by Laura Wylde
There was more to this story, and I had to get the rest of it. I had a distinct feeling that the information that she wasn’t saying, that was so obviously missing, was now important.
I spent longer than I needed to pick out supplies. My mind was not only on the warning that Jack had given me, but also what Anna had told me as well. While I’d said that I wasn’t interested in her and her virgin offer, after meeting her, of course I was. That was why I hadn’t turned it down outright. I’d known after seeing her and feeling the way my body responded, that I was not willing to close the door on that option. I would have felt guilty about it, but if I got her to the right mindset, she would beg, and I wouldn’t feel bad about having my way with her.
When I was leaving the supplies store, they were closing down, and it was already dark outside. It wasn’t that late in the season, but the sun was down by five or six lately. I wanted to do more, get prepared, but instead I went home, my mind full of new problems that I hadn’t seen coming. That was the worst part of it all, that I’d been blindsided. Not only was I blindsided by the job, but also by the girl. I couldn’t let that happen again.
Early in the morning, I packed up my truck with supplies I had on hand and the ones that I’d picked up the night before. I had a mixed set of emotions. I was anxious to get started, but almost nervous of where it was going to end.
I dragged my feet a bit and it was already daylight before I got to Anna’s house. I’d told her that we would be leaving in the morning, but no lights were on when I got there. The sun wasn’t up all the way and I should have seen something. There was no movement and the first thing that came to mind, was the man she owed money to had gotten to her.
Instantly I was concerned about what that meant that I’d left her there alone the night before. I should have gone and checked on her last night, once I knew who she was up against. Why hadn’t I?
I thought she was taken, so I moved into the house. The door was shut but unlocked. Who left their door unlocked in this day and age? It obviously wasn’t a good idea, and it concreted the idea that something bad had happened. I didn’t feel anything in the air, but my senses were muddled, as was my mind.
I cared too much, as I walk through the house in the dark and looked for signs of forced entry, struggle, something to go off of. What I found though, was a sleeping woman in bed. She wasn’t wearing much, bare skin peeking out from underneath the sheet draped on her body. I sucked in breath and stood there for a time, my eyes devouring the rise of her bare hip and the slight swell of one breast I could see.
Anna had a soft face and expression when she was awake, but she looked practically like glass lying there in the bed as she was. The idea of her last proposal the night before. She’d wanted to get it over with and I was of the same mind at the moment. Looking at her body, lying there so perfectly. I wanted her. Right then and there. It was mine for the taking after all and I really had to fight the urge I had to take it.
I approached the bed without thinking. It was literally like I was just suddenly next to her and I knew exactly what was on my mind. How could anything else be? Anna was untouched and I wanted to be the first. If I was honest with myself, I wanted to be the only. Never had I felt such raw emotions about a woman before.
That last thought scared me, and I moved away from the bed. I didn’t want her to wake up to me next to her. I would have talked my way out of it, like I was showing her how she was vulnerable, but I don’t know if that was the right angle to take with her. Anna was hard to ignore. She was beautiful and could be all mine. I could have already had her and maybe the anticipation was getting to me, like she said it was getting to her.
Now that I knew she wasn’t in danger and I didn’t want to take my prize just yet, I went back outside, shut the door and then knocked on it loudly. I was going to have to make sure she heard me. Anna was a heavy sleeper from what I had seen so far.
It took several minutes of.ically knocking, before I got a pissed off Anna telling me that she would be down soon. I could hear in her tone that she wasn’t happy to be woken up, but she should have been packed and ready to go. I wanted to be gone and started up the mountain by now. If she was being followed, leaving before the sun came up was best. I’d junked that possibility, so I at least wanted to get out of here before it was too late.
She whipped the door open and was about to say something, when she heard a voice behind her, and she shut the door again. I stood there not sure what to do. I finally went in and I could hear her arguing with someone. It was a man, and my hackles were up again. Who was this guy and what was he doing here while she was sleeping?
“Hello?”
Anna didn’t answer. She was not yelling but talking tersely and loud enough that I could sort of hear words, just not which ones were being used. It was frustrating and added even more questions that I didn’t have answers to.
I went back to door, waiting for whatever was going on up there. When Anna came back down, she stopped when she saw me standing on the other side of the door.
“What’s up?”
She was distracted, upset. Something had just gone on and I wanted to ask her what. But knew that it was best if I just let it ride. The truth would come out, if I was paying attention for it.
“We’re going this morning, right?”
“Yeah, I didn’t realize it would be at the crack of dawn though.”
It wasn’t even near that early, but it was good to note, Anna was not a morning person.
“Did you pack up last night?”
I was hopefully, but she looked at me ruefully.
“How about you come back in ten minutes or so and I will be ready to go?”
I should have agreed but said I would stay. In truth, I wanted to know who the guy was upstairs that she was talking to and yelling at a few minutes before. Who had her so upset? I don’t know why, but I wanted to see this person. I wanted to know what was going on, but my damn pride wouldn’t let me ask.
