He tugged and then, seeming impatient with the material in his way, pushed the sweatshirt up, latching onto her left breast. Her hand grabbed the back of his head, holding him to her. The sensation was foreign, yet so damn erotic she was sure she was on the verge of coming. He switched to the right nipple, giving it the same treatment, biting and sucking, and licking in a torturous dance of his mouth. She didn’t know what to concentrate on.
The hand at her lower back moved up, and then his mouth was gone. Her eyes flew open, on the edge of coming, when he turned her around. Breezy was confused, feeling at a total loss, until the sweatshirt was ripped in two. Xan’s growl and hot breath on her back had her crossing her arms over her front, desperately trying to hold the borrowed top in place.
Twisting in his grip to no avail, she let her chin drop to her chest. Shame filled her. She’d no longer need to make up a boyfriend.
“Who the fuck do I need to kill?”
She kept her lips clamped shut. The secret she’d kept for her entire life, one her father said was dirty laundry and not to be told to the pack.
Warm lips traced across her back, startling her. “Bella, answer me. I swear by all that is within me, I will hunt down the bastard who did this and gut him. I will cut off his nuts and feed them to him.”
A sob escaped. “She doesn’t have any nuts. I mean, I don’t think she does, unless she’s cut them off someone and is wearing them around her neck as a trophy.” The last bit came out in a hysterical laugh.
He turned her back around, his big arms still controlling her, and placed her on one of his thighs. “Who is she? Why didn’t you heal?” Shifters healed from almost all wounds without a sign of injury unless silver was used, or the shifter was young.
Breezy looked into his blue eyes, the murderous intent clear. “My mother, and before you ask, I didn’t do anything to warrant them. I was a child, and if she was in a mood, I got a lashing. If she didn’t get her way, I got a lashing. If the wind blew wrong, I got…” He put his mouth over hers. Tears were tracking down her cheeks. The memories of all the times her mama would grab a switch, or a belt, or whatever she wanted to beat her with, flashed before her eyes.
Xan’s minty breath filled her. His tongue licked inside her mouth, coaxing hers into a dance she’d imagined a thousand times.
A knock sounded on the closed door, and Xan growled against her lips. “We’re fucking busy.”
“I don’t give a mother fuck. Get your ass out here. You best not be bumping uglies either, all the while I’m out here being a good guest and not drinking your best bourbon.” Kellen yelledthrough the door, banging again as his booted feet gave a solid kick against the door for good measure.
“We will put a pin in this convo and pick back up where we just left off.” Xan stood, placing her on the rug. “You’re gonna need another shirt. I hope Lyric didn’t like that one.” He smiled.
Breezy held the top in front of her. “I’ll replace it.” She couldn’t meet his eyes. God, she didn’t want to see his pity.
“You’re so damn beautiful. If I could, I’d tell Kellen to go fuck himself and rip every stitch of clothing from your body. Alas, he’d just barge in here, kick my ass, and then he’d see you naked. I’d then have to rip his eyes out, kick his ass, and then we’d start all over.” He shook his head.
Her mouth fell open. “Are you high, or just crazy?”
Xan looked puzzled. “Why? You think those little scars are ugly? Baby, those are nothing. They piss me off because someone dared to hurt you, but they don’t make you any less gorgeous.” He grabbed her hand and placed it over his dick. The large erection jumped under her fingers. “Believe me, I have wanted you for years, and seeing those faint silvery lines doesn’t change a damn thing.”
Those faint silvery lines he talked about were over a dozen that crisscrossed her back in no apparent pattern. Some had faded to nothing over the years, but the deeper ones had stayed even after all the shifting. She hated them and hated her mother. Her father didn’t have a clue what was happening to her until he came home early from work one afternoon, finding her stretched out on the picnic table with her back a bloody mess. Her mother stood over her with a willow branch in her hand, covered in blood. She’d told her father Breezy had run off into the woods and hidden without telling her where she was, hiding for hours and making her worried. When he’d knelt next to her, brushing her wet hair back from her face, she tried to lie and say her mother was being truthful. However, the pain was too immense.Usually, she’d had hours to heal before he’d seen her, and she hid the abuse, as her mama had told her. But this time she’d looked into his amber eyes, eyes just like her own, and couldn’t lie to him.
Her mama’s growl, the expected feel of the switch coming down on her already bloody back, never came. She’d closed her eyes and heard her father’s deeper growl, knowing he’d shifted. Although her mama was an alpha female, her father remained the alpha in their home. Her brothers had come home during the fight, but at seven, she wasn’t strong enough to get up off the wooden table yet. She was sure that if her dad hadn’t shown up, her mother would have killed her that day. Breezy still didn’t know what had set her off, or why she made her own mother hate her so. All she’d known was she’d come home from school with a smile on her face, which was quickly erased. The rest of the day was a blur as both her brothers tended to her injuries, and then it was just her, her dad, Shaw, and Parker. Her brothers were both a few years older than her and were identical twins.
The one thing that stood out in her memory, that she’d never told anyone else, was the hatred she had witnessed in the eyes of her mother when she stared at all three of them. However, she feared the twins for some reason. When they’d stood tall next to their dad as he’d tossed her luggage into the trunk of her car, Sandy Mattice had pointed at Breezy and said words that she still couldn’t remember after all these years. But her brothers had stepped in front of her, and their mother had looked away and jumped into her vehicle. That was over twenty years ago.
Talk about a screwed-up family. Or at least partly. Her father and brothers had done everything in their power to make her happy and feel loved. They did everything they could to give her a better life, going so far as to paint her room pink and letting her paint their nails. She laughed.
“What’s put that smile on your face?”
She told Xan, and he smiled. “I’ll have to give them both a raise.”
“I don’t want everyone to know about my scars. Nobody except my family and you, and the few doctors that I’ve had to see over the years, has seen them.”
His eyes narrowed. “I will know the entire story.”
“So bossy.”
“You better believe it. Now, let’s go before Kellen beats the door in, and then you know what will happen.”
She rolled her eyes but got up. He followed, taking his top off and putting it over her head, the ruined sweatshirt falling to the ground at her feet.
“Has anyone ever told you that you were a Neanderthal?”
“You better believe it where you’re concerned. Let’s go, or do I need to carry you? I believe if I go by your description, I would need to toss you over my shoulder.” He closed his eyes, then opened them. The blue replaced the brown. “I don’t think that would be too smart as it would put your ass and pussy too close to my face.”
