“Nin, Nin, Pick me up! Pick me up!” A very young Russ came running when Joslyn opened the door. “Nin, I missed you soooooo much! Russ hates when Nin has to leave.” She hugged his small body to her tight. As his hands tangled into her hair he whispered against her neck, “Nin, I love you. Can I stay with Nin forever?”

Memories from last night came rushing back to Joslyn as she began to wake up. Color filled her cheeks as her eyes landed on Russ, who was reclined in the armchair in front of her bedroom window. A smile lit his face as her eyes wandered over his bare chest and sweatpants. Her eyes met his questioningly.

Russ slowly raised from the chair and seductively crawled across the foot of her bed, never breaking their gaze. He brought his body down over hers and captured her lips for a long sensual kiss. Just as her body began responding to his, he pulled away and said, “I made you breakfast, and we have the house to ourselves today.” He kissed the tip of her nose before adding, “Come to the kitchen whenever you’re ready.” Without another touch or word, he rose from the bed and headed out of her bedroom.

Joslyn’s emotions and thoughts were in about a hundred different places as she noticed several missed messages on her phone. She took her phone off the nightstand and flipped over onto her back with a huff.

The first message was from her boss asking if she would come into work that night for a special banquet benefit. The next message was from Raven. She stared at the message for several minutes reading and rereading it.

[Joslyn, the house is all yours. Shelly and I won't be back till late tonight. Please, just give him the day. You both deserve to do at least that much. Don’t think about the past. Don’t think about the future, just live in the right now with him for at least today. I’ve never seen him as happy as he was this morning. When I walked in he was humming and flipping pancakes. I wish Shelly could have seen his face this morning… anyways don’t worry about anything keep your mind blank for the day and just enjoy yourselves!]

Joslyn let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding as she decided to take her friend’s advice. She backed out of the message and moved down to the next one. It was from an unknown number.

[Joslyn, this is Xavier. This really sucks, but there were some troubles at one of my other shops down in Florida. I’ll be gone for the next week. I’m so sorry, I was really looking forward to seeing you today! I’ll message you when I get back into town. Till then, I’ll be thinking of our swim ;).]

{Oh god! How was it possible to go from being single for the past… How many years?... to now dealing with two guys.} Joslyn opened the drawer to her nightstand and dropped her phone into it. She slid to the edge of the bed and slowly stood up. She considered herself in excellent physical shape and worked out frequently but was shocked to find parts of her body were sore as if she’d over exercised. She gingerly walked over to the dresser to get a top and shorts out of the drawer. As she drew closer, she couldn’t help noticing the many marks covering her body. There were bite marks and love marks running from her neck to her hips, with a scattering of shallow claw marks and at least a few bruises. {Jeez! How in the world hadn’t this hurt more last night?} She ran her finger over the largest of the bite marks on her shoulder. Joslyn had seen several women on the island she had grown up on with these exact marks. The marks were the way a male wolf would mark his partner so all other wolves would know that she belonged to that male. It was not done in passing as a casual romance, it was only left after the pair had imprinted on each other and once left would never fade. It left a permanent kind of scar. Joslyn wondered if this was going to be left on her body forever as well… Did he know what he was doing or was it instinct. If it was instinct, does this mean he had imprinted on her? Her hands slowly slid away from the mark as she continued to stare at her reflection not recognizing the person looking back at her this morning.

