by Codi Gary
His words rushed through her like a soothing balm. Greer’s eyes filled with tears, and all the hurt and resentment melted into the snowy grown beneath her.
“But if you really need space, I’ll give it to you. I’ll give you whatever you want, Greer.”
When he started to climb off her, Greer lifted herself up and latched her arms around his neck.
“I want you, Xander Thorson.”
And before he could say anything, she pulled him down for a kiss.
24
Xander had no idea what had triggered the impromptu kiss, but after two weeks of misery, he was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Lowering his body so she didn’t have to stretch so far, he kissed her, unable to hold back or be gentle. His fingers curled under her, into the snowy ground. Without another thought, he lifted her up in his arms, carrying her back toward her house. Greer wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms locked around his neck and she continued to kiss him.
When her nails traced across his back, scratching his skin lightly, he stopped and pressed her against the side of the nearest pine tree. He reached between them, gripping his cock in his hand and rubbed the tip against the wet folds of her pussy.
Xander pulled away from the kiss, his gaze boring into hers. “I’m yours, Greer. And you are mine.”
His thumb found her swollen clit and he pressed it in a firm circle.
She threw back her head and yelled, “Yes! Fuck, yes.”
With a hard thrust, he seated himself inside her, the walls of her body hugging him, gripping him tightly. He pulled out and pushed in again, listening to the moans, the squeals, the delicious, breathless sighs with each motion.
He wanted more, still. He wanted to mark her as his.
“Greer. I want to bite you so fucking bad.”
She moaned loudly. “Are you asking or stating facts?”
He chuckled. “Both.”
Her gaze met his. “Mark me, Xander. Make me yours.”
Xander pulled out of her and before she could protest, he spun her around to face the tree. The slight downward hill made him just low enough that he could slide up inside her from behind. He placed his left hand on the trunk of the tree above her head for balance and his other came around to finger her clit as he pumped in and out of her. He held onto his control as he waited for the telltale signs that she was going to come.
At the first spasm of her inner muscles, he bit her, clasping his jaws around the back of her neck gently. She cried out, and he held on, increasing the pressure of his teeth as he worked his fingers faster against the nub between her leg. Her body shook against his, and just as he could tell she was starting to come down, he grabbed her hips and pushed himself as deep as he could inside her. His motions turned jerky as his cock flexed, his come shooting inside her as he continued to piston her. She cried out again before collapsing against the tree.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and felt her trembles.
“Are you alright, baby?” He smoothed her hair off to one shoulder, smiling at the indentation of his teeth in her skin. The sight of his mark on her body was primal and he relished in it. She was his mate. Now and forever.
“I’m amazing,” she breathed.
He turned her around to face him, his cock slipping out of her. He dipped his head and kissed her, a gentle brush of his lips over hers.
“Does this mean I can come home with you?”
She laughed and pulled out of his embrace, backing away from him. His gaze traveled over her full breasts, her curved stomach, and rounded hips.
His dick stirred, stiffening at her beauty.
“If you can beat me, I’ll consider it.”
She took off, shifting with a leap. Xander laughed at her cheek before changing. He gave her a few more seconds before he gave chase. When he caught up to her, he nipped at her hind end playfully and she growled.
Xander shot ahead of her, determined to win his prize.
He reached her back door first and turned in several circles excitedly. They shifted at the same time, and Xander crossed his arms over his chest, grinning like a fool.
“Beat you.”
Greer shook his head, human once more, and opened the back door. “I let you win.”
“I’ll take it,” he said.
Once the door was closed, Xander spun her around and kissed her, only she broke it too soon.
“Wow, Xand, is that all you think about?”
“Kissing you? Touching you? Loving you? Yeah, actually, that is all I’ve thought about since the moment I met you.”
She backed away from him, a sly smile on her face. “Well, right now, I want a nice, hot bath.”
Greer disappeared inside the bath room and he waited, listening as the sound of rushing water reached his ears. She poked her head out a second later and crooked her finger at him.
