Ready to Bear (16 page)

Thea’s voice joined his this time, and then he fell onto her and twisted his body so that he could embrace her tightly against him as she lay on top of him.

Her hair fell into his face, and as his lips found hers, it was more tentative than before. He pulled back and pushed the hair up so that he could see her face. Her expression was serene and satisfied. It warmed him to see her like this.

“Wow,” she said. Then she leaned up and nipped his chin. “I’m not sure what else to say.”

He enjoyed the feel of her skin against his, and as she nuzzled into his neck, he felt the muscles of her body relax. He couldn’t keep the low, satisfied growl from emerging from a place deep within his chest.

Thea looked up at him in surprise. “Is that your bear?”

Billy shrugged. “He’s happy, just like I am.”

Thea smiled, but Billy sensed there were more questions in her mind. “I’m happy, too.”

Billy stroked her cheek and then her face pressed against his chest again. He thought she might have been listening to his heartbeat. He wasn’t sure. He didn’t intend to close his eyes and sleep. He wanted to make the most use of the short time they had together. But his limbs felt heavy and satiated and before he knew it, he was fast asleep.

Thea dozed on Billy’s chest for a short time, but there were thoughts in her head that demanded answers. She just wasn’t sure when and where she was going to get them. She heard the change in Billy’s breathing that indicated he had fallen asleep. She didn’t blame him, and she was glad. He needed to rest. He would need all his strength if he did go through with the shifter match that night.

Thea slowly extricated herself from Billy’s limbs and got out of bed. She felt jittery and on edge. She decided to make herself a cup of tea and try to settle her thoughts. She didn’t want to wake Billy. She slipped her silk robe off the bedpost and settled it around her shoulders as she crept out of the room as quietly as she could.

She wondered if it had to do with the fact that she had just had a nooner, which she had only heard rumors of but had never experienced in real life. There wasn’t a thing she would have changed about what had just happened. Billy had been a thoughtful and exciting lover, and she would gladly take whatever he wanted to offer in that department.

Was that what had her head all in an uproar? The fact that she had gotten herself wound up and in…something…with a man she had just met the day before? She felt as if she had known Billy for years. It scarcely seemed possible that they had only known each other for a little more than twenty-four hours. The impact he’d made on her life already was monumental, and perhaps that was part of her rub.

Thea didn’t rush into things. She thought long and hard about all of the ways that different actions could cause various reactions. With Billy, she had chucked all of her common sense aside and gone with what felt good in the moment. That wasn’t like her at all. Not to mention that she hadn’t asked him to use anything in the heat of the moment. She was on the pill – she was far too much of a control freak to not be – but still, it hadn’t even crossed her mind at all with him.

Thea moved around the kitchen and made her cup of tea. She sat at the table next to the long window overlooking the city and thought about her life or lack thereof. She thought she had known what she was doing and where she was going, but Billy Miller seemed to have blown all of that to hell.

She stared at the tall skyscrapers. What did she want? She felt fairly confident that she still wanted the business. She still wanted to make wines that would make people stop and savor long pours over romantic conversations with their partner. She hadn’t thought of herself as lonely before, but with Billy’s arrival she realized that there had been a huge, aching void inside of her that yearned for someone else to share her life with.

It was a sobering realization. After watching her mother approach relationships like business deals, she never wanted to open herself up to the vulnerability that could come from putting herself out there and being used for her family connection. That was why every relationship she had was kept at a surface level and had only lasted for a short period of time. Thea thought that she was immune to the desires of the heart.

Now, as she thought about the fact that Billy was going to be fighting for his life that evening, she felt a sense of panic. She had just found him. He had opened her eyes to something that she not only wanted in her life but craved. What if she lost him? What would she do then?

“Hey, you look like you’re having some deep thoughts there.” She felt his strong hands on her shoulders, and they began to knead the tight knots between her shoulder blades. She reached up and touched one of his hands and pressed her cheek against it. There was something deliciously warm and inviting about him that drew her to him like a moth to a flame. She didn’t know how she could resist him.

