Tao of Love 3: Kiss of the Twin Werewolves

by Sedonia Guillone

  A measure of tranquility and clear thought remained in its wake. He sighed and leaned back against the pillows. He’d now have to confront Su Lin and show her she was mistaken about him. Whoever was harassing her, it wasn’t he. How could it be when he was on the other side of the world with his future wife? “Yes, you’re right. I’ll come as soon as I can.”

  He’d been planning to return to China with Meg at some point, to show her some of the places where her grandfather had grown up and then bring his godfather back to America with them. He missed the man who’d looked after him both before and after his parents’ murders in Tiananmen Square. He wanted Master Li to meet the wonderful woman he’d led Jie to, to show Meg the land her grandfather Chen Lem Kin, Li’s childhood friend, had emigrated from based on an astrological chart Li had read while they were still students in the Shaolin Monastery, before the Communists had taken over.

  “I cannot wait to see you again, Jie.” The old man’s voice was as always, full of affection.

  “The feeling is mutual, Sifu.”

  “Please hurry though.” His godfather had made the same plea several months earlier, urging Jie to come here to Boston’s Chinatown and claim Meg as his mate before the dangerous Russian lang ren could.

  “I promise I will.” Jie ended the call and replaced the receiver before turning to Meg.

  When he did, she was watching him, her brow furrowed. “Something’s terribly wrong,” she said softly.

  “Master Li is all right,” he assured her. “But he needs me to return to China as soon as possible.” He sighed and then explained to her what had happened. “Meg, you’ll need to get a passport immediately.” He knew she didn’t have one since she’d never flown anywhere. She had a deathly fear of flying, understandably, considering both her parents had died in a plane crash when she was only eight.

  To his surprise, she sighed in relief. “I heard you say you’d leave for China as soon as you could.” She glanced down, seeming shy. “I...was...afraid you wouldn’t want me to go with you.”

  Her confession tore at his heart. It was his fault that she thought that. Even though she knew he loved her, his ambiguity about staying with her because of his lycanthropy obviously kept her off balance. He pulled her into his arms. “Of course I want you with me, Meg.” He rested his cheek on her hair, feeling in one rush of emotion how much she’d come to mean to him in such a short time. The thought of being away from her, so far away, was unbearable. He wanted to say this to her, to admit how deeply in love with her he’d fallen, but he still held back, not wanting to burden her with the depth of his emotions when the beast inside him could reemerge at any time.

  Meg trembled in his arms. “Until now, I never had reason to overcome my fear of flying,” she said softly.

  He squeezed her gently and slipped the fingers of one hand into her hair. He loved its silkiness against his skin. “I’m honored you feel that way about me, Meg. Thank you.”

  She lifted her face and looked up at him. The soft pout of her lower lip and the tangy scent of her yin dew stirred his desire again. His dragon twitched and rose, stretching, hardened with want. But something else was troubling her. They were too deeply connected at this point for him not to recognize it. Meg’s fear had a particular scent to it, detectable only to him. He brushed his thumb across her cheek. “What else troubles you?” he asked softly.

  Meg remained silent, her gaze locked with his. There was obviously something she was afraid to say.

  Su Lin. The knowledge rose, unbidden.

  Meg knew he’d once loved his first wife very much and that it had been Su Lin who’d wanted to end the marriage, not Jie. Meg also understood the guilt he carried over the failure of that relationship. Maybe she feared he’d want to work things out with his first wife.

  He leaned forward and brushed a soft kiss across her lips. “Meg, you’re the woman I love. I couldn’t be with anyone else in the world now. I swear it.”

  His admission was rewarded with Meg’s smile and the sweet love in her eyes that shone on him. He wished he weren’t colorblind so he could see their jade hue.

  She rose up slightly and pressed her lips to his. She slipped her tongue past the seam of his lips, seeking his tongue. He met her and tasted her in return.

