Once Upon a Shifter (96 page)

“So are you a Chicago native?” she asked, taking a sip.

“Nah.” He’d told the story numerous times, so it rolled easily off his tongue. “I came here from Montana a few years back. Didn’t see eye-to-eye with my family. They wanted me to take over the family business after my brother died, but I wasn’t interested.”

“I’m sorry about your brother. What does your family do?” Did she get what he meant about the family business? It didn’t look like it.

“Wildlife management.” He said it without batting an eyelash, and she still seemed oblivious. Was it possible she didn’t know she was kin? “What about you?”

Katie smiled faintly, and took a bite of her sandwich before answering. That was fine by him. He could watch her eat all night, the way her lips moved, the little glimpses of her tongue when she opened her mouth... He was getting distracted again. Finally she said, “Colorado. Similar story, actually. My mom has some... pretty definite ideas about what I should do with my life, and I just wasn’t interested.”

“What did she want you to do?” he asked.

She paused. “Well, I come from one of those little towns like you see in the movies, you know? Where there’s one family that’s in charge of everything, and everybody bows and scrapes to them? Like, can you believe that actually happens?”

Jake thought about his own family network and smiled faintly. “Sounds crazy.”

“More than anything, my mom wanted me to marry into that family—speaking of things that sound crazy. But they were all a bunch of gross... alpha male types. And way too old for me.”

Her mother wanted to marry her off to a local alpha. He felt a growl rising at the thought of someone else claiming her, and fought to keep it in. “That’s awful.”

Katie nodded around another bite of sandwich, then said, “I just want someone nice and normal, you know? So my grandma helped me leave town, and here I am.” She smiled at him, and his stomach dropped.

Normal.
The very thing he wasn’t. He should just take her home right now and forget the whole thing. She’d all but told him flat out that she didn’t want a bear. If she knew he was not only a bear, but a potential alpha, she’d never talk to him again. No. She was his, she was meant to be his. He just had to wait until she realized it, that’s all. “Lucky me,” he said.

“Maybe we’re both lucky.” She leaned in close and he closed his eyes and followed suit, ready for a kiss, only to open them again when she brushed her thumb over his lower lip. “You had some mustard, right there,” she murmured, still close enough to kiss. Then, oh then, she slowly licked off her thumb and he thought his heart was going to stop.

Jake couldn’t stand it anymore. He reached up and curled his fingers around the base of her skull and gently tugged her the rest of the way in, finally claiming her lips. She tasted as sweet as she smelled. He took the cup of wine from her and put it aside so it would spill, then pulled her into his lap. She started to protest, but he silenced her with his mouth. The weight of her against his body was intoxicating. He wanted nothing more than to lie back and pull her with him, but in the interest of public decency he stayed upright, instead just holding her around the waist and savoring the taste of her.

She put her arms around his neck and parted her lips, teasing with the tip of her tongue until he followed it into her mouth. Shock waves rippled through him, red warning lights flashing behind his closed eyelids that he was dangerously close to losing control. His bear, caged and pacing, rattled the cage bars and roared to be set free. No matter what it took, no matter what it cost him, he was going to have her. She was his, and he was going to prove it over every inch of her luscious body.

Katie broke the kiss and took a deep breath, catching his hand where it was creeping up toward her breast and putting it firmly back on her waist. “Wow, um. We should probably stop.”

“Do you want to stop?” Jake leaned in with a growl and nipped at the side of her neck.

She laughed shakily and wriggled away from him. “No, but I don’t want to get arrested either.” Her face was flushed and her green eyes brilliantly lit with her heat. He imagined he could smell her arousal, and fantasized briefly about whether she was wearing panties or not. What he wouldn’t give to slide a hand up her thigh and find out.

Once she was settled demurely across from him again, she nibbled at her sandwich and picked up her wine. “So, wildlife management—are you guys park rangers or something?”

Was she kidding with this? He stared at her for a moment, trying to recalibrate from “ready to fuck” to “having a conversation” as fast as she had. “Wha—er, yeah. Sort of?”

