Chapter Eight
Jack woke up to the scent of his mate on the pillow. Utter satisfaction left him totally relaxed, happy. When he turned, he grinned at the sight of Renee facedown, blankets up over her head. One of her arms lay over Galen’s belly while the fingers of her other hand curled around Jack’s shoulder.
God, she was beautiful.
He kissed her shoulder and she snuggled deeper. Her skin, God, her skin was so pale and soft. Needing to see more, he pulled the blanket back, exposing a perfect back leading down to the dip at her waist and a very gorgeous ass.
“Mmmfph.”
The alarm sounded and he rolled to turn it off.
“This thing is like the fucking space shuttle. How the hell do I turn it off?” He poked at a few buttons that seemed to do nothing.
His annoyance melted when a sleep-soft and naked Renee leaned over him to turn the alarm off. He hugged her, jutting his hips to emphasize just how happy he was to see her.
“Anngaahahah.”
What that meant he didn’t know. But she tried to burrow back into the covers, which would not accommodate morning sex.
“How can I wake you up with my cock if you bury yourself in there?”
What he got was a snarl, a snort of disgust and his hand slapped away.
Galen seemed to find this all very funny.
“What?”
“While you’ll find our lady to be sweet and accommodating in many ways, she’s not a morning person.” Galen laughed as he got up. “Babe, I’m turning the heater up and I’ll close the bathroom door for you.” He looked back to Jack. “She’s not a shifter, remember? She gets colder than we do. I’ve found,” he said, continuing into the bathroom to flip on the switch to heat the room, “that she’s much more amenable to lots of things if she’s had a hot shower.”
Renee grumbled something into her pillow, deep inside her blanket nest. Jack pulled the blanket away from her face just a bit, enough to see her. “What?”
She turned over and he saw her breasts in the light for the first time. He swallowed and wet his lips.
“I said, don’t talk about me like I’m not in the room or worse, that I’m mental.”
He kissed her and she might have been annoyed, but she put her arms around him anyway before swatting him away and rolling out of bed. “I’m taking a shower. Coffee is already brewing. I’ll make breakfast while you get your shower.”
And just like that, she disappeared into the bathroom after a lingering kiss for Galen.
“You okay this morning?” Jack asked Galen. “I mean, with everything?”
He tossed Jack a pair of sweats. “If you want. I think we’re the same size, my closet is here and the highboy dresser is mine. There are underwear and stuff.” He pulled a pair of pajama bottoms on but stayed shirtless. “And yeah, I’m okay this morning. You?”
“I feel—” he paused as he pulled on pants, “—satisfied.” He shrugged and followed Galen out toward the kitchen.
“I’ll need to tell my family today, and the rest of the jamboree.” Galen poured them both a cup of coffee.
“I’m mated to you too.”
Galen looked up. “Yes. Is that a problem for you? With your pack?”
Jack laughed. “No. One of my best friends has a tri-mate bond. It’s a sort of mated threesome. Under normal circumstances, any female mated to a wolf would need what we call an anchor bond. Another male to take on part of the bond should the male die. Gabe, my friend, thought he’d anchor another couple and ended up mated to both.” He shrugged. “So threesomes are not unheard of.”
“So, when were you planning on telling me I had to have an anchor? Because I’m not going to do it.” Renee came into the room smelling better than anyone had a right to. Her cheeks were rosy and her skin gleamed like a pearl.
He shook himself out of his fantasy when she poked him while walking past to the fridge.
“You won’t need an anchor bond. I asked. I’d have told you. It’s a big deal and I’d never have not mentioned it before the Claiming.” There was something truly wrong with him that he found her so sexy, even when she was pissed at him. He needed to tell her about Grace, but he wasn’t sure how. He knew the longer he went without telling her, the worse it would be.
Effortlessly, she moved around the kitchen preparing breakfast. He sipped his coffee while Galen made some calls and checked his email. Things were easy between them, the silences comfortable, the conversation natural.
“Are you going to move in with us?” she finally asked as she put a plate heaping with bacon, eggs and hash browns in front of him.
