Claiming Her (Keeping Her Series) (7 page)

Lucas lifted his lips
from hers, and she wanted to bite him for stopping.  “I can’t decide,” he said
with a low rumble, leaning down to lick her bottom lip, then nip it.  She
licked the taste of him off her swollen lips and his eyes heated even further.

“What is the problem?”
she said a little breathlessly while she wrapped her legs around his waist and
canted her hips to rub against him.  She cleared her throat and tried again.  “As
your trusty assistant, I can help you with whatever you need.  What exactly is
the dilemma?”

“Can’t decide whether
to give you a quick fuck over my desk, or move this into the bedroom and make
love to you until we’re both blind.”

Oh God, he’s right. 
That is a tough one.  Wait, should I be flirting?  Ach . . . I’ll worry about
it later. 
“Well,” she whispered against his neck
before biting down just under his chin.  She looked up into his eyes while he
growled, “Let me know what you decide.”  Then she canted her hips again and
rubbed her hot crotch against his.

“Fuck it,” he suddenly
growled, taking her to the desk and sweeping the papers off behind her back, “We’ll
do both.”  He dumped her ass on the desk and pushed her already hiked skirt
higher, giving him a good look at saturated pink lace.  His eyes went cat even
while he was licking his lips, which had to be to Isabella the sexiest thing
ever.

Unfortunately, for all
concerned that was when the door to the suite opened and Griffin walked in.  He
immediately turned to block his mate’s eyes from the spectacle but from the
unrepentant “oops,” Becca had seen enough.

Isabella was sure her
face was on fire when she slapped at Lucas and threw herself backwards on the
desk to try and get her skirt down.  She succeeded in covering up her panties
but Lucas was not inclined to let her off the desk from the thunderous brow he
was directing towards the others, and the way he stood his ground refusing to
back up and let her off that desk. 

“What the fuck do you
want?”  He boomed it across the room at the alpha pair, making Isabella cringe
and cover her eyes, so she missed the sardonic way the alpha raised a brow at
the belligerence.

Griffin’s own voice was
sardonic and amused, but mild in comparison.  “We are here because my mate
wanted to invite you both to lunch at our home.”

“Shut the door on your
way out.” 

Rude! 
Isabella
snapped her hand from her face down on his chest and pushed with a snarl on her
lips. “Lucas!”  His name was pelted his way full of indignation and
embarrassment.  “Step back!”

He growled,
not
moving back she noticed.  She huffed out her annoyance and leaned over sideways
so she could see the couple at the door, Becca doing her best to bite back a
smile.  “I’ll bring him along in a minute.  Go ahead without us.”

“If you’re sure you don’t
have anything better to do . . .” Jacob  said with a forced straight face
coming up behind the other two.

Lucas snarled, but
Isabella talked louder over it to compensate.  “Absolutely not.  We’ll be right
behind you.”

They could actually
hear them laughing when the door closed, but Isabella was too busy dealing with
pissy lion.  “Miley,” he growled low.

“I can’t tell Griffin
Hale I’m too busy having sex to come to lunch.  Damn it, I knew this was going
to happen, that’s why I wanted rules,” she snapped before he could say anything
further.  Never mind that she forgot them herself the second he touched her.

“You don’t have to tell
them shit.  There is no fucking way they didn’t know what we were doing when
they walked in the door.”

“Lucas, please, let’s
just go.”  She pleaded with her eyes, her cheeks still on fire.  When his jaw
just tightened in denial, she played her trump card quickly. “I’ll make it up
to you later.”

He narrowed his eyes
studying her, flushed and tousled across his desk.  “That would be hard to do.”

“I’ll think of
something.”  She fluttered her eyelashes in a parody of flirtation and he
harrumphed, looking unamused.

Finally, he leaned down
and caged her with his arms so that she was forced to arch back in the limited
space he provided.  He kissed her hard on the lips and finally stepped back,
his words very nearly a threat.  “You better.”

