Authors: Jacqueline Rhoades
Tags: #romance, #paranormal romance, #shifters, #paranormal adventure romance, #wolvers, #wolves shifting, #paranormal shifter series, #paranormal wolf romance, #wolves romance
They’d gone to the showers in shifts and he’d
made sure he and Tommie were last. He wanted to talk to her, out of
earshot of the others, but she wasn’t going to make it easy. Since
her little showdown over Macey, she’d studiously avoided contact
with him and she was still at it.
Bull watched her backside as she marched five
feet in front of him. She’d added a little weight there, too, and
it was looking as good as what she carried up front. That fine
little ass of hers, swinging back and forth like that told him all
he needed to know. She was still angry with him.
Subtlety wasn’t Tommie’s way, any more than
cunning was, though he was beginning to wonder about the latter.
She certainly had a way of manipulating people. Where the hell she
came up with that dream shit, he didn’t know, but those wolvers ate
it up and were licking the bottom of the honeypot looking for
more.
When those cubs stood for her, he thought old
Samuel was going to lose his last few teeth. Bull had to admit,
though never to her, he’d been pretty surprised, too. Those cubs
were ready to fall on their swords for her and they might have,
too, if he and the others hadn’t gotten there in time. And when had
the sassy little bitch found time to charm Cora who, he’d thought,
couldn’t be charmed?
Tommie could hold a grudge with the best of
them, too. Whatever he’d done was evidently worse than treason,
since she was all smiles for Macey and none for him. The girl had
even brought out fresh clothes for her and Macey didn’t strike him
as the type who shared with anybody else. Then again, nobody else
would have stepped up to the plate for Macey.
The woman was definitely crazy, but it was a
good kind. He didn’t know how she did it, but she’d wormed her way
into his heart, too.
“
Mate
.” His wolf wore a goofy grin like the cubs.
Yeah. Sure. Like that was going to work. He
belonged to a pack of loners. Hell, even his Alpha didn’t answer
the phone half the time. He was away for weeks, sometimes months at
a time. She’d be alone, and something told him Tommie wouldn’t do
well alone. She’d be out gathering her own mini pack in no time and
he didn’t want to think where that could lead. He’d probably come
home to find she’d turned the place into an old age home for
prostitutes or a rehab center for ax murderers.
“
Mate
.”
“
Shut up,” he said
aloud.
Tommie turned and put her hand on her hip.
She did that little head bobble. “I didn’t say anything. In case
you haven’t noticed, I’m not talking to you.”
Well, she wasn’t, but apparently she was now.
He felt his grin stretching his face. He kept walking until he
caught up with her and kept smiling when she continued to walk at
his side.
“
It isn’t funny. You hung me
out to dry up there,” she huffed.
“
I tried to warn
you.”
“
Tommie,” she mimicked his
deep voice, “is not a warning. Did you tell them what she did? How
she tried to save us?”
“
You know I did.” He’d given
her the nod when she’d asked. “I also said I’d find her a home.”
Begley must have connections somewhere.
Tommie sniffed at that. “She already has a
perfectly good one.” And then all the fight went out of her. “How
bad was the vote?”
“
It was five to four and no,
I didn’t vote. It wasn’t my fight. My only suggestion was that they
wait a few days until tempers cooled. They didn’t
listen.”
Her shoulders slumped. “You should have used
your huffy-puffy thing.”
He put his arm around her. “That huffy-puffy
thing, as you call it, has been used to control them for most of
their lives. That’s not what it’s meant for or the way it should be
used.”
“
But Macey was
important.”
“
They’re all
important.”
“
Exactly,” she said as if
she’d made her point.
They arrived at the showers and he held the
door for her. “Still mad at me?”
“
Yes,” she said as she
scooted past. She turned to face him once she was inside. “I’ll
tell you about it later after I’ve had my shower.”
He slowly stalked in after her. “You’d better
tell me now, because after your shower, you’re not going remember
your name.”
