“I have some things to tell you.” He asked her if it was going to be upsetting. “I hope not. I’ve been making inquiries myself about a couple of things, not about the school or the house that we’re getting. I’d like to take a nice long trip, during next summer. A cruise.”

  “Sure.” She asked him if he was serious. “Yes. I am. We’ll call it a honeymoon. Speaking of which, I’ve not asked you to marry me. I know that your kind doesn’t have mates, but I’m going to tell you right now that I’m so in love with you that I can…the only thing that kept me from shifting and tearing up my nice new office was that you’d make fun of me and I didn’t think that I could handle that. Not today, anyway.”

  “You’re right. I would have been upset with you.” She smiled at him. “I have fallen in love with you, by the way. I think it was a done deal when you came to my office after talking to the police, pulled me into the hall, and kissed me. Perks like that can make a girl swoon if you ask me.”

  “It was Joel’s idea. He said that I looked like I was going not explode, and he didn’t want to have to explain to you how I’d died in the line of duty. So I thought, what the hell, I’m going to do that.” She hugged him tightly to her, and he thought it was the best feeling. “Also, you’ll be happy to know that all the people, four men, and one woman, that work in the office are not doing a thing until they clear it with me. I’m all right with that for now, but I hope they get more confident as the days go by.”

  “I think that I’d be a little nervous around you myself. How many people have you fired over the last few weeks.” He told her. “Yes, eleven people is a great many people when we’ve only been teaching for two weeks. By the way, I love my classroom. And dad was telling me that he’s having the best time he’s ever had since coming here to teach. I think he was ready to give it all up when things started being messed up. I know that I was.”

  The two of them spoke about the school and other things that were going on. Their home was finished, Butter had told him, and that if they wanted, they could stay there tonight. Since it was Friday, finally the end of the week, he thought that they’d have the entire weekend to hang out together without any interruptions. He wasn’t counting on that but was thinking it might be possible now that they had a handle on the employees who were working for him.

  “I’ve been asked to oversee the snack barn on Friday nights. I’m going to do it.” He said that his dad usually helped out as well. “He told me. There is a standing order for water to be brought in when it’s needed so that they can sell it and make money for the teams. I guess the football team is trying to raise money for new jerseys this year. Not to mention we still owe some money for the kids that went to football camp around here that didn’t have the money like they had hoped they would.”

  “The good news of that is we have enough funds to not just get the band new music, but they’re giving a raise to the band director as well. That’s been a long time in coming.” They were just walking by the high school when he noticed quite a few cars parked in the lot. Reaching out, he didn’t bother anyone about the kids hanging around the football stadium as they were putting up some things for Terry, the young man who had been killed in the spring to honor him on their first home football game. “I love small towns so much. They really come together when they need to, don’t you think?”

  “I agree with you totally.” As they walked hand in hand to their home, he thought of all the times he’d walked home with some girl or another from other Friday nights. It made him feel good that very little of the town had changed and that now he was walking with his future wife instead of a date that he was hoping to get lucky with. Laughing, he told Lexy what he’d been thinking.

  “I was thinking the same thing. About other Friday nights after a game. It’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure that you and I can hide under the bleachers and have some fun if you’d like.” Lexy wiggled her brows at him. When he pulled her in for a kiss, the kids that had been at the stadium finished up and caught them. Making fun of Mr. J seemed to be an ongoing thing. After swearing them to secrecy, they left them alone. It was just like old times in that moment. They were threatening to tell his dad on him.

  Chapter 4

  Sitting in the stands of the football stadium, the two of them talked about the short life they’d had together so far. Not only had they been having a good time, they had been flirting around with having sex for so long now that she thought for sure that she was going to come several times if he just touched her in the right place. Jeremiah had been teasing her for the last few days, and her body was responding in a way that she’d never felt before. The man was walking sex as far as she was concerned.

  “They’re gone.” She nodded at him when he explained that the kids had left them finally and smiled. “Why don’t you go down first and find a place to hide from me? A little game of hiding and seek sounds like a lot of fun. However, make sure you are careful, too.”

  “Hide from you, but be careful, too? You have got to be kidding. You sound just like your father did. Or mine did when I went out on my first date. Like he wanted to trust me, but he wasn’t so sure about the young man.” Jeremiah asked her how many men she had dated. “I haven’t any idea. I didn’t know that it was going to be a question-and-answer session later. More than a dozen, let’s just leave it at that.” She eyed him carefully. “How many have you dated?”

  “More than a dozen or so. Just so I’d be the best when you came along to find me.” She rolled her eyes, and he laughed at her. “I don’t know either. A few. But none of them meant anything to me. I’m serious when I tell you that. I’ve only been awaiting you to come along and give me something to live for.”

  “You’re such a goof.” She giggled and got up to find a place under the bleacher. The only trouble was the bleachers were made of concrete and had seats molded into them. Finding a place beneath them might be hazardous to their health. But she was in if he was.

