But he couldn’t be gone for a week or two like he wanted because he didn’t have the coverage at work and deep down, in truth, he just wasn’t sure if he could give her that time in Seattle. Cowardly? Maybe. But he decided to start with three days and four nights to see what happened.

The flight was short enough that he could leave Thursday night after work and arrive in

two hours and come back early Monday morning. Enough time to be with her, to touch her and smell her and roll around with her but not too much. He could retreat if he needed to.

He planned to meet her in just a few hours in baggage claim. Funny, sort of full circle from where they’d metbeforedinner with her family. God knew he was nervous about it but what could he say?Sheintroduce him to the people who mattered to her. That was important. He was important to her which made him proud.

Chapter Nine

Megan was glad to have the distraction of the two young and handsome men flirting with her at baggage claim as she waited for Shane. Her hands would have been shaking had she not been holding on to her purse so tightly and focusing on being witty while making it clear she was waiting for her special someone.

She felt him before she saw him, but kept on chatting with her admirers. It wasn’t about playing a game, but she didn’t want to leap on Shane and jump his bones in the middle of the airport. She didn’t want to scare him away. The trip was important. He was taking a small step into her life and she obsessed about doing it right.

“Boys, I think you might get your drool all over my wife if you stand so close.” Shane’s arms encircled her waist and he pulled her back, into the warmth and solid muscle of his body and she nearly groaned aloud at how good it felt.

She turned her head and met his gaze, just as his mouth claimed hers for a kiss.

Everything in her melted as she opened for him. He kept her pinned to his body, back to front as he devastated her mouth, took and took and gave in return nearly fell over at the overwhelming sensation. Mine.

When he let hergo,s all around them returned slowly but she never took her gaze from his.

“Hi.” She was proud she could speak at that point and the wicked man he was, she saw he

knew his affect on her. His smile was smug as well as sexy.

“Hi yourself. You taste good.”

She laughed, turning in his arms to wrap hers around his neck. Tiptoeing up, she kissed his nose briefly. “Good. I like to hear these things. God, I missed you.”

He squeezed her tight for a moment and she breathed in as he did, their bodies pressed together.

“So who are your friends?” He jerked his head and she remembered the two who’d been flirting with her.

“Oh them? Just a way to keep my mind off how long your flight had been delayed.”

They laughed behind her and she felt Shane’s jealousy ease through their link.

“You have nothing to worry about.”

“Good.” He turned a glare on her flirty companions and then tugged her toward the conveyor belt. She waved at them over her shoulder and Shane grunted. She snuggled into his side as they waited for his bag, just loving being with him after being apart for nearly two weeks. Her wolf did summersaults inside her human skin at his scent.

“How was the flight?”

He kissed the top of her head. “Long. I must have looked at my watch every forty seconds. I thought I’d never get here.”

“But you’re here now. I’m so glad.”

“So we’re going to dinner then? At Lex and Nina’s house?”

“Don’t sound so nervous. Honestly I limited it as much as I could and Lay helped. It’ll just be Lex, Nina, Lay and Sid and my parents. My grandmother harrumphed at me and said she’d see you before the weekend was up. I know you met her briefly before but I can’t wait for you to spend some time with her. You’ll like her. Or she’ll beat you up. My grandmother isn’t one to be ignored.” She laughed.

She felt his tension ebb a bit as he reached for his bag and pulled up the handle. “Okay.

I’m trusting you we have sex, right?”

Grabbing his hand, she tugged him toward the escalators so they could take theskybridge to the parking garage. “Duh. Like a whole lot.”

He saw the low slung, candy apple red Mustang and grinned. “Hmm. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised but I expected you to have a truckormore hardy.”

She rolled her eyes as she popped the trunk for him to put his suitcase into. “I’m as hardy as I need to be.” Her gaze slowly made the circuit from the tips of his shoes to the top of his head. “If you recall.”

He nearly choked as he scrambled to get into the car without his c**k popping through his jeans at the visual her comments left him with. Of her below him as he f**ked into her body.

“So um, listen, there will most likely be discussion of the binding ceremony tonight. Lex, well he’s very protective of his Pack and his family and he sees you as one of us now.

Don’t be offended, it’s not meant to be that way. He just wants to include you.”

Panic rose a moment, until she reached over and took his hand, squeezing it.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

He felt her melancholy through the link. “Would you like me to do the ceremony?”

“Yes. It would mean a lot to me. But you’d have to run with me. As a wolf.”

He hadn’t run in three years even though there were times he itched to let his wolf surface. Part of him really see her as a wolf. His own wolf began to respond and he realized there was an integral bit of his soul he’d walled off.