MARCUS: New Orleans Billionaire Wolf Shifters with plus sized BBW mates (Le Beau Series Book 10)

by V. A. Dold

  “I’m not usually so easily ambushed. You should take the fact that you snuck up on me as a compliment,” she admitted, a self-deprecating smile on her lips.

  Emma put an arm around Cassidy’s waist and urged her down the hall. “Seeing as you’re a highly trained ex-assassin, I accept the compliment. Now, if you have a few minutes, I’d like to have a chat with you.”

  “Oh, okay.” A chat? Panic stabbed at her heart. Marcus’s mother wanted to have a chat with her. Was that code for you’re not good enough for my son?

  Emma pushed a door open to what looked like a workroom. The aromas of herbs and essential oils were heavy in the air. “We’ll just tuck in here for a few minutes.”

  Emma closed the door and gazed at her for a moment before gently asking, “Now that you’ve achieved your goal, are you sticking around?”

  Cassidy frowned. “I planned on it. Colin and I are enrolled for the fall semester at Tulane.”

  Emma heaved a sigh. “Good. I was afraid you’d leave. My son’s heart would break if you left him.”

  Cassidy glanced away. Emma’s gaze was too intense to hold.

  “You have feelings for him, don’t you?”

  Cassidy felt heat rush up her neck to her face. Great, now she was blushing. The only thing worse than talking about her feelings would be discussing her sex life. Some things you just didn’t discuss with your boyfriend’s mother. “Um… yes.”

  Emma crossed her arms over her ample chest. “I see this is going to take longer than I thought. Tell me this, do you miss Marcus when he isn’t with you? When you have news you want to share, is he the first person you want to tell?”

  Cassidy narrowed her eyes. Where was she going with this? “Now that you ask, yeah.”

  “Does he turn you on? Light your fire, so to speak?”

  “What? I’m not discussing things like that with you,” Cassidy sputtered.

  Emma lifted her hands placatingly. “I’m sorry, cher. You’re right. Let’s go at this another way. Marcus is leaving and not coming back. You will never see him or speak to him again.”

  “Wait! What? He’s leaving?”

  “Shoot, I’m sorry. I’m saying this all wrong. I meant imagine he’s leaving, not that he actually is. But your reaction is telling enough. How did you feel when you thought you’d never see him again?”

  Cassidy scowled darkly at Emma as she rubbed her aching heart. “Obviously upset.”

  “You’re rubbing your chest. Did the thought of losing my son, break your heart?”

  Instead of answering, she asked, “What’s this all about, Emma? What’s your game?”

  Emma flushed, obviously embarrassed. “I’m not playing a game.” She moved to a small worktable and took a seat. When Cassidy didn’t follow, she patted the chair next to her. “Not long ago, I came close to losing one of my sons. His mate refused him, and he fell into a deep depression. We almost lost him to suicide.” Emma’s voice caught, and it was a minute before she spoke again. “You’re an independent woman, and you just gained your freedom from a terrible man. Naturally, you might want to spread your wings a bit. Perhaps see the world. I want to make sure you understand the seriousness of the situation. Finding a mate and having her refuse him is devastating and often ends in the shifter choosing death over a half-life. I don’t want to lose Marcus because you were uninformed.”

  “I see.” She didn’t really, but it seemed like the thing to say.

  Emma searched her face. “No, I don’t believe you do.”

  Cassidy huffed out a breath of frustration. “Instead of beating around the bush, why don’t you just ask me what you want to know?”

  “All right. Are you going to stay with my son?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Thank goodness!”

  Cassidy was exasperated with the entire conversation. “Why didn’t you just ask me that to begin with?”

  Emma looked suitably abashed. “I guess I was afraid of the answer you’d give if you didn’t understand the severity of the situation.”

  Cassidy considered that for a moment, replaying everything Emma had said in her mind. “Maybe you should explain a little more about this mating thing. What would make a shifter want to end his life if it doesn’t work out? Isn’t the claiming thing just the shifter version of marriage?”

