by Zoe Chant
Cal grinned. Looked like the woman’s touch was coming.
Lillian trailed off, then looked up at him, eyes going wide. “Nothing you don’t want, of course! I don’t want you constantly afraid you’re going to come home and not recognize your own living room. We can decide on it together.”
“I want you to decide,” Cal said with gentle determination. “Run it past me before you do anything, sure, but the bones of this place are mine already. The forest and the mountains are mine. I want the rest of it to be all yours.”
Lillian’s smile sharpened a little. “How do you know I won’t make it all pink and frilly? You could end up living in a fairy princess castle. Canopy bed, the works.”
Cal laughed at the image. “That’s why I said run it past me. But I trust you, Lillian. I don’t think you’d do anything you thought I wouldn’t like.”
Lillian nodded. “I wouldn’t. Although...” She hesitated.
“What?”
“I don’t want to be a downer,” she said slowly, “but I don’t think I can redecorate anytime soon. Or, well, maybe a few small things. But—well.”
Cal frowned. “What? Why not?” He’d understand if she didn’t quite feel like this was her home yet—she hadn’t even spent one single night here yet, after all—but she’d seemed ready to go a minute ago.
“My...financial situation,” Lillian said quietly. “Furniture is expensive. It’ll be a couple of years before I can start saving up for anything other than debt payoff, I think.”
Cal felt a rush of relief. “Hey,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
Lillian frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Being mated is like being married,” Cal explained. “That means what’s yours is mine, and vice versa. I have a lot of savings. I took home a good nest egg from Iraq—combat pay for a high-level non-com is nothing to joke about. Since then, I haven’t spent much of it at all. This place was the biggest purchase I’ve made by far, and it wasn’t anything like expensive, out here in the middle of nowhere. Most of my paycheck has just gone right into the bank or safe investments, and that builds up. We can talk over the specifics, but you don’t have to worry about what things are going to cost anymore.”
Lillian was frowning. “No—Cal, no, I can’t ask you to take this on. It doesn’t belong to you.”
“It doesn’t belong to you, either,” Cal pointed out. “And if there’s anything I can do—anything at all—to get that jerk out of your life once and for all, you’d better believe I’m going to do it.”
That made her crack a smile. A tiny one, but it was there. Still, she said stubbornly, “I have a job. And I chose to marry Lew. I can pay the consequences myself.”
“How about we talk about it later,” Cal suggested. “Once the rest of this business is cleared up. We can sit down at a computer and look over all our finances together, work out specifics.”
Lillian relaxed a little. “That sounds best.”
That would give Lillian a little time to get used to the fact that they were, for all intents and purposes, married, and that everything that was Cal’s belonged to both of them now. And give him time to muster his arguments—for example, most of their money going forward would be dedicated to building their lives together, taking care of their future children. And there was no way Lillian could argue that they wouldn’t be united as one in that effort.
“Anyway, even if we’re keeping separate finances, I can pay for my own furniture,” Cal added. “So you’ll be buying all the throw pillows you want.”
Lillian raised her eyebrows. “So there?”
“If that’s how you want to hear it.” Cal came over to her, reached out a hand. Lillian took it, and he drew her up to her feet and kissed her deeply. “How’s that for an argument?”
“Mmm, very convincing.” Lillian wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
Cal was just starting to enjoy all her curves and softness pressed against him when she drew back. “Cal?”
“Hm?”
Lillian bit her lip. “I have a request.”
The formal phrasing caught his attention, and he stepped away, trying to marshal his brain back online. “Anything you want.”
That made her make a dubious face. Cal decided not to tell her that the little wrinkle in her forehead was—no way to use any other word—cute.
“You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”
“I know you’re not going to ask for anything I don’t want to give you.”
“You can’t possibly—never mind. Please feel free to say no. But...” She hesitated. “Would you shift for me?”
Cal let out a surprised laugh. “Why would you think I might not want to do that?”
In fact, he should’ve thought to do it before. It seemed impossible that Lillian had never seen him shifted, but, he realized, it was true.
She shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t know. It seems like a very private thing.”
He took her hands. “Lillian. You’re my mate. Even if it was the most private thing in the world, I would still be happy to show you.”
She nodded slowly, and then smiled. “All right. Keep telling me things like that, and I promise it will start to sink in someday.”
He kissed her softly, and then stepped back to the center of the room. “Ready?”
She nodded, looking eager.
Cal reached down inside himself and drew out his leopard.
The room blurred around him. He felt his fingernails lengthening to claws, his tail growing out, his fur rippling over his body. He fell down to all fours as his teeth sharpened and his core thickened into the body of a snow leopard.
When he was fully changed, he looked over at Lillian. She had a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.
“Wow,” she breathed. “I’ve never seen anything like that—well, I saw my sister change once. But this was...different.” She took a few hesitant steps forward, then stopped. “May I touch you?”
Cal couldn’t speak out loud as a snow leopard, but he didn’t need to; he walked over to Lillian and butted his head against her hip.
Mate, echoed through his body. Lillian’s scent was much more powerful as a leopard; a sweet but musky feminine aroma that Cal wanted to keep breathing in forever. Her hand lit softly on his head, and he nosed forward, encouraging her to pet.
