“Great. It’s settled then,” Max said as he and Bash stood. “We’ll talk later about particulars before I leave.”
“Sounds good,” Bash said. “But I gotta go. I have a date.”
Slater pushed himself out of his chair, saying, “I do too,” and then the two men left Rafe’s office together. Rafe didn’t mention he knew for a fact Gideon wasn’t in town.
“There’s one more thing,” Max said as he hovered by Rafe’s desk. “About your family.”
Rafe stood and met the bear’s serious gaze. “What about them?”
“I’d like to help with that.”
Almost thirty minutes later, Rafe glanced over at Aubrey sitting atop Chaparrita as they rode in a slow, comfortable silence across the meadow toward the trees surrounding the stream. It was a beautiful spot and a place where he hoped to spend some quality time with his mate. He grinned at how surprisingly ecstatic Dex had been when he’d found out Max was staying with him while he and Aubrey were out. It was good to see, but he couldn’t help the twinge of sadness that he still tended to stand back from Rafe.
At least he had gotten a guarantee from Max he would not eat him out of house and home after he and Dex swam and then probably watched an on-demand movie in Rafe’s home theater. But he had a feeling he’d need to ask his live-in housekeeper and cook, Mrs. Johnstone, to go grocery shopping tomorrow.
“I can’t get over how much all of this looks just like Dex’s drawings,” Aubrey said, breaking the quiet. She turned in her saddle toward him, and Rafe’s heart raced at what she said next. “You’re going to think this is strange, but after seeing his artwork, I actually dreamed about all of this. So, I kind of feel like I’ve been here before.”
“No. Not strange at all.”
Because this is your home and you’re mine.
Of course he couldn’t say that aloud, but maybe once her work with Dex was done he could pursue her properly. And if she was dreaming about his home, it wasn’t a far stretch to hope she might be close to her Awakening.
She bit her lip—something he’d found more and more sexy each time she’d done it—before throwing him a challenging glance and then grinning.
“What?” He liked the bit of mischief dancing in her eyes.
“Race ya,” she said before digging her heels into Chaparrita’s sides and taking off across the field, laughing and yelling out behind her. “See you at the stream.” Then she lowered her upper body over the mare’s neck to urge her on.
Rafe was game, but Chaparrita was no match for El Fuerte—he hadn’t named his painted stallion The Strong One for nothing. So he held back and followed at a close clip, but not close enough to catch her as she unerringly found the horse trail leading through the trees.
She did know where she was going.
With the opening to the clearing in sight, Rafe let El Fuerte loose and breezed by a complaining Aubrey hollering out, “Hey,” and only coming to a stop at the bank of the stream where he dismounted under the shade of a tree. “Good boy,” he said, smoothing over the stallion’s sweating coat as the big horse drank from the stream. Chaparrita and his mate came galloping up within a few moments, Aubrey glaring and out of breath.
“I call foul.”
“How?” he answered with a grin at her as she braced a sneakered foot in the stirrup and then threw her other leg over the saddle to dismount. “El Fuerte is—”
“Rafe!”
He moved quickly as her foot slipped and she fell backward, catching her well before she could hit the ground. She was a soft weight as his arms wrapped around her, with one secured across her middle as the other hand filled with a firm breast.
Now they were both breathing hard.
“You need to be more careful,” he murmured into her shining hair. “You could have been hurt.” He couldn’t help but run his nose through the silky strands while his hand gently squeezed the breast where her hard nipple pressed into his palm with her next stuttering breath. “I should let you go.” But he couldn’t. Not yet. He’d needed her for what seemed like forever, and holding her brought him some measure of satisfaction.
“You should. But…”
Rafe closed his eyes and groaned as Aubrey pressed her ass back into his aching cock. Her hands moved up behind her and around his neck to tug at his hair before gripping the strands and urging his head to her exposed neck. She had no idea the temptation she was offering him. He nuzzled along the column of her throat down to where it met her shoulder as his hand at her waist dipped under her shirt to the smooth flesh underneath.
