Huen: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Romance (Zhekan Mates Book 2)

by E. A. James

  “It’s refreshing,” he continued. “When I’m with you, I never know what to expect. One minute you’re passive and blushing, the next you’re outspoken and challenging. I’ve never met someone that can catch me off guard the way you can. I like that about you.”

  “But you didn’t know that about me the day you sat down next to me in the bar.”

  “No,” he agreed. “But I figured it out very quickly.”

  The rest of the night they talked about Brandon, and how much Danny had enjoyed spending time with them. He told her that he wanted them to come to the hotel, and stay there long-term. He wanted to take care of them both.

  “It’ll be best for Brandon,” he added in a tone that let her know they were finally going to speak about the real reason she came out to find him.

  “What is it? What’s wrong with him?” she asked, scared to hear the answer.

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Tell me,” she insisted.

  “I can’t,” he responded firmly. He looked down at his watch and then out the window. “Not now at least—not here.”

  “You know what it is, right?” she was starting to get frustrated. He had avoided the topic for a week. She wanted answers! It was her son! He was suffering, and if Danny knew how to help him, why didn’t he?

  “Yes,” Danny replied softly.

  “Then tell me!” she demanded.

  “Not yet,” he repeated.

  “I’m sick of waiting, Danny!” she yelled pushing herself up to her feet. Everyone was looking at them.

  “This is what I meant,” he said looking up at her. “This rush of passion and emotion, that’s what I mean when I said you surprise me.”

  That comment is what did it—what pushed her over the edge. “You think you’re so smooth, don’t you?” she shot at him. “You think you can just snap your fingers and everything will be just how you want. ‘No, Melissa, I’m not going to tell you what’s wrong with our son,’” she mocked his authoritative tone. “’I’m just going to wait until I feel like it’s the right time, then, maybe I’ll fill you in.’ Well, I’m done waiting! I came here for answers, not fancy dinners and expensive outings. If I’m not getting what I came for, I’m going home!”

  With that outburst she spun around quickly, tears stinging her eyes. She pushed her way past waiters and busboys and headed straight for the door.

  “Melissa!” she heard him call out to her. But she didn’t stop.

  She didn’t stop walking until she reached the subway. The entire trip, she continued to fume with anger. When she reached the stop she needed, she continued to march down the street, angrily letting her footsteps fall loudly, echoing back at her.

  She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t hear him. She didn’t notice the man who had been following her for the last three blocks.

  He wrapped his hand around her face, covering her mouth. “Don’t scream,” he warned her.

  He was a gruff, foul-smelling man. He dragged her down an alley and proceeded to grope at her chest greedily.

  Melissa tried to fight him off, but her hands were shaking, and it felt like the world was spinning around her. Tears began to form in her eyes, and she let out one last high-pitched scream for help before letting her body collapse on the ground, helpless.

  Lying on the concrete ground, her vision completely blurred by tears, she felt like it would never end. But then, out of nowhere, it did. The man on top of her was there one moment, and the gone the next. She sat up quickly, looking around to try to make sense of what happened, and that’s when she saw it. There was a wolf, but not just any wolf, the largest wolf she had ever seen, pinning the man down just a few feet from where she sat. The beast turned to look at her, its eyes yellow and glowing. That’s when she realized—it was Danny.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Please,” he said to her as she collected herself up from the ground and began making her way back to the hotel. “Let me explain!”

  She didn’t need him to explain. She knew, somehow, even though it didn’t make complete sense, she knew. The man who attacked her knew as well. At least he knew that the wolf on top of him wasn’t just any normal wolf. She was sure that Danny was going to kill him. But when Danny saw her looking at him, he let his prisoner go running off into the night, screaming like a crazy man, going on about a “man-wolf in Queens.”

  “Explain what, Danny?” she yelled at him over her shoulder. “That the whole time you’ve had this massively huge secret that you kept from me? That the whole time you’ve known that that,” she said pointing back to the place where he once stood as a wolf, “is what is happening to our son?”

  “I didn’t know how to tell you, Melissa.”

  “You could have tried!”

  “I told you!” His voice was shaky and nervous. “You do something to me! You make me nervous—scared! I’ve never felt like that around anyone before. I don’t know how to act around you!”

  “Why the hell not?” she was yelling as well. Her hands were shaking and her head pounding with anger and frustration.

  He didn’t answer her question. He just took one quick step towards her, wrapped his strong arms around her waist and pulled her to him. He kissed her, strong and passionately. “Because,” he said when he pulled back slightly, still holding her close. “All I can think about when I’m with you is how badly I want to do that.”

  “Oh,” she said, feeling her heartbeat quicken. Suddenly, she became very conscious of the fact that he was naked. His clothes were lying in shreds on the ground at the entrance of the alley. His body seemed to gleam in the moonlight, and she felt a rush of embarrassment as well as longing wash over her.

