He grinned. “If you insist.”
El met his eyes and smiled before focusing her attention on his groin. Everything he had stood up and paid attention. When her hand wrapped around his girth, his breath caught. As her thumb smeared through the liquid on the top of his shaft, rubbing it in a circle until the head glistened—his brain no longer registered anything but sensation.
El bent over, her beautiful body on display as she leaned at right angles to him. The tip of her tongue darted out and contacted the head of his cock and he forced himself to keep his hips on the mattress and not thrust between her lips.
Another twirl of her tongue around the head, a slow, even swipe along the underside. Each movement she made tormented him in such an amazing way he couldn’t imagine anything feeling better. Until she engulfed him with her mouth and tried to swallow him whole.
“Holy mackerel. Arhhhhhh…” His head fell back on the pillow, fingers convulsing against the sheets as he forced himself to hold back and let her have her way. It was a big step for her to take, and like sneaking up on a tiny mouse, he didn’t want…damn…to do anything that…fuck…broke her…concentration.
Long wet slide. Swirl of the tongue. Long wet slide, wicked suction. Long wet slide.
He was in heaven, and not even the rising strains of “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow” floating in the window made him lose focus. She rolled his balls in her fingers, tightened her suction around his cock, and the buzzing in his ears grew louder than the caroling. Seconds away from…
“Sweetheart, you want to back off? Or you’re gonna get a little icing with that candy cane.”
El stared at him from under her lashes, the same mischievous look she’d given him back in the lingerie shop, and he knew he was a goner. She dragged back once more, cheeks hollowing with her efforts as she slipped her fingers under his balls and pressed.
“Holy…” His voice trailed off as the music swelled around them, his nuts tight to his body. He spilled into her mouth, his seed pouring out in seemingly endless spurts. El swallowed and gulped, and swallowed some more. She licked his length and worked him until every last jerk had died away and he was nothing but a quivering mass of relaxed cat. She gave his cock one last naughty kiss before crawling up the bed and draping herself on top him, her lips hovering over his.
She kissed him softly, and this time it was his pleasure he tasted. A shiver traced his skin. It was very, very intimate, and suddenly the strange and eerie path he had entered by getting involved with El grew even more foreign.
Oral sex wasn’t supposed to make him feel like this.
“Thank you.” She brushed their cheeks together before resting her head on his chest. Kyle wrapped an arm around her back, adjusting until her warmth covered him in all the right places. He wondered what the hell he had gotten himself into.
* * *
“Have you had enough to eat? I’ve got more ham and eggs, and there’s toast and—”
Kyle leaned back in his chair and adjusted his belt. “Ma’am, that was an incredible breakfast. And like yesterday, and the day before, I have eaten enough to last me a week. Thank you, no.” He held up a hand to block the heavily loaded platter heading his direction down the table again.
Mrs. Scott beamed at him. “I don’t want you to go hungry, now. Actually, I’m trying to butter you up because I have a favor to ask. There are a few little chores I need help with, if you don’t mind. Some shopping in town I haven’t managed to finish.”
He wiped his mouth quickly and took advantage of the fact El’s mouth was full. “We’d love to go. So good to be able to help you out.”
El groaned lightly beside him, and he kicked her ankle. For the past three days he’d been trying to get into town. And for the past three days he’d been stuck back at the house in the admittedly entertaining company of the younger Scotts as El’s mom and dad rallied the family to get ready for the holidays. He’d spent some time online with his current CSI project doing research, but that had only taken a few hours each day. Once he was done, he’d given himself over to the enchanting interaction with El’s family. Distracting the little boys while their parents wrapped and hid presents was fun. As the youngest himself, he’d never experienced the adoration of little guys, and there were at least a half dozen tykes, all of whom seemed to delight in hiding in corners and waiting until the opportune moment to leap out and tackle him.
Then there were the twins. That was comical as well, since the first morning on his way upstairs after breakfast he’d overheard them discussing him as “El’s guy” and labeling him off limits. Of course, they’d failed to let El in on their decision, and still trailed after him in their sultry way. He ignored them as best he could, but seeing how El reacted to him reacting to their acting made him laugh.
