He walked into his mother’s house, found Glory chopping carrots, tossed her up onto the counter and kissed the breath out of her. Until his mother smacked him on the back of the head with a spatula. They kissed in the grocery store, in Danil and Dora’s living room.
And every night, for hours, in bed. They rolled and kissed and petted. He was very firm about keeping his own pants on, no matter how curious Glory was about his man parts. She couldn’t even begin to explain the excitement she got when she would press against him and feel his manhood. Always so awake for her. Stretching toward her like it needed to be closer to her. She understood the feeling. Her lady parts were practically screaming for Emin.
And still, he insisted that she deserved to learn the deliciousness of going slow. She wanted to listen, really, she did. Because she knew he was right. But also, her body was aching all the time, racing toward something she didn’t know existed.
It was a month after their first kiss that Glory made a very important discovery in the shower. She’d been thinking about Emin and the day that they’d spent together. He’d kissed her for an hour in the car before he’d let her get out and go see AJ. Then he’d picked her up and took her for a walk through the woods, in their human forms. They’d been doing that a lot lately. It was slower, clunkier than their animal forms, but they could hold hands and talk this way. Little by little, Emin had been gathering information about her life.
Glory had given the Malashoviks everything she could tell them about where she came from, where her mother might still be. And they’d narrowed it down to somewhere in the Canadian Rockies. Emin still hoped for any small clue that she’d forgotten to give, anything that would help them narrow the territory.
After their walk, Maxim had been at Emin’s cabin. He’d brought some dinner over for them, which Glory realized was something he did often. As brilliant as Emin was at painting, he could barely open a can of spaghettiOs. His brothers often brought food for him.
Emin had insisted that Glory eat while on his lap. Something that she loved. He was so affectionate with her in front of his family. Maxim had acted as if it were no big deal, to eat dinner across from the two of them, Emin’s hand tracing a circle on Glory’s thigh while she sat across his lap and worked through her sandwich.
And after Maxim had left, Emin and Glory had fallen on one another, kissing like they needed one another to be able to breathe.
He’d shoved her away from him, as he often did these days, breathing hard and pacing. He’d ripped his hands through his hair.
“I will shift,” he’d growled. “Be asleep when I am back.”
Glory knew how he felt. The constant, aching nearness of their kisses was slowly driving her insane. How was she supposed to go on, go about her life when she constantly felt as if she had a fire in her belly?
So he’d gone out to run as a bear and she’d jumped in the shower. She needed to cool off. Restart her system so that she wasn’t going insane. But it was there, in the shower, the soapy bubbles slipping all over her, that Glory thought of Emin.
She thought of his hands, so golden and strong, always so sure. She thought of his dark, serious eyebrows, like slashes above his deep set eyes. They made his eyes look darker than they were. She loved that. His secretly light eyes were something that only she knew. And then his curved nose, like a crescent moon. Made her think of the night sky. And then his mouth.
Glory stilled as her hand found its way between her legs, the soap making everything so slippery. Something electric had zinged through her. She’d never really touched herself there before. And besides the one time that she’d put Emin’s hand there, neither had he. But she was so slippery and warm, thinking about Emin, that one of her fingers had accidentally slipped inside herself for just a second.
She did it again, her head falling back in pleasure. This time, her finger slipped and she discovered a tight little knot that had a moan escaping her lips. Her body wound up tight and pulled. What was this?
It could only be good. Something that felt this yummy could only be a good thing. She wanted to keep touching it, teasing herself, but she also didn’t want to be alone. She needed to share this feeling.
She flipped off the shower and squeezed her hair out. In her haste, she didn’t even grab a towel. She realized that she didn’t need one when she stepped out of the bathroom. Emin had lit a fire in the hearth on the chilly night and the cabin was balmy warm.
He was back from his run and back in his human form. He lay in his nest of blankets, one arm in an arrow behind his head as he watched the flames. Glory watched the flames too, but not in the hearth, rather as their shadows danced across the golden skin of his chest, of his face.