by Rosanna Leo
She sat still, waiting for him to make his move. As much as Mack was dying to release his dick from his jeans and pound away at her, he decided to draw out the mind-altering proceedings.
Still clothed, Mack stood up and gathered her bare form into his arms. Kissing her, sliding his tongue between her open lips, he carried her over to the antique oak dining room table. It was well-constructed, a Kittinger, and it would be strong enough to support what he planned to do to her. As he laid Beth down on the table, she gasped at the cold surface on her back. While she shivered on the table, he slowly pulled his shirt over his head with one hand. With his other hand, he traced the line of her left leg, easing his fingers up to her plump thigh, squeezing it.
Once his shirt was off, he sat in the closest of the dining room chairs. He pulled Beth up, captured her mouth, and drew her onto his lap so she was straddling him. Her arms flew around his neck. He grabbed at her arse and kneaded the silky flesh. Fuck, she felt so good.
Beth moved atop him, grinding her bare sex on his cock. As she moved, Mack lowered his head and flicked his tongue around one erect nipple and then the other. While he feasted on her breasts, he slid an unsteady hand down her abdomen to her pussy.
He’d never known such wetness in a woman. She was slick and slippery and so responsive to the slightest touch. Hell, her every look and scent seemed fabricated just for him. The smell of her arousal teased him; it tortured him. He couldn’t wait to taste her, to brand her, to fucking propel her to the highest heights.
And she wanted him too. Incredible.
“Oh, Mack,” she whispered against his ear, nipping his lobe. “Take your jeans off. I want to feel you.”
“Not yet,” he murmured as he sucked on her nipple. “I’m rather enjoying this dynamic.”
“You’re enjoying having a naked woman writhing all over you,” she teased.
Damn, he loved the lowered timbre of her voice when she was being playful. “No,” he teased back. “I’m enjoying having you naked and writhing all over me. There’s a difference.”
Beth stopped shimmying and stared at him, her eyes wide, as if she didn’t quite believe him. Well, he’d show her.
She looked down at their laps, appearing embarrassed for a moment. He brushed a few errant strands of hair off her jaw and noticed the patches of bare skin behind her ear. “How did you lose your hair, Beth?”
Her head snapped up, her eyes flashing. For a moment, he thought she was going to tell him off, but then the lines around her mouth softened. “I’ve had alopecia areata since I was a kid. It’s an autoimmune condition. There’s not much I can do about it. I lose patches of hair every so often. They eventually grow back.”
“Was it hard for you, having the condition?”
Her left eye twitched, perhaps at remembered slights, but there was strength in her gaze. This was a woman who’d overcome challenges that would have floored most folks. “The kids at school used to call me ‘Baldy.’ Old ladies in the supermarket used to give me looks of pity because they thought I had cancer. My first boyfriend told me, right before he broke up with me, he couldn’t handle dating a woman with ‘disappearing hair.’”
Mack had a sudden urge to locate that old boyfriend and put his boot so far up his arse the man would taste leather. “The man was a half-wit. And you are the most enticing woman I’ve ever seen.” He held her gaze for a moment, transported. And then Mack brushed her hair away from those two bare patches and kissed her there. He ran the tip of his tongue over the silky circles. He didn’t mind her hair loss at all. It allowed him to taste more of her delicious skin. Beth trembled in his arms and gasped, making Mack wonder if he could make her come just by kissing her on the unexpected erogenous zone.
He leaned away from her, feeling drugged from her taste. He looked down between them to where she’d been grinding on him. His jeans were wet with her arousal. “Fuck, woman. Up on the table.”
Mack stood and deposited Beth on the table once more. Splayed out before him, she opened her legs to him. Her sweet pussy, kissed by the smattering of blonde curls, looked so tasty. He sat back down, drew his chair closer to the table, and began to feast on her.
