Chapter Two
“Jack!” Grace looked up from where she sat at the kitchen table, trying to guide a spoon into baby Henri’s mouth. The boy ate like he was not quite convinced he’d come into contact with food again, guppy lips seeking the spoon and sending the food half into his mouth and the rest all over his face and Grace’s arm.
Henri said Jack’s name a few times until Jack leaned down and brushed a kiss on the top of his head. “Hey there, kid.” He stepped back, moving to the fridge to get a soda. “Hey, short stuff, what’s happening?” he asked Grace.
She smiled up at him, looking just as lovely as she always did, and while he appreciated it, loved it because it was part of her, he wasn’t affected by it the way he was when he thought of those wine-hued curls.
“Something exciting must have happened. It’s all over your face.”
“Weren’t you just here two hours ago?” Cade wandered into the kitchen, Annabelle on his hip, her fingers wrapped in the front of her dad’s shirt to keep her balance.
“I was. I left. Flirted with the ladies at my local produce stand only to have a woman rush out a door and knock my apples to the pavement.” He paused when Becca bounced into the room. Becca, Cade and Grace’s oldest child, was the spitting image of her mother and while her mom and dad were first in her heart, Jack followed a close second. Jack had long since decided that was a good place to be.
“You’re here!” Becca launched herself toward him and he caught her, hugging her tight.
“I am, dollface. Give me some sugar while I try to look hungry enough to get invited to dinner.” Jack kissed her upturned face, reaching out to tweak Annabelle’s toes when she swung her fat little foot into his reach. He wanted this. He wanted a family of his very own. His babies, his mate, his kitchen.
“Stay for dinner?” Grace wiped Henri’s face and began to clear away the remnants of his meal. “Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, asparagus, salad, bread and macaroni and cheese.”
“Awesome!” Becca looked up at Jack as he put her down, her face expectant. “Will you stay?”
He knew without a doubt that he was welcome. He was family, as they were to him. “Sounds good. I’ll even set the table.”
“Typical. Show up after I do it.” Cade said. “Grab an extra bottle of wine from the rack behind you.”
“I’m off duty, boss man.” Jack snorted and waited to see if Cade would rise to the bait.
Cade just raised one of his eyebrows. “Must be why you’re here, mooching dinner.”
“Pfft, I’m here to look at your women. All lovely ladies you don’t deserve.”
Becca giggled and patted his hand before reaching to take her dad’s.
“Fine, fine. For meatloaf, I can get the wine.” He looked down at Becca. “And some milk for these sprouts.”
He and Cade spoke about nothing in particular as Cade put Annabelle into her toddler seat. Grace returned with Henri, who happily sat in his high chair now that he had been topped off. Becca put some crackers on his tray and he grinned before shoving two of them into his mouth.
Dave, Cade’s cousin and Grace’s personal guard, strolled into the room and put the potatoes down on the table. “Yo. Akio says to check your voice mail. He had to make a shift change and wanted you to know about it in advance.”
Jack laughed as he poured milk for the kids and wine for the adults. “Akio’s been one of my top lieutenants for ten years; I’m sure whatever choices he made were appropriate. You people would have outsiders think I’m an ogre.”
“You are. Other things I can’t say in front of the children too.” Dave sat across the large table from Jack. “He appreciates your respect. You do a good job with your people. Don’t repeat that, I have a reputation to uphold and all.”
“Secret’s safe with me.” It pleased him that people thought he was good at his job. He worked hard at it, had spent his entire adult life protecting the National Alpha pair and the Pack itself. Protecting wolves nationwide because they were his too. He knew he was feared, but being respected had to go hand in glove with that or he’d have gone too far.
No one spoke for several minutes as food was dished up and people started eating. Slowly, folks began to talk and laugh; Becca talked about school and Jack relaxed happily. This was his life and even before he’d met Renee, it was good. But now that the ache, the longing for Grace was dulled by his attraction to Renee, it felt even better. The what ifs were all things he could have instead of those things he never would.
