Kiernan
Kiernan sank slowly into Carly's warm depths, groaning at how amazing she felt. She tasted divine, and with her taste still on his lips, Kiernan kissed his mate. Their tongues met and tangled while Kiernan started to thrust, slowly. He fit perfectly inside her. Everything about her was perfect. And she was his, forever.
"Kiernan," Carly moaned, and he possessively kissed his name off her lips.
"Carly," he whispered in her ear in the way he knew she liked. He was enjoying learning these sorts of things about her body, and so was unhurried in his pace.
That was until she wrapped her legs around his waist and started to beg. "Please, Kiernan."
Kiernan felt a growl rise in his chest. His wolf was impatient to mark her, but Kiernan had sternly explained that tonight was not that night. They did not want to scare their mate away. Still, he thrust harder and faster, biting her gently where he would mark her later, forcing his wolf to be satisfied with that.
When she came around him this time, Kiernan almost lost his mind, her inner muscles trembling around his cock. He thrust twice more, then buried himself deep inside her while emptying his seed into the condom.
Kiernan was distantly aware that Carly was looking at him strangely, as though he'd suddenly grown a second head. "What?" he asked when his vision cleared a little, still intimately joined with her.
"You said 'mate,'" Carly said, wrinkling her nose up in confusion.
Kiernan wanted to kiss that cute, scrunched little nose. So he did. "Did I?" he said, inwardly kicking his wolf.
"You did," Carly said.
"Hmm, that's odd," Kiernan agreed, trying to distract her by nibbling up the side of her neck.
Mercifully, it worked. Carly wriggled underneath him, all flushed and beautiful. It made Kiernan want to go again.
So he did.
* * *
Carly
It was dawn by the time they stopped. Carly groaned, stretching muscles she didn't know she had. "We have to work today," she reminded Kiernan, who had started to doze.
"Ngh," Kiernan objected, grabbing her waist with one arm and pulling her back down when Carly made a move to get up.
"Kiernan, we have to be there by 8:30. It's 5 AM, and I still need to go home. Shower. Change into my RenFest clothes..."
"Ngh," Kiernan grunted again, burying his face in her neck. He licked the spot on her shoulder he'd nibbled several times the night before.
"Kiernan!" Carly laughed. "Ugh, you'll never sell a thing if you keep me in bed all day."
"Worth it," Kiernan said, getting cozy.
Carly rolled her eyes. "Alright you. Up. UP!"
Kiernan growled in that way that made Carly shiver, but finally released her and rolled to the other side of the bed, sitting up. "Spoil sport," he grumbled, retrieving his boxers. He took one look at her panties and winced. "Oh yeah, I did that, didn't I."
"Yes," Carly said. "Now I have to go home half naked because of you."
"What? You've still got the dress," Kiernan said. He took the panties and brought them to his nose, taking a deep breath.
Carly's mouth went dry. "I don't care what you do, mister. We're going to work today. It's the second day of the festival and I'll be damned if I leave Dawn wondering where I am."
"She'd adjust," Kiernan said, but pulled on his boxers just the same. Instead of throwing the ruined panties away, he put them in his bedside drawer next to the condoms. "Need to get more of those," he observed, pulling one single condom out of the box. He raised an eyebrow at Carly.
"No way, not a chance. I'm going home. I still have to lace myself into a bodice," Carly said.
"A very sexy bodice," Kiernan said. "I like the way your boobs..."
"Stop, stop!" Carly laughed. "How about I promise, if we do this during the week, I'll stay. I'll stay all day long. But today is Sunday and we need to work."
"So, tonight and tomorrow, then," Kiernan said, and Carly just stared.
"You want to see me again tonight?" she said.
"Is that a problem?" Kiernan asked.
"Well, no, it's not like I had plans, but—"
Kiernan kissed the rest of the sentence away. "Good. Pack a bag. You can stay right here."
Carly felt heat chase through her at his kiss. "Okay," she said, breathless.
"You really sure we don't need this right now?" Kiernan asked, twirling the condom between his fingers.
"You really are incorrigible," Carly said, giving him a little shove. She moved past him to pluck her bra off the floor, snapping it on while she hunted down her shoes and dress.
"I know what I am, but what are you?" Kiernan called after her.
"Late!" Carly called back before throwing on her dress, grabbing her purse and jacket, and walking out the door.
Forty-five minutes later, Carly snuck into her house. Or at least she tried to, but this was a farm and her parents and brother were already awake and having breakfast. Carly winced as the door creaked shut behind her.
"Did you and Dawn have a nice time?" her mother chirped before Carly even made it to the stairs.
"Oh, yeah, it was very nice," Carly said.
Her brother made a vulgar motion behind their parents' backs, knowing full well she was doing the walk of shame.
"It's unlike you to jeopardize your job by staying out all night," her father said from behind his newspaper. He snapped it shut disapprovingly. "Your mother and I were worried."
"S-Sorry," Carly said, though it grated on her. She was twenty-three, after all. But her father was, in a word, scary. He'd never struck his children or berated them, of course, but his expectations for them were high, and his demeanor was cold. Sometimes it was hard to remember he loved them at all.
"Well, I suppose you're an adult now," her father went on. "Though I'd expect more responsibility from an adult."
