Wild (46 page)

“The moon and other things, I would say,” Kira told her. “Come on. There's a bathroom just down this way. I'm sure I have something you can put on, so I'll just go in my room and find it. There are fresh towels and cloths in the bathroom. When you're done come right across the hall, in here,” she said, pointing toward another closed door. “That's where I'll put the clothes for you.”

Caroline nodded. “Thank you so much. I don't mean to impose. I just wanted to know what was going on with the animals.”

Kira smiled again. “We all want to know that, Caroline. And don't worry, you're not imposing at all. It's nice to have another female in here with all the testosterone floating around.”

She laughed then, and Caroline had followed suit. It was an easy laughter, the kind between sisters, she thought. But Caroline had never had a sister. The last thing Max was going to do, especially in her profession, was have another child.

Caroline went into the bathroom, closed the door behind her, and leaned back against it. She let out a breath. “What are you doing here?” she asked herself. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Her fingers were steady as she undid the buttons of her blouse, stepped out of her shoes, and removed her skirt, stockings, and underwear. When she stepped into the shower beneath the hot spray of water she'd shivered because she hadn't found an answer to her question.

She shouldn't have come. There was no reason why she couldn't have simply called Malec to come into the clinic, the same way she had before. She'd known they would both be here and that the temptation would be great. Irresistible.

“Dammit.” She sighed, turning her back so that the warm water cascaded down her back and buttocks.

Caroline closed her eyes this time, leaning until her forehead touched the cool tiles. The scene that flashed before her was as fresh and clear as it had been when she was fourteen years old.

Her stomach had been hurting since the night before when she'd eaten a bowl of cereal for dinner because Max hadn't been home and hadn't gone to the grocery store so that was the only thing left in the house to eat. Caroline hadn't considered that the milk that was left in the refrigerator may have been bad, but she'd certainly felt the remnants of that mistake throughout the night as she ran back and forth to the bathroom. In the morning she'd thought she was better and attempted to go to school, but that had only lasted a couple of hours before she'd had to break down and go to the nurse.

It was almost one o'clock by the time she'd put her key in the door of the two-bedroom apartment where she and Max lived. There was no electrical power in the apartment at the moment because Max hadn't gotten around to paying that bill yet either, but at least she'd paid the rent so that on a cold winter's afternoon Caroline could at least come in and lie in her bed, piling up the thick blankets she'd collected over the years to keep her warm. Only today, there was someone else on that bed.

She'd heard the noises the moment she came in, the groaning and moaning of a couple enjoying sex. Caroline had heard it before—that's how she so easily recognized it. Max didn't have a pimp, didn't need anybody taking her money, she'd told Caroline, so whenever she didn't do her job in the backseat of some guy's car or in some alleyway, she brought her customers home. Max had put a lock on Caroline's door for just that reason.

So the sounds weren't new, but Caroline just figured they were in her mother's room and it would be over soon. She always told herself that. Only today, they were in Caroline's room. On her bed. The bed she'd been thinking about collapsing in for the last few hours.

And worse, it wasn't a couple. And it wasn't her mother.

This female was rail thin, her bony back arching, flat chest bared as one guy stood behind her, pounding his thick length into her, and the other guy stood in front of her doing the same, but leaning forward to lick her puckered nipples as well. Caroline had been frozen in that spot, transfixed by what she was seeing.

The lady was so skinny that the guy in front had been able to pick her up without any effort at all. He held her legs up close at his sides, while the other guy stood behind her holding her ass cheeks open wide. Both men were pumping their big cocks into her while she kissed one and wrapped her arm back around the neck of the other. Then she would scream, her face contorted in the strangest type of pleasure, and Caroline had stood right there, watching until they were finished.

She'd watched a lot after that. Staying up late at night when her mother would bring home her clients. That lady she'd seen with the two men before had even come back a few more times, but no more with two guys. Still, the things she'd done with the guys that were there … Caroline could never get those images out of her head.

Her body trembled now as she stood in the shower, her clit hard and needy, thighs shaking. She wanted to make herself come, right then and there. The release would be fantastic and then, maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to breathe normally around Malec and Channing. Maybe she'd be able to stand near them and not think of that cold winter's day when she watched two men take that woman and the euphoria that seemed to cover each of them when their release had come. Could that have actually been euphoria? Caroline had never seen that look on another couple's face after that, and so she'd always wondered if that sort of pleasure was unique to a threesome only. Now she wondered if Channing and Malec could make her feel that way. They'd stood in front and behind her the same way those guys had with that woman in her bedroom, and while none of them had been naked last night in that bar, Caroline had to admit that it had felt almost as if they were. The heat had been so intense as they blocked her in, as if their plan had always been to trap her and the desire between them. And earlier, down in their living room, Caroline had felt that same potent desire swirling around the three of them, as if this was the combination that was destined to be.

Caroline took a deep breath and began to wash. She did not stroke herself until she found relief. Instead, she reminded herself for the billionth time that she'd come to find out about the animals, and that was what she planned to do.

Clothes were waiting for her on the queen-sized bed in the room, and she quickly put them on while Kira sat in a high-backed chair near the window.

“I can't believe it fits,” Caroline said after pulling the purple tunic down over her heavy breasts. The leggings she'd known would stretch, but she'd been certain she was more top heavy than Kira and had wondered about the shirt.

“There's a great plus-size designer online. Channing turned me on to him, and I've been ordering my clothes from his website since then. I read that he's going to open a shop in LA later this year. I'm already trying to convince Blaez that we should take a trip,” Kira said.

“Do you take trips often?” Caroline asked out of curiosity. If no one in town knew that a woman was living with these men, she deduced that could only be because Kira hadn't ventured into town yet herself.

