by Lucy Farago
“I accepted your apology. Doesn’t mean you’re not a dumbass.” The best defence was a good offense. And maybe, just maybe, she could stem this sudden sexual heat between them by hurling a few insults his way. Then again, that hadn’t exactly worked the last time.
“Am I, now?” he said, drawing closer. “I wasn’t a dumbass when you had your legs tangled around my hips.”
A picture-quality image of them locked together, skin flushed by rocketing orgasms, clenched her vagina so hard—the damn thing could’ve cracked walnuts—that it nearly caused her to double over. Her breath hitched, and he mistook it for an invitation because his mouth was slammed on hers with an intensity that actually buckled her knees. And before rational thought could stop either one of them, she was climbing his rock-hard body. She was climbing his rock-hard naked body, naked.
Mia had only ever had sex in a bed, but now, not only had she screwed in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, she could add a cave…standing…literally, all over Loki like fudge on a sundae. And just like the fudge, it felt…right. Because as sure as Loki would piss her off after this, eating a sundae without fudge was wrong. Part of her brain struggled to understand how or why this dog had gotten under her skin. She quickly shut that part off and allowed herself to simply enjoy the man. And when her back hit the rock wall and his body invaded hers so completely she screamed from pleasure, any and all thought was eviscerated but the best fucking orgasm of her life. Every inch of her, down to the very cells of her being, vibrated and then burst.
Mia had his cock in a vise, and damn, it was fucking amazing. Loki held his breath, trying to regain control. He wasn’t ready for this to end. He wanted more, more of Mia, more of her scent on his body, in his head, fuck, in his soul. Like the first time, his veins throbbed from the overload of two blood flows, his and hers. It wasn’t literally her heart pounding in his chest, but it sure as hell felt like it. Sex between mates wasn’t only a physical connection. As much mind as body, it was a bond—unbreakable…if completed—until death.
Perhaps it was for the best that she hadn’t bonded to him. He’d go through weeks of discomfort, not unlike a bad breakup, but his life would go on…without Mia. That thought was enough for him to hold on until Mia was ready for round two. As much as he enjoyed watching her beautiful face go from heated anticipation to blissful release, he much preferred the growing arousal that transformed her eyes raw gold. When she continued to milk his dick even though her legs had eased their grip, he ground himself inside her. She could say what she wanted about his kind, but Siberians were made for fucking. There was a reason they’d been around forty-five million years.
Loki made himself forget that none of this made sense. For now, he didn’t care. Right here, in this moment, she was his, and whether she knew it or not, he was hers. He lost himself in everything that was Mia. He spun them around. Angled enough that he was practically sitting, the wall hit his ass at just the right incline. He dug his heels in the earth for purchase and, clutching her waist, prepared to do all the work. Not that he wasn’t so looking forward to showing her just how good they could be together. But as if reading his mind, Mia braced her knees against the rock and undulated her hips, riding him.
As his body hammered hers, her breasts bounced. His mouth watered with every poke of their hard tips. Figuring he could hold her with one hand, he grabbed her ass, and with his free hand, he teased her nipple. It didn’t take long for her to arch her back, and when she did, he took what she offered and sucked. There was nothing more erotic than Mia’s tit in his mouth and her legs splayed over him. For him. This time her convulsions did him in. When she came, he came, explosive to the point of being painful. He tipped his head back and roared.
When his vision cleared, Mia was staring down at him with one of those clichéd cat-who-ate-the-canary smirks.
“What?” he asked, trying to catch his breath.
“Nothing,” she said, with an innocence he wasn’t buying.
“It’s just I’ve never seen you lose it. I mean, I have tried…repeatedly…to push your buttons.”
“You know damn well you push my buttons.” He adjusted his position then settled Mia on her feet. The morning air was cool against his skin, an unpleasant reminder that he was no longer inside her. Wanting desperately to pull her back, instead, he fetched their clothes and began to dress.
