Downpour (Alpha Love - A Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance Book 1) (17 page)

“Ash, I’m close. I’m going to come.” She watches him between her legs, mesmerized at the sight of this beautiful man going down on her. They lock eyes, and Ashton holds her gaze, as he licks inside of her and rubs her clit with his thumb. She feels her orgasm building and, when she can’t take any more ecstasy, she lets the pleasure take over her. She comes hard, against his mouth, and the thought of that spurs her on to an even more earth-shattering climax. Her first multiple-orgasm, and her legs can barely keep her upright. She sinks down to her knees in front of Ashton, kissing him, licking his red lips and tasting herself on him.

“You’re definitely wearing too many clothes,” she points out when they break apart to breathe. They’re both panting, as if they’ve been running a marathon.

Ashton gives her the sidelong smile that she’s sure must have got him out of a helluva lot of trouble as a kid. “Your wish is my command.” He drops his pants, and Sofie gasps as she sees how hard and swollen he is. Ashton clearly isn’t a guy that bothers with underpants, and that was just fine with her.

Sofie leans down and licks the tip of his beautiful cock, a long and slow lick. But that’s as far as she gets, Ashton gently pulls her back up to face him. She looks at him, confused. This has to be the first time a guy has stopped her from giving him a blow job.

“If you do that, then I’m going to come, and then I’m going to have to wait to be inside of you. That’s what I want. I want to bury myself inside of you, to fill your cunt.” He kisses her hard, as he says the word and Sofie feels her whole body responding to him, needing him inside of her as much as he does.

But just because he’s the one calling the shots, doesn’t mean that he’s always the one that has to be in control
, she thinks. She pushes him gently down onto the blanket, so he’s lying flat on his back. She lays down on top of him, pressing her body into his, like she’s imprinting herself on him. She settles herself above his shaft, holding him steady to guide him inside. Ashton grasps her hips, squeezing them lightly. Then, slowly, achingly slowly, she sits down on his cock. He enters her bit by swollen bit, pushing open her folds and taking possession of her pussy.

She feels him filling her up, as he goes deeper and deeper, and they both moan together as he enters her completely. Her face is flushed with the heat of her desire and the heat of their bodies meeting and moving in unison. Ashton looks up at her like she’s the only thing he wants and that gives her all the confidence that she needs. She lifts herself up, slowly, feeling him slipping out of her as she moves and, when only his tip is left inside of her she eases herself down onto him again, this time a little faster.

Ashton rubs her nipples between his thumb and forefinger and pinches them, straddling the line between pain and pleasure. She starts to move faster, her desire making her pick up speed. Ashton’s hips are moving up and down in rhythm with hers, and she sees how excited he is. His shaft feels even harder than it did before, if that were even possible. She loves the way that he fills her up and makes her his with his cock.

She’s close but she doesn’t want this to end, she wants to carry on forever, him inside of her and her riding him, owning him just like he’s taking possession of her. She looks down at this gorgeous man, running her hand along the bristles of his light beard. The words that she wants to say are right on the tip of her tongue, but she isn’t brave enough. It’s too soon to say them and besides, who knew if he would even say them back. Ashton frowns as he looks up at her and, not for the first time, Sofie wishes that she didn’t feel like he could read every thought on her face.

His cock is stimulating her in ways that she could never have even imagined. Then, he takes it to the next level. He licks the pad of his thumb and puts it between her thighs, massaging her clit in exactly the right way. The combination of his hardness inside of her and his touch on her drives her crazy.

“Are you as close as I am right now?” Ashton looks up at her, like he knows exactly what she’s thinking.

She nods quickly, unable to articulate how turned on she is and how much she wants him, how much she needs him to fill her up. Ashton holds onto her hips, moving her up and down his shaft faster. They’re both breathing heavily and looking at each other under heavily lidded eyes.

“Come with me. Come with me, Sofie and come hard.” Ashton growls as they move against each other faster and faster, sliding, licking, kissing, and moaning.

Ashton finds her eyes and focuses them on his. They hold each other’s gaze, as she cries out in pleasure, wracked by her orgasm. Ashton makes a sound like a low rumble of thunder, as he pumps into her for the last time before he explodes inside of her. Sofie feels that connection between them again; it’s strong, and it doesn’t feel new. It feels like something that’s always been a part of her, something that she’s always known. But that isn’t possible; that isn’t rational.

