Reaching for My Angel [The Royal Wolves 5] (Siren Publishing Allure) (10 page)

Pretending innocence he lifted his hands. “You make it all sound like a bad thing,” he said in horror right before he started to laugh. “Yeah, I’m likely to do the same, so are all my brothers. It’s not a bad thing, love. We’re only looking out for the women that are our shining lights, our hope, our hearts.” He smiled gently kissing her cheek.

“I know it’s not,” she said grinning and accepting the kiss. “I know that you wouldn’t put me into that place to make me feel bad, or as if I didn’t belong, or whatever else that others might think. I would know you were only doing it to keep me safe.”

“Damned straight, woman,” he told her. “You’re safety is my top priority, always will be. I love you, Angel, I will always love you and I will always keep you safe. I intend on having a nice, long, and very pleasurable life with you.”

“That’s very good because I fully intend on the same thing with you, Ben. I want every second of time that I can have with you, so its a good thing that we are able to get along and you are lucky that I am so easygoing, that I won’t mind you being all overprotective.” She had never had that before, so it was going to be nice to have someone watching out for her.

Growling at her lightly, he nipped her jaw carefully. “I’m not overprotective, I’m protective,” he clarified for her with a chuckle. “You are everything to me, love, I need you safe so that I don’t go crazy. Without you I’m nothing,” he murmured softly kissing her cheek.

“And without you I’m nothing,” she admitted. “I love you, Benedek, and if you want to keep me safe, I won’t argue with you at all. I want to be safe, darling, I want to be yours, too, sweetheart, so tell me, am I yours forever?”

“Forever and ever,” he told her honestly. “If you’ll have me I’ll keep you, but only after you talk to the others,” he said with a grin knowing she was trying to get him to agree to something before he knew it. “I love you, Angel, but you’re not cornering me into a promise without you also having full knowledge.”

Sticking her tongue out at him she agreed. “I promise you I will talk to the others. I will talk to Harker and Desi and learn all that I can from them before I commit myself fully to you.” Nodding she added, “And when I decide that I want this forever, you will mark me as yours and then take me and make me.”

“Oh hell yeah,” he said with a grin leaning in closer to kiss her. “Be careful sticking that tongue out, darling, it’s a temptation I can’t refuse.” Stroking his hand over her arm he licked at her lips. “I happen to like your tongue, a lot,” he murmured.

She grinned and shivered as he moved closer to her. “I happen to love your tongue, too.” She bit her lip and moved closer to him. “Now, we need to get up and move a little. I have a couple of women that I need to meet and talk to and you have some work to do, right?”

Making a noise in his throat he shrugged. “I suppose so,” he murmured softly. Sighing he lifted her up to her feet and stood. “We should probably get moving then, otherwise I’m never going to have any time with my woman in our bed.”

“You will appreciate the time that we have in that bed more and more if we wait, if we tease and touch often but don’t use the bed quite yet.” She grinned. “I love you, Benedek.” She leaned in and brushed her lips over his cheek once more.

Growling softly he turned his head to capture her lips and kissed her hard. “I love you, too. Just remember when teasing a Wolf, love, we only take so much before we turn the tables.” Kissing her again he sucked on her lower lip gently and then let her go with a sigh. “Come on, let’s do what needs doing.” 

“I hope that’s the truth, Benedek, because I so want to see the claws my wolf has to offer. I need to see and feel all of you.” She nodded, pulled back slightly, and smiled. “But yes, you’re right, we need to get going, darling, or we never will.”

Smiling, he winked. “Remind me later and I’ll change for you and you can see all of me in my natural beast form,” he promised softly as he moved toward the house.

“Really? You would do that?” He would expose the animal he was to her? She didn’t believe it. He was willing to share all sides of his life with her. She hugged him close, her arm tightening around his waist as they walked. “I would love that, Ben. I want to see just how beautiful you are as a wolf.” She did however pause. “You won’t eat me while you’re wolfy, will you?”

