by R. E. Butler
“You too, baby,” he said huskily, fighting the urge to rip the sweater into pieces to see the silky flesh he’d felt under his fingers.
The sweater inched up her body and landed on the floor while he had his own bout of being mesmerized. His blonde angel was braless, with the most exquisite breasts he’d ever seen in his life. Full and firm, the pink tipped peaks beckoned his exploration by tongue and teeth and fingers. Her warm hand cupped him through his slacks, and she tugged him towards the bed, smiling naughtily as if she were holding him by a leash. Which she was, in a way.
When her knees hit the back of her bed, he slipped his hands down her sides and trailed the waistband of her skirt until he felt the tiny zipper. Their eyes were locked, their mouths almost touching, as he lowered her zipper and she lowered his. Her skirt caught on her thighs and he pushed it down, kissing her and tipping her backwards onto the bed.
He toed off his shoes and hurried out of his shorts, pants, and socks. As he straightened and kicked his things away, his breath hitched in his throat at the sight before him. Sam, his sweet Sam, was naked, save for the little scrap of black lace that posed as her panties. The tiny strings that ran along her hips were delicate enough that he knew just one tug would pop the seams free. He was torn in half. Part of him wanted to fall on her like a ravening beast and fuck her hard and long. The other part of him wanted to make love to her for hours and savor every second. Although his cat was snarling in his head to make her his immediately, he took in a slow breath and made a conscious choice to treat her right, not just this first time, but every time afterwards.
The smooth skin of her thighs felt like heaven under his fingers as he brushed them upwards, following the lush curve of her body. Her breath quickened, and his sensitive hearing picked up her increased heart rate. Leaning forward, he kissed her mouth, reveling in the way she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer.
He pushed her gently up the bed, their lips locked together, as he settled onto his side and ran his palm down the center of her body, resting his fingers on the heated flesh between her legs. Her panties were wet already, and his cock hardened further, nestled against her hip.
Leaving her mouth, he laid light kisses across her cheek to her ear before nipping down the length of her neck and tracing her collarbone with his tongue. Cupping her breast with one hand, he licked across the tight bead of her nipple, swirling his tongue around in slow circles. Keeping his eyes on her, he sucked it into his mouth and watched her eyes close and her mouth fall open. Her hands worked into his hair and held him close while he licked and sucked, alternating between both delectable breasts.
He kissed down the center of her body and felt her stomach muscles twitch under his lips. He delved his tongue inside her navel, splaying his hands across her waist. He slipped the tiny panty off her shapely legs and dropped it, spreading her legs apart as he slipped between them.
The neatly trimmed thatch of blonde curls beckoned him closer, and he pressed her thighs open wider, spreading the lips of her sex with his fingers. Glistening and pink, her body opened for him, and he swallowed hard and flicked his tongue against her clit.
“Oh, Grant,” she moaned breathlessly, and he spread her apart further with the fingers of one hand and teased her opening with his finger. His tongue slipped across the hard pearl, and he pushed inside the hot, wet depths of her body. She shifted her hips and reached for him, fisting his hair in one hand and squeezing his arm tightly with the other.
He deviled her clit while he fingered her, the scent of her impending orgasm driving him wild. With a low growl of need and possession, he rolled her clit into his mouth and sucked hard, and she shattered apart, crying out his name and bucking under him.
He prowled up her body, and she caught his hips with her legs and fisted his hair in her hands, bringing his mouth to hers. His cock nudged the hot wetness of her body, and a shiver raced down his spine. Guiding himself into her body as their tongues danced together, he pushed all the way into her until he was seated completely.
He sucked her bottom lip gently, licking the lower swell and lifting his head. Their eyes met, hers glazed with passion and a small, sexy smile curving her lips. Easing his hips back, he pulled from her body slowly and then pressed forward, watching as her eyes fluttered closed and her back bowed with each forward stroke. Her hands flexed on his back, and her eyes opened. For one bare moment, he felt everything in his world click into place. She was meant for him as his mate. He’d not doubted it before, but now he knew for certain. Happiness, unlike any he’d ever felt in his life, rose in him like a wave and a purr of pure pleasure slipped from his mouth.
