“Yeah, well, I have a feeling we’ll be spending a lot of money on these things until I can get myself on the Pill.”
They reached the condom display. “Or…not.” He stared down at her.
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “We haven’t had a chance to talk about kids.”
She froze, but she didn’t let go of his arm. “You remember the part where I said I’m thirty-eight, right? And while you look damn good for your age, you’re almost fifty. I don’t think either of us need a baby now.”
He felt her heart racing, like that wasn’t exactly the full truth.
Gathering her hands in his, he held them against his chest. “Sweetheart, wolves live a long time. Badger is three hundred and ten.”
Her eyes widened, shocked. “What?” she whispered.
He smiled. “And human mates, especially if they’re with an Alpha, usually have an extended lifetime as well. Don’t be shocked if you notice the clock seeming to roll back a little, biologically speaking.”
He watched her throat work as she swallowed, apparently trying to digest that revelation.
Leaning in, he whispered, “Ken used to have horrible vision. Wore glasses since he was a kid. The morning after he mated with Dewi, he had perfect vision again.”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Seriously. Ken and Dewi don’t have the worry we do, because a female wolf shifter, a full-blooded one, can tell when she’s fertile and avoid those times of the month if she doesn’t want to get pregnant. I don’t know how that works in reverse, if I’ll get to a point where I can tell where you are in your cycle or not. But I’m going to put it out there that if you wanted to have a baby, that would be something I would love.”
“I think we should have had that conversation before I decided.”
* * * *
Holy. Hell.
She didn’t know if she wanted to have a baby. In a way, she’d had one. Well, raised one, anyways. And toddlers and teenagers.
But if that was something Beck really wanted…
He kissed her hands. “Honey, that is not a deal-breaker. If you decide no, then no it is. I’m just so happy to have you in my life that, trust me, it doesn’t matter.”
“You say that now. What if it matters years from now?”
“It won’t. Because
you
are who matters to me.”
“I can’t promise you a baby.”
“I’m good with that. Really.”
“But…”
He smiled down at her. She had a hard time thinking clearly and forming words when his blue eyes seemed to absorb the very core of her being. “You are
mine
,” he whispered. “That’s what matters.”
A pleasant shiver rippled through her when he said that word in that tone. “What if I don’t want to? Or can’t?”
“Okay, quick experiment, then.” He let go of her hands and it took every ounce of her being not to snatch at his hands, to maintain the contact with him.
Then he stepped back. “If you really think this is going to be a problem, then walk away from me now.”
She stared at him, shocked, speechless. “What?”
“Go ahead. Humor me.”
She tried to turn away from him and found she couldn’t. Not for lack of trying, either. It was like a physical pain, as if someone was trying to rip her heart out of her chest, when she tried to walk away from him.
Instead, she flung herself back into his arms. “What’s happened?”
He held her tightly, reassuring her. “I feel the same way. I can’t walk away from you. It’s our mate bond. If you tell me no baby, ever, then that’s it. But nothing short of death will keep me away from you now.”
“You said if I told you to leave me alone that you would.”
“Before we were mated. Before you were officially
mine
.”
There was that word again. It had burrowed into her nervous system now, giving her clit a delicious tweak of interest every time he said it.
At this point, she strongly suspected if he whispered it enough times in a row that she’d likely orgasm just from that.
“I can’t explain it,” he continued. “And I don’t need to explain it to know it’s real. The Universe decided we were perfect for each other, as we are right now. If we decide we want kids later, great. If not, then great. Because as we are right now, we are perfect in the Universe’s eyes. You are perfection, I am perfection, and together, we are perfection.”
“I’m probably never going to be skinny.”
He made her look up at him. “I don’t care. I fell in love with you the way you are now, not because of your looks, but because you’re
mine
.”
She let out a little whimper, making him frown. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, perhaps a little too fast, because the left side of his mouth quirked in a delicious smile. “
Mine
,” he whispered.
Her fingers dug into his arms to keep herself upright.
His smile turned into a full-on grin. He pulled her close, his mouth next to her ear. Anyone looking at them would think they were just hugging.
“
Mine
,” he whispered.
Nami closed her eyes, lips pressed tightly together to lock the sounds in her throat. Her pussy clenched, clit throbbing. Her panties were going to be soaked.
His arms tightened around her, the tone of his whisper dropping lower, deeper, growling. “
Mine
.”
Burying her face against his chest, she struggled to hold back her moans. Now Beck was holding her, keeping her upright.
“
My
mate,” he murmured. “
Mine
.”
Coherent thought escaped her as he whispered in her ear, over and over again, until, finally, he chuckled. “
Come
for me,
my
sweet, gorgeous mate.”
As if he’d had his finger on her clit, her orgasm exploded inside her. Barely managing to stifle her moans, she depended on him to keep her standing, because her knees gave out. Finally, she managed to support her own weight again as she gasped for breath.
When she stared up at him, he wore a deliciously evil grin. Leaning in, he rubbed noses with her. “Oh, my sweet mate, you are in
sooo
much trouble now.”
Somehow, she knew she wouldn’t mind it.
Not in the least.
* * * *
Making a woman come in the middle of the condom aisle at a Walmart late at night without even touching her wasn’t the weirdest sexual thing Beck had ever done in his life, but it certainly rounded out the top five.
