by Anthology
“Can I help?”
“Nah. It doesn’t take two to add wood to a fire. Be back in a few.”
When he came back into the room, he smelled faintly of wood smoke and pine. She inhaled deeply and let the familiar comforting scent—one that reminded her of home—lull her into a sense of peace.
He climbed into bed and she automatically turned toward the warmth of his body. Arms came around her and she instinctively nuzzled his chest, inhaling the natural clean scent of his skin. The man was everywhere—the pillow she rested her head on, the sheet over her body, the linen beneath her.
And it was the most heavenly thing she’d ever smelled in her life. It was something she wanted to pull inside of herself. Roll around in. Drown in.
Kotara sucked in a deep breath.
And then another.
“Uh, Kotara?” Blue said.
“Hmmm…?” Kotara rubbed her cheek against his pectoral muscle. She giggled when the muscle jumped, so she did it again.
“You’re making some seriously sexy sounds. I only have so much self-control.”
Another deep inhale. God, he smelled so good. Fingers joined the foray across his bare skin, then she remembered her manners.
“Do I have your permission to touch you, Blue? I can’t seem to help myself, but I’ll stop if you want me to.”
“Stop? Hell no, don’t stop.” His words were deep, growly, and almost guttural. Kotara lifted her gaze to his face and saw that his midnight blue eyes were closed tight and his jaw was clamped as if he were trying to keep still.
Still sliding her jaw back and forth across his pectorals, she added a hand to the play and traipsed her nails across his stomach. The muscles rippled and he grunted as if she’d just punched him in the gut. The more she played with him, the stiffer he got.
Was he afraid that she might show her claws? No, that wasn’t it. No fear rolled off of him. This was something else. Something he was trying to compartmentalize and keep hidden. Whatever it was held a hint of delicious darkness.
There was only one way to find out what it was.
“What’s wrong, Blue? You’re stiff as a board. And don’t lie because I’ve been picking up your emotions all damn day long and I believe I’ll be able to tell if you’re less than truthful.” She hoped.
“I…” And then he went quiet, eerily still. The man needed a minute and honestly, so did Kotara. She had a feeling why the urge to rub all over this man was so strong, but she didn’t have any proof. So she wouldn’t go there. Not yet, anyway.
Finally, Blue spoke. “This is going to sound totally cliché, but I feel absolutely drawn to you. It’s not something I expected when I dug you out of the snow.”
Tell me about it.
“I’m human. I don’t even know if this is supposed to happen or how I’m supposed to feel. My only experience with shifters has been less than wonderful.”
She looked up at him again and said, “Until now?”
His bold gaze met hers. “Yes. Until now.”
“Blue, I’m as drawn to you as you are to me. I’m just going on instinct here, which isn’t something I typically allow myself when I’m on a mission, but I can’t seem to help it, which kind of pisses me off. But at the same time, I like it because it’s been a long time since I’ve been drawn to, let alone touched a man. Any man.”
Blue’s burst of pride lit up her insides, so Kotara decided to share a bit more.
“I’m not just a S.W.A.T. agent, by the way. I’m also a doctor. A scientist, to be exact.”
“I know. I looked you up while you were sleeping last night.”
“Looked me up while…” She paused and thought on it. “You got out of bed without my noticing last night?”
“Yep. No surprise. I got up this morning without you noticing as well. You were sleeping deeply and I made sure to leave you that way. You needed it to heal.”
True, but still, it was rare that she slept so deeply as not to hear someone moving around in whatever space she was sleeping in. Even at home, with all the superior sound-proofing on the rooms and such, she could still sense when someone was two floors down, walking through the wide hallways of the giant log chalet-styled mansion she called home.
Kotara was sure that snoring while Blue moved freely around had more to do with feeling safe, than anything else.
“So, tell me why you’re holding yourself all stiff. If we’re drawn to each other, do you really care that I’m not fully human?” she asked and forced herself not to hold her breath as she waited for an answer.
