Loner (Norseton Wolves #2) (7 page)

“Some stuff you just need to be in a classroom for. You retain information faster sometimes when someone is teaching it in-person and correcting you on the spot.”

He wrapped his hand around her wrist and lowered her hand to his lap. “The guys don’t know I’m doing it. They won’t see the point. Don’t need it for our job.”

“As if my
art
has a practical purpose.” Sometimes, there wasn’t a point to learning, but that didn’t mean the enrichment didn’t trickle down and improve other aspects of the learner’s life. Art had taught her that things sometimes looked different on second glance—that they weren’t necessarily what she assumed. She’d forgotten that at first when it came to Darius, but she wouldn’t forget it again. “I won’t say anything. What kind of program are you looking at?”

“I…”

“Say it. It’s okay. I promise I’ll only poke a little bit of fun at you.”

His eyes went comically wide.

She laughed just a little and skimmed her fingertips along his unshaven jaw.
Strong, handsome wolf
.

He pressed his hand against hers and swallowed. His dark gaze was full of questions, and she thought she had the answer to at least one. “You can touch me,” she whispered.

His nod came slowly. He tightened his fingers around hers and closed his eyes. His energy mellowed. Touch seemed to help him, and she’d have to remember that. She kissed the back of his hand.

“I don’t know what to study yet. Something useful, just in case the whole wolf-for-hire thing stops working out.”

Maybe talking was easier for him when he wasn’t looking. She didn’t want him looking away, but forcing a wolf to adapt to something before he was ready rarely ended well. It wasn’t
her
he was adapting to, but the circumstance. She was doing the same. Very little about Darius was predictable, and that was a good thing. If he were predictable, he’d be just like the wolves back in her father’s pack.

“There’s nothing particularly useful about my degree,” she said.

“But you made money?”

She shrugged. “Here and there. Money was never my focus, but if that has to change, I could always get a teaching job.” She leaned back on her forearms and clucked her tongue. “I probably wouldn’t mind that, actually. Is there a school here?”

“Yeah. Private K through twelve, though tuition is waived for us. It’s like public school, but they had to have some admission barriers in place in case developments spring up near this one that would put kids in the same public school zone. Folks in Norseton have everything they need in the community.”

Long sentences. This is easy for him to discuss.

“Good to know. They probably have an art teacher already, though.”

“Dunno. Wouldn’t hurt to ask. They have the same staffing problems the community on a whole has. They don’t like hiring outsiders. They’ve got the money to pay the salaries, just not the applicants.”

“I’ll put that on my to-do list.”

“You’d really be satisfied with taking a teaching job?”

“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I—” He sputtered his lips and twiddled his thumbs.

Hypotheticals. He doesn’t do well with those. Perhaps he doesn’t have the experience?

“I guess I just wouldn’t have thought that with you having some money, you wouldn’t want to work with…the…”

“The what? The hoi polloi?” She nudged him with her elbow and chuckled. “Commoners? Hey, money just makes freedom easier to come by, at least the way I spend it. Why’s that so unusual for you?”

He shrugged, and the tips of his ears turned red again. “It’s just not what I’d expect.”

“I’m sure there are a lot of things about me you’ll find to be unexpected.”

“I think you’re probably right.”

“So, you’ll let me help you?”

And she didn’t just mean with his assignments, but that was a good enough place to start. She wanted to insinuate herself into every part of his life, if he’d let her. She’d dreamed of having a mate who’d trust her enough to let her help with the things that mattered most to him. A mate not only in name, but in actions.

She skimmed a fingertip down his arm and let her hand linger over his.

“If you think you’ll have time.”

“I’ve got nothing but time, for you.”

She lifted his large hand and set it on her naked knee. “But…we might as well be productive.”

He looked down at it, then into her eyes.

She leaned back onto her forearms and bobbed her eyebrows. “We’re early, but I don’t think anyone’s going to call us on it.”

“Early for what?”

“It’s our wedding day. Wedding days usually lead to wedding nights, and since it’s a full moon, I’ll be otherwise occupied.”