“Do you want me to?” He forked some food up and sighed happily. Galen sat beside him and blew her a kiss when she gave him his plate.
She took a deep breath. “Okay, you don’t know me, I get that. But I’m a pretty straightforward person. We’re mated, right? Did you think I’d kick you out today? Or move in with you and leave Galen? Share custody of my pussy? What? I wouldn’t have opened my heart and my bed, hell, my life to you if I didn’t plan to let you in all the way.” She sipped her coffee as she nibbled on toast. “You’re mine, Jack. Ours. Of course I want you with me and Galen.”
He knew it, felt it through their link, but it sure felt good to hear it. “Will I fit here?”
Galen slid a hand up and down his back. “We’ll make it work. Unless your place is bigger?”
“No. I like it here.” And he did. He liked the feel of the space.
“Settled.” She bent to rummage in a drawer and pulled out two keys. “Here, this one is to the outer door and this one is to the front door.”
They chatted for another twenty minutes or so, but he had to go back to his place first to change before he went to Cade and Grace’s.
Renee walked him to the door. “I’ll see you later then?”
He put his arms around her and she moved to him with a happy sigh. The kiss she gave him rocketed him straight back into that place where need clawed his gut.
“Wow, that’s, wow.” Her voice was shaky. “I can feel it, the way you need.” She slid the robe she wore off her shoulders and it fell to the floor with a whisper of fabric. “I’m here and awake.”
With a strangled moan, he moved her against the wall at her back. “What you do to me.”
She opened herself, tossing a thigh around his upper leg, and grabbed for his button. Then of course, his phone rang, Cade’s ringtone.
“Please don’t tell me you have to take that,” she said, reaching into his jeans and finding his cock.
“I won’t.” He ignored the ring and picked her up to get her cunt where he needed it. Cade would just have to understand, it wasn’t the urgent ringtone so Jack was going to fuck his mate right then and there or die trying.
She shuddered and moaned into his ear as he lowered her onto his cock. “Love that shifter strength,” she murmured. “Hard and fast, I know you have to rush off.” She bit his earlobe and he growled, thrusting deep, just like she’d requested.
Her nails dug into his sides as he shifted her to rest more against the wall so he could reach her clit with a free hand.
“Glory hallelujah and all that stuff. Your cock feels so good inside me.” The nails scored his skin and he wanted to fall to his knees it felt so good. Her words drove him higher, the clasp of her inner walls pushed him closer to the edge. Her clit was hard and slippery against his fingers and when she came, her body tightening around his cock, the sensation, the pleasure rushing through his body, white noise in his ears and her name on his lips, he did drop to his knees as his orgasm hit with such intensity he could barely draw breath.
She sat astride him, smiling down, the morning sun coming through the window just above their door, lighting the wine and gold in her hair. Magic coursed around her, ebbing and flowing. Within, his wolf stretched and quieted.
“I love you. I know we just met, but I do.”
She moved to the side and grabbed her robe as he got up too. “I know. It’s big and scary, but it’s true. The love is there for me too.”
He kissed her again, hating that he had to go. His phone rang again and he groaned.
“I’ll call you later, okay?”
She nodded and stood in the doorway, watching him leave as he answered.
Renee had walked with Galen to his office, pretended to be nice to Beth, who always seemed to be lurking like the stupid bitch she was. Ha, bitch! Well, bitches were just dogs? So would any of Jack’s females in his pack be bitches in the figurative as well as the literal sense?
Good gracious, well that was a lot of mental rambling! Not that she wasn’t amused by it, Beth was a cow. But as she was pregnant, all Renee had was mental slapping since the physical kind would be frowned upon even if it hadn’t gotten her slapped right back by a female jaguar shifter.
She grabbed some kisses and left after some I love yous. She knew him, he’d be there for hours. He was a busy attorney, one of the few specialists in employee-side labor law in Boston. It was all acronyms to her, but ERISA was a big deal to those people who needed a specialist and he was their man.
