Jesse’s mouth kicked up into a smile. He wasn’t surprised. He, Bracken, and Zander had been friends since childhood and were as close as brothers.
“They’re also making Eli and Roni hang behind until you agree to see them. I can understand if you’d really rather not, but I’d appreciate it if you’d let them fix this. They feel bad about it, and they don’t want a divide in the pack.”
Neither did Jesse. As Nick said, they needed to be a unit right now. Hector was the enemy. Eli might have acted like an asshole, but he was a decent guy who’d had Jesse’s back in battle more than once. Jesse sighed. “All right.”
Shaya brightened. “Thanks, Jesse.” She called the two wolves over. Eli entered first, though he only took a single step inside. Jesse didn’t get up to greet him. Honestly, it would be better if he stayed where he was and kept a tight grip on his mate anyway. Tension was gathering in her muscles, but she looked deceptively relaxed.
“I came to apologize,” said Eli, casting the margay a wary glance. “I took my anger out on you and I said some pretty sly remarks. I was out of line.” Simple. To the point. No attempt to justify his behavior. “It won’t happen again.”
“No, it won’t,” said Jesse.
“And I’m sorry for my mother’s behavior.” Eli shook his head. “She had no right to do what she did. If I’d known what she planned, I would have put a stop to it. Please believe that.”
Roni entered then, shoulders hunched and eyes glinting with shame. The cat unsheathed her claws, and Jesse ground his teeth as they dug into his skin. Just a little more pressure would have him bleeding, so he was glad that Roni didn’t advance any farther into the room.
“I’m sorry too, Jesse.” Roni bit her lip. “I don’t have an excuse. There isn’t an excuse for turning up at your house to confront your mate—a female who was totally justified in what she did. I’m not going to blame my mother. Nick was right; I should know better than to let her get me all worked up.” She looked at the margay. “I came to apologize to Harley too.”
Going by the way she was tapping her claws . . . “I don’t think Harley or her cat will be receptive right now.”
Roni’s shoulders slumped. “On a scale of one to ten, how mad at me is she?”
“Harley or her cat?”
“Both.”
“Harley blames Kathy, not you. But her cat . . . she’s gonna need a little time.”
Roni inclined her head. “Fair enough.”
“Kathy, Caleb, and Kent have been dealt with,” said Shaya. “The boys had actually backed down well before Nick arrived at the scene. They feel like shit but are too scared to face your mate, especially in her cat form. As for Kathy . . . she’s been uncharacteristically quiet. Subdued, even.”
“It’s because Jesse told her she lost a lot of his respect,” Roni explained. “Respect means a great deal to my mother. Not just because she’s a very proud, dominant female, but because my father placed a lot of importance on respect.”
Eli nodded. “He’d say you had to give it before you could get it, that to lose someone’s respect was a shameful thing.”
“Then it would seem that Jesse hit her where it hurt.” Inhaling deeply, Shaya turned to Jesse. “Dinner’s almost ready. Are you coming to the main lodge to eat?”
Since the cat’s claws were still pricking his flesh, he replied, “Not tonight.”
“I thought as much.” The Alpha female smiled weakly. “I hope you’ll join us for lunch tomorrow. I won’t say breakfast, because I know you two prefer having the mornings to yourselves.”
The cat slowly unfurled and did a long, lazy stretch, showing off those sharp claws, never losing sight of the visitors.
“We should go.” Eli backed out of the lodge, pulling Roni with him.
Rolling her eyes, Shaya said, “She’s not getting ready to pounce; she’s just stretching. Her markings are beautiful, especially those little spots.” The redhead stepped forward, reaching out. “I don’t suppose she’d let me give her a little st—” The cat hissed, and Shaya snatched back her hand. “Understood. I’ll see you both tomorrow. Have a good night.” With a little wave, Shaya left the lodge.
