19. NINETEEN
NINETEEN
Vera
The nearest hotel to the hospital is still serving buffet breakfast by the time Bas checks us in, and we wrap ourselves in the complimentary robes and pile our plates high.
I’m a mess of different emotions—elation at shifting for the first time, nervous about Mom, mad at Riley.
All of them somehow channeling themselves into my stomach and making me ravenous.
I’m on my third pile of scrambled eggs and bacon by the time I stop to look across the table at Bas, who has put away a respectable amount of food himself but is now watching me with a fond smile.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just you’re really cute when you eat. I’ve always thought that.”
I throw a mini croissant at his head and miss, which earns me a stern look from a couple at a nearby table, but I ignore them. “You have not.”
“I have.” He leans forward, bracing his elbows on the table. “I’ve always loved watching you eat.”
I shove the last bite of toast into my mouth and consider going back for another plate. “Are you telling me you’ve got some sort of weird-ass kink, Powell?”
“No, nothing like that. It’s just that you always look like you’re loving every bite. You eat with such relish. I guess I’ve always noticed.” He colors a little. “Aaaand now I feel like I do have some unexplored issues.”
I lean forward, lowering my voice. “Why? Are there other things you’d like to watch me put in my mouth?”
His mouth drops open, and he sits back, adjusting himself under the table with a groan. “Ah, yeah, when you’re going to put it like that, yeah. Ver, can we talk about something else? At least until you’ve finished eating. I’m not going to be able to get up from the table at this rate.”
I laugh into my coffee. “I think I like that. You know how long I dreamed about having that effect on you?”
Bas drops his head into his hand. “I can’t believe I turned you down and wasted four years.”
“You did the right thing. When I thought about it rationally, I knew why.”
“It wasn’t because I thought you weren’t a shifter.”
“It wasn’t?”
He shakes his head. “No. I was worried about Riley’s reaction and your parents’. Tilly and Jamie are basically like surrogate parents to me. I don’t know what I would have done without them in my life.”
“As if my parents mind!”
He laughs. “I sure hope they don’t. Because I’m not giving you up now.”
“Even if Riley never talks to you again?” I bite my lip to keep the smile fixed in place. Riley does not get to spoil the morning twice.
Bas reaches easily across the table to tip my chin up with a knuckle, directing my eyes to him. “Hey, he’ll come around. You know how he works—all fiery temper, but he’s got a good heart. Somewhere. Deep, deep down.”
I laugh.
“He just doesn’t get the whole mate thing,” Bas continues.
“Yeah. Why is that? It’s like someone hurt him, but as far as I know he never took anyone or anything seriously enough to get hurt.”
Bas shakes his head. “He’s never told me the full story, but there was someone once. A long time ago now. Point is, he’s wary. But he’ll come around to this. To us.”
“I hope so.” All of a sudden my stomach is bursting at the seams, and I can’t face another mouthful. I push my half-empty plate back and sigh. “Think I’m done with breakfast.”
Bas smiles. “What would you like to do next? Should we call your dad?”
I chew the edge of a nail and think. “Can we not? Would that be super bad? I’d kind of like to just enjoy the next few hours before we have to face all that.”
“Then let’s do that. I say we find the nearest store, get some new clothes, and then come back and enjoy the sauna and hot tub while we have the chance.”
I grin. “And I say I like your thinking.”
Despite telling Bas I want to avoid facing the drama with my family for a while, I message Dad to let him know where we are and get an odd response back.
Dad: what did you say to your brother?
I put my phone aside, not sure how to answer Dad or what Riley would have told him and Mom. At that moment, Bas steps out of the bathroom wearing only a towel, and it’s not hard to switch my brain off.
He looks up from pulling on his jeans to find me watching him, and I guess my mouth is hanging open because he gives me a grin that tells me he knows exactly what path my thoughts are on. “I thought you wanted to go get some new clothes.”
“Mmm?” Right now I’m feeling pretty torn about the whole leaving the hotel room scenario. “I did…”
Bas chuckles. “Then stop looking at me like that, Ver, or we’re not going anywhere public for a long, long time.”
