by Keri Hudson
Abigail leaned back, reaching back and supporting herself with her lean arms taut by her sides and behind her. She grabbed his powerful legs just above the knees, fingers digging in as her hips became a pale blur above him. She bit into her lower lip, eyes dipping shut as she panted her breath through her nostrils.
Caleb shook his hips and resumed his own rotation, playing against Abigail’s aggressive pumping. Something seemed to have been released in sweet Abigail Sanderson, her inner beast, and now she wanted it to run free. And it only drove Caleb’s desire for her to new heights. She was truly a unique and incredible young woman, and he couldn’t wait to see what else she would reveal of herself as their years went on. But for some things, he wouldn’t have to wait that long.
She squeezed his thighs, fingers clawing in, nails sending little stinging needles of pain into his muscles, teasing him with her increasing strength.
Abigail started grunting as she kept churning and pumping, her chest rising and falling with her increased panting, breasts jiggling in front of her. She shook her head, red curls flying, lips curled in a sexy snarl.
Caleb’s strong hands rubbed her firm thighs, fingers pressing in as he traced their curves, up and down.
Abigail leaned forward and pressed her hands against his hardened pecs. She was a sweet weight on him, and she leaned down with all her weight. Her hips ground with greater flurry, taking him in even deeper than ever before. Her gorgeous legs were splayed on either side of his narrow waist, pumping faster as her moans came louder. Her human self seemed to recede to the animal within—no longer the sweet and demure nanny, but the primal beast which had been buried for too long.
Abigail dragged her clawed fingers across his chest, tearing away streaks of his skin, pain sinking just a bit deeper and lingering just a bit longer. She clawed at him like a wild animal, her panted breath becoming bestial grunts, teeth flashing like the predator she seemed to be becoming.
Caleb’s hips pushed up, her body bobbing on his extended manhood. It was a fantastic collision of flesh and will, and it wasn’t over yet.
Abigail curled up her fists and started dropping them down on Caleb’s chest, the vibrations pushing through his upper body. Another hard punch delighted Caleb’s senses, his orgasm roiling inside him, craving a release. His self-control could propel him through an hour or more of watching that angel wriggling on top of him, but he was also capable of another round and then another. But the second or third couldn’t come without ending the first.
In any case, Abigail seemed to be leading in that dance, and Caleb was more than happy to follow. The punches came faster and harder until Caleb’s own instincts kicked in. She was testing the limits, and he was ready to test her as well. His hands reached out to grab her forearms, holding her. But she struggled, pulling and writhing to free herself. Caleb held tight, and she clearly liked it, even loved it. She pulled, but she didn’t want him to let go. She tried to punch down, but she was glad he was stopping her; he could sense it in her, feel it in her, as if they were reading each other’s minds and bodies. But containment inspired whimpered croaks as her newfound power was stymied to obviously incredible effect. She pulled and ground and grunted and whimpered until her body trembled with the conflict. Caleb could feel Abigail’s orgasm exploding inside her, overwhelming her from within. Seeing that gorgeous face erupting in ecstasy triggered Caleb’s own release. Each of them ground and pounded harder and then froze, bodies quivering. Abigail’s eyes rolled back into her head, lips pressed together and tears rolling down her cheeks.
Caleb’s muscles contracted, pulling nearly to the breaking point, tendons straining to hold onto the bones. His toes twitched at the end of his rolling feet, hips slowly lowering to the mattress as relaxation finally swept over them.
Abigail leaned forward and onto his chest, red hair damp with her sweat as she rested her lovely face on his pecs, red with scratches, little bruises threatening to rise. He savored the feeling of her gentle weight on him as she cooed and curled her right leg up over his. She was a cuddlesome treasure, and Caleb took a deep breath of their mutual musk to revitalize him. He would give them both the chance to recover before taking her again, pushing her to new heights and reaching new depths, drawing them closer with every breath. Abigail was evolving, and Caleb was eager to watch her evolution, and to share it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Caleb sat at the dining room table, eating a sumptuous breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, hickory-smoked maple bacon, freshly baked blueberry muffins that wafted up steam when they were broken open, coffee and juices of three sorts including orange, apple, and carrot.
