A Bleacke Wind (Bleacke Shifters Book 3) (13 page)

Well, she didn’t consider it a nefarious reason in retrospect.

Beck and her sister might have other ideas, though.

“Hey, you weren’t kidding when you said you were a big, bad wolf, were you?” she asked.

“No.” That smile again, playful.

Wolfish.

“You are the one who called me a wolf first, if you’ll recall,” he reminded her.

“What happens now?” she quietly asked.

He stopped and turned to her. “We do our best to play things cool around the others until the wedding. Then I’ll talk to Peyton and find out if he will assign me to Tampa.”

The thought of him not being in Tampa ripped at her. “And if he doesn’t?”

He shrugged. “Then I turn in my resignation and move to Tampa anyway. Unless there’s somewhere else you’d rather live.” He cradled her face in his hands, his sexy brown gaze intent on her. “You’re my mate. You and I…I won’t let anyone separate us.”

Relief fluttered through her, and it was only then she realized how scared she’d been that maybe they couldn’t be together in the long-run. That maybe this trippy whatever it was had been a one-time thing.

And that it
had
scared her so much…well, that scared her, too.

Holy crap, I’m a hot mess.

“What
is
our future together?” she quietly asked.

He took her hands in his and dropped to one knee. “I’m sorry I don’t have a ring to give you yet, but will you marry me?” The wolfish smile reappeared. “Not that I need a piece of paper to spend the rest of my life with you, but I want all of you.”

She realized she was nodding, making his smile widen.

“Is that a yes?” he asked.

“Yes.” She couldn’t have said no if she’d wanted to.

And she most definitely did
not
want to say no to him.

“Am I dreaming?” she asked, simultaneously afraid it was and wishing that was all this was.

“No,” he said, smoothly standing, pressing her hands against his chest, the feel of his heart beating through his shirt seeming to echo her own pulse. “Not a dream. A fantasy come true, on my part.” He kissed her and the world came to life around her once more.

She felt more vibrant, more
alive
than ever before.

“I don’t know if I can fake my way through dinner pretending this didn’t happen,” she said.

“We’ll figure it out. We’ll do our best. After dinner, I’ll come back to your cottage and spend the night with you.”

“Okay.” Another fear allayed.

Spending the night alone in a strange bed after having just had
this
happen…that wasn’t something she wanted to do.

“I don’t want to spend the night alone, either,” he whispered. “I can’t. I
won’t
.”

He enveloped her in his arms again as peace settled over her. Like her world had finally snapped into place with him, and she hadn’t even recognized it was off-kilter to start with.

She decided to test the mental thing again.
“Wow.”

“Wow, exactly,” he said with a playful chuckle.

* * * *

There was still close to an hour until dinner. Joaquin wasn’t exactly sure how he’d manage to keep his hands off Malyah during dinner, or how he would manage to hide the fact that Malyah was now his mate from a room full of wolves.

The answer presented itself as they drew closer to the guest cottages. In Asia’s backyard next door to Peyton’s lay her considerable garden. She loved fresh herbs, and had several large rosemary bushes growing around the periphery. He snapped off a few branches from a couple of the bushes and brought them back to Malyah.

“What is that?” she asked.

“Rosemary. I can’t hide my scent,” he said. “Not from them. This might help disguise the fact that you’re mine. It’ll prove enough of a distraction that, with everything else going on, maybe they’ll miss the connection. When I’m introduced to you at dinner, give me a hug. That will hopefully explain our scents on each other, as long as no one thinks too hard on the matter.”

She fingered one of the branches. “What do I say if anyone asks about the rosemary?”

He came up with a blank. “Hopefully, they won’t ask. Say you changed body wash or something. It’s a common herb. Come on.”

They slipped unseen through the cottage’s back door. Inside, they stripped their clothes and climbed into the shower together. Unfortunately, when they got into the shower, Joaquin knew he couldn’t contain himself.

Fortunately, she didn’t want him to. She reached down and wrapped her fingers around his already stiff cock. When he met her gaze, she smiled up at him.

“My, what a big cock you have,” she said.

“All the better to fuck you with, my dear.” Yes, it was one of the cheesiest pickup lines known to wolf shifters.

