by M. L. Briers
“Faith?” He snapped off the water and pushed open the door to the cubicle, reaching for a towel and fisting it as he padded towards the bedroom.
“Look, I know you’re going to be…” Faith’s brain stopped working the moment that her mate came into view.
Mick’s hard, wet body sent her blood rushing through her ears, her eyes drank him in, and her heart raced inside of her. That was even before her palms got sweaty, her stomach took a rollercoaster ride, and her womb did a happy jig.
“Like what you see?” Mick’s deep tones said his beast was still near the surface.
“A lot,” Faith rushed out on a chuckle.
She didn’t bother to drag her eyes back up to his – the man had all of his goodies on offer, and she was window shopping.
Mick watched her with interest. Then he lifted the towel he had fisted in his hand and used it to dry his hair. Her eyes never made it past his waist.
“Wanna mate?” he teased, and she could hear that teasing quality in his voice, but she still couldn’t get her eyes to move up his hard body.
“Tempting…” she gave a sing-song answer that made him chuckle.
That deep rumble of laughter tempted her too. Everything about the man tempted her.
“You just have to say yes, sweetheart,” Mick teased some more.
“Such a little…” Faith paused, and Mick’s face dropped, and so did his eyes, as he stared down at his long, hard length and frowned. “Word.” She added with a wicked grin that made him growl when he flicked his eyes up and caught it on her face.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Mick said.
“I didn’t know it was a pop quiz,” Faith shot back. “Didn’t know I needed to.”
“Well, I’m not in this alone, sweetheart,” Mick reminded her.
“Do you do that a lot?” Faith’s gaze suddenly flicked up to his, and she saw him wince like he was confused, but he looked like he was considering the question.
“Ok, I’ll bite…”
“Not yet you won’t.”
“Do what a lot?”
“You know,” she shrugged. “The… in it alone thing,” she tossed back. “Do you have hairy palms?”
“Wanna come find out?” Mick growled, just a little, just enough to pique her interest, and he saw her eyes flare.
“What you and your hand get up to is of no concern to me,” Faith shot back.
“It is since you’re my mate,” Mick reminded her, and she winced.
“You had to go bring that old chestnut up,” she grinned.
“Answer the question, Faith,” Mick took a step, and she gave him a quick sideways glance.
“I’m not very good at multitasking, and right now my brain is kind of busy,” she shrugged.
“Answer the damn question, Faith,” he growled a little longer, a little deeper, and took another step, then another.
“Busy-busy,” she grinned.
“Don’t make me take matters into my own hands, witch,” he teased, taking another couple of steps and closing the distance between them.
Faith’s heart was at full speed ahead. Her eyes were alive with fire and mischief, and he thought that he could see some passion there, some desire, maybe more than just some.
“And what big… hands you have,” Faith offered back with a small wicked chuckle that sounded so damn dirty to his ears that his cock twitched hard, and her eyes shot downwards once more.
“Answer the question,” Mick growled.
“Someday.”
“Someday you’ll answer?”
“Someday I’ll mate with you,” Faith said, but as she snapped her gaze back up to his, he reached out with one thick, muscled arm, wrapped it around her waist, and yanked her against the length of him.
“Not good enough,” Mick said, then he brought his lips down on hers, and every rational thought that had remained in her head took flight.
~
~
~
Jeannie reached into the bottom drawer and pulled out a sweatshirt. When she grabbed it by the shoulders and held it up to inspect it, she had to wonder just how many times she could fit inside of it.
“While I have no problem at all with you stealing my clothes,” Jason’s deep tones echoed around the room and made her jump in place. She whipped a look around towards him, and the not-so-subtle grin on his lips gave her the urge to zap him. “Maybe you should borrow something from Leslie’s wardrobe.”
“Leslie isn’t here,” Jeannie said, and Jason shrugged.
“She won’t mind.”
“I’ll wait and ask,” Jeannie said, lifting her foot and nudging the drawer closed.
“But stealing from me is fine?” Jason teased, narrowing his eyes and giving her a curious look.
“You want the sweatshirt?” she held it out to him.
“I’m hot stuff,” he said as he gave her a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows and she snorted.
“Blow your own trumpet, why don’t you?” she snorted.
“Well if my mate wants to do it for me,” he took a step inside the room, and it was her turn to narrow her eyes on him.
“Get a life,” Jeannie shot back.
“That’s what I’m trying to do. A mate, family, pups of our own, any of this sounding familiar to you?”
He offered her the kind of grin that she imagined made the other girl's panties drop, but she wasn’t any girl – no, she was his mate, damn it. If her panties dropped then, they stayed down, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to be walking around panty-less.
“Just another everyday horror story,” she whispered back.
“I’m sorry, have you met… me?” he gave her another sexy grin, and she tried not to look, but it was just so damn difficult.
“I’ve had the misfortune.”
“I’m Mr. Wonderful.”
“Says who?” Jeannie demanded, placing her hands on her hips with his sweatshirt still bunched in her fist.
