hidden talents (28 page)

A sudden burst of raindrops spattered against the window. Ari knew they"d be cold. Early winter rains were the dreariest.

“Can I borrow your big umbrella?” she asked Maxwell.

“Sure,” he said, “but I can go to the store if you need something.”

Ari shook her head more firmly than she had to. “I"m in the mood for some air.”

“Take my raincoat,” Sarah said. “It"s the warmest one.”

Ari didn"t argue. She took the big umbrella and the good anorak. Shoving her keys in the pocket, she went down the apartment stairs at a run - or as near to as she could without tripping. When the outside door clunked shut behind her, she heard the dog howl again.

Not a dog
, she thought. God, let it not be a dog.

She sprinted past the corner store with the umbrella furled, the hood of Sarah"s slicker enough to keep the worst of the rain off her. The little play park was only a block in size. Lights kept it relatively safe at night, though the swings and teeter totters were empty at this hour. They creaked in the rising wind, sure sign the storm was rolling in for a while.

She stopped at the grassy stretch where the trees began. “Adam,” she called, not caring if she sounded stupid. “Adam, it"s me!”

A muted bark answered her. Ari"s knees gave out from her surge of

adrenaline. She fell to the squelchy grass, her blood rushing in her ears. The beast trotted out of the shadows of a big bank of shrubbery. She"d only seen Adam in this form once before, but her heart leaped in recognition. He hesitated when he saw her, too big and wild-looking to mistake for anything other than a wolf - and an overlarge one at that. His silvery-brown coat was darkened by the rain, but his posture was alert. His tail and his ears were up. He cocked his head to the side.

“Please come to me,” she said.

He streaked to her at a gallop, judging his stop so neatly he didn"t skid.

Because she was kneeling, he had no trouble licking her face.

“Jeez.”
This
would take some getting used to. Adam"s tail wagged madly as he kept up the face bath. Ari tried to stop him by hugging him tighter. “I"m not kissing you until you"ve got real lips.”

He barked and sat on his haunches. He looked like he was silently laughing.

Ari buried her hands in his rain dampened ruff and just stared at him. The effect was strangely the same as locking glances with him in human form. Her doubts shook inside her, cracks undermining their foundations. He was her other half.

Together they added up to more. She could sense Adam behind those intelligent green wolf eyes: his joy at seeing her, his hint of shyness over whether he was welcome.

“I"m glad you"re here,” she said, stroking his ears back along his head. “Want to come home and meet my friends?”

He jumped to his muddy feet, then surprised her by dashing back to the

bushes he"d emerged from. He returned carrying the kind of leather bag serious bowlers toted their balls in. He resisted when Ari tried to tug it out of his teeth.

“You can"t carry that,” she said. “You"re conspicuous enough already.”

He had the nerve to whine when he let it go. When she opened Maxwell"s

umbrella to cover him for the short walk back, he let out a disgusted huff.

“Shut up,” she said. “You think I want my boyfriend getting cold and wet?”

He bumped her thigh with his shoulder, more than big enough to jar her.

“You"re crazy, you know. You so cannot pass for someone"s pet.”

As if to prove it, two black guys gave her wide eyes as they came out of the Korean grocery store on the corner.

“Honey,” one drawled, “you need a leash for that.”

Adam tried his best to look harmless.

∞

Adam bounded up the stairwell inside her building, bumping through the

swinging door to her floor and trotting straight to her apartment. Since the Brooklyn Arms had more than a hundred units, this impressed her. She wondered if he"d used his cop skills to find her or just his nose.

“Show off,” she said as he waited for her to catch up with his tongue lolling.

He drew his tongue in and gave her a doggy grin. Ari shook her head to

herself as she dug out her keys. This was destined to be more interesting than the usual boyfriend-meet-friends encounter. She noticed Adam"s thick wolf coat had shed most of the rain.

“Wipe your paws, please,” she said before pushing the door open.

Maxwell and Sarah looked up from the wine and crackers they were sharing.

“That didn"t take long,” Max said. “Who were you talk -”

He gasped as loudly as Sarah when Adam finished wiping his muddy paws

and padded into view. “Holy crap,” her two friends breathed in unison.

