After Dawn, What Came Next

Ray made sure Tom was ok before he got up to leave the room. Gently, propping him onto his side with a pillow and placing a glass of water on the nightstand, Ray did pause to brush away the strands of hair from Tom’s closed eyes. Tom had seen clearly, if only for a few minutes and that was a rare and precious thing.



























Chapter 54

Cat had never been shamed or embarrassed by being seen naked in her life. Nudity was necessary part of who she was. She had been stripping down for the shift since her wolf came to her. Lying back on the bed as Christian had asked, she felt a sudden surge of shyness. It had nothing to do with being naked and everything to do with being stripped bare beneath Christian’s hungry stare.

Her breasts were a little too small for her build. Nice and round, firm, the way they were supposed to be, but not quite enough to fill a man’s palm. She had never bothered considering augmenting them. A woman could always buy bigger boobs, if she wanted to drop the six or seven grand for the surgery. She had always been content with what God gave her. Using push up bras and hiding their tiny size beneath baggy t-shirts, loose jackets, or other forms of concealment. But now, naked under a man’s stare, she wasn’t as content with what she had.

She reached up to tug the length of her hair over her shoulders to hide her breasts, but Christian stilled her wrists and guided her arms to the bed. “No. No hiding,” he said. His voice was soft and breathless, almost a low grumble in his chest. He released her hands and ran his fingertips over her arms, tracing them up the sensitive skin of her inner elbows and along her biceps to trail across her collarbones. He gathered up her impossibly thick hair and pushed the strands back, off her shoulders. “We’re naked before each other in every way possible and any chance you had to back out and hide is long gone.”

She was tattooed, as was the custom of the pack and the brothers. Christian dragged his fingertips down her breastbone, never touching anything except the neutral zones of flesh. Tracing her ribs, he gently stroked the curling edge of the tattoo encircling her right ribcage to end at a series of indigo swirls along her fifth rib. He slid a hand under her back, urging her to turn onto her belly. She complied, turning and blushing beneath his appraising stare.

The trace of his hands over her heated skin did incredible things to her. He gathered up her hair into a loose ponytail in his palm and slid the mass of dark strands over her shoulder. Cat didn’t know exactly what she was supposed to be doing while he conducted such a thorough inspection of her. His fingertips were careful and light, cool and burning hot as they traced the intricate tattoo work from the nape of her neck, from shoulder to shoulder down her spine and over her ribs, and lower to where it ended curling in a scrollwork pattern at the small of her back.

Christian rested his weight on the backs of her thighs effectively stilling Cat’s impulse to wiggle under his touch. His fingertips were light and the trace of them tickling her in places. Cat felt him shift his body and the sudden coolness of his absence. Nudging her legs open wider he settled, sitting in between them. Holding her still with the pressure of his palm on her left hip, he continued tracing a path down the length of her bare skin.

She had this weird little birthmark on her right butt cheek. A splash of purple/red imperfection roughly the shape of Australia, resembling a blob of paint accidentally dropped onto a bare canvas. Christian was there with his hands, running his fingers over the mark. “I…ah….that birthmark…has always.”

Cat chattered like a nervous little bird on a limb. “Quiet,” Christian hoarsely barked. With her stretched out on the bed and her thighs spread wide enough to accommodate his hips it took every ounce of his control and concentration not to press his weight onto her and plunge into the soft, warm depths of her body. She snapped her mouth closed and exhaled a long breath. Her skin rippled beneath his touch, soft as silk and warm as the sun on a summer’s day. He leaned forward to taste her, tracing his tongue lightly over the swirls of her tattoo. She wiggled and a high-pitched squeak of surprise caught in her throat. He stilled her by pressing the heel of his palm gently into the small of her back, effectively trapping her on her belly. He wasn’t done by a long shot. He wouldn’t be done until he had touched, tasted, and seen every inch of her.

Christian placed his lips over the continent of Australia and traced the purple border of Cat’s birthmark with the tip of his tongue. Certain she wouldn’t wiggle out of his hold, he slid his hand over the curve of her hip to trail his fingers up the sleek skin of her inner thigh. The sound, a throaty “O” of feminine impulse, escaping from her pursed lips had him chuckling lightly under his breath.

