Eve fought to bring her thoughts into some semblance of order. She hadn’t wanted a man in her life. But good lord the sex! What had she been doing without this all her life? No wonder her mother had caved. That thought quickly sobered her. No matter how awesome the sex, she reminded herself, she was not her mother.
Eve pulled out of Adam’s embrace. Keeping her back to him she slid from the bed and walked to the closet. Frowning, she wondered how and when they’d made it to her room this morning; the last thing she remembered was being on the floor of the living room.
Mentally shrugging, she figured that was the least of her worries. Quickly she reached in the closet and snagged the least reveling of her robes, the antique blue terry cloth her sister had given her last Christmas. It had a large flamingo embroidered on the right shoulder.
Eve had a serious weakness for kitschy clothes and collectibles from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her absolute favorite items were anything with pink flamingos. The birds were extinct now, and Eve loved the whimsical creatures. Or maybe she identified with them because she always felt as if she were balancing on one leg?
Nervously she smoothed the gaudy bird on her shoulder; she was procrastinating, putting off confronting the man who could make her life a living hell.
She forcefully reminded herself that she had intended to be the one causing hell when she opened the door to the wolf last night.
Turning, she took her first clear-headed look at the man lying sprawled naked in her bed. Taking a deep breath she started her examination at the top.
He had dark, sable hair with a sprinkling of gray. It was thick and slightly curly, disheveled and unfashionably long, reaching halfway down his neck. His face was Roman perfect, with dark eyebrows and lashes, a regal nose and stubborn chin. His eyes flashed silver heat. That should be impossible, she thought.
He was tall and muscular. His skin was tanned and dusted in soft dark hair that trailed down his broad chest, thinning out across his tight stomach and then dense again just below his navel. Nested in the dark curls was a thick, growing penis. Sucking in her breath, Eve whirled around.
“Cover yourself, please,” she said with as much force as she could muster.
“I am not cold,” he replied with a teasing lilt.
Eve shook her head. “You know that’s not the point. Your manhood seems to have a life of its own. I refuse to have a conversation with you naked. And we are going to have a conversation.” A long one, she thought to herself.
“Okay, my manhood is covered,” he assured her with emphasis, turning his head to hide his amusement at her choice of words.
Eve refused to rise to his bait. Turning back to him, she moved to sit primly in the antique rattan chair that was several paces from the bottom of the bed. No way was she getting close to him. Even covered with a sheet and severe morning hair the man’s sex appeal was overwhelming.
“We need to talk,” she sputtered.
Adam winced. He was sure there weren’t any other words in the world that would strike fear into a man of any species as quickly as those four. A man never said them.
He had no choice but to go on the offensive. “Is your name really, Eve?”
She looked at him with a touch of humor. “Yes. Is your name really, Adam?”
He groaned. “Yes. You know, of course, this means we will be the butt of many Biblical jokes?”
“Not in my family,” she grumbled.
Adam cocked an eyebrow at her, the question obvious.
Eve sighed and shook her head; this was not what she wanted to talk about. But she supposed she could start with it. “My mother’s name is Naomi, my natural father was Abel. They named me Eve, my sister Jezebel, Jezi for short. My stepfather is Matthew, my stepbrother Jonaa. Jonaa with two a’s no h, but Jonaa just the same. My sister’s husband’s name is Luke.” Pausing, she looked to make sure he was sufficiently awed. “To my family, it will make perfect sense that your name is Adam.”
“Your parents actually named your sister Jezebel?” He was floored. What parent would do that to a child?
“No one has ever called her anything but Jezi. I will warn you not to make that mistake. She has a way of getting even.” Eve grinned. Her sister took great satisfaction in making people pay who either slipped or unknowingly used her full name. They never made the same mistake twice. But they almost always made it once, thinking to tease the diminutive redhead. Eve looked forward to Adam testing her sister. She somehow knew her warning would be purposely ignored. No one ever believed that Jezi’s response could be that drastic.
Inwardly she smiled—the last person to call her sister Jezebel, had gotten into his airglide, only to realize that it had somehow been programmed to go to Eastern Europe instead of his office. The glide had headed out to sea, without enough electrical power to see it over the ocean. Thankfully Jezi had also programmed a distress signal that kicked in as soon as it was over water. The man had been fished out of his glide, with full realization of what had happened. Jezi’s programmed laugh at point of impact had insured he knew full well who was responsible. The fact that she’d later married the poor man was secondary.
