Riordan (15 page)

day. He’d said that she was working too hard now, that she should take it easy until she was used

to her body again. Again. He knew that she was getting her body back. Riordan moved toward

her slowly. He was afraid that when he got close enough, he’d see that he’d been wrong. But the

scars were fading and her body was stronger.

“When you bite me, you take some of my blood into your body. It’s strong. I can heal with

just a shift. I think that it’s healing you.” He touched his fingers to the scar on her back, much

like he had the first time he’d touched her. “This one was wider, and as long as my hand. It’s not

that now. I’d say that it’s less than three inches and only about an eighth of an inch wide. The

smaller ones are gone, not even pink.”

He turned her in his arms so that he was facing her now. She looked afraid, and he didn’t

blame her. Riordan was slightly afraid himself.

“Am I a tiger then?” He shook his head, and his cat moved along his skin as if to say, hey,

but we can fix that. Calming him, because she was so afraid, Riordan begged his cat to let him

handle this. “I can feel him. He’s right there, isn’t he?”

“Yes. He wants you.” She turned and looked at him. “I’ve wanted to let him mark you for

days now. He wants to taste you, too.”

“You mean…you don’t mean he wants to have oral sex with me, do you?” Riordan kissed

her shoulder and rocked into her pussy. He wanted to have oral sex with her, too, but one thing at

a time. “Will he want to have sex, too?”

“No. Just taste you and then mark you.” She leaned back into his chest, and Riordan cupped

her breast by lifting her bra out of the way. “If you lay down on the bed, right now, I’ll shift and

he can have you.”

She moved from him. Riordan thought for sure she was going to hit him, but all she did was

move to the bed. When she sat down then stood up, he was so disappointed that he nearly

sobbed. But all she did was remove her panties and her bra. When she lay back down, he pulled

his borrowed tee-shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor.

“I’m going to shift. Will that frighten you?” She only snorted at him. “Yeah, I guess not.

Then you have to do me a favor…don’t run. If you do then we’ll chase you down, and your staff

is not going to like that.”

“I have one request.” He nodded. Right now he’d give her anything. Even have a baby for

her. “Will you help me make this place a home? Like your parents’? Can we get married here,

have children and raise them as little hellions without maids or nannies?”

“We’ll need help with nannies, love. I’m not going to have you exhausted all the time when

I want you. And after I change you, if you want, I want to be able to run with you for hours

without having to worry about the children.”

“I want to be your cat.” He nodded and pulled his pants off. He was stiff and hard, his cock

so full that he was thinking that one taste of her was going to be all he could do. But he let his cat

take him and watched her.

“You’re beautiful.” His cat moved forward slowly. His big head was bigger than her entire

waistline, and he didn’t want to hurt her. Her fingers in his fur behind his ears had the big animal

purring, and she hugged him to her. “I don’t know what to do.”

Lay back and spread your legs.
She did that but didn’t move fast enough for his cat.

Pressing his large body between her legs, he buried his head over her pussy and inhaled deeply.

Riordan could smell how aroused she was, too. And when he licked her, Storm came up off the

bed.

“Christ, that was wonderful.” Without him telling her, she lay back, this time spreading her

