She lay on the ground for several moments, eyes squeezed shut with Stix's hand still on her spine. Gently he brushed her hair to the side exposing all of her back and buttocks. Satia forced the tears that threatened to spill to stay locked deep inside. Her heartbeat thundered like a drum as Stix's palm moved over her scarred skin. He ran his fingers over the raised and still sensitive lash marks, one by one. He traced down over her hip and back around toward her rear. As he did so, she remembered each stroke. Each laugh. Each cheer at her expense. Up until the moment that she had passed out from pain.
Stix's hand stopped moving and she held her breath waiting for him to say something. Instead, he curled up behind her and wrapped her in his arms. He kissed her hair and she couldn't hold back the tears any longer. Everything she'd held in. Everything she'd refused to say. Everything she'd been terrified of flooded out of her as she wept.
Stix said nothing as she cried. Simply held her tight and kissed her shoulder. Her neck. Her back. She swiped the tears from her eyes and rolled over to face him. He kissed her forehead, over her eyelids, down her nose. He hovered an inch from her lips, his breath tickling her face.
She laced her finger into his hair and pulled his mouth to hers. He kissed her softly at first, his tongue dancing with hers slow and languid. But as she ran her hands over every inch of his body, their kisses grew deeper and more forceful. Satia ran her hands down between their bodies and gripped his hard length. Though she wasn't sure what the average size of a male shifter's anatomy she was surprised by the size and girth of him. It took both hands to stroke his soft, delicate skin and as she did Stix broke off their kiss and wrapped his mouth around her breast.
Satia moaned as he flicked her nipple with his tongue making her body quake with need. She stroked him harder and he rolled her onto her back in the soft grass and poised above her. He kissed down her stomach and over her hipbones. Satia's body lurched toward him and she dug her fingers into the grass to keep from leaping upward.
Inch after agonizing inch he kissed his way across her body. Licking and sucking her skin. He parted her folds with his tongue and she thought she might shoot off the ground. Digging her fingers into his hair, she fought the urge to flip him over and take control.
"Stix..." she managed. "Make love to me."
He rose from his position between her thighs and kissed her again. She wanted him more than she'd wanted anything in her lifetime.
Stix poised over her. "Are you sure you want this? I'll wait as long as you need."
She kissed him hard, pulling his lower lip into her mouth and biting it. "What I need is you."
Stix kissed her again and then spread her legs with his thighs. "Relax," he murmured in her ear. "I won't hurt you."
Satia hadn't realized how tense she'd become until that moment. He swirled around her entrance circling and testing and coaxing her to relax. He kissed down the side of her throat and inched inside her. Satia grabbed onto his shoulders as he rocked tenderly against her core. Millimeter by millimeter she relaxed her body as the feeling of him filling her sent waves of pleasure rippling through her body.
Kissing her and stroking her hair Stix rocked his hips forward until they met hers. The scent of blood permeated the air and she lay in his arms for a moment with him breathing heavily, but no longer moving.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
She clutched his firm round buttocks in her hand and tilted her hips toward his. "I'm better than all right."
Stix propped himself up on his elbows and rocked his hips away from hers. The friction between their body made her core pulse with need. He began slowly joining their bodies in a sensual rhythm that threw her deeper into the pool of ecstasy with each thrust. Soon Satia found she was pulling him into her, harder and faster as she pressed her body against his.
She cried out as waves of chills spread over her skin like electricity. Stix's breathing hitched as his muscles grew tighter. His butt muscles clenched and Satia dug her nails into them pulling herself into the spiraling pool.
"Satia," he panted. "Satia..."
He sucked in a breath and then his entire body tensed. He rolled his hips over hers and like a jolt of lightning her body exploded. Satia held on as her body tightened around his and waves of unadulterated pleasure ripped through her.
She rode the wave until the climax passed and then Stix fell on top of her, his body sinking her into the dewy ground. He kissed her again. A tear leaked from the corner of her eye.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"No," she whispered. "Something is right. Very, very, right."
Chapter 11
It just about killed Stix that he and Satia couldn't spend the night in each other's arms, but he couldn't stand his mom's snickers and sudden giggles and knowing smiles. It was as if she was a giddy schoolgirl falling in love herself all over again. His dad, thank heavens, said nothing and Stix found him quietly telling his mother to chill.
Satia thankfully seemed blissfully unaware of whatever was going on with his mom. Satia and his mom chatted about this and that and made plans for when his mom would be in town. It made him happy to see Satia smile and be so comfortable around his parents. And as the women chatted and made dinner the following evening, Stix found himself rocking in a chair next to his dad on the porch. The two sat in silence for a long time watching the leaves blow in the trees.
"She seems like a perfect match for you," his father said, breaking the silence.
He glanced at his dad who kept rocking. "I think she might be."
"Have you formed the bond yet?"
Stix's chest tightened. "Not yet but I don't think we are too far off."
His dad nodded. "She mentioned going to college. Is that something you would like to do as well?"
