Sassy Ever After: Wise Sass Mates (Kindle Worlds Novella) (2 page)

I
an Anderson slid
out of his wolf and into his human form. He did it quickly and without ceremony, afraid that if he took his time he would lose his nerve.

After all, this was Bianca Silver - the young woman who had stolen his heart.

He’d known it from the moment he’d seen her on his first day at Blue Creek High School. He stared at her, mesmerized, and she had blinked back at him with eyes as green as the forest and parted lips as pink as the sun at dawn.

She was ten years younger than he, and still in the bloom of innocence. He would have died rather than touch her.

But he knew to his bones that this was his mate.

And she knew it too, he could tell by the way her eyes searched the halls for him in the days and months that followed, no matter how he distanced himself. He could tell by the perfect way she’d held herself erect when he’d whispered into her hair that afternoon so long ago, when he hadn’t been able to bottle up his love for her.

These last ten years he had waited patiently, knowing that their time would come when she was ready.

He’d hoped to learn about her hopes and dreams, and share her secrets over nice dinners and romantic walks before taking her and marking her with his bite.

But, damn it, she’d turned up at a Scenting Ceremony. How had that happened?

Even if he managed to resist her, there was no way he was risking someone else marking her.

No. There would be time for wine and roses later.

There would be the rest of their lives.

Tonight, they would release the pent-up need of ten years’ worth of longing.

B
ianca knelt
on the forest floor, trembling in the presence of the only man who’d ever made her heart beat so fast she could barely breathe.

Ian Anderson stood before her, naked, moonlight accentuating his rigid abs and playing off the highlights in his hair. She never would have guessed he had a body like that. He’d always dressed like an English professor. Even in her wildest fantasies, he was built like a normal guy, with the tall, lean frame she’d expected under those tweedy jackets.

But however achingly beautiful his body, it was his eyes that held her captive.

That unusual golden color made sense now. He was a shifter.

“Bianca, why are you here?” he asked, his jaw clenched.

“I-I got an invitation,” she stammered.

“Don’t play games with me, little girl,” he said darkly.

“I’m not a little girl,” she retorted immediately, though she could practically hear herself stomping her proverbial foot as she said it.

“No, you’re not,” he said with a wicked half-smile.

He stepped closer.

“What are you doing?” she asked, drawing back, and suddenly feeling suspicious. He could be planning to eat her alive for all she knew. He obviously wasn’t here for the perfume party.

“I’m going to make love to you, Bianca Silver, just like you’ve wanted from the first time you saw me,” he said, without breaking eye contact.

Bianca’s whole body went weak with lust.

This was a dream. It had to be. There was no other explanation.

Before she could figure it out, he was kneeling in the grass with her.

He reached out and stroked her cheek.

She felt it to the tips of her toes.

Bianca leaned into his touch as he leaned forward to brush her forehead with his lips - a chaste kiss, but fraught with meaning.

She heard a sound and realized it was her own quiet moan.

Mortified, she looked down at the ground, her cheeks burning.

“No, my darling, don’t be ashamed. This is why we’re here. We need each other, so desperately. Let me solace you,” he crooned, sliding his hands up and down her arms, stroking her gently.

His touch was so intoxicating she could hardly understand his words. Bianca reached for him, winding her arms around his neck, pressing her body to his, praying that she wouldn’t wake up before it was done, that she would never wake up again.

He groaned and wrapped his arms around her, holding her, crushing her against him, nuzzling his nose in her hair as if to breathe her in.

She could feel the steel of his erection through her clothes.

Her whole body melted in response, warm moisture pooling, readying herself to receive him. Though her mind was astonished and more than a little frightened at his size.

His hands clutched at her back, as if he were afraid of his own passion.

Bianca slid a hand up to caress his face. The rough shadow on his jaw abraded her skin slightly and all she could imagine was how it might feel against her breasts, her thighs.

He growled as if he could read her mind, and then, at last he drew back, gazed into her eyes, and leaned forward to kiss her.

His lips were firm and warm.

Then he tightened one hand on her hip, and cupped her face with the other, thumbing her jaw, coaxing her mouth open for him.

The taste of his tongue was exquisite, and his technique was admirable, but it was his focus that unarmed her.

Bianca had kissed a handful of guys, but this kiss eclipsed them all to the point that she could hardly call the others kisses in comparison.

Ian Anderson kissed her like there was no tomorrow, like there was nothing else in the world.

He kissed her with his whole heart, like he didn’t even care if he ever got in her pants.

Which was just fine with Bianca. He didn’t have to convince her. If he wanted in her pants, all he had to do was keep kissing her like that.

Suddenly he froze.

Bianca nearly cried in frustration.

But then she heard it too, rustling in the trees nearby.

The next thing she knew, he was on his feet, crouching over her protectively and growling, his golden eyes blazing like twin fires.

