Shifters & Bad Boys Bundle (Shifters & Bad Boys. Man love, bdsm, and rockstar romance. Book 1)

by Anita Lawless

  “Well…” He let a finger trace lightly up the arm of her dark burgundy sweater. “I was afraid you might have changed a lot…you know.” He shrugged. “While we were apart.”

  She watched his finger, and then her steely stare locked on his ice-blue eyes. “Why would you care whether I had changed or not?” Her voice was low, and Corey thought he heard a hopeful, anxious lilt to it. Perhaps wishful thinking on his part but, at this point, he’d take any scrap as a sign. He wanted her back so badly it hurt right in his gut just to look at her.

  “Do you remember what I told you when you left me?” Corey moved his face closer to Bekka’s. Their lips were now inches apart. “Just before you walked out the door?”

  He heard her swallow and her breathing had grown shallow. “What…”

  Taking her into his arms before she could resist, Corey nipped at the shell of her ear, flicking his tongue inside before he whispered, “What I promised you?”

  Bekka cleared her throat, but her voice was still thick when she spoke. “That you’d come find me one day. That you’d get me to come back to you, no matter what—”

  He stole the last of her words with a deep, hungry kiss.

  Bekka shoved him back and Corey looked at her with a puzzled frown.

  “Wait a second.” Bekka glanced at the clock. “Isn’t it a bit early to be closing up a tattoo shop, Corey? Are you sure you didn’t set this up on purpose?”

  His mouth still hovered close to hers and, while staring at her lips, it was hard to comprehend her words through his fog of desire. Corey shook his head. “What?” He followed her gaze to the clock. “Ohh…that.” He turned back to her, pinning her once more with those intense, blue eyes of his. “The shop isn’t technically open yet. Me and Jamie are in the process of getting things set up. We’ll be opening on Friday.” He yanked her back into his arms and Bekka let out a surprised yelp. “And quit trying to change the subject.”

  Bekka let herself dissolve into his kiss. Damn, it did feel good to be back in his arms. She hadn’t had a lot of men before Corey. She was skittish when it came to males, after suffering years of mental and physical abuse at the hands of her father as a teen. Still, she was no innocent when it came to pleasing and pleasure. Corey, much more experienced in sexual matters than she was when they first met, had taught her a lot in their three years together. They’d been best friend with incredible chemistry—a rare combination. And that chemistry only blazed hotter now that they had been apart for so long. At least it did on Bekka’s part, but she tried to hold her excitement back some. It was all she could do not to tear his clothes off as she helped him out of them.

  Before she realized it, Corey had her bra off and he tossed it over the arm of the sofa. She laughed at his dexterity before he took her lips again and squeezed her nicely rounded, large nippled breasts. His long fingers kneaded hard and she moaned against him.

  “Oh, hell, Corey.” He nibbled on her neck and placed urgent, open-mouth kisses down her throat. “It feels so good to have your touch back.”

  His hands slipped down her unbuttoned pants and he slid the black flares, along with wispy underwear, off her legs. “I missed you so much,” he murmured around her hardened nipple.

  She bit her lip as he splayed the top of her labia, exposing her swelling clitoris. Grinning at her wickedly, Corey licked his fingers and then he rubbed the wet tips over her sensitive bit of flesh. Bekka arched her back, smiling as familiar sensations of intense pleasure flooded her.

  “Like that, sweetheart?” he whispered. “You used to love it.”

  “Sssssonnnnofaaa…” she managed through gritted teeth as Corey bent his head and ran the tip of his tongue over her clit. The man had many talents, and eating pussy with incredible skill was one of them.

  “Remember how hard I could make you come, Bekka?” He rested his head against her inner thigh and slid two fingers inside her, curling them forward so he could massage her g-spot. “Just with my hands and my mouth.” He kissed her dark, trimmed mound. “I didn’t even have to fuck you to satisfy you, did I, sweetheart?”

  Corey descended on her sex once more, pulling back the hood of her large clitoris and taking the throbbing nub in his mouth completely. He nibbled and sucked, running his tongue back and forth over the bundle of tender nerves just beneath skin. Bekka bucked her hips against his face and grabbed at the couch cushions. Her orgasm was not far off.

