Novels by J.U. Faruck

Christian’s [POV]I woke up feeling pleasantly warm and relaxed, with a heavy weight on my chest. When I opened my eyes, I saw that it was Gretchen, who had fallen asleep with her head pillowed on my chest, her arm curled possessively around my torso.It was the first time I had ever woken up in bed with a woman. Let alone in another woman's bed.I frowned down at her and considered moving, but I honestly liked being here, like this. She was the first woman who I hadn't felt the need to kick out of bed, and even now, early in the morning, when I knew I should probably be slipping away before she opened her eyes, I couldn't bring myself to move.The thing is, I knew better. I knew that if she woke up with me, she was probably going to start getting attached, but I was already a bit attached to her. The more I thought about it, the more going back to New York was going to hurt. Of course, it was something that I had to do; there was no getting around that.Before I could even complete t

Gretchen’s [POV]Dinner was delicious, and I couldn't help feeling happy after watching Christian unwrap the watch that I had so carefully picked out for him. It had a wooden face on it rather than the sleek metal designs that most real estate agents probably preferred, but I thought it was the perfect mesh of professional and personal. The Christian who I was lucky enough to see there in Hawaii was one I wasn't sure anyone else had ever gotten to see before.We were hardly inside my front door before Christian had pushed me back against the wall, narrowly missing knocking us into the table as we went.I giggled a little, but the giggle died in my throat as he pinned my arms up above my head, kissing me soundly. I couldn't help the soft whimper that fell from my lips as he crowded me against the wall, pressing his muscular form tightly against my fleshy curves.“We're not going to make it to the bedroom,” Christian said into my ear, his breath hot against the shell of it. He grazed hi

Christian’s [POV]Even though I could have answered Paul's call as I left Gretchen's house, I declined the call and waited until I was back at the hotel to give him a call. I poured myself a glass of wine because there was something about this conversation that had my nerves on edge. Maybe it was just Mina's needling that had gotten to me, and where had my words been coming from, anyway? What did I mean, I might just go back to get my affairs in order. I was going to go back and settle down and be the face of the company again. That had been the plan all along.“Hey man,” I said when Paul answered the phone.“Relax,” he said immediately, a smile in his voice. “You sound nervous, and there's no reason to be. Mainly, I'm calling to wish you season's greetings, but I also wanted to call and let you know that the whole company, even Alex and George, are waiting for you to come back. The sooner, the better; ideally, we'd like to have you back by the start of the new year.”I blinked and st

Gretchen’s [POV]I'd never really been the type to sleep in, but with the amount that I'd been working over the past few weeks, staying in bed until eight was luxurious. I stretched, reveling in the fact that I had three whole days off from work: Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the day after Christmas. And it was guilt-free time off, too. Most people were spending the holidays with their families, and they weren't booking appointments anyway.Finally, I rolled out of bed and hopped in the shower, scrubbing my hair and thinking of my plans for the next few days. Not that I had plans. I just wanted to relax as much as possible. It had been a while since I had permitted myself just to do nothing. I didn't even have errands to run. I'd caught up on all of those last weekends, knowing that a lot of the stores on the island would be closed for the holidays as well.I finally climbed out from beneath the warm cascade of water and toweled off. Then, I got dressed in a soft sundress and headed o

Christian’s [POV]A couple of weeks after the luau, I was chilling with Mark in my hotel suite. “So, you still have no plans to leave Hawaii?” he asked curiously.I shrugged over at him. “Nope. No firm plans,” I said. “I need to get back to work eventually, but they can wait until at least the New Year. They told me to come back when I'm ready, and I don't feel quite ready to go yet.”“Because of Gretchen,” Mark said. It wasn't a question.I laughed a little. “Yeah, mostly because of Gretchen,” I admitted.“You know, I really would have thought you'd have moved on to someone else by now,” Mark mused. “It's not like there's any shortage of attractive women here in Hawaii, and I'm sure they'd all be bending over backward to slip between the sheets with the great Christian Wall!”I shrugged again, not sure how to explain to him that the appeal just wasn't there. “Honestly, I would have expected that too,” I admitted. “But Gretchen and I have a lot of fun together. She keeps me on my toes

Gretchen’s [POV]I didn't have that much to drink at the luau, and I wasn't drunk, but something about seeing Christian there with my friends, and looking so sexy in the firelight, had gotten me hot throughout the night. And there was something in me that wanted to be bold, to be more spontaneous, to be more like the person that Mina kept urging me to be. Where was the harm in letting Christian claim me here on the beach? It was a special night.Or maybe this was just to spite Lino, whom I still couldn't believe had had the balls to come up and talk to me when Christian and I were off on our own. I had toyed with the idea of telling Christian why Lino and I had broken up because I had an idea Christian would think differently about the guy if he knew.But I didn't want to start something. Whatever I'd had with Lino, it was over now.I moaned as Christian stroked his fingers up my bare skin, kissing along my jawline and nibbling at my earlobe, making heat flare in my groin. There was s

