by Tessa Clarke
When she came, she threw her head back and howled in pleasure, and Cade’s own orgasm exploded from him as he pressed his groin hard against her curvy ass and pussy and let his voice join hers while he poured his hot seed into her.
Then they lay entangled in each other’s arms and talked about cubs and skiing, their favorite books and families and the kind of house Alissa had always imagined. It gave him a ridiculous thrill to know that Alissa also wanted three children and to imagine their happy little log house in which he had her in his bed every night, and the way she talked about her friends with such earnestness and loyalty made his heart feel warm and fuzzy. He probably had an idiotic grin on his face the whole time they talked. He’d have to check that in the mirror too.
He could hardly believe he’d found this perfect woman for him, and that she had shifter blood too. His mother would be over the moon. He’d better wait to tell her or she’d definitely show up with a wedding planner, caterer, florist, and a string quartet, which might scare Alissa. Cade was already imagining himself coach of the local Little League team when he faded back into slumber.
Chapter Nine: Alissa
The morning dawned brilliant, cold, and sunny with a foot of powder on the glistening slopes, and even though she hadn’t had much sleep, Alissa felt shockingly energized and still wet with desire. She’d heard of being love drunk before and it was a remarkably delightful feeling. Much better than being actually drunk on wine or beer. She could hear the avalanche control blasts faintly. If they wanted to get fresh tracks, they would have to get up very soon.
Cade’s hand snaked out of the bedclothes and around her naked belly. He pulled her in close to his groin and started to move gently against her buttocks, his lips on the back of her neck, and his cock hard against her ass. He was completely indefatigable, which was more than okay with her. If she just moved a little bit, he’d be inside her again.
“So I take it you’re willing to go skiing with me, after all,” he said.
“Looks that way,” she said, biting her lip, already breathless from his ministrations to her behind.
“I’m hoping that you’ll ski with me today and every day,” he said. “For the rest of your life.”
“Do you think we’ll want to ski when we’re eighty?” she said. Her voice had a thin sing-songy quality because what she really wanted to do was roll him over and ride him until they both came, so it was hard to concentrate on words. Did he really mean what he was saying? Was he suggesting in a roundabout way that they get married? There were too many delicious feelings happening in her body for her to think straight.
“We can ski with our walkers,” he said, his voice husky. Then he reached over to the bedside table and sheathed his rod with another condom. She arched her back until her ass was pressed hard against his cock and then gasped with relief when he entered her, moving in and out languorously and making Alissa see stars of rapture. Then he let his hand on her stomach drift down until he was playing with her clit and she was lost.
“Oh yes,” she said. “Yes… Cade…”
“Is that a yes to skiing with me for the rest of my life,” he teased.
“That’s a yes to anything you want, if you just keep fucking me like this.”
“Well in that case…” Cade said. He started to move with more intent, his strokes deeper and faster, and Alissa grabbed at the edge of the bed to push herself harder into him to feel his balls slap against her pussy and his cock plunge deeper and deeper inside her. And then he came, jerking his groin into her as he groaned and she clenched her throbbing pussy around it and cried out with her own orgasm.
When they were finished, she turned and looked into his pale green eyes, hardly believing that this god-like man could want her so much, and Cade cupped his hand around her cheek and dropped his lips to her waiting mouth.
“I love you,” he said simply.
“I love you too,” she said, still struggling to accept that it was possible that she could love someone so soon, and yet knowing that it was, in fact, true. Shifter blood maybe. No matter what it was, Alissa was very sure that she’d never been so deliriously happy.
“Alissa Grey, will you marry me?” he asked, tracing the line of her jaw with his finger. “I’ll move to Denver if you want. I’ll move wherever you want. We can even travel the world being ski-resort vagabonds, if you have a fancy to do so. The important thing is that we’re together.” Then his face turned more serious. “I’m not going to lie to you though, being the wife of a shifter is different. We mate for life, and we have different needs and instincts. Mostly in the bedroom.” He raised a single eyebrow comically, which almost made her giggle. “But also in terms of our loyalties, which are stronger, and our tempers, which can be a little bit more intense. You have to love my panther too.” Then he stopped talking, and the hope in his face almost made her weep.
