Embry and I both burst out laughing as soon at the front door slammed shut. I flopped back down on the bed and pulled him to me with a hand on his neck.
"Not exactly as smooth as that could have gone," I laughed.
"Nope," he agreed, resting his head on my chest.
"He was bound to find out at some point." I sighed which turned into a yawn.
He turned his head to look up at me, his brow furrowed with concern. "You okay?"
"I'm tired," I scoffed, knowing full well that's not at all what he meant, and getting a finger jab in the ribs for it, making me flinch and push him away.
"I'm serious," he said, refusing to give up his resting spot on my chest and settling back against me.
"So am I. It's fucking early." I didn't want to get into this or there was no way I was getting back to sleep, but I knew better than to hope that Emb would let it drop; once he got something into his head it was lodged there until he had the outcome he wanted. That was one of the things I usually admired most about him, his bull-headed determination, now it was just annoying.
"Paul," he persisted.
"If I tell you I love you, will you shut up and let me sleep?" I had my eyes closed but I don't know if I was really hoping for more sleep or trying to avoid the conversation. He rolled onto his chest, propping himself up on his elbows. I could feel him staring at me and cracked an eyelid to confirm it. "No such luck, huh?" I sighed, scrubbed my hands roughly over my face, and sat up a bit leaning against the headboard. I leaned forward after meeting his expectant stare and kissed the annoyed smirk off his face before leaning back again. I hated that look.
"Have it your way," I sulked, and pointedly answered his original question with a dramatic sigh, "I'm fine."
The truth was I hoped like hell that this little episode didn't sour things between the old man and me. We'd been getting along a lot better over the last few weeks than we ever had, and I knew that Embry was indirectly responsible for that.
He didn't look like he was buying it. "Okay, yeah, I hope he's actually as cool as he seemed about this, but it doesn't make a fucking difference if he isn't, Emb. What's he going to do? It doesn't matter. I thought about this before," I shrugged, winding down my unexpected rant. "I knew what I was getting into, remember?"
His face broke into that mischievous little smirk of his and he huffed a little laugh. "So, you're fine then?"
"It's a good thing I fucking love you, or you'd be missing some teeth from that smartass grin," I said leaning forward to kiss him again, hard.
He laughed against my mouth, "That's twice in five minutes."
"Twice what?" It was way too early and he talked way too fucking much. If he wouldn't let me sleep I could think of a few other things to do before we got out of bed. I tried to kiss him again but he pulled away from me.
"Twice that you said you love me." His playful smile attempted, but failed, to cover the hope in his eyes.
I'd said it without even thinking about it. It wasn't just a lame bargaining chip either, I did fucking love him.
"Did I say that?" I teased. I couldn't help it when he looked at me like that.
He nodded, his smile faltering just a hint.
"Oh." God, it was too easy to play with him sometimes.
Blame the un-fucking-holy hour of the morning, or the fact that he looked so fucking vulnerable, or what-the-fuck-ever else, but I got totally overwhelmed, and just started spilling my guts. I slid down the mattress until my face was level with his, tucking my hand behind his neck so he couldn't look anywhere but right at me.
"Embry, I do love you. Of course I do. And it's more than the stupid fucking imprint, too. I think I've been in love with you since before I even knew about it, honestly. So, yeah, there's that." I gulped a steadying breath. Confessions are fucking hard. "Take it however you want. I still fucking hate the imprint. I always will. I hate that it didn't give you a choice, and I'll always wonder if you'd had one, would we still be here right now or not. But I did fucking choose; I chose you. Don't you fucking forget that! I decided to spend my life with you, okay? So, yeah, I fucking love you, Emb." I searched his face waiting for him to acknowledge what I just told him, but he just fucking grinned at me. "Okay?"
He licked his lips and they returned to that delicious smile before he finally spoke. "Paul?" he quietly said my name as a question.
"What?" All that, and he still wasn't convinced?
"Shut up and kiss me already," he demanded. I did. I kissed him with every fucking scrap of truth I could possess trying to get my point across.
"Fuck, you make me crazy," I complained unconvincingly into his mouth before kissing him again.
