She went soft under him, parting her lips and welcoming his tongue in to stroke hers. Somehow, with her, everything was soft, and slow, and sensual. From the moment he saw her in the tub, to when she rose like Venus with bubbles dripping off her magnificent body. Her ease with their classmates, and her acceptance of his kiss now. Something about her took the edge off everything…except lust.
Because his cock butted her leg, his dragon roared inside, and he wanted her naked again with every fiber of his being. Cupping her chin, Sky deepened the kiss, taking his time, riding the moment until, finally, Thunder tapped his arm.
“Did you two want to be alone?”
He jumped back as if burned. “No, of course not.”
Gina looped an arm around Thunder’s neck—amazing how easy it was to think of him by the old name—and drew him down for a long kiss. Watching their lips move together was almost as good as doing it himself. Almost. He’d never been much of a voyeur. But he was fairly sure they could find enough to do with their date to keep everyone busy.
And happy.
And horny.
Kissing was great but as soon as Thunder sat up again, Sky pulled her onto his lap, facing away from the other man. “Are you still tired?” he murmured. “Because if you are, we can just tuck you into bed and continue this tomorrow.” But he prayed she’d say no.
“No.” He inwardly cheered her response. “I am decidedly not sleepy. But if you guys are?”
Was she kidding? His cock was hard enough to bore through that silver dress and whatever she might be wearing underneath. “I’m okay.” He took Thunder’s hand and placed it on her zipper. “How about you?”
“Not tired in the least.”
Thunder tugged the zipper tab down Gina’s back, while Sky eased it off her shoulders to reveal the generous breasts they’d glimpsed earlier, this time cradled in white lace that set off the subtle gold of her olive skin. He pressed his mouth to the valley between the luscious globes, inhaling her scent and enjoying the moment before his partner in crime released the hooks at the back and her sweet fullness spilled out into his waiting palms.
“Gorgeous girl,” he breathed, stroking the incredible satin skin with his thumbs. “Lucky there are two of us because you are too much woman for just one man.”
She tensed, and he realized his mistake.
She was a plus-sized model, he knew that, because the other kind was all skin and bones, and he much preferred a woman with generous breasts, hips big enough to hold onto while fucking her, and, as the dress puddled around her waist, he could see the delicate waist that gave her the hourglass figure Marilyn Monroe could only have dreamed of matching. But women were told to be skinny. No matter what size nature bequeathed on them.
Lifting his face toward hers, he shook his head. “Do not go there, darlin’. Too much beauty for one man.”
A tear tipped over her lower lid and tracked down her cheek, and he inwardly cursed anyone who had ever caused her pain. Catching Thunder’s eye, he sent a silent signal he hoped the other man would catch and then enfolded her in his arms.
To his relief, they both did. Scattering kisses over her bare shoulders, Thunder murmured endearments and reassurance while Sky kissed away the salty droplet and every inch of her beautiful face.
She sniffed and lifted her chin. “I know I’m not as pretty as—”
He sealed her lips with a kiss, shutting away the hurtful expressions others had put in her mind.
Thunder growled. “I never want to hear that from you again, our beauty. First, to us, you are perfect. But, beyond that, do you think you’d be on billboards, magazine covers, and, hell, movie screens all over the world if you were merely pretty? Pretty girls aspire to be models and actresses all the time. You’re gorgeous. Stunning. I wanted to kill some of our former classmates tonight because they were getting way too close.”
She choked against his lips and Sky released them, resting his forehead on hers. “What?” she protested. “Nobody so much as said one inappropriate thing to me.”
Could she possibly not have noticed how close some of the guys—and a couple of the girls—were getting close to her? Accidentally bumping shoulders, leaning in to speak? The gleam in their eyes? The pheromones for Goddess’ sake. “For a woman who was half-naked in bathing suit magazine spreads, who modeled lingerie and, in one memorable movie moment was a quarter inch from showing nipple—yeah he’d noticed and admired her far more than he usually did with actresses he’d never thought to meet.
