Men-On-Pause; A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Bells and Spells Book 2)

by M. L. Briers

  “I wasn’t!” Sandy rushed out. Her cheeks were a bright shade of red, and she looked so guilty of a crime when Marilyn turned her attention towards her that she had to feel a little guilty about butting in.

  “Good,” she said, stopping just before the first closed door – those rooms always seemed to be the best places to start, they were generally closed for a reason. “Because I don’t care what two consenting adults do in their own time – I just don’t want to witness my son doing it.” She offered the young witch a sweet smile.

  “But we were just…” Sandy looked lost; she even flinched, it really was a road to nowhere to try to explain it away when they all knew perfectly well what they were doing.

  “Exploring one's options,” Marilyn said and grabbed the door handle. “Good for you.” Then she pushed open the door and strolled into the room.

  Scott cleared his throat. “Just stay a while,” he said, offering her the kind of look that said she’d kicked his puppy. “Do you want to rush home to Lottie and Hank?”

  Sandy grimaced. “Not so much,” she admitted.

  “Then let’s nuke some popcorn and watch a movie.” Now he looked hopeful.

  “Do you have popcorn?”

  “Probably not,” Scott admitted. “We could go for a walk.”

  “You’re not supposed to be out…”

  “That was before the shifter died,” he informed her. Then he reached for the jackets that hung from the rack and offered her a smile that looked like a second pathetic attempt at puppy dog eyes. “And I do have a little cabin fever.”

  It worked, she caved. “Fine, just around the house,” Sandy said with a shrug.

  All she had to go home to was Lottie and Hank, and playing third wheel didn’t suit her mood tonight. Spending time with Scott was always fun, and she liked fun.

  ~

  Claudia knew it wasn’t just the mating pull that had her wanting more. There was a connection there that went beyond fate’s hand, and the more they kissed, the deeper that connection got.

  Only where he was kissing her now sent a fever through her naked body that had her fisting the covers of her bed and praying to the Goddess that he didn’t stop. He didn’t stop. He took her up that damn mountain and launched her off it, and she met the hard throbbing pleasure with loud enthusiasm.

  By the time she opened her eyes again, her man was naked and crawling up the bed on his hands and knees with those hard muscles on show, and a hungry look in his dark eyes that was sexier than hell. From what she could see, sexy eyes and muscles wasn’t the only thing he had to offer her. His hard, thick length was swinging back and forth in an almost comic wave hello, and she was sure she was going to enjoy meeting his little brain.

  “You know what comes next?” Cain growled as he settled his hips in between her inner thighs, and she wrapped her legs around his.

  Claudia offered him a wicked smile. “I think I’ve done this before…”

  The low deep growl said Mr Jealous Guy had entered their space, and she couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’ve never done this before.” His words sounded like a sinful promise, and her heart did leap.

  “Well, in all fairness, that would make you a virgin too,” she said and noted the way he cocked his head to one side, like a dog trying to figure out his human’s words.

  It took Cain a moment to get where she was coming from. “I guess it does…”

  “So, I guess we’re going to have to play it by fang,” she said and smiled.

  “I do bite,” he growled.

  “Yes, but is it worse than your bark?”

  Cain opened his mouth, considered it, and closed his mouth again. Then he remembered what he was going to say. “You do get the whole bite part, right?”

  “I do, I got that,” she said in a mocking tone. “But, what I want to know is when I’m going to get the whole sex part – I mean – I get you’re getting a little long in the fang, and if you need a minute, I totally under…”

  Cain kissed her like his life depended on it. In truth, she’d pushed a few buttons inside of him that he couldn’t risk being triggered – not when he needed to curb his wild side as much as possible, so he didn’t lose control. One kiss to silence her led to another kiss because he wanted too, and another because he couldn’t not kiss her.

  When Claudia’s fingernails scratch the length of his back, he moved fast to snag her wrists and push her hands up above her head against the mattress where they could do no harm. But, the damage to his psyche was already done, and his idea to go slow and savour her until he couldn’t hold back any longer was now over. He pushed into her silken channel, and she returned fire by squeezing those inner muscles around his length so tightly that he wasn’t entirely sure which way was up.

  Cain offered her a low warning growl that rumbled in his chest before he released her lips and looked down into the face a wicked witch who knew exactly what she was doing in trying to send him wild. “Be very careful what you witch for.”

  “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do,” she said, sounding like a hot-blooded, claws out man-eater. Damn, he hoped so.

  Cain felt the rumble of a growl build up in his chest before he’d even thought about it, and it rolled through him with the force akin to the rush of blood that left his head and went straight to his little brain. When she tightened those inner muscles once more, he was lost to an overwhelming need to make her his – seal the bond between them – and spend the rest of his life worshipping her.

  Cain moved his hips. He set a rhythm that took her breath away, and each deep thrust took her right back up that mountain again. His sexy muscles were straining, his eyes held her spellbound, and that sinful growl only tightened the knot within her more.

  Sex had never felt so good, but then this wasn’t sex, this was making love. It was completing the connection between them that had started with a look and rapidly expanded into so much more.

