Promising Peter (Bad Boy Alphas) (Shrew & Company Book 6)

by Holley Trent

  “And is that what you want? What…you’ve been holding back? That you only want me for that?”

  “No!” Growling, he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head hard. “I just told you that I don’t want to go. I want something permanent, and I don’t want some teasing, temporary thing. Me putting my cock into you wouldn’t just be about satiation and my inner beast’s need to claim his mate and ward all others off. If I mark you as mine, you’re mine forever.”

  “You won’t change your mind. That’s what you’re saying.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying. The Bears where I’m from—we don’t change our minds. You’re going to be stuck with me. A man who has killed for profit, and once or twice, just for fun.”

  “You killed people who deserved it.”

  He scoffed. “I like to think that’s the case, but not second-guessing myself after the fact is impossible.”

  “You killed people who hurt people.”

  “People who enjoyed hurting people.”

  “People like Gene.”

  He nodded slowly. “And I wanted to kill him. When I hit him with that tranq, I wished I’d used a real bullet instead. That’s the kind of man I am.”

  She nodded, too. She understood him—truly did—but still wasn’t so certain she should be appalled by him. Maybe one day he’d think that her enabling made her just as deviant as him.

  “I couldn’t even open my mouth to call him out on all the crap he put me through,” she said. “I was standing right in front of him, and he couldn’t hurt me from behind those bars except with words, and I couldn’t say anything. All those years of hurt and pain—of me wishing he was dead or that I was dead so the terror would stop. I wished I could tell him that I wanted to do to him the things he did to me just to see how he’d handle the words. So I could call him terrible names when he flinched and cowered.” A choked laugh fell from her mouth. There was nothing funny about the situation, but her body didn’t know how else to process the feeling of overwhelm.

  “But I walked away,” she said. “I walked away wishing I could kill him and knowing that no matter what he did to me, I probably never would because I don’t have the right drive. So, what does that say about me? Do you still want me, knowing what a liability I am?”

  “Yes.”

  No hesitation. Just yes.

  If he’s sure, how come I’m not allowed to be?

  “Why?” she whispered.

  “Because I’ll take care of you.”

  She nodded. “You’re certain of that, right? You don’t second-guess what you want.”

  “Not at all. Being with you makes sense to me, and I’m not going to turn my back on something I know is right.”

  “So trust that I feel the same way. You can trust me with that, can’t you?”

  “I want to.”

  “Just try. Start with trying.” She took his hands and gently set them against her upper chest, looking up at him beseechingly, hoping he understood. “Let’s do this. No more waiting.”

  He slid his hands down to the bottom of her shirt and slowly peeled it over her head as if giving her one more chance to back out.

  She had no intention of changing her mind.

  “Okay,” he said. “We’ll try.”

  She lay back and let him undress her, tilting her hips upward when his fingers hooked into her waistband. He removed her pants and panties in one tug, and stood at the bedside, grinding his teeth, his breath heavy and ragged.

  He lifted his own shirt hem, and yanked the garment off in one quick pull, exposing the tempting trail of hair between his navel and waistband. The hard-earned muscles. The trim waist.

  She was desperate to touch him, but more than that, she wanted to be touched, so she waited.

  She watched him undo his belt and unfasten his jeans. Watched him step out of his pants and stalk toward her, nude and tempting. Watched him climb onto the bed and part her legs.

  “Yes?” he whispered.

  “Please.”

  He skimmed light, calloused, fingertips down her cleft and fixed his intense green gaze on her. She didn’t dare look away. After all the time she’d spent waiting, she wouldn’t dare look away.

  He made light circles around her clit—not really touching as much as teasing the aroused flesh, making her back arch and sex clench wantonly.

  When he slid a finger into her, she drew in a ragged breath. Her eyes rolled back into her head.

  Finally some relief.

  But she needed more.

