I release her reluctantly, already regretting being such a dick.
I should apologize for touching her without permission.
Even as I consider apologizing, I want to do it again.
To pick her back up.
Put her on that counter and make good on my offer to eat her pussy.
She nabs the paring knife from the cutting board and slashes it toward my throat.
It’s for show-she’s a full foot away.
I know she’s not actually trying to defend herself.
I smell anger on her, but not fear.
“Touch me again without permission, and you’re going to get hurt.”
My lips twitch.
I don’t mean to smile.
I should show her I’m taking her complaint seriously.
But I like that I’ve gotten under her skin.
I enjoy her flushed and angry, ready to fight.
I school my face.
“Noted.
And…” Fuck.
I can’t believe it.
Am I going to apologize?
I have to force the words out of my throat.
“Sorry,” I say stiffly, but add, “The next time I touch you, I’ll ask first.”
Because I do plan on touching her again.
I need to.
I need to work this…curiosity
-nothing more-out of my system.
A brow arches as her pupils dilate.
She’s definitely not afraid-she’s turned on.
My suggestion that I’ll be touching her again registers with her body, whether or not her mind agrees.
Like me, she must feel the chemical attraction between us.
She must know that her animal body is drawn to the animal body of someone completely unsuitable.
Someone she could never be with.
My hands twitch to pick her up again.
Wrap those thick thighs around my waist and carry her to the bedroom where I can tie her to the headboard and make her weep with pleasure.
A knock sounds at my door.
Aubrey and I lock gazes.
She’s still holding the knife out defensively.
Brick will cut my dick off and feed it to me if he thinks I threatened his mate’s human friend.
All the gains I’ve made in the past months will be lost again.
Maybe forever.
If he thinks he can’t trust me to behave with his mate’s human family and friends, I will be cut out of his inner circle.
Fuck.
Billy
Aubrey cocks her head at me, knife still outstretched.
“Do that,” she says lightly.
She’s already recovered.
She tosses the knife on the cutting board and whirls as Brick opens the door and ushers his mate inside.
“Hey, girl!”
Madi ignores me and comes straight for Aubrey, who picks up my drink and sashays out to meet her.
I pick up my abandoned original drink and torture myself by sipping from the same place her glossy lips marked as the two women hug then open a bottle of Madi’s favorite prosecco.
She’s my luna now.
As much as I would’ve hated to say it a year ago, I serve her as much as I serve my alpha.
I pour four glasses in case everyone wants to partake.
Brick saunters up to the other side of the kitchen island-the position any normal guest to my place would take.
Fuck, what would possess that little human to come into my space and make herself so at home?
To walk in without knocking?
To sit on my countertop like she’s my lover, not a near stranger who has yet to exchange any polite words with me?
“For fate’s sake, you two couldn’t shower before you came down?”
I mutter when I catch the scent of sex on Brick.
“No.”
Of course not.
He loves having the scent of his cum all over his mate.
She bears his mark, but he makes sure she smells like she’s been freshly marked every waking moment.
He picks up a glass of prosecco and drains it.
As he sets it down, he studies me.
“You’re taking your assignment seriously.”
“Yes, Al-” I bite off the word alpha before I speak it in front of a human.
“Yes.”
I want to say, “I take all your orders seriously,” but I don’t want to sound cloying.
Besides, he knows that.
I’ve proven it a hundred times.
He just needs me to prove it again in this most demeaning way.
I frown in the direction of Aubrey.
“She thinks you’ll want a Jack-and-Jill party.”
The women enter the kitchen.
Madi was barely an adult when she started at Moon Co last fall, but after she claimed her position as luna, I stopped seeing her as a child.
Aubrey never came off as anything but a self-possessed woman, but now, with them together, laughing and talking fast in some kind of girl code, the age difference between the two of them and Brick and me feels like eons.
My conscience pricks over what a dick I’ve been to her.
Not that she couldn’t take it.
“Ooh, prosecco.
You know what I like.”
Madi breezes in and takes a glass from me.
“Thank you.”
She makes the point to meet my gaze, and there’s a sincerity to her tone that makes prickles race across my skin.
The power of a pack luna radiates from her.
My need to protect and serve her is physical.
No matter how much I wanted them apart before, now I’d fight to the death for her.
Her human friend, though, is a different story.
I pick up a second glass to offer to Aubrey, who ignores my outstretched hand and sips my cocktail while holding my gaze.
I don’t hate having her lips where mine have been.
Having her drink from my cup gives my wolf a masculine pleasure.
It occurs to me that she’s trying to get to me.
She lit up when she learned that working with her was my punishment.
That must be why she climbed up on my countertop and insulted my decor.
“What’s a
Jack-and-Jill party?”
Brick uses the same semi-disgusted tone I did when Aubrey mentioned it.
Aubrey answers before Madi can.
“It’s a joint bachelor / bachelorette party-often at a destination like Vegas.”
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