He had a future. Filled with possibility. It washed over him, bringing a satisfied smile to his face.
Grace finally sent an amused look Jack’s way. “Are you going to tell us or what? You’ve been a terrible tease to hold it back this long.”
“As it happens, I do have something exciting. I met my mate today.”
Everyone began speaking at once and Jack continued eating until things calmed down.
Finally, true to his nature, Cade whistled and told everyone to quiet down. He turned to Jack, a grin on his face. “What’s the story? Where is she? Why are you here without her instead of Claiming her?”
Of course Cade would ask these things. Because Renee was Jack’s mate, she’d also be one of Cade’s Pack, wolf or not. Cade took care of people, he had been born and bred to be an Alpha and Jack was his right hand. They’d been through a lot together, had forged a family of wolves there in Boston and all across the country with Cade at the helm. He was proud to be part of the new future they’d all forged when they’d taken Warren Pellini out five years prior.
“She doesn’t know. About being my mate. It’s complicated. No, don’t get that look, it is.” Jack shrugged. “She’s human, well, more than human, she was dripping magic. I’m pretty sure she knew I wasn’t human, though. She was attracted to me, we had amazing chemistry, but she’s with someone.” He sighed. “So I had to let her walk away. For today anyway. As for where she is, at her house, I’d wager. Hardest thing I’ve ever done, watching her turn a corner, knowing she was going to someone else. Yeah, that part.” He sped ahead, cutting off the question he knew Grace would ask.
“It wasn’t a man she smelled of. She had cat on her skin, in her hair. She lives with this dude, I can tell that much. I don’t know why though, cats aren’t one for casually living with partners.”
“Well what did she say exactly?” Grace’s frown was brief, but Jack caught it anyway. He wasn’t sure if it was that he’d found someone or if she worried about him getting hurt or a combo of all those things.
“I asked her out, she told me she was with someone and said no. But I know, my nose knows, she was interested.” He didn’t go into any more detail with kids at the table but her body had warmed to him; he scented her arousal, it wound around him, tying him to her, needing more of that scent. “She’s mine, but I’m going to have to show some creativity with this woman. I have to approach the situation carefully and be strategic.”
Grace exhaled, her impatience clear. Despite her size and how quiet she usually was, she was just as much an Alpha as Cade. Jack hid his smile behind his steepled fingers. “Can it be that she’s mated to this cat? Well, no it can’t. Of course it can’t or he wouldn’t have connected with her that way.” She put more potatoes on Cade’s plate and added some more meatloaf to Dave’s. “Too bad for the cat then. No one else can have her. She’s Jack’s mate and that’s that.” She decreed it, so it must be true. He loved that about her.
“Of course she is, beautiful.” Cade looked to his wife. “From what I understand about big cat shifters, they don’t mate. At least not like wolves do. They imprint on their partner, a sort of chosen mating rather than the genetic mating we have. Maybe that’s it, in which case, well, let’s not go there. It’s probably that they’re together, but not imprinted. Makes it easier, and yet harder for Jack, I’d wager.” Cade tipped his chin in Jack’s direction. “I’ll call my grandmother to see what she thinks.”
Lia Warden was an elder of the Cascadia Pack and had been the Alpha before Cade and then her other grandson, Lex, took over. After years of knowing the woman, Jack was convinced she also had some serious magic-type mojo. She knew a hell of a lot about shifters and their history so she’d most likely have some answers. Answers would be good, give him more tools to blow Renee’s house down.
“Thanks, Cade.”
“I’ll call after dinner. With the time difference she should be home from her afternoon volunteer gig at Gabby’s school by then.” Gabby was one of the Warden nieces, the daughter of Cade’s brother, Lex, and his mate, Nina. They also had two sons and a house that was chaos personified. Jack wasn’t sure how Lex handled his bossy but undeniably sexy wife and all those high-energy kids, but the Alpha of the Cascadia Pack seemed quite happy with his lot in life, and that was what Jack wanted. Needed.