It didn’t matter that she was a self-made millionaire, ran businesses with her family, and was a bad ass hunter. Kotara didn’t care whether this was a biological reaction or not—something about Blue pulled at her insides. And in spite of her independent nature, it would hurt if he rejected her because of how she’d been born.
In the end, she wanted him. Period.
“No, I don’t care if you’re not fully human, Kotara. I know you’re physically strong, even if you are still healing. But I don’t want to hurt you, physically or in any other way.”
“So kiss me instead.”
With a hungry groan, Blue eased his fingers into the hair at her nape. It seemed as if time slowed down as his mouth eased towards hers. By the time their lips touched, she was so ready for it that her body trembled.
It was a gentle meeting of mouths, yet Kotara felt Blue’s restraint. He nipped and nibbled and teased until she grabbed his sexy bald head and said, “Let go. Please.”
Blue shuddered and let out a shaky exhale.
Next was a blur of movement and she found herself on her back with an aroused Harrison Blue taking her mouth with a need that rivaled her own.
Dear God, it was hot. He was hot.
Fingers sank into her hair, positioned her head the way he wanted. Licked at her mouth. Moaned against her neck. Suckled the spot right below her ear. Devoured her mouth as if she were his favorite taffy.
“Mmmm, I like that,” she whispered. “I think I could get addicted to kissing you.”
“Yeah? Then have a little more.”
And she did. She kissed him until she was needy and writhing and wet and wanton.
He broke the delicious contact and rolled her over as he sucked in breath after breath.
“Hey, what gives?” she snapped, wanting her new favorite toy back where it had been moments ago—namely him on top of her, kissing the wind out of her sails.
“Nap time,” he said. “You need it.” Oooh, he oozed alpha from his very pores, and it tripped her not-often-flipped submissive switch.
“Are you seriously telling me what to do right now, Blue?”
“I am. Nap.”
Well, shit.
Kotara found herself rolling over with a huff, and then sighed at the markedly stiff cock pressed against the crease of her butt. “I’m never going to get to sleep with your erection teasing me from behind.”
“I’m not even going to tell you what your words made me think just now. I’m supposed to be behaving.”
“I thought I was the one who is supposed to be behaving,” she shot back, but the chuckle in her voice tipped her hand that she was trying, unsuccessfully, to be mad.
“Fine. Lay back and let me check your wounds.” He was clinical in his removal of her bandages, followed by poking and prodding. “These are almost completely healed. I don’t even think you’ll have a scar.
“So does that mean we can play a bit more?”
“Come here, woman.” He gathered her into his arms and kissed her on the top of her head. When she grumbled, he said, “Count sheep or something.”
“Fine,” she said. “One. Two…”
She made it to seven.
* * *
Blue still felt Kotara’s kiss clear down to his toes. In fact, it curled those toes. The dark side of him clawed to get out. The need rode him hard to mark and bite, not in anger or rage, but in pure, unadulterated lust. He wanted to wrap his hand in her
hair and pull her head back to expose her neck. To run his nails down her back, over her perfect ass and down the back of her thighs with just enough force to sting but not break the skin.
He wanted to make her his. And it made no sense whatsoever to need a woman with such blinding intensity from out of nowhere.
Blue’s natural dominance was something he typically kept leashed, but this thing with his little S.W.A.T. agent was…primal. Some women were afraid of a man who enjoyed things hard and rough. He had a feeling Kotara wasn’t one of those women, but he couldn’t be sure.
Could he?
She was sound asleep now. He should get up and go do something, anything other than lie here with his arms wrapped around her.
The heat of her skin scalded his bare chest, even through her t-shirt. It was as if he’d become attuned to her from moment one. It was downright unsettling given he hadn’t had this connection to anyone, patient or fellow soldier, in all his years as a doctor.
Yep, he should definitely get up.
But he needed to hold her for just a few more minutes. Why couldn’t he let himself have this, even if just for a little while?