He didn’t care. Coming from her lips, it sounded like beautiful poetry.

He crushed his lips onto hers, his cock throbbing even more over the plaintive whines escaping her.

She wanted him as much as he wanted her.

He feathered his lips across her jaw, down her throat, over to her shoulder to the already healed mating mark he’d left there. When he flicked his tongue over it, she gasped in pleasure.

Wrapping his arms around her, he kept licking and kissing the mark, keeping her upright in his arms as her hand fell still on his cock. She moaned, gasped, shivered.

She wanted him.

When he started to turn her under the spray, she stopped him. “Don’t get my hair wet,” she scolded. “I won’t have time to fix it before dinner. I should have grabbed a shower cap before we got in here.”

“I don’t care what your hair looks like,” he said. “You’re beautiful.”

“Yeah, well, I do, and I spent a couple of hours and over a hundred bucks at the stylist yesterday afternoon.”

“You’ve got a scarf tied around it now.”

“Only because I didn’t have time to take it off before someone dragged me into the woods and boinked my brains right out of my head. Thank god I had it on to keep leaves and stuff out of my hair.”

His cock twitched. His spirited mate had a steely spine.

He loved it, and her.

He turned so he stood under the spray and kissed her, melting her again. She finally had to let go of his cock when he dipped his knees, caught the backs of her thighs with his hands, and lifted her, impaling her on his cock.

She moaned, her head tipping back and her arms holding on to him as he held on to her and started fucking her. Nibbling at the hollow of her throat, he barely held back his howl of satisfaction to have his cock buried inside her again.

“That’s it, my beautiful mate. No man has ever fucked you as well as I will.”

Her first orgasm shattered her, Joaquin swallowing her loud moans with his mouth as he continued fucking her.

“Imagine all the times I’m going to fuck you, just like this. Maybe every morning I’ll start our day reminding you what perfection is.”

He let out a pleased growl when her fingernails dug into his flesh as another orgasm rippled through her, her pussy throbbing around his cock.

Only after he’d fucked a third climax out of her did he finally give in and allow his own orgasm to explode, their kiss muffing his own loud, satisfied groan as he filled her. He stood there like that with her for several long, silent minutes, kissing her, her back pressed against the shower wall, her fingers now stroking his shoulders.

He touched his forehead to hers. “I love you, Malyah. Forever, my sweet, beautiful mate.”

Her hands tangled in his hair. “I love you, too. I don’t understand this. It scares me. But I love you.”

* * * *

Joaquin let her finish her shower first and managed to not wrap his arms around her and fuck her while he stared at her gorgeous, plump ass as she bent over to dry her legs.

“So what do I do with these?” she asked, holding up the rosemary branches.

“Rub it all over you while your skin’s still a little damp. Head to toe.”

“I’m not messing up my hair.” She wiped steam from the mirror and pulled the scarf off, examining her hair. “If you messed up my hair out there in the woods—”

He laughed, and it was all he could do not to walk over and hug her, which would have completely defeated the purpose. “The rosemary,” he said. “Roll the branches back and forth between your palms to release the scent, and then rub your hands all over yourself. Everywhere. Even before you put on deodorant. And speaking of, use a generous amount of that, too.”

“Hey!”

“To help mask your scent and mine,
not
because you smell bad.” He blew her a kiss and that seemed to mollify her.

He grabbed his clothes from where they’d ended up on the floor in a pile with hers and started dressing.

She finally rolled the rosemary between her palms, and the pungent, almost minty aroma of the herb filled the bathroom.

He let out a sneeze. “Sorry.”

She frowned. “I won’t be making everyone sneeze at dinner, will I?”

“No. It’ll have faded some by then. And rub more on your clothes after you get dressed.”

“What about you?”

“I have to run, literally, back to Jack and Moraine’s and grab another shower and get dressed in clean clothes. I’ll have the faint scent of you on me from my clothes otherwise.”

Shock filled her expression. “Dress!” She dropped the rosemary branch and bolted, naked, from the bathroom.

He followed her into the bedroom where she ripped open a large suitcase and pulled out a garment bag. She unzipped it, heaving a sigh of relief when the dress shook out, apparently none the worse for the trip.