  “It’s harder to control on nights like this,” he explained, leaning in and whispering in her ear, sending shivers down her spine. “When the moon is almost full. And then, when I saw that man, on top of you,” his muscles tensed and his breathing became heavy.

  “That’s why you left that first night,” she realized. “It was a full moon.”

  “I wouldn’t have left you for any other reason. I didn’t want to put you in danger.”

  He kissed her neck softly, sending a bolt of desire spreading through her. Even in the dim light of the moon, she could see that his member was already growing with anticipation. She wrapped her arms around him, feeling his strong back and defined muscles. The feeling of his bare skin under her fingertips only served to increase her longing to be with him. She didn’t stop him when he moved his lips from her neck and down to her chest.

  When he reached down and grabbed her legs, pulling them up forcefully and wrapping them around his waist she let the moment wash over her. He pushed her back against the brick wall, gently pulling up the skirt of her dress and placing himself between her legs. Her body ached with longing, and as he slid himself inside her, she felt a surge of satisfaction wash over her.

  Their bodies became intertwined, and the air around them became charged with a lustful passion that washed over them and pushed out any frustration or doubt from her mind. In that moment all she could think about was the feeling of him inside her, the way he made her feel pleasure she had never felt with anyone else. With each thrust she felt him slide in further, causing her to moan out quietly, unable to control the surges of passion that were coursing through her.

  The feeling of being with him was different than the first time. His movements were still strong and powerful and filled her with the same all-consuming sensation of pleasure. But, there was tenderness in the way that he moved. It was like her needs were the only thing that mattered to him. He kept her suspended in the air, pushed back against the wall, and supported by his strong arms and her legs, still wrapped tightly around his waist.

  The rush of excitement of being locked in a lovers’ embrace with him caused her to forget everything else. In that moment, the only thing that existed was them—their bodies moving together as one, intertwined and connected, fulfilling each other’s longings, both emo
tional and physical. She didn’t think about the secret he had kept from her; she didn’t think about the anger she felt with him at the restaurant. All she could think about was his body pressed up against hers, and the feeling of satisfaction that it gave her.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Upon returning to the hotel, Melissa asked her sister return to her own room, despite her curiosity to get to know Danny better. He had insisted on driving the rest of the way, even though it was only three more blocks. Thankfully, he had a change of clothes in his car.

  It wasn’t long after Clara left that Brandon had a screaming fit. Danny and Melissa held his hands through it. The outburst filled Melissa with a chest-tightening feeling of dread, but Danny didn’t seem surprised or concerned by what he saw.

  “He’s still too young to change completely,” Danny explained to her when it was over and Brandon was asleep again.

  “When will that start?” she asked him.

  “In a few years.” He walked over to the bed and ran his hand through Brandon’s hair. “But it’ll get worse for him if he doesn’t have someone around to help.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Right now, all he knows is that there’s something inside him trying to get out. He’s fighting it—he’s scared. All of that screaming and carrying on? It’s more fear than anything. It does hurt, a little at first, but it’s more frightening than anything. But one day he’s going to have to learn to push past that fear and accept it. If he doesn’t it’ll be traumatic for him. He can’t escape it. It’s who he is.”

  “Can you help him?”

  “If you’ll let me,” Danny answered, standing and walking towards her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him again. “Will you, Melissa? Will you let me be a part of his life—a part of your life?”

  “What are you saying, Mr. Hightower?” she asked her face flushing with emotion.

  “Come live with me—you and Brandon.”

  “It’s really sudden,” she said, shaking her head and trying to think practically.

  “It’s four years too late,” he corrected her. He leaned in and kissed her. “Let me take care of you, both of you. I need you in my life, Melissa. I can’t live without you—either of you. You’re my family, and I want to protect you, provide for you.” He lifted his hand and placed it gently on the side of her face, looking down at her with those breath-taking amber eyes that never failed to mesmerize her. “It might be crazy and sudden, and maybe a little stupid, but it’s what’s best for us—all of us. Please, Melissa. Come make a life with me and our son.”

  “All right,” she said with a smile. “It’s not like I haven’t done stupid things before.”

  ***THE END***

  The Billionaire Cowboy’s Baby

  CHAPTER ONE

  This is animal cruelty, Frankie thought to herself as she watched a cowboy wrestle a calf to the ground.

  The audience cheered.

  The announcer excitedly proclaimed how impressed he was by the sight—his voice cracking over the dented speakers.

  Frankie crossed her arms and pouted. She had been sitting by her boyfriend over an hour ago, but ever since he left to get the two of them water, she hasn’t seen him. Alone, she was inhaling the scent of mud and dung while trying to daydream about her life back in New York. People were so close together—moving so fast—dreaming so big…the scent of rain and metal poignant in the air…shiny buildings looking like godly towers when the sun hit them at just the right angle…

  The crowd cheered louder, making Frankie jolt and tense. The cowboy, standing in front of the tied up calf, took a bow.

