by Ana Meadows
A Shapeshifter’s Kiss: Broken
Part One
Ana Meadows
Copyright 2014 by Forbidden Fruit Press
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.
Published by Forbidden Fruit Press
Smashwords Edition
All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.
***
A taste of things to come:
Lost completely in the moment, everything else a distant memory, Raine’s heart raced frantically, trying to keep up with the pure delight that ripped through her body exploding into shocks of deep shudders from her very core and flowing out through her fingers and toes. That entry and slight movement of his hips had been all it took for her to come. She shook all over afterwards, as if recovering from a seizure. Her body completely belonged to Jack, and they both knew it.
She opened her eyes and looked at his face as his hips began moving more urgently, thrusting himself into her, now with the intentions of causing his own pleasure, his own relief. He began to groan with each demanding thrust, her fingers were clutching onto his back as she felt him swell inside of her and then suddenly every muscle in his body was hard and all at once soft as she felt his release. He collapsed on top of her, and she loved the feel of the light sheen of sweat that lay between them, and the slight quiver of his recovering muscles.
***
Chapter One
“Wow! You said small town but I didn’t realize how small you meant.”
Raine was looking out the window of their rental car as Jack drove down the main street of a town called “River’s End” in the county of Broadwater, Montana. Jack was there on business, hoping to find a new location for one of his company’s high-end resorts. Raine had come along with him hoping to get some new inspiration for her artwork. Being a photorealist, Raine takes photographs and uses oil paints, acrylics, charcoals and even plain old led sometimes to turn the pictures into what she had been told were stunning pieces of art. She and Jack lived in Los Angeles where there is a big market for the kind of art she created, but Raine had found out that in order to make real money at what she loved to do, she would often have to sell herself short. People wanted her to recreate pieces that other artists had already done. They wanted her to recreate family photographs or photos of their children or their grandchildren. None of that was necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn’t what Raine wanted to do with her gift. She didn’t want to recreate anything. She wanted to create.
Jack on the other hand was usually willing to do whatever his bosses at the company where he worked required or requested of him as long as there was a hefty salary or bonus involved. Raine looked at him now, dressed in his expensive, tailored Armani suit and sunglasses that had cost more than most people’s cars and she realized that she hardly recognized him anymore. When she first met him in college he had been a jeans, t-shirts and beer kind of guy. They had first bonded over their shared love of art and hopes of doing something in the future to change the world. She had also fallen for his quick, mischievous grin and his dark blue eyes that shone in contrast to his dark hair. Now he was a slave to a corporation and the almighty dollar that it represented.
“Yeah,” he said with a chuckle in answer to her statement. “Less than six thousand residents at the last census count.”
“But that’s good for your purposes, right?” she asked.
“Exactly. And that, my love, is what we are doing in Broadwater County. I need a place where people can disappear. I think this should do it.”
Jack was entrusted by the multi-million dollar corporation he worked for to scout out locations for fully self-contained spas where the rich and famous can go for rest and anonymity. In the city they had to spend most of their time dodging paparazzi. Jack found places the paparazzi didn’t even know about. He was very good at his job, and it was not only rewarding in a financial sense as he also got to travel all over the United States for free, Raine also got to go with him.
“Here it is,” he said, pulling the car into a gravel driveway in front of a picturesque two-story Victorian home.
Raine got out of the car and looked around. This was such a different place than Los Angeles. Everywhere you looked here you saw blue sky and mountain ranges. Raine was used to the mountains in the distance, L.A. was framed by them as well, but the orange glow she saw here was from the shimmering sun getting ready to dip its head behind the mountains, and not the smog of the city collected against them. She realized that the air even tasted better here as she breathed it in.
Jack went to get their bags out of the trunk. Raine grabbed one of them from Jack’s hand and followed him up the three steps to the wide, wrap-around porch. There were what looked to be hand-painted rocking chairs sitting all along the porch two to three feet apart. The front of the home was surrounded by large, charming windows framed with blue trim against the white walls of the house. It may have been the most inviting home that Raine had ever seen. It felt “homey” and she hadn’t even been inside yet.
“It’s lovely,” she told Jack.
“It’ll do for a few days.”
Jack was more of a five star hotel kind of guy. At least he had been lately. When they were college kids sometimes they would go up into the mountains with nothing but a backpack and a sleeping bag. They would lie out under the stars and talk about what they wanted to do with their lives. As far as Raine could recall, Jack had never said, “I want to be filthy rich and live on Park Avenue.” Back then they had been walking the same path, hand in hand, but somewhere along the line Jack had gone off by himself. It was the one that a lot of young idealists tend to make a wrong turn on when they get their first big paycheck. The one that was paved in green. Jack was only interested in that which made him money, and some days, Raine even worried that included her.