She laughed at him. “I’m hungry! I want to finish eating before we do anything else.” Then she fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Maybe after, we can go to my place for dessert.”

Chapter Three

“I don’t think I’ve ever wanted dessert so badly in my life,” Jake said, and Katie had to fight a shiver. This was really going to happen. She was going to take this tall, incredibly hot man home to her bed.

Damn, but he could kiss. Katie wasn’t kidding about not wanting to get arrested. Any more kissing in his lap and she would’ve started pulling some clothes off. It was bad enough that she was eying the public restrooms across the sand, wondering if they could manage a quickie in one of the stalls before someone called the cops. She had a sudden mental image of herself pinned against the wall with Jake fucking her hard, just about to come and then yelling, “We’ll be out in just a second, officer!”

The way Jake had manhandled her into his lap, she had no doubt he was strong enough to lift her and pin her against a wall. Her face flamed hot and she ducked her head. This wasn’t like her at all. This was some out-of-control version of her, and all she could do was hang on.

It was amazing.

They finished eating in record time, and drained their cups before packing up the basket. On the walk back to her place, the tension vibrated between them. They hadn’t kissed again, as if they were both afraid that another kiss would send them over the edge. It took an eternity to climb the two flights of stairs to her door, and she didn’t think she’d ever manage to get her door unlocked, especially not when Jake started nuzzling at the back of her neck.

Finally they were inside, and she’d no sooner twisted the deadbolt than he spun her around and pinned her with her back to the door, swooping in to claim her mouth again. The wildfire leapt to life between them again, and she hooked one foot around his leg to pull him closer. And then he did it, he really did—he cupped her ass in his hands and boosted her against the door until she could wrap her legs around his waist. They both moaned as he pressed his body against hers, grinding the swollen length of his clothed cock against her panties. Katie bit and licked at his mouth as he started to thrust against her as if he were inside her and she responded by tightening her thighs around him. Her panties were drenched and next to useless, serving only to tease against her clit with each of his thrusts.

This time he was the one who stopped first, panting and laying his head on her shoulder. “Damn. You’re going to make me come in my pants before I even get you naked,” he said.

Katie giggled and nuzzled at his neck. “Then maybe we need to get naked.” She couldn’t believe what she was saying, but she didn’t know if she had ever been so ready to have sex before. There was something magical about Jake. She felt as if she’d known him forever.

He slid one of his big, powerful hands up her waist and cupped her breast, leaning down to kiss the skin bared by her neckline. “I don’t want this to be over too fast.” His thumb circled her nipple as he lowered her feet to the floor, and she melted against the door. He kissed his way across her cheek to her ear. “I want to spend all night making you mine.”

Mine.
The word echoed in Katie’s ear and she whimpered as he nibbled her earlobe, sending flashes of fire through her body. She reached for the zipper of her dress, but he beat her to it, and started to slowly coax it down. Her dress opened in back, cool air against her newly-bare skin. Jake didn’t waste any time, but unfastened her bra as well before sliding everything off her shoulders, leaving her in just her panties and sandals. He stepped back and looked at her, and Katie had to resist the urge to suck her stomach. She had any number of poses she sometimes used to try and hide the worst of her figure flaws. Even guys who said they were into big girls sometimes acted disappointed to discover that big girls had bulges and stretch marks.

Jake was not one of those men. His gaze burned into her body, lingering on her hips and the outward curve of her belly. He went to his knees in front of her and pressed kisses to her belly, stretch marks and all. Her knees began to shake as he ran his hands up her thighs, curling his strong fingers into her soft flesh. “God, you’re so beautiful,” he murmured against her, the top of his head brushing against her breasts while his tongue traced circles around her navel. He ran his hands over every inch of her legs before reaching up to toy with her breasts again. Katie just leaned against the door, curling her fingers into his thick dark hair. Jake rose up on one knee to capture her nipple with his mouth, and the searing pleasure of his tongue made her moan. He pinched her other nipple, just on the edge of too-hard, and her legs threatened to buckle.

