by Leela Ash
Was that the little thank you she gave every man after he’d serviced her with his body and strength?, a warm compliment, just like a pat on the head for a faithful Rottweiler.
Disgust roiled through him and with a savage curse, he yanked his penis from her entrance and rose to his feet in one fluid motion.
“Thanks for bringing the food by, Marissa. Now I have a meeting to catch.”
She sat up slowly, her face a picture of anguish and surprise. “What- What do you mean Luke?”
He glared down at her. “I have somewhere else to be. You’ve got to go.”
She blinked and just like that, the heartbreaking sadness was back in her luminous eyes.
Why did he suddenly feel as though he’d just kicked a puppy?
Then she climbed to her full height, her gaze locked on his as she said, “I need to know what exactly you have against me. We need to talk and here you are, acting like a wolf with a sore paw.”
“It’s bear with a sore paw,” he corrected automatically, wondering even as he did so why the inane was so important all of a sudden.
“Well, the furs don’t fit,” she bit back, blithely unaware of how silly they both sounded.
She was stark naked and glorious in her nakedness with her slim supple body, waist so tiny he could span it with one hand, perfectly rounded hips, hourglass figure, legs so long they evoked naughty fantasies and round, perky boobs.
She was feminine perfection in the flesh and in spite of himself, he felt his traitorous dick rise again and point straight at her in insatiable hunger.
He swore furiously, “Listen, I don’t know if you’re also a witch or just a shifter, but I’ve had my fill of whatever spell you cast on me. Been there, done that, not interested anymore. Get out of my life, Marissa, and stay out.”
Marissa blanched, turning so white he almost thought she was going to faint. Then she licked paper-white lips and whispered, “Listen Luke, none of us envisioned what just happened, especially not with so many issues unresolved between us. But we need to talk about what happened between us all those years ago—”
With an animal sound deep in his throat, he grabbed her upper arm and yanked her forward, pulling her soft body flush against his. The impact plastered her breasts all over his chest and cut off her flow of words; but this time he felt no desire, just rage. He was vibrating with anger so intense that his gold-colored eyes seemed to be shooting golden fire straight at her.
“On the contrary, there’s nothing to talk about,” he bit out with such cold savagery that she flinched.
“Luke—”
“You’re exactly what you were eight years ago Marissa, convenient and nothing more.”
The words hit her like a slap and she blanched further, her eyes going very wide in her already pale face. Luke dropped her hand as though it burned and took two quick steps back as he yanked on his shirt, anger in every movement.
He need not have bothered; she had already recoiled from him emotionally so much that it was a wonder she hadn’t physically teleported a mile away.
Marissa watched him for a moment, incredulity stamped onto her delicate features. Then, with her face white and set, she turned around, snatched up her jeans, and tugged them on. Then she put on her bra and draped the torn shirt over her front like a shawl, leaving her back bare.
She was gone in a second, walking out with her head high, without so much as another sound.
As soon as she cleared the front door, Luke sank onto the nearest chair, his entire frame shaking with violence as silent sobs wracked his body. He wept for himself and for all he had lost. He wept for Marissa because all the love she could ever have wanted was hers for the taking yet she had tossed it aside for a tawdry affair. He wept for his abilities: being a shifter was the single greatest thing in his life and yet it was the very thing that had driven Marissa away from him and into the arms of a human man all those years ago.
6.
“There’s a lot going on in Weirna, and I’m getting worried,” Joshua announced as he strode into the kitchen his tall frame lithe and sinewy.
Four of his sons looked up at him pausing midway in their breakfast; only Luke continued to shift his food around on his plate without a glance in his direction. Joshua’s heart swelled with love as he looked at all five of them. They were all stubborn and independent, and he wouldn’t have it any other way because he had raised them and that’s exactly the way he was too. He loved them as though they were his very own blood. He had grown to love his new daughters too, he thought glancing at where Kelly and Jeanine were between them fussing over Tom, Kelly’s little son.
