by Vivian Arend
If he didn’t slow them down he was going to spill right then and there. It was bad enough she’d hogtied him, and they were already having sex. He’d never taken a woman without making sure she’d experienced pleasure, and this was his mate.
Mate, oh freaky day, he was having sex with his mate.
Going slow—nice idea, but the reality of their wolves and the lingering scent of her in his brain crumpled that note and tossed it to the side. Slow would happen later. Maybe tomorrow. Or next week. Next week might be possible.
Still, he had to deal with the building pressure because flipping her over and pounding her through the mattress wouldn’t be the romantic first time he figured most women wanted. He twisted them until his feet hit the floor, kissing her cheek, licking her neck before taking possession of her mouth and soaking in her taste the best he could.
His lack of smell had always been a pain, but this? Better than he’d expected. She snuck into his system as he kissed her. Slow, but insistent—overwhelming his physical lack with sheer potency.
He slipped his hands between their bodies to cup her breasts, thumbs taking her nipples captive. Commanding them to attention before he pushed her back. Keri arched, and he covered one firm peak with his mouth, then the other. Sucking hard, licking lightly. She wiggled and ground over his cock, her sex coating him with heat and moisture.
Maybe the whole do it now thing was going to be okay.
Then she caught his ear in her teeth and bit, and his mind fled.
He rose to his feet, her ass cradled in his hands. She instinctively wrapped her legs around him, but it only took two steps for him to find the door and press her against it. She clung to his shoulders as he lifted her then plunged in deep.
The door creaked and groaned nearly as loud as they did.
“Oh, Mark, that feels good.” Keri caught the back of his neck and yanked his mouth back to hers, and he forgot everything except fucking them both into oblivion. One thrust after another followed, their teeth knocking, noses bumping. A mad dash of sex and loud noises and all he could feel was her around him. Capturing and claiming him. He adjusted his angle slightly and she squeaked as he hit her clit, and he smiled.
And did it again.
Three more thrusts and she sang out in delight before planting her teeth against his shoulder and biting down.
“Keri…oh, hell yeah.” Jared shook off the weakness that threatened to buckle his knees and fought for one last plunge before he gave in to his climax and emptied.
In his mind, words sounded. A feminine tone. A very satisfied feminine tone. “Oh my goodness.”
Jared leaned heavily against her and smiled. Incredible. “Keri?”
She tightened under him, pinned to the wall like a butterfly. “Is…is that you?”
The mate connection swirled around them. Something more than physical, something beyond his wildest dreams. Jared focused as hard as possible but there were too many things happening at once to do anything but struggle to remain vertical. “It’s me. Give me a minute.”
Keri’s face was buried against his neck, their hearts still pounding. She hadn’t loosened the death grip of her legs, thank goodness, or he might have dropped her.
One more minute brought him to the point he could move. He stood, his cock slipping from her body. He carried her carefully back to the bed and lowered her to the messy sheets. Crawled beside her, staring into her eyes, seeing the flush on her cheeks—he focused on her lips, and she moistened them and gazed back with a happy expression.
He tried it again, the speaking-into-her-mind thing that only mates could do. “Hi, love.”
Her face lit up like a moonrise over the mountain. “Hi. Are you…happy?”
Jared laughed. “I’m ecstatic. I’m sorry I didn’t know sooner. You must have thought I was being an ass.”
Her fingers tangled in his hair. She shook her head. “I didn’t understand why you weren’t following me around. I figured maybe it had something to do with Chad.”
Ick. “You’re not…you weren’t…”
Her answer rushed out. “No. He’s just a friend of the family. I’m yours.”
Damn right. “And I’m yours.”
Keri lowered her lashes for a moment. “Typical wolf situation though—we have tons of stuff to share, like family backgrounds and everything. Not that I’m worried, because, I mean, we are wolves. I assume we can make things work since that side seems pretty pleased right now.”
