by C. D. Gorri
Every whimper and moan, the sound of her silken skin sliding against his, her pants and cries were symphonic. She tasted like fresh honey and rose petals/ Sort of like this pistachio rose-petal covered Turkish Delight he’d once had overseas, only better. So much better.
His Mountain Lion scratched and chuffed deep inside him. The animal was thrilled he’d pleased their mate, but he was pissed as hell that Keeton had not claimed her. A Mountain Lion Shifter claimed his fated mate with a mating bite.
He’d managed to stop himself before he could bind her to him for eternity. A mistake? Maybe. But he needed to speak with her before doing such a thing. He couldn’t just kidnap her and force her to live in the mountains with him.
Follow her then. Live where she lives. His Lion urged, but Keeton shook his head.
No. My home is here.
It was a dilemma. One he was not sure how to handle. For now, he’d simply hold her. Her steady breaths told him she was sleeping. He growled softly, pressing a kiss to her forehead, and wrapping her loosely in his arms. He loved the fact she was in his bed. With any luck, the mattress would carry her scent for weeks to come after she’d gone.
His beast snarled at the thought. But it did not matter what his animal thought. The woman was human. She would not be staying. There was an entire world out there for her to see. A world Keeton was no longer a part of.
He just couldn’t be. What did the world hold for him anymore? More lies and betrayal? Distrust? He’d almost let his biggest secret fall into the wrong hands. Fuck that. He had let it fall into the wrong hands, and it had cost him. Half a million dollars, and the other man, his blackmailer, well, it had cost him his life.
But it was all Keeton’s fault. Had he been in control of his shift, none of that would have happened. He was better off alone, isolated from the rest of humanity. But Lena? Nah. She was meant for the sunshine.
He supposed he should just take the gift he was given and enjoy it. No matter how fleeting.
A few hours later…
“This is ridiculously good!” Lena moaned her pleasure while taking a bite of his spaghetti carbonara.
“The trick, of course, is to eat it right away,” he scooted in close behind her and opened his mouth for a bite of the delicious pasta dish he’d learned how to cook when he’d been stationed in Naples.
“Mmm hmm,” she agreed, nodding at him with her mouth full of deliciousness.
“How do you have fresh eggs?”
“I freeze them in single serve packets. Just have to throw them in the fridge to thaw out overnight and use them like you usually would.”
“Really? I did not know that. And this parsley? It tastes too fresh to be frozen.”
“I have a mini greenhouse just behind the kitchen. I’ll show you later if you like.”
“I’d love that.”
“Happy to oblige, Chef Sorelli.” Keeton loved making her blush when he used her professional title. So far, he hadn’t let her do much with her ankle still swollen and bruised. Besides, he liked her this way. Half-dressed and sitting between his spread legs on the carpet in front of the fireplace. She was wearing his shirt and nothing underneath, but he’d never seen any woman look better than she did.
“This is good, but I make a Mahalabia that’ll knock your socks off,” she said, biting her lower lip, tempting him to kiss the hurt she inflicted there.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a type of Middle Eastern pudding made with milk and special rose and orange blossom waters, garnished with dried rose petals and crushed pistachios. I add a drizzle of organic lavender honey to mine.”
“Sounds delicious,” he growled.
Fuck. His Mountain Lion was pushing for dominance. Every second he spent with her, he risked losing more of himself, but it was worth it. She was incredible. Funny, smart, so beautiful it hurt to look at her. Not to mention her generosity.
“I’d like to make you some.”
“I’d like that too, but there is something I’d like even better.”
“Oh, yeah?” Her hazel eyes glittered like green gold in the light from the fireplace, and Keeton forgot how to breathe for a moment.
“Yessss,” he hissed the word. It seemed his inner feline was determined to make an appearance, and yet, he wasn’t sure that was a good idea at all. Hadn’t he already decided not to keep her?
“Keeton,” she murmured, turning around in his arms, and crashing her lips to his.
