Impulse

Chapter Twelve

The distinctive beep of a truck backing up echoed across the clearing, and Julio sidestepped a mound of freshly dug earth to greet Sydney. “Everything going smoothly?”

“Like magic.” Arms crossed, Sydney surveyed the bubbling activity in the heart of his domain with an expression torn between excitement and dumbfounded shock. “Alec Jacobson’s better than Santa Claus. Shows up, dumps a few grand worth of trailers on us, eats a couple dozen cookies and disappears back north.”

More like a few hundred grand, though Sydney probably knew the exact amount, down to the dollar. Julio eyed the clearing, as well as the new dirt paths meandering out into the forest.

Gone were the tents and old, leaky campers, replaced by a cluster of new single and doublewide trailers. “Will it be enough room until the others get set up?”

“Hell yeah.” Sydney nodded to the nearest trailer, which was already set up and buzzing with activity. “Four bedrooms and a living room with plenty of space to curl up. Jacuzzi tubs too. I think Patty’s jealous.”

Sera’s laughter drifted out of an open window. She’d disappeared into the newly finished trailer with Patty, an antique sewing machine and an army of teenage wolves who popped out the front door from time to time on various errands. Sydney watched with an indulgent smile as the latest girl hopped down the temporary stairs and dashed for the house, a list clutched in one hand. “Patty’s going to miss your girl too. You promise to bring her back for a visit, huh?”

Julio nodded through the sharp stab of longing. Sera had a life, for Christ’s sake, and she’d likely be busy the next time he had to drive over. “Yeah, absolutely. Whenever she wants to come.”

“Good.” His smile faded. “I know you have to hit the road tonight. I’m not friends with many of the rich wolves in the Southeast, but I’m on speaking terms with most of the poorer alphas in southern Alabama and Georgia. Word about what you did here’s likely to spread. What should I tell them when they call?”

The need was there, not only in Sydney’s pack, but in others as well. “I have money,” Julio mused aloud. “Most of it used to be my uncle’s, so it’s only fitting I redistribute some of it. If they call you, pass on the number to council headquarters. We may have to start inviting people out there to tell us what they need.” Especially if Alec was going to be back in New Orleans, like he’d said.

Sydney chuckled. “Oh, I’m sure most of them already have the number. But I can let them know it’s time to start using it.”

“If I don’t manage to convince them myself. My driving tour’s not over yet.”

“You’ll probably do it, at that.” Sydney clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re a good man, Mendoza. A strong wolf, but a good man. If you ever need anything…I’ll fight for you. We all will.”

The words reminded him of his mother. You’re more than a wolf, Julio. You’re a man. She’d always said it so seriously, with a gravity he never appreciated until stepping into the challenge circle in pursuit of his council seat. You’re both, so don’t you ever let them make you choose.

“Fighting’s the last thing I want,” he told Sydney, “but I appreciate it. And I’ll keep it in mind.”

“You do that. And while you’re always welcome in our home and among our pack, I won’t be offended if you bundle your girl up and go find someplace less crowded to spend the night.

There’s a nice little place over in Destin. Patty said Sera might like the restaurant there.”

“No, your people need to settle in. The longer I’m here, the more uncertain they’re bound to get about what I’ve done and why.”

A bit of tension in the other man’s shoulders eased, maybe at not being forced to say as much himself. “They’re grateful, don’t ever think they’re not. And you having Sera and her being so happy… That’s mostly kept the women from wondering what you’ll ask of them in return. But change comes hard.”

And for good reason, considering the sorts of things his uncle had likely coerced from them in addition to their money. “Then it’s time for us to split. But we’ll see you and Patty soon, Syd. If not here, then in New Orleans, all right?”

“You bet. Now go get your girl.” Sydney nodded toward the trailer with an amused noise.

“And get a hotel room before one of you gets bit by something poisonous because you’re rolling around naked in the woods every night.”

Julio ignored the jibe because it was true, but the place was so damn crowded, who could blame him for wanting to run off into the woods to be alone with Sera? He walked up beside the makeshift steps and leaned his head in the open door. “You finished sewing curtains yet?”

“We’re getting there.” Sera grinned at him over the head of the high-school-aged wolf seated in front of the sewing machine. The whole living room was covered in plastic bags from a local fabric store, and Sera had to hop over a bolt of fabric to reach the door. “You ready to start packing?”

