Force of Nature (13 page)

“Yes. Please…Austin, I’m coming.” Her sheath rippled around his cock and nearly strangled him. When he felt his own release coming quick now that she had, he rolled her back to the bed and slammed into her. He knew she’d be sore, but need ripped through him. With a final thrust, he came. His cock jettisoned deep and his fangs ached to mark. Licking the place where her shoulder met her neck, he bit.

Mine.
Even as her blood filled his mouth, he could feel the bond forming.
Mine
. The bond that only mated couples felt. Nothing had prepared him for the overwhelming need to protect, to care for and to keep her.
Mine
, he thought over and over. Licking the wound again, his essences sealing the ragged opening, he nearly dropped on her, but rolled to his side again, pulling her lax body over his. His last thought before falling to sleep was that he’d forgotten about the person at the door.

~~~

CJ woke up tangled in the bed with Austin. Her body flushed with heat when she remembered what she’d begged him to do to her last night. Moving her hand to her neck where he’d bit her, she expected it to come away bloody. But other than being slightly tender, that was all. She moved to the edge of the bed and slid to the floor.

It only took her a moment to find her clothes and get dressed. She was starved and was pulling on her boots when she was suddenly pulled back into the bed. His mouth covered hers before she could utter a protest.

Heat filled her body as he tugged her down onto him. When he rolled her over onto her back, he grinned when her belly growled.

“We worked up an appetite, didn’t we? I don’t suppose I could persuade you to skip breakfast and let me make love to you all morning, could I?” Before she could answer, her belly growled again. “I’ll take that as a no. Let me get dressed and I’ll go with you. Besides, I want to see if I can smell who was at the door last night.”

She flushed, remembering why he hadn’t looked last night. She was suddenly glad his back was turned from hers. She knew her face was flaming.

“I wonder if whoever it was thought I was alone and wanted to…I don’t know have dinner or something.” She pulled on her boot and reached for the second one when she found herself back on the bed. “Austin?”

“I meant what I said last night, Charlie. No one can touch you. I’m a very jealous wolf and you’re mine.”

She remembered. But there was no reason for him to get all macho on her. She shoved him off her…or at least tried to. When that didn’t work, she turned her head away. “Get off me. I’m quite capable of taking care of myself. I’ve been doing it for a long time.” He didn’t move for several seconds and she looked up at him. The look on his face confused her. He looked…well, he looked sad. Before she could ask him, he rolled off her and stood.

“Let’s go. I’m starved too. Let me go out first. I want to see if I can scent anything.”

She waited in the passenger seat while he climbed out the driver’s. She watched him come around the side of the truck and sniff around. When he backed up several feet and shook his head, she nearly climbed out to see what happened. He looked like he got a whiff of something that didn’t agree with him. He stopped her with a raised hand. Then he did the international sign for rolling down the window—a winding hand. She rolled her eyes as she reached over to turn the key to make the electric window go down.

“You know that crank windows are about faded out, right?” Then she asked, “What did you smell?”

She actually didn’t feel as stupid as she thought she would asking him that. First of all, hello, man here, and secondly, after last night it was hard to deny that what he’d told her was anything but the truth.

“A male touched the door as recently as last night. A shifter, not wolf though. A cat, tiger.”

She started to ask if there were really weretigers then snapped her mouth closed. Of course there were.

“I don’t know any two-legged tigers.” At least she didn’t think so. “How will I tell when…am I a wolf too now?”

That was a weird thought. He’d bitten her and they’d had sex…boy had they had sex. He said he’d marked her, but hadn’t he already done that? She decided she was going to make a list of questions to ask him so that she wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed.

“No, not yet anyway. We’ll talk about it. And you won’t be able to tell. But I will. I have the scent now.” He opened the door for her and she nearly got out. She turned back, put the window up, and took the keys. “Let’s just pretend that nothing is out of the ordinary.”

She snorted. “Okay. We’ll just pretend that we didn’t have this spectacular sex last night and that you didn’t flip into a wolf and my—”

“Shift,” he interrupted her. “I shifted. And was it really spectacular?”

