Chapter 9
NINE
Gryff
I hear the real estate agent’s car pull into Honey’s driveway and curse to myself. I didn’t even have time to shave, and for some reason that felt important. But I can’t leave her alone with him. I saw that all too clearly at the hardware store.
I throw on a shirt and stride out the back door and through the gate, letting myself in through Honey’s back door in order to make the boyfriend thing look realistic.
The scent of slick hits me straight away. Thick and rich and impossibly tempting. My cock is semi-hard in an instant, and my mouth fills with saliva.
Shit. I’m too late.
I round the corner into the kitchen where I can smell the desire coming off the half-fae real estate agent like flies circling a dog turd. “What is happening here?”
Then I pause.
The eyes of the tall, lithe agent and my lovely next door neighbor turn to me at the exact same moment and I watch as the other male sizes me up.
Honey hurries toward me. “Oh, Gryff, you remember the walk through was today, right? This is Declan. From Stonegaze Properties?” Her eyes widen just a fraction as she’s probably wondering what the fuck is wrong with me.
I look between her and the agent who is standing a good six feet away, holding a clipboard. He might be radiating desire, but so far he’s keeping his hands to himself.
OK, so what’s with that scent?
I clear my throat. “Ah, right.” I stride past Honey, holding out my hand to the real estate agent. “Gryff Evans. Good to meet you.” I crush his hand in the tightest grip I can manage, watching with satisfaction as his perfectly plucked brows pinch into an expression of pain.
“D-declan O’Halloran. Good to meet you too.” Declan pulls his hand away, shaking it out, and I turn my attention to Honey, giving her a quizzical look which she clearly misreads.
“I was just going to show Declan around.”
“Of course, babygirl. Anything you need to tell me?”
She flushes. “Ah, no. No, I can't think of anything.”
It’s not lost on me the way her pupils dilate when I use the pet name, and god damn it, I’m right back to battling with my demons for a hot second as I fight to keep control of myself.
I need to be more careful. I’m unnerved by how easily it slips off my tongue when I’m around her and feeling possessive.
I follow Honey and Declan as she leads him around the house, not really listening to their conversation. He makes notes on his clipboard occasionally. He hardly looks away from her to check over the house, but he keeps an acceptable distance. I keep a close eye on him nonetheless.
As we near the bedroom, the rich scent grows stronger, and I’m battling with a hard on that’s increasingly difficult to hide. Honey leads Declan into the bedroom, but as she does so, I notice the scent still lingering in the air and follow my nose to the bathroom across the hall.
I choke down a grunt of surprise when I find a dildo covered in sweet slick stuck to the bathroom counter like a trap waiting to catch me.
What the fuck?
Voices outside the door tell me I have seconds to act.
If Declan comes in here with this thing on display, there’s no way he’ll be able to resist. Hell, if Honey comes in here any time soon, I might just take her up against the bathroom mirror, bent over the counter like my little fucktoy, pounding into her sweet, tight—
I draw in a deep breath trying to calm myself, but that only makes it worse. The scent of her slick on the dildo is impossibly perfect. I need to get rid of the evidence, though, to stop this from becoming a disaster.
I pick it up to wash it, but though I run the water, I physically cannot make myself put the toy under the stream.
Like a fucking pervert, I bring it to my mouth instead, and to my shame, I lick it clean like the best, most delicious ice cream I’ve ever tasted.
It smells like ripe omega, like fucking home. Like mate.
I catch a glimpse of them approaching just as I finish and whip around, holding the toy behind my back like a kid caught raiding the cookie jar.
“And this is the—” Honey breaks off, eyes going wide as she looks into the mirror over my shoulder.
Fuck.
Her mouth drops open and an adorable pink blush spreads across her cheeks. “I—”
Declan is moving forward into her space, not even looking at the bathroom. His desire overpowers the luscious scent of her for a moment, and I only barely hold my human shape and save my shirt.
Stepping in front of her and nudging her into the bathroom, I shove the dildo into her hands behind my back where Declan can’t see what I’m doing.
Then I step forward, crowding him out of the room.
