8. Miles

EIGHT

MILES

I wandered into the living room, giving her the space she seemed to need. It was a little surprising how sparse the decor was. In the corner was whatever little craft project she had going on, but other than that, the apartment didn't feel like her. I'd imagined a lot more color. Some bright throw pillows on the couch, maybe an Andy Warhol–type print on the wall. Celina seemed like a colorful person, and I'd expected her place to be the same. Though, I had to remind myself that she'd only planned on being in town for a month. It was a little crazy to fully decorate something temporary.

My wolf whined at the reminder that she was only here for a short time. Unlike Steff and Tate, I was working with a much smaller window of time. It was worrying, especially with how timid and shy Celina seemed. It could take days to get her to let her guard down and open up enough to really get to know her, and for her to get to know me. I hoped that wouldn't be the case, but I had to plan for it regardless.

I sat on the couch and glanced through a stack of books on the coffee table. Celina was a writer, and it wasn't surprising to find books in her house, but the range of titles was a little strange. The pile was fairly large and had everything from fantasy to horror and romance.

One title in particular made me do a double take. Shifter Love . My eyes bulged, and I glanced toward the kitchen. Celina was mincing garlic for the dressing. I scooped the book up out of the pile and looked at the cover. It was definitely a romance novel. The guy on the front looked like he was in the middle of shifting to a panther.

The majority of the human population didn't know the shifter race existed. But after thousands of years, there were rumors all over. Shifters were like an urban legend to humanity. I'd seen a few movies which tried to portray us, and those were usually shit. We were either immortal godlike beings, or one step from feral Neanderthals. I opened the book, flipped to a random page in the middle and started reading.

Cole pulled me close, brushing his lips across my neck. I wanted him more than anything I'd ever wanted in my life. When he pulled my bra down and exposed my breasts, I released a sigh of longing and desire. His body was lean and muscled like the panther he had hidden within. As he caressed my breasts, I unzipped his pants…

I raised my eyebrows and smiled. Blayne would get a kick out of this. I definitely had to tell him about the book later or buy him a copy as a gag gift. This was pretty steamy stuff. I skimmed down the page, and things got really interesting. It was enough for the crotch of my pants to start getting a little tight around me.

Celina stepped around the kitchen island. "Food's ready. Oh." She gasped and put a hand to her mouth, seeing the book in my hand.

I put it down and stood, feeling self-conscious all of a sudden. "Sorry. I was browsing a little. Did…did you write that one?"

Her eyes went so wide I almost laughed, but held it back. Her face went red, and she nodded. "I…um, wrote all of those."

I spun and looked at the table again. There had to be a dozen books there, but they all had different authors. "Wait, what? All these? I don't see your name anywhere."

"All pen names. I use my real name for my more literary fiction stuff. I don't like writing in one genre. So, I use a pen name for other stuff. P.M. Douglas for my scary books, Jessica Allmon for historical romance, Allen Brightworth for science fiction and fantasy, and…oh god." Her face went bright red. "I use the name Chastity Carmichael for…the…erotica stuff." She nodded at the book I'd been reading.

I raised my eyebrows again. "Chastity?"

"Yeah, I know." She grimaced and looked at the floor. "I was nineteen when I picked that name. It stuck, and once the readers know it…" She shrugged. "My agent said it would be a bad business decision to change it or start writing under a different name. So, here we are."

I grinned at her and gestured at the book again. "Why do you seem so uncomfortable talking about that book?"

If her face had been red before, now it was the color of a tomato, and her hands started doing that anxious twisting thing again. "It's embarrassing."

"Why?"

She gave me a look like I should know. "It's full of smut."

I smirked and cocked an eyebrow. "Like what? Do you want to elaborate?" She went bug-eyed, and I chuckled. "I'm joking. I think I get the picture."

Celina sighed with relief. "Oh, thank God," she murmured.

"I think it's awesome. I could never write this many books. Or even one book. How many have you done?"

My compliment seemed to ease her anxiety, and she was able to glance up and meet my eyes for a second. "I first got published when I was seventeen. So in eleven years I've published…um," Celina looked up at the ceiling and counted silently. "About thirty books."

I gaped at her. "Thirty books? That's almost three books a year."

She shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't do a lot. I usually spend ten or twelve hours a day writing. I can usually smash out a book every three months. Then it takes another month or so for edits and rewrites."

"You are impressive as hell," I said, hoping she heard the admiration in my voice.

She smiled, and I could see how my compliment pleased her. "Um, if you want to sit at the table, I'll bring you your food."

