Braden

He smiled sheepishly at the woman silhouetted in the doorframe, hoping that he hadn’t just put Elle into the crosshairs of another round of gossip. Stepping back from her, he prepared to say his goodbyes, recognizing the end of the evening when he saw it. He’d half hoped that maybe they might just stay outside and talk for a while, though he wasn’t sure she could stomach the cold. Nor did he want to keep her away from Gwenevere for overlong.

Gwenevere. What an adorable name, he couldn’t wait to meet her daughter, though that was going to have to wait for another day. As was…well, anything else.

“I guess—” he started to say, but Elle interrupted him.

“Just hang out here, okay?” she said, patting him on the chest and turning to the other woman. “I just came back to pick something up.” Then, before either of them could say anything, she ducked under the babysitter’s outstretched arm and disappeared into the house, leaving him alone with her.

Braden thought he knew her. The face was familiar; he’d seen her around the embassy before with Rachel and Angela, but the name was escaping him. Lauren? Lana? It definitely started with an L. Laura! It’s definitely Laura.

“Hi Laura,” he said politely, trying not to let the situation get too awkward. “Having a good evening?”

She looked at him levelly. “Yes.”

Fantastic. A real conversationalist. This wasn’t going to be a painful wait at all. He smiled in response and just sort of rocked back and forth on his heels in an attempt to kill time. Let her stew on that. He wasn’t bothered by the silence, not all that much at least.

Before he could really let Laura stew though, Elle returned. “Thanks doll, I’ll be back in a bit, I promise. You’re the best!” she hugged her friend and then grabbed his arm, dragging him rather forcefully back down the walkway and out of sight of the door. The protests of Laura were lost in the distance, and when they finally heard the door close, for whatever reason, they both burst out into immediate laughter.

“What was that all about?” he said through the howls, the mental image of Laura’s astonished face enough to renew the peals once more.

“I don’t know. I just…I just, well, she looked so smug at interrupting us, and I mean, I love the girl, but there was no way I was letting her get the upper hand. You know?”

Braden guffawed some more. Eventually he stood up and looked around. “What now?”

Elle considered that for a moment, then snagged his hand with hers and dragged him along after her. “This way!”

He shrugged for a moment, and then let the woman less than half his size pull him along in her wake. It was rather cute, but after a few steps he had caught up and their clasped hands fell more evenly between them. He liked that, liked the way it felt.

Together they walked through the complex. Many of the windows were dark, he noticed. “Not a lot of people up at this hour,” he observed.

Elle looked around at the buildings. “No, that’s just the way it is now.”

“What do you mean?”

She frowned. “You’ve been here a few months now, right?”

“Yeah, about four. Why?”

“Well, a lot of the residents have left.”

“Where’d they go?”

“Family. Friends. Moving in with the locals. Many of the places are empty now. The population has dwindled heavily.”

“I…I hadn’t realized that,” he admitted, feeling a little silly. One of the major parts of his job was ensuring that the women were looked after and safe. He should have noticed that there was only a fraction of the original number still there. “How many are left?”

“Maybe a third? Some will never leave, of course. But most of us are hoping that, as our kids get older, we can find jobs, start saving up. Doing something like that, you know?”

Braden nodded. He understood the desire to be able to provide for one’s offspring. Thankfully Elle wouldn’t have to worry about that any longer, but the others would. Cadia would look after them for as long as they needed, but he knew that they only received a minimum from his homeland. None of the women were getting rich, that was for sure.

They reached a grassy area between buildings that was piled high with snow.

“Come on!” Elle said, tugging him off the shoveled area and into the snow. “You gotta help me.”

“Of course!” he said, jumping into the snowbank. “But, uh, what am I helping you with?”

“Building a snowman of course, silly!” she said, gently lofting a snowball his direction. “It’s packing snow after all!”

He caught the snowball, spun, and let it sail through the air until it splattered against her arm. Elle laughed and then beckoned for him to come join her as she started clumping snow together to make the base. They worked side by side to pack it in tight.

“There, that should do, right?” she said, standing back and clapping her gloved together hands to rid them of excess snow.

“Should,” he agreed. His hands were uncovered and snow was streaming off them as it melted from the contact, taking droplets of water with it. “On to the next layer?”

“Yeah!”

The snowman ended up being four “stories” high, but neither of them cared. It looked awesome. They found some pinecones for eyes and a stick for a nose and then some bark for a mouth. Three pebbles made up the buttons of the coat.

“A masterpiece if I do say so myself,” he said stepping back to admire their handwork. “Now, stand next to it.”

