by Liza Street
Laura was old enough to know not to be driven by her lion in this way. These lessons had been drummed into her since puberty. Some freaky extreme possessiveness had come over her.
She stepped into the dim bathroom and listened for Yvonne. There, a sniffle in the stall on the right. “Yvonne? I’m so sorry. I was out of line.”
The stall opened, and Yvonne stepped out. “It’s fine,” she said with a wry smile. “I can tell he really likes you.”
“You can?”
“I read people for a living,” Yvonne said. “Don’t let him go. He’s a good guy.”
“Yeah,” Laura agreed, feeling like she’d stepped into some strange drama. Was it the alcohol, or the surreality of another woman telling her how good Dristan was? “You’re right. He is a good guy.”
Yvonne walked away, shouldering her handbag and Laura was left in the bathroom, staring at her reflection in the mirror, wondering what the hell she’d just done.
Three
Dristan said goodbye to Frasier and waited outside Hart’s. The best thing about this old farmhouse was it was out in the middle of nowhere. Just a big tree out in front, still decked in Christmas lights. The stars were invisible overhead, covered by clouds, and Dristan’s breath puffed in front of him in the cold.
He didn’t know who he wanted to come out here more—Laura or Yvonne. But he didn’t feel good at all about hurting Yvonne. She hadn’t asked to get mixed up in his drama.
The door squeaked open and Yvonne stepped out, a puffy, olive-green coat wrapped around her.
“There you are,” Dristan said, stepping forward.
“Here I am. I’m okay,” she said with a little laugh. “No need to look so guilty.”
“I just—that wasn’t fair to you.”
“No, but the offending party has made her amends.” Yvonne, her mouth pulled down in a sad frown, patted Dristan’s cheek. “Looks like she isn’t ignoring you anymore. Good luck, kind sir.”
“You have a ride home?”
“Yes, I do. Thanks.” And with that, Yvonne walked to the parking lot.
Dristan remained in place, making sure she reached her car safely. After she’d driven away, he sighed and leaned against the porch railing. What was he still doing here? He had nothing to say to Laura. Laura had kissed him again, and it had been the best feeling in the world. But he couldn’t abide the hot and cold from her. Besides, Laura’s whole family was about kissing the alpha’s ass, keeping their high status in the pride. Dristan had no desire to be a part of that dynamic; it had been his parents’ downfall, but it certainly wouldn’t be his.
Shrugging a few times, as if to shake thoughts of her away, he climbed into his truck, thankful he and Frasier had driven separately. They lived close enough that they could have walked, but it was too fucking cold outside in early March. Maybe the cold didn’t get to shifters like it got to humans, but Dristan hated it.
So driving it was. Two minutes to his house, two minutes to try to forget about Laura and her lips.
That kiss. That kiss.
She’d tasted like berries, soaked in something illicit.
His cock twitched every time he thought of Laura, and his thoughts moved from the kiss in the bar to that night nearly a year ago when she’d given him that half-smile as she worked her way down his body and took him in her mouth, the smooth skin of her shoulder blades, the tiny apple tattoo at the base of her neck that she’d promised to explain later, the way she’d sighed contentedly when he’d thrust inside her the first time.
By the time he reached the place he shared with Frasier, he was all worked up.
He grabbed a beer and went straight to his bedroom to have what his employee, Alex, would call “a beer and a wank.” He chugged half the beer, stripped out of his clothes, and lay back on his bed. Self-love. If Laura wouldn’t give him what he needed, he could take care of himself.
Laura.
He stroked once up his already-hard cock, thinking about her pale green eyes, half-lidded with desire. The feel of her lips pressing kisses to his chest, and those breasts of hers, fuck, perfect handfuls and sensitive to his touch. He’d licked those nipples, pinched them gently, until she’d squirmed into place beneath him, lining him up with that beautiful pussy.
