Protect Me (Sawtooth Shifters, #3) (7 page)

Baron’s animal rumbled just beneath the surface of his skin. I swear that’s what I felt. We could hardly keep our hands off each other. My hands slipped under his jacket as the door closed behind him, and I pushed him against the wall. I had to capture the warmth his body offered to chase the cold of the night and the last few years away. I fell against him, his hands everywhere on my body, over my clothes. The scars throbbed, a phantom pain. Or maybe I was feeling things again.

“What do you want to do tonight?” I asked, like there was still any doubt about it. I’d never felt so out of control of my own body before. If I didn’t have Baron tonight, I’d ache until I did.

There was no mistaking what he wanted. I’d never been weak in the knees before, so affected by any other person as I was by Baron tonight. I’d always admired power, but nothing was more impressive than a man who could become another being. He could be anything he wanted to be. I could never achieve that. He brushed his lips against mine. “The same thing you do.”

“Make me understand what it feels like to shift. To have an animal rumbling inside me, clawing its way out.” My words came between strangled pants of breath. Nothing had ever turned me on more than the kind of ferocity that Baron had coursing through his veins. He was invincible. “I want to experience the euphoria of being completely wild.”

Baron’s lips curled in a smile against my cheek. “I’m going to make you howl.”

I’d never look at another full moon the same way again.

Twisting the collar of Baron’s T-shirt in my hand, I escorted him into my bedroom. We could barely make it to the bed, our lips magnetic, needing to stop several times before we reached our destination. Letting go of the shirt, I pressed on his shoulders, leading him down to the mattress. I licked his neck, my tongue catching on stubble.

“Should you be doing this?” he asked, looking up at me. I’d straddled his lap. It felt totally different than it did on the stoop of Forever Home. It wasn’t safe anymore. Every nerve in my body throbbed with raw need.

I gasped, coming up for air. I’d asked him to show me what it was like to be wild and I’d totally commandeered everything. “Doing what?

“You have a concussion,” Baron reminded me. “I don’t want to hurt you worse.”

“I Googled it.” I slid his jacket off his shoulders, enjoying the hard curves of his biceps on the journey. I ran my lips over the exposed skin, the beginning of his collarbone. I couldn’t resist a quick nip before answering the rest of his question. “As long as I’m not dizzy or have a headache, I should be fine.”

“Should be? Sounds dangerous.” He leaned back on his elbows.

I climbed off his lap. “You need to get used to dangerous if you want to hang out with me.” Holy shit, the person who was talking sounded an awful lot like the old Kiera. I thought about interrupting her, because a lot of things could go wrong with this theory. But I was pretty interested in what she had to say. “I fall down, I scrape my knees. I take chances and I get hurt, Baron. But it’s better than always wondering what could have happened.”

The light changed in his eyes, the gold jumping like flames, and for the first time, I saw Baron as a wolf. He crawled toward me, and I lowered myself to the mattress as he got closer. “You’re the kind of chance I want to take.” He hooked his leg over me, his fingers catching the bottom of my shirt. My heart shouldn’t have been thundering, but what if he forgot what was under there? Maybe he thought it was all some twisted nightmare. But I’d just proclaimed myself as a fearless, badass bitch and I had to walk the walk. Hungry eyes fell on my bare skin. Maybe I was the one who was dreaming. “Can I touch you?”

I nodded. Words would’ve come out as excuses. Plus it was pretty hard to talk when I was holding my breath. Baron started with my good side, brushing his fingers lightly over my nipple before his lips fell to my collarbone. He sighed, his warm breath sending goosebumps skittering across the surface of my skin. He continued kissing, and nipping, all while circling my nipple, teasing the point of it. Baron intended to eat me alive. I tangled my fingers in his hair, guiding him, desperate to keep some control.

But I lost every bit of it when his tongue hit the top ripple of my scar, running it down the hard, twisted ridge. His fingers followed, ghosting over what should’ve been my other breast. “Baron.” His name was a strangled cry.

His eyes flicked up. “See what happens, Kiera,” he pleaded. “Let me give you one happy memory, so when you look in the mirror tomorrow, maybe you can remember this, even if it’s just for a second, instead of what happened to you.”

