Chapter Seven – Chrysi

Chrysi sat up, looking closely at Nevis as he spoke the words she already knew. Or at least thought she knew. It had all been so convenient, the bear in the snow, and then Nevis finding her and bringing her to his cabin.

“The bear. He’s a part of me,” Nevis said, keeping his explanation brief.

“I thought as much.”

“You know… You know about shifters?” Nevis asked.

“Sort of.”

“But you aren’t one?” Nevis frowned, concern on his face.

“Obviously not, because if I was, I would have known Ross wasn’t the man for me.” She raised her eyebrow at him, and he let out a sigh of relief. “I wish I had the same intuition a shifter has.”

Nevis opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish, unsure how to phrase the next words he wanted to say. “You know all about fated mates?”

“Harlan told me.”

“Harlan is a shifter?” Nevis asked, surprised.

“Yes, although he’s never found his mate. It’s why he adopted me, because he had no children of his own.” She thought about the man who had raised her. “He longed for his mate, but he never found her. Desperate to have a family, and an heir, he decided to adopt. And he chose me.” She held her arms out with a shrug. “I have no idea why, but I feel blessed that he did.”

“Wow.”

“A man of few words.” She smiled at him shyly. Why was he so shocked?

“I just expected to have to explain it all to you.”

“Explain what all?” she asked.

“Us.” He swallowed a lump in his throat with a gulp.

“Us.” Her face paled. If he was saying what she thought he was saying, he had hidden it well. “I’m your mate?”

“Yes.” His voice was hoarse.

“You didn’t say. I didn’t know.”

“I didn’t want to frighten you. After Ross and Bart… I was scared that you would think I was taking advantage.”

“Why, Nevis, I do believe you are a gentleman.”

“I don’t want to be a gentleman.” His eyes sparkled and danced.

“What if I say no?” she asked.

“I’ll respect you. I’ll always respect you.” His voice conveyed his honesty, and her heart squeezed in her chest. At the same time, her fingers went to her engagement ring and twisted it around and around on her finger.

“Promise me you aren’t lying.” She searched his face, and the pained look she saw there told her he wasn’t lying. This was the truth. The real, honest truth.

“I swear. It’s how I found you in the storm.” He took her hand. “I could feel your presence. And when I found you with those two men, it was all I could do not to rip their throats out for hurting you.”

She looked down, studying their hands, their fingers entwined, just as their lives were now entwined, if what Harlan had told her was true. Did she want this? Did she want to slam into Nevis on the rebound from such a disastrous relationship?

Chrysi let out the breath she had been holding. “I’m still engaged.”

“I can wait.”

Chrysi looked up into his eyes, unsure whether she could. This man was offering her everything she wanted and more. A man who would love her forever, who would stand by her side through everything life threw at them, a man who would put a child in her belly and then help her raise it.

“Will you promise me that you will try to make peace with your father?” she asked.

“I promise.” He looked bemused. “I thought this was about us.”

“This is about family. My family. Your family.” She pressed her body closer to his. “I want us to be happy.”

He placed his hand on her shoulder, his fingers stretching out to stroke the nape of her neck. “We will be happy.”

“Well, then.” She slipped the ring off her finger and placed it on the table next to the coffee cups.

“I could always go bear and take the ring to Ross, with a note attached.”

“I think we can end that sentence at go bare.”

He chuckled. “You are like a breath of fresh air into my life, Chrysi.”

“Or an icy blast.”

“Then let me warm you up.” He kissed her then, his lips soft but firm, warming her from the inside out as he nipped her bottom lip. She sighed, nestling closer to him. This was madness, she was another man’s woman.

That was what her brain tried to convince her of. Yet in her heart she knew she had never belonged to Ross, not in the same way she belonged to Nevis. And she did belong to him; it was like a drumbeat thrumming through her veins. She was his, he was hers.

Ross was forgotten. A shadow next to this man who lifted her up and laid her on the hearth in front of the fire that crackled and fizzed merrily. Just as her heart crackled and fizzed.

Nevis kissed her lips, his hand sliding along her thigh to nestle between her legs. She opened her thighs wider, allowing him to rub her clit through the fabric of her borrowed sweatpants. Damn, it felt good, her body came alive with each brush of his fingers on her most sensitive nerve endings. Chrysi arched her back and lifted her body off the floor, offering herself to him. Intermittent thoughts passed through her mind, telling her this was too soon, that she should wait. But her heart and her body rejected those thoughts completely. She wanted this, she wanted Nevis, she wanted to help him unravel his complicated relationship with his father and find a way to their happy ever after.

