14
I
t was a little after eight by the time Alex left with Annie to walk her back home. Lily knew he wasn’t looking forward to seeing Tinker, but she’d suggested before he left that the two men were going to have to establish a working arrangement where Annie was concerned.
Alex had agreed. Poor Annie had just wrapped her hands around her waist and stared off in the distance, toward her parents’ house. It really wasn’t going to be easy, but if Alex really loved Annie, he’d figure out a way to make it work.
Lily watched through the kitchen window as the two of them walked away, hand in hand. Alex leaned close, obviously listening intently to whatever Annie was saying. She’d never seen him like this with any woman, and definitely not with her. More proof, as far as Lily was concerned, that she and Alex were not meant to be mates.
Thinking of mates had her glancing to her left where Sebastian stood in front of the sink washing breakfast dishes. He looked really good standing bare chested in her kitchen, wearing nothing but a pair of Alex’s old jogging shorts, his hands in soapy water, and bubbles glistening in the dark hairs on his wrists. Damn, she really had it bad, but she turned the thought around and said, “Alex has it so bad.”
She took the plate Sebastian handed to her and added, “But it’s not going to be easy. Annie’s dad really is wonderful.” She finished drying the plate, then took the next one Sebastian handed to her and carefully dried it. She thought it was pretty cool that he’d cleared the table and started rinsing dishes while she put leftovers away. Obviously he didn’t mind helping out around the house.
Score more points in his favor.
“Why do I hear an obvious
but
at the end of that sentence?” He waited while she put the plates away and then handed her a well-scrubbed frying pan.
“Do I even have to say it?” Laughing as she dried the pan, Lily couldn’t help but think of how much she loved Annie’s father, but the reality of the man made her sigh in frustration. Poor Annie. “Tinker is big and he’s very strong, and Annie is such a little thing that he’s always been protective. Way too protective. And just wait until you meet her brothers. They were the really huge dark gray wolves who left with Annie’s mom last night. All the McClintock men are big and strong and extremely protective, and it’s not easy for Annie. Everyone treats her like she’s such a fragile little girl because she’s petite, but she’s thirty years old. She’s got a will of iron, and she’s had a lot of self-defense training. She was good enough to compete in the sport while in college, and she won competitions all around Europe, but Tinker’s having a hard time accepting that she’s a grown woman.”
“It can’t be easy for any father who loves his daughter.” He chuckled. “I’m surprised your father has been so nice to me. I can’t imagine how I’d deal with some strange guy showing up to court my daughter.”
She tilted her head and studied him for a moment. “Is that what you’re doing? Courting me?”
“You mean you haven’t figured that out yet?” He leaned over, kissed her cheek, and went back to washing dishes.
Lily watched him, amazed by how calm he seemed about taking their relationship to a new level. She was still getting used to the idea she’d actually met a guy with most of the right stuff.
If only she could be sure about the rest of it.
They finished up. Sebastian wiped down the stove, and Lily put the rest of the dishes away, but there was no more talk of courtship. She leaned over to grab a napkin that had fallen to the floor. Sebastian planted his hands on her hips and rubbed against her bottom.
“Sorry, darlin’.” His voice held a low, sexy timbre that sent shivers along her spine. “You can’t tease a man like this and expect to get away with it.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Tease?” Her voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. “All I did was bend over.”
“That’s all it takes when I’m around you.” The feral gleam in his eyes had her hot and ready within seconds. His hand sliding inside the waistband of her loose knit yoga pants found slick, wet heat between her thighs.
The cottage was bright with morning sun, the day would be filled with their visit to Eve and worry about the rogue wolves, but right now it was just Lily and Sebastian in her sun-warmed kitchen, with the scent of bacon and fried potatoes in the air.
And Sebastian. His masculine scent filled her nostrils and teased her senses like nothing else. She gave him a knowing glance and then grabbed the slick granite counter and hung on while he shoved her pants down to her knees.