He reached down with his other hand and caressed his balls, imagining how they’d brushed against her each time he’d thrust inside. Three more quick pulls with his hand and he was coming, whispering Laura’s name.
As he wiped up what he’d spent, he looked at the clock. Hardly any time had passed at all. He dressed and went to the kitchen to dump the rest of his beer, because now he was going out again. Laura had kissed him, teased him. He was tired of being played with—he needed answers.
Four
Laura splashed cold water on her face in the bathroom at Hart’s, not caring about her make-up. She’d acted like a total douche-canoe, and worse, Dristan had called her out on it.
She wanted to hide in this bathroom for ages, and not go back out and see Dristan or Fraze. But that was the coward’s way.
After drying her face, she went back to the bar and sat at Fraze’s side. He didn’t say anything, just passed her a fresh beer.
“I think I need something stronger,” she said. Her face felt hot with a blush, and she was grateful for her olive complexion because the blush wouldn’t be as visible.
“Whiskey sour for the lady,” Fraze said, flagging the bartender.
Laura put her head in her hands as she replayed her interaction with Dristan and the other woman. “That was—”
“Awful,” Fraze finished. “Laura Elizabeth Vidal, what is going on?”
“Frasier Matthew Rhees, why don’t you tell me?”
“Is the other woman okay,” Fraze asked, “or did you fillet her in the bathroom with your claws?”
“She’s fine. My lion was out of control, though,” she admitted. “I totally lost my mind at the sight of him with someone else. I think I need to go back to the lodge and go for a run.”
Her whiskey arrived, and Frasier nudged it toward her. “You can’t go yet.”
She nudged the drink back. “Sorry. I just…I shouldn’t be here right now. I’m not fit for company.”
“You’re leaving me now? Rafe’s not even here yet.”
“Give him my apologies…and my drink. I know you prefer that fruity shit.”
“What the heart wants, babe.”
“The heart wants to not be called ‘babe,’ babe.”
“Touché. What are you going to do, really?” he asked. “About Dristan?”
She resisted the urge to throw the relationship questions back at him—Fraze had been holding himself back from women since his first and only serious girlfriend had broken up with him. It had been a few years ago, and he hadn’t actively pursued anyone since. He wasn’t ready, it seemed.
“I don’t know about Dristan.” She stared at the bar top for a long moment. Her place in the pride was precarious enough already. Laura had only been twelve when her best friend and mentor in the pride, Mendy, had been shipped off to be an Exchange. Mendy had been staying out late every night, partying with the humans she’d graduated with. She’d had a crush on this one guy, and Laura vividly remembered Mendy showing up at Laura’s window, her breath smelling of alcohol, her cheeks flushed, telling her how she and the boy had kissed in his car.
A week later, Mendy turned eighteen and was sent off as an Exchange to another pride. Marlana hadn’t allowed her to say goodbye.
The worst part? Mendy was Marlana’s daughter. If Marlana could ship off her own kid, what would she do if Laura stepped too far out of line?
Dristan was a temptation that Laura couldn’t afford.
She stood up and hugged Fraze. “What about you? Hoping to meet someone tonight?”
“Nah.”
She heard the lie. “Okay, which one?”
Fraze shook his head.
Laura glanced around the room until she spotted a curvy redhead. “Aha
! I found her. Want me to send her over?”
“Nope.”
Laura rolled her eyes. “You have to trust yourself, Fraze. Let someone in.”
“I don’t have enough control over my lion to date a human. Or anyone, really.”
“I think you do. You’re just scared.”
“Shut up and go for that run so I can drink my appletini in peace.”
She laughed and hugged him again. He was so adorable. Why couldn’t she have feelings for someone like Fraze? He was easy to get along with. Of course, he was Dristan’s brother, so the issue of his unsuitable ancestry was still in place. It wasn’t fair, but what their parents had done had ruined their standing in the pride, and now the alpha would never approve of Laura seeing either of them. But at least with Fraze she wouldn’t feel like her heart was breaking every time she left him.
