Seducing Samantha (6 page)

“You’re mine, Sam,” he growled.

“Yes, Aaron, yours,” she panted.

He fell to his back with a groan and pulled her over onto his chest.  She sprawled across him as they both caught their breaths.  She shivered every now and then, as if she was reliving the pleasure.  He stroked his hands across her sweat-slicked back and hugged her.  “You’re so wonderful, Sam, my beautiful sweetheart.”

“You’re wonderful, too,” she said as she lifted her head up and smiled at him, her face flushed with passion and her eyes bright.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?  I was feeling a little primal at the end.”

“No, you didn’t, and I loved it.”

He wanted to say something romantic or poignant, but all he could think about was how incredible it had felt to make love to her, and how right it felt.  But instead of sweet, heartfelt words, his stomach took that moment to growl loudly.  She started to giggle.

“I guess you worked up an appetite,” she teased, climbing off the bed.

“Do you want some help?” he asked as she walked out of the room.

“Nope,” she called.  He sat up, arranging the pillows on the bed so he could sit up against the wood headboard.  He took the opportunity to look around the bedroom.  His eyes adjusted to the electric candles, and he saw a long dresser with a jewelry box and a few framed pictures, a rocking chair in one corner with a quilt draped over one arm, and the nightstand that held a lamp and an iPod docking station.

She came into the room holding the pizza box in one hand, with a bottle of wine under one arm and two wineglasses and napkins in the other hand.  He jumped off the bed and took the pizza from her and set it on the bed.

When they sat next to each other on the bed and began to eat, she told him about herself.  There were things that Grant had shared with him — that she’d been divorced for two years and her ex was now the acting principal of the Ashland school, that she was very close to her parents who lived in Indianapolis, and that she was an only child.  But then her voice grew sad as she told him about her childhood illness that robbed her of the ability to have children, and how her ex-husband had decided that her inability to have children was a deal breaker and had already moved on to another, younger woman who was pregnant with his child.

He listened quietly as she opened her wounded soul up to him and showed him all her scars.  His anger grew by slow degrees, and he wanted to find her ex and beat him within an inch of his life for treating Sam so badly.  She was a beautiful, passionate, incredible woman, who was of more value than her ability, or lack thereof, to have children, and any real man with half a brain would know that.  Aaron didn’t think very much of the acting principal, and he doubted he’d be able to hold his tongue, or his fists, if he saw the man in person.

She looked at him plaintively, and although she didn’t say anything, he could read her face loud and clear.  She was afraid he would leave because of that.

He put his wine glass on the nightstand with hers and pulled her into his lap.  He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and tipped her chin up until she looked at him.  “I like you, Sam.  I want to be with you.  Your past doesn’t matter to me, and neither does you being unable to have kids.  I can tell you feel like you’re not of value because of that, but you’re so wrong.  You could sprout green wings and a tail twice a week, and I’d still want to be right here.”

“Really?”  She sniffled slightly and smiled in a small way.

“Really,” he nodded.  “I know this is all new to you, being mates to lions, and in all honesty, it’s new to Grant and me, too, but we’ll figure it all out together.  All I care about, sweetheart, is that you’re here with me now, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“I like you, too, Aaron.”  She kissed him and sighed happily.  While they finished eating, he told her about his boys and being a police officer in a small town and growing up in an entirely male household.

She listened attentively and asked questions here and there.  When she taught in Indianapolis, she had some werewolves in her class, and one of the science teachers was a wolf, but she hadn’t known much about them personally or what their lives were like.

She finished her second piece of pizza and her first glass of wine and leaned back on the bed with her legs draped across his lap and stretched.  Impulsively, he reached for his phone after tossing the crust into the now empty pizza box.

“Who are you calling?”  She rubbed her belly with a contented sigh, and he grinned.

“Grant.”

“Really?”

“Unless you don’t want me to?”  He paused before pushing
send
.

She sat up slowly and reached for his hand.  “Are you really okay with all of this?”

“I could ask you the same thing.  Because I
am
okay with this, sweetheart, but I’m a lion, and I’m used to weird things I can’t exactly explain.  I know for sure that I want you, and I can also feel that you’re connected to Grant, too.  I thought it would make me jealous, a part of me is a little jealous that I can’t have you all to myself, but I know it wouldn’t be right without him, too.”

She looked amazed.  “I’m so glad we had this time alone together, Aaron, but you’re right.  It’s like there’s something missing.”

“There is, baby.  Your other mate.”

The conversation with his brother was quick, and when Aaron ended the call, he and Sam cleaned up and waited for Grant to show up.

When there was a knock at the front door ten minutes later, he got up from bed and tugged on his jeans.  Sam pulled the blanket over her naked body and smiled.  “What’s going to happen?”

“Whatever you want, sweetheart.  Even just talking together and sleeping in the same bed would be okay with me, or more if you want.”

She nodded and smiled.  “Go let in my other mate.”

Chapter 4

Sam rolled over and squinted as a beam of sunlight caught her right in the face.  She buried her head into Grant’s chest and tried to catch hold of the sleep that was drifting away fast.  He hugged her and yawned, and Aaron’s hand slid across her waist as he settled a little closer to her back.

Memories of the night before flooded through her mind.  Grant joining her and Aaron in bed.  She’d had good intentions of just the three of them talking together and maybe sleeping — really sleeping — together, but they’d ended up kissing and touching, and they both brought her to orgasm while she used her hands on them.  By the time she came down from orbit, it was very late and everyone was tired, especially her and Grant who had been up late the night before.  She’d suggested they call it a night and save the next step in their relationship for a night when they were all wide awake.

