by Kathi Barton
No one moved. Adam was reasonably sure that no one was breathing either. While he didn’t much care for his aunt’s words most of the time, Ivy had just threatened her with bodily harm. When Aunt Bea turned and looked at him, Adam felt his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth, his legs weakening at the thought of what she might say to him next.
When she pointed her boney finger into his chest, hard and repeatedly, he started to tell her that he was sorry about Ivy and that he would.... Well, he wasn’t sure what he’d do. Not tell her she was wrong, because it had been Aunt Bea who had started it.
“You keep this girl, Adam. She knows up from down and won’t steer you wrong if you need someone in your corner. And if you need someone to kick your ass into something, I’m betting all I own she’ll do it and not care one bit if you lose it all. You hear me?” Adam told her that he loved Ivy. “We’ll, you’d be a damned fool if you didn’t.”
Aunt Bea stood in front of Ivy who looked as relaxed as she did every day. Only a few knew the turmoil that was going through her mind at any given moment. The only time that he’d known her not to stress was when she was in the operating room and doing what she did best.
“You, my dear, are going to go far. Not too far. I don’t want anything to go to your head. And don’t think I didn’t know about you before coming here. I have a good head on my shoulders, and I know how to use a computer. And what I didn’t find out there, I found out where I wanted. You are a great surgeon. Now, give me a hug. I think I deserve one after the tongue lashing I got, don’t you?”
“I do. But this wasn’t a game of power, Ms. Whitfield. You really will be sorry if you hurt anyone in my family. I know that you are family as well, but you won’t be long if you fuck with me.” Aunt Bea laughed. It was hardy and full of mirth. And when the two of them hugged, Adam could see that it was robust as well. “I think I might like you, Ms. Whitfield.”
“Call me Bea. I don’t allow that much familiarity when I just meet people, but I like you. A great deal.” She looked around the great hall where the rest of them were standing and pointed out the women. “Come on now, let’s get to know each other. I tell you, I might just have to stick around, teach some of you manners before all is said and done. Yes, ma’am, this might be just the place I lay down my hat.”
When they entered the living room, Dad came over and hugged him. When he asked him what that was for, he laughed.
“I should have done that years ago. I might well have slept better before and while she was visiting.” He laughed again. “Of course, she might have hit me through the wall or something had I done it. Yes, your mate? She’s the ticket. Cannot wait to meet the rest of the brides coming here. It’s going to be a fun time for all, I believe.”
Adam joined them all in the living room. Blake stopped him and looked like he might be sick. Adam asked his brother what was wrong, and he looked into the living room before answering.
“I’m not going to survive a mate if she’s anything like yours. Any of them, as a matter of fact. I’m so fucked.” Adam laughed. “You think this is funny now—wait until one of them takes you to task for something. You won’t then.” Adam wondered what had happened and decided that he didn’t care. He was home, mated, and happy. That was all right in his book.
~*~
Ivy had no idea what had come over her to talk to an elder like she had. Of course, it had turned out all right, but still, that wasn’t like her to do something so rude. When Adam sat on the arm of the couch she was sitting on, he kissed her head and took her hand into his.
I was so rude. Not that I really think I shouldn’t have been, but I don’t talk to people that way. He told her that his aunt brought out the worst in everyone. Then he told her what his dad had said. Well, he’s not wrong on that. But I just don’t know what the hell came over me.
Her. Listen love, even her brother was dreading her coming over tonight. They only see each other once or twice a year. I don’t have any idea why she might even be here now. But I have to say, I was terrified that she was going to pull out a gun and pop you in the head with it. Ivy asked if he was kidding. Yes. She’d never use it on your head. I think she’d use it elsewhere, a larger area to hit. But if you’re asking if she carries, yes, she does. Has for years.
That didn’t make her feel any better. But now that the tension seemed to have dissipated, she was getting on better with everyone. Ivy had a feeling that the woman was here under false pretenses. There was another motive for her being here at this time. Something terrible, and Ivy was afraid it was serious.
Dinner was called about thirty minutes later. It was hard to equate this thing with a dinner—it was a huge feast. There were platters of food on the table. Sideboards were opened up to full capacity, and there was more food there—cakes and pies as well as cookies as big as her hand. When Nathan came to her, asking what to do, she told him that he’d better fill his plate, because she was hungry enough to eat it all. Laughing, he filled up two plates of food and went to the table that held his new cousins.
Meghan looked just as lost. Ivy bumped her with her hip as she waited for her turn at the platters. “I thought for sure that woman was going to bite your head off. Shift, you know, and take you down.” Ivy told her sister that she was a bigger cat and she was younger. “That’s not funny. I was worried you’d gone too far.”
“So was I, if you want to know the truth.” Meghan laid her head on her shoulder. “Are you all right, sis? I mean, is motherhood taking its toll on you? I can watch Nathan if you need some time. I know that I’d have to have an adjustment period getting used to kids.”
