2HotCurvesAhead
Page 6
Marybeth still didn’t open her eyes, but the smile was gone and the frown was back. “A wolf? Police said it was a dog.” Her hands took up the exploration of his chest again. Cade’s breath hitched. Holy hell, even whacked out and sick, this curvy little wolf packed a punch. What would she be like awake and healthy? Lethal, he was sure.
Another pain seemed to rack Marybeth’s body and her hands exited Cade’s shirt to wrap around her middle as she hunched over, curling in on herself in Cade’s lap. She groaned and made the puppy whiny noises in the back of her throat again. She gasped a couple of times and mumbled, “Does my dream have a puppy? Why would it have a puppy?” She just moaned after that, clutching at herself in pain as her body readied itself for the first shift.
Cade dropped the washcloth and rubbed his hands on her back, making soothing shushing noises as he did so. Poor little thing. She really was having a rough time of it. Cade looked at his options again. He could stay here with her, in her own space, and try to ride out the change with her. Her wolf wouldn’t like to be confined once the change was made and it could get violent if it felt trapped, so scratch that. The walls were paper-thin and he didn’t fancy spending any time saving humans from an inadvertent mauling tonight. In addition, with how he was feeling, he would probably feel compelled to shift with her and he really, really didn’t want to contain his own wolf here. His alter ego was already panting to come out. Option number two, they both leave in his pickup truck and head for the hills and the trees that would shield them from prying eyes, but would also let in the healing light of the Mother moon. She groaned again and started to shake, which spurred Cade to action. Option number two it was. He reached over and turned off the water before levering up with her in his arms.
“Hurts…” Her breath was coming out in pants now. Christ, they didn’t have a lot of time and she would ruin the upholstery in his truck if she shifted there. Not that it was his first priority or anything, but still. He loved his truck.
“I know, little wolf, and I’m going to help you and make it all go away, I promise.” At least he hoped he could. There wasn’t time to gather any of the pack, and for something like this he suspected it would be a case of the more the merrier. More wolves meant more pack energy to soothe her change. As it was just him, he would have to be touching her frequently and intimately to give her the energy and support she would need. While his wolf was on board with that, Cade didn’t think the beauty in his arms would be. He had been around a couple of new shifters in his time, and those had been prepared for what was going to happen, not freaked out like the little wolf currently whining into his chest. More contact with him would probably just freak out the girl even if it soothed the wolf inside that was trying to come out.
He shifted her weight over to his right arm and with his left grabbed a purse he saw sitting next to the couch as he strode through her living room toward the door. He figured she would want it on the morrow and familiar things would help her when she came back from her first shift. Women were always carrying their purse, right? He slung it on his shoulder and resettled Marybeth in his arms, trying to comfort her with his hands without crossing any lines. It was going to be a long night.
Chapter Three
When Marybeth started to come out of her faint she was aware of two things. First, yeah, she still hurt like holy hell but it was better than it had been. Second, she wasn’t alone anymore. Someone was there and they felt soooo good. They smelled good too, like the earth after the rain. She snuggled into a rock-hard chest and drew that scent into her lungs, holding onto it. The hands on her body were soothing, running up and down her arms and onto her back, making a circuit over her body but somehow still carrying her. She hadn’t been carried since she was a child and she was pretty sure that had been under duress. She wanted those hands everywhere. Despite the pain she felt, her nipples beaded and she felt her core heating up. The hands faltered a moment before resuming their course and she felt the chest underneath her nose rise and fall with a deep breath. The heartbeat she could hear with astonishing clarity picked up and was thundering in her ears. Good. She wanted the man touching her to feel what she was feeling. Marybeth sighed as the pain started to diminish and be replaced by a new ache. She must be dreaming, but whatever. It was a good dream, and fever dream or no, it was one hell of a lot better than her current reality. Marybeth let her hands roam to some delicious abs and slide under the soft cotton of his T-shirt to his chest, causing it to rise and fall again in that intriguing way. Her fingers curled into a light matting of hair on some impressive pecs. Mmmmmm…..
