“Fuck!” she cried, her legs falling completely open and her hands going to her abdomen like she could feel me in her stomach. And while my ego appreciated the stroking, I knew that wasn’t physically possible. “I’m sofull!”
Her words were like the sweetest kryptonite to me (a fictional mineral I’d only learned about after she’d info-dumped about several flagship comics), and I felt my own orgasm hurtling violently toward me. I bit my tongue in my rush to grit my teeth, redoubling my efforts to get Cherry over the finish line with me.
Although I knew from a healthy perspective that it was never good to base the quality of sex solely on orgasms, I desperately wanted us to pop off together. In fact, it seemed imperative, even if I didn’t have enough brain power to explain to myself why.
Why didn’t matter, not really. What mattered was that the thought of losing Cherry had put both me and my wolf into revolt, and I wanted to make sure thatneverhappened again.
“I’m close,I’m close!” Cherry cried, and I knew she was from the way she was squeezing me, her walls fluttering almost desperately.
I put everything into holding on those last few minutes while I did all the things she liked. Flicking my tongue over her nipple, digging my fingers into her hip, whispering all the filthy praise that made her heart jump.
Then, just when I thought I was going to burst, Cherry let out a mewling cry and arched up off the bed, muscles so taut I could see them moving below her skin.
That was my cue to let go, and let go I did. My climax hit me with the force of a sledgehammer, and the sound that ripped out of me was truly feral. I let out a roar befitting of my alpha designation—no words, only primal expression. I emptied into Cherry, and despite the fact that I knew she had birth control, my mind filled with images of her with a round belly or the VanMarche estate filled with the pitter-patter of little feet. I’d always assumed Jackson would be the one to have an heir—accidentally—but if my inner wolf had its way, I would take the honor.
Cherry was still lost in the throes of her climax when mine ebbed, and I held her, talking her through it. Nothing too distinct, just whispers of encouragement and telling her how fucking perfect she was.
“That’s it, there you go. Breathe for me, baby, just breathe.”
Holding her like that felt surprisingly intimate, even after everything we’d done. I didn’t stop, however, cherishing it until she looked up at me with all the wherewithal of someone thoroughly debauched.
“Hey,” she whispered. I didn’t think it was possible for me to like how she sounded any more than I already did, but that was where we were headed.
“Hey,” I murmured before slowly settling down on her mattress, pulling her onto her side. We were still connected and would be for quite a while longer. “Do you want to sleep a bit? I’ll wake you up once my knot goes down.”
She nodded, pressing the tiniest little kiss to my collarbone before her eyelids slid closed. As her breathing slowed down, she muttered something I couldn’t catch even with my enhanced hearing.
“What was that?”
She roused slightly and repeated herself. “If it’s an enemy that’s hijacked your brother, we should start with the two most obvious and work from there.”
It was surprisingly coherent for someone who’d just orgasmed their brains out twice, and if I didn’t know better, I might have begun to doubt my prowess.
“And who are the two most obvious?” I murmured, stroking her hair.
“Seventy to eighty percent of all homicides are perpetrated by someone the victim knows. So, who are the two families your father knew the best? I sensed a whole lot of betrayal in that room. First, I thought it was what most victims feel before someone breaks social rules for violence, but obviously I was wrong about that.”
My first reaction was one of doubt, because the Marchendi, Bouchard, and McElroy packs had been in a firm alliance evenbeforethey came to America and cleared out the charlatan and abusive alpha who was abusing and manipulating the few magical folks already living along the East Coast. The idea of one of them doing something so violent was a tough pill to swallow.
But my secondary reaction, the more rational one, reminded me that Cherry had never been fully wrong on any of her hypotheses. Sure, sometimes she was a little to the left, but there was always truth to whatever she said.
“How do you think we’re going to manage accusing the second and third most powerful shifter families who just so happen to be our allies without causing even more of an incident?”
“Simple,” she said after a heady yawn. “We’ll have them invite in our own little Trojan horse.”
And then her eyes slid shut and her breathing completely evened out, leaving me to wonder what the hell she meant until it was time to rouse her again.
Thank God I was a patient man.
Chapter 18
Cheribelle
Nothing Like Shifter Hospitality
“So you see,the entire thing is meant to maximize fertilization success through high sperm competition. They can ejaculate up to ten times, right after another!”
“That’s fascinating,” Paul said dryly enough to be mistaken for the Sahara. “Would you remind me why I needed to know that male echidnas have a four-headed penis?”