Page 77 of Frank's Felon
“Oh, he didn’t say anything That’s just it. Frank shut up. Which means there’s a story there, a reason you hate the name Lily so much. And you’re not telling me because you’re protecting me. I have news for you,Delilah, you don’t need to protect me anymore. I’m all grown up. Been through a hell of my own with the WSSO. Now I have a mate and a new pack. Plenty of shifters around to protect me. What I don’t have is a sister who trusts me enough with the truth.”
“I trust you.”
“Just like you trust Frank?”
He knew all there was to know about her already. She trusted Frank more than anyone. That realization shocked her. “More,” Delilah confessed. She lifted her eyes, expecting to see hurt in Tess’s eyes. But Tess was smiling.
“I’m glad you’re at least honest with yourself. If you love him, Delilah, and I think you do, don’t walk away from him because you think you’re protecting him. It’s what you did with me, years ago, isn’t it? Even when you were home, you weren’t fully there.”
Is that what she had been doing with Frank? Pushing him away to protect him? Delilah approached Tess. “It’s time I told you everything,” she said as she hugged her sister. “But later, if that’s okay?”
“Go find Frank. I think he needs you as much as you need him, Delilah.”
Delilah opened the door. “I don’t like being called Lily. Except by you. It has a different meaning from you, Tess. But only you.”
* * *
FRANK
As soon as Enid showed up to take over patrolling his section, Frank raced home to Aloe’s house and quickly dressed. He needed to check on Delilah. His wolf was going nuts inside, as was he. He would have stayed by Delilah’s side the entire time, except Damien kicked him out. It seemed as if the alpha was doing everything he could to come between Frank and Delilah. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Tess promised to stay with Delilah, Frank would have refused the order, possibly gotten into a fight with Damien.
He was having trouble looking at his alpha without the urge to strike out at him. That damn oath was like a five hundred pound weight around his neck. He was a prisoner to his oath as much as he had been a prisoner to the humans. That angered him, too much to control much longer.
Beyond his anger for Damien and his frustration with Delilah, Frank was scared. Agent Sloan was returning tomorrow, and Damien still hadn’t said he’d protect Delilah. He only said he wasworking on it. Meanwhile, Delilah was still unconscious. There was no way Frank could carry her out and get away. Even if he stole the pack’s truck, Damien would track him down. The only option he could see was to challenge Damien—which his wolf was pushing him to do.
Frank’s wolf saw Damien as a threat to his mate. He was right, but this was Frank’s alpha. To challenge him. . . Frank wasn’t sure he could bring himself to kill Damien. Damien had been more than an alpha, but a brother to him foryears. Even if Frank could defeat Damien, what then? If he killed Tess’s blood-bond, he endangering her life. Blood-bonded mates that survived their mate’s death often succumbed to death soon after, or lost themselves to the shock and sudden severing of the bond, becoming a shell of the shifter they were before. He couldn’t do that to Tess, and not just because she was Delilah’s sister. Tess held a special place in his heart. Hell. . . Damien did too.
“Frank?”
Frank peered down the steps. “Del!”
Delilah was still standing inside the door. Frank raced down the steps, pulled her into his arms, and buried his nose in her hair. Her unique scent of vanilla bean and flowers filled his lungs as he breathed her in. Then she was kissing him, her tongue prodding his lips, seeking entry.
His hand cupped the back of her head and then slid to the base of her neck, holding her there as he stared at her. She couldn’t move the way he held her, and perhaps that was the point of holding her so tightly, to keep her from ever leaving him.
How many hours had he sat by her bedside wondering, worrying that she’d never wake? In all those years in prison, in isolation, or alone in his cell with no word from home, he had never felt as helpless as by her bedside. But here she was, standing before him, her eyes seeking him as if she needed him as much as he needed her.
And yet she wouldn’t blood-bond him.
“Frank. . .”
“No talking.” No, he wouldn’t have her tell him she planned on turning herself in tomorrow. Right now was their time together, no matter what tomorrow brought.
He slid her jean jacket off, then peeled her shirt and bra from her. At some point he must have kicked the front door shut for he had her up against it as he drew a breast into his mouth. He loved circling the hard tip of her breast, drawing that needy moan from her.
“Upstairs,” he managed to say as he switched to her other breast.
“I’ve had enough of beds,” she said.
The sofa was right there. He could take her over the back so easily, but she was still recovering. His Delilah who was tougher than nails—and would deny it with gusto—deserved pampering. For as much as his cock was already throbbing to be inside her, he wouldn’t rush this.
Her hands gently gripped his shoulders for balance as she lifted one leg then the other while he removed her boots and jeans. There was a trust in the way she touched him, and in the way she let him touch her, take her, without objecting to anything. “No panties again?”
“You like?”
He didn’t hide his grin. “I’m starting to appreciate the benefits.”
As his hand slid down her curvy ass, his fingers dipped between her lower cheeks. He had yet to take her there. His gaze drifted upward to catch the wry note of challenge in her face. She wasn’t convinced, but she wasn’t saying no either. Another time then. He needed to show her how important she was to him.
