He turned off the highway onto his road and Tori’s scent hit his nostrils. Mate. Something unwound inside of him, calming his roiling emotions. Knowing she was there waiting for him changed nothing. The world was every bit as fucked up as it had been two minutes ago, but he felt better. That alone should have freaked him out, but he was too damn tired and stressed to care. If anything made this situation more bearable, he’d take it.
A few minutes later he was tugging off his tie as he walked in the front door. He found her sprawled out on her stomach on his couch. She didn’t even look up at him, her gaze pinned to the computer screen in front of her.
“Oooooh,” she moaned.
The deep ecstasy of the sound made his insides tighten with automatic lust, and a dart of heat went straight to his groin. “The only person who should be getting that noise from you is me. Who do I have to kill?”
“Not a person, a car.” She rolled to her side and pointed at the screen. “Look at this.”
“Did you find something for me?”
“No.” She huffed. “For me.”
“I thought I asked you to look for me because I was in the market for a new car.” Sitting next to her, he checked out the vehicle. Whoa. He tried to think of something flattering to say, but all he could come up with was, “It’s a wreck.”
A happy little hum of agreement came from her. “I want it. 1969 Chevy Impala convertible. I’ve never had one before.”
He eyed the car’s matte coat of gray primer marred by rust spots. “You haven’t even seen it in person yet.”
Propping herself on an elbow, she gave him a huge, beatific smile. “Want to go for a drive?”
He arched an eyebrow, fighting the urge to grin back. Her appeal was all but irresistible. “You already called the owner and scheduled an appointment, didn’t you?”
Pushing herself to her knees, she bit her lower lip. “I can just take your SUV if you want to stay here.”
The utter lack of apology made him chuckle. “No, come on. Get in the car.”
“You’re so awesome.” She grabbed his face and popped a kiss on his mouth.
“Thank you. You still owe me for this.” Wrapping his arm around her waist, he hauled her flush against him and deepened the kiss. Her lips parted willingly and he delved into her mouth, his tongue twining with hers. Slipping her fingers into his hair, she arched her breasts into him. A growl rumbled up from his chest, and he felt his claws extend. His cock pulsed against his fly and he fought the need to shred her clothes, mount her and ride her hard.
Her head fell back and he nipped and sucked his way down the long, elegant column of her throat. He scraped his fangs softly over her collarbone. She moaned, her hands fisting in his hair. “Okay, I owe you. I’ll pay up.”
“I’ll make sure of it.” He eased away from her. Standing up was a painful proposition, but he managed. “I’m going to go change out of the suit and then we can be off.”
She rolled to her feet. “I’ll put on my shoes and grab my purse. Oh, and I’ll call the guy and confirm we’re coming right now.”
They were pulling away from the house in short order, headed out to the main road. Tori slipped a can of Dr. Pepper into the cup holder, rooted around in her handbag and then slapped a sticky note to the dash. “Address and directions. I hope you can follow this because there’s a part about turning off at the small white church right after the big bridge and making sure we keep the river on the left.”
“You’ve never been given Southern directions before, huh?” He thickened his drawl until it was molasses slow.
She laughed. “Weird directions, yes, but usually they have some street names.”
“Nah. That would make it too easy for outsiders to find their way around.” He shot her a lopsided grin.
“You ain’t from around these here parts.” She exaggerated the worst drawl he’d ever heard, and he winced. She half turned on the seat to face him. “So, local boy, do you actually know where we’re going?”
“Of course.” He shrugged. “There’s a great barbeque place near there. Actually, it’s more like a dilapidated shack with a huge porch attached, but the food is fantastic and the view of the river is amazing. Dinner?”
“I’m game. I’ve never eaten in a shack before.”
They headed away from Chattanooga and out into the middle of nowhere, so few cars passed them. He felt her gaze move over him as he guided the vehicle along the road. “What?”
