by Kathy Lyon
Pulse after pulse.
And she gripped him with tiny squeezes of her own.
Glorious.
She recovered first, though her motions were weak. She kissed his brow and his cheek. She teased the tip of his nose and scraped her teeth along his lips. He opened for her and they dueled, tongue to tongue. He was the winner there, as he thrust into her mouth. A continuation of what was still happening below.
He supported his weight on his arms, but didn’t have the ability to do more. Instead, he kissed her while she murmured her appreciation. Until he lifted up so they could breathe.
“I can’t believe the twins didn’t wake up,” she said. “I feel like we hit the entire building with a sonic boom.”
He grinned. Nice to know that she felt the same as he. “So,” he drawled as he nuzzled into her hairline and then nipped the curve of her ear. “Did I earn another go?”
“I think you’re still going,” she giggled as she squeezed him down below.
He hissed as pleasure shot through his abdomen, and he pulsed again.
“Guess so,” he said with a chuckle. But then he started licking her neck. “I think I saw at least four more condoms in the drawer.”
She murmured something that could have been agreement. Or it might have been the wolf inside her purring.
He kept teasing her neck, exploring with increasing intent. She rolled her head to the side to give him better access. And then she chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” he asked as he drew his teeth along the curve of her shoulder.
“Good news. I’ve got more condoms in my purse for when we use up all of Noelle’s.”
He straightened, and his brow arched. She met his look with an expression that challenged him to rise to the occasion. And sure enough, deep inside her, he was already thickening in reaction.
“What if that isn’t enough for me?” he asked.
She sighed. “It will have to be. At some point the boys are going to wake up, and I’ll need to walk.”
“No, you won’t,” he said. “I’ll take care of them.”
She laughed. “Now that would be some impressive stamina.”
“Challenge accepted.”
Chapter 13
Had she ever felt this sated? Frankie stretched out a hand and traced the curve of Ryan’s jaw, liking the rough abrasion on her fingertips. When he dropped his mouth to nip at her hand, she laughed and let him suck her pinkie finger inside his mouth.
“Why, Detective,” she chuckled, “I do believe you’ve found the one area on my body that hasn’t been thoroughly pleasured.”
“Mmmmm,” he said as he coiled his tongue around her finger before sucking in a thoroughly delicious way.
He played there exactly as he’d played with her nipples. And, come to think of it, he’d used a similar technique on her clit. And wow, it had been one amazing orgasm after another. She hadn’t thought she’d ever find a lover who matched her endurance, but he certainly lived up to her fantasies and then some.
“I’m going to start calling you Ryan,” she said. “Detective Kennedy is too much of a mouthful.”
He nipped at her finger before releasing it. “Seems to me your mouth can hold a lot.”
Wasn’t that true? Because whoa, he was a big guy in all areas. Probably the bear genetics, but she wasn’t complaining. She could have settled into sleep right then. God knows, her body needed rest, but she didn’t want their interlude to end yet. And if her life was ending soon, then she wanted to wring every moment of joy out of it first.
She rolled over until they were face-to-face.
“Can I ask you a question?”
He was on his side. His face had been resting against her upper arm, but had dropped to a pillow when she moved. Now he adjusted so he could match her position.
“What do you want to know?”
He was awake, alert, and open to talking with her. That was a surprise, especially since they’d already used another condom. Any other man would be snoring now. Since he wasn’t asleep, she wanted to deepen their connection. Even though she’d made it clear this was only for one night, she couldn’t resist learning more about him.
“You’re adopted, right?”
He nodded.
“But your parents aren’t shifters, are they? Did they know anything about what you are?”
“Not a thing. They still don’t like talking about, and they might not even really believe it. But I like to think it makes my mother feel better about me being a cop. Like I have an extra layer of protection because I can shift.”
“It is an extra layer of protection.”
He snorted. “Not against a bullet. And frankly, I’m better off as a man with a Kevlar vest on than I am as a bear. But it gives her comfort, and that’s a good thing.” Then he frowned. “Was that your question?”
“No. I’ve always wondered about your first shift. If you didn’t know anything about anything—”
“I didn’t.”
“Then how exactly did that go?”
“How often have you thought about this?”
She felt her face heat. Did she confess just how much she fantasized about him? “As someone who never shifted as a teen, I have a fascination with first shift stories.”
He nodded, accepting her explanation at face value. “All in all, I got really lucky. As a teenager, I was really antsy. I couldn’t sit still, couldn’t stop moving, always needed to be doing something. I barely slept, ate everything in sight, and needed something to occupy my mind all the time. The only place I felt a little at peace was in the woods.”
“Sounds like a typical shifter teen.”
“Yeah, but my parents didn’t know what to do with that. And my sister was as quiet as a mouse, so she was no help. Luckily, my grandfather liked to go fishing. My dad wasn’t much into it, but Grandpa loved it. He’d take me all over Michigan, and while he fished, I would prowl around.”
She adjusted her position so that their legs were touching. When that wasn’t enough, she entwined her legs with his. “Is that a bear thing? To go foraging in the woods?”
He teased his foot along her calf. “Wolves don’t do it?”
