ROMANCE: PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Mated, Bearfoot and Pregnant (Bear Shifter BBW Pregnancy Romance) (Werebear Hero Fantasy Romance) Page 7

  Teasing, never coming in contract with the peak, his tongue trailed around and then dipped lower to run across her wet slit. Victoria gasped again, hips lifting just slightly. If he was to tease her, precision was tantamount, and even the smallest movement could throw him off. Gabriel's hands left her thighs to secure her hips and pin her to the couch cushion. This was his game, and she would lie prone while he drowned her in pleasure. The dominance stirred him further. What a pliant, agreeable mate he'd found. The lion inside rejoiced.

  "Oh my god," Victoria breathed. Her hips struggled to rise against the pressure of his palms, but each time they did, Gabriel increased the pressure until there was no way she could lift herself. The blood of the lion blessed him with strength unparalleled to any mortal's, but Gabriel made sure he did not hurt her. Victoria seemed to enjoy his display of dominance as much as he did. A lusty whimper, almost inaudible, died in her throat.

  Gabriel's tongue continued to work, swirling around her clit but never against it and trailing down to dip into her slit. Victoria was near panting, each rise and fall of her chest marked by a hard draw of air. She was drenched, her body pleading for penetration. Pleading for him. The thought made Gabriel puff with pride.

  "Please," she begged him. "Please, Gabriel, I need it."

  His eyes flicked up to look at her as his tongue continued its playful circuit. A grin turned up the corners of his lips, and he lifted an eyebrow.

  "Anything for you."

  The exhaled breath of his words chilled the saliva he'd worked across her sex, and he knew how wonderful that cold felt. Victoria inhaled sharply and tried to squirm with pleasure, but he held her tight. Without wasting any more time, Gabriel let his tongue run across her bud.

  Victoria moaned. The sound was not dampened or withheld; it spread through the living room of his basement apartment without reservation. For a moment Gabriel wondered if Finn would be able to hear, but promptly decided that he didn't care. Victoria needed this, and he needed to give it to her. Finn didn't enter into this equation at all.

  Now that his tongue had met her most sensitive part, it was unwilling to leave it. With skill Gabriel flicked and swirled, applying varying degrees of pleasure to see what made her moan and fidget the most. After so long thinking that she wasn't worth the attention, he wanted to give her what she truly deserved. Gabriel would spare no expense showing her how much she mattered to him.

  "Oh my god, Gabriel!" The way her words curled with excitement had his heart pumping harder. The erection that pressed against the front of his black slacks was overwhelming. How he wanted to ravage her. How he wanted to bring her to orgasm again and again, and then find his release inside of her.

  Victoria's hips pressed up against his palms as she attempted to twist and squirm with delight. Gabriel did not relent, and he did not release her. The tongue that brought her to new heights continued to lap and flick until all she could do was gasp and pant and moan. Her sex was soaked for him, and her excitement turned him on. Tonight he was going to prove to her just what she deserved. Tonight she was his Goddess.

  At last his tongue parted from her, and he sat up. Button by button he undid the white shirt he wore until his chest was bared. Arrived at the top, Gabriel loosened his tie and lifted it over his head to toss to the floor. The shirt followed suit. Years of active duty where lifting weights was the best time to be had meant that his body was tone, lean, and muscular. Gabriel knew he had nothing to be ashamed about, but seeing Victoria's face light up as she drank in his physique bolstered his confidence. In that moment she was a creature of sensations and pleasures, not a damaged girl bound by her flesh. If only she could see her as he did.

  Victoria's hands traced down his firm stomach and to the front of his pants, tracing over the generous bulge beneath. The air caught in Gabriel's lungs. With finesse her fingers traced down his covered erection and when they reached the base, traced back up.

  "I want it," she whispered to him. Gabriel couldn't muster any words. All he could do was pop open the fly of his pants and then descend over her once more, catching her lips in a heated kiss. Together their bodies moved to pull the pants from his body, and went he was left only in his briefs, Victoria began to tug them from his frame. Just as the elastic of his briefs passed over his ass, a sound drew his attention and Gabriel lifted his head. They weren't alone.

  The sudden movement took Victoria by surprise. She froze mid reach, the skirt of her dress pushed back and leaving her exposed. Gabriel turned around to face the stairs. Finneus stood there, mouth agape. He held two steaming mugs of tea.

  "Oh shit," Gabriel breathed. Victoria went from immobile to frantic, pushing down her skirt and burning red with embarrassment.

  "Gabriel Henrick Liston," Finneus breathed, "what the ever-loving fuck do you think you're doing?"

  "Who is that?" Victoria whispered. Finneus' gaze shot to her and locked on, his lips set thin with displeasure and disgust. It was a look Gabriel knew too well; Finn was angry. Really angry.

  "I am Finneus Harbright, and you are in my house, lying... Indecently upon my couch. Do you know how difficult it is to clean... Women stains from upholstery?"

  "Finneus," Gabriel pleaded, drawing his friend's attention away from Victoria, "she's innocent in this. I brought her here, and I'm the one to blame. Don't drag her into this."

