Little Red and the Wolf

ripped. With no seam to follow the tear was uneven, ending well up over her knee.

“Confess. You like doing that, don’t you?” She was trying to lighten an uncomfortable moment, but the rawness in her voice made it sound more like a come-on.

His small laugh was tight in his throat. “Yeah. Right,” he said like he was joking-but not really. He took off her sneakers and socks then grabbed another wad of gauze soaked with disinfectant.

He knelt. His big hand smoothed soft as silk down her leg, careful to miss her wound. He felt over her heel and along the bottom of her foot then back to her ankle. The sensation sent a warm shiver to the top of her head and down to settle between her thighs.

He cleared his throat and started talking as though he hadn’t just caressed her for no good reason. “Joy is my mother-in-law.” He brought her foot to rest on his knee. Eyes alighting to hers he said, “It’s going to sting again.”

She nodded, clenching.

He cleaned the wound as he talked. “ Lynn is my wife’s sister. Rick and Shelly are Lynn ’s kids. Their father, Shawn, wasn’t…one of us when the twins were conceived. They’d had an affair. He was married with no intention of ever leaving his wife and somehow in Lynn ’s mind that’s my fault. He’s not good enough for her. That’s just the way I feel.”

He shook his head and grabbed more gauze. “Anyway, after my father-in-law was killed by a rancher in Utah -”

“Killed? You mean murdered?”

Gray paused for a second to look at her. “Yeah. The guy caught my father-in-law killing his sheep. It’s a common problem with wolves in that state. There were rumors. They couldn’t prove any of them were werewolves. The fucking ranchers started using silver bullets just to be on the safe side anyway.”

Werewolves? A chill raced down Maizie’s spine despite the sweat sticking her T-shirt to her chest. The implication was pretty clear but too bizarre to accept. Combined with everything else-Granny’s beloved silver wolf, more human than animal, and Gray’s family, more animal than human and the wolf she’d met in the forest-maybe the bizarre was possible. Either Gray’s father-in-law was mistaken for a wolf. Or he was one.

No. Werewolves don’t exist.

Gray stood, tossing the balls of gauze. “His death left me as the oldest male. I kind of slipped into the alpha role without even realizing it. They’re my responsibility now, Joy, Lynn, the kids. That’s how it works. It’s my job to see to their needs, food, shelter, clothes…sex. The last is really only an issue with Lynn, and then only because she knows the law and wants to make me pay for her disappointment.”

He looked at her as though trying to gauge her reaction to the last. Maizie was still rolling around the word alpha in her head. “Sex? You have sex with them? All of them?”

“No. I could, but I haven’t. Except… Lynn. Once.” He looked to his hands, rubbing at the bloodstains along his fingers. “We have different instincts. It’s not like a human family.”

Human? “I have to go.” To hell with her sexual fantasies about Gray and the first real chance she had of making them come true. This night had just shot into the red on her weird-O-meter. She tried to scoot off the counter but Gray stepped in front of her, his hands grabbing her hips, holding her to the spot.

“You can’t, Maizie. It’s not safe.”

“Why not? Frankenstein and Dracula waiting somewhere out there for me too? Or is it just your family I have to worry about? That was them, wasn’t it? They’re the wolves that attacked me, almost killed me.”

“Yes. But I don’t think they meant to hurt you. Not really. The wolf in us is still a wild animal at heart. Unpredictable. Ruled by instinct.” He sighed. “Listen, I know this seems strange-”

“Strange? No. We passed strange about three days ago.” She squirmed, trying to break his grip, and trying not to feel the ripple of excitement at being so easily restrained by him.

“Okay. We won’t talk about it anymore tonight. Promise. Just…stay. Please. I need you to stay here tonight.” He sounded sincere, as though it meant everything to have her here with him. Why? What did he want from her?

Her mind filled with possibilities, the ripple of excitement grew. Her hands wrapped around his forearms, feeling the steel corded muscle under the gentlemanly dress shirt. Her breath shuddered, she closed her eyes.

As though he could hear her thoughts, smell her rising lust, Gray’s fingers flexed on her hips, clenching the stretchy fabric of her sweats on either side. He stepped closer, wedging his hips between her legs. One easy yank and he pulled her to the edge of the counter, her groin flush with the full hardened shaft of his cock.

“Stay with me, Maizie.” His voice was low, rumbling in his chest and vibrating through her body like distant thunder. “I want you here. You don’t know how hard it is for me to admit that. I tried to pretend you didn’t affect me, that I was making the choices. To convince myself the way I felt around you was controllable, ignorable. I was wrong. Stay, Maizie.”

“You plan on keeping me here against my will?”

“No.” He put his lips to her ear, her mouth to his chest. “But I’d love the chance to persuade your will to stay.”

His breath was warm, soothing and erotic against her skin. She felt like a kitten on catnip. It’d been a strange night, scary and exhilarating. The over-hot room, the scent of him, the fight for her life, it all made her dizzy and left her body wanting. It was just too hard to fight. She didn’t want to anymore. She wanted him, had from the start if she was being honest with herself. So she stopped fighting.

She breathed him in, her hands going to the belt loops of his slacks. Her legs wrapped around his. She pulled, pressing her wet needy sex against the hard length of him. “Convince me.”

It was both an invitation and a challenge. Gray was good with both. Admittedly he wanted her to stay for her own safety, for her own sanity. The first shift was hard and scary as hell. But there was a part of him, a large part and growing larger by the second, that wanted her to stay for purely selfish reasons.

He liked how he felt with Maizie, comfortable, at home. He’d never felt like this before, not even with Donna. It wasn’t fair. He should’ve been able to give her that, to fit with someone so perfectly like this. He hadn’t. But he was so tired of punishing himself for the failure. For one night he’d accept that maybe he did deserve to feel happy.

Gray kissed Maizie’s ear, then tasted her-just a quick flick of his tongue. Sugar and spice. Jeezus, he’d always thought that was just a nursery rhyme. Maizie’s profession made it a distracting reality.

“Shower first.”

She pulled back. “Oh. Sorry. I was running before and it’s hot in here…” She bent her head down to her shoulder and sniffed.

“No. You smell…great.” She smelled like dirt, cookies and sex, his three favorite things. “Your wounds, though… You’ll be more resistant to infection, but I don’t want to take any risks.”

“Oh.” She laughed, but there was a nervousness about it that came with first-time lovers. The sound made his muscles quake and sent the same nervous thrill through him.

He stepped to the side and scooped her up, carrying her to the glass-walled shower. The molded corner seat was wide enough for three but Gray had no intention of sitting beside her. He reached for the bottom of her T- shirt. She leaned back, clutching the hem.

“I can manage by myself.”

He couldn’t help the lopsided grin. “What fun is there in that?”

Understanding flashed in her eyes, lust warming the color of her cheeks. She dipped her chin, coy and sexy, peering up at him through the tousled red strands of her hair. “You first.”

The virus was working through her system faster than he’d expected, enhancing her basic senses. He’d never seen anyone go through the initial stages besides himself and all he remembered from those days was pain… food…and sex. Intense was the catchword of the experience. The virus didn’t make you do things you didn’t want to, it just made everything taste, smell, feel better.

Gray snagged the edges of his shirt and pulled, sending the matching sea-foam green buttons tick-tacking off