“I’d say that’s a relief, but Chloë will keep on regardless. She thinks because her mother’s the mayor here she shits gold. Mother will undoubtedly find a replacement,” he muttered gloomily. “And I knew Chloë was behind this farce today, so you’ll have to work harder to shock me.”
“Who’s Mr. Positive, eh?”
He snorted. “I’m not feeling positive at all. You wouldn’t either if you’d just been drugged, then spent the last few hours being pricked and prodded with needles.”
“Bet you’re glad I sucked you off this morning, right? That definitely has to be the high point of your day.”
He laughed. “Only you could say that.”
“That’s because I rock. I’m the best wife in the world, aren’t I? I mean, who else would give their husband a blowjob in the middle of the working day just to relax them? That’s taking wifely dedication to the nth degree!”
At her teasing, he chuckled and bussed her forehead. “I’m a very lucky man.”
“You have that damned straight.”
“I owe you millions and millions.”
She burrowed deeper into his arms. “I’ll just take you, whole and healthy. Screw the millions.”
He stilled. She actually felt his arms tense as they embraced her. With one hand, he nudged her chin and kept on until she was looking him straight in the eye. His own gaze was slightly misty as he said, “You really mean that. Don’t you?”
Lia smiled up at him. “Why does that come as a surprise?”
He shook his head, but his own smile was definitely gritted. “My mother never ceases to make me feel like I’m nothing more than genetic material. DNA that carries her bloodlines and that I have to pass on to the appropriate broodmare. Which makes me a stallion.”
She sniggered. “You are listening to yourself, aren’t you?”
Caden glowered at her. “I’m being serious! She does. And to her, I am. I’m sick of that. It’s nice, in fact, no, it’s fucking wonderful to know that you want me for me. Nothing more, nothing less.”
His somber tone played on her guilt. “Oh, baby, didn’t you know that already? Christ, I wouldn’t have married you if I hadn’t felt that way. I’ve had nothing, Caden, and don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to go back to those days, but I’ve survived it once and I’d survive it again. Take away the money, the apartment, and the stuff, I’d be fine, but I don’t think I could survive losing you.
“I never want to go through what I went through this afternoon. Your mother didn’t even have the decency to contact me. When you didn’t make it back to the office, I had to call around. Your dad told me, and only then when the ambulance was pulling up outside the damn clinic!”
“Christ, I’m so sorry, Lia.”
“No, don’t be. It doesn’t matter. I realized that today. She doesn’t have to like me. She never has to like me, and I don’t care, so long as we’re together. That’s all that counts.”
He lowered his head, pressing a kiss to her lips. “Forever sounds good to me.”
She sighed, the gentle gust of air brushing his lips. “To me, too.”
Chapter Seven
Three days later
Lia’s hands scrambled at Caden’s shirt as she tugged at the buttons, trying to pull the two sides apart and failing. She tried harder, relieved when the buttons gave way, leaving behind delicious expanses of skin that made her fingers tingle, and surrounding them with sounds of pinging as the shrapnel fell to the ground.
His lips ate at hers, and she devoured his. They were hungry, ravenous. Their tongues thrust against each other, simulating what their sexes would be doing in mere minutes. She groaned in expectation, then panted as his hands, still cupping her face and holding her lips to his, tilted her head so he could fuck her mouth a little more.
Her fingers gripped his belly, delighting in the corrugated ridges of muscle gathered there. The tips plied the tensile strength before dropping down to his belt. She unfastened it, pulled it apart and then attacked his zipper. When his hands dropped away from her face to fall down to her hips, she moaned as he started to lift up her skirt, dragging it higher and higher up the columns of her thighs. When it lodged above her panties, and stayed, she cried out with relief when his fingers moved behind the thin material covering her pussy.
Seconds later, the sound of fabric tearing made her eardrums throb with the knowledge of what was to come. When those strong digits slid down between the lips of her sex, she choked on a breath and pulled her lips from his. She needed to breathe, needed to absorb his touch.