I couldn’t answer him. But I didn’t tell him to stop, either. Baron probably wouldn’t succeed on his mission. The joke was on him, I never looked at my body in the mirror, but at this point, I was willing to try anything to feel like a woman again. I’d lived in a man’s world for too long without giving much thought to my needs. It was time to let Baron work his magic.

I let go of Baron’s hair, instead clutching the comforter. The sensations were weird, someone touching the part of me that had been dead for so long. The way his lips moved against my skin, I forgot what I looked like. He didn’t treat one side differently than the other—it was all new landscape for him to explore. And Baron didn’t miss an inch with his mouth or his fingers. Every so often he’d moan. The sensation rolled through my skin, triggering a pulse deep in my core. It didn’t matter where Baron touched me, he had that effect on me.

Baron rolled out of his jeans, his round, firm ass high in the air as he stepped out of them. I grabbed it, digging my fingers into his hip as I pulled him back into my body. Catching his lips in a kiss, I took his cock in my hand. Holy shit, this thing was huge. I pumped back and forth, rolling my thumb over the tip. Baron’s head snapped back, and I was pretty sure he’d howl.

Crap. “Do you have any condoms?” I asked.

“Nope.” He sighed, disgusted. “Don’t keep them at my mom’s house, and we were in such a rush to get to you girls—“

“Can you even get me pregnant?” I was possibly stressing myself out over nothing.

Baron sat up. “We’ve always been told to be careful, but no one I know has ever gotten a human pregnant. I’d never call us lucky, more like science isn’t on our side.” The light in his eyes changed. “But I hope I can. Eventually. I know that’s a little intense since we’re still getting to know each other, but when I look in the future, I’d really like to have you in it, Kiera.”

My heart, under all that scar tissue, threatened to burst. “I’d like that.” I pulled him back into the kiss. “But if we don’t fuck tonight, there’s not going to be any future. We’re both going to explode.”

I wondered what he meant by the science thing, but I’d ask him later. We had other things to do right now.

Baron burst out laughing, his head against my chest. His touching my scars was getting less weird, and I wanted more, no matter where it was. “You sure?” he asked.

“Positive.”

“Good, because I think you’re right.” Baron rolled back. It gave me a chance to admire the muscle and power of his body. He brushed the skin below my belly button before unbuttoning my jeans, slowly sliding them down my legs. He kissed the top of my thigh on my good leg, and then repeated the gesture where the scar tissue ended on the other side. His fingers swirled along my skin, so gentle yet it made everything inside me jump and pulse. Coming back to my panties, he brushed his lips over my mound. My hips thrust up off the bed, begging for more. I got it when he dipped lower, massaging my pussy through the cotton. I writhed under his touch, twisting the comforter in my hands for a whole different reason now.

He kissed the same spot on my belly before he ripped the fabric away from me.

I shrieked. Baron’s expression had changed. He didn’t look so tame anymore as his tongue dipped to the line of hair he’d exposed. “All I could think about was tasting every inch of you while I was gone,” he rumbled. The vibration sent shockwaves through the entire region. When his tongue slipped quickly into my slit, my head fell back. It had been too long since I’d felt anything like this. “It’s perfect that tonight’s our first night together because all my senses are still wolf. And you taste like heaven.” He sighed.

Baron had been starving for this. Hooking my leg over his shoulder, he wasn’t so gentle any more, licking, sucking and nipping at my clit. He slipped two fingers inside me, then another, curling them forward, circling so many times I saw stars. Tremors rollicked my core, coming to the surface, needing to escape, but Baron didn’t stop. I would’ve fucking killed him if he stopped.

“What are you doing?” I could barely speak. He rolled off me, leaning against the wall. A sheen of sweat covered his body. His eyes were closed and his chest heaved, trying to catch his breath.

His eyes flicked open, and a grin that could’ve sent me straight into another orgasm spread across his face. “Your turn.”

“Oh,” I said, my body still shaking as I pulled myself up into sitting position. “I see how you are. You’re going to make me do all the work.”

“Bullshit,” he scoffed, the smile about to split his face. “You just reaped the rewards of my work, so I thought maybe you’d like an opportunity to take the lead.”

I yanked his hair so we were eye to eye. “You have no idea how much I’d like that.” I shook even harder, not expecting to have a chance to play by my rules.

