Mark nodded his head but his eyes cut to Dakota.
Jonah sighed. “Let’s get this all out on the table now so we can stop playing games. Dakota, come here, honey. You’ve wiped that counter enough, anyway.”
With a touch of anxiety she walked over to the table. Her brain was whirling. What if Mark convinced Jonah she was a danger to them and they both left?
“Go ahead.” Jonah pulled her down into his lap and looked at Mark. “Ask her anything you want to.”
“All right.” Mark carefully placed the pen he’d been using in perfect alignment with the pad of paper. “Jonah said you know he shifts. Saw him do it. Aren’t you freaked out? Most women would be. Most
people
.”
“At first. But understand this, Mr. Guitron—”
“Mark,” Jonah interrupted. “Call him Mark.”
The other Night Seeker dipped his head once.
“Fine. Mark. First of all, I got to know Jonah the man before I saw Jonah the wolf. And secondly, in my life I’ve learned there are things sound logic simply can’t explain. This is one of them. Does it freak me out? No. And if that freaks
you
out, I’m sorry. But that’s the way it is.”
“You’ve lived here all your life, right?” Mark wanted to know.
“That’s right. And I’m sure if you ask enough people they’ll be happy to tell you stories about the crazy half-breed who lives out here alone. My history and chosen lifestyle makes me a topic for speculation.” She looked straight at him. “I’m sure you must know about that, Mark.”
He leaned back in his chair. “I know that when I lived and worked in this area I heard a lot of things about a lot of people. Much of it was fanciful garbage. So, yes, I know what you mean and I like to think I can sift through the bullshit.”
“And I hope that’s what you do.” She rested her hand on Jonah’s, the one pressed against her waist. “I can be helpful, too. I know this immediate area like I know this cabin. Plus, Jonah tells me you need certain herbs to help control the shifting process. I have an herb garden out next to the cabin. I may already be growing some of them.” She leaned into Jonah. “And I’ll be happy to answer any questions about myself you ask. I’m not a threat.”
“You understand why I’m so cautious.”
“Of course. I’d expect you to be.” She slid from Jonah’s lap. “I’d be pleased to have you join us for dinner.”
“I thought Mark could run into town, check into the motel and then come back here,” Jonah said. “That way we can leave from here when it gets dark enough.”
“Good.” She turned back to Mark. “One more thing. I can be a good cover for you when the two of you need to take off in your wolven form. I can tell them you’re here and nobody will come out here looking for you. Trust me.”
She knew he was still reserving judgment, but she was grateful that at least he wasn’t asking Jonah to leave for the moment. But one thing was for sure. When Mark left for Eagle Pass, she and Jonah would make good use of the time they had to themselves.
Chapter Nine
Leo Merritt liked living at the edge of town. He liked open space around him, a piece of ground with no sense of being crowded. He was lucky. When he’d bought the land years ago it had been dirt cheap so he’d bought plenty of it. Never did anything with it except build the house he and Hilary lived in, but that was all he wanted. During the day he was surrounded by people. At night he liked the quiet and solitude with just the two of them.
They’d never had any children, he and Hilary. It was a fact that saddened them, but in later years their two dogs had become their family. Leo had spent his entire life working in the hardware store, eventually becoming day manager. It was a good job and gave him as much social contact as he wanted or needed. He looked forward to coming home to Hilary at the end of the day, sharing a drink with her on the back porch and just admiring the isolation of the area around them.
Life was good.
Today he wasn’t in such a big hurry to get home. Hilary had gone to San Antonio to visit her sister so the house was silent and empty. He was dawdling along the highway outside Eagle Pass when he saw the man walking on the edge of the road. At first he didn’t plan to stop.
“Don’t pick up strangers,” Hilary always warned. “You never know who or what you’re getting.”
But the man looked so beaten down, worn clothes hanging on his thin frame. Where had he come from? He didn’t look like any of the usual day laborers that loitered around the convenience stores hoping to cadge work in the area. His skin was too pale for outdoor work and very few places hired the day laborers to work indoors.
He was tempted to just increase the pressure on the accelerator and speed on past but something prevented him from doing so. Sparing a brief thought for Hilary and her warnings, he honked the horn and pulled the pickup over to the side of the road. The man stopped and turned to look at the truck.
Leo blinked.
What an odd looking person.
An angular face that was somehow misshapen and features that looked as if they’d been assembled haphazardly. He stared at Leo through the passenger window with eyes that were completely expressionless.
Leo pressed the button to lower the window. “You look kind of lost out here.” He had to raise his voice a little to be heard over the wind that had risen.
“Just looking for a place to crash for a day or two,” the man told him. His voice had a flat, nasal quality to it.
Leo, put the pedal to the metal and get on out of there.
