Apparently, Mars sensed that too because he let out a deep sigh. “Kiko, arrange for Pinkie to lead a group of representatives into that territory. Tell them if they get caught, I’ll have their asses.”
Kiko nodded and got to his feet. “Understood, boss. I’ll fill Pinkie in on the situation and make sure he knows which questions to ask.”
“Good. Council adjourned until we have more information to work with.”
He remained seated, but the rest of them got to their feet. Mundo urged Christie along by pulling out her chair and holding out a hand for her to hold as she stood. She turned to him, eyes large and filled with fright. His stomach lurched in response. He curled his arm about her waist and held her close as he guided her out of the council room. They were the last to leave, but the instant he closed the door behind them, bickering started between Annette and Mars.
“Don’t worry,” he comforted when she flinched and looked back at the door. “That’s usually how council meetings end when Annette is involved. She’s trying to be Mars’s conscience.”
“Like I am for you?” she asked softly.
He nodded. Once.
Air gusted from her lips. “I didn’t realize...”
He stopped her before she could go on. “I know you didn’t, and I’m not mad, Christie. Why would I be? It’s not your fault. None of this is. I understand why you’d think what happened today was my fault, but now you know differently. The club isn’t always to blame. And of late, we’re actually doing some really good shit.”
She peered back at the door again and winced at the argument that would soon end with Mars and Annette fucking on the council room table.
“Don’t worry about them,” he said again. “Honestly. If Pinkie gets news tonight and Mars calls a council meeting, I promise you, that room won’t smell of anger but sex.”
Her lips twitched at that. “Oh.”
“They say makeup sex is the best kind.”
She cleared her throat. “It is. Kind of.” Christie peered up at him. “You’ve never tried it?”
He shrugged. “Never been interested enough in a woman to want to make up. She either came running back to me in apology, or I went my way and she went hers.”
“You were a playboy!” Christie admonished, looking stunned.
“Not sure why that comes as a surprise, babe.” He slapped his cheek. “This isn’t a face only a mother would love.” Hell, his mother was the only woman in his life who hadn’t fallen for his pretty face.
She snorted at that. “So, I’m one in a long line, am I?”
“Hell, no! You’re unique. You’re the only one where I’d do the running in apology, sweetheart. Don’t you get it? Those women meant nothing because they were just fodder until you came along.” He grimaced. “That makes me sound like a complete and utter shit, and I guess I was, but sex was just sex until you came along.”
“You didn’t pick me though,” she mumbled then dug her heels in when he tried to move her away from the council room and down the corridor towards their quarters. “You had no say in this at all.”
He sighed. “We need to move, sweetheart, unless you want to face Annette knowing what sounds she makes during sex?”
She blushed and stopped digging her heels in. As they made it to their room, Pinkie was climbing the stairs, heading toward his quarters. “I’ll be in in a second, Christie,” he promised. “Just go on and let me talk to my brother.”
She didn’t look very pleased about that, and he guessed it was because she wanted answers—answers he didn’t know how to give.
“You wanted to talk to me, Mundo?” Pinkie asked, cocking a brow at him. “Kiko filled me in.”
Mundo stepped toward him, away from his door, and let out a breath. “You just saved my life, and you don’t even know it.”
Pinkie’s gaze flashed between his brother and said brother’s bedroom door. “At least you have a mate to run from.”
He grimaced. “Shit, don’t guilt me.”
“Why not?” Pinkie chuckled. “What does she want?”
“To talk.”
“About what?”
“The fact I had no say in her being my mate.”
Pinkie whistled. “Tough question.”
“Yeah. And I have nothing to say.”
“She doesn’t understand what it’s like for us, Mundo. It’s only natural that she’d want an explanation.”
“Maybe, but it doesn’t make it any easier for me to give it to her.”
Pinkie pursed his lips. “Tell her what it’s like living without your mate. Then she’ll take pity on you and forget the whole fucking conversation.”
“You think?” Mundo asked, brightening at the idea. An hour ago, he would have killed for Christie to be eager to talk to him. Now, he dreaded what they were going to talk about.
“Yeah. I need to go, bro. Got shit to do.”
“Yeah.” Mundo grimaced. “Take it easy. Don’t want any other brothers doing jail time.”
