by T. S. Joyce
“Are you turning this game into an interview?” Kieran asked.
Kimberly nodded. “Yes.”
A smile cracked his face. “Good. These are important truths. You should know what you’re getting into.”
So Kimberly dared to lean back into Burke’s side, and he didn’t even kill her. As Kieran and Leslie taught her the finer points of being a lion shifter, she relaxed into his warmth and stroked his mane absently, her fingertips memorizing the lion as her heart latched onto Burke a little bit more.
He’d shown her his animal—one Kieran said he was secretive with.
She knew what it meant when boys shared their secrets.
It meant Burke really did like her back.
Chapter Thirteen
Kimberly dragged her leg up the bed. Her toes were freezing, but the rest of her was on fire.
When she opened her eyes, a snowflake fell right onto her lashes. She blinked hard, dislodging it, and sat up. She was lying on a mattress outside the tiny house, right next to the burn barrel. What the heck?
She twisted, looking around. How had she gotten here from the tree house? And why was her skin so hot? She looked down at herself; she was still dressed in her red gown. Her skin looked fine, but it was hurting now. Every nerve ending was going up in flames.
“Burke?” she called out, fear filling her veins.
Shaking, she stood. The mattress was bare. No blanket, no towels. A thin trail of smoke was wafting from the burn barrel, so she padded over the snowy ground to look inside.
The picture of herself that she’d thrown in there earlier was flattened out and burning slowly from the edges inward. Her old self was burning, and the awful fiery sensation of her skin matched the blistering photo.
She cried out in agony as a wave of pain took her. Desperately, she reached inside the barrel and plucked out the picture, singing her fingertips. She blew on it, but the fire only ignited faster, and she screamed as she went down to her knees.
The burning picture went up in flames, and the final thing she saw before it turned to ashes was her fake smile.
“The old you has to die for the new you to emerge,” Kieran said.
With a gasp, Kimberly jerked her attention to Leslie’s mate, standing stoically against the falling snow backdrop, his hands buried deep in his pockets, the saddest look in his eyes. “It’s hard on us. We don’t like hurting the ones we love. It hurts us worse.”
“Burke doesn’t have to hurt me,” she forced past her tightening vocal cords.
Kieran shook his head. Oh, those sad eyes. “I wasn’t talking about Burke.”
Through the snow, a shadow approached, darkening until a lioness appeared, padding toward her with powerful strides. Her ears were back, her eyes were fierce, and her lips were curled over her sharp teeth. Leslie.
She was power. She was beauty. She was rage.
“Leslie, no!” Kimberly screamed just before the lioness bunched her muscles and leapt for her.
Kimberly gasped and sat up straight. Panicking, she looked around the darkness, desperate to make out any familiar shape.
“Hey,” Burke murmured from beside her.
“She killed me. She killed me.”
“Who?” A warm hand cupped her face. “You’re here in the tree house with me. It’s just us. No one killed you, Kimberly. You’re safe.” He pulled her down against his bare chest. “Shhhhh. You had a dream is all.”
“An awful dream, Burke. An awful dream. She betrayed me. Leslie betrayed me. Kieran said she loved me, but she betrayed me.”
“It’s okay.” He pulled her in closer and held her tight. “Everything is okay.”
“Hey,” she said as the dream haze wore off. She cupped his cheeks. “You’re you again. You’re Burke.”
A deep chuckle reverberated through him. “I changed back when Leslie and Kieran left. You’d fallen asleep against me, but I wanted to hold you.”
The space heater was rumbling near them, and he’d piled the towels on her, warmed her with his body. She’d never in her life been more comfortable with someone else than she was right now. Here in the dark tree house, it felt like they were the only ones who existed in the whole world.
“Hey Burke?” she whispered, not wanting to disrupt the magic of the moment.
He dragged his fingertips to her waist and squeezed. “Yeah?”
“Happy New Year.”
She could just make him out now in the dark. Her eyes were adjusting.
“Happy New Year. What is your resolution?” he asked.
