by Terra Wolf
I heard a knock on the door. “Tash, you hungry?”
I walked toward it and opened it. Gavin towered over me. That look was in his eyes again. The one filled with warmth and forlorn sexiness. Damn him.
“Not really.” I moved to close the door in his face, but he jammed his boot in the doorway.
“Don’t be mad at me, please. I want to keep you safe.”
I turned from the door and took my place in front of the windows again. He walked in behind me.
“You’re just doing your job, right?”
“Right,” he answered quietly.
“Then why should I be mad? You’re protecting my life. I should be grateful. So grateful.” I turned and glared at him.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Act like last night or this morning didn’t mean something to me. I told you it did.”
“Yeah, well, usually after someone agrees to be your mate, you don’t act like they repulse you.” The tears stung the corners of my eyes. I couldn’t face him.
“Shit,” he muttered. “That’s not what this is. You know that’s not what it is.”
He walked up behind me, gripping my shoulders. “I want you so badly it’s tearing me apart. I don’t know what to do, Tash.”
I shrugged him off and stepped to the side. “More lines. You got what you wanted. I realize that now.”
“Come on, that’s not fair. You know I’m not like that. You know that’s not what this is.” He stepped in front of me, refusing to let me hide my tears. “My senses are so filled with you, I can’t think straight. And if I hadn’t answered that call this morning…”
“I’d be your mate,” I whispered.
His eyes hardened. “Or dead. Don’t you see that? I hesitated. I almost didn’t pick up that phone. I almost didn’t answer the call that alerted us to the safe house being compromised. I let my feelings for you jeopardize your life. I’m not letting that happen again.”
“So you’re just going to give up on us? Give up on what you asked me this morning?” I was furious. I didn’t know which one of us was more stubborn. Didn’t he know by now I could take care of myself? There were two people here looking out for my life. I wasn’t some helpless damsel. I was a tiger shifter.
“No, I’m not giving up on it. You will be my mate.” He stepped forward so I could feel his breath on my cheek. “I’m going to make you mine. I swear. But not until your life is safe.”
“That’s crazy.” I twirled out of his hold. “I could walk outside and be hit by a car. I could hop on a flight and my plane could crash. You can’t live like that, Gavin. We’re always going to be in danger. Life isn’t that neat and tidy.”
“I didn’t say it was.” His eyes glowered. “But when I take you as my mate, it’s not going to be with fear hanging over our heads. When I take you. And I will,” he added. “It’s going to be when we can give each other everything. I’ve never wanted you more.” He headed for the door. “If you’re hungry, lunch is on the table.”
He closed the door behind me, leaving me more in love with him than I’d ever been.
19
Gavin
I stared at the ceiling. I could hear the waves lap against the pilings outside. Pax had an awesome condo, but I couldn’t enjoy it knowing Tasha was ready to claw my eyes out because I wouldn’t sleep with her. We couldn’t stroll along the boardwalk and take the chance of being seen. We couldn’t go to any of the restaurants and eat dinner. She was stuck, and I felt like it was my fault. I had let her down. I had promised her the cabin was safe. At least there she could walk in the woods and we could breathe outside. I couldn’t let her out of these condo doors.
With members of Purest on the loose, I didn’t know that there was such a thing as safety anymore. The hearing should start any day. We needed it to start so Tasha could testify and we could lock these bastards up for life. They deserved far worse for what they had done to the other shifters. For what they had done to her. My fists clenched. I couldn’t think about it. I couldn’t think about her spirit being broken. I couldn’t think about her being scared. She was strong and resilient, and I knew Purest had stolen some of that from her. For that, they were going to pay.
The clock on the wall ticked into the early morning and I couldn’t sleep. Not with the woman I wanted as my mate in the room next to me. She tried to get me to sleep in her room, but I knew that would only lead to one thing. I couldn’t be under the covers with her and not strip every inch of fabric off her curves.
I sat up, tying the string on a loose pair of pajama pants when I heard her screams. There wasn’t time to reach for my gun. Instinct kicked in. The need to protect her.
I ran to her room, prepared to hold her through another nightmare, but what I saw was my nightmare. A man in all black had her by the arm and was dragging her from the bed.
Tasha screamed, clinging to the bedpost, scrambling at the bedside table, but he heaved her over his shoulder and spun to see me blocking the door.
“Put her down,” I growled.
The man dressed in the dark suit seemed undeterred by my size. “I’m taking her with me.”
“Like hell you are.” I swung at his jaw, throwing him off-balance.
Tasha leapt from her position and scurried to the corner of the room, her claws extended. My bear wanted to break free and rip the guy’s head off, but I took another swing instead, knocking him to the floor.
“Oh my God,” Tasha whispered. “Marcellus?”
“You know this guy?” I stood over him, daring him to move.
She nodded. “He works for my uncle. What are you doing here?” She seemed to find her strength again and stood next to me, kicking him in the ribs.
“Ouch.”
“I said, what are you doing here?” She rammed her foot deeper into his side.
“Taking you home.” He wiped the blood from his nose. “Your uncle wants you under Marconi protection. Clearly, you’re not safe with this guy.” He looked at me.
