Chapter Twenty-Six
Summer couldn’t breathe. She looked out her window again. There was a dead mountain lion in her yard, and a living one, covered in blood. The living one was Jackson, because she’d watched as he defended the…the big fucking bear man. And he’d nearly died.
Jackson was on the ground, the stranger standing over him. Summer didn’t know if the guy was friend or foe. She rushed outside, still holding her hole punch. “Get away from him!” she yelled. “Or I will end you.”
The guy took a step back from Jackson and held up his hands. “I’m not going to hurt him,” he said. “He needs to be wrapped up. He’ll heal on his own, but those are some nasty wounds.”
Summer looked from Jackson, in his lion form, to the guy. “Who the hell are you?”
“My name’s Marius. I’d been helping out that guy”—he jerked a thumb at the dead lion—”until I found out what he was really up to. I’m really sorry. I was an idiot, and he tricked me.”
Summer could tell it pained the guy, Marius, to say all that. She nodded. “Okay. Help me with Jackson.”
“Let’s get him inside,” Marius said.
She dropped the hole punch and went to Jackson. “I don’t know…I don’t know where to grab him from.”
The air around Jackson shimmered slightly, and his form changed before Summer’s eyes. She watched, dumbstruck, as the lion became man. Several long gashes bled on his torso. She couldn’t help but think of all the pain he must be in. He reached out, so she bent to take his hand.
“Love you, Summer,” he said.
Tears streamed down her face. “I love you, too.”
He turned to Marius. “I can get my own damn self inside. Stop coddling me.”
Marius laughed. “I didn’t want to touch your stinky feline hide, anyway.”
Summer looked from Marius back to Jackson. “Are you two…friends?”
Jackson closed his eyes and said, “We are now.”
After walking close to Jackson’s side as he went into the cottage, a gesture which seemed to annoy the ever-loving shit out of Jackson, Marius said goodbye to them both. “Daniel Clausen was the last of that pride,” he said, tossing Jackson’s jeans and shirt to the foot of the couch. “I don’t have any good excuse for helping him. I’ve got some stuff to work through. But I’ll be in touch…if you meant what you said about being friends.”
“Meant it,” Jackson gasped from his position on Summer’s couch. She’d put out towels to keep blood from staining her furniture. Even now, the sight of his mangled torso made her feel a bit faint.
Marius left, closing the door quietly behind him. Summer turned to Jackson and gestured at his wounds. “I don’t even know how to begin.”
“They’re already knitting together,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“I can feel it. Burns like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Jackson, I’m so sorry. I—”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” he said. “All this terrible stuff that was happening? It was because of me, because I came back here. And the irony is that I wasn’t really coming back for my territory. I came here for you, but I brought all this shifter baggage with me. So I’m sorry. But the worst part is, as long as I knew you’d be safe, I’d do it all over again.”
She rushed to his side and knelt on the floor next to him. “I’d want you to do it all over again. I don’t want you to go anywhere, Jackson.”
His eyelids fluttered closed. “Not going anywhere. I’m even building us a house.”
“What?” she asked, her voice sharp.
“You can help,” he said. “Just need to rest, first.”
Summer watched as he fell asleep, his chest steadily rising and falling. She didn’t want to take too close of a look at the gashes on his stomach, so she got comfortable on the floor and leaned back against the sofa, her head next to Jackson’s.
*
When Summer woke, she was being carried into her bedroom. Jackson held her, his strong arms supporting her head and legs. She snuggled against his shoulder and pressed a kiss to his throat.
“You’re awake?” he asked softly, his voice a rumble through her body.
“Yeah. I am now. What time is it?”
“It’s a little after midnight. I wanted to bring you to bed. I feel so bad that you fell asleep on the floor while I took the couch.”
She laughed, trying to be quiet because it was dark. “You were bleeding all over the place. How are you even carrying me right now?”
“Shifters heal fast,” he said.
“Show me.”
“Right now? We’re not even at your bed, yet.”
“Right now.”
