He reached his hands down, grabbing her by her ass, and lifted her up, squeezing as he did so – amazed that both of his hands worked. She wrapped her legs tightly around his midsection, their lips never leaving each other’s. It was unlike anything that they’d experienced the night before – this was desperate and needy.
Briggs lifted her onto the desk, setting her down, his lips pressing against hers. Her tongue slid between his lips and he pulled it into his mouth eagerly, sucking on it harshly. She moaned as his hands ran over her skin. He felt the fabric over her stomach, her breasts, marveling the entire time of what it was like to actually feel with both hands again.
Kat used one arm to sweep various wires and parts onto the floor. They crashed and clanked, but neither paid them much mind. Kat grabbed his shirt by the bottom, lifting it over his head and tossing it onto the floor. He felt her hands sliding against his skin, running over his abs and his chest. A finger ran around his nipple and he gasped out loud. It had be so long since he’d felt anything like this, so long since he’d let anyone else into his life. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d let his guard down like this.
He reached down, grabbing her shirt and pulling it quickly over her head. When he dropped it, he stopped and took a step back, admiring her form. He felt himself growing thick between his legs and could tell that she was growing turned on, too. Her face was red and her breathing was heavy. He buried his face in her neck, kissing and sucking, tasting her skin, moving down towards her chest. He kissed her collarbone, then the tops of her breasts, hidden only by her sheer bra.
Using his new arm, he reached behind her, feeling the bra latch in his fingers – something he would never have been able to do before today, and undid it. The bra dropped to the ground, unveiling her perfect breasts, and then Briggs was on them. He grabbed each one in a hand, squeezing, the warmth of her body radiating through each palm. He squeezed her nipples, feeling them harden underneath his touch.
Then he put his lips to one, sucking and kissing it before switching to the other. As he did so, he ran his hands over her smooth skin, feeling her stomach, her back, and every inch of her arms. Briggs knew that he couldn’t get enough of her.
She reached down, unbuttoning her pants, then Briggs had them in his hands and was pulling them off. Her shoes were next, discarded without even a second thought. Kat sat there in her soaked panties and socks, looking at him, lust blazing in her eyes. She kicked off her socks next, now only in the sheerest of clothing. He could smell her and knew she was ready for him.
He knew that she needed this almost as much as he needed it. Slowly, he reached out, tracing one of his new fingers along the inside of her thigh. Goosebumps exploded across her body as his finger trailed up to her wetness, then danced over her panties. He pushed gently, hearing her moan, and that was enough for him.
He carefully reached up, a finger under each side of her panties, and pulled down. They slid down slowly, and he could tell that Kat wanted him to pull them down immediately and ravage her, but he went slowly. He saw the space below her navel, directly above her slit, and then… then she was naked, entirely, and Briggs was blown away.
She was perfect in every way.
Carefully, Briggs kissed the side of a thigh, moving ever closer to her slit. He knew she wanted him, now, and he managed to hold off for only a split second, before it was too much for either one of them to bear. His lips found her slit, his tongue dipping into her, tasting her for the first time. It was like ecstasy, and he lost himself in pleasuring her.
His hands roved over every inch of her body, squeezing her breasts, rubbing her thighs, holding her hands, while his mouth worked every inch of her wetness. He placed his lips against her clit, sucking and using his tongue to work against it, using every one of his senses to provide her with exactly what she wanted. Her moans filled the lab, but he didn’t care – he kept doing exactly as he was doing, and he knew it was working when she tightened her thighs around his head and wouldn’t let him go.
Her knuckles were white on the edge of the desk, her breathing ragged, and he could tell she was going to cum. He kept doing exactly as he had been, and her screams were louder than before. He squeezed a breast with his hand, and she squeezed his hand, and then she came.
He tasted her, loving her reaction, and loving that he was bringing her pleasure. His tongue and lips never stopped moving, never stopped working, and after nearly a minute of her moans filling the room, her pleasure subsided.
Slowly, she unlocked her legs from around his head, and let him up. He handed Kat her clothes, both of them silent for a few moments. He saw her smiling and he realized he was smiling. Everything felt right.
“Do you think… uh, anyone heard?” Briggs asked, carefully.
“I’m not sure,” Kat said, a devilish grin on her face. “But don’t forget, you have to go talk to Cartwright before we leave. And we’re done here today, so you’d better get to it.”
Briggs felt himself grow white. “Uh, okay.”
He pulled his shirt on, unsure about meeting with Cartwright after what had just happened. Kat pulled the sheet back and pointed to his office. She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Good luck.”
Briggs tried to smile, and headed up to the office.
