Venice Heat (19 page)

His hands settled at her waist, and a shiver of need sank from the center of her belly to between her legs. Her pussy moistened. Eiji’s reflected image breathed deep, and his dark eyes paled. If she were even planning on telling him they would just be companions and nothing more on her journey to learning this new way of life, it wouldn’t work.

Eiji ran his hand over the bandage on her side, and his eyebrows bunched. She knew he imagined killing Kasen, but since she’d shifted, her wound was nothing more than a flesh wound. Her ability to heal defied logic, but because it did, she believed Eiji when he told her he was fine. He wore a bandage on his thigh where the bullet hit him, but he didn’t limp. Marcus and his people had cared for Eiji, and against their advice for him to stay still for a couple days, he’d insisted on coming to find Shae. She had to be grateful to them for that, and it said Marcus was at least a better man than Darryl.

“I’m okay,” she told Eiji.

“I know.”

“You said you were going to get my stuff in Venice.”

He nodded. “I will.”

“I want to go with you.”

“No.”

She turned in his arms and pressed her breasts against his chest. He hadn’t yet taken his clothes off, and she intended to drag him into the shower with her. “I think I made that sound like a question. I meant, I’m going with you. We’re not going to be apart from now on because…”

His gaze burned into her until she looked away. Her stomach muscles tightened. What if he’d changed his mind because of her being a Keith? He might be willing to look after her, but to be mated? No, she’d told herself this was it. She would admit her feelings.

She stared him in the face. “Because I love you, and I want to be your mate.”

Bravado drained to her toes when he didn’t speak.

“If you have a problem with that because of your family and all, I—”

He kissed her, hard and rough on the lips, and stuck his tongue into her mouth. His big hand engulfed her face as he nudged her chin higher. She lost the ability to breathe or think. He filled her heart, and her soul strained to belong to him.

When he raised his head, she teetered on tiptoe, but he held her close and stroked wetness from her cheeks she didn’t know was there. “
Aishiteru
means ‘I love you.’”

“Eiji,” she breathed.

He kissed her then, and Shae forgot everything, all the fear, all the doubt, and the uncertain future. She knew nothing other than Eiji, and a certainty that being with him was where she was meant to be. She clung to him, arching her back so she snuggled into his body. They fit like they were made for each other, and when he drew away, releasing her lips, she rested her head on his shoulder with her eyes shut.

“We’ll seal it,” he murmured, and she looked up.

“I’m ready.”

He didn’t question her further. Maybe he was too afraid she’d change her mind. She stood before him watching as he shed his shirt and tossed it to the floor, then peeled the button open on his pants. Her mouth watered to see him in all his glory once again. His lean hips came into view, along with the light smattering of hair at his crotch. When his cock, hard and rigid, came into view, she longed to suck it. Every other time except the first time, he’d denied her, and even then he hadn’t let her make him come.

Eiji took her hand, and they walked together into the bathroom. The shower warmed quickly, filling the bathroom with steam. They stepped inside, and Shae thought she’d orgasm when Eiji began soaping her body. He ran slick hands down the outsides of her legs, only to come back up the inside. He teased her apex with flicking fingers across her clit. She fell against the wall and scarcely held herself upright.

“Let me wash you too,” she offered. To her surprise, he handed over the shower gel. She squeezed the scented liquid into her palm, worked it into a lather, and then began exploring his body. Eiji’s shoulders were tight with tension, but she kneaded the muscle and rubbed from his neck to his tight ass. “Damn, you’ve got a fine ass, baby.”

He started when she smacked it, and she laughed. She stroked his thighs as he’d done her and ran greedy palms over his big cock. The tool twitched under her ministrations, and Eiji put his head back, allowing her control. She wanted to climb him like a monkey and ride him right there, but she held off. After a little while, Eiji made her focus on him.

“I’m going to bite you—small bite—and I want you to do the same to me. At the same time, open yourself. Let me in like when you changed before. Let us be one.”

The process was simple and so easy. Once she’d determined she wanted to be his mate, she had no real qualms about opening her heart, and she felt him come in as if they bonded, two people becoming one. The steam rose around them, cocooning them from the outside world. Eiji held her so tight where he touched. She ached, and yet she wanted the same, to blend with him.