Increasing his pace, he moved in and out of her body. “Stay with me, Sam,” he rasped, when her eyes began to close again. They flashed open and locked on his as he held himself back, wanting her to come once more before he did. He swiveled his hips, searching for the place that would bring her pleasure, and he knew he found it when he heard her breath catch and her fingers dug into his shoulders.
“Oh, oh, Grant,” she moaned, her hips pressing up to meet his. Her body was the tightest, most perfect heaven he’d ever known, and every time he thrust into her, she heated a little more, panted a little more. He let go of the tenuous hold of his control and stroked into her hard and fast as she trembled in his arms on the edge of climax. He found her pulse with his lips and sucked the flesh into his mouth, feeling the thundering of her pulse under his tongue like a trapped butterfly. He bit down enough to bruise but not enough to break the skin.
She threw back her head and screamed his name as her pussy locked down on his cock and his climax followed hers. His cock spasmed inside her as he groaned, releasing his hold on her neck and licking the bruise he’d left behind. Her body went limp under him, her arms and legs falling to the bed.
“Oh, wow, I think you killed me,” she chuckled with a hoarse voice. “That was amazing.”
When he lifted his head and caught the flush on her cheeks and the bright smile, he’d never felt more complete than he did at that moment. His woman, still trembling from the pleasure he’d given her. There was nothing better on Earth, he was sure of it.
Placing his hand over her chest, he arched a brow, feeling the thrum of her beating heart under his palm. “Not dead, baby. Your heart’s still beating. And it was amazing. You’re amazing.”
She grinned, her lips parting into a stunning smile. She looked both happy and awed at the compliment. Perhaps she’d never been complimented much in her life. Well, he would make sure to change that. He rolled over onto his back, taking her with him, and she cuddled immediately into his chest and laid her head over his heart. Sighing happily, she shivered slightly as if remembering the pleasure they’d just shared, and then moved to kiss him.
She slipped from his arms with a happy hum and reached for her cell. Arching a brow she said, “I hope you like Chinese, because I’m starving and they’re fast and close.”
He ran his hand down her glistening back. “Whatever you want, baby.”
Her brows wiggled mischievously. “Food first, naughty boy.”
She rattled off a quick list to whoever was taking the order, and when she hung up, she said, “They’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”
“Perfect,” he growled, pouncing on her and rolling her safely underneath him on the tousled covers. “Just enough time to hear you scream my name again.”
Chapter 3
When Grant didn’t come home until after breakfast, clothes rumpled and dark circles under his eyes, Aaron couldn’t help but feel a streak of jealousy. Then again, he’d been feeling uneasy and jealous all night. He’d known, as he watched Grant leave for his first date with Sam, that things could go either way for either of them. She could want Grant more. She could decide that after one date with him that she didn’t want to give Aaron a chance.
Grant poured a cup of coffee for himself and turned slowly to face Aaron as he sat at the cleared kitchen table. The kids were all at Rhett�
�s farm, playing with their uncle and his human wife, Lisa. Their older brother James was at work as a sheriff’s deputy, and John was sleeping upstairs after coming home from his night shift as a sheriff’s deputy.
“So?” Aaron bit out finally, anxiety raging through him.
Grant took a long drink and put the mug down. “She can’t wait to see you tonight.”
All thoughts went flying from his head as relief and hope rose fast inside him. “What?”
“She knows everything. I told her all about us and how we both felt connected to her and wanted her to go on the separate dates before we made any further decisions.”
“So she … really does want to see me?” He was alarmed by how happy he was to hear that. He hadn’t realized how much he’d been hoping she wouldn’t change her mind. In all honesty, if she’d turned him down, he didn’t know what that would do to him.
