Hunting Season (The Gathering Book 1)

by Shelly Laurenston

  Leaning away from Neecy long enough to reach into the pocket of his bomber jacket thrown over the back of one of the kitchen chairs, he pulled out a long line of condom packets.

  Neecy focused on them and turned questioning eyes to Yager. He shrugged. “Mike.”

  “Oh.” For many, that was really the only explanation they ever needed.

  In seconds, he’d sheathed his cock and yanked Neecy off the butcher block. Once again, not exactly how he’d dreamed their first time together would be. But he’d run out of patience months ago. The only thing the Norse male in him knew was that she was wet, willing, and whimpering.

  Up to this point, Neecy really hadn’t had a chance to look at Yager’s cock. He’d kept the towel on and, although she felt his hard-on through the thick cotton, actual dimensions were lost on her. And once he threw her up on his butcher block she’d forgotten everything with that damn tongue of his getting her to make noises she didn’t think possible. Still, she didn’t get a chance to get a good look at it as Yager quickly pulled her down, immediately shoving his cock inside her.

  And holy shit, but the man was huge!

  Neecy yelped as he settled himself inside her. As wet as she truly was, he still stretched her. And, don’t forget, last boyfriend… Mr. Tiny Penis Man.

  Yager turned and pushed her up against the much sturdier, nailed-to-the-floor island that stood proud and stainless steel-like in his kitchen.

  “Are you okay?” he panted desperately in her ear.

  It took her a moment, but Neecy suddenly realized Yager wasn’t moving. He was waiting for her. Making sure she was okay. She knew it was killing him. Every muscle on his body was rigid and sweat dripped from every pore. Still, as much as it hurt him, he didn’t want to hurt her.

  Neecy wrapped her arms around Yager’s neck while one leg wrapped around his waist and the other around his calf. She leaned in and growled into his ear, “Fuck me, Will. Fuck. Me.”

  She winced as his hands tightened around her body, his big fingers digging into her back. Then he pinned her to the island and fucked her like he’d just been let out of prison, holding her tight as he mercilessly powered into her.

  She couldn’t move, even if she wanted to. Even the trace of pain only enhanced the pleasure. So she held on tight to Will Yager and let him fuck her. And she may never say it out loud, but Jesus Christ, it was the best fuck she’d ever had.

  Each hard thrust pushed her closer to the edge. Each rough pant made her hold him tighter. But when he whispered her name like he was praying at church and not coming like an out-of-control bus, she lost it, flying over that edge with him.

  It took several whole minutes before Yager could actually focus his eyes or remember his name. And the entire time, he never let Neecy go. Nor did she pull away. How he got her to come, though… he’d never know. He stopped thinking about anything once she told him to fuck her. His mind completely shut off and his cock took over.

  He actually felt embarrassed. He had more self-control than that. At least he did with everyone else but Neecy. Slowly, Yager pulled away from her, letting her legs drop to the floor. She almost fell, though, when he tried to release her.

  “God, are you okay?”

  “Yeah.” She smiled. “Just a little shaky.”

  “Here.” He grabbed her by the waist and placed her back on the kitchen block. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

  Yager went to his hallway bathroom and quickly stripped off the spent condom. He moved to the sink and turned on the tap. He splashed cold water on his face and told himself to remain calm.

  True, he had Neecy Lawrence sitting in his kitchen. A naked Neecy Lawrence whom he’d just had the most amazing sex he’d ever had in his entire lifetime with. And he now had twenty-four hours to do that over and over and over again.

  But fucking her wasn’t the prize. Keeping her was.

  Neecy glanced at her watch. Damn. It wasn’t even eleven yet. She came from her eight a.m. class to here and never expected to do more than to again tell Yager she would not go out with him.

  Somehow, though, she’d ended up naked on his butcher block.

  Taking a deep breath, Neecy glanced around Yager’s kitchen. Clearly the man had money. You didn’t get an apartment like this in Manhattan without a few million to your name.

