Gifted - The 5 Book Paranormal Romance Box Set Read online

  So, feeling uncharacteristically bold, and also completely forgetting about dinner, and Elliot for that matter, I broke Cameron's and my kiss and looked into his eyes, a little breathless. "Touch me. Please."

  I couldn't even believe I'd actually said the words. With all previous boyfriends, I'd never really been one to speak up about exactly what I wanted and exactly when, but for some reason, Cameron made me feel unlike my self in a very good way.

  With a noticeable acceleration of his breathing telling me that my request had further turned him on, Cameron slowly moved one of his hands from the small of my back and slid it up the front of my dress, settling on my feminine mound, which was covered only by the sheer lace of my skimpy red underwear. Holding my gaze, he slowly began running a few firm fingers across the textured fabric, the action making my most intimate parts tingle.

  Leaning into his hand with my eyes half-closed, I spoke in a breathy near-whisper. "Yes. Yes, more, please."

  With a faint growl rumbling deep in his chest, he moved his fingers upward, then down the front of my underwear. After gently parting my now-slick feminine lips with a single finger, he located my most sensitive spot, which was now throbbing with need, and began stroking it every so slowly. Nearly melting beneath his touch, I buried my face in his muscular shoulder, stifling a cry of pure pleasure in the process. Catching a whiff of his scent, something woodsy and leathery, added to my pleasure, almost sending me over the edge right then.

  However, also right then, I heard sounds from the direction of the foyer, a muffled voice and a few barks, indicating that Sunny and Elliot were back inside.

  Not sure if they might come into the kitchen or not, I lifted my face from Cameron's shoulder and turned my gaze to the doorway. "Damn. I guess we should...."

  I'd been going to say cool things down, but Cameron had quickened his stroking of my throbbing spot, making me return my face to his shoulder, stifling a moan.

  In a low, husky voice, he spoke near my ear, his warm breath tickling my skin. "I want you to know, Jayme...I think you're the most gorgeous creature I've ever seen. I thought that the second I set eyes on you."

  With my face still against his shoulder, I sighed, now with my heart melting as well as my body. But then Sunny barked again, bringing me back to reality.

  I pulled my face from Cameron's shoulder, pulling my body away from his fingers as well, while I still had the strength and willpower to do so. "We should really stop. They could come in here...and I guess I don't care too much about Elliot, because he'll probably be a part of things later, but...."

  Cameron looked at me with his glassy gray eyes twinkling. "But you don't want your new dog to see you in an intimate situation?"

  I sighed, fighting a smile. "Yeah. There would just be something really weird about that."

  Appearing to be fighting a smile himself, Cameron said that was fair enough. "Let's just pour ourselves some wine, then."

  Before filling our glasses, he quickly washed his hands at the sink, which I appreciated. It may have been my own intimate parts that he'd been touching, but that still didn't mean that I wanted a possible trace of my own bodily fluids on my wineglass.

  It turned out that Elliot didn't even bring Sunny in the kitchen to say hello after all. When he strolled in the kitchen a minute or so after Cameron and I had started sipping our wine, he announced that Sunny was now happily curled up in his new dog bed, with his stuffed squeaker frog and his rawhide bone.

  "I shut the door, too, so he'll probably just go right to sleep in there." Coming to a stop a few feet from Cameron and me, Elliot suddenly frowned. "Hey...the two of you started without me, huh?"

  My first thought was to wonder just how in the hell he knew that Cameron and I had been fooling around while he'd been gone. I even quickly swept my hand over the front of my sundress to make sure that it hadn't become tucked in to the front of my underwear or anything. It hadn't, and that's when I suddenly realized what Elliot was talking about. Cameron and I had started drinking without him. Of course. I felt like I'd made a pretty dumb assumption at first, although as jumbled was my brain still was from Cameron's kisses and caresses, I could hardly blame myself.

  After managing a smile, I told Elliot I'd pour a glass of wine for him. "If you forgive us for starting without you."

