Romance: Auctioned To The Panther: BBW Dragon Shifter Romance Standalone (Wild Shifters Book 2) (3 page)

“You look a lot better,” Christian said, reaching out to push a lock of hair behind the woman's ear. She had at least a little color back in her cheeks, although she had to be starving. “How are you feeling?”

“Starving,” Grace admitted, echoing Christian's thoughts exactly. She blushed and ducked her head. “Sorry, that was rude.” She couldn't seem to keep from being overly blunt or rude around him… Even though she hardly knew the man, she felt inexplicably comfortable around him.

Christian snorted. “Not at all. Anything particular that you're in the mood for? I imagine you probably want something light since you're probably still feeling the comedown from the drugs? I was thinking maybe just some sandwiches...”

Grace started, looking at him in surprise. “Yeah, actually. That sounds perfect.” He was surprised at how attuned he was to how she was feeling, as well as at the level of concern he was showing for her well-being.

Christian smiled and slid off the bed. “Wonderful. Why don't you wait here and I'll be back in ten minutes or so—sound good? There's a bathroom right through there if you want to freshen up a little.” Not that he really wanted her to; she looked so delightfully mussed and sleep-tousled just then. But he also wanted her to feel comfortable, whatever that took.

“All right,” Grace said, making no move to leave the bed. Instead, she settled back against the pillows and closed her eyes. “Thanks,” she said quietly, causing Christian to pause. “For...staying.”

“I'll do whatever it takes to make you feel safe,” Christian answered seriously. “
Whatever
it takes.” When Grace didn't respond, he retreated slowly from the room so he could collect some food for them.

On the way, he mulled over how immensely resilient the woman was proving to be. He would've expected it to take a lot longer before he started to trust him to be in the same room with her while she slept, but she really seemed to be taking to him. And that was certainly a relief.

Meanwhile, Grace was thinking about nearly the same thing, wondering why she felt so curiously comfortable around this man whom she hardly knew. It had to be something to do with the shock of the previous days and her emotional weariness; she must've just reached a point where her body could just no longer fight against his advances. Whatever he wanted to do to her, she wouldn't be able to stop him...and so she had given up all hope. That must be it. 

But there was something different about him, something she trusted. Of course, she didn't know him very well and she'd also trusted Liam, so who knew how credible her judgment was…

Not too long after, Christian returned to the room carrying a tray with sandwiches, some sliced vegetables, water, and milk. He smiled when he saw her still there in bed and moved to join her. They ate in silence, Christian having learnt his lesson the last time. He wanted to make sure she was able to eat this time, in the peace of her own thoughts.

After they'd both finished, though, he set aside the tray and turned towards her. “I know you're pretty bruised up and that your wrists probably hurt and you're probably still tired...but for my own peace of mind, I need to know what you were doing at that party.” He knew that wasn't the best way to phrase it, but he wasn't sure how exactly to say what he needed to say without coming on too strong.

Grace picked at a loose thread on the hem of her sleeve, remembering exactly what she'd been doing at the party. That wasn't anything she really wanted to discuss with him, though, and honestly— “That's...not really any of your business,” she mumbled.

“Oh?” Christian asked archly. “So it's not any of my business to know whether you really were unhappy being up for auction? Because in all honesty, it could be that you really are a little slut who wanted to go off to the highest bidder. I just want to make sure I didn't save you from something you didn't want to be saved from—maybe you're into humiliation? If that's the case, I'll take you right back.”

He knew his words were harsh, but he hoped it would help draw the story out of her and maybe desensitize her to it a little bit. Of course, she should be giving a statement directly to the authorities, but...well, Christian wanted to keep the woman to himself for now, until he managed to assuage his panther side that she wasn't as vulnerable as she appeared.

Grace swallowed hard. “I didn't want to be there,” she whispered. “Liam...” She shook her head, not sure she was ready to talk about this yet, and especially not with a man she hardly knew. “Liam was my childhood friend, and I thought I trusted him. But he drugged me and sold me off to the highest bidder.” She held her chin high, daring Christian to say the wrong thing.