  Emma snorted. “Not even close. With humans, only your hearts are involved when it comes to a relationship. But with shifters, the joining is soul deep. Shifters recognize their true mates on sight. The attraction and connection are immediate, which I’m sure you know. Mates aren’t a choice, they’re destined. Not that every shifter wouldn’t have chosen their mate anyway.

  “Mates share a soul. Each person in the relationship holds one half. The magic of the claiming ritual fuses the soul together again. Mates are literally connected to each other. If that connection is rejected, the loss is debilitating in a way that’s impossible to describe.

  “That draw of the soul reaching for its missing half intensifies the physical attraction you feel for one another. That is entirely normal for shifter mates.”

  “Ah, yeah. I can attest to the truth of that,” Cassidy admitted, blushing to the roots of her hair based on the sweat breaking out on her scalp

  Emma chuckled and patted her hand. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. The appeal of a mate isn’t something you can deny. I’ve seen a handful of humans try and fail every time. Those who tried to hold back shared a common delusion that a shifter relationship would follow the same rules as a human’s. It doesn’t. Mated pairs are a perfect match in every way. You’ll find that Marcus encompasses everything you’ve ever wanted in a partner. You actually couldn’t have chosen a better match.”

  Cassidy nibbled on her lower lip. Emma was right. Marcus was her ideal man.

  Emma leaned closer and caught her gaze. “Don’t wait too long to complete the claiming ritual. Every day you delay is harder for Marcus to bear.”

  Cassidy nodded. “I won’t.”

  Emma clapped her hands together. “Excellent. By the way, do you have a birthmark?”

  Cassidy pulled back and eyed Emma. “A birthmark?”

  “A perfect circle. Do you have anything like that?”

  “No. I have a mark, but it’s more of a blotch.”

  “Would you show it to me? It’s important,” Emma added quickly.

  Cassidy sighed and lifted her shirt to show a mark bisected by a scar that marred the original shape.

  Emma sucked in a sharp breath. “You have the mark. There’s never been a family with so many women with the mark in all of shifter history.”

  Scowling, Cassidy yanked her shirt down. “I think you’d better explain yourself.”

  “Oh! Yes, sorry. Your birthmark is the mark of a very rare and powerful female shifter. Women bearing the mark are extremely powerful shifters. A male is at his most powerful at the full moon. But a female with the mark is incredibly powerful at the new moon. The mark is a dark circle to symbolize the phase of the lunar cycle when the moon is completely dark.”

  Cassidy pulled her shirt up to study the mark. “And your saying I’m one of those women?”

  “Yes, cher, you are.”

  “Huh.” Cassidy pulled her shirt down again and waited for Emma to drop another information bomb on her.

  Instead, Emma asked, “Do you have any questions?”

  “Not that I can think of.”

  “In that case, let’s find your man so you can go home and get some rest.” Marcus’s mother said the last with a knowing wink, which made her blush all over again.

  Eighteen

  As Cassidy and Emma left the workroom, she nearly collided with Marcus.

  “Whoa there. I was looking for you.”

  “Well, here I am,” Cassidy said with a grin.

  He looked over her head, and the grin faded from his face. “Mom, what were you doing with my mate in your remedy room?”

  “Nothing important. We were just chatti
ng.”

  Marcus narrowed his eyes. “Right. And pigs fly.”

  Emma pushed past them and snorted. “I have no idea what you’re going on about.”

  Before he could retort, his mother was gone.

  “We really were just talking,” Cassidy insisted. About what, she wasn’t about to say.

  Marcus turned his dark look on her. “You don’t lie any better than my mother.”

  Cassidy stared at his full lips and asked, “Is that right? Perhaps you can tell me more about how bad of a liar I am on the way to your house?”

  Marcus grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the back door. “I can do that.”

  In no time at all, they were snuggled up on his couch. Marcus rubbed his chin over the top of her head, and asked, “What’s on your mind, sweetheart? I swear I can hear you thinking.”

  “I’m curious about shifting. I saw you do it, but I don’t know how.”

  “When I want to shift, I just picture my wolf in my mind and allow it to happen.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Not at all. The entire process is instantaneous. One minute you’re human, and the next, you’re a wolf. It’s part of the magic of being a shifter.”

