by Amelia Jade
“Take her to her room,” Captain Korver said. “Get her settled in, then come back down here.”
Kiefer swept her up off her feet without waiting for her okay and carried her from the room. Peyton managed not to make a whimpering noise as she collapsed into him, but that was about it. Her entire body was shaking by that point, trembling almost violently.
The press of his muscles against her helped to calm those emotions though, keeping her warm even as cold threatened to seep through her body. She curled up to him even more as they ascended the stairs, not caring who could see her.
Let them deal with losing their memory and then having something traumatic like that happen. I doubt they’d handle themselves very well either.
Kiefer got her to her bed, laying her down on the mattress. He didn’t move to leave, however, and she managed to tug on his sleeve, forcing him to fall down onto the bed next to her.
“Peyton, I—”
She silenced him with a finger to his lips, pulling him in tight, so that their faces were practically touching.
“Just hold me, okay?” she asked.
Kiefer didn’t try to speak this time. Instead he simply lifted one massive arm up and over her, using it to pull her in tightly to him. For once in her life, Peyton felt small as she cuddled up next to the colossal shifter, his muscles seeming to swell as she did, forming a protective cocoon around her, letting Peyton know one important fact.
She was safe here.
With Kiefer around, she would never come to harm. It wasn’t something he did, or something he said. It was simply who he was, and nothing more. She just knew, and it made her feel more safe than at any point in the past two weeks.
“Kiefer,” she said, her mouth operating on its own.
“Yes?” came the hushed reply, his voice barely loud enough to make it to her ears, despite their proximity.
“I like you.”
She felt him shudder once, likely in surprise, as she admitted she had feelings for him.
But he didn’t reply.
Chapter Sixteen
Peyton
Why isn’t he saying anything?
The silence dragged on. Kiefer was still there, lying next to her, his arm around her. His fingers had gone still, no longer stroking her back, but he hadn’t tried to move away from her either. His arm was still pulling her into him, if anything. So what was going on?
“Kiefer?” she asked tentatively after perhaps another minute.
“I’m here,” he said, his voice gently vibrating her chest. “I’m here.”
“Okay,” she said, feeling awkward and unsure of what to say now.
He’d clearly heard her. They both knew that. So why was he not responding?
Because he doesn’t feel the same. You’ve been misinterpreting things all along.
That was bullshit and she knew it. There had been no misinterpreting his actions. He clearly liked her. Why else would he go to the trouble of setting up that romantic picnic, or of securing her a release so that she could visit Cloud Lake, and be among humans, not just shifters? No, that didn’t seem like a man who had no feelings. But something was clearly keeping him from speaking up about them.
“What’s the issue?” she asked, trying to sound calm and collected about it.
The shifter let out a sigh equal in proportion to his size.
“Peyton, I like you too. A lot,” he said firmly. “But…” He stopped.
“But what?”
There was what sounded suspiciously like teeth grinding against one another, then Kiefer continued.
“But you like the Kiefer you know. That also happens to be the Kiefer. I like this Peyton.” He hesitated. “But what about the other Peyton? What if she’s different? What if I don’t like her?”
She frowned, pulling away just enough to be able to meet his golden-tinged eyes. “That’s not the real issue, and you know it.”
Kiefer looked unhappy, but he nodded.
“What is it then?”
Kiefer opened his mouth, but didn’t speak for several seconds, forming his words. “Peyton, what if you have somebody already?”
Oh. That.
She actually smiled. “Do you trust me?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
The single word was spoken with a conviction that actually caught her by surprise. She hadn’t expected him to be so faithful to her after so short a period of time, but she wasn’t about to turn it away either.
“I don’t know this for sure,” she told him. “But I am positive that I didn’t leave anyone behind. That I had no partner, no kids, no family.”
Something twinged in her as she said that. “Well, not the kids and husband type of family. I think I had parents and/or siblings. I’m not sure.”
“I thought you didn’t remember?” he asked quizzically.
“I don’t. But when I tell you that I don’t have anyone, it just feels right.”
She carefully didn’t add that it was the same feeling she got when she said she wasn’t sure if she’d been a good person in her former life. That didn’t need to be said now, not after what had happened in the streets earlier. Whatever she’d been involved in, Peyton didn’t think it was good.
“Are you sure?”
The near-desperate hope in his voice was so painful that it almost brought tears to her eyes with how much he wanted it to be true.
“I’m positive,” she assured him. “I wouldn’t have told you how I feel about you if I couldn’t be certain.”
She was about to say more, but her next words were smothered by the press of his lips as Kiefer leaned in and kissed her.
A small squeak was all the noise that she made for the next few minutes as their bodies became further interlocked with each other, legs rubbing up against one another, their hands gripping, pulling each other’s bodies in closer.
She parted her lips with a soft sigh as he explored her, feeling the blood begin to flow through her body once more. The adrenaline returned, but in a far different manner this time, as it guided her toward what she knew was to come.
