TUCKER: Valley Enforcers, #3 (3 page)

She yawned, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. I didn’t need to look at the clock to know that it was later than either of us expected. I stretched my legs and stood, wincing at the unnatural crack in my knee. At twenty-two, I was way too young for my body to be falling apart. I was a shifter with exceptional healing, but my damn knees didn’t seem to get the memo. Long shifts and hard training sessions took a toll on my body, shifter status or not. 

“How is your ankle?” I asked, hovering over her body. She had long removed the soggy rag and bag of melted ice. Her ankle was still swollen but it wasn’t as bad as it had been.

“Maybe a three on the pain scale, give or take. I’m sure that’ll change when I try walking on it. You sure I can’t just shift in here and tear all your stuff up?”

“Positive. My bear is possessive of his den. It can’t be mucked up with wolf scents.”

Her lips – disproportionate but soft and pink – turned down with an unpleasant frown. “I’m sorry my
terrible
wolf scent is such a problem for you.”

Gritting my teeth, I swallowed my retort about all women being defensive and overdramatic. Instead, I breathed through my nose and nearly reached my breaking point. “You smell like fucking heaven, Emily. I just can’t have a wolf –
your wolf
– branding her scent on my things. Got it?”

The angry lines on her face disappeared and her lips parted. I got a rush watching her emotions change. It was probably a figment of my oversexed imagination, but I swear I smelled lust on her skin. If it was there, it was gone before I could even blink. Voice soft and fluttery, she tilted her head with understanding. “Got it.”

“We should probably call it a night. Let me change the sheets and grab a pillow and then the bedroom should be ready for you.”

“Oh, no.” Emily scowled, raising a finger. “You’re not going to pull the good guy card, Tucker. I’m not taking your bedroom and before you even think of throwing a hissy fit, if I sleep on the couch it will be easier on my ankle. Bring me that blanket over there and I’ll be fine. Besides, it would be weird if I slept in your bed.”

I should’ve been glad. I was too tall for the couch. It was comfortable, but there was no way to sleep peacefully when you’re dangling off the edge. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to sleep peacefully regardless of where I ended up, though. Instead of sending a silent prayer to the stars that she forfeited the bed, I was mad that she wouldn’t let me do the right thing and let her take the better option. Or maybe I was upset my sheets wouldn’t smell like her.

“Fine. I don’t have report in until two tomorrow, so if we’re up early we should be able to find you a tow or something.” A tow from someone who didn’t work at Parker and Nate’s shop. I didn’t need anyone from the clan knowing I had a wolf spend the night, especially not Deacon and Dean’s two best friends.

“Fantastic. The sooner I’m out of here, the better.”

I tossed her the Sherpa blanket from my loveseat and lied through my fucking teeth. “Definitely. Just yell if you need anything.”

“You look like you need your beauty rest. I’ll try not to bother you. Seems like your bear gets a little pissy when he doesn’t get his way.” Emily looked up from fluffing the blanket and smiled a little.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and
almost
smile back. “Yeah, sure. My bear is definitely the prima donna here.”

“Bears, by nature, are asshole divas. Did you sleep through Biology?”

“Uh, no. I’m not sure what the hell kind of Biology they teach in Missoula, but we learned about genes and bacteria and shit. You know, mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.”

A surprised and totally un-ladylike chortle headed her response. “Yeah, I know. My class got t-shirts made that said that because our teacher said it like, ten thousand times over the span of the school year. I’m not exaggerating; we had a tally going.”

“I believe you. High school: four years of education and all we remember is some dumb fact about mitochondria.”

“And that when an author writes that a character’s dress was blue it’s actually some poignant commentary on the emotional state of the person, not that their dress is, you know, just blue.”

Emily untwisted her hair from the top of her head as she spoke, pulling out what seemed like a dozen little black pins along with the band she wrapped around her wrist. Her shinny copper curls bounced to life, like they were themselves feral creatures waiting to be released. Wild hair, fresh faced, and a smile on her lips, Emily looked one hundred percent at home on my couch. That itching feeling underneath my skin started again, so I jammed my fist against the light switch and cleared my throat.

“See you tomorrow, Emily.”

Without waiting for her response, I flicked the light off and headed down the hall to my bedroom. She huffed under her breath and I smiled, knowing it was intended for my ears. Something about a mitochondria loving ass licker.

