by Ava Benton
“You want this?” he rasped against my ear before kissing his way down my jaw, to my chin, then lower. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes to revel in the sweetness of his kisses.
“Yes… yes…” It was all I could say and all I needed to say. Yes, I wanted him. I was tired of fighting against how much I wanted him and needed him, how everything had gotten better since he came into my life and not just because he was protecting me.
One of his arms was under my neck, while his other hand traveled over my damp skin. I raised one leg and hooked it around his to let him slide his fingers up my thigh until he caressed the curve of my butt. I groaned, thrusting my hips up, wanting all the contact I could get. My fingers tangled in his thick hair, pulling his head closer as his lips left a scorching trail along my chest, down between my breasts. I groaned, rolling my head back and forth on the soft, sumptuous bedspread.
His hand left my butt and tugged at the towel, where I had tucked one end to hold it together. It fell open, and he looked down at me—his eyes were half-lidded, full of deep desire. Desire for me. It was all for me. The heat building in my core, spreading between my thighs, only got hotter. He wanted me. One hand closed over my breast and fondled me while he dragged his tongue in slow circles around my other nipple. I cried out in relief and desperation all at once, my body screaming in pleasure while begging for even more, more, everything he could give me. I arched my back, pressing my breast to his greedy lips. He sucked and licked and nibbled as I groaned and called his name.
He slid his hand over my stomach, making me squirm and giggle a little, but that giggle died when he moved further south. His big, rough palm cupped my mound and pressed hard. I went wild, grinding against his hand, breathing in short little gasps as the heat and the tension and the growing passion built and built. I felt his fingers slide into me while the heel of his hand continued that delicious pressure over my clit.
“Oh, Slate!” I moaned, jerking my hips up and down in time with the rhythm of his fingers. He pumped them in and out while he set my skin on fire with his tongue, licking and flicking and sucking. I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I scraped my nails over his broad back as the pleasure got to be too much and I came with a shuddery scream.
He slowed but didn’t stop, still fucking me with his fingers while my grinding slowed down and I went still. The heat only lessened but didn’t go away, and I found myself writhing gently the longer he went. One of my hands deliberately brushed against the straining bulge in his jeans and his groan made my muscles tighten around his digits.
“Get rid of these,” I groaned, pulling at his jeans. He got up on his knees, unfastening them and lowering the zipper. When he stretched out over me again, I opened my legs to take him between them and worked the pants over his butt, his thighs, his calves. I indulged myself in touching him everywhere, all over, digging my nails into his butt, running my nails over his legs and back as we kissed. I couldn’t believe how perfect he was. I pulled my mouth from his and kissed his neck, his shoulder, his chest. He arched his back and groaned when I clawed at him. I couldn’t believe the passion he unlocked in me but I loved it. I wanted to feel it all the time, I wanted to feel alive and on fire.
His thick, rock-hard dick was between us, and I wiggled against it a little to make him groan again. When I wrapped my fingers around him—God, so thick, will I be able to take that inside me?—he gasped, then chuckled.
“Careful. This is gonna end real fast if you don’t ease up on me.” I gave him a few strokes anyway, just for the sake of listening to and seeing what it did to him. It gave me a sort of satisfaction that wasn’t physical, even though it made me wetter than before.
He took a condom out of his wallet and unrolled it over his almost unbelievable length and I braced myself—I had no idea what to expect, even though my heart raced with anticipation and desire raced through me. When he positioned himself over my waiting body, his heavy dick rested against me and practically made my mouth water. Yes, I wanted him. All of him. I spread my thighs as wide as I could to take him inside. The pressure of the head against my entrance was enough to make me moan.
“You okay?” He misunderstood me.
I smiled. “If you keep going, I will be.” He pushed forward and filled me inch by slow, delicious inch. My mouth hung open as I accepted him and pleasure already started to build to something bigger and better before he even sank his entire length.
“My God!” I gasped as I closed my eyes. It was like I had only been playing around before and was finally with a real man. I never knew it could feel so good. I finally got it.
He sighed as he pulled back, then pushed forward. I moved with him, letting him set the pace, showing him how much I loved feeling him inside me and on me and all over me. It was clear how much my excitement excited him—every moan, every gasp, every time I whispered his name or urged him for more, he rewarded me with stronger, deeper strokes.
Even so, he was gentle with me. I could tell he was barely holding himself back from letting go and really taking me the way his animal side wanted to. Knowing he could do whatever he wanted was exciting—I imagined him ravishing me instead of being gentle with my bruised body, closed my eyes and rolled my head from side to side as I pictured him taking me like a wolf, riding me from behind. Slapping my butt. The image made me jerk my hips up to grind against him.
“So… good!” I gasped, and I abandoned myself to him. He lowered himself on his forearms and our sweat-slick bodies slid against each other. He grunted and panted and I panted with him until we were completely in sync, louder and louder until we both went stiff. He threw his head back and practically howled until my ears rang. Of course, I barely heard him over my own cries.