Bianca looked around. At last she spotted two more bright eyes off in the trees. Fixed on her.

She looked to Ian and he let out another terrifying roar, a little silver began to show itself in his thickening hair.

The stranger’s eyes studied her for one last moment, then disappeared into the woods.

“Ian, was that… are you okay?” she asked.

He looked down at her, his eyes still wild, his nostrils slightly flared.

“Mine,” he growled. “You’re mine.”

Bianca felt warm to her core.

“
Say it
,” he demanded.

“I’m yours,” she said immediately.

“Good girl,” a hint of the roughness had left his voice. “Lie down for me.”

She lay back, ready to do whatever he said, so long as he assuaged the pounding need he had provoked in her.

The ground was cool beneath her back, but the heat radiating from him was enough to keep her warm.

He sat beside her, and extended his hand to slowly pop open the buttons of her sweater dress. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Bianca felt the night air against her chest.

She had always been shy about her round belly, and seeing his washboard abs made her want to hide under a rock. She looked away, bracing herself for judgment.

“Oh,” he sighed.

She looked up in spite of herself.

His eyes were smoldering.

He leaned down and brushed the tops of her breasts with his lips.

Bianca arched her back wantonly and he growled, sliding his fingers beneath the front clasp of her bra and releasing it.

He leaned back to look at her again.

This time she felt an airy confidence she hadn’t before.

Her nipples stiffened under his gaze.

He leaned in and sucked one into his mouth.

The pleasure was so acute it was almost painful.

She cried out and he growled against her breast, then began to nip and suckle, rolling her other nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

Bianca let her head fall back against the ground and closed her eyes, trying to absorb the sensations.

She didn’t open her eyes when his warm mouth trailed kisses down her navel, across her hips.

When he reached the part of her that craved him the most terribly, she felt suddenly shy, and pressed her legs together.

He growled with frustration and nuzzled her thighs with his rough cheeks, the friction just as delicious as she imagined it.

Bianca sighed and relaxed.

Ian groaned his approval as she allowed him access. He slid her panties off, and pushed her thighs apart gently.

She waited, holding her breath.

Then his tongue was tracing the seam of her already pouting opening.

Bianca cried out, and he traced the same line again, maddening her with his teasing touch.

He moaned, the vibration tormenting her, and slowly licked her again and again, never penetrating, never reaching up to caress the stiffening bud that so desperately needed his attention.

She could feel her body opening for him, begging for more contact.

When her restraint gave out and she tilted her hips up, whimpering, he groaned against her again and finally dragged his tongue up over her clit, lavishing it with loving strokes.

“Oh,” Bianca whimpered.

He pressed a long finger against her without penetrating, and sucked lightly on her clit.

Bianca saw stars as she came apart on his tongue, losing track of her own sounds in the rush of unbearable ecstasy.

She had barely recovered when he grabbed her roughly, rolling her over on her hands and knees.

An animal side of her - one she had never realized she possessed - seemed to take over. Her heart beat faster and she knew somehow it was in tandem with his.

She looked over her shoulder at him, arching her back, exposing her sex to him, inviting him.

His eyes were glazed with desire, his expression a cross between fury and wonder.

“You. Are. Mine,” he told her.

“Yours,” she agreed, lifting her ass to encourage him.

With a wild cry, he grasped her hips and pressed himself against her.

Bianca closed her eyes and braced for the pain. It had been a long time. And Ian was so big, so impossibly big.

She felt him part her, the hot tip of him exquisite against her throbbing flesh.

She couldn’t resist looking back at him.

His jaw rippled with the strain of taking her slowly.

“Please,” she whispered, “please, I need you.”

She saw in his eyes the exact moment when his need overtook his caution.

Suddenly he was thrusting into her, his cock so prodigious she thought he would split her in half, the friction so delicious she thought she might die if he stopped.

The angle pressed him against a place inside Bianca that made her toes curl. She found herself jogging upward to meet his mad thrusts, impossibly chasing her second climax.

“Oh, god, you wild girl,” he praised her, his fingers tightening on her hips as he swelled even larger inside her. “Beautiful, wild woman.”

Bianca gasped in surprise when she felt his hand slide around her to press against her clit.

She came again immediately in a series of ecstatic spasms, clamping down on him with each one, as he exploded inside her, flooding her with the evidence of his passion.

When he bit down hard on the place where her neck met her shoulder, the pain only intensified her pleasure.

B
ianca awoke feeling oddly exhilarated
. But it was so cold…

She opened her eyes and saw stars above her head.

What the heck?

The evening’s events came back to her in a rush.

No, it must have been a dream.

She sat up quickly.

Beside her, Mr. Anderson slept peacefully. Ian - at this point, it was probably safe to drop the formalities.