Her kisses were so warm and enthusiastic. Like sunshine and rollercoaster rides. She was beautifully uninhibited. Sweet and innocent. Way too good for him. He should put a stop to this. Really, he should. And he would. In another minute, or ten. But he was helpless to push her away when she lifted her legs over his thighs, pressing her naked heat to his boxer clad sex, purring like a kitten deep in her throat while her tongue teased his in a wicked game of tag.
“Lena,” he growled, holding her still and taking what he wanted.
Two moves was all it would take, then he’d buried to the hilt in sweet erotic bliss. She seemed to know that, too. Before he could decide just what he was going to do, Lena had him in the palm of her hand. Literally.
She stroked his cock from root to tip, smearing the pearl of precum that had leaked from his slit around the mushroomed head. All the while she kissed him, lavishing attention on his mouth with her clever lips and tongue. Kissing her was more addictive than any narcotic, he was positive. Better than chocolate. Even the good kind.
“Fuck baby, that feels so good.”
Keeton had no qualms about letting her take charge. Hell, he was primed and ready for anything she wanted to do. Groaning aloud, he sure as fuck went cross-eyed when she lifted her sweet ass off the floor, positioning his cock right at her sopping entrance.
“You feel good too,” she said, sinking down onto his shaft, swallowing every one of his eleven and a half inches, but slowly. So fucking slow, Keeton nearly came right then and there.
“I can’t,” he growled when she did it again, lifting herself high on her knees, till he almost slipped free, then sliding down again, taking him all the way deep inside her most secret treasure.
“You can,” she moaned. “You feel so good, Keeton. Your cock feels so good inside me.”
Up and down. Slow withdraw, equally slow slide back down. Fucking hell. This was sweet torture. But it was almost too much. Head thrown back, she looked like a goddess, pumping him with her sweat-slickened body. All curves and valleys, hidden dips, and tempting little hills. She was a masterpiece. A real flesh and blood woman, more beautiful than any he’d ever known.
A rainbow of colors from her hazel eyes to her russet hair, creamy skin, dusky pink lips, and inky black lashes. He would never have his fill of her. Not today, tomorrow, or a hundred years from then.
Of course, she knew nothing about Shifters or fated mates. And he wasn’t gonna tell her.
Mine.
No.
Yessssss.
Fuck. He was gonna come. But no way was he going without her. Keeton flipped their positions. Rising up on his knees with Lena flat on her back, he lifted her thighs up over his shoulders and proceeded to fuck her long and hard.
“Oh, God!”
“Not God. Keeton,” he growled.
He wanted her to say his name. Needed to hear it on her lips. Wanted to be the only man, the only person she called out to in passion. His cat demanded it, as a matter of fact. Pumping his hips, he lowered one hand and strummed her exposed clit. Kneading the swollen nubbin until he felt quivers from her pussy flutter around his cock, squeezing him like a vise.
“Keeton. Keeton. KEETON!”
“That’s right,” he grunted, pumping once, twice more, and filling her with his seed.
If he would not claim her, at least she could wear his scent. That would placate the beast inside him. For a little while anyway.
A sudden pounding on the doorway had Keeton snarling angrily. He cut off the sound, aware of Lena’s wid
e-eyed stare even as he helped her sit up and righted her shirt.
“Anyone home?”
He really wanted to say no. But he knew that fucking voice. Figured the asshole had come to check on him and gotten caught in the blizzard outside. Frigging Bears. But Niels Orson was more than just a Bear Shifter pain in Keeton’s ass. He was one of his closest friends. He and Silas McKennon had formed a bond during training when they’d first joined the military.
Though they’d been separated into different units, they’d still kept in touch through the years. All three had been picked by certain undisclosed black ops commanders who had taken it upon themselves to create specialized task forces that eventually turned into private military missions.
Before the three men knew it, they were working for the personal armies of one or more governments. All wars were hopeless. One side forever doomed to failure. But it was the countless deaths Keeton had a hard time with. Niels and Silas shared that sorrow. His blood brothers carried that same weight heavy on their hearts.
