My breath caught in my throat as I clocked the dark look in his eyes.

“Darlin’, I definitely won’t break…” I waved my fingers, reaching into my mortal magic to banish the plate back to the kitchen. Given the sensual promise in his eyes, and the shiver that wound through my veins as I recalled the kiss in his truck, even chocolate cake could wait. I rose on my tiptoes to wrap my arms around his broad shoulders. “In fact, I’m more likely to break you. Sure you can handle me?”

“Oh yeah,” he breathed, big hands on my waist as he turned us, backing me up to pin me against the wall in the shadows behind the door.

A pleased murmur had barely left my lips when he covered them with his own. The murmur became a moan as he pressed against me, using long, drugging kisses to get me to open up for him. The instant I did, he pushed his advantage, sliding his tongue deep. The slow, slip-slide as he found my tongue and teased me took the temperature between us from simmer to all out blaze within seconds.

Hot, open-mouthed kisses became communication as we stood in the darkness and my entire body ached in response. Impatient, I pulled at his shirt, pinging buttons off in my haste to touch him. Skin to skin, I needed it, more than I needed air to breathe. Actually, I needed more than just skin contact, and so did he if the hard bulge pressing into my softer stomach was any indication.

He growled and put space between our bodies to tear at his shirt. Fabric ripped but neither of us cared, my softer moans mingled with his deep, guttural groans as my hands spread over his now naked chest. His skin was like satin over steel, the hard muscles jumping at the softest touch of my fingers. I moaned in pleasure, the tiny sound lost under his kiss.

Big, warm hands slid under my top, cupping me under the fabric, and I whimpered. Clever fingers tweaked my nipples and I stopped thinking. I might even have stopped breathing for a moment there as heat arrowed down from the twin points to my clit. To ease the savage ache in my lady parts, I shoved my hips against his, grinding against the hard leg that had found its way between mine. This needed to happen, and now. I’m no angel, but I hadn’t been in the sack with a guy for months… Hell, probably near on a year… and I so needed this dry patch to be over. Like… yesterday.

A sound in the darkness beyond the porch reminded me we were outside, and I broke the kiss. I might not be Ms. Goody Two-shoes but that didn’t mean I wanted every Tom, Dick or Harry to see me naked. And in a Shifter town where most of the occupants had awesome night vision, the darkness of the porch was going to conceal sweet feck all.

He looked down at me, a question in his eyes. He didn’t stop his thumbs rubbing up over my nips, which were just begging for attention. Much like my clit, which practically throbbed in jealousy and need.

“Upstairs?” I suggested and got a growl of approval in response. Seemed my sexy were had lost the power of speech as well. I didn’t mind, I like ‘em big, muscly and growly.

He moved and scooped me up before I figured out what he was up to. Squeaking, I clung to his shoulders. “You had better not drop me,” I warned in a low voice as he carried me through the darkened house. “It would be a shame to blast this frankly awesome ass you have and turn you into a frog.”

A deep chuckle wound through the darkness as we made the stairs. Got to tell you, for a girl who is, frankly, a little on the curvy side, having a guy pick you up without breaking a sweat? That’s fucking sexy as hell. “Yeah, but frogs get fucked.”

I blinked. “Don’t you mean frogs get kissed and turn into princes?”

He shouldered the door to the guest room I was staying in, kicking it shut behind him before looking down at me. “I like my version better. Up against the wall or on the bed?”

I liked his version better. “I don’t care as long as some D action is going on.”

“Oh, some D action is definitely going on…” He grinned, a sudden flash of white teeth in the darkness, and dropped me on the bed. I bounced, about to rip him a new one for the dick move when he was over me. A lingering kiss stole the complaint right from my lips and by the time he lifted his head, I was breathless and practically begging for more.

He didn’t disappoint, hard hands unhooking my belt to slide under my pants with a skill and dexterity that had his fingers stroking my clit before I could suggest he just rip the fuckers off. Pleasure rolled through me at the friction of his callused fingertips against my little pleasure button. I just about managed to keep it together enough to banish both of our clothes with a wave of my hand. After all, what use is magic if you can’t bloody well use it, right?

We both groaned as I parted my legs to give him better access and arched my back. The feel of his big body against mine was wonderful, better than I could have imagined (and I have a very good imagination), and the way he smelled had me wanting to rub against him like a cat in heat.

