Seeing Eye Mate (17 page)

Aahh. Blew orange juice out of the water any day.

“It wasn’t directed at you,” he sighed, still staring at her like he wanted to wring her neck. “You going today?”

Tieran wondered where he was going. Earlier he’d mentioned to her that she’d be meeting some elderly people but God only knew when that was. She could barely remember anything the way they fucked non-stop.

“So I’ll meet you there. Why don’t you bring Nikki,” he said, grinning.

Tieran jumped at the sudden rough bark of laughter.

“I’m just kidding, E.” Caelan paused and glanced at her with a twinkle in his eye. “No don’t tell them about her. I need to be the one to do it, although they’ll probably smell her on you since you were in the house last night.”

Smell who? Not me. She glared at Caelan. He returned her look with one filled with intense heat.

Her pussy flooded. Unbelievable. Would this happen every time he looked at her? Tieran averted her gaze to stare at her pancakes. There was no way she could swallow even one bite around the sudden lump in her throat or the quiver in her belly.

The cell phone snapped shut, startling her.

“Do you plan on ingesting those pancakes through osmosis?”

“I told you, I don’t eat breakfast,” she grumbled in a tone that was whiny even to her own ears.

“And I’m telling you, the protein is good for a human mother carrying a shifter’s child.”

Jesus. Again with the good-for-her crap. Tieran slumped over and thumped her forehead on the table. “When I want a man’s advice on what’s good for a woman, I’ll let you know.” Damn but he could turn her into a brat like no one else. She hated feeling like she no longer had control over her life. This was payback for having walked into the blasted country bar the other night when her instincts had shouted at her to stay out.

“Stop bitching, Tulla, and eat the meal the man prepared for you. I’ve seen you chow down with the best of ‘em, why are you being so prickly now?”

Tieran grimaced.
“Stop bitching, stop bitching.”
If she really were pregnant with some werewolf baby, it sure the hell was way worse than PMS. That explanation was the only one she could come up with as a reason for her attitude.

Caelan pulled out the chair next to her, plunking the St. Louis Post Dispatch down on the table in front of him.

“Hey, why aren’t you eating, Mr. It’s Good For You?” Shit! She was going to glue her lips together. Nothing coming out of her mouth today was normal.

“I already ate,” he said, ignoring her barb. “While you were taking a shower.”

She groaned and rolled her head on the table so her heated cheek rested on the cool Formica. “Where did you get all this stuff anyway? I know I didn’t have any of it.”

“What stuff?” he asked, sounding deliberately obtuse.

“Don’t play ignorant with me. The sausage, the orange juice.” She shivered. The stuff was absolutely horrid.

“Your neighbor.” His gaze never strayed from the paper. “I went out to get this and she was out there too. I believe she heard me grumbling about your lack of breakfast supplies. She offered me some from her rather impressive stash.”

How busy he’d been, Tieran thought. Cleaning the messes in every corner of her house, fixing faucets, cooking breakfast, borrowing from her neighbors. What had she been doing? Apparently taking the world’s longest shower.

“She thinks you’re certifiable, by the way.” He lifted his cup of coffee to his mouth and sipped.

Tieran jerked upright. “That batty old woman next door thinks I’m crazy? She waters her rocks!”

Caelan smiled and finally turned toward her. “Calm down, Tieran. I’m kidding. I just love it when you get so riled up.” He leaned over and brushed his lips against her ear. “Makes me hot,” he whispered, sending shivers down her arms.

She snorted. “Everything makes you hot.” Picking up her fork, she stabbed the stack of pancakes that were quickly turning to a syrupy mush and took a bite.

Oh, my God, they were good. Buttermilk with a touch of cinnamon, buttery, syrupy. Yum. She cut into them again and eagerly shoveled another forkful into her mouth. She’d never had pancakes this good.

“I beg your pardon.”

Tieran could almost envision her grandmother standing with her hands on her hips, and smiled.

“You can beg all you want, these are the bomb.”

With uncharacteristic voraciousness, Tieran grabbed a sausage, something else she never much cared for, and dug into it. The spicy flavor exploded on her tongue. Two swallows later, the round disk was gone and she reached for another one.

When she’d devoured half the pancakes and five sausages, she sat back and groaned, one hand on her stomach. What a pig! Then she realized Caelan hadn’t made a sound in all the time she was stuffing herself. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

The smug bastard was tilted back, his chair on two legs. His lips were pursed and there was a definite gleam in his eye. “Feel better?”

Tieran brought a finger, sticky with syrup, to her mouth and sucked it between her lips, licking it clean. She ignored the low rumble from Caelan’s chest. Served him right.

Suddenly he leaned forward, the chair thumping on the ground, and yanked her hand to his mouth. His tongue swiped over the finger she’d just cleaned. “Don’t tempt me, my own.”

“Heaven forbid,” she quipped.

Caelan trapped her hand under his, resting them on his thigh, then went back to reading his paper.

Something caught her eye as she reached for the remainder of her soda. A picture in the upper left corner of the newsprint, depicting a woman, her hair flapping in the wind as she smiled at the camera. The caption underneath read “Missing”.

Her eye twitched. She groaned and dropped her head back on her shoulders. “Not another one, please,” she pleaded silently. This was by far the busiest couple of days she’d ever had.

*

Nicole Raine Taylor was wreaking havoc on his libido. The little minx didn’t even know what she did to him. Eli glanced over the rim of his coffee mug to watch her slow progression across the kitchen floor. Ten o’clock in the morning and she was just now getting out of bed. She was wearing her glasses, something he didn’t see very often, and her jet-black hair was mussed from a long night smashed into a pillow. Her bare feet slapped on the tile floor and his cock jumped to attention.

Oh, he had it bad when her fucking feet gave him a hard-on.