I took a seat, and put a hand to my stomach as it growled. Not knowing what kind of cook Celina was, I'd fasted the entire day. That way, even if she was terrible, I'd still eat what she'd made and not make her feel bad. If the smell were any sign, though, dinner was going to be great. She brought out a big stew pot with something that looked fantastic in it and set it on the table between us. She then went back and brought out a salad and what looked like fried bananas.

She pointed out each item as she listed them off. "Brazilian salad with hearts of palm, fried sweet plantains, and feijoada. It's a Brazilian stew with black beans and pork." She grimaced slightly. "I hope you like it."

I smiled and took a breath, inhaling the delicious scent. "There's no way I won't like this."

She responded with a happy grin, and my wolf gave a mental tail wag. She went to grab the red wine off the counter and two glasses. She set them down in front of me, along with a wine key. "Mind opening it? I've never been very good at popping the cork."

I took the bottle and started twisting the corkscrew into the top of the bottle. "I'm sure you can pop the cork just fine when you want to," I said, giving her a sidelong look.

Celina pressed her lips into a tight line and flushed at the double-entendre. I poured us both a full glass, then set about devouring the meal before me. The first bite of the stew made me groan with pleasure. Even if I hadn't been starving, I would have loved it. The salad was great with a citrusy dressing that perfectly contrasted the richness of the main dish. The plantains were sweet with a crispy caramelized exterior. The entire meal made me think Celina could have been a chef had she not decided to write books.

"Do you like it?" she asked.

I nodded, my mouth full. I swallowed and wiped my lips with a napkin. "It's fantastic. Where did you learn to cook this? I've never had it before."

She shrugged. "I was in foster care from a really young age. Once I was old enough, I did some research and found out my mom was Brazilian. It got me into trying to cook dishes from her homeland."

I knew her background, but it would have been really suspicious if I didn't get her to elaborate. I asked more questions, and she filled me in on everything she'd gone through. As we ate and talked, I refilled my bowl two more times. Each time I did, Celina looked happier that I truly did like her food. It made me feel equally as good that she was opening up to me and talking about herself. Her awkward, stilted way of speaking seemed to vanish the more she relaxed. I hoped that meant she was getting comfortable with me. She was even looking me in the eyes more often as we talked. Her stunning beauty made me want to kill whoever had beaten her down and made her so timid and skittish.

"Have you ever thought of trying to find your mom? You know, reach out?" I asked.

She chewed at her lip. A jolt of fear shot through me. Had I overstepped? Worried I'd offended her, I added, "You don't have to answer that. I'm sorry. I should have known better."

Celina shook her head and smiled sadly. "No, it's fine. I actually did find her."

"Oh," I said in surprise, then waited for her to explain.

Celina set her fork down and put her hands on her lap. "I found her right after I turned twenty-one. I'd just sold my biggest book and had a lot of extra money to hire a private investigator to try and find her. He did. She didn't want to see me."

"Wait, what?"

She nodded. "I guess she still felt really guilty about giving me up. She also wasn't married to my dad, and in Brazilian Catholic families, a baby born out of wedlock is still a really big no-no. She more or less told me to have a great life but not to contact her."

I could understand her mother's point of view. I'd run from my pack all those years ago, abandoning my parents. I was also ashamed of what I'd done. If Mom and Dad tried to contact me now, would I even be able to look them in the eyes? Could I stand seeing the pain I'd caused them by running out on them? I wasn't sure, and that didn't make it right. At least I'd grown up with my parents. Celina's mom had left when she was so little that she'd missed almost everything. Wouldn't she want to at least get to know her daughter?

Needing to change the subject, I pivoted. "Well, what brought you to Lilly Valley?"

She visibly relaxed. "I'd hit some writer's block for the first time in my career, so I came here to get the creative juices flowing again."

"Is it working?"

She looked across the table at me, her eyes wide. "Yeah, I've found…some inspiration in town. I actually finished the book I was stuck on, and I'm working on another."

I decided now was the time to plant a little seed and see if it would bloom. "Sounds like things are going well. Maybe a month isn't long enough. Why don't you stay in town until this new book is done? No way to know for sure you won't get burned out again once you go back home, right?"

She blinked at me a few times and chewed at her lip. I could see the wheels turning as she considered it. If I hadn't been using my hands to eat, I would have had my fingers crossed under the table. Finally, she nodded. "That might actually be a pretty good idea. Maybe I will stick around a little longer. Who knows."

My wolf gave a satisfied growl at hearing that. I covered the sound by clearing my throat. We finished up dinner, and Celina cleared the plates and bowls while I poured us more wine, finishing off the bottle.

She sat back down and took her glass. "All we've talked about is me. What do you do for a living?"

"Me?" I asked. "Well, my three best friends and I own a security firm in town. I'm a private investigator. We each have our niche, and that's mine."

