Gilbert (7 page)

Gilbert grunted and called the pups inside again before muttering a curse and going outside to get them. After a short but entertaining—for Jihu, anyways—game of chase between Gilbert, Abbie and Zeus, the pups were brought in.

“If I’d have known how much work they’d be, I might have said no when Isaiah asked me to puppy-sit.” Gilbert poured food into their bowls and gave them fresh water. Then he strode over to Jihu and plucked the empty bottle from his hand. “Daniel needs to be burped. Forgot about that earlier.”

Jihu had seen babies being burped before. He hoisted Daniel up onto his shoulder and softly patted his back.

Gilbert shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. Jihu waited, wondering what he was hesitating over saying. Finally, twin spots of purple bloomed on Gilbert’s cheeks and he cleared his throat. “Um. I don’t want you to think I meant it about the puppies. I love those buggers even though they tried to eat the living room.” He gestured and Jihu looked, only then noticing the damage to the trim and the lack of couch cushions. The puppies really
were
destruction on eight legs.

“Maybe it’s not a question or a worry you have, but just in case it is, and you’re not sure about asking it, I love kids.”

Jihu turned back to Gilbert. How had he known one of Jihu’s fears? “I figured you’d be happy about having a mate—what shifter wouldn’t be? But the instant family part, I wasn’t sure…”

Gilbert crooked his arm and Jihu placed Daniel in his hold. “I just assumed I wouldn’t have kids, unless my mate, if I met him, agreed to adopt. I’d like more, actually, just to clarify.”

What could he say to that? He didn’t know if he wanted more kids or not, but he suspected he’d be happy to let Gilbert have his way in the matter. Jihu had never even thought about kids until he’d learnt that he’d successfully impregnated someone. Then the weight of it, the fact that he had fertile sperm and would be bred to every viable female possible if the baby was carried to term and born healthy, that was when he began to realise how the lepe leader intended Jihu to spend his life. He’d wanted much better for his son. He’d wanted freedom.

“Why don’t you go shower and I’ll find you some clean clothes to put on?” Gilbert offered. “I want to check you over first, and little bit here needs a diaper change, then I’ll tuck him in his carrier. It’s all right for him to sleep in it. I’ll meet you in the bedroom.”

“Okay.” Jihu felt as if he’d walked into an alternate universe. This was so different from what he knew, and Gilbert’s easy acceptance was a balm to his battered soul. Jihu’s leopard was bitching at him, wanting a full mating and claiming, and Jihu hoped the cat would be satisfied with Jihu being the one being taken. Needy beast aside, the man in him wasn’t ready to do something so similar to what he’d been forced to almost ten months ago. But letting Gilbert fuck him, that was a definite yes in his book.

The bathroom was decent-sized, not like the tiny showers in the facility he’d shared with the three other shifters who were products of forced breedings. Why were they even born when they’d been treated like a nuisance? Jihu couldn’t comprehend the drive to keep their species going, and pure Amur, when he’d seen so much disregard for the individuals.

As Jihu stripped, he looked over the bruises and scrapes he had. Nothing too bad. There were needle marks on his arms, and he counted them.
Thirteen
. He’d been locked in that damn room for thirteen days. How long would it take for the drug to wear off? Jihu missed his enhanced senses. It was like losing a hand, and it made it difficult for him to trust what he felt, what he saw and experienced with his human senses. Who was he kidding? His mind was a fucking mess.

He darted a glance at himself in the bathroom mirror. He was still scrawny, short, and bony. If Gilbert weren’t his mate, he probably wouldn’t be attracted to Jihu at all. Although, he did have a nice cock, and sometimes he thought he wasn’t ugly, not his face, anyways. It was hard to believe that right now, with the ugly bruises on his jaw and under his eyes. “Ugh.” Jihu left off looking at himself and used the toilet.

Once he was in the shower, Jihu groaned as the hot water worked on his sore muscles. He hadn’t realised how much he ached, or how scuzzy he was. How had Gilbert even touched him when he hadn’t bathed in too long? Jihu scrubbed until his skin stung. He washed his hair twice, just because it felt so good to massage his scalp. After conditioning as well, he rinsed off and turned the water off.

Another look in the mirror as he towelled off and Jihu snorted at himself. He was being an idiot. What did it matter how he looked? Gilbert was his mate, he’d like Jihu any way he came. But even so, Jihu wanted to be attractive for him. Jihu rubbed at his smooth jaw, grimacing when he pressed too hard on the bruise. He’d never grown any facial hair. His skin was still as smooth as a baby’s.

