Chapter Eight
Shane tried not to be giddy when her image came onto his screen. She was so damned beautiful. More than he’d remembered.
He said so. “Wow, I’ve missed your face.”
She laughed and the sound tightened things in his gut.
“What’s for dinner?” She took a sip from a glass and he wished he were there to lick away the bead of glistening liquid on her lip.
He cleared his throat. His yearning for her had been hard to endure but seeing her there, seeing her and hearing her after silence brought it home until his cock ached against his zipper.
“You noticed I don’t tend to have food in my fridge. I picked up a chicken on the way home. Got some pasta to go with it and a little cheesecake for after.” He grinned. “Not as good as the stuff you cooked when you were here.” Nothing was as good as it was when she was with him.
“When you come up, I’ll cook for you every day. I promise. I like to cook. My kitchen isn’t as huge as yours but it gets the job done. So tell me about your day while I eat this leftover lasagna.”
He found himself spilling all the details of his day to her like she was right in the same room. She laughed when he told her about the mix up in his billing, charging him nine hundred million dollars instead of nine hundred. She made a concerned face when he described the difficulty he’d been having with the rest of his practice group in dealing with treating low-income patients.
“I think you’d really like Grace. She’s a doctor too and last year she started a walk-in clinic for low-income Pack members in Boston. She really loves the work. She says it’s hard for werewolves to get the kind of medical treatment they need because they’re often treated like humans, but of course, hello, not so much with the human bio systems.”
He agreed actually. He’d seen it a few times and it had driven him nuts. At the same time, her ease in bringing it up when he had such a hard time wrapping his head around it made him uncomfortable.
She sighed. “I’ve upset you, haven’t I? I don’t know how to not be straight with you. I don’t know how to not just say whatever I feel and share things that are important to me. I’m not trying to push anything on you. I’m just making conversation.”
He couldn’t lie, the link made it clear just exactly how he was feeling, even so far away. “No. I mean, yes but it’s stupid. You’re fine.” He didn’t like the distance in her eyes replacing the warmth she’d had just moments before. “I want you to share with me. I’ll get over it. So tell me about your day then.”
Silly as it was, he liked hearing her recount all her stuff. She spoke of her family with a warmth that filled him with envy. He’d never had that, although he did have a closeness with Layla and Sid, it wasn’t anything near what she seemed to share with her siblings and niece.
They spoke for three hours until her eyes began to droop and the sharp need to care for her pounded in his temples.
“Oh, baby, you’re looking like you need some rest. Go to sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”
“Wait.”
She stood and he watched, mouth gaping open, as she shrugged off her shirt and pants. Her panties and bra followed until all she wore was her creamy skin and a smile.
“Jesus.” He had to gulp down water to moisten suddenly dry lips.
Her hands slid up her belly and cupped her breasts. She moaned, low and sexy, and need, sharp and nearly painful, sliced through him.
“So, you know, I’ve missed you. Like, really missed you.” A smile curved her lips and she sat, pushing her chair back enough that he could see most of her body. Especially the way her graceful fingers kneaded and rolled her nipples.
“Are you wet?” he asked as he freed his cock one handed and stroked it lightly.
“Mmm, let me see.”
He nearly choked as he watched her fingers slide down her belly and disappear between the lips of her pussy and draw out again, glistening.
“Yes. Yes I am. Talking to you, hearing your voice and seeing your face makes me this way. When I put my fingers up into my pussy it felt so good, Shane. I need to come.”
It wasn’t like he’d never had phone sex but this was different. He wanted her desperately but he couldn’t touch her. He’d have to settle for her touching herself on his behalf while he watched.
“Keep playing with your nipples but put those fingers back in your pussy. I want you to fuck yourself nice and slow for me. Can you do that? Spread your legs wide so I can see everything.”
He watched, mesmerized as her fingers slid in and out of her pussy. He heard the wet sounds and the sense memory of her scent came to him, sharp and sudden. He wanted to come too but not until she did. He didn’t want anything to take away from the sight of her right there, just beyond his physical reach but his nonetheless.
“Baby, is your clit hard? Swollen and needy? I can remember how it felt against my tongue. The taste of you, the way you got so wet just for me.”
Her whimper made his cock jump against his palm and a bead of semen pearled at the tip. He slid his thumb through it, groaning at the sensation, imagining her mouth there instead of his hand.
She held herself open with one hand, displaying the darkened folds of her pussy to him while she fingered her clit with the other hand. She gasped. “Yes, hard and swollen. I need, oh God... I can’t stop it.”
Her hips bucked against her fingers but her gaze never left the screen, never broke from his.
He stroked his cock. Already just a razor’s edge away from climax and it wasn’t more than a few breaths before he came, her name on his lips.
She touched her lips with her finger tips. “I love you, Shane. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Christ, what a woman,” he murmured as she signed off.
* * *
It went on like that for a week and a half. Phone or video calls every night when he rushed home from work just to see her or hear her voice. He’d never found himself so willing to disconnect from work before but by three or so each day he’d found himself wrapping up mentally and he’d walked away from his office without looking over his shoulder no later than six.
He liked Megan Warden a hell of a lot. She was funny. Fierce in many ways. Intelligent and insightful on top of beautiful and totally self-assured. No other woman compared. God knew he saw hot women by the dozens every day at work or just out and about in town but none of them held his interest at all.
At times he resented that. His loss of attraction for all the women he’d been so interested in just weeks before. But more often, as the calls went on, he began to accept his feelings and attraction to Megan weren’t just the bond but that he really did enjoy her company. She’d be a compelling woman no matter what.
He had to see her and she wasn’t volunteering to come back to Vegas. Not that he could blame her. She seemed to be going out of her way to let him have the time he needed and he had promised to visit her in Seattle. So he made plans to fly up and spend a week in her territory so to speak.
But he couldn’t be gone for a week or two like he wanted because he didn’t have the coverage at work and deep down, in truth, he just wasn’t sure if he could give her that time in Seattle. Cowardly? Maybe. But he decided to start with three days and four nights to see what happened.
The flight was short enough that he could leave Thursday night after work and arrive in two hours and come back early Monday morning. Enough time to be with her, to touch her and smell her and roll around with her but not too much. He could retreat if he needed to.
He planned to meet her in just a few hours in baggage claim. Funny, sort of full circle from where they’d met before. And then dinner with her family. God knew he was nervous about it but what could he say? She wanted to introduce him to the people who mattered to her. That was important. He was important to her, which made him proud.