SkinwalkersWoman (10 page)

He stood there, letting his gaze devour every inch of her
skin, before he drew a deep, ragged breath and bent to pull the plug from the
tub, allowing the used water to flow out onto a hole filled with small stones
that would allow it to seep back into the earth. As he rose again to his full
height, his lips trailed upward from her hip to her dripping nipple. He groaned
as he licked away some of the drops before he kissed his way up her shoulder to
her mouth, where he lingered, eyes closed as he urged her to open for him.

As he leaned in to ravage her mouth with his lips and tongue
and teeth, she began to unbutton his shirt, shoving it back from his bare chest
and over his thick arms. “Open your pants,” she whispered against his hungry
mouth, and he obeyed with shaking hands. The sight of him was enough to send
her heart racing, and as he bared his eagerly erect cock, she moaned and
settled back onto her knees in the tub, reaching for the stiffly bouncing shaft.

“Climb up me and wrap your legs around me, Little Dove.” His
voice was a rasp of need.

“Let me thank you for taking care of me,” she whispered
huskily, as she drew the bulbous tip into her mouth and tasted his pre-cum with
a moan of pleasure. She had never wanted to go down on Karl—she had never
wanted to drain him as she wanted to drain Zeke. And as her lips stretched over
the wide shaft that gave her so much pleasure, the sound of his keening cry of
exultation made her smile around him.

He threaded his big hands into her wet hair and widened his
stance, breathing raggedly as she slid her mouth as far over his shaft as she
could manage. Her hands circled his thick girth and pumped with hard, twisting
squeezes as her tongue massaged the underside of it with each tugging suck she
gave it. He gasped and groaned.

“I can’t hold back with you doing that, Little Dove. Please
climb up here. I want you to come around me. I want you hot and tight and wet
and—” He stopped talking and shouted mindlessly, trying to pull out of her firm
grip, but she held him deep in her mouth, accepting the burst of hot cum that
filled her throat. She swallowed instinctively and felt the tremors of orgasmic
pleasure that shook his big body as he tightened his fists in her hair and came…and
came…and came…

Zeke had only imagined such erotic intimacy. He’d watched a
few porn movies once in a while when he was in town, and had nearly come in his
jeans watching all the ways a woman could touch a man to get him off. But
watching his woman bending her head to take his thick length into her mouth had
almost made him lose the ability to stand. Her mouth and tongue were like
heaven as she sucked him between her lips and tongued his tip so deliciously.
It had felt as if his guts were being sucked out through his cock with every
deep pull of her sweet mouth.

And when she’d devoured his cum without so much as blinking,
he had almost sunk to his knees in the dirt. Had she felt this achingly deep
pleasure when he had eagerly sucked and tongued her pussy? It gave him a few
ideas on things he wanted to do to her in the future, but at that moment, he
could only stare down into her upturned face, his fingers locked in her thick,
wet hair. A tenderness he had never experienced before almost swamped him as
she kissed the red tip of his cock and massaged his tight sac with her other
hand while she gently stroked his length.

“You are fearless…you are a warrior woman. You accept me as
I am, when others run in terror. You give me more pleasure than I have ever
felt. I want you so badly right now that I can’t think straight.” He seemed to
come out of a trance at that moment. “I need to go before I carry you into the
cabin and fuck you all the rest of this day.”

Before she could move or protest, he backed away and reached
for the leather bag that hung around his throat. And as she watched in shocked
disbelief, the man was surrounded by a hot flash of brilliant light, then a
massive eagle shot skyward, screaming a high-pitched cry that sent shivers
through her entire body.

Holy shit.

Her legs went out from under her and she sat hard on her ass
in the empty tub as she hyperventilated. First a wolf, then a horse, and now
she knew that Zeke had been the massive, gorgeous bird she’d watched that first
afternoon when she’d arrived. She took in the empty set of clothes that lay in
a heap. The top buttons of his shirt were torn free, and she could see where he
had simply shifted and taken off without a stitch on. If she had been the
fainting type, she was pretty sure she would be unconscious on the bottom of
the tub right now, but he had warned her, hadn’t he? She calmed her adrenaline
rush with some difficulty. Even when he’d told her that he could change into
any animal he wanted, she had never expected to see him do it.

Now the words became reality. In her pounding heart, she
felt a sudden burst of pride instead of terror. It utterly amazed her that her
man could do such a thing. And then another reality came crashing in on her.

My man?

Where had that come from? He wasn’t
her
anything. He
didn’t belong to her. He belonged to nature, and to this land. He was pure
power and grace. A creature of light and darkness that lived between her world
and his own. She could only keep him until the old man came in just over two
weeks…and then she would have to give him up. A man with such amazing power
could never be hers. She was just plain old Michelle Abernathy. Rich, spoiled,
overweight Michelle Abernathy. Totally helpless Michelle Abernathy, who
couldn’t even light a gas fireplace. Who hired a housekeeper to dust her
furniture.

