Walk on the Striped Side

by Jessie Lane

  “Oh no you don’t Ivanov. You’re not kissing me.”

  He nipped her palm just a little too sharply this time, causing Elena to yip an ouch and pull her hand away. “Remember what happened last time you covered my mouth so I wouldn’t kiss you? If you’re looking for another orgasm baby, just say so. I’ll get my fingers and tongue involved this time.”

  “YOU’RE SUCH A PIG!”

  “No, I’m a cat.”

  Elena gave a short scream of frustration, which distracted her from Gage’s movements. So he utilized her distraction to try and kiss her again, but she realized what he was trying to do, and turned her face to the side, effectively blocking his kiss again. Gage let his lips linger on the skin of her cheek. He pressed a light kiss, before grazing the tip of his tongue across it to taste her skin.

  “I just want one little kiss mate. Why won’t you let me have one little kiss?”

  Keeping her head turned away from him, she mumbled. “You really want to know why I won’t kiss you?”

  Gage skimmed his lips in a small circle on her cheek, causing her body to give an involuntary shiver. “Yes.”

  “Okaaaaay.” She muttered mischievously. Elena turned her face towards his, so that they were now eye, opened her mouth as wide as she could, and then huffed her breath in his face.

  The smell that assaulted his nose was like something out of a toxic nightmare. Gage flinched backwards and gave a short roar of affront. His nose hairs felt singed, his eyes were watering, and he was pretty sure that he’d rather sit through another training session in the Army’s gas chambers than ever smell that god forsaken smell again.

  “Isn’t morning breath great Gage?” Elena chirped.

  Gage stopped rubbing his watering eyes to glare down at her. “Morning breath? MORNING BREATH! That smelt like a chemical weapon! Are you trying to fucking kill me?” He yelled.

  “Well, you were the one that wanted a kiss. I tried to spare you.”

  Moving off of her, and then maneuvering himself off the bed, he reached down and scooped his malicious mate up in his arms. He didn’t have to worry about her struggling this time because she was laughing her fool head off. Gage carried the cackling Amazon into his bathroom and then set her on her feet in front of the sink. Opening up one of his cabinet drawers, he pulled out his unopened spare toothbrush and handed it to her.

  “For the love of all that’s holy, please brush your fucking teeth. It’s killer. Literally.”

  “Aren’t you going to uncuff me?”

  “Nope.” Ha! Suddenly his little Amazon wasn’t laughing anymore. Now she was back to glaring at him sullenly. She started to open her mouth up and this time he slapped his hand over her mouth. “Oh hell no! If you think you’re going to stand here and blast me with your nuclear breath you’ve got another thing coming. You’re going to brush your teeth, and then we’re getting some coffee. Without coffee, I can’t promise any sane reactions to and hair brained things that you do.”

  She pouted for a minute at him and then turned around, faced the sink and brushed her teeth.

  Gage started to prepare himself for the many battles that he would face today trying to get through his mate’s thick skull. The woman really had no idea how serious he’d been when he’d said he wasn’t letting her leave his side. Which meant he didn’t have any plans of uncuffing her whatsoever. So if she thought it was bad that he wouldn’t uncuff her to brush her teeth, wait till she found out that he didn’t plan to uncuff her when she had the urge to go to the bathroom either.

  CHAPTER-THIRTEEN

  Elena

  Silently fuming, Elena poured her cup of coffee with her free hand while ignoring the large idiot standing next to her. The nerve this bastard had! It was one thing to keep her handcuffed to him while she was doing something like brushing her teeth, but when she had to potty? She was going to kill him! That had been the singularly most embarrassing moment of her life. Sure she’d had to pee in front of people when she’d been in the Army. That was why they were communal bathrooms for crying out loud. But she’d never had to pee in front of someone she’d been intimate with before.

