Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-seven
Cross
Parker sinks down onto the bed, still panting, and crawls up to lay on one side of it. He eyes Genie, casually draping one arm across his stomach. “So you're going to love me, huh?”
She rolls her eyes and crouches to get the towel from the floor.
Watching her body move, even in such a mundane way, is such a sensual experience.
The overhead light shines on every inch of her, every curve, and I want to see all of it.
There's muscle underneath all that softness, the gentle definition of her thighs and stomach is such a gorgeous contrast.
“Most likely,” she says, and starts to wipe his cum off of my abdomen.
“And you're going to fuck me?” he asks, his eyes zeroed in on her movements.
“I imagine so,” she hums, wiping off the last of the sticky mess. “I can't really see a way around it.” She looks up at me. “Can you?”
I shake my head, the corner of my mouth lifting. “You're definitely going to fuck him.” And I can't wait to see it.
Parker sighs, closing his eyes against the glaring light. “But not tonight. You're fucking Cross tonight.”
Genie nods. “I can't see a way around that, either.” She goes to turn off the light, but leaves the door open, allowing the light from the other room to illuminate the bedroom.
“What?” Parker asks, cracking open one eye. “You get tired of seeing everything under fluorescent lighting?”
“Nope,” she says, walking over and sitting on the other side of the bed. “But I get headaches with overexposure. I don't usually keep the big light on. Big fan of lamps.”
Noted.
“Move over.” I nudge Parker's calf. He scoots to the side, giving plenty of room for Genie and I to stretch out next to him.
She doesn't immediately slide into position and I scoop her up and dump her in the middle where I want her.
It's almost identical to our position last night except Parker and I have switched sides.
Genie lays there between us, idly rubbing her fingertips together, and I spend a moment taking in the sight of both of them completely naked and so close to each other.
His lean form is vastly different from her luscious one and I realize I've never taken the time to look at him next to one of our partners.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I never actually saw any of the women we shared.
I saw them, of course, but there was no weight to it, no importance.
They were there to fill a need and because they wanted to try to climb the pack hierarchical ladder.
They didn't give a shit about him or me, not really.
Sure, they would have fucked either of us into oblivion for the rest of their lives if that meant that they would get to be Luna, but that wasn't ever going to happen.
I realize that now, and I'm beginning to understand exactly how stupid I've been.
I want to crawl in between them and roll myself in their scents until there's no separation between theirs and mine. Genie's bold claiming of Parker just now has me feeling deeply instinctual. I wish I could mark both of them. I need to see my claim on both of them.
“What are you thinking about over there?” Parker asks, and I realize that I've been rumbling with a slow rolling growl.
“You're both mine,” I tell him honestly.
“Well,” he says, “I am. You still have to claim her.”
“I haven't claimed you yet, either.”
He scoffs. “You've put plenty of marks on me. I've been thoroughly claimed, Cross. Everyone in this region and the next knows who I belong to. Genie, though? Nobody knows she's yours yet.”
“She's mine,” I say, feeling and meaning every syllable.
Parker reaches up to drag a fingertip across Genie's collar bone. “You're going to have to prove that, Alpha.”
“Stop challenging him,” Genie says, batting his hand away. “You're going to make him hurt me.”
He sighs and tucks his hand behind his head. “He's not going to hurt you. But he's dragging his feet.”
“I'm taking my time,” I argue.
“You've taken too much time,” Parker counters, and it lands sharp. I have taken too much time. The years I've wasted are a crime.
“You said he would hurt me,” Genie says. “If I let him.”
“He'll get too rough, but I don't think he'd hurt you.” Parker turns onto his side, propping his head up like he did before. “Now you're dragging your feet.”
She bites at her lip, her chest rising with the breath she takes before she looks away from him and at me, all soft acceptance and anticipation.
I'm not going to hurt her. Parker's right, I can get too rough when I'm lost inside a haze of lust and possession, but I won't. Not tonight.
I wrap my fingers around her jaw and dip my head to kiss her.
She opens to me the moment our lips touch and I thrust my tongue inside her mouth, filling up the slick space.
