Shy (Once Bitten, Twice Shy, #2)

  Katherine was impressed with how much thought the man had put into the idea. But…“How can I even consider leaving my family after all I’ve put them through? I’m an awful person.” She covered her face with her hands.

  “Hush,” Bastian scolded. “You are anything but awful. You’re beautiful, both inside and out.”

  Katherine peeked out at the man between her fingers and offered him a watery smile.

  He smiled in return, the adorable dimple on his right cheek making an appearance, but his face was soon marred by a concerned frown. He gently traced the knuckles of her right hand. “What happened here?”

  Katherine pulled her hands away from her face and immediately realized what had caused the man’s mouth to dip into a frown. The knuckles of her right hand were red and slightly swollen. She hadn’t even noticed it before, but she couldn’t say that she was very surprised that Bastian had.

  He seemed to notice everything when it came to her.

  “I punched my brother-in-law in the mouth,” Katherine admitted matter-of-factly.

  Bastian tensed in front of her, his body suddenly disturbingly rigid. “Why?” he demanded, grasping either side of her face. “Did he do something to you? Did he hurt you?”

  Katherine carefully peeled his fingers from her cheekbones. “Nothing like that,” she assured. “He… he just called my sister a name and it sparked my temper.”

  She wasn’t exactly lying and so didn’t feel too bad about the part of the story she’d chosen to omit. After all, Katherine knew if she told Bastian what else he’d said to her and described how he’d grabbed her, Bastian would have Chad in a chokehold in less than a minute. Not exactly the best way for her family to meet her alpha… her mate.

  Bastian didn’t look entirely convinced, however. “Are you sure?”

  Katherine nodded and quickly sought to change the subject. “But just so you know, even if I do decide to go back to Haven Falls with you, that doesn’t mean that I’m agreeing to let you… claim me or whatever.”

  Bastian grinned, seemingly as willing to banish Chad from his mind as she was from her own. “I know,” he acknowledged, “but I’m hoping you’ll give me plenty of opportunities to convince you.”

  Katherine narrowed her eyes at the mischievous smile playing on his lips. “And how exactly are you going to do that?”

  Bastian propped himself forward so that their noses were a mere inch from touching. Katherine couldn’t help but lean into his touch as he cupped the sides of her face. “Like this,” he answered softly, his voice a near whisper, before connecting his lips to hers.

  What started off as a soft, sensual kiss – barely more than Bastian’s lips lingering tenderly over hers– quickly escalated into a frenzied battle of the mouths. Their teeth clashed, and Bastian’s tongue forced itself between her lips, dominating the inside of her mouth as he probed and licked at it. Katherine’s breath hitched when he sucked hard at her bottom lip. Trembling with a feeling almost completely foreign to her, she pulled him impossibly closer.

  It was like Bastian could read her mind and knew exactly what she wanted because in the next instant, he was on top of her, pushing her back into the mattress as he covered her body with his own solid mass. His hands gripped her waist possessively. The bruise she’d acquired jumping out of her window the night before, however, hadn’t quite healed, and she couldn’t suppress a pained flinch, immediately bringing attention to the minor injury.

  Bastian froze on top of her.

  Before she even had time to be embarrassed about it, Bastian was yanking her night shirt up above her waist, his eyes searching for whatever had caused her to recoil from him. When he spotted the patch of discolored skin, his fingers ghosted over the purple bruise that had blossomed over her hip bone the night before. “What happened?” he asked, voice like gravel.

  “It was my own fault,” she hurriedly assured him. “It happened when I jumped out of my window last night.”

  Bastian’s brow furrowed in consternation. “Yes, I saw you,” he said, reconfirming what Katherine already knew to be true – that he’d been watching her last night. “May I ask what possessed you to do that?”

  Katherine scowled at the admonishment in his tone. “Well, I had to sneak out of the house somehow,” she pointed out. “When I saw Markus jump from it a week ago, it looked easy enough.”