Yes, they all dealt with it in their own way. Silas had returned to his father’s multi-million-dollar corporation in the big city, burying his head in paperwork and legalities. Niels was a drifter, living off his sizeable earnings. He wandered from place to place, never really settling in, or trying to, for that matter.
Niels hid behind his constant stranger’s smile in every new town or village he happened upon. No roots, no permanence. He’d been to visit Keeton a few times since he had settled in the Panther Mountains. So, this little visit was not at all unusual.
Keeton, Silas, and Niels were a trio of broken men. Bound by their inability to find the peace of mind all soldiers sought after battle. The three of them once joked about how fucked they were for life. Only now, with Marilena currently dressing in his bedroom, Keeton wasn’t so sure if that held true. Not for him. Not anymore.
“Keeton? What the fuck, brother? I know you’re there. Open up. I’m freezing my dick off out here!”
“You have a brother?” Lena asked, jostling him into action.
“Uh, sort of. Come on, let me help you inside so you can get dressed, sweet.”
He lifted her in his arms, ignoring her shocked gasp and deposited her in the bedroom with speed he’d have a hell of a time explaining later. She was a human, after all. Before he closed the door behind him, he grabbed a pair of sweats from his laundry basket and shrugged them on. Then he went to the front door, where Niels waited.
“Sup bro?” The man walked in and inhaled, a look of shock and mischief crossing his face before he turned back to Keeton. “Who’s the meat? She into doing multiples?”
Keeton snarled angrily. He had one claw-tipped hand wrapped around his blood-brother’s throat in less time than it took to respond verbally. Rage and fury coursed through his veins at the casual insult the idiot hurled about his mate. A Shifter should know better.
“Fuck!” He gasped, trying without success to remove Keeton’s hand from his throat. “Okay, okay! Fuck, I’m sorry, man!”
“Do not speak about her that way. Don’t even look at her. Understand?”
“Fuck yes. Let me down, you fucking lunatic!”
His Mountain Lion was not appeased by Niels’ groveling. He squeezed just a fraction tighter, snarling angrily. Keeton felt fur sprout from his arms and knew even then his face was sharpening with his animal’s fury. Holding a half-shift was tough as fuck, but he managed.
He snapped his teeth, hissing at Niels, who averted his gaze angrily. The Bear did not wish to challenge his friend. Keeton reined in his beast. Then he loosened his hold and dropped Niels on the floor right in the pile of melting slush the man had trekked inside.
Keeton ran a hand through his wild mane of hair and turned to the hall closet for a towel. He hurled it at the fucker. Hands on his hips, he tried to regulate his breathing, but the beast still wanted to rage at Niels for what he’d said about Lena.
Mine. He closed his eyes and counted to ten. It seemed stupid, but it had worked for him before, Just the simplicity of the numbers, of reciting something he knew with ease, helped him push the animal back down.
“Keeton, bro. I think your lady has a question,” Niels eyebrows disappeared into his hairline as the man gestured behind where Keeton stood.
Oh fuck.
He froze. His supernaturally enhanced hearing strained to hear her. Why the fuck hadn’t he sensed her? He wanted to curse, but waited, listening instead to the unsteady rhythm of her heartbeat.
“Uh, Keeton?” Her husky voice sounded weak, faraway.
“Lena, I can explain-”
“Okay, but do you think you could catch me first?”
Niels was there before him, catching his mate before she hit the ground in a dead faint. He snarled angrily, but the man just shrugged, his arms full of Keeton’s sweet mate.
“Dude? The fuck? You want me to drop her?”
“No! Just give her here,” he growled, and took the precious bundle into his arms.
She weighed nothing at all. So soft and warm. His beautiful Marilena snuggled close to his bare chest, unconsciously seeking him out for comfort. He brought her back to the bedroom and laid her down on the mattress. He pulled the blanket up and over her still form, caressing her face tenderly when he felt Niels standing in the doorway.
He turned back to the man, his jaw clenched with worry. Keeton wiped his hands over his face and hair. He did not know what the fuck he was going to do now. She’d seen him in his half-shift. This was bad. Really bad.
