“Did you stick our boy with a needle?You didn’t think to wake me so I could hold his hand?”
“I’m a grown man and I don’t need you to hold my hand.Jeez.”Marcus’s cheeks were glowing pink.
Ell pulled his gloves off.“You did very well.Nice veins too.”He put a plastic sample cup on the night stand.“I’ll need you to fill that for me as well.”
Marcus groaned.“Before anyone asks, I don’t need handholding for that one either.”
Dom chuckled and stretched.The morning light that came in through the curtains washed over his body, outlining the hills and valleys of his physique.Dom totally wanted Marcus to stare, and Marcus sure did.
“What kind of voyeuristic alphas do you think we are?”Dom said as Ell left the room.“No, don’t answer that.Those pink cheeks are answer enough.I’ll go make breakfast.”He got to his feet in a rush.“Ell, wait!Cuddle me!”
Dom strutted out, which left me alone in bed with Marcus.I heard Dom ask Ell when Marcus’s stitches could come out, and Ell told him that humans needed a hot minute to heal.I didn’t need to see Dom’s eye roll to know it was there.
Marcus turned in my arms.“So, should we get up too?I guess I have to.For the sample.I just seem to have, erm, misplaced my pants.”
Dom burst out laughing, and I heard Ell chuckling as he packed up the sample downstairs.
I couldn’t help it; I plastered a kiss to the side of Marcus’s mouth.He looked at me wide-eyed, but not shocked, and his expanding pupils and the change in his scent told me he hadn’t minded.
Once I’d moved Marcus onto the pillows, I got out of bed, whisked his pants off the floor, and tossed them at him.
He swallowed hard.“You need a shave.”
I grunted in agreement.“There’s a bathroom through there.”I pointed to my en suite.“Smaller than the other one.”
“Just need a shower and a toothbrush.”He blushed sweetly.“What?”
“I’d rather run you another bath and wash your hair for you, Marcus.It won’t hurt to keep those stitches dry for a while longer.”
The truth was, I also liked washing Marcus.Thankfully, I had enough sense left to know that a human would find that odd, to say the least.Even I found it odd.
Every wolf had heard about how strongly a mate bond could pull people together, especially before the mating bite.The trick here would be to strike a balance where we didn’t freak Marcus out to the point where he ran for the hills.We had to keep it together so that we could actually achieve the mating bite, with his permission.
Marcus was busy awkwardly wiggling into his pants under the covers.“I don’t need?—”
“Please.”I gave him puppy eyes.Or so I hoped.
Marcus pulled the pants up over his hips and sighed.“Fine, whatever.Let me just do the sample first.”
Ell left for work as soon as he had all his samples, and Marcus insisted on dressing in jeans and a sweater after his bath.It was a shame.I really would’ve liked to see him wear some of my sweatpants.
The first thing Dom did when we came down the stairs was hand Marcus a nice big cup of oolong tea.
“Mmm, thanks.”Marcus smiled at Dom as if tea were the most precious thing in the whole wide world.
“I like pleasing you.”Dom leaned in.
I hesitated, unsure whether I should tell Dom off or slather on the affection, but Marcus made the choice for me when he walked around Dom and farther into the living room.
Dom grinned at me, then shrugged.His happy-go-lucky attitude had always drawn me in, and right now I envied him for having the daring to be so forward.
I tilted my head toward the other end of the house, asking Dom an unspoken question.He nodded.
“Marcus, were having breakfast in the dining room.Let me show you.”
Marcus stopped a foot from the couch and turned to me.“There’s a dining room?This place is even bigger?”
Dom basked in that, and rightly so.The dining room wasn’t immediately obvious from the hallway or the living room.You had to walk past the kitchen to get to that area of the house.Dom had decided to put in a half wall to break the space up, and with the lighting, you could easily miss that the house continued in that direction.