He hugged her to him as her skin pebbled under his touch with each stroke of his fingers over her belly. The fingers of his other hand played over and squeezed her stiff nipple the best he could through her bra and shirt.
“God, Aubrey,” he whispered as his gums ached to let loose his fangs and mark her. All it would take would be one deep bite and she would be his. He pulled her against him and rubbed his hard cock into her ass to distract him from the temptation. She wasn’t ready. But he would tease himself anyhow—no matter how torturous—so he licked a path up from the curve of her shoulder, nibbling and sucking as he went until she was trembling and pulling his hair tightly.
“Rafe,” she said on a gasp and pressed into him when his hand dipped to the top of her jeans.
“Tell me what you need.” His fingers splayed out over her belly and eased lower, the tips just breaching the fabric at her waistband as his other hand reluctantly left her breast and brushed down her side. “Tell me, Aubrey,” he growled as he crushed the hem of her shirt in his hand.
Her deep sigh shuddered against him as her barely whispered, “Touch me,” sent his pulse in overdrive. “I ne…need you to touch me.”
“Thank God,” he rumbled as one hand went to the button on her jeans and the other went up under her shirt to her bra. He pulled one cup down and plumped the breast with his questing fingers. She froze as he lowered her zipper, the hands still in his hair clutching hard enough he winced, so he stopped. “Aubrey?”
“Sorry. I’m nervous.”
He rested his forehead against the back of her head and blew out a harsh breath. “I can stop.” And he would. He wasn’t going to push her any further than she was willing to go.
She brushed a hand down one side of his face as Chaparrita snorted and almost sidestepped into them, so he backed away from the horse with Aubrey still secured in his embrace.
“It’s just that I need something else.”
Rafe ran his cheek over her hair. “Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”
“I want to see you—look at you.”
He wanted to look at her too. To see the expressions crossing her face. He could tell a lot from how a person’s body reacted. But their eyes told him so much more. “Yes,” he said, slowly turning her around but keeping her close. Her deep blue, longing gaze raised to his and he was lost.
She stretched up to him as his mouth descended. He had to taste her lips—to finally have his tongue savor what her sweet breath had promised all those nights ago.
When they touched it was more than he’d imagined.
He lifted her off her feet and gathered her up high against his chest as her arms wrapped around his neck. His mouth plundered hers as he soaked in her beautiful whimpers and moans that blended with the quiet rippling of the stream, birdsong, and bugs buzzing around them.
It wasn’t enough. He needed more, and obviously so did she as she pressed herself against him. He came up for air and chuckled at her grunt of displeasure and scowl as she tried to tug his head back to hers. Then her long moan of, “Rafe,” as he carried her the few steps needed to find a soft patch of grass in the shade
“I know,” he whispered as he went to his knees. Her arms fell away from his neck as he laid her down. Then he stretched out beside her as his heightened shifter senses filled with the sweet aroma drifting up from her core.
He raised her shirt and let his fingers coast up her sides, taking the edges o
f her shirt with them until he uncovered the one breast he had released from the cup of her bra. Her pale brown nipple stood out hard—calling to him. So he answered, taking the ridged flesh in his mouth and brushing his tongue up and around while Aubrey once more attacked his hair. But this time she held him tightly to her chest.
He grinned around her flesh as she pushed her breast into his mouth and her low hum of pleasure surrounded him. Her arousal grew stronger as he went back to work on her jeans. He unzipped them the rest of the way while her hips squirmed.
Heat filled him as his hand found its way inside her jeans and his fingers coasted over her cotton panties. Her hips stilled and a long sigh left her as he sucked her nipple deeply and he rubbed over the hot, damp center of fabric separating his fingers from where they wanted to be.
