He clapped his hands once, his hot breath visible when it collided with the frosty air. “Come on, Ladybug. Let’s eat.”
An icy breeze drifted in as he left the door ajar. Eventually the heavy smell of meat would lure her wolf in, and he could sense by her restless demeanor that Lexi’s energy was growing stronger and she was ready to take over.
He lifted a shopping bag from the dining chair and hefted it, eyeing the loft upstairs when he felt how light the contents were. He wondered if she’d bought some “bad girl” clothes. Austin wasn’t into lingerie, but earlier that day he’d been admiring the scantily clad mannequins in a lingerie store long enough that Lexi had punched him in the arm. Not long after, Lexi and April had split off to do some girl shopping.
Whatever that meant.
Austin set the bag on the table and reached inside, pulling away the red tissue paper. He lifted a thin, rectangular strip of fabric between his fingers—black lace with a violet trim woven around the edges. He wasn’t sure if it was a pair of panties or a blindfold, but there was no way in hell it was going to hold her ass. Those beautiful rounds were going to peek out of the bottom, and just thinking about it made his mouth water.
Most alphas could scent a female’s oncoming heat cycle. Sometimes Lexi’s would come on gradually and she’d complain about “tingles,” while other times it would slam into her like a hurricane. Her scent had changed two weeks ago, and he was certain she didn’t have a clue or else she would have canceled the trip. Judging by the lingerie, this promised to be a hell of a night.
Austin had been avoiding Lexi during her heat spells for years. Well, except for earlier that year. He’d succumbed to the blissful sensation of taking his mate the way nature intended, but he’d cut short their interlude before risking an unplanned pregnancy.
Lexi had endured multiple miscarriages, and it was uncertain if she could carry to full term. Even if she could, what if he lost her? A Shifter’s animal hibernated during pregnancy because shifting could endanger the fetus, and without the ability to heal, it left the mother vulnerable.
Fatherhood was a joy he could only envy as he watched Jericho kiss his sons and daughter, or when Lorenzo would periodically call home to check on Hope, reassured by the sound of her voice.
Austin wondered if his fears were the reason the pregnancies had never taken hold. Who knew what kind of power existed in their genes?
So when he sensed her coming cycle weeks before their trip, he decided it was fate. This time he wouldn’t turn his life mate away. Austin vowed to love her the way a man should love his woman: completely and unconditionally.
Whatever challenges awaited them, they would face them together.
Thoughts of children evaporated when the sound of toenails clicked on the wood floor behind him. Austin quickly shoved the panties back into the bag and wadded up the tissue paper.
He swaggered past her wolf and patted her side, large flecks of snow sliding off her silver fur and smacking onto the floor.
“Feel better?” he asked with a playful laugh, closing the open door.
In a swirl of magic, Lexi’s wolf transformed into an exquisite woman with straight brown hair, bourbon-colored eyes, faded freckles on the bridge of her nose, and one hell of a scowl on her face.
She shivered in a puddle of ice water. “It’s twenty degrees outside. A warm blanket would have been a nice greeting.”
Austin worshipped the ground she walked on, but he wasn’t about to let a blanket do the job of a man. He grinned, and as soon as he planted his hands on her naked hips, she sighed and melted against him.
Damn, he loved it when she did that.
Austin ran hot, and Lexi had learned to appreciate his body temperature on cold winter nights.
Lexi slid her icy fingers beneath his shirt, and he grew hard. She gave him a mischievous smile when she looked up at him with those soft brown eyes. “That’s what you get for snooping in my bag.”
His brows popped up in surprise.
Lexi lifted his shirt and pressed her nude, wet body against him. “You put it back on the wrong chair.”
“If you keep this up, I won’t get a chance to see you put them on.”
“Not now,” she said, pushing him away.
He kissed the curve of her neck. “If not now, when?”
“We’ll be late for dinner.”
He smiled against her skin, breathing in her scent. “The chili can wait.”
“Maybe so, but Reno’s appetite can’t.”
Austin narrowed his eyes and stepped back. “Say again?”
Nothing about the look Lexi gave him was innocuous. “Well… it seemed like a waste for you to cook all that chili for just us.”
“Alexia Talulah Cole…”