Maybe she was trying to distract herself more than she was trying to distract Bard, but honestly? She just didn’t give a damn.

Here, now, she didn’t want to worry about tomorrow, didn’t want to worry about the outside world.

She had an incredibly sexy, oh-so-incredibly sweet man who was as interested in her as she was in him.

He chased away the fear of being alone, of being forever trapped outside in the cold; and instead made her want to dance barefoot with him, to spend long nights curled up in front of a roaring fire while the storm raged on outside, to laugh with him, tease him, and even get into arguments over silly things.

She had no illusions that life would ever be perfect.

It wasn’t perfection that made life interesting.

It was fighting over leaving the toilet seat up by getting revenge by using his razor to shave your legs.

It was getting so distracted by stealing a kiss, you end up banging your knee on the coffee table.

It was knowing that all though you may get into heated arguments, in the end, there was no other person you wanted to turn to when you needed a shoulder to cry on.

Life is messy. Love is messy. But as even a child can tell you, getting messy is the fun part!

And right now?

Life was kind of messy!

But with the pure, masculine scent of Bard wrapping around her, with her lips pressed against the heat of his damp flesh, with his large, powerful hands gently massaging her shoulders; Harper couldn’t think of anywhere else she’d rather be.

Wanting to taste him, she lapped at his salty skin, drawing a hiss from him and a flexing of those incredible abdominal muscles.

Mmm, I could get used to this!

Glancing up at him from beneath lowered lashes, seeing the focused intensity on his handsome face and those radiant blue eyes showing that both sides of his nature were intent on her; she pressed a kiss lower down, where the broken fastener of his jeans gaped open, revealing the hint of golden curls.

“Darling,” he groaned, squeezing her shoulders as he struggled between the urge to pull her closer and push her away. “You don’t have to…”

“No, I don’t,” she agreed. “But I want to.”

When she looked down, she could see the thick ridge of his cock pulsing to life, growing before her fascinated eyes.

It was purely because she didn’t want him to be uncomfortable that she reached up and carefully unzipped his jeans, letting his cock bob free.

Seeing him in the full, unbiased light of day for the first time, Harper gawked.

How the Hell did that fit inside of me? Go team!

Sliding his jeans down over his hips, she watched as his cock continued to swell, engorging with blood, the thick veins pulsating as the wide shaft slowly but surely curved upwards until it was poised directly in front of her.

His glans was flushed a deep scarlet, the flared crown sliding the smooth, ivory skin back to emerge from the hood of skin that protected it. The purple and blue veins gave his, otherwise, smooth shaft impressive ridges, leading down the length to disappear into the thatch of curls that flared around the base and covered his heavy testes.

Even his thick thighs were covered with a rather thick dusting of silky, dark golden hairs, and as she forced the jeans further down (God bless, did the man paint them on? How the heck did he manage to even move in them?) she saw that he really hadn’t exaggerated. From the waist down, he was nearly a yeti, compared to the relative smoothness of his recently waxed chest.

Yet, despite the density of the hair, it was silky smooth, and so fine and silky, it just made his untanned legs look more golden from a distance.

He shuffled on his huge feet, his hands still firmly planted on her shoulders, drawing her attention back up to his face. He was watching her studying him, and the hint of vulnerability on his face about broke her heart.

“Baby, how could you doubt just how beautiful you are?” Harper asked in honest confusion. “You’re…more than I could have ever dreamed for.”

There went his grin, brightening his entire face. He had one of those faces that completely transformed from mood-to-mood. When he was serious, his face was stark, the line of his jaw stubborn jaw, with those sharp cheekbones romance novels always went on about. But when he grinned, when it lit his eyes, he went from Norwegian runway model to wickedly-boyish Viking.

Cupping her cheeks in his calloused fingers, he leaned down and kissed her with a sweet, slow tenderness. “That’s good, darling…because I’m afraid you’re stuck with me. I’ll be thanking the Norns for the rest of my life because I’m the one that got the better end of this deal. I get a creative, intelligent, beautiful woman whose heart I plan on keeping. You get an old, grumpy beast who’s little more than a blacksmith and doesn’t really have any big desire to do anything else than spend the rest of his life taking care of you and our pups.”

“You’re all I ever wanted, but didn’t know existed,” Harper answered, then grinned impishly, “Outside of romance novels, but you’ve already shown me that the reality of an alpha werewolf mate is so much better than the fantasy.”