  He also seemed to have a thing about stainless steel and marble. At least in his kitchen.

  Neecy glanced down at herself. She had two Japanese sleeve tats on both her shoulders and upper biceps. Plus one on her right forearm. She got them to cover up her gang tattoos. She still had scars from the gunshots to her chest since Skuld liked to leave little reminders to her Daughters of where they’d come from. And she still had bruises from a brutal fight she’d had several days earlier with some idiot who’d sacrificed his own sister to activate one of Odin’s swords.

  Christ, what the hell am I doing here?

  “Thirsty?”

  Her head snapped up to find Yager standing in front of her. She never even heard him come back in the room. For a very large man, he was awfully stealthy.

  “A little.”

  “Bottled water okay?”

  “Perfect.” She should tell him she wanted to go. She should tell him this was a mistake.

  Before she had a chance, Yager slipped one big arm around her waist and easily lifted her off his defiled butcher block. He held her next to his body. “Wrap your legs around my waist.” She did. “Arms on neck, Lawrence.” She did that, too.

  He walked them over to his stainless-steel fridge and pulled open the door. “Can you get the water?” She could and she did, grabbing the neck of two water bottles in between the fingers of one hand. Once she had them secure, Yager closed the fridge door and headed out of the kitchen.

  “Where are we going?”

  “The bedroom. We can’t stay in the kitchen for the next twenty-four hours, now can we?”

  “Twenty-three hours.”

  “What?”

  “The next twenty-three hours and ten minutes to be exact.”

  “You Crows are such sticklers for the details.”

  “We sure are, but you should know that by now.”

  Yager walked down the very long hallway of his very big apartment until he reached the master bedroom. Like the rest of the place, it was enormous. Had to be, though… so it could fit that bed.

  Slowly, he put her down on the bed and grasped one of the waters she held out to him. In silence, they opened the bottles and drank. While doing so, Neecy, feeling a little bit insecure suddenly, examined Yager’s room. Very little steel here except for the bed frame. Instead, he had lots of manly wood furniture. Mahogany being the wood of choice. Plus a couple of plush leather chairs scattered around the room, both filled with piles of clothes Yager must have tossed off before heading to the shower. He also had a laptop on the dresser and what looked like a PC game paused on-screen. He had only a couple of pictures of his Raven buddies and his old mentor. No other family shots or girlfriend pictures she could see. And five framed posters on his walls… three from the first Star Wars movies, one from War Games, and one from the original Heavy Metal movie.

  She didn’t know what she expected to find in Yager’s apartment, but for some reason these posters weren’t it. They seemed kind of… well, geeky. She never thought of Yager as geeky. Of course, a few hours ago, she did think of him as dumb. Quickly, however, she was realizing Yager wasn’t stupid at all.

  “You gonna look at me, baby?”

  Neecy sighed. “You really have to stop calling me that.” She brought the bottle back to her lips and took a healthy drink, turning to face him. Bad move, since she almost choked on her water.

  Yager stood in front of her. Completely naked and completely gorgeous. No towel or anything else for that matter between them. And, to her surprise, he’d gotten hard again. Seriously, take-down-a-door-with-that-thing hard. Her last couple of boyfriends were lucky to bang it out twice in a night and that was usually only
after some liquor and porn were involved. She’d heard Odin endowed his Ravens with his sexual resilience, but she thought that was a myth.

  Lowering the bottle of water, she slowly licked her lips.

  “Uh… Lawrence? My eyes are up here.”

  “So?”

  Yager laughed. “God, I love your honesty.”

  Well, why bother lying? When a man sports a cock that big and it was all yours for the next twenty-three hours, why waste time with bullshit?

  Stretching out her hand, Neecy grasped Yager’s cock tight. He took in a startled breath as she gently pulled him toward her.

  “When you took off the condom, did you wipe yourself off?”

  She heard him swallow before he answered. “Yeah.”

