by Celia Kyle
“I see you listened.”
“That I did. Do I get a prize for being so well behaved?” The blush she’d been wearing when he walked away returned, but her eyes stayed glued to his. She nibbled on her lower lip as he continued to stare into the depths of her blue eyes.
“What would you like, baby?” She looked down at her hands and her fingers toyed with her damp napkin. She opened her mouth to say something, but for a moment, nothing came out.
“How about just another drink?” She gave him a small smile.
“Sure thing.” He switched into bartender mode and mixed her drink with ease.
Placing it in front of her, he watched her for a moment. She looked nervous, twitchy.
“You waiting on someone? I could let the hostess know to look out for someone…”
“Nope, not waiting on anyone.”
He arched a brow at her, confused about her purpose at the bar tonight. “Are you hungry? I could bring you a menu.”
“Nope, not hungry either.”
His confusion was growing right along with the burning blush she now wore.
She wouldn’t look at him either. She just continued to play with her napkin.
Trasola wasn’t known as a human pick-up joint, but if she wasn’t eating or meeting anyone here, that was the only conclusion he could draw. But he wasn’t ready to be that direct and ask her about his suspicions just yet.
“Okay then. Since it seems we’ll be spending time with each other until you decide to leave, why don’t you tell me your name?”
“Lisa.”
He wiped his hand on his bar towel and held it out to her. “Nice to meet you Lisa, I’m Jonathan.”
His hand wrapped around hers and he couldn’t get over how tiny she seemed.
The contrast between his tanned skin and her pale complexion was startling. She was bisque porcelain while he was a deep burnished pottery.
“Nice to meet you.” She smiled, her luscious lips spreading to reveal her pearly white teeth. Hell, even her teeth were pretty. He was a goner. He just needed to make sure if Lisa decided to go home with someone tonight, that that someone would be him.
Their conversation continued, ranging from politics to her favorite sport. He didn’t really consider figure skating a sport, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. When Chris bellowed his name across the room, again, he said a brief good bye to Lisa and stalked toward his friend and employee. This was getting out of hand.
“Chris. This better be damned good.” His anger was reaching a boiling point.
Jonathan was there to observe operations and help out at the bar, not be called over every ten minutes to solve a problem. That was Chris’s job.
“You like her. You like her a lot.” Chris did his Forest Gump impression.
He had the biggest urge to slug his friend for stating the obvious. He just didn’t like the fact that it was so obvious. After breaking things off with Kimberly over a year ago, he’d never been this attracted to a woman. Let alone a human woman. Chris, as a fellow shifter, could sense Jonathan’s lust. Sure, he could appreciate a woman’s beauty, but Lisa had something else. And it wasn’t just the fact that it had been over a year since he’d gotten laid either. “Shut the fuck up.”
“Come on man! Admit it! You’ve got it bad for the hottie at the bar!”
“You can be so fucking juvenile.” Hitting his friend was looking better and better as the seconds ticked by. He kept glancing over in Lisa’s direction, making sure someone else didn’t horn in on his territory. Not that she really was his territory, but if she managed to get over her nervousness, maybe she could be.
“But I’m right, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Now leave me alone so that I can talk to the woman!” He shoved Chris’s shoulder and laughed. With Chris’s teasing fresh in his mind, he was fast becoming as nervous as Lisa looked. His nervousness fled the moment he spotted a guy walking up and settling onto the stool next to her. He saw her spine straighten, and she shifted in her seat, easing to the opposite edge as if she couldn’t stand to be near him.
Jonathan weaved his way through the growing crowd. Ducking behind the bar, he nudged his way past Alicia. Plastering a smile on his face, he waltzed up to Lisa and her new friend.
“Refill on the drink, baby?” He stressed the ‘baby’. He didn’t care if he was giving the guy the wrong impression. Even if Jonathan wasn’t going to get a chance with her, this guy sure as hell wasn’t. He looked oily and generally unhappy. He scented something from the man and Jonathan could tell he wasn’t human. Far from it.
