“Don’t stop, baby. Fuck, Leigh, don’t stop.” My breasts weren’t more than a handful to fill his palms, but he squeezed and kneaded them eagerly, pinching the sensitive tips between his fingers. I clenched around his girth when he sat forward to capture one between his lips.
The partial loss of his dick introduced him to my g-spot. My muscles tensed and trembled on the verge of orgasm then I slammed him home again.
“I’m close, so close, Ian.”
The base of his pelvis pressed flush against my clit in an intentional grind that pushed me over the edge. My climax was a series of starburst explosions, white bliss consuming every inch of my body. I spasmed atop him and threw my head back in a soundless cry.
He pulled me down by a handful of my hair. Something about the urgency in his kiss turned me on even more. For the first time in my life, I came a second time during sex, making my legs tremble and my body lay limp against his chest.
Post-orgasm contractions rippled along his cock like aftershocks. My husband moaned against my cheek and stiffened in release.
Overwhelmed with pleasure, I barely registered he was moving me or turning off the light. He tossed the condom into the wastebasket then tugged me close. Sleep claimed Ian before I finished pulling the blanket over our bodies.
Chapter Nine
~Ian~
Leigh smelled the way I imagined an angel would smell; light and sweet with lavender undertones teasing across my senses when I awakened with her tucked beside me. After a moment of admiring her peaceful features while she slept, I disentangled from her body and crawled from the bed.
Fuck, I hated leaving her after our first night in bed. Disgruntled with my own plans, I showered and returned to my bedroom to dress. Indecision had me torn between making enough noise to awaken her on accident or intentionally rousing her for a goodbye kiss. I did neither. I clothed myself as silently as a ghost and jotted down a message on the notepad beside the bed.
Leigh,
My cell phone is the ideal way to reach me when I am away, but if technology lets us down, you’re welcome to call my associate in San Antonio. It’s the best way to get me if you require my immediate response for any emergency matters.
I taped a business card to the corner of the note. The matte rectangle announced the name and contact information of Argus Prescott, the alpha of San Antonio’s wolf pack. He led an extravagant lifestyle afforded by old money and inherited wealth. Thanks to traffic, I arrived a little before noon.
The pack lived in the middle of nowhere far beyond the city limits in a massive, southern plantation style home. I pulled off the highway and punched a code into the security panel by the gate. Automated, heavy wrought iron gates swung open to allow me access onto a half-mile long drive. A dozen wolves — all omegas and low in the pack hierarchy — roamed freely on the grounds. Two of their gray faces watched my arrival from the bushes as I parked.
“Ian?” a feminine voice called.
My attention snapped to the opening door. It framed the youngest Prescott, Ceres, a sweet girl I’d once held on my lap as a child. She popped out onto the porch barefoot, clothed in only cutoff jeans and a sleeveless pink tank.
“Hey, sweetheart!” I greeted her.
With an excited squeal, she raced toward me across the drive. I caught my goddaughter mid-leap and swung her around in a circle while she giggled. Too much time had passed between my visits, and thanks to the obligations of my job, I’d missed out on her graduation from veterinary school.
“Uncle Ian! Why didn’t you tell us you were coming?”
“Last minute plans,” I told her. “I also came to the profound conclusion that I don’t visit you guys enough these days now I’m back in the states for a while.”
“You really don’t. Come on. There’s someone I want you to meet,” she announced with a big smile on her face.
Her longtime friend and admirer, Thomas, met us at the door. Even though they were both just a couple years shy of thirty, I still referred to them as kids. I’d known him since he was a chunky nerd tagging along with her for ice cream during my visits. Shit, he was more ripped than me these days. Evidently, life as a werewolf agreed with him.
“Uh, Ceres, sweetheart. I know Thomas.”
“But,” she said while clinging to young man’s brawny arm, “you don’t know him as...” She raised one hand and flashed me the tattooed green and purple band around her left ring finger. Interlaced vines and tiny flowers decorated her skin. Thomas wore one in black without the flowers.
