She might die of pie withdrawals in that amount of time. “What? Why?”
There was some sort of a tussle and it sounded like Heli dropped the phone. When she came back on, her voice had gone down about four octaves and had a distinct alpha male growl to it. “Because she's busy getting whipped cream licked off of every inch of her body at the moment.”
“Oh. Hi, Kosta. Tell her to call me when you're, uh, finished.” Helena remembered the point of her call and shouted into the phone hoping Heli would hear before Kosta hung up. “Bring me pie!”
Man, she hoped that worked because without any pie, she was going to be getting mighty desperate. For food. Yeah. food.
Kosta must have some magical sexy times skills, because Heli was at her door in about fifteen minutes. Helena wasn't jealous at all of her sex-mussed hair or that rosy glow on her cheeks. They made a great couple.
“I come bearing presents,” Heli sing-songed and pushed her way in through the little front hallway and straight to the kitchen. “I'll dish up pie while you dish about your insta-connection with hot and growly Aleksei.”
Only for homemade desserts made by Heli would she even consider talking about what had happened between she and...no, wait. She couldn't say anything because there was no relationship. It was fake and Helena didn't want to lie to her best friend.
Oh God, why had she agreed to this dumb plan again? Probably because she was mostly thinking with her hoo-ha and not her head.
“So, when's the wedding?” Heli shoved a piece of pumpkin pie covered in just the right amount of whipped cream into Helena's hands.
Oh, right. That's why. Because everyone and their mothers wanted her to get a fricking boyfriend...or in Heli's case, a husband. “Don't start with me, you smartass. Just because you're blissfully married, doesn't mean I need to be.
“I see. So it's just about the sex.” Heli took a bite of her own slice and groaned from the deliciousness.
“We haven't had sex, so no.” In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she had sex, it had been that long. As her body was currently reminding her by craving everything naughty under the sun.
Heli's fork paused midway to her mouth. “Wait. What? You're telling me after the way you two left the Friendsgiving all over each other, that he chastely walked you home and went on his merry way? I'm not buying that for one teeny-tiny second. Good try, thanks for playing.”
Helena was royally screwing this up. Maybe she should just tell Heli what was going on. But what was going on? This whole fake relationship thing, sure, but if that was all, then she shouldn’t have this monster attraction to Aleksei. He was hot, she'd give him that, but so was every other guy who came into the club. She didn't go all twitterpated for just anyone.
Her twitters were definitely pated. Helena avoided replying to Heli by scooping a big bite of pie into her mouth. She licked her fork clean and damn if that didn't lead to fantasies of licking Aleksei's, uh...fork.
Heli stared her down. She wasn't going to be able to avoid answering that question. Fine. “Sort of. We maybe made out a little more after we left the party, but he didn't come into my house and he isn't here now.”
None of that was a lie. So far so good.
“Uh-oh.” Heli's eyes went wide. “He left you all hot and alone? He did. That asshat. That's why the desperate cry for pie. Or is there something you're not telling me?”
Heli pointed her fork right at Helena's face. How was she going to get out of this? Tried and true, she would answer a question with a question. “Is there something you aren't telling me?”
That shouldn't have worked, but Heli looked away. That sneak. “Heli. Is there something I should know about Aleksei? I know he's part of the Troikas pack and so that makes him a wolf-shifter. I've never dated one. Not that I’d know if I had. Dish, girl.”
“You two haven't...no. That's silly. It's not the full moon.”
Helena didn't know all the ins and outs of wolf-shifter culture, but she didn't think that whole full-moon turn into a werewolf thing was a part of it. “What does that have to do with anything? Something particular happens then? Because if you say he's gonna go all crazy and try to eat me during the full moon, I don't think I will believe you.”
“Nothing. Yet. Just...how do you actually feel around Aleksei? Is it like just sexy times attraction or...?” Heli looked down at Helena's chest.
Umm. Wait. Not her chest. Her neck. Helena reached up and rubbed the spot Aleksei had scraped his teeth across. She didn't think he'd left her a hickey or anything.
Helena did not like talking about feelings. Feelings were for suckers. “He's totally hot and a great kisser. I'm sure we will be great in bed when we get there. He's probably just playing the anticipation card.”
“Yeah. Maybe. But wolf-shifters aren't usually like that. Not once they've...” Heli cut herself off from finishing her sentence with another bite of pie.
“Don't make me steal the rest of your pie. Stop holding back from whatever it is you want to say.” Helena pointed her fork at her friend like a weapon. Not as good as Wonder Woman's lasso of truth, though. The Pie Fork of Truth didn't quite have the same ring to it. “If I can't find out from you, then I'll go ask someone else, you poop.”
“Okay. But don't freak out.” Heli waited to continue until Helena put her fork back in her pie and nodded her agreement. “Once a wolf-shifter finds his mate, he doesn't hold back.”
Mate?
Like fated mate? One true mate? The. One?
No way, nuh-uh.
Wolves were crazy for believing in crap like fate. “I'm clearly not his mate or whatever, because he's not here.”
Aleksei had definitely held himself back. Except when he hadn't. Like when they had their tongues in each other's mouths ready to rip their clothes off. “How does the mate, I mean the woman, feel?”
Heli waggled her eyebrows at her. “Like she can't wait to rip his clothes off.”
Uh-oh. “Wait. Who wouldn't want to rip the clothes off any superhot guy like Aleksei? That's just a normal response.”
“Umm. Like Aleksei, or him specifically?”
She didn't want to answer that question. She wanted the answer to be that any guy would get her all hot and bothered. But the truth was, no guy had revved her up in months. Maybe longer. “Does it matter?”
“Yes.” Heli took the last bite of pie, set her plate aside, and leaned in. “Tell me this. When you touch him does it feel like electricity laced with a conga beat going on in your pants? That deep down beyond your heart and into your soul that you need to be with him?”
“Come on, that's just sexual attraction. I'm not denying the guy is hot and that I wouldn't kick him out of my bed.” She definitely wished he was in her room sprawled across her bed waiting for her right now. Helena squeezed her legs together to keep the excitement going on down there contained.
”Mmm-hmm, and once you got him there, could you kick him out even if you wanted to?”
Of course she could. Probably. Most definitely. Maybe? She had a joke about it all depending on what he did to her in there, but it somehow got stuck in her throat. She wanted Aleksei in her bed and in her life.