The walk to the other
side of the island where Becca and her mates lived was like entering an
alternate universe, one where Lucas Gibbs strode barefoot through the sand
while holding on to Isabella’s hand as if they had been together forever.  It
was very sweet, and Isabella was ready to sigh at the romance of it when he had
to open his big lion maw and speak.

“How fast can we get
through this meal without you pitching another fit?”

“For goodness sake,
Lucas, we haven’t even arrived yet.” 
So much for romance.

“That’s why I’m asking
now,” he muttered, “Half an hour?  An hour?”

“Just pretend they are
clients and this is a business lunch.”  She knocked him with her shoulder
playfully.  “Oh, wait.  This
is
a business lunch, and they
are
clients.
Well, what do ya’ know?”

“So eternity then?”

“You will survive the deprivation
of a good meal on a tropical beach with friends.”  She rolled her eyes.  “If it
makes you feel better, pretend you are in a war-torn country eating an MRI
under heavy fire.”  She patted his arm while smiling at Rebecca who had come
out to their porch to welcome them.

He blew out a breath in
exasperation and pulled her under his arm and against his hard side,
practically dragging her along.  “MRE, Miley. An MRI is a medical procedure. 
An MRE stands for ‘meals, ready to eat’.   And no, I don’t want one.  What I do
want to is to go back to our suite and eat you, so you will excuse me if this
little lunch with friends, as lovely as I’m sure the food is, does not live up
to my expectations for the afternoon.”

Isabella cleared her
throat and tried to contain the full body shiver. 
Well, when you put it
like that.

But they were already
at the porch and Becca was smiling, her eyes on them both.  From the twinkle in
her eyes and the way her gaze kept moving up and down them, Isabella expected
any minute for her to waggle her eyebrows or go ‘heh-heh-heh’ in some
suggestive way. 
Sigh.

“Thank you so much for
having us,” Isabella said with a little too much false cheer in the hopes that
no one would say anything to embarrass her.  Lucas snorted in belligerent denial
but she ignored him except for an elbow to the gut.  She just ended up with a
bruised elbow.

“Ms. Stacy,” Lucas
nodded politely, his voice finding that cold politeness he did so well, his
face blanking.  Rebecca tipped her head sideways, clearly trying to figure him
out.

Isabella just smiled
wider, and a little forced.  “What’s for lunch?”  She tried to shake off his
arm but he wasn’t letting go.

Rebecca studied
Isabella’s lion carefully without answering.  He was very stoic and closed off
with strangers, so he could be a little intimidating.  Isabella shook off the
need to elbow him again.  In his mind, he was being polite.  He just has no
idea how it came off as cold and arrogant.  Or he didn’t care.  Either way, it
was a scary look for him.  Fortunately, Becca was mated to her own brand of
scary and was used to it.  She finally smiled big, and then yes, waggled her
eyebrows at Isabella in a suggestive manner.  “I have no idea what we are
having.  Knowing my mates, it will be a meat of some kind, followed by more
meat of a similar kind.”

“Mmm,” Isabella said
pursing her lips and batting her eyes at Rebecca.  “That does sound good.”

“You’ll get your salad,”
Linc said coming out the front door and oh so subtlety placing himself between
Becca and the large lion male.  He had taken off everything but his khakis and,
like every time she saw one of the wolves with his shirt off, Isabella gave a
silent salute to island living.

“And weird green things,”
Jacob said, hopping off the porch and coming up on her other side.  He had not
changed at all, but then when he was not in those board shorts, either working
or surfing, it was a rare occasion.  It was only at special events and weddings
that he bothered to fully dress.  Strangely enough, none of the women guests
ever complained.

“Those are called
vegetables,” Becca said with obvious impatience.  “Veg-e-ta-bles.”  She sounded
it out between his kisses.  “You should try some before you get scurvy or
something.” 

He smiled into his next
few kisses.  “I think I’ll take my chances.”

“Fine, but I’m not
kissing you when all your teeth fall out.”

