Seduction's Shift

by A. C. Arthur

  “No!” she yelled back. “No! I don’t have to listen to you! You cannot control me!”

  “I’m not trying to control you, I’m trying to protect you” was his fierce retort. “If you’d keep still and just listen to me you’d realize that.”

  No, she couldn’t keep still. She couldn’t hear him, couldn’t say another word. Instead she crumpled to the bed, sitting and pulling Nick with her. The pain was increasing. It was tearing through her to the point Ary thought she would rip in two.

  Then Nick cupped her face in his hands. He looked into her eyes, his thumbs running over her bottom lip.

  “I was afraid he’d caught you, that he would kill you. Do you know how that made me feel?”

  She still couldn’t speak, could only stare at him as if transfixed by his eyes, his voice, his touch.

  “You said another man touched you and I freaked the hell out. I wanted to kill him and anybody else that got near you. I couldn’t think past protecting you. I can’t do anything else but protect you, Ary. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  She didn’t. She wanted to, but she didn’t.

  He didn’t wait for her response, but came closer, his lips touching hers. And all Ary could think was, Finally.

  * * *

  Nick’s tongue swiped along her lower lip, dipped inside and touched hers. His cat roared and reached out to hers as a part of him sank inside the glory that was Ary.

  Her hands were wild, moving quickly over his shoulders and down his back where she raked her nails upward against his skin. His shirt ripped with the motion, and he felt the distinct sting of her claws against his skin. She pulled him with her as she lay back on the bed, her legs lifting and wrapping around his waist. To his hands her face felt feverish, her heart thumping wildly against both their chests. Nick tried to pull away, to look at her. She resisted, nipping his bottom lip between her teeth to keep him still. They kissed again, this time a hungry, fervent exchange that had Nick gasping for breath, his dick pressing painfully against the restraint of his pants.

  “Baby,” he whispered against her mouth. “It’s all right,” he added, trying to talk again.

  She was holding him so tightly, thrusting her center upward to meet him. Her frisky fingers pulled at his shirt until it was ripping over his muscled frame. When it was gone Ary dipped her head, raking her teeth over his pectorals, her tongue lovingly stroking his nipples. With a mewling sound she moved lower, her tongue tracing a path down his abs, down, down …

  His dick was free and in her hands before Nick could utter another word. She stroked his length with mild pressure, then released and rubbed her thumb over his engorged tip.

  “Ary.” He struggled, his eyes closing then opening again. He swallowed. Hard. Focused. Even her hands were hot.

  “Ary.” He said her name again, this time rolling slowly onto his side.

  She followed, her fingers still moving over his length. He knew she wouldn’t let go. His cat growled at the human’s thought that he wanted her to. When she dipped her head, her tongue started at the base of his cock, moving upward in one slow, smooth stroke. Nick thought he was going to explode.

  On a surge of strength he didn’t know he possessed, he grabbed her face and pushed her back away from his erection. She didn’t remove her hands, and he had to move fast to take her wrists and pull those away, too. Once he was free and before she could pounce again—the growing growl he heard from her said she was thinking of doing just that—he twisted his hips out of her reach. Reaching out, he circled his arms around her waist and turned her so that when she fell against him, it was her ass against his erection and not her waiting pussy.

  She was not happy and showed it by raking her claws up and down his arms.

  “Stop,” he whispered sternly into her ear.

  She whimpered, shaking her head. “I can’t.” She heaved and hissed. “I need.”

  At those words a thought occurred to Nick, and he felt like kicking himself for not realizing this sooner. Even Baxter had known what he’d ignored. Ary was in heat.

  “Shhh,” he whispered again, holding her tightly. “I’ll take care of you.”

  “Nick.” His name was a whisper—one that totally threatened Nick’s sanity.

  Her body was so warm and so pliant against him, Nick kissed the spot beneath her ear and felt her lie back against him. “I’ll take good care of you.”

  He kept kissing her as his arms loosened around her. With each kiss she sighed deeper. Pulling her shirt from her shorts and over her head was simple enough. Discovering that her bountiful breasts had been virtually unbound beneath it sent a spark of fire scorching through his body and he cursed. The goal was to get her naked, get inside her, and make both of them feel better—but mostly to soothe her need. But he was swayed by thoughts of her breasts and found both his palms making their way to cover the mounds without any direction. She had the softest ass, and when she pressed back against him he wanted to sink between her cheeks once more, to drown in the tightness of her.

  “I’ve never felt like this before.”

  He heard her words filtering vaguely through the thick haze of lust he was stuck inside.

  “You drive me crazy” was his reply. As he continued to palm her breasts roughly, his teeth nipped her neck. “I can’t think about anything but you, keeping you safe, keeping you here, keeping you…” He growled into her ear, pulling her body back farther against him.

  When he was finally able to pull his hands away from her breasts, he let them slide down her stomach until he found the snap of her shorts. Snaps, zippers, none of it mattered. They were off her in seconds, along with her panties. She was blessedly naked, and his fingers immediately delved between the heated folds of her pussy to find her center drenched with desire.

  “Please,” she begged. Every part of Nick roared with pleasure.

