by M. L. Briers
“I don’t like the surfer boy look…”She motioned with her free hand at his body and he cocked a light brow at her.
“And I don’t go for the elf look…”
“Elf?”She spat out, curling her lip in disdain, and he snapped his head back and raised both of his brows high on his forehead.
“Sorry do you prefer the term pixie?”Lee asked. He was ready to oblige her whichever way the wind blew.
“Do you prefer being able to walk without a limp?”Kay shot back, still trying to pull her hand from his as they stood there facing off against each other, hands reached out between them.
“Yes.”He answered slowly narrowing his eyes on her. “Is that a trick question?”
“Oh my god, you’re an idiot, aren’t you?”Kay knew there had to be something wrong with him, just her luck, she’d found the village idiot for a mate.
“Is that a trick question?”He asked, pulling her towards him with a quick jerk of her hand, and she shrieked out as her hands hit his chest and her head snapped back and up his body to look at him like a startled rabbit caught in the headlights.
“What are you doing?”She spat out and he raised his other hand, putting his index finger up to silence her.
“I need to scent you, just to make sure.”He went to dip his head but she balked.
“You’re not sniffing me… back off.”Kay snapped and saw the amusement flood his face as his eyes rolled over her face and what he could see of her chest as it pressed against his.
“You have a problem with being scented?”
“A grown man sniffing my neck…?”Kay rolled her eyes to the ceiling and made a show of considering it. “Yeah!”She wondered how it was she had managed to snag the idiot. Hannah had her sexy alpha, Fiona had her sexy vampire, Mary had sweet little Declan, and she got the surfer boy, brain addled, big guy. Sod’s law really.
“Well suck it up, because it has to be done…”
“Why?”Kay pushed at his chest when he went to dip his head again, and he gave her a look of annoyance as he stared down at her on a sigh.
“Because, little Fae, I could be wrong…”He rolled his eyes and admitted, “I don’t think I am, but we can only hope now can’t we?”
“Oh my god, you’re an arse.”Kay shook her head in disbelief. “The village idiot and an arse, just my luck.”
There was nothing gentle about the growl of annoyance that rolled through his chest and down to meet her, and she glared back up at him.
“Don’t growl at me.”
“Then don’t act like a prima donna, princess.”
“Princess?”Kay balked and yanked back away from him, but he didn’t let her go, she was now well and truly caged within his thick muscled arms, and she could do only one thing. Kay kicked him in the shin.
Lee bit down on the anger that rolled through him with the pain that shot up and down his leg in both directions and then throbbed a hefty pulse from the point her little pixie, elf shoes had caught the bone.
“Let me guess, you don’t play well with others…”Lee bit out and she frowned a glare back up at him.
“Let me guess, you’re brain is situated at your groin…”Lee couldn’t take another second of her vitriol and he brought his lips down on hers to shut her the hell up, that was his first mistake.
Lee felt the fire of desire rush through his body, and when she gasped her surprise he pushed inside and claimed her mouth, tasting her sweet tongue and rolling over it, that was his second mistake. His wolf went wild within him, knowing his mate the moment he tasted her, the desire for more swept through him like wildfire.
Kay felt his hands cup the cheeks of her backside and he eased her up his hard body. There was never a doubt in her mind that it wasn’t right for her legs to wrap themselves around his hips as he swung her around and stalked over to the nearest barstool. He wanted her sexual heat pressed against his hardness and the only way that would happen was if she was at the same height as him.
When he lowered her backside to the stool he noted that’s she didn’t release her legs from his hips, if anything she pulled him closer and pressed herself harder against his shaft, as he claimed her mouth with a passion that rode him hard.
When she pulled away, gasping for breath he ran his tongue down over her neck and nuzzled into her, taking in her sweet scent and growling his claim on her. She was his mate alright. His body ached for her and his erection twitched against her sex.
“Mine.” He growled against the soft skin of her neck, his blunt teeth nipping at her flesh, before his tongue soothed her skin.
“Damn it, but I was going to get the house all to myself.”She breathed out her displeasure, but when his tongue ran back up her neck and he nipped her earlobe, she moaned her pleasure.
“You’re going to have to learn to share, princess.”Lee teased against her throat, before travelling down the crevice between her breasts and running his tongue over the sweet flesh of the rounded globes.
Kay grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his head back as she took a long steadying breath.
“And you’re going to have to learn patience. Surfer dude.”It took a lot to unwrap her legs from around his hips, but she felt him palm the bar counter either side of her body, and the loss of contact between them made her pull in the first deep breath she’d had since he declared her his mate.
“Fair enough. But let’s see how long you can keep your hands off me.”He grinned at her, and she released his hair and pushed him backwards away from her, and he went on a wide grin.
Sexy surfer dude, she corrected inside her mind as she dropped down from the stool and started to walk away from him.
“And where are you going?”Lee called after her and she turned on her heels and narrowed her eyes on his smug grin.
“Well I usually leave a place by the door…”She informed him using slow words to get her point across and he nodded.
“I thought you wanted a job?”He shot back and saw her shocked expression.
“Work for you?”She grinned.
