He smiled, slowing his strokes and tilting his hips. His thick cockhead glided perfectly along her G-spot, his pubic bone hitting her clit just right. “Like that?”
She nodded, not speaking, not daring to breathe or move for fear of losing that magic combination.
At first she didn’t think it would happen, sure he’d change position or speed or…
It built, slow and steady. Unlike the volcanic eruption of the prior releases he’d brought her to, this was practically gentle.
“That’s it. Give it to me,” he coaxed.
She gripped his arms and moaned as the wave hit her, softly, tenderly.
He didn’t change a thing about his movements until certain she’d finished. Then he climaxed in two thrusts, deep inside her.
He lowered her legs and leaned forward, kissing her throat, murmuring to her.
What he said she didn’t know. She tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled his face to her chest, drifting to sleep content and sated.
* * * *
She awoke alone in bed, the sheets tangled around her, the afternoon light golden through the bedroom blinds.
She rolled over and spotted the bedside clock. It was almost four. Touching her shoulder didn’t hurt where he’d bit her. It was totally healed.
“Awake?”
Lindsey jumped at his voice, startled. In his full naked glory, a smiling Ivan leaned against the bedroom doorjamb.
“Sorry I scared you.” He crossed the room with smooth, fluid strides and slipped into bed.
“How did you know I was awake? Not that I’m complaining.”
“I heard you.”
“I didn’t make any noise.”
“You rolled over in bed.” He kissed the hollow of her throat. Maybe she should be afraid, but she only wanted to pull him closer.
“You heard that?” She tangled her fingers in his hair and hooked a leg around his, hoping to keep him there with her.
“I promise I don’t howl at fire engines.”
She rolled on top of him, pleasantly surprised to see he was already aroused. Saved her the trouble.
He moaned when she impaled herself on his stiff shaft and gripped her hips.
“Ready for round two?” he asked.
“I think you lost count. This is more like three or four, isn’t it?” Rolling her hips in a slow sensual motion coaxed a low growl from him.
“I guess counting will get pointless real fast, won’t it?”
Lindsey leaned forward and gently bit his nipple, his replying gasp fueling her passion. “Do you always answer a question with a question?”
“Does that bother you, babe?”
She looked at him, his half smile firmly anchoring her heart to him. “Is it supposed to bother me?”
“Do you like playing games with me?”
“Are you trying to get the last word, or are you going to fuck my brains out, wolfman?”
He laughed and flipped her over, thrusting hard and deep. “Does that answer your question?”
She giggled. “You’re going to keep me busy for a long time, aren’t you?”
Ivan shook his head and kissed her. “All right, you win. Uncle.” He paused, slipping a hand between them, his thumb finding her sensitive clit. “Besides, I think I know a way to distract you.”
“Mm-hmm.” She worked her hips against him, loving the way he filled and stretched her. He rubbed tight circles around her nub, timing his strokes perfectly. Within minutes she had climaxed again.
He stilled his hips, kissing her.
“Hey, don’t stop now.” She wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m not stopping. I’m memorizing your beautiful face. I never thought you’d accept this so well. I figured we’d still be at the you cowering in the corner and threatening me with a kitchen implement stage.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you don’t have the market on secrets. I’ve got one too, you know.”
“Like what?”
“When I get PMS, I’m a real bitch to live with.”
He roared with laughter. “Then you’re my kind of girl, aren’t you?”
* * * *
He’d have to wait until she told him the rest in her own time. Something hidden deep, and she used humor as an emotional defense. He’d learned that much in their few days together. They made love again and skinny-dipped in his pool. After, he called Jeremy and arranged to meet him for dinner.
They stopped by her place so she could change clothes. When they arrived at Outback Steakhouse, she nervously gripped Ivan’s hand as he led her inside to where Jeremy had their table waiting.
Jeremy stood at their approach, warmly smiling and extending his hand to her as Ivan made the introductions. She hesitated a moment before shaking with him, then climbed into the booth and huddled close to Ivan’s side.
After the waitress took their order, Jeremy leaned forward, folding his arms on the table. “How are you handling this, Lindsey?”
She nervously glanced at Ivan. He protectively slipped his arm around her shoulders as she answered.
“It’s an adjustment.”
Jeremy nodded. “That’s not the word I usually hear, but good. Do you have any questions for me?”
She met his eyes square on. “Can you kill those fuckers that nearly raped me?”
Ivan choked on the swallow of tea he’d taken. He’d give Jeremy credit for not reacting to that one.
Maybe this was a key to Lindsey’s deep, dark bogeyman.
“Babe,” Ivan said, “we’ll let the law take care of them.”
She glared at him. “What if they don’t find the others?”
“With their partner in the hospital, and then going straight to jail, they’ll get them.”
She tensed against him, and he nuzzled the top of her head, kissing her. “It’s okay. I promise, never again. Ever.”
She nodded.
After dinner, Ivan drove her back to her place, and they spent the night making love. In the morning he rolled over and grinned as she woke up. “What?”
