“Still scared?” Logan asked, his voice softer now.
Nick shook his head. “No. Just…waiting for the next weird thing to happen to me.”
Logan smiled, slow and genuine. “Not today, sweetheart. Today, you get to just exist.”
Nick curled closer, their bodies pressed together. Logan draped an arm across Nick’s stomach, thumbing lazy circles on the skin below the ribs.
They didn’t bother with words for a while. The house was quiet, nobody banging on the door or shouting about pack business. Small moments like this, Logan could almost believe they’d get a happy ending.
Nick started drifting, his breath slowing.
Logan listened, cataloguing every detail. The way Nick’s chest rose and fell, the small scar on his shoulder, the bite mark already fading on his neck.
He’d never wanted someone so much. Not just the sex but the way Nick fit against him and how Nick kept the world from feeling pointless.
Logan pressed his mouth to Nick’s ear. “Next time you tease me about whether I’m being a gentleman, remember how you sucked me off and begged for more like it was your last meal.”
Nick snorted. “You’re not going to let me live that down, are you?”
“Nope.”
Nick poked him in the ribs. “Jerk.”
Logan bit him on the neck, gentle this time. “You love it.”
Nick didn’t argue.
* * * *
Logan held on to Nick, savoring the feel of his mate tangled up with him. He kept his lips close, letting the guy breathe, letting him have a minute to just exist. Around them, the house went silent. No one came pounding at the door. No one shouted about wolf business or started drama. That feeling, the quiet, it was everything Logan never knew he wanted.
He stroked Nick’s thigh, lazy, just enough to keep the guy from disappearing back into his head. Nick’s breathing evened out. The tension bled out of his body, and he went loose, almost boneless. Logan resisted the urge to tease. The way Nick responded to his touch, to the most basic comfort, made something primal settle deep in Logan’s gut.
“You ever had ice cream for breakfast?” Logan asked, nipping Nick’s ear.
Nick snorted, his voice muffled against Logan’s bicep. “Had whiskey for breakfast. That count?”
Logan’s laugh rolled out low. He squeezed Nick’s hip then eased him off the bed, guiding him through the mechanics of dressing like Nick was a puppy learning to walk. Each touch, each brush of skin, made Nick melt a little more, exposing new nerves just waiting for Logan to touch.
By the time they staggered downstairs, Logan practically carried Nick to the door. A few wolves were lounging in the living room, giving the new mate a healthy amount of distance, but curious eyes followed them. Logan didn’t even blink. He just kept moving, one arm locked around Nick’s waist.
Outside, Nick relaxed against him, his lips still swollen from being ravished minutes ago. Logan wanted to drag him right back up to bed, but the urge to show Nick off, to let him see some sense of normal, was stronger.
They hit the truck, and Nick hesitated at the door. Logan pressed him up against the cab, his mouth an inch from Nick’s. “You want to stay in? Or you want to get the best damn ice cream in Crimson Hollow?”
Nick blinked. His pulse hammered under his jaw, fast and wild. “Ice cream. But only if they have cookie dough.”
Logan opened the door and boosted him into the passenger seat. “You got it. Cookie dough, or I burn the place down.”
The place looked dead at this hour. Logan drove one-handed, the other on Nick’s thigh. He didn’t bother hiding it. Nick squirmed, either from arousal or the pain twisting his stomach, but he didn’t complain.
“You sure you’re good?” Logan glanced over as he turned onto Main.
Nick shot him a look. “If you keep caressing my thigh like that, something else is gonna need attention before we get there.”
Logan’s mouth curled. “Always happy to provide curbside service.”
Nick barked a laugh. For a second, the darkness in him faded. Logan relaxed, just driving, pretending like they weren’t a vampire and wolf mated for life and about to raise a baby together.
