Loving the Tiger

by E A Price

  Lauren giggled and peppered kisses and nips along his jaw line as he rubbed his erect member against her sex. She squeaked as he unexpectedly turned them, flipping onto his back with her straddling his stomach, his hardness pressing against her ass.

  “Take me inside,” he rumbled, his voice thick and throaty.

  Lauren was going to protest, but the ferocity in his eyes blurred with need, inciting her own beast.

  Awkwardly, but determinedly, she raised herself over him, one hand pressing on his stomach as the other grasped his cock. It throbbed warm and hard in her hand. She hovered over him, her drenched sex accepting him, welcoming the intrusion as she slowly descended on him, inch by inch. Carrick shuddered and let out tiny growls at her slow progress, but he didn’t object or try to hurry her.

  When she finally took him to the hilt, she rested, panting with the effort. His hands settled on her thighs, resting easily, neither trying to move her or stop her. They’d had sex too many times for her to count but this was new to her. Her taking him was new, and scary yet exciting.

  She placed her hands on his abdomen, a little unsure what to do with them. His eyes were golden and hooded as he watched her, still not moving to take her. Although he seemed keen, he also looked a little curious as to what she would do.

  It was oddly comforting feeling him inside her this way; they were joined so intimately that it sent warmth through her. Part of her never wanted this moment to end, though the way his hands were starting to quiver with the effort of keeping still she knew it must end.

  Her fingers started tracing his scars. His body seemed to ripple, and his manhood throbbed inside her. She marveled at how different he felt this way, even bigger somehow and he seemed to be pressing against something in her sex, something sensitive, something… wonderful.

  Lauren rocked her hips slightly, and his length rubbed against it, sending electricity through her. It was marvelous. She did it again and again and again, moaning as his hardness hit that sweet spot over and over. She started rolling her hips, determinedly.

  His hands moved to her ass cheeks, squeezing them as she rode him. Her movement speeding up as she became more and more sure of herself, and more and more hungry for the delicious sensations coursing through her body.

  Lauren moaned every time his hardness battered against that tender spot inside her. She held onto his chest, her fingers dancing over his scars, clutching, clawing at him as she took what she wanted.

  It was incredible to take him this way, so delicious and teasing, but it just wasn’t enough. She just couldn't move herself with enough force. She could feel herself dangling over the edge, but she couldn’t quite get to where she needed to be.

  “Carrick, please…” she whimpered.

  Her mate roared and started bucking his hips against her, his hands grasped at her flesh and moved her up and down his length as he drove himself inside her.

  Lauren threw back her head and roared too, louder than she ever had before. Her tiger was thrilled. Yes, this was what she needed; this is what she craved. To be wanted, desired, and taken by this male she loved so much. Mine cried her tiger.

  Carrick quickly worked her into a frenzy. Her body was so heated and tense she could barely breathe. When he roughly pulled her down on him, he howled and released inside her, and her own climax hit like a tidal wave. She screamed his name and pushed her claws into his chest.

  Still pulsing inside her, he pulled her down to him, kissing her, nibbling on her lips, pushing his tongue into her mouth, taking her mouth with the same savagery he took her sex. It wasn’t until their bodies had finally stopped trembling that he let go of her mouth and allowed her to breathe.

  After a few moments rest, Lauren eased herself off his softening manhood but remained on top of him. She snuggled down his body and licked at the small puncture wounds in his chest caused by her claws. Part of her had worried he’d be annoyed at her, but his groan and the way his hand stroked her hair, told her otherwise.

  “Mine,” he murmured.

  “Yes, yours,” she agreed.

  Thirty-Two

  “Tastes good.”

  “Lauren made it from scratch.” Carrick scooped up another spoonful of peach cobbler. In the last few days, Lauren had been cooking up a storm. Carrick had been moping up a storm.

  “She’s a keeper, that one.”

  Carrick grunted and leaned back in his chair to watch Lauren move around the kitchen, her ass shaking in an almost hypnotizing fashion as she danced to the radio.