  Bastian frowned. “Markus was here?” His tone was unreadable, but something resembling anger lurked in the man’s eyes.

  Katherine had forgotten that he hadn’t known about Markus’s impromptu visit.

  “Yes,” Katherine admitted, “but can we please not talk about Markus of all people right now?” She gestured vaguely at the rather intimate position they were in.

  Bastian’s eyes immediately softened. “Of course,” he acquiesced, gently fingering the bruise once more. “Does it hurt much?”

  “Hardly at all,” she assured.

  Bastian seemed satisfied with that answer and took Katherine by surprise by pressing a soft kiss to the blemished skin. She gasped, goosebumps erupting over her flesh. Her stomach quivered as he placed another airy kiss– a mere brush of the lips – on her belly button. His dark eyes peered up at her. “Is this okay?”

  Katherine didn’t think she could force her voice to work just that second so she nodded her consent instead. Bastian lips pressed against the pale, unmarked skin of her other hipbone before slowly trailing up her belly, caressing the smooth flesh of her stomach with lips and tongue. His eyes didn’t leave hers once.

  His hands followed his mouth, coming to rest on the frayed ends of her night shirt, which had been pushed up to just below her breasts. After searching her eyes for a moment, he must have found what he was looking for– some sort of permission – because in the next second he was lifting it further up her body. Katherine allowed it – helped him even, to pull the worn shirt off over her head.

  She wasn’t wearing a bra.

  Nearly overcome with the urge to cover herself – she knew logically that Bastian had seen her naked before, but never under such intimate circumstances – she attempted to cross her arms over her bare breasts. Bastian, though, easily read her intentions and carefully caught her arms. “Don’t,” he whispered, staring reverently at her body. “Just, please don’t do that… you’re so goddamn beautiful.”

  His eyes flickered up to meet hers. “Can I touch you?”

  This time Katherine forced herself to speak, releasing her abused bottom lip from where she’d been nervously chewing on it. “Yes.”

  Bastian’s hands were firm, but also incredibly gentle, as they explored her skin. A calloused thumb brushed against one nipple, and she sucked in a mouthful of air as the pink peak pebbled under his touch. She forced herself to shakily exhale, but could hardly concentrate on something as mundane as breathing when he captured the other pink bud between two fingers and gently tugged at it.

  Bastian’s pupils were blown wide as he watched her body react to his ministrations, and before Katherine knew he’d intended to do it, his mouth was on her, worshipping one nipple with his tongue as he continued to pull at the other. Katherine whimpered, helplessly arching into his touch as she became enraptured by the wonderful sensation his mouth and hands were causing to build in her lower belly. Teeth scraped against her, and a spark of desire so strong shot through her that for a second, Katherine was convinced she was on fire.

  “You taste so goddamn good,” the man muttered against her skin.

  “Bastian,” she cried feebly in response.

  He shuddered and groaned against her, his warm breath heating her already flushed skin. “Say that again,” he demanded.

  “Bastian,” she acquiesced immediately, the sound of his name coming out of her mouth once again causing the man to moan.

  It suddenly struck Katherine as unfair that she was the only one without a shirt on.

  Hastily attempting to remedy the situation, she tugged at the hem of Bastian’s. Realizing what she was
trying to do, the man sat up and pulled the offending piece of clothing off for her.

  Then it was Katherine’s turn to explore bare skin, relishing in the way Bastian trembled as her small fingers roamed his chest, dipping into the natural grooves his muscles made as they bulged under his flesh. All too soon, however, he captured her hands, pressing them gently into the mattress so that he could admire her again. He nuzzled his face into her chest, the short stubble that covered his cheeks and chin burning her slightly as the tiny, coarse hairs brushed over sensitive skin.

  After he’d once again lavished her chest with open mouthed kisses, he moved on to her neck, sucking on whatever piece of flesh he could manage to find. The skin on the slender column of her neck ached in the best way as his tongue and teeth fixated on it.

