Unbound: Shifters Forever Worlds(7)

He unbuttoned her jeans, then tugged the zipper, the metal making a ripping sound. He pulled on them when she picked her ass up and let him slide them off. The panties followed suit. His body over hers, the head of his cock pressed against her entrance. She could feel the moisture on her nether lips cooling in the evening air.

She watched his face as he closed his eyes, an expression she’d never seen before.

He slid in a tiny bit.

She gasped at the girth as he stretched muscles that weren’t even used to a finger.

“Want me to stop?” His breath was warm on her cheek.

She shook her head and fought the tears of discomfort. “I want you,” she told him, knowing she wanted him more than anything, trusting him to take care of her.

He gritted his teeth and pressed into her slowly until she was filled with him. The pain of being stretched eased as he pulled back slowly. Her skin tingled where they’d joined as one. He slid in again, his teeth still gritting, his jaw clenched, and his gray eyes studying her face as he filled her again.

She moaned and he pulled back again, then slid in, with each successive thrust he pushed in harder until he was ramming her and she was arching her back and returning each stroke with a matching pace.

The punishment being inflicted on her was a dichotomy of pleasure and pain, pushing her into a realm she’d have never thought existed as she exploded into a million tiny pieces, then came back together again, just to detonate all over again. Each thrust, each cry, each groan, each plunging drive jetted Glory to a new high until a snarl came from deep within Dane and he called her name out with a grunt. Hot warmth shot into her body, while his body tensed and straightened.

He collapsed on her body, panting, sweating, his scent and her scent merging the same way their bodies had.

They’d both just turned eighteen.





5





“Glory!” Sara’s voice.

Glory shifted out of her ivy form and left the private garden and her memories of Dane. She glanced at a white rock, marbled with green and gray streaks, then pushed the sadness away.

“How was the shopping spree?” she asked, though she didn’t really need to ask; her cousins were laden with shopping bags.

She adjusted her rumpled clothing. Shifting certainly did make it look like she’d been in a wrestling match. “Took you quite a while in town.”

Not that I’m complaining.

She’d enjoyed her time alone.

“Shopping was great! Sorry we took so long there’s a new Dane Snow movie out. We had to see it. Just had to.”

“The people at the theater were talking about him. How he’s a hometown boy or something.” Mary blushed.

Someone has a crush. Glory fought the pang of pain. She remembered when her own reaction to Dane was the same.

She didn’t have the heart to tell them he was all that and more… more as in he’d break a girl’s heart.

Like he did mine, without as much as a goodbye.

Bitter much?

Yeah, maybe. So what?

She hated how her inner monologue always went. She wanted to be mad at her ivy for leading her into that love, but knew she couldn’t. She’d jumped in without reservation; it wasn’t her ivy’s fault. Glory had fallen for Dane the same way her ivy had for his snow leopard.

Sara clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. She dropped her hand. “His uncle is dead.”

Glory did a double take. “Frank Forester? Dead?”

“That’s what they were saying. And that there’s to be a reading of the will,” Sara continued as if Glory hadn’t interrupted.

“And they think that will come into town for it,” Mary added.

“I bet he’ll just send his agent or his lawyer.” Glory took the bags from her cousins’ hands and helped them carry the merchandise inside.

“Where are you and Perry going to live?” Sara asked. “Has he decided? Has he said?”

“Live?” Glory set the bags down. “Maybe, we’ll live right here.”

Mary giggled. “Glory, be serious.”

Sara joined her in the merriment. “He’s practically ivy royalty. He’s not going to want to live in a cabin in the back woods of Indiana.”

More laughter.

Sara’s and Mary’s voices faded into the background. The only thing Glory could concentrate on was the idea that Dane may return. It was as if she was in a vortex where sound and light vanished and she was spinning, deeper, and further into the tunnel’s void and the only thing penetrating the dimness was one repeated theme: Dane was coming to Woodland Creek.

A hand around her bicep jarred her. “Did you?” More shaking. “Did you ever meet him?

She shook her head, knowing damned well that wouldn’t clear it. “Who?” Had they moved on or stayed with the Perry Moore topic?

Oh, God. What if Perry is here and Dane is here…

Why would Dane be here? He’d walked off without so much as backward glance, never checked on her, never. Not once.

Who gave a damn if he was in town? She was promised to Perry.

And did it matter if she bonded with Perry?

Why am I so dead set against Perry?

“Well? Did you? Did you ever meet Dane?”

She shook her head, it would be easier that they think she hadn’t. Then she was instantly struck by remorse. She hated lying. “Briefly. Once.” She spurted the words out, sounding much like an engine that didn’t want to start.