“Aren’t you going to join me?”
Hell yeah he was.
25
Greer sat across from Xander in her deep, jetted bath tub, her legs hanging over his. Bubbles covered the top of the water and everything interesting, so Greer closed her eyes to enjoy to warmth. She hummed in pleasure as the jets pounded into her back, turning her body to jelly.
“I’m going to smell like a damn flower.”
She peeked at him through half closed eyelids. “I told you that you could join me in my bath. Which means I pick the scent. Just enjoy bubbles and hush.”
Xander slipped his hands under the water and tugged her to him. She turned around so her back rested against his chest, her ass cradled in his groin.
Greer bit her lip, thinking about what Pax had told her about the murder of Xander’s family. She needed to tell him, but she was so afraid that he would run off again, revenge at the forefront of his mind.
His hands ran up her arms and his fingers kneaded the muscles of her shoulders. Ignoring the niggling voice in her head that urged her to be honest, she held her tongue. She wanted to enjoy this time together. They had both made it through violence and bloodshed. One day of happiness wasn’t too much to ask.
She moaned as his fingers worked her and turned her head, resting her cheek against his pec.
“Why today?” he asked suddenly.
She tilted her head to look at him upside down. “What?”
He bent over and kissed her, whispering against her lips, “Why did you let me in today? I’ve been trying for weeks to talk to you and you just kept avoiding me.” He stroked her cheek, his fingers tracing down across her jaw and neck. “Was it about what I said? About loving you?”
It was time for her to be honest, at the very least with herself. “Partly. But it was also because I had a bit of a break-through.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was always terrified of commitment, especially the thought of marriage and forever. Then I met you and it was just like it was all so right. I found out you were a shifter, and while I didn’t have a problem with shifters, I’d never imagined falling in love with one. I put myself out there for the first time and you rejected me. I was devastated, but I thought you would come around if I just gave you time. I started imagining a future with you and me and kids…”
“Then I was kidnapped, threatened, beaten, and bitten. All my choices about you and me and our future were taken away and I was so angry. I wanted to choose to become a shifter, so I could prove to you that I loved every part of you and I wanted to wait until you could trust the human me first. I was holding onto that anger and loss so much that I guess I gave up thinking that we could reach those goals any other way.”
His arms tightened around her. “I told you it wasn’t about trust, baby. I just didn’t want to relive what happened, and burden you with it.”
Greer turned around to face him, coming up on her knees between his legs. “Exactly. You didn’t want to burden me because I was human and you didn’t think I could handle it. Even as a human, though, I was never some wilting flower. I’m tough.”
&n
bsp; She caught his grin and followed his gaze down to her bubbled covered breasts and she scoffed, “Just because I like girly things doesn’t mean I’m not strong. I need you to realize that. You don’t have to protect me. I want to be your equal in every way.”
Xander cupped the back of her neck, his blue eyes gazing intensely into hers. “I promise, that you will always be my partner, but I can’t guarantee I won’t try to protect you. “
“Fine, I can live with that.” She shifted her body, straddling his thighs. Slowly, she laid on his body, rubbing her breasts against his chest.
“You might want to hold onto something,” she murmured.
“What?”
She climbed off him and grabbed one of the clean washcloths on the side of the tub. Then, she turned the faucet onto warm water, and rinsed it. She watched his expression turn from curious to surprised as she slipped her hand beneath his ass cheeks and lifted him in the water until his erection emerged. She wiped the suds from the tip and placing her other hand beneath him as well.
With a sly smile, she bent over and took his head into her mouth. She sucked him hard, rolling her tongue around the head of his cock.
“God.”
Greer released him with a pop and shot him a cheeky grin. “Nope, just me.” She swirled her tongue around the head of his dick once more. Greer closed her lips around his length bobbed up and down. She sucked his cock with gusto, teasing him and waiting for him to completely lose his cool.