Chuckling against her lips, he nipped the pouty lower one and growled huskily, “Yeah, well, just you remember that when we get into a wrestling match over the remote control.”

Reaching up, Harper wrapped his swaying, heavy cock in her hand, her grin turning wicked as he groaned, eyes rolling up in his head as he instinctively thrust his hips into her touch.

“Oh, I’ll remember, darling,” she murmured in a sweet, honeyed drawl as she let her fingers fully explore him.

He had started to go soft as they talked, but as the blood flowed away from big brain to little brain, it swelled rapidly within her grasp, swiftly proving to be more than a handful.

Thick as her wrist—and she was not a ‘small-boned’ woman—and long; his cock had a wicked upward curve that had already proven more than capable of ensuring he hit all the right spots in the best possible way.

There was no way humanly possible she was going to be able to get much of him down her throat, not without a lot of practice—despite what the romance novels promised! She may be a witch, but she was still basically human. No shapeshifting, no body magically adapting. Hellfire, they were going to have to work up to even considering anal!

Yet, despite the scary idea of him burying his tree trunk in her…how did those romance novels phrase it? Oh yeah, up her forbidden entrance…she had to admit to a little thrill. More practice.

The thought of all those ‘practice’ sessions had her own sex growing damp, the inner muscles clenching in anticipation of having him once more buried completely, deeply inside of her in any way, every way possible.

No time like the present to start practicing! Harper thought to herself with a small grin as she leaned in, and used the tip of her tongue to taste the glistening drop her touch had elicited from the throbbing cock jerking in her fingers.

The taste of him was a little sweet, a little musky and wild. It was unique, and as it spread over her tongue, she found herself craving more.

Before she consciously realized what she was doing, she was swirling her tongue around his exposed glans, wrapping her lips around the cap of his cock while her hands begin to firmly, slowly milk the length of him.

Feeling his massive, powerful body tremble, his hands gently kneading her shoulders, hearing the whimpering groans he tried to fight back, as if he were afraid to unleash himself, was as heady as the taste of him.

Sure enough, she soon discovered, she could only take so much of him into her mouth. Fighting back the urge to gag, which made her self-conscious and was decidedly unsexy, she drew back for breath and looked up at him. As she parted her lips to apologize, the glazed look in his eyes was swiftly replaced by focus, and his hand moved to gently cup her cheek, his thumb tracing over her lower lip.

“Baby, no rush… fuck, already so damned good. Gods and goddesses, you’re so fucking beautiful.”

Leaning down, he hooked his arms beneath hers and hauled her up against his chest, his lips crashing down on hers as he kissed her with desperate hunger.

His hands gripped her ass, squeezing tight and grinding against her, branding her with the raw, potent heat of his cock through the thin fabric of her Yoga pants.

Tearing his head away, his eyes burned as he growled, “You have five seconds to get undressed, darling…better hurry, or I’m just going to tear your clothes off.”

Letting her go, he stepped back. Once. Twice. And then loomed there, chest heaving, every muscle standing in stark relief against his pale skin as he watched her with avid concentration.

“One,” he rumbled.

Quickly, Harper began tugging herself out of her sports bra, her hair coming loose from the pony tail to fall around her shoulders in a messy cascade of waves.

“Two,” his voice deepened even more, if possible.

Scrambling now, she sat down to tug off her cross trainers, tossing them aside as he snarled, “Three.”

With hands trembling more from desire than anything remotely approaching fear, she shoved both her panties and Yoga pants down, wriggling as she squirmed out of the elastic fabric to his ominously gritted, “Four.”

Looking up as she finally kicked off the last of her clothes, her shuddering breaths caught in her throat as she caught sight of her Viking, looking more feral than she had ever seen him. Even more so than when he had attempted to attack his brothers.

It’s not that he had completely wolfed out. His face was still human, he wasn’t covered with a thick pelt of fur, but he had never looked more dangerous. He was pure, raw, dominant male and everything feminine within her yearned towards him.

Inhaling deeply, his eyes slid shut and his chest swelled, making those already impressive muscles flare until it seemed he had doubled in size. Opening his eyes, those orbs blazing with the white-hot incandescence of twin stars, his grin was the epitome of “wolfish” as she caught sight of those gleaming fangs.

“Five.”

Squeaking, Harper instinctively pulled back, twisting to crawl up over the bed, scrambling to escape the Beast as he pounced.

