by Abby Knox
“You’re the first to see me like this,” she said, her words shaky with desire.
“That’s the way it should be. I’m going to touch you between your legs now.” He then began to explore with his fingers. He massaged her folds and she moaned.
“Oh, Vann. That’s…oh my god…”
He found her tiny button of pleasure and she let out a loud gasp. “Oh my god!”
“Is this good, GiGi?”
“So fucking good!”
“Have you ever touched yourself here?” he asked.
“Some…a little…not much.”
“Listen to me, angel face. There’s nothing or be ashamed about. You’re beautiful. Every last bit of you. “
He worked her rhythmically until she stumbled. “Oh fuck, Vann, I need to feel you between my legs. Now.”
Shit, what had he been thinking, making her stand? “Get on down here, babe.”
He pulled her down and she straddled him on deck. Her tits were now even with his face. For the first time he cupped her breasts.
“It’s insane how perfect these are.” He kissed them. “So soft. Your skin is a blanket for my soul.”
“Vann. Will you please break me now? I’m ready for you.”
He smiled and traced kisses over her breasts as she moaned and rocked her hips into him.
“Do you want to take it out?”
She responded by unzipping and unbuttoning his jeans and reaching in, quickly freeing his cock.
“Your hands felt amazing on me. Do you want to hold it for a bit? Have you ever touched one before?”
She gave a husky little laugh. “Maybe a little, but not one this nice.”
Vann leaned back and propped himself up on his elbows, taking in a deep breath of salt air and letting all the sensations wash over him. “We could stay like this all night. We could just stay like this, touching each all damn night and I could not be happier. I am putty in your hands, darlin’.”
“Come here,” she said. She leaned in and kissed his neck. Her legs tightened around him and he rose back up, his arms pulling her in closer. Their upper bodies were glued together. It felt like heaven, and he knew they were not going to be sitting here simply touching each other all night long. Things were hurtling fast in one direction.
She must have been feeling it too because she started making some different kind of noises along with her moans. It got him more excited knowing he was about to unlock her mysteries.
Her hips rocked toward him with need, and he knew it was time.
He quickly retrieved a condom from his front pocket—what could he say, wishful thinking pays off. Safely sheathed, he asked her again if she was ready.
She made a noise that came from the back of her throat, and then she was raking his back with her nails and smashing his lips with hers with a new intensity.
“Here we go, darlin’.” He had brought lube just in case, but he didn’t even need it, she was that wet and ready. He sank in just a bit, and then something took over her. She was like a wild cat. She was squeezing, thrusting, clawing.
Suddenly he felt her hymen give way, he braced for her cry of pain, but it was not in pain that she cried out. It was more like a triumphant roar. Yes, a roar.
It was a sound from another world, coming from this little woman. Vann didn’t know what the fuck was happening, but when he pulled back and saw her face, it had changed. She had the look of a beast, like him, but not a wolf. Very different from a wolf, in fact. Was he crazy or was this new beast … feline?
“Baby, what’s happening to you?”
But he was helpless now, and she was unresponsive on this plane of existence. She was riding him to ecstasy and he was not about to try to stop her. Something weird was definitely happening, but Vann had been all over the world and seen some weird-ass shit. Weirdness just turned him on even more at this point in his life. “Baby, your nails. Oh my god. Yes!” And suddenly she was coming; he felt her body tightening around his cock, convulsing, and the strangest noises were coming from the back of her throat. And then her mouth was at the base of his neck and he felt her bite down. Hard. “Get it, girl,” he whispered. It was excruciating but also a fucking delicious pain. He instantly came, filling the condom and probably spilling over and out. Damn. Who is this chick? Like, really, Who is she?
As their orgasms subsided, he tried to catch his breath enough to ask her if she was OK.
And then, he felt it. The warm, damp dripping down his back. And more of the same on his front. He looked down and saw red. The metallic smell. Whoa. So much blood!
