Roaring for Him (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Wicked in Wilder Book 1) (5 page)

Tilly reached across the counter and snatched the cookies back. “No perverting the cookies any further or you’ll never get another.”

“Bitch.”

“You know it.” She took a bite out of the vagina. Gah, Emma had gotten to her, too. “Anyway,” Tilly checked her watch, “I gotta go. I have a bridal appointment in fifteen minutes and then I get to go home and sleep.”

Wonderful sleep. She pushed herself Monday through Friday, pumping out pastries and desserts and Saturdays were her slow days. Apparently everyone wanted a pastry on the way to work or a cupcake on the way home, but weekends crawled. Which led to Sleep in Saturdays and Not Gonna See You Sundays.

“Ugh. Bridal appointments,” Emma groaned. “Call me if it needs to be Wine Night. But not Wine Night Turns Lesbian Fuckfest. We’re not in college anymore and my strap-on bro—”

“Anyway.” She wasn’t going there and redirected the conversation. “No hot date? What about…”

Emma snorted. “He knows how to get head, not give it.”

Not everyone in the world understood the acronym TMI. Emma was one of them. “Nice. Thanks for the over share.”

“Whatever.” Her friend rolled her eyes.

Shaking her head, Tilly turned away from the counter and headed for the front door. She really
did
have a wedding consult in fifteen minutes and despite the fact her bakery was only three shops down, she needed time to psych herself up for it. It was super hard to be around someone who was sugary sweet happy about an impending wedding when her own was nowhere on the horizon.

As soon as I ship Phee off to college, it’ll be all about me and finding Mr. Right. Or Mr. Good in the Sack until Mr. Right shows up.

For now, she was too afraid to focus on anything other than making sure her sister’s life stayed on the straight and narrow. Making sure she didn’t end up seventeen and pregnant like their mother had with Tilly.

Phoebe was
not
becoming a statistic.

“I’ll call you later!” Tilly waved over her shoulder.

“Wait!” Emma’s footsteps were light and fast over the carpet. “Don’t forget your panties!”

“Dude. That was a
joke
.”

Mostly. Ever since her phone-a-friend freak out, Emma had been trying to shove panties in her hands. Lacy ones, frilly ones, crotchless ones…

This time, she was successful because the friggin’ bag was already stuffed with tissue paper and probably held a good half-dozen bits of fabric. “Emma…”

“Seriously. Put them in your desk drawer if you want to, but if Mitchell Blake comes around again.” Or talked to her because the man had a voice like sin. “You might need them.”

“Fine,” Tilly grumbled. She hated when Emma was right.

Mainly because ever since meeting Mitchell in the bakery and then seeing
all
of him outside the pack house, she’d been able to do nothing but think about him. And change her panties. And then wonder where she could accidentally on purpose run into him. But she wasn’t desperate or anything. At all. She also didn’t wonder if he’d be a “kick outta bed” guy or a “tie him to the bed and never let him escape because OMG orgasms” kind of guy.

She should buy silver handcuffs to be on the safe side so when she captured him, he stayed captured.

No, bad Tilly. Bad.

Her cat purred back at her.
Good Tilly. Good.

It wasn’t bad enough she craved him, but her cat was all about rubbing on him as if he were the most concentrated, most wonderful catnip known to Catdom.

“Gimme the damn things,” she mock snarled at her BFF and tugged on the shop’s door, intent on escaping before Emma could…

“I made sure at least two pair are crotchless for easy access, but if you start getting hot and bothered, you should think about a preemptive panty swap so you don’t get your
Want-a-Man-Juice
on the furniture.”

And that was the moment Tilly stepped outside and crashed against the one man who made her
Want-a-Man-Juice
flow like a damned river. She didn’t care if the description was gross or not. It was fucking accurate. One look, one sound from him and it was over. Panties were officially a goner and her pussy clenched. Just looking into those blue, blue, goddamned blue eyes and she wanted him. Then he had to go and lick his lips.

Tilly’s cat was rolling all over the floor in her mind, baring her belly to the alpha wolf and simply begging for his touch. It ached to pounce and claim the man, but she was okay with letting him have his way the first round. They would lull him into a false sense of security and then attack before he realized he was their mate.

