Nessa's Two Shifters (8 page)

“He won’t give up. I’m scared someone will get hurt, Joseph. I don’t want to be the reason one of you is hurt, or worse.” She shook her head and pushed to her feet.

Jessup clasped her wrist when she walked over to retrieve clothes from her bag. He let his hand slide down to clasp hers. When she looked up, he smiled at her.

“Don’t worry about us, sweetness. We are very hard to hurt and even harder to kill.”

“Look at me, baby. I’m living proof that we don’t die easily. You have nothing to worry about.” Joseph stood up and stalked over to the dresser where he pulled out something to wear.

Jessup squeezed her hand once more before letting it go to reach for clothes as well. She couldn’t look away as they dressed in front of her. She should have turned away from their nakedness, but couldn’t make herself give up the sight of their amazing masculine bodies. Their muscles were defined, their bodies sculpted to perfection. She learned something else about them that she would have been better off not to have known. They didn’t just occasionally not wear underwear beneath their skintight jeans, they didn’t even own underwear in the first place.

“With both of us to protect her, she’ll be fine, Joseph.” Jessup wanted to laugh at how protective his twin had already gotten of their mate.

When he’d suggested that she unpack her things and put them away in the dresser where they’d cleared space for her, he’d cringed at not only how little she owned but also the shape they were in. She needed new clothes. He wanted to provide for his mate and make sure she was dressed in only the best and most comfortable apparel they could find. Wolf’s Pass only had the truck stop and a general store. They would have to drive to Cascade to find anything outside of blue jeans and T-shirts. Maybe they should schedule a trip to Helena. He doubted even Cascade had the sort of things he wanted to see her wearing. Maybe they should go to Marquand, Montana instead. It at least had a school.

“Are you fucking listening to me?” Joseph asked in an exasperated voice.

“No. Sorry. We should take her to Marquand instead. Cascade won’t have anything nice to wear.”

“I’ve got to go to the diner and let them know I can’t work for a few days. My boss will fire me if I just don’t show up.” Nessa interrupted them when she spoke up.

Lee and Evan were still in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast. They looked over at Joseph like he did to see his reaction to her planning to go back to work in the future. They weren’t disappointed. He growled as his facial muscles tensed. Jessup winced when Nessa continued talking as if there wasn’t a big bad wolf hovering above her ready to strike.

“And I don’t need any new clothes. Mine are fine. I don’t need much. All I do is work at the diner.” She stopped talking when she noticed that no one was moving around her. “What?”

Joseph placed his hands on her shoulders and gently turned her to face him. Jessup watched in case he needed to intervene, but his twin didn’t raise his voice or threaten her in any way. He just told her how things were going to be.

“We will take you to talk to your boss on the way, Nessa. You need to give your notice since you won’t be returning to work at all.” When she would have interrupted, he placed a finger over her mouth and shook his head. “Let me finish.”

She glared at him but nodded when he waited with raised eyebrows. Jessup knew there would be an explosion once Joseph had finished lecturing her.

“You are our mate, and our mate doesn’t need to work. As for clothes, I wouldn’t call what you are wearing suitable for anything other than cleaning a sewer. They are threadbare and ugly. We’ll buy you things that will be soft against your skin and complement your beauty. You didn’t even have a decent winter coat in that pile of scraps you brought with you.”

Jessup watched her face redden with both embarrassment and anger. His brother was digging a massive grave that just might be large enough for his arrogance as well as his soon-to-be dead body. He had no doubt that Nessa would tear him apart given half a chance.

He wasn’t disappointed when she went up on her toes to get in Joseph’s face and hissed through clenched teeth at him. Jessup thought she would have made a cute kitten. Right now she looked pissed enough to be a wild cat.

“First of all, you don’t tell me what I can and can’t do. If I want to work at the diner, I darn well will. Second of all, my clothes are my business. I’m sorry they don’t meet with your lofty approval, but not all of us are able to pick and choose our wardrobes.” She stuck her finger in his chest as she made each point. “Thirdly of all, I haven’t agreed to be your mate!”