He held up his collar and leash. “Want to go to the park for a run?”
* * * *
He knew if he didn’t get her back to the park now, he might never be able to. She was scared, understandably so, but he didn’t want what happened to ruin her enjoyment of a place she obviously loved.
They parked in a shaded area, and Lindsey laughed as he slipped the choker over his head. “Why now?”
He shrugged. “Who says I don’t like it?”
She carried a small backpack with a couple of bottles of water and the leash. Leading her by the hand, he quickly took her off the path into a more desolate section of woods.
He noted her sly smile while he stripped. “What?”
She kissed him, wrapping her fingers around his cock, which immediately responded. “I like you like this.”
He clipped the leash to his collar and jammed his clothes into the backpack. “Keep that up, babe, and you’ll end up flat on your back and butt naked.”
“Maybe that’s what I want.”
He carefully and reluctantly peeled her fingers off his cock. “Later, I promise, you can have as much of that as you want.” He kissed her hand and gave her the backpack. “Let’s go play. Running in the woods makes me really horny.”
“Then by all means, mister. After you.”
He would kill for her smile, to keep her this happy. He shifted, loving the pleased look on her face.
They spent two hours in the park. He could have run all day, but as he sensed the tension fully drain from her, he playfully chuffed and refused her request to shift back before they left. He happily padded at her side down the path toward the parking area, enjoying the wide berth people, especially men, gave them. Only one single man dared approach her. She tensed, but as Ivan raised his hackles, the guy suddenly veered off in a different direction.
Lindsey laughed, tangling her fingers in his fur at the scruff of his neck. “Good boy,” she murmured.
His tail eagerly wagged.
* * * *
Two weeks later, she received the call to come ID the other two attackers. Ivan held her hand as they walked into the station.
“I don’t know if I’ll recognize them,” she whispered.
“Don’t worry, babe. I will.” He kissed her hand. “I’ll let you know.”
They let him stay with her because he wasn’t a witness, not that the police were aware of, at least. As the first group of potential suspects marched in, Ivan struggled not to growl. Number two. The pants wetter.
Ivan’s large hand engulfed hers, making it easy for him to tap her fingers twice with his.
“Two,” she breathed.
Smart girl.
He gently squeezed her hand.
Lindsey turned to the officer in charge. “Number two.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely.”
They marched the second batch in a moment later, and Ivan again fought the urge to growl. Four gentle taps.
They repeated the procedure, and thirty minutes later she was curled in Ivan’s arms in his truck, sobbing as he held her, consoling her.
“When do you let me in and tell me what happened to you?”
She shuddered. “My ex-boyfriend. I left him and he stalked me.”
“Where, there?”
“No, here. I moved out there to get away from him.”
“Can’t get much farther than Washington state without needing a work visa.”
“No.”
He stroked her arms. “Why’d you come back?” He’d met her family, and while they’d welcomed him, they’d all stayed conspicuously clear of any discussion of Lindsey’s recent past or why she’d moved out West.
“He was killed in a drug deal or something a few months ago.”
Ivan gently clamped his large hands around her shoulders. “You’re coming to work with us. Jeremy gave me carte blanche. I told you, I’m not leaving your side.” In the time since his revelation, she’d quit her job and moved in with him, and he’d taken the time off from work to be with her.
“I told you, Ivan. That’s unrealistic.”
“Let me have my fun.” He stroked her cheek, fighting the urge to make love to her right there in the sheriff’s office parking lot. “I enjoy taking care of you. And I can’t stand being away from you.”
“I’ll think about it.”
* * * *
Saying he couldn’t keep his hands off her was no exaggeration. Back at their home and knowing the creeps were finally behind bars, she seemed free, somehow. She pushed him to the bed and straddled him.
“Feeling better, babe?” he asked.
She nodded, working on his jeans. “Almost.”
“Almost?”
His cock sprang free as she slid his jeans down his legs. “Yeah,” she whispered as she lowered her mouth to his throbbing cock. “Almost.”
He groaned, tangling his fingers in her hair. Fuck she was so good with her mouth. She did things with her tongue that melted him inside.
He gasped. “What can I do to make you feel better?”
To answer, she had to release his cock. “I want to make you come.”
“No problem.”
She swirled her tongue around the large plum-shaped head, caressing his sac with her fingers. It never took her long to get him off like this, and as the tightness built in his balls, he gently bucked his hips against her.
“Don’t stop,” he whispered.
She deep-throated him, finishing him and setting off an explosion behind his eyes. No woman had ever made him feel the way she did.
When he regained his senses, he looked up to her teasing smile.
“What?”
She curled next to him, nestled perfectly against his side. “You’re just a big puppy.” She took great pleasure in teasing him about that.
“You tamed my beast.”
“When do I get to meet your family?”
He kissed her, his tongue tracing a gentle path from her lips down her jaw to her ear, where a tender kiss just below her lobe always melted her. “Is that when you run screaming into the night? When faced with a houseful of shape-shifters?”
“As long as none of them chew my shoes, we’re copacetic.”
