Getting Over the Bully-Sh*t: Chosen Book 22

by J. D. Light

  "So, if you're not still mad at me. That means I can kiss you, right?" he whispered, his mouth already moving toward mine, his breath making my lips feel swollen.

  I nodded, my eyes huge as he leaned in and pressed his mouth to mine. His lips were plush and warm, and as soon as they touched mine I whimpered, letting my eyes slide closed. He sipped at my lips slowly, stopping to brush his against mine every once in a while.

  When he slowly dragged his tongue over my bottom lip, I opened my mouth, letting him in. He licked along the side of my tongue and I met him, sliding them together and taking his taste inside my mouth as he did the same.

  Leaning down, he lifted me, and I wrapped my arms around his neck continuing to lick and suck at his tongue, the situation feeling beyond surreal as he laid me back against the tiny mattress in his room, breaking the kiss to pull back and watch my face with a ridiculously happy grin on his, slipping into the bed facing me.

  "You can go to your room if you want, but I just want to look at you for a bit," he said quietly.

  I nodded, my eyes already getting heavy as the day's events started to catch up with me, and I smiled, snuggling closer to the warmth of his body. He pressed his lips to mine again and I tried to respond, but I was far too relaxed and tired to even pucker up.

  Chapter Four

  "What? Why?" Warren demanded, sitting up quickly and glaring down at me.

  I'd had to leave the bed to go answer the phone, but I'd slipped back in a few moments before, pressing kisses all over Warren's face to wake him. At first, he'd seemed shocked to see me there, except the small smile that appeared on his face told me he not only remembered what had taken place the night before, but that he was at least marginally happy about it.

  And he'd kept that smile on his face all the way, up until I told him that Turner had already called his boss at the chip factory to let them know Warren wasn't coming in and why. Since it was a streak-owned business that Axel and his mate Edmond had started within the last month, and Edmond himself was a chosen and had been kidnapped not once, but twice because of it, everyone had been very understanding.

  I sighed, reaching up and pulling him right back down on the bed beside me. The tiny bed that we didn't fit on all that well. "Can I just tell you that I have reasons my gorilla and I aren't ready for you to go back yet without you demanding answers?"

  "I guess," he grumbled, narrowing his eyes, and I could see the part of him that craved control peeking out, struggling to let things just be. "You know I'd be surrounded by shifters."

  "Exactly." I pressed a small kiss to his mouth, smiling when he sighed, letting his eyes fall closed. I pressed a kiss to his lids as well. "And shifters are going to be the people who are after you, and as your unofficial bodyguard, I don't feel comfortable sticking you in the middle of a bunch of shifters I don't know."

  "Not the streak." His eyes opened once more, going wide. "I know the alpha had his issues, but the streak has been great and very accommodating to me."

  "Not in general, no. And I can't tell you how happy I am that you were able to differentiate between the shifters that did all that stuff to you and the shifters that live in this streak. But, we know for a fact that there were some from here involved and we think we caught most of them, but nobody knows for sure how many there were to begin with. The factory is just a little too open."

  He pursed his lips, clearly not completely happy with the way things were going, but at least trying to understand. "Are all the released chosen being babysat?" he asked eventually.

  "Yes, actually," I said, brushing my nose against his. "There are only two other unmated chosen still left in town. Enid has been being guarded by Lincoln and Decker, though I don't think he's all that aware of it, and Wellston is being looked after by an alpha-appointed guard and has no idea that he is being watched."

  "So, I can't go into work." He made a face, rolling his eyes when all I did was smirk at him. "What about shopping? Can I go get groceries? Because we are never going to make it on the few things I have in my fridge."

  "How about this? We go grab something quick and easy, and then run to the grocery store."

  His stomach growled, and he smirked, giving a shrug. "Okay, I can handle that."

  ***

  I turned from shooting a small unobtrusive wave in River's direction to find my mate standing completely still, glaring at me like I'd done something wrong. When I jerked my head back and curled my arms up to my chest to protect my face and vitals, he looked past me, still glaring and then back. "Who was that?"

