Shifters Forever The Boxed Set Books 1 - 6 (25 page)

T
anner enjoyed
the way she checked him out when she first walked into the kitchen. This was the same electricity he’d felt the night before, when she went outside, wigged out, then came in and asked for him not to be her plus-one.

He was impressed that she’d driven that rig in from the city. There was a whole other side to this woman, a side he’d like to spend a lifetime getting to know. He surveyed her body while she was busy looking at the truck.

Her hips flared out from a waist that opened upward to a set of breasts that would be more than a handful. Christ, he’d like to worship that set. He wanted to taste her nipples, feel them pucker in his mouth while his fingers explored her mound, feeling, flicking, plunging.

Damn. His cock was definitely responding. So was his bear. The bear growled, feasting on the curvy beauty with an ass he’d admired last night in slacks. The dress was sexy, too. It would provide easy access.

His pulse started to race. The throb in his cock was overwhelming; it felt like it was attached to his brain because he couldn’t stop the primal beat from filling his brain.

He could hardly talk. He shook his head and turned away from her, looking at the truck again, trying to gain control over his heart rate.

“I’ll help you,” he managed to say a moment later. “But…”

“But…” Her face was crestfallen.

“But there are conditions.”

“Is this one of those no ass, no gas type of bullshit things?” Her words were lined with steel. She was not interested in nonsense.

“What?” She’d caught him off-guard. He couldn’t lie about that. “No.” Tanner put his cup down and took her by the arms, turning her to face him.

She looked down at where he was holding her, but he was gentle, and not imposing or threatening at all, and he hoped she recognized that.

There wasn’t the slightest bit of fear on her face when she said, “Then what?”

“Truth. I ask a couple of questions, and you answer truthfully.”

“We’ll see.” She set her full lips into a tight line.

Tanner wasn’t going to push her. She didn’t need to be treated that way. He nodded. “Why’d you ask to not be my plus-one? Do you have something with Joe?”

Her eyes widened, pupils dilating as her gaze rested on his face. It almost felt like she was drinking him in.

“No. Joe’s like… a brother.”

So then it
was
about him. He didn’t know if that should piss him off or not. “Why…?”

She didn’t let him finish. “I can’t.”

Can’t what? Can’t answer? Can’t be my plus-one?
The bear growled at him to keep asking, to press her further.

Something in Tanner told him this wouldn’t be the wisest way to go.

“So will you help me?” She pulled back from his grasp, and he let his fingers drop away.

“Will you let me buy you dinner tonight?”

She bit her lip. “I have plans.”

The scent of her arousal was clear. Why was she hell-bent on avoiding him? “Another night.” He didn’t make it a question.

She ran her hands through her hair, her fingers clearly trembling. Surely she wasn’t scared of him. He fought the urge to reach out and hold her tightly and tell her she never needed to be afraid of him.

She sucked in a deep breath. It thrust her breasts forward, and her peaked nipples poked at the yellow fabric of her dress, their outline a telltale sign of her arousal.

She bit her lip again, worrying it, making it red, raw, sexy. He was worried she was going to break the skin. He wanted to lick those lips, plunge his tongue into her mouth and make her his. He wanted to turn her around, raise that dress, and take her from behind, marking her with their couple bond while they climaxed.

In his head, Tanner’s bear grumbled his assent, eager for Tanner to let him take charge of the situation.

“Let’s get the furniture.” Tanner pushed his bear away. What she needed right now was not what the bear offered, though for the life of him, Tanner couldn’t figure out what it was that she did need, only what she didn’t.

M
arti couldn’t figure
him out. One moment he was asking her out, the next he was gruffly saying they needed to get the furniture.

Why did he care about the reason they weren’t plus-ones? Why did he care what she and Joe did or didn’t mean to one another, even though they were only friends?

Deep down, she knew why. Knew why he cared, knew why he’d asked, knew why he’d reacted. It was the same reason she’d gotten upset when he walked into the private dining room last night with his hand on Mae’s back.

But reasons didn’t matter. Reasons for things like that didn’t matter at all.

This bear shifter?

Her?

This was not possible.

It never would be possible, because of Dominic.

She pushed all thoughts of Tanner aside. She had to get this job handled. And now. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

He pointed to her dress. “Got a change of clothing?”

