“He’s my friend, boss, and Alpha.”
“Alpha?”
“Pack leader.”
She sat up. “Pack? There’s more of you?”
“More than you’d think.”
Reality hung on by a rapidly fraying thread. “Upside?” she whispered.
His smile returned and he leaned in, nuzzling her just behind her ear, making her lower belly contract in a hot and pleasant way. “I get to do this to you every day for the rest of our lives.”
“Promise?”
“Absolutely.”
She nervously swallowed as the abyss loomed beneath her. “Will you protect me and keep me safe?” It’d been so long since she’d felt safe. And the past few days, even with dog-Ivan, she’d felt safer than she had in…well, years.
A fierce expression blasted across his face. “No one will ever again harm you. Ever. I’ll die before I let that happen.”
Lindsey closed her eyes. “I’m yours.”
His growl might have been scary except for the fact that his lips did incredibly addictive things to her neck. Ivan gently lowered her to the bed. He quickly returned to his earlier position between her legs and dropped his head.
She hoped the neighbors weren’t home. His tongue firmly stroked her clit and sent a shockwave through her nervous system the likes of which she’d never experienced. When he slipped one, then two thick fingers inside her, she loudly moaned.
“Fuck, yes!” she cried.
Ivan chuckled but didn’t respond, his lips too busy massaging her swollen nub as his fingers skillfully stroked her to the most explosive climax she’d ever experienced. She screamed his name as he kept her coming for what felt like forever.
Well, she could ditch the vibrator. And the dildo. What was the point? They were smaller than him.
He eventually relented and moved up the bed to gather her against his firm chest, holding her, his face buried in her hair.
“Every day?” she gasped.
“As many times as you want.”
She flattened her body against him, his cock rubbing along her belly. “You’ve still got to propose.”
“Marry me. Please. If you want groveling, I can do that.”
“Yes.”
“To the groveling?”
She nipped his throat. His cock jumped in response. “No, silly. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Then he slipped his cock inside her, buried deeper than any man had ever gone. He rolled on top of her while she threw her legs around his waist, hanging on for the ride.
His eyes locked onto hers. “I’ll never leave your side.”
“That’s unrealistic.”
He smiled. “You’re a ballbuster, aren’t you?”
“That a problem?”
“No. I’m always up for a little kink.” He playfully grinned.
Lindsey laughed. “I think you’ll need a daily session on the leash to remind you who takes you home every day.” She reached up and flicked the choker collar, which still hung, albeit much more loosely, around his neck.
He plunged a little deeper, drawing a gasp from her. “Leading me around by my cock isn’t good enough, huh?”
She grabbed the collar and pulled his face to hers, thrusting her tongue between his lips.
His hungry groan flipped her heart. Who was she kidding? If this hunk wanted her she’d take him even if he turned out to be a crazy psycho—or an ultraconservative Republican.
He pulled away just long enough to flip her onto her knees and slide his thick cock inside her from behind, filling her, taking her breath away.
Ivan wrapped his arms around her waist, one hand between her legs, skilled fingers rolling her clit and teasing her toward another climax.
“I want you, Lindsey.” He growled, kissing her back, tasting the flesh over her spine. “I want you forever, for mine, for my mate.”
She barely formed coherent words. “Take me, Ivan. Fuck me.”
Then his lips, hot on her shoulder as they worked up and down her flesh, and his teeth grazing her as the slow explosion built in her clit, spreading out to the rest of her wonderfully full. Between his fingers and his cock and his mouth and the solid wall of flesh pressed against her body, she knew she wanted this forever.
“My mate,” he whispered before sinking his teeth into the top of her shoulder. At the same time he pistoned his hips hard, burying his cock balls-deep inside her. He gently pinched her clit, setting off a thermonuclear reaction of her own.
Agony and ecstasy vied for the win, with pleasure leading the pack by a mile. She was vaguely aware of his climax, his growling moan and the feel of his hot seed inside her, marking her.
Mate.
His mate.
Gasping for breath and shuddering from the aftermath of her orgasm, she collapsed under him.
He rolled to his side, his arms around her, holding her tightly, still joined.
With sanity returning, she suspected she’d hurt like hell where he bit her, but his lips and tongue carefully caressed her flesh and it felt like the best feeling in the world.
It took her a while to regain her senses. When she did, she rolled over to face him.
“Do it again,” she whispered, her fingers now around his collar.
“I’m good, but even I need a few minutes to recover, babe.”
She shook her head.
That half smile would be deadly to her reserve. She’d have to learn to build immunity to it somehow. Her fingers weren’t touching his hot flesh, but dense, black fur.
“Okay. Come back.”
The two-legged hunk laughed. “I swear, Jeremy is not going to believe you didn’t run away screaming.”
“I’m still in shock. But if you can fuck me like that and keep the bad guys away, I can deal with anything else. I think.” She hesitated. “It’s probably too late to ask this, but you don’t kill people, do you?”
He grinned. “Only if they tried to hurt you or kill me, babe. It’s not like in the movies.”
“Okay.” She traced the firm lines of his abs. “What do you do for a living?’
Ivan cocked an eyebrow. “A guy shape-shifts from a large dog into a man who fucks you silly, tells you he loves you, asks you to marry him and be his mate, and the second thing you want to know is what he does for a living?”
“You have a problem with that?”
Ivan threw his head back and laughed, long and hard, the bed shaking from his rumbling amusement. “Lindsey, damn, girl. You are too fucking much.” He reached up and rested his palm along her cheek. “I work for Bruin and Associates. We’re a consulting firm.”
“That tells me shit.”
He rolled onto his side, propped on his elbow. “Legal, I promise. We deal with a lot of industrial secrets, things like that. Studies, coordinating product trials, compiling research information.”
“Good money?”
He grinned and rolled out of bed, pulling her to him. “Let’s take a shower.”
She was surprised to find he’d stashed his things under the mattress, another paradox that amused the crap out of him. Maybe she was still in shock over the revelation, but he didn’t think so.
He opened the truck door for her. “After you.” He stole a kiss as she passed, which earned him a gentle goose in his crotch.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
He slipped his sunglasses on before backing out of the parking space. “Home.”
Lindsey’s composure faltered when they drove into the private, gated community in New Tampa. “You live here?”
“We,” he corrected, smiling. “Don’t tell me you’re freaking out now?”
“Wow.” In the grand scheme of things, Ivan was slumming it with his new Honda Ridgeline, while the neighbors on either side of him drove Jags. He pulled into the garage and led her inside.
She stopped in the foyer, and he let her take it in while he continued on to the kitchen. Jeremy had brought in his mail and newspapers, stacking them neatly on the counter. He dropped his keys next to the pile and sorted through mail while she regained her voice.