He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Sorry. How can I make it up to you?”
Tessa wrapped her legs around him and pulled his lips back to hers, kissing him madly. All her sleepiness had vanished, replaced by a whole lot of other things.
Including a deep rumbling noise that escaped her tummy. Drat—how sexy. A true sign of having missed lunch.
Mark laughed against her lips. “Good thing you made supper, and it’s a tasty one.”
“We’re not done,” Tessa warned.
His soft caress along her arm soothed her cat as they found their feet. “Did you have a good day?” Mark asked as he grabbed them bowls and utensils.
Tessa moved the stew to the table, shocked she’d managed to cook something edible. “I had a lazy day.”
“Those can be good.” Mark breathed deeply as he leaned over the food she’d scooped for him. “Wait until mid-January. We’ll have lots of lazy days when the sun goes down early, and it’s too cold to do much outside.”
Tessa shivered. “Firewood. Lots and lots of firewood stockpiled, right?”
“Of course.”
Dinner passed comfortably, her satisfaction rising at every sound of enjoyment Mark made. Suzy-homemaker she wasn’t, but feeding him? Whoa, she’d never imagined how gratifying that could be.
Or how erotic. Mark scooped up a spoonful and scarfed it down happily, a tiny smudge of gravy clinging to the corner of his mouth. Tessa reached out without thinking and touched her finger to the spot, cleaning it away.
He caught her wrist, holding her in place until her gaze met his. Then slowly, deliberately, he licked her finger clean.
Tessa swallowed, hard. A buzz shot from where his tongue contacted her through her body all the way until she swore he had licked her clit.
Oh boy.
Where was this leading? They’d played around a couple days ago, but with her strange case of the sleepies, Mark had been left hanging for far too long. She wouldn’t mind a little more action, either, even if it was far too soon to be committing to anything like being one true loves yet.
Mark released her hand, refocusing all his attention on scraping the remaining bits of food from his bowl.
Tessa hesitated, not quite sure what his withdrawal meant. “Mark? Did I do something wrong?”
“You’ve done nothing but be yourself, and it’s killing me.” He lifted his eyes again. “I want you.”
Instant shiver—full-body, all-out physical response from head to toe. “I’m good with that.”
“Only, I don’t want just part of you.” Mark stared past her shoulder, his gaze unblinking as he continued. “You’re my mate, and my wolf thinks I’m nuts, but until you’re ready to accept me completely, I can’t… I thought I could, but I can’t make love to you without going too far.”
Her blood raced so hard a blackout seemed possible. “Too far?”
“Marking you. Mating you.” He pushed away from the table, opening space between them. “I know I said we could fool around, but I wasn’t aware how much being mates would get to me. Maybe if I were a stronger wolf I could handle it. Maybe if you weren’t right here—but don’t suggest you go anywhere else, because that would only be worse.”
Her mouth had gone dry. “You don’t want me around, but you don’t want me to leave?”
Mark rubbed his forehead. “I’m saying this all wrong, and I’m sorry. I’m trying desperately to give you what you asked for, which is time for us to fall in love. So we’re going to have to find ways to spend time together that doesn’t involve getting hot and heavy.”
Something twisted inside, and it wasn’t just her libido complaining. “Oh. Okay, that makes sense.”
Only having made Mark uncomfortable made her uncomfortable, and a change of mental game plan for the evening, well, sucked. While playing Parcheesi or working on a puzzle wasn’t what she wanted, she had to respect his honesty. “Thank you for telling me.”
“Yeah.” He smiled wryly. “Want to go for a run?”
Wednesday
Tessa had deliberately set the alarm to make sure she’d get up in time. When it went off, though, she rolled over, on the verge of falling asleep again as Mark’s scent lingering on the sheets made happy little hormones dance in her veins.
At least until she remembered the reason she could smell him had nothing to do with wild romps. It was his bed, ergo, it smelt like him. No late-night orgasms, screaming out in pleasure or even basic cuddling had brought them together.
She forced herself to crawl out from under the covers, wondering what on earth was causing her to be so sleepy these days. Only, it wasn’t like exhaustion-tiredness, more as if she was too relaxed to want to bounce from task to task in her usual way.
The sounds of banging led her to the main floor where she found Mark swinging a hammer. Shirtless, his muscles flexing as he moved efficiently again and again, a light sheen of sweat slicking him up.