She looked down. Shook her head.
It’s not like I planned to be a furniture mover today.
“No. This is it.”

“No problem. I’ll do most of the heavy lifting.”

And he did.

T
wo hours later
, drenched in sweat, her hair a wilted mess, her body surely smelling of the perspiration, they were done.

Every piece of furniture was artfully arranged exactly where she, Kelsey, and Mae had determined. Every piece was unwrapped and wiped down.

“I can’t thank you enough,” she told Tanner, practically racing him to the kitchen to get a glass of iced tea from the refrigerator.

She hugged him, impulsively. Squeezed those massive shoulders and that thick back. Her body pressed against his drenched T-shirt.

Then it hit her and she shoved off, trying to be nonchalant, trying to act like his manliness, his sexiness, had no effect on her.

He looked unaffected by the hug. “No biggie. I had a couple of hours on my hands.”

It was a biggie. It was huge.
“You don’t understand.” She gulped the sweet nectar down. “It is a big deal. My reputation depended on that company. You saved my…”

She was going to say
ass
. What the hell was she thinking? With this sexy man, that would be the totally wrong direction to head. Or would it?

She looked at him, white shirt drenched. He emptied the glass in one swig, then rolled the glass along his forehead. The T-shirt was sopping in sweat, clinging to his muscles, emphasizing his manliness.

More like his godliness.

Marti looked away from Tanner. The last two hours had been more than easy. They’d laughed and joked and the tension she’d felt with him and what he was had been on the back burner.

She couldn’t afford to do that. She couldn’t afford to give any shifters access to her life or her secrets.

T
his woman was confusing
. One minute she was elated, jumping into his arms and hugging him, excited and acting like he’d saved her life, and the next she was pulling away and growing brambles and thorn-covered bushes between them. Every second the branches became thicker and had more thorns.

And to think they’d had two awesome hours of moving furniture, relaxed and casual while joking and talking. He studied the set of her jaw, the steely glint in those blue eyes. Whatever it was that had pushed her away from him—Was it all men it pushed her away from?—was huge. It dominated her thoughts.

He’d been thinking when she jumped out and hugged him that maybe she’d relent on refusing his offer for dinner. That maybe she’d agree to it. Tendrils of her hair clung to her forehead, temples, and cheeks where they touched her sweat. Her cheeks were flushed red over ivory skin, bringing to Tanner’s mind what she might look like after a round of wonderfully healthy, exuberant sex.

He couldn’t tear his eyes off of her. He drank her in: the way her dress widened deliciously out from her abundant hips, the way it tucked into the center of the hourglass, then flared outward and upward to show off a set of breasts he’d never take his hands off if she were his woman.

As if sensing his scrutiny, and perhaps even his desire for her, she wrapped her arms around herself. The way her forearms pushed her breasts upward, revealing even more of the creamy mounds, made him want to run his tongue over the silky-looking skin with its slight dusting of pale freckles. His mind strayed to her nipples, imagining them, a light pink against pale white skin, blue veins giving him a road map to trace with the tip of his tongue.

His cock jerked a response to his thought just as his bear growled its arousal.

She was watching him, her face impassive, but her pulse gave away that she wasn’t immune to him at all. Her pulse sent signals that she was aroused just as much as the dilation in her eyes and the heavenly scent coming from between her legs.

I have got to know what her problem with me is.
“Why?” he asked her, not expanding on the question though he wanted to know several things.

Why they couldn’t go out.

Why she wouldn’t let him in.

Why she’d shut him out this way.

Marti shook her head and turned away, giving him her back while she looked out the window. The set of her back was unnaturally stiff, as if she was working hard to remain distant.

Anger replaced his lust. It was a natural emotion because she was denying both of them something special. At the very least she was denying them the chance to see if there was something as special as he thought. “What? You won’t tell me why? Or you don’t know why?”

She whirled around. There were two red spots on her cheeks, and her eyes were blazing. “Why are you pushing me? Why can’t a no just be a no? Why, Tanner?”

That did it.

That temper flaring, those eyes blazing, her bottom lip red from her clearly having been biting on it…

That was the moment.

And Tanner knew that if he ever ended up with this spitfire, beautiful, curvy woman… if she ever let him be a part of her life, he could tell their kids the moment that he fell for her completely, totally, fiercely.