“You, once we’re mated.”
“Ha-bloody-ha-ha,” she shot back with a small sneer.
“You have to admit,” He motioned up and down his body. “This is good.”
“I do not,” Jeannie snorted her contempt for him.
“Nooo?” He grinned again, and she managed to inspect the spot that still stood between them on the carpet.
Jason ducked his head down and looked up at her. His eyes were dark, but they were full of amusement, and she pressed her lips together and tried not to smile.
“Nothing?” He asked, and she rolled her eyes closed. “Not even a smidge?”
“Ok, fine, sure, it’s good…” she tossed him a bone and damned herself in the process as she opened her eyes, lifted her head, and found him right there looking back at her.
“I knew you liked me,” he offered.
“Don’t push it,” she bit back, still trying not to smile.
“Little push, little pull never hurt anyone?”
“Says you.”
“Yeah, says me.”
Jason reached up with one hand and cupped her cheek. He’d thought that she was going to pull away, but instead, when his fingers touched her skin, she turned into that feeling, that connection between them.
“One kiss, then you can tell me to go to hell,” Jason promised.
“I think one kiss would make me not want to tell you to go to hell,” she offered back.
“That’s what I’m hoping,” Jason said, closing the small distance between them, waiting for her to zap him, or knee him, or step back, step away… but she didn’t move, and he took that as a good sign.
“Let’s pause for thought,” she said, slapping the palm of her hand against his nose and halting him in his tracks.
“Ouch,” Jason lied.
“Serves you right, speedy,” she chuckled.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
~
Mick had tasted Faith’s lips, but he wanted more. His beast was riled within him, demanding that they claim her, and not o
nly because there was some big bear shifter on pack land that had said he was her boyfriend.
Damn, boyfriend.
Once he’d had the thought, then he couldn’t seem to shake it from his mind. His body might have been full steam ahead, and he slapped his hands against her backside and lifted her body up his, putting her back against the nearest wall and feeling her hot covered sex against his naked hard length, but that one word kept dinging around his mind.
Boyfriend.
“Faith…” Mick broke from her lips and looked down into her dazed and confused eyed.
“What?” she hissed, eager to start again where they had left off.
“Wait, just…” he growled.
“Wait?” she yanked her head back on her neck and hit the back of her head against the wall. “Now you wanna play coy?”
“No, hell no!” he growled out. That was the last thing on earth that he wanted, and yet he couldn’t seem to shake the need to know.
“Then, hello?” Faith eyed him like he’d grown another head.
“Your boyfriend,” Mick growled.
He felt torn between the urge to mate her or go and dance on the bear shifter’s grave. Do a jig. Make it a celebration to remember.
“What about you?”
“Not me-boyfriend – him-boyfriend,” he growled. “That damn bear.”
“Remy?” Faith chuckled.
“Not funny, not even close,” Mick growled harder.
“And they say bears are bad mood…”
“Not the right time,” Mick growled.
“Too soon?”
“Oh yeah!”
“Ok, look,” Faith slapped her hands down on his shoulders and tried to resist the urge to squeeze those muscles, she didn’t win the fight, and her fingers curled into them.
“Go on,” he urged.
“Right,” she said, distracted by his damn muscles. “I’m going to go and get you a tampon…”
“Faith,” he bit out, annoyed.
“Tissue? Lipstick?” she grinned.
“Seriously not funny.”
“Not even a little bit?” she babied him.
“The bear,” Mick growled.
“Is downstairs probably shitting in the woods as we speak,” said teased and he groaned. “Now, you can waste your time going out there and picking up in whichever round it was of the fight, or you can mate with me.”
“I…” his eyes roamed around the area.
“You’re thinking about it?” Faith hissed.
“Nope,” he shook his head, but she could still see it in his eyes. He was considering it alright.
“Wow, no words,” she bit out. “Put me down.”
“W-hat?” Mick didn’t like that idea.
“Go on, put me down and go beat the poor guy…”
“Poor guy?” Mick growled back, doing as she asked and gently easing her down to her feet.
“He is not now, nor has he ever been my damn boyfriend,” Faith bit out.
“Well, why didn’t you just say that then?” Mick grumbled back.
“I did, at the woods, but you obviously weren’t listening.”
“Was too.”
“Was not.”
“Yes, I was.”
“Then you didn’t believe your own mate,” Faith tossed back, with a victory arch to her eyebrows, and Mick squinted at her.
“That was a trick,” he grumbled.
“I refuse to answer on the grounds that it…”
Mick brought his lips down on hers and silenced her. She had to admit; it was the best way that anyone had ever shut her up before.
Six foot four of solid hard muscle and Faith had the urge to climb back up his body and wrap herself around him. His tongue tasted like toothpaste, and his body smelled like soap, still wet from his shower, and as naked as she needed him to be.
Faith’s hands were already exploring his muscles, and his hands were roaming, but it felt as if he was holding himself back. She didn’t want that.
