Charlotte strode from one end of her bedroom to the other, looking down at her feet as they lightly slapped the wood floor with every step. It had been hours since Sebastian had told her about being a werelion, and she still wasn’t entirely sure she believed it was real. He had, after all, drugged her before; what was to stop him from drugging her again?
He could have slipped something into her wine—some kind of hallucinogenic—and then built up the story so that she couldn’t help but see his hands as lion’s paws. Or maybe he’d used some kind of trick to replace his hands with fake lion paws, but she’d been under the influence of some substance too much to notice the switch.
And yet what he’d told her made some of Melissa’s comments make more sense than they had originally. It made the fact of their isolated location make more sense, it made his insistence that she couldn’t leave the house until he vouched for her make sense. And if she’d been drugged, then wouldn’t she have noticed it more?
As far as Charlotte knew, there wasn’t some kind of pill or powder that would make her only believe something that she was told, and anyway, she had to believe that if she had been drugged, she would have felt stranger, would have hallucinated more things, would have known.
And then, too—the issue wasn’t merely whether or not to believe Sebastian’s story but what she wanted to do in the wake of it if she did believe it. If he really was what he said he was, then that changed the entire nature of their agreement—didn’t it? He’d lied to her, even if only by omission, when he’d kept the facts from her, and let her sign a contract to bear his child without even knowing what he was. Oh god—lions usually have more than one child, too. What if I have twins? Or triplets?
Charlotte felt lightheaded at the realization. She sank down onto her bed and let her head slip down between her knees. “God this is impossible,” she thought, pressing her hands to her face. “I’m in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by people who might rather kill me than say hello to me, and I’ve agreed to have a baby with a guy who apparently turns into a lion when he feels like it. A real, honest-to-god lion. If I can even believe him about that.”
She groaned and pressed her hands against her face more firmly. She knew—without having to ask—that if Sebastian had told her his secret, he wasn’t going to just let her leave. Even if she refused to have his child, refused to ever even let him touch her again, he couldn’t just let her leave. Could he?
Can you even trust him to let you leave in any case? Even if you did give him a baby? You know probably one of the biggest secrets in the world for a group of people. Of course, no one would believe her even if she went to someone like the Enquirer. No one in their right mind would ever believe that such a thing as werewolves—much less werelions—existed.
Charlotte stood up again and strode toward her bedroom door without even thinking. She knew that she needed to talk to Sebastian, but she had no idea what she needed to say. Charlotte hesitated for a moment before opening the door, and then plunged through it, ignoring the fact that she was still naked from the bath. Sebastian had seen her naked before; what difference would it make?
She felt her heart beating faster in her chest as she walked through the living room. She hadn’t seen all of the house, but Charlotte had noticed the hallway that must have led to Sebastian’s bedroom; she couldn’t think of anywhere else it could possibly go. Charlotte almost hesitated at the dark corridor, but took a deep breath and caught the scent of musk and cedar; it was the smell she had unconsciously begun associating with Sebastian, even after just a day together, and somehow—bizarrely—it comforted her. She stepped forward, listening intently, wondering if the man had fallen asleep already.
Charlotte heard soft noises coming from behind the bedroom door: a muffled moan, the sound of furniture shifting, an indefinable sense of movement. Charlotte closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and took the last step to the door. The light was on—so Sebastian must be awake, to judge by that and the sounds.
But she wasn’t sure what she even wanted to do—to him, with him, about him—when she saw him. Instead of knocking, she immediately tried the doorknob; it wasn’t locked, and before she could lose her nerve, she pushed the door open and stepped through it.
She found Sebastian in bed, undressed, with the blankets draped over his hips but there was no doubt in her mind what he had been doing. “Keeping the pump primed?” Even as she made the comment, Charlotte felt her cheeks burning with the embarrassment she felt both for him and for herself for walking in on him.
“Christ,” Sebastian murmured. “You are entirely too fucking hot to walk into my room naked like that when I’m…” he shook his head. “Why are you here?”
“I thought we needed to talk more,” Charlotte said, wondering when exactly her lips and throat had become so dry. “About... the whole situation. All of it, I guess.”
“Okay,” Sebastian said, shifting in his bed. The scent of him was everywhere—Charlotte could almost feel it in the air she breathed—and it was hard for her to focus on whatever it was she had come to discuss with the man, knowing that he was aroused, inhaling the comforting-yet-exciting smell of him. “What did you want to talk about, specifically?”