She was proud of that. Proud of how smart he was, of how hard he worked. Proud a man like him loved her. And now she had Jack. Who she didn’t know nearly as well. She did hope his pack would accept her. She wanted, very much, to have the people important to him like her.
The last several days had been overwhelming on so many levels it was impossible to really get it all straight. It wasn’t just Jack and her bond to him. The magic within her had grown. Grown so much it was impossible to ignore.
She knew she had a sort of special gift. Knowing the phone would ring or sometimes, she’d been able to knock things over. She’d noticed lately when she had been really angry or upset, she had made things shake.
But after the night before, all that sort of chaotic noise had smoothed out. She felt like what she had wasn’t just about phone calls or having a way with people and animals. It was as if she perched in a sunny spot and her magic shone all around her. It felt big, like the ocean. Though she wasn’t scared by it she was still wary and impressed. And lost because she had no freaking idea what it was.
Most of all, she really wished she could talk to someone about it, learn how to harness it.
She hopped on the T and headed across the river to an occult/magic-type bookshop in Cambridge. She’d only passed by a few times on her way to a movie theater where she and Galen caught arthouse flicks, but she’d always wanted to stop in. Why not then? Maybe they could help her there, refer her to someone. Her men were off doing werewolf and lawyer stuff, her cart was closed on weekends and she had the time and the curiosity.
But at the end of the block, four doors down and the street jam-packed with students, she stopped, a cold sweat breaking over her. She was not supposed to be there. Why, she didn’t know, until a man stepped out of the bookshop. She didn’t even see him clearly. What she knew was that she didn’t want him to see her, though not how she knew it.
Quickly turning on her heel, she mixed in the crowd and headed away, back toward the T.
The further she got from that street, the better she felt, but she wasn’t going to stop until she got on the other side of the river.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket as she slid into a seat and tried not to be obvious about checking to see if she’d been followed.
“What’s happening? Where are you?” Jack demanded when she answered.
As the train pulled away from the stop, she saw him, saw the man from the shop standing on a nearby corner, looking around. She ducked, hoping he hadn’t seen her.
“Nothing,” she whispered, not sitting up again until she was sure they’d moved on and weren’t going to stop and let anyone else board.
“Bullshit. I can feel you. I can feel your fear. Where are you?”
Her call waiting buzzed and she sighed. That would most likely be Galen. She bet this mate thing between the three of them had made him all sneaky Pete into her head like Jack apparently was.
“Galen is on the other line. I have to get it or he’ll worry. I’ll call you when I get home.” She broke the connection over his growled curse and order not to hang up.
“Hello?”
“What took you so long to answer? Where are you?”
“Hey, handsome. I’m fine. On my way across the river back toward home.”
“Why are you scared? What’s happening?”
“I got spooked. It was stupid. I’m on a crowded train in broad daylight and I’ll be home in ten minutes. Really, go back to work. I’m all right. Let’s have pizza for dinner. I’ll handle the details. I love you.” She hung up and ignored the phone when it buzzed again. She needed to hold her shit together and talking to them wouldn’t help that just then.
Of course when the train stopped and she made to get off, she saw Jack right away. Galen stood next to him.
Instead of being mad, she simply went to them and let them hug her, even as they chided her for not answering the phone.
It felt so good to be cared about, to be fussed over; stupidly, she couldn’t hold back tears and it only made them worry more about her.
Jack looked around the outside of the house and went in first, giving Galen the all-clear signal before they allowed her inside. Galen ushered her to the couch and they bookended her.
“I’m going crazy here, sweetheart. What the hell has you so spooked?” The tension rolled off Jack in waves. Even normally laid-back Galen had been replaced by hard-core protector Galen.
She told them everything, from the way she’d headed to the shop as if by rote and then the way she got sick and sweaty and just knew the man she saw would bring her harm if she didn’t get away from him immediately.
“Did he see you on the T today?” Galen asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. But he was following me, looking for me. I know it.”
“Why do you think he was following you? Did you speak to him? Know him from before?” Jack held her hand as he spoke.