  Meg sighed and pressed in closer to him. Her full breasts flattened deliciously against his chest, the hardness of her nipples pressed into his skin, awakening his body fully. Su Lin had never surrendered herself body and soul to him like this. No woman he’d ever been with had. Meg had nothing to worry about. She was the sweetest, kindest, most passionate and loving woman he’d ever met and he wasn’t going anywhere.

  Unless he couldn’t get rid of the beast inside him.

  Now that he’d milked her energy and satisfied her, he was free to make love to her, as long as he didn’t spill his seed. The sexual Tao taught methods by which a man could climax without ejaculating in order to conserve his qi, and he’d been practicing. He returned Meg’s kiss with growing passion, tasted every soft crevice of her mouth. Her body immediately softened under his hands, and she embraced him, pressed her hands into his back.

  In sweet surrender, she fell back against the pillows, pulled him down with her.

  As if they were one body, she parted her legs and he shifted between them, pushed the head of his straining dragon into her dew-soaked crevice. Reaching down with one hand, he spread her lower lips open, which were moist and swollen with need.

  “I love you, Jie,” Meg whispered between kisses. She slid her hands slid down his broad back to his hard buttocks, squeezed the flexing muscles as his pelvis shifted, the head of his erection seeking her opening. She opened her legs wider and moved with him. She wanted him inside her now.

  Jie kissed her. “And I, you.” He moved once more and found her opening. Her breath caught softly as the hard tip nudged the edges of her cave and slipped in. She grasped his hips, urging him on. “Jie,” she whispered, her eyes fluttering closed.

  He plunged in, a long hard stroke that filled her completely.

  She cried out at the pleasure and squeezed her inner muscles around his shaft. “Oh, Jie,” she whispered. She was feverish with wanting him. Each slide of his hardness sent tingling friction against the walls of her cave. Jie’s masculine scent, his immersion in her, the flexing of his muscles against her softness, pushed away all her fears and doubts. She gave herself over completely to his loving, matched the movements of her body to his. She slowed down when he slowed the rhythm of his strokes and sped up again when he did.

  Jie showered tiny kisses along her jaw and down her throat, feathered the tip of his tongue along her skin as he moved inside her. He gazed down lovingly into her eyes. Even though he rarely spoke of it, his adoration came through in the way he looked at her and touched her. Never in a million years could she have imagined this good fortune would happen to her.

  She slid her hands down to Jie’s narrow hips, followed the movement of his thrusts inside her. She tilted her hips back so that each slide of his cock hit her sweet spot, the delicious tension built again, stroke after stroke.

  Jie began to move faster and harder. He rose up on his hands and tilted his pelvis, changing his angle inside her. Each thrust of his dragon hit a sweet spot deep inside her and all she could do was lie still, surrender, her bones melting.

  His cock twitched and surged inside her. She felt Jie was close to his climax and squeezed her inner muscles around him. The increased friction brought her over the edge. The tiny spasms erupted, shimmering through her moist cave. She cried out softly, clutched his hips. She felt him pulse inside her again. It aroused him when she came and he groaned from his own release.

  She levered up on her elbows and pressed her lips to his. His delicious musky scent invaded her and her eyes fluttered closed while she savored his lips and tongue.

  Still buried inside her, Jie embraced her and lowered her onto her back beneath him. She smiled and toyed with his short hair while leisurely
caressing his strong back. Mmm, there was never a time they made love that she didn’t want to remain just like this forever.

  She closed her eyes, breathed in Jie’s unique scent, male and primal. Maybe he hadn’t been changing each month since they’d been practicing the Dragon-Tigress exercises, but that aroma, musky and wild, still emanated from deep inside him, a constant reminder of the beast who’d claimed her as his mate and then saved her life.

  She sighed and pressed her lips into the damp, warm...mmm...masculine skin of Jie’s neck. There was no way she would have let him go to China without her. She couldn’t bear the thought of being apart from him when life had finally brought her true love to her. And true love he was to make her willing to overcome her fear of flying so that she could accompany him. When she’d watched Danny, her best friend in the world, fall in love with Dave, his soul mate, she’d sworn to herself that if she found that kind of love, she’d do anything for it.