He was leering at Lisa, and she looked like she was doing everything she could to ignore the newcomer.
“Baby? Who the fuck is this Li?” The oily man grunted and shifted closer to Lisa.
Lisa turned ice-cold eyes on the man next to her. “Excuse me? You lost the right to ask that question the moment you shoved you poor excuse for a penis,” She spat the word, as if it dirtied her mouth to even say it, “into Barbie the bimbo.”
“Awe, come one Li, don’t be that way.” The oily stranger reached a hand out to touch her and before Jonathan could blink, she slapped his hand away. She slid off the stool, placing it between them.
“I’ll be any way I please, thank you. Now, leave me alone, Mick.”
Jonathan lifted the door to the bar and moved to stand behind her. It was probably playing up the situation a little, adding fuel to the fire, but he didn’t care.
Sliding his arms around her waist, he pulled Lisa’s lush body back against his. He could feel her shaking and he tightened his hold as he bent and whispered in her ear.
“It’s okay. He’s not going to touch you.” He couldn’t resist the temptation her neck presented and he pressed a tiny kiss just below her ear before scraping one of his canines across her pale flesh. The other man saw it and stiffened. At Jonathan’s touch, Lisa relaxed her body against his and eased her head to the side, giving him more room to work with.
With the few hours they’d spent together as he tended bar, he already felt a connection to the tiny woman and he wasn’t about to let this jerk upset her. He’d shift and eat the pig before he let that happen. He raised his head and spoke, leaving no room for argument. “You heard her. She doesn’t want anything to do with you. You fucked up your shot by treating her like shit, and I’ll be damned if you’ll bother her and make her unhappy ever again. Leave. Don’t ever come back here.” Cole would let the banishment stand, he trusted his employees. Jonathan didn’t want the pig in the bar ever again.
Jonathan straightened, grabbed her hand and tugged her along with him.
Stepping behind the bar, he wasn’t surprised to see the stranger’s mouth drop open in shock. Lisa seemed like such a quiet, sweet soul. No matter what she was wearing, she wasn’t the vixen she portrayed. Talking to her for the past several hours proved that.
How she ended up with that creep, he didn’t know, but hopefully he’d be finding out soon.
He pulled her behind him as he traversed the obstacle course that was behind the bar. He stepped around crates of liquor and clean glasses. When he reached the staircase that led to his apartment on the second floor, he motioned for her to precede him. She shot him a questioning look and he bent down to whisper in her ear for the second time in as many minutes.
“Just putting on a good show for your guy over there.” He nodded his head in the direction of the oily guy, still standing at the end of the bar. She looked over her shoulder and then back at him, smiling and nodding in agreement. Her full ass squeezed past him and she took the steps slowly at first, wobbling on her high heels with each step. After about five steps, she stopped and removed the shoes. Picking them up, she jogged up the rest of the stairs.
Laughing, he followed her swinging behind to the top of the steps and opened the door for her. Once inside, he closed the door and leaned against it, watching her inspect his home away from home. Cole let him stay above the bar at night to keep an eye
on things while he hunted, he also watched the bar during the day while Cole slept, and Jonathan appreciated his trust. It worked for Jonathan. He got a place to stay that was close to work and Cole got someone to look after the place. It also made bringing women home from the bar pretty easy. “So, who was that guy?” She had ventured deeper into the room, looking around his apartment.
“My ex.”
Yeah, that’s what he figured. “You went out with a pig?” Lisa deserved so much better than a pig for a boyfriend, lover, and mate. She deserved him. “Were you expecting to see him here?” That could be an option. Maybe she wanted him to see her talking to another guy, get him good and jealous so he’d take her back. Some women were desperately in love with total jerks, he hoped she wasn’t one of them.
“Yes. Now that you mention it, he does kind seem like a pig doesn’t he?” She giggled. “And no, I wasn’t expecting to see him here.”