* * *
Galen heard her key in the lock and put his book down, moving to meet her in the entry. He missed her, loved this time every day when they came together after work and relaxed.
His day had sucked. He’d been in and out of court, had a million phone calls and emails and an argument with his brother. Seeing Renee’s smile as she came through their doorway eased it all away. Soothed his cat while comforting the human on the outside too.
The setting sun came through the bank of windows on the far wall, highlighting her hair, bathing her with warm light. She never looked away, even as she dropped her bag on the table near the door.
“Something smells good.” She came into his arms where she belonged and nuzzled his neck. Gooseflesh broke over his skin and his cock strained against the zipper of his jeans. How perfectly she fit there, made for him. “Mmm. That’s much better. Hi. You smell way better than anything else I’ve ever smelled. Why is that?”
He kissed the top of her head and tipped her chin. Every freckle, the sweep of her lashes, the curve of her cheeks, the dimple just to the left of her luscious mouth—all burned into his memory.
“Because I’m yours, right down to the bone.” He inhaled her, tasting her day. The sharp scent of wolf wafted from her ever so faintly. “Why do you smell like wolf?” He wrinkled his nose as his cat puffed up, affronted by the scent on its mate.
Her nose wrinkled for a moment as she thought. “Wolf? Um, I don’t know. I wasn’t near any animals but you today.” She grinned.
“Funny. No, a shifter, not a full wolf. It’s just a thread of scent. You probably brushed against something at the shop, not knowing. There’s a Pack here in Boston, the Pack, if I remember correctly. I’ve met the Alpha male, Cade Warden.”
“Werewolves? Awesome! I’m totally going to keep my eyes open from now on. What else is real? Mummies? Zombies? Vampires?”
He sent what he hoped was a quelling glance but given her smile, he doubted it. “You worry me sometimes. Vampires, yes. I don’t think so with mummies and zombies. Though technically, I suppose mummies exist in that there are bodies preserved after death that way. None of that matters though, Renee. Whatever exists will be something to approach carefully or not at all. Stay out of trouble.” For such a small and utterly competent person, she did manage to get caught up in stuff from time to time.
“I can’t tell you what it does for my ego that you seem to think I’m one of the Scooby gang.” She rolled her eyes. “I did totally plow into some dude as I left the shop today. Made him drop his groceries all over the place. That’ll teach him to get in my way. And yet, I still got it. He asked me to dinner.”
“Hmpf. You sure do.” Galen kissed her cheeks, the tip of her nose and then settled in, his mouth against hers, kissing her slowly but deeply. He swallowed her sigh, relished the way she molded her body to his. She smelled of him. Of their home and their bed, of her shampoo and of magic. She tended to deny that last bit, but someday she’d have to finally admit what she possessed was more than knowing when the phone would ring.
She also held the scent of outside. Of the store, a bit of coffee, sometimes the green vibrancy of wheatgrass or the bite of mango. He wanted to rub himself all over her body, knew she’d not only let him, but she’d love it.
“I know that smile.” She tossed her scarf on the peg near the door and followed with her sweater. “That smile means I’m going without dinner.” One of her eyebrows rose. “Not that I’m complaining.”
He laughed and took her hand. “One more reason to love you. Much as I’d love to strip you naked and have my way with you for a few hours, you should eat. I know you probably went all day without taking a break.” Knew too that many considered her flaky or flighty but she lived in her head a lot. Not because she wasn’t capable, she was. Not because she wasn’t intelligent, she was one of the smartest people he knew. But because Renee saw the world in ways most people never could. It made her more beautiful to him, but he knew she struggled to accept it in herself.
“Look at it this way, I’ll just have more energy for the sex afterward if I eat.” She pulled away to poke her head into the fridge, grabbing two cream sodas and some glasses with ice. “I had a smoothie and some yogurt for breakfast and heaven knows I’m not in any danger of wasting away.” She indicated her body, the body he adored and knew every dip, every fall and curve, knew her scent, knew her taste.
