The Reluctant Mate

Porter Mature

I wanted to take Amanda home and please us both, but she’d wanted to dance, so here I was instead. The music was too loud for my sensitive ears, and like I had predicted, a bunch of horny assholes kept checking her out. She’d been right that I kept them back just by being there, so it wasn’t that bad.

And dancing with her was too good. She had a sexy gracefulness that toyed with my mind. She’d better agree to come back to my place tonight or I’d be suffering until morning. Which would be fine, but I always slept better when she slept over. Of course sex was great, but the comfort of having her safe and within reach was unbeatable. The best way to get her to agree to come was to tease her as much as she was teasing me. I smirked at the thought and ran my hands lightly down her sides, and then pulled her closer.

She said my name in a startled, breathy way that reminded me of having her in bed. Like pretty much everything else she did.

Like the way she twined her arms around my neck.

And the way her pelvis moved rhythmically against mine.

Blissful torture.

It was a shame werewolves didn’t teleport because we’d be in my bed this second if we did.

Instead I ran my hands over her ass and lightly grabbed the way I knew made her wet for me.

We kept up the teasing for a couple of songs, and then she insisted on getting a drink. I went along with it. I still refused to sleep with her if she was too drunk—much to her vocal irritation—but I’d learned that a couple of drinks didn’t do much to her as long as they weren’t magically enhanced.

We stayed at the club for as long as she could manage and way longer than I wanted to. I was craving her by the time we got out of the building and back into my truck. Before I even turned it on she launched herself across the centre and straddled my lap before she started messing with the zipper of my pants.

“Here?”

She shrugged. “What? The street lights are far enough away. It’s dark. No one can see.”

“Werewolves, vampires...”

She scoffed. “Are any here right now?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Then are you too shy?”

“Not likely.” I slipped my hands under the skirt of her dress and found that she was dripping wet. She moaned as I slipped my fingers into her and teased her clit. After a few seconds she shook and I grinned at the sight. We wasted no more time as I brought her down around me and I groaned her name at the sensation of being engulfed by the female who was made for me, the warmth and heat of her body, the way she squeezed me like she was trying to hold me inside her.

Together we moved, and in only a few minutes she broke again and I unleashed myself inside her and we stayed flush together, panting, for a minute before she lifted herself off of me.

I regretted the loss. “Will you come to my place tonight?” I asked. Hopefully she wasn’t satisfied enough to say no.

She cocked her head as if considering. “I have to work tomorrow.”

“You could grab what you need tonight when I pick up your cat. I’ll drive you in tomorrow.”

Her resistance crumbled. “Okay.”

Once we arrived at Amanda’s place, I went inside with her. It smelled less like Amanda when I had picked her up, more like popcorn and floral, a weird combo. She opened the door. Both her roommates were sitting on the couch watching a movie and they greeted us when we came in.

“Have a good time?” Lisa asked, her tone heavy with suggestion.

“Sure did,” Amanda said with a little smirk at me. “I’m going to stay at Porter’s tonight.” She hurried off to grab what she needed for the night.

Daria paused their movie and wandered over to the kitchen, holding a sleeping kitten in her arms. “I think she’s a lot happier with the kitten than with the roses,” she told me.

“Roses?” There was a bouquet on the counter. I walked forward and looked at the card. It had Amanda’s name but nothing else written in neat printing.

“They’re not...from you?” Daria asked.

“They’re not.”

Lisa joined us. “The last bouquet she got was when she was ignoring you, so we just assumed...”

“I’ve never sent her flowers.”

Her friends glanced between each other with a nervous expression that didn’t make me feel better. Amanda joined us. She opened her mouth but before she could speak I said, “They’re not from me.”

“Oh.” I glanced at her face, trying to read her blank expression. “Well, I definitely don’t want them then. You can toss them if neither of you do.”

“We will,” Lisa said and Daria nodded.

I plucked the card from where it nestled among the flowers and pocketed it.

“Well, I’m ready to leave,” Amanda said in an upbeat voice. She was definitely faking it, but we could talk more in the car. I grabbed all her bags and the box from her kitten, and Daria transferred the sleeping kitten to my mate’s waiting arms. It stirred and opened an eye before settling into her hold.

We loaded up and set out towards my place, riding in silence for a few minutes, before I broke it.

“Do you think the roses were from your ex?” I asked her. He was the most obvious suspect right off the bat.

“I don’t know. After I left him and got the restraining order, he never bothered me again. And then I moved back here to get further away from him, so he shouldn’t even know where I am.”

“Probably wouldn’t be that hard to find out.”

“I don’t know what would be in it for him. He’s pretty successful, he’d be risking a lot just to come and harass me. I mean, maybe he’s sending me flowers, or maybe it’s someone else. I guess it’s not impossible that someone else I know developed feelings for me.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone did. Without even the mate bond our first night together would have been hard to forget.

Not the time to be jealous, Porter.

“I kind of feel bad leaving Daria and Lisa there. What if...what if it is him? I was thinking that maybe I’d be ready to try that whole living together thing, but I can’t just abandon them there if he might be coming around. I mean, it’s been years, and there’s no reason that he might have decided to come and bother me now, so I know all this is in my head, but...”

“If it is him, I won’t let him harm you. And I can have someone check up on your friends once or twice a night.”

She sighed. “It’s probably just someone else.”

“Probably.” I tamped down the urge to find out more about Steven and try to hunt him down. Although everything I had heard about him made me want to kill him, that would be problematic and take time away from my responsibilities.

“I don’t know why anyone thinks secret admirers are romantic. They’re creepy.”

I nodded as we drove in silence for a while. Our night that had started out frisky and playful had ended up feeling more like we were fleeing danger. They were just flowers. I wanted to believe that we were overreacting, but I couldn’t escape my wolf’s unease.