I slide to the edge of the bed, reaching up to slip the loop of his belt into the buckle, even though I’d like to be undressing him instead. “You’re right. We should go.”
He sucks in a breath as my knuckles graze his belly, tipping his head back to look up at the ceiling. “Fucking hell.”
I laugh. “What? I’m helping.”
He palms down a large bulge that has appeared at the front of his jeans.
“Like hell you are.” Unexpectedly, he stretches down and lifts me off the bed as easily as if I was still a kid, depositing me on my feet.
“Come on. We’re going. And then we’re coming back here so I can eat your pussy for the rest of the afternoon. ”
My mouth drops open all over again and a tingle starts up between my thighs “Did I say we needed clothes? Who needs clothes? We’re shifters.”
“Nice try.” Bas takes my jacket and slings it around my shoulders, ushering me out of our room and exiting through the foyer. As we pass I spot cheesy souvenir T-shirts and point them out to him. “Do you think we can just get away with these? It would save time.”
He barks out a laugh. “I don’t think they make them in my size.”
I consider this as we walk out onto the street. “How do you buy clothes?”
“With difficulty. But I looked it up while you were in the shower. There’s a department store near here. They should stock some things that fit me.”
The department store has three floors all playing the same tinny festive music leftover from Christmas.
We have to go all the way to the back of the menswear section to find the ‘big and tall’ selections, and when we do, we find an uninspiring stack of gray and brown clothing that looks like it was made for someone’s boring uncle. “Geez, not a lot of choice.”
Bas shrugs. “I’ll take what I can get.”
He’s looking through a table stacked with T-shirts when I spot something hanging on the wall behind. It’s a moss-green shirt with stitched details over the pockets that would look amazing with his coloring. I fetch one and hold it out to him. “You have to try this on.”
His brows lift. “Do you like that?”
“It would look great on you.”
He looks skeptical. “I wouldn’t normally choose something so… flashy.”
I can’t help laughing. “Bas, if you want to see flashy, I’ll show you flashy. This is nice. It’s subtle. Go on. Try it.”
“If you say so.” He takes a couple of plain white and gray tees from the stack on the table, and we make our way to the changing room. He looks surprised when I follow him into the little cubicle.
“What?”
“You’re, um… you’re going to watch me?”
I fold my arms over my chest. “You bet I am. Now take it off! I’m waiting.”
With a self-conscious laugh, he unzips the jacket which is the only thing he’s wearing on his top half since tearing his shirt at the bar.
Immediately the temperature in the little cubicle rises by about twenty degrees, and I run a tongue over my lips as I let my eyes rove over his body.
It’s exciting to get to look at him so openly.
It makes me realize how many years I spent sneaking looks.
It’s kind of sensory overload to look my fill now. I can hardly take him all in. It doesn’t help that he’s just so big. His thick belly is covered with a dusting of hair that grows denser over his broad pecs. As he slips the jacket off his shoulders his muscles flex, and my mouth waters.
“Vera,” he warns. “I can feel how hard you’re thinking about it.” He taps the side of his head.
I find a new reason to blush. I wasn’t prepared for the whole mating bond thing. It makes me jealous that I don’t get the same instant read on him.
He takes the shirt I found off the hanger and slides his arms inside, and I step forward quickly, getting to work on the buttons before he can.
When I’m done, I slide my hands up and down the front of the shirt and can feel him beneath it, warm and solid and so strong.
I think I let a whimper escape me before he bends to lift me into his arms.
Thank god. A moment more without kissing him and I was about to lose my shit. I love how easily he holds me, how he encourages me to mold my body to his as I wrap my legs around his waist and tease his lips with mine.
I moan into his kiss, and a moment later we’re sinking onto the bench seat which creaks under our combined weight.
That bulge between his legs is fitted snug against the seam of my tights, and I feel every inch as I rock my hips and drag in an unsteady breath. As I tip my head back he drags his lips over my neck, spreading hot kisses in a path that trails over all the bare skin he can reach.