  “Christ, Corey,” she whispered, as her climax burst and release washed over her in a warm, satisfying wave. “That’s one amazing mouth you have on you.”

  He sat up and took her hands, urging her up beside him. His eyes were so bright they shone with an eerie, electric glow. He stared intently at her. “Are you still on the pill, babe?”

  She took a moment to answer, still lost in the fog of a powerful orgasm. “What was that?”

  “Are you still on the birth control pill?”

  Bekka had been on the contraceptive for most of her life. Since her early teens, she’d had terribly painful, and frequently irregular, menstrual cycles. The only thing that took away her suffering, and kept her regular, was the pill.

  She nodded, and her gaze fell to his straining erection, thick and long, slapping against the bottom of his stomach.

  Corey took her face in his hands and kissed her roughly, passionately, once more. Bekka moaned as she wrapped her hand around his stiff shaft.

  “I want you so bad.” His voice came out almost like a strangled cry, and Bekka felt her heart lurch at the sadness she heard in his plea—the endless months of loneliness.

  “I never wanted to leave you,” she told him quietly as he guided her to the floor. “I’ve never stopped loving you, Corey.”

  Lying down, Corey positioned her so Bekka was straddling him. “It nearly killed me when you walked out that door, darling.” He rubbed the head of his cock against her clit and up and down her slick folds, but he wouldn’t let her slip him in yet.

  Goddamn tease. “Corey,” she warned, and he let her slide his penis into her wet pussy.

  “Christ, you are so tight, baby.” He moaned as she rocked against him, grinding hard on his root. “So hot…”

  He reached down as she rode him and Corey found her clit with his fingers once more. While Bekka ground hard against him, Corey played with the now tender nub of flesh. She felt her pleasure threshold spike and then tip over the edge. Corey rubbed faster and faster, and soon Bekka climaxed.

  She bent over him, bucking against his chest as the orgasm zigzagged through her body. Sensations fired across her flesh and in her brain, like firecrackers popping. She raked her nails down his chest and he grunted then sighed. His hips bucked once, twice, three times upwards. Hard, final thrusts. He pulled out of her and took her lips again.

  Pushing him back to catch her breath, Bekka laughed, running shaky fingers through her hair. “How did we get from you using the phone to this?” She knew exactly how. Corey Varkov was a charmer, and she certainly hadn’t resisted his obvious ruse to get into her apartment.

  He faked a shrug. “Haven’t got the slightest idea.”

  She rolled off of him. “Bullshit, Corey. You probably planned this all day, waiting for the right moment to pounce.”

  He propped himself up on one elbow and feigned hurt. “Your distrust wounds me, honey.”

  Bekka slid on her shirt and rolled her eyes at him, smiling. “I know you too well for you to get away with playing innocent.”

  He stood, pulling his own shirt on and buttoning the last three buttons. He shimmied back into his shorts and jeans. “Actually, I did come here with a different intention.”

  She slid into her panties and wrapped a thick blanket from the back of the couch around her waist. “Ohh, and what was that?” She grinned sideways, expecting some smart ass remark to make her laugh.

  He sat down beside her, looking serious, and coiled a hand around the back of her neck, stroking her lightly. “I came here to talk about…us.” He looked up at h
er, and she thought his deep blue gaze just might swallow her. “To see if there was any chance of you and me…” He looked away and tapped his knee with a nervous rhythm. “A chance for us to get back together?”

  ***

  Chapter 3

  Bekka sat stunned, staring into those twinkling, blue depths of his. Damn him. She looked away. Why did he have to have such intense eyes?

  She stood up, hugging the blanket tighter to her waist, running a hand through her tousled locks. “Getting back together?” she repeated.

  Corey’s face tensed as he stood and walked toward her. “Bekka, I’ll lay it on the line for you.” He encircled her slender arms with his big hands. “I moved Black Magick Tattoo to Moncton for a reason. And it was more than just good business sense. I know, living with mom, it was just killing our relationship. We had no time for ourselves. For what we wanted.” His glance locked with hers and he grinned impishly. Thoughts of some of their world travel, adventurous plans from the past flashed through her mind.

