by A. C. Arthur
The chest that looked as if he’d been working out more and buying smaller, tighter T-shirts to show off that fact. She saw me looking at Brayden’s chest and she smiled in triumph. I wanted to slap her but that would seal the whole jealousy thing as tightly as a Ziploc bag. But that would be wrong, I wasn’t jealous of Kyra, not at all. I was suspicious.
“You and your date can join us,” Brayden said, looking around the bar once more—not seeming to really notice Kyra was there and touching him at all.
“No.” I shook my head quickly.
It was past time for us to go, for me to get away from here and all these eerie feelings stalking me. I slipped off the bar stool, reaching for my purse and turning to Daniel. “I changed my mind. I don’t want a drink. Can we go?”
Brayden frowned. Kyra pouted. And Daniel looked confused. My head was spinning even though I hadn’t gotten my drink. I felt like I was on a roller coaster, one where Brayden was in charge of the speed, the ups and downs, and the plummeting in the pit of my stomach. I needed to get away from here and from whatever was causing this unsettled feeling at the base of my spine.
“Yeah, I’d like to sit down, Bray,” I heard Kyra say from behind.
Brayden looked like he wanted to shake her off his arm, but he didn’t. He stood there staring expectantly at me, his eyes widening as if he were trying to tell me something, trying to warn me of something. I had nothing to offer him so I looked to Daniel.
“I mean, I really have a lot of homework to do so it probably isn’t smart to have a drink now and then go home and try to do some work. You understand, right?”
Daniel nodded, but I knew the end half of this date wasn’t working out as well as the beginning. “Yeah, sure.”
I gave him my brightest smile and waved over my shoulder without looking back at Brayden or his arm candy.
“So that was your ex?” Daniel asked when we’d pulled up in front of my dorm.
“What? Oh, no, Brayden’s not my ex. He’s a friend. A really close family friend that tends to act a little overprotective at times. I’m sorry he interrupted,” I said, all the while unbuckling my seat belt and reaching for the door latch so I could get out of the car.
My body was in overdrive, heat soaring throughout my limbs, the feeling of something rolling around beneath my skin, and the scents, they were conflicting and annoying and I really needed to be by myself so I could get it together. Everything had intensified the moment we entered O’Shea’s. Alarm had attempted to penetrate and when Brayden appeared a totally different bout of confusion had erupted.
“Because he seemed like he was kind of mad that we were together, in the bar, and that I was buying you a drink,” Daniel said slowly, like he wanted to make sure I was hearing him.
If he only knew there was nothing wrong with my hearing, or smelling, or sight, or any of my senses. In fact, they were all ranked above average, courtesy of my shifter DNA. That and the heightened sex drive that I swear was starting to beat me over the head like a jackhammer.
“Well, I just don’t want to encroach on someone else’s territory,” he was saying.
His voice was going in and out because there were so many other things running through my mind, like the fact that despite all the other scents in the whole goddamned world, I couldn’t get Brayden’s out of my head. It was a basic scent, if you came from the Gungi like we did. Earthy and manly, fresh and damned enticing.
I jumped when Daniel touched the back of my neck.
“Relax,” he said, leaning over the console, bringing his face closer to mine by way of guiding my neck.
I went with it because this was the end of our date and the Olive Garden had been sweet and nice. I inhaled deeply knowing the infamous good-night kiss was coming and decided it might not be such a bad idea. Maybe if Daniel kissed me the other two kisses I’d had recently would be washed from my memory.
“Right, I’ll just relax,” I whispered against his lips.
My eyes closed because I think I may have threatened them and my lips parted because Daniel’s were parted when they touched them. So the first kiss was moist but a little off, as I didn’t feel any stir of emotion. Daniel held my neck a little tighter and came closer once more. This time his tongue was out for greeting, barging in without an invite. I accepted and waited. I didn’t gag like I wanted and I didn’t push him away because I needed this to get better. I really, really needed kissing Daniel of the nice Olive Garden date, to get better. Please.
