by J. D. Light
"Wow," Warren said, scrunching his face up and blinking at Turner. "You guys really are perfect for each other. You're both kind of dorky."
***
I swallowed as I stepped inside Turner's bedroom, and quietly made my way to the side of his bed. There was just enough light shining in through the bedroom door from the hallway to easily make out his gorgeous form, and fuck was he sexy.
Of course, I'd seen him butt-ass naked earlier, and even in the midst of a mental break-down, I'd taken a moment to ogle the gorgeous lines of his body. But I wasn't in the middle of a psychological crisis as I stared down at him in that bed.
He had the blankets bunched around his hips and up his thighs, riding low enough to show off one hipbone and high enough to let me see the relaxed definition in his legs.
He moved slightly, his foot sliding along the sheets on the bed, and I held my breath, the sneaky-sneak peeker in me wishing the movement would move that blanket a little further down his hips, or up those sexy thighs.
"I'm a shifter, remember?" he asked suddenly, making me jump and gasp. "I know you're there."
I cringed, wondering if there was any other way I could possibly make myself more Gomerish. "Sorry," I mumbled, reaching for the hem of my shirt to fidget with the thing, only to realize I'd taken it off earlier when I'd climbed into bed.
At least you're wearing pants, dumbass.
"Am I bothering you?" I asked, stepping a little closer to the bed.
Leaning up, he reached over and turned on the bedside lamp, illuminating his entire form and his handsome face to my hungry eyes.
"No." He scooted over on the bed, patting the mattress beside him. "What's wrong?"
Fuck! I wasn't sure how safe it was for me to be in the same room with him, right then, much less on the same fucking bed. I was already achingly hard just from standing over him, watching him sleep, and wow, what a fucking weirdo I sounded like.
I sat gingerly, still a little unsure about my presence in his room as I settled into the spot that was still warm from his body.
Licking my lips, I forced myself to meet his gaze and not continually let my eyes wander to openly over his body.
"You talked earlier about mates and how hard it is for them to be away from each other," I croaked, before clearing my throat. "If I go back in a couple days, what is that going to mean for you? Is that going to like, hurt you? Make you suffer?"
Turner sighed, reaching over to grab one of the throw pillows off the floor. Miraculously, the blanket didn't slip as he moved, staying in place the entire time he grabbed the dark, nearly navy pillow, and then tucked it back under his head, so that he was propped quite a bit.
I tried not to stare as his abs jumped while he leaned up to put the thing back there, fidgeting with the angle so that he was leaning one way or the other.
"That can't be the reason you stay, Kendrick," he said softly, reaching his hand out, nearly touching my arm before pulling back and lacing his fingers together over his belly-button. "I don't want you to stay here with me, because you don't want me to hurt. I want you to stay here with me, because you would rather be here with me than anywhere else."
I clenched my fists, resisting the urge to reach out and grab the hand he'd snatched back, just so I could hold it, or put it on my arm like he intended.
I didn't want to be anywhere else. Already, I was starting to get obsessed with the guy and the thought of living in Crossville, and doing my job from there, which was completely possible, but I felt like I was supposed to be bothered by that. Like, meeting a guy and then planning forever with them the next day was one of those things that just sounded fucking crazy, but already, the idea of going back home without Turner, made my heart race and my stomach sink.
Still, I couldn't stay after just a day, could I? That wasn't normal. I needed to be logical. And I couldn't lie. The idea that I was only wanted because of this mate pull was a bit off-putting.
"What if all this attraction is just because of the mate pull?" I asked, frowning slightly. "Just like you don't want me to stay if I don't want to be here with you, I don't want to be wanted because of something like that."
He smiled softly, his face scanning mine. "You're not the first human to have trouble with the concept of mates. For someone who didn't grow up hearing about it their whole life, I can see how it would be difficult to understand. But, most people find when they meet their mate, that person has every quality they ever wanted in a partner. Looks, personality, likes, dislikes… All of it. Mates aren't just random." His hand slid up his torso, and I tried not to jump immediately to how it would feel to let my hand do the same. "They're the mate to your soul. The perfect match. The person who completes you most in the whole world. It's just as much chemistry as fate."
