“I’ve been captured a few times. And I suffered when they thought beating me would give them the answers they sought. They no longer hurt, but I think they’re the reason I feel the need to get up and moving after I’m hurt. I was bedridden for three months when I got back to the States. By then, the infection had set in, and they had to do several surgeries on me to get me better.” She turned and sat on the floor and looked at him. “I’m a fucking cunt. I know that. But I should never have taken my mood out on you or your family. I’m sorry.”
Thank you. I wasn’t exactly nice either. She said he had been. A great deal nicer than she’d been. I’m not going to get into a fight with you over who was meaner. I need to shift back to myself. Will you be here when I get back?
“Yes. I need to talk to you about a few things. Things I doubt Rogen has told you.” He nodded, his tiger pausing before leaving to rub his head over her face and neck. “That feels amazing. Is he marking me?”
Yes. As best he can. He’s hurt that you’re hurt. She asked him when she’d feel better. Now. The wounds were all but sealed before you turned around for me. I’m betting there isn’t even a scar on either side of you to remind you of being shot.
When he went into his little bathroom, he shifted and nearly knocked the sink over. He was much larger as his cat than as himself when he was in here. Pulling on a pair of pants hanging behind the door, he was glad to see she had stayed there and was walking around his studio.
“I guess when I thought of you as a potter, I just thought there would be round things you put designs on. This is magnificent. Once when I was on a job, I was in a little town for three days. It was their feast time, and the people from neighboring villages would come and buy their excess foods. Also, anything they needed that was there. Pots and shit like that.” He asked her if she’d bought anything. “I did, as a matter of fact. There was this vendor selling necklaces made of stones. It wasn’t until later I found out they weren’t actually stones, as I’d thought, but rounded beads made of clay. He’d made them look so different I still swear some of them were stone.”
Houston went to the wall where he kept things he’d played around with and pulled out a necklace he’d made last month. Handing it to her, she looked it over so much he wondered if she was looking for flaws. He could have pointed every one of them out to her without even looking at the thing. She asked him why he’d made this.
“I wanted to play around with different media. I saw someone using resin to make window catchers, and I wanted to see if I could incorporate the resin into some of the pieces I had in mind.” She asked him if he’d been successful. “I think I’ve got it down now. I don’t know if it will sell if I decide to send it off for a show, but I like it. Want to see the piece?”
Houston was aware in some way that he was showing her a piece of his art that no one had ever seen before. No one, in fact, would see any of his work as it was in progress. But he wanted her to see what he’d done. Needed to have her approval. But he wasn’t holding out hope of getting much in the way of that from her.
“Holy fuck, this is wonderful.”
He smiled at her. With her compliment, he felt his heart beat a little faster. Smiling at her, he explained how he’d come to have done it the way he had, all the time waiting for her to be pissed off about something again.
~~~
Tru walked around the large piece of art. It was clay laid out in a beautiful mountain setting on which Houston had used colored resin and other pieces of earth to make trees on the mountain, as well as in the grassy area beneath them. There were real leaves, she’d bet. Pieces of bark, as well as small stones used for the creek bed that looked so real to her, she thought she could hear the water tumble over them.
“I bet this is really spectacular when it’s upright and in front of a window. I can almost see the sun shining through the trees here. Also, the way you have the blossoms of the cherry tree just opening in some places, I can smell them as well.”
Houston asked her to step back, and she did so. When the crane started to move, she stepped back closer to him.
“I built it around this so I could easily move it when I wanted to see it upright. I was afraid I’d not be able to see the flaws in it as well with it laying down in the darkness.” It was nearly upright when he opened the door to the side of the garage. “It’s better in the early morning sunlight than the evening. I can see the flaws in it more than anyone, I think. But I did like the way it came together. It’s not exactly what I had in mind when I started, but I fell in love with it once it was finished.”
The crane had lifted it up, so it was hanging like it would in front of a window. She could see where he’d put the flowers of the cherry tree on the branches. The petals she’d not noticed before were on the ground like a good wind would blow them away. The more she looked it over, the more Tru could see in the art.
“I see the fish you have in the water there. And the little owl sitting up high in the pine tree just over there.”
He pointed out the wildflowers that were real and dipped in the resin so they’d be forever preserved in the art.
Then she saw the tiger. Running her fingers over the fur that she could make out, she could almost see Houston there lurking around waiting for prey. He was poised with one of his large paws in the air like he’d heard something and was waiting for it to show itself.
There were other figures in the resin and clay. Houston had carved a deer into the clay. Once it had been covered with the resin, it became alive with colors. The flowers hanging from his mouth were the prettiest shade of blue she’d ever seen. Touching her finger to the little fawn near the deer, she asked him what his inspiration was for this.
“Inspiration? I’m not sure, really. To be honest with you, when I started this out, it was only going to be a color pallet for me to work with. Then when I got into working with the two things more, I’d know how to balance it.” She turned to look at him when he laughed a little. “The first thing I noticed when I stepped back was that it was much larger than I had started with. It was supposed to be about eight by ten. Each color or new way I tried, it would have its own pallet. But the mountain seemed to need me to finish it. Then the brook. The other things, I found them over the summer when I was out walking or even on a run. The fish has a part of a fish in it. The deer, if you’ll notice, has a few real pieces of her fur on it. Even the tiger has a bit of me in it.”