“When did that happen?”
“The tattoo or the proposal?” Thomas grinned at me.
“Both. Hell, last I knew, you were still playing hard to get while he ran in circles.” A little more than a year ago, I’d chided her about making a decision. It wasn’t right to lead a man on or to play games until he changed.
“I took her a week ago for the tattoo, but I asked over the summer. Now they’re driving me crazy with wedding plans,” Thomas explained.
“Don’t envy you, man.” I dodged a bullet by marrying Leigh in front of a magistrate in a courthouse.
“The wedding is this spring, and I want you to be there,” Ceres said.
“Of course I’ll be there.”
“Tommy, would you let Dad know Uncle Ian is here?”
“Sure.”
As he loped out of sight to inform the head of the house about my arrival, Ceres turned to me and punched me sharply in the shoulder.
“Fuck! What’d you do that for?”
She took my left hand and gestured to the plain titanium band. “Why wasn’t I invited? Was it a private ceremony? Who is she... or he?” Her green eyes grew a little wider, as if all of the pieces had finally fallen together. “Oh, my God, who is he, Uncle Ian? When do I get to meet him? Did you finally get married since it’s legal now?”
“I’m not gay.”
“Oh... awkward.” She pressed her bare toes against the marble floor and cleared her throat. “Well, you never dated anyone that we’ve seen. Sorry,” she babbled out.
“So you thought I was gay?” Torn between horror and laughter, I settled on a grin. “There’s nothing wrong with being gay, but I’m sorry to disappoint you, sweetie. I’m straight.”
“So who is she? What’s her name?”
“Her name is Leigh.”
Ceres perked up a little. She leaned in close again, all in my space, and sniffed my shirt in a way reminiscent of a dog. I used to think it was cute when she’d do it as a child, and it hadn’t changed. “Human? I smell her on your clothes. She smells like cookies. Oh, come on, Uncle Ian. This isn’t one of your cases in Saudi Arabia or whatever, can’t you tell me something?”
I sighed. “I knew you’d give me the fifth degree, and I’m absolutely prepared to answer a thousand questions once I’ve talked to your dad.”
“And rehearsed your story,” she said. Argus stepped into view with Thomas alongside him. “Hi, Daddy.”
His arrival saved me from a full-blown interrogation.
“Ian,” Argus greeted me with warmth. “You don’t normally visit in person unless you need something important, old friend. What’s the problem this time?”
“Argus, you wound me. Didn’t we help you when those hunters were calling for open season on wolves?”
“You did, and we’re grateful for it, which is why I’m not plucking your feathers and throwing you out my door. You came in the middle of a busy time for us.”
I grinned. Every time was a busy time for the wolves who had their fingers in more environmental protection ventures than I could count. Argus was a banker by career — my personal banker and lawyer. Whenever I needed something, I usually phoned in requests or sent them by fax. For the big stuff beyond his profession, I visited him in person.
“I need some of your wolves to do a sweep in the woods. Just some tracking work, nothing too big. If you think they’ll spare someone, I’ll need a raven or two for aerial surveillance. I’ll need them fo
r about a week, and I’ll pay all of them well for their time.”
Ravens and wolves worked closely together. Their symbiotic alliance meant one was never far from the other. Where a wolf pack existed, ravens usually made their roost in a nearby town.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold it. Ravens too? What the hell’s happening?”
We went into Argus’ personal office and discussed everything. I held no details back from my friend and painted a perfect picture of the drug problem creeping into Quickdraw. He listened and took notes, occasionally interrupting me to ask another question.
“Do you believe the town police are involved?”
“Not all of them. At least a few are on the up and up, but I’m concerned about the police chief’s tendency to sweep things under the rug. I don’t trust him.”
“We’d better get Thomas in here then since he leads the second pack. We’ll need a couple of his wolves.”
“Thomas?”