The cat retracted her claws and padded up Jesse’s chest to rub the sides of her neck against his face, scent-marking him. He scratched her head. “Such a cute little thing, but you have those wolves nervous.” Because cat shifters were temperamental in their animal form, and this little margay had already perfectly demonstrated just what she could do with those claws.
Just then, his stomach rumbled. The cat blinked and looked around, seeming confused. He chuckled. “I’m hungry. Come back, Harley; tell me what you want for dinner.” But she didn’t. He sighed. “All right.”
Holding on to the cat, he got to his feet and walked into the kitchen. She didn’t struggle to be put down. “I think you like getting carried around. Maybe it’s because you like being up high.” He looked in the cupboards and the fridge, searching for inspiration. “How about I grill some steaks?” he proposed. “Come on, Harley, I need an answer here.” The cat made what sounded like a noise of complaint, and then bones began to crack and pop as she shifted back into her human form.
Curling her limbs around him, Harley said, “When you stroke her and coo to her like that, she doesn’t want to shift.”
Jesse nipped her lip. “Well, I like stroking her—she’s soft, like you. And I don’t coo.”
“You totally coo.”
“Guys don’t coo.”
“You do.”
He growled. “Steaks . . . yes or no?”
“Sounds good to me,” she said. “Put me down so I can get dressed.”
He smoothed his hand down the length of her spine to cup her ass. “But I like you better naked.”
“I’m cold.”
He reluctantly released her. “Then dress. I don’t want you cold.”
Harley took her clothes from the dining chair and began to drag them on. She didn’t have to look at Jesse to know . . . “You’re staring.”
“You’re mine to stare at.”
Snorting, she rolled her eyes.
“You hear everything they said?”
“Yep.”
“Their apologies seemed heartfelt.”
“They did.” She sighed. “I’ll accept them gracefully.”
“But you won’t forgive them in a hurry, will you?” It was a feline thing. And even when she did forgive, she’d never forget. He liked that merciless streak, though.
“Nah,” she replied. “Although, since I’m feeling magnanimous, I’m willing to concede—even if only to you—that their reactions probably wouldn’t have been quite so extreme if everyone wasn’t already wound up tight about the Hector situation.”
“Did you hear Nick tell me earlier that he wants me to go with him to meet Hector’s old Alpha?”
“I did. I also heard him tell you what his contacts discovered about Hector. Personally, I don’t get it. The story just doesn’t make sense; too much info is missing.”
“I agree,” said Jesse. Hopefully the meeting would clear some things up. If not . . . well, he wasn’t sure what their next move could be.
It had to be said that Jesse Dalton had a mouth that was truly golden. Harley often woke up to his tongue fluttering between her folds or swirling around her clit. Right now, her legs were hooked over his shoulders as he angled her hips and, basically, served himself—there was really no other way to put it when he was growling hungrily as he sipped, licked, and ate at her.
Every now and then he’d pause, keeping his tongue still, so she could writhe and squirm against it. Then he’d take over, his fingers biting into her hips to keep her still while he licked around the entrance of her pussy or clamped his mouth around her clit to suckle gently. Sometimes he’d drive a finger inside her, but he’d only give her a few thrusts before withdrawing it.
It was pure bliss, but it was also utter torture because she was shaking with the need to come.
&nbs
p; “Jesse . . .” It was a demand and a warning.
“Not done,” he growled. His tongue plunged inside her, swirling and stabbing over and over and over.
God, she was close to begging, and she never did that. But then, it probably wouldn’t make a difference if she did. There was only one thing that ever made him show some fricking mercy. “I’m yours, you son of a bitch!”
Jesse rose up and slammed into her pussy, burying himself balls deep in one possessive thrust. She came instantly, contracting and rippling around him. “Yes, you are.” He rode her hard, watching her gorgeous gold eyes widen and go blind with pleasure. “That’s it, sweetheart, milk me dry.”
With her taste in his mouth, her scent flooding his lungs, her soft skin under his hands, and her pussy squeezing him like a burning-hot fist, he couldn’t hold back. He exploded, filling her with everything he had and biting the swell of her breast to leave yet another mark.