“
Really?” she purred and
then she snapped her fingers and her come-hither smile turned into
a grin. “That’s why I’m still mad at you. I don’t even know your
name.” She shook her finger at him. “And don’t give me that story
about your mother and how you’re hung. It doesn’t hold up. I’ve
seen the real deal, remember, and you’re nothing like a
bull.”
“
Lucky you,” he laughed. “If
I was hung like that, you wouldn’t be smiling that silly smile of
yours when I was done.”
“
Pfft. Don’t flatter
yourself. I’ve never worn a silly smile in my life.”
Bull backed her into the shower stall. It was
a wide, tiled unit divided into a dressing area and shower, the two
areas separated by a worn yellow curtain. There was plenty of room
for two. He reached behind him and slipped the hook through the eye
on the door. “You still want to know my name?”
Her knees hit the bench and she sat. “I think
it’s only fair since you know mine.” Her eyes travelled the length
of his body. “And I know the rest of you so well.”
“
My name is William
Bulworth.” He peeled his shirt up over his back. “I started out as
Billy Bulworth,” he said when his head was free. He removed his
boots. “I got bigger and became Bill, got bigger and became Bull
Bulworth.” He slid his jeans down and stepped out of them. “Because
some smartass wolver said I rammed him like a bull and it fits with
my last name, the name stuck. Now shut up and kiss me.”
“
Or maybe it was your
attitude.” Her laugh was husky, but she wasn’t about to give in.
“Bullheaded, bull-in-a china-shop...”
He pulled her up, caught the clean clothes as
they fell from her hands and tossed them on the bench. “Kiss me,
spitfire.”
“
Bullshitter,
bull...”
“
Okay, don’t. I’ll kiss
you.”
And he kept kissing her while he reached to
the side and turned on the tap. He pulled her bottom lip between
his teeth. He smothered her soft lips in tiny kisses. He ran his
hands up her sides, taking her shirt with him and only left her
mouth long enough to draw it over her head.
“
Bu...”
He captured her mouth before she could say
it. His tongue traced the seam and she opened just enough for the
tip of her tongue to play hide and seek with his. He loved her
mouth. Sassy, bitchy, or softly sweet, it didn’t matter. The sound
of her voice and the taste of her lips always reminded him of
chocolate, creamy and delicious.
His hands found her breasts and he cupped
them at the sides, pressing them inward and running his thumbs over
her nipples. She liked that. He could tell by the murmuring sound
she made. She pressed into his hands, wanting more. He tweaked
those delicate nipples between thumbs and forefingers and her mouth
opened with her gasp of pleasure.
He captured that gasp with his mouth and
invaded with his tongue. He kept her tongue busy while his fingers
were busy unbuttoning her jeans. He slid them over her hips,
lingering over the newly rounded globes of her ass. Fuck, if she
didn’t have a fine little ass.
He kept her mouth busy, tonguing, licking,
sucking, devouring, while his hands roamed over the contours of her
body. Steam poured from the shower, slicking her skin with a fine
sheen of water. He let his hand trail the moisture that collected
and ran down the center of her body. Her moan was needy when he
reached the sweet spot between her legs.
He took his time and played until she was
ready to explode. He drove his finger inside her, thrust and thrust
again, until he found that other sweet spot that would drive her
wild. She pushed her pelvis against his hand and he chuckled
against her mouth. He wasn’t sure what she wanted more, to be able
to come or be able to talk.
He voted for come and ran his thumb over her
clit with the next thrust of his finger. She clamped down so hard
he thought he was going to lose it. She moaned her release into his
mouth and damn, wasn’t that some fine, fine candy.
He eased her down onto the bench looking
dazed and happy.
“
That,” he pointed to her
mouth, “is a silly smile and ought to keep you quiet for a
bit.”
It did, if a bit was thirty seconds. He
turned to adjust the heat of the water.
“
Bull-y,” she laughed
languidly and slid her fingers up over his ass. She laughed again
at his growled response.
“
You loved it.”
He took her hands and pulled her into the
shower. As she had that first night, she hissed at the feel of the
spray, but this time she tilted her head back until it rested on
his chest and let the water pound down her body. She moaned and
began to move, languidly stretching and flexing her body to take
full advantage of the hot water massage. She reminded him of a
cat.
