“On that note, I’ll leave you to hash this out while I hunt Derek down so he can get started on the plans for this weekend.” Apparently, Carrick wasn’t having the same problem of knowing how to react. “I’ll bunk down in the apartment and you two can use the safe house Tahlia told me about earlier.”
He didn’t give either of us a chance to argue, or say anything really, before he got up and strode out the room. There was no looking back to make sure I was okay with his son’s plan, no opening for me to try to change his mind so he could help me make Braden see reason. Based on his exit, I didn’t think he’d even bother trying. His reaction made it clear where he stood on the subject of Braden and I spending some alone time together. My lioness was right there with him. The slutty traitor.
“I can see the wheels turning in your brain from here.” Braden’s husky drawl pulled me from my thoughts. While I was lost in my head, he’d risen from the corner of the desk and towered over me. “You can argue all you want, but it won’t change the outcome. You’ll be spending the next couple days getting to know me.”
I rolled the office chair back a few inches and stood. Although I still had to tilt my head to look up at him, I wasn’t at quite the same disadvantage as I’d been while sitting practically at dick-level. “You can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do.”
“Don’t issue a challenge unless you want me to take you up on it, honey.”
“It isn’t a challenge, it’s a fact.” It took everything in me not to stomp my foot like a spoiled child, but damn this man was good at winding me up.
He took another step closer, so close I could feel the heat from his body. “You and I both know you want this time together as much as I do. There’s no use denying it. I can smell it on you.”
How the hell could I argue with that? I couldn’t. My panties were drenched and it was all his and my panting pussy’s fault. She wanted nothing more than to rub all over him, marking him with her scent before we left this office.
“The smart play here would be for us to stay away from each other until the mission is over.”
“Not an option. You can either spend your time waiting with me at your safe house, or I’ll mark you here and now. It’s your choice.”
I wanted to argue, but the steely determination in his eyes warned me he was deadly serious about his ultimatum. Between him and my lioness, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it out of the room without his mark on my shoulder if I pushed him any further. It didn’t mean I had to give in graciously, though. “Fine. Go out there, grovel at my feet for being an ass earlier, convince everyone you were wrong about me, and then wait for me outside so you can follow me to the cabin once I finish my shift.”
His quick agreement shocked me. I figured he’d be pissed about me dancing again tonight. Little did I know I’d find myself in my car thirty minutes later. During his apology, the crafty bastard insisted the least he could do was give me the rest of the night off with pay, plus a bonus, to make up for lost tips. I tried arguing, but the girls all thought it was sweet of him. It would have looked weird if I didn’t take him up on the offer, and I didn’t want to give them any more reasons to suspect something was going on with me. Too much had already happened tonight for me to risk my cover over something like a paid night off.
The drive to the cabin didn’t take long, but I found myself wishing it had. I was nervous about spending time alone with Braden. Although I knew he was my fated mate—my lioness’s reaction to him guaranteed it—I didn’t know him at all, and now we were going to spend two days together in a secluded cabin. With the way the chemistry was crackling between us back at the club, I figured he’d be impossible to resist when we were alone.
Braden tilted his head, nostrils flaring, before he turned an accusing glare my way. “Why does your safe house reek of another male?”
“It’s not mine. It’s Damien’s. He’s just letting me use it while I’m in town so I have somewhere nearby to go and decompress without prying eyes.” If I weren’t still irritated with his highhandedness from earlier, I’d probably have explained who Damien was right off the bat. Instead, I figured I should let him suffer, if even for a couple minutes longer. It was a miscalculation on my part because it seemed to be the final straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back, or bear, in this case. Before I knew what was happening, Braden had tossed me over his shoulder—again—and was striding down the hallway toward the bedrooms. He must have followed the trail of my scent because he picked out the room I’d been using.
As soon as I heard the click of the door shutting behind us, I found myself on my feet. I turned to look at the one man fate had picked to be mine forever. I opened my mouth, but before I could even get a word out, he spun me around and slammed me up against the wall.
“No talking.”
No talking? There was too much for me to say not to talk, but I’d promised him this time together on his terms not even an hour ago. Leaning my head against the wall, I wondered if I’d done something in a former life to warrant finding myself in this situation—only I didn’t believe in past lives. Or wallowing in self-doubt. I should have probably been focused on the positive side of all this—at least fate had matched me with a bear shifter and not a lion.
“I don’t want to hear any arguments right now. I have plans for you—ones involving those pretty lips of yours.” His voice was a low rumble in my ear.
I tried to push away from the wall, but his body didn’t move an inch. His big, muscular body, which radiated enough heat, I could feel it through both our clothes. A body I knew I could move, but not without hurting him—something I didn’t want to do, even if he thought he was going to use my agreement back at the club to get me to blow him without even talking to me first. And then, he was kissing my neck, his tongue skimming along the place where my spine met my throat, and I lost track of why I thought we needed to talk in the first place.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
My knees almost buckled at the puff of hot air he blew against my skin before answering my question. “What do you think I’m doing?”
“Driving me crazy,” I muttered.
