The next morning, as I'm still stirring, Marshall rolls me onto my back and slides back inside me.
I don't open my eyes yet, but I let the smile in my heart out and I just feel.
"This," Marshall murmurs with a husky note in his voice, his lips brushing against mine, "this is my idea of heaven. Being inside you, you with that smile on your face."
I open my eyes and slip my arms around his shoulders, my smile growing. "Well, my idea of heaven involves body wash. And a hot shower."
Marshall kisses me, his hips slowly tunneling inside me with easy strokes, making me moan, a sound he swallows. When he lifts his head a short time later, I nearly drag him right back.
His lips curve in a faint smile. "But no me?"
"Depends on if you'll wash my back."
He grumbles, but his eyes are still laughing. Without warning, he rolls until I'm straddling him. At the heavy fullness of him invading me, I still. "Marshall," I moan, placing my, hands on his chest as I work to control my breathing.
"For that," he groans as he curves a hand around my nape, "you're doing all the work."
"Work? This is work? Because maybe I'd like a day off." I move to get up, but in the next second, I find myself right back where I started, pinned to the bed with Marshall braced over me.
"You're going nowhere, mate." He gives me a hard kiss as he resumes thrusting. "I'm tempted to tie you to my bed when we get home."
I kiss him back, but my mind starts whirling. As if sensing my distraction, Marshall stops moving and lifts his head. "Baby?"
I shake my head and force a smile onto my face. "It's nothing."
"No, something changed. Tell me."
"You keep stopping in the middle of sex," I note, distantly. It's not what I'm really thinking, but it's an observation I never really picked up on until now. "To reassure me or check if I'm okay."
Marshall looks confused. "Would you rather I carried on knowing you were upset about something?"
I look away, my eyes going to the fire that's been doing such a good job of keeping us cozy and warm that the blanket lies neglected at the foot of the bed. "No, it's just… something I noticed."
Gently, he grips my chin and turns my face back to his. "I want you, you know that." The hard length of him tucked inside me tells me how much. "But your needs will always trump my wants. What did I say to upset you?"
I take a moment to study the harsh angles of Marshall's beautiful face. My mate's beautiful face, as he regards me with a soberness that tells me he's ready and eager to fix whatever problem is causing me to hurt. "I remembered I was packing before. I guess this means I'm moving in with you."
He doesn't speak for a long moment. Strangely, I'm finding it easier to bear his scrutiny. I never thought I'd be able to meet anyone's eyes for as long as I'm meeting his, but given that it's Marshall, I don't know why I'm so surprised.
"You don't want to move in with me?"
"I don't know."
I'm completely unprepared for Marshall's response. "Then, I'll move in with you."
"Wait, what?"
He shrugs, unconcerned. "I'll move in with you."
I stare up at him. "But I live in the middle of nowhere. It would add at least an hour of travel to your day getting to work and back to mine."
"Baby, I couldn't care less. If you lived the next town over, I still wouldn't care. Though, I doubt I'll be fighting back customers after disappearing for two days. Maybe I'll just come work for you?"
I know he's joking about working for me because I've met his customers. He's worked on their cars for years. At thirteen, he'd started hanging out with the old owner of the garage who taught him how to fix cars. When he eventually took over the shop at twenty-one, they all stuck with him.
Marshall could disappear for a month, and his regular customers would still love him. "I don't have a lot of space."
"I don't need a lot."
"There isn't-"
Marshall cuts me off with a hard kiss. "You don't want to live with me, and you don't want me to live with you. What do you want?"
This is so new to me, telling someone what I want. Exactly what I want. Opening myself up for the possibility they might say no, and I don't want Marshall to say no to this.
Although I take a while to form the words, Marshall waits as patiently as ever. "I want us to find a place together," I say softly. "But only if you want to. Only until…" My voice trails off.
Marshall's gaze remains fixed on my face. "Go on."
"Until I'm pregnant, and then I'd like for us to be close to the pack so our baby can grow up with Talis and Dayne's. But maybe not at the house, I'd like… I think I'd like for it to be just us for a little while first."
For several seconds, Marshall doesn't say a word. His expression remains the same, though his eyes soften. "Our baby, huh?"
I nod.
"And this was something you didn't want to tell me?"
I shake my head.
"Because you thought I'd say no."
"No, because I didn't know how." I pause. "And maybe I thought you'd say no."
"And sometimes I might," Marshall says, "just as sometimes you'll say no. And that's when we'll have to learn to compromise."
"How does a submissive and dominant shifter couple compromise?"
"Same as everyone else, I guess. They figure it out. Together."
It's going to be different. Our relationship, that is. In the past, I was always so quiet that we never argued. Marshall didn't push me either, he just gave me anything that looked like it was what I wanted.
But that has to change if we're going to have a future. As mates, we're partners, and I know our relationship won't survive if we let it become too one-sided.
"Now, jellybean, how about we get started on this baby-making-"
"There's something else I want," I blurt.
"You been saving these up for when you've made me so happy that I can't say no?" he asks with a raised eyebrow.
Even though I know he's joking, I shake my head. "I just thought of it now."
"Tell me."
This time I'm less hesitant about telling him. Maybe in time, it'll get easier the way meeting his eyes has become, I don't know. "I want us to have a mating ceremony with the pack. I know you've already bitten me, but-"
He lowers his head and kisses me softly. "That sounds like a great idea. We'll talk to Dayne and the others when we get back." He sighs. "If he doesn't kill me for running through public land as a wolf to get here, I guess."
"It's okay. I'll protect you," I tell him soberly. "Well, I'll wait to see how pissed he is first. You might be on your own, otherwise."
"Wow, that's brutal, baby."
"You can start moving now," I tell him, fighting to contain my excited grin about our new life together.
He raises an eyebrow. "You've gotten pretty demanding all of a sudden for a submissive. What will it be next?"
I pull him down for a kiss. "A bath in the stream."
"And will bathing all we do in this stream?" Marshall asks in a husky voice.
"No." I stroke my arms down his back and wrap my legs around his hips. "You'll wash my back."
"Backwashing, huh?" Like before, he grips my wrists and pins them to the bed over my head.
I nod. "Unless you can convince me there are other things we could do."
He eases back before surging into me, making me gasp in pleasure.
"That sounds like a challenge, jellybean. I'm never one to walk away from one of those."
Lowering his lips to mine, Marshall gets to work convincing me-thoroughly convincing me-that our time in the stream might be better spent in ways other than him washing my back.
It doesn't take him long.