by Amira Rain
With a low grunt, Reed seemed to take what I’d said as a challenge, and he accelerated the pace of his thrusting without changing the depth, nearly pulling out of me completely before sliding back into my slippery pleasure canal once again. Soon, to my amazement, I began to wonder if I was even going to make it as long as Reed, despite having already reached a climax once, and not even two minutes earlier. In my entire life, I’d never been able to achieve two climaxes in one single sex session before, not even when alone and completely free to do what I liked, exactly how I liked it.
Reed was managing to do what I liked, but somehow even better than I could. The feel of his hardness and his thrusting got even better still when he hiked my legs up on his muscular shoulders, allowing him to penetrate me even deeper. After several minutes of this near-rapture, a few moments of Reed looking deeply into my eyes, grunting softly with each of his deep strokes, was all it took to send me spiraling into the dizzying heights of full rapture once again. This time, he spiraled right along with me, grunting out his pleasure with his eyes squeezed shut and his head thrown back. Lost in my pleasure, I watched his face with my hips bucking up to meet each of his thrusts, until my last spasm of bliss had passed.
Once we were both completely spent, he pulled me into his arms and held me tightly. In fact, he held me just a degree or two away from too tightly, as if he never wanted to let me go. However, very soon, once our breathing had slowed a bit, his hold on me relaxed some, and he twined his fingers with mine.
“I wanted that since the moment I set eyes on you.”
I smiled a little, stroking the back of his hand. “I did, too.”
Still smiling, I rested my head in the crook of his arm and closed my eyes, suddenly tired in a lazy, warm, completely satisfied sort of way. A mere minute probably hadn't passed before I was fast asleep, dreaming about something hazy and pleasant.
Hours later, when I awoke to get a glass of water, I recalled that a baby seemed to have been involved in my dream in some way, although I couldn’t remember if I’d been holding it, or feeding it, or what. This didn’t even matter, and it didn’t wipe a large smile off my face. I was considering my vague baby dream as a sign that it wouldn’t be long at all before I was receiving baby news that wasn’t a dream.
CHAPTER SIX
The following morning, I awoke to find Reed already gone. This didn’t really surprise me, since I’d expected him to have to head out early to lead his men in some kind of morning patrol around Somerset or something. This did, however, disappoint me a bit. I’d kind of been hoping for a repeat of the “business transaction” that Reed and I had completed the night before.
After showering, dressing, and having breakfast, I soon left to head into the town part of the village to do some exploring on foot, and maybe a little shopping if anything caught my eye. When I began walking down the long, paved driveway in front of the house, I breathed in deeply, reveling in the scent of early spring. It was a blend of fresh earth, budding leaves, and something green and indefinable, maybe pine trees somewhere nearby. The air, mild and a bit damp, also signaled early spring, and I glanced up at the bright blue sky, realizing that I was in a terrifically good mood for some reason, probably some reason having to do with how satisfied I’d been the night before.
Although it was April Fool’s Day, my good mood turned out to be no joke. I hadn’t even made it to the end of the short paved lane that led from the house to the main paved road through town when a young woman riding a bike on the shoulder of the road, heading toward town, smiled and waved at me. I smiled and waved back with my heart light as air. Not long after, an older couple planting some kind of shrubbery in front of their house looked up and waved at me, smiling. Happily, I returned the wave. Just after I’d started down the main road, a woman pushing a baby in a stroller on the sidewalk also smiled and waved at me. Once again, I returned the salutation, thinking that I could possibly become truly happy in Somerset, and also thinking that it seemed like a wonderful place to raise a child.
Over the next quarter-mile or so until I reached town, where at least a half-dozen little shops, boutiques, and restaurants lined each side of the street, I was probably smiled at by no fewer than two dozen people, some in cars and trucks and some on foot and bikes. A few people also called out hello and welcomed me to town, and no wonder, I thought. After all, I was the supergene woman who was going to bear a child that could return all the men in Somerset to full shifter strength. However, I had the feeling that everyone in town still would have been friendly to me even if this hadn’t been the case. Everyone just simply seemed genuine, and my mood became further buoyant.