“That’s because he is a pig, baby.”
“He’s what?”
“A. Pig. A pig shifter, didn’t you know?”
She shook her head. “No, but it explains a lot.” She wrinkled her nose. “Like his lack of good, general hygiene.”
Laughing, he watched her hips sway as she moved around the room. “So, if you aren’t trying to make him jealous, what were you doing here tonight, Lisa?”
“Looking for you.”
“Me? You don’t even know me.”
She turned around and padded on her bare feet to him. Standing a foot from him, he could smell a hint of her perfume now that it wasn’t over-powered by the scents of the bar.
“No, I don’t. But you look like a guy that could make me forget him, his touch.
Are you a guy that can do that Jonathan?” She stepped forward, closing the gap between them and he groaned aloud when she pressed her body to his. A feather light touch fluttered on the side of his neck and her breath tickled his neck. “Can you make me forget?”
His hands traveled up her hips and wrapped around her waist, pulling her body tight against his own, his erection pressing and straining against his jeans. “Yes.”
Chapter Three
Lisa wanted to dance, scream, and shout when she heard Jonathan’s answer. She really wanted to do the running man and cabbage patch, but was pretty sure it would ruin the moment. Especially considering Jonathan was looking all serious and staring at her lips.
He closed the gap between them, his lips hovered millimeters from hers and she held her breath, waiting for his touch. That first brush of his skin against her sensitive lips sent tiny shivers through her body, settling in her core. Her body tensed and strained towards his, craving more. And that was only a teasing taste, a glimpse at what he could draw from her. He pressed a soft open-mouthed kiss to her mouth, flicking the seam of her lips with his tongue.
The next time he pressed against her mouth, she returned the favor. Her tongue snuck out and slid against his and she got her first taste of him. She went back for more.
Their tongues danced as she searched out more of his taste, relishing the warm moist cavern of his mouth.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and arched her body into his, moaning when they aligned. His erection pressed like a hot steel rod into her abdomen. She rocked her hips against his pulling a groan from his body in return. Their lips and tongues continued their fight for dominance until he wrenched away from her, resting his head against the door.
Lisa slid down his chest until her feet rested firmly against the floor and she sagged against him, ear pressed to his chest. She could hear the rapid thump of his heart and the deep breaths puffing in and out of his longs. Her hand slid down his neck, past his shoulder to rest on his chest. Her fingers stroked the muscle of his pectoral through his thin cotton dress shirt until a tiny nipple pressed against her palm. Using her fingernail, she scraped it with one slow swipe.
“Oh, baby.” Jonathan moaned, placing his hand over hers, stilling her movement.
She snatched her hands away, clasping them behind her. “Did I do it wrong?” Lisa hated the hesitation and uncertainty in her voice, but she couldn’t make the feelings disappear. She didn’t know what she was doing! She’d only ever been with Mick, and if she were with him they’d be through by now. She never had to seduce her ex. If he wanted sex, he rolled on top of her and they had sex. After many conversations with Rochelle, Lisa learned that sex was more than having someone roll on top of a person and pump. A lot more.
Jonathan stroked her arms, goose bumps rose on her skin in his wake. He tugged her hands from behind her and brought her fingers to his mouth, pressing soft kisses to the tips. “No, you did it right. Very, very right.” Relieved, Lisa allowed him to pull her toward the bed in the corner of the room.
Once there, she didn’t protest when he sat and pulled her between his knees. Seconds passed as they stared at one another and Lisa didn’t know what to do. It was usually over by now and they’d both be asleep. Okay, he’d be asleep and she’d be washing up, but the main event would be long past at this point. What was taking him so long?
“Lisa, you sure about this?”
Why? Why did she have to get the one guy in the world who seemed to have a conscience? “I’m very, very sure.” There. That was good, right?
“You seem nervous, Lisa, I don’t…” Lisa pressed her fingers to his lips, stilling any further assurances from him.
