Authors: Charlotte Rose
“My turn again,” he said, anxious to taste her some more. This time, Adele eased her fingertips up and down the rigid line in Xavier’s pants, and his moans mingled with hers. His legs started to tremble and he struggled to remain standing. All he wanted to do was drop into a soft bed somewhere and fuck her, preferably with Oscar taking her at the same time.
Not wanting to be greedy, Xavier stepped away. Oscar pulled Adele into another deep kiss. Xavier took her hand and slowly began sucking on each fingertip. He paid attention to each one, swirling his tongue until she moaned into Oscar’s mouth. When Xavier was done with her fingers, he kissed each knuckle and then began working his way up, dotting her hand and wrist with tiny kisses, not stopping until he reached her shoulder. He paid special attention to the joint, kissing all the way around, and then sliding the tip of his tongue up and down the back of her neck. He could feel his mating instincts taking over. As he smelled and tasted her smooth skin, his cock grew even harder, and his heart pounded with the desire to claim her, to turn her, to make her theirs forever. Opening his mouth slightly, he gently raked his upper teeth down her clavicle. Adele moaned, and Xavier opened his mouth a little wider. He couldn’t resist. He needed her.
Before he had a chance to sink his teeth into her shoulder, a force shoved him aside so hard that he fell. A few people stopped to stare. Glancing up from the pavement, Xavier saw Oscar towering over him.
“What do you think you were doing?” he snapped.
Xavier looked away. “I was just havin’ a little fun.”
Oscar reached down and pulled Xavier up to standing. “I don’t think so. How ’bout you tell me what you were really planning’?”
“What’s going on here?” Adele asked, pushing them apart.
“Go ahead, tell her,” Oscar said.
Xavier couldn’t bring himself to look her in the eye. “I–I was just gonna bite you.”
“What’s wrong with that? I just so happen to like biting.”
“He wasn’t just tryin’ to bite you,” Oscar said with a sigh. “That ain’t how it works. There’s no such thing as harmless bitin’ between a gator shifter and a human.”
Adele’s face went pale. “What do you mean?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“I mean that if one of us bites you, you’re turned. You become a shifter, too.”
Adele faced Xavier with a look of betrayal on her face. “You were trying to turn me?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know it was wrong. I just—I couldn’t help myself.”
“That’s no excuse,” she snarled.
“I know it ain’t. You just—you just smelled so good, you tasted so good, and it felt so right to touch you. We belong together, Adele. Yeah, last week, I was kinda doubtful. But tonight I ain’t able to resist what my body is tellin’ me to do.”
“I don’t care if your body was telling you that we’d each get a million dollars if you turned me. You have no right to change me without my permission.”
“I know, I know. Just try to look at it from my perspective.”
“Or maybe you should try to look at it from mine. Would you want your entire life turned upside down, forever, without your permission?”
Xavier hung his head. “I guess not.”
Adele stepped out from between them. “Thank you for dinner, gentlemen.” Although she sounded polite, the edgy anger in her voice was perfectly clear. Xavier could only imagine what would happen if she allowed her temper to break loose.
Adele continued. “For the most part, you two have been a wonderful source of company. However, I think it’s time for me to take off.”
“Will we see you again?” Oscar asked. Xavier heard the nervousness in his voice and felt guilty that he’d given his friend a reason to be uncertain.
Adele shook her head. “I don’t think so. I can’t get involved if I’m constantly worrying that one of you won’t be able to control himself. I’m not about to be turned just because you two can’t keep your hormones in check. I don’t need that kind of anxiety in my life, and especially not in my relationships. If I can’t trust you, this isn’t going to work out.”
Xavier tried to think of something to say as Adele turned and walked off into the night.
“I won’t do it again!” he called out.
She turned to face him with sad eyes. “I wish I could believe that.” She looked away and continued walking.
Chapter Four
After Adele took off the night before, Oscar had refused to speak to Xavier, or even look him in the eye. Xavier knew he deserved his friend’s anger. He knew his behavior had been completely unacceptable. Still, Oscar’s silent treatment made him feel even worse.
Xavier barely slept that night, tossing and turning in the motel room they’d rented so they could stay out late carousing and not have to worry about taking a boat back while exhausted. Oscar had silently unlocked the door, walked over to his bed, and passed out with his clothes still on. Xavier showered and then tried to sleep. No matter what he did, though, sleep wouldn’t come. Even the meditation techniques he’d been practicing for years, which he’d learned as part of his training to control his shape-shifting, didn’t help. His mind kept settling back on Adele, how perfect she was, and how horribly he’d screwed up. He didn’t drift off until four a.m., and Oscar shook him awake at six.
“Just another hour,” Xavier muttered.
“You know we need to be back at the congregation by eight. There’s a lot of work to be done today.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Whose fault is that? In my opinion, your guilty conscience deserved it.”
Xavier opened his mouth to respond but found he didn’t have an adequate response.
Guess I did deserve it
.
Oscar didn’t initiate conversation as they took the speedboat back out to the congregation, and Xavier was too tired to put forth much of an effort. He wasn’t in the mood for talking, anyway. He knew if he opened his mouth, Oscar would just fire back with some angry retort about how he’d behaved last night. Xavier didn’t want to hear it. He knew he’d made a huge mistake. He didn’t want to have Oscar reinforce the point over and over.
As the congregation’s boats began to appear on the horizon, Oscar finally spoke.
“What are we gonna tell ’em about last night?”
Xavier shrugged. “Guess I should tell ’em the truth.”
