I wanted to get up and grab some more clean towels. And build up the fire. But I couldn’t move. Every muscle in my body seemed to have turned to liquid.
Aspen’s arm was around my waist. One of mine was trapped underneath his weight as I held him. I didn’t care. I needed him close.
His breaths became slow and even and I knew he’d fallen asleep. My own mind was nodding into blackness. Before I succumbed, I kissed him on the forehead.
“I think I’ve always loved you,” I whispered.
15
Aspen
On Christmas Eve I went into a heat like nothing I’d ever felt.
We made love four times before Christmas Day dawned.
While I napped between sessions, Dale must have cleaned us up. I didn’t remember, but I woke expecting to be covered in sticky emissions. Yet every time we started up again, my skin felt fresh and clean. And Dale, well, he was always perfect. He had water waiting and fed it to me when I couldn’t lift my arms. When I had to pee, he helped me to the bathroom as if it was no big deal.
By morning, I was exhausted and hungry. I sat up as I smelled eggs, bacon, French toast.
Dale had ordered room service.
“Can you make it to the couch?” he asked. “Or do you want to eat in bed?”
“I want out of the bed for a little while.”
He helped me on with my robe, tying it for me.
I devoured everything on my plate as if I’d been starved for a week.
“How long do your heats last?” Dale asked.
“A couple days. It will be over by tomorrow.”
He lifted and eyebrow. “That soon?”
“Disappointed?”
Shrugging, he said, “It’s the best sex I’ve ever had.”
For a second, my heart fell. Sex. Was that all this was? A hormonal response to my heat? I had to ask the question of myself, as well.
I moved my head and immediately felt a twinge on the back of my neck. The bite. It had done something to me. Changed the way I saw him. He hadn’t done that just for sex. It had great meaning in shifter communities.
“Why did you bite me?”
“Uh, that was—um, it seemed right at the time.” His tone turned desperate. “Did I hurt you? Are you hurt?”
“No. It’s not that. It’s—this was way more than sex. Your instincts. The bite. The knot.”
He nodded. “I know that. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I knotted you when I thought I could never do that.”
“Right. It’s about something deeper.”
“For me that is definite.”
I let out a long sigh. “Good. I didn’t know if you felt?—”
“A link? Or whatever you call it….”