Jonathan glanced at Caleb and Abigail, more times than seemed necessary. Caleb wasn’t about to bring it up, as he knew the great man was going to sooner or later.
“Well,” Jonathan finally said, “I suppose it’s time to start thinking about the future.” Caleb and Abigail shared a glance, then looked back at Jonathan. Even Daniel seemed intrigued. He went on, “You’re my new head of security, Caleb… if you’ve accepted the position.”
After another glance at Abigail, he answered, “I have, with gratitude. I don’t think you’ll have need of much security now, if I may be honest.”
Jonathan shot him a little look, one brow raised, before he said, “Yes, well… I’ve been thinking of another business trip, an extended trip to South America. I’ll need my head of security with me at virtually all times, I’m afraid.”
This pulled Caleb and Abigail’s knowing attention to one another again, with more urgency than ever. One look into those flashing green eyes told Caleb that Abigail knew what this meant.
“Of course,” Jonathan went on, as if he had to, “Abigail here will have to stay behind, with Daniel.”
A long, mean stillness swirled around the table. Jonathan wore a little snicker, as if he’d outwitted Caleb and Abigail and even destiny itself.
Not this time.
“Then I resign,” Caleb said.
Abigail’s wide eyes and high red brows told Caleb how worried she was, Daniel’s instinctive panic only fueling her own.
“You know what that means,” Jonathan said. “If you leave, you’re gone… right here, right now.”
Caleb knew the gambit. Forcing Caleb to quit would force him off the property, leaving Jonathan to change his mind and stay to do as he pleased. Abigail’s dedication to Daniel was going to make it hard for her to follow Caleb, no matter how strongly she felt about her new lover. If Caleb stayed, he’d be dragged across Europe, perhaps lured into a death trap.
Missus Armstrong never came back, after all, a thought that clung to the back of Caleb’s brain.
But it was Abigail who broke the deadlock. “I’ll have to reconsider my employ,” she said, hoping the formality of the wording would help it slip by Daniel’s notice. The boy sat eating, looking on with interest but apparent confusion.
“Really?” Jonathan looked Abigail over. “You’ve been quite a valuable member of the staff here, Abigail.”
“She’s more than just staff,” Caleb said, “at least she should be, to you or anyone.”
“She could be as much to me as she wished to be,” Jonathan said.
Lulu stepped out from the house, sheepish and wide-eyed. “Master Armstrong, suh?”
Jonathan turned, like some slave owner from bygone times. “Yes, Lulu. The breakfast was excellent, by the way.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it, suh, but… I have to quit, suh. I’m sorry, but… I just can’t stay, suh.”
“Lulu,” Jonathan said, turning with what seemed like genuine surprise. “What’s brought this on?”
Lulu looked at Caleb, and no further explanation was needed. She’d clearly never come across such a thing as a shifter before, and she’d been nervous and superstitious enough as it was. So the news didn’t take Caleb by surprise, and he could hardly blame her. He half expected old Edith Mott to be leaving with her.
But Jonathan didn’t see
m so understanding. “Lulu… we have an agreement.”
“I know that, suh, but… I just gotta go, I gotta go!”
Jonathan stood and turned. “First my wife, then these two, and now you? Edith! Edith!”
Edith scurried out behind Lulu, clearly not needing any explanation for the call. “I’m here for you, Master Armstrong, whatever you want.”
Caleb said, “There’s no real reason Lulu shouldn’t be able to leave, Jonathan… unless she’s taking a secret with her.”
“Excuse me?”
“The same secret your… your business took to Europe, that you went to… to resolve.” Caleb glanced at Daniel, certain that Jonathan understood his discretion. Abigail and the other women looked on in growing tension. Caleb went on, “The secret you had to make sure your… your business never leaked to the public. Lulu knows that secret now, she’s seen it up close, and you know that. Or… or do you? Maybe she knew before you left, and you knew that! She said the place wouldn’t let her go, and now I think I know what she means.”
