Chapter 18
“Abraham, I thought we talked about this.”
He chuckled, as he carried over a tray overloaded with food. “Some of it’s for me too.” He set it on the coffee table and took a seat next to me. “I know you haven’t been eating much this week, and if I had to make a guess, I bet you didn’t stop for dinner on your way out here.”
I made a face, and he chuckled again before leaning over and kissing my cheek.
“Thought so,” he said with a smug smile.
I rolled my eyes but wasted no time filling a plate with the food he’d brought for us.
He was right.
I hadn’t been eating. Most of the time, I had no appetite, but even when I did, the food always tasted wrong. Even old favorites of mine couldn’t entice me to eat more than a few bites before giving up.
My stomach took that opportunity to rumble. I shot Abraham a warning look out of the corner of my eye, and to his credit, he had the good sense to act like he hadn’t heard it.
We dug into the food, both of us relaxing in the silence stretching between us. Every once in a while, I’d catch him watching me and we’d share a smile before returning our attention to our plates. When I couldn’t possibly fit another bite in my mouth, I pushed away from the table and leaned back on the couch with a groan.
“Full?” he asked, the smile clear in his voice.
“Shut up.”
He laughed loudly, the sound echoing off the trees surrounding the lodge. I ignored him until he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me onto his lap. “Don’t be embarrassed, baby,” he crooned into my ear. “I’m happy to see you eat.”
I couldn’t remember a time when anyone in my life ever cared about whether I ate or not. Even when I was a child, most meals were spent with my nannies and they weren’t paid enough to care if I finished my dinner.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned in close, so I could smell his addicting scent. “I’m just happy to be here with you.”
He pulled me even closer and kissed the side of my head. “Me too, baby.”
I curled up in his lap, my head beneath his chin, and sighed. “Thank you for everything. No one’s ever done anything like this for me before.”
His hands squeezed my hips. “Good,” was his only answer, and I rolled my eyes in response.
Men.
“I have something I want to ask you,” Abraham said a while later.
I pulled back, so I could look in his eyes. “What’s up?”
“We’re having a family dinner Sunday night, and I was hoping you’d come with me to pick up my grandma.”
I pulled back even farther.
“Family dinner?”
He nodded.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
He frowned. “Why wouldn’t it be a good idea?”
“Abraham, I’ve never met your grandma. I don’t want to intrude on you and your sisters’ time with her.”
“El, grandma’s dying to meet you. I don’t know what I’m gonna tell her if you won’t come to dinner.”
I sat up straighter. “What do you mean she’s dying to meet me?”
“I told her all about you. If we don’t go get her she might just come on her own.”
“Why would she want to meet me?” I asked, my voice small.
Abraham pulled me closer and kissed my face. “I know this world is new to you, but I’ve lived in it my whole life. We all know how unlikely it is for a wolf to find their fated mate.”
I guess I hadn’t really thought that hard about this fated mate business. It was such a foreign concept to me, I think I’d just pushed it aside. But, now it was in the foreground, and I had a chance to really examine the idea.
What did fated mates even mean?
I understood that it made it hard for us to be apart and supposedly we couldn’t live if the other died, but how did that work?
“How do fated mates happen?” I asked, hoping he could answer one of the dozens of questions circling my brain.
“We don’t know a lot about them because they’re pretty rare. Legend has it that after the shepherd lost his wife, he went crazy. Couldn’t deal with the loss. They say the magic morphed after that and created fated mates for wolves because of him. Because if his wife had been his fated mate, he would have died with her instead of living on in agony.”
“That’s awful.”
I couldn’t imagine losing someone I loved like that. Couldn’t imagine being in a place where death was preferable to living. But, then I looked at Abraham and wondered how I’d make it if something happened to him.
“If fated mates are so rare, how do you know so much about them? How do you know they can’t live without the other? Maybe that’s just a myth.”
Abraham shook his head sadly. “I’ve seen it. My parents were fated mates.”
I took a moment to absorb his words before I opened my mouth. “They passed away, right?” I’d noticed Abraham and his sisters always spoke of them in the past tense, but I’d never found a good time to bring it up.