If it hadn’t been so completely unlikely that he would meet her, ever, he might have interpreted his, and his dragon’s level of interest as more than just admiring a talented actor.
“It doesn’t take words to come on to someone.” He steadied his breathing. Contact with her had his brain and his body in an uproar. “Surely, in your business, you know that.”
She inhaled and let it out slowly, a little tremble running over her. “You two are so warm.” They both moved to back up, but she clutched him, arching her back toward Thunder at the same time. “No. I like it.” When they settled back into their Gina sandwich again, she continued. “I suppose I just stopped noticing. At first, I assumed people wanted me because I was so young. Not everyone I posed for respected the term ‘underage,’ and my mom, my human mom, was not always on the shoots, even though she was supposed to be. So I learned how to protect myself—without shifting. Because, as you know, shifting and killing is illegal even if the bastards are attempting to grope a teenager.”
He and Thunder both tightened their grip on her, and the other dragon’s eyes lit with more flame. Maybe they could get a list of the guys who had tried to harm her. It might be illegal to shift and kill them, but human laws did not concern them. As long as they didn’t get caught.
She sighed, snuggling closer to them. “Anyway, I suppose once I got a little older, and more successful, word got out that I didn’t sleep around. Hell, I almost never dated, and never anyone in the industry.” She shrugged. “Despite what the tabloids say.”
“Shifters?” he asked. “Did you date shifters?”
“Never. I didn’t want to take a chance on being alone with someone who might overpower me. And, the smaller animals, rabbits and such, just didn’t do it for me. So, I stuck with humans.”
“And how did that work out?” He wanted to know, even if his lower half was about ready to explode if he didn’t get her naked and under him…maybe between the two of them…soon.
“It was okay, nothing to write home about. I actually haven’t bothered to go out with anyone in a while. Just wasn’t worth the effort.”
Most humans couldn’t be what a shifter needed. True, exceptions existed. There were some incredible pairings out there. But a shifter needed his or her mate, whether they were human or shifter, and nobody else was going to do it for them.
Thunder rested his chin on her shoulder. “And what about dragons? Aren’t you afraid we will overpower you and take what we want?”
Sky froze, moving back a little to study her expression. Her answer could hold everything. Their future. His. Hers. Thunder’s. Everything.
Gina considered the question. She’d spent her entire adult life avoiding men who were stronger than her. Who could hurt her. She had neglected to tell them about the near rape that led her to learn to protect herself. She’d only escaped from the wolf without shifting because someone walked in and saved her. If he hadn’t been such an important client, he’d have ended up in jail.
He should have.
But, as she searched her mind, she found no fear. Desire. Pleasure. A sense of safety with their arms enclosing her. Her human parents, who had raised her after adopting the abandoned baby nobody realized was a shifter, had done their best, but even as a young girl she knew they weren’t as strong as the shifters who also populated the world. In fact, they’d encouraged her to hide her cat until she grew old enough nobody could decide they were unfit to have a shifter child.
They’d love
d her.
But they were weak.
Was she afraid of these dragons?
“I might be a little afraid,” she confessed, finding the niggling bit in the deepest corner of her mind. “But I’ve had a lot of practice at that.”
His dragon rumbled, joined by Thunder’s. Way to calm her down. Her wide eyes told him she heard it. “Now we’ve gone and made it worse. Gina, beauty, our dragons are just protective. They don’t like hearing that you had so much bad happen in the past, and they want you to know they are here to make sure you never have to worry about that again.”
“Sure,” Thunder echoed. “We’ve got you.”
We. Amazing how that sounded. Maybe he and his old frenemy had never been destined to be a pair themselves, but only the men in this amazing woman’s life? Maybe that—
“Umm,” the woman in question said. “I’ve known you for a few hours and, while I appreciate the sentiment, I don’t think I’m ready to hand over my life to you guys forever.”
