Chapter Seven

 

 

As they drove out of the city, apartment buildings gave away to suburban houses with flowers in their front yards, which gave way eventually to trees and farms. Tessa was fascinated. She'd lived in several different cities and large towns as she bounced around between foster homes, but had rarely been in the country, though she had vague memories of having lived in a small town with her parents as a child, somewhere in the mountains.

They didn't talk much at first. Ben turned the radio on, and Tessa watched the landscape roll past in a thousand shades of green, drinking in its beauty. At one point, Ben pulled off on a little gravel turn-out beside a stream. She looked at him in surprise.

"Are we there already?"

"No, it's just that I saw you looking around and this is one of my favorite places to stop and stretch my legs on the drive. I thought you might want to see it."

The day was warm and still, the air filled with unfamiliar smells. It was so quiet that the rushing water seemed very loud. The traffic was light, only a few cars passing as Tessa knelt beside the stream to look at the rocks.

"Do you really think we're safe from Reive following us?" she asked, looking up at Ben.

"I don't see how he can. I swept the car thoroughly for bugs back at the station, just in case he might've tagged us somehow. And there's no straightforward way to trace the cabin to me. One of my dad's shell companies owns the land."

"Shell companies?"

Ben hesitated. "My dad has his finger in a bunch of different business interests. I figured I might as well take advantage of it for a change."

That was ... cryptic. She decided not to ask about it at the moment; she sensed a lot of history there, and she didn't want to spoil the pleasant mood of the day. It seemed impossible that danger could intrude on this quiet, beautiful spot. When she held out her hand, Ben took it, lacing his fingers through hers. She leaned against him, a pleasant heat flooding her at his nearness.

She hoped the cabin had a comfortable bed, because she had a feeling that by the time they got there, she was going to be aching with how much she wanted him. For a moment she entertained the pleasant fantasy of having him lay her down beside the stream—but no, as well as being right beside the road (and while there wasn't a lot of traffic, there was definitely some), she had a feeling that outdoor sex was more fun in daydreams than in bug-filled, rocks-and-sand reality.

"Ready to go?" Ben asked quietly, and she nodded. He pressed a kiss to her temple and they got back in the car.

Now, though the scenery was just as beautiful in the afternoon sun, she found it hard to stop thinking about that sharp-eyed stranger in the leather jacket and the threat he posed. "Did Reive tell you anything about why he's after me?"

Ben shook his head. "No. All I got out of him is that his clan sent him, and only him. At least we only have one assassin to deal with."

"One's more than enough. Do you think he's telling the truth?"

"Dragons don't usually lie. It's not that they can't, it's just that they don't think it's honorable."

Honor again. She wanted to spit on it. "And a clan, that's like a dragon family, or what?"

"Yeah, basically, or a group of families united under a single leader. Dragon families are very close-knit, but also ..." His voice darkened with a bitterness that puzzled her. "—not very welcoming of anyone they don't consider part of the clan. They don't like outsiders. They don't like other dragon clans much, either. There are a lot of feuds."

"So basically you're saying they're a scaly version of the Hatfields and McCoys."

Startled, he laughed. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

He slowed and turned off the highway into a small town, its tidy brick buildings framed by the sharp blue peaks of nearby mountains. As they drove slowly through the picture-postcard downtown, Tessa noticed a small, independent bookstore with a GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! sign in the window, and made a mental note to mention it to Melody. She knew her friend enjoyed her job at a chain bookstore outlet, but daydreamed about opening a small used bookstore of her own. Space rent in the city was prohibitively expensive. Perhaps a small town like this, with a market niche left unfilled by the bookstore's closing, would be an easier place for Melody to realize her dream.

"We're close now," Ben said. "This is the nearest town to my cabin. It's just a little way out of town, up in the hills." He pointed to a sign reading BROWN BEAR CAFE as they passed it. "My friends Derek and Gaby run that place. If we're here long enough, I'll take you there so you can try Gaby's amazing strawberry shortcake while it's in season. Best I've ever had. She gets the fruit from a local farm."

"It looks like a nice place to live." Tessa heard the wistfulness in her own voice. She'd never craved small-town life, but she wasn't that fond of the city either, as much as she liked working at the cat rescue. She just wanted a place to belong. A home.