  Claudia wanted to close her eyes and revel in the feeling of them together, but she couldn’t look away, she didn’t want to miss a second of his hungry eyes as they feasted on her, and saw into her very soul.

  She was a hellcat, and he was a wild wolfman, and when he released her wrists and swept her up into his arms, never missing a thrust inside of her, she melted like snow on a summer’s day with the fire that clawed within her for him, for them together.

  CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

  ~

  Cain’s hand fisted her silken hair and dragged her head to one side. His wolf was clawing within him to be released, and he knew he could no longer deny the beast. His fangs elongated, and he saw the spark of excitement in his mate’s eyes a moment before he dipped his head and ran his tongue over the smooth skin of her shoulder.

  Cain could feel the natural tightening of her inner muscles, and he worked harder to keep it together and not to lose control, now more than ever, he needed to be damned careful. His hips picked up the beat, matching his racing heart, and the moment that he felt her loose all control – he bit down into her sweet flesh with his razor-sharp fangs, placing his mark in her skin, and tasting her blood on his tongue.

  Cain’s beast roared within him and slowly pulled back. Claudia was coming back to him, and he could feel his wild side taking over. He pulled out, lifted and turned her onto her hands and knees on the bed in front of him, and thrust back into hilt within her, making her growl out her pleasure as she arched her back and pushed back to meet him.

  Damn, his woman was going to be the death of him, and he couldn’t think of a better way to go. He slapped his hands against the curve of her full hips, took her to the hilt down his length, and allowed the fever in his blood to do its thing.

  Then he was lost within her body. Every deep thrust that elicited a mew, curse word and moans from her lips drove him on. His body was strained, his muscles on fire, as his hips beat out a rhythm against her backside that was becoming more erratic the closer that she got to her happy for now moment.

  Cain w
as more than ready to explode, but he held on, desperate to take her with him into oblivion. The rushing in his ears, the pounding of his heart, and the fevered shaking of his muscles couldn’t make him stop – he was waiting for his mate – and she didn’t keep him waiting too long.

  The moment that Claudia cried out with the first hard, gripping wave of the orgasm that ore through her, Cain buried his length to the hilt, tossed his head back, and as his seed exploded within her – the mating howl burst from within him and rattled the walls around them.

  Over and over, he took her to the hilt until he had nothing left to give. Together they rode the waves of pleasure until finally that connection between them had become a bond.

  Cain’s body protested moving another inch, but he found the last of his strength to sweep her up against him, turn them on the bed, and fall against the mattress, spent. He pulled her as close as he could get her, tossed a thick leg over hers, and buried his face in her hair against her neck revelling in her scent.

  It had taken him fifty years to find his mate, and now he had her, he wasn’t letting her go.

  ~

  Scott walked off the edge of the wall, and his feet hit the grass with a low thud. He turned and stretched his arm up towards Sandy, offering her his hand and help to jump down.

  “Oh, a gentleman,” Sandy said with teasing laugh as she reached out to take his hand, but the faraway howl that echoed through the countryside made her pause in place as she stared off into the distance as though she might just be able to see what the hell was going on.

  “Well, good for Claudia,” Scott chuckled, bringing Sandy’s attention back to him.

  “A mating howl?” she asked with glee, and he nodded.

  “Who said the older generation wasn’t still…” His words were cut short when in the blink of an eye, something attacked. It had come out of the darkness and swept him away as Sandy was still reaching for his hand.

  For one horrifying long moment, Sandy was transfixed with shock, but the sound of Scott’s cry of pain unleashed something within her that she couldn’t control. She turned in place, searching for Scott in the darkness when a flash of light caused by Scott’s magic helped her hone in on where it was that she needed to be.

  Sandy screamed with the rage that came from a deep darkness in the very worst place in her soul.

  Another burst of energy sparked the darkness and illuminated the wolf as it flew backwards through the air – without a thought in her mind and acting only on instinct, she released the pent up magic within her, the razor-sharp sparks of energy tore the wolf apart before it hit the ground.

  “Sandy! Scott!” Marilyn’s panicked voice was like an anchor bringing her from the darkness back into the light.

  “Scott,” she muttered as she snapped into action and jumped from the wall to hit the ground running. But something was faster than she was, and it swept up the air as it rushed by her, and left her in its trail. “Scott!” She called out into the darkness and almost tripped over them as she hit the brakes.

  Neal was intent on surveying Scott’s wounds, too numerous to count, and the damage that the attacking wolf had done to his body. “He’s still breathing,” he informed Sandy as she dropped to her knees beside him on the ground.

  Marilyn screeched with fear the moment that she came upon them. Her mind went blank and then rebooted to every possible scenario that was about to play out.

  Rage tore through her. She wanted to find what had done this and rip it into a thousand pieces with her bare hands. She wanted it to be her and not Scott on the ground. She wanted to scream with the power of a thousand suns and strike humanity dead if it would save his life, and she wanted to give her life in his place.

  “No,” she breathed out the word as she dropped to her knees on the grass and crawled to her place beside him. “Magic – I can use magic,” she muttered to herself, trying to search her mind for the one spell that would save her son’s life.

