15

Lydia knew that her horizons had been a little stunted by the need to be responsible to the pack. The only time she’d ever been out of Montana by choice had been during a brief, doomed flicker of teenage rebellion, when she’d driven south for the Wyoming border for the sake of getting somewhere, anywhere else.

She’d crossed the state line, bought a root beer and some Doritos at a convenience store, had the world’s saddest picnic on the hood of her truck, and then come back home. Because even when she was chafing at the borders of Mountainview, she knew she belonged there, and she knew that would-be alphas didn’t abandon their packs. Not ever. Not for anything.

She had gone to community college one town over, and she had rarely stayed the night there. Just a couple times, sleeping over at a friend’s. Even Ruth hadn’t been able to object to that small of a break from Mountainview, not when things were going well, but Lydia had never been able to shake the feeling that she still didn’t think they were a good idea. That had haunted her. Ruth was the only alpha she had ever known, and Lydia knew—like everyone in town knew—that Ruth had held the pack together through a lot of hard times. If she didn’t think something was a good idea, maybe it wasn’t.

That uncertainty had stuck with her for years. It was why most of her out-of-town one-night stands hadn’t even lasted a whole night. She’d never wanted to take any of those guys back home with her, not when it felt so revealing, and staying at their places until morning meant risking Ruth’s disapproval.

Before Case, it had always been better to cut things short and keep them simple.

She had already been glad that the night they would have had together hadn’t happened, and that they’d gotten this potentially pack-saving marriage instead. Now that she was in love with him, she felt almost ill when she thought about how she could have slept with Case and then disappeared on him.

Maybe she wouldn’t have been able to. There was something about him that grabbed her, after all.

But still, what if she had? What if she’d never gotten to know him at all?

Even though the truck’s heat was on, she shivered a little.

Case’s gaze had been on the road, but somehow his attention was still too sharp to miss that.

“What’s wrong?”

Lydia liked that she’d told him how much she cared about him—even if she hadn’t technically said love yet, to be on the safe side—but she decided that telling him about morose what-if scenarios where they didn’t get married was a bridge too far. She gave him a half-truth instead.

“I was thinking about how I’ve been to Toplin’s Green before, at least, but not to the lodge.”

That was where her train of thought had been going before it had derailed into being All About Case, so she figured it was good enough.

“Sure,” Case said, nodding. “You probably don’t usually need a hotel this close to home.”

That made her feel a little better. It was true that she couldn’t think of a time before now when she would’ve needed to stay somewhere else.

“Besides,” he added, “they say most people who are native New Yorkers never go see the Statue of Liberty. Tourists flock there the first chance they get, but if you’ve lived there your whole life, it’s nothing but background noise.”

Lydia wasn’t sure that was exactly the same situation, but she loved him for trying so hard to make her feel better.

“So what brought you to Toplin’s Green?” Case asked.

That was an easy one to answer. “Oh, the waterfall.”

Case lit up. “There’s a waterfall? I love waterfalls.”

“This is the only one I’ve ever seen, so I’m biased, but I think it’s a pretty good one. We should go check it out in the morning before we drive back to Mountainview.”

That last part made giddiness and heaviness fight for space in her stomach, like butterflies were dodging out of the way of catapulted medicine balls.

By tomorrow morning, their marriage would be consummated, and their mate bond—something the whole pack would recognize—would be in place. Lydia had heard that for true, fated mates, there was even a new sense of soul-deep togetherness and belonging, but that was probably a myth. Even ordinary mate bonds affirmed a connection to each other in a relationship even stronger than the pack-bond, and that would be new and strange enough.

But honestly, a fledgling mate bond was far down on Lydia’s list of things to be preoccupied by right now. It was more like a bystander to the butterflies vs. medicine balls fight. The real forces at play here were:

I’m going to have sex with Case, who is my husband now. I’m going to have a night of torrid, romantic sex with the man I love, who might actually be falling in love with me too. Ahh! Butterflies!

and

Then we have to wake up from that nice dream and go back home, where my grandmother is dying, someone is coming to kill us, and everyone expects me to have all the answers.

Thinking about that absolutely felt like taking a medicine ball to the gut. So ... she wasn’t going to think about it. Not tonight.

From now until they got back in the truck after seeing the Toplin’s Green waterfall, she was going to be selfish. She was going to enjoy herself. If you couldn’t do that on your wedding night, when could you?

“Well, I’d say I can’t wait for you to show me your waterfall,” Case said, “but actually ... there are a few things I’m glad we’re going to get to first.”

Both the butterflies and the medicine balls vanished, replaced with something warm and unfurling, like a flower finally getting to bloom.

“I’m glad we’re getting to those first too.”

It only took about twenty more minutes for them to get to Toplin’s Green, and since the lodge was on the far edge of town, they reached it first, right as the sun was going down.