He dropped to his knees behind her and his big hands clasped her thighs. She’d expected the thick head of his cock, but the first slick swipe of his tongue had her whimpering. Her hips jerked involuntarily, but he held her still. His grasp was firm and definitely the hold of an alpha as he licked and nibbled his way across her buttocks, along her perineum, and after shoving her pants to the floor and scooting her legs farther apart, her clit and the softly engorged lips of her sex. Deep, slow sweeps of his tongue, and soft little nips with his teeth and lips.
Teasing, tantalizing, torturing her with his slow, steady restraint, and a low, soft hum that added a shivery vibration to every inch he covered. The bruising strength of his fingers holding her in place added to the sense of control, quickly reminding her with his powerful grasp that he was physically so much stronger, so much bigger.
Just that quickly, Lily was close to the edge. So damned close to flying off the precipice that when he abruptly let go of her thighs and stood, she cried out her loss. He didn’t say a word, merely pressed his hand against her back to hold her still. He surged forward, driving his thick cock between her legs, finding her wet and ready, filling her completely on his very first thrust.
She almost lost it, and she cried out, shocked into a harsh scream that swiftly morphed into a moan and then a soft whimper of pure pleasure. He thrust hard and his cock bumped against her cervix on each deep penetration, and she knew she couldn’t take any more of him, couldn’t take him any deeper.
But he grew larger, thicker, and her body stretched to take him. Deep, so deep, until her world narrowed down to nothing but Sebastian and the heavy weight of his shaft filling her, the bulbous tip sliding over her cervix, moving beyond the hard mouth, stretching her beyond anything she’d ever known.
What would it be like, to mate with him as a wolf? To have him fill her and then tie to her so that she couldn’t escape, until she was linked to him and he to her for all time?
But only if he were Chanku. Only if she could discover the truth behind the darkness in Sebastian Xenakis. There were some principles she could never disregard, and this was one.
She’d not mate with one who wasn’t her kind, even if he could become a wolf through magical means. The thought chilled her, because it wouldn’t matter if she loved him. If he loved her. It had nothing to do with whether or not he was right for her or good enough, but because it was something she’d promised the ancient ones so long ago.
And she’d learned from her father that promises were not made to be broken, that honor and integrity were more important than immediate pleasure—even if holding true cost her more than she’d ever dreamed having to pay.
As a six-year-old child, she’d journeyed on the astral plane and learned the history of her people. How the first Chanku had come to Earth as refugees from a dying planet millennia ago, how they’d found refuge on the world that would one day be host to humankind. A young world that offered shelter amid ancient forests ruled by prehistoric creatures—a world still shuddering in the cataclysm of creation.
There were so few of them left now. So very few, and she had promised. She’d been their hope, those ancient Chanku who had remained for millions of years, existing, yet not living, merely waiting for one to come along who could carry on their history.
Lily—six-year-old Lily Cheval—had been the one charged with remembering the past for a people verging on extinction. She’d held their history, their memories, and all their hopes for the future in her heart and mind.
Then she’d returned to her pack and shared those memories and hopes with all the known Chanku in existence.
And because of that, she knew it was not her lot to find happiness with any man not of her kind. She could have sex with a human male, but there would be no children from their joining. A woman with Chanku genes who had never had the nutrients could produce offspring with a human, but once she’d become fully Chanku, the egg and seed were no longer compatible. Lily had been fully Chanku from birth—she could mate only with another Chanku. The ancients had told her she would find true happiness only with a Chanku male.
Dear Goddess, she wanted Sebastian to be that male, because she already loved him. Loved him without any other reservation beyond that most important one.
What was he? Human or Chanku?
He had to be Chanku. She couldn’t bear to give him up.
But she would have to, eventually. Her life span was almost immortal. As a human, Sebastian would die in sixty or seventy years. She would remain forever young, while he grew old.
He thrust harder. Faster. He clutched her hips, and his fingers dug into her muscles, holding her in place. She knew she’d have bruises. Welcomed them as marks of his taking.