  It proved to be a bit more difficult than she thought it should have been. There wasn’t any light at all under them. Just the long shadows from the light poles around the front and sides of the bleachers. Once, she ran into the structure and saw stars, but she laughed. It was the most fun she’d had in some time. Before she could get her barrings to let Jeremiah know where she was, she heard him talking to someone about ten feet from where she was.

  “I’ll make sure that I keep an eye out, Mr. Sheppard. I’ve not seen any bears around here in a few years, but like you said, they might just be waiting for someone to leave things unattended and jump on them. I did hear about Mrs. Ranches pool being destroyed the other week. Shame that. I know that her grandkids sure did love playing in it.”

  “I got her another one. To be honest with you, Mr. J., I’m sort of sweet on them grandkids of hers anyway. Kids. They sure can light up your life, don’t you think?” Jeremiah agreed with him, and she heard the man tell him goodnight. “You be careful now.”

  Before she could guess in which direction he might be coming from, Jeremiah wrapped his cold hands around her waist and had her nearly screaming out loud. He’d startled her that much. Dragging her deeper under the bleachers, they were pulling at each other’s clothing before she could get her jacket off.

  Picking her up by her ass, shoving her against the concrete stands. Lexy screamed out her release, a quick and hard punch to her system as soon as he filled her. There was no foreplay, no words. Just down-and-dirty sex out in the open. Christ, that was the quickest she’d ever come in her entire life. She wondered then if she’d have a lot of climaxes like that one instead of a big one that brought Jeremiah with her.

  “Yes,” she screamed at him as he dropped to his knees in front of her and drank deeply. Almost as if he couldn’t decide what he wanted from her, he would bounce between her pussy and her mouth—and she loved it. And she so loved this man.

  It wasn’t enough, she realized, when he suckled at her clit. Even as she came several more times, she knew that something was building between them, and it was just out of reach for them both. When he kissed her savagely, she could taste her cream mixed with his cum, and she wanted more. Jeremiah made his way to her pussy. It was all she could do not to beg him for another release. To allow her to come hard enough that she’d feel everything. As soon as he flicked his tongue in her sheath, he moaned. Lexy wanted to come this way, come in his mouth, and let his wolf taste all of her. Unable to form words, she nodded, knowing that while he couldn’t see her, he knew that she’d give him whatever he wanted.

  ~*~

  His cock was hurting, but he knew she was going to give him her all. Her body was soaking him, and the more he drank he found he wanted more. When she screamed out her release, Jeremiah lapped at her until he couldn’t take it anymore. As soon as he pulled from her, he fell on top of her. He took her mouth hard. Fucking his tongue inside of her dark essences, Jeremiah felt like his world was settled right with him.

  As soon as he entered her tight sheath, his cock needed to be emptied inside of her as much as he needed his next breath. Then, when she wrapped her legs around him, he reached beneath her and tilted her more. Making it so that her pussy and body was just the way that he wanted.

  Jeremiah was as deep as he’d ever been and found that he wanted to go deeper, mark her in a way that she was going to be his forever. When she buried her nose in his shoulder, he felt his balls tighten. If she bit him now, he knew that he was going to come hard, bringing her along with him.

  Her tongue teased him, and her body heated him. Jeremiah cupped her ass even more, even as her teeth scrapped along his throat. She was killing him, and he was more than willing to go this way. When her teeth sank deep into him, he slid his finger into her ass and felt his cock explode.

  It was an experience that he’d never had before. Not by coming but by the way that he had. Jeremiah cried out, threw back his head, and let go of a howl that sent shivers along his spine all the way to his feet. Christ. It was all he could think about. Christ, he was in love.

  When her body tightened around him, his finger in her ass moved of its own accord almost, he felt her scream around his throat, her release as powerful as his own. Jeremiah emptied himself in her over and over until he could feel his body drained. When he dropped over her, she came again, a small tremor that left him limp. Closing his eyes for a moment, he heard her giggle.

  “You’re wonderfully warm, but my ass is getting cold.” He looked around and grinned at her. “Can you please roll to your back for a little while so I can thaw out?”

  He stood up, pulling from her body reluctantly. Helping her to stand, he held her in his arms, rubbing his hands up and down her back to warm her. She looked up at him, and he kissed her nose.

  “I didn’t think about the cold when I was deep inside of you. We should have brought a blanket.” She snorted. “Okay, we should have brought two, but I’ve never wanted anyone like that before. Lexy, I love you. I can’t think right now beyond how you made me feel and how I’m feeling right at this moment.”

  “Nor I you. And I love you so much, Jeremiah.” She pulled away and started walking back to where they’d left their clothes. They were in a heap, a messy one, he didn’t doubt. “Do you suppose we should have undressed slowly so as not to mess up our clothing? We’ll have to remember that for the next time. It might have saved us from walking through the dark—Hey. Hello, naked woman here.”