“I’ve never seen him before. I’d have remembered. I was walking down the street toward the shop and I began to feel sick. It was wrong, the air. I can’t explain it, but I just knew I shouldn’t be there and when he came out onto the sidewalk I had to not let him see me.” She shrugged. “I know it sounds stupid, but I just felt it. He was, there was something about him. I think he had magic. But not like mine. It looked, or felt different. I don’t know! I don’t know how I know, I just do.”
Galen kissed her temple. “Babe, it’s okay. We believe you. You practically glow with your magic now. Before I could sense it, taste it even. But last night, something happened. My cat, Jack’s wolf...it was a full moon and we all connected, unlocked things within us all.”
“You think maybe he saw it too? Like she’s a front porch light and he’s a bug? Great. Just great. Even better that we’re responsible for making her less safe.” Jack frowned.
She took his hand. “Oh for goodness’ sake. You can’t be responsible for everything.”
Then of course, they began to speak as if she weren’t even there. Being annoyed at them was better than being scared, she supposed.
Jack leaned forward, around her body to address Galen. “I don’t like that at all. What would he want with her?”
“Nothing good.” Galen’s eyes shone with violence.
Jack turned his gaze back her way. “You aren’t to go around by yourself for the time being. Got me? One of us will take you to work, one of us will escort you home. Until we figure out who this guy is and what he wants, you’re at risk.”
She counted to ten. She knew shifters were this way in general about mates, but in the face of a threat, they got even worse.
“I appreciate the protection and concern, I really do. But this is silly. You’re not going to treat me like I’m five. I’m a grown woman. I walk around alone all the time.”
“You did. And now you won’t. This isn’t about you being five, Renee, and you know it. This is a dangerous situation, we don’t know enough right now. Until we know more, this is how it will be.” Galen’s mouth had set, that spelled trouble for her because she knew he wasn’t going to give in when he had that face.
She narrowed her eyes. “This is ridiculous.”
He shrugged, so gallingly casual. “Suck it up.”
She slumped, knowing she couldn’t get out of it and not really wanting to. She was still spooked and they made her feel safe.
“Don’t you both have work to do?”
“Nice try. I finished my work and was on my way out when this all went down. I’m home for the day.” Galen tossed his feet up on the coffee table and she resisted the urge to shove his feet off the wood.
She sent him what she hoped was a snotty smile, but he pretended not to notice. “Well then good, you can go to your Saturday rowing thing with your crazy-assed siblings.” The de La Vegas liked to row on the Charles every Saturday until the river began to freeze at the shore. Because they were all insane. In any case, it was nice to be able to get out of that because they all had superhuman energy and she, alas, was just a human. Ha.
“Not today. There’s some thing for Beth and another woman who’s pregnant too. My dad is off with Max to get wood for some construction project he’ll fuck up and we’ll have to call in a contractor. They’re all busy and I’d rather be with you anyway.”
Jack smoothed a hand down her back and she leaned on him a moment. “I spoke with Cade before I left. I have a few days off, but they’d like to meet you. They asked us all to dinner on Monday to officially welcome you into the Pack.” He looked to Galen. “Both of you. There’s an official ceremony, but we can do that whenever we’re ready.”
“I have no idea what to tell my father and Susan. Things are already really tense between us lately. I don’t know what happened but in the last six months or so, she’s way more condescending. Makes more comments about my mom and her family. We end up in a fight of some sort at least once a week. My dad has become more distant with me during this time too. I’m not ashamed of it, I just, I honestly don’t know if they care or what.”
“You didn’t tell me it had gotten so bad.” Galen sighed, still holding her hand. “Why don’t you just take me up on the offer to lease the space in the lobby of our building? It’s the perfect size for you. Easier to deal with than the cart. And it’s not dependent on them. And, it’s protected by my people. No one could get to you. I’d feel a lot better on a few levels if you moved.”
“Because I can’t afford to do that yet.”
