Three Shifters for Sarah (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (10 page)

He rolled her onto her back, and she extended her knees and let him crawl between them. Holding himself above her with an arm, he reached between them and tried to insert his cock. She knew she was wet, her pussy swollen in welcome of the coming invasion. But he couldn’t get the penetration started because he was so big, and the angry, swollen cockhead tapping at her entrance had never made her pussy feel narrower.

“Here, let me.” She took his cock out of his hand and ran him along her pussy lips. He gave a little push forward with his hips and was inside her. At once she felt stretched, but it did not feel uncomfortable, just took a second of getting used to, and in a minute she knew it would feel damn incredible.

It all seemed to come so easy to TJ. He moved slow and took his time, and the friction between their two bodies as they rode each other was glorious.

In a few minutes her breath was coming heavy, and without even realizing it she had started to moan into the billows of the comforter scrunched up beneath her on the bed.

She put her arms around his neck and looked up into his dazzling blue eyes. He was calm as he took her and his control impressive. It seemed as if he had something he wanted to say to her and there was so much she could have said to him in return. But she didn’t want to ruin this moment with words that would have no meaning later. The physical connection between their bodies was enough.

“Will you let me be on top for a while?” she asked him.

“Anything you say, my lady.”

She sensed that her pleasure had become his top priority. “Thank you,” she said and reached up and kissed him.

When she mounted on top of him and got him reinserted into her pussy, she could only take a part of his length into her passage before his head was poking at her cervix because with her being on top his penetration became deeper and harder.

He reached between her thighs and fingered her clit with thumb and forefinger as she rode him. That did it for her. She couldn’t take anymore stimulation. An orgasm spread hot and powerful out from her pussy and she fell on top of his rock-hard body in pure bliss.

* * * *

They lay on their sides facing each other, the soft spread of the damask comforter pulled to their waists.

During the night they had made love three more times. Finally she thought TJ had exhausted himself with his passion for her, and she was sated with total pleasure, in the afterglow and recovering from her last dizzying climax.

This was the time of night a person told their lover they loved them, and it would have been so very easy to say to TJ. He was an amazing man, funny, kind and gentle, as honest as an open book. Yet she could not say the words to him, would not allow them to pass her lips. She loved who he was as a man, but could never accept what he was as a shape-shifter.

TJ laughed and traced her lips with his fingers. “You make a funny sound when you come.”

“No, I don’t,” she protested. “No one’s ever told me that before.”

“I’m not just anyone. I’m one of your mates.”

She lifted up on an arm, the lonely hum of late-night traffic passing under her window rousing her. “You’re not my mate, TJ.”

“By shifter standards I am.” He turned over onto his back and looked up at the cracked plaster ceiling over the hideaway bed. “Why don’t you want me as a mate, Sarah?”

“It isn’t that I don’t want you. It’s just something that can never be.”

“Well then why can’t you be my mate?”

Sarah looked down and played with the ruffle of her pillow. “Because you’re a shape-shifter, and I’m a human. Because you’re from Montana, and I’m from New York. Because you live in a wolf pack, and although it sounds wonderful, I would never feel comfortable living in it. As a matter of fact I’d be miserable there.”

TJ was silent. He had no comeback for her words, and she watched a dark cloud pass over his features for a moment before it left, and his face returned to that of the handsome man who had just made love to her.

“I don’t want to hurt you, TJ.” She ran a hand over his chest and felt the fast pace of his heart beneath his ribs. “You’re very special to me. The time I spent in Montana on the Circle T with you three was very special. But I think that we—”

“I love you, Sarah,” he interrupted her, with the sweetest words of all.

She bit down hard on her lower lip. Emotion welled in her heart, and she didn’t trust herself to speak for a few minutes. Moving against him in the small bed, she curled her leg around one of his and rested her head on top of his chest. He reached an arm around her shoulder and hugged her tenderly.

“Have you ever thought of moving to New York?” she asked him. “You know if you ever did you could always crash at my place.”

TJ shook his head sadly. “For me New York City is a place I like to visit, but I could never live here.”

“I guess a shape-shifter would rather have a forest of pine trees to run through than a forest of skyscrapers.”

“You can say that again. I’d be miserable if I had to live here. I’m sorry, Sarah.”

Sarah bit down on her lip again until it hurt and told herself she was not going to cry. “So you see why it won’t ever work for us.”

He ran long, gentle fingers down the curve of her spine and gave her a smile. “I’m either stubborn or dumb, or maybe a little bit of both, but I still don’t see that.”

It would have been appropriate if she had told him that he’d find some nice shifter girlfriend out in Montana and maybe she’d still meet the man of her dreams here in New York and they’d both live happily ever after, but those ideas were repugnant to her. The idea of TJ with another woman out in Montana turned her stomach, yet she couldn’t claim him as her own. If she did it would ruin her life.

“You’re very sweet, TJ,” she settled on telling him instead and brushed his chest with a kiss.

“I don’t blame you, Sarah. You tried to warn me about this.”

She looked over the arch of his chest into his blue eyes and wanted to tell him a million times how sorry she was.

A playful smile turned the corners of his mouth and altered the mood between them for the better. “You also warned me how uncomfortable your bed was, and you were right.” He gave her a mock grimace. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to walk again. My back is killing me. This is the most uncomfortable bed I’ve ever slept in.”

Sarah broke out into heartfelt laughter that felt wonderful, and TJ wasn’t able to keep a straight face for long either. “That’s right. I did try to warn you. I knew you’d hate my bed, but you wouldn’t listen.”