Only four days ago, she hadn’t been sure if she’d ever be able to do this again. Now, she wanted to both savor it and fuck him until his head spun. The two sides were at war, and she knew going slow wasn’t a possibility. Not with everything in her crying out to have him deep inside her.
He rubbed her clit with the tips of two fingers, gently sliding around the nub, caressing the outer edge. Her pelvis rocked forward when his other hand speared her cunt with three fingers. And his hands were big...those digits felt huge inside her, and it seemed to have been a lifetime since she’d last taken him.
She started to scrabble at his fly again, dragging the zipper down seemed to take an age, but she persevered. It was hard to concentrate on anything but the sensations he was forcing her to experience, but she wanted him, hot and heavy in her hands, and she refused to wait. When bare flesh finally met bare flesh, she grunted, then keened as he finally began to frig her clit at a fast clip that had her standing on her tip toes.
In punishment, she grabbed his shaft and pressed down, holding him tightly in her grasp. It was his turn to pant as she carefully slid her hand down and started to jack him off. He stumbled back, the door slamming to a close behind him, a loud reminder that they hadn’t actually bothered to shut it before they’d begun tearing at each other’s clothes.
“Fuck me!” she demanded, her aggression making her glower up at him, urging him to obey.
His grin was cocky, self-satisfied. A taunt. “You want me, you fucking come and get me.”
He removed his hands from her cunt, and she looked at them, saw the glistening flesh. It was instinctive to reach for his hand and to raise it to her mouth. She slurped at her juices, tasted herself, swirled her tongue around his fingers and sucked down hard, and watched as her act had his cocky grin vanishing.
Just like that, the emotion between them turned charged. Heated. It had been intense seconds before, but now, she’d challenged him. And he pounced.
Literally.
From standing upright at the door, she was suddenly on the bed. Belly down. Ass in the air. He was close, but not inches from her, not covering her like she wanted.
Her ears were working overtime, trying to figure out what he was doing, and she heard the gentle whistle as his hand sailed through the air and slapped against her bare butt cheek. She grunted, wriggled, but let him spank the other side. When he tried to do it again, she reared up, turned her head to glare at him, but his eyes were dark, stormy. She knew that look, knew what it promised.
He bent over her slightly, then, grabbed her hair. It hurt, and she cried out as he pulled, tugging at the roots. The position arched her back and she hissed when his cock suddenly appeared at the wet folds guarding her cunt. He burrowed through, the glans breaching her pussy, before he speared deep, claiming her every inch with his long shaft.
She didn’t have time to do more than moan when he spanked her again. She had to brace herself as his hand continuously clapped at her behind. With every thrust, he peppered the soft flesh until it was sore, and she knew it would be bright red. Glowing.
But on he continued. Fucking her hard, fast, and rough. Spanking her hard, fast, and rough. Taking her as he needed to take her, and inadvertently giving her just what she craved.
Before Caden, she’d liked it slow. Gentle. A few candles burning away, soft music.
With Caden, she needed everything he had to give.
When he released
his grasp on her ponytail, her head sank into the covers. When his hand moved between her legs, her head reared back up again. She stared blindly at the opposite wall as he rimmed the tight hole of her cunt with seeking fingers. The butt of his hand slammed up against her clit with every thrust, and within seconds, she began to see stars. The pain from her ass started to slide overhead, she didn’t notice it in the white noise of his touch. When he stopped, her body took note, but she didn’t. Not really. Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes as her senses started to take over, as the pleasure he was building in her was on the brink of hitting the precipice and tumbling her over the edge.
When one thick finger sank into her butt, the action almost uncomfortable as he hadn’t lubed it with her juices, and another one slid into her cunt, fighting for room with his cock still lodged deep, he then pressed down against the digit in her ass, and she fell.
And fell.
And fell.
