“Of course not, what was I thinking. Anyway! As you seem to have noticed I daydream a little, but don’t worry, it won’t influence my work. I’m really quite industrious,” I assure him, finishing off my coffee so I can rise and put the cup in the soapy water in the sink.
“Yes well, see that it doesn’t. I have work to do right now. Real work. I’ll be in my office if you absolutely need anything.”
I smile, nodding because he seems put out in some way, even though he’s getting a free day’s work out of me and he should be thanking me. I guess I’ll have to try hard with this one, not all guys can be softies like Lync.
Chapter Sixteen
Cass
Humming, I plug my phone into the speaker jack I see beside the fridge, one of those new age ones with a screen on it and the whole shebang. Whew, this place looks like it belongs on a spaceship. Once I have Taylor telling me to shake it off, exactly my motto in life, I start washing the floor and only sort of feel like an idiot dancing with the mop.
It takes a good hour to get the place clean enough that I’ll consider cooking in it, and while Justin tells me not to stop the feeling I put together a simple meal of breaded pork chops, greens, and roasted baby potatoes that all go into the warmer for later.
Once that’s done, I consider the fridge and nix the thought of using his free day to clean it and grab my phone and a second plate to skip upstairs. The place is so big I get a little lost looking in through countless doors, but I find one at the end of the hall that eventually proves the right one.
The minute I open the door and step in I gasp, wrinkling my nose at the smell and the lack of air and light. Placing the plate on the dresser nearest the door I walk over to the drapes and pull them open, blinking when weak afternoon sun floods in.
The windows I open are big enough that fresh air immediately rushes in. Thank God. I turn to look at the bed where I see a lump under the covers.
This must so be his mom, and despite what he said, I know this must be so hard on poor Blain, seeing his mom this way. Why, if it was my mom, I would be worried sick.
I don’t see movement at all, despite clearing my throat loudly, three whole times, and tiptoe over, remembering Hannah’s advice never to startle a shifter. If I’m ever quiet enough to manage it.
The lump doesn’t move, so I gingerly pinch a corner of the duvet and lift, peeking under the covers. Blue eyes glare at me so fiercely I squeak and drop them, jumping back a step with my heart pounding like a drum.
“Get out!”
Erm. But I brought food.
“Uh, hi? My name is Cass and I’m uh—”
“The help! I know, female. I have ears. I heard when you were talking to that wretch of a son of mine.”
Oookay, she must be really sad. No wonder Blain is so high strung. Well, I’m here now, and I don’t do things by half measures. I bet if I get this lady to start wanting to live, he’ll be so happy that he may even give me a raise.
“Huh, okay! I, uh, made you an early dinner. It’s nothing special, just pork chops, some greens and potatoes. Real meat on your bones food,” I ramble, going over to grab the plate.
The covers don’t move again, so I’m taking it she’s playing hard to get. No matter, I’m a mushroom. I can grow in dark places. Lifting the covers again I peep underneath and let the smells waft in at her, smiling when her eyes narrow.
“Go away.”
“Sure. I mean, just as soon as you eat, seeing as I have to take the plate back down with me. Or it will just stay up here and stink the place up before I come back,” I wheedle, biting my lip when she snarls and flicks the covers back to sit up.
“I’m not hungry.”
“But it’s pork.”
She sniffs, giving me a glare, one I’ve seen Hannah deliver so many times I can’t help a giggle. This woman looks just like Hannah, only…older. Not that she looks old or anything, saying that would be mean, and I am not mean, it’s just…
“You speak to yourself. It’s a sign of an unstable mind,” she mutters, taking the plate and waving her hand absently at a chair in the corner.
I take that to mean she wants me to sit, and I know why immediately when she looks over at me and starts speaking.
“You know my daughter.”
“Oh yeah! She’s just great. She reminds me of you, only she’s…” Kinder. “More relaxed about my roots,” I say, smiling when she sniffs.
“Yes, well she always had her own strange ideas.”
I don’t say a word when the not-hungry woman starts eating, staring at me absently as if she’s not all here in the moment.
“I suppose the little upstart is happy with that mixed breed of hers.”
She puts out a beleaguered sigh, but what I hear is that she’s missing her daughter and fishing for information. I can roll.
“Totally. They’re having a baby, you know. She’s super happy about that and even stopped complaining about it maybe being twins a few days ago. We went shopping and she got the cutest things. You should see the nursery. I love babies. They’re just so soft and nice smelling and—”
“This food reflects your human middle-class upbringing. It’s barely edible,” she cuts me off.
Owkay! That hurts, but I hold in a response when I look down and stare at an empty plate, twisting my mouth with a frown when she even eats the tomato I used as garnish.
Huh.
“I’ll try harder next time, but you have to allow me some mistakes, ma’am. I’m just human,” I say demurely, keeping my eyes vacant as I look at her and sigh.
“Yes well. Go away then. I have far better things to do than laze around talking to you.”
I grab the plate, calling this first foray good and hustle out of there, promising myself I’ll ‘try harder. By that, I mean I’ll just keep coming up here two days a week and feed her and talk to her and maybe get her to have a bath soon?