It became even further buoyant still when I ducked into a clothing boutique and was soon warmly greeted by a saleslady who reminded me of Marie more than a bit, plump and smiling. Despite seeing a few things I liked, I didn't buy anything at this boutique, instead telling the saleslady that I’d definitely be back sometime when I brought my car to cart shopping bags home.
Visits to a few other boutiques went similarly. After the last of them, I spotted Polly’s Java Café just a short way up the street and began speed-walking toward the sign, really striding hard. I was striding so hard, in fact, that when someone came striding out from one of the restaurants nearly just as hard, I crashed right into them. I crashed right into what felt like a brick wall of hardened chest and six-pack abs. It was Reed.
I’d been striding so hard that I really nearly clothes-lined myself on his muscular body. I probably would have, too, would have flipped myself right back on my butt, had he not grabbed me with one strong arm and held me up.
Frowning, though, with his pale blue eyes registering surprise at the same time, he continued holding me up even once I was very steadily standing on my own two feet.
“You could have just been hurt. You should really watch where you’re going, Samantha.”
Scoffing, I thrashed my way out of his arm. “Oh, how dare you say that? How freaking dare you, when you came striding on out of the restaurant almost just as fast as I was going. Don’t even try to deny it.”
“Well-”
“And by the way, shouldn’t you, as a shifter, have faster reflexes than an average man or something?”
“I do.”
“Then, when I nearly crashed into you, why didn’t you display those faster reflexes?”
“I did. I saw you out of the corner of my eye, and I caught you before you could knock yourself right onto your rear.”
This made sense, although still angry at the tone he’d taken with me, I didn’t want to admit it.
“Well, it seems like if you truly had faster shifter reflexes, you would’ve avoided me crashing into you at all, thereby making sure that there wasn’t even the slightest chance of me knocking myself right onto my rear.”
Looking into my eyes with his expression unreadable, Reed didn’t answer right away. “Well, maybe I wanted to catch you. Maybe I liked the feel of you in my arms last night, and I wanted to feel it again.”
That silenced me. It silenced me because I realized that I’d wanted to feel him holding me again, too. Standing close enough to him to catch just a hint of his clean, woodsy, masculine scent, I didn’t say anything for a moment or two, and neither did he. With his expression still unreadable, he just looked into my eyes, as if trying to gauge my reaction to what he’d said.
But then he abruptly looked away, scowling and raking a hand through his thick, dark hair. “Please, Samantha… Let’s just steer clear of each other in town. Okay?”
With my anger flaring once again, I could only sputter briefly, “Oh, well, I’m sorry, but even though I’m a supergene woman, I’m not a psychic, which makes it difficult for me to know when you’re about to exit a restaurant, which, in turn, makes it difficult for me to ‘just steer clear’ of you.”
“Look. Just-”
“‘Let’s just steer clear of each other,’ says the man who invited me to have a ‘fancy’ dinner with him tonight. M
akes a ton of sense. Invite a woman to dinner, and then ask her to ‘steer clear.’ Makes so much sense I can hardly even wrap my brain around it.”
Reed suddenly looked confused and asked what I was talking about in regards to a fancy dinner.
For probably the second or third time during our conversation, I scoffed. “The ‘fancy’ dinner that you asked Marie to invite me to. I ran into her in one of the boutiques a little bit ago, and we chatted for a minute. Obviously, you’ve changed your mind, though, about wanting to have a nice dinner with me tonight, and that’s fine. I’ll eat by myself. I guess I just thought that maybe after last night, you’d changed your mind about us being ‘all business’ and were more open to the idea of us having a friendship or something.”
As he was prone to doing around me, Reed raked a hand through his hair. “Look. Last night didn’t change anything. I still want our relationship to be purely business. And if you want something else-”
“No. No, I don’t. I never did, and I still don’t. I just thought we could be more friendly, is all, but I guess you’re the type of man who saves all his ‘friendliness’ for the bedroom.”