She stopped to stare at him. Not even going there, she thought, and started toward the diner again. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to his body, his mouth covering hers in what could only be described as hot.

The world around them was fading away and all she could think of was the way his body was hard against hers when someone nudged her. She might have ignored them, but the second time she pulled away to yell, she was suddenly pulled into very tight arms.

“I’m so happy you worked out your differences. It’s so nice to have another female around.

Well there is Mom, but she isn’t all that into shopping. Please tell me you like to shop. Oh my God, that would be just sinful if you don’t. We’ll have to go shopping for Christmas presents together. Won’t that be so wonderful? And then—”

“Holly, take a breath. Christ, you could talk a deaf man to insanity.” Austin kissed the woman on the cheek and then turned to stare at her when a low growl spilled from CJ’s lips. She blushed.

“I’m sorry. I don’t…I didn’t even know I could…do you think you could step away from her? I have this urge to tear her eyes out and I don’t much care for it.”

The woman he called Holly stepped back and laughed. Austin pulled her back and grinned.

“Charlie, this is my sister, Holly. Holly, meet my mate, Charlie Force.”

The feeling of murder and mayhem dissipated. CJ mentally added another question to her growing list and walked into the diner with Holly on one side of her and Austin on the other.

“It’s Webber. Not Force, just Webber. Glad to meet you, Miss Force.”

~Chapter Thirteen~

Holly watched her brother with CJ. He probably didn’t even know he was constantly touching her. But CJ did. She really seemed to be uncomfortable by it, Holly thought. Also, she kept correcting him when he called her Charlie. She told him several times she preferred to be called CJ.

“So, CJ, how did you become a trucker?” Holly nearly burst out laughing when she asked.

CJ had just moved to the other end of the booth only to be scooted back to Austin’s side.

With a glare at Austin, CJ answered. “About eight years, give or take. Just after my mom died, so yeah, about eight years. She wanted me to become a lawyer and I decided I wanted away.”

“So you have any burning desire to go to school and realize her dream for you? Just for the record, my mom would have a cow if I suddenly became a trucker. But it sounds like fun.” Holly smiled at the waiter as he sat her food down. “But she loves me, so I’d be able to talk her into it.”

Holly watched as CJ covered her hash browns in sausage gravy and then tore biscuits over the whole thing. When she reached for the hot sauce, Austin tried to take it from her, but CJ

simply waited for him to put it down then threatened him with her fork before she answered.

“I had already gotten my law degree when she died. I had just started working with Phil when she—”

“You have a law degree? And you’re driving a truck. What the hell for? This just goes to prove that I was right and you will sell the rig and work on that instead of this ridiculous job driving around the country.” Austin seemed satisfied with his pronouncement and started in on his breakfast. “As soon as this it over you’ll sell the rig and move in with me at the pack house.”

The fork rammed deep in the table and shimmied in the sunlight. Austin looked at it then at CJ. Holly decided that she liked this girl more than she ever thought she would.

“Now that I have your attention,” CJ said in a voice that made Holly want to obey.

Alpha…CJ was an alpha female. “You will listen to me because I don’t plan to say this again. I had sex with you. Nothing more, nothing less. I am not your wife, I will not take your last name, and I most certainly will not sell my rig. When and if I decide I’ve had enough, I will set it aside.

Not because you told me to, but because I want to. Where I live is not up to you. I’m a grown woman and I see to myself. Don’t even start,” CJ said when Austin opened his mouth. “This is not up for discussion.”

The ringing of CJ’s cell phone had her pick it up. And without a word, she stood up and dug in her pocket as she answered the call. With a toss of her wrist, she threw forty dollars on the table and with a nod to Holly, CJ left.

Holly stared at her until she was out of sight. When Austin got up, Holly put her hand on his arm to stop him. “I wouldn’t if I were you. Not if you plan to walk on your own in the future.

She needs time to cool off and you need time to learn that women are from the twenty-first century and not the dark ages.” Holly slapped his arm. “What the hell is wrong with you? Are you stupid?”

“This in none of your business. This is between Charlie and me and I would appreciate it if you minded your own business.” He started to stand then sat back down, a look of total defeat on his face. “Fuck, I screwed that up. She just brings out the worst in me.”