I turned the overhead on in my room long enough to toss my shirt into a pile of dirty clothes in the corner. I’d been living on my own for nearly three years and the whole doing my own laundry thing hadn’t really caught on yet. Really, the whole being an adult thing in general hadn’t stuck. Most of the time it felt like I wasn’t mature enough to grocery shop by myself, let alone be on a team of security officers for my clan.

Collapsing on bed with an ‘oomph’, I kicked my way under the blankets and pressed my face into a pillow. I didn’t even want to calculate how long it had been since I’d been in my bed last. The other Enforcers were growing their families and finding mates, which meant they wanted a more structured work schedule. I didn’t mind the extra hours at first.  Justin bitched, but that was to be expected. As I curled up in bed, I couldn’t help but agree with him. The hours of patrolling in the bitter cold didn’t hit me until I was home. There were two teens in the training program that would be joining the team as probationary Enforcers after they graduated high school in the spring, but that seemed like forever away.

I knew I wanted to be an Enforcer when I was twelve and they put out a fire that started on the reserve. My family lived in the Valley. It was easier on my parents, who both had jobs in Center Village. Getting to go to the reserve was always a treat. Being in the wilderness made my bear feel at home; it made
me
feel more connected to my roots. Starting my mandatory training was the best and worst time of my life. As a scrawny kid in the middle of a growth spurt, the rigorous training was brutal. But I was in awe of the damn Enforcers who taught the class. A much younger George, who was the eldest most member of our team now, led the training courses like he was a modern day gladiator. Ten years later and he still taught the classes and though policies changed when the Alpha changed, he was still a demanding teacher.

Seeing George in action paled in comparison to seeing the rest of the team take care of a real emergency, though. A cub a few years younger than me attempted to make popcorn on her own while her parents were doing chores and ended up catching their kitchen on fire. I was young and definitely not equipped to do anything more than stand there and watch, but adrenaline pumped through my veins and my bear pawed at my throat needed to be released – needing to help. After that I knew, without a doubt, that I was going to be an Enforcer.

There was never a day that I felt like I made the wrong decision. There were shitty days – a lot of shitty days, actually. But boring, shitty days meant that there was peace. Fights are never as cool as they make them in the movies. My scar, despite my flippant attitude towards it, wasn’t a badge of honor but a daily reminder of my close brush with death. It wasn’t bad enough that people gasped and hid their children when I walked by, but some days it felt like it was all people saw when they looked at me.

Not wanting to know how long I’d been lying in bed avoiding sleep, despite the way my eyes wanted to snap together like magnets, I sighed and rolled over. I pulled the blanket around my body like a burrito. My heat was cranked high, but the house was old and the temperatures were dangerously close to dipping below zero. I tried my damnedest not to think about the woman on my couch with nothing but a thin throw blanket and a few couch pillows. I settled and listened, picking up on the sound of her soft breaths mixed in with the sound of the furnace. It sounded like she was sleeping, obviously not bothered by the cold or the raw energy that haunted the house.

Knowing that she wasn’t as affected by me as I was by her pissed me off even more than I was before. I sat up and thwacked my pillows a few times, arranging them to the point of madness, before falling on my back and staring at the ceiling. I felt like I was seventeen again and waiting for Heather McDoe to text me back after admitting I liked her. Sexually frustrated and irritated by my obviously unrequited feelings, I almost decided to get up and go for a run.

Almost. I could still hear the wind whipping the frigid air outside. Some bears liked to play in the snow, but mine was more of a hibernation kind of dude. The last thing either of us wanted to do was strip down and run around in arctic conditions trying to catch a rabbit. I’d have a chance to run some of my frustrations out on my shift, anyway.

I was nearly asleep when I heard the soft pitter patter of footsteps. Before I could even process what was happening, my bedroom door opened. I rolled over and propped myself up on an elbow. It was pitch black, but I could still see Emily like a ray of sunshine.

“Did I wake you up?” She asked, half a whisper.

I cleared my throat, trying to erase any trace of sleep. “No. What’s up? Do you need something?”

“It’s cold. Can we share the bed?”

I wanted to hear her say the words, but they didn’t satisfy me the way I thought they would. I scrubbed my face, hating myself as I said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ll take the couch.”

She walked into the room, closing the door behind her. If her ankle was still bothering her, she showed no signs of discomfort. “I don’t think you understand what I’m saying.” She grabbed the bottom of her shirt – my shirt – and I couldn’t make myself tell her to stop. With the smell of her desires flooding my senses, I watched as she tossed the shirt across the room. She was braless; her breasts were small and perky, hard nipples turned upwards like they were begging for a kiss. “I want
you
to warm me up, Tucker.”