She ran her fingers over his ears, which tickled, although he stayed still to keep from startling her. Then she grew bolder, digging her fingers into his fur and petting down his back. She touched his tail very gently, and he couldn’t keep it from twitching; she laughed.
“Oh, you’re beautiful,” she said.
Beautiful was not a word Cal had ever thought to apply to himself, but hearing it from Lillian was...surprisingly nice.
He sat back on her haunches and let her look and pet to her heart’s content. Feeling his mate’s hands on him, her fingers scratching his ears and burying themselves in his fur, was soothing, like all was right with the world. He felt his eyes go half-lidded.
Above him, Lillian laughed. “You look exactly like a satisfied cat right now,” she said.
To be fair, a satisfied cat was exactly what Cal was.
Eventually, Lillian let her hands fall away from his fur—reluctantly, Cal thought. He wanted to tell her that she could keep going as long as she liked. Maybe sometime they could take a nap together like this, with him keeping her warm with his fur.
Maybe someday, if she could shift too—
He cut that thought off. Speculating on his own wasn’t going to help Lillian make the right decision for herself.
“All right,” Lillian was saying. “You can shift back now.”
Cal shifted, and immediately caught Lillian up in his arms, wanting that same closeness. He buried his face in her neck and inhaled; her scent wasn’t as strong in his human form, but it was still all kinds of intoxicating.
Lillian had made a little surprised noise at first
, but now she was melting against him, shivering as he kissed her neck, little kisses that moved up to behind her ear. Her hair was caught up in an elegant twist as always, but little tendrils were starting to escape and curl around her ears, tickling his face.
Cal kissed her temple, her cheek, the bridge of her nose, and then finally her sweet, sweet mouth. She tasted delicious, and she opened for him immediately with a little moan.
Cal couldn’t get enough of the way Lillian was so open physically. Most of the time, even in private, she was very controlled and careful—in her appearance, in her speech, and in her movements. But when they’d first made love, he’d been struck by how that care and control fell away under his hands, his mouth.
It was gorgeous. And he loved that it was only for him.
He kissed her mouth until she was pressed up close against him, her hips shifting. He cupped one of her breasts in his hand and felt the hardness of her nipple under her shirt. He loved what a generous handful her breasts were—he’d always been attracted to curvy women, and to him, Lillian was the embodiment of a feminine ideal, the breasts and hips of a woman who could be the mother of a whole brood of children someday. The feel of her curves under his hands drove him wild.
“Mmm,” Lillian said, as he stroked his thumb over her nipple. “You’re so good at this.”
“Don’t think it’s that,” Cal said, caught up in the feel of her. Then he slid his other hand down the curve of her waist to her hip, and got distracted.
“What do you think, then?” Lillian managed after another couple of minutes. Cal’s hand had moved back, and he was enjoying the curve of her behind, slipping his fingers forward a bit to discover a hot dampness building between her legs.
“Hm? Oh.” He’d said something. What was it? Oh, right. “I think we just match,” he said into her mouth. “What I want and what you want. It’s the same. It’s not any fantastic skill on my part.”
His fingers explored a bit further down the seam of her jeans, and she gasped. “Maybe it’s both.”
“I could get behind both, I guess,” Cal agreed with a grin.
Lillian’s own hands were going exploring in the meantime. She’d unbuttoned his shirt down to the waistband of his pants, and was busily undoing his belt even as she panted into his mouth.
Cal was about to suggest they move it upstairs, but then she got the belt off and slid a hand down his pants. Those soft fingers wrapping around his cock sent any ideas straight out of his head. He groaned.
Lillian made an appreciative noise. Cal thrust forward into her hand, unable to keep his hips still in the face of her obvious enjoyment.
“I think we should be more naked,” she offered.
“Good idea,” Cal managed.
They had to separate to make it happen, which was difficult. Cal kept coming back for one more kiss. But finally she pushed him away, laughing, and pulled her shirt over her head.
That focused him in a hurry. The sight of her creamy breasts, pushed up by her bra to form the most enticing cleavage...he got his pants off fast.
Coming back to pull Lillian in close without anything between them, feeling her naked skin against his, sent a shock of pleasure through him. He kissed her deeply and walked them back toward the couch.
She overbalanced when the backs of her knees hit it, but he eased her down gently. She pulled his head down with her, kissing him fiercely. He had to tear his mouth away after a minute, because he needed to kiss her all over.
She moaned as he started down her body. His leopard purred inside him, and Cal shuddered in pleasure when his mouth reached her breasts. He focused his attention first on one nipple, licking and biting very gently, and then on the other. Her noises sharpened, and he slipped a hand between her legs.
She parted her thighs for him, and his fingers found a slippery wetness. He slid them down, and his index finger found her opening, pushing inside with hardly any effort at all.
Lillian’s fingernails dug into his neck as her head fell back. “Inside me,” she whispered in his ear.
Cal had been intending to go down on her again—his mouth had been watering in anticipation of the taste—but hearing her demand that he get inside her made his cock throb hard, and all other plans fall away.
