Page 37 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

I watched, enraptured, as inch by inch of the beautiful woman in front of me was revealed. Miles of skin, flawless and begging to be caressed. She was fuckingperfect.I had no other words for it. From her breasts and the darkened nipples that were already beginning to harden, to her soft stomach and the crease just under her ribs. Her generous ass, those thick thighs that I wanted to sink my teeth into, and those perfectly sculpted calves of hers. She was art through and through, and I was ready toworshipher.

“You’re incredible,” I whispered, reaching out. I was spoiled for choice, and for a moment, I didn’t know where my hand would land. It settled on her cheek, cupping that precious face of hers so I could look into her eyes.

Could she tell how much she affected me? How she made my blood sing in my veins and my inner wolfhowlwith desire? Wild thoughts and passion shot through me, so thick I could almost choke on them, and it was so tempting to simply give in to my baser instincts.

But, no, Ven was not something to be rushed through like the wild animal I had been for so long. She required reverence. Devotion. She was a sermon all to herself, and I wanted to give everything over in supplication.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she whispered, and God, if the huskiness in her voice didn’t go straight to my heart. Or maybe my cock?

Both. Probably both.

“Why don’t we get these clothes off?”

Clothes? Oh, right. Iwasindeed wearing the T-shirt and jeans she’d got me. I moved to rip the shirt off, but Ven stopped me, gripping the bottom of the shirt and gently guiding it over my head. The back of her nails barely scraped my chest, yet it was like some sort of drug had been injected into my veins. I was acutely attuned to her in a way I had never been with someone, and it was dizzying in its ferocity. But I so very much wanted to be consumed by it. By the fire and passion, by the desire and lust. While Ven had most certainly reawakened my humanity, she also easily called upon other desires, both primal and relentless in nature.

Then the shirt was gone, and her hands went to my jeans.

Fuck, her fingers applying the slightest bit of pressure as she popped the button open and unzipped the fly nearly had me losing it right then and there. I wanted to grab her and push her up against the wall in the growing steam surrounding us. Iwantedto ravage her. Wanted to leave her so thoroughly marked and used that anyone who laid a single eye on her would know she was mine.

I didn’t, though.

I knew better.

Although I desired Ven so deeply that it hurt, I understood this moment for what it was. We were two likeminded companions sharing comfort and simply living life like we’d talked about in the cave. Although I could feel myself falling for her and becoming obsessed with every single aspect of her existence, it didn’t mean she felt the same. Far from it.

So, though I wanted more—craved more all the way down to my bones—I wouldn’t be greedy. I would take the moment for what it was and lose myself in the pleasure knowing that it didn’t go any further than that.

“Holy shit,” Ven breathed, bringing me back to the moment as she slid my jeans and underwear down my legs to pool at our feet. I didn’t need to follow her gaze to know exactly where she was looking. My cock was so hard it ached, and I could already feel liquid beading at its straining tip.

“That’s all because of you,” I rumbled, and even I could tell that my voice was less actual tone and more animalistic.

Goosebumps spread out across her flesh in a fascinating wave. Fuck, every aspect of her enraptured me, but when Ven reached down, I caught her hand. Her head snapped up, eyes locking to mine, concern written across her face like she was afraid she’d done something wrong. I smiled as I brought her hand up to my lips and kissed it gently.

“We should step into the shower, yes?”

As much as I wanted her to touch me, as much as I craved it like I did oxygen, I also didn’t want it to be over too soon. Even in the intensity of the moment, I wanted the same intimacy we’d had that first night, exceptmore.BecauseIwas more now. I wasn’t a scared, confused, new human who was just stepping out of curse and didn’t even understand how to live. I was amannow. And a wolf. And an alpha.

“Oh, yeah…” A different sort of pink flooded her cheeks. She was just as affected as I was. Still holding my hand, she carefully stepped into the tub, and I followed her.

The water was delightfully hot, singing along my skin like a Greek chorus championing the moment between us. And by all that was holy, watching the water drip down her gorgeous, curvaceous form was every bit as riveting as I’d thought it would be. Beads of water made a valiant journey over breast, stomach, and hip before falling to join their brethren at her feet.

Finally, I couldn’t resist anymore. I reached out with my free hand and let my fingertips move over her. It was hardly even a touch at first, more like a feather-light ghost of a touch, like I hardly dared for it to be real. But it was real.Venwas real, and so was I in this moment with her.

Her shuddering breath had my length hardening even more between us, to the point where it was almost painful. But I relished it just like I did everything else with Ven, because each and every moment was its own revelation.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had been intimate with someone, but that didn’t matter, because they weren’t Ven. They weren’t the resplendent woman who had captured every part of me so thoroughly.

“The soap,” she whispered, turning away to grab her bodywash and the loofah. It wasn’t the one I’d used. She’d replaced it after scrubbing all the filth off me. She was so constantly thoughtful. I knew money was tight, and she’d let me, a wolf who had butted his way into her life, ruin something so useful to her.

My heart stirred, but somehow I managed to keep my voice steady when I gently took the ball of netting from her. “May I?”

The column of her throat bobbed as she swallowed and nodded.

Perfect.

I’d showered plenty of times since that first instance when Ven had reconnected me to my humanity, and yet there was something so significantly poignant about foaming up the loofah for someone other than myself. I adjusted the nozzle so the majority of the spray fell over Ven’s gorgeous figure until she was nice and wet, then moved it again, so the soap wouldn’t wash away instantly.

I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I touched the loofah to her and let it glide down that incredibly soft skin of hers. It was every bit as silken as I had imagined, and I knew I would never get that out of my head. Not that I wanted to. I planned to burn every moment of our time in the shower together down into the marrow of my bones, so generations to come would have some sort of genetic memory of it.

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