“You lied to me,” Charlotte said, trying to assemble some form of coherent comment. “You kept me in the dark about something that would have seriously affected my willingness to have sex with you last night.”
“Is it seriously affecting your willingness tonight?” Sebastian’s eyes had darkened, and Charlotte saw his nostrils flare, breathing deep—probably catching her pheromones. Oh god this is a guy no one could ever hide anything from. He—he could smell when I’m about to get my period, or if I were pregnant or… for a moment the implications were almost horrifying, but then the fear of the unknown ebbed again and Charlotte decided that there were far worse things than a man who would know when she was turned on.
“That’s physical. You promised me last night that you would stop if I said I didn’t want it,” Charlotte said firmly.
“And I stand by that. Along with everything else that I agreed to,” Sebastian said. “This doesn’t have to change things that much between us.”
“It’s a bit of a bombshell,” Charlotte countered. “I mean, I agreed to have a baby with a guy.”
“I’m still a guy,” Sebastian said. “I’m just also more than a guy.”
“And I didn’t know that when I agreed,” Charlotte pointed out. “Don’t you think it’s fair that I’m more than a little shaken up by that? I mean—I don’t even know how it would be different to carry a... a werelion baby.” Her mouth rebelled at the words; she still hadn’t completely brought herself to believe that it was true.
“It’s no different from any other pregnancy,” Sebastian said. “The baby would be the same as any normal human—maybe with better senses, some instincts—until puberty.”
“How do you know that though? I’m not one of you.”
“You also won’t be raising the child,” Sebastian said. “I can get someone here to help me raise the child, boy or girl, and once you leave you’d never have to even think about the baby again. Or me.” He pushed down the covers slightly and leaned towards her. “Look at me and tell me what the real problem is.”
“The real problem is that I came into this not being able to trust you and now I really can’t trust you,” Charlotte said.
“You can’t trust me but you came to my bedroom in the middle of the night naked?” Sebastian’s gaze lingered at her breasts, at her hips—and what lay between and just below them. “I can’t help but think that you’re more concerned about the fact that last night was amazing, and worried about what it says about you that you enjoyed it so much.” Charlotte felt her face burning, all the way down onto her chest, all the way up to the roots of her hair.
“That’s—that’s not even the point,” she said quickly, shaking her head. “Yes, I enjoyed it, but that’s—that’s not why I’m here.”
“Why are you here, then? Why didn’t you put any clothes on before you came here?”
“If it bothers you that I’m naked, then stop staring at me!”
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” Sebastian said, and once more Charlotte could feel his gaze on her, as well as she could see him looking. “It’s actually like a filthy little dream come true.”
“Not if I tell you not to touch me,” Charlotte said sharply.
“I don’t think you want to,” Sebastian countered. His gaze on her was almost intent enough to take on substance; Charlotte could almost feel it like a caress. Just being around him, breathing in the scent of him—she assumed it was pheromones she was smelling as well as the soap and maybe a cologne of some kind—was having an effect on her, and knowing that he was aroused somehow thrilled her. God, what’s wrong with me? Even knowing that he was a person who turned into a lion wasn’t quite enough to keep her from responding to the sight of his naked body, the scent of him.
“You should listen to my mouth, and not my pheromones,” Charlotte told him.
Sebastian grinned. “I’ll always do that,” he said. “At least, for as long as we’re still having sex. Afterward it won’t matter what your pheromones or your mouth say; there won’t be any reason to keep having sex.”
In spite of herself, Charlotte could feel herself wanting to go closer to him, wanting to tell him that she did want it. It was only too easy to remember how good it had been the night before—better than anyone else she’d ever been with, in fact. What did it say about her that a werelion who had abducted her was the best sex of her life? Right now, that’s not a question worth asking. The question you should be asking yourself is if you’re really going to have sex with him again.
Sebastian’s eyes gleamed in the dim light of his room. “Are you going to run back to your room and leave me to take care of myself, or are you interested in a little more?” That was the question, wasn’t it? For a few moments, Charlotte herself didn’t know; part of her mind insisted that it would be one of the worst decisions of her life to reward Sebastian for hiding the truth of what he was for the first two days that they’d known each other by giving him what he wanted. Another part of her mind couldn’t shake the impression of what he’d felt like inside of her, and how deliciously good it had been.
“You swear to god you’re not going to turn into a lion and try to mount me or something,” Charlotte said, making it not quite a question.
Sebastian laughed out loud and threw the covers off of himself, rising from the bed, fully naked, in all his—completely human—glory.