“Nami would have killed me if I’d let it get wrinkled.” He gave her a wide berth as she carried it over to the closet to hang it up.

“Uh, uh-oh,” he said, staring at it.

“What?” She turned, the dress still in her hands.

“Is that a strapless dress?”

“Yes. It’s my bridesmaid dress for both Dewi and Nami’s weddings. Why? What’s wrong?”

Shit.

He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall. “Well, it’ll show your mating mark off nicely.”

“Huh?” She got the dress hung up and then closed the door, exposing the full-length mirror there. She turned and looked at her shoulder.

“Oh, my god!” She turned to him. “What does that mean?”

“It means I hope you weren’t planning on wearing a tank top to dinner.” He sank onto the bed. Keeping this development concealed until after the weddings on Saturday had been a long-shot, and he knew it. As soon as Dewi or any of the other wolves spotted the pinkish mark, clearly visible against Malyah’s gorgeous dark brown skin, the ruse would be exposed.

She started to walk over to him. Despite how delicious she looked naked he held up a staying hand. “Don’t. Not before dinner. You’ll have to take another shower if you do,” he said.

Despite that, his cock throbbed in his jeans, wanting inside her.

Luscious breasts tipped by dark, dusky nipples, the perfect size for him to cup in his hands and—

He swallowed hard. “I
really
need to get out of here before someone finds me here,” he said, forcing himself to stand. “Or before I bend you over and fuck you again. Go over your body with the rosemary. Use lots of deodorant. Put it all over yourself. Then get dressed and do your clothes with the rosemary as well. Don’t forget to brush your teeth. And if you brought any perfume or body spray or something like that with you, use that, too.”

She stepped forward, almost looking hurt. “Can’t I even get a good-bye kiss?”

He wanted to pull her into his arms and fuck her mouth with his tongue.

Instead, he kissed the tip of his index finger and touched it to her lips. Before he could pull away, she sucked his finger into her mouth and swirled her tongue around it before letting him loose. All the while, her gaze remained fixed on his.

Hell, he didn’t
want
to get loose, but unless he wanted Beck busting in there and killing him, he knew he needed to go.

His cock didn’t like that idea, either, because now it realized how good that sweet, hot mouth of hers would feel wrapped around it, her tongue swirling around the head.

“Tonight,” he hoarsely said. “I’ll leave dinner as soon as I can, go to Jack and Moraine’s, and then sneak back here. I’ll tell them I’m going out for an all-night run.”

“How do we handle brunch tomorrow?” Malyah said. “Nami told me all us women are going into town.”

He mentally swore. “Same as we are tonight. It’s all we can do. I’ll bring you more rosemary in the morning and I’ll steer clear of the others as much as I can. Wear the same shirt tomorrow morning as you’re going to wear to dinner tonight. That’ll explain my scent a little bit.”

They both started at a knock on the cottage’s front door.

“Malyah? You hang that dress up like I told you?”

“Shit!” Malyah whispered. “That’s Nami. Go!”

He bolted out the back door, legs pumping, stifling the urge to shift and run like that. For starters, he didn’t have a backpack or something to carry his clothes.

Now wouldn’t be the worst time to run into a skunk.

* * * *

From her suitcase, Malyah grabbed an oversized T-shirt she used as a nightgown and pulled it on before hurrying to let Nami in the front door.

Her older sister stepped inside. “What were you doin’?”

“I had a nap and a shower,” she fibbed. “Yes, the dress is hung up and safe and sound, sis.”

“Oh. Okay.” Nami’s nose wrinkled. “What’s that smell?”

“Why?” Her pulse raced. “What?”

“Smells like an herb. Smells good, though.”

“Rosemary.” Malyah didn’t let go of the door, holding it open. “Anything else?”

“Why? You in a hurry to get rid of me?”

“I would like to get dressed, put on my makeup, and fix my hair before dinner. I just got out of the shower and I want to make sure my hair looks good when I meet everyone else. I didn’t mean to sleep so long.”

Nami kept her hair trimmed short and natural despite Malyah and Lu’ana spending years trying to get her to do something different with it. The one time they’d finally convinced her to grow it out, she’d hated it and trimmed it short again, not liking the time or money it took to keep it up.