She felt his lips brush against the top of her head, and then he moved so that he sat down at the table across from her. He had put his pants back on, but his muscular chest was on full display. She felt the wild pulse in her body that made her want to sit in his lap and stroke that curly hair that nestled there.

“I like what I’m seeing in your eyes,” he said with a small smirk.

She blushed and stood. “Let me get you some tea.”

He caught her arm as she moved around him and pulled her down into his lap. His lips found hers, and she gasped as his hand quickly undid the tie of her thin silk robe. His hand slid inside and found her nipple.

“I’m a little hungry for something else,” he said against her lips.

She wanted to insist that he stop. They needed to talk. There were so many things that had still had been left unsaid, but then his hand roamed down across her stomach and between her legs.

She stiffened against him even as she grabbed onto his shoulders. He was like a musician with his fingers. They teased her skin and then he they were inside of her, and she gasped. His hand began to move, and her spiteful, betrayer of a body immediately responded. He nuzzled the crook of her neck as his fingers began tickled a path from her tight nub down to delve deep inside her folds.

She couldn’t stop her small gasps and moans of pleasure as Billy’s fingers brought new sensations of pleasure that she didn’t want to stop. She felt his slight nudge to open her legs wider, and she did it without hesitation. Her fingers dug into the skin of his shoulders, and she heard his low, throaty growl that told her he was as excited as she was.

She tried to turn in his lap to straddle him, but his arm around her back kept her firmly in place. “Fly for me, Thea. Show me how much you want it. I want to hear you.”

Thea had never had a man take such possession of her mind and her body before, and the effect was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. She let her body relax because she wanted to please him. She wanted him to know how much everything he did affected her.

She let her legs fall open a bit wider, and when he added more fingers to his quest as he thrust inside of her, her head fell backward. His lips were on her throat kissing and licking and between that and the sensations between her legs, he was driving her mad.

She felt the heat building and burning inside of her, and as Billy flicked her swollen nub once more, she felt herself hit the breaking point. She let out a loud moan that gained momentum to a scream of wild pleasure as his fingers slammed back into her to push her over the edge.

As she slowly came back to reality, Billy’s lips rained small kisses over her neck, collarbone, and face. He slowly redid the tie on her robe somehow masterfully with one hand, and then he cradled her against his warm chest. She leaned into him and kissed the corner of his mouth, and then he turned so that he was able to meet her lips fully.

These kisses were different. They were tender and full of promises that went far beyond simple lust or desire for the needs of the flesh. Billy was speaking to her in an entirely different language it seemed, and she was completely in tune with him.

The moment was broken when Thea’s stomach growled loudly into the quiet air. She felt mortified but saw Billy’s grin.

“I am a horrible man. I didn’t even feed you before I had my way with you,” he said with a wink.

Thea maneuvered off his lap and clutched her stomach. “I haven’t thought about food all day.”

“Well, we both need our strength,” Billy said. “I’m assuming you have some grub around here?”

“I’ll make something,” Thea said.

“I can help,” Billy said.

Thea couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as she and Billy moved around each other to make sandwiches. Every time she moved past him, he touched her arm or shoulder or hip. It was almost as if he was making sure that she was real. She understood how he felt completely. Everything had happened so fast that it seemed surreal.

Billy kept up some harmless banter about being able to make his own meals since he had been a bachelor for so long. Thea couldn’t imagine why that had been the case. He was witty, warm, and strong. There were so many qualities about him that made him appear to be the perfect catch that she couldn’t understand why he was still single, and she said as much.

“I just haven’t found the right woman yet,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes. The way he looked at her made her wonder if he might be thinking that he had now. The idea should have caused her to run the other way. Getting involved with a man who was not only a shifter but lived a thousand miles away seemed like the epitome of a bad idea.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Billy said. They sat across the table from each other again with plates in front of them. The banter had lapsed into a relatively easy silence. Thea was entirely comfortable in Billy’s presence no matter what they were doing. That was new for her, too.