“Because you’re damaged goods, and you know it,” he whispered to himself, so as not to wake Kotara. Then a voice sounded in his head.
Damaged? Says who? And who made the rule that you don’t deserve love, or that you aren’t allowed to have it?
How many times had he been told that after returning stateside? How many times had he sat and meditated on loving himself, healing the damage to his psyche from war? Focused on what he wanted, rather than what he didn’t want in hopes of attracting it into his life? Maybe those post-combat counseling sessions had done him some good after all because he sure had a piece of perfection right here, right now.
Nose buried in her soft, natural curls, Blue did something he hadn’t done in the middle of the day for as long as he could remember—he fell asleep. And his dreams were of a beautiful, tawny-eyed beauty who offered herself to him with utter and complete trust. And when he hesitated in taking her, she took him instead.
6
When Kotara awoke, not only was she fully healed, but she found herself sprawled across the chest of a snoring Blue. Two reasons to be ridiculously happy. She giggled at how her whole body rose and fell with each one of his deep breaths. He really was a magnificent specimen of a human male—stocky with a wide chest, serious guns for biceps and, if the growing ridge beneath her stomach was any indication, an impressive package.
“I can’t believe I slept so long in the middle of the day.”
The words rumbled beneath her ear as he came awake with an almost lion-like yawn. Maybe he was a shif… Nah. Impossible. If he was a shifter, he wouldn’t have been so shocked at discovering one in town during that whole murdering incident.
Blue sat up and took her with him. “Get dressed.”
She stretched and yawned. “No wanna.”
“It should be illegal to be so cute.”
“Cute? I’m a three-hundred-plus pound lioness with three-inch canines, and you’re calling me cute?”
“Absolutely. Especially when you snore.”
“I do not snore!” All she could do was shake her head. The man was adorable in a pain-in-the-ass kind of way. “So, where to?”
“To get whatever vehicle you drove to get here. Leave it too long this time of year and the next time you head to the other side of the mountain, you might not be able to find it.”
“It snows that much up here?”
“First avalanche advisory was early November. It’ll be Christmas soon and it just gets nastier. Hey, what’s wrong?”
At the mention of Christmas, she’d crumpled in on herself as sadness flared through her heart. Kotara hadn’t meant to let her emotions get the best of her but the holiday season was fully upon them, and there was no ignoring the fact that she was the only one without a mate now. And she was away from home to boot.
Her entire immediate family was mated. Neesia and Jason. Niah and Lou. Koreas and Austin, who was a human. Even Austin’s brother, Aaron James, was mated to a lovely jaguar named Reya.
Sigh.
The sizzling chemistry between Blue and herself, it didn’t mean he was her mate any more than he was Santa Claus…unless Santa was ridiculously hot, loved bacon, and had a wicked sense of humor. He might just be her very own jolly Saint Nick.
Her chuckle drew Blue’s eye.
“How do you go from giving me the stink eye for nudging you to get up, to as sad as sad can be, to laughing? And all without a word?”
“I’m a scientist. We’re quirky like that.”
Except when it came to other people’s mating. In the case of her sister’s brush with the dreaded, yet anticipated mating heat, Kotara had convinced her bone-headed twin that Austin James, a human, was indeed hers for the taking. In that case, she hadn’t needed scientific evidence. The signs had all been there, not to mention Kory and Austin’s insane attraction for one another.
And the pheromones that made the entire household instantly horny.
Nope. Can’t forget the blasted pheromones.
But in her own case, nothing less than proof would do. She’d rather keep her expectations to nil than convince herself that Blue was hers, only to learn later that he really wasn’t.
And where the hell was Koreas with the results of her blood test, anyway? Oh yeah, blackmail—her results in exchange for a bit of Blue’s blood. Kotara thought proudly that her sister could sure be a real piece of work.
The sensation of fingers traipsing up her arm pulled her out of her current train of thought. Blue. God, his touch was electric. It was damn ridiculous the way he made her feel with no effort. She looked up into his midnight blue gaze and was snared. There was no other way to describe it.
