Claiming Her (Keeping Her Series) (2 page)

“Look at me, Miley.” 
His growl was all command.  They were both breathing heavily.  From this position,
she had to look down her stretched body to see him kneeling between her
thighs.  He was right, there was no soft anywhere on him.  “I’m claiming you.  I’m
keeping you.”

She had the time to
think a very intelligent,
Huh? Wait. What?

With the first powerful
thrust, he invaded, with the second he seated himself fully.  Then he did
exactly what he said he would, he claimed her, and it wasn’t soft, but a
branding of flesh on flesh.  While he pounded himself in and out with powerful
thrusts that she felt all the way to her tingling toes, he held her suspended
over the bed, completely in his control so that all she could do was accept
him.  He searched for and found the spot inside her that built up the tension
so fast the pleasure hit her like a freight train coming out of nowhere.  For
the first time in her life she screamed in pleasure.  He thrust harder, hard
enough that her headboard banged the wall with each thrust.  He watched it all
with an utterly implacable look of possession until, with a rush of heat she
felt deep inside, he threw back his head and roared.

This time she
recognized it for what it was, a lion male claiming his territory. 

I am in so much
trouble.

Isabella was trying to
catch her breath.  Impossible with Lucas still on top of her, amazingly still
hard inside her and nuzzling her neck.  Which all felt really good, especially
when his warm rough tongue leisurely lapping at her collarbone as if he could
not get enough of her taste.

“If this is a sex
dream,” she said breathlessly, her eyes on the ceiling fan, “it’s a good one.”

Lucas chuckled, his
nose nuzzling her neck affectionately before he raised his head and smiled down
at her.  “Have many sex dreams about me, do you?”  His voice was practically a
purr.

Wowza.
 
Determined to ignore his question, even though the truth was written in the
blush across her cheeks, Isabella cleared her throat, and went for
nonchalance.  “Sooo, what brings you to the island?”

He stilled above her,
his eyes narrowed on her face, he let out a little chuff of irritation.  His
voice gruff and low, “Is that really how you want to play this, Miley?”

So much for
nonchalance.  “I don’t actually want to play anything with you, Lucas,” she
said with a sigh.  “That would be all kinds of stupid.”  She pushed against his
shoulders.  “Would you let me up?”

“Why?”

She blinked up at him. 
“Why?  Why do you think?”  She pushed again, and he just raised an arrogant
brow and ignored her attempts to push him away.  “One, I actually have to get
to work.  That was where I was going when you decided to enact caveman fantasy
#26 and haul me off to bed.  And two, no way am I going to be able to have a coherent
conversation when you’re naked and I’m impaled on your massive cock.”

For a reply, Lucas
pulled out of her until only the head of his cock was still inside her, and
then he thrust back in, hard.  Isabella gasped and clutched at his arms, her
eyes rolling back in her head at the dominating friction of him.  “What are you
doing?”

“Making sure you’re late
for work.”  He pulled out slowly and thrust hard again, and Isabella threw back
her head and groaned.  He took that as an invitation to lick her arched neck
and then slightly bite her just beneath her chin.  “You can tell me why you are
here, under an assumed name, and why I thought you were dead.”  He thrust
harder this time, his voice dropping until she could have no doubt he was more
than a little upset about that.  “Why you did not come to me when you were in
trouble.”  Pull out, thrust hard.  “Why I had to mourn your death.”  Pull out,
thrust harder.  “And then you will tell me what you are running from, and who I
have to kill.”  Pull out, thrust harder. 

He wrapped a big hand
around her knee and pushed it up so that he could hook his arm around it.  She
was completely open to him, with no choice but to take whatever he wanted to
give.  Not that she was arguing.  Completely consumed by the feel of him, all
Isabella was hearing at this point was blah blah blah.

