Double The Alpha: A Paranormal Menage Romance Read online

  With his fingers firm yet gentle, Ryan pried the candle from my hands. “Here. Let me help.” While I watched him silently, he took the candle over to the sink, where he turned on the hot water and just looked out the window while it warmed up. Once steam was coming off the water, he stuck one end of the candle beneath the flow for a few seconds, just long enough to heat up the wax and make it pliable, and then shut the water off before returning to me at the island. “Now, let’s see if we can slide it in.”

  Reading a bit of sexual innuendo in his comment, I just stood by, hot-faced, while he easily secured the candle in the holder by giving it a few gentle twists.

  “There we go. Just like that. See, sometimes, when you have an object that’s rock-hard, like a candle, you just have to work at things for a bit until you can easily slide it into the holder. Usually, it’s the holder that needs to be thoroughly warmed up first, but in this case, it was the candle itself.”

  Finding myself bizarrely tickled by his over-the-top, clear sexual innuendo, I suddenly laughed. “Are you trying to tell me that you feel like you need to go stick your dick under the faucet, Ryan?”

  Wincing a little, he broke into a smile at the same time. “Okay. Was all that a little too over-the-top?”

  I laughed again. “Yeah. Although I do like a little bit of dirty talk.”

  Shocked at myself, I couldn’t believe I’d just said what I had to a man I barely knew.

  With his full, delectable lips still twitching with amusement, Ryan just lifted his dark brows at me. “Oh, really? You like a bit of dirty talk?”

  Now deeply embarrassed, I grabbed the other candle and holder and began heading over to the sink. “Let’s just get this other one in its holder.”

  After we’d accomplished that task with less sexual innuendo, Ryan began helping me put away a collection of little bud vases that Jessie had brought me. After that, he helped me load my dinner dishes in the dishwasher, showing me how to program and start the dishwasher along the way. Once that was done, we just stood near the dishwasher, Ryan standing casually with a hip against it, and me just kind of standing awkwardly, trying not to think about the outline of his hard chest beneath his t-shirt, and trying not to think about how badly I wanted to run my hands over his muscles.

  With a hand propped against the countertop, he just surveyed my face, expression unreadable, before speaking. “Do you want to kiss me, Ellie? Because I really want to kiss you.”

  Screwing up my courage, I answered him with complete honesty. “I do want to kiss you…but I had lasagna and garlic bread for dinner, and I’m a little worried about my breath.”

  Ryan’s reaction was a loud, immediate chuckle, which brought a smile to my face in spite of my nerves.

  Once his laughter had subsided, he grabbed a piece of garlic bread from a plate of it that Alicia had left on the counter. “Here.” He proceeded to take a big bite of the bread, then chewed and swallowed quickly. “Now, we both have garlic breath. So, there’s nothing left to stop us from kissing.”

  With butterflies rioting in my stomach, I found myself unable to wipe the big smile off my face. “All right.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Beginning to feel a dull ache developing deep in my belly, I badly wanted to kiss Ryan and have him kiss me back, passionately. However, the very moment that he began leaning in, loud knocking sounded at the front door.

  With a quiet groan, he turned his face in that direction, frowning. “Who could that be?”

  Not having any clue, I shrugged. “The way they’re knocking, though, it sounds like somebody wanting something important.”

  Having only stopped for a few seconds, the knocking started back up again, and Ryan swore under his breath.

  “I’ll go see who it is.”

  It turned out to be a shifter named David, who’d been sent by Eric to summon Ryan. There was some kind of Creeper trouble at the north wall, David said, and all hands-on deck were needed.

  Ryan told David that he’d be right there. “Just give me one second.”

  David said okay and left, and Ryan closed the front door.

  “Now, where were we?”

  Surprised by his seeming lack of urgency, I sputtered for a moment. “Are you serious? I don’t think we have any time for kissing right now.”

  “Yes, we do.”