Grant took his mug to the table and sat across from him and told him everything that had happened the night before. Well, almost everything. When Grant got to the part where Sam initiated the sex between them, Aaron put his hand up. “Alright, man, you’re making my hackles rise.”
“Don’t be jealous.”
“Easy for you to say. You got to spend the night with her,” he groused. He was feeling as petulant as a teenager.
“No, I mean, don’t be jealous over what happened. She wants you, too. She’s certain of it. After only a few hours and just a simple meeting, she couldn’t choose between us, and she didn’t want to. She was about to lose it before I told her the truth of our natures and that we both wanted her and were okay with that. I don’t think it’s going to necessarily be an easy road ahead, but she’s passionate enough for both of us. I’m certain of it.”
Grant patted his hand. “When you go to her tonight, just let her lead. I don’t know what tonight will be like for you, but all I do know is that I didn’t want to leave her this morning and I know that she didn’t want me to go. In all honesty, I believe if you were there with us, that … well, I’m not really sure what would have happened but leaving the bed wouldn’t have been on the list.”
Aaron’s body temperature rose fast, and his skin felt pinched in a vise. An image flashed in his mind of Sam spread out on the bed, her body flushed with passion, her eyes bright with need and desire. And for the first time, he could clearly picture sharing a woman with his brother. But not just any woman. Sam.
“Is this what it’s supposed to feel like?” he asked with wonder.
“I don’t know, but I truly believe she’s meant to be ours. I’ve never felt so connected to someone in my life. I’m not in love with her, but damn it if I can’t see that happening. Bigger, deeper, hotter love than either of us have ever known.”
He could see that, too. And he wanted it. He’d thought of nothing else since he’d seen Sam muttering to herself through the window of her car when she’d gotten stuck.
He didn’t know what would happen tonight when he went to pick Sam up for their date, but he sure hoped to hell that Grant wasn’t wrong and that she really was meant for them.
He imagined, with a bit of jealousy, that she was fast asleep after being up the night before with Grant, so he didn’t call her until twelve to confirm their date, pacing nervously back and forth in his bedroom.
Her voice was slightly groggy and sexy as hell. “I’m sorry to wake you, sweetheart,” he said and frowned, wishing he’d waited longer to call.
“Actually,” she yawned slightly and made a small squeaking noise as if she was stretching, and it made him smile, “I set my alarm for twelve fifteen, so you’re just about perfect with your timing.”
Relief washed through him. “I wanted to ask you about going out with me tonight.”
Without missing a beat, she said, “I’d really like you to come over to my place tonight. We can order in and talk, get to know each other. If that’s okay?”
Okay? His cat was prancing with glee in his mind. “Sounds wonderful. Is seven okay?”
“Perfect. I have a really exciting day of laundry ahead of me, so wish me luck.”
“Good luck, sweetheart. See you tonight.”
“Bye, Aaron.”
He grinned. He couldn’t help it. He slid his phone into his pocket and walked out of his room, his smile so big his cheeks were hurting. He glanced into Grant’s room, right next to his, and found him sprawled out in bed, dead asleep. Of his four brothers, Aaron was closest to Grant. It seemed almost fitting, like fate maybe, that they would share a woman. As a cop, he knew about the dangers of society, and having a mate meant being vigilant about not only his own welfare and his children’s but about hers, too. Sharing the responsibility to keep Sam safe … he wouldn’t trust anyone but Grant. It might be difficult to share her at first. They might become jealous or argue. But she would be worth it. He was sure of it.
The boarding house was a hundred-year-old, three-story monstrosity seated on twelve acres of wooded land. The first floor held a large gathering room, a huge kitchen, several offices, and a library filled with dusty books. The home had been built in the early 1900s by a wealthy family who settled in the area. When the depression hit, the husband left for a job several states away, and his wife opened the home to boarders in order to make ends meet. Over the years, it had been renovated and the rooms rented. Many of the rooms on the second and third floors had full bathrooms installed over the years.