She gave Cade a gentle nip on the finger. “Yes, I’ll marry you Cade Danforth. And yes, I’ll love your panther too. As for moving to Denver, there’s no need. I had a job interview while I was here and they’ve given me until Monday to say yes. So I’m thinking I just might, if you don’t mind me bunking with you in the interim, of course.”
Cade cupped his hands around her buttocks and rolled over her and then pulled her over on top of him and she could already feel the beginnings of another erection. “I could think of nothing that would make me happier,” he said. His face turned playful and he thrust gently against her and nibbled on her lip. “And now, as much as I want to lie here in bed with you all day, and I plan to do many things in bed with you tonight, there is fresh powder out there. Are you up for a little ski? I may know someone who can get us on the first chair.”
Starfall
The Cat Shifters of White Peaks
Book Two
Chapter One: Jolene
Jolene Winters paused in front of a stylish-looking boutique on the main street of White Peaks. The gorgeous red dress on the mannequin in the window had a plunging crossover neckline with delicate shirring around the waist. The dress in the window was about a size two, but they might have her size in the store. Nothing she’d packed for the pre-wedding dinner tomorrow night seemed right, not that she had anyone to impress, but Alissa had mentioned that Cade had some very attractive friends, and Jolene already had a pair of red pumps for the wedding.
Snow fell softly, giving the whole town a magical fairyland sort of feel. She could see why Alissa had decided to move here, aside from Cade of course. Not that Jolene ever planned to leave Denver. It was probably impossible to meet a man in a small town.
She had twenty minutes to kill before Alissa arrived to pick her up from where the airport shuttle had dropped her, and Alissa had indicated that she might be late—something about Cade’s mother, the florist, and a botched shipment of calla lilies. Maybe she had time to try on the dress. Would it be too cheeky to wear red the day before Valentine’s Day, she wondered.
The bell above the door tinkled as she entered and an older, but regal, sales woman with tawny hair and hazel eyes glanced up.
“Hi,” Jolene said. “I was wondering if you had that red dress in the window in…” she trailed off. She was comfortable with her curvy body for the most part—at least she wasn’t uncomfortable enough to give up mojitos and cupcakes—but putting it into a cold, hard number always made her freeze up. The number made her body seem like a failure. The number didn’t reflect anything about her healthy and powerful body that had incredible stamina and was soft and shapely in all the right places.
The woman surveyed her, and Jolene felt a small turn in her stomach. Babe, she reminded herself. She, Alissa, and Zoey were babes and they had the right to sashay if they wanted to. That was what they’d agreed. Sometimes it was easier to say than put into practice. At least the woman wasn’t a stick figure either.
“A fourteen? Absolutely, dear. It will look stunning on you.”
Jolene blushed and followed the woman, who
’d already headed to a rack near the back. She marveled at the woman’s height and sleek almost leonine figure in a simple sleeveless black dress.
The woman stopped in front of a small section of red and extracted the dress. “I only bought in three, and one happens to be your size. So you don’t have to worry about anyone else showing up to in the same dress. Is it a Valentine’s event?”
Jolene clutched the silky fabric. “Sort of,” she mumbled. “Thanks.”
The lighting in the dressing room was remarkably flattering and Jolene felt downright sexy in her black lace bra and panties. The material of the dress felt cool and light against her skin, almost like she was naked, and she suppressed a shiver. She wished she was going to a Valentine’s event, a special one for just her and some hot guy that involved him removing this dress. She was thrilled to be going to Alissa and Cade’s wedding, of course, but she wanted someone to touch her and love her the way she could see that Cade did for Alissa.
The dress seemed to be made of magic material because somehow suddenly she felt smokingly hot and sensual, her long blonde hair falling in a smooth curtain over the red of the fabric.
