Free Defying Pack Law by Eve Langlais

along with his voice. “I’ll
tell you how I saw it growing up. My mother wanted for nothing.
Anything she needed, my fathers got for her. Every evening, after
they put the children to bed, they’d sit, either on the porch or in
the living room, and talk.”
    “ And they took turns fucking?” Dana
used the crude phrase to remind herself that the beautiful picture
he’d painted was nothing like the life she’d seen growing
up.
    “ They made love, you mean. Sometimes
my mother would take only one of my fathers to bed. Sometimes she’d
take them all. But I can tell you one thing, every morning she came
down those stairs with a smile on her face. She still
does.”
    “ So it works for some people. It
wouldn’t work for me. I want an emotional connection with someone
before I bed them.”
    “ Fine. I can wait for
that.”
    She met his gaze and could only read
sincerity in their depths. Don’t tell me I
actually believe him? He’s a man. He’d say anything to get in my
pants. “You’re assuming I’ll go through
with the whole marking thing.”
    “ I think you will. I think,
regardless of your fighting words, that you’re tired of running.
Why not stay? Give it a try. You might be surprised.”
    Dana shifted restlessly. She could handle
yelling and arguing. His calm discussion took her unaware, and she
didn’t know how to fight back. “What, and become some mindless
robot wolf who thinks that polygamy is all right just because it’s
the way things are done?”
    John appeared to ponder his next words. “I’ll
admit, even having grown up with it, and seeing it in such a
positive light, I wasn’t too sure if that’s what I wanted for
myself. There is something to be said about not sharing. But at the
same time, the sense of family, the built-in companionship, it is
quite tempting. Even more so when you find the right woman and
realize that unless you’re willing to share her, you won’t get a
chance.”
    Is he saying I’m that woman? The concept should have made her curl her lip and
spit in his direction. Instead, her cheeks bloomed with color
before reality slapped her. “Nathan will never go for it. He just
wants me in his bed and doesn’t care how I feel about it.” And even odder, I’m no longer sure how I feel
about it. Before the kidnapping, she’d have
said never would she take him back, not in a million years.
However, now faced with him again, feelings long buried rose to the
surface, and they were saying maybe it was time for something new.
Something that didn’t leave her blinking back tears of loneliness.
Time for a life where running was done for pleasure and not to save
her life.
    “ Leave Nathan to me.” John’s hands had stopped stroking her skin at the start
of their conversation, but they now resumed checking her ribs. Dana
gasped when he pressed a sore spot.
    “ Sorry,” he murmured. He leaned down
and placed a light kiss on the area that hurt. Lust shot through
her like a bolt of lightning, and she gasped again for an entirely
different reason.
    John didn’t stop his sensual caress,
but neither did he grow bolder. Lightly, he trailed his mouth over
her ribs, stopping at the hem of her T-shirt. He pulled it down
with his teeth, covering her. She almost wailed, Why are you stopping?
    She closed her eyes as her cheeks heated. He
brushed his lips against hers. The barest touch, but it made her
shiver down to her toes. “I look forward to becoming friends, and
in time, when you’re ready, lovers.”
    Then he left. The soft thud of the door
shutting had her opening her eyes to find herself alone with only
the tingling touch of his lips to remind her she hadn’t dreamed
it.
    Could it be like he says? Could I
be happy? What he’d described sounded so
beautiful, happy, and best of all, peaceful. But, was it even a
possibility?
    She wanted to deny her attraction to the men
she’d engaged herself to. Well, three of them anyway. The redhead
didn’t actually draw her like the