  Well, now was the true test. She was not only about to make her first flight, but it was to the other side of the world where she was going to meet Jie’s first wife, a woman he’d loved before he loved her.

  Meg held Jie tighter, relishing these few moments of quiet. The next few days were going to have little or no rest, full of getting her passport, packing and making arrangements for the market to be cared for while she was gone. Hopefully Auntie Yee could help her. She couldn’t afford to keep the store closed all the time she’d be gone.

  So much to do, so many preparations to make when you were about to make the journey of a lifetime.

  Chapter Two

  Police jail, Beijing

  Every time he slept, he dreamed of a beautiful woman. Not the woman who’d gotten him arrested. A different woman, with long hair the golden color of the dried prairie grasses that waved in the winds. Her eyes, though almond shaped, like his own, were the rich green color of the prayer flags flying above the monastery, and soft love shone in them when she smiled, not fear and hatred.

  She reached her arms out to him in every dream. Her skin was pale and soft and her full breasts made him long to feel them against his cheek and lips. His entire body ached with the need to taste her, to bury himself deep inside her, to experience the healing balm of her love and softness. It was this woman he’d unknowingly craved each time his body made the painful transformation from man to beast and back again. Now, in his dreams, she was clear to him. For some mysterious reason, he knew he could bear it all, the pain and loneliness, the deep aching hunger, if he could touch her, feel her softness against him.

  Each time he opened his eyes, he found himself on the thin mattress of his cot. No beautiful woman. All he could do was stare listlessly beyond the iron bars of the jail cell to the bit of sunlight coming through the window in the corridor. More than anything he wanted to rise up, to howl and struggle, get the guards to open the doors so he could escape and find the beautiful woman from his dreams. But he couldn’t. He had no energy. His qi was draining rapidly. Each day that passed, movement became more and more difficult and his heart ached in his chest. He didn’t even change into the beast at night now. He couldn’t, not without his vital life force. The essence that only the golden-haired woman in his dreams could give him.

  All he could do was lie there and dream and stare out the window, hoping that somehow she’d find him.

  * * * * *

  “Are you all sure about this?” Meg looked from Danny to Dave to Auntie Yee, her heart pounding from anticipation. If anyone had better friends in the world than she did, she hadn’t met that person yet.

  They all looked back at her from their places at the round table. Couched upstairs at Shin Tao’s, the restaurant where Dave and Danny had had their first date, everyone important to her was gathered, having a farewell supper the night before she and Jie left.

  “Of course we’re sure, sweetheart,” Dave said. “The campus is only a few stops on the T. I’ll have time to help Yee close the store.” He had just started fall classes at U. Mass, pursuing his bachelor’s and then master’s in social work.

  “And I’ll help her open,” Danny added. He’d helped Meg and her grandfather at the market since she and Danny were in high school, and Meg had complete confidence that Danny could handle anything that came up there. He knew every aspect of the business. However, he’d just gotten his doctorate in computer science the previous spring and was beginning to teach at MIT.

  She looked at him. “You’re just starting your new post, Danny. I hate asking you. And you’re already taking care of Mei.” Meg’s fluffy Persian had gone to live with Danny and Dave because the cat was terrified of Jie, sensing the canine beast that was a part of his being. To take the stress off the poor feline, Danny had offered to have her live across the street in his apartment.

  Danny leaned toward her and put his hand on her shoulder. He’d been her best friend in the world since they were twelve. “Meggie, it’s no problem at all. This is a major trip for you and I won’t have you worrying about a thing.”

  Auntie Yee smiled at her. She was a sweet woman who’d loved Meg’s grandfather very much. She’d also been like a mother to Meg and Danny since they were kids. “Danny is right,” she said. “You know I helped Lem Kin for years. You have no worries. Just go and enjoy seeing the land your lao ye came from.”

  Meg couldn’t hold back the tears that pooled in her eyes. She bowed her head. “Thank you so much. I have the best friends in the world.”

