by Lauren Wood
She slid her hands down his body and squeezed his sex. He was large and hard, and she could only moan when she thought of it inside her.
“Sage,” he said hoarsely. “This is going to be over before it starts if you keep doing that.”
She giggled and released him. He settled his weight over hers and probed at her entrance. She lifted her knees in response.
“Sage? Are you sure you want to do this? There’s no going back,” he muttered as he skimmed his mouth over hers.
She knew what he was talking about, but she didn’t want to think about it. She only wanted to enjoy him. “Inside me,” she muttered. “Now.”
He grunted and slid just a bit inside her. Sage gasped as he filled her, and she knew he wasn’t even all the way in. “God, you’re tight,” he muttered.
“More,” she said as she clawed at his back. She turned into a monster as she bucked her hips. She had to take all of him. There was no turning back now.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he hissed, but she planted her feet on the bed and raised her hips, and he sank in.
Buried to the hilt, he pressed his face into her neck as she struggled to accommodate him. He touched a sweet spot deep inside her, and she knew she was never going to be the same.
“Move,” she pleaded. “You’re killing me.”
He laughed shortly and slid himself slowly in and out. “Yes,” she clutched at the muscles in his back. “I like that.”
“You like that?” he said. She watched in fascination as his eyes flashed gold.
“I do.” She bit her lip. “Let him out to play. I know he wants to come out.”
He stilled and studied her. “He does,” Davis said. “But he’s not always nice.”
“I can take it,” she said confidently.
She let her nails dig into his skin, and she watched as his eyes grew even brighter. “Let your lion out,” she whispered.
Suddenly, he roared, and Sage shrieked as he rammed himself inside her. His eyes were bright gold now, and she could barely hang on as he slid himself over and over that spot.
She loved it. She loved every second of it, and as he pushed her closer and closer to her second orgasm, she knew that things were never going to be the same.
He had unleashed his lion, and she still felt safe and secure. And loved.
“Davis,” she cried out as she peaked. Her muscles squeezed him as she came, and he shouted as he buried himself inside her and joined her.
Chapter Five
He collapsed on top of her and nuzzled her. She wrapped her arms around him and waited for her heart rate to return to normal.
“Are you okay?” he whispered when he raised his head. “I don’t usually do that. You just sort of drove me crazy,” he admitted.
She bit her lip. “You didn’t hurt or scare me at all.”
Relief swept through him, and he nuzzled her neck. She’d been everything he’d hoped and more. And if she still thought this was just going to be a one-night stand, she had another thing coming.
He’d understood that she was scared, and he’d kept his distance. Part of it was frustration. Just seeing her was enough to push him over the edge. But he didn’t understand why she was scared. Usually, when a shifter found a mate, it was easy and seamless. But she’d literally run in the opposite direction.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked quietly.
“I’m just trying to wrap my head around it, that’s all. I’ve been here for less than a week. Ending up in the landlord’s bed wasn’t exactly the plan.”
He laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, you’re the first tenant I’ve ever slept with.” He raised his head to study her. “You’re the first woman I’ve ever slept with in this town. You feel this connection, right?”
She stilled under him, and suddenly he realized the problem. She knew she was his mate, and it terrified her. “Can we just take this one step at a time,” she said hesitantly.
“It doesn’t work that way, Sage. It’s meant to be intense. It’s meant to bind a couple instantly and forever. Why does that scare you?”
She pushed at him, and he rolled off. She gathered the sheets up under her armpits and sat up. “First off, why wouldn’t that scare someone? I don’t know you. I’m human. I don’t share my body with another soul, so when I feel something like this, it’s intense and overwhelming. You grow up knowing that you’ll find your mate. I’m told I’m someone’s mate, and it takes me two years to realize that it’s not true.”
He felt a streak of anger inside him. “Your ex told you that you were his mate?” he asked in a dangerous voice. It was bad enough that sleeping with a shifter was the new trend, but to have a shifter lie about the emotional bond that connected a shifter and a mate? That was sacrilegious.”
She laughed shortly. “I know it sounds ridiculous. It’s so different than what I feel with you. I should have known right away, but he was handsome and charming. He wouldn’t leave me alone, and then he was controlling and manipulative. It wasn’t until I found out he was cheating that I knew for certain he’d been lying this whole time.”
She turned to him. “Davis, that was less than a month ago. So yes, what I feel, right now, scares me.”
“But you do feel it,” he said as he sat up and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m not trying to force it on you, Sage. I want you to come to the decision on your own. You feel it. I’m not telling you that you feel it.”
“Yes,” she whispered as she relaxed against him. “I felt it the moment I saw you.”
He smiled and kissed the top of her forehead. “You were so mean to me.”
She laughed. “You started it.”
“I felt it too. I thought for certain that I was wrong. I always thought I’d be paired with some docile little thing. You’re enough to scare the lion inside me. You always tame him, though. No one has ever done that.”
“What am I supposed to do?” she said quietly.
“You don’t have to do anything. Just let me love you. Let me know when you are ready. Then marry me and spend the rest of your life with me.”
