by T. S. Joyce
The gator didn’t surface again. She knew because she watched for it. Minutes passed, and she lapsed back into her own mind. Drawing her knees up against the cool night air, she hugged her legs tight and rested her chin on her knees.
“I saw you here before.”
Morgan gasped and jerked her attention toward the deep voice that had interrupted her melancholy thoughts.
Liam stood there, on the edge of the light from her truck, no clothes on and dripping water. He covered himself with his big hand and strode toward her. His hair was soaking wet, and little water droplets fell as he sat on the tailgate next to her.
“You’re—you’re—”
“Bare-ass naked.” He twitched his head toward the woods. “I park farther in. Started doing that when you busted my Changing spot.”
Blinking hard, Morgan swallowed audibly and looked carefully ahead so she didn’t see his giant dick peeking out from behind his hand. He had a lot of muscles. Like…a significant amount of abs, and his chest was perfectly defined. His shoulders were shaped like boulders, and he was as tall as a tree and just as powerful. And he was wet. And now she was getting wet, but she was going to keep that little gem to herself.
“Y-you saw me?”
“A few years ago, I came out here pissed off. I’d just gotten into a fight with Holt from Changing too close to his territory, again. It was one of the first times I’d Changed here, and I was out of my mind with rage. Just wanted to kill anything. It’s like that sometimes. The older I get, the more my gator matures, the harder it is to stop the rage. So I came out here, first time, desperate to give the animal my body so I could stop aching. And I saw you. You were leaned up against a tree, crying.” Liam looked over at her. “Crying like you are tonight. And I had this moment where I didn’t care if you saw me Change. I didn’t care if you told the whole town what I was. I didn’t care if the town came after me, killed me, strung me up. I was just…”
“Tired?”
Liam nodded. “Are you out here because you’re tired, too?” he asked softly.
She nodded.
Liam sighed and wrapped his hand around hers. She just…froze. It felt good. Felt terrifying. The numbness thawed with every second they sat there tethered together by touch.
“What happened?” he asked, pulling her hand up and staring at the shackle on her finger.
“I didn’t say yes, but Cal wasn’t really asking. He was telling me. Him and my dad made the decision.”
“That you’re engaged?”
She nodded.
“Do you want to be engaged?”
She huffed a laugh. “Yes. Someday.”
“To him?” he growled.
“No.” And damn that tear that just couldn’t help itself from falling. She was so tired of crying tonight.
Liam ripped the ring off her finger so fast he blurred. Then he chucked the damn thing into the swamp with a soft plunk when it hit the waves. “Then you ain’t,” he growled.
And when he looked back at her, his eyes were glowing gold and he had those scary long pupils.
“He’ll kill me for losing that ring,” she whispered.
“No, he won’t,” Liam said with such confidence she couldn’t help but believe him a little. “I won’t let him.”
“Why? Why would you go out of your way to protect me?”
“Because a few years ago, I came out here ready to sabotage my life by letting a stranger watch me Change into something I knew she couldn’t understand. And I waited, Morgan. I waited and watched you, stayed up nights thinking that any minute now, the town was gonna come with their pitchforks and axes and drag me out of my home and put an end to me.” He squeezed her hand. “But you never told anyone, did you?”
Morgan let off a shaking breath and shook her head. “Not a soul.”
“Because of that, and because you gave Bre a warning for me, I trust you. That’s a big thing for me, Morgan. Trust. It doesn’t come easy to a creature whose sole instinct is survival. Do you trust me?”
Morgan nodded. “I shouldn’t trust any stranger.”
“Am I a stranger? You know more about me than anyone else in the world.”
“That’s sad. I barely know anything about you.”
Liam shrugged up his shoulder. “I don’t need anybody to know me. I need to stay steady and protect territory and…”
“And what?”
Liam cleared his throat. “And apparently I need to protect you. Like you’ve been doing for me.”