Instead of falling over on top of me, which probably would’ve killed me, he rolled off to the side—but held an arm out to me so I could snuggle up next to him. I needed to. I had never felt so vulnerable and satisfied and overwhelmed all at once. I needed a minute to get over it.
“That was amazing,” I whispered. I still had to catch my breath. I wondered if I ever would. I knew I would never get over him, that was for sure. Even if we never did it again, I would never forget it.
His arm tightened around my shoulders—but he was still gentle. “That’s probably the first really unprofessional thing I’ve ever done. Sleeping with a client.”
“But I’m not a client,” I reminded him.
He chuckled. “I love a loophole.”
14
Slate
We sat on the floor in the center of the living room with a sort-of picnic spread out on a blanket. It was her idea, and I was more than happy to go along even if I wasn’t particularly hungry for food. But if she needed to keep up her strength so we could go again, so be it.
And she was fascinating, too. I watched as she picked apart a club sandwich. “Why not just order the ingredients separately if you’re not going to bite right into the sandwich?” I asked as she pulled out the turkey and ate it first, then at the rest as a BLT.
“I don’t know. I feel like I’m getting double the meal for my money when I eat it this way.”
I chuckled. “Wow. Never thought about it like that.” I stretched out on my side, propped up on one elbow.
“Why are you drinking an iced latte at this time of night?” she asked.
“I’m a caffeine addict. And I like the way it tastes. One of my many vices.” I polished off the drink and put the cup aside.
“Aren’t you hungry?” she asked.
“I can always put this away for later,” I said, gesturing toward my own sandwich.
“I thought you worked up an appetite,” she murmured with a wicked gleam in her eye.
“You think that was me working up an appetite? I have a lot to show you.” When she blushed and giggled, I knew she wanted there to be a next time. That was nice. It would’ve been pretty awkward if she didn’t, since something told me I would’ve walked around with a permanent hard-on otherwise.
/> She wiped her full mouth with a napkin, and I watched a little too closely. “So,” she said, “you told me about what you and your family do. Who do you do it for?”
I winced. “Wow. Getting right to the hard questions, right away.”
“I didn’t know it was that touchy. I wouldn’t have asked if I had.”
“It’s sort of…” I rolled onto my back, one hand behind my head. “It sounds stupid when I think about it this way, and it’ll probably sound stupid when I say it, but it’s sort of a secret.”
“A secret?” She moved her eyebrows up and down.
“Seriously.”
Her expression changed. “Sorry. Seriously.”
“We’re not like the shifters you’ve already heard about,” I explained. “We were created. Well, we were born, but our fathers were created. It’s a long story. The less you know about it, the better—trust me on this.”
“I trust you.” And I knew she did. She never said something if she didn’t mean it.
“Anyway, that’s why we’re sort of on the fringe. We weren’t even aware of a treaty with the shifters and humans—that’s how out-of-touch we are. We stay far away from the rest of the world, in a big, beautiful house up in Montana. It has everything we could ever want… except the freedom to do what we want.” When I said it, I realized it was the truth. That was what bothered me, what was eating at me before we left for Florida. “I couldn’t just go down to the corner bar and hang out if I wanted to. I can’t watch the game with a few buddies and shoot the shit. I can’t randomly pick up a girl and bring her home—anything but that. I can’t live the way people our age live. I never could, but especially not now.” I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. “And don’t ask me why that is.”
“Why not?” She gestured all around us. “We’re sitting here in our underwear, having a picnic. We just had sex, in case you forgot.” She tilted her head to the side. “Don’t you know you can trust me, too?”
“It’s not a matter of trust. It’s a matter of protection.” I turned my head in her direction. “There are people who don’t like the fact that we’re still alive. Special Ops people. Does that make it clear enough for you?”
Her mouth formed a perfect O. “Crystal,” she croaked.
“Okay, then.”
She looked down at the blanket. “Is there any way you could be happier someplace else? I mean, do you have to stay there forever?”
“I don’t know. It’s not something we’ve ever talked about.”
“But it’s not impossible.”
“I guess not,” I shrugged. “But that’s what it is right now.” I rolled onto my side again. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“What happens when you’re too old to be a princess anymore?”
“Ouch!” She threw a crust of bread at me. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to talk to a woman about what’ll happen when she gets old?”
I laughed. “Sorry. But you get my point.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. I’m sort of stuck in Orlando right now.” She waved her hands. “Not that I mind! I don’t mind. It’s not a problem. I’m glad I can be near my mom. She needs me.”
“I bet she does. She’s lucky to have you.”
“I can’t say that I agree, but thanks.”
“Where would you go, otherwise?” I wanted her to say Montana, even though I knew how slim the odds were.
She smiled to herself. “I’d go to the farm.”
“The farm.”
“My grandparents’ farm. It belongs to my mom now, and it’s just sitting there.”
“Doesn’t anybody take care of it?”
“I don’t think it’s been a working farm for a long, long time,” she explained. “So no, there aren’t dead cows and chickens lying around. At least, I hope not. I think Mom wanted to move there, eventually. Retirement, you know. She never made it that far.”
“Where is it?”
