Chapter 164: Sleep Impossible

Feral’s eyes brightened. He liked what she did with his name. It separated him from Maverick Nightshade, and made him more than simply the beast lurking somewhere inside the man. Aria, his mate, knew him well enough now.

"I will, Mate," he answered. "Except I’ll be naked."

"What?" Aria asked, only to glance down and notice the damp patch on his boxers.

"Then wear your pants," she insisted.

"I can’t." Feral looked at her as though the answer should have been obvious. "Told you I run hot."

And annoyingly enough, Aria knew he wasn’t kidding. When she had... er... touched him down there, God, he’d been outrageously warm. It had to be a werewolf thing or something because no normal human being should feel like a walking furnace. Even so, she wasn’t fooled. Feral was clearly trying to find his way into her bed completely naked, and that was absolutely not happening.

Suddenly, an idea struck her, and Aria turned toward her wardrobe. She rummaged through her things until she found a pair of loose sleep shorts, then returned to him.

"Here." She handed them over. They were one of her more oversized pairs, so there was at least a chance they would fit him.

Feral took the shorts with an amused look on his face, stretching the waistband between his hands as he inspected them. "Now we’re sharing panties. Feral approves."

"They’re shorts, not panties," Aria corrected him.

"Hmmm." That was all he said before bringing the shorts to his nose and inhaling deeply.

Mistaking his intentions entirely, Aria frowned. "They’re clean." A hint of offense entered her voice because she couldn’t believe he actually thought she’d hand him something dirty to wear.

"What a disappointment." Feral inhaled again, completely unashamed of himself. "I was looking for your scent."

Aria’s eyes widened as the real reason for his sniffing finally dawned on her, and heat immediately rushed into her cheeks. This was more than she could handle. There was shameless, and then there was whatever level of corruption this wolf had managed to achieve.

She immediately pointed toward the bathroom. "Get in there. Now!"

Any more of this and she really was going to end up as a puddle on the floor.

Feral’s grin was downright sinful as he obeyed, keeping his eyes on her until he disappeared into the bathroom. The infuriating wolf didn’t even bother closing the door behind him.

The moment Feral was out of sight, Aria’s legs nearly gave out beneath her. She was standing there in nothing but a tank top and shorts, yet she felt unbearably hot.

She began fanning her burning cheeks, blaming every degree of it on that perverted wolf currently occupying her bathroom. God, how was she supposed to survive the rest of the night with him when her self-control was already hanging by a thread?

Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Feral stood before the mirror with Aria’s shorts stretched between his hands, thinking about how many times his mate’s ass had been tucked inside them. Now he was going to wear them too.

The thought pleased him, and he hurried through cleaning himself up, already impatient with the few minutes he’d been forced to spend away from her.

Back in the bedroom, Aria had no idea what to do with herself knowing the shameless wolf would be back any second. At first, she paced around the room, then decided she needed something to occupy her hands and began fixing the bed, straightening the sheets.

She was almost done when Feral stepped out of the bathroom, and Aria stopped dead. Her gaze traveled over him once before she simply stared, dumbfounded. Suddenly, she understood exactly why Feral had called her shorts panties, because on him, that was precisely what they looked like.

The fabric clung to his much larger body, stretched tight across his hips and thighs. On Aria, the shorts usually fell comfortably down her thighs, but Feral’s height and broader build had stolen nearly half their length, leaving them sitting dangerously high on his powerful legs. They weren’t much longer than the boxer briefs he’d just ruined, and the feminine cut only made the sight even more ridiculous.

Perhaps she could have controlled herself if Feral had looked even remotely embarrassed. Instead, the moment he noticed her staring, he planted one hand on his hip and struck the kind of exaggerated pose Aria had seen female models use when showing off clothes. The laugh escaped her before she could stop it.

"Please, don’t!" Aria slapped a hand over her mouth, fighting desperately not to laugh too loudly, but that only encouraged him because Feral immediately changed into another pose, turning slightly and looking over his shoulder like someone were photographing him.

"Sexy, right?" He turned back and jutted his hips forward with absolutely no shame.

Aria’s laughter died a very unfortunate death. The pose should have remained funny, except the shorts were tight enough to emphasize far more than she wanted to notice, while his powerful thighs made the tiny piece of clothing look even more indecent. She swallowed and quickly dragged her eyes back to his face before the perverted wolf caught her staring again.

"I think that’s enough of the fashion show for one night, Feral wolf. Let’s sleep."

Feral brightened instantly. If he’d had an actual tail at that moment, it would have been wagging. He crossed the room toward the bed with enthusiasm and immediately pulled back the bedsheet.

"You won’t need this while I’m here," he told her. "Get into bed, little prey. Let my arms be your solace tonight."

Aria swallowed. Father in heaven, help her.

Like a sheep willingly walking toward the slaughter, Aria climbed into bed and settled near the middle, turning her back to him because facing Feral while trying to sleep seemed unnecessarily dangerous.

A second later, the mattress dipped beneath his weight as he joined her. Just as he’d promised, his arm slid around her waist and pulled her back against him before he carefully lifted her head, slipping his other arm beneath it for her to rest on.

There was barely any space left between them. Aria’s back was pressed firmly against his chest, her hips tucked against the warmth of his body while his arm remained securely around her waist. Then Feral buried his face against the curve of her neck, his warm breath brushing her skin with every exhale and sending an involuntary shiver down her spine.

They were cuddled so tightly there wasn’t even room for air between them, and damn him, Feral hadn’t exaggerated his body temperature. Heat surrounded Aria from behind until it felt as though she’d been tucked against her own personal furnace.

The strange thing was that beneath all the embarrassment and awareness of having him pressed so intimately against her, she felt safe. His arm around her wasn’t restrictive or demanding. It simply held her, like this was exactly where he believed she belonged.

"Sleep tight, Mate," Feral murmured against her neck, his voice quieter now, stripped of the usual teasing.

Aria couldn’t bring herself to answer. She stared into the darkness instead, painfully aware of his warmth, his breathing and every place their bodies touched. If Feral genuinely expected her to fall peacefully asleep while wrapped around him like this, then perhaps the wolf wasn’t nearly as clever as she’d given him credit for.

It was impossible.