chapter Nine
Even though Beau was good company, I was unable to relax. Beau didn’t realize that Ramsey was the enemy, too, but because I knew it, I remained on edge. Beau puttered around the house whistling as he checked the windows and doors and did a few other things that I questioned. For one, he sprinkled each windowsill with holy water.
I offered to help him, but as soon as I tried to do anything, he’d growl for me to sit down and relax.
And then he’d disappear, off to take a shower.
Confused at his actions, bored with having nothing to do, I used his cell phone since the battery on mine was low and I didn’t have the charger. I called the office to check up on things and put out a few small “fires” that had arisen between badly scheduled dates and an audit.
Naturally, the girls in the office were curious about what was going on, and I didn’t have a whole lot to tell them.
One guessed, of course. “There’s a man, isn’t there?” Ryder said over the phone, a speculative hint in her sweet, perky voice.
“There’s no man,” I said, but my voice squeaked.
She laughed with delight. “Girl, it’s about time. I had money in the pool that you were heading for a nunnery.”
“Pool?” I echoed, not following her line of thought.
“Betting on when you’d get laid.”
My jaw dropped a little. “You guys have an office pool? On me?”
“We did.” She sounded disgruntled. “Sara just won it. She had you pegged for thirty.”
I couldn’t believe they were taking bets on when I’d have sex. What was even more incredible was that the closest bet was five years off … and from my own sister. Irritated, I made up some quick excuse and got off the phone, Ryder’s cheerful laugh ringing in my ears.
Beau strolled by just then, his mouth curved in a smile. He’d probably heard every word of the conversation. I scowled at him and flounced up from the couch, causing his book to fall onto the floor.
I bent to pick up the book, and when I turned around he had disappeared again. A minute later, I heard the shower start once more. I frowned, puzzled by his abrupt disappearance. That was odd.
Something like … me? And the heat due tomorrow?
I blushed, thinking of how I’d bent over and how that had sent him running. I’d have to be more careful. With that in mind, I settled in on one end of the couch and flipped through Beau’s novel. A few minutes later, I froze when I heard a door open across the house. Careful not to make a sound, I shut the book and stood. From the other end of the house I could still hear the shower going.
Nervous, I edged to the kitchen, my first thought to head for the knives.
The intruder, however, was already in the kitchen.
It was a small brunette—petite and curvy, with short, curly hair and a huge rack. Freckles dotted her nose and she had the greenest eyes I’d ever seen. She was gorgeous, dressed in a low-cut top, tight jeans, and sandals. A heavy perfume wafted around her.
She looked at me with a hint of disgust, her nostrils flaring in a way that I’d learned to associate with shifters. Her lip curled. “Who are you?”
I stiffened at her rude tone. “Who the hell are you?”
She took a step toward me and her perfume became overpowering. I wanted to hold my nostrils shut. “I’m Arabella, and I live here.” She held out her hand, displaying her keys. “That’s why I have these.”
She lived here? All my bravado died as I stared at the keys.
But if she lived here … then … something wasn’t adding up.
Either she was lying to me, or Beau was. I didn’t like the ugly look on her face and decided to stick with the devil I knew. “That’s funny, because I could have sworn that I was living here with your boyfriend, not you.”
Arabella’s lip curled. “Men are cheating whores. I’m not surprised that he decided to get himself another piece of tail, though I am surprised he decided to slum it with a human.”
Nice. I crossed my arms over my chest. “Lovely to meet you, too.”
She ignored me and shoved past, stalking into the living room. I followed behind her, determined to keep up a cheerful demeanor, even if I had to resist the urge to punch something. She glanced at my clothing—Beau’s clothing—and her lip curled a little more. “I want you out of my house.”
“Much as I would love to humor you,” I said, moving to the far side of the couch to put space between us, “I’m afraid I can’t.”
For one, I didn’t even know where we were. For two, I wasn’t budging until I knew where my sister was.
That answer didn’t suit her. She snarled and stalked back to me, grabbing me by the arm. Her claws cut into my upper arm.
I jerked away as she dug into my flesh. “Hey! Back off!”
To my surprise, she did. A confused look crossed her face and she retracted her claws, then sniffed her fingertips, staring at me.
She must not like human stink. Too damn bad.
“Bathsheba is not going anywhere,” Beau said and I turned to see him standing in the doorway dripping with water, a towel low on his hips. The look on his face was utterly furious. “What are you doing here, Bella?”
