Chapter 19
19
L eaving Ariana all wet and flushed in my tub is a special kind of torture, but I’ll be damned if I don’t feed her before having marathon sex. She needs the sustenance, and once we start I doubt I’ll be able to stop until dawn. Plus, I’m not letting the pan of prepped lasagna in my fridge go to waste. That shit is too delicious, and it fills me with pride to know I’m making an awesome meal for my woman.
Once the oven is preheated and I stick the glass pan inside, I consider heading back into the bathroom to spend the next fifty minutes with my face between Ari’s legs, but decide against it. I doubt she’s let herself rest for an hour in months. She could use a respite, and I’m more than happy to facilitate.
Being alone with my tho ughts while she’s naked in the other room is definitely a challenge, though. Despite her sucking out my soul through my dick, it’s as hard and eager as ever. Not bad for a guy on the other side of forty. One of the perks of my minotaur blood—a cock that’s perpetually primed for breeding.
Fuck, now I’m thinking about filling Ariana up. She’ll look so good with a few of my loads dripping out of her pussy. It’s way too soon to even think about kids, and honestly, I’m ambivalent about the idea of being a dad, but unloading inside her is a primal urge. A wet spot forms on my sweatpants and I grip my dick firmly, trying to get it to behave until after dinner.
I consider sending a third thank you text to Caleb for hooking me up with Tomas’ witch friend and the fancy lube that will make that fantasy of breeding Ari over and over a reality tonight. Probably shouldn’t. I’ve messaged him a few times already with follow-up questions about best use practices for the lube since he offered to help, so I’m sure he regrets giving me his number.
Swiping away from my conversation with Caleb, I see a series of texts that make my pulse spike.
Doug (6:58): Dude, you would not believe the day I’ve had. I could really use some company tonight before I do something stupid.
Doug (7:01): Are you home? I don’t think I should be alone right now and Ari’s not answering my texts. Even if she did, she’s probably in admin hell, and I don’t want to add to her stress.
Doug (7:02): Tomas isn’t working tonight, or I’d go to Nightlight and bug him.
Doug (7:08): Shit, man. I think I’m just gonna head over in case you’re home. I feel like I’m crawl ing out of my skin. Be there in ten.
Doug (7:08): If you’re not there, I’ll just let myself in. You can yell at me later for stealing all your snacks.
Fuck. I check the time—7:14. Fuck!
Ari and I haven’t had time to have a more serious discussion about telling Doug we’re together. I’d planned on bringing the subject up tomorrow morning, once the urgency of our shared lust had diminished. Just because I decided at the monster support meeting that we need to tell him sooner rather than later doesn’t mean we don’t have to finesse our approach. If he’s having a monumentally shitty day, this isn’t the time for him to find out that I’m screwing his little sister.
I race into the bathroom, and Ari gasps in surprise as the door smacks against the wall in my haste. “Jesus, you scared me! What’s up?” She pushes herself up from her reclined position and gives me a coy smile. “Couldn’t stand being away from me for fifteen minutes?”
The water sloughing off her tits pulls my focus for a second, but I shake that distraction away. “No. I mean, yeah, but uh, we have a problem. An urgent one.”
Her sexy grin fades. “What? What kind of urgent?” She sees the panic on my face and her voice grows more high pitched. “Is there a fire? Shit!” She grabs the edge of the tub and almost slips in her haste to hoist herself out.
I grab a towel and race over to help her. “No, not a fire. Slow down, baby. We’re safe. It’s… Doug is coming over.”
Her brow furrows. “Why? Did you have plans you forgot about? Oh god, this is bad.”
“No plans, but he texted saying he was having a rough day and needed to come over. I didn’t see it until now and he said he’d be here in 10 minutes.” I glance at my phone again. “That was 7 minutes ago.”
“Call him and tell him he can’t come!”
I shake my head. “You know he doesn’t answer his phone while he’s driving. I can’t stop him. Stay in here, and I’ll get rid of him as fast as I can. Unless…” I give her a weak smile. “Unless you just want to rip the bandage off. Maybe it’s a sign.”
“Yeah, it’s a sign. A sign that Doug is determined to be a pain in my ass,” she grumbles as she wraps the towel around her body. She sighs. “I… It’s a terrible way for him to find out. If he’s already mad, then stumbling upon us will only make things worse. I don’t want him to hurt you.”
I snort in derision, and she narrows her eyes at me. “You’re beefy, but not invulnerable! I care about both of you too much to see either of you get hurt because of wolfy rage we could’ve prevented. I’ll hide in here, even if he wants to stay the whole damn night.”
She’s right, but I don’t like it. Ariana isn’t a dirty secret meant to hide out of sight. She’s someone to be shared proudly, showing the world how lucky I am to be with her. I pinch the bridge of my snout. “Alright. I’ll figure it out.” I press a hasty kiss to her lips and head into the bedroom, but she calls out to me.
“My car!”
I curse. “I’ll figure it out,” I say again, though I have no clue how.
