Outlaw Seal

by Kate Sheperd

  "Should be starting any minute if the reports are correct," he told her and sipped his wine. He was staring at her instead of the sky, and Tamera could feel his eyes on her.

  "I want to watch some of the stars, but I want to see you shift more. Will you do that for me, Julius? Will you turn into your other form and let me watch?" Tamera asked him as she slid closer to him, putting her hand on his chest. Her mouth was an inch away from his and, before he answered her, he kissed her.

  Julius pressed his lips against hers, dominating, arousing, and hard. He pushed his tongue between her lips and kissed her like his life depended on it. Something about this woman pushed all the right buttons. He would shift for her, but first he was going to kiss her.

  His tongue teased hers and his hands grabbed her hips and pulled her harder up against him. He could smell her arousal as he kissed her and she moaned into his mouth. Satisfied with her response to him, he pulled back and looked at her.

  Lips swollen from the kisses, she brought her hand up to her mouth and stared at him with heavy lids. Her breaths were coming shallow and her heart was racing. If that's what he did with a kiss, she couldn't wait to see what else he could make her feel.

  "Shifting, huh?" He let out a small laugh and stood up on the blanket. Stripping naked before her, he didn't bother to hide his large erection. Backing up, he threw his head back and his arms out. The shift rolled over him. It bordered somewhere between pleasure and pain, and he let out a low grunt. He hit the ground on all fours, completing his shift into a bear.

  Standing before her, he looked straight at her. He knew he was an impressive bear. Larger than most bears by a few inches, his brown fur reflected the moonlight. He stood about fifteen feet from her on the grass and looked at her.

  Tamera scrambled to her feet to touch him. She was enthralled. He was as impressive in his bear form as he was as a man. She stroked down his back and by his ears. She admired his legs and his strong back. Eventually, she stopped touching him and stood back, allowing him to shift back to his human form.

  He was kneeling in the grass after he shifted back. She walked back over to him and ran her hands over his bare back. Touching his skin, she sighed, feeling the heat as her fingers trailed down his body.

  Standing up, he faced her, naked. He scooped her up in his arms and kissed her as she wrapped her hands around his neck. He took her back over to the blanket and gently set her down.

  She moaned as his hands worked on removing her clothes. His tongue sent shivers up her spine as he teased and tormented her with his lips ravishing her own. Tamera felt the cold air of the night sky ripple across her skin as she lay against the blanket. The heat of his skin was a contrast to the breeze coming up from the water. She looked up at the sky long enough to see a shooting star. Making a wish on it, she hoped this night turned out to be as promising as it seemed like it would.

  "What has you smiling so big?" Julius asked her as he pulled his head back.

  "The stars. It started. Let’s watch it for a few minutes and we'll pick up where we left off," she told him, pushing him off her and putting her head on his shoulder. Pointing at a star shooting over head she smiled. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

  "Not as beautiful as you," Julius told her and grinned, but tried to pretend like he was paying proper attention to the sky above them. He sat there for a few minutes, feeling her breathing fall and rise next to him, noting the way her heart was slow and steady. He reached over and traced around one of her breasts. When she didn't stop him, he kept touching her, massaging her breasts with his hands. He was slowly working his way down her stomach to the small smattering of pubic hair covering the parts he wanted to touch the most. Digging his fingers through it, he combed his way down until he found her clit. Stroking it, he turned slightly, cradling her in his arms while they watched the stars.

  Tamera let her head fall back as his fingers worked their magic. Fire and ice, the wind cooled her skin and his fingers heated her entire body up until she broke out in a sweat. Her hips were rotating up as he stroked her sensitive button. She was close to cumming[S57]. Half-shutting her eyes, a moan ripped through her throat as he pushed her over the edge with his fingers. He kissed her then, capturing her mouth with his own, swallowing her cries of pleasure.

  After she'd come down from the explosion of stars behind her eyes, he pulled her on top of him.

  "Ride me, so I can watch the stars explode as you pleasure me," he told her and waited for her to sit on him. He was hard and erect and, when she spread her legs over him, he thrust into her in one deep upward motion. Yanking her hips down at the same time he buried himself to the base. Tamera's head dropped back and she moaned loudly. He was using his grip on her hips to pull her up and down on his cock.

  "You are so big," she muttered, riding his cock. Placing her hands on his chest she used the leverage to help make her hips go faster. She wanted to watch him cum[S58], but it felt so good that it was hard to keep her eyes open. He was sliding in and out of her, his cock hitting all the right places as his hands gripped her hips almost painfully tight.

  Rolling her hips against him, she took him deeper, faster, until she sent him over the edge into his own climax. Feeling him jerk inside of her as he came, it pushed her over the edge of another orgasm. She kept moving, it felt so good. The rolling sensations kept coming as long as she moved.

  After a few moments, the feeling settled down and she realized her entire body felt like jelly. She halfway collapsed on top of him. Laughing slightly, she pressed kisses to his chin and cheeks.

  He cradled her in his arms and wrapped the edges of the blanket around the two of them, blocking out some of the wind as they finished watching the meteor storm together. When it was over, he took her inside.

