Autumn Thorns Read online

“Stand still,” he said. The command in his voice caught me by surprise, but I obeyed—I wanted to obey. To find out where he would take me next. “Raise your arms a little.”

  He reached around my waist from behind and undid the buttons on my jeans. Then, crossing to my front, he knelt and unzipped my boots, sliding them off as I lifted first my left foot, then my right. I watched him, shivering. Bryan glanced up at me, raised one eyebrow, and held his finger up to his lips. He slowly reached up, then began working my jeans down my legs. The tips of his fingers grazed my thighs and I shifted, gasping.

  “I said to hold still, love.” He helped me out of my jeans, one leg at a time, then tossed them aside. With one quick motion, he slid his hands under my panties and pulled them down my legs. I closed my eyes, almost embarrassed and yet so turned on I could barely stand it. He was staring at my crotch, then leaned forward to press a gentle kiss against my lower stomach. I wanted to move, to pull him up to me, but his words echoed in my head and I kept still as ice.

  Bryan stood, walking around me, assessing me. “You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you, Kerris? Breathtaking. You have an inner glow that lights up your face and body.” At that he stood back and held out his hand. “Time for a shower to warm you up.”

  I slipped my fingers into his and let him draw me into the bathroom, where he turned on the shower and motioned for me to test the water. “Is that warm enough for you?”

  I held my hand under the spray. The water cascaded over my knuckles, warm and inviting. Turning back to Bryan, I saw that he was stripping. He held my gaze as he yanked his shirt over his head, dropping it to the floor. The light of the bathroom shone through the rising mist from the hot shower, reflecting on his chest. His shoulders were broad, and he was muscled and strong. I liked that he had chest hair—not an overgrown amount, but enough to feel like I was snuggling against a man. Six-pack abs rippled out, narrowing into a tight waistline. A smile began to steal across my lips as I watched him reach for his belt buckle.

  “You like to watch me?” The corners of his lips tilted into a teasing grin.

  “I think I could get used to this, yes.” My heart began to pound as he kicked his jeans off, revealing a pair of black Puma leisure briefs. The waistband rode low on his hips, covering what needed to be covered without the bulkiness of boxers. And yet they weren’t cheesy—nothing about Bryan had struck me as tacky or cheesy or anything but complex and slightly exotic.

  I couldn’t tear my gaze away as he slipped his fingers beneath the waistband of his briefs and began to slide them down over his hips. As he tossed them on top of his jeans and straightened up, I restrained a whistle. But . . . Oh Mama, I was a lucky woman. Bryan was ready, erect and strong.

  “In the shower, woman. Now.” He pointed to the shower stall and I stepped in, with him following me. I started to say something but he murmured “hush” and spun me around so that he was behind me and I was facing the spray of lovely, soothing warm water. The chill began to seep out of my bones and the images of the past few hours started to fade in intensity as he reached around me for the shower gel. The next moment, I felt him lathering my back.

  His hands were strong, but not rough, as he soaped up my back, sliding over my skin with a firm touch. I leaned against the side of the walk-in shower, resting my head against the wall, as he pushed close, his hands traveling down my body to sweep over the curve of my ass. He knelt, running the lather down first one leg, then the other, then came up between them with his fingers, teasing me—massaging my inner thighs, but never quite reaching their goal. I moaned as his hand cupped me, his arm sliding between my legs as he soaped my pubic hair.

  “I’m glad you don’t shave it all off. I want a woman who feels like a grown woman.” His voice was thick and hoarse. But before I could squirm under his touch, he was standing again, pouring more gel into his hands. He turned me around, pushing me back against the shower wall. I was beginning to pant, breathing heavily as he rubbed the gel into a lather and began to massage my breasts.

  The water was beating down on us, hot and steamy. My hair was plastered to my skin, to my face, as I let out a short cry when he pinched my nipple. Another moment and he took hold of the hand shower and unhooked it from the wall. He held it up to my breasts and turned it on, so that the spray of water hit me full force, stinging a little but also enlivening me. I gasped again, as he brought it down, grinning, to between my legs.