  Before I could protest further, Ryan pulled me into his arms and brought his mouth to mine. And within an instant, I began to feel that I was melting in the feel of his strong embrace. Making some soft sound of pleasure, I wrapped my arms around his neck, soon realizing that it had been far too long since I’d been kissed. It had been far too long since I’d had any kind of intimate attention from a man. Not only had I been single for the duration of the Chaos, but I’d been single for six months beforehand too. And now, my body seemed intent on reminding me of this, quickly responding to the length of Ryan’s long, hard body as he pressed it against me.

  When he intensified our kiss after a short while, probing my lips apart with his own, I moaned quietly, feeling the dull ache low in my belly developing into urgent need. Despite the fact that Ryan was practically a stranger, I suddenly wanted him to pull my clothes off and touch me all over, maybe even setting me down on the nearby couch to do so.

  However, to my extreme dismay, he soon broke our kiss, saying that he had to go. “Before I do, though….”

  With his eyes a bit glassy, he surveyed my face, and I wasn’t sure that he was going to finish his thought.

  “’Before I do’ what, Ryan? What do you want to do before you go?”

  After another moment spent just surveying my face, he finally spoke in a low, husky voice. “Before I do, I just want to see how hungry you are. I just want to see if I can feel it.”

  I asked him what he meant, and he moved his mouth to my ear and spoke in a husky near-whisper. “I want to touch your pussy and see if our kiss already made you wet.”

  A fluttery exhale of breath was my only response. Still holding me close in one arm, Ryan slid a hand down the front of the yoga pants I was wearing, bypassing my underwear as well along the way.

  Soon, with a sharp intake of breath, he was exploring my pussy lips, which were already slick by this point. “I thought you might be wet already, Ellie, because something just tells me you’re a very hungry girl.”

  I moaned in response, wanting him to continue on with his exploration, and he did, lightly running a finger between my slick lips.

  “Something just tells me that you’re a very naughty girl, too, Ellie. Are you?”

  Incredibly turned on, yet slightly embarrassed to answer his question at the same time, I said nothing, and he tried again.

  “Are you a naughty, horny girl, Ellie?”

  Still slightly embarrassed and uncertain if I could force myself to verbally respond, I hesitated. However, just then, while breathing heavily near my ear, Ryan found my clit and began slowly stroking it with a fingertip, making me cry out the word yes.

  In response, he gave my earlobe a little nibble, chuckling quietly. “Good. Now, I just want to leave you with this thought.” Pausing for a moment, he abandoned my clit and began slowly sliding two fingers in and out of my pussy, making me moan. “When I’m really turned on, I get rock-hard, although believe me, my cock is much thicker than those skinny little candles in the kitchen. So, if you like the feeling of having your pussy completely filled….”

  “Ryan, please just take me upstairs right now.”

  To my complete disappointment, a low chuckle and another brief nibble on my earlobe was the first part of his response before he said a quiet no. “Not yet. But soon. Because I think you’re the type of naughty, horny girl who badly needs to feel a big, hard cock sliding in and out of her pussy. I think you’re the type of naughty, horny girl that badly needs to cum.”

  Literally weak with desire to the point that I felt like my knees might give out beneath me, I could only whimper in response. Flicking his tongue across my earlobe,
Ryan slowly pulled his fingers from my pussy and gave my clit a few more light strokes before pulling his hand out of the front of my pants altogether, making me whimper again, this time in almost unbearable frustration.

  “Ryan….”

  “Soon, Ellie. Good things come to those who wait…and something just tells me that you might cum even harder with two strong alpha shifters in your bed instead of one.”

  As turned on as I was, the mere thought of that made me sigh with desire, slightly dizzy.

  With his voice low and husky, Ryan spoke again near my ear. “Eric and I both want you badly, you know. He’s made a few comments to me already that have made that perfectly clear; and as for me, I think my cock jumped a mile in my pants the first second I saw you. I want you so badly, in fact, that I’m more than fine with ‘sharing’ you with him…especially if being ‘shared’ might help you to cum the hardest you ever have in your life. I know I’d love to see that beautiful sight…you completely naked…sweaty. Crying out while being stuffed with a big, hard cock from behind while another man strokes your throbbing little clit with a fingertip.”

