by M. L. Briers
“I know. But it was just my stupid brother bonding with his mate.”
Luke didn’t give a damn. He thought he would. He’d wanted to be the first to bond because he’d been the first to meet his mate, but her happiness was what was important, and she certainly wasn’t happy right then.
“Which one?” Sage asked on an absent thought. She clicked her fingers and the lights flipped on.
“I…?”
“I just wanted to know who he’d mated…” Sage shrugged.
“It sounded like Chance…” Luke said, pulling his body up to sit beside her. He reached out his hand and wrapped it around her upper arm to test the waters, she didn’t even flinch…
“Geri, figures…”
He was glad to see a smile touch her lips.
“Why?” Luke wasn’t shy in getting dirt that he could use against his brother if he needed to wind the man up on some future occasion.
“Marley’s independent, a little more work for it, and she’s a grown up…” Sage shrugged.
“And you and Geri are…?”
“Go out, get drunk, meet a sexy shifter guy…” Sage turned her head and shot a look at him from under her lashes…
“I hope I’m that sexy shifter guy you’re speaking of…”
“Well, it wouldn’t be womanly of me to kiss and tell…” she teased right back.
“I take it I’m not the first shifter that…”
“Seriously?” She snapped to attention and Luke frowned.
“What’d I say?” He asked, feeling the cold hand of screwed up hit the back of his head.
“Geez, I dunno. Why don’t you just call me a ho?” She hissed back.
“Are you…?” He said, meaning it in the teasing sense, but when his backside hit the floor and his head clunked off the radiator on the wall, he got the feeling that she hadn’t taken it that way. “I was kidding…” he growled.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
~
A moment later and Luke heard Sage move in the bed. Another moment after that and her head and shoulders appeared over the edge of the mattress and she was glaring down at him.
“It’s not funny,” she hissed.
“Not now it’s not…” he offered back, and saw her press her lips together as her eyes brightened with the smile that she was trying to hold back.
“Did you hit your head?” She grimaced a little.
“Yep.”
“Good…” she hissed and snatched her head back. “Let that be a warning to you!”
Luke grumbled under his breath as he pushed up to a sitting position on the floor. His pride hurt, and his head throbbed for a few moments more, but he wasn’t hurt…
“You really are a mean witch…” Luke chuckled and she snapped her head around and eyed him for a long moment, deciding what she would do to him next.
“You’d better believe it.” She warned him.
Luke tried on his best, sexiest, most drop dead gorgeous smile for her. It was the same one that he’d given her the night before, although, he doubted that she’d remember it … and he watched her fidget a little in place.
“I’m going to sleep.” She said, tossing her head back down on the pillow, lifting her hand and clicking her fingers once more to snap the room into semi-darkness, leaving him sitting there, grinning in the dark.
“I will woo you woman,” he growled as he hoisted himself up to his feet and practically fell into the bed beside her.
“You already did.” She whispered back.
~
~
~
It was four thirty in the morning when the second bonding howl went up and shook the walls once more. Marley’s eyes snapped open and she scowled into the darkness of the room on a racing heart and the knowledge that someone else had bonded…
“And they’re falling like dominos.” She grumbled as she flipped over onto her side and punched the pillow to puff it up a little.
“That’s not a bad thing in my book.”
Every inch of Marley’s body went rigid in shock as she reacted to the sound of that deep, sexy voice that felt so damn close that she might have been able to reach out and touch him … if she knew where the hell he was in all of that darkness.
Bloody hells bells and all things bum hole!
That’s soo not…
I should zap him! Right here, right now… if I knew where he was…
Supposed to be my damn mate and yet here he is trying to give me a damned heart attack!
That’s not a bad thing in my book … she mimicked … I can image the types of books you read and I bet they all have naked women on the covers!
Not that I don’t read books with naked men on … oh, what does it matter?
I certainly don’t go sneaking around in people’s bedrooms … even if this is his bedroom… okay, strike two!
“I don’t remember asking for your opinion or inviting you in for that matter.” Marley yanked the covers up further when it suddenly dawned on her that she might not be able to see him, but he could sure see her…
“I think you have me confused with a vampire,” he offered back, and she could hear the teasing in his voice and couldn’t help but picture his smile in her mind’s eye.
That’s not fair either!
Stop imagining him … he’s here in the damn flesh, you don’t have to be thinking him up too!
“The vampire has better manners.” Marley frowned just so that he could see the displeasure on her face.
It didn’t matter that her heart was going big feet pitter-patter inside of her. It didn’t matter than her adrenaline had spiked within her body and her excitement levels at just having him there was through the roof, and it certainly didn’t matter that her womb was practically howling out to him in some kind of fate ritual that she couldn’t stop…
I am not having sex with the sexy damn alpha!
Who … is … also … my …mate!
