by Lacey Thorn
“Yes, ma’am,” Michael agreed with a smile.
“You.” She pointed at Adrian. “Keep an eye on him.”
“Always,” Adrian agreed with a grin.
Derrick lifted a brow when she turned toward him.
“No more trips by yourself,” she whispered. “Please. And we’ll talk about the Alisha I overheard about later.”
“She’s nobody,” Derrick growled.
“She’s someone who seems to think she has a claim on you.”
“She doesn’t,” he told her.
“No, she doesn’t. Not on any of you. You’re mine now, and I’m learning I’m a greedy woman. I won’t share you. Any of you. So don’t think about bringing another woman into this relationship.”
Derrick laughed. “Hell, no. One of you is more than enough. Christ, woman, it’ll take all four of us just to keep up with you.”
“Only you,” Michael agreed, and Adrian nodded.
Once again, it hit her Adrian would be more verbal in their discussions once they’d mated also. She planned to create that bond with him soon and hoped he wouldn’t hold it against her that she saved him for last. It wasn’t intentional. All she knew was, right now, Cody needed her. She doubted he even realized or would admit how much. Until she forced him to. Neither of them were leaving that lab until Cody’s claiming mark marred her skin as Derrick’s and Michael’s did. He was hers, and she was his. It was time he did something about it.
Chapter Seventeen
Cody glanced up from the computer when Jess walked in with a plate in her hand.
“You didn’t have to bring me that.”
“You need to eat, and I wanted to see you,” she offered as she set the plate in front of him. “Did the new tests show anything?”
It took a minute for him to get past her comment of wanting to see him, but he managed to regain his focus. “The isolation test you set up on the animal side of his blood shows another decrease. We’ll have to keep our eyes on it. Daily testing until it disappears altogether.”
“Eat,” she ordered as she shouldered him away from the computer and began looking through the test results. “Good. Good.”
She seemed completely focused on the tests, and it caught him off guard when she turned slightly and her lush ass grazed his groin. His cock, already interested, went rock-hard instantly. He attempted to strangle his growl but failed.
“You okay?” She glanced back at him, and he clenched his hands to keep from grabbing her.
Her blonde curls were tousled around her shoulders, giving her the look of a woman who’d only recently tumbled from bed. And she had. With Michael. Which should have put a damper on Cody’s arousal, but instead only made him want her more.
“Eat,” she ordered again and moved in a way that had his gaze falling to the curve of her breasts, clearly unfettered beneath the shirt she wore. His shirt.
“Did you get the chance to speak to my father?” she asked as he scooped eggs onto toast and followed her orders to eat.
“Several times,” he said between bites. “He keeps making a request for samples. You know I can’t send him those, right?”
She nodded, and her breasts jiggled with the movement. He reached down to adjust the strain of his cock against his zipper. She was killing him. Absolutely, fucking killing him. His need for her beat a fast staccato in his blood, and it took every ounce of willpower he had to take another bite of what was on the plate she’d brought him instead of falling to his knees, turning her toward him, ripping off her panties, and devouring the slick folds of her sex. God, he scented her arousal, and it had him salivating with the need to gorge on her.
“I told him the same thing when I spoke to him earlier. He said he was working on some things and would call back later.” She turned back toward him, a smile on her face. “The sample would allow him to create his own testing parameters, so I understand the desire on his part. I also understand we can’t give in to it.”
Desire. Can’t give in? Was that what he was doing? Denying himself? For what?
“Cody? You okay?”
He shook his head. “I’m good. Thanks for breakfast. Have you checked on Michael?”
He needed her to leave before he bent her over and took her hard and fast.
“Michael’s fine. He’s upstairs with Derrick and Adrian. He had breakfast with the rest of us. You’re the only one who wasn’t there. So I came to you.” She paused until his gaze met hers. “Bringing you breakfast.”