“Your body, mmmm.” He hugged her again before drawing her to the table. “You are rich and warm. You’re cookies from the oven, brownies with nuts. You are succulent and delicious. If that’s because you like to have two pieces of pizza instead of one, I’m just fine with that. I love your body so get eating.”
They sat side by side at their kitchen table, spooning up pasta salad and sharing the sandwiches. They’d bought the loft three years before and had spent a lot of time making it their own. The pictures on the walls, the art, the couch so heavy and cumbersome to move he’d toss it out the fucking window before he’d move it again—these things were a tangible marker in their history.
He reached toward her, twirling a curl around his finger. “How was your day other than mowing down an unsuspecting dude?”
“Hey, he was way bigger. I totally took his apples to the pavement.” She sniffed and took a sip of her soda. “The usual. Phoenix—” she paused at the ridiculous fake name her stepmother had adopted, “—was all agitated about some letter she got. Dad came in and took her shopping and to lunch or something because she was calmer when she returned. Calmer than her normal state of up my assery, anyway.”
“Maybe he bent her over something. Always works to get you to relax.”
Her nose scrunched up. “Ew. Galen! If you’re still keeping sex on the menu for later, the comments about my dad and stepmom having sex need to stop.”
“We all got here somehow, babe. We all got here somehow.” He winked, knowing she’d get all ruffled up about it.
“Don’t make me stick my fingers in my ears and start singing. How was your day? Did you kick ass?”
“I always kick ass. Work was work. Hit my hours target for the year so that’s a load off.”
“Kinda stupid to have a billable hours requirement when the damned firm is all family.” She stole a pickle from his plate, but he’d put an extra out there specifically for that reason so he let it pass.
“Still have to pay bills. Even with family.”
“Things improve with Max?”
He sighed and she put her head on his shoulder briefly. Galen was very close to his older brother. The two of them were a lot alike, which was the reason they fought all the time. Max also filled the spot of Renee’s biggest fan within the jamboree; he defended her, sang her praises and generally adored her. In that, they were in total agreement. But they were still brothers and they acted that way. “After I punched him and broke his nose I know I felt better. Don’t know about him though.”
She tsked. “Galen. You two have to stop maiming each other. It’s very hard to get blood out of your shirts for one thing. For another thing, you’re not supposed to act that way with your own brother. He’s single, it’ll be harder for him to land himself a woman if he’s bruised up and battered all the time. If I had a sibling I would not waste time by punching him or her in the face.”
“You do know that when you get all judgy on me it only turns me on, right? All that moral indignation is hot. You’re like a schoolteacher I want to rumple and seduce into doing naughty things.”
She blushed, even as she laughed. “You know I’m right.”
“Babe, I know anyone else in the jamboree will definitely think twice before challenging me, Max or my father because they know we will kick their asses if they try. They’ve seen me fight. They’ve seen Max and my dad fight. This is shifter stuff, you know human rules don’t always apply to us.” He shrugged. They were not humans, they didn’t solve family issues the same way and he wasn’t going to apologize for it.
“You guys really need to call yourselves something tougher than jamboree,” she teased. “A gang. Oh! A cabal!”
He rolled his eyes at the familiar joke. “We don’t need a tough name. I can rip someone’s throat out before they can draw a breath. We could be sparkly unicorns and still eat your face off.”
“I still say if you call yourselves the Hell’s Jaguars or something you’d be even scarier. Better PR. As for eating? I like my face, Galen. But you can eat other parts of me.” She blinked her eyes, smiling innocently. Part of her allure, the naughty girl down just a few layers.
“But you do taste so very good.” He looked her up and down again. “Are you wearing a bra?” he asked, distracted by everything about her. She called to him, her magic, the way she sounded, the corkscrew curls she hated but wore better than any woman ever could. The combination was like catnip.