Totally replete, he collapsed on top of his mate. Content. Satisfied. Relaxed. Comfortable. Until she punched him in the arm and ordered him to get off and let her breathe. Instead, he hummed against her neck. “I feel so adored.” She just snorted.
Downstairs, she made cinnamon twists using the ingredients they’d bought when he took her shopping the previous day. Jesse had liked them so much he begged her to make more, swearing they brought tears to his eyes. After some incredible sex in the shower, Harley was sitting on the bathroom counter, applying shaving gel to Jesse’s face. “Lily called last night,” she told him.
“What did she want?”
His protective growl made her a little tingly. “Probably money.” Harley had answered the phone with another fake voice-mail greeting, and the line had soon after gone dead.
“Do you see her much?”
“Not really.”
“What about when you first went to live with Tess; did Lily visit you?”
“Only when she wanted something, which was usually money or for me to visit Clive with her and Shawn. I preferred seeing him on my own.”
Jesse frowned. “Who’s Shawn?”
“Clive’s brother.” He was no steadier than Lily, but there had been some occasions when he’d saved the woman from herself. “Can I shave you?”
The request took Jesse by surprise. Her expression said, “I won’t be offended if you say no,” and he believed her. The thought of anyone—even a trained barber—going near his throat with a sharp implement made him balk. But this was Harley. His mate. The person he trusted on a level he didn’t trust anyone else.
As Jesse moved to stand between her legs and then handed her the razor, her breath caught. It was a gesture of trust—as good as giving her his throat. “You sure?”
“I trust you.” Jesse stayed still as she began shaving one side of his face with short, firm strokes, sure to rinse the razor often. She was pretty good at it. If anyone had told him he’d find it relaxing to have someone shave him, he would have snorted. “Tell me about Shawn,” he said as she swirled the razor in the sink. “I don’t remember him.”
“Medium height. Pudgy. Double chin. Dresses like a biker. He has a goatee that makes him look more like a faun from Narnia than a badass.”
“Oh yeah. He was always hanging around Lily.”
“Still does. He’s head over heels for her—has been for as long as I can remember. She doesn’t see it. She’s too wrapped up in Clive to see another male. I think Shawn likes that my father’s in prison. It means he’s able to be a sort of . . . platonic mate to her—all under the guise of looking out for her on Clive’s behalf.”
“Does Clive know the truth?”
Harley went back to shaving him. “I’ve often wondered about it. He doesn’t miss much, so he probably does know. It wouldn’t surprise me if he gets some kind of kick out of the idea that he has the female his brother so badly wants—Clive can be strange like that.”
“It doesn’t bother Clive that you see him without them?” Jesse asked when she paused to rinse the razor.
“No. He doesn’t like to share my attention.”
Then there was a strong possibility he wouldn’t like her being claimed. “How do you think he’ll react to you being mated?”
“There’s never any knowing how Clive will react to anything.” She smiled and teased, “Don’t worry; I’ll protect you.”
“That’s a true comfort.” He remained quiet for a while, but, curious about her strained relationship with Clive, he spoke when she paused once again to rinse the razor. “Did you visit him in prison when you were a kid?”
“Twice a month,” she said as she moved on to the other side of his face. “Lily would do my hair all nice and put on my best clothes. I hated going there. Hated being searched by big hands for drugs and contraband. Then they’d force me to stand still while they brought sniffer dogs into the room; having a huge dog in your face can be pretty scary when you’re just a kid. The guards were so abrupt and rude, glaring at me like I was the prisoner.”
The thought of a small Harley afraid and intimidated like that . . . It was enough to make his blood boil.
“You know, until I was six, I thought Clive was as amazing as his fans now do,” she reluctantly admitted.
The self-recrimination in her voice made his chest ache. He gently cuffed her wrist to still her hand, massaging her pulse with his thumb. “What happened when you were six?”
