One True Mate 4: Shifter's Innocent

by Lisa Ladew

  After what seemed like only a few minutes, but what might have been as long as thirty minutes of the hottest make out session he’d ever been involved in, he pulled back from her. “Cerise, you tempt me so much.”

  “Tempt you to do what?” her voice soft but curious, her eyes watching him boldly. Something had changed between them during their kiss.

  “Tempt me to take you, to make you mine.”

  “You mean sex.”

  He groaned and pressed his length against her. “I do mean sex.”

  “What is it like?”

  “You’ve never?”

  She shook her head. “You’re the first man I’ve ever kissed.”

  He groaned again, having sensed it somewhat, but now the confirmation floored him. He had so much to ask her, but he couldn’t sort any of it out in his mind. “Have you orgasmed?”

  She bit her lip in that nervous way of hers and shook her head, her eyes wide. He cupped her plump ass and pulled her ever closer. “I have to give you one. Will you let me?”

  Nibble on the lip. Eyes half-lidded as her scent flared, filling the room, making him crazy. So much for their plan to talk.

  “Will you-will we have sex?”

  He shook his head. “We can’t. It’s too dangerous. If we do, I’ll lose control, we’ll be vulnerable.” He lifted his head and looked around the room, just realizing where they were and remembering what he needed to guard against. He tried to scent past her sweet smell, then lowered his head, satisfied they were safe, no one was within a mile of the place who meant them harm. “I should check on Kaci,” he said.

  She shook her head. “I can feel her. She’s sleeping in the bed where I left her.”

  That cryptic statement brought Beckett back to reality, to what he needed to do. Feel her? “Whose turn is it to ask a question?” he asked.

  Her eyes flashed. “Mine.”

  He lifted his chin. Go.

  “Why did you take my handcuffs off me, in the hospital?”

  He stared at her for a long time, ignoring the pulsing of his cock in his pants. Did she even know what she could do? He spoke carefully. “I wasn’t sure at the time, but now I think you compelled me to, somehow.”

  Her eyes flew wide and she gasped, her expression returning to the one he’d seen in the field when she’d tried to run from him. He spoke in a rush, grasping her arm. “I’m not blaming you. I’m totally ok with it. You were in survival mode. You’ve been in survival mode your whole life, but that’s over now. I know you’re special, different, and I know why.”

  “Why?” Her eyes were wide, her face pinched and scared.

  He gave her a teasing grin, trying to lull her back into comfort. He needed her open and communicating with him. He would try to calm her. “It’s my turn. You have to save your question for your turn.”

  She stared as he waited for her agreement, then she finally nodded.

  He let out the breath he’d been holding. “Are you attracted to me?”

  She bit her lip, nibbling, then released it. One nod, straight up and down, her mind back on him.

  He ran his fingers up her back, into her hair, ever so lightly. “Your turn.”

  She thought for a moment, her eyes going dark, then light again. She didn’t ask her earlier why again. “You said I wasn’t related to Myles. How could you know such a thing.”

  How much to tell her? Could she handle it? He didn’t know. He’d tiptoe up to it and see how she reacted. “I smelled it in your blood on the wall of your trailer. That morning, when I woke, I followed your scent through my basement and the tunnel, then through the woods, and found Myles’s body. I’m special, too, but in a different way.”

  “You… followed me? You could smell that?”

  He nodded, waiting for her to speak again. If she asked another question, he’d answer it. They were so close to the dangerous stuff, that he thought she’d ask when she was ready to hear the answer.

  She dropped her eyes and stared at his chest for a long time, running one finger over his shirt. He pulled it over his head and threw it on the floor. Her eyes widened and her finger began to trace his muscles. Her sweet scent flared at once, making him grin.

  “Your turn,” she said, her eyes trained below his neck.

  “Where are we really going?”

  “Loma Linda, California. To Kaci’s parents’ home. Myles and Sandra stole her out of her bedroom when I was young, eleven, I think.”

