by Ever Coming
Etienne made that sound, the sound I knew was his gator. “Just sayin’.” I sort of kind of apologized as I came around to be at his side.
“When did you get so sassy?” He spoke in my ear, for only me. Sassy. I’d never been described that way before, but something about the way he said it sounded all compliment blended with sexy.
“Gonna tell us what you were gonna say so we can go on our way?” Justice. Of course it was Justice.
“I was gonna say nothing.” I stuck my tongue out in victory. “I knew he was gonna stop me.” Or I had hoped, because as much as I felt comfortable around the guys, more than I had around anyone other than Meemaw in pretty much ever, I wasn’t going to refer to Etienne’s junk by name in front of them.
“Little liar,” Callum called me out. “One day you’re gonna tell us.”
They bid their goodbyes in the form of talking about their own junk as they walked away, each of them sure he had the best and biggest. Men. After Loic suggested a tape measure, Etienne slammed the door shut before gently placing my back to it and removing all space between our bodies. A girl could get used to that.
“I’m waiting,” he breathed into my ear before placing a kiss just below it, followed by a tiny nip.
I reached down, in response. Who was I to turn down an invitation, especially now that our bond was growing so strong. It wasn’t like with Dante. No, that was all being controlled and manipulated into thinking it was what I wanted. This was real. I could feel it in my bones, and Meemaw always said feeling something in your bones and ignoring it was the biggest mistake anyone could ever make. Your bones know.
“No.” He took my hand and wrapped it around his neck. “Not that. For an answer.”
An answer? What was the question? I inhaled deeply, his bacony scent just as scrumptious as it was that first day we met, when I thought him a yeti. And why wasn’t I mortified at the misunderstanding? Because I wanted it. That was why. The realization was so freeing.
“It’s hard to think about what you just said with you all pressed against me, and you want me to remember a question from five minutes ago?” True story. His erection was pressed into my belly, and all I could think was it was too far away. If I hadn’t known about the mates and shifters and such, I’d be sure I was losing it. No one falls this head over heels this fast, except I did.
“I asked when you got so sassy.”
“I’m not sassy.” Seriously, that was why he stopped me? It sure wasn’t out of like because his body was shouting out his desire for more touching.
“Bad choice of words.” He took a step back, my body instantly missing his warmth. “But you’re different, now.”
He wasn’t saying it in a negative way, and he wasn’t wrong. I had changed. Not who I was, but what part of me I let him see. For the first time in as long as I could remember, I was able to be myself around someone who wasn’t family. At least not biologically. I had a feeling these guys were going to become every bit as much family to me as Etienne was, and fate doesn’t lie.
“You know my secrets.” I shrugged. “No reason to hide.”
“Feels bigger than that.” He tipped my chin up, making sure I looked him in the eye.
“Because I know your secret, too.”
“I don’t want to know what that bastard did, do I?”
The last thing I wanted to do was talk about Dante, but he was the final thing between us, and while it wasn’t in the same way as when we met, he was still there.
“Probably not, but I’ll tell you if you want.” I took his hand and gave it a squeeze.
“I’d never pressure you to.” Which wasn’t the same as “don’t tell me,” but somehow more powerful. He wanted to know, his eyes holding mine, watching for what, I wasn’t sure. I owed him an answer. It would be good for us both.
“I didn’t leave culinary school to help Meemaw.”
“I guessed as much.”
“I was having—my boyfriend was a professor.” Or I thought the rat-loser was my boyfriend at the time. I was so naive. “I got expelled.”
“For dating a professor? Shouldn’t he be the one facing consequences?” He should, but not for the reasons Etienne was suggesting.
“Calm yourself.” I slid my hand under his shirt, hoping my warmth would comfort him. “It was for the best ’cause I came here and met you.”
“You settled my gator.” He was almost shocked. It had been instinctual at the time, or so I thought. Maybe it was more, not that it mattered. What mattered was I had a connection with him so strong I could help both man and gator. “Damn, woman, you’re made of magic.”
“Not so much.” Not in the way he meant, anyways. My gifts were considered magical by many—heck, there was a time when I would’ve burned for talkin’ to the dead. “Let me finish so we can get back to the lickin’.” Because sometimes a change of topic was needed, and he was too far away. Six inches was unacceptable.
“Oh, I plan to lick—” I put my hands on my hips and gave him my best stink eye. “Fine. Continue.”
Oh, yeah. We were talking about important things. Darn pheromones.
“He was married.” Etienne’s face showed no emotion, which was worse for some reason than if he looked mad. I spat out the rest as fast as I could, not wanting to see this stoic version of Etienne any longer than necessary. “I never knew until his wife found out. He blamed me. Said we weren’t together and I was a stalker…bunch of shit went down then I found my mate, and we lived happily ever after.”
“You skipped a bunch.” His words clipped, but I saw the rage in his eyes, not directed at me, but rage nonetheless.
“Because it no longer matters.” Leaving my hand on his chest, I took my other hand from his, cupped his cheek, and rose on tiptoe until our lips were only centimeters away. “I have you now, and there is so much rightness in it I could cuss.”