  “I’ve got this,” Neal assured her, and when she dragged her gaze to him, she saw the face of a monster. His fangs were elongated, and his eyes were jet black and bloodshot like he was a soulless beast.

  When he lifted his hand to his mouth; he ripped into his flesh with those razor-sharp fangs, and she wanted to look away, she really did, anywhere but at him and what he was about to do, but she couldn’t. As the vampire fed her son his healing blood, Marilyn had never been more grateful for his presence in her life before.

  Marilyn felt her strength returning to her body, mind and soul, as hope sparked the way. She reached for Sandy’s hand; it was shaking from the adrenaline and fear of what had happened. She wrapped it in her own – pushing that strength out to the young witch and through her into her son from Sandy's hand on his body.

  “Neal?” she asked.

  Neal turned to her; all signs of his vampire nature was gone. Only the blood around his mouth and on his lips left a clue as to what had just happened.

  CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

  ~

  “His heart is still beating, he’ll recover,” he assured her. Their gazes were locked, and he reached for her mind with his, listening to the thoughts that were going like a train speeding down the tracks. “Trust me.” He used his influence to calm those thoughts, to bring her down from the ledge she’d walked as a mother, and felt her calmness wash back over him.

  “Neal…” she started, she wanted to thank him, to tell him that she owed him so much, but where to start?

  “Sure, you say that now, but in the morning…” Neal grinned, and it only grew wider when he lifted his hand and tapped his temple.

  “Son of a…”

  “See, quicker than I thought, but I told you it wasn’t going to last,” he said with a devilish chuckle.

  Scott coughed, and all eyes turned to him. Sandy practically lunged at him the moment his eyes opened. “Neal saved you, you’re going to be all right,” she rushed out.

  Marilyn couldn’t help but smile. It might just be that her work here was done. It felt a little strange being the third wheel, but not as strange as walking in on them when they were making out. “We need to check the wolf,” she lied, and went to push up to her feet, but her legs still felt a little weak, and when Neal’s hand appeared before her, she took it without a moments’ thought.

  Neal wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her as he led her away. He leant in a little and whispered. “I don’t think there’s much of a wolf around to check on,” he said.

  “I saw,” Marilyn whispered back.

  “Remind me not to get her miffed off at me,” he replied and was happy to hear Marilyn’s soft chuckle.

  “Ditto,” Marilyn said on a frown as she remembered what Lottie had said; the most powerful witch in the coven. Well, Marilyn guessed that Sandy had found those powers.

  ~

  “So much for your men-on-pause,” Louann said as she perched on the last stool at the kitchen counter and turned to eye her daughter who was sitting on the last stool. A little distance never hurt anyone, and Marilyn seemed to be staring off into space, which was never a good idea.

  Marilyn frowned as she pulled her attention from the wall and turned it on her mother. “Men-on-pause,” she said and drew in a long slow breath as she considered it.

  “It’s like springtime around here, and all the bunnies are bopping like a witch cast a lust spell,” Louann replied, and then she thought about that for a moment. “You didn’t, did you?”

  “Me?” Marilyn looked surprised. “If there’s an interfering old witch around here, it’s not me.”

  “Not so much of the old…”

  “Excuse me; you’re ancient, I’m old…”

  “Pah!” Louann spat out. “I haven’t seen you this full of life since you were in your early forties.”

  Marilyn winced. “Gee, thanks, I think.” She wasn’t sure if that was supposed to boost her morale or flatten her under the realisation that she was in her fifties. Not that she needed to be reminded, just
looking in the mirror in the morning did that.

  “So, did you?” Louann asked.

  Marilyn was lost. She didn’t have a clue what her mother was talking about. “Did I what?”

  “Cast a spell.”

  “I put a spell on you…” Claudia sang as she breezed into the kitchen, her long skirt swooshing around her ankles as she walked over to the coffee pot.

  “Someone’s in a good mood,” Marilyn noted.

  Louann snorted a chuckle. “Someone was bopping like a bunny all night,” she said.

  Claudia turned and poured the coffee simultaneously, and the wicked smile on her lips lit up her face. “Ooo, I’m a bunny? I like that, and I highly recommend it for what ails you.”

  “Nothing ails me,” Louann replied with a deep frown. “Except for the lack of coffee on offer.”

  Claudia breezed across the room and delivered her a cup of the steaming brew. “Ask, and ye shall receive.”

  “How about a bulldozer to get rid of that wall in the garden that has a permanent gnome sitting on it?” she tossed back.

  Marilyn sat up a little straighter. “He’s out there again?” she asked, and her cheeks flushed red with the way her voice sounded, excited with a touch of the thrilled to bits about it.

  “Don’t sound too peeved,” Louann said, but Claudia was looking her friend straight in the eye and Marilyn reached for the magazine that Amber had discarded and started to fan herself with it.

  “It’s a little hot in here,” she lied.

  “Or maybe it’s the men-on-pause – I mean man-on-pause,” Claudia corrected herself, and when Marilyn opened her mouth, Claudia tipped her head to one side and offered her a teasing grin. “I meant menopause; you’re looking a little flushed there.”