Series: Shifter Ops Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 65371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
“Yes, sir.”
I see Geo listening intently, his back straightening a little at the sir, and I realize perhaps I do have something to offer as a father figure. Something Geoffrey would have given him.
“I joined the military because of your dad.” I glance in the rearview mirror to catch his eyes. “Because I wanted to be the kind of male he was. Someone with honor and courage.”
“You are that man–male,” Julia says. She reaches over and squeezes my hand. I lift her fingers to my lips and kiss them. “I’m sorry I drove you away,” she murmurs, apparently not minding that Geo can hear. “I am still terrified for your safety and Geo’s, but you being gone was no solution. I was trying to protect my heart, but it was no less painful than if something had happened to you.”
I pull up in front of her house, and Geo tumbles out and bolts for the door, probably to give us some privacy.
“Julia.” I turn off the vehicle and twist in my seat to face her. “I know I can’t take Geoffrey’s place.”
“I don’t want Geoffrey,” she blurts, and my brows fly to my hairline. “I mean Geoffrey’s dead. I want you, Channing. Reckless, loveable you. I don’t need you to be like Geoffrey or anyone else.”
I try and fail to swallow around the constriction in my throat. “Yeah?” I rasp.
“Definitely. I want you.” She holds my gaze, and my stomach flops then begins to warm, sending a heat through my entire trunk.
I don’t know why I still can’t believe it. “You want me?” I point at my chest.
Julia blinks back moisture in her eyes. “Will you stay, Channing? Please?”
I throw open the door and tear around the SUV, not even bothering to close my door. I practically rip her door from the hinges in my haste to get it open.
“Come here.” I scoop her out of the SUV, and she wraps her legs around my waist, dropping kisses along my forehead as I carry her inside.
I hear Geo in the shower upstairs, so I carry her to the downstairs bathroom where I set her down only long enough to strip her of her clothes.
“You haven’t answered me yet,” she says as I shuck my shifter briefs and turn on the water in the shower.
I laugh. “Are you really not sure? You think there’s anything in this world I wouldn’t do for you?”
She doesn’t smile back. Her gaze travels over my healing wounds. The dried blood that stains my skin. Her brown eyes are filled with warmth.
I open the shower door and tip my head toward it, but she doesn’t move.
“Mark me.”
I go still, my dick punching out like a rod. For a moment, I can’t speak. They are two words I never thought I’d hear her say. Never even allowed myself to hope for. Never thought I’d be worthy of.
“Are you sure?” I barely get the words out. My voice wobbles like a fucking pansy’s.
“I’m sure. I want to be yours, Channing. Claimed by you. Marked. Married. I want you to stay. Or…seeing as how I’m out of a job–we could go somewhere else. Maybe to Taos? So Geo could join a shifter community?”
Fates help me, I want to fall to my knees and weep like a baby. Instead I walk over and pick up my woman, carry her into the shower where I pin her against the wall and deliver a searing kiss.
“I want you, Channing,” she whispers when I break the kiss.
“Fuck.” Not my most eloquent moment, but I’m beyond speech. Beyond belief. I kiss down her neck. Flick my tongue over her breasts. I crouch down to lift one of her knees and taste her.
Holding her pelvis pinned against the tile, I abuse her with my tongue, penetrate her, lap and lave her.
She grips my head, moans. Cries out. Pulls my mouth closer. I work her clit with the tip of my tongue, manage to get it between my lips to suck. She bucks. I screw two fingers inside her to stroke her inner wall as I suck and she comes, her juices flowing onto my tongue.
“Mark me.”
Fuck.
I stand and turn, quickly soaping under the spray of water, wanting to be sure I’m clean for her. Worthy of my beautiful mate.
I have grand plans to turn off the shower and carry her to the bed, but she reaches for my cock, and I forget my own name.
I crowd against her, lift one of her knees to my waist and press in. I’m instantly lost.
Instantly found.
Instantly hers.
The entirety of my life spins and collapses to become nothing more than this moment. This pinnacle. This ecstatic opening.
I’m not sure what happens next. Me plowing into her. The two of us moving together. Crying out together. She’s saying something, but I can’t catch the words. She’s chanting something.