He moved so quickly that she was barely aware of it, but in moments he was naked against her. She imitated his motion, and the rest of her clothing was gone, too.
And then he touched her, right there in her most sensitive area. Grasped her, rubbing gently, moving one finger, then more than one, inside her in imitation of the sex act that she suddenly craved.
Only— She couldn’t, could she? Not without protection, even with a being who was entirely human, and his differences from her, although not obvious now, suddenly leaped into her mind.
She stiffened.
“Wait,” he said. He let go of her, leaving her bereft despite thinking it was for the best. But as she watched, he wriggled between the two rear seats and up into the front of the vehicle. Lord, what a view. His long, sinewy, hard legs ending in a tight butt she wanted to stroke and squeeze, but she couldn’t reach it. Not now.
She heard the glove compartment open, and in seconds he had retaken the position he had just left—almost. She saw him struggle to open a small package but his hands were trembling and he was taking too long.
But he was prepared, bless him.
“Let me,” she said, taking the condom from him. She got the wrappings off—and had the additional pleasure of sliding it gently, teasingly, onto him.
With a growl that was entirely human, he repositioned her onto her back and thrust inside her. He was still, as if savoring the moment, and she did the same.
And then he started pumping, gently at first and then with more and more intensity. She groaned in ecstasy, and when she finally reached the most amazingly powerful orgasm of her entire life, she had to stifle a scream.
* * *
Minutes later, or was it hours? Sara still lay on her side on the stiff, uncomfortable surface at the back of the SUV. She was breathing deeply and erratically, and the fact she was facing the similarly still—but really ripped—body of Jason’s didn’t help her calm her respiration.
She still felt damned attracted to him. If she weren’t so exhausted, maybe she would attack him again and engage in more feral, uninhibited, mindless sex.
Only...well, she wasn’t really mindless.
Even so, her gaze locked on to his for a long moment, and she knew that, if she let herself, she would be absolutely hypnotized by his smug grin.
As if the words were extracted from her by some kind of woo-woo sci-fi mind meld, she heard herself say in an irregular voice, “That was amazing.”
But at the same time, reality was starting to reinsert itself into her mind.
Yes, he was one damned sexy guy. What she’d experienced was incredible.
But he was a subordinate in the military, which made what they’d done forbidden—especially for someone like her, who toed the line implicitly. Or always had before.
And in addition to that little problem, another insurmountable barrier remained between them. Jason was also a shapeshifter.
“It was,” Jason responded to her comment. “But there’s always room to make it even more amazing...soon.” As if his body responded to what he said, Sara saw his sex organ start hardening once more.
Despite her fascination, she made herself stare at his face again. But she didn’t respond to his suggestion.
Once she regained her senses, she’d never want to have sex with him again.
If she ever regained her senses....
Now though, physically sated, she relaxed against him while catching her breath, and allowed her mind to glom on to the curiosity that had invaded her from the time she’d begun to believe Jason was truly a werewolf.
“You told me before that you’d let me know what it’s really like to be a shapeshifter,” she murmured against his chest.
He put his arms around her and held her close. “It’s incredible,” he said, and she felt his breath rippling the hair on top of her head as he spoke. “The change? It’s uncomfortable, and yet it feels like being reborn every time. In both directions.”
“Which do you like better?” she asked. “Human or wolf form?”
“Love ’em both, for different reasons.” He paused. “At the moment, human’s in the lead.”
She heard herself chuckle. And then she said, “Did you have a hard time while growing up? Were there regular humans around, and did you have to hide who—what—you were?” And did that, somehow, lead to your becoming a car thief? she wondered, but she didn’t ask.
“Our family was pretty much located in remote areas of Wisconsin,” he said, drawing her even closer. “And yes, there were still a lot of ‘normal’ people we had to keep our secret from. But we weren’t too far from Madison, so we were always able to shop there for stuff our neighbors wouldn’t understand, even some kinds of chemicals. Over generations, our ancestors had started fooling around with an elixir to help us decide when to change and all—similar to the one Drew has been developing for Alpha Force, but his is a whole lot better, more sophisticated now, than what he and I grew up with. And its current formulation is proprietary to Alpha Force, which is one reason I’m here and will be staying, at least for now.”
“How did you all... I mean, is there a whole community of shapeshifters where you’re from, or only your family?” She was finding this description fascinating, which surprised her. She always had a streak of curiosity that controlled who she was...but who knew she’d find something she’d considered pure fiction—before—so interesting?
“There are a bunch of us,” he responded. “Not all are in the same area, and not all are part of our family, but we do keep in touch.”
“And what do you do there about—” A sound startled her, interrupting her question, but she stopped herself from gasping aloud. A car must be driving by. She heard the noise of tires on the concrete floor and froze.
Just moving her eyes, she glanced upward. There were no lights on in the SUV. The only illumination was dim and came from recessed lighting in the parking garage. Plus, the vehicle’s windows were tinted.
And Jason and she both were lying chest-to-chest—and how sexy that felt—on the folded-down backseat, way below those windows.
