by M. L. Briers
Chase had used his mental link with his brother to tell him what he needed. When he saw the dark figure coming towards him out of the trees, he almost heaved a sigh of relief.
“Let me take her, Chase.” Connor offered with his arms outstretched. But right at that moment, Chase would have knocked him on his backside, if he didn’t already have his arms full of Cassidy.
“Don’t touch her.” Chase almost snarled his anger at his brother, who was smart enough to immediately back off. “She’s my responsibility.” He added, dismissing his own reaction to Connors offer in his mind. He ploughed on through the weather and up the steps into the artificial light of the cabin.
“Hot water’s on, and the blankets are in your room.” Connor called after him, as the warmth inside hit him instantly, but it had little effect on Cassidy. Her head was down against his chest, and he hadn’t been able to see her face in a while.
He wasted no time dithering. Taking the stairs three at a time, he bounded up towards the bedrooms with his brother close on his heels.
Chase back kicked the door to his room closed as he stalked past it, keeping his brother on the other side of the door, as he settled her down on the bed and began stripping the layers of clothes from her body. She didn’t protest, she was too far gone, floating in fatigue, to be able to offer anything more than a murmur from her blue lips.
Chase cursed and growled his way through each layer, until he had her down to her panties and matching black bra. His eyes took her body in for future reference, perhaps when she was more coherent, he could recall and assess her attributes, but right now he needed to warm her.
He ripped off his jacket and jumper, leaving the hard muscles of his bared chest, and the pure heat of his body for her to touch, as he collected her back into his arms, heading straight for the bathroom.
He flicked on the spray and stepped beneath it, with her still in his arms. The sound that came from her lips was akin to a sorrowful mew, and he felt his insides twist at the thought of what could have happened to her, and how damn stupid he had been.
Cassidy was aware of everything, and yet nothing that was going on around her. She had never been so damn tired in her life. Maybe she’d had a run in with a succubus, and just didn’t remember it? No- that’s not it. If she could clear the damn fog from her brain, maybe she could just catch a glimpse of what had wiped her out so totally. A spell?
Chase’s arms around her were warmer than a summer’s day. His naked chest, pressed against her cheek and down the right side of her body, was akin to sitting in front of a roaring fire, and the warmth of the water washing over her, was starting to thaw her out, slowly.
Thaw- damned snow storm. It was coming back to her. The fact that they had been caught up in a monster of a storm front that had them walking so very far. She was used to her slow, sedate nature walks that went by a well planned route, so she didn’t get lost in the damn woods. But that, that was like the worst assault course known to man, and battling the winds akin to pushing a damn car up the hillside. No wonder she didn’t have the strength to protest when he undressed her.
Oh god, he undressed me. Undressed by a wolfman- weird.
Her head started to run wild with all the reasons why she needed her body to get on board, to give her enough energy to be able to tell him to get the hell off her.
She tested her magic, reaching out with her senses, to try to find a source of natural power that would enable her to pull some energy from the outside world back to her. She found him, his body hummed with the energy that she had never tested before. The aura around him was so strong, she could almost taste it. He was powerful, the strength he wielded right at that moment, as his body already worked to heal his exertion, was formidable. But she pushed it away. She wouldn’t take from him. She would just have to do things the old fashioned way. The human way, and gain her strength slowly. Even if that did mean that she was laying near naked against his body.
“Warmer.” She murmured, in the hope that the word had reached his Lycan hearing. It was her way of telling him how she was feeling, and thanking him at the same time. She just hoped he got it.
Chase heard the word on her breath, and pulled her closer to him. Hoping she could feel him there. Once she had started to thaw out, he would wrap her in every blanket he owned, that his brother had gathered, and put her under layers of covers in his bed.
By the time she had gained enough energy to be able to throw some of the covers off, once it felt like a sauna in there, she should have regained enough strength to give him a mouthful for stripping her down to her underwear, and further. When he dried her off, he would be seeing so much more. Still he could take a little berating, if it meant she was recovering.
Chase felt drained himself. But he could also feel his body starting to recover from the ordeal, not only of battling nature, but having carried her for the last four miles.
He hoped for one damn thing out of all of this, that she wouldn’t pick up on the reason that had him was standing in the shower in his damn jeans. He had a raging hard-on that ached more than any other part of his body right now.
“Hot! - Hot! Too hot.” She groaned, her palms pushed against the hard muscled chest that seemed to envelope her, and with a strong arm that had her bolted to him, not to mention the tree stump of a leg that had basically locked down her legs, he was everywhere all at once.
He!
Her brain went from zero to sixty in a mere second, and when she felt the breath against her cheek, she gasped in a breath.
“Were you dreaming about me?” The sexy, seductive tone of his voice had her scampering for freedom, and when he let her go, she shot backwards across the bed.
Her backside was the first thing that escaped the covers, closely followed by the rest of her. The only problem was she had run out of mattress, and like some cartoon character, she felt as though she was suspended in mid air for the briefest of time, before she fell.
Hitting the floor with a thud, the impact struck virtually the whole of the left side of her body, she groaned out her annoyance and shock all in one go.
