Midnight Touch

by L Ann

  Shaun felt his jaw drop. “What the fuck, Cassie? Fucking protocol? We did not just have a fucking one-night stand.”

  “It’s okay. We’re both adults here. You don’t need to pretend,” Cassie continued. “You’ve been so nice to me with everything, and it’s my fault for just turning up and coming on to you so heavily.”

  “Fucking nice?” Shaun could feel the growl rising in his throat, feel his wolf fighting to take control. “This afternoon wasn’t about trying to fucking comfort you, Cassie. I’m not that charitable.”

  “I know!” She looked around for somewhere to put her mug. “I’m making a mess of this. I’ll take a shower and leave before I make this worse.”

  She disappeared out of the kitchen, picking up the holdall on the way and left Shaun staring after her.

  What the fuck had just happened?

  Cassie sent up a silent thank you to her sister when she opened the bag and pulled out clean underwear, jeans and a fresh t-shirt. Laying them out on Shaun’s bed, she pulled off Shaun’s t-shirt and threw it into the laundry basket as she passed it on her way to the shower.

  It took a few minutes of fiddling with buttons and knobs to figure the shower out, but eventually she stood under a soothing cascade of hot water. Her thoughts turned to Shaun. His reaction to her trying to give him a ‘get out of jail free’ card after sleeping with her had been weird. He’d seem almost annoyed at her, and she wasn’t sure why.

  She had limited experience in the one-night-stand arena – okay, no experience at all. Until Shaun, her only lover had been Sam. But she was sure any man would jump at the chance to move on without any comeback after taking a girl to bed.

  She reached behind her for the bottle of liquid soap she’d spotted on the shelf and her hand collided with something warm. That ‘something’ moved under her palm, pushing forward and an arm slid around her waist from behind.

  “Let’s get something straight right now.” Shaun’s chest pressed against her back … and was that his erection sliding between the cheeks of her ass? His hand splayed out across her stomach. “This was not a one-night stand, and you’re not going to turn it into one.” His lips found the curve of her shoulder.

  “But –”

  “No, Goldilocks.” He turned her in his arms, so she faced him. “When I said you were mine, I meant it.” His lips curved up into a lopsided smile at her frown. “I’m aware of how it sounds. But I know what I know. And you can’t deny it, there’s a definite chemistry between us.”

  “You don’t even know me,” Cassie protested. “And I was in a relationship until a couple of days ago. I can’t move on that fast!”

  “Can’t you? If you believed that, you wouldn’t still be here. You wouldn’t have let me spread you out on my table and feast on you.” He bent his head and licked a drop of water from her lips. “You wouldn’t have climbed on top of me and taken me inside your body earlier.”

  “I’m so—”

  “I swear to God, Cassie, if you apologise to me for taking what you wanted … what we both wanted …” Shaun closed his mouth with an audible snap of his teeth. His hands lifted her, pulled her legs around his waist. “Admit it, Cassie,” He whispered. “You want me. You’re already craving my touch.” He pushed inside her, inch by slow pleasurable inch. “You’re wet for me … soaked.” He groaned. “If you really thought this wasn’t right, you’d stop me from doing this, from taking you. And you’d be lying to us both if you claim this is a onetime thing.”

  Cassie moaned and gave in to the demands of her body. Her tongue flicked out to swipe across his lips and his mouth closed over it, capturing her tongue between his teeth. When he finally buried himself to the hilt inside her, Cassie was lost. How could one man, a man she barely knew, drive her to such desperate need with so little effort?

  “If you need a couple of days to regroup, I can give you that,” he whispered against her mouth as he thrust inside her. “But don’t, not even for a second, think that this isn’t going somewhere.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “I know, you keep telling me.” Cassie threw a smile at Shaun where he sprawled across his bed watching her dress.

  “It’s late and it’s dark. You should stay here or let me drive you back to town.”

  “I have a car, and I’ve been driving in the dark for years. I lived here, remember?”