  Fingers still probing, thumb pressing against her tight bud, he leaned in and passed his lips over her closed ones. “Open up for me. Here…” He dragged his tongue across the seam. “And here.” He slipped another finger inside her, and her mouth did open with a gasp.

  His tongue and fingers worked in synchronicity, claiming and withdrawing, tantalizing, and frustrating. Making her consider begging, and she’d always been the sort of women who’d wait patiently and receive her due.

  He’d take care of her if she waited. She had to make herself believe that.

  One more finger, and she stopped breathing, although his tongue didn’t stop its quest of her mouth and his fingers never stilled.

  With his free hand he lifted one of her legs around his waist, and then the other, and he pulled back from the kiss, his hands on her upper thighs, his seeking gaze locked on hers.

  “Okay?”

  She nodded. Please.

  For once, he didn’t hesitate. He pressed his thick cock against her entrance and then into her. Mouth open and body frozen with what seemed to be some combination of pleasure and inundation, he paused there, half in and half out of her. “Gods, Andrea. You feel perfect.”

  “I hope so.” Because you’re stuck with me.

  He rocked into her, pushing himself in as far as he could go, his eyes shuttered and breathing halted.

  “Trying to make this good for you.” He worked his hips sideways, stretching her a bit, making more room for himself.

  “It’s already good.”

  “Not going to last. Not possible. Been waiting for you too long.” He withdrew almost all the way and pushed himself back in.

  The going was easier, and sensations more intense. Her breasts felt full and heavy as his big body pressed onto hers, her nipples tingling targets that sent delicious electric jolts down to her sex with every hint of friction.

  He didn’t wait for her to catch up. He pistoned his hips and pushed his thick length deep into her again and again, filling her up and making her entire body thrum with need.

  She closed her eyes and diverted all of her thoughts and energies to his pleasure, his comfort. She clenched around him tightly and kneaded the strong muscles of his back, squeezed his waist between her thighs and urged him on home.

  The tight coil in her core unfurled, opening another doorway to pleasure that provided little quakes of ecstasy with each bump past her innermost erogenous zone. The pressure—the tightness—built so quickly, muddling her brain, and she didn’t know what to do except to take it. Take him—every thrust, every nip of her swollen lips, every gouging of his fingertips into her backside as he pulled her against him.

  “Fuck, Andrea. Fuck. So good. I need you. I—”

  His body went tight as a stretched rubbed band and so still. “Fuck.”

  His cock pulsed inside her, thrumming against her sensitive G-spot, and out of nowhere her orgasm came. It wasn’t bombastic or urgent. The release was gentle—a whispered suggestion for her body to bloom that radiated up from her sex up to her heart and cheeks. Her lungs and throat tightened, and her vision went spotty. Her orgasm made a low moan sing in her chest. It made her arms and legs limp and lips curl upward.

  And he was so warm inside her, and she was so slick.

  His seed.

  He laced his fingers through the back of her short hair and raised her head, bringing her face to his, her lips to his.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered against them. />
  “For what?”

  “You deserve better. More. Next time I’ll do better. I can’t even think straight right now. So…needy.”

  He kissed her again, and she tightened her arms around his torso.

  “I didn’t complain.”

  “That’s not saying much. You never complain about anything.”

  She opened her mouth to rebut, but he’d told the truth. During Gene’s tenure, she’d gotten so used to having her complaints go ignored that she’d stopped making them. But Gene was in a cage where he belonged, and Drea spent her days in the company of people who actually gave a damn how she felt and about what she wanted.

  “I’ll get better at complaining,” she whispered.

  “Do you promise? I can’t take care of you if you don’t tell me how to.” He slipped out of her carefully and rolled onto his back, taking her along with him.

  “I think you know what to do. You don’t need me to tell you.”

  “Promise me anyway.”

  “Why is a promise so important?”

  “It just is. I need to hear you tell me, because I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to be with a woman like you, and I’m going to fuck up. You need to promise me that you’ll give me a chance.”