Eli wished he could have gotten out of coming here, but Derek was driving him back to his ‘Stang. He couldn’t very well tell the man he didn’t want to go to his home first, and since his best friend was doing him a favor, he was stuck. Derek had been leaving some lucky lady’s bed this morning when Eli had called. So now here he was, sitting in Nikki-Raine’s kitchen, waiting for Derek to take a shower.

Eli skimmed his gaze up the length of her legs to the boxer shorts she wore. Men’s boxer shorts. He jerked his head up, snarling before he could stop it.

One of Nikki’s eyebrows shot upward. “Did you get a good enough look?”

“Who the hell’s trunks you got on there, Nik?” he demanded, ignoring her question. Fuck no, he didn’t get a good enough look. He’d have to strip her naked and spread her out on his bed in order to do that.

Her other eyebrow rose to meet the first. She eyeballed what she was wearing. Those damn pink painted toenails lifted when she rocked back on her heels.

“Hmm. I don’t remember his name.”

Eli saw red. He’d put his fist through the bastard’s face for touching her.

Christ. If he didn’t get this business done soon and claim her, he would go insane or take her before it was safe. He didn’t want to put her in that kind of danger. Things were too tense right now. His brother didn’t know Nikki-Raine was Eli’s mate yet. He hadn’t told anyone. Especially not Derek. And if he didn’t want Caelan to know and add one more worry to the pot, he’d have to keep it quiet for a little while longer.

No matter how much the little witch tempted him.

“Geez, calm down, E.” Nikki laughed. “I bought them for myself.” She brushed by him, rubbing her damn apple scent on his clothes.

Great, now he’d have to smell her all day. And probably suffer this steel rod of an erection until he showered later.

“I am an adult, you know.”

“Every damn male for a hundred miles can see you’re an adult,” he muttered.

She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottled water and a yogurt. “Between you and Derek, I’ll probably never get a man.”

You won’t need another man once I get my hands on you,
he vowed. She was the one woman in the world who had the ability to tie his dick in knots. All the rest were superfluous to him, no matter how much he tried to look like he was playing the field.

Nikki turned to him, taking a long drag on the water. The smooth column of her throat worked, making him wish it was his cock she was sucking on instead of the fucking piece of plastic. With her head tilted back and her eyes closed, Eli admired her beautiful body. Her small breasts pushed against the stretchy fabric of her tank top, the nipples poking out in twin beaded points.

Imagining how soft her flesh would be and how perfectly they would fill his hands made his mouth water. He reached down and adjusted his swollen cock so it wasn’t pressing quite so painfully into the button-fly of his jeans.

Taking one last swallow, Nikki set the bottle on the counter. Her tongue darted out to capture a drop of water on her upper lip and Eli groaned.

“I swear,” she continued, “if you guys don’t stop scaring off my dates, I’m gonna move to another state.”

“Like hell you will,” he growled.

She stared at him, a bewildered look on her face. Who could blame her for being confused? He’d never talked to her like this before. In the past he’d always been able to keep up his big-brother act. Now, every time she was around, his wolf came closer to the surface. Closer to revealing itself, when Eli wasn’t ready.

“What on earth has gotten into you, E?”

You have,
he nearly snapped, but held his tongue. There were too many things to hash out between them, but now wasn’t the time.

Derek stomped into the kitchen, breaking the static tension between her and Eli. “All right, let’s get this done.”

Nikki turned to rummage through a drawer.

“Yo, E,” Derek said, snapping his fingers, “You ready?” He grabbed his keys off the counter.

“Yeah,” Eli grunted.

“Where are you guys headed?” Nikki asked, sounding as if nothing strange had happened between them. She ripped the top off the yogurt and licked it clean. After dipping her spoon into the pink cream, she stuck it in her mouth, upside down. Her lips closed sensually over the metal. Eli almost came in his jeans picturing those lips taking in the head of his cock.

“E’s ‘Stang broke down last night. We’re going to get it.”

Nikki’s eyes widened. “You’re kiddin’ me. Did you forget to screw something back in the last time you worked on it?” She smiled, twisting his gut into a tight knot, and spooned another bite.

“Yeah, and what the hell were you doing way out on 49 anyway?” Derek asked, and snagged an apple out of the basket on the table.

“Highway 49? That’s pretty far out there. How’d you get home, E?” Nikki’s voice was laced with concern.

Oh, I shifted into a wolf and ran home.
Eli glanced over at Derek who grinned from ear to ear. Asshole. Derek knew exactly how Eli had gotten home last night. Apparently he was content to let Eli worm his own way out of Nikki’s question.

Eli rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and cleared his throat. “Caelan,” he offered as his only response and turned back to Derek. “Can we go now?”

“Yep.” Derek laughed, slapped Eli on the back and led the way to the door.

Eli took one last look at Nikki. She’d already settled herself at the table, one leg crossed over the opposite knee, engrossed in the remainder of her breakfast.

She wouldn’t even know what hit her when he was ready to make his true self known.

Caelan gritted his teeth against the silence filling the car. It had been this way since the moment they’d gotten in his truck a half an hour ago and the ominous mood was starting to grate on him. In fact, she hadn’t spoken since eating breakfast this morning. And they still had a good thirty minutes to go before reaching the ranch.

Perhaps they should get this conversation out of the way before he brought Tieran in front of the elders. As his mate, she would attract a ton of commotion, making it difficult for them to speak again until they were on their way home. Unless she was still itching to give him the silent treatment, that is.

“Maybe if I tell you what I know, you’ll tell me what you know?” he asked, breaking the silence. Tieran shifted in the seat next to him, releasing a puff of her peachy scent that drove him crazy ninety-nine point nine percent of the day.

She cleared her throat. “I haven’t remembered anything new. Besides, I’m sure you don’t really want me to tell you what I know.”