Authors: Gigi Moore
Sam groaned and collapsed back onto his side, panting.
“C’mon, baby, you can do this. Don’t give up.”
He whined and Desiree knew now that it was more out of exasperation than pain and that he wouldn’t give up until he’d completely changed. Just to give him a little incentive and to get her feelings out there, Desiree said, “I love you and I need you, baby. So come back to me. Please.”
Sam stood up on his shaky legs and started the process again, his entire body shuddering with his labors. This time the undulating muscles were accompanied by the sound of bones popping out of and back into place.
God, the process was agonizing to witness and something Desiree could only imagine took much less blood, sweat, and tears to accomplish when the shifter was healthy.
Sam collapsed back onto his side again, but not in defeat this time.
Desiree watched as the fur receded from his body, gradually replaced with clammy, smooth, lightly-tanned skin. His muzzle retracted and facial muscles rearranged as his four legs turned into two arms and two legs before her eyes.
She clamped a hand over her mouth, tears suddenly streaming down her cheeks at the finished product, Sam finally, fully human and lying supine beside her on the bed. “Oh my God, it really is you!” Desiree flung her arm around his neck and held tight. It took her several seconds to realize that he trembled still. She drew back to look at the cold sweat covering his body. She quickly grabbed one of the towels from the bedside table and patted his face and torso dry before pulling the comforter at the foot of the bed up to cover his chest.
“Th–th–thanks.”
“My poor baby.”
“I thought I was a lazy wimp.”
Desiree grinned. “That, too.”
“Say it again, Desiree.”
She didn’t hesitate or play coy. “I love you,” she whispered before leaning in to gently kiss his lips. She felt him smile against her mouth as his arms came up to embrace her.
When he pulled back she stared at his much-welcomed grin and couldn’t help but return it.
Sam pushed a stray strand of hair away from her face, neatly tucking it behind her ear, and Desiree’s heart sped at the familiarity of the act, at how the simple deed made her heart beat so wildly. “I love you, too,
bebe
. I always have.”
“Well, I must say, this is a sight for sore eyes!”
Desiree turned her head toward the door where Helena stood watching them, eyes shimmering with tears.
Desiree plumped a pillow up behind Sam and he sat up, leaning back against the headboard as he let the comforter fall to his waist.
For the first time since he had shifted, she noticed how much weight he had lost, and it was not an insignificant amount. She resolved to fatten him up with some of her home cooking. That is, if Helena proved amenable.
“Had I known you were going to leave me with Nurse Ratched I would have come back much sooner.”
Desiree gasped and punched him in his arm. “Take that back, you ungrateful wolf!”
Sam laughed and circled both arms around her waist, drawing her close. “Okay, okay. You know I only meant that with the deepest of affection.”
“Better had.” She pouted and let him kiss her in front of his mother, only mildly embarrassed. Six months ago, she wouldn’t have dreamed of this moment, but now she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else and with anyone else, besides Carson, of course.
Desiree heard Helena clear her throat just as Sam coaxed open her mouth and dipped his tongue inside to better taste her. She drew away a little, face hot and expecting to see disapproval as she glanced at Helena standing on the threshold.
Helena looked at them with a pleased smile and said, “Well, since you two already have a room, I’m going to make myself scarce and go rustle up some dinner.” She turned to leave then paused and glanced at Desiree over her shoulder. “Thanks for bringing him back to us.”
Speechless, Desiree watched Helena leave and wondered if she knew, really knew, what was going on between Desiree and her sons. She couldn’t imagine what her own mother’s reaction would be once she found out and didn’t even want to face the possibility that Helena might think she was some kind of slut, not good enough for her boys.
“Stop,” Sam murmured.
“Stop what?”
“Stop seeing roadblocks where there are none.”
“Do you think your mother knows? About all of us, I mean?”
“I know she does.”
“And you don’t think she disapproves?”
“Did it look like she disapproved?”
“Well, no, not really,” Desiree admitted.
“That’s because she doesn’t.” Sam drew her closer. “
Bebe
, we’re shifters. And the quicker you get used to that, the better. Things that faze full humans or aren’t acceptable in the full-human world are perfectly natural for us.”
Desiree grinned and slid a hand down Sam’s body under the covers until she found what she searched for. “Things like nudity?” She cupped his springy balls then stroked his burgeoning cock. He may have been weak from his injuries and just this side of emaciated, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with his libido.
“Yeah, that’s one thing.” Sam moaned when she wrapped her fingers around his shaft and squeezed. He flipped her onto her back and planted a knee between her denim-clad thighs. Catching her wrists, he drew her arms up over her head, holding her captive with his body as he stared down at her with those golden-honey eyes and instantly made her hot and wet.
“Starting the party without me again?”
Chapter 18
“We wouldn’t dream of it.” Sam glanced at Carson over his shoulder and patted the bed beside Desiree. “There’s plenty of room for you.”
