“It’s going to take some time,” I replied, propping my head on my bent elbow. “They’re going to have to replace some windows and probably sand the floors. My mom and Lucy will probably sleep for the next couple of days while they heal, but yeah. Everything was okay.”
“Do you think they’ll attack there again?”
“They’d be idiots to try. My brothers won’t leave their mates any time in the near future, and I can’t imagine an entire human army succeeding where the others didn’t.”
“That’s good,” she breathed. My hand paused where I’d been brushing it against her thigh, and she moved just slightly so that I’d start again. “Why didn’t you mention your cousins when you were talking to Dalton?”
Iknewshe’d noticed. “They’re incredibly private,” I explained. “Paranoid to a fault. They wouldn’t want anyone to know that they’d been involved. One of them has a mate that’s completely off the radar, and I can’t repay them for their help by running my mouth.”
“Gotcha,” she sighed, her eyes growing heavy. “Well, I won’t say anything.”
“Appreciate it.”
“He trusts you, you know?”
“Who? Dalton?”
“Yeah. He told me before you got back that you were one of the best teammates he’d ever had.”
“Aw, he was talking about me?” I joked. “I’m touched.”
Her eyes lost the glassy look. “He was reassuring my aunt, who was pissed when she got here and you weren’t here.”
“Ah, that didn’t win me any points, huh?”
“You’re lucky she’d calmed down by the time you got back, or there’s a good chance you would’ve been buried in the backyard.”
I grimaced.
“It’s all right,” Rosemary said, patting my chest. For a split second, it felt like I was being burned until a rush of cool swept through my veins. “Once she realized I was fine, she mellowed.”
“Were you?” I asked quietly, smoothing my hand up her side. “I wasn’t. I was sweating so much my dad said I smelled like a goat.”
Rosemary let out a choked laugh.
“I nearly puked all over my lap while I was driving,” I continued. “Knowing that I’d be the one who would have to clean it up was the only way I kept that shit down.”
“Sounds terrible.”
“It wasn’t pleasant,” I conceded, wrapping my hand around the side of her neck. Her pulse beat comfortingly against my palm, and my mouth watered. “How bad was it for you?”
Something flashed in her eyes, but she just shrugged. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“Did the shower help?” I asked, remembering the beads of water on her shoulders.
“Not really,” she replied. “It felt pretty similar to getting the tattoo on my neck. Lots of little needles hitting everywhere.”
I flinched at the thought.
“A bath would probably be better,” she mused. “Not as violent.”
“Well, I’m here now,” I murmured, leaning forward to brush my lips over hers. “No bath needed.”
“Convenient,” she whispered back, leaning into the touch.
Her hands slid out from beneath the pillows, and I sighed in relief as they smoothed over my bare chest and down my stomach. They’d cooled a little since we’d been lying there, and each touch felt like a mixture of floating on my back in the middle of a lake and the first seconds of the downward slide of a rollercoaster. Every molecule in my body stood at attention while my heart seemed to slow its angry pounding.
It didn’t take long before both of us were naked. We’d kept a small barrier of clothing between us until then, as if it somehow made a difference, and maybe it had. Because the moment she pressed her bare body against mine, my willpower was toast. Spending those few hours apart had only intensified the instinct to get as close as possible. We were too hungry for the feel of skin on skin, too impatient. I moved with her as Rosemary rolled to her back, then froze as my hips settled between her thighs, the underside of my cock pressed against hot, wet skin.