The adults had taken over the rooms with bathrooms. Their pride had grown a lot during the last year and a half. When they left King, Aaron and his brothers and all their children had joined Ethan, Eryx, and Callie in Ashland, where their brother Rhett had been living for many years with his human bride, Lisa. Aaron’s three boys, Ben, Nathan, and Owen, shared a bedroom across from his own. When they first moved into the boarding house, they had offered to let each boy have his own room, but they had chosen to stay together. John’s only son, Henry, had his own room as well, across from John’s, and James and his youngest Alek, who was now twenty-six, rounded out their family living on the second floor.
Several months after they settled in, they received calls from mountain lion males, asking if there was room in their new pride for more. They hadn’t hesitated to open their home to any and all mountain lion males. First to come had been fraternal twins Ray and Wesley Fiero, followed closely by brothers Tristan and Micah Harrison. Then came three cousins, Dylan, Chase, and Hunter Hall. The new lions were all in their early to mid-twenties and full of hope at having a chance to find a mate of their own. They fit right in, their new pride expanding easily to include them, and the young males found jobs around the area and contributed to the bills and household chores, and they even helped to look after the little ones. Mountain lion males, unlike their female counterparts, were incredibly loving and giving, even under the worst of circumstances, but it took being set free from the shadow of the females in King to really bloom.
Aaron headed downstairs, finding all five of his and Grant’s kids squeezed onto one couch in front of the big screen TV, several of them playing a video game. Two more couches across from each other formed a u-shape between the three, and one of them contained Henry, Ray, Tristan, and Hunter. The others were all at work or out running errands.
Ray glanced up from the TV and grimaced at Aaron. “Your kids are kicking my ass!”
Aaron’s son, Owen, laughed gleefully. “You have to put a dollar in the swear jar, Ray!”
“Damn it!” Ray growled.
Ben giggled and added. “That’s two!”
Tristan elbowed Ray. “You better zip your lips while you still have some of your paycheck.”
Ray handed the controller to Hunter and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. He pulled two bills from inside and handed them to Ben and said, “Run these to the swear jar, would ya’ kiddo?”
Ben raced off into the kitchen, and Aaron heard the glass lid of the large jar that James had designated for swear money lift and then lower. They hadn’t needed to worry
about swearing in front of the kids until the younger lions showed up. They were not used to living with young kids and had to be taught to curb their language, and so the swear jar came into existence.
“Grant said you have a date tonight?” Tristan asked, leaning back against the deep couch.
“Yeah,” Aaron said.
Ray opened his mouth, but Aaron could tell from the look on his face that he was going to say something that the kids didn’t need to hear, so he shook his head sharply. Ray closed his mouth with a smirk, saying nothing.
Hunter rubbed his fingers across his stubble-covered jaw and looked at Aaron with intense green eyes. “Good luck tonight.”
“Thanks, Hunter,” Aaron said and smiled at the young male.
Hunter held Aaron’s gaze for a moment longer and then glanced away to watch the TV. “You guys give me — us — hope.”
Aaron knew what that felt like because he’d never held out any hope at all for a woman in his life until he’d watched his nephews Ethan and Eryx find their mate in Callie.
As Aaron watched his kids and the other lions playing a car racing game, he sat on the empty couch and settled back, smiling. The boarding house had become a haven. Not only for his own family, away from the cruelty of the females, but for other lions as well. Ashland had seemed so strange when they first arrived, but now it felt like home. They were accepted by the majority of the people in town, although just like in King there were always a few who had issues with weres in general. Nothing ever came from those people, but they’d had to explain to their kids that sometimes people don’t like what they don’t understand. They encouraged the kids to always be polite, no matter what. He was glad that his kids were, by nature, sweet and caring.
The only thing missing from the house, missing from their lives, was a woman. But not any woman, of course. It had to be Sam.
