Gifted - The 5 Book Paranormal Romance Box Set

by Amira Rain

  He kissed me again, then pulled away to look at my face in the dim light. "You have no clue how gorgeous you looked curled up in bed with my shirt...and you also have no clue how gorgeous you look right now, with your petal-pink lips parted like that, waiting for another kiss." He proceeded to give me another kiss, one so tender that it made me curl my toes into the cool tile floor. This kiss led to even more passionate kissing, and soon we were kissing surrounded by steam billowing out from the bathroom, where the shower was still running. After forcing myself to break our kiss, I suggested we get in before all the hot water ran out, and in a husky voice, Cole said that was just fine with him.

  "But first, I think we need to get you out of that t-shirt."

  The pale lavender v-neck was the only thing I was wearing besides a pair of lacy white underwear, which I hoped he was planning to immediately remove as well. With an ache developing low in my stomach, I suddenly couldn't wait to be completely naked and to have him look upon every inch of my bare skin. This somewhat surprised me, because although I liked my body all right, I normally felt a little more self-conscious with men, particularly during the first night we spent together. However, I just wasn't feeling this same self-consciousness with Cole. I just wanted to see what his reaction to my body would be.

  His reaction after lifting my t-shirt above my head and tossing it aside was a deep intake of breath, followed by a long, low growl as he surveyed my nearly-naked form with his glassy eyes glittering in the light coming from the open bathroom door.

  "You're utterly gorgeous, Lauren. Stunning."

  Thoroughly pleased by his reaction, I gave him a little smile, and he moved closer to me, hooked his thumbs in the sides of my lacy underwear, and began slowly pulling them down with his breathing becoming increasingly fast and ragged. Further excited by his response, by the time I stepped out of my underwear, my own breathing was becoming more than a bit fast and ragged.

  Now that I was completely undressed, I wanted him to be as well, and I unbuckled his belt then unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans with my breath hitching in my throat when I saw the outline of his male member, which was clearly sizable. I thought back to the first day that I'd arrived in New Bad Axe, when I'd thought it was possible that Cole might have violated me in my sleep without me being aware, on account of him being incredibly small. Though I hadn't known it at the time, now I could see that this thought had been ludicrous. If Cole had put himself inside of me while I'd been sleeping, I definitely would have been aware.

  Once I'd helped him out of his jeans, I did the same with his boxer-briefs, tossing them aside with my eyes wide as saucers, I was guessing. Thick, long, and appearing to be rock-hard, Cole's manhood was a thing of masculine beauty. I might have even said perfection. From the trimmed dark curls at the base of it, to the wide head, which nearly pointed straight at the ceiling, I didn't think it could be any more perfect if I'd designed it myself.

  With my desire intensifying, I wrapped a hand around the base of it, making Cole shudder, sucking in his breath. He released that breath in a hiss when I began slowly stroking his manhood, which was indeed rock-hard already. I'd heard a few things about shifters having increased sexual appetites and stamina, which I assumed would apply to a sorcerer-shifter hybrid like Cole, too, and now I guessed that shifters were quick to become fully aroused as well. I was starting to think that we weren't going to make it to the shower. However, with seeming reluctance, Cole soon gently unwrapped my fingers from his thick shaft and began leading me toward the billowing steam.

  Once actually in the shower, we immediately began making some steam of our own, kissing while wrapped in embrace with the warm water spraying my back. I hadn't forgotten that I wanted to wash Cole, though, and slide my hands all over his body. So, after breaking our kiss, I pumped a little shampoo into my hands and began washing his hair, reveling in the fact that I was now touching it, wrapping my fingers in it, like I'd wanted to do for weeks. Once I'd worked up a good lather, I traded places with him, moving to the back of the shower so he could rinse.

  Next, I traded places with him again, then filled a palm with body wash, worked up a lather between my palms, and began sliding them across his broad, muscular shoulders and down his arms. He liked the feeling of me washing him, if a low growl rumbling deep in his chest was any indication, but I was sure that I liked it even more. As I used more body wash and ran my hands over different parts of his body, including his tight rear, I became increasingly turned on, to the point that I was nearly panting when I rose from having washed Cole's long, powerful thighs.