“Seems fair to me. I’ve always been the level-headed brother, yet you’ve managed to make me lose my mind more than once already and I only met you a couple hours ago.”
I couldn’t help it, I felt damn proud to know I had the power to drive him a little nuts without even trying. Maybe it was perverse of me, but I didn’t have it in me to feel bad about it. It was only fair since I had a feeling I was going to spend the rest of my life on my toes while trying to keep up with this man. He’d managed to turn the tables on me back at the club before I’d even realized what he was doing. My mom hadn’t raised a fool, but he’d played me like he’d known me my whole life. And he didn’t even break a sweat doing it.
“Never thought my first glimpse of my mate was going to be when she was already naked. I can’t wait to see you like that again, honey. The image of you up on the stage will be seared into my brain forever.”
I practically melted at his admission. I didn’t fight him when he turned me in his arms so we were facing each other. If there were any resistance left in me, the unguarded heat in his eyes would have taken care of it. I’d never had a man look at me like I was the only thing in the world they could see—the only person who mattered. I couldn’t possibly keep a wall up between us when he looked at me like I made the sun rise and set.
“How about I help you get out of these clothes? I want to see all of my beautiful mate again now that I can show you how much I appreciate the view.” The wicked gleam in his eyes matched the tone of his voice as he talked me out of my clothes.
He started with my jeans, unzipping them and pulling them down my hips until they landed on the floor. Dropping to his knees, he lifted one foot up to help me step out of them. He repeated the action with the other foot, and I heard his quick inhale of breath when he saw the weapons strapped to my right leg. I had
one of my guns in my ankle holster and a blade strapped to my upper thigh. He took both weapons, stretched his arm out, and dropped them onto the bedside table.
I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the distaste I was afraid would be in his gaze. Many shifters didn’t fight with weapons. In most circles, it was considered a weakness. In some places, they were even banned. The lion prides didn’t take the same view, probably because we were haughty as hell—something to do with being kings of the jungle and having nothing to prove to any of the other species. None of that mattered to me, not after what had happened to my father, but I’d met enough bears who’d looked down on me for my methods in the past to worry my mate would feel the same.
“Such a fierce kitty.” My eyes popped open at his words, and I was stunned to see the pride in his eyes. “Do you have any other deadly surprises hidden under your clothes?”
My eyes locked with his and I nodded jerkily in response to his question. He grinned, almost as though he was happy to know I carried other weapons.
“I guess I’ll have to get the rest of these clothes off you as quickly as possible so I can make sure I’m safe from you. Well, safe from the weapons you carry at least.”
He winked at me. This sexy beast of a man fate had decreed as mine actually winked at me. In that moment, all my fears left me and only one feeling remained: overwhelming lust. I’d already been turned on; it was perfectly natural since I was close to my mate. But now, I was unbearably aroused and wetter than I’d ever been in my entire life. Still kneeling at my feet, Braden leaned forward and breathed deeply. I knew he could scent my arousal and his grunt of satisfaction should have pissed me off, but it just made me moan.
Braden rubbed his face against my belly, his skin rough against mine. His open palms swept up my legs, touching every inch of skin he could reach until he was standing in front of me again, unbuttoning my shirt.
“I might not be able to mark you yet, but I damn well will leave my scent all over your skin while we’re in this cabin together. You’ll give me that because I need it. My bear needs it. And I hope like fuck your cat is pushing you as hard as he’s pushing me to mark you.” He punctuated his words with a not-so-soft bite at the place where my neck and shoulder met—right where I knew he would have bitten me tonight if our situation were any different. Under the scent of his arousal, I could smell his frustration and his voice held a hint of pain. Although he’d told me not to talk, I couldn’t stand there and not offer him some reassurance.
“She is,” I admitted. “I’ve never had to fight her as hard as I had to tonight when she scented you. My lioness knows you’re hers and doesn’t understand why we’re waiting. It hurts me to know we have to wait, that I might be risking my future with you to buy us the time we need to finish this mission and make sure your sister and niece are safe.”
Chapter 7
Braden
Her admission was exactly what I’d needed to hear. “There’s a part of me that’s glad you feel that way, even though it makes me feel like an ass. I shouldn’t want you to feel pain of any kind, but it gives me a flicker of hope that this isn’t a one-way street.”
“You’re my mate. It could never be a one-way street between us.”
“Except...sometimes it is,” I disagreed, thinking about what my dad had gone through and finally understanding the depth of which it had to have hurt him. “Annora’s mother was my dad’s fated mate, but she turned him away to be with the wolf she’d already chosen to mate.”
Her eyes softened as she stared up at me. “But we’re not them, Braden. You’re not your dad and I’m definitely not Annora’s mother. I’m not going to turn you away. I would never have agreed to this time with you if I were planning to walk away from you. You don’t know me well enough to fully get this, but once I’ve made a commitment, I’m in it for the long haul.”
“Me, too.”
“You better be, because once we’ve mated, I won’t put up with any bullshit like other women.” Her voice was snippy, but I heard the slightest quiver in her tone.
“Why would I need anyone else if I have you for my mate?”