"I like it out here," Ben admitted, turning out of town onto a small side road. "Derek's been trying to talk me into retiring from the force and moving out here to start a bodyguard business with him. He's been doing some security-guard work on the side, to keep himself from getting too bored helping Gaby bake cupcakes."

"Are his cupcakes any good?"

"Not as good as Gaby's strawberry shortcake."

The town fell behind them, and trees closed around the road. It looked like the forest primeval. Serried ranks of pines lined the road, enclosing them in deep green shadows with occasional flickers of sunlight. Something about it tugged at her memory, evoking a faint echo of nostalgia. She might have lived somewhere like this with her parents, once upon a time.

The cats would probably love it out here. She just hoped she could keep them from wandering too far and falling prey to owls or foxes or whatever else hunted these woods.

... which, come to think of it, might include Ben as well. "I hope this isn't rude," she said. "But I was wondering if you ... uh ... go hunting out here? As a panther, I mean."

The question sounded terribly odd to her, but Ben smiled. "Sometimes," he said. "It's one of the benefits of coming out to the woods, being able to shift at will without anyone seeing me."

"Are there many other people like you?" she asked. Now that she'd raised the topic, questions tumbled through her mind. "How does it happen? You weren't, like ... bitten by a panther, or something?"

"No," he said with a smile. "I was born this way. And there are other people like me, but not very many. Like being a dragon, it runs in families."

He stopped abruptly as he finished the sentence, but Tessa's mind had already jumped ahead to the inevitable conclusion. "Melody told me she wasn't a panther. Is that right?"

"It's true," Ben said. "She's not a panther."

There was something a bit strange about the way he said it, as if Melody might not be a panther, but she was something else. Before Tessa could ask about that, though, he made a sharp turn onto a road that was little more than two ruts. She clung to the handle on the inside of the door as they jolted over ruts. Branches scraped the sides of the car.

"I need to get a chainsaw and brush this out," Ben remarked. "I haven't been up here this summer as much as I'd like."

The road, driveway, or whatever it was made a few sharp turns, and then suddenly they came out of the dark, dense trees into a clearing flooded with the soft golden light of afternoon. Ben parked and turned off the engine.

"Home sweet home," he said, and the glance he gave her was oddly shy.

He really likes it here, she thought. He wants me to like it too.

But before she could do more than grasp at the thought, Ben opened his door and got out. Sweet-smelling, warm afternoon air flooded the car. After a moment, she followed suit, stretching beside the car.

The cabin was picturesque as a photo in a calendar, two stories tall with a high, peaked roof that had something like a cupola at the top. It stood alone in the center of a meadow. Tessa turned, shading her eyes with her hand, looking across the tall grass, dotted with wildflowers, sweeping away to smoke-blue shadows under the trees. Somewhere nearby, she could hear water rushing in a brook.

"This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen," she said, and meant it.

Ben straightened up from getting her suitcase out of the trunk, smiling. "I'm glad you think so," he said.

His sincerity struck her right to the heart. She wasn't used to having anyone look at her like that, as if her opinion really mattered.

"Anyway," he added, "you can get the cats out of their carrier, and I'll make us some lunch. Or more like dinner now, I suppose."

Lugging the cat carrier with its squirming, uncooperative burden, she followed him up the porch and waited while he unlocked the door.

"I haven't been out here in a while, so it might be a little musty inside," he said, opening the door. "Just leave this open to let some air in. I'll throw the windows open too."

"The cats," she began.

"Oh, damn. Sorry. I forgot about that."

"No, it's better if we don't give them the run of the house at first." She looked around the room she'd stepped into. It looked like a combination living room and kitchen, with a fieldstone fireplace and squashy, comfortable-looking couches and chairs. A loft with a railing overlooked the downstairs. There was a sawhorse in the living room, and the whole place smelled of sawdust.

"Sorry about that." Ben shoved the sawhorse against the wall. "I've been doing some work on the place, repairs after we had some issues last summer, and it's still kind of a construction zone. Anyway, there are two bedrooms downstairs." He opened the bedroom doors as he spoke, giving her a glimpse of small rooms with stripped-down mattresses on wooden bedframes. "A third bedroom upstairs is where I normally sleep. And here's the bathroom ..."

