Packed: The Enforcer: A Shifter Paranormal Romance (8 page)

Besides, she could always catch a ride with someone to a convenient spot and have him pick her up.

"Yeah, but you sorely need keeping in line, little girl."

"I do not!"

He motioned for her to turn into the parking lot of a local ice cream shop – not that they hadn't had their fill of cake and ice cream back at her dad's house. Or at least, she had.

"Now there you go. Arguing with your elders. There's a spankable offense right there."

She got out of the car just as he was coming around to open the door for her, and he chided her again. "You should always let the man carry the heavy things and open doors for you and all that stuff."

"Why? I'm perfectly capable of doing all that myself, even the heavy stuff."

He offered her his arm and she hesitated, then took it. "Because a good man will treat you the way you expect to be treated. You should always expect to be treated as a very special lady, and that means that he should always observe every courtesy with you."

She had to shake her head. That sounded like very strange advice, coming from a man like him. Granted, she didn't know him all that well, but she knew of him, and everyone always warned her about him, although they never really gave her any specifics to work with, either. "And is that how you treat your lady?"

He held the door to the ice cream shop open for her, too, both the inner and the outer, and then pulled back her chair before seating himself inside. But when the waitress handed him a menu, he handed it back. "We'll share a brownie hot fudge sundae with Mystic Mint ice cream, please."

She gave him a raised eyebrow, half smile look, as if she wanted an explanation for what she considered his aberrant behavior.

"Ice cream is my weakness," he confessed.

"But there was a ton of it at my party!"

He raised his eyebrow back at her. "Let me rephrase that. Good ice cream is my weakness. Especially Mystic Mint."

She had to laugh. He looked like he was confessing something horrible to her, and to him, she realized with sudden clarity, he probably was. Admitting any sort of a weakness didn't come easy to him, even one like this. "I'll have to keep that in mind should I find myself needing to bribe you in the future."

He looked shocked.

"Well, it
is
senior year. You never know when I'll skip a day and need an alibi."

How did he manage to mimic her father's disdainful expression so well? "Don't come crying to me, babe. I won't help you lie to your dad. And you'd better never let me hear about you skipping school – high school or college." He waggled his finger in front of her face as if he'd already had tons of practice doing so on someone else.

Mari preferred to ignore his warning – at least for the moment – and instead reminded him, "You never answered my question."

The huge ice cream confection was placed in front of them, and the waitress handed each of them a spoon. Mari had to admit it was damned good!

"What question?"

"I asked you if you treat your lady – or ladies – like you treat me."

He considered trying to sugar coat the truth, but decided against it. He didn't want to lie to her. "No, I don't, because they're generally not ladies and don't expect it of me. Like I said, a man will treat you in the manner he thinks you'll tolerate."

Mari nodded. "Would you really have spanked me if you didn't think my father would pitch a fit?"

"Hell, yes." He leaned forward, taking a sip from his water, saying, boldly, "And what's more, I could make you like it."

Mari's entire body flushed hot. She felt as if she needed to jump in a tub full of ice. Her nipples were getting hard, and in this filmy dress with her barely there bra, she knew that he could tell, too. Hell, the entire restaurant could!

She put her spoon down and took a sip of her own ice water, not that it did her one bit of good.

Tek realized that he might have overstepped in saying that to her, but he didn't apologize. She wasn't running screaming from the table. She hadn't even really acted as if she was particularly shocked by what he said.

And then, there were those telltale nipples of hers that made him want to take her out to the car and show her just what he could do for her.

But that was out of the question, of course. He should never have gotten into the car with her in the first place. What was he thinking?

She was looking progressively more uncomfortable in his presence, so he left more than enough to cover their bill on the table and tucked her hand in his elbow again, which was a feeling he knew he could grow to like.

This time, though, he put her in the passenger's side, and she didn't even object. He didn't want her driving when she was emotionally upset.

Why that particular scene had played through his head, he would never know. But she was here now, and they actually had her dad’s – and their Alpha's – permission to be together. He was going to take every advantage of it that he could, before he awoke from this dream to find that he was still expected not even to look at her, much less touch her.

Mari had been waiting for him to do something for a very long beat. The belt was lying to one side of her, but he seemed to be off in his own world, looking down at her extremely red backside, which made her feel very uncomfortable.

But all of a sudden, he seemed to snap out of it, for which she was grateful. Until he tilted his hips a bit and began to press himself against the entrance to her bottom, while at the same time reaching his hands beneath her breasts to lift her up just a bit and squeeze them firmly, in just the way he knew she liked, from the point closest to her body all the way to nipples that were – as always around him – hard as diamonds, then beginning again at the top, almost as if he was milking her. Tek leaned into her as her body reluctantly began to open for him, leaning down to move her hand enough to kiss just below her ear, nibbling on the lobe, and saying, "God, Mari, you make me so hot! You're so fucking tight!"