  “Open them, love.” He arched one eyebrow, cocking his head as I obeyed, standing spread-eagle. “Now put your hands on my shoulders.”

  I did, holding tight as he brought the hand spray down. The water pulsed against me, a wash of sensation dragging me under. He circled it, pressing it close to my body so the continual throbbing of the droplets against my sex made me ache. I tried to push hard against it, but he used his strength to keep me from pressing too close.

  “Not yet . . . not yet.” Laughing, he closed in, fastening his mouth against mine while he kept the body spray in place, driving me further under the wave of desire that threatened to overwhelm me. His kiss wasn’t gentle this time, but demanding. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he lifted me off the ground, bracing me against the wall.

  Then the body spray stopped and the shower head took over again, pulsating down on us full force as I wrapped my legs around his waist. With one finger, he encircled my clit, as his tongue probed between my lips, meeting my own. Just as I thought he was going to enter me, he pulled back, leaning against the wall with his hands, bearing down on me.

  I opened my mouth but before I could ask why he had stopped, he sat me down on the built-in bench and pressed against me, his mouth gaining purchase on my breast. As he sucked, his tongue circling round and round the nipple, driving me into an aching mass of knots, he cupped the other breast with his free hand, massaging, pressing, kneading it hard enough to almost hurt.

  I slid my hands around his back, stroking the broad muscles, wanting relief, feeling raw and exposed, and like a bomb, the fuse was burning but no explosion. Caught in the energy, I lunged forward and caught his shoulder, licking the fresh, clean skin and then biting him—not enough to draw blood but enough to make him growl. He brought his head up, gazing at me, and his eyes were clear crystal now, ringed with black—the way they had been when he was in wolf form. He let out a low snarl, but it was a challenge, love-play, not a warning.

  “I’ll meet your challenge and raise the ante.” I pushed him back, so that he was on the floor of the shower. All the while the water was pouring down on us, a shower of warm rain. I straddled his calves. Then, leaning forward, I inched up his body, my breasts rubbing against him, till I was face-to-face with his cock.

  He was strong, and wide, and I longed to feel that girth inside me, expanding me wide, stretching me out. I reached out and stroked the length of him with my fingers, grasping the head firmly. He gasped and propped himself up on his elbows, the water streaming down his face.

  “I want you,” I whispered. “I want you so bad I’m jumping out of my skin. But I need . . .” Damn it, how had we not thought of this in the beginning?

  But he just nodded and within seconds was on his feet, stretching out his hand to help me up. Without a word, he turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. He pulled a bath sheet off the towel rack and wrapped me in it, then bent over to retrieve something from the pocket of his jeans. He held up two condoms, winking at me. I laughed, flushed and hungry for him, my nerves on fire to the point of where it felt like I’d burst if I didn’t come.

  I led him into my grandparents’ bedroom. My bedroom now, I thought. And what better way to christen it than . . . I finished toweling my hair, then crawled onto the bed and pushed down the comforter. As I stretched back on my side, propping my head up with my hand, Bryan stood by the side of the bed, his gaze running up and down my body.

  I blushed. I was hardly model material, but the look in hi
s eyes said that to him, I was beautiful. I could read it as clearly as I could read the book sitting on the nightstand. Never wavering, he leaned down, put one knee on the bed, and began to crawl toward me, a feral and passionate light flickering in his eyes. Responding to the energy, I shivered, rolling onto my hands and knees. He circled me, his face inches from mine, the muscles of his arms rippling under his weight.

  “You know that once I take you, you’re mine? You know that you will belong to me, and I to you. If we mate . . . once we mate . . . our pact is binding, daughter of the Phantom Queen. Shapeshifters mate for life, unless something horrible happens.” His words sounded like a ritual, like a test.

  My breasts rose and fell slowly as I felt him circling me with his power, weaving a tapestry of magic around me. The magic of mating, the magic of the dead, the magic of those who would guard against it, the magic of those who guarded the guardians. He was my sentinel, he was my protector. He was my warrior, my soldier, a son of the Great Mother Shapeshifter.

