RockMeTonight

by Lisa Carlisle

  I thought about the many points of our discussions before I answered. “Not yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “I still don’t think she’s ready.”

  “Ready for what?”

  “Ready to know there are more like her.”

  Katrina sighed. “Wouldn’t you want to know you weren’t alone? That there were others like you?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. We were raised in a pride until we were old enough to go off on our own. Who knows how she was raised? She’s the only other shifter we’ve seen here and we only see her alone. Perhaps that was by choice.”

  “Maybe it’s because she doesn’t know there are others.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think she’s ready. She doesn’t seem to welcome the change. She seems to resist it. I think she comes here to hide. And then goes back to humans in human form.”

  Katrina ran her fingers through her hair. “I think we should make contact. What’s the worst thing that will happen? She’ll tell us to get lost?”

  “Not yet, Katrina. She probably thinks we’re mountain lions she ran into. She doesn’t know we’re shifters. Let’s hold off for a little longer.”

  “Until when?” Katrina persisted.

  “Until we get some sort of sign.”

  “What kind of sign would we get if she doesn’t even know we’re shifters?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll see that she’s searching for answers instead of hiding. I’m not sure. But I still believe now is not the right time.”

  Katrina made a noise that sounded like humph. When I looked at her, she was staring at me boldly, hands on her hips.

  “Don’t look at me like that, Katrina. You know hunting with you already turns me on. But seeing you here naked and looking at me like that sends a thrill through me that I might not be able to control.”

  “Then don’t,” she said, giving me a coquettish look that called me to her.

  I reached her in two steps and crushed her lips with mine, penetrating her mouth with my tongue while I ran my hands down her back and around over to her breasts.

  I pulled away. “You’re not seducing me to get me to change my mind, are you?”

  “Angelo,” she said, giving me a sly look. “As if I would.”

  “I know how females work,” I said. “Especially ones that are also wild, hot felines.”

  “No, I’m not manipulating you,” she said. “Even though I don’t think we should wait much longer to approach her, I understand your point and we’ll wait.” She turned around and pressed her sweet round ass against my growing erection. “Hunting with you makes me just as hot as it makes you.” She reached back to position my aching shaft into her folds and moved up and down. Feeling how wet she was already, I grew harder instantly.

  “I can tell.” I rubbed against her and said, “What should we do about this?”

  “We can’t ignore our raging libidos. It would be cruel and neglectful. We have to take care of our bodies.” She looked back over her shoulder and smiled in a way that sent excitement from my eyes to my throbbing cock.

  “You’re right. We must take care of our needs.” I grabbed her shoulders as I pressed her forward and she yelped at the unexpected roughness. She was the perfect height for me to fuck standing up. The perfect woman for me, period.

  I grabbed a bunch of her long blonde hair and pulled just rough enough to make her feel it. “You want it rough? Like this?”

  “Yeah. Yes,” she hissed.

  I grabbed her ass with one hand as I glided into her in one slick movement.

  “You love it rough, don’t you? Because you’re a dirty girl.”

  She moaned as I plunged deeper into her.

  “Say it. Tell me how you’re dirty.”

  “I am, Angelo. Yes. Dirty, bad,” she said in between thrusts.

  “That’s right. You’re a bad girl. You know just how to get under my skin.” I reached around to touch her pussy and then found her sweet little clit.

  She moaned louder this time. “Yes. Right there.”

  “And I know just how to get under yours.”

  “Oh God, yes, Angelo. You know exactly what I need.”

  I grabbed her hips as I drove into her. She pushed back against me harder each time. I wasn’t sure how we maintained balance.

  Before long, she shouted, “Yes, I’m right there!” And then she exploded around me.

  I covered her mouth because she was being so loud. Even though we thought we were alone here in the wilderness, you never knew what could be lurking nearby.

  She bit my finger as she came. Feeling her teeth upon my finger while feeling her wetness flow and her muscles tighten around my dick sent me over the edge. I pumped into her twice more as deeply as I could and then let go.

  Chapter Four

  Nico

  “What’s up with you, man? You’re not yourself lately.”

  I’d been working on a software program and must have spaced out when my coworker Mike snapped me back to the here and now. Mike and I shared an office at work. Even though we spent so much time together, as he also took on the persona of our guitarist Chee Keydood in Velvet Cocks, we got along fine. More like brothers, actually, since we gave each other crap all day long. I turned in my swivel chair to face Mike. His wavy brown hair was mussed up as usual and he was wearing his standard jeans and button-up plaid shirt, vastly different from his stage outfits, which could range from the stereotypical rock-guitarist leather pants to more eccentric ones of a leather tunic, plates of armor, and big boots. He was squeezing one of the many stress balls that he picked up at the tech conferences we went to. Mike was the only person I knew who actually used these tchotchkes, so coworkers often gave him theirs and he ended up amassing a large collection of colorful, yet somewhat useless, items.

  What was it about our field? Weird collections amassed on people’s desks, from Pez dispensers to Rubik’s Cubes and other intellectual puzzles, to outdated technology gadgets or stacks of magazines that will never be read.

