Desired by the Wicked Woodsman: A Night Falls Shapeshifter BBW Romance Page 8

  Had I become nothing to my brother? Was I just another member of the pack he now led?

  Rubbing at my forehead, I looked up to find Joshua staring in my direction.

  “Shifters don’t get headaches,” he said. “But you’re in pain. Did you hit your head in the woods?”

  I ignored him, my hands falling to clasp together against my shins.

  His phone vibrated. He read the latest text, typed a short reply then put the phone away with a sigh.

  I didn’t want to ask but I did. “How furious is he?”

  Reeves shrugged. “Not as much as he would be if I hadn’t sugarcoated the truth.”

  Sugarcoated?

  For his benefit or mine, I wondered. My fingers twisted around one another. I ran a few sentences through my head, searching for a way to ask him what he had said without giving away any of my feelings. I mean, if he didn’t tell me, I might inadvertently expose his omissions of the truth to Braeden. So asking Reeves would actually be helping him, not me.

  “He knows we encountered hyena shifters outside the restaurant,” he said without my asking.

  My brows lifted at the first inaccuracy, but I didn’t challenge him. Saying we had encountered the shifters where we actually did would have entailed explaining why we were in the woods to begin with.

  “Braeden knows that we then ran into the woods to avoid revealing our nature to any humans,” he continued. “I told him we fought the shifters off when they attacked and that hyenas seem to heal freaky fast.”

  I laughed at the last bit. It was something for a shifter, especially an alpha, to say that another shifter healed freaky fast. A cut to the skin, as long as it didn’t touch muscle or an artery, could heal before the next slice for most shifters. But gun wounds and broken spines should have taken longer. Landa had been down for minutes when Onyx had smashed the she-cat against a concrete wall and she had needed an alpha’s help.

  The hyena had only been down for seconds.

  Joshua’s voice dropped lower. “He agrees that we should not return immediately to Night Falls as a precaution against leading them to the pack.”

  I mulled it over and snorted. “Maybe by then he’ll forget to punish me.”

  “He’s not going to punish you, Miss Hughes.” Reeves tilted his head, one brow cocked in warning. “That task lies with me.”

  #WhatFreshFuckeryIsThis

  “You…but you’re not…”

  I fumbled to put into words what I was thinking. Reeves wasn’t family, which was often the first line of discipline within a pack. But he was my brother’s second in command, which meant Braeden really was handling me as if I was just another member of his pack.

  Chewing at my bottom lip, I fell silent. Braeden actually was punishing me—by handing me off to someone else. What form the cat’s punishment would take, I didn’t know.

  But the pack didn’t hurt its females. There weren’t enough women to go around. For the same reason, they didn’t expel us either. Worst case scenario for a female, if public shaming and manual labor wasn’t deemed punitive enough, was to be put in the “pool.” That was six months to select a mate or become a sweet—

  A brutal pounding inside my head shut the thought down. I was not going into the “pool.” I sure as hell would leave the pack and Night Falls before that.

  “Probably the wild mint doing that to you,” Joshua said, catching me rubbing at my forehead again.

  He tried to push some of his healing energy at me. I locked down, becoming some void thing that reflected the energy back at him.

  His gaze widened, the tan cheeks flushing pink. “How do you keep doing that?”

  I didn’t have an answer. And I didn’t want to deal with him.

  “Can we just not talk?” I sniped. “Like, basically, ever except for the mechanics of leaving this place and going home? And to the extent you can just point, I’m fine with that.”

  “I’m not going to point where—”

  I stopped him with the lift of one brow and the flare of my nostrils. Less than an hour before, he damn well had pointed to where he wanted me to go—in a corner with a chair.

  His mouth puckered. If the flush of his cheeks hadn’t been a flare of anger before, my request and sarcasm had pushed the wrong button at last. Standing, he wrapped a hand around the back of my neck, his other hand applying pressure to the bend of my elbow at a nerve ending.

  Shit. I realized that I might be in real trouble.