“Yes. We’ve grown enough recently to require dividing our numbers.” Argus dropped his gaze to the titanium ring on my finger. “Why didn’t you bring your new wife with you?”
I imagined a dozen wolves greeting her with doggy kisses and wagging tails. Smirking, I suppressed the urge to laugh out loud at the ridiculous imagery filling my head. “She doesn’t exactly know about all of this yet.”
“Good luck. We recently brought a human into the fold, so I understand the challenge.”
Once he called Thomas into the room, the three of us drew out our battle plans for Quickdraw. The younger alpha made arrangements with two of his friends from the raven clan to keep their schedules open in the coming weeks then promised his own help when needed.
Later, a chat over drinks allowed all of us to catch up on each other’s lives.
Argus was newly single after thirty years of marriage, but he looked forward to the upcoming wedding of his only child. Eager as ever to share with me, Ceres revealed more about the upcoming wedding.
“You’re really going to love our fiancée, Emma. She’s a sweetheart. You guys can tell each other stories from your tribes!”
“Huh? What do you mean there’s a second bride?” My eyes bugged out despite my effort to keep a straight face.
“Because Tommy was born human, we have a third fated mate,” Ceres explained. “And maybe if you would bring your ass here to see us more often, you’ll get to meet her.”
Unlike other shifters, werewolves had the unusual ability to transform normal people during the full moon. As a former human, Thomas had what we called a split soul. His human half and feral half would always be at constant war. “So which one of you goes on the books?”
Ceres raised her hand and grinned. “I’ll be the legal wife. We plan to visit the courthouse a couple days prior then do the big ceremony here at Dad’s place with the three of us.”
“I don’t know whether to call you a lucky bastard or to feel pity for you,” I said to Thomas. Multiple life mates could be a typical part of life for some shifters, especially those who participated in pack or herd life. Lioness shifters like my friend Sasha were often four or five women to a single exhausted, overworked man.
“I value my life, so I’ll say lucky,” Thomas replied. “They like to talk a lot, and I wouldn’t survive the night if I said otherwise.”
Ceres shot him a dirty look. “Okay, enough about us, Uncle Ian. What about you? How’d you meet her? What’s she like? Do you have a photo of her? Is she on Facebook? Oh, my God, can I go friend her?” Ceres fired one question after the next.
“Here. She doesn’t do social media, but I have this photo of her and the kid.” I passed my cell phone to her. I’d snapped the photo of Leigh and Sophia’s reunion when the social worker brought her by.
“She’s so cute!” Ceres squealed over Sophia’s picture. “And I love Leigh’s hair. Oh, please, you have to bring her out for a visit. She, Emma, and I would have so much fun.”
“Soon, sweetie, I promise. I have to take care of some things first.” I caught them up on the recent business with Leigh only recently regaining full custody of her child.
“You married her because she kicked her drug problem and needed help?” Thomas clarified, raising his brows.
“I think it’s sweet,” Ceres said before elbowing him. “Don’t listen to Tommy. Bring her back next time so all of us can meet her, Uncle Ian. Please? I promise we’ll tell the omegas to keep out of sight, and we’ll all do our best to pretend to be human. I mean, unless you do choose to tell her.”
“I’ve given it some serious consideration. She’s smart, and she’ll begin noticing things eventually. I can’t risk her finding out some other way, like the incident with Russ and Dani.”
Argus winced. “Yeah. Sounds like you’re making the right choice.”
After dinner, the kids split and went back to their own home. I hung around with Argus for a while longer then eventually retired to the guest room where I dropped onto the edge of the bed. My silent cell phone taunted me. Not a single call from Leigh. I bit the bullet and phoned her instead.
What am I doing? She’s not a child. She can fend for herself now, and she’s more than proven she isn’t the same drug-dependent woman. She doesn’t need me checking in on her.
But I wanted to hear her voice. The call wasn’t to check up on her — it was purely for me. I dialed my house line and waited with my breath held until she picked up the phone on the third ring.
