“I’m fine.” She exhaled on a whoosh. “Just worried about my sister.” Her gaze continued to stray to his cock.
When she licked her lips again, it was all he could do not to start stroking himself, willing her to go down on him.
Instead, he waited for her to meet his gaze again. When she did, she turned scarlet.
He gave her a wicked grin. “I’m going to turn and check out the surrounding woods. Wait for me here, would you?”
“Ah, yeah. Sure.” She tried to shutter her gaze, but Ty knew she wanted him. He could smell her desire. He needed some space before he took advantage of her. God forbid he actually give her what she really wanted. She might not speak to him for a year.
“Oh and, Julia?”
“Yeah?”
“When I get back, we’ll take care of this.” He gripped himself, stroking a few times to entrance her. “And that sultry scent of yours, begging for some attention.”
Satisfied when she gaped in shock, he flowed into the body of his animal spirit, a silver fox, and trotted to the door.
“You’re a real pain in the ass, Ty. You give me a headache.” Julia swore under her breath and opened the back door a crack. He slipped through and laughed when she slammed it behind him. Outside, the world beckoned. But his heart raced more for the stubborn vixen inside than all the wonders nature had to offer.
Julia fanned herself, wondering if she had time to take care of her desire before Ty returned. She’d never been so aroused in her life. Ty had a body made for sex. So thick, so sexy. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the door. Just her luck she’d be in the middle of masturbating and he’d return, or worse yet, he’d be waiting, watching from some unknown place outside.
Women didn’t get super horny. Women didn’t need sex to complete them. She could almost hear her Aunt Lynn lecturing her on the woes of that three letter word: S-E-X. After all, her mother’s monstrous libido had paired her with a man not of the Silver Fox Clan. At least he’d been Ac-taw though.
Meghan had the right of it, in part. Silver foxes were snotty. The clan had a tendency to think in terms of bloodlines and genetic standards rather than love and affection, or so she’d been taught.
Her mother’s secret, disastrous marriage to her father reinforced the point that mating within the clan prevented many an unhappy relationship.
Julia forced herself to ignore remembrances of Ty’s washboard stomach, golden skin and gleaming silver gaze. The knowing bastard had all but pranced around her, holding that long shaft like an offering.
As tiny as Julia was, they’d probably have trouble fitting.
Her womb clenched.
“No way. No thoughts of sex. Bad things happen around Ty Roderick. Remember that.”
Despite drinking herself into a stupor a month ago—an odd occurrence at that—Julia clearly remembered how difficult it had been to overcome her fears of rejection and ask Ty to make love to her, only to have her fears realized.
“Liquid courage, my ass,” she mumbled. “More like liquid stupidity.”
Still, wanting Ty made a strange kind of sense, from a mating perspective. The sheriff of Cougar Falls, he had the respect, power and strength one looked for in a husband, if one was so inclined to marry. Meghan’s intended, Jason Williams, came from pure human stock. He had no ties to the Ac-taw, none to Cougar Falls, and a family that scared the crap out of Julia. She could all too easily imagine Ned mounting her sister’s head to the wall. Or better yet, stuffing her like the family dog and displaying her like a beloved pet.
She sank down on the couch and closed her eyes, wondering how to handle the mess her life had become.
The first time Julia had arrived in Nowhere, she’d found herself crushed in Ned’s smelly arms. He’d wanted to screw her from the get-go. Somehow, over the last three visits she’d made to Jason’s hometown, Ned’s desire had morphed into some crazy kind of matrimonial need. As if she’d consent to lay down with that man and have his babies.
Eww. He had hair all over him. In an effort to entice her, he’d stripped off his shirt to wrestle Itchy and Snitchy during one visit. The scent of an unwashed Ned, along with sex from one of the locals he’d bedded before coming home, had made her want to gag. Yeah, Julia had no doubt Ned knew less about fidelity than he did about courtship.
“No way Meghan actually thought Ned and I were a couple.” She snorted. Then again, Meghan was in an all-about-me phase. Like a damned teenager all over again.
The girl had smarts. She’d graduated summa cum laude, along with Jason, with a B.S. in Computer Science. Meghan had plans to start her own engineering software business, again like Jason. At least their chosen careers made the prospect of living in Nowhere undesirable. In Seattle, a technology haven, they’d do much better—better even than in Cougar Falls, honesty compelled her to admit.
Yet, in Cougar Falls, Meghan would be safe. The magical totem they celebrated protected the town from unwanted visitors. Those not of Ac-taw blood could literally not see the town. It wasn’t on any map, and only Shifters could find it, be they town citizens or not. If Jason accompanied Meghan home, he’d be aware of the place. But the minute he left the town’s confines, he’d never find it again without help.
Julia wasn’t sure exactly how it worked, but she’d heard the horror stories, had seen those who tried to live on the outside. Hunters, the pressure to pretend, and the inability to shift when needed without fear of exposure could truly harm her kind. Her new friend Sophie could attest to that. Living among normal people for most of her life, Sophie had nearly scared herself to death the first time she’d turned. Thankfully an Ac-taw had found her and taken her under his wing, eventually bringing her to Cougar Falls.
The gray wolves had a few Orders around the country. One in Texas, another in Wisconsin. Sure, Ac-taw could live outside of Cougar Falls, but the threat of publicity about their kind endangered not only individuals, but the entire Shifter species. Each and every Ac-taw in the States had gone through the clans in Cougar Falls at some point to establish their own territories. Which made Sophie’s case so unusual.
Julia sighed. She loved her sisters, but she missed home. She missed sitting in her comfortable office typing up files and answering calls for Gerald. Her boss and friend, Gerald made her feel good about herself. Though many of the silver foxes had expressed interest in mating, she didn’t want to tie herself down. Not yet. Eventually she’d have to find someone special. She even wanted to have children. But deep down she worried about how they’d turn out.
If anyone learned the truth… The silver foxes might very well kick her and her sisters out of the clan. Hell, they worried about social status more than the flighty raptors. If they decided to expel Julia and her sisters, they’d have to leave town. Julia couldn’t imagine life away from Cougar Falls, which was why she worried so for Meghan.
The only good thing about her younger sister marrying Jason and living in Seattle was that as long as she kept her shifting private, no one would care what she turned into.
Groaning at the reminder of that one major stress she’d been dealing with in her well-ordered world, Julia decided to sink into oblivion. Maybe a good sleep would clear her thoughts.
She prayed not to dream of Ty.
She did anyway.
Ty raced through the woods, feeling free for the first time in days. He found evidence of nearby foxes and wolves, but no one minded his pass through their territory, mostly because he refrained from marking anywhere but the few places he needed to find his way home.