Page 19 of Shifter's Dream

She studied him back, then pushed the second ice cream at him. “You eat it.”

He nodded, glad for something to do, grasping the spoon firmly and pulling it out of the ice cream, dropping it on the table. She frowned at it, then looked at him. He opened his mouth and dove to his ice cream, only stopping at the last minute at the look of horror on her face.Damn.

Troy picked the spoon back up, curling all five fingers and his palm around it, and thrust it back in the cup. Her expression did not smooth out. He scooped out a huge bite and made to shovel it in, then imagined what Ella would say:“Stop eating like you were born in a barn, Troy. That’s gross.”

His female probably felt the same as Ella.

Troy tried to tame himself, curling his fingers the way his brother’s mate had showed him so many times.Hold it like you would hold a pen, Ella said in his head.Yeah, like you hold a pen, not like you hold your dick,Mac or Rogue would add, if they were around.

Troy grasped the spoon, carefully, as daintily as he could, staring at it, sweating bullets, inhaling his female’s cool scent to calm him.

When he looked up, the expression on her face, one of calm, maybe even snide, observation, was at odds with her scent. Her scent had lost all sense of, “yes,” and it now said ‘no,’ more than ever. “No,” to Troy.Rejection.His mate didn’t like him. How was that even possible? He staggered under the weight of it, not knowing what to do. Possibilities ran through his mind. Buy her something. Kill something for her. Feed her. That last one had already failed.

He just wanted to know what made her happy, so he could do that forever. He tried to consider how to tell her that, counting theWsin the sentence inside his head, when he caught a scent undercurrent he hadn’t noticed before. She did want him.She wanted him so much, she had herself convinced she didn’t want him.Troy swallowed hard, as this thought made him sway in his seat. She wanted him as much as he wanted her, and he didn’t even know her name yet.

Troy pushed aside the ice cream. She put a spoonful of hers in her mouth. He watched her lick it off the spoon, entranced by the redness of her lips, the smoothness of her skin, the imagined feeling of her tongue against-

The flow of her cool scent stuttered, making Troy realize he was growling. He stopped and focused on her eyes. She was blushing, her cheeks red, her scent going thick and sweet. She looked out the window at the motel across the street and Troy read her very thoughts in the arousal that spread through her.

Yes, her scent said, fully and completely. She was as desperate for his hands on her as he was for her hands on him.

***

Reed pulled her focus away from the motel, peeking at Troy to see if he’d caught her thinking about taking him over there and trying to fuck him out of her system. He was staring at her, an intense, head-lowered look, and licking his lips. Yeah, he’d caught her.

She knew she needed to stay far away from him; she wondered if it would be easier to do in the morning.

He stood. Held out his hand, raised his eyebrows once and snarl/growled once, disarming her completely. He was sexy, dead sexy, and that sexy noise he made scared her, but it attracted her more.

Reed’s cheeks heated, but she took his burning hot hand and let him guide her to her feet. She left her ice cream and let him pull her out the door. She left the building and let him pull her across the street. She crossed the street and let him pull her inside the door of the cheap motel she would remember forever if she went through with this. Was she going to go through with this?

Just this one time, with just this one guy…

Troy considerately, but silently sat her on a mostly-clean looking couch in the lobby of the motel, motioned to her that he’d be back in a minute, and went to the desk. Reed studied his backside. Hell yes, she was going to go through with this. That man there had gotten her fired-no wait, she had quit, but she’d been about to be fired, and it had all been his fault-the least she could do was let him make it up to her with one night of manhandling. In the morning, she would sneak out and never see him again, but at that moment… ? Yeah, she might go through with it.

Just this one time, with just this one guy…

He’d already proven he could make it worth her while, and it had been so long since she’d had sex, longer still since she’d had good sex. Her body throbbed and said,yes, yes, do it,making it hard for her to think clearly, but making it easy for her to forget all the reasons she shouldn’t.

He leaned over the desk, speaking slowly and plainly to the man behind it. Reed strained to hear his voice. Troy didn’t speak enough, but when he did, she liked it.

He paid for a full night-classy.Just don’t get attached, Re-Re,she told herself.One night only.

Reed watched him move against the counter, her body heating at the sight of his tall, sexy, leanness. He looked like he might leap over the wall at any moment, to catch a pen from rolling onto the floor, or maybe to move a styrofoam cup back that was too close to the edge, then he would leap back over, showing off like an enthusiastic teen-ager.

She watched him, trying to figure him out, wondering how much he was what he seemed to be: a sexy, sensual, passionate cop who had probably broken the heart of every woman he’d ever turned his attention on.Keep your distance,she warned herself.Emotionally,she amended, since she was about to get all up in his space, physically.

Troy returned to her and swept her out the door, an actual key, not a plastic card, in his hand. It was attached to a light blue surfboard tag that Reed stared at as they walked to the door, not speaking, heat pouring off of Troy so strong she could feel it. He curled an arm around her shoulders and she tried to keep her hands off of his ass. The dying light in the night sky told her it was just after nine in the evening.

Troy got the key in the lock, turned it, and pushed inside.

He didn’t pause, didn’t slow, sweeping her in the door, shutting it, and in one smooth half-twirl she was against the wall and he was kissing her, nudging both her arms up over her head, then one hand to her breast, the other dropping down to her hip, pulling her at him, kneading her ass, bringing her leg up and around him so he could get at her center. Reed groaned into his mouth and he snarled into hers and she jerked her hips forward and cameagain, right there, crying out into his mouth as he kissed her and clung to her and worked her body hard, exactly like she knew he would, exactly like she craved it.

He smiled in satisfaction, she felt it against her lips. In that small, still moment after her second unexpected orgasm of the night, she realized she was moving too fast, that if she didn’t stop herself, her life would be forever changed, but then he was working her again and the thought fell out of her head.

Reed gave herself over to him completely, following where he led.

12 – Fuck Him Like It’s Just One Night

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