She interrupted. “I understand. I hated you for it then. I thought it was about me. That I wasn’t worth it. Before I knew the why, I mean. But even at that, when I saw you yesterday none of it mattered anymore.”

He squeezed her a little tighter. “I’m sorry again that I gave you cause to think it was about you. It was about me but it was stupid how I did it. Your saying all this means a lot. Now that you’re here…if you walked out of my life I’d hate it.”

They were silent for some time. She was sleepy and warm, and it felt right there in his arms.

“I’d hate it too. I don’t understand it. The way you make me feel, I mean. I’m not a quick decision kind of person. It took me nearly a year to decide on what couch to buy.”

He snorted. “Witches are control freaks.”

“We are? Or I am?”

“Every witch I’ve ever met. I should have remembered back to what you were like in high school. Is your room still brutally organized?”

“If you put everything where it’s supposed to go, you can always find it later.”

“I love how prim you are when you say that. Water’s getting cold. Should I top us off with more hot or are you ready to get out?”

“I don’t know. What are your plans if we get out?”

He slid his hands under the water to take her br**sts in his hands, flicking his thumbs over her ni**les. “Depends on what you’ll let me do to you?”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve got a blank check in that department.”

“Hm. I have credit? Nice.”

He spun her, and she went to her knees as he caged her with those powerful thighs.

“You’re crazy-hot when you’re clothed, but naked? I’m not sure I’ll survive.” His grin was nearly a leer, and it filled her with a rush of emotion. Joy, lust, amusement, affection. She tipped her head back and laughed.

She wanted him. Even if it was only for a brief period of time before they both went back to their lives.

He stood, and she wrapped her legs around him to keep from falling. Not that she didn’t enjoy all that strength. Good gracious.

“A girl could get used to a man in her bed with werewolf strength,” she murmured as he wrapped a towel around them both and carried her through an adjacent doorway and into his bedroom.

He laid her on the bed and took her in from head to toe with so much raw desire on his features her breath got caught.

“So f**king beautiful.”

She blushed but soaked up all the attention in any case. His cock, wow, she really couldn’t seem to stop returning her attention to it. Rock hard and ready.

She licked her lips, and he groaned, tearing her attention from his c**k to his face.

“I want to take my time with you and you go staring and it makes me forget the slow.”

“You gonna use that on me?” She nodded at his cock, and his grin made things south of her belly button tighten and get wetter.

“You wanted me to help you forget. It’s probably going to take a few hours.”

She caught her bottom lip between her teeth as he bent and took her left foot in his hands. His big, strong hands.

“Either you have a thing for having your feet touched or I did something else you really like. Your pu**y smells so good, Michelle.”

“Hands,” she gasped out as he nuzzled her instep and his stubble scratched that sensitive skin in all the right ways. “I have a thing.” She moaned as he kissed her ankle and bent her leg, his lips moving along her calf.

“A thing about hands?”

He got to his knees on the bed and kept kissing her calf, pausing at her knee before switching to the other foot and leg.

“Yes.” A breathy gasp that meant more than just his question. Yes to whatever he wanted. However he wanted it.

She’d never wanted anyone the way she did right then. Not even back in the day when she had him. Things were different. They were different, and yet, he knew her in a way no one else on the planet did and it was enough.

He gripped her tighter, sliding the aforementioned hands up her legs to her thighs, spreading them wide and holding her that way.

She nearly choked at the way it felt.

“I’m not sure I truly appreciated the heightened sense of scent I have until right this moment when your pu**y got even hotter and wetter when I did that.”

She had to close her eyes a moment. She’d never actually had a man use dirty talk during sex. It was totally underrated.

He settled against her, lying on top of her but keeping most of his weight off. It was…good to be held down like that.

His mouth met hers with similar strength, his teeth nipped her lip before his tongue swept inside like it was meant to be there.

His muscles bunched and relaxed as he moved against her, stroking against her skin. Her magick rose, unbidden, bringing a gasp as she knew it drifted over his body like a caress.

He opened his eyes slowly, carefully, the normal color having bled into that otherworldly green of his wolf.

“Your magick is nearly as tasty as your skin.” The burr of his wolf was there. Her magick liked it. She realized her magick seemed to be apart from her as well as an integral part of her existence. It wanted his magick.

“I’ve never been with a witch before.” He tipped his head back and breathed in deep. “I like it. Whatever you’re doing with your magick, I mean. The rest of you is something I like too.”

She tried to laugh but got lungs full of his scent, and she writhed beneath him, bringing the sharpness of his gaze back to her.