Page 26 of A Wolf in the Garden

I shrug. “It has more stretch than a human tongue, that’s all.”

She shakes her head, leaning forward to kiss my chest, and I wrap my arms around her, tracing circles on her damp skin.

“Hmm, you smell so good,” she murmurs, peppering my skin with kisses, her fingers running down my stomach, and lower, until they dance over my now fully-swollen knot. “I want to do more with you,” she says, “sooner rather than later.” My cock jerks at her touch, a final bead of cum leaking from the tip, which she gathers on her thumb, smearing it over the head. “I knew about this,” she adds quietly, squeezing my knot enough to make me hiss with pleasure, “but none of those websites mentioned the tongue thing. That’s awholenew definition to the term ‘eaten out’.”

“It doesn’t freak you out? The version of me you knew before… there was a lot that I had to hide,” I admit.

There’s a small frown on her face as she looks back up at me, but she shakes her head. “That would make me and my pointy ears hypocrites, don’t you think? But I do want to talk about it. About you, and me, and us.”

“Yes,” I agree. “Wedefinitelyneed to talk about you.”

“Hmm.” She wraps her arms around my neck, pulling me down for a kiss, and I find the fact that she’s tasting herself on my tongue incredibly sexy.

“Fuck, Ellie,” I growl, biting gently at the skin of her neck. “I want to fuck you, but if I fuck you, I will want to knot you, and to do that I want us to be horizontal, at least for the first time. Besides, I think you’ve been holding up incredibly well, but I can tell you’re exhausted.”

She sighs, not even bothering to deny it. “Let’s finish up in here, then.”

* * *

I’ve got one leg in my pair of grey sweatpants when Ellie asks, “Do you have a comb I could borrow? If I don’t brush this now, it’s going to be a knotty mess.”

My lips twitch at her phrasing — amongst wolvesknotty messmeans something else entirely — but I nod, pulling on my pants before going to grab her a comb from the bathroom, leaving her to pick out a t-shirt to wear from my single set of drawers. I’ve already explained to her that I’m still unpacking, hence the sad state of my bedroom, all blank walls and nothing but a big bed, a nightstand, and a dresser to fill it.

When I return, I stop in the doorway as she spins to face me, wearing a ridiculous grin on her face. “Seriously?” I ask, looking her up and down. In nothing but my black t-shirt, which hangs down to mid-thigh, she looks both cute and sexy, but the slogan on the shirt is ridiculous.

“You’re the one that owns this!” she laughs, holding out the fabric as if to emphasise the text that readsTHIS IS MY HUMAN COSTUME.

“Lacey gave it to me as a joke.”

She laughs again, shaking her head. “That sounds like something she’d do.” Her smile falters a little. “You said she flies in next week, right? Does she know that we… bumped into each other again?”

“Is that what we’re calling it now?” I joke, and she rolls her eyes. “I know, I know, this is serious. I told her last week that I’d seen you again and that I’m hiring you. She’s going to buy into the vineyard at some point in the next six months, she just needs to settle in first. So out of courtesy I wanted to let her know that I’d hired you but also as her brother… Ellie, you were her best friend for so many years. She loves you. Like me she feels incredibly guilty and sorry about the way things worked out. But she said she’s really looking forward to seeing you again, if that’s what you want.”

Ellie nods, turning to look out the window, her voice thick as she says “I want that.”

I hesitate, not really knowing what else to say, this sudden change in the conversation an immediate mood killer, for all that it’s important stuff to discuss.

“We’re in an awkward place, aren’t we?” Her voice is quiet as she continues to stare out at the sea view. “There’stonsthat we need to talk about and work through, and other stuff that maybe it would be nice to just tiptoe around for a while longer. But then there’s all this shit that happened to me today, and on top of that, this insane chemistry between us that we are obviously terrible at ignoring.”

“I don’t think the chemistry is a bad thing.”

“I agree; it’s awonderfulthing. And I… I feel so comfortable around you, Van. I know you feel the same. It’s so easy when we’re together. You’re still the same, you know? There’s so many years between us but that core personality…”

“You haven’t changed,” I agree. “We haven’t changed. We’re stillus.”

“I read your letter this morning, obviously. It feels likewaylonger ago than that; this day honestly feels like it’s gone on forever just because of what’s happened, but I appreciate everything you said. I cried. A lot.”

“I thought you might,” I admit. “I didn’t want to make you cry but I…”

“You had to say all of that, I know. I get it.” She lets out a rueful little laugh. “Maybe I should write you a letter.”

“Maybe you should.”

She shakes her head again, and I cross the room, wrapping my arms around her. She leans back, into me, lacing her fingers with mine and bringing the back of my hand to her mouth, kissing gently. “Maybe I will one day. Right now I don’t feel like there’s time. We should be talking about what happened at the beach today.”

“We should. But to do that, we need to talk about you first.” I trace the outline of her ear, so different from a human’s. “I’m embarrassed that I didn’t pick up on this.”

“Don’t be; I’ve become an expert in hiding it in the last two years.”

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