That was the problem—her feelings for Dristan were too strong.
She shivered in her pea coat as she stepped onto the porch of Hart’s. She could smell Dristan out here; he must not have left too long ago. Damn him for making her feel this way without even trying. She’d been shoving her feelings down, deep down, ever since that night. When she wasn’t working at the lodge or training to be a Guardian, she’d been going on long runs as her lion and trying to forget Dristan.
Their connection was great, but they couldn’t stay together if Laura was shipped off to some other pride as an Exchange.
With a sigh, she padded down the steps and over toward the silver Acura her parents had given her for her twenty-first birthday three years ago. She stopped suddenly when she saw the familiar Jeep next to her car. Dristan was still here?
She scented the air. Shit. He was.
A shadow moved next to his Jeep. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“I heard you drive away.”
“I came back.” He stepped away from his Jeep, into the faint light coming from Hart’s.
“Why?”
He shook his head. His dark blond hair didn’t need to be styled to look good—even rumpled, it gave him a dashing appearance. And those panty-dropping blue eyes, intense and focused just on her. It was not fair that he was so handsome. He had the advantage here. “We need to talk.”
Laura shook her head. “I told her I was sorry, and I am. I’m sorry. I have to get back to the lodge now.”
She wasn’t afraid of him, was she? So why was she still standing here, her heart thudding, every sense on alert? She wanted to touch him, rub her fingers in the scruffy whiskers on his cheeks, rub her face against his shoulders and mark him as hers.
She could still taste his mouth on her lips.
She forced herself to move forward, toward her car door.
Dristan leaned against it. “We really need to talk. I have to know what’s going on in that head of yours. Was I a rebound fuck?”
“A rebound fuck? What?”
“When we hooked up, Mateo had just broken up with you for the final time. You guys were the prince and princess of the pride, and everyone thought you’d end up mated. And maybe you’re still hung up on him.”
“No,” she said. “That’s not at all what’s going on.”
“Then you need to tell me, Laura.”
“I’m training to be a Guardian. I don’t have time to get distracted.”
“If that was all, you’d have told me long ago.”
The broken look on his face pierced her heart. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It’s just, there are expectations…”
“Expectations?”
Laura shifted from foot to foot. Shit. She didn’t want to have this conversation. Like, ever.
“My parents. Marlana.”
His eyes widened in surprise. “Your parents and Marlana have a place in our bedrooms?”
“No, but they do have a place in our lives, and they thought I should have been with Mateo all along. Now I’m not, and they want someone like him. They’re pushing for Rafe, or one of the Channings, or someone from another pride.”
“Now I see,” he said, giving a bitter laugh. “Expectations. My pedigree isn’t good enough for you. You know, I’d wondered, but I kept telling myself it was just in my head. Laura Vidal wasn’t like the rest of them. Laura Vidal wouldn’t hold a grudge against one of her childhood friends. Laura Vidal—”
She couldn’t listen to this. He was right, but it hurt, and it was hurting him just as much as it was hurting her. “You don’t understand,” she said. “It isn’t me who thinks like that—”
He cut her off, his face a hard mask of anger—anger so cold that it burned. “I understand perfectly. You’d rather fall into line, just like your parents and everyone else in the pride, than grow a fucking backbone.”
“There’s more to it than that,” she said.
“Yeah? Tell me about it.” He raised his eyebrows. Light reflected in those gorgeous cat’s eyes of his. He was focused on her—all of his energy, his aggression, his yearning.
She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him for the second time that night.
This time he didn’t hesitate against her mouth. It was his lips, his tongue, parting her mouth and thrusting inside, demanding more from her. He wrapped his fist in her hair again and she shuddered, liking that pressure, liking to feel him losing control. She hiked her leg up his side, wanting to press herself against him, wanting him as close as possible. Her mountain lion purred as she arched forward, begging for more.