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug, as though what she was going to say next didn’t really matter to her. “It isn’t rare for a lion to stray from his mate, to spread his seed and grow the pride. Some bullshit excuse about it being their duty as the kings of the jungle.”
For a second, I thought maybe I’d misheard her. I’d never heard of such a thing happening after a mating. I couldn’t fathom any shifter putting up with a cheating mate. I’d seen my brother with Finley. As soon as she was in his life, it was as though no other woman existed on the planet. There wasn’t a chance in hell he’d ever stray. She was it for him. The same was true for Annora and Parker. None of them would ever allow their mate to sleep with anyone else, even if they wanted to do so.
“I don’t need to be the king of the jungle. I just need to be your king.”
Her sputter of laughter was worth being completely cheesy. “Why do I have a feeling my king would want me to kneel before him regularly?”
She might have been teasing, but I could too easily picture her on her knees with her lips wrapped around my cock. On her hands and knees with her ass in the air while I plowed into her from behind. Or on her knees with her pussy hovering over my mouth while I drove my tongue into her and licked up all her sweet honey. The urge to mark her grew stronger as I imagined all the things I wanted to do to her luscious body.
“I don’t like waiting for what’s rightfully mine, Tahlia.”
“Then take me now, Braden. You might not be able to mate me yet, but I’m standing here right in front of you, yours for the taking.”
As quickly as her words registered in my brain, my control snapped. I tore her jacket from her body and found another gun in a shoulder holster. My woman was a walking armory, and it only made her sexier in my eyes. Her strength was hot as hell, made even more so by the fact that I’d be the man who got to see her softer side.
After I placed her gun on the bedside table with her other weapons, I slowly unbuttoned her shirt and slid it from her body, only to find the corset she’d been wearing on stage earlier underneath it. “So fucking gorgeous,” I rasped, my tongue tracing the edge of the material at the top of her tits.
“I didn’t even realize I still had it on. I guess I was too pissed off at you to bother changing out of it when I was leaving.”
“Remind me to make you angry more often,” I murmured, trailing my lips over her collarbone and then up her neck. “If it means I get to see you in shit like this, I’m more than willing to show you how sorry I am all the damn time.”
“I don’t usually dress like this,” she admitted, waving her hand at the corset. “This is something I had to buy as part of my cover.”
I didn’t like the reminder of the time she’d spent pretending to be a stripper. As sexy as the corset was, if her time spent on that damn stage was the only reason she was wearing it, I didn’t want it on her. I swiftly unlaced it and let it fall to the floor. Then I nipped her shoulder lightly, growling deep in my throat. “I’m more than happy to buy you as many sexy outfits as you’d like, but they’re going to be for my eyes only from now on.”
“But—”
I didn’t let her finish whatever argument she was going to make. Instead, I claimed her mouth in a brutal kiss, my lips crashing against hers as my tongue swept inside to tangle with hers. I slid my hands up until I was palming her tits, squeezing them once before moving up higher to tangle them in her hair. Tightening my grip, I tilted her head further. Nipping at her lips, I ended the kiss and nibbled the pulse point at the base of her throat.
“Later,” I growled. “The only thing I want to hear right now is your voice calling out my name as you beg me to let you come.”
“I don’t beg.”
Her response only fueled my determination to have her cries ringing in my ears. I dropped back down to my knees, my hands holding her steady afte
r I ripped her panties from her body. As the scraps of shredded material floated to the floor, I figured either she needed to start going commando or I’d end up spending a shit ton of money replacing them. I didn’t have any patience when it came to having access to Tahlia’s body—especially not now that I’ve seen her bare mound glistening with the proof of her arousal. It had taunted my senses from the moment we met, and now that I was up close and personal with her pussy, I had no intention of moving away any time soon.
Gripping her hips, my tongue delved between her pussy lips and swiped upward to stroke her clit. The taste of her honey was so damn sweet. I lapped at her, savoring her flavor as her cries echoed in my ears. It wasn’t until her hips started to jerk against my mouth, her fingers dug into my scalp, and her clit was swollen from my attention that I pulled away. I knew she was on the brink of an orgasm, but I was determined to prolong her pleasure until she was begging for it.
I tormented her over and over again, focusing my attention on her clit until she was practically mewling in pleasure, then moving down to thrust my tongue into her pussy. Once I felt her inner muscles clench tightly against me, I switched back to her clit. She lasted until the third round before I finally heard what I’d been waiting for.
“Please.”
One simple word, softly spoken, but it was more than enough to signal how much she needed me. My chest swelled with satisfaction—and determination. My mate was in need and I wasn’t going to make her wait any longer. I thrust two fingers deep inside her pussy and grazed her clit with my teeth. Her legs tightened in response and her hold on my head became even more firm. When her hips jerked forward, I sucked her clit into my mouth and tugged.
Once.
Twice.
Then, she was screaming my name while she climaxed all over my face. Her legs gave out, and I held her up as she continued to cry out—my thrusting fingers and gentle swipes at her clit prolonging her pleasure. With one last lingering lick, I managed to pull myself away from her pussy.
Bear It All: McMahon Clan 2 (Fated Mates #5) Page 4