Ari closed the door and locked it, which she belatedly realized might alarm them. “Adam, these are my friends Sarah and Maxell. Guys, this is my friend Adam the werewolf from Faerie.”

“Holy -” Max swallowed and shoved back his chair. Once he"d stood, he

came around the table to face Adam. Ari didn"t think it was a coincidence that this put him between the wolf and Sarah. Adam remained where he was, looking like the most beautiful and intelligent canine in the world. “Should I ... offer to shake his paw?”

Adam nudged her.

“If you give him a minute,” she said. “I think you"ll be able to shake his hand.”

He didn"t need a minute, more like forty seconds. With the full moon to lend him power, his transformation was effortless. He crouched lower on his forepaws, closed his eyes, and let a ring of sparkles roll back from his nose. The effect was like watching him unpeel, except his wolf form simply disappeared as the light progressed over it. He had a human head, then shoulders, then arms and hands.

Almost before Ari could understand what she"d seen, Adam knelt on their living room floorboards, his truly fine naked butt resting on his heels. She guessed wolves were comfortable au natural. Adam"s palms rested on his thighs, perfectly relaxed, not covering his genitals the way shyer men would have. Not that he had anything to be shy about. Ari fought an urge to press her hand to her mouth.

Adam might not realize it, but he had what looked like a half hard-on.

“Wow,” Maxwell said hoarsely. “I swear I believed you when you said you"d hooked up with a werewolf, but believing sure isn"t the same as seeing.”

“Wow is right,” Sarah said in a slightly different tone. Ari imagined she"d also noticed the slight boner.

Adam pushed to his feet and immediately seemed to fill the room. Max was no shrimp, but he was on the wiry side. “It"s nice to meet you both,” he said.

Ari hadn"t known how much she"d missed his deep sexy voice until she heard it again. Still not covering up, Adam reached for her hand. The feel of his fingers twining between hers was an instant panty-wetter. Adam"s quick inhalation as he scented her reaction was followed by a definite jerk of motion between his legs.

Ari suspected his half hard-on had just gone whole.

“Would you excuse us?” Adam asked politely. “Ari and I have catching up to do.”

“Sure,” Sarah said dazedly.

“No problem, man,” Max agreed.

Ari was pretty sure Adam"s nose allowed him to tug her straight to her

bedroom. She ignored the
omigods
breaking out in the living room.

Ari"s room - formerly Max"s - was the size of a walk-in closet. A narrow window with a view of a brick wall saved it from being one. Ari had a single bed, a small bureau, and an orange crate for a nightstand. She dropped Adam"s bowling bag behind the door, enjoying her rather stupendous rear view of him. He was taking in his surroundings with interest. When he noticed the little painting that hung above her headboard, he froze.

“That"s Maria"s,” he said, amazed.

“Sorry. I know I took it without asking.”

“You took the painting she did of me as my wolf.”

“I guess you don"t all look alike furry.”

He turned back to her, his eyes bright with emotion. “Ari,” he said as if she"d given him a gift instead of stealing from his home.

Ari smiled at him. He looked down and shook his head, which made her drop her gaze as well. One hot shiver chased another along her spine. Boy, he was hard. His cock stretched straight up to his navel, so thick she wasn"t sure her fingers would meet around the shaft. As she watched, a bead of precome squeezed from the slit. When his eyes rose to hers again, his expression was unexpectedly tentative.

“Could we have sex?” he asked. “Maybe before we talk? If the answer is yes, I"d really like you to take off your clothes.”

Ari started wrenching free of the anorak.

He was on her before the first sleeve was off, kissing her, squeezing her - as if he had twenty hands instead of two. Ari wrestled with him for the right to shed her garments even as she locked her mouth to his. His tongue felt so good, his lengthened teeth so sexy. She kissed him like a madwoman, thrilling to the hungry sounds he made in response.

“I missed you,” he said, freeing her mouth so they could drag her shirt together over her head. “I like your hair that way.”

It was black now, except for Max"s red design. She"d dyed it back to her real color. Freed of her shirt, she was down to transparent pink panties and a bra -

nicer underwear than Adam had seen her in before. He expressed how much he admired it by groaning.

“I missed you too,” she panted.