“I know I get under your skin,” she continued, shoving one leg into her pants. “But you never lose your shit. You grit your teeth. You do that growly thing to try and scare me….”
She let out an over-the-top snort, her way at letting him know he didn’t scare her. Which was cute. He might not scare her, but he did intimidate the shit out of her. That scent, like her arousal, was unmistakable. But he’d always had that effect on people. He’d assumed she be no different. Now he had to wonder if he’d read her wrong. Had her fuck-you-dog been a ploy, or better still, an attempt to keep him at arm’s length? He threw his T-shirt over his head and then licked his lips as he watched Mia do the same. Fuck, she was beautiful. And he was too old for games.
He reached out and snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her into his arms. This might come back and bite his sorry ass, but given their current situation…his current situation…what did he have to lose?
“We have to get going,” she said, her warm hands saying otherwise as she caressed his chest.
“Admit it,” he said, praying this wasn’t a mistake. Sex, just sex, was a thing, but this…? “You like me.”
She smiled then, and sad puppy that he was, it gave him hope.
“This was fun. You may not be good for much, but you’re certainly good at sex.”
Given how she’d never had any qualms about hurting his feelings before, why had she avoided his question? “You like me,” he repeated, pulling her even closer, reminding her of exactly how fun the sex had been. Maybe just maybe, she more than liked him.
She stared at him. The silence between them made Loki second-guess his decision to make them confront their feelings. Given how she’d hurled insults at him from the very moment they’d met, he was certain she was protecting herself. He hadn’t been able to figure it out until now. She didn’t want to like him. She didn’t want to be attracted to him, but she was. So she built a wall between them, a very tall one. Given she scaled walls better than a spider, how hard would it be to get her to scale her own?
“Would you like me to pass a note to you in math class?” she finally spewed out, ever the comedian.
“I like you,” he admitted, needing one of them to be the grown up. He doubted her playing games was an age thing. She might be ten years younger, but she was smart. By all accounts, she was considered one of the best and brightest agents, having left active duty to help the Academy draw attention to the school for new recruits. In their world, Mia was a rock star, figuratively and literally. No, she liked him. This was more about her not wanting to like him. This was always about her not wanting to like him.
“Okay, I like you,” she begrudgingly said. “Happy?”
“Sure. I mean, what’s not a bigger turn-on than a beautiful woman hating the fact that she likes me?”
Mia tried to wiggle out of his arms, but he was having none of it. Sure, the bond was like an insane itch that only she could scratch, and maybe it was causing him to act all crazy, or maybe it was more than Mother Nature fucking with him.
“You really want to have this conversation? Now? We’re on a mission. How about we get back to that?”
She had a point, but if they didn’t do this now, he wouldn’t be able to focus. Either way, he was screwed so might as well just rip off the Band-Aid and hope like hell he could stem the bleeding. “You don’t want to like me. Do you?”
Mia let out a long breath and surprised him by reaching up to stroke his face with regret in her eyes. This was it. She was going to break his heart. And it dawned on him. It fucking dawned on him. He was in love with her. He’d loved her from the moment he’d seen
her. When they’d locked eyes, she’d imprinted on his stupid brain. He hadn’t been admiring just her ass as she’d scaled that rock wall. He’d been…pining for her. Somehow, deep within himself, he’d known that but had chosen to bury it behind childish insults and petty arguments. He was so fucked. And he had only himself to blame.
“Please don’t take this the wrong way,” she began. “You’re a dog. Cats and dogs—”
“I’m a Siberian.” Was she really going to use that out-dated argument?
“I’m still a cat. Feline and canine don’t do whatever this is,” she said, indicating the small space between them.
“Species mix all the time.” FUC agents were a prime example of successful interspecies couples, from a goofy-killer bunny and a mean grizzly to a—he still couldn’t believe it—a bird-dinosaur and a kangaroo.
“Sure. And some do it quite successfully. They even have babies. But that’s not me, not us. My species is dying, Loki. I can’t be messing around with a d— Siberian. My kind has to work together. What kind of example would I be setting?”