“Yes.”
“Here, together?”
“Unless you’re worried you won’t be able to keep your hands off me.”Lee teased and she gave him a slow perusal, cocking one brow and giving him the cutest lop sided grin he had ever had the privilege to receive in his life.
“Deal. When do I start?”
He motioned towards the crates and shrugged his shoulders. “No time like the present. Let me show you how to stock a bar.”He hooked his finger and called her too him, and damn if he didn’t look sexier than hell when he did it, she thought.
Mary took a slow browse down the aisle. She loved the smell of the books, new print mixed with musky smell of the well worn older ones. The library had always been her sanctuary, her quiet place away from the hustle and bustle of her crazy sister’s lives. A place to think, a place to escape, a place to lose herself in the fantasy world that allowed her to be anyone she wanted. Live anywhere she liked.
Mary let her eyes wander over the eye candy that sat patiently waiting on the shelves for an owner, if just for a little while. Her hands reached up and hesitated just before she reached for the first book that had enticed her senses.
When the book moved forwards towards her on the shelf, she caught her breath and checked herself. Had she just called to it with her mind?
Mary took a breath and went to reach for it again. The book edged forwards and she frowned. She had been careful this time not to call the book, that wasn’t her doing.
She took a step back and moved her hand along the shelf, another booked edged forwards, then another. Mary’s heart sped up inside her. This wasn’t right, this wasn’t her. She turned to move off and noted that another book moved, then another, just alongside her, and she picked up the pace of her escape.
Books were moving in time with her steps and she quickened her pace, wanting to be out of the aisle, away from the books, away from the library. Something was wrong, but she didn’t know what.
A spirit?
The sound of the heavy thud behind her made her whirl around on her heels. When she saw the heavy book on the floor her heart leapt within her chest again. Turning back towards her escape Mary’s hands hit the solid wall of a hard chest and she gasped in a breath.
CHAPTER FIVE
Mary’s head snapped back as solid arms came around her waist, and the deep chuckle came from his lips.
“Scared?”Declan gazed down at her with dark eyes full of desire as he scented her fear, saw the flare of her eyes, and heard her heart hammering in her chest.
“Why did you do that?”Mary hissed at him, mindful of where she was, even though relief mixed with anger inside her.
“Because I wanted to feel you breathless in my arms…”Declan reached out to brush away the stray strand of her dark hair that had caught against her equally dark lashes, and she frowned up at him.
“That’s not how I want to be breathless…”She berated him and batted those innocent lashes up at him a couple of times, causing him to grin wolfishly down at her.
“And how do you want me to make you breathless?”Declan knew the answer to that, it was the same thing he wanted, and when she reached up on tip toes and ran her lips over his, he growled gently as he deepened the kiss.
Mary ran her hands up and over his chest, around his neck, as she opened for the possession of his tongue over hers. Her heart skipped inside her when he pulled her tightly against his body. The feel of his arousal pressed into her stomach made her blush crimson with the heat that surged through her and fired a need within her that she had never thought she would feel.
She wasn’t one of her sisters. Boys had never interested her outside of her bookish world before Declan, but now she didn’t think she would ever get enough of him. When he touched her she wanted more, when he kissed her she needed more, and right now that need was growing.
The sound of throat clearing jolted the pair of them apart, and Mary turned to see the librarian giving them a sharp look of condemnation.
“Oops. Let’s get out of here.”Declan’s breath against her ear made Mary want to turn around and throw herself back into his arms, and she wasn’t entirely sure how she managed to hold herself back. It was getting harder to keep her hands off him, and even though she knew that to be a part of the mating process, it still didn’t quench the fire within her.
“Seth, I need…” Hannah breathed him in on a long draw of breath. His tongue was working over her neck, right where he would put his mark, his bite, claim her as his, and his thumb was brushing over the fabric of her bra and making the hard bud of her nipple scream its awareness of him inside her mind and body.
“You need?”Seth growled into her skin before closing his lips and sucking her willpower away.
“Shop, need… to…” There were words in her brain somewhere, but getting them out of her mouth was becoming decidedly difficult.
At some point her back had come up against a wall, although she didn’t remember how or when. All she knew was it gave her solidity in a world where there wasn’t much of anything real. With his hips pressed against hers, holding her to the wall, probably for her own good, because by now she should be a quivering pile of boneless human on the floor, the feel of his hard shaft against her stomach was both thrilling and frustrating. That wasn’t where she wanted it to be, needed it to be.
“Need to…?”Seth growled gently against her ear before he snagged the lobe between his teeth and let it run free again, his mate shivering her appreciation.
“Should…”She corrected. The only need inside her right now was for Seth. “I should…”
“But you don’t want too…”He ran his hand down over her thigh, even through the damn material of her skirt she could feel the fire of his touch as it stoked the flame within her.
“I…” Hannah’s mind was centred on four places. The feel of his lips working back down over her neck towards her shoulder and how damn good that felt. The feel of his thumb brushing over her nipple, back and forth and then around and around, and that was equally as good. The hand that was travelling back up her thigh, and how she wanted to feel that on the bare skin of her leg, and that place deep inside her where the jolts of his multitasking activities was creating a burning need, and the most erotic feelings.
