Shifted Plans (11 page)

“Most people would start out simple. Introduce yourself to your mate then take it
from there.”

“But at the time, I had this plan. This thing I had lived my life by for the last
eight years, I thought I could control the instinct for my mate until the time was
right. It’s the same way at work. As much as I want to go after a suspect as soon
as we have one, I do a little homework first. Decide on the best strategy to get what
I need. At the time when I first saw you, I thought I needed to finish what I had
laid before me and had been working toward for the better part of my life.”

Declan scooted to the edge of the couch, just enough to be able to grab her hand,
and pulled her out of her chair onto his lap again. The lion needed her touch almost
as much as the man needed to share in soothing her. She didn’t fight him on it and,
for that, he was thankful.

“My lioness understands the need, Declan,” she said softly.

He grinned. A very perceptive mate. He would have to be on his toes with her. Wrapping
her in his arms, he locked her in place, depositing his hand on her thigh where the
marks were. He rubbed small circles with his fingertips over her soft skin. His lion
purred within.

He tapped his fingers over the marks. “We’re going to come back to these.”

She nodded in agreement.

He sucked in a huge breath. “The main thing I want you to get is I didn’t know what
to do. This path—plan—whatever you want to call it, is something I’ve been on for
eight years, everything going as expected. I’m on track. Two years and I would have
everything I dreamed of. I would be ready and financially able to find my mate. I
would have the perfect house, the perfect job, stability, and a means of supporting
my mate and our cubs. The irony is, the night I saw you I reminded myself I wasn’t
ready for a mate. I hoped my destiny could wait those two measly years.”

Avery stiffened on his lap. A flash of hurt sparked in her eyes. He had hurt her again,
and rushed on to repair the damaged before it worsened.

“The thing is, the Fates had something else in mind for me. A lesson for me to learn
and put you in my path. I had become so self-absorbed in what
I
wanted I forgot there were other things, great things out there. I struggled to understand
what I knew would happen and was determined to find a way to stay on my self-appointed
path. I never counted on us having a class together. I wasn’t prepared to see you.”

Avery snorted. “It’s a required course. Otherwise, I never would have taken it.”

“Does that mean you understand?”

She shifted off his lap to sit next to him. Though he didn’t like it, he was grateful
she hadn’t moved to the chair. This way he could still touch her, keep her close to
his side. He pulled her legs across his lap, running his hands up and down their silky
smoothness. He couldn’t stop touching her.

She nodded sharply. “I don’t like it, but I do understand being on a path and wanting
to stick with it. You aren’t the only one, Declan. I had the next couple years of
my life figured out, too. I’ve been looking for an apartment at home, so I don’t have
to move into the basement of my parents’ place. I’ve been picking out furniture and
decorations. Planning my first meal to celebrate the next stage in my life. There
are things I want to change at the clinic once I take over. Battles I’m looking forward
to waging with my father and uncles
and
winning. None of this included a mate. I wanted to do these things on my own. Things
that I felt required my full attention.”

“I didn’t know.”

“You wouldn’t have. Those things aren’t listed on some sterile information sheet you
can pull up at work. The difference between our plans, though, is I allowed for flexibility.
I never once thought I should ignore my mate because it didn’t fit into my neatly
ordered world at the moment.”

A strange, heavy silence descended upon them. Avery didn’t know what to do to break
it or if she should even try.

Declan reclined against the couch, her legs still pulled across his lap, but she wasn’t
sure he noticed the weight of them. A frown marred his handsome features as he absently
rubbed her calves.

At some point, the silence got to be too much. It had gone on far too long eating
away her sanity, and she needed up. Maybe telling him he wasn’t the only one with
plans and dreams burst some strange bubble in him. Did he really think he was the
only one to want to figure out what happened next?

She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, breaking him from whatever realm he inhabited.
“Need to pee.”