She heard her cries, heard the hoarse gasps, the pleas, but they came from somewhere else. She heard him, heard his own grunts and groans. But none of it mattered. Not even her own climax. Not until his.
Every part of her waited, on tenterhooks, as he continued to fuck her. His thrusts becoming thready, out of sync. Her sight changed, shifted, became more hungry. More focused. Her nails gripped the sheets so hard, she heard them tear.
Then, she felt that splash of seed deep inside her, so small a sensation she doubted anyone else would have sensed it. But she did, and it was all she needed to take her soaring.
She’d tumbled over before, sinking to the ground, but now, she flew.
Thanks to Caden, she rode the wind as hard as he’d ridden her, and with that sensation of soaring came more power than she’d ever known before.
How long it took to get back under control, Caden didn’t know. His lungs seemed to take hours to switch back online, to start breathing again at a steady pace. His heart banged in his chest like a piston, and his brain was whacked by the intensity of those moments with his mate.
She always did that to him. Took him to the edge. More often than not, he had no choice but to fuck her from behind. A part of him always shifted when they fucked. He couldn’t help it. She sapped at his control until it was impossible not to let everything go, not to give her everything.
This time, it had been his face. He’d felt his jaw shift, elongate. Could taste the blood in his mouth from the fangs that had torn through his gums. And his eyes, his eyes had seen his mate’s wriggling body, as he speared her with his cock, in sepia.
He held himself inside her for as long as he could. It was their way. More chance of impregnation, even though she was already pregnant. Their cocks stayed hard even after they’d come so that they could act as the proverbial plug. Wolves had the barb that locked them to their mates. Lions had a harder dick for longer.
When his eyes shifted back, they took in the gloomy room around him. It was enough to piss him off again, which was the real reason behind fucking his mate so roughly. His anger at his mother.
Lia had led him to her room, taking him past the best suites in the house on the fourth floor, leading him down to the servants’ quarters.
He’d seen red. That his mate, the eventual owner of this house, was being stored away where not even the maids slept anymore—they all lived in their own homes, which was only right in this so-called age of enlightenment—had made him want to tear his mother apart.
Lia had stopped him from storming off by kissing him. Which had degenerated into a hard fuck that would probably have Lia crossing her legs for the next few hours.
Grimacing at the thought, he pulled his shaft out carefully, rejecting custom to see to her comfort. His cock was still hard, and the instant he pulled free, he watched his cum start to seep from her cunt. The sight shot his blood pressure through the roof, and took his thoughts away from his mother. He pulled in a rough gasp of air, and forced himself to concentrate. There was no way he could take Lia again, not even if his cock was already hard enough to hammer nails.
He sucked it in, told his cock to stop whining, then pulled in the scent of him and Lia. That both calmed him and added to his tension. Another pep talk to his dick and Caden gently leaned forward to collect his limp mate. Sagged into the mattress the way she was, he knew he’d done a good job. He winced at the sight of her sore ass, decided against moving her, and headed through the shitty bedroom toward the connecting bath.
It was disgusting. The entire charade was. That his mother had placed Lia there once again astounded him. He pushed the thought aside, knowing that he had to maintain his temper and see to his mate.
He eyed the cracked and chipped tiles, the old, creaky plumbing, and the pockmarked mirror, to reach for the bottle of lotion she had perched on the sink. Grabbing it, he returned to his mate and started to smooth the cream into her behind. She moaned at the cold touch, then wriggled as the lotion obviously worked some magic on her sore butt. He didn’t spank her often, only when the beast was riding him hard. And it had ridden him as hard as he’d ridden her.
He could feel remorse for that, taking her so roughly, but any feelings of regret were always lessened by how high he managed to take her. Her powerful orgasms quenched any guilt he might have. Arrogant, maybe, but hell, he was a Lion. What else could be expected?
