Larson: McCullough’s Jamboree – Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  ~~~

  Virginia had never been so embarrassed. To have been caught, not once, but twice, staring at a man? And what a man he was, too. As she had surmised already, he was a McCullough…Bea had told her there were six boys. She had no idea why, but she’d thought that some of them were just that, boys. This man was far from that. And when he made his way to her, his face looking like it had been chiseled from stone, she felt her heart rate pick up and her mouth dry. That had never happened to her before.

  “Hello.” She nodded at him and felt like she was having a stroke. Instead of fainting dead away, as she tended to do when she was having one of these episodes, she put out her hand to hold onto him. “Here, I have you. Let me get you to a seat.”

  She let him. Another new thing. Men were there for her to observe, not to come to her rescue. Virginia didn’t need rescuing, not ever, but she thought she could get used to it if this was…. Where the fuck was her mind going?

  “I’m all right.” He nodded. “I’m sorry. I don’t do well with crowds. And you guys are certainly big. I thought that you’d be boys. I don’t know why I thought that when Lauren isn’t a little girl, but married to one of you guys. Not you…is it?” She was babbling, and it made her all hot in the face to be caught doing that as well.

  “No, I’m not married.” He laughed a little. “Are you? Married I mean? It would certainly be my luck if you are.”

  “What a stupid thing to say to me.” She had no idea why, but it hurt her feelings. “If you’d just go about your business, I’ll be fine here. Alone.”

  “I’m sorry. You’re not at all what I expected.” She wasn’t sure what he meant so told him to go away again. “I’m afraid that’s not possible now. It seems that we’re stuck with each other.”

  She looked around for some help. Everyone, including her mom, had gone into the house. The cars that the men had come in were gone as well. When she started to stand, he pulled her back to the swing when she was unsteady on her feet.

  “I don’t know why I’m so lightheaded.” He asked her when she’d eaten last. “That could be it. I forget to have a meal at times when I’m writing. If Mom didn’t come in and bring me things, I’d probably not eat the entire time I’m in my zone. I have no idea why I just told you that. I’m sure you don’t care.”

  “But I do. I knew you were a writer. Sadly, I’ve not read any of your books. My mom has. She’s an avid reader.” She told him her name. “I’m so sorry. I’m Larson. Larson McCullough. I just bought a house that my dad and brothers are helping me with. It’s an enormous one too. It needs a lot of work. I’d like for you to come and see it. Also, we unearthed a lot of boxes of stuff that was in the house when the sister of the previous owner took it out to the barn and left it there. Pictures and china. That’s what I was doing, looking through it just before I came here.”

  “Oh, I’d love to see them. Sometimes when I’m writing, I have an idea for things from things that I’ve collected. Today I bought a lovely pitcher and bowl set to use in one of my books. I have so much better success with being able to touch and handle things.” For some reason that made her feel all hot and bothered. She looked at the yard in front of them instead of the smiling handsome face beside her. “I’m not good at being a woman. That’s not right. It came out all wrong. It really did sound better in my head, but I’m not like other women.”

  She was babbling again. Virginia never did that, not even when she was flustered. It was better, she’d always reasoned with herself, to keep her mouth shut. It was much better than just mumbling a bunch of nonsense that no one cared about.

  “I should hope you’re not like other women.” She looked at him, wondering if he was making fun of her. “You’re very beautiful. The color of your hair makes me think that it’s very curly. Don’t all redheads have curly hair?”

  “Not all, but yes, mine is very curly. I don’t leave it down often. Actually never. The only time it’s down is when I’m in the shower. Then it’s wet and hangs just straight.” She looked away again. “You’re making me think and feel things that I don’t think are right. You need to move over there or something.”

  “Do you know much about my kind?” He lifted a small bit of her hair that had come loose from the tight bun she had it in. “You know, shifters?”

  He whispered in her ear, making her skin feel all tingly and tight. She wanted him to touch her like that and to go away too. Her body felt like he’d set fire to her, and that, she knew, wasn’t a good thing. Clearing her throat, she answered him as best she could.