“I want this.” He laughed, and she looked at him again. “I’m serious. I don’t have any idea where I’d hang this, but I want it. I’ve traveled a great deal with my job. All over the world. I can honestly say this is the most beautiful piece of art I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s yours.” She turned and looked at Houston once again. “It’s yours. I don’t know what my plans were for it. I had thought about sending it along to the exhibit I have next month, but I didn’t know if I wanted to risk that. Selling it, I mean. But I gift it to you. You’ve made my day by even wanting to have a look at it.”
“Just like that.” He promised her there were no strings attached to it. She didn’t have to do anything for him in order to own it. He was giving it to her. “I’ll take it. On one condition. I’d very much like for you to show this to your family. I have a feeling they’ve not seen this yet. Have they?”
“No. I mean, I never show them much of my work in the first place. Mom will come around and look at what I’m doing sometimes, but she never pries to see what I’ve got done.” Tru asked him if he wanted them to. “No. I don’t think so. I’ve been very shy about my work since I started to pick up a following. I will go to art exhibits and sometimes to shows, but not often. I’m usually here working on the next flyer, or whatever is needed to get a head start on the next thing that comes around.”
“Is there a place in your home where I can have this hung so I can look at it when I want? I have a feeling I’ll be finding mor
e things in it every time I stare at it.” When he didn’t answer her, she turned to ask him about it. “I’ve fucked up, I’ll admit that. But I know now that you and I, we will have to come together for both of our sanity’s sake. That isn’t the real reason. I mean, it was when I was thinking about coming out here to have you heal me, but I’ve since changed my mind about the relationship I want to have with you.”
“What sort of relationship do you want, Tru? Friendship? I can handle that. For now. I’d like to be your friend. Someone you could learn to trust. And by trust, I mean with your life. Do you mean physical? Then yes, I’d like that too. However, I’m not in any rush for that until we can spend some time together. I would really like to get to know you. A good deal better than I do now.” Tru asked him if he knew what she did for a living. “Yes. I know what you do. If you ask me if I’m okay with that, I can honestly say I haven’t any idea. As I said, I don’t know you very well. Will I be all right with you doing your job? I wouldn’t have any say over that. It’s your job, something I think you’re very good at. I’d no more tell you to stop than I would hope you’d not tell me to stop what I do.”
“If I were to tell you to stop being a potter, you would, wouldn’t you?” He nodded, not even hesitating a second to answer her. “I’m not used to that sort of anything, Houston. I don’t trust easily, but I do trust you for some reason. I don’t confide in people either. Charlie, my dog, is the only creature I’ve trusted not to give me any shit and not tell on me. But I do feel I could tell you anything about me, and it would go no further than that. I don’t understand this. None of it. However, I do feel that if I didn’t give this thing growing between us a chance, I’d regret it for the rest of my days. Will you kiss me?”
“Yes.” He leaned toward her, just brushing his mouth over hers. His breath was heated, not hot, but it warmed her own mouth. Licking her lips, tasting the little he’d offered of himself into her mouth, made him moan, and she wanted more. “If I kiss you again, you’re going to be pressed against my body. Your pussy will be at my cock. I don’t want to rush you right now, but I’d give just about anything to feel you fitting against me.”
Tru suddenly needed the same thing. To feel his body pressed into hers. His cock, she knew it was thick and long, sliding along her nether lips. When he took her mouth, it was with such savagery, she cut her bottom lip on his teeth. Tru found herself not only fitting against him but so close to coming, she had to pull his head from hers so she could catch her breath.
“I lied. I want you.” She nodded, and he moved so there was a wall behind her. “Christ, all I can think about it sliding into you. Feeling your heat and wetness wrapped around me.”
They tore at each other’s clothing. She was naked before him, as she’d not had on much to begin with. His bare chest was just the balm for her aching nipples. His hands, larger than her head, pinched and squeezed at her in a way she knew would leave her bruised and sore. When he suckled at her breast, all she could think about was having this man atop her in a bed. Him fucking her until she couldn’t walk. And when he slammed his cock into her over sensitive pussy, Tru saw stars and rainbows as she came three times—bam, bam bam.
“Come inside of me, Houston. Please. I need to feel you heating me from the inside out.”
He fucked her harder then, her body banging against the wall until she thought for sure they were going to knock it down. And when he threw back his head, his neckline stretched taut with his stretched muscles, his cat ran along his skin as if he too was taking his bit of her. Then he came.
Nothing in her life could have prepared her for feeling such an emotion as coming with this man had. Her body was set aflame, her head spun around, all the time she was releasing with him as Houston was fucking her hard.
Tru came so many times she’d lost count of them. Her body was worn down, her muscles protesting that she’d overworked them. When Houston laid his head on her shoulder, Tru tried to hug him, to show him how much she’d enjoyed their romp too, but she didn’t have the strength to speak, much less hold onto the man.