Lillian turned sideways so she could lie back on the couch, one of her legs coming up to rest on the back of it. Her face was flushed red.
“God,” she whispered. “I feel so...shameless.”
“Good,” Cal said back. “Because we’re not doing anything to be ashamed of.”
He knelt over her and stroked her inner thigh. God, her skin was so soft. He let his fingers drift inward to touch her clit, and she made a strangled noise.
“Come on,” she said. “Now!”
Lillian’s wish was his command. Cal braced himself over her so he could go slowly, and pressed the head of his cock against her entrance.
The hot, soft, wet sensation was overwhelming. But he had to hold himself back. Cal knew that there were men out there who wished they were very well-endowed, but practically speaking, it meant that he had to have a lot of self-control during sex, because it would be easy to hurt Lillian if he wasn’t careful.
She didn’t seem like she was afraid of being hurt right now, though. Lillian arched her hips, pushing him further inside under her own power, and gasping in pleasure.
Well, Cal trusted her to know what she wanted. He got a hand under her hips—distracting himself briefly with the softness of her curved behind—and pressed inside.
She felt like nothing on Earth. Cal wanted to stay inside her forever.
Lillian’s eyes had fallen closed as he pushed inside. Her chest was heaving with her panting breaths. Cal would’ve been worried, but she reached for him, pulling him forward, tilting her hips for him until he was seated completely inside.
Cal could feel his control starting to slip away. “All right?” he asked her. His voice came out rougher than he’d expected, desire stealing away any polish and leaving only rawness behind.
Lillian nodded. “Yes,” she said. “Yes. Move.”
Cal let himself go. For once, he wasn’t keeping himself leashed, watching every movement, holding himself back. Instead, he moved.
Lillian cried out as he pulled back and thrust into her. Her legs wrapped around his hips, and she moved to meet him. Cal felt a fierce joy rushing through him—here was someone who could match him, who saw his desire and smiled. Who wanted him, but didn’t want...danger.
That was something Cal had always feared. That anyone who wanted him, wanted his leopard, wanted the leashed power and primal need that he knew lay beneath the surface, would also be dangerous. His animalistic side had always been balanced by a desire not to hurt anybody.
And now, he was learning that those two things didn’t have to be incompatible.
Because he was driving forward now, thrusting powerfully and without any reserve, and Lillian was making high-pitched noises of pleasure. She was starting to clench around him, somehow spiraling Cal’s pleasure even higher than before. The fluttering contractions of her inner muscles made him groan, his grip on her hips tightening, his thrusts speeding up.
Everything was slick and hot. The scent of sex permeated the air, filling Cal’s head until he couldn’t think of anything else. He put his head down and licked at the sweat between Lillian’s breasts, shuddering at the hot taste of it. He could feel the orgasm building inside of him, his cock twitching inside of Lillian as he drive forward. There was the slightest resistance at the end of each thrust—he was big enough to fill her completely, he thought—but far from hurting her, it seemed to bring her to even greater heights of pleasure. Every time he bottomed out, he could feel her muscles clench, her fingers tighten, a pleasurable moan jolt out of her.
Cal thrust in as far as he could and stayed there for a long moment, pressed in tight and close, and felt Lillian’s breath speed up, her moans change pitch.
“Oh,” she said. The syllable barely
had any air behind it at all, but Cal heard it anyway. “Oh, can you just—don’t, don’t move, just stay right, stay right there—”
He lifted his head to look at her. Lillian’s beautiful face was wracked with pleasure. Her lips were parted, her eyes closed, her face shining with sweat. Her hair was curling in little damp tendrils around her face, and Cal felt almost blinded by the sight of her. The love that welled up in him was overwhelmingly fierce, like he was holding the light of the sun inside himself.
Her voice had risen in pitch, and now she was trailing off. Her back arched, and Cal finally pulled back and thrust again, hard.
She shrieked. He did it again, slow and powerful, and then started to speed up once more, but this time the thrusts were deliberate and forceful.
It couldn’t be contained. His love and his desire twined around each other as he moved inside of his mate. And she clawed at his back, thrust her hips along with him, and finally shuddered over the edge and came.
Cal’s vision whited out at the desperate clutching of her muscles. His own orgasm spilled out of him without any warning, following immediately on hers as though they couldn’t be separated. His muscles shivered, pleasure coursing through his body and overwhelming him with joy.
When he came back to himself, he was wrapped up in Lillian’s body, their limbs all entangled, smelling like sex and each other.
Cal thought it might be nice if he never had to move again.
Lillian’s eyes eventually blinked open. The crystal-blue was surrounded by damp lashes. Her pupils were enormous. “Wow,” she husked, laughing a little.
“Take that as approval, then?” Cal asked, raising his eyebrows.
She laughed a little more. “Approval is a bit weak. Awe, maybe. I’ve never—I’ve never felt like that. Ever.”
Cal reached up and caught a rogue tendril of hair, smoothing it back so that it wasn’t falling into her eyes. “Me, neither.”
Her delicate eyebrows went up. “Oh, really? This isn’t just another evening for you?”