*
Kat put her clothes back on, thinking about what had just happened. She hadn’t meant for it to happen, not exactly, but she couldn’t help herself. She knew that the prototype was important, knew that her job was important, but Brigg was more to her than just a test subject.
She had broken part of her code, but she realized right now, she just didn’t care. She was happy.
She knew that she shouldn’t have, of course. She knew that what she did was wrong. Knew that Briggs was dangerous. But knowing all of that did nothing to bring her mood down. She might have done something wrong, but it felt right.
And now, he was upstairs, hopefully winning over her boss.
He was up there for nearly 30 minutes before he came back down, a grin on his face.
“Did he hear?” she asked, blushing. She hadn’t meant to be so loud, but the things Briggs had done to her – she’d never felt before.
He shrugged, looking embarrassed. “If he did, he didn’t say anything. Time for you to take me back?”
Kat shook her head. “Let’s do dinner. My treat.”
“As long as it’s not some honky tonk joint,” Briggs told her, and extended his prosthetic. She took it, squeezing. She smiled, knowing that he could feel it. It was unlike anything she could ever have dreamed.
*
“So why’d you change your mind?” Briggs asked. It was a simple question, but he’d been afraid to ask it all throughout dinner. Now that they’d paid and were finishing their drinks, it seemed like the best time to ask.
Kat swirled her glass of wine, a thoughtful look on her face. She shrugged. “A number of things, I guess. I realized that my career isn’t everything. It’s close, but it isn’t everything. I knew that if I only focused on my job, I would lose you.”
Briggs flexed his new hand under the table. He was trying not to get too attached. He knew that he would have to give it back tomorrow so Kat could run the final tests. He hoped it would be enough for whatever Kat needed.
He put his hands flat on the table. Kat watched the prosthetic, still in awe. “Are you still going to be interested in me once I give this up?”
Kat reached across the table, grabbing his hand – his real hand – and squeezed, with a smile. “I’m not interested in you because of your missing arm. Maybe that was why I was drawn to you. Hell, it was. But there’s more to you than that. It’s your drive. Your tenacity. You’ve been down for so long, yet you refuse to give up.”
“Something my father taught me,” Briggs muttered. He tried not to think about his father, and he really tried not talking about him. Kat’s expression said she understood.
“I’m guessing you come from a broken family, too,” Kat said quietly.<
br />
“Yeah,” Briggs said. Kat nodded. “But that’s not something we have to worry about.”
“You’re right,” she said.
“So, you end up being the one to take care of Toby. How do you feel about that?”
“I’ve known him my whole life. But when he got into drugs, I lost him. He was hard into them for a lot longer than he disappeared for, but he was gone for a long time. When I lost contact with him, I thought that would be the last time I saw him alive. I devoted myself to my work, trying to avoid the reality of the situation – losing my brother and dealing with Jay.”
“Jay?” The way she said the name Jay made Briggs’ hackles raise. “An ex?”
“Yeah, abusive and dangerous,” she said. She opened her mouth, as if to say something else, but she closed it instead. Briggs could tell there was something else there, something she wasn’t telling him, but he didn’t want to prod. Not now, anyway.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Mine sold my house and stole all of my money, so there’s that,” Briggs told her, though he realized that right now, in this moment, he didn’t care anymore. “Looks like we both have shit luck.”
“Not anymore,” Kat told him, leaning across the table and kissing him on the lips. Together, they got up, leaving the restaurant behind. It wasn’t a fancy joint by any means, but it was definitely out of his budget. He felt guilty with Kat paying, but she had insisted, so he’d let it slide. As if he’d had any money anyway.
Briggs could feel his life changing. He was still homeless, broke, and jobless – but he wasn’t alone, not anymore. He had a friend in Toby. He even shared a bond with Kat’s boss. And, above all, Kat was showing interest in him.
Outside, they walked down the sidewalk. Kat had been forced to park far away, but there wasn’t any wind and the night was warmer than the past few nights. Still, they kept up a brisk walk, staying warm. Briggs kept his head down, his real hand intertwined with Kat’s.
“What’s that?” she said beside him, coming to a stop. She was looking at the side of an old brick building. Briggs looked up, seeing exactly what she was looking at: a poster.
They approached it together. In big, blocking letters, it read HUMAN DEFENSE FORCE.
Briggs was growling, a deep reverberation that caused Kat to glance at him in alarm. She’d never heard him growl before, and he could smell her fear. He let the growl die in his throat. “Don’t worry,” he assured her.
“I knew they were getting bigger, but this is something else,” Kat whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“The video online, of you working out,” Kat explained. “Someone commented on it. HDF.”