  Katherine was consumed by the husky, earthly aroma that radiated off of Bastian in waves as he attempted to devour her, and her eyes glazed over in desire as he nipped at the delicate skin of her ear. Lost in a lustful haze, she didn’t recognize the breathy moans escaping her mouth as her own and arched into the man, attempting to get as close to him as possible. She raised her hips wantonly, pressing the most intimate part of her body against him.

  He immediately released her hands and grasped her hips instead, wrapping his fingers around them possessively. But instead of pulling her closer to him, he pressed her into the mattress – as far away from him as possible.

  Katherine mewed in displeasure. “Bastian,” she pleaded pathetically, desperate to be touched.

  “Don’t,” he managed to choke out.

  “Please,” she begged, arching up again. His grip turned just the slightest bit painful as he determinedly held her down. Unbelievably frustrated, Katherine used one of her newly freed hands to rub daringly against the rather obvious bulge in his pants.

  Bastian practically leapt off the bed – off of her – and the rush of cool air hitting her naked skin immediately brought Katherine back to her senses. A mortified blush exploded across her face, and she quickly pulled the covers that were pooled at bottom of the bed up to her neck, refusing to look the man who she had thought had actually wanted her. Embarrassed tears threatened to well in her eyes. “Maybe you should go,” she suggested as blandly as possible, refusing to look at him.

  “Katherine, please. You don’t understand.”

  Bastian’s voice was so earnest that she allowed herself to glance up at him. The man was shaking so violently that his body practically vibrated, and Katherine immediately jumped up in concern. “What’s wrong?” she demanded, touching his arm as she attempted to sooth him.

  Bastian clamped his teeth together at the innocent touch, and Katherine immediately dropped her hand, plopping herself back on the bed.

  “What’s wrong is that I want you too much,” he grit out between clenched teeth, “and you don’t think I want you enough.”

  Katherine stiffened at the proclamation. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Bastian shook his head in apparent disbelief over her naivety. “Can’t you feel how much I want you?” he answered her question with one of his own.

  Katherine knew he wasn’t talking about the obvious way his body physically responded to hers, but rather the crackling attraction that always seemed to seamlessly flow between them.

  “Yes,” Katherine admitted. “Of course I feel it. But if you feel it too, then why did you stop?”

  “Because I’m terrified that I’ll claim you, you foolish girl,” Bastian exclaimed. He pulled uselessly at his disheveled hair. “I don’t think I can bed you and not claim you,” he admitted. “Even now, every instinct I have is telling me to force myself between your legs and sink my teeth into your neck, but I know you don’t want that. To be claimed as my mate. Not yet anyway.”

  Suddenly Bastian’s behavior made sense. Katherine was surprisingly grateful. And maybe just the tiniest bit disappointed as well. Because Bastian had basically just told her that sex was off the table until she was ready for him to claim her.

  She just wished the stubborn man had told her the reason for his reluctance to be intimate with her earlier. “Is that why you were so distant before I left Haven Falls? Why you refused to do much more than kiss me?” she asked, seeking to confirm her theory.

  “That was part of the reason, yes,” he readily disclosed. “I was also terrified that you’d hate me when you found out that I’d lied to you about your parents – I was always planning on telling you the truth about them eventually – and that you’d regret allowing me to touch you.”

  Katherine was silent as she processed that. She was moved he’d so thoroughly considered her feelings.

  “Please tell me you understand,” Bastian continued when she’d been quiet for too long. “You have to believe me when I say that it is physically painful how much I want you.”

  "I understand,” Katherine hastily replied, praying that her face wasn’t as absurdly red as she thought it was at his blunt confession. She bit her lip. “We can still cuddle, though, right? The urge to… claim me won’t be too strong? We’ve done it before,” she pointed out.

  An amused smile played at the corners of Bastian’s lips. “I think I can control myself,” he confirmed.

  “Will you stay with me then?” Katherine asked. “Tonight, I mean. I don’t want you to leave."