He nodded. “My mom died in a car accident and my dad died of a broken heart one day later.”
I gasped. “Oh, Abraham, I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.” He shrugged.
I could tell he didn’t want to talk anymore about it, but my heart was breaking, and I felt like I needed to do something. So, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his face into my chest where I just held him. Slowly but surely, his body relaxed into my embrace.
His broad shoulders rose and fell with a huge sigh. “Are you ready for bed?”
A smile crept across my face. “I’m ready to go to bed, but I’m not ready to sleep.”
He looked at me and a sinful smile turned up the corner of his lips. “Oh? And what would you be doing if you aren’t sleeping?”
I shrugged. “You, hopefully.”
A deep growl rumbled through his chest before he abruptly stood up and swept me into his arms.
“Abraham! What are you doing?”
“I’m taking you to bed. Now.”
I laughed. “What about Charlie?”
Abraham looked around the rooftop until he spotted my tabby curled up on one of the overstuffed chairs. He stalked toward him and bent at the waist until I was eye level with my cat. Stifling a gasp at his abrupt movements, I carefully picked Charlie up and cradled him in my arms.
Abraham quickly straightened up and spun toward the door. He descended the stairs faster than I would have thought possible while carrying a full-grown woman and a cat, and within minutes, we were at his suite.
He set me down before opening the door and ushering me inside. The room looked immaculate as usual, with the comfortable-looking leather chairs perfectly placed around the space, and the pool table racked as if anticipating a game any minute.
I started to cross the room to his bedroom door when Abraham wrapped his big hand around my wrist and stopped me.
“El, hold on a second, I need to talk to you about something.”
“What’s up?”
My mind raced with what he could need to talk to me about and immediately the worse-case scenarios swam to the forefront.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I kinda’ did a thing.”
I raised a brow. “A thing?” I deadpanned.
He shrugged before looking away. “Maybe I should just show you.”
“Abraham, what’s going on?” I put a hand on his arm.
He sighed and turned to face me. “I just know how independent you are and how you don’t like accepting help, so I’m worried about how you’ll respond to gifts.”
“Gifts? For me?”
“Well, more like a gift. And it’s not really for you.”
I frowned. “Okay, now I’m more confused.”
He shook his head and grabbed my hand. “Let me just show you.”
I followed behind him dutifully as I tried to figure out what he could want to show me so badly. And, to be honest, I wasn’t the biggest fan of surprises. In my life, they’re almost always bad and I’ve learned to avoid them at all costs. But, seeing how uneasy Abraham was, I couldn’t do anything but let him lead me to whatever it was.
He pulled me through his door and to the center of the room before spinning me around to face what used to be a blank wall but was anything but, now.
The first thing that drew my eye was the giant, castle-shaped cat house in the center of the wall. It was easily five feet tall and just as wide. There were numerous hidey-holes and scratching posts for Charlie to enjoy as well as a tiny cat hammock strung between two of the castle’s turrets. Above and surrounding the castle were an intricate system of carpeted shelves and ramps that Charlie could climb up and down.
I was speechless. And that really didn’t happen to me very often.
I heard Abraham shift restlessly behind me before he spoke. “So? What do you think?”
I picked my jaw up off the floor and attempted to string a sentence together. “To be honest, I don’t know what to think.” And then, just because I needed to be sure, I asked, “You did this?”
“Yeah.”
I wrapped my arms around my waist. “Why would you do this?”
I felt the warmth of his body as he stepped closer. He grasped the tops of my shoulders and turned me around. “You don’t like it.” It wasn’t a question.
Silly man.
I placed a hand on his chest above his heart. “Abraham, it’s amazing.” I spun back around to look at the cat paradise. “I just don’t understand why.”
He stepped closer again and wrapped a thick arm around my shoulders, pulling me back into his chest. “I thought Charlie should have a place to call his own when he’s here.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “And so, you went out and bought the biggest cat tree you could find?”
“No, I built this.”
I spun in his arms. “You built this?!”
He rolled his eyes with a smile. “You do know what I do for a living, right?”
