by M. L. Briers
He eyed her for a long moment and she eyed him right back as she slowly raised one eyebrow as she waited for his answer.
“I think both.”
Eva pressed her lips together and her eyes flared with amusement. She was desperately trying not to laugh.
“And have you always had this problem around … females?” She teased, and his eyes narrowed on hers.
He was waiting for the punch line that never came.
“No…” he answered slowly, as if he wasn’t sure.
“Have ever been … intimate … with a…?”
“Oh, come on!” He tossed up his hand and stalked back towards the window. He wasn’t about to discuss that with her, and he really did want her to discuss her sexual exploits with him…
“So, you’re a man ho then?”
“Man ho?” He growled, turning back to face her, and the look on pure disbelief on his face said that he was struggling to know when she was teasing and when she was serious.
She liked that a lot, having his off balance was fun.
“Yes, and that has nothing to do with Santa and…”
“I know what a man ho is!”
“So, someone’s called you it before…?”
“What?!” His eyed widened. He didn’t want his mate thinking that he bedded everyone and anyone…
“A man ho…” she said slowly and got a grunt back in return.
“No…” he gave a furious shake of his head.
“So no, no, no to the man ho, ho, ho!” She offered and he twisted his head and curled his top lip as he stared back at her…
“You’re kidding?” He’d asked the question but he wasn’t so sure.
“Yes.”
Eva’s eyes fired up with so much amusement that he thought he might just like to wring her neck.
“Now I definitely want to head-butt something…” he grumbled.
“Me?”
“You – what?”
“Head-butt me…” She shrugged.
“I’m not going to head-butt you…” he twisted his head to the other side and gave it a little shake.
“But you want to – don’t ya?” She craned her neck forwards and glared at him.
“No!” He shook his head harder and swallowed down hard. “I’m confused.”
“You are male.” She offered with a small shrug and he nodded.
“I know that much,” he offered back.
“And I’m female…”
“Don’t I know it.” He grumbled.
“So, you’d prefer it if I was male?” Then her eyed flew wide and she gasped. “Oh – my – God – you’re gay!”
Shawn jumped back, almost plastering his back against the window.
“I am?” He asked – then he shook his head. “I mean … no … no, I’m not gay. I’ve been with women – lots of …” she narrowed her eyes on him.
“Man ho…?” she twisted her head on her neck and eyeballed him.
“No!” He tossed up his hands and rolled his head on his neck and his body away from her. “I …” he shook his head.
“I’m just messing with you…” she tossed an absent hand in the air and batted it away.
Shawn turned pleading eyes towards her.
“Why would you do that?” He almost begged.
“Well, let’s see…” she let her eyes roam up towards the ceiling and took a moment to really consider his question. “You won’t let me out of bed. You have no TV. I don’t have any books to read…”
“I’ll get you books, just please stop…” he grumbled another growl.
“I’d rather get out of bed…”
“No.”
“Then you get in and we can mate…!” She grinned and he growled, a low, deep hungry growl that told her liked that idea just fine…
“No!” He snapped off the growl and berated himself.
She needed to heal!
“So, you are gay!”
“No! Hell, no! Please, God, stop, no!”
“Please God stop no?” She raised her eyebrows at him.
“I don’t know…” he admitted and she chuckled.
“Well, I’m not stopping because I don’t have anything else to do…”
“I’ve got a deck of cards…” he offered and took just one step…
“Do you do magic tricks too?” she asked.
“No.” He gave a small shake of his head.
“Meh!”
“How about … we get you up and you can have a shower?”
“Without your assistance?”
“No!” He looked as if she was insane.
“Meh.” She shrugged. “You know, you take me in and tease me…”
“Tease you how?”
“Well, there’s me … naked …” he swallowed down a growl. “And there’s you … naked …”
“O-K…” He nodded…
“And then there’s your hard length just waiting for me to wrap my lips around…”
“Oh, please make it stop!” He was harder than hell just thinking about it, and she’d more than made him think about it.
She licked her lips so slowly that his heart stopped beating before it thudded back to life, and his length twitched within his jeans.
“You know that I’m healed, right?”
“I want to make sure that…”
“I’m sure, or do you think I’m lying?”
Shawn didn’t answer immediately. One thing that he had learned about females over the years was that you never rushed to answer a question like that one without really thinking it through…
“Not … lying…”
“But not telling the whole truth?” She gave a little nod as if she understood his point of view.
“Exactly.” He lifted his hand and pointed his thick index finger at her.
“Which is l-y-i-n-g …” she offered back.
Shawn’s eyebrows came down over his eyes in a scowl as he started to slowly shake his head. He replayed those last few words in his mind and … damn it, but she was right!