“Jihu? You okay in there?” Gilbert called through the door.

Jihu dropped the towel as he startled. If he’d had his senses back, he’d have heard Gilbert’s approach. “Yeah. I’m almost done.” He found the toothpaste and finger-brushed his teeth. It wasn’t ideal, but had to be better than having stank breath. Jihu finished and washed his mouth out before grabbing the towel again and winding it around his hips.

He noticed his ribs stuck out and was tempted to drape another towel over his shoulders, but what would be the point? Gilbert wanted to see him, and Jihu was going to let him. He was going to fight against his past, try to free himself so he could have a normal life.

Jihu opened the door and traipsed into the bedroom. Gilbert was reclining on the large bed, and Jihu’s jaw about hit the floor. He squeaked as he skidded to a stop.

“You’re naked!”

Gilbert tipped his chin at him. “So are you.”

Jihu looked down and saw the towel at his feet. His skin heated with the flush of his embarrassment.

“Don’t cover up,” Gilbert said when Jihu bent for the towel. “You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”

Jihu straightened up and struggled not to put his hands in front of his erect dick. He concentrated instead on taking in every line of Gilbert’s body, the sculpted muscles, thick thighs, and dense body hair. His gaze was drawn to the large cock curving up to Gilbert’s belly, and the big balls between his thighs.

“Come here, please.” Gilbert’s voice sent a hot flash of anticipation down Jihu’s spine.

Jihu stumbled forward, unable to look away from Gilbert’s groin. His mouth began to water, and he had to swallow several times as he thought of feeling that thick slab between his lips.

Gilbert moaned and sat up, gripping the base of his shaft. “You keep looking at me like that, and I won’t be able to check your injuries.”

“They’re fine,” Jihu gritted out. “Daniel?”

Gilbert pointed to the room across the hall. Jihu looked through the open door of the room they were in and saw that Daniel slept away in his car seat, safe and in sight, but—“The puppies?”

Gilbert sighed and stroked his cock slowly. “Garage. I hope I got everything picked up they could have destroyed. Had to put the garbage on the hood of the car, but I can’t leave them outside and locking them up again seemed cruel.”

“Okay.”

“Now, stop stalling, unless you really aren’t ready to make love.” Gilbert arched a brow in question.

Jihu surprised himself with a growl, his leopard purring and chuffing inside him. “I’m ready. I want you to claim me, mark me.”

Gilbert’s pupils dilated at that and he stood in a smooth move that almost seemed like a dance. “Come here. Let me see you first.”

“I said I’m fine,” Jihu grumbled, “just bruises here and there, the needle marks—”

“What?” Gilbert snapped. Jihu explained how he’d been kept from shifting, and how his shifter senses were inhibited. “Oh. Maybe then that’s why we don’t have the mental link yet?”

“Maybe,” Jihu agreed. He wasn’t sure he was ready to have Gilbert in his head yet anyway. “Now kiss me.”

Gilbert licked his lips, and his eyes lit with amusement. “I want to look at you first. You have no idea how perfect you are. I’ve always been attracted to men smaller than me, although”—his gaze tracked down to Jihu’s cock—“I’m not sure you’re any smaller there.”

Jihu knew he was, but not by much, and considering his height, or lack thereof, his cock seemed bigger than it would have on someone like Gilbert. “It’s enough.”

“More than,” Gilbert corrected as he ran a finger from the base to the underside of Jihu’s dick. “I do want to feel this in my mouth before I take you.”

“Oh-okay,” Jihu gasped out, his dick leaping at the idea. “I want that too.” He reached for Gilbert’s cock. Jihu’s finger and thumb didn’t quite meet at the base, and the middle of Gilbert’s curved dick was even thicker, then it tapered to the underside of a broad, flaring head. “Oh man, I want…everything,” he sighed.

“You can have it,” Gilbert told him. He moved back and sat on the bed, taking himself from Jihu’s hands. “But turn around, let me just make sure you’re as okay as you seem. Plus, I really want to look at your little butt.” His eyes held that devilish gleam and Jihu could deny him nothing then.

He turned, nervous about the view he’d be giving Gilbert. Jihu was aware his backside wasn’t round and ‘out there’, but he was taut and—“Ohhh.” Jihu pushed back into the hands rubbing his bottom.

“Perfect,” Gilbert purred. “You have a perfect ass, baby. Nothing but muscle and firm, gripping heat.” He ran his thumbs down Jihu’s crack and Jihu’s breath stuttered from his lungs. “Yeah, baby. I want in here, but you tell me if you want me to stop and I will.”

