Cody looked at him and nodded almost imperceptibly. “I'll be getting ready to open. Call me if you need me."
His friend left and closed the door quietly behind him.
Lara sighed and sat back in the chair. “I should be angry with you. This is obviously some sort of set-up you and Cody cooked up together."
Her face looked pinched and she twisted her hands together nervously. As if realizing she was fidgeting, she picked up the drink in front of her and took a large swallow.
He winced at the coughing fit that followed. “It's only called tea, honey. It's really a mix of about five hard liquors. I don't think there's any real tea in it."
Her face flushed from the coughing, she choked out a few words. “Who in the world would drink this? Yikes."
All too soon she'd stopped coughing and he had to face his demons and start the conversation. “Lara. I know that you can see and hear ghosts. I know they speak to you and some of your book information is from them."
She stared at him in shock. “How did you find out? Who told you?"
How to break it to her that he wasn't the normal average man she thought he was? He hesitated, trying to think of some way, any way, to tell her the truth that might not make her doubt his sanity.
"You're dumping me, aren't you? You're just afraid to tell me. Is that right?” She looked and sounded as if she was about to cry. “Why don't you just tell me the truth? You wouldn't be the first person to think I'm too weird to be around."
She collected herself a bit and threw her shoulders back, prepared to bluff her way through the pain he knew she must be feeling. She was already hurting and preparing herself for worse.
He winced as she took another drink of the Texas Tea. This time she didn't actually cough or choke, though. “I'm not dumping you, Lara. I'm in love with you. You may not want me when you learn my secret, though."
She stared at him, mouth frozen open in disbelief. “You love me? You know I'm a weirdo that hears dead people and you still love me?"
He nodded, trying to tame his anxiety a little. “Yes. You need to see my secret, though."
He couldn't think of any words she might believe, so he'd decided the only way to make sure she understood and believed the truth of the Desert Song People was to demonstrate for her. To shift for her. He stood and quickly stripped off his clothes, not bothering with finesse, only concerned with speed. He needed to get this done before she had a chance to run.
She watched and waited, sitting tensely on the edge of her seat.
He reached deep within him and called Coyote to take his form.
* * * *
Matt's gorgeous, naked body appeared to shimmer and waver, then a large coyote was standing in place of the human man. A coyote with the same golden eyes as Matt. It was her coyote, her beach companion to whom she had spilled out her secret and her thoughts.
The relief hit her first. He'd told her he loved her and had freely shown her what had to be one of his most closely kept secrets. He really wasn't dumping her. And he didn't just see and hear ghosts, he changed into a completely different creature. A creature of night and desert. How fascinating. But she'd worried about telling him her secret for days, for no reason. He'd known the whole time.
"Change back. Now.” She snarled at Matt's coyote self. She needed him back in human form so she could chew him out. He deserved it and was going to get an earful. She was so mad she couldn't hold still and needed to do something.
The air around the coyote shimmered and Matt's human form replaced it. He looked at her with an expression that clearly spoke of his fear that she would now reject him.
She walked up to him and glared up into his face. “Let's get something straight here, Texas. If you ever spring something like that on me again, you're going to be sleeping alone on the couch for weeks. I was terrified that you would think I was weird, but it turns out that I didn't need to fear that, did I?"
She poked a finger into his chest as she spoke, punctuating every few words with a hard stab. Her voice grew louder with each word as well.
Matt smiled a huge, relieved smile. He wrapped a hand around hers, stopping the painful poking and lifted her hand to his mouth to nibble on the pads of her fingers. “I'll do my damndest to never do that to you again, but I can only speak for my own secrets, not those I keep for others."
"Okay. But you are in so much trouble if it happens ever again."
Unable to resist touching him any longer, she hugged him, ran her hands over his arms and around his waist. Still angry, she lashed out and bit the heavy muscle on the top of his shoulder, hard.
His large body shuddered and tensed. “Honey, that's not punishment, that's foreplay."
His mouth captured hers and he devoured her lips, licking and nibbling as he used his hands to strip off her shirt and tried to pull down her pants and underwear. He panted heavily and his eager, thick cock stood at attention. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.
She wrapped her hand around his erection, stroking gently from root to tip over and over. How far could she push him before he lost it? Her body was already dripping for him, anticipating his possession of her.
He finally got her pants down and flipped her around so she faced away from him, bending her over the arm of one of the leather chairs. She braced herself as best she could, dying to feel his hot cock in her again. He tested her pussy with his fingers, growling in apparent approval to find her already wet. A rustle, then the blunt head of his thick cock replaced his fingers and drove into her in a single, strong motion.
"Yes. More. Faster.” She was dizzy with lust and the strength of the orgasm she already felt, just out of her reach.
Faster and harder, Matt pounded into her. Finally he bent over her and took the skin at the back of her neck between his teeth. He held her there, thrusting over and over into her until she came with an unintelligible scream that wasn't muffled much by biting her own arm. A few more thrusts and she felt him pulse strongly with his own orgasm.
"Mate. You're my mate."
He panted heavily, but took care to not rest all his weight on her. Finally he withdrew from her body, both of them moaning at the pleasure. She turned and collapsed into one of the chairs, too exhausted to get dressed yet.
Matt removed the condom, wrapped it in some tissues from the desk and disposed of it in a nearby trashcan. He turned and grabbed his pants, fishing in a pocket to remove a small velvet box. He crawled to kneel in front of her, opened the box and pulled a ring out of it. “Lara, I love you and you're already my mate, but will you marry me? Be my wife and love me forever?"
Her heart felt as if it would burst. Joy rolled over her along with a sense of coming home, of belonging. “Yes. I love you, too."
Matt placed the unusual ring on her hand. “When I saw this ring at an estate jewelry shop, I just knew you needed it. It was meant for you."
She looked at the ring and realized she'd seen it before. It was two colors of snakes wrapped around a beautiful red stone. It was the ghost bride's ring.
The End
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Texas Tea [Del Fantasma] Page 11