  Beckett needed a moment to recover from that. He put his hand carefully at his side, so he didn’t accidentally hurt Cerise with the anger pooling in his muscles. After a few moments, he was able to calm himself. When he was able to focus on her again, he realized she was crying. He touched her chin, brought her gaze up to his. “Hey, look at me, it’s not your fault.”

  Her fingernails scrabbled across his chest as her hands clenched. “It is my fault! I tried to take her and run the next night, but they caught me! I tried again when she was older, and the police found me. I told them the whole story but they didn’t believe me. They said I was making it up. This big, awful, mean cop took me back home and told me if I ever made up stories like that again, he’d throw me in jail and make sure they hurt me in there. I did try one more time, years later, but the police caught me again. That same cop was there. He did put me in jail, even though I wasn’t old enough. He took Kaci and put her in foster care and she was bitten by the other kids in their care, even on her poor face! They let me out, let me go home, and we got Kaci back, but I was so scared I couldn’t try again and then I got sick. I don’t know how long I was sick for, but I think it was almost a year. I almost died, and if I would have, Kaci would have, too. They would have killed her, I know it. She’s small for her age, and weak, and they were killing her with their threats and their beatings and their negligence!” She buried her face in his chest and sobbed. “I don’t even know why they took her in the first place. They didn’t want kids. They never wanted either of us.”

  Beckett pulled her to him and put his chin on the top of her head, all thoughts of attraction driven from his mind. He couldn’t even protect her from what had already happened. All he could do was do his best to comfort her.

  Chapter 31

  Cerise felt it pour out of her, like festering blood from an infected wound, hurting so badly, but cleansing like fire at the same time. The hate, the pain, the horror of their lives. Beckett took every bit of it, letting it flow through him.

  Beckett spoke as he smoothed her hair. “You did so much, Cerise. You kept her alive. You kept her sane. You gave her a reason to keep fighting, to keep living.”

  Cerise didn’t think it was enough, but she had done her best. She forced herself to stop crying. “My turn,” she said. She’d told him the absolute worst of what she had to tell, and he was still there.

  “Go.”

  “Would you have helped me in the hospital of your own free will if I hadn’t made you?”

  He didn’t even hesitate. “Absolutely. That’s why I was there, looking for you.”

  She bit back the why and waited for his question. When it came, she didn’t understand.

  “Who fed you the mushrooms?”

  “What?”

  “Someone was cultivating poisonous mushrooms in the forest behind your trailer. I smelled them in your blood. The scent was old, but you had consumed them for a long time.”

  Cerise put a hand to her head. “Oh, God.”

  Beckett held her.

  “Why? Why would she try to kill me?”

  “Who?”

  “Sandra. Myles’s wife. I thought she was my mom, but you’re saying she wasn’t.”

  “She wasn’t. No relation at all. Don’t try to figure it out too much. The answer could be as simple as she was crazy or on drugs, or there’s something at work here outside Myles and Sandra that we don’t understand yet. Someone pushing them to do the things they did to you and Kaci.”

  Dizziness overtook her. She squeezed her eyes shut and h
eld on to Beckett until it passed.

  Beckett spoke. “Did you know she’s dead? Buried in the back yard?”

  The dizziness hit her again, harder. “No,” she choked out. “We thought she hadn’t been able to stand Myles anymore and had taken off. We had no idea she was dead. But she disappeared around the same time that I got better, so it all makes perfect sense.” She clutched Beckett’s arm, trying to concentrate on the feeling of the soft mattress and pillow beneath her, trying to ground herself enough that she could recover from the revelations. She felt no sadness, no pain at this final loss of Sandra.

  She took deep breaths, running it all over in her head, until she felt somewhat normal. Now the only thing left was to ask Beckett what special meant as it related to her and to him. Her dismay began to leak away and excitement took its place, bit by bit. What he was going to tell her was going to change everything for her, she knew it, making what she had gone through pale in comparison to what was in store for her.

