Green Valley Shifters Collection 1

by Chant, Zoe

  “You know a lot about kids,” Shaun said, a little enviously.

  “I have a certificate in early education,” Andrea said with a shrug. “But mostly I’ve learned this stuff from Patricia. She knows everything.”

  They gazed at each other across the tiny hedge and the two sets of porch railings until Shaun couldn’t remember why he’d first called to her.

  Then she looked down and cleared her throat. “You, ah, had a problem with your lights.”

  “Lights,” Shaun agreed. “Right, lights. The light over the stairs and upstairs hallway, the upstairs bathroom, and the master bedroom.”

  “Sounds like you blew a fuse. Happens in these old houses all the time. I’ll show you where the fuse box is.” Andrea sounded all business, and Shaun had better control of himself by the time she had walked to the sidewalk and back onto his lawn.

  She walked into his house like she owned it. “I babysat for Trevor a lot,” she said as she showed him where the fuse box was tucked in beyond the shelves in the laundry room. She pointed out the correct switch and threw it.

  “That should do it. But you ought to replace this other fuse.”

  “So it doesn’t trip so easily?” The laundry rooms wasn’t large, and Shaun had to stand close to Andrea, terribly aware of how badly he wanted to touch her, and how careful they were to not brush against each other, and not quite look at each other.

  Andrea shook her head. “The opposite, actually. Some of these fuses don’t match the wire gauge. It’s something people do way too much – if they find that they are blowing circuits, they put in a bigger fuse so it doesn’t trip so much. But the wiring just isn’t robust enough for what they are trying to do, and they’ve taken out their safety net. Fuses trip for a reason.”

  Shaun had to stare. She wasn’t just hot and great with kids, she was smart and capable. The whole package. Everything he’d ever wanted in a woman. And their timing was just so wrong.

  “Is there an electrician in town I can hire?” Shaun said, swallowing down his desire.

  Andrea was startled into looking straight at him, and even in the dim utility room, her unusual golden-brown eyes were bright. “You don’t need an electrician. It’s actually a really easy thing to do. I... could show you.”

  “Really?” Shaun wasn’t thinking about that kind of electricity any more, only the electricity that was humming between them.

  “Yeah,” Andrea whispered.

  “It’s a little... frightening,” Shaun murmured, no longer talking about the fuse box at all.

  “Yeah,” Andrea whispered.

  For a long moment, the faint buzz of the laundry room light was the only sound.

  Then Andrea gave a helpless little whimper and stepped towards him, tipping her head up for the kiss that Shaun was already leaning into.

  Chapter 12

  Andrea wasn’t even sure what the conversation topic was anymore.

  Shaun was so close, and so gorgeously tall and broad, and he smelled like earth after rain and like musk and like everything she had ever wanted.

  She would have promised him anything at that moment, up to and including rewiring his entire house, and when he made the smallest of sways towards her, she could not help making a noise of helpless desire and moving to meet him.

  His mouth was exactly what she’d been lying awake at night imagining, hot and fierce and demanding.

  Her arms slipped up around his neck without resistance and the feeling of his arms around her, drawing her close, was like coming home. Andrea had been able to tell that he was built well through his tailored clothing, but now, pressed wantonly up against him, she could tell that had been the tip of the iceberg.

  The man was ripped. The shoulders that filled out his shirts were knotted with muscles, and the arms under the shirt sleeves were thick and strong.

  Without breaking their kiss for breath, he was lifting her off her feet and sitting her up on the washing machine so he wasn’t bending over so far. Andrea hooked a leg around him to hold him close, while she tried with lust-clumsy fingers to unbutton the shirt that was keeping her from the amazing planes of his chest.

  Shaun seemed to be suffering no such clumsiness; he had already gotten the buttons down the front of her uniform undone, and was pushing it back with his fingers so he could move his kisses down her neck and into the swells of flesh waiting below.

  He nibbled and licked at her breasts and Andrea buried her fingers in his thick blond hair and bit back the cries she wanted to utter. She spread her legs wider and squirmed against him, just at the right height to feel the bulge of his lust for her. She felt she might go mad with desire, and there was entirely too much clothing between them still.

  Clearly feeling the same, Shaun retreated reluctantly from her cleavage and finished the job that Andrea hadn’t been able to concentrate on. She wasn’t sure if he actually unbuttoned anything or simply tore it off, but he was shirtless at last, and working at his belt.

  Andrea slipped off her bra, secretly glad when seeing the freedom of her breasts made Shaun fumble his pants and take his own turn being stumped by a button. She reached down to release the button and unzip him slowly, walking fingers down to touch him through the silky boxers he was wearing.

  His whole body went rigid. One hand, which had been reaching for her nearest breast, closed reflexively around it as he gave a guttural moan.

  Andrea gasped.

  If they had been eager until now, it became frenzied.

  Shaun jerked down his pants and underwear, wrenching his shoes off without untying them. Andrea tried to wriggle out of her uniform, to find her apron hopelessly knotted behind her, too tight to shimmy down off her hips or lift up over her head. Shaun gave it a tug that made stitches pop, then sensibly stopped, lifted up the skirt and pulled her soaking underwear down past her shoes.

