Melted By The Lion: A Paranormal Lion Shifter Romance (12 page)

I wasn’t sure what my point was. I wasn’t sure what I wanted him to say or do in response. I just felt compelled to say what I had. And now, while Trevor’s amber-green eyes showed just the first tiny flicker of warmth I’d seen, I felt compelled to say something else.

“I’m not Rachel, Trevor.”

My words hung in the air for a few seconds that felt like hours while all the color drained from his face. The flicker of warmth disappeared from his eyes, too, but I wasn’t sorry for what I’d said. I’d
needed
to say it.

When Trevor finally spoke, it was in a low hiss that honestly sounded menacing.

“Don’t speak of her. Don’t you dare utter her name again.”

I swallowed, trying to muster the courage to say what I was going to say next. “I’m not Rachel. I’m not going to die.”

“I told you not—”

“If you can just
try
to open yourself up again, I promise I won’t die. I promise I won’t leave you hurting.”

Jaw clenched, Trevor suddenly took two long strides toward me, seeming to almost actually
charge
at me, closing the distance between us. “You listen to me.”

“I’m listening.”

I expected him to maybe launch into an angry speech about how I’d crossed the line. I expected him to maybe kick me out of his house. What I did not expect was for him to pull me close and lower his mouth to mine, soon kissing me with such an exquisite blend of passion, intensity, and tenderness that my knees felt like they might give way beneath me.

*

Soon, every stitch of our clothing was on the floor. In the dim light from a single small lamp on the desk, we raked our gazes over each other’s naked bodies, both of us panting.

Bridget had been right. Shifters became rock-hard almost immediately. Only a few moments after we’d begun kissing, I’d felt Trevor’s quite sizable manhood stiffening, becoming even larger. And now, fully erect, I could see just how large it was. It was at least seven or eight inches in length, and thick, too. All this heft and girth didn’t seem to weigh it down, though; it stood high and proud, almost flush with his well-defined abs. A sigh of desire escaped my mouth at the mere sight of it. I wanted it, wanted
Trevor
, wanted to feel him moving deep inside of me. Wanted to hear him whispering my name while he did so.

While the two of us feasted our eyes on each other’s nakedness, I wasn’t the only one making noises of desire. Surveying my breasts, Trevor’s breath seemed to hitch in his throat, and when he dropped his gaze a little lower, to the soft curve of my stomach and then even a little lower still, he exhaled in a low growl.

The sound intensified my desire, and I stepped closer to him, pressing my body against his, whimpering when I felt his hard length against my belly, where I’d developed a frustrating, dull ache.

“Trevor, I want you to make love to me. Please. I need you.”

He wrapped his strong arms around me, looking down into my eyes with his own eyes glinting with amber-green warmth. Just the kind of warmth I’d been desperate to see for so long. Warmth that told me exactly how he felt about me without him even needing to say a word.

“I’ve been dreaming about making love to you since the very moment I laid eyes on you in the hospital.”

I couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Even with my hair a snarly mess?”

“Especially with your hair a snarly mess. I found it charming that a beautiful woman like you didn’t seem too wrapped up in her looks, to the point that she hadn’t even brushed her hair. That was my first clue that you were different.”

Even in my state of arousal and urgent need, I still couldn’t help but tease him. “And what if my hair had not only been snarly, but dirty and buzzing with flies. Would you still have thought I was a good kind of ‘different,’ or would you have thought I was a bad kind of ‘different?’”

Trevor looked into my eyes with his own eyes twinkling. “Well, let’s just say there’s something to be said for basic hygiene.”

His deep voice had become incredible husky, and it was infused with the same kind of warmth that was seeming to make the amber flecks in his eyes almost glow. I was in heaven, all this warmth seeming to melt me into a state of complete relaxation. Soon, when Trevor moved his large hands to my rear, pulling me even tighter against his hardness, I became a little less relaxed, my need to feel him inside of me becoming urgent once again.

“Take me into bed now. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

With a low growl rumbling in his chest, he scooped me up and into his arms, as if he didn’t want to wait any longer, either. Kissing me the entire way, he slowly carried me over to my bed, then set me down gently, climbed in beside me, and resumed kissing me, our lips only having parted for mere seconds.