  By the time he'd washed my body, fingertips lingering on my stiffened nipples, I was all too ready to get out of the shower and into bed with him. The warm water hadn't yet started to turn cold, though, and it seemed that Cole had a different idea of something he wanted to do rather than get out. Groaning, he pulled me close with one arm and began exploring my slick feminine folds with the other, causing me to make a few noises of my own. And when he located my most sensitive spot and began slowly stroking it, I cried out, gripping his shoulders. A short while later, I had to use his shoulders for support to hold myself up when he began sliding two fingers in and out of my slickness, making me moan. If things went on much longer, I was afraid my legs might threaten to give way beneath me

  Fortunately, the water did start going cold around this time, and Cole shut it off and then quickly toweled both of us dry before picking me up and carrying me out of the bathroom and over to the bed, where he set me down, saying he'd be right back. On my side, I watched while he ducked back into the bathroom, then emerged carrying a bottle of body lotion. After climbing into bed beside me, he flicked on a bedside table lamp and gently rolled me on my stomach, confirming my thinking that I was about to get a massage. Which I wanted, but at the same time, I'd become so eager for lovemaking that any kind of a prolonged massage seemed like it would only be torture. However, once Cole pumped some lotion into his hands and then began running them along my back and shoulders, I found that maybe a little bit of torture would be okay.

  Feeling as if I were melting beneath Cole's strong hands and his firm yet gentle touch, I rested the side of my face on the pillow, sighing. Soon I was lost in a world of sensual pleasure, just as turned on as I'd been while he'd been stroking me in the shower, if not more so.

  He massaged the back of my body, from the nape of my neck all the way down to my feet, lingering on my thighs and rear along the way, before flipping me over to start on my front. During this part of the massage, his hands lingered on my lower stomach, and our eyes briefly met. Neither of us said anything, but somehow I just knew he was thinking the same thought that I was, which was how strange and wonderful and beautiful it was that I was carrying his child.

  When he'd nearly finished massaging my front, my need finally became so urgent that I could hardly take it anymore and I couldn't hold back in expressing it.

  "I need you, Cole. I can't wait any longer. I just want you to make love to me right now. Please."

  Seeming all too eager to comply with my request, he tossed the bottle of lotion to the side and moved to position his body on top of mine, gently parting my legs with his knee, which was such a small thing, but somehow almost unbearable erotic to me. The rate of my breathing increased, then increased a little further still when I felt Cole's very sizable erection pressing against my most sensitive spot.

  With his own breathing even faster than it had been earlier, he spoke in an incredibly husky voice while looking deeply into my eyes. "I've been waiting for you...and this...for so long."

  I couldn't even respond, could only pant, and he moved a hand to position the head of his granite-hard member at my slick entrance, making me whimper in anticipation. When he slid into my depths with one slow, powerful thrust, burying himself fully, I cried out, grinding my head back in the pillow.

  "Yes. God, yes."

  My speech became a bit unintelligible when Cole began thrusting slowly with deep guttural gr
unts, pulling his thick shaft out almost completely before thrusting back into me inch by rock-hard inch. Wanting to increase my pleasure even further, I reached a hand between my legs and began stroking myself, an action that seemed to intensify Cole's pleasure as well, or at least his urgency, because he soon increased the pace of his thrusting a bit, groaning softly every so often.

  It wasn't long before everything else in the world, except the two of us, seemed to cease to exist. All that was left was our ragged breathing, and our warm, undulating bodies, and our pleasure. Periodically, I looked into Cole's pale gray eyes, which were glinting gold in warm light from the bedside table lamp.