  Every dream she’d ever had about what her life could look like opened up before her. Friends, laughter, love, happiness, hobbies, a nice home, pets. Would Beckett be with her? A boyfriend? A husband?

  But Kaci. Cerise felt for her, found her still sleeping soundly, the sense of her small body burrowed into the big bed in the next room making her realize that Kaci was not included in whatever the special thing was. She and Kaci had been brought together by accident, not fate, as Cerise somehow knew she and Beckett had been. She shook her head against Beckett’s chest, not wanting to know what was special about her, what was special about Beckett, just yet. If she could get Kaci home, see for herself that her parents were loving and kind and wanted Kaci back, then maybe she could face the rest of her life without her little sister, the only person she’d had to love for so long. Maybe then she could accept Beckett and whatever he was promising with her soul and heart open.

  She bit her lip, then looked Beckett in the eye to ask her next question, not even having to think about it. “Are you attracted to me?”

  He groaned, long, low, and sexy, and she almost couldn’t handle it.

  “So much, darlin’. You’re more beautiful than I ever could have hoped for. So sweet and innocent, and you smell like a candy store.”

  She picked apart his words. He sounded like he’d been waiting for her for a long time. But it wasn’t her turn to ask a question. She held her breath and waited for his.

  He nuzzled her, then pressed a kiss to her lips before he asked his question, his voice a low rasp. “What happens in your body, when I do this? What do you feel?”

  He kissed her again, leisurely running his tongue over her lips, tasting her, taking her, making her forget everything except his voice, his scent, his body, his attention. He pulled away and waited for her answer. The intimacy of the moment let her speak honestly. She grasped his hand and held it to her throat. “I feel a quickening here, a tightening, which I think is a hope you’ll never stop.” She moved his hand to her breast. “I feel an aching here, a straight desire for you to touch me.” She skimmed his hand lower along her belly as he stared into her eyes, encouraging her. “I feel butterflies here, my skin and muscles jumping, begging for you to touch them.” She lowered his hand between her legs and pressed it there, the sensation of his thick fingers almost against her skin flooring her. “And I feel a throb here. A delicious promise of something I don’t fully understand.”

  He beamed at her like she’d answered the hardest question of the spelling bee correctly.

  Her turn. “Will you be gentle with me?”

  His fingers turned and cupped her sex, creating a delicious friction there. She gasped and arched into it, hoping he would bear down, show her what she’d been missing. He nuzzled her neck. “Yes,” he rasped. “So gentle.”

  His fingers disappeared from her core and she mourned the loss of them until she realized he was stripping her pants and panties off of her. She helped, then stilled, biting her lower lip. He replaced his hand. “Can you be quiet?”

  “Quiet?”

  “You might feel the urge to cry out.”

  “It’s that… intense?”

  He nodded. “It can be.”

  He pulled the hand that had been cradling her neck out from under her and palmed her right breast with it. His thumb grazed her nipple and she threw her head back at the intense pleasure of both his big hands on her. He moved slowly, expertly, dipping one rough finger against her softest skin, probing there until he found wetness. His next pass was like velvet, creating bliss she couldn’t even understand. She whimpered and brought her head down to face him. “You should stop. I don’t think I can be quiet.”

  He didn’t stop. Instead, he dipped his finger between her folds again, the drag and push electrifying her, spreading sweet sensations through her entire core as his fingers worked first one nipple through her shirt, then the other.

  Her hips thrust at him as her back bowed and more small noises came out of her. “Beckett!” Worried but unable to stop, she implored him. “Will I lose control? I don’t want to scare Kaci, or wake her.”

  “Kiss me,” he said. “When it gets so intense you think you can’t stand it, bury your face in my shoulder. You can bite me if you want. I won’t care at all. I’ll love it.”

  His fingers never stopped their magic while he was speaking, and still she was whimpering. “What will happen?”