And he was immensely proud of her for that, more than he could say.

“You should talk to the police, then,” Christian said smoothly. “I'm sure I'm hardly the person you want to talk to about this since you probably think I'm just like the rest of them—but I'm
not
, Grace, and if there's anything I can do to prove that to you, please let me know.”

He looked so earnest then, and Grace couldn't deny how attracted she was to the man. She still didn't approve of the way she had come to be in his home, but even if he had bought her to have sex with her, she could definitely have been stuck with worse men. She wondered…

Slowly, carefully, she leaned in to kiss him, making no secret of what she was about to do, her eyes flicking down to his lips and then back to meet his gaze, a clear question in them. Maybe sleeping with him would help her get over this whole thing, make her forget the circumstances that had brought her to this house—or at least make her appreciate them. He was, after all, one of the most handsome men she'd ever met.

And he was a wonderful kisser, too, she was forced to conclude. He applied just the right amount of pressure, and after a moment of close-mouthed kissing, he carefully reached up to tilt her head to the side and gently nipped at her lips to get her to open her mouth to him. They kissed for a minute, slow and languid—the kind of kiss you would normally expect from someone you'd been with for a while.

Grace whimpered slightly as Christian pulled away. He stayed close, though, one hand tangled in her hair and his forehead pressed to hers. “Are you sure this is okay?” he asked, a bit breathlessly.

Grace nodded helplessly. “Please. Please, I…” Before she could finish whatever she had intended to say, Christian was kissing her again, even more thoroughly this time. His teeth scraped lightly along her lower lip, causing tingles to run up and down Grace's spine. His hands seemed to be everywhere—but at the same time, he was respectful, not going too near to sensitive areas just yet but mostly ranging up and down her sides and carding through her hair.

After a couple minutes of this, Christian pulled away slightly and moved his mouth down her jawline and onto her neck, kissing and sucking in turn. Grace tilted her head back to allow him better access, unable to keep her fingers from tangling in his hair or to stop the soft noises of pleasure that were falling from her lips.

Even after just this, she was so close to begging him to take her, take her right then, make her forget about all those other nasty men and just focus on this, focus on how perfectly and strangely
right
this felt.

Christian sat back and gave her a piercing look. “Grace, I need to know how far I can go with you,” he said firmly. “Normally I would try to read that from the situation and read that from your actions, but...”

“But you think I shouldn't be doing this so soon after...” Grace trailed off, waving a hand expressively.

“Oh no, no, no,” Christian said, shaking his head. “It's not that I think you
shouldn't
be doing this. But you did suffer a traumatic experience, and I don't want you to feel like I'm taking advantage of you or that I'm not respecting your boundaries.” He smiled crookedly at her. “That said, you are a
very
attractive woman, as I hope you know, and I would really, really like to...explore you.”

Grace could feel a blush work its way up from her chest to her face. “Well, you're not so bad on the eyes yourself,” she mumbled shyly, ducking her head and peeking up at him through her lashes. Her expression grew serious. “I want to do this,” she said.

“Partly because I'm still scared of what those men might have...might have gotten to do to me. I want you to erase my memory of them from my mind, make me feel beautiful again.” She smiled coyly. “But also, I just kind of want to have sex with you.”

Christian laughed in surprise and shook his head. “Minx,” he muttered, leaning in to kiss her again. Grace hummed in agreement.

Not long after that, Grace began to tug at the bottom of his shirt, clearly trying to get him to take it off, and Christian rolled away to stand at the side of the bed, eyes appraising the woman spread out on the bed beneath him. “Undress,” he commanded not unkindly, and Grace leapt to obey, shucking off first the flimsy shirt and then the equally flimsy skirt that they'd dressed her in for the auction.

Christian ran his eyes hungrily over the pale skin that was exposed with each piece that she removed. He could hardly believe he was this lucky. He finished removing his own clothing and crawled over to cover her body with his own. “You…” he said, punctuating his words with kisses, “are–absolutely–gorgeous.”

Grace couldn't help a small giggle that bubbled up out of her. Who would've thought, a week ago, that she'd have this wonderful, attractive, near stranger in bed with her—and that she'd feel so incredibly sexy?