Well, here’s a clue who this girl was. His virginal girl was into some freaky shit and she didn’t even know it. He looked up at her and he saw that she was coming back down to earth. She had a look of horror in her eyes, and her pupils had fucking changed their shape. And as she panted to catch her breath, he could see her teeth, and those were not just teeth. Those were fangs.
What. The. Fuck.
In Thailand he’d been tore up pretty badly by a chick who thought she was a vampire, but this was a first.
Then something come over her face. It was an expression of remorse and panic. She immediately recognized what she had done, and she hopped off of him. And screamed. She said something, but he couldn’t understand it. Or, perhaps nothing was registering in his brain because, let’s face it, he was losing blood.
As Vann opened his mouth to speak, he passed out.
Chapter 10
GiGi
“I told you everything I know, officer.”
GiGi was being held in an interrogation room at the hospital. Between sobs, she told the investigating officer who had been called to the hospital everything she could remember. Everything except the part where she had started to transform into a panther in the middle of having sex with one of the city’s most beloved celebrity chefs.
The half-truth had been embarrassing enough. She was being intimate with Vann West on his boat. Things got out of hand and she had scratched him with her nails and bit his chest. She had bitten and scratched harder when he had egged her on. And that’s all that the DuChamps family attorney would let her say.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. The attorney glared and held up his head. “No more, GiGi. That’s it.” Then he pointed to the officer. “She did not apologize, she committed no crime.”
“Stop!” she cried. “Somebody tell me if he needs blood. Does he need blood, because I can donate! I have a universal blood type!”
“Ms. DuGrey,” the officer said, “I just need you to calm down and tell me one more time. Why did you think it was OK to draw blood from Mr. West? What were you planning to do with the blood sample?”
The attorney stood up and put a hand on GiGi’s shoulder. “Is she under arrest? Because we are done here unless you are going to charge her.”
The officer glared up at the attorney and then looked at GiGi with an expression of not so much anger as concern. “Ma’am, you are free to go. For some reason he will not be pressing charges, against our advice. But I’m going to caution you to be careful of who you get mixed up with in the future. Drugs are not your friend.”
Was this actually happening? Was she getting a D.A.R.E. lecture now when Vann was lying in a hospital bed? Was Vann really not going to press charges?
She didn’t know she could feel so many things all at once: guilt, sadness, remorse, terror, relief and guilt again.
And then, an overwhelming need to see Vann.
As the attorney led her from the room, she made a beeline for the emergency room.
“Not a good idea, Ms. DuGrey.”
“I have to see him.”
“Your uncle gave specific instructions—”
But then the attorney’s voice was cut off by a loud clatter of metal and a man’s voice booming, “Where the FUCK is she?”
It was Vann. He was OK. And he wanted to see her.
Gulp. Better go and face the music.
She freed her arm from the half-hearted
grip of the lawyer and bolted toward the sound of Vann’s voice.
“Vann!” she screamed through her sobs.
“GiGi, where the fuck have you…ow! Get that fucking IV away from me, and no I don’t want any fucking Jell-O!”
The crowd around Vann made it seemed that everyone in GiGi’s family, as well as Vann’s people, had descended on the emergency room at the same time.
GiGi’s stomach fell to the floor and she felt like she was going to throw up. This was not how she wanted her truth to come out to Vann. And she was not interested in all of these people discussing her perceived “kinks.”
Rosemary, Aunt Betsy and Uncle Lionel were talking to the attorney in one corner. Ash, Bobby and a few others she vaguely remembered from the engagement party, all surrounded Vann. And there was the mysterious Penny LeFleur, who was apparently still giving Rosemary the cold shoulder. And, oh my god, Ash’s father was there, too. She recognized Jimmy Boudreaux from the locally famous chicken commercials. Good grief, was every New Orleans food celebrity here to behold the woman who tried to murder Vann West in the middle of coitus? Where was Emeril Lagasse? He should probably be here to see this, too, she thought wryly.