He heard Hilary’s voice in his head but decided to ignore it. Even as basically antisocial as he was, he always believed in paying it forward. What was that old proverb? “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
Well, he had time on his hands tonight. Maybe he should do a little sowing. At least give the poor guy a meal and see if he could help him get a ride to somewhere. He punched the button to pop the locks on the doors.
“Jump on in,” he told him. “My wife’s out of town. I could stand you a meal and a place to crash for tonight if you’d like.”
For a moment he thought he saw flames dancing in the man’s eyes and an icy finger walked the length of his spine. But he blinked and it was gone. Again he saw only a very skinny man with a weird-looking face.
The man stared at him for a moment, then opened the door and climbed in.
“Appreciate it,” the man said. “Rides are hard to come by around here.”
Leo put the truck in Drive and eased back onto the highway. “Heading anyplace special?”
“Just out of here is all.”
Leo chuckled. “One thing about Maverick County. There’s no in-between. You either love it here or want out of here as fast as you can git.” He glanced over at the man. “Been here long?”
The man shrugged. “Long enough. Not much work here.”
“That’s the truth. Unless you work for the government or one of the ranches around here. Of which there are damn few.”
“Tell me about it.” He paused. “Listen, I appreciate the offer of food and a place to sleep. Barn’s good enough, if you’ve got one. And I can do chores for you.”
“Well, it’s not like we have a lot to do around the place,” Leo told him. “Hey, maybe you could weed and trim Hilary’s flower beds while she’d gone. My joints are getting a little stiff these days and that would be a big help.”
“No problem.”
“So,” Leo said. “My name’s Leo. What’s yours?”
“Fred. Just call me Fred.”
* * * * *
“I don’t think your friend likes me.” Dakota was chopping vegetables at the counter for a salad. She had just finished scrubbing potatoes for baking and seasoning steaks.
“He’s just a naturally suspicious person. Part of his nature.” Jonah came up behind her, slid his arms around her and cupped her breasts with his hands.
“You’re pretty brave to touch a woman with a sharp knife.” She leaned back against him, smiling in spite of herself.
“I figured I could take your mind off vegetables for a while.” His lips brushed against her ear. “And off everything else, too.” He turned her around to face him. “Think of it as medicinal. I have to shift later. To hunt. To check the crime scene. Having sex with you prepares my body to shift more easily.”
She threw back her head and laughed, the first real sound of joy from either of them since the morning’s gruesome discovery. “That’s about the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard for getting down and dirty with someone.”
“Whatever gets the job done.” He nipped her ear lobe. “So is it working for me?” His hands slid from her breasts down her tummy to press into her cunt through her jeans.
Dakota dropped the knife onto the counter as moisture flooded her cunt and her body trembled. Jonah slid his fingers up and down, pressing the soft denim of her jeans into her wet folds. She rocked back and forth, riding his hand, feeling the friction against her clit. The crotch of her panties was instantly soaked with a fresh spate of cream and the tiny bundles of nerves in the walls of her vagina were firing like rockets on the Fourth of July.
“I think the cooking can wait a while,” she breathed.
“You think so?” Jonah slid his other hand up to cup her breast and pinched her nipple, just hard enough to send streaks of pleasure-pain racing through her. “I love the feel of your breasts, Dakota. And your nipples.” He pinched again. “Like ripe berries. I could suck on them forever.”
She tried to turn in his arms but he held her firmly in place. “No, darlin’. Hold still.” With one hand he flicked open the button of her jeans and lowered the zipper. His fingers slipped under the elastic band and the thin silk, searching for her curls and the heat of her cunt. She widened her legs to accommodate him and those wicked fingers stole farther down, rubbing over her clit before delving into the wetness of her folds.
She pulsed beneath his touch, pressing into his searching fingers, wishing he would just rip off her jeans and panties and take her right there on the kitchen counter.
“I love it when you’re wet like that.” His voice was husky, his breath warm against her ear. “I can slide my fingers over that plump little pussy and feel every bit of the fabric of the skin. You have got the best cunt, Dakota. Just made for touching and tasting and fucking.”
Little moans bloomed in her throat and she closed her eyes, letting the sensation of his touch sweep over her. The heat from his body flowed into hers, melting her. If not for his hands masterfully working her and holding her in place she might have simply folded onto the floor.
Jonah moved his finger back up to her clit, swirling it around and around, drawing out all those delicious sensations that made her body tremble and her pussy quiver. As he worked her clit he pinched her nipple in a rhythmic clasping, drawing up her body’s response, his teeth nibbling her ear and the column of her neck.
Inside me
, she wanted to shout.
I want you inside me.
But she was so focused on the explosion building within her she couldn’t form actual words.
