Chapter 7

Lucius

My unwelcome guest was not acting the way she should, she wasn’t acting in a way that would keep her safe. From me. Her words held a hint of an explanation, and I wanted to demand answers from her, but I also wanted to keep her in my arms. The primitive urge to haul her over my shoulder and straight into my private lair was even more powerful.

For now, I settled for a middle ground, if one could even call it that. I held her to my chest but fought the urge to fold my wings around us and shut us into a private cocoon. The flames that danced along my feathers, and that wanted to erupt from my hands, would not harm her, not unless I wanted them to cause harm, and I definitely did not.

“Shifters? Explain this to me,” I said. It was not a question exactly, but I’d managed to soften my tone enough not to sound like a complete caveman. Aries would be proud of me, he always said I lacked people skills.

Ava scrunched up her brow, her eyes taking on something I could only call a guilt-stricken expression. This was going to be interesting. That she was embroiled in my world, the hidden supernatural that most humans had no knowledge of, had been obvious. Not just any human ended up chased by two shifters through my woods.

They weren’t locals because the local shifters knew to stay out of my territory. That meant this pair of males was chasing my guest for a very specific reason, and they had followed her from wherever she came to get her. Protective instincts roiled through my chest. This female was in trouble, lots of it. I shoved them away because, in my current state, this couldn’t be my problem.

“Well… You see…” she waffled, and I had to fist my hand against her back to prevent myself from reaching up to cup her stubbornly pointed chin. Her glasses were perched on the tip of her nose, they had slipped when she stumbled into me. With a delicate finger, she pushed them back in place. Then the blasted female dared to place her palm back on my chest like it belonged there, and my heart leaped in my chest.

“Spit it out, Ava,” I said to her. Her name rolled off my tongue in the most satisfying way. Ziv nudged my leg with his head, then raised himself on his hind legs. With his claws, he started climbing my leg, and I savored each pinch of pain against my skin as a wake-up call. I had to step back, I had to let her go.

The blasted feline didn’t use his claws on her when he reached our pressed-together fronts. I would have thrown him out of the house for that kind of offense, he knew better. The traitorous pet did meow plaintively as he clambered onto her shoulder and started butting his head against the side of her face.

She was laughing, red stinging her cheeks. “Ah, you’re so cute… What’s his name?” This was not where the conversation was supposed to go. This was when I should tell her to leave again. To keep her distance. Instead, a smile pulled at my mouth for what felt like the first time in months, maybe even years.

“His name is Ziv, and he seems to think he can get away with anything,” I told her, my voice raspy when the cat in question moved higher and started nudging her even closer. What was he up to? Meddling fur ball. Any closer and we’d be kissing. All I had to do was dip my head, and I’d feel those soft, luscious lips pressed to mine. My cock surged in my pants and with how close we were pressed together, there was no way she hadn’t felt that.

The red in her cheeks became even more pronounced, but it was her scent that interested me. A floral note, her shampoo or soap, a mild hint of the detergent she’d used on her clothes, but most of all… A hint of musk, a sweet indication of her arousal. Arousal that rose in response to mine; to my presence.

“Ziv, huh?” she said, and my mind struggled to comprehend what she was talking about. Why did she mention my always-meddling cat? I had eyes only for her soft, pink lips, and the tip of her tongue as it darted out to wet them. My cock surged again, throbbing against her abdomen. I should do the right thing and step back, I should let her go like I’d intended to all night.

Her soft sigh, the languid heat that rose to meet mine in her eyes; all of it combined to break the last tenuous threads of my control. My head lowered, my mouth claimed, and my wings snapped shut around us. The female went limp and soft in my arms, but her blunt little nails dug into my skin. Had she pushed against my chest at that moment, I would have yielded, I would have managed to step away. She did not.

The blasted woman clung to me like I was her only hold on reality, her shelter in the storm that raged between us. I was, I’d make sure of it. Her taste was as delightful as her scent, inflaming my senses. My chest rumbled with a growl, and when Ziv slipped into thin air, giving us privacy, I knew I was lost. This was where I crossed the line, but what did it matter? For one night, one night only, I could find pleasure in the arms of this small human woman.

She moaned when I slipped my hand down her spine and cupped her curvy rear. I lifted her against me, and she accommodated by curling her legs around my hips. Just like that, she opened herself up to me, and her warm heat was pressed against my hard cock. Pleasure rocked me, and that only increased when I turned us and pressed her against the nearest wall. Now I had leverage, and I used it to rock my hips against her. Her moans music to my ears.

“Ah, Lucius! That feels so good…” Her husky words trailed off when I pressed harder, her little body shuddering against mine in what was surely a precursor to an orgasm. She was sensitive, and she was willing; how was that possible?

“Ava,” I groaned against her silky lips, my teeth nibbling the bottom one before I trailed more kisses along the soft curve of her jaw. “Last warning,” I forced myself to say. “Tell me to stop, leave! Or suffer the consequences.”

She shuddered again, and goosebumps broke out all along the delicate arch of her neck. “Consequences? Do those involve mind-blowing sex? If so, not exactly the right method to discourage me.”

Her words shocked a laugh out of me, real mirth. They evoked happiness in me to go along with the dazzling lust I felt for her body. It bubbled out of me, rocking us in our tiny cocoon of feathers and heat. “Too late now,” I said when my laughter subsided and I caught the heated look in her eyes.