He laid his hands overtop the stretchy sheer bra cups. Ari jerked when she caught a clear look at his fingers.

“You have claws,” she said in surprise. They were dark and hard and curved like his teeth. Ari"s nipples tightened painfully under their light clasp, her body releasing another surge of arousal. Adam smiled ... well, wolfishly would be the best way to describe it.

“I"m really glad you don"t mind them. Sometimes, when I"m overexcited,

they come out unintentionally.”

“Are you overexcited now?”

“Like you fucking wouldn"t believe.”

Ari trembled, which he seemed to enjoy. “Maybe I should undo my bra hooks myself.”

“Maybe I should use my claws to rip your underwear off you.”

“Yes, please,” Ari said with a grin.

He snarled as he indulged her fantasy. His eyes were glowing, his breathing harsh and uneven. Once her breasts were bare, he covered each in turn with his hard sucking mouth. The pull of his tongue and lips on her excited nipples caused her to writhe in his arms. He lifted her, saving himself from bending, then slammed her into the wall.

“I"m grabbing something from my bag,” he rasped.

He didn"t release her to open it, just dipped down at the knees. He returned with a single wrapped condom. He handed it to her.

“You found your special shipment,” she said breathlessly.

“I did. And I have a few guesses about who the delivery boy might have

been. His scent was all over it.”

“I"m glad,” she said. “I wanted you to know, but I didn"t want to betray a confidence.”

Adam rested his brow on hers. “You,” he said, “are my favorite person in the whole world.”

She didn"t know why this made the last of her doubt crumble. Maybe because he could have been mad at her for not telling. Maybe because it suggested his brain was involved in loving her.

“I love you too,” she burst out. “I missed you so much I was sick with it.”

He growled and hugged her and kissed her so deeply he gave her chills. He tore loose reluctantly.

“Put that thing on me now,” he said.

She was lucky the rubber was extra large, because the fit was tight to roll down. Ari smoothed it over his shuddering cock with loving attention, inspiring him to curse at her thoroughness. She had a feeling what came next wouldn"t be leisurely. Fortunately, she was far too wet to worry.

“Ready?” he asked, his glans nudging anxiously at her entrance.

“Like you fucking wouldn"t believe,” she said, quoting him.

His eyes flared hot as he breached the outer ring of muscle. He probably wouldn"t want to be told, but he purred like a cat for the whole twenty seconds it took to push fully into her.

“Mm,” she said, purring a bit herself. “You"ve no idea how much I missed that.”

But maybe he did. He gripped her bottom tight with his clawed fingers, drew one of his bracing breaths, and fucked her against the wall like jackhammer. They came within seconds of each other, in under five minutes. He pulled out long enough to switch condoms, then body-slammed her onto her narrow bed.

“Okay?” he asked.

She wrapped her arms and legs around him. “Do it fast again,” she urged.

This was no hardship, apparently. It wasn"t until the fourth time that either of them was in the mood to slow down. Adam was in the mood for something else as well.

He pulled her to the edge of the mattress, kneeling on the floor with her thighs clamped around his ears as he went down on her. His tongue did things ordinary human tongues couldn"t. His was harder and quicker and just plain hungrier than any man"s she"d met. He used that advantage to flick and penetrate her by turns. When he simultaneously sucked her clitoris and rubbed it with his tongue, Ari couldn"t hold back her yelps of pleasure, or keep her nails from pricking his broad shoulders. He certainly didn"t mind her reaction. As he worked to control the violent thrashing of her hips, his claws had yet to retract.

She guessed he was still overexcited.

“Ari,” he rumbled, shifting his upper body over hers. Her bed was low and his knees remained on the floor. Ari caressed his butt with the soles of her feet as he rolled a fresh rubber on.

“You
can
do that with your claws,” she exclaimed.

Adam flashed a grin at her. “I can do lots of things with my claws. I just like when you handle me.”

Understanding that very well, she smoothed her hands down his chest to his sweating belly, relishing the way his diaphragm went in and out with his hard breathing. That breathing got choppier as her thumb worked the looser latex gently across his tip. “Do you mind wearing these?”

He shook his head. “Don"t get me wrong. I want kids, and I want them with you. I also want you to marry me and be my mate forever.”