Page 57

“No food means no fun times. Decide now. The pouting doesn’t work on me, young lady,” I say with a tilt of my head as my eyebrow raises in challenge.

She stomps her foot, pushing her lower lip out even further. “Fine, but I better get what I want at the end because I can promise it’s not food.”

“Fair enough, princess.” I laugh as I walk into the kitchen to scrounge together something of substance. I didn’t really expect to have her here all weekend, so we will have to make due for now.

Twenty minutes later, I am plating the spaghetti and garlic bread onto both our plates. It’s not enough fuel for what I have planned, but it will do for now. I place both our plates on the kitchen island with forks, napkins, and glasses of water before I venture through the cabin to find Aspen.

It doesn’t take long to find her yet again on her chair in her library with that book from earlier. She looks up when I walk into the room. “Dinner ready?” she asks as she quickly slams the book shut and scrambles off the chair. I can’t help but laugh at her reaction, knowing she isn’t excited about dinner at all, but what comes after?

Laughing, I follow behind her as she quickly makes her way to the kitchen island. It’s adorable how excited she is and the youthfulness of it is exhilarating. The stool scrapes across the hardwood floors as she pulls it back to sit down. She doesn’t even wait for me to sit down before she digs into her food.

“Slow down, we have all night, all weekend, the rest of our lives,” I say with a laugh as I watch her shovel another mouthful of spaghetti into her mouth. Her cheeks are pushed out like a chipmunk storing nuts when she looks sheepishly at me. A few strands of noodles dangle from her lips before she slurps them in.

I twirl the noodles around my fork as she chews a little slower on her mouthful. She swallows audibly before dabbing her mouth with the napkin. “You probably think I’m being ridiculous.”

My head shakes from side to side as a smile spreads across my face. “Not at all. I’m excited as well. It’s adorable and refreshing to bask in your excitement. Just don’t want you to choke on your food,” I laugh before putting another forkful in my mouth.

“It doesn’t bother you that I’m not as experienced as you? That I have literally no idea what I like? What if I suck at it?” She ducks her head as she slowly twirls her fork in the spaghetti.

“On the contrary, I look forward to learning what you like right along with you. Surely, in all the years of reading romance novels, you have thought of things that you would like to try?”

She tilts her head to the side as she contemplates what I said. It apparently doesn’t take long for an idea to come to mind as I watch the blush creep across her cheeks again. She doesn’t tell me, instead choosing to push more food into her mouth, avoiding eye contact.

My fork clinks against the plate as I set it down to turn towards her. “What was it?”

She shakes her head from side to side, still avoiding me.

Reaching across her barstool, I grab the side of her thigh and pull her closer to me. The squeal she releases is both hilarious and high-pitched. Almost as if she didn’t even consider this as a possibility.

My fingers push the hair behind her ear as I lean in and whisper, “Be a good girl and tell me what it was.”

Her mouth hangs open as she pants out a breath. “It’s embarrassing. I feel like such an idiot even thinking about it. You will be so weirded out when I tell you.”

“Doubt that. Come on, in order for this to work between us, you have to be as open with me as I will be with you.”

“I want to fuck you in your humanoid wolf form,” she mumbles quietly.

Did I hear her correctly?“What was that?”

She heaves out a sigh as her head drops back to stare at the ceiling. “I’ve always wanted to fuck your humanoid form. I don’t tell people, but monster romance is one of my favorite tropes. The size difference, the stuffing, and the breeding. I’ve fantasized riding your wolf while your claw tipped hands’ grip onto my ass.”

My mouth drops open because that wasn’t what I was expecting, but before I can even formulate words, she continues.

“I want to dominate you while calling you my good boy. To see you on your knees before me, waiting for my next command.”

Oh, she is a freak, and I’m here for it.My lips pull up into a smirk as I ask, “Anything else you want to do?”

Her face scrunches in confusion. “That doesn’t freak you out?”

I simply shake my head, waiting for her to continue. “I’m sure I can think of more things, but those are top of my list, at least for now.”

“We can check some of those off for sure. I don’t think tonight should be that time. For the first time, we should be more vanilla than those kinks.”

“Va…vanilla?”

I nod my head. “It’s what the kink community considers simple positions like missionary, doggy style, or laying on oursides. An easier way to think of it would be more like ‘love making’ versus ‘fucking’. There is nothing wrong with it, and it’s perfectly acceptable to only use those types of positions. Whatever satisfies you and your partner.”

“So, I’m not a freak for liking the idea of those things?” she asks timidly.