  Now she understood why some married couples liked to say ‘Some things should stay a mystery’. Because peeing in front of someone you’d seen naked was just too much. What was worse? She hadn’t been able to make herself pee at first. Just him standing there with his back to her had been enough to keep nature from happening. He’d literally scared her bladder into not cooperating! Elena was pretty sure he’d rolled his eyes when she’d told him that she needed him to turn the bathroom faucet on.

  So now Elena continued to ignore the overgrown fur ball and took a sip of her coffee. Heaven. When all else was wrong with the world, as long as she had her coffee, things were A-okay.

  “You hungry?” Gage suddenly asked.

  “Nope.” She answered, refusing to look at him. Besides, why should she? Her coffee cup was so much more interesting!

  “Okay, you’ve brushed your teeth, emptied your bladder and now had some coffee to drink. Any other pressing morning needs you need to take care of?”

  What was he up to here? She finally looked over at him out of the corner of her eye. Hesitantly, she replied. “No, why?”

  In the blink of an eye her coffee cup was removed from her hand and she found herself pinned against the kitchen counter. Gage fisted his left hand in her hair and pulled backwards until she had no choice but to look up at his face. When she saw the desire and determination burning in his eyes, making them literally glow a little in an eerie green-gold radiance, she stopped breathing completely.

  His voice came out a rough grumble. “You’ve been avoiding kissing me like it’s a death sentence, which leads me to believe one thing.”

  “What’s that?” Elena whispered.

  “You’re scared.”

  She instantly denied him. “I’m not scared of you Gage.”

  Nodding, he agreed. “I know you’re not scared of me. You’re scared of you.” Taking their handcuffed hands, he placed them both over her heart, with his covering hers completely. “You’re afraid of this. Which makes me think that all of your denials about how you don’t love me anymore, or don’t care about me anymore, are bullshit. Because if you weren’t scared, then you wouldn’t be afraid of my kiss. Perhaps you’re afraid that if we get too intimate, I might melt away some of your resistance away and you’ll give in and admit that you still love me. And a kiss is intimate, isn’t it love?”

  Elena tried to shake her head no, but his fist held her still. “If it’s not true, and I’ve got it all wrong, then kiss me Amazon.” When she hesitated, he whispered, “I dare you. Kiss me.”

  Much to her horror, Elena felt tiny pinpricks in the corners of her eyes as they started to water up. “Why are you doing this Gage? What do you want from me?”

  He studied her a moment, watching her so intently that she felt naked from the inside out. “You.”

  “Me?” She squeaked back.

  “You.” He answered again with an unwavering look.

  Trying to bolster her courage back up, Elena snapped. “I’m not an item you pick up the store or a whore to be bought off the street. You can’t just go dragging me around where you want me, snarling ‘mine’ whenever you feel like! I’m a human being Gage, you can’t own me!”

  She expected the ornery tiger to get mad and snarl at her, instead he did something much worse. One side of his lips curled up in smug satisfaction, and the bastard smirked at her. “I may no longer live in a time period where one person can actually own another person, but make no mistake love, I do own you. Every little inch. Every breathy moan you give me when I’m playing with your pretty pussy. Every hungry kiss you give me when I’m buried deep inside you. Every beat of that stubborn heart that you swear doesn’t still love me, and every inch of that fierce soul of yours all belong to one person. Me.”

  It took everything Elena had to ignore the sweet words about owning her heart and soul. That state
ment was both a balm and a painful, scarring salt to her emotional wounds. So she chose to concentrate on the blunt words he’d used about a certain part of her anatomy instead.

  “You are not allowed to talk about my va-jay-jay like that! And you definitely do NOT own it! Last time I was checked, I was the one who washed it, keep it from looking like an uncontrollable bush and makes it feel good these days. Therefore, it belongs to ME.”

  Elena would have crossed her arms in a self-righteous fashion, but since she couldn’t she settled for a big giant victory smile instead. And she kept standing there with the smile until she watched as Gage’s eyes wily look, and he slowly moved his eyes down her body until they settled on the very body part they had been speaking of.

