“Jesse!” She all but shouted his name. “Jesse, please. Just listen to me. Five minutes. That’s all I ask.”
“Five minutes, huh? All right. But it better be some doozey of an explanation.” He leaned against the wall, refusing to come near her.
Alexa drew in a breath, wincing slightly. “I’m going to tell you something you’ll find very hard to believe, but I want you to listen carefully. Jesse, have you ever heard of shape-shifters?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“People who are part wolf, part human. Who can shift from one shape to another.”
“Are you nuts?” His eyes narrowed. “I mean it, Alexa. What kind of drugs are you taking?”
“Give me five minutes to explain to you. Then if you want me to leave, I will.”
Plucking nervously at the blanket, eyes focused on her hands, voice not quite steady, Alexa told him her story and the truth about her nature. About her flight to Florida and why. Falling in love with him. Changing into her wolf form to protect him. About the wolves at the abandoned orange grove who came to help her. When she finished, she lay back on the cushions, pale and exhausted.
Jesse stared at her. “That’s the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever heard. You’re shitting me, right? You’re making this up?”
She shook her head. “I wish. You know, there are hundreds of cases where shifters and humans have…mated successfully.” She tried to keep the note of hope from her voice.
“How is that even possible?”
“You know how it’s possible.” The words came out in an angry flood. “We’ve had enough sex to show you how possible it is.”
“Have you ever…I mean, did you ever…?”
“Have another relationship?” She closed her eyes briefly. “Yes. It ended in disaster. That’s all you need to know.”
“You’re lying. About everything.”
“Why would I do that? This isn’t easy for me to tell you.”
“Okay, if that’s true, show me.”
“What?”
“Show me how you…change, or whatever it is you do.”
“Jessie, I’m wounded. I don’t know if—”
“Damn it.” His eyes were wild. “Show me.”
Alexa gritted her teeth against the pain, focused, and forced her body to shift. Then she rolled off the couch, padded over to Jesse, and licked his hand.
He jerked it back as if she’d stabbed him. “Jesus Christ.”
Alexa padded back to the couch, took a deep breath, and forced herself back to human form. Then she lay back on the couch, totally drained.
“Look.” She pointed to her side where the wound was looking even better. “Shifters heal very quickly. Although I really, really want to thank you for taking care of me last night. Most people would have left me where I was.”
“I didn’t know that you….” Jesse stopped.
“That I was what I am?”
But Jesse stood rooted to the floor, unable to say another word or move his feet.
“Please say something,” she begged. “Anything. I love you.”
He stood for a long time, staring at her, then turned toward the door.
“Jesse?”
“What?” He refused to turn back to look at her.
“Where are you going? This is your house. You don’t have to leave.”
His shoulders tightened. “Go home whenever you’re ready. I can’t stay here right now.” He moved into the hallway, the door slammed, and he was gone. In seconds, she heard the engine of his car crank and tires screech on the driveway.
Alexa leaned against the couch pillows and let the river of tears she’d been holding back break loose. She cried until her throat was raw and her eyes burned. At last, there were no tears left and the gulping sobs subsided. She dragged herself off the couch, wrapped the blanket tightly around her, and stumbled home.
The pain in her heart was far greater than the one in her side.
Chapter Ten
A week passed, and Alexa had ventured out of the house only twice. She’d made a necessary trip to the grocery store and a visit to the orange grove to let Derek know what she’d worked out for them. Otherwise, she was a recluse. She listened for Jesse’s car when he left for work and the sound of the door slamming when he returned. Some nights, he didn’t come home at all. She restrained herself from looking out the window. Seeing him, even from a distance, would be way too painful.
For the first three days, she waited optimistically for him to appear at the door, to call, anything. Then she realized he was probably still in shock and the reaction would come later. His absence said it all.
Her wound healed quickly. That was a blessed side effect of being a shifter. The body repaired itself fast. But there was no cure for a broken heart.
It’s my own damn fault. I should have known better. I was stupid to put myself out there, thinking somehow this could work.