God, I don’t have super-sensitive smell, but even I got a whiff.
Humming, I almost scream my head off when a hand lands on my shoulder while I’m at the sink. The grip is tight, though not hurting me, and I’m spun around so fast my head actually whips around.
“Stay out of that room!”
“But—”
“Nothing! But nothing. I warned you to stay away from there!” Blain snarls, baring his teeth when I blink and don’t make a sound.
He seems mad, he does, but I can’t see how he really can’t care for his mom. He must. It must just be buried deep under the sadness.
“She needs to eat.”
“She needs to either get her ass in the seat and drive the car or get off the road and stop taking up space. You don’t have time to be running up and down after her,” he counters, shoving me away to pace to the island and back again.
“Oh don’t worry! I can make time. It must be so difficult for you to see her that way,” I say soothingly, stroking his arm in an attempt to comfort him.
Poor guy. He’s so filled with grief it’s making him irrational.
Blain blinks, blinks again, and then barks out a laugh.
“What is wrong with you!”
“Er, I have essence disease? I mean, it’s not an official thing, but short of giving the whole story over and over again I just kinda shortened it,” I say proudly, smiling when he grunts.
“You don’t seem to understand insults, you float around just doing your own thing and you’re not at all afraid, even though I could rip you part without batting an eyelash,” he says, giving me that perplexed stare again.
I shrug. I don’t get his point. Not really. I mean what’s there to be afraid of? The man’s not a maniac, just a mourning son, who obviously misses his father and—
“I do not miss that filthy waste of space. I was glad when Logan ripped his throat out and ended him. Best fucking day of my life!”
“Well, I mean, I just don’t believe that—”
“Believe it. It’s true. That male beat us all from the time I was old enough
to understand what pain is. We’re well rid of him!”
Um. This must be denial, one of the steps through grief—
“I’m not in denial! Christ, what is wrong with you? I say one thing, you twist it to mean something else!” he snaps, stalking over to the oven to lean down and peer inside.
“She’s right. You obviously have a middle-class pallet,” he mutters.
I don’t say a word as he grabs the plate and sits at the table, eating while I stand mutely and try to understand what it is I should be doing.
“Okay, so I’m gonna go—”
“Sit! It’s not five yet and you’re still on the clock.”
“I haven’t officially started working here yet, but….”
I sit, ignoring my stomach and watch him eat while he considers me, his eyes narrowed on me while he eats without looking at his plate. His manners are impeccable, even if it’s rude as heck to eat in front of another person. I’ll let this one slide.
“It occurs to me that nothing I say to you will change a thing you do, Miss Kepner, so I’ll keep that in mind when I’m dealing with you. This was acceptable for your first foray. You may go.”
I don’t laugh when I notice it is on the dot five when he says this, just grab my purse and coat and leave the way I came.
I’m taking that crack about the food as a compliment.
# # # #
Banner
“Don’t lift that! You’re going to tire yourself.”
I leap, grabbing the laundry basket and snarl when Lync huffs, the sound of his amusement when Cass slaps my hands away making me grind my jaw and count to ten for patience.
It’s been two weeks since she took that other job, and while I’m not happy about her overworking herself, I am relieved that she’s not around here all the time. Even if I want her to be.
The emotions are so contradictory that I find myself unable to decide what I really do feel besides the fact that I’m starting to reach the end of my tether.
The days I do see her, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when I show up at the clinic to oversee the testing Althea is doing are sweet torture, and I just don’t know what to do about it.
I should stay away, not get that close, especially when Althea takes yet more blood samples and Cass flinches, every time, as if she’ll never get used to the needles.
I can’t help taking her hand, even under Althea’s censorious gaze because I don’t like Cass’s pain, not one bit.
“Dammit, stop it. I can carry an almost empty basket of laundry. And stop doing the laundry when I’m not here, you’re ruining your clothes. Lync, stop laughing, this isn’t funny. I’m trying to work here, but when I come over everything is already done and you won’t let me do what little needs doing,” she complains, her pale complexion making me frown because Althea upped her “vitamins”.
Shouldn’t they be working?
Sighing, I take a step back, using the basket I refuse to relinquish to cover the boner that never goes away, no matter what I try. It’s so bad I stand outside her cabin some night’s because I need just the scent of her in my nose to keep me level.
In a matter of weeks, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am nothing without Cass, which sucks because I can’t have Cass. I struggle, as it is, not to give off scent around her because my animals smell her and try to lure her closer against my will.
Just a day ago, I shifted and ran all the way up to Eureka and back because I walked into the bedroom and saw her leaning over the bed, her ass on display and taunting me to walk over and do things to her I already know she likes.
Right now, I’m walking a tightrope, needing to stay away but having to see her at least sometimes to stop myself from going crazy.
“You need to stop working so hard! You already work two days a week at that Seers place, and I know that bastard has you working yourself to the bone! You don’t need to work for him, I pay you plenty,” I snarl, closing my eyes and searching for patience when her own eyes narrow.
“Which is not the point! You pay me too much. For work you don’t let me do. Move!”