  Then, finally, he was pulling her onto the thick length of his cock, and she was wrapping her legs around him to get him deeper, crying out in pleasure and need.

  The washer was noisy and clanked with every frantic motion, and when the cold concrete floor seemed unappealing, Shaun, still buried inside of her, carried her to the only slightly less uncomfortable kitchen table for several lingering thrusts, then into the living room, where they made it no further than the start of the carpet before he was laying her down to drive into her until her world exploded in brilliant sensation and he was crying out and jerking his release into her.

  For several long, panting moments, they continued to move together, the after-effect of her orgasm leaving Andrea’s limbs tingling and weak.

  Shaun finally groaned and collapsed beside her and they lay and waited for their hearts to return to beating normally.

  “Oh look,” Andrea finally said, giggling helplessly. “The light over the stairs is working now.”

  Chapter 13

  Pretending that his world hadn’t just been dumped upside down, Shaun craned his neck around to verify Andrea’s observation. Sure enough, the light over the stairs was on now.

  Somehow, after a round of sex like that, he was half expecting to find that they had taken the power out for an entire block.

  He was caressing Andrea automatically, tracing the tantalizing lines of her neck and her perfect curves and he made himself stop as soon as he realized what he was doing.

  It was somehow more intimate than their frantic love-making had been, and he was already swamped in doubts.

  There are no doubts, his tiger told him, sated and content.

  We promised, Shaun countered.

  He sat up, keenly aware of Andrea’s lush body still sprawled beside him. Even after that, he still craved her, and it was a challenge not to fall upon her with kisses and carry her off to his bedroom as his prize, even if he wasn’t capable of doing more than curling around her for sleep for a while.

  Perhaps sensing Shaun’s second thoughts, Andrea sobered and sat up, brushing her loose hair back shyly. “I... ah... that wasn’t exactly how I was pl
anning to help you with the electricity.” She turned her attention to the knotted straps of her apron, not meeting Shaun’s eyes.

  “Here, let me help you,” Shaun said before he could stop himself.

  Andrea turned away and held her hair aside so that he could work at the impressive knot they’d managed to make. It took all of his self-control not to stroke her bare skin while he worked, and he was amused to realize that her blush showed at the back of her neck through the natural tan of her skin.

  “Thank you,” he said, as he released the tangled fabric at last. “I... just... thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Andrea said shyly, pulling the uniform up over her arms and giving him a sidelong glance.

  Shaun recognized that he was in deep water. He wanted to pull her close and never let her go, to ask her to marry him on the spot.

  But he’d made a promise.

  “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea,” he said firmly. “This was great, and you are...” calling her hot seemed both crude and painfully inadequate. “Amazing.”

  Her intense eyes made talking to her distracting and Shaun had to look down, realizing he was still completely naked. “But this is a weird time,” he confessed, meaning it in several ways. “Trevor’s just been abandoned by his mom, and he needs stability right now, not a dad who’s navigating some sort of...”

  Mate, his tiger tried to supply.

  “Relationship,” Shaun said firmly.

  “Oh, sure,” Andrea said too quickly. “I completely understand. This doesn’t have to be... a thing. I mean, it was a thing. Just a thing.”

  “Yeah,” Shaun said, not sure if he was glad she was being so accepting, or if he hurt that she was agreeing so quickly. “Just a thing.”

  Andrea giggled then, a warm, comfortable sound. “Helluva thing, though,” she said honestly as she stood. “I’ve got to find my underthings.”

  See? Shaun told his tiger in triumph. She’s being completely reasonable about this. No ridiculous hangups about mates and destiny. It’s just a thing.

  But neither he, nor his tiger, was completely convinced.

  Chapter 14

  Andrea walked as slowly up her front walk as she knew how, hoping she would catch the attention of Shaun without having to actually go to his door.

  To her joy, she was still unlocking her door when she heard the creak of his steps on his porch.

  “Andrea?”

  “Shaun!” Andrea realized she sounded far too eager and cleared her throat. “I, ah, have something for you.”

  Shaun was silent for a moment and Andrea rushed on. “I was at Ted’s Hardware and picked up the fuse you needed.”

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Shaun protested.

  “It was a couple of bucks,” Andrea said dismissively. “And I was there anyway.” That was a lie. She’d had no other purpose at Ted’s but to pick up the fuse and hope that she ran into Shaun so she could give it to him.

  “Thank you,” Shaun said, sounding gruff in the shadows of his ill-lit porch. “I... really appreciate it.”

  “I also wrote you up some instructions, in case I didn’t run into you,” Andrea said shyly. “Let me go grab them.”

  In the stillness of her own empty house, Andrea took a deep breath and reminded herself that what had happened was just a thing. This was not courtship, and she wasn’t really trying to catch his attention or angling for a repeat of the night before.

  She was just being neighborly.

  And sort of hoping that the thing happened again.

  She tripped back down her walk more briskly than she’d walked up it, and vaulted over his gate to close the distance to his house.