Christian smiled at her and played his hands gently over her nipples, watching as they perked to attention. He bent his head down and began sucking at first one and then the other, and then he began to move his head lower, trailing kisses along her abdomen and drawing his fingernails up the insides of her thighs, making her shudder.

Grace moaned, the sound long and drawn-out, when he reached her clit, rubbing at it with his fingers and then tonguing at it in just the right way to make her toes curl. He seemed to know exactly what was going to turn her own the most, and she could feel that she was rapidly moistening, ready for him to stick his hard length inside of her.

She felt strangely connected to him, as though they were in sync in a way that she and Liam had never seemed to be. If she had believed in soul mates, she would have started to question whether maybe, just maybe Christian might be hers—but that was ridiculous, wasn't it? She lay back, huffing out a heavy breath, and tried to concentrate on what Christian was doing with his tongue and his fingers.

Christian crooked his fingers inside her and managed to hit just the right spot to have her crooning out her pleasure, her back arching desperately. “Right there, Christian,” she begged. “Please, right there—right there, right there.” She felt amazing, as though her entire body was responding to what he was doing, even when he pulled back so that he was hardly touching her at all.

He seemed to be pretty turned on by the proceedings as well, though, his eyes dark with lust and his penis hard and curving up towards his stomach. He gave it a few slow strokes, eyes locked with Grace's, watching as the girl swallowed and shifted around minutely on the sheets, clearly needing him to keep touching her.

“Christian,” she pleaded in a broken voice. “I need...”

Christian smiled broadly and lined the head of his cock up with her warm, willing hole. “What was that?” he asked playfully. “What do you need?”

Grace whined wordlessly and tried to use the headboard as leverage to push herself down onto his prick, but Christian moved easily away, continuing to tease her. “Christian,” she groaned, twisting her hands in the sheets, hardly able to contain herself. She felt like she was right on the precipice of something, but he was being infuriatingly unhelpful all of a sudden. She just needed that final push, needed it so badly…

She made a few quiet, needy sounds and dug her fingers into the back of his shoulder when he finally did sink his length into her, moving slowly to allow her time to adjust as more and more of him was pushed in.

When he was fully seated within her, they both lay there panting for a long second, Christian afraid that if he moved too quickly, he would spoil it before he'd even begun, and Grace caught in the pleasure of finally having him fully sheathed inside of her.

“It's...been a while since I've done this,” Christian confessed, and Grace blinked at him. “I don't know...how much stamina I'll have.” He could feel a blush spreading all the way out to his ears, and it grew more intense at her incredulous look.

“I would have expected you were more of a player,” Grace said, then winced. “I mean, just because you're…you know. Very attractive. And rich. And all that.” She blushed and covered her face with her hands. “What I mean is, I'm flattered.”

Christian snorted and began to move, bracing his hands on either side of her and slowly rocking his hips out until just the tip of his penis was still inside of her. Then, he quickly pushed back in all at once, making Grace exhale sharply as lust pooled in the bottom of her stomach. He did it again, managing to elicit a soft cry from Grace, who began to rock against him, matching the rhythm of his thrusts.

“Oh, Christian,” she gasped, surprised at how rapidly she was approaching orgasm. She had a feeling it was going to be a big one, too. “Christian, I–“

“That's it,” he growled, picking up the pace a little. He couldn't help the possessive feeling flaring in his heart, but he did stop himself from biting his claim into her skin. They would need to talk about mating before he actually sealed the deal. But for now— “That's it, come for me, Grace. Come for me.” He reached down between them and began rubbing his fingers across her clit even while continuing to thrust into her.

Grace came hard, her vagina clenching and releasing around Christian's dick, the vibrations going on for ages, pulling Christian over into his own orgasm.

Grace slowly became aware of her surroundings again—first, she noticed Christian's arm draped across her stomach from where he had collapsed at her side, then she noticed the soft sheets underneath her, then the surrounding room. She felt totally blissed out and languid, so warm and comfortable and ready to just curl up there and go back to sleep.