  “I’ve been trying to give you exactly that since you snatched me. I haven’t changed my mind.”

  “Say it. Please.”

  “Okay.” She passed the pads of her thumbs across his eyebrows and laid gentle kisses on his temples. “I promise. I’ll help you, and you’ll help me.”

  “Good.” He nestled her face against the side of his neck and pulled the covers up over them. “You’ll never get me out of this bed. Not even for pizza.”

  “Maybe I’m biased, but that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  The following Monday, Doc shut off the penlight she’d been shining into Drea’s eyes and then put the device into her medical bag.

  “All done?” Drea blinked several times, trying to get her pupils to readjust to the office’s light.

  “For now. I do need to get blood from you sooner than later. I can draw some now if you’re willing. I’d like to test to see if your hormone levels have changed since the last time I drew.”

  “And if they’ll change again now that the bear is gone.”

  “Exactly.”

  “How much blood?”

  “Oh, a single vial, I think.”

  Drea checked the veins on the backs of her hands. “I may be hydrated enough for that.”

  Doc pushed up an eyebrow, and turned to root through her bag. “Got drunk last night? I didn’t think you were much of a drinker.”

  “Aside from the occasional finger of Southern Comfort, no, I’m not much of a drinker.”

  “Then what were you up to over the weekend?”

  Drea held out her hand and let Doc swipe an alcohol pad over the back. “Um. Just…you know. I got busy.”

  So busy.

  She’d hardly left the bed. Neither had Peter. They’d stayed there for two days with limbs entwined and with nowhere in particular they needed to be.

  Bliss.

  She did have to go to make a trip to the grocery store after work a priority, though. The takeout thing was getting old, and since Peter had left the apartment, anyway, she didn’t need to rush back. He’d needed to go check on Soren, he’d said. He didn’t like when his brother was too quiet. Apparently, that meant Soren was up to something. Drea suspected it was a “mate” kind of something, in which case there was nothing Peter could do for him. The Bear was going to get what he wanted, even if the what was a who, and the who was playing hard-to-get.

  “Well, be sure you make up for the loss of fluid today,” Doc said neutrally. Doc wasn’t one to cast judgments, though Drea imagined the lady had very strong opinions about some of the things the Shrews did to themselves.

  Doc peeled back the paper from the collection needle and had Drea put her hand flat on the desk. “Am I going to need to take another one of these in two weeks, or should I just have you pee in a cup?” Doc asked.

  Drea needed a moment for the implication to settle into her brain, and when it did, her entire body heated. She swallowed hard. “What makes you think that’ll be an issue?”

  “I’d be surprised if it isn’t. You’re the only woman in this menagerie who doesn’t have unusual fertility considerations. Being a Bear in season, you should be more fertile than the typical Jane Doe on the street.”

  “Oh.”

  “Would you be bothered if you were? Pregnant, I mean.”

  “No. Not at all. It’s just…I put in a call to get off the waiting list for the two-bedroom apartment across the hall. I didn’t think about…you know.” The results of that much unprotected sex. Granted, she hadn’t been thinking about much besides sex, and she didn’t think anyone could blame her. Her man was addictive—every delicious part of him.

  Doc winked. “Maybe you should tell your apartment complex’s office manager you changed your mind.”

  “I’ll do that. I guess Peter needs somewhere to put all his guns, anyway. The place is going to get crowded fast.”

  “If push comes to shove, you could find a unit elsewhere in the development.”

  “But then I’d have to get a truck to move things, and I’d have to carry my sofa and bed and dresser down two flights of stairs, and…ugh.” Drea put her head on her desk. “Moving across the breezeway would be so much easier.”

  “Have you forgotten already that your mate is a Bear with super-strength?” Maria called from her office. “Between him, Soren, and Bryan, you could probably get all your stuff moved anywhere in a couple of hours.”

  “I’d forgotten about that.” Drea picked up her head. “I guess just that quickly, I’d let myself believe I was just a normal girl.”