He stood up, and before she could say anything, he swept her up into his arms. Katie squeaked and wrapped her arms around his neck as he lifted her off the ground and carried her across the room to her bed. No one had ever even tried to do such a thing, and he did it like it was nothing, like nothing mattered but getting her to bed as quickly as possible.

“These shoes look uncomfortable,” he said, and lifted one of her feet to carefully peel away her shoe, planting a kiss in the middle of her sole before repeating the process with the other foot. Katie wriggled against her purple bedspread, feeling seductive and gorgeous, spread out for him in nothing but her green lace panties.

“I think you need to take a few things off,” she said. She couldn’t wait a moment longer to see his body. He smiled a dazzling smile and started to unbutton his shirt. Katie watched breathlessly as inch by inch, he revealed his strong, broad chest. He was deliciously hairy, the sort of coarse, dark hair that would tease her nipples while he was inside her, the sort she would play with while he kissed her. Everything about him was mouth-wateringly masculine. He stripped down to his underwear, then got rid of them as well.

Katie bit her lower lip. His cock was huge and hard, but rather than being intimidated by it, she felt an extra push of wetness between her thighs, her body responding to make her even more ready to take him in, to take all of him in. “I want that,” she murmured. “I want you.”

Jake stroked his cock once, twice, smiling down at her. “Not yet.”

Katie pouted at him while he pulled a condom out of his pants pocket and laid it on her nightstand, but stopped when he crawled to her on the bed, covering all of her with his body. He lowered his mouth to hers and settled his hips between her thighs. His kiss had her aching for him within moments. The heat of his hard cock nearly burned her through her panties, and when he rocked his hips against her, his shaft rubbed against her clit through the wet fabric. It would take just a few simple movements, to move aside her panties and take him deep inside her, and oh god, she wanted to.

As if he sensed her intentions, he pulled away from her and went back to paying attention to her breasts. He suckled first one then the other, the deep pull intensifying the ache of her pussy. She couldn’t take any more. She took his hand and slid it down between her legs. “Please,” she murmured breathlessly. “Go slow the next time. I need you right now.”

“Are you sure?”

She moved his hand and deliberately pushed one of his fingers between her lips. “What do you think?”

“Ah, god,” he moaned, and pushed her panties aside to get at her wet folds. After a moment of that, he stopped long enough to pull off her panties all together. He stroked her until he found her clit, then made circles around it until she was keening and arching against his hand. When he finally pushed a finger inside her, she saw stars. How was she this close to an orgasm already?

“I’m ready for you now,” she begged. “Please, please take me.”

“I can’t say no to that,” he said. He made short work of rolling on the condom and knelt between her thighs. The giant head of his cock pushed against her entrance, then slowly parted her and started to slide inside. He was so big. Katie had never felt so full before. It was like he was reaching places no one else had ever touched. Jake closed his eyes and sighed in bliss, and she pulled him down to kiss him.

They thrust against one another, and the angle was so sweet, so perfect. His shaft stroked her clit with each thrust and Katie’s pleasure threatened to spiral out of control. It felt so right—she wanted to keep him right there inside her forever. No man had ever made her feel so overwhelmed.

This. This was what she wanted. Not some furry old man who thought he had the right to rule over her. A real, live,
human
man in her bed like Jake.

With that thought, her body began to shudder as she started to orgasm, pleasure zipping electric up and down her body. She cried out his name and begged him to fuck her faster, harder. Before she had started to come down, he cried out and arched hard against her, going deeper than she thought possible as he came inside her. Just the thought was enough to spike her pleasure a second time, until they finally collapsed together in her bed.

They stayed quiet, each trying to catch their breath. He felt so familiar to her already. Even his scent was familiar. She wanted to wrap herself up in it and let it keep her warm. She could fall in love with a man like him, so easily.

When she opened her eyes, he was smiling down at her, still inside her as he started to soften. “Hey,” he murmured. “You doing okay?”

“Mmm.” She stretched luxuriously. “Never better.”