He leaned down and touched her lips with his own. “Listen to me lady, last night a Great Plains twister couldn’t have kept me out of your bed. So screw my back. I reckon I’m right where I want to be at this moment.”

Her knee grazed past something deliciously hard under the comforter. He was ready for her again. A hot flush enveloped her as desire overcame them. His exquisite kisses covered her body and his always sure hands had worked their way down to her butt cheeks and were wickedly delightful as they cupped and fondled.

He knew she liked to be on top, and always quick to please, he was positioning her for another ride.

In the back of her mind Sarah was aware that what they were doing was using sex to ward off the painful words that still needed to be said between them. But they had the morning to say their good-byes. Now as he entered her pussy in the night her thoughts became void of all but the pleasure of the ride.

It was past eight by the time TJ climbed out of Sarah’s uncomfortable little bed. He hadn’t slept this late in years. Sarah was still curled up in a peaceful sleep beneath the comforter next to him. After giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead, and making certain not to wake her, he pulled on his pants and went out to the kitchen area in search of coffee.

The city seemed to be waking up to a bright sunny summer Saturday morning, though it was hard to see anything save for the shadows of the building next door out the single window in the apartment unit.

A quiet rummage through the cupboards brought TJ to the coffee he craved, and he placed a pot of water on a burner to boil.

Yesterday had been almost entirely wonderful from the time he got to spend with Sarah, to their long talk, and the sex which had been the hottest ever. However, the conclusions they’d reached in the night left him feeling hollow and empty inside.

TJ wasn’t the type of man to give up, never had been, and no one was going to start accusing him of being a quitter now. Back home on the Circle T when a bronco needed breaking in on the range, he would ride that bad boy as far and long as was needed until it would yield to the inevitable. In a way he supposed that type of blind determination was what was needed with Sarah now. The only problem was TJ was a big tough cowboy, and he never worried the bronco could hurt him any. But Sarah could easily break his heart.

So as not to wake her, he removed the coffeepot before the boiling whistle sounded and poured the steaming water into his cup. TJ had been as quiet as a mouse and was hoping Sarah could get another hour’s sleep in before her day began. But even before he got the coffee cup to his lips a buzzer alert went off in the tiny apartment room.

Certain it would awaken Sarah, TJ cursed the offending sound and went to go look for its source. It was coming from an intercom by the front door, and although TJ had no experience with living in a building like this, he got a pretty good idea that Sarah had a visitor downstairs to see her.

The contraption was more complicated than the harness of a show horse, but after pushing three or four buttons on the thing he finally got a green light that told him to talk into the microphone. He wasn’t sure if he should answer it or not. But a quick check behind him at the hideaway showed Sarah was still out cold and the buzzer had only barely caused her to stir.

“Hello?” TJ answered. “This is Sarah Winter’s apartment.”

“I thought I might find you here.” It was Lance on the other side of that intercom, his voice was gruff, and TJ knew immediately he was in a bad mood and probably a hair trigger away from trouble. “You’ve got some explaining to do, kid.”

“Lance?” TJ was caught completely off guard. “I must say I’m a tad surprised to find you up here in New York with me.”

“You’re not the only one who can be irresponsible and chase halfway across the country looking for their mate.” Lance was in no mood to hear any explanations from his younger brother. “Haul ass down here now!”

TJ thought about arguing. He didn’t want to leave Sarah when he hadn’t yet finished what he had set out to start with her. But if she woke up to a shouting match between him and Lance that wouldn’t help matters any, so he decided discretion was the better part of valor in this instance.

“Give me a minute to get dressed and I’ll be down.”

TJ quickly finished dressing, halting only to give Sarah one last loving kiss. He softly closed the front door behind him. It didn’t lock, but he figured he could take care of that after he dealt with Lance.

About three minutes later, after he had rode down on the elevator, he stepped out the front door into the morning sunshine to find Lance waiting on the front step for him with a scowl etched across his face.

“How have things been going with her?” Lance asked him, some of the bite seeming to leave his voice at the mere mention of their would-be mate.

“Wonderful and lousy at the same time.” TJ shrugged, not knowing what more he could say, and feeling bad he didn’t have better news to report.

“Ryan already forgave you for running off and disobeying his order.”

“I figured he would.”

“You know I didn’t come all this way just to talk to you.”

TJ looked up at the ninth floor of the building where Sarah’s apartment was, and he smiled. He had just put two and two together and realized why Lance was here. “You old dog you. You came here for the same reason I did. You want a shot at her, too.”

“I wouldn’t mind.”

TJ clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t mess this up for us,” he told him in all seriousness.

“Hey, if you haven’t scared her away by this time, I figure nothing will.”

“Treat her good.”

“You know I will.”

TJ didn’t want to leave, but he was a shape-shifter and he understood pack dynamics. Lance was also slated to be Sarah’s mate, and he needed to have his own time alone with her. That was the way of things with their kind, and it served them well. If Lance was able to score with Sarah and get her to see how fulfilling their lives together could be, then he would be as happy as if he himself had accomplished the same task.

“Her door’s open,” he told Lance as he walked away.

TJ adjusted his Stetson low on his brow and headed down the street in search of a cab that would take him back to his hotel room and a comfortable bed to sleep in.

* * * *

Lance entered Sarah’s apartment through the unlocked front door. By nature he was a cautious man and not the type to sneak into a woman’s apartment unannounced. He was breaking all the rules for Sarah and because she was a human he knew he had very little chance of succeeding in making her his mate. Yet after the magnificent week he had spent with her on the Circle T, he was left with no choice but to try.