  Georgie gave him a sharp look. “You don’t think so? Selfish maybe because I just got you back, but I would like grand cubs.”

  “Don’t you already have like fifty?”

  “Seven,” she said and pursed her lips. “Ungrateful little buggers the lot of them, just like their mothers. If you had cubs, hopefully, they’d take after Lauren.”

  Carrick stared at the bottom of his now empty bowl and pushed away the snarls of his beast. “I’m not right for her.”

  “Meaning she’s not right for you.”

  “No, she’s… I thought we could be happy, but things are different now.” Now she wasn’t stuck with him… “I’m not the right male for her.”

  “She think that, too?”

  He shrugged in reply. His gazed roamed back to the kitchen.

  Georgie huffed at him. “Why’d she mate with you if she didn’t want you?”

  “She didn’t have a choice. She was forced to mate me. She only went through with it to try and protect her sister. She didn’t want me. She could have any male she wants.”

  They listened as Lauren started singing along to the radio.

  “Yes, clearly she’s in hell right now,” said Georgie dryly.

  “She’s too polite to pretend otherwise.”

  “Is she afraid of you? Afraid you’ll hurt her if she doesn’t do what she thinks you want?”

  Carrick swiveled to look at his mother, his face a mixture of fury and horror. “No! I told her she has nothing to fear from me. I would never… I couldn’t hurt her.”

  “Yesterday my helper was running late, and she helped me in and out of the tub. There many tigresses in your pride that would do that? She’s been cooking and cleaning for me for three days now without complaint. In fact, I’d say she was happy. The way she looks at you… there’s affection there. Maybe you don’t see it because all you can see is the way you came together.”

  “I’m too damaged for her… she deserves someone who doesn’t wake up screaming at night.”

  She rubbed his arm. “Poor baby.”

  He growled, and she removed her hand with a sigh, but not in surprise. He was hardly affectionate when he was young either. His memory wasn’t whole, but he remembered enough.

  “I thought she knew better than anyone what you’d been through.”

  “She does.” He’d actually told her small details he hadn’t even told Juliet. Some of the more horrible things he’d been made to do in the fight club. She was sympathetic and horrified for him, but she didn’t hate him for it.

  “And it bothers her?”

  “No, she’s… no. She’s been helping me try to deal with it.”

  “Yes, clearly she’s not even bothering to try and make things work between you!” Georgie was becoming exasperated with him now.

  “She’s too young for me,” he argued.

  “But you chose to pursue her.”

  “I… I was doing her a favor. I was a better option than the other males.” Yes, that was what he’d told himself at the time. His tiger harrumphed at him for trying to cling to that reason.

  “You ever feel compelled to do that for any of the other females in your pride?”

  Carrick paused. “Lauren’s different.”

  “Your tiger wanted her.”

  “Even if he did, hers clearly didn’t want me.”

  “You chose her; she didn’t choose you. Maybe it took her a little while to come to terms with that. Give her a break. Just be
cause she didn’t fall at your overgrown feet when you got together doesn’t mean she hasn’t come to care for you. You’re just stubborn. Besides, I thought things were changing in the pride.”

  “They are,” he rasped.

  “Yet, she’s still with you.”

  “Like I said, she’s polite.”

  The issue of the annulled matings was something he still hadn’t divulged to Lauren yet. As far as she knew, they were still mated.

  “You’re hopeless. Just don’t let her get away because you’re trying to be noble for once in your life.”

  “Hey.” Lauren leaned against the doorframe and smiled at them, both him and his tiger held their breath at the sight of her. If anything, the time they spent in Los Lobos made her even more beautiful. She seemed surer of herself, happier even. She was no longer the cowering cub; she was blossoming into a confident, young woman.

  “Carrick, you mind taking me to the store? I thought I’d make banana pudding for dessert tonight.”

  “Sure.”

  “Mmm, that’s my favorite,” said Georgie, practically licking her lips.

  “Carrick likes it, too.”

  Lauren winked at them and sauntered away.

  Georgie chuckled. “Yes, clearly she can’t wait to get away from you.”

