Shifters of Grrr 2 (50 page)

"Well, in my old place I was sleeping on a blow up mattress from the camping section. Moving home with mom is kind of a blow to my ego, but the new bed is nice. See?" She patted the headboard. "Even the headboard is soft."

"Are you saying this is your room?"
 

"Well, someone keeps making me not able to see them, but the headboard is upholstered so I would imagine so." He was up and gone before she could stop him. What the heck? Next time he graced her dreams they were going to have words and she was going to get that dick in her mouth. Yep, a girl's got priorities.

Ring. Ring.

Nora shot up. Was that a house phone?
 

Ring. Ring.

So much for dreaming. She ran to the hall and followed the ringing. Who the heck still has a landline? Something told her that if it was ringing it was important. If her mom got pissed, so be it. It felt like she had to answer it. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she saw it and practically lunged for it.

"Hello." She was panting and probably sounded like she had just run a marathon.

"Hello, who is this?" The connection sucked and they sounded far away, but they also sounded familiar.

"Oh, sorry. This is the Wilson residence. May I help you?" She was still out of breath, but with a connection this bad, who cared?

"Finally. I will be there soon." And with that he hung up.
 

Chapter 3

"Dinner was amazing, Mom." It had been a long time since Nora had eaten anything other than insta-noodles or frozen pizza for dinner. It was a wonderful treat.

"Yes, dear, it was wonderful as always." Brian was a sweet guy, but even as he said those tender words, there was no denying he was the boss. Probably why his contractor business was doing so well. He wore "boss" like most men wore a nice suit.

"You two are far too kind. Just don't get used to it, Nora. Things haven't changed that much. This is still my only meal." She said it in jest, but it was most likely true.
 

Good thing Nora loved to cook. The only reason she rarely did in her old place was the broken oven and lack of ingredients. Here, the kitchen looked like it was off the pages of a magazine and food was a-plenty. She would have fun cooking here.
 

"Well, you know how much I love to cook, so no worries there, Mom."

"Oh, Nora, sweetie, you don't have to be our chef just because you are living here now," her stepdad began. "You are my daughter now, too, and you are welcome here as long as you want or need. No strings attached."

She had been living in this house for less than twelve hours and in this one conversation, he had acted more like a father to her than her real father ever had. Maybe this being poor and moving back home thing was a blessing in disguise.

"I like to cook, Brian. It makes me happy." She reached for her water. "If you ask me to vacuum, however, we will have words." She took a long sip of her drink as she heard her mother gasp and Brian laugh. "Relax, Mom. It was a joke."

"No vacuuming--check." Brian was still laughing and this time her mother joined in as Nora began to clear the table.

"Oh, Brenda and Nora, I almost forgot to tell you, Colton called this afternoon and said he was on a plan coming back here for a bit. Said he had
things
he needed to do here."

"Colton is coming? It will be nice to meet my stepson after all this time." The bitterness in her mother's voice was less than attractive.

"Oh, is that who called this afternoon?" Nora grabbed the left over dishes and brought them to the counter. One of the nice things about open concept living was it made it easy to clean up after a meal.

"Someone called?"
 

"Oh sorry, Brian, I should have mentioned it. It slipped my mind." She started back to gather more things off the table. "Someone called, asked who I was and said they would be here soon. It was a bad connection and hard to hear. Before I could ask him who he was, he hung up."

"What exactly did he say when he said he was coming?"
 

"Not much. He asked who I was. I told him this was the Wilson residence and asked if I could help him. He said, 'Finally. I will be there soon.' And hung up."

"Well, well, a good day it is." Brian's smile could brighten the sun at that moment. He walked over to Nora and gave her a bear hug. "Perfect. Just perfect."

Nora had no idea what was going on, but it was nice to see Brian so happy. He really was a nice guy and he worked so hard. Her mother might not be the best spouse, but she seemed to try with Brian more than the others, so maybe they could make this work long term. It would be nice to see her mom settled.

Brian was loading the dishwasher and humming. The big building contractor was humming a song all domestic-like. It was super cute. Her mom was just staring at him in disbelief, which was comical in and of itself. In no time they were cleaned up and even though it was early, she excused herself to go to bed. She had a cock waiting for her for dessert.

Chapter 4

The first day at her new internship had not been as awful as she had expected. Her mentor was a nice older woman named Esther who had been with the agency for years and seemed to love the company. They chatted about flowers, cooking, and, at times, the job. It stunk to not get paid, but Esther assured her that most interns would be offered real jobs come fall if they did well. This was, according to Esther, more of a long job interview than it was a true internship and while that was probably not completely legal, Nora was okay with it.

What she was not okay with was the lack of her dream lover the night before. She dreamed about her car breaking down and then being chased by a huge blue ant instead. Not at all sexy. She woke up incredibly horny and needy, but of course her mom was already up and knocking on the bathroom door telling her she needed the mirror before Nora could put the handheld shower head to good use. Why her mother had not spent the twenty bucks to get a full length door mirror on the back of her own bathroom was beyond her.

Nora squirmed in her seat. Nothing was going to keep her away from that shower head once she got home tonight, and if they tried she was going to put her mighty bullet to good use. This need was going to be the death of her. Her imaginary lover had her so pumped up on hormones over the past month. She really needed to find a real man and quick.
 

Maybe she would hit a club this weekend and find someone to take the edge off. Who was she fooling? She was all talk. She would go, dance, stay sober for the ride home, and then leave at eleven. Same story. Different week. Ever since she first 'met' her dream man, all others peaked her interest not at all. She really needed to get over that.
 

