Page 54 of A Wolf for Winter

The attic door shut with an echoing thud, and Allen lifted his hand from Lilac’s mouth, the one between her legs continuing to stroke. “I’m right where I need to be.”

When she came for him a second time, this one less violent than the first, Allen dragged his hand away. She half lay, half sprawled in the corner of the bay window, deliciously disheveled. Her chest heaved with long, shuddering gasps, and Allen eased the sweaty locks away from her face. “Good girl,” he murmured.

“What about you?” Her voice was delightfully dreamy, and Allen swelled with pride that he had so thoroughly pleasured her. It was only right for a male to make his mate utterly boneless.

He caught her hand as she reached for his belt and guided it to his mouth for a kiss. “Don’t worry about me.”

There was no way he was going to tell her that he’d ejaculated in his pants like a pubescent boy after only her knee had grazed against him. He’d been celibate for years, never finding anyone he could risk being vulnerable with, and she’d set him off like a hair trigger.

“Next time,” he said, withdrawing his cliché handkerchief.

“You think that was good enough to merit you a next time?” she challenged. Spirits above, he loved how proud and feisty she could be. She gave him that imperious arch of her eyebrow, the effect somewhat lessened from the absolute and delicious wreck she looked.

“Oh my sweet girl,” he replied. “The moment you screamed my name, you guaranteed it.”

She reddened, quivering when he slipped his handkerchief under her dress to dry her off. And perhaps once or twice forget his task so he could make her squeal again.

She swatted him in the arm on the second teasing pass, wiggling upright. He folded the handkerchief around her ruined panties and slipped both into his pocket. “And next time, you might want to bring extra underwear with you,” he said.

His woman held her head up high. “Yes, well, I wouldn’t need extra if you didn’t tear them off like an animal.”

“I’m more a beast than you think,” he said, planting another branding kiss on her mouth.

She kissed him back hard, the whole strength of her heart behind it. “I like it.”

He broke away from her. “You do?”

She nodded, smiling shyly. “There’s something wild about you, Allen. And I want that. You make me feel like when I was a girl running barefoot through the wide-open fields of the estate chasing after the endless blue of the sky. Free. Before I was . . . you know.” Her hands flew to her mouth. “By the Green Mother. What are we going to do? With the others, I mean. This is—”

“None of their business.” He took her hands and kissed her knuckles. “That is a discussion for another day. Didn’t you hear Rose? We have garland to hang. Tinsel, too.”

Lilac giggled.

“And all those huge glass ornaments Rose will break and Boar will yell at her for.”

“You know them so well.”

He shrugged, helping her rise. “They’re almost like family now.”

His woman reached up and cupped his cheek. The intimate gesture felt more wonderful than he was prepared to admit. “Is that what you’d like, Allen? To be part of this family, however crazy and messed-up and neurotic it is?”

Allen gazed down at Lilac, moving her hand to his heart and trapping it there. It would beat only for her now. “Yes, sweet girl. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

While there were still plenty of people ice skating and enjoying the bonfire, the string quartet had moved inside the Hall. Their melody drifted up to the chandelier and through every hall and room, brightening the space even as the sun began to set.

After a quick stop into her room to make herself more presentable, Lilac joined her siblings downstairs for the Hanging of the Green. For the first time in her life, she was thankful for her grandmother’s training. On the outside, she was the definition of quiet composure, but on the inside . . . she was nothing but fireworks. Her happiness was a hot air balloon, brilliantly colored and vast and rising ever higher. She wanted to share her secret with Rose, but she would inevitably blab to Boar, and Lilac wasn’t ready to face her brother quite yet. With any aspect of her life.

So she kept the secret of her elation to herself, controlling her jitters, as they grew the greenery from seed and magic. Garlands and wreaths and kissing balls and mistletoe festooned every inch of the function hall until it resembled an evergreen forest. A massive blue spruce dominated the far right corner between hearth and window, and Yule spiders, beautiful silver arachnids, painstakingly decorated it with their tinsel silk before scuttling back to their little den to feast on a box of ribbon candy and hibernating until next year’s Hanging of the Green. An enchanted kettle popped popcorn on the hearth fire and there was a table mounded with squares of walnut fudge and citrusy Turkish delight.

The ice skaters and spectators drifted in and out of the Hall to get warm, mingle, sample the confections, and generally ooh and aah over the decorations the Hawthornes grew. Lilac noted Prue Stonewell, looking sour as she sampled the Turkish delight; Talia, Darren Morton, and Rose all chatting like old friends; Edith tapping her cloven feet in time to the music. Lilac had been quick to greet the little faun, gushing her gratitude and promising to reveal a most interesting development. Even Sam Barley was here. The pub owner had stolen an hour or two away from the Cat & Cauldron to enjoy a quick lap around the pond and a nice block of decadent fudge.

Despite the hustle and bustle, she couldn’t take her eyes off Allen. A thrill coursed through her every time he winked when he caught her watching him. She wet her lips, remembering the feel of his shoulders tensing as he pleasured her, the kisses that left her pulse zinging, the smell of his sweat mixing with the cologne, the golden glow in his eyes as he’d watched her erupt. And, Green Mother help her, the feel of his cock hard and thick in her hand, straining against the fabric of his pants. Her thighs clenched at the memory of it all, seeking more of the friction he’d so generously given her.

“Eyes on your work, sweet girl,” he teased as he passed by with another armful of wood. “Your garland is sagging.”

Rose looked like she was just about to say the same thing, so Lilac straightened it hastily with a quick wave of her glowing green hand.