When she emerged from the dressing room to check her reflection in the larger mirror, the woman stood waiting with a broad smile.
“It suits you. You look lovely.”
Jolene cast her eyes at the floor then turned carefully in front of the mirror trying to check the view from behind. “You don’t think it’s too… tight, maybe,” she said.
“Not at all,” the woman replied. “That dress was made for you, and it would be criminal if you didn’t wear it.”
The bell tinkled again, and they both turned to see Alissa walk in the shop, snowflakes sparkling in her dark-hair and her cheeks rosy from the cold. She wore the secretive and sublime smile that hadn’t seemed to vanish from her face since she’d met Cade. Whatever that man did to her in the bedroom, and all rooms of the house, from the sound of it, it seemed to make her glow from within. Maybe shifters were the way to go. Better than the self-centered and arrogant doctors Jolene had always dated in the past. Jolene felt a surprising warmth gather between her legs at the prospect.
“You have to buy that dress,” Alissa announced. “It’s perfect.”
Jolene turned back to the mirror and had to admit she was pleased with her appearance. “You think?”
“Buy it. You’ll knock everyone’s pants off tomorrow night.”
This somehow made the warmth turn into wetness, and Jolene nodded and fled to the change room to get dressed.
“How goes the wedding planning?” Jolene could hear the sales woman say to Alissa. “Or perhaps I should be asking, how goes Renate Danforth?”
Alissa laughed. “She and I are working through our issues. She still can’t believe that someone would want to get married at the top of a ski hill. She’s already forced Cade to arrange for three snowmobiles just to ensure that the flowers get there in one piece.”
The woman gave a deep, appreciative guffaw, and Jolene emerged from the change room to find Alissa leaning on the glass counter by the register. “Jo, this is Nadia. She’s Cade’s friend’s mother, and she helped me pick out the bridesmaid dresses.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Jolene said.
“So you’ll have the perfect shoes to go with the dress,” Nadia said.
It was true. Although the bridesmaid dresses were a pale pink, they, like Alissa’s wedding gown, had red trim in honor of Valentine’s Day. As a result, they were all wearing sexy red pumps.
Jolene put the dress on the counter and hesitated. It was definitely an attention-getting dress. Did she feel comfortable with the prospect of attention? Ninety percent of the time when she left her condo, she was going to work, and she wore her pale blue scrubs like everyone else at the hospital.
Red. The color of love. The color of passion. It was very un-her.
“I’ll take it,” she said. No more doctors for her. Ever.
Chapter Two: Dylan
“Your mother wants us to do what?” Dylan Blake said, as Cade handed him another giant sparkling snowflake to staple to the ceiling of the ballroom of the main lodge at White Peaks Ski Resort. He’d heard of decorating for the wedding night, but fifty dangling snowflakes for a pre-wedding dinner seemed a little much. And it wasn’t even Alissa driving it. Alissa was positively relaxed about the whole affair. It was Cade’s mother Renate who’d handed Cade and Dylan the stack of snowflakes and ordered them to put them up. Never mind Bridezilla, this was a case of Mother-of-the Groomzilla.
There’s no way he’d let his mother get this involved in his wedding. Of course, there was no way his mother Nadia, who was a full shifter herself, would be interested in being this involved in his wedding, other than to dress the bridal party, and probably half the guests.
That’s if he ever had a wedding.
“She wants us to stay up at the top tomorrow for a couple of hours after the freeski event and start stringing up little white lights all over the lodge. She’s going for some sort of starry night effect.” Cade had the sort of sickly expression on his face that he’d worn all week whenever he had to introduce one of his mother’s ideas.
Dylan descended the ladder and looked around the room. Although he wasn’t a decorating kind of guy, he had to admit the snowflakes and the sheer white fabric Renate had already draped over all the walls lent a bit of magic to the room. With the lights dimmed, it would seem like one of those school dances where the night was always young and the hormones high, and the potential for love and sex literally hung in the air. Dylan felt a surge in his cock thinking about it. Dylan just wished he had a mate to share it with like Cade did. His friend was a transformed man since meeting Alissa, and even though his mother was causing Cade—well, everyone—headaches, Dylan knew that Cade really wanted the day to be special for his bride.