It didn’t.
The scent, however, intensified, to the extent I would have sworn that Brayden was in this car with us. He wasn’t, thank God, but still. So I did push Daniel away this time. I shook my head and was about to say something but thought my actions might speak a bit louder. I was out of the car in the next five seconds, running up the front steps of the dorm like a scared kid. Once inside and the security door closed behind me, the cursing began.
I wasn’t a scared kid. I wasn’t a coward. And I damn sure wasn’t a prude. I’d had sex and been kissed before so going on a date and doing the good-night-kiss thing was not new to me. And it shouldn’t have been awkward with a guy I’d met months ago. But it was and I was so pissed I pushed past whoever the girls were standing near the elevators but not stepping inside when the door opened.
I went into my room yanking my jacket off, tossing it on the floor somewhere in the vicinity of the coatrack. Then I plopped onto my bed, stomach first, and when Cora sat up and looked like she was going to say something, I flipped her the finger and dared her to speak one freakin’ word!
CHAPTER 4
Brayden
Kyra straddled me in the truck. The steering wheel was most likely biting into her ass, but she didn’t seem to mind as she pressed her crotch closer to my totally uninterested dick.
“God, I wanted you all night,” she was saying, her hands rubbing down the back of my head then going to her blouse. “Didn’t you want me?”
So, I’m a guy, I breathe in and out, I get up every morning to a hard-on that I have to wish away so I can take a piss. I’m also a Shadow Shifter, which basically means all these male human hormones are magnified by maybe a trillion. All this adds up to me being ready to fuck at the drop of a dime.
Normally.
Tonight, even though Kyra was wearing the shortest skirt ever and no panties and was at this very moment unbuttoning her blouse, showing me her melon-sized tits that all but fell out of her bra, I was barely getting aroused. I mean, I saw what was before me, scented the smell of aroused female, and now that she’d flipped down the front of her bra, saw the blushing pink nipples of her breasts, all receiving a lukewarm reception on my part.
“Yeah, I wanted you too,” I said although the words didn’t actually ring true. The reality was Lidia didn’t want me in her life, at least not in that way. At least not tonight.
She was content with us being friends but nothing more. She wanted a life in the human world while I had my feet firmly planted in the shifter world. Could I have gotten it wrong all along? Could my habit of knowing everything, as my brothers always accused, have been out of context all along? I didn’t believe so and yet, look where I was and who I was with.
“Then kiss me, babe. Kiss me and touch me and make me feel good,” Kyra continued.
Yeah, that’s what I needed to do. I needed to touch, to feel, to forget, and so I did. I cupped her breasts, letting the soft feel of flesh send false signs of contentment to my mind. I leaned forward and kissed her, mainly to keep her from talking again because I was tired of her high-pitched voice. Her tongue did the dance with mine and I tried like hell to keep my eyes closed but they wouldn’t listen to reason.
I opened them to see Kyra’s face, her eyes closed, head moving with the sounds she made as the kiss continued.
“Come on, Bray, I can’t wait. I need you inside me now,” she insisted, taking her mouth away from mine. “I need to finish this.”
I moved a hand down the flat skin of her stoma
ch and farther until it was under her skirt, feeling the moistness of her pussy. She was so ready and hey, what do you know, my guy had decided to at least wake up. So the kiss deepened and one of her hands slipped between us to unzip my pants. This was going to happen. I was going to fuck her right here in the parking lot of O’Shea’s Bar & Grille and dammit I was going to enjoy it. I had to or risk losing my mind over the female I really wanted. So yes, I was doing this, right here and right fucking now, I was doing this with Kyra.
Then I made a mistake.
I inhaled deeply as my tongue scraped along the line of her jaw and dammit, just like that, it was done. I jerked back like Kyra had slapped me instead of running her fingers over the tip of my now freed cock.