“Fucking hell,” I muttered, grabbing the pillow to muffle my cries of pleasure as he worked me up to the peak quicker than I’d ever gotten there before, even using my trusty BOB. “I’m gonna com—”

He cut me off with a kiss, pulling his hand away and moving over me. “Not yet,” he ordered in a hard voice, his eyes flashing in the darkness. “The first time you come, it won’t be over my hand, but my cock as it should be between ma—”

This time he stopped talking, shoving forward to distract me from the words he’d cut off. Instantly, all my attentions flew down to my nether regions. Fuck. Me. He was big. No, not big. H-U-G-E, with a capital fucking hell. I managed a choked little moan, holding my breath as my body parted to accommodate him. Hands braced either side of my head, he pulled back a little and pushed in again, and again. Working himself in bit by bit until he bottomed out with a groan.

“Fuuuuucck, you’re tight.”

My hands were on his shoulders, my entire body tense and focused on where he was buried deep inside me. “Big… it’s that fucking staff you’ve got in your pants. Sure you’re a wolf and not a freaking were-donkey?” I asked. Fuck a duck, if he was an ass, I’d never hear the last of it from E-dub.

He leaned down to brush his lips over mine. Even that little movement sent shock waves of pleasure through me. “No, I’m definitely all wolf.”

I didn’t argue, all power of speech leaving the building quicker than a white-suited music legend, and clung to his shoulders as he powered into me. The headboard slammed into the wall and I giggled. We were so doing it doggie-style next time.

“Find me funny?” he mock growled, nipping my ear. Another bolt of pleasure rocked through me, making my pussy clench hard around him. “Don’t you know what they say about wolves?”

I wrapped my legs around his hips and pushed back against him on his next thrust. My breathing came in short pants and I just needed him to fuck me, not engage in fucking chit-chat. “That they don’t talk when they screw?” I asked hopefully.

“That… and we have very long tongues, all the better to eat you out with…” He winked as he buried himself inside me and rolled his hips, trapping my clit between us.

I moaned, body suddenly tight around his. Oh, hell yes, I could totally get behind that.

Our movements became faster, the slap of skin on skin loud in the room as a soft glow, magic I absently realized, enveloped us. I was too busy to think about that right now though, straining against Lucas as he powered into me. The tension in my body reached a peak and then cracked. I cried out, his name a muffled scream as my body exploded in white hot, liquid pleasure.

He grunted, hips stalling for a second as the grip of my pussy around him tightened, and then he upped his pace. No longer smooth, each erratic thrust sent hard shards of sensation through me, feeding my release. I tried to move with him, but he slid a large hand beneath my hips, holding me still as he fucked me hard.

Then he stiffened, buried so deep I thought he was trying to reach freaking china and threw his head back to roar.

I reached up to slap my hand over his mouth, cutting the sound off as he came with hard shivers, dick pulsing in my depths. We froze like that for long moments before the tension went out of his frame and he nodded. I moved my hand.

“People sleeping, remember?” I whispered, a hitch in my breath as little aftershocks rolled through my body. I couldn’t have moved if all the hounds of hell suddenly crashed through the door. Of course, if they had, I’d have blasted them all with hellfire, to fuck with the decor.

“Let them hear,” he whispered, kissing along my neck. “They know what we’re doing anyway.”

I blinked, shoving at his shoulders. “How? No one saw us come up here.”

He grinned, a sappy look on his handsome face. “Because I told them that you’re my mate.”

The next morning Lucas was still grinning like a freaking idiot when we finally emerged and headed downstairs to grab some breakfast. I say breakfast, but what I really mean is coffee. And by coffee, what I mean is liquid “not sleeping for a week” strong enough to throw sugar cubes back at you and fight for the spoon.

I am so not a morning person.

But Lucas had softened my usual “gimme the coffee and back away slowly” snarls down to a murmur with a round of morning sex that had my body tingling at just the memory. Morning sex could make me a morning person. Maybe.

If I planned on keeping him, especially after he’d dropped out the M-word. Mate, not marriage. Marriage is easy. You can get divorced or, if you’re really pushed, kill them off. New patio, bit of garden landscaping and you’re golden.