She was taking a sledgehammer to his heart, and for no good reason other than some ridiculous loyalty to pack. “You said nothing was expected of you. You said leaders were chosen, elected. What? Are they going to take your father’s crown away because his daughter is doing it with someone other than a vertically challenged cat?”
She shoved him away, breaking his hold on her. “What’s with you and this crown shit? I told you, it’s a council. But listen up, dog, who I do is my business. And doing it? Excuse me for thinking you were asking about something more.” She poked him hard in the chest. “But if all you want is a fuck-buddy, why did you start this conversation?”
Because he hadn’t considered that she’d bring up the whole species-on-the-verge-of-extinction thing or that he’d get pissed all over again just thinking about her with another guy. He’d wanted to know where they stood. But he didn’t get a chance to say any of that because Mia turned on her heels and then snatched her arm away when he reached for her.
“We’ve wasted enough time,” she said as if purposely trying to hurt him. “We have a mission to complete.”
“Mia, please.” He’d royally screwed this up. “I don’t want to waste time on games.”
“I’m done talking. Now that the sun is up, I’m going to climb this mountain we’re under to get a better lay of the land.”
He didn’t like the idea of her being alone anywhere out there.
But she was gone, driven away by his ineptitude. Exactly what had he expected? She’d proclaim her dying love for him? Holy shit. How had he gone from loving his solitude to this…whatever this was?
8
The faint acrid smell had caught Mia’s keen sense of smell before the first of the flames licked the treetops. It had given her the advantage of catching the arsonist early in his game. What she hadn’t counted on was being cornered…by a fire-breathing Sasquatch. One minute she was sneaking up on Chewbacca, and the next, every tree around her burned red hot. She squelched her rising panic. It would do her no good.
For every step she took, he’d block her with a furry paw, then belch out another firebomb and another, all at a pace Mia couldn’t outmanoeuvre. She’d considered shifting but debated if she’d be more vulnerable. Calling out to Loki was useless. She’d tracked the beast several miles beyond their camp. She was too far, even for his bionic hearing. Could she have been more stupid? Not only had she broken protocol and gone out on her own, but she’d done it just because she couldn’t deal with Loki’s question. Would it have been better to admit her feelings? She hadn’t been wrong. Felines and canines didn’t mix.
She dodged another fireball, struggling to catch her breath within the suffocating blanket of smoke. Had her mother died like this? A fear, so profound, threatened to consume whatever oxygen remained in her lungs. She needed a plan. She could run for it, tear through the inferno. But unable to see clearly, she had no idea how deep or how wide this bonfire extended. When a burning branch caught her on the ass, she screeched. Slapping the cinders off her jeans, she tipped her head to the now cloud-filled sky and swore she’d never gorge herself on S’mores again, should someone see fit to not turn her into barbeque. Left with little choice, she’d have to take her chances with the Sasquatch. She wiped her watery eyes and prayed her agility didn’t fail her.
Mia shielded her mouth with her hands and took as deep a breath as she could. It wasn’t much. Feeling the effects of the smoke, she had little hope. Dizzy and lightheaded from lack of oxygen was no match for whacked, in-need-of-a-good-stylist Tree House. But before she could take her first step, a massive gray ball of fur swiped the walking carpet from her view. Mia dropped to her knees. Alternating between hacking up a lung and crawling, she escaped her dungeon of flames and promptly passed out.
Mia awoke, wondering if cremation was really for her. She made a mental note to look into burials at sea, then struggled to sit up. Luckily, her shifter side had done a nice job of healing her. Even in human form, she was left with only a lingering memory of a bad sunburn and ruined jeans. Nothing a long spa day and a trip to the mall wouldn’t fix. But when Mia turned to her right…what she saw, nothing could fix. Had the big dummy gone and gotten himself killed—for her?
She scrambled to her feet and ran to the heap of soot-covered gray fur some thirty feet away…dead center in a ring of scorched earth and trees. Loki.