  “I can’t stand this. Now, Nick. Now!”

  He didn’t want her to suffer, but he needed something himself. Something he’d been thinking about since he’d peeled that sinfully sexy black dress off her the other night. Shifting so that she was now lying flat on her back, Nick lifted her legs, draping them over his shoulders, and put his mouth to her sweetness. When his tongue met the smooth damp folds, his cat growled with satisfaction. Licking her became almost a ritual as he took his time making sure to taste every delectable inch of her desire.

  She moaned, lifting her hips off the bed as if feeding him. Nick fed like a man dying of starvation. God, she was delicious. He could do this all night … and all day … and all night again. But his cat wanted more. It wasn’t easy untwining her legs from around his shoulders, but Nick managed. And he rose over her, looking down at her glowing eyes and pouting lips. His erection moved on its own, finding her wet center and slipping easily inside her warmth.

  She called his name, made it sound like a long note in a song as she lifted her hips and reached for him.

  Nick didn’t take her hands, but pulled her legs up to hold each ankle in a hand. Spreading her legs into a wide V, he looked down to see their joining, watched as his length, now glistening with her arousal, slid all the way out, then sank so far in it looked as if they were born connected.

  Again and again he watched the motion, loving the feeling of ownership, of complete satisfaction and protectiveness, wash over him. Her head thrashed wildly on the pillow as he pounded into her mercilessly. With each stroke Nick lost a little more of himself. Inch by inch as his length went inside her he knew he could never leave her again, could never lose this woman. His companheiro.

  Chapter 24

  “I need you with me,” he said in the dark of night as they lay in the big bed side by side.

  Ary had been listening to him breathe, wondering if he was awake. They didn’t touch, but their bodies were close. It was quiet. She was still trying to get used to that, a night without sound.

  “My father controlled everything. When the shipment would come from the States, he’d bring it
into the great hall of the medical center and separate everything. Then he’d tell me what we could have and what to do with the rest. That was before he started stealing.”

  She paused, took a deep breath, and continued, “He told my mother what to do. From the time she woke in the morning she was his virtual slave. Cook the food this way. Heal the people that way. Say this, don’t say that. There were days I swear he told her how to breathe. I hated looking at her, watching her blindly obey whatever he said. I listened to his teachings about medicine but resented everything else he said. I wanted her to yell at him, to tell him to go to hell and just do one thing for herself, one thing without getting his permission or even caring enough to ask for it.”

  She was shaking her head before she realized it, warm tears streaming quietly from her eyes. Now she was grateful for the dark.

  “He always said that we were the heart of the tribe, we kept the blood flowing with our talent. That they would forever need us. That’s why it was so important for me to stay, for me to learn everything there was to know about healing. I was responsible for the tribe.”

  “You are only one person. The weight of the world should not have rested on your shoulders,” Nick said.

  There was some movement, and in seconds he had her hand in his. Ary didn’t pull away. It was nice.

  “Yuri was great. In a sense I guess he saved me. First, I mean,” she said when Nick seemed to stiffen beside her.

  “I stumbled upon him one day in the forest. He was performing a purification ceremony with a couple of locals. They weren’t taking it seriously, snickering behind his back. But Yuri was focused, his face like some kind of god amid the smoke. He saw me and knew instantly I had the gift of healing. From the first time we talked I knew I could learn so much from him. And I did. I learned that healing goes beyond just the physical fix; that your soul has to be open to the change, to whatever medicines or procedures are meant to help. Your energy needs to be just right to receive the gift. My father hated Yuri for teaching me. But I would not stop going to see him.”

  “Good. You shouldn’t have listened to him blindly like your mother did.”

  “Or like you did,” she said quietly. “You left because he told you to.”

  It was Nick’s turn to inhale deeply then sigh. “I left because I was too young to know what was good for me. I didn’t want to cause trouble with my parents and your parents. They said it was your job to stay there. The Ètica said it was your life’s responsibility. I couldn’t go against that. Not when I was already rebelling against so much.”

  She turned on her side to face him. “What else did you rebel against?”

  “I didn’t believe in a democracy for the shifters at first.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re different. Why should we beg to fit in?”

  His words were said with such force that she jolted and pulled her hand out of his. He searched for it again and found it, this time holding it between both his hands.

  “I know we need to govern ourselves, but I’m not for all this peace-and-be-kind stuff Rome promotes.”

  Ary didn’t know what to say; then again she did. “Then why aren’t you with the Rogues? Why stay here under the pretense of believing in the cause?”

  “Because I believe in the Shadow Shifters. I believe in our tribe, our people, our lives. That makes me different from the Rogues.”

  He didn’t sound like he really believed that.

  “You seem so hostile all the time. That is not healthy.”

  “It’s necessary.”

  “Why?”

  There was a long silence, and Ary almost gave up on getting an answer.

  “I don’t like being lied to. If I act like a loose cannon all the time that makes people nervous enough to tell the truth the first go-round.”

  “People, not shifters,” she said seriously. Rogues wouldn’t be bluffed, by anyone; even Ary knew that. But Nick didn’t sound like he was in the mood to debate the fact. He’d even adjusted so that she was now spooned against him.

