by A. C. Arthur
Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears as she licked her lips. My heart constricted while my mouth watered. The cat inside roared, ready to stake its claim, while the man wasn’t sure of the next step, wasn’t sure there would be any turning back after he leapt.
“I want this,” she said quickly. “With you, I mean. I want this with you.”
And damn did I want this with her. Only I wasn’t totally sure what “this” was. It could be so many things, all of which would most likely not end well. I should fight this, I had been fighting it. But hell if I could any longer with her looking up at me the way she was, her soft body shifting ever so slightly beneath mine.
“I want this with you,” I replied and pulled my shirt over my head quickly.
When I was completely naked I was over her once more. She lifted her hands, planted her palms against my chest. I couldn’t help it, a growl rumbled in my chest with the heat of her touch. The cat wanted to pounce, to take, while the man wanted to possess.
“Condom,” she said.
I nodded and reached over to my nightstand to retrieve the box of condoms that had never been opened. Shifters didn’t need to practice safe sex, their complex DNA made them immune to most human diseases, sexually transmitted ones being at the top of the list. But part of me was human and so I’d purchased them on the off chance that in this one area my human side would prevail.
She shocked me by sitting up on the bed and reaching for the foil packet I held in my hand. I tore off the top and handed the open packet to her. She took it out and reached for me. My eyes closed and everything around me tilted. I felt dizzy, then, ensconced in heat as she rubbed the latex over my cock. Her fingers were gentle as her thumb rubbed the now-covered tip in exploration. She held me, both hands wrapped around my length, for endless seconds, looking at what she held as if it were the most cherished thing in her world.
My muscles tensed, my temples throbbing as I struggled for control, struggled to hold onto at least a modicum of dignity and refrained from releasing into her hands. The hands that eventually moved up, pressing against the tip of my dick, then down again to the base, once, no twice. On the third round I wanted to roar loud enough to break all the windows in the apartment. I wanted to lift her legs up onto my shoulders and pound into her until the confusion about getting involved with a human, about whether I was a shifter or a human myself, about the rogue that I wanted desperately to kill, was buried deep inside of her.
Instead, I managed a deep, steadying breath. I pushed her back on the bed, being more gentle with her than I’d ever imagined I could be. I did spread her legs wider then, in slow, deliberate motions. I wanted to see her, really see her this time. Her eyes were open wide, glazed with desire as she looked up at me. Her breasts high, pert, and lickable. Running my hands up and down her inner thighs I inhaled deeply, letting the scent of her essence invade my senses.
“You’re beautiful,” I told her. I wanted her to know this above anything else that she might know. “Absolutely beautiful,” I continued.
She trembled beneath me, catching her bottom lip between her teeth. My dick grew harder, teeth clenching tighter.
“Open for me,” I asked, all the while pushing her legs up until the soles of her feet rested on the bed.
When her legs once again fell to the side and I watched her, wanting her, needing her more than I needed to breathe, I knew I was in big trouble.
The moment I cradled the head of my cock against her dripping entrance she whispered my name. It fell like a drape over me and I shivered. Not totally pleased with that action I pressed lightly, stretching her to accommodate me, needing her to accept me, to accept all that was me.
My eyes closed of their own accord as I sank deeper inside of her, loving the constriction, the moistness, the total abandonment that flanked me. She’d stilled for a second and I followed suit, clenching my teeth as I waited, as we waited. When she said my name again, I opened my eyes to see her arms outstretched. Whatever I’d been before, however I’d felt about connections or entanglements or sex that was more than just sex, all of it dissipated as I leaned forward, going into her arms as her legs lifted, wrapping securely around my waist.
I was drowning, I knew it. My head was so deep under water I shouldn’t have been able to breathe. But I could and I could pump, in and out of her until she too was breathless.
With her arms wrapped tightly around my neck Zoe whispered into my ear, “I never wanted to with him. Only with you.”
“Only with you,” I replied without any thought at all. “Only you.”