Following him, she glanced inside. It was small but clean, with an old-fashioned, claw-foot tub and a shower enclosure.

"You can either put the cats in the bathroom, or one of the bedrooms. I'm not sure which would be better."

"Bedroom, I think. That way we don't need to open the door except to feed them. I'll let them into the main house later, if you're okay with that?" She waited for his affirming nod before she went on. "But right now they're going to be freaked out and probably just want a quiet place to hide. Also, er ... another reason not to give them the run of the main house just yet is that they're still pretty young and might not be fully litter-trained yet in a new environment. Speaking of which, I brought litter with me, but I also need some kind of shallow tray or pan."

"I'll go find something. Is there anything else you need?"

"Food and water dishes?" Tessa suggested.

"I'll see what I can find." He pulled the door shut as he left.

It was cool and quiet in the bedroom. The only furniture was the bed with its bare mattress and a small wooden dresser beside it. Tessa knelt on the bare wood floor to set the carrier down in a shadowed corner between the dresser and the wall.

"It's okay, babies. You can come out now."

She unzipped the carrier and reached in to pet the kittens. Leaving the unzipped side panel open, she sat with her back against the bedframe, giving them the opportunity to explore in their own time. A small orange nose peeked out of the carrier, and then vanished back inside when Ben knocked on the door.

"C'mon in," she called, and he cracked open the door and slipped carefully through. He'd found a plastic bucket lid for a litterbox, and she shook out some litter from the mostly-empty bag she'd brought from the shelter, while Ben put down a bowl of water for the kittens. Tessa put a handful of dry kitten food into the cracked saucer Ben had scrounged as a food dish, but she got no takers when she shook it.

"Are they okay?" Ben asked, sitting on the floor beside her with an arm draped loosely over his knees.

"I think so. They're just shaken up from the trip and not sure about this new place. Oh, look, there they go."

As soon as one of the kittens toddled out into the world, the others followed quickly. Tessa picked up a couple of them and set them in the litterbox to show them where it was—the litter smelled the same as what they used in the shelter; the kittens should recognize it—but they were much more interested in creeping around the edges of the room and exploring under the bed.

There were five kittens: a very small orange one, two larger orange ones, one gray, and one with gray and white spots. In the shelter Tessa had worried that the little orange one would lose out on food and attention to the bigger kitties, but he'd turned out to be pushier than his bigger brothers and sisters, eagerly crowding in at the food bowl. At the moment, he had vanished entirely under the bed, while the others were still cautiously poking their heads in.

"Do they have names?" Ben asked.

Tessa reached under the bed for the small orange kitten. "One of the shelter volunteers called this one Toblerone, because of his color—like the wrapper of a Toblerone bar. She was about nineteen and I think she just liked the sound of the word."

"That's not a bad theme for all of them," Ben suggested. He picked up the other two orange kittens, one in each hand; they instantly commenced purring. "See, these could be Butterfinger and Twix."

"Those are terrible names. Don't you dare."

"There has to be a Kit Kat, of course ..."

Tessa sighed, warming to the game. "This one can be Kit Kat," she suggested, reaching out to stroke the spotted kitten. "What about the other one? There aren't any gray candy bars, thank goodness."

"Milky Way?"

Tessa wrinkled her nose. "I don't like that one."

"Hershey? Snickers?"

"Ugh, they're getting worse. And now I'm hungry. Let's just call her ... Fudge."

"And you didn't like my names?" Ben laughed. "As for food, there's chili on the stove. I should probably get back to it before it burns. Sound good?"

"Sounds amazing."

She carefully closed the bedroom door, leaving the kittens to explore their new home, and went with him into the kitchen area at one side of the main living room. Warm, spicy cooking smells filled the cabin.

Ben stirred the pot of chili on the stove with a long wooden spoon. "Don't get your hopes up; it's just chili from a can. I should've stopped at the store on the way up for groceries. There's no milk or bread or anything perishable in the cabin at the moment. But there are crackers to go with it, and a tin of shortbread cookies from last Christmas for dessert."

"It smells wonderful." The small wooden table had been set and, to her delight, a bouquet of fresh wildflowers placed as a centerpiece in a blue glass vase. "Oh, this is lovely; thank you."