  Carrick watched his mate go, drinking in every detail of her. His mother might be an irritating tigress, but dare he hope that she might be right for once in her life?

  Would fate, after thirteen plus years of kicking him in the crotch, finally reward him?

  *

  Carrick pulled off his clothes, folding them neatly. Lauren didn’t bother to hide her frank perusal of his body. She wasn’t so comfortable with her own nudity yet that she could walk around naked like him – she was in one of his over-sized t-shirts - but she was becoming very comfortable with his. In fact, if he never wanted to wear clothes again, she actually wouldn’t mind at all.

  She was sitting cross-legged in bed eating grapes. Carrick lay down next to her, the bed dipping almost alarmingly, and stared at the ceiling.

  Lauren held still for a few moments, ready to discard the grapes, but nothing happened. He didn’t turn to her, didn’t pull her down next to him, didn’t try to cover her with his body. Huh. Since they started sharing a bed, she barely had to wait five seconds when they went to bed before he made it known he wanted sex.

  Her tiger mewled. She couldn’t deny her disappointment. Her skin itched, her body felt tense. All day long he hadn’t touched her once, and lord help her she was starting to get withdrawal symptoms. Even in the first few awkward days of their mating, Carrick found a way to touch her at regular intervals. Perhaps accustoming her to his touch. So unused to being touched by anyone – her parents were not huggers – it had felt odd at first. But now, not being touched by him felt wrong. It wasn’t sexual… okay, yes, it was partly sexual, but feeling his arms around her, or even just his hand on her arm, made her feel warm, protected and loved. He hadn’t said he loved her and hadn’t addressed the fact that she told him she loved him, but she felt it in the way he treated her. But now she worried he was starting to pull away from her.

  Lauren ignored the worries of her tiger and plucked a grape. He wasn’t going anywhere. She wasn’t going to let him.

  She pressed the grape to his lips, and he opened for her, his lips lightly lingering on her fingers. His eyes, staring so stormily at the ceiling swung in her direction, at first blank, they warmed, and his lips almost twitched into a smile. He placed a hand on her bare thigh and absently massaged her flesh. Warm darts traveled up her leg, hitting her sex. She bit her lip to withhold her moan of happiness.

  “How are you and your mom getting along?”

  Carrick rubbed his forehead. “Same as always, I guess.”

  Georgie was chatty about everything under the sun – her daughters - ingrates, her grandkids – bigger ingrates, her late mate – an ass but she still missed him, and embarrassing stories from Carrick’s childhood. Yet Carrick was near silent in her presence, smiling tightly when she laughed but otherwise not engaging very much. If it bothered Georgie, she didn’t say anything. Maybe they talked more when Lauren wasn’t with them, though she didn’t honestly know what they would talk about. Carrick was remembering a lot, he talked to her about it after much prodding, but he wasn’t the type to reminisce.

  “Have you remembered much else?”

  Time for another prod. Her tiger grumbled in annoyance. Selfish maybe, but she’d be extremely happy if he never remembered anything about Emily. The piece of paper with Emily’s contact details resided on top of his childhood desk, taunting her. Carrick hadn't tried to look at it to her knowledge.

  “Bits and pieces,” he admitted.

  “Are you looking forward to seeing your sisters?” The tigresses Georgie dubbed the ‘gruesome twosome’ were coming for lunch the next day.

  Carrick made a low noise in the back of his throat and turned silent again. He didn’t say anything else. If it weren’t for the hand on her thigh, he probably wouldn’t know she was there she thought morosely.

  She brightened as she remembered her earlier phone call to Lois. “What musical instrument is found in the bathroom?” she asked.

  Carrick blinked and frowned at her. “What?”

  “A tuba toothpaste.”

  She pressed her lips together, and Carrick stared at her for a few beats before chuckling. Lauren smiled triumphantly and fed him another grape. She placed her hand over his on her thigh and curled her fingers around his.

  “Georgie said something about me moving back here,” he said softly.