  “And you will be mine. Can you live with this? Can you take on your duties and guard me?” Again, the words felt like they were coming from some ancient rite, from days long past and times that most thought long-buried, but which were still as strong and vibrant and filled with life as the most brilliant rainbow, as the most powerful storm.

  “I will guard you, Kerris Fellwater, and love you, and make love to you. I will be your champion and your sentinel.” And then, as he lunged for me, I felt my strength rise up and I met him midpoint, pushing him back, ripping one of the condoms out of his hand. I tore the package open with my teeth and, with firm fingers, slid it over the head of his erect penis, rolling it down, teasing as I went.

  “You want my lips? You want me to taste you?”

  He nodded. “Suck me, woman, suck me hard.” And then he was on his back and I was sprawled out alongside him, my lips pressed against his cock, letting him force them open as he thrust up to meet me. I tightened them around the head, forming a seal as I worked the underside of the tip with my tongue. He moaned, fisting my hair in his hands as he shifted his hips. He thrust as I bobbed my head up and down, sliding my lips around the shaft of his cock, keeping the suction tight as I teased him with my tongue. His girth spread my lips into a perfect O and a warm flush rose up between my legs as I ached to take him inside me.

  “Enough . . . or I’ll come.” He pulled away gently, groaning as he slid out of my mouth.

  I was back on my hands and knees. “Now what?” I challenged him.

  He answered by flipping me onto my back, where he slid between my legs, his breath warm against my sex. I cried out when he suddenly dipped, his tongue stroking my clit, worrying it round and round. He reached up, took hold of my hands as I reached for his head, and held them firmly to the bed at my sides. As he stroked me with his tongue, harder and faster, thought began to recede in the wash of the waves moving over me. He was grunting now, sucking and teething at me, nibbling to the point of pain and then pulling back to give me relief.

  I let out a sharp cry as he sucked harder, almost biting me. The pressure was to a point where I could bear it no longer, and I arched my back as the dam broke and the cascade of release thundered through my body, a wave of loss and fear, of desire and hunger, of pain and joy all rolled into one massive tsunami. At first, it drove me under and I felt like I was choking, then I was suddenly riding atop it, watching from the crest as this new life I had entered took full hold. I gasped as Bryan was suddenly rising over me, and then with one sharp, dark thrust, he drove himself into me, plunging so deep and so hard that I once again succumbed to the rhythm our bodies made together.

  “Come with me . . . come with me . . .” He was holding me down, his hands forcing my arms over my head, as he moved inside me, driving deeper and deeper with every swivel of his hips. His body hot against mine, his lips fastened to mine, he owned me—body and heart and soul—and for the first time in my life, I felt absolutely safe. As he leaned his head back, straining as a long, low growl echoed from the back of his throat, I surrendered to him, surrendered to the orgasm. Rising high over the scene, I capitulated to the reality that had become my life, and to the shapeshifter who had so quickly won my heart.

  CHAPTER 15

  Morning came early, with the ring of my cell phone at six A.M. I blinked, wondering why I couldn’t easily reach for the nightstand, and then realized that Bryan’s arm was draped over my waist, holding me down. His soft breathing was comforting, and the smell of sex was heavy on the sheets, teasing me to stay beneath the covers, curled in the niche of his arms. But the night’s events flashed through my mind and a swell of sadness filled my chest as I realized that there was no doubt left—my mother was dead.

  The jangle of my phone startled me into action. My ring tone was “#1 Crush” by Garbage and I kept the volume turned up. I stretched my arm out, fighting the covers. Gabby popped out from beneath the sheet next to me. No wonder I’d been so warm, tucked between a fluffy Maine Coon and Bryan’s heat. I managed to just barely touch the edge of the phone and coax it over to where I could wrap my fingers around it. I quickly tapped Answer before I even had managed to look at the caller ID.

  “Kerris?” Ellia was on the line. “We’re going to need you tonight. The Lady claimed someone this morning.”

  Fuck. Just what we needed. I eased Bryan’s arm off my waist and pushed myself to a sitting position, sliding out from beneath the sheets. Shivering, as my nipples stiffened in the cool air, I moved into the bathroom so I wouldn’t wake Bryan.

