Afterwards, he bids her goodnight and watches as she drags her feet into the bedroom. She smells miserable and he wishes he could make things better for her somehow.
His answer comes much later in the night, when he's startled from his sleep at the sound of his door opening.
"Can I sleep with you tonight?" She's already hugging her pillow at his door, waiting for permission to come in.
She's too old to be sharing a bed with him, but she's also just had her heart broken. He thinks that he should be more understanding of her heartbreak. He pats the bed in silent invitation and she tiptoes in, almost hesitant.
He realizes his mistake a second later, when he sees she only has on an oversized sweater and nothing else. He wonders if she's even wearing underwear for a few seconds before deciding he's better off not knowing, keeping his gaze firmly on the pillow she's hugging close to her chest.
"Thank you," she murmurs.
The bed dips as she climbs into it, dropping her pillow next to his. He lifts his blanket, letting her slip under it.
"I love you, daddy," she whispers softly in the dark, tipping her head up to press a shy kiss to the corner of his lips before pulling back and away. She turns her back to him, smelling like temptation.
His heart skips a beat and then another. He thinks of pulling her back into his arms, deepening the kiss and getting what he wants. He imagines pinning her under him and showing her what a proper kiss should be like. She would make such lovely little noises.
He refrains. "Love you too, puppet," he responds. If his voice is deeper than usual, he hopes she doesn't notice.
It doesn't help at all when she shuffles up to him, pressing her back to his chest and shifting his arms so she's cushioning herself in his arms.
"Puppet," he growls, unable to stop himself from nuzzling his chin to her temple. She's so lovely and soft like this, leaning up against him and trusting him to just hold her without doing anything more. He's so sorely tempted. He sighs. "Your birthday's coming up in a week. Do you want to have a party?" he asks. He knows she has made few friends at the University. Perhaps letting her pursue a relationship with Sam had been a bad idea. The boy had taken up much of her time and made it difficult for her to get to know others.
She shakes her head. "No," she says for good measure. "Just you and me. Like always" She says and curls into his chest, carving a space for her in his arms.
He distracts himself with thoughts of work and pointedly does not think of how good she feels in his arms, how perfectly she fits there.
Chapter Three: Innocent
It becomes a routine that he is too selfish to stop. She doesn't if she could join him in bed at night. Instead, she seem to have taken that night as a permission to slip into his bedroom every night thereafter. She climbs into his bed, making a space for herself at his side. But not before pressing a shy kiss on the corner of his mouth. It's an exquisite sort of torture.
More than once, he thinks of reeling her in every time she does it, yanking her back before she can pull away so he can deepen the kiss, lick into her mouth and show her what a proper kiss is supposed to be like. But that would be both selfish and wrong so he wraps his arms around her waist, tugging her in and fitting her close to his chest. He's gotten used to having her in his bed, her sweet scent permeatin
g the air and mixing with his own.
He thought he had gotten used to the way she smelled, but his scent mixed with hers in such close proximity makes him dizzy with want, the wolf side of him desperate to claim her for his own. He squeezes his eyes shut, shaking off the fog as he lets her shifts his arms into a more comfortable position for herself.
He thought it would be harder to sleep with her so close, but it's the opposite. He sleeps better than he's ever slept before.
He wakes before her every morning to deal with the hard-on from sleeping so close to her. She's so perfect and soft in the morning too, especially when he has to fold the blanket off himself to climb out of the bed. He allows himself a glimpse of her then, all sleep-soft and completely unaware of how much he wants her.
He disgusts himself sometimes.
He jerks off in the bathroom like a teenager and vehemently does not think of soft skin under his body, lush lips parted in little gasping sobs. He comes to the thought of her arching up to him, the warmth of her skin against his own and washes away his guilt and self-loathing in steaming hot water and soap that smells like cherry blossoms because it's her favorite.
There are times when he's glad she's human and now is one of them. If she was a wolf, she would be able to tell exactly what he had been doing in the bathroom the moment he stepped out. He turns his back to her and changes into his work clothes even though she is still asleep.
When he's dressed, he rubs his palm to her cheek. "Time to wake up," he says, knowing how much she hates sleeping in even on a weekend. He allows himself the indulgence of leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. "Wake up, puppet," he murmurs, inhaling her scent deep in his lungs, wishing he could keep her here forever.
She smells like a virgin still and he knows she hasn't done anything with anyone since breaking up with the boy, Sam. It had surprised him, really, when he found that she hasn't had sex with the boy. He's a year older than them and she's not yet eighteen, but most teenagers don't really hesitate before going after what they want to make themselves feel good.
Then again, his pup has always been particularly goal-oriented. She needs to work so much harder than most to get where she is and he's intensely proud of her for what she's achieved.
Her birthday is a quiet affair, celebrated a day late because she had an exam on the day of her birthday and she needed to focus. He purchased a car for her, a stunning silver Sypder that the dealer had assured him would be safe even for beginner drivers. She already knows how to drive, but she has to count on him to drive her places because they share a vehicle.
"I don't need my own car," she says, looking just a little bit disappointed, like she had been expecting something else.
"You're going to need it to go to work, wouldn't you?" he says.