  “Shifter? I don’t know what you…. What are you doing to me?” He only grinned and she felt hot. Her body was literally humming with something enigmatic. “I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t even have a clue what I’m feeling.”

  “It’s normal for us.” Virginia nodded as his face moved closer to hers. Licking her lips when he was only a breath or two away, she wanted to cry when he paused. “May I kiss you, Virginia? Just a small one for now.”

  All she could think about was that kiss. His mouth coming to touch hers. And when he brushed his mouth, ever so gently, over hers, she felt as if she had stuck her finger in a live socket while it was plugged in. Then he kissed her.

  It wasn’t a kiss so much as a devouring. His mouth molded to hers even as his hands pulled her body closer, then she was sitting atop him, her legs on either side of his. When he slid his tongue over hers, she moaned. Virginia wasn’t even sure that she could have stopped it. Her body was on fire. Not just fire, but she felt as if her blood was molten lava, and it was racing over her like she’d sat in the sun for hours.

  When he pulled his head back, she looked into his eyes. All she could think about was his beauty. His hunger. And it matched her own. Instead of doing what she normally would have, if being kissed by a near stranger was normal to her, she leaned in and kissed him. Virginia gave him as much as she could, wanting to show him how much he had affected her with his mouth.

  Larson touched her. Not just her skin, but her heart and her soul. It was as if she knew him, somehow knew that this was the man for her. And while her logical part told her that wasn’t possible, her heart told her logical part to shut the fuck up and enjoy. When he pulled back again, she pouted…another thing that she’d never done before. “We’re sitting on the porch at my parents’ house where anyone could see us.” She told him right now she didn’t care. His soft laugh had her smiling. “Yes, well, we’ll both be in deep shit with my mom if she comes out here and I’m having sex with her dinner guest on her railing.”

  Virginia looked at the railing, then back at him when he moaned. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t muster up any kind of fear for that.” When she slapped her hand over her mouth, she told him that she was sorry again. He pulled her hand away and kissed it. “I don’t talk like that. I don’t even have sex, or in this case almost sex, with strangers. You must think I’m easy or something. I’m not. I have no idea what is going on with my head today. It’s almost as if I’ve been possessed or something.”

  He rocked upward and she felt her pussy soak. This wasn’t helping, and she told him that. His laughter this time sounded pained, and she leaned her forehead to his. He held her on his lap, but he was no longer touching her the way that he had been.

  “We need to go inside. My brothers are telling me that Mom will be out soon.” She asked him if he’d heard them shouting out a warning from the house. “Something like that. You didn’t answer my question earlier. What do you know of our kind? My mom said you write about shifters like you know them. And while you get most of it right, there are some things that you don’t.”

  “They’re make believe.” She got off his lap and was distracted by the outline of his cock stretched behind his jeans. “You must be huge.”

  He laughed and stood up. Virginia couldn’t believe the things that were slipping out of her mouth. It was like someone had taken the filter out and was letting her simply say whatever popped into her head. Thi
s wasn’t her. None of this was.

  “I don’t know what’s come over me. But in answer to your question, I don’t know what you mean. I mean, there are no such things as shifters. And certainly no vampires.” He said nothing, but she looked up at him. “Right?”

  “There are both, I’m afraid. I’m a jaguar. So is my family. A friend of ours is a vampire, I’m sure you’ll meet her soon, and her mate is a tiger. Tony the tiger. Also, we have a few others that are our friends. Bear for one, and then there is Jon. You’ve met him.” She nodded, still not sure where he was going with this. “He’s everything. I mean, I guess he’s not everything, but there are things that he’s still not tried yet, so he could be wind and water if he so chose. And you’re a human. As is your cousin, Samuel.”