"Dad, come on, she went out for a night. When's the last time she did that?" Matthew asked, backing her up. "Don't you ever want us to have any fun?"
Her father grunted and picked up his paper again. "Fun," he muttered.
Carly gave Matthew a grateful smile, then took the stairs two at a time to get up to her bedroom. She showered and changed into her festival garb.
Matthew, clearly having waited as long as he was prepared to, knocked on her door just as Carly finished lacing her bodice. "Are you decent?" he asked.
"Yeah, come on in," Carly said. She sat down on her bed, preparing for a long conversation.
Grinning from ear to ear, Matthew came in her room and shut the door behind them. "So... all night, huh?" he asked.
Carly blushed. "You know, if it were you, Dad wouldn't have batted an eyelash. But me? I have to pretend to go out with my girlfriend—"
"In order to get some," Matthew said. "Yeah, I know, life's unfair. He does it out of love, though. I think."
"I hope so, otherwise our father is a psychopath," Carly said.
"... that is always a possibility, too," Matthew laughed. "I'm glad you had a nice night."
"Me, too," Carly said. Then her eyes got wide. "Oh no, what am I going to tell them about tonight?"
"Tonight?!" Matthew said. "Jesus, what kind of horn dog is he?"
Carly blushed. "Stop it, I'm serious. Kiernan asked me out again, and I said I'd stay over."
"Say it's some kind of RenFest thing," Matthew said. "Tell them you and Dawn are staying over at the fair for some kind of first weekend slumber party."
Carly rose and kissed his cheek. "Matt, you're a genius," she said and hugged him.
"If you'd gotten more practice sneaking around in high school, you'd be just as much of a genius as me," Matthew said. "Alright, I'm sure I'll see you later today. Mom'll be sending me with something else, maybe puppy chow."
"Oh come on, that's not fair and you know it," Carly said. "We'll get powdered sugar all over our costumes. YOU'RE the one who'd have to eat it."
"Now wouldn't that be a crying shame," Matthew grinned. "Can't wait to meet this Kiernan guy."
Carly groaned. "You promise to be nice."
"Hey, I'm always nice. I'm not Dad," Matthew said. "You wound me."
"A-huh," Carly said. "And Chris in college just happened to ghost me after three months?"
"He was seeing someone else on the side," Matthew grumbled. "That was a relationship mercy killing."
"You're impossible, you know that, right?" Carly sighed. "Just don't do a police investigation on this one, okay? If it doesn't work out, I want to decide that for myself."
"Okay, you got it," Matthew said with the wide smile that always told Carly he was lying.
"Gah!" Carly said, throwing up her hands. She picked up her overnight bag and stomped out of her room and back down the stairs. "Gotta go. RenFest. Staying out tonight. RenFest thing. By-ye!" Carly made her escape before her parents could comment.
* * *
Kiernan
Kiernan was showing a toy chest to a new grandmother when he scented him. He turned around slowly, watching the shorts-clad, t-shirt wearing, dark-haired Hunter approach. "Hello," Kiernan said, his nose wrinkling at the strong scent of wolfsbane. "Give me a moment, I'm almost finished here."
"Take your time," Matthew said, settling himself into one of the Adirondack chairs Kiernan and Carly had been sitting in just the day before.
"I love it," the woman said. "I'll have my son come pick it up later today. You have such fine craftsmanship." She squeezed Kiernan's bicep, and he smiled. It wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last that a woman bought something from him just because they liked his body.
"Thanks," Kiernan said, gently removing her hand and shaking it. "I look forward to it."
The woman gave him a coquettish look as she walked away. Then Kiernan turned to the problem at hand. "So," he said cautiously, "what brings you to my shop?"
"You kept my sister out all last night," Matthew said. "So I figured I'd come see what all the fuss is about. Though Dawn is right, you do have really tight pants."
Her family were Hunters, then. Kiernan didn't think Carly knew. Hunters had a penchant for keeping their women in the dark, and his subtle questioning had brought out an honest answer—that the farm accident had simply been an accident, as far as she knew. He recognized the tang now that rose off her skin and offended his senses at times, it was the scent of wolfsbane.
"I guess I do," Kiernan said after a beat, looking down at his trousers. "I had the pleasure of meeting Dawn and Carly yesterday."
"And the pleasure of being with my sister all night," Matthew added. "Don't get offended, bro. I'm just here to find out your intentions. I mean, I'd be a little pissed off if you just see my sister as a RenFest stand, but as long as you're honest with her about it, I could respect that, too. She deserves to have fun as much as anybody. But if you're looking for more than that, then I have to see what kind of guy you are. So, which is it?"
Kiernan could hardly tell a Hunter that Carly was his mate. But as Carly's brother, he had to respect the man and respect the fact that he was looking out for his sister. "I'm looking for more than that," Kiernan said.
Matthew nodded. "I'd ask you how you can say that after one day, but my sister's incredible, and you're a man with taste if you can see that."
"I knew it the moment I met her," Kiernan said. He was still standing at a safe distance from Matthew. He didn't want to start itching or sneezing or worse.
Unfortunately, Matthew patted the chair next to him. "Let's sit and have a conversation."
Shit, Kiernan thought.