Loving Lucius (Werescape) (40 page)

She pressed the length of her curves against my thrashing heart anyway and snaked the intoxicating warmth of her arms around my pounding heart, encircling my bare chest.

Pushing her shorter body into mine.

Wolf gurgled possessively.

I tried to choke down the threatening sound because that animal would scare off my mate. I'd have to kill the Gods-be-damned cur then. One way or another.

She inhaled deeply, her chest pressing those soft breasts into my heart in the process. "Sometimes you've just got to live dangerously." She smiled, gliding her silken palms down across the curve of my ribs to my back for what seemed a better angle to press her firm curves against me. "Like when I'm in the wilderness by myself. Running from the madness of my sire's home." She leaned those sweet lips forward and pressed their soft velvet into my chest's bare skin.

One soft kiss. I dared not breathe, move, blink, or I'd jolt awake from this dream. Who is trapping whom?

That kiss branded me with the hottest bolt of fire I thought could sear me from heart to groin. Cooked. Inside out. Ready for dining. I'd been caught, gutted, prepared, and roasted. Thank the Gods.

Wolf snarled and hopped into a bouncing frenzy.

Out of control. If I didn't put a leash on the beast, he'd rip through my hide and flash his fangs. Endangering my mate. Frightening her if she wasn't already frightened from leaning against the club Wolf had stuffed down my pants.

"Aren't you going to put that necklace on me?" Her hot breath singed the rise of flesh above my breast. "It's kind of like a leash, you know. Funny. I never wanted to belong to anyone." She fluttered her lacey eyelashes. "By anyone else."

Not good throwing the wrong words at a Shifter about to lose his Wolf. "Behave." I chuckled and stepped back.

Her heat followed as she stepped with me. "I'll let you command me this one time." She snorted a snicker. Her arms fell away from my needy skin. She turned, lifting her cascading white hair out of the way, and she allowed me to wrap the chain around that firm slender neck.

So fragile near my huge dark hands. Warm. Delicious.

Wolf licked his lips.

The salty metallic scent of her blood throbbing beneath her white skin lodged in our nostrils.

Mark
, Wolf growled.

Or I did.

She giggled almost wickedly and dropped her hair, turning to me, throwing her arms around my neck. "That's it. Growl." She rose up onto her toes and pulled my lips down to meet hers.

So damned soft. Hungry. Like she'd waited a lifetime for the kiss. To feast upon my mouth. As if she starved for attention. Craved my bullying tongue. Needed to glide those palms over every inch of my aching chest where Wolf struggled to burst free. Maybe she's in cahoots with him.

Mate
, Wolf snarled.

She shoved away from my thundering heart, sliding her palms slowly down the length of my arms, to finally squeeze one of my hands in hers. "Come on." She stepped back toward her gray mount.

Back toward the trees. Grinning. What is she up to? A man on the verge of getting the only thing he needed to possess for years isn't about to question the hum of the universe. I followed her slow calculated footsteps.

Why the measured placement of her footing? As if this is something she carefully plotted with each brush of grass blades against ankle. With each crackle and pop of forest litter beneath our boots as we maneuvered through the cottonwood grove. With each pulse of blood in my aching hardened cock on our way down to the sparkling river's mercurial water mirroring the pale blue sky.

She halted beside the sky's reflection and smiled. "Swim with me."

Swim? The water is too Gods-be-damned cold for her Normal body.

She pulled the tan shirt's tails out from where they tucked into her jeans and shot me a wicked grin. "You're wasting time, Boa." She reached for one of her brown boots and pulled it free of a thick handmade beige sock.

Something told me the glint in her eyes meant she had plans for more than crocheting, knitting, or darning. More like swimming for pleasure. Pleasure being key here. I'll just have to do the chivalrous thing and keep her warm.

Wolf's gurgling growl shook every cell in my being.

She winked with a wily smile and yanked her shirt over her head, revealing the sweetest black see-through lace bra cupping globes my hands begged to hold. Not oversized. Not too small. Definitely worth clutching.

Wolf whined.

Nothing was left to our imagination about those breasts a man could nuzzle, except the weight of them in his hands.

My cock lurched.

The little disks of nipples, that appeared as pink as her heart-shaped lips, were pinched into pearls and impossible to conceal beneath the denser black flowers woven into the fabric's sheer lace. Gods. To slowly peel the lace away. To run my fingers across that irreplaceable flesh.

Her hands shoved at the waistband of her faded jeans.

She wiggled her hips out of her blue jeans.

Yes. No underneath but alabaster skin broken only by the curve of her sleek form. The way a free spirit would prefer being bound in clothing.

My skin began to prickle with Wolf's insistence to mark his mate.

I choked down a hard gulp of air and held my breath.

She winked, kicked off the jeans, and stood there in nothing but the mind-boggling lace bra and those handmade beige socks bunched down around her ankles, a breeze brushing a few strands of her hair across the flat belly and the white curls of hair Wolf desperately wanted to snort against.

Beautiful body. Perfect. Just enough curve in just the right places. And the smell. Delicious. Salty. The scent of woman. My woman.

Mine
! He snorted so briskly that I swear her sire could hear us three valleys over.

Settle down, Wolf. You've got to slow down. Work for your bite.

She smiled coyly, lowering her nose to the ground, eyeing me through the spray of her eyelashes. "Come on." She thrust her chin toward the glinting water, reaching for the clasp between her breasts.