Presently, one of his hands moved from my hip to one of my breasts, and he circled my hardened nipple with a fingertip until I moaned into his mouth, wrapping a leg over his hips. Once he’d given my other breast the same treatment, he moved his hand lower and began stroking the now-throbbing little bud between my slick feminine folds. I moaned again while he plundered my mouth with his tongue, the sensation combined with the feel of his stroking fingers one of such intense pleasure that I actually became a bit dizzy.

Possibly intuiting that I wanted to reach my climax with him inside of me, which was definitely the case, Trevor soon broke our very lengthy kiss and paused in his stroking, searching my face in the dim light of the small lamp across the room.

“You’re beautiful, Savannah. Devastatingly so. Almost maddeningly so. But not just your face and body, your heart is beautiful, too. Every single thing about you is beautiful.”

Heart soaring, I looked into his eyes. “Promise me that tomorrow, you’ll still feel the same way. You’ll still think I’m beautiful, and you won’t regret saying those words to me.”

“I won’t; I promise.”

With that, he rolled onto his back, pulling me on top of him. With my long hair spilling over my shoulder, I moaned, reveling in the feel of his hardness between my legs and thinking that he’d soon be sliding it into my slick depths. But instead, surprising me, he gripped my hips, lifting me up and off of him, then positioned the head of his thick shaft at my entrance with his breathing fast and ragged. It was as if I was suspended, sitting in some low, invisible chair, with my feet on either side of his hips, and the very tip of his manhood nudging its way inside of me.

I spoke in a near-unintelligible breathy whisper. “Yes. Please, Trevor, now. I want you to fill me. Please.”

Immediately, he did just that, lifting his hips off the bed to slowly drive his rock-hard pole deep inside of me. I cried out, throwing my head back, the sensation of being held aloft, yet filled from beneath, one of such unusual and intense pleasure that I came awfully close to reaching my peak right then.

My pleasure continued as Trevor began thrusting his hips, feet on the bed and knees bent. Still being held in a position similar to sitting in a chair, with him holding my hips, I marveled at his shifter strength, moaning out my appreciation.

With him doing all the work, my hands were free to roam, and somehow they wound up cupping and kneading my breasts, the action drawing Trevor’s gaze up from where he’d been watching our bodies joining. With a groan, he began thrusting upward faster, soon grunting with every movement, hands tightening on my hips.

Within a short while, I could tell that his pleasure was rapidly peaking, which was perfect, because mine was as well. When he began thrusting his long, thick pole the deepest inside of me he had yet, I couldn’t hold back any longer. With a loud cry, I seemed to tumble into a sea of pure rapture, wave after wave of ecstasy crashing over me, one right after the other, while my most intimate muscles repeatedly clenched around Trevor’s shaft. This brought him to his own peak of pleasure, and he filled me with his masculine essence, growling, the sound tapering off into a hoarse whisper of my name.

I finally connected with the phrase “mind-blowing orgasm.” It finally resonated with me.

Once both of our releases were complete, Trevor pulled me into his arms and just held me tightly, cradling my face to his chest, while our breathing slowed.

After a minute or two, he spoke near my ear in a husky whisper. “I want to hold you through the night.”

“Nothing would make me happier.”

“I want to make you happy in every possible way.”

What he’d just said had actually made me happier than I’d ever dreamed I could be. Wrapped in the strength and safety of his arms, I soon fell asleep, smiling.

***

The next morning, I woke up around eight, still smiling. Even once I realized Trevor was no longer in bed with me, holding me, I still couldn’t wipe what I was sure was a goofy grin off my face. I was still happy, knowing he’d likely had to leave shortly after dawn to lead his pride on patrol, but sure that there would be other nights when I’d get to fall asleep in his arms. I had a feeling that the previous night had only been the beginning.

After hearing a few urgent-sounding barks, I soon took Rascal and another dog I’d rescued, an emaciated chihuahua I’d named Buddy, out to the backyard to use the restroom. Once back in the house, we ran into Jeannie, who’d come from the west staff quarters, dressed in her maid’s uniform, ready to start her workday. She smiled and wished me good morning, then asked if I’d enjoyed having Veronica out of the house for the night.

I smiled in return, face heating up a bit while I recalled just exactly how much I’d enjoyed it. “Yeah. It was nice.”