  She watched as she licked his lips as if he were munching on something delicious and then he groaned. “Don’t worry mate, I’ll assume all of those responsibilities from now on. No need to make you wash my pretty pussy… or satisfy it anymore. In fact, let’s go wash it now. Would you like a tongue bath?”

  It was sick of her, but the words ‘tongue bath’ made her soak her panties in about five seconds flat. Which only served to piss her off as much as it made her horny. Punching him in the chest she yelled, “BAD KITTY!”

  Gage looked back up to her face and playfully pouted. “So does that mean that there’s no pussy, for the pussy?”

  It was then she grew frustrated beyond belief. He was never going to stop! Which meant she was either going to kill him in anger, or sexual frustration.

  “You don’t have to be sexually frustrated babe. Say the word and I’ll bend you over the counter and fuck you like our lives depend on it.”

  Elena gasped in horror and started rambling frantically. “Did you just read my mind? Is that part of this mating bullshit you insist on? And stop laughing at me jackass! What the fuck are you laughing at?”

  Gage had let go of her body with his hands, and now had them supported on the kitchen countertop behind her, with his face buried in her shoulder as he cackled like a loon. When he didn’t stop laughing to answer her question, she tried to punch him in the gut with her right hand. The punch was weak because their bodies were so close together she couldn’t get enough power behind her, but it must have gotten her point across because he stopped laughing for a whole two seconds.

  “Y-you thought I-I was r-reading…” Gage started laughing harder.

  Rolling her eyes up to the ceiling she waited for the idiot to stop. When he didn’t she snapped out angrily. “Well you did read my mind didn’t you?”

  “No b-babe. You’re so f-frazzled you said that shit out l-loud.”

  The big twit just kept laughing. Which only caused to make her feel somewhere between mortified and mad as hell. She’d really blurted that out? Crap, he was right. He had her so frazzled it wasn’t funny. Which just pissed her off that much more. He thought it was this funny to get her so wound up that she started blurting shit out like some inexperienced teenage girl? All so that he could prove some point that no matter how much she protested, she still loved him? WHO CARES IF SHE STILL LOVED HIM! She’d show his ass what it was like to be some damn emotionally twisted that you didn’t know which way was up!

  Elena grabbed Gage’s face with both hands, turning him to face her and then crashed her lips down on his. Thrusting her tongue into his mouth as she did it. Doing her best to batter his senses the way he always seemed to batter her heart. He growled seductively into her mouth as her tongue curled around his own, threatening to overwhelm her senses with the vibration and sound of his raw carnal need. Their mouths ate at each other in a desperation they’d never had in the past. Each stroke of the tongue electric, each nip and suck of their lips wanton, and each devastating second stealing her sanity away.

  His left hand dropped down to clutch her ass in his strong one handed grip, and then he lifted her to the countertop and settled himself into the vee of her thighs. Never stopping the sensual assault on each other. Elena was quickly losing herself into him. Mindless with all the pleasure that she’d been denied for the last two years, but so lost in his touch that she didn’t bother remembering the why’s of her denials.

  Gage pressed into her harder with his hips. Using his hand to push her into him so that they were grinding against each other in their erotic delirium. Her anger was melting away under his drugging kisses. Her worries were fading away with each rock of his hips. In their place was a mounting need to just be with him again. Feel him inside of her in every way that it mattered. Because maybe, just maybe, the little hopeful voice in the back of her head whispered, this time he would stay. This time, she would get to keep the man that she loved with an aching intensity that had devastated her before. Maybe, she should give up her anger and tell Gage tha-

  “Damn, I need popcorn to snack on while I watch this.”

  Screaming like a startled drama queen, Elena jumped backwards bodily at the voice that came from the kitchen’s entrance, and hit the back of her head on the kitchen cabinets behind her. Then she screamed again in surprise when she was suddenly jerked off the counter by a furious Gage who was now running at an inhuman speed after his brother Alec, who was consequently running for his life out the front door.