Dristan smelled like apples and cinnamon, like the coffee he brewed at his deli, like something uniquely male that she’d always been drawn to.
The front door of Hart’s opened. Light spilled out, along with a man and woman. Laura tried to step away, not wanting to be caught out here, caught like this with Dristan, but he kept his hand in her hair and held her in place. Laura bit her lip, trying not to moan. Dristan pressed against her so her back was flush against his Jeep, his eyes reflecting the light from the bar. The couple that had come out of the bar walked to a truck at the other end of the parking lot, climbed in, and drove away.
Dristan sighed against her neck, and licked her ear. She squirmed against him. He held her in place by her hair, and his other hand traveled down her body, reaching inside her open coat and under her halter top. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and when he brushed a fingertip against one of her nipples, she groaned.
“Dristan, more—” she started.
“Shh.” He kissed her again and unbuttoned her jeans, shoved his hand into her panties. She could feel her wetness slicking back and forth as he touched her, his tongue making angry thrusts into her mouth in time with his fingers against her folds. He shoved her jeans down a little farther, then found her clit and pinched it lightly. If he hadn’t been holding her up, Laura would have fallen to the ground.
Someone else left the bar. Laura froze, her instincts telling her to be still and quiet so she wouldn’t be seen. But Dristan had other ideas. While the man on the porch scanned the parking lot, probably looking for his car, Dristan pulled Laura closer and kissed her harder. His fingers continued to work magic between her legs. She bit back her moans.
The man on the porch found his car. Laura watched from the corner of her eye as the man left. Meanwhile, Dristan stroked her more, faster, and her breath hitched. She poured all of herself into his kiss, giving him everything she had as he brought her to her peak.
She shattered against him, her cries too loud in the empty parking lot. He bent her head forward and clamped his teeth down over the back of her neck, not hard enough to mark, but hard enough for her to feel it.
He unwound his hand from her hair, pulled his other hand from her panties. He wiped her juices on the bottom of his long-sleeved t-shirt.
“Dristan?” She wanted more. She wanted the thickness of him moving inside her. She was satisfied, but with Dristan, she always wanted more.
He didn’t speak. Taking her car keys from her coat pocket, he unlocked and opened her car door, set her inside the Acura, and handed her the ke
ys.
“Expectations,” he said. “That’s all this was. And now I’m done.”
As Laura watched from her car, he climbed into his Jeep, started the engine, and pulled away.
Five
Laura felt herself grimacing with distaste as she pulled up in front of Marlana’s estate. Already a slew of cars sat stubbornly in the light dusting of snow on the ground. Dristan’s Jeep was among them—he was already here.
Laura hadn’t talked to him or heard from him since their parking lot adventure at Hart’s two weekends ago. He said he was done with expectations, and Laura was done with Hart’s. She was too busy with her training to worry about Dristan or trips out to bars where she might run into him.
And at night, when she was too restless to sleep, maybe her thoughts drifted back to that night, pressed up against his Jeep, his hand down her pants and his lips on hers.
Dammit, even now he was in her head.
She couldn’t believe she’d lost control like that, again. With him.
Expectations. He was done with them. Maybe she was, too. Already she was walking a fine line of obedience by opting for Guardian training instead of going on Exchange like Marlana wanted.
Whether she was brave enough to take it a step further and be with Dristan was another matter entirely, and something she hadn’t had time to think about as much as she wanted.
No time to think about it now, either—it was already after midnight and Laura was late because she’d been working at the Corona Valley Lodge. More late hours as she tried to work around her training schedule. Although it sucked, it was way better than being sent off to who-knows-where.
Marlana would do it, too. She was the most powerful person around—the Coronas came from an old family of mountain lion shifters who had named these mountains. Marlana Corona had one brother, Julian Corona, who was Mateo and Rafe’s dad. Marlana had kept her name when she married, probably to keep that feeling of power it carried.