Of course not! “We didn’t mean—”
Thunder hushed him. “You know you’re ours, right?”
Her reaction to his words sent them both tumbling back. She shifted to a spitting, clawing jaguar, fighting her way out of their arms. Before they could react, except to bleed some, she’d landed on the floor. Surrounded by the shreds of her pretty clothes. She crouched on the deep-pile rug, by the ruins of the coffee table she’d glanced off getting away from them, its dark-wood top raked by her claws.
“I’m not sure she liked what you said,” he muttered, from the corner of the leather, now shredded leather, sofa where he’d landed.
“Maybe not.” Thunder was sitting on the floor, legs akimbo. “Independent women, huh?”
“Yeah.” But now that they’d upset her enough to change, how did they get her back to calm and human? “We could shift, too, but I don’t know if that would improve the situation. Her cat might not like us.”
Rising to his knees, Thunder tilted his head. “From the purring all evening, I’d say she does, at least in this form. Gina…may we approach your cat?”
She was an amazing, shiny black jaguar, who, if she weren’t in complete snarl mode, ready to attack, he’d want to coax to his side, to bury his fingers in that incredible fur and let her know how beautiful he thought her. “You’re magnificent. Are you protecting Gina?”
“Yowl.” Bared fangs. Not promising.
“Please, baby. We want to meet your cat,” Thunder murmured in a soothing tone, creeping closer by inches. “Okay?”
When she lunged, Sky grabbed his collar and hauled him back. “She might need a few minutes to get used to us.”
“Ya think?” Thunder held up his arm, the claw marks only shallow because of his retreat. “Well, what are we going to do? We can’t take her outside like this. We’re in the middle of San Francisco, and even though the hotel gardens are shifter friendly, I’m not sure of her temperament.”
“Think she might eat a rabbit or something?”
Thunder shrugged. “No idea. But maybe if we just sit on the floor here for a while and don’t do anything threatening—like breathe too loud—she’ll settle down, maybe shift back so we can talk.”
Sky considered. “If we shift, we can talk to her mind to mind.” But as they both lifted their heads, the cat rose and took a step toward them.
“I don’t think we should do anything, just now.” Thunder kept his focus on the cat, as he sat hip to hip with Sky, their fingers linked in a gesture of solidarity. “The ceiling is pretty low, anyway. We’d bang our heads and wing-tips.”
She prowled closer, fangs bared, eyes gleaming in the low light of the room. They’d never be able to shift before she got to them, and it seemed likely an attempt would have a bad result. They were never so vulnerable as in mid-shift. Even if they were able to fit, size-wise.
Sky tightened his grip on Thunder’s hand. “We’re either going to meet the cat, now…”
“Or she’s going to eat us.”
Thunder held onto Sky’s hand as the only tether to reality in his world. He’d dated a lot of shifters, but by mutual consent they’d always either stayed in human form together or shifted together. And he’d never felt a strong connection. Recreational dating, only. Also by mutual consent.
This time, he was clutching the fingers of the man he had once thought might be his soul mate and now believed to be at least the third part of their triad. And the big, strong, muscular cat padding toward them was definitely both their mate. He felt it to the depths of his soul. She was so close, they could feel her panting breath on their faces, or at least he could. Since their faces were inches apart, he assumed Sky could as well. She approached from the side, silent, warm, furry, and stepped over his legs until she spanned both their laps. What was she going to do?
From his angle, he was looking at her side, the fur as glossy as if she brushed it every hour. But her face was by Sky, so if she was going to eat anyone, it would be him. He should do something.
But what?
With shifting out of the question, he had to rely on his human strength, and though he was more muscular and powerful than the average man, he was still limited by what that body would do. Still, he tensed, ready to wrap his arms around her and wrestle her away if she attacked. He didn’t want to hurt either of them.
