She smiled, and squeezed his hand back. He was right. How many times had she promised herself that she would begin to live her own life and follow her own dreams?
Aiden pulled up into the yard. There was no driveway, just grass and pebbles. And those darned ivy vines were growing everywhere.
“This is where you live?”
“For now,” he said.
The first thing she noticed about the old ranch style home was the porch—and the man moving around on it. “There’s a man standing on your porch.”
“His name is Blake. I told him to meet me here.” He parked the truck and then came around to help her down. “He’s a very good friend of mine, and my cousin.”
Before she could open her mouth to inquire any further, Blake came to join them. He and Aiden exchanged some sort of handshake and a nod.
“Miss Keira Ellis,” Blake said, and held out his hand. His voice was a deep smooth baritone. “My name is Blake.”
He could only have received her name from a couple sources. The newspapers or Aiden Price himself. It dawned on her that while she was sleeping last night or early this morning, Aiden had been busy. But what was more important: the job protecting her or the relics they’d found back at the estate?
“Nice to meet you, Blake.” Kiera accepted his hand, surprised at the firm squeeze he gave.
“Where’s your truck?” Aiden asked.
“I came by foot.” They locked gazes again. “It was the most discreet way.”
She noted the same myriad of colors in Blake’s eyes that she’d first seen in Aiden’s. He was equally built, if not bulkier, and nearly a head taller than Aiden. Blake examined her with the same fire in his gaze as Aiden, but it felt different. It was more of a warning look. Yet, he was attractive, and everything about him screamed proceed with caution. Had she met either Aiden or Blake maybe five years earlier, she would have turned and ran for dear life. In every way, they fit the descriptions and mannerisms of the bachelors in her hometown she’d avoided like the plague to save herself from a broken heart.
But just like the waitress back at the diner, she was captivated by Aiden. She’d lost her sanity somewhere along the way allowing Aiden to touch her body in the most intimate of places. And she didn’t even know what he was…only that he called her mate.
“You…um, you don’t look alike,” she mumbled her thoughts aloud before she could stop herself.
Blake laughed. It was a friendly laugh that put her at ease just a bit. “Aside from the fact that I look better…much better…I was also adopted. We were raised like brothers, yet I was faster, smarter, better in bed, and as you can see, the darker one.”
Blake’s skin tone was a smooth brown, almost like a latte. It reminded her of her father’s complexion, but Blake’s skin was more youthful, flawless, with muscles that rippled beneath.
She looked back and forth from Blake to Aiden. The men exuded an unnatural amount of sexual appeal. It was almost unsettling, and made her uncomfortable as the only woman alone with two men in their prime. “I didn’t mean it that way. You both look…handsome.”
Blake’s lips spread into a slow smile as he exchanged knowing looks with Aiden.
Oh, God. Keira’s face grew heated when she realized her mistake.
Aiden punched Blake playfully in the gut. “Mine.”
“Doesn’t look that way.” Blake punched him back in the shoulder.
They scuffled a bit like only brothers would. She’d never had a sibling, but while she was growing up, she’d always wondering how much fun it would be to have someone around her that she could talk to about anything.
Her embarrassment subsided as she watched them, appreciating this side of Aiden. More than half of the time, he was always serious. His cousin, Blake, seemed to bring out a softer side in Aiden she hadn’t noticed before.
Blake must have caught him one good time, because Aiden grabbed at his side and held up his other palm. “Enough.” He gave Blake a death stare. It took seconds for Keira to realize that despite his rapid recovery in the van the night before, he was still very much in pain from the bullet wounds at his side.
Blake’s expression turned quickly, becoming just as deadly as Aiden’s “I need fucking names. Three on one? They resorted to some dirty tactics.”
They. Blake spoke as if he knew exactly who’d attacked them.
“Enough for now.” Aiden took her hand and led her toward the house. “We’ve been on the road a while. We both need food and a little rest.”
Blake held out his hand as they passed. “Keys?”
Aiden threw him a set of keys and Blake caught it mid-air.
“By the way,” Blake yelled out from behind them. “Happy retirement.”
“It has definitely been an adventure so far.”
Chapter Ten
Keira had just exited the bath adjoining the bedroom when she heard the front door of the ranch open and then close. After dinner, both men had gone outside each with a beer in hand. She’d learned that they hadn’t seen each other in months, so she figured they had some catching up to do. She took a shower to soothe her and pass the time, but the questions continued to spiral through her head.
She presumed Blake had left as the home was silent except for the sounds of Aiden moving about the den area.
Pulling her damp hair up on top of her head, she secured it with bobby pins. After grabbing a novel from her suitcase, she curled up on the large chair next to the window. A lamp sitting on a shelf was already turned on, but the glow from the full moon provided just enough light for reading.
Dinner had comprised of delivered pizza. They both swore up and down that they were lousy cooks. She had every reason to believe them after discovering boxes and boxes of corn flakes in his pantry and not much else.
Aiden and Blake were different. Not like others. There was no doubt about that. Perhaps it was premonition or just plain superstition. They avoided the conversation she’d been eager for them to have. The one they’d probably had outside while she was in the shower and out of earshot. What did they really know about these relics? What connections did they have to the Ellis’ and the men who nearly killed them?
