TWENTY SIX
Will
I pull Bella back against me when she goes to get out of bed. Her body is rounded and soft against mine. Against one area in particular.
It’s been a week and I still wake sometimes in the middle of the night, just to check and make sure she’s really here in my bed. That I’m not dreaming.
She asked me after the first few days if she should get a hotel. I’m fairly certain the growl that slipped out before I could stop it made my position fairly clear.
I love having her here.
This is where she belongs.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I nip at her ear and she moans.
“I have to get up. I have a press conference today, remember?”
“Not without at least a few orgasms, you’re not.”
She giggles, but doesn’t protest when my hands roam over her belly and up to her breasts.
God, I love her breasts.
Lucky I’m not a poet or the world would get sick of me composing verse after verse about their complete perfection.
I cup them in my hands and brush across the sensitive nipples with my thumbs while she arches her back. Her scent grows richer. When I delve between her legs, she’s already slick and welcoming.
Her hand joins mine on her pussy. She pushes my fingers into the place she likes and I don’t need any more encouragement to give her pleasure. Her hips rock as I rub against the side of her clit, using the slick of her juices to lubricate my fingers, moving against her with increasing pressure.
When she lifts her hand toward my head, I capture it in my mouth. I suck her fingers to draw the delicate flavor of her pussy from them and groan with excitement at the taste.
My cock pulses against her ass, throbbing in time with the slow movements of her hips. The grind of our bodies together makes me long to be inside her.
“You’d better hurry, Will,” she says teasingly. “You said a few. You’re running out of time.”
I do hurry to get the condom. Then I lift her upper leg and position myself at her entrance so she can push back onto me. We come together and the bliss of it steals my breath for a moment.
Every time I’m inside her, it’s this good. Every time, my body and my wolf remind me of the need to truly make her mine.
So far, I’ve managed to resist every time, but it’s getting harder.
I can only thrust about halfway into her before my dick is so swollen I have to stop. If I go too far, I’ll never pull out. I can’t even get the condom on properly, which makes me nervous. No way I’m getting her pregnant before she’s knotted and mated.
Bella moans.
“Feel that, Bella?”
“Mmm.”
“That’s how much I want you. It’s bigger every day.”
She gasps and angles her body to get more of me. I roll my hips to thrust inside her slick pussy. But I don’t give her my knot.
“Please, Will.”
“Shhh. I know.” I slide the hand I have on her leg across her belly to reach her clit. She tightens around me when I find the right spot.
Then I work it while I fuck her. My body slips in and out of hers in a frantic rhythm I can’t control.
I need to come. I need her to come. I need to send her off with the scent of me coating her, with come dripping from her pussy. I remind myself that’s not possible today, but I can cover her tits in it, which is the next best thing.
I change the angle and twist over her so I can kiss her deeply. Bella sobs into my mouth as her orgasm grows nearer. Her body tightens, ready to release.
I’m shaking with the urge to shift. I hold the wolf back to control my reactions. I very nearly lose it, though, when she whimpers. “Will, oh god, yes. You feel so good.”
My words are little more than a growl when I respond. “I’m not done learning exactly how you like it. I want to learn all the ways, so I can give it to you every time. Everything that makes you scream, makes you sob for me. Makes you half as mad for me as I am for you.”
The look on her face is complete abandon. She looks at me like I’m everything she needs. “Just like that. Just like that. Keep going. I’m going to—”
She cuts off, mouth open, words lost in pleasure.
I keep fucking her with the same steady rhythm all the way into her orgasm and all the way out the other side.
Her body clamps around me. As moisture gushes around me, her belly tightens. Then my own orgasm hits me so hard my vision blurs and my hold on my wolf slips to the surface.
I’m howling as I come inside her, juices from both of us combining into one sticky mess. The slap slap of our bodies slows. I thrust inside her one final time, almost too deep. Almost all the way. Then I realize. “The condom. Fuck. It’s gone.”
She cups my cheek. “I’m on birth control. Don’t worry.” She lifts her chin to kiss me sweetly, and I can almost taste the words on her tongue. The commitment. The acceptance of the claim.