  Frankie sighed, her shoulders lowering. She scowled at the cowboy, even though it wasn’t his fault that she was here. It was her boyfriend Jack’s fault.

  Okay, technically, he didn’t force her to go west with him. He had told her that he was restless and lost—that he was moving for his soul’s sake and not because of anything she had done—and because she had believed him, she offered to go with him.

  They had only been dating a year. What was she thinking? She hated dirt. And she hated watching people attack baby animals for amusement. And she had been an accountant back home—making good money, living in a nice apartment.

  But she loved Jack Moore. God help her, she really did. And if he could find peace from this setting, then maybe she could, too. Black people in the south weren’t victimized as much as they used to be, after all.

  The thought made her stomach constrict. Placing a palm over her gut, Frankie stood and gently pushed herself past people.

  She had to find Jack. She had to remind herself why this crazy move had been worth it.

  As she walked in front of the bleachers—the announcer talking about the price of beverages or something—her eyes roamed about in search of Jack. What she found instead was a tall, attractive stranger, his cowboy hat askew on top of his short, messy hair.

  He turned and, with the most gorgeous green eyes she had ever seen, looked back at her. Smirking, he winked.

  Frankie blushed and snapped her gaze to the side. Jack, Jack, Jack—where was Jack?

  If she was still in New York City, she would be spending this Saturday at a matinee. The lilting-then-dramatic music, fun costumes, inspirational or devastating themes…

  Her lips spread into a feeble smile, tiredness and dust stinging her eyes.

  She glanced around the bleachers and arena a few times, her gaze noticing a few gentlemen leading that poor calf to an adjacent stall.

  She had to get out of here. Just for a little while. Besides, Jack might be back at his truck. Maybe he had forgotten his wallet and he went to retrieve it from the dash? Or maybe he was bored out of his mind and he didn’t want to admit it aloud, so he went to his truck to hide.

  Good plan, Frankie thought as she speed-walked to the parking lot.

  In retrospect, Jack’s occasional suggestion for her to move back to New York City should have tipped her off in regards to his infidelity. If not that, then their constant bickering, maybe. Or the fact that every time they went to events together, he eventually ditched her.

  “Got caught up in something,” he had told her over and over again. “Sorry, babe. Maybe you should go back to New York?”

  Had he been cheating on her this entire time? Frankie couldn’t help but wonder as she gaped at Jack and an another woman getting it on in the back of Jack’s pickup. The very pickup she had helped him buy.

  The blaring sun rays reflected off the vehicle at various angles, blinding Frankie a bit. Yet she could not look away—could not ignore the sounds of Jack grinding into this woman, the result of that being the slight rocking of the truck.

  The woman wasn’t even moaning or gasping. He wasn’t even doing it right.

  Frankie glanced around. There were a couple people in the massive parking lot, but no one noticed the dry-humping that was going on. Unbelievable.

  She nearly shouted—nearly grabbed Jack—but she steeled herself at the last moment and backed away. Heart shattering, Frankie found the strength to turn around and walk away. The rage searing through her was chaotic and painful, as if it was trying to tear itself out of her skin.

  She kept walking though. She would not be an abuser, would not be an attacker like the cowboys here.

  Jack was no innocent calf, but she was no cowboy.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Adrenaline rushed through Hanes’s veins as he settled himself on top of the bull, huffing and stamping in the tiny stall. Hanes grinned with a maddening kind of delight. The audience had gone quiet, their anticipation thick and sweet in the air. Hanes swore he could hear his own pulse—feel the massive animal beneath him twitch.

  The others helped to make sure he was seated fully on top of the bull—each boot in its respective stirrup and all that. Hanes barely noticed anyone else though, his eyes trained on the back of the animal’s neck.

  Everyone backed away.

  Seconds of silence ticked b
y.

  Hanes tightened his grip on the rope that was tied around the bull’s torso.

  Bells rang—the buzzer blared—and the gate was opened, allowing the bull to rush forward.

  The crowd cheered as the bull sprinted and jarred Hanes side to side.

  His sweaty palms, though covered by his gloves, scraped against the rope. He didn’t feel it though and he tightened his grip. Euphoria and fear iced his blood, making his torso tighten and tickle.

  The bull bucked, throwing Hanes up a bit but not all the way off.

  A laugh got clogged up in his throat.

  This was living. Being near the edge of death, facing off with an animal physically stronger than yourself—it made Hanes feel realer than he did doing anything else. The pay wasn’t half bad either, though it would be considerably more if he branched out to other rodeos—other companies, sponsors—