Kelly had come home from the hospital with her arm in a sling to support her sore shoulder and Jeanine wasn’t feeling good, due to the pregnancy and her sadness over her grandmother’s passing. Or at least she had been sad until Tom had taken it upon himself to keep them both occupied and entertained with his antics.
Megan, on the other hand, was healthy as a horse and suffering almost no ill effects from her pregnancy, to his joy.
Joshua looked at Derek, “You and your brothers were going to clean up the town. How’s that going? You need to speed things up. Some humans have been falling ill from pollution. I think Nabradia’s poison is the culprit.”
“Nabradia’s poison?” Jeanine demanded, looking up from trying in vain to coax Tom into eating the bit of broccoli she’d been waving underneath his nose.
“She used Natura Poison to turn all the witches at that conference into mice. The effect of that powder is still making humans ill, even though Luke already cleaned it all up. We need to clean that hall again and beautify the town while we’re at it.”
Luke sighed. The workload just kept piling up. At this rate he would be stuck in Never-Never land until his dotage. The events of yesterday just made him want to leave town even faster.
He shut his eyes and once more Marissa was standing in front of him, her naked breasts jutting proudly and pointing right at him, her hips curved in stunning perfection and her waist cinched so tight, as though it was held in place with a girdle. He groaned, trying to will away the image.
She had deceived him all those years ago and betrayed him in the worst way possible and yet his stupid body didn’t know when to quit. One whiff of her and he was like a bull on steroids with a red flag waving in its face.
He shoved his cowboy hat back onto his head and pushed his plate away, giving up all pretense of eating.
Another image of her lying underneath him as she writhed in the throes of passion, flashed in his mind’s eyes and he groaned helplessly, “Marissa.”
Deathly silence fell around the table; it was so total and absolute that an ant’s sneeze would have been magnified to high decibels.
Luke froze. What had he just done?
He looked up, hoping no one had heard him groan Marissa’s name like a man in the grip of longing. No such luck. Everyone, including Tom, was staring right at him.
“Marissa? What about her, son?” Joshua demanded.
Derek’s eyes were knowing as he looked back at Luke steadily. Luke shifted uncomfortably searching his mind for a response for Joshua.
Sudden inspiration struck and he looked up, “Marissa has an eye for beauty. I mean I’ve heard Jeanine say that a lot. Maybe she could help with beautifying the town or something.”
“That’s an amazing idea,” Jeanine breathed. “Marissa does have a great sense of style and she knows the Angle well. She’s been here for years; all her life really. She would be brilliant.”
Jeanine was human which probably explained why she still had a hard time calling the town Weirna like her shifter husband and his family did. It was ‘The Angle’ to humans and that was the name she’d gotten used to years ago.
Jeanine looked so happy at being able to help that she positively blushed when Bo regarded her with an impressed look in his black eyes. Luke wasn’t impressed; he could have cheerfully strangled the minx. But it wasn’t really her fault though,
he admitted to himself. She hadn’t known he was prevaricating.
Bo looked from Luke to Jeanine with a grin in his eyes. His eyes flashed to Luke’s face again, speculation clear in them and Luke could almost hear his thoughts.
Suddenly he was humiliatingly reminded of the fact that Bo had the ability to hear thoughts. Of course, he must have heard Luke’s thoughts and decided to be mischievous.
Luke glared at him in warning and Bo’s grin widened.
Blithely, Bo turned his back on Luke and aimed the force of his gaze on Joshua, “I think Marissa would be a great help to Luke. If you talk to her, she would be happy to work closely with him to help go to town—”
Luke choked on a drink of water he’d just had and water spewed all over his lap as he jerked his head around to stare in disbelief at Bo.
“—and check out the things that need to be repaired,” Bo finished innocently.
Strained silence reigned for a second and Luke could almost see the wheels turning in Joshua’s head as he tried to figure out if he was missing something.
“Bo is absolutely right,” Drake chipped in. “Luke and Marissa would have no problem whatsoever coupling.”