“She’s safe,” I snarled.
“If I could just waltz right in here and pluck her from her bed, who’s to say Purest won’t do the same thing?” Marcellus sat upright. “Her uncle wants me to take her back to Seattle.”
I balled my fist. “That’s not happening.”
I felt Tasha’s hand wrap around my elbow. “Stop. Just stop it, Gavin.”
“I’m not letting him take you anywhere. Not now. Not ever.” My bear was going ballistic. She was mine. Or at least I promised her I was going to make her mine. Some hired thug wasn’t about to take her.
Marcellus rose from the floor, his clothes bloody and his eye swollen from my first jab at his face. I was ready to do more than that if he threatened to touch Tasha again.
“Marcellus, I think you need to go,” Tasha explained. “I’m staying.”
My eyes widened.
“Your uncle isn’t going to be okay with that.” The man spit blood from the side of his mouth.
“You can tell my uncle to kiss my ass. He wasn’t the one who got me out of Purest. What right does he have to step in now?”
Marcellus put his hands up. “You know I’m the messenger.”
“And a kidnapper,” she hissed at him. “Get out, before the bear shows you out.”
I watched in shock as he walked out the door without so much as another argument.
Tasha sat on the edge of the bed. I couldn’t help but notice the short T-shirt she was wearing rose up over her hips.
“I’m sorry.” I closed my eyes.
“What are you sorry about?” She looked up.
“That that thug got in here.”
She waved me off. “I didn’t even know my uncle was looking for me. If I had, I would have told you nowhere was off the grid enough.”
“Is that so?” I sat next to her.
“You know he’s in the mob, Gavin. Possibly a worse guy than anyone at Purest. He can find anyone. Marcellus has probably known where
I was this entire time. He probably followed us from the cabin.”
Now I knew I had failed her.
“God, Tasha. I’m sorry. None of this should be happening. None of it.”
She turned, running a hand along my jaw. I felt my body tense at her touch. I wanted it. I wanted all of her. I wanted to feel the tenderness in her fingertips. I wanted to remember last night and what it felt like to be deep inside her. Fuck.
“I guess that means we’re leaving in the morning.” She lowered her hand.
“Yeah, I’ll have to come up with another safe house.”
“And tonight?”
“What about tonight?”
“If everything you said about me is true… if your feelings are real… if you want me as your mate…”
God, I craved every part of her. Her lips, her breasts, her hands on my body. But I had proven over and over I couldn’t focus as long as she was in my head. How would taking her as my mate now make anything right?
“You’re killing me, Tash,” I groaned.
She slid back on the bed, dragging the T-shirt over her head and dropping it on the floor. Her beautiful breasts bobbed in front of me. Her nipples were perfect peaks. I swallowed.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m done being afraid. I’m done being scared at night. I want you in my bed, Gavin.” Her fingers hooked on the edge of her panties as she lifted her hips and shimmied them over her smooth thighs. “I want you next to me every night. Sleeping like this. Fucking me. Loving me.”
“Fuck.” I breathed.
There was a wicked grin on her face. “Exactly.”
I didn’t know how to hold my bear back as she offered herself to me this way. I closed my eyes, reminding myself why I had to resist. She rubbed her hands over her breasts, tilting them toward me, pinching her nipples.
“Taste me,” she commanded.
And it was the will of my bear versus the determination of her tiger. And I knew who was winning. I leaned forward, drawing my tongue over her perked nipple, lapping at it until I sucked it into my mouth with teeth.
“Oh, God,” she purred. Her head was thrown back wildly as she sat on her knees.
My hand dipped between her legs. Fuck, she was already soaking wet. I pried her legs wider, circling my fingers against her tight little bud. I licked and sucked her tit while she began to bounce up and down on my fingers, fucking my hand with powerful clenches.
Her hands reached for my pants, and she shoved the waistband down to my ass, freeing my erection.
“You know this is right,” she purred in my ear. “You know you want me to belong to you.”
The anguish split through me. I’d never wanted anything more. As her palm wrapped around my pulsing shaft, I caught the look in her eye. The tiger was winning. She scooted forward on the bed until her mouth touched the tip of my cock. Her tongue began to swirl and dip until her mouth covered my head, sliding it into pure heaven.
“Fuck, Tash.” I pushed on the back of her head, sending my dick deeper until I felt the back of her throat. I looked down as her beautiful, full lips wrapped around my shaft. She sucked and moaned until I thought I would lose it there, but she was right. I did want her. I wanted to claim her. I wanted every man, every bear, and every damn shifter in the world to know she was mine. I wasn’t going to come this way.
I lifted her head to meet my gaze. “What if I can’t protect you like this?”
She brushed her lips over mine. “You will. I trust you.”
“It changes everything.” I pushed the pants off my knees and kicked them to the floor.
“It better.” She smiled. “Now fuck me until I’m yours.”
20
Tasha
Those were the words I needed to say. The ones he needed to hear to know how serious I was about being his mate. Forget the anger. Forget the fear. Time was precious, and I didn’t want to waste another second arguing with him about whether we were meant to be together.