As she pulled into her parking spot at home and opened her car door, something seemed different. Not bad, just different. She walked through the front door, when it hit her full blast. It didn't feel different. It felt like a pheromone high. She dropped her bag, ran out the door and into the woods. She needed to clear her head.
 

As she got further and further away from the house, her running became jogging, became walking. Nora wasn't sure why she panicked. True, her panties were soaked the moment she opened the door, but she had been thinking of her dream lover the whole ride home so it was to be expected. The oddness was probably more her imagination than anything else. Or so she tried to convince herself as she entered her favorite clearing.
 

Nora leaned against the tree, closed her eyes, and just listened to the sounds of the forest. It calmed her and she played the scene back at the house over and over again, trying to make sense of it all.

"Stop thinking so hard, Blue Eyes." Nora missed that she had fallen asleep, but was so glad she had. She kept her eyes closed, not wanting to be disappointed to find yet another blindfold. She reached down. Her skirt was still on. That was not the norm lately. Maybe her imagination was kicking it up a notch.

"Done thinking. You owe me something, I believe." She reached out, hoping to find his zipper, but reaching for air instead.

"You shall have all things, love, all things." His lips found hers. He was sitting beside her now as he kissed her deeply. This was better than all of the kisses they had shared before. He was possessing her mouth with his and, goodness help her, she wanted him to possess all of her. She gave into the kiss completely and he pulled away they were both out of breath.
 

"Damn, that was a kiss." Her voice was husky and filled with desire. Forget the internship, she could narrate erotica for audio books with this voice and make a killing. "Best one yet."

"First one, in my book." He leaned in and kissed her again this time pulling her whole body close. There it was, the cock she so badly wanted and it very obviously wanted her too. She reached down to his fly, wanting to set his member free when his hands landed on hers. "Wait, Nora. There will be time for all of that soon."

She pulled away and opened her eyes, startled by the sound of her name. She was miraculously not blindfolded and in front of her, the sexy man of her dreams was now dressed in a Colton Wilson costume. What the fuck? She closed her eyes, willing her dream to go back to blindfolds, but when she opened them again he was the same. Well not quite the same, he had fear in his eyes this time.

"Nora." He grabbed her hands in his. "Blue Eyes, my name is Colt and-"

"No, no, no, no, no...stop talking, Go back to the blind fold, please." This could not be happening. She ruined a perfectly wonderful dream man by making him her stepbrother. She was one twisted chick.

"There is no going back. I have been looking for you forever and then when I saw the guest room I hoped, no, prayed it could be true and then you answered the phone and I knew I found you. Finally."

She shook her head violently. This couldn't be. "Wake up. Wake up." She mumbled to herself with no success.

He pulled her into a hug and at first she wanted to pull away and run, but the second his arms went around her she felt like she was home and she gave into the sensation.

"How do you know my name?" She didn't really want to know the answer, but she had to ask.
 

"Your mom." Fuckity fuck. Was she awake? Was this real. No. Impossible.

"Blue Eyes?"

"Because you have blue eyes and I knew if I asked your name the dreams would end."

"What? Are you freaking crazy? Please tell me you're crazy, or wait...am I the crazy one?"

"Neither one of us are crazy, love." He kissed the top of her head. "The dreams are part of a mating call, and if I tried to find out who you were the dreams would end. That's why I couldn't be with you last night. I got information about you inadvertently." He rubbed small circles on her back. It was funny because she knew she should be running from him for so many reason, but that small gesture made her need to stay. "That is why you couldn't see me."

"I would recognize you." Wait, was she buying into this crazy? Yes. Yes she was.
 

"Yes. I am too famous for you not to have seen me somewhere and you aren't a shifter so you wouldn't see me and know you had to come find me."

"Shifter, like a real shifter? Like bite me. Mine. Yours. Mate. Forever." She might need to lay off the shifter crack.

"Exactly. Did your mom tell you about us?"

"No, I was just grasping at straws using my love of romance novels as research. You were serious. And my mom knows." Why was she not running?

"I was. And of course your mom knows. She is married to my dad." Fuck. there was that.

"You're my brother." Chills ran up her spine. This couldn't be happening. It was a collision course that was going to result in a broken heart.

"Step brother." Not getting any better. "And it is not like we are growing up together or anything creepy like that. Your mom married my dad after we grew up."

"I live with your dad. As his kid, kind of." His hand left her back and pushed her chin up so she was forced look at him.

"You have been here one day, and besides, he knows you are
mine
."

"Explain." She focused on the spot above his eyes to avoid seeing his emotions. She could barely handle her own and held onto his biceps as if they were a life preserver.

"Dad knew I had found my mate after that first dream when we were dancing and--"

"And you fucked me over the table."

"Yeah, that. I was trying to be delicate." He leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on the lips. "So after that day I called dad and told him I had my first mating dream. I didn't know until yesterday that it was you. I even had one of those artists like you see in crime movies draw a picture of you and gave it to a PI trying to find you."

"That is a combination of both sweet and stalkerish."

"Yeah well, it was a bust because the PI was looking on the wrong coast. I gauged the feel of the club wrong." He had really thought this through.

"You got it right. It was a club I went to a few summers ago when I was visiting my grandmother on the West Coast." Nora swallowed deep and looked in his eyes. As much as she was scared to ask, this next question was important. "What did Brian say when he found out it was me?"