Wolf's Bane (Monstrous Hearts #2)

Chapter Two

The day began as usual—a sunrise cold and grey, with wind shaking the sides of the little house and making the surrounding pines sigh. Alice stirred first, shifting against the warm pressure of Colton's body. Daylight revealed as much dried mud on her as there was on him, and where the sheets weren't dirtied, they were shredded. A beast in her bed, and she knew just how to rouse him.

She nuzzled down the hard lines of his body, quickly finding his morning erection. It was sticky from the dried remnants of last night's rutting and overwhelmingly musky. The first lap of her tongue against the head drew a growl from him but nothing else. His heavy sack was just as filthy, and she mouthed at it without hesitation, lips curling around him in a wicked grin when she felt him wake up. By the time his hand found her hair, she was licking the wrinkled skin there smooth, feeling his balls twitch against her eager mouth. 

This was different than the primal domination of last night. This was lazy, tender, his fingers tracing over the curves of her body as if to memorize them. He knew how to be wicked, himself, occasionally tweaking one of her nipples to make her gasp against him. Every time his balls flexed, her mouth followed, sucking at first one shape and then the other.

When a growl slipped into his breathing, she shifted enough to rub her cheek against his straining cock. "No ticks there, anyway."

Even as his fingers tightened in her hair, keeping her in place, his gaze remained relaxed, even amused. "If you think you're done now..."

She smiled against his cock, feeling it twitch in response. "Not at all. But your shift starts in half an hour, and you haven't even showered."

He lathered her hair with shampoo while she sucked him clean, tongue lovingly polishing every inch of his shaft. Even while his hips thrust against her face, he was careful not to let soap suds trail into her eyes. It was absurd. It was playful, something that still surprised her about him.

Afterward, while he dressed for work, she pulled on a robe to cook something he could eat one-handed while driving. This wasn't the first time they'd done this, and she had perfected making a fried egg sandwich in under ten minutes. Smoked gouda to keep the bacon in place, tomato and lettuce to cut the richness, and mustard on the toasted bread to brighten it all. She had just finished wrapping the sandwich in parchment paper to keep it from dripping when he came out of the bedroom, shrugging on his coat.

She met him at the front door, licking a trace of melted cheese from one thumb.

"Make one for yourself?" he said. He already sounded distant, all attention on checking his pockets for his keys.

"You already gave me breakfast."

His focus snapped back to her, and she bit back a laugh at the thunderclap of surprise on his face. Her lewdness always startled him—the hunter met with something that enjoyed being hunted. Then his eyes took on a hunger that stirred a sweet ache between her hips, and she didn't resist when he pulled her in for a long, hard kiss. When they broke off, she was panting and he had to rearrange himself through his jeans.

"Minx," he said, sounding unaffected.

She just smiled, handing over the sandwich. "Be safe. And come back to me."

Alone, she started the coffee pot and set about stripping the bed. Colton was hard on sheets, and she noted ripped areas that would need to be mended once the mud had been washed off. The heady aroma of brewing coffee drew her back to the kitchen, where she slipped a leftover fried egg onto the last slice of bread and ate it in bites while cleaning the pan and counter. She'd have to make another loaf. There was also black fur threatening to invade the kitchen; in some ways, living with a man who changed into a wolf invited a mixture of the mundane and the bizarre. He left hair everywhere.