She makes a small sound that makes my blood boil and I swirl my tongue against her again, consuming her taste and the feel of her the way I wanted to a few moments ago.
She's so sweet, her breaths coming rushed and shallow as I take her mouth.
She shifts, turning towards me and hiking her thigh up over my hip, allowing me to push my knee between her legs.
She moans at the contact and tilts her hips, pressing and grinding her pussy against me.
The scent of her want crawls inside my consciousness, digging sharp claws into my awareness, and I snarl against her lips, demanding more from her.
She draws in a breath through her nose when I force the friction.
Genie is impossibly wet as I use my thigh to pleasure her.
Her hand winds into my hair and tightens around the strands as I move my lips and teeth and tongue down her neck to her shoulder.
She uses her grip on my hair to guide my mouth to the places she needs my attention most and I take notice of every single one so I can exploit them for the rest of our lives.
I move over her, keeping up the pressure between her legs, sliding my hand down to pull her knee up to my hip.
The new position presses my hard cock against her and she gasps and I thrust my hips, relishing the feel of her soft body giving way to mine.
Then her fingers grip my hair and she tugs, forcing space between us where there wasn't any before.
“I lied.”
Those two tiny words cause my heart to seize. She lied? About what? A dozen things that she could have lied about come at me one after another, making my jaw clench. My automatic response is to shove away from her but I don't do that. I told her I wouldn't run and I'm not going to, but fuck.
“What do you mean?” My words are soft, calm, steady.
“About my heats.” Her teeth dig into her lip. “I lied.”
Okay. Okay. Okay. I lower my head until I'm pressing my forehead against hers, our noses touching. “What did you lie about, baby?”
She takes a measured breath and her lashes flutter against mine. “I've never done this before.”
Parker sits up beside her, looking down at both of us, but he doesn't say a single fucking word. My pulse is hammering in my neck.
“Never done what?”
“This.” She swallows. “Fucked.”
Her taunt from a couple weeks ago replays in my mind in bright detail. She wanted me to know she'd been with other males. She made sure I knew it. “You told me that you wanted me to feel it every single time someone else got you off when you were in heat.”
Her chin lifts, butting against mine. “I did.”
“She said that to you?” Parker asks.
“That's almost exactly what she said,” I confirm. “So if you meant what you said, how have you never been fucked? Because I know you were in heat. I know how many days it lasted every single time you went into heat. I know when it started and when it stopped. I felt it all.”
She swallows again, the sound thick and heavy. “They got me off, but I wouldn't...” Swallow. “Couldn't... let them fuck me.”
“How did you manage that?” Parker asks “We've been around females in heat before. There's no way a male wolf would walk away without fucking you.”
She sighs. “Boys tend to forget what they're trying to take from you when you boss them around a little bit.”
“Are you serious?” Parker asks. I am still unable to articulate a response. All I can think about is hands on her, touching her, drenched in her wet arousal and I can't really get past it.
“I let them help me through the first stretch and then I switched it up and took charge, made it all about them before I was too far gone. Then I handed my wolf control until it was over. She wouldn't accept any of them and I knew it. She took care of me.”
I turn my head to look at Parker and his eyes are as wide as mine feel. She's been having heats for years. Years. Wolves don't put much, if any, importance on the concept of virginity, but the thought of her suffering all this time without any true relief...
“You didn't lie,” I tell her, kissing the tip of her nose. “You just didn't mention every detail. She really wouldn't give in to anybody?”
She shakes her head. “She's vicious. Ask Jonathan Baker.”
Well, that explains that. I'm probably going to break every bone in his hands and rip them off for touching her, but at least I know what his problem is with me.
Parker lowers himself back onto his side. “Must have been a hell of a lot of bossing around boys to do what you just did to me.”
“That's not helpful,” I murmur, pushing my nose against Genie's neck and pulling in her scent.
“Just saying,” Parker says, shrugging.
“That wasn't bossing,” Genie says without looking at him. “I just knew what you needed.”
He hums but doesn't argue or agree.
“And what do you need?” I ask against her skin, making her shiver.
Her answer has nothing to do with sex and it makes me feel the weight of where we are right now and what we're about to do.
“Balance,” she whispers. “Stability. Strength.”