Shortly afterward he found himself riding shotgun again in a borrowed pickup truck.
El grumbled. “I thought you had more computer work to do.”
Kyle smiled out the front window, admiring the decorations on the buildings as they drove into town. The Scotts weren’t the only ones to go a trifle overboard with the “wrapping it up for the holidays” look. He shook his head and paid attention to answering El’s question. There were a few pieces of the puzzle he’d found for his latest assignment, but he was still missing the important key players. Until he discovered those, he couldn’t make a move. None of this he could tell her, since she thought he was some kind of online graphic designer. “I haven’t done much but work for the past couple days.”
“And play with my brothers. Sorry about that.”
Kyle snorted. “Don’t be. I’m having a blast.”
El put the truck into park and looked at him closely, curiosity in her eyes. She opened her mouth as if to speak, then shook her head. “Come on. My mom gave us an impossible task.”
The list was as long as his arm. Seemed the Scotts didn’t believe in skimping on Christmas presents—like that surprised him any. What did surprise him was the warm glow inside he’d felt ever since setting eyes on their girl. The glow that hadn’t diminished since she’d first led him on, and now three days after arriving at Santa’s Little Shop of Horrors, he was amazed at how much he was enjoying himself. This not-really-protective-custody wasn’t a bad thing, not when it involved a mother intent on feeding him at every opportunity, a father with a rather liberal hand with the scotch and a warm cat in his bed at night.
“Lead me on, Eloise Inez,” he teased as they made their way down the sidewalk.
She spun and planted her fists on her hips, icily glaring down at him. “My name is El.”
He snorted. “Course it is, gingersnap. It’s just after hearing your ma and pa—”
“Not Eloise. Not Eloise Inez. El. Oh, and not sugar bear or cuddlecakes or sugarplum, or any of the other saccharinely sweet names you’ve been calling me,” she snarled, even as she grabbed his hand and tugged him down the street.
Kyle couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this much fun. Had to be—he laughed to himself—a coon’s age.
El dragged his willing body down the main street of town. She hadn’t lied when she said she grew up in Podunk, Backwoods. People smiled and waved at them, standing in small groups and chatting, opening the gatherings to invite them in to “visit for a spell.” El smiled sweetly at them all, and gave nice noncommittal answers even as she told them nothing vital about him.
He stopped her before they entered the toy shop, tugging her into the dormer at the side of the old false fronted building. “It seems as if we’ve met most of the people in town. I thought you needed to keep me under wraps?”
She raised her brow again, and all kinds of tingles, none having to do with the crisp air temperatures, waved over him. “You never heard of the purloined letter? I’ve introduced you as Kyle. They all said ‘oh’ and moved on to the next topic. By making you boring and uninteresting we’ve hidden you as well as if we’d tried to go underground.”
He sniffed at her. “Bor
ing and uninteresting. Sheesh, I’ve obviously got to work a little harder.”
El softened, glancing around clandestinely before leaning into his arms. “You’re fishing for compliments.”
“Of course I am. My ego needs to be fed as much as my belly.”
She thumped her fist on his chest, even as she smiled. “My mother is feeding your belly just fine.”
He tweaked her nose. “So it’s my poor ego that’s feeling neglected. Sleeping all night long with a sexy shifter who doesn’t let me make the bubble lights bubble when she’s near? I’m a devastated cat.”
El sighed, frowning even as she stared at his mouth. “Give me a little more time, okay? It’s not like we’re back in my apartment. Thinking about having sex under my parents roof is a very weird sensation for me, even if it is normal and okay, and nothing unusual for most cat shifters.”
Kyle cleared his throat. Snuggling with her at night, and kissing, and getting each other off had been a ton of fun, but they’d failed to actually do the deed yet. There had been no chance to hear the sleigh bells ring, melt the snowmen or whatever. Partly because now that the boys knew he was in the house, they had no reticence about bounding into El’s room at the most inopportune moments.
