“Always.” Her hands tightened around his wrists. “I think I am a little too sore for round three,” she said with a regretful smile.
“Mmm. Let me kiss it better,” he whispered against her skin. “If it wasn’t so late, you could soak in the tub. Ease the pain out of all those newly used muscles.”
“Show me,” Luna invited, easing her pants down and baring herself to him. “Soothe me.”
Jason smiled wickedly. “With pleasure.” He got down from the bed and placed a pillow on the floor so he could sit comfortably. “Come to the edge of the bed. A little closer.” His hands gripped her hips until he had her just the way he wanted. “Perfect.”
He folded her legs up and was greeted with the exquisite vision of her delicate pussy at the perfect level. “You’re beautiful, love. All pink and wet and waiting for me.”
Luna moaned at his words of praise. “Do you like that?” His thumbs traced the plump outline of her pussy and parted it, revealing the flushed interior. “Put your feet on my shoulders. That’s it. Look at you, all ready for me. Just relax, Cinderella. Let your prince charming kiss it and make it feel better.”
She laughed weakly. “I feel so exposed.”
After adjusting her feet on his shoulders, Jason lowered his head to her sweetly glistening pussy and gave it a soft kiss. “You’re delicious, Luna.” He closed his eyes. “If I could conjure up the perfect nectar for that gods, it would be you.”
“As long as you’re the only one I feed,” Luna said with a little pant that drove Jason wild.
“You’re so wet, love.” He lapped at the sweet juices trickling out and down her body. He licked the sweet nectar from her outer lips and then darted the tip of his tongue in her pussy. As he touched her inner lips and clit, she just jerked as if an electric current hit her.
Her moans hit him like a one-two punch. Desperate and needy. Anxious for more. Jason nuzzled the tip of his nose into the soft floss of hair. His mate was a perfect match for his needs.
He sucked lightly on her clit before flicking it with the flat of his tongue. Luna moaned softly and arched her hips closer to Jason’s mouth. Her little button was swollen. Needy. After one teasing lick, he dove tongue first into her channel. Sucking gently on her lips before fucking her with his tongue.
She whimpered something that could have been half prayer, half curse before seeking a deeper contact. By instinct, Luna ground her pussy on his face, moaning when she felt the scrape of Jason’s beard against her sensitive flesh.
Using both hands, Jason cupped her ass and let her set the pace. When she stilled, he sucked and licked her tiny clit. When she begged and grunted, he fucked her with his mouth, teeth, tongue, and imagination. Her movements grew uncontrollable, and she was lost in the intoxicating pleasures Jason provided.
“You going to cum for me, love?”
“Yes, oh God,” she screamed. Her moans grew louder, and Jason knew she was close. He slid one finger inside her tight channel while he sucked her to completion. The sound and sensation of her orgasm hit him, dampening his face. Drenching his finger.
He brought her down slowly. Kissing her pussy. The insides of her thighs. Moving up he kissed her flat little belly. She was liquid in his arms as he lifted her to adjust her on the pillow.
Jason spooned her close and said a prayer to whatever god was listening. Thanking them for letting him find this small woman. For giving him the opportunity to love her. Forever.
Chapter Nine
Luna
“Jason!” Her voice was loud. Louder than she intended it to be. She raced across the parking lot of the Lusty Leopard and didn’t even notice the attention she gathered.
Jason was already mid-leap over the bar. “What?” Panic lit his brown eyes, and she skidded to a stop.
Glancing wildly around, all she could do was grunt and point to her phone.
“What? What is it?”
Everly, one of the waitresses at the Lusty Leopard, took her phone out of Luna’s hands. Luna held her thumb over the lock and opened it. She still couldn’t quite seem to catch her breath after racing into the bar at two o’clock on Monday afternoon.
“Holy Moses,” Everly exclaimed. Words failed the young waitress, too, so she held it up for Jason to see.
“You’ve had ten million views on your blog?” Jason clarified. “That’s a lot, right?”
