by Danica Avet
Chapter Three
Daisy’s head stung from slamming it against Ram’s, but her sudden panic kept her from really feeling it. She fumbled for the phone, juggling it when she nearly dropped it in her haste.
“Hello?” she gasped into the receiver.
“Daisy? What’s wrong, honey? You sound out of breath.”
She face planted into the arm of her sofa. It wasn’t unusual for her mom to call randomly. With the weird hours Daisy and her dad worked at the sheriff’s department, the whole family needed very little sleep. No doubt her mom figured she had to be up, or wouldn’t mind being awakened by a phone call. Daisy always thought it was a cute habit, but she was a little preoccupied at the moment.
“Uh, hey, Mama. Um, I was working out.” Ha! Yeah, she’d had one hell of a workout. Her vagina would probably need ice after this. “What’s up?” she asked ignoring the grumbling, grunting lion on the floor behind her.
Her mother made a thoughtful sound. “You shouldn’t be working out when you don’t feel well, cher, you might make it worse.”
“It was just a headache. And um, well I heard that sometimes if you have one, working out can help constrict the blood vessels and make the pain go away.” She had read that somewhere, hadn’t she? Or maybe it was orgasms that made headaches go away.
She heard Ram get up and walk out of the living room and craned her neck to see where he went. Was he leaving? That was good, right? She didn’t need complications like lions with big dicks in her life, not when she had goals to meet.
Daisy turned her attention back to the conversation.
“Oh, well that’s interesting. Did it work?”
She hadn’t had a headache before, but after slamming her head into Ram’s, she did now. So she lied through her teeth. “Yes, it did. Was that why you called?”
Water ran somewhere in the back of the house and she figured he must’ve gone to wash up.
“Hmm? Oh, no. Did you happen to hear a lion roar a few minutes ago?”
At that precise moment, Ram returned and started cleaning her with a warm, damp towel. Daisy froze, opening her eyes wide in shock. “A l-lion?”
“I know, we haven’t had a lion around here in…well, it must’ve been when I was a young girl…”
But Daisy was deaf to her mom’s trip down memory lane. There was a lion shifter’s head between her legs. She blinked, hoping it would disappear, but no. He stayed right where he was, a devilish grin on his face. His big hands curled around her hips, tugging her toward him.
Daisy mouthed, “No.”
He winked at her, leaning up to meet her halfway. She squeaked when his tongue traced a long, wet line along the folds of her sex. He purred against her, the vibrations settling into the throbbing flesh of her clit and reverberating throughout her body. Oh God. She closed her eyes, the strength leaving her legs until she settled against his face.
His groan of approval sent another wave of heat through her womb, coating her channel with moisture. His tongue traced every inch of her from her soaking-wet entrance to her straining clit, before he wrapped those sinful lips around it and suckled. She bucked against his mouth, pleasure sparking behind her eyes like fireworks. A gurgling sound escaped her before she could bite it back, but her mother didn’t seem to notice, her voice chirping happily about the festival.
Two thick fingers slid into her channel, fucking her slow and steady, keeping time with the suction of Ram’s mouth and the teasing flick of his tongue over her bud. Daisy panted, the phone hanging somewhere around her jaw as she tried to fight her urge to come all over his face.
“Well, did you?” her mother demanded in a tone that suggested she’d asked a couple of times. “Daisy Lynn!”
Stars burst behind her eyelids, but she managed to lift the phone up against her mouth. “Huh?”
“Did you hear a lion, or not?”
Say something before she decides to come over here. Daisy shook her head, trying to think beyond the pleasure radiating from between her legs and the lion causing all of it. Her mother had asked a simple question, but for the life of her she couldn’t remember what it was.
Then Ram’s fingers curled in her pussy and stroked over something inside her once. “Yes!” Daisy gasped into the phone, her body shuddering in ecstasy. Her hips twitched, forcing her farther onto Ram’s fingers and wicked mouth.
“I wonder what it was doing around here,” her mama mused. “You don’t sound well at all, honey. Do you need me to bring you some soup or something?”