“Actually, I do understand your hesitation. I bet that’s part of the reason most cat shifters move out so young. I doubt I could have sex at my uncle and aunt’s either.” He shuddered, and she laughed.
“Yeah, there’s something about doing the nasty on their turf that…” Her reaction wrinkled her entire face into the most adorable grimace.
Of course, he was all for finding a hotel room, but in the interest of remaining healthy and vertical, he refrained from suggesting that one.
She had a damn good right hook.
Instead, he laughed, tilting her chin. “Look, we have a weird situation to start with, oh ye of the sexy tushie. So let’s not worry about what we’ve not done and get through this list before we find ourselves having to hijack Santa’s sleigh to get all the things your folks want for your little bros.”
Shopping was domestic and non-exciting and…he loved every minute of it. At least until he had to make a pit stop. The restroom doors were wrapped in shiny paper and ribbons, with the words “Elves” and “Pixies” to choose from. He actually had to peek in to discover which one had the urinals.
When he finally returned to where he’d left El, she wasn’t alone.
She was nose to nose with a hulking dark-skinned giant. Loosely congregated around them, a half dozen other shaggy-haired men casually loitered, and Kyle increased his pace, ducking through the milling crowds. The scent on the air screamed wolf.
Then the giant grabbed El and planted his lips on hers, and Kyle’s vision got a trifle hazy. He snarled out a warning and the path cleared, humans between him and his prey falling aside like fir trees in a Christmas tree lot in November. One of the pack stepped in his way, and he simply pressed the man to the floor with a hand, using his forward momentum to fly over top of a display unit and tackle the guy mauling El to the ground. Unfortunately, that meant El went as well, but Kyle twisted them as they fell, ensuring the lupine ended up on the bottom. A rattling gasp escaped the wolf as the full weight of their two bodies slammed into him hard.
El threw out a hand toward the rest of the pack that instantly surrounded them. “Wait. Don’t do anything stupid. Sam is fine. No need to rip out any throats.” She peeled herself off the pile of bodies and scrambled to her feet. The next thing he knew she smacked his shoulder. Hard.
“Kyle, what the hell are you doing?”
Kyle thought for a moment. “Is this some kind of a trick question? Christmas shopping.” Her gaze narrowed and she knelt beside him, pointing to his hand. Kyle gasped in mock surprise. “My goodness, what am I doing?”
The wolf’s eyes bulged, the whites showing red-tinged. Kyle had his hand wrapped around the shifter’s throat, pinning him effortlessly to the ground. Of course, part of the effortlessness was because Kyle still sat on the beast, all his weight centered directly over the wolf’s gut. Any energy his target had went into breathing and not into trying to escape.
Sudden pain gripped Kyle. He meekly let his quarry free, attempting to stay as close as possible to El and the death grip she had on his ear. She tugged again, peeling him off the wolf, who instantly rolled to this belly and dragged in a huge gasp of air.
El yanked one last time to get Kyle to face her before releasing his aching ear.
“What happened to staying quiet as a kitten? You dumb-ass,” she hissed at him sotto voce.
“He was touching you.” The words leapt from his lips before his brain engaged.
She rolled her eyes and buried her fingers in her hair, tugging the locks into an unruly mess. “Great. More macho shit, just what we needed.” She leaned closer. “You will not say another word while I try to fix this, got it?”
He batted his eyes innocently and then folded in two to cradle his belly. Fuck, her right hook was getting stronger, and she was deadly accurate when it came to hitting his solar plexus. “Got it,” he squeezed out.
El stepped around him. “Hey, Samuel, sorry about that. My friend’s a little shaky from all the sugar—you know, cats on a holiday high and all that.”
The wolf had gotten to his feet and now glared in Kyle’s direction. “Sure. We’ll accept that as an excuse this time.” The rest of his boys circled in behind him. “I’m serious, El, it’s good to see you again. You’re looking mighty fine.”
You’re looking mighty fine. Blah, blah, blah. The “I want to get into your pants” tone of the wolf’s voice was all too familiar. Kyle had used it too many times himself not to recognize it.
