“Yeah. Who wouldn’t?” Ricardo replied. Haben figured the guy was going for a nonchalant tone, but all he came off as was needy.
Vivian reached over and slid one finger along the fly of the guy’s pants, tracing the clearly defined erection beneath the material. Ricardo hissed and his hips jerked under the caress. The woman leaned close, her plump red lips a hairs breadth away from Ricardo’s. “I think that can be arranged,” she murmured. “You just have to do something for me, first,” she coaxed seductively.
If Haben had been straight, the arousal and pheromones in the room probably would have been enough to give him a boner even in shifted form, if spiders had cocks, which they didn’t. As it was, all he wanted was to pounce on the pair and freak the woman out as only a massive spider could. Then he’d shift and knock some sense into the man.
Instead, he got to watch the mistress manipulator, Damon’s mother, convince the hormone-driven lion to agree with anything she wanted. Her hand on Ricardo’s crotch, Vivian massaged the man’s dick through his slacks with what Haben knew from experience was way too little force to be anything but a cock-tease.
“I want my son here, with me,” she murmured against his lips.
Ricardo was too busy thrusting his hips into her carefully controlled caresses to respond.
“Together, you and me,” she breathed. “We’ll train him. Damon is a powerful shifter. You know he’s only twelve and already shifted twice.”
“Twice,” Ricardo managed to gasp.
That was news to Haben. So the cub had shifted more than just the one time in his living room. He’d have to find out when, where, and with whom and fast.
“Mm hm,” Vivian crooned. “Just think. In a couple of years, he’ll take over the pride under our control, doing everything we want him to,” she finished.
From the way Ricardo grunted, she must have increased the pressure of her strokes through his slacks.
“So you can do that, right?” she pleaded. “You can bring Damon here, so we can train him, together?”
Ricardo’s glazed expression told Haben exactly how far gone the man was, and he’d seen enough. Haben took a few steps backward, descending the moose’s head to block out the view of Vivian stroking Ricardo’s cock through the material of his kakis. He didn’t hear the rasp of a zipper, but seconds later, the distinctive grunt and growl of a man coming told Haben that Ricardo had gotten off. Evidently, the man really, really wanted Vivian. It made Haben wonder if it was just young lust, or if Ricardo thought Vivian was his mate.
Either way, when he heard Vivian and Ricardo kiss, followed by Vivian’s whispered promise, “Let me know when you’ll bring Damon to the clearing and I’ll give you something even better to moan about,” Haben knew he had to get out of there. He needed information on Ricardo, the clearing Vivian had mentioned, and how Ricardo planned to get close to Damon.
Terence would be waiting at the rendezvous point, a cluster of trees on the south border of the lion’s territory. If Haben didn’t show within twenty-four hours, he was given instructions to contact Wesley, then Kontra. He wasn’t to contact Lou until they had something concrete to tell him. He’d gotten quite the glare over that one from his friend, but he’d just shook his head and told him when he found his mate, he got to decide how to handle dangerous situations between them.
He waited until he heard the man pull himself together before crawling up the moose head and peering over the edge. The room was empty. Leaping from the nose of the beast, Haben landed gracefully on the arm of a chair. He crawled to the back and leaped again, this time landing on the window sill.
Looking through the window, Haben made out the shapes of lions lounging on the deck. A breeze heavily scented with cat vibrated his leg hairs. He turned and spotted an open window. Crawling along the wall, he made it to the open window.
Two cats lounged within ten feet of him. He paused, but apart from the occasional flick of their tufted tails, the shifters didn’t move. Terence was right. Lion shifters really did like catnapping after lunch. He wondered idly what kind of work they did to enjoy that kind of freedom.
Creeping out the window, slowly and steadily, Haben climbed the wall. He headed toward the roof, his eight eyes allowing him to see just about everything going on around him. Spiders didn’t have great vision, but it was more than enough for his needs. One of the cat’s jaws opened in a massive yawn, but then he settled down without ever opening his eyes. Haben started moving again.
