by Tessa Clarke
Flynn smiled and chatted his way politely through his dance with Alissa’s mother while his mind whirled with the ways he could show Zoey that he loved her. Skywriting? Too dark, no planes. Doves? He let them go. A marriage proposal? He had no ring, and he didn’t sense that Zoey would be the type to be moved by statements of undying love. He was vaguely aware of Renate chatting animatedly with Cade and both of them casting looks in his direction.
The song ended, and Flynn thanked Alissa’s mother for the dance and waited. There was no need to rush. He knew Renate would come for him.
She snaked her arm around his neck from behind and pressed her body exceptionally close, her lips only inches from his own. He could see Zoey darting them surreptitious glances while she danced with one of Cade’s cousins. He tried to sidestep Renate and hold her at a greater distance.
“Cade has given us his blessing,” Renate said, her voice a breathy whisper.
“What?”
“To be together. I know you were worried what he would think. But I told him that I knew you were my mate, and then Dylan talked to him and he came around.”
Flynn squinted at Renate. “Renate, we are not going to be together, with or without Cade’s blessing.” What had Dylan talked to Cade about?
“I’m moving to White Peaks,” she said. “We can spend some time getting to know each other. I promise you won’t be disappointed with my bedroom skills.”
As they swiveled, Flynn saw Astrid watching them, her arms crossed over her chest.
He turned his attention back to Renate and made his voice as cool as possible. “No. Renate, you don’t understand. I’m in love with someone else. I’m not going to be with you.”
Renate saw Astrid too. “Her? You can do better than that Flynn.”
“Astrid happens to be a friend and a very nice person,” Flynn said. “And she’s not the person I’m in love with.”
One more dance. One more dance and then he was free and clear of this wedding, and he would meet Zoey on the deck. He’d do flips off the Starfall Chute cliffs if he needed to, to convince her to be with him.
The lines around Renate’s mouth seemed to deepen and harden, and her fingers closed more firmly around his bicep. The song ended, and Dylan arrived to dance with Renate, but Renate waved him off.
“Go dance with Marita, Dylan,” she said. “She’s been dying to talk to you about concussion protocol or some such thing. I’ll keep poor Flynn company here.” Dylan winked at Flynn and wandered off.
Flynn noted that Zoey had paused, watching him and Renate. He couldn’t do this. He wouldn’t dance with Renate again. He took a step back, and a powerful hand clamped around his arm, a little too tight. Cade appeared at Flynn’s side, towering over him. Despite being several inches shorter, Flynn didn’t usually feel significantly smaller than this friend. Cade usually slouched and wore an affable grin, but Cade had clearly been drinking, and now when he looked at Flynn, it was with the eyes of a predator.
“So Dylan tells me that you’ve found your mate. Is that true?”
Flynn tried to process Cade’s words. Was that what this was about? Cade was pissed that Flynn wasn’t going to date his mother?
“Yes, it’s true,” he said evenly, preparing to block a punch, or sweep Cade’s feet from beneath him.
“You’re sure?” Those glittery eyes probed him.
“Very.”
Flynn braced, but instead of a punch, Cade clapped him on the back heartily. “Well, it took me a bit, but if you both feel that way, I think we should make an announcement.” Cade strode away waving his hand in the air at the bandleader, who drew the song he’d started to an abrupt close.
Cade leapt on stage and took the microphone. “My buddy Flynn, whom most of you know as your leader around here, cause God knows Dylan and I would bungle the whole thing up, has something exciting to share! Get up here Flynn you dirty dog.”
The crowd—mostly filled with ski patrollers in bad suits, resort staff, and Cade’s family—pushed Flynn forward. The realization of what was going on washed over Flynn. When Dylan had asked him about finding his mate, Dylan had been asking about Renate because Renate had told Cade that she believed Flynn was her mate.
Cade extended a hand and hauled him up onto the stage into the lights.
The crowd gathered expectantly around the stage. In the distance, Flynn could see Zoey’s pink dress through the windows of the lodge.