  “Joshua—”

  “Shh,” he mocked, steering me toward the bathroom.

  He crammed our bodies into the small space and locked the door. He started stripping, I stared, incredulous for a few seconds. Seeing that he had no intention of stopping until he was bare assed, I spun around. His reflection mocked me in the mirror.

  Bare chest, broad shoulders, thick biceps.

  I closed my eyes only to flash them open a second later as Joshua’s hands patted around my pockets, removing my wallet, some color cards I had grabbed at Walmart and a few other odds and ends.

  I turned around, my covered chest colliding with his naked one.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  I kept my eyes locked on his face. The view was just as dangerous as the sculpted chest or the abdomen with its tight ripples of muscle. I had known Reeves for about eleven years but had spent the last eight and a half avoiding his face. I had forced myself to look at other faces instead—faces closer to my own age that didn’t shift into anything feline.

  Rooster and his brother Clark, Mojo’s nephew Hue, a few human males…

  When it came to Reeves, I was always looking somewhere else.

  In that tight space, my options were to close my eyes with no clue as to what outrageous act he had planned next or look at his face with its penetrating blue eyes, its mobile mouth with the pouty bottom lip, and the scruff of beard that had already played over my thighs.

  Starting to shake, I growled out the question again. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  Reaching into the shower stall with one hand, he raised the other close to his mouth, his index finger extended upward to touch at his lips in a quieting gesture that infuriated me.

  He turned the water on. I looked around the room. There was the barest of windows above the toilet, just enough to get my head through. There was the door, locked and with his naked body complicating my passage.

  I could only stand firm.

  Hold my ground.

  Not give in.

  “I’m not getting in there with you, dressed or otherwise.”

  Reeves lifted his brows, his cat prowling behind the blue irises. He gave a soft shove with his alpha energy, too quick and under the radar for me to deflect it in time.

  I planted my feet apart, braced one hand against the sink and the other against the wall, then dropped my chin two inches and glared.

  Joshua’s flat, raspy tongue pushed between his lips to press against the top one, the corners of his mouth lifting upward with a languid satisfaction. Reaching into the shower, he checked the water temperature then ran his gaze down my clothed form. Arms reaching for me, he erased the foot of space between us.

  His chest pressed against mine, the warmth of his body forcing my eyes shut.

  Damn, I couldn’t be this close to him and not remember how I had felt that morning. Horny, needy, no longer in control but no longer wanting to be in control.

  “Fine, fine,” I relented. “We can use our words now. Okay? And I don’t know how I do that. I didn’t know it was at all notable. I do it to Taron and Braeden all the time and they don’t so much as blink.”

  “Shh,” he warned, a cold mischief in his blue gaze.

  I tried to inch backwards, the toilet blocking any retreat. To move to one side or the other, I would have to let go of the sink and wall, forfeiting any leverage I gained in bracing against them.

  Joshua wrapped his arms around my waist. Preparing to lift me, he bent his knees, the contours of
his torso moving against me.

  Something else moved against me, something hard rising up from between his legs.

  I closed my eyes, felt them roll upward. In the small space, I was not only pushed up against him, but had to deal with how his scent gathered heavily in the room. It was as mesmerizing as it had been at first sniff by the creek. Tantalizing and thick enough to tease my tongue as well as my nose, the odor warmed my skin, slid over and through me, caressed then twisted the muscles inside me.

  Not ready to toss me into the shower, Joshua tilted his head then settled his lips against my throat. His lips parted, his tongue exploring the flesh of my neck and then his teeth as my legs began to shake. My elbows gave out first, my hands falling uselessly to my sides. The partial surrender was all he needed to effortlessly lift me and place me in the shower, clothes and all.

  He followed me in, shut the stall door then pushed me against the shower wall, his mouth hungry against the side of my neck. My pussy flooded. Hot dancing nerves exploded across my skin. The fabric covering me began to soak through, clinging to me from the weight of the water so that I could feel every inch of where it touched me.

  I moaned at the sensual drag on my breasts, the pinch of my nipples as the material became saturated.