Then he covered her
shoulder where it met her neck with his hot mouth.  Lucas bit down with a growl
and she was coming with another scream that echoed off the rafters.  Deep
inside she felt him come, coating her womb with his seed, at the same time
drawing blood from his mark while he shuddered out his pleasure against her
skin.

Lucas fell to her side
to keep his heavy weight from crushing her, and then yanked her against his
chest, until with a purr he had her draped over him, right where he wanted
her.  Isabella let him do it, because she was busy dealing with the shock that
Lucas Gibbs had just marked her as his mate, and almost as terrifying, they had
unprotected sex, twice. 

“You marked me,” she
mumbled, against his warm neck where he had placed her.

“Yes.”  The big bastard
did not even tense.  Instead, it sounded like he was falling asleep on her. 
Then he illustrated that very point by yawning.  His hand palming her ass, he
pulled her up tighter against his hard length and nuzzled the top of her head. 
“Fuck.  I can’t even remember the last time I slept,” he mumbled.  Then before
she could form a protest against his highhanded maneuver, he was asleep.  She
knew it by the change in his breathing. 
What the hell?  How can he sleep at
a time like this?

Isabella was tempted to
turn her head and bite him on the neck, hard.  But at this point, she did not
have it in her to face the confrontation that would follow.  Not now.  Not when
she was conflicted and confused about the whole mess.  Besides, she had to get
to work, and something told her that would not happen if her “mate” was awake. 
So, she waited a few more minutes to make sure he would stay asleep, and then
she slipped out of his arms.  It was not an easy maneuver by any means.  He
growled and mumbled making her freeze until he settled and she could try
again.  He must have been exhausted though, because he never woke up, and
finally, with his last sleepy chuff of annoyance, she was able to slip away.

Grabbing new clothes
from her closet, a soft pink top with a ruffle at the hem and neck that would
hide Lucas’ mate mark, and a matching skirt that flared at her hips whenever
she moved, she took them with her into the bathroom.  She would have skipped
the shower except, working with wolves, if she did not wash off the scent of
lion and sex she would have more questions and teasing than she wanted to deal
with.  She washed as fast as she could. 

Looking at herself in
the mirror, she caught herself staring at the mark for long minutes that she
did not have.  She had dreamed about wearing his mark, hadn’t she?  Until the
day he fired her for no reason and she knew she would never see him again.  Would
it fade like the other one forced on her?  She placed her hand over the mark
and cupped it, breathing steadily through her panic.  How was Lucas going to
handle it when his mark faded and healed because she was not shifter enough to
be mated?  Too human, despite whatever wolf vibes other shifters could sense. 
How was he going to react when he found out another man had already tried to
mark her and failed?  The irony of having to run from one forced mating to be
ensnared in another was choking her.  Why did he do it?  Why keep her at a
distance for two years and then fire her without explanation if he felt
anything for her?  He wanted answers she was not prepared to give him, but she
was not the only one with some explaining to do.

With her hair up in a simple
twist, she dressed quietly.  Carrying her high-heeled leather sandals with the
crisscrossing straps, she headed for the door.  Isabella looked at Lucas
sprawled across her bed in naked abandon one more time. He dwarfed her queen
size bed, making it look more like a twin in comparison to his massive
presence.  In fact, her whole room looked small with him in it.  He had always
had that overpowering presence about him that commanded any room he entered. 
But having him in
her room
, and
her bed
was nerve wracking,
making her want to run away, even as she shook off the desire to dive right
back in on top of him.  Instead, with a quiet huff of breath, she ducked out
the door, closing it gently behind her. 

Even outside, in the
sea air, with the hot sun beating down and the tropical palms swaying with the
cooling breeze off the water, she could swear his scent still clung to her
skin.