The log building managed the difficult trick of looking both huge and cozy, and it certainly looked like where you wanted to go with the night now creeping in. Some of the enormous windows reflected the deep pink and orange of the setting sun, and others let you glimpse the flickering firelight inside. It looked like an oasis of warmth and color. When they got out of the truck, Lydia took a deep breath of fresh, clean air, relishing the mingling scents of wildflowers, cedar, and even distant mountaintop snow.

She wondered if they had skiing near here. Was that how the lodge could stay in business? Toplin’s Green wasn’t much bigger than Mountainview.

They checked in, and to her surprise, the desk clerk offered them a later checkout time since they were arriving in the evening. Lydia felt guilty about accepting it, but—

Selfish , she reminded herself. I’m allowed to think about me and Case right now.

“Thanks, that would be fantastic,” she said, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Case smile. Any doubt about her decision instantly vanished.

He deserved this. Maybe she even deserved it too.

Either way, for tonight, she was going to have it, and they were going to have each other.

Their room was on the top floor, but the lodge was low-slung, so that still made for a short elevator ride. Lydia couldn’t help thinking that was a shame. Her mind had strayed into the very intriguing fantasy of Case pinning her against the elevator wall and kissing her until they both forgot where they were. She would love to lose herself completely like that.

Well, maybe tonight she would. Just not on a fifteen-second elevator ride.

But to her surprise, Case managed to make those fifteen seconds count. As soon as the doors slid closed behind them, he brushed his thumb over her chin. She automatically tilted her face up towards him, feeling like a sunflower turning to the sun. He looked in awe of her, his lovely gray-green eyes both soft and hungry in a way that made Lydia’s blood pound. She felt weak at the knees and ready to swoon into him.

Gravity seemed to pull them together. It didn’t matter that it was a short kiss, it was a good one, a bone-melting one.

The chime of the elevator doors opening almost came as a shock. Lydia had wanted to lose herself, but she’d had no idea how quickly that could happen when she was in Case’s arms.

It was funny: she hadn’t wanted to stop kissing him back in the truck, before they’d even made it to the courthouse, but she’d been able to keep a clear head. Was it a few more hours in his company that had made all the difference there, or was it the fact that they’d pledged themselves to each other now? She almost felt like it was the latter, like—at least for them—there was some kind of magic in the wedding itself, just like there would be in the consummation.

That would give them a soul-to-soul bond. This had already given them ... more. More of what? Lydia wasn’t sure, but she felt in her bones that the answer was “more of everything .”

More love. More life. More courage.

With him at her side, the world felt right in a way it never had before.

That sensation only amped up more as they reached the door of their room. She was so turned on that even Case sliding the keycard into the notch was weirdly erotic.

It was like some lust-addled part of her brain instantly went to: Slide your key into my notch, Case!

Their room was as lovely and as luxuriously comfortable as the rest of the lodge. The enormous windows offered a view of the lake, which glimmered in the moonlight, and of the richly forested mountains. Even at night, it was gorgeous, but Lydia couldn’t spare it anything more than an admiring glance. Right now, all her attention was reserved for Case. The stunning landscape below them was nothing but a reminder to pull the curtains closed so they didn’t accidentally put on an X-rated show.

She had to yank them shut before that kind of presence of mind deserted her completely.

Lydia strode over to the window and gave the curtains a tug. Even the rattle and whoosh they made, like the keycard in the door, had a kind of sexy frisson to it. It made her think about the sound of zippers going down and clothes being shed.

Every inch of her skin felt flushed and alive, sensitive to the slightest change in the air around her. She was so starved for touch that she ached from it.

She and Case looked at each other across the room. Lydia had a split second to see that his eyes were dark with arousal, and then the two of them were pressed against each other, kissing like their lives depended on it. She wasn’t even sure which one of them had moved first.

It was funny how the sound of the curtains swishing shut had reminded her of clothes hitting the floor, because she definitely couldn’t hear their clothes coming off now. Not with the way her ears were almost ringing with desire. All she could hear was her own heartbeat and their ragged breathing as they fumbled at each other, hands urgent and clumsy.

Case was naked by the time they hit the bed, and Lydia was down to her underwear. He peeled them off her slowly, and the transition from haste to this deliberate, sensual drag of fabric over her skin somehow signaled to her that they were really about to begin. Case was switching it from need to want, and he was going to take his time with what he wanted. The idea sent a fizzy thrill through her.

“I should’ve worn silk,” she said, as Case tossed the little scrap of cotton aside. “It would’ve been sexier.”

“You were already wearing velvet,” he pointed out. “And trust me, this was plenty sexy. Besides, I’m less interested in your underwear than I am ....”

He trailed off, stroking his fingers up the inside of her thigh.

Lydia wasn’t usually all that modest, at least not once she’d actually made up her mind to go to bed with someone. But she wasn’t brazen, either. Sex was satisfying, but it was quick and silent, and the lights were usually off.

Since she was still half-amazed she’d remembered to close the curtains, it wasn’t at all surprising that neither of them had thought to turn out the lights. What was surprising was realizing now that she wouldn’t have wanted to. She wanted to see him—but of course she did. At this exact moment, she couldn’t even remember what it was like to want to see anything else. But she also wanted him to see her .