She fell back down on her knees and shook the massive dog when he ignored her cries. “Loki.” If you fucking die on me… Please, she begged, don’t fucking die on me.
There was only one very, very bad reason why shifters didn’t heal. “Loki, wake the fuck up.” But he didn’t move.
Given that, in Siberian form, he was double her size, she managed to logroll him onto his back. Burnt and blackened fur covered what was once a pink underbelly. What the hell did you do? Stemming off her panic, she forced raunchy air into her lungs and, with shaking hands, examined his coat. Minus a few patches of third-degree burns, she could find no substantial injury. With renewed hope, she wrapped her fingers around the inside top of his hind leg. Relief was never so sweet as when she felt the dog’s pulse. “Thank you,” she said on a hushed breath, as the Siberian who’d evoked a feeling she refused to acknowledge shifted to a man she was never more elated to see. The dumbass.
“Are you thankful I’m alive…or dead?” asked a hoarse voice.
Mia swiped tears she hadn’t realized she’d shed with the back of her hand. “Dead, of course.” She wanted to laugh but wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing how much he’d scared her, how much she’d scared herself.
Of course, she liked him. She suspected she more than liked him, and long before they’d slept together. For lynx, the mating call was more like a booty call. Get the job done and move on. But with Loki…. It was more than sex, and that scared the shit out of her.
“Are you sleeping on the job?”
“Just resting my eyes,” he said, at last opening them. “I thought I told you it wasn’t safe out here.”
She smiled, unable to help herself. He had, after all, saved her. “Let’s not argue over who said what. You’ve wasted enough of our time.” She gave him her hand when he struggled to sit up. He held it against his chest and kept it there.
“Are you hurt?” he said, painfully reminding her she’d nearly gotten him killed because she couldn’t speak about her conflicted feelings.
“I’m fine,” she said. “You?”
He glanced down at his belly, running dirty fingers across his stomach. “I think there is something to be said for vegans. I never want to smell cooking meat again.”
While he’d completely and utterly grossed her out, the sight of his fingertips on his abs, and that glorious man-package just inches away, kind of distracted her. She shouldn’t be staring. But it was there. In front of her. Naked. And when it, ummm, started to grow, she realized she’d been caught staring at his junk.
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br /> “You heal nicely,” she said. “I can’t see any redness.” He probably wouldn’t buy it, but it was worth a shot.
“Are you going to kiss me and tell me you’re happy I didn’t die? Or are you going to keep staring at my—”
She plastered her mouth over his, not because she was embarrassed but because she was so happy he hadn’t died. On him, the acrid smell of smoke warped into something different. It was the aroma that they’d endured hellfire, literally, and survived, and they’d done it together. It would’ve been her roasting like meat on a spit had Loki not found her. She plunged her fingers into his hair, trying to draw him closer, ensuring no space intruded on this kiss.
She didn’t know what any of this meant. And for the moment, she refused to care. Here in this forest, on this mission, she would let herself love him. Because she did. She loved the stupid dog. And the how or the why of it she had no clue, but she knew he loved her too.
“It sucked, not knowing if I’d make it in time,” he said, wrapping her tight in his arms.
She didn’t know how, but she sensed there was more to this wave of gratitude rolling off him. And when he pulled her onto his lap, staring at her as if memorizing her face, she knew she was right. “Loki?”
“Maybe I should get dressed first. I’m kind of naked here.”
And she kind of liked him that way. “That’s okay,” she cooed, patting him on the head. “It does the job. Nothing to be ashamed of.”
Then Loki went out of his way to prove just how good a job it could do.
“You know,” Mia said, snuggling closer to Loki on the back of the ATV, “you didn’t have to put your clothes on for me.” They’d resumed their hunt for the Sasquatch, taking the conversation on the road.
Loki laughed. It was a good sound, an amazing, alive sound. “As much as I’ve enjoyed our time together in the great outdoors, there are things a man doesn’t need crawling up his ass.”