“I thought I’d handle it while you finished up here.”

She reached down to smooth his hair back from his forehead, fingers lingering at his temple.

“All right. You know which way we’re headed yet?”

Any place but Atlanta, considering that Alec had warned him to steer clear of Cesar and his father for the time being. “Tennessee? The mountains are nice, and there’s a pack in Sevierville we could visit.”

“Sounds perfect.” She touched his lips briefly before straightening. “I’ll start saying my goodbyes.”

For a moment, he wanted nothing more than to drag her back against him. But no matter how great things had been for them, for her, amongst Sydney’s pack, it wasn’t where they belonged.

And it was time to go.

The hotel turned out to be a wood-shingled New England-style building with Victorian furnishings. Sydney had apparently called ahead, and the man behind the desk favored Sera with a broad smile as he handed over their keys.

“Looks like you’re the belle of the Florida panhandle,” Julio murmured teasingly as they stepped into the elevator.

“Queen of the redneck shifters,” she replied just as lightly. “It’s different. Not bad, but weird.”

“If it’s not bad, does that make it a good weird?”

“Maybe.” She cuddled close to his side, her fingers tracing absently along his belt. “I always knew wolves could see past the coyote thing if they had a reason to get to know me. I guess a lot of them never had one before. But none of them wanted to piss you off.”

As usual, she was selling herself short—and giving him far too much credit for something he hadn’t done. “It was you, Sera. They might have been polite in deference to me, but that’s it.”

Instead of arguing, she gave in with a laugh. “Okay, maybe. But that’s partly the submissive thing too. All other things being equal, the stronger a shifter is, the more they’re going to want to take care of me. It gives me an unfair advantage.”

And it bothered her. “Want me to ask them to leave you alone? Back home, I mean?”

The elevator door slid open, and she tugged him out into the hallway before answering. “No.

If someone needs me… Anna does, sometimes, and Miguel too. If they need to spend time with me because my magic helps them feel calmer, I don’t want to take that away.”

“But?”

Even though the hall was empty, she didn’t answer until he’d opened the door and led her into the suite. She pushed it closed in silence and locked it for good measure, then turned to face him. “I need to belong to you. It scares me a little and it makes you feel like a jackass. But pretending it’s not there won’t change it.”

Everything she said was true—including the part about the futility of denial. “It’s different,” he said finally. “If I know you need it, I mean. If I don’t have to wonder whether I’m forcing you without realizing it.”

She wet her lips, looking almost nervous. “I promise I won’t let you force me without realizing it. If you’re taking away the choice I want to make, I promise I’ll tell you. I just need you to promise to listen.”

To what she wasn’t saying as well as what she was. “I can do that.”

Her shoulders relaxed a little, but she didn’t push away from the door. “I get off on the dominance in bed, and on you letting everyone know I’m yours. Those are easy. It’s the life parts that always tangle me up.”

Julio held out his hand. “So we take it as it comes.”

A smile played at the edge of her lips. Teasing. Mischievous. “You could take me as I come.”

The wicked smile may as well have been a hand around his dick. Julio stifled a growl and arched an eyebrow. “Sera.”

Without looking away, she slipped her fingers over his, and he twisted his hand and closed it around hers.

She wanted to belong to him, and there was no better way to show her she did.

“When do you want dinner?” he asked casually.

“Whenever.” Her lips twitched. “Later, unless you’re hungry right now.”

“No, I think I want to stay in for a while.”

Sera laughed and spun, turning toward their joined hands so that his arm ended up around her when her back thumped against his chest. “Finally, I get you to myself. No fathers or sisters or needy alphas or precogs with gambling problems.”

“Not all of which was actually my fault,” he murmured against the curve of her neck.

“People need you.” She tilted her head forward, and her braids slipped over her shoulders to bare the back of her neck. “I don’t mind sharing you, as long as I get time like this, too.”

“You mean like…this?” He breathed the last word just before closing his teeth on the delicate line of her spine.

“Exactly this.” Her body melted against him, a trembling mix of soft submission and eager anticipation. “Now you know why I picked two braids instead of one.”

“You think ahead. I like that.” Julio slid one hand around her to splay on her stomach. She was sweet against him, yielding and warm.

