Page 13 of Betrayed By the Wolf

Rami started to stroke himself, giving in to the dream.

“I know you want to touch me,” she’d say, pressing herself against him. “And just this once, I’ll let you.”

Her voice was so real, her taunting, bratty tone in his ear.

“We shouldn’t,” he groaned aloud, but in his mind, he was already reaching for her, wrapping his arm around her waist.

He bent to take her nipple in his mouth, tugging it with his teeth into a hard peak. Memory mixed with fantasy. He knew the sounds she made when he caressed her, and he could hear them now, her eager little gasps driving him on.

It was her hand on his cock, tugging him closer and closer to the edge. She’d slide closer until her pussy was pressed against his dick, until he could feel the slick heat of her when she started to rock back and forth against him. Her teasing look would fall away as her own pleasure started to build, bucking her hips, her tits bouncing, her eyes half-lidded.

“But you want to,” she’d moan, tilting her hips until the head of his dick was pressed to her entrance. “Don’t you?”

More than anything. He was close now, picturing the way she’d bite her lip and wait for him to lose control. Vera was a tease. She’d sit there and let him feel how wet she was for him, daring him to push inside when he knew he shouldn’t.

Maybe she’d slide a little closer until he could feel the pressure of her tight pussy squeezing him. Rami could feel it, like it was more than his own hand around him, like she was there in the shower, needy and mewling for him.

“Oh fuck, Vera.” His muscles clenched, and cum shot from his cock, spattering the floor of the shower.

Rami dropped his head against the tile and waited for his heartbeat to slow, for the vision of Vera to clear. But his release hadn’t purged the desire for her from his system.

He cleaned himself off and twisted the faucet to off, stepping out into the steamed-up room. The real thing was down there in the kitchen, half-naked, and was still the only woman he desired. Maybe he could’ve handled that. But the real thing still had his heart, and that was another thing altogether.

Vera with her schedules and data and her secret soft side. Vera with her fingers laced through his, her eyes shining when she looked up at him from the passenger seat. Vera with her complications.

If only they could’ve kept avoiding each other, none of this would have been a problem. Thoughts of her wouldn’t be driving to distraction, to jerking off in the shower like a teenage boy again because he’d seen a woman in herpajamas,for fuck’s sake. But the curse had made it impossible to let her out of his sight. She was his mate, dammit, and he’d keep her safe. Even if her teasing and her temptations drove him mad.

Maybe he could take a page of Vera’s book. He went to his bedroom and pulled a sheet of paper and a pen from his desk. They had to live together for now, but he could adjust things so that the time they actually spent together was minimal. That’d leave less time for his heart to get any stupid ideas about getting back together with her.

Drawing lines on the paper—not perfectly straight, and he was positive Vera’s eye would twitch at that—he filled in the schedule with alternating time blocks, leaving them each some time in the house. He’d get the early morning hours, and she’d get the evenings. They’d split the weekend.

She’d probably color code it and make them each a copy, top it off with some of those little Post-it notes. Rami pulled on a flannel button-down and a faded pair of jeans, hoping they’d have the same effect as a suit of armor. He needed protection for that woman.

Schedule in hand, he jogged down the stairs. Vera was bottle-feeding Jessa at the kitchen table, and the morning light was casting them both in bronze. His foot stuttered on the last step.

“There you are.” Vera cast a glance over her shoulder at him, one perfectly plucked eyebrow arched. “Good shower? Do a lot of thinking in there?”

He ignored her, stooping to kiss Jessa on her forehead. She smelled like milk and sugar, her bleary little eyes blinking up at him in recognition. Every time he saw her, it felt like his chest would burst. How his heart expanded so quickly, his life rearranging so that he couldn’t imagine she’d ever not been a part of it.

“I made this.” Rami set the schedule down on the table in front of her and stepped back to let her read it.

“Have you heard of a ruler?” Her nose wrinkled cutely in disgust at the wobbles in his lines, as he’d known it would. “What is this?”

She frowned, and it deepened the longer she read.

“A schedule.”

Jessa drained the last of the milk from the bottle. Vera tossed the empty bottle at him, and he caught it, droplets of formula dribbling over his fingers.

“You do realize I live here now, right?” She grabbed her clipboard from the far side of the table and set it down on top of Rami’s makeshift schedule, jotting down her latest feeding notes in Jesse’s schedule.

“Yes, and this will help us minimize the amount of time we actually spend together while still making sure that Jessa is cared for. It’s a perfect solution to the problem.”

“And what is the problem, exactly?” Her tone had gone dangerous. If she were a snake, her tail would be rattling.

Rami plowed on anyway. “You. You’re around, and you’re just distracting me.”

Her laugh was cold, disbelieving. “You hired me, Rami. If you didn’t want me around, maybe you should have decided that before telling me I had to take the job. Remember that? You pleaded with me to take it.”

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