“No, Tansy.” At first, I thought he was telling me not to kiss him, but as the vibration in his chest increased, I realized he was laughing. The idea of me cussing was ludicrous to him. “I don’t think you could.”
I took his mouth with mine for a brief, hard kiss before whispering, “Dare me.”
He kissed a path to my ear before complying. “I dare you to cuss.”
“Etienne, I deem this discussion over.” My voice practically cracking with need, his body back where it needed to be—against mine.
“That wasn’t a cuss, darlin’.” He leaned in to kiss me, and I stopped him with a pointer finger to his lips. This was gonna be fun.
“Let me finish. The discussion is over because I need my mouth now so I can finally see if your cock tastes as good as you smell.” Not gonna lie, saying cock took more effort than it should or would for anyone else, but it was so worth it. I had him against the door and dropped to my knees, setting him free before he knew what hit him.
Etienne
Fuck. When Tansy said cock, I nearly came in my pants. Damn, that woman was sexy.
“Tansy.” I tried to be the voice of reason as she kneeled in front of me, hands frantically working my jeans, green eyes hooded, but still managing to look up at me. Reason was not happening, especially not when her hands pushed down my jeans, my cock springing free and ready for her.
I was an awful mate. I should be the one giving her pleasure. My gator was so fucking confused. He was both dazed and confused about how to proceed.
“Tansy.” I gasped as she licked my engorged head. Damn, she wasn’t kidding about the licking. “Tansy, you don’t—” I gave a half attempt at stopping her before she took me in her mouth in one motion. I had both hands balancing my body on the door. Damn woman was gonna have me coming before I got out my sentence.
She sucked in her cheeks before pulling her mouth up and off my cock with a pop. “What is it, Etienne?” she asked through her lashes, her hand working me as she licked her lips, waiting for a reply. Everything was going to come to a swift end if she said my name again.
“Damn, woman. You kee
p that up and I’m gonna have my cum shooting into that pretty little mouth of yours.”
Her pupils darkened, the smell of her arousal, filling my nose. She liked the sound of that.
Good Mate. Perfect Mate. Mine.
“That’s kinda the point.” She panted just before she licked me from root to tip.
“You—”
“Don’t even start with me, mister.” She waggled her finger at me like I was being scolded for being too loud at the library. My mind immediately envisioned her dressed up like a hot librarian. “You promised.” She pulled me back from my vision, her faux pouting and swollen lips causing my cock to twitch with need.
“I don’t remember promising you.”
I didn’t remember shit. Fuck, I didn’t even know where I was or how I got here. All I could do was focus on her mouth, my gator reminding me to take care of my mate.
“Well you didn’t say no, so just go back to being stunned in silence,” she said with a shrug.
I chuckled at her accurate assessment of my earlier state as she took me back in her mouth.
What a sight, to watch her mouth gliding over me, her eyes hooded, her cheeks sunk in. Her hand grabbed mine unexpectedly and placed it on her head. She was done being in charge. Perfect fucking mate.
I ran my fingers through her hair gently before grabbing on and guiding her head, slowly at first, not wanting to give her more than she could handle, but when she moaned around my cock and started playing with my balls, all caution went to the wind. Before I knew it, I was shooting down her throat as she made mmm sounds and swallowed it all before pulling her head off with a pop.
“Better,” she mumbled as I collapsed to the floor, pulling her onto my lap.
“Huh?” Because after an orgasm as intense as that, thoughts didn’t fucking exist.
“You taste better than bacon.” She kissed my neck, right where she would someday mark me.
“My turn.”
Tansy
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Four a.m. Already. Yuck.
Grasping aimlessly, I managed to shoot my phone off the nightstand instead of turning it off.
Trying to be all stealth-like and failing miserable, I found myself on the floor and Etienne out of bed, well before I turned the blasted alarm off.
“Sorry, I was trying not to wake you.” I must’ve been a sight, my foot still tangled in the sheets, my bum square on the floor, and my arm reaching out for the dumb phone.
“And that included throwing yourself on the floor?” He quirked an eyebrow, his body every bit as naked as mine, causing my face to burn as I remembered last night.
Sex was fun, as a rule. Everyone knows that. It’s a given. But the night before... Holy cow. After I had Etienne collapsing on the floor, I assumed it was slumber time, and it still would’ve counted as one of the hottest times I’d ever had with a man. Scratch that—it would’ve been the hottest. But when Etienne stood up, never letting me go, and carried me to the bed before putting his mouth on me and making me scream his name, that was the hotter than anything my mind could begin to concoct.
“No.” I shut the alarm off after finally reaching it. “I threw the phone on the floor. My being here was more tripping than throwing.”
“I can see your tits,” he said as if he were asking for me to pass the salt. He untangled my foot from the sheets, his eyes glues to said boobies.
“So, I can see your bits.” I pointed to his package, which was completely unwrapped and at attention. I liked having that effect on him. “See? We rhyme.”
“Not going to say it again?” He stood, holding his hand out to me. He was being such the gentleman at the same time he was buck naked, sporting a boner, and asking me to say cock. Somehow, it worked on him.