“More than pleased.” Jared lay beside her, his body touching hers at as many points as possible. His wolf was gloating, bloody beast, but he couldn’t muster the energy to be offended. “And we’ll have a nice long talk. About everything.”
Including the bits about him not being Mark but someone else. Only he didn’t think, mates or not, that conversation should happen when he was naked. Female wolves had too good a sense of justice, and he kinda liked the idea of getting to use his balls for a bit longer, now that he’d found her and all.
“How about after a shower? Then I’ll buy you lunch and we can talk about anything you like.” Jared traced a finger down her body. He adjusted position and bumped the side table hard enough his tool belt fell to the floor. He cursed and went to roll over, but she beat him to it, crawling over top of him and reaching toward the floor. Hmm, nice. Maybe they shouldn’t leave quite yet…
“Sounds marvelous. We can go to the—oh, hell.” Kari jerked to a stop in mid-sentence.
He curled up beside her to see what was wrong. “What’s the matter?”
She had his tool belt in one hand, suspended just off the floor, her eyes wide in near panic.
“You okay? What happened?” He pulled the belt from her fingers and dropped it to the side, up against the mattress. He quickly turned her hands over. “Did you cut yourself or something?”
She swallowed hard before a smile spread over her face. A sickly smile, forced and unnatural. “I’m fine. Just fine. Everything is fine.”
“Keri?” In the last thirty seconds, something had gone terribly wrong.
“Shower. Shower is fine.” She scrambled off the bed and toward the teeny enclosure.
The disappointment he felt as she walked away didn’t stop him from noticing the incredible tattoo on her lower back. He’d love to check it out more thoroughly—heck, he’d planned on doing a little more playing before actually taking her to the shower, but with her sudden change of mood, he wasn’t sure what to do.
He followed her to the doorway of the tiny room. She’d turned on the water and already stood under the spray. There was barely space in the doorless enclosure for her, let alone him beside her, so he leaned on the doorframe and stared to his heart’s content, even as he puzzled over her rapid mood change.
She turned her face fully under the water, and he watched the rivulets stream over her skin, down the curve of her neck and over the spot where he’d bit her. He couldn’t resist touching the place, his fingers lightly tracing the mark. Keri turned to him and his heart swelled with…love?
This mate thing was a built-in part of them as shifters. She was a piece of him now, and having her tense and upset over some unvoiced matter hurt. He wanted, no, needed to have her happy.
And while this probably wasn’t the best time to share that his presence on the ship was unauthorized—there was another issue he could clear up rather quickly. “Keri? I’m glad I found you. And I’m sorry about not knowing. I have a bit of a secret you need to hear—”
Her eyes widened, shining with hope and a bit of sadness.
Sadness?
“You can tell me anything, Mark. I’m your mate, and I promise to support you through anything.”
The sheer determination in her voice was curious, but he was distracted by the Mark/Jared thing. “You can’t tell anyone, please?”
She squared her shoulders. “I will do what is best for us, for you, even if it’s difficult.”
“It’s not really my fault, you see.” Jared dragged a hand t
hrough his hair and wanted to slap himself for starting this now. He was still naked and she was right freaking there and naked, and he was rambling about what wasn’t the most important issue they had? “Never mind.”
Keri caught her hands in hers. She stared him directly in the eye and squeezed his fingers, water rebounding off her shoulders and covering his with a fine mist. “I am your mate. And whatever it is that troubles you, I’m there to help you get out of it. No matter what the reason, I won’t abandon you.”
Okaaaay…
After her little support-you-through-anything spiel, he was a trifle discombobulated. What did she think he was going to share? That he liked to bathe in moose blood under a full moon?
“I can’t smell.” The words shot out.
Her jaw dropped.
He hurried on. “In my human form. I smell fine in my wolf, which is why I finally figured out that we were mates. But all those times earlier? I wasn’t ignoring you on purpose.” He thought back through all their encounters and felt like kicking his own ass. “Man, you must have thought I was a total jerk. I’m so sorry.”