  Jeremiah shifted and ran past her. She came up behind him a few seconds later, laughing and teasing him about leaving her behind. He knew she was safe, but sometimes, nearly all the time, Jeremiah wished that she could become a wolf, too, and they could have some fun. However, they played a sort of tag all the way back to the spot where they’d started, his car. As they dressed, he couldn’t seem to stop touching her. It was like tiny little comforts that he was getting from her when he ran his fingers along her warm skin. It would also make her scent stronger, and he couldn’t help but love that about touching her, too.

  They went into the house just when breakfast was being served in the kitchen. He’d not realized how much of an appetite he’d worked up until he could smell the bacon frying and the biscuits baking in the oven.

  The sun had long since come up, and the two of them having about as much fun as a couple of teenagers out on a date night. He needed to do more of this. Get out of his head and office to be able to have fun with his mate. Jeremiah wondered if that was how his brothers had balanced out their families so well. Getting together with their mates and just chilling out. Right then, he decided that they were going to have to do more things like this. Have a date night, and end up making love outside. Of course, they couldn’t do it much longer, not with the colder months coming along. But Jeremiah knew that they could make their own kind of fun indoors.

  Having some free time on his hands, he went to his office and pulled out his laptop. He’d not used it for some time, using his cell and his tablet for the things that he was doing in the classroom. That was another thing that had advanced so much since he’d been a teacher. The mode in which homework was finished up, and assignments passed out.

  As he was going through the order that he’d thought about sending off, he realized that all the things in his cart were outdated and no longer in keeping with the things that kids needed nowadays to learn. It had been quite an eye-opener when he saw all the things in the store while shopping with Lexy and her dad.

  By the time he realized that he’d missed lunch, he’d put together an entirely new order and had bought multiple things so that he could take them to the school when they arrived. As he was putting in his credit card information, Larry joined him. He didn’t look very happy at the moment.

  “I’ve run into a snag.” Jeremiah asked him if there was something that he could do for him. “I don’t know where else to turn. It’s something that I’ve never…what do you know about the Prichard family?”

  “Mark and Beth Prichard?” Larry told him that was who he was talking about. “Mark is a good man. He works a little too hard, but he seems to have time to spend with his children. He’s the one that usually comes to the parent/teacher conferences. His children, of course, I know better. Beth? Well, I’ve avoided her as much as I can. She has this terrible habit of touching you when you are too close to her. It’s more than likely the way that she is, just liking to have contact with another person, but as a teacher, I didn’t want to have any trouble with her. Why do you ask?”

  “She’s been hanging around the classroom doors. I don’t know how she gets in, either. When I check with the front office, they’ll send someone back to escort her out. But that doesn’t seem to stop her from standing by my car when I get off work. I’ve taken to driving when she cornered me one day when I just wanted to walk home. Now I bring Lexy with me. Or anyone else that I can be with when I walk out. She’s making me uncomfortable.” He asked if her husband was around. “Sort of. He comes in when I need to talk to him. It’s him who picks up the youngest. The other three kids they usually avoid their little brother as much as they can while here. I remember those days.”

  “Have you spoken to her? Either of them?” He said that he’d told her several times that he was not interested in dating anyone. “Are the Pritchards divorced?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. She wears that big diamond ring all the time. I know that doesn’t mean all that much, but it’s wearing me out trying to figure out how to get home in one piece and still not end up in prison for sexual harassment.” When Larry laughed, he could tell the man really was stressed. “I just don’t know what to do. Today, when I went to my classroom to do some work in the room, she was right there. Like she knew that I’d be coming around. I don’t know, but I think someone on our staff is telling her that—I don’t want to read too much into this. But she is making me uncomfortable.”

  He was just about to volunteer that he’d talk to her when there stood Hanna in his office, too. Hanna and his brother Loren were the king and queen of all the shifters in the world. Their magic, which was very powerful, meant that they could take out all the shifters in the world with a snap of their fingers. They’d assured him that they’d not do that, but it was a scary thought to know that they had that much going for them.

  “I’m sorry to pop in like this, but I felt Larry’s distress.” She turned and smiled at the other man. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Larry. I would never harm you. I just felt you being distressed. You’re more so now.”

  “You scare the bejebbes out of me. It’s hard to relax, young lady, when you go popping into rooms like that.” He laughed with Hanna, but Larry’s face turned a bright red in embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to blurt that out. But I’m on edge here and terrified that I might say the wrong thing. Then there is this woman. She touched me today. Inappropriately.” Again, his face turned red.

  “Mark and Beth Prichard is who you’re talking about, correct?” He said that was her. He’d not had any trouble with the man as yet. “Ah, but you will. Soon, as a matter of fact. She’s gone to her husband and told him that you’re flirting with her and that she’s kind of afraid of you and what you might want from her. His oldest, Mary Beth, has spoken to her father on your behalf, but Beth said that you’d told her to say that. That’s why I’m here.”

  The front doorbell rang, and he simply sat there until someone from their staff answered the door. Hanna told them to not move and to be calm. Jeremiah didn’t know what that was going to do for them, but they both said that they would. Hanna sat down in the room’s other chair and looked at him. Whatever was going on, Mark was shouting for Larry to come to him.