"More where that came from," Ben pointed out, ladling chili into two bowls. "And there's great trout fishing in the brook behind the cabin. Tomorrow I'll probably catch us a couple of trout for dinner, but right now I felt like we both needed a quick meal. Have you ever gone fishing?"

Tessa shook her head. "I hope you mean with fishing poles and not ... you know ... paws."

Ben laughed and set her bowl of chili in front of her, followed a moment later by an opened package of Saltine crackers. "You haven't lived until you've crouched on your hands and knees in a mountain stream and caught a trout with your bare fingers."

"I can't tell if you're joking or not."

"Joking," he said with a grin. "Well, to be honest, I do go fishing as a panther sometimes. But we'll use poles. There's a nice little pool downstream from the cabin that has good trout fishing on warm afternoons. We could head down there later today, if you like, or just lounge around the cabin."

"I'll see how I feel after I eat." She tried a spoonful of chili, and discovered all in a rush how hungry she was; she hadn't eaten since breakfast early that morning. She inhaled the bowl, hardly waiting for it to cool.

Ben made a pot of coffee, and when they'd finished eating, they took their coffee and the promised tin of cookies into the living room. Ben had opened the windows, and the curtains moved in a light breeze. Outside, the sun was setting over the mountains.

Tessa still couldn't get over how quiet it was here. When she strained her ears, aside from the hum of the refrigerator and an occasional rustle as the kittens explored the bedroom, she couldn't hear a thing. No car horns or traffic or any of the other thousand noises of the city that she'd grown up with. Instinctively she checked her phone, only to find that it had no signal.

"It's so rustic," she said, looking around the cabin as she leaned forward from the couch to set her useless phone on the coffee table; it might as well have been a coaster for all the good it would do her here. "I don't see a TV or a computer, and it's not like you can just run down the street to see a movie or listen to a band playing at your local coffee shop. How do you keep from going out of your mind with boredom?"

"There are plenty of things to do here. That, for example." Ben pointed to the bookshelves lining the walls. "And there's the entire woods to explore, fish to catch, wood to whittle ... But you also have to start thinking differently than you do in town. Time moves more slowly out here. You have to relax and let it happen."

"I'm not very good at relaxing," Tessa admitted.

He set his mug on the coffee table and sat down next to her on the couch. "Here. Let me help."

When his hands first touched her shoulders, she went tense. Ben stayed as he was, one strong hand resting lightly on each shoulder, until her instinctive stiffness at being touched began to ease. Then he increased the pressure slightly, smoothing his hands over her T-shirt-clad shoulders and across the top of her spine.

When his fingertips brushed the skin above the collar of her T-shirt, she tensed again, but for a different reason. Each light touch sent an electric charge through her body, heat quivering down her limbs and melting her at the core.

Ben stroked his thumbs in slow circles over the top of her spine, and leaned forward to kiss the back of her neck. "How's that feeling?"

"I don't know if I'm getting any less tense," she admitted breathlessly. She was all too aware of him behind her, his weight dipping the couch, his legs apart to accommodate her between them.

The gentle circling of his thumbs paused. "Want me to stop?"

"No," she whispered. "Please. Please keep going."

"I hoped you'd say that." There was warm humor in his voice, and also something else, a charged urgency echoing the heat surging inside her.

He kissed her neck again, as his hands moved down her back, pressing along the line of her spine. She inhaled, then breathed out slowly, as he slid his hands around her sides, until he could cup her breasts in his hands.

"Oh," he murmured against her neck, his breath stirring the short soft hairs and sending another shiver through her. "Oh, I've wanted to do that."

Tessa leaned back against him. She wasn't used to the feeling of having someone wrapped around her like this, but it nevertheless felt like coming home. There was something familiar about it, the feeling of his lips on her neck and his strong hands lifting the weight of her breasts, thumbs massaging her nipples through her bra and shirt. The way his arms wrapped around her, his thighs spread to accommodate her hips, the solidity of his erection against her ass—it all felt like she was rediscovering something she'd forgotten, the same pieces-slotting-into-place feeling that she'd felt when he kissed her. As if their souls knew each other and had only now found the missing half of themselves.

... all of which was getting harder to concentrate on, as he mouthed her neck and rubbed her peaking nipples. Arousal thrummed in her body. She was hyper-aware of him: the warm masculine scent of his skin, the strength of his arms, the rock-solid wall of his chest.