And for once, not in a hurry. Her frantic impatience had disappeared, leaving a woman who rocked back against him with a satisfied moan but didn’t try to hurry him. “I think about your mouth on my throat. Or your hand. I think about you touching me so often my brain’s like a nonstop porno.”

“Now you sound like me.”

“Good.” She traced her fingers over the back of his hand before twisting to kiss his jaw. “Can this be the one where the alpha wolf lets his hot-as-fuck possessive and bossy side out to play?”

“Depends.” On whether she was ready. On whether he was.

She pressed her forehead to his jaw. “Only if you want to.” The quiet words were tiny.

Vulnerable. “It’s empty if it’s not about both of us needing it. Don’t ever give me more than you really want.”

It had never been about a lack of desire, not ever. Julio nudged her head up and kissed her slowly. “How far, darling? Tell me now.”

She didn’t answer right away, and she didn’t tell him anything. He watched her consider the question seriously, and after a moment she gave a serious answer. Not one meant to tease or sound sexy, but a quiet drawing of boundaries. “Light bondage, spanking and rough sex are fine. I don’t like degradation as much. I don’t mind experimenting with pain, but maybe not tonight.”

“No pain.” It wasn’t his thing, and he’d never been into name-calling or punishment. “Bring me your makeup bag. Show me what you bought the other day when you thought I wasn’t paying attention.”

She blushed almost as red as her hair and ducked under his arm to get to the luggage.

“Maybe I was thinking ahead.”

“To what?” He caught her around the waist, held her bent over and lowered his voice to a rumbling growl. “Me fucking your ass?”

“Yes.” Her tank top slipped toward her shoulders, revealing pale, freckled skin and the lacy edge of the same pale-green bra he’d seen before. She wiggled, grinding back against him as she tugged the shirt over her head. “Don’t tell me you haven’t been thinking about it.”

He edged his hand under the back waistband of her shorts, smoothing his fingers over the swell of her ass. “I have.”

“Now?” She sounded breathless as she tore open her suitcase and surfaced with her makeup bag. “You want it now?”

“Not yet.” She had to be ready, because he wasn’t about to hold back, not this time. “I want your mouth.”

“Yeah?” Another wiggle. “Can’t put my mouth anywhere interesting from here.”

He slapped her ass. “I could.”

Sera whimpered her arousal and pushed up on her toes. Her movements practically begged for him to slap her again, but she didn’t say anything as she clutched at her makeup bag, her fingers tight around the handle.

He let her straighten. “Show me what’s in there.”

The top unzipped, and she held the bag open to reveal a jumble of makeup containers and hair elastics. Her birth control pills were tucked into the left pocket. The right one was stuffed full of condoms.

Blushing, she tugged open an interior zipper to reveal a third storage space holding a slim vibrator and a full bottle of lube.

The blush was adorable, and the rest of it… Julio pulled the vibrator and the small bottle from the case and dropped them on the bed. “Want to help me undress?”

Sera tossed the bag to the floor and followed it down, ending up on her knees in front of him wearing her tiny shorts, lacy bra and the wickedest smile he’d ever seen curve her lips. She got both hands around his belt and lifted her gaze to his. “You never make me feel dirty for what I want.”

“Why should you?” He leaned down to unhook her bra, then slipped his hands under the lace to palm her delectable breasts. “I want the same stuff.”

Her nipples drew tight against his palms, and her head fell back. She got his belt open, but her fingers fumbled with the button. “Fuck.”

“Slow.” He pulled his hands free, taking her bra too. Once he’d slipped it from her arms, he tilted her chin up. “We’ve got all night.”

She laughed and nuzzled his hand. “Maybe I’m just that excited about blowing you.”

“That’s a flattering possibility.”

“It should be.” This time her nimble fingers conquered the button on his fly with a minimum of fumbling, and she guided the zipper down without looking away from his eyes. “And it’s true.

You wouldn’t believe the daydreams you’ve starred in, baby.”

Julio thrust against her hands, challenging her. “Show me.”

She left his jeans hanging open and pressed her open mouth to his erection, breath hot through the fabric of his boxers. Before he could react her fingers hooked under the waistband, and she freed his cock with an appreciative moan. “You still want slow?”

Her breath blowing over him raised goose bumps on his arms, and he delivered a sharp tug to one of her braided pigtails. “You’ll need the time.”