She laughed, and he smiled. He’d spend the rest of his life making her laugh. “Oh sure. I just have to marry you. Nothing big.”
He settled back down in the bed and cradled her as she rested her head on his chest. This felt so right. Being inside her felt right. Having her in his arms felt right. “What do you want to do? I want to do this right so you don’t pack up your stuff and leave me.”
“I don’t think I could leave you even if I tried,” she whispered. She pressed her lips to his chest, and he felt himself stirring. After all that, he was still ready for her. “I’m nervous, but it has nothing to do with you. I’m not second-guessing you. I feel safe in your arms, but what if I mess this up? What if I’m just some shifter groupie, and your misreading all the signs?”
He stroked her hair. “There is no misreading you. And if you give me the chance, I’ll prove it to you.”
After a few moment of silence, she spoke again. “I’m still scared, but I want to hear you say it.”
He smiled. “I love you, Sage West. You’re meant to be with me. You’re my mate. You’re my happily ever after.”
She smiled and slung a leg around his. “I thought I would freak out, but I liked hearing it.” She propped herself up and stared at him.
“And how do you feel about me?”
“I love you, Davis Weathers. You’re meant to be mine. You’re my soul mate. You’re my happily ever after.”
Hearing those words made him growl and lift his head to claim her kiss. After a moment, she broke apart. Breathless. “So this is it?”
“This is it,” he murmured. His sex twitched against her leg, and her eyes widened.
“Already?”
“ It’s your own fault. You’re just so damn sexy.”
She licked her lips hungrily, and he laughed. “Clearly you have no issues with that.”
“Mine,” she said pos
sessively as she straddled him. “Forever.”
“Forever,” he agreed, and soon she was riding him back to heaven.
They were married within a month, and her store opened with great success. She knew without a doubt that every part of her life had led up to this. Had she never spent so much time with Connor, she never would have run so far away. She would have never run into the arms of her true mate.
Sage Weathers. She was loved and protected. She loved and protected. And she was happy.
THE END
ALIEN DEEP DESIRE
Chapter 1
“I don’t know what to tell you, Cassie. There just isn’t any funding for this kind of research. If you had something to back up your hypothesis, then maybe I might be able to make a stand for you with the committee.” Benjamin Hampton was telling his prize investment that the gravy train was ending. Cassie had always been a headache from the moment that she came to work for him. She was always demanding. She was the cause of his premature gray and how his wife didn’t want to touch him anymore. He was going to have to bite the bullet and use some Grecian formula to get back that lovin’ feeling.
“I can’t believe this. I’ve wasted 10 years of my life bending over backwards to please you people. I’ve given you nothing but my best. I ask for one little favor in return and I get shot down. You know that this is the answer that the human race is looking for. It could even be a problem solving measure for those worlds that on the cusp of losing everything that they hold dear.” “I want to slap him, but I know that he’s only doing what the committee has mandated. It’s not his fault and why I’m castrating the messenger is beyond me.” Cassie was the dictionary meaning of the word intellect. She had no interest in showing off her curves to anyone.
The world was vastly different from the one that they both remembered growing up. The first sighting of that alien vessel that had the secrets that would advance their technology had come in the year 2018. At first, they thought that is was a form of subterfuge to lull them into a false sense of security.
The aliens proved to be friendly and willing to share the wealth of their knowledge in return for a welcoming new world. They looked exactly like humans, but their eyes would change color with whatever mood they were in at the time. Green usually meant that they were satisfied and red was something to be avoided at all costs. There was one that they were even afraid of and they called him the conqueror.
“I might be able to set you up with a meeting with those that might be interested in your research. I wouldn’t hold your breath, but it is the only option on the table. I do see some real potential in your research, but you have yet to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. It goes a long way when you can give them something tangible to hold onto. This is the era of convenience and everything has to be right now.” He saw the reflection of his face and the wrinkles. He was most likely going to have to go under some procedure. He had heard of a cream that the aliens had just put on the market, but it would cost a pretty penny to get his hands on.
Cassie was a bit of a hothead, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at her 5’3 frame and 135 pound body. She didn’t exude any sort of attraction to the opposite sex. She avoided relationships and commitments like they were the plague. Being inexperienced at 25 was a little uncommon, but it wasn’t like she was advertising it.
Cassie pulled her lab coat tightly across her chest to hide the fact that she was endowed more than others. It wasn’t hard to see that Benjamin might’ve been married, but he wasn’t dead. “I don’t see how I have any other choice. If I don’t find some way to get the funding, then my mother is going to step in and I just know that means wedding bells in my future. She thinks that I would even consider a blind date down the aisle. I can’t say that his picture doesn’t make me curious, but I would have hoped by now that she knew that I would not bow to her insistence. Set me up a meeting with some think tank or group of Angel investors. I will have to get this company to sign over an affidavit saying that I can outsource my expertise.” “I never thought that I would have to go down this road. If I didn’t think that I was onto some kind of major breakthrough, then I probably wouldn’t even bother. I can feel it in my fingertips and the only thing that’s missing is the required funds and the best equipment to make it happen.”