“So, may I kiss you again?” he asked.
She swallowed. The image of a cartoon character gulping in surprise with big googly eyes filled her head. All Kotara could do was nod as anticipation bloomed deep in her belly.
As she sat on the edge of Blue’s bed, the man knelt in front of her. Suddenly she was falling—into his kiss. Into his caress. Into what felt like the very center of the man himself.
He moved into her personal space and she inhaled deeply, letting his scent settle into her lungs. As the body moved air into the blood through the little sacs in the lungs, Blue seemed to slide right into her bloodstream. The more he touched her, tasted her, the more he filled her senses.
And then his lips were pressed to hers. Kotara readily opened to him and reveled in his taste on her tongue. Blue’s fingers sank into the thick curls at the nape of her neck at the same time he deepened the contact. Fingers tightened and then pulled—he seemed to do that each time their lips met…and she liked it.
In between kisses, he rubbed his face along hers.
And Kotara was snared in that moment. Heat gathered low in her belly and radiated into her sex. At this rate, she sped towards arousal until she was damp with need in no time flat. She wanted Blue. Wanted him inside of her, joining with her in sating the most basic of needs.
She opened her mouth to ask him for what she needed. To demand that he strip her naked and have his delicious way with her. Just as she began to form the words, a little piece of Blue took up residence in the smallest part of her head, just out of reach. She was so stunned, she froze.
“You okay? I wasn’t too rough with that kiss, was I?”
“Oh God no.” She was breathless, stirred and needy. He looked as shaken as she was. Backing off, he was across the room, moving with a speed that made no sense for a human.
Her mouth fell open. “Blue, are you a shifter?”
He looked over his shoulder with genuine perplexion. “Me? No. I’d never heard of shifters until that whole man-turned-wolf, post-evisceration thing.”
Interesting.
Dressed for the weather, they were out the door ten minutes later.
Blue navigated the ice and snow c
overed terrain expertly on a snow mobile made for two. Considering he was single, Kotara found herself wondering who he’d been thinking of when he’d purchased the thing. For all she knew, the man had a girlfriend somewhere. Just as the thought cleared her brain, his head swiveled her way and he pinned her with a glare.
“What?” she asked, a bit alarmed.
But he only shook his head and said, “Nothing. I think I’m just tired…or nuts.” But he wouldn’t say another word.
Banishing the thoughts from her mind, she took in the land around her as they moved through trees, over trails, up hills and over dales. This was some seriously pretty country…but it wasn’t home.
No matter how much she felt like the oddball out, family was everything. And she had to admit that the thought was driven home every time she left on a hunt for S.W.A.T. or a business trip for Pryde Industries. And even now, as she sat next to a man who rang her bell, she still missed home.
“What’s wrong?” Blue asked, engaging the audio system in the helmets they wore.
She tapped the side of her headgear to engage the mic and lied through her teeth. “Nothing. I’m fine. Just a little tired is all. I’m all healed now, but I’m just now getting enough energy to pull it off.”
“It takes energy to shift?” he asked.
“Yep. Quite a bit of it, actually.”
“Is that why you eat so much?” She tried to poke him in the ribs through his thick ski jacket and smiled when he laughed at her.
“Give me the skinny on shifter stuff. So far, you’ve avoided every question I’ve asked you.”
“Have not,” she protested, but knew she’d done exactly that.
“So, biting? Not biting? Turning? Full moon crazy stuff? What?”
She was laughing, genuinely cracking up.
“Uh, dude, this is nothing like the movies, okay?”
“I happen to like the movies. Well, most of the time. Can’t blame a guy for being curious given my limited experience with your kind.”
Her eyebrows crashed together at the words “your kind”.
“Wait, that didn’t come out right. What I meant to say was that the only shifter I’ve ever met scared the shit out of me and claimed another shifter killed a long-time member of the local community here.”