When his face came over the edge of the bed to look down at her, with that smug expression, she so wanted to wipe it off his face, and she glared up at him for a long moment, before he ridiculed her.
“It’s a novel way to get out of bed, and not one I have ever seen before, but if it works for you…” He left it hanging right there, as she growled up at him.
“Did you just growl at me?” He asked feeling slightly bemused. His wolf wasn’t entirely happy within him, at the female’s attitude, and he wasn’t entirely sure he had heard her right. Perhaps a gurgle?
“When in Rome- you douche.” She ground out between clenched teeth, as she palmed the hardwood floor, and pushed herself up onto all fours in an effort to lift her tired body back to a standing position.
“Now that just looks like an invitation.” Her head snapped to the side, and she glared at him. There had been no mistaking the sexual innuendo behind his words, or in the amused look on his smug face.
“Get in line.”
“There’s a queuing system? Good to know. Tell me, what does it take to jump to the top?” He was really enjoying himself. Leaning on his elbow, those eyes looked almost black, but full of life, as he beamed at her.
“Not be you.” She shot back, pushing herself back on her knees, before sitting there for a long moment, trying her damndest not to just fall flat on her face and fall back to sleep. Especially with her backside in the air, he was a dog after all.
“But we’ve already slept together. That counts for something-” He was still smug, too smug. She really did want to plant her fist in his face, but she was sure it would just damage her fist... Still…
“Yeah, rabies shot.”
“I didn’t bite you.”
“Perhaps you drawled on me. After all, you are a mutt, right?” The sweet sarcasm in her voice made his lips twitch with the chuckle that he was trying to suppress
. She was certainly full of fire, he liked that.
“Are you just going to sit there?”
“I’m working on it.” She groaned out, the fire in her voice fading slightly, as he noted the tension, and tiredness of her words.
He was out of the bed in an instant. Too fast for her eyes to take in. She’d like to believe that it was because the light in the room wasn’t that good, just the peek-a- boo of the moonlight through the rolling clouds outside. But she knew she was still too fatigued to really take anything in.
When his arms came about her, she wanted to tense, but her muscles were really past caring. And when his hands closed on her body, she would really have given a lot to bat them away, but again, she couldn’t afford to expend the energy that it would take.
“Let me help you.” His deep tones held no sarcasm, or mirth for her situation this time, just a little concern, as he picked her up easily. The same way he had in the blizzard, as though she weighted no more than an ounce.
She almost expected him to toss her face first down onto the bed. But instead, he took every care to place her down gently. Her head rested against the softness of the pillow that smelled like him, as his hands slipped from around her, and he was placed the covers up around her throat, as she watched him work with infinite care and patience in his task.
“Why are you being so damn nice?” She made it sound like an accusation, when in her own mind, she had actually wanted to say, thank you for all that you have done.
When he lifted his eyes to hers, she saw that the darkness wasn’t in those chocolate eyes of his at all. Not now the moonlight shone on them and showed just how bright they were.
“I told you, that you would be safe. I would protect you. Well, this is me, keeping my word.” His words were quiet, and yet strangely, they seeped into her addled brain and warmed her with an internal heat that she couldn’t quite fathom.
“Thank you.” She meant it. She should have just come out and said it a moment ago. Damn pride. He smiled at her then, a set of beautiful white teeth that held no trace of the fangs she knew could descend in a heartbeat.
“You’re welcome, Cassidy, perhaps now you can stop busting my chops.”
“Well, you did try to get me killed, so…” He had started to move away, when she just tossed that out there.
Oh, you so couldn’t let sleeping dogs lie. She told herself, as he turned his attention back towards her. That well muscled chest of his becoming more exposed as the moon filled the room. She was more than aware of the fact that he wore little too nothing, neither did she, and she had the distinct feeling of a hot flush that travelled through her body on a flash of awareness at just how naked he was.
A pair of tight boxers clung to his hips and his bulge, and if it wasn’t anything to do with the play of shadows in the room, that bulge was quite considerable.
“If, I had tried to kill you, Cassidy, I can assure you, you would not be alive now.” There was little humour behind those words, or his eyes for that matter, as he stared back at her.
Yep- you poked the bear, and the bear is really pissed- way to go.
“Tough guy.” She sneered back, unable to just let it drop, and when he raised one dark brow and stared down at her, she had to swallow the slight restriction in her throat.
“Go to sleep, before I decide that you are just too much trouble, and put you outside- like a cat- and I do not like cats.” His words warned, while his eyes tried to convey fierce, but she wasn’t buying it.
“Better watch my claws then mutt.” She bit out, as she rolled over onto her side away from him. The sound of his low growl of annoyance rumbled behind her.
Closing her eyes, she snuggled down against the softness of the mattress and the warmth of the blankets that must have been many, because they were so heavy over her body. Just not as heavy as his arm draped over her had been, and silently she thrilled at the knowledge that she had been pressed that close to him, while berating herself for liking it.
When the mattress moved under his considerable bulk, she forced her eyes open to take in the sight of him, sliding beneath the covers beside her, and into her vision. The fact that her heart skipped a beat or two, and the fact that her throat went dry, did nothing to stop the unease that crept up her spine, or the thrill of excitement that washed through her body. This was complicated.