“I don’t have to shift for the full moon.”

“Yeah, you told me that last night.” His hand remained in that same spot, so she reached down and slid it up a few inches. If that wasn’t explicit permission that he should touch her, she’d have to resort to words. Before she did, though, she wanted to see just how well the wolf read cues. He didn’t seem to be very good at it, but that was okay. Maybe he wasn’t so observant as a man, but that was just fine, because she wasn’t exactly a gold star wolf. According to Mrs. Carbone, it’d probably be weeks until Stephanie’s wolf fully got her bearings.

He curled his fingers against her thigh and stared at the gap between her legs.

She sighed. “Darius?”

“Yes?”

“That was an invitation for foreplay.”

“Oh.” He stood and immediately started peeling off his shirt.

She grabbed the hem before he could manage. “Are you generally naked for foreplay?”

He cringed. “I can’t say I’ve had much of it.”

“What do you do when a woman isn’t ready?”

He furrowed his brow. “That’s never been a problem.”

Looking at him, she could imagine how that would be the case, but she didn’t just want a quick fuck. Not that she doubted his endurance at all, but she imagined he probably had one speed when it came to sex, and it was of the
highly aerobic
sort. She liked for sex to be an experience almost as often as she liked it to just scratch an itch. People learned a lot about their lovers in the bedroom, and until she could get her wolf to loosen his tongue, she’d let his body do the talking.

Darius had never been the kind of man who was easy to humiliate, but he was veering closer and closer to that place with every interaction with Stephanie. He felt as though he couldn’t do anything right—that nothing about him was right for her. He could barely hold a decent conversation, he was undereducated, and obviously not as worldly as he’d thought.

He stood there, clutching the bottom of his shirt and watching her drum her fingertips atop the comforter.

She is totally out of my league, and I’m supposed to make her happy somehow?
It was obvious who got the short end of the stick in their relationship.

“Tell me something,” she said. “How do you usually signal to a woman that you want to have sex with her?”

“I…I don’t have to.”

“They just throw themselves at you?”

He shrugged. That probably had more to do with the sorts of places the pack lounged at when they were on the road than with Darius’s flirtation skills. Sometimes, people went to places looking for specific things, and nobody played coy about it. But, those weren’t women looking for relationships, and they
certainly
weren’t his wife.

His wife. He had a
wife
now. He still couldn’t quite digest it.

“I’ll tell you what I do, then. Sometimes, I’ll do something to draw a potential lover’s attention to certain body parts. My hands…” She dragged them lightly up her ribs and let them rest on her heart. “My lips.” She pushed her lips into a petulant pout that had his nuts tightening. “My chest.” She nudged down a dress strap and let her bodice sag enticingly on one side, thereby exposing the pale lace of her bra and inches of creamy skin. “Perhaps my thighs, when I’m having a good leg day.” She crossed her legs over the edge of the bed and hitched her hem up a few inches in the process. “Once a man’s looking at me, maybe I’ll tease him.”

“How?”
Stupid question.
Anyone would eyes could see the effects of her teasing on him.

“Depends on what I want.” She uncrossed her legs and spread her thighs even farther apart than they had been.

His gaze fixed on the shadow between them, and his brain projected what he hoped to see there, though it wasn’t actually visible.

He moved forward only to stop at the sound of her quiet laughter. “See what I mean?”

“I’m getting the drift.”

“Do you want to see?” She smirked and hooked an index finger under her hem.

“Yes.” There was really no suave way to confess that, so he didn’t bother digging around in his head for the words.

“Then come take a look. You’ve got to pay the admission fee first, though.”

“What’s the fee?” He’d empty his wallet if it made her happy, though he didn’t think she wanted his money. She had her own.

She shrugged and made that semi-exposed breast jiggle.

Gods.
He closed his eyes against the sight and ground his teeth. He could probably nut in his pants just from watching those tiny movements. It’d be just like age fourteen all over again, minus the bunking-with-other-young-male-wolves thing. Back then, he could cream in his sleep just from dreaming of a nubile body. He thought he’d matured past that by now, though.