Nevis moved his hand, sliding up her stomach to tease the hem of her T-shirt and sweater up until he revealed her heaving breasts. And they were heaving, like a damsel in distress rescued by the hunky highwayman. A ripple of laughter passed through her: she’d never been a damsel in distress before. Yet if this was the outcome, she wouldn’t mind playing one more often.

“I’m glad you find this all so amusing,” Nevis said, lifting his head to look into her eyes.

Chrysi ruffled his hair. “I was thinking how traditional we are being. The good guy rescuing the woman from the clutches of the bad men. We could make our own Hollywood movie.”

Nevis pushed her bra up, exposing her nipples. “I think this should stay strictly private.” He lowered his head and captured her nipple in his teeth, leaving her gasping, her fingers threading through his hair, holding him close, while she squeezed her thighs together, trying to satisfy every part of her body. It was impossible. She craved his touch on every part of her skin. She longed for his kisses on every inch of her flesh.

She wanted to drown in his touch, to feel him inside her, and outside her body, to be one with him. There was no laughter now as he sucked harder, his left hand slipping down toward her sex once more, but this time, he tucked his hand under the waistband of the sweatpants and slipped under the elastic of her panties, moving lower until he touched her clit with his fingertips.

Chrysi thought she would explode right there and then. She was so wet, he would know exactly how much she craved him. When he slipped his hand further down, and his fingers dipped inside her sex, she closed her eyes, mortified she was so willing, so ready to sleep with a stranger.

But he was her mate. Or she was his mate. However these things worked, she knew this was right. Harlan had told her stories about men and women who were bound together by this mating bond. It was where all the greatest love stories, all the wonderful fairy tales, originated from. They were born from the connection made when two souls were meant to be together.

Chrysi gasped as he pushed two fingers inside her, while his mouth continued to torture her breasts. Nevis’s mouth and hands worked as one to bring her crashing over the edge, as her first orgasm swept over her. She knew it would be the first, because soon he was going to make love to her, here in the little cabin that belonged to a movie star. It was as certain as the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening.

Chrysi clung to him, her breathing shallow, coming in gasps as her orgasm ended. Nevis held her close, kissing her neck, while she slipped her hand down between their bodies and wrapped her fingers around his cock. But the thick denim of his jeans hindered her. Tugging at his belt, she unbuckled it, then rolled him onto his back so she could undo his buttons. With some help from Nevis, she tugged his jeans down over his slim thighs, leaving his cock dancing in the air.

It was a beautiful sight, yet it wasn’t enough. She wanted him to be naked. She wanted herself to be naked. Skin against skin.

Tugging his T-shirt upwards, she revealed his chest, toned, bronzed from outside work, and just right for kissing. Chrysi crawled up his body, her lips pressing against his skin, the smattering of hairs across his chest tickling her lips. Everything about him excited her: the taste of him, the scent of his skin, wood smoke and pine trees, and the sound of him as he gasped when her tongue curled around his nipple.

“Damn, you drive me wild,” Nevis ground out. “I need you naked too.”

He flipped her over onto her back and tore at her clothes like a wild animal until she was naked before him. “Better?” she asked.

“Much.” He hovered over her body, his lips kissing her skin, while he guided himself toward her sex. Chrysi moved to open her thighs wider, wanting him, needing him. Everything else was forgotten in the perfect moment when he slid inside her.

“Oh,” she gasped, her hands encircling his neck, holding on to him as he filled her completely with his wonderful cock.

Deeper he thrust, his eyes on her face, and she bit her bottom lip to stop herself from crying out. Her body yielded to his wide girth, accommodating him. Then he pulled back out, and the friction was incredible, and her orgasm raced toward her. She tried to hang on, tried to make this last, but it was impossible.

Burying her face in his neck, she nipped at his skin, her hands stroking his skin, then clawing his back, her legs wrapping around him. Nevis slammed into her, his body taut as he fought for control, but he lost his fight too, and joined her in ecstasy, two people flying above the snow-filled clouds to where the stars shone bright above.

Nevis put his head back and cried out her name, while his body worshiped hers.