Which, let’s face it, gives me an odds on chance of that last statement becoming null and void!
It’s just a matter of when…
It’s just a matter of when I lose my independence, my sense of self, and become a barefoot and pregnant version of my mother…
Oh, dear Goddess, anything but my mother!
“Trust me when I say that nobody wants to be compared unfavourably to a vampire.”
“Trust me when I say that right now, I like him better than you.” She lied, well, not quite – she liked them differently – only she was miffed with him, with herself, with fate, with her friends for bonding, and the damn world in general …
The only person that she wasn’t really miffed at was J.C, because he’d saved Sage, and how could you be mad at a man that saved your friend?
Life’s so … complicated.
I get that he’s mine, fate … I really do, but did you have to bring him along now?
The shop is just starting to turn a corner. I have the house, and my … stuff … and my life … not so much a life as a pastime between work and sleep, but come on … now!
“I think you like me just fine,” Josh offered back and she turned the frown into a scowl.
“Mr Presumptuous –much?” She tossed back and heard that velvety smooth laughter come right back at her.
“You have to like me, fate made us that way…”
“Yeah, well, I’d like to have a word or two with fate…” she grumbled as she turned onto her back and stared up at the ceiling that she couldn’t really see… She folded her arms across her chest so that the man wouldn’t get any ideas, and huffed a good one at fate, at him, and at life in general.
“If that’s a case of; lie back and think of England, I have to say that’s not my thing…” he teased and she turned her nose up at his words.
“Seriously?” She hissed. The nerve of the man!
“When we mate there’s going to be full participation on both sides…”
“When we mate hell will have frozen over and my eggs will have
dried up!”
“When we mate I won’t be the only one howling…”
“Oh, you’re that bad?”
“With pleasure…” he finished and she snorted.
“It won’t be a pleasure, I think I would have to lie back and think of…”
“All of those X-rated thoughts that have been going through your mind for the last ten minutes…?” He offered and she snorted her contempt for that too. “I bet you even dreamed about me…”
“Of killing you off, maybe…”
“You were thinking about us naked…”
“So I wouldn’t get blood on my clothes, good idea!”
“Our body’s wrapped around each other…”
“As I stabbed you with an Athame and you tried to ward me off… sure,” she gave a little shrug.
“You want me…”
“To do one. Now jog on and let me get some sleep!” She scowled into the darkness before she huffed once more.
“Go ahead, play innocent … I like…”
“If you say the virginal types I’m definitely going to howl with laughter!”
“The chase…”
His voice was right by her ear and she wrenched her body back across the bed to get away from his hot breath against her skin. Every hair on her body stood to attention and she was practically tingling in a good kind of a way from her head to her toes…
“Go fetch a damn stick then!” She hissed out. Readying her magic to blast him a good one if she felt that mattress move around her…
The sound of the door handle squeaking a little made her snap her head up in the bed and her eyes towards the door. There he was, all six foot and too many inches of sexy goodness, framed by the outside light in the hallway as he pulled open the door, and turned his head to look back at her…
… And the smirk that he had on his lips sent her temperature soaring. She didn’t know if she wanted to zap him or kiss him.
“Sweet dreams.” He offered with a gruff, gravelly, velvety tone that washed over her body and her last nerve.
The door closed behind him and she knew that she’d missed her chance to zap him. She dropped her head back against the pillows and finally let out the breath that she’d been holding…
Sweet dreams my … grandmother!
How the heck am I supposed to sleep now?
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
~
“I need a ride!” Marley announced when she stalked out of the bedroom and found the alpha sitting on the floor with his back propping up the wall, and looking as sexy as hell as he looked up at her from beneath his dark brows…
“What a coincidence…” he gave her one hell of a drop dead gorgeous smile that screamed at her womb of promises she’d yet to let the man deliver on.
“Oh, is that what you call it?” She said, placing her hands on her hips and rising to the bait.
Josh pulled his body up to his full height without any real effort at all. His chest was bare of everything but muscles, muscles on muscles, and she tried not to let her eyes wander, and at first they only flicked down, but then her brain got lost somewhere and she was taking him in…
“No sense of humour in the morning … check,” Josh offered back.
“I have a fine sense of humour at any time of the day or night. I just need to get to the shop and open it…”
“Because there’s going to be a mad rush on all things witchy and mystical at nine AM on a Monday morning?” He offered back, and her brain laughed at her.
Okay, so he got me there…
I need coffee … in a bucket sized cup…
“Here’s hoping, but I have responsibilities…”
“What a coincidence…” Josh tried again. “Right now it’s to keep you safe…”
“From you?”
“From Dram. He’s still out there…”
“I doubt he’ll find his way to my shop…” she snapped back.
“Depends if he really wants to kill a witch or not, doesn’t it?”