Oscar shuddered. “Serafine ain’t gonna take that well.”
“No, I don’t suppose she will, but she’s also gonna know if we’re lying.”
“Maybe we just don’t need to say anything,” Oscar said. “Does anybody really have to know?”
“Serafine probably already knows. I mean, she’s the one who had the vision of Adele being in the Quarter last night. She’s the one who convinced us we should take the night off and go. Who’s to say that she didn’t also get a vision of me ruining everything?”
Oscar sighed. “Okay. If Serafine makes it clear she knows something happened, we’ll talk. If she doesn’t, let’s just play it cool. Far as I’m concerned, nobody needs to know. It ain’t their business.”
Xavier looked at his friend in shock. “Nobody needs to know that I probably ruined our chances with our mate?”
“You fucked up, man, I ain’t gonna deny it. The way I see it, though, you’re feelin’ pretty bad about it, and I’ve done plenty to make you feel worse. You don’t need the grief that everyone else would give you, unless it’s already too late.”
“So you forgive me for what I did?”
Oscar shrugged. “Not quite, but there ain’t no point in holdin’ a grudge about it. The congregation ain’t gonna survive if everyone stays mad at each other all the time. I’ll get over it eventually.”
“So we’re cool?”
“We’re cool.”
Xavier couldn’t help but feel nervous as they hopped out of the speedboat and entered the main houseboat. As they met up in the kitchen and grabbed what was left of breakfast, everything seemed normal. By the time Xavier finished his breakfast, he was beginning to feel better. At least he was, until he put away his plate and coffee mug and caught Serafine’s furious glare.
“I thought you knew better, boy.”
Xavier felt himself go pale. He might have been twice her size, but Serafine was nonetheless a very powerful woman and always managed to intimidate him when she was angry. Her long, dark hair was streaked with severe bolts of pure white. Even when it hung loose at her shoulders, the contrast sharpened the angles of her face. As voodoo queen, she was the only one of them whose eyes could change color. When she was angry, the gold flecks overtook the green in her irises, giving her entire face a molten glow. And her petite frame belied an intense resource of inner strength. Xavier knew that although Serafine focused on using her power for good, with one false move she could curse him to a week of bad luck to ensure he knew his place.
“Serafine, look, I already said I was sorry. But Adele don’t want to accept my apology.”
“Hey, what’s going on here?” Xavier’s mother, Dominique, asked.
“Your boy was behavin’ like a fool last night and might’ve just ruined his chance for him and Oscar to be with their mate.”
Xavier could feel every eye in the room fall on him. “Look, I’m sorry. What more can I do but apologize?” he said, frantic to get out of the situation. “Serafine, can’t you put a love spell on her or somethin’?”
Serafine’s eyes narrowed. “I will do no such thing, boy. I ain’t gonna make her fall in love with you. That wouldn’t be right. She’s gotta choose you and Oscar out of her own free will. And anyway, I’m not sure you even deserve her, based on your little stunt last night.”
“What did you do?” Dominique asked. Her voice had a fierce edge.
Xavier averted his gaze, focusing on the stove. “I–I tried to mate her last night. Without telling her that’s what I planned to do.”
He winced as the whole room gasped. “I–I didn’t really—Shit, I just couldn’t help myself. I feel damn awful about it. But she don’t want me to contact her to apologize. I don’t know what I can do about it.”
“All right, all right.” Manuel banged his hand on the table, interrupting the tension in the room. “Xavier, he screwed up. He screwed up bad. But us standin’ around bein’ mad at him ain’t gonna get the fish caught, it ain’t gonna get the chores done, and it ain’t gonna help us make plans to rescue my son. So everybody get to work. We got bigger things to worry about right now.”
The crowd slowly dispersed, many of them casting dirty looks Xavier’s way as they shuffled out of the kitchen to go about their day.
Saturday mornings were always busy for the congregation. Xavier met up with Oscar at their fishing boat.
“Sorry, man,” Oscar said. “Wish there was something I could have done.”
“Let’s not talk about it,” Xavier said as Oscar revved the engine. “In fact, let’s not talk about anything at all.”
Xavier threw himself into fishing work, and as he focused on casting nets and securing their catch, he stopped thinking about Adele and the mess he’d made. By the time they’d met their quota and turned to head home, he found himself in good spirits. Still, one thought nagged at his mind.
“I just wish she’d give me the chance to really apologize,” Xavier said as they pulled up to the houseboats and began securing their vessel. “I mean, she doesn’t owe me anything, but I really do feel sorry for what I did, and I’d like to tell her that.”
“You might actually get your chance,” Oscar said. He pointed out toward the horizon, where a small boat was speeding toward the congregation. “She’s heading her way over here. Looks like Georgina knew just what to say to convince her to come over.”
* * * *
Adele woke up the next morning with a splitting headache.
“Never again,” she muttered to herself as she walked to the shower. “No booze, no French Quarter, and no gator men, no matter how sexy they are.”
She was relieved to find that the hot water pounding out of the showerhead started to relieve the headache. Toweling off, she realized that she almost felt better. Gulping two aspirin and chugging a glass of water helped even more. After eating a real breakfast for the first time in days, Adele realized she felt fantastic. At least until she looked at the clock and realized she needed to be on campus in only thirty minutes if she was going to get there to take care of some time-sensitive tests she’d been running.
“Shit,” she grumbled as she hurried to dress and rummaged through her briefcase to make sure she had everything that she needed for the day.