  "We will need to talk," he told her as he pressed kisses to her mouth. "But tomorrow. Tonight, I have plans for your body that don't involve much talking."

  "I can live with that," Tamera said, grinning. Taking his hand, she let him lead her to his massive bedroom. He flipped on the light and grabbed a couple of ties he'd had thrown on his dresser near the light switch.

  "You game?" He asked her winking as he held up the ties.

  "For me, or for you?" she asked him, raising a brow. The idea of him tied to the bed at her mercy had her knees almost buckling. Getting to touch every inch of him while he lay there. Picturing his wrists tied to the bed had her growing wetter by the second. Oh, the things she'd do to him.

  "Either way," he told her, shrugging.

  "I like the way you think." Pulling him over to the bed, she put the ties to good use. They ended up taking turns more than once that night. When she woke in the morning she was well sated, and sore from all the activity.

  Chapter 6

  Tamera yawned as she woke up in the morning. She could smell coffee brewing and followed her nose to the kitchen. Julius was there, and he looked good. His hair was wet from a shower and she suddenly felt like she should have asked to take one. She felt grimy and a little dirty after having sex at least five times last night. Her legs were stiff and her stomach hurt in places that showed her those muscles hadn't gotten a good workout in quite a while.

  "You want some coffee?" Julius asked her as he grabbed another cup. "My housekeeper will get to the dishes later, but I made some breakfast if you are hungry."

  "I would like breakfast, thank you, and coffee would be wonderful," she told him as she sat at the bar at the island counter. "I am going to need to get home to get ready for work at some point today."

  "I'll take you home after you eat, but let's talk first." He had a serious expression on his face as he handed her the coffee. "I want to see you again, Tamera. I like you, a lot. We are clearly...compatible in more ways than one."

  "If you mean all the sexual positions, sure," she joked and sipped her coffee. Sighing in pleasure, she closed her eyes and savored it. Now this was good coffee. Opening her eyes back up, she grinned at him.

  "I mean that despite our di
fferent backgrounds, we work well together. I like you. When I'm with you, I'm just Julius. You accept me. All of me, my human and my bear side...even my job. I couldn't ask for a better woman, Tamera. You're beautiful, funny, and smart. I want to see you again. Sex for one night isn't going to be enough for me when it comes to you. I want you to be willing to give this a real chance between us," he told her as he slid a plate of toast and eggs across the island counter for her to eat. Waiting for her response, he looked a little tense.

  Tamera almost felt bad for him. She wasn't sure where they'd end up, but she agreed it was worth finding out where it would go. With one exception.

  "We need to be more careful in the future with how we have sex, then. No more sex without protection, not unless we end up in a committed relationship. I let myself get carried away last night. I've never done that before. Something makes me want to throw all common sense to the wind to be with you."

  "If you insist," he said, shrugging. "Did you know bears mate for life?"

  "Do they really?" she said, looking shocked.

  "No, I dunno. I was joking, but I'm the kind that would mate for life." He gave her a pointed look and then let her finished her coffee as she absorbed what he was telling her.

  "I had fun last night," Tamera said, not sure what he was getting at entirely. But she was getting the hint that he wanted more than one night with her. The question was, could she handle what he asked for. While she wasn't looking for the rich, billionaire boyfriend, she had been looking for a shifter. Most would consider his being rich a bonus, but money brought a lot of troubles.

  "Tamera, whatever this chemistry is that's going on between us, I think it can last. Sex with you is amazing, and you accept my shifter side. You already know that I'm a domineering ass at times, and it seems you can get past that. You will stand up to me when needed. You bring out a part of me that I can't share with anyone else most of the time. You asked for it, eagerly," he told her and cupped her cheek as he looked down at her. "It would be easy to fall in love with you. I'm not trying to pressure you, or rush you. I just want a chance to let this go where it goes."

  "I think I can handle that," Tamera said. His amber eyes were lighter than normal, a sign of his intense feelings right now. She was already starting to learn to read him. She realized that, when she looked at him, she wanted to know everything about him. "But, I have a few conditions."

  "Okay, I'm listening. I won't make promises before I hear what they are," he told her and raised his brows together.

  "No secrets. We have to communicate and talk. You have a high-stress job where women will throw themselves at you because of money. I'm not the jealous type. I'd be able to trust you as long as you tell me everything. Even when I don't want to hear it. I can handle the truth better than feeling like there are secrets between us." She nodded as she spoke. "Second, you have to agree to shift for me occasionally. I want to see it, to touch you when you're in your other form. I find it enthralling, and it's a part of what I find attractive about you. I suppose this falls under the ‘no secrets’ request."

  Laughing, Julius leaned down and kissed her. "Fine, I can live with all of that, but I have a condition of my own."

  "I'm listening," she said breathlessly after he pulled back from the kiss.

  "That when you love me, you're not afraid to say it. I want you to be honest with me about your feelings, and what you're thinking. I can't make educated decisions if I don't have all the information. Simply put, information is my specialty. Unlike a computer where I can figure everything out by looking at code or running programs, human relationships are far more complex. I'm not a mind reader, which means your bluntness is one of the things I like the most about you." He rubbed his knuckles against her chin. He resisted the animal urge to put her on the counter and have his way with her until the conversation was over.