After rubbing the cream into her butt, he lifted her up and arranged her on the bed. She curled onto her side, hands tucked under her head, looking more angelic than he’d ever seen her. Lia was tired, he recognized that now. He’d noticed it before, but in the harsh lights of the clinic, everyone looked like shit. Even his beautiful mate. Her eyes were rimmed with dark circles and her breathing was slow and steady, speaking of a deep and true slumber.
He pulled half the sheets away from his side of the bed and covered her with them. When she burrowed deeper into her cocoon, he knew she was out for the count, and would be for God knew how long.
Caden studied her a little longer. Taking in the minute details that, as a whole, made up the uniqueness of his mate. The long, curling lashes, the faint laughter lines at the side of her mouth that turned into a punch-to-the-gut dimple when she smiled. He saw the ring he’d placed on her finger in the human tradition, a ring that marked her as his. He sucked in a breath through his nose, pulling in her essence, a scent that he’d marked with his own, claiming her in the way of his kind.
On the bed, wrapped in the sheets, was his future. Was everything he’d ever wanted, and now, she was carrying his baby. She was the future.
It was time to stop pussyfooting around. It was time to stop his mother from interfering, from damaging his relationship with the woman who counted. With every act of disrespect to Lia, with every tiny bit of rejection she flung his mate’s way, any loyalty Caden had to his mother was dissipating. This was not the way of his kind. Males were made to lick ass every goddamn day of their lives, made to ingratiate themselves with the females. He’d seen this in his father. Watched as Christopher accepted his lot in life. The lot of a kept male. Allowed to keep a business to entertain him and keep him out of trouble, like he was a cub in need of play toys.
Caden would not be treated like that. And he would not allow his mother to make his mate’s life miserable. Not anymore.
This room, giving her a bed in the servants’ quarters, was the last time Eloise Drummond would ever shame his mate.
Mouth firmed with resolve, he headed to the shower, grimacing as he stepped into the gritty cubicle. He adjusted the dripping faucets and cleaned himself off. After, he covered himself with a bath towel, and left his sleeping mate to rest.
Uncaring of his semi-nudity because nudity was par for the course in their world, he headed downstairs. He took in the childhood home that had been more mausoleum than a great place to grow up. He hadn’t been here in years. Mostly because of Lia, because Anchor was Lion Shifter Central. It was not a place to take a human mate. But also, because he had no desire to be here. To visit this particular house or
this town.
He had made peace with his Lion a long time ago. Even the animal, as bestial as it was, accepted that for him to be happy, he had to be in the city. That meant being trapped inside the human half more often than not, and yet, the Lion had conceded, the only effect of being forever shrouded was an aggression that came out to play in the courthouse. It was why he was so damned successful.
Until Lia, the courtroom had been his only release. Even the goddamn beast had known that Anchor was not his place in the world. Caden Drummond was many things, but subservient was not one of them.
Passing countless precious antiques, works of art that would make even the most prolific of collectors get a hard-on, he ignored them all. He’d been raised with a wealth most couldn’t even begin to comprehend. It had never affected him. He’d never allowed it to corrupt him, to be his all.
Even as a lawyer, in a corporate firm, he took cases that protected the little man. The underdog. They were his specialty.
It was a bone of contention between his mother and him, because she couldn’t control him with money. It would have been so much easier for her if she could have done.
Once again, he wondered why she’d taken steps to give him independence when it had been in her best interests to keep him cowed and forever reliant on her.
As he moved down the stairs, he kept his ears tuned for the sounds of noise. On the second floor, he hit pay dirt. She was in her dressing room. He could hear her talking on the phone.
Heading down the landing, he didn’t bother to knock. She’d have heard him coming, too. He opened the door, caught her eye, saw her nod, and stepped inside. She glanced at him as she finished her conversation. Her mouth quirked up at the side, as she saw and absorbed his aggressive stance.
That was one thing about his mother he’d never understand. She wanted him to conform, she wanted to mold him, and she behaved in outrageous ways to make him do just that. Yet, when he rebelled, she enjoyed it.
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