ChangingPaths (10 page)

“Okay.” Seeming to be placated for the moment, Rain sat
back. “I’m still not sure this isn’t all a dream, but if it is I don’t want to
wake up because this is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like
something out of a movie or a TV show.”

Harmony couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling up inside
her. Here she’d been scared even worried about talking to Rain. Of course her
daughter was more intrigued than anything else. Go figure. She got to her feet.
“Suddenly I’m starving. Anyone else want a snack?”

Rain nodded and got to her feet too. “Gareth? You coming?”

“I’ll be there in a few.” He didn’t move and Harmony let her
eyes roam over him again. She’d felt those muscles through his clothes but
seeing them gleaming in the firelight and overhead light in the living room was
a whole different matter. The man was seriously built and she felt that gnawing
ache again.

Seeing his gaze sharpen on her face, she took a deep breath
then turned away from him. It was either that or really embarrass her daughter
by going over and straddling him before kissing him senseless as she ripped her
own clothes off. Somehow she didn’t think Rain would be as intrigued by that
particular sight as she’d been in watching Gareth shift. Besides, there were
just some things a woman did not do in front of her child! Even a
nudity-be-damned shifter woman.

Shaking her head, she followed Rain toward the kitchen. She
gave herself permission to glance back. She couldn’t stop the moisture from pooling
in her mouth and lower in her body at the sight of Gareth’s naked delicious
form. He had dropped the shirt to reach for his jeans, giving her a really good
look at all of him. His penis was long and thick. Need thrummed through her.
She really wanted to feel it inside her body. Taking another deep breath, she
reminded herself that her child was in the next room and tamped down her lust.

Gareth took advantage of Harmony’s walking away to readjust
his dick. Because she had her back to him she couldn’t see the smile that
crossed his face. He had to palm his cock, stroking it once. He’d seen her
checking him out. She wanted him. She might even want him as much as he did
her.

Keeping that thought in the forefront of his mind, he
finished getting dressed. He still listened for anything out of the ordinary
from outside. He followed the women into the kitchen already thinking about the
night ahead and whether or not he would be able to sneak into Harmony’s bedroom
or convince her to join him in the living room after Rain went to bed.

“So what are you making me, pup?” Now that she knew, he felt
easier not having to censor his language. “Crème brûlée? Chicken Kiev?”

Rain rolled her eyes at him as she moved to the microwave. “Duh.
Popcorn! Mom’s making the lemonade.”

“Lemonade and popcorn? Where are you people from?” He hooked
a leg around a chair to pull it out. As he sat down he realized he now had a
wolf’s-eye view of Harmony’s plump ass. All he needed to do was just reach out
to cup his hand over that very tempting mound of flesh. As if she knew he was
watching, Harmony bent over at the waist as she searched in a lower cabinet.

“I know I got sugar at the store. Rain? Have you seen it?”

He couldn’t help himself. In the smarmiest voice he could
muster, he said, “All you need to do is stick a finger in it to sweeten it up.”

Rain’s gagging noises made him laugh even as her mother
scolded her about manners. His own parents had been very physical with each
other, so he and his brother hadn’t thought much of it. Wolves showed their
mates affection. It was the Pack way. Funny, he hadn’t thought of those earlier
times in a long while. Looking back at Rain, he fixed his eye on her.

“Pup, you might as well know. I kissed your mother. I plan
on kissing her again if she’ll let me.”

At Harmony’s gasp he wondered if he’d overstepped his
boundaries but the scent wafting his way told him differently. The mother was
very interested in being kissed again. He jutted his chin at Rain. “So, you got
a problem with that?”

Rain dumped the popcorn into a large bowl. “The only thing I
got a problem with is if you hurt her. You won’t be like my dad, right?”

The growl simply erupted from his core. “No! That fucker’s
dead if he ever gets near you or your mom again.”

Rain dropped the popcorn bowl onto the table as she scurried
back to her mother. “Geez, G-man. Chillax. You scared the crap out of me. Am I
going to be able to do that?”

He shook his head, watching the teen move away from her
mother back to him. Kids! Not enough sense to be scared of a wolf in full “hurt
someone bad” mode. But then again, that protective mode extended to her as
well.