Baron groaned. “Then show me. Because I’d like that, too.” His voice shook.

The possibilities were so exciting. “Would you?” I’d never had such a beautiful, powerful plaything at my disposal before. He’d just given me control, but I had no idea where to start.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as I ran my fingers up the line of his stomach. So many options. I could bind his arms behind his back, blindfold him, making him get on his knees and put my foot on his shoulder while I demanded he lick my pussy. I didn’t want any of that tonight. Instead I straddled him, tipping his face up to mine. Gold streaks swirled with anticipation in his eyes, and it made me dizzy. “Hold your cock steady for me,” I whispered. His hand moved, obeying my command. “You’ve already got me crazy. But now that I know you’re into that, which by the way is the best thing you could’ve ever told me, my mind is spinning, coming up with things to do to you.”

His whole body shuddered. I loved that I could have that kind of effect on him with just words. Lowering myself down on his shaft slowly, Baron’s cock stretched me as far as I could go. It had been a long time since I’d felt so full. So complete. He was completely sheathed inside me, and he cupped my chin in his hand. “You’ve always made me crazy, Kiera.”

He kissed me slow and as hot and tight as his cock inside me. We were going to be a perfect fit, in so many ways. I rose to my knees, riding his shaft, never breaking the kiss. It was the hottest part of the whole thing, the way we couldn’t get enough of each other, speaking a language only our bodies understood. Baron pistoned his hips up, needing even more of me, every last bit I could give him. I fucked him until my knees gave out, my orgasm shutting down my body, collapsing on top of him.

“You’re not done yet, are you?” I asked. Baron shook his head. I crawled to the head of the bed, limbs trembling, and collapsed on my back. “Put it in my mouth.”

Making a sound that was a cross between a sigh and a groan, Baron met me at the pillows, as unsteady as I was. He offered me his cock, and I came up on an elbow, taking it in my hand. He was slick with my arousal and I intended on returning the favor. I pulled on his shaft hard, closing my hand down over the tip. Baron’s shoulders slumped forward. He made a noise like he wanted to tell me something, but couldn’t form words. I licked the tip and was rewarded with similar grunts. Fuck, I loved this. He’d totally given his body to me. He trusted me to hit the little red button that would make everything explode.

I loved the way Baron tasted. It was our union, the two of us together. Nothing else on earth could ever create that flavor, and I wasn’t going to miss a drop of it. I clamped down hard, sucking and stroking his shaft, cupping his balls. It was no surprise when they hitched toward his body. Baron’s bones turned to jelly and he cried out as he came. My heart swelled, knowing I did that to him. Not just with my hands and mouth, but he felt that strongly about
me
. We’d created this together, and it belonged to us.

Baron stopped me from wiping off my mouth when I finished, instead he licked his come from my lips and chin. “Holy shit, Kiera.” His voice was hoarse like he’d been screaming. Maybe I didn’t even hear him when I’d floated in to my own euphoria. “Everyone always said I’d know when I found the one, but I thought it was bullshit.” More kisses rained down over my face and neck before he continued. “But now I know what they were talking about.”

Just like my fairy tale I wrote as a kid. Well, a lot dirtier than that. But I’d been on the right track.

B
aron

“How did you know?” Kiera asked the next morning. We’d already hit snooze more than once, and work at Forever Home started before dawn. We were tangled together, sheets snaking between our bodies. Neither of us had made any attempt to get out of bed, but we instinctively reached for each other, our hands roaming and exploring like we could make the night last forever.

“Kiera.” I laughed. “You don’t have a submissive bone in your body.” I’d known it all along but after last night’s careful exploration, I could say it with absolute certainty.

She sat up, the sheet falling away from her body, I ran my fingers over her nipple then fell to the scars. Fuck, she flinched. I hated that. I didn’t want her to apologize for the thing that made her the strongest. “And you’re cool with it?” She bit her lip, unsure of herself. “No man has ever handed me the reins before. It’s fucking exciting.”

“I’m a beta. I’m built to take commands.” My whole body was painfully on point. Any minute I knew Lyssie would knock on the door. Kiera and mornings were not friends. We couldn’t get lost in each other. “I’m excited, too. I’ve never let anyone do this, either.”