  “And I bet your parents didn’t like you driving around in the dark, either.” He rolled onto his back and patted the mattress. “Come back to bed.”

  She was tempted, he had no idea how tempted. Although the sly smile he sent in her direction did make her wonder if he could tell. He was lying there, unashamedly naked – not that he had anything to be ashamed about – with an inviting smile on his face, and an erection that told her blatantly he was ready and willing to rock her world for the fifth time. But as tempting as he was, and as much as she wanted nothing more than to crawl back into his bed, she needed to go home.

  She’d spent the past twenty-four hours hidden away from the world, safe inside Shaun’s private domain, where she didn’t have to think about Sam and the things he’d said and done.

  She had to go back out there and deal with reality. She couldn’t avoid dealing with Sam any longer. It would already have spread around town now, after the scene at the bar, that they’d broken up, and people would be asking questions – questions that, right now, only Sam was available to answer.

  She also needed some space to think about what was happening between her and Shaun. He’d made it clear he wanted more than a one night hook-up and was willing to give her time to think it over. To do that, she needed to get back to normality, at least for a few days.

  “Are you going to walk me out?” she asked, and Shaun sighed.

  He rolled out of bed and prowled gracefully across the carpet toward her. “I could change your mind and make you stay.”

  “You could,” she agreed, “but I don’t think you’ll do that.”

  “Won’t I?”

  He stopped, close enough to touch, and she could feel the heat coming from his body. Her fingers curled into her palms in an attempt to stop herself from reaching out to touch him.

  “No, I don’t think you will. That’s not who you are.”

  She was almost positive she heard him growl beneath his breath as he bent and snatched up a pair of black jeans from the floor and pulled them on.

  “I don’t know why you won’t just stay here.” He yanked his jeans over his hips. “We can go and pick up your stuff tomorrow.”

  “Are you asking me to move in with you?” Cassie asked, incredulously.

  “Why not?”

  “We barely know each other. Don’t you think that would be kinda weird?”

  “Human conventions,” Shaun’s lip curled, and he shook his head. “It’s okay to fuck each other senseless after knowing each other a day but moving in together is frowned upon. What better way is there to make sure two people are compatible than by living together?”

  “Did you just say human conventions?” She gaped at him.

  He shrugged. “I just mean why should we let something like social norms dictate what we do.” He reached out a hand and touched her cheek. “I want to explore what’s going on between us. Is that such a bad thing to want?”

  Her skin tingled where he touched her, and Cassie took a deep breath. “No, I want that, too,” she admitted, softly. “But I was with Sam for almost two years and we didn’t even get close to living together.”

  “You were with him for two years and you never got close to what you have with me right now.”

  The growl overlaying his words did something to her and she couldn’t stop herself from swaying forward, closer to his heat.

  “It hasn’t even been a week since we broke up. No matter how it happened, or whose fault it was, I can’t rush headlong into a new relationship. I have to learn from my mistakes, not repeat them.”

  Shaun’s smile was wry. “Goldilocks, this r
elationship started the minute you broke into my house. You’ve just been slow to realise it.” His fingers brushed over her cheek, slid into her hair and pulled her closer so he could steal a quick kiss. “But I promised you time, so I’ll back off and let you drive home alone, even though I don’t like it.” He released her, stalked out of the bedroom and down the stairs ahead of her.

  Cassie shook her head and followed him at a slower pace. Whether she would admit it to him or not, she liked Shaun a lot. More than she probably should, considering how little she knew about him, but his belief that they were destined to be more than a one-night stand baffled her. She was positive the way Shaun was behaving was not the normal morning-after – or in this case, evening-after – way of things.

  She had to admit, though, the way he made her feel had her forgetting she had only known him for a few days. It felt like he had been a part of his life forever, and she liked it.

  Shaun was waiting by the front door, a slight frown pulling his brows together. He appeared to be a million miles away.