  With a smile playing around the edges of his mouth, Elliot sighed. "Well...I guess so, since I was asked by such a beautiful woman. You look absolutely stunning, by the way. The color of your dress brings out the honey tones in your beautiful brown eyes."

  I thanked him with a little thrill rippling through me, from his compliments and also from looking at him. He was just so damned handsome, and I was still so sexually excited from Cameron's kisses and touching. Honestly, I hadn't been too far away from a climax at all when we'd been interrupted. And though my excitement had ebbed slightly, it was nowhere even remotely near gone, and I knew that the frustrating ache low in my belly would remain until I received complete satisfaction. Which meant that dinner with my two wolf shifter alphas was sure to be a torture.

  *

  It crossed my mind to tell Cameron and Elliot to just screw dinner and just go ahead and carry me into my bedroom. However, I was aware that they'd both just come in from a long day of running patrols and dealing with Angel wolf issues, and I knew they were probably starving. So, once I'd poured Elliot's wine, I asked them if they were both ready to eat; they both said yes and we carried the different dishes of food to the table.

  Elliot took a seat at the head of the table, just by luck of getting there first, it seemed, since Cameron was occupied with pulling out my chair. Maybe they had some kind of a trade-off system, I thought, though by the way Elliot had kind of hurried into the seat, something told me they didn't. This made me wonder how they did things being co-alphas of their wolf pack. From what I'd seen of them so far, just their interactions in the house, they didn't exactly strike me as clear rivals, though they didn't exactly strike me as good friends, either. I knew that one or both of them probably resented sharing power, and one of them was keeping a secret, having pledged his allegiance to the Angels.

  That was really beginning to bother me. Specifically, it was bothering me that one of the two alphas wasn't jumping out at me as the turncoat. I supposed I thought it would be obvious somehow, that one of them would come off as surly and cruel, indicating a dark heart that had led him to switch sides, going against his own country.

  I couldn't deny that Cameron and Elliot had both struck me as genuine men initially, and they still did. Elliot especially struck me as the kind of man who was generally an open book with nothing to hide. Cameron, however, sometimes made me think he was possibly holding something back, though what that something could be, I had no clue. Possible involvement with the Angels seemed the likeliest, though that just didn't fit, didn't feel right to me. But then again, at this point, I couldn't picture Elliot working with the Angels, either.

  I knew I really hadn't spent enough time with them yet, and that illumination would probably come once I did. However, while we began eating, it crossed my mind that maybe the government was wrong about one of them being a traitor. After all, the government's information sources couldn't possibly be infallible, and reports could contain lots of missing information and context. For the first time, I dared to hope that maybe there had been some sort of a mistake made. Maybe both of the men I was planning on sleeping with were the quality men I thought them to be.

  After several large bites of his food, Cameron told me that my cooking was delicious. "The best orange chicken I've ever had in my life, actually. Phenomenal."

  Once he'd quickly swallowed an enormous bite, Elliot piped up as well. "I agree. You're an amazing cook, Jayme."

  Sure I was beaming ear-to-ear, I thanked them both, then started trying to make headway on my own food, though I was finding it incredibly difficult. Cameron's earlier attention had made my nipples stiffen, and now they didn't want to seem to un-stiffen, making t
hem feel uncomfortable in a strange, sort-of-pleasurable, sort-of-frustrating kind of way just to be pressed against the lacy restraint of my sheer red bra. Also, just the act of sitting in my seat was causing me some frustration as well. With the little bud between my slick feminine lips still tingling and throbbing, I couldn't seem to find the right sitting position, as absurd as that seemed, to not be able to find the right position to sit in a chair. I couldn't help it, though, and every time I happened to glance at Cameron or Elliot, with both of them looking so unbelievably handsome in their crisp dress shirts, I felt further uncomfortable, having to resist the urge to squirm.

  Food was really the last possible thing on my mind. However, while Elliot talked about a small fight the elite members of the pack had had against two red-eyes and an Angel about five miles north of the village that day, I did manage to eat a spring roll, several pieces of orange chicken, and a little bit of vegetables and rice, though without really tasting much of it. I just didn't want to look conspicuous not eating and have Cameron or Elliot ask me what the trouble was. The truth was that the "trouble" wouldn't make for very polite table conversation.