She reached across the seat and ran her fingernail down the side seam in his khaki shorts. His muscles tensed and he glanced at her to see she wore the kind of grin that could make a man’s blood rush south. She tilted her head. “What did you have in mind as payment for coming with me?”
A variety of ideas flashed through his brain, but then he realized it would be a hell of a lot more fun to let her surprise him. She was good at that. He liked that about her. Not many people managed to shock the shit out of him. “I’ll allow you to be creative.”
Unclipping her seatbelt, she slid along the bench seat. “I’m thinking maybe a down payment is in order. For you being so accommodating.”
Her nimble fingers shifted his seatbelt and unzipped his shorts. She tugged his cock free of his boxers and stroked the shaft in unhurried sweeps. “Keep the car on the road, Lykaios. We have an appointment we don’t want to miss, but crashing would be bad.”
He sucked in a ragged breath as his dick went diamond hard in under three seconds. “You. Are. Insane.”
“And you like it.”
God, yes, he did. It occurred to him that he was a little too sane, too grounded. A good thing in many situations, but there were times when he could use some madness in his life. No wonder he’d picked her as a mate. She was perfect for him.
Then her mouth closed over his cock and all philosophical life-choice thoughts fled his mind. It was all he could do to keep the car in his lane. If not for his wolf reflexes, they might have been in real trouble.
Her tongue swirled around the head of his dick, and he clenched his teeth as hot, wicked pleasure danced like fire over his skin. Ah, God. After letting one hand drop from the wheel, he threaded his fingers through her hair. He meant to pull her away, to stop the craziness. They shouldn’t be doing this. It was stupid and irresponsible, but she sucked him hard and he didn’t give a shit about right or wrong. He just needed. “Fuck.”
“Mmmm.” She hummed and the sound vibrated down the length of his erection. His eyes damn near rolled back in his head, it felt so amazing. He had to struggle to stay focused on the road. The sharp dichotomy between concentration and incipient release made him shudder.
“Tori,” he gritted out.
She cupped his balls, rolling them between her slim fingers, and he groaned. Her teeth scraped gently at his shaft and he almost came then and there, but he wanted to hang on to this feeling for as long as possible. The erotic and forbidden all rolled into one. He’d had plenty of sexual encounters in his life, but he’d never had a woman give him a blowjob in a moving vehicle.
Slipping her hand upward, she began to stroke in the same rhythm with which her mouth sucked him. His breathing sped, his heart hammering in his chest. He tightened his grip on her hair, pushing down so she took him deep. Squeezing him in the ring of her fingers, she moved faster, her tongue working down the underside of his shaft.
Sensation boiled up and he knew he wasn’t going to last much longer. “Jesus. Fuck. Tori, I’m going to come. If you don’t want—”
She sank down, taking him deeper than she had before, and he felt the back of her throat contract around his cock. Choking, he exploded into her mouth, his hips arching off the seat. Come jetted from him in hot waves and shudders racked his body. She kept sucking him until the sensation became almost too intense. He pulled her gently away. “Enough, sweetheart. Too much actually.”
She let him slide from between her lips. “So you fucked me to death and I sucked you to death?”
A laugh straggl
ed out of him. “Yup.”
His ragged breathing took a long moment to settle into some semblance of normalcy. He licked his lips, watching as she sat up, scooted over and strapped herself back into her seat. Blinking, he realized they were at their exit and hit the brakes, whipping into a quick turn. They both surged against their seatbelts and Tori clutched the grip handle, a grin on her face.
“That was fun.” She winked.
He shook his head. “That was crazy. All of that.”
She grabbed her soda and took a swig. “True, but wasn’t it just a little bit hotter because we really shouldn’t have been doing it?”
“Oh yeah.” He snorted, unable to deny the truth. “I really like you, you know.”
“Likewise.” She chuckled and drew one knee up to her chest. “Are we there yet?”
“Very close.” He coasted down the bumpy road, keeping an eye out for the turnoff that would take them to the right house. He almost missed it—the weeds grew so high around the mailbox. It looked about as well-kept as the car had in the pictures. He kept that thought to himself.