  “You are a normal girl.” Maria sat on the front edge of Drea’s desk and watched Doc pack her bag. “As normal as any of us are ever going to be, and I envy you for it.”

  “You do?”

  Maria nodded and grabbed a Hershey’s Kiss out of the candy dish beside Drea’s computer monitor. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love my job, and I love being a Shrew, but I still have some down days when I wish that everything were straightforward and easy. I have a lot fewer down days now than I used to, but…” She shrugged. “The old frustrations linger.”

  “You’re still adapting,” Doc said. “You and the other girls went through some major trauma. Don’t discount that. Don’t feel like you need to be any particular way right now. Years from now, you’ll look back and marvel at just how well you coped in spite of everything.”

  “That’s what Eric says.”

  Doc’s smile was soft. “I suspect your innkeeper is right more often than you’d care to admit.”

  “To him, anyway.”

  Doc slung the strap of her bag over her shoulder and glanced down at her delicate gold watch.

  “In a hurry?” Drea asked. “You could have lunch with us for a change. Maria and I are the only ones here all day. Most everyone else is in the mountains doing cleanup right now.”

  A red flush crept up Doc’s cheeks. She shifted her weight on her sensible pumps and tucked her glossy red hair behind her ears. “I…uh…might have a schedule conflict.”

  Maria snorted. “Don’t try to obfuscate in front of an empath. Someone’s got you hot and bothered, and we all know the cause is no one in this room. Would your appointment happen to have the last name ‘Castillo’?”

  Doc cleared her throat and straightened the tie at the neck of her blouse. “My relationship with Felipe is strictly professional. Medical curiosity, just like with the rest of you.”

  “Uh-huh.” Maria’s nod was slow and obviously sardonic. “Medical curiosity. You know, being attracted to the guy is okay. He’s single. You’re single. He’s not hiding the fact he’s interested, so just go for it.”

  Doc cleared her throat and fiddled wi
th the strap of her bag. “You don’t think us seeing each other would be…unethical?”

  “Why would it be?” Drea asked. “He’s not formally your patient, is he? And you’re not trying to publish a research paper about him or anything.”

  “What would people think?”

  Maria grunted. “Probably that it’s nice that you both have someone.”

  “Because I’m getting so long in the tooth, right?”

  Doc was somewhere on the other side of forty and had never been married and, as far as Drea had been able to discern, she hadn’t wanted to be. She was a busy woman. The Shrews had actually started a betting pool over the winter guessing when she would succumb to the senior Felipe Castillo. Being married to his sons, Sarah and Astrid had the inside edge as they had better knowledge of his plans, but Maria was always the best and judging moods and intentions. She’d probably win. She always won.

  Maria shook her head. “There’s more to life than working, Doc. All you do is work. When you’re not poking and prodding one of us Shrews, you’re up to your eyebrows with medical issues in the shifter groups. No one would judge you for having a life outside of science.”

  Doc narrowed her eyes slightly and made a “hmm” sound.

  “Would it help to have a chaperone for your little appointment?”

  “Perhaps,” Doc demurred.

  Maria looked at Drea. “You can grab lunch at the same time. I’ll stay and cover the phones. I’m waiting on a call from Eric, anyway. He was supposed to be heading east, and told me to stay put.”

  Drea grabbed her purse and pushed back from the desk. “Well, let’s go. What are we in the mood for?” She followed Doc through the office door and waited for the lock to snick.

  “Spanish cuisine, actually,” Doc said. “Felipe picked the place. He claims the cook’s pretty good, and I imagine he’d know what’s authentic better than most folks.”

  “I didn’t know we had a Spanish place in Durham.”

  “The restaurant is six weeks old. Tiny place. You’d miss it if you happen to blink when passing by. I’ll drive.”

  “Thanks. My car is in a municipal lot. Pain in the rear to get out this time of day. The attendant always goes on break at about this time.”