“Cal and my dad found out you talked to me at the restaurant. A townie saw us and called them up. My dad called me an animal fucker.”
Liam belted out a laugh that echoed through the swamp. “Your dad’s a real gem, isn’t he?”
“He’s somethin’, but he ain’t shiny,” she muttered.
“You’re smart enough to know the shit he says doesn’t hold any weight, right?”
“Tonight, he reminded me that it’s my fault my mom left.”
Liam stiffened beside her, and his hand squeezed hers even tighter. “Well, that can’t be true.”
“It is, actually.” She huffed out a humorless laugh. “I guess I can tell you stuff since I know your big secret.”
“I suppose you can, and I’ll take it to my grave, so long as you take mine to yours.”
“That sounds fair.” She crossed her legs at her ankles and huffed a sigh. “She couldn’t stand me, Liam. Never looked at me like a momma should. Some people are not meant to be parents and to her, I was a burden. She accidentally got pregnant, and they didn’t have the money to pay to…you know.”
“Abort?” His voice was all gritty and angry.
“Yes. That. She let me know that part when I was nine. By the time I was ten, she was packing up. She was open about me being the reason she couldn’t be happy in the swamp anymore. She said I sucked the soul out of the place she loved.”
“Jesus,” he murmured. “That stuff is hard to get over.”
“It is if you have your asshole dad throwing it in your face all the time. He has these rose-colored glasses on when he talks about her. He talks like she was an angel and they had the greatest love story. But I remember. They fought like cats and dogs, always throwing shit at each other, breaking everything, screaming they hated each other. I think no other woman could put up with my dad’s shit, so he just latched onto the memory of her. But it’s made-up memories, you know?” When she looked over at him, she put the palm of her hand over her eyes out of politeness and decency. She wasn’t raised fancy, but she knew some manners.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Trying not to look at your dick.”
He snorted. “Just look at it and get it over with.”
“No.”
“Do it. My clothes are way in the woods, and I’m about to mooch a ride from you so I don’t have to walk. You get to deal with my naked ass for a while yet. Peek. I’m not modest. It’s one of the perks of being a shifter.”
She huffed three quick breaths and glanced down, squeaked because it was freaking huge, and then pulled her hands over her eyes again.
“Used to it yet?” he asked with a grin in his voice.
“No! Liam! No man has any right to have that much dick.”
He laughed.
“I’m serious! You could kill a girl with that.”
Okay, now he was cracking up, and Morgan was trying to hide a smile.
“Fuckin’ sword,” she muttered under the sound of his laughter. “And what is happening? Do you have a boner?”
Liam grinned down at himself and then back at her. “You look pretty. I can’t help it.”
“I look pretty? I’m still in my work clothes, I smell like French fries, and I’ve been crying. What is wrong with you?”
“Look, I’m a red-blooded man, you’re hot, my cock doesn’t care if you’re crying, you’re wearing that little V-neck T-shirt that has your tits playing peekaboob, but I’m trying to be a gentleman. I’m serious, you
look pretty, all soft and vulnerable, in the light of your badass pickup, out in the swamp I love, lookin’ right at home. And plus I love the smell of French fries.”
And now she was laughing. Men. Seriously.
“You really threw my engagement ring in the swamp.”
Liam snorted. “That wasn’t an engagement ring. That was a noose. Probably got it from the dollar store, gonna turn your finger green anyway. I did you a favor. Someday a man is gonna give you a pretty ring for the right reasons, Morgan. A ring you’ll be proud to wear. You hold out until you get the man you deserve. You verbally fileted me twice today. Go use that attitude on your dad and Cal. Don’t you let them push you, or I’ll get involved.” His voice went quiet and dangerous. “And trust me when I say I’m a last resort. I’m a nuke. You only ask me for help when you don’t care about people dying. Fix it or I will, Morgan. Either way, I’ll have you safe.”