“You like that, huh?” she asked playfully. “Well, let me show you what else I can do,” she continued, pulling on my erection, trying to get it into her hot little core as fast as she could. “Let me show you why they sent me.”
My teeth clenched as my hands fastened on her waist. In the next instant I’d lifted her off my lap and set her on the passenger seat. Stunned silence filled the cab of the truck just before the undeniable click of the locks disengaging.
“Not tonight,” I told her without even looking her way, without giving a second thought to the things she’d said.
“What? Are you fucking kidding me? What does that mean, not tonight?”
Her already high-pitched voice elevated another octave, scraping against my temples until I wanted to scream. Instead I adjusted my pants and started the ignition. “Get a ride with one of your friends in the bar. I’m going home.”
“You bastard!” she yelled.
I saw her open-palmed hand coming from my peripheral and caught her wrist just before it made contact with my cheek. “Get. Out. Of. My. Truck. Now!”
Thrusting her arm away from me, I took another initiative and leaned over to open the door for her. “Now!” I reiterated.
“You’re one stupid-ass outsider,” she said on her way out. “I knew I shouldn’t have fucked with you in the first place.”
Such lovely language coming from what was basically a pretty attractive mouth. I could only shake my head. “Yeah, well, that feeling is pretty mutual right about now.”
She was gone seconds later and I pulled out of the parking lot so fast I might have left half the tread from my tires back there. I drove until I ended up outside of Lidia’s dorm. Sitting in my truck I looked up to her window like some love-struck idiot. Slamming my palms on the steering wheel I cursed her and the fucking companheiro calor that I knew was taking over me. I wanted her beyond all reason. I wanted her more than I’d ever wanted to be a Shadow Shifter, and that was more than life itself.
I was so screwed.
I wanted to get out of my truck and go knock on her door. She’d talk to me when we were alone. I’d tell her I loved her and she’d have no choice but to listen to me, to hear me, to believe me.
With a hand on the door handle I was determined to get things on track with me and Lidia before the night was over. Then I saw them. No, I scented them, just as I had back at the bar. Several cars behind me, parked with the headlights turned off, was a black sedan. Inside of it, I couldn’t see anyone, but I knew they were there. Rogues.
The way I was feeling right now, all the tension swirling around inside of me made the cat inside edgy and ready for a fight. If I got out and ran down the street, there would be one, no doubt. But there might also be exposure, danger to humans and/or to Lidia. So I slowly pulled my hand away from the handle, moving it instead to the keys that were still in the ignition. I started my truck and pulled off into the night, watching as they followed me all the way to my apartment building, then sped off once I stepped out of my truck.
Cowards, I thought as I watched their car disappear around a corner. Dirty, disgusting cowards. Then, as I walked up the steps I thought maybe, just maybe, I was like them. A coward when it came to Lidia and to making her mine.
***
“He’s screwing one of the math interns,” I told Lidia the moment she stepped out of her dorm room three days later.
I’d been standing here for almost forty-five minutes but I knew she had a three-thirty class and would have to come out sooner or later. I also knew that knocking on her door and entering the room with two other females to tell her this about the guy she’d been trotting around campus with for the past few days, probably wasn’t going to go over well.
From the frown she was giving me as she adjusted the books in her hand, telling her this way might not have been the best idea either.
“Hello to you too,” she quipped and kept walking.
I followed. “Hello and I’m serious, Lid. I saw them yesterday. He didn’t even have the decency to take her back to his place, just pushed her against the wall in that professor’s office and did her right there.” I’d stepped to the side of the door after first sighting the bastard with the admittedly hot intern. The escapade hadn’t lasted long so I was there when he came out of the room waiting—similarly to what I’d just done with Lidia. What happened next was between dumbass Daniel and me.
“We’re not engaged,” she said, not looking at me and turning sideways to walk between two students coming from the opposite direction.