My mouth finally caught up with my brain. My cock had a mind of his own, already rising the occasion. “Are you sure?”

“Am I sure?” She mocked slowly, her voice slow and husky. I had a feeling I said the wrong thing. Fingers dancing at the waistband of the massively oversized sweatpants, she took a few steps towards the bed. She was so close I could see the twinkle in her eyes; they were two emeralds, stunningly vibrant and utterly captivating. With one simple flick of her wrists, the sweats were pooled at her feet and a fresh wave of musky dew wafted towards me. “Of course I’m sure. Are
you
sure?”

This time, there was no delay. There was no thinking about the repercussions or anything except the naked woman standing next to me, boldly on display. “Hell yeah I’m sure. Come here, Emily. Let me warm you up.”

I’d make myself regret it in the morning.

Emily

I’d done a lot of crazy things in my twenty-one years of life. Strutting into Tucker’s room in the middle of the night and shucking my clothes while soliciting him definitely took the cake. To be fair, I
was
cold. The fuzzy blanket looked a lot warmer than it actually was. I could blame my intrepid behavior on lack of sleep but Tucker and I both knew where our night was headed the moment he took me back to his place instead of driving me into town. We both fought it well enough, but there was no denying the sexual chemistry that burned white-hot and scorched me to my soul. The tender first-aid and conversation over frozen pizza was the strangest form of foreplay I’d ever been a part of but it seemed to work for us.

It became very obvious to me that Tucker was trying to take the high road and keep his hands off of me. It was probably best for the both of us if we didn’t go at it like rabbits. Or a wolf and a bear, I guess. How could I deny myself a perfect piece of man candy that I wouldn’t accidentally run into a few days later at the grocery store? Tucker was like an early Christmas gift. I’d get one night out of him and never see him again, and it would be a goddamn holiday miracle.

Tucker threw his comforter back and scooted to the side, his eyes never leaving my body as I carefully maneuvered into the bed. My ankle throbbed from walking on it, but I wasn’t going to let it ruin the rest of my night. Soon, all my thoughts about my ankle were gone. The moment my body curved to the mattress, Tucker was touching me. Kissing me. Making my toes curl with a simple swipe of his tongue against my nipple.

His chest hummed with animalistic magnetism as his winter chapped lips moistened and clamped down over one breast. The tender ferocity of his actions took me off guard. I expected him to kiss my lips, at the very least. Instead, he seemed content licking every inch of my bare skin while his hands danced up and down my sides.

“Tucker,” I breathed. I wasn’t sure what I needed but it was more than whatever he was doing. “I don’t need foreplay. I’m ready for you.”

His hellacious tongue stopped abruptly, causing me to groan with frustration. Mouth still hovering over my pebbled nipple, each word came with warm air that was almost as good as his sucking and teasing. “Is that how you wolves do it? Rutting like animals? We’ll get to that, Emily. I’m going to sink into you and fuck you until you beg me to stop. But first I’m going to love every inch of your beautiful fucking body because you are definitely not ready for me.”

“I’m not a virgin. I can handle your cock, I promise.” There was a new fire inside me, hearing his deep sexy voice mutter naughty words. But the fire was totally smothered by my annoying need to come with him inside of me.

He growled an angry rumble, his body cloaking mine in the blink of an eye. He was still wearing his pajama bottoms and I was almost positive they’d burn to a crisp if he didn’t take them off. His cock curved between our bodies, branding my skin with his heat. I wasn’t a prude, but despite the vixen vibe I was trying to put off, I’d only been with a few guys. And none of them had the length or surprising girth that Tucker did.

“I don’t want you to talk about anyone else when you’re with me. I don’t want to hear about anyone else fucking you. Tonight, you’re mine. You want to fuck, we’ll fuck. But I’m going to do it my way. Got it?”

“If I don’t come soon I think I might die,” I answered honestly, giving him the words I should’ve said from the start.

I didn’t want to pretend with him. The beautiful thing about anonymous sex was the ability to be whoever you wanted to be. I could be the empowered and sexually liberal woman who took what she wanted. But with Tucker’s eyes smoldering down at me while he rocked his hips back and forth slowly, giving us both enough to keep us from shredding our insides with lust, I realized that there was no way to pretend with him. Not one hundred percent, at least. We knew each other. We were strangers in so many ways, but at the same time… we were something more. Not strangers, not friends. We existed together in a way that made a one night stand seem completely stupid and totally impossible, let alone an anonymous one night stand.