“Over estimating how well you are…”
“Which is lying…” She inspected her fingernails and he took a moment to consider it. He thought he might be in danger of getting zapped…
“Not fully capable of appreciating how sick you were and how long it might take to be fully back to health.” He liked that one, and she couldn’t find anything wrong with that…
“So, not just a liar, but a bloody moron as well.” She tossed up a shoulder and pouted in expectation back at him.
None of this was going how he’d planned.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
~
“I …” Shawn scowled long and hard back at her. “Can’t win, can I?” He grumbled a growl.
“Yes, yes you can…” she offered and he twisted his head on his neck again and waited for the other shoe to drop. “Just stop babying me.”
“I’m not…” He started, but she pointed her index finger towards him and made him snap his head back on his neck as he waited to get zapped. “Maybe a little…”
“See!”
“But you’re my mate. I’m supposed to look after you…”
“Not smother me though, right?”
“I would never smother you.” He growled.
“Not as in pillow over the head smother, although, judging by the look on your face …” she shrugged again and his eyebrows shot up. “But smother as in wrap me in cotton wool – bubble wrap…” she tossed up her hands.
“I didn’t realise I was…”
“You won’t let me out of bed!”
“I know.” He nodded. “Because you need to…”
“Mate!” She tossed back and his jaw snapped downwards as he stared back at her. “Yes, mate – with you – you know – the whole fangs out – bonding bite – sex is good … thing?”
His growl got hungry again.
“But…”
“Don’t say but. I don’t want to hear but. I don’t mind you slapping m
ine…” she teased and saw the look on his face. Like a child standing outside the window of a toy shop and knowing he couldn’t go in…
“You are a wicked – wicked – witch…” he grumbled.
“I can show you just how wicked…” she grinned, and that was wicked too…
“No!”
“No?”
“You’re not healed…”
“Are we back to that again? I can assure you that I am perfectly capable of wrapping both of my feet around the back of my neck – because I’m very bendy…”
He grunted long and hard at the thought of that. Then almost swallowed his tongue…
“That’s … just … such a great image…” he shook his head as if to ward off those thoughts.
“Isn’t it though? Want a demonstration…?”
“Ye … no…” He grumbled a growl. “Do you want pups?”
It was her turn to snap her head back on her neck and look confused.
“Boy, when you change a subject…” she said. “It’s a little sudden, but sure … just not right this minute.”
“I don’t have a condom.” He lied.
“I don’t care. I think I read somewhere that they take nine months to brew…” she offered back and he scowled again.
“I … yes, yes they do.” He was stumped.
“So right this minute then…” she grinned.
“Hungry?”
“Not for food…”
“Thirsty?”
Eva grinned at him and flicked her eyes down to the hard bulge inside his pants.
“I could suck on … something…” She shrugged her shoulders.
“I … will be right back…” he said, stalking towards the front door and yanking it open as he practically tossed his body out into the cold night air. He sucked in a long, deep breath, and groaned it back out.
“Give the woman what she wants!” Connor called over to him, and Shawn snapped to attention, eyeing the three of them across the way.
He grunted in annoyance, turned on his heels and stalked back into the cabin, slamming the door behind him.
When he turned back towards the bed – Eva was gone.
Shawn’s heart hit his ribs. He sniffed the air and his ears pricked up the sound of running water in the bathroom at the same time as her scent led his feet in that direction.
“Damn it, woman!” He growled from outside the door.
“Well, who knew how long you’d be?” She offered back. “Now you can either stand out there and imagine me naked in here, or you can come in and see for yourself…”
He turned the handle and found the door wouldn’t budge.
“Eva…” he growled.
“But only if you promise to touch…” She said. Her voice was more than teasing; it was baying him on.
Mine…
“You’re …”
“Perfectly fine.” She offered.
“Fine.”
“Fine as in; you’re repeating my word, or fine as in you wanna get down and dirty with in the shower and out of it?”
“I wanna get down and dirty…” he heard the lock click off and he couldn’t contain the hungry growl that rumbled within his chest or the upwards curl of his lips.
“Now that’s what I wanted to hear…” she grinned as his eyes took in the sight of her naked body … “Let’s see how quickly you can get naked.”
It didn’t take him very long at all. By the time that she’d stepped backwards in to the shower his shirt was gone, and by the time her eyes had flicked over the muscles in his chest; he was ripping off his jeans.
Then he stalked towards her, looking every inch the predator. She liked that hungry look within his dark eyes. She liked the three day old stubble that clung to his chin and made him look darker, hungrier for her.
She let her eyes roam over his hard body. His muscles were tensing and moving under the skin and her fingers itched to reach out and touch him.
She backed right up inside the shower and he climbed right in after her. That space seemed a lot smaller with him inside it – he dominated every inch around her as he took one last step and brought her body up against his with one strong arm wrapped around her waist, and his free hand palmed her cheek.
“Are you sure that…?” he started, but she was already pushing up onto her tiptoes to bring her lips to his.