  “I may have had a little too much fun writing this,” she confessed, suddenly shy to hand over the pages. “Here’s the replacement fuse, and I brought a flashlight, in case you didn’t have one.”

  “A flashlight?” Even looking confused, Shaun was devastatingly handsome. “There’s a light in the laundry room.”

  “You have to turn off the power to the house before you switch out a fuse,” Andrea scolded him. “It’s here in part one, in big letters.”

  Shaun laughed. “Of course. I’m an idiot,” he said sheepishly.

  “The jury’s still out on that,” Andrea teased him. “You want me to give you a hand?”

  “Yeah,” Shaun breathed, and they were suddenly talking about the other kind of electricity.

  He was going to kiss her, Andrea was suddenly sure. He was going to kiss her again and all she could think about was the way his skin smelled and the way his bare chest had felt under her fingers and how he’d filled her.

  He swallowed, instead of leaning in. “Yeah,” he repeated firmly. “That would be great.”

  Andrea stuffed her memories back into the past where they belonged. “Let’s go play with electricity,” she said in her best enthusiastic preschool teacher voice.

  Chapter 15

  “That’s the ground, we don’t have to mess with that, there’s the hot, and that’s the return. Some of these old houses aren’t color coded reliably, but mostly red or black is hot, white is the return, and bare or green is ground. You’re lucky; I think the guy who wired my house got a deal on black wire, because it’s arbitrarily used as ground in a bunch of places, and that can get confusing.”

  Andrea deftly unscrewed the first connection while Shaun held the flashlight over her head. He was hard as a rock and if she backed up an inch, she’d figure out exactly how badly he wanted her.

  “Now your turn,” she said, turning and brushing up against him.

  For a moment, Shaun’s brain completely shut off.

  Andrea patiently put the screwdriver into his hand as if she hadn’t noticed his rock hard cock. “It’s not scary, I promise. All the power to the house is off and nothing can hurt you.” She slipped the flashlight out of his hand and held it pointed at the box. “Go ahead and unscrew the next part.”

  Shaun took a deep breath and awkwardly unscrewed the last connection on the fuse, nervous under her scrutiny, and tense with his need for her.

  Andrea showed him how to rock the fuse out of the base, and handed him the new one. “Just press it into place.”

  It wasn’t what he wanted to press into place, but Shaun obediently popped the fuse in and when Andrea nudged him, then replaced the wires into the new connections, twisting the screws in tightly.

  “Done!” Andrea said cheerfully. “Let’s just put the panel cover back up, and go throw the switch!”

  “That was it?” Shaun said bemusedly. “I thought there would be a lot more to it.”

  They lifted the panel cover into place and Shaun screwed it down.

  “How’d you learn to do this?” he asked, tightening each screw carefully.

  “I inherited my parents’ house when they died; none of my extremely successful siblings had any use for an aging house in the small town they didn’t want to come back to. And I couldn’t afford a plumber or an electrician, so I learned a lot on YouTube.”

  Shaun recognized this as a dangerous moment.

  It was the start of an actual conversation, the kind of thing where they talked about their families and ended up bonding about shared middle school experiences.

  Though probably, her experiences didn’t include turning into a tiger in the locker room of a boarding school unexpectedly.

  “Shaun?”

  His promise haunted him.

  His son didn’t want him to like Miss Andrea. Not seriously like her. And he owed Trevor so much, for so many years of his life that he’d missed. He couldn’t break that promise and dissolve the trust they were just beginning to build. Not even for a woman who set him on fire with a single golden glance.

  Our mate, his tiger insisted.

  It’s just... physical, he replied, barely able to form words because she was standing close in the tiny room, and the flashlight was casting her curves into sharp relief.

  “Shaun?” she repeated, and it w
as almost a whine, as full of need as his own body.

  The flashlight and screwdriver clattered to the floor as he reached for her and she moved to meet him.

  If they made love any less urgently than they had the night before, it was not by much.

  He carried her all the way to the couch as she wriggled out of her t-shirt, kissing every inch of skin as she exposed it, and was shucking off his pants before she got her bra off. She wrestled him out of his shirt as he did the same with her shorts, frequently at odds as their limbs tangled. Then, finally, he was buried in her again and she was clawing at his shoulders as he drew her into an orgasm that shuddered around his cock.

  It was with great effort that he was able to resist joining her in the throes of pleasure, but he paced himself carefully and was able to raise her up again, her gorgeous body arching in a second agony of bliss below him as he finally released.

  The couch was too narrow to comfortably lie next to each other, and Shaun feared that smothering her with his weight would put a crimp in their neighborly friendship, so he only gave himself a moment to catch his ragged breath before he rose up and attempted to reassemble his clothing.

  Andrea lay panting only a few breaths longer, then sat up to clean herself and do the same.

  “Daddy?”

  Trevor’s thin, tired voice from the top of the stairs made them both freeze.

  “Daddy, why are all the lights off?”

  “I was just working on the electricity, kiddo,” Shaun said loudly as Andrea grimaced and yanked her shirt over her head as quietly as possible. “I’ll fix it in just a second and come up and tuck you back in.”

  Trevor seemed to accept that, and padded sleepily back into his room.