“In Iowa. Pretty far from here. Not the sort of commute I could make every day,” she chuckled. “She always described it as the most beautiful place in the world when she was a little girl. She grew up there and moved down here when she met my father.” Her nose wrinkled. “That didn’t go well.”
“Maybe you can go there one day.”
“I would like to at least open the house up a little. They’ve been gone for… jeez, seven years now? I was just getting out of high school. Mom went up to settle things but I was so stupid. Too busy with my senior trip.” She shook her head.
“We have different priorities when we’re kids.”
“Don’t I know it.” She smiled a sad smile.
“You’re still a kid.”
“No, I’m not. I’m twenty-five. You’re all of thirty, if that, so don’t act like you’re so much more experienced.”
I stared at her. “You’re right. You’re not a kid. You’ve had a lot of responsibility thrown at you. You had to grow up.”
Her chin quivered and tears stood out in her eyes. I sat up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“No, no.” She shook her head as she wiped away the wetness on her cheeks. “You didn’t make me cry. I mean, you did, but not the way you think.”
“So what is it?” I knelt in front of her. If I had my way, she would never cry again. She didn’t deserve to.
“It’s just…” Her eyes darted around above my head as she searched for what to say. “It’s just that nobody ever saw me before. That probably sounds dumb.”
“It’s not dumb. You could never be dumb.” She touched something deep inside that I didn’t know was there before I met her. I didn’t know there were people in the world willing to sacrifice for the people they loved, even if there was nothing they could get out of it and even if their loved one would never know. She had no siblings, she had no father in her life. It was just her. She was so brave.
I hooked one finger under her chin and tilted her head up so I could kiss her. She sighed sweetly when our mouths touched, and her hands slid up my arms to rest around my shoulders. We both rose up on our knees. I wrapped my arms around her tiny waist and pulled her tight against my body—the heat rose up fast and furious, threatening to overwhelm me. But I didn’t want to take her that way, not this time.
Instead, we lowered ourselves to the blanket on our sides, face-to-face, touching and kissing and taking our time to explore each other. I already knew what it felt like to bury myself between her thighs, and I would do it again, but I wanted to know more about the rest of her. The look on her face when I stroked the sensitive spot at the base of her spine. The sound she made when I pulled one of her pink, tight nipples between my teeth and flicked with the tip of my tongue. The curve of her hip as she wrapped her leg around mine and I slid my hand from knee to hip, then around to her full, firm ass.
The way she sighed and whispered how good it felt when I slipped my fingers into her wet, hot folds. When I stroked her clit, changing my method depending on how she reacted. I paid close attention to her pleasure, to what made her work her hips against my hand and what made her dig her nails into my shoulders as she moaned my name. It sounded like music, coming out of her mouth. Her body rose and fell like a wave.
The power. I felt powerful in a way I never did before, controlling her pleasure, bringing her to ecstasy. I watched her face as she came—the way it twisted up in a grimace before her mouth fell open and she let out a long, loud cry that faded slowly as she relaxed. Her body went rigid in that last moment, when she teetered on the edge just before falling over into bliss. My cock was so hard, it hurt. But I wouldn’t have hurried her for anything. Making her come was the most erotic experience of my checkered sexual history.
I sank into her again, deep, until my balls rested against her warm, moist flesh. She molded herself to me, kissing everything she could reach, touching even more. I buried my face in her neck and groaned as need overcame reason. I felt every inch of her as I slid in an
d out, slowly, working us both into a frenzy one stroke at a time. She was so tight it was almost impossible not to come right away.
“So good… so big…” she whispered in my ear. I growled in response—who wouldn’t? The wolf howled inside me, clawing, begging to come out. I held him back just like I held myself back for her sake, but I didn’t know how much longer I could. I couldn’t help the grunts and growls coming out of me, filling the room until all that rang in my ears was the sound of my racing heart, the sound of my ragged breath and her cries of pleasure.
When she tightened around my length and starting breathing harder, faster, I let out a sigh of relief and let myself go with her. I looked down into her eyes just in time to watch her come again before I exploded.
“You hungry now?” she asked with a soft laugh over my shoulder.
I chuckled. “Now that you mention it? Yeah.”
15
Maggie
“If I never have to listen to the background music loop again, I won’t be sorry.” Slate massaged his temples as we walked to the car. It was late at night, since I pulled the evening shift and had to hang around until just before the fireworks started.
“You’ve made it a whole week! Good for you!” I patted him on the back and laughed as he winced.
“I’m pretty sure I know every song by heart,” he groaned. “And if I never see another turkey leg again, it’ll be too soon.”
“You’re the one who insisted on eating, like, five per day,” I reminded him, still laughing. He put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me in for a kiss. “Mm… you even taste like turkey. If you start sprouting feathers instead of fur, we have a problem.”
His laugh rang out in the night air. It was a good sound. He wasn’t the tense, angry, short-spoken guy I had originally met. I guessed getting laid every day wasn’t hurting him any. Even when he complained about watching me work every day, he didn’t sound like he was really complaining. I could tease him and he didn’t mind.