He rolled over and lifted her shirt, nuzzling her breasts. “You have to promise not to make fun of Cousin Frank.”
“Why? Does he turn into a Chihuahua?” she asked with a snicker.
He laughed. “No, I wish.”
“Then what?”
He looked up, his expression serious. “He’s from a different branch of the family.”
“Well?”
“He turns into a panther.”
“And that’s a problem…why?”
“A big cat in the middle of a pack of canines? You don’t see an issue there?”
“Should I stock up on catnip? Kitty litter? Set up a scratching post?”
He rolled over, laughing. “I cannot believe you’re accepting all of this so easily.”
“Hey, wolfman, you promised me great sex every day forever. I’m holding you to that.”
“That’s a walk in the park.” He smiled.
Doggy Style
Genna Pangborn sat three rows back from the defense table and tried not to cry. She watched as Lester leaned in to his attorney and whispered. The attorney nodded and scribbled something on his yellow legal pad.
How did she get to this point? Her family had long since disowned her. If Lester went to prison, she was alone.
Well, except for the supposed “support network” Lester insisted would care for her in the “unlikely event” he was convicted.
It was her own fault for trusting him in the first place. Four years later, and she had no money of her own, nothing to her name except her clothes and her car, and Lester never failed to remind her it was his money that bought everything.
Maybe this was a blessing in disguise.
She never met any of his “associates.” She almost pictured the air quotes around those euphemistic expressions from Lester’s lexicon. Bottom line, she knew damn well what he was, but her voluntary ignorance saved her from going to jail with him. Or worse.
He was a hit man, and she was his goomah. Technically. Although since they weren’t married, and she only lived with him, that supposedly elevated her in status to lower than wife but higher than whore.
She’d been looking for a way to escape when this happened. Dumb shit got himself, and his license plate, caught on security video when he gunned down his mark. The police banged on their door at three o’clock the next morning and hauled him off in handcuffs.
Genna had spent the next several hours vacillating between hysterical laughter and hysterical tears. Her prayers, answered? Or would he skate on the charges?
Genna tried to scan the courtroom without being obvious. She didn’t see anyone that fit the Sopranos or Godfather stereotypes. The only one wearing pinstripes was the State Attorney.
Briefly, she locked gazes with one man, very handsome, on the far side of the courtroom, near the jury box. His golden eyes burned into hers, and she forced herself to look away when her heart threatened to pound out of her chest. Hopefully he wasn’t family of the deceased.
She looked up as the jury walked in. Lester and his attorney stood, and when the verdict was read, Genna squeezed her eyes tightly shut and prayed Lester’s incarceration would mean her freedom.
“On the first count of murder in the first degree, we find the defendant…guilty.”
Genna didn’t hear the rest.
She must have sat there with her eyes closed until after the courtroom was cleared, because a hand touched hers. Lester’s attorney stood over her.
“You can come say good-bye to him.”
She nodded and mutely followed. She honestly couldn’t label her tears as sorrow, but at least she looked right. She felt lighter despite the trouble ahead. She could handle being broke. She’d spent most of her life tha
t way.
She could practically taste the freedom awaiting her.
Living without fear. Not day-to-day fear of Lester, per se, because he’d treated her fairly well. Never threatened to beat her or hurt her. It was the implications behind their lifestyle and his veiled, and not-so-veiled, comments about what would happen if she tried to leave before he was ready to end things that kept her in a constant state of fear.
The unending vigilance to make sure she never overheard anything.
The ability to only pay attention when Lester wanted her attention.
Playing dumb, literally, so no one would ever suspect she knew anything.
Lester kissed her cheek. He was already shackled, and two large guards glowered nearby, ready to take him.
“Someone will call you in the next couple of days,” Lester said. “I promise, you’ll be fine. We’ll get it overturned on appeal.” He sounded a thousand times more confident than his attorney looked.
Genna nodded. “Okay. But I’m going to need to get a job, I think. Won’t I?” Another lesson learned, don’t think for herself. Always put it out there and let Lester think it was his idea. Playing dumb…again.
Lester started to protest then agreed. “Probably for the best.” He smiled. “It’ll keep you busy and out of trouble. You’ll wait for me, and we’ll have a blast when this is over, right, sugar?”
She forced a smile she prayed looked authentic. “Yeah. You’ll be out in no time, I know it.”
“I love you, Genna.”
“I love you, too, Lester.” Then, more for effect than genuine emotion, she added, “What am I going to do without you?” She hoped she wasn’t smiling through her tears.
“Aw, you’ll be okay. Don’t worry.” The guards led him away and she took a deep breath. Alone with the attorney, he opened his briefcase and handed her a bulging manila envelope.
“I’m to give this to you now. The Feds will most likely seize his assets when they file the RICO charges, so I suggest moving sooner rather than later. This should help you get started again.”
She wanted to open it, but thought better of it and tucked it in her purse. “Thank you.”
The attorney eyed her. “I never said this, but if you can find a new apartment and job somewhere else—anywhere else—it might not be a bad thing for you.”