“You’re telling me.” Pinkie winked. “I’ll do my best for your mate, though. Shitty thing for her to be involved in. Never did like those Latino gangs. Shitheads at the best of times.”
“You got that right.” They knocked knuckles then nodded in farewell. Mundo turned back to his bedroom and with a sigh, he opened the door.
Chapter Twelve
When Mundo walked in, Christie felt a surge of relief power through her.
She’d half expected him to go with Pinkie to take part in the ride back into town with the group that were seeking answers and, no doubt, vengeance.
Who could blame him?
Even she who didn’t believe in an ‘eye for an eye’ could understand why he’d want to beat a little vengeance out of someone who was part of a collective who had shot him, close to fatally, and abducted his woman. But just because she ‘got’ it, didn’t mean she had to like it or wanted that to be the case.
He looked a little flustered, and she didn’t know why. She doubted anything Pinkie had to say would put that sheepishness in his expression or the tinge of pink to his ears. So, that had to mean it was to do with their conversation outside the council room.
She stared at him a second, took in the gloriousness of the male that some Goddesses had decreed as hers, and decided then and there that conversation could wait.
She was tired of thinking, tired of talking, and tired of wondering about shit she had no control over.
She wanted to do.
She wanted to do Mundo. Badly.
Maybe he saw that, because he tilted his head to the side and asked, “Christie?”
Her voice was a rasp. “It’s time.”
Eyes flaring, he gulped. “For what I think you mean?” A frown flashed over his brow. “I thought you wanted to talk.” Apparently realizing what he’d said, he shook his head. “Never mind.”
She ignored him. “Come to me, Mundo.”
He clenched his jaw and took two swift steps toward her. She’d taken a seat at the foot of the bed, but now she got to her feet so when he reached her, he could grab hold of her the way she wanted.
The time she’d spent with him had been a cascading deluge of ecstasy, but it hadn’t been consummated. That was because of her body, a body she hadn’t been in control of. Those same Goddesses that had taken Mundo’s choice of life companion away from him—a thought she immediately shied away from—had taken charge of her body.
But for the first time in weeks, Christie realized her body was her own.
She knew it because when he touched her, there was a hunger. But more than that, there was an emptiness—an emptiness she hadn’t felt before.
During those days they’d spent in bed, she’d needed something different from him. She hadn’t needed to be filled. She’d needed to touch him, to taste him, to drown her senses in him. Her skin had craved his seed, and her soul had needed the claiming of his marking her with his essence.
Now, she needed him. Nothing more ethereal or airy-f
airy than that.
She wanted him inside her. She wanted him to fuck her, to make love to her, to not stop until she was screaming in his ear, and he was screaming right alongside her.
The minute their mouths clashed, Mundo groaned. She swallowed the noise, reveling in the defenseless utterance. Their tongues battled, and for once, she won. His tongue retreated to his mouth where she fucked him—where she tasted him and savored his surrender.
As she explored, she reached down for the hem of his shirt, tugged it up, and splayed her hands against that rock-hard belly of his. It was her turn to moan at the feel of those taut muscles against her palm. God, she couldn’t wait to feel his strength powering into her. She craved it like she needed her next breath.
Hell, she craved it more than she’d ever craved chocolate in her life!
She pulled back, suddenly desperate for more. Before he could complain, she was dragging his shirt over his torso and lifting it off his chest. He had to help because the shirt got stuck at his armpits, but while he was engaged with removing the cotton, she got to work.
Dropping her head, she nuzzled at his nipples, first one, then the other. She tasted them, tickled them with her tongue, and then slurped one into her mouth. His hands gathered her hair, and a moan escaped him as she raked one with her teeth.
“I should be doing this to you,” he whispered.
“No, it’s the first time I’ve felt in control,” she mumbled, taking the time to explore his abs with her fingers before she ducked down and traced the ridges of his six pack with her lips. She crouched down, got onto her knees when her thighs began to ache, and reached for his belt. “I need you, Mundo. I really need you.”
“I’m glad, Christie.” He let out a sigh. “I’ve needed you since the first moment I clapped eyes on you.”
She gulped at that, swallowing down the flood of emotion that hit her at his earnestness. He meant it. He really meant it.
He wanted her. Fat, stretch-marked, freckly-faced Christie. Warts and all.
The knowledge surged through her, empowering her in a way she shouldn’t have needed but did. Feminism had nothing on the mate bond.
