Ivy set her phone down on her coffee table and took a sip of the wine she’d poured to celebrate the completion of her thesis. But after receiving Brick’s message, she was a bundle of nerves, anticipating what would happen once he arrived.

She’d been about to give herself to him right before her insane father burst back into her reality. But days had passed since that heated passionate moment, which reminded her of her sparse dating history.

It isn’t like I’m a virgin. But it has been a while.

Suddenly self-conscious, she made her way to the bathroom and turned on the shower. As she stepped in, she thought about everything that had happened in her life and Brick’s entry into it. When she bumped into him at her shop and looked into his eyes, she knew from that moment, she belonged to him, and it was against that archaic and misogynistic thought she’d fought.

After scrubbing herself with a floral-scented gel soap and shaving her legs and underarms, she glanced down at her pussy and considered the message it would send to Brick if he touched her, and she was bare. She had no doubt that he would know she had prepared that part of herself for him. She filled her hand with more foam, and her heart rate increased, as she spread it over her mound, imagining it were him doing it.

If we get this far, and he says anything about it, I’ll just say I keep it that way because it’s cleaner. I’m a scientist. He should believe that.

Once she was done, she placed her razor into the holder and shut off the water. With a towel wrapped around her body, she stepped out of the tub and went to the bathroom vanity. She applied a bit of eyeliner, mascara, and clear lip gloss and then went to her closet.

It would be silly for me to dress up, but I want to look nice.

After selecting a hot pink sundress, she laid it on the bed. She opened her dresser drawer and brought out a matching lavender bra and panty set.

Then, at the sound of a knock on her door, she called out, “I’ll be right there!”

She slipped the clothing on as fast as she could and then rushed to greet him. Looking through the peephole, she saw Brick—some of him, anyway—and opened the door.

“Hi. Come on in.”

“Thanks.” He stepped over the threshold, dipping his head to be sure to clear the frame. After entering the small space, he turned around and handed her a bouquet of magnolia blossoms wrapped in green paper. “For you.”

“So pretty! I’ll go put them in some water. Please, have a seat.”

Ivy went to the kitchen, opened a cabinet, and removed a clear glass vase. She turned on the tap and filled it almost full. After removing the ribbon and the paper, she put the flowers in it, as she watched Brick from the pass-through. He was sitting on her couch, almost taking up the entire thing, with his arms stretched out on the back of it.

How the hell are we going to fit on my full-sized bed? Maybe he’ll ravish me on the floor instead. Shaking her head, she admonished her inner thoughts. Why do I keep thinking we’re going to fuck? Because I want to. Oh, do I ever want to. Gah! Get yourself together.

“Everything okay?”

“Uh-huh!’

She walked into the living room and set the arrangement on the table.

“Thank you, Brick.”

“Whenever I think of you, the scent of magnolias fills me.” He gazed up at her. “You look beautiful, Ivy.”

He patted the space beside him, and after smoothing her hands over her dress, she sat down.

“Oh, would you like a glass of wine?”

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

Ivy began to stand, but Brick placed a hand on her thigh, stopping her.

“Let me get it.”

“Glasses are in the cupboard by the fridge.”

Brick stood and carefully maneuvered through her apartment. A moment later, she heard the sounds of the doors creaking open and then shutting. When he came back, he had not only a goblet, but another bottle and a corkscrew.

“You might be a light weight,” he said as he sat, “but I’m not.”

“Brick, you’re not in pain, are you?”

“From the Hunger?” She nodded. “I think I emptied all the bins at the buffet that Duke and I went to, so at the moment, no.” Pouring his glass almost full, he said, “So, tell me about how today went. You got it all finalized and sent off?”

“Yes. I reviewed all of my notes of things I needed to triple check and then emailed it to Moira. She’ll perform the scientific peer review and then submit it formally. She’s like my academic manager.”

“How long until you hear back from whoever it’s going to?”

“It could be six months. Maybe a year. I really don’t know.”

“Enough time for you to relocate?”

“Oh.” She took a gulp of her drink. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

“I’m not saying right now, like this week, or this month, even. But I’m hoping that after you agree, I can get the plans for our home drafted and have it built for us.”

“On the Cross Plains’ land?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell me about where you live, Brick.”

She leaned into him, and he placed his arm around her, urging her gently to his side.

“It’s beautiful, Ivy. Large trees cover the whole area. My ancestors planted them. Outside of the main base of operations, the property extends for miles and miles in all directions. When I was growing up, sometimes Ruth and I would lie in the tall grasses and watch the stars, as they trekked across the night sky. She told me stories about the constellations and how they were connected to our wolves.”

“I’m so sorry, Brick.”

She reached for his hand, and he took it.

“It’s in the past, and the man who murdered her is dead now.”