Pulling her thoughts back to the man on her bed, Eve looked at him and frowned. Tentatively she started, “I know your first name is Adam and that you are loupe-garou. But that is all I know about you. What is your last name and what do you do for a living?”
“My last name is Greyclan and I do whatever is needed for my people. What is your last name Eve?”
She frowned. What did “whatever is needed” mean? She hoped he actually did something to make credits. There was no way she would support him. She wanted to work, but not to be the full support for a family. That thought had all color leaching from her face. No birth control...
She jumped up, practically screaming at him. “Have you had your shots?”
Adam looked confused. “Calm down, what are you talking about, Eve?”
“Your shots...birth control...please say you didn’t go out looking for a mate during Lupine Moon without taking some kind of precaution?” she stammered, looking anxiously at him.
Adam wanted to laugh. The look of panic on his new wife’s face was priceless. He had taken a BC shot, not wanting to take the chance that if he found his mate she’d become pregnant the first time they mated. He needed time with her, without the hormonal hell that a lycanthropic pregnancy would put her through. But he wasn’t willing to admit it to her immediately. “Don’t you want children, Eve?”
“No! Yes! I mean no I don’t want them right now before I even know who you are or if you’ll make a good father, but yes... I suppose... someday...” she trailed off.
Adam took pity on her. She looked miserable as she considered the ramifications of the multiple orgasms they’d shared. His cock twitched. No, better to stay away from thoughts of orgasms, he told himself. “I have taken the shot, Eve,” he reassured her.
Adam frowned as she petted the bird on her shoulder again. Brows drawn together he stated, “Now its my turn for a moment to ask you questions. Thanks to your monologue last night, I know considerably more about you. However some of it is confusing and lacking sense.” He paused for a moment.
Eve scowled, “What do you mean it lacked sense? I made perfect sense!”
Adam laughed and settled back on the bed with his arms crossed over his chest, “Eve, I know your stepfather is Were, and you resent him for keeping your mother from following her career. I also understand that you are a geneticist who is working on a special project and you seem to be under the misapprehension that I will force you to quit. Probably because you believe your mother suffered the same fate from her mate. Correct?”
Eve nodded, “Yes, you are right.” She was a little bemused that he’d heard not only the words but also the feelings behind them.
He continued, “You have very strange decorative taste. I must have counted six of those bird things downstairs that you are wearing on your shoulder. One was a lamp, three were long stick things stuck in various plants, and several were small glass figures. You have two pieces of artwork that say ‘Share a Coke and a smile.’ Now for the questions...” Adam paused and looked at her with confusion clear on his face. “What is your last name, what project are you working on, what is the bird you seem to be so fond of, and what,” he growled, “is a Coke?”
Eve blinked. He had not only listened, he had heard her. He said she suffered from the misapprehension that he would force her to quit. Misapprehension...meaning misunderstanding, false impression, and delusion...any way you looked at it he was promising her she wouldn’t have to stop working.
Wasn’t he?
“Are you saying you wouldn’t make me give up my career to stay home and take care of you? I want to make sure I understand what you just said, implicitly. No mistakes. This is very important to me.” She held her breath.
Adam could see how important this was to her. She was holding her body completely motionless. Tense. Slowly he rose from the bed and moved to bend in front of her. He had wrapped the sheet around his middle as he moved. Not wanting to make this all-important declaration “buck nikid” as his great, great grandmother would say.
Kneeling before her, he pulled Eve’s clenched hands into his own. “I promise you, Eve, I will never force you to give up your life’s work,” he pledged.
“Blood Oath?” she questioned, knowing that if a werewolf swore blood oath that it was a legal contract.
Adam shook his head. Sighing, he answered her. “If you had known me for any length of time, you would know that swearing Blood Oath is not necessary. My word is good. I will try not to be offended that you have asked this of me. But, I will give it.”
Eve watched intently as Adam put the pad of his right thumb in his mouth, allowed the beast to rise within him just enough so that the canines formed, and used the razor sharp teeth to bite down and pierce the skin. When blood welled, he took the finger out of his mouth, banished the wolf and pressed the thumb into the palm of Eve’s hand.
“I swear by Blood Oath not to force you to quit working as a geneticist nor will I interfere with your work in any way,” he vowed, sealing the promise in blood.
Later, unbeknownst to him, he would regret this promise, but for now the reward was sweet. Questions temporarily forgotten, Adam allowed Eve to jump him, drive him to the floor and have her way with his body.