Unbound: Shifters Forever Worlds(6)

“It was hot, so I went for a swim first.”

His face told her something was wrong. She couldn’t put a finger on what it was. “What is it?”

“It’s the anniversary of my dad’s death.” His face had paled. “What the f*ck. Anniversaries should be celebrated. Why do they call it an anniversary of a death?” He was choking on the words, his voice full of emotion. A battle seemed to rage within him, one she didn’t understand.

She reached out. He crumbled into her outstretched arms. Her best friend Dane, her champion and occasional tormentor when he teased her mercilessly, was different now. There was a depth and a hollowness, at the same time.

“I want to kill them.” He pushed the words out of his mouth as if his lungs were expelling them with an ejection seat.

“Who?” She stroked his head and tried to not think of the way his body felt against hers. Her pulse quickened, even though her mind pushed all thoughts aside.

“The bastards that killed my father and Uncle Greg. But Uncle Frank won’t tell me anything about them. That it’s not for me to fight this battle.”

He seemed to flinch in her arms and she wondered if it was a sob. She pulled back and studied his face. Her shifter senses picked up the anger making his pulse trip. They weren’t kids anymore. None of their reactions to one another was logical.

His body molded to hers, fitting against her as if they were puzzle pieces. In the mid-summer’s heat, sweat beaded on her forehead, making her hair stick to her skin while she held him, absorbing his anger, allowing him to take her calm and keep it within himself.

While they stood, silently, holding each other, a storm raged within. Passions built furnaces that fueled desires.

Her ivy pushed against her, propelling her toward a turbulence of emotions that Glory was powerless to fight.

He pulled her face to his, his hands on both cheeks, holding her, his gray eyes staring into hers, digging deeper into her soul. His leopard flashed in the depths of Dane’s eyes and her ivy recognized the flash, yielding to it.

Frightened by the surge of emotions she didn’t understand, she leaned closer to him, her hands moving up his back, snaking toward his neck.

Did she tug his face downward or did he pull her closer? She couldn’t even remember how it happened.

One moment they were staring, the next her fingers were entwined in his too-long hair and his hands gripped her tresses with a force that reminded her she was alive. He pulled her head back and his lips settled on hers with a determination and a claiming that snatched her breath away.

She’d yielded to her ivy as she shifted, there in his arms.

Her ivy had taken control, caressing his body with tender leaves, traveling over a broad chest, rippling abs, strong legs, she’d surrounded him, covered him, embracing and hiding him from the merciless summer sun.

He’d lain down, covered by her ivy, sedate and calmed by her essence. Once Dane had fallen asleep, she’d shifted into her human form and lain next to him, both of them sleeping.

Just as the sun was setting she woke, the sound of his pulse in her ear sounding like the waves breaking on a beach. His hand was resting on her stomach, her top had shifted, exposing a slice of her midriff. He made tiny circles on her heated skin, giving rise to sensations deep within.

Circle after circle, and her pulse soon matched his, both of them loud in her ears, carrying her away.

His breath was hot on her neck, where her pulse faltered. His lips brushed against that spot where her pulse beat its tempo.

“Glory.” Dane’s voice was so soft only her shifter hearing would have heard it. “Thank you.” His words were husky, and plucking at her nerve endings with a pleasing cadence.

She turned her head to look in his eyes, a slate gray now, darker with desire.

His hand drifted upward, touching the hem of her bra. She held her breath, the trapped air burned her lungs. She didn’t release it while she waited, and hoped. Hoped that he’d explore more, hoped that he’d fulfill the pulsations permeating her body.

“Dane.” Words clogged her throat; all the things she wanted to say to him, stuck.

He rose to an elbow and adjusted his weight, his body half covering hers while his hand drifted upward, cupping her breast, his thumb resting on her nipple while it hardened beneath the promise of his touch.

A thread between her nipple and her core was tugged, sending vibrations throughout her body. She arched her back, pressing more of herself into his hand, wanting him to caress, flick, touch, pinch, and tease. Wanting him to do things she didn’t even know about.

His knee was between her legs, nudging them apart.

“I want you.” His husky declaration cut through the crickets’ revelry and bullfrogs’ songs.

She wanted him too. More than anything, as did her ivy. Her ivy insisting the snow leopard was her mate. Glory wasn’t going to argue with the ivy, but how could another species be her mate?

Her body thirsted for him with an unquenchable desire. Almost unquenchable. She lowered her hand, no clue what to do, letting primal desire and instinct drive her.

Her hand slipped into his shorts, finding a hardness that pulsed for her. She wrapped her fingers around the girth, marveling at the thickness and length.

He groaned when she squeezed. Knowing that could only be a good thing she repeated the gesture, then holding it with a semi-firm grip, she ran her hand up and down.