Her eyes darkened. Her eyes were the first thing he’d noticed about her back when he’d met her four years ago. Amber with flecks of gold and brown. In some light they looked hazel. Her combination of features, if they’d been separate on other people’s faces, would have been odd. But on her it worked. There was no one like her in the world.
Faster than he could put his glass down and move to her, she was in his lap, straddling his body, and those delicious breasts were at eye level.
“Now you can see for yourself.” She arched into him, her hands braced on either side of his shoulders.
“Like a present to be opened up.” Taking his time, he slid his hands up her torso, over the curves he loved.
She was his. That knowledge filled him, gave him purpose and satisfied him down to the bone.
He licked over the upper curve of her right breast. A breast high and proud, and as he’d thought, totally unrestrained by a bra. Crossing her arms, she reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt, pulling it up and over her head, tossing it to the side.
The way she moved on him, grinding herself against his cock over and over as her fingers wove through his hair, drove him crazy. Magic bled from her, washed over him, inciting his senses.
Without pause, he stood and began walking to their bedroom. While he wasn’t opposed to fast and hard on the dining room table, he wanted to take his time that night. He wanted to lay her out and love her from head to toe and back again.
“I love you, Renee.” He put her down and she finished pulling the rest of her clothes off, her eyes never leaving his body.
“I love you too.” She held a hand out and he took it, following her body down to the mattress.
The shock of skin on skin, the rush of pleasure as they connected physically as well as emotionally, knocked him over. “You feel so good,” he murmured as he licked down the side of her neck.
The energy between them swirled thick, her magic, his magic, bound together as they were. Each new time he had her, this was the case, more and more connection, a deeper bond. There was no doubt inside him, not with man or cat, that he had imprinted on her and she him.
In his world that was enough. They were married and mated and she was a member of the jamboree via her connection to him. She was family. She referred to herself as his wife and that’s most certainly how he considered her too. He’d asked her to marry him all human style as well and she’d agreed. The problem was, she really wanted all his siblings to accept her and wanted to have a closer relationship with her father and stepmother so everyone would be at the ceremony. He was pretty sure that would never happen. Her father was disinterested and his wife too interested in herself. She didn’t care about Renee’s happiness and barely tolerated Galen. They’d consistently refused to meet his family or even speak of what he was out loud. Both the jaguar-shifter part and the fact that he was biracial. They liked the lawyer part and he took care of her well, so her father never quite put into words what it was clear he thought.
None of that shit mattered. He’d taken to a new line of argument lately, that they needed to just do it because she’d never be close to her stepmother and father and he’d never get his sister to stop being a bitch and to accept Renee.
She wore his teeth on her skin, bore his mark proudly. She opened herself to him in a way he knew she never did with anyone else. They were united.
But there was something. He didn’t know what. He only knew she felt it too. The air held expectation. Something was about to happen, something that would change them. There was no fear. He knew what he felt, knew it was genuine and he knew without a doubt Renee returned those feelings.
Still, as she was fond of saying with that smirk/smile she so often wore, you know what they say about cats and curiosity.
Her scent drew him in, made the other thoughts fall from his head. His lips knew her, his hands, fingers, cock. On his knees, he looked down at her, at those lush lips, at the sleepy, half-mast eyes banking a fire just for him, her curly hair in disarray around her face. Her body, petite but lush, was the most perfect thing he’d ever seen. Curves, dips, valleys, the puckered tips of her nipples, the scar on her hip, the birthmark on her left wrist.
She began to speak, hesitated and smiled instead. He knew. Knew how she felt because he felt it too.
Her palms slid down his back, urging him closer. She leaned up enough to kiss his thigh, licking closer and closer until that mouth, hot and wet, reached his cock, just a wisp of her touch but enough to bring a moan to his lips.
Renee still couldn’t quite believe the man in her bed was hers. That someone who looked like Galen would even take a second glance at her, much less treat her as if she were the most precious thing he’d ever seen.