I don't know exactly how the shift happened, but we went from my trying to convince him that I did, in fact, love him, to him pouring the truth of his feelings right back into me. He gripped my face between his hands and kissed me hard and long. He shifted and leaned into me, rolling me onto my back and covering my body with his. The intensity flared up between us; love and lust meeting head on and turning into an urgent need.
He reached his arm under the back of my knee and pulled my leg up and out, opening me up to him; never taking his mouth from mine. He brushed his fingers lightly over my hole, sending a shudder straight up my spine. He laughed, brought his fingers to his mouth, and returned them to slide against me again slicked with his spit this time. God, I wanted him.
"Fuck, don't tease me," I begged as he slowly worked his fingers inside me. "Emb..." He kissed me as he withdrew his hand, and reached over to the nightstand for the lube.
"Okay, babe," he soothed, gliding his lubed fingers over me instead, followed quickly by the press of his hot and wet cock against my hole.
"Oh fuck..." I moaned as he pushed his way in. I tensed, wanting to feel the tight burn as he slid deep inside me. It had been too many days, and as much as I had loved fucking him last night, I never felt as at home as I did while he filled me.
The urgency flared again. He worked his hips against me in that deadly fucking delicious rolling way that had me heading toward the finish line way too fucking soon. He pulled himself away from my hungry mouth and sat back on his heels, still pumping into me, and wrapped his hand around my aching cock. Fuck, he was always so in tune with my body and he knew I was close.
"Don't," I gasped, pulling his hand away and lacing my fingers through his. "You'll make me come," I answered his questioning look. I didn't want to finish so soon.
"That's sort of the point," he smirked, thrusting hard against me and grinding deep. He cupped his free hand around my balls and squeezed with enough pressure to make me throw my head back. I bit my lip, focusing hard on not blowing my load yet, which was a fucking miracle the way he worked my body over. I grabbed that hand away too, and pulled him forward.
"Not yet. With you," I panted my explanation. It's not that I didn't want to come—I really fucking wanted to come—but I wanted feel him coming with me when I did.
His smirk, frozen on his lips as he teased me, softened into that gorgeous fucking smile he only ever gave me, and he slowed his frenzied thrusts. He leaned further into me, capturing my mouth with his and kissing me slow and soft to match the new rhythm. He dragged his mouth across my cheek to my ear where he nipped and teased a moment before his voice, thick with lust, purred against my skin. "That is so fucking hot."
He sucked and licked along my jaw, making it even harder to hold back. My throat was dry and my voice ragged from panting. I weaved my hand into his hair and pulled him away from my neck, I was way too close to the edge for that. He rested his forehead against mine.
He snapped his hips hard and deep with each thrust and I wasn't sure I could take much more. It was almost a relief when he let me know he was close. "Ready? I'm there," he breathed, sliding his hand down the back of my thigh from where he'd been holding behind my knee, and grabbing a firm hold of my dick again.
"Hard..." I gasped as he pumped my cock and slammed into me, "harder..." His thrusts became completely erratic as he slammed hard and deep, a feral growl erupting from him as his orgasm tore through him; his last thrusts pushed me over the edge, too.
"Oh fuck!" I roared. He continued to pump the last ropes of come from me and he twitched and jerked with aftershocks from his own release.
"Jesus," he sighed as he collapsed down on to my chest. After a moment he pulled up to roll off of me, but I wrapped my arm around his back and slid my legs down and hooked my feet over his thighs, holding him to me.
"Stay," I asked quietly. I fucking loved his weight pushing me into the mattress. He relaxed down onto my chest again. We lay tangled in each other, his softening cock still inside me, until we fell asleep again.
I woke a couple hours later still wrapped in his arms. He had shifted to lay beside me, one of his legs hooked over mine, his face pressed into my ribs. I watched the rise and fall of his chest as he slept soundly beside me. It made my head spin to think about how much we had gone through to get to this point. It had been less than two months, but the idea of being away from him for more than a day or so was completely unthinkable. I hated the imprint, but I was also grateful that because of it I finally felt like I belonged somewhere.
I watched him for a few more minutes before raising my hand to the back of his neck and scratching his scalp through his thick hair to wake him up. Neither of us had to work today or had patrol until the evening, but with the new pack members and what was sure to be another awkward conversation with my dad looming and threatening to eat up a lot of the day, I wanted to spend the rest of the morning alone with him, if I could.