So he pushed the fabric aside, his teeth pressing into her flesh enough she gasped as his fingers stroked over bare, smooth flesh covered in her essence. He released her breast and moved down her body to her waist where he pushed at her jeans—his mouth watering in anticipation as she lifted her hips. He worked them, along with her panties, down her legs as she toed off her sneakers.
And even though he was reluctant to leave her body, he had to sit back on his haunches and let his gaze roam over her after he’d tossed her clothes aside. She was bare from the waist down while her t-shirt remained bunched under her chin with one breast exposed. For the life of him he couldn’t do anything else but stare.
She was his. His Destined Mate. And he’d never seen anything or anyone more beautiful in all of his thirty-eight years.
“Um…” Her legs twisted and bent. “Is something wrong?”
“No.” He lifted his gaze over the expanse of her flushed skin. “Everything is perfect.”
She bit her lip and then shook her head as she covered her breast. “I’m far from perfect.”
He moved his gaze to her eyes and held her with a stare holding everything he felt as he gently took her hand away from her breast. “You might not believe me now, but you need to know you are more than perfect.”
You’re mine.
Aubrey’s small smile and slight shake of her head told him she still wasn’t convinced. So he would just have to prove it to her.
“Have you ever been devoured?” he whispered as he spread her legs apart and moved between them.
Her eyes widened as she slowly moved her head from side to side with a quiet, “No.”
He breathed in deeply as he settled on the grass with his head cradled by her thighs, where her plump, wet flesh waited for his mouth. “Aubrey,” he growled, as he let his gaze move up over her flushing body before focusing once more on her partly opened center. “Get ready.” Her body tensed as he spread her lips apart to expose her perfect pink flesh. Then he finally lowered his mouth and took his first taste.
I’m home.
6
God, it’s like my dream.
Aubrey lay back and let the mind-numbing sensation of Rafe’s rough tongue swiping up and down the center of her pussy take her away as her hips moved in time with each stroke. It was clear her minimal experience in this had involved slackers because—
“Oh, God.” She helplessly lifted her hips and clutched her fingers into the grass as his low groan tingled against her flesh. She splayed her legs wider at the oh so decadent sensation as he thoroughly explored her and then covered her mouth with the back of her hand to keep from screaming at how good it felt.
If this was being devoured, she was more than willing to be consumed.
And it wasn’t just what his lips and tongue and—oh my—his teeth were doing to her as he went back to her clit. The low growls and occasional purrs sent heat coursing through her body and had the hair rising up on her arms. He was taking her to a place she had never been before. And all she knew was, within the last few moments, Rafe had ruined her for anyone else.
Which certainly wasn’t something she could tell him.
I want to ride your tongue for the rest of my life if that’s okay with you.
She was pretty sure he’d look at her like she was crazy. She—
“Ahh…” She arched into his face when his tongue speared into her channel. Her eyes widened as she pushed closer when his tongue went just as deep as any man’s cock had before. But that was impossible.
Then she couldn’t think at all as he made love to her with his mouth, using long slow licks and eating kisses over her tender flesh. He interspersed short forays inside her while his fingers played over her nipple. Soon, nothing else mattered but the tingling in her pussy and her throbbing clit as he went to the little nub of flesh again and again until he finally sucked it deeply and she almost came unglued.
Is that my voice echoing across the clearing?
She didn’t care as he took her higher and higher until she exploded into a burst of light where only she and Rafe existed. Her body shivered with the last of her release as Rafe gently licked over her. She strained to hear his murmured words against her flesh but couldn’t quite make them out until his low, “Thank you,” reached her with his final kiss before he moved up her body and covered her.
“Why are you thanking me?” she panted as his weight settled on top of her.
“For giving this—yourself—to me.”
She gazed into his deep chocolate eyes where again that hint of amber that was never far away when he looked at her streaked across.