The name Devin had come up throughout the conversation. They spoke highly of him, but not much at all about who he actually was. In just a few days, they planned to visit this man, and apparently, he knew more about the relics found back at the estate than they did. Other than that bit of information, the men had remained reserved.
Aiden shuffled around in the den for a while longer, and then his footsteps were more noticeable as he neared the bedroom. When he came inside the room and closed the door, she pretended to be engrossed in her novel.
“You can still walk away right now,” he said so softly that if she had been preoccupied with reading, she probably wouldn’t have caught it. “I would lead you somewhere safe, but I wanted you to know that it’s still an option.”
It wasn’t the option she planned to choose.
She closed the book, set it aside, and looked up. “For hours we’ve been dancing around the truth, or rather you’ve been holding it from me. How am to trust you if you can’t give me the information I need to make the right decision? I am tempted to walk away, Aiden, but it won’t be because I’ve given up. It will be because I no longer trust you.”
Aiden tore his gaze away from her, bowing his head. In that moment, she knew she had struck a chord. He was withholding from her, and he was embarrassed because of it.
“If I knew who you were before…” His voice trailed off and he ran his fingers through his hair. “I wasn’t prepared for this.”
“How would you have prepared for this?” she asked.
He was silent, biting at his bottom lip and contemplating his answer. After a while, she figured nothing could have prepared him.
Aiden came to stand next to her and leaned against the window frame. “Where do you want me to start?”
“Start from the beginning.”
“The beginning of what?”
“Start with yourself.” She locked gazes with him, her heart beating wildly in anticipation. “What are you?”
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “My name is Aiden Marshal Price. I am a bodyguard. Have been all my life. My biological parents are Marshal and Annette Price. Their union was unusual, so to speak, and thus my mother’s family didn’t approve of Marshal. When I was born, they placed me in the care of my uncle, Connell, who raised me with his adopted son, Blake. I am Caedmon. The spirit runs through me from my mother’s bloodline. I am man. I am wolf. And I shift between the two.”
Blood pounded in her ears as his declaration echoed in her head. He was wolf? “What?”
“Think back to the night I was shot. What did you see?”
“You…you healed quickly. You should have been dead.” She shook her head. “And your teeth are different. They were longer. How can you be both an animal and a man?”
“We are different from homo sapiens and canis lupis because of the powers and heightened abilities that we possess. These gifts are passed down only through the Caedmon bloodline. There is a second branch of us known as Other. They are humans with the same abilities, just condensed. And they cannot shape shift.”
“Shape shift?”
“Take the form of both man and wolf at will.”
“So, you’re an animal?” she asked.
“Yes. On the night in the van, had I not allowed my wolf to take over I probably would have died from the blood loss. It is forbidden to reveal our true form or powers to humans.”
“Is that why you couldn’t go to the hospital?”
He nodded. “While unconscious, I can’t really control what my body does. The human doctors wouldn’t have understood. So, if I was going to live, I had to regenerate.”
She remembered seeing all the blood on the floor of the van where the bullets had fallen out. “How do you regenerate?”
“My powers are strongest while in wolf form, and the wolf wanted to ensure swift recovery and minimal pain.” He ground his teeth, as if recalling the discomfort. “We were in a great deal of pain, but I didn’t want to scare you. Luckily, the extent of the injury didn’t require me to shift entirely. The wolf and I battle for complete dominance, but we both know that in order to protect our specie we must live among the humans and primarily in that form.”
It all sounded like something from the history or science channel. Some secret society or cult whose existence had just been discovered. “Your existence is a secret to all humans then?”
“Over the decades, there have been instances where we’ve revealed ourselves only to humans we trust. Our specie is undocumented, but we aren’t entirely a secret to your government. We’re not publicly known and we do not wish to be.”
She uncurled her legs and joined him near the window. He stiffened when she touched his face, then his posture relaxed again when she moved closer. “Does it hurt?”
“Does what hurt?”
“When you shift…doesn’t everything…change?”
“The first dozen or so times, it does, but then your body gets used to it.”
“You have to embrace the change,” she said, remembering what he’d told her in the van.
He smiled. “Yes. It’s integral to the growing process.”
Keira picked up his hand and placed it on her waist. She wanted him to touch her again. Whenever he was near, she felt complete. “Why do you call me your mate?”
Aiden closed his eyes, and visibly swallowed. “Because I can smell you, Keira. You awaken the urges of my wolf like no other has done before. The moment I walked in that room I knew you belonged to me.”
“Is heightened sense of smell one of your powers?”
“Not so much a power, but an ability. In some of us, these abilities are more potent than in others. I can trace my lineage all the way back to the first Caedmon wolf, and in my family we’ve always been effective at guarding what is dear to us. For hundreds of years, we were bodyguards to whomever held the position of Alpha at the time.”
“Is that why you chose this profession?”
“It chose me. This is what I do the best. My ability to detect danger and fear more efficiently than others through sense of smell is the same ability that told me you were my mate.”