  My hips thrust forward. Joshua seized them with his big hands, pushing me harder against the wall. His body followed, like we were already locked together. The pressure of his thick cock pushing against my stomach worked its way into the core of my sex.

  “Blouse off,” he growled, his words commanding me as the rest of his body impeded my compliance.

  As I fumbled to obey, he kissed, nipped and stroked me to distraction.

  His hands cupped my ass, lifted me up and gathered my mound against his stiff cock. I started to touch him back. I caressed the hard planes of his chest, my fingers finding and teasing the small brown nipples that had pebbled so hard they all but disappeared. I trailed my nails down the washboard abs to fist his erection, tugging the thick shaft until our moans were as intertwined as our bodies.

  “Face the wall,” he huffed, stepping back and forcing me to turn.

  When he had me in position, he reached around and unfastened my cargo pants. His strong hands pushed at the waistband, his thumb hooking the sides of my panties and stripping both articles of clothing away. He yanked one sock off then the other. His fingertips slid upward along the back of my calves. He brushed the inside corner of my knees, turning them weak. My ass tightened, lifted, my thighs squirming as he followed that inside track. He stood up. One hand wrapped around my hip. The other hand slid between the top split of my thighs, cupping my pussy and squeezing. His thumb sluiced through my juices then gently prodded the quivering hole.

  He dipped his head, his forehead touching between my shoulder blades. A sigh stopped his soft purring. His hands left my flesh to grab the hem of my shirt, all my earlier efforts to remove it unsuccessful.

  He lifted, I raised my arms, my bare ass squirming with need against his hard cock. He felt like he would fit perfectly inside me, stuffing and stretching me until I came from just the size and the blue of his eyes as he met my gaze.

  My blouse hit the shower floor with a wet thwump. Joshua unhooked my bra and pushed the straps down my arms. My cheek pressed against the wall, his body only visible as a golden blur at the periphery of my vision.

  He trailed a finger up my spine, my back curling in response. My breasts pushed hard against the tile as my ass lifted higher in the air, my body instinctively offering him access. Wrapping his strong hand around the back of my neck, he squeezed. The dominant gesture paralyzed me, kept me on my tiptoes, ass suspended high, the mouth of my pussy sharply sucking at air.

  Two fingers slid in to shake loose a rough moan.

  Three fingers, rotating, sliding.

  My entire body vibrated. I braced my palms against the shower wall and pressed my eyes tightly shut. He knew what I wanted, knew it by the backward thrust of my hips my trembling, my groaning mouth.

  The fingers disappeared. A second passed, then another. My body shook harder. His grip on the back of my neck tightened. The hungry gap between my legs yawned in need.

  Don’t do it. Don’t pull away.

  Joshua stepped closer.

  His fist grazed between my thighs—his fist and something more.

  He had his hand wrapped around the thick shaft, guiding the fat crown of his erection. The tip played back and forth between the slick walls of my labia. Air stuttered in and out of my body. My heart hammered in my chest, all of me waiting.

  He centered the head, his fist sliding lower down the shaft. The muscles of my pussy pushed outward in search of contact, found it and lipped the head of his enormous cock.

  I whispered his name, a whimper curling through each letter. He pushed a little deeper, a quarter of the tip stretching my tight hole. He retreated, the head smoothing forward through my thick cream to prod at my swollen clit. The broad shaft crowded and eclipsed the pocket of my labia.

  A quick backstroke had the head pushing into my pussy, the muscles twisting around to tug him deeper. The tip breached me. My shoulders flared back, my breasts dragging upward from where they pressed hard against the tile, the sharp, aching nipples battered with each dip between the small ceramic squares.

  He leaned in. I expected him to bury his length inside me, to plant a kiss along my shoulder, maybe offer some tender whisper or a heartfelt explanation of why he had abandoned me at the cabin.

  He offered nothing.

  Pulling away, Reeves gathered my soaking clothes and stepped out of the shower.

