by Em Ashcroft
“I know you will. Thanks, Trin.”
When she thought he’d get up and leave, he stayed put. “There’s something else I need to talk to you about. Nothing to do with the RTA.”
“Yes?” She forced a bright smile.
His face remained grave. “It’s information only, Trin, no need to panic. It’s just the man you helped put away fifteen years ago is out of jail.”
“Out?” she said numbly.
“Yeah. He escaped three days ago.”
“I see.” She tried to think back, to remember the face of the man who had helped to destroy her life, but she couldn’t. Only a vague recollection of brawn and a scar above his eye remained with her. Brown eyes. Perhaps, or were they dark green? “It happened a long time ago.”
“I want you to take care.” His mouth thinned. “He was dangerous when he went in, and he’s even more dangerous now. He held himself together in jail and escaped a few months before he was due for parole.” He raised his shoulders in a shrug. “Nobody has any idea why he escaped.”
One word stuck in her brain. She turned questioning eyes to him. “Rossi was a gang leader, and he’d committed murder. Why would he get parole?”
Chris spoke gently. “He was never convicted of murder, you know that. Only gang activity. Even then he’d have gone away for life, but he traded in his colleagues for a shorter sentence. And his name isn’t Rossi any more. It’s Driscoll. They gave him a different name and put him in another state jail.”
Her eyes widened. “I never heard of that happening.”
Chris nodded. “You can go into witness protection in jail, especially when the FBI think you have more information. He rolled over on his gang for that one incident and the robbery before it. But he has a lot more secrets to spill.”
She hadn’t realized Rossi—Driscoll—had done a deal. He’d plea-bargained his way to freedom. That was why she couldn’t find him when she’d done a casual search. She couldn’t pretend she hadn’t looked for him once or twice, but after the very public trial, he’d effectively disappeared into the prison system.
“Nobody knows why he decided to break out with such a short time left. His plea bargain meant he didn’t have any contact with his old gang or anybody who could have helped him. But he worked toward a law degree.”
“He doesn’t know where I am or what I look like now.” Despite her self-assurance, a curl of fear crept through her. She swallowed it down. “I’ll be okay, Chris. Thanks for looking out for me.” She utterly refused to let someone else rule her life, to force her to spend her life in terror. Not going to happen.
“Okay, but know I’m looking out for you. Let me know if anything—anything out of the ordinary happens.”
“Do you think he knows where I am?”
Chris shook his head. “I doubt it. Why would he know that? And if he did, he’d have no reason to come after you. You’re no danger to him anymore.”
She nodded. She didn’t like the idea of Driscoll, as she must now call him, getting out of jail, but Chris was right.
Finally, Chris got to his feet. “Oh, and one more thing.” He paused at the door. “Tell Dr. Nathan. He should know about this.”
“What are you talking about?” She stuck up her chin.
“A quick shower isn’t going to mask the scent of fresh sex, not for a shape-shifter. Especially sex so recent. I can tell who it was, too.” He winked. “There’s nothing like a quickie during a work break, and believe me, I really know that.”
He’d knocked the breath from her lungs. Maybe she hadn’t been as careful in the shower as she’d thought. “We’re in a confined space here.” She usually called her office cozy, but cramped would be nearer to the truth. She preferred her patients got the space. “I guess you were bound to notice.”
He winked. “I won’t tell anybody. But keep your distance for a few hours. Don’t get close to any shape-shifters.”
“But it’s not serious…” Who was she kidding? Certainly not Chris, from the expression on his face.
With a grin, Chris turned and left. He didn’t have to say any more.
Chapter Two
Trinity wasn’t used to being in Nathan’s home without him. The place seemed much bigger without him.
Nathan lived comfortably in a two-story sprawling home on about five acres of land, twenty minutes’ drive from the hospital.
Trinity wandered into the living room, feeling out of place. It was furnished in a modern style, all clean lines and soft colors, the sage upholstery blending with the colors of the fields outside. Twilight was falling, and in this part of the country, night would follow quickly.
The kitchen was as generously proportioned as the rest of the house and equipped with the best. Knives were lined up in a block as neatly as though an OR nurse might have laid them out in an operating room. Trinity pulled one out. Its blade gleamed wickedly, tainted a rosy color by the setting sun. She put it back and touched the panel that flooded the room with bright, clean light.
Despite the pristine appearance, she knew he used the room a lot. His refrigerator was well stocked, and the freezer contained a bunch of homemade ready meals. Not that she felt like eating tonight.
Chris’s news had caused turmoil. What the fuck had she done to let that evil bastard back into her life?
One thing was for sure. She’d have to tell Nathan. He wouldn’t accept anything except the truth.
She had two hours before Nathan got back. He’d be tired and ready to crash. While Trinity didn’t believe in the traditional role of a woman, she was confident enough to do it. Nathan would not take advantage of her or take her for granted. If he ever did, she would walk out the door and keep walking. But he never had. She’d cook something, tell him her secret over dinner.
Opening the refrigerator, she found what she needed. She wouldn’t attempt anything too elaborate, her cooking skills being of the limited kind, but she wanted something to do. Something to stop her brain going round in circles.