“Yes, and it’s building houses, not cat trees.”
He laughed. “Well, I guess I can put it on my resume now, right?”
I turned back to look at what he’d done. What he’d made with his own two hands just for my cat. My heart swelled inside my chest until it felt like it would burst through my ribcage.
I walked closer and set Charlie down on one of the lower levels of the cat tree. He sniffed around a bit before he took off to explore his new domain.
I’d never appreciated Abraham more.
I spun around and walked right into his arms, wrapping him up in the biggest hug I could. “Thank you so much,” I whispered into his hard chest. “I can’t believe you did this for him. He loves it.”
Abraham wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. “It was for you too.”
I looked up into his face. “Why?”
He reached up to cup my cheek. “I want you to be happy here. I want Charlie to be happy here.”
Such a simple answer that packed such a punch to my heart.
I didn’t think I was capable of coming up with the words necessary to tell him what this meant to me, so I decided to show him.
I leaned forward and found his lips with mine. They were soft and full and tasted so delicious, I moaned against his mouth.
His answering growl was like a shot of lust straight to my core.
Not wanting to waste any more time, I reached for the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it over his head. It would be a crime to not appreciate a body as magnificent as Abraham’s, so I took a moment to do just that.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I’m gonna do something about it,” he said, his voice rough and raw.
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
He quirked a brow. “Why? What do you have planned?”
I pressed my lips together and pulled my shirt off, revealing the red lace bra I’d worn just for him. His groan reverberated through the heated air between us, and I shivered. Next, I slid my pants down my legs and stepped out of them.
I stood there in nothing more than a bra and a tiny pair of panties, letting Abraham’s hungry eyes take me in. As always, I didn’t feel the need to cower from his gaze, instead I reveled in it.
When he took an unsteady step forward, hands outstretched to reach for me, I moved back.
When he frowned, I explained, “Not yet.”
The disgruntled look on his face was so adorable, I almost couldn’t take it.
Not wanting him to suffer any longer than necessary, I crossed the space between us and placed my hands on his chest. The heat of his skin scorched my palms as I ran them down to the waistband of his jeans. With a snap and a zip, his pants were opened, and I pulled them to the floor along with his boxers.
I took another quick moment to admire his masculine beauty before I dropped to my knees.
“El,” he rasped.
“Yes, baby?” I asked, using his nickname for me and liking the way it sounded coming from my lips.
He swallowed harshly. “What are you doing?”
I grasped his hard length in my hand and began stroking. “I’m taking care of my man like he takes care of me,” I explained.
He moaned, the sound tortured and deep. I looked up at him and found his electric blue gaze already fixed on me. His chest rose and fell with his rapid breaths as we stared into each other’s eyes silently.
“You don’t have to do this,” he finally said, the tendons in his neck straining against his smooth, golden skin.
“I know,” I replied before leaning forward and placing a kiss on his tip. I smothered a smile at his sharp gasp. “I want to.” I sucked the head into my mouth and released it. “If that’s all right with you?”
He laughed, but it was strained and too high pitched. “I’m okay with this.”
My chuckle was deep and throaty before I opened my lips and pulled as much of him into my mouth as I could. I took my time working him over, gently rubbing him while I alternated between licking and sucking.
He moaned and gasped as his shaking hands carefully gathered my hair into a ponytail. He didn’t hold me in place or try to direct my movements, he just held on while I did my best to make him feel good.
Sooner than I thought possible, he squeezed my hair and croaked, “I’m close, baby.”
I moaned around him in my mouth and he gasped.
“You need to stop.”
I sucked harder.
“Baby, I can’t hold on much longer.”
I took more of him into my mouth.
“Fuck, El, what are you doing to me?” he groaned before he spilled his seed down my throat.
His orgasm seemed to last forever as he grunted and groaned above me. When he was finally spent, I pulled my head back until he sprung free.
I looked up at him with a smile. “How was that?”
He let out a deep breath and shook his head. “Fucking amazing.” I smiled wider, and he reached down to pull me into his arms. “Now you need to get in my bed, so I can show you how good you made me feel.”
“I can do that.”