Chapter Nine
Marius grinned over at her from across the bench seat, his face illuminated by the dash lights. His teeth flashed. All the better to eat you with, my dear, she could hear in her head, but it didn’t sound scary, it sounded…dirty.
Her attraction to him was just as strong as before, and she’d caught him sneaking looks at her boobs. She was hyper-conscious of the fact she wasn’t wearing a bra, and just because the cold didn’t bother her didn’t mean her nipples didn’t notice.
Maybe it wasn’t the cold, though, that had her sensitive bits coming to attention. Maybe it was Marius.
Fuckballs. Why was she pretending with herself? It was definitely Marius.
When he slowed nearing the turn to the public picnic area by the lake, Hayley reached over to touch his arm. “We can go to my family’s property,” she said. “It’s on the other side of the lake, and I’d like to show it to you if you haven’t seen it before.”
A conflicted look came over his face, but it disappeared quickly and he nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
She gave him directions. When they pulled into the long drive leading from the highway to the house, she said, “Where are you from, anyway? You didn’t live here when I was growing up.”
“My dad’s in Idaho,” he said. “Owns a gas station in some tiny town. I traded one tiny town for another, I guess.”
“I’ve always liked small towns,” she said. “Here we are.”
Marius stopped the truck and grabbed the large paper bag filled with to-go boxes. “You wanna grab the blanket behind the seat?” he asked.
She gave him a look. “You drive around with a blanket?”
“Sometimes I sleep in my truck,” he said, shrugging.
“Or you’re taking lots of women on moonlight picnics.” The very idea bothered her, but she reminded herself that she had absolutely no claim on this man, and she didn’t want a claim on him, either.
“Hardly.” His answer was gruff.
“How long ago did your last relationship end?” she asked as they walked toward the lake. Already the fresh, wet scent of the shore was filling her nose, and she breathed in deeply, relishing the fact that she was home.
“A year or so. You?”
“I’ve never really been in one,” she said. “We moved around too much. I enjoyed some casual hook-ups if I could get away from my brothers for long enough. They’re a couple of overprotective busybodies, so it wasn’t easy. They’d have fit right in as chaperones back in the Regency era.”
He laughed. “So, nothing serious?”
“Nope. You?”
“Not really. My last girlfriend was intent on making it work, being committed, starting a family. But the feelings weren’t there, for either of us.”
This was feeling awfully close to a real date in Hayley’s mind. She needed to steer this conversation back on track. “So you’re twenty-eight, your dad lives in Idaho. Are you guys close?”
“Not at all.”
“You drive an oldie but a goodie pick-up truck, and Jackson said something about you leading wilderness tours?”
“Yeah. I work for Washington Mountain Adventures. The work’s seasonal, though. My last trip is this weekend. So I usually do odd jobs for locals just to keep money coming in for winter.”
They’d reached the edge of the lake. Hayley carefully circled a small area, making sure she wasn’t about to put the blanket over a bunch of mud. Satisfied, she spread it on the ground. After the recent rain, the blanket would soak through pretty quickly, so she sat up quickly and slid her jacket underneath her.
“I don’t think you believed me earlier,” he said, “when I told you that you were the most gorgeous woman in the room.”
Hayley felt her face get hot, and hoped he couldn’t tell in the moonlight. “Well,” she said, trying to sound flippant, “I believe you that I’m the most gorgeous woman at the lake right now.”
He shook his head, aggravated, and started unpacking their boxes. One of the boxes fell out of his hands and onto his thigh. “Oh, shit fuck!” he said.
“What is it?” Hayley sat up on her knees.
“The chicken sauce just leaked all over my pants. It’s still hot.”
Hayley crawled over to the bag and searched inside. “What the hell? They didn’t give us any napkins?”
“Ugh, this burns,” Marius said. He toed off his shoes and walked straight into the lake.
Hayley watched him from the blanket. “You’re insane, you know that?”
“You should come in—the water’s really warm.” He made a show of rolling his head like he was feeling comfortable.
She burst out laughing. “You think I haven’t heard that one before? My brothers tried that on me all the time.”