Holly laughed. “No, I’m pretty sure you do that all on your own. I’ve always thought you were a little overbearing, but this…Christ, Austin, you going to ground her if she doesn’t obey you?”

“She doesn’t understand. She’s not even trying. I tell her to do something and she does the opposite just to piss me off. Damn it, Holly, she’s human and an independent one at that.” Austin looked at the doorway again that CJ had gone through. “I don’t know what to do about her.”

Holly looked at her brother and almost felt sorry for him…almost. “Why does she not want you to call her Charlie? There must be a reason…maybe a bad memory that she has from…didn’t you say her dad was that guy that shot Dallas? Maybe he called her that.”

Austin looked at her and shook his head. “No, I call her that because that’s her name. Not to bring any bad memories to her. She should know I’d not do anything like that.”

Holly picked up her water and tossed it in his face. When he stood up and reached out to grab her, she pulled her hand gun and laid it on the table. He jerked his hand back as if she was a flame.

“Sit down.” He sat. “Now, I’m going to ask you some questions and you’ll answer them.

You’ll not yell and you most certainly will not snarl at me. Understand?”

“Where did you get that gun? You put that thing—” His mouth snapped shut when she picked it up.

“See how this works? Now, I noticed two things. One, and this is a biggie, you didn’t know she has a law degree. Why? This brings me to number two. What’s her birthday?”

Austin stared at her with his mouth open before answering. “What the hell does that have to do with her not listening to me?”

“So you don’t know. And you never gave her the opportunity to listen, you fuck-tard, you made demands. I don’t listen to demands either.” She thought he mumbled she didn’t listen to anything, but decided to let it go for now. “Her birthday is July tenth. I asked her in the ladies room.” Holly had asked a few other things too and most of those things she’d never tell her brother. “She hadn’t spoken to her dad since the day her mom was buried. She lived with her grandma until she started driving a truck and she is allergic to tape—anything sticky touches her skin and she blisters. What do you know?”

Austin growled low in his throat. “She was a virgin before last night and she’s a pain in my ass.”

“Yes, well, I’m betting you’re no peach either.” Holly saw CJ coming toward their table and looked at her brother. “You want her to hate you then by all means continue treating her like Uncle Max did Aunt Susan. You remember what happened with that.”

She’d had him killed. Paid a man twenty thousand dollars to murder her husband then killed herself. Her note had said she was at peace for the first time in fifty years, approximately the same amount of time she’d been married to Uncle Max. She’d claimed she couldn’t take his overbearing ways a minute longer.

“Charlie…CJ wouldn’t hurt me. She’s my mate.” Holly didn’t think he sounded so sure.

“Yes. But here’s something to remember, I’m not your mate and I can hurt you.” She stood up when CJ was five feet away. “Behave, Austin, and listen. You might be surprised by what you learn.”

“I’m leaving,” CJ said as she reached the table. She looked at Austin. “Why don’t you go with your sister? That way I won’t have to smother you in your sleep.”

“I’m going. I told you I was and I am.” Austin grabbed Holly in a tight hug and whispered in her ear, “I can’t wait until you find your mate. I hope he makes your life a living hell.”

Holly watched the big truck leave the lot and went to her car. Her brother would figure this out, she was sure. She was sliding in the seat when she thought about what he’d threatened her with. Smiling, she thought about her mate.

She knew who he was. She’d known for a very long time. But he didn’t seem to. She wished things could be different, but she also knew that he wouldn’t come to her. As she pulled into traffic, she wondered what her brother would say about that.

~~~

“Solomon called,” CJ said as soon as they got on the highway again. “He wanted to know if we were going to make the deadline by Wednesday night or if we would need more time.”

Austin looked over at her and frowned. “Does he think you’re running behind? If so, how far does he think we are?”

“We’re not behind. I’m right on…he said ‘we.’ I didn’t tell him there was a passenger with me. He’s watching. I’m not sure how much he knows yet, but he’s watching me.” She took out several sheets of paper and handed them to him as she continued. “Phil sent me that. It’s from the Feds. Solomon is having this distributed for his stores across the United States. When I get this to the warehouse, it’ll be re-boxed and then put on another truck going back this way.”