With a hungry growl he met her halfway. The moment that his soft lips touched hers she felt the jolt of lust and excitement shoot through her body straight to her womb.
She wanted this. She wanted him.
Two days of being wrapped within his arms had triggered the mating pull within her body, but it had also triggered something else – a feeling of being safe and loved, cared for so completely, and she’d never felt that from anyone in her life before.
Wondering if she was mate material had quickly turned into wondering what she would have done if she’d lost him to Kal that night, and that had rushed her into the realisation that she never wanted to lose him. Never wanted to not feel his arms around her as she drifted to sleep and awake again…
He’d held her, fed her, and loved her to the point where she was ready to do almost anything to have her wicked way with him and seal their bond…
His kisses were gentle. Too gentle.
She knew that he could kiss with so much damn passion that it made her head spin, and she wanted that. Needed to feel him like that, all beast, all man, all dominantly devouring her.
She felt the hard press of his cock against her stomach and rubbed her body against it until he grunted in pleasure and growled with need.
His kisses became more potent, more hungry, and she ran her hands up his back and clawed her fingernails down his skin, kick starting his wild side, and he devoured her with so much passion that she didn’t just not know which way was up – she didn’t care either.
Eva wrapped her arms around the broadness of his neck and shoulders and practically crawled up his body until his hand palmed her backside and lifted her against him.
She felt the hard press of his cock against her sex and a moan lodged in the back of her throat as she wrapped her legs around his hips and locked her feet behind him.
She wasn’t letting go.
She was never letting go.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
~
Mine…
Shawn’s beast wanted out. Not fully. Not to shift into his wolf and banish the man, because that would be wrong … he wanted to push forwards and give the man his fangs to bite – to bond. He wanted to seal the deal and mate for life…
Shawn wanted that as well.
For two days he’d cared for her and fought against the needs and desires that having his mate within his arms, within his bed had tossed up. Those needs had clawed within his very soul at times, but he’d held them at bay, telling himself that she wasn’t yet ready, that she wasn’t yet healed.
Now she’d forced the issue. She’d come to him, and he didn’t think that he could hold himself back from having her even if all hell broke loose around them…
There was only so much self-discipline to go around, and now that he had her where he wanted her…
Shawn was like a kid in a candy store; he wanted everything and he wanted it then and there.
To touch, to taste her on his tongue, to nip, and bite … and he knew somewhere within the deep dark recess of his mind that he’d have all of that and more for the rest of his life … still, it felt as if he was being tore apart by his need to choose…
His hands palmed her backside and he gently lifted her and allowed her body down again as he rubbed her sex over his hard length. The sounds that kept catching in the back of her throat were so damn erotic that they almost surpassed the feel of her hot wet sex against his length…
He wanted to thrust his cock balls deep inside of her. Take her right to hilt of his cock, over and over … and yet the scent of her arousal called to him.
He broke away from her lips and dragged i
n a breath as she did the same, but instead of returning to her lips; he trailed kisses, nibbles, down her throat, over her collarbone, until he closed his blunt teeth against the place where he would place his mark into her skin, claiming her as his, and he bit down…
His cock twitched as her body responded by wiggling against him, rubbing her sex against his, and her head fell to one side as she opened her neck to his will, his dominance, submitting to the wolf inside the man…
Mine… his wolf roared, more than pleased with her actions.
“Yours…” Eva said in a voice that was so damn quiet, but held so much strength that he almost bit down harder, almost allowed his fangs to elongate…
With a growl of need; he spun her away from the shower and stalked back to the bed with her still wrapped around his body like a vine.
He bent down, taking her back to the mattress and using his strength to uncoil her from around him. His growl was hungry and yet so damn gentle as it rolled over her body that she met his dark eyes.
Both of his hands palmed her cheeks and he took her lips, devoured her like she was his prey, and then he moved downwards over her body, tasting, nipping, licking until he had his fill and she was a mindless ball of excitement and need beneath him…
Then he leaned in and tasted her sex on his tongue for the very first time. His eyes closed as he savoured that very first taste, and he locked his hands around her thighs, holding her in place while he devoured her to the point of frenzy – hers – his – he took her right to the limit of the fever that clawed inside of her, the frustration that hammered in the sound of her heart beating – and threw her right into the abyss of such a ferocious orgasm that every inch of her body throbbed hard and fast, over and over, as he worked against her…
“Stop … stop … I need you…” she finally found her voice to beg for mercy…
Her hooded eyes took in the sight of him climbing up and over her body. The man looked so damn dark and sexy that her sex clenched all of its own volition.
She could practically feel him inside of her already, and she knew that was what she needed now more than the air in her lungs.
Shawn growled long and hard at the sight of his mate – opened on the bed before him – needing him as much as he needed her. His heart ripped apart and took her in.