“Not alone. We’re all about group hunts. Packs of six or eight of us would go running together through the woods. All my favorite childhood memories are from doing that, before everyone started shifting, that is.”
“Did they still run as wolves?”
She nodded. “Then it became more about who was the fastest, biggest, meanest wolf. Even if they wanted a straight human with them—which they didn’t—it would be too dangerous. I would have gotten ripped to shreds. The only reason our teens survive is because they shift back to human when their wounds get too bad.”
He nodded. “The bears do some of that as teens, but it’s not important to us.” He raised his arms high as if he were an attacking bear. “Roar! I’m an evil bear! Oh, look at that. It’s a girl bear. Hi!” He dropped back down on the bed as he grinned at her. “I don’t know if it’s the human or the bear that’s so hyper-sexed. The minute we scent a female, it’s all about her. And girls don’t usually like big, bad bears. We’re too scary, even if she’s a shifter, too.”
“The big predators don’t need to show off their strength, but take it from a girl—we notice.” She stroked her knee up his thigh. “And we do appreciate it.”
He grinned at her. “That’s good to know.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “I’ve got a cabin in the UP. Come up there with me and I’ll get big bad bear on you.”
She laughed, and her heart beat with yearning. She couldn’t imagine anything more perfect than wandering around the UP with him. Bear or human, hybrid or vanilla woman, she wanted to wander the forest with him.
But she had to live through the next few days in order to get there. And the longer Noelle stayed silent, the more likely Frankie’s death became. But rather than give in to those darker thoughts, she reached out. Ryan’s penis was thick and heavy where it
lay against his flat belly. Not a full erection, but damn it was nice to stroke it. Large enough to hold on to, thick enough to fill her to bursting, and within easy reach.
The wolves she knew would never be this relaxed with her. Not enough to expose their belly and their organ to easy reach. Even with a lover, wolves had an ingrained guardedness. Pack culture led to a kind of hive mind at times, but instead of making intimacy more open, it had the opposite effect. Private things were guarded obsessively. Made it hard to reveal oneself even when one wanted to.
“Hey? What are you thinking?”
Her gaze hopped to his. And even though her hands were busy stroking him, his eyes were focused on her. “Nothing really. Why?”
“Your expression went sad.” He stroked a finger along her cheek. “We don’t have to go up to the UP if you don’t want to.” And with his other hand, he stilled her movements down below. “And you don’t have to distract me, either.”
Even if she was distracting herself?
He gently disentangled her fingers and brought them up to his mouth. “What’s going on in that very scary brain of yours?”
She arched a brow. “Scary brain? What are you talking about?”
He rolled his eyes. “Maybe I haven’t been stalking you for years, but I noticed you. I’ve never seen anyone keep as many balls in the air as you do. You were the force behind the community center. I know you managed the books for the wolves after you got your CPA license. I’m just figuring out how many people you support in wolf territory, and I know you’ve been trying to get a free clinic off the ground. Any one of those would be a full-time job, but you’re doing all of it. Easily.”
“Not easily.”
“It looks it.” His eyes narrowed. “Just how much does Emory take for granted?”
“A lot,” she said softly, inordinately pleased that he’d noticed. Ever since she’d turned hybrid, the need to be seen for who she was burned especially bright. Like an itch under her skin that she couldn’t get to. Until him. His words, his understanding, even his gaze told her that he saw her. And that soothed her as nothing and no one else ever had.
Oh hell. It would be so easy to fall in love with him. A wolf head over heels for a bear was bad enough—the jokes alone would be humiliating—but she intended to take over her pack. She’d never become alpha with a bear by her side. No one would follow her.
Meanwhile, he was still pressing to find out about her place in the pack. “Do the wolves know how much you do for them?”
She smiled. “The women know what I do. They’re my main support and my connection to what the men are doing.”
He nodded. “Smart.”
“And my father takes it all for granted. Everything.” She sighed. “Or maybe he sees it, but can’t acknowledge it. What I do is usually reserved for the alpha female.”
“Your mother isn’t up to it?”
She shook her head. “My mother is in upstate New York hanging out with her friends. She only comes back for special pack events and when my father insists. It wasn’t a marriage for love. They had good genetics, and I’m told they were super hot for each other once upon a time. But Mom never really wanted to be a mother. After three kids, she got her tubes tied without even telling Dad. After that, he lost interest in her.”
“Because she couldn’t have kids?”
“I guess. He’s always been about the pack. Having strong kids to hold it together is his driving force.” She sighed, the memories making her melancholy. “They made an effort with each other when we were younger but gave up after Hunter died. She moved to New York, and we don’t even see her at Christmas anymore.”
“Ouch.” He wrinkled his nose. “My mother is all about the holidays. Decorations galore. Family dinners. She buys us ugly sweaters and makes us wear them.”
She smiled, seeing the way his expression softened as he spoke. “You love it.”
“No, I love her. I wouldn’t dream of spoiling a holiday for her. But between you and me, the sweaters suck.”