  “Cass …” He turned to face her as she stepped off the bottom stair, obviously not as lost in thought as she had assumed. “When you get home, I know you’re going to start thinking about all the reasons we shouldn’t make a go of this. You’ll try and convince yourself that our connection can’t have been anything like you thought and that I’m probably relieved you’ve left.” He hesitated, rubbed his thumb across his bottom lip. “Your sister will tell you all about how you ignored the warning signs with Sam, and that you should listen to her this time when she tells you not to rush anything with me.

  “I need you to do something for me. When all these doubts start coming at you, think about last night, about this afternoon. Think about this.” He reached out, pulled her against him and kissed her. Slow, deep, savouring. When her hands curved over his shoulders to hold herself up, he lifted his head. “When you question your memory, just ask yourself could you really imagine anything this good?”

  Cassie gazed at him for a long moment, then nodded. “I can do that.”

  “Okay … Good.” His smile returned, and he stepped back to allow Cassie to pass him, then followed her to her car.

  “Are you sure I can’t drive you?”

  “No, I need to do this.”

  Shaun opened the driver’s door and held it while she settled into the seat. Dipping his head, he leaned in, pulled the seatbelt across her and locked it into place.

  “I got your cell number from your sister,” he told her. “So, I sent a text to your phone. Call me when you’re ready to talk.” He brushed a final kiss across her lips, straightened and slammed the door shut. As she drove off into the darkness, Shaun felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck lift.

  Swinging around, he scanned the driveway and the front of the house. The front door stood open, light spilling out through the gap and lighting up the porch. No sounds, other than the fading engine of Cassie’s car could be heard, and after a quick inhalation, there were no unexplainable scents. And yet, something tugged at his awareness. Something demanded he investigate. He strode up to the front door and pulled it shut, then peeled off his jeans, and shifted.

  Just a quick survey around the property – to make sure he was alone.

  There was a half mile stretch just before Greene Valley’s town limits where the road narrowed. An unfenced drop – one the local town council had been trying to get permission to block off – ran along both sides of the road, not too steep, but enough to make any driver wary when they travelled in the dark.

  Cassie slowed her speed down just as she reached the beginning of the stretch of road, turned off her radio and wound down her window so she could hear any oncoming traffic. There were only a few places to pull over to allow cars to pass each other, and she didn’t want to be caught in a situation where she’d have to reverse in the dark to find one.

  She was so focused on watching for oncoming traffic that she failed to see the vehicle coming up behind her at speed. It was only as the light filled the interior of her car, and the horn blared she realised it was there. Cassie tried to pull to the side of the road and let the car pass her, but either they were moving too fast, or she was too slow, and it hit the back of her car, jolting her forwards.

  Cassie grabbed the wheel as it spun out of her hands and twisted to the left, tried to correct the direction and the car behind slammed into her again.

  Were they purposely trying to run her off the road?

  Pressing her foot down on the brake, she tried to bring her car to a stop, and felt the vehicle behind connect again. She couldn’t see what it was, its lights half-blinding her, but it had to have been something bigger and more powerful than her own car. Another shunt and she felt her stomach dip as her car’s wheels slid off the edge of the road.

  She screamed …

  “I’m not sure I can get on board with this getting back to nature shit.”

  Shaun paused with his coffee halfway to his mouth. “Dude, you’re a wolf. Do I really need to remind you of that?”

  “A wolf who likes his home comforts,” Deacon replied. “Is there even a Starbucks in town? I bet there isn’t.”

  “You never go to Starbucks, anyway.”

  Deacon levelled a finger at Shaun. “That’s not the point.”

  Shaun rolled his eyes and smirked. His brothers had arrived just after 6AM, it was now almost nine, and Deacon hadn’t stopped complaining.

  “Actually, this place is perfect.” A quiet voice joined the conversation and both men fell silent to look at the third. “The work on the outbuildings means we’ll have enough room to house the rest of the pack. And we can add additional living quarters when we expand our ranks. But, as a Sanctuary, it has everything we need.”