Charlotte couldn’t help herself; she stared at him, taking in the sight of his muscular body, his almost-hairless chest, his skimmed-cream skin, powerful-looking hands, and everything he had to offer. His cock was already hard, flushed almost purple, and Charlotte could see the gleam at the tip of it, the fine sheen of precum already starting to form there. It was enough to make her mouth water, and by the time he was within arm’s reach of her, she had—almost against her will—decided that no matter how distrustful she was of the man, she wanted him.
“I would never turn into a lion for sex with you,” Sebastian said, and the growling, almost purring note in his voice was like an intimate caress along her spine. Charlotte shivered, more turned on than before without being able to say way.
“Swear to me that you’re not hiding anything else about your life, or about your community—or anything that could affect me while I’m here,” Charlotte said stubbornly.
“You already know that I’m the leader of this community, right? I’m the Alpha male.”
“That…” Charlotte took a deep breath, and the rolling, nose-filling scent of musk and arousal and cedar almost made her regret it; she wondered if a person could get a contact high from pheromones. “I guess I should have worked that out myself even if you didn’t actually say it. I can’t remember.” Sebastian chuckled and leaned in, and Charlotte pulled back only when she remembered that he hadn’t actually sworn. “Promise me.”
“I promise you, there is nothing else that I’m hiding,” Sebastian said.
“And promise me that you won’t hide anything new from me, as long as I have to live here,” she insisted.
“I promise,” Sebastian said. Charlotte couldn’t resist the need humming through her body anymore; she reached out and wrapped her hands around the werelion’s thick, hard cock and stroked him slowly, appreciating the size of him, the hot-velvet feeling of the sensitive skin against her palm. She rubbed her thumb against the tip and smiled to herself with pleased pride as she felt the slickness of Sebastian’s precum beginning to flow more readily, and heard his throaty, growling moan.
Before she could even settle into stroking him steadily, Sebastian lifted her off her feet, and Charlotte started, looking around in surprise and dismay as she found herself suspended in the air. The werelion held her up as if she weighed nothing at all, and then gently tossed her onto his bed, immediately leaping to follow her, covering her body but somehow holding his weight off her.
He kissed her hungrily, biting and nibbling, and Charlotte found herself responding instinctively, letting her hands wander over his back, around to his chest, and back down to his erection.
Sebastian moved away from her lips and Charlotte gasped as he nipped sharply at the column of her throat, just below her jaw where her pulse fluttered. She squirmed and writhed underneath him as he teased her, kissing and licking and nibbling at her sensitive skin; how had she missed the fact of his rough tongue the night before?
How had she managed to keep from noticing the almost sandpapery feeling of it against her skin? But it wasn’t as strange, even knowing the likely cause, as she would have thought. Instead it just felt good, lapping at her skin, and then—moments later—brushing against her sensitive nipples, one and then the other, sending jolts of pleasure through her body seemingly straight to her pussy.
Within a matter of moments, Charlotte was soaking wet, her muscles flexing and tightening with a will of their own as her body heated up more and more. She suspected that Sebastian was teasing her purposely, that his goal was to get her as turned on as humanly possible, but arousal made it impossible for her to think of why that would be; instead she just enjoyed it, stroking him slowly and tasting his skin, exploring his body even as he explored hers.
She felt herself shivering, trembling underneath him, and while it was fascinating, it also made it even harder to focus on what was going on—on the feeling of Sebastian’s hands sliding up along her inner thighs, barely brushing against her soaking wet labia as she tried to push her hips down to meet his touch.
“I want to be on top this time,” she murmured, struggling to maintain enough focus to form the sentence.
“You have no idea how tempting it is to make a joke about riding a lion right now,” Sebastian murmured against her neck.
“You technically just did,” Charlotte pointed out. Sebastian grinned, and Charlotte’s breath caught in her throat as his fingertips found her clit and began to stroke, sending crackles of pleasure through her nerves that somehow felt hot and cold all at the same time. Her hips began moving almost as if with a mind of their own, rocking and twisting to get the best contact with Sebastian’s teasing touches. “Really, though—fuck—really, I want to be on top this time.”
Sebastian murmured against the sensitive skin of her breasts and then moved back up to her lips, kissing her eagerly.
He tumbled down onto the bed and somehow managed to pull her up at the same time, twisting and maneuvering her until she was on top of him. Charlotte almost regretted her demand for just a moment; her legs spread wide, straddling the werelion’s hips, she could feel the thickness and hardness of him pressed against her slick folds and only then recalled the significance of his size.