At first he had resented the intrusiveness of the blood bond she had forced on him. The flood of voices and emotions that had invaded his mind was almost incapacitating in their intimacy. He truly had no idea of how to seduce a lover. His expertise in the realm of females was limited to a few brief, awkward, embarrassing encounters ending with a promise to call that neither party intended to fulfill. With her, he did what came naturally. The play of Cat’s thoughts rocketing through his mind, her giddy anticipation, her wonder at the feel of something as simple as a touch, and her responsiveness to him, were all the inspiration he needed to be bolder, inventive, and more patient than he had ever been before.

He knew what she wanted, what she needed, what she dreamed of, and he wanted to be all of those things for her. He felt as if he were going to implode just from being so near to her. Every touch echoed from her to him and he reveled in the sensation of feeling himself touching her as she interpreted it. Splayed wide on her belly, her hair flung in a dark curtain over the pillows and her eyes veiled and the lashes fluttering, the musk of her desire tinting the air with its luscious fragrance, her enjoying so immensely what he was doing for her…to her and he hadn’t even ventured near the best parts yet, had him craving her with a hunger he had never felt for any woman.

She painted quite the picture of feminine beauty. The dark thatch of the curls between her thighs glistened with desire. He could plunge full steam ahead, fast forward and end this ache for the both of them, but no, he was content to wait. Learn the secrets of her body and educate her on them as well. He worked his way down to the soles of her feet. She wiggled and stifled a giggle as he traced his index finger along her instep. He traced a path up, pausing to tickle sensitive flesh behind her knees.

Cat lunged, raising her hips off the bed and giving him a very nice view of her sex in the process. That was where he wanted to be…needed to be, so deep inside of that luxurious place of pleasure, sating them both and quelling the building desire. He was hard, throbbing and aching, his cock bucking in protest that he hadn’t allowed it yet. They’d get there. Christian hadn’t had a woman in a long time. The act itself wouldn’t take but minutes from start to finish. That wasn’t good enough, not for a woman like Cat. For her he wanted to make it as good as possible. He rose up on his knees and the palms of his hands. Sinking into the mattress, he stretched his body over hers, fingers curled into fists on either side of her narrow shoulders, and his hips pressing into the decadent softness of her. “Shhh, I’m working here,” he whispered into the shell of her ear.

Christian pinned her against the mattress because she allowed it. She was easily strong enough to throw him off of her. The warmth of his body pressed to hers was maddening. She could feel his arousal, searching her out to find its way in. He was playful in bed and very conscientious. His hands were buried in her hair, gently tugging on the length to coax her neck to arch. His lips, so soft, and teeth, blunt and human, worked over the amazingly sensitive skin at the back of her ear. She hadn’t known there were so many unexpected pleasure points in her body. She hadn’t expected her muscles to clench or things below to flutter from a kiss or the brush of a fingertip along one of those dizzying points.

Cat used the link between them to divine what he needed and wanted. She sensed Christian’s intense concentration and his strain from holding back and denying himself to please her. He knew every inch of her body and the true depths of her soul. There was no need to pretend she was something other than what she was. With him, she was a woman. That she was the Great Father’s daughter, granddaughter to a powerful pack master, that she carried the spirit of the Prophet inside of her, that she was anything other than a woman didn’t matter to him.

He had no fear of her father, the pack, the brotherhood, or anyone, perhaps with the exception of her. And he wasn’t afraid of her, only that he’d disappoint her. It was nice to be nobody and at the same time so special…so revered. Christian groaned with the effort it took to still his hips and wait for her to get as lost in him as he was in her. She was already there. He was just so determined…so focused on her that he didn’t realize it.

In a move so fast he couldn’t have prevented it, she had him on his back pinned beneath her. Holding him there, with her palms digging into his chest, she shyly avoided the erection poking up so eagerly between his thighs. “I think you work too hard.”

Christian swallowed back a whimper at the lightness of Cat pressed against his tight and aching groin. His grip automatically went to her hips, easing her back and coaxing her forward, begging her to rise up on her knees and impale her body on his shaft, and end this awful glorious agony holding them both captive. Cupping her ass, he squeezed his hands, digging his fingers into the firm flesh. His thumbs worked the silky sleek softness of the short curly thicket of hair within their reach. Stretching to find her center, he gently dragged a thumbnail across the moist inner lips and was rewarded with a shudder and the bucking of her hips against him. “A man should work hard for his woman. Believe me, the pleasure is all mine.”