“I think it’s pretty reasonable,” she said, and leaned back onto her forearms again. “One kiss.”

“A kiss?”

“Mm-hmm. Too expensive for you?”

“No, not at all.” He unstuck his heels from the floor and moved to the bedside.

She tipped her head back and grinned at him. “I didn’t say
what
you had to kiss.”

“I—”
Oh
. “What do I have to kiss?”

“I won’t say. When you hit the right spot, I’ll let you know.”

“That could take a while.”

“I’ve got all afternoon.”

And so did he, if she was willing to indulge him.

He climbed onto the bed behind her and put his hands tentatively under her arms. Other than to cock up an eyebrow, she didn’t respond, so he pulled her to the center of the bed and laid her on her back.

He rubbed his hands together as he examined her lounging form and considered the possibilities. She’d given him an invitation to touch her, and he wanted to touch every inch, but he also didn’t want her to get so bored with his fumbling that she sent him away before he’d had enough. He was skin-starved, and there was a void in him that it seemed only she could fill. He didn’t know if that was normal, but maybe she didn’t either. Maybe she wouldn’t be angry for him being so needy.

Her lips were the obvious place to start, but he needed a little time. He nudged that precariously leaning breast out of her bra cup, bent, and pulled her nipple into her mouth before she could react.

She gasped and thrust her chest at him. “Th-that’s not
technically
a kiss.”

“Sorry.” He puckered his lips and pressed the slightest kiss against her breast. “Not it?”

She shook her head.

“Okay.” He tried the bend of her neck on both sides next, lashing his tongue along the curves and swirling the tip along the hollows where her neck joined her shoulders. He fixed his gaze on her, triumphant at the sight of her pinning her succulent bottom lip between her teeth. “There?”

She shook her head.

“Then let’s try—
ah
.” He lifted her hands and kissed the backs of both wrists and the insides of each elbow.

She wriggled and let out a sexy little sigh.

“Damn. Okay. How about…” He tapped his chin as he took in her body in one long gaze.
So fucking beautiful.
A wolf’s dream come true, right there in the middle of his king-sized bed. “Ah. I know.” He bent and kissed where her thighs touched, rolling his gaze up to her as he drew in her aroused scent. She was wet, he could already tell, and he was aching hard. He just had to see her, though, and lick her dripping slit to taste the honey she made for him. “There?”

She gave her head a hard shake.

“No? Damn. I guess my wolf instincts are off.”

“They seem to be working fine from where I’m lying. How about one more try?”

“I’ll try to get it right.” He considered her body from head to toes, and snapped his fingers in a revelatory fashion. “Aha!” Bending, he pressed his lips to hers, and with a moan, she opened her mouth.

He’d never been much for kissing. No one had ever demanded it of him, and it seemed like such a personal thing. But this was his mate. His
wife.
He could probably figure out how to manage a decent kiss, and he wanted to if it made her smile at him the way she did.

He dipped his tongue into her mouth and explored all the soft parts—her tongue, lips, and the insides of her cheeks—and toyed at the edges of her teeth, savoring the sharp sting when she bit down a bit. And she kissed back, sliding her fingers into his hair and pulling him down even more. She nibbled at his lips, bit along his scruffy jaw, and tugged at his earlobes. She lashed her tongue into his ear, and he was surprised when he realized the moan he heard was his own.

“Do you want to look?” she asked breathily.

“Yes.”

“Then go ahead. It’s ready for you.”

She spread her legs, and he moved in between them, reaching inside her dress to snatch her panties off, but there were none there.

“Oh,
gods
.” He pushed up her hem and got on his belly to see, finally, what he had gotten and what he would be getting. “So sexy,” he murmured, sliding his index finger down her wet slit. She’d waxed or shaved, or
something
—there was just one small patch of dusky red hair right over her clit, and it seemed to be saying,
touch here—lick here
. So, he did. He pulled the little nub into his mouth and rolled it on his tongue.