  "The one to blame is one way to put it," Finneus fumed. "We had a deal, Gabriel. You gave me your word. What have I done to deserve this? What have we done to deserve this?" By we, Gabriel knew he meant the pride. Bringing Victoria here put their diplomacy with Jessica's pride in danger. Relations had been stable for the last fifty years, but infidelity would rock the trust both prides had in one another.

  "I'm sorry. It's just--"

  "Stop talking," Finneus insisted. "Get dressed and see your lady caller off. When you are alone, meet me in the kitchen. We need to discuss how to proceed so that your fiancee doesn't find out and we don't lose everything your father worked so hard for."

  All the complicated emotions he had felt upon being discovered ceased to matter. The arousal disappeared. Instead, red hot rage pumped through his veins and burned in his gut. How dare Finn bring up Jessica when he was with Victoria? Who did he think he was? A low growl rumbled in the back of Gabriel's throat, unable to be contained. The sound would not easily pass as human, and had Gabriel had the capacity to consider what side of himself he was exposing, he would have cared. Victoria didn't know about their true nature, didn't know about shifters, and there she was right below him to hear the stirrings of a primal roar. But Gabriel couldn't bring himself to care, not after Finn's betrayal.

  Finneus' eyes narrowed.

  "Now."

  And then, as though Gabriel was no threat to him at all, he turned and headed back up the stairs and into the main house. Victoria and Gabriel were alone once more.

  "A fiancée?" Victoria choked in a whisper. "Gabriel, is that true?"

  Without waiting for an answer she was already squirming to free herself from beneath him. Even if he could lie to her, the damage had been done. The trust she'd placed in him was shattered; he could see the broken fragments of it in her eyes and how they glistened.

  "V, I'm sorry," he uttered. As she scrambled up from the couch, clutching her stockings and thong from where they'd fallen on the floor, he reached after her to grab her wrist. As soon as the contact was established, Victoria yanked her arm away.

  "No," the word was as broken as she looked. It trembled like a fawn rising upon its legs for the first time. The rage that had blinded him evaporated upon hearing it. Victoria didn't deserve this; he was just as bad as whatever man had shattered her self-esteem.

  "Let me explain," he attempted. Maybe if she heard the full story, maybe if he told her about the pride and the arrangement and The Bond, she would come around. Gabriel stood and pulled his briefs up and his pants back on. "Please, give me a chance to explain..."

  "I thought you were different," she mumbled, almos
t as if to herself. As she crossed the room she scooped up the heels she'd left by the entrance, and then she was up the stairs. Gabriel could smell her tears on the air, and he knew that she was heartbroken. He couldn't blame her.

  "I am." It sounded lame. Gabriel crossed the room after her and ascended the stairs. Once more he tried to catch her wrist as she exited through the door leading to the back yard, but Victoria broke free again.

  "I can't do this," she said. It was almost a sob. "It doesn't matter how I feel. I can't stay with you if you're..." Engaged. She couldn't bring herself to say it. Instead, a single sob broke free from her soul. Victoria buried her face in her arm, personal items in her other hand, and ran. Gabriel could only watch her go.

  "Victoria," he spoke to the night in her absence. Above stars blinked and twinkled, and around him crickets sang. As stunning of a night as it was, Gabriel didn't see any of it. In Victoria's absence nothing mattered.

  Gabriel slammed his fist against the door frame. The wood splintered, deep cracks running up and down along the grain from the site of impact.

  "Damn you, Finn," Gabriel hissed. A lawyer's words were always calculated, and Gabriel knew Finn well enough to know that he hadn't disclosed Jessica’s status in his life by accident. Getting rid of Victoria had been his top priority, and he hadn't spared her any sympathy.

  Anger ignited, Gabriel headed back into the house to confront Finneus in the kitchen. What had been shaping out to be the best night of his life had quickly turned into the worst, but the war was not yet lost. Gabriel was a soldier, and until he was unable to, he would fight to redeem himself in Victoria's eyes. Nothing would stand in his way.

  Chapter Five

  A fiancée. Gabriel had been sweet, charming, and handsome. He'd made her feel like she was worth the effort, like she was pretty. All night she'd marvelled at how perfect he was, and now she understood. Of course he wasn't single. A man like that would never be off the market long, and Victoria refused to be the other woman. Peter had treated her so poorly for so long that she refused to let another man use her again. It would be better to be lonely than to be second best.

  Unfamiliar with the area, she wandered down the street until she'd left the residential side and entered the outskirts of the city. The streets weren't as busy as they were downtown, but there was enough traffic that she was confident that she didn't look out of place. Hair ruffled, shoes and stockings and thong in one hand, Victoria was a mess. She balled her thong tight and concealed it in her hand, embarrassed. What a night. All she wanted to do was go home and cry, but there was no home anymore, just a run down, dirty motel room where her possessions were jammed into suitcases.

  And yet, as vulnerable as she felt, life went on. Victoria called a cab. When it arrived she steeled herself and gave the driver the address. They did not talk, and when he dropped her off outside of the hotel she paid and tipped him, and then he was on his way.