“Oh, that’s more than just a lot,” Everly said. “She’s got Senators and Congressmen commenting on this.” Everly looked up, her youthful face bright with excitement. “You made the shifters of Silver Fells go viral!”
A dark-haired man turned from his spot at the bar. “Shifters make good copy,” he said with a derisive twist to his lips.
Luna blinked and pulled Everly aside. “Is that Zane Dixon? The retired champ from the Bear Knuckled Brawlers?”
Everly’s eyes glowed a bit, and she blushed. “Yes,” she whispered.
Luna smiled. Someone had a crush on the BKB fighter.
“We can hear you, ya’ know,” Jason teased, touching the side of his ear.
She rolled her eyes. “Bear hearing is kind of a pain,” she muttered.
“It can be,” Everly agreed before going off to wait on a customer.
Luna watched with curious eyes as Zane’s gaze followed the young waitress wherever she went. This was definitely a couple in the making.
Just then Lacey and Quinn walked in, excitement in every step. “Oh good, you’re here,” Lacey said rushing into Luna and hugging her tightly. “You won’t believe this! Father says donations have been flooding into his PAC.”
“We’re doing this, aren’t we?” Luna asked, her eyes bright with tears. “We’re actually going to change the way the world looks at shifters.”
Jason returned to his spot behind the bar and Quinn looked away.
“What? You don’t think this will help?” Luna felt the adrenaline rush out of her in the face of their disinterest.
“It isn’t that,” Lacey said. “And maybe you’re right. Maybe this will get people talking. But remember, the more people talk, the more sides they’ll take.”
“We get called animals every day. Maybe not to our faces but we do. The fact the government doesn’t even think we can have our own children,” Quinn spat.
Lacey cringed and looked away.
“But we’ll fix all that,” Luna said, eyes imploring. She looked over her shoulder to seek out Jason’s comfort. “Right?”
“That’s not how people work,” Cree said as he entered the conversation.
“You think Rafe has the right idea,” Quinn said.”
“I do. I’ve never made any bones about that. If you want to marry, just. Do it. So, what if they say it can’t be done?”
Lacey slid her hand into Quinn’s. “Some of us want to do it right. With the church and the flowers and Father walking his daughter down the aisle.”
“Is that what you want?” Luna asked, treading a little nervously. She was a blogger, not a reporter. She didn’t shy away from personal questions, but this one seemed more intimate than the others.
Luna eyed him up a little nervously. They’d made up, but there was still something unsettling about the mountain lion shifter. “What do you mean?”
“People are essentially tribal in nature. They’re suspicious of others. You even see that in jail.”
“Military, too,” Jason agreed. “People might hang out by job and school, but you see who they take mess with. It’s almost always someone they see as part of their tribe.”
“Well, we’ll just have to get people to see you as part of their tribe, too. Most of you are vets! You’re just men and women trying to live their lives. Not hurt anyone. Not doing anything wrong.”
“They’re afraid of us,” Cree argued. “Tamara’s mother hates that she’s with me. Disowned her.”
Luna waved her hand. “Well, she has no room to talk. She’s a terrible human being from what Tamara has told me.”
“She is,”
Cree agreed easily. “But she still represents the majority opinion.
Luna set her chin. “I refuse to believe that. And just to prove you wrong, I talked to a friend of mine from college. She’s a computer programmer, and we’re going to start a new dating service. For shifters.”
Jason snorted. “Maul left for love.”
Luna narrowed her eyes at her mate. “Maybe Plenty of Bears.”
Cree bristled. “Why do the bears get all the love? There are plenty of cats and birds.” He nodded to Quinn. “Even a dog or two.”
“Well, I’ll think of something,” Luna said, still annoyed with their pessimism. “Plenty of Paws maybe. That will get all the mammal shifters at any rate. But of course, I’ll have a section for any kind of shifters.” She frowned as she considered how they were going to set up the website.
“You’ll do whatever you set your mind to,” Lacey said loyally.
Her phone chirped. “Oh. Oh!” Lacey said. She raised her eyes. “Father wants to have a conference call. Stat! Can someone call the guys? We’ll have it in the back.
