by Daphne Snow
"Why not?" Benson was quick to question her, his voice low, suppressing his panic. But she couldn't answer him and it seemed she and her bear were fighting mentally over the matter. Her chocolate eyes flicking to amber and then back. Swirls of black invaded showing the turbulence as well. If anyone else besides another shifter where to see it they would think she’d gone mad.
Alexander slid over closing the space between them and placed a knuckle under her chin. Even the smallest of touches was sending him overboard. How could she say they weren’t meant to be? She looked at him, golden flecks swirling in her wide eyes.
"I will not ask again. Why not?" His voice was husky with need, his cock straining to be inside of her and be enveloped in her heat. Again though she didn't speak she had no answer as to why.
Frannie knew, she knew she was lying to herself. He wouldn't let her go not until she gave him a chance the smallest of chances would do.
"You said you wouldn't touch me." She stammered her voice attempting to be fierce but she didn't move from his slight grasp on her.
"I said I wouldn't touch you any more than you want me to. You want me to touch you, Francesca. You have been wanting me to touch you…” He leaned in, his breath mingling with hers as he brushed a stray lock of hair away “...everywhere." She nipped at her full bottom lip wanting to deny the accusation.
He dropped his hand from her chin to grasp the nape of her neck. His other hand went to the side of her rib cage skimming his thumb lightly over her breasts. She let out a small gasp at that. He loved her sounds and needed more of them.
"When I touch you what do you feel?" He asked his voice low only for her ears. He gently caressed her face as her lids grew heavy and she leaned into it.
"I feel hot and.." She gulped shy as her lashes flutered.
"Achy, needy wanting to feel me in you? Like you’ll die if I don’t touch you. Empty when we aren’t together?" Her lids flew open in surprise by his words and her arousal scented the air. She wanted him. She could deny they were mates till hell froze over but she couldn't deny she wanted him.
"How do you explain that without us being mates."
"I-I can't." Her tone was annoyed at that realization. Alexander knew exactly how she felt because it was how he had felt since the moment he had laid his eyes on her. He ran his hand up her neck and then reached into her soft waves. He tugged gently at the hair nearest to her scalp so she could feel the tightness of his control. The moan that escaped her lips was deafening. “That's my good girl.” This wasn't what he intended but he could hold back no longer.
He bent to kiss her. Finally indulging in his fantasy. It was not slow molasses like her touch had been. It wasn't fireworks. It was a complete loss of all senses to her. He could only hear her, feel her, his mind so filled with Francesca he could think of nothing else.
At this rate, nothing else in his life mattered as he kissed her. Alexander knew even if she denied him, even if she ran from him for the rest of her life he couldn't let her go. His life was forever changed when he accidentally took her bag at the airport. That blessing in disguise.
He tugged at her scalp again and she moaned louder this time just barely muffled by their kiss. He kissed her hard and she hesitated at first pulling from him. He looked at her, his face steely yet he was undoubtedly panicking inside. She looked him dead in the eyes and shattered his entire being.
“I like it when you call me that.” This woman, this being was made for him. He answered with a searing kiss and when she melted into him he whispered the words on her lips.
“Good because I don’t think I could stop.” She kissed him with a passion at that and reached up and rested her arms around his neck as they got closer. Their lips intermingling in a dance as old as time itself. She was too perfect, it seemed unreal.
He could only focus on how soft she felt against him and how addictive her taste was. He knew he should pull away, he knew he should have the willpower to control himself around her. But he just didn't. He couldn't tear her sweet lips from his.
Alexander kept his eyes half open sneaking glances at her and reassuring himself that she was real and this was real. He was so afraid that if he closed his eyes when he opened them again she would be gone, all of it a dream.
Benson used his other hand to pull her onto his lap to straddle him where his cock ached for her. She bent into him more and his tongue slid out to test the uncharted waters. She opened for him like a flower in the sunlight. She tasted delicious like sweet mint and he wanted, no he desperately needed more. Axl raged in his head begging to mark her to make her theirs.
His hand left her hair to rest on her ass and it felt even better than he ever could have thought. So soft and begging to be touched. He grabbed it and smacked it just a touch to see how she felt about it. She broke their kiss and brought her lips to his ear and nipped at the shell of it. "Again." She breathed huskily.
“Fuck..” He growled. Kissing along her shoulder and into the crook of her neck as she mewled in his ear at his tender slaps. She rocked her hips against him and his cock ached a protest in his pants. He wondered how it would feel to have her bouncing on his cock and her screaming his name in a chant. The thought made his eyes roll back with need.
The feel of her dress was nice under his skin but he wanted to touch her. To really touch her. She smelled so heavenly of her arousal and her morning dew scent, he was losing it.
He kissed her on her neck and then sucked there as he grabbed the hem of her dress and lifted it past her rounded rear end. He fingered what felt like lacy thin panties before slipping his large hands under them with her bottom bare under his touch.