  Leaning into Ryan, I bit back a moan of desire. “Please just stay. Please just take me upstairs right now.”

  Just then, some commotion sounded from the street, in front of the house. It sounded like maybe a few men shouting.

  Clenching his jaw, Ryan glanced over at the front door before brushing a very quick kiss against my lips. “I’ve got to go. Sounds like maybe they’re calling for everyone to get a move on out there. Now, maybe you can head out to the kitchen and finish putting the rest of your things away or something while I, um…while I think some very non-sexual thoughts and collect myself, here, for a minute.”

  Pretty sure I knew what he meant, I looked down and saw that the front of his olive-green cargo pants was tented by what appeared to be a very large, very hard erection.

  Biting back a whimper of near-torturous desire, I gave him a kiss on the lips just as quick as the one he’d given me. “Please come back soon, when you can.”

  He said that he would, and I somehow forced myself away from him and dashed off toward the kitchen. Once there, out of his line of sight, I tried to slow my ragged breathing and busy myself with unpacking the rest of the items from the box that Jessie had left on the island. I’d put at least ten makeup items away in a cupboard half-filled with mugs before I realized that what I was doing wasn’t quite right.

  After redirecting my efforts to tidying up the island and putting away dinner, my thoughts turned to Ryan out in the foyer, and I wondered just how exactly he was causing his big erection to “deflate” out there. I imagined him taking deep breaths, thinking about baseball maybe or even things as horrible as Creepers and global destruction.

  Regardless of what he thought of or didn’t think of, it seemed to work after a minute or two, and I heard the front door close. Having a sudden thought, I dashed out to the foyer and looked through the clear glass panels on one side of the door just in time to see Ryan shift into his wolf form, which was what I’d hoped to catch a glimpse of. Enormous and majestic, with thick, dark gray fur, he quickly went from a trot to a full-out run, soon overtaking other wolves running in the street. Watching this display of alpha dominance, I sighed quietly, wondering just how long it might be before he returned.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Ryan didn’t return that evening, and Eric didn’t come home either. Around midnight, after doing some more unpacking, I went to bed in my own room, alone, with a distinct, frustrating sort of ache low in my stomach.

  The following morning, I woke up to a quiet house and thought that maybe Ryan and Eric had left for the day already, if they’d even been home in the first place. I was thinking this was the case, because I hadn’t been awoken in the night by the sound of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs or anything.

  However, after showering and dressing, I came downstairs to find Eric in the kitchen, cracking eggs in a pan. Even dressed in jeans, a t-shirt, and sock feet, he had a general look that was somehow commanding, maybe even regal. Maybe it was his posture, I thought, or his broad shoulders or his strong jaw.

  Maybe it was just something intangible that all alphas possessed inside. At any rate, whatever it was, it was something that seemed to draw me to Eric like a magnet, despite the fact that I was still a bit irritated with him for changing the terms of our deal. This wasn’t because I was necessarily displeased with the change, especially not after my encounter with Ryan the day before, but just because I felt like a sneaky little trick had been pulled on me.

  Seeming to be sizing each other up, Eric and I said good morning to each other a bit cheerlessly.

  He then gestured to a full coffeepot with steam still rising from the lid. “Go ahead and help yourself, if you’d like. There’s cream and sugar on the island.”

  The intoxicating aroma of the freshly-brewed coffee nearly made me swoon. A former coffee addict, I’d only had it sporadically during the Chaos, and even then, it had usually been of the instant variety.

  After helping myself to a cup with cream and sugar, I asked Eric if he needed any help cooking, and he said sure.

  “You can butter the toast if you want.”

  Not seeing any, I asked him what toast, and not a split-second later, four perfectly browned slices popped up from a toaster a few feet from the coffeemaker. For the first time, I saw Eric’s characteristically stern expression soften just slightly.

  With his lips twitching with clear amusement and his dark gray eyes sparkling in bright sunshine streaming in through the windows, he looked from me to the toaster and back again. “That toast. The butter dish is right beside it.”

