They rocked together in the dirt, and when she put her hands on his hard, taut ass, she could feel the muscles flexing as he worked over her, as he thrust and withdrew and pushed and surged. She opened her mouth for another yell—it was too sweetly divine to keep quiet—when his hand clamped over her mouth. She writhed in silence beneath him and, several seconds later, heard the couple walk by on the sidewalk a bare ten yards away.

“They’ll hear you,” he murmured in her ear, his voice so thick it was nearly unrecognizable. “They’ll come over here and see me fucking you in my side yard.”

The thought was so blackly exciting she came at once, actually felt herself get wetter. He groaned in her ear and then bit her earlobe.

It went on like that for some time—she would never be able to guess how long they went at each other in the lilac bushes. Every once in a while his phenomenal hearing would pick up something and he’d cover her mouth again, without missing a stroke. But when he finally came, his shout was a roar that made her ears ring.

“Oh, Christ,” he gasped, collapsing over her.

“If anybody heard that, you’ll have some explaining to do, Doctor.” She tried to sound saucy, but mostly, she just wheezed.

“Umm.” He was kissing the side of her neck—wet, snuffly kisses that made her shiver and press closer to him. “Don’t leave in the middle of the night anymore.”

“All right, then. Think we can make it inside without showing the neighbors our bare butts?”

“We’re about to find out.”

Chapter 9

I think I got something caught on your belly button ring,” he said later, simply because it was much too soon to ask her to be his mate and he had to say something.

“What can I say? Life with me is a constant adventure.” She yawned and flopped over on her back. “And may I add, not bad for an old guy. Seriously. You must take, like, super Geritol, because…”

“Thank you so much,” he said wryly. They were in his bed, watching the stars through the skylight. “I was just about to compliment you on being adequate in bed despite an obvious lack of experience.”

She smacked him on the bicep. “Hey! And…ow…that was like slapping a rock. FYI, dude, I’ve got gobs of experience. There was that time in the movie theater…um…and once during a snowball fight a boy fell down on top of me…”

“Stop it, you’re embarrassing yourself.”