“I don’t,” Jihu squeaked out, so desperate and needy he could hardly talk. “Touch me there.”

“Where?” Gilbert asked as he traced his crease again. “Tell me. I like hearing the words. Makes me hot.”

Jihu doubted Gilbert could get any hotter than he already was, but he would do as his mate asked. Even if it made him embarrassed. Jihu wasn’t used to having such needs, much less voicing them. “My…my butt hole. Touch me there.”

His mortification was washed away by a flood of want as Gilbert parted his cheeks, and rather than use his fingers, slid his wet tongue over Jihu’s opening. “Ah! Gilbert!” Jihu’s legs wobbled and his balls drew tight. His nipples, something he’d never paid attention to, actually ached and he looked down to see them erect, hard, like his leaking cock.

Gilbert growled against his ass hole and lapped at it again. Jihu’s knees gave out. Only Gilbert’s arm around his waist kept Jihu upright. Then the world was tilting, blurring as he was spun around and bent over the bed.

“Just stay right like this,” Gilbert murmured, running his hands from Jihu’s shoulders to his flanks. “Unless it’ll be easier on your knees.”

Jihu let himself relax in the vulnerable position. He was still on his feet, bent low so that his chest was almost on the bed. He went ahead and eased the rest of the way down, kneeling instead to take the pressure off his lower back—and in case his legs went out on him.

“God, you look so fucking gorgeous, so—please don’t get pissed, okay?” Gilbert kissed the ridges of his spine. “So delicate and still masculine. You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed of someone so perfect.”

Jihu wasn’t sure how he felt about the ‘delicate’ part, but it was probably a lot better than scrawny, which was how he thought of himself.

“You look like you’ve been pared down to the core of your strength, your body tough, sinewy, sexy,” Gilbert continued. Then he wasn’t talking, was instead opening Jihu’s ass and rimming him as if he was starving for it.

Jihu was, and he’d never known it. Each lick made his cock leak, and he whimpered as he pushed back, needing more. “G-Gilbert, please, d-do something,” he begged when Gilbert scraped his teeth over the furled skin.

Gilbert did something already, sucking the aperture.

“Ah! Damn!” Jihu clawed at the bed, arching and pushing and shivering all at once. “Gil!”

Gilbert rumbled from behind him then speared his tongue into Jihu’s ass. The mewling sound that spilled from Jihu was more feline than human, as need tore through him, bringing his leopard to demand more.

As if knowing Jihu’s thoughts, Gilbert pushed a finger into him, no slow and gentle thrust, but diving in and giving Jihu a hint of the pleasure to come. “More,” Jihu demanded, about to vibrate out of his skin. He rubbed his chest against the blanket, his nipples sensitive, the friction a wonderful addition to the symphony of arousal his body was singing with.

Gilbert reached under him, once more showing his understanding of his mate, and pinched one nub. Jihu threw his head back and gasped, trying to keep from being too noisy. He didn’t want to wake Daniel up, not now.

More thickness in his ass, another digit added, he thought. Gilbert confirmed it. “Going to have to really stretch this hole. Sweet little virgin hole, isn’t it?”

Gilbert’s excitement was audible, it laced his voice and made Jihu’s groin tingle. “Yes, only you,” he grunted out, then Gilbert purred and began finger-fucking him, thrusting in and out in sharp movements. He went in deep, pushing another wanton sound from Jihu, then Jihu’s head buzzed and electricity raced from his ass to his tits and every point in between as Gilbert caressed something inside him.

Jihu couldn’t think, couldn’t speak, not words at least. Gibberish fell from his lips as Gilbert kept at that spot. He was dimly aware of his hole burning, stretching, of his nipples being alternately pinched and stimulated, but nothing compared to that intense arousal growing deep inside him.

“One more finger,” Gilbert said, his voice strained. Jihu couldn’t do anything but whimper, his need so great it was an ache in his ass only Gilbert could feel.

“Soon, baby. Soon I’m gonna fuck this sweet little ass until you beg me to come, until I can’t do anything, see anything, feel anything, but you, gripping me.” Gilbert punctuated the statement with a bite to Jihu’s ass which only spiked his need.

When Gilbert withdrew his fingers, Jihu cried out, pushing back, chasing them. “Gilbert, I—you—” he began, head and mouth trying to work together to express what he wanted.

“I know what you need, same thing I need.” Gilbert poured something slick on his ass, rubbed it down to his hole before pushing his fingers back in. “Need to get you nice and wet for me. Spit was all right for the fingering, but with a cock my size, and you being a virgin, gotta have lots of lube.”