Her delicious flavor slammed into his senses. For a moment, Mack wondered if a bomb had gone off in his core. With each nibble on her lips, each slide of his tongue, his nerve endings sizzled. He felt ready to implode, as if he were the one being ravished. He gobbled her up, moving his tongue deeper inside her, desperate to drink her in to the fullest. Beth squirmed under him, responding with moans that drove him even wilder. And as he ate her, as he tried to consume her, he heard his own animalistic groans escape.
What was this woman doing to him? He could envision himself between her legs for days on end, would never get tired or full of her.
And as astounded as he was at his reactions, he couldn’t stop to ponder the implications. Beth was coming, and she was coming hard. Her arms flailed and banged on the table. Her stomach tensed. Mack clamped onto her swollen clit and sucked while slipping three fingers into her pussy. He had her wetness all over his face and had never been happier.
Beth cried out; her body arched as if someone had given her an electric charge. He rotated his fingers inside her, swallowing her essence as quickly as he could. As she came back to earth, her back settling on the table, he gathered her trembling frame to him. He leaned over and kissed her, sharing the scrumptious taste in his mouth with her. She opened wide to him, hungry to share it with him. When they finally snatched at a breath, Mack gazed at her in awe.
This woman is my mate. She’ll be the mother to my pups. I want her more than anything.
With that silent declaration careening through his brain, Mack tore off his jeans. “Turn over, lass. Now.”
She hesitated. A shadow of panic flitted through her eyes. “Do you have a condom?”
Damn. “No. But you don’t have to worry. Selkies are free from human disease.”
She panted, more with worry than desire. “It’s not that. I … I don’t want to get pregnant.”
Right. Although something in her statement bothered him, he reassured himself mortal women had these kinds of worries. “I can’t make you pregnant unless we’ve mated officially … in the sea. That’s how it works with selkies.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re sure?”
“I swear, Beth. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt or compromise you. Now if you don’t roll over for me, I might have that heart attack after all.” She rolled over on the table with no hesitation this time, and presented him with her fine arse. It was so round and soft, and Mack couldn’t resist jiggling its circumference in his hand as he nudged her opening with his cock. He pulled her body right to the edge of the table. As he snatched at a slow breath, he entered her inch by tortuous inch. Beth cried out again, using the same stunned tone as when her orgasm had shattered her. Good. She liked the feel of him.
Employing slow, measured thrusts programmed to drive her insane with pleasure, Mack slid in and out of her. He dug his fingernails into her hips, pulling her closer and closer to him. She reached out, trying to anchor herself, but had only the flat surface of the Kittinger under her. She flattened her palms on the table, clearly trying to establish a grip, but every thrust sent her flying. Mack’s hold on her was the one thing keeping her in place.
She tightened around him, already on the edge of another orgasm. He stifled a cry when her succulent walls squeezed him, pulling on him in much the same way his lips had dragged on her nipples earlier. As she unraveled once again, Mack finally gave into temptation. He pounded away at Beth, releasing the animal inside him. He stopped breathing; could only concentrate on the explosive pleasure inside him. His hips moved like a machine. His muscles hurt. He scratched her bottom in his fervor, drawing a thin line of blood. Dismayed but so turned on at the sight, Mack came in a rush of fire. His body and soul could not have been more affected if God’s hand had plucked him from earth and hurled him into space. Shouting her name, h
e collapsed on top of her.
My mate.
Only after many moments did he stir. As Big Ben rang out a toll of celebration inside him, Mack raised himself off Beth and ran a gentle finger over the small cut he’d made in her ass cheek. As she continued to moan under him, he lowered his head to her ass and flicked his tongue over the tiny wound. When no blood remained, he helped her up.
Her face was red. Her eyes were wild. She stared at him as if unable to look anywhere else. “What was that?”
He cupped her cheek. “That was your mate making love to you. You’re my mate, Beth. We’re destined for one another.”
Her blue eyes flashed hard silver. “Your mate?”
“I know it seems sudden, but I’ve felt you inside me before I even knew it was you. I was led to you.”