Cat was impatient to get Christian where she needed him the most. The pad of his thumb teased the borders of her sex, coming so close, barely breaching the entrance but delving no further inside. He smoothed her wetness, making her slick, almost slippery against his thumb. She grunted impatiently and wiggled her hips earning her a playful pinch on the map of Australia on her butt. Her insides were quivery and jittery, burning and achy always wanting just a little more than what he gave her. Suddenly, he released his hold on her hips and pressed his palms against her thighs coaxing her legs to part wider. “I don’t mind doing my part,” she rasped.

Christian inched his way between Cat’s parted thighs, lower and lower till he was eye level with the very heart of her. She wiggled shyly at the intimacy of his view and tried to shift her hips away from him. He held her fast, cupping her hips with his palms and digging his fingers into the flesh to still her nervous retreat. “Shhh,” he exhaled against the soft curls of her core. “You’ll do your part soon enough, but for now, it’s my turn.”

Christian’s hands were very convincing. His palms smoothed over the flesh on her rear as his fingertips tickled a path back and forth the backs of her thighs. The heat of his exhale against such a tender secret place was dizzying. All women whispered rumors of things done in the privacy of the bedroom, but she was totally unprepared for this…for him. She felt the rasp of his unshaven jaw over her inner thighs and the warmth of his mouth settling on her. The tip of his tongue parted her sex extracting a whimper from her pursed lips. He paused to flick a sensitive place at the apex of her sex with broad strokes of his tongue and teasing motions of his lips. Out of reflex of such an intimate invasion she bucked her hips and gasped, shivering, reaching into open air for something to cling to.

Cat wavered above him, her thigh muscles quivered from the effort of holding her upright. Their bodies were a tangle in the middle of the bed. She grappled to find something to grab a hold of. The headboard was out of her reach. She lifted her hips fumbling for anything to hold her earthbound. He wanted her right where she was. Spread wide and surrendering all that sweetness for his guilty pleasure. Finding her wrists, he trapped the fine bones between his fingers and guided her hands down to grip his thighs. Her back was arched and head thrown back. The velvet curtain of her dark hair rippled and spilled across his erect cock, tickling and teasing the flesh taut and so, so sensitive. Her hips wriggled and bucked above him. He tasted of her sweet flesh and plunged his tongue deeper to explore the decadent depths on display.

She was so close, almost there, and they had barely gotten started. Christian continued tasting and sampling Cat. Her fingernails dug into his thighs and scraped at the skin to find purchase. It hurt, but it was a good kind of pain. He held her still above him, holding her tightly with one arm clamped around her hips. With his free hand he teased her flesh, skirting around the edges of her core while his tongue suckled and sampled and drove her closer and closer to the point of no return. “Relax, Cat. Let go. I’ve got you.”

Cat felt as if she were going to dissolve into a sticky, wet puddle of quivering, boneless flesh. She clamped her nails into Christian’s thighs and clung to them for dear life. The skin beneath her palms was hot and fuzzy, the hair on his legs coarse and tickly against her sweating hands. She was probably hurting him, clamped down on him with her nails digging deeper and deeper into his thighs, but if she was, he voiced no complaint. So many things were going on at the same time, thoughts invading her mind, dizzying sensations rocketing though her body, the feel of Christian beneath her, the heat of his breath and crazy warmth of his tongue on her flesh, all of it was too much and at the same time too little.

He wanted her to relax and let go. Cat wasn’t quite sure what he meant. How could she relax when the things he did to her were consuming her alive? Let go? She was too terrified to release her hold on him for fear she would drift away and never put her feet on solid ground again. It wasn’t in her nature to relinquish full control. She should be doing something to exercise her command of this situation, but she had no idea what. She wanted him to stop. She wanted him to never stop. Within her was a firestorm, burning her to ash. It hurt, but the pain was pleasure, and it was so very good. “Christian, do something. Please…Please make it stop…I need…”

Christian chuckled and rasped his cheek across her thigh. Above him, Cat whimpered in protest at his sudden withdrawal. He slid up in the bed, cradling her in his lap. She panted and heaved, her hips rocking against his erection, driving him past the point of the place of tingling need to absolute agony. Christian gripped her ass to stop the friction before he embarrassed himself. Once she had stilled, her eyes wide and staring up at him with absolute wonder, he dragged her to him and kissed her with everything he had.

