Let Us Prey: BBW Military Paranormal Romance (Wild Operatives, #2) (13 page)

“I can see the question in your eyes. Russ is a bear.”

Shit. A bear of a man and an actual bear.

“Does Dani know?” I whispered.

“Yeah, she does. Took Russ a while to tell her, though, and I didn’t want to make the same mistake with you, Leigh. I wanted to tell you as soon as I knew I could trust you.”

“I want to be pissed at you. I want to be so mad that you kept it from me. But another part of me wants to kiss you, because I missed you so much.”

“I’ll take the kisses,” he offered helpfully.

So would I. We closed the distance between us at the same time, practically leaping at one another across the couch. His fingers tangled in my hair and our lips came together in a hard, bruising press. We were frenzied, as if a day apart had starved us of each other.

Ian tore away my camisole without a word. Warm sunlight spilled through the window over my bared breasts and upper body. He didn’t need a bedside lamp to see me, and I didn’t give a damn that he could. His mouth lowered to one nipple and then the other, delivering playful nips to the tip of each breast until they were stiffly budded peaks.

Without thinking, I snuck one hand in the waist of my pajama bottoms. I was soaked, and having Ian so close brought out the shameless side of me I never knew existed before. I circled my clit until his fingers closed around my wrist.

“You’re not allowed to touch yourself,” Ian whispered. His lips were at my ear, delivering a teasing nibble against my unpierced lobe.

“No? Why not?”

“Because it’s
my
duty to give you pleasure, Leigh. I’m your husband.”

A shiver coursed through me as Ian knelt and pulled down my capris. He tugged aside my bikini style panties before tonguing my slit. He lapped at my folds, making my body tense and my heart race with every parting lick and the discovery of my clit. Within seconds, he proved he was as skilled with his tongue as he was with his hands, introducing me to ecstasy I’d never experienced before. His lips closed around my clit, trapping the tiny nerve bundle for a series of torturous strokes. Just when I was on the verge of climax, he stopped and kissed the crease of my thigh instead.

The tiniest twitch of my hands toward my body resulted in his longer fingers encircling my wrists. He pinned me down with the lightest touch. It was all he needed.

“I couldn’t wait to get back to you to do this, Leigh.”

“Ian, don’t stop... I need... I need...” I needed him inside me. To feel our bodies connected together as one.

“I know what you need.” The sexy confidence in his voice convinced me it was true.

“Ian,” I pleaded softly, squirming on my back until his mouth descended again. He lavished fleeting licks and split my folds with his tongue. At the end, he sealed his mouth around my clit and suckled.

Molten heat crashed over my body and swept me on the tide of passion. I arched my back and gripped his salt and pepper hair in one hand until the last contraction ended and I became a boneless heap on the couch. Afterward, Ian, traced lazy circles over my thigh. I moaned something unintelligible. My orgasm had made my limbs feel heavy as lead weights.

“Do you think I’m finished with you already, sweetheart?” His index finger teased between my thighs until my legs parted again and yielded access. One brush of his fingertip made me shudder again.

“Ian...” He bent his head and kissed me, brushing our lips tenderly at first. I could taste myself on his tongue, a discovery that turned me on more than anything. An overwhelming urge came over me to have Ian in my mouth, to feel the hot pulse of his cum. Somehow, it reinvigorated me.

“Bedroom. We need the bedroom,” I gasped, pulling away from him.

“It’s just us, Leigh. In our house.”

Ian fished a foil square from his discarded jeans and tore it open. Licking my lips in anticipation, I watched him roll it over his hard length. He was definitely well-endowed for a bird-man, and I wouldn’t have him any other way.

“My eagle wants to bond with you and claim you, Leigh. There’s no undoing it for me after this, baby. I need to know if you want this. If you truly want
this.
”

“I want you exactly as you are.”

Ian flipped me onto my belly and dragged my lower half off the couch onto my knees. Before I could speak another word, he nudged his dick between my folds and gradually penetrated me, drawing out our merging one tedious second after the next. A pitiful moan parted my lips.

“Leigh?” I heard the question in his tone: had he hurt me this time?

“Don’t fucking stop,” I growled at him.

My encouragement inspired a series of ruthless thrusts. He took me hard and fast from behind, slapping our bodies together, and his pelvis against my softer ass cheeks. Each slam jerked me forward into the couch. His arm was like a steel band around my waist, securing me against him while one hand palmed my breast.