Truth be told, she was utterly shocked at his oath to protect her, and that little tingle in her chest cavity was getting bigger. No man had ever made her feel safe. And he was part gator. That fact was clear as day since he was still covered in water droplets from Changing in the swamp. She’d seen his gator eyes when he was swimming. He’d just warned her that if she needed it, he would kill for her. Danger, danger, danger. But she couldn’t help but feel safe with him anyway.
He interrupted her thoughts. “I’m gonna take you somewhere.”
Morgan sat up straighter. “Where?”
“It’s a surprise. We’ll go get your mind off whatever you went through tonight.”
“I can’t. I have to go back.”
“Why?”
Morgan opened her mouth to explain, but none of her answers seemed good enough. Because Dad would be mad she didn’t cook his dinner? So. Because Cal would be mad that she wasn’t where she was supposed to be? So.
“You’re a twenty-five-year-old woman—”
“I’m way older than that. I’m twenty-nine.”
“Old lady,” he joked and flinched away when she swatted his arm. The smile faded from his face, and he tried again. “You’re a twenty-nine-year-old woman, who really doesn’t have to answer to anyone. Not your dad, not Cal, not me, not Jasper at the gas station, not anyone in this town. Fuck. Everyone. You do you, Morgan. The power people have over you? You give them that.” His eyes flashed that pretty gold. “Take that power back. The second you realize you’re the one feeding their control over you is the second you can learn how to set yourself free.”
She wanted to sit there for a minute and be awed and let his genius words sink in, but a mosquito bit her, and he smacked it on her arm. There was a little splat of blood smeared with the bug carcass, and Liam muttered, “Only a few billion more to go.” He hopped off the tailgate and meandered to the passenger’s side door, his big dick swinging, and the moment was over.
He turned down the radio when she climbed behind the wheel and directed her to a gap between the trees. The trail wasn’t very worn, but her truck made it just fine.
“You said it ached,” she murmured over the sound of the music. “It hurts to turn into an alligator?”
“Feels like dying.”
Morgan’s heart dropped. “Every time?”
“Yep. You get used to it, though—the dying part.”
She repeated it again, “You really threw my ring in the swamp.”
Liam chuckled. “Ask me if I’m sorry.”
“Liam Lachlan, I don’t think you’ve ever been sorry for a single thing in your entire life. You don’t seem like a man who does things he’ll regret later.”
“Oh, I have regrets, but they mostly belong to the animal. I learned long ago to stop beating myself up for something the gator does.”
“You don’t have control?”
“Not much.”
“If you turned into—”
“It’s called Changing. If I Change.”
“If you Change into it? Into the gatah? Would he hurt me?”
“No.” He said it without hesitation and then rolled his head against the headrest to face her. “I told you, you’re safe. You’ve been safe from my gator for years. He figured out you were protecting us before I did. You know anything about wild gators, Poacher’s Daughter?”
It made her prickle at being called that. “I know about killin’ ’em.”
“Mmmmm,” he growled, a rumble filling the truck. “You’ll have a big male for each stretch of the swamp. He’s king, and he’ll fight off the other big ones. Keep the females safe, protected. Keep them his.”
“Is that what you do? You set up a territory and claim women?” she asked carefully.
“No. I’m a man, too, Morgan. I know when it’s just the gator’s instincts. I don’t need a bunch of females.” He relaxed into the seat and lifted his chin, stared straight ahead at his mustang illuminated in the headlights of her truck. “Never gave into the instinct until you.”
Well, that froze every word right into her throat. His animal was protective over her? A stranger? Am I a stranger?
She pulled the truck to a stop beside his car. “You’re a dangerous man,” she murmured, gripping the steering wheel.
“Not a danger to you,” he said.
“Aren’t you?”
He searched her eyes, his hand on the door handle. “What do you mean? I told you. I would never hurt you.”