“I’m glad he is. He messed me up so badly in so many ways.” She’d decided to be honest with the man her heart had chosen. “I’m the way I am because of him.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not soft. I’m not like other women. Each time he tried to tell me my place was below him, I rebelled. With every mention of me being less than him because I was a female, I swore to be the best that I could be. My mother was desperate to get away. She met another man—one who truly loved her and happened to be a shifter, but she didn’t care about that. And when she ran off with him...” She paused, looking down at her lap. “...she didn’t take me with her.” Her voice broke, and Brick took her other hand in his.

“I’m sorry, Ivy.”

“I was hurt at the time and angry, but as I got older, I dealt with it the best I could, silently plotting my escape and hoarding any money I was able to steal from him. He’d always been prejudiced against your kind. Like he said, he named me what he did as a fuck you in his own weird defense of humanity. But after she left, his tirades and the people he associated with got worse and worse. By the time I left, I hated hearing Vida more than anything, and I swore to never allow a man to have the upper hand over me. When I grew up, I found my mom, and we’re great now. She explained how she tried to escape with both of us, but—”

“Ivy.”

“Hmm?”

“Sit up, baby, and look at me. Please.”

She did as he requested, and he took her glass and set it on the table. Placing his hand on the back of her neck, he gazed into her eyes.

“Vida means victory or life, depending on the language, French or Portuguese. You know that?”

“Uh-huh.”

Stunned silent, she could only sit and ponder her prior judgments about the man beside her and how different he was from what she thought of him.

“Regardless of why he chose that name, it fits who you are, an accomplished woman and feisty, too. I respect your demands to be equal, and to me, you are. If you were a shifter, I could see you running your own pack with great success.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“I do. You carry yourself with high expectations not only of yourself, but also of others. Look at what you created with your thesis—what you dared to do, bucking the establishment. It’s unheard of, Ivy. At least, in my world, it is. You yanked the reins of your life from your father. You owned it completely and embarked on a journey by yourself. That’s fearless. You started a business and ran it alone. You’ve made your own rules to live by. And though you say you’re hardened, baby, you’re not. You care for those in danger and try to protect them to the point of risking your life, like you did for Billy, a little boy you didn’t know. Those are qualities of a leader with merit.”

“I appreciate that, Brick.”

“It’s the truth as I see it, and I wish I hadn’t tried so hard to block it. We’re perfect together, Ivy. Ruth used to tell me, ‘The universe knows,’ and I laughed. Not so much now.”

“But I don’t want to be called that anymore. That name is not me.”

“And you won’t. That’s long in the past, and it won’t see the light of day again, but there’s something else you need to understand. You know that I’m the alpha of our clan. I’m the leader of my pack but also of our military, The Enlisted. I give the orders, and they are followed precisely.”

Her heart, soaring before at his praise, then sank. She longed for him but not for the life he was presenting to her.

“I won’t obey you just because you tell me to do something.”

He smiled, leaned closer to her, and then went on, his words a rumbling in his chest, “Let me finish. That doesn’t apply to you. It never will, but I want to be the strength that you rely on. You won’t be alone anymore.”

It took her a moment to find her voice, and when she did, it came out trembling. “Good. Because the first time it happens, I’m out, regardless of our...” She pointed a shaking finger first to him and then to her. “...connection.”

“It’s overwhelming…” He began closing the distance between them. “...isn’t it?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Unstoppable,” he whispered. His sweet breath, with hints of the wine he’d drunk, wafted over her parted lips. “Touch me, Ivy. I want you.”

Lifting her hand, she placed it on his cheek, feeling the stubble of his five o’clock shadow. Once again, the sense of belonging, of completing her destiny by being with him, rose in her heart.

His lips were so close to hers, and she wondered if he was waiting for her to press her mouth to his. But then, with the tip of his finger at the side of her face, he urged her to him, joining them together in a soft kiss. As it lingered, the intensity between them began to build inside her into a desperation to have more of him, to give all of herself to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him to her in a tight grip. Heat bloomed through her body, and her clit began to pound, thumping in time with her heartbeat.

“Oh, God!”

His tongue slipped between her lips, and she opened wider, letting him taste and take her in a blazing of passion.

“Mmmmm…” he groaned. “I smell you, baby.”

She shivered at his low growl, as she grew wetter, hotter for Brick than she had for any other man in her past, while any doubts that remained were decimated.

Her walls clenched and released, as the memory of the picture he’d sent to her came to mind. She wanted to have his skin meet hers, to feel that painful bliss, as he stretched her until she was completely filled.

Moving to her neck, he licked her flesh, before his fingers plunged into her hair. She leaned her head to the side to give him all of her that he wanted, letting him control her.

Suddenly he stopped and whispered in her ear, “Am I going too fast, baby?”

“No. You’re not.” She sighed in pleasure, as her breasts felt heavier, her nipples peaked, and her breaths came in fast pants of desire. Despite what she’d told him earlier, she was ready to get on her knees to plead with him to make love to her. The legendary Hunger had hit her, and no meal could satisfy her craving. Only his touch would quench her relentless, uncontrollable desire. “Please don’t stop, Brick.”