“No, no, I’m…fine,” Daisy panted into the phone, her body so close to orgasm, she thought she’d scream. “I’m just really…tired!” The last word came out as a squeak when Ram raked his teeth over her clit.
“Well okay, cher. You get some sleep. I’ll call you in the morning to see how you feel.”
Daisy squirmed, sweat dripping from every pore as she struggled to push back the orgasm before she screamed in her mama’s ear. “Okay. Tomorrow. Love you, ’bye.”
She somehow managed to hit the end button on the phone seconds before she came, screaming into the arm of her sofa. Racked with almost painful pleasure, she clawed at the fabric beneath her, her whole body convulsing as the wicked lion prolonged her orgasm with fast flicks of his tongue and hard thrusts of his fingers into her clenching channel. Daisy wailed, tears streaming from her eyes.
Then he was gone, his mouth, his fingers, everything. Nearly swooning from pleasure, Daisy didn’t care where he went. She just wanted to sleep for a thousand years, cradled deep in the warm afterglow of the best orgasm she’d ever had.
But Ram had other plans. He moved her around like a ragdoll, pulling her into his lap and arranging her limbs around him until she straddled his groin.
“I can’t—” she tried to say, but choked on the rest of her whine because he lifted her hips and pressed into her. Apparently, she could.
Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as his cock brushed against overly sensitive nerve endings. Mouth hanging open, she looked down at him, at the hungry glitter in his amber eyes, at the way his lips parted to reveal his sharp fangs. He watched her face as he rolled his hips up until she swore she could feel him in her throat.
“I can’t,” Daisy moaned even as she rocked, meeting his upward thrusts with a downward glide. She hitched in a sharp breath at the burst of pleasure. “God, you’re going to kill me.”
One of his hands tangled in her hair, pulling her toward him. “We’ll go together,” he promised in a husky growl before he devoured her lips.
He couldn’t get enough of her. Ram could no longer deny that he was caught in some kind of frenzy, mating or just plain lust. It didn’t matter. Her scent, her taste, the way she talked all drove him crazy with need. He shouldn’t have started playing with her while she was on the phone. He hadn’t intended to, but when he’d seen her pretty pussy pouting at him, he couldn’t help himself.
Now, with his dick securely caught in her tight passage, he kissed her again. He should’ve spent more time kissing her, should’ve done a lot of things, like maybe talk to her, but the lion wouldn’t let him. The beast needed to have all of her over and over again until she was saturated with his markings.
Her plump lips tasted like salt and woman. She let out a breathy moan against his mouth, her tongue dueling with his. She might think she had nothing left to give, but she made a liar of herself when she started riding him hard. Ram purred deep in his chest as he let her take control of their cadence, one hand riding her hip, the other clenched in her silky hair.
Their mouths parted now and then, but met over and over in a slippery glide of teeth, lips and tongues, made all the hotter by the soft moans she let out with every downward stroke. She felt like hot silk around his cock, her channel winding tighter and tighter with every rock of her hips.
Ram broke the kiss and rested his head on the back of the sofa to watch Daisy as she bucked on his cock, her breasts bouncing with her energetic movements. The long, dark
hair that first caught his eye spilled over her shoulders, swaying with every churn of her hips.
“God, you’re fucking gorgeous,” Ram groaned, cupping her hips. “That’s right, baby, ride me hard and fast.” His face twisted as inexplicable pleasure cascaded through him. The pressure in his balls intensified when her pussy tightened around him like a wet fist. “Fuck, I’m gonna come.”
Daisy’s breath came out of her in panting sobs as she moved faster and faster, her hips whipping against him. He reached between their bodies, grazing her clit with his thumb. She stilled over him, her eyes widening a split second before she convulsed around him.
The second he felt the first clench of her sex, the tip of Ram’s cock exploded. He bucked, his dick jerking as he released into her tight body. His head snapped forward, fangs extended. He sank his teeth into the tender skin of her breast. She screamed again, her inner channel squeezing him nearly in half as she came one more time, taking every ounce of seed he had to give.
