Picking up her fork and knife, She cut into a piece of the chicken and took a bite. It was good. Very good. She knew that this and breakfast might be the last great meal she had for a while, so she planned to enjoy it. She pushed her thoughts away and nodded in his direction.
“It’s perfect,” she told him.
“Glad you approve,” he replied, taking a bite of his own.
“Do I smell brownies?”
“You do. They are cooling on top of the stove right now.”
“Yum,” she replied.
“Chocolate makes everything better,” he replied with a wink.
“I don’t know about that,” she replied, “but it can’t hurt.”
They finished their meal, and Autumn rinsed off the dishes while he cut up the brownies and put them on a small plate to take to the sofa with them. She followed him with the last bottle of wine and their now empty glasses, refilling both before sitting down beside him there.
“These are delicious.”
“I made them from scratch.”
“Liar,” she laughed.
“Well, I scratched while I made them.”
“Eww,” she replied, her nose wrinkled up in mock disgust.
He laughed and helped himself to another one as she sipped her wine, finally pushing them away toward her.
“No way. I couldn’t stand another. They were good, though.”
“I’ll bag the rest of them up for you to take with you,” he replied, and she realized that even if he wanted to eat more of them, he wouldn’t. He had intended for some to be left for her to take. “I’ve got some jerky and dried fruit in my saddlebags for you to take too.”
“You don’t have to do that, Malcolm.”
“I want to, and I can get more. It’ll get you started, at least. Might come in handy in a crunch if you’re out in the open and need a snack to tide you over.”
There was a slight falter in his voice as he said the words. It was obvious that he wasn’t happy about her striking out on her own, but there was little choice for either of them in the matter. They both had to keep moving forward.
“I don’t want to sleep as a bear tonight. My worst wound is closed. Will you sleep with me? I mean, will you stay the night and not come out to the sofa?”
“I don’t know, Autumn. I want you to be as well as you can possibly be before you set out tomorrow.”
“I’m fine. I just don’t want to be alone.”
“Okay, but just sleeping. As much as I’d like to spend the night doing unmentionable things to you, it’s important that you get your sleep.”
“Sounds boring, but if that is the deal I have to make, then so be it.”
Malcolm picked up the plate of brownies and took them to the kitchen, wrapping them up in some tin foil he found in a drawer. He set them on the counter and returned to the sofa to finish the bottle of wine with her before they made their way to bed. He stripped down to his boxer briefs and she kept on her panties and t-shirt, crawling into bed and curling up against one another to sleep.
Everything about him aroused her, even his smell as a wolf. It was all she could do to keep her promise to get some sleep, but she fought it and eventually fell asleep, her smaller frame fitted perfectly in the circle of his body around her.CHAPTER FIFTEENMalcolm-6
“What are you doing?” she asked as she woke up and blinked the sleep out of her eyes.
“Just watching you sleep.”
“Sounds a little creepy,” she teased.
“I suppose. I just wanted to memorize your face. I know you think you have somehow been a burden on me these last few days, but you haven’t. I’m glad I found you on the side of that road, that we got to spend this time together here.”
“Me too,” she said, leaning in to kiss him.
The daylight was barely breaking outside. He found that for all his restraint last night, he wasn’t as strong this morning. The kiss turned into something much deeper, and they soon found themselves becoming engrossed in one another again.
“We need to get a move on,” he told her.
“We could save time if we showered together.”
“Somehow, I doubt it,” he countered.
“Well, how about I just want to take a shower with you before we leave here?’
“Sounds fair to me. I’m not going to fight you too hard on it.”
He started the water, letting it get nice and hot while she got undressed beside him. He was once again struck by the beauty of her perfect body and couldn’t take his eyes off of it as she stepped into the shower and let the water cascade down her hair and across her curves. Despite the warmth of the water, her nipples were hard.
He imagined it was more a reaction to some inner stimulation than the warmth of the shower and found that he was quickly just as excited as she seemed to be. He stood watching her for a moment as she showered, enjoying even something as simple as her washing her hair and rinsing out the shampoo.