Page 117 of Wicked Witch of the Wolf

“I found it in your nightstand. Abrand-new, unopenedbox.” An untamed sort of happiness burst in me at his self-satisfied grin. In anyone else, I would’ve been annoyed at the arrogance, but I found myself wanting to come up with new and inventive ways to put that look in his face.

“I picked them up after our make-out session in the park. It’s not as if we didn’t both know what was going to happen,” I said.

He tore open the condom and expertly sheathed himself. “That was one of the best days of my life.”

“So far,” I said.

“So far.” He let my legs drop, catching them on his forearms. “Look at me, Lilibet Lennox. Stay with me. Don’t lower your eyes for a single second.”

It was a corny line. Something out of an old paperback romance. But the way Ronan said it, with his wolf in his eyes and his voice, it was the sexiest, most beautiful thing I’d ever heard.

He rose above me and gently nudged, as if he were testing, waiting for any indication that I wasn’t ready, even now when my readiness was all over his hands. He stared into my eyes with a lookso raw and real it was as if he was burrowing into my soul. And maybe he was.

When he slid inside me, it didn’t feel new or risky or foreign. It felt as if I’d been missing a piece of myself and now it was home.

And then he started to move, and all soft introspection ceased. My flesh flowed against his like the soil did when my magic came to life. It was real, it was powerful, and it was almost too hot to take.

When it was over and we lay entangled in the covers, damp and panting and happy, he reached for my hand and tucked me against the line of his body.

He rolled me under him and brushed his lips over my face, the contours of my throat, and the slopes of my breasts. The muscles in his forearms tensed as he turned me this way and that, sliding his tongue over my hip then back up the way he’d come, taking his sweet damn time when he reached my breasts—kissing, tugging, licking—until I was breathless and shaking.

Until now, I’d let him, lying limp and satiated as he moved me where he wanted. But his beautiful mouth soon drained every drop of passivity out of me. I grasped for the box on the nightstand. Ronan followed me, his teeth raking the soft skin under my breasts. I ripped one of the squares open, and he sheathed his erection for the second time. His refractory period was insanely short, and mine was non-existent.

We rolled again, putting me on top. As I sank down, I whispered, “Stay with me, Ronan. Don’t lower your eyes for a single second.”

I’d expected a smile. What I got was something better.

“I’m not going anywhere, Betty. Not now, not ever. And neither are you.” It wasn’t phrased as a question, but I heard a rise in his inflection and knew he meant it as one.

“Not now.” I twitched my hips, and he let out an erotic groan. “Notever.”

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Floyd was not at work nor at his house.

Ronan called a wolf named Dale Burgess, who said the alpha leader had informed the pack he was leaving town due to a family emergency. He’d also told some of the more alpha of the wolves that his own flesh and blood had sold him out to the witches and he might never recover from the betrayal.

It was all bullshit, of course. Everyone knew it, though no one would come out and say it. He was running scared now that he knew Ronan was all right. The worrisome thing was where he might be running.

And to whom.

“I keep trying to call my sister, but she won’t answer. That’s not a good sign.” Ronan had just finished haphazardly repairing my front door with a sheet of plywood and the construction materials Mom had collected over the years and stored in the garden room. It wasn’t pretty, but it would keep the wind and rain out until he could replace it.

“Do you think she knows what he did?”

“Probably. Rory’s the smartest of us all. I’m sure she has her owncontacts in the pack.” He held up the rusted hammer he’d been using. “You need to replace this.” He set it in Mom’s old red toolbox and clicked the lock shut.

“You can pick up a new one when you replace the door.” I slathered peanut butter and jelly on slices of fresh sourdough bread. “Maybe Aurora’s in class?”

“Maybe. But it worries me that she didn’t even try to call. We talk every week.”

“You think he’s got her with him.” I finished making the sandwiches and hunted in the drawer for a knife to cut them.

“It’s my fear, yes. If he plans to use her to ferret me out of hiding, it’s going to work. I’d do anything for that kid, Betty.”

I knew he would. It was one more thing I loved about him.

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