  I went over to the toaster, and he asked me if I liked steak, scrambled eggs, and sliced tomatoes.

  “I’ll make enough for both of us if you do, and there’s plenty of toast for us both as well.”

  Like Ryan, he had a rich, deep voice that I found almost impossibly attractive. Thinking back to the day before, I wondered if Eric had a masculine, woodsy sort of scent like Ryan too. I also wondered if Eric had a penchant for dirty talking like Ryan obviously did.

  I told Eric that I’d love some steak, eggs, and tomatoes, and he got some leftover steak from the fridge, quickly sliced it up, and put it in a pan to heat. Once finished buttering the toast, I asked if he needed any more help, and he said no.

  “Just feel free to have a seat and enjoy your coffee if you’d like. I’ll have everything done in a minute.”

  While I sat up to the island with my coffee, it was kind of an awkward minute, because I found I couldn’t stop staring at Eric’s broad back, trim waist, and tight rear as he worked at the stove. Wondering where Ryan was and when he, Eric, and I might be able to spend some time all together, I began letting my mind wander, soon extremely hungry for something other than food.

  When Eric brought our plates over to the island and had a seat across from me, I felt an urgent need to speak and say something “normal,” as if to mask the dirty thoughts floating around my mind. So, I thanked him for the food and told him it looked delicious. Still seeming to have his guard up, Eric said I was very welcome and then fell silent again, using two slices of toast to make a steak, egg, and tomato sandwich. Just simply wanting something to do with my hands, I began doing the same, and Eric suddenly got up from his barstool.

  “Forgot our cheese.”

  I was beginning to wonder if our time in the kitchen together was going to be filled with anything other than small talk with long, slightly awkward stretches of silence in between. I was beginning to wonder if I even wanted anything from Eric other than that.

  After all, I didn’t completely trust him because of his changing of the deal, not that I completely trusted Ryan either, being that I’d just met him. With Ryan, though, I could at least see us having a relationship with some kind of warmth and affection present in it. With Eric, I just saw us having a relationship of quiet, endless civility, no matter how steamy thi
ngs in the bedroom eventually became. He was just beginning to strike me as a person who simply wasn’t very warm, maybe just because that’s how most alphas were. I had no idea.

  When he returned to the island with a plastic zip-top bag of sliced cheddar, I asked him if he was coming or going from the house.

  Having a seat on his barstool, he said he was just returning home from an overnight patrol shift. “Just to grab some food, a shower, and a little sleep, and then I’ll be heading back out again. I expect Ryan will soon be doing the same too.”

  Adding a slice of cheese to my sandwich, I asked him if whatever Creeper trouble that had been going on the day before had been resolved, and he said no, unfortunately.

  “We killed some of them and drove away others, but the biggest part of the swarm just migrated over to the west side of the wall. Later today, Ryan and I are going to take a team of our strongest fighters out to break up the swarm so that the wall doesn’t eventually collapse. It’s fine for right now, but it won’t be if the swarm gets any bigger.”

  “Well, let me know if you ever need any help from an orb-thrower. I’m pretty good at taking out Creepers from twenty or thirty feet away.”

  Eric thanked me for the offer, said he’d remember that, and then set to eating his sandwich, which was stuffed so full of food that the bites he had to take to eat it were downright wolf-like, I thought to myself.

  We both ate quietly, to the sound of loud birdsong coming in through the open window above the sink. After a minute or two of what felt to me like uncomfortable silence, despite the birdsong, I set my sandwich down and picked up my coffee mug, feeling the need to just say something, no matter what it was.

  “So, Tom told me that you were a sheriff’s deputy before the Chaos.”

  Lifting his sandwich to his mouth, Eric glanced at me for just the briefest of split-seconds. “Yes, that’s true.”

  He then took another enormous bite of his sandwich, indicating that he wasn’t going to say anything further. Two bites later, feeling a little miffed that he hadn’t asked me about my life before the Chaos, I piped up again.