In response she licked him, her unwavering gaze locked on his as she dragged her tongue up his shaft with every indication of blissful enthusiasm.

The wet heat combined with the look in her eyes dragged a moan from deep in his chest.

“Again. Slower.”

She gripped his hips and obeyed, every lick a tease and an offering rolled in one. Too soon, the leisurely licks left him starving for more. Again, he tugged at her braid. “In your mouth, Sera.”

“God, I thought you’d never ask,” she whispered. Her hand closed around his cock and she sucked him deep with a groan.

Julio slid his hand to the back of her head, and it took every ounce of his self-control not to pull her closer, thrust harder. “Oh, hell yeah.”

Her whimpering moans were their own sort of vibrating torture. She licked and sucked and stroked her fingers up and down his shaft, but her eyes held a hungry invitation. The tighter he gripped her head the louder those noises got, turning pleading and encouraging.

Shuddering, he drove just a little deeper and then pulled her head back. “More?”

She dragged her tongue over her lower lip as she panted for breath. “I don’t know if I can take all of you, but I’d get off on trying.”

“Would you?”

Sera dropped her hands to her lap and parted her lips, silently offering him total control.

Julio dragged in a harsh breath and shook his head. “Behind your back.”

Her breathing sped as she obeyed, tangling her fingers together as he’d instructed. “Like this?”

“Shh.” He took himself in hand and rubbed the head of his cock against her lips. She whimpered and parted them again, straining forward to take him into the heat of her mouth.

He started slow, with tiny movements of his hips. When she shuddered and sucked him hard, Julio gritted his teeth and applied gentle pressure to the back of her head. “More.” This time, it wasn’t a question.

Heat blazed in her eyes. She tilted her head back and let him push deeper, trust spun out between them so tightly it was almost tangible. Her magic was tangible, a seductive whisper that grew louder when he pulled her head back by her hair and thrust forward again.

Her body trembled. Her eyes fluttered shut. His next advance took him all the way into her throat, and Julio jerked back with a shudder. “On your feet, sweetheart. Up.”

Sera staggered upward on unsteady legs and would have toppled over if he hadn’t reached for her. “Sorry,” she whispered, clutching at his shoulders. “I’m on another submissive bender.

Or I’m just high on—” He cut off her words with a kiss as he backed her toward the high bed. When she fell onto the mattress, he yanked at the button on her shorts and dragged them off her hips.

“You’re hot when you’re impatient,” she murmured.

“Then I must be smoking about ninety-five percent of the time.” Julio teased one finger under the edge of her panties. “Too nice to rip, huh?”

She laughed. “Fuck it. You can rip anything you’re willing to replace.”

She probably expected him to tear the delicate fabric, so he coaxed her legs up in the air and peeled off her underwear slowly. “I hate to be predictable.”

“You’re not.” She dropped one foot to his shoulder, her knees still pressed together almost shyly. “You’re perfect. This is perfect. Can you feel it?”

He could, and not just with her skin bare under his hands. He felt it driving down the road, when she slipped her hand into his without a word. And he felt it in the hours before dawn as he lay curled around her, listening to her heart beat, slow and steady. “I feel it, Sera.”

“I’m yours.” Almost a question.

“Mine.” He parted her legs, pushed her knees to the bed and left her open to him. “Should I show you?”

She sucked in a breath and squirmed, tried to wiggle away and groaned when he dragged her back. “Yes. Prove it. I need you to prove it.”

He reached over and dug a condom out of her bag with one hand, the other locked around her ankle like a vise. “I’m going to make you come. Then I’m going to make you scream.”

“In that order, huh?”

“In that order.” He rubbed his shaft over her clit, rocked against her as he tore open the foil.

After a moment’s pause to sheathe himself, he pushed lower, harder, slicking through wetness and parting her with the head of his cock.

Sera groaned, her fingers curling helplessly in the quilt as she tried to lift her hips, tried to position herself so he’d slide inside. When he eased away just far enough to stop her, she snarled. “Julio!”

“Sera.” His own voice was a reverent whisper, one that made him smile when he heard it.

It did something to her too. Softened the edge of her impatience, even though she was still wet and hungry and squirming in his grasp. She tilted her head back, baring her throat with its lingering marks from his teeth. “I forgot. You already know that teasing gets me crazy hot.”