They both shuddered in the aftermath, their bodies fused together so tightly Ram couldn’t tell where he ended and she began. Her heart pounded against his face, her warm blood thick on his tongue. He cleaned the bite with gentle laps. He’d marked her harder than he meant to but he wasn’t upset because now she’d know who she belonged to.
Ram closed his eyes with a sigh of relief. His lion was finally sated. For now at least. He didn’t doubt for one minute that as soon as he opened his eyes and saw Daisy again, or as soon as he caught a whiff of her arousal, he’d want her all over again. He stroked her silky back, his fingers finding the first mark. She shivered and her pussy gave his limp cock a soft squeeze when he touched it. He grinned like a complete idiot. She was his.
“Mmm,” she moaned against his neck, her soft breath tickling his skin. “That was nice.”
Ram’s eyes sprang open. Nice? That was it? Okay, maybe he’d been a little quick on the trigger both times, but he thought he’d done a damn good job of getting her off.
“Ouch! Watch the claws, man.”
Right, he’d unleashed them into her hips. He closed his eyes in embarrassment. Again. “Sorry.”
She didn’t say anything, but her whole body tensed. Then a strange, dangerous scent surrounded him. It wasn’t arousal. It was something a lot hotter. He squinted through his eyelashes to see her staring down at her chest and the perfect outline of his teeth in her skin. Ram’s lion purred with possessive pride.
Her head shot up, her dark eyes glowing with feminine fury. “You bit me!” she shouted, throwing herself off his lap and springing to her feet.
She towered over him, her curvy body still flushed from her orgasm and his seed sliding down her thigh. She looked as if she wanted nothing more than to tear his head off. Ram’s cock twitched with interest.
“You motherfucker, you bit me!” she said again as though he might not have heard her the first time.
His face burned. He cleared his throat. “Yes I did.”
Daisy’s hands fisted at her sides. “And? Is this something you do a lot, dammit?”
Ram wanted to squirm, but held firm. He was her mate, after all. “What? Give multiple orgasms?”
The flush on her face deepened. “Yes, I mean no. I mean,” she waved her hand in a vague circle, “do you normally find some female wherever you’re playing, stalk her and fuck her stupid? And then mark her?” She whispered the last few words, her eyes lightening to pale brown.
“No, of course not!” He stood, forcing her to take a step back. “You’re my mate now.” He folded his arms over his chest. “You feel it too, or you wouldn’t have let me in.”
“Wrong, I opened the door because I thought it’d be a good way to get you out of my system so I could—” Her face turned red.
Ram narrowed his eyes on her, his lion scenting the partial truth to her words. “So you could what?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, tilting and tilted her chin up at him defiantly. “You know, kind of like sowing my wild oats before I settle down,” she muttered. Ram’s hands itched to wrap around her throat as she continued. “I’m ready to settle down, have some cubs and stuff, but I was starting to freak out because I wanted you so much. Now that I’ve had you, I can concentrate on nesting. But you marked me!”
He snapped, jerking her into his arms. She was a strong female and if she shifted, she’d probably easily tear his head off, but Ram and his lion were too pissed off to care right now. He kissed her hard and fast.
“You’re mated to me, so don’t even think of letting some hillbilly asshole touch you, Daisy,” he retorted, his fangs springing out again.
Instead of looking properly cowed, she snarled at him, her own fangs elongated. “Fuck off, lion, I won’t be part of any goddamn harem.”
She shifted in his arms, her silky skin sprouting thick fur, her body exploding into a very pissed off, very large black bear. Ram did what any self-respecting male lion did when confronted with his mate’s wrath—he shifted and jumped through the nearest window.
Daisy’s roar of fury followed him through the marsh as he headed back to the bus. She thought he wanted a harem? Please, there was no way he could keep up with more than one female like her, not that he even wanted to. They were mated. They’d be together, of that he had no doubt. He just had to figure out a way to keep her.
