Chapter Nine
Mac couldn’t deny his pride at the way people reacted as they entered the Red Roof Inn together.
The hostess, one of his cousins, took them to a table he’d thankfully remembered to reserve in advance. The place was already humming with conversation. Music played over the sound system and it smelled like pizza dough and beer.
Not bad at all. “Oh, we’ll have two more people with us,” he told his cousin as he held Aimee’s chair out and then helped her sit.
“I’ve never had a positive chair-holding-out experience. It’s always sort of random and out of sync and then I have to surreptitiously redo the whole sitting and chair-moving process. But you did really well. Thumbs-up,” she told him as he joined her.
“You’re very strange and it totally turns me on.”
“That’s an unexpected and yet awesome compliment. Thank you.”
He tipped his chin at the sight of Jace shouldering his way through the crowd, protecting Katie Faith from getting jostled. Mac approved of how he was with his wife.
He knew Josiah’s reputation. It would have been hard to grow up in the shadow of that. He also knew a little something about growing up in someone’s shadow and having to prove yourself.
What Jace appeared to have with Katie Faith told Mac he was already a better man than his father ever had been.
Aimee’s face lit up when she caught sight of her friends. She waved at them as they made their way over and sat.
“I ordered a pitcher at the bar on the way in,” Katie Faith told them.
“Because you’re one of heaven’s own angels, that’s why,” Aimee said. “We just sat down two minutes ago so we haven’t ordered yet.”
“Kismet. Now food. Oh my God, I need food.” Katie Faith looked to Mac. “Hi. Why do you eat so late?”
“Why do you eat so early?” he asked back.
“I’m hungry early. Normal people are, you know.”
“When she gets hungry, or you wake her up early, she’s really awful. Like a rabid raccoon. She’ll be better once she eats and gets some liquor in her,” Aimee explained to Mac.
“Fair enough.” He and Jace then tipped chins and clasped forearms and the tension eased.
The crowd, who’d been watching carefully, also relaxed. It was always sort of amazing how seemingly small things like being together in public made a difference with folks.
“Who’s getting what?” Katie Faith asked. Jace got up and returned with a bowl of bar snacks and the pitcher.
“These should help everyone’s evening.” Jace set the bowl near his wife who gave him a grateful smile.
“That’s her way of saying we all need to order things she wants to eat a bite or two of. I figure you’re a werewolf and can defend yourself and your food if need be, though. You have to be firm with her.” Aimee winked at Katie Faith.
It wasn’t that Katie Faith wasn’t bossy. She totally was, but Aimee moved with it. Pushing back here and there but the two of them weaved together the order in a flow of insults, bizarre inside jokes and laughing.
“Are they always like this?” he asked Jace.
“Yes. Accept that now. They have a penchant for trouble too. Best to just nod and go with it. You can’t outlast them. Katie Faith’s like a kitten. Don’t tell her I said that.” Jace smiled slightly as he looked over to his wife briefly. “Now here’s the part where I say Aimee is like my little sister and I’d be vexed if she got hurt or misused.”
There wasn’t any pretense that this was a first date in any human sense of the term. They both knew what it was to find a female who’d piqued the interest of man and wolf. He enjoyed women, yes he did. He hadn’t been a monk; no he’d had plenty of wonderful, pleasurable moments with them over his life.
But he’d never mistaken any of those for anything but temporary relationships. Fucking was one thing. But Aimee represented more. He’d have to get to know her better, but she made all the chaos seem to part and quiet a little. And that wasn’t anything to sneeze at.
She came with an extended family who all wanted to protect her and he liked that even as it ruffled his feathers. Which was one of many reasons why it was clear he was interested in something serious. “Understood,” he said with a nod, meaning more than one thing.
For the time being he’d allow this protection because she was close with her friend and her friend’s husband. But maybe one of these days he’d want to protect her. Maybe she’d be someone he considered his.