She stretched, lifting her hair off her neck before letting it fall again. Several curls dropped along her chest, curling over a tight nipple that poked against the soft cotton covering it. “It’s hot in here. Are you hot?”
Hot? He was on fucking fire. Lust rode him hard, but it was more than lust. He knew it. She reached for the hem of the shirt, lifting it over her thighs, revealing the bikini panties she wore, the golden curve of her belly. As the material cleared her breasts, he reached out, unable to stop himself, and cupped one globe, running his thumb over the tight nipple.
“Cody,” she moaned as the shirt cleared her head and was tossed aside. She leaned her head back as she pressed into his palm, as if she craved his touch. “Denying us won’t save me, Cody.”
Their gazes met and clashed.
“Denying will only hurt us, prevent us from forming a bond that could save my life one day.”
She was right. God, she was right.
“Four alphas, Jess. Have you thought about that? Thought beyond the need and desire to the every day. There will be no escaping us. That bond you’ve formed with Derrick and Michael, the one that upset and scared you so much earlier. You’d have it with all four of us.”
“Is that what you thought?” she questioned. “That it scared me?” She shook her head. “I’ll admit I didn’t like the idea of someone being able to read my mind, my thoughts. Those are private, shared only when and with whom I chose. But to know how one of you is feeling, to have you understand how I’m feeling, that doesn’t scare me, Cody. I want that bond with you. With all of you. I want you. This is my choice. It has always been my choice. I could have told Derrick no, and despite what you seem to think, he would have accepted that choice. I could have kept working to find another option to try with Michael. Making love with him, becoming his mate? Those were my choices, and I’d make them all again.” She stepped even closer, and his hand fell to cup her hip as her nipples grazed his chest. “Wanting you? Choosing to be your mate? That’s my choice, too. Our choice. Without doubt, with no reservations. I choose you, Cody. Will you choose me?”
He had her up and seated on the counter as the last words left her mouth. Her gorgeous mouth. He licked over her lips, dipping inside when she opened to him. Her taste. A man could die happy with the remnants of her kiss on his lips. His hands cupped her breasts, plumping them while his fingers played her nipples, giving slight pinches and tugs that brought throaty sounds of need spilling from her. He swallowed the cries while wringing more from her.
Skimming his lips down her neck, he moved lower, touching and tasting every inch of skin along the way. He sucked and licked over the mark Derrick had left, knowing he’d place his beside it. It felt right, as if that were the way it was supposed to be. He trailed lower, laving his tongue roughly over a nipple before latching on and sucking hard. Her cries were music to his ears as he moved back and forth, until both breasts were crowned with red, swollen tips. He could have spent days loving her breasts, but the closer he drew to her sex, the more his mouth salivated for a taste.
He dropped to his knees, pressing her legs wider with his shoulders as he focused on the damp gusset of her panties, pressing his nose tight against the soaked fabric and inhaling deeply.
“Cody!”
He heard it all in her voice. Need. Want. And a tinge of embarrassment. She had nothing to be embarrassed about with him. He opened his mouth and sucked her folds through the material, loving the way her hips jerked toward him. He darted his tongue u
nder the material, lapping at her, coating his lips with her honey. He tugged the material aside and thrust his tongue inside her channel. He wanted to be soft and slow, to take his time, but the impulse to gorge was too strong. So he took, sucking with greedy pulls as her juices flowed, as his name fell in a cadence from her lips.
He growled, inadvertently scraping her labia with his canines then did it again at the shiver that went through her. His woman liked the caress of teeth. Enjoyed things with a bit of a rough edge. She was perfect. Exquisite. And before she left the room, she’d be his. Completely and forever.
He heard something hit the floor then watched pens spin across the tile. Looking up, he saw her slightly reclined, both hands white-knuckled at the edge of the counter she sat on. Close and so fucking gorgeous as she chased her pleasure. He moved his mouth to her clit, suckling at it while he pumped two fingers into her sheathe and reveled in how quickly she broke. She screamed his name. Belting it so that it seemed to ricochet around the room.
