Silver Mine (13 page)

He cleared his throat then snarled the words. “You’re damn lucky I’m a gentleman. Ready for bed?”

Maybe I don’t want you to be a gentleman
rushed through her brain. Which was not what she should be considering. Pondering. Imagining or otherwise adding to her thought patterns.

“Wait. They’re going to think…” Oh, she was pathetic.

Chase drew a slow breath in, almost vibrating with tension. “Think what?”

Shelley lowered her chin. “Nothing.”

He sighed, a heavy lost sound, a second before his fingers brushed her cheek and cupped her face, lifting her to look at him. “You’re getting on my last nerve, darling. Now hold still.”

She waited for him to kiss her senseless. To haul her against all those rock-solid muscles and tightly bound energy. What she got was a tender caress, his lips briefly connecting with hers. The skim of his tongue over her bottom lip too rapid to allow her to open in response and let him in.

Because she was totally going to. Totally ready to give back and let them at least mark each other with the scent of a few mostly chaste kisses.

He pulled back and stared, his gaze darting over her as if he were attempting to read her mind. “We need to hit the sack. Tomorrow’s gonna come soon enough.”

He slid his fingers down her arm, and a shiver raced ahead of his touch. When he linked their fingers together and led her back to the cabin, her heart pounded and her palms got sweaty.

Inside, the men had all settled into quiet activities, or crawled onto one of the platforms that created bunk space on the far side of the room from where her and Chase’s bed sat.

Bed. Chase.
Oh boy.

Quiet, except for the crackle of the fire in the wood stove and the beginning rumbles of snoring from one of the berths. Shelley slipped off her shoes and crawled into the sleeping bags that he’d joined together. She rolled onto her side, faced the wall and braced herself.

There wasn’t enough time to truly prepare as Chase followed her a moment later, spooning around her. He slipped an arm over her waist and unapologetically tugged her against his body.

He was hard all over, and one specific part of the hardness nestled too intimately in the dip between her butt cheeks. She could barely breathe.

A light kiss landed on her nape, his lips whisper soft. “Shhh. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

Oh yeah, he did. Any way he wanted her, he had her. Forget the no-sex sex, she was ready to change her mind and let him go all the way.

A loud rumble sounded somewhere beyond their feet, and Shelley considered swearing. A room full of chaperones. How marvelous.

Yet, the situation was exactly what they needed. She and Chase obviously weren’t going to do anything about the tension between them, not with a room full of witnesses. Shifters might be upfront about sex, but this kind of setup had more kink-show potential than most.

The knowledge they weren’t going to do anything helped her relax, and bit-by-bit her tension slipped away. The fatigue of the day rose and she closed her eyes. His warmth enveloped her tighter than his embrace, and the last thing she remembered was the tickle of his slowing breath against the back of her neck as he fell asleep.

Chapter Ten

A finger stroked across her stomach, and Shelley rolled slightly to let it tickle her gently, the heat of her body so perfect she figured she was still dreaming. Had to be a dream—the last time she had someone touch her like this in a soft, drowsy wake-up-sex kind of way she’d been back in university and…oh, wait.

She had never done the slow morning after the wild sex the night before. She left. Enjoyed herself then hit the road so there would be none of the awkward morning-after stuff.

Although this wasn’t awkward, which meant it had to be a dream, and when that mysterious hand rose and circled her nipple with a firm fingertip, she moaned happily.

Had to be a dream. Her breasts weren’t playboy-bunny style so were usually ignored by the guys she’d taken into her bed. Her wolf had never cared about the lack of attention to small details of foreplay. When she was looking for release, hot and sweaty and fast was just fine. But—oooh, another reason she was sure this was a dream—she actually liked having her nipples played with. Only a fantasy lover would know to pinch lightly and send shivers through her body. Only the imaginary male in her life would scratch his nails over the rigid tip and draw another gasp from her lips.

She should have gone in for a different field of science than animal husbandry. Maybe a psych department, one with a research facility where she could have signed up to be an experimental subject in dream seduction.

That oh-so-talented hand left her breasts and trailed over her belly. She held her breath in anticipation. And right about the time he cupped her mound, middle finger pressing on the perfect section to wake up her clitoris…

Her brain woke as well.

The hand doing magical things stilled as she involuntarily sucked in a shocked gasp. There was a very aroused crossbreed shifter lying pressed up against her naked body—naked? When had she lost her clothes?—and this was no dream.

He kissed her neck. “Relax, I won’t do anything you don’t like.”

Well, there was a problem. She pretty much liked it all. Except the
in a cabin with an audience
bit.

“Trust me,” whispered past her ear a second before his tongue began tracing the edge of her earlobe, and she was lost. Even more gone when he slipped his tongue into her ear briefly. She would have jumped a good foot off the bed if he hadn’t had her pinned in place.

Trust him? Oh boy. Everything blurred together as he touched her slowly, fingers slipping through her curls and dipping inside.

She was such a dirty girl. He didn’t ask, but she did it anyway. Running her foot along his calf where it lay next to hers, she lifted her thigh and draped her limb over his, effectively opening her core to his touch.

If he didn’t get that as a clear invitation, she wasn’t sure what would. Fireworks going off? A radio announcement? A sky writer?

Chase tilted his hips, and his erection pressed more firmly against her lower back as he rolled them both slightly, using her leg as a lever to drape her over his lower body. He brought up moisture from her core and teased her clit. Once. Again.

She was so sensitized from the dream and the past days longing for this man’s touch, she was liable to have the fastest orgasm of her life. That couldn’t be good.