  CHAPTER-FOURTEEN

  Gage

  How much would Babushka hate him if he killed the fool? Surely two grandchildren were enough and the big blond ignoramus wouldn’t be missed. Not only had Alec cock blocked him, but he’d also put him back at square one with his mate. Because after his nitwit of a brother had snuck in on his and Elena’s make out session, scaring the shit out of her in the process, Gage had lost his head and dragged his mate around like a rag doll. Now her shoulder and arm were sore from his mistake, and worse yet, Elena was trying to use the whole thing to put physical and emotional space between them again.

  Sitting in front of Elena in two of his dining room chairs, he gingerly placed the bag of frozen peas on her shoulder and tried not to cringe when she winced. Needing to take his anger out on something, he snarled at his brother. “What do you want Alec?”

  Alec was standing on the far opposite side of his kitchen looking suitably chagrined. Not that Gage would give him any points for that.

  “I said I was sorry.” Alec mumbled.

  Gage roared at his brother in frustration.

  Alec held both of his hands in the air. “Calm down bro, I really am sorry. I had no idea that you didn’t sense me walk into the room. You usually know when I walk into the house, much less a room, okay?”

  Through his haze of anger, Gage realized that there was a hand petting his chest. He looked down to watch as his mate’s hand continued to pet him in a soothing motion. Loving the feel of her touch, he kept statue still so as not to scare her affections away. Her hand kept up the almost orgasmic petting, so he took the risk of her stopping so that he could look at her face. Maybe this was a good thing developing here if she felt should try and console him like this. When he did finally look up, she faltered for a second before continuing to run her hand over his chest.

  Uncertainly biting her lip, she leaned in just a little towards him and whispered, “You want to tuck that big pointy thing away?”

  Huh? Worried that the perpetual hard on she gave him had somehow popped out of his pants, he looked down to his crotch. Nope, his dick wasn’t out. He heard Elena snort and looked back up to her face. She stopped petting him for a second and used her pointer finger to tap one side of her mouth.

  “I meant the other big pointy things.”

  Gage ran his tongue over the side of his mouth, and sure enough, his canines had dropped down. Damn Alec for getting him so upset! Feeling his tiger too close to the surface, he snarled loudly in frustration, which was enough to get Elena to start petting his chest again. That appeased his beast a little, to have their mate touching them, so he closed his eyes to try and calm down. Inhaling deeply through his nose, and exhaling out of his mouth, he centered himself between man and beast. It was a delicate line
that kept his tiger in check and the man in control, but he’d been pretty good at doing it since his very first shift.

  Apparently now that he had a mate, he was going to be a little more careful of his emotions or there’d be a Siberian Tiger running down the street from his home in no time. His fangs slowly receded into his gum line, and after several more breaths he opened his eyes again. He found Elena watching him closely, and he hoped it wasn’t in such a way that she was thinking about any striped rugs in her future.

  Refusing to take his eyes off of his mate, he asked his brother again. “What do you want Alec?” Elena nodded to herself, as if pleased with his calmer state, and moved to take her hand away from his chest. His tiger snarled loudly in his head, and the man agreed with his inner beast. That wouldn’t do! So Gage trapped her hand against his chest to make his point, and then he refrained from chuckling when his mate sighed disgustedly at him.

  “If you two are done playing kissy face then we have somewhere to be.”

  Well, that statement caught his attention. Looking over at his brother in confusion, Gage asked, “What?”

  Huffing in exasperation, “I tried to call you eight times! Where is your fucking phone man? Jenna’s Uncle called a meeting because he received some new intel. We were supposed to be at Adam’s bar ten minutes ago, but because you weren’t answering your phone I stopped by here instead. So get your ass in gear and let’s get the fuck on already!”

  Gage’s nerves were already on edge, so his brother getting snappy with him was only making it worse. When Gage snarled a warning at Alec and started to get up with the intent of slapping his brother upside his head, it was Elena’s hand on his chest that stayed him. A wiser person would have realized that Gage was still very much on edge and backed off a little.