The house was a rundown old homestead with multiple cars in various states of rust parked in the yard. Though, to be fair, there were also a couple mint condition vintage models tucked under a large carport.
“There it is.” Tori was out of the SUV the moment he pulled to a stop. She trotted over to the particular rust-bucket she wanted as an older man in a John Deere cap and a wifebeater stepped from the house.
Bastian flagged the man down and exchanged greetings, but the moment the old guy got a look at Tori, it was as if Bastian didn’t exist.
She was all over the car. She crawled beneath it, dove under its hood, flipped every lever, pushed every button. Then she took it for a test drive. Bastian sat in the passenger seat, and the owner parked himself in the back, his elbows resting on the front seat. Clearly, he was loving the fact that a hot babe like Tori knew so much about cars. For a motorhead like him, Tori had to be a walking wet dream. Hell, who was Bastian kidding? She was a walking wet dream for any heterosexual man. And gay woman, probably.
But it was Bastian she turned to with a luminous, heart-stopping smile. “I want.”
His entire body reacted with visceral need. Goddamn, he hoped she still got to him this quickly fifty years from now. “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”
If anything, her smile got brighter. “Right answer.”
He tugged on a lock of her silky hair. “Not always going to be my answer.”
She wrinkled her nose at him, then glanced back at their audience. “I’ll give you two-thirds of your asking price. It’s running, sure, but it’s gonna need a lot of work to get it purring.” She gave the man a hard, don’t-bullshit-me look in the rearview mirror. “There’s more wrong than you said in your ad. Do you want me to give you a list?”
He pulled off his ball cap and slapped it against the seat. “Two-thirds works for me. I haven’t had time to fix her up the way I wanted. I’m glad she’ll be going to someone who’ll take care of her.”
Tori nodded her approval. “Good man.”
Bastian propped his arm on the door of the car. “Happy?”
“Very.” Her eyes twinkled, her fingers tapping a cheerful beat against the steering wheel.
“Good.” He wanted her happy. And he wanted her here with him. With the exception of family members, there’d never been anyone in his life whose contentment was as important to him as hers was. Even then, it was an entirely different beast with his mate. It was mind-bending and gut-wrenching that he could feel this way after only a few days of knowing her, but he wouldn’t change it for anything.
He just hoped he could change her mind about wanting to go back to Arizona.
Chapter Seven
The next afternoon, Tori had just finished giving the Impala a tune up when her cell phone blared out a ring. Since she was still covered in grease, she gave her phone voice commands. “Answer call. Speakerphone.”
The cell beeped an acknowledgement and then the line opened. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Ajax.”
She blinked in surprise, then grinned. “Your Majesty, it’s a delight to hear from you. I just saw your yummy hubby the other day.”
A dry snort came through the phone. “Shut your beak and fly over for a visit, Haida.”
While she’d really wanted to do that for the last couple of days, a few minor concerns had kept her grounded. First, since she’d gone and marked the wolf Beta, there would be those in the shifter world who assumed that she was automatically under the wolf clan’s rule. While she hadn’t officially taken a loyalty oath to the Alpha—nor did she particularly want to—that would be a mere technicality to some. Which meant it became kind of political for her to visit bird lands, even though she was a fricking bird. Stupid and frustrating, but making waves about it might draw attention to this mating thing that she just didn’t want, so she hadn’t brought it up with Bastian.
However, with a personal invitation from the bird queen, that should make it all kosher. Hopefully. Who knew with the wolves? She was more in tune with the dynamics of the leopards, so maybe the wolves would get bitchier about crossing into other shifters’ territory. Or maybe it would be cool. She wasn’t going to stop and ask. It was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
On the other hand, if she didn’t actually go to bird territory…
“I have a better idea.” She grabbed a rag and wiped away some of the grease on her hands. “Why don’t I take you for a ride in the fabulous classic car I just bought? It’s a barely running hunk of junk, but you’ve got to see the before so after I fix it up, you’ll be blown away.”
