Werewolf Upstairs (32 page)

“Not
that
way! Jesus. Become a werewolf? I’m
so
not ready for that.” She felt his body stiffen and realized she may have offended him.

He relaxed. “No need to worry about that now. If you change your mind later—”

“I don’t think so. I accept all of who you are, but it’s not who I am.”

He toyed with the hair curling against her cheek. “I just always imagined my mate running beside me under the full moon.” He stroked his fingers up and down her neck until she shivered. She remembered that he was waiting for her answer.

“I…uh…I guess it’s all right if you can mark me without turning me. But just so you know, I don’t need any mark to tell me I’m yours.”

He smiled. “I know that, angel. I don’t either, but it’s not a matter of choice.”

At last she relented and reached for him.

He dove into her arms and whispered into her ear. “I promise you won’t be sorry. I’ll always be good to you, and I know we’ll be happy together.”

She kissed his neck. “I believe you.”

He rose enough to give her a long, deep kiss that stirred her soul. Her chest squeezed with happiness.

He cupped her bottom and pulled her closer. His cock, still hard as steel, throbbed against her thigh.

She pushed on his chest, and as soon as he let go, she rolled onto her hands and knees. “Take me.”

He groaned. She sensed his tight coil of desperation dissolve into relief, along with excited anticipation. He positioned himself behind her with his hands on her waist.

Without another word, Konrad drove into her balls deep. When she moaned, he quickly asked, “Did I hurt you?”

“Not even a little bit. It feels good and…right.”

“
You feel so
damn
good,
” he thought as he started his rhythm.

She answered him with her mind.
Give me everything. Fuck me. Fuck me hard.

Growling like a wild animal, Konrad hammered into her. She slammed forward with each thrust, but he held her waist in a vice grip and didn’t allow her to inch away from him.

“Roz,” he roared, pistoning over her, and then in his thoughts, “
My mate, my mate, mine!
”

She threw herself into the moment and sensed, rather than felt, him break into a sweat. Heat poured off him as he escalated into a frenzy. Her breasts jerked and bounced, her sensitive nipples scraping the cotton sheet.

Her heart raced. She gritted her teeth, and then stopped holding back. An enormous orgasm ripped through her. She spasmed hard, buried her face into his pillow, and screamed over and over. When she was hoarse and her body went limp, his grip kept her from collapsing.

And still he fucked her. “
Please let me do this gently,
” he prayed.

Dizziness swept over Roz as she realized what he was about to do. “Mark me!” she cried out, not knowing what else to say.

Minds locked. He bent over her, and his teeth clamped onto the skin between her neck and shoulder. She felt his animal pleasure and embraced it.

“Do it!”

He bore down.
Ouch.
Suddenly her senses came alive in a whole new way. His balls slapped her ass and the smell of sex filled the air. At last he came with a bellow, and she climaxed with him. Her vaginal muscles contracted around his cock and milked every drop of his essence.

They stopped moving and fell forward. Both of them took in deep, gasping breaths.

Konrad’s weight on top of her felt good, as if she were covered by his protection, owned and yet not without her desire to be. Possessed, in a splendid, freeing way.

He shifted his weight off of her. Still panting, he murmured, “I love you.”

“Mmm…love you too.” She touched the ache where her neck met her shoulder. When she looked at her fingers, she saw only a tiny smear of blood.

Then they both drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.

***

“Are you serious?” The mattress dipped as Konrad propped himself up on his elbow. “You want to
see
me shift?”

Roz nodded.

Why would she want to do that?
“Are you sure? It can be frightening for a human to witness. I remember the first time my brother and I watched a whole pack shift. I dropped to my knees, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t breathe for a minute or two. I almost passed out.”

Roz sat up and hugged her knees. “I want to be part of your life; all of it. This is a big part of who you are.”

“No, Roz. It’s
what
I am, not who I am.”

“Wrong word, same diff’. I should know what to expect. Wouldn’t it be better than springing it on me sometime?”