“Are you all right?” Tru told him she didn’t think so. “Me either. So much for us becoming friends before we made love. I’m—”
“You say you’re sorry for this, and I will bash your ever loving head in.” He laughed and looked at her with one eye closed. “Christ almighty. I hope no one comes in here to kill us both. Or even to invite us to dinner. I couldn’t cover up even if they made me. I am officially dead from the neck down.”
He rocked into her, and she moaned. Telling him to stop wasn’t really anything she wanted to do, so he continued. When he stopped suddenly, she reached for the gun she wasn’t wearing.
“My mom wants us to come to her house for dinner tonight.” She asked if they knew they’d been up to no good out here. “Yes. Not because I told them, but my dad was a destruction leader of this pack at one time, and he would know when people bonded. The same with Thatcher.”
“Great. He’ll never let me live this down. You know that, don’t you?” He told her Thatcher was the least of her problems. “What do you mean? Who else might be making fun of me for being such a bitch about having you as a mate, then fucking your brains out when you touched me the first time?”
“Rogen.” He kissed her on her mouth. “Then, my parents. They’ll start on you about having them another grandchild. Which you could point out that they have four and one on the way now. And that we only just met. I don’t want to leave you. Not ever.”
“I just want them all to forgive me for what I did yesterday.” Houston told her they more than likely had already. “No one is that nice. I mean, I’m sure they’re out there, but I was a real bitch yesterday. To you, in your own home.”
He pulled away from the wall, taking her with him. When she was set back down on her feet, Houston had to hold her for a moment to make sure she was steady. Tru looked up at him.
“I’m not tender hearted, but I do have a heart. Don’t crush it right away. Please?” He told her he’d never do that to her. “People say shit like that all the time. My parents and my sister and her husband are a perfect example. I just don’t think I could take it after you’ve been so wonderful to me.”
“I tell you what, Tru. You are my heart already. And I’m in love with you. I know it will take you a bit longer to come to love me. But I’d rather cut off my head than to harm you, mentally or physically. I swear to you on my mother’s heart, I only want what you want. Forever.”
She wasn’t sure why, but she believed him.
After he handed her one of his shirts to pull on, she followed him to the house. Houston held onto her hand as they entered the house, and he dragged her through the living room to the big room across from it. Whatever the room was supposed to be for, it was devoid of even the simplest of pieces of furniture. But he told her she could hang his work in the window. It would be a perfect fit for the big glass window that looked out over the front yard.
She agreed. Also, an added bonus for him would be that it would be the first thing people saw when they pulled into the drive. Perhaps, she thought, living with this man would not be so bad. It certainly did have some nice perks. The sex was fantastic as well.
Chapter 3
Leaving strict instructions that he was to leave his studio at four, Houston was working like he was possessed. He had so much running through his head at the moment he didn’t know where he wanted to start. Knowing someone would come out and get him to go to his parents’ was something he’d never had before. But Tru told him she’d pull a gun on his ass if he didn’t stop where ever he was on the piece and go with her. He believed she’d do that too.
The project he’d been working on yesterday was put aside. If he got to it, that would be fine. If he didn’t, he was only out a few hours of his time and about twenty bucks in clay. Instead, he had an idea for something he’d wanted to put together for a while now.
Houston had never had the feedback he needed to know if it was going to work.
Resin had to be mixed at the last minute, or it would harden into whatever bucket or glass it was in. After laying out the slabs of clay he was going to use, he started putting things together. It felt like he’d only just gotten a start on it when Tru came out to see him.
“You have about twenty minutes before I start firing at you.” He nodded and looked at the mess he had right now. “You look disturbed. I mean, like a mad man sort of disturbed. You have clay in your hair, as well as—is that glitter on your nose?”
“It might well be. When I purchased the resin from someone who no longer needed it, a lot of things like glitter and other sparkly things were in the lot too. I think, at some point, I might well have dropped a pound of it on my head.” He mussed his hair and watched as it danced to the floor in front of him. “I’ll need a shower. Not that I think it will remove all the glitter, but it is a start.”
“You look deranged more so than before.” As she laughed at him, ruffing up his hair, so more of it fell onto them, Houston kissed her. “That was very nice, but we don’t have time to get all frisky with each other. Your mom called here and told me to make sure we were both there on time, or she’d come here and hunt us down. She’s very pushy, isn’t she?”
“Very. But don’t tell her I told you that.” She kissed him again, then dragged him to the door. “I have my clothes out here. I can shower here as well. If you’d like to wait on me, I’d love that. Otherwise, I’ll only be a few minutes.”
“I’ll wait. Can I talk to you while you shower?” He told her he was fine with that. “Good. I have some things I’d like to talk to you about. First of all, children. I do want them, but not right away. I want to get to know you a little better, and I want to take notes on how your brothers do with having children in the house. Morgan seems like a pro at it already. Thatcher too, but he fumbles around a little more than Morgan. Could be that he’s had more practice because they have three, but I haven’t any idea yet.”
Houston: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 3