She was waiting for him like he’d asked her to, and he wasn’t out there proving to her that she was his only. He was in here engaged in some crazy show.
He had to fix this.
He smiled at Cade, took the microphone, and turned to the crowd, scanning for Jason, the manager of the Timber Wolf Lodge. “Jase, can you do me a favor and turn on the outside speakers? I want everyone to hear this.” He waited while Jason went and flipped the switch. He could hear the murmurs in the crowd, but he gave a broad smile. “Now a lot of you know me as a private person.” He paused and saw Zoey turn slightly at the sound of his voice. “So this is a big deal for me. But I wanted to announce at this very grand celebration of love, on Valentine’s Day, the day of lovers, that I’ve found the woman of my dreams, the woman that I will love and cherish for the rest of my life. And if she says yes, I hope to marry her very soon.”
A few cheers erupted around the room, and Flynn held up his hand. He could see Dylan watching him beneath a very raised eyebrow. “But that isn’t all. I’d also like to announce that the White Peaks Ski Resort is expanding. Next year we’ll be opening up over 1200 new skiable acres to the northeast of here. It will be one of the sweetest little patches of skiing heaven in the Western U.S.” This caused a rowdy chorus of cheers, and Flynn waited until they died down. He’d just made an executive decision to exclude the 200 acres around his cabin. Like hell he was giving that up.
He paused and made his voice as dramatic as possible. “And as one of the owners of this hill, I get to pick names for the new area. So tonight, I’d like to christen the expansion area the Lynx Bowl. I’d also like to name the first run. We think it’s going to be an amazing run—possibly the best on the hill—with over 1500 meters of steep vertical facing into the rising sun. And I’d like to call that run Zoey’s Sunrise, in honor of the woman I love, so nobody here ever forgets that for me, the sun rises and sets in her eyes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go to her. This is Cade and Alissa’s day, and I hope all of you enjoy the rest of the party.”
He handed the microphone back to a very staggered-looking Cade, and leapt off the stage.
The applauding crowd parted to let him through, and he veered deliberately away from Renate and toward the deck, to Zoey
Would it be enough?
Zoey had shifted already and waited for him just beyond the edge of the deck, her eyes catching the light from the lodge. He could read the body language of animals better than he could of humans.
It was enough.
Flynn had ditched his own clothes and joined her when Cade burst out onto the deck, his face hard. Dylan trailed behind him. Flynn froze. There was no way he was running.
“Don’t do it, man,” Dylan said, but Cade yanked off his own his clothes, tossed them at Dylan, and sailed off the deck, taking his panther form mid-air. Flynn felt Zoey arch her back behind him, but he stood his ground to the much larger cat. Cade circled around both of them, sniffing the air and letting out low huffing noises. Zoey could have run, or switched, but instead came to stand next to Flynn, the hair on her back and tail puffy and a low growl rumbling in her chest.
Then abruptly Cade switched back, looming over them with his fearsome chest.
“You were talking about Zoey all the time,” he said.
Flynn lowered his head in acknowledgement.
“Did you sleep with my mother?”
Flynn stared at his friend unblinking. He wouldn’t acknowledge that question with an answer, not when the question came from Cade, his bes
t friend. Cade met his eyes, then turned away. Flynn couldn’t tell whether he was angry or not, but he didn’t care.
Flynn nudged Zoey with his nose, and they took off, running in the direction of his cabin through the crisp snow, a swathe of stars above them. When the lodge was well in the distance, they turned to each other, leaping and rolling in the snow, covering each other with playful nips, and reveling in their wild togetherness.
When they finally reached the cabin, they relit the fire and fell on each other with unrestrained abandon, their hands groping for wetness and tongues tasting each other’s sweetness. The warmth and smell of her was intoxicating. He wanted to lick and suck every last part of her.