“You’re wrong,” she whispered, shocked. “It’s too much. Just too much.” Her jaw fell open again, and then she clamped it shut as she scrambled to get off the table. Mack watched, dazed, as she reached for her clothes.
“Beth, I know it’s a lot to take in, but I’m selkie and I know these things…”
“Again with the selkie business,” she exclaimed. “Enough! Enough with the talk of selkies and finmen and mates.” She tossed on her clothes as if ashamed of her nudity. “I can’t do this, Mack. I’m sorry.”
And as his mate escaped to her bedroom upstairs and locked the door behind her, Mack continued to stare after her, unable to move and unable to breathe.
Chapter 10
Later that evening, Beth was at her wit’s end. It had been a long, tortuous day, and she suspected it had felt so horrible because she hadn’t allowed herself to run to Mack and just enjoy him. Not that they’d avoided each other. How could they? It was a small cottage filled to the brim with huge, selkie men. One couldn’t avoid any of them. But she’d gone out of her way to at least avoid excess conversation with him. Not that it mattered. He’d glared at her the whole time as if able to see under her clothes and under her skin. He knew she wanted him, and she could see he hated her fighting it.
Thank God for Edan and Jamie running interference between them. Like her own family might, she thought with a wry grin. One day and they already felt like family. Of course, it had only been days with Mack, and she felt connected to him in a way she didn’t understand at all.
Without his touch, her body might have been a glacier. Frigid and lonely and drifting.
By the time night fell, Beth found she was craving an escape. Mack had made her body experience supernatural heights of ecstasy. He’d turned her inside out with incomprehensible pleasure, and she couldn’t face him. She needed to be somewhere else.
He claimed he was her mate. Like a caveman might. And although he’d looked shell-shocked when she’d run from him, he hadn’t bothered her much the rest of the day. As if nothing she could say or do would alter his feelings. As if his mind was made up and he knew she’d come around.
It defied logic. She couldn’t be anyone’s mate or partner or whatever he chose to call it. Heavens, she’d already killed off one husband. Why would Mack even want her?
And yet what he’d done to her, the way he’d made her feel so cherished, was unlike any lovemaking session she’d ever had with Frank. Oh, she’d loved Frank, had desired him. But this thing with Mack seemed to inhabit a different sphere altogether. He inspired a depth of emotion in her that had her staggering with the implications. He took her every breath away, filling her with his own.
But he was a selkie. She’d seen it with her own eyes, and she couldn’t reconcile her odd feelings. And so, body still humming hours later, she needed to experience a piece of normal. Steady. Decidedly human.
Jamie offered the perfect solution. “Let’s forget this finman crap for a spell. Let’s go to a bar.”
Beth had almost pounced on the idea. A bar. She hadn’t been to one in ages. “That sounds awesome.”
Jamie smiled at her as if understanding her mental turmoil. “There’s a new honky-tonk bar that’s opened on the other side of Kirkwall. I think we need to christen it pronto.” He nodded over at Mack. “You fine with that?”
Mack stared at Beth, his face solemn, his eyes penetrating. His voice was a quiet rumble that almost destroyed all her resistance. “Whatever makes Beth happy.”
She choked down a whimper of sexual need. What had happened to all the walls she built up inside? Where were they when she needed them? Mack was smashing them to pieces, and she had no instrument left in her arsenal to fight him. She was defenseless against this man.
I’m falling in love with him. It makes no sense, but it’s true.
Steadying herself on the banister, she dashed upstairs to change into something that didn’t resemble the attire of a woman who’d stopped caring. She squirted herself with some old perfume, hoping it still smelled decent and not like cat pee. She brushed her teeth and hair. Clad in a silky tunic, leggings, and black, high-heeled ankle boots that hadn’t seen the light since Frank was alive, she descended to meet her selkie escorts.
Edan whistled as she came down the stairs. Jamie grinned.
Mack just glared at her some more, his nostrils flared, and his brows knit together. She saw his Adam’s apple bob in his throat. Her own bobbed in response.
Something told her the evening was going to be no less difficult, no less of a draining exercise in lust avoidance, than the day had been.