“That’s okay, I’ll wait.”
She gave me a dirty look and I had a feeling that she wasn’t too happy with my decision to so. Just like before with the money and Vincent Barrows, she was keeping something from me, and I wanted to know what it was. I needed to know, so I would figure it out myself. She didn’t have to tell me anything. It wasn’t like it was the first time that someone had lied to me before. I just wanted to know why.
I was right too. All I had to do was wait a few moments and then I had the answer that I was looking for. It was easy to see at least the who of the situation. I saw the man that she had been fighting with upstairs. He came down a few minutes after she went back up. He didn’t look at me, not really, but he didn’t have to. I’d seen enough.
The two were very much alike and it wasn’t a coincidence. It was the kind of semblance that made it clear that there was a reason. They were related and if I had to guess, I would have thought that it was her brother. I was rather sure after watching him for a minute. He had some of the same mannerism, but not temperament. I wouldn’t have been able to see someone in my house and not asked who they were. He didn’t seem bothered by my presence at all. He didn’t look at me once, just down and fixed on something in the distance.
It occurred to me then that maybe there was something wrong with the guy, her brother. He seemed to not being paying much attention to the world around him, but something else. I just didn’t know what that something else was.
“I will be back in a couple of days Ezekiel, make sure that you don’t get into any trouble.”
Ezekiel looked up at her and just nodded his head. Something was transpiring between them, but I had no idea what it was. I wanted to know. It felt important, but I definitely was not going to ask now. I did know one thing for certain. I knew what the look in her eyes was. It was love and protection. She was protecting that man, how or why was unknown, but I knew the need to protect someone and what that looked like. I was already feeling that way about Anna.
6
Anna
We got in his truck and I didn’t say much. I was feeling all kinds of funny even being around him. The fact of the matter was that I didn’t know what to think of Connor. He was saving me, saving my ass from Barrows and I appreciated it, I really did. But, it also made me nervous. Why was he coming out of the woodwork like he was going to fix everything?
The promise of my virginity had brought him to me. I needed to stop forgetting that. I don’t know how I could. It was sort of a big deal, especially when he kept pushing it off and telling me that I had to wait. I had actually asked for it and though I know that a part of it was because I didn’t want it hanging over my head, but there was another reason. There was a part of me, a big part, that was attracted to Connor and I was excited to see what it was all about. Such a big deal was made on sex and I wanted to know why.
I knew the basics of course. I couldn’t have gotten to my age without knowing all about it, but it wasn’t enough. Knowing about it wasn’t enough for me to really understand what made people lose it. People fell in love and then all kinds of crazy things happened. I wanted to know what could make a woman stay up all night crying, or a man to do something dangerous and stupid to win a heart.
I don’t know why, but I just knew in my heart that Connor would give it to me. I was convinced and I didn’t even know the guy. Maybe it was just something that I picked up off of him, or how I felt, I really don’t know. Whatever it was though, I wanted it.
I looked over at Connor’s profile and he didn’t even look my way. His dark eyes were on the road and I could only see his face light up when a car past. The rest of the time it was just darkness, but I studied his face, waiting for some kind of acknowledgement. None was given.
Ezekiel come to mind and I wondered what he thought of him. He might not even realize that he was my brother. How could he have? I thought we looked alike, but I don’t think it was enough for him to realize that we were family. Suddenly, I was worried about what he thought and who he imagined Ezekiel to be. I didn’t want him thinking that we were together or anything like that.
“Me and Ezekiel are family. He’s my brother.”
“Yeah, I figured as much.”
I sat back, having realized that I had sat up at all. Why was he so casual about everything? My mind was running a mile a minute and Connor acted like he just couldn’t be bothered about any of it. I wish I could be that blasé about everything.
“How did you know?”
“You look the same. I mean, he is a more masculine version of you, so it wasn’t hard to guess.”
“Right.”
I was feeling like an idiot and I looked out the window again. I was attracted to him and I didn’t even know the first thing about him. I asked him a few questions, or tried to, and he didn’t seem all that worried about much of anything else.
Watching the nature around us start to come closer, I was starting to recognize where we were. It wasn’t going to be long now.
“So, are we really just not going to talk at all?”
“We’re talking.”
I sighed. Connor was the quiet sort, and I wasn’t too happy about that at the moment. It would have been nice to talk, to get to know each other and it might have even taken the edge off of everything. I was certainly feeling it at the moment. I wanted there to be some time for us to relax into it, but that wasn’t going to happen if we weren’t even talking to each other.
“Why don’t you tell me about yourself? How did you come to be on the website that you found me on?”
“I started a profile by a friend of mine suggestion. He said that some of the women wanted more than sex, they wanted protection, so I thought that it was a good idea.”
“Must be nice, to help so many people.”
He looked at me funny and then shrugged. “I guess.”
I didn’t know what to think of his answer, but I didn’t have much to go off of.
