Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
Daddy’s Innocent Mate Chapter 9

Elias

Almost two weeks after my alpha announced my mate pairing to the snooty schoolteacher, I was dragging my feet through the house, trying to get a sense of who I was and why I was bothering to try to get along with a woman who didn't want to be around me. I wasn't dull, but I could tell by Francine's energy that she just wasn't interested in having me around. Ever since she moved her things into my home, she had taken every opportunity to point out how little I kept around and how the portrait above the television was taking up space where some floating shelves could sit. She had no idea how that made me feel. Mostly because I didn't bother to tell her how it made me feel. What was the point? She would probably just tell me that I was wrong for feeling it and that I needed to get over the past.

Yet the past refused to rest. While Archie walked to school with Francine throughout the week, I mulled over my life with a cup of coffee under my nose, staring into the black liquid like it was a crystal ball preparing to show me my future. What did the coming days hold? More ire? More agitation?

If this was the rest of my life, then what was the point? Francine and I had spent one blissful night together, and the next day had been awful. Guilt had overwhelmed me when I thought about hugging her again. And when I'd given into that urge, I just felt like I was drowning in shame.

Being with her confused me. Much of it seemed to do with that portrait. But I couldn't take the damn thing down. It was the only memory-the only tangible, physical thing I had left from my Bravecrest days.

The evenings felt awkward and strange. I made dinner with Archie's help. I served Francine as I would my true mate, making sure she was fed and full before heading to bed. She often wandered into the yard when she was finished and sat on the porch with her teaching planner. That cute nose was always shoved in some kind of book. That was how I knew she didn't want me.

Her books were more important. I couldn't blame her for it either, considering the circumstances. We'd been shoved together without so much as an inquiring word from our alphas. They knew best-so we were supposed to trust it.

What if Troy is wrong? I thought with a pang of regret. This is the first time he's heard someone's heart speaking. Maybe it was another heart nearby. Maybe he just heard someone else.

More guilt twisted around my heart while I studied Francine's rigid motions in the living room. She was just setting up some tea on the coffee table for us to drink while Archie was with his uncle. We had the house to ourselves.

That didn't feel particularly good to think about. I knew she was just going to get lost in another book this weekend. Two weeks with this woman and her interest in paperbacks had doubled. While math wasn't my strong suit, I could easily put two and two together with her.

I stared at the mug in front of me. "What is it?"

"Lavender from Laurencia."

"You can tell your awkward friend that she doesn't have to hide on the porch. She can come inside when she visits."

She froze across from me. "Have you been spying on my guests?"

"Hard not to when they clomp up the steps so loudly."

"You don't have to be rude about it."

I scrubbed my face. "Francine, please. I don't feel like fighting. I've been sprucing up the houses all week so they'll work without needing repairs so fast. Can we please just have a quiet night?"

"Of course you want another quiet night. You always want a quiet night."

"Fran."

She glowered at me. "You don't want me near you, do you?" She laughed bitterly while blinking at the ceiling. Were those tears in her eyes? "Except when you do want me in the middle of the night when nobody can see you devouring my face."

I hung my head. I hated that she was right about that-and not for the reasons anybody would think. I didn't feel ashamed of Francine.

I felt weird for wanting her.

"So, which is it?" she snapped. "You want me or not? Because I'm not your little tug-o-war prize. I'm a person. I'm a woman. I have f*****g feelings whether you like it or not."

In one second, I was on my feet. In another, I was skirting around the coffee table to get to her. I stomped across the room and mashed my mouth to hers, stealing away her breath and marking her lips with a bruising desire I couldn't contain anymore. She was as irritating as she was attractive. She made me want to do things to her that felt forbidden yet enticing.

"Of course I want you," I rasped between quick kisses. "Can't you tell?"

"I can never tell with you-"

I slurped her tongue into my mouth, drawing out a long groan that set my senses on fire. Every inch of me prickled with lustful heat. It wasn't like anything I had ever felt. She lit me from within. She made me glow with radioactive material. Both of us would melt soon under the penetrative particular meltdown of whatever was going on inside me. This was all her doing.

Damn the gods, it was her-and I didn't want it to be anyone else.

Her body folded with mine in ways that made sense mentally but probably looked physically like sexy acrobatics. I pressed her to my chest as I backed her into the couch, practically tripping over the coffee table on the way. My toe landed on a toy truck that squealed and set us both on edge.

But within a few seconds, the toy turned off and we were laughing up a storm. I set her on the couch and propped her knees open as I knelt to the ground. She shuddered bashfully, red splotches appearing on her face one by one as she watched me with doe eyes. A certain gloss had sheathed her pupils that blew wide open. She nipped her lower lip while I dared to kiss the skin peeking out from her pastel pink top. My fingers looped under the hem of her pencil skirt, pushing the fabric up to reveal soft skin and trembling thighs. The more I moved, the more she reacted, and the more I wanted to bury myself inside her.

Every patch of flesh taken by my lips quivered under my focus. My thumbs sought her cotton-candy-pink panties, tightening them over her slit. A moan rumbled through her that caused her body to roll with the tide of the sound, planting her slit against my lips without me having to make a move.

That was the sort of arousal that was far more palpable than any other energy we had traded. I had picked her apart. She had criticized me to pieces. But this? Oh, she was coming undone right under my tongue-and I hadn't once touched any exposed part of her slit. It made me wonder how she would react to the more raw, primal aspects of this spiritual takeover.

Sheer willpower prevented me from ripping off her clothes. Francine was a classy woman. She required time and attention, enough foreplay to steam an entire bathhouse before I got to dive between her thighs. I took my time with her unraveling, tracing her slit with the tip of my tongue and listening to the way her shuddering sighs broke with tiny, shocked cries.