Rising, he ripped the panties from her and jerked open his jeans. He shoved them down his thighs, releasing his swollen cock from its denim prison. Palming the shaft, he gave the base a quick squeeze as he guided it to her opening. His gaze was glued between her thighs as he pressed inside, watching as her sex widened to accommodate his girth, sucking him deep until the only thing he saw was his groin snug against hers. She rippled around him, her channel clutching and squeezing as she rode her orgasm.
He slid an arm under one of her knees, lifting her, widening her, and she wrapped the other around his waist as one hand left the countertop to grip his arm, nails digging into his triceps. He took her then. Fucking her hard, fast, deep. He wrapped a fist in her hair and pulled her head back, arching her neck toward him. He licked over her skin, sucked it, marking the area that was his to claim, and as his balls grew taut with the need to fill her with seed, he struck. Teeth pierced skin, the metallic taste of her blood on his tongue as he placed the mark that would claim her as his. His woman. His mate. His whole world.
He filled her sex then pulled out his cock and ejaculated on her belly and breasts. He landed another splash on her chin, growling as he watched it drip to run down into the valley between her breasts. The growl grew louder as she trailed her fingers through his cum then brought them to her lips, sucking them clean. Just that quickly, he was hard again.
He scooped her up, moving them across the room to the couch he kept in the far corner. He used it mainly for a catnap when exhaustion pulled at him. Today, he turned her around, bent her over it then slammed home again. She reached back, nails digging into the back of his thigh as she urged him on.
“Yes! Yes! Yours, Cody. I’m yours!”
How was she so perfect? How was it that being with her felt as if it were always meant to be? All his life, he’d heard of fated mates. It was a concept many shifters believed in, the idea there was one specific person meant for you. Cody had always scoffed at that. The odds of finding that one person would be astronomical. Yet, here was Jess, stumbling into their world and tumbling them all into love with her. In a matter of days.
He moved again, lifting her into his arms and walking around to sit on the couch. He helped her straddle his thighs then held his cock while she slid down on him.
“Love me,” he whispered, wiping away the tear that had spilled from her eye before he tenderly kissed her.
It was slow and easy now, with her in full control. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her while he continued to kiss her. When he knew she was close again, he nipped his way back to the mark he’d left and licked over it. She clamped down on him, milking his release with her own. As their bodies relaxed, she slumped against him and he held her close.
“Mmm,” she moaned. “I’m not sure I can move after this.”
“Me, either,” he admitted then managed to slide them so he lay on the couch with her draped over his chest. He snagged the blanket by his head then tossed it over them. “Let’s stay here for a minute and catch our breath.”
She murmured something against his chest, patted his side, then went boneless atop him. He held her close and knew he’d do so for the rest of their lives.
Chapter Eighteen
Jess woke in a bed. She knew without turning Adrian was nestled along her back, one arm draped over her waist. When had that happened? She recalled being woken by Cody. They’d showered, then she’d curled back up on the couch. That was the last she remembered. Still, she snuggled closer to Adrian.
“You awake?” he murmured above her.
She glanced back at him over her shoulder. “How’d this happen?”
“You sleep like the dead, babe.” He gave a laugh. “Cody carried you up, and I tucked you in with me, so he could head back to the lab after he spoke with his beta and took care of some pack business.”
“He really should have slept,” she muttered.
Adrian glanced at the bedside table. “He did. You both did. It’s just after six. Derrick’s ducked in to check on you a few times since I’ve been awake, but you were out cold.”
“Where’s Michael?”
“He had a lot of messages on his phone he had to deal with. Pack business mostly. Now, he’s either watching the cameras we have around the perimeter of our den or reading. The man loves his books,” Adrian told her.
“What’s he read?”
“Anything and everything, and I do mean everything. He says it’s exercise for the mind.”