“You know nothing,” Jonathan said, his voice low and cool, Abigail watching them both with pitched focus.
“I know everything I need to know. You finished your business in Europe, because it threatened to leak your secret. But there’s only one secret that we could be talking about, Jonathan, isn’t there?”
“Now you listen to me, Mr. Kahr. You all listen to me! I’m the master of this household, it bears my name!”
“And your son’s name,” Caleb interjected.
Jonathan pointed an angry index finger at Caleb’s face. “It’s his name when I die, Caleb! Until then, it’s my name and my family and I do what I want with it!”
“They’re people, not objects,” Caleb responded calmly.
“They’re whatever I say they are! And you, my friend, are obsolete in this house and in my employ in any capacity!”
Caleb shrugged. “Very well.”
“Very well,” Jonathan repeated, turning to look at Abigail and Daniel and Lulu and Edith, everybody looking on in silent shock.
Daniel said, “May I go to the bathroom?”
“Please do,” Jonathan said, eyes fixed on Caleb as the boy got up and crossed the living room to the bathroom.
Jonathan said to Caleb, “I’ll show you all very well! Things around here will go as I direct, and then they’ll be very well! Lulu, we signed a contract… you can’t escape it.”
“You don’t own her,” Caleb said.
“The hell I don’t!” He turned to Abigail. “And you… you’re staying here, whatever this… this mercenary here does.”
“No,” Abigail said, “I won’t! You’re horrible!”
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
“Not in front of the boy,” Caleb said.
“Don’t tell me how to behave in front of my own son! You’ve got a lot of nerve. Your brother had it too. You go around like you’re better than everyone else.”
“I’m better than you,” Caleb said without pause, doubt, or fear.
“Are you sure you want to find out?”
“Whenever you’re ready, old man.”
Abigail held her hands out between them once more. “Gentlemen, please, we’ve been through this!”
“No, we haven’t,” Jonathan said to Abigail as he eyed Caleb. “Maybe that’s the problem.”
“Maybe that was the problem with your… your business in Europe… and with my brother.”
****
The shifter crashed through the doors from the backyard into the living room, glass shards from the shattered glass doors flying. Abigail screamed, and so did Lulu before running back into the kitchen and slamming the door behind her.
Caleb glanced at Abigail, terror on her gorgeous face, before they both turned to look at the bathroom door, where Daniel was beyond their reach. Both knew what Caleb would be doing next; it would be up to Abigail to get Daniel safely away from that monster while Caleb engaged in a death battle with the big ursine.
Abigail and Edith each ran from the table but in different directions as Caleb jumped on to the table, shifting in midjump. His four paws hit the big table, pushing away the plates and glasses. Already in his full lupine form, he readied to pounce on the ursine.
But before he leapt, Caleb couldn’t help but notice Jonathan standing just a few feet away. He’d shifted too, a big and burly lupine standing where he’d been, his clothes in scraps on the floor beneath him.
The ursine sized them both up. It reared up on its hind legs to display that incredible mass of muscle and fat and hairy hide, long black claws reaching out from the ends of brawny paws. It opened up its huge mouth to reveal long, white teeth and pink gums, jowls curling as it threw out a blood-curdling roar.
Abigail had wound up in a corner of the dining room, where she’d be trapped if she didn’t get out of there. But Caleb knew he couldn’t be worrying about Abigail. His attention was distracted enough by the revelation that Jonathan was a shifter, as he’d guessed; that meant Daniel was a shifter. Daniel was bringing the ursine in Jonathan’s absence. That meant he was in mortal danger from that ursine, who was making a move on them all in what seemed like an assault of deliberate desperation.
Edith was closer to the bathroom, but she was nearly paralyzed from fear. She was standing by the staircase, and when the ursine roared again, the old woman turned and waddled up the stairs, shaking her head and muttering what sounded like prayers to God.