Vann had a large bandage on his neck and he was wearing a ridiculous hospital gown. And yet somehow he still resembled a Viking god. His friends all looked like they were trying to get him to calm down so the nurse could stick him with a needle. He was having none of it.
And then, he saw her.
GiGi was prepared for him to start accusing her of assaulting him, to ream her up one side and down the other and declare that he never wanted to see her again. She held her breath and braced herself for the onslaught.
Instead, he pushed Ash and Bobby out of the way. “Babe, are you OK?”
She cried, “How are you asking me that?”
He didn’t answer, but squeezed GiGi so tight her feet lifted off the floor. He planted kisses on both her cheeks and lips and nose and forehead.
“You must be on some good hospital drugs,” she said, laughing and crying through their kisses.
“No, I’m just relieved you’re OK.”
She sniffed. “But your back! Your neck! I can’t believe you still can look at me.”
He set her down and held her face in his hands. “You got it backwards. I only want to look at you, just you, ever again. And anybody that keeps you away from me again is going to get flayed.”
This comment was aimed at his crew, who stood watching the scene just as incredulously as GiGi’s people were doing.
Then Lionel approached out of nowhere. “Excuse me, Mr. West. I was wondering if you and I could discuss how we’re going to keep this out of the papers, in the interest of both parties.” Her uncle Lionel pulled a checkbook out of his breast pocket.
Vann didn’t even look at the old man. Instead he smirked and kept his eyes on his girl. “Put your money away. Only thing you can do for me is agree to come to your own daughter’s wedding.”
Lionel huffed. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. If you think this little flesh wound is gonna make your family look bad in the police blotter, then buckle up. Just wait until the society page of the Times-Picayune find out the wealthiest man in the history of New Orleans ain’t even man enough to show up to the wedding of his daughter. All because she’s marrying his former business rival’s son over some long-forgotten feud.”
GiGi stared wide-eyed from Uncle Lionel to Rosemary to Aunt Betsy to Ash. They all looked like they were waiting for the old man to pounce on Vann with a vengeance. He was old, yes. But her uncle was loud and powerful and charismatic, and he could still make a Teamster’s nuts shrink into his abdominal cavity with one withering look. One doesn’t run the biggest shipping operation on the Mississippi Delta with the demeanor of a pansy-ass.
But Lionel did not yell. He did not stomp his feet. What he did was tuck his checkbook back into his breast pocket, turn, and walked away.
Everyone watched him go. Betsy turned to follow her husband out.
“Mama?” Rosemary said.
Betsy looked back at her daughter and shrugged, whispering “I do not know,” in answer to the unspoken question that was on Rosemary’s mind. Then she scampered to catch up with her husband. As the pair of them made their way down the hall, everyone could hear Lionel murmur, “I hear that daughter has got you helping with the wedding now. Oh, Betsy, how she gets her way with you, every time, is beyond me.”
Betsy replied. “That’s a trait she didn’t lick up off the street, Lionel DuChamps.”
Before they disappeared out the exit doors, everyone saw Lionel reach over and pull Betsy in close, following by Betsy reaching over and slapping old Lionel on the ass.
Rosemary gasped, and Ash remarked, “Looks like the old man’s getting lucky tonight!”
“’Bout damn time,” said Rosemary, to a response of raucous laughter.
GiGi shook her head. “You people are crazy.” She still had tears streaming down her face.
Vann looked deeply concerned about her. “Y’all, thanks for coming, but my GiGi here and I are gonna have a little chat.”
They all reluctantly left the room, but not before Penny shot her a look of death.
“Penny, wait!”
GiGi wrenched herself free of Vann’s grasp and went to Penny, who held up impatiently.
“Penny,” GiGi said, “I don’t know you, so I don’t blame you for being angry with me. I know what this looks like.”
“It looks like several flesh wounds. Deep ones,” Penny said.