He could feel the seared flesh of her bottom every time he plunged into her, gaining very little ground, but feeling the sparks building within him as she whimpered yet yielded to him the best she could. Tek could literally feel her trying to relax as he invaded her relentlessly, not giving her much time to accustom herself but taking her as he wanted to. And he knew – even before his hands drifted down from her well used breasts to her slick cunny – that she was enjoying it as much as he was, regardless of her pleas.

Those thick fingers of his gathered as much of her honey as they could on their tips, then were dragged to her hugely swollen clit, which they first bracketed, then unified to slide over every inch of her, feeling that fleshy button swelling even further and throbbing beneath their ministrations.

"I want you to cum when you can as long as it's before me, and I'm not far from it right now," he ordered roughly.

That was one of the things that got her hottest, he knew. To be held carefully in check and then given a time limit during which she had to cum, or she wouldn't be allowed to at all – and he never played about things like that. If she came after he did, there would be serious consequences, despite the condition her rear was already in. And if she didn't come at all, then she wouldn't be allowed to until the next time they made love.

As he rode her – hard and hot, splitting her open with each thrust. He moved one hand back up to her breasts to tease and torture each nipple diligently, rolling and pinching one between his thumb and forefingers, making it hurt to just the perfect degree before abandoning it for its twin and doing the same thing while the fingers of his other hand played over her clit in varying tempos and pressures. Until he found the one that had her groaning the loudest. And then he never wavered from it, driving himself relentlessly in and out of her, forcing her to take more and more of him at the same time he relentlessly fingered the most sensitive spot on her body, claiming her as his own in every way he could, mastering her body and forcing it to dance to his exciting yet physically challenging tune.

As the tone of her moans rose in pitch and volume, he knew that she was growing ever closer, and that it would be a photo finish between them as to who climaxed first, but she beat him by a minute or so, writhing and pressing back at him and growling, low in her throat, which he found unbearably sexy.

That, more so than anything, set him off like a rocket. It was a good thing that she had collapsed and relaxed almost to the point of being comatose, because he might have hurt her if he had slammed himself into her as hard as he did at the end when she was tensed up. He, too, had to surrender himself to the enormity of what always seemed to happen between them, and he lowered himself to one side of her, hips still pumping, his essence still spurting from him, since there was no way that she could accept all of him there, especially not his love knot.

He saw a box of tissue on her nightstand and commandeered it, covering himself until he was spent, which – again, since that unusual bond hadn't been achieved – took less time than it would have.

Later, once he'd washed them both off and curled up with her under the covers, he heard her ask in a very plaintive voice, "Are you sure we can be together like this? Even in front of everyone? Cash and Abby and the pack and God and everyone won't be mad?"

Tek squeezed the arm he had wrapped around her middle. "Yes, baby. I'm sure. Want me to call Cash so you can confirm it?"

"No," she replied, although she didn't necessarily sound that convinced, either.

Tek chuckled. "Well, trust me. Everything's fine." He captured a breast in his hand as he warned, "And you'd better be here tomorrow morning when I wake up."

It was Mari's turn to laugh. "You never told me that you wanted me to stay."

On a grimace, he replied, "I thought it was assumed."

"Well, don't assume, then," she sassed back, her efforts earning herself a swat to her still very sore behind. "Besides, I used to have to get up to go to work. Now, I don't have to anymore."

Tek sat up, startled to hear that. "What happened? The last thing I knew your company was going great guns."

There was no way around why Designs by Mari had folded, but she didn't want him to feel guilty about it, so she did her best to avoid answering the question, even though she knew that was going to get her into trouble, too.

She was damned if she did and damned if she didn't.

"Well..." she started, but that wasn't going to hold him off for long, she knew.

And she knew he wasn't a patient man. The hand that still held her breasts had taken possession of its tender bit and was systematically crushing it with his incredible strength.

"Ow! All right, all right, but don't say I didn't warn you that you really don't want to know why."

"Tell me," he demanded, his body tense as a bow behind her.

This was one of those times when she knew she was getting a glimpse of the side of him that he had never shown to her, the one who could do all of the undesirable things that needed to get done in the course of running a pack such as theirs. And she knew that part of him craved those things, even reveled in them, perhaps.

"Forty-six days," was all she said.

And he got it immediately. Playing nursemaid to him had cost her the business she had been building. He couldn't believe that she'd done that for him. He was humbled by it and horrified at the same time.

"Mari, baby, you shouldn't have done that." Tek turned her towards him and hugged her till she squeaked, letting her go quickly then kissing her cheeks and forehead until he finally rested his chin on the top of her head.

"I couldn't leave you, Tek. I just couldn't. At first, I was so afraid that you would die, even when you got out of ICU, and then I knew that you'd chew up and spit out anyone else who tried to help you, so I just let the business go, pretty much. The person who filled in for me before took over my clients, and that was the end of it."

He seemed to feel more heartbroken about it than she did. "I can't believe what I've made you give up."

Mari shrugged. "It's kind of like what you said to me earlier – that if the pack decided we were out, that you'd give it up to be with me." She met his eyes in the darkness. "We must have something really special if we're each willing to give up something that's precious to us so that we can be together."

