Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“Thank you,” she says. “That’s nice of you.”
I nod and give her a little smile. I want her to feel comfortable. I want to know her. I want to know where she comes from and what she’s doing and what her childhood was like, and what her middle name is, and what her favorite color is, and what the hell she is up to—because I know she’s up to something. None of these things can be discovered without asking her questions, and I cannot find my voice, not yet. Maybe not ever.
“You have such big, dark eyes,” she says. “You have so many thoughts behind them, I imagine. And you’re with that growly idiot out there. What do you and Tailor see in him?”
There’s a pause in which I do not answer.
“Oh, sorry,” she says. “I forgot you don’t talk.”
She reaches for me and puts her hand on mine. “Can you talk?”
Her hand is soft. I am the only one of us she has reached for, initiated touch. That means a lot to me, even if none of the others so much as notice it.
I nod.
“But you don’t.”
I nod again.
“I respect that.” She smiles at me. “Everyone talks too fucking much anyway.”
We stay in the washing room together until her clothes are washed, and then I put them in the dryer, and then they get dry, and she barely talks and I don’t mind at all, and she doesn’t mind at all either.
“Do you write notes?”
She scrabbles through her stuff. She has a lot of stuff. Some of it is paper and pen; she takes that pen and she writes a single word on it: Hi.
I hesitate for a brief moment, then take the pen from her and write a word back.
Hi.
She smiles so broadly I feel as though I have done something truly wonderful for her.
“I bet that was hard for you,” she says. “It’s okay. You don’t have to write me an essay. Hi is enough for now.”
I give her the pen back. I don’t usually write things down either, unless it’s an absolute emergency. Talking is not only overrated, it is painful for me. Words stick in my throat, feel like massive boulders pushing against the most sensitive parts of my innards. Talking feels like I am a goose being stuffed for pate.
We stay in the laundry room as it gets warmer, the heat of the dryer taking the chill off the air. I take her by the hand and lead her back into the bathroom. There, I run the bath and gesture to it.
“You want me to bathe?”
I nod.
“You’re right, being licked clean probably isn’t sanitary when fish guts are involved,” she says. “Though I’m glad I’m a wolf. Imagine if I was just a person. Imagine if you all were. We’d all be so disgusted.”
I sit by the bath as she gets in and starts to wash herself off. She is very pretty naked, very curvy and very cute. I let my eyes run over her generous breasts, and an ass already marked with Conroy’s belt. There’s no way she and he are going to avoid conflict.
Tailor is more refined, more patient. He can seem more laid back, but in truth he is just more methodical. It will take a long time for him to react, but when he does it will be truly devastating.
She looks at me, and I see fear in her eyes. It’s a quiet fear. The kind that hides like a wounded predator, knowing that to have a weakness discovered would be akin to death. She doesn’t want anybody to know how scared she is, and how much hurt she carries, but I see it all. She cannot hide it from me.
I lower my head to hers, and press a gentle kiss to her forehead. I hear her let out a little whimper, and the water sloshes slightly as her hips make an unmistakable grinding motion.
She’s been stimulated a lot, but she’s looking for a sexual comfort that Conroy isn’t really capable of giving. He knows how to dominate, but he hasn’t yet learned how to soothe.
I slide my hand into the bath, letting my fingers curl around her inner thigh. She meets my gaze again, then lowers it again, her cheeks turning even pinker. Her thighs spread a little, inviting me deeper.
My other hand runs through her hair and clenches deep in the roots, tilting her head back enough to make her eyes rise naturally to mine. The jolt of carnal excitement that runs through me as she looks at me is so perfectly primal. A soft, low growl escapes me, the closest utterance to words I’ve made in years.
The sound has an immediate effect on her. I feel her tremble in my grasp, and then I feel her legs part even more. I have yet to move my hand. I am making her be patient, forcing her to anticipate my touch. A slight smile teases the corners of my lips, letting her know I am well aware of what I am doing.