Lizzy’s [POV]The next few weeks passed so quickly, but so slowly.Elliot continued taking care of Evan. I continued watching him, thanks to the wolf that wouldn’t take her eyes off of him.Evan warmed up to him, and started calling him a word that sounded a lot like “Ehwt”. I was pretty sure it was his version of Elliot, and it was so freaking adorable that it made me wish I was there. He seemed to get just a little grumpier every day that I was in wolf form, but Elliot was actually pretty good at distracting him with snacks and games.They had a pretty good routine going, and after a couple of days had passed, I wondered what the hell my wolf was waiting for. Elliot hadn’t shown any sign of violence, or impatience, even. He grinned more than anyone I’d ever met and laughed more too.I wasn’t looking for a relationship, but if I had been, he was the kind of guy I would’ve gravitated toward. He always had a good attitude, never complained, and was extremely adaptable. He made friends

Eliot’s [POV]Dax nodded. “You’ve got a chance to make her life easier, here. To take care of someone who deserves to be taken care of. Two someones, I guess.”“I just hope she lets me.” I continued scratching her head. There were dishes in the sink, but I’d get to them later. A nap really did sound good.“Anything else you want me to do?” Dax checked, standing up.“Nah. You can come over later if you want to help with the playground stuff, but I’ve got it if you’re busy. I think I’ll try to spend most of the afternoon outside with Ev.”“Alright, enjoy your nap.” Dax strode toward the door, calling out, “And the rest of your first day as a stay-at-home dad.”I grew contemplative as I continued to pet Lizzy’s wolf, staring up at the ceiling as I did. Dax was right; I was a stay-at-home dad for the day. Hell, for however long Lizzy’s wolf was hunting me.It was a little strange to be sort of a dad without having ever had sex, or having a conversation with the mother of the kid I was tak

Lizzy’s [POV]As much as I hated it, I couldn’t despise Elliot. It had been less than twenty-four hours, but Evan had already put him through the wringer, and Elliot had taken it all in stride.My wolf followed him through the store as he loaded a cart with non-perishable things—a crib, crib sheet, and a fuzzy blanket. He let Evan pick the blanket and ended up with one with a massive, realistic-style dinosaur on it. I would’ve said no to that if I’d been there because it was a little creepy. But Elliot didn’t seem to think it was worth the battle, and Evan was holding it in a death grip.He wasn’t wrong about the battle. The blanket was ugly, but it didn’t really matter.Elliot had to pull Evan out of the shopping cart to figure out what his diaper size was, which pissed Evan off and earned him a hell of a lot of furious toddler screams and pinches, but Elliot only teased him about his temper and buckled him back into the shopping cart’s seat in return. Eventually, Evan chilled out, a

Elliot’s [POV]Carrying Evan up to my room, I shut the door behind us and Lizzy and locked it so he couldn’t escape while I was changing. I’d showered the night before and figured I’d do the same again after Evan went to bed.The little guy went furry almost immediately after I put him down, and seemed to be having the time of his life sniffing around my room. I had to move a couple of things when he noticed them and tried to knock them off the nightstand—which made him absolutely furious but after I scratched his furry head and pointed to the dirty laundry basket, he ran over there to check everything out.Changing didn’t take long. Shaving didn’t cross my mind, but Lizzy’s wolf wouldn’t give a shit about whether or not my stubble was getting out of hand.When I was dressed in clothes that hadn’t been hit with chocolate milk yet, I opened the door and called for Evan to follow me down to the first floor. The little wolf came skidding out of the room, and I watched him closely as he l

Lizzy’s [POV]Elliot didn’t get angry when Evan dumped chocolate milk everywhere.I got angry when he dumped chocolate milk everywhere, sometimes. Hell, I even cried about the mess every now and then, after a really long day. Ev practically lived to dump chocolate milk everywhere, after he’d finished chugging an insane amount of the stuff.But Elliot didn’t get mad.He didn’t even sigh, or groan, or get grumpy.He just cleaned the kid up, dumped him in the crib, and cleaned my room.And then went to sleep, as if he wasn’t bothered at all by the situation.Sure, it was only day one, but he’d been thrown a lot of shit in one day. So the fact that he hadn’t lost his temper impressed me.A lot.It didn’t change anything, of course.But it did impress me.Elliot’s [POV]Evan woke up screaming for more “Mick” before 6 AM. Since I knew what it was that time, I had the straw in the damn bottle before he gave me the glare stink-eye that made me feel like an absolute fucker.I watched him like

Lizzy’s [POV]My wolf was obsessed with this guy.Okay, I knew his name.Elliot.I liked the name because it was kind of similar to the one I’d given my son.But names meant nothing, and I definitely wouldn’t be as obsessed with him as my wolf was.I’d done the obsessive mate thing. It had been fun for five minutes. Then I’d taken the physical beating and ended up an outcast among the damn werewolves. In most packs, a female wolf who rejected her mate would take priority and stay with the pack and whatnot—but that was not at all what had happened with mine.He'd attacked me, and my wolf had rejected him. Then the pack rejected me and picked him.And then I was homeless and futureless, since becoming both pregnant and a werewolf had been the end of my career.Sabrina didn’t know everything that had happened with SD, though. She didn’t know how badly he had hurt me, and she would never find out. Evan wouldn’t, either. No one needed to find out that their birth father had done that to a