“You would not. You’d be right in there in the thick of things. No, I’m all right with Nathan. We’re having a good time with the house. I just hope we don’t do something terrible with it so that Ollie kicks us to the curb.” Ivy didn’t say anything to her, but she knew that Ollie was going to gift it to Meghan for a Christmas gift. “I’ve found myself a job. I wasn’t going to be able to sit around the house, just waiting for Nathan to come home. Your mother-in-law, she invited me to come and help her at the historical society. It’s fun. My college courses are finally going to pay off.”
They were both laughing as they filled their plates. The table in the dining room was stretched out into the secondary room which Ivy had often wondered what the space could be used for, and today she had her answer. The doors had been slid into the pockets on the wall, and the table, already a mammoth of a thing, had been pulled apart and eight more large leaves were put in. Christ, the table had to be at least ten feet long when in regular usage. Now it was nearly twenty feet long, and seven or so feet wide. It was a table meant for a large family. She asked Eve where she hid all the chairs and leaves when not in use.
“Oh, my. You’d have to talk to Adrian about it. When he was in high school and college, he tinkered, as he called it, in making large things take up the least amount of space. This table, it was his graduation project. Believe it or not, there are four more leaves where these were. Under the wider slats are braces that hold the leaves when not in use.” She showed it to her by lifting up the table cloth. “The chairs all hang on the walls in the basement. They’re all wrapped up in burlap bags that have been treated to keep bugs and such away. Being cats, we don’t have a lot of trouble with rodents.”
“I would guess not.” They were both laughing when Adam sat down beside her and kissed her on the forehead. “Are all cats like you? All cuddly and stuff.”
Yesterday Ivy had had a long talk with one of the nurses at the hospital. She told her all kinds to things that she’d not known about shifters and straightened out some things that she’d been told that were not necessarily a lie, but they weren’t quite the truth either.
“You think I’m cuddly? I think you are too.” He smiled at her as he touched her mind. I’d like to take you home right now and show you just how cuddly I can be. It’s been a long time since I’ve had you beneath me. Or for that matter, just naked. I love
it when you’re naked. Makes me hard as stone.
Behave yourself. We’re at your parents’ home. Adam wiggled his brows at her and she laughed. No one asked her what was so funny, nor did they tease her. She supposed that when everyone could talk to each other like her and Adam were, there was no reason to have to explain anything. I’m going to make you so hard then walk away from you. Just for teasing me like this.
Adam took her hand and slid it over the length of his cock. He was already stone hard, and she wanted to get up and find them a dark corner. The only problem that she could see was that she’d have to be quiet when she came. Ivy was a screamer since she’d met this man and didn’t want to hold back when he took her. And when he leaned over and nipped at her earlobe, hard enough to make her hurt, she couldn’t have stopped the moan if she’d had tape over her mouth.
Again, no one seemed to notice. And when she told Adam to behave once again, he complied. If they kept playing around at the table, they were going to hurt each other. Eating no longer held an appeal for her, but she knew that she’d need her strength for later. Yes, she told herself, she was going to make him pay for this.
Chapter 13
As soon as they were in the door to their own home, Ivy expected Adam to rip her clothing off, move her to the floor, and take her hard. But he only touched her, running his fingers over the back of her neck to her shoulders, then up and down the bare part of her arm. When she moaned he smiled at her, but it had the look of a predator, like he was not only going to devour her, but he was going to do it slowly.
“Have you changed your mind?” He told her that he’d not, but he had other things in the works for her. “Am I going to enjoy it?”
“Have I ever disappointed you before?” Adam wasn’t the type of man to take what he needed and leave a woman hanging, and she told him this. “I need to check on what is going on in the kitchen. You should come too. Nate said that he had a couple of questions about the cake you wanted.”
Her disappointment was profound. He wanted to check on the kitchen? She followed him but could hear her own footsteps as she pouted like a small child, stomping her feet as she moved across the floor. As soon as they were in the kitchen, Ivy could only stare at the wonderment that was there.
“This is...I don’t have words to describe this. All this, it’s for tomorrow?” He nodded, checking the notes that had been left for him. At one point he frowned, so Ivy walked to where he was. “What’s wrong?”
“I ordered some things for dinner that won’t be here tomorrow. It was for the kids. I’m sure that they like this sort of thing, especially the way they chowed down on it tonight. But I had asked for some burgers to be made up, in the event they weren’t into more ham. I suppose they could have turkey.”
“Adam, I think if they didn’t like ham, there are enough other items here that they could eat.” Looking around, she pulled a carrot stick from the platter. “I’m so full, but these look so good I can’t help myself. Is there anything else that we need to fix tonight? I’m bushed.”
He said that he’d lock up and she made her way up the stairs. It was reasonable to think that he’d be exhausted. The two of them had been up since dawn, her just a little longer. And hanging out with family, no matter how nice they were, could be exhausting.
Ivy put her phone on the charger, then decided to turn it off in favor of getting a good night’s sleep. She wasn’t on call, and she and Evan both had the next three days off. With the influx of people coming into town, so had their need for more physicians. They’d interviewed seven so far and hired three of them. She was thrilled for the extra hands on call.