He made it to the roof after nearly ten nerve-racking minutes. Haben let out a relieved sigh at feeling the rough roof tiles under his slender feet. After a moment to steady his nerves, he made his way around the roof, searching for a place that would afford enough cover for him to safely cross the lawn. He circled all the way around but didn’t find what he wanted. Hunkering in the scant shade provided by a chimney, Haben settled in to wait until nightfall.
Crawling across the lawn, Haben made it to the relative safety of the trees. The trunks and leaves cast deep shadows he could use to hide in if need be. Haben looked forward to getting to Terence then to Lou. He wanted to hold his mate again, touch him, feel him.
Thoughts of claiming his mate distracted him. The burning pain of claws raking across his back jerked him out of his musings. His thick plating protected him from being sliced to ribbons, but it still hurt like hell. Haben leaped back, avoiding the lion’s next strike, then jumped onto a tree trunk and climbed. He was an excellent jumper, and as long as he could stay ahead of the cat, he could leap from tree to tree. With his focus on getting to Terence and not the pain radiating through his body, Haben scuttled forward.
Chapter Five
Lou waved to his son. Damon waved back then climbed into his best friend’s parent’s car, disappearing from sight. Sighing, Lou watched the station wagon back out of his driveway and drive away down the street.
He crossed to the end table and picked up his phone. Still nothing. He’d left three messages on Haben’s phone, and he hadn’t heard back from him once. If he didn’t know Wesley never would have allowed a dishonorable man into his home, Lou would have been certain Haben had used all that shit about mates just to get into his pants.
“Yeah, but you know that’s not it,” he mumbled.
Lou couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a date on a Friday night, and he knew he shouldn’t feel so alone now. Problem was, he did, and he knew it was all Haben’s fault. He’d known the shifter less than twenty-four hours and, somehow, the guy had totally gotten under his skin. Which didn’t bode well, because what would happen when this case was done and the nomadic man moved on?
A pounding on the door made Lou jerk around and he found himself almost running toward it. A quick peek through the peephole showed Terence’s stressed face. Lou yanked open the door. Terence rushed in without invitation and asked, “Where’s your bedroom?”
Lou pointed toward the loft. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
Instead of answering his questions, Terence headed toward Lou’s bedroom and ordered, “Grab towels, warm water, bandages, your first aid kit if you have one and get up here.”
That was when he realized true concern filled Haben’s friend’s eyes. Just who the hell was injured? He scrambled to obey, hurrying to snag the requested items. Short of breath, Lou hustled up the stairs. He spotted Terence leaning over the bed. When the shifter stepped back and turned toward him, Lou nearly screamed and dropped the basin of water.
On the bed, nestled in a cocoon of bloody towels that Terence must have had tucked under his coat, rested a massive, dark brown spider. The body of the arachnid had three long, oozing slices across the abdomen that looked suspiciously like claw-marks. Blood saturated the fabric wrapped around the bulging ass-end.
He must have made some strangled sound, for the creature turned to face him. It lifted its front legs off the bed, making even more blood gush from its wounds.
“Shit, get over here,” Terence snarled. “He needs you.”
“H-h-h-he—what?” Lou stuttered, managing two steps toward the massive spider before he stopped again.
“Damn it,” Terence snapped. “Maybe bringing Haben here was a mistake. After last night, I thought you’d understand!”
The big man rose and snatched the cleaning supplies from Lou’s unresponsive hands. He returned to the hairy eight-legged animal’s side and set to cleaning the wounds. It didn’t escape Lou’s attention that the creature’s focus still seemed to be on him. The eight eyes were large enough on the animal’s head to reflect the light. It was crazy, and wild, and freaked Lou the fuck out. He backed toward the stairs.
The spider took several steps toward him.
“Damn it, Haben,” Terence growled. “Stay still!”
Lou’s heart rate tripled. That’s Haben? Really? Lou knew Haben had told him he was a tarantula shifter, but in his heart of hearts, Lou hadn’t believed him. How could a man turn from a vertebrate to an invertebrate? For that matter, how could a man turn into an animal at all? It was too much to process. Lou’s breaths came in short, panicked gasps. He turned and fled down the stairs.