“To be nicer. To be more dependable to the people who matter. To be less about looks and more about heart. To pay my damn bills on time each month.” That last part was mostly a joke.
He laughed, and she leaned forward and kissed him. God, she loved feeling this comfortable with someone. This vulnerable, but it was okay because she knew he would take care of her and never judge her. He wasn’t interested in perfection. He was interested in what made her tick.
“Now you. What’s your resolution?” she asked.
“To build the life my parents always wanted for me.”
“You never talk about them.”
“They were special. My dad was a lion shifter and my mom was human, but he Turned her. She told us she never regrated it, even for a second, but she also told us why.”
“Why?” she asked, running her fingertips up and down his jawline slowly.
“Because my father had built such a strong foundation for her, she felt safe to trust him with her life. He was a very good man. A good dad. A good leader, and he had my mom’s back from the day he met her until the day the car crashed. They wanted a good life for me, too. I aimed for it before and missed, and part of that was on me. I didn’t see the red flags I should’ve. This time I want to do it right. With you. I want to build a life for you. For us. That’s my resolution. One year from today, I want to look back and know I gave you a safe place to grow.”
Tears prickled her eyes, and she nuzzled her face against his throat, hugged him tight. “Your lion is okay, Burke. He’s okay with me. I love him, too.”
“You love him, too?” he asked softly.
“I loved you first, but your lion is in my heart, too.”
“Fuck,” he whispered.
“I’m scared,” she whispered.
“Scared of what?”
“Scared of falling when I know I can’t have you.”
“Silly girl.” He brushed her hair from her face and kissed her forehead. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? You already have me.”
And that was everything. She could hear the honesty in his tone, the conviction behind those words. She wasn’t alone or invisible in the shadow of who she’d been before anymore. He had come in at her lowest and tethered his heart to her when she was the biggest work in progress. That took a strong man. It took a good man.
They didn’t need to say anymore here in the dark. She just relaxed and dragged her fingertips from his jaw to his throat, down his chest to the mounds of his abs and back up. She wanted to memorize every inch of him. From the curves of his shoulders, to the line between his defined pecs, to the exact shape of his abs. She wanted to know the muscles at his hips so she traced them, and when he moaned softly, she dared to drag her touch lower. He wasn’t wearing any clothes, but he’d changed from lion to man and just curled around her. She loved this. Loved how much he trusted her and how much she trusted him in return.
Never in her thirty-two years had she felt a bond with another person like this.
She ran her fingertips back up to his chest, teasing. Burke slid his hand up the slit in her dress until he reached her upper thigh and squeezed just hard enough that she gasped in pleasure.
There was a soft, sexy rumble in his throat that made her want to do naughty things to him, so she reached down and lightly stroked the length of his swollen shaft.
The moan that escaped his lips called to her most base instincts. She gripped him and released, gripp
ed and released, while he rolled his hips against her touch.
Burke’s lips crashed onto hers as he rolled her over. Then, rucking up her dress, he bit the inside of her thigh gently. Bite, kiss, bite, kiss. Kimberly’s body was being set on fire, but this time it was all pleasure and no pain. Burke pulled her panties down her legs and tossed them to the floor, then gripped her waist as he lowered himself between her thighs. He rubbed his cheek against one sensitive inner thigh, then against the other, kissed her sex, and repeated, over and over, each time lingering with his kiss until she was pushing her knees farther apart and pleading with him for more.
Burke sucked on her clit and then pushed his tongue into her. Kimberly cried out, arching her back and gripping his hair.
With a snarl, Burke sat up on his knees and pulled her ankles until she was under him. He lowered down and pushed the head of his cock inside her.
This was happening. This was happening! How could any one thing feel this damn good?
He reared back and pushed into her deep. Again, he pulled out and thrust in, then again and again. Kimberly ran her hands up his locked arms, tracing his triceps as she took in his strong body flexing over her with each pump of his hips. He lowered down onto his elbows and sucked on her neck, and Kimberly couldn’t hold back anymore. She tossed her head back and whispered his name in desperation. Please give me more. Please give me everything.