“How much do you need? Whatever I’ve got is yours.” Jack squeezed in tighter and she found herself surrounded by them. Damn, that was just, wow, hard to think when all that gorgeous man was up on her.
Galen’s voice cut through her tingles. “That’s not the issue. I’ve offered to do the same. And she can afford it, but she has this notion that she has to put the exact same amount into the household as I do.”
“I don’t put the exact same as you do into the household! You put in a lot more money than I possibly could. I do all I can. You put a certain percentage of your wages into things. Into the savings and utilities and the mortgage. All that stuff, vacations, whatever. I do the same. The increase in a lease or rental for my space is not in my budget. Right now, my schedule is my own. I don’t have to work on weekends or at night. I have a leisurely life because of how much more you put into the budget than I do.” His sister already thought Renee was a gold digger and basically dumb and shallow. Renee didn’t care to deal with the fallout of letting Galen pay for that lease. He thought she was just being stubborn and because she didn’t want to put him in the middle, she just let him think it.
“But I’ll be living here too.” Jack kicked his shoes off, propping his feet on the coffee table too. “So that helps, right? You should have enough to do it yourself in that case.”
“The building is owned by my jamboree. All the business floors are anyway. We lease out the rights to the retail space in the lobby and one atrium floor to another company. That company requires the first year’s lease fees paid in advance. I could, of course, intervene and ask them to make an exception for my wife. If my wife would allow me to do so. Which she does not. I could pay the first year’s fees for her and she could pay me back monthly, if she felt the stupid need to pay me back in the first place. She also refuses that.”
“Not that Galen’s bitter about it or anything.” Renee tried to get up, but both men held her fast. “I’m done with this conversation now. I’m not going to just let you give me tens of thousands of dollars! And I’m not going to use your family connections to get me a special deal that others don’t get. I know I’m not a lawyer or second in command of a werewolf pack. But I have my own business. It makes me happy and it pays my bills. It means something to me that I do it on my own.”
Galen hugged her. “I know, babe. I’m sorry. I just want to help you. I want to take care of you. I respect what you do, but can’t we find a way, a middle way, where we can protect you and you can still manage your own business too?”
“Sweetheart, if you’re in Galen’s building, you’d be way safer. Let us help you with this. I know we’d both feel a lot better if we knew you were more protected. If you won’t just take the money, you can pay us back, in installments or whatever you need.”
“I appreciate your concern, I respect that you want to protect me and I appreciate that. I do feel safer knowing you two look out for me. But I’m done talking about it and we’re going to move on to another topic.” She totally sounded like a self-help book, she knew she did. But she wanted them to know she appreciated their concern and still wasn’t going to let them take over her entire life.
She pushed hard enough that they finally let go and she stood, needing to be away from them right then. It was so easy to give in to all that love and protection. To let them take care of her instead of her taking care of them and herself. But she didn’t want that, didn’t want to be a freaking dependent. How could she respect herself if she just let them take over that way? How could they respect her in that case?
Jack was very nearly close to changing. He’d never felt so close to the edge before. The first jolt of her fear through their bond had doubled him over. He’d been in a meeting with Cade, on a teleconference with several other pack leaders at the time.
He’d lurched to his feet, intent on finding her. This wasn’t her being startled or nearly hit by a car or something fleeting. It hadn’t gone away. It stayed. She was being terrorized and he wasn’t there to protect her.
Grace had stopped him as he’d fumbled with his phone. She’d wanted to examine him but Cade forced her back, allowing Jack to call Renee’s phone. She didn’t answer right away and when she finally did she expected to just go on home and for him to stay at work?
And now this fuckall crazy idea of hers to not take the help they offered to get her out of what sounded like a very unpleasant situation and into a guarded building with more space?
“You can’t just walk away from this,” Galen said.
“I can’t? And how do you think that? Thank you both for the offer. I decline.” She continued on toward the hall opposite the bedrooms. A door slammed and KC and the Sunshine Band started up.