“I was just wondering when you were going to have to go home. Assuming everything goes okay tonight,” she said. She didn’t want to focus on what was going to happen that evening. It made her more than a little anxious, and she also didn’t want to cause Billy any further undue anxiety because he was worried about her.

Billy looked down at his plate. She had meant it to be a lighthearted question, but she realized her error too late. Talking about the future was perhaps premature, because even though it had been meant to be a neutral question, it had ramifications for whatever this was between them. She wasn’t even sure he had thought about anything past that evening anyway.

“My trip was indefinite,” Billy said. “I was supposed to come here and find Joshua. Report back and then we’d go from there. Lukas really wanted to be the one who confronted Joshua and take him down, but for obvious reasons, that’s not going to be the way it works unless he beats me tonight.”

“Well, you’re welcome to stay here as long as you’re in the city,” Thea said. The words tumbled out of her mouth before she even had a chance to fully think about his reaction. The truth of the matter was that she wanted to be as close to Billy as possible, for as long as possible. She didn’t care what Eric thought, and she’d figure out a way to explain it to Alex. It wasn’t as if she made a habit out of it.

Billy looked up at her then. He reached across the table and took her hand. As his fingers interlaced with hers, she felt some of her anxiety begin to diminish. He had that effect on her, no doubt.

“I appreciate that, Thea. And I don’t want you think that I don’t want to talk about the future with you. There are a lot of things that I’m thinking and feeling about all of that, but I don’t want to scare you.”

“You won’t scare me,” Thea said, but then she wondered if that was true. As much as she felt like she knew Billy’s person, who he was, she knew startling little about his past and what had made him into the man he was now. Those were important things to talk about. There was also the fact that she knew very little about his world. She didn’t know what kind of life he led in Greyelf. She didn’t know if he wanted to find room in it for her, however it could be sorted.

“I’m scaring myself a little, so I don’t know how it wouldn’t scare you,” Billy said. “Plus, I am not the kind of guy that makes promises he can’t keep. So as much as I want to do things differently, I think we should keep any talk about what happens next between you and me until after the fight, okay?”

Thea felt a flare of disappointment. She wanted to hear how Billy felt about her and about what had just happened, but she had to admit that what he said made sense. “Of course,” she said. “You’re right. I’m getting a little ahead of myself. We should just enjoy this, right now.”

She smiled in a way that she hoped signaled that she was fine, but she felt Billy’s fingers grip hers harder. “Thea,” he said, catching her eyes again. “This isn’t the end. Know that. Let me get through this fight tonight, and then we can talk about things clearly without that hanging over our heads. This is very much just the beginning, okay?”

It wasn’t exactly what she wanted to hear, but it was enough. She nodded. Then she shot a glance at the clock over the microwave across the room. She winced. “Alex is going to be home soon. I should get cleaned up.”

“Go ahead,” Billy said. “Do you mind if I use your phone in the meantime? I need to make a few calls.”

“Sure,” Thea said. She pointed to a doorway behind him. “The office is in there.” She got up and put her dishes in the sink. There was a part of her that had hoped he would suggest they get cleaned up together, but she knew that was irrational. She should be thankful that at least one of them was operating with a clear head.

Thea took a quick shower and stood in her closet for what seemed like an eternity. She heard the door open and glanced out to see Billy gather up his shirt from the floor and make his way into the bathroom. She had a surprise waiting for him in the room that she was sure he’d appreciate.

Finally, she settled on a pair of dark skinny jeans and a cranberry fitted tank top. She paired it with a black leather jacket, and as she looked in the mirror, she decided it was fitting for a shifter match. She had only been to one fight at Urban Dwellers before, and that had been right after the club had started holding them.

She shuddered as she remembered the violence and the blood. It wasn’t as if she had a squeamish stomach, but she wasn’t sure that it even ranked as what she considered a sport. It had seemed like nothing but unnecessary violence in her book.

As she emerged from the closet, she heard the sound of the elevator doors and knew that Alex was home. She wanted to talk to him before he had a chance to see Billy and connect the dots on what they had been doing all afternoon.