*
The bedroom door opened and Mads’s aunt stood there in nothing but a sheet wrapped around her body and held there by her free hand. Her tousled gray-and-black hair practically covered her eyes. It did not appear that she had been sleeping.
“What?” the older She-badger abruptly asked Shay, Finn, and Mads. She didn’t sound mad or annoyed. Shay got the feeling that was just how she talked to people.
“Do you have any condoms?” Mads asked without even a little bit of subtlety, making Shay cringe in embarrassment.
“Are they going to fuck in our house?” a male voice snarled from inside the bedroom.
“Ignore him,” Tracey Rutowski said with a dismissive hand wave. “And in answer to your question, after more than thirty years of marriage, four dangerously unstable children—”
“And don’t forget menopause,” that male voice added.
The She-badger’s mouth twisted and her eyes briefly closed. That Van Holtz wolf she’d married did like to play with danger, didn’t he?
“Anyway,” she finally went on, “we do not have condoms, but let’s see if someone else does.”
Part of Shay was dying. He didn’t need the world to know he was planning to have his way with Tock. But they were dealing with honey badgers, weren’t they? They weren’t known for being a subtle species. Or cognizant of other people’s feelings.
Mads’s aunt pushed past their small group and over to the bedroom door across the hall, the gray sheet fluttering behind her. She knocked and, after a minute or two, another Van Holtz wolf answered. He hadn’t bothered with a sheet, so the door was only partially opened; he seemed to be naked, too.
“What?” he asked. What was with the people in this fancy house? None of them knew how to answer a door?
“Do you have condoms?” Mads’s aunt asked.
“No. We don’t—”
“I do!”
With an angry snarl, this Van Holtz wolf demanded, “Why the fuck do you have condoms? We don’t use condoms!”
“Oh, calm down. I got a bunch of them in a gift box from Dalia’s performance-art show, Sex Is My Despair.”
The wolf was pushed aside and CeCe álvarez opened the door all the way. Unlike her wolf, she had no problem with everyone seeing her naked. And Shay had to admit, he was impressed. She looked amazing.
She handed a bright pink box to Mads. “Here you go, hon.”
“Thanks.”
She winked at them. “You guys have fun now.”
“I really don’t want them fucking in our—”
The door slammed shut before they could hear the rest of the wolf’s complaint.
“Need anything else?” Mads’s aunt asked.
“No. This was it.”
“Great. ’Night.” She walked back to her room and, as the door shut behind her, they heard her growl, “I can’t believe you brought up menopause. Bastard!”
Mads handed the box over to Shay. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.”
He started to run back downstairs but Finn caught his arm and pulled him back. He removed the securing tape from the box and opened the top. He took a condom. Then took one more.
“Now you can go.”
Bastard!
*
Keane heard heavy footsteps run past the archway again, but by the time he turned to look, there was no one there.
“That was Shay,” Nelle told him. How she could tell since she never seemed to look up from her cell phone, he had no idea.
“Why’s he running?”
“No idea.” Suddenly she was pressed up next to him, their faces touching.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking our picture.”
“I don’t want my picture taken.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll put a black bar over your eyes. It’s those cheekbones I’m really trying to get.”
“Why? What’s wrong with my cheekbones?”
“Nothing. That’s the point.”
She relaxed back into the couch and returned to ignoring him completely.
Maybe he should just go to bed, like Finn and Mads probably had. The day had been weird enough, and he wasn’t in the mood for anything else to fuck up his life.
*
The laundry room door opened and Tock tossed her hands up. “Where the hell have you—”
She didn’t even get a chance to finish what she was going to say. Originally when Shay didn’t come right back, she’d had a whole speech ready: “If you want to wait, that’s okay. No pressure. It’s fine.” Or something like that. At the ten-minute mark, though, she began to feel hurt. He’d just left her here. Still squirming!
Before she could unleash her full annoyance, though, he had her in his arms, and his mouth was on hers.
His kiss was so desperate, so hungry, her anger and insecurity faded away.
Tock wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he lifted her up and plopped her on top of the dryer. Big hands tossed off her running shoes and went right for her black leggings and panties. He tugged them down, continuing to kiss her. On the mouth. The throat. The chest. He pushed her T-shirt and sports bra up and out of the way, and his warm mouth latched onto her nipple.
Tock held his head against her as he moved from one breast to the other, sucking with his lips and teasing with his tongue.
She dug her fingers into his hair, massaged his scalp, because she knew he liked that. His growled response radiated through her breast and down her spine.
Shay reached around her and she felt him grab for something behind her. She was too distracted, though, to look. To investigate.
Grabbing her hips, he pulled her to the edge of the dryer and stepped fully between her legs. He was tall, so the extra height of the dryer was perfect. He just bent her hips a little and then he pushed inside her.
Tock gasped against Shay’s chest and gripped his shoulders. When he started to rock his cock in and out of her, she threw her head back, mouth open. Shay kissed her then, the pair clinging to each other as they fucked and kissed and groaned.
As they kept going, she could sense that Shay was about to come. Wanting to join him, she loosened the hand she had gripping his hair, about to use those fingers to circle her clit until she also came. But then, without any additional help, she did come, her entire body clamping onto Shay’s, both of them screaming into each other’s mouths.
When they’d wrung themselves out, they collapsed onto the floor, on top of their discarded clothes. They sat there, still clinging to each other and panting. Not saying a word.
Because words weren’t necessary.
Chapter 21
If there was one thing Tock really loved, it was getting head. Nothing more gratifying than having a guy’s tongue between her legs as he did nothing but try to make her happy.
They were on the long table that people probably used to fold their clothes. It was thankfully empty and Shay had placed her there with a lot of care after their first round. Then he’d spread her thighs and gone to work. He didn’t seem to be in any hurry either, languidly licking her with that rough tongue of his. All Tock had to do was lie back and play with her nipples. It was awesome.
But then there was that moment, when it went from enjoyable and relaxing—because she’d already come once not long ago—to intense. Because she wanted more. The licking was great, but she needed more. She put her hands behind his head and he took the hint, grasping her clit between his lips and rolling it around. That had her squirming again. Honestly, she’d never squirmed so much. But the cat had a way.