Afterwards, they lie under the stars, Ashton holding her close to him as if she were something precious, a treasure not to let go of. “Tell me about yourself, running girl.” He says the words without a shade of irony, and Sofie can’t help but laugh.

“This is kind of the wrong way round, isn’t it? Aren’t we supposed to get to know each other and then sleep together?” She stretches out languorously and shivers as the cold air hits her skin.

Ashton pulls her towards him, enveloping her in his body. She snuggles up to his chest and feels his warmth penetrate through her. It’s like he has his own internal heat source.

“Does this feel like the wrong way round to you?” Ashton nuzzles her neck gently, smelling her in a way that makes the warmth between her legs return with a vengeance.

“No,” she barely breathes the word before Ashton closes her mouth in a kiss, sucking her bottom lip until she moans.

“So, tell me your story.” Ashton settles back looking up at the sky, still holding her tightly.

“You don’t play fair Ashton!” she says, pouting like a little child, trying to put the thought of how turned on she is out of her mind. “What do you want to know?” She’s always found it hard to talk about herself. Even before the crash, she had always been better at talking about other people’s problems; hers were a little too close to home.

“What does that creep know about you that makes him think he can treat you like his personal plaything?” Ashton asks the question through gritted teeth, and Sofie can feel the muscles of his body flexing around her.

“He knows that I need my job, probably more than anyone else in that whole company.” Sofie lets the words out in a rush, and she’s surprised at how easy it is. She looks at Ashton, and he nods for her to continue.
Here goes nothing
, she thinks. She tells him about her privileged upbringing, the big house, the nice things, the expensive school. His expression doesn’t change throughout, like he’s not passing any kind of judgment. That makes it easier for her to carry on, to the difficult part. “So both my parents were immigrants; they’d come to the US for a better life. They opened an old person’s home and turned it into a big name all over Washington. They went from working every evening and weekend to being able to afford to employ enough people so they would just have to oversee the business. They’d made it clear that they expected me to work as damn hard as I could, as hard as they’d had to, harder even. They wanted an achiever, someone who would grow up to be a doctor or a lawyer, someone who would be successful.” Sofie shakes her head at the memory of the conversations she would have again and again with her parents, her dad doing most of the talking, her mother just nodding occasionally in agreement. That was how it had always been. Her father ruled the roost, and her mother did whatever he wanted, agreed with whatever he said.

“But you didn’t want that.” Ashton says the words with certainty, and Sofie’s surprised again at how clearly he seems to read her, to know her without knowing her.

“No, I had always been more interested in studying things that didn’t talk back. I took a course on geology in my last year of high school and after the first lesson, I was hooked. My parents weren’t happy, they couldn’t believe that I was throwing away my education on something ‘as pointless as rocks.’” Sofie tries to keep the hurt out of her voice, wondering how it was that her parents had known so little about her, had seen so little. “But I can be pretty stubborn—”

“You don’t say!” Ashton looks at her with mock-surprise before she nudges him in the ribs.

“I made a deal with my parents, told them that after I’d completed my first year of college studying geology, if they still wanted me to switch to law then I would. I figured that would give me some more time to convince them that what I was doing was the right thing. Turns out my parents didn’t make it through my first year.” Sofie feels her voice waver, and she realizes that she can count the number of people that know about her parents on one hand and she wouldn’t even need all of the fingers.

“What happened?” Ashton tightens his grip around her, planting a soft kiss on her forehead, and Sofie feels like he’s giving her the strength she needs to finish her story.