“Coupling?” Luke roared.
Drake adopted an innocent expression, “Yeah, you know? Working together?”
Jack swallowed a shout of laughter, scrubbed a hand along his jaw and replied, “Yes Luke, Marissa will be a sound choice. Go for it.”
Luke rose to his feet, slammed his glass onto the tabletop and growled, “This fuck’s got to stop!”
“Fuck. He said fuck,” Kelly whispered sotto voce, picking up the gauntlet with a wide grin on her pretty face.
Did they know he had made love to Marissa right here in the house? How had they known? Bo? He looked at Bo suspiciously but his brother was busy leaning over Jeanine and trying to feed her a bite of cauliflower rice.
Luke glared at his family, his jaw clenched with anger as he enunciated, “The subject of Marissa is closed to every one of you, do you hear me? I don’t know what the hell is going on, but it isn’t funny,” he finished with a roar of rage.
Stunned silence fell all over the room for a heartbeat.
Then Joshua’s authoritative voice sliced through the air, “Luke? Why are you so worked up? Marissa’s an excellent choice.”
Luke ground his teeth, reading the genuine puzzlement on Joshua’s face. The old man had no inkling of his past with Marissa, but his foolish brothers did and they thought it was funny to tease him about it. Well, he wasn’t amused. Luke knew why Joshua was puzzled too. Luke had always been known as the peacemaker in the family but lately he had become anything but. Ever since he had set eyes on Marissa in Jeanine’s room the other day, he’d become testy and on edge; practically spoiling for a fight every minute.
“I’m sure she is,” Luke grated, now trying to keep his expression blank as he looked at Joshua. “But Drake and I are good.”
“No, we’re not,” Drake countered. “A woman’s touch is just the ticket,” he added with an insouciant chuckle.
Luke muttered a few choice expletives and then spun on his heel, so incensed that he stalked from the room and headed straight out to the driveway.
He badly needed to get rid of his nervous energy and anger right now because it was crackling all around him like a low-banked fire threatening to burst into a volcano. He felt restless in his own skin.
He was furious beyond words and only one person could get such a reaction out of him: Marissa, or the very mention of her name. He didn’t want to think about her but it seemed he could do nothing else.
His gaze cut to his car with his painting easel in the backseat. He needed to paint something, he decided. Painting was the one thing guaranteed to calm him down and take his mind off Marissa. All he had to do was become absorbed in the colors and he would be fine.
He drove towards the one destination where he was sure of some peace and quiet. The Coyana Waters was a mystical waterfall between the land of the Weirna Shifters and the now empty land that had been occupied by the Salem Witches.
He reached the Coyana Waters but instead of stopping on the highway, he drove right up through a little dirt road that cut through the forest. When the sparkling waterfall loomed ahead, he parked at the edge of the trees and sat for a few minutes letting the beautiful sight before him calm him.
After a few minutes, Luke alit from his truck, grabbed the easel from the backseat and looked around for a place to set it up. He would paint the cascading body of water as well as the rushing river formed underneath it, he decided. Childhood memories intruded as he set up his easel. He and his brothers had loved coming here for a vigorous swim after school and they had kept it up every afternoon, until Joshua had laid down the law that they were never to come here without his supervision. Looking back now, he realized how foolish they had been swimming so close to the Salem Witches’ dwellings when Nabradia had been Joshua’s sworn enemy.
He still couldn’t believe the witch had shot Kelly. Thankfully she was mending now, but every time he remembered that look of pure anguish he’d seen in Derek’s eyes in that split second when everyone thought Kelly had been shot dead, he wanted to skin Nabradia alive with his bare hands.
Luke set up his easel and picked up his paintbrushes. He wanted bold, jarring colors, he decided. He couldn’t paint the waterfall after all; it was too peaceful and wouldn’t do any justice to the raging turmoil inside his heart.