“I haven’t heard ‘Boogie Man’ in a good long time.” The ‘70s. Jack thought of that time when his life had been so chaotic. Absent any real connections to anchor him. He’d had a beer can novelty radio. He’d won it at some foster kid picnic and had listened to music long into the night, long after everyone else had gone to sleep.
“She’s got a darkroom back there. Another thing I’ve encouraged her to do more of is photography. She’s quite good at it. But she’s been raised to think anything artistic is bad. Raised to think she was wrong for her magic. So she runs her own business, does very well at it and still gets to be creative in her own way. But she hides her photography by saying it’s just a hobby. Stupid Susan, fuck! The woman owns a magic shop and she’s like the opposite of magic. It’s nonsensical.” Galen pushed himself from the couch and went into the kitchen. Jack followed.
“So I know more of the story with her family. What’s the story with yours? Have you told them yet?”
“I used to think things would mellow out, and over the last three years, things have gotten better for the most part. Jaguars are insular. We keep with our kind most often. When we imprint on a human, they almost always take the change. She doesn’t want to and I don’t need her to.”
“Your jamboree finds that insulting? A repudiation of what they are?”
“Some do, yes. More at the start. She’s really hard not to like. Most of them have seen how much I love her and how much she loves me. They know her decision about the change isn’t about them at all, but that she doesn’t want to be anything but what she is now. I’ve known her long enough to understand how very important it is to her to be that. To affirmatively choose to be who and what she is instead of trying to change for others.”
Galen began to rummage through the fridge.
Jack frowned. “But the ones who don’t? The ones who think she won’t change because she’s some sort of human supremacist?”
“I’ve got eight brothers and sisters. Two of them don’t like her. They feel like she’s getting in the way of my choosing a woman in our jamboree or one who’d change. They don’t want me to have children with her. My mother was that way until last year. I don’t know what happened, Renee won’t talk about it. But whatever it was, my mother has been very supportive of our relationship and of Renee ever since. I thought things were okay, but given the way she reacted today, I’m beginning to think she’s not telling me the extent of what’s going on.”
“So you haven’t told them about me? About this?” Jack wasn’t insulted, he just wanted to get all the details.
“I met with my father and my older brother, Max, and told them. I’m a grown man, a full member of the jamboree and third in line to take over. I don’t need permission or a vote of support. I’ll make an announcement of it at the next meeting, two weeks from now. I expect most of the jaguars there will support me. Some won’t though. It’s an old argument and things are changing. It’s just slow.” Galen handed Jack a soda and moved to stand next to him, both of them leaning back against the counter, staring out the large windows over the neighboring houses, the trees and gardens and beyond, the barest slice of river.
“Let me know what I can do to help.” Jack cocked his head, looking at Galen, letting himself admire him.
Galen looked back. Neither of them spoke for long moments. Jack breathed in deep. That hit of recognition shocked through Jack’s body. Connection. Deep arousal, attraction, need to protect and defend.
He turned, as Galen had. Where Jack’s kiss with Renee had been sweet and sensual, this first kiss between Jack and Galen without Renee involved was hard, raw, a gnash of teeth and tongue. Hands pulling and yanking, hips pressing, cocks grinding through denim.
Galen’s taste ran through his system, wild and powerful. His wolf responded, growling with satisfaction and challenge. Galen kissed down his neck, pulling his shirt open, the soft tear of the cotton wasn’t louder than the sounds they made.
Mouth and teeth on neck and chest, over nipples, just this side of pain. Jack arched into Galen’s touch as he managed to get Galen’s belt undone and pants unzipped. His cock felt right in his hand, slick at the head.
Galen hissed, arching, pushing, thrusting his cock into Jack’s fist. And bit him.
Jack cried out as Galen’s teeth pressed into the flesh of his pectoral muscles, just above his nipple. So much pleasure rushed through him he nearly came from that bite.
Galen’s hand worked its way around Jack’s cock. “Give it to me, Jack,” Galen murmured as he thrust against Jack. They were standing close enough that knuckles touched, angled cock to rub against cock, slick and hard.
