Page 45 of Just One Bite

Chapter Thirty-Six

Parker

I pace the floor next to the fireplace while I wait. My socks catch on the rug, and I almost trip. Olivia is nauseous because she’s nervous, and it pulses in and out of the bond as she gets checked out. I squeeze my fingers at the pain in my wrist, as they likely try to adjust her for x-rays.

They wouldn’t let me go back with her. She’s obviously a grown woman who doesn’t need my help but … what if she does need me? What if the nurses are shit and don’t listen to her? What if they hurt her more?

The alpha blood is to blame. I’m so fucking worried I’ve asked the nurse five times how much longer.

I look like a jackass, but I can’t stop.

We’re linked, which means I’m made to protect her.

It’s basically woven into my DNA. That makes me relax a little after growling at the male nurse in the infirmary when he tried to take her back.

I stop pacing, and Olivia waddles out of the door with a nurse. She’s barely hiding that limp. I knew she wasn’t going to tell them.

“No breaks. Just a sprain. They suggest taking the day off and resting … together. Since we’re linked, they said your Were cells heal faster, and they think it will heal me quicker through the bond.” She sighs and crosses her arms; her wrist is tightly wrapped for support. “Can we go to my room?”

“Done.”

I squat, waiting for her to wrap her arms around my shoulders. There’s no way she’s walking on that ankle all the way back to Noxx House. She rolls her eyes and wraps an arm over my neck, finally giving in.

“Olivia, stop being a stubborn pain in the ass. We have to get off your shoes.”

“No, we don’t.”

“Lay down,” I tell her for the second time.

She’s staring at me from the edge of her bed.

I started the hearth for her, and the glow reflects in her defiant eyes.

I love her bed and all the overlapping fabrics of blankets she’s brought from home.

It kinda reminds me of how my mom used to decorate our home.

Long dark curtains with various layers and frills.

I smirk when she finally does what I said and undo the ribbons on her legs. Starting with the good ankle, I take off her pointe shoe. The muscles in her calf tense as I do.

“Relax, I’m used to the smell of your feet by now.”

“Shut up.”

I rummage through her bag and pull out the bandages and fuzzy socks to tend to the few blisters on her foot before moving to the next.

Her room is unusually messy, with piles of old clothes at the foot of her bed.

She’s locked in her head the entire time I tend to her foot and move onto the next one.

I squeeze light pressure at her heel to ground her.

“Okay, I’m going to be gentle. Tell me where it hurts.”

“It doesn’t hurt that much.”

“Why didn’t you have the doctor look at your ankle?”

“I just told you.”

“I know it hurts, Olivia. I can feel it.”

“I’ll be fine. I can still dance.”

“I know.” I assure her, knowing that’s all she cares about.

She winces as I remove her shoe, and her fingers claw at the sheets. I soften my touch and run it around the cool skin of her ankle.

“Does it hurt here? ”

She shakes her head, and I slowly roll her ankle. Her brow dents while her teeth grind.

“Don’t worry. I don’t think it’s that bad. I can get you some ice.” I observe the blister on the top of her foot. “I’ll need to rewrap this though.”

“Then you’ll stay?”

“Do you want me to?”

“I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m so … so …”

She catches the tear rolling down her cheek. “I’m overwhelmed. Too many things are going on. I don’t know what to do. And it’s Giselle, it’s not just getting into the IBCE. This is my dream role, and it’s slipping away.”

My fingers work into her calf. “Relax. It’s going to be okay. You’ll keep your spot.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.”

“You definitely need to go back to practice. The tournament is coming up and—”

“Let me worry about practice.” I drag my knuckles slowly down her leg and toward her ankle. Her heartbeat slows and she closes her eyes while I work on the tense knots in her muscles.

“Since werewolf saliva has amazing healing qualities, maybe I should just start licking your feet.”

Her eyes fly open, and she lets out a worried laugh. “That’s disgusting.”

I chuckle and lick my lips before planting a kiss on her ankle. “Here, right?”

“Yeah …”

I press my lips to her ankle bone and toward her heel.

When I drop her leg, she moves to sit up while I unwrap her wrist. I’d do anything to make her better, and the fact I can do this gets my heart pumping. I lick my lips again and kiss the center of her wrist.

“Where does it hurt?”

“It all hurts.”

I plant kisses up and down her wrist until my lips are in the center of her palm again. Her skin is warm and delicious, and I’m pretty sure I could do this all day.

“Parker?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want you to go back to practice. I want you to stay with me. ”

The way she’s looking at me is doing things to me. There’s something about when she strips it all away.