Before Marcellus barged in like an ape, dragging me from the bedroom, I was angry and hurt. I felt rejected by Gavin’s distance. But with one scream, he was there in a split second. I believed in him. I believed he was the man who could protect me when everyone else had let me down.
This was what I wanted with all my soul.
“Gavin, did you hear me?”
His eyes raced with flames. “Yes.”
“I want your bear to claim my tiger. I want to be yours. I want you to make me yours the way your bear needs to.” I was breathing rapidly. Afraid he would once again listen to the reason and logic locked on his brain. Afraid he would be more cop than bear.
His hands tangled in my air, tugging my head back. “You want me to claim you?” he growled.
“Yes, I want you. What else do I need to say to convince you?”
His tongue ran along my throat as he kept a tight hold on my hair. “Your body will be mine.”
“In every way,” I purred. I looked in his eyes, desperate for him to claim me.
His mouth covered mine with deep hungry kisses. I kissed him back, thirsting for his tongue, tasting every drop of him. He wasn’t gentle like he was last night. The power surged through his hands as they released my hair and glided to my waist.
The bear took over, sending me flat on my stomach, lifting my ass in the air as he slid his hand along the slickness between my legs. I groaned at the intensity. I grabbed the pillow in front of me, trying to steady myself, but there was nothing that could prepare me for what his bear wanted.
“Oh, God.” I felt his tongue run the length from my clit to my entrance, circling with certainty. I felt hollow without him inside me. I missed his hardness. I missed the way he slid inside me with heat as I stretched around him.
“Oh, please, Gavin. Please.”
He coated his cock in the honey flowing between my legs. Rubbing it between my folds, over my clit, torturing me with the promise of pleasure.
“I’ve never wanted to fuck you so badly, Tash,” he growled, using his fingers to pry against my entrance. He strummed the sensitive opening until I thought I would explode.
I wiggled backward, wanting to feel them work their magic inside me. The frenzy was building in my core at a rapid pace. Maybe it was because I was about to be claimed. Maybe it was because once I had sex with Gavin, I craved him even more. But I was ready to do whatever his bear wanted to make this happen.
He nudged himself against me. I screamed at the sheer white pain as his cock plunged deep inside me. He lifted my hips higher, driving deeper than before. I growled with pleasure as the pain turned to ecstasy.
I purred as he pounded me, riding me from behind, making me his own. He had total control of my body and I loved it. I melted into his body. My tits bounced against the mattress as Gavin’s fingers rubbed my clit. I couldn’t hold back. I rocked up just as he spread my thighs and thrust to the deepest center of my core. I screamed out his name as my orgasm crashed around me. I swirled in the rippling, taking hold of my pulse. I quivered uncontrollably as he branded his bond into me. There was nothing separating us. We were as connected as we could be. I fought for air as another orgasm ripped through me.
“Oh, God, Gavin.” I tried to move, but he seized hold of me, spreading me to fit one more inch of his smooth cock inside me. “Ohh.” I craved it. I loved it.
“You’re mine, Tasha. You’re fucking mine.” He gripped my hips as he unleashed his hot seed in me, filling me with jolts as he pumped harder.
“Yours,” I whispered, gripping tightly around his cock as he pulsed inside me. He filled me with love. He filled me with his bond. He filled me with our future.
He kissed my back. “This is forever.”
I smiled. “I know.”
I felt a pang as his still hard cock slid from my entrance. I curled in a ball, wanting to keep everything he had given me drawn inside. The insides of my thighs were sticky and wet. For the first time, I belonged. For the first time, I felt the safety of our
bond. For the first time, I knew I could trust someone. And I was happy.
He held me close. “Are you sure you’re okay we didn’t wait until after the hearing?”
“Positive.” I nestled against his neck, smelling the musky scent of our lovemaking lingering on his skin.
“You’re okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I? My bear’s a little rough.”
Sure, I was sore and had been pulled and stretched, but his cock was glorious, and I would take it as many times as he’d give it to me.
“My tiger likes it rough.”
He laughed, his giant chest shaking. “You’re fucking perfect. You know that?”
I was glad he was happy. I was glad he didn’t feel seduced into taking me. But I had to know. “Gavin, what made you change your mind?”
He brushed the hair from my face and kissed my forehead. “I didn’t need to claim you to know I’d die if something happened to you under my protection. And I was about to die if I didn’t.” He smiled. “You don’t play fair, tiger.”
“Oh really?” I teased, circling my fingers against his hipbone and landing on his cock. I felt it jerk under my touch.
“Remember this morning?” he asked.
My eyes lit up. I knew exactly what he was talking about. How intense it had been lying on our sides. I wrapped my top leg over his waist. His hand gripped my ass as he plunged inside my swollen entrance. The pain was exquisite.
“Ohh,” I moaned into his ear.
“We have to run in the morning, and I don’t know where we’re going, but tonight, I’m going to make you come until you beg me to stop.”
I nodded as the tip of his cock slid between my folds, rubbing at the heat we had created together. And then he dipped back inside, pushing against my inner walls at a new, intense angle.
“Oh fuck, yes,” I screamed.
He grinned. “We’re just getting started. You’re going to get everything you asked for tonight.”