“So does this.” He began to thrust into her, and she was so wet it didn’t take long. She shivered, and he held her still, held her until his hips met hers and he was completely buried in her body.

“Yours.” A satisfied sigh escaped her, riding a wave of that giddy submission that was more shifter than human. “I think I get it now.”

He braced his hands by her hips with a groan. “Get what, love?”

Her voice turned dreamy. “The human kink is hot. But it can’t give me this.” She stretched her hands above her head and arched her back, leaving all of her body vulnerable and exposed to him. “She’s safe. She knows she’s safe. We both belong to you.”

There was no room for halfway, no way to please only half of either of them. “Both,” he agreed, flexing his hips. “Do you know what that means?”

A whimper. “Super-hot sex?”

He shook his head. “It means more. It means not fighting yourself, sweetheart. Getting what you need.”

She clutched at the covers above her head and stared at him, her chest lifting with each unsteady breath. “What does it mean for you?”

No more running, no more distance. “It means I want to be in your life,” he whispered. “And I want you in mine. I love you.”

Sera went utterly still. Even her whispered plea barely stirred the air. “Say it again.”

“I’m in love with you.” The revelation of their days on the road, the vague possibility made fact. “I don’t know when it happened, exactly, but it’s true.”

She surged up in a graceful movement, crashing into his upper body as her arms tangled around his neck. She clung to him, halfway to upright, and her mouth closed on the front of his throat in a vicious, bruising bite. “Mine. ”

His throat throbbed, and his teeth scored her lower lip when he caught her mouth in a kiss.

She snarled against his mouth. Her fingernails dug into his back, pricking the skin.

She said something, something muffled by his lips, then said it again. And again. A bite, a kiss, a mumbled word, until he realized she was chanting the same thing over and over as she kissed him with single-minded purpose. “Love you. Love you.”

“I know.” He lowered her to the bed and straightened, pulled her a little higher with a hand under her ass. “Sera.”

Another hungry growl, and she shot back up, her teeth snapping shut on his shoulder this time. There was no keeping her still, so Julio clutched her to his chest and dropped to sit on the edge of the bed with her in his lap.

She nuzzled his throat and bit his chin, then rocked her hips with a whimper. “No one’s ever been mine before.”

“All yours.” He guided her hips with a firm touch. “Ride me, Sera. Harder.”

“Harder,” she agreed, bracing herself on his shoulders. Her knees dug into the bed on either side of his hips as she pushed up and drove back down, moaning every time she took him deep. “You can’t fuck me hard enough. I want to feel you for days.”

“You will.” He chased her nipple with his tongue and thrust up to meet the next rock of her hips. “If you forget, I’ll fuck you again.”

“Yes.” Her body tensed under his hands, and she threw her head back and froze. “Fuck, too soon—I’m gonna come too soon—” No such thing as too soon, not tonight. Julio grazed her nipple with his teeth and pinched the other. “First you come, then you scream. Isn’t that what I said?”

Her hips jerked as she moaned in reaction, and apparently that was enough. Her slick body clenched tight around him, over and over as she gasped out choked noises, unintelligible and desperate.

Julio coaxed her through the spasms, then pulled free of her body and let his cock nestle in the cleft of her ass. “You’re so hot when you come.”

“You’re hot when I come too.” Her forehead thumped against his shoulder, and she shivered.

“I’m not a very good submissive, I guess. I lost it.”

“There isn’t only one way to be, Sera.”

“I get scratchy when the coyote’s too close to the surface. As long as you don’t mind…” She licked the throbbing spot on his throat and laughed. “Though if you’d thrown me face-down on the bed, that would have worked for me too.”

He hummed in her ear. “Through with me already?”

“No…” A tentative rock of her hips, her ass rubbing against his shaft. “Are you going to throw me face-down on the bed?” She sounded breathless—and hopeful.

The bottle of lube still lay on the bed alongside the slim vibrator from her case. “On your knees, sweetheart.”

She eased out of his lap and up onto the bed, damn near shaking as she got her knees under her and lowered her elbows to the mattress. Her pussy glistened, and he rubbed his fingers over her before tasting her clit with a quick flick of his tongue.

