“Kele’s mother might.” Susan chewed on her bottom lip. “Maybe you should let me do the talking.”
“Don’t worry.” She cared about omegas as much as he did. Truly, she’d been created for him. “Peder is very good with females.” He winked. Most omegas were gifted in social skills. The pack needed them to survive. He couldn’t imagine a bunch of hunters capable of living together without killing one another. Omegas defused the aggressive energy within packs somehow. To him it was like magic.
Peder had better be fine.
“Okay.” She didn’t sound so sure.
“As for the rest of the day…” He pushed her back onto the pallet, tugging the blanket from her luscious body.
She blocked him with her hands. “I stink.”
The heady scent of her arousal filled his nostrils. Bypassing her defenses, he pressed a kiss on her stomach. “You smell like mine.”
“No, I smell like old sex and sweat. It’s making me nauseous, and I can’t feel—sexy like this.” She squirmed away.
Following her off the pallet, he tried to grab her. She belonged in his arms, not running from them, no matter how she smelled.
She squealed and laughed, the sound free and happy. It reflected his heart that had been imprisoned in bad memories for so long. “Let me wash, let me wash.” She danced away, covering her breasts.
He leaped from the floor and snared her. Slipping his hands under hers, he caressed her breasts. The hard nubs pressed against his fingertips, and he traced small circles around them. “I know of a waterfall.”
She moaned and stopped struggling.
“The water is clear and cold. It’s a small hike from here.” He pinched her nipples, delighting in them.
“Sounds wonderful.”
Slithering out of his arms, she grabbed her dress. “Are you going like that?”
He glanced down at his naked body. “You don’t like it?”
“What’s not to like? I don’t want the important bits getting snagged on something.”
He couldn’t help but grin like a fool. As alpha, most people didn’t banter with him. Susan’s quick wit made her even more precious. She gave him spirit and—and fun.
By the Goddess, when was the last time he’d had fun and laughed?
With a hunter’s speed, he captured her again in his arms. He ravaged her mouth, tongue and lips. Tasting, he consumed her delicate flavor as he trapped her against his body.
Using his hair as leverage, she pulled him away. “Waterfall.”
“If you didn’t obsess about washing so much, you wouldn’t have to worry about my bits, and you’d have the whole day to fondle them.”
“Keep this up, and you may need to protect those bits from me.”
He growled. “Promise?” Watching her bathe in the cold waterfall would be a joy though—hard nipples, goose flesh and so many drops to lick. “Let’s go.” He set her down, shifted to feral form and gathered a few supplies.
“You shift so quickly. Does it hurt?”
“No.” He tossed the things in a large pack—blankets, flint, cooking gear. “Can you carry this on your back as you ride me?”
She ran her fingers through the fur on his chest. “Honey, I can do anything while riding you.”
His knees weakened at the image those words inspired.
The trip took an hour of climbing at shifter speed. If Susan had walked the distance it would have taken a day. She’d misjudged the distance and speed to the Temple when Sorin brought her to the Apisi den. She never would have made it on her own.
She dismounted from Sorin’s back and stared at the oasis he’d spoken of. Water trickled from a high cliff thirty feet above in a steady stream and collected in a sandy, oval pool. “You know the best spots, Sorin.” She kicked off her moccasins and dipped her toes.
Cold, but the sun rose overhead and promised to be warm. The light danced on the clear liquid, sparkling in a thousand diamonds. She undressed, tossed the dress on the grass and stepped into the pool.
After Sorin’s thorough exploration of her body last night, she didn’t feel timid. Tingles played over her skin but not from the brush of cool water on her thighs. She glanced over her shoulder at the source.
Sorin stood on the grassy slope watching, his avid attention almost solid enough to caress her skin.
Electric currents of sexual energy charged through her body. No one had ever looked at her quite this way. He made her feel sexy, desirable. With Sorin around, she wanted nothing.
He strolled to the edge, thick muscles moving under his fur, and lounged across the ground. The sun sparkled on his silver fur, giving it an almost metallic sheen. She’d never seen a creature more deadly—or more beautiful.
“Won’t you wash with me?”
“I’ll bathe after. I want to watch.” He shifted back to civil form. After only a few days, the act didn’t faze her anymore. The silver color of his long hair and his amber eyes always remained the same. “I want to look at you.”
Oh, she was in deep shit. She’d fallen so hard for him. She didn’t have any experience with these kinds of emotions. Clutching her stomach, she tried to settle the butterflies rioting inside. Would she be like Lailanie one day? Trapped living in the Apisi den forced to watch as he seduced a different female?
No wonder the female shifter hated her. “Were you and Lailanie—um—”
“No.”
“You didn’t let me finish.”
“You didn’t need to.”
The butterflies in her stomach dispersed and set her heart free. She hadn’t realized the guilt she carried until now. She didn’t want to be known as a male stealer.
His gaze wandered over her body. “No scars anywhere and no calluses on your hands. You’re so smooth and soft, I can barely keep from pouncing on you.” He sighed and plucked at the grass, one strand at a time. “You lived an easy life. I wish I could offer you the same.” He sounded hurt.
It twisted her gut that he thought he had so little to give. She came ashore and knelt in front of him. “I don’t think Eorthe could offer me what I lost.”
He flinched.
She caressed his face until his chin rested in her palm. “I never knew how empty and meaningless my life was until I met you though. You saved me, Sorin. I only existed in my world, but you showed me how to live.”
He turned his face against her palm and placed a kiss on it.
She slipped back into the pool. “Swim with me.” Floating in the center, she observed a couple of cumulus clouds passing across the blue sky. She’d never bothered to look at them on Earth. She’d been too busy meeting deadlines, secreted away in her lab, going over calculations and arguing theories. She should be trying to figure out how to return home. Instead, she rode shifters bareback through the mountains, bathed in hot springs and fell out of trees.
If the portal opened again while at the Temple, she wouldn’t step through. This world with its vicious creatures held Sorin, and he in turn owned her heart. How could she ever live without him?
Waves rippled around her. Sorin swam close, circling. “You have an advantage over me.”
She wanted to laugh. She had nothing on him—he had all the power.
“You know of my world. Tell me about yours.”
Settling her feet onto the sandy bottom, she stopped drifting away from him. “I told you some things. Only humans exist there as far as I know. Our technology is much more advanced. What else?”
“How many lovers have you had?”
Her breakfast rolled over and played dead. “Not many.”
With a grave expression, he swam closer and inhaled. “You’re not lying but I find that hard to believe.”
She opened and closed her mouth trying not to sputter. He wasn’t joking. “I wouldn’t lie about that.” Men chased after women like Lailanie, not super-geeky her.