26. TWENTY SIX
TWENTY SIX
Natalia
We stay like that until Jayden wakes for his first feed of the night.
Reluctantly, I climb from Colton’s lap and shuffle to the nursery to pick him up from his crib, bringing his soft baby cheek to my face and breathing in his scent.
He smells so sweetly adorable, and his cheeks are so soft.
I nuzzle against him, grateful all over again for having this little angel in my life.
While I feed Jayden, Colton watches from the doorway. As bebé finishes the first side and his eyelids start to droop, Colton takes him and changes his diaper, handing me a water and resettling Jayden in my arms. “Sleep in my bed?” he asks softly.
A zip of excited energy runs through me. I’m sure we fell asleep in the same bed while I was in heat, but I’m not sure passing out together counts. “You mean like move into your room or just tonight?” I tug my lip between my teeth.
Colton smiles. “I was originally going to go with forever, but I thought I’d better not push my luck.”
I laugh. Jayden looks up curiously.
“I like the sound of forever.”
The grin grows until it’s lighting up the whole room. “I’ll set up your nest.”
I’m stupidly excited when I get Jayden down and creep down the hall to the master bedroom.
I haven’t been inside Colton’s room before.
I’ve never had a reason. Stepping over the threshold feels like a big moment.
Colton is stretched out on the bed beneath the pale canopy of fabric he erected in the time it took me to finish Jayden’s feed.
He’s wearing only briefs, and the sight of his muscular, sculpted abs and torso has my mouth dry and my fingers itching to run along the ridges of warm, firm skin immediately.
He looks up from his screen, setting the phone aside and patting the bed beside him. “Coming?”
I wish I looked more glamorous. I’m wearing only the shorts and tank I ordinarily wear to bed, with my hair tied in a messy bun and my thick socks on to keep my toes warm.
I remind myself that this man has seen me leaking fluids from several embarrassing places, sweaty and unwashed, and still apparently found me attractive enough to want to keep me around, so I have nothing to worry about.
Even so, old ways of thinking are hard to shake.
My mom would be berating me for letting a man I see a future with see me this way. I was always raised to dress nicely for my man.
Shit. Thinking of my mom reminds me I still haven’t called her or answered any of her messages. I wonder if she saw the stories on the news and was as angry as I think she would have been. I’ll have to face that soon.
For now I crawl into bed beside Colton and am immediately surrounded by his warm vanilla-and-cotton-candy scent and the comforting sound of his purr.
I’m awkward for a moment, not sure whether I should keep to my side or snuggle in, but Colton solves that problem for me by slipping an arm around my waist and hauling me close, letting out a satisfied hum as I settle in. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this.”
I glance at the time on the digital clock on his nightstand only to realize he wasn’t talking about tonight.
“You’ve really known for a long time then? How long?”
His hand strokes along my back, making me sleepy. “You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Since I first tasted your milk.” He colors a little and I smile. I love when he gets shy.
I shift a little, pressing my legs together with awareness when I think back to that night.
It’s not much of a stretch for me to feel aroused when I’m this close to him.
Honestly the man only has to look in my direction and I’m wet!
But he doesn’t make a move. He just keeps stroking my back, gazing down at me affectionately.
“What is it like being a shifter? What’s it like when you transform?”
“Shift. We call it shifting. It’s not like anything else I can describe. Not really. It feels wrong in a really right way.” He laughs. “I’m doing a terrible job of explaining it.”
“I think I understand.” I’m quiet for a while, thinking about my abuela. It occurs to me that I don’t even know what kind of shifter she was, or her family was. I think I need to do some more digging, starting with going through that diary.
Resolved, I finally give in to the urge to close my eyes. Colton switches off the light, and I revel in the sound of his slow breathing and glorious scent.
Before I know it, I’m standing on a steep hillside with the wind blowing through my hair.
I know it’s a dream in the same certain way I sometimes get, but it feels very real.
In the dream I’m searching for something, but the hill is so steep I have to crawl forward on my hands and knees to keep moving, and no matter how high I climb, I can’t find the thing I’m searching for.
