by Liza Street
She scrambled to pull the wet fabric down over her hips and off of her legs, and nearly fell into the water again. He laughed, and she splashed him. “Shut up, that was totally graceful.”
Her panties were beneath the surface of the water, tangled around one of her ankles, but suddenly his arms surrounded her again, and he lifted her up so her legs wrapped around his waist. She looked at her foot, and the panties were gone. Lost forever to the sex gods of Paris Lake.
Marius found her neck with his mouth and bit gently. She pulled back, giving him a stern look. “We’re not mates,” she said.
“Not yet, we’re not.” He flexed his legs, and his dick rubbed against her inner thigh. So close to where she needed it. He brought a hand down to caress her nipples again, tugging lightly on one, and then the other. She arched her back, asking wordlessly for more. She needed him inside her, and she needed it now.
She gripped his naked cock in her hand and lined it up with her pussy.
“This is…just for fun,” she gasped. “I still haven’t…forgiven you for scaring Summer.”
“Fine,” he said, his voice gruff. His whiskers scratched against her neck and down her chest.
She leaned back slightly, then impaled herself on his cock. Hot. Full. Hungry. The sensation of wholeness spread from her pussy and up through her stomach, filling her body. Now that he was inside of her, filling her, she wanted nothing more than to feel him moving within.
She kissed his mouth, hungry, as she began moving her hips, sliding over him, heat against heat. His tongue probed her mouth, and then retreated as he bit her lip again. He held her up with one hand on her ass, then moved his other hand back up to her hair to yank her head back, exposing her throat to his mouth. He bit and sucked while she squirmed and he pumped inside of her.
Hayley wanted it to never end. She wanted this connection through the night, and into forever.
Soon, though, the friction of his thrusts became too much. He changed the angle slightly, hitting her inside in just the right spot, and her clit dragged over his pelvis with each motion. He still controlled her head, his fist tight in her hair, and she saw the sky above and shouted into it with her orgasm. “Marius!”
Her climax must have triggered his, because as she pulsed around him, he tensed and she could feel the wet heat of his release inside of her.
He let go of her hair and she slumped against him, her forehead braced on his shoulder. Still holding her in place with an arm locked around her hips, he used his other hand to slowly rub her back as she shook with the aftershocks of her orgasm. They were moving, her body rocking slightly. Sounds of water sloshing. She looked down—he was walking them out of the lake and over to the blanket.
He fell to his knees and kept her tight against him as he lay her down. He was still inside her. “I’m too tired to do that again,” she murmured.
“That’s fine,” he whispered, kissing her neck, her jaw, and her lips.
“This was just for fun,” she said.
“That’s fine, too.” His lips found hers, and she kissed him again. He trailed a hand up over her back to cup her breast, and she shivered into the touch. She felt him stirring back to hardness inside of her.
Maybe she wasn’t so tired, after all.
Chapter Ten
Marius sneaked a quick peek at Hayley across the darkened cab of his truck. It was close to three a.m., and she looked exhausted but content. He’d put that secret little smile on her face. He’d tired her out.
Dammit, he’d been staring too long. She turned, caught him looking. “What?” she said, half-shouting to be heard over his truck.
“Nothing.” He put his attention back on the road.
“Don’t tell me you want to go again,” she said, a teasing note in her voice.
Lowering his voice, he said, “With you? Always.”
He hadn’t expected her to hear him, but from the corner of his eye, he could see her frown before she swiveled her head to look out the window.
His white undershirt was relatively dry, so he was wearing that along with a spare pair of jeans that he kept in his truck. He’d always had a knack for losing his pants when he shifted, so spares were necessary. Hayley was back in that dress, looking a little rumpled but all the sexier for it.
He parked in her driveway, and he hurried to get out. She’d already hopped out of the truck by the time he reached her side. She held her jacket and purse in front of her, looking like a Viking shield-maiden, ready to knock him out if he came any closer.
“Are you free on Friday?” he asked.
“I think we know each other well enough, now,” she said. “We can fool the Lockmans, for sure.”
He started forward, ready to argue with her, but she shook her head. “Don’t start,” she said. “I’m just not interested.”
And with that, she turned around and walked up the wooden staircase leading to her apartment door.
Sorrow pulsed through him, followed by a blast of irritation. After all they’d just done at the lake, she was going to do this again—act like it hadn’t happened or, worse, act like it wasn’t important.
Before she could get her key in the lock, he’d taken the stairs to follow her. She spun around, with surprise, and then anger, flashing in her eyes.
He braced his arms on either side of her shoulders. “We need to talk,” he said.
“No.”
“I had a feeling you’d say that. And if we can’t talk like adults, well…” Without warning, he lowered his head to hers and stopped, his lips a half-inch from hers. What she did next was up to her.
She kissed him, her mouth sweet and hot, her tongue aggressive as she invaded his mouth. He kissed her back, inhaling her scent, reveling in her taste.
Suddenly, the door behind her was open and she was stepping back, out of his reach.
“What?” he asked, standing up straight.
“Marius,” she said, shaking her head as she pulled the door closed. “I told you, this was just for fun.”
The door shut the rest of the way, and he heard the lock click into place.