“Don’t you do it!” I yell when she stalks into the living room, my animals growling when her pale face glares back at me with stubborn determination.
They want to dominate, snarl and force her to stay in bed all day, every day and not lift a finger. Of course, part of that bed time includes me taking her like an animal over and over and planting my young in her. So, I don’t let the idiots out for even a second around her. I can’t.
“Don’t do it!” I yell again when she reaches for the feather duster, her fingers grazing the wood handle.
She picks it up, almost triumphantly, and things go to hell immediately. I’m across the room before I can stop myself, the basket falling to the floor and my good intentions dying a quick death.
Before I can stop myself, I have her over my shoulder and I’m pounding my way upstairs, the need inside me to dominate overruling everything, every thought and warning screaming inside me.
Her back hits the mattress when I come down over her, my mouth taking hers in a kiss that is all tongue, no breath, and a growling snarl of relief.
# # # #
Cass
The mouth on mine is bruising in its intensity, but I throw myself into the kiss with lusty relief and kiss him back just as brutally, my tongue twisting against his as I suck and try to eat his face off.
I want this so badly it hurts when he tries to pull back and regain control. Not this time, I think. I want wild and crazy and so much of him that I won’t be separate from him—ever.
Moaning out a protest, I grab his head and hold him to me, screaming into his mouth when his hand rips at my jeans and panties, shoving them down and off.
Our mouths stay connected the whole time he pulls my clothes off, and I groan again when I feel his naked skin touch mine. The next scream I puff into his mouth comes with an eye-rolling force because his hand goes down, and he thrusts two fingers into me, the wet heat there helping him slide them deep with no sign of resistance.
I come instantly and cry out again when instead of stopping he keeps up the rhythm, one orgasm turning into two and then a third that sends my body into convulsions of pleasure.
I feel like a match that’s been lit, one spark that is blazing out of control as wildfire streams through me. I want everything, something, anything to calm the burn inside me and pulsing in my sex.
Banner pulls away, snarling when I try to follow, and falls between my legs, licking at me as if the smell is too much to resist. His eyes close on a growl of happiness, and I come again, so fast and hard I scream and claw at the bed, my body on fire with a pulsing need for more, more, more!
“Banner. Banner please! Please take me!” I beg, biting into my lip when he rears up over me.
His eyes are a molten gold, burning and swirling with lust, and I gasp when he grabs me and rolls over, bringing me over his body as he lifts my hips and slowly lowers me down on his cock.
The fullness is like nothing I’ve ever felt. I scream with it, ache for it and fight against his hold on my hips as I try to slam down and take what my body is demanding.
“Ban—”
“Slow baby. Yeah, roll your hips like that and clench on me,” he groans, his bottom lip caught between his teeth when he looks up and at where we are joined.
He must like the sight because I feel heat stream into me from him, the warm release making my sex flutter and pulse, adding another element of arousal that makes me want to buck and slam against him to find the pleasure I seek.
“So pretty, baby. So pink and tight. I want to devour you,” he rasps when I moan and circle my hips, trying to take more and more because I feel empty now, on fire.
“Banner move faster.”
“No baby. Shh. Just like this. Take it slow so that you feel every moment.”
I can’t, and yet I have to because he keeps me pinned and uses his strength to lift me off and pull me back down, his eyes glowing
a hot gold when I shudder and climax without warning, my head thrown back as I scream and convulse.
The climax is unlike any I’ve had with him because it doesn’t stop, not a long time later when I’m limp with oversensitivity, not even when I’m covered in sweat and pleading.
It gets harder, and I do scream and almost lose consciousness when he pulls me down one last time and roars, his cum shooting into me in hot, soul-searing arcs of mind-blowing release.
“Mine. My female.”
I fall onto his chest, spent and panting and hoping that it’s true. I am his, but can he keep me?
Chapter Seventeen
Cass
I yawn, stifling the urge to close my eyes and crawl into a ball on the sidewalk and follow both Hannah and Jules into yet another store, this one filled with cribs, strollers, and every kind of nursery furniture you can think of.
It’s been a long morning, and I only see it getting worse because they’ve both got a list of ‘must do and must buy’ things and are determined to get it all done today.
I can’t say I blame Hannah one bit. The woman just found out a day ago that she’s got two babies cooking in her belly, and she’s frantic about getting the nursery done on time.
I’m tagging along at Logan’s pleading request because even I know that Hannah and Julia despise one another, and the last time we left them alone in a room they almost killed each other.
I’m like the buffer, the beard if you will, because even though none of them are homosexuals, they are in need of something to make it seem like they’re human.
If I have to see another old lady run like she’s thirteen again because they keep snarling and snapping at each other, I am leaving. No, I’m not, be real, I live to create peace.
“Stop dragging ass, human; you’re slowing us down.”
“Don’t speak to my Tiny that way! She’s ill. Don’t you listen to her, Cass. She’s just crabby because she doesn’t have sex, and she’s on her period. If I can stand the smell, so can you!” Hannah says, sneering when Julia blushes and grinds her jaw.
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