This was hotter than anything I had encountered, than any woman I could have plucked out of a bar. Something about her simplicity and style made me want to ravish her. I wanted to undo every string that kept her together, and then some, and then toss her on my bed to plow for the next four hours. I wouldn't stop until she was totally spent.

Even then, I wasn't sure how satisfied I would be. Each part of me that ached for Francine vibrated on a level I couldn't quite determine, though I knew viscerally it was her doing. Everything we had experienced thus far had been her doing with some input from me. And right now, I was taking the wheel. I was calling the shots. I was making her writhe and whimper just from teasing her c**t.

A rough chuckle erupted from me as I leaned back an inch, sweeping my thumb under the fabric covering her slit. "I wonder what happens when I—"

She bucked. "Elias, please."

"Please, what?"

"Don't stop." The words rolled together repeatedly on each bated breath, becoming a blur of sounds that transformed into a new round of moans.

I could have made it stop. Or I could have made it worse. That thought alone hardened my c**k to a painful bulge and propelled me to snugly tug her panties aside. Delicious arousal soaked her slit that beckoned to be lapped away, and I obediently dove into her folds with hunger renewed.

Her thighs clamped around my head. It took all my strength to resist turning into a complete animal because I wanted her to experience pleasure. While daytime had us arguing, nighttime had us pining for each other. I was sick of waiting to hear what she sounded like because of my mouth. I wanted to get as much of that into my ears as possible.

All starting with this first o****m.

A few light flicks to her clit had her in spasms. She clutched the back of my head while broken bays exploded from her, interrupted by gasps for air. Just those brief moments of her coming for me made me ravenous and I returned to her slit for more. That movement alone prompted another o****m to roll through-and then another.

I sat back to remove her panties, watching the way her legs trembled as I went for her skirt as well. With the rest of her clothes removed, she appeared to me like a delightful goddess coated in a soft layer of sweat as she struggled to breathe. She peered up at me from beneath heavy lids, lips cracked open enough to reveal her plush tongue.

My cock throbbed. I tore away my clothes and pulled her into my lap, stroking my c**k through her wet slit and letting it steal my vision. She lazily kissed me while rolling her hips and rubbing her soaked folds against my shaft. Just a few short bucks had me sweating and grinding, the allure of her slit calling for me to claim her.

But something else called for me first. Something primal had floated up to the surface, a certain allure that had never occurred to me in the past. No woman could have boasted about being drawn to me the way Franny could. The desire my little Fran felt was far more than just physical-it was downright spiritual.

While neither of us could explain, we didn't argue against it. Without hesitation, I drifted to her neck, partially shifted my mouth, and bit her main artery. She bucked once as hard as she could muster, and then she sought my neck to do the same, plunging her feline teeth into my neck, pulling on me as I pulled on her.

Smoldering heat seared me from the inside out. She kept sweeping her slit over my shaft, drawing me into an entranced series of thrusts that made me feel like I was going to lose my grip on reality. Only when she released my neck did I release hers. Our eyes locked, pupils burning with the partial shift, encouraging us to grind and slide, to groan and sweat together.

One more thrust had me gripping her hips-but she didn't engulf me yet. Instead, she slid down my body, trailing kisses along my chest that made me lose sight of everything. I concentrated on the path of her lips, groaning when she reached the tip of my cock. Her warm tongue trailed around the head, the motion tugging my hips into action without much thought at all.

That was when the hunger returned. If I couldn't plant myself inside her, then I wanted to please her some other way, to give to her while she gave to me. With her lips wrapped around my cock, I sat up and cupped her cheek, whispering a simple command that seemed to make us both shiver.

"Sit on my face."

Eyes rounder than ever, she extended her tongue, trailing it just beneath the head of my cock and making it harder to get her to do what I wanted. She was a bit bratty-but that didn't bother me at all. Challenges were easy for me to meet, and she was just granting me another challenge to overcome.

Soon she wouldn't be so defiant, because I knew just how to weaken her resolve. As she attempted to resist my repeated command, I smoothed my hand down her back and followed the curve of her ass, sweeping my fingers through her slit and watching her buck back to meet my hand. After stroking her a few times, I retracted my hand.

Her protests were muffled by my cock in her mouth. I chuckled huskily and repeated what she needed to do, finding that she obeyed much easier now that she had pleasure on the line. The moment her knees were on either side of my head, I buried my mouth into her slit, enjoying the muted sounds of her moans that vibrated my c**k.

Nothing about this position was spectacular for a guy like me-yet she made it feel like I was experiencing it for the first time. The way she licked my shaft and suckled on the head with such light movements drove me wild. Everything about her was soft and simple, eager to please. It just made me want to please her even more.

Her presence had ignited something in me. And now that we were finally dissolving the tension between us, I could see why. She wasn't like anyone else I had ever met. We folded together in ways that didn't make sense-but that made me want to see how it made

sense.

And it all started with how we were tangled up.

Focusing on her clit made her erupt, and then doubled her dedication to my cock. She slurped me into her mouth and bobbed dutifully, pushing me so far over the edge that I couldn't have stopped from coming if I'd tried. I came in short spurts, pushing through the waves that swallowed me, fervently lapping up every bit of fluid that dripped from her.

A few moments later, we were a mess on the couch, limbs locked in ways that would have been uncomfortable if we hadn't just pleasured each other to pieces. She was perfect. She was sweet. And she seemed to belong to me. She seemed to be part of me in ways I couldn't undo.

Hell, it wasn't like I wanted to undo anything except her resolve. Calm silence settled over us, an afterglow burning in the background that made me wrap my arms around her. One thought simmered behind the rest, forcing me to bury my face into her neck where I had just claimed her. It was a terrible thought that nearly stopped the rapid beating of my heart.

When was the other shoe going to drop?