“We fell asleep!” he panted.
“Well, you did wear me out, soldier.” She gave him a sexy grin that she hoped would be an invitation for him to come back to bed and give her more reasons to be tired.
But he just shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. “I told you… I have nightmares.” His hand stilled, his face paled. He scanned her naked body with a critical, unpassionate eye, as if looking for injuries. “My wolf comes out at night.”
“I told you—you would never hurt me.”
He rubbed both of his hands over his face and took a deep breath. Then he shook his head and slowly climbed back into bed with her. “We have to be more careful than that. I really can’t control it at all when I’m sleeping.” He gestured to the door. “I don’t have a lock on there for nothing.”
She touched her fingertips to his face and gazed into his eyes. Her touch seemed to calm him. Her wolf was practically purring inside her with just that small connection.
“I know you don’t believe it,” she said. “But I know your wolf would never hurt me. Someday, I’m going to prove it to you.”
He leaned in to kiss her, softly and gently, then pulled back. “I’m broken, Piper. If you’ll have me, at least for now, I’ll take whatever you’ll give.” He kissed her again, snuggling in closer, pressing their naked bodies to one another. His morning erection was calling to her hand, so she reached down to stroke it. He pulled her hand away.
“Maybe later,” he said. “We have to get up sometime.”
She pouted, and it wasn’t much of an exaggeration. Her body couldn’t get enough of his.
He gave her a bashful look, dipping his chin and looking up at her through his lashes. “I meant everything I said last night… but I didn’t know you didn’t want a mate. Or maybe that you think you shouldn’t because of what happened to your mother. But I want you to know that you should, someday. If you find someone you want. You shouldn’t deny yourself that. I’ll always protect you, no matter what. Everyone should have someone in their corner, and I’m that for you. Forever. Whether I can have you in my bed, or not, is just an extremely awesome potential bonus.” He gave her a small smile. “But I will admit that the idea of another man’s hands on you at the moment could actually turn me into a homicidal maniac. In human form.”
She grinned. Jace had already ruined her for all other men, and he didn’t even know it. She looped her leg over his hip, bringing her still-damp core closer to his still-hard erection. “There is only one man’s hands I want on me right now, only I can’t seem to get him to put them in the proper place.” All this talk of mates they couldn’t have just made her more determined to prove to him that his wolf was good.
He groaned, a sexy frustrated sound, and slid his hand between her legs, making her gasp.
“I’d like nothing more than to play with your body all day,” he whispered against her skin between rapidly speeding up breaths. “But we really do need to get downstairs and be ready to move, in case the coven comes through for us.”
Piper pulled in a deep breath, kissed him hard, and then wrenched her body away from his. Her wolf growled her disapproval. “You really are no fun at all, Jace River.” But she was joking, because he was absolutely right—finding Noah took precedence over everything else. And she loved that he was staying on target with that.
They quickly dressed, but she had to fight a massive surge of lust again when Jace insisted that they shower together for “maximum efficiency.” It did get them downstairs sooner, if a lot less satisfied.
Jared was already in the kitchen, scarfing down eggs and bacon and toast. He looked utterly unsurprised to see them stumbling in together, hand-in-hand, hair still wet from the shower. He grunted a kind of “good morning” acknowledgment and finished off his plate. While he rose up to clean his plate, Jace dug out some eggs and cheese from the refrigerator and proceeded to cook in front of her eyes.
“Are you kidding me?” she asked, eyes wide. “You’re saying that you cook as well?” She meant in addition to being extremely hot in bed—and every other fine feature the man had—but she wasn’t going to say all that in front of Jared.
Jace just grinned, not breaking stride as he cracked the eggs and sent sizzling sounds and smells of deliciousness throughout the kitchen.
Piper tap Jared on the elbow, catching him before he left the kitchen—he jerked back in surprise at the touch. She frowned and wondered if Jace was the only River brother with some kind of dark secret. Jared had the look of a haunted man, and it didn’t seem to be just his personality, like some people were. Piper had learned to judge people quickly in the field, sizing them up by their facial tics and their verbal and nonverbal responses, even in the most innocuous of situations. Jared was a man who was carrying something deep inside him, a burden he didn’t think he could ever put down, so he took it with him everywhere.