“That’s why you do this, right? You want to help women and protect them?”
Connor shrugged, like he hadn’t thought about it that way and now I was feeling exasperated. Of course, I was making assumptions and I was wrong. It was about the virginity or the money, maybe both. Now my face was red, and I looked towards the window again. I shouldn’t have said a word out loud to begin with.
“I guess it’s just a perk. I needed a job, so I went looking for one.”
“Right.”
I didn’t even look at him. I didn’t want to see him, even if he did decide to look my way. It was good to know what I meant to him, and it wasn’t much apparently. I was just a job.
Thankfully, it wasn’t but a few minutes later that I saw the sign for the parking place for the path to up the mountain. We had gotten here in no time, and it was likely going fast because I was going a mile a minute. It was really starting to get to me, being trapped in this small truck cab with him.
As soon as he stopped, I burst out of the car as quickly as I could. It was like I was finally able to get air to my lungs and it tasted sweet.
“Are you alright?”
He had that funny look on his face, like he didn’t know what to think about me at the moment. I wasn’t even caring how I had to have looked to him. He was the one that was making me crazy, I was positive.
“Yeah, I am fine. I just don’t like enclosed spaces all that much.”
“Especially not around me.”
“Exactly.”
I paused. Why had I gone with it like that? I didn’t want him to know that he had that sort of effect on me. I didn’t want that to be so, furthermore, he didn’t need to know about any of it.
“I didn’t mean that.”
“Uh huh. You haven’t been around many shifters, have you?”
I agreed that I hadn’t and asked him why he was wondering.
“Does it matter if I haven’t?”
He shrugged. “Not at all. It’s probably for the best, because then you wouldn’t be untouched as long as you have been. There is no way that many shifters would have let the opportunity go.”
He moved a bit closer and I did my best not to take another step back. I needed that distance between us for my own mental health.
“A shifter would force themselves on me then?”
“Not hardly. It is frowned upon in all species.”
“Well, if they didn’t do that, I don’t know how I would be any different than now.”
“Because if you were around someone like me, you wouldn’t have been for long. I would have made sure that I convinced you of how badly you wanted this. I don’t think it would be that hard at all to convince you.”
I waved him off. “You don’t have to though, so it’s easy to say such things. It’s easy to say that you would seduce me, when you already hold the card to get your way. I can’t refuse you.”
“Of course you can, but you won’t.”
He stepped in front of me, stopping me from going anywhere and I could feel the cold steel of the truck on my back. I held my breath, waiting for what he was going to do next. Connor was so close, and I could smell the musk of his cologne. I closed my eyes for a moment, breathing him in and liking everything about it.
I was ready. Why wasn’t he?
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because all you are thinking about at this very moment, is what it is going to feel like when I kiss you.”
I blushed and looked away. I didn’t have far to go though. I was pinned in by his body, not sure what he was doing. Did he want me now, right here against the truck?
“Not yet little one, but you are really starting to make me wish that we were elsewhere.”
I didn’t know what he was talking about and then I couldn’t think at all. He was leaning in, pressing his lips, as well as the rest of his body against me. I really was not able to move now and I was shaking by the attention. He had to know that he was doing this to me. Nothing else made sense and I was doing my best to hold it together. Why did I
feel so weak in the knees? It was like I was going to fall on them right then.
His strong hands held me up, as well as made me tremble inside. His tongue slid into my mouth, coaxing my own forward, like he knew that I was going to need a bit more help.
When he pulled away, embarrassingly, it took me a minute to realize that it was over. My eyes were still closed and when I opened them, he had one of the biggest smiles on his face.
“That’s how I can be sure. Now, you ready to get some hiking in today? It’s late, but there is a cave that we should be able to get to. It’s like the halfway point and should be a good place to stop for the night.”
Just like that, he was gone from in front of me, no longer touching my body and I could feel the cold start to envelope me. I liked his smell and warmth far better.
“How do you know about the cave?”
“I was up last night looking at the maps. I don’t like to go into something unprepared, so I got a layout of the place.”
“Smart.”
“That’s why I get paid the big bucks.”
“And sexual favors.”
Our eyes finally met and his were dark green again, burning into mine. Yep, green definitely meant horny.
“Those are just a bonus.”
I turned away and started towards the open trunk he had just popped. I had a bag to grab and anything to get my mind off of the kiss and my hands doing something constructed, was going to be considered a good thing by me.
He didn’t say much as we started down the trail. My knees were still wobbly, but I couldn’t let that show. I had a feeling that my protector wasn’t going to wait around for me to compose myself. I needed to move forward, even if my legs were weak.
It was just a kiss after all.
7
Connor
I still couldn’t figure her out and that made me wonder why. I knew how to read people, I could hear some of her thoughts, feel her emotions, yet not enough. I didn’t know why Anna was dragging me up this mountain. Where the money went. What she was doing. There was a lot I didn’t know, and I didn’t like it.