Stix swallowed hard. He'd been trying to find a way to broach the subject of changing the restaurants to nightclubs over the past day but he'd not been able to find the right moment. But now faced with vocalizing what he wanted, he found he couldn't seem to do it.
"Stix we appreciate you running the restaurants these last few years. Getting out of the city and coming up here was what your mom and I needed to keep it together. The restaurants were an ends to a means. They got us here. Got us a house. Kept you in a good school. But now..."
"Now?"
"Now you are on the verge of possibly starting your own family with a beautiful young woman who I am pretty sure has no aspirations to run three Mexican restaurants."
"Dad-"
His father held up his hand. "Your mother and I discussed it last night. We have decided to give you the house in the city. And as for the restaurants, we are leaving that up to you to decide what you want to do. If you want to run them, you can. If you want to sell them, we will split the money with you fifty-fifty, and you can do what you want with your half."
The offer was more than generous. "Dad I can't take that from you and mom. It's too much."
"The items are ours to give. We can do with them as we choose. This is what we have chosen to do. If you don't want the house, sell it. We came here for you. To give you a better life. We have worked hard to do it, and now that we have accomplished that goal it is time to let you decide for yourself as a man what you want for your family."
Stix stared at his father not knowing what to say. Guilt snaked through him at everything his parents offered. But having met Satia and knowing the love he had for her he began to see what it might be like to have a child. If that was anything like what he was currently experiencing he knew what his father felt. Because even then he would not deny Satia anything she asked for.
"Thank you, dad. I'm not sure what to say."
"Don't say, do. Living the life you want will be thanks enough."
Stix had always appreciated his father's quiet and earnest ways, but until that moment he'd not truly understood the sacrifices his father had made on his behalf. He hoped that someday he would be half the dad that his father was.
After dinner,
Satia and Stix went for a swim in the lake and then made love again on the shore. He knew that he would never tire of feeling her skin pressed up against his as they joined together and yet he fought to keep things as gentle as possible with her. She'd been through a lot, as the scars on her body attested to. He didn't want to push her in any way that would make her uncomfortable. And yet, he would never tire of her.
As they snuggled together naked under the moon, his fingers played over a particularly deep scar on her left shoulder.
"That one was delivered to me by the brother of one of the men I killed when we were attacked." Her breath sailed across his chest making his nipples harden.
He wanted to dismember every man who had dared to hurt her. Every saber who wielded the lash. Every coward who cut her skin in the act of dominance.
He stopped his hand from moving as the anger rippled through him.
"Don't stop," she whispered. "Your acceptance of them is the only thing that keeps me from hiding from you in shame."
Stix tipped her chin. "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever met. These scars are not you. They are a part of who made you the strong woman you are, but they do not define you, and they do not offend me. If anything you are all the more beautiful for them because they made you strong."
She leaned in and kissed him softly, lingering and letting her tongue glide across his.
"I never thought I would find someone who would accept me as anything more than damaged."
He wrapped her in his arms and together they stared up at the moon again.
"My father offered me the business and the house to do whatever I want with."
Her fingers swirled in the dark hair on his chest. "That's most generous of him."
He nodded. "Yes. It is."
"What did you tell him?"
"He wouldn't take no for an answer. He said to sell them or keep them. Whatever I thought best."
"And?"
"And two days ago I would have jumped at the chance to sell the restaurants and do something else but now... at the prospect of selling them I realize I've grown more attached to them than I thought I was."
"Is running them what you want to do with your life then?"
He shrugged. "I still like the idea of turning them into nightclubs."
"Well, maybe start with one. Turn it into a club. See how it does. Use the revenue from the other two to keep it afloat while you update it."
A thought struck him. "Would you help me design it?"
"Me?"
"I've seen what you did with my office and the house. You have a real talent for decorating."
She lay quietly for a long minute. "I think I might like that. I've always enjoyed textiles and arranging things."
"You could take some classes if you think that might make you more comfortable."
"Or maybe I could go to the design school I saw around the corner from the mall we went to."
"That's an option too."
"But... I'd still need to work. I need to earn my keep."
"I'd take care of you."
She kissed his chest. "That's a kind offer but... I'd not be comfortable with that. Not unless..."
"Unless?"
"Unless we were mated." The thump of her heartbeat pounded against his ribs, and the sour sting of fear wafted gently off of her.
He pulled her tight against him. "That could be arranged. If that's what you want."
"Is it what you want? I don't want you to feel obligated-"
"Satia, from the moment I laid eyes on you my ursa told me you were the one. I also know that this is quick and I don't want to pressure you. I will wait for as long as it takes."
She chuckled. "Considering where we are, naked in the forest having made love several times, I am pretty sure it isn't going to take that long."
He pulled her tighter and kissed her hair. "As long as it takes."
