“I knew that suit would look good on you. Remind me to thank Declan later.”
Justin’s voice, warm and affectionate, wrapped around him like a blanket. The only thing that stopped him from closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling was the hint of sensuality in his lover’s tone.
He straightened and turned in one fluid movement.
Then froze.
His mate-to-be stood in front of him clad in a full on tuxedo. The eagle always looked like he’d stepped out of the pages of a fashion magazine, but he was simply stunning in the formal wear.
Justin blushed a lovely shade of pink and he wanted nothing more than to chase that pretty flush up his throat but his feet seemed to be cemented into place.
Stepping forward, Justin took his hand and led him into the dining room, where a feast waited. He looked at the food, at Justin, then back at the food. When the hell had he had time to pull something like this off?
“Don’t worry,” Justin whispered, nudging him forward a couple of inches. “Shannon did most of the work.”
He glanced around the room, searching for someone, anyone, who would stand as witness to their mating. He already knew they were the only two in the house.
“Justin…what’s going on?”
Chapter 6
Justin smoothed down the front of his tux, watching Michael’s face carefully for a sign that he’d screwed up.
“I wanted to give you a mating gift,” he said.
The confusion didn’t leave Michael’s face. God, his wolf was the cutest thing on earth. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the corner of Michael’s mouth.
The kiss was returned as understanding started to leak into the wolf’s eyes. “Declan and Quinn aren’t coming, are they?”
He shook his head. “No. My gift is a private mating. I spoke to Declan last night and arranged it all. We’re still going to have a pack celebration, but it’s going to be tomorrow at the Alpha House.”
Butterflies fluttered in his stomach as he watched Michael’s eyes widen. Had he made the wrong decision?
Michael stepped into him, bending his neck until their foreheads were pressed together. “If you want a traditional mating, I’m fine with it. Last night I decided I’d just focus on what’s important.”
“Yeah?” Justin whispered. He skimmed his fingertips up the wolf’s arms, feeling the man shiver. “What’s that?”
“Us. Our bond.”
Oh. Oh God, his mate was killing him. He blinked back the tears he felt welling in his eyes and raised one hand to cup Michael’s cheek. He rubbed his thumb over his lover’s cheekbone and breathed in his scent.
How many times had they done this? One hundred? A thousand? He’d lost track of how many times they’d stood like this. Sometimes it was after one of Michael’s long shifts and they were getting reacquainted, happy to be together again after a full two days apart.
Sometimes it was after a particularly bad fire, leaving Michael in desperate need of comfort.
And sometimes, it was after a fight, as a silent apology to each other and a reaffirmation of their feelings.
But he would never forget this moment as long as he lived. This time, Michael stood in his arms, completely vulnerable in a way he’d never shown, willing to give Justin whatever he wanted despite how uncomfortable it made him.
“Baby,” he whispered. “I appreciate it. I do. But I don’t need a traditional mating. I only need you.”
Michael closed the distance and kissed him. It was sweet and chaste and full of emotion.
He’d always known how deeply Michael loved him but the man had a tough time showing his feelings. And as lovely as it was to finally
see
the depth of his feelings, Justin didn’t want an intense mating. He wanted fun, light, full of laughter and love.
Pulling away from his lover was hard but Justin somehow managed. “Besides,” he said, stepping completely out of Michael’s embrace, “your confession inspired me to think about how I feel about the whole public mating thing. I came to the same conclusion. I don’t want to share that part of you, or our relationship, with everyone else.”
He couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up at Michael’s thrilled expression. “What’s so exciting?”
This time it was the wolf who blushed. It was such a rare sight, it enchanted Justin.
Michael cleared his throat. “I sort of like the idea of you being jealous over me.”
“Sort of?” he teased.
“Okay, a lot.”
A familiar glint appeared in Michael’s eyes and a shudder worked down Justin’s spine. He glanced at the table and wondered if the food would taste just as good cold. “We should eat.”
“We should,” Michael agreed.
The wolf didn’t sit down. He stalked around the table until it was between them. “Run.”
