“Are you hungry?” Ethan unexpectedly asked then.
To my surprise, I realized that I was. Ravenous, actually. “I definitely could eat. I skipped dinner earlier because Charlotte and I were already running late to meet up with her cousin.”
“You can’t do that,” Ethan lectured then. “Skip meals, I mean,” he clarified. “As a shifter, your body is going to require a lot of additional calories. If you don’t eat a lot, and often, you’re going to start dropping too much weight.”
I chuckled and patted my thick-ish thighs. “I’m not worried about losing a few pounds. I have plenty to spare.”
Ethan shook his head. “You look exactly how a woman should, and nobody better be telling you otherwise,” he returned with some real force behind his words.
His flattery warmed me all over. Ethan thought I looked good. Just like “a woman should”. That was nice to hear from anyone, but from someone I’d been drooling over for years, it was my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one perfectly gift-wrapped package.
Smiling to myself in the dark, I asked, “So what are we going to eat? I don’t see any takeout places around here.”
Ethan ruminated on my question. “What are you in the mood for?”
I suddenly had a hankering for a rare steak. Someone might falsely attribute that to my being a ware, but I knew better. I just loved steak, bloody and practically still mooing. Had all my life.
“Got any steaks?” I posed, thinking that would be divine with a tall glass of red wine.
It was Ethan’s turn to smile then. “Yeah, I got a few of those in the fridge. How do you like yours cooked?”
“Rare,” I admitted, waiting for him to tease me about it. But, to my relief, he didn’t.
“Same. No hockey pucks allowed in my house,” he jested. “If you’re going to go to the trouble of eating meat, you’d better be able to taste it.”
I giggled at his comment as we pulled into a clearing that turned out to be his driveway. My laughter stopped when I got a good look at the sprawling log cabin. Well, it really should be called an estate. It was huge. Thousands of sprawling square feet that screamed mansion, not a simple cabin, though the aesthetic was rustic settler all the way.
“This is your place?” I replied, in total awe of the amazing property.
“Yeah,” he answered, obvious pride in his tone.
“It’s beautiful,” I gushed, shocked that my dad and I had never been here before. “Why didn’t I ever see this place as a kid? I would have absolutely loved it.”
“It was always under construction and I was waiting to do the big reveal to you and your dad when it was finished. We had plans for you and him to come over after you returned from Alaska, but then, well, his sudden passing changed all that.”
Not for the first time tonight, a blanket of sadness enshrouded me.
I felt unspent tears lodged in my throat as I spoke. “He would have loved it. It’s like a pioneer’s idea of a castle.”
“Well then, Princess, I guess it makes sense that you’ll be staying here from now on,” Ethan gently teased.
I’d love to stay here with him. Not as his princess though, but as his queen. His lover. His forever companion.
We drove past the main entrance and around back to a large garage. The doors of the enormous structure opened as we approached. Inside were several vehicles lined perfectly along the wall. Ethan clearly was a car man. That wasn’t news to me, as I knew how well he’d taken care of the Mustang over the years. Still, I hadn’t seen these vehicles before, and they looked every inch as well cared for as the one he was currently driving.
Parking his Mustang in an open bay, Ethan stepped out of the car. Coming around to the passenger side door, he opened it for me like the true gentleman he was. Offering me his warm, calloused hand, he helped me out into the chilly night air. It was then I realized I was cold and sticky and had probably left stains on his pristine leather interior.
“After a much-needed shower, I promise to clean whatever mess I left behind,” I blurted as I turned to inspect the damage with a horrified look on my face
Ethan waived away my concern. “Don’t worry about that. Let me take you inside so you can wash up and get comfortable.”
I’m not sure how I was supposed to do that. It’s not like I’d brought an overnight bag with clothes to change into. That was back at Charlotte’s house.
“I don’t have a change of clothes,” I said, feeling guilty that I was always such a burden to him.
“I’ll give you some of mine,” Ethan offered. “I don’t think we’re quite the same size, but we’ll figure it out.” He grinned and winked. Ethan washuge, and I felt like a little girl next to him. I smiled back, my face warming.
The thought of wearing clothes that had touched Ethan’s skin and might still have a hint of his smell on them, mademe glow with excitement from the inside out. It also made my sex clench and yearn for him to roughly pet it and make me come.
