attitude of the wolves was rubbing off on her.

He stopped and set her on her feet, keeping an arm around her until she was steady before stepping away to spread a blanket on the ground. “It’s flat here,” he said. “The grass is soft enough with the blanket covering it. We’re out of sight and earshot of the camp. Will you let me love you here?”

A quiver of trembling lust speared through Ellie. “Earlier, I said no, not until we reach the den.” Her fingers lifted to her blouse, pulling buttons free of their holes and then sliding it down her arms before loosening her breast wrap. “I’ve changed my mind though. As long as we don’t make too much noise.”

He laughed softly. She heard the sibilant whisper of buttons being unfastened and the slither of worn cotton sliding down. “I’ll try to be quiet.”

Last night he hadn’t been the loud one. He had grunted, growled, and let out some husky groans, but she had actually screamed a time or two, and she’d shocked herself with her needy moans. She’d be quiet tonight, she decided. No sobbing with the force of her release, no moaning when his movements inside her sparked exquisite pleasure. She would not yell his name.

She unbuttoned the top button on her pants. “We’re alone, right?”

“I hear no one.” She could hear him inhale deeply. “I smell nothing but the sweet scent from between your thighs. We’re alone. Come here, darlin’.”

She stepped out of her pants, wiggled her panties down her legs, and took tiny steps toward his voice. Her toes found the edge of the blanket at the same moment her reaching hands touched his chest. His hands curved around her shoulders to draw her close against him. As he kissed her, sliding his tongue into her mouth, hot and deep, his hands skimmed down her back to the crease of her buttocks. She forced a breathy moan back when his fingers probed the wet place between her legs.

“Open for me,” he whispered, but she already had lifted one leg to curl behind one of his thighs.

The silky feel of his finger gliding into her wet heat tickled a moan from her before she could stifle it. She clenched her hands on his shoulders to keep her balance and arched to push his finger deeper.

“I like it when you’re greedy.” He twisted his hand, grazing a knuckle over that one perfect place inside her, and she bit her lip hard to keep another moan back. He must have felt it, though, because he twisted his hand back and forth to nudge that spot over and over. “I spent all those years in Omaha wanting to be able to touch you just like this. Kiss you.”

Ellie eagerly accepted the kiss he pressed to her lips. His finger working inside her was driving her further and further up the road to bliss. When he stopped and removed his hand, it was a struggle to not scream for him to keep going. He rearranged them so her back was against his front and reached down her belly to sink his finger in her from the front. He used the other hand to lift one of her thighs to open her for him. Ellie’s sense of being utterly vulnerable disappeared in a rush of pleasure when the heel of his hand ground against a particularly sensitive spot at the top of her slit. Her breasts bounced with every stab of his finger inside her. Being naked and exposed in the outdoors should have mortified her, but the cool night air caressing her front while Quill’s strong body warmed her back aroused her even more.