GiGi felt the stabbing pain of remorse grow deeper. “I am so sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”
Penny crossed her arms. “Has Vann let you in on our little secret? Because you two may not be such a good fit for each other. Rosemary and Ash are outliers, under the circumstances.”
“Penny!” Vann shouted. “Please. I know you mean well, but you need to go. It is not your place to bring this up. GiGi and I have got this.”
Penny looked shocked. “So, you’ve made a decision.”
Vann and Penny exchanged looks. The sound that came out of Vann was laden with grave warning. “That. Is. None. Of. Your. Business.”
Penny left without another word, but GiGi thought she could see her dabbing at her eye.
GiGi regretfully watched her go. So much for trying to make friends with Vann’s people. This was why GiGi threw herself into her work. She wasn’t good at relationships, platonic or otherwise. Oh, and the whole panther thing.
“Hey,” Vann said, as if reading her thoughts. “Don’t worry about her. She’ll be fine.” He wiped her tears with his thumbs and kissed her mouth tenderly. When he was finished, he said, “So I guess we need to talk, Crazy Cat Lady.”
“Oh Vann. I’m so sorry…”
“Oh no, you don’t. You do not need to apologize for who you are. But listen. We are not going to have this most important conversation while I’m wearing a butt window hospital gown. Let’s go get a whiskey and a steak and we can talk this thing out, OK, angel face?”
“But have they discharged you yet?”
He laughed. I don’t know and I do not care, but let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Chapter 11
Vann
GiGi’s eyes were sparkling. “So, can I come out and run with the pack sometime?”
The two of them were enjoying enormous steaks—hers with wine, his with whiskey—at a little chophouse on the river. They were the only people in there in jeans and sneakers. To top it off, there was the bandage on Vann’s neck and more bandages on his back, giving his ratty hoodie a sort of humpback look. But one nice thing about dining with Vann was, nobody questioned his attire at an upscale eatery.
He had just got done telling her all about the curse that had been laid on the Boudreaux, centuries ago.
“If you go back far enough in the family tree, Ash and I and the rest of the wolves are related. It’s a very old curse.” He told her everything —
that they were shapeshifters, that they turned to wolves and hunted every full moon. And that once in a while, when things get out of hand, the beast can get out.
And then it was GiGi’s turn. The panthers had only been cursed a bit more than 100 years ago, she told Vann, by a business rival that had apparently found a half-assed voodoo practitioner who tried to have Beauregard DuChamp killed by wild animals. When it didn’t work, the dark magic and the injuries left behind also left a mark on the whole clan. GiGi’s parents had been shapeshifters, too. It was not a hiking accident that killed them. It was a couple of drunk hunters in the swamp who had spotted two panthers, and shot them both dead. GiGi, not yet knowing who she really was as a young girl, was taken in to the protective bosom of the DuChamp clan. Like Rosemary, she’d had a coming out party, but being a deb and all that that entailed was of little interest to GiGi. Given the circumstances, Betsy and Lionel didn’t push.
“It’s funny,” Vann said. “The DuChamps like to talk about their old-money status, but the wolves have actually been shifters way longer than y’all.”
GiGi grinned. “And now with Rosie and Ash getting together, who knows what that will mean.”
Vann added, “And don’t forget you and me.”
With most everything out in the open, and GiGi assured that he wasn’t angry with her, she seemed almost giddy with excitement over this new knowledge.
“You have no idea how hard it is to make friends with people. And this whole time you’ve been visiting me and I didn’t even know it. I can’t believe you are Buster. My Buster dog. I’ve been feeding you hog intestines!”
“It’s OK, I kind of liked it,” he said. “Wolves aren’t picky, except when it comes to mating.”
GiGi blushed and bit her lip. He was never going to get tired of watching her do that.
“Fine,” he said. “You can come along on a hunt.”
“I can?” She clapped her hands. “Yay!”
“Next full moon, it’s a date. In the meantime I’d like you to get used to being on a boat without getting seasick. I have big plans for you, angel face.”