The following morning Stix and Satia said goodbye to his parents and headed back toward the city. She couldn't believe the direction the weekend had taken. From a run in the woods to becoming engaged more or less, it had been full of high emotion. But as she lay with her cheek against Stix's back and her body wrapped around his, she realized she'd never felt so safe, loved, and relaxed. She hadn't had a nightmare in days, and for the first time, she thought about her future knowing she would be okay.
They parked the motorcycle in the garage and walked toward the house.
"I have an errand I need to run," he said. "I'm not sure how long it will take, but I should be back by noon."
She raised her eyebrows. "A bit cryptic."
He grinned at her. "You don't trust me?"
She bumped his shoulder with hers. "That's not true."
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her. "Since we have one last evening together before I have to return to work, let's go out to dinner."
"Okay, but no Chinese food."
He chuckled. "I was thinking Italian this time."
Satia unpacked the bag and threw the clothes in the washer then spotted the basement door. She flipped on the light and walked down the creaky linoleum stairs to the room below. It was a long narrow room with only an eight-foot ceiling that cramped her. Boxes and chests filled about half the space that stretched the entire length of the house. Satia headed to the boxes, the smell of musty paper filling her nostrils. She opened the lid on the first box and pulled out a stack of papers.
She smiled at the old pictures drawn by a cute child's hand. Several were labeled as Stix's from different ages. Others were Deacon's. She stopped at an aged book report from when Stix was in third grade and laughed at his childlike handwriting. After several minutes she replaced the items in the box and moved to another. Inside again she found items from Stix's past. On and on she went from box to box finding old things from Stix's youth and Deacon's.
Finally, she opened a box and stopped short. Inside she found items again done by a child, but these were done not by Stix or Deacon, but by Stix's sister, Opal. A shot struck her in the heart as she flipped through the pictures, papers and other school items. Satia stopped and stared at a framed photo at the bottom of the box. Stix and Deacon were easily recognizable in their late teens, and in between them stood a cute, skinny girl of about thirteen. Her beautiful thick curls hung down to her shoulders the way Satia had always wished hers would. She tenderly touched the young face that Stix had said was almost crushed by the weight of living in the world.
A loud knock sounded on the front door upstairs. Satia looked at the ceiling.
Again there was a knock, louder than the first, and then the doorbell rang three times in rapid succession.
Satia put the photo back in the box and replaced the lid before heading upstairs. Again the knocking continued and the bell rang. Satia peeped through the little hole in the door. A pretty young woman stood on the other side. Satia blew out a breath unsure of what to do. She opened the door but kept the chain fastened.
"Yes?"
The woman appraised Satia. "Does Stix still live here?"
Satia shifted from foot to foot. "Yes."
"Well, is he here?" A hint of annoyance tinged her voice.
Satia breathed deep, and the scent of shifter struck her. A wolf.
"I'm sorry he isn't at the moment, can I take a message?"
The woman rolled her eyes and stomped her foot, speaking to herself in a language Satia didn't recognize. "Do you know when he'll be back?"
"He should be back any time now."
The woman nodded. "I'll wait." She threw Satia a smile that didn't meet her eyes. Her deep eyes were sharp and alert but not happy. "Are you going to open the door?"
The woman's pushy demeanor wasn't one that Satia had any interest in dealing with, but at the same time, it wasn't her house.
"I'm sorry," said Satia. "Stix didn't tell me he was expecting anyone. I don't really feel comfortable-"
"Well, I'm sorry you don't feel comfortable, but I think you should open the door
. I doubt very highly he'd want the mother of his child standing out here waiting for him." The woman turned around and picked up a toddler that Satia hadn't noticed standing behind the woman.
The little boy held Stix's same eyes and unruly hair that had been begun to shape in dreadlocks the same way Stix had his.
Satia's heart pounded. A child. Stix had a child. He hadn't told her. Wasn't that important to inform her before they'd talked about mating? Had he offered to mate this woman before?
"Well?" the woman asked.
Satia swallowed hard and nodded. The woman sniffed Satia as she passed and walked straight into the room with the couch and television. Satia glanced around on the street and then closed the door again.
Satia walked into the room and sat on a soft chair, unsure of what to say or do. The women stared at each other for several minutes as the child sat on his mother's lap playing on her cellphone.
"So you're a feline," the woman said. "Mountain lion?"
"My name is Satia. I'm of the Sabertooth clan."
Her eyes widened. "Like, as in, a sabertooth tiger?"
Satia nodded.
"I didn't even know sabertooth tigers existed."
"There are only a few of us left in our clan. We fled here to Earth when we were attacked."
"So you're an original Auroran."
"Yes."
The woman's eyes traveled over Satia's body. "How long have you been here?"
"Six months."
"Six months," she mused. "I've heard it's different there, but I've never been."
"It is very different on Aurora, but not necessarily better."
"My great, great, great, great grandfather was from Aurora. I've always wanted to go."
Satia fought to stay civil and not fire a million questions that were apparently none of her business.
"Maybe someday you will." Satia fought to keep from twitching under the woman's hard stare.
Paranormal Dating Agency: Unleashing Her Saber (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 8