“No, baby, I’m in control here.” He raked his teeth over her shoulder in a dominant move that dared her to rebel. Of course his Jaime rebelled. She bucked against the move, growling. He dug his teeth harder into her skin and reached around, cupping her br**sts roughly and pinching her ni**les.

Again she tried to dislodge his teeth, and he sensed that it was her wolf as much as her who was rebelling now. Whereas once her wolf might have done it out of anxiety, she did it now only to challenge him playfully. The thought of that made him smile around her shoulder. He knew just how to deal with her wolf.

Jaime growled as Dante’s hand snaked around her throat and squeezed. “You sack of shit.” She gasped as he bit her ear.

“You love it when I hold you like this. I know you do, because your pu**y ripples around my c**k every time I do it.” With one hand collaring her and the other still locked on her hip, he moved her body up on his c**k and then slammed her down, groaning. “Like that? Want me to do it again?”

“Yes,” she bit out, pissed that he was right and she perversely liked the dominant move. Again and again he impaled her on him until she felt her climax approaching. Then he stopped.

“Do you want to come?”

“Yes,” she growled.

“How bad do you want it?”

Not bad enough that she was going to beg again, if that was where this was heading. Okay, in truth, she would beg if she had to, but a female had her pride. As she knew from experience, there were effective ways to distract Dante. She made a show of sniffing the air and asked in an animated voice, “What’s that smell? God, was that you? Well, it wasn’t me.” Knowing what she was doing, Dante flexed his hand around her throat. “Jaime.”

“Did I remember to tell you that I got worms from the cat? Poor Hunk.”

“Jaime.”

“This would be more fun with a few more people, wouldn’t it?” That got a reaction from him, joke or not. Growling, he slammed her down on him and moved the hand on her throat to her hair. He snatched her head back so that he could see her face. “No one touches you except me, Jaime. No one.” Over and over he impaled her on him, driving his point home. He continuously flicked his gaze from the sight of his name branded on her flesh to her beautiful face to watch the range of expressions that flashed across it. She moaned, groaned, whimpered, and grunted, clawing his legs. He knew exactly what she liked, knew how fast and hard and deep she liked it. “You’re mine and only mine.”

“And you’re mine, you possessive, overprotective, controlling bastard.” He smiled. “All yours, baby.”

As she felt her orgasm ready to wash over her, Jaime moaned, “Dante, I love you.”

“Fuck.” Those words sent white-hot pleasure scorching through his body and brought his climax crashing into him. “Come, baby.” He locked his teeth onto her shoulder again and thrust his hips, jamming his c**k up into her. Her pu**y tightened and spasmed around him as she screamed his name.

When he could finally move again, he combed his fingers through her matted hair. “I love you too, baby.”

She smiled. “Good, Popeye. I’d hate to have to get that tattoo lasered off. It hurt enough getting it done.”

He locked both arms around her. “The tattoo stays, it’s hot. Want me to get your name inked on me?”

She opened her mouth to say no, but she’d be lying if she said her name on his skin didn’t hold some appeal. God, she was getting as bad as he was.

“How about on my arm?”

“No. That’s boring.”

“How about over my heart then?”

“No. That’s corny.”

He frowned. “Is not.”

“Is too.”

Stubborn bitch. “We’ll discuss it later.”

Jaime turned her head as she cautiously suggested, “How about we go for a run in our wolf forms?” As she’d expected, Dante froze and tightened his hold on her.

“Jaime, I don’t think your wolf is ready for that yet.” He wasn’t ready for that yet either.

“There’s only the two of us. She feels safe with you. You said that yourself.” His voice came out small. “What if she doesn’t let you come back again?”

“Don’t think I don’t know that the fear of that taunts you as much as it taunts me. I don’t want it hanging over us like a cloud. We won’t know until we try.”

Although he knew that she was right, he was too damn scared to even seriously consider it.

“Jaime, I—”

“I truly think she’ll let me come back. The fear is there that I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. I wouldn’t suggest it otherwise.” Plus, it was best to find out now.

It took an entire hour to coax Dante into trying it. Jaime was later glad that she had, because it turned out that she had been right. As her wolf and Dante’s wolf went on their own private run, they played, tussled, raced, and chased each other before finally shifting back into their human forms.

Although her wolf had enjoyed the freedom and time with her mate, she didn’t fight when Jaime wanted to resurface because she felt safe. She was confident that her mate could protect her if necessary and that he would fight at her side.

Jaime suspected that her wolf might still be slightly wary around other wolves if she was without her mate, but not to the extent that she would see them as threats and attempt to attack. Jaime could—for the first time in a long time—coexist peacefully with her.

“If only I could coexist as peacefully with you as I do with my wolf,” Jaime said as they walked back to pack territory hand in hand.

Dante frowned at her. “We coexist peacefully…when you’re not making a mess of our room and ignoring what I say.”

“Maybe you could stop being a neat freak and ease off with barking orders at me.”

“I resent the neat-freak statement. And I do not bark.” She snickered. “Sure you don’t, Popeye.”

“And it wouldn’t kill you to use the shoe rack. I mean, it’s right by the door.”

“Stop putting my CDs in chronological order, and I’ll work on the shoe rack thing.” A short pause. “How about alphabetical order?”

“How about you go to therapy?”

A frustrated growl escaped him. “How about I just shove my c**k in your mouth? That should shut you up. Hey!” he whined when she drummed her fingers against his temple. “What’re you doing?”