As far as satisfying?
It left all other sexual experiences, except for their initial mating, in the dust.
Beck grabbed several large boxes of condoms, then added a bottle of lube after thinking on it for a moment, before leading her to one of the checkout lanes.
The satisfied smile wouldn’t leave his face.
Oh, she was definitely in trouble. Now that he knew he could do that to her, there would be plenty of lunch hour phone sex in her future. Maybe he could even convince her to quit her job and go back to college to finish her degree. He could easily afford it, and afford to pay for Da’von’s, too, without putting a dent in his savings.
Back in the privacy of his car, he leaned over, grabbed her, and kissed her hard and deep. “That was so damn sexy,” he rumbled. “Be prepared to be doing stuff like that a
lot
.”
A nervous whimper escaped her. “Don’t you make me do that while I’m driving. I’ll wreck the dang bus.”
“No, sweetheart. Not that.” He nuzzled her neck, behind her ear. “But be prepared for me to make you come in other places like that. You can’t expect me to realize I can do something like that to you and then not do it, can you?”
“That’s not fair,” she whispered, but there wasn’t much protest in her tone.
“Oh, you’re so cute. I’m sure you’ll discover things you can do to me, too.”
He got them back to the house without further incident or sexual ravishing.
That took an epic amount of self-control on his part. They hurried back upstairs to the bedroom, locked the door behind them, and then Beck pounced.
He grabbed her, hands clasping her ass as he ground his hips against her. “Time for me to make it up to you for earlier today.”
She draped her arms over his shoulders. “I have news for you, you already have.”
“Oh, no. You know what I mean.” He backed her toward the bathroom. “I owe you a long, slow, sweet, sexy seduction.”
“Actually, as worn out as I am, I’d prefer another quickie before we collapse. You can slowly seduce me tomorrow morning after I’ve had my coffee, if you want.”
“Then how about a sexy shower, a quickie, and sleep?”
She smiled. “That sounds wonderful.”
He slowly stripped her in the bathroom, covering her flesh with kisses as he bared it.
She tapped him on the top of the head. “I need to know something,” Nami asked.
“Of course.”
“That Prime stuff Dewi and Badger were talking about. What she did to Jarome at the house. That’s what she used on Da’von that night at dinner, isn’t it? To make him stop talking to Jarome?”
Beck straightened from where he’d been kissing her belly. “Yeah. Do you really want to talk about this right now?”
“Not now, but later.”
In the shower, he soaped her up, head to toe, enjoying the feel of her hands on his flesh, his roaming her body, exploring, wishing the world would just go away and leave them alone for about a year so he could explore her without interruption.
When they finally made it back to bed, she didn’t want to delay. She grabbed his cock, stroking it. “Suit up, wolfman,” she joked. “I’m ready.”
After rolling the condom on, he easily slid inside her, bracing his arms on the bed on either side of her head as he slowly stroked his cock inside her. She stared up at him, her arms around him, her short nails raking along his back, but he wouldn’t be rushed.
Smiling, he said, “You think you’re ready to put up with me for the rest of our lives?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
He gave her a little bump and grind at the bottom of every thrust, drawing soft moans from her. “You haven’t seen me at my best.”
“You haven’t seen me at my worst,” she shot back, gasping again as he found exactly the right angle to hit her clit with every stroke.
Persistent, he slowly made love to her, waiting, holding his own release back, drawing her closer to the edge. When he finally heard her gasp, saw a sweet, glazed look fill her eyes, he picked up the pace until she was moaning, her muscles clenching around his cock as she came.
Only then did he allow himself to come, moaning with her, feeling her love for him filling her soul. Then he rolled onto his side with her in his arms, kissing her.
“Forever, baby,” he whispered, nuzzling her nose. “You’re mine forever, and I love you.”
“I love you, too. Forever’s an awful long time.”
“I hope so.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Saturday morning, Dewi rolled over to find the sun up and the house filled with the delicious aroma of something cooking for breakfast.
And coffee.
Mmm, coooofffeee.
Then the events from the day before came back to her.
Malyah.
She sat up and looked at the alarm clock. It wasn’t quite eight o’clock yet, but Dewi nudged Ken as she climbed out of bed. “Time for me to get up, babe,” she said.
He rolled over, groaning. “I want to sleep late. Come on. It’s Saturday.”
“I can’t. I need to check on Malyah and see if I need to reinforce anything.”
“Ah.” He let out a sigh. “I’m getting up.”
“You don’t have to get up, yet. I said I needed to.”
He was already moving. “Yep, I do. United front and all of that. Besides, whoever is cooking, that smells good.”
“Yeah, doesn’t smell like Badger’s usual meat-heavy breakfast fare.”
They got downstairs to find Nami busy at work in the kitchen, Badger trying to stay out of her way, while Beck sat on one of the barstools at the counter and watched with a look of unadulterated puppy love on his face.
Ah, the Universe returns to some semblance of normal.
Dewi stepped in close to talk to Nami. “Is Malyah down yet?”
“No, not yet.” She stopped what she was doing, which looked like making French toast, and met Dewi’s gaze head-on. “I mean it, Dewi,” she said, her voice choked. “I love you. I cannot thank you enough for what you did for us.”