  “Good. I hate the taste of spermicide.” Then she wrapped her lips around him and sucked.

  As soon as her mouth glided over his cock, Yager realized how far gone he really was. He could spend the rest of his life with his cock trapped in this woman’s mouth and be so okay with that. And she took her time. He didn’t sense for a second that she was trying to get him off just so she could get it over with. Instead, it seemed like she enjoyed running her tongue over every vein, every ridge. Exploring him. Tasting him. Testing him. Testing how much he could take.

  Not much. As soon as the tip of her tongue began playing around his slit, he almost lost it. He pushed her off before he shot a load down her throat.

  “What?” Wow, she sounded annoyed he stopped her. Could he actually have found male nirvana? A woman who liked giving blowjobs?

  Taking deep breaths and thinking about ice hockey, “Not yet, baby.” He’d promised himself to make this round last.

  Yager pushed her back on the bed as he stretched out beside her. “Trust me when I say we’ll get back to that, but right now I wanna—” using one arm to prop his head up, he slid the fingers of his free hand across her stomach and around her breasts, “—savor.”

  Frowning in confusion, she asked, “Savor what?”

  “You, Neecy.”

  “Why?”

  “I find it amazing you even have to ask that.”

  “We’re on a schedule here, Yager.” She slapped the back of one hand into the palm of the other several times to emphasize her point. “So don’t start fucking it up with ‘savoring’ and meaningful looks. We don’t have time for that.”

  Yager laughed so hard he almost fell off the bed. After about two minutes, he heard Neecy growl. He grabbed hold of her arm before she could take two steps away from the bed. He yanked her back down and stretched out on top of her, holding her still with his weight.

  “Don’t even think about leaving, Lawrence.”

  “Well you seemed to be having so much fun without me,” she snapped.

  “I just really irritate the living shit out of you sometimes, don’t I?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes you do.”

  “Now that doesn’t seem right, does it?” He nuzzled her under the chin. “I really should make up for that.” He licked the skin between her breasts and brushed the sides with the tip of his nose.

  Her breathing changed, becoming deeper. Her body trembled slightly as he used the tip of his tongue to lightly tease her nipples. Long fingers dug into his hair as even longer legs wrapped tight around him.

  Pulling himself up a bit, he spoke softly against her ear. “But don’t forget, Neecy Lawrence—” slowly thrusting his hips so his hard cock rubbed against her, he heard her moan, “—you’re mine until tomorrow. That means I can savor, pamper, spoil, or play with this body until our time is up.” He thrust again and Neecy moaned. “And you’re gonna let me, aren’t you, baby?” He thrust against her, harder this time, making sure to hit her clit in the process. “Aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” she hissed, gripping him tighter, burying her face in his neck. “God, yes.”

  Yager smiled, feeling like one of the triumphant warriors he was a descendent of. “Good, baby. Now lean back, get comfortable, and enjoy the ride.”

  Chapter Six

  Will pushed her hair out of her face, but her eyes didn’t open. “You okay, baby?”

  She yanked the covers over her head. “Go away!”

  Poor thing. He’d ridden her pretty hard most of the day. She went to get more water from the kitchen and he fucked her up against the fridge. She went to the bathroom and he nailed her on the sink. She walked down the hallway and he fucked her on the hallway floor. And none of that included what he did to her in his bed… again and again and again. He should feel bad… but he didn’t. Not when he felt so damn good. And he wasn’t remotely done with her. Not yet.

  Not ever.

  “Aren’t you hungry, baby?”

  “This is another one of those trick questions, isn’t it?”

  He grinned as he fought with her to pull the covers back. He always knew he’d enjoy tusslin’ with Neecy Lawrence. “Don’t be ridiculous.” He snatched the covers out of her hands. “Besides, what else could I mean when I say, ‘So, do you like protein in your diet?’”

  “I thought you were talking about that diet where you only eat meat.”

  Laughing, he slipped his arms under her neck and legs, easily lifting her off the bed. “In a way… I was.”