He cooked…he lit fires…he could even make shoes! Hell, she
was just a well-educated but useless person who couldn’t even walk a few miles
without getting a bunch of blisters! What did she have to offer someone like
him? Money? He didn’t need it. A big house in New York? He didn’t need that
either. A private plane? Nope. He could fly without one. She could barely open
a can of ravioli, and if desperate, she could cook up a toasted cheese sandwich.

He made biscuits.

She swallowed the lump in her throat as she realized that
she was prematurely mourning a relationship that she didn’t even possess.
Crying over a man she didn’t even have any claim on, unless you counted a few
tosses in the sack. And she couldn’t even count those as a real affair, since
he apparently had never been with any woman before her. He had nothing to
compare her to. He’d been a virgin
.

If he ever left this place and got out into the world, he
would dump her like a hot rock, just as Karl had. There were women out there
who could do lots of great things. Like cook. Like actually know how to use a
broom. Like sewing and making a turkey or a roast. Like not freaking out at the
sight of a mouse.

She managed to climb out of the tub, stepping onto the flat
rock and dragging her robe around her almost dry body. She sank onto the bench,
applied some of the cooling salve to her feet and tugged on a pair of socks.
Finger-combing her thick hair in the sun, she let it dry before deciding that
maybe it was time for totally helpless Michelle Abernathy to learn how to make
it in life without a thick pad of money to cushion her. And the first thing she
was going to do was give this man back some of what he had given her.

Or die trying
.

Zeke stayed away for a long while, fighting his need for the
woman who had fallen into his life like a star falling from heaven. He flew
many miles over the area, thinking of ways to make her want him as he wanted
her. The old man had said she could be taught to love him. And even now, Zeke
understood that the feelings he had when he was close to this woman were deeper
than lust. He was falling in love with her…and she was so far out of his league
that he didn’t have a chance in hell of keeping her. Claiming her could not
force her to return his love. When the month ended and Joe came to bring him
supplies, she would leave him if he didn’t have her love.

He had nothing to offer a woman like Chellie. She had money.
She had expensive clothes. She lived in a house with running water and indoor
toilets. He had nothing but what he had made of scrap lumber, mud and
ingenuity. He had seen the look on her face when she’d stepped into the
outhouse. To his woman, the way he lived was like something out of the Stone
Age. He had no electricity. No gas generator. No propane refrigerator. No fan
to stir the hot, sultry air in his cabin. No washing machine. Hell, he didn’t
even possess a damn bath towel so she could dry off properly after her bath.

Maybe drying off in the sun was something he would do, but
his woman deserved something better.

His woman.
He had no right to claim such a prize. She
deserved a man who could give her more than just his body and his loyalty. She
deserved a man who could give her big cars and a big house and… He shook his
head. He had nothing to give her that she didn’t already possess. He was
useless to a woman like her.

And now she knew his deepest secret. Telling her had been
one thing, but seeing him take the skin of his eagle would be much harder for
her to understand. He dreaded returning to the cabin, but he could not leave
her unprotected when the sun closed its eyes to the daytime world. She would be
easy prey to the
ch’iin
.

He fluttered down to the edge of the porch and realized that
she had gathered his clothes and folded them carefully where he would easily
find them. He called his man form back and swore as he struggled to drag his
jeans on over his raging hard-on. He had bathed in the cold stream, hoping to
ease his stiff cock, but it was useless. The only thing that would do that was
being inside her sweet, hot body…or that mouth that had sent him through the
roof earlier.

He was shrugging into his shirt when she spoke from the
doorway. “I fixed you some food. I hope it’s actually edible. I’m not a great
chef.”

He lifted his gaze to her and swallowed hard as he saw what
she was wearing. The soft, pale-yellow silk sundress revealed that she wasn’t
wearing a bra, allowing those lush breasts to bounce gently as she moved. Tight
nipples poked against the thin material and he could see the dark areolas
surrounding them. The short skirt barely hid her shapely thighs, and she had
pulled her thick hair back into a ponytail to drape down her back. The
mouthwatering scent of a light floral perfume couldn’t mask the intoxicating
aroma of her body. She stood barefoot on the porch and he tugged the shirt
closed over his wide chest, as if donning armor against her sensuality.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I cleaned up a bit in here. I
feel useless not doing anything.”

“I couldn’t possibly call you useless, Little Dove.” His
voice was rough as he thought of her thighs open for him, welcoming him into
her body as she arched her back to give him access to those magnificent
breasts. His cock twitched hard and he struggled not to reach for her as he
stepped into his cabin.