“Won’t you? The gatah and the poacher’s daughter. We are from different worlds, Liam. I was raised to hate and kill you. And you were raised to hate and kill people like my family. You scare me.”
“Why?”
She wrapped her arms around her middle to try to stop the fluttering there. “Because of how you make me feel.”
And there was a moment. Neither moved, and they just looked at each other, his eyes blazing that inhuman color. The butterflies in her stomach were the only things that moved in the cab of her truck. Everything else had frozen, as if time had stopped. And then slowly, the corner of Liam’s lip lifted just enough to form a crooked smile that rendered her breathless. God, this man. The smile fell, and a slight frown furrowed his dark eyebrows. He broke their gaze, pushed on the handle like he would leave. Her heart dropped.
“You said we’re from two different worlds, but that doesn’t matter. Not to me,” he murmured. “Do you want me to leave?”
She wrapped her arms tighter around her stomach. She should lie. She should tell him to go, so she could figure out how to un-complicate her life. But she wasn’t a liar.
“No,” she whispered. “I don’t want you to go.”
He rounded on her, his big strong hand going straight to her neck where he gripped the back of it as his lips crashed onto hers.
The fire she’d felt earlier was reignited in a moment. Just the touch of his skin set her ablaze.
With a soft, needy noise in her throat, she slid her hands up his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck. He angled his face the other way and slipped his tongue past her lips, and this was everything. It was the first easy thing she could remember in her entire life. It was natural, as though he’d kissed her a hundred times and knew her already. His mouth moved against hers so smoothly, and she smiled against the tickle of his whiskers. He tasted so good, and when a rumble emanated from his chest, she stopped, eased her lips from his, and searched his bright gold eyes. He was breathing just as heavy, flushed, and looking at her as though he was just as shocked. And the prehistoric growl he was making rattled on. She pressed her palm against the firm line between his pecs. “I can feel it,” she whispered.
“My growl?” he asked.
“No. Your heartbeat.”
The tightness at the corners of his eyes softened. “Not from two different worlds after all.”
She wanted to cry again, but this time it was because she was so happy. So relieved to have shared an easy moment with a man she liked. With a man who was winning her heart, a heart she thought could never be won. She’d hardened it just enough for this moment to
never happen for her. Yet Liam and come in and held her hand, asked if she was okay, and made her laugh on a terrible night. And now he was looking at her like she wasn’t invisible.
She leaned in and kissed him again softly. He smiled against her lips and lapped at her tongue slowly, rhythmically. His hands stroked her cheek, her throat, traced the V-shape of her T-shirt neck.
And she did the same for him—touched him—memorizing his body with her fingertips, tracing the curves of his muscles and the long lines of raised scars that decorated his chest.
Liam hooked his hand behind her left knee and pulled her over onto his lap like she didn’t weigh anything. She melted against his skin. He didn’t try to take her clothes off, only hugged her and kissed her gently. And she could feel it. He was siphoning away her sad bits and putting her broken pieces back together one by one. Gentle monster. Did he know what he was doing? Did he know he had magic?
He was creating a sweet addiction.
Morgan cupped his cheeks, rested her forehead against his, and closed her eyes. She shook her head slowly, nuzzling him. He allowed it before he leaned in and kissed her lips again. The growling was getting softer. His hands traced every part of her, but he didn’t push for more. She could feel his hard cock between her legs, separated from her skin by her jeans, but he didn’t move to pull her clothes off. He just…coveted her.
“You want more, don’t you?” he gritted out.
“Yes.”
“It’s not going to happen like this,” he whispered against her ear. He nipped her earlobe and gripped the back of her neck firmly enough for her to gasp at how good it felt. “When you ask for me to be inside of you, your head will be clear. You won’t do it with tear stains on your cheeks, and you sure won’t get fucked in this truck. You’ll give me time to make you feel good, somewhere comfortable. You’ll come to me knowing that if you ask for all of me, there won’t be any turning back.” He eased back and kissed her again. And again.