Tymber Dalton - Doggy Tales

But she smiled, and at lunch she closed and locked their door.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

She crawled into his lap for a long, deep kiss. “That.”

After two weeks, she moved in with Scudder. By the next Halloween party, fortunately during a waning quarter moon, they sported wedding bands. For their party costumes, she went dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, while Scudder went dressed as a biker.

Complete with a studded, leather collar.

Tessa put the finishing touches on the Christmas tree and stood back. The beautiful star looked perfect perched on the topmost branch. She plugged the lights in, then turned and gasped at the effect.

Their first Christmas in their new house.

Beautiful!

They had family and friends coming over tomorrow night for a holiday party and dinner. It would be interesting to see how everyone got together.

She hoped the fur didn’t fly too badly.

Literally.

Jeremy and Genna Bruin, the pack Alpha and his wife, were coming over for the first time. So were Ivan and Lindsey Biendino, the pack Beta and his wife. And Scudder’s family.

And her relatively normal family.

Normal being relative, as opposed to a bunch of shape-shifters. Although calling some of the members of her family normal was a pretty far stretch to begin with.

Scudder walked in from the garage with an armful of garland for the mantle. She’d shooed him out of the living room when he insisted on helping her and instead drove her nuts. He was sweet, but he spoiled her rotten.

Being the wife of a shape-shifter had taken a little getting used to. Tessa found out that Scudder’s branch of the family still had a tendency to be guided by the moon. Not like the bullshit Hollywood myths, but it was a more powerful time of the month for them. Although she felt sorry for Scudder’s parents. With six girls and Scudder the only boy, Colin and Sherrie Harris must have had their hands full when their children were kids…

Well, pups.

“The tree looks beautiful,” he said, leaning in for a kiss. “How are you holding up?”

“Nervous as hell. Lindsey said one of Ivan’s cousins is coming with them.”

“Oh, good!”

“He’s a panther.”

Scudder nearly choked. “Um, okay.”

She poked him in the chest. “I won’t have anyone teasing him or making catnip jokes. Understand?”

He nodded. “Yeah.” He put down the armful of garland where she told him to. “This’ll be interesting.”

The next evening, Tessa nervously finished up the last of the preparations with Sherrie’s help. She loved her mother-in-law and felt extremely close to her, as close as with her own mother.

Sherrie grabbed her by the shoulders and made her look at her. “Stop worrying.” She smiled. “I remember how nervous I was the first time I hosted a family gathering.” Sherrie wasn’t a born shape-shifter, but had been married to Colin nearly forty years. “Everything will be fine.”

“And if the fur flies? Remember, my family doesn’t know about the shape-shifting stuff.”

She shrugged. “I brought extra bourbon to spike the eggnog.”

Scudder and Colin’s job was to greet people, take coats, and get drinks for their guests while Sherrie and Tessa put on the last touches. By the time Tessa discovered all their guests had arrived and it was time to serve dinner, she realized she hadn’t yet been introduced to Frank Biendino, Ivan’s cousin.

She supposed he was the handsome blue-eyed blond hunk standing in the corner with a cup of eggnog and chatting up her pretty and single cousin, Kaylie.

Oh, boy.

Nervous, she tried to calm her stomach, but when she caught sight of the two of them sharing a good-bye kiss on the front porch at the end of the evening, she elbowed Scudder. “Aren’t you going to do something?” she hissed in his ear.

“Do what? Wish them mazel tov?”

“He’s a…” She realized her voice was going up. She quieted her tone. “Shouldn’t we warn her off or something?”

He shrugged, turned, and planted a panty-melting kiss on her lips. He leaned in and whispered into her ear, “Would you have wanted someone to warn me off of you?”

Gulping, she shook her head. No, she loved Scudder.

“Then let Cupid have his fun. And them, too.”

Kaylie drove home, her head spinning. Frank Biendino was a cutie, a total hunk. With blond hair and crystalline blue eyes that seemed to penetrate to the depths of her core, she realized halfway through the evening her panties had a huge wet spot, and that was just from talking with him!

Now she had his number programmed into her phone. He’d promised to call her in the morning, once she had a chance to check out her upcoming work schedule, to set up a date. She never had good luck with men and didn’t want to get her hopes up too much, but…damn.

She got home, took a hot shower, and went to bed with her vibrator sporting a fresh set of batteries. Two orgasms later, with Frank at the center of her fantasies, she finally managed to get to sleep.

The next morning, she found she had absolutely no problem springing up out of bed and rushing into work at the department store she worked at. Her supervisor was just posting next week’s schedule when Kaylie rounded the corner at a dead run into the employee lounge.

“Is that it? Next week?” she eagerly asked.

The woman laughed. “Yeah. What’s up with you? Got a hot date to plan?”

Kaylie smiled when she saw she had Tuesday night off and all of Wednesday. “Something like that, Lily. Met a hunk last night at my cousin’s Christmas party.”

“Sexy and single?”

Kaylie giggled. “Yep! For once, I think I found a handsome, normal guy who isn’t a freak!”

As promised, Frank called her and set up a date with her. When he hung up, he smiled and licked his lips. He’d spent the entire evening trying not to drag Kaylie into an empty bedroom and fuck her brains out.

Finally, in a room full of dogs, he’d found a mate.

Ivan will love to bust my balls over this.

He didn’t care how much his cousin would tease him. He could close his eyes and conjure Kaylie’s scent, complete with the overlying musk of her arousal.

He’d made women horny before, but never had someone responded to him like that before.

Ever.

By the time of their date Tuesday night, they’d spent several hours talking on the phone. When he picked her up at her apartment a little after five, it took every last ounce of his will not to push her back inside, rip her clothes off, and claim her right then.

But that kind of claiming was generally frowned upon nowadays, even if he already knew she was the one for him.

And he knew. She was already wet, and they’d only walked from her apartment to the car.

He’d picked a small family restaurant near his townhouse in Hyde Park, west of downtown Tampa, for their dinner. Decorated in beautiful Christmas lights inside and out, it was romantic, quiet, and even better, only five minutes from his door.

Kaylie excused herself to the bathroom. She couldn’t believe the lack of self-control she had over this man. She was already a wet mess.

I should have brought spare panties.

Fuck it, hopefully her panties would be off by the end of the evening. She’d even brought a few condoms with her in case things worked out the way she hoped. If it made her a slut, she didn’t care. Just the fact that he turned her crank the way he did was good enough for her. She’d been over a year without a man in her bed and was sick of being alone.