I stared at him from beneath my lashes. David sat in the chair by the fire with his head tilted back and his eyes closed. My eyes slowly trailed over him. He had showered a few minutes earlier. David was muscled with six-pack abs. He even had those v-lines I heard girls whispered about whenever I found the courage to venture out. It led straight down before disappearing into the band of his grey sweatpants.
I had the urge to walk over to him and climb onto his lap.
He'd wrap his arms around me and hug me close to his chest. Then he'd press his lips against my forehead and asked me whether I needed something before he tugged me into bed.
I blinked back the sudden tears that filled my eyes. Longing filled me. Aunt never held me. I had to learn to do everything on my own. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I closed the book and placed it on the couch next to me. My eyes darted back to him. It looked like he was asleep.
Just for a little while. I'll sit on his lap just for a little while.
Getting up, I slowly made my way towards him. I hesitated in front of him. My eyes dropped to his lap and then up to his face. How are you planning on climbing on his lap without waking him, Valeria? I bit my lip as I shifted from foot to foot.
“What's wrong?”
A shocked gasp fell from my lips when he suddenly spoke. I moved backward and stumbled over something. His reflexes were faster than I expected them to be. Within a second he had grabbed my arm to stop my fall. He tugged on my arm to pull me closer. A squeak fell from my lips when his arm wrapped around my waist and he pulled me onto his lap. His skin was warm against mine. I shivered. I hadn't realized how cold I was until now.
“Your skin is cold,” he muttered. “Why didn't you tell me that you were cold? I would've turned up the heat.”
“I didn't realize,” I whispered.
My mouth fell open when he suddenly stood. I clutched his shoulders and stared at his face. His eyes locked with mine when he gripped my thigh and guided my leg around his hip. I wrapped my other leg around his hip without him having to tell me to do it.
“Hold on, doll.”
I shivered, hugging him tighter. I like him calling me that. He suddenly bent forward, making me gasp. I glanced over my shoulder to watch what he was doing. David threw a few more logs into the fire and then straightened. He glanced at me and gave me a small smile.
Walking over to the couch, he paused in front of it. David reached back to grip my ankle and moved them a little higher up his back so he could take a seat on the couch. Within the next five seconds, I found myself straddling his lap with a thick fluffy blanket wrapped around me.
I sighed and pressed my face against his neck. His body tensed when my nose brushed against his skin. I thought nothing of his reaction and repeated the action. His scent filled my nostrils—man and soap and something else I couldn’t place.
“You better stop doing that, Val,” he rasped.
“Why?”
“You're initiating foreplay.”
“What's that?”
I sat up. His eyes instantly locked with mine. I swallowed when his eyes flashed black before returning to their normal color. David gripped my hips and moved me backward on his lap so I sat near his knees.
“Foreplay?” He questioned softly.
I nodded.
“Well . . .”
He licked his lips which drew my attention to them. I stared. The image of his lips wrapped around my nipple flashed through my mind. What would it feel like if he kissed me there?
His fingers brushed my cheek. My eyes snapped up to his and heat flooded my cheeks. He caught me staring!
“Foreplay is intimate acts between two or more people. It's meant to create sexual arousal or desire for sexual activity,” he explained softly.
“Oh.” I swallowed. “Sorry.”
“I don't mind, but you might not like the consequences of your actions.”
“What would the consequences be?” I asked after a beat.
He cleared his throat and glanced away from me. “Well, we'd start kissing which will lead to touching and then to sex.”
“Oh.” My body started to heat up as I imagined doing all the things he said.
I've read about sex in the books aunt gave me. She even talked to me about it when she started making arrangements for me to visit other packs.
“What do you know about Lycan's?” David asked softly.
I tensed when his hand slipped beneath my shirt. His fingers brushed my spine before moving a little lower to the band of my pants. It was hard to concentrate on what he was saying when he touched my skin like that.
“That you can shift forms into wolves. You're stronger than humans, and faster.”
“Did your aunt tell you about our history?” I shook my head. “Did she tell you about the Mating Ceremony?”
“She only told me about sex. She never mentioned a ceremony.”
“What did she tell you about sex?”
My eyes dropped to his chest. I felt uncomfortable. The moment I tried to move from his lap, he gripped my hips to keep me in place. I closed my eyes.
“She said that if someone wanted to mate me they'd do testing. I'll have to go with him up to his room. He will order me to undress and then inspect my body. If he was happy with it then he'd tell me to climb onto the bed. She said I'd have to stand on my hands and knees facing away from him.” I sucked in a breath. “Aunt said that I had to stay quiet and keep still even if it hurt. Wolves like to bite and scratch during sex. If he was happy with the way my body reacted to his then he'd mate me.”
The only sound in the room was the crackling of the fire and his harsh breathing. My eyes snapped up to his when he growled. The look on his face was enough to make me scramble off his lap. David growled again, but this time deeper and louder. His black eyes locked on mine.