“No,” Kira replied, shaking her head. “We don't.”

“Why? Do you like staying confined to this house?”

Kira rubbed a finger over her chin before replying, “We do what's necessary.”

“Do any of you work? I mean, how can you afford a house like this and cars like that one Malec drives? Plus he has that great SUV with those expensive rims. What do you do to make money?” Caroline asked.

She knew all about women who had other occupations outside a nine-to-five—namely, the business that Max had been in. But she doubted very seriously that Blaez was allowing Kira to do anything along those lines. He'd seemed way too protective of her by the way he'd stood in front of her, keeping her close and almost out of sight.

Again, Kira seemed to contemplate. Trying to figure out how much to tell her, Caroline surmised. Then Caroline wondered if maybe she'd been too blunt. She had a habit of saying whatever came to her mind sometimes.

“They used to be military, and they saved well from the missions they completed,” she told Caroline. “And Malec, he's a whiz with investments. You should talk to him sometime about setting you up with something. You'll have a wonderful retirement fund without putting up too much capital.”

“Malec is an investment broker?” Caroline would never have figured that.

“Not exactly,” Kira said with a chuckle. She leaned an elbow on the arm of the chair and rested her head against her hand. “Malec just has a talent for it. He's invested money for all of us, and he's good at it. He's good at a lot of things.”

Caroline wasn't sure, but she thought Kira might be talking about sex. She shook her head, coming to a stand and going to the mirror. Fingering through her hair, attempting to fluff the waning curls she had left, she dismissed that thought totally. There was no way this woman had sex with Malec. And what the hell was that twitch of irritation that came with the thought?

“I'll just bet he is,” Caroline said aloud by mistake. She clamped her lips shut, and Kira giggled.

Through the mirror reflection she could see the other woman shaking her head.

“You don't have to try to play it off. I knew you were attracted to him the moment I walked into the room,” Kira said. “Him and Channing.”

Caroline whirled around so fast she almost tripped over her own feet, an act that would have definitely landed her flat on her face.

“What?” she asked, managing to right herself before taking what would have been an embarrassing tumble.

“Girl, don't even try to deny it,” Kira said, coming to a stand. “It's fine. You see, one of the good things about living all the way out here is that nobody knows what goes on behind these walls. And we're all, let's say, sexually liberated here.”

Caroline swallowed hard, blinking and then staring at Mrs. Kira Trekas, trying to make sense of what was going on. “Are you saying you all have sex with each other? Like an orgy or something?”

Kira's head tilted back, and she laughed, loud and long. So long Caroline took a step back, wondering if the woman was losing her mind just a little bit.

“I'm sorry,” Kira said between continued guffaws. A hand had gone to her stomach, the other wiping at the tears that formed at her eyes. “That's just so funny. Did you see my mate? The bald one with the look that would scare most every animal in those woods out there?”

Caroline gave a tentative smile. “I didn't mean to offend you,” she said, even though she wasn't so sure Kira Trekas was offended at all.

“Please, stop,” Kira said with a wave of her hand. “I'm not offended at all. But no, we do not all have sex together. Blaez is not into sharing, and neither am I. But,” she added, “Malec and Channing, well, that's what works for them.”

Caroline's pussy pulsated at those words, and she licked her lips. “How do you know if you don't participate?”

“Let's just say I know what I've seen. And I'm not bothered by it at all. You shouldn't be either,” she told her matter-of-factly.

“I'm not a prude,” Caroline added quickly, feeling as if she'd been saying that a lot lately.

“No”—Kira agreed with a nod of her head—“I don't think you are. But this is new to you. Believe me, I know what it's like to walk in here and be surrounded by all of them. The sexual tension can be overwhelming at first. The need that pulses through the air can be suffocating. But once you give in…” Her words trailed off as Caroline had already begun shaking her head.

“I won't give in,” she said quickly. “I can't.”

Kira only stared at her a second longer. “You sure about that?” she asked before touching Caroline on the shoulder and leaving her alone in the room.

The only thing Caroline was sure of at that moment was that she'd walked into a world of trouble the minute she stepped foot in the house. Now, the question was, how the hell did she plan to get out of it?

 

CHAPTER 7

After her conversation with Kira, Caroline had expected to return downstairs and continue the discussion of who was murdering those animals. Instead, she'd been offered a tour of the lodge and their extensive land. Channing and Kira accompanied her on the tour, providing more answers than she'd anticipated they would about the rebuilding of the house, including the huge garage with its ten vehicles and four motorcycles.

“Why do you all live out here together, instead of getting your own places in town?” she'd asked when they were walking through the grass, heading toward the back entrance of the house.

“We're a family,” Channing had replied immediately. “We stick together in our work and home living. It's not so odd. Centuries ago families lived together to save on costs, and in other cultures families still reside in the same home fostering the loyalty and emotional bonds that can never be broken by outside entities.”

They sounded like a colony or … a pride.

The idea had hit her suddenly, just as they'd taken the brick steps leading to the back porch that wrapped halfway around the structure. There was a railing here, wood planks painted a rustic red color, joined together by rock columns that stretched up to support the porch ceiling. A swing was at one end of the porch, while Adirondack chairs and rockers were aligned along the remaining length.

Caroline had paused at the door before going back into the house, wondering if they were … what were the odds …

She'd sighed with the question rolling in her mind. Was this a family of the feline Shadow Shifters she'd heard about on the news?

She hadn't had the guts to come right out and ask that question, not just yet. Caroline wanted more time to observe and see if she were thinking in the right direction. So when Kira asked her to help with dinner, she'd immediately agreed.