Redeeming Rue AP4 (14 page)

James raised a brow.  “It’s at the repair shop in town getting the window fixed.”

She blinked in surprise.  “I was just going to return it and pay for the damages, since I didn’t pay for the insurance.”

John, who was still holding her hand like it was made of glass, said, “It’s cheaper for us to get it fixed first.  Holden and Jax work at a garage in town, and they’re handling it personally.”

“When it’s fixed, we’ll go with you to your home and help you pack up your things,” James said.  She turned her head to look at him.  The soft set of his mouth — almost a smile — made her feel as though he found the whole situation humorous, but the serious look in his eyes told her that he dared her to figure a way to get free of them.

“The hotel…”

“Hunter, Chase, and Dylan went to the hotel and packed up everything that had been left behind and brought it here.  They also paid the bill,” James said.

She tried very hard not to show the disappointment that she was feeling at her inability to just walk away right now.  If she didn’t get away, she was going to do something stupid like fall in love with them.  Then she’d let down her guard, and something horrible would happen.  She also recognized that if she just sat around looking like she was planning to escape, they were never going to give her the opportunity to actually escape.  So she would play along for now.  Eventually, she’d get the rental car back, and she and Dom would be able to take off.  Her cat yowled in distress, but she ignored the sounds as she thanked James and John for taking care of her loose ends and asked if they could find Dom in the house.

* * * * *

When James woke Monday morning, he half expected to find Rue gone and the bed cold, so it was a surprise to find her tucked securely between him and John.  He was hopeful she actually was starting to let down her guard a little bit.  He wasn’t really sure what to do.  Although he’d tried to woo his sons’ mother into a relationship, it had been a study in futility.  Mountain lion females were devoid of emotion, and the mother of his sons was no different.  She had only agreed to have children with him and refused any other sort of relationship.  She left the hospital as soon as possible after the children were born and rejected any type of contact with them.

James had thought he was going to spend the rest of his life alone, and then they’d come to Ashland where he’d had the chance to date and meet women who actually wanted to be in a relationship.  Not that he’d had any luck, but at least he’d been out there.  He didn’t want to just date Rue, or just make love to her; he wanted to have everything with her,
be
everything to her.

He looked down at her as she slept, her lips parted slightly and her lashes casting shadows on her cheeks.  Her pure white hair made her look like an angel, and her curvy body made his mouth water.  Peering at the side of her neck, he looked at the mark he’d made, but he didn’t feel pride filling him so much as worry that it didn’t mean anything to her.

After Dom woke, Rue had seemed determined to take off, but he and John had taken precautions to stop that from happening.  Jax and Holden had taken the car and had a glass company replace the window, and it was already fixed and simply stowed at the garage until Rue asked them to take her home so she could pack up her life there and come home with them.

He knew he was being an ass by not giving her a way to leave immediately, but he thought if she just stayed with them for a little while, she would see she was really safe now and could stop hiding.  He felt bad for what she’d endured all those years…alone and afraid, raising a kid without any family support or even a true friend.  Everyone in her life was a friend on a superficial level, because she didn’t trust anyone enough to tell the truth about what she was.  But he and John knew, and now the pride knew, and no one would hold her identity against her.  She’d figure it out.  He wasn’t sure how long that would take, but it didn’t matter as long as she was theirs in the end.  He’d had a taste of her, been surrounded by her scent for long enough that it was imprinted in his brain forever, and there was no way in hell he was going to let her go.

Rue rolled over with a yawn and tucked her head against his shoulder.  He pressed a kiss to her temple and whispered, “Good morning, sweetheart.”

She yawned again and it kind of sounded like good morning, which made him smile.

John stretched next to her and said, “Morning.”  He rolled to a seated position, cracked his neck, and then leaned over and kissed Rue on the cheek.

“I told Henry he could play hooky from school today.  I promised him and Dom that I’d take them hunting this morning.”

Rue sat up so fast that she cracked her head on James’ cheek, and he saw stars for a moment.

“Ouch, damn it, sorry,” she grumbled, rubbing her forehead.

“It’s okay,” he promised, rubbing his cheek with his fingers.

“You’re taking my kid hunting?  Why?”

“Because he asked me to.”  He paused for a long moment and then said, “Do I really need to tell you that it’s safe for him to be out in his shift in our territory?  The boarding house and the woods around it are part of our territory, and no hunters are allowed on the land.  And aside from that, I would never take my own son, or yours, anywhere they might get into trouble.  I’m not going to insult myself by asking if you trust me, so you’re just going to have to suck it up.”

He got out of bed, and Rue rubbed her neck with a groan.  “Damn it, John, why do you have to throw guilt onto everything else that I’ve been dealing with?  Two days ago I thought I was going to be killed by my clan.  Forgive me for being cautious.”

John tugged his jeans on with jerky motions.  “There’s cautious and then there’s insulting.  The clan of your childhood is gone.  Hanai and Dag’s clan escorted them out of the state, and the other clans that were visiting for the ceremony left yesterday as well.  No one cares about the color of your fur anymore, Rue.  Race promised that you were free.  You have to start trusting someone sometime.  You might as well start with your mates.”  He stormed out of the room, slamming the door.

Rue cringed and looked as guilty as hell.  James thought that was progress.  If she felt something toward them, then hurting John would make her feel bad.  It seemed like a start.

She slipped from the bed and walked over to one of the windows in the bedroom, pulling the cord to open the slats.  The bedroom overlooked the backyard, so James assumed she was looking for Dom.

He watched her as she gazed out at the yard, and to his surprise, a blush seeped into her cheeks.  He inhaled silently and caught the scent of her arousal.  She watched intently out the window, with the blush sweeping up her neck, and her lips parted slightly.