Chanku males were such physical, dominant creatures. She saw his power as one more hint he might be the one. He swore softly, a steady litany of whispered curses. The rhythm of his powerful strokes changed—deeper, harder, faster. Caught in the rhythm of his loving, Lily found her own pinnacle of pleasure.
But she wasn’t there alone.
He stood beside her, held her close, and their minds linked as Sebastian leapt from the edge with Lily in his arms. She cried out, overwhelmed by their shared orgasm. Not merely her own experience but Sebastian’s as well. Her vaginal muscles clutching his thick erection, the rush and the sweet burn of his ejaculate streaming from balls to cock to bathe her inner channel.
His surprise looped back on her when Lily’s sensations washed through him—the powerful throbbing pleasure in her womb, the sweet pain of taut nipples rubbing against the loose weave of her cotton top, the soft press of his balls against her sex.
Her legs trembled and she feared they’d collapse, but Sebastian had anchored both of them atop the granite counter. His forearms protected her from the hard surface while his chest covered her back like a warm, living blanket. The staccato thunder of his pounding heart and the warm exhalations against her ear matched her own racing heart, her own deep breaths. He planted soft kisses along the sensitive nape of her neck until all she wanted was to slide slowly to the floor and lie there until she felt strong enough to move again.
His cock still pulsed within her sheath, her vaginal muscles rippled around him with long, flowing contractions. The sound of their harsh breaths filled her ears. The pounding thunder of his heart soothed her. Enveloped in his heat and power, she could stay there forever.
Which was exactly why she should have known it was too good to last.
Lily? I want you and Sebastian at the house as soon as you can get here. We have to work on his shields as well as yours. Aldo Xenakis is in town.
Well, damn.
Give us a few minutes, Dad.
She wondered if her father was aware what they’d been doing and almost laughed. Talk about rotten timing. Though she figured it could have been worse. Like before they’d shared such an amazing climax. She glanced over her shoulder and caught Sebastian’s questioning glance.
We’ll be there as soon as we can.
Sebastian slowly pulled away from her, and she felt a moment’s regret when his penis slid free of muscles still rippling and clenching, doing their best to hold him in place.
And she thought again of what it would be like, to mate as wolves. He wouldn’t come free so easily if he were a wolf. Not when he’d swollen and knotted deep inside, when he’d tied with her in the way of the wolf.
She rather liked that idea. Let her father try and demand their presence then!
In the act of pulling his cotton shorts back on, he glanced up at her. “What are you laughing about?”
“Didn’t you hear my father’s orders?”
He shook his head. “No. He must have spoken privately. When did you hear from him? What did he say?”
She couldn’t stop laughing. “Right in the middle of our climax, and he wants us at the house, ASAP.”
Sebastian glanced at Lily with one eyebrow raised and his pants around his thighs. She laughed even harder when he drily said, “I guess I’m glad I wasn’t included in the conversation. Talk about blowing the moment. Any idea what he wants?”
“You’re not kidding, and yeah. He wants to help us work on our shields. Your father’s in town.”
“Crap.” He tugged his pants up over his slim hips, stretching the elastic wide enough to carefully tuck himself in. Lily almost sighed when he hid all those delicious parts from her view.
“Your father’s right. We both need to work on our shields. In fact, I hope I can practice blocking your father before moving on to mine.”
Lily laughed and hugged him around the waist. “That’s an excellent idea. I can block him, but it’s from years of practice. I was leaving myself open in case he needed to reach us.” Then she sighed as something her father said fully registered. “I wonder if your father was in Montana when Alex and Annie were attacked last night.”
“I don’t know.” He kissed her, just a quick little kiss that reminded her how much she really liked this guy. How much she risked by already loving him so much. “But I imagine your father does. I have a feeling very little gets by him.”
“Didn’t take you long to figure that out, did it?” She didn’t laugh, though. Not with the specter of Aldo Xenakis once again hovering between them.