Okay, so he got me there too…
“I can’t just not open my shop…” She offered back and those hands were still on her curvy hips, and Josh knew that he was going to have an uphill battle with her on his hands… He knew what he’d like to do with his hands instead…
Okay, mind off getting her naked, and back on keeping her safe… He berated himself, and his wolf grumbled. They were both starting to feel the fever of that mating pull.
His damn brothers had already bonded with their mates and he felt that too, like a wound to his pride. But Marley wasn’t Sage or Geri – the woman was … complicated.
“You can if you’re not there…”
“You can’t just hold me prisoner…”
“You’re not locked up…
“It’s getting to feel like it…” she offered back as she drew her head back on her neck and scowled at him with annoyance.
“Can you…!” He stopped and bit his tongue. Paused for thought. Took a breath. He did everything but count to ten… because that had never worked for him, but neither would this verbal fencing with her.
He was an alpha … he needed to put his foot down.
“End of conversation. Request denied.” Josh offered back and she blinked … twice.
“Request denied! When did I enlist?” She tossed back.
“The moment that I took your scent.” Josh said without missing a beat.
“I’m going to work!” She announced as she turned on her heels and started down the hallway without a backwards glance.
Josh moved with her. He reached out his hand and wrapped his fingers around her upper arm, one quick yank and turn and her palms were flat against his naked chest, her head had snapped backwards on her neck, and her eyes were wide with surprise, and then they narrowed on his…
“Not today…” Josh offered back as she slowly drew a frown onto her forehead.
His beast rose up within him and there was a rumble of a growl that rolled through his chest that he couldn’t have put a leash on even if he’d tried, so he didn’t bother, but the feel of her hands against his skin was so damn potent that he wanted more…
Her naked, him naked, body pressed against body, taking her down his length, kissing her senseless, loving her like a man should, as a mate would…
“You know, you can take your head and shove it up your backside at any time now…” she offered back, defiantly resolute in her need to put her foot down on the here and the now and show him that she wasn’t one of his troops…
That worked … just not in the way that she intended.
With a hard growl he brought his lips down on hers …
Marley didn’t know what had hit her. Her body exploded like someone had dropped a live grenade into a fireworks factory. There wasn’t an inch of her that didn’t feel the heat, the explosion, the overwhelming rush of sensation…
Her legs went weak and she leaned into him. She felt the press of his hard length against her stomach as he growled like she’d never heard anyone growl before … hungry wasn’t the word … ravenous was as close as she could muster in her dulled brain.
Not that her brain was trying to think of words, it was busy enough trying to process every little twinge, jolt, and rush of sensation from every little part of her body.
That dancing womb of hers was back, but this time it was doing the Salsa, and as hard as she tried to keep her hands still … they wandered over those hard muscled ridges of his body, exploring in a frenzy of excitement at having the freedom to do so.
She felt the press of his large hand against the small of her back, keeping her body locked to his, and making sure that she didn’t end up in a crumpled heap at his feet. A moment later and the wall replaced his hand … his hips solid against hers, like they were glued together…
Marley had been kissed before, of course she had, but she’d never been kissed like that! It wasn’t even a kiss, it was more a devouring of her body, mind, and soul.
Holy Hell!
If that’s how he kisses what’s sex going to be like?
Consumed … devoured … eaten alive, but in a good way!
One moment I’m facing off with the man and the next I’m a boneless bag of mush … and it feels so good!
Her brain snapped to the feel of his hands against her curvy hips, and she couldn’t help the sudden need within her to feel skin on skin. To feel the tingle of the mating pull first hand over every inch of her body…
He wins, you lose … loser!
You can’t let him win the fight … the war is all but over if you just give in to him at the first hurdle … battle … kiss…
You’re going to work!
You’re going to open the shop!
But … it’s that chocolate cake temptation calling to me all over again.
Who can deny chocolate cake?
Who can deny their mate…
Marley wrenched her head away to the side, breaking that sinful kiss, and gasping in some sanity…
“That’s…” she said, but her brain wouldn’t compute the rest of that sentence.
“Us.” He offered on a gravelly ‘I’m – hungry – for – you’ growl that made her womb dance to his beat.
“I’m … going to work!” She said, grateful that she’d able to remember the words … the battle campaign, and the objective of her digging her heels in and not just allowing nature to take its ravenous course…
“You’re staying right here.” He growled back, cupping her cheek in the palm of his hand and bringing her eyes to his … and oh those sinfully sexy eyes of his had turned jet black, and they looked as hungry as hell too…
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
~
Is there anything about this man that doesn’t scream as sexy as hell?
“Not…” Marley tried to shake her head in denial, tried and failed to look away from those eyes of his…
Damn chocolate cake man!
Dig your heels in!
Get him in the goolies again with your knee! Fat chance when his body is pressed against mine like that…
