by Riley Storm
Klaue reached out and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her down on top of him. Jessica cried out in surprise.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” she protested, trying to squirm out of his grip, but it was no use. Thick arms held her tight against his hard body, and it didn’t take long for her to start feeling the heat spreading throughout her own as she entered his space. Klaue was a furnace and now was no different.
“I am not. I’m not that damaged,” he told her sternly. “Stop acting like I’m in critical care. I don’t need a wheelchair.”
“Good, they don’t make them big enough for your ass and your ego,” she shot back, giving up the struggling and resting on his surprisingly comfortable chest, trying to ignore the muscles underneath her fingers.
“If anything got injured badly today, it was my ego. Thankfully, that heals up much faster than my body.”
Jessica was in mid-snort when he reached up, pushing his fingers through her hair and pulling her down to him. The snort of laughter became a soft gasp, and for the second time in twenty-four hours, she kissed Klaue.
Except this time, they were alone. On the bed. The warmth surrounding them multiplied and thickened, like a cocoon, isolating them from the rest of the world. Jessica lost herself in Klaue, his lips, the soft skin of his face and the steel-like muscles of his chest, and shoulders, and arms and—
Fingers started tugging at her shirt as they kissed, stealing her breath away as he pulled it up slightly, exposing her back to his touch. Was this going to happen? Jessica started to doubt herself and her decisions. She was supposed to be figuring out a way to get her sister to safety, without putting others in danger.
Instead, she was making out with a hottie who, for all she knew, was just using her to find out what she knew.
You know Klaue isn’t doing that. Stop it. Don’t drag him into your fears. He’s proven himself to you enough by now.
“Klaue,” she said softly, sitting up.
The movement pushed her hips farther back, and abruptly she felt them brush against a hardness that betrayed just how he was feeling. It also prompted her body to remind her how long it had been since the last time. It was safe to say that physically at least, he wasn’t the only one who wanted this.
“What is it?” he asked, running his fingers up the bare skin of her skids and across her ribs.
Jessica gasped, shivering at the sensation. It felt good. “So good,” she moaned as he picked her up by the waist and sat her on top of his hard-on, somehow finding the right angle so all she had to do was move forward slightly to grind upon it.
Klaue made noises of agreement and pulled her face back down to him to kiss her some more, leaving Jessica nearly panting from desire.
“I don’t want anyone thinking I’m buying your protection by sleeping with you,” she protested, knowing it was a lame argument, but unable to help herself anyway.
“Everyone has already made up their mind about you. If we do this, it’s not going to sway anyone one way or another,” he growled deliciously into her neck before following it up with kisses so light she felt her skin tighten seconds before shivers ran down the length of her spine, causing her to arch slightly.
“You’re sure?” she asked as one hand reached down and across her rear, coming close to grazing her through her pants. Jessica wanted it, and wanted it bad. Biting her lip, she pulled her hips up, feeling his arousal through her pants as she rubbed him up and down.
They both were short of breath, becoming more lost in one another by the second as they explored each other’s bodies, liking what they found. It was good. Really, really good.
She was on the edge of caving and ripping his clothes off, only the barest hint of restraint left in her when his teeth bit gently into her neck at the same time as he squeezed her ass with one hand, the other firmly wrapped around her waist. That was the last straw. Sitting up, she grabbed at the sides of her shirt and lifted her arms to take it off. Klaue pulled it off and tossed it to the side.
At the same time, someone knocked rapidly on the door.
“Jess! Jess, answer the door!” The alto-voiced calls were audible even from the bedroom.
Below her, Klaue growled at the interruption, muttering something about ignoring it. She was about to, but a second person started knocking as well, and she heard Haley’s voice.
“They aren’t going to stop, are they?” Klaue complained, accepting defeat about as graciously as could be expected, which wasn’t very.
“I don’t think so,” she said with a giggle.
“I guess you’d better answer it then.”