He grabbed her hands and before she could protest, he pulled her out of the tub. He stepped out and lifted her into his arms, carrying her into the bedroom. Once he laid her on the bed, he pulled her to the edge and stuffed several pillows under her hips. She squirmed in anticipation as his lips traveled across the inside of her left thigh, completely skipping the crux of her legs to adore her right one. Finally, when he’d teased her into a frenzy, she’d whimpered.
“What’s the matter, baby,” he crooned.
“I need you.”
“You need me to what?”
She blushed, afraid to say the words out loud, but when he kissed just above where she wanted him most, she lost it.
“I need you to go down on me.”
Xander stared up at her, his gaze so hungry it was breathtaking.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
She didn’t even have time to formulate a clever reply before he had spread her lips with his hands and loving her with his tongue. He swept up to her clit and wiggled against it in hard, fast circles until she was gripping the comforter beneath her. She arched her back, pressing her hips up, needing to be closer. She was going crazy, her whole-body tingling, but she couldn’t get over that edge.
Then the pillows were jerked out from under her and Xander was leaning over her body. She looked down and found him with a hard grip on his cock, swirling it up and down her wet seam.
“Tell me you want this.”
She nodded frantically and when he thrust home, she screamed with joy.
He laced his fingers through hers and held them above her head as he moved slowly in and out of her.
“You are mine.”
In response, she smiled.
“And you are mine.”
His pace kicked up and she was meeting him, thrust for thrust. Skin against skin. The melding of their bodies was more than making love.
It was a promise of more. More hope and happiness. Of a lifetime together.
As the two of them came together, Greer had never been so at peace.
Afterward, Xander spooned her with his large, muscular body, his hand splayed across her stomach. She covered it, lacing her fingers with his and murmured, “I just realized something.”
“What’s that, babe?”
“You’ve never taken me out on a date.”
His chuckle rustled the hair on the back of her neck and she shivered at the sensation.
“You know, you’re right. We did this whole thing ass backwards. Sex, love, and then dating?” He kissed her ear. “I’ll make it up to you. Dinner. Wine. Roses. I’ll romance the hell out of you.”
She turned in his arms and wrapped hers around his neck. “Will you be making this dinner?”
“If that’s what you want, but—”
“And can you be naked?”
He laughed, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners. “I thought you wanted to date, as in leave the house? I can’t date you properly if I’m naked.”
“I was just stating a fact about the whole dating thing. Anything that involves you wearing clothes is completely overrated.”
“Babe, we’ll have to get dressed and leave the room eventually.”
Her hand slid down from his shoulders, across his chest and down to wrap around his hardening cock.
“Can eventually be much, much later?”
Xander rolled her beneath him with a wolfish grin. “Hell yeah.”
About the Author
Codi Gary loves writing books almost as much as she loves outings with her family and snuggling with her adorable fur babies. An RWA Honor Roll author of more than twenty romance novels and novellas, her goals are to make her readers laugh one minute and cry the next in the best way possible. When she isn’t glued to her computer, she can be found reading fantastic books, catching up on all the shows she loves, and taking pictures of her beautiful kids. To keep up with her releases, cover reveals, and crazy antics, just go to her website and sign up for her newsletter.
Also by Codi Gary
The Something Borrowed Series
Don’t Call Me Sweetheart
Kiss Me, Sweetheart
Be Mine, Sweetheart
Bear Mountain Rescue
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Hot Winter Nights
Sexy Summer Flings
The Men in Uniform Series
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I Need a Hero
Hero of Mine
Holding Out for a Hero
The Loco, Texas Series
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Crazy for You
Make Me Crazy
I Want Crazy
Stand-alone
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How to be a Heartbreaker
The Rock Canyon, Idaho Series
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The Trouble with Sexy
Things Good Girls Don’t Do
Good Girls Don’t Date Rock Stars
Bad Girls Don’t Marry Marines
Return of the Bad Girl
Bad for Me
Good Girls Don’t Kiss and Tell
Good at Being Bad