Page 133 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
“We’re here now,” Oz said kindly.
“You are. Thank you.” Then to Lila: “I’m in your debt for the rest of my life. If you ever need anything, call me first.”
“Can’t I just come see you? I feel like things get lost in translation when we rely on phones.”
“Anytime. So what’s next?”
“Sally’s safe with my foster mother,” Oz said. “She doesn’t know we came for you. We weren’t sure what shape you’d be in.”
“Feels like I haven’t seen her in years,” Sam said, his voice suddenly rough as tears welled but didn’t fall. “I’ve got so much to tell her.”
“We’ve a lot t’tell you as well, Sam. The first of which is that the bastards who killed your wife are dead or wishing they were.”
“Ah, that’s the Maggie I was counting on.” Sam let out a sigh and settled in. “Tell it all, my friend. And don’t leave out the bloody parts. Wendy!”
Footsteps, and then she poked her head into the room. “Yeah, Sam?”
“We all know you’ve been eavesdropping in the hall.”
“I didn’t know,” Lila confessed.
“Aw, c’mon, how could I not? I’ve put up with a hurt shapeshifter in my house for a week and all of a sudden a bunch of his shapeshifter friends show up? I’d have been crazynotto listen in.”
“Agreed. Want to hear all the stuff that brought these guys to your farm before I go?”
“Kelly’s gonna be mad if you’re gone when she gets home,” Wendy warned. “You were supposed to binge season ten ofMartha Bakestonight.”
“Jesus wept. If these guys hadn’t shown up, I’d still be leaving today. Somehow.”
“That’s the spirit, you old grump,” Wendy said, and brought in more chairs.
Chapter 58
“Jesus.” Lila sat up, brushing kernels off her belly and thighs. “Popcorn got everywhere.”
“Don’t care. Can’t move.”
They were in the movie palace, and Oz was sprawled, nude, on the blanket Lila had put down between the middle section and the nosebleed seats. Even though she was ridiculously sated, she couldn’t look at him with anything but satisfaction. The long legs and big hands and feet had been accurate indicators of a big cock. One he knew how to use, which was just…delightful.
“I love your new math,” he said dreamily, and she laughed.
Sam and Sally had been reunited a couple of days ago, the very definition of bittersweet: delighted to see her father, devastated to hear about her mother. They both needed to recover from their traumas, which wasn’t the work of a day, or a year. They said their goodbyes and went home, and Macropi had made it clear that he and his daughter were welcome visitors to the big purple house.
With that last bit of business tied up, Lila decided that Oz spending nights on her couch counted as dates, and hanging out together counted as dates, and eating breakfast in her kitchen counted, and inadvertently meeting at the dance academy where she shot a man counted. And snuggle sessions in the Cocoa Cave.
“It wasn’t new math. I just wanted to get laid,” she teased.
“Happy to help. No. Delighted. Ecstatic. That’s the one—ecstatic to help.”
It didn’t seem real, in all the best ways. Having wonderful sex—and how often is a first time wonderful? honestly?—in an empty movie palace was a fantasy, something you’d read about on an erotica website, nothing that could happen in real life.
But it had. Ohhhhh, boy, it had. She shivered, remembering Oz’s mouth and fingers and cock, his tender, passionate skill, and her delighted response. She’d asked before. It had been on her mind, and she wouldn’t pretend otherwise.
Sure, Lila.Are you worried I’ll hurt you? Never in my life. But yeah, I’ve been with a Stable before. College and a couple of years ago. Have you been with a Shifter?
Not that she knew of. But then, how could she? She wouldn’t have known what to look for.
You haven’t,he decided.A Shifter wouldn’t have let you go.