“Yeah, sorry. I seem to have an issue where your safety is
concerned. And you can do that but I don’t recommend it unless you know you can
hold your own. And no, you can’t yet. You have a lot of learning to
do—including how to shift. First class is next Saturday morning at the
community center on the res. I’m teaching it. Eight o’clock. Don’t be late. And
don’t whine at me about the time either.”

He scooped up a handful of popcorn then intentionally shoved
it in his mouth to make Rain laugh. Harmony still stood by the cabinet with a
pitcher of lemonade in her hand. He would have laughed at the stunned look on
her face but even a single wolf had better survival instincts than that. So he
just held out his glass. And prayed to every god he could think of to not have
his cock jump when her hand brushed his.

She made sure to touch him when she poured his drink. God,
she wanted him so badly she was surprised her panties didn’t just voluntarily
sizzle off her body. And her daughter was right there with them! Eating popcorn
and drinking lemonade and asking more questions about what it was like to
shift. She smiled as he fielded the questions easily. He had a way with Rain
that she appreciated. If he was going to be a part of the family…

“Shit!” Harmony jumped back as her nervous jerk knocked her
glass to the floor. “I guess I’m still a bit shaken. Sorry. I’ll get that. No,
Gareth. Let me. Please.”

She softened the last words enough to have him relaxing.
Better to blame it on Tom’s appearance then her own reaction to seeing him as a
permanent part of her world. She needed to get a grip. She needed her aunt. As
she gathered up the thankfully large pieces of glass and then swept up the
smaller pieces she listened as Rain kept on chattering. Lord love that girl,
but she could be thick as a post when it came to emotional upheaval. She
supposed that was a good thing.

No one was more surprised than she was when Rain declared
she needed to go to bed. Gareth’s soft chuckle had her closing her mouth as her
daughter exited the kitchen. “She rarely does that. She must be tired.”

His hand covered hers. “Or she knows how much I need to be
with you right now, Harmony. How much I need to make sure that you are really
okay. Talk to me. Tell me what happened. I know you held back with Rain here. I
need to know everything if I’m going to protect you.”

She filled him in on what Tom had said, including Mexico.
She blew it all off as inconsequential but he had asked for everything, so that
was what she gave him. He didn’t let go of her hand until she’d stopped
talking. The questions he’d asked along the way had helped her frame the
situation. She realized that Tom really did think he had the right to take her
away.

“And he called me ‘love’. Gareth, how insane is that? I’m
just a possession to him.” She tugged her hand away to use both to wipe at her
face. She hadn’t realized she’d started to cry. “I’m not crying for him. I’m
crying…”

“Because you’re tired and you have had one hell of a day,
baby. C’mere.”

Her body reacted as if those words were magnets. She flowed
out of her chair into his lap. His arms wrapped around her, warm and calming.
He murmured in her ear, telling her she was safe, that he had her, that it was
okay. His scent darkened, telling her he was bone-shaking angry but that didn’t
scare her. She wept against his shoulder with his hands soothing up and down
her back. With a shuddering breath, she turned her face to his. “Sorry for the
waterworks. Despite the fact that I’ve subjected you to this twice, I’m not
usually like that.”

He didn’t answer, just covered her mouth with his. As his
tongue lightly caressed her lips, she opened to him. His hands slid from her
back so that his thumbs lightly grazed the sides of her breasts. She adjusted
to give him more access. She wanted his hands on her. All over her. Her nipples
throbbed with need while her clit beat a similar rhythm of want. Pulling back
from his searing kiss, she reached up to grab his hair with her hands. The
soft, silky flow over her hands felt like cashmere. She looked at him for a
moment. Then, tugging him back down to her mouth, she whispered against it.

“I want you to make love to me, Gareth. I want to feel your long,
beautiful cock fill me up. I want to be driven over the edge because it’s your
hands touching me—your mouth kissing me. Your cock stroking me. Can you do that
for me?”

His answer came simple and direct. He stood up with his arms
full of her. “Baby, I thought you’d never ask. Where’s your room?”

She laughed as she pointed the way. “We have to be quiet
though. Rain is right down the hall.”