“Car accident. Everyone thought that it was just one of those things, bad luck, wrong place wrong time. But when it started to become clear how bad things were, they changed the ruling to suicide.” Sofie lets the words come, not pausing to edit or to leave anything out. Now that she’s telling the story, she feels like letting it out is freeing her somehow. “It turns out the old people’s home business wasn’t quite as profitable as it was supposed to be. Mom had just been very good at editing the books, and Dad had been very good at gambling, or at least he had been for a while. He would use the profits from the business to hit the casinos, the horse races, the dog races, whatever he could find to bet money on. It was an addiction, but one that it was easy to pass off just as a hobby. But, as we all know, the house always wins.” Sofie shakes her head, still trying to figure out how she had managed to miss so many of the signs, the air of desperation around the house. “He was getting deeper and deeper into debt. Everything was mortgaged and remortgaged up to the hilt. The house, the cars, and the business were put up as collateral, until there wasn’t anything left to guarantee. The theory goes that once he realized just how bad things were going to get, that he was going to lose everything and then some, he decided to take the easy way out. I don’t know how much of it Mom knew about, but she would have followed him to the ends of the Earth. Turns out that’s exactly what she did. They were the world to each other. I had never really fit in.” Sofie shrugs.

“So after they died, you didn’t have to leave school?” Ashton prompts her after she’s fallen silent for a spell.

“No, I was on a full scholarship, thank God. It paid for my tuition and board, but I had to get a job and then another to pay off the debts. There was nothing left, literally nothing, and dear old Dad had managed to royally screw everything up. I’ve been playing catch up since then. That’s why I need Shale. They pay better than anyone in the business and between the less than legal guys that my father still owes money to and the IRS, I need every penny.” Sofie sighs deeply, looking up at the dark sky. “So that’s my sad story.”

Ashton keeps quiet for a few moments. “I’m sorry that happened to you. But that’s over now. We’ll figure it out.” His words are simple, but the significance behind them is anything but simple.

“I wish it were that straightforward, Ash, I really do.” Sofie feels tiredness overcome her, the events of the day and the emotion of everything that’s happened seems to be catching up with her.

“I told you I wouldn’t make you any promises that I couldn’t keep. So trust me. Now sleep.” He strokes her hair, burying his nose into it and the rhythm of it sends her into a sleep full of dreams, but this time he’s there to chase the nightmares away.

The moon is high in the sky when Ashton slips out from Sofie’s embrace. This time she knows better than to wait for too long before she follows him. They’re so connected that she could feel him wake before he even moved. It’s like every time they’re together the bond between them grows stronger. She pulls on her clothes and hurries after him, breaking into a run.

She doesn’t even really need to follow him, she feels as if she could close her eyes and know exactly where he were headed. The sky is so light from the full moon that it seems like it were day. She retraces the steps that they had taken earlier that night, leading her back to Ashton’s house.

She sees Ashton, Gus, and Hector hanging around outside the hurricane shelter. She can’t make out what they’re saying, so she creeps up closer, hiding behind Ashton’s pickup truck. She smiles ruefully to herself, wondering how her nights recently seem to end up with her playing hide and seek with an unwitting Ashton.

“It’s time.” The grimness in Ashton’s tone as he says the words, wipes the smile off of her face, and Gus and Hector throw the shelter open. There’s the sound of rattling and metal clanging against metal.

When they reappear, there is a third man between them, well more of a boy really. He’s probably not much older than 14 or 15. But that’s not what draws Sofie’s attention, it’s the way that he’s moving and the sounds he’s making. He’s whimpering in pain, and it sounds as if the scream is ripped out of him. He’s sweating and shaking like a leaf. It takes a few moments for Sofie to realize that the kid has his hands chained together. Sofie wonders what sick ritual she’s walked in on this time and wishes that she’d just stayed where Ashton had left her. She can’t cope with another letdown, not right now. If Ashton is anything less than she thinks he is, she doesn’t know how she’s going to deal with that on top of everything else. She wants to move, but she’s transfixed, watching the events unfold as if she were in some kind of a trance.

Ashton nods to Gus who obeys the unspoken command, unlocking the chain around the kid’s wrists and letting them rattle to the ground. Sofie expects the kid to try to make a break for it, to get away from the people that seem to be holding him against his will. But he doesn’t. He looks up at Ashton who towers over him, and he holds himself to keep himself from shaking. Ashton talks to the kid like you would a spooked horse, in low tones. The rhythm of his voice is almost hypnotic. Sofie can’t make out the words that are being said, but they don’t seem to be having the desired effect. She can see the kid’s chest rising and falling as if he were struggling for breath, and he gets a wild look in his eyes. He shifts his attention from Ashton to the full moon, which is now directly above them.