  Laughter tried to bubble up out of me as I took in his face, before glancing over my shoulder at the man I'd just waved at, finding that he too seemed like he was trying to laugh as he very clearly heard our conversation.

  "That's River," I said perkily, trying, but probably not succeeding, to keep my giddiness to myself. "He's one of Alpha Axel's henchmen."

  "And you know River how?" he demanded, picking up a loaded grocery bag and putting it in the cart, so we could wheel it outside to my rental.

  I smirked, sliding closer and bumping his hip with mine. "Are you jealous?"

  "Don't look so happy with yourself. I was just asking a question," he said, snagging a bag a little too hard and just barely managing to get it in the basket without catching the bottom on the hook slightly above the cart that the little belt attached to for keeping kids from escaping. "He's eyeing that poor little cashier like a snack."

  I chuckled, once again glancing at River who was trying to hide his smile behind his hand.

  "You can admit to liking me now, remember?" I said, steering the filled cart toward the door. "You even kissed me."

  He raised an eyebrow at me, giving a small shrug. "I fell asleep too, so you must not have done something right."

  "Oh really?" Reaching out, I snagged his arm just outside the entrance, jerking him to me and lowering my head, intent on kissing the fuck right out of him. I watched as his eyes dilated and his lips went lax, inviting me inside.

  The automatic doors opened behind us, making him jump and turn his head in the direction of the entrance.

  "Oops, sorry," a man with a deep, deep voice said, and I looked up to find a familiarish face and an enormous body pulling his cart back slightly, so he could easily maneuver around where we'd managed to stop enough in front of the entrance to hold up traffic a bit, but not close enough to cause the doors to open continuously. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

  "Hey, you're Rowe, right?" I said after a moment, when I finally figured out where I'd seen him before. "So, I'm guessing you're in town with Meyers?"

  I'd known Meyers was coming to interrogate the man Warren had shot, but I hadn't heard when. With Rowe being out of the same office, it was reasonable to assume they'd travelled together.

  "Yeah, he's supposed to get started in the morning." He shrugged his massive shoulders, giving us a friendly grin. "I don't think it will take too long. Meyers is really good at his job. I'm not even sure why they sent me, but they've been pretty serious about partnering people up since Grayson keeps getting shot."

  I nodded, sighing. "Happens to the best of us."

  Rowe nodded too.

  "Wait!" Warren yelled, making me start and turn to look at him. "You've been shot?"

  I cringed, wishing I wasn't such a fucking idiot. "Nooo." I rolled my eyes, immediately knowing how bad that lie was before he even lifted his eyebrows at me and tilted his chin down.

  "How the hell do you and my brother do your jobs?" he asked dryly, before shaking his head.

  "I do my job just fine," I grumbled, pursing my lips. "The difference is, I don't want to lie to you." I leaned down in his face and pecked him on the corner of the mouth, and he was struggling not to smile when I pulled back.

  "I really want to be mad at you right now," he said, leaning his head back to accept the next kiss on his lips when I leaned in.

  "But it's hard because I'm amazing?" I whispered against his mouth, stopping to run my ton
gue along the seam of his lips.

  "Okay, well, I'm going to go." Rowe moved around us, pushing his cart toward the parking lot, sending a smirk over his shoulder when he safely made it down the road a ways. "You two have fun."

  I jerked Warren back between the cart and me, pressing my body flush to his. "Your sexual tension scared him away."

  Smirking, he shook his head. "My sexual tension?" He pressed our groins together, his smile turning sensual as he let his head fall back, offering up his mouth. "This is all me, then?"

  I'd never in my life felt something so perfect as my mate's body pressed along mine. I wanted to say fuck the groceries and throw him over my shoulder, then take him back to my rental and do nasty dirty things to his body.

  "Come on," he groaned when my mouth lightly brushed his, and pushed me away, turning quickly to push the cart toward the car. "We better get out of here before we cause a sce––"

  He was cut off by the sound of something hitting the ground. He froze, not moving for a moment as I cringed and stepped forward, meeting his gaze and wincing when he turned to look over his shoulder.