A thrill shot through Justin at his lover’s words. He only stalked when he wanted to hunt. And being hunted by Michael was the best thing ever.
He spun on his heel and started to run just as he heard a thump. He’d seen Michael vault the table before and knew it was only a matter of seconds before his mate was on him.
He veered to the right and thundered up the stairs two at a time. A shiver worked its way down his body when he felt Michael’s hot breath right on the back of his neck. His stomach fluttered for a different reason. Even his damn toes tingled.
Michael let him get to the bedroom before he was tackled. The momentum carried them to the bed and he found himself under the hard body of his wolf.
“The food will get cold,” he murmured.
“That’s what a microwave is for,” Michael said.
He didn’t really care about the food. He tugged the wolf down and kissed him.
Michael smiled into the kiss, nibbling at his lower lip a little. “Love you.”
It wasn’t the first time the wolf had said the words first. And Justin was sure it wouldn’t be the last. But tonight, in light of what they were about to do, it meant everything.
“Love you too,” he managed.
Michael’s lips felt like velvet sliding over his skin. He arched his neck to give them more room and whimpered when he was rewarded with a sharp nip on his Adam’s Apple.
“You know, I’ve always wondered something,” Michael muttered against his skin.
Talking? Michael wanted to talk now, when all they had to do was get out of their clothes and writhe around on the bed.
His expression must have given away his thoughts because the wolf laughed, low and rough, into his ear. “Don’t worry. You’ll want to know what I wonder about.”
“What do you wonder about then?”
Michael pulled him up and slipped the tuxedo jacket off his shoulders. He threw it into the corner. Justin almost protested but shut his mouth when the wolf started working on his shirt buttons.
“I always wonder what you do when I’m doing one of my long shifts at the firehouse.”
The soft cotton parted over his chest and Michael bent down and kissed the skin over his heart. “What do you mean? I go to work, I come home, eat and sleep.”
The wolf nosed his way down Justin’s abdomen, pausing to dip his tongue into his naval. “I meant, how do you get yourself off?”
His stomach swooped at Michael’s bold words. “What?”
Michael nuzzled the sensitive spot right behind his ear and his breath caught. “Tell me how you get off so I have something to think about when I’m all alone in my bunk at the firehouse.”
He fought off a blush, knowing Michael was playing with him. His lover had figured out months ago how much Justin liked dirty talk when they were in bed.
Thing was, he’d figured out not long after that Michael loved it just as much.
“Are you sure you want to be thinking about sex when you’re at the firehouse and you can’t do anything about it? It’s not like we can have phone sex, although I’ve heard phone sex can be quite satisfying,” he teased.
Sharp teeth scraped against the side of his neck and he threw his head back, hoping Michael would take the hint and fucking bite him. He longed for the mate connection. But the wolf soothed the small sting with his tongue. Justin wondered if he would have to beg.
“Please,” Michael whispered into his ear. “Indulge me. Just this once.”
He wanted to point out that he indulged the wolf on a regular basis.
Until Michael closed his lips on his earlobe and sucked.
“Playing dirty,” he gasped, his cock going from half hard to rock hard in the space of a single second.
Michael pushed back until he was kneeling between his outspread thighs. The look he shot under his lashes melted all of Justin’s resistance.
“First,” he said, smiling at the wolf’s expression of delight, “I strip down to my underwear. Help me?”
Michael licked his lips, sending a bolt of desire straight through him, and pulled the already unbuttoned shirt off him.
“Pants too?” he asked.
“I’ll do it.” Justin loosened his pants and lifted his hips far enough to push them down his thighs. “If you touch me, I won’t be able to control myself.”
The wolf pouted adorably but he scrambled off the mattress. He plopped into the armchair Justin had insisted they place in the corner. “Good thinking. I’d better stay over here.”
The pants joined the jacket and shirt on the floor. The silk socks came off next until Justin was lounging on the bed in nothing but his boxer-briefs.
He hesitated, a small flutter of uncertainty unfurling in his belly. What he was about to do was so intimate, so personal. He’d give Michael anything, but was this something that he really needed to do?