He rammed into her deep and stayed there, pumping into her in short movements that kept him pressed against her clit, and she came hard around him, gripping his shaft with her release. Her orgasm throbbed on and on, but he wasn’t done. With a growl, Burke flipped her over and propped her up on her knees, pressed her chest into the beanbag, and slid into her from behind. Oooooh, he liked it like this. She could tell. His thrusting became hard and powerful, the snarl in his throat louder. His fingers dug into her hips, and every nerve ending in her body was celebrating right now. He lurched forward and grabbed her hand, slid it between her legs. “Feel me. Feel what I’m doing to you.”
And she did. Against her fingertips, his swollen cock slid in and out of her fast and hard. This was so damn sexy, and now her release was building again. “Burke. Burke. Fuck, Burke I’m coming again,” she said breathlessly.
He leaned forward against her back and nipped at her sensitive ear, then slammed into her and shot warmth into her in throbbing bursts. It was that sensation that drew another orgasm from her own body, breaking her apart completely.
Burke slowed his movement, dragging out both of their spasms. He brushed his lips against the back of her neck, then against her bare shoulders.
Mindlessly, she looked down at herself, up on her hands and knees, warmth trickling down her thighs, still wearing her dress, which was pushed up to her waist. “We didn’t even get me out of my clothes,” she said with a giggle. Why did she feel such a sense of pride in that? They’d both just lost their minds, and a sweet moment had led to them to the sexiest experience of her entire existence. He liked her body. He liked her insides and her outsides. She wasn’t broken or invisible. She just hadn’t stumbled onto the right match until she’d found Burke.
Burke settled her onto the bag and hugged her close. His heart was pounding so hard against her.
“You can fall,” he said. “It’s okay. I’ll figure everything out. You can fall.”
“Silly boy.” She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply against his chest. “I already did.”
Chapter Fourteen
Burke helped Kimberly up into his Bronco. He’d already turned it on to warm it up, but the air was still blowing cold and she was freezing, so he grabbed an old work jacket from the back seat and tucked it around her.
There was a thick layer of snow over the windshield, so he started scraping it off, but movement by the Wilson mansion captured his attention.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were headed this way, clad in matching bathrobes and each puffing frozen air in front of them. Mr. Wilson had a “run boy” look on his face, and Mrs. Wilson’s was bright red with some impressive early morning anger.
Shhhhhit.
“Good morning,” Burke called.
“We need to speak with you,” Mrs. Wilson barked out. “Now.”
Burke swallowed a growl and hooked his hands on his hips. He really didn’t like being told what to do, hence why he was his own boss most of the year. But this was Kimberly’s parents, and he had plans to stay in her life for a very long time.
“I have a delivery soon, but I can spare a few minutes,” he told them.
“A delivery of firewood?” Mrs. Wilson asked in a venomous tone.
“Yeah. If you ever need some, I’m your man.” He forced a smile. “I’ll give you the family discount.”
“We aren’t family.”
The passenger side window of his Bronco always made a squeaking sound, and that’s how he knew Kimberly was rolling it down.
“Mother dearest, it’s New Year’s Day, and I’m starting the year off right. Not fighting with you. Can we just have a day of peace?”
“We used to have every day of peace until these Dunnes entered our lives! Inside. Now!” Mom turned on her heal and stomped toward the house.
Bert Wilson said, “I made breakfast to take the sting off.”
“Biscuits and sausage gravy?” Kimberly asked hopefully.
Her dad snorted. “Are you going to actually eat it this time?”
“Yup! But mostly I want Burke to try it.” She called out the window at him, “Burke! My dad slays at biscuits and sausage gravy.”
Okay, that settled his animal right down. If she was happy and relaxed, he could be, too.
“Let me just message my first stop and let them know I’ll be running late.” He never did that, but he needed to deal with Mrs. Wilson’s negative opinions of him and Kieran. There was work to be done here this morning. Not for his sake, but for Kimberly’s.