Jacob smiled a perfect
white smile, his canines a little sharp, but otherwise as beautiful as the rest
of him.  “If my teeth start to fall out, I’ll eat slimy green things, until
then,” he said, rubbing his nose across hers, “I’ll stick to real food.”

“Are we eating on the
porch?”  They all turned to see Griffin standing barefoot in his slacks, his
shirt untucked and his arms crossed, face blank while he studied them from the
door.  Unlike the others, this was his version of casual.  Yep, Becca knew
exactly what she was dealing with in arrogant facades.

She dealt with it by
laughing in the face of his icy brown stare.  “No, we are not eating on the
porch.  But we are saying hi in front of the porch so come down and join us.”

He arched a brow but
did as she asked, pulling her into his arms as soon as he got close enough,
even though they had all been together in the house not two minutes ago.  He
hugged his mate and stared over her head at Lucas who was doing the same
thing.  “See you made it,” were his welcoming words. 

Lucas didn’t bother to
answer, just arched a superior brow. 

Well, this is going to
go splendidly. 
Isabella was tempted to roll her eyes
again.

“We’re grilling on the
beach.”  Linc spoke again with his hand still clasped in Becca’s.  “Thought you
might enjoy getting out in the fresh air for a bit, especially after the long
flight last night.”

Lucas looked at the Enforcer,
another alpha wolf-shifter; he did not challenge or submit with either look or
inflection.  Somehow, it put Lucas at ease, because Isabella could feel his big
body lose some of its tension.

Finally, he nodded his
head and let go of Isabella enough to take her hand in his again.  “I have
heard worse ideas,” he said, which made Isabella smile, her head ducked so he
couldn’t see she thought he was cute.

The sun was hot off the
water so they had erected a cover for shade, and under that was a cooler of
different beverages and a picnic table made from polished driftwood. The thing
had to weigh a ton, and Isabella had admired it the last time she came over for
a meal on the beach.  Not that they did it often, at least not with guests. 
They valued their time away from the rest of the resort, and invited few
visitors to their home because of it.  Lucas had no idea what an honor he was
getting.  It made Isabella think that despite appearances Griffin actually
liked the arrogant lion.

Lucas was not paying
attention to anything but the ocean spread out before him.  Isabella watched
him breathe in the salty sea air and felt the tension he breathed out. 
Whatever Lucas might have wanted to do this afternoon, he clearly needed some
outside time.  He finally looked at her when she moved to his side and leaned in. 
He gave her a half smile and, leaning down, placed a soft kiss on her mouth.  “Not
the worst idea.”

She laughed snuggling
closer, her eyes going to the stretch of ocean and blue sky laid out before
them.  This area of the beach was far from the private resort beaches that the
guests enjoyed, the cliffs on either side of them blocked off the beach here so
that there was a mile of clean beach and then walls of rock on either side.  It
was a stunning view and diamond bright in the noonday sun.

“If I had this beach
outside my door, I wouldn’t invite guests over either,” she said, her eyes
dancing over to the men at the grill, and Becca who stood with them laughing. 
They were always touching, always standing just in each other’s space.  With
the three men, it was like a dance around Rebecca and Isabella had no idea how
they not only managed it, but made it look smooth and natural while they did. 
The grill was down wind but they could still smell the sizzling meat and
coconut oil used for cooking.  Farther down the beach a ways, there were
loungers for four, and up at the house, four towels hung in a row, drying across
the porch rails outside the big wood beach house with the two decks and all
those windows. 

“They don’t need
anything else really.” She realized she had Lucas’ attention, and looking up
into his eyes, she thought they might be a blue to rival the vista around
them.  At his questioning look, she explained.  “They rarely invite people
here.  I’ve only been once, and that was when the guys were all working and it
was just Becca and me.  They like it to be just them when they are away from
the resort, and any pack gatherings happen there.  You have no idea how rare it
is to be issued as invitation.  They must like you.”  She smiled her own quirky
smile and leaned more into him, her eyes staying on his while she batted her
lashes.  “Can’t think why.”