James moved off the bed and walked to her.  He stopped behind her, the scent of her arousal stronger and sweeter now that he was close.  Looking past her, he could see through the open blinds that she was watching John strip and shift.

“Who is that again?  I’ve forgotten their names,” she asked as John stopped undoing his jeans and straightened, talking to a trio who came out into the yard.

“That’s Melody and her mates Micah and Tristan.  She’s a lioness, but she was raised away from females and was never poisoned by them, so she never became the frigid, uncaring creature that the others are.”

Her posture relaxed slightly, and James wondered if she was jealous of Melody being near John, or if she had seen Melody as a threat.  “I don’t understand the curse.”

James placed his hands on her hips, feeling the heat of her skin through the thin pajama shirt she wore.  “A long time ago, a goddess cursed the mountain lions, so that the females would be compelled to claw the young girls three times over the course of their youth.  The poison in their claws works to slowly change the girls from sweet and caring to cold and heartless.  They really care about nothing except the furtherance of the mountain lion race.”

“Where are they?”  Her voice was breathless as he slipped his fingers forward and under the hem of the top, rubbing her bare stomach.

“We don’t know, exactly.  Most of them appear to be in Canada after they left our old home in King, Pennsylvania.  Every now and then, they try to interfere in our lives, but we do our best to be watchful and keep each other safe.”

She leaned back slightly against his chest, and he flattened his hands on her stomach under the shirt, stroking her soft skin.  He lowered his mouth to her neck and pressed a kiss to the place under her ear.  She didn’t pull away but pressed herself back against him harder and rested her hands on top of his.

He kissed down her throat, his cat purring in happiness, and his cock hardening and pressing into her back.  The only thing between them was the silky material of her sleep shorts and the thin fabric of his boxer briefs, but he wasn’t going to go there.  Not without John, and not without making sure that there was more to what was happening between them aside from scratching an itch.  She was still so closed off emotionally, but it had only been a full day since she was freed from her banishment and threat of death.  He didn’t expect a complete turnaround so soon, but this was a nice development.  At least she found them sexually attractive and trusted them enough to sleep in the same bed with them.

She pushed on his hands as her head tilted to give him more access to her neck.  His fingers brushed the loose waistband of her shorts and he hesitated.  He didn’t want to make love to her right now.  Well, he sure as hell did, but it wasn’t fair to John for him and Rue to move forward physically while he was out hunting with the kids.  His cat snarled. 
Mine
.

For a moment, he wondered if she was trying to play him, but a quick inhale of her amazing scent told him she wasn’t pretending to be turned on, she really was.  He slid his fingers under the band and ran them along her skin.  She shivered, her head resting on his shoulder and her hands still pressing against his — not to push him away, but to direct him where she wanted him to go.

“Rue?” he whispered her name into her ear.

Her head moved back and forth as if she was shaking her head.  “I can’t think past how turned on I am.”  She turned her head and pressed her lips to his, her hips moving back to rub her soft cheeks against his hard length.  He groaned at the sweet taste of her mouth, forgetting all about John on the ground below.

Their tongues slipped together, seeking and savoring.  A tingle wove up his spine with each stroke of his tongue as his cat rolled and purred.  She pushed down on his hands again and wiggled against him, his cock hardening painfully.  Part of him, maybe the animal that wanted to claim her, was howling at him to rip her shorts off and take her.  But the better part of him knew that he couldn’t – wouldn’t – take her like that.  Not now, when their relationship was so up in the air, and she still seemed to be keeping one eye on the door.  He could make her happy, though, and take care of her.

He slid his hands into her shorts, keeping one pressed to her lower stomach to hold her close to his body, as his other hand delved between her legs with a slow, sweeping caress.  She was bare, the lips of her sex smooth against his fingers.  She tried to press her hips forward, but he stopped her from moving and she groaned into his mouth.

His fingers slipped through the silky evidence of her arousal, as he found her clit and began to stroke it.  His touch was light and quick; the hard bud swelled under his touch.  He stroked downward, teasing the opening of her pussy until she groaned into his mouth and then broke their kiss.  He opened his eyes and stared into the depths of hers that were swirling from green to blue.  He pushed his finger inside her and her breath caught in her throat.  Stroking her inner walls, he reveled in the silky feel of her most intimate place and the heady scent of her arousal that continued to deepen and sweeten.

Two fingers pierced her, pushing hard and fast.  Her nails dug into his hand, and she seemed to be holding herself against him harder than he was holding her.  Her hips rocked as their eyes stayed locked to each other, his fingers delving inside her again and again.  His thumb pressed against her clit and she moaned, biting her lower lip.

“Come for me, Rue.  Let me feel you fall apart.”

“James,” she moaned his name, her body undulating against his as he thumbed her clit and stroked her pussy.  He scented the moment she was about to come, her scent calling to a deep, feral part of him.  His fangs elongated and his body felt strung tight like a bow.  And then she came.  Her pussy clamped down on his fingers, and her clit throbbed under his thumb as he stroked her to the height of pleasure.  Her eyes squeezed shut, and she cried out, her hands pressing against his as he felt her pleasure crest and then fade.

There was a moment when time seemed to stand still, the very air around them unmoving as he stood behind her, his fingers buried in her still-throbbing pussy.

Then she pulled his hands from her body and spun to face him, her face a fierce mask of desire and want.  She grasped his wrist tightly and lifted his hand between them.  His fingers were glossy with her come, and she pushed his hand toward his mouth and watched as he licked his fingers clean of the sweet taste of her.  Her eyes were still a swirl of blue and green, the woman and cat mixed together in their pleasure.

She dropped to her knees, her hair falling like a white wave down her back as she dragged his shorts down and grasped his cock with both hands.  He groaned and pressed his hand to the wall next to the window.  Cupping her face with his other hand, he lifted her chin until she was looking at him.