Page 34 of How to Trust a Hellhound
Then he did. His lips brushed against mine ever so softly. Once, twice—gentle kisses. The third time, I wrapped my arms around him and opened my mouth.
It seemed like that was all he was waiting for, because his tongue explored my mouth, tasting me. He pressed his body fully up against me, the wall at my back supporting me. It was like he was a dying man in the desert and I was water. I don’t think I’d ever felt so wanted from a kiss.
His body was hard and firm against mine, and I felt totally caged in and surrounded by him. I groaned as his lips slanted over mine again and again, until I was panting for breath while trying to still kiss him back.
I was hard and aching in my pants, and I rubbed up against him, feeling his own hardness and making us both groan.
He bit my bottom lip, the sting sending sparks through my whole body. “Wilder,” I moaned.
Only rather than encouraging him, this made him slow the kiss down, easing back to soft, gentle pecks before he rested his forehead against mine, both of us breathing heavily in the silent cabin.
“Mei Ume, we need to talk,” he said.
Of course we did. I sighed, pulling away. Wilder reluctantly let me go, and I walked over to the kitchen to grab two mugs. If we were gonna have the wholewe can have sex but don’t let my kids knowconversation, then I needed coffee. Even worse, maybe I was about to be offered a pity fuck. I mentally winced at even using the term in my head, and I’m sure Wilder would never think of it like that, because he was simply too nice.
If I were practical, I should tell him to forget the whole thing and that we should pretend this never happened.
“Do you want some coffee?” I asked, and Wilder nodded his head as he slid onto a stool. Maybe we would just ignore the whole kiss, which at this point might be for the best. As much as I wanted to get on my knees in front of Wilder and get my mouth on him, Iwaspractical. There were too many complications. I knew that. It was best we’d cut things off when we had.
Yep, definitely for the best.
Being an adult sucked.
Chapter 14
Wilder
Pulling away from Josh was one of the hardest things I’d ever done, but I knew today had been a lot, and the last thing I wanted to do was take advantage of him.
I had to admit that when he put the boys in their place, it was a turn-on. It just reaffirmed what a strong and caring man he was, and what a perfect mate he’d make. Of course Jude had needed to go and be juvenile about it, which had probably embarrassed Josh. He’d still handled Jude beautifully, though. My jokester needed someone to rein him in sometimes.
After Jude’s joke, I’d been worried for a moment that Josh wasn’t interested, but his talking had seemed to focus on the idea thatIwasn’t interested inhim. Kissing him had seemed the easiest way to correct that assumption, and based on his response, he returned my interest.
He did not seem pleased at the notion of talking, however. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I thought communication was important, and at some point Josh needed to know that we were hellhounds. I thought it was probably good manners to let him know before I mated him.
Because that was definitely what I wanted with Josh—a permanent relationship.
Josh set a cup of coffee in front of me and took his own cup, sipping it. He did not come over to sit next to me. He stayed on the other side of the kitchen island. I opened my mouth, but he cut in before I could speak.
“We can just pretend that never happened,” he said, sounding like he was reassuring me.
I looked at him, tilting my head. “Why would we do that?”
“Well, I don’t really do one night stands, especially not with someone I’ll see all the time. It would make things really awkward. And anything more than that would probably get noticed by your boys, which I’m sure you wouldn’t want.” He took a sip of his coffee when he was done speaking.
“Why wouldn’t I want that?” I asked, rather confused.
I wasn’t sure what Josh was thinking. I once again felt more sympathy for my boys in trying to navigate a relationship with a human. They had some odd ideas. Why wouldn’t I want my sons to know we were together? Hells, Jude had already insinuated it. At the very least, the boys would be able to smell our scents on each other once we got more involved. There wasn’t really any hiding a relationship amongst hellhounds.
“Well, I’m not actually your age,” Josh answered.
I huffed a laugh. He had no idea how true that was. It then occurred to me… “Josh, are you embarrassed that I’m older than you? Are you not comfortable with that? I just assumed…”
That hadn’t occurred to me, and I rubbed at my chest with my free hand, feeling the ache there. As much as Josh might want me physically, that didn’t mean he wanted to actually form any sort of bond with me. I wasn’t sure why that hadn’t occurred to me.
“What? No!” Josh said, putting down his coffee cup and coming over to me.
“I realize that I may be… old-fashioned about some things. I’m not up to date on lots of things, and maybe I have a bit of a stodgy personality,” I said.