“Do people always stare at you when you’re out or is this a new thing?” she asked him as the food arrived.
“I’m a good-looking man.” Mac shrugged and she laughed. He liked it. Craved it even. Amusing her. Having her be interested in what he had to say. He hadn’t realized just how funny she was at first, but by that point he got it. Another super sexy quality she possessed.
“You’re a very good-looking man. I can’t lie.” She put hot sauce on her pizza, which made him suspicious. But there was that compliment so he went with that.
“Oh, very even? Well, thank you, ma’am.” He liked flirting with her. There’d been a lot less lightheartedness in his life before she came along. “It could be they think it’s strange to put hot sauce on pizza.”
“You’re supposed to be worldly, Macrae. Take a walk on the wild side. A little hot sauce makes most everything better.” She took a bite, humming in delight.
“Worldly?”
“Essentially anyone who gets to live somewhere else is worldly. Plus it was across an actual ocean so bonus points.”
She made the weirdest sort of sense. It fascinated him.
The wolf thought so too. Wanted to puzzle her out, to play and pounce each time she delighted him.
Aimee leaned in, placing a hand on his forearm, leaving little zings of electricity in her wake.
His magic surged in response, but when her gaze locked on his, it settled, caressing hers, like a whole body embrace. All the tumult left him in a warm flow.
He mouthed, “Wow,” and she smiled. A small, private smile.
And though it had felt as if an hour passed while they just stared at one another, it had just been a few breaths.
The rest of the world settled back in around them as the sound began to register again.
“They’re probably looking because he and I are sitting at the same table and not fighting,” Jace said.
“That and the whole date-with-a-witch thing. You know,” Katie Faith said, “general Diablo Lake nosiness.”
“Don’t forget his handsomeness,” Aimee added, her attention shifting to include the others at the table.
“I would never,” Katie Faith told her with faux solemnity. “It’s probably why Eileen is staring at him like she wants him for dinner.”
He looked around and caught sight of Eileen Drewry at the bar, sending him what his aunt liked to call a come-hither look.
No, thank you. He turned away quickly, before she got any ideas.
“Well, he’s not on her menu tonight so she needs to keep looking,” Aimee said quietly to Katie Faith.
“He’s a prime slice of man meat, Aimee. Going to be hard to expect everyone not to look. And try to touch. I’m just saying.”
“Okay, ladies, let’s not scare Mac just yet,” Jace said, doing his best to hide a laugh.
“Is this like hazing?” he asked Jace, not at all offended to see Aimee showing her teeth to another woman trying to get his attention.
“I’ll let you know when and if it ever ends for me.”
He lifted his glass, saluting Jace with it. They’d need to talk about the mess between their two packs but not right at that moment.
That night was about being a guy out on a date with a beautiful woman he’d had a soft spot for for years.
* * *
“So, you should come in.” Aimee tipped her head toward the house.
“Yeah?” He went ahead and followed her into the house.
“I try not to say things I don’t mean. Unless it’s about presents my grandma gives me. Then I say they’re great!” She flashed him a smile.
“Well, that’s the rule. I have a great-aunt like that. Knitted the most god-awful sweaters for me every year on my birthday.”
She grinned. “Which one? I know several of them.” She led him into the living room.
“Opal Chambliss. She still makes me things. Scarves now, though. I can deal with that.” He grinned.
He really shouldn’t be so adorable. It was bad for her constitution. Somehow. Whatever. It was his fault she was all goofy and addled by his testosterone and magic.
“I’m not trying to make you goofy and addled,” he said around a poor attempt not to smile as he flopped onto her couch.
She’d said that out loud.
Jeez-a-lou.
“Well, stop it.” She waved a hand his way.
“But I don’t want to stop it if it makes you addled. That means I’m hitting some sweet spots.” He inched closer.
“I think you’re going to be a lot of trouble. You are, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “Yes. I think so. But I’ll make it worth your while.”
“You’re really good at this stuff. It’s like my knees are magnets, repelling the other.”