When Kiefer slipped his hand under her shirt, she didn’t object, arching her back so that he could tug it up around her neck. A hand placed itself on the small of her back and pushed her into a seated position, so that he could lift the material clear of her body.
“Kiefer,” she moaned into his ear as his hands began to touch her bare skin.
He answered with a growl that sent shivers through her body.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she giggled softly as her bra came unclasped, his hand bringing one strap down over her shoulder as he caressed her. The other simply fell away, leaving her topless.
“You like what you see?” she teased as his eyes went wide, practically glowing despite the daylight.
“Yes,” he bit off, the word filled with a primal lust that made her nipples harden even as he watched.
“Hey, I want to do some ogling too,” she said, pressing her arms together in front of her.
Kiefer bit his lip as her breasts came together. He leaned in and took one of her nipples into his mouth without warning, sitting up enough to do so. She gasped in delight as the warmth of his tongue ran along her exposed skin. Even as he did that, he pulled his white T-shirt off. His mouth left her just long enough to rip the shirt off his head, and then he took her other nipple.
His head pressed gently into her as he did, and after a moment Peyton got the hint, lying back onto the bed as he rolled on top of her. His hands grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head with a casual strength that both scared her and excited her.
Peyton wasn’t sure if she had ever been into being restrained in any form before, but the sheer ease with which Kiefer did it resulted in a rush of warmth between her legs that caught her completely by surprise.
Oh my.
The thought circled her brain several times as he continued to kiss her thoroughly, running his lips down her neck and finding the dimples of h
er collarbone and kissing them each individually, before he made his way lower. Her breasts weren’t overly large, but she was happy with how perky they were. Even now, lying on her back, her nipples still pointed straight up.
It made them easy targets for Kiefer as he kissed, licked, and gently sucked on first one, then the other. He trailed a line of kisses between them, and then blew cold air from one nipple to the other. That chilled the slight wetness he’d left there, and Peyton felt her back arch against the sudden change in temperature, tingles breaking out across her breasts and into her stomach.
“Fuck, that feels good,” she murmured.
Kiefer freed one of her wrists to help cup her breast, his fingers generating chill after chill as they touched her.
She took her free hand and placed it on his upper chest, and then pushed. To her relief, he didn’t fight her, and he sat up, affording Peyton a glorious view of his upper half.
“What’s this?” she asked, running one hand across the rippled ab muscles on his left side, and around to just below his ribs. There her fingers found a marking, a tattoo, of…something.
“That’s the marking of a Green Bearet,” he replied. “All of us have it, somewhere.”
She traced the outline of what she now realized was a bear skull. Two arrows were crossed through it, pointing upward, while what appeared to be a sword was piercing it downward.
“I want to kiss it,” she said suddenly, unsure why.
But Kiefer didn’t object, and she sat up, kissing his side, his tattoo, and then up to his ribs. She kissed his flat, broad chest, even pausing briefly to play with one of his nipples.
Her fingers, however, fell lower, to his waist. She fumbled with his buckle, finally getting it to release. The button on his pants came soon after, and she tugged the zipper down as far as she could based on their current position.
“These need to come off. Now,” she said forcefully.
“Of course,” Kiefer replied, and he rolled off of her with a smoothness that she wouldn’t have thought possible for his size.
He tugged the pants down—at some point his boots had come off, but she didn’t recall when. A quick glance showed them over at the door. Her shoes were there too. When had that happened?
His pants went flying past her vision, and suddenly Peyton no longer cared. Her head turned as she looked eagerly to see what his pants had been hiding. A frown creased her face.
“I thought it was a given that you were to be rid of these as well,” she said impatiently, sticking her hand out to make contact with the bulge that was obviously a rock-hard cock.
Even knowing it was going to be hard, Peyton couldn’t help but be surprised when she touched it. There was hard, and then there was this. He felt like he was made out of steel. She ran the palm of her hand gently up and down him, from base to tip, before pausing as he slid the athletic form-fitting boxers down his legs and kicked them free.
She was biting her lip.
Peyton knew it, and she didn’t care. His cock was…for lack of a better word, gorgeous. It was long, thick, with a beautiful curve to it, and a swollen head that practically begged for her to swirl her tongue around. She didn’t think that cocks were the sexiest thing in the world, but Kiefer definitely had a model-worthy one. Her hand reached out and wrapped around it without thinking.
Kiefer made a pleasurable noise as she lightly, very lightly, ran her fingers up and down the length of his shaft.
“I want you to suck on it,” he commanded.
Peyton didn’t have to be told twice. She rolled onto her side and bent forward. Her fingers tightened on the base of his cock, holding it pointed up toward her. Without hesitation she licked her lips and took as much of him down her throat as she could in one gentle but continuous movement.
“Oh fuck,” Kiefer replied, and she felt his entire body tense.
She’d gotten perhaps two-thirds of the way down. He was too big for her to take the whole thing, but she reached out her free hand and began to gently caress his sac, bringing even more noises from the muscular shifter.