As she unfastened his buckle then got to work on his fly, she murmured, “I still find it hard to believe that, and that’s why I ask you questions like the one I did in the hall, but I can feel how much you need me every time we kiss.”
“So, you know what the solution is, right?”
She smiled. “Every time I feel insecure to kiss you?”
He winked. “You got that damn right.”
She laughed then started to jerk his pants down, and other far more important matters caught her attention. “You’ve gone commando?”
“I need to do laundry.”
That had her chuckling. “I’ll bet. And no, I’m not complaining.” As she looked at his cock, an extremity she’d gotten to know very well of late, she reached forward and pressed a kiss to the tip of his shaft.
His hands tugged at her hair though. “Babe, as much as I’d love for you to go down on me, I really want to be inside you.”
She started to protest then thought about it—so did she!
He reached down and hauled her up to her feet. She wore a kaftan-style top and some leggings. They were clothes that were a little too tight on the boobs and ass, which let him know they belonged to Annette and had been loaned to her.
“You’re beautiful,” he told her as he looked down in her eyes and sighed. “God, you’re mine.” He shook his head at her, almost like he couldn’t believe it was true. “I think I’ll spend the rest of my life looking at you and not being able to believe you’re mine.”
Her cheeks grew pink. “I’m glad,” she mumbled, ducking her chin a little, but he immediately grabbed the delicate point and urged her to look at him.
“I love you, Christie. I know we have to talk. I know you don’t understand the mate bond, and maybe you won’t be able to until you live and breathe it like Annette is. But whatever doubts you have, you can never, ever doubt how much I feel for you.”
Tears pricked at her eyes until she had to flutter her lashes to stop the smarting sensation. She let out a heavy sigh then pressed her forehead to his bare chest. He smelled so good, like hers. “I love you too, James.”
A shuddery breath escaped him. “Then nothing else matters. Nothing else at all. Because everything else can be worked out in time. You get that, don’t you, sweetheart?”
She nodded. “I know you’re right.”
“Good,” he whispered. “Now, let me claim you as I should have claimed you that first time we met.”
A shudder whispered down her spine. “Please.”
It was all she said, all she could say.
He reached for the hem of her kaftan and dragged it overhead. It stuck fast on her boobs but he persevered and reached for the heavy, braless weight of her breasts and squeezed them in his large hands. She had to wonder if they were so big because they’d been made to fit into his palms, because in his grip, they weren’t the hefty lumps that gave her backache—they were mounds made to please him.
The sappy thought made her lips twitch, but all amusement fled when he ducked down and pressed a kiss to the crown of each nipple. “Mine,” he breathed, but not to her, to himself. The satisfaction in that one word oozed out, covering her in a verbal claim.
He fluttered his tongue against the tip then as she’d done, crouched down to kiss her belly and then, on his knees, grabbed the waistband of her pants and started to drag them and her panties down.
When she was bare, he gripped her hands in his own and said, “Fall back against the bed. I won’t let you hurt yourself.”
With his great strength, she tilted back and he let her fall softly so her breath didn’t whoosh out of her. The controlled move made the muscles in his arms flex, and she felt like drooling at the sight of them. Christ, who was she kidding? She did drool. Her mouth watered at the display of his strength that made his core muscles twitch, and those delicious abs of his stick out prominently.
His cock flexed too, pulsing in the same beat as his heart. She felt overwhelmed by the sight of his need for her and hoped he knew how badly she needed him too.
When her back was against the soft pad of the duvet, he let go of her hands and immediately grabbed her feet. He didn’t pull them apart though, he urged them up, then pressed down so her knees were against her belly and her toes were pointed in the air.
“Hold them up,” he ordered, and she rolled her forearms under her knees.
She wanted to cringe at the belly rolls that appeared in that position but didn’t have too much time to be mortified because his mouth was already at the apex of her thighs, and it didn’t discriminate.
That dexterous muscle fluttered against her clit until she was writhing on the bed. The hands that she had clasped under her knees, he reached for, bridging their fingers until she was clenching down hard on his digits as he ate her out.
She screamed when his tongue fucked into her. The air attacked her hot clit with its relative coolness and her skin flushed with how bare she was, how exposed she was to him and his ministrations.
Kenny (Shifter Football League Book 2) Page 72