The seductress. How in the hell am I to keep Wolf from pouncing and devouring that thatch of white curls? One flinch. The beginnings of one movement and Wolf would possess his prey. Talk about temptation being a curse.

****

What is the man doing? I'd waited forever to have him touch me, get him to propose, have the kind thoughtful killing machine make me whole with those big hands he keeps to himself. Still, somewhere in all of those years of almost non-existent smiles and discussions of how the meaning of life could return to what humanity defined it before extraterrestrial invasion, AEI, if only people worked to make it happen, he implied we could do it together. That we'd be together. Yes. He promised in those careful intelligent discussions and the patience in his mask. That's what I want. Together. A normal life. Happiness in a cabin shadowed by beautiful mountains cloaked by tall pines and the happy sounds of life. Life with him. But he's just standing there.

Staring into my eyes.

Enthralled. Or afraid to move. How can he be? I'd bared myself to him. All but my breasts. And there isn't anything hiding them anyway. Well, won't be when I finally strip the last vestige of Father's rules from my body. Don't tempt a Shifter with removal of your clothing, especially a Bitterroot Shifter. Wolverine would have been all over me the minute I lifted my shirt tails. That bastard cousin of mine. Not Boa. Not my calm well-mannered Shifter. Who just needs a little more temptation. I fingered the tiny hard plastic between the bulges of my breasts.

Oh, would Father roar if he could see me pop this clasp and peel the scant bit of lace from my breasts. For Boa, the wrong Shifter. A quiet generous warrior with the mind of a steel trap. My warrior. Who better show some appreciation for my efforts here. I've never stripped for a man before. I tossed the bra onto my jeans.

And still he stands there.

Socks. It's these hideous not-so-enticing socks. I yanked them off to stand in the cool grass. But he didn't budge. Maybe I was wrong about us. How could I have mistaken any of this? He'd even brought gold. Gold isn't something you waste AEI. "B-Boa?"

His hands jerked, landed on the button of his camouflage pants, and set to fumbling with the closure.

All that bulging musculature in his arms undulated like his namesake. Mostly because he'd smeared on some kind of camouflage paint to emulate stripes. Or that his green gaze was firmly fixed upon mine to the point he wasn't thinking about the metal button his fingers mindlessly fumbled with to open. No. He had other things on his mind.

Snap goes the trap. Finally, after all those years of trying to get the man to confess his intentions toward me.

Men are so predictable. Of course, it paid having so many relatives living at my sire's outpost. I think I've seen all of what men do. Yet, Boa's predictability in his noble manner is what kept me from losing my mind all along.

He skinned himself, peeling away his pants like a snake shedding its mottled skin.

Revealing the legless reptile he'd been concealing. One hell of a monster in comparison to what I'd seen splashing around the watering hole back among my closest cousins. Maybe I should run? Or does the determination suddenly glinting in his eyes note I can't escape?

It would be fun to be caught. Oh, Lordy, mine. Mine. Mine. But I don't want him to touch me until I washed off the stink of travel. I shot him what I hoped proved a sparkling grin, batted my eyes, and stepped across some of the river's damp smooth cobbles.

Arms grabbed me around the waist and swooped me into the air.

Into his arms. Talk about all the strength I expected to feel curl around me in the muscled limbs of a boa constrictor. Who wouldn't settle into his hard warm chest, grab his shaved head, and force his hot mouth to feed hers again? I stared into his attentive green gaze.

That's Boa. Aware. Alert. Attentive. Calm. Definitely the calm before the storm. Because when Father learns I defied him in mating a Bitterroot Shifter, I'd be excommunicated like Christians from their Church when the extraterrestrials arrived. Good thing we don't have that to contend with after the inhabitants of Bitterroot Valley were harvested by aliens.

He carried me a few steps until his footsteps dragged through the water, jangling like someone pulled an oar through the river.

Struggling. But his balance never wavered. He carried me like a treasure, studying me. Searching. Contemplating. Or plotting. I'm all for plotting. Go ahead. Think about all the things you want to do to me. Bite me first. Can you hear my thoughts? Bite me, Boa.

His footsteps stopped as the river hushed with its quiet sounds.

Cool water kissed my ass as he stood waist deep now. Not a bad thing in making me think only of him. He's all hot. All smoking-amazing Shifter no woman could look at without thinking about being possessed by one. Coveted by one the way he was holding me in his arms. But I needed to wash up. "I won't vanish, Boa. Put me down. I want to swim a minute."

His mouth curled sinisterly into his left cheek.

Oh no. "Boa?"

He started walking, cold water lapping a chilly trail up my back as we sank more and more into the chilly water. "You won't be getting away today."

I could have waited a lifetime to hear those words from the only man who didn't make me want to find another Shifter clan to join since Father instigated the feud. Albeit, there are many warriors old enough to mate in the valley. Rather, a handful at Father's fortress and six at the Bitterroot outpost. However, the clans severed their ties to one another, splintering when I was three. When my mother died because Boa's mother wasn't allowed to travel to help Mother foal the mares. When Mother was kicked in the forehead by Wild Sally and mortally wounded. And everyone had expected Father would look beyond his loss and find forgiveness. Even after he found another mate and gave me two younger brothers. No wonder I'm still his favorite child. He can't let go of mother.

I'm in so much trouble.

How? Everything is so warm and perfect in Boa's arms. Everything will be that way after he bites me. He just needs to mark me. Make me forget my sire needs me. "Boa?"