I wake with a very hard, hot rod pressing insistently against my backside. I roll my hips experimentally, but a low groan in my ear makes me stop.
Colton pulls away suddenly with another smothered groan. “Sorry. I guess it’s going to take my bull a little while to get used to having you right here.”
I turn to catch him adjusting the massive bulge in his briefs. In fact, the bulge is so large the tip of his cock has jutted out from the underwear, making my mouth water. “I don’t mind.”
It twitches and I walk my hand closer over his thigh while he stares at me in wonder.
“You don’t? After I woke you?”
I blink at the window, smothered in curtains except where a strip of light is peeping beneath to show it’s morning. “No, I don’t mind.” When he doesn’t stop me, I carefully pull back the waistband of his underwear to fully reveal my prize, wrapping a hand as far as I can around the shaft.
His breath shudders out of him and he watches me.
“I like waking up to this,” I whisper as I begin to stroke him.
Colton lets out a whimper. I maintain the same steady pace, enjoying myself.
“Not that I mind waking up to this, but you don’t have to—”
“Shhh. I want to.” I keep stroking him nice and slow until he is fisting the bedding, gritting his teeth.
Finally his larger hand closes over mine and he moans.
He’s so hot and a little slippery in my grasp, and with his hand around mine, he lifts his hips and pumps in an erotically charged motion that is having an effect on me.
My nipples tingle, and my pussy lips slide against each other.
“Is this what it feels like to have a fated mate?” His laughter comes out choked.
“I don’t know. Is this what it’s like?” I just keep right on stroking him and know I’m smiling like crazy.
He curses under his breath as I squeeze him harder. “Someone should have warned me.”
Then suddenly he pulls my hand away, rolling to cover me. “No way my fated mate makes me cum before I even get a taste of her.”
Now it’s my turn to moan as he slides down my body, pushing my legs wide and dipping his head to do just as he promised. He teases around my clit, licking and kissing at my engorged labia and pushing a thick finger inside me.
“Fuck, you’re so wet. Does it turn you on to do that for me?”
I nod, unable to speak as he curls the finger, reaching for a place that makes my eyes roll back in my head.
“You’re the perfect mate. I can’t wait until you wear my mark and the world knows you’re mine.”
My heart stutters in my chest. “Mark?”
Colton lifts his head to look at me shyly. “Too fast?”
It would have been a few days ago, but I’m starting to realize I have to put my worries about our timeline out of my head. “How does it work?”
He gives a nervous little laugh. “I guess I shouldn’t feel awkward about this after everything else you’ve been OK with. It, ah… it involves my cum on you, and then I activate the magic.”
I squirm because his sticky, sweet cum on my skin marking me as his mate sounds pretty hot right now.
He groans. “I can smell how much you like that idea, but are you ready?”
I chew my lip. “Maybe.”
He hesitates. I can see him weighing up the idea just as I am. His knuckles trace a line down my neck and over the swell of my breasts. “I’d paint it right here. Cover you in it.”
“What will it look like?” My nipples pebble as he keeps tracing my skin with his fingertips.
“It won’t look like anything. Only predators make a visible mark. For a bull shifter it’s about you wearing my scent all the time. Every other shifter anywhere near you will be able to tell.”
I grin because it’s perfect. I love the way he smells.
A soft cry from the other room makes us both groan.
Colton laughs. “I guess Jayden has other ideas this morning.”
I look longingly at the thick erection still hanging between his thighs. “Lucky he’s cute.”
Colton sighs. “Sure is. It’s probably a good thing. I was getting carried away, as usual. I don’t want to rush you. I want the timing to feel right.”
I pull him in for a hurried kiss that tastes of my own saltiness. “Hey, you’re not rushing. You’re not too much. You make everything feel right.”
I can tell he still has questions so I press one more kiss to his full lips. “We’ll talk about this more really soon OK?”
Colton grins. “OK.”
While Colton goes to fetch Jayden and change him, I slide out of bed and get the old beat-up book from my nightstand. I just wish I knew for sure that I’m actually a shifter. There’s more to learn in Abuela’s diary, I’m sure of it.