"So, if I believe the whole mate thing," I said, sinking down to my elbow next to him on the bed. "You are perfect for me?"
His face, neck and chest flamed bright red, but he smiled softly, his eyes never leaving mine. "Yeah."
"I like it when you blush," I said, letting my gaze move over his mostly exposed body, tempted to hide my growing erection, but at the same time, wanting him to see what he was doing to me. "Can we get to know each other? Or do we have to make these decisions right now?"
He swallowed, dragging his bottom lip through his teeth. My eyes got stuck on the plump flesh, and I actually groaned. It was red and plush and shiny.
"There aren't any rules, Kendrick," he said huskily, his voice making my dick jump to full attention. "All I ask is that until you do decide, you don't have sex with anyone else."
It was strange, I hadn't thought about it until that moment, but I honestly couldn't think of another person in the whole world I wanted to be with. And the idea of him being with anyone else made jealousy sit hard in my stomach.
I frowned, moving closer, putting my face within inches of his. "And you won't either, right?"
"I wouldn't be able to if I wanted to," he said, his breath ghosting over my lips, making them tingle.
"Oh." I wasn't at my most intelligent in that moment. I wanted so many things, but instinctively knew touching him would mean the end to all decisions.
There would be no going back if I reached out and touched his cheek with my fingertips like I wanted to. If I leaned over him and pressed my chest to his. If I brushed my lips over his mouth, stopping to take that plush, red, shiny flesh between my teeth.
He licked his lips and I moaned, pulling back and letting my head fall to the side, closing my eyes.
Clearing his throat, he wiggled around, making me think he might be having the same problems I was. I needed to get up and move, the temptation was entirely too strong, but I liked being close enough to him to feel the heat coming off his body.
"Uh," he said quietly, his voice drawing my attention, and I opened my eyes to look down at his gorgeous face. "I don't want to alarm you, but there is a chance all of this will affect you in the same way. Like, you might not be able to have sex with anyone else either… and you might have a really hard time once you get home, or of going home at all."
I chuckled, shaking my head. "Yeah," I whispered. "I kinda figured."
I watched him for several moments, my eyes unable to keep from moving over his form, taking in everything that could be mine if I was to believe everything that he and my brother were trying to tell me.
But, the logical part of my mind couldn't seem to wrap itself around the fact that not only did I possibly have the ability to have a child, but I'd only known the man for a day and a half, yet everything in me was urging me to give up everything I had in Northern California and move to Crossville… to move in with him and start a new life with this man.
Even worse, I didn't know that I could leave him for a few hours at that point, much less go thousands of miles away for an indefinite amount of time. Just the thought made me feel like I couldn't breathe.
"So," he asked, his face and body blooming in a beautiful blush again. "Are you plannin
g on sleeping in here?"
That sounded like an invitation to me. I didn't know if that was how he meant it, but I was willing to completely misunderstand the situation to sleep next to this man.
Smirking, I grabbed the edge of the sheet, leaning down to peck a kiss to his mouth, surprising a gasp out of him.
"Yep," I said, pulling back and tugging the sheet out from under his hip that was closest to me.
"Wait!" he said, scrambling to grab the blanket, but it was too late. I'd already lifted it.
All the skin. All the fucking skin! "You're naked!" I said stupidly, still holding the blanket up and peering beneath. But how the fuck was I supposed to stop when I was literally looking at the man who'd just admitted that everything about him was to my specifications without a stitch of clothing to cover all that perfection?
He was smooth, bronzed skin and muscle… and a gorgeous dick that pulsed with pride the longer I stared.
"Surprise," he said in a high pitched voice, waving his hands in the air in a tahdah fashion.
"Why are you naked?" I asked on a whisper, still not lowering the blanket.