  The admission must have calmed the wolf considerably because what remained of Bastian’s tremors almost immediately vanished. “Of course I’ll stay,” he agreed, eyes incredibly tender. “For as long as you want me.”

  Katherine thought it’d be a bit too cheesy to admit that she’d want him forever. So instead, she quickly grabbed her discarded nightshirt off the floor, shoved it over her head, and scooted over to make room for Bastian on the bed.

  He clambered onto the mattress, immediately pulling her to his side. She hesitantly pecked a kiss to his cheek before curling up next to the man and laying her head on his bare chest. She fell asleep the most content she’d been in a long time, listening to the lull of his heartbeat as it beat rhythmically under her ear.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Katherine woke wrapped in a cocoon of heavy blankets, the faint impression of a kiss still lingering on her forehead.

  Which was why she was so bewildered – dismayed – when she turned around to find the other half of the bed empty.

  She disentangled herself from the mass of blankets, kicking them to the floor as she peered around her bedroom. In exception of her, however, that was also empty. Disappointment swirled in her belly.

  Bastian had promised to stay.

  She absentmindedly fingered the sheets upon which the man had slept the night before, her forehead crinkling in confusion when they were still warm to the touch. Before she could ponder the mystery for long, however, the sound of her shower bursting to life in the adjoining bathroom had a shock of surprise shooting down her spine. As the surprise ebbed, so too did the disappointment, and Katherine allowed a pleased smile to form on her lips.

  So Bastian had kept his promise after all.

  Ignoring how ridiculously giddy that thought made her feel, Katherine took advantage of the privacy the man had unknowingly granted her and quickly threw on some black leggings, pairing them with a navy blue tank top she managed to find shoved in the back of one of her dresser drawers. She also gathered her wayward hair into a sloppy ponytail atop her head.

  Satisfied that she was at least somewhat presentable, Kathrine eyed the bathroom door once more, the din of running water splattering against tile still sounding from behind of it.

  She tried not to think about the fact that Bastian was naked behind the door. Shirtless. Pantless. Underwearless. Was that even a word?

  She knew firsthand, though, that there was nothing less about him.

  The sound of her stomach growling irritably distracted her from her inappropriate reverie, and despite no one having been around to have heard the rumbling, Katherine’s cheeks colored a light pink. Which was ridiculous becau
se of course she was hungry. She had missed two meals yesterday.

  It occurred to her that perhaps Bastian was hungry as well.

  That thought sparked an idea in her head, and before Katherine could question the rather domestic urge that had taken hold of her, she was bounding down the stairs, intent on making a hardy breakfast for the man using her shower.

  She’d completely forgotten the fact that she was still avoiding her parents until she’d already reached the bottom of the staircase. Her body tensed when the realization struck her, and she peeked cautiously into the living room and then dining room before hesitantly venturing into the kitchen. Relief washed over her, relaxing her stiff muscles, when that room, too, was proven to be vacant. Her parents must not have been home.

  A quick detour into the garage confirmed this theory – one of the two cars that her mom and dad shared was gone. It begged the question of where they were. It was Sunday so Katherine knew they couldn’t have been at work. Church maybe?

  Her parents hadn’t been avid churchgoers before she’d disappeared months ago, but maybe that had changed. Or maybe they’d gone to pray for their demon-possessed daughter, a snide voice quipped in the back of her head.

  Katherine resolutely ignored the jab, choosing instead to merely be grateful for their absence, whatever the reason, and started preparing the breakfast she had in mind, raiding the refrigerator for what she’d need. She pulled out milk, butter, a block of cheddar cheese, eggs, and a package of pre-sliced ham.

  She dug around the cabinets until she found two frying pans, settling them onto separate burners before turning on said burners to a low heat. She threw a spoonful of butter onto each pan and got busy grating the cheese as it melted. Once she had an ample amount of shredded cheese, she loaded one of the pans with ham, backing up a bit as the thick slices immediately began to sizzle.