Sliding up gently, she let her saliva trail from her lips to the tip of his cock, giving him a good look at the glistening head before she put her lips back around it and worked him slowly. She ran the edge of her tongue along the underside of the tip, feeling Kiefer shudder in delight as she did.
Peyton realized she loved pleasing a man, and there was something extra enticing about doing it to Kiefer. She wasn’t doing it because he wanted it. Or because it was expected. No, she was doing it because she wanted to please him. To give him the best pleasure she could. It was the way she’d always felt about sex.
A hand slipped between her legs, his long arm allowing him to reach her, even bent over as she was on her side. It wasn’t a great angle, but even the lightest touch was enough to send shivers through her body as his fingers brought her furnace to life, raising her arousal to another level.
“I want to please you now,” he said, and began to roll over.
“Excuse me,” she said, “I’m not done.”
He gave her a look that was a mixture of frown and delight.
“Well, we can work with that,” he said. “Pants. Off.”
She bent back to suck his cock some more.
“Now,” he growled, using the same tone she had earlier.
Peyton shivered at being told what to do, and she didn’t fight him. Her mouth and hands came free of his cock as she tugged her pants off as fast as she could.
“There,” she announced, and bent back to taking him into her mouth.
Kiefer growled, and strong hands grabbed for her waist. Peyton wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but him to lift her completely clear of the bed, rotate her ninety degrees and then lower her to his waiting mouth was not on the list. The sheer strength it took him to do that with her was astounding.
And also immensely arousing. She felt warmth trickling down the inside of her leg before his tongue even made contact with her. It was simply put one of the single hottest things to ever happen to her in the bedroom.
Then his tongue ran up and over her clit.
“Oh,” she said in a small voice, the words partially garbled because she was halfway down his cock at the time.
He slid his tongue over her again. And again. She quivered, his hands on her waist, preventing her from moving at all. He held her very still as he pleasured her. Each time he made contact with her clit it felt better. Kiefer never sped up, he never slowed down. He didn’t press harder or lighter either. It was a slow, steady rhythm that began to drive her wild.
At first she occupied herself by sucking his cock, taking it as deep down her throat as she could. The position she was in allowed her to come close to taking the entire thing, but she still fell an inch or two shy. He was quite long.
But as Kiefer continued to touch her, she found her attention wavering, and she was unable to suck him so vigorously. Her tongue kept up its movements on his head, but she was more and more focused on what was going on between her legs. Her breathing became sporadic, and soft cries of pleasure escaped between her lips.
He was going to send her over the edge.
Her legs jerked spastically as her muscles tensed in anticipation. Kiefer’s hands gripped her waist tighter, but that was the only indication he gave that he knew she was about to—
“Yes,” she hissed as the shaking grew stronger. “Please, don’t stop, just like that.”
Her words were scattered and she couldn’t form whole sentences. Her hips shook more and more, but Kiefer never wavered, never missed that perfect little spot. The building pressure forced her eyes closed and she could all but picture his face buried between her legs when she did.
“I’m…” The pressure boiled over and her arms gave out. She lay with her head between his hips, his cock pressed against her face as she climaxed. Her hips bucked and jumped even as the rest of her body quivered rigidly.
The ecstasy burst over her like a dam b
reaching its walls, a tidal wave that simply washed away any sense of coherence. She simply stayed where she was, shaking and trembling as he slowed his motions, coming to a halt a mere instant before she would have had to tell him to stop.
His warm breath washed over her, a nice, calming sensation as she gasped for air.
“That was—”
For what felt like the twentieth time she never got to finish her sentence. Kiefer’s arms flexed and lifted her free of his face, holding her easily above him. Then they twisted her around as easily as if she were a rag doll, until she was straddling him, her hips on top of his, her face looking at him.
Kiefer’s eyes were ablaze with passion, lust, desire, and arousal. The emotions were similar, but not quite the same, and the way he looked at her was enough to bring Peyton back to her senses.
Just in time for his cock to slide inside of her.
“Please,” she said as he stopped, having barely penetrated her. “Don’t stop. Give it to me.”
In response she sunk her hips lower against him, taking more of him into her. He moved easily into her, his cock wet from her mouth and her opening soaked from his attentions to it. She felt her walls stretching to accommodate his girth. They protested only slightly, and then suddenly he was fully inside of her.
“Come here,” he growled, a hand snaking up around her neck and pulling her down to where he could kiss her.
Just as his lips touched hers he pushed his hips upward, and that little bit extra of him pushed inside of her. Peyton sank into the kiss, allowing the sensation of him inside of her to reach out and embrace her.
“You feel so amazing inside of me,” she said, her eyes opening to meet his.
It was true. He seemed to fit just perfectly, as if made for her. He was big enough to fill her, and to make it a snug fit, but not big enough that it hurt more than was enjoyable.
After all, there was nothing wrong with it being a little bit of a challenge to take him all inside of her.
She began to move her hips independently of the rest of her as they kissed, sliding herself up and down his hard shaft.