There were two bedrooms downstairs. One was Damon’s room, and the second was his office. His blood pounding through his veins, Lou grabbed a beer and fled to his office, closing the door behind him. He heard muttered comments from Terence upstairs, but couldn’t make out the man’s words. Instead, Lou sat in the room, his beer clutched between his palms, and his head dropped between his knees. Staring at the floor, he struggled to breathe. Seeing his son turn into a lion cub was one thing, but believing that massive tarantula on his bed was his lover was something completely different. Wasn’t it?
Lou wanted to rewind his day. He wanted to leave the house with his son. Maybe find a bar. Go to a movie—anything but be where, if Terence was to be believed, his shifter lover was upstairs bleeding and he was too much of a coward to face his fear of spiders and make sure Haben was all right.
The appearance of Terence in the doorway pulled Lou out of his despondent thoughts. “I-Is Haben okay?” he whispered.
Terence sighed and nodded. “He will be.”
“Can I see him?”
The question surprised both of them. Was he really ready to see Haben as a spider again? When Terence shook his head, rage tore through him, answering the question for him. Lou leaped to his feet. “Come on, man. This was a fucking shock! Surely you must realize that! He’s my mate and I want to see him!”
Terence raised his hands, his eyebrows ratcheting up to his hairline. He scoffed and muttered, “I sure hope you’re this fired up when you finally see him.”
“What do you mean?” Lou snapped.
“I mean, you can’t see Haben because he’s not here,” Terence told him.
“What?” he whispered. He dropped back into his chair and placed his head in his hands. The fact that his mate would leave had never occurred to him.
Shoving a bronzed hand through his hair, Terence replied, “You ran away. You rejected his animal. Haben didn’t take it well. I had to practically tie four of his legs together to get him to stay still long enough to bandage the damn lion swipe that tore his back open.”
He shook his head. “I tried to get him to stick around, give you some time, but he took off.”
Lou jumped up again and his knee slammed into the desk. His beer spilled across the piece of furniture, but he couldn’t have cared less. “What do you mean?” Thunder rumbled, making him twitch. The rain that had been threatening for days finally pelted the windows. Something akin to panic filled him. “He’s out in this? Where would he go?”
Terence lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe to Wesley’s?”
“Shit,” Lou moaned. I’ve totally fucked up.
Sighing, Terence dropped a hand to his shoulder and squeezed. “Give him some time. Maybe he’ll return.”
Three hours later, Terence left for his hotel, but Haben was still missing. Pain, even deeper than when Jay had died, tore through Lou—shocking him with the intensity of his feeling for someone he’d only known a day. Thrusting up the window in his bedroom, he howled his distress to the rainy night, screaming for his lover.
* * * *
His animal had brought him back. Haben understood that. He couldn’t just leave his mate without a word, even if Lou couldn’t accept his spider. He knew Terence was trying to help by taking him there and tucking him in to his mate’s bed. Being surrounded by Lou’s scent should have relaxed him and made him easier to work on. Instead, it had backfired. Lou had freaked out, and all Haben wanted to do was run.
He had for a short bit, but now here he was, outside Lou’s home. He tucked his small body under the eaves of his lover’s shed, trying to stay out of the rain. He watched Terence leave, his rain slicker tucked close. The front porch light was left on, but the living room and kitchen lights flicked off.
The bedroom light came on, and Haben imagined Lou wandering around his loft, getting ready for bed. Maybe taking off his clothes and getting ready for a shower. He sighed, wishing he could be there with him.
Suddenly, the bedroom window slammed open and Lou’s head appeared. Haben crept forward for a step, but stopped when he felt a drop of rain hit his leg. Lou just hung there, half in and half out, his head getting soaked as he looked around the small, lighted back yard. After a couple of minutes, he threw his head back and called something.
The rumbling thunder made it hard to make out. The vibrations of that and the rain messed with the hairs on his legs. It had taken him years to learn the skill of understanding as a spider under his parent’s pain-staking tutelage. Haben crept forward, braving the rain. Lou called again, and he realized his mate was screaming his name.
When Lou’s head whipped around, Haben noticed at least some of him was under the shed light. He froze. Would his mate run again?