He managed to keep his mouth shut for about two seconds and then some dormant, previously recessive part of the male genetics kicked in and something came out that Ben normally would never have ever in a million years said. “Not unless you want to let me nibble on you,” he told her honestly already imagining licking over every inch of her lush body.

She looked at him for several long moments before nodding. “I want that, too, Ben, need it,” she whispered. “God am I crazy that I want that?” she asked softly and squeezed his hand. “I want and I need you, Benedek, my god, I can’t believe how much I have need of you.” She had never needed like this, ever. He brought her back to life, gave her love once more.

Shrugging, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “You are not crazy, you are a highly sexual female with a male that will gladly do anything for you, darling. Besides, I’d be very careful of you, but you should experience everything that you can, darling, and since this is in my power to grant, why not?” he asked with a half smile.

She smiled and nodded. “I was never highly sexual until you, Benedek. You have given me what it is to feel so much love for another that the sharing of bodies is natural, needed, wonderfully perfect. I am a woman blessed.” She nodded and then she asked, “Now, the question is, do we go with having another bout of love making or what is next?”

“Next is the tour of the house, a small snack, we’ll get you settled, maybe have a bath, and then we will have another bout of loving.” He smiled down at her. Kissing her nose lightly he hugged her. “Let’s go, darling, we have things to do.”

She hugged him back and smiled. “Sounds like a plan.” Looking up she wrapped a hand around his neck and pulled him close, kissing him with the same passion she had been giving him since meeting him. “Now, show me around our new home, sweetheart?”

Nipping at her lips he led her toward the kitchen and, pausing, pointed to the building near the back. “That’s the garage as well as a games room,” he told her with a smile. “Off the kitchen is the laundry room as well as a little storage closet,” he pointed out letting her through the door and showing her to a little hall at the one end. Pointing to the opposite side near the refrigerator he grinned. “Walk-in pantry of course,” he teased taking her jacket and hanging it up along with his.

“Well of course, heaven knows that we wouldn’t and couldn’t do without a walk-in pantry,” she teased and then moved to his side. “I think that you should likely let me in on just how much you eat?” She was a small woman, but at times had a massive appetite, at times.

“Darling, I burn four times the calories you do on an average uneventful day. Imagine what I burn when I’m running, working on a project or”— he grinned down at her—“making sure my mate is duly thrilled with me. All the appliances are hidden, giving a nice clean look to the kitchen,” he continued before leading her from the room. “Semi-formal dining room since there is the breakfast nook in the kitchen, living room, very non-formal since I hate the stuffy furniture and much prefer the comfort over the status looks.”

“Yes, you make your mate very thrilled with you,” she mumbled and looked at the rooms. “I hate very formal living, so I’m glad that you didn’t make one room in your home like that. I think I would have likely torn it apart if you had.” She had one when she was married. She wasn’t allowed in that room unless she was on all fours and naked like a dog. When he had been arrested and she got out of the hospital, she went into that room and tore it apart from ceiling to floor, and it still sat in shambles, the one room in the house she didn’t show Ben.

“Honey, if anything doesn’t feel right to you, feel free to change it. I have more money than I know what to do with even with all the charities I give to, so you can revamp the whole house if that’s what you want. This is your home, too, darling, if it isn’t what you want, change it,” he told her simply. Shrugging slightly at her look he grinned. “I’m a simple man, Angel mine, if something doesn’t work fix it.”

She snorted and shook her head. “I guess that me winning the largest lotto really helps things, too, doesn’t it?” Laughter bubbled up inside of her and she nodded. “No, I love your house, honey, our home. It makes me all kinds of happy not to have something formal, to have it simply be for us.”

“You better not be spending your money on this place.” He waved a finger at her with a narrowed-eyed look even as his lips curled in a slight smile. “That money is yours to do with as you wish as long as it doesn’t ever reside in this house as an inanimate object. You need something for our home use my money,” he said tipping her chin up slightly before stroking his finger over her cheek. “I know it’s silly, stupid and backassward, but please, promise me that you won’t.”

“I promise, Benedek.” She gave that to him easily. It meant a great deal to him and she would always relent where he was concerned. “I would like to buy a new car with the money. Would you like to go car shopping with me and make some salesperson’s day when I hand them a cashier’s check for cash?”