  “The relocation is a definite, then?” Shaun asked.

  “Yes. The entire pack should be here within the month.” The oldest of the three brothers and their pack Alpha, Cormac, joined Deacon and Shaun at the kitchen table.

  “You never did tell me how you found out this place was on the market,” Shaun said.

  “I’ve been looking for a long time, nothing serious, just checking out properties in case something came up that would work. After last year,” Cormac’s silver-eyed gaze landed on Shaun. “I felt it was the right time to actively start planning. I put out feelers with a few realtors, explained what I was looking for and –” he broke off at the sound of someone banging on the door. “Are you expecting someone? This girl you told Deacon about, maybe?”

  Shaun frowned, rising to his feet. “No, but –”

  A female voice shrieked his name and Deacon quirked an eyebrow.

  “Well, doesn’t that sound dramatic? I’ll investigate.” He bounced to his feet and disappeared down the hallway.

  “Take your hands off me, you asshole!”

  Shaun traded looks with Cormac at the yell, and both men strode out into the hall.

  Deacon stood just outside the front door, blocking the entrance. Shaun couldn’t see the woman his twin was blocking, but he recognised her scent.

  “Gemma?” He came to a stop just beyond Deacon’s left shoulder and looked at the woman struggling against Deacon’s hold on her arm.

  “Tell this idiot to take his hands off me!” She tried to pull her arm free from Deacon’s grip as she spoke.

  “When you stop trying to shove me out of the way, I will,” Deacon responded. “Is this your female?” he threw at Shaun, then grunted when Gemma’s fist landed in his stomach.

  “No, her sister.” Shaun moved around Deacon. “You might want to let go of her before she hurts you.”

  “Hurt me?” Deacon laughed down at the woman who barely reached his shoulder. “This tiny little thing?” His laugh cut off abruptly when Gemma’s fist connected with his jaw.

  “Ouch! Shit … ouch! That hurt.” Gemma yelped, glaring at Deacon, and Shaun stifled a laugh at the look of indignation on her face.

  “What brought you up here? Is Cassie o
kay?” he asked, shooting Deacon a look that told him to back away.

  “What do you mean is Cassie okay?” Gemma demanded, throwing Deacon another angry glare. “Where is she? You told me she was here with you.”

  Shaun frowned. “She left here around ten last night. I asked her to stay, offered to drive her home – she wouldn’t have either.”

  “Did you try and call her?” Deacon jumped in.

  Gemma scowled at him. “Did I call her? What are you … stupid? Of course I tried to call her!” she shrieked.

  “Jeez, man, okay!” Deacon threw his hands up in front of him. “Fucking females.”

  “It’s going straight to voice mail,” Shaun confirmed, slipping his cell back into his pocket. “Is there anywhere she’d go to?”

  “I tried the apartment. Rebekah hasn’t seen her.”

  “What about her ex?” Shaun didn’t think Cassie would have gone straight to Sam after leaving his bed, but he had to ask.

  “There’s no way she’d have gone to his place,” Gemma denied immediately. “Not after –” she cut off when her own cell started to ring. Pulling it out of her pocket, she connected the call. “Hello?”

  All three men could hear the person on the other end of the line.

  “Is this Miss Gemma Duncan? This is Ridge County Hospital. Your number is listed as the Emergency Contact for Cassie Duncan.”

  “Cassie?” Gemma’s face drained of colour. “Is she okay?”

  “I’m afraid Ms Duncan was in an accident. Unfortunately, her car wasn’t discovered until early this morning and it’s taken until now to find any identification.”

  “She didn’t tell you?”

  “Ms Duncan is unconscious. She was found just outside Greene Valley. It appears that she lost control of her car and it went off the road.”

  “Oh my God,” White-faced, Gemma swayed, her phone dropping from her fingers.

  Deacon caught Gemma before she crumpled to the floor, wrapping an arm around her waist and hauling her against his chest. Cormac caught the phone before it hit the ground and lifted it to his ear.