“So, you found your mate?” Niels asked, handing him a short glass of the fifty-year-old Scotch he kept on a cart in the living room.
“Yeah, I guess I did,” Keeton drained it in one shot.
Shifters didn’t really get drunk. In order to feel the effects of drugs or alcohol, they either had to be magically enhanced or they had to be taken in massive quantities and quickly too.
“You didn’t tell her about yourself?” Niels asked, his disbelief clear.
“I couldn’t. Not yet. I mean, fuck Niels. I live in the mountains. She’s human. I don’t know if this can work.”
“But she is your mate? Don’t you know it’s a one in a million chance? Only the luckiest Shifters find their fated mates, Keeton. You have to give this a try.”
“Why? Being my fated mate is no guarantee she will accept me for who I am, what I am. It’s no guarantee I can make her happy. How can I all the way up here? You think a woman like that wants to live in the woods with a fucking hermit like me?”
“Dude, you have to give it a chance-”
“No! Whether she rejects me now or later, it will happen. She has to go back. Her life is with people, mine is here. I just hope she can keep our damn secret-”
“Of course, I can,” Lena’s voice was huskier than before, thick with unshed tears he saw gleaming in her eyes when he turned to face her.
She had her arms wrapped around her waist and looked so fucking small and hurt, he wanted to kick his own ass for being an inconsiderate prick. He took one step towards her, but she backed up, and the movement cut through him like a knife.
“Lena, I-”
“I am so sorry I intruded on your privacy, Mr. Grey. I promise to leave as soon as the weather stops,” she turned around and ran back to the bedroom, closing the door behind her.
It was no good. He heard her sobs, and his hurt only grew. He turned to see Niels growling at him and knew the man couldn’t help it. It was in their nature to protect those weaker than them, especially females. Hell, his own Mountain Lion was doing one hell of a job clawing at him on the inside.
He’d fucked up. Badly.
Chapter Nine
Marilena, you fool. How could you fall in love with him?
Lena sniffed and wiped her face. She’d retreated to Keeton’s bedroom after she overheard him speaking to his friend. What else could she do?
Okay. So he’d been keeping secrets. A big furry one apparently. A hysterical laugh escaped
her lips, and she covered her mouth with both hands. Was that really real? The thing she saw.
Lena wasn’t exactly prone to flights of fancy. She certainly never hallucinated before. But sure as she’d just spent the day wrapped around that gorgeous mountain man, she’d seen fur, claws, and fangs sprout from his body only minutes ago.
“You’re a big girl, Lena. You can face this,” she reasoned, forcing herself to walk to the mirror.
She looked a mess. Her hair was sleep tousled, face red and puffy from crying, and she still wore only his shirt. There was a door to the bathroom inside his bedroom, and she decided she was going to have to prepare herself for the upcoming conversation. Best way to do that was with a shower.
Her knapsack was on the floor, so she had some of her things at least. Though pickings were slim when it came to clothing choices. She would simply have to make do. Her ankle was still bruised, but the swelling had gone down. Still, she needed to move slow and steady so as not to injure herself any farther.
She stepped into the warm spray of water and bathed her skin with a bar of almond-scented oatmeal soap that reminded her of his scent. Next, she washed her hair, taking the time to condition it too. It would make it easier to brush that way.
Afterwards, she dressed in her last remaining clean pair of stretch pants, borrowing one of his thick thermal tops from his closet and a pair of long socks. Lena braided her hair, calming herself with the work of separating it into sections first, then winding the long strands around each other methodically.
Once finished, she looked at herself in the mirror. Lena hadn’t bothered to bring any makeup with her. Even if she had, she couldn’t put it on after crying with her eyes red and puffy. Besides, nothing in her cosmetics bag was going to cover up the extra fifty pounds she carried around her belly, thighs, and ass.
But Keeton knew all about her body. Even after less than forty-eight hours, he’d seen, kissed, and done the most decadent things to nearly every inch of her. And he’d made her feel beautiful while doing it.