“You and your cars.” Tori could all but hear Ajax rolling her eyes. “You need to design planes or something. It’s more befitting of a bird.”
A fair point. “Maybe I’ll invent a flying car someday.”
“Now that’d be cool.”
“You gonna come see my new ride or not?” Tori’s voice became cajoling. “There might be coffee in it for you.”
“Sure. The girls and I will fly down and meet you in the parking lot.”
Meaning the spot where all the bird-shifters parked their cars before soaring up into the tree houses they lived in. It was also the head of a nature trail for hikers, backpackers and stream fishermen, which meant the mass of cars didn’t seem weird if any human authorities came across it.
“Great. I’ll call you when I’m almost there, so you guys know when to start flying.”
“See you soon. I can’t wait to hear all about your trip to Tennessee.” Ajax’s tone was drier than leaves in winter.
“Let the grilling begin.” Tori hung up the phone before the bird queen could respond. There were going to be questions anyway, so why not start at the top?
Besides, Tori would get to drive her new baby. And there would be coffee.
She set Bastian’s tools on his workbench and dropped the car’s hood back in place, then hustled for the house and the shower she pretty desperately needed by now. She hosed off, hopped out, slapped on some clothes, left a note for Bastian in case he came home early or she got back late and then slung her purse over her shoulder on her way out the door. Luckily, Bastian had given her a code for his security system and shown her how to make the system lock and unlock the doors.
House handled, she raced for the garage. The deep rumble of the Impala’s engine made her grin as she fired up the car. It already sounded better than it had yesterday, but she was going to need some new parts. Plus, it needed a lot of bodywork.
A new project. Her favorite thing in the world. She cruised down the road with the convertible’s top down, radio blaring while she hummed along. Maybe she’d stop off at an auto store in town on the way home.
Home. She cringed at the thought. She should not be referring to Bastian’s place as home, even in her own mind. It was his home, not hers. She lived in Arizona, though she wouldn’t really call that home. Maybe the
closest thing she had to home was still her parents’ house in Colorado. Which wasn’t really home anymore, was it? She was an adult now, and while she could go back, it would never be quite the same as it was when she was a child. So where the hell did she belong? She had a feeling Bastian wouldn’t hesitate with the answer to that question, but she wasn’t quite as ready to commit.
Shoving those thoughts away, she made the turn off the highway toward the werebird parking lot. She grabbed her cell and pushed the button to call Ajax, who picked up on the first ring. “Should we fly down?”
“Yep.”
“See you in a few.”
The line clicked and Tori dropped her phone back in her purse. Glancing in her rearview, she saw that a couple of other cars had followed her off the main road. Weird time of day for the place to be so popular, but it was as likely to be human outdoorsmen as it was to be shifters in those vehicles.
She swung into a parking space and let the engine idle. Tapping her fingers on the wheel, she tried to ignore the nagging need for a smoke. It was easier to ignore now, especially if she kept busy. Maybe the need was fading so quickly because she was a shifter, but the human literature said this intense craving could have gone on for weeks or months. She was hovering right around a week and the need only hit her occasionally. Sometimes having an awesome immune system, advanced senses and a kickass metabolism had serious benefits.
An eagle’s cry brought her focus skyward and she watched Ajax and her eaglets circle in before they landed in a designated spot in the woods where they could shift back to human form and don some clothes before stepping out into the more public lot.
The wind ruffled through Tori’s hair and she sighed. The Smoky Mountains really were a great place to fly. She’d always loved it when she’d visited her mom’s family as a kid. It reminded her a bit of the Rockies, but that wasn’t surprising after five years in the flat desert of Arizona. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed the mountains until she’d come here with Bastian. There was something visceral that called to her when she stepped out onto the porch every morning and saw those peaks soaring in the distance. It felt right. But that was just because she was back in the mountains, not for any other reason.
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