Mating a Shifter though? That’s serious stuff. There’s no way out of that shit. Apart from killing them off, I guess. But Shifters are a fuck-ton harder to kill off than mortals, so if I let Lucas bite me… yeah, I’d have to be really damn sure that’s what I wanted.

“We are not mates,” I hissed, continuing the argument we’d started upstairs. I turned suddenly, blocking his exit from the stairs and cupped him through the jeans that rode low on his hips. I tried not to think about the hardening bulge in my hand, or those little v-thingies at the sides of his hips that led down…

“If you bite me without permission…” I tightened my grip momentarily. Not for long and not hard enough to cause him pain, but enough to make him suck in a breath, blue eyes widening as he looked down at me. “I’ll take matters into my own hands. Not in a way you’ll enjoy, either. Do I make myself clear?”

He swallowed and nodded. Then the expression in his eyes softened and he reached down to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. It was such a small, soft and loving gesture that my heart stuttered a little. I ignored it. My heart was a soft bitch at times.

“I would never do anything without your permission, or to cause you pain,” he said in a low voice. “What kind of start to our life together would it be if I forced you to mate me?”

“We’re not having a life together,” I protested, my firm tone weakening as he started to lean down, his lips obviously headed toward mine. Dammit, I wanted that kiss, but I wasn’t about to let him get around me like that. Ducking to the side, I broke his grip.

“Friends with benefits only. And, you promised coffee and breakfast,” I pointed out. “And I get a real bad case of the hangries if you don’t feed me.”

He chuckled, hopping down the last step and linking his fingers through mine. “Come on then, let’s feed you before you spit fire at me.” His sidelong glance made me smile. “You don’t spit fire. Do you? I’ve never met a witch like you before…”

“Go on with you,” I laughed, hiding behind the tinkling tones as I pushed him into the kitchen ahead of me. Laughing and turning to pull me into his arms, he didn’t seem to realize I hadn’t actually answered his question.

My smile faded. The kitchen was full of Shifters. It seemed like Rafe’s kitchen was the main meeting place for all of Boring’s wolf population. They leaned against the counters, by the door, sat at the breakfast bar, mugs in hands. Rafe himself sat at the kitchen table, pale and with one arm in a sling, his free hand holding that of a young woman sitting kitty-corner to him. Linette, the young woman who’d almost been disemboweled by vamp claws.

Everyone looked around as we stumbled into the room, and I didn’t miss the little head bows and nods of deference when they saw Lucas… or the slightly awed and, if I’m honest, frightened looks they bestowed on me. Suck it up, buttercups. If they knew what I really was, they’d run for fucking cover.

Rafe and Linette snatched their hands away as soon as they spotted us and I frowned. The big warlock—I couldn’t quite think of him as my father yet, especially when he didn’t know what I was to him—looked guilty as sin. Like a kid who’d gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

It wasn’t sexual, though, or at least I hoped not because daddy dearest was old enough to actually be her father. But I didn’t get that vibe from them. No, something else was going on here.

My eyes narrowed as I looked around the room.

“Were you healing her?” I demanded. All the Shifters in here made sense now. Just like that, my bitch switch got flipped.

“What the fuck? I just got you leveled out… are you trying to screw it all up?” I was so angry I felt the ends of my hair begin to smoke and curl. I ignored it, and chose to focus on Lucas’s soothing hand on my back as I glared at my father.

“Did you forget you’re still under a curse? It’s only the co—blocking spell,” I corrected quickly, not wanting to admit how I knew about counter-curses, or the fact that I could cast one. “…that’s keeping you out of the damn grave!” Well, running the reaper out of town helped with that but the less said about that the better.

“You should all be ashamed of yourselves.” I looked around the room, but none of the Shifters would meet my eyes. Mind you, I wouldn’t want to either. I have a glare that would give a reflection a headache, especially when I was in a bad mood.

“Just because he can heal you all doesn’t mean he should. None of you are dying or unable to move, so you can cope with a few boo-boos. Now scram before I really lose my temper… and no, don’t look at him,” I snapped as several pairs of eyes turned toward the werewolf at my side. “Look at the pissed off death witch over here.”

I flexed my fingers, allowing the orange magic that came from my mortal half to flow over them.

“Leave,” I advised. “Come back only, and I do mean only, if there’s blood or broken bones. Understand?”