  “Magic, huh? So, do you bite people like in the movies?”

  Marcus laughed. “Not really. The claiming ritual does that, although there is a bite involved. It’s more of a love bite, really. But the only person I’ll ever bite and convert to a shifter is you.”

  Cassidy swatted his chest. “Don’t laugh at me. How was I to know?”

  “You weren’t, but it’s still hilarious.”

  “Whatever,” she groused. “Are all your wolves black?”

  “Nope. Each is unique. The wolf takes on the colors of the human’s hair. Yours will be tan or blonde.”

  She pushed up from his chest and looked him in the eye. “Really?”

  He grinned as he swept her hair behind her ear. “Yep.”

  Cassidy grinned. “Cool!” Suddenly, she caught a whiff of herself and wrinkled her nose. “I need a shower.”

  “A shower? I could go for one of those.” Marcus said with a smoldering look that made her shiver.

  “Not with me, you can’t. I’m taking my shower alone.”

  “Aw, come on, mon amour,” he whined.

  Marcus tried to plead his case, but she didn’t relent. Cassidy had a lot to mull over, and an extra body in the shower wasn’t conducive to deep thoughts.

  She moaned as the hot water eased her muscles. What a day. She’d flown to and from Washington, DC., saved her brother, and took out Jones. Now what? Did she act on her new information about mates or give herself more time to get to know Marcus? Did she need more time? Cassidy didn’t know what to do.

  Wearing only a robe, she was toweling her hair dry when she stopped dead just inside the master bedroom. The warm glow of candles lit the room as bright as day. There were at least a hundred candles covering every surface available.

  Hands on hips, head tilted in a way that was all woman, her gaze swept the room before stopping on him.

  Marcus’s heart leapt in his chest. The sight of Cassidy fresh from the shower with rosy pink skin was breathtaking. His mouth watered. There was only a robe separating his hands from her curves.

  In the warm glow of the candlelight, she was stunning in a way that only a healthy woman free of cosmetics could be. He hated lip gloss. That gunk tasted nasty and got on everything. No, his woman didn’t need any of that stuff. She was an utterly natural beauty

  Patting the mattress beside him, he said, “Come here, mon amour. I want to love on my woman.”

  Cassidy looked like a statue frozen in time. She didn’t blink, barely drew breath. “Cassidy?”

  She blinked several times, her gaze clearing as she returned to the present from wherever she’d gone. “Your mate.”

  Marcus frowned. “What?”

  “You want to love on your mate. I want to be claimed. Right now.”

  “Are you—are you sure?” he asked, stumbling over the question.

  She nodded but still didn’t move. Was this some kind of delayed shock from what happened today?

  Marcus whipped the sheet back and leapt from the bed. In a blink, he stood before her, his hands framing her face, lifting her chin so their eyes met. Her sky-blue gaze shimmered with each flicker of a candle’s flame. His heart expanded to encompass the entirety of his chest. “How did I get so damn lucky?”

  Not waiting for an answer, he claimed her lips, kissing her tenderly. Marcus sank into the heat of her mouth and the welcome he received from her soft, moist lips. Their tongues tangled and danced, and when he stroked the column of her neck, she shuddered with pleasure.

  Marcus couldn’t think he could only feel. And nothing felt as good as Cassidy in his arms. She nibbled his lower lip and short-circuited his brain completely. Of their own accord, his hands started moving, one bunched her wet hair while the other slid to the small of her back.

  He was winded and lightheaded when his lips left hers to catch his breath. But Cassidy had other plans. She pressed her lips to the rigid cords of his neck, kissing her way up as she pulled his head down. Now she was the one calling the shots, and he willingly followed her lead. They fed hungrily upon each other. Their hands roaming and stroking, as they went up in flames.

  Wanting to be skin to skin, he loosened the belt of her robe. Sliding his fingers along her collarbones, he slipped beneath the terry cloth and brushed the robe from her shoulders. Grinning, he watched the final barrier between them pool around her ankles. Marcus quivered with need. His mate stood before him, eyes bright, and all soft womanly curves.

  “Marcus!”

  “Shh.” He drank in the lushness of her breasts, the curve of her hips, on down to her toes. What he failed to see was her discomfort.