It didn’t matter that it was only our second lovemaking. We both knew how we liked it and what we wanted from each other. Once we found the rhythm, we kept an urgent and desperate pace. My every nerve was alive and humming with power. Without me having to ask or guide him, Ian’s other hand dipped below my belly and traveled south until his fingers curved between my thighs. He touched my clit with confident fingers and introduced me to ecstasy.

“Close, so close,” I panted out.

His lips skimmed my ear. “You’re going to be more than close, baby.”

I clenched around his dick. Fuck, I loved it when he called me baby.

In a torturous move, Ian slowed his pace until the imminent threat of my release dimmed. Then, just as swiftly, he pounded into me with renewed vigor. The back and forth pace drove me toward my finish.

The first orgasm was comparable to detonating a stick of dynamite, exploding and igniting the next charge in the set. Arching my back, I screamed as the next rolling series of endless contractions lit through my soul, calling his name over and over more times than I could count. Through it all, his motions never ceased.

Just when I thought it was over, Ian’s backstroke set off another chain reaction as he stiffened behind me in climax. His breathless reaffirmation told me exactly what I needed to hear.

“
Mine.
”

When I came to, Ian’s concerned face was gazing down at me. He sat cross-legged on the floor with me over his lap, a sweaty sheen still glistening over his shoulders.

“What happened?” The sound of my hoarse voice startled me. One moment I was experiencing the best climax of my life, and in the next, I was staring up at my lover from the floor.

“You passed out,” he answered with a sheepish look on his face.

“I passed out during sex?”

“I think you were still kind of hanging on at the end there, so, technically, it was after sex, but yeah.”

I tried to lift one hand to weakly swat at him, but it only fell back to my side again. “Is that a shifter thing?”

“It’s actually rare, hon. Or so I’ve been told.”

“Nngh... maybe it’s a credit to your sexual prowess that it made
me
faint then.”

Once I assured Ian I was fine, he helped me from the floor and stole a tender kiss. We spent most of the afternoon sprawled on the couch together while I listened to the sound of his strong heartbeat. He was right. It was our home and no one could see us enjoying it in the way we wanted. It wouldn’t last once Sophia was older, but for now, I planned to enjoy every minute, especially until she awakened from her nap.

“I never meant to mislead you, Leigh,” Ian broke the silence.

“I know.” I raised my head to look into his eyes, and for once, I saw the vulnerability beneath his masculine bravado. Ian was tough, but he needed me as much as I needed him. “Your secret is safe with me. I promise.”

~Ian~

L
eigh forbade me to from telling Dani and Russ she was in the know, but I warned her Russ would be able to smell the change in her scent and know we had bonded.

“So? Bonding doesn’t mean you told me the truth about his furry side,” she pointed out. “Or your feathered one for that matter. Let me have a little fun with him.”

“True.”

Our friends visited us for lunch a couple days later. While they were around, we made Thanksgiving plans for a big dinner at my house to save my grandmother the obligation of attempting to cook. The women shuffled around the kitchen while Russ and I drank beers in front of the television and discussed plans for an upcoming trip to Israel.

“Food is ready. Here, give Sophia to me,” Leigh said.

“Nah, I got her, babe,” I said.

“How are you going to eat with her flailing her fists into your plate?” my wife demanded.

“I’ll manage,” I insisted. “It can’t be worse than trying to eat with Russ nearby while on a surveillance mission in the east.”

Leigh and Dani promptly burst into giggles. My squad mate’s betrayed look only added to our amusement.

“You think he’s a grump now when he’s hungry? You haven’t seen how scary he gets when he hasn’t had a full meal in a couple days,” I continued.

“Russ is such a teddy bear; I can’t imagine him being scary at all,” Leigh said.

Amidst her own giggles, Dani shot an affectionate look at Russ. She eased behind the couch and leaned over his shoulder to kiss his cheek. I didn’t realize Leigh’s pun was intentional until they continued during our lunchtime chatter.

“You ought to send Leigh over for firearms lessons, Ian.”

“Bear with me a second, Russ. Shooting lessons? Like me firing a real gun?”