Flynn slipped his fingers inside her slick mound while his lips fell to her nipples. Zoey had his cock in her hand and stroked it against her thigh, letting her fingers caress the tip, making him almost come just at her touch. He sped up the movement of his own hand, making her writhe and moan and jerk her cunt at him. She was so wet and ready. His cock twitched to be inside her, but he wanted to taste her first. He led her over to the sheepskin rug by the fire and pulled her down on top of him.
“Sit on me,” he said, biting her lower lip. “I want to taste that pussy and fuck you with my tongue.”
She gave him a wry smile and after a second of hesitation, obediently straddled his face, facing his feet. He pressed his tongue against her clit and in her slit, licking and sucking her juices as she rocked on top of him, making soft sighing noises, while he reached up and caressed her gorgeous breasts. She laced one hand through his and squeezed it, before leaning forward and taking his shaft in her mouth, her tongue delicately circling the tip while she grasped and stroked the base with her hand.
Flynn struggled to maintain control. Her lips on his cock felt so unbelievable. He slipped two fingers into her pussy, pulsing in and out while he massaged her clit with his tongue, reveling in the clench of her cunt against him. She opened her mouth and took him in deeper, her hand moving with increasing speed and intensity, and he thought he might go mad. He added a third finger and sped up his movements, and he could feel the quaking of her thighs as she bucked and thrust against him, her teeth grazing his cock while she sucked him. He could tell she was close.
When she pressed her mound hard against him and he could feel the rhythmic jerk of her orgasm, he let himself go and filled her mouth with his come as he lifted his hips from the ground and arched into her with a deep growl. She choked and swallowed every last drop as she ground herself into his mouth, extending her own bliss.
When she was finished, she slipped off of him, flipped around, and pressed her lips to his before dropping her head to his chest and snuggling in his arms.
“I meant what I said at the wedding,” he said.
Her voice sounded sleepy, but content. “I know.”
He pulled her in tight and placed a kiss on her forehead. “I love you,” he said.
She sat back up and looked in his eyes, then let out a tremulous but beautiful smile. “I love you too, Flynn. I always did. I just let my fears get away on me.” He absorbed the sweetness of her words. Then they lay there breathing each other in, their legs entwined in the dancing firelight.
Chapter Nine: Zoey
Zoey awoke under a blanket with Flynn tangled in her arms. He was watching her in that stealthy, unmoving way of a cat. When he saw her open her eyes, he leaned in and placed a line of kisses from her forehead to her chin.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he said.
“Is it still?” she murmured.
“For about another twenty minutes,” Flynn said.
She ran her hand down his rock-hard thigh and reveled in the feel of his skin on hers. “I don’t suppose you have any rose petals.”
“There’s about a million of them back at the lodge. I can go steal some if you like.”
“It’s okay. Are you really going to name a run after me?” she said.
Flynn’s lips turned in a sly smile. “Absolutely. To remind everyone that I’m yours. Today and every other day. I was going to sing to you too, but I thought that might have given Cade the chance to land a couple of punches.”
“What were you planning to sing?”
“I was thinking ‘Love Song’ by Anne Murray.” There was a drollness to Flynn’s expression, and Zoey burst out laughing. Flynn arched an eyebrow. “Yeah I know. I didn’t think it would go over that well either.”
“With all your female fans?” Zoey said with a snort. “You could probably sing whatever you wanted and they’d be enraptured.”
Flynn pulled her in tighter. “There’s only one woman I want to be enraptured, and I’m happy to put a sign on my office door to that effect I you want.”
“Maybe just blast Anne Murray in the hallway.”
“Hey, I like Anne Murray,” Flynn said. “I could break out the Marvin Gaye if you like. Something about it being sweet... how does that song go again?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at her.
She picked up a throw pillow and hit him over the head with it.
He started to tickle her and rolled over on top of her to pin her while she gasped to catch her breath beneath his attack, and continued to bash him with the pillow. Somewhere along the line, the tickles became strokes and kisses, and their breathing quickened as his shaft hardened and pressed against her already wet and aching slit. They started to move in unison slowly, enjoying the sweet anticipation, the thrall of their bodies calling out for each other.