At first she’d thought mating meant giving up her independence to her man, to follow him without a choice. Now she knew it was so much more. Yes, she gave up herself, but so did Eiji. He would walk with her, and she would do the same for him. This bonding meant they could not—would not—subsist without each other. Now she knew, humans could never understand the level of commitment they shared.

“Eiji,”
she cried out.

“Shae.”

He kissed her until her lips ached, and he pushed fingers between her legs to tease her bud. She whimpered his name out loud and in her head at the same time. He strummed her like an instrument, and she rose to her tiptoes, arching her back, clinging to his arms, as he brought her to a trembling orgasm.

When it ended and Shae’s breathing settled, she kissed his shoulder and then dropped to her knees in front of him. His cock bobbed and bumped her cheek. She waited for him to say no and make her move, but he stared down at her—if she read it right—ready.

Shae licked the head and circled the cap. A shudder passed through him. The expression of bliss on his face took her by surprise. She stopped, but Eiji reached down and grasped her chin. He guided her mouth to his cock and pushed so that it parted her lips and eased inside.

“Suck it,” he commanded, but not with unkindness in his tone.

Shae took as much as she could deep into her mouth, and partway down her throat, and then pulled back. Eiji hissed through his teeth. She pulled on his big, beautiful length with her mouth and lapped up his precome. Moaning against it set him off, and she smiled hearing him struggle for breath. For long minutes, she kept sucking, and then she worked him with her hand, pumping his length from base to tip. She used both her hand and mouth together, alternating that with teasing his balls. Eiji growled his pleasure.

“I’m going to come,” he said, almost like an apology.

“I’ll drink you, baby,” she promised. “Let me taste it.”

Eiji didn’t hold back. He pumped into her mouth slow and easy. Whispered words escaped his lips, and then he found his release. She took every drop and sucked for more as she swallowed. When she was done, she licked his dick, letting it rest on her cheek, her lips, and even her nose. She kissed his thigh and stood. Eiji gazed at her, and she saw the love overflowing there.

“Why didn’t you let me do it before?”

He squeezed off shower gel to begin washing her face. She didn’t tell him she didn’t use the stuff for her face, but then she had none of her toiletries. They would get them soon, right before they started their new life.

“You were not my mate before now,” he answered.

Shae frowned. “Wait, so you were a virgin at getting head?”

Confusion colored his expression. She laughed.

“You’ve never had a woman go down on you?”

To her surprise, the look went from love to closed. He almost resembled the man she met that first day in Venice. “I won’t discuss that.”

“You’re embarrassed?” she pushed. “Come on, Eiji. I’m not going to judge you. If you’ve never been with a woman—”

“I have!”

“Wow, the outrage.” She stuck out her tongue, and he jerked her to him. Her heart thundered in her chest. Damn, she loved him. What would she do with herself, and what had she been thinking tying the knot that bound them so tightly?

Eiji pushed fingers into her short, damp curls and tugged light enough to sting but not hurt. An arrow of desire kicked her desires into high gear. “I have been with women. Not like you. I would not come in your mouth until I had given myself to you and to you alone.”

Tears pricked her eyes, and she bit her bottom lip. “Did you know?”

“That you were my mate? From the first scent. What is the word? You intoxicated me, and I was lost.”

She put her hands up and captured his face between them. “Eiji,
aishiteru
.”

He raised her into his arms, and Shae wrapped her legs around his waist. She clung to him, and they kissed, their tongues curled together. His fingertips grazed her anus, pressing lightly. She moaned into his mouth. Between them he started to grow hard again. She did her best to encourage it, rubbing against him, licking and sucking his bottom lip. When he lifted her higher to sink his erection deep into her pussy, she cried out in ecstasy. Her grip on his shoulders slipped, but it meant nothing at all. Eiji held her and drove her up and down on his hard-on with a speed and strength that boggled her mind. She whimpered and took everything he gave. He’d swollen so much, or her insides loved to cling to his rod. He stretched her walls and forced her legs wider the more he pounded her pussy.

