A Summer in Paradise Page 6

  She clamped her lips shut, wanting them to ride her hard and she wanted the strange, pleasure-pain of Duncan’s big hand swatting her rear. She wasn’t well. She should leave this place and swear off all men forever.

  Yet she couldn’t bring herself to do anything but stay locked between them as they continued to slowly stroke in and out of her, torturing her like no other man had before. She needed more than she had ever needed before. Each long, sure stroke pulled at her nerve endings, her very sanity until the need to come overrode her need to prove to them she wasn’t exactly what they claimed her to be.

  Submissive. Perhaps, but only in the bedroom.

  “Please!” She begged. Unsure of what she wanted, she placed her hands on Jarrod’s chest and pushed away from his questing mouth. She wanted nothing more than to feel her hard nipple clamped gently between his teeth as they both rammed themselves into her waiting flesh.

  “Please, what, princess.” Duncan still held his hand over her buttock, covering the globe, holding in the heat of his last gentle blow.

  “Fuck me, dammit. Fuck me until I scream.” God, what had she become?

  “Anything else you’d like?”

  She shook her head while Jarrod’s mouth homed in on her right nipple, his teeth grazing the tender flesh. “Yesss!” Pearl arched her back, pressing her breast against his face. She wriggled her ass when Duncan withdrew. “Spank me, Duncan. Oh, God, what have I become?”

  Duncan withdrew, then surged forward his cock ramming into her as Jarrod’s withdrew. They managed a rhythm that drew her closer and closer to the climax she sought. Still, there was something missing. Duncan hadn’t done as she asked.

  “Please, Duncan,” she begged as the two powered into her. “Please. Spank me. Make me come.”

  “No, princess. I cannot spank you for needing this. You told me what you want.”

  He shook his head, when she looked back at him.

  “I need it.”

  “No, princess.” He leaned forward, pressed a kiss to the side of her lips and smiled. “You need this.”

  Large incisors grew from his gums as his mouth partially shifted into that of his cat. Without warning, he opened his mouth and sank his teeth into her shoulder.

  Scalding heat filled her senses as Jarrod did the same to the back of her shoulder and she arched her back and screamed.

  Surge after powerful surge, her men pumped into her until they both released her shoulder, threw their heads back and groaned. The sounds came from deep in their chests. Warmth flooded her womb and her ass as their bodies stiffened, then suddenly went slack.

  Duncan rolled off her with a groan while Jarrod held her to him, his hands gently massaging her back before they slowed and became still.

  With a sigh, Pearl rested her head on his shoulder and smiled, though she really wanted to cry. Yes, it had been as wonderful as she thought it would be. Yet, she still couldn’t stay.

  She couldn’t bring her troubles to their door and she refused to take the chance that Glenn would find out she liked it when Duncan spanked her. What Duncan did was so much different, but Glenn would never see it that way.

  Slowly, Pearl rolled off Jarrod and rested her head on his shoulder. She wanted nothing more than to stay here with them and make a life, but she couldn’t. Resting her hand over her rounded belly, she closed her eyes and prayed for a child to come from this union because she knew she couldn’t stay here and she would never let another man touch her. Not after this. Not after knowing what it felt like to make love with the two men she’d loved for what felt like forever. No man could ever compare to them.

  When they both began to snore, Pearl eased from the bed, gathered her things and quietly wrote a note. She had to leave. She could use her lantern and it would be light in just a few hours. She had to find Gemma and say goodbye.

  When she reached the door, Pearl turned and gave the two one last look before she swiped the tears from her cheeks and quietly closed the door.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Son of a bitch!” Duncan slammed his fist onto the table. “I’ll spank her little ass again. Only this time I’m not going to make her come afterward.” He picked his jeans up off the floor where he’d kicked them and jerked them on.

  “What?”

  Jarrod looked up at him through the bleary eyes of a man who’d come too hard and needed sleep. Hell, he’d probably looked like that when he’d first awakened. At least until he’d found Pearl’s note.