He rubbed her back. “Why would I do that?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe by accident? Merry said Jason unintentionally shifted in front of her without preparing her for it. She totally freaked.”

“That wouldn’t happen. I have great control over my shifts. I can arrange to be elsewhere at midnight when it has to happen if I haven’t shifted voluntarily before that.”

“What if I walked in on you as you’re halfway transformed?”

Konrad thought about it as he got out of bed and stepped into his black jeans.
It might not be a bad idea. If she can handle watching, I won’t have to send her to another room every time.

“I know. And if we were away someplace where I didn’t have a separate room to go to—”

“Oh, you heard that, huh?”

She smiled. “Yeah.”

He pulled his T-shirt over his head. “Well, I’d say, ‘I’ll think about it,’ then put it off until you forget the whole thing, but that’s no use.”

She chuckled as she got out of bed. “I’m not apt to forget something like this.”

“Uh-huh. Besides, you can probably tell what I’m
not
thinking as well as what I
am
thinking.”

“Handy, considering how much I hate being lied to.”

“And there’s that.” He hung his head. “Boy, I can tell this is going to be a fun and challenging marriage.”

Roz stopped buttoning her blouse, turned, and stared at him. “Did you just say
marriage?
”

“Well, yeah.” He lifted his shoulders. “Since we’re mates for life, I just assumed—”

Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t even get a proposal? You just
assumed
I’d want to marry you?”

He cocked his head. “Don’t you? I mean, you’re a woman. Don’t little girls dream about their wedding day from the time they get their first Barbie doll?”

She folded her arms and didn’t look happy.

What the hell did I do wrong?

“
If you don’t know, you’re an idiot.
”

He sank down onto the edge of the bed. “I-I guess I probably should have had a ring and arranged a fancy candlelit dinner, but I can’t afford those things right now, Roz.”

She threw her hands in the air. “I don’t need those things.”

This is damned frustrating.
“What
do
you need then? I’m obviously missing something important. Don’t make me guess what that is. Just tell me.”

She heaved a huge sigh. “You’re right about every little girl dreaming of her wedding. And being proposed to is part of it!” “
Stupid.
”

I heard that.

“
I don’t care if you did.
”
She tried to stomp off, but he caught her wrist before she made it to the bedroom door.

Hanging onto her wrist in an iron grip, he dropped to one knee, rolled his eyes, and asked in a sing-song voice, “Rosalyn Wells, will you?”

She kicked him in the groin.

“Oomph!” He cupped his balls in pain and groaned.

Seconds later, she marched out of his apartment.

Roz ran down the stairs and managed to slam and lock the door to her apartment before he reached her.

“Roz!” The door shook as he pounded on it.

“Go away.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Don’t you
dare
tell me what I mean!”

Konrad slumped, leaned his back against the wall, and slid to the floor.

“Sly, you were happily married, right?”

Konrad sat on the basement steps as he discussed the latest Roz quandary with his good friend. He’d always felt sorry for the way Sly lost his wife and child, then became a vampire all in one horrible moment.

“We were extremely happy.” Sly gazed at the floor, and his expression grew nostalgic and sad.

“I’m sorry. I wouldn’t bring up painful memories, but I need your help.”

“No, it’s fine. I like remembering those days. They were the happiest of my life.” He leaned against a support column. “And will probably continue as such during the rest of my lon-n-n-ng life.”

Konrad gave his friend a sad smile. “I hope you won’t have to go through the next hundred years or so without a loving partner. That’s just cruel.”

Sly sighed. “Tell me about it. But it would be unfair to expect any woman to live up to the memory of my wife. Anyway, you had a problem?”

“Yeah. A big one.” He raked his fingers over his scalp, pushing the hair out of his eyes. “I asked Roz to marry me.”

Sly’s expression brightened then turned to one of concern. “I’d offer congratulations, but maybe I should wait until you tell me what the problem is.”

