Big Flight (3 page)

“So, was the environment welcoming?”

He was trying not to be rude, but he was skating on the edge of propriety.

Molly smiled. “It was. The air was much the same as it is tonight. There were less people around though.”

He nodded.

Molly sighed. “Would you care to see anything else?”

“Would you join me for dinner?”

She blinked. “Um, I have already eaten, but I could have dessert if you want company.”

“Back to the café?”

Molly turned him around, and they walked back to the centre of the purpose-built town.

When they were in a booth at the café, she ordered some pie and coffee, leaning in to ask him, “So, what brings you to the Crossroads? You don’t seem to be in the same mindset as the others.”

He sighed. “It is work. I am looking for an associate’s daughter. She came here earlier in the week and hasn’t returned to her family yet.”

Molly sat back, “Perhaps she hasn’t found her mate yet.”

“That is what I am here to stop. From what I am told, she is too young to seek a mate yet.”

Molly blinked. “Too young?”

“Yes, he said that they hadn’t yet introduced her to society and since his other two daughters are married and engaged respectively… If she hasn’t been out in their circles, she must be younger than the twenty-one-year-old.”

She seethed inwardly before she pasted a bland smile on her face.

He finally asked her, “What do you do in the outside world?”

Molly smiled shyly. “I am a baker. I used to work for my family, but when I go back, I am going to have to start over.”

Damon sat back as his meal arrived. He attacked the food with good appetite. When he came up for air, he asked, “Would you want to live near your family?”

“My mate would become my family. My parents support that.” She stuck to the truth. Her finding a home far away from them would delight her parents.

“That is very understanding of them.”

She smiled weakly and leaned back as the waitress brought her pie.

“So, Damon, what do you do for a living?”

He shrugged. “I have recently gotten the job in the council. I live in my family home with my sister and aunt. My parents travel widely and are experiencing the cuisines of the world.”

She blinked and fought her grin. For vultures, international cuisine meant something else entirely. She kept her head down and ate her lemon pie with a smile playing around her lips.

Chapter Four

Damon enjoyed the remainder of their meal together. Molly didn’t speak much, but her eyes were so expressive, she didn’t have to. Everything that she felt was in those eyes and it was amazing to watch.

“Can I walk you back to where you are staying?”

She smiled and pushed her second pie plate away. “You may have to carry me.”

He tried not to shift as blood pulsed in his groin at the image in his mind of her in his arms with nothing between them. He cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t mind that.”

A wave of red started below her dress and moved up her chest until her face was scarlet. Her eyes wouldn’t meet his gaze as she shifted in her seat. After all the women groping him from neck to knees, her modesty was refreshing.

He propped his chin on his fist and smiled. “So, where are you staying?”

“The Open Heart.”

He grinned. “Me too. Shall we?”

Her skin had been cooling, but it pinked violently when she looked at him.

Her voice was a husky whisper. “I suppose we should both call it a day.”

He got to his feet, and when she slipped her pale hand against his, he felt a surge of power that had everything to do with finding the woman of his dreams. With her hesitancy, how long would it take to convince her to take his word that they were meant for each other?

He was hoping it would be less than two days, because his brain was going to suffer if it didn’t get blood soon.

* * * *

The moment she put her skin against his, the echo of that touch ripped through her body. Her nipples hardened, thighs clenched and her skin actually ached for more of the contact.

When his fingers tightened around hers, she felt another twinge of the touch inside her sex.

She stood up and watched as he paid for her desserts and his dinner before he tucked her hand around his arm again and walked with her far more slowly than the night traffic called for. There were a few couples on the street and nothing else.

It felt like a warm night in the south, without the bugs.

Molly heard the crunch of the gravel under her shoes, and along with his, it was the only sound she could register. The rest of the world had fallen away. It was just the two of them.

Teebie had told her that many of the guests found their matches within a matter of hours. Others took days and very few even weeks.

Why did it seem that Molly was falling for the one man she should really stay away from?

They meandered back to the Open Heart with a lack of concern for the time of night. It could have been early evening or predawn, it didn’t matter. They were in a world of their own.

On the porch of the bed and breakfast, Damon pulled her to a halt.

He turned her to face him, and he asked, “Can I kiss you?”

She bit her lip and nodded agreement.

Molly felt the movement of air from his breath, the heat from his lips and then he pressed his mouth to hers in a slow and cautious meeting.

Kept apart from shifters her entire life, she had no idea of the tide of lust that his kiss woke in her. She shuddered in his grip and held herself still with intense focus and self-control.

When he stroked her lips with his tongue and slipped inside to taste her, she let her control crack as she slid her hands up his chest to lock behind his head.

She held his lips to hers as the slow kiss continued until her panties were damp and her nipples ached. He tried to pull back, but she held him for a moment before allowing him to retreat.

Her hands shook, her body was vibrating with tension and she was sure that her pupils had dilated until her eyes were black. Her tepid relations with humans were nothing compared to Damon’s kiss. She was more aroused than she had ever been, and she still had all of her clothing on.

When he released her, she staggered back before he caught her.

“I am fine.”

She straightened and brushed at her dress before opening the door to their home away from home.

He moved to hold the door for her, but she was mentally reinforcing her thighs with steel to make it up the stairs to her bedroom.

At the landing, she turned and said, “Good night, Damon. May you find what you seek.”

She held onto her dignity and made into to her bedroom before she collapsed to her knees.

He was going to find out who she was and he was going to insist on taking her home. She would be nothing and no one again. That was something she couldn’t bear to happen.

She wasn’t going back.