Pushing up off the couch, she made her way to the bathroom. When she came out a few
minutes later, Declan still sat in the same spot, the same distressed look on his
face. Same dazed, out-of-this-world aura emanating from him. Her words had hit a chord
within him, and she feared she’d broken him.

“I didn’t mean to make you feel bad,” she said, crossing the living room and stopping
in the doorway to her room to study him.

He looked at her, studied her much like she studied him. There were some heavy thoughts
going on in his head. Worry lines crinkled at the edges of his eyes and mouth. He
searched her face She didn’t think she had the answers to whatever questions tumbled
through his head. She wanted to go to him, soothe him, reassure him everything would
work out okay. Unfortunately, she was 100 percent sure he needed to get there on his
own. Figure it out and come to her.

“You didn’t,” he said. “I don’t feel bad. What you said made me think, though. I’ve
been caught up in my own tunnel vision for the last couple years. I wonder if there
are other things I might have missed.”

That didn’t sound good. Did he think he had passed up on something important—maybe
love? Did that mean he didn’t think he would fall in love with her? Her heart broke
at the thought. She could envision falling in love with him even though they hadn’t
spent much time together. With time, their mating connection—their physical connection—could
lead to more. She couldn’t come right out and ask him. She wasn’t that brave yet.
But she could ask a blanket question.

“Like what?” Her voice broke, overwhelmed with insecurity about their new relationship.
She dropped her head to her chest and cleared her throat. She forced her head up,
leveling her gaze on him. The most important thing her parents had taught her was
to tackle problems head on, even if you were afraid. Her current actions proved she
hadn’t followed their sage advice. She had been running scared ever since she assumed
he’d rejected her. Time to pull up her big-girl panties and act like the adult she
desperately wanted to be treated like.

Declan shrugged, unaware of Avery’s issues. “I have no idea. Maybe a different career
path. Job opportunities. Things I didn’t give a second glance because they didn’t
fall into my plan.”

Not quite the answer she’d hoped for.
In for a penny, in for a pound
. Avery might as well ask what she wanted. Being a cop, he would probably appreciate
a direct approach. If she didn’t, it would weigh on their relationship if they were
to have one. “What about falling in love? Do you think you might have passed up on
the one woman you could fall in love with?”

That seemed to surprise Declan. He got up from the couch and came to her. He cupped
his hands on either side of her face. “No,” he declared vehemently. “There’s no doubt
in my mind about that. I was slow on the uptake with us, nothing more. I know not
all mated couples fall in love, but I did hope I would fall in love with mine. I hope
one day maybe you and I.…”

His words trailed off, and a little weight lifted off her chest.

“Me too,” she smiled shyly.

Her phone buzzed, pulling their attention. Jesus, he acted like he really cared, as
if he really wanted to make things work. It did funny things to her. Her tummy flipped,
and she felt too much. Lust, need, and emotions she couldn’t quite put a name on.
It balled up in her, and she needed to find a way to let it escape.

The lioness inside nudged her.
Take him
.

Avery leaned into Declan, placing her hands on his chest. He felt warm and alive beneath
her palms. Their gazes collided, and she saw the same warring emotions mixing in his
eyes.

They were in this together. This call to mating. Their lions nudging them to become
one, to take the next step to claim one another.

Rising on her tiptoes, she kissed him, the barest brushing of her lips against his.
It lasted for a second before he pulled her flush against him, groaning when their
bodies connected.

He skimmed his lips along her jaw toward her ear. “So good,” he whispered, his tongue
tracing the outer shell. Goose bumps skittered along her flesh. His low, sex-filled
voice, his body so close to hers, all of it combined to make her want to wrap her
body around him, lay claim to him.

They pulled apart, putting much-needed breathing room between them.

She slid her hand into his and tugged him into her bedroom. Her lioness reassured
her everything would turn out fine, told her this was the correct path. The way her
mating was intended to be. Avery wanted this man more than she had ever wanted anyone
else. She needed to let him know in the simplest form she could she was in this relationship
completely.