* * * *
“I can’t believe Orkney has a honky-tonk bar,” Beth piped up as they entered the club. She glanced at the peanuts on the floor and the bright, multicolored lights over the jukebox. Perhaps it wasn’t quite like an American bar. This one was populated, not only by thirtysomething Orcadians but also by the older, tweed-wearing set as well. Beth suppressed a smile at the sight of a few grizzled, old Orcadians clutching their favorite brews, molded to their seats as they shook they heads in disapproval at the flirting young lads and lasses.
Jamie motioned to a booth in back. He and Edan waved to a few folks as they wound their way through the bar. Once again, Beth giggled at the female heads that turned toward the three selkie men. Those women had no idea what they were dealing with. They were powerless against the Kirk brothers. One actually dribbled her drink as Mack walked by, so taken by the particular curve of his biceps.
If Beth were some sort of shrink, she’d write a paper about the phenomenon. “Mass Female Hysteria Caused By Devilishly Handsome Selkies.”
And yet, the whole time Mack’s arm was wrapped around her waist, a possessive clamp. She was surprised to see a couple of male heads snap up as she passed. That hadn’t happened in a dog’s age. However, Mack gave the stink eye to any man who happened to turn in her direction.
Like a mate might. She couldn’t help but feel a determined flutter of need at his show of greedy affection.
They found their booth and slid in, Mack close beside her. As his brothers went off in search of drinks for the group, Mack touched her cheek and turned her face toward him. “You are my mate. Your pouting today, pretty as it was, will not change the fact.”
“I wasn’t pouting.”
“Oh, yes, beauty. You were, just as you are now.” And then, as if to emphasize his point, he pressed against her bottom lip with his thumb, sending merciless heat streaking down into her sex. He touched her teeth with his thumb, and God forgive her, as much as she tried to control herself, her tongue slipped out to lick at his thumb.
Scrumptious. He was like candy to her.
Mack groaned and pulled her flush against him. Their mouths met, unable to do anything but melt in a frenzied fit of passion. Their lips fit together expertly, and their tongues joined as if two parts of the same whole. Moisture drenched Beth’s panties, the new panties she’d had to put on before heading to the club because the others were a wet waste of space.
How was she supposed to fight this when his touches raised goose bumps all over her body and when his kisses were ambrosia? It wasn’t enough that he had punishing good looks
. Did he have to feel like her kindred spirit too? She was one weak human woman. She didn’t possess the fortitude to keep this up.
She pulled away from him. “Mack, please. We can’t.”
His features darkened with aborted lust. “I want you, Beth, and I know you want me.” He breathed in. “Do you honestly think I can’t smell your arousal each time I brush by you? Do you believe you can live without me when everything in you is screaming to be taken by me? You know we’re meant to be together, just as you know you need your next breath.”
“This is going too fast.” She snatched at her breath, feeling it very well could be her last the way her heart was pounding. “What does this all mean? It’s too much.”
Mack pulled her close, so close their breaths were one and the same. “I know it’s crazy, Beth, but if I’m not in the same room as you, I go insane. I need to have you near me. I need to be able to touch you.” He rested his head on her shoulder, nuzzling her neck and making her knees wobble.
Damn. She knew things were moving too quickly for comfort with Mack. Between his bizarre declarations and the fact their bodies seemed meant to touch, Beth didn’t know if she was coming or going. She did feel connected to Mack. She didn’t understand it, but there it was.
That still didn’t mean she was good for him. This was all just some lunatic farce. She’d wake up one day, and he’d be gone. She’d move to Florida and begin a new life. In six months’ time, they wouldn’t remember each other.
I could never forget him.
As her brain raged in debate in the crowded Orkney bar, Mack spoke in soft murmurs against her ear. “You’re driving me mad, woman. Beth, you’re not the only one who’s lost a love. I have too, and I can’t let you go.”
She pulled away and looked him in his sorrowful eyes. “Who did you lose?”