Carson closed and locked the door behind him before crossing the room. A heavy feeling of déjà vu permeated his senses.
He stood at Sam’s bedside, taking a moment to gather himself while he admired the sight of Sam and Desiree entangled together under the bedcovers. Sam’s muscled back shimmered with perspiration beneath the overhead lights of the room. Desiree lay beneath him, lush breasts straining the buttons of her Western shirt as she panted, face flushed from arousal.
He stared at her, searching for some signs of disgust or other form of distress, but saw nothing like either of those.
Carson knew she must have witnessed Sam’s change. She hadn’t left his bedside since they’d carried him upstairs from the living room a day and a half ago.
Was she okay with this, with them being…not exactly human?
As if in answer to his silent question, Desiree reached a hand out to him. “I’m okay with this. All of it,” she whispered.
Carson didn’t think he could love her any more than he did in that moment.
Sam slid off of Desiree to make room for Carson.
Carson grinned and put his hand in Desiree’s as he put a knee on the bed. He leaned in to kiss her lips, losing himself in the fullness of her mouth, the sweet taste of her when he plunged his tongue deep to meet hers.
When he finally, reluctantly, pulled away, he cupped Desiree’s face with both hands. He searched her gaze for the love she’d expressed back in the forest and saw it shining out of her whiskey eyes, plain as day for anyone to see.
“I love you,
cher.
”
She smiled, took one of his hands from her face, and brought it to her mouth. She kissed his palm before nuzzling it with her cheek. “I was so afraid back at the forest, so afraid I’d lose you both.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t say ‘I love you’ then because I was afraid, Carson. I said it because I meant it.”
“I know.”
She pulled back to smile at him. “Oh you do, do you?”
“Your eyes tell it all.” He drew her close for another kiss and pulled away to stare at her again. It was too late to play the aloof alpha now, and he didn’t want to. It felt too good saying the words out loud, so he said them again. “I love you.”
“I love you,” she murmured.
Sam moved toward the edge of the bed.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Desiree asked.
“I’ve got a head start on both of you.” He glanced at her and Carson, both still fully clothed. “Why don’t you two work on catching up?”
“I’ve got a better idea.” Carson took his knee off the bed and stood up to unbuckle his gun belt and place it across the back of the room’s rocker.
Both Sam and Desiree arched a brow and waited as Carson smiled.
He liked the game, liked taking control this way. “I need to freshen up after a day out on the range.” Carson paused again for effect, unbuttoning his shirt as he crossed the carpeted floor to Sam’s full bathroom. He glanced at them over his shoulder. “Why don’t you two join me?”
He caught their smiles and a flash of pleasure as Desiree leaped across the bed and reached for the top drawer of the bedside table.
When Carson and Sam looked at her, she released a sheepish laugh. “Maia dropped some stuff off she thought I’d need once Sam…” She shrugged and pulled out a tube of lubricant and condoms. “You know how she likes to make sure I’m prepared for all contingencies.”
Maia was a lot like Sam, which was probably why Carson liked her so much. He liked the way her mind worked, too, and thought he owed her and Sam more than Desiree would ever know. Without the two younger siblings’ pushy meddling, he doubted that he would have reached out and grabbed what was plainly staring him in the face. Without Maia’s and Sam’s goading, he doubted he ever would have given himself and Sam their chance with Desiree.
Carson wished he had been a fly on the wall when Maia dropped the stuff off, could only imagine the flush of embarrassment that had flooded Desiree’s cheeks at her younger sister’s boldness.
Although there didn’t seem to be any trace of shyness about Desiree now. She looked eager and ready to get this show on the road.
“I was wondering…” she began as Carson started to turn. He paused on the threshold and looked at her, as did Sam. “Do we really need the condoms? I mean, I’m clean and…”
“We are, too.” Carson spoke for himself and Sam, confident in his assertion as neither of them had been with anyone since before they’d arrived at The Double R a year ago now. They’d both tested negative a year before that.
Desiree lowered her head, averting her eyes to stare at the carpet as she murmured, “Before each of you I hadn’t been with anyone in a…very long time.” She lifted her eyes to meet Carson’s and Sam’s in turn. She took a deep breath. “I hadn’t wanted to be.”
Sam put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “You can tell us if you want.”
“I know.”
Carson and Sam waited several moments, and when Desiree didn’t say anything to fill the silence, Carson crossed the room to stand on the opposite side of the bed as Sam. He sat down beside Desiree, sandwiching her between him and his brother. He put a finger under her chin to lift her head. His breath hitched in his chest at the sight of tears shining on the surface of her whiskey eyes, the moisture giving her eyes a hypnotic, eerie appearance. They looked more irresistible than usual.
“Tell us,
cher.
”
“You don’t want to hear my tale of woe.”
“Don’t make light of what he did to you,” Sam said.
Carson heard the barely suppressed rage in his voice and knew had the offending male been there in front of them, Sam would have ripped him limb from limb, as Carson would have.