Free Sated by Lucy Felthouse Page B

my cheeks, and I hugged myself tighter. “’Spose so. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request. I’ve never even met a werewolf before, let alone Barton.”
    “How do you know you’ve never met a werewolf before?”
    “Umm…” I tailed off, then looked at Ace, wide-eyed. “You mean—?”
    He nodded. “Sure, you’ve met lots of werewolves over the years, Nees. I just didn’t tell you.”
    “Why not?” I was indignant. Why would he keep such a thing from me?
    “Hey, don’t get snippy, babe. It’s nothing to do with keeping secrets or anything like that. It’s just, well, for one, I didn’t think it was important. People are people—regardless of their ‘otherness’. Secondly, what was I supposed to do? Introduce every person you ever met with their supernatural identity, too? ‘Aneesa, this is Max, he’s a vampire. This is Lexi, she’s a witch. And Doug over there, well he’s just a plain old human being.’”
    “Thanks,” I said dryly. “Good to know I’m plain.”
    He reached over and squeezed my thigh. “You’re being silly now, sweetheart. I was being sarcastic, as well you know. And you’re far from plain. You’re my brown sugar, remember?”
    I told you he had lots of pet names for me. I saw his point about not being able to introduce people and out them at the same time, so I backtracked the conversation a little. “Okay, so in the past, as well as other vampires, I’ve met werewolves and witches. And I didn’t have a clue—so clearly they’re not unlike us, either.”
    “Correct. In terms of physical appearance, anyway. Most of the time, werewolves aren’t all that hairy, and I’ve never seen a witch with a single wart, hooked nose or broomstick.”
    “Stop it now,” I said, slapping his thigh. The sharp sound reverberated around the interior of the car, and I bit my lip to stop myself expressing the pain I felt in my palm, which was heightened by the fact that Ace hadn’t so much as flinched. “I’m serious. I just want to know what I’m letting myself in for if we go through with it. Is screwing Barton going to be more like screwing you, or a human? Or something completely different?”
    Ace shrugged. “I dunno, I’ve never fucked Barton.”
    “Last chance, fang boy.” I inserted as much menace into my voice as I was capable of, which admittedly wasn’t much, but he still had to know he was pissing me off.
    “All right, all right!” He held his hands up in supplication, then hurriedly put them back on the wheel as I gave him a narrow-eyed stare. “I’ll tell you what I know. But this is all third hand. I haven’t ever had sex with a werewolf.” He paused, presumably waiting for me to slap his thigh again, or something. But I didn’t. I wanted the information, and I wanted it fast as we were nearly at the bar. “From what I’ve heard, it’ll be very similar to having sex with a vampire in terms of stamina. And I’m not aware of any horror stories about werewolves changing during climax or anything like that. Oh, and you’ll need to use a condom, as both pregnancy and STIs are possible with werewolves. The only surprises, I would imagine, will be purely sexual ones.”
    I nodded slowly as I absorbed the information. That was good—nothing freaky would happen. Or nothing bad freaky, anyway. The good kind of freaky was something I was totally on board with. “Great. Okay. Well that’s all very reassuring. So at least now if I meet the guy and instantly want to rip his clothes off and jump his bones, I’m fully armed with all the pertinent information.”
    Now it was Ace’s turn to give a narrow-eyed stare. “Hey, there will be no jumping, of bones or otherwise, without me there. Just to be clear, Aneesa, we’re talking about sharing here, not swinging. Or cheating.”
    His tone was deadly serious. All the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I wasn’t scared, exactly, but when Ace went all alpha male on me, I was reminded of how powerful he