“Oh damn.” Her voice was ragged, edged with something wild. “Fuck, be careful. This submissive magical bender you keep sending me on gives me a hair-trigger. I think I’ll come if you blink at me too hard.”

He traced his thumb up to her ass, then followed the same path with his tongue. “Blinking isn’t on my agenda.”

She laughed hoarsely, squirming under his touch. “You’ve been staring at my ass for months.

Did I make it into your spank bank?”

He caught her hips and held her still. “Honey, you licking your lips featured heavily in my fantasies.”

“What else?”

“Your tits.” He reached out without looking, found the small bottle with one hand. “I wanted them in my mouth.”

“Every time you came into Dixie John’s, I’d imagine you fucking me. Right there in the restaurant. In the bathroom, over the sink. Or maybe up against the wall where someone could catch us. Fast and dirty—” She groaned and dropped her forehead to the bed. “That was back when I thought you knew the definition of fast.”

Julio warmed the lube on his fingers and began to massage it into her skin. “Is that a complaint, Sinclaire?”

She growled. “That’s a threat, Mendoza.”

“Shh.” He knelt behind her and rubbed his cock over the swell of her ass as he wound one hand in her hair.

“Please.” Her body trembled, and she strained toward him. “You don’t have to be so damn careful. I’m not fragile.”

“You’re not going to die if I go slow, either.”

Her whimpered moan made it clear she didn’t entirely agree, but she didn’t fight his grip on her hip. Instead she waited, body relaxing in degrees as she gave herself over to him. Whether through conscious effort or instinct he couldn’t be sure, but he could almost feel the shift in her as impatience melted into trust, and then heated to anticipation.

Beautiful, pliant—and all his. Julio pressed forward, the head of his cock slowly broaching the tight ring of her ass. “Say it, Sera.”

It took her three tries to get even one word out. “Yours.”

Her body clasped his as he thrust deeper, bending over her to drag his tongue up her spine.

“Beg.”

“More, please. Please—” Her back bowed, and she rested her cheek against the quilt before reaching back to grasp at his thighs. “It’s never enough. I always want more of you. All of you.”

“You have me.” Pleasure cinched tight, clawing at him, and he slipped one hand down, under her body, to stroke her clit. Her hips jerked, grinding down against his fingers as her pleas increased in volume.

A few demanding touches was all it took to make her voice break on a hoarse cry. And when he slipped his thumb inside her, curved it to find that spot that made her shake, she did scream, almost loudly enough to drown out the sound of the quilt shredding under her grasping hands.

One orgasm wasn’t enough, could never be enough, and he told her so in a hoarse whisper as he drove her higher. Harder. She snarled in response, but she still rocked back into his thrusts, meeting each one with a keening moan.

When she came apart again, the clenching shudders of her body were eclipsed by the swell of submissive magic. The truth that words couldn’t encompass, and the thing that pitched him over the edge as surely as the clasp of her body. Mine. Yes.

He managed one more thrust before the tense pleasure gathered at the base of his spine exploded and he came with a shout he muffled against her skin.

She was still trembling when his orgasm subsided, a hoarse whimper escaping her every few seconds. Her hips twitched with each noise, and he could feel the lingering spasms, the aftermath of an overpowering climax.

He had to get off of her, so he rolled to one side and fell to the mattress, pulling her with him.

Sera groaned and tried to ease her hips away from his. “I love you, but I think I’m about to die of orgasms. So you need to not be inside me for a while.”

“Careful.” He slowed her movements, then released her. “And I don’t think you’re about to die.”

She shivered when he slipped free of her body, then rolled onto her stomach. “That’s good.

Dying would mean never getting to do it again. Even if it would be a pretty sweet way to go.”

“If either of us died, the other one would have to actually get up. Presumably.”

“Uh-huh.” She sounded giddy. “The world’s a little fuzzy right now.”

Tomorrow, the traveling—the work—would start again. But tonight… “Doesn’t matter if it’s fuzzy, sweetheart. Not a damn thing to do right now but rest.”

“Mmm.” Twisting, she curled around until her cheek rested on his shoulder. “Let’s pretend we don’t ever have to leave this bed. Just you and me and cuddling and room service. No clothes required.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Words to live by.”

The only problem with the fantasy was that their respite would be short. They could pretend they never had to leave the bed, but it wasn’t true. Sooner rather than later, reality would intrude.