Acres of taut, caramel skin beckoned as she slid her palms against him. Over the flat belly, across hard thighs and toned shoulders. He was so incredibly gorgeous she never quite knew which part of him to look at first.
His muscles flexed against her touch. She knew they were bound, the brilliant strands of the ribbons of emotion held them, drew them together. Not stifling, but assuring. Being with Galen, thinking about him gave her comfort even as it titillated her with the need to taste, to touch, to pleasure and take pleasure from. Just as he’d imprinted on her, she had with him. Their magic, so very different, had reacted, melded and they’d bound themselves together. She belonged to him, body and heart.
His cock, fully erect, lay in her line of sight and she leaned up a bit to lick the head, tasting the sweet/salt of his body. He groaned her name, the sound wrapping around her, pulling her closer.
The power in this, the way she knew with her hands and mouth, with her body, she could bring him to his knees, bring him pleasure like no one else, filled her, heady and sticky-sweet.
Rolling to her knees, she locked her gaze with his, falling into those brown/black eyes. One hand on his chest, over his heart, over the spot where her name lay inked into his flesh, she pushed until he gave in and fell back to the bed.
Inky-dark hair, just a bit longer than it should be, spread around his face as she leaned down to kiss him. His lips, as always, brought a shiver to her. So very good, that mouth. Kissing mouth, body, pussy, it didn’t matter what part of her he touched with his mouth, he did it always with an intensity of purpose. Now was no different as he kissed her with slow sensuality.
Galen knew her body, knew her heart like no one else ever had.
With some regret, she left his mouth and kissed down his neck, across his chest, down his very sensitive side, across his lower belly until the hands gently cradling her head tightened, urging ever so gently downward.
She looked up, into his face, met his eyes and smiled. “Did you have a request?”
“My cock does and I’m its spokesperson.”
She laughed. “I suppose it wants to go to Target to get some socks.”
Her laughter died when he caught his bottom lip between his teeth. “Um, no.” He swore in three languages when she licked up the line of his cock.
Sexy bastard. “You taste very good. I think I’m addicted.” Wrapping her hand around the base of his cock, she angled it to take him into her mouth.
“Good God,” he mumbled as he arched into her.
Over and over she licked and swallowed, kissed and sucked. Over the years she’d come to learn what he liked and what he didn’t but it didn’t feel boring or repetitive. Each time she was with him this way she learned something new about him and herself as well.
She knew he was getting closer, he hardened impossibly more, the electricity of his climax charged his skin, arced between them, stealing her breath.
He moved his hands to her shoulder, squeezing gently. “Stop, stop. I want to be in you. I’ve been thinking about it all day.”
She sighed, sad to part with his cock that way, but pleased to scramble atop him.
“Impatient!” He rolled her to her back. “Let’s be sure you’re ready.”
“Ready? I’m ready, believe me. Put your cock inside me already!” She writhed as he licked over her nipples, left to right, over and over until she nearly panted.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” he said as he continued south.
Well. Okay, then.
He nudged her thighs wider and settled in before delivering a devastating lick from her gate to her clit. A secret benefit to having a man who was a cat shifter? The tongue. Whatever cat thing he had, which thankfully did not include a barbed penis—ouch—meant the broad, nubbed surface of his tongue was like a sex toy or something.
She laughed and he paused. “You thinking about my tongue again?”
“Yes, now get back to work!” He didn’t just give marvelous oral sex, she’d never, ever had a man go down on her and bring her as much pleasure as Galen did. What was there to complain about? Oral by a man who wanted to eat her alive with a super sex toy tongue. Bonus.
He pushed her hard, his mouth insistent, demanding. He took her from aroused to arching, begging and gasping out in climax in what felt like seconds. Her muscles still trembled, spasmed as he reared up and the head of his cock nudged against her, pressing inside her body.
“More. Ohgod, more. Deeper.” Digging her heels into the mattress, she pushed against him, taking him deeper inside.