She idly caressed his jaw as she studied the minute contours of his face. Hazel had once said that if she wanted to know how a man would treat his wife, all you had to do was look at how he acted toward his mother. A kind son meant a kind husband. An angry, resentful son meant a bitter, abusive husband. It was obvious that Ryan cherished his mother, which meant his wife was in for a treat her whole life long.
Meanwhile, his thoughts were obviously elsewhere. “So your mom left and you became alpha female.”
She snorted. “I wish. I never shifted as a teen, so that honor fell to my cousin’s stepmother Mrs. Olivia Merriman.”
“Sounds like you don’t like her.”
She flopped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. “Oh, she’s nice enough. Lazy and scatterbrained, but she’s actually a very nice person.”
“So why do people follow her?”
“Because she’s a full shifter, and her husband is a badass. He tells her what to do and say, and people go along with it.”
“While you do all the real work of the clan.”
She winced slightly at his terminology. “We’re a pack, not a clan. And I’m hoping that people remember how much I do for everyone.”
“Of course, they will. You underestimate your impact.”
And he underestimated pack prejudice. The most important thing for an alpha was to be a full shifter. It was a symbol of his or her strength. She wasn’t and never would be. But rather than wander in that depressing direction, she rolled back to face him.
“You didn’t finish your first shift story,” she said. “Tell me what happened.”
“Nothing all that unusual.” His lips curved as he spoke, showing that it was a good memory. “Like lots of kids, I shifted in the middle of the night. A dream triggered it, I think. I was camping with my grandfather and suddenly I was this bear in a sleeping bag going crazy inside the tent. My grandfather started screaming and I was roaring. Then I got scared and ran. Ended up by the river in Gladwin State Park. There’s a grizzly clan there who watches the area. Lots of Michigan shifters are drawn to the river, and so they were ready for me.”
“Was it spring?” That’s when new shifters tended to change, and then they went searching for their home place. Like salmon swimming to their place of birth, new shifters went to the place where their genetics began. Apparently for him, that was in Gladwin.
“Yeah. And I was damn lucky that we were camping nearby. I ended up in the river, roaring at my reflection, when some of the local shifters started talking to me. I’ll never forget it. Mrs. Lansky snapped at me to remember I was a person and just get dressed.” He chuckled. “I was a bear, and she was talking to me like I was a kid late for school.”
“So you changed back?”
“I did. Buck naked and sitting in freezing water. She wrapped me in a blanket, gave me a Tupperware bowl of meatloaf, and then I fell asleep in their truck. I was still asleep when they found my grandfather and brought him to me. Wish I’d been awake for the conversation when they brought him up to speed. By the time I was up and searching for breakfast, he was telling me how I’d nearly given him a heart attack and my mother was never going to believe it.” He cocked a brow at her. “She did, by the way, but I had to shift right in front of her.”
“I’ll bet that was fun.” How she’d longed for the moment when she could go wolf in front of her family. It was a major achievement in any werewolf’s life.
“Teenage boys do not like being naked in front of their mothers,” he said sternly. But then he softened into a smile. “But yeah, except for the naked part, I did love it. My sister even screamed.”
“But they accepted you?”
He hedged as his gaze canted away. “They love me. We’re good like that. But they’re not real comfortable with the paranormal.”
“So they don’t accept who you are deep inside. I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “Maybe they’ll change if there are grandchildren.” She heard lo
nging in his voice. He wanted kids and a family who loved him for exactly who he was. That was something they had in common. At least he still had hope. As for her, she’d always be the disappointment in her family because she wasn’t a full shifter. Meanwhile her mind skittered back over his words. She’d followed his career closely, but maybe she hadn’t heard about a girlfriend.
“Do you have a woman in mind to help with that?” For all that she tried to sound casual, she hated that her voice was tight with jealousy.
His eyes widened. “You thought I’d sleep with you while dating someone else? You must really hate bears.”
She felt her face heat. “No, I don’t. I just haven’t gotten to know one before. Certainly not like this.”
He seemed to accept her words, though his expression was still stiff. “For the record, I don’t have a girlfriend. I gave up on dating a couple years ago. It’s hard enough finding someone who would love a cop, try explaining cop and shifter to a woman.”
“I hear that,” she said. “I don’t date outside of the shifter community and the last time I had a date was before my brother died.”
They fell into a silence and she thought they might be heading toward sleep until he stroked his hand over her arm. “Your turn. What happened with your first shift?”
She frowned, not understanding the question. “Nothing happened. I never shifted as a teen. Just many, many nights hoping and praying for something that never came.”
“But it did come. You’re a hybrid.”
She shuddered. That was not a memory she wanted to relive. But he’d asked, and she wanted to keep this intimacy even if it was for only one night. “My brother Hunter was always supposed to be the new alpha. He was a strong shifter, smart with money, and people liked him. I would have been happy to support him.”
“But then he died.”
Or Raoul killed him. “Normally, the alpha mantle would go next to Raoul. He’s smart and strong, but my father sees his faults. Dad would support my leadership if I was a full shifter since there’s nothing to stop a she-wolf from running a pack, but I never changed.” She grimaced. “I’m hoping he’ll say a hybrid is good enough.”