Hair started to sprout along his arms and chest. His face was changing too. A scream fell from my lips when his lips parted to reveal sharp teeth that were slowly growing in length as I watched. I made him mad, now he was going to kill me.
The door was thrown open and Devon was suddenly there. He sat on the floor behind me and pulled me onto his lap.
“Shh, it's okay. Relax, little dove. David isn't going to hurt you."
I tried to move away from the big wolf that was slowly approaching, but Devon held me in place. His arms circled my waist to keep me glued to his chest. A whimper fell from my lips before I could silence it. The wolf stopped. Black eyes caught mine briefly and then lowered. A low wine fell from his lips. He suddenly dropped to his stomach and slowly crawled forward. A gasp fell from my lips when his snout brushed my foot. Before I could pull my legs away, he dropped his big head onto my lap.
My eyes darted up to Devon's in horror. He chuckled and gripped my hand. No matter how hard I tugged, he wouldn't let go. Devon spread my fingers apart and then placed my hand on David's head.
His fur was soft and thick. When Devon pulled his hand away I kept mine in place. I stared down at him in awe. He looked so scary but he was actually a big softy.
“See, David is harmless,” he muttered against my ear.
David growled. An unexpected giggle fell from my lips. I carefully reached up with my other hand and touched his nose with my fingertips. He shifted his head and pressed his nose against my palm. It was cold and slightly wet.
“Why did he change?”
“He shifted,” Devon said softly. “ Sometimes it's hard for shifters to keep their skin when they get emotional.”
“We were talking about what my aunt told me. Was what she told me wrong?”
David growled again and then stood. He shook out his fur and took a few steps back. My eyes widened when bones started cracking. Amazement filled me when his fur started to disappear. Within seconds the wolf had disappeared and in its place was a crouched David. My eyes trailed over his naked form. He looked hotter naked than he did dressed. Curiosity got the best of me, so I lowered my eyes. Heat flooded my cheeks. I turned my head away quickly before he caught me staring, but what I saw was forever branded in my mind.
He moved closer and took a seat a few feet away. I glanced at him from beneath my lashes to find that he'd covered his lap with the blanket. My eyes darted up to his face. His eyes caught mine and the corner of his lips tugged up.
“What your aunt told you isn't entirely true, doll.” He glanced at Devon and explained to him what I had just told him about my aunt.“We do sometimes have the urge to bite,” David said softly. “However we would bite in the thrones of passion which makes it less painful.”
“We have something called a Mating Ceremony,” Devon said softly. “Our pack is run differently than all the others.”
“What's a Mating Ceremony?”
Devon shifted so he could face me better. “A Mating Ceremony is something we do when a Lycan decides he wants to mate.”
“A mate is for life,” David continued. “They need to be a hundred percent sure. Once they both decided, we would organize the ceremony.”
“The whole pack gathers at the platform—that's where the couple would be branded with the same mark so that everybody knows that they are a mated couple.”
“Then they go to a special cabin build deep in the woods to start the second part of the ceremony.”
Devon shifted and cleared his throat. “They share fluids—blood and—”
“Once that's done, the female will go into heat for a few weeks,” David interrupted him.
“What's heat?” I asked, glancing between the two of them.
David stood, causing the blanket to fall to the floor. He muttered a curse. Before I could catch one more glimpse of his impressive body, a hand covered my eyes. I groaned. Both men froze. I could feel their eyes burning into me.
Licking my dry lips, I smiled at them. “I was enjoying the view.”
The hand over my eyes lowered but David had already wrapped the blanket around his waist. Disappointment washed through me.
“I think it's time for a certain little girl to go to bed,” David muttered.
“But it's not that late!” I cried. “It's not even nine yet!”
“What time do you usually go to bed?” David questioned with a raised eyebrow.
Heat flooded my cheeks. “At eight.”
He gave me a look that made my stomach quiver. The urge to obey him was strong, but so was the urge to rebel.
“I don't want to go to bed yet!” I yelled as I stumbled to my feet. “You can't make me!”
“Is that the way to talk to your Alpha?”
On any other occasion I would've bowed my head and profusely apologized, but not tonight. I was sick of following everybody's orders. I gave each of them a glare before spinning around and speed-walking out of the room. I ran for the kitchen once I was out of the library, but an arm wrapped around my waist. The next second I found myself hanging upside down over a broad shoulder.
A slap to my ass made me gasp as pain shot through me.
“You can't do that!” I yelled. “You're not my dad.”
“But I could be.”
“Ew! I don't want to have sexual fantasies about my dad!”
I instantly regretted the words that passed my lips when he froze. A second later we were moving again.
“Sexual fantasies huh?” His hand slowly trailed up the back of my thigh to my ass. “What happens in these fantasies, doll?”
A moan slipped past my lips when he started massaging my ass. This is so fucking embarrassing. So I did the only thing I could think of that would make him put me down: I reached for the blanket wrapped around his waist and tugged it down.