  “True.” Nodding, she moved away from him, to the picture window overlooking Main Street.

  Corey’s hand closed around her bicep and he turned her back to face him. His expression was pinched, concerned. “What, Bekka?” He swallowed hard. “Please don’t tell me you have someone else.” Corey lowered his head. “I just don’t think I could take that.”

  Bekka lifted his chin and smiled at him. “There is no one else.” She sighed and paused, collecting her thoughts. “It’s not that, sweetheart. It’s just…wow, what a day.”

  Backing away from her a step, Corey crossed his arms over his chest. His jaw worked back and forth. Oh great, Bekka slumped to sit on the wide ledge of her picture window. Here it comes. The old pride. He didn’t get what he wanted at the snap of a finger.

  “What do you mean?” His voice was low, and there was an edge to it that spoke of growing uncertainty, fear, and impending anger.

  “I mean, this is a lot to process in one day.” She stared him down. One thing Bekka had learned in her three years spent married to Corey: if you wanted to intimidate this mountain of a man, stare him down with the most cold, impassive glare you could manage. It wasn’t easy, but over time she’d come to perfect her bluff.

  He backed off and grinned, running a hand down her arm. “Yes, guess you are right. You’re going to need some time to get use to me being around again.”

  She shifted uncomfortably. “It’s not just that, Corey.” Bekka ran a tender hand down his stubbled cheek. “I need to be sure it really is going to be just you and me before I move back in with you. Don’t get me wrong, I love your step-mom, but if I am in a relationship with you, I want that relationship to be you and me, not you, me, and Juanita.”

  “Here we go again,” he snapped, pushing her hand away and stalking back to the couch.

  Bekka stood shocked for a moment. How the hell had what she said pissed him off so much?

  “Corey.” She sat down beside him, but he refused to look at her. “I’m not saying I never want to see your step-mom again. I’m just saying I don’t want to live with her again.”

  Corey clenched his jaw. He sat with his legs apart, perched on the edge of the sofa. His hands dangled, entwined, between his knees. His head bowed once more. “You always thought of me as a momma’s boy posing as a tough guy, didn’t you?”

  As he looked up, she moved away from his face, looking confused. “What? No.” She shook her head emphatically. “Of course not.

  He laughed bitterly, and when he looked up at her again, Bekka thought she saw tears burning in those blue depths. “Yeah.” Corey shook his head. “Right. Just like the others told me, and they left me too. I never thought you would though.” He stared hard at her; his lips set in a tight, thin line. “Not you. You were always so understanding, so caring. You seemed to get me, and get why I felt so obligated to Juanita.” His gaze dropped from hers and Corey picked at a stray thread on his shirt. “Then one day you just dropped the bomb on me. Took a long time to deal with that. Longer than the others.”

  “Look, Corey.” Bekka rubbed his back. Damn, she didn’t want to hurt him, and she didn’t want to ruin their chances of re-kindling something, but she also didn’t want to rush into anything with both feet first. “I hated like hell leaving you that day, and if you ever really knew me you know that is true. But a person has their limits, hon, and I had reached mine.”

  “I know.” He squeezed her hand, looked up, and managed a weak smile. “Juanita still blames herself for our breakup. But I blame myself, always have.” His gaze trailed away from her, and Corey’s eyes glazed over with inner consideration. “I could see you were hurting, could see the situation was suffocating you, and you just kept putting on a brave, strong face for me. I should’ve sat you down and made you talk, babe. I should’ve found a way to make things better for us until we were on our feet.”

  Bekka ran her hand up his arm and smiled at Corey. “No one is to blame. I should’ve opened my mouth more when you and I were together. I should’ve told you what I was feeling, rather than keeping you in the dark all the time. I’m sorry.”

  Corey covered her hand with his big, warm palm. He scratched absently at his trimmed beard and gave a sheepish look. “Can I let you in on a little secret, darling?”

  Bekka leaned her hand in her chin and grinned curiously. “What’s that?”

  Slowly, Corey wrapped a hand around her waist and pulled her closer. “Has Juanita been coming to visit you, popping in to the shop every now and again, say—oh I don’t know—off and on for about six months now?”