“Dammit, Hayley,” he said, then turned around and leaned his back against her door. He listened intently for sounds of movement inside her studio, but all was silent. He felt a small bump from the other side of the door, and he realized that she was probably in the exact same position he was in, leaning her head against the wood, trying to catch her breath.
At least he wasn’t the only one feeling tortured right now.
After a minute, he walked down the stairs and got into his truck. Hayley was going to be the end of him. He didn’t know how or when, but that woman was slowly ruining him and he’d meet the end gratefully.
*
The next day, his phone’s ringing woke him up. He looked at the caller ID, but didn’t recognize the number, and the area code was unfamiliar. Probably a telemarketer. He dropped the phone in the direction of his nightstand, but missed, and heard it thunk to the carpet.
He plumped his pillow and lay back again, hoping sleep would come. Instead, images of Hayley filled his mind. Hayley, her head thrown back, shouting his name to the stars. Hayley, stretched out naked next to him on the blanket. Hayley, her hips undulating, her head turned to see him as she rode him, reverse cowgirl style. They’d made love three times last night, and he still hadn’t gotten enough of her.
Telling himself he’d puzzle over it later in the morning, he ignored his boner and closed his eyes to get back to sleep.
His phone chimed, signaling a voicemail.
Fucking fucks. Well, he was awake now, so he reached down for his phone. He pulled up the voicemail and listened.
“Marius. It’s your dad. It’s been a while, but, well, I miss you, son. Give me a call.”
He swore and resisted the urge to hurl his phone across the room. He hauled himself out of bed to get ready for the day. Now that he was up, he better make the most of it. At the very least, he needed to go grocery shopping, because he was out of beer.
/>
Chapter Eleven
Two days. Hayley would have thought she could settle down and focus enough to fill out an application in two days, but the stack of papers on her little card table hadn’t been touched. She’d gone on several runs in her mountain lion form, even hitting the area by Mount Rainier. The entire time, she’d told herself she wasn’t hoping to run into Marius.
Because she wasn’t hoping for that.
Nope.
Her apartment made her claustrophobic. It was her lion, really. The mountain lion inside of her wanted Marius, and sitting still in a tiny studio would simply not do.
But her lion didn’t know what was good for her, apparently, because Marius certainly wasn’t the answer. She’d have to trick her lion again with a long run, maybe on the family property.
Ignoring the application packet, she hurried out of her apartment and climbed into her little VW Beetle. Her goal was to forget Marius, but the drive to Paris Lake had the exact opposite effect. As she pulled up to the ruined, half-burnt house, all she could think about was coming up here with Marius. She’d wanted to show him the site for her house, close to a giant Alaska yellow cedar that she’d loved from childhood.
She recognized Jackson’s new car, an SUV with plenty of leg room. She missed seeing him in the little Nissan Spark he’d rented when he first came back to Huntwood. Okay, fine, she missed teasing him about the Spark.
“Jackson?” she called, walking up to the destroyed house.
It was quiet—too quiet. Hayley froze in place, engaging her strong shifter senses. There was the humid feel of the air close to the lake, the rotting scent of old wood from the house, the fresh pine and cedar scents. She could smell Jackson, too, but he smelled more animal than human—
Something landed just behind her and she bit back a shriek. Turning, she faced her brother in his lion form.
“Listen, dickhole, I came here for…for distraction.” She trailed off. This was distraction. “No, I came here for some peaceful demolition. Not—”
He whacked her with one of his paws, claws retracted.
“Jackson,” she growled.
He whacked her again. His hit left a streak of mud on her jeans. Fuckballs, he wasn’t going to leave her alone until she ran with him. Sighing, she stripped out of her clothes and shifted into her lion. She turned to face Jackson, her ears back and tail twitching. His eyes grew wide as she lowered herself to the ground and prepared to spring.
They chased each other through the woods of their childhood, racing halfway up trees and banking off them to return the chase. After half an hour, they came to a standstill next to each other, panting.
This was fun, Hayley thought, but there was one thing—one person—missing. Will. Their trio was incomplete because that stubborn assbrat still wouldn’t come home, for reasons he wouldn’t share. But she missed him.
Jackson raised his head and gestured toward the lake, which was about a hundred yards away from here. Hayley knew exactly what he was asking. Race?
She shook her head to the side and lowered her eyes, like she was too tired. Jackson let off a low growl of indignation and started to turn toward the house, when Hayley took off like a shot in the direction of the lake. Ha, sucker.
He yowled but chased after her.
She reached the lake before he did. A small, neon green bit of fabric was tangled in the grasses at the lake’s edge and Hayley realized, with horror, that it was her panties from Tuesday night.
Jackson was already barreling out of the trees, and he skidded to a stop in front of Hayley, poised to take a playful swipe at her face. Then his attention went behind her. To the panties.
She backed up. Maybe she could kick them back into the water and they’d sink like a rock. Maybe he was looking at something else.
No, he was going straight for her underwear. She tried to block him, but he nudged past her and sniffed the air. Hayley growled.
Before her eyes, her brother shifted to his human form. “What the hell, Hayley? Why is your underwear in the lake?”