Caught between amusement and desire, Galen stared down at her as he thrust deep and pulled nearly all the way out. “Greedy.” And she was. She may have looked like a sweet little pixie but in truth, his woman liked it hard and fast. Not that he’d complain. She also liked it all the time, which made her a rather perfect match for him in that department.
“And you love me anyway.”
“Yes. Yes I do.” He sped up, enjoying the jaunty bounce of her breasts as he plunged deep, fast and hard.
Orgasm rode him, urged him on. White-hot pleasure spread through him, outward like a blast as he guided her hand to her clit and she gasped, her pussy contracting around his cock. It didn’t take very long for her to start coming again, thank goodness, because at the first, hard squeeze she tipped him right over with her.
“It’s always this way with you.” He pressed a kiss to her temple as he collapsed next to her on the bed.
She stretched, more like a cat than she ever knew. “How’s that?”
“I can’t get enough. One touch is never enough. A thousand touches aren’t enough.”
“Is that a bad thing? Do you resent not knowing if what you feel is real or the result of the chemicals between us? Between me and your cat?”
He rolled to face her. “My cat is hotter for you than the human part is. My cat doesn’t care about whatever human conventions demand. My cat just wants to love you and fuck you and keep you safe, what anyone else wants be damned. My human agrees but realizes it’s important you’re along for the ride willingly. Don’t doubt any part of me. I’ve never given you cause to, have I?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t doubt what we have. I just... I’ve just seen some of your family seem upset by it. By you and me together when you have females within the jamboree who they think you should be with.”
Anger coursed through him. “What happened?” He saw her hesitation and it was his turn to shake his head at her. “Tell me. Please, babe.”
“Beth. She came by the shop today, in the morning. She’s pregnant.”
He only barely resisted the urge to grab the phone and call his sister to kick her ass. The only thing preventing that was the knowledge of how much he’d hurt Renee that way. He’d deal with Beth later.
“I know. She told me earlier today.” He paused. “You know what she’s like. I’ll talk to her. She knows better than to hassle you. Anyway, so what? You know she’s damaged. You and I will have children when we’re ready and she has nothing to do with us.”
“Mentally damaged. She’s a humanphobe, or whatever you want to call it. Your genes are too precious to waste on my weak human ovaries.”
He was going to kill his sister.
“My mother dropped her on her head a lot when she was a baby. I told you long ago not to listen to her because she’s an idiot. Did something happen today other than that?”
He smoothed his hands over her skin, needing the contact. She sighed and snuggled closer.
“No. Not really. I guess it’s just...it feels like the air right before it rains. Something will happen. Soon. It’s making me impatient I suppose.”
“I feel it too, sweet witch. You and I though? Nothing wrong there. The only thing I’d love more is if you married me all human-like.” He nipped her shoulder playfully, but left a mark.
A mark she loved and would look at again and again. Renee couldn’t really explain why to anyone but him, but that he’d mark her, make sure everyone knew she was his, it turned her on and made her feel safe.
“We already said we’d get married next year. As for everything else? Of all the things I know in the world, I know you and I are okay and will be. You are my cornerstone, my foundation. I just wish I knew what it was. This thing we’re waiting on.” She knew that to be true more than anything else she’d ever known. Galen was hers and she his. They would be together when they were old and gray. She’d have his children and yes, they would get married though she’d prefer to just go to city hall and do it quietly than have some big event. Susan didn’t really care about Renee, but she’d want to take over and spend lots of money, Galen’s money, on some swank affair with eleventy million guests she didn’t even know. That wasn’t who she was and it wasn’t who Galen was either.
“Soon enough. Now, let’s finish dinner. I’ll make you a lemon drop and we can catch a few episodes of Buffy before bed? Oh and more sex later.”
She rolled off the mattress, padding toward the door without bothering to put clothes back on.
“Of course more sex. You think I’m with you just for how smart you are?” She winked at him, loving the rich sound of his laughter as he jumped up to follow her back out to the table.