Reed started to respond, but I cut him off.
“No need for any explanations. I understand you perfectly clear. We’re business partners of sorts. Nothing more. I’ll call up Marie and tell her that we don’t need any sort of a ‘fancy’ dinner tonight.”
Reed heaved a sigh. “Please don’t. Also, and I meant to tell you this earlier, but please don’t try to dissuade Marie from doing any of her normal household duties. When Sean died, I told her that I wanted to give her a monthly salary just for living here in Somerset, just so that she could remain comfortable and not have to move, but she wouldn’t hear of it, and instead insisted that she ‘earn her keep’ by cooking and cleaning for me. Now, all these years later, she seems to really take pride in it, so like I said, please don’t try to turn her away from it, even if you feel like you want to do the housecleaning and cooking yourself. Making a dinner yourself every so often, I’m sure she would understand, but… just let her cook most dinners for now, please. Okay? Even ‘fancy’ ones, or whatever it is that she has planned for tonight.”
I was starting to get the feeling that the dinner had been all Marie’s idea, and that Reed hadn’t asked her to invite me at all, not that I could really blame Marie. I was starting to get another feeling that she might be trying to play romantic matchmaker with me and Reed.
For her sake, I told Reed that I wouldn’t tell her to call off the dinner. “In fact, if you see her, tell her we’ll still definitely be eating together tonight. After all, business associates eat together, don’t they?”
Reed’s only response was to rake a hand through his hair, and I told him I’d see him for dinner at eight. Apparently having nothing to say in return, he strode away to a shiny black truck parked in front of the restaurant, got in, and drove off. It was only then that I looked around, realizing that there indeed had been a good number of people watching us have our conversation. At least two dozen faces were just about pressed against the plate glass windows in front of the restaurant, and many more faces peered through shop windows to the left and the right. Across the street, at least a dozen people out on the sidewalk had stopped to watch the show. All of these people, or at least the vast majority of them, were wearing vacant sort of expressions that people might wear while watching TV, which I actually might have found comical if my good mood of earlier hadn’t given way to one much darker.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Still fuming, I soon ducked into Polly’s Java Café, finding the place deserted, which wasn’t very surprising, since it was now a quarter to eleven in the morning, probably right smack between the breakfast rush and the lunch rush or at least thereabouts, I figured. What was surprising about the café was that within a few minutes of entering it, I was pretty sure I’d made my first real friend in Somerset. After Polly had introduced herself, she insisted that my coffee order would be on the house, and then we quickly became engrossed in conversation before she even served me my drink.
When she finally did, she smiled, making a dimple in one of her rosy cheeks, before coming out from behind the counter and gesturing for me to follow her. “Let’s grab a table together. I’ve got a little time to talk before the next rush.”
Soon, at a little café table by the front windows, we were again engrossed in conversation together, talking mostly about my status as a supergene woman. Polly wanted to know all about it, how I’d come to find out, and things like that, and when I told her the whole backstory with my mom, she wanted to hear all about that, too. Once I’d filled her in on all the important details, she said she was so sorry to hear about everything, including the loss of my mom’s formerly good health.
I thanked her, then said that I understood that she’d experienced loss in her life, too. “Reed told me that you lost your husband, Sean, and I was so sorry to hear that.”
Not wanting to cause Polly pain, I’d been hesitant to bring up the subject of Sean; however, I’d ultimately figured that it wouldn’t do our new friendship any good to pretend that I just hadn’t heard about what had happened to him.
In response to my condolence, she said thanks with her eyes holding unmistakable pain. “It’s been about four years now, and although my heart has never fully healed from losing Sean, things have gotten easier. I’ve gotten stronger, especially in the last year or so, I think. Sometimes I even think I might be ready to start dating again, but I don’t want to hurt Marie, you know, since Sean was her son. I just don’t know what it would do to her, to have her see me spending time with another man.”
I told Polly that although I was sure it would be hard for Marie, I was sure that Marie probably just wanted to see her happy, and Polly agreed that this was probably true. She then changed the subject, asking me how things had been going with Reed.