“Don’t you have a doggie bed around here somewhere?”
When he reached out with one strong arm and pulled her to his side, she squeaked her protest. But even when her hands found the warmth of his naked body, and she tried to push away, she found she wanted to move closer, explore those taunt planes.
“Keep it up with the dog jokes, and you and I are going to be having words.” There was that underlying growl in his tone again, and it set of something so primeval within her femininity, that it threw her completely off kilter for a moment.
“Look, Fido…” She started, but was cut short by the whole length of his body rolling her over onto her back and coming down on top of her. His weight pushed her back down into the mattress, while her soft curves yielded to his hard ones, and the very large, and very real erection, that pressed against her mound, made her catch her breath.
Her eyes widened slightly, as his hands snagged her wrists and pressed them back into the bed, his mouth hovered just above hers.
“Do I have your full attention now?” He breathed down, and she swallowed hard again, excitement and denial rushing through her in equal measure.
“Good, let’s set some ground rules. Lycan’s are very sexual by nature. Hell, if I were a dog, I’d be humping trees all day long.” There was a hardness in his tone that worried her, but his words, although edged with sarcasm, were very revealing- “Now, you’re a Fae, and I don’t usually go for that type, but what the hell, any port in a storm, right?”
He grinned down at her wildly, those perfect teeth gleaming in the moonlight, almost as much as the wild gleam in his eye, and she held her breath as her heart raced within her chest.
“And would you look at that, there’s a storm.” His eyes flashed to the window, and she watched him through widening eyes, as he dropped his head back to look at her like the big bad wolf. “So, what say we just go to sleep now? Before I, get the urge to hump more than a tree.” He rubbed his hardness against her, and couldn’t conceal the moan that rolled through his chest.
Damn, this was going too far. He had only meant to silence her protests, and get some more damn sleep. Now here he was acting like the dog she accused him of being.
But she just felt so good beneath him, soft and ripe for the taking, and he did want to take her. Over and over, until he had his fill of her body, and she slept soundly in his arms, the way she had been not so long ago.
“As you can feel, Cassidy, I’m more than ready for some doggie style action, so if you wanna…?” He left the question hanging. Half of him hoped that she would say yes, and the other half prayed that she would just admit defeat, shut the hell up, so he could spend a couple of torturous hours trying to will his hard-on away, and then he could get some damn sleep.
“I-I’m good- thanks.” She managed to push through the part of her mind and body that was screaming at her to go for it, get her some wolf man, try it to see just how good he might feel inside her.
She had never known a lover that ripped, that gorgeous, or that endowed before. Maybe a little of what you fancy really could do you good? Or maybe he would turn into the stuff of nightmares?
“You’re sure?” He had planned on flipping back off her as soon as he had silenced her bleating. But now, he just liked the view from where he was. He liked that her eyes were wider, her face was flushed, and her lips were slightly open ready for plundering, and that, when he pressed his erection into her body, her hips made the slightest of moves to feel more.
“Get off me, Chase.” She ground out between clenched teeth, and he couldn’t help the amusement that washed through him. He felt her want for him, the same way his bo
dy wanted hers, she was just too damned Fae to back down, he could persuade her but…
“Then go to sleep woman. “ He rolled off her and onto his back, and he could hear the sigh of relief, or maybe regret, that came from her lips, as he turned his back on her in the bed and yanked the covers into place around him.
Too far idiot, way too far, or maybe not far enough.
Cassidy pulled open the bedroom door without another glance back at Chase, who still slept soundly in the bed. Morning was making a dedicated attempt at brightening up the sky, but the snow clouds still hung heavy, and the house was in semi darkness as she walked out into the hallway.
Clutching the blanket around her body for the warmth it provided, and with a determination to find coffee, the sudden impact of the human brick wall that had, physically tried to pull up, when he saw her emerge, but didn’t quite make it on time, took her totally by surprise.
The wind was slightly knocked out of her sails, as she was throw sideways, and a squeak left her lips, just before large hands came around her, and she was pulled into the hard wall of a solid naked chest.
Her mind reeled with all the new sensations and information it was trying to process, as her palms pressed against the heated skin of his chest, and she pushed herself backwards, she found herself staring at the naked male in front of her, both of them with wide eyes, and gaping mouths.
Connor looked down at the witch with something akin to trepidation. He knew what she was and he didn’t much care either way. The fact that Chase had reacted so strongly to his offer to take her from him last night, was of more concern to him. Now he found himself starring down at her, him being buck naked, while she did a goldfish impression with her lower jaw. That didn’t bode well.
Without thinking he went to step towards her again, to assure her he meant her no harm, and she balked, her hand raised in front of her, palm outwards, and she pulled on the energy within herself.
Pushing the energy out through her hand and forcing it towards him, with all the force that she could muster, the bolt of energy hit him like a stun gun. Every one of his muscles was forced to painfully contract throughout the length of his body, and he fell backwards against the wall. Shock and pain etched onto his face.