“Suppose so.” She stood up, putting her shirt back on rapidly and pulled at her hair. “How do I look?”
“Stunning.”
She blushed and all but fled the room to avoid follow up comments, wondering what the heck could be so urgent to bring the girls to her quarters. Klaue’s quarters. Whatever.
“Haley? Loren? What are you two doing here?” she asked.
Michelle popped around the corner. “Boo!”
Stepping back in surprise, Jessica glared at the other woman, then they all laughed.
“What’s up?”
“We’re bored,” Loren said with a shrug, pointing at herself and then at Michelle. “This is our last night here before we head back to Plymouth Falls, and we want to have some fun.”
“Where’s Nat?”
“Honeymoon,” Loren groaned, holding up one hand with her finger and thumb pinched together at the end then sticking the index finger of her other hand through it back and forth repeatedly.
The girls all laughed, Jess included, though she was unsuccessfully fighting back a blush.
“So come on,” Haley urged. “Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
The girls looked back and forth at each other, then turned as one to Jess. “We found the wine cellar,” Haley whispered conspiratorially. “You coming?”
“Um.”
“Think about it,” Loren chimed in. “The size of this place? It’s probably more like a wine dungeon. We’re going to raid it. Now put on your shoes and let’s go. You can go back to Klaue later.”
Jess coughed. “I can what?”
Loren laughed. “Your shirt is on backward, and we’ve all seen that hair in the mirror before, haven’t we, ladies?”
“I’m not winning this, am I?” she asked, stifling a laugh as she echoed Klaue’s comment from just a few minutes earlier.
“Absolutely not. Fix your shirt and let’s go!” Loren said, then leaned past her. “Sorry, not sorry, Klaue, we’re stealing her!”
The only response from the darkened bedroom was a loud growl that sent all the women into fits.
24
Bouncing down the hallway with an extra skip to her step, Jessica recalled the words the other girls had spoken to her about Klaue. They’d all had good things to say, but Haley was the one she’d listened to carefully, because she’d spent time around him, as had her mate Kirell.
It had been tough not to make mention of the shifters and mates and such around the other two, but even with the wine, they’d succeeded in having a conversation about Klaue, sans all “shifter” talk. All of them said he was a good person, and that she wouldn’t be making a mistake by going to bed with him, despite her protests that it “wasn’t like that”. Except it was. Kinda.
The decision in the end was hers of course, and they’d driven that point home firmly. Jessica was at the Manor for protection, and she wasn’t under any obligation to sleep with him for that to continue. Loren, a bottle and a half of wine into it, had made a fierce claim that if the Ursa wouldn’t do it, then Jess could come and stay with her, and she’d protect her. It was a sweet, if hiccup-filled sentiment.
At some point, Jess had admitted that she was feeling something between her and Klaue, but was concerned about it on several levels, including the fear that others in the House would think she was doing it as bribery. Haley had told he
r that anyone who thought that was just judgmental and should be ignored.
Maybe. Easier said than done though, Haley.
One thing the trio had been adamant about, however, was that Klaue was a good man, and that he was definitely interested in her. She heard tales of the looks they’d seen him giving her at the wedding, and also how he’d calmly but plainly told several others to stop staring at her, in polite but firm terms. She’d never suspected that he was the jealous type, and appreciated that he hadn’t just gone around threatening people who looked at her.
But don’t lie, you like that he’s staking a claim to you.
So what if she did? It wasn’t a bad thing to be wanted, and knowing that Klaue wanted her for himself was…empowering.
Pushing open the door to his quarters, she let it close behind her and locked it. Nobody was answering the door tonight, not unless they ordered up food to the room. Right now, it was about her, and it was about Klaue.
Maybe it was the wine in her stomach, or the words of her newfound friends in her head, but when Jessica decided that this was going to happen, she felt a lightness about her soul.
“Klaue,” she called out, kicking her shoes off and going in search of him, the big, hot shifter hunk that he was.