The heat of her skin bare to him was overwhelming. He grabbed her ass tightly against him. Biting ever so tenderly as he sucked her neck. Her moans were the only thing filling his head, egging him on to continue touching her. He slipped a long finger past her puckered entrance and through her slick folds.
She was so fucking wet. He could take her now, he could fuck her so hard she’d forget her own name. She moaned in his ear as she nipped at his jaw and he continued to run a finger through her aching wetness.
“Alexander...” She moaned and he decided to hell with waiting. He bit down on her shoulder her soft silken flesh under his tongue as he nipped and sucked harder.
But as he felt his canines lower becoming long and his jaw morphing causing his pleasure to swiftly turn to immense pain, he froze. Axl was trying to mark her and even though he could feel Frannies bear reach for them he summoned the last bits of willpower he had at that moment and pulled away.
Alexander threw his head back and looked up at the small chandelier that further illuminated their booth and focused. Trying to find calm and get his act together. He could not mark her, could not tie her to him until she asked for it until they truly talked. He ran heavy hands down in his face. Everything was too tight and hot he needed to breathe.
He removed his hand from her needy cunt and regretfully wiped his finger with his pocket square. He wanted to taste her but didn’t trust himself enough right now. He pushed Axl to the far reaches of his mind in a cage nearly impenetrable.
He heard her breaths leaving her hot and thick. Desire and anxiety lacing her voice as she asked. "Why?"
He raised his head to look at her after reigning in Axl. Her dress was still shimmed up to her waist so he promptly went to pull it back down covering her softness.
She looked defeated, her eyes flashing with frustration and sadness. "I almost marked you. It was too risky." He gestured to their surroundings that he forgot whilst his tongue had been down her throat.
She looked around following his hand and then looked at him curiously. Her kiss swollen lips thinned and just as he thought she was going to say something she instead made a move to get off of him.
Automatically Alexander swung his hands down and clamped them onto her hips restricting her from leaving him. He wasn’t ready to lose the warmth she provided. After a long moment and a stare
off he thought he would win. Frannie made a move again to get off of him and he let her.
The feeling of her heat leaving made Alexander feel empty. She moved a few spaces from him and he could not bring himself to move back to his original seat. He had to be close to her.
"I almost marked you. I can't do that." He told her again his voice died in tone. He desperately wanted to, he couldn't think of anything else besides being buried in her balls deep and marking her for his own. Letting the world know she belonged to him and him alone.
"Why? Is it because you wanted to make a joke out of me? This whole mate thing just a stupid joke to you? You only asked me here to make fun of me?" Though her voice was angry she didn't yell. Her eyes were fierce as she crossed her arms. "Am I not good enough for you?" Her last words coming out broken and scornful. Memories of his mother's struggle came rushing back to him. The arguments she had with his father on the rare occasion they saw each other. She asked him why she wasn't enough for him.
Raphael Benson had responded one of two ways. Either he would have her dragged from the grounds or he would simply ignore her until her sobs were choked from her.
Alexander gave Frannie a piercing look anyone else would mistake for anger towards her. Her breath hitched.
"Francesca you are more than enough for me. You are all I want but I can't mark you. Not like this." She said nothing else just looked at him with a renewed fire in her eyes.
“You are my mate Frannie. Do not ever believe I want to ridicule you.” He was the one sitting here looking like a fool unable to control himself around a beautiful woman. If anyone was to be laughed at it was him.
A waiter with their dinner interrupted them. He moved the drapes to the side and poured more wine into their glasses before depositing their dinners and leaving. He drew the drapes down once more as his steps faded.
"Eat Francesca we will talk after." She looked at him with emotions he could not grasp. She nodded the sight and smell of the food having grabbed their attention for now.
Sure he was hungry but he got more enjoyment watching her eat and savoring every bite she took. The way she licked her lips after a particularly saucy bite had him groaning. She had noticed but ignored him otherwise her focus on the food in front of her. A feeling besides lust came upon him.
Contentment, and pride that he could provide for his female. And that she felt comfortable. She hadn’t raised her hackles after what happened. Her shoulders hadn’t tensed at all either. She questioned him and he answered. She accepted it without argument after. She trusts us. Fey is positive she trusts us. Axl who had been tightly locked away spoke.
She had barely touched her wine though. Benson had been on his third full glass, however. Just enough to make his bear less unruly but not near enough to cause him to be drunk. The rate at which shifters got drunk was different from humans. A shifter would have had to down an entire bottle of tequila and several bottles of wine to feel tipsy or out of sorts.
"Do you not like the wine? I can get a red if you prefer that." Swallowing a bite she shook her head.
"I'm not a big drinker. I don't like feeling like I don't have control." She confessed in a whisper.
