Mated to the Moon (Portal City Protectors Book 6) by Georgette Clair (most romantic novels .txt) 📕

picked up a soft washcloth and large bar of soap and dunked them in the water. Slowly, he worked them together until he had a rich lather and set the bar to the side.

“Give me your hand.”

Fabiana complied, watching him as he washed one arm and then the other. He massaged as he worked, releasing the pent-up pain and melting it away. Her shoulders, her neck. Adonis missed nothing as he worked her body and cleaned away evidence of the night before. Then he helped her to her knees to wash her back.

“Mmmm,” she moaned when he hit a particularly sore spot.

“Don’t do that, or I’ll take you over the tub right now.”

“Then stop doing things that feel so good.”

“Mmm,” he returned. “I do so love those claws of yours.”

Her hands found his shoulders and she dug her nails into his flesh. “Like that?”

He wrapped one arm behind her back, yanked her to him, and sucked a nipple into his mouth. “Cuidado, baby. When I’m hit, I hit back harder.”

Oh?

She raked her nails down his back as far as she could reach.

He froze for one second.

Two.

On the third, he pulled her from the bath. Dripping all over the place, she laughed as he tossed her onto the bed.

“Adonis.”

He huffed beside the bed, his cock stiff and pressing against his briefs. “I like your laugh.”

“What?”

“You don’t share it often, but it lights up in your eyes. Blue balls are worth that.”

She’d played. Played with her mate.

He looked over his shoulder, breaking the moment, and reached for something out of her immediate view. When he turned around, she wished she’d kept the laughter going.

“This is what blocked your scent from me.”

Her suit dangled between his fingers. It matched his skin tone where he touched it, but it remained its normal color everywhere else.

“Yes.” No use hiding it now.

“Brilliant. How does it work?”

Okay, that wasn’t exactly the response she expected. He ran his hands over the suit, lifting it to his nose to take a sniff.

“It’s like air.”

Fabiana shook her head. “Not exactly. The wolf’s nose is a hundred times better than a human’s. As shifters, we take after our animal more than the human side, even having scent glands in the small of our backs where the tail would be.”

Adonis sat on the bed beside her. “True. It takes a lot to interrupt our scent markers. Even magic can’t do it. The best scenters can still track from a dozen miles away, but even a pup can gather scents within a mile or so.”

She nodded, warming to the topic. “My suit doesn’t try to combat that; it would be pointless. Instead, it sends signals to the brain to remove that scent.”

“You’re tricking the nose.”

“Yes. All you smell is the air around you because that’s what the suit tells you to pick up.”

“Put it on for me. I can still smell you at times though.”

She stood from the bed and grabbed the garment. “I can’t figure that out. I believe it has something to do with the mate-bond and proximity. The more we’re around each other, the harder it is to trick my mate from picking up little markers that leak through. I noticed the other wolves here can’t register me no matter how much I’m around them.”

Once he helped her zip in, Adonis inhaled deeply. “I can smell you. It’s faint but there, and it only comes up to your neck.”

“Oops, hold on.” She turned and rummaged through her bag for the small spray bottle she kept on hand. “Here it is. I didn’t put this on. Let’s see.”

It was an experiment, really, and he was answering her directly. This was better than an observation test. Quickly, she sprayed around her hair.

Adonis frowned. “I can still smell you. Better than yesterday but not as heavy as a moment ago. We’re mated now though.”

The mate bite. She couldn’t disappear completely anymore.

Noted.

Fabiana nodded. “That would be the only change.”

“Why not use just the spray?”

“The human body has pulse points where the scent is stronger, and the glands on the small of the back act similarly. The spray dampened it but wasn’t as effective by far. I created the suit by repeating the effect over and over until I finally disappeared. Built-in nanos make sure the suit appears flesh toned.”

“The sweaters,” he suddenly guessed. “As a wolf, you wouldn’t be effected by the cold like that until extreme temperatures. The longer sleeves help hide the feel of the suit if someone touches you.”

She laughed. “Exactly.”

Okay, it was silly to get so excited over sharing her creation like this—maybe even childish—but no one asked the questions about her work the way he did. Pasquale and Giuliana had been surprised, sure, but they tried to figure out her steps.

“Why didn’t you share this with your pack?”

“How many good applications do you honestly think this would have? What reason would a wolf need to disappear from others? Pasquale and his mate understood I used it in order to hide, to feel safe in a world I’ve grown to fear.”

“They protected your secret so no one else could get their hands on it and use it the wrong way.”

Fabiana sighed and closed her eyes. She was happy he understood and didn’t chastise her for not sharing it.

“But Fabiana …”

She froze. Maybe she’d thought too soon.

“We’re at war now.”

Confused, she frowned at him. “I know that.”

“You haven’t been on the battlefield, so I’ll explain. The Hollows are large, tiger-like beasts that kill anything in their path. When they come down, they search for specific enemies to attack.”

“Okay. What does that have to do with my suit?”

“They use scent.”

“Wait. Do we know who they’re searching