Jonathan circled around the big living room to the ursine’s right. Caleb took the left flank, and the ursine seemed to know a charge would be necessary to prevent from being caught in a pincer attack.
The ursine attacked Jonathan first, who happened to be nearest to it. The big bear lurched, swiping its front right paw at Jonathan, roaring with every swipe. Jonathan snapped his jaws, jutting forward and back with every bite. He ducked the big beast’s swipes, but the ursine was driving him back fast, and it wouldn’t be long before the elder lupine was pinned and would be mauled the way Carl had been.
Caleb leapt from the dining table and flew across the room. But the ursine had seen him coming and retaliated, spinning and hitting Caleb hard with the back of his left front paw. The creature had incredible strength, and the blow aborted Caleb’s charge. It hit him hard, sending him flying back and into a corner of the room. Caleb smashed into a hutch, glass breaking behind him and cutting into his hide, shattered china falling among the splintered mahogany.
Abigail was staying low, inching around the proximity of the room, obviously hoping to stay out of the ursine’s purview. But her attention was on Caleb, her progress stopped as she looked at him with new concern. Caleb pulled himself up from the wreckage and shook it off. He glanced at Abigail and released a loud howl to signal her that he was still ready for battle and that she should progress toward the bathroom.
Daniel had been in there a long time, and Caleb knew he’d heard the sounds of battle. He’d already seen enough action at Armstrong House to know what was going on, and he was clearly doing the right thing by staying out of sight. But he was also trapped in that little room, he had to know that. If the big shifter got to him in there, he’d have no chance.
And his father seemed to realize that too, growling and launching an attack on his big adversary. Jonathan jumped onto the ursine’s back, biting into the back of the neck, the hump, anywhere he could get a purchase on the big bear. The ursine growled and shook as Jonathan delivered a series of vicious bites, each time digging deeper, shaking and pulling the meat from the bone.
The ursine spun, turning its head to bite at Jonathan’s hind legs. If he clamped down, he could either pull him off or pull the leg right off Jonathan’s body. But Jonathan was skirting the defense, working his way toward the ursine’s vulnerable vertebrae.
Caleb saw an opening and charged again. He knew it would never be a decisive strike, but it would fatigue the animal into weakness to where it could be finished off. And the move would further
distract the ursine from Abigail as she slowly made her way around the walls toward the bathroom.
Caleb charged for the ursine’s rear. But the bear roared out its impatience with Jonathan’s attack and spun again, stopping short to throw Jonathan off his back. Jonathan flew across the living room and straight into Caleb, both lupines tumbling back in a tangle of limbs and jaws.
They recovered quickly, each lupe turning their attention to the ursine. The ursine looked from them to Abigail, clearly making the quick choice of who to attack. The two lupines were compromised, the girl was exposed, and the boy shifter was unprotected in the bathroom. But the ursine made its choice and jumped at Abigail. She was just passing the staircase, and she turned to climb them. The ursine landed on the bottom stairs with such force that it punched through them, forelimbs plunging into the shattered wood.
Abigail made it to the first landing, scrambling to keep running as the ursine wrestled to free itself.
Caleb saw his opening and Jonathan clearly saw the same thing. They charged at the ursine together, leaping onto the beast’s back, Jonathan at the still-open neck wound, Caleb tearing at the ursine’s backside. But their combined weight only pushed all three all the way through the fractured staircase and into the darkened space beneath.
The three creatures rolled and tumbled in a blind clash of teeth biting and claws ripping. The bear rolled, both Jonathan and Caleb scrambling to stay out from underneath that crushing weight. But even without sight, instincts and his other senses told Caleb what was happening, second by second.
The stench was thick in that darkened chamber, musk and blood and breath as teeth bit down, those terrible claws slashing and the crushing weight rolling. The three hit a wall hard, but it was no contest against their combined weight and force. The dark was quickly replaced by the bright light of the kitchen, the three smashing into the island in the center of the room.
Lulu screamed, leaning back against the counter, eyes wide with terror. She climbed up onto the counter, knees tucked up in front of her as the three massive beasts tangled in mortal combat.