  Bekka raised an eyebrow as he gave her a sideways, dimpled smirk. “Yes, she has. In fact, the first time she walked in I nearly choked on the cola I was drinking. It was great to see her, but I was surprised. We got to chatting. She stayed about a half an hour that first time. Business was slow that day. She’s been in a couple times since.” Bekka tapped her trimmed fingers nails against her chin and gave Corey a scrutinizing, mock glare.

  He batted his eyelashes at her and bit his lip. Bekka could see the bastard was on the verge of laughing. She was between wanting to slap him and wanting to smirk along with him.

  “I kind of asked her to do that,” he confessed, mimicking the sheepish voice of an embarrassed child, trying to be cute. “She’s been keeping tabs on you for me. Juanita was the one that hunted the address and phone number of your shop down for me. I was too afraid to do it. I asked her to go see you first. To ask you some questions.” Corey stood and paced in front of the coffee table.

  Bekka shook her head, smiling from a mixture of annoyance and secret joy. He’d asked his step-mom to spy on her. She looked up at him. “Why were you too afraid?”

  He stopped and looked at her as he jammed his hands far in the pockets of his snug, worn jeans. “Afraid you might be with someone else by now. Afraid you wouldn’t be interested in seeing me. But when Juanita told me how nice you were to her, and that you had asked about me, and found out that you were still single—”

  “Whoa. Whoa.” Bekka stood, poking a finger in Corey’s face as she grinned then scowled at him. “You asked me if I was still single earlier tonight, but you already knew.”

  His face broke into a huge grin and his eyes glinted like a little boy’s. “I know.” He shrugged. “I was just double-checking.”

  ***

  Bekka stood in front of him, chuckling while she still held the blanket in place around her. “You sonofabitch.” She shook her head. “And how dumb am I? I did wonder when Juanita showed up this summer, but she only lives forty-five minutes from me. I just figured she’d stumbled on the shop on one of her trips to Moncton.”

  Corey let out a big sigh and looked away from her. He was chewing on his lip, and she could tell, he was trying not to grin at his little ruse just revealed.

  “Well.” She sat on the couch, tired of holding the blanket in place and tired of standing. “It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve used your mother to get to me.”


  He came around the side of the couch quickly and stood over her. In the dim light filtering through the open curtains, from the glaring streetlight outside, his profile caught in an inky silhouette. Corey looked unsure, on the verge of anger again, and the right side of his mouth twitched slightly. “What do you mean?”

  Fed up with this rollercoaster of emotions, and crammed in to one night to boot, Bekka dropped her fleece throw and then stood with her arms over her chest, glancing toward the clock.

  “Look, Corey.” She rubbed her eyes and sighed. “I’ve been up since before seven and it’s already three-thirty now. I’ve got to get some sleep. Can we put the fighting on pause for tonight?”

  “Whatever.” Corey grabbed his leather coat off the back of the couch, jerked his arms into it, and made his way to the door without looking back or saying goodbye to her. The wooden frame echoed from the force of him slamming the battered wood.

  “Damn man.” Bekka rubbed the bridge of her nose. It was aching with the subtle threat of a headache. “And they say us women are bad for pulling fits and playing mind games.” She shook her head and shuffled to the kitchen in search of aspirin.

  ***

  Chapter 4

  She hadn’t seen him in three days. As Bekka stared out at the grey, drizzling early spring weather, part of her was glad of Corey’s absence, and part of her wanted desperately to see him again. He’d always had this damn effect on her. Pulling her emotions back and forth, making her feel like a little girl inside—frustrated often, but aroused at the same time. Bastard.

  What’s stopping you from taking a walk over to his tattoo shop? A impulsive, impish voice in her head spoke up.

  I don’t want to go over there, she convinced herself, or tried to. Bekka rang up a large tome of Edgar Allan Poe: Collected Tales for a customer, bid them goodbye, and glanced at the big cuckoo clock above the entrance.

  Four o’ clock. Time to close up for her dinner break. She went into the small, back cloak room to retrieve her wallet and a light jacket. Bekka strode out the glass front door, locking then checking it as she tucked her key chain in the pocket of her coat.