I briefly filled her in on the chilly relations between Reed and me, but then, not sure exactly how close she was with Reed and not wanting to offend her, I changed the subject back to her, asking her to tell me about how she liked owning the coffee shop. After grabbing us a plate of cookies and refreshing our cups of coffee, she told me all about how much she loved it, restoring my good mood of earlier that morning.
We spent the next hour or so talking more and having a few laughs. However, around noon, when a few young women came bustling into the coffee shop, I said I’d better get going, promising to come visit again soon.
Once back at the house, I lounged around a while, flipped through some books from a tall bookshelf in my room, and then showered for the second time that day, not that I’d gotten exceptionally dirty since my first. I had, however, gotten a little dusty from walking along the dirt shoulder of the road going to and from town, and I wanted to look and smell my best for dinner with Reed, despite the fact that I was still none-too-pleased with him, and his “all business” attitude.
After my shower, I checked in with my mom via phone, then somehow managed to fall asleep while watching TV, despite the fact that I’d slept long and hard the night before. When I awoke, I smelled something delicious and found Marie out in the kitchen, already preparing dinner for Reed and me.
Noticing me eyeing some flowers and candles that I guessed she was going to put in the formal dining room, Marie said that she just thought that Reed and I could use a “special” meal. “You see, sometimes a man just needs the right atmosphere to snap out of a ‘business’ sort of mood.”
I gave Marie a little smile, heartened by the fact that she seemed to want to play romantic matchmaker to Reed and me. However, at the same time, my smile masked a bit of sadness, because I was starting to think that there was nothing anyone could do to get Reed to “snap out” of his “business sort of mood.” And I was beginning to think that I really wanted him to. Maybe I’d even wanted him to since the moment I’d felt the “quake” that my great-great-grandma had told me to wait for.
Not entirely sure
how formally or informally I should dress for my dinner with Reed, I ended up going with a semi-dressy-though-not-over-the-top look, choosing a knee-length, scoop-necked dress in a deep shade of emerald green that matched my eyes, paired with a short black jacket and black ballet-style flats. I accessorized the outfit with gold bangle bracelets and dangly silver-and-gold earrings, then applied some makeup with a light hand, giving my eyes just a subtle smokiness. Then, a few minutes with a large curling iron gave my straight hair a little wave and bounce.
After that, I dashed out of my room, jogged downstairs, and began striding off to the formal dining room, realizing I was a few minutes late, unbelievably. As badly as I wanted to see how Reed’s and my “formal” dinner was going to go, I had thought I’d be early.
When I entered the spacious formal dining room, which was paneled with wood just a shade or two darker than amber, Marie had already served dinner and was nowhere to be seen, which didn’t really surprise me. She’d said that she planned to “take off” to give Reed and me some “quality time” alone.
The feast that Marie had laid on the candlelit table was impressive, but it wasn’t the sight of the food, the flowers, or the candles that drew my attention, though. That wasn’t what made the first word of an apology for my tardiness get stuck in my throat.
Reed was already seated at the head of the table, same as he’d been the night before, and when I entered the formal dining room, he stood immediately, dressed in black pants, black dress shirt, and a gray-and-black striped tie. His dark hair glinted in warm light from a Tiffany lamp above the long, polished table, and candlelight from several tall burgundy-colored tapers by our plates made his lightly tanned skin almost seem to glow. In a word, Reed was magnificent. His presence was strong and commanding even as he just stood looking at me, with his pale blue eyes slightly wide.
Frozen in place just gazing at him, my very first thought was that I wanted to slow dance with him. I wanted him to hold me in his muscular arms while we swayed, hardly even moving. I wanted to lift my cheek from his hard chest, offering my mouth for a kiss. A kiss that would hopefully go on for several minutes before Reed would scoop me up in his arms and carry me off to I didn’t even know where. His room or mine. The living room. A closet in the hallway. It didn’t even matter to me. Just anywhere our hands and mouths would be free to explore.