Surrounded by Pleasure (15 page)

“How do you feel about me?”

His head shot up. How the hell was he supposed to answer
that?

“I want the truth, Toby. No matter what it is.”

“I love you.” He said the words in a rush and felt
relieved that they were finally free. “I love you,” he said softer, slower,
nodding his head to affirm the confession.

She reached over and took his hand. Her trembling fingers
stroked his skin. “I love you, too.”

He groaned, swooping in and kissing her heatedly. God,
she loved him. His mate loved him. She kissed him back but pushed away after
several seconds.

“I need to know if you can forgive me lying to you if I
promise never to do it again.”

“Baby, neither one of us is perfect.” His heart was still
racing with her words of love. “You can talk to me about anything.”

She nodded and seemed to be bracing herself as she
leveled a stare at him. “I’m not getting married.”

Toby’s brow furrowed as he looked at her. “So, you lied
about getting married? That doesn’t matter, baby. I understand if you wanted to
protect your relationship with that man—”

“No, Toby. There is no man.” His eyes got big as she
continued speaking. “There’s only you. Mikaela told me that I had to pretend to
be involved with someone when I come out here to work. There never was a
boyfriend.”

“You’re not taken?” He felt the words strain past his
lips

“No, sweetheart.”

He jumped from the couch, roaring, his fangs descending.
“Why didn’t you tell me this over the phone? You need to leave right now.” He
stalked closer to her, fighting every step. He wouldn’t hurt her again. He’d
die before he let that happen.

“No.”

He bellowed, grabbing his head and doubling over as he
fought the pain, the need to take her, knowing that it was his love for her
that bought him this measly time. If he hadn’t been in love with her, he’d have
already forced her into submission by now. He realized he was moving closer to
her, so he looked up.

“Oh, fuck, Krista,” he groaned. She was taking off her
clothes.

“I love you, Toby. You love me. If you don’t want me with
you for the rest of our lives, you’d better say so right now.” She pulled out
some kind of dart gun. “I’ll tranq you and leave. Your choice.”

“You. Are. Not. Going. Anywhere,” he gritted.

“Come to momma.” She smirked as she tossed the gun aside,
and he pounced.

There was no finesse. His clothes and the rest of her
clothes were torn from their bodies. She clutched at his shoulders, trying to
kiss him, but he wasn’t having that.

“You will submit to me,” he growled, flipping her around
and shoving her onto her hands and knees on the floor.

“Oh, yes, Toby, take me. Make me yours.”

He bit her neck, not breaking the skin, but to hold her
in place as his cock thrust into her. He fucked her hard, not caring about any
preliminaries. His mountain lion was in control right now, and it wanted to
claim its mate. He’d play with her later. Right now this was about marking his
woman, his lioness.

She moaned, wiggling her ass against him. He released her
throat and pushed her shoulders to the floor. When she rested her head on the
hardwood, her body completely open to him, he felt pride and love for his mate
swell within his chest. She wanted him just like he wanted her.

Feeling his feral side relax, he eased out of her,
turning her to sit astride him. She eased down on his cock, wrapped her arms
around his neck, and buried her face in his hair as she rode him. He gripped
her hips to help guide her and thrust up into her on each downward stroke she
took.

His woman. His mate.

“God, I love you so much,” he groaned, feeling his balls
draw up as her pussy fluttered around him. She stroked one of his fangs and he
snarled, but then she threw her head back and screamed as she fell over the
precipice.

He roared as he starting coming, then sank his fangs into
the smooth column of neck she’d exposed for him.

She whimpered as he held her tightly against him, but he
couldn’t let go. Not right now. Not while they were both coming. When her pussy
stopped convulsing and his cock quit jerking inside her, he pulled away from
her throat and licked the wounds, purring as he did so.

She giggled and squirmed against him. “What’s so funny?”
he asked in an amused voice. He couldn’t help it.

“That tickles.”

“I’m grooming you, baby. Get used to it.”

She gasped and pulled away. “Oh, my God! You
did
lick my hair the first night we met,
didn’t you?” Her look was a mixture of incredulity and humor.

He felt his cheeks burn.
Fuck,
he must be blushing. How embarrassing. “I, um, it’s a
natural—”

She shushed him as she kissed him lightly. “That’s okay.
You can lick me anywhere you want.”

“Good. Because I intend to lick you every day for the
rest of our lives.”

“Mmm . . . Sign me up for the licking. I can’t wait to
taste you all over again.”

“I’m all yours, baby.”

“Yes, Toby.” She pulled back and stared into his eyes,
gently rubbing his beard-roughened cheek. “Yes, you are.”

Epilogue

Ariel Owens pulled up to the huge log cabin, excited to
see if what her sister had told her was true.

Oh, she had no doubt her sister believed it to be true,
but the idea of people turning into animals was so huge she needed to see it
with her own eyes.

She got out of the truck and was immediately greeted by
her sister and a damn fine-looking man. He was holding her hand. Interesting.
Ariel never remembered seeing Krista date. She was always too busy burying her
nose in some history, government, or law book. Not that Ariel hadn’t been book-smart,
too, but she didn’t let her work life interfere with her private life. At least
until last year.

“Hey, girl,” Krista said, walking toward her. “This is
Toby, my, um, fiancé.”

Ariel gaped at her.
Wow.
Good for her.
But if he was one of the mountain lion shifters . . .

“Are you two mated?” They both beamed like kids on
Christmas morning. Ah, the honeymoon look. They didn’t need to answer her
question, it was written all over their silly smiling faces. “Never mind. I’ll
take that as a yes. But, um does that mean you’re a mountain lion shifter, too?”

“Yeah. I didn’t shift right away, though. We were too
busy, er, getting reacquainted.” Krista blushed, then fidgeted. “C’mon. I’ll
take you inside and introduce you to everyone.”

Ariel followed her sister and this Toby dude inside the
house and into a huge den.
Holy shit.
There were four more guys standing in here and three of them looked to be
around Toby’s age. They were all sexy as hell—even the older one had a little
something going on. Had she fallen into some alternate universe with alpha male
animal shifters with bodies to die for?

“This is Thomas Woods, Toby’s father.” Thomas stepped up
and shook her hand.

“It’s a pleasure, Mrs. Yates.”

“Oh, no you don’t. It’s Ariel and don’t you forget it,
Thomas.”

He smiled at her. “I think I’m going to like having you
here.”

“This is Toby’s brother, Josh, and his mate, Mikaela.”

“Nice to meet you two.” They shook hands with her, returning
the greeting.

“And these two over here are Jack and Rob, Toby’s other
brothers.”

Those guys shook hands with her but watched her closely.
She got a different vibe from them than she did the other two. Maybe it was
because these two were unmated.

“So, Mrs., er, Ariel, what are your plans and when do you
want to get started?” Thomas asked.

“Well, I want to start right now.” She shrugged, looking
at Jack and Rob. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I’m not married
anymore. How does that make you feel?”

There was a collective gasp in the air.

“What the hell are you talking about, Ariel Michelle?”
Krista admonished. “What about Will?”

“We grew out of love a long time ago and got tired of the
pretense. Our divorce was final three months ago.” She turned to the two brothers
she’d addressed earlier. “I’m not involved with anyone either. I’m a totally
and completely available woman. How does that make you feel?” she asked again.

“Shit, Ariel, are you lying?”

“My divorce papers are in my briefcase. You can call Will
if you want. He’s vacationing in
Italy
with his new girlfriend,
though.”

“Fuck, get her out of here!” Josh yelled right as Rob and
Jack shifted into snarling mountain lions.

Ariel smiled. They were real. No fucking way. This was
going to be the highlight of her career.

The End