His jeans vanished in his own contortions, and soon, it was skin to skin.
Spike yelped when he flipped her to her back and he dove between her thighs with his tongue moving around her sex with disturbing thoroughness. He licked inside her, sending heavy tremors of energy into the rest of her sex. Her channel ached, slicked and clenched while his tongue teased her opening.
She moaned and let him lift her legs to his shoulders. He feasted on her, and she twisted and cried out with the tense pressure of her impending orgasm building. Spike tangled her hands in his hair, and she shrieked when her body clenched and jerked against his lips.
He waited until her spasms eased before he left her, licking his lips.
To her surprise, he leaned to one side and slipped on a condom that he must have prepared while she was tangled in her shirt.
She had to admit, a guy who was prepared to protect her from an unwanted pregnancy was even hotter than a swan who had looked up hedgehog mating.
With his cock sheathed and visibly pulsing, he settled between her thighs and slid into her.
They groaned in unison as they fit together. She shuddered and held onto his arms while he began a slow slide out of her until just the tip of him was still in her. With a low lunge, he pressed into her, and it began a rhythm that she found just as distracting as when he was half-dressed.
He thrust into her, grinding his hips against her; her body shuddered and rocked under him with every motion.
Spike scratched at his shoulders, and her hands shifted slightly into her very sharp claws. He pounded into her hard and fast, and he applied pressure on her clit with one hand, groaning with relief when she screamed in release.
Spike felt her body pulling at his in an ancient reflex. He grunted and pressed into her and held still as he shook violently in her embrace.
He slumped and collapsed on top of her. She was completely surrounded by him.
Spike smiled and licked out to taste the sweat from his shoulder. She enjoyed the salty musk so much that she continued to lap at him with tiny flicks of her tongue.
He lifted his head and caught her lips with his own. When his kiss had started, her body throbbing around him, he raised his head. “Sicily, would you be mine?”
She was dazed and in a highly compromising position. “I will consider it.”
He grinned and reached between them to hold the condom while he eased out of her. He retreated to the bathroom, and when he emerged, he sighed. “As lovely a view as that is, we are due to work tonight.”
She sighed. “I need another shower.”
“I would like to join you, but I think we need to work through the night and that means that I can’t continue what would be started in the bathroom.”
She patted his cheek. “I will go first. Smelling of sex in a bar isn’t a good idea when we are trying to find folks their matches.”
“Valid point.” He grinned and lay on the bed next to her, with his arms tucked behind his head.
She kissed him quickly and then headed for her shower. Once that was done, she had to seek out new underwear. She was going to have to go looking for the other set.
Decked out in her standard uniform of denim and cotton, she sat in the living room while Albert took his shower.
Dating a swan. How was she going to explain this to her mother?
Lee was sitting in a quiet booth with Chuck’s mate, Ivy. Spike got them each a fruit cocktail with happy umbrellas and wedges of pineapple on the side.
Lee smiled in thanks and Ivy grinned. “Thanks. I have been editing what Chuck wrote yesterday, and it isn’t going as smoothly as I would like.”
“How many books have you two put out since you have been together?” Spike rested her tray on her hip.
“Six. Three different publishers, three different genres and different author names. Our website is standing by, but we have to do all the maintenance from the Meditation Centre until Dira comes back and sets up our Wi-Fi.” Ivy sipped at her drink and smiled.
Lee chucked and sipped at her drink. “What do you call this?”
“The Sober Surfer. Everything in it is indigenous to Hawaii.”
Ivy smiled. “Can I use that in a book?”
Spike winked. “I will give Chuck the recipe.” She wandered off and cleared the tables, preparing for the evening rush.
It was a relief to stretch the muscles that she had stressed earlier. Next time, she was going to be mentally prepared, and she might even stretch first. The thought put a smile on her lips that lasted through sixty drinks and two more fights.
The crowd had dwindled to a few couples talking quietly in shadowed corners. Chuck was off with Ivy and James had taken Lee home for some much-needed rest. Spike had been amazed that they had left her alone on her second day, but she supposed she had proved herself capable.
The bar was tidy and James would be back in a few hours. All she had to do was work the late shift until things wound down. Working in the Crossed Star wasn’t bad at all. Folks came in to meet their mates. This was the point of first contact for a lot of couples. It set Spike’s romantic streak tingling.
“I have brought you dinner. James told me you are working all night, so I thought you could use this.” Albert settled at the bar and pushed a box toward her.
“Thank you.” She smiled and he produced a fork with a flourish.
She came around the bar and took a seat next to him, opening the offering. Spike grinned with delight. “My favourite, how did you know?”
Albert sighed, and she saw the relief in his face. “I took a chance on something another hedgehog once told me. He said that the first assignment that you were ever on involved you wearing a plate of spaghetti and running through a restaurant.”
She smiled and twirled the pasta around the fork. “James Jarok. He was the only other hedgehog I ever worked with. He was there when I went sprinting along in pursuit of the racoon I was tracking.”