When my release finally took over I wanted to roar, loud and long, to claim her and to keep her.
CHAPTER 12
Zoe
“What’s your last name?”
He chuckled.
“Is that a funny question?”
“It is when it’s the first thing you ask after finishing what we just finished,” he said.
His fingers were in my hair. I think he liked to rub along my scalp then pull his hands away until the strands ended, only to start the routine all over again. It was soothing because his touch was so light. My cheek was pressed against his chest, his heartbeat an echo in one of my ears.
“Well, after what we just did I think it makes sense that I know your last name. I probably should have known before we did what we did, but there it is.” I felt comfortable enough to joke with him. Actually I felt all floaty like the heroines said in romance books. The pain and soreness my body experienced a little more than six hours ago had vanished and was replaced by a lovely haze of delight. I was smiling against his chest as I thought.
“My name is Caleb Sanchez,” he offered finally.
“And where are you from?”
There was a pause.
“Where’s your family from?”
Another pause.
My fingers flattened on his chest, my cheesy grin slipping slightly. “Either my questions are too hard for you to answer or you really don’t like after-sex chitchat.” I laughed lightly after speaking but a pinch of worry began at the base of my spine. I moved slightly, pressing my body closer to his and hopefully dispelling it before it could spread.
“I was born in Brazil but I’ve never called any one place home. My parents are dead.”
And that was it. He didn’t verbalize that, but the implication hung in the air.
“So you speak Spanish?” was my next question. There was so much I wanted to know about him, so much I wanted to experience with him, but I got the impression taking baby steps would be more successful than the immediate barrage I was used to.
“Portuguese,” he replied.
I nodded. “I think other languages are sexy even though I never learned one.”
“Your school did not teach you another language?”
It was my turn to be quiet, my turn to resist telling him something about my past. “I didn’t go to school a lot during my high school years. My brother and sister needed me to take care of them and my mother, well, she needed someone period. Besides, I never really felt like I belonged there. Those students had much better home lives than I did. I envied what they had and despised what I didn’t, which made it almost impossible to walk up and down the halls with them day after day. So I didn’t. I wrote a note that I was being homeschooled and studied on my own for the last two years, then I took the GED exam and passed. Now I’m working at the bar, saving my tips so I can pay for at least two semesters at the community college up front.”
So much for not wanting to tell him too much. Between his earlier questions and now, Caleb Sanchez knew my entire life’s story. And I only knew his name.
He hugged me closer to him, kissing the top of my head. “Fitting in is not always the best path for everyone.”
So he hadn’t fit in either, that made me feel a little better. I still wanted to know more, wanted to press him until I had a picture of his high school years, his time growing up, and his parents. But Caleb’s breathing evened out
as I thought of things and my eyes grew heavier. I was more comfortable lying here in Caleb’s arms than I’d been in … all my life. I refused to let the unanswered questions in my head interrupt the longing of my heart.
So I tempered the curiosity and accepted the feelings that engulfed me. I enjoyed the guy I was with and the woodsy scent of his body, the softness of his sheets, the dark quiet of his home. And then I slept, deep and solid unlike I’d ever been able to do before. It was glorious and all was absolutely perfect in my world.
***
“Get up!” Caleb whispered into my ear. “Get up, go into the bathroom, and get dressed. Lock the door and do not open it until I come back.”
My hazy mind sifted through the words and I could only manage to respond with a grumble.
The response was answered by a not-so-gentle shake and Caleb’s lips pressed to my ear. “I need you to wake up, now, Zoe. Get into the bathroom and do what I told you. Right now!”
He was whispering but the urgency in his voice was coming through loud and clear. I opened my eyes to see the room around us was still dark, but I was no longer blissfully wrapped in Caleb’s arms. Instead he was kneeling on the bed, his hands cupping my face as he leaned in to talk quietly to me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, knowing instinctively that this was not the norm for new lovers. Waking me with soft heated kisses and asking me to join him in the shower, maybe, but not this.