Galen rested his forehead on Jack’s shoulder, his neck so invitingly close. When Jack’s teeth began to press into that beautiful, dark caramel skin, he growled, holding Galen in place as he came in a heated rush. Not too much longer later, a breath perhaps, Galen followed.
The silence after wasn’t uncomfortable. Galen moved away, pausing to kiss the spot on Jack’s neck just below his jaw. He handed Jack a washcloth to clean up with, but not before licking up Jack’s hand, from wrist to palm. The gesture was tender, sexy and full of challenge. Loving Galen would be nearly as complicated as loving Renee. The two males were used to being in charge. The challenge of dominating one another would add spice and conflict too.
“I never expected this. I’ve been with men before. Loved men before. But this is so much more than what I’ve had in the past. You’re beautiful, sexy, strong, all things my cat, and the man, approves of.” He paused for a moment. “When I met Renee there was nothing else. She owns my heart in a way no one could ever do. I need you to understand that. You are my mate, I believe that. The bites have tied us closer.” Galen took a drink of his soda.
“But she’s my first priority.” Jack nodded. “And yours. I agree and understand.”
“Wow, this week, I gotta tell you, has been full of surprises.” Galen shrugged with a laugh.
“Do you regret this?” Funny to ask, Jack knew, but he needed to know.
Galen shook his head. “No. Despite my inner cynic about most things, I do believe in fate. I believe this is meant to be. That you love her and want to protect her like I do means more because we have a connection to each other as well. Without her, there wouldn’t be you. She’s the connection, I can’t regret her, or our connection to you.”
“I agree.” He looked back down the hallway where she’d retreated.
“We should get her out of the house tonight. Yes, it’s exposed, but she’s spooked and really pissed off. When she puts on Chaka Khan’s ‘I’m Every Woman’ you better know she’s still good and mad. If she puts on Patsy Cline, you need to wear a cup.” Galen sort of laughed, but Jack knew their woman was totally capable of it.
The music halted between tracks and Jack wondered if he’d be hearing Chaka and running for the door. Instead a slow, sultry number came on.
Galen smiled. “Etta James. We’ve turned the corner. Next song will tell us if she’s going to be our dinner date or if she’ll be in there another hour.” Both waited, continuing to look out the windows over the city.
Silversun Pickups came on, one of Jack’s favorite bands. “‘Three Seed’? Is that good or bad? This isn’t a love song after all.”
“‘Three came from one little seed,’” Galen said with a smile, indicating the lyrics. “Sounds hopeful to me.”
The door opened, music flowed out and she followed, singing to herself absently as she looked at prints in her hand.
“Whatcha got there, babe?” Galen lit up when their eyes locked. A smile bloomed over Renee’s features, making her so beautiful in that moment it unfurled something inside Jack.
She handed him the prints. Jack looked over Galen’s shoulder at the black and white shots he’d laid side by side on the bar.
“My parents?” Galen traced the set of hands in the photograph. Clearly a couple, hands clasped easily, fitting perfectly. Perched between the feminine thumb and forefinger, the stem of a tulip.
The focus had been perfect, highlighting the connection of hand to hand and through that of the two people not in the picture at all.
“Yes. You remember that weekend we went out on Carlos’s boat? It was just a silly moment. But they’re so close, united, it’s beautiful. I thought I’d have it framed for your mom’s birthday next month.”
Galen took her face between his hands. “Who am I that I’d be blessed to have you in my life? To see the world the way you do is to remember the magic all around us. Thank you. My mom will love this.”
Jack looked at them, at the way Galen touched her so very gently, with tenderness and care. This was his family, the place where his heart lived.
They looked at the other shots. One of Galen and a man who had to be a sibling sitting around a fire pit. They leaned toward each other, sharing something clearly mischievous.
“I want to have this framed for you and Max. You two can put them in your office at work and then the next time you want to break his nose, you can remember this moment.”
“God we’re trouble.” Galen laughed as he shook his head. “It’s a wonder my mom never tried to sell us at a garage sale.”
“She might have, but the neighbors would have known not to buy you, no matter how cute you were.” Renee waggled her brows and Galen snorted, kissing her quickly.