They had to be invisible to anyone driving by.
Thank heavens.
She looked at Jason, though, realizing that she was trembling a little. He was grinning, apparently at her horrified reaction about potentially getting caught here. She glared, but at least he wasn’t moving. Although she wouldn’t put it past this man to stand up, turn on the lights and flaunt all he had.
If the driver happened to be female, she’d get one hell of a show.
But fortunately, Jason was wiser than that. He stayed as still as Sara did.
In less than a minute, the noise receded and was not followed by the sound of any other vehicle.
“I think it’s time to go.” Sara drew herself up slightly, still hiding herself in the corner between the farthest-back side window and the rear one, and hurriedly donned her clothes.
With what appeared to be a sorrowful shrug, Jason also knelt and began to dress.
Sara tried not to look, but she nevertheless saw enough to feel regret that such a gorgeous, hard, utterly sexy body would soon be hidden from her view.
Until the next time that Jason had suggested...?
No.
There could be no next time.
* * *
Reading Sara McLinder’s face was even easier than reading a car’s maintenance manual.
Jason purposely made dressing himself into a show, as he’d done with his body when he had shifted in front of Sara so many times now.
Even though she’d been curious, had asked a lot of good questions about his background and all, she regretted what they’d done.
But damn, she’d enjoyed it, too.
Even admitted that—a few minutes ago. But he bet that if he asked her now, while she finished dressing as she hid as best she could inside the back of his SUV, she’d pretend she’d never meant anything of the sort. Had maybe enjoyed slumming just this once.
His presumption was unexpectedly painful. It challenged him, too. They would do it again. He’d make sure of it. Or at least he’d do his damnedest to seduce her sometime in the future.
The near future.
“So what do you think of my second car?” he finally asked, keeping his tone light.
“Nice,” she said, although she didn’t sound serious. And then, still buttoning up her camo blouse, she stopped and stared at him. “Did you plan this? Did you bring me to the hauling truck—and then this car—because you wanted us to get in the back here and...and make love?”
He could see by her rattled expression that she sought the right euphemism, one she could live with, for the various words and descriptions out there for having sex.
“I thought about it,” he admitted easily. He’d thought about having sex with Sara since he’d met her. “Our respective quarters wouldn’t be exactly the easiest places to get down and dirty like this, would they?”
“No. And that’s a good thing.” Sadly, every bit of her gorgeous body that had turned him on so much it hurt was now covered. Oh, her bustline was obvious even beneath her shirt, but her being in uniform was definitely not the most exciting view of her he had seen.
“Okay,” he said. He didn’t want to get into a fight with her. Not now. But he could see by her angry expression that his agreeing with her hadn’t pacified her, either.
He wanted to grab her. Shake some sense into her.
Better yet, turn her on again.
Instead, he turned away and grabbed the inside handle of the vehicle’s back door. He levered it and pushed it open.
“I’ll get out first,” he told her, which he did. He looked around to ensure they were still alone. “It’s okay now. Let’s go.”
Chapter 12
Sara’s bed in her BOQ apartment was a hell of a lot more comfortable than the bed of that SUV she’d left only about half an hour ago, alone, stalking out of the garage ahead of Jason—even though she knew he was behind her, keeping watch.
Which made her feel protected. But she didn’t need protection. She could take care of herself.
So why wasn’t she sleeping...again?
Last time she’d had insomnia, it was because she’d thought she was hallucinating after seeing all those wolves.
This time...no hallucination. She had just experienced the best sex of her life. With the wrong man. Or whatever he was.
He’d described his background—some of it. And he’d even suggested they’d partake in another heated encounter someday. Another bout of unforgettable, incredible love-making with a man—yes, he was at least partly a man—who seemed to anticipate every touch, every kiss, every thrust that would make her giddy and turn her into a heap of mindless sensation.
She didn’t even want to think about it.
Which meant she thought about nothing else, except for her fascination—no, her fury with herself—far into the night.
She was relaxing, at least, when she suddenly jolted to attention in her bed with the ringing of her smartphone.
She glanced at the caller ID.
Jason.
She ignored the sudden moistening and twisting down below, where he’d made her feel so good. Why would he be calling at this hour?
Was something wrong again at Ft. Lukman? With General Yarrow? Something else?
“Hello?” Her voice was all professional. At least she hoped so.
“Hi, Sara.” His deep voice made her insides react even more. He didn’t sound frantic or upset. But why was he calling?
“Is anything wrong?”
“Yes,” he said immediately, and her heart started thumping erratically.
“Tell me.”
“I can’t sleep. I’ll bet you can’t, either. I don’t suppose you’d like to get together again so we could relax one another. I’d like at least some rest tonight. Lots going on tomorrow.”
“You have a lot of nerve,” she spat out. “What’s going on tomorrow is just one of the many reasons we are not only staying apart tonight, but what happened...well, it was a mistake. It won’t happen again. Do you understand?”
“I hear you.” She heard him, too—including the laughter in his tone. “Good night, Sara.”
Damn. He hung up, and she’d wanted to be the one to end the call.