When Joslyn stepped into the hallway, the smell of pancakes and maple syrup filled her nostrils. She closed her eyes and took in another sniff. There was an underlying smell of flowers as well. When she reopened her eyes, she noticed the trail of flower blossoms littering the hallway. She stepped lightly as to not step on one. Russ had gone completely out this morning. The bar was covered in plates. One had pancakes stacked five cakes high, another had an assortment of fresh fruit, and another had sausage links in it. there was a glass of milk and another glass that had what looked to be fresh squeezed orange juice in it. There was a flower vase in the center with the same flowers that were littered down the hallway. As she stepped into the kitchen, her eyes landed on his well-sculpted back as he flipped another pancake into the air. She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped as it bounced off the ceiling and landed onto his head. He turned around toward her as he removed the pancake from his head, pan still in his other hand. “Well, they can’t all be winners.” She followed the pancake as he flung it into a plate off to the side. She giggled again at the assorted mess of mishap pancakes. When she looked up again, he was standing in front of her, pan gone from his hand. He slid his hands through her hair and pulled her against him tightly as he captured her mouth in a lingering kiss. “You don’t know what it means to me to see you smile and hear your laugh this morning.” He lifted her up off the ground and squeezed her against him tighter. He buried his face in the bend of her neck right below her ear and softly whispered, “I don’t think I could have taken it if there had been regret marring your beautiful face.” He kissed her neck and sat her on the countertop. He smiled brightly down at her as he took the plate of pancakes from the bar behind her. He set the plate beside her and cut into it with a fork.

She watched the smooth roll of his muscles as he cut into the stack, then stabbed at the portion he had cut off. When he turned toward her and brought the fork to her, her mouth opened obediently. The bite was way too big, but that didn’t stop Russ from cramming it in there anyway.

He chuckled and bent down to lick a drizzle of syrup from the corner of her mouth. “Here, I’ll leave the rest of this to you.” He licked more syrup from his finger that had dripped from the plate, before turning back toward the stove and pouring the mix for another pancake.

“How many of those are you going to fix?” Joslyn asked curiously around the enormous bite.

He shrugged his shoulders, “What can I say I worked up an appetite.” He winked at her from over his shoulder making her cheeks redden.

“You really didn’t have to go through all this trouble, you know.” She said cutting off a smaller chunk from the stack.

Once he was happy with the amount of batter in the pan he turned back and walked back over to where Joslyn sat and planted his hands on either side of her hips. He simply opened his mouth and waited for her to place a fork full of pancakes in his mouth. “I was hungry, and I figured you were too. This isn’t the first time I’ve ever cooked breakfast for you.”

He leaned in for another kiss, but Joslyn stopped him by placing her finger on his lips and said, “Um, I think your pancake is burning over there, dear sir…”

He sniffed the air, shock on his face. “Shit, the stove must have gotten too hot, again.” He quickly turned and ran back to the stove. He flipped the burnt pancake onto the ‘not winners’ pile and switched stove eyes before pouring another dollop of batter into the pan.

She couldn’t help but giggle while watching him work, even though her inner emotions were going haywire and no matter how she looked at it there was a bit of regret mixed in. There was no doubt about it, things were never going to be the same again. It was no wonder Raven had texted her to advise her not to think about things at all today. The more she thought about it the more nervous she became. She hadn’t even realized Russ had turned back toward her, a look of unease and fear casting shadows over his beautiful features. She looked up into his troubled eyes, “I…”

He cut off her words as he took two large strides to stand directly in front of her. His mouth came crashing down on hers roughly, she felt his arms wrap around her body as he worked his way in between her thighs. He ran his hands down over her hips, quickly moving down her bare thighs and legs. He pulled her legs behind him and wrapped them around his hips. When he was satisfied that she wouldn’t unwrap them he moved his hands back up the length of her body, entwining one hand in her hair and the other tightly back around her waist.

Joslyn couldn’t help the pants that escaped her throat or her body’s natural reaction to his closeness. As she felt herself melt against him, her body silently begging for more, she felt his lips pull away from hers.

Still holding her tightly, he pressed his forehead against hers and whispered against her lips, “Please, don’t leave me. Stay here with me in this moment.”

She could feel a tear hit her cheek as she pushed against his chest so that she could look into his eyes. Her breath caught and her heart squeezed as another tear escaped his beautiful cerulean blue eyes. “Russ…” She brought her hands that had been resting against his bare chest up to the base of his jaw.

He held back as she tried to pull him down for another kiss. He squeezed his eyes tightly closed as he said, “I know I asked you to give me just one night, but Joslyn….” He let out a heavy sigh before looking intensely into her eyes. “You gotta know, one night will never be enough.”