Jess laughed at Adrian’s expression. “He’s right.” She thought for a minute. “You have a security perimeter set up.”
“Of course. The last thing we need is someone stumbling across us here. Not that we don’t have other places like this set up, but this one has always been home base,” he shared.
“Is he watching for Alisha?”
“Her and whoever was with her,” Adrian agreed. “The people who struck him with the dart. Hunters. Anyone in the area.”
“What can you tell me about Alisha?”
He shook his head. “No. That’s a conversation that should be between you and Derrick. Trust me, though. She’s nothing to him. Any feelings were all on her side. Always. He never encouraged them.”
That made Jess feel better. She’d worried he’d been in love with the other woman once upon a time and possibly still harbored feelings for her. Jess would deal with that if she had to, but she was human enough to not want to.
“Why are you in bed at six in the evening? Are you feeling okay? Did something happen while I was out?” She sat up, not caring when the covers fell, leaving her naked to his gaze.
“I’m fine,” Adrian assured her, reaching out to rub his fingertip over her nipple. “My pulse is racing right now, but that’s your fault. You can’t flash these in my face and expect me not to react.”
She didn’t miss the way the covers tented at his lap.
“You know what I mean,” she challenged and found herself tumbled to her back with Adrian hovering over her.
“Cody said he may have been a little rough.” He brushed her hair off her face. “You okay?”
“Cody talks too much,” she fired back. “I’m fine.” She reached down and gripped his cock through the sheet. “Want to see how fine?”
He grinned. “As tempting an invitation as that is, I think we should get dressed and join the others for dinner before you end up with four alphas in this bed with you.”
She had no idea what her expression showed, but he found it incredibly funny.
“You’re a wicked, wicked woman, and I love it. I promise when you’re in the mood for more than one man in your bed, I’ll volunteer to play second in your threesome. And stop looking at me that way, or I’m hollering for one of them right now.”
She giggled then threw her hand over her mouth with surprise. When was the last time she’d ever giggled? Before her mother died. That was when.
Adrian hopped out of bed and turned to face her.
“Now, who’s flashing t
hings in whose face?” she tossed his earlier words at him.
“Clothes then dinner,” Adrian reminded her.
“How about appetizer, clothes, then dinner?” she countered, reaching for him and tugging him closer until his glans was within reach of her lips. She swiped her tongue over the crown, tasting the drop of precum that filled the slit and swirling around the head for more. “Mmm.”
“Fuck, Jess. That feels good.”
She agreed. It tasted even better. Adrian was the only one of her alphas she’d yet to mate with. It was time. She needed this, needed him, and the look in his eyes said he did, too. Giving him no time to try to talk her out of pleasuring him, she sucked the head into her mouth and took as much of his shaft as she could before she hit her threshold. Wrapping her fingers around the rest of him, she moved her hand in sync with her mouth, finding as much bliss in the act as he seemed to feel.
His fingers tunneled in her hair, holding her as he groaned. She took her cues from him, letting the press or pull of his fingers guide her, as well as the little growls spilling from his lips. The more excited he got, the more she did too.
“Enough.” He pulled her off him, pushing her back on the bed and coming over her. “Are you sure?”
“God, yes, Adrian,” she moaned, wrapping her legs around his waist.
He took his time, making love to her mouth while his cock rubbed against her inner thigh. He spent long pleasurable minutes focused only on their kiss, and she swore she felt the heat of it rushing through her body. His fingers trailed softly over her skin, creating a wave of goosebumps in their wake. He was soft and sensual. Attentive. Completely in tune with what her body needed.
He nibbled down her throat, licking over the mark Michael had left before moving next to it and sucking her skin into his mouth. He sucked until she knew he’d left a hickey. He licked his way down her body, stopping and spending time at all the best places, driving her wild. After sucking her toes, he caught her by surprise when he flipped her to her stomach then worked his way back up her body.