  He carried her into his living room where he already had the food laid out on the floor. He even had a reason to use his fireplace. The whole crackling-fire thing… that was romantic, right?

  He placed her on top of the flannel blanket he’d already put down.

  “Chinese food.” She smiled. “Very creative.”

  “Can you think of anything better for sustaining bouts of serious sex than takeout Chinese?”

  Stretching out, stomach down, she took the chopsticks he offered her. “Good point.”

  He stretched out next to her. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I got a little bit of everything.”

  “I’m not finicky about food.” She snagged a piece of barbeque pork and popped it into her mouth. “Especially when I’m actually allowed to eat.”

  “Don’t give me that look. I gave you time for lunch.”

  “Letting me eat soup while you lick me out is not really conducive to getting in a full meal.”

  “But it was chicken noodle. It had everything necessary to get back to sex.”

  She shook her head and sipped the red wine he put out.

  “I hope the wine’s okay. I’ve got soda and water if you want that instead.”

  “Nope. This is fine.”

  They ate in silence for a good ten minutes, and Yager really liked that she didn’t feel the need to talk while she was eating. When he ate, he just wanted to eat. Basic conversation came before and after. Never during.

  He also liked that she didn’t seem to mind sitting around his living room naked. Yeah. He could easily see spending the rest of his life naked with Neecy.

  When they’d polished off most of the food, he decided it was time to get a little information out of her. She seemed so relaxed and there was so much about her he wanted to know. For once, she didn’t seem closed off to him, and she was actually letting him be nice to her. “Can I ask you a question?”

  Neecy took a bamboo shoot out of his nearly empty bowl. “How did I die, right?”

  Yager shook his head. He didn’t need to ask about her death. He already knew. It was the first question every Raven asked when they brought in a new Crow to The Gathering: “So, bro, how’d this one buy it?”

  “Actually, I was going to ask about your tattoos.”

  “Oh.” She glanced down at the tattoos covering both of her biceps and one on her forearm. They were amazing workmanship and something about them seemed to fit Neecy perfectly. “I got these from an Okinawa Crow. She’s also a tattoo artist and came to the States to visit for a couple of weeks. Didi knew I wanted to cover up my old tats, so she asked the woman to swing by and meet with me. I thought for sure I wouldn’t be able to afford her. I mean, she’s world-famous. But she did these f
or free.”

  “Why?” Yager didn’t know much about tattoos. He went through his life avoiding needles as much as possible. His doctor cringed every time he realized he had to give him a shot for something. Still, Yager knew tattoos could be expensive based on what Mike told him. The better the artist, the more expensive the tat.

  Neecy gave a small smile. “She talked to me for hours the first night she was here. When she was about to go back to her hotel, she said she’d do my cover-ups. She’d be back in a couple of days.”

  “Just like that?”

  “I think she felt sorry for me. And she knew I wanted to get rid of the gang tats.”

  “Felt sorry for you or admired you? There is a difference.” He ran his finger down one of her tats, tracing the soaring black crow within the intricate design. “This isn’t the tat of someone I should feel sorry for. It’s about power and strength.”

  She finished off her wine and shrugged self-consciously. “Yeah. I guess. Maybe.” Quickly, Neecy moved on from the topic of herself. Seemed she didn’t feel too comfortable with that.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Anything.”

  She blinked at that, before barreling ahead. “When did Odin come for you?”

  “When I was thirteen.”

  “Wow. You were young.”

  “It’s the standard age for the Ravens.”

  “Crows don’t have a standard age.” He knew that. Crows came whenever their deaths came. “So, how did that work?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “How did Odin come for you? I mean, Skuld waits until you’re on that last breath before she makes an appearance. Then she offers you fruit—although none of us figured out why yet. Anyway, I wondered how Odin handled it.”

  Will took his fist and lightly tapped Neecy on her forehead. “Knock. Knock. Mrs. Yager, we’re Raven Elders and we’re here for your son.”