Nom. Nom. Nom. Wait, what the fuck? Mate?

The cat said yes and a tremble assailed her, the arousal she’d tried to suppress roared to life and overtook her in a heated wash of need. Mitchell’s nostrils flared, his eyes flashing amber as he stared at her and she coulda swore the big, bad wolf purred.

Like a cat.

But so fucking naughty.

The man should be outlawed.

“Tilly,” more purring of her name and he breathed deeply, absorbing the air surrounding them.

The air filled with the flavors of her desire as well as… his?

Oh, that had
her
beast purring because he wanted her, too. Or Emma. Emma was close by. She whipped her head around and glared at her best friend through the door’s glass. The lioness didn’t want the woman near the man she was determined to claim.

Tilly needed to get her bitch-kitty under control.
Now.
She fought to calm her racing heart, the thundering thud of the muscle feeling as if it’d burst out of her at any moment.

“How are you, Tilly?” He needed to not say her name. Ever. Because if he did, she was gonna come just from standing next to him and hearing his voice.

Bastard.

Delicious bastard.

“Um,” she cleared her throat. “Fine. Busy, but fine.”

“Hmm…” He smiled, a small tilting of his lips, and then his gaze flicked to the ground before meeting her eyes once again. “You dropped this.”

“Dropped wha—”

She didn’t get a chance to finish because he was suddenly crouching at her feet, large hands (which totally coincided with the size of his dick) reaching for the bag she’d been carrying. The one filled with tissue paper and panties. Tissue paper and panties now littering the ground.

He gathered it all and stuffed the contents back into the pristine bag. No, not all. He held onto a pair and dangled them from one finger. “Need these yet?”

She was ready to die now. Any second. Just open up a nice little sinkhole and let the earth swallow her. Why? Because Mitchell was a wolf, and like all shifters, had better hearing than humans. A lot better. Better enough for him to stand outside a shop and eavesdrop on a conversation about soaked panties without any effort. Sexy as fuck bastard.

She swallowed hard. “How long have you been out here?”

“Long enough.”

* * *

Long enough that my cock is rock fucking hard from thinking about you hot and wet for me.

Mitchell resisted the urge to say that aloud. For now. He’d tried to resist hunting her, had kept a lid on his need, his wolf’s craving, and went about life as if he’d never met her.

It hadn’t gone well. He’d been snapping and snarling at everyone, his anger blossoming at the drop of a hat, and his beta finally shoved him out of the pack house.

“Go find her and fuck her before I kick your ass.”

Kade didn’t realize that while fucking was at the top of Mitchell’s list, there were a few other things on there as well. Such as claiming. Fuck. Drinking in her scent, the mix of embarrassment and arousal had him aching to sink his fangs into her shoulder and claim her before someone else could.

Three days without her and his beast was going crazy. Gray fur constantly pressed against his skin, threatening to burst free and he knew that’d be a chain reaction even he—with all his strength—couldn’t suppress. His gums ached twenty-four/seven and his hands and nails throbbed with the press of the animal. It needed one crack in his control, one tiny sliver of weakness, and he would have shifted and hunted the curvy lioness.

He negotiated with the wolf, finally relenting and agreeing to hunt her as long as the beast agreed it was better to remain in human form. They couldn’t talk and touch, seduce the luscious Tilly, with fur.

Although, if she felt anything like what he was experiencing, he might be able to.

Her heart-shaped face was flushed, the bright color colliding with her red hair and the quick flash of gold in her eyes. So her cat was intrigued. Good. It made things easier.

She hadn’t snatched the black lace from his grasp and he took a moment to run the smooth fabric between his fingers. He imagined her wearing the bit of silk, hiding her pussy from his view. A growl built in his chest, images of the black against her pale skin assaulting him. He’d lick and taste her, run his fangs over her plump flesh, and then tear the covering from her body inch by inch.

Fuck. Now his cock was even harder, pushing against his jeans and demanding release. He’d never wanted a woman more, never ached like this. He’d asked Kade how he knew Darcy was his mate.

“When you can think of nothing but fucking her day in and day out, and your wolf threatens to kill you if you think of touching anyone but her… then she’s it.”