Celina made a surprised face and looked away. I frowned at her. She didn't look upset. Instead, she seemed lost in thought, a faint grin on her face. After a few seconds, she whispered to herself, "I need to add that to the story."

Again, my heightened hearing picked up the words I wasn't meant to hear. I wasn't sure exactly what she meant by that. She looked at me, and something she saw on my face made her go deathly pale. "Did…did you hear that?"

The look on her face was absolute terror. I did my best acting. "No. Did you say something? I only thought you looked like, maybe, you didn't like what I did for a living."

Sighing in relief, she waved me off. "Oh no. That's not an issue at all. It's the fact that I've never met anyone like you before."

"Is that good or bad?"

She blushed. "It's good. A good thing, yeah."

I smiled back. This woman was so sweet and innocent, but I was nothing like that. I wanted her, my wolf wanted her, but I didn't want to corrupt her. Though, as soon as that thought hit me, ideas about how to corrupt her filled my head. Images of her back arching as I buried my face between her legs, the delicious feeling of my cock slipping into her mouth, the veins standing out on her neck as I made her come. The mental flashes burst unbidden into my head. I knew the wolf probably had something to do with it, and I couldn't get it to stop. My dick was getting hard. I stood from the table, too fast.

Celina flinched. "Is everything okay?

"Hmmm? Oh, uh, nothing. I mean, yeah, I need to get going. I have…uh, an early morning. A meeting first thing I almost forgot about." Jesus, I sounded like a panicked fool.

Celina rose. "Are you sure?"

The crotch of my pants was starting to bulge noticeably, and any second now, she'd see my hardness. There was no way to know how she'd react to that. Having been around her, I thought she might be mortified at seeing my physical excitement. Although, from the things she wrote, maybe she'd be equally excited. I couldn't risk things moving too fast, though. There was too much on the line.

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine," I said, heading for the door.

She looked disappointed, and I felt like shit for it, but my hormones were raging in a way they hadn't since I was sixteen. I saw her standing there, and all I could do was imagine her naked, rubbing oil across her body, massaging her own breasts. I swallowed hard and opened the front door.

"Dinner was amazing. Thank you so much. Next time, I'm cooking for you, okay? Uh…anyway. I'll see you tomorrow probably. I need to get to bed. Bye."

I hurried across the hallway to my own apartment. My heart rate was through the roof. My cock was throbbing, the zipper ready to bust open, and all thoughts of my awkward departure vanished from my mind. I needed one thing, and that was a release. After locking the door, I grabbed a towel and yanked my pants down, fisting my cock and letting my mind loose to build the fantasy it was desperate for.

Celina stood before me, naked. She knelt on the floor and wrapped her cool, soft fingers around my shaft. A sigh of pleasure left my lips as she took me into her mouth. I ran my hands through her hair as she slid up and down my length, flicking her tongue at the head of my dick with each stroke. I groaned and let her work me for several seconds before I pulled her to her feet and laid her on the bed.

I slid my fingers along her inner thighs as I kissed her legs, moving from her knee closer to her pussy. She gasped as I slid my tongue inside her. I sucked at her clit and slid my hands up to take her breasts. I clutched them and massaged as her breathing grew louder and more insistent. Whimpering, she grabbed my hands, and ground her hips into my face.

Pulling away, I crawled up, peppering her body with kisses as I went. I stopped at her breasts and took each nipple into my mouth in turn, licking and sucking until she was panting and shivering with need. Then, achingly slow, I slipped my cock into her. Celina looked into my eyes and gasped, her mouth open in an ‘oh' of ecstasy.

We moved together, my hips crashing into her, her own hips rising to meet me. I kissed her long and hard as I got closer. Speeding up, our bodies pressed together and sent me inch by inch toward the edge. The wetness of her pussy was almost too much for me to take—I'd never felt anything so amazing in my life.

Celina threw her head back and wrapped her arms around me, clutching my ass, pulling me deeper and harder. I obliged and slammed myself into her as she came. Her screams of pleasure sent me over the edge, into oblivion.

I jerked my cock, and the orgasm rippled through my balls and pelvis. Shuddering, I slowed my strokes as I came. Finally feeling a moment of release, I could think clearly. I lay there gasping, wishing beyond all things in heaven and earth that my fantasy had been real life. If anything, I wanted Celina more than ever. I just hoped I hadn't made an ass of myself for leaving the way I did. I lay there for ten minutes, trying to think of a way to explain it to her tomorrow. Hopefully, she'd bought the meeting story.

After fifteen minutes, the mental image of her rubbing oil into her skin reappeared in my mind. My cock twitched to life again. I sighed. "This woman. Oh my God." And I began to stroke myself hard once more.