“Yes. Like that. More of that.”

“I’m doing okay?”

She pushed his face back against her sex. “Lick. Suck.”

“Right.” He wasn’t done looking, though. He had to see more. He parted her and took in her slick folds and the inviting wetness between her puffy lips. He put his tongue right there for a taste and wiggled the tip inside her for some manna straight from the source. It was the best dessert he’d ever had, and a feast for the eyes unlike any he’d ever seen. “You make me so fucking hard,” he said before diving back in. He loved the way she clenched at his touch, how her pussy clamped around his fingers and tried to draw him in.

“Show me,” she said. “Show me how hard you are.”

“But—”

She hooked her toes into his waistband and pushed his pants down a couple of inches. Not enough, but he got the idea of what she wanted to see.

“I wasn’t done looking.”

“Look more later. I want to see
you
now.”

“Me?”

“Don’t sound so surprised, baby. That’s how relationships go, usually. People in them take turns.”

“Having never been in one before now, I’ll have to take your word for it.”

She sat up and performed some unbelievable contortion of her left arm to tug the zipper at her spine down. She undid her bra’s clasp while she was back there, and freed her heavy breasts from their unfortunate bindings.

Wolf or not, he wanted to pounce on her like a fucking cat and lick her hard nipples and the scar from his bite. He wanted to suck purple marks onto her skin there. Like leaving a graffiti tag, he wanted to show where he’d been, but also enjoy himself to the fullest while he was still there.

“Show me!” she said forcefully, verbally nudging him from his semi-paralyzed state. “Let me see how hard I make you, Darius.”

Gods
. He yanked off his shirt and shoved his pants down to his knees. His aching cock jutted straight as an arrow in front of him, and seemed to bob from her intense inspection.

“Put that in me, and kiss me while you fuck me, if you can manage it.”

“That’s easy.” He kicked the pants to the floor, and yanked her dress the rest of the way off. Kneeling between her legs, he palmed her breasts and groaned. “Fuck, woman.”

“Tell me what you’re thinking when you look at me like that.”

“That—that you look like something out of a pin-up girl book.”

“You think I look like a pin-up girl?” That flirty grin of hers made his heart thrash. It hinted that perhaps he’d said something right. “That’s a huge compliment.”

“You deserve it.” He reluctantly unhanded her and hitched her legs up to his hips. He lie atop her, his cock positioned at her entrance, and licked the seam of her lips so she’d open for him. “I don’t know how I got so lucky.”

“At first, I thought I repulsed you. I thought—”

“No, no, no.
Gods
, no.” He plunged into her and roared at the intense pleasure. He was ready to come just from the triumph of being inside her. No one was as lucky as him.

“Kiss me, baby.”

“Show me how. Like you did before.”

“Gladly.” She set the pace, and he matched it down below. He thrust slowly at first, to let her channel adjust to his shaft, and then picked up speed.

He ate every one of her little moans and did everything he could to help her make more of them. She seemed to like when he rocked his hips, so he did more of that. She growled when he ground deep inside her, so he repeated that, too. And when she repeated “
Darius! Darius! Darius!
” he thrust faster and faster to push her to that ledge he so desperately needed her to fall over soon.

“Come on.” She clamped her thighs harder against him and tipped back her head. Through clenched teeth, she growled, “Give it to me. Every drop. Make me scream when you come. I want to feel your cock jerking inside me.”

He’d give her anything, and that was certainly easy enough.

“Fuck.
Fuck
.” His claws extended, and he punctured the mattress as his cock expended his load. She shuddered beneath him. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she panted wordlessly, seeming unable to catch her breath. Her pussy clamped around his cock repeatedly as she found her orgasm, squeezing every bit of ejaculate from him and practically holding him captive—not that he minded. He’d stay inside her forever if he could. He liked her saying his name—liked the attention she paid him. It made the lone wolf want to heel for her and do her bidding.

He wanted her in his space—his inner sanctum. Just her, and no one else.