  “I want you to stay with me. When we leave Rome’s I want us to live together.”

  “Does it matter what I want?” she asked. The fingers he’d been running through her hair paused.

  “Of course it matters.” He sighed again. “Look, Ary, I’m not trying to be your father. I just want to keep you safe.”

  “But I want a life. I have to be able to lead my own life without you dictating to me.”

  “I would never dictate how you run your life.”

  “Really? ‘You’ll be the head of the medical center,’ ‘you go shopping with Kalina,’ ‘you use my credit card.’ Shall I go on?”

  Silence again. For him to be an attorney, he had to know how to clam up when he wanted to.

  “I thought you wanted to become a doctor.”

  “I do. On my own terms and in my own time.”

  “You needed things. I thought I was being considerate by telling you to go with Kalina and footing the bill. Most women would love to hear that from their man.”

  Was he her man? A smile tickled her lips, but she clamped that bit of happiness down for a moment.

  “I don’t want to owe anybody anything. I want to make it on my own here. I know I can do it.”

  Nick kissed her ear. “I know you can, too, but you don’t have to. You are my companheiro, it is my duty to take care of you.”

  He was right, Ary knew. As her mate he was charged with the duty of protecting her and their family. That most likely included buying her things, and she probably should be happy about that. But, she admitted, she had her own rebellious streak.

  “When I become a doctor, I’ll make my own money,” she told him.

  “I’m sure you will. But for now—” he began.

  “For now, I’ll spend yours,” she finished for him. And actually, hearing herself say it out loud made it seem like a better idea than she’d originally thought.

  * * *

  “Dammit!” Caprise cursed, shaking her hand as the door swung open in front of her.

  She’d called Nick a dozen times and he hadn’t answered. Probably asleep, or dead to the world. Nick used to be a heavy sleeper—either that or he was ignoring the hell out of her all those early mornings she’d tried to wake him. He’d been her role model during her teen years, the big, bad brother who didn’t give a crap what anybody said, he was doing his own thing. That’s exactly what Caprise wanted to be when she grew up—well, not the brother part, but everything else. Her life had been simple then, those days of attending private school, noticing boys, making friends with snobby girls, seeing her parents together each night at dinner. Simple. She’d naively thought it would stay that way.

  And she’d been wrong.

  Caprise had just broken into her brother’s house and was walking in unannounced. It hadn’t escaped her that this might not be a good idea, but she needed a place to stay. So if Nick had a female here, that was his business. She just wanted a nice hot shower and his empty couch to crash on.

  Another mistake to add to her already growing list.

  A strong arm wrapped around her waist, another around her neck to cover her mouth. She kicked out the moment she was lifted off the floor, but that was futile. Whoever carried her was big and strong, and, if she could rely on the genetics she’d fought for longer than she could remember, his scent revealed that he was a shifter.

  * * *

  There was a distinct antiseptic smell here. The cool temperature allowed it to stay stiff in the air, draping the entire dwelling like a blanket.

  Ary’s shoes were muffled on the tiled floors. They were the cutest shoes she’d ever seen, and even though they were so not Kalina’s type, she’d had to agree that the Alegria paisley nursing clogs were adorable on Ary. And as Ary had followed Dr. Frank Papplin from the entrance of the hospital down to where they now entered the morgue, she’d seen several other employees with the same type of shoe. That made her feel good, like she was
fitting in with her new environment.

  They entered through double swinging doors to a small reception area. There was a desk that looked like someone should be there, but no one was. Another set of double doors were in front of them. Dr. Papplin, a tall, lithe man with olive-toned skin and tepid blue eyes, pulled a card from the extending wire clip at his waist and swiped it past a black control pad until the red light blinked green.

  The doctor walked with a confident stride, his white coat billowing around him as he moved. Behind Ary were X and Nick, both silent but imposing forces. She could hear their footsteps along with Dr. Papplin’s in the otherwise quiet section of the hospital. They came to a hall that split in opposite directions, with another set of doors directly in front of them. To the left there were rows and rows of stainless-steel drawers. One was still open, and she could see that it extended to a long empty slab. To the right, the direction Dr. Papplin guided them, was an examining room with another table and cabinets with counters full of utensils.

  The smell of antiseptic was even stronger in here, the air so chilly she almost expected to see her breath appear in smoky billows when she asked, “Is this the female?”

  “It looks like her,” Nick said from beside her.

  He’d come around, touching her arm lightly as she moved closer to the table sitting in the middle of the floor with the dead body on top.

  “This is the body Xavier brought to me. I have had a chance to examine it extensively.”

  “Is this safe?” Nick asked, his voice lowering only slightly.

  Papplin nodded. “There are more examining rooms down another hallway. This is the main room, but all staff are out for the morning at meetings. Besides, this was not a shifter.”

  He retrieved a clipboard and turned a few sheets before reading. “African American female, twenty-five to thirty years of age. There’s evidence of plastic surgery, extensive plastic surgery including implants in the breasts and buttocks. No signs of trauma or blunt force. Otherwise healthy.”