  A few coldly delivered words robbed the room, and my flesh, of any heat.

  “Finish on your own.”

  Chapter 14

  Clover

  I left the bathroom with one towel wrapped around my hair and another engaged in a heroic battle to conceal my curves. Joshua was nowhere in sight. Neither were my clothes. Everything else was as I had left it. Phone on the table, shoes on the floor. The bed was made, a second blanket folded in a tidy square at the end. Grabbing a pillow, I tossed it on the couch then snatched up the spare blanket.

  Avoiding the bed, I sat on the couch, pulled the blanket up to my chin and leaned against the back cushion. I stared at my phone. It was within arm’s reach, but there was no one I wanted to talk to at that moment. I would receive warnings, platitudes, recriminations. I would get no better than Joshua had offered in the shower, although it was hard to imagine anything worse.

  Going into the woods had been stupid. But fleeing Joshua was sane. All he was capable of offering me were games. Cruel games. I had always known that about him, even after I outgrew the instant terror that having a cat around me had produced in those first years after I settled in Night Falls.

  Hearing footsteps approaching the bedroom door, I laid flat on my side, burrowed into the cushions and pulled the blanket up to cover my face. Hearing the doorknob turn, I closed my eyes. My nose and ears took over.

  Shifter. Cat. Joshua.

  “I would appreciate it if you didn’t get my sleeping spot all wet,” he said, his voice returning to its default level of boredom.

  I took a deep breath, the infusion of calm shutting down my impulse to unleash my wet hair all over the sofa.

  I felt his hand near my foot, then the blanket was snatched away before I could grab hold and fight to retain it. The towel around my body unraveled a second later as he dropped the blanket and gave the terry cloth a sharp tug.

  He was shirtless and barefoot, someone else’s jeans wrapped around his lean hips.

  With a snarl, I stood up and rounded on Joshua. I didn’t care if I was bare assed. I was not going to let him toy with me without lashing out. As long as I was fighting, I wasn’t surrendering.

  “I think I finally figured it out.” I tapped a finger three times against the center of his forehead, my bare breasts bouncing against his hard chest. “Feline spongiform encephalopathy. Mad Cat Disease.�
��

  “You’re right, I must be crazy.” Joshua slid around my naked body to sit on the end of the bed. “I’ll have to remember that when your brother asks how I disciplined you.”

  I turned, my thoughts clouding with fury as I jabbed a finger at the bathroom. “That fucking bit of water torture wasn’t it? Having to spend another single second in your presence isn’t enough?”

  He rose from the bed, his movements too slow to alarm me. With a quick maneuver, he captured the wrist of my outstretched hand.

  “You have many transgressions, catnip,” he said, my brain slow to process the warning in his tone. “I have punishments for each.”

  Still holding onto my wrist, Joshua spun and bent low, flipping me onto the bed. I landed on my stomach. I scrambled to recover but his arms enveloped my waist, lifting me as he slid into the same seated position he had been in seconds before, this time with me unceremoniously dumped across his lap.

  Joshua fisted one hand in my hair, his other hand lightly cupping my bottom.

  For my part, the reaction to his touching me there was instant. Liquid heat began to coat the thick lips cloistering my pussy.

  “You didn’t read any of the texts on your phone,” he said.

  It was an observation, not an accusation. It was also entirely accurate.

  “I want to read them now,” I blurted like a toddler or a drunk co-ed reaching for any chance of getting out of trouble.

  “Can’t,” he said, giving my right butt cheek a little squeeze. “I deleted them while you were in the shower.”

  I squirmed, tried to roll enough that I could look at his face, his voice no longer giving away any emotion. Whether they were obvious or not, my own emotions were conflicted. The wet, needy heat between my thighs hadn’t subsided, but I knew my desire wasn’t reciprocated. That knowledge left me confused and hurt.

  “Why?” I asked, finding myself trapped in his iron hold. I might have been able to slide off the bed, but then I would be on my knees in front of him, my mobility severely limited by the thick fistful of hair he gripped.