They had unfinished business between them.
He emerged from his study after her second call, closing the door behind him. “Have fun?” he teased, giving her an up and down stare. “Just how much did you get into?”
Jess laughed, flicking her hair behind her shoulder before pulling it up into a ponytail with the hair elastic she’d had to borrow from Loren. Apparently, shifters didn’t just keep those lying around. “Enough to have fun, not enough to get into trouble? I think.”
“You think,” he echoed, standing still at the door as she approached him, looking into his face, seeing past the cool of his icy blue eyes into the warmth of the soul of the man that lay beyond. She knew it was in there, the true heart that he tried so hard to hide.
“Let it go,” she whispered, reaching up to stroke his face, feeling the scrape of his stubble against her palm, the tenderness of his lips as she brushed her thumb over them. “It’s just me.”
Klaue frowned, but he didn’t flinch away. “Let what go?”
“Your guard,” she said, resting her other hand on the flat of his chest, feeling the beat of his heart under her fingertips.
A tremor so faint it went nearly undetected threaded its way through Klaue, and in his eyes she saw the ice crack, then slowly melt away.
“There it is,” she whispered, smiling up at him.
“Jess…” Klaue’s hands came up, dragging slightly across her sides and resting on her shoulders. “Are you…”
“Shh.” Pressing her finger to his lips, Jessica pushed Klaue back against the door to his study. For a big man, he moved easily when she had him under her control.
No. Neither of us is under anyone’s control tonight. This is what we want. He wants it. I want it. Klaue is just being polite.
“I want this,” she told him, dragging a fingernail down his neck, watching him shiver. “It’s okay.”
Without a word, Klaue lifted her from the ground. Instinctively, Jess wrapped her legs around his waist, pushing them between him and the door as thick firm hands grasped her ass and held her aloft. He did it with such casual ease that Jess’s temperature spiked with arousal.
There was just something so manly, so powerful in his action that spoke to her on a base, instinctual level. Her skin tightened and rippled with anticipation, eager to let him explore more of her. The interruption earlier was only serving to heighten her desire now. She’d had a taste, the barest nibble, and now Jessica wanted more.
Leaning down, she wrapped her arms around his muscular shoulders, resting her head tenderly against his while stroking the back of his skull. Whereas his stubble was rough and coarse, the hair on the back of his head was soft and gentle, even cut short like it was.
“Jess,” Klaue called her name with a sigh as he buried his face in her neck, kissing and gently biting at the tender flesh there, provoking sympathetic reactions across her body.
Arching back, she pressed herself into him harder, pulling his head tight. He kissed lower, his jaw catching at the top of the thick, bulky sweater that had become her daily outfit.
“I got it.” Grabbing frantically, she pulled it over her head, but Klaue didn’t wait.
He was already kissing her collarbone and down to her chest while her arms were still high in the air. The savage and unrestrained nature of his attack on her body didn’t stop there. Klaue whirled and pressed her up against the cool wood of the door to his study. Jess gasped at the contrast between that and the heat roiling off Klaue in waves.
“This needs to go,” she said, pulling at his own shirt. Together, they awkwardly removed it one sleeve at a time, giggling amidst their joined passion as they attempted to strip him without setting her down.
It wasn’t fast or sensual, but they did it together, as a team, and that more than anything had her wanting him more. At some point, she reached back and unhooked her bra, attempting to let it fall to the ground. Klaue had other intentions, as he all but ripped it from her and hurled it across the room with a happy growl.
“Behave,” she said with a playful slap to his shoulder.
Klaue responded by taking one of her nipples into his mouth and gently swirling it around. Jess went rigid, fingernails digging deep into the skin on the back of his head. Damn that felt good! Although she’d expected that sleeping with Klaue would be fun, she realized almost instantly she’d been doing him a disservice, by only thinking of him visually.
I should have given him some credit at being good at what he—oh shit!