  Though he was managing to tuck away a lot more food than I was, Cameron seemed to possibly be experiencing some trouble of his own. He seemed kind of distracted, eyes clearly glazing over while Elliot went on about the day's fight. While he'd been touching me, the front of our bodies had still been pressed together, and I'd felt that he was becoming very hard.

  Then, while we'd been sipping our wine, just talking about mundane things, before Elliot had come in, I'd seen that his manhood was kind of tenting the front of his black dress pants, though not in a super obvious way. But still, just enough that I noticed; enough that I knew he'd been enjoying our activity as much as I had been. And now, it seemed that he was also having difficulty moving on without having experienced release.

  Elliot, however, was just fine, pouring a second glass of wine for himself, finally switching gears from that day's fight to ask me how the coffee house meeting had gone.

  Glad for the opportunity to distract myself from my uncomfortable arousal, I told him it went really well. "A lot better than I thought it would, actually. Every single Gifted in the village showed up, and many of them agreed to start going to regular practice sessions. I have a feeling it's going to be kind of a domino affect...."

  I paused, looking up from my plate to survey both of the alpha's faces as I said my next words.

  "I think that once a few dozen Gifteds...no matter their ability levels...really get on board with fighting against the Angels...well, then I think it'll just be a matter of time before Haverwood is the strongest of all the defense posts keeping northern Indiana safe. And then, with all us Gifteds and shifters working together...maybe someday the area can finally be rid of all the Angels and their wolves. Maybe someday they'll all be dead, or they'll just move on, knowing that they'll never take Indiana, and knowing that they've been beaten."

  Loading his fork with rice and vegetables, Cameron was the first to respond. "We can hope."

  Cutting a large piece of chicken in half, Elliot nodded, making his thick, dark hair glint in the light from the amber-colored Tiffany lamp above the table. "We can only hope and pray. I dream of an Indiana free from the enemy and the shifters they enlist to help them. I want kids someday...lots of them...and I don't want them to have to grow up in fear of an enemy taking their land and freedom away from them." After spearing a piece of chicken with his fork, he glanced up at me. "We have to make sure Indiana is indisputably claimed for our side...the side that will be victorious when all is said and done."

  Changing the subject to the Gifted meeting had helped distract me from my frustrating arousal, but at the same time, it had left me with more questions than answers, in regards to who was the traitor in my midst. Cameron hadn't said much in response to what I'd said about the Angels, and Elliot had. However, I'd noticed that in all that he'd said, he hadn't specifically mentioned the Angels even once. He'd just referred to the "enemy," which I thought was strange. As if he couldn't directly say that he was against the Angels, because he wasn't. Although, I reasoned, he'd been battling them several years longer than I had been, and maybe he was sick of mentioning them by name. Maybe he was just plain sick of them being his daily fear for his future children.

  I'd noticed that, too, his saying that he wanted lots of children. That had particularly jumped out at me, because I was beginning to think that I wanted lots of children, too. At the Gifted meeting, I'd learned that three of my fellow Gifteds were already pregnant, and I'd felt happiness upon hearing this news, but also a few pangs of envy. Honestly, despite the frequent Angel wolf attacks and the danger that came along with them, Haverwood seemed like an ideal place to raise children. It was a place where a child could grow up within a tight-knit community of all sorts of different people, from all different backgrounds, who were all focused on the same goal. It was a place where a child could grow up in the midst of natural wonder and beautiful woodland, all while having access to other towns and larger cities within an hour's drive. It was a place where a child of mine, or several children of mine, could grow up amidst people fighting for a just cause that I was an important part of.

  In response to what Elliot had said, I nodded, cutting a piece of chicken that I already felt far too full to eat. "I couldn't agree more. We have to keep Indiana free. It's what my father fought for and died for, and when I discovered that I'm a Gifted, I knew I wanted to take up his cause. It's important to me."

  Glancing up at me, Elliot said Amen. Cameron said nothing. Not quite sure what to think about that, I studied his face briefly before going back to my chicken.