Kimberly poured out of the Bronco in her pretty red dress and hiked it up as she made her way carefully up the newly salted sidewalk. Just the exposure of her ankles made his dick throb. God, she’d been so sexy last night. He couldn’t believe she was his.
“I think this is the part where I’m supposed to ask what your intentions are with my daughter,” Mr. Wilson said beside him, keeping pace with Burke. “But seeing as how she’s grown, I guess it’s not my business anymore.”
“If I had a daughter, I would want to know the same. I love her, sir. And just so that doesn’t scare you, you should know I’m not a man who loves easy. I don’t fall for a woman unless I mean it.”
Mr. Wilson nodded, and behind his glasses, his frost-blue eyes held understanding and a little relief. “I can say I’ve never seen her smile so much or stand up for herself quite like she has lately. It’s good to see her like this. I want her to be strong and happy.”
“That’s what I want for her too, sir.”
Mr. Wilson clapped him on the back. “Then we’ll get along just fine. It’s the momma bear you have to win over. She’s a little more…prickly.”
The momma bear in question was standing at the front door when they entered, tapping her foot, her arms crossed over her chest with an especially beady-eyed glare trained on him.
She didn’t say a word until they’d made their plates in the kitchen, piled with biscuits and gravy, hash browns, and link sausage. And once they were seated at the dining table, Mrs. Wilson primly settled her napkin in her lap, folded her hands on the table, and lifted her voice to Burke. “I put a lot of effort into the party last night, but the entire time I was worried about Kimberly and your unsavory effect on her.” Mrs. Wilson looked back and forth between him and Kimberly as she continued, “You both skipped out on the majority of the party, spent the night in the tree house, ruined all of the family pictures, and caused me stress and anxiety as I had to explain to all the worthy suitors that you were off galivanting with a Dunne brother. You,” she growled, jamming a finger at Burke, “threatened to change into your lion and ruin
my party—”
“Our party,” Dad corrected.
“Let me finish,” Mom gritted out. “Kimberly is my job, Burke. Now, you are orphaned, so you don’t understand the burden of a mother. But my children’s futures are all I think about. All of my efforts through the years have been aimed at them and providing a good foundation, upbringing, the best education, so they can secure the best prospects. Now, I’ve looked into you. Your annual salary through your firewood company is only fifty-four thousand dollars a year. A year. How can you give my daughter the life she’s accustomed to on that much?”
“Are you finished?” Kimberly asked. Whoooo, her cheeks were getting red, and every facet of her face was filled with a beautiful rage. She’d been eating up until this point as though she hadn’t even been listening, but now she pushed her plate out of the way and leaned her elbows on the table. “It’s my turn to speak my piece now.”
“Watch your tone with me—”
“Like you’ve watched it with me?” Kimberly clipped out. “We let you speak. Now it’s your turn to sit there and listen. You aren’t going to get up, interrupt, faint, or throw a tantrum. Your job right now isn’t me. It’s to sit there and listen. I shouldn’t have ever been a job, Mom. None of us should’ve. We should’ve just been your children, not pawns in the marriage game. Now, I tried it your way. I married someone you approved of, and look what happened? He didn’t make me feel good about myself, and he is no longer a part of my future. I never cared for him like I do for Burke. Fifty-four thousand dollars is nothing to sniff at. I make twenty-eight, so technically, together, we make eighty-two, and I know that’s not a huge amount to someone who lives in this kind of luxury…” She gestured to the cavernous dining room with its crown molding and wainscoting, polished marble floors, and priceless china on display in mahogany cabinets. “But for us, it’s plenty.”
Burke leaned back in his chair and draped his arm across the back of Kimberly’s chair. She wasn’t alone. Fifty-four was what his own company brought in for him, but that wasn’t his only job. Mrs. Wilson wasn’t a very thorough researcher, but that was okay. He didn’t like people knowing his business, so let them think what they liked. Someday she should see his home, though. That would put her mind at ease quick. He was quiet and smart with money.