Page 17 of Bearly Hanging On

Had an amazing night, I tapped out a message to Harper on my phone.Those lips are gonna feature in my dreams.

My butt shifted in the car seat, trying to get comfortable when my hard on was trapped in my jeans. In my dreams and in my fantasies, because we’d been waiting for years to find our fated mate, and now we’d discovered her, we wouldn’t stop wooing her until she accepted that she belonged to us.

Chapter 7

What the hell…? Like what the freaking hell was that? I stood in my now empty lounge room, feeling like I’d just survived a bomb blast. My heart was racing, my ears were ringing, like that was exactly what had happened, and yet I still heard the chime of a message going off on my phone. I fished it out, freezing halfway through the process of unlocking it as I stared at the wall.

I tried to focus on the photos. The phone had managed to capture my grandmother’s mischievous expression perfectly, leaving me looking like a stunned mullet in the background. Nothing had changed. If I stood in front of a mirror right now, I’m sure I would’ve looked just as dazed as I had then.

No, worse.

I wasn’t kissed until my head spun by three hot guys at my grandmother’s place.

Another chime let me know more messages had come through, so I shook my head in an attempt to clear it, then looked at what had come in.

So is the coast clear or do you need me to come up with an all night work emergency?Daria wrote.

Coast is clear,I tapped back.The shifters have left the building. I repeat, the shifters have left the building.

Bummer, she replied.So the night was a bust?

Was that what this was? My fingers went to my mouth, feeling how swollen and soft my lips were. Guess that’s what happened when you kissed three guys in rapid succession. For a moment, I thought about my response, but as I stared at the phone screen, it wasn’t the texts I saw, but them.

Tor smelled wild, spicy, and I’d sucked in deep lungfuls of that as I kissed him. I’d thought I was being real brave, pashing some near stranger, but then he had to go and tug me closer. My legs wanted to lock around his ribcage, hold him right where he was, because those kisses were like a drug. They had my head spinning, my heart beating way too fast, and yet I wanted more.

So I had more.

Kieran was a whole other thing. The world seemed to narrow down to just him and just me, his body a wall that could protect me from the whole world. I just felt… safe with him, melting into his body, then his mouth, his hands, as mine pressed against that broad chest, feeling his heart beat just as fast as mine.

Then there was Mack.

I didn’t make a habit of kissing guys who weren’t into me. Why would I bother? And yet there was something in those silver eyes that had me strolling right up to Mack, as if he couldn’t tear my throat out in seconds.

But he wouldn’t.

The way he held himself back, his whole body quivering with the effort, I liked that. He’d snarled at me silently, his fangs flashing in warning, but no one could accuse me of making smart decisions. I’d sauntered on over, giving him a chance to take off out the door.

And when he didn’t?

When he jumped at the feel of my hand on his cheek, when his spine bent in increments, his breath fanning over my lips. When I pressed my mouth to his, paying him in the coin negotiated, he’d taken over.

No man had ever picked me up like I was nothing more than a doll before. They definitely hadn’t pressed me against the wall and stepped between my legs, lining something very hard and oh-so-perfect up, right before his lips came crushing down. Kissing someone with sharp fangs was a tricky thing, but I was a fast learner. His kisses were the ones that left my lips the most swollen, because they were bruising and hard.

And I’d loved every second of it.

He was lucky he walked out that door. I was teetering on the cusp of making a very bad decision and finding out firsthand how the guys differed from human men. Trouble is, I was still wound up tight.

Not a bust, I replied finally.We have new pictures on the wall.

LOL, she typed back.Be home soon. We can debrief when I get there.

Tomorrow,I typed with a sigh.I’ve gotta be up early for work.

Which had me trudging into the bathroom and stripping down to have a shower before bed.

Under the water, wreathed in steam, it wasn’t hard to imagine how this might’ve gone if the guys had stayed. Having three rock hard bodies pressed against me, their hands moving across my body instead of mine. But in the end, I was forced to scrub myself down and then rinse off, alone.

Only to finally look at the last message.

---