Lou squinted into the light. “Haben?” Lou called softly. “Is that you?”
The man sounded almost hopeful. Haben wondered what would happen if he went to Lou now. With only one way to find out, Haben slowly crept forward. Haben moved all the way into the light. Pausing, Haben looked up at his mate. He couldn’t make out Lou’s expression, not with his already poor eyesight obstructed by the rain. Since Lou remained where he was, Haben moved forward again.
“Haben?” Lou asked again.
There was no way for him to communicate with him in this form. He didn’t relish the idea of standing naked in the rain, but he didn’t see any other choice. Normally, a shift didn’t hurt. The change was a part of them. Unfortunately, with the massive lacerations on his back, it did. His body thickened, four of his legs disappeared, and his body reshaped to human form. The scrapes on his back pulled at the butterfly stitches Terence had placed on him, and as soon as he was able, Haben groaned.
“Haben?”
When his mate called once more, he lifted his head from where he knelt. Finding his voice, he rasped, “Lou.”
“Shit, Haben,” Lou said. “Get in here!”
Lou’s head disappeared from the window. He would have thought he was being rejected again, except the light came back on in the kitchen almost immediately and the back door opened. His mate stood highlighted in the entry.
Uncertain of his welcome, even with his mate’s words fresh in his mind, Haben stayed where he was. Lou stared at him for a second, then lifted his hand, palm up. Still he stayed motionless. Finally, Lou murmured, “Please, come in. I’m sorry about what happened before. It was just a shock. I mean—” He waved the hand he held out vaguely, obviously searching for words. “I mean, I know that you said you turned into a spider, a tarantula, but it’s still a shock seeing you in that—form.”
Haben could understand that. Shifting wasn’t always easy for a human to accept. Slowly, he rose, letting the downpour wash the mud from his legs as he made his way toward Lou. It didn’t escape his notice that his mate’s gaze kept straying downward. The closer he got, the mor
e blood flowed in that same direction. By the time he reached Lou, Haben’s cock stood at half-mast.
Lou swallowed hard, then reached out and grabbed his arm and pulled Haben into the house. His lover closed the door, and Haben heard the click of a lock. Lou grabbed a large towel lying on the table and wrapped it around Haben’s shoulders.
Rubbing Haben’s shoulders in silence, Lou went about the business of drying him. Haben hissed when he rubbed across one of the scratches. Lou jerked his hand away. “Sorry,” he whispered. He lifted the towel and grimaced. “These need to be cleaned again.”
“They’ll be fine,” Haben assured. He really wanted his mate to return to rubbing his body.
“No, they won’t,” Lou insisted. “Come with me.”
Lou took Haben’s hand and tugged. Haben went with him, liking the fact that his mate seemed to care so much. He followed Lou upstairs. He tried not to look toward the bed where he’d experienced one of the most pleasurable nights of his life. Lou led him, instead, into the bathroom.
He stood patiently as Lou turned on the shower. He adjusted the temperature, then changed the showerhead to a mist setting. Haben tried to keep his growing desire under control when Lou slipped off his boxers and t-shirt. His body nearly vibrated with excitement when he saw his mate’s nakedness.
Evidently, Lou seemed to know what he was thinking, because he frowned at Haben and shook his head. “No,” he said firmly. “Your wounds come first.”
Haben briefly wondered if he could change his mate’s mind, but decided to go along with him, for the time being. He nodded and held his arms out from his side. “Do what you will with me,” he murmured.
Lou’s normally pale skin flushed red, telling Haben he wasn’t the only one whose mind was in the gutter. Shaking his head, Lou gripped Haben’s shoulders and maneuvered him into the shower. Haben faced the wall, his back under the misting spray. He laid an arm across the shower tile and rested his forehead on it.
He stayed still and let his mate work, shivering under his ministrations. Lou’s fingers carefully pressed against the sensitive skin on his back then followed by the smooth wetness of a soft cloth. His cock filled the rest of the way as Lou cleaned first his body, then his wounds. Even the scrape of the soapy cloth across the gashes didn’t deflate his erection.
Spider Sense Page 4