Wolf's Oath (After the Crash 3.25) by Maddy Barone Read Free Book Online

his triumph. The women in the house were sleeping. No need to wake them.
    Connie Mondale was going to be his mate! Soon, he’d have the right to kiss her. Soon, he’d be able to stroke his hands over her strong, pale body. Soon, he’d claim that body and sink himself deep inside her heat and then nothing would prevent him from howling his victory.
    He followed her back to her apartment and waited in the outer room while she changed into nightwear. When she called for him to come in, he settled himself on the floor in front of the door. She sat on the bed, wearing an oversized wool shirt and loose trousers, biting her lip. He could almost smell the battle that waged inside her.
    “It’s cold on the floor,” she finally said, sounding exasperated. “Go stay with Stag or Faron.”
    “I won’t leave you,” he said simply.
    “Oh, for Pete’s sake. Fine, you can sleep on the bed.”
    “The floor is good. Sleep well, mate.”
    “I said, sleep on the bed.” She sounded as though she were grinding her teeth together. “Just don’t get any funny ideas.”
    “No funny ideas,” he agreed.
    “Blow out the lamp,” she ordered in a disagreeable tone.
    Alpha female. It made him want to smile. He suppressed it. Her bed was narrow enough that, lying side by side, their arms touched. She lay rigid next to him, under stacks of quilts, while he lay on top of the quilts. Her obvious fear that he wouldn’t abide by his agreement rankled . He comforted himself with her previous statement that she didn’t know him.
    She would. One night she would know all of him. Not tonight, and perhaps not any night in the immediate future, but one night she would give him her body, and that would have to be enough until he won her heart and soul as well.
    Inhaling the cold air perfumed by the scent of his mate, he slept.

Chapter Four
     
     
    Connie drifted on the edge of waking, feeling utterly relaxed. Something poked at her mind, something that wanted to disturb her, but she was curled too comfortably on her side to want to let it in. For the first time in weeks she felt warm. She wanted to savor the feeling. When she tried to tug the edge of the blanket higher it snapped taut and didn’t move. She tugged harder with the same level of success. Frustrated, she rolled on to her back to free it, and realized she wasn’t alone. She opened her eyes a slit and found herself nose-to-nose with Des.
    Des? What the hell is he doing in bed with me? was her first thought, followed by hot outrage when he had the nerve to smile at her.
    “Good morning,” he said, and his voice was rough with that sexy, just-woke-up gravel note in it that made her bones turn to hot, gooey jelly.
    She refused to melt. Des was gorgeous, sexy as hell, and smelled good enough to eat, but why was he in her bed ?
    She lifted her head to look around the room, noting with relief that he was on top of the quilts, and then saw the bottle on the small bedside table. Memory hit her like a fist in her churning stomach. Oh, God. Faron had told her the women had only three weeks to find husbands. And then… Des had appeared out of nowhere and offered her an escape for all of them.
    “I agreed to marry you?” Her voice shook only a little. She swallowed hard. “Did I agree to marry you?”
    The warmth on his face faded to the watchful, grim expression she was used to. “Yes. Have you changed your mind?”
    She laid her throbbing head back down on the pillow. He was above her, propped on one elbow, one of his thick braids hanging over his chest to pool on the bed beside her, the other hidden behind his back. He was wearing a heavy wool flannel shirt open to show his strong throat and the first six inches of his thick chest. Connie had had more than one erotic dream starring Des, and in them he hadn’t been wearing a shirt. Or anything else.
    “No,” she answered. “No, I haven’t changed my mind.”
    One good thing about marriage would be sleeping next to a man who put out