Page 14 of All These Years
I was about to say I’d stay outside and water the flowers or trim the bushes or something when Micah threw a glance over his shoulder. “Come on, help me figure out this dress stuff.”
Nowasn’t an option. I followed Micah into the house to help him stuff his underwear clad body into a dress. Fate was surely laughing at me.
Chapter 4
Micah
Something felt different between Lee and me in the next two days. I could sense the change but couldn’t put my finger on it. We wolfed up and ran Wednesday night and Thursday as well, and in fur, Lee felt more and more like my pack. Those hours were glorious. But once we were back in skin, a distance opened between us that hadn’t been there before.
I wondered if he was more enamored of Peggy than he was willing to admit, and depressed about her coming departure, but that didn’t quite fit. If she’d mattered that much to him, I think he’d have dropped Chuck off a cliff long ago, laws be damned.
Regardless, he made a quick plumbing run to fix some leaking pipes Friday morning and was back at the house by eleven-thirty. I’d stuck around his main room all morning, keeping myear out for his phone, but Hannah hadn’t called. It seemed like we were a go.
“Let me get cleaned up, and then we’ll get you ready,” Lee said, walking past me to the bathroom. The scent of his body wafted to me as he passed and I breathed deeply. Something inside me perked up andwantedthat presence, that scent, needed to stay close to Lee.
Not just for my wolf but for me, an ache for his voice and touch that was almost sexual in its intensity. Sometimes I looked at him and my skin felt too tight and my dick almost wanted to rise like he was Janet, the woman I’d loved. Like we needed to be melded together, one creature with a single purpose. The thought was crazy— surely the product of too long spent as a lone wolf, denying my need for pack and bonds— but there were moments when knowing I’d still be near him tomorrow was the only thing that kept me breathing easy.
Every time I wondered if I should move on, a moment like that would sink deep into me and make me decide to stay.A little longer.
I headed into Lee’s bedroom, where I’d laid out the dress— the little storeroom I slept in barely had space to turn around. I’d stripped down to my skivvies when I heard Lee say, “Oh!” behind me. When I turned, he was standing there wearing just a small towel, his skin damp from the shower. “I… need to get dressed,” he mumbled.
“Yeah, me too. At least you get to put pants on.” I eyed the dress. “Although perhaps I should wear my clothes under that, just in case. Wouldn’t want to be arrested for indecency.”
“Yes. No. No indecency.” Lee still sounded tongue-tied. He turned away from me and dropped the towel, fumbling in a drawer for his underwear. While his thighs and chest were heavily furred, the round globes of his ass had smooth skin like a woman’s.
My body obviously got confused too, because I felt my dick stir, then harden.
I reminded myself that wasn’t the first time that’d happened around naked male flesh. There’d been no women for a thousand miles over months at a time in the Pacific. We’d all— or many, at least— helped each other out and, naturally, a reaction to the sight of a naked man became a side effect some of us came away with. But I’d never reacted to another wolf that way.
“Queer wolves are a fatal risk to the pack. They must be hunted out and purged before they bring us all down.”I could hear those words in my father’s voice from the time I was thirteen, our Alpha laying down the laws. His intensity had terrified me then, before I even knew what a queer wolf was, and the memory made my stomach lurch now.
I’m not queer.But I couldn’t risk Lee even suspecting I was. I didn’t think he’d try to kill me, but seeing our friendship turn to disgust on his face would break me.
I whirled to face the bed and fumbled for my Levis, tugging them back on. Thinking about the beaches of Okinawa awash in bodies and blood took care of my stupid erection quickly, letting me tuck my softened dick away. I tugged the zipper up and sucked in a breath before turning.
Lee was dressed in khaki work pants, buttoning them as I watched. His naked chest and rippled abdomen under their layer of dark curls seemed to mock me, pulling my eyes. I turned away again.
It’s been too long since I got laid.I couldn’t even remember the name of the last woman I was with, some blonde in a bar. Perhaps I never knew it. I worked my head and arms into my T-shirt, then lifted the dress over my head.
I was slim for a wolf, but Peggy was far more slender. We’d had to cut some of the seams till it was more a dress-shapeddrapery than a garment. Still, I got tangled in the sleeves and Lee had to help me guide my wrists through the remains of the cuffs. His fingers were hot on my skin as he tugged the light-green sprigged cotton around me. The skirt draped over my Levis, and he moved to button the front for me. “Very fetching, if a little loose here.”
No doubt that was meant to be a joke, but his fingers tweaked the fabric of the bosom of the gown right over my nipple. I took a breath, and our eyes met for an instant. I saw gold deepen in the moss green of his irises. I didn’t dare wonder what he saw in mine.
I turned away. “I’ve got the rest of this, thank you. Get yourself ready, or I’ll end up the stereotypical wife.” I pitched my tone high. “Come on, husband. I’m all ready and you’re only half dressed.” Then I flinched, because channeling my mother to Lee, while wearing a dress, was confusing my brain. “Not that you’re my husband.”And that’s making it worse.
But Lee laughed. “Bet I can put on my shirt and socks before you get your hair done.”
His humor relaxed the twisted-up bit inside of me. “No bet.”
In fact, it took five more minutes before we had my hair done up in a high ponytail like Peggy’s. I draped the shawl over my shoulders and turned the hat in my hands. “I hope this works after all the effort. I’m going to sweat like a pig.”
“I hope it works for Peggy’s sake,” Lee said, opening the front door for me as if I were a woman.
“Well, of course.” I stalked through. I wasdoingthis for Peggy, Lee’s friend, a woman I didn’t even know. As big as I talked about drag, I knew that if the Sheriff pulled us over with me a dark-skinned, supposedly-poor man in a dress, I’d be in for a lot more than a sideways look. This charade was all for Lee’s benefit.
He opened the truck door for me too, and I got in. At least the fashion for women’s clothes had skirts shortening every year, so the hemline landed barely below my knees. I settled in my seat, the hat on my knees, and turned to Lee as he swung in beside me. “What do you think?”
“You look… almost believable. I’ll let you know when to add the hat. Keep your face turned toward me and we may pull this off.”