Ram felt no shame in retreating—not running—from his mate for the moment. He needed to come up with a plan of attack and execute it with all the determination that’d led to his band becoming a success. His lips curled into a feline smile of satisfaction. Deputy Daisy wasn’t getting away from him that easily.
*
Daisy called in to work the next day because she stank of lion and had to clean her house. After Ram left through the window, she’d taken her anger and frustration out on her furniture. Luckily, the sofas had been cheap and needed replacing anyway. She hid the broken window by closing the shutters until she had more time to call someone to replace it.
She left early before her mother could come over, scent the sneaky bastard lion all over her or see the wreck she’d made of her living room. She drove to Lafayette, about an hour’s ride away, to avoid running into anyone from Maison Rouge. The last thing she needed was for someone to catch a whiff of her and call her mama. Or God forbid, her daddy to tell them Daisy had mated a lion.
Not that her parents would be upset about a mating, but they knew how Daisy felt about big cats. They’d be so thrilled she was finally over the Kyle incident. They wouldn’t realize that staying mated to Ram would mean falling into the same trap Kyle had almost sprung on her.
Halfway to Lafayette, the local country station fizzled out and she searched for another channel. The only thing that came through clear was a rock station in Lafayette. They were playing a damn Saber song. She clenched her hands on the steering wheel and tried to ignore Ram’s voice, but like last night he reached through to her soul.
The mark on her chest throbbed in time with his voice, as though it recognized the male who’d put it there and ached for him. She rolled her eyes. She was such a drama bear. Really. A marking wasn’t permanent. Couples came together because they wanted to, not because it was predestined like in the romances she pretended not to read. Yes, Ram had marked her with his bite and his scent, but it wouldn’t last.
Other males would be wary to come around her while she smelled like him, but if they wanted her bad enough, they wouldn’t be deterred. She snorted. She wasn’t exactly holding her breath waiting for that to happen. She didn’t know any men who’d ignore another male’s marking, or go to great lengths to have her. Ram didn’t count. Daisy didn’t understand why he was so set to claim her unless it had to do with her lack of interest in mating with a lion. She frowned. That had to be it. Lion shifters were arrogant bastards who thought they were in a class of their own. Well, she’d been there and done that. She wasn’t about to go through it again, not even for Ram.
Kyle had been the first lion she ev
er met and she’d fallen for his good looks, charm and big-city sophistication. She hadn’t realized he had a pride until he asked her to join him and his seven other females. The fucker. He hadn’t liked her refusal, which had been very loud and somewhat violent. She’d returned home shortly after, bitter and heartbroken.
And now a lion had marked her without her permission after he’d fucked her stupid. Daisy shook her head and pulled into a furniture store. Ram wouldn’t hang around, not after the way she reacted. Maybe he’d just become caught up in the moment. The sex had been fan-fucking-tastic after all. It was possible he hadn’t realized he had bitten her until she noticed, except then he’d started talking about her being mated to him. The arrogant SOB was confusing her.
She growled. There was no use even thinking about it. The scent would fade, even if she had to scrub herself three times a day with lye, and Ram would go back to his big city. She’d never see him again and she was fine with that.
Really.
*
Daisy shoved the couch into place and stared at it, trying not to picture herself straddling Ram’s naked body. Yeah, that wasn’t working. Maybe if she put a blanket over the cushions, something rough and uncomfortable, she wouldn’t think about having sex on her new leather sofa. Knowing exactly which one she would use, she started for her hallway closet when her front door bounced open.
She whirled around to see her mother storm in, her face bright with excitement. She was only an inch shorter than Daisy, but outweighed her by a few pounds. Her black bear heritage was evident in her size and the fierce protectiveness she displayed toward her only child.
“Daisy! Where have you been all day? You missed all the excitement,” her mom chattered as she swept Daisy into a big hug that threatened to crack a few ribs. She let go and headed for the kitchen, plastic bags swinging from her hands. “I brought you a container of chicken and sausage gumbo, some homemade soup, and—” She stopped in the doorway. “What’s that smell?”