“I’ll take that as a no…”Seth growled, lifting her against the wall and further up his body as the heat from his erection seeped through his clothes, her clothes, and warmed her already heated sex.
“No…” She didn’t know if she was agreeing with him or denying his words. Damn it to hell, but her body was curling around his like a damn snake. Her legs wrapped around his hips and she fisted his hair and pulled him closer, although she was trying to push him away, or was she?
“No?”Seth’s desire was more that evident in his body, but it was that deep growl that rolled through his chest and rumbled through every word he uttered that made her shiver with excitement.
“Yes…?”Hannah wasn’t sure what they were talking about, she only knew what he was doing to her was just so damn good that she didn’t want him to stop. If this was playing, she couldn’t wait to get the serious part under way.
“Yes.”He spun her around on his hips and started for the staircase and before she knew it they were upstairs and he was lowering her to her mattress.
“How did you know where my bed…?”She opened her eyes and looked around. All she needed was to find herself in Fiona’s room and that would have set the cat among the pigeons.
“Scent…”Seth was moving down her body. His lips were taking the scenic route, and when he pushed up the fabric of her top and started up her abdomen towards her breasts, she knew it was a foregone conclusion what came next and something inside her snapped on. Warning bells rang and she tensed beneath him.
“No…”The way she said it had Seth’s ears pricking up and his body slamming into neutral. He stopped instantly. Lifting his head to look down at her, he could see his own passion, his own desire mirrored in her face, and yet there was an element of panic there too.
“Time…”Seth growled out the word tenderly and saw the panic slip away from her in an instant.
“Time.”She agreed and he couldn’t help but grin down at her.
“We need to get you to the shop, because if we stay here…”Seth was up and on his feet in an instant. With a slight adjustment to the ache in his jeans, a sort of flick and shake of one leg, he held out his hand for her to take, and she did, fitting her palm against his, she let him help her off the bed.
“Seth…”She wanted to explain. Felt that she needed to apologise for not having the faith within herself to allow fate to take its course. She wanted too, damn did she want too, but there were things, circumstances, sisters, playing on her mind…
Seth pulled her towards him and gently wrapped his arm around her back. Dipping his head to her ear he shushed her, before kissing her cheek and then pulling away again.
“You’re mine, I can wait for as long as you need.”
Damn if those words didn’t make her clench her feminine parts and want to haul him onto the bed and have her wicked way with him. How the hell was she going to resist him? And why was she trying?
Fiona pouted and placed her hands on her hips. Now wasn’t the best time to pull on Hannah’s chain, her sister was basically brain addled from trying to resist the alpha’s charms all afternoon, and at one point, when Seth had teasingly brushed his hips against Hannah’s backside as he squeezed through a gap between her and a counter, Hannah’s had practically jumped through the ceiling into the upstairs storage area.
“So why am I in charge of the rubbish area?”She didn’t want to go outside the back of the shop. Night had closed in fast and the winter winds were blowing a gale outside, snow was threatening, and Fiona had troubles of her own. She would much rather stay inside the warmth of the bakers shop.
“It’s cold outside, so I nominate you…”
“What about the wolf, he’s got
insulation.”Fiona protested and saw the smirk that Seth gave her as he continued to strong arm a unit into place.
“You can move the unit then?”Hannah admonished and Fiona grinned.
“It’s called magic…”Fiona’s devilish expression made Hannah roll her eyes.
“And we don’t use it without a good reason.”She offered back and saw Fiona take in Seth as his muscles danced beneath his top.
“You just like watching your mate do manual labour so you can ogle his…”Hannah’s aim was well placed as she tossed an empty box at her sister and it caught her in the ribs, even though Fiona managed to see it coming.
“Rubbish.”The word was ambiguous, and Fiona hooked one brow in the air and gave her a lopsided grin of knowing. That little gleam in her eyes was enough to made Hannah blush and turn away from the pair of them, as Fiona caught the amusement within Seth’s face.
Fiona turned on her heels and yanked the two black bags with her towards the back door, yanking it open. Getting an icy blast of arctic wind, that went through her clothes and straight down to the bone, made her shriek her annoyance, but she carried on regardless, dragging the bags to the nearest dumpster and biting down on the sudden chattering of her teeth.
“So, dinner tonight.” The deep melodic drawl, made her jump and grit her teeth even harder as she whirled around to see Mac standing there, arms crossed over his chest, and with a smug expression on his face.
“No thanks.”Fiona went to haul the first bag in the air but found that not only was Mac already beside her, but he was taking the bag away from her and tossing it into the dumpster as if it weighted nothing at all.
“You promised me dinner.”The fact that he had leaned down over her, and his breath caressed her cheek, did little to make his presence any less prominent within her mind.
“I said I would have dinner with you, but I never said when…”Fiona turned on her heels to stare up at him with a victorious smile and a gleam of satisfaction in her eyes. “Two thousand and forty five sound good for you?” Fiona gave him an innocent look that didn’t do the gleam in her eye justice as she stared up at him.