She had a cute nickname? My dislike of her increased.
Arabella put her hands on her hips. “I live here, remember?”
“No,” Beau said calmly, pushing his wet hair back. “You lived here six months ago. Then you disappeared and left me a note telling me that we were through. I haven’t seen you since.”
If that was true, I felt a little better. I tried to hide the smile cracking my face.
Arabella sent me an arch look. “Well, I figured it was our weekend. With Savannah’s heat and all.” She shrugged. “People in town told me that you were forced to shack up with a human. I thought I’d come over and save you from the indignity.”
Well, wasn’t she just all sweetness and light.
“No indignity at all,” Beau said with a smile and moved to my side. “I like Bathsheba, human or not.”
They made it sound like I was diseased. Human cooties. “Gee, thanks,” I said and tried to slip away.
Beau’s arm went around my waist and he pulled me in front of him, anchoring me in his embrace. He pressed a kiss to my hair and I felt him inhale its scent. His thumb grazed underneath my borrowed T-shirt, brushing against my skin in an almost ticklish motion that made me want to shiver.
Arabella noticed all of this, her pretty face growing ugly with dislike. “You and I had an understanding, Beau—”
“No,” he said, interrupting her. “We had a relationship. Once. Now I have one with Bathsheba.”
Her hateful gaze fixed on me. “So you’re picking this lump of a human over me?”
I put my hands on my hips, ready to give her hell.
Beau’s arms tightened around me and he pressed a kiss against my neck, declaring his choice and silencing any protest I might have made.
Arabella was furious at that small gesture. She flung the keys against the wall. It sounded like a gunshot had gone off, and a massive chunk of log fell from the wall, a hole punched from the impact. Good God, she was strong.
“I want my things back,” she shouted.
“I gave them away to Savannah,” he said. “Six months ago, when you ran off with another man.”
Arabella’s eyes narrowed and her gaze refocused on me. “You can have him, you stupid human bitch,” she said. “He isn’t worth my time.” A slow smile curved her mouth and she gave Beau a triumphant look. “I hope you’re satisfied with your choice. She won’t make you as happy as I could.” Then she turned and stomped off. I stood there, frozen by her hatred, until the door slammed shut, reverberating through the house.
“That’s funny. I don’t remember being happy in that relationship,” he said idly.
I tried to slide out of his arms, but he didn’t let me. “So what’s all that about ‘nasty little humans’?”
He kissed my neck, his lips moving against my skin as he responded. “The Alliance views humans as weak and diseased.”
And he was the leader of the Alliance. “Oh, really?”
“You have to admit that the weaker part is true.”
Weak? Diseased! I shoved his head away from me and pushed at his arms. “Let me go!”
It was like fighting with an iron cage. Beau wasn’t about to release me, and that got under my skin. “Let me explain,” he said, his voice patient.
I turned away. “I’m not interested—”
“You’re going to listen,” he said, and then I was off the ground. Damn, he lifted me like I was nothing. I looked at the gigantic hole in the wall that Arabella had created with her angry key throw and shivered. These shifters were strong.
He was right about humans being weaker, but it still made me furious.
Beau carried me across the room and deposited me on the couch. When I tried to get up he lay on top of me, grinning. His heavy weight was a peculiarly pleasant feeling.
“You ready to listen?” he asked.
“You’re smothering me.” My hands shoved against his chest.
His hair was still wet from the shower, and a warm drop slid onto my face. I could feel the heat of his hard, naked body pressed against mine, sending traitorous trickles of pleasure through me. “Bathsheba,” he began, leaning in. A rumbling began low in his throat.
Was he … purring? Why did I find that so charming?
He grinned at my silence. “Do you know that when you get angry, your little chin gets pointed?”
“I’m sure it’s one of those icky human things,” I began, but I lost all concentration when he swooped in and pressed a kiss on my chin. First one, and then another, making me all distracted. He pressed another kiss along my jawline, nibbling up to my ear.
And oh, that felt nice. His teeth played with my earlobe, gently, teasing the soft flesh in a way that I imagined he’d tease the rest of my body. Tickling, tasting, exploring. He bit at my earlobe and my breath exploded from my throat.
“Arabella and I have been through for six months. She left me for another man. I haven’t seen her since then, so I couldn’t get back the key.” He began to work his way down my throat again, kissing and nipping each inch of flesh, then licking at the sensitive spots. “I’d never pick her over you.”