Jason
Thirty minutes later, Jason sat around a table along with Dan, DeShawn, Quinn, Hunter, Cree, Zane, and several other shifters and mates. A tablet was set up so everyone could see Charles St. Claire as he spoke over the video conference call.
“Mr. St. Claire, thank you for doing this,” Quinn opened up the meeting.
“I’m still waiting on you to call me Father,” Charles St. Claire responded coolly. Quinn and Lacey exchanged a long look.
Jason wasn’t sure why Quinn was holding back getting his mate down the aisle. He paused to glance at Luna. She was bent over the table, brow furrowed, frantically taking notes. His blogger was so intense when she was working.
“Yes, Sir,” Quinn responded. “Now, what do you want from us?”
“Donofrio,” Charles barked.
Dan looked up. “Yes?”
“You’re the one with the eye patch, right?”
Dan visibly bristled at the other man’s words. “Kind of hard to miss, Sir.”
“I have two state senators and two representatives ready to sponsor the bill we’ve put together. I’m setting up appointments for you all to meet with them, shake some hands, prove you’re fine upstanding young men.”
“Anyone else, Father?” Lacey asked.
“Well, definitely Quinn. You have any other non-apex predator shifters there in the mountain?”
“Most of the men who survived are apex predators,” Quinn pointed out. “You could even make an argument for Dan. The hawk may not be an apex, but it’s definitely a predator.”
Charles waved his hand to dismiss Quinn’s words. “We don’t want these folks afraid. Look at the tall one back there.”
Jason raised his eyebrows. “Me?”
“Yes, you. You’d intimidate people. What kind of shifter are you?”
“Father!” Lacey scolded. “It’s rude to ask them that.”
“I don’t have time for manners,” Charles retorted. “I’m trying to get a bill passed.”
“I’m a brown bear,” Jason said. “And a damn good bartender. I have no problems talking to people. Getting them to feel relaxed.” He held up his hand to cut Mr. St. Claire off. “With or without alcohol.”
The older man grumbled. “I’ll think about it. But for right now, I think we need Quinn, Dan, and the realtor one.”
“Rafael,” Quinn supplied. “And he’s a jaguar. They certainly qualify as deadly.”
“Yes, but the man is one of the most successful realtors in that part of the state. That means he knows how to schmooze people.”
Jason opened his mouth to protest Mr. St. Claire’s abrasive comments but then he saw his mate smile at him and blow him a kiss.
Screw it, Jason decided. If Lacey’s father in law didn’t want him to talk to anyone in Raleigh, so be it.
“I think Zane would be a good representative,” Cree said. He approached the camera so Charles could see him. “As a premier member of the Bear Knuckle Brawlers, he has a lot of name recognition in the community. A lot of contacts he can call on.”
Zane looked up from where he was nursing a cup of coffee. He nodded once, not seeming to crave the spotlight at all.
“Let me see him,” Charles ordered.
Zane stood with animalistic grace. He was a bear, but he was all smooth lines and easy rolling shoulders. “Right here, Mr. St. Claire,” he greeted with his usual indolent grin.
“Hmm. You look big.”
“I am a fighter. I am big.”
“Do you own a suit?”
Lacey’s head hit the table with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she mouthed to all the shifters.
Zane’s eyes opened wide. “Sir, I know you don’t mean to be offensive, but yes. I’m a man. I’ve fought everywhere from Atlantic City to Nevada. I have given countless interviews with the movers and shakers that make the North Carolina General Assembly look like absolute pikers. I own a suit.”
Jason grinned, hoping the older man would feel the sting of Zane’s comeuppance. If he did, he didn’t let on.
“Good. Bring it with you. And a few ties. My secretary will help you pick out the appropriate one.”
“With all due respect, I can pick out my own tie.” Zane turned his back on Lacey’s father and returned to his now-cool cup of coffee.
Everly peaked in and poured him a new cup.
Interesting, Jason thought. Was there something going on between his waitress and his coach?