Jeannie smiled again, this time with a little twinkle in her eyes. “Good.”

After a stop in the kitchen to grab a mug of coffee, I decided to get back in bed for a while before eating breakfast and showering. I didn’t know why, but I just felt like being lazy. Maybe a little part of me just wanted to enjoy being in the bed that Trevor and I had shared just a bit longer.

While Rascal and Buddy played on the sunlit floor, both of them jockeying to get to wrestle with a stuffed animal frog with a squeaker inside, a toy they both loved, I sat up in bed, watching them and sipping my coffee. Periodically, I broke into a grin, and not just because their antics were cute. My grins seemed to be brought on by a feeling of lightness in my chest that I’d never felt before. Trevor had admitted that he wanted to make me happy in every possible way. Though I wasn’t sure what was ultimately going to happen between the two of us, or between him and Veronica, what he’d said was enough for me right then. I had a feeling that the worst was behind us. The walls around his heart had finally come down, and now I knew, without a doubt, that he cared for me, and deeply.

Once I’d finished my coffee, I snuggled back down under the covers, finding a part of the blanket that still held Trevor’s masculine, woodsy scent. I held this part to my nose, breathing in deep, having no way of knowing that by the end of the day, my new-found happiness with Trevor would be shattered. Having no way of knowing that by the end of the day, I’d be running from him, terrified.

CHAPTER NINE

After spending nearly all morning curled up in bed with the part of the blanket that still held Trevor’s scent, I finally got up, showered, dressed, and took Rascal and Buddy on a walk around the mansion grounds. They’d both just urinated at the base of the weeping willow in the side yard, the tree Veronica planned to rock her and Trevor’s babies to sleep under, when she herself arrived back home, chauffeured by Gerald. Once parked and out of the truck, he grabbed a pair of crutches from the truck bed, gave them to her, and helped her out, his expression somehow striking me as one of relief, maybe at having completed his task of transporting Veronica home from the hospital. I was pretty sure it hadn’t been a pleasant one. Left ankle wrapped in a bandage, she immediately came hobbling over to Rascal, Buddy, and me, glowering at all three of us the whole time.

Because Rascal and Buddy were both proving to be indiscriminately friendly with every single person they came across, I held their leashes, not quite sure if I wanted them to go bounding over to Veronica. I was half-afraid she might try to bat them away with a crutch or something, hurting them. I shouldn’t have worried, though. Neither of them showed the slightest interest in doing any happy, boisterous bounding over to her, or even doing a single yip of greeting.

By the time she reached us, her big blue eyes were like slits, and focused solely on me.

“Look. You may have been able to lay me up in the hospital for the night, but—”

“Right. Like I threw you in the air and launched you into your ill-fated split leap, or like I grabbed you by the hair and banged your head—”

“But I will not allow you to let those
things
use Trevor’s and my sacred baby-rocking tree as an outhouse. That’s where I’m going to rock Trevor’s first heir, the future commander-in-chief of this nation, to sleep every night, and you allowing a dog and a whatever that rat creature thing is—to pee on this spot, is the absolute height of disrespect. It’s as if you’re literally allowing them to pee directly on Trevor’s handsome face, and also on the face of our firstborn son, who will be equally as handsome. And equally as powerful as Trevor, too.”

I scoffed, releasing the dogs’ leashes since they were both calmly sitting near my feet, eying Veronica, as if they just knew they were being talked about. “First, I’m glad you at least acknowledged that Rascal is a
dog
, and not a
thing
. Buddy isn’t a ‘rat creature,’ though. He’s a teacup chihuahua made even tinier by malnutrition, and he just needs a few more good meals to make him look a little more dog-like.”

Just then, Buddy barked a few times, looking right at Veronica, as if he wanted to impress upon her that he really was a dog.

“Second, I don’t think Trevor would see things the same way you do. I don’t think he’d interpret dogs using the restroom in the yard as quite the same thing as allowing them to literally pee on his face.”

“But what about his future son’s—”

“
Or
on his future son’s face, either.”

Leaning on her crutches, Veronica just glared at me for a moment. “Well, just the same, I think I’m going to have to tell Trevor about this.”

