“You all right?” he asked her, his voice low. Almost a whisper.

And Darla said the first thing that came to mind at that moment. “I’m so glad I waited for you.”

Again, Eggie froze, his entire body rigid and when she looked into his eyes . . . she saw that small change in dilation.

She’d brought out the wolf.

Of all the things she could have said to him, it was that one thing that had him wanting to mark her there and then. He knew he couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right. Not for her, anyway. He’d be fine with it, but he also knew he couldn’t just trap some She-wolf into being his mate. Life with him would never be easy, so it would have to be a choice that Darla made on her own. But the Lord knew she was playing with fire.

Using every bit of Marine training he’d ever had over the last ten years, Eggie reined in his wolf, leashed it, you might say. He had to. And once he leashed it, he could focus on Darla again. She gazed up at him with wide eyes. A little bit of panic, he guessed, but he didn’t see any fear. Good. He didn’t want her to ever be afraid of him. The rest of the world could be, but never Darla.

He smiled down at her and she smiled back, showing him those goddamn dimples. Honestly, the woman was testing his resolve!

So he kissed her damn pretty mouth and he finished what he’d started. He stroked into her, trying to keep it together. Trying not to get too out of control. She’d just lost her virginity and he knew it had hurt her, but she’d still managed to come. So he wasn’t about to ruin all that by just ramming into her like a freight train. No matter how much he might want to.

So Eggie kept going, nice and easy, simply enjoying how good she felt, how tight she was holding him, how hard she was panting. Then she whispered his name and his eyes crossed. Then she said it again and again. It suddenly hit him that she was coming again, her body tightening around his as she choked on another scream. He followed right after her, his entire body jerking against her as he came so hard he was sure he was going to burst an important blood vessel. But it felt so good. Nothing had ever felt that good. Not simply because he was coming, but because he was with Darla.

When he could finally see straight again, he quickly lifted himself off her. He was so big and she was so small, he didn’t want to crush her. But as he rolled away from her, Darla rolled with him, her arms still around him, still holding him tight.

Once he was on his back, he wrapped his arms around her, kissed her sweat-soaked forehead.

They held each other like that for so long, Eggie was sure she was asleep. Until she sighed and said, “I know it’s gonna sound strange . . . but I could really go for a slice of that pecan pie right about now.”

Oh, yeah. He was holding onto this little She-wolf forever.

CHAPTER EIGHT

They’d gotten severalslices of pie and returned to the bedroom. But before they could do that, Darla found an old sheet and covered the bed with it because, according to her, “I don’t care what anyone says. Crumbs in a bed are not comfortable.”

Now they sat across from each other, eating delicious pie, and talking. Well . . . Darla talked. Eggie ate, grunted a few times, and stared at her ’cause she was naked. She seemed to like being naked and he liked that she liked being naked.

“I really love making pies,” she said with an amazing amount of cheer and energy. It was hard to believe, considering what they’d been doing no more than a half an hour before. “But I don’t get to very often at my job.”

“No?”

“Those rich shifters coming to the Van Holtz restaurant want fancy French pastries. I can make them, too, but there’s just something so wonderfully self-contained about pie. Once you perfect the crust, you can put dang near anything you want in the middle. It allows me to play. Even my failures can turn out delicious.”

Eggie took another bite of the Boston Cream and asked after he swallowed, “You really like living in San Francisco then?”

“Yes.”

Shit. He was going to have to move to San Francisco, wasn’t he? Eggie hated big cities. Hated the thought of living in them even more. He liked the freedom he found in Smithtown being among his own. But “his own” now included his brothers’ mates. And he could see that being a problem for Darla.

“But I could live anywhere,” she added after another bite of her pecan pie. “I’ve made some great friends in San Francisco. Met all sorts of interesting people. But you can meet all sorts of interesting people anywhere if you’re willing to look.”

“So you want to end up somewhere with lots of different kinds of people around?”

“Sure.” She leaned over and took a bit of his pie with her fork.

Okay, so maybe he could convince her to live in a smaller city. Like Raleigh or Atlanta. Maybe even someplace in Texas where Eggie had cousins who tolerated him well enough. Yeah. That could work.

“Then again—”

Oh, Lord.

“—I liked France a lot.”

“France?”

“Uh-huh. Italy, Spain, and Germany, too. Went there to study under some amazing pastry chefs. You ever been to France or Italy?”

“Yeah.” Of course, he’d only been there to track down and kill rich hunters using shifters as wild game, but there was no need to share that detail.

“Did you like it?”

Eggie shrugged. “Eh.”

She laughed. “Yeah, I don’t exactly see you on the Champs-Élysées at a café sipping wine.”