Jessup winced at that last statement as Lee and Evan snickered behind them. Joseph wouldn’t accept that from her, Jessup was sure. As he watched, his twin took the finger poking his chest and brought it to his lips where he kissed it before lightly grasping her upper arms and backing her against the wall. Her eyes grew wide, but she didn’t look scared, only surprised.

“Because you’re my mate, I’ll let you get away with poking your finger at me—this time, but make a habit of it and I’ll redden that sexy ass of yours. I won’t allow you to deny being our mate though.”

Jessup smiled when his brother took her mouth in a demanding kiss. Even from where he stood a few feet away, it was obvious that she quickly lost the battle to resist Joseph. She responded almost instantly by wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing closer to him. Jessup wanted to be at her back, drawing on her scent and feeling her ass nestle his cock, but he wasn’t interfering this time. He’d let Joseph exert his dominance over their mate for now.

While they didn’t want to smother her individuality, they did want to curb some of her independence to the point that she would look to them to protect her and give her what she needed. He frowned. She would no doubt resist the idea of being a
kept
woman. They would have to work on that.

His brother slowly pulled away from Nessa’s mouth, obviously fully aroused by how dark his eyes had gone and the way he was pressing his body against their mate. Jessup waited for him to regain control over his libido before saying anything.

“So, are we ready to head to town?” he asked, tongue in cheek.

Evan chuckled while Lee punched his brother for laughing. Nessa glared at them even as she slid out of Joseph’s embrace. The two dumb asses had the grace to blush at her obvious disapproval before they excused themselves and disappeared from the kitchen.

“I’m ready. Let’s go.” Joseph turned and headed for the back door.

Jessup smiled at the way Nessa followed his brother with her eyes. She might say she wasn’t their mate, but she looked at Joseph like she could eat him alive. Evidently being attracted to them was settling in with her because she didn’t try to hide it when she noticed that he had seen her ogling his twin’s ass.

“Don’t say one damn word, Jess. I’m still debating whether to believe the two of you or not.” She swept from the room, following Joseph with purposeful strides.

Jessup couldn’t wait to see what the next few hours would bring. Shopping with her would be an exercise in resistance and patience he was sure. She was going to fight them all the way before they managed to win her surrender. It would make it that much sweeter though.

When he climbed in the truck on the passenger side, they were already engaged in another argument. She hadn’t accepted their decision that she would quit work instead of calling off for a few days to heal. On this, he wouldn’t stand back and watch. He wasn’t letting her work another day or night at that place. She was their mate for fuck’s sake.

“You might as well sit still and plan your resignation speech, Nessa. You aren’t working there another shift. End of discussion,” he said when his brother didn’t say anything.

Her head swiveled toward him. The fire in her eyes was enough to make a grown man shake in his boots. It was a good thing they were more than men. His wolf saw it as a challenge instead of a threat. It didn’t back down on challenges for any reason. No doubt Joseph was busy fighting his instincts while he drove. Jessup had to give it to him. He was managing better than he thought he would have.

“You can’t tell me what to do, Jess. Neither can your brother. I don’t have an endless source of income available to me. I have to work to make a living.”

“You don’t have to work at all, baby.” Joseph turned an almost evil grin her way.

Jessup wanted to tell him not to say it, but he was too late.

“We will provide you with anything you need. We will pay for your clothes and your meals as well as any toys you want to play with.”

Her gasp sounded loud in the truck’s cab. Jessup couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face at the thought of her using a toy on herself that they had bought for her. She would put on a show for them before they made love to her. He could see in his head how she’d look spread out on the bed, her hand between her legs with a vibrator aimed for her clit. Would she tease herself like they would or would she get down to business?

“I’ve never used toys,” she said in a breathy voice.

“Now that’s a shame, baby. One we’ll have to take care of because you and toys just work for me.” Joseph turned to him. “What do you think, Jess?”

“I think we need to do a little online shopping when we get back from town,” he said.