Her changing expressions were nearly comical. Shock, bewilderment, a glimmer of understanding and then a smile, although one that barely reached her eyes. “That makes a lot more sense now. I didn’t think you were a jerk, although I was confused.” She glanced at the walls nearly bumping her on either side. “You know what? Let’s go to my suite. The shower is bigger and we can talk for as long as we need.”
Jared grabbed his towel and held it up as she stepped out, all wet and slick, and holy moly he wanted to jump her again this second. He wrapped the fabric around her, his knuckles skimming the tops of her breasts as he tucked the ends of the towel in.
She laughed. “What was that sigh for?”
“Did I sigh? God, woman, what you’re doing to me.”
Keri stepped back and pointed. “You rinse off then come find me. I need to make a few arrangements so we can spend the rest of the day together.”
The involuntary drop of her gaze over his body didn’t do anything to slow the blood flow to his cock. He caught her fingers in his hand and kissed her knuckles briefly, somehow managing to not drag her back into his arms. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. And together sounds wonderful.”
Keri winked before she turned away, and he stared at her ass and tatt in happy shock as she returned to the bedside and dressed.
His mate. He’d really and truly found his mate.
He reluctantly stepped into the shower, his wolf sniggering in delight. “Yeah, yeah, you know everything, don’t you? Then tell me how I’m going to explain why I’m on this ship in the first place?” he muttered to the beast.
The fiend settled, still smug, as if to say that was a human concern and not his. The wolf had found its mate, and all was right in the world.
Chapter Six
Her hand shook so hard she was afraid the heavy jeweled brooch resting on her palm would once again end up on the floor. Keri curled her fingers over the surface until the gems spiked into her flesh.
Heaven and hell, that’s what the past hour had brought. Getting to finally be with her mate had turned her inside out with happiness. The sex was fabulous, and his confession about his missing sense of smell made the previously confusing situations understandable.
Only when she’d rolled to pick up the dislodged tool belt and discovered the brooch lying on the floor, her heart had not just fallen but shriveled and rolled under the bed, alongside the hastily shoved jewelry.
Mates were chosen by their wolf side. They should be exactly what the other needed, but…she needed a thief?
The evidence lay there, unmistakable and real.
She wanted to scream. In agony, in confusion, in sorrow. Maybe he had a good reason, but wasn’t that going to be one of the toughest conversations ever? “You know how you said you couldn’t smell? Cool with me. But do you have some financial issues? Are you part of a gang? What’s up in your world and will we have to have relationships on visiting days after you’re caught and booked for grand theft?”
She was supposed to be acting as a troubleshooter—oh my, there was an issue as well. What was she going to tell Tessa? Hey, no worries, I’ve found the thief. But you can’t arrest him.
There had to be a way to solve this that didn’t end up involving conjugal visits at the pen every other week.
She tucked the jewel into her desk drawer and got a drink of water. There was time to think. He’d join her, they would visit and she’d manage to get out of him the whys of his situation. Together they would solve this problem.
But first? A little advance chaos control on his behalf.
Tessa answered on the first ring. “Dudette. It’s your dime, spill it.”
Keri snorted in spite of her worries. “Lay off the Diet Coke, babe.”
“Shoot, you think?” A steady squeak, squeak, squeak echoed in the background. “Fine. But if you tell me I have to stop the chocolate, there will be serious discussion happening between my nails and your body.”
“Oh, hell no, I’m not getting between a cat and her chocolate.”
“What’s shaking? Other than your tail?”
“Har har.” One small step, that’s all she could take right now. And the most important thing was to deal with her suspicions quickly and quietly.
The fact that she needed to roll her mate into bed and crawl all over him a dozen more times before she was anywhere near sated was another matter altogether.
“Tessa—if you don’t mind, I’m taking the rest of the day and hiding out.”