And she was even more aware of her own reactions, especially the growing need between her legs. She wanted to be touched, and instinctively, she started to reach down to touch herself.

Ben caught her fingers. "That's my job," he murmured against her neck.

She wanted to laugh at his phrasing (Does that make me the boss? Do you get overtime?) but then the sensation of his hand sliding down the front of her body made her suck in a breath. He ran his hand over the curve of her stomach and, working his hand under the loose edge of her T-shirt, dipped a finger under the waistband of her jeans. His fingers brushed against her bare skin in a place where no one ever touched. As he worked, one-handed, to unbutton and unzip her jeans, she reached down to help him.

Even though they were both still fully clothed, she was wetter than she could ever remember having been before. Her panties were already soaked through.

With her jeans unzipped, Ben put his hand into her panties. He was still holding her upright, braced against his chest. His fingers brushed over her damp mound and then pressed lightly against it, cupping his hand over her curls.

She moaned softly, arching her body to press herself more firmly into his palm. Her nipples were so hard they ached.

Ben dipped a finger between her folds, into the wet, eager heat.

Her entire body jerked in reaction, and she made a whining sound in the back of her throat. She felt Ben smile against her neck as he slid another finger inside her to join the first. His palm pressed on her mound and the sensitive nub hidden there, applying direct stimulation as his fingers worked at her slippery heat, sliding in and out.

She realized that she'd begun to pant in time with his strokes. Her head was thrown back against his shoulder, eyes closed, and it was only a sudden movement from Ben that jolted her out of a pleasure daze, especially his hand pulling out of her underwear.

"Nnngghh," she protested incoherently, catching him by the wrist. "Don't stop."

"I'm not stopping," he promised. "I want to taste you."

"Oh," she managed as he flipped her over on the couch. By now she was putty in his hands. He could put her in any position he wanted—at the moment, this was sprawled on the couch with her legs spread apart. Ben pulled her jeans down, followed by her wet panties. He stripped them off and left them on the floor.

There was something unexpectedly erotic about being naked from the waist down, with her top still fully clothed and her socks on. Not that anything wouldn't have been erotic at this point. She was so wet that she felt a trickle of moisture on her inner thigh. Ben spread her thighs with his strong hands, and she was already breathing hard in anticipation before his tongue brushed her folds.

Oh. Sparks danced behind her eyelids.

Ben pulled her leg up to give himself better access, spreading her further. She pressed her sock-clad foot against his shoulder and flung her head back against the couch as his warm wet strokes laved her swollen folds.

Heat mounted inside her with astonishing speed. She reached out, groping for him, and he freed a hand from her thigh to lace his fingers through hers, without ever slowing down. The tickle of his other hand moved up her inner thigh and then a finger slipped inside her, pressing on her sensitive inner walls.

It was almost too much. Her entire body seemed to vibrate with a charged energy. She felt her back arch involuntarily, pushing her hips into the couch. Ben responded by speeding up the rhythm of his fingers, his tongue gliding over her clit in fast, fluttering strokes.

"Ben—" she gasped out.

He didn't stop licking to speak, but his fingers tightened on hers, squeezing her hand in wordless reassurance: I'm here.

And with that, she tumbled over the edge, delicious electricity coursing through her body in a livewire burst that started with a deep tingling in her hips and arced out to the tips of her fingers and toes.

She surfaced from the tidal wave of pleasure as Ben pulled herself up onto the couch, lifting her so he could hold her in his arms and kiss her with salty lips.

"That was ..." She tried to pull her scattered thoughts together. "Amazing." Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes to his smiling face and heated gray eyes, dark with arousal. "I think it's your turn now."

"Upstairs," he said. "I'd like to make love to you properly, in a decent bed."

"I'm going to need a minute. My knees still feel like rubber."

Ben grinned. "I have a solution for that."

He untangled himself from her arms, and then, to her shock, scooped her up in his arms, still bare-ass half-naked as she was. He staggered slightly as he got his balance with the extra weight, and Tessa threw her arms around his neck.

"Aren't I too heavy?"

"You could never be," he told her, and with another kiss, started slowly and carefully toward the stairs.