He guffawed, which only made her want him more. So she got her skirt up enough to climb into his lap, facing him.
“I don’t know where you get the stuff you say,” he told her as he kissed over her jaw to her ear.
“I’m talented. Obviously.” She’d tried to sound flirty, but the thing he was doing to her ear with his tongue resulted in her sounding like she’d climbed three flights of stairs.
“I can’t argue with that. You’re very talented. I’d give you a gold star and a blue ribbon.”
“I look forward to finding all sorts of things to grade you on. Notably things that include you and me being naked. Or on the way to it.” She paused as he nibbled the hollow of her throat.
“All through school I thought you were the quirky, perky girl who said please and thank you and followed the rules.”
She laughed. “Yeah? Well, I was. And I always thought you were the unobtainable older boy who’d do all sorts of exciting things with me. At the time I originally thought that, of course I didn’t really know the whole depth and breadth of just what two people could get up to. But even then I thought you were lickable. Just not for a girl like me.”
He flipped her onto her back on the couch, settling between her thighs, her skirt really hiked up by that point.
“You’re a buffet of wonderfully fun bad choices, aren’t you?” she asked as he kissed her.
“Let’s find out,” he replied, his hands sliding up her rib cage. “I prefer to think of it as an array of sensual choices.” One flick of his fingers and a button at the top of her blouse slipped free.
His gaze held hers a long moment—she knew he waited for her to object or change the trajectory of their evening.
Her shiver of delight was a low, slow, heated wave. Damn if consent wasn’t sexy as hell.
She stretched up just a bit to bridge the gap between them and nipped his bottom lip.
He let out a trickle of a growl. Not the scary kind.
The heat where his lips slid over the skin of her neck just below her ear made her gasp. Scalding. Branding. Leaving an impression of his lips that’d last far longer than just that night.
He did his magic and two more buttons on her blouse sprang free to expose the bra beneath.
She was so glad she’d chosen that particular bra earlier. It was one of her favorites in a blue similar to the blouse. Her boobs perched up, quivering on the very edge of overflowing the cups because of how she’d arched.
He bent, brushing his mouth over the curves of her cleavage, breathing her in. Wow. Oh wow. He did something to her that was exhilaratingly terrifying. The intensity of what they made together was fantastic. And yet it was so unusual she was wary.
“No offense or anything, but this couch is small and I’m getting a cramp in my thigh from trying not to lean all my weight on you,” he said with an adorably frustrated frown.
“Is that your way of saying you want to see my bedroom?”
He paused and then snorted a laugh as he stood.
She just took a look at what she’d been blessed with and sighed happily before she rolled to her feet.
“I’m going to lock my doors. People will barge in if I don’t,” she told him as she locked the front and pulled the shade on the window down. “I’d turn off my porch light, but Mrs. Burrows has that little dog of hers and he goes absolutely crazy when all the cats come around in the dark. They really do it to mess with him, sweet little thing.”
He grunted and she grabbed his hand on the way past. She threw the back-door lock as they headed through the kitchen to get to her bedroom.
“What’s that sound for?” she asked.
“Dogs.”
She tried not to laugh and succeeded. Mostly. “I forgot you guys had a thing about dogs as pets. But you’re wolves. Werewolves! Totally different from Pookie. That’s the dog’s name. He’s not exceptionally bright, but he is generally happy and only barks in the dark. Maybe he’s afraid of the dark. Huh.”
He just stared at her so she pantomimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.
He rolled his eyes but hummed his pleasure when she turned on the lamp in her room.
“I like it in here. That’s a big-ass bed.”
“It’s a pain in the butt, that’s what it is. But I love it anyway. My great-grandpa made it for my great-grandma. It was a wedding present.”
She ran a hand over the wood frame, smooth from generations of people touching the footboard as they passed. The carvings were simple, but beautiful. Big-headed roses in full bloom connected by swirling leaves.