“
God, I love a hot shower,
don’t you?” she purred.
“
They’re something you get
in and get out of with a quick soaping in between.” He’d never
thought much about it until that shower in the motel with
her.
She turned into him and ran her hands up his
chest and around his neck, then stood on tiptoe to reach his lips
and murmured against them. “That’s an attitude that needs to be
changed.”
She moved behind him to reach around the
curtain and grab the flowered pink bag she carried with her
clothes. From it she pulled a variety of plastic bottles and a
matching pink wash cloth.
“
A gift from Sarah,” she
explained to his raised eyebrows. “I didn’t ask.”
Bull knew what she meant. “They don’t like
being called tramps and thieves, but they live out of an old bus
and steal for a living. I didn’t ask about those steaks Boris
cooked for supper, either.”
“
Fell off a truck,” she
giggled.
“
Fell over in some farmer’s
field, more likely.”
She poured a little of the purple liquid in
her hand and began to massage his head. “Doesn’t it feel wonderful
to have someone wash your hair?”
“
I’m going to smell like
flowers.”
“
That’s okay, I like
flowers.”
He’d never had a woman wash his hair before.
Bull closed his eyes and was enjoying the sensation when she pulled
his arm to turn him until his back was to the spray. “Tilt your
head back and rinse.”
She soaped his shoulders and back and ass,
chattering the whole time, asking about his scars, giggling over
what she claimed was the dimple in his right cheek. She made him
turn again and hold his arms above his head while she scrubbed his
chest. She poked and prodded his sides and belly looking for
ticklish spots and complained he was no fun when she couldn’t find
one.
Bull closed his eyes and let her hands and
chatter soothe away all thoughts of anything except how good she
made him feel. It was a minute before he realized the chattering
had stopped.
She was on her knees, eyeing his erection and
licking her lips. When she looked up at him, he groaned and
stretched over her until his hands hit the wall.
Her mouth was silken sex, pulling him deep,
stroking, licking, running her tongue along his length, and pulling
him in again and again. She wasn’t quiet about it either. She
moaned, she hummed, and he felt the vibrations of her pleasure.
Fuck, he was screwed and in more ways than that mouth on his
cock.
“
Mine. Mate.
Mine
.”
“
Yeah,” he agreed. She was
his. He would have to find a way to keep her that would work for
them both.
Bull gave in to his wolf and gave himself and
his heart up to Tommie.
“
Bull?” Tommie
whispered.
“
Yeah, baby.”
He hooked his arm a little tighter around her
neck and pulled her a little closer to his side. Tommie wasn’t sure
what time it was, but the sky was grey with pre-dawn light and a
misty rain was beginning to fall. The woods to either side of the
road were grey and misty, too, and eerily quiet.
“
Why didn’t you kill the
Alpha?”
She felt his breath hitch just the tiniest
bit before he answered. “There was no need. He was dying
anyway.”
“
I wanted to kill him.” Her
confession was made in a whisper. “I bit his nose because I
couldn’t reach his throat. Everybody says it was brave or cool like
I did something special. What I did was savage.”
“
Not savage. Wolf. You were
cornered and you fought with the only weapon you had. What they
found amazing was that you didn’t cower. You fought an
Alpha.”
“
But they did that the other
day. They faced him down the first time.”
“
They faced him, but not
alone and they didn’t attack.”
“
I don’t think I attacked
him either. I felt like a bystander. My wolf took over and it
frightened me.”
She couldn’t tell him what she felt for the
Alpha. It was disgusting, and part of her shame was because she
felt like she’d betrayed Bull. She was afraid he’d feel the same
way. Tommie opted to confess the other part of her shame since he
already knew most of it.
“
He said we were going to
get along and it was the way he said it, I guess. It made me
feel... I used to feel that way when I was a teenager, after
running wild,” she said because she couldn’t say the words. “I
hated looking in the mirror because I didn’t like what I saw. I
felt disgusted and dirty.”