“How about, I feel like a fool standing in the lake by myself?”
“I’m okay with that,” she said, leaning back on her elbows.
He splashed her.
“Hey, this is a borrowed dress!” she said, scooting away.
A wicked grin appeared on his face, and he splashed her again.
“I can kick your ass, you know,” she said.
He raised his eyebrows in a challenge.
Forget it. She had no problems with nudity. The only reason she’d changed in Summer’s bathroom was for Summer’s comfort, because humans weren’t always as cool with nakedness as shifters had to be. Standing up, she shimmied the dress over her head and draped it carefully on the blanket, far away from the leaky food boxes.
When she looked over at Marius again, his expression had completely changed. The wicked smile was gone, and now his eyes were on her body. Dark with hunger.
He hadn’t hated kissing her.
Wearing only her panties, Hayley padded down to the edge of the water and reached down, her breasts dangling. She touched the water, which was frigid. Then she scooped her hand and flung the biggest splash possible, right in Marius’s direction.
“Hey!” he said. “I still have my clothes on.”
“Not my fault,” Hayley said, and splashed him again.
He pulled off his sweater and undershirt, balled them up, and tossed them to the picnic blanket. Then he waded to Hayley. “You’re not in the water,” he said, his voice dark. “Yet.”
An involuntary squeak left her throat. She was a tough predator, sure. But Marius looked even bigger and more intimidating, and he pinned her in place with that intent look in his eyes.
Too late, she turned to run back to the blanket. Giant arms wrapped themselves around her middle, and she was lifted into the air.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
“Um—”
His voice was a warm rumble through her body as he said, “Take a breath.”
“Wha—?”
Suddenly, she was flying through the air. Her back smacked into something cold and hard and then she was under.
She scrambled in the water until she found the lake floor and stood up. The frigid November air caused goosebumps to appear all over her skin.
“You!” she shouted. But she was facing the center of the lake, and stupid butt-teeth Marius was behind her. Spinning around with as much dignity as she could muster, she faced him. “You…you…turd-burglar!”
“Aw, I’m sorry,” he said, not looking remorseful. At all. “I thought you wanted to play.”
Oh, she would play, all right. She marched forward as quickly as she could in waist-high water, until she was in the shallows. Then she launched herself at him from the side.
He was expecting it, though, and didn’t topple into the water like she’d hoped. Instead, those muscular arms came around her again, slippery on her skin, and he turned her body so that she was wrapped around him—legs around his waist, arms around his shoulders.
Just like that sexy dream she’d had.
He was warm and solid, and he smelled like dried grass and the lake and male desire—musky and hot.
He held her up, his hands on the backs of her thighs, dangerously close to her panty-clad ass. She stared directly into his face, waiting for what would come next, but he didn’t move.
Now what? He had her here. He obviously wanted her, and he wanted her pretty bad, if the massive log pressing against her pussy was any indication. But he was frozen, his arms holding her securely like he could stand there all night.
Hayley wasn’t that patient. Flexing her thighs, she squeezed his waist at the same time she pressed her lips to his.
She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but this kiss was even hotter than the one she’d planted on him at the bar. He pressed his tongue against her lips, asking permission, and she opened her mouth and slid her tongue out against his. He moaned against her, the sound vibrating through her torso. Her nipples dragged against his chest as she levered herself up for a better kissing angle, and she squirmed her legs against him. More contact, more friction, more heat. She wanted it all.
He palmed her ass, holding her up with one arm while his other came behind her head, directing her movements. Controlling asshole. Just to be contrary, she pulled away slightly, trying to kiss him at a different angle, but his fist tightened against her hair and he turned her head again. She grinned against his mouth. She liked a challenge.
She squirmed to slide down off of him, but his arms held her tight, and all her wriggling did was put her in closer contact with his boner. The heat of it felt like a brand on her inner thigh. Locking one arm around his shoulders, she reached down with the other to take his length in her hand, marveling at its hardness while it was encased in his pants.
He growled, cursed, and said, “Hayley.”