  “Who? Anybody we know? And did they recover the victim?” It could be anybody, really. The Lady of the Lake took them all—young and old, male and female, healthy and sick. She was capricious, and she held on to the bodies as long as she could.

  “No, but Pastor Jim saw her go in.” She sighed. “Search and rescue are looking for the car, but you know the lake and you know the Lady. He recognized who it was, though—Tawny Marple. She was on her way to work, I think, and she just cut through the guardrail. Pastor Jim was down at the campground leading a tai chi class when he saw her plunge off the curve. He was able to confirm that she was alone in the car. That is, unless there was somebody asleep in the back. They checked with her husband and he said she’d headed out to work by herself. This was one of the few days she had to go in early, and so he volunteered to drop the kids of at school, thank heavens. He’s devastated, to say the least.”

  I quickly ran through what I could remember from Lila’s journal. “We’ll need to start the ritual tonight, won’t we? To ensure that she sleeps?”

  “Yes. We have to go out to the point where she drove off the road into the water and begin the rites. We won’t actually conclude the ceremony until later. We send her through the Veil after her memorial service, once her memory is laid to rest. If they can’t find her body by then, we’ll have to take a few other measures, so you’ll need to bone up on whatever your grandmother did, because I know the songs she asked me to play in those circumstances, but I have no real clue of the process involved in her rituals. I’ll be over around ten tonight, if you don’t mind driving us. It’s better if we do this in the dark.”

  The dark. Lovely, but it was part and parcel of what I had been born into. “I’m bringing Bryan. You know . . . Well, we’ll talk later.”

  “I know. I knew who he was at the hospital. He will need to come with us as much as possible. He’s your guardian and trust me, girl, you will need guarding.” She paused. “Is it true? About your mother?”

  I didn’t want to answer, but finally— “Yes. We found her last night. She was buried in a ravine behind the Tree of Skulls. She was wearing the ring that Ivy gave to Avery. And . . . Avery . . . we saw his spirit there, guarding over her remains. So we’re pretty sure he’s dead. Please don’t tell Ivy until I’m able to. I want to be the one to break it to her.”

  Ellia let out a soft sigh. “That’s probably
best. But this opens up a lot of questions . . .”

  “I know, and we’re on it. Sophia and her crew said they’d be searching for his body, too—they’re looking around there because if whoever killed Avery also killed my mother, chances are the bodies were dumped near one another.” I paused for a moment, thinking about the tangle we were in. “I think . . . well, I’ll talk to you tonight. There’s a lot I need to tell you, and a lot I need to ask you, but better we talk in person than over the phone.”

  “I’ve called an emergency meeting of the Crescent Moon Society. You and Bryan will also need to attend. I know it’s on short notice, but we have to convene and discuss what’s going on. We’ll meet tomorrow night at eight P.M. At Niles Vandyke’s garage.”

  I let out a long sigh. “I’ll take a nap at some point today. And I’ll tell Bryan. We’ll be there.” With that, I said a quiet good-bye and hung up.

  I started to jump in the shower, but a sound from the bedroom made me peek out. There, sitting up in bed, was Bryan. His eyes were sparkling and he let out a low laugh.

  “Before you get any ideas of lathering up, get your pretty ass back here in bed with me. I think last night deserves an encore, don’t you?”

  My body on sudden alert, I grinned back at him. “Yes sir, whatever you say. And for the record, yes, an encore is in order.” The news about Tawny and the meeting could wait. With that, I dove under the covers with him, and we discovered that we were as good together in the morning light as when we were exhausted, under the shadow of the night sky.

  * * *

  By the time we were clean and dressed, I had already decided what I wanted to do next. But first I put in a call to Sophia to see if the coroner had any answers. It was only seven A.M., but she was at her desk.

  “I’m sorry, Kerris, but yes, we did a rush job—called in dental records in the middle of the night, given the circumstances. We’ve verified that the remains are those of your mother. Though it’s hard to tell what killed her . . .”