I stifled a chuckle. “Go right ahead. I think you’ll be disappointed by his response, though. He’ll probably just tell you to mind your own business and never mind what I’m doing, as long as it’s something that makes me happy.” Pausing, I took a little step closer to her. “See, last night, when we were spending some very quality time together, Trevor told me that he wants to make me ‘happy in every possible way.’”

Even before I’d said it, I’d known my comment would surely be hurtful to Veronica. But she was one of two people, the other being Trevor, that I seemed to have real difficulty controlling my mouth around.

“And I’m just guessing that includes making me happy by letting my dogs use the restroom in his yard.”

With her glowering mask now having been replaced by an expression of clear surprise and pain, Veronica didn’t respond at first. But after a moment or two, her scowl returned, and she practically spat her next words at me.

“You seriously expect me to believe that you and Trevor spent the night together last night?”

With a quiet little woof, Rascal whipped his face from Veronica to me, as if eagerly awaiting my response.

I shrugged, trying not to be gleeful about Veronica’s obvious surprise and envy, though with only partial success. “You can believe what you want, but just know that it happened. Trevor and I spent the night together, and he wants me to be happy in every possible way.” Realizing something, I paused. “As evidenced by the fact that he designed and built me an animal shelter, even before we’d slept together. Remember that?”

Nostrils flaring, Veronica clenched her jaw, though her eyes radiated more pain than anger.

I fully realized I was being hurtful, and I was even beginning to feel slightly out-of-control by saying what I was, and saying it
how
I was. An unmistakable hint of venom had crept into my voice, just enough of a hint to make me feel ashamed. Venom was Veronica’s department, not mine. Regardless of how she pushed my buttons, I knew I should at least be mature enough to keep my reactions to her in check, but clearly I hadn’t this time.

So, I said sorry, trying to convey my sincerity, though at the same time, kind of having to force myself to get the word out. “I really don’t mean to be hurtful and nasty about all this.”

Straightening up from leaning on her crutches, she scoffed, expression one of total disbelief and contempt. “Sure, you don’t mean to be hurtful and nasty. Don’t pretend that you don’t just love it. Don’t pretend that you’re not just absolutely reveling in every single second of rubbing my face in the fact that you and Trevor—”

“How about breakfast?” After taking a few garden tools out of his truck bed and giving them to a staff groundskeeper in the opposite side yard, Gerald had followed Veronica over, and he now stood next to her, eying her warily. “Didn’t you say something about wanting pancakes, Miss Alexander? Blueberry, was it? With exactly ten berries in each one?”

Surprising me, a strange look flickered across Veronica’s face for just a second. It was there and gone so quickly that I couldn’t be sure, but it had seemed to be a look of shame, like how I myself had been feeling just a minute earlier. Or maybe it had been embarrassment, equally as baffling. I wasn’t quite sure why her face should be reflecting either shame or embarrassment, if it really had, since obviously, she
liked
ordering people around with her exasperating food requests.

But then she just began hobbling off to the house, small chin in the air, haughty as ever. “I expect to be served in the formal dining room, Gerald, and I expect to be served very soon.”

Once she was out of hearing distance, he gave his eyes a slight roll, a funny look for an older, dignified-looking man with graying hair. “On the double, Miss Alexander.
Right
away.”

He went to follow her into the house, and at the same time, my phone went off. It was Trevor calling. Stomach doing a little flip just from me seeing his name on my phone’s screen, I answered, and my stomach soon did another little flip when I heard him say good morning. His deep, rich voice seemed to travel all the way through my body, from my ear to my toes, like some sort of an electric current. Now that he and I were “close,” as Bridget would put it, it was the kind of voice I definitely could get used to hearing on a daily basis, maybe even for the rest of my life.

But after I’d said good morning in return, Trevor spoke again, and his voice now held an unmistakable edge of seriousness that immediately pulled me out of my reverie and vaguely alarmed me, if
alarmed
was even the right word. That might have been too strong. It was an edge of seriousness that definitely got my attention, at any rate.

“I don’t have a lot of time, but I called because I just want to tell you something.”

While the dogs played at my feet, I tried to sound as non-alarmed as possible. “Sure. Go ahead.”

I wasn’t quite sure why his serious tone should alarm me exactly, on any level, since he could be wanting to talk seriously about any number of things. But I realized that deep down, there was maybe just a very small, insecure part of me that was afraid he was going to say that the previous night had been a mistake, and he wanted to go back to sleeping with Veronica only.