“Eiji, oh damn, I can’t…I can’t take it.”

He shifted their position so her back was against the cool wall. Still he thrust hard, pounding until her head spun. Her clit throbbed, and her core muscles wound tight. Waves of sensation threatened to throw her over the edge. She tried getting a grip, but with his onslaught, he made it impossible.

Sounds of the water streaming down on them, Eiji’s guttural groans, and the slap of their flesh coming together took her to the point of no return. She came, screaming and pleading. Eiji never slowed his grinding into her heat. He wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her tighter. The new position scraped his pelvis over her clit. She wept on his shoulder, and a secondary orgasm rocketed through her being.

A long while later, after she’d gasped with a dry throat, and her heart began to settle, he let her legs down. They gave out, but he caught her and spun her to face the stream of water, him behind. Eiji sudsed his hands and rubbed them between her legs to massage her sore pussy. She let him do what he wanted because she had no energy.

When he finished, he cleaned himself and turned off the water. A thick towel wiped away all moisture, and Eiji carried her to the bed. She luxuriated in his arms, yawning.

“I want to take you here later,” he said and touched her anus. She shivered.

“Mm, yes.” She shut her eyes. “We shouldn’t stay here long, Eiji. The sooner we’re out of California, the better.”

“I’ll make arrangements. We will go to Tokyo.”

“That’ll be a nice change.” Exhaustion began to descend. She didn’t hear his reply, but drifted into a world of total sexual contentment, all at the hands of her perfect lover, Eiji. No one else would ever be needed besides him. That she knew more than anything else.

* * * *

Shae shifted in her seat on the plane. Her stomach hurt. Now that they were on the way, she feared meeting his family. He hadn’t said whether he would tell them the truth, but surely they would figure it out by her last name. He’d said they would go to his hometown first and meet everyone. The honorable thing, he’d mentioned. Then she remembered he’d described himself as a rogue wolf, a loner. Eiji had separated himself from his family because in a way he was a misfit being a male wolf. If Eiji’s family didn’t accept her, that was just fine. She and Eiji would have each other’s back, and that was all that mattered.

She needed to do one last thing before moving on with her new life. Since her cell phone had been destroyed in the mess at Eiji’s house, she used a phone available on the plane and waited for the call to go through. Both excitement and dread passed over her at the voice of the person on the other end.

“Sakura, how’ve you been?”

“Shae.” No one could instill more disgust in their tone than her oldest sister. “I’ve heard all kinds of stories about you lately. I’m assuming they’re true?”

“If you’re assuming, why ask?”

“I guess you’re right.”

Shae sighed and ran a hand over her face. She already regretted calling.

“Look, I know we haven’t been close lately, but since I’m not going to be around…um…maybe for a long time, I thought you could follow up on something I was looking into.”

Sakura laughed. “When have I ever been a team player, Shae? Don’t be stupid.”

“Get off your damn high horse and listen to me. Dad and Kasen haven’t been too honest with us.”

Sakura sucked her teeth, and Shae could just see her rolling her eyes. “Oh, what, now you’re going to try to get me to turn my back on the family? You think we’ll all get along? The Keiths are supposed to bow to the animals, is that it? You have no idea the storm that might come down on our heads, little sister. Fuck, what am I saying, there
is
a storm coming—because of
you
. But don’t worry, we can handle it. You go on and hide with your new tail between your legs.”

Shae swore under her breath. “Mom died in Miami, not Vegas. And it wasn’t a bear that attacked her. Check into it if you want. Despite everything, I love you. Bye.”

She slammed the phone into its cradle, knowing she’d done all she could. Eiji took her hand into his lap, and she leaned her head on his shoulder, preparing her mind for the trip that would take more than seventeen hours. And then…her new life as a wolf shifter.

The End

About the Author

Tressie Lockwood has always loved books, and she enjoys writing about heroines who are overcoming the trials of life. She writes straight from her heart, reaching out to those who find it hard to be themselves completely no matter what anyone else thinks. She hopes her readers enjoy her short stories. Visit Tressie on the Web at www.tressielockwood.com.