Page 13 of Harvest

Xander held up his hand. “Not now, Nic. I don’t have time. But I swear to you it will be all right.” Turning to the bartender, he said, “Annabeth?”

“Sir?”

“How long has Stephanie been gone?”

“Not long… maybe an hour and a half? She seemed kind of freaked. I was surprised. All of the other subs you’ve ever played with come down very gently from subspace.”

“Watch how you speak to me, Annabeth,” he growled, annoyed with himself when she recoiled. “I’m sorry Annabeth; it’s not your fault. Stephanie is upset with me and slipped out while I was asleep.”

“Oh, that makes more sense, and I apologize for what I said. It’s just all the subs here adore you because you always ensure the experience for them is wonderful. I helped her into her corset when she came in; she seemed really nice.”

“Did she come down ninety minutes ago or was that when she left the club?”

“Came down. She probably scooted out the back door a little more than an hour ago. Is everything all right?”

Xander pulled Annabeth close and kissed her temple. “Everything is fine. Thanks for helping her and for forgiving me my bad temper.”

Xander headed into the men’s lounge and grabbed his sweater, not wanting to take the time to get redressed completely into street clothes.

Shit! Shit! Shit!She thought. This could not be happening. Stephanie neither wanted nor needed a mate—fated or not. She had a new life that excited her, and she didn’t need to be under some wolf’s paw.

Did she want to be mated to a Dom who was also a wolf? Talk about living the lifestyle twenty-four seven. No, she liked to control her need to submit. Was that topping from the bottom? She didn’t like to think so, and at the moment, she didn’t care. She was just a she-wolf who liked to control her own life.

She had never subbed out so easily as she had when he’d tied her to the cross. The sensory deprivation imposed on her with the ear buds and blindfold had been intense and had forced her to focus on the sensations created by his floggers. Master Alex had been right, he knew what he was doing. Not only had she slipped easily into subspace, but she had climaxed not once but twice while he was flogging her.

Stephanie shook her head to clear it of the images and feelings that arose from what had happened afterwards. She’d had a man go down on her before, but she hadn’t allowed herself any kind of sexual interaction since she’d been turned. She had played at Dante’s but had never allowed sex to be part of her aftercare. Her sister had said the feelings were far more intense… she’d been right.

She’d never come just from oral or just from penetration. Like a lot of women, she needed some manual stimulation to push her over the edge. Alex had proved to be a master in thesack as well. She’d climaxed twice when they were in bed as well, neither time without anything more than his tongue or his cock. His cock, now that was a thing of beauty. It was large… larger than anything she’d ever seen with a plum-shaped head. It seemed to defy gravity as it jutted away from his body and pointed to his belly. It had been a tight fit, but the man knew how to use what his mama had given him. Over and over, he’d driven into her until she climaxed. Only then had he allowed himself a release.

She was grateful the Jeep had a navigation system with the vineyard programmed into it. Did Damian know him? Would he offer her protection or was Master Alex right that if he could prove he was her fated mate, the Alpha of theLuna de Lobopack would give her up? There was no doubt he could prove it. Her whole body had responded when he’d called to her. The worst possible scenario was that the powerful wolf was a member of her new pack. What then? If he was and made it known they were a fated pairing, would Damian allow him to claim her without her consent? Surely, that couldn’t be the case.

Stephanie pulled into the driveway of the enormous estate. She realized she’d been driving along its western border for several miles. Before she could locate some kind of intercom system, the stately gates swung open and she breathed a sigh as she drove through and proceeded up to the house.

Standing in the light on the front steps was a young man, about her age, who waved his hand in greeting. Stephanie parked the car, turned it off and then got out. She’d made the decision to pick up her bag at the hotel before leaving the city.

“Stephanie? I’m Evan. We weren’t expecting you until tomorrow.”

“I couldn’t sleep so I decided I might as well come ahead. If the gates hadn’t opened or you weren’t here, I would have just waited. Wait, what are you doing up?”

“Same as you… couldn’t sleep. I saw the Jeep coming up the drive on the security cameras so had them open the gates.”

She wasn’t sure she believed him, but as she was lying to him, she couldn’t very well criticize or challenge him on it.

“Leave the car there and I’ll show you to your room.”

Grabbing her bag, she followed him inside and up the stairs to the second floor. It wasn’t the massive baroque mansion of the DeMedici villa, but there was a beautiful, casual style that spoke to her. If wolves knew their mates, maybe they also knew their home. Not that she’d ever felt unsettled in Italy, but as she entered the house it was as though she and the big house took a deep sigh of relief and exhaled it together.

“Are you hungry?” Evan asked.

“No, I’m fine. Just exhausted. I think the trip just caught up with me,” she answered as he showed her into an enormous room.

It seemed a bit masculine, but not overly so. She rather imagined that she could change things out over time to suit her better. She set her bag down on the bench at the end of the bed.

“If you don’t need me, I think I’ll rejoin my mate.”

“I’m fine and thank you.”

Doing nothing more than removing her clothes, Stephanie crawled naked into the massive bed and was asleep before her head even hit the pillow.

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