She drew out the red board and began to chop chicken.
She had gotten pretty good at coq au vin. It was one of her favorite meals, and she hadn’t had always been able to afford it, so she had learned how to cook it for herself. This time she hadn’t had to use the cheapest bottle of wine she could find because Nathan had an excellent selection. She picked a nice-looking bottle and poured a generous amount into the pot. However, when she took a glassful for herself she realized whatever it was, it was good.
Now she could shower. After a great deal of thought, she had agreed to leave a few things at Nathan’s. She didn’t want him thinking she was moving in. However, a pair of jeans and a couple of tee shirts with some plain underwear didn’t seem too much.
Unlike most shape-shifters, Nathan didn’t have a room he intended to share with his breed partner and his breedmate. He said it tempted fate, advertising his single state in a community where most men had found their breed partners.
As she stripped and carefully laid her clothes over a chair, Trinity idly wondered what it would be like to have a baby and two men to love her.
Overwhelming. She didn’t think she could cope. If this affair with Nathan was going somewhere, at least she didn’t have to consider that eventuality.
She padded across the soft carpet into the bathroom. The huge tub invited lazing, preferably in a man’s arms, gazing out a window on to the peaceful Texan landscape. Alone, she could probably swim in it.
Trinity chose the shower. She could still see the fields and the trees with the hills beyond as she stepped into the enclosure and pulled the waist-high door closed behind her. Coming home to this kind of luxury must be wonderful. For the first time, Trinity began to think seriously about getting somewhere decent to live. She had deliberately never put down roots, but the community in Goldclaw had generously accepted her. Slipping into life here had proved amazingly easy. She could admit it now. She never wanted to leave. For somebody who had spent her adult life moving from town to town, t
hat was some admission, a big step for her.
If they didn’t catch Driscoll and put him back in jail, she’d have to consider moving. Once they caught him, he’d lose his parole, so that would give her some breathing space. She hadn’t kept tabs on him, preferring to turn her back on her old life in favor of the new one. Maybe she should have. Or maybe she should stay and fight instead of turning tail and running.
Goldclaw’s citizens cared about her. She had friends here, people looking out for her. And she had a lover. She refused to kid herself any more. She found it far more difficult to cope with Nathan because she was falling in love with him. It was dangerous. The fear of being alone again had haunted her too long. She needed to face it and deal with it.
Nathan wouldn’t get here for another half-hour at least, so she could indulge herself in a long, leisurely shower. Sex in a supply closet might be exciting, but she hated the embarrassment of discovery. Trinity detested standing out in any way.
Smiling, she picked up the bottle of apple blossom shampoo Nathan had insisted on buying for her. “You can’t smell of my stuff,” he’d said, lifting her chin and moving down in the direction of her nipple. “Then everybody would know about us. Not that I care.”
As a shape-shifter, he would know what Chris had told her. No amount of washing would remove his scent from her skin. She shivered. She liked the idea of smelling of him. Water pounded around her. She tilted her head to rinse her hair. Sudsy water cascaded down her face and into her ears.
That was probably why she didn’t hear the shower door open.
Strong male arms went around her and cupped her breasts. She didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. Nobody could make her nipples instantly harden like Nathan Goldclaw could.
Sighing, she leaned back and let him take her weight. “I didn’t think you’d be back yet.”
“I finished early.” He smoothed his thumbs over her nipples. “How could I not when I knew you were waiting for me? And there’s a great smell coming from the kitchen.” He kissed her shoulder. “I could get used to this.”
“You’d better not,” she warned him. “This is special.”
“Yeah,” he said, his breath warming her cheek. “I’d say so.” Although she loved what he was doing to her breasts, she turned in his arms and lifted her head for his kiss. Trinity was tall for a woman, but Nathan was still a good head taller. He willingly bent his head and claimed her mouth, exploring her at length.
Nathan had taught Trinity to take her time with sex. He showed her how not to rush at it like a bull at a gate, grab what she needed, and rush away again. He’d coaxed her, shown her the pleasures of drawing out the ecstasy. “Enjoying the scenery,” as he put it. He licked her lips then the roof of her mouth, his velvet-rough tongue stroking her into a heightened state of arousal. Then he drew away, eyes bright, and looked at her. Sometimes Trinity felt inadequate. She had a boyish figure, slim hips, and small breasts.
Water streamed between and around them, and she held her face up to the cleansing downpour before she spoke again. “I can’t believe you got in here so quietly.”
“Big cat shape-shifter, remember?” Oh yes, she remembered all right. He’d shifted for her a few times, showing her the magnificent form of his tiger, all gold and dark brown and black. It was beautiful, his other form, and as much a part of him as the firm skin she was leaning against now. The tiger lent attributes to the man, and vice versa, so maybe she should have expected the stealth.
He reached past her for the bath gel and poured a puddle into his hands before smoothing it over her skin. She loved the way he babied her in the shower. “Feel good?” he asked her.
“So fucking good.” It felt more than good. It felt right, perfect, normal in the best kind of way.
Not a stranger to sex, but a complete novice to a relationship, she had no idea where this was going. Except she was falling for him a little deeper every day.