Flynn dropped his lips to each of her nipples, his tongue lazily circling them, and Zoey emitted low moans of pleasure. She trailed her fingers down his washboard abs and then drew one finger along his large cock, feeling the softness of his skin and the velvety smoothness of the tip, already slick with his arousal. She snaked her fingers down and cupped his balls, stroking the very base of his shaft while he groaned and sucked one of her nipples, transforming it into a hard little nub.
She spread her legs and thrust up at him, and he smiled and bit her lip, then pressed his penis partway into her pussy, just enough to tantalize her and make her even wilder with desire. She jerked her hips, wanting him fully inside her, filling her, but he pulled away with a smile. His leaned down and placed his lips on hers, his tongue dancing around the inside of her mouth, keeping his shaft high and away from her while she strained to feel it in her throbbing slit.
“You bastard,” she said. “I want that cock.”
“Oh, you like cock?” he said, leaving a trail of kisses down between her breasts, and past her navel and down towards her mound.
“In this particular situation, yes, I like it a lot,” she said.
“Nothing else will do,” he said, poised above her pussy.
Zoey struggled to arrange her thoughts. Cock, and fucking, and Flynn were really the only salient ones, and she wanted him now. Flynn blew on her wet slit and she strained up at him.
Then he lay down on his side next to her and rolled her over so she was facing away from him. Zoey automatically lifted one knee and arched her ass into him, waiting for him, wanting him. He gave her ass a playful spank and reached around her and started fingering her clit until she thought she might go mad.
“Please,” she said.
“Okay, my love,” he whispered.
When he drove into her from behind, his balls slapping her ass, the relief was almost blinding. He stroked deeply at first, filling her, making her cry out unintelligible words, his finger still circling her clit, and his breath hot in her ear. Then he alternated shallow and deep, carrying her along on a wave of absolute euphoria, while she turned her head back and entwined her tongue with his.
She propped herself up on an elbow and looked over her hip at his shaft sliding in and out of her. She watched it, mesmerized. It felt so good. She loved to watch him fuck her. Flynn took his fingers off her clit and placed them in her mouth.
“Taste how lush that little pussy is,” he said in her e
ar, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Their bodies were covered in sheens of sweat and her skin slipped against his.
He started slamming harder into her now, his groin hitting her ass with audible thwaps, and his cock reaching so far inside her she thought she might never return to her senses. He returned his fingers to her clit, forming a V around it with two fluttering fingers, stroking more rapidly, more urgently as he brought her to the edge and she jerked back against him with her own wild rhythm.
“I’m going to come,” he murmured. “I’m going to fill that hot little slit of yours.”
With one final thrust, he shot his hot liquid into her. She pressed back at him, pulsing and clenching with her own orgasm, as his hands cupped her breasts and pulled her back against his chest. And she saw white stars, and two lynxes in the snow, and Flynn’s magnificent body.
After their breathing slowed, he rocked gently in and out of her, his lips pressed against her neck. “Thank you,” he said.
She laughed. “For what? The fuck?” she said.
He nuzzled her ear. “For making this the best Valentine’s Day ever, and the most exciting. I wasn’t totally sure which way it was going to go out there on the deck.”
She turned and smiled at him. “I guess I don’t have to worry about you keeping my panties.”
He laughed. “That’s the good part about you being a shifter. You’re always naked when we get here.”
“Happy to oblige,” she murmured, nestling back against his broad chest.
Flynn tucked a lock of her now totally disheveled hair behind her ear. “So is this the start of our forever? We can talk about the details like where we’ll live and how many cubs you plan to bear me later.”
She rolled over and looked into his intense grey eyes. His mouth curved into a wry grin. “I’m kidding about the cubs, sort of. I hope we’ll have four, but I’m open to discussion. And I understand you might not want to just give up your gymnastics club. We can talk about that. The important thing is that we’re together, forever, and that we watch the sun come up on Zoey’s Sunrise at least twice a year.” He pressed his thumb against her lower lip. “Are you in?”