She was just slipping into the bed when Adam came into the room and sat on the side of the bed. She waited to see what was on his mind when he moved toward her—stalked would have been a better word—but she was suddenly so tired that she couldn’t make her befuddled mind work the words out.
“Stand up and I’ll give you a massage.” Ivy started to turn him down when he pulled his shirt up and over his head. “I promise that I’ll make it worth your while.”
Standing up, she pulled her hair around so that it hung over her right shoulder. Ivy didn’t hear him move, but his hands touching the tense muscles at her neck had her moaning loudly. All he’d done was touch her, just run his fingers over the tense muscles over her neck to her shoulder, and she felt revived. Reaching to the wall, she planted her hands there so as to hold on to something before he killed her.
His fingers dug deeply into her worn and tired muscles. It hurt on occasion, but it made up for any amount of pain when he’d kiss the hurt away. Everywhere his fingers touched her, every time his fingers soothed over her skin, Ivy would moan. Stopping it, or even trying to stop it, would have been nearly impossible.
“Your skin, it tastes like lemon drops, bright with color. I can almost bite into your flesh to taste all of you.” Again she moaned, and her knees were getting weaker. “I’ve never thought of a color as being tasty, but I swear to you, Ivy, it’s as if I can see the color with my eyes closed while I nibble on your skin.”
He did just that, pulling the small straps of her nightgown down her arm as he nipped none too gently at her flesh. Ivy would have sworn that he was marking her, his mouth doing things to her skin that no one else would be able to see. Leaning her more against the wall that was in front of her, Adam pressed his cock into the bottom of her ass.
She wasn’t just wet but soaking, and the fine dewy sweat had the hairs on her skin dancing, the flesh below it coming alive. The more that he touched, everywhere that he would mark her, Ivy knew that her skin would never be the same. Nor would her heart. And when he bit down on her shoulder, where her neck connected with her head, Ivy had a hard, dangerously strong climax that took her breath away. Her heart even stopped beating for several seconds.
“Turn around, love.” She told him that she’d fall. “Good. Because while you’re on the floor, I can make love to you.”
Ivy fell to the floor. Had he not been there when she let go of the wall, she was sure that both of them would have been injured. As he was helping her to the floor, she realized that she was naked and so was he. Her body was on fire, her skin as sensitive as she’d ever felt it be. And when he sat on her, his legs on either side of her, Ivy reached up to touch him as he had her, but he pushed her hands back to the floor.
“I’ve been thinking all day about this. Touching you and making you mine.” Ivy told him that she belonged to him and no other. “And I belong to no one but you. Forever and a day, I’ll belong to you heart and soul.”
He could spin a web of words that would make her feel secure, make her believe that not only was it raining and she stood in the sunshine, but that he could love her in ways, not just with his hands and body, that she would cherish forever. When his hand moved over her, this time over her breasts and face, Ivy cried out, louder each time, with her release and enjoyment, so that he’d know just what he was doing to her.
Her body was limp. She’d come so many times that she had nothing more to give. Ivy was sure that if she came one more time, just once more, she’d be nothing more than a puddle of flesh. But Christ, she’d go willingly to feel like this forever.
“I need you.” Telling him no was impossible. “I want to feel you wrapped around me. Your sheath holding me tightly within you so that when you come with me, I’ll feel each muscle, every ripple of your body.”
“I’m done.” He laughed and told her that she was far from finished. “No, you don’t understand, I’m done coming. I’m having a hard enough time just remembering to g—”
Adam slid deep inside of her. There was no pain, just his heat taking her to another level, surpassing anything that she’d ever felt before. And when he moved, his body fully touching her own, Ivy screamed out his name at the top of her lungs when he bit down hard on her shoulder—marking her, she knew, so that anyone, any male or cat would know that she’d been claimed.
The lick across the wound gave
her a surge of energy. She wrapped her legs around his hips, giving him anything he wanted so that he’d plow her deeper, harder. When Adam threw back his head, his cat racing over his face and chest, Ivy watched in deep satisfaction as he filled her body with the hottest part of them, the part of him that she would treasure forever.
Adam dropped atop her. She didn’t care that he was heavier than her, didn’t mind that he’d bumped her head when he fell. They were connected still, in the most intimate way possible. The way a loving couple did when they could never forget how much they loved their partner.
Waking up, still on the floor, Ivy looked at Adam as he slept quietly. His arm was over his eyes and his body was spread out like he was king of the castle. He was to her—he was also the owner of her heart.
Getting up, putting one of the larger throw blankets over him, Ivy went to take a shower. It was nearly seven anyway, and she needed a good run. The land around the house had been cleaned around, and any dangers, such as fallen trees or branches, had been removed just for her.
Ivy made her way to the kitchen. She’d nearly forgotten the bustle of today. There were several people that she didn’t know, but Nate still had time to make her something to eat. Making her sit, he told her what was going on today.
“I’ve hired a lot of the high school kids to come by and help out. Ms. Eve had been doing this for years, and it helps some of the poorer families with the supplies, as well as the little extras that come about in the year.” He asked her if she had any preferences.