When they walked through the blue double doors of the house they were met at the front desk by a young man with ruddy cheeks and a ready smile. “Hi folks! Welcome to Miss May’s boarding house. I’m Luke, how can I help you today?”
“Jack Lancaster and Raine Turner, we’re checking in.”
“Yes!” the young man said, happily. “I see your reservation here.” He was looking at a laptop screen. He took Jack’s credit card and slid it through the machine, waited a few seconds and handed him a copy of a receipt to sign. Once Jack handed it back to him he gave him two regular metal keys. No key cards for old Victorian homes, Raine supposed. She loved it. Sometimes she thought she had been born too late and often daydreamed that she had come from a different era.
“Your room is at the top of the stairs, first door on your right,” Luke was saying. “The dining room is right over here through this door on the left and the common sitting room is through that door just behind you there.” He handed Jack a couple of brochures and said, “This is a list of times when meals are served. The other is a little map of our fair city and the eating establishments available to you there if you prefer.”
Jack thanked him and he asked them if they needed help with their bags. Without even glancing at Raine he said, “No, we’re fine, thanks.”
“Thank you. This really is a lovely place,” Raine said. The young man smiled again. She turned and followed Jack up to their room, lugging the bag that she had carried from the car. The upstairs carpet was a thick, blue paisley and the walls were stark white but decorated with mirrors with blue frames and sconces with blue candles in them.
Jack slid the key into the door and it opened up into a huge room with shiny wood floors and a huge wooden four-poster bed. The dressers and nightstands looked to be antique and as Raine lay down the bag she’d lugged up and looked around, she found that there was a large, claw foot tub in the bathroom. There were two plush-looking wing-backed chairs sitting in front of a large fireplace in the bedroom as well. Raine found herself regretting that it was early summer and too warm for a cozy fire.
“I love this place!” she said, enthusiastically. Jack only raised an eyebrow and flipped open his laptop. That was pretty much the same response she got about everything lately.
“At least they have an internet connection,” he said after a few minutes. “It looks like I can meet with the land owner at eight in the morning,” he told her, after reading an email. He closed the laptop and looked at her. She was standing next to the window, looking outside.
He grinned at her and Raine recognized the lustful look on his face. Sex was the one part of their relationship that had yet to suffer, although Raine seemed to be the only one of the two who had noticed that anything was wrong anywhere else between them. He put the laptop down and reached for her. She often wished that she was strong enough to stay mad enough at Jack to leave him, but usually her anger was gone as quickly as it had shown up.
Standing up next to her, Jack pressed his mouth against hers. It shamed her a little, but every time he did that, all of her doubts about their relationship and where they were going vanished. It wasn’t about sex, she always told herself, it was about the connection she had to Jack. She began to unbutton his shirt as she sucked his bottom lip into her mouth. Her insides were fluttering just like they had the first time he’d touched her, all those years ago. She had been a virgin when she started college. Jack changed that, and she had truly believed once upon a time that he would always be her one and only. As she slowly undressed him, his tongue invaded her mouth with intense hunger as his strong arms wrapped her up and held her quivering body tightly against his. She felt safe and for a few minutes at least, loved. She had his shirt unbuttoned and began to fumble eagerly with his pants.
Sometimes she almost hated that he still elicited this kind of desire in her. She knew in the back of her mind that their relationship had reached a plateau and there was nowhere for them to go from here but down. Their sexual relationship never faltered however, reaching new heights of ecstasy each time they made love. When they finished, and things were back to normal she would chastise herself for allowing it to continue on. As his lips slid across to her ear though, she once again pushed it all aside. She was shivering with joy as she ran her hands down the small of his back, sliding his slacks down lower as she did. He shook them down to his ankles and then he kicked them off as he put his lips back on hers and continued the kiss. Raine ran her hands down lower to feel his muscular butt as she felt her own pants being whisked down.
All thoughts of anything else were completely gone now as she felt the pulsating muscles and the sparse hair on his chest now pressing against her bare skin. Dizzying desire was sailing through her body, almost making her feel light-headed. His hands were roaming over her, firmly caressing her breasts and then sweeping down her back to her legs. It was like he had more than two, caressing every inch of her all at once.