  The city had changed before her eyes. From the trendy outskirts of downtown to the clustered chaos of its core, from the downtown core to the shady, run down outskirts on the other side of town. And yet still her troubles followed her. First Peter, now Gabriel. Maybe the only men who would stoop to her level were men who were inclined to hurt her. Maybe being a crazy cat lady wouldn't be all that bad. At least cats wouldn't talk back and use her to cheat.

  Victoria crossed the parking lot, very aware that her feet were bare and that the place was filthy. For a few seconds she didn't care, but then sense set in. Self-destructive behavior wouldn't help her heal. If she wanted to get over Gabriel, and Peter for that matter, she was going to have to be kind to herself. With a long, grounding sigh she set her heels down on the pavement, brushed the loose gravel off of one foot, and set it into its corresponding shoe. Victoria didn't feel very lovable, but she knew that it was self-sabotage speaking. If she'd made it this far, she could make it through anything.

  As she lifted the other foot to brush it off and set it in her shoe, movement caught her eye. Victoria, bent over, lifted her head to look up. No street lights lit the parking lot, and the only light came from the dim bulbs over the motel's doors. A solid black shadow wove through the night, so fluid that had it not been opaque, she would have thought it was water.

  "What the..."

  The shadow froze, and Victoria squinted to try to make it out.

  "Hello?"

  The form squirmed, and the dull light caught against its eyes. Before Victoria could gasp, the thing sprung through the air and crashed down against her. Both of them toppled to the pavement, and Victoria hit her head against the concrete. The world faded from sight, and the last thing she saw were a pair of warm brown irises and the flash of sharp, terrifying teeth.

  ---

  "How much longer do you think she'll be out?" A male voice. Victoria hadn't opened her eyes yet, but as consciousness returned she heard the words. The voice was unfamiliar.

  "She should have recovered by now," a second male voice said. Again, it was unfamiliar. Victoria squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember what had happened. Gabriel had invited her out. They had danced for hours. And then...

  Pain. He'd used her. Now she remembered. The frantic break from the back door, the silent cab ride, and then the parking lot and that shadow. Victoria wanted to brush her hair back from her face, but found her arms were tied back. The solid wood backing of a chair bit into either arm; her wrists were tied together behind it. Someone had taken her captive.

  "Ah, did you see? Her eyelids moved." Two sets of footsteps approached. "You awake, girlie? You'd better tell us the truth."

  Victoria remained silent, playing at unconscious. The footsteps stopped just in front of her, and then the toe of a boot slammed into her calf. The pain was astounding, and Victoria cried out against it. Both eyes opened. Two men stood before her, both of them dark haired. One was tall and built like a swimmer. Had it not been for the malicious way he looked at her, Victoria would have found him attractive. He stood beside a man of average height and average build. Still, the cut of their jaws and the shape of their eyes were similar. She was sure they were related.

  "Told you that you should have told the truth," the average one said. "I wouldn’t had to kick you if you'd been upfront."

  Victoria looked between them, not yet frightened. Even though she was tied up, it didn't look like they had weapons, and from the look of the room she was confident she was in another of the motel’s cabins. The same wallpaper that was in her room was present here, and the desk that she’d been keeping her laptop on was pressed against the wall to her right. There was no bed in sight, but Victoria guessed from where she sat that it was just behind her, and that if she tipped her chair back just a little, her restrained hands would brush against the foot of the mattress.

  "What do you want?" Victoria asked. "Money? I promise you I'm probably worse off than you are."

  "Ugh, can you shut it?" the average man said. He shook his head. "We don't care about your money, or about anything else about you, really. Except for one thing."

  "What is it?"

  "Your man."

  Victoria's lips parted. Peter? Had Peter sent them to do this to her for leaving him? She had never known him to have seedy connections, but if he was pissed about something he always got revenge. Usually it was petty revenge, but usually the things he got pissed about were minor. The fact that she had walked out on him might have been enough for him to do this out of spite.

  "Peter? Peter sent you?"

  Both of them looked at each other, then back to her.

  "You're sure this is the right girl?" the taller one asked. The average one leaned forward and, to her horror, sniffed her. Had Victoria been able to, she would have recoiled. The way his nose worked at the air so close to her skin was disturbing. What was he seeking to glean from doing that other than coming off as a creep?

  "Yeah. Even now I smell him on her. This is her. When Jessica gets back she'll be able to smell him, too."

  "Go
od."

  The average man withdrew, and Victoria squirmed in her chair. They were talking about Gabriel.

  "He isn't my man," she insisted, although the objection sounded lame. "It's just, I just broke up with my boyfriend, and—"

  "Did you hear me before?" The average man asked. His companion had drawn out a cellphone and was making a call. He left them to start to pace the small room, phone pressed to his ear. "I told you that we don't care about you. We don't need stories, all we need is for you to sit pretty and wait here until we don't need you anymore."

  Victoria didn't understand what was happening, and the more she heard the less she felt she ever would. They didn't want money, as far as she could tell they didn't want sex, and they weren't looking to hurt her. Peter hadn't sent them. Instead, what they cared about was the scent of Gabriel on her skin.

  "Can I just... Can I give you some of my dress or... Or something? Some of my hair? I really just want to go back to where I'm staying."