“Could you be making a mistake about me?”
“It’s not often that we know instantly, but I make no mistake when it comes to this. There are other ways to confirm.”
“Like?”
Aiden arched an eyebrow at her. “Somehow I knew you would want to know.”
“So, tell me.”
“There are things a mate can do, that no one else will ever be able to duplicate.” He lifted her hand and placed it under his shirt against his torso. “Healing is one of them.”
She could feel the indentations made by the bullets.
“If you wanted to, you could have healed me instantly. One touch and the will to save me was all it would have taken.”
“What you imply is impossible.” She shook her head. “I don’t have powers like you.”
“You have to believe and truly want it for it to work. In every successfully pairing, mates have the ability to heal each other. Just like back at the hotel…I can soothe whatever is ailing you better than any medicine can.”
Heat flashed through her as the memories of his fingers working quickly over her pussy overtook her.
He pressed into her and slid his lips along her jawline. “I can’t keep my hands off you, Keira.”
“You really do want me as you mate?” she asked.
“You are my mate. And yes, I want you in a million ways.”
“I don’t know how to please you,” she said.
Their lips met, and she tasted him. He smelled of pine, oak, and hickory trees after a rain storm.
“You please me already, just the mere sight of you. Once I saw you that day sitting in the window smelling of ripe peaches, my dick became hard as a rock. I could have claimed you right there. Then you walked about half-clad in your flimsy dress showing me around the property. All I could think about was the many ways I wanted to take your pussy and ass. Mine.” He growled against her shoulder and kneaded her backside with both hands. “I want to devour you and fuck you repeatedly. There are no terms to explain how much I desire you.”
Her chest heaved against his and she blushed as his naughty words resounded around them. She’d never heard anything like it. No man had ever talked to her this way.
And she loved it.
She palmed his erection, dropping her head back as he sucked at the vein on her neck. He was massive against her hand. She wanted to know what he felt like in the flesh. “Your dick is as hard as a rock right now.”
He lifted the ends of her dress, and pressed hot palms against the globes of her ass. “You aren’t prepared for what I’m about to deliver.”
Keira sucked in her breath when his finger brushed against the edge of her panties. She ached there, and she needed him to make the pain go away. “I could have never prepared myself for this.”
“I’m not like others…” His voice trailed off, and he began to pull back.
“Show me why you’re not like others.” Keira didn’t want to talk…she was tired of talking. She grabbed his waistband, yanked him back against her, and unzipped his jeans.
His dick twitched when her fingers brushed against it.
He caught her wrist, stopping her. His gaze swirled with animalistic passion. “Don’t start a fire without intentions of putting it out.”
“I didn’t start it. You did.”
Aiden picked her up, catching her off guard and rushed her over to the bed. He threw her out on it, covered her body with his, and then crushed his lips to hers. She kissed him back, sliding her palms under his shirt. His back was firm, yet she felt more grooves in the skin…evidence of scarring. She wondered what happened and wished she’d been there to heal him.
&
nbsp; As he took her mouth again and again, his hands rode up her thighs and her dress was bunched at her waist. His lips roamed over her face and the underside of her jaw. He paid particular attention to her jugular, swiping his tongue across the vein on her neck.
Hooking his fingers into her straps, he pulled them down revealing her breasts to his inspection. “Perfect.” He bent lower and sucked a nipple between his lips, sampling her at first and then laving her aggressively.
The small of her back arched high off the bed, pushing more of her flesh to his mouth. Aiden tortured her, tugging her nipples until they were taut and aching. Shards of ecstasy flashed through her body and her pussy clenched in avid need. Her body was shaking, as he coaxed her near orgasm.
Near wasn’t enough. She needed more.
He left her briefly to rid himself of his shirt, then lifted her dress over her head and tossed them both on the floor. His gaze swept over her body sending heat blazing across her skin. A thin trail of dark hair started at his navel and disappeared down into his waistline. The thick girth of his rod pressed against the front of jeans begging to be completely free.
His irises gleamed a rainbow of colors, almost like a disco ball. He picked up one of her legs and slid his cheek against, then pressed kisses to her ankles. Every inch of her was sensitive to his touch, and by the devilish grin on his face, he was enjoying every minute of it.
“Your skin is so beautiful, Keira. Every inch of it.” He slid her panties off effortlessly and spread her thighs wide. “Your pussy even smells like peaches.” His lips moved against her legs when she spoke. “So pretty and ripe.”
She bit her lip when he slid his palms under her ass and pulled her closer. “Aiden, I—”
Aiden licked her pussy beginning at the bottom of her nether lips and then zeroed in on her clit. He lashed his tongue across the little bundle of nerves, pushing her toward the brink of ecstasy. Her clit throbbed with each tantalizing pull.
Aiden plunged his tongue deep into her. Unable to control her scream, she cried out. He devoured her, fucking her with his tongue and sucking on her clit. He lapped at her sensitive petals, holding her open with his fingers. Just the sound of him sipping and slurping on her juices had her pussy clenching in need ready to have something big and solid inside.
Wolf's Desire Page 8