With a sweet smile, he brushed his knuckles against my cheek. “Clarity?”
Clarity. That was what I felt. Clarity of mind, of soul, of body. “Yes, exactly.”
Bowen gave me a smirk and shrugged. “Turns out interpreting words and languages is kind of my thing.”
Gods, he was so fucking cute. It was I this time who bent down and kissed him. The first I’d initiated. Bowen wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me closer, deepening our kiss. His tongue danced with mine, and I felt him hum in the back of his throat. A sound that was met by my own much louder one. Okay… the wolf was still with me, but I was steering the ship.
Bowen’s hands lowered from my neck, over my back, finding the bottom edge of my shirt. When his hands slid beneath the material, brushing against mybare skin, I sucked in a sharp breath. Fuck, his touch on my skin felt incredible, but I didn’t really know what to do next. Steering the ship didn’t mean I knew where I was going in this uncharted territory.
Bowen broke the kiss and looked up at me. “Can we get this out of the way? I think it’s only fair since you got to see me in my underwear yesterday and I’ve only had a peek at what’s beneath all these baggy clothes.”
My head bobbed wordlessly, and I froze in place. Bowen gingerly slid my shirt up, pulling it over my head, and tossed it over his shoulder. His eyes lowered, taking me in, and his arousal perfumed out of him. He lifted a hand and traced it over my hard pecs, singeing my skin beneath his touch. His fingers scratched through the black chest hair, and he bit his lip. With the memory and taste of him from this morning, I wished I were the one doing the biting, but I stayed in place as he continued his perusal.
“Holy hell, Rudy. I knew you were built—I could feel you when you held me—but damn! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a body like this in person, let alone get to touch it.”
I shrugged even as my cheeks flared with heat, and I had to force myself to stand still. Well, it wasn’t such a difficult thing when it meant his eyes and hands trailed over me, and his desire bloomed between us. “I’ve torn through a lot of clothes when I shifted unexpectedly, so it became easier to wear loose clothing that can accommodate the size change.”
Bowen gave me a sweet look and placed his hand over my heart. “I get it. And I want you to know, it wouldn’t have mattered what you had going on under your clothes. I’m not here because of your body, although… I’m not going to lie, it’s a nice perk.”
He pushed up onto his toes and kissed me again. While his mouth moved against mine, his hand followed the trail of hair down my stomach, stopping at the top of my waistband, making my breath hitch.
“Rudy.” I felt my name like a soft caress in the back of my mind. It definitely hadn’t been spoken out loud, not with the way his tongue was probing deeper into my mouth. I gasped and pulled back.
“What?”
Bowen grinned, looking rather pleased with himself. “Surprise!”
“You were in my head.” It wasn’t a question, but an acknowledgment. I felt it; I heard it. Just like earlier, when I was alone. “Did you do that before?”
“Yes! I wasn’t sure if it worked, but it did, right?” His brown eyes gleamed behind his glasses.
I nodded. “Yeah, I thought I was losing my mind.” I huffed out a laugh and shook my head as I thought of the awkward phone call with Kieran. Even knowing it was Bowen I’d heard, the call wasn’t pointless. What he told me… it was feeling truer every second.
“Damn, I’m sorry if I made you question yourself. That wasn’t my intent. It’s something Aurelia showedme I could do, but it might take some practice. Do you mind it?”
“Do it again.”
Bowen stared up at me with his mouth closed, as if he were concentrating. I felt that brush in my mind as real as if he were running a finger along my cheek. It was uniquely him, and in this way, it was familiar for something that shouldn’t feel familiar at all. “Take me to bed, Rudy.”
A snarl curled my lip, and I picked him up, cradling his ass as he clung to me with a laugh. I lowered him down carefully and climbed in over him. Leaning down, I pressed my nose to his hair and breathed him in.
“You smell so fucking good.” The words were mine this time, all mine, and I meant them from my very core.
Bowen grinned up at me. “I’m guessing that means you don’t mind then.”
I took his glasses off his face and set them on the table. At the same time, Bowen shimmied his bag off him, dropping it onto the ground and out of our way. “No, because it’s you. I want to feel you every way I can.”
My mouth crashed into his, and I lowered myself onto him, loving the sharp inhale that came from him when our bodies pressed together. His hardness pressed into my belly, and the sensation of it nearly pushed me over the edge right there.
I broke the kiss, resting my forehead against his as I tried to maintain some sort of control. Not over my wolf this time, but over my own body. Needing his help, I forced myself to speak honestly because I didn’t know how to do this without him. “Bowen, I, uh… I haven’t done this before. I wish I could charge ahead with full confidence, but I’m barely hanging on by a thread.”
Bowen reached up and brushed my hair away from my face. “It’s okay. It’s just you and me here; that’s all that matters. I promise, there’s nothing you can do that will disappoint me, because it’s you I want, any way I can get you.”
“Even if it’s fast?” I asked, feeling my cheeks heat.
The man beneath me laughed. He laughed and gave me a quick kiss. “Fast doesn’t mean a damn thing.”
My brows arched, missing the joke. Bowen waved it off, but he looked up at me with a look so sweet and so sincere that it made my chest warm. “Why don’t we switch for a minute?”