  Lauren paused with a grape halfway to her mouth. “Oh? What… what do you think about that?” Her tiger rumbled unhappily. Lauren couldn’t move to Los Lobos – she couldn’t abandon Lois. But what if Carrick wanted to?

  “Not sure. Not sure the SEA would let me.”

  “You have family here,” she admitted grudgingly.

  “Not sure they’d want to spend time with the new me.”

  Lauren put the grapes on the bedside table and licked her fingers. “I don’t think your mother can live on her own for much longer.”

  “Probably why she wants me back,” he mumbled, his eyes focusing on her lips.

  “That and to make up for lost time,” she sighed.

  He snorted.

  “She could always come back and live with us in the pride,” she suggested brightly. “Plenty of room in the house.”

  “Live in our house with us?” he repeated incredulously.

  Lauren beamed. Our house. “Sure. The pride may be changing, but I doubt we’ll suddenly start throwing our elders out onto the street.”

  “You don’t think she’d cramp our style?”

  “In what way?” She hardly cramped their style while they were living in her house.

  “How could you scream ‘fuck me hard’ when she’s sleeping down the corridor?”

  Lauren slapped his shoulder, giggling as red suffused her cheeks. “I’ve never screamed that.”

  Carrick cocked an eyebrow at her. “A guy can dream, can’t he?”

  Her hands flew to her mouth. “Gilligan Booker, was that a joke?”

  He scowled at her. “Don’t call me that.”

  Feeling playful, she climbed over his body, straddling his stomach. Judging by the hardness she felt against her ass and the lust emanating from him he wasn’t unhappy about that – in spite of his aggrieved expression.

  “Not often you make jokes, are you okay, Gilly? Do you need to lie down? Oh wait, you already are.”

  She wiggled her ass, and he clamped huge hands on her waist. “You’re funny. Don’t call me that.”

  “What? Gilly?”

  “Lauren…” he warned, his eyes flashing to the yellow of his beast. Her own animal bounced excitedly.

  “Gilly, Gilly, don’t be silly! Eep!”

  She squeaked as Carrick threw her back on the bed, landing on top of her. He pinned her arms an
d nestled his body between hers. His manhood pressed against her panty-covered sex, hot and big and insistent.

  “Don’t. Call. Me. That,” he growled in between kisses and licks over her face and neck. She squealed in laughter as he sensually tortured her.

  “Okay, okay!” she panted, squirming at his ministrations. “I probably promise not to call you Gilligan again…”

  His shoulders shook as he pulled back to look at her. “Probably promise?”

  “Well, yeah. The name Gilligan is just too funny for me to completely promise.”

  Carrick rolled his eyes and nipped her chin. “Minx.”

  He gazed down at her, and slowly his happy expression clouded, uncertainty and sadness warring within him. Her tiger pushed at her to do something. He shook his head and moved down to kiss her. She turned her face away from him, and he growled in annoyance.

  “Hey, Carrick,” she whispered. “Fuck me hard.”

  His eyes widened in surprise before a predatory grin spread across his face.

  Lauren arched her back, pressing herself against his swollen member. “See? Sometimes dreams do come true.”

  Thirty-Three

  Carrick vaguely remembered his older sisters as bossy and irritating – much like his mother. And that part of them hadn’t changed a bit since he last saw them. They were older and dumpier, but they were much the same.

  Gertie and Geraldine were at first wary, but their natural nosey natures won out, and soon they were bombarding Carrick with questions and telling him about their own lives – mostly the latter.

  Gertie had three children, and Geraldine four, all aged between fifteen and twenty-five. They were all there, along with his sisters’ mates. Most were curious about Carrick, but others – the teenagers – were uninterested and bored at being dragged to their grandmother’s house. They weren’t impressed at all by the present their grandmother gave them – a dollar for their piggy banks.

  Eventually, the reunion devolved into his sisters and his mom arguing about everything. His nephews and nieces were playing on their phones while his sisters’ mates talked to each other, ignoring Carrick completely. Thank god for Lauren, or he might not have been able to contain his irritated beast.