“Savannah, I—”

The way he said my name, tenderly and gently, even in the midst of his seriousness, instantly convinced me that I was being insane. He wasn’t going to say what a dark, insecure little corner of my heart had feared he might. What we’d shared the night before hadn’t been any kind of a mistake to him. I knew it.

But before he could say what his real reason was for calling, he went quiet for a few seconds, then swore. “I’m so sorry. I’ve got to go. Talk later.”

I said goodbye with regret, intensely curious to know what he’d been going to tell me, but at least certain that it hadn’t been the thought that had flickered through my mind.

A few hours later, knowing how much trouble the Renards had been causing lately, and guessing that Trevor might not be home until dinnertime, if even then, I decided to head out into the forest to find more skinny “wild” animals to bring to the shelter. Jeannie and I, along with Margaret, who was one of the other house maids, had already brought most of the cats to their temporary new home, where they were being settled in by Dr. Ericson, the town vet. Earlier, he’d received a phone call from Trevor, asking for his help, and he said he was happy to give it and start working part-time at the shelter.

In addition to Rascal, I’d decided to keep Snowball and Buddy with me in the animal wing of the house, at least for a little while. I considered
all
the animals I’d taken in as special and precious, but these two, along with Rascal, of course, had become especially special and precious to me for some reason, and I just felt like I wanted to keep them close until I could place them in their forever homes.

After lunch, I’d called Bridget to see if she wanted to go get more animals from the forest with me and deliver them to the shelter, but she said she wasn’t feeling the greatest, just a little woozy and tired or something, so she was going to sit this animal rescue mission out. I’d miss her company, I knew, but as well as I knew the forestland by now, I really didn’t mind having to go it alone. The only downside would be that I’d be limited by how many cats I could carry by myself, and how many dogs would follow me. Though with as hungry as the forest animals were, usually I had no problem getting a group on my heels once they knew I had food.

The sun was high in the sky when I set out down the narrow dirt track heading south, to the area the animals stuck close to, which they did probably on account of a nearby stream providing a fresh water source. As I always did, I had with me a large, canvas shoulder-strap bag that I’d lined with ultra-soft faux lambswool, to transport baby kittens in, if I found any. In the pockets of the bag, I’d stuffed as much dry cat and dog food as would fit, and a bottle of water for myself.

On this day, though, I didn’t even get a chance to lure out any shy, hungry forest animals with food. I didn’t even make it to the area where most of them hung out. I couldn’t have been more than two or three hundred paces down the trail when a tiny sand-colored chihuahua, just a shade or two lighter than Buddy, came tearing down the trail, heading straight at me. Bridget and I had seen glimpses of other chihuahuas in the forest, probably brothers and sisters of Buddy, we assumed, but they all seemed shy and skittish, darting away when we saw them, and only creeping out for food we left them once we started to leave.

This “Buddy” was scrawnier than Buddy, which I wouldn’t have even thought was possible, and with dirty fur, and mud covering its legs up to its little tummy, it really did look like some sort of poor, bedraggled ‘rat creature.’ To make matters worse, it was injured, too, with what appeared to be fresh blood matting the fur on the top of its tiny little head, which was somewhere between the size of an egg and an apple.

Just the sight of this miniature, hurt little guy or girl made me feel as if I’d been stabbed in the heart. I instantly knelt in the middle of the path, intending to hopefully pick up the poor creature and whisk it away to safety and medical care, but it slammed on its brakes long before it reached me, maybe ten feet or so away.

“Oh, it’s okay, sweetheart. I’m a friend. I want to help you.”

The muddy, bloody little angel took a few tiny, shuffling steps backward, as if it wasn’t quite convinced of what I’d said, and didn’t want to even try going around me.

As slowly, gently, and non-threateningly as possible, I reached in one of the pockets of my bag, grabbed a handful of dog food, and held it out to the poor sweetheart. “Here, angel. I bet you’re hungry.”

It eyed the contents of my hand with immediate interest, shiny brown eyes widening, but still made no move of coming nearer.

“It’s okay, sweetie. I won’t hurt you. I just want to give you a little food.”

After a long pause, it slowly advanced a few feet, gaze going from my face to the food.

“That’s right, little lovey. Come get something to eat.”