The respite lasted only a short time while she mumbled some things about dreams and puppies, then the pain picked up again. She wasn’t terribly aware of anything until she was up in the air and apparently out the door, being carried.
Marybeth struggled to fight off the pain-filled stupor she was in. She realized she was moving and wondered if one of her neighbors had called an ambulance.
“Are we going to the hospital?” She didn’t think there was any way she could afford that given she had just gotten her job at the advertising firm and her insurance hadn’t kicked in, but with the way she felt she figured debt was better than dead. Maybe. The earlier visit to the emergency room was going to be bad enough.
The strong arms holding her shifted her against that magnificent chest. She supposed she would be embarrassed later when the paramedic, or whoever it was, got her to the hospital, but, oddly, she wasn’t at the moment. She felt…safe. Yep, safe. She hadn’t felt safe in a month of Sundays, as her grandmother would have said. She briefly wondered why she wasn’t on a gurney, but decided not to question it and snuggled into the warmth of his chest. Hmmm…what was his name? Had he told her? Oh, yes. Cade. “Cade…” She wasn’t sure she had said it out loud until he answered.
“It’s okay, little wolf, I’ve got you. We’re just going to go for a little ride and then it’ll be okay.” Weird that he was carrying her. Maybe she wasn’t going to the hospital, maybe it was all still a dream. Marybeth struggled to open her eyes and she squinted at the unnatural brightness in her hallway. The man, Cade, was carrying her toward the outer door. She didn’t see anyone else. She took in his appearance for the first time, and something about it pierced her fever and the pain-filled daze she was in. “Hey…you’re wearing a jean jacket.” Her mind took a moment to process that. “You aren’t driving an ambulance, are you?”
“Nope.” He didn’t seem to be winded from carrying her, even though he appeared to be doing so pretty much one-armed. Geez, that seemed strong to her. It wasn’t like she was tiny.
Marybeth closed her eyes again as another wave of pain hit her. When it was over she realized she must have briefly blacked out again because they were out of the apartment building and she was being carefully placed into a truck and buckled in. She managed to lift her head and weakly bat at his hands as he clicked the seat belt in place.
“Are you kidnapping me?” She was embarrassed at how weak her voice sounded, just a whisper. There was also a tremor in her chin but her soft words made him pause and look directly into her eyes as he spoke. Tears were running down her face now.
Cade couldn’t stand the sight of her tears. “No, I’m not, I swear I’m not. You need help, Marybeth, and I’m going to give it to you, just trust me, little wolf. It’s all going to be okay.” At least Cade hoped it would. The last thing he needed, or her for that matter, was her freaking out at this point, and those tears were like knives in his chest. He wanted to take this pain from her, and to do that, she had to shift. He smoothed a hand over her forehead, brushing some of that glorious hair behind one of her ears.
Who could have done this to her? Who would have been so cruel as to just leave her on her own? Questions for later. He stuffed her purse behind his seat and clicked the door closed, locking it before jogging around to his side, quickly getting in and starting the truck. They were on the highway pretty fast after that and he sent another silent prayer that mo
st of the townsfolk were already in bed or still at the bars.
He wished he could take the time to pull over and text Riley at the bar. He felt as if he were flying blind. Cade hadn’t been born a wolf, he had been created so his experience was limited. He had very little idea of what to do in this instance. He was working on instinct alone.
Without the contact from Cade, Marybeth began to shiver again, pain racking her body and lights going off in front of her eyes. The itchy, stretchy sensation was back on her skin, and she wondered, yet again, what the hell was wrong with her and why would a stranger’s arms soothe her? She groaned weakly in her seat and tried to curl up into the same ball she had been in on her couch, but the seat belt was in the way. Desperate to ease the ache in her gut, she pulled at the belt, her weak hands trying and failing to push the release.