El folded her arms in front of her. “Thanks, but like I said before, I don’t think you should be kissing me. We’re not a couple anymore.”
“We could be,” Samuel growled, his voice low and dripping with intention. Kyle’s fingers itched to return to the man’s neck. His own grumble of dissatisfaction escaped, and El butted him with her hip.
“But we’re not. And haven’t been for a long time.” She raised her gaze and nodded to the rest of them. “Hey, guys. How’s it going? Y’all coming out to the party this weekend?”
A pack of animated wolves in a toy store was a scary sight. Grown men though they were, they almost vibrated with excitement. “You bet, Eloise,” one piped up. “Your family makes the best damn hooch—”
An elbow in the ribs cut him short. “Ix-nay on the ooch-hay in ublic-pay”
“Oh, right.”
The rumble of voices as the pack chatted excitedly at El smeared together into white noise. Kyle had his eyes locked on the leader, Samuel, and the man was equally focused on him. The wolf’s gaze darted between him and El, suspicion and jealousy on his face. Kyle snuck out a hand to cup her waist, just to yank the other guy’s chain. El didn’t even realize that as she spoke, she settled unconsciously against Kyle’s body, her long frame nestled intimately close.
Samuel looked as if Kyle had stolen his favorite bone.
Kyle wondered for a second what the freak was going on. He wasn’t supposed to feel protective toward El. Cats didn’t. Not this cat anyway. Prowl, howl and get the hell out—that had always been his motto when it came to relationships. But somewhere along the long bike ride to the land of endless Christmas carols, he seemed to have lost his mind.
He was dragged from his internal debating by El’s firm grip, and brought back into the December sunshine, his arms piled high with bags from their purchases. He glanced around to spot the wolves, but they were long gone.
“What am I supposed to do with you?” El shook her head in disappointment.
“I have a few suggestions—”
She stomped on his foot. “Don’t even start with me, bucko. It was bad enough I had to issue a personal invitation to Ranger Bob and his posse to the Christmas party to make sure things didn’t get out of hand after your little display of uber Alphahood. Don’t push
your luck.”
Christmas party. He’d heard those words an awful lot lately, yet only now did they register. “Christmas party?”
She piled the bags from his arms into the back of the truck they’d borrowed to come to town. “Party. As in the yearly Scotts’ booze-it-up-and-get-down Christmas bash. It’s a tradition around here. The whole town is usually invited.” She tossed him the keys and he couldn’t stop the grin that burst to his face. “I can hardly wait to find out how nicely in control you’re going to be at that event.”
Chapter Five
What she was seeing was impossible. Her family, the one voted by her high school yearbook committee as “the most likely to put a sloth to sleep” (other than their ability to use massive levels of electricity every December and brew moonshine that could power a nuclear sub), was hosting the premier event of the Christmas season.
El nabbed her mother’s arm as she raced past, a glittering tiara slightly askew on her elaborate hair-do. “Mom? Umm, you said the party this year was simply the same old, same old.”
Her mother adjusted her girdle, smiling with delight at the filling front room. “It is, dear. Just the townsfolk—oh, and a few new friends of your father’s.” She leaned conspiratorially close. “Some of whom are simply going out of their minds trying to figure out how your father made his winnings do so well in the stock market. No matter how often he tells them, they keep insisting there must be more.”
El rubbed her temples. “Face it, Mom, it’s tough to believe that using a random number generator and a set of darts turned you into multimillionaires, but hey.” She pointed around the room. “It happened.”
“That’s what we said. Now, where’s that nice young man of yours?” Mrs. Scott beamed as she patted El’s cheek. Her gaze darted to the side. “Oh dear, the children are in the punch again.”
She kissed El and scurried off, flustered like always, and just like always, El had to smile. Yeah, the guest list was a little broader, but other than that it didn’t seem as if her parents were making anything more of the party than usual. The punch bowl looked to be made of real crystal, and there were lily-white suited servers wandering through the teeming crowd, but she still smelled eggnog and homemade gingersnaps.
Winter Wishes Page 5