Part of it was that she was still riding high from the red dress. She’d felt exquisite in it, and Case’s extremely gratifying reaction had made it clear that it wasn’t just in her head.

That, she guessed, was really responsible for how bold she was feeling right now. Even if she kept going back and forth about whether or not he loved her like she loved him, she had zero doubts that he wanted her like she wanted him. They had the same power to take each other’s breath away.

And his appreciation was so open and unguarded that she felt safe giving him everything. She wasn’t going to hold back any part of herself under some fig leaf of shame or self-consciousness.

So when he touched her thigh like that, Lydia let go of any sense of restraint.

He’d said that he wasn’t interested in her underwear but in what they’d been hiding, so, as far as she was concerned, he could have it. He could have all of it.

All of me.

Lydia didn’t just spread her legs. She reached down and parted her lower lips, too, like she was putting herself on display for him.

Her heart pounded, and her face burned. But she was safe with him, and she wanted him to see anything he wanted. She wanted him to see how flushed and wet she was for him already.

“Lydia,” Case said, his voice hitching around the word. “God, Lydia.”

“You said you were interested.”

“I’m unbelievably interested.”

She laughed, that flicker of momentary embarrassment morphing into a kind of breathless giggling instead. “More interested than in my underwear?”

“So interested that I’m not sure you should ever wear underwear ever again.”

“I’m never going to leave this bed,” she informed him, “so that won’t be a problem.”

It was a fantasy, obviously. She was responsible to Ruth and the rest of the pack, and all those obligations would weigh her down the second she stepped out of this little bubble of happiness they’d found together. But with Case looking down at her with a smile hot enough to make her melt, she could forget about all that. Fuck it. They could grow old together in this lodge, in this bed, and never get tired of each other, as far as she was concerned.

“That sounds like a plan,” Case said, and Lydia realized that she’d said that last part out loud.

He lowered himself between her legs and pressed a gentle, close-mouthed kiss against her hot, tingling skin. She was so flushed with arousal that at first his mouth felt almost cool, but then he licked a long stripe along her pussy and it was almost more heat than she could stand. But only in the best possible way. She felt like she had to hang on to the sheets for dear life.

It wasn’t the first time a guy had gone down on her, but it didn’t happen a lot. For some reason, this had always felt especially intimate to her, and she hadn’t always liked the idea of sharing it with a stranger.

But with Case ....

With Case, it was right . Even if the calendar would tell her they hadn’t known each other for very long, he felt like the opposite of a stranger. He felt like he should have been in her life the whole time.

This was right. And when he lightly closed his lips around her clit and sucked at it, it was even better than right.

Lydia came so suddenly and sharply that it felt like her climax had snatched her off the ground and thrown her into the air. Maybe she’d instinctively known that it would be like that with him, and that was why she’d had to grab the sheets so tightly.

Her body jackknifed, and for a second, she was afraid she would break his nose. But Case moved with her, the pressure and wet heat of his mouth a glorious, throbbing constant, drawing her orgasm out and out and out.

She realized she was breathlessly chanting, “Case, Case, Case,” which wasn’t exactly helpful, but she couldn’t seem to make herself stop.

When it was finally over—roughly a hundred years later, according to her sex-drunk internal clock—Lydia felt like she might dissolve into the marshmallow-soft bed.

But she couldn’t be satisfied with that. She was relaxed, but she wasn’t done . She needed him as much as ever, for reasons that went way beyond any desire for an orgasm.

“Come up,” she said, her voice hitching into a kind of plea. “Make love to me.”

She had never said that in her life. Never even thought about saying it. If she had, she would have ruled it out as too sentimental: it wouldn’t have fit in with the one-night stands that had, until now, been all she could afford to have.

With Case, it didn’t sound corny. She meant it. And from the look on his face, he wanted it as much as she did.

Maybe even more , considering how quickly he scrambled for a condom. He eased into her slowly, and the glide of his body into hers—the stretch of his cock opening her up—was incredible. She was grabbing the sheets again before she even realized it.

She heard herself calling his name again, too, but then she broke off. He was touching her cheek, looking down at her with those gray-green eyes that seemed like they had bottomless depths. But she could see through them, all the way to his soul. That was another thing she’d never let herself think before.

You get so unoriginal when you’re falling in love, she thought. You find out that all the cheesy stuff is actually true.

“You’re gorgeous,” Case said. There was an aching throb to the words, like it wasn’t quite what he wanted to say. “God, Lydia.”

She pressed her face into his hand and then turned her head to kiss his palm.

“You’re gorgeous too,” she said.

The words were muffled against his skin, but she felt like he heard her anyway. He moved faster, and so did she, the two of them making love almost frantically now. The loose-limbed sleepiness that had taken over after her first orgasm was all but forgotten now that she was on the edge of her second, chasing it with every pump of her hips and every curl of his fingers into his back. She felt like she could do this forever. God, she loved it.

She loved him .