It was a custom size, so she’d had to get a mattress custom made to fit. But it was a place she spent a lot of time in. Big enough to lounge, work on embroidery, read, watch movies, all that stuff.
She was a homebody and her bed was a place she loved to be.
And right at that moment, she really loved that she was about to be in it with Mac.
“Woo-hoo!” She pointed at him. “I think you have way too much clothes on. Or too many clothes. Yeah, that one. I bet you’ve got something pretty awesome underneath your pants and stuff.”
“Or you could help. Many hands make light work and all that.”
She thought about it a moment and then stepped to him, unbuttoning his shirt and shoving it from his arms.
“Wow. You’re...wow.” Beyond words, she flapped a hand his way. “What the hell do you do to look like this? Do you work out eight hours a day? You ate pizza! I saw you eat four slices and you had a hoagie and pie with three scoops of ice cream. Your stomach is ridiculous. I have major reservations about getting naked now that I’ve seen this. And a nipple ring? Did you have that in the army? Did it hurt? How does it stay in when you change? It’s so sexy I’m going to... Well, I’m going to pass out.”
Then again, she could just stand there a while and drink him in. Good gracious, what a specimen.
He shook his head, coming toward her faster than she realized he could move. The heat of his body against hers, even through her clothes, made her dizzy.
This close all her senses seemed saturated with him and that was before her shirt was off, his mouth in the wake of the fabric.
“I find it astounding you’d think so when it’s you who looks this fantastic without a shirt. Yes, it hurt. The magic of the change means it’s there when I take my human form again. No, I didn’t have it in the army.”
He answered all those questions as he got rid of the bra and she shimmied out of her skirt while he got his pants, underwear and socks off.
“Now. Yeah. Now I think we’ve got so much to discuss.” He backed her to the bed and she ended up flopping onto the mattress with him leaning above her, blocking out all light with those wide, muscled shoulders.
“I can conjure up a dozen things to do with my mouth that don’t involve talking.”
He slid his body against hers as he climbed up the bed, pulling her to his side before wrapping his arms around her. “See, thing is, I’ve been thinking about a lot of those very same things ever since that night we bumped into one another at the bar at the Red Roof Inn.”
She couldn’t help the warmth on her face as she blushed, so charmed and flattered. He made her feel fucking beautiful.
“I’ve never in my life been more glad I have an IUD. Because I can have you in me naked. Gloriously, wonderfully naked.”
The werewolves-not-being-susceptible-to-STDs-thing was awesome, as far as Aimee was concerned.
“You just say whatever comes into your mind, don’t you?” He tested the weight of her breasts in his hands a moment.
“No. I do have manners, you know. But I’m not playing around when it comes to wanting to come and come hard. I’ll do the same for you, but I like sex and I really want to have it with you and I’m glad I don’t have to deal with having to use a condom.”
“You have wonderful manners. With most people anyway.” He licked over her left nipple, which made the wisecrack she’d been about to make die on a moan of delight.
“You’re just used to everyone saying what you want to hear. And frankly, look at you. I’d do it too. Luckily, you appear to be susceptible to my particular charms.” She managed this around a tongue that was pleasure thick, resulting in slow, nearly slurred speech.
“If only people told me what I wanted to hear,” he muttered. “Luckily, between you and me, we’re all good to get to the coming hard part.”
“You’re a great date. I’m just saying.”
Anything else she may have said she forgot when he used his teeth on the other nipple. Tugging until she nearly begged.
Need licked at her skin, drove her as she dragged the edge of her nails down his back and sides. His snarled groan set her afire.
It was so totally hot shit holy wow she just threw herself into it, soaking it up.
* * *
She tasted like magic. Sweet and spicy. It clung to his tongue and lips, that thing that made her who and what she was.
He rubbed his face all over her delightful breasts, noting each gasp and moan. Learning what she liked best so he could give it to her again and again.