“Whoa, there!” Cade’s hand covered hers, though his eyes only glanced over at her while he drove. He gave her hand a gentle pat and seemed to be trying to soothe her, not hurt her. Of course, that is what a serial killer would do, she supposed. “We want to leave that on, okay, honey? I’m driving pretty fast, but don’t worry, okay?” He glanced at her again before reaching over and checking the lock on her door.
Marybeth was vaguely aware of the vanishing streetlights, which probably meant they had left Lawrence and were now somewhere in the country, but she couldn’t muster the strength to lift her head. Kidnapped. By a supermodel, apparently. She moved her head enough to look over at Cade again and took in his features. He was handsome, and had that rough windblown look that most girls panted after. Why would he have to kidnap someone? And someone like her, who on her best day wasn’t in the same league as him. She was more the girl next door kind of pretty, a MaryAnn instead of a Ginger. Still, he didn’t act like a kidnapper. That big hand of his was running up and down her arm like he was trying to soothe her pain, and it kind of was, though she wasn’t sure how. But maybe this was still just a dream, a really intense fever dream, maybe the kind of thing that happened right before you died. She was pretty sure she was going to die at this point anyway, so might as well enjoy the ride with a supermodel. She sighed, a gentle exhale of breath, and tried to concentrate on the hand moving on her arm, which was honestly the only part of her not in mind-numbing pain.
Cade kept his hand on her, sending as much soothing energy her way that he could and still concentrate on the road and keep her inside the vehicle. Even a were could be pretty fucked up by flying out of a truck going sixty on the highway. He hit the gas and prayed briefly to the moon that there would be no cops on Highway 59 tonight because he was hauling ass. He kept his hand in contact with her arm, knowing that at the moment, that was all he could do to ease her pain. Cade heard her sigh next to him and felt her shiver. She was calm now, but while she didn’t smell of fear anymore, she smelled of sadness and…resignation?
“Hey, you still with me, Marybeth?” He took his eyes off the road just in time to see two fat tears roll out of eyes that were squinted with pain. Okay, time to stop the truck. They were only a few miles out of town, but the trees by the Kansas River would shield them from the road and whoever else would be out. He pulled over off the road, letting his truck do its four wheel drive thing. He winced at the bumps that his old truck failed to shield Marybeth from and for the first time thought maybe it was time to get a new one if it was causing his precious cargo any pain. He quickly put it in park and shut off the engine, thinking that they had gone as far as they could.
“Okay, baby, we’ve just gotta get to the trees, okay? Stay with me, little wolf.” Cade practically flew out of the truck to open her side and lift her into his arms, before jogging his way to the river, trying not to jostle her too much. Her scent, so close to being a wolf, clawed at him, begging his own wolf to come out and play. He found a fairly good spot near the water, a sheltering of cottonwoods that rustled with the wind, and put her on the ground. He started to strip as she swayed on her feet.
“This is probably going to freak you, but you have to trust me. It is going to be good. I’m not going to hurt you in any way.” Even through the pain, her eyes widened and she smelled like fear again. Shit. He stepped away for a second to shuck his pants, then held his T-shirt in front of him, something he wouldn’t have normally done, not being shy, but he really didn’t want her freaking anymore. However, ripping out of his clothes wasn’t something he particularly wanted to do either. That kind of hurt, and got expensive after a while. Besides, he loved those jeans. They were broken in.
Marybeth still couldn’t believe any of this was real, but the evidence pointed to this not being a vivid dream. Dreams just weren’t this detailed, even fever dreams had at the point of death, and she didn’t think her brain was actually capable of coming up with something this dramatic or this pornographic. Her fantasies had never included someone, well, someone so well-endowed. So this was happening. Her kidnapper had just stripped down to his birthday suit and she was too weak and in pain to actually defend herself, or jump his bones, whichever way it went down. She cried out when the now very naked Cade made his way back to her and crouched down. The shirt he clutched in front of him did little to hide his obvious arousal.
