Page 47 of Fixer
He laughed, although not quite solidly, like he still wasn’t sure I was joking, and thumped my shoulder.Well, he was right not to be sure.I wouldn’t blackmail anyone for money for me, but if Wade ever got desperate, Rosswurn wouldn’t know what hit him.“I’ll offer my photo services to the local paper too.Investigative reporting.Second income stream.Anonymously, of course.”
“If you say so.”
“Don’t worry about me.I always land on my feet.”
To my surprise, Wade turned and grabbed me in a tight hug.“You sure do, but I’m going to worry about you now and then all the same.I’m allowed.”
For a moment, I let all the tension of the last three days— of dismantling my home under the eyes of strange wolves who’d want to kill me three ways from Sunday if they knew who I was or what I’d done— melted away in Wade’s arms.I slumped and let him hold me.Comfort like I’d seldom known seeped into my bones.
Until he said, “That might be our cab,” and stepped back.
We rode in silence back to the apartment, other than Wade pointing out the occasional landmark.I tipped the driver well and got out.Except for the one bag, I’d left my stuff in the truck for now.Wade had brought the most important parts of my life back with him three days ago, and they were waiting for me in his apartment.
Mr.Kawashima climbed the front steps slowly ahead of us, and I reached past him to pull the front door.Wade ducked around us and held the inner one open.“Thank you.”The old man peered up at Wade.“Mina tells me that whatever you did seems to have saved my home.Thank you for that too.”
Wade gave him a shocked face.“Me?I didn’t do anything.”But he held a finger to the side of his nose like in that new Paul Newman movieThe Sting.I wanted to grab Wade in a hug.He wasn’t as handsome as Paul, but then almost no men were.Wade was even better, though— protective, and warm-hearted, and damned good to look at, and mine.
Mr.Kawashima laughed at him.“Okay.I get the message.Still, thank you.”
The old man headed down the hallway, and we let ourselves into the stairwell.
“Do you want me to tell them it was your doing that saved the building?”Wade asked as we started climbing.
“God, no.You be the local hero.I’ll be the power behind the throne.”
“Without a throne.”
You could be my Alpha, if you want.I let that idea go until we were out of the stairs, down the hall, through the door, and safely in Wade’s apartment with the lock thrown.“Welcome home,” he said.I turned, about to reply, but Wade grabbed me, kissed me, and all other thoughts fled.
His mouth was paradise, hot and welcoming, his tongue demanding entrance.I wrapped my arms around him and slammed our bodies together, heavy muscle versus lean, my height over his, but his strength answering mine.I remembered that moment outside the phone booth, the realization that I had Wade’s support through bullshit large and small.
I wrenched my mouth away to say, “We need to talk, but first we need to fuck.Like, now.Bedroom?”
“Yes.”
We kissed each other down the short hallway.I swung Wade in my arms so his ass bumped the bedroom door open, and froze.Where his narrow single bed had been now sat a big double, maybe even a king size.
Wade gestured with his chin.“Like it?I paid extra for next-day delivery.”
“You, sir, are a genius.”I nudged him into the room and shut the door behind us.Once I’d closed the curtains, making sure we were safe, I turned back to face him.
Wade was already mostly naked, stepping out of his jeans with his shirt discarded in a heap on the floor, and his shoes kicked over near the door.His erection tented the front of his boxers as he untangled his feet from the denim and tossed the jeans aside.
He still wore socks.I took three strides over to him and dropped to my knees.“Let me help you with those.”
A little frown wrinkle developed between his brows, but he stood still as I slid my hand from his knee down his calf, then lower, taking the sock with it.
“Hand on my shoulder,” I guided him.“Foot up.”I eased the sock off his foot, flicked it over my shoulder, and kissed the inside of his thigh as I set his foot on the floorboards.His scent came richly to me there, so near his groin, and I wanted to wallow in it.Instead, I said, “Other foot,” and adjusted my weight over.When his feet were bare, I took hold of the waistband of his boxers and dragged them down.His cock snagged in the elastic, then sprang free, the head already emerging from its foreskin.
I reached for him, closing my fingers around his shaft.The thickness of him in my hand made my whole body hum.
Wade cupped my head between his hands and tilted my chin so I met his eyes.“I…” He swallowed and licked his lips.
Mate,my wolf noted.Tell him.
The words that had echoed in my heart when he kissed me in my Chicago bathroom, when he hugged me there outside the phone booth, when he welcomed me home in the hallway, rose to my lips.“I love you.”
He threw his head back and laughed.
