Page 26 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

I sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb any textile territory under her control. “Can I touch you?”

Her banter stalled.

For all her mouth, for all the heat pouring off her skin, that question still made her pause. I was glad of it. I wanted that pause. I wanted her mind in the room with her body, every time.

“Yes,” she said.

“Where?”

Her fingers tightened around the glass. “My back.”

I shifted behind her and placed one hand between her shoulder blades, over the robe. Her skin burned through the thin fabric. She shuddered, then leaned back into the pressure with a sigh she tried to turn into a cough.

“Subtle,” I said.

“Silence.”

I rubbed slow circles over her back. Hudson took the empty glass from her and set it aside.

A cramp rolled through her. Her body went rigid, then curled forward. The sound she made wasn’t witty or controlled, not dressed up in anything. Pain broke through cleanly.

I moved with her, one arm around her waist, keeping her from folding too far. “I’ve got you.”

“It hurts.” The words were small, and they tore through me worse than any joke.

Hudson was in front of her, his hand hovering near her face. “Mary, look at me.”

She shook her head.

“Look at me, sweetheart.”

Her eyes lifted.

“Do you still want us?” he asked.

She stared at him, breathing hard.

The cramp eased enough for desire to rush in behind it. I saw the shift in the way her thighs tightened, in the slick heat of her scent, in the tremor that ran through her where my arm held her steady.

“Yes,” she whispered as her hand reached between her thighs and she pulled it out, soaked with slick.

“Tell us again,” Hudson said.

Her eyes flashed with irritation and need. “I want you both to touch me. I want you to make the pain stop. I want sex, and if either of you asks me again, I will bite.”

“No biting tonight,” I said.

Her head turned slightly toward me. “Coward.”

I smiled against my better judgment. “Honorable coward.”

“That’s the worst kind.”

Hudson reached for the tie she had stolen from him and set it aside with care. “May I move this?”

Mary watched him. “Fine,” she said. “I thought you might use it to tie me up.”

“Or gag you.” He placed it on the pillow beside her, safely within nest territory. And then he touched her face.