The conversation went on a few more minutes with everyone becoming increasingly annoyed with Charles’ vulgarity. The man was through and through southern but somehow, Jason decided, when his mama signed him up for gentility classes, Charles must have skipped a few.
Jason wanted to say something to Luna before she left but all he got was a wistful smile over her shoulder before she headed back up to Little Yellow.
That’s okay, Jason decided, already planning his visit to the small yellow cabin up on Maxwell Mountain. One night with her in his arms was not enough. Who knew? Maybe even a lifetime wouldn’t be enough.
But he damn sure intended to start with a lifetime and negotiate from there.
Chapter Ten
Luna
Luna loved her friends, fans, and followers. But after almost three hours talking to them all, she was exhausted. It was late. Her phone buzzed, and she glanced at the screen.
“Nana? Is everything okay? How’s Mom?”
“Caroline is fine,” Dot Lowell said soothingly. “I guess it is rather late, but I couldn’t sleep. Did you get a lot of shares?”
“Tons, Nana. We’ve even had a conference call with a political action committee that’s going to help bring it to the North Carolina Assembly.”
“That’s great sweetie.”
There was an extended silence, and Luna let it draw out. Her grandmother had something to say but held it back.
“Nana?”
“Yes, dear?”
“How did you and Grandfather Nick get married if it was against the law?”
Dot chuckled ruefully. “Well, it was the 1960s. I’m not sure anyone even thought that was going to be a thing, really. But we did it after boot camp but before he signed with the Shifters.”
“Ooh.” Luna jotted the information down. This would make a good story, and it fit with Rafael and Melody’s position to just get married. What were they going to do?
“Are you writing this down?”
“Uh. Maybe?”
Luna could hear the smile in her grandmother’s voice. “That’s so like you. Always curious about the world.”
The silence drifted between them again. “Nana? Was there something else?”
Dot sighed. “I’m nervous, to be honest. I’ve wanted and needed news on Nick for so long. It almost feels anticlimactic. While I was struggling to raise your mother and then you in Maine, he was living the life of a bachelor in North Carolina.”
“Didn’t y
ou say he’d been injured, though?”
“Yeah. He was burned badly. It took months in the burn unit, even with his shifter healing.”
“Huh. How does that work, exactly? Dan, one of the guys, lost his eye. He told me in his interview if he got a glass eye, it would pop out when he shifted.”
Dot was quiet a moment as she considered her Luna’s words. “I never thought about it. Do you think that’s why he hid for so long?”
“I don’t know, Nana. I can ask Jason when I see him next. He may know.”
Crap on a cracker! Luna hadn’t been quite ready to tell anyone about Jason. He was her special secret, and she wanted to hold it safe to her heart.
“Who is Jason?”
Luna massaged her forehead, feeling a tension headache starting. “He’s a bartender.”
Nana gave a grandmotherly “hmpf” sound. “Is he cute? I’ve heard those bartender guys can be major players.”
Luna closed her eyes and tried to process the idea of her grandmother. Her grandmother, of all people, giving her dating advice.
“He’s not a player, Nana.”
“Uh huh. He’s a shifter, isn’t he? What kind?”
“Bear,” Luna said softly.
The sound of her grandmother’s disappointed tsking made Luna feel bad. She hated letting her family down. “Didn’t you learn anything from me? The depression I went through missing your grandfather? Loving a shifter is too much, Luna. It’s all-encompassing.”
“And now? You’re suddenly going to be okay when you find him after fifty years?”
The older woman sighed. “No, dear. I’ve already spoken to my lawyer. I’m having the divorce papers drawn up.”
Luna was stunned. She hadn’t expected this turn at all. “But, Nana. You love him.”
“And if my love wasn’t enough for fifty-five years, what good would it do now? No, this is for the best. Put that stage of my life behind me. Face the facts he didn’t love me enough to be with me. Stay with me. We signed up for better or worse, Luna. I just didn’t realize how worse it could get.”
“Well. If you’re sure, Nana.”
“I am, sweetie. Now, I should probably let you get some sleep. It’s late.”
Interview with her Bear (Shifter Special Forces Book 6) Page 7