A rakish smile graced his face. I could barely make it out in the darkness. “Don’t die yet, Em. We have a long night ahead of us.”

He inched his face towards mine and my heart seized. I didn’t realized how much I needed his lips on mine until he was devouring me like I was his last damn meal. It was possessive and raw and somehow I needed more. Our mouths melded together perfectly. A mix of give and take, our tongues danced for dominance while hungry hands roamed. I tried urging his bottoms down but his torso was so long and lean that I could barely reach the elastic band. Knowing what we both needed, Tucker groaned and rolled off of me to kick out of his pants. 

His scent was so arousing it made me dizzy. I panted, trying to catch my breath while I watched his shadow next to me. “Fucking dammit.” There was another frustrated groan before I saw his pants disappear over the edge of the bed. My nerves screamed and cried and fluttered with need as he, once again, caged my body to the bed and attacked my mouth.

I couldn’t remember ever feeling so needy for another person. Not even with Connor, the man I thought I’d marry. The mix of fire and ice that pulsed through my veins at Tucker’s command was a passing fancy, but it didn’t matter because we only had one night. He blazed through my soul like a wildfire, leaving me hungry for more.

I wasn’t sure whose heart was beating harder. Tucker tore away from my mouth, giving my swollen lips a chance to rest as I caught my breath. It was a fleeting moment. He nudged my head to the side with his and began to nibble on my earlobe and then my neck. He continued going down and when his mouth touched my collarbone, I gasped out loud and pushed my palms flat against his chest.

“What’s wrong?” Voice clogged with emotion and need, he pulled back and reached for a lamp on the nightstand. We were bathed in light a second later and he cursed under his breath. “Shit, Emily! What the hell happened?”

I knew what he saw: the strange pattern of bruises that stamped the skin below my collarbone. “It’s from my seatbelt. It’s fine; I just forgot about them.” I could feel him pulling away, so I ran my hands up his chest and tried to pull him back down to me. “Tucker, please. I want my night with you.”

Things were different with the light on. It cast soft shadows against our skin as we lay close together. What I had imagined was now in front of me: hard muscles under smooth skin and the look of adoration and desire that haunted his dark chocolate eyes. Yeah, things were definitely different. I needed them to stay the same. Needed to keep sex with Tucker as primal and raw as I could. But as I looked up at him, I realized that was never going to be possible.

Tucker lowered his head until his lips brushed against the tender skin. It was so soft that I barely felt it. He trailed his mouth over one of my breasts, his tongue barely dancing out to flick against my nipple. I moaned at the contact, but as soon as I had it, it was gone. He rocked back on his knees, hand sliding down my stomach while he moved like the apex predator that he housed inside his chest.

The light glowed hazily, giving me an alluring view of Tucker. He was handsome in every way imaginable. I studied the arousal on his face, trying to memorize every feature as it moved under the yellow-white light. His long hawkish face with sharp angles seemed even more defined in the heat of the moment.

He moved his fingers through the small patch of hair at my core. His eyes were so fierce I felt myself melting away under his gaze. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. Not when he began to stroke my clit with his thumb and not when his other hand began to massage the outermost part of my leg, leaving a sensual trail of goosebumps behind his calloused fingertips.

It was erotic in the most soul crushing way possible. I arched into him, wanting something harder and faster to take away the emotions. Tucker ignored my wordless plea. He gripped my leg and stroked faster, but his circles were far softer than they were before. I closed my eyes and tilted my head, needing to focus on anything but him.

“Look at me or I’ll stop,” He growled.

I didn’t doubt for a second that he’d follow through with his threat, so I snapped my head back in his direction just as my orgasm began. Deep in my core, it rolled and rolled until I felt like I was going to explode like confetti. Tucker milked the moment, his fingers stroking languidly as he, too, savored my release. I wanted to tell him that I’d never had an orgasm quite like that one – wanted to tell him nobody else had ever brought me to orgasm by just rubbing my clit. Instead, I sat up and wrapped my arms around him, locking our lips together.

“It’s like art when you come,” He whispered, tearing his lips away from mine just enough to push out the soft words. They hung on his lips like silent prayers. “So damn beautiful.”