  “Nothing,” I answered Mike. “Just thinking about this program.”

  I had been thinking about Lily—again. Her eyes and her sexy pout were imprinted on my brain. What I would do if I could touch those lips, kiss them. Whenever I thought she was interested and we flirted, something would set her off and she’d act distant. Aloof. If she was any other woman, I’d be sick of the mind game already. With her, the mystery increased my interest. What was it about her?

  “Come on, Nico.” Mike leaned back on his swivel chair and put down the purple stress ball he’d been squeezing. “We’ve known each other for long enough that I know what’s really on your mind.”

  “Oh really. And what’s that?” I said, while turning to pretend to be focused on the problem on my monitor.

  “A girl.”

  “Oh come on,” I said, swiveling to face him again. “You think because I’m spaced out for a moment, I’m thinking about some woman?”

  “No, it’s gotta be more than that. More than just getting laid. You wouldn’t look so intense about just any chick. You must really like her.”

  “How can I like her? I don’t even know her.”

  “Ha, busted!” he said. “I was just messing with you, taking a wild guess. How the hell would I know if you’re thinking about piece of code or a piece of ass?”

  “You’re such a dick sometimes.”

  “All the time, according to the girl I met at that club.”

  “Which one?”

  “The girl or club?”

  “Both.”

  “The girl was some chick I met there. She was all over me and wanted to hang out 24/7. The club was the one with all the gargoyles and freaks in black leather and shit.”

  “I know the one you’re talking about. Vamps. I liked that club. It had a good vibe. Better than some of the dives we’ve played in.”

  “I don’t have a problem with shithole clubs. As long as I can walk through the beer sludge to
get to the stage, I’m happy. And if there are hot chicks dying to get a piece of me after the show, I’m even happier.”

  “I can’t believe there are girls that stupid to want to date someone like you.”

  Actually I could. When we started gaining an audience, the three of us were overwhelmed with the attention we received from our female fans. Our field is inundated with more men than women and the women we worked with weren’t throwing themselves at the likes of us. Like most red-blooded males, we responded enthusiastically to all the attention, having the wild hotel parties and hooking up with different women every night. I had outgrown it first. There was something so phony about a woman sleeping with me because I was in a band that I found it distasteful.

  John lost interest in the women soon after—well, to tell you the truth, we were never very sure if he was interested in them to begin with. John always seemed somewhat asexual. He never really spoke about girls and at first we wondered if he was gay. His gestures could be effeminate and he adopted the stage name Dorian Steele, saying it was in homage to his favorite author, Oscar Wilde. But he didn’t seem to show interest in men either. What he did care about was his collection of graphic novels and Samurai culture; he’d amassed enough Samurai sword replicas to fill one wall in his apartment.

  Eventually we stopped wondering or caring about his sexual orientation or lack thereof. John was John. Our friend and bandmate. And if he came out to tell us that he was into aliens one day, it wouldn’t surprise us and it wouldn’t really change anything.

  But Mike—he rode this rock star train for all it was worth.

  “I’m not an asshole at first,” he said. “Sweet as candy. What can I say—chicks like the bad boys. And besides, I’m a better bro than a boyfriend.”

  “I’ve noticed.”

  “And coworker?”

  “I’ll give you that.”

  “And bandmate?” He nudged me on the arm.

  “Don’t push it.” I groaned. “It’s enough that I have to see your ugly mug all day at work and then for practice too.”

  “You’re calling this pretty face ugly?” He stroked his cheek and gave a perfect model pout.

  “Ugh, wipe it off.” I raised my hand in protest. “You’re even uglier now.”

  He chuckled. “So back to the topic you’re trying to shy away from. Who is she? And why are you so distracted by her?”

  “I, uh—I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Okay, relax. Jeez. Since when are you so tight-lipped about females?”

  Since I met this one. And I can’t stop thinking about her.

  “I’ve got a lot of shit to do,” I grumbled. “This program is giving me hell.”

  “What’s the problem?”

  I explained the problem and how I’d gone over the code repeatedly, but couldn’t see the issue.

  “Let me take a look.”

  Within a minute, he saw a typo within the code that threw my program off.

  Mike had been creating programs since he was nine and he’d become a stellar programmer. By the age of ten he’d begun taking apart computers and put his first one together by twelve. Throughout school, Mike was in a band. Combined with his affection for Dungeons & Dragons and his tinkering with computers, he solidified his nerd status. Even though I knew him probably as well as anyone, it was hard for even me to believe he was the same person who I played with onstage where he shed his nerd style and donned his wild rock-guitarist one.

  Of course, he later revealed the secret to his wild outfits. “I take a look at my Dungeons & Dragons cards.”

  “Thanks, man.”

  “No problem. Sometimes it takes an extra set of eyes when you’re too close to it. Happens all the time.”

  Especially when you’re distracted by a curvy female with a stare that makes you forget words. A woman who you’ll go out with in five days and three hours. I hadn’t been this excited about a date since I was a hormonal teenager. No, wait, not even then.

  I looked at the clock on my computer. The minutes were creeping by on the longest Monday ever.