Any day now, she’ll tell me. She’ll call me her mate.
I just have to wait a little longer. Be patient a little longer. Until the day I can knot and bite her.
Only, I don’t know how much longer I can hold back my wolf.
The notification pops up on my phone during a particularly quiet patch of the afternoon. I’ve dusted all the shelves twice and rearranged the children’s book section and I’m sat at my desk trying to muster the courage to do the accounting for this week.
Bella Owens back in the spotlight!
Exclusive clips from today’s press conference.
I’m sure she did a wonderful job. I click the link, which takes me to a clip of Bella sitting behind a desk covered in a white table cloth. Her hair is curled and styled differently to the way it is naturally. Her makeup is done and, of course, she looks beautiful. She just doesn’t look like my Bella.
She smiles as the cameras flash, obviously listening to a question from a reporter that wasn’t picked up on the mic. “No, I was just taking some time out for self-care. I’ve been reassessing my priorities lately after being unwell.”
It’s a good answer. She looks relaxed and composed, taking it in her stride.
She looks to the right of the camera and a different voice cuts in half way through a question. “...rumors that you have a boyfriend here in London?”
Are the rumors about me? Something flashes across her face. Fear? Discomfort? Moments later she masks it with the movie star smile, but something in the corners of her mouth and in her eyes tells me this is no longer a genuine smile. “They’re just rumors. You know how people are.”
“So you’re not dating the guy you were spotted with last summer?”
“No.” She turns to speak softly to the woman next to her who leans forward to speak into the microphone.
“Bella won’t be taking any more questions about her personal life, but if you’d like to ask about her upcoming projects, we have five more minutes.”
The film clip ends and cycles back to the start and I watch it again, my chest constricting around the hurt inside as she publicly denies me and our relationship.
I’d like to believe it’s just for the cameras, but what was that look on her face? It drives me crazy I can’t smell her. Can’t scent her emotions, to be sure what I’m fearing is real.
Only, why hasn’t she accepted my claim? Why outright deny we’re together?
I try to call her, but she doesn’t answer.
Fuck.
I hate to be doubting her. I can’t help it, though. How could I be enough for a woman like that? I’m just a simple bookstore owner from the other side of the world. What did I think would happen?
I pace the shop until Ian comes out of the backroom to see if we have more customers.
“You OK, boss?”
“Yes.” I swipe my hand through my hair. “No. I need to leave early. Can you close up?”
“Sure.”
I rush out, forgetting my bag, and have to come running back. By the time I make it home, I don’t even have a plan. I just know I have to see Bella. Have to smell her, to hold her.
My phone buzzes in my pocket as I’m trying to decide what to do.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it's me. I’m sorry I missed your call. Today has been a whirlwind. A good whirlwind, though.”
“That’s great.” I’m reassured hearing her voice. She sounds happy enough. Maybe I’m imagining things. I’m about to figure out a way to ask her, when she jumps in again.
“Hey, I know it’s not great timing, but I have to head home for a little while. There’s a new role Roksana wants me to consider, and after everything I’ve put her through, I don’t want to let her down again.”
Home? But what else would she call it? “Oh, OK. When do you leave?”
Silence.
I hate the pause. Something is wrong.
“Well, that’s the thing. I’m on my way to the airport now. I meet with the director tomorrow, and it might be a couple weeks before I can get back to London.”
Her voice sounds unsteady over the phone. I wish I could see her face. My own voice is rough when I pull together the words to reply. “Right. I guess you should go then.”
She’s silent for another horrible pause.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll, um... I’ll see you when you’re back in London.”
“Will, I’m sorry. I know it’s not ideal.”
“No, it’s fine. I understand. You can’t just drop everything for me. I don’t expect you to.” It’s true. I don’t. I just wish she didn’t have to be a continent away.
When she hangs up, it feels like she’s already on that plane. Was it only this morning I held her in my arms and buried myself inside her?
How could we have felt so close in that moment and so distant now?
My wolf would like to follow her to the airport, get on that plane and trail her movements everywhere she goes. The man knows I can’t do that. She needs to live her life. I just hope she can find a place for me in it.