She felt Jack lowering her to the bed, laying her against the soft down comforter. She lay beneath him then as he finished stripping off the rest of the clothing that still lay between them. Once his boxers and her bra and panties lay in a heap on the floor, he kissed her again and she could feel his thick erection pressing long and tight against her thigh. His fingers were on her naked breasts now as he kissed intensely down along her neck to her chest.
His other hand floated down to her thigh and stroked the soft, sensitive inner part of it just as his mouth found one of her erect nipples. She gasped in pleasure as he licked and flicked it playfully with his tongue. Thrills of arousal shot through her and Raine had to remember to breathe. His hand moved up between her legs, towards her wet pussy. She moaned as he slowly teased and tickled her intently by stroking her outer labia lightly with his fingers. Her hips began to sway along with his touch as she pressed herself harder and faster against his hand. She arched her back instinctively when his fingers began to flick and tease her clit. She was gyrating like a stripper, almost ready to beg for more as she finally felt one of his fingers delve deep within her.
Regardless of where they were during the day, him in his suit and her with her camera, the sense of fulfillment from his touch there never faltered. He knew how to find the most primitive and basic part of who she was. He knew what she liked, what she loved, and everything in between. Her heart hammered in her chest as he slid his fingers in and out of her, pulling them out all at once as he began to use his teeth to lightly nibble her nipples. She began to grind her hips against his hard thigh, aching for his touch once more. He took his hot mouth from her nipples and kissed her lips, at the same time pushing himself up on his strong arms. He reached down and moved her legs apart, brushing once again against her pussy and sending goose bumps running across her arms and down her spine. He moved his hips then, so the head of his hard cock ran gently up and down over her pussy, wetting her with its arousal. He was rocking his pelvis back and forth, still teasing her, driving her to the brink of desperation. She reached down and grabbed his thrusting cock with her hand, guiding it to the place where she needed it. Where she wanted it. She reveled in the moment as he finally slipped it inside of her, filling her up and making her cry out.
Lost completely in the moment, everything else a distant memory, Raine’s heart raced frantically, trying to keep up with the pure delight that ripped through her body exploding into shocks of deep shudders from her very core and flowing out through her fingers and toes. That entry and slight movement of his hips had been all it took for her to come. She shook all over afterwards, as if recovering from a seizure. Her body completely belonged to Jack, and they both knew it.
She opened her eyes and looked at his face as his hips began moving more urgently, thrusting himself into her, now with the intentions of causing his own pleasure, his own relief. He began to groan with each demanding thrust, her fingers were clutching onto his back as she felt him swell inside of her and then suddenly every muscle in his body was hard and all at once soft as she felt his release. He collapsed on top of her, and she loved the feel of the light sheen of sweat that lay between them, and the slight quiver of his recovering muscles.
Jack adjusted his weight so that he wasn’t crushing her, but she could still feel the hammer of his heart against her breast. After a few minutes, she realized that he had gone to sleep. She pushed him gently to one side and wriggled the rest of the way out from underneath him. She curled up against him and either instinctively or out of habit, he put his arm across her and pulled her in close.
Satiated, and tired from the flight and then the drive from the airport, Raine closed her eyes too, refusing to think about anything else tonight. She was safe and warm in her lover’s arms and for tonight that was all that mattered. She could think about everything else tomorrow.
Chapter Two
Raine woke up the next morning to an empty bed. Jack hadn’t bothered to even wake her before he left for his meeting. She didn’t know why that should surprise her; it wasn’t any different than the way things had been at home lately. His schedule drove their life, and her wants and needs always came second. She was ge
tting tired of being dragged around from place to place with him like a piece of his luggage. She was actually getting more tired of hearing herself whine about it in her own head. She needed to have a talk with Jack about it as soon as they got back to L.A.
Raine got up and looked out the big picture window. When they got here the night before it had been nearly dark and she hadn’t been able to see much. Now that the golden rays of the sun filled the sky, she could see for what seemed like miles; pastures and horses, framed by white fences and majestic mountains in the distance. There was a stable that was painted the same as the house right down to the light blue trim, and corrals in front of it filled with beautiful horses and framed by stark white wooden fences. If she could find inspiration for her artwork anywhere, she should be able to find it here. She looked at the clock, it was almost seven-thirty. She likely had most of the day on her own before Jack returned. Raine fixed herself a bath in the deep claw-foot tub. She poured in a capful of scented bubbles and slipped in. She soaked for a while, trying to release some of her inner stress, before getting dressed in a white button up shirt and jeans. Raine then pulled her waist-long dark hair up into a smooth ponytail on top of her head and only applied a light gloss to her lips. She planned on being outside all day taking photos; there wasn’t much sense in getting all made up for that.