Tek's lips settled on hers in a long, slow deep kiss. "I love you, Mari Rose. I've loved you – and wanted you – to the bottom of my soul since long before it was proper to do so."

A single tear traced down her cheek until he gently rubbed the pad of his thumb over her cheek. "I love you, too, Tek Harlow. You've been making me cream in my pants since long before you ought to, too. And I never, ever want to be without you again."

As he raised her top leg over his hip and took her in one inexorable motion, to the hilt, reveling in the tiny sighs and louder mewls that inspired in her, he growled, "You'll never have to, baby. That I promise you, here, today. We'll never be separated, and I'll bring us together just like this, every time I can."

Her guttural sigh as she completely surrendered her body to him nearly had him cumming right then and there, but he managed to stave it off long enough to make sure she was along for the wild ride too, and, minutes later, the two of them howled their pleasure at the exact same moment.

* * *

He was as good as his word. Tek moved her out of her place and into his the very next day, not really even bothering to tell her, and carefully not even asking her whether that was what she wanted. She went in to work at the club that next morning, and when they both left that night, he drove them to his place instead of hers, where she was amazed to see that all of her stuff had already been neatly arranged.

"Feel free to move anything around – hell," he said as a genius idea hit him. "Why don't I hire you to redecorate the place? You can change anything you like – just don't throw out any of my stuff."

Mari giggled as she started to make them dinner; getting onions cooking in a frying pan to add to the spaghetti sauce she already had simmering. "Because we're together and that's one of the perks you get when you're with me. I'll redecorate, if you want me to, but I'm not going to let you pay me for it."

Practically before she finished her sentence, Tek had leaned over from behind her to turn off the burners she had going and then lifted her into his arms. He didn't carry her all that far, and not at all to where she thought he was going to, either. She found herself over his knee once he'd propped one huge, booted foot up on the bottom rung of the captain's chair that sat at the end of his big, solid dining room table.

Her pants and undies hit the floor in record time. Especially considering there was a snap and a zipper for him to deal with, and then he relieved her of her bra and shirt, too, until she was naked over that broad knee of his, dangling there in space, neither her toes nor her fingertips touching ground, which was just the way he wanted it.

He began thrashing her immediately, using a paddle he kept in the small secret drawer that was located under the table and hidden by the chair that occupied its head. Each connection made a wonderfully resounding slap against her skin that was always accompanied by some sort of indignant squawk from her.

"At least tell me why I'm getting paddled!" she yelled.

And it stopped, just like that. "First of all, I would suggest you tone down your volume. I don't much like being yelled at by the woman I have over my knee. Kind of makes me think I'm not walloping you hard enough."

Dear God, she had never meant him to think that! "No, no, really, it's plenty hard, really," she spewed, hoping to stop him from switching to an even worse implement.

He didn't look all that convinced, but said, "And secondly, you don't tell me – regardless of whatever kind of relationship we have – what I will pay for and what I won't."

"But –" she regretted it as soon as it was out of her mouth, but it was automatic. She was used to arguing her point when she didn't immediately get her way. Granted, that still wasn't very often, even now that she was an adult. But she should have known better than to do so with Tek.

He began to spank her even more firmly than he had been, so much so that she found she had no breath to speak – not to apologize, which would have been her first inclination, or beg for mercy or anything. Her entire world consisted of the horrible cadence of that unrelenting wooden paddle raining down on her rump, and the backs of the legs she took to kicking, although it sent her off balance so she couldn't do much of it.

He switched to his hand for a short while, and that was almost even worse, although she didn't really know why. Perhaps it was the intimacy factor. It wasn't an impersonal piece of wood, but rather his hand – the one that had given her untold amounts of pleasure in the past – and no small amount of discomfort, too – that touched her.

Overall, it was probably one of the longest and the worst punishments he'd ever given her. And when he was through, he was still entirely clothed, and she was still completely nude. Once he'd stopped, Tek didn't set her on her feet. He lifted her into the air with one hand, and swept the china and silver she had carefully placed on the table off onto the floor with a sweep of his other arm. Then he set her down on the bare tabletop, so that her bottom was right at the edge of it and she had not even the room to tuck her heels up next to her legs. But that didn't matter once he got himself free from the confines of his jeans and underwear, the thick root of him immediately homing in on that spot between her legs, settling there almost threateningly as he arranged her legs around his waist and told her to put her hands above her head, palms up.

There would be no respite or comfort for her, and that was the way he preferred it. He didn't want her to be able to negate the effect of anything he did to her – to squeeze a comforter in her hands, to grasp the edge of a table to pull herself away from him. No, he alone would be in control of what happened to her, and he knew that idea turned her on as much as it did him.

It never failed to amaze him just how abundantly and how consistently her body responded to him. He knew that spanking had hurt – it was one of the worst he'd ever given her. But she was just as creamy and ready for him now as she would have been if he had spent the past half hour fondling her instead of punishing her. It was one of the things he adored about her, even though he knew it wasn't something she controlled. Hell, if given the choice, she probably would have preferred to stop it all together.