  “Is she fucking crazy?” He looked out the window and wondered how long she’d been gone. “Jesus. The sun’s up.” He pressed his face against the glass and looked up. “It looks like it’s around ten o’clock.”

  For the first time in his fucking life, he’d slept like the dead and Pearl had to go and do something this fucking stupid.

  Bending down, he picked Jarrod’s clothes up off the floor and threw them in his face. “Get up off your ass. Pearl’s gone.” He ran his fingers through his hair. She left a note saying she planned to bathe in the lake, but I have no idea how long ago that was.”

  He yanked the door open and left the cabin. Fuck waiting for that lazy fuck Jarrod to climb his happy ass out of bed. He had a mate to retrieve from the lake—if that damned boar hadn’t attacked her.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why hadn’t one of them stayed awake. They knew she felt she had something to prove. She wanted to let them know that she was her own woman and she wouldn’t take shit from them outside of the bedroom.

  Okay, Pearl. I get it. He shoved his fingers through his hair again as he stomped toward the lake. Pausing, just out of sight, he took a deep breath to try and rein in his temper and frowned.

  “What’s the matter?” Jarrod asked.

  “I can’t smell her.”

  “Of course you can’t smell her if she’s in the water.” Jarrod shook his head and moved toward the lake.

  “I can’t smell her at all, Jerry.” He took another deep breath. In through the nose, hold it, then out through the mouth. “I should be able to smell the clothes she wore.”

  Jarrod sniffed at the air. “You’re right. I can’t smell anything either.”

  Refusing to give up the hope that he was wrong and that they would find their mate soaking in the lake, or washing up, they both sprinted to the shore.

  No Pearl.

  “Shit!” Jarrod paced in front of him. “We have to find her.”

  “No shit, Sherlock.” Duncan smacked him on the back of the head. “We need to find her before that boar does.”

  “Yes, we do.” Jarrod started to strip. “Because that was no boar. It was a shifter.” He threw Duncan an apologetic look. “I meant to tell you last night, but I got a bit…sidetracked.”

  No shit. Duncan had been more like freight-trained, himself. “An all shifter?”

  “That’s just it.” Jarrod said as he stripped the last of his clothes off and threw them on the grown. “He could’ve shifted into anything and overpowered me if that were the case.”

  The air shimmered around Jarrod as his bones contorted and his face changed shape, growing broader and larger to sustain the cat’s teeth and wide jaw.

  But he didn’t. Jarrod continued while he waited for Duncan to shift his shape into that of his beast. The fucking coward ran to the edge of a cliff and jumped into the river below instead of face me. He had to have been nothing but a boar. Otherwise, why let me live?

  Not to mention that every all shifter we’ve ever met seems to be inordinately good. Finished with his shift, Duncan looked around the woods. His cat’s eyes saw everything differently. It was almost as though he could see the life force of every living thing, while in this form.

  He lowered his head to the ground, trying to pick up Pearl’s scent while Jarrod did the same.

  You don’t suppose he snatched her closer to the cabin, do you?

  I’d like to think we would have heard her scream, if that were the case. Duncan took the lead in heading back the way they came.
They inspected every inch of the trail to be certain they didn’t miss a thing until they made their way back to the cabin and finally picked up her scent.

  Son of a bitch.

  You’re saying that a lot this morning.

  That’s because Pearl is pissing me off a lot this morning. Duncan lifted his lip with a snarl. The little brat left a note saying she was going to take a bath in the lake, not that she planned to hike down the fucking mountainside by herself.

  He shook his head. Didn’t the woman have an ounce of self-preservation in her body? Didn’t she think of the wild animals up here on this mountain? She could run into a hungry bear, some wolves, that fucking shifter who disguised himself as a goddamned boar.

  Taking off at a run, Duncan didn’t give a damn if Jarrod kept up with him or not. He was going to find their mate and spank her round little ass until it glowed a pretty shade of pink.