“I need you to do what I said. Hurry!”
This time instead of waiting for my reply, Caleb pulled away. He lifted my shoulders off the bed until I was sitting up and then thrust clothes in my arms.
“In the bathroom and stay there until I come get you.”
He was off the bed in the next second, moving to where I had no clue because through my sleep-hazed mind and the dark of the room all I could make out was his shadow. He was moving fast and the tense energy of the room buzzed around me. I slipped off the bed, holding my clothes close to my chest and headed in the direction I remembered the bathroom was.
I was at the door when his hands were at my waist, his body pressed into the back of mine, his lips once again at my ear.
“Remember what I told you, Zoe,” he whispered.
“What? Oh, stay in the bathroom until you come get me.”
I could feel his head moving from side to side behind me.
“No,” he said with a quick sigh. “I will always protect you.”
And then he was gone and I slipped into the bathroom, turning the lock as soon as the door was closed behind me. I hurriedly switched on the light and got dressed. Then I was back at the door again, pressing my ear right up against it, waiting to hear something, but not sure what. I should have brought my phone in here with me, should have brought something for a weapon, something I could use if the person that came back to this door wasn’t Caleb.
Heart beating wildly, I waited but heard nothing. Had he thought there was an intruder in his apartment? Was he going out to confront the person? Should I be calling the police instead of standing here wondering what the hell was going on?
The answer to the latter was a resounding yes and I unlocked the door and turned the knob.
Lights were still off and since this was my first night being in this apartment, I wasn’t 100 percent sure of where I was going or what might be in my way to make my presence known. So one hand was braced against the wall, sliding down as I limped slowly for a good ten feet before the wall ended. That would mean I was in the living/dining room area because as I recalled, the apartment only went in one direction. The bathroom and Caleb’s bedroom had been along this wall.
He was in this room. I couldn’t see him but I knew it, I felt it somewhere deep inside of me. It was as if our bodies were somehow connected now that we’d had sex. I reached for him without moving and waited to see if the feeling was reciprocated. What I felt instead was an icy shiver snaking down my spine until my teeth actually chattered.
There was a sound to the left at that moment and I jerked my head in its direction, eyes open wide as if I thought that would make me see better. It didn’t. Another sound, and what happened next would forever be emblazoned in my memory.
Green and gold lights flashed through the darkness. Four circles of light moved so fast if I’d blinked I would surely have missed it. There was another sound like something smacking against a wall and then a horrific roar that felt like it was shaking the entire building.
I jumped back, a trembling hand to my throat as if that were going to help or somehow change whatever was happening around me. There was more thumping and other sounds that just weren’t humanly.
Don’t fuck with me, bitch! This is all your fault!
You heard what the human said.
Dex’s words rang in my ears and I shook my head, hoping to dislodge them somehow. This time the roar was so loud I immediately thought of being in a forest with killer animals and that was enough to get my butt in gear. I racked my brain for a memory of where the lights were in this place and moved fast, but still kind of unsure, trying to find the switch.
The knee of my good leg slammed into a table and I tumbled over it, landing on the floor with—well, what do you know—the lamp beneath me. Pushing the pain to the back of my mind, knowing I’d have to deal with it later, I felt all over the base of the lamp looking for a switch, finally finding one just beneath the bulb. When light flooded the room I rolled onto my back, crab-walking toward what, I had no idea. Wherever I was headed was far, far, away from the two big-ass cats that were across the room, coming up on their hind legs and trading blows with their front paws. It would have seemed like a regular street fight if they didn’t immediately fall back to the floor, the skin of their jaws inching back to reveal teeth sharper than any knife I’d ever seen.
Fear choked me so screaming wasn’t an option. Running wasn’t really a choice either since I’d backed myself into a corner and the only door that would take me out of here was behind the freakin’ cats! Get to the phone! That was another thought I had. In fact, I kind of chastised myself for not doing that in the first place. My cell phone was in Caleb’s bedroom. Caleb, who I did not see.