“Quiet, right.” He let her slide down his body even as he
shoved the door shut with his foot.

She wrapped both hands in his hair, a bit shocked when he
pulled his head back away from her. When he turned slightly to the side, she
realized that in spite of the fact they were about to, please god, get naked
and horizontal, he was still worried about his patch and his scars.

“Gareth, don’t.” Gently she framed his face and turned it so
that they were almost nose-to-nose. “Your scars may be on the outside but they
can’t be any worse than the ones I have on the inside.”

She cupped his jaw and kissed his scarred cheek, moving her
mouth slowly and gently up to cover the patch he wore over his eye. “You’re
gorgeous, you have to know that. You are so good-looking.”

She opened her mouth to say more and suddenly found herself
being kissed totally senseless by a strong male shifter who had been given free
rein. She knew, as all females who were raised around Pack males knew, that all
a female had to do was flirt a bit, make the first move and any unattached male
they were interested in would take that as invitation enough. He obviously was
no exception. She knew he’d been raised in a Pack, he must not have lived
outside of one for any length of time.

When he made his move she reveled in his strength as he
lifted her up as though she weighed less than Rain to carry her to the bed. She
wrapped her legs around his hips, giving back as good as she got, she hoped,
and kicking her slippers off at the same time. It seemed to be enough as he
leaned forward and she felt the bed under her back. Then he released her long
enough to yank her sweater up. She struggled to get it over her head and off her
arms even as he pushed her bra out of his way and took one nipple in his mouth,
sucking hard.

Reminding herself not to scream, she shoved her fist in her
mouth. He moved his hands to her jeans, unsnapping them and then yanking them
down over her hips. She moved her legs to get her jeans the rest of the way off
even as his hands ripped her panties away. He lifted his head then, meeting her
eyes, judging, she could tell, whether he’d scared her or not. When she simply
unhooked her bra and tossed it over her head, she saw a fleeting grin go over
his face and then his strong hands were shoving her thighs up and open and his
mouth covered her.

She’d never experienced this, never felt this strong rush of
lust for anyone, not even Tom the first time they’d had sex. Gareth’s mouth
covered her, his tongue and lips working over the most sensitive part of her
body, sucking her clit into his mouth then moving down to push his tongue into
her. She felt his hands moving down slightly to open her even more and heard
his growl as he fucked her with his tongue. The wave took her by surprise, her
body shuddering in an unexpected orgasm and she fisted the quilt under her
hands, lifting her hips under his glorious assault.

He didn’t stop but she felt his hands move away from her
body, so she grabbed her own knees, holding herself open and openly weeping at
the same time. “Oh my god, Gareth, please, please.”

She wasn’t sure if she wanted him to stop or keep going. It
didn’t seem to matter because he didn’t stop. Then she felt his fingers at her
opening and felt him pushing two fingers into her. He moved his mouth up her
belly back up to her breasts to latch on again, sucking hard then letting her
go. She heard him breathing hard even as he pushed another finger deep into
her.

She opened her eyes to find him watching her. He leaned down
to kiss her again, giving her the taste of herself on his tongue. “I don’t have
anything. I need to be inside you, but I don’t have anything.”

His words didn’t make sense at first then she realized he
was talking about protection. She reached up to bring his mouth back to hers,
biting his bottom lip then letting him go as she whispered, “I’m on the Pill,
have been for years. And I’m clean, I know you are. Fuck me, Gareth, do it.”

That seemed to be all he was waiting for. His fingers left
her pussy but she didn’t have time to miss them as his hard, hot cock slid into
her. She did cry out softly when he slammed home, causing him to still above
her until she gripped his ass in both hands and pulled hard. She wanted this,
needed this and told him so, quietly whispering in his ear. “Don’t stop,
please, don’t stop.”

The words set him loose and for the first time in her life
she knew what it meant to make love to a shifter male, to have his full
attention and she loved it. He pulled out, suddenly, tugging her to the edge of
the bed and flipping her over. She had never felt so rag-doll in her life. Her
feet were on the floor, her hands back to fisting the quilt as he gripped her
hips in both hands and shoved his cock back into her.