By the end of the week, she’d decided the best thing for her was to move on, find somewhere else. Start over. Only this time, she’d guard her emotions much more carefully.
Yeah. That’s what I said last time.
She found a real estate agent in the yellow pages, and, two days later, the For Sale sign went up in front of the house.
You’re safe now, Jesse. I’ll be gone before you know it.
Sleep was a rare commodity for her. Whenever she closed her eyes, she’d see Jesse’s face. Feel his hands and body. And wake up wanting what she couldn’t have. So, she stayed awake until, exhausted, she’d fall into bed for a dreamless hour or two.
Tonight, she’d started packing up her things. She had no idea yet where she was going. If necessary, she could rent a storage locker until she found a new location. Far away from here, that was for sure.
About three o’clock in the morning, her eyelids finally began to droop. She stripped off her clothes and fell into bed for what passed for sleep these days.
But this time she was dreaming.
In her dream, Jesse was beside her, holding her in his arms. Kissing her, his mouth moving over her face, her jawline, her breasts. His hands were on her everywhere, touching and caressing her. Arousing her.
“Jesse,” she cried out, tears running down her cheeks even in her sleep.
“Ssh.”
She swore she heard his voice. Then gentle thumbs wiped away the moisture on her face and soft lips covered hers.
Her eyes flew open, and there he was in the flesh.
Jesse.
Hovering over her, his dark eyes molten with desire.
“Oh, God, are you real?”
“You tell me.” He took one of her hands and moved it down past his belly to his swollen cock, wrapping her fingers around it.
“I can’t believe you’re here. Why are you here?”
“Later.” He captured a nipple in his mouth and swirled his tongue around it. “First things first.”
He took her mouth then, his lips moving over hers with rough intensity. His tongue pressed inside to sweep the lining of her cheeks and taste the roof of her mouth. Threading his fingers through hers, he stretched her hands over her head. His body covered hers as he ravaged her mouth, drinking from her, savoring her taste.
“Oh, God.” He shifted suddenly. “I forgot. Your side.”
“All better,” she smiled, turning her body to show him. “I told you I heal fast. Jesse….”
“Later,” he repeated.
He went back to kissing her, pressing his lips to the hollow at her throat where her pulse beat heavily, then down to the slope of her breasts. He nipped, he licked, he nibbled, pulling on her nipples until they were red and swollen and throbbing with need.
Slowly and carefully, he moved his mouth over the flatness of her belly. He paused only to dip his tongue into her navel before moving to the trimmed curls at her mound.
“I want to see that beautiful cunt.” His voice was hoarse and thick. “God, I’ve dreamed about it every night.”
He pressed her legs wide apart with his broad shoulders. With his thumbs, he opened her labia until her entire pussy was exposed to him.
“Play with your nipples for me, Alexa. Pinch them, the way you like me to do.”
Overtaken by the fog of lust rolling through her, she did as he asked. Tiny jolts of lightning sparked through her body from the hard buds. She lay there in an agony of expectation while he simply stared at her open sex. His thumbs massaged her outer lips, her juices gathering and running from her opening.
“Please,” she begged.
“Please what, darlin’?”
“Please let me feel you inside me.”
“What do you want, Alexa? My fingers? My tongue? My cock?”
“Yes, yes, yes.” She tried to thrust herself at him. “All of them.”
One finger moved lazily to flick at the tip of her clit, and she arched up at him.
“Shall I suck your clit, darlin’? Take that hard little nub into my mouth and pull on it until that touch alone makes you come?”
“Oh, yes. Please.”
He bent to his task, grazing the hard bud with his teeth, swirling his tongue around it, sucking at it, all the while keeping her pussy wide open.
She felt the familiar flutters starting in her vaginal walls. With her body, she tried to urge him to finger fuck her, but he was having none of it. Tonight, he was calling the shots. Period.
When the flutters increased in intensity, she begged him to put his cock inside her. He only chuckled and backed off, leaving her in a high state of arousal.
He drew in a breath. “God, that cunt is so beautiful. I have to touch it.”