“Am I your girlfriend?” she asked, looking up at Grant and finding him even more irresistibly handsome with a shadow of stubble on his jaw and his hair mussed from sleep.

He looked over her head, and she slipped onto her back so she could see both of them.  Aaron kissed her hand.  “I guess if we were around humans, we would call you our girlfriend, but if we were around lions or other weres, we would say you are our mate.  Is that okay?”

“Yeah, I was just curious.  We didn’t really talk about the actual relationship much last night, and … I don’t know a lot about what this all means.”

“It’s new for us, too, sweetheart,” Grant said.  “Aaron and I both feel drawn to you.  Already I can’t imagine being away from you.  But if it feels like its going too fast or we’re smothering you, just let us know and we’ll back off.”

She almost laughed, because she’d had sex with two virtual strangers in as many days, and now, when they were discussing the relationship, he suggested they could back off if she wanted them to.  But it spoke to their lack of skills in dating and relationships, and there was something endearing about that.  She’d had her first date at sixteen, and a steady stream of boyfriends through high school and college, ending in her marriage and then divorce.  She was no expert on relationships, but she liked being the first girlfriend for both of them.

“I promise I’ll tell you if things get smothery, but I don’t think they will.  I feel connected to you both, too, and it’s kind of strange but it also feels right.”

“Strange good, right?”  Grant smiled.

“Definitely.”

Grant picked up their entwined hands and kissed the top of hers and slipped out of bed.  “Do you like coffee?”

She attempted to sit up.  “Sure, I’ll make it.”

Grant tugged his jeans on as Aaron pulled her close with an arm around her waist that suddenly felt made of iron.  “I’ll get it.  You stay right there,” Grant said.

She watched him walk out of the room in only his jeans and flip the light on in the kitchen.  Aaron kissed her shoulder and snuggled closer.  “Lions take care of their mates, love.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course.”  He went up on one elbow and looked down at her.  “When we care about someone, we want to take care of them.  And when people we love have people they love, we also want to take care of them, too.  For example, my nephews Eryx and Ethan have a mate they share named Callie.  If they called and asked us to help her with something, any one of us in the family would drop everything in a heartbeat.”

“So, if my car got stuck in the snow and you weren’t around?”  She grinned.

He arched a brow.  “
Don’t
get stuck in the snow again.  But if you do, and for some clearly insane reason Grant or I aren’t able to come immediately to help you, then any of our brothers would be there in a heartbeat, or our nephews, or even the other lions in the house.”

“How many lions are living in the house with you guys, anyway?”

“Well, besides the six kids, you have our older brothers James and John, James’ son Alek, and then seven other lions who came from our old hometown in King during the last year or so.  The house we live in was a boarding house and has a ton of rooms, so although there are a lot of people in the house, it’s big enough that we’re not on top of each other all the time.”

“Sounds nice to have your family and friends close.”

She reflected, sadly, on her lack of friends in Ashland.  Granted, she hadn’t been living there very long, but she’d left her friends back in Indianapolis, along with her family.  Her family was small.  Both her parents had been only children and she was, too.  She was very close to her parents.  Leaving Indianapolis to escape her past, which hadn’t worked out nearly as well as she’d hoped when her ex showed up at her new job, had seemed like a good idea, but all it had really done was make her realize how lonely she felt.

Aaron touched her nose, and she blinked.  “Where did you go just now?” he asked.

“I was just thinking that, even with all the problems you had with the female lions, your family sounds amazing.”

“And?” he prompted.

“And I was feeling a little lonely.”

His brow arched, and he gestured to the rumpled bed.  “How can you be lonely with two men at your beck and call?”

She blushed and laughed, slapping his shoulder playfully as she sat up and tucked the covers under her arms.  “Before yesterday, I mean.  I moved here to escape the bad memories, and some of them followed me.  But besides my job, there was just nothing going on for me.  I didn’t realize how badly I’d felt until I met you two.”

Grant appeared next to the bed with two cups of coffee.  “You don’t feel bad anymore, do you, Sam?  You won’t ever be lonely with us.”

She looked between the two men and smiled into her coffee.  “I’ll bet.”

Grant tweaked a lock of her hair and disappeared into the kitchen, returning several minutes later with a tray of food.  Three plates were stacked in one corner of the tray, and he lifted one and placed a scoop of scrambled eggs from a bowl on it, along with two slices of toast.

“Thanks for breakfast.  I’ve never had anyone make me breakfast before.”

Aaron growled slightly, as if he were upset she’d never had a man make her breakfast, and Grant said, “No, that’s a good thing.  Makes us special.” He winked at her, and she laughed.

“You guys are plenty special without the breakfast-making skills, but I like it all the same.”

They ate the simple breakfast, and then Grant pulled her robe off the back of the bathroom door and helped her slip it on.  They walked out into the kitchen together, where Aaron was busy with the dishes.  Grant refilled her coffee and then sat down to pull his shoes on.  Her heart fell a little, knowing they were taking off, and she sighed.

“What was that for?” Aaron asked, turning off the water and drying his hands on a small towel on the counter.

“Reality-check, I guess.”  When they looked at her in confusion, she clarified.  “You have kids and jobs and … I’m just sorry to see you go.”

“We were going to ask if you’d like to come have dinner at our house tonight.  Our family does a big Sunday dinner, about six o’clock, and we’d love to have you,” Grant said.  “I just have to get over to my brother Rhett’s farm today.  I don’t normally work on Saturdays, but he asked me to help out for a while today.”

“And it’s my turn to help cook the meal.  I figured you’d like to get some rest maybe, and then one of us will come and get you about six, okay?” Aaron said.