He blinked. The expensive sleeping bag he’d tucked under the
bed was open and spread out over his lumpy mattress. A soft blanket had been
spread over it. The tightly packed corner where he had piled her suitcases was
neat, with only one wardrobe-like case open, holding a number of pieces of
clothing on hangers or folded neatly on a small shelf. The coffeepot was
standing on the side of the stove. He lifted one brow questioningly at her, and
she blushed delicately as she cleared her throat and said, “I figured out how
to get it going. Trial and error. A little practice helps.”

He stared at the box he’d left sitting on the table. She had
hauled in the narrow bench from beside the tub and set up his supplies on
it—and from all appearances, she’d managed to get one moc almost completely put
together. He was impressed.

“Um…I just finished what you started. I’m not sure how to do
the rest.”

She opened the oven door on the stove and pulled a plate out
that she’d obviously been keeping warm for him. She slid it carefully onto the
table with a pot holder that she had devised from a pair of cut-up jeans. Hers,
not his. “I didn’t know if you’d like it, but if you don’t, I can always eat it
for breakfast.” She seemed to be holding her breath as he sank onto the chair
beside where she’d put the plate down. “I had mine earlier. I’m still alive, so
you can rest assured it won’t poison you.”

He blinked at the stew with dumplings that she’d concocted
from a can of Dinty Moore and some biscuit mix. He picked up the spoon beside
the warm plate and dipped it into the food, not caring if it tasted like
wallpaper paste.
She
had made it for him. As he ate, she watched
anxiously. “How is it?”

He swallowed the big bite he’d shoved into his mouth. “It’s
good. Thank you. I hadn’t eaten today.”

He hadn’t lied. It
was
good. And dumplings were not
exactly easy to make so they were airy and not gluey. He took another bite and
realized that she’d been into his root cellar when he bit into an onion. Old
Joe usually brought him a big bag of potatoes and one of onions, along with
turnips, apples and about anything that would store in a cool place. Flour and
biscuit mix, along with spices, sugar and salt he kept on the shelves inside
the cabin. Coffee, dried fruit and lard could stay good for months on end. He
usually stored a couple of cases of canned fruit, chili, canned stew and canned
chicken as well. He could catch all the fresh meat he wanted, but a guy could
get pretty tired of rabbit and sage hen after a while.

He ate every bite, and when she took his plate and put it in
the sink, he inhaled deeply, his body throbbing at the way she smelled of sweet
sweat and woman. He watched her clean the plate and spoon, and rose to take the
pan of water from her, taking it outside to dump beside the porch.

She waited for him to say something—anything. She didn’t
know how to begin a conversation with him. Their only conversations had
centered on getting in or out of bed. And God knew, she wanted to do that, but
things had changed since their sex-starved frenzy of that first day. She wasn’t
exactly sure what to do or say.

She had taken the huge pile of luggage back out and
laboriously stuffed it into the back of the SUV, except for the things she knew
she might actually wear over the next week. She’d replaced his scratchy old
army blanket with her own soft woolen blanket from the rear of the car, and she
had put the frightfully expensive down-filled sleeping bag over the sad little
lumpy mattress. She had brought a supply of bath soaps and lotions, so she had
chosen one that smelled like sage and put it next to the sink. She had placed a
bottle of unscented body lotion beside the bed, planning to treat him to a
massage if he would allow it. And she had chosen to wear her softest, sexiest
sundress—no bra or panties—hoping that she would manage to get him to forget he
was not supposed to want to fuck her. Because she certainly wanted to fuck him,
over and over and over…

When he stepped back inside with the pan, she took it and
set it back into the counter frame before turning to reach for his buttons.
“Would you like a bath?” she whispered softly. He stood like a rock as she
shoved his shirt from his body and reached for the belt buckle. “I can help by
pouring water over you, if you want…”

He closed his hands gently over hers, bringing her gaze up
to his. “I bathed in a stream. And if you keep undressing me, I won’t be able
to keep myself from touching you.”

“I want to do something special for you. Have you ever had a
full body massage?” His shirt hit the floor, then his thick belt. He was toeing
off his boots as he helped her to shove his jeans down his thighs, and he
couldn’t prevent his wide-awake, eager cock from straining toward her.

She gently pushed him back toward the bed. He obeyed her
gentle nudging and sank down onto the soft blanket. He reached for her, but she
pressed his arms to his sides. He lay on the thick, soft sleeping bag and
watched as she hiked the skirt of the loose sundress up far enough that he
could see her glistening pussy. “Roll over…and don’t break that…” She glanced
at his stiff erection. “I’ll ease that out for you in a minute.” He rolled onto
his stomach, keeping his hips up a bit to keep from hurting himself. She
carefully straddled his thighs and poured a cool dollop of lotion onto his
back.