“All right.” He grinned at her. “Sounds like fun, I love watching their eyes go all buggy at the size of a check.” He chuckled. Kissing her lightly he tugged on her hand. “Come on, darling, let’s go look at the rest of the house so you can’t say I didn’t show it all to you.”

“Right, there is more?” she asked and sighed. “Oh lord, it’s going to be hell to keep this palace cleaned.” She squeezed his hand to tell him she was teasing, mostly. “I’m going to have to clean from sun up to sun set, you poor man, you will never get to have intimate relations with me again.” She tried for the forlorn southern sounding bell and fell flat on her face with the tone.

Snorting at her words he shook his head. “Darling, I have a cleaning service come in two days a week to do all the cleaning. We just tidy up and they do the bulk of the work. I do too many hours at the store to do it any other way. Cause, honestly, do you think a bachelor, even a Wolf, could keep this place looking as immaculate as it is?” he asked with a grin.

He had a damn good point and her gaze narrowed on him. “Now that is just bad, Ben. You knew I would be thinking the worst and yet you let me prattle on and on.” She shook her head. “Nasty, bad, bad of you.” But she was grinning ear to ear as she tried to give him a set down.

Grinning unrepentantly at her he shrugged. “I found it amusing,” he admitted even as her face went through a collage of expressions. Chuckling he aimed her for the stairs. “Come on, darling, let’s take a peek in the basement and then we can do whatever you’d like.”

She stopped moving and shook her head. “Uhm, no thanks. I think that I will stay up here.” She nodded emphatically and started to backpedal. “Yes, staying up here is very good, Benedek.” She knew that he was nothing like the monster she had been married to, but some nightmares didn’t go away overnight, not when you lived fifteen years in them.

Catching her hand before she spilled over a chair, Ben pulled her closer to him slowly. “What is it, Evangeline?” he asked softly. He wanted her to tell him her nightmares so he’d know what was going on with her. He couldn’t fight what he couldn’t see and, despite what some might claim, a Wolf couldn’t read minds. Body language definitely and hers was screaming fear, but he didn’t know the reason behind it.

“Basements are bad,” she whispered and swallowed. “Please don’t ask me to go down there.” There were tears in her voice and her skin had gone cold, “I love you, Ben, and I trust you, I believe in you, but some ghosts never go away. Please, this is my ghost that will never go away.”

Cupping her face gently in his hands he looked into her eyes, her fear a living breathing dragon in the room, so pungent he could smell it without even trying. “I will never make you do anything you don’t want to do, love, I swear that to you,” he whispered. Kissing her forehead lightly he shifted and wrapped his arms around her. “I never meant to make you afraid, love, I’m so sorry.”

“I know, and it’s not you.” She didn’t know how to explain it. “You don’t make me afraid, you make me feel safe.” She chewed her lips at the contradiction she was giving. “But basements, I can’t be in a basement, ever. There were too many horrible things happened to me in a basement and I don’t think I will ever, ever be able to be in one again.”

“Then you won’t ever have to go into one, love,” he said softly rubbing her back. “All I care is that you are happy, Evangeline. If you can’t do something then you won’t be forced to do it, especially by me. I love you, Angel,” he told her gently pressing a kiss to her crown.

“I love you, too, Benedek,” she mumbled against his shirt front and simply held onto him for a very long time. Finally she felt a little less cold, a little less stiff. “All right, I’m ready to see the rest of the house now, honey.”

“Soon,” he told her, hugging her closer to him. “I need to hold you a little longer,” he said moving his head so that he could brush her cheek with his lips. He needed to know that she was truly all right. There was still a hint of fear in the air and he hated that he’d done anything to cause that fear. It wasn’t intentional, he knew that, but he’d been the cause of the added pain she was feeling and that just wouldn’t do.

She wasn’t about to argue because truth be known, she needed to be held. Head back on his shoulder and arms around him, she simply held onto him and soaked in the essence of him, the strength that surrounded him.