  When he closed his eyes, I knew it was bad and was almost afraid to see just what it was I'd run into. Turning slowly, I bit my lip and groaned at the completely destroyed pyramid of food containers.

  "Wow," Warren said, blinking rapidly before turning and walking off with the cart, leaving me to clean up my mess.

  Thirty long, frustrating minutes later, we were finally pulling out of the parking lot with Warren's sporadic chuckles serenading us.

  "That is the worst pyramid I've ever seen," he said later, when we'd gotten back to his house, me putting the last of the groceries in the cabinet.

  "You could have helped," I grumbled, looking at him out of the corner of my eyes. "Who puts those outside anyway?"

  "I could have," he said, happily holding his phone up for me to see a picture of me trying to stack the last piece on the very top, reaching as far as my body would stretch and nearly knocking the thing over again. "But who would have taken pictures to send to your sister. I tried to direct, but you don't take direction well."

  "I would have if you didn't have any clothes on," I said smirking, as we made our way to the living room.

  Raising his eyebrows, he leaned over, putting his phone on the coffee table, before standing and grabbing the hem of his T-shirt and pulling it off over his head.

  I swallowed, taking in the slight expanse of his chest, and smooth skin. Though I knew he'd lost weight from before everything had happened, he'd definitely filled out from the skinny kid he'd been in high school. Not that I'd ever thought of him as anything but gorgeous then, either.

  "What are you doing?" I finally asked, when I could actually manage to speak.

  "Testing your theory," he said with a straight face, tilting his head to the side. "Sit."

  That was pretty easy, my knees had been trying to give out pretty much since he pulled that shirt off anyway. "I'm a gorilla, not a dog."

  He popped the button on the top of his pants, as he made his way around the coffee table to stand a few feet away from me, his face showing no sign of emotion aside from how dark his eyes had gotten. He gave a small shrug of one shoulder. "And yet, you sat. Good boy."

  I had, and I'd do it over and over again, and possibly wag my tail too, for a chance to see him like that.

  "Damn, you're gorgeous," I said huskily, wishing he'd move closer. "Can I touch you?"

  "Not yet. Take your shirt off." I didn't even hesitate. I stripped my shirt off quickly, and I knew I looked like an idiot rushing around to do his bidding, but I didn't care. Whatever this was leading to, I was pretty sure I was going to love it.

  "You're so fucking sexy, Asher," Warren whispered, taking my body in with those darkened green eyes, his hand rubbing across his abs and up over his nipple.

  "Thank you."

  "Polite. I like that." He cupped his dick through his pants, grinding his palm against his erection. "Take off your pants."

  Again, I scrambled to obey, nearly ripping my jeans open trying to get my bumbly fingers to work. When I finally leaned up to ease my pants and underwear down my legs, my throbbing dick popped out to lie flat against my stomach, pre-cum stringing from the tip to the thin trail of hair that ran down the center of my stomach.

  "Damn." He looked me over, biting his bottom lip.

  "You've already seen me naked," I said, smirking, but not taking my eyes off of the way he moved his hands over his torso, occasionally reaching down to grind his hand down on his very evident erection.

  "True, but I didn't get to spend much time enjoying the show." He switched his focus to my dick, licking his lips. "Touch yourself."

  My cock pulsed, another bead of pre-cum oozing from the tip. "There is only so much a shirt will get you," I said, my hips driving upward as the urge to grind my dick against something took over, and my ass came off the couch, so that I humped the air.

  I couldn't stop myself from reaching down and wrapping my hand around the base of my dick, squeezing the needy, sensitive flesh until I moaned loudly.

  "Really? It seems to be working pretty well right now."

  I stroked myself, watching the way his body shuddered as he looked on. "You're bossy."

  He shrugged, his mouth falling open slightly. "I have control issues."

  "I never knew this was a kink of mine," I groaned, my entire body tingling with need.

