I shook my head. It wasn’t more than fifteen feet, but I was chicken. “No way I’m doing that.”
“Nah, I wouldn’t let you. Not unless I was underneath to make sure you weren’t scared.” He grinned at me.
And suddenly, I felt like nothing would scare me again. Not with Boyd around to protect me. He’d done so with Jett at the bar and said he would now here, with my inner fear of heights.
I’d been in control for so long. There’d been no one looking out for me, not even when I was a kid. I was used to taking care of myself, but here, suddenly, was this guy who had followed me home and wanted me to get my rest and held me in the pool, so I could stretch out and float like a baby in the womb.
Again, it was too good to be true.
But I wanted to trust in it. I wanted this. I wanted what he seemed to be offering. Was I a fool to think, even though he’d been saying the words, really wanted it too?
Just for today, I would. How could I ruin this place, with this guy, by thinking the worst?
I could put the brakes on tomorrow. Take a step back. Right now, I just wanted to be present with Boyd, savor how he held me, what he did to me with his hands, mouth and dick. “I love this,” I murmured. “Maybe I do believe in fate.”
I swore Boyd stopped breathing for a moment. Then he carried me straight out of the water like a man with a purpose.
“What are you doing?” I laughed. “That was so nice.”
“I need to be inside you again,” he rumbled, his voice raw. I saw bald need on his face. Hunger. The same look he had as he stalked toward me at the truck. It had been aggressive, heady. Potent. He’d spanked my ass, been rough. Wild, even. This though, it was just as intense, but it was as if he craved me, as if I were an addiction, and he needed another fix. “That okay with you?”
I could totally relate. He’d just taken me less than an hour earlier, and I wanted to do it again. “God, yes.” I’d never felt so desirable in my life. He couldn’t fake passion like that. Could he? No, he definitely couldn’t. A dick hard like his couldn’t be faked. This guy was seriously into me. And I was going to drink up every delicious second of it.
19
BOYD
I carried her to the pile of blankets I’d spread on the ground as Audrey had looked around. My original plan had been to spread these blankets out, treat her to a picnic, get to know her some more. Then, I’d fuck her. But that already happened at the truck. Both parts, the getting-to-know-you and the fucking.
Now the blankets were for the reprise. This time wasn’t going to be slow and sensual either. I’d skip the toy this time. It wasn’t needed.
My wolf was desperate to claim her because her ass was still pink from my spanking, and it was as close to a mark as I was going to get. Thank fuck, the moon wasn’t full, or I’d try to give her a mating bite. As it was, I was having a hard time holding back.
But I didn’t want to.
Audrey just told me she might believe in fate. For once in my life, things were falling into place. They felt right. As if I might have the woman of my dreams by my side. Wanting babies and a home as much as me. I’d been gone over a decade, and it seemed what I was looking for had been at home all along. I felt like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
There really was no place like home. It might be Wolf Ranch, but it was going to be wherever Audrey was.
God, I didn’t even realize how lost I’d been all these years. Maybe since my parents’ death. I’d been playing the black sheep because I thought I was one, instead of taking responsibility, standing by my pack, being a real man. Instead, I’d played at being the champ, but it had all been fake. I’d been hiding the real me. No, I’d just been fucking hiding.
But Audrey—sweet Audrey—made me want to stop running. To stand still. To stand beside her. To be the one she turned to, to lean on, to love. I wanted to be her man. Her mate. The guy who had the honor of… fucking her hard.
Yeah, other things, too, but that’s all I could think of at the moment. I laid her on her back on the soft pile of blankets and searched for another condom in the pocket of my discarded shirt.
The damn bandage I wore to hide my lack of a wound peeled up on one corner, and I hurriedly pressed it back down. I’d come clean with her soon. I had to. But right now—fuck!