“I don’t know what I did wrong. Well, I sort of do, but I thought she’d be happy. Instead she kicked me in the nuts.”

Sly laughed. “Ah, you got a feisty one. That’s the best kind. You’ll never be bored.”

Konrad scratched his head. “I suppose so. But I wish I could figure her out a little better.”

“She’s a woman. There are some things you’ll never figure out, but tell me what happened, and maybe I’ll see something you missed.”

Konrad took a deep breath. “Okay, we were basking in the afterglow of some of the best sex we’ve ever had in our lives.”

“Sounds like a promising start.”

“Yeah, I thought so. Hey, I mentioned the thing about how we have telepathy with each other, right?”

“Um, wrong. You two are telepathic?”

“Only with each other.”

“I’ve heard of that happening with vampires, but I didn’t know if it was true.”

“Really? Vampires experience that too?”

“Only with one person. Their beloved. It’s like a soul mate, and supposedly there’s one for each of us.”

“I guess it’s the same for werewolves. When I discovered Roz was my mate, I naturally assumed she’d be my wife someday.”

“Uh-oh.”

“What? You figured out the problem already?”

“Maybe. If the words ‘I just assumed’ translate into taking it for granted, yeah, that could lead to a kick in the nuts.”

Konrad hung his head. “Fuck.”

Sly smirked. “Nailed it, didn’t I?”

“I’m afraid so. She said something about dreaming of a proposal since she was a little girl, that she didn’t need a ring or candlelight. I tried to do the right thing. I got down on one knee and everything—”

“But it was too late. The damage was done.”

“You think so? Is it hopeless? I
can’t
lose her.”

“You won’t, but you’ll have to do some world-class groveling.”

Konrad groaned. “Shit. I’ve never groveled in my life.”

“If she means that much to you, then you’d damn well better prove it to her. In the five years I was married, I discovered one secret to keeping a woman happy.”

“I hope you’re not going to say ‘a grovel a day keeps the lawyer away’ or anything like that.”

Sly chuckled. “Hell no, nothing like that. The only thing you have to do is make her feel desired. Make her know you want her.”

“But she already knows that.”

Sly shook his head. “That’s not enough. You can’t expect her to retain that feeling constantly. Women are plagued with self-doubt. I don’t know why, they just are. You have to show her or tell her, or better yet, both, and reinforce it.”

“Every damn day? What if I forget?”

“It’s not something you schedule, dumb ass. Good God, you really have no idea, do you?”

Konrad blew out a deep breath. “I guess not.”

“Look.” Sly sat on the step next to him. “Send her flowers. Slip a mushy card under her door. Do whatever you have to do to make her realize you love her, want her, and that you’re sorry.”

“Is that what you mean by groveling?”

“Exactly!”

“Oh. That’s not too bad. I can do that. I can’t afford to send expensive flowers, but I can buy a card.”

“Great. You can always
pick
flowers. The more effort you go to, the more it shows you care.”

“Where do you pick flowers in the city?”

Sly smirked. “Some bush in an unfenced yard, I guess. If you
borrow
one rose, they’ll never miss it. And for some reason, a single rose seems to mean as much to women as a dozen. That’s one of those things we’ll never figure out.”

Konrad stood. “Okay. Thanks, buddy. I think I know where I’ll take my midnight run tonight.”

“Yeah? Where?”

“There’s a public rose garden on the Fenway.”

***

Roz awoke the following morning, pulled the covers over her head, and groaned. Never had a man driven her to drink before. The night before, she thought she had a point. Now she just felt stupid.

But talk about being taken for granted! I wasn’t even worth the effort of a genuine, heartfelt proposal.
Last night’s tears and the lump in her throat resurfaced.

Her logical side took over again. How could he know she wanted a romantic proposal? It wasn’t as if he could read her mind. Well, okay, he could, but only if she was thinking loud and clear. As soon as he said the word
marriage
, her mind jumbled.