Warmth bloomed in my chest. It was too much; Tucker was too much. Taking the initiative to keep things distant, I reached down and grabbed his cock. He grunted in surprise but didn’t say anything as I began to stroke what I could at our awkward angle. “No more words. I need you to fuck me.” I squeezed him before rolling his member in my palm. “You promised me you wouldn’t stop until I beg. So show me, Tucker. Fuck me. Use me. Give me what we both need because after tonight –”

“For a woman who doesn’t want me to use words, you sure do have a lot of them,” He said sharply. It wasn’t compassionate or sarcastic. It was a bitter snap. It stung, but it was what I wanted. I had to coax it out of him, but it was best for both of us if we didn’t start to develop feelings after one night in bed together. “Roll over and get your ass in the air.” When I blinked at him, he tapped at my side and continued. “You want to rut, we’ll rut. Get on your knees, Emily.”

I bunched my legs up and rolled over, assuming the position he demanded. His hands palmed at my ass, kneading the globes before playfully delivering a smack that echoed in the silence of the house. I clenched my sex and arched my back even more, thrusting my need further into him. The scent of our arousal was a heady perfume. I felt the mix of man and animal imbedding in my pores, branding me – for the moment – with everything that made up Tucker. It was as comforting as it was arousing.

If he were feeling any effects of my scent, he wasn’t showing them. The bed dipped and a drawer opened, then I heard cellophane ripping. Shifters only used condoms with casual fucks. The thought flashed in my mind, branding me with a scarlet letter that I couldn’t quite shake. Whatever the feeling that nestled into my gut was, my lust was far more important. I could feel Tucker moving behind me. He was so close, but I needed him closer.

Finally, his hands were on me. His hands were like branding irons as they gripped my hips and slipped his cock between my cheeks. I tensed up as he glided himself down, tapping against my asshole. I had absolutely no experience with anal sex and relied only on the information provided by friends. The thought of Tucker anywhere in my body was arousing, but there was something dangerous and devious about him taking me anally that coiled a new fantasy in my gut. Unless I grew bolder by the morning’s light, it would remain only a fantasy. Another reminder that despite the tingling feeling in my heart, Tucker was a one night thing. One night only. He’d fuck me and get rid of those pesky feelings and we’d both go our separate ways.

His head bumped against my opening and I took a shaky breath, my hands automatically forming fists that tangled in the sheets. I didn’t have a chance to explore Tucker’s body the way I wanted, nor did he do much in preparing me for his thickness. I was ready for him; I’d been ready the moment I walked through the door. But feeling him against me – feeling his sheathed cock rub up and down against my needy lips – was something else entirely.

And then he was pushing through my folds with a long, exaggerated curse. A fire of pain and pleasure tore through my sex as he slowly buried himself inside of me. He flexed his hips, rocking into me with shallow strokes as he stretched my pussy to fit his impressive size. It felt large in my hand but inside of me, I could tell that he was larger than average. He continued his small strokes even after he was completely inside of until he was lubricated with my juices.

“I’m going to fuck you fast and hard, Emily,” He narrated, his pace picking up. He lunged faster and gripped harder. “I won’t let you rest tonight. Any time my cock wants you, I’m going to have you. I have one full night of this tight pussy and I’m going to get everything I can from you.”

My mind was static. I cried out into the mattress, “
Fuck, fuck, fuck
!
Yes
!”

Spurred on by either my words or his own lust, Tucker made true to his word and fucked me fast and hard. He slammed me back against his body to meet his steady thrusts. I was overly sensitive and completely crazy from having his body moving in tandem with mine. I knew another orgasm was barreling towards me. It was too soon. I knew I needed more friction to come, but my tingling sex had other ideas. I didn’t doubt that Tucker would bring me to orgasm multiple times but I wasn’t ready to come yet, so I dug into the mattress even more and bit my lip hard enough to cause a painful pinch that distracted my mind for a few seconds and let me calm down.

Tucker had other plans, though. His hands slipped from my hips to my torso, urging me to sit up. I was positive he was going to slip out of me and rob me of the friction that was driving me to the point of insanity but I complied, letting his large palms guide me as he gripped my breasts. I’d been wrong – oh so fucking wrong. The new position brought our bodies closer together. Tucker was using my breasts as leverage, holding them almost too tight as he pistoned up into me. I could feel every part of him as he moved inside of me, even with the thin barrier that kept us from having a truly intimate connection.