Would you be opposed to having sex with me again?

Knud stares at her for a few tense beats before finally managing to choke out, “You serious?”

He can smell her arousal. Had smelled it last night, and then once again as soon as she woke up that morning. But after their silent car ride yesterday and this morning’s bittersweet conversation, he hadn’t dared hope she was anywhere near ready to be with him like that again.

“Yes, I believe I am,” she answers in that overly enunciated way of hers before walking away from the counter…and crawling back into his bed on her hands and knees.

She doesn’t know any better. Can’t know any better. But…

In the next moment, he’s across the room covering her back and pushing down her pants at the same time. So fucking desperate to get inside her. Inside his mate. Where he belongs.

But something stays his wolf. He reminds himself this isn’t an anonymous score he brought home from the nightclub, or the human woman he tried to NSA. She’s the mother of his child. His mate. His entire reason for becoming Knud Nightwolf again.

Restraining his wolf, he drops his head to her shoulder and tells her, “There are levels to our sex. But I don’t want to hurt you.”

“How many levels?” she asks, voice panting in a way that makes his dick painfully hard.

“Ten. One is missionary, five is—”

“Level ten,” she calls out, cutting him off even faster than the first time they did this. “Level ten.”

He doesn’t pull her hair—still too much of a doctor to mess with a brain injury, even after a summer long hiatus.

But he does purposefully make his body heavier on top of hers, holding her down as he informs her, “We had rules for this, too. Only words you’re allowed to say at this level are ‘More. Yeah. Please. Fuck me harder.’”

“Oh my gosh, I agreed to that?” she asks, her voice full of wonder. “I let you do that?”

“You let me do nothing,” he growls back. “I took you. I claimed your pussy with my dick. And you loved every minute of it.”

A burst of arousal hits the air in response to his words, fragrant and heady.

But he doesn’t fall into the trap.

Instead, he reminds her how good it used to be by playing with her pussy and whispering filthy words in her ear until his fingers are sticky with her juices and she’s moaning, “Please, please, please!”

“There’s my nasty girl. Love it when you fucking beg,” he says, before rocking her back and impaling her on his cock. His eyes nearly cross at the feel of her after so long apart. And this time, there’s no wrapper between them, or heat scent making them crazy. He can feel the wet squeeze of her around his entire cock.

And he keeps her right there, one hand covering her breasts, the other working her pussy as he growls, “Take this dick, L-heart. Take it right now. It’s all for you, baby. It’s all for you.”

She circles her hips into his upward thrusts but the position soon becomes overwhelming. “Please! Please!” she mews, losing the rhythm.

“I’ve got you,” he answers and like a reward, he places her in the most intense version of the wolf cage position. His chest heavy on her back, his arms bent on either side of her face so she can’t move her body, not even a millimeter, as he thrusts into her hard from behind.

And he knows her wolf must be losing its mind because Layla goes straight from pretty pleases to a guttural chant of, “Fuck me! Fuck me! Oh God, fuck me!”

Hearing the dirty curses words fall from her American princess lips incenses him. Forget fragile. His hips go sloppy with the need to release in her. To claim her all over again. To make the mother of his child his once more.

“I’m going to fuck you until you come hard on my dick, baby. Then when you’re done making it all dirty, I’m going to keep you quiet by putting my dick in your mouth. Make you clean me up, before I put it in another hole. Because I’m claiming every inch of you tonight. Let me hear you say it: what’s going to happen?”

“I’m going to come!” she gasped. “I’m going to come all over your dick, make it dirty.”

“And then what’s going to happen?”

“No talking. I’m going to clean you up, and then you’re going to—”

The orgasm cuts her off, taking her voice along with her words.

As she comes hard around his cock, Knud releases with one final push. Just like old times, but somehow it still feels new. And as he streams into her, he has the thought that this is how they’ll do it. They’ll rebuild their relationship. Brick by brick, memory by memory. Level ten and level five sex. And this time, not only will he make her come, he’ll communicate like a motherfucker, and bake her cookies when she’s had a bad day.

On that thought they both collapse onto the mattress. Completely spent, even though they’d only woke up a little over an hour ago.

But then Layla sighs and says dreamily, “Oh, Buddy, that was even better than the first time. Give me a moment and I’ll let you shut me up…”

He freezes.

And so does she. Because… “Buddy! That’s what I used to call you. You hated it.”

“I did because…”

“…you didn’t want me to think we were friends or anything. Yes, you said that to me so many times!”

She sits up on one elbow, blinking as a trickle of previously hidden memories begin coming back to her. “The doctors said this might happen. They told me to do normal things, and my memories might return in a blink while I’m in the shower or sitting on the toilet—”

She stops, her eyes going soft. “You were my new normal. That’s what I remember most. How normal you made—make—me feel. I didn’t know you were a Nightwolf the first time around. I remember I found out who you really are at your uncle’s cabin. Oh! And your mom—she said my mom was on her ‘free pass list.’”

“Wow,” Knud said, “If there was one thing I was really hoping you’d permanently forget…”

“But I haven’t forgotten that,’’ she says with a teasing smile, “…or the feeling of finally understanding it wasn’t just me. You have a lovely family and you were pushing them away, too. You were pushing us all away because you were afraid you’d hurt us. But you wouldn’t ever do that, Knud. I was planning to spend the rest of my life proving to you what a good man you are but…”

Her eyes widen and then darken with horror. “I— I couldn’t do that because you turned into a wolf.” She stops for a moment to collect herself. Then shakes her head. “No, something’s wrong. This must have something to do with my injury…a hallucination or…something.”

Layla trails off, clearly waiting for him to jump in and reassure her that what she thinks she remembers couldn’t have happened. Didn’t happen.

But he can’t. And it’s been three months. “Layla, L-heart…for a number of reasons I wasn’t able to tell you everything before. But now that you’re carrying our child…things have changed and it’s time you knew. I’m…my people…we’re shifters, what humans refer to as werewolves.”

Layla blinks at him and pulls herself all the way up into a ramrod straight seated position in the bed. “You are not a werewolf,” she says, a dazed expression on her face.

“Yeah, actually I am,” he answers, wanting to follow Layla into a sitting up position. But he stays lying down, so as not to alarm her.

She stares down at him in his still prone position. Waiting for him to crack a smile and admit he’s playing a trick on her. But when he doesn’t she says, “So you’re a real werewolf. Like in the movies.”

Knud grimaces. “I mean, some movies get it right, but most don’t.”

“But you’re a werewolf,” she insists. “And I’m pregnant with your werewolf baby?”

Which brings them to yet another delicate topic. “About that… You’re not just pregnant with my baby. See, shifters can only impregnate other shifters. So the only way you can be carrying our baby is…”

Her eyes widen. “Are you kidding me? I’m a werewolf, too?”

“Yeah,” Knud confirms, waiting for her reaction.