Darcy had smacked Kade upside the head for the crude explanation. Then she agreed with her mate, though Kade was quick to remind Mitchell that Tilly was different. Not different-bad, but she might not have the same overwhelming instincts as him since she was only a half-shifter, plus she wasn’t a wolf.

He ignored Darcy’s narrowed eyes and the spark of disgust at Tilly’s species. The female would have to get over it; Tilly was his.

Instead, he focused on Kade’s words, listening as his beta explained that Tilly had
emotions
. He couldn’t expect her to immediately hop into bed with him and start planning their pups.

Which was fine, he’d make plans for the both of ‘em and when she came to her senses, she could just give her seal of approval.

Ten-bedroom house…

Fifty acres…

Eight kids: four pups and four cubs. None of them girls. Ever.

Maybe nine kids. Their own baseball team. Though it depended on whether lions had multiple births. He knew wolves did, but—

“You… You can’t… Just…” She finally seemed to remember what he held and snatched the panties from his gentle grip. “Give me those.”

Mitchell grinned. He couldn’t help it. He liked her all flustered and sputtering. It was damned sexy.

“Need them already?” He raised a single brow. “We haven’t even started talking yet.”

She growled low and the sound went straight to his dick, wrapping around him and stroking his cock. Damn she was sexy. He knew he kept repeating the word, but she had curves in all the right places and a temper that definitely turned him on. “We’re not talking.”

“That’s a shame.”

Tilly took a deep breath, her breasts straining against her top with the inhale. The bakery’s logo was stretched across her chest, the
bless
covering one breast while
your
was over the other.

Bless me is right.

“You…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but—” She pressed a hand to her chest.

No, don’t cover them!

“I have an appointment in ten minutes. Thank you for, uh, picking up my purchase and—”

Mitchell leaned toward her, inhaling her scent. “It wasn’t a purchase though. Emma was concerned about you going around with wet panties and I have to agree that would be a travesty.” He lowered his voice, murmuring, and he had to bite back a smile when she trembled in reaction to his closeness. “You could just leave them off. No need to get this pretty lace all wet.”

Did she whimper? Hell yeah, she did. His dick throbbed in response to her sound, cock more than ready to sink into her, possess her. Fuck she was a hot little thing, all sweet and sin in one.

“Are you even speaking English? Do you always talk to women like this? Just random women? ‘Hey, are your panties wet? Leave them off!’ I mean, how many wet panty conversations do you have a day? Does that line even
work
?” She shook her head, frustration and disgust replacing the arousal she’d been feeling moments ago.

Dammit.

“Look, I’m sorry,” he was quick to backpedal. “I don’t normally act like this with anyone, you’re just—”

“I’m
special
?” She sneered the word and he decided that the rest of his apology could wait. Obviously something about what he’d said pissed her off and telling her that she
was
special wouldn’t help at this point.

Mitchell licked his lips and didn’t miss the fact she traced the movement with her eyes. She wanted him, she just didn’t
want
to want him. Because along with her bits of frustration and disgust, there also lived a good dose of fear. The tang burned his nose and annoyed the fuck outta his wolf. Actually, that was an understatement. The beast was ready to break free and handle this like wolves.

“Let’s try this again,” he spoke low, shooting for a calm tone. When her glare intensified, he realized she wasn’t falling for it. “I’m Mitchell Blake, your sister decorated my beta’s cookies with icing cum. You brought me new cookies. That was nice of you. As a thank you for going above and beyond the call of cupcakery duty, I thought I’d take you to dinner.”

Tilly sighed, hand dropping to her side and giving him a clear view of her cleavage once again. “I appreciate the invitation, but I have an appointment in,” she glanced at her watch. “Seven minutes.”

Mitchell shrugged. “So we’ll go after.”

She shook her head. Stubborn woman. He liked that about her. “No, I don’t know how long this consultation will take.”

“I don’t think it’ll take too long.”

Tilly snorted. He found that sexy as hell and knew there was something wrong with him. “It’s a bridal consult. While parents can whip out ideas for a birthday cake in minutes, usually monster trucks or princesses, brides take a little more time than that.”

“Really?”