“I’m nervous because…” she swallowed hard. He might tell her to get out after he heard of her experience. “I’ve only ever been with one other guy and, well, he cheated. I’m not sure how good I’ll be. If you want me to go…” It was Jonathan’s turn to shut her up. “Hell no! You’re perfect. Every inch of you is perfect and I can’t wait to slide between your thighs. I just don’t want you to regret being with me.”
She raised an eyebrow at him, snickering. “Don’t worry. I’ll respect you in the morning.”
“Yeah?”
Leaning forward, she brushed her lips across his, the now familiar shivers slid down her spine. “Yeah.”
Words weren’t necessary any longer. Jonathan took control. He stood and turned her around, easing her to the bed.
Once she was lying on the queen-size mattress, he began undressing her.
Jonathan took little time divesting her of her top. A quick tug on the tie around her neck and back and the chiffon confection was gone. Lisa helped him with her skirt, sliding the zipper down, and he tugged the mostly spandex piece of cloth from her hips and down her legs.
Now, in nothing but her pink silk panties, she waited. The whole experience was so far out of her realm, she wasn’t sure what to do next.
“Now that is a beautiful sight.” Embarrassed, she covered her breasts. Well, as much of her breasts as she could cover. He wasn’t having it. “No, baby. I want to see you.”
When he tugged on her wrists, she released her hold, feeling the now familiar heat of her blush traveling up her chest. Nibbling her lip, she turned her head and stared at the white wall.
Jonathan’s finger stroking her chin had her turning to face him. “No need to be embarrassed, Lisa. You are so…” his fingers slid over her left breast, circling her nipple, “so beautiful.”
Hearing it from Jonathan, she almost believed him. She almost believed that her curves weren’t her worst asset, but her best.
Relaxing, she arched into his palm when he squeezed her breast, aching for more. He kneaded them, alternating between the left and right, stopping to pinch and pull at her nipples. Lisa couldn’t get enough. Arousal burned hot through her system, pushing her to do things she’d never imagined. Like beg. “Please.” Jonathan leaned down, capturing her breast with his mouth and sucking long and hard. He released her nipple with a pop. “Please what, baby?” He skimmed her abdomen, palms stroking and touching her everywhere at once.
She started when he slipped his fingers beneath the elastic of her panties and held her breath, waiting for him to move.
Instead of pulling them
off, he tormented her. Jonathan traced the lines of her panties, from hip to inner-thigh and back again. His teasing caresses only proved to heighten her arousal further. Her pussy clenched and more of her juices dripped from her, coating her labia. She knew she had probably soaked through the silk confection covering her mons, but she didn’t care. Every thought flitting through her mind centered on Jonathan and his teasing fingers.
Finally, he hooked his fingers around the elastic and tugged her silk panties over her hips, down her thighs and along her calves before removing them entirely. After having brought her legs together so he could remove her panties, Lisa was hesitant to reveal herself to him fully.
He gripped her ankles, hands skimming her freshly waxed legs as he rose higher.
Lisa’s heart slammed in her chest, harder and faster with each rising inch. When he came to her upper thighs, she pressed them together, unwilling to reveal everything.
“Lisa?”
She nibbled her lower lip. Mick hadn’t… No one had… “Um…” She made a strangled sound, somewhere between a whine and a growl. “No one’s ever…” Jonathan gifted her with a crooked smirk. Something masculine and primal lurking in his eyes as he pried her legs open. “You’ll love it, baby. Open for me, now.”
His demand had come too late. Like the wanton slut he’d turned her into, she relaxed into his grasp, thighs spreading, giving him access to everything.
Lisa hoped he liked what he saw. She’d spent a pretty penny getting waxed and plucked at the salon in preparation for her one-night stand. Her labia were bare while her mound still had a smidge of hair up top. She’d walked in with a bush and walked out decidedly lighter. She wanted to be smooth, but hadn’t wanted to look like a prepubescent child. The woman at the salon had worked magic. It sounded as if Jonathan agreed.