She was so much more than he’d imagined, and he’d imagined a lot. Strong and bold, she arched, urging him on. Demanding what she wanted.
When she wrapped her thighs around his waist, the heated slick of her pussy stroked against his cock and left behind a wave of dizzied pleasure.
He wanted her. All of her. And when she wrapped a hand around the base of his cock and squeezed, he wanted her even more.
“Wait,” he wheezed.
“I don’t want to. Now.” She squeezed again and then slid her fist up and down to make her point.
“I never rush a job, Aimee,” he told her as he kissed down her belly, thinking a little more clearly when she let go of his dick.
He took his time at the sensitive skin at her hips and then across her lower belly until he finally reached just exactly where he needed to be.
“Remember what I told you yesterday about being between your thighs?” he murmured.
“I’ve been playing it over and over in my head ever since you said it.”
It wasn’t practiced dirty talk, it was just how she was. Blunt, but not cruel. Maybe it was that so much of his life was taken up by artifice and constant tension because of lies and secrets, but it soothed him to know she said what she thought the way she did. “Damn, what you do to me.”
So soft. He kissed and nibbled at the insides of her thighs until he spread her open and took a long lick, humming.
The sound she made seemed to echo through him, jangling to his bones. He’d wanted to be there for hours, but that gasped groan shredded his control.
And that was before she reached down, ran her fingers through his hair and then yanked him closer.
His cock seemed to ache in time with the pounding of his heart as he ate at her, licking and sucking.
“Yesyesyes,” she chanted, urging him on until he decided to take her over into climax. “Holy cheese puffs!”
He was still laughing when he kissed his way back up to her mouth, taking it in a long slow kiss.
“You’re laughing at me?” she asked when he’d broken away to catch his breath.
“Hell yes. Holy cheese puffs,” he repeated, laughing anew.
“I have a problem with cursing so I’m trying to use alternatives.”
“You did tell me to fuck off just last night.”
She snickered. “Well. I did just tell you I have a problem. Thank you kindly for that amazing orgasm.”
“There’s more where that came from. Why don’t you climb aboard?” He tipped his chin at her just to see if she’d get pissed or dig it.
One brow raised, she swung one of her legs over his lap and straddled his waist.
He loved the way she looked above him, tousled and sex flushed. Her eyes had gone half-lidded, her lips kiss swollen, parted slightly.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he told her.
Her mouth curved up. “Thank you.”
“Now get yourself all around my cock.”
Her slumberous eyes widened a moment as she sucked in a breath. Oh yeah, she liked that.
Good. He did too.
He watched the flexing and tightening of her thigh muscles as she teased herself all around his cock.
So wet and so hot, he had to clench his jaw to keep his control.
Finally she grabbed him and angled herself down, took every bit of him in one quick, mind-bending movement.
All he could feel was her. The way her inner walls hugged him. White hot and slick. He dug his fingers into her hips and began to move her body as he thrust up, taking over.
Aimee bent to lick over his nipple before tugging on it gently. He grunted and she tugged a little harder.
He stuttered a curse at how good that felt and tried to keep his pace even. He wanted to draw this out. Take it slow.
But she took his restraint and control as a challenge, and squeezed her inner muscles around him until he wheezed. Though he’d been keeping the pace and movement, she added a little swivel each time as he got all the way inside.
His vision narrowed with each thrust as she dug her nails into his sides.
Knowing he would eventually fall victim (or victor) to the lure of her charms, he walked his fingers down her belly to her clit.
As he watched her face, he slowly circled the pad of his middle finger around and around.
She moaned and got even hotter around him. “Again,” he urged.
A nod as her gaze locked with his. She added a move that had her grinding herself against his fingers, which nearly pulled him into orgasm right that moment. As it was, he barely held out until her head fell back and she came all around him.
On and on until he couldn’t take another moment without climax as he held her tight for long moments until at long last, they settled back side by side in her humongous bed, sweating and panting.
The best date he’d ever had.