A few steps later her palm smashed into the elevator button and we stood in the narrow hallway waiting. From a distance somebody was playing Katy Perry’s “Roar” and singing loudly along with it. Two girls ran right past us, lacrosse gear in hand, probably late for practice. And somewhere on this floor someone was smoking marijuana trying to mask the scent with candles. I might have thought that was amusing if I wasn’t more concerned with the female I’d just pissed off.
“Okay, you’re not engaged but you’re telling me that you gave your boyfriend permission to screw another female while you studied in some foreign language class? What’s he going to do while you sit in astrology this afternoon, hit on your roommate maybe?”
She turned to me then, her eyes filled with the anger I’d expected her to show a little sooner. “I’m going to be minding my business while I’m in astrology so I have no idea. Maybe you should take a class instead of going around stalking people.”
I turned so that we were now face-to-face and stuffed my hands into my pockets to keep from touching her. Her face was free and clear of any makeup, except for a light, peach-colored gloss on her lips, just the way I liked it. Her hair was pulled back but had that glossy sheen that had made me want to run my fingers through the thick mass on more than one occasion. Her shorts were denim and damned short, her chest luckily completely covered in a loose-fitting T-shirt that almost touched the hem of the too-short shorts. She looked fresh and pure and sexy as hell all at once and I wanted to get my hands on her as badly as I wanted to get out of this damned college dorm.
“I’m not stalking you,” I replied. “Just trying to protect my little sister. Isn’t that what a big brother is supposed to do?” I finished with a look that I’m sure matched the sarcastic edge of my question.
She glared up at me, then over to the elevator that seemed to ignore the switch that beckoned its service. “I’m not your sister,” she spat, pushing past me.
I almost smiled because what I’d told her about Daniel had upset her. That didn’t sound right, but it was true. I was happy that she was mad at Daniel for screwing the math intern because that meant she would break things off with the idiot and there would be no “boyfriend” excuse the next time I kissed her.
Following her down the hall was a bit of a task because it seemed as if half the tenants of this building were now on this floor and heading to the elevator, even though it probably still wouldn’t come. Up ahead I could see Lidia pushing through the door leading to the stairs. I hurriedly went in the same direction.
“I’m glad to hear that fact,” I said, grabbing her arm to stop her before she took the next set of stairs.
If she had a free hand Lidia would have definitely taken a s
wing at me. Since that would require her dropping the textbooks and spiral notebook she held, she settled for a seething glare.
“You’ve said what you have to say, Brayden. Thank you so much for the information, but I have to get to class now.”
“Are you mad that your boyfriend was cheating or that you didn’t want him in the first place?” I asked her.
“You are so full of yourself, Brayden Sanchez,” was her reply. “Just because I’m not willing to jump into bed with you doesn’t mean I can’t or won’t with someone else. And Daniel is, or rather I thought he was, just as good a guy to be with as any.”
“But you didn’t want to be with him, did you?”
She jerked free of my grasp. “It’s none of your business who I want to be with, Brayden. You don’t see me asking you questions about Kyra.”
I shrugged. “Ask away. Or better yet, I’ll give you all the gory details. She approached me one day outside of Starbucks, I ignored her. I saw her again at O’Shea’s and she was a little more convincing. We had a couple of dates, a few kisses, and lots of free feels, but NO sex. And now it’s done.”
“What do you mean it’s done?” she asked cautiously, but still very much interested.
“I mean, I broke it off with her that night I saw you at O’Shea’s. Do you want to know why?”
“No,” she answered quickly, shaking her head.
Then she took a step as if she were going to go down the next flight of stairs. I walked until I was right behind her, wrapping my hand around her waist and pulling her against my front to keep her still.
“I said I don’t want to know, Brayden. What you do and who you do it with are not my business.”
“But you are my business, Lidia. You and this heat that continues to spread whenever we’re close like this. You know what this means. You know that I want you,” I told her.
She shook her head, but I continued, “And you want me. No matter what you say or do, I know it’s true.”