  “No, that’s not right.” He nodded just as Jon came out on the porch. She looked at him. He was just a boy, no more than fifteen or sixteen years old. Virginia looked at Larson and let her temper rule her. “What is the meaning of this? Are you making fun of me, for what I write? Let me tell you, buster, I make a great living at writing about that stuff. Stuff that isn’t real. There are no vampires. No shifters. And there aren’t any brownies, faeries, or whatever else you think to tell me about.”

  “I’m a cat. A man too, but I can become a cat. Would you like for me to show you?” She shook her head and backed from him. When she hit the railing behind her, she thought that she could run to her car and get out of this madhouse but for leaving her mom behind. “If you run, he’s going to take me and chase you. He would love nothing better than to knock you down and leap on you.”

  “This is wrong. You can’t expect me to believe that you’re a shifter.” Jon said that he could show her. “Show me what? You think you can do this as well?”

  “Oh yes.” He was standing there one moment, then he was a large hawk the next. Then he was a dragon, a cat, as well as the spitting image of her. When she reached for the railing, suddenly feeling faint, Larson picked her up and told Jon that was enough. Virginia looked up at Larson.

  “He’s just showing off. Usually he’s very laid back, but I think he wanted to impress you somehow. Are you all right?” She nodded. “You’re going to pass out on me, aren’t you? I have you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  When the darkness began to swallow her up—for that was just what it felt like—she let it tumble around her. She heard her mom, then others, speaking, but she was beyond that now. They were insane, her mind told her. Go to sleep and you’ll be fine.

  Of course, she wasn’t going to be fine. This man had her, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to run off. Because if that part of her stories was true, they were stuck with each other.

  Chapter 3

  “I think you could have handled this a little better. It’s not like everyone knows you can shift into a lot of things.” Jon said he was sorry. Again. He was smiling, so Larson didn’t believe he was sorry at all. “And I expect you to tell her that you’re sorry too. You scared her.”

  “I only meant to show her that we weren’t lying. And so you know, Uncle Larson, she has met shifters before, but not since she was a child. Her mom, never, but she does read her books.” He said he was going to have to read a couple of them. “I’d not let her know when you do. I think if she would find out, it would embarrass her more than having her mom tell her that she has.”

  “What do you mean?” Jon only shrugged as they sat in the bedroom where he’d taken Virginia when she’d fainted. “Are you saying that she’s embarrassed by what sort of genre of books she writes? Or just that her mom had read them?”

  “Both, I think. It’s in her mind that she doesn’t want people to think that she does some of the things that are mentioned in her books. They’re very erotic.” Larson told Jon to not look anymore. “All right. But when she wakes, I’d talk to her. I know that you wish to talk to her, but I mean about your thoughts on her books.”

  That made absolutely no sense to him, but Jon left him there. He looked at her, laying on what used to be his old bed. Larson then looked around the room. It was hardly noticeable that he’d once been in here.

  His mom had asked them all, all of his brothers and him, if she could redecorate the rooms. He hadn’t cared. And the things that were in the room when he’d left were nothing that he wanted either. But she had boxed them up and sent them to him, just as she had the rest of them. It wasn’t until years later that he opened them, and the memories that had flooded his mind were both nostalgic and funny. He still had the box and the stuff in the back of his closet. Larson wondered if the others did as well.

  “What are you doing in here?” Virginia sat up on the bed and looked around. “I guess I’m not at home, am I? Did that guy really shift into all those things?”

  “Yes.” She sat on the side of the bed but didn’t move off it. “Are you okay? I hope you don’t mind, but I told them not to wait dinner on us. I told my mom that I’d make sure you were fed, and she said that would be good. Your mom said you missed breakfast and lunch today.”

  As if it had been waiting for the right moment, her belly growled. She glared at him when he laughed. There was something so adorable about a woman who glared, he supposed.

  “I don’t know what’s going on here. I mean, I have an idea that I’ve fallen and hit my head, and now I’m hallucinating.” He told her that she wasn’t. “Can’t you just give me a little break here? I’m dealing as best I can. Just, I don’t know, lie until I can make up a better story about what just happened here.”