The fight continued and my eyes were drawn to the two big beasts, one almost completely black and the other golden and spotted. Their teeth were huge, as they bit and lunged for each other. Shaking fingers moved over my face to push back hair that kept falling and blurring my vision. My chest heaved, breath coming out in quick pants. I couldn’t stay here. That was clear. I had no idea what was going on or why it was going on in a city apartment but that wasn’t the priority right now. Staying alive was.
One of the cats broke the only other table Caleb had in this room, glass from a sculpture I’d seen earlier scattered across the floor. My gaze fell to the floor with those broken pieces, then I shook myself free of that trance and noticed that the front door was no longer blocked. The cats were closer to the opposite wall now, actually a little closer to the corner where I’d barricaded myself.
I didn’t think, didn’t hesitate, just moved. Crawling across the floor because it seemed like the safest and less obvious route, I was going as fast as my feet could take me toward the door until I could reach up and finally grab the knob. The door opened, I slipped through, and was immediately in the bright hallway. Turning, I closed the door behind me for fear the cats would follow. They could easily break through a measly wooden door but it didn’t matter, I couldn’t think about that now.
Holding onto the wall I got to my feet and took a step, only to be reminded about the ankle pain.
“Dammit!” I screamed, because I so did not have time for this crap.
I hobbled, or did some combination of limping and running until I was in the bigger part of the hallway, smacking my hand urgently against the elevator buttons, begging, pleading for it to hurry up and come so I could get the hell out of here. When it did I darted inside, falling against the railed wall and quickly pressing the down button. Once the door cl
osed I breathed a little easier, only to let out a choked cry.
Where was Caleb?
And what the hell was that in his apartment?
I didn’t know, and right now I could barely see past the tears clouding my eyes. When the elevator doors opened I took a deep breath and eased out. Crying wasn’t the answer. It wasn’t going to change anything. I had to think.
In seconds I was outside of Caleb’s apartment building, standing in the cool night breeze, one foot flat on the ground the other with only my toes touching the cement. I was leaning to the side, looking up and down the quiet street wondering what my next step would be. There were no cabs in sight and I didn’t have my phone to call … who would I call? Hanna, I thought quickly, I could call Hanna and she would come and get me.
If I had a freakin’ phone to call her with, my mind screamed. My hands were in my hair again as I tried to calm down, tried to think above the thumping of my heart. I was looking but all I could see were parked cars, none driving by, no taxis, and no damned phone booth.
At the end of the street to the left there was a lamppost, its bright light burning my eyes. At the other end were more parked cars, including one raggedy old navy-blue one that looked a lot like … mine! With frantic hope I hobbled down to that car and almost wept with joy to see it was mine. Caleb must have doubled back to the bar to pick it up when he came out to get my stuff. Oh bless him, bless his kind and compassionate heart, wherever he was.
A tear fell onto my cheek and I hurriedly brushed it away as I moved toward the car again. Then I stopped. “Fuck!” I yelled as loud as I could. My purse was still upstairs in Caleb’s apartment. I dropped my head, my chin pressing into my chest as choked sobs wracked through me. I wanted to be optimistic, wanted to act and not react. I wanted to get the hell out of here before those cats came for me, or what if there were more? I just wanted to go, I needed to leave and I couldn’t! I was trapped, goddammit I was trapped here!
My hands shook as memories of hiding in the closet in the dark and feeling confined assaulted me. Mom’s husband had come into my bedroom, it had been his first time in there, the first time he’d planned to … He’d stood over my bed looking down at me, waiting until I opened my eyes. At first I wasn’t going to because I’d heard him come in, I’d seen through the slits of my eyes as his big shadowed body had approached. I’d closed my eyes tight then and figured if I faked sleep he’d leave me alone. But then he stood there and stood there and I knew he wasn’t just going to go away, not until he finished what he’d come for, or I made him go. Those were the only two options. So I opened my eyes and he’d smiled. I wanted to puke.