And it wasn’t the moment that his bear did, for his bear had fallen the night before.

This moment, that flash of her spirit, that beautiful essence of who she was, that show of strength… All of that grabbed Tanner’s heart in a vise grip and didn’t let go.

No, there was no ‘if’ she ever let him be a part of her life…

She would be his.

Period.

Tanner stepped close to her and put his hands on her shoulders. He kept his eyes glued to hers looking for any sign that she was reluctant. When no such indication came, he lowered his head and touched his lips to hers, gently at first, a slight, feathery touch.

Her bottom lip trembled against his. He sucked it in gently, then released it to allow his tongue to lick at the seam of her pursed lips. He raised his head, his eyes boring into hers, crashing through the wall of brambles and thorns.

A small sigh escaped her lips. A proclamation, an invitation.

T
anner’s lips
came crashing down on hers. He kissed her deeply, his mouth devouring hers, consuming her. His tongue plunged into the depths of her mouth, holding her captive, and every second of the kiss was fuel added to the passion raging within her.

His tongue untangled from hers, and his lips traveled, kissing her jaw, chin, neck, slow, languid licks following the kisses as he made his way ever lower to the point where her neck and shoulder were connected.

A slight sting erupted into a fount of pleasure tinged with pain as she realized his teeth had sunk into her neck.

Oh, God. Was he…

She jerked away. She couldn’t allow that to happen. What about Dominic?

T
anner wanted
to pull her back into his arms, to continue what they’d started. Why had she pulled away? Was the passion too overwhelming? There was a look in her eyes; her pupils were contracted. Was that fear?

A question was poised on his lips when the door creaked open, squeaking a protest.

“Anyone home?”

“Joe,” Marti whispered.

“In the kitchen,” Tanner said, a frown coming to his face. “We’ll finish this later,” he told Marti, keeping his voice low.

She licked her lips, then swiped her hair behind her shoulder.

“There’s a truck out there with the driver’s side door open. Everything okay in here?” Joe looked from one to the other.

“Had to help Marti bring the furniture in. Her delivery guys bailed on her.”

“Need help?” Joe pushed his sleeves up.

“We’re all done.” Marti’s smile looked forced.

Joe pulled the sleeves back down. “Who drove the truck here?”

“I did.” She sucked a deep breath in. Tanner couldn’t help but note the way it made her dress fill out.

“I’m leaving now. I have to return it and pick up my car before they close and lock their lot.”

“What time’s that?”

“Noon, they said. They lock up the lot at noon on Thursdays.”

Who the hell does that, anyway, locking up on a Thursday?

Joe looked at his watch. “You’re not going to make it.”

Marti glanced at the clock on the wall. Ten till noon. “Oh, no. I need to be able to get home. I need my car. I can’t stay away from home. I have to be back by two.”

She paced from the sink to the fridge, then back. “I can’t… I have to…” She wrung her hands, pulling on her dress. “Shit.”

Her muttered word was low. Joe probably didn’t hear it with his human ears, but Tanner caught it. What was so important? “Do you have another appointment?”

“Yes. No. It’s… I’ve got to go.” She turned to Joe. “I hate to ask…”

“I’ll give you a ride,” Tanner said. He’d be damned if he’d allow her to ride home with Joe. Not that he didn’t like Joe, but this was his mate, whether she wanted to admit to it or not.

Joe looked from Tanner to Marti. “If you don’t mind. I have an errand to run for Mae.”

Marti’s mouth opened briefly, then she clamped it shut and nodded.

W
hat else could she say
? She was pissed off. Pissed that she had to leave her car behind. Pissed that the bastard who was supposed to have his men deliver and unload the furniture had failed to do his job.

She was doubly pissed at the betrayal of her heart and body when Tanner had kissed her. They’d made her feel like she was in a raft being swept long by a whitewater river.

His kiss had left her breathless, wet, aroused, and on the verge of a damned orgasm. That was wrong, and she was pissed about that too. Mostly because it was very right. And now she’d be stuck with him in a vehicle for the whole ride back to the city. And since her car would be locked away, she’d have to have him drop her off at home.

He might see Dominic. And that would not work at all.

Damn him.

Damn his sexiness.

Damn her body for wanting him.

Damn her heart for thinking he was someone special and reacting to him.