Finally, Turner placed his hand on top of mine on the edge of the blanket, slowly lowering it, which allowed me to finally draw my unwavering attention away from his body.
"I sleep naked," clearly trying to fight a smile. And I couldn't blame him. If the situation was reversed, I didn't know that I'd be able to show as much restraint as he was, but he was probably getting used to me making a fool of myself in front of him.
"I've seen you naked before," I said stupidly, blinking down at his pretty eyes in absolute shock.
He chuckled, holding the blanket up enough to allow me to slip beneath it, but not high enough for me to ogle him like a transfixed idiot.
"I remember," he said, waiting for me to ease beneath the blanket, careful not to let my body brush his, before he let the material fall into place over me.
"I know you're laughing at me," I said, settling down on my side, so I could see his handsome face as I fell asleep.
"Can you blame me?" he asked, turning on his side to face me and reaching out to run his thumb over my cheekbone, his eyes watching the movement before returning to mine.
We lay there for long moments staring into each other's faces and occasionally touching with innocent, but sensually sweet caresses.
His skin was like satin beneath my fingertips. I could have spent hours running my fingers over his bare shoulder.
I wondered what a child with his golden skin would look like mixed with some of my features. A little boy or girl who shared qualities of the two of us, and I couldn't help but smile at the thought of this imaginary child who would probably be shy and sweet, just like Turner.
"I can't stop thinking about this baby thing," I whispered finally, stopping to bite my bottom lip.
I couldn't stop thinking about a lot of things, and the more I thought, the less the short amount of time I'd known this man seemed to matter.
"Okay." Turner nodded, his eyes heavy as he watched me. "What about it?" When I didn't answer right away, he smiled softly and ran his thumb over my bottom lip. I almost flicked my tongue out to taste him. "Nothing has to change. If you don't want a baby, we won't have a baby."
"I've never really thought about having a baby either." I met his gaze, smiling softly. "Until now. I'm not commitment phobic or anything, but I've never really found anyone I click with enough to think I'll ever even have a relationship that lasted longer than a couple of months… but now that I know that it's an option, and even just thinking about this whole mate thing, it all sounds… I don't know… I think it might be… nice."
"Yeah." He nodded, his bow-shaped lips compressing in a bashful, sweet smile. "I think you're right. It does sound kinda nice."
Sighing, he shifted around, reaching over the edge of the bed to fish for more throw pillows, lifting the blanket enough to slide them between us.
"What are you doing?" I asked, glancing down, barely resisting the urge to grab the pillow hiding his lower body from my view out of the way.
"I'm putting a pillow barricade between us," he said simply, turning once more to lean over and click the bedside lamp off before settling in, his face almost completely in shadow.
"Why?"
"Because," he said, just as my eyes adjusted enough to see that his eyes were closed and there was a small smile on his face. "If I touch you now, there is no way I can go back to giving you an option of whether or not you leave in a couple of days without me. You wouldn't be going anywhere without me."
"Yeah," I said, giving a humorless chuckle, reaching out to pull a pillow close. "I can definitely feel that too."
"Let's talk about something that will distract us," he said brightly, letting his hand fall to the pillow propped between our chests. "What is it like being a PI?"
Reaching out and putting my hand on top of his, I sighed. "It can be really, really interesting when you find something that confirms someone's suspicions, or really, really boring when it turns out you have a very paranoid spouse on your hands.
We talked like that for another hour, our voices slowly drifting as our eyes got heavier and heavier.
"Do you have to go to work in the morning?" I asked around a giant yawn that made my eyes water. "Do you need to be sleeping right now?"
"Nah." He tried to fight a yawn himself, but I'd already started the train, there was no stopping it. When he finally gave in, I could have sworn I heard his jaw crack. "I just assist the new alpha. I've basically done everything that needs to be done up until this point. Right now, I'm waiting on him and his mate to make a few decisions before we can move forward."
"What kind of person is your new alpha?"