He looked like an angel, the moonlight dancing in his hair, a half smile softening his usually serious features.

He was naked, and his body was just as she remembered it from earlier - he looked like a Calvin Klein model, not a teacher.

Bianca was drawn to him. She longed to wake him with kisses, press herself against him, watch his golden eyes open and light on her.

She was also overcome with gut-wrenching humiliation.

If she had learned one thing from all her reading, it was that if a man liked a woman, he didn’t begin by having sex with her in the middle of a forest a hundred yards from a social event.

However she might have felt about Ian Anderson, no matter how she’d put him on a pedestal of virtue and respect in her mind, the proof was in the pudding. When he’d finally acknowledged their attraction, it hadn’t been to ask her out. He’d taken what he wanted, and she’d lacked the willpower to deny him.

The memory of what they’d done sent shivers through her, and she found herself rubbing her neck, which was a bit sore. Aside from that minor detail, the rest of her felt absolutely fantastic.

No, Bianca, don’t even think about doing it again. Bad enough you didn’t have the self-control to tell him no the first time.

Bianca grabbed her clothes, slipping the dress on and shoving her underwear and bra in her pocket book.

She fumbled with the buttons on the dress as she slipped away between the trees, denying herself even one last look at her would-be Romeo.

Once she was at a safe distance, she pulled out her phone to light the path back to the car, noting when she swiped the screen that it was almost one o’clock in the morning. How had she let this happen?

A few minutes later, Bianca found her ancient gray Saab right where she’d left it. She glanced around furtively, hoping she wouldn’t be spotted by some weirdo out for a midnight jog. When she was sure the coast was clear, she slipped behind the wheel and tried to clear her mind. She drove back to her apartment the pretty way, cruising slowly through the nicer part of town, with the tall trees and the big Georgian houses.

Around the curve of the most picturesque street was a welcome distraction, the community library, which housed the Blue Creek Historical files. Those files were the reason she and her friends, Addison and Mei, were spending their final semester in Blue Creek.

Bianca had been over to check them out earlier in the day. For whatever reason, that had been quite the process. She had been required to register for a key to enter the Historical Files room, and when she’d wanted to bring a stack of files home with her, she’d been asked to fill out a form and let Dr. Flavia, the head librarian, look over the files first.

Bianca probably wouldn’t make a habit of borrowing anything else. Besides, as of tomorrow, Addison and Mei would be there with her, so she’d be happy to stay at the library to work. After what happened with Ian Anderson, she might never leave the library again.

Her apartment was nearby in the little downtown area. She pulled up in front of the Victorian twin, dragged the bin of files out of the backseat, and lugged it up the two flights of narrow stairs to her apartment.

The third story walk-up was tiny but perfect. And the best part was that she had no roommates to leave dishes and papers and soccer cleats all over it.

Bianca was a bit of a neat freak. In spite of Addison’s teasing, she believed in the old adage, that an orderly house meant an orderly mind. Her grandmother had always said so, and she adored her grandmother.

So when she opened the door to her apartment to find it trashed, she understandably screamed and dropped the bin of files in the hallway - which her addled brain recognized immediately as adding to the mess.

She stepped inside.

It was like a train wreck. Unable to look away, Bianca took in the over-turned furniture she’d just bought at IKEA, the prints ripped off the walls, the broken dishes all over the floor of the kitchenette.

Heedlessly, she stepped down the short hallway, passing the bathroom to check out her bedroom.

Bianca didn’t have a lot of clothes but she was pretty sure
all
of them were spread across the floor, the dresser drawers were on the floor too, and even the sheets were ripped off the bed.

Before she could think of what to do next, she heard footsteps behind her.

No. No, no, no, no, no…

Bianca realized immediately that she shouldn’t have come inside. And she
definitely
should have called the police.

But it was too late now.

Before she could turn, the intruder was grabbing her arm.

That was when her Aikido training kicked in.

Bianca had taken Aikido to help with weight loss. And while she hadn’t lost an ounce, it did help her manage the stress of school and hopefully, now that someone was actually attacking her, it was going to help in a real world emergency.

Swiftly, she pushed against the invader’s body instead of pulling away as he expected her to do. Then she ducked under his arm, and spun around briskly.

There was a terrible instant when she wasn’t sure if it would work. But sure enough, he flipped right over and she let go of his hand before he hit the ground, perfectly restoring his
ki
to harmony.

She knew her instructor would have been proud, and she kind of wanted to celebrate, but she wasn’t sure what the guy might do next. Instead, she screamed like she was on fire and dashed out of the apartment, clattered down the stairs and arrived on the porch, sliding her cell out of her pocket and calling 9-1-1 as she ran.

She heard the bang of the back window and then someone crashing down the fire escape, knocking down her tomato plants in the process. Whoever had grabbed her was getting away, but Bianca knew better than to chase trouble.