“There is one that has been looking high and low for something to sink his teeth into. Nobody really wants anything to do with him and they have good reason. It’s a known fact that he can be belligerent and the world leaders are still trying to figure him out.” He wasn’t sure what she was going to say to this proposal, but it didn’t hurt to throw it out there and see if something stuck. “Jorgen has been seeking a scientist and maybe he will take you on with me vouching for you. I could reach out to those of his people and see if he’s willing to at least discuss the matter.”
It was the year 2025 and her recollection of Jorgen went back to when she was in middle school. “That man is a tyrant. I don’t even know if I could even stand to be around him.” “I have to do something and desperate times call for desperate measures. My mother can’t be trusted. She probably already has the wedding cake designed and the ring practically on my finger. The only way that I can get her off my back is to show her that I can think for myself. I don’t need a man to hold me down and make me feel subjugated. Cassie was peering at the results of her latest scan and noticed a couple of anomalies that this equipment was not capable of finding the answers.
“You say the word and I will make sure that you at least get a sit down meeting with Jorgen. They say that he’s going to be in the area sometime in the next couple of days. He usually likes to do it under the down low, as to not to attract too much attention from government authorities. It still amazes me that they leave him alone to conquer other worlds on the pretense that he doesn’t touch this one.” Benjamin was exuberant about the possibility that he could kill two birds with one stone. He couldn’t stand to be around Cassie any longer than necessary. He wanted to pawn off his headache onto a man that needed to be taken down off his pedestal.
“My father would be rolling around in his grave if he were around to see me stoop to this level of groveling. He always said that if research was important enough that somebody would back it. I can only hope that I’m not some kind of disappointment to him. It hurts me to think that my mother was right all along. She claimed that I would never make it on my own and I’ve been struggling to prove her wrong every single day of my life.” Cassie was strong minded and would not knuckle down against the pressure of her mother’s constant verbal abuse. “There’s only one person that can get underneath my skin and that’s my mother. One look in my direction and I feel like I am five years old clutching onto her pant leg as she lambastes into one of the staff. She will always have that ability to strike fear into the heart of many including myself.”
“If it was up to me, I would gladly give you the funding, but everybody is tightening their belts. A lot of that money that was earmarked for research has gone to the government to make weapons of mass destruction. They want to be ready in case of the possibility of an Armageddon. There has been no sign that Jorgen or anybody else has designs on bringing this world to its knees. We actually have a settlement on Jupiter and we got the know how from the alien race known as the Sect. They have warned us that Jorgen can’t be trusted, but it remains to be seen that he’s a threat to us.” Benjamin was aghast. In his 50 years on this planet, he had never seen a government bow down in servitude to anyone without facing the consequences.
Jorgen had shown what he was made of by destroying a national landmark. Mount Rushmore had been obliterated and a reminder of his might was a sunken hole.
“I will be damned if my mother gets me underneath her thumb again. Living underneath her roof is the last place that I want to find myself. I would rather live in a cardboard box underneath the rail road panhandling for money.” She could say that, but she was also accustomed to the finer things in life including hot and col
d running servants. “I want to believe in my heart that this is not the end and only the beginning. If I can show that this research can be used to give new life to planets that are on the edge of being uninhabitable, then my mother might look at me with a bit more respect.”
“I still don’t know why it’s a big deal. Your mother has always had your best interest at heart. She was the one that was instrumental in getting you this far. It was her name that allowed those doors to come open and it was your gift that allowed them to stay that way. I certainly don’t want to lose you, but I fear that Jorgen will have use for you other than in a temporary basis. It will be a sad day when you leave this place behind.” Benjamin was basically skipping, but he couldn’t show any of that emotion without ruining what could possibly be the answer to his prayers.
“I know that we’ve had our differences, Benjamin. I know that we have butted heads too many times to count, but we always come away with something for our troubles. It was through my diligence and hard work with a staff that didn’t know what the hell they were doing that we were able to make those gravity defying boots. We made it possible by using technology that we extrapolated from the Sect to take away the need for carbon emissions into the ozone layer. There is still need for cars, but only when long distances are required. Otherwise, they move about freely with gravity defying boots.” She walked over to the window overlooking the vast city of New York. She saw the statue of liberty and it brought a tear to her eye to realize what kind of symbol that was. This country did indeed welcome the huddled masses whether it was here or galactic. “I can only hope that I’m doing the right thing and that this isn’t going to hurt me in the long run.”
“I know what kind of success we’ve had and there’s no reason to remind me. I’ve had several sleepless nights. I tossed and turned until my wife had to kick me out of bed and send me down to the couch for the rest of the evening. All this time away from her has strained our relationship to the breaking point. I’m not even sure if the money that I receive in salary is worth all the hassle. I could probably retire tomorrow and not having to worry about money for the rest of my life. It is something to think about.” Benjamin had wondered what it would be like to have no stress and finding clumps of hair in his shower did not instill confidence. It was only lucky that the Sect had a product that could rejuvenate hair follicles, so that the day of hereditary baldness was behind the human race.