Cat could taste herself on his lips and smell the musky scent of her sex on his skin. Christian thrust his tongue into her mouth, lapping and swabbing the tip over hers. Coaxing her to respond to his invasion with gentle demanding. His hands trapped her hair, pulling on the strands to guide her head and increase the depth of his invasion. Everything was a confusing storm of heady want, urgent desire, and the burning, oh, the consuming burn. Although he had stopped his exploration of the tender parts of her body, she was still on fire, burning hotter and brighter. The flames fueled from some distant point within.

He was hard and straining, his skin rippling with the effort of denying himself to give her what she needed first. She had no idea of how to do the things that popped into her head. Things she should be doing to him. Naughty passages read in books and the flowery, candlelit, romantic scenes she saw at the movies could not compare with the reality of this moment. Hinged in indecision and knowing if she moved forward there was no going back to the person she had been. The little girl would be gone forever. That fragile, innocent part of her everyone had always protected, her father cherished, and she sheltered behind, would cease to exist.

She was twenty-seven and well beyond the point of wanting a pony for Christmas or wearing lacy pink dresses. Her dolls and stuffed animals, the trappings of little girl life were packed away in the attic gathering dust. She hadn’t forced her dad to wear a frilly hat or sip imaginary tea from a little girl’s porcelain tea set in years. This offering of flesh was the end of her innocence. Cat thought one of the brothers or a male from the pack would be the man she entrusted this final remnant of her innocence to. She wouldn’t have considered a male, a human male she barely knew and had forced into a blood bond, would be the man she would give such a gift.

Christian watched the indecision flutter over Cat’s features. He wasn’t such a son of a bitch that he couldn’t put on the brakes if she changed her mind. Cold showers were something he was used to by this point. He traced his thumbs over her high cheekbones and gave her a gentle peck on the forehead. “We can stop. We don’t have to.”

Cat smiled at Christian’s chivalry. He was softening beneath her, his rock hard erection beginning to wilt between her thighs. She had no doubt with one word she could have him limp and staggering for the shower. His condition wasn’t critical, painful yes, but not fatal. He could probably take care of himself in that regards and relieve the pressure with his hand. She had heard Tom and Ray tease each other for years about that particular topic. Tom would ask Ray if he preferred bar soap or body wash as his choice of partners and Ray would toss it right back at him, accusing him of cheating on his left palm with his right. If girls did that kind of thing to themselves, and she knew they did, they didn’t mention it and the sure as hell didn’t tease each other.

“Christian, there hasn’t been any chance of stopping anything since the moment we met.” She kissed a path down Christian’s neck lower to his chest and gathering what bravery she possessed, lower still. His stomach was firm and covered with a light dusting of soft peachy colored fuzz. There was a trail leading down in a line of coarser darker hair. All she had to do was follow it and do what came naturally. He was beginning to stiffen. His cock twitching and growing bigger the closer she got. And in watching that piece of him, the very heart and soul of a man get hard at nothing more than the simple suggestion of her, gave her the courage to give to him as good as he had given to her.

“True that,” Christian groaned. Her lips were soft and her mouth hot and wet, circling round his cock. Her tongue stroked and teased him to full hardness. Cat had no trouble falling into a rhythm of strokes and gentle passes of her mouth up and down his length. Her pink tongue flicked the ripe head of his cock, lapping at the bead of moisture at the tip. Her lips curving up into a pleased smile at the corners as she tasted him.

His hips bucked in time to the bobbing of her head up and down his shaft. He gathered her hair in his fist, moving the sleek bundle out of her way. Eyes wide open, he watched Cat take him into her mouth. Cat was bold, not closing her eyes and retreating into some distant place to give him pleasure, but watching him, gauging the expressions play over his features and adjusting her technique to them.