He pulled out his phone, enjoying the way Elle’s eyes lit up at the prospect of taking a picture. It was one feature of his phone that he’d worked hard to master the use of. Braden still was no expert, but he could use it now, and that was better than most of his peers. Technology and shifters wasn’t really a thing, and even he didn’t totally embrace it.

“Okay, now come take a selfie with us!”

“A what?”

She laughed. “Right, shifters. You flip the camera around, and then hold it out in front of you and take a self-picture. Commonly known as a selfie.”

“Ah. Okay.” He still had no idea how to do that.

“Here,” she said, motioning for the phone with another giggle. He watched her fiddle with it, then hand it back. “You have longer arms. Just hold it out in front of you, and use your thumb to press the big red button on the screen.”

He followed her instructions, and the camera flashed. They looked at the picture, with the snowman sandwiched between them, and smiled.

“That turned out really good!” she said, coming around the front of the snowman and resting both her hands on his chest as he put the phone away. “You’re not bad at the selfie game.”

“Beginner’s luck, I promise.”

Elle laughed and he felt his spirit lift at the sound. She just had the most beautiful laughter; it made him buzz with happiness every time he heard it.

“It’s okay, I’ll make sure you have plenty of practice.”

He smiled uneasily, not entirely sure how to take said comment. It sounded good, but…but… Whatever else he was going to think vanished as his brain suddenly clued in on the fact that Elle was no longer just resting her hands on his chest, but was actually full on leaning into him as he leaned back against the snowman.

Her face was incredibly close to his. He watched as she sort of bounced back and forth a little, looking up at him as she did. It was very…very tempting to just sort of stick his neck out as she came “down” on her bounce and see what happened.

“I’m not very photogenic,” he said, his voice growing a little tighter and dropping a level or two as he spoke.

“Bullshit. You’re the most handsome man I’ve seen, practically ever. You have the bone structure of a model.”

She said the whole thing with a little smile, the corners of her lips curling upward just a bit. It made her look irresistible. His animal growled in his mind, urging him, telling him that now was the time. Braden needed to seize the moment, and just do it. Kiss her, and then the rest would take care of itself. It wanted her, it needed her, and it was tired of him denying it.

His bear wasn’t all that good with telling time, or realizing that it had only been a few days since he met her. That wasn’t very long at all, but it didn’t care about that. Braden did though. He needed to. He had to keep in mind how she would react, and…

She’s leaning on you, looking up at you, and she just tucked her hair behind her ear…

Oh fuck it.

This time Braden’s growl was audible as he leaned forward, not hesitating. His lips touched hers and Elle shivered. His hands wrapped around her waist and he lifted her clear of the ground with casual ease, earning a peep of surprise from her.

But that was all. She leaned in to the kiss with passion, opening her mouth as he explored it eagerly, wanting to know all of her. Her back arched and fingernails dug deep into the skin of his back as she clutched at him while he wrapped one long arm underneath her shapely ass and held her aloft. His arm didn’t even tremble.

He could feel his body as it started pumping out even more heat, on fire everywhere she touched him. The blood in his veins was burning now, and he longed to be able to take her, to make her his. But he couldn’t. Not yet. Not until she was ready.

Eventually they pulled apart for air, both parties breathing heavily. Elle stared up at him with wide eyes, her pupils dilated to the max. Her lower lip curled up and she bit it in a manner that caused a visible stir below his waist.

“This is fun and all,” she said, still struggling to draw in air. “But I should really be getting back. I don’t want to piss Laura off too much.”

He nodded, letting her down, careful not to drag her over the bulge in his crotch. The last thing he wanted was for her to give him a gentle rub or drag of her fingertips that would send him home with aching testicles. Easier just to not have anything at all.

They walked back to her place, casting covert glances back and forth at one another. Braden smiled and shook his head. “I feel like I’m fifteen again.”

Elle laughed, some of the nervous tension fading. “Yeah. My heart feels like it’s ready to explode.”

He looked at her sidelong. “So I’ll see you again?”

“Maybe,” she said, a twinkle in her eye as they approached the end of the walkway that led to her door.

“Well, that’s better than a no,” he mused, coming to a halt next to her.

Neither of them wanted to stop at the door this time.

“It is, isn’t it?” she teased, jumping up on her tiptoes and pulling his cheek down to her level so she could kiss it. “Call me.”

Then she darted for the door and went inside.

Braden stood around for a moment, his face fighting to stay calm. Once he was sure nobody was watching, he punched the air in front of him several times and pumped his fist, letting out a hissed, “Yes!”

Then he straightened up and with a quick look over his shoulders to ensure nobody had seen him, strolled quickly down the gravel road that was the “street” among the complex of buildings.

Life was looking good.