He bent, rubbed his chin against her shoulder and examined the result. “You mark too easily, Trinity.”
He gave her breasts the wash of their lives, rubbing his thumbs over her nipples and watching the results intently. “Better?”
“Mmm hmm.” She gasped when he tugged then pressed his palms on the resulting hard points. “Oh, wow.”
“You’re really sensitive there. I wonder if I could make you come like that?”
Already shafts of sensitivity were arcing down her body, and her pussy swelled with need for him. “How soon can you get inside me?”
His laugh echoed around the room. “You don’t want to play?” His voice lowered to a soft croon. “I told you, playing is half the fun.” He cupped her breasts and bent his head, taking one into his mouth. She closed her eyes in sheer pleasure then opened them again. She watched his dark head move sensuously as he licked and sucked her nipple, first one then the other. His hair was sleeked back, and his shoulders rippled with powerful muscle. The view of him at this angle made her as hot as what he was doing to her breasts. Then he slid his hands under her buttocks and found her cunt.
He slid one finger inside and pushed until he’d seated it completely before he rotated it slowly, caressing every part of her inner channel. Then he curled his thumb and grazed her anus.
She started then relaxed. He’d touched her there before, and she’d liked it. He did it with such care. All she had to do was tell him to stop and he would.
She didn’t tell him. Instead, she released a groan and clutched him, holding on to his shoulders. “Oh fuck, you feel amazing.”
Without stopping his caresses, he eased her back, lifted her with one arm wrapped around her waist, and pressed her against the tile wall. By that time, she’d become one solid mass of sensation, arching her back. He could do what he wanted. She wouldn’t object to any of it.
When he left her breasts, he kissed her mouth and slid his tongue inside to twine with hers and caress it. He took as much care as with the rest of her body. His deep, full-throated moan reverberated right through her body before he finished the kiss. He gazed at her, as if she was a cookie and he’d never tasted them before.
“I want you all the ways there are. Every bit of you. I want to make you mine, so you’ll never, ever forget me.”
“I think you’ve made sure of that already.” Oh no, Nathan Goldclaw wasn’t a man she’d forget in a hurry.
His eyelids flickered. “Do you want everything? Do you want me to fuck your ass?”
She swallowed. But she trusted him. Nathan wouldn’t do anything that didn’t give her pleasure, or she didn’t want. “Yes.” Her voice came out in a whisper.
“Let’s see how we go.” His deep tones purred over her. “I understand the word stop. Do you trust me?” His thumb pressed deeper as he breached the tiny rosette.
Her breath caught as pleasure shot through her. He rotated his thumb, and she moaned. “Yes,” she said, and she closed her eyes.
“Look at me,” he said. “I need to know you mean it.”
She tried to put all her sincerity into her expression, dispel anything he might think was artificial or wrong. “I do.”
“Then turn around.”
Trinity nodded. Trusting him meant a whole lot more than making him free of her body, and she discovered she did. She felt safe in his hands.
The water hit higher, against the wall to one side of her, then stopped. He’d turned it off. The sudden silence unnerved her, and tension filled her body. When he touched her hips, she flinched.
“I’m sensitive,” she told him. “I’m tingling all over.” She was, but not just with arousal. About to step into the unknown, she wasn’t sure at all. Except that “stop” or “no” would end this.
She wanted it, wanted to give him what he asked for, but more than that, she ached to explore this world with him.
“I need all of you.” He drew her back so she lifted her hands to press them against the wall as she slid down, her ass in the air, open to view. He sounded rougher than she’d ever he
ard him, even when somebody had fucked up on his watch, but this roughness was harsher, darker. More intimate.
Something cold hit her right buttock, and then he gathered it up and glided over her ass. Lube. They kept it in the shower because they liked shower sex and she tightened up in the water. When he pushed his thumb in again, it slid in easily, and he rotated it. She tensed when it felt fuller.
“I’m putting my finger and thumb in and stretching you. If I think you’re not ready, I won’t carry on.”
“Have you done this before?” Her voice echoed in the hollow space.
“Not often. Occasionally. But you’re so pretty there. You’re pretty everywhere. I want everything, and I want to give you everything.”
When he slipped his other hand around to her front, between her thighs, she closed her eyes and moaned his name. He pushed two fingers into her pussy, deep, and then pressed. She jerked, experiencing a flash of arousal, and liquid flooded her, dampening the tops of her thighs. “That’s it. Go into it. Let it take you.”
That tone, rough and hot. She bathed in it.
He removed his fingers from her ass and then turned the water back on. It flooded her shoulders and breasts, but he was leaning over her, so her bottom remained sheltered by his body. A few minutes later, something else pressed against her. His cock.
A flash of fear tightened her muscles, and he stopped, paused at her entrance. “You want to stop?”
“I’ll tell you when I do.” Greatly daring, she shoved her backside against him and felt his cockhead penetrate a tiny bit. Frozen, she stayed where she was. He slid one arm around her waist and flattened his palm against her abdomen, holding her steady for him.
It took him a long while. He worked his big cock into her bit by bit, adding lube as he went, sliding it around her. Occasionally he withdrew a little then came back, deeper than before.