“Hell yeah, why not? Dani shoots as well as some of the men I’ve seen in the military. I’d suggest for this guy to teach you, but he’s shit with a handgun anyway.”

“I am not,” I protested. “I just prefer a rifle.”

“What do you think, Ian?” Leigh turned to face me.

“I think it’s a good idea. Crime is sort of on the rise lately anyway, so it won’t do any harm for you to learn.”

“Hopefully, you can put a change to that once you get in office as sheriff,” Dani said.

“I haven’t won yet. The election isn’t for months.”

Both girls laughed as if my chance of losing the election was an impossibility. “Yeah, sure. You’ll win by a landslide, Ian. This town loves you and what your family’s done for it. Betty’s already got a sign in her yard,” Leigh said.

“Where the hell did she get a sign?” I asked.

“I kind of put it there yesterday when Sophia and I went to sit with her.” Leigh grinned. “It was her idea. We went out to the sign maker in town and had a couple dozen made up. We could
barely
contain our excitement.”

“Hey, Leigh, where did you get this?” Dani called from the kitchen.

Russ pulled me aside the moment Leigh left the room. They remained in the kitchen to ogle some of Leigh’s recent shopping discoveries.

“What’s with all the bear puns from her today, man? Am I paranoid and imagining it or does she know?”

“She knows,” I confessed. “She wouldn’t let me warn both of you.”

“Asshole. That little brat had me sweating bullets.” Russ playfully slugged me in the shoulder.

I grinned at him and took out my phone to check my messages. “They’re here. Thomas and Ceres are going to park their truck at the community center. They brought two ravens.”

“Aw shit. Are we going now?”

“Might as well get it done, don’t you think?”

“I guess so. Dani’s kind of grumpy with me anyway. Maybe an evening away will give her a chance to cool off.”

“Really? She seemed fine to me.”

“It comes and goes, man. Sometimes I wonder if all this shifter stuff is smothering her. Today she’s fine, but last night was just damned awful. Everything I did upset her.”

“Think a couple days away will help? Dani can have some space to relax if she’s feeling overwhelmed. Maybe it’s time to arrange for a weekend campout with Taylor and Juni soon,” I suggested.

“You know how Sasha feels when we leave her out,” Russ mentioned.

“Yeah, but...” I whistled. “Shit, I hate leaving her out, too, but she’s still sore over splitting with Taylor. I didn’t want to rub salt into a raw wound for either of them.”

“They’ll get over it. We’ll only make it worse if we keep trying to handle them separately.”

“You’re right. I’m a little weirded out that you’re being the sensible one, but you’re right.”

Russ slugged me in the arm. “Anyway, let’s go get our lunch.”

~Leigh~

The bite of a chilly afternoon wind whipped against my cheeks. As soon as the men had declared they were heading into the woods in their shifter forms, Dani and I spilled onto the patio deck with them. Maybe it should have been weird to see Russ stripping down in front of me, or even weirder for Ian to do it with another woman present, but nothing about their behavior seemed sexual.

“This isn’t awkward like I expected it to be,” Dani whispered.

“It’s for science,” I replied.

We nodded.

“We’ll be back for dinner,” Ian assured me. My husband handed off his clothes, which I folded after giving him a chaste kiss to his cheek.

“Why are you taking off naked into the woods?” I asked.

“Need to know info, hon,” Ian said.

“And I don’t need to know.”

“You got it.”

“Fine, fine. You two be careful then. Don’t, you know, get waylaid by some flirty lady eagle wanting to hatch chicks.”

“Never any fear of that.”

The transformations happened in a blink of an eye. One minute there were two smoking hot naked men on the porch, and the next second there were wild animals. Ian flapped his powerful wings and took to the air, showing off by soaring high then plummeting toward the ground like a feathered bullet. Even Russ in bear form seemed to roll his eyes.

Ian landed on the wooden patio railing and leaned close until I understood his silent request. I dipped down to smooch his beak; then a satisfied eagle flew away into the distance. After Russ trundled into the woods, we sighed and headed back into the kitchen.

“Movies with Sophia then?” I suggested.

With two mega-sized bowls of ice cream and a bag of popcorn to share between us, we settled in the living room with a romantic comedy. Sophia enjoyed tummy time on the floor at our feet, babbling at a plush patriotic designed eagle toy. She gummed on the soft beak and squished the blue wings in her chubby fists.