“Please…” Her voice was hoarse and weak but she had to try. She didn’t want to die like this. “Please, don’t hurt me. Please…take me to a doctor…to a hospital…I’m sick…”
He dropped his shirt as he reached out to her, which made her try to lurch back and get out of the way. All she did was stumble a little and land on the ground. Great, not only am I begging, I’m falling at his feet. Fan-fucking-tastic. But who could blame her? The club that man had between his legs would make porn stars envious.
Cade shook his head as he started to lift her shirt from her body. “No, baby, you aren’t sick. You weren’t bitten by a dog, or even a wolf, actually. Honey, you were bitten by a werewolf.” Her shock let him get her shirt the rest the way off and he was glad that she wasn’t wearing a bra as he was feeling too ham-fisted to actually get one off her smoothly. Don’t look, asshole, just get her comfortable. He had a hell of a time not staring at those perfect, overflowing handfuls, tipped with rose. He took a deep breath and kept talking.
“I’m going to get you out of these clothes, but only so you won’t shift inside them. You’ll be more comfortable and your wolf could freak out a little if you were constrained by them.” The gravel was back in his voice, and he noted as he shimmied her sweats down her legs that she was shivering in great ripples. She was so close now. There was no way they were going to be able to find any of his pack in time. It was just them.
As soon as he had her naked, he took a deep breath. Time to man up, and don’t freak her even more with a massive hard-on. He eased next to her and took her into his arms, laying her shaking form onto his chest, letting her soft curves flow over his body. Cade tensed up and willed his body to behave. Marybeth struggled briefly, cursing at him like a sailor, but as his hands again took to soothing up and down her back she quieted, shaking silently in his arms.
“Shhh..little wolf, I’ll lead the way…ssshhhhh.” His wolf was suddenly as anxious as he was, pulling at him to shift and lead the little wolf in his arms to do the same. “Just stop fighting it, baby. Feel the wolf inside of you? I can. She’s going to be so lovely, red like your hair. Let her go. Feel my arms? Do you feel that burn where I’m touching you? That’s your wolf wanting to come out. Let it come, honey. None of this has to hurt anymore.” Cade let himself drift, the wolf inside of him seeking the one in her. Ah, there she was. His eyes closed and he could almost see her right behind his eyelids. His own wolf was pacing and whining and he felt himself start to shift. “Follow me, little wolf.” His voice was quiet, but deep and growly as his vocal chords started to change.
Marybeth was frightened, almost unbearably so, right up to the point when his hands started moving up and down her back. The pain diminished with the continued contact and new sensation took its place. Each brush of his hand sent ti
ngles up and down her limbs, a burning but not an unpleasant one. She could feel the ground around them. She could hear the rushing water and the splash of some nighttime visitor to the river. She could feel the moon above her, so bright and beautiful, could see it even though her eyes were closed. And the smells, oh, the things she could suddenly smell. The water, the trees, a rabbit that was hiding nearby, and Cade. Oh, god, Cade smelled divine. Like life, and sex, and chocolate, and every good thing she had ever had pass under her nose. She breathed deep and burrowed more into that fantastic chest of his.
When he started talking again, even though he was whispering, it sounded so loud in her ears, loud but lovely. Like music. She could listen to it forever. “Follow me, little wolf,” he practically growled at her, and she thought she would, even if he did plan on murdering her tonight she didn’t care anymore. She just wanted more of this, whatever this was, whatever this bliss was that suddenly filled her limbs replacing the pain of moments before.
The tingling intensified and she opened her eyes, startled when she was suddenly dislodged from Cade’s chest to roll on the ground. Then it wasn’t Cade before her. It was a pale wolf, one that looked at her, nosed her and then gently licked her face. She tried to bat it away but found she couldn’t as she no longer had hands. At the end of her furry little arms were paws. What. The. Fuck.