Her name on his lips sounded like a prayer, a curse, a blessing, a spark. Hayley bit his lower lip. He bit hers back, hard, and she yelped, but he was already swiping his tongue over the hurt, soothing. He let go of her hair to grip one of her breasts, his thumb and forefinger rolling the hardened nipple. Hayley forgot how to think. She forgot how to breathe. She forgot her own damn name. All she knew was Marius.
This time when she tried to slide down, she whispered, “Pants. Off.”
Marius let her go. The cold water was a shock to her ankles, but she quickly got used to it. She watched as he unfastened his pants.
“Birth control?” he asked.
“I’m on the pill.”
He stepped out of his pants and boxers and tossed them onto the shore, and then he stood before Hayley, naked and glistening in the moonlight. His broad shoulders, bulging biceps, the dark nipples covering his massive pectorals. Here was a man who could hold her in one place, a man who could keep her accountable. A man who could pound into her while she writhed in ecstasy. His gaze was on her, and his cock stood tall. Waiting for her. He didn’t make a move toward her again, as if afraid she’d change her mind.
Oh hell, no, she wasn’t changing her mind.
As if sensing that she was about to throw herself at him again, he held up a single finger. “Panties,” he said, his eyes glinting. “Off.”
She scrambled to pull the wet fabric down over her hips and off of her legs, and nearly fell into the water again. He laughed, and she splashed him. “Shut up, that was totally graceful.”
Her panties were beneath the surface of the water, tangled around one of her ankles, but suddenly his arms surrounded her again, and he lifted her up so her legs wrapped around his waist. She looked at her foot, and the panties were gone. Lost forever to the sex gods of Paris Lake.
Marius found her neck with his mouth and bit gently. She pulled back, giving him a stern look. “We’re not mates,” she said.
“Not yet, we’re not.” He flexed his legs, and his dick rubbed against her inner thigh. So close to where she needed it. He brought a hand down to caress her nipples again, tugging lightly on one, and then the other. She arched her back, asking wordlessly for more. She needed him inside her, and she needed it now.
She gripped his naked cock in her hand and lined it up with her pussy.
“This is…just for fun,” she gasped. “I still haven’t…forgiven you for scaring Summer.”
“Fine,” he said, his voice gruff. His whiskers scratched against her neck and down her chest.
She leaned back slightly, then impaled herself on his cock. Hot. Full. Hungry. The sensation of wholeness spread from her pussy and up through her stomach, filling her body. Now that he was inside of her, filling her, she wanted nothing more than to feel him moving within.
She kissed his mouth, hungry, as she began moving her hips, sliding over him, heat against heat. His tongue probed her mouth, and then retreated as he bit her lip again. He held her up with one hand on her ass, then moved his other hand back up to her hair to yank her head back, exposing her throat to his mouth. He bit and sucked while she squirmed and he pumped inside of her.
Hayley wanted it to never end. She wanted this connection through the night, and into forever.
Soon, though, the friction of his thrusts became too much. He changed the angle slightly, hitting her inside in just the right spot, and her clit dragged over his pelvis with each motion. He still controlled her head, his fist tight in her hair, and she saw the sky above and shouted into it with her orgasm. “Marius!”
Her climax must have triggered his, because as she pulsed around him, he tensed and she could feel the wet heat of his release inside of her.
He let go of her hair and she slumped against him, her forehead braced on his shoulder. Still holding her in place with an arm locked around her hips, he used his other hand to slowly rub her back as she shook with the aftershocks of her orgasm. They were moving, her body rocking slightly. Sounds of water sloshing. She looked down—he was walking them out of the lake and over to the blanket.
He fell to his knees and kept her tight against him as he lay her down. He was still inside her. “I’m too tired to do that again,” she murmured.
“That’s fine,” he whispered, kissing her neck, her jaw, and her lips.
“This was just for fun,” she said.
“That’s fine, too.” His lips found hers, and she kissed him again. He trailed a hand up over her back to cup her breast, and she shivered into the touch. She felt him stirring back to hardness inside of her.
Maybe she wasn’t so tired, after all.