She felt furious—with not only him, but herself, too.
But as she lay there, rehashing not only his phone call but their unforgettable lovemaking, she found herself smiling, too...even as she finally felt sleep coming on.
* * *
Sara hurried from her apartment first thing the next morning. With the upcoming meetings, she didn’t have time to obsess about what had happened last night.
As she walked down the hall toward the stairway, a door opened. Colleen Hodell ran out, almost bumping into Sara.
“Sorry,” the tawny-haired lieutenant said, her felinelike eyes wide. “I’m meeting Rainey for a quick breakfast and I’m late.”
“She’s your shifting aide, isn’t she?” Sara felt curious about how a cougar-shifter handled her role here among all the wolves.
“That’s right.” Colleen seemed to hesitate then smiled. “You haven’t met Puka yet, have you?”
“Puka?”
“My cover cat. I keep her in my apartment rather than having her stress out among all those dogs. Come on in. Rainey can wait a few more minutes.”
“Thanks.”
Colleen’s apartment was as small as Sara’s, with nondescript but comfortable-looking furniture and a tiny kitchenette, but she had been there long enough to add some personal touches such as photos on the wall of lots of cats.
Some were wilder kinds of felines, and Sara couldn’t help wondering if they were real pumas and jaguars and tigers—or if they were shapeshifter felines, like Colleen.
“In here.” Colleen gestured for Sara to join her near the kitchenette. “This is her favorite spot.”
The cat that lay on a fluffy, orange pillow at the far side of the narrow tile floor was large for a kitty, maybe twenty pounds. She was as tawny as Colleen’s hair, and her face looked like a miniature version of a mountain lion.
“She’s lovely,” Sara couldn’t help exclaiming. She considered herself more of a dog person, yet this cat was not only unusual but the stare of her brown eyes appeared highly intelligent. “Where did you find her?”
“I knew when I joined Alpha Force that I’d need a cover animal.” Colleen crossed the floor, reached up and opened a cupboard door. She removed a box of feline treats and fed a couple to the cat, who rubbed against her leg. “My family always kept cats around that resembled us as much as possible while shifted, so I just brought Puka with me.”
“Where are you originally from?” Sara said, wondering if it was any harder to keep a shifting cougar’s identity secret than it was a wolf’s. She now knew a bit more about where Jason had come from. Colleen had given some of her background the other night at dinner but Sara didn’t recall what she’d said except that she wasn’t among those shifters who now liked to complain about their prior lives.
“Oh, the Midwest.”
“Is your family—”
“Yeah, they’re still there.”
Colleen’s abruptness suggested she didn’t want to answer a bunch of questions. Maybe she truly was concerned that she was late for her breakfast with Rainey. But after her conversation with Jason, Sara was curious.
“Are they all shapeshifters?” she asked. “Are there a lot of cougar shifters? I gather there are quite a few wolves. And did you have to hide from regular humans while you were growing up?”
Colleen’s sigh was deep and she didn’t meet Sara’s eyes. “I don’t generally talk much about my background.” Her voice was hoarse. “You’re right—there tend to be a lot more wolf shifters than feline, and there are more of us than there are other shifters, like birds. My family is small. We all shift under a full moon so, hiding—y
es, that was a lot of what we did when I was a kid. I’d wanted...well, I thought my life would change a lot when I found Alpha Force and was able to join up. And it did. But...” Her voice trailed off, and Sara didn’t prompt her. Maybe that was enough. “But my family,” Colleen finally went on. “They’re still there. It’s hard for them, and I’d love to help them. I—” She turned toward Sara. “Okay, enough of that.”
“Sorry for being pushy,” Sara said. “But I didn’t even believe there were shapeshifters before, and now that I know there are I’m really curious.”
“No problem.” Colleen bent down and picked up her cat. “Anyway,” she continued, “Puka is mostly an indoor cat, and you can’t really train cats the way they do with the dogs, so she’s my furry apartment mate.”
Despite her reluctance to talk about her past, she apparently had no issues about talking about her cat. “Have you ever had to use Puka to protect you as a shifter by proving there’s a genuine cat around?”
“A couple of times, but not around here.”
“I figured,” Sara said. “Not with Alpha Force being the primary unit stationed here.”
“Yeah, but even around those USFT guys...well, I know some have figured out what Alpha Force is all about.”
“And they’re about to learn more,” Sara agreed. “Today.”
“Which means we’d both better get going.” She reached down and stroked Puka. “See you later, little girl.”
That cat wasn’t a little girl, in Sara’s estimation. But she did enjoy watching Puka stare with interest as her best human friend said goodbye.
* * *
Jason wasn’t invited to the initial preparatory meeting that morning.
He understood why. He wasn’t the general or his aide, like Sara, nor a commanding officer of Alpha Force like his cousin Drew or Lieutenant Patrick Worley.
He definitely wasn’t even aligned with other NCOs from that damned Ultra Special Forces Team.
Nah, he was just a peon. A mere sergeant who shapeshifted, fixed cars...oh, and occasionally helped to save a general’s life.
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