He shrugged, and I could make out the small smirk on his face in the dark. "Well, Axel's my cousin, so there might be a little bias, but I think he's actually great. Both as an alpha and a person, but he always thought his disability made him a bad candidate for it, so he's been fighting it a while." He frowned, shaking his head. "We've known for a while Alpha Vance was going to have to step down, and for a while he wanted to, but I think once the chosen obsession set in, he decided nobody would pull off quite what he was going for, so he stopped even making preparations for stepping down.
"It sounds like he needed some serious help," I whispered, not sure if I felt sorry for the man, or not. On the one hand, it was clear he'd had some kind of breakdown and that shit could happen to anyone in a super-stressful situation if they didn't take care of themselves mentally, but on the other, he'd helped to hold my brother against his will, away from his family, for weeks. It was hard not to be angry with the man.
"Yeah," Turner said, his voice sounding tight. "I feel like such an idiot that I didn't realize sooner that the man was losing it. It took him trashing the office and picking me up by my throat, then slinging me across the room, to realize he'd flipped that much. I knew he was under a lot of stress and was starting to show it, since he snapped at people sometimes, but he'd never gotten physical with anyone that I had seen or heard of."
I could see how much Turner was blaming himself. I could hear the self-deprecating notes in his voice, and I could feel the way his hand was tightly gripping the pillow beneath mine. I wanted to sweep our pillow barrier out of the way and pull him into my arms, but I felt his naked skin beneath my hands and pressed to the naked skin of my chest, I'd never be able to let go.
Clearing my throat, I closed my eyes briefly to get myself under control, my hand gripping his on the pillow that would be far too tightly if he was someone else. "Disability. Did you say your alpha had a disability? What kind?" I paused, blinking my eyes back open. "If that isn't too rude to ask. If it is, just ignore me."
"Nah," Axel gets frustrated with it, but he's always open about it and never seems to get offended when people bring it up. "A few decades ago, he was walking through the woods in tiger form, and he got shot in the head––"
"Holy shit," I interrupted
on a whisper, and Turner gave me a sad smile.
"Yeah, I guess it was really scary, but he survived and is mostly fine. Unfortunately, the bullet severed some nerves in there and as a shifter, he healed pretty quick. Unfortunately, the nerve damage became permanent because of it. He basically has only the same sense of smell as a human."
Don't make it sound like the end of the world there, Turner. "Is that a big deal?" I asked, giving him my driest look. One I knew he'd be able to see, regardless of the low lighting.
Even I could see the slight frown on his face. "Hug?" His eyes flew wide and he shifted his hand quickly, grabbing mine and shaking his head. "No, no. Not at all. Especially not if you were born that way. He wouldn't feel like there was something missing if he'd always been like that. Just like you wouldn't. But, not only would a shifter losing his sense of smell feel like losing a limb, but heightened senses help us with a lot of aspects." Slowly, he brought my hand to his mouth, kissing the knuckles softly. "Including finding our mates."
Damn, his lips are soft.
"But he found his mate, right?" I asked, remembering him saying something about the alpha's mate. "Or did he just mate someone."
I knew there was a difference, but I wished they would somehow specify, so I could keep track. Is it spicy hot, or temperature hot? Claimed mate or soulmate?
Turner chuckled, like he knew what was going on inside my head. "I know, it can be a bit confusing to someone who isn't used to it all." His thumb stroked over the back of my hand where it was still tingling from the press of his soft lips. "Yes, he found his mate. His soulmate."
I sighed, nodding, and then smiling. "Do you think he likes being alpha aside from his disability?" I asked, not sure I'd be up for the task of something like that. I'd probably end up just like Alpha Vance if the responsibility was given to me.
Turner shrugged, looking thoughtful. "He seems to. I mean, he is newly mated, so the glow probably comes from that, but he doesn't seem miserable in the role like I thought he'd be."
"So," I said, after a moment of watching him as I was sure he was sitting there thinking about Axel and whether or not he should be worried about the guy. "You gave up school to come help your old alpha when he started going crazy."