“MacArthur residence.” She sounded out of breath, winded like she’d sprinted for the line.
“Hi, Leigh. Are you okay?”
“Was exercising. One sec.”
“Why are you exercising?”
There was a pause on her end of the line, then a quiet, nervous laugh. “I just felt like exercising.”
Is she doing it for me? A cocky little voice whispered in my mind, bringing a smug smile to my face. “I think you’re perfect just the way you are.”
Leigh didn’t answer right away. I pictured her with a rosy flush on her face. “Anyway, I hope you didn’t call earlier and I missed it. Daniela invited me over for dinner.”
“Why don’t you go and buy a cell phone,” I encouraged her.
“I didn’t want to waste money. You were so generous and the amount you gave me was enough to cover the household needs. It just seemed stupid to get a cell phone, too.”
“It’s not a waste. You have Sophia with you and you’ll be driving places for Gram and yourself. We’ll have a line added to my plan.”
“I don’t know, Ian—”
“I insist. It’s a smart purchase. How’s Sophia by the way?”
“She’s great. Your grandmother complained about you leaving again. She thinks since you’ve retired you shouldn’t be doing these jobs anymore.”
“Don’t listen to her, especially since this job has nothing to do with the government or our military. I’m visiting a friend to discuss some important business negotiations, and they sort of sweet-talked me into bringing you along next time,” I said.
“Really?”
“Really. My goddaughter, Ceres, is planning to be married in the spring, so we’re both invited. Fair warning: she’s incredibly excited about meeting you and thought I was gay until now.”
A moment of stunned silence was followed by the cutest peal of giggles I’d ever heard.
“You definitely aren’t gay,” Leigh said. I pictured her blushing red and heard it in her voice. When I got home, we’d have to talk about the night we shared together and which direction it would take our blossoming relationship. It was imperative for her to understand it wasn’t a one-night thing, unless of course, she wanted it to be.
I hoped she didn’t want that to be the end of it.
“Anyway, I’m leaving sometime in the morning and should be home by lunch time unless I hit some serious traffic on I-45.”
“I’ll have lunch waiting for you.”
I wished her a good night and ended the call after she bid me to have
the same. As I settled down for bed, my confession to Leigh remained on my mind. It couldn’t wait another day.
Chapter Ten
~Leigh~
Ian returned around noon from his trip to San Antonio as I was completing a few household chores. Petunia barked loudly to announce his SUV pulling into the driveway.
“Wow. It looks great in here. You were busy while I was gone.”
“I wanted it to be spotless when you came home. I even cleaned the fan blades. You’re just on time, too. The pizza delivery man left right before you pulled in.”
He opened the box and whistled. “Sausage and mushroom. You ordered my favorite. Wanna eat on the deck?”
“Yes!” I shouted it a little too enthusiastically. His curious glance and raised brows brought heat to my cheeks.
“You look great when you blush.”
Emboldened by the affection in Ian’s sunlight-colored eyes, I stepped forward to touch his face, tracing my index finger down his jaw and over the soft scruff he never seemed to shave. He had traces of silver in his beard I hadn’t noticed before. It suited him, adding a hint of contrasting maturity to his striking features.
Turning his head, he brushed his lips against my fingers. My belly clenched as if he’d kissed me between my thighs. “We should eat before the food gets cold.”
“Or before Sophia wakes up,” I added.
Ian moved the pizza and breadsticks while I carried the lemonade pitcher and our glasses. We settled on the deck with the baby monitor close at hand and enjoyed the cool autumn breeze snaking in between the trees to dishevel my bangs. The sweet scent of earth and woods surrounded us, blended with fragrant pizza sauce and garlic bread sticks.
We chowed down and shared friendly conversation about his day with his old friend and my evening out with the neighbors. I didn’t do long distance drives well and always fell asleep, so I admired his ability to make the five hour trek in high spirits. I couldn’t wait to return with him.
Let Us Prey: BBW Military Paranormal Romance (Wild Operatives, #2) Page 9