  Then and only then would he stop long enough to hug her, tell her he loved her then start all over again. No one scared him like this and got away with it. His entire body trembled with the realization that she could be out there somewhere, broken or bleeding because of an animal attack or because she’d fallen down a cliff.

  Hell, it had been fifteen years since she’d hiked this mountain. Nothing was the same. Trees grew larger, landmarks changed. What if she was lost?

  Duncan ran flat out for about ten minutes before he reached a hunting trail and realized he’d lost her scent. He stopped. I lost her. He sniffed around and scented an automobile. Snarling with rage, he turned in the direction of the exhaust fumes.

  Whoever had her would die if they had harmed a single eyelash. His stomach twisted into a knot at the thought that she could be kidnapped by the Tudra or some other sick, bastard, holdout from the Paradise of the past.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Pearl quietly headed into the woods when she left the cabin. She needed a little time alone to think, then she would hike into town and find Gemma.

  She checked her watch with a grimace. It would be full on light in less than an hour and the guys would be awake soon after that, if one of them didn’t wake up because they needed to use the bathroom.

  While the cabins didn’t have electric lights, they did have a generator that could be used to operate the well for the kitchen and the tiny bathroom that consisted of a toilet and a small sink. It didn’t even have a shower, which was why she’d bathed in the river the day before.

  She wanted to bath again this morning, but settled for washing up in the tiny bathroom before she left. She didn’t want to take the time to make her way to the lake, besides, the boar attack left a bad taste in her mouth for swimming alone.

  About two hours had passed when she heard the sound of a small motorcycle riding the trail. It was moving too fast to hide. When the rider stopped and took off his helmet, Pearl nearly sighed with relief. She knew the perils of a woman walking in the woods alone, and she hadn’t really wanted to test out her self-defense skills right now.

  “Hi!” The rider, a muscular boy between the ages of sixteen and nineteen grinned at her. “It’s gonna be a hot day for a hike.” He hung his helmet on the handlebars and rested his hands on his thighs. “You going up or down?”

  “Down.” Pearl smiled. “I’m Pearl.” She approached the bike and held out her hand. “Are you going into town?”

  It would be great if he was and would give her a ride. It would give her a hell of a head start on the guys. There was no doubt in Pearl’s mind that when Duncan and Jarrod found her gone, they would track her on foot. Their noses wouldn’t do them a damned bit of good in a car or truck.

  The boy moved forward on his seat. “Wanna ride back to town?” He patted the little bit of seat between him and the sissy bar. “There’s plenty of room. I give my girlfriend a ride all the time.” He smiled again. Somehow Pearl knew she knew him from somewhere.

  “You look familiar.” He tilted his head and frowned. “Do I know you?”

  “No.” Pearl shook her head. “But I’m sure you know my sister, Gemma, if you live in town.” She knew he spoke of Paradise. It was the only town within an hour’s ride from here.

  “You’re Gemma’s sister?” He grinned at her as though he knew something she didn’t, then held out his hand. “It’s good to see you again.” He grasped her hand, shook it a couple of times then released it. “You must be Pearl. I remember Crystal was just a little thing when you left. I don’t think she was much older than me.”

  Pearl stared at him, drawing her brows together as she tried to pull a name from the recesses of her mind. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him. It was difficult to tell his age. If he was a shifter, and he most likely was, he could be in his twenties and still look like a teenager. That thought had her stepping back. Why hadn’t she remembered that before?

  “Aww, you don’t have to be afraid of me, Pearlie.” He used his feet to push his motorcycle back while he sat on the seat. “I’d never hurt you.”

  “Oh, my God.” Pearl looked at the young man before her and tried not to let her mouth fall open with shock. “Only one person ever called me Pearlie.” How could he know that unless…“Davie Gibson?”

  She looked at him again. It was hard to believe this…man in front of her was the boy she used to babysit on occasion when she was younger. She stared at his broad chest and muscular thighs beneath the black leather pants he wore and pitied the young girls of Paradise.