He splashed red, yellow, green, and black ink onto the easel on impulse and began to stroke furiously with his brush creating asymmetrical lines, his trained eyes watching as they coalesced in stark beauty.
He spied a flash of movement out the corner of his eye and he jerked around, towards the rushing stream. He saw nothing, so he relaxed. It might have been his imagination or just a small animal.
He turned his attention back to the easel. Something swam past again in the water with dizzying speed and Luke abandoned his easel and walked towards the water, his forehead in a frown. What could that have been?
His senses were heightened and focused on the water. To the casual observer, he was just staring into the sparkling water in the early morning sun. But Luke’s shifter side was already growling inside of him, his senses narrowing and ready for any attack.
Suddenly something burst from the water in a high showy arch like an exotic, fictional mermaid. His heart froze in his chest as the long, streaming blond hair, pale grey eyes and laughing abandon registered.
Recognition flashed and he stared in surprise at the one person he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about; the one person he didn’t want to see, dammit.
Marissa.
Her eyes were shut in apparent bliss as she stood poised like a water nymph, letting the water sluice down her face and body. Her cheeks were flushed with happiness and her perfect body glistened in the light of the rising sun. Luke watched in torture as beads of water chased themselves down her perfect, up-tilted breasts down to her smooth, flat stomach, generous curvy hips and the clean-shaven juncture of her thighs.
His eyes glinted as they flashed over her naked form capturing the memory and taking a mental snapshot. He’d never seen her look more beautiful.
Just then her eyes opened and she saw him for the first time. Shock flitted across her features and she jumped a little before she quickly recollected herself. Then her eyes danced to where her clothes lay in a neat pile on a stone beside the river.
Her eyes bounced back to his and then a mocking light, fuelled by contempt, lit their pale depths as she cocked one eyebrow.
Luke tried in vain to look away from her nakedness but his eyes stayed fixed hungrily on her feminine form. She was exquisite, delightful, and sexy, his mind supplied. His dick seemed to agree because in spite of himself he felt his cock stir in the beginnings of a very hard arousal.
Luke swallowed a groan. This woman would be the death of him.
“Is there a reason you’re here?” Marissa demande
d, her tone dripping ice as she stalked over to her clothes and began to yank them on.
For a split second, when she had recognized the man on the riverbank, she had felt her heart constrict with joy… until the indelible memory of the aftermath of yesterday’s lovemaking intruded and her split-second joy hardened into cold fury.
The things Luke had said to her yesterday had been beyond despicable but when he had said she was merely convenient, she had understood something she’d wondered about for years. After she’d gotten pregnant with Caily, she’d been scared and exhilarated all at once and she had called the father of her child at once. But Luke hadn’t bothered to so much as return to Weirna until her mother had called him. And when he’d shown up? He’d resorted to blackmail and got her mother to part with a sizable chunk of money to buy his silence. He hadn’t been able to leave Weirna fast enough once he had the money.
She’d wondered about that for years, but now she understood. She had been the only one in love, just like her mother had been drumming into her ears all those years ago. Luke had never been in love with her; she’d only been a receptacle for his lust.
Besides, why would he have cared that she was carrying his child? It had turned out she wasn’t the only woman carrying his child, Sandra Quinn had also been pregnant with his kid. She had had the right idea. She had never returned once she left town.
The anger she had been trying to keep under control for years erupted now and Marissa stalked towards him as she did up the last button on her shirt. She kept coming until she was standing right in front of him, her faint feminine scent tantalizing his nostrils.
“You were back in town for three whole months and I didn’t have the misfortune of seeing you in all that time. Now all of a sudden, you can’t stay out of my way?” she demanded, cocking her eyebrow higher.
“Don’t delude yourself,” he told her in a derisive tone, his features etched in a cold mask of contempt that far surpassed hers. “If I don’t see you for the next thousand years it would be way too soon.”
“Isn’t Coyana Waters out of your way? I was enjoying a perfectly peaceful swim until you showed up and ruined it,” Marissa spat.