When the climax hit it was more like the rush of a waterfall than a detonation. All of her muscles quaked as if someone had pulled a string and let them loose from captivity. Her liquid soaked into her already drenched panties, her musk so strong she easily caught the scent.
Dakota shuddered in Jonah’s grasp, her body gripped by a climax that seemed to have no end. And when the tiny shudders abated she was just as aroused as she’d been before he touched her.
“Ohhh,” she moaned, leaning into Jonah’s hard body.
“Still hungry?” he growled in her ear. “You need to earn the orgasm you want.”
He turned her and lowered her to her knees, unzipping his jeans and freeing his thick, hard cock.
A wave of lust swept through Dakota. She braced herself with one hand on a rock-hard thigh while the fingers of the other wrapped around the erection barely an inch from her mouth. Locking her eyes onto his she stroked the shaft slowly from root to tip. Up and down. Up and down. The broad head darkened from deep pink to dark rose and a tiny drop of fluid seeped from the slit and hung there, tantalizing her.
Dakota swept her tongue across the velvety surface, taking the cream into her mouth and licking her lips provocatively. Jonah’s eyes darkened to midnight black and his fingers threaded through her hair, guiding her head.
“Suck me.” His voice was hoarse, rough with need. “Take me into your mouth.”
Dakota opened her lips and closed them around the tempting erection, sliding it over her tongue and into her mouth as far as she could. Her hand slipped from where it circled his shaft to dip into the opening of his boxers and cup his balls. She was rewarded with a tensing of his body and a low, guttural sound of desire.
Moving her fingers over the soft, lightly feathered skin of his sac she set a pace with her mouth that drew her lips back to the tip and then slowly back down again, until she was finally able to take every inch of him. She let her tongue drift over the soft skin covering the hardness of steel, flicking here, darting there, giving him all the heat of the wet cavern of her mouth.
“Holy shit,” he breathed, fingers pressing against her skull. “Easy, baby. We don’t want the final curtain before we even get to intermission.”
But Dakota was lost in the rhythm of it, pussy still quivering with unremitting aftershocks and seduced by the electric slide of Jonah’s cock in and out of her mouth. Her fingers manipulated his balls and she increased the pressure of her lips and the suction around his shaft. Her eyes flew open when he jerked her head away and pulled his hips back.
“Let’s take this to the bed,” he growled, shoving down his jeans and boxers and lifting her in his arms.
“One of these times I’m not going to stop,” she warned him. “I’m going to suck you until you come in my mouth and it slides all the way down my throat.”
“Shit, darlin’. You might make me come just by talking about it.”
His hands were hot as they pushed up her t-shirt and bra and yanked off her jeans and panties. He knelt between her thighs, lifted her with his hands beneath her buttocks and sucked greedily at her cunt. Dakota reached behind her for the spindles in her headboard and gripped them as Jonah fed from her drenched pussy.
He was merciless, fucking her with his tongue, nipping at her throbbing clit and tugging it with his teeth, lapping at her slick flesh. He bent her knees back and dragged his tongue downward to the tight ring of muscle winking at him from the cleft of her buttocks.
“Next time I’m going to fuck you here,” Dakota.” His voice was hoarse and his breathing choppy. “Right in this sweet ass. Count on it. When we finish here I’m putting that plug back in. I don’t know how much longer I can hold off.”
He’d taken a handful of condoms from his duffel bag the night before and dumped them in the drawer of the nightstand. Now he pulled one out, tore off the foil and rolled it onto his cock with one hand. Dakota watched him, the sight mesmerizing and erotic. In such a short time she’d become addicted to his cock.
She moved her hands to grip her knees, keeping them bent and opening herself to Jonah’s cock. He stared at her cunt with smoky eyes and let out a long, slow breath before positioning himself and thrusting inside her. With one roll of his hips he filled her completely and immediately the walls of her pussy clenched around him, quivering and dragging at him.
“Hurry,” she urged, hitching her hips toward him.
He took her at her word, pistoning in and out of her with a hard, driving force. His shaft filled her until there was no room left and the friction as he dragged it back and forth against her sensitive walls set up the orgasm clawing its way out of her body.
“Now, oh, now,” she screamed locking her ankles around him and pulling him even tighter to her.
His body tightened, he threw his head back, and with a lupine roar shoved hard one last time and took them both over the edge. It was a wild ride, and Dakota could only hang on for dear life as her body shook and shuddered with the force of their combined release. Everything faded but the strength of their joining, his cock swelled inside her pulsing into the latex.
“I need to shower,” Dakota said when she could speak again. Her breathing was still ragged and her heart pounding with such fierceness she expected it to break through her ribs. She hoped she’d be able to move off the bed, never mind get to the shower.