  Lily

  The snow on my naked skin woke me the next morning. I’d changed back to my human form sometime while I slept. Making sure there were no signs of people around, I walked back to where I’d hidden my clothing at the base of a tree. Time to go back to my normal life—that of a human—and visit my mom.

  Another dreaded change crossed off my list. I’d have another month before I had to do the trek again. The trek wasn’t so bad; I loved the quiet and solitude in the mountains. It was the forced change that tormented me.

  In the meantime I had my date with Nico to look forward to. I told myself, Just think of him as another lover. Don’t get too caught up in him. My warnings for self-preservation were difficult to adhere to when I remembered how he looked onstage and how he sounded. Then when seeing him in the bookstore, how real he was. The smart guy by day, rock star by night aspect reined me in.

  Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. You must make it clear you’re only interested in a lover, nothing more. You have to be fair to him. And fair to you.

  Yes, I had to keep him at a distance. A safe distance so nobody got hurt.

  After getting dressed and walking back to my car, I stopped for breakfast in a little café in Conway before driving to my mother’s house. I’d still make it to the client’s office by noon and get back to Massachusetts later this evening.

  I was born in New Hampshire, but in the Lakes Region further south. My mom and I moved closer to the mountains once I started changing since it was a better place to hide. Even though I’d moved away, I came back every month. My mom decided to stay in the mountains.

  “Hi, Mom,” I said, giving her a hug. She looked the same—dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, light makeup accenting her dark, exotic eyes—looking years younger than her age. Judging by the dirt smudges on her clothing, I guessed she was doing something with her plants, not that I knew what she could work on in February, but she found a way.

  “Come in, dear. Want something to eat?”

  “I just ate.” I took off my coat and settled into an armchair.

  “Silly girl. You always eat before you come here. I have plenty of food here.”

  “Mom, you know I get hungry after I change. I can’t wait to get here. Besides, I need the caffeine. I’d be really grumpy otherwise.”

  “True,” she said, sitting down on the worn floral couch across from me. “I imagine it’s all those body parts realigning that takes a lot of energy. How was it?”

  I shrugged. “Same as usual. Still snow out there, which is no picnic, but it’s better than it was in January. Taking off my clothes in the middle of a snowstorm took all my willpower. I almost decided to move to the Florida Everglades and find some jaguars to hang out with or something!”

  “I can imagine, dear. You’re so brave to go through this every month.”

  “I don’t have a choice though, do I?”

  She looked at me with concern in her dark eyes. “No, I suppose not. There must be something that you’ve grown to look forward to during the change, no?”

  I thought about it. I always called it my dreaded time of month—and I wasn’t talking about menstruation—but running in mountain lion form was exhilarating. “Running is fun. Much faster than I can as a human.”

  “How about hunting? Do you still hate that?”

  Hunting was part of the change that always bothered me when I transformed back to human. Knowing that I had preyed upon a small animal, such as a cute little bunny, and killed it always filled me with guilt. But it was instinct and something I couldn’t control.

  No. That’s not true. I could stop myself if I really wanted to, just as I wouldn’t harm any of my family if I saw them while a mountain lion, but I really didn’t want to. While an animal, animal instinct took over. I became a predator, and cute little bunnies weren’t cute anymore—they were food.

  “I don’t know, Mom, it’s
weird. I don’t feel as guilty as I used to. Is that bad?”

  “Of course not, sweetheart. What difference is it if you kill an animal for sustenance or someone doing it and you buying it from a supermarket? I bet you do it much more humanely than they do at the meat-processing plants, judging what I’ve seen in some documentaries.”

  “It still makes me feel like a freak though.”

  “Maybe you’ve lived away from the mountains for too long. So many hunters up here, it’s hard not to think of hunting as a part of life.”

  We spent the hour or two hanging out at her house, drinking hot cocoa and eating cookies.

  “Anyone new in your life?” she asked.

  Uh-oh, here we go again. She always asks about my love life as if some miracle would someday happen. I did think of Leggy though—no, Nico. I knew his real name now. No need to use the stage one anymore, especially when the real one was so much sexier.

  “I met someone.”

  “Do tell,” my mom said with her eyes widening. She held on to my arm as if begging me to spill the beans sooner.

  Had it really been that long since I had news about a guy that she’d get this excited about?

  “That’s all there is to tell. We met. I’m interested and so is he—I think. We’ll see what happens.”

  “Oh Lily, I hope you’ll give him a chance. Not like the other guys you date. You’re so guarded that you never let anyone get close enough to know the real you. And they’re missing out.”

  Even though it was my mother, her compliments still made me blush. The real me was a freak. Someone or something only a mother could accept. “Enough about me, Mom. What about you?”

  “Oh, you know me,” she said, shooing in the air as if at a fly. “I like my life the way it is—uncomplicated.”

  “But you’re still young and hot. Why not put yourself out there? See who you meet?”

  “You know why,” she said, her voice softening. “Your father was the love of my life. What I had with him, no matter how short, is enough for a lifetime. If I got close enough to any other man, I’d just compare him to your father.”