  “What you’re feeling right now? It will build and build until you think you’re gonna explode or pass out, but you won’t do either. There will be a peak where it will feel like a kind of break or snap inside you, and the pleasure will come in thick waves. That’s when you should bite me. Bite as hard as you need to.”

  Cerise licked her lips. He looked so eager at the thought of all of it, which eased her shyness over the new experience. She did as he had said to do, kissing him. He kissed her back in the same way he was fondling her, lazily, thoroughly, but never slowing, never stopping. Her body took all the sensation and asked for more, rocking against him, encouraging him with her small whimpers, clutching at his tight, muscular shoulders to pull herself closer to him.

  As he’d said, the pleasure built, climbing peak after peak, until she knew she was going to pass out, knew she would die of it. And still he kissed her, still he dragged his fingers across the naked bud of her hidden flesh that she’d never noticed before.

  Her breaths came faster in her throat, little pants with a whimper at the end of each. He spoke into her mouth. “Now, darlin’, bite me now, or you’re going to make noise.”

  She could scarcely follow directions, scarcely think well enough to do more than react, but she managed to bury her head into his chest, not able to reach his neck, but finding the curve of his pec muscle with her mouth. She bit, not wanting to hurt him, but unable to care at the same time-It hit, stunning her with the new sensation, so exceptionally pleasant and all-consuming, a solid push of ecstasy that incapacitated her completely for a few precious moments. She cried out against his chest, biting and moaning at the same time, until finally it eased, tapered off, tiny pulses of pleasure reminding her of what had happened.

  She relaxed, dropping to the mattress, as Beckett disentangled himself from her, and began to smooth her hair back.

  When she could, she opened her eyes. Beckett had the biggest grin on his face that she’d seen yet, so pleased with himself she couldn’t help but giggle.

  He propped himself up on one elbow. “Was it good?”

  Her mouth dropped open until she realized he was teasing. “Very good. Can I make you do the same thing?”

  His hand dropped to his zipper and he adjusted himself. “I’m embarrassed to say that your pleasure made me come in my pants like a teenager.”

  “Oh! Is that bad?”

  He shook his head. “Not unless you tell someone about it.”

  Her eyes widened. “Who would I tell?”

  He pushed himself out of the bed to clean up. “Don’t tell anyone, especially not the
guys I work with. I would never hear the end of it.”

  Real life came crashing down on her. She moved to the center of the bed and buried her face in the pillow, turning her head to talk for only a second. “Your friends? In Serenity? I’m not ever going to meet them, am I?”

  He was digging around in his clothes, but turned to her, puzzled. “Of course you are.”

  “No, I’ve got to go back to prison. I know I’m in trouble for what I did. If not for shooting Myles, then for escaping.”

  Beckett crossed to her and took her hands in his. “Don’t worry about it for one more second, Cerise. My boss is the Deputy Chief of the Serenity Police Department. He knows about you and I promise you that you won’t spend one more second in jail.”

  She stared at him, wondering if she could possibly believe him, when Kaci’s small form stirred in the other room.

  They could be in Loma Linda before midnight, if they hurried.

  Chapter 32

  Beckett let Kaci and Cerise’s laughter wash over him, soaking it up as best he could. It was hard to believe that if everything went well, they could be saying goodbye to Kaci in a few hours. An unfamiliar tightening of his throat made him swallow and look out the side window for a moment.

  Ahead of him on the dark but busy freeway, the lighted exit for Loma Linda finally appeared. He made his way to the right lane.

  “Ok, I’ve got a good one,” Kaci said. “Would you rather find true love or a million dollars?”

  “True love,” Beckett said immediately, even though it wasn’t his turn.

  Cerise’s voice mingled with his, almost harmonizing. “True love.”

  Kaci didn’t say anything for a moment, and Beckett wondered if the game had stirred the sadness that had been growing in her over the last two hundred miles. Cerise had been trying to keep the atmosphere light, but they all felt it.