I shoved at him again. “Great. You picked the cootie-riddled human over the batshit-crazy shifter. You’re a prince among men.”
He chuckled, and his tongue licked along my collarbone. “I think you’re delicious.”
“Not disease-riddled?”
“Not in the slightest,” he murmured against my neck, breath warm and ticklish against my skin.
I grew very aware of his body covering mine. Hard, hot, and still slightly damp from his shower. Very naked. His chest pressed against mine, heavy but not crushing. My breasts were pressed against his chest, and I fought the urge to rub myself against him like a cat.
I was angry, I reminded myself.
When he nipped at my collarbone, though, a soft sound of pleasure escaped my throat and all my anger melted.
“That’s it, sweet Bathsheba,” he whispered against my skin. “Let me taste you.”
“No,” I protested, but it came out so breathy and soft that I didn’t believe it myself.
“No?” He leaned in, his nose brushing against mine in a playful motion, his mouth so close I could taste his breath.
The desire to kiss him shot through me, and I closed the gap between us and sealed the kiss. His mouth immediately plundered mine in return, hot, demanding, delicious. His tongue swept into my mouth, met by my own, and the kiss grew so deep and hot that my brain started to lose focus. I heard a soft sound of pleasure and realized that it had come from me.
He responded with a growl that was sexy as hell, and I forgot about everything but the intense kiss.
His hand slid down my side as our lips parted and the kiss ended, but Beau didn’t stop. He began to nip down my jawline again, the stubble on his face rasping against my skin slightly. It hurt, but it was a fascinating kind of hurt, and I squirmed with pleasure when he lapped at my neck again.
His hand slid all the way down my sweats-covered thigh in a caress, and my leg followed the pleasing motion. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until my legs parted and Beau’s heavy body slid into the cradle it created. And then entirely new sensations blew my mind. Our bodies fit together like magic, and his hand coaxed my thigh up, and then I was wrapping my clothed legs around his naked waist.
It felt so good, and from the heavy purr in his throat, he liked it, too. I could feel the hot, heavy heat of his erection at the junction of my legs, and when he rocked against me, I gasped. The meaning there was obvious.
Beau stilled against me, and his gray eyes searched for mine. “Are you all right, Bathsheba?” He pressed small, light kisses to my mouth, as if trying to soothe me. His hips rocked against mine in another blatant move, and liquid fire poured through me, my entire body tingling.
That felt very nice. Even terribly exciting. I kissed him again in response.
“Sweet thing,” he breathed against my mouth, punctuating his words with tiny nips and licks. “I want to kiss your breasts.”
I moaned at the visual, my hips rocking against his at the thought. He growled low in his throat and rocked back, pressing that hardness against the apex of my thighs, my sweatpants suddenly seeming too thin.
Beau slid down my body, his hands sliding down my sides, pressing his face against my collarbone and sliding lower, nuzzling me through the fabric. Inch by slow inch, he moved down until his chin rested between my breasts, and my breath came in short, rapid gasps as I watched him, waiting anxiously.
He looked up at me, and as he did so, his mouth slid over a fraction, and then lightly bit at one nipple through the fabric.
My breath exploded in my throat all over again. A thousand bursts of pleasure electrified in that one spot.
He continued to look at me, his gray eyes hot, his hands stroking and gentling me on my sides. “Are you all right?”
I nodded, not trusting my voice. Then I blurted, “Please … don’t stop.” I needed to feel that sensation again, and he was moving way too slowly.
He bent down over my breast once more, his eyes on mine, and as I watched, he bit at the fabric-covered peak once more. I moaned in pleasure. “Oh, yes … please. Beau, please.”
Beau didn’t need any more encouragement. As I watched him, his tongue emerged and he lapped at my nipple through the thin fabric of the shirt, toying with it. His mouth closed over the sensitive peak and he sucked, teasing the wet fabric against the tip. I rocked my hips against his again, a gasping sob emerging from my throat, and my eyes drifted closed. “Oh, please, Beau.”
Beau froze over me, then pulled away. “I need another shower.”
Then I was left bereft, my eyes opening just in time to see his bare backside disappearing down the hall, leaving me with nothing but a damp spot on my shirt, aching breasts, and an intense throbbing between my legs.
I needed a cold shower myself.