With a sigh of mock frustration, he set her down so she was standing on the floor. She could see faintly in the moonlight coming through the window in her room. The blood was gone. Summer held out her hands and ran them over his bare stomach. Fresh pink scars tracked over his skin, but the wounds were healed. They looked six weeks old, not six hours.
“Incredible,” she said.
“I’ll show you something else incredible if you keep touching me like that,” he said with a playful threat in his voice.
She smiled up at him in the dark, guessing that he could see her expression clearly. “Promise?”
He laughed. Instead of waiting for him, though, she reached down and unfastened the buttons on his jeans.
Jackson sucked in a quick breath.
“Is this okay?” Summer asked.
“More than okay.”
She reached into his pants. He wasn’t wearing underwear, and she grinned at her luck. She stroked along his hardness. “You’re right,” she mused. “This is pretty incredible.”
Then she turned around and left the bedroom.
Jackson laughed behind her. “Tease! Where are you going?”
“Thirsty,” she said, trying not to giggle. “I need a glass of water before bed.”
He followed her into the kitchen and narrowed his eyes at her. Summer poured herself a glass of water and gulped it. She carefully set the glass on the counter and faced away from Jackson as she lifted her shirt over her head.
She didn’t need to turn around to know he was looking at her—she could practically feel his gaze on her skin. Next, she shimmied out of her cut-offs and stood facing the cupboards in nothing but her thong and bra. She worked one shoulder strap down, then the other, then pretended she couldn’t reach the clasp in the middle of her back.
“I think I need…a little help,” she breathed.
Jackson’s warmth was behind her suddenly, faster than she’d have thought possible, his fingers gently batting her hands out of the way so he could unclasp her bra. The lacy fabric fell forward at the same time she felt his lips on her shoulder, kissing up toward her ear.
“Feels good,” she murmured.
He gripped one of her ass cheeks with one large palm and turned her around so she was facing him. He still hadn’t buttoned his jeans, but he hadn’t taken them off all the way yet, either, and his cock poked out partway. Summer licked her lips, and Jackson groaned.
“You make me feel so good,” he said. “Summer….”
“Yeah?” All she could think about was Jackson. Having him so close to her. Having him inside of her, moving against her, moving with her. She wanted this more than anything in the world.
“I love you,” he whispered. He leaned forward and captured her lips with his.
Summer ran her hands through his hair, wanting to pull him closer. “Condom?” she asked.
“Front pocket,” he said, and she immediately started searching for it. “Other side.”
She found the square packet and pulled it open. “You came prepared.”
“Hopeful,” he admitted with a laugh, shoving his pants down to his ankles.
Summer rolled the condom over his length, then squealed as Jackson lifted her in the air and settled her ass on the cold tile counter. “This is hardly sanitary,” she said, laughing.
“Get some Clorox wipes or something,” he said. “If you’re thinking about keeping your kitchen clean, though, it means I’m not doing my job.”
“What’s your job?”
“This.” He pressed into her slowly, filling her. She gasped at the pressure building inside, the way he seemed to swell within her.
And when he started moving back and forth, the friction caused her head to fall back in delight. He took advantage of her exposed throat, nibbling, kissing, his breath heating her skin. She wrapped her legs around his waist, squeezing him tighter, feeling the flexing of his buttocks as he moved within her.
“Jackson, it won’t be long, I—”
“It’s okay, sweetheart.”
“But it’s so soon.”
His grin looked devilish in the moonlight. “We have forever. As soon as you finish, nothing’s stopping us from doing it again.”
Summer clutched his shoulders as his strokes built in speed and intensity, until her pleasure was too much and had to burst from her body. She cried out, and his mouth was there, taking her cries of bliss and transforming them into kisses. Then suddenly, he froze with his own release, spasming inside her.
“I love you, Summer,” he whispered in her ear. He caressed her shoulders and back. “I meant what I said. We have forever.”
She nudged his chin until his eyes were looking directly into hers. “I love you, too, Jackson. Forever.”