One thick digit pressed deep inside as he rubbed the heel of his hand against her clit, and she was gone, passage clutching his finger as her climax blew. Her ears rang and there was this tingling aftershock racing over her skin, and it wasn’t going away because he didn’t stop. He touched her and teased her, playing her perfectly again and again until she had to bite her lips to stop from screaming.

Chase rocked against her as he worked his fingers in and out of her slick passage. It was somewhat surreal, to have the light sneaking in the windows, the continued rumble of snoring from at least a few of the men, and Chase doing dirty and wonderful things to her. And when he pressed his mouth against her neck and sucked?

White lights in front of her eyes, deer-in-the-headlight type, total out-of-control response as she orgasmed again. The sensation was nearly eclipsed by the bite of his teeth on her neck muscle, almost as if he was holding her in place as he continued to rut against her. He pulled his fingers from her body and grasped her hip, stickiness ignored as he held on tight.

Wetness spread over her back as he grunted, and the scent of his release mixed with hers and, oh Lordy, there was another reason why shifters shouldn’t have even non-sex sex in the same room as other shifters.

He pushed her onto her belly and levered away the sleeping bags, probably to keep from getting stickiness all over them. She buried her face deeper into the pillow and enjoyed all the little happy pheromones racing through her. The wet patch on her back somehow added to her contentment, as relaxed as she’d been in days. Maybe months.

Amazing what an orgasm by someone’s hand other than your own could do.

When Chase pressed his big warm palm against her back she didn’t move. When he slipped his fingers through the seed he’d left on her skin, she rumbled with happiness before forcing herself to stop. Okay, not a human thing, or maybe not a human thing all the time, but having him rub his semen into her skin like he was painting her was so utterly wolfish she was floored.

Yes, he was probably doing it as an extra step for her own safety, creating a clear marking to warn off other shifters, but her brain didn’t care. It was so. Freaking. Cool.

And if her friends back at vet school saw this, they’d need therapy.

The snoring in the room had lessened, and at least one person exited the cabin. Shelley stared at the wall and wondered if they could stay in bed until the place was empty. Chase continued to touch her, only now his talented fingers were massaging her tight calves.

If she groaned again, would the guys in the room think they were still at it? And did she really care? Because this felt so very, very good.

Chase adjusted position, crawling over her, and she flushed at the vivid images racing through her brain. Pictures of him lifting her hips and taking her from behind.

Seems once she’d let the sex fiend out there was no holding her back. Chase dug his thumbs into her hamstrings and dragged upward to press deep into her butt cheeks, and she gasped.

Yeah, a virtual orchestra of grunts and groans. She was so classy.

Chase leaned over her, the heavy weight of his groin resting against her ass as he covered her back and kissed her neck. “Time to get up, lazy bones.”

Up. Like that thing between his legs was once again up, if she was any judge of male anatomy. Shelley tried to roll out from under him. He merely trapped her once she rotated halfway, and then she was in real trouble because now they were face to face and… Yeah, that naked thing and the
up
stuff were a definite reality.

As hot as the situation was, she fought for control. “This is so not fair,” she complained, lifting her hands with the intention of pushing him away.

Hmm, palms to hairy chest.

She was a goner.

Chase smiled. “Just wanted to be sure you were okay.”

The unspoken rest of the sentence was there in his laughing eyes. The
…make sure you’re okay and not going to kick me for being too forward and smearing my jism all over you
.

“Oh, move it, Chase. We’ve got a long way to go.”

But not nearly as far as she’d thought before this little escapade. As in, she really and truly was ready for a romp with another shifter which, after so long of doing without, was about the most wonderful thing she could imagine.

Chase got them breakfast. Packed. Said goodbye to the two shifters still hanging out at the cabin, and led Shelley into their second day of the wilderness.

He had to slow his pace three times before he finally hit a section of trail that was clear enough for Shelley to take the lead and go her own speed. It wasn’t that he was in a hurry to get anywhere—

Liar
.

First he’d justified his rapid tempo on feeling great after making Shelley come. Plus, coating her with his seed had been so damn hot he could be expected to have a little more vim in his vigor. Neither was the real reason he was marching like a crazy man.

Somewhere inside he’d realized that today’s destination was his cabin, and there they were guaranteed privacy. Didn’t matter if Delton was still in the area. The man would hightail it out soon enough. Even if Jones were around, the boy would be fine in a hammock in the bush for the night.

He and Shelley were going to have a night alone with a bed and no snoring shifters keeping an anxious ear and eye on them.

Deciding what to do to her first was driving him mad because there was no longer any doubt where this was going to end. Whatever had kept her from wanting sex with him before was gone.

And if he was at all familiar with female anatomy, Evan had been wrong about one thing. Shelley was either no virgin, or she’d at least played with some toys over the years.

He tripped and barely caught himself from tumbling to the ground.

Okay. Thinking about Shelley playing with sex toys was not allowed while hiking along the ridge of a mountain.

They followed the same routine as the previous day. Forward motion, break for a snack, hike again, repeat. They didn’t talk about much. Certainly not about the cabin and him waking her up. But she smiled and fluttered her lashes at times, and he caught her staring when he stripped off his shirt to dip his head in a creek to cool off.

The last section of the trail opened up enough they could walk side by side, and Shelley fell into step with him.

“So, one thing, Chase. What’s with the
Silver
business?”

“I wondered if you’d catch that.” He grinned. “Yeah, it’s easier sometimes, since a few Mikes or Daves in the area can mean having to say ‘the Dave that lives by the bend in the creek’. I got the handle Silver a few years back—the hair and my last name, I guess.”

She frowned, hands clutching the backpack straps at chest level as she concentrated. “Last name. Johnson. How does that turn into Silver?”