“I imagine you sometimes,” Michael said quietly. “I imagine you in my arms, your back arching from my mouth on your nipple. I think about the way you call my name and the way your nails dig into my shoulders just before you’re about to come.”
Justin tracked the wolf’s hand as he reached down to adjust himself in his pants. “But you know what? Mostly, I think about how well I fit against you when we’re done. About how right your hands feel smoothing down my spine and I know I was meant for you. I think about how grateful I am to belong to you and how happy I am that let me love you and you love me in return.”
Justin’s heart melted at the words and his uncertainty vanished. “I do love you. So much. And I ache in every way when we’re not together.”
“Would you show me what you do when we’re not together?” Michael whispered, leaning forward. There was a sheen on the wolf’s cheeks, a faint trail of moisture. “Give me a happy thought to hang on to after I’ve been to a fire and need to concentrate on my mate instead of on the loss I’ve seen?”
How could he resist such an earnest plea?
“Do you want to only see, or do you want me to describe it, too?”
A shudder wracked Michael’s body. “God, you have no idea what your voice does to me.”
Description then.
He closed his eyes, trying to replicate what the nights felt like when Michael was away. “At first, I don’t do much. I imagine your voice in my ear and your body next to mine. I sweep my hands down my chest and belly and back up.”
“Show me,” Michael moaned.
Oh, hell, that voice. The wolf’s voice was made for phone sex.
He swept his hands down his body slowly, until the brushed the elastic waistband of his underwear. As slowly as he could, he trailed his fingers back up. He repeated the action a couple of times.
“Then, I play with my nipples a little. I like to rub them at first, just to get them all tight and hard. Once they’re all tingly and aching for something else, I pinch them. Softly at the beginning, then harder as they get more sensitive.”
He caught each of his nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, tugging gently and twisting them ever so lightly.
“I can do this for hours if I have the time, just thinking about you and how your hands feel on my body.” He tweaked the nubs harder, slightly pulling them away from his body.
Opening his eyes, he fixed his gaze on his lover. Michael leaned back in the chair, legs spread and eyes half closed. One hand rested over his crotch, not stroking or squeezing, just cupping. It was clear he was focused on Justin’s voice.
Justin forced himself to go slow instead of jumping the wolf and dry humping him until they both came.
He cleared his throat and continued, “Eventually, I slide one hand down and just sort of rest my palm on my dick. Over my underwear. I like to draw things out.”
He copied his own directions, feeling his cock flex and twitch in his underwear.
Michael’s breathing picked up, his chest starting to heave. Justin wasn’t sure if it was his voice or his actions that were exciting the wolf but it didn’t matter. It was sexy as hell.
“After a couple of seconds, I trail my fingers over the shaft, stopping just under the head and running my fingers back down. I tease that spot, right under the head, you know the one. I rub circles over it with one finger until I’m sure I can’t take anymore. If I’m not careful, I can’t stop and I end up coming in my underwear.”
A sharp intake of air broke the silence. Justin smirked, pleased he was affecting Michael with just his words. Well, okay…maybe his actions had something to do with it, too.
“Most of the time, I have enough control to stop before things get too far. That’s when I take off my boxer-briefs.”
He slid his underwear down his legs and dropped it over the side of the bed. His dick hung low over his belly, the head actually slapping his abdomen with each pulse.
“Then what?”
Michael’s rough voice caressed his nerves. “If I can hold out, I just rest my hand on it again, maybe tease the head with the tip of my finger. And I imagine you’re here with me, and it’s your hands on my body.”
“Fuck,” the wolf breathed.
Justin glanced over just in time to see the man unbutton his pants and fish his cock out of his underwear. He licked his lips, mouth watering for a taste.
But he wanted, needed, to finish what he’d started. “When I can’t wait, like now, I grip the shaft firmly and stroke quickly.” He closed his eyes and started the tugging motion he liked so much.
The mattress dipped beside him. Michael’s body heat warmed his side but he didn’t open his eyes. “Sometimes I spread my fingers a little, so that my pinky grazes the top of my balls. When I get close, I use me free hand to pull on my balls. It makes my cock tingle.”