legs wide. “Eat me, Riordan. Please, eat me.”

~~~

Storm felt his tongue touch her in ways that no one had before. His tongue was rough and

long; it was strong, too, and when he curled it around her clit she came, crying out his name.

Holding him to her, she rode his tongue as he fucked her with it. His teeth touched her

sometimes but never enough to hurt her. When she came again, this time using the pillow on her

bed to cover her screams, she felt him lick her thigh and waited for the pain. Instead of pain,

however, she felt something akin to a tightening. Looking down at where he had his teeth deep in

her thigh, she asked Riordan what was happening.

My saliva numbs it for you. I’ve never done this before, but I thought, like you apparently

did, that it would hurt.
The big tiger lifted his head and growled at her. Then he was Riordan.
My

turn.

His mouth seemed to be everywhere. His hands and fingers massaged and touched her in

places that she was sure no one had touched her before. His mouth ate at her, ate her like she was

his feast and he was going to gorge himself on her. When his fingers slid into her, curling around

until she felt him touch something wild and dark in her, she screamed again, her body bowing up

off the bed until she thought she was going to come apart. When he pulled her off the bed and

onto his cock, Storm wrapped herself around him.

“Christ, you taste delicious. I could eat you all day and never get enough.” Riordan lifted her

up by her ass and lowered her over and over until she thought she was going to die from the

pleasure of it. And when he rolled them over and had her on her back, she held onto him like she

was going to fly away.

“I want to bite you, too.” He nodded and tilted his head for her. She could see his pulse

there, pounding hard against his skin. Her mouth watered to sink her teeth into him, but she

waited, knowing that it was important to bite when they came. But the thought of the taste of

him, the need to taste all of him, had her scraping her teeth over him, and he cried out that he was

coming.

Storm bit down and tore his skin as blood, hot and spicy, filled her mouth. Her own climax

grabbed her seemingly by the throat, and held her suspended for several seconds until it dropped

her over the large cavern. And she didn’t land so much as she simply came to rest at the end of

the great fall.

Storm woke alone in the bed. Riordan wasn’t in the room with her, and his clothing was

gone. Getting up, she made her way to the bathroom and knew that he’d made use of it, too. The

stall was wet with small droplets of water, and his towel was hanging crookedly over the handle

of the shower door. There was a note on the counter, which she picked up to read.

“My dearest darling…too mushy? Yeah, I thought so, too. I’m down in the kitchen. Or the

office if you have one here. I’m going to need bread crumbs to find my way around. I love you,

Storm. I truly do.”

She stared at the last line for several seconds before putting it down and turning on the

water. Surely he was just saying that. No one loved her. Laughing, she got under the spray and

washed up. It was then that she noticed that her skin felt softer, the muscles more full. She had to

lean against the wall to let her breathing get back under control.

Are you all right?
Storm screamed at the sound of his voice.
I’m sorry, love, but I could feel

how upset you were. Do you want me to come up there?

No. I’m fine. I just realized what you said is right. I’m healing.
He told her that he was

coming up.
No, really, I’m fine. I’m nearly done now. I’ll…did you find the office?

Yes. And I love it. Did you know that there are books in here older than some I’ve seen in

museums? And this desk…where the hell did you get this thing? It has more drawers in it than all

my dressers at my apartment.
She smiled at him as she dried off.
Oh, and Anderson said that

there have been inquiries about what you plan to do with this place. What do you want to do with

this place? Because if you really want to turn it into a home, I’m all for it. I love this house.

The desk, it was a former president’s, I think. I don’t know which one, but Anderson more

than likely knows. And the office was my father’s. Though now that I think about it, I don’t think

he ever used it except when he had company.
She had to laugh.
Riordan, what do you think about

going from room to room and tossing what we don’t want in order to start over? I don’t have

any attachment to this stuff except a few pieces.

So long as I can keep this desk, I’m okay. And the chair. Oh, and the leather ones by the

fireplace in here. Can I keep the conference table, too? And the…maybe you should just come

down here and let me show you.
She was nearly down the stairs when he spoke again.
I need you

to come to the office, please. I think we might have an issue.

Hurrying now, she made her way to the back of the house. When she got there, she had to

make her way through the staff that was crowding into the room with Riordan. Storm made her

way to him as she asked what was going on.

“Lady Browning, we were wondering if you were planning to sell.” She looked at the rest of

the staff when Anderson spoke. Some she knew, most she didn’t. “We’ve been loyal servants all

this time and think we should know as soon as possible if we are to find other employment.”

“Do you want to find other employment? And before you answer that, you should know that

we’re thinking about living here. But there will be changes. I’m not my parents’ daughter, and I

won’t do what they did here.” She thought she saw relief on Anderson’s face, but it was there

and gone so fast that she wasn’t sure. He asked her what sort of changes she might want to have.

“Well, for one thing, I want to get rid of the furniture in the grand room. It’s…well, it’s not fun.”

“Yes, I can see that.” Storm was surprised by his agreement. “I would like to suggest that

you redo the kitchen as well. I’m not the cook in there by any means, but it does not flow well if

you should entertain. And I’m assuming that you will be entertaining now that you’re here?”

“All right. I can do that. But as far as entertaining goes, I don’t know about that. We’ll have

family over, I suppose. And holidays. I don’t know much about holidays, but I want my own

tree.” He nodded, then looked around the room they were in. “This room stays the way that Mr.

Harrison wants it. If he wants it gone, then okay, but no moving this room.”

“Yes, my lady.” Anderson grinned at her as he moved deeper into the room. “We have kept

up with you. All of us have. I should like to show you something.”

Nodding, she waited while he took a book from the bottom shelf of the bookshelf. It was

thick and old looking, but well cared for. Riordan came around the desk to look at it with her

when Anderson handed it to her.

“I would go to find newspapers when we heard you were in them.” The woman that stepped

forward curtsied. “I’m the cook, miss. June Price is my name. I didn’t work here when your

parents lived here. I should very much like to stay if you mean to keep the house. All of us

would. We think of you as our own, you see.”

She could see that. The book was filled with clippings from the newspapers. Some of them

weren’t even in English, but she knew they were about her, including the one where she’d been

hurt. It didn’t mention her name, but it was there. She looked at Anderson.

“Mr. Blackson kept us updated on your progress. He said that there would be no mention of

you for safety reasons, but he did send us reports and the newspapers when he could find them.”

He nodded to the desk. “He called us just a while ago. Told us that you’d met a man and that you

might be moving here. We’ve been getting ready, I suppose you could say, hoping for a time

when you returned home.”

“This was never my home.” He nodded and told her he knew that. “Mr. Harrison and I

might get married, but we do want to make this our home, not a house.”

“It’s never been a home. But we will gladly help you make it one.” She nodded, too, moved

by their support to do much more than that. “Now then. We shall have dinner at six. Will there

be just the two of you this evening? I’m to understand that you have a rather large family, Mr.

Harrison. If you should like to invite them now, we’d have plenty of time to prepare for their

arrival.”

“I’ll call them now and see if they can come to visit.” He looked down at her as Riordan

continued talking to Anderson. “I’d like for you to contact Lady Browning’s aunts, if you don’t

mind, and see if they can join us as well.”

“Very good, sir. Also, I shall set them up a room or two as well. There is no reason for them

to travel back if they should like to stay over.” Anderson moved the staff out of the room but

paused at the doorway. “If you do not mind me asking, what took you so long, my lady?”

“I don’t know, Anderson. I just don’t know.” He nodded, and she stopped him once more.

“Could you do me one more favor please? Call a contractor in the morning and have the entire