  None of them had a chance of escaping this one’s charms if he decided to turn up the wattage of one of his smiles. With that black hair and sky blue eyes of his, girls were probably throwing themselves at him.

  “Yep,” he said with a chuckle. “In the flesh. Only most people call me Dave, now.”

  “I’m sure they do. “Sorry…Dave.”

  “Hey, I don’t mind it when you call me Davie.” He winked, then looked around them with a frown. “Don’t you have a car or something up here?”

  “No. I left my bike in town and hitched a ride out here. I wanted to see my sister and spend a little time living off the land like we used to when we were kids.”

  “I remember that.” He thinned his lips. “We thought it was a game, only our parents never told us it wasn’t.” He patted the seat again. “Now that you know you know me, how about hopping on and I’ll give you a ride to the Lodge? I don’t bite.” He grinned. “Well, I don’t bite old babysitters I used to have crushes on.”

  With a smile, Pearl swung her leg over the seat and settled behind him. It would be good to make it to town and not have to worry about the guys catching up to her before she did. No matter how fast they ran as cats, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with a motorcycle.

  David handed her his helmet and she put it on. As a shifter, he could heal from a head injury that would kill her. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” He revved the engine a bit, put the bike in gear and suddenly they were rushing down the mountain.

  Pearl was tempted to tell him he didn’t have to hurry, that she wasn’t late for anything, then thought perhaps he was. He had stopped to talk to her, after all.

  “So,” she yelled over the sound of the engine as they sped down the mountain. “You had a crush on me, huh?”

  “Yeah.” He shook his head. “I had it bad. I didn’t eat for a while after you disappeared. I was sure one of Camulus’s men had killed you until Gemma told me you and Crystal escaped.”

  With a sigh, Pearl rested her cheek against his back. “I’m sorry, Davie. I mean Dave. I didn’t know.”

  “Why would you? I was eight. Boys aren’t even supposed to get crushes at eight years old, are they?”

  “I don’t know.” Pearl tried not to wrap her arms around him to hold on. Heck, what if he still had a crush on her? “I only know that you were always a good boy for me when others said you were a hellion.”

  “Yeah.” He downshifted to make a curve then powered up again. “I liked you.” He chuckled when she leaned back. “Don�
�t worry. I’m over it. I know each of us has some sort of predestined mate and now that I’m older, I’ll react when I meet her.” He paused. “As much as I hoped it was you when I was younger, I know now that you aren’t my mate. I still have a soft spot for you though.”

  Slowly, David brought the bike to a halt and twisted in the seat. “I want you to know that if you ever need my help for anything, I’ll be there for you.”

  “Davie, I—” As much as she appreciated the offer, he was still younger than she was and she didn’t think she could allow him to stand between her and trouble, even if he was a shifter.

  “Don’t worry about it. I just wanted to let you know that.” He chuckled. “I think a part of me still loves you, but I love you like a big sister now, not a girlfriend.”

  Good grief. That was a relief! Pearl didn’t know what she would have done had he told her anything else.

  “Thank you, Davie. I’m flattered.” Heck, she was almost old enough to be his mother. Five or six more years and she would have been just old enough. She didn’t know what she would think if he had told her that she was his mate as well.

  “Here we are.” Davie said as he pulled into the parking lot of the Paradise Inn. The sign out front was new, but it looked old. It was as though her sister and her mates had gone for a retro look when they remodeled.

  Davie brought the bike to a stop just outside the door. Pearl stood, swung her leg around and dismounted the bike.

  “Hey, you do that like you’re used to it.”

  “I told you I left my bike in storage, didn’t I? Did you think I was talking about a ten speed?”

  “No you just said you’d left it in town.” He narrowed his eyes as she pulled her pack up on her back.

  “Yeah, well, the town was Jackson.” She glanced away from him, unable to ignore his glare.

  “You hoofed it all the way here from Jackson? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”

  “Not as dangerous as hitch-hiking and I did that too.” What was it with this town and its men thinking they could just boss around any woman they pleased?