She tried to shrug, but it was hard to do as a lion. Let him think what he wanted. This was none of his business. She started ambling back to the house, head held high.
“I smell Marius here, too,” he said.
Inwardly, she groaned. None of his business.
Jackson jogged to catch up with her and walked at her side. Sighing, he said, “You know I don’t want to think about any of that stuff. You’re still my baby sister. But Marius isn’t half bad.”
Hayley growled. She didn’t want to talk about it. If she did, she’d be in her human form and talking, obviously.
“You could do a lot worse, you know,” he said.
Her community college application was sounding awfully tempting right about now.
“He feels bad about teaming up with Dan Clausen. I don’t know the details, except he didn’t know what he’d gotten into.”
They’d reached the house. Hayley gave him another growl, this one laced with warning. If he opened his mouth again, she was gonna—
“I’m just saying, he seems like a nice—”
Before he could get the rest out, she was on him and he was flat on his back on the ground. She released her claws slightly on his shoulders so he could feel it, and she gave him her meanest glare.
“Jackson? Hey. Hey!”
A leather work glove sailed through the air and hit Hayley in the forehead. She looked up, startled. Summer was striding forward, looking like she was ready to take Hayley down.
Hayley backed off of Jackson and shifted into her human form. “Sorry, Summer.”
Summer threw the second glove at Hayley, but missed. “You scared me.”
“I’m sorry,” Hayley said again, finding her clothes and yanking them on. “He just needed to be taught to mind his own damn business.”
Laughing, Summer said, “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
Jackson stood up. “Well, she’s the one leaving her freaking underwear in our lake.”
“What?” Summer asked, laughing harder.
“Nothing,” Hayley said. “I might’ve come back here with Marius the other night. But I do not want to discuss it. Okay?”
Summer held her hands up. “Okay.”
Hayley retrieved Summer’s gloves and handed them to her. “So, I guess we’re all here to work?”
“Yeah,” Jackson said. He’d put on his clothes, too. “And I have good news—we’re clear to start building our houses, got our permits and everything.”
“We’ll have to wait until spring, though,” Hayley said.
“Yeah. But we can at least keep pulling apart this place.”
Hayley had already been through it a couple of times, searching for any items worth salvaging. There hadn’t been much. After winning the pride war, the Clausens must have cleared most of it out.
She grabbed a sledge hammer from the front entrance hall. They’d gotten the necessary permit to demolish the house, and they’d opted to do it by hand. This way, they could salvage building materials as they went. In the end, both Hayley and Jackson wanted to use materials from the old house while building their new ones. Hayley liked the practicality and she liked working with old materials. And Jackson was a sentimental sap.
They worked for hours, and afterward, Jackson retrieved three beers from an ice chest at the back of his car.
“I gotta go, actually,” Summer said, kissing Jackson’s cheek. “I promised Becca I’d hang out tonight.” She hugged Hayley and a few minutes later, Hayley and Jackson watched Summer’s car driving away.
Hayley leaned against the side of Jackson’s car and tilted her head back, soaking in the beauty of the surrounding trees.
“It was fun, running around with you earlier,” Jackson said, clinking his beer bottle with Hayley’s. “You barely won that race to the lake, cheater.”
“I’m up for a rematch any day,” she said. “But I couldn’t help thinking there’s something missing.”
; “Will,” he said.
“I just don’t get why he won’t come home,” Hayley said.
“Remember how hard it was on him, after we left?” Jackson asked.
Hayley nodded. “It was hard on all of us.”
“No,” Jackson said. “It was worse on him. I don’t know why, but he changed that day. He used to joke around more, remember? He’d play with us on our runs, and he was funny, and just—he used to be a fun guy, Hayles.”
She felt her nose scrunching as she tried to remember it. Yeah, there had been some fun times with Will. All three of them had mourned their parents’ deaths, and they’d mourned losing their territory. But while Hayley and Jackson had seemed to adapt to their new reality, Will was never the same.
“I think,” Jackson said slowly, “that leaving this place killed a part of him. Yeah, I know it sounds fucking melodramatic, but bear with me. And now I think that he’s afraid that if he comes back, he’ll grow attached all over again, and there’ll always be a risk of losing it. And I think that might destroy him.”
“Melodramatic is right,” she said, knocking into his shoulder.
*
Back at her apartment, Hayley settled into her couch and pulled a blanket over her legs. Another day that she’d successfully avoided the college application. She picked up her phone and pulled up the text message app, then typed in a message to Will. Jackson and I miss you.
A few seconds later, his response appeared. Miss you, too.
Hayley: I know you don’t want to come back and I don’t really know why, but you belong here, Will.
Will: Good night, Hayley. I love you.
She sighed and typed back, I love you, too.
Stubborn shitstick.
Her phone buzzed in her hand, but this time it wasn’t Will—it was Marius.
Marius: Hey, wenchface.
Hayley felt her eyebrows skyrocket up her forehead. What did you call me?
Marius: Isn’t that how you play that game? Find an offensive word, put it together with something else?
Hayley snorted. Dude, insult trading is an art, and you are nowhere near ready to be set loose on the world.