The wind picks up out of nowhere and, without warning, the kid lets out a blood-curdling scream and then everything changes. Sofie blinks once, twice, three times, trying to tell herself that she can’t see what she’s seeing. Where the kid was standing there is just a pile of clothes and next to that there is an enormous brown wolf. Ashton has taken a few steps back. Sofie can’t see the expression on his face, but he seems to be bracing himself, like he’s getting ready for something.

The wolf snaps its huge jaws filled with jagged teeth and howls up at the moon. Gus and Hector have taken a few steps away, Ashton is the closest one too the animal and then, Sofie’s worst fear comes to pass. The wolf puts its head down, like a bull when it’s about to ram a fence and it runs straight ahead, straight towards Ashton.

Sofie can’t stop herself, “Ashton,” she screams out, standing up from her hiding place behind the truck. Ashton’s head whips round to her and his expression changes from surprise to anger to fear. He focuses his attention back on the wolf that has now started to slow down. Sofie’s scream has distracted it. It raises its snout, sniffs the air and, all at once, the chain of events starts to shift. The animal turns away from Ashton and, instead starts to run towards her. She’s rooted to the spot. Her eyes locking with those of the animal. She can’t move, like she’s been planted there. She opens her mouth to scream, but no sound comes out. She does the only thing she can, she holds still and braces for impact, accepting the inevitable.

Ashton takes off at speed, running after the animal, chasing it down. A howl goes up and Sofie looks towards the moon rather than looking at what’s coming towards her. But instead of the brown wolf barreling into her and ripping her throat out as she had expected, it comes to an abrupt stop, like it’s been tackled from behind. Where Ashton had been there isn’t an Ashton anymore. In his place there is a huge yellow-gold wolf. It pins the brown wolf easily underneath it, snarling at it until the other lies still, as if it were playing dead. Sofie is so close to them, only a matter of a few feet that she could reach out and touch them. Before she has time to think about what she’s doing, she does exactly that. It’s like she can’t stop herself from extending her arm out.

But she’s rudely awakened from the trance-like state she’s fallen into by the young brown wolf, suddenly remembering that she’s there, just a few steps away. She isn’t able to move, even when he writhes under the gold wolf that’s still pinning him down, trying to get away. The gold wolf doesn’t let up, he looks like he’s putting all of the pressure that he can onto the brown animal to stop him from moving, even an inch. He dominates the younger wolf, staring deep into his eyes and, as if Sofie can somehow understand the message that’s passing between them, he seems to be saying that he’s to do what he’s told. The older wolf stares again at the younger, until he sees an expression that satisfies it.

The magnificent yellow-gold animal gets off the younger wolf, and Sofie holds her breath, waiting to see what’s going to happen. The brown animal remains on its back, the picture of submission, until the older wolf nods his head towards the hurricane shelter. Within an instant, without even hesitating, the brown wolf runs head long towards the house, disappearing back inside the shelter.

Without even daring to breath, Sofie waits for what’s next. She can’t believe everything she’s just seen and she can’t admit to herself what it means. Her brain tells her that it’s not possible, that men changing into wolves is something confined to bad horror movies and teen fan fiction.

But her eyes tell her something else. Her eyes tell her that what she is seeing is the truth. This is really happening. The gold wolf is still in front of her. Automatically, she reaches out her hand to touch its snout. She’s not afraid, not even a little bit. There’s no doubt in her mind that the animal doesn’t mean her any harm. She strokes the soft hair between its eyes and its wet nose and that’s when she realizes what she should have known all along, that she recognizes the blue eyes looking back at her.

“Ashton?” She looks at the animal in front of her and sees something else, someone else. There’s an intelligence and feeling behind those eyes that she would know anywhere.

Before she has time to think any more about what it is that she’s just witnessed, she’s grabbed from behind by strong arms.

“Time to get inside, Sofie.” Gus virtually carries her towards the house, which is just as well as she appears to have lost the ability to control her own legs. When she gets to the front door she looks over her shoulder, expecting to see the wolf still standing there. But there’s nothing, no wolf, no man. It’s as if everything that she had just seen had never happened. But she knows better than to believe that now.