  After a while, he rolled onto his back, pulling me on top of him without sliding out of me, and I moaned in pleasure at the new sensation of the position change. Straddling Cole's slim hips, I placed my hands on his hard, muscular chest and began moving my hips in a roughly circular motion, which was a way I'd never moved before, and I didn't know how the idea had come to me, but the movement felt so incredibly good that I felt like I might want to spend a long while doing it. However, it soon felt so good that I could feel an orgasm beginning to build deep inside of me, and I changed my movement to a more usual riding style, sliding up and down Cole's long pole with rapid bounces, taking him deeper and deeper into my depths. He also seemed to be quickly approaching a climax and soon gripped my hips, meeting my movements with borderline-rough upward thrusts, which made me moan, throwing my head back.

  When my moans became a near-continuous prolonged sound, Cole abruptly but gently rolled me onto my back and hiked my legs up on his shoulders in one swift motion, barely even pausing before resuming his deep, powerful thrusting. And now, with my current positioning making me feel fully pinned beneath Cole, beneath his power and his strength, causing me to experience the most intense pleasure I had yet, I was officially past the point of no return. In less than a minute, a funny sort of quiet and stillness came over me, and I closed my eyes just briefly, sighing, before opening them again with a cry. Hips bucking to meet Cole's every thrust, I ground my head back into the pillow, seeing stars as Cole buried his hard pole in my depths the deepest he had yet, groaning with his own powerful climax. Just when my pleasure seemed to be beginning to ebb, I felt him spill his masculine essence, which had the effect of causing another wave of strong muscle contractions deep inside of me, this wave even more intense than the first.

  When our passion finally came to an end, not only could I not speak even if I'd wanted to, I could barely even form coherent thoughts. Releasing my legs and rolling off me, Cole pulled me into his arms and just held me with his breathing slowing along with mine. With a hand on his chest, I soon felt his heartbeat begin to decelerate. Neither of us spoke for a while. With my eyes closed, I just reveled in the feel of being wrapped in the strength and safety of Cole's arms. It was a feeling I was pretty sure I'd be able to get used to, maybe even indefinitely. Maybe for the rest of my life. He apparently enjoyed the feeling of holding me, too, slowly running a hand up and down my back periodically, and stroking my hair with the other.

  I'd almost fallen asleep some minutes later when I realized I hadn't yet asked him how his trip had went. So, after opening my eyes and finding him still awake, I asked him just that. "Were you able to find Bennett and make him understand why you killed Dominic?"

  Cole breathed a faint sigh with his eyes becoming troubled. "No, unfortunately. He bolted Northwoods long before I arrived, and he took at least a dozen of his fellow Angels with him, as well as a dozen shifters, all wolves. My men and I tracked them all around the Angel-controlled part of the state for days...but eventually, we just completely lost them. I suspect they might have crossed the Straits of Mackinac, and are now somewhere in the upper peninsula."

  "And do you think they're going to stay there?"

  Cole snorted quietly. "Not a chance. Although Bennett has been warned by his leader not to try to seek revenge on me, I think Bennett is planning something. In fact, I'm almost sure of it. I think he might hide out for a while, rest up, and regroup with the fighters who are apparently loyal to him, for whatever reason. Then, I expect an attack here in New Bad Axe. It won't be much of one, though. With my men outnumbering his four-to-one, we should be able to easily turn them away from the village before they're able to do any damage. I'll kill every last one of them if I have to, in order to keep everyone here safe...particularly you and our baby."

  Our baby. The words settled somewhere deep in my heart, causing a welling of emotion that manifested in a little moisture rising to my eyes.

  Looking deeply into Cole's eyes, I repeated what he'd said. "Our baby."

  With his full mouth curving, he brushed a tender kiss against my lips. "Our baby."

  I soon fell asleep in his arms, smiling.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Several weeks passed. Cole and I made love nearly every night, and sometimes in the mornings and afternoons, too. My feelings of connection with him began to feel a lot more like feelings of love. I continued to feel pregnant, developing even more symptoms, like increasing nausea at different times throughout the day, tender breasts, frequent bouts of exhaustion, and a strong aversion to different smells. My period was also still absent. Despite not having actually taken a test yet, I told Mary-Alice, Cassie, and Ella that I was pregnant, and instead of expressing surprise, all three of them just smiled knowingly, exchanging glances, before congratulating me.