“You know what? Nothing much to see here. This bathroom needs updating anyway. Why don’t I show you the yard? ”
“The yard?” He blinks like he forgot what he came here for. Poor sucker probably did.
“Yes. Lots of yard. Great potential. It would suit a young family.” I shove him toward the back door, leaving Honey in the bathroom clutching her toy. I hope she figures out a place to hide it soon.
I strain something trying to avoid imagining places she might hide it in a rush and fail. Meanwhile, I push Declan out the back door and draw in a deep, cleansing breath of fresh air.
Shit. That was close. Lucky Honey didn’t catch a glimpse of the enormous bulge I’m trying to hide in my jeans.
“Well, it’s big,” Declan murmurs.
He’s not wrong. It’s the biggest fucking boner I’ve sported in years.
Oh right. He’s talking about the yard. “Yeah. It's a great yard.” There's an awkward silence.
Declan coughs. "Shame about next door."
I follow the direction of his head as he nods at my yard. He's not wrong. The state of my garden is going to impact Bill and Sonia. That's something I need to correct. Immediately.
I grunt. "Needs some work, I guess.”
“So you and Honey, you’re um… you’re an item? Forgive me, but you seem a little old for her.”
I step forward, moving into his space so I can glare down at him. Just for good measure I give him a shot of alpha musk, releasing the scent into the air as if I’m stamping my name on my territory. “Mind your own fucking business, O’Halloran.”
He steps back, and I watch as a horrified expression paints itself on his face.
“Oh my goodness. I’m terribly sorry. I don’t know what came over me.
I think I might be coming down with something too.
You know what, I’ve seen enough here. I’m going to draw up a valuation and some recommendations about the work I’d have done to it.
Will you let Miss Honey know I’ll be in touch in the next few days? ”
“Sure.” I fold my arms over my chest, still blocking the doorway just in case he thinks I’m going to invite him back in.
“Right, well I’ll, um… I’ll just let myself out the side gate, will I?”
“You do that.”
I hear the back door click as the gate swings shut behind him.
Honey clears her throat. “So, um… about the, um…”
I round on her. “Are you trying to kill me, Honey?”
Her eyes widen. “Oh, but I thought you didn’t—”
And then I remember she thinks I’m not attracted to her. She thinks I’m immune.
I could laugh, but it’s taking all my energy just to keep my hands off her right now. Instead I growl. “I nearly had a heart attack worrying what Declan would have done if he’d have found that there like that. Were you aware that most supes have a very sensitive sense of smell?”
She blushes again, and I want to kiss the stain from her cheeks and make her blush all over again. “Smell? Did it smell?”
“It smelled like the most addictive dessert you’ve ever tasted—to Declan, I mean.
That’s how it would have smelled.” I’m doing a terrible job here, but it’s all I can do to keep my hands from shifting into claws and my teeth from clamping down around the spot her shoulder meets her neck and stamping my mark there.
My wolf is howling: mate, mate, mate.
But that’s ridiculous.
Honey looks down at her toes, cheeks flaming. “Sorry, it’s just that if I don’t… you know… then it’s worse. The, um… My condition. I have to make sure I do it at least a couple of times a day. Sometimes more.”
Sweet fucking baby Jesus, I’m not made of stone. My cock swells impossibly against the seam of my jeans, wishing I could be responsible for at least a few of those orgasms.
“I see. And you weren’t finished when he arrived early?”
She shakes her head, blush creeping over her chest.
I growl. “Then you’d better get back inside and finish the job, Honey.” I fist my hands, letting my claws spring from my fingertips and bite into my palms just to keep from grabbing her.
“Yes, Gryff.”
Fuck my life. What I wouldn’t give to stride the three steps that separate us, take her by the throat, and tell her it’s, ‘yes, Daddy.’ I need to get a fucking grip.
Honey scurries back into the house, and I practically run back to my house, yank down my jeans, and cum into my hand in a few sad pumps to keep myself from storming in and taking over from her. From fucking her with my fingers and mouth before I knot her so deep she screams my name.