Page 42 of The Mating Need
Jenny butted her nose against Troy’s shoulder and grinned. He laughed, but something smoldered in his dark gaze. Her hormones jumped into overdrive as she watched him walk toward the gate, the tight denim hugging every inch of his firmbutt.
Imagination kicking in, she envisioned him riding her hard as she bucked beneath him, drawing him closer, clinging to his bottom as he drove in and out of herbody…
Jenny licked her lips, her hunger turning into something deeper. Between her legs, moisture gathered and need pulsed. She wanted this Lupine, had wanted him for a long time. He waited for her patiently, letting her set thepace.
She wasready.
As he led the horses toward the gate, Jenny opened it, shut it behind him. She joined him walking toward the nearby barn. He put the horses into their stalls and they headed for thelodge.
“Skin form means you can ride a horse, go shopping, take a walk in the moonlight….” He gave her a meaningful glance. “Make love face toface.”
A flush ignited her from head to toe. “You have apoint.”
“When you were a kid, wasn’t there something you liked doing inSkin?”
Jenny thought about what he said. A memoryflickered.
“Once, when I was twelve, my parents took me to Florida for two weeks. Mom grew up there and was homesick for thebeach.”
“I gather you visited in human skin,” he saiddryly.
“Wolves sunbathing on the beach would have stood out. Just a little.” Shesmiled.
They’d stayed at a little hotel a short walk from the beach. Jenny had never seen a beach before, and the green/blue water fascinated her. Mama had bought her a two-piece pink bathing suit with yellow flowers and an orange bucket with a blue shovel. While her parents sunbathed, she sat at the water’s edge, making sandcastles. Warm water lapped at her feet, and a curious egret had strayed by, searching for fish in the shallows. The air smelled of salt and coconut oil, and the blue sky overhead seemed to stretch forever. She’d even made a friend, a playmate who helped her build thesandcastle.
Later they had walked, sun burning their bare shoulders as they searched for shells. The orange bucket and blue shovel went into the trash, along with the delicate seashells as they packed to leave for Wyoming because her mother warned their alpha abhorred such human activities such as collecting anything, even objects in nature. Lupines neglected their wild wolf side when they got soft and catered to their humanhalf.
But those two weeks at the beach had been the best weeks of her young life at the time. She had her parents to herself, no pack responsibilities, no worries about trying to please the alpha or pressure to learn the ways of living aswolf.
I was free to be a child. Free to have fun. Build sand castles at thebeach.
She studied the pasture in the distance, the horses cropping grass. Soserene.
Did I ever truly have funagain?
Maybe not. Not with my pack. But Troy is different. He lets me bemyself.
“Stay out here on the porch,” he told her as they reached the lodge. “I’ll be rightout.”
“I thought we were havinglunch.”
He winked. “We are. It’s part of mysurprise.”
Troy went inside to fetch what he told her he needed for theirsurprise.
He emerged from the lodge bearing a heavy blanket and a picnicbasket.
“I’ve got the rest of the afternoon off, so I wanted to picnic with you by the river. There’s a secluded spot I checked out the otherday.”
Jenny clapped her hands. “I lovepicnics.”
When they were on the road, they seldom were able to let their guard down long enough because they were on someone else’s land. Now they had all the time they needed, and privacy aswell.
He drove a four-wheeler, picnic basket and blanket stashed in the back, to a sand beach on theriverbank.
After setting up the blanket and basket, they dug into the food. Fried chicken, crisp and juicy, a carton of Nia’s homemade potato salad she’d made especially for them, a bottle of good wine, fruit. They ate and then Jenny took an apple out of the basket, bit into it withrelish.
The sun burned overhead and the river roared, sparkling in the light. She shivered and sighed withcontentment.