“Well,” she said, rubbing herself against the solid ridge in his jeans pressing into her center. She was usually a cuddler after a bout of sex—meaning once she came that was kind of it. But not with Rafe. She wanted more, and right now he had way too many clothes on for her liking. “I say you let me tell you, you’re welcome, in the best way I know how. I—”
Rafe’s phone ringing from his saddle bag interrupted them, and he frowned over at it before pushing himself up and away from her. “Sorry.”
“No. You should see who it is,” she said as she raised up on her elbows, looked down her body, and then frowned. She still had only one boob hanging out, and so she quickly adjusted it. How had she not cared—or even noticed?
He pulled the phone from the pouch hanging off his saddle, his features darkening as he answered it. “Max? Is everything okay?”
Aubrey sat up and pulled her knees up to her chest, but the breeze blowing across her exposed parts had her standing and picking up her panties Rafe had thrown to the side. She slipped them on as Rafe’s face became darker and his jaw tightened.
“We’ll be right there,” he said hanging up. “We need to go.”
“Of course,” she said, grabbing up her jeans, and then stepping into them and pulling them up her legs. “What’s happened?”
“We had company at the ranch and now Dex is hiding in Chaparrita’s stall and won’t come out.”
“What?” She quickly buttoned and zipped up her jeans before dragging on her sneakers and sprinting over to her horse. “Let’s go.”
She hadn’t needed to tell Rafe as he came up behind her and lifted her into her saddle and made sure she was secure before rushing to his own horse and swinging his body up onto the huge animal’s back.
They took off at a fast pace, but she could see Rafe was holding back.
“Go,” she called out over the thunder of hooves and air rushing past them. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Rafe took one glance over at her, indecision plain on his face, before she mouthed again, “Go.”
He grimaced and then urged his mount on, leaving Aubrey in his wake as he broke from the cover of trees and galloped through the field. Aubrey follow as quickly as she and Chaparrita could manage, but he was well across the field before they had even made it halfway. Aubrey kept her gaze ahead while her heart filled with worry over Dex.
He had been so happy when they’d left for their ride. So what could have happened to cause this kind of reaction. He’d never had a problem with strangers, and as far as she knew, he hadn’t shown this kind of b
ehavior before.
As she drew closer to the ranch, she could see Max pacing outside the main barn that housed Chaparrita’s stall. Then Rafe appeared at the entrance where he braced one hand on the frame and shook his head.
She urged her horse to a slow trot as she got closer to the two men. “Woah,” she said, pulling on the reins and then came to a full stop as she caught the last bit of what Max was saying.
“…telling you, he freaked Dex the hell out.”
Rafe gazed over his shoulder into the barn before focusing back on Max as Aubrey carefully dismounted. “I’ve known Flagg for years. There’s definitely something off about the man but not enough to cause this kind of reaction.” Rafe turned his unusually harried expression toward her before giving Max a hard stare. “And you’re sure he didn’t say anything to Dex?”
“Not a word. I knew the kid was behind me, but…” Max shook his head, his own concern evident in the taut lines of his face. “I’m sorry, man.”
“Is he still in there?” Aubrey asked as she glanced at the barn.
“He is.” Rafe’s worried gaze met hers. “I picked him up to bring him out, but he grabbed onto the tacking hanging on the wall and wouldn’t let go.” He closed his eyes and ran his hands over his face before meeting her eyes again on a long sigh. “I didn’t want to force him.”
“You did the right thing.” Forcing him out probably would have done more harm than good. “Can I try to talk to him?”
Rafe was a strong man—in fact one of the strongest men she’d ever met—but in that moment she could see the need in his eyes. But the need was so much different than what he’d had by the stream. “It’s going to be okay,” she murmured, as she went to him and wrapped her arms around him.
He held her loosely for several seconds and then pulled her in tightly, whispering, “Help him.”
“I will,” she whispered back, pulling from his embrace. “But I’ll need Chaparrita.” She grabbed the reins of the horse who had followed close behind her and then led her into the barn and down to her stall.
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