She leaned in and kissed him on the lips, moaning as his hands moved up to cup and squeeze her breasts. Sebastian began to twist and roll her nipples between his fingers, and Charlotte cried out in pleasure at the sensation, like mild electric shocks shooting seemingly straight from her breasts to her pussy, making her more turned on than ever.
She rubbed herself against the thick heat of his cock, eager for more but unwilling to quite make the next move yet; Charlotte tortured them both, letting the tip of Sebastian’s erection brush against her clit, just enough to feel it but not enough to give herself satisfaction, and she could sense the tension mounting in Sebastian’s body as he became more and more turned on as well, his hands moving to her hips to push her down onto him, and then drifting up to her breasts to continue teasing her. She tried to hold back, tried to take it slow and just enjoy the feeling of his body pressed up against hers, but the more she moved, the more she writhed on top of Sebastian, the more she wanted to feel him inside of her.
Charlotte reached down between her body and Sebastian’s and guided the tip of his cock up against her slick folds. She sank down onto him slowly, moaning as he filled her up inch by inch. Even though she’d had him the night before, her body still wasn’t used to the thickness of him, the length. She held still when she’d taken all of him, shuddering for a moment at the sensation of fullness, the depth of him inside of her.
“Fuck,” Charlotte murmured, taking a quick breath before she began to move. At the same time, Sebastian began to move as well, rocking upwards, deeper and deeper inside of her, even as his hands wandered over her body, caressing and teasing her.
Sebastian sat up, and Charlotte gasped as he shifted inside of her, brushing up against her g-spot and sending a white-hot jolt of sensation through her body. He held her hips, pushing her down onto him, gripping her tightly as they matched each other’s rhythm, and Charlotte struggled against his grip, twisting her hips as she lifted and sank down onto him faster and faster.
Sebastian wrapped one arm around her waist, and the other slipped down between Charlotte’s body and his; as they moved together he began to stroke and rub her steadily, matching the touch of his fingers to the pace of their movements. Charlotte buried her face against Sebastian’s neck, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, struggling to keep herself going as she felt the tension mounting deep down between her hips.
“God, you feel so fucking good,” Sebastian growled in her ear, nipping sharply at her neck. “Is... it bad... that I hope it takes a while to—get you pregnant?” Charlotte mumbled a response without even knowing whether she agreed or disagreed, approved or disapproved. She tried to hold back as their rhythm grew even more feverish, as she touched him everywhere, kissing and licking and nibbling everywhere her lips could reach, coming back to his mouth again and again.
Without warning, Sebastian tumbled her onto her back and Charlotte gasped in surprise as he pinned her down on the bed, pounding into her hard and fast. All at once, she couldn’t hold back anymore; the last bit of self-control she had evaporated as she came, wave after wave of pleasure coursing through her veins, caressing her nerves. Sebastian rode through her climax and Charlotte felt him slow down as if he just knew when her orgasm had begun to ebb, only to begin moving faster once more as her desire came back.
She lost all track of time in Sebastian’s arms, twisting and writhing against him as her desire rose up again and again. Charlotte came again and again, until she could feel every nerve in her body tingling, until she wasn’t sure if the sensations cascading through her felt hot or cold, until she was breathless and panting—hungry for more but so overwhelmed by pleasure that she almost wanted to tell Sebastian to stop. But she couldn’t; not until she felt him climax as well.
Just when she thought she couldn’t possibly take anymore pleasure, Charlotte felt the tell-tale twitching of Sebastian’s cock inside of her. He growled, low in his throat, and she could feel the vibrations of it deep down in her stomach, through her chest, as he pounded into her hard and fast for a few more moments before nearly roaring with pleasure as he came. Charlotte shuddered, enjoying the sensation of his sticky-slick gush of climax deep inside of her, flooding her in one rush after another until finally Sebastian sagged against her, panting.
“I think that might have been even better than last night,” Charlotte admitted, floating in the hazy aftermath of multiple orgasms.
“It’ll just keep getting better, wait and see,” Sebastian told her breathlessly. “In fact, if you’re up for it we can go again once you recover.”
“Let’s see if I don’t fall asleep first,” Charlotte suggested. Sebastian chuckled; when he didn’t roll off her or even slide out of her, it was strange—but she had to admit, privately to herself, that it felt good: the weight on top of her, the feeling of him buried inside of her. She thought she just might drift off like that.