"Is it because of your parents?" As soon as the words left his mouth he wanted to punch himself.
He just had to go snooping; he could hardly help himself; he wanted to know everything about her. Couldn’t that have waited for later much later after he had claimed her? Or at the very least not in the middle of a nice dinner. He hated himself.
She looked at him clearly annoyed and then eyed her bag and coat. She was ready to flee. He panicked a moment trying to think of how unruin things. His face though showed no emotions he wasn't a man to allow what was happening on the inside to show on the outside. To her, he probably looked cold and cruel.
Instead, though she looked back at him, her determination returned. "I'll tell you if you answer something for me." She laced together her fingers and twisted slightly.
"Anything."
"What do you want from me?" The question though it had a simple answer was a lot in its entirety. So he was honest with her the very word that came to his mind at the forefront.
"Everything." The same rose hue he loved so much came over her cheeks. He wanted to kiss her again and pick up where they left off. He would show her all he wanted from her. To hear her cries as he fucked her. To have her in his house making it a home with her presence to see her swollen with his cub. He wanted her good times and bad times. He wanted her quirkiness and her prattling. He wanted her sass and curiosity. He wanted everything that was Francesca.
"What if I'm not what you think I am?"
"I want everything Francesca every part of you no matter how unattractive you may think it is. I want all of you. It is not up for debate." She looked at him and their eyes locked on as if she were scanning for his lies. Yet there were none, he could not lie to her. She blushed harder and took another bite of her steak.
"Your turn." He prompted her as her eyes started to drift to other thoughts. Her head snapped to him and then to the glass in front of her.
"I don't like to drink. As you are well aware, my parents are very fond of alcohol and haven't always been the nicest because of it. I've seen it destroy them and I don't have a problem with it but personally, I'd just rather not." He nodded understanding.
“What do you do? I mean when you're not taking money from innocent people or hanging out with criminals?” The question took him aback and he thought for a moment to be offended but the gentle smile on her face told him she was joking mostly.
“I help shifters from third world countries seek asylum in the U.S.” His answer though direct actually seemed to surprise her.
“I wouldn’t have guessed. But that's admirable. They must really appreciate you.” She said, taking one of the last remaining bites of her steak. He enjoyed her praise, he wanted her to see him a good light even if he spent most of his time in the shadows.
“My mother was a foreigner. It was her idea originally. I just brought it to life.” He said calmly surprised her felt comfortable enough to to speak about his mother. He never told anyone about her. “I bet she’s really proud of you.” Frannie smiled at him and he thought maybe he was finally turning things around.
Until he ruined it once again. Even as the words left his mouth he knew it was wrong to ask.
"What about your father Frannie?" He asked so gently he didn't know he had the capacity for such soft spoken words. Tears started to well in the corner of her eyes and he instinctively moved to her side and gently clasped her hand in his. Why was he such an idiot when it came to her.
"Can we not talk about him tonight. " As she had spoken he hadn't realized their fingers had become intertwined in a comforting warmth that surrounded them both.
She had wanted to cry but just sniffled and after a moment the unshed tears dried. He nodded his head not wanting to push her. If she accepted him they would have all the time to talk about every and anything. At this rate however he was basically pushing her to the other side of the world.
"I'm gonna run to the restroom real quick." She stood and he went to go follow her and she put up a hand quickly. "Alone."
He didn't want to leave her alone, but she needed space, so he could at least give it to her at this moment. She stepped past the drapery and he watched her making sure no one followed her to this floor's bathroom.
He inhaled a heavy sigh, tonight had been nothing short of a catastrophe. He was way over the limit of what he thought he could do. His emotions were everywhere he couldn't feel calm unless she was next to him. And when she was next to him all he wanted to do was sink himself into her.
Fuck it all to hell, he was gone.
The years he had spent as a cold stoic machine as his father raised him were gone within a matter of days. Everything he was trained for out the window as he didn't care about any of it when Francesca was around. He sniffed his nose twitching.
A strange smell pi
erced through the musk of their combined arousals that still hung in the air. It was putrid and human. Alexander wrinkled his nose in disgust and Axl snarled ready to fight.
Heavy laden limped steps approached him and sat up straight, the pungent scent getting stronger. The sickly looking busboy from earlier a bill tab in his hand pushed past the velvet curtains.
Normal for most but not for him. Benson had a running tab paid weekly at most restaurants he frequented including this one and the staff would know that. On top of that this was a busboy not a waiter. Why would he bring the bill?.
Alexander scowled, his once contented feeling drifting away quickly as moments passed.
He looked worse than he remembered. His nose was clearly broken and he had a hectic unibrow along with a white milky left eye. He hadn’t noticed before but now he did how the uniform was too big in places and didn’t fit quite right and how his shoes had muck covering them as if the man was walking through the woods. None of this made sense. Benson looked at him waiting.