Bas groans. “I just can’t get enough of you. I think I could spend all day like this and it still wouldn’t be enough.”
I know exactly what he means. Right now there’s one part of him that specifically needs more of my attention.
I can feel him throbbing between my legs, and each pulse sends an answering spark through me.
I pause, tipping my head to one side as if I’m listening, but instead I’m listening with my heart.
That’s the only way I can describe this feeling that wells up inside me.
It’s hard to distinguish from my own rather horny thoughts, but there’s a distinct train of thought that’s all Bas.
I know because what he said about finding me cute when I’m eating is playing on a loop in his mind while he remembers me licking my slick off his cock in the cave while I was in heat.
I scramble off his lap and drop to my knees between his spread legs in a heartbeat, following his unspoken lead.
Reaching for his belt, I start unbuckling him before he can stop me.
The moment I get his cock free it springs up into my waiting hand, and he sucks in a sharp breath.
I give him a tentative stroke down and back up, motioning with my free hand for him to keep quiet.
Then I make it my mission to make that almost impossible.
God, this cock deserves to be worshipped.
It’s fat in my hand and hard beneath the smooth slide of his foreskin.
Veins stand out along the shaft, straining as I lower my head to run the flat of my tongue along the heated length.
The particular flavor of him sends a bolt of awareness straight between my thighs.
Light and salty, fresh, yet with a deep, rich sense of male.
“You don’t have to do that, Ver,” he tells me, his voice unsteady.
I give him a mock scowl. “Maybe I want to.”
He subsides back against the wall pretty quickly when I lower my head again.
The taste of him does swimmy, floaty things to my head, and soon I’m stretching up on my knees, straining to wrap my lips around his girth while I take him into my mouth.
This isn’t about slow or taking my time.
This is about sating the fierce hunger that gnaws at my insides and hearing that little groan he makes each time my lips move over the head.
It’s about taking him to the point where he loses control, a point I recognize when his hand cups the back of my head and his hips start lifting in time with my movements. Right there. Got him.
I love when he forgets to worry about me being too delicate or too small.
I’m so lost in it I hardly notice the knock at the door. I notice when Bas stiffens, though.
“Is everything alright in there, sir?”
Bas lets out a choked answer. “Ah, yeah. Fine thanks.” He gives me an imploring look, but there’s no way I’m stopping now.
He’s throbbing in my hand, and when I reach into his jeans to cup his balls, they’re tight like he’s close to cumming.
“Are you sure?” The shop assistant sure is pushy. Maybe looking for a bigger commission.
“Just…trying something on for size. I’ll be done soon.” The words are spoken through gritted teeth as I take him almost to the back of my throat.
His knuckles are white where he’s gripping the edge of the bench.
“Is it a good fit, sir?”
If I didn’t have a mouthful I’d be laughing.
Bastien’s head tips back and he whispers a prayer for mercy. “Fuck yeah.”
“I’m sorry?”
He coughs. “I mean yeah. It’s the best fit I’ve ever found.” His gaze locks with mine, and I know the second he commits.
“You gonna cum?” I mouth silently.
The shop attendant clears her throat. “Well, I’ll just leave you to it, shall I?”
“Yes!” Bas lifts his hips and slams back into my mouth, right to the back of my throat.
My eyes water. I suck down every inch and squeeze the hand around his balls.
He actually lifts the corner of the shirt to stuff in his mouth as he erupts, biting down hard on the fabric.
He lets out a smothered sound, and my mouth floods with his flavor, ten times as strong as before and so much of it some escapes the corners of my mouth.
I hurry to swallow him down and keep sucking to draw out the last of his pleasure as he collapses back against the wall breathing hard.
I’m sure I have a very self-satisfied smirk on my face when we exit the changing room and I give the shop assistant a little wink, lifting a finger to wipe imaginary cum from the corner of my lips.
Bas buys all three shirts without even having tried on the others and wears the one I picked out. I can’t stop admiring him in the sage green as we find the elevator and make our way up to women’s wear. I think I have a new favorite color on him. And I definitely have another favorite memory.