  The beast within rolled its lips back, tasting her arousal, and he felt his teeth elongate in preparation of his claiming bite. His wolf growled, pushing him to mark her, but he was more than an animal driven by instinct.

  With a growl, he pulled her body against him. At first, all he noticed was her delicious tight peaks against the muscles of his chest. Then he sensed her unease.

  Cassidy drew her arms in, covering her nakedness as best she could. The bravado she’d felt when she left the shower suddenly morphed into a swirling brew of nerves and apprehension. Self-consciousness overwhelmed her until she was on the verge of running from the bedroom. My God! What was she thinking? On top of utterly failing in the feminine department, she had scars and a gazillion imperfections.

  Sure, she’d been naked with Marcus before, but the room had been dark. This situation was the complete opposite. With the hundreds of candles illuminating the room, it might as well be freaking noon with the curtains thrown wide.

  “Stay right there,” Marcus murmured, then kissed the top of her head before moving around the room, blowing out the majority of the candles.

  When he gripped her hips and pulled her flush against him, she whispered, “I’m sorry, I’m more body-conscious than I thought I’d be. I have… imperfections.”

  He lifted her chin until she looked him in the eye. “I have my fair share of imperfections, too. But, Cassidy, a body is only flesh and bones.” He pressed her palm to his chest. “It’s what’s inside that makes a woman beautiful. A person’s mind, heart, and soul are what makes them beautiful, average, or downright ugly. You, Cassidy Ryan, are too beautiful for words.”

  He waited until he saw the light return to her eyes, then smiled. “That’s my girl. Now, where was I? Oh yeah.”

  Marcus kissed Cassidy’s neck, Inch by inch, making his way down to her collar bone. Not an inch of flesh was left unattended. His wolf rumbled at the feel of her heartbeat racing beneath his lips. When he sucked at the base of her neck where he’d mark her with his bite, she moaned in pleasure. He took his time, nibbling and kissing the spot before moving on to tease the tender slope of her breast. With the first lick of he
r aroused nipple, Cassidy’s body shuddered with need. She rewarded him with a burst of her unique citrusy scent.

  Marcus switched to the other breast, flicked the hardened nub with his tongue, and breathed across the dampened flesh. “Lord have mercy. Look at how perfect you are.” With a growl, he licked her again. “Mmm, peaches.” He kissed the underside of her breast. “Oranges.” He sucked the nipple into his mouth. “And grapefruit,” he said around a mouth full of breast. “You’re the best dessert imaginable.”

  Cassidy moaned, chest heaving. “I sound like a fruit snack.”

  “Oh, mon amour, you are so much more. Snacks are gone in an instant, I’m going to make a meal of you,” Marcus declared between licks and sucks.

  Cassidy arched her back, her fingernails digging into his shoulders. She didn’t stop there, she scraped them down his body, branding him with her touch. Closing her eyes tight, she pressed her breast deeper into his feasting mouth and moaned. He took the hint and rolled the tip with his tongue.

  The reflection of Marcus’s backside in the mirror across the room caught her attention. The candlelight threw shadows, emphasizing every peak and valley of his physique. The spectacular display of rippling muscles beneath smooth flesh made her mouth water.

  The reflection shifted when he bent to suckle her nipple again. His back bowed. Shoulder and arm muscles flexed. Every move displayed his powerful strength for her pleasure.

  Desperate to have her turn and get her hands on Marcus, she slid her palms down his chest to the steely bulge of his erection pressed into her abdomen. Her breath hitched when he swelled even fuller with each stroke of her hand.

  She gripped him tighter as she massaged his balls with her other hand. Marcus released her breast with a ravenous growl.

  He gripped the nape of her neck while rubbing his thumb over her nipple in a deceptively lazy motion. “Woman, you’re hell on my willpower. If you touch me like that again, I’ll have you against the wall instead of on the bed.”

  Cassidy bit her lip, imagining her back pressed to the wall. “Sounds like fun.”

  Marcus rumbled. “It does. But it’ll postpone the ritual until tomorrow. I want to make you mine tonight. Right now.”