  Cassie said that they'd suspected that I was with child one day when she'd brought in some freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies while the four of us were setting up the lending library, and the smell of them had struck me as so nauseatingly sickly sweet that I'd had to go home and lie down for a while, telling them that I was just feeling funny lately. I'd taken the incident much like a clearly positive pregnancy test, because I normally loved chocolate chip cookies, as well as their sweet, chocolaty scent. However, these days, nearly all sweet scents made me feel ill. Savory smells and the smell of roasting meat, however, made me absolutely voracious.

  I no longer cared at all how I'd become pregnant. I was too happy to care. Part of me felt like I'd be fine if I never found out. And one night, while in Cole's arms after a marathon lovemaking session, I felt the need to tell him this.

  "I want you to know that I don't even care how you got me pregnant. I'm just happy with you, and I just want to stay happy with you. I feel like we have some kind of a connection, on a physical level and a heart level, too, that I've never felt with another man before. And I think...." I paused, contemplating whether or not I should say my next words but deciding to anyway. "I think I want a very long-term future with you, Cole. I think I love you."

  Clearly pleased, he kissed me with his full mouth curving in a sexy half-grin before pulling away to look into my eyes. "You've made me the happiest man alive by saying those words. I love you, too, and I want nothing more than a very long-term future with you. With you and our child."

  Heart soaring, I kissed him, feeling like the happiest woman alive.

  ***

  A few more weeks passed, and Dominic and his Angels and shifters didn't make an appearance. Cole said he thought they still might, but that no matter if and when they did, he and his men would be ready for them. I believed Cole completely, believed in his strength and believed that he would always keep me and our unborn child safe.

  Hot and humid, June turned into July, and about halfway through the month, he was called away during dinner to deal with some situation at Beth's house. When he returned an hour later, he said that Beth's husband, an Angel named Steven, had been abusing her yet again. Clark had been walking by, had heard screams coming from inside the house, and had broken in to find Steven straddling Beth on the couch, pummeling her face with his fists. He'd already been put in the New Bad Axe jail, which was essentially a large steel box that not even a sorcerer could break out of, three times; so when Cole arrived on the scene, he gave him his choice. Either leave the village voluntarily right aw
ay, within the hour, never to return, or know that if he committed abuse again, he would be made to fight Cole and would surely die. Steven, apparently a bit smarter than Dominic had been, chose to leave, saying that he'd been thinking about joining an Angel group near Traverse City anyway. He wasn't allowed to take Beth with him.

  The following day, curiously, or maybe not, Beth, wearing sunglasses that didn't quite cover her two black eyes, joined Cassie, Ella, and me at the vegetable garden, muttering a hello to us all before picking up a trowel, now talking to herself as usual. I thought her muttered hello was huge progress, though. She'd never before directly addressed a single word to anyone. She also hardly ever looked anyone in the eye, but a couple of times that day, I was pretty sure she did, even appearing to crack the tiniest of smiles for a moment when Cassie made a joke about something. Near the end of our gardening session, I saw Beth pick a daisy from a cluster near the garden and tuck it into the rubber band holding her short salt-and-pepper-colored ponytail, humming.

  The following day, I awoke late in the morning, long after Cole had left with the other wolf shifters in the village to run patrol. After showering, I began getting dressed in front of a tall, oak-framed mirror in Cole's bedroom, which we now referred to as our bedroom. Once I'd put on my bra and underwear, I paused, suddenly catching sight of myself in the mirror and suddenly realizing something. I had a baby bump. Just the smallest beginnings of one, but there it was. I was actually starting to show. This shouldn't have come as a great surprise since I was nearly three months along by this point and had gained three pounds, but for some reason it still did surprise me. Running a hand over the little bump while surveying my reflection in the mirror, I marveled over the fact that I was really, actually going to become a mother. I felt like the reality of that had hit me weeks earlier, but now it was hitting me in some different way. My baby was actually growing. My baby and Cole's.