“Commands like that from my mate, I’ll always follow.”

Grasping him by the sides of his head, she pulled away and looked him in the eyes.

“Shut up and fuck me. I’ve been on fire for you since you walked into my shop.”

And with that, Brick stood and lifted her into his arms.

“That way,” Ivy said, as she pointed and rose to press her lips to his neck.

After they went into the room, he set her down on her feet and tipped her chin up.

“You know what I want, what I’m craving, and you want me to have it, too, don’t you?”

“Yes, Brick! I do! Please!”

Then he slipped the straps of her dress down her arms, revealing the lavender and lace. The garment fell to the floor at her feet, and she stepped out of it, kicking it away. A low and deep growl emanated from him, and she trembled, as a bit of moisture slid down her thigh.

Reaching over, he unhooked the clasp behind her back, and her bra dropped, uncovering her breasts. Upon seeing them, he cupped them in his hands, grazing her raised buds with the pads of his thumbs. Back and forth he went, watching her reactions with rapt attention.

She whimpered at the yearning growing inside of her, and his eyes darkened at the sound. Wrapping an arm around her, he lifted her up and sucked one of her nipples into his hot mouth.

“Oh!” she shouted at the sensations trilling through her at each pull of his lips.

As his teeth grazed over it, she threw her head back.

With his other hand, he ripped the last bit of cloth from her hips and plunged his finger inside her channel, and she raised her legs, placing them around his waist. He went to her other breast, giving it the same attention as the first. She rocked against him, loving what he was giving her but desperate for so much more.

Releasing her nipple, he groaned, as he slid her down his chest until they were eye to eye.

“Baby, I’m hungry again… starving… and there’s only one thing that’s going to satisfy me.”

Once her feet hit the floor, her knees buckled at his statement, and he caught her before she dropped to the carpet.

Swooping her back up into his arms, he stepped over to the bed and laid her gently down onto it. He stood and whipped his shirt over his head, his muscles flexing with his movements.

“Oh, my God!” she murmured in appreciation of his chiseled body, anticipating running her hands and mouth over him.

Grasping her legs at her ankles, he spread them as wide as his reach and her flexibility would allow and then lowered to her center. She listened, as he inhaled and exhaled short and quick, skimming the tip of his nose through her drenched slit, while she squirmed, pressing her ass into the mattress.

“Now that I’ve got you where I want you, you’re not getting away, Ivy.”

His hands slid up her legs, over her stomach and to her breasts, gathering their weight to hold them, as his head dipped to taste her.

“Mmmm…” he groaned.

And she followed with her own at the sensations of his tongue on her most sensitive spot. Her fingers went into his hair, and she rubbed his scalp in silent encouragement, as her clit thickened. His knuckles kneaded her nipples, pulling and releasing, mimicking the way he was pleasuring her pussy.

“Brick!”

He went at her harder, faster, first licking over her bundle of nerves and then sucking on it. The bed rocked with the motions of his hands and head, and her legs trembled in the air as he built her up.

“So good,” he growled, not slowing in the least, not giving her any mercy from his sensual assault. He flicked his eyes to hers, and she shivered at the unconcealed longing in them. After another rumbling in his chest, his voice dropped lower at the same time his head did. “Still hungry.”

No man had ever focused as intently on, or shown as much enjoyment of, her body. The sounds he was making and the unbridled fervor for her he was showing were shooting her towards her crest.

“Oooo!”

“Come for me, baby,” he whispered, looking up into her face, as he spread her lips open, before bending down once again to devour more of her pussy. “Give me what I want.”

“Br... Br... Brick!”

A moment later, her climax hit, and she shouted her release, “Aaaahh!” as he grasped her ankles, keeping her spread.

Thinking he would stop, like her other lovers had, she lifted her head to see what he would say or do next. But he stayed where he was, stopping her when she tried to close her thighs.

“Not yet,” he said, pressing them farther apart. “I’m not done.”

She felt his tongue slip inside her, drinking her orgasm, and then he began eating her again with a pointed intensity. Letting go of one of her legs, he plunged two fingers inside her, the pounding of them and her juices making a wet smacking sound.

“Brick!” she cried, her flesh still tingling, sensitive, and pulsing from how hard she’d come. “I can’t! Not yet!”

“Yes, you can,” he said, lifting his head, pausing to look at her glistening clit, as he circled his lips with his tongue and swallowed. “And yes, you will. No matter what I told you earlier, I am the alpha in bed. You’ll come until I’m satisfied, Ivy. This won’t end a second sooner. I won’t be denied.”

“Aaahh!” she cried at the dominant words she’d secretly craved to hear fall from his lips, as his gravelly tone sped her to yet another crest.

Moments later, he took her over the edge once more.