He slid one lean finger into her, moving it in and out, coating it with her juices. But when she tried to clamp down on it, he pulled it back.
“Nuh-uh, darlin’. Not yet.”
He moved the finger, thick with her fluids, down until he found the tight ring of her anus and pressed gently against it. Alexa pushed against the intrusion, helping him. When his finger slipped all the way in, he bent his head and captured her clit again. He nibbled at it and teased it with his tongue.
“Oh, God,” she cried. “Please, Jesse. I can’t stand it.”
“Pinch your nipples again, darlin’. Let’s make this really good.”
She took her nipples between thumb and forefinger, eyes closed, reaching for that elusive peak he refused to let her reach. His finger moved from her ass. Then his hands separated her buttocks, and the finger was replaced by his cock, already wearing a condom. He had lubricated her so well that one thrust was all it took, and he was inside her.
“Oh, Jesus,” he breathed and began to pump his hips.
His big hands held her in place, and his thumbs dragged over her clit. He increased his rhythm, and shock waves built up in the core of her body. Harder and faster, he drove her, his thumbs working her clit. She opened her eyes to see the cords rigid in his neck and his jaw tight as he pumped into her.
“Now, darlin’. One more hard pinch on those nipples.”
She did and went off like a rocket. She felt the pulse of Jesse’s swollen shaft inside her ass. The walls of her cunt were racked with spasms. On and on it went, until she was sure her body would turn inside out. At some point, the spasms became shudders and the shudders aftershocks.
Jesse collapsed on her, his flesh pressing against hers. His heart thudded against her ribs in time with her own.
When his breathing approached something like normal, he pulled out of her and went to the bathroom to clean himself off. He brought back a warm washcloth and bathed Alexa’s pussy and ass, following his hand with a trail of kisses. Then he dropped the washcloth on the floor and slid into bed beside her, pulling her close to him.
She nuzzled against the hard wall of his chest, thinking if this was a dream, she didn’t want it ever to stop. But his warm hand stroking her arm and her back felt real enough. So had the earth-shattering orgasm that had claimed her body only moments before.
“Are we going to talk?” she asked, unable to wait any longer.
“Yes, darlin’. We’ll talk.” Jesse tucked her head under his chin and kept up the soothing strokes his hand was making.
“I never expected to see you again,” Alexa told him.
“You have to admit the whole thing was beyond weird. Until I took care of you.”
“You certainly ran out of there fast enough,” she pointed out.
“But not,” he reminded her, “until I took care of you.”
“I know, I know. Okay. Go on.”
“I still don’t know how I even got my mind around it. Thank God we were busier than shit at work for three days, so I didn’t have to think about it. But when the initial shock wore off, I did some research on the Internet. About shifters.”
She tilted her head up to him. “Oh?”
“Yeah. Something inside me kept pushing me forward. I even went to the library and took out some books.” He kissed her forehead. “Interesting people, shifters. Very interesting.”
“And?” she prompted.
“I began to think about our relationship and how intense it was. About all we’d given to each other. And I mean more than the sex. And the more I read about shifters the more fascinated I became.”
“And?” she said again.
“While I was sitting around like a dickhead trying to figure out if this was really something I could live with, two things happened. The For Sale sign went up in front of your house, and a guy named Derek came to see me.”
“Oh, my God. Derek? He did?”
“Uh-huh. We had quite a little talk. About how you got them to help us the night of the gang fight. About their lifestyle and what you’d done to help get them a place again. About how most shifters live in human form most of the time. All that good stuff.”
“Didn’t you freak?”
He chuckled. “By that time, I was beyond freaking. He even talked about the children of humans and shifters and how to raise them. I did a lot of thinking after he left, mostly about how much I love you regardless of anything else. That was the one thing I couldn’t get away from.”
“Oh, Jesse.” She pressed herself tightly against him.
“And, of course, Derek gave me the clincher.”
Alexa looked up at him. “He did? What was that?”
“He told me white wolves mate for life.”
She smiled. “That’s true. Oh, Jesse, I was so scared. I was sure you’d never want to come near me again.”