  “Yes, thank you all,” Jie added softly.

  Meg looked at him and smiled, grateful that he’d so easily become a part of her unconventional little family. She prayed that everything would work out in China and that he would still return with her and, hopefully, his godfather, too.

  * * * * *

  Early the next morning her friends gathered to see her and Jie off. The cab sat at the curb, idling, while Meg embraced Auntie Yee and Dave.

  “Have a safe trip, sweetheart,” Dave said, kissing her on the cheek. He wrapped her in a bear hug.

  “Thank you, Dave.” She squeezed him. “Take good care of Danny.”

  He released her and winked, his blue eyes twinkling. “You know I always do.”

  She smiled, feeling herself blush. “I know.” In truth, Dave practically worshiped Danny. Meg had never seen someone fall so madly in love with another person as Dave had with Danny. In the short time he’d been with Danny, Dave had transformed from a man heavily burdened with sadness to a man who looked radiantly happy.

  Danny. When the moment came to hug him goodbye, the tears welled up hard in her eyes. In eighteen years of friendship, they’d barely ever been apart. He’d gone away from her for brief periods of time when he had computer consulting jobs, but she’d never left home, always staying here at the market with her lao ye, waiting for Danny to return. Now, she didn’t know how long she and Jie would be gone. Danny smiled gently at her and she could tell he felt a similar way. “You’re going to have a wonderful time, Meggie,” he said. “Don’t forget to have some candied haws fresh off a cart.” He winked at her. Danny had been to Beijing with his parents to visit family and he’d brought her back some of these apple treats saying that though you could get them in Chinatown, they weren’t the same as off a street vendor’s cart in the homeland.

  She nodded, her throat suddenly tight. A tear rolled out onto her cheek. Danny pulled her into an embrace and squeezed her tight. “I’ll miss you so much,” he said.

  Her throat loosened enough just enough to whisper a few words. “I’ll miss you too.”

  Danny pressed a kiss into her hair. “Don’t worry, Meggie, you’re going to have an awesome experience. We’ll be here when you get home, okay?”

  She nodded against him, afraid to let him go.

  Danny hugged her a few moments more, then gently ended the embrace. He brushed a tear off her cheek. “Don’t want you to miss your flight.” He smiled at her. “You look so pretty.”

  “You do look pretty,” Jie said. He�
�d been standing near her, shaking hands with Dave and saying goodbye to Auntie Yee. Now, he caressed her back over the deep blue silk brocade shou blouse she wore. Her skin tingled pleasantly from his gentle yet strong touch, and his praise sent pleasant heat through her. “Thank you.”

  “Now,” Jie said, “we’d better go.”

  She nodded. “I’m ready.” She looked at the market, at the sign that bore her grandfather’s name, the place she’d spent nearly every day of her thirty years. This dwelling and its surroundings meant everything to her. Her grandfather had raised her here, the neighborhood where she and Danny had become best friends and where Jie had searched for her and become the great love of her life.

  She looked at the small gathering of her friends and waved, smiling. “See you soon.”

  “We’ll be here, Meggie,” Danny said. “We love you.”

  Dave winked at her and Auntie Yee wiped at her tears with a handkerchief.

  “I love you too,” she called as Jie ushered her into the cab and slid into the backseat beside her. She waved at her friends through the window until the cab had rounded the corner, then turned and moved in closer to Jie, snuggling into the comforting crook of his arm.

  He held her snugly against his side and leaned down, placing a soft kiss on her cheek. “Thank you, Meg,” he murmured. “I know what it means to you, taking this trip with me.”

  She looked up at him. Their very first meeting she’d told him about her parents’ plane crash when she was nine. His compassion then had touched her, and moved her even more deeply in this moment. She kissed his lips softly. “I wouldn’t have let you go without me.”

  * * * * *

  The tension in Meg’s body increased the closer they came to the actual flight. Her heart pounded and her stomach fluttered. She felt cold and fought to keep her teeth from chattering, even though the September day was pleasantly warm.