He pulled her onto him by her thighs so that she wrapped her legs around him, and he crushed her against the cabinets. Pushed into her, and she stopped breathing. The fullness of it, the way being joined felt like the bond resolving into something belonging to reality. His forehead dropped to her shoulder.
Then he moved, and she stopped thinking about whatever else.
Not slow. There was no slow left in either of them. His hands found her hips, and the pace was immediate, relentless, wild. She tightened around him, arms, legs, the strength of him almost crushing her. Still not enough. “Rex.”
It came out wrecked—and it wrecked the last strand of control he had. It was fury and hunger, demand and greed.
His cock swelled, and the orgasm hit fast and hard, her whole body seizing with it. He followed her over with a low sound against her skin that resonated in her spine and all the way down to her pussy.
They came out the other side still shaking.
And for the first time, she realized where, and how, they were.
Hidden behind the counter. He was still on his knees, her legs were around his waist, her face in his neck, his arms solid around her. Both of their breathing was strained, and she was still pressed against the lower part of the counter.
Okay, she thought. Okay.
“Better?” he murmured into her hair.
She laughed, undignified and happy. “Shut up.”
“Just saying, because I feel so incredibly better, and we should–”
Hard knocks rattled the door. “I can see yer heads from outside, clear as day,” Lachlan drawled through the glass. “And I’ll note, for fairness, this is very much in character for ye bloody wolf. And yer mate.”
Rex sighed; she pressed her hand on her mouth to stop the laugh. It was the single most embarrassing moment of her life, and yet joy overshadowed it to the point of not caring. Not one bit.
Rex lifted his head and watched over the counter. “Give us two minutes, Lach. Or ten. We can’t quite move right now.”
“Bloody werewolves,” she heard him muttering. “Aye. But only for the lass.”
He shrugged, managed to sit with her still straddling him. And all things considered, there was only one thing to do: she curled on his chest and sighed, happy, as his arms came around her as they waited for the knot to subside.
It was a few minutes before she could leave his lap and put herself together.
Rex pulled up his pants and worked at his shirt buttons, but—he stopped, frowned, looked down at the gap where one was missing. The memory of how it got there crossed his face and became a hot, entirely smug smirk.
She reacted to the smirk. She... she did. How, how was that even possible? He’d been inside of her not ten minutes ago, and she was ready–ready–again. Dignity was so dead.
And yeah, of course he felt it. And smelled it, because he drew a long breath through his nose and his attention snapped back to her, much like a shark did with fresh blood. “I won’t hear the end of it if I don’t open that door next time he knocks," he said in a voice that was pure menace and hunger. “But give me the word, and he’s gone.”
Oh.
Oh.
She tried to swallow through a throat that had suddenly gone completely dry. “You should not put that decision in my hands right now.” Self-awareness slapped her—not hard enough, apparently, because the choice should have been clearer. Save the forest and all that. “I genuinely dislike myself for even thinking about it.”
The growl that came out of him was low, dark, and did not help the situation at all.
New knocks broke the moment. “Rex!” Lachlan shouted from outside, the tone of a man who had been patient, but whose patience had run out.
Rex snarled as he snapped to his feet and marched toward the door, still buttoning his shirt. She hoped he’d remembered to fix his pants. She was fairly certain he had. Fairly. He yanked the door open, and the growl came out menacing. She didn’t think it was directed at Lachlan specifically, just at the general concept that his imminent future wasn’t going to go the way he wanted. She could relate to that big time. “You have terrible timing,” he said to the Mayor.
Lachlan looked at him. Looked at his shirt. Looked at Zoe, who was standing behind the counter with her crazy hair, working very hard at her professional smile. Looked back at Rexwith a raised eyebrow. “Ye summoned me like the devil himself was at yer heels, and now I’m to take my time? Ye need to stop givin’ me heart attacks.”
“You literally can not die.”
But the mayor ignored him and strolled past, into the shop. “Bloody wolves. No patience and no reason, the lot of ye.”