Glancing at their mate, Jessup could tell the idea of playing with sex toys was turning their little mate on. He couldn’t wait to watch her run a little vibe around her clit. His already swollen cock pressed painfully against his zipper. Shopping with a boner wasn’t going to be easy. But then spending any amount of time with their Nessa without some type of relief was a lesson in madness. One he would gladly suffer as long as the promise of her surrender was the prize.

* * * *

Nessa couldn’t get the image of them torturing her with a vibrator as she begged them to let her come out of her head. The idea of a dazzling pink dildo, too large for her to possibly take inside her body sent thrills through her bloodstream. What was wrong with her that she would even think those decadent thoughts with so much of her life up in the air? She could even now feel the heat travel up her neck into her face. They would know what she was thinking about if her face was as red as it felt.

Even more distressing was the fact that her panties were wet with her juices. She was actually aroused to the point that her pussy nearly vibrated with need. It was all their fault for stimulating her with all that talk about toys.

When they pulled into the parking lot of the truck stop, Nessa stiffened. Was she really going to follow their directions and quit? She didn’t know them. How could she jump out of one mess she was at least familiar with into one she knew nothing about? She would tell her boss she just needed some time to recover.

“Let’s go, precious. I’ll walk you inside.” Jessup helped her down from the cab of the truck.

She was thankful that Joseph wasn’t going inside with them. She was sure he would have insisted that he accompany her back to the back to talk to her boss. As it was, Jessup only waited for her at the counter while she slipped in back to find Mr. Craigly.

“Nessa, are you okay, honey?” he asked when she knocked on the office door.

“Um, I’ll be fine. I wanted to talk to you about being off, Mr. Craigly.”

“Nessa, hon, you need to find somewhere safe to live. That brother of yours was here looking for you early this morning. As angry as he was, I honestly think he might have tried to kill you if you’d been here. As it was I had a hard time getting him to leave. I almost called the sheriff on him.” Mr. Craigly appeared genuinely worried about her, but she figured he was just as worried that Derrick would cause trouble.

She realized that she would have to quit after all. Derrick wouldn’t leave her alone, and if he caused too much trouble, she’d lose her job anyway. It was there in her boss’s eyes.

“Actually, that was why I came in. I found somewhere to live and won’t be able to work anymore since I don’t have transportation to drive in anymore. I’m really sorry about not giving you any notice. I honestly would if I could.” She winced at how pathetic that sounded.

“I understand, Nessa. You’ve been a good employee and a hard worker. Don’t think I didn’t notice the number of times you came in to work and were obviously in pain. I’m just glad you’re getting out of that situation. Your brother is dangerous,” he said, shaking his head.

Nessa accepted an envelope with her last paycheck and thanked him for understanding. She walked back out front to find Jessup in the same spot she’d left him. He relaxed as soon as he caught sight of her as if he’d been afraid she’d disappear through another door and not come back.

“Ready to go?” he asked with a smile.

She nodded her head and let him lead her back outside. Joseph started the truck as soon as he saw them heading in his direction. Once his brother had her settled and buckled in, he pulled out of the parking lot and drove through what there was of the small almost town of Wolf’s Pass toward Cascade. She’d have been fine with stopping at the general store for what little she needed, but Joseph was driving and she had been instructed that what she wanted didn’t matter, more or less.

As they headed for the slightly larger town, Nessa wondered if she should tell them what Mr. Craigly had told her about Derrick. She was just mad enough not to, but somehow it seemed petty and childish when they were risking their lives for her, not to mention that she was scared.

“Um, my boss said Derrick had been by this morning looking for me. Evidently he was pretty upset that I hadn’t been home.” Nessa kept her gaze on her hands.

“What did your boss say about it?” Jessup asked, covering her hands with one of his massive ones.

“That he was glad I hadn’t been there. He said he was worried about me. I told him that I had a safe place and couldn’t work anymore.” She risked a glance up at Jessup.

He smiled down at her and squeezed her hands. “Good. We’ll keep you safe, sweetness. Give us a chance.”