“Did you miss not being around others like you?” Albert put his hand on her back and he rubbed absently.
She slurped her meal with complete disregard for the man next to her. She wasn’t going dainty when there was a chance to enjoy herself. “I don’t miss what I have never had. James and I were different types of hedgehogs, so there were different behaviours involved. Do you know how the others died?”
He paused, his hand resting on her shoulder. “Three were taken by the lions and torn to pieces. There have never been many of your kind, so no one noticed they were disappearing.”
She nodded. “More randoms will be born. They will begin popping up in other populations.”
“Will you be content to stay here until you are no longer endangered?”
Spike slurped up a noodle and wiped her mouth. “I would, as long as I can talk to my parents and arrange a day to visit them.”
“You will have to. To get this kind of arrangement with the Crossroads, you will also have to retract your citizenship with the warren. You will become a ward of the Council.”
She paused with the final mouthful dangling from her lips. She chewed and swallowed quickly. “What?”
“You will be claimed and protected by the entire Shifter Council. All species will come when you call. It isn’t an offer made to many, but you have it.”
“How can you speak for the council?” She moved to swipe at the sauce on her face, but he caught her hand and licked her lower lip for her.
She sat still and her heart hammered as he took tiny little licks along her jawline and chin.
He finally kissed her, and he whispered against her lips. “Why do you think I am here?”
She leaned back. “I don’t get it.”
“When they realized what was happening, they consulted the mage guild master and he found a seer who was willing to work with shifters. They gave him one of your spines, donated by your parents, and he spent time looking for your ideal mate. That is when they contacted me. I was told about your situation and given the choice. I co
uld either accept that I was going to be your mate, or I could fight it and end up in your arms anyway. I gave up gracefully.”
“Like the swan that you are.” She gave him a quick kiss. “If I am going to visit my parents, it will have to be soon. Lee is going to have her baby soon and I need to be fully settled in.”
“You are taking this rather well.”
“I am stuffed with pasta. It evens my mood. I promise I am going to question the hell out of you later.” She smiled and moved to attend to one of the couples that wanted another round of drinks to keep them company while they murmured together.
The package from her mother had arrived that afternoon, and during her first break, she and Teal had taken it to Teebie. Tomorrow afternoon there was going to be a surprise baby shower.
Spike had enjoyed her time as Addy, as brief as it was, but it was Spike that knew who to call and what to do. She was going to be herself from now on. It made a difference to how she reacted to others. There was nothing like embracing your own skin when it came to dealing with predators. Getting a mouth full of spikes was always a fun threat and a better action.
Chapter Seven
Albert left her and promised to come back to walk her home. Spike was busy making plans.
Teebie arrived before dawn and settled on a barstool. “You are adapting well.”
Spike was putting glassware away, and she smiled at the djinn. “Yeah. I have a talent for it. It comes with carrying my own defences on my back. I can be at home anywhere.”
“Well, I am glad that you are moving in. During your day out, the house you are in will be expanded to make you more comfortable.”
Spike laughed. “It seems everyone knows about that.”
“We are a small community that serves a greater cause. We enjoy gossip. Even my aunt sneaks back to visit now and then. She misses it, but her contact with the human world is important to her. The gossip she brings back is tremendous.”
“Can I get you anything?”
“There is a bottle of wine with my name on it back there.”
Spike looked around behind the counter and the letters TB were indeed on a tag on a bottle’s neck. “Is that the right way to spell it?”
Teebie smiled, “It is actually Totally Blue. Teebie is the short version.”
Spike pulled down a wineglass and poured the dark purple liquid into it. The gleam of magic rippled on the surface.
She slid the glass over to Teebie and corked her bottle, setting it back in its little spot. “Will everything be ready this afternoon?”
“Yup. A full fancy tea will be ready ten minutes before four. I have brought in some presents myself and the general store has been going bonkers with the last-minute requests. Lee is going to be overwhelmed.”
Spike bit her lip. “I hope she likes it. I mean, I know that she has a few surviving siblings but she doesn’t seem close to them.”
“She isn’t. She was kept apart from them. Most if not all of them are half-siblings because of the whole polygamy issue. James has a sister but she isn’t here. This party will be welcome.” Teebie sipped at her wine.
“I know you will miss her. She isn’t goning forever, but it will take a little bit of effort for her to come back here with a little one in tow.”
Teebie snorted. “I have been trying to get my aunt to consider working with the councils to craft another residence, but she hasn’t received much enthusiasm from those she’s approached.”
Spike looked around at the empty bar and leaned forward. “Your aunt can build something like the Crossroads?”
“Of course. She built this one after all.”
Spike needed to sit. “What? I thought that it was a joint effort by the councils.”
“You really think that the human mages would have cooperated to find a place so that shifters could meet mates more easily? No. My aunt recognized the need and used her seniority on the councils to force the cooperation by building in the contract system along with a hefty bribe. You pay for your transport and they get access to shifter artefacts for better and stronger spell casting. It is driving the fey population insane in a very literal sense.”