Squeak, squeak, squeak. “Something wrong? You feeling okay?”
The buzz of need between her legs said one thing. Keri forced her mouth to say another. “I’m fine but need a bit of time away from the crowds. I’ll be back in the swing with you tomorrow. Deal?”
“Sure thing. You… Hey, you want me to tell Chad you’re not well or something? He stopped in here again a few minutes ago and was asking where you were.” Squeak, squeak, squawk.
Chad. Gag. “Is he the reason you’re doing double-time on the rebounder?”
“Yip. He’s like this stick in my side with his constant checking up on me. I’m pretty sure he was never this anal with my brother. Oh, Keri, why can’t I be a normal girl and drool over my big brother’s friends? Instead, Chad makes my nose itch, and I’m so damn tempted to throw balls every time he comes near to see if he twitches with the urge to play fetch.”
The image of ultra-cool Chad clutching a ball in his mouth and sitting at attention made Keri laugh out loud. “Hate to tell you, you are normal. Chad is not your type. Mainly because he is being annoying.”
“You were planning on doing him earlier. I take it that plan has changed?”
Like whoa. “I’ve discovered other interests.”
“Oh, really?” The squeaking came to a dead stop, and Keri swore softly at even giving the smallest of openings to the cat’s curiosity. Tessa could dig and dig and dig given half a chance. “Keri—what are you doing? Or should I ask, who are you doing?”
Nope. Not going there. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“That’s not a denial.” Happy giggles rose on the other end of the line. “I expect a full report, because if I’m not getting any action I need to live vicariously through your sexual exploits.”
“You’ve got a whole ship full of willing shifters. Go find your own toy to play with.”
Tessa sighed, long and dramatic. “I can’t. Gotta be responsible and all that. So you’re under full orders to have a big enough blast for us both.”
“Thanks. Can I go now, or do you have further plans to make me spill deets?”
“There are already deets?”
Oops. “I’m hanging up now. Bye.”
Keri clicked off before she could do any more damage, but at least she’d accomplished her goal. She had the afternoon and evening to spend not only sating her body with her mate but hopefully finding out how t
o direct the disaster situation somewhere manageable.
Although the lust clouding her mind would probably distract her for a few hours first.
Jared showered and dressed in three minutes flat and was hard on Keri’s heels. Her determined expression worried him a lot. She was up to something.
Even the concern he felt made him happy though. It was a brand-new sensation, like she was under his skin and he had to help her. He skittered around a corner and flailed his arms backward to avoid slamming into a couple.
“Excuse me.” He tucked against the wall to allow them to pass, a man in an extremely sharp business suit and a woman in a dress that screamed expensive. Both of them looked vaguely familiar, and recognition hit in a rush.
Oh hell.
The delighted gasp from the woman made him straighten up and put on his best smile in spite of the pit of despair opening at his feet.
The gasp progressed to a laugh of delight. “How marvelous. Duncan, look who is here. It’s Jared Gilliland.”
“Whatever are you doing, young man?” A firm finger pressed to the front of his T-shirt as the gentleman stared over his elegant thin-framed glasses. “Traveling a touch on the casual side, aren’t you?”
Jared took in the Fedoras with a growing sense of dread. There was no way out of this, no way at all. “Yes, sir. Just a bit of a holiday and there didn’t seem to be a need to dress up. How are you?”
They responded politely while Jared scrambled to find a way to deflect the situation. A trickle of memory hit before they could ask any more awkward questions about his presence on the ship. “My parents mentioned you were looking at some property in the south of France. How did that turn out?”
Distraction was the correct response. They both beamed and described the small resort to him. “Small” meaning there was probably only a legion of staff waiting on the few family members who would visit the premises.
He had spent his entire life working to avoid this situation. Being around the elite wasn’t a horrible thing, it just wasn’t his thing. His parents had allowed him to step out in his own direction instead of remaining in the limelight of the upper class—which had kept his handicap concealed.
