Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Her internal walls squeezed his fingers, milking them over and over again. When she, at last, went limp, he eased them out and worked to untie the knot on the ropes.
“Beautiful girl,” he croaked, releasing her hands and moving to her feet. He bent and kissed the back of her calf as he freed one ankle, then the other.
She didn’t move.
He pulled on his jeans so his cock couldn’t get any smart ideas while they slept and crawled up beside her, tugging the pillows out from under her hips. “Come here, baby.” He pulled her against his chest.
She rolled into him, resting her head on his shoulder with a sweet little sigh.
He stroked her long, beautiful mane and kissed her forehead. The actions were foreign to him—he’d never cuddled a woman in his life—yet they seemed so natural and right. The awareness of the soft lushness of her naked form tucked against his crept in like prickles of fire, disturbing the tender moment. His palm sought her breast and the prickles burst into full flames.
“I need to get some clothes on you,” he said gruffly, somehow managing to tear himself away from her. “Or I’ll have your legs spread all night.” He picked up his t-shirt from where he’d thrown it on the floor earlier and pulled it over her head.
Her expression stalled his heart. There was an openness there, a trusting wonder in her the way her big blue eyes gazed up at him. She’d surrendered to his care. The impact of it nearly dropped him to his knees. His hands shook as he tugged the covers up and climbed in beside her.
He cupped her face and ran his thumb down her cheek, marveling at how soft her skin was, how perfect and smooth.
“It must be hard to lead a pack.” Her words startled him.
He settled onto his back and pulled her up against his side, her head on his shoulder. “Yeah,” he admitted. “Half the time I wonder what in the hell I’m doing. I started out as the anti-leader. I was alpha because of my size and strength, but I had no interest in leading. I didn’t want to be like my father.” He couldn’t help the note of bitterness that came into his voice when he mentioned his dad.
“What was he like?” she asked softly.
He went rigid, his automatic instinct to shut down this line of questioning so familiar. But the conversation seemed important. The moment had weight. And he was so goddamn tired of the push-pull between him and Melissa that he didn’t want to return to that.
“He’s a hard-ass. Kicked me out of the pack at age sixteen for something I didn’t even do.”
Melissa’s breath had stopped. She ran a hand lightly over his chest, her nails scraping through the hairs and sending shivers down his arms. “What did he think you did?”
“A girl got pregnant. She miscarried and her parents found out. She told them I was the father.”
Melissa’s hand went still. “And you weren’t?”
He rubbed his face and sighed. “I wasn’t. But I’d had sex with her older sister, which is probably what made her think to throw me under the bus. I admit I was a hellion. Shifter hormones are worse than a human’s and mine were raging. I couldn’t keep out of trouble. My father and I were always at odds, so I guess it was the final straw for him.”
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t have more than ten bucks in my wallet and the clothes on my back. I ran to lower elevation. I grew up in Estes Park. The entire town population is shifters—bet you didn’t know that.” He grinned, twisting to look at her.
Her return smile stopped his heart. “I had no idea.”
“I lived as a wolf in the wild for a few weeks, hunted for food. But it’s dangerous to stay in wolf form too long. You lose your mind—become savage. I eventually hitchhiked into Greeley and got a live-in job on a ranch there. Then found my way onto a construction team.”
“And then you moved here?”
“Yeah. Eight years ago. There were only five shifters here then. The pack is still small.”
“Have you seen your dad since?”
His throat tightened. “Yeah. He knows I’m here. I went home a couple times to see my siblings. It was tense, but we survived it. He wants me to bring my pack up to the games they host this year.”
“Are you going to?”
He shrugged. “I don’t want to, but I’m thinking about it. It might be nice for the pack—to meet some females for mating.”
Melissa’s open expression shuttered and he wished he hadn’t said that. “Not for me,” he amended quickly. “I have no interest in breeding at the moment.” But that wasn’t true. He had a ton of interest, but only in breeding the little human beside him.