“If that’s what your mother wants, then that’s what we’ll do. We can take a few beers with us. We’ll both want to relax after the freeski event anyway. The wedding will be over in two days. Your mother will go home and everything will get back to normal,” Dylan said. “She is going home, right?”
Cade’s sickly expression turned horrified, and Dylan gave him a punch in the muscled arm. “She’ll go home. Just have really loud sex with Alissa every night.”
Cade snorted and gave a low growl. “I do have really loud sex with Alissa every night. Really damn good sex too. My Mom is staying at the Peak Hotel anyway.”
“Ah, I should have known that’s where command central was, not the love shack. Kind of hard to get any wedding planning done when it’s non-stop lovin’.”
It was Cade’s turn to punch Dylan. “We’ll see how you start behaving when you find your mate.”
“Oh, I doubt she and I will even leave my cabin when I find her,” Dylan said. His tone was chuff, but there was an undertone of strain that even Cade, who had his head in a wedding- and Alissa-cloud, heard.
“You’ll find her,” Cade said. “And in the meantime, Alissa’s two bridesmaids are very lush. I’m sure they’d love to see White Peaks on the arm of one of its most eligible doctors.”
Dylan sighed. He liked women. He’d certainly known more than his share of women, because all women seemed to like doctors, but he was tired of being with women who weren’t his mate. Trouble is, he had no idea where to even start looking for his mate, or what she’d look like. Cade said he’d known Alissa was his mate the second he saw her ski. What sign would let him know he’d found the one? Skiing, a certain sway of the hips, long blonde hair, an interest in music, full lips, burning intelligence, a fierce attitude? Yes, he’d find all of those things attractive.
But the way mating worked with shifters, his perfect mate could be any of those things, or none of them. He certainly hoped she’d have plenty of wicked ways in the bedroom. Surely the shifter gods would grant him that.
Chapter Three: Jolene
“Are you sure I can s
ki this Starlight Bowl?” Jolene asked. “I can’t ski like you, remember?”
Alissa gave her an impish smile. “You’ll be fine. The steepest parts are closed for the freeski competition anyway. The run to the bottom of the venue is blue square all the way.”
Jolene regarded Alissa’s smile and decided that hot sex every night must make one impish, and that she’d like very much to try impish on for size for a few weeks, or perhaps her whole life.
“I can’t believe that Cade has to work on his wedding day,” she said.
Alissa shrugged. “He’s just coaching. He loves it. So it’s not like work for him. Besides, the competition will be over by two tomorrow, so he’ll have plenty of time to get ready for the wedding.” Alissa fastened the strap on her helmet.
Jolene checked her own helmet strap. She saw enough ski injuries at the hospital in Denver to want to be doubly careful. She had no desire to break her leg, especially if it meant she wouldn’t get to wear her new red dress to the pre-wedding dinner that night. Cade’s mother, Renate, at her own insistence, was handling most of the last minute wedding arrangements, so Alissa had decided to go and watch part of the freeski competition since Cade was coaching.
Alissa and Jolene had spent the previous evening at a local spa where they’d been waxed, polished, and buffed within every inch of their lives, and even her newly painted red toenails felt sexy as she wiggled them in her ski boots. She felt bad for Zoey who couldn’t fly in until tomorrow morning because of a gymnastics competition. She’d miss all the pre-wedding festivities.
“Well, just remember I’m an intermediate skier. So no jumps or cliffs for me.”
Alissa made a crossing-her-heart motion and winked.
Even though she didn’t revel in skiing quite as much as Alissa did, Jolene had to admit that the White Peaks Ski Resort, with its snow shrouded trees, glistening bowls of powder, and swathe of blue skies, was a truly glorious place to spend a Friday.