The room was silent but for her breathing, a whuffing he’d never heard before. The tension rose until every muscle in his body twisted with it. He didn’t want to speak, didn’t want to do anything to set her off. So he sat as still as possible, hyper aware of the man next to him and the cat standing over him.
Please don’t let her hurt him. Or do something where I have to fight her. I don’t want any of us harmed. We just found each other. So true, in a way. He’d known Sky almost all his life, but things had changed now. It remained to be seen how, but he wanted to live to experience it. Wanted it for himself, for Sky…for Gina.
She flexed her paws and dropped over their laps, rolled onto her back and bared her belly, purring with a deep, sensual rumble. Dropping his palm into the soft fur, Thunder stifled a laugh of relief. “I guess we don’t need an explanation of this, do we?”
“No.” Sky caressed her throat and the short, rounded ears. “She may have gone off, but she’s apparently forgiven us.”
“For now.”
“Until we screw up again.” He continued to pet the female who’d just shown them a trust she’d indicated came hard. “Which I am sure we’ll do.”
“Doubtless.”
But for the moment, Thunder felt complete in a way he never had before. Sky at his side, Gina over both their laps, expressing such loud approval of them. If he died now, he could die happy. Screw that. If he died now, it would suck.
And as he thought that, she shifted, right on their laps, into the golden goddess of the bathtub but without the bubbles hiding any of the interesting parts.
The very, very interesting parts.
Chapter Five
Gina shuddered, shifting back with great effort. Her cat had objected, wanting to continue to enjoy the caressing hands of the two males she’d decided were hers. They’re not ours to keep. We just met them. And, from what I can tell, they aren’t even a couple.
Of course they are. To be fair, the cat was pretty good at gauging people, for a jaguar.
They haven’t been acting like it.
They were holding hands just now, while I was menacing them.
I think that was a fear reaction. Because, you know…you were menacing them.
“Gina?” Sky’s voice cut into the internal conversation, returning her to awareness of the situation. Which was: she was lying naked over the laps of the two fully dressed men. Why was that such an incredible turn-on?
“Hey.” What did one say in a situation like this? Despite her job as a model who often appeared in bra and panties for lingerie ads, she was actually a little shy and rarely allowed a guy to see her nude. Especially in daylight. Every fl
aw on display, the cellulite no amount of exercise, no creams could disappear, the mole on her left hip, the slight sag in her breasts, making the nipples tip up.
She moved to sit up, but Sky slapped an arm over her shoulders, pinning her in place. “What’s your hurry?”
She swallowed. “One of us is underdressed and possibly embarrassed.”
Thunder’s platinum hair gleamed in the lamplight, and his eyes twinkled. “Well, I get the first part, but why are you embarrassed?” He idly stroked her stomach as he spoke, making concentration difficult and her girly parts ache.
“I-I’m naked.”
“Yes,” Sky said, petting her hair as if she were still a cat. “And lovely.”
“And I just freaked out, turned into a jaguar, and more or less attacked you both.”
“Oh, yeah. About that.” Sky held up his arm to reveal a row of scratches.
Thunder did the same.
She closed her eyes and moaned. “You really should ask me to leave.” Clamping her hands over her face, she spoke through her fingers. “In fact, you don’t have to ask. I’ll go.” How could she have hurt them? She struggled to remember what she’d even reacted to…what had they said? She hadn’t shifted in a reactionary way in so many years. Not since she was a kid, and her mom and dad had talked to her and explained that she needed to handle her problems with people as a person. And that it carried over to other shifters as well. Stay a person and retain the ability to use her words. Only mates could talk mind to mind. “This is even more humiliating. I don’t remember what you were saying before I shifted.”
Sky peeled her hands away and offered a reassuring smile. “We were talking about a lot of things, but I’m afraid right now I can’t stop touching you and admiring you and, if you have no objection, I think we might take this into the bedroom where we will also remove our clothes. So nobody is overdressed.”
Paranormal Dating Agency: Claimed by Her Dragons (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 4