  Soon the three of us had finished eating, and quiet descended over the table. Earlier, in the kitchen with Cameron, my nervousness had completely disappeared, but now the awkwardness of the silence made it return just a bit; though at the same time, I was still hungry for lovemaking, borderline desperate, even. All my shifting and squirming in my chair during dinner, along with glances at my two incredibly handsome companions, had done nothing to tamp down my desire, and actually, those things had maybe even increased it. I wasn't sure how to move forward in getting what I wanted, though. Just blurting out that we should all head down to my bedroom now seemed a little abrupt.

  However, mercifully, it turned out that I didn't have to say anything to set things in motion.

  After a few seconds of silence had passed, Elliot looked at me with his green eyes twinkling, and his face bathed in peachy-golden early evening sun slanting in through the windows.

  "Come sit on my lap."

  CHAPTER NINE

  For some reason, Elliot's request thoroughly amused me, and I laughed. "You want me to what?"

  With his eyes still twinkling, he fought a grin. "You heard me. Come sit on my lap. I want to thank you for the delicious dinner."

  "And how are you going to do that?"

  "You're going to have to find out."

  Fighting a grin myself, I got up from my seat, gasping a split-second later when Elliot immediately hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me onto his lap in one smooth, seemingly effortless motion, displaying his shifter strength. As startled as I was, though, my gasp turned into laughter, joined by a few chuckles from Elliot.

  My nerves were now completely gone again, and my desire had only increased. Something about Elliot just grabbing me like he'd done had been a complete turn-on for me, not that I even needed to be turned on any further. His hard, muscular thighs also felt incredible beneath my seat, and his arms, which he'd wrapped around me tightly, felt incredible as well.

  Once I'd stopped laughing, I asked him how he planned to thank me for dinner. "Now that I'm on your lap, I hope you actually have a plan."

  Whatever it was, I hoped it involved kissing and touching.

  With his green eyes now glinting gold in the fading sunlight, he said that he did of course have a plan. "First, I'm going to plant a line of kisses a
long your exquisite collarbone, then I'm going to trail the kisses up your soft, delicate throat. Then, if you find that you like my kisses, maybe you'll let me kiss your sweet pink mouth."

  All that sounded just great to me.

  "Well, what are you waiting for? I think my collarbone needs some attention right away."

  After gently tipping my head back, he got right to it, planting a long, slow row of kisses across my collarbone with his mouth firm and warm. Tipping my head back further, I sighed with pleasure, though not just from the feel of what Elliot was doing. I was also getting pleasure just from knowing that Cameron was watching the scene, probably just as achingly frustrated as I'd become.

  When Elliot brought his kisses up to my throat, I began imagining how hard Cameron might be and what his hard shaft might look like. Earlier, when he'd become hard in the kitchen, I'd been able to feel that he was large, maybe even very large; which was exactly what I was becoming desperate for at the moment.

  Seeming to read my mind, Elliot paused in his kissing of my throat to shift my position on his lap, pulling me up closer to his groin. That's when I felt that he was very large, and nearly hard as a rock already, from what it felt like. Biting back a moan, I squirmed, kind of hiking my leg up against his chiseled abs in an attempt to get his hardness closer to my slick femininity.

  With a low growl rumbling in his chest, he resumed kissing me, now on my mouth. At the same time, he slid a hand up my dress and began kneading and caressing my thighs with a strong, long-fingered hand. Unable to wait any longer to be touched exactly where I needed to be touched most, I gently took his hand and moved it to the front of my lacy underwear, and, immediately taking the hint, he slowly pulled them down a bit, then began exploring my slick lips, still plundering my mouth with his tongue all the while.

  When he located and began lightly stroking my most sensitive spot, which was now tingling and throbbing on a level to nearly drive me insane, I moaned into his mouth, twining my tongue with his. Soon, reveling in the rapturous feel of being kissed and stroked at once, I did something else, something that ordinarily might have shocked me in its boldness, but at the moment, I didn't care. I was just doing what felt good, and what I knew would increase my pleasure even further.