She hesitated, finding it hard to explain. “You have to understand that, as a kid, I thought my family situation was normal—all I had to compare it to was the other families in my pride. They were all messed up. But when I was six, I started sneaking onto shifter territories.” Mostly using trees. “Sometimes I’d befriend the pups or cubs there; other times I used to just watch them.”
“And you started to see that your family wasn’t so normal.”
Worse. She didn’t want to say it out loud, but he deserved the same trust he’d given her. “I saw that most other dads didn’t beat their mate and son.”
Jesse’s hand clenched around her wrist. He forced himself to gentle his hold. “Clive hurt you?” he rumbled.
She shook her head. “And I don’t know why. He used to call me his princess and be really kind to me. Sometimes I think he just wanted someone to worship him. But you know what? I did love him at the time.”
“Of course you did. He was your dad and you loved who you thought he was.”
She nodded miserably, going back to shaving Jesse’s face. “I did.” And she’d believed he loved her back. But he hadn’t. “Even now, I don’t hate him,” she admitted. “But I despise and resent that people think of him as a hero. They have this image of him as a loving, devoted father who was so devastated by the loss of his son that he wreaked vengeance on humans in the way that other shifters wished they could have done. And he lets them. Thinks it’s amusing.”
“You would think that Lily would find it a blessing that he isn’t able to hurt or control her anymore,” he said when Harley was finished shaving his face. “Instead, she seems unable to cope without him.”
“Like I said, my family isn’t normal.” She took a deep breath. “You sure you’re okay with me shaving your throat?”
He pressed a light kiss to her mouth. “Do it. But first you have to promise to stop beating yourself up for doing something as natural as once loving your own father.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Good girl.” They fell into a comfortable silence as she finished the job, washed his face and throat, dried him off, and then applied his lotion. He skimmed his hand over his face and throat, feeling no rough areas or missed spots. She hadn’t nicked him once. “You did a good job, baby.” He kissed her hard. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Jesse stroked his thumb over her claiming mark. He liked looking at it, touching it, reminding himself she was finally all his. “When I woke up this morning and you were right there, I felt . . . calm.” It was hard for him to explain, but he wanted her to kno
w. “I’m used to feeling restless inside. You bring me peace.”
Her cat totally melted. “I’d say something equally sweet, but I don’t want to sound like a girl.”
“You are a girl. My girl.” Taking her hand, he nipped the pad of her finger. “Always have been. You shouldn’t have taken so long to realize where you belonged. Three years was way too long.”
He said it like she’d left him all alone. “You can’t tell me you were celibate during that time.”
“I wasn’t celibate. I’m a shifter. We need touch, sexual and social. But they were either short flings or one-night stands. None of them meant anything to me. Not a thing.” Yeah, it was cold but it was also the truth.
If that was supposed to soothe Harley, it didn’t. Although she didn’t like thinking of him with others, she also didn’t like that he’d closed himself off emotionally. “Maybe that’s because you didn’t give any of them a chance to be anything more to you.”
“Hmm.”
Hmm? “What does ‘hmm’ mean?” And why did it annoy her so much when he said it?
“None of them could have made me happy. They weren’t you.” It was really that simple. “You didn’t have a lot of relationships either—there was only really the chef, the lawyer, and the fireman.”
Harley gaped. “How the hell do you know that?”
“You should have damn well known in advance that they wouldn’t make you happy. The chef was an asshole with an assault record. The lawyer was married to his job and kept canceling on you. The fireman . . .”
“Cheated on me,” she finished. “I’m surprised you didn’t try to scare them off.” Then she remembered how abruptly they had all disappeared. “Oh my God, you scared them off.”
“I didn’t like knowing you were with others, but—knowing I’d have you one day, when you were ready to see you weren’t happy among humans—I would have dealt with it if they were good to you. They weren’t, so they needed to go.”
She looked at the ceiling. “Why aren’t I mad?” He’d interfered in her personal life, after all.