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“Relax,” James said. His strong hands massaged the warm oil into my skin. He started with my shoulders, his thumbs digging into the tight knots that had formed there.
I groaned, tears in my eyes when he hit a particularly sore spot.
“Shh,” he soothed. “I know. Let me fix it.”
I focused on my breathing while James’s hands undidthe knots in my shoulders and slowly worked their way south. The farther they got, the more my cock became interested. My hips began to rock against the bed. “That’s it, love,” he praised. “Take what you need.”
I fuckingwhimpered. I don’t know when I became such a praise slut, butdamn—it did something to me. James’s hands squeezed my ass cheeks and I cried out, bucking back into his touch. He kneaded the flesh harder on each pass, drawing more indecent sounds from my mouth. And when he delicately tugged my underwear down, I nearly lost it. My cock wept, desperate to be touched. James knocked my legs apart and knelt between my thighs. “I’ve got you,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the base of my spine.
I arched toward his mouth, his tongue darting out to lick between my cheeks. A dark, rumbling laugh pulled from deep in his chest when I jolted at the action. “I love how responsive you are.”
Words eluded me. I could only answer with another pathetic cry. He flattened his tongue in my crease, trailing a hot, wet path right to my eager hole. I shuddered, his hands spreading me apart for his tongue to ravish my entrance. I rocked against his mouth, chasing more. My fists clenched, body tense with the effort of holding off my orgasm. James ate my ass like a man starved, my panting and his obscene slurping sounds the only ones in the room.
“Please,” I begged when he pulled off.
“Don’t hold back.”
“Then don’t stop!” I cried, halfway to a growl. I was so close, my orgasm tantalizingly out of reach.
A low, guttural groan escaped me as his tongue pushed through. Almost without warning, my orgasm raced down my spine. I came hands free, my release spilling into my boxer briefs and the towel beneath me. James held my hips tight, easing me through every wave. Fatigue quickly took over and as he peeled my underwear off me, I collapsed onto the towel. “I need to shower,” I mumbled, breathless.
“Let me clean you, love.”
Something clattered to the nightstand, and I cracked an eye open to see his chain sitting there. He disappeared into the bathroom, and I heard the water running. He returned and lifted me off the soiled towel, placing me gently on the other side of the bed. He cleaned me with the warm, wet cloth. I felt like I was floating somewhere between consciousness and sleep. I was vaguely aware of James in the room, could hear the sounds of him getting ready for bed, but I couldn’t move. When he got into bed, he lifted me again, settling me on his chest and covering us both with the blanket. He held me, tracing lazy shapes over my back while I began to drift into what would hopefully be a deep sleep.
Until a glass-shattering shriek jolted me awake.
“What the hell?” James groused, covering his sensitive ears. “It’s the middle of the night! Does Carlos really need to sing now?”
“Something’s wrong,” I said, feeling like I had cotton in my mouth. I shook away the sleep fogging my brain. “That’s not his normal howl.”
I scrambled out of bed, fumbling for a pair of sweats on the floor and stepping into them as I ran out of the room. Normally, Carlos would sneak his way over the baby gate and sleep on the couch at night. He never created a mess or destroyed anything, so I pretended not to know about it. So when I found him lying in the middle of the kitchen floor, still emitting that high-pitched scream, I knew something wasn’t right. His cries stopped when I flipped on the light, but he didn’t jump up to greet me like he usually did.
“What’s wrong, boy?” I asked, opening the gate and sitting on the floor next to him.
James appeared behind me in the doorway, keeping his distance. “Is he okay?”
“I don’t know.” I stroked Carlos’s back, wanting to pull him closer to me but not wanting to hurt him further if he was injured. I wasn’t sure what he could have gotten into in the few hours it had been since he came inside. He was panting like it was a hundred degrees in the kitchen. I knew he was part Husky, but he’d never been uncomfortable with the temperature in the house before.
“He’s stopped screaming,” James pointed out. “Come back to bed, love. I’m sure he’s fine.”
“I—” More screaming cut me off, each ear-piercing howl like a shrill cry for help. I felt along his back. Nothing. He let me check his front paws without incident, but when I reached for his back left leg, he nipped at my hand, barely missing my fingers.
“That’s it.” I leapt to my feet and started toward my bedroom again. I was wide awake now. “I’m taking him to the vet.”
It wasn’t until I was dressed and trying to figure out how to get Carlos into the car without hurting him that James halted me in my step. “You’re exhausted, Ryder.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m not going to let him sit there in pain all night.”
“That’s not what I meant.” His hand appeared in front of my face. “Give me the keys. I’ll drive.”
Chapter 20
GettingCarlos into the car meant perfectly timing the cycles of screams. Whatever these spells were, each one that hit broke my heart. I wrangled him into the backseat with his blanket, and the cycle continued for the entire half hour drive to the emergency vet. I tried to comfort him, only to be nipped at every time. After the third bite where he nearly broke the skin, I turned my attention to James. The yelps were hurtingmyears, so they must have been torture for him. However, he relaxed—at least a little bit—when I put my hand on his thigh.
By the time I got Carlos inside the vet’s office and we were taken to the back where I could set him down, my arms felt like noodles. James and I flinched every time Carlos screamed again, and when he whimpered in between episodes I consoled him as much as possible.
I’d never had pets growing up, nor when I moved out on my own. Not only did my studio apartments disallow them, but I spent so much time working that I didn’t have time. The fear I felt in that moment, knowing that something was wrong and I couldn’t fix it, made me appreciate that I’d never had tolosea pet either.