“I’ll stay, baby.” I stop myself. “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t call you that now.”

Things have changed, and I’m not sure what she’ll choose. If she wants to just be friends, I’ll make it happen. We’ve always been friends, and we can stay that way.

She grabs my jersey and tugs me toward her. “I like it.”

This time her tongue enters my mouth first. Okay, we aren’t friends.

It’s torture she can’t feel this, how my body identifies her and how it yearns to please—but I can wait for however long she needs to understand how much I care. I don’t know how to make her believe me.

“Parker … will you touch me, and we don’t have to tell anyone?”

“We are literally the most talked about couple in Vviveren right now. People know.”

“I just want you to touch me, and I don’t want to care about anything else.”

Her scent blooms with yearning while she grips at my jersey. I know what she’s asking me.

“You’re injured. Maybe you should rest.” I move the hair from her forehead to kiss her there.

“I know you’ll be gentle.”

She looks up at me with desire brimming. I inhale, marinating in it. It’s oddly calm. The aching from being apart is finally quiet, and it’s like nothing else matters.

I rest a hand under her chin. “I’ll touch you, and it’s our secret for today … it’s just you and me.”

Our lips meet in a slow, wet cadence. I kiss her cheek. Her neck. When my lips graze my mark on her skin, she moans.

“I want more than last time … I want you,” she says.

“Whatever you want, baby.”

I’m already hard. I don’t know how many times I’ve fantasized about this, but her touch is better than any dream.

This is different from anything we’ve done before, not that I want her any less. I didn’t think it was possible to want her more, but this is a new kind of want. It’s almost sacred. We won’t be able to take this back. I feel it in our rapid heartbeats and the way her fingers dig into my skin .

She watches me strip. Then kisses my chest between me taking her clothes off. I’m careful to avoid her wrist.

“Wait.” I stop just short of tugging off her shorts. “Tell me why.”

Hovering over her, I drag a finger down the valley of her breasts, and her breaths melt into long sighs. Nothing has ever felt this good. Because she’s my mate .

“Is it because you want to feel good and I’m the only one you trust to touch you?” I ask.

Her back arches into my touch when I bring my fingers below her belly button.

“Or is it because … you think about me touching you, only me, and you want more …”

Either way, I’m hers, but I need to know for my own sanity, that way I can pick up the little pieces of my heart enough to function.

“It’s only you that I want.” Her violet and golden eyes glisten in the dim light of the hearth.

Yep. Her pants are coming off. We’re about to have sex. And we’re in her room, which means … Oh, shit—

“Fuck. I don’t have any protection.”

“Oh, I started taking the protection potion a couple weeks ago.”

Those words send my skin ablaze with the itch of shifting, and I tower over her, pressing her hips into the mattress.

“You did that … thinking about me?”

“Yes.” Her gaze shifts uneasily. “I thought it might be a good idea so we didn’t need to worry about anything when we …”

“We?” I brush my fingers over her stomach. Still reeling from the fact that she thought about this. Weeks ago.

“When I asked you to have sex with me.” She swallows, with her heart stuttering.

She’s so fucking cute. Her cheeks are all red like she’s embarrassed to admit it.

“Holy shit, Olivia. You’re a dream. You’re my dream.”

“Will you?”

“Yeah, baby, I will.”

She squirms while I strip off her underwear, then pin her by the elbows .

“Careful. Your only job today is to take what I give you and let me keep you from hurting yourself further. This is really your first time?”

She nods. “I almost did once with my dance partner. But he left before it happened.”

Olivia opened up about her asshat dance partner over dinner once and the night he made her cry. Fucker . But his colossal loss is my momentous gain.

“That night I had a dream … about you.”

Oh, fuck yes. She left out that part. “Tell me more.”

I lick between her breasts and take a nipple in my mouth, and she arches into my touch.

Her perfect breasts I’ve been wanting to touch and taste.

So many times, I’ve imagined this. Her breasts are full and supple.

It’s messy and wet as I suck, and we both moan.

I want to savor it. Olivia is completely naked and firmly set in my arms.

“So you’ve been fantasizing about this for a long time, haven’t you?”

I pick a spot on her collarbone to press my lips to. My mind runs wild with all the things I want to do. Mine. Mine. Mine.

“I didn’t know it was you until after I met you.”

“It’s always been me, baby. I’ve been waiting for you for so long. Every night, I was with you.”

My tongue runs over my mark, and she gasps.

“You can’t—”