“If I say it all the time, it makes it less special.”
“I say ass all the time.”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
“Doesn’t make yours any less fucking spectacular.”
I dropped my phone on the nightstand, not happy to see how much time had passed. Dark and early mornings were the downside to my job.
“Why is your alarm going off in the middle of the night?” he asked, staring at the time on my phone. “Let’s go back to bed. I have some more snuggling to do.” He stepped in closer, and I was completely tempted to say stink it and call my manager and tell her to get her butt in there.
“I have to be at work in an hour.” The responsible side of me took over.
“Why?” He ran his hand down my arm, sending shivers of cold running through me. “You don’t open for another three hours.”
“Fresh baked requires baking fresh. Sort of a prerequisite.”
“Fine. We have time to get ready.”
“I thought you and Justice were meeting at seven to go de-rodent that woman’s swamp. You have time to sleep more.” I pushed him down on the bed playfully, wanting to join him so we could get that snuggling in before work, but not being at my place meant time was a tickin’.
“You’re not going to go to work alone,” he announced as he stood and went to his dresser to pull out clothing.
Yeah, that was not gonna happen.
“Clamp down on that protective possessive whatever this is now. For all we know, Bruno wasn’t going to do anything to me and I go freaked for nothing.”
“A dead dude came and warned you, and Loic said Bruno was acting off,” he continued as if I hadn’t already told him it wasn’t how things were going to play out. He might need to drive me there since his truck was still there, but he was so staying in the car.
“Nope. I’m coming.”
“You came last night.” I waggled my eyebrows, hoping to catch him off guard with my innuendo. “You will have to wait until after work to come again. I have work. Besides, the chances of him being up now are insanely slim.”
“See what you just did?” He scowled with no true emotion to it. Mission accomplished. I’d distracted his possessive backside. “I’m trying to fight with you, and you’re using the boner card.”
“The boner card?”
“Yeah, you gave me a boner, and now my ability to have logical counter arguments is gone.”
Operation get Etienne to quit his bologna—success.
“Good to know. Speaking of knowing, we need to find out who the ghost is.” It had been bugging me that none of the guys had a guess when I broached the topic the night before. “I’d ask him, but Bruno is always there, and I don’t need him knowing what I can do.”
He just stared at me, his mouth open.
“What?”
“Your boobs are distracting.”
Looked like the boner card worked a little too well.
“Gators.” I shook my head in exaggerated exacerbation.
“You like it. Admit it.” He dropped his collected clothes on the bed.
“I admit nothing. I need to go shower for work.”
“What a coincidence. So do I.” Desire wrapped around his voice. I liked where this was going.
“You’re going to go to the swamp. That hardly calls for a shower.” I winked before starting to head to the bathroom.
“So, you don’t want me to join you?”
“I never said that,” I called back, my mate catching up to me before I reached the door.
Etienne
Stubborn-assed woman!
“What the fuck is wrong with you? You’re beating that steering wheel to shit.” Justice and I didn’t speak in the morning on purpose. He said fuck, and I wanted to beat that fuck out of him.
“Tansy wouldn’t let me go to work with her today. It’s killing me. It’s in my nature. I have to protect her. It’s not an option.”
Justice rolled down the window. “Apparently, it is an option. She’s at the bakery and you’re going to chase off nutrias.”
“How do you know she’s at the baker…holy shit! Did you have to crack one off like that? I just ate breakfast.”
Now I knew the reason he r
olled down the window.
“Ohh, are we talking eggs and bacon, or are we talking breakfast-breakfast?”
I looked over to see Justice’s eyebrows waggle out of control.
“We are not talking about me and my mate’s breakfast-breakfast in the shower.”
“Shower? Niiiice.”
“Stop. We are not discussing this. Did she text you?” I saw him look down at his phone.
“Yep. Mad as fuck at you. You ain’t gettin’ any tonight, son.”
“We are not talking about this.”
“Why? I thought you were my best friend. I’m hurt.”
He was not hurt. But he was about to hurt. In the balls. With my boot.
“Shut up.”
His voice dropped an octave. “I’m serious, brother. How is it—having a mate?”
Justice was facing the road again. I never took into account how hard this must be for my crew, for me to be the first to find a mate. It must be hard as fuck for them.
“It’s fucking amazing, Just. She’s like a part of me I didn’t realize I was missing. And my gator is nuts for her. He’s calm when she’s around, like she’s a wet blanket on my fire. You’ll find one, too, brother. All of you will.”
He shrugged. “How do you know?”
“I just do. If there’s one for a som-bitch like me, there has to be one for all of you. Let’s face it, I’m the biggest rat bastard of them all.”
He laughed. “Well, that’s true.”
“Asshole.”
“Pussy whipped.” My mouth opened for a comeback, but I thought better of it.
“Damn proud of it, Justice.”
Under his breath, he muttered, “Lucky mother fucker.”
We didn’t talk for the rest of the drive. It was still a little before dawn when we got there, but it didn’t stop Mrs. Brasseaux from sitting on the porch in her floral housecoat with a cup of coffee in one hand and a fifth of whiskey in the other. Girl got started extra early.