She wanted to know the passion that he had for her. The passion that rolled through him like the heady, hungry growl that she could feel within his chest as her breasts were crushed against it and her taut nipples felt the vibrations that echoed from his body to hers.
Faith ran her hands down his back, over the curve over his backside, and cupped a hard cheek in each hand – then she squeezed as she pressed her body as close as she could get to his. The growl that she got in return sent a shockwave of excitement through her.
Mick snatched her up from the floor, and she was right back where she wanted to be with her legs wrapped around his hips and her sex pressed against the hard length of his cock, and her back to the wall.
She dug her fingernails into his backside, and his head snatched back from hers.
“Don’t tease me, Faith…” Mick growled out the warning.
Mine…
“I don’t tease, Mick. When I want something I say I want it,” Faith sounded breathless, even to her own ears.
“Then say it,” Mick gave a hungry growl. Man and beast in complete agreement about wanting her more than life itself.
Faith didn’t move an inch, even though she had an urge to rock her hips against his cock. She knew what he needed to hear.
“Mine…”
“You bet your ass I am,” Mick growled back with the kind of devastatingly handsome smile that made her heart flop and her womb beg for mercy.
“Show me,” Faith said, bringing her lips just a breath away from his.
“You sure you can handle my wild side, witch?” Mick’s grin turned wolfish, and her womb kicked her in the backside.
“Let’s find out,” she challenged him with her eyes and her tone, and Mick’s beast went wild within him.
He claimed her lips like a starving man feasted at a banquet. There was no tempting, no teasing, just an all-out assault that left her mind spinning and her body begging for more.
Mick had a need to bury his cock deep and take her for the ride of her life, but she was his mate, and this was his claiming. He needed to love her right until he couldn’t hold back that wildness a moment longer.
There was one thing he couldn’t control – the need to have her naked. His hips held her in place against the wall, and his hands fisted her shirt and ripped it clean down the middle. Faith snatched her lips from his on a chuckle of disbelief.
“This is your sister’s shirt,” she giggled.
“I’ll buy her one in every color,” Mick growled out with the kind of wolfish grin that made her not give a damn if he set the damn house on fire around them. She wanted him.
Mine…
Like Mick needed his beast to state their claim. Faith was his, and he was going to have her, all of her, know every inch before he let her back out of his bedroom.
He’d love her right and love her long, but right then, he needed to lick her from head to toe, and everything in between was his for the loving.
Faith gave a little squeal as he spun her away from the wall and stalked with her still wrapped around his him towards the bed. The damn bed had never looked so good to him before.
His knee dug into the mattress, and he took her beneath him, right where he needed her to be. He was a man on a mission, and that mission was to know her.
He kissed her hard and ripped the clothes from her body, stripping her naked and reveling in the skin on skin contact. His hands caught her wrists, and he pushed them down against the mattress as he started a detailed devouring of her body.
Faith might have wriggled and mewed for something different, but a mate had needs, and his need was to touch every part of her. He turned her on the bed and learned the curve of her back with his tongue.
His blunt teeth nipped the rounded cheeks of her backside, and when he flipped her onto her back again – there he was, between her open thighs, more than ready to devour her sex.
Faith wasn’t expecting what came next. Sure, he might have started with one long, slow lick of her sex,
but then he devoured her in a way that sent her wild with desire and need, and she got as close to insanity as she’d ever wanted to be.
In truth, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to rip his head from his neck and berate him, or just wave the white flag and let him love her over and over again. Not that she had much choice. Not with those big hands holding her hips right where he wanted her as he feasted against her.
By the time that she’d decided to rip his damn tongue out of his head and toss it back at him – he was climbing over her body on his hands and knees. His black eyes were locked and loaded on her – every muscle moved under his skin, and the growl matched the predator that she knew him to be.
He was fired with the need to have her around his cock, and when her gaze flicked down his muscled body to the thick, hard length that hung low away from his flat stomach – it was as if she’d reached out and touched it.
When Faith lifted her hands to reach for him, he caught her wrists and pushed them up over her head. If she touched him then he might break, go wild, and he wasn’t ready for that, and neither was she.
“Someone’s dominance gene is pushing to the front,” Faith gave him a wicked grin that made his cock even hungrier for her.
“I don’t wanna hurt you, sweetheart,” Mick growled.
He needed to know that her body could handle what he had to give before he thrust to the damn hilt and hurt her in a way that he couldn’t take back.
“You were made for me, Mick. I don’t think fate would have messed up that part,” she beamed him a mischievous smile that lit her eyes with wickedness and made him hungrier than hell for her.
“Let’s not test that theory,” Mick growled.
His cock was already pushing against her hot wet channel, and her body welcomed him inside.
Tightness sheathed his hard length from the satin walls of her channel, and she deliberately squeezed her inner muscles around his cock, driving him to the point where he wanted to thrust home.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
~
“Damn it, Faith, behave…”
“You want me to change my nature?”
“I want you to let me off the hook here, not drive me wild until I make sure…” she thrust her hips upwards and took his cock as deep as she could.