I grab the car keys from her purse, then scoop up both the purse and her overnight bag and shove them into my closet. I almost forget to put my glamor back in place as I race out the door, letting out a string of expletives as I run to her car and scramble inside.
When I turn the key, the engine gives a pathetic choked noise, and the car doesn’t start.
“You’ve got to be fucking kid ding me!” I attempt to start the car again and this time, nothing at all happens.
I slam my fists against the steering wheel in frustration. My mind races to come up with a solution. If my garage was empty, I could try pushing her car in there, but it’s currently housing my home gym and a bunch of boxes of random crap I keep meaning to donate.
Doug is going to be here any second. If I can’t get rid of the car, I’ll have to figure out an excuse for why it’s sitting in my driveway that doesn’t include his sister being here for dinner and a night of dirty sex.
I pop the hood of her car, then hurry to grab my toolbox from the garage. In an attempt to sell the lie better, I smear some engine grease on my shirt. I only know the basics of car maintenance, but luckily Doug knows even less, so he won’t be able to call my bluff.
I’m bent over, pretending to check something under the hood, when I hear Doug’s car pull into my driveway. I stand up and give him a perplexed wave, grabbing a rag and pointlessly wiping my clean hands on it.
He gets out of his car with a similarly confused frown and I swallow down my nerves, attempting to keep my voice even as I approach him. “Hey! What are you doing here? Did I forget plans?”
Doug rakes a hand through his mussed brown hair and shakes his head. “Nah. Sorry for dropping in randomly, I just… I’m having a rough time, man. I thought you’d see my messages by the time I got here.”
I pat my pockets and give him an apologetic look. “Must’ve left my phone inside. I’ve been out here for a while.”
Doug glances over my shoulder at Ari’s car. There’s no chance of him not recognizing it as hers with her unfortunate license plate number of A55 F4N. When s he got her new plate in the mail after transferring her registration to this state, Doug teased her about it for months.
His head cocks in an almost canine way. “Why is Ari’s car here?”
“Oh, you know…” Panic makes my insides squirm as I attempt to lie on the spot. Dammit, I hate this. “She’s having trouble with her engine but is too busy to bring it to a mechanic, so I offered to take a look. I feel bad, though, because now that I’ve gotten under the hood, I think the issue is too complex for me.”
“Oh!” The frown fades from his face as he accepts my words without question. I don’t think I’ve ever lied to Doug before I started trying to conceal what’s going on with Arianna, so why wouldn’t he believe me? The knot in my stomach twists tighter at his implicit trust.
He flashes me a rueful smile. “I really appreciate you looking out for her, dude. I wish I knew about cars, but I’m hopeless with that stuff. Sometimes I think I’m the worst brother in existence.”
“What? No! Ariana loves you.”
Doug sighs, and darkness clouds his expression. “I know she loves me. That doesn’t mean that I’m a good brother. I’m a self-centered jerk who can’t even get my shit together enough to help her when she needs it. I bet even if I knew how to fix cars, she wouldn’t bother asking me to look at it.”
Now that he’s standing closer, I notice the deep dark circles etched under his eyes and the tense way he’s holding his body. He said he was in a bad mood, but I figured it was because of something that made him angry, not that he was sinking into grim self-hatred. What kind of friend would I be if I tried to get him to leave when he’s feeling so low?
I mentally scramble to figure out how to save this situation before Ari ends up trapped in my bathroom all night. There’s no wa y I’m letting that happen.
I clap a hand on his shoulder in reassurance. “Of course she would. If you don’t believe me, you can ask her when we go inside. Just give me a second to put this stuff away.”
His dark brows raise. “Ari’s here?”
“Well, yeah. Where else would she be?” It takes all of my feeble acting skills to not betray my skyrocketing anxiety. Ariana’s going to kill me. I’ve just committed her to a night of hanging out with her brother and pretending that there’s nothing between us.
“You don’t look happy about that.” Doug crosses his arms with an assessing look.
Dammit, he can sense something is off. Will he be able to tell the second he sees Ariana and I together that she had my cock in her mouth less than an hour ago?
I laugh, the sound coming out a little choked. “No! She’s fine. She’s great. Annoying as always, but…”
He’s totally going to know. Get it together!
I clear my throat. “I’ve been avoiding going inside because I don’t want to give her the bad news about her car.”
“Hah, fair. Do you want me to go in first and help soften the blow?”
“No!” I say, almost shouting in my panic.
Doug’s brows knit together at my bark of protest.
Crap, I’m screwing this up so bad. I try to backpedal. “I mean, yeah, that’d be nice, but you said you’re having a rough day. I don’t want to make it any worse.”
“Uh, okay. Sure.” He gives me a funny look, his golden eyes assessing me. It takes all of my willpower not to crack and confess everything.
I close the hood of the car and put the tools away, surreptitiously wiping away the sweat beading on my brow. I know Ari told me that this was the wrong time to let Doug find out about us, but if my sloppy lies are any indication, trying to keep it hidden tonight is an even worse idea. Gods, give me strength not to fuck this up.