Big, clawed hands seized her hips firmly, powerfully yanking her back until her ass was nestled in the crook of his hips and his chest was leaning against her back. He was just taller than her enough that he could rest his bearded jaw on her shoulder, and as he curled his entire body around her kneeling one, she felt completely engulfed.

“Darling, rousing the Beast can be a dangerous game,” the heavy rumble of his voice thrummed through his deep chest, and the slow, steady grinding of his thick length in the cleft of her ass had her shuddering in anticipation. “But this time…you’re in control, my sweet Harper.”

He pulled away suddenly, leaving her shivering in the sudden chill as the heat of his body left hers. Turning her head, she saw him laying down beside her, shifting unto his back and leaving his cock angrily slapping against his taut stomach.

Patting his thighs, he said in a husky, teasing voice, “Come on, darling, hop on.”

Then, the lazy bastard crossed his arms behind his head, trying to adopt an indolent pose, but his eyes traveled over her exposed body greedily.

Sneaky, evil wolves. Rev up her engines, then lay back and let her do the work?

Game on!

This time, she stalked. Slowly, she crawled over his prone body, letting her breasts graze over his chest as she came astride him. When he made to move his hands, to reach for her breasts, she shook her head and waved a finger at him.

“Keep your hands there, baby. I’ve got this,” she said as she cupped her own breasts, presenting them teasingly just out of reach of his parted lips as she rhythmically rocked her hips.

She gloried in the feel of his thick shaft parting her vulva, the heat of his throbbing organ against the raw, exposed flesh of her aching labia.

Whimpering, she shifted her hips, rocking a little harder, a little faster, letting her desire for this man slick his length as her hands moved from her own breasts to stroke over that gloriously exposed expanse of his powerful torso.

She lost herself in tender exploration, letting her fingertips graze feather-soft over his skin, over his nipples. She was fascinated by how they swiftly contracted into hard, tight nubs, by the sharp inhalation of his breath as he arched up into her hands when her nails flicked them.

She could have spent hours just touching him, stroking him, petting him, as he shifted and twisted, pressing into her hands with eager, soft groans and sharp, abrupt gasps. Yet, the more she teased him, the more she ached, the hotter she burned…and the emptier she felt.

“Bard,” she whimpered, meeting his burning eyes as she lifted her hips. Dipping her hand between her legs, she caught his bobbing shaft, slick with the mingled essence of her arousal and his own. Guiding him to her entrance, the fat glans spread her wide, and she began to sink down on him.

Finding permission in her wanton cry, Bard’s hands came from behind his head, curling around her ass, holding her steady as he let her set her own pace.

Biting her lip, she sank slowly down unto him, eyes closing as she savored the feel of being filled with him once again. Forcing herself to relax, she engulfed more and more of him, until finally, he was deeply seated within her.

“Oh gods, darling…” he groaned, his entire body tensing, a light sheen of perspiration making his body slick as he strained up into her. “So fucking good…that’s it, baby… all you, all for you. Take what you need…”

So, she did. With his strong fingers digging into her ass, she rode her wolf; his hips flexed as he matched her tempo, biceps swelling as he bodily lifted her then let her go, surging up to drive his cock repeatedly into her.

Soon, any semblance of rhythm abandoned them both as they lost themselves in a wild, relentless pace.

Gripping the back of her neck, he surged up and twisted his body, coming down atop of her as he seized control with a guttural growl. Spreading his legs, using his thighs to spread her wide open, he kept one hand curled around the back of her head, her face buried against his shoulder, while his other hand kneaded her ass.

He fucked her. Hard, fast, with all the ferocity of a rutting beast. Yet, every snap of his hips, every slap of his balls against her ass, every stab of his glans against her cervix, drew strangled screams of pleasure from her.

Her nails raked his back as her lips nuzzled up his neck. When she nipped at his shoulder, his snarls grew even more guttural, a faint whimper keening at the back of his throat.

Harper could never say what seized her in that moment, but without hesitation, she struck. Her teeth sank into the crook of his neck as she exploded; fireworks bursting through her vision as she muffled her scream of pleasure against his flesh.

Bard was not quite so reticent in the sound of his release. His howl rang out, primal, ecstatic, purely wolf as he buried himself one last time inside of her with a final thrust, then held himself there as he exploded, filling her with his heat.

The last thought to cross her conscious mind before she slid into oblivion was a single, growled word.

Mine.