  “All right, I’m sorry. You were hallucinating.” She told him that treating her like a crazy person wasn’t helping. “Then how about I sit here and wait for you to ask me a direct question. That way, you can take the information as you can handle it.”

  “Tell me about yourself. I figure that I should know a little about you since I nearly had sex with you on the porch a little…. How long was I out?” He told her. “That long? I must have needed it. Four hours is a long time for anyone…to not faint.” She looked at him like she dared him to tell her that’s just what she had done. He wasn’t stupid enough to say anything to her.

  “Boyd, my brother, is a doctor. He said that you were sleeping for the most part. When he checked you out, he told me that your heart and lungs were fine. However, he thinks you’re slightly undernourished, as well as dehydrated.” She nodded and told him she’d been told that before. “Mom is having juice made for you, as well as a gallon of her tea. It’s good, but no sugar. If you need sugar in it, she said that she’d make you some.”

  “I don’t care for sugar in my tea unless it’s hot. This house, it’s your parents’, I know that I guess. But you guys must have lived here too, right? Is this your room?” He told her that it was, and stretched out his legs in front of him. “I don’t want to be a bother here, but do you think I could have something to eat? I don’t know what I’m smelling, but it smells like heaven.”

  “Of course.” He stood up when she did, and holding her hand, just to make sure she didn’t faint away again, he took her to the hall. “This house has been in my family for generations. It was just a two-room shack when my too many back to remember grandfather built it. Of course, it’s been added onto a great deal, and only recently my parents had it redone, inside and out. It wasn’t too badly out of date, but the shag carpets were hard to have taken out after all this time.”

  “It’s beautiful, and I love all the old pieces. I’d bet that they’re also a part of your long family line. Anyway, you said you had a house but it was huge. By comparison, or just bigger than you had?” Larson told her it was bigger both ways. “I’d love to see it. And the things you found in the barn. I can still go and look, can’t I? That doesn’t mean that I’m going to do anything with you. It just means I want to see your house and the things that you found. Nothing more.”

  Larson was saved from answering her when his mom came from the dining room as soon as they were down the long staircase. She hugged th
em both and told Virginia that her mom had gone with Lauren to see her babies. They’d be returning soon.

  “She wants something to eat.”

  Virginia said she didn’t have to go to any trouble. “Whatever you have left over from dinner will be fine. Are there leftovers?”

  “Yes, for you both. I saved back some. I have to admit to you, it was hard not to go and get it for your brother when he was begging for more roast. It was by far the best that Reese has ever made.” They both followed her into the kitchen, where his brothers were standing around and talking. He knew what they’d been doing…the dishes. It was the way it was whenever they came here to eat. Mom serviced, they cleaned up. His dad was there too, and he was telling the rest of them about his home he’d bought. Mom had yet to see it, but Dad loved it, he thought. She waved a hand at them when she introduced Larson’s mate to them. “Boys, I’d like for you to meet Virginia Jacobson…she goes by her author name of J. V. Basil. Virginia, these are my sons.”

  She was introduced to each of them. They each told her what they did for a living and what order of birth they were. Larson was proud of his family then. First for not overwhelming her, and secondly because no one mentioned that they were mates. He supposed he had Jon to thank for that.

  A platter of food was set on the table, and he waited until she was served before he took some too. He was starving all of a sudden, and smiled at his mom when she told him to slow down, there wasn’t a fire he had to race off to. The others left them, but Mom sat at the table with them, enjoying a cup of tea and eating a scone.

  “I’ve been thinking about this while you were resting, and I think you might be better telling everyone your name right away. They’ll be able to see that you’re nothing like that cousin of yours.” Virginia told her that she’d not seen either of them for a long time. “That poor girl. Boyd and Mac tried to save her, but the wounds were just too extensive. She told my son Boyd that she was leaving the little boy in his care. We’ve been keeping an eye on him since he was released from the hospital.”