Her body refused to calm, so Molly got up at three in the morning, put on the gossamer robe she picked up in her first hour at the Crossroads and she crept out of her bedroom to go in search of hot cocoa or warm milk.

She had just rounded the landing when she heard the rattle of dishes. Damon was on the lower stairs and climbing toward her.

He paused when he saw her. “Molly. Can’t sleep?”

She bit her lip and shook her head.

“Teebie made me a pot of hot chocolate. She insisted that I take the whole tray, and now, I think I know why. Shall we?”

He moved past her and into a room beyond hers with an open door. She followed him, and he set the tray on a table near two chairs.

“Come in, Molly. I will leave the door open if you are nervous.”

She blushed and closed it. “I don’t want to wake anyone else.”

“So, what is keeping you awake?” He expertly poured two cups of hot cocoa and handed her one with marshmallows arranged into a happy face.

She smiled into the grinning cup. “Truth?”

“Truth is easier.” He blew into his cup, took a seat and looked at her over the porcelain edge.

“I have never kissed a shifter before. My body is still humming with eager energy.”

He blinked. “Never?”

She shook her head and sipped at the melted marshmallow.

“How is that possible if your family was around? They should have made sure that you met and mingled with shifters of your own age.”

She shrugged, unsure of how far to go into detail. “Should have. Didn’t. I had no idea that it was such an electrifying experience.”

His smile was slow. “I thought so, too, and I do have basis for comparison. Our connection is extraordinary. It will grow stronger the longer we are together.”

Molly cocked her head. “How do you know?”

“My parents have a similar bond. They build on each other’s strengths and together are unstoppable.”

Surprising herself, she said, “It sounds nice.”

“It is the connection that my sister is hunting for, but she says she won’t find a mate until I do.”

“Why not?”

“Because she doesn’t want me living alone, and when she finds her mate, she will leave. She would worry.”

Molly nodded and blew into her cup again. “I suppose I could understand that.”

He settled back in the chair, and for the first time, she realized that he was wearing some silken pajama bottoms and nothing else. He was perfectly proportioned, a statue made flesh.

Damn
. There went her hormones again.

She quickly finished the hot cocoa, swallowing and hoping that the sensitivity would fade by the morning. “Thank you for the cocoa. I should go now.”

She got up with the robe fluttering around her.

Damon moved to block her. “Stay, please.”

She quivered and her body screamed a silent
Yes!
Her mind mulled it over and admitted that she had not felt that way about any of the other males she had met and danced with.

Opening and closing her hands, she pressed them to his chest and slid them upward, over and around his shoulders before reversing direction and stroking across his abs and down to the waistband of his pajamas.

Damon pressed his hands over hers. “You don’t have to do anything.”

She blinked. “But I can, right?”

“Of course, but there is no obligation.” His fingers wound with hers, and he moved closer, holding her hands at the small of her back.

With her hands pinned and her breasts now pressed against his chest, Molly felt awkward, and a moment later, his erection prodded her with his clothing and hers a feeble barrier to the flexing heat.

He held both of her hands with one of his and used the free hand to stroke her neck.

She gave into reflex and stretched her neck to one side, preening a little.

He paused for a moment, and then, he leaned in, pressing his lips to the vulnerable flesh of her neck.

She shivered wildly in his arms, and she felt Damon’s lips curve in a smile.

He moved and took her with him, backing her toward the bed. He eased her down on the bedding and leaned over her, his thighs parting her own.

Molly lifted her lips to his when he kissed her and welcomed the thrust and slide of his tongue against her own.

She clutched his shoulders, her senses delighting in the taut texture of his skin. She let her hands roam over his shoulders, chest, the ridge of his back and into the silky, dark texture of his hair.

When she got her nerve up, she slipped a hand between them and caressed the waistband of his trousers, stroking her fingers lightly over the flexing tent of his erection. She moved her hand and slipped her fingers under the band, easing it down and out until Damon’s cock sprang free.

While she was doing this, Damon was holding perfectly still, but the moment that his cock was out, he began to move.

His fingers dragged her silky nightdress and robe up and out of the way, exposing her sex and the wet heat that had kept her up all night. He groaned when his fingers slicked the moment that they touched her.

She was blushing, but it was an honest response.

He shifted and set his cock against her. With a few short thrusts, he slid in, and he fit as perfectly as she knew he would. She sighed as he began to rock and slide inside her.

Her breasts ached, so she reached up and squeezed them, pinching her nipples through the lace and silk of her nightwear.

She felt Damon shudder over and inside her. He moved faster and faster against her until he groaned, jerking his hips tight to hers while his eyes went blind.

Molly resigned herself to a long night of tension when Damon shifted and slid a hand between them, stroking her clit in a gradually faster spiral.

Her breath came faster, and she squeezed her breasts again.

Damon leaned down and took one nipple in his mouth, suckling her through the fabric. He did the same for the other side while his finger continued its circling with more and more pressure.

She heard a groan from her own throat, and her hips jerked against his hand. He was still inside her, and the moment that her climax struck, he groaned again as her channel gripped him with pulsing tension.

Damon continued to circle her clit, slow and light now, until she slumped back into the sheets with satisfaction.

He pulled out of her body and settled on the bed, cuddling her against him.

Molly’s mind was spinning with the urge to run and lock her door against what had just roared through her. If any man on the earth was her mate, it was the man next to her. How was she supposed to deal with that?

She had come to the Crossroads with the idea of finding a man she wanted and who wanted her in return. This level of attachment, of her soul screaming in delight with every touch of his hand, was far beyond what she had wanted.

It was like the song said,
You can’t always get what you want.

Chapter Five

First thing in the morning, Molly was packed and ready to leave. She just wanted one more flight and she would be on her way.