  "I can do that. I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship," Tamera whispered to him as she leaned forward and put her hand against his chest.

  Kissing him back, they both ended up late for work.

  Scarlet’s Alien

  Chapter One

  1 a.m. was not an unfamiliar time for Scarlet, as much as she wished that it were. Working at a law firm was supposed to be a job people killed for, but all the glamour surrounding the profession usually comes from the six digit paycheck, without much thought going towards how many late nights are spent getting reports in to an asshole boss. Scarlet could just throw her computer across the room and go to sleep, but that wouldn't help her when tomorrow came. Especially considering that the report was already late.

  Another hour and a half of excruciating writing went by before Scarlet could send the email off, then she got up, went over to the empty bed and flopped down. "Fuck this job," she muttered. Sure, it had gotten her a nice house on San Clemente beach in California, and she had enough smart investments to retire around fifty thanks to her connections, but nights like these made her wonder if the money was really worth it.

  She tried to just relax, take a deep breath, and close her eyes. If she was ticked off before she laid down, she was livid now. Her body was so tired that it couldn't even get off to sleep.

  "I can't believe it," Scarlet muttered to herself, then got out of bed, sluggishly shuffled down to the kitchen, made herself some tea, and groaned. Nights like these were the worst. All she could do was try to relax and get her mind off of things, or she would never be able to find the sweet land of sleep. So, she took her chamomile tea outside to her beach chair and just lounged, looking up at the night's sky.

  It was a beautiful night. If she had a fancy camera, it would be one of those nights that a stunning photo of the sky could be caught. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and the city was enacting new energy conservation measures, so light pollution was at a minimum. It was just beautiful.

  Though Scarlet was never too interested in astronomy, it wasn't hard to appreciate a night like this. There was even a comet with a faint greenish glow streaking along the clear night sky at a steady clip.

  Funny, she mused to herself. Usually if comets were going to come by, then they would be all over the news. Yet, nothing of the sort had been on the local station she listened to in the morning. Yet that thing in the sky, that little greenish ball with the brilliant tail -- that had to be a comet, didn't it? Scarlet never really cared for astronomy, so she didn't know a comet from a meteor from any other extraterrestrial body that might come zipping along, but she was fairly sure that was what a comet looked like.

  The beautiful and faint glow as the rock whizzed by in the sky soothed Scarlet, and she just sipped her tea as her eyes followed the comet. She started to feel at ease, until it became apparent to her that the comet's direction had changed, or at the very least it seemed for a moment to stop moving. The tail disappeared. Then the comet started getting larger.

  The serenity that Scarlet felt not too long ago went up in smoke. Was what she was seeing even possible? The comet--if that's what she saw-- didn't stop moving. It was coming towards the Earth? Scarlet didn't even realize that comets could suddenly, and so clearly change directions like that, but she wasn't going to question it either. She dropped her cup into the sand and started running. She couldn't tell where the comet was going to land just yet, so she could be running right into the eventual impact zone. Regardless of that, her instincts just kicked in and told her to run.

  She didn't get far. Maybe twenty feet, which barely got her to the fence around her estate, when the comet landed in the ocean, and the shock waves completely knocked her off her feet and made her legs feel like jelly.

  Unable to do much else, Scarlet turned back towards the site of the comet, and she saw a huge wave forming from the impact. She tried to get back to her feet to run, but her legs wouldn't move, so she just held on tightly to her fence. Maybe it was sturdy enough to survive the torrent heading towards her?

  Chapter Two

  Scarlet's eyes fluttered open to an entirely new, v
ibrant scene. Immediately above her, she could see a pink canopy draped around the bed she was lying on, and pulled over her a soft and warm purple blanket of sorts. She shot upright in her seat, and in front of her saw nothing but a cold, blue, metallic floor leading up to a wall of the same material. There was something analogous to veins, glowing with a faint blue glow, running through the metal.

  Immediately, Scarlet felt her heart beat quicken, and she tried to rub her temples to jog her memory of what had caused her to wake up to this place. She remembered back to being on the beach. A big wave came. It pulled the pickets right from the ground as she was clinging on to them. Then she was washed away. Before she got far, though, something cold and hard, like metal, seemed to wrap around her like a tentacle and pull her out towards the sea, against the current of the wave which were still going inland. After that, she couldn't remember anything. She probably had passed out from lack of air.

  Scarlet, though she felt a pain in her chest from taking in too much water, jumped to her feet from the bed, only to realize she wasn't wearing anything at all. Her little red silk nightie that she'd been wearing when she went outside to sit, which wasn't much to begin with, and her slippers, had completely disappeared.

  It was hard to decide whether the embarrassment or the fact that she was freezing without these garments on was worse. She felt goosebumps on every single square centimeter of her body when her feet touched the cold metal floor, and she instinctively jumped back onto the bed she'd been on and pulled the warm and inviting blankets around her.

  "I see that you're finally up," a low but powerful voice said. Scarlet looked around frantically for the originator of the voice. The canopy around the bed was made of a very thin muslin, or at least something like it, so she could see a silhouette of a figure off to the right side of the bed.