The others were nature shots, beautiful, simple, and, he noted, from perspectives most people wouldn’t have seen.
“You see a lot.” He turned her toward him and she automatically slid into his embrace.
“Meh. I like to take pictures. It’s fun and that’s about it.”
He began to sway with her, slow dancing in the kitchen as Goldfrapp’s “Black Cherry” came on. He didn’t need Galen to interpret this song. She was everything.
“I love this song,” he said, just being with her.
“Me too. This is a great sex CD.”
He agreed.
“When you two recover from your interlude, you can show me.”
“Our interlude?” Galen asked, still leaning against the counter, watching them, an amused smile on his lips.
“I know what pussy smells like after sex, and I know what the air smells like after you’ve come.” She writhed against Jack and his cock quickly let her know he was just fine to go again.
“Does that bother you?”
She leaned back as if he’d dipped her, the long line of her neck exposed. His wolf approved mightily of the gesture of total sexual submission. The sound of her laughter, the way she glowed with pleasure and contentment, he knew the answer.
“No, gorgeous. Not at all. As long as there’s a place for me I have no negative opinions of it at all. It’s hot. You can let me watch sometimes though.”
Jack laughed as she straightened again. “Galen and I think dinner out would be good. What do you say?”
“Don’t you need to move some stuff in?” She got to her tiptoes to kiss him before twirling to the counter to get some tea. “Oh and I moved all my stuff to the closet in the guest bedroom. You can share the big closet with Galen. I moved my dresser in there too so there’s room for yours. Oh, and I moved my stuff from Galen’s office and put it into my darkroom area. I don’t need it and you may.”
“You moved that dresser? Damn it, Renee, that’s a heavy piece of furniture. I could have done it.”
Jack just met her smile with one of his. His mate, making their home open to him. “Thank you, sweetheart. I don’t want to push you out of your office space.”
“I have a really large space outside the darkroom. It’s well lit and I have my computer in there anyway. I don’t do a lot, not enough to need half of Galen’s office. If you need, or want an office of your own, we have the guest room too.”
“All I need is a space for a computer, a printer and a fax machine. A lot of my work is going to meetings and talking on the damned phone. I’m fine sharing with Galen if he is.”
“It’s a big space. Plenty of room for another desk. I’ve got a fax machine and a printer. Wireless through the house and my computer has teleconference capability, so you’re welcome to use it too.”
They discussed the logistics of all the stuff he wanted to keep and that he didn’t really care about. He made some calls and arranged to meet with some friends in the morning to move the big stuff. He’d put the condo on the market in a few weeks after he’d gotten settled with them.
She flitted around, chatting with them, clipping herbs from the pots in the window, making more tea, filling the space with the sweetness of her energy. It made him so unbearably happy.
Galen smiled, his gaze tracking Jack’s. “Yeah.”
She turned to them, catching them both staring. “I’m starving. How about Serafina? I think something carb laden with extra cheese sounds just right.”
“Good idea. Let me call and see if they can get us in?”
“I need to go by my place to get some clothes. I know where Serafina is. Call me and tell me when the reservation is and I’ll meet you two there. If you don’t mind, I’ll take you up on the parking spot here.”
“Not a problem. Why don’t I come with you?”
He realized how much he wanted to have some alone time with her when her suggestion pleased him so much. Part of it too was that she wanted to be with him as well.
“They can’t get us in for another hour and a half.” Galen hung the phone up. “I need to stop by my office. I realized I left my memory stick there and I want to work a little tomorrow afternoon. I’ll meet you at Serafina.”
“All right. Let me get changed and we’ll head to your place, Jack. Do you mind?”
“Not if I can watch.”
She laughed. “I’m pretty sure it’s not very exciting, but whatever floats your boat.”
“Be careful, babe. Listen to Jack when you’re out.” He stepped into his boots, zipping them.
“Damn, you look handsome.” Renee kissed Galen. “Yes, yes. I’ll be careful. You too. See you soon.”