Never had she been so grateful to have a queen-size bed. A king would be better. Maybe
they could get one when they found their own home.

A grin kicked up the corner of her mouth. Their own home. She would love that.

Declan answered her grin with one of his own. She didn’t know what he smiled about,
probably about getting laid again, but she was fine with that. As long as he stayed
in the moment with her they could work everything else out later.

Running her hands beneath his shirt, she slowly pushed it up, enjoying the soft skin
and hard muscles of his abs and chest. He reached behind and tugged the shirt the
rest of the way off. Once it hit the floor, he grabbed for the hem of her tank top.

The calluses on his palms rubbed over her skin, spreading shivers in their wake. He
didn’t take time getting her undressed. He seemed rushed and desperate. Her tank went
flying, and his thumbs ran along the inside of her shorts. Dropping to his knees,
he pulled them down, placing kisses along her freshly exposed skin.

He tugged one foot up, then the other, pulling the shorts off and flinging them behind
him somewhere. She giggled at his eagerness, which died quickly once he guided her
to the edge of the bed, forcing her to sit when the backs of her knees hit. The carnality
exuding from his eyes would have buckled her if the bed hadn’t been there. Her breath
caught in her throat, and her heart beat out of control. He looked at her as though
she was his only reason for living.

Mates
. Her lion purred.

Declan insinuated his body between Avery’s soft thighs. Leaning forward, his eyes
slammed shut as he breathed her in. Lavender, vanilla, and woman swamped him, engulfing
his senses and pulling his lion to the surface. His incisors grew, stretching and
pulling at his gums.

The need to mark her was almost too much. He needed to do it again, needed his scent
covering her. His lion would settle for nothing less than total domination.

Raining down kisses from the inner knee up to the juncture of her thighs, he purposely
skipped her pussy, moving onto her other leg. His hands skimmed over her thighs, his
left hand coming into contact with the marks. Rising up on his knees, he worked his
way toward them, planting soft kisses on each mark before laving them with his tongue.
The driving need to know what had caused her to put them there over road his arousal
by a hair.

“Avery?”

“Yes,” she purred. Her hands landed on the top of his head, nudging him away from
the marks and toward her core. He chuckled, refusing to move. She didn’t have the
strength to force him away.

“Tell me,” he said, knowing she knew what he wanted.

“Class. Yesterday. Needed a distraction.
Please
,” she begged, tugging on his head.

Pain sliced through his heart at her words. She’d needed a distraction from him, from
his angry glare and refusal to take her.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Make it up to me.” She pushed on his head again, and this time he allowed her.

“Anything you want,” he said.

Hovering over her pussy, he breathed in deep and shuddered. He dropped his mouth an
inch, making contact with that sweet center of hers with his tongue. He barely skimmed
the pretty pink lips, and she arched into him, begging him without words to go deep.

He spread her open with his hand, his lips covering her clit, sucking it in between
his teeth. As he bit down, he inserted two fingers into her cunt, fucking her with
his digits exactly as he would be fucking her in the next few minutes. He wouldn’t
be able to wait long to get back inside her. She bucked against him as she convulsed
and came around his fingers.

Pulling free, he ran his hand lightly over her pussy before gripping her hip. All
he could smell was her sweet essence. It soaked into his skin, inciting the lion.

Now!
It roared from within.

He laved the delicate skin of her inner right thigh, close to the junction where pussy
and thigh met. Without the slightest hesitation, he marked her, his teeth sinking
into the soft flesh. Her blood flowed into his mouth as enzymes released into her
bloodstream. The second of many bites to come over the course of their mating. The
final bite, the one sealing them together, would be done after the mating ceremony
with his bare cock lodged inside her.

Declan quickly shed the rest of his clothes. He grabbed his wallet and groaned. He
didn’t have another condom. What were the chances she had a stash in her bedside table?