Briggs felt himself blushing. He hoped Kat wouldn’t notice. “You saw that video?”
“Yeah,” she told him, reading the rest of the poster. “Get rid of all Shifter scum. Shifters equal animals. Vote for the Human Safety bill in January. Death to all Shifters!”
Briggs felt another wave of rage roiling through him, but he pushed it down. “Jesus. What did we ever do to them?”
“Don’t worry, Briggs,” Kat was saying from beside him. She grabbed his hand and started to pull him away. He reached up, ripping the poster down and crumbling it up in his hands. He tossed it in the trash. They kept walking, Briggs pausing intermittently to tear down more HDF posters.
Right as they were nearing Kat’s car, they heard someone walking behind them. Briggs sniffed, and was immediately flooded with one emotion: hate. Without thinking, he pushed Kat out of the way, spinning, and looked at who was coming at him.
Two men were running down the sidewalk, one with a hammer in his hand and the other with a stack of posters. “You!” the one with the hammer yelled. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, man? You like those freaks?”
Kat said from behind him, “It’s not right! What did they ever do to you?”
“They’re animals, woman! They’re invading this country! They have to be stopped!”
Briggs felt another growl rumbling in his throat, and this one, he couldn’t turn off. The man with the hammer’s eyes went wide. His partner took two steps back.
“You’re one of those freaks!” the hammer man yelled. “You’re going to die a painful death.”
With barely any warning, he lunged forward, swinging his hammer wildly. Briggs hadn’t been expecting the attack. He’d assumed most of these men would be cowards. He was wrong.
He lifted his arm up, his new prosthetic one, the head of the hammer striking it squarely. There was a loud cracking noise as the hammer bounced off of the arm and Briggs yelled in pain. He felt like his entire arm had shattered, but there was no damage. He pushed it away, growling. Behind him, Kat screamed. Whether she was worried about the Aegis or Briggs, he couldn’t tell, but he acted quickly. He reached his real hand up, grabbing the hammer and snatching it out of the man’s hand. He tossed it across the road with ease, then grabbed the man by his neck. He lifted him up, bringing him up to his height.
“You’d best remember what happened when you tried to attack me,” he said, his voice dangerous. “I don’t want this. I haven’t done anything to deserve it. Next time you’re out putting up these damn posters, remember that!”
The man holding the stack of the posters charged then, finally gathering his courage, and Briggs tossed the other man into his path. They both went down in a heap of tangled limbs, the HDF posters scattering everywhere. They got up as quick as they could, but with another growl from Briggs, they were gone.
“Briggs! Are you okay?” Kat asked, immediately at his side. Her hands were on the side of his face, checking him for wounds.
“I’m okay,” he told her, letting her kiss him completely. “I’m okay, Kat. Don’t worry. It hurt like a son of a bitch, though.”
The pain had dulled to a low throb. He hoped that soon, it would fade completely. When the hammer had hit, Briggs had thought it had been real – but the pain had faded faster than he thought was possible. He was thankful for that.
He wrapped his arms tightly around her as she whispered, “Oh my God, I thought they might have hurt you. I was so scared.”
“It’s okay,” Briggs said, lifting his prosthetic. He looked at it, surprised to see there was no damage to it. “Is the Aegis okay?”
“Who cares about that,” Kat said, wrapping her arms around him and holding him even tighter. They stood like that for a few minutes, just holding each other, happy that neither had been hurt. Slowly, reluctantly, Briggs let Kat go. He bent down and grabbed all of the posters. Then he climbed into Kat’s car.
She started it, driving slowly away. A few minutes later, they pulled up next to a dumpster and Briggs ditched the propaganda. They had done something to halt the progress of the HDF, even if it was only a little bit. Briggs hoped that he had scared the men enough to make them reevaluate what they had been doing, but he knew it was a long shot.
“Where are we going?” Briggs asked. He had been expecting Kat to turn off the highway and head towards the Y, but she had kept going.
“To my place,” she said simply. In the darkness, Briggs could see her grin. He reached over, grabbed her leg and squeezed.
*
Kat opened the door to her house, swinging it wide for Briggs to come in. It wasn’t his first time in her house, but she still wanted to make a good impression. Inside, the lights were dark and TV off. Toby was nowhere to be found.
“Where’s Toby?” Briggs asked from behind her.
“He’s been out trying to get some exercise every night,” she told him, flipping on the light. “Sometimes I worry that he’s going to run into trouble out there.”
MARS (BBW Bear Shifter MC Romance) (MC Bear Mates Book 1) Page 29