  "But look at you," he whispered, opening his pants further and pushing the front down, pulling his dick out. "Your beautiful dick is almost purple it's so full, and you're leaking for me." He bent forward, running the tip of his finger over the head of my dick, and making me cry out as more throbbing pressure built.

  He brought the finger to his mouth, licking the clear liquid off. Coming closer, he straddled my legs, putting his dick close to my face, gripping his dick in his hand. He moved his hips forward, pressing the tip to my lips, smearing pre-cum over them. "Open your mouth, Asher," he whispered huskily.

  I obeyed and he easily slipped himself into my mouth, nudging the back of my throat until I swallowed around him.

  "Damn," he hissed, his head falling forward. He pulled out slowly and pressed back in. "That feels amazing. Put your hands on my hips."

  I again did as he said, reaching up to cup both of his hips, being sure to kneed the flesh of his ass where his pants had started to slide down, exposing more and more of him.

  "I'm going to fuck your face," he growled through clenched teeth, easing his dick out and firmly and quickly pressing back in.

  His pace increased and I loved it, encouraging him to keep going by digging my fingertips into the flesh of his ass, and swallowing him again and again.

  When his pace faltered and a long, low groan left his throat, I pulled back to suck on his tip, letting his seed release against my tongue, which immediately sent me over the edge. I whimpered around him, my fingers probably leaving bruises on his otherwise perfect skin.

  "Asher," he whispered, his hands pressed to the back of the couch where he was trying to hold himself up and catch his breath. "Did you just…"

  Nodding, I eased him down until he was straddling my lap, my cum smearing between us. "That's pretty normal when a shifter tastes his mate's essence."

  He jerked in my arms, leaning back to look me in the eye. "Mate?

  I nodded, biting my lip, and hoping he took the news well.

  His eyes narrowed, his fingers digging into my shoulders. "I'm your mate?" When I nodded again, he just sat there blinking. "Huh."

  His eyes moved over my face, emotions playing out continuously.

  "Are you okay?" I asked, tentatively reaching up to cup the side of his face and bring his forehead to mine.

  "So, that's why everyone has been pushing me toward you," he whispered, his eyes intense as he looked into mine. "They all knew I was your mate."

  "Yes."

  "So, everyone knew but me?"

  I couldn't determin
e if he was mad or not, and I felt like I was floundering.

  "Just Turner, Kendrick and Ellory."

  Both of his hands slid up from my shoulders to my neck, his fingertips pressing into the flesh as they moved over me.

  "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "You hated me." I smiled, letting him know that I understood, still wishing every minute of every day that I could go back and change what happened to him. "I knew I was going to have to work some pretty strong magic to get you not to want to kill me."

  He rolled his eyes, smiling softly. "I never wanted to kill you," he whispered. "I didn't shoot you that day I shot that guy. I didn't even really think about it all that much."

  "All that much?"

  Laughing, he pressed his mouth to mine, making me melt and groan instantly.

  ***

  "Shit." Warren yelled as the handle in his hand, connected to a long string, jerked him forward, nearly pulling him off of his feet. "Maybe I have lost too much weight. I feel like this thing is going to take off with me dangling from it."

  I caught his hips, pulling him back into my body and holding him steady, before running my hands up his sides. "I got you," I whispered against his neck, as my hands slid over his shoulders and down his arms to grip the handle of the kite.

  "We really should be doing this in a place with more open space," he grumped, but leaned his head to the side, giving me access. "Like a park."

  It had been three days since I'd admitted we were mates, and though I hadn't claimed him, we could barely keep our hands off of each other.

  "But I can't secure a public place like that as easily as I can Turner's." I tipped my pinky down a bit, trying to get the thing to turn, but I was pretty sure we'd put it together wrong, so it basically did nothing but float there in the air, making me jealous that I didn't have the ability to fly.

  It just looked so damn peaceful.

  Warren used one hand to make sure I had the thing securely in both hands before he turned around in my arms, facing me. "What about that wolf that got through?"

  I pursed my lips, glancing down at him, and then back up at the kite as the wind once again tried to take the plasticish material out for a spin. "That was before we knew how bad things were."