“Bribe?”
“Some snippets of her nails and my mother’s and aunt’s feathers. The moment that the human mages heard about it, you could hear their erections breaking through their trousers across three continents.”
Spike casually wiped the counter. “What is your aunt?”
“Aunt Dira? She is a dragon. Her sisters were a simurgh and a griffin. Their clippings were worth their weight in plutonium. Mages would literally have killed for those clippings and to have them offered prompted a surge of cooperation that was and has remained unprecedented.”
Spike blinked. “A…wow. You have quite the lineage.”
“We all do, you just have to go back far enough to find the magic in your blood.” Teebie smiled. “I wear it on my skin and feel it in my soul, but you and the other shifters pull it out from deep within.”
“Wow. That is…wow. Do you have any theories on how the shifters came to be in the first place?”
Teebie finished her wine. “I do, but there are other nights, and if you are going to stay here, I need to keep you wanting the next instalment of insight. I have much wisdom to impart.”
Spike took her glass and put it in the rack, pouring some water for Teebie out of reflex and she poured one for herself.
“What did you have to arrange with your people to be here?”
Teebie shrugged. “Nothing. Aunt Dira handled it.”
“She has that kind of pull?”
“She is one of the oldest and best-looking shifters in existence. Born of two dragons, she is the only one of that kind most folks have ever met and never known it.”
“Wow.”
“Indeed. It is something that most folks won’t even imagine. She had hosted dozens and possibly hundreds of couples in her Open Heart Bed and Breakfast and each of them was greeted and treated like royalty. It is what she wanted to see. Folks falling in love with every advantage she could give them. She reasoned that if you take away the worries of the world for just an instant, folks will find the mate they are looking for. Remove reality and the possibilities are endless.”
“I need that on a t-shirt.”
Teebie extended her hand and rotated her wrist. A black shirt hung from her hand in seconds, woven out of nothing. With a flourish, she held the shirt out between her hands and the words Remove reality and the possibilities are endless glowed in the dim light of the bar.
She handed it over with a smile. “There you go. Consider it a welcome present instalment. The rest will come when you take your day to rearrange your situation. When you get back, your house will be…different.”
“You know you have me beyond curious now.”
Teebie winked. “I am a huge fan of building suspense. I have been working on a novel with Chuck and Ivy giving me critiques. It has been a rough start, but I am on the third book and I think this one will be the best yet.”
“Nice. Are you published?”
Teebie laughed. “Oh, hell no. The books are all about a blue woman trying to make it in the wide world, solving crime and making friends. One would call it mystery, but it is pure fantasy as you know.”
Spike pulled on the shirt and grinned when it settled into place. “Thank you. I have to ask, is there any way for you to use a glamour like the fey do?”
“Yes and no. I have the power to do it but none of the fey will teach me how. For them, it is natural, and for me, it will be an effort to cover my magic with more magic. It is like slapping paint over more paint. You just have to hope that the colour doesn’t bleed through.”
“And when it does, people get excited.”
Teebie made a face. “Putting it mildly.”
Spike sympathised. “So, aside from writing, what do you do for fun around here?”
She started checking stock and always turned toward Teebie when she spoke.
> They chatted until the dawn spilled through the front doorway bringing Chuck and Albert with it.
Teebie winked, “I had better get going. I have some nocturnals staying and they can wake up at any time, sex only occupies them for so long. I will see you at four.”
“Thanks for keeping me company, Teebie. See you at four.”
The djinn disappeared from the bar and Chuck raised his brows. “She must like you.”
Albert ran his hand through his hair, and she could see the rumpled texture of the golden locks. He had been sleeping.
She narrowed her eyes at him and raised a brow. “Time to go home?”
Albert offered her his elbow. “Your escort awaits.”
Spike quickly showed Chuck the list of stock that they needed, and she skimmed around the bar to take Albert’s arm.
“Is that a new shirt?”
She looked down and chuckled. “Why yes, yes, it is.”
They crunched along the street in silence after that, enjoying the morning light.
When they got home, she breezed past him and took a shower, removing the scent of alcohol and sweat.
Her entire body ached after the unnecessary strain she had put herself through of cleaning the upper shelves. She needed to be busy, loved it, really, but it did take its toll.
Wrapped in a towel, she stomped into the bedroom and collapsed on the bed covers with no ceremony.
Albert was unfastening his jeans and he grinned. “Tired?”
She grunted and glared at him with the eye not blocked by the pillow.
He completed his removal of the denim, and he settled in behind her, giving her a strong massage that had her groaning again.
He muttered something and disappeared for a moment, returning with a bottle that he set down on the bedside table next to her. She heard him remove the cap and the distinctly rude sound of his hands rubbing together was her next audio experience.
His hands resumed their massage, but now, it was strong and the heat of friction was absent.
He worked her over from neck to knees. She was loose, relaxed and limp when he finished with her.
Spike's Day Out Page 4