With one shift of his arms, Klaue slipped a hand up through her legs, his reach so long he could come around and still find her, somehow zoning in on it even through two layers of clothing.
“This needs to come off,” she said, surprised to hear that she was already half-panting, the sheer intimacy of the moment stealing her breath.
Klaue just nodded his affirmative, carrying her across the room and through the door to his bedroom like she weighed no more than a feather. Laying her back on the bed with a gentleness that seemed out of place for someone so large, he hooked his fingers into the waistband of her remaining clothing and stripped it off her.
Suddenly feeling judged as she lay back, completely exposed for him to see, Jessica almost tried to slip under the covers. Klaue’s reaction stopped that.
The growls that had been so quiet before multiplied tenfold as his eyes roved freely over her, and she saw his pants grow tighter in front of her eyes. Muscles at his shoulders and arms bulged ever so slightly as they became engorged with blood. The blues of his eyes were nearly swallowed as his pupils dilated.
“You are so beautiful,” he said with only the barest stammer. “Unbelievable.”
“Well are you going to stand there and look, or come closer?” she teased.
“I could do both,” he whispered, but his fingers were already fumbling with his belt.
“Here, stop that,” she laughed, reaching up and swatting his hands away. Jessica kept looking up, fingers working by feel alone. Moments later, his pants fell away and she tugged his boxers down as well. Although she was more than curious to see what lay beneath, she kept up with the eye contact, enjoying how close to him it made her feel.
Wrapping one hand around his shaft sent her eyelids skyward as the size registered. “Oh, my,” she said slyly, using both hands to stroke him slowly.
Klaue’s face was etched with permanent arousal as he watched, and when she bent low and licked the tip, still staring right at him, she thought he might faint—his eyes rolled so far back into their sockets.
“Jess,” he groaned, repeating her name again.
One meaty hand slid down her back and grabbed her ass while she sucked him, massaging it and even giving it a firm but playful spank that
sent tingles up her spine. Jess loved his hands on her. Anywhere. Everywhere.
Apparently, Klaue did as well, because he took her by the hands and gently pulled her away. She gave him the slightest pout at being interrupted but didn’t fight when he pushed her down into the thick covers, climbing on top of her. Jessica sank into the bed, absorbing the press of his body, even as he supported much of his weight.
They lay like that for an unknown time, kissing and simply basking in the presence of the other. At one point, Klaue slipped onto his side, freeing up a hand that he used to stroke her body with. Staring at her neck, he made slow, looping circles across her skin, until, with a lightness that snatched her breath away, he gently pushed her legs apart.
Her body had been ready and aching for his touch since the early afternoon when they’d almost had sex. Now it was on a razor’s edge and, in what felt like seconds, Jessica cried out and grabbed onto his neck, her hips bucking quickly against his hand. Klaue growled and made other excited noises as he kept moving his fingers until she sagged limply against him.
“Fuck.” It was all she could muster.
He smiled and climbed on top of her. “That was so hot.”
“Yeah it felt g—what are you doing?” she asked, but it was a rhetorical question, more out of surprise than anything as he started kissing down her body, replacing his hand with his mouth—and then adding his hand back in as he slipped first one, then a second finger inside her.
“Oh fuck,” she moaned, feeling uninhibited—that was definitely the wine speaking, but she didn’t care. It was fun. Being with Klaue was fun, and they were deep in his quarters. Nobody was going to hear her unless they were eavesdropping on purpose, and if they were, well, who cared?
“Right there,” she gasped suddenly, electricity shooting up through her body. Whatever he was touching, stroking, kissing, it was amazing. She’d never felt anything quite like it before and— “Don’t stop. Klaue. Oh, my fucking Goddd!”
Part of her felt silly at being so vocal, but Klaue wasn’t being silent either. He was making sounds, encouraging her on, clearly anxious to pleasure her, and that just pushed her restraints to the side, making Jess feel comfortable with it. It was fun, and dammit, she didn’t want him to stop!