So it should have been
no surprise when she walked into the main office at the resort and Jax, one of
the newer wolves, raised his head from where he was leaning over Becca’s desk
and looked around.  “Does anyone else smell cat?”  Then he turned to look at
Isabella, lifting his nose and sniffing.  “Izzy B,” he said, a lascivious smile
growing on his face.  Young and good looking, silky brown hair, and chocolate
brown eyes, with a body made for sin, he was used to the women hopping right on
board when he beckoned, but Isabella had been a firm hold out.  Which probably
explained why he was hanging around in the office, calling her that annoying
nickname and flirting outrageously.  It certainly wasn’t for Rebecca, because
while she found him amusing, she was seriously mated, and to the alphas of the
pack — three of them.  “If I knew you had an itch to scratch, I would have
volunteered,” he said, looking her up and down with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

“Well, if I ever have
an itch,” she said, pulling out her chair and dropping into it, “you will be
somewhere on page 133 of the list of people I might consider calling to scratch
it.  Why don’t you hold your breath?”

Rebecca laughed and
then shooed him away.  “Go.  Looks like we’re good here. You can get back to
work, and leave Isabella alone.”  He got as far as Isabella’s desk where he sat
down on the edge looking down at her, still obviously sniffing.

He grumbled a little
under his breath and she rolled her eyes.  Isabella blew out a breath and
turned back to Rebecca, who was staring at her.  “What?”

“You do have a certain
glow about you,” she said.  “And you are almost two hours late.  I was about to
send Jax out to check on you.  You’re never late.”

Isabella winced when
she thought about Jax coming to her cabin with Lucas there. 
That was a
nightmare in the making.
 “Sorry.  I got side tracked.  Did I miss anything
important?”

Before Becca could be
distracted, one of her mates, Jacob, walked in.  “Hey, Isabella, Jax,” he
said.  Jacob wore his customary board shorts and nothing else, six feet tall,
golden and ripped, he was younger than Isabella by a few years but they made it
work.  Big time.  He walked right past Isabella and Jax, his ice blue eyes only
for Rebecca.  Then, before he reached her desk, he stopped and turned his head,
sniffing.  “Why am I smelling lion?”

Jax smirked.  Isabella
ignored him, cleared her throat and looked at the two others staring at her. 
Becca in confusion, and Jacob with a disbelieving brow.  “What?”

“Yeah, what?” Becca
said, looking from one to the other.

“Isabella had sex this
morning,” Jax said, his teasing eyes on Isabella.  “She reeks of lion.”

Rebecca blinked and
looked her way.  “Really?”  Then she frowned.  “How is that even possible?  Is
there even a lion on the island?”

Isabella looked up at
the ceiling, hoping against hope that they would let it go before they figured
out she was with Lucas Gibbs.  Jacob shrugged.  “The only one I know who is
scheduled is Lucas Gibbs.”

Isabella dropped her
forehead to her desk with a thump. 

“Lucas Gibbs?”  Becca
breathed out.  “Really?  Wait.  Even if he was early, that is some quick work. 
What, like five minutes from plane to bed?”

“Don’t exaggerate,”
Isabella said, her voice muffled against her desk.  “He took longer than that
to carry me back to my cabin.”

“He carried you back to
your cabin?”

Isabella raised her
head and looked at them, her eyes going soft and a little dreamy.  “Oh yeah.”

“And then?”

“And then . . . what?”

“What happened at the
cabin?”

She cleared her throat.

“Are you kidding me?”

“When the hell
did
Lucas Gibbs arrive?”  Jacob got on the phone to call the airport.  “I thought
we had someone escorting him in tonight.”

“That was on the
schedule,” Becca said.  “Isabella?”

“Hmmm?”

“Was there a change of
plans?”

“He was early.”

“Apparently.”  Jacob
was busy on the phone so Isabella did her best to ignore the looks Becca and
Jax were sending her way while Jacob talked.  He finally hung up.  “So it looks
like he came in around 7 am by private plane.  Arranged his own chopper, and
was probably on the island around 7:30 am.”  All of the others looked at the
clock, so Isabella did, too.  10:15.  They looked back at Isabella.