A. Arthur - Part of Me

I gave him my brightest smile and waved over my shoulder without looking back at Brayden or his arm candy.

“So that was your ex?” Daniel asked when we’d pulled up in front of my dorm.

“What? Oh, no, Brayden’s not my ex. He’s a friend. A really close family friend that tends to act a little overprotective at times. I’m sorry he interrupted,” I said, all the while unbuckling my seat belt and reaching for the door latch so I could get out of the car.

My body was in overdrive, heat soaring throughout my limbs, the feeling of something rolling around beneath my skin, and the scents, they were conflicting and annoying and I really needed to be by myself so I could get it together. Everything had intensified the moment we entered O’Shea’s. Alarm had attempted to penetrate and when Brayden appeared a totally different bout of confusion had erupted.

“Because he seemed like he was kind of mad that we were together, in the bar, and that I was buying you a drink,” Daniel said slowly, like he wanted to make sure I was hearing him.

If he only knew there was nothing wrong with my hearing, or smelling, or sight, or any of my senses. In fact, they were all ranked above average, courtesy of my shifter DNA. That and the heightened sex drive that I swear was starting to beat me over the head like a jackhammer.

“Well, I just don’t want to encroach on someone else’s territory,” he was saying.

His voice was going in and out because there were so many other things running through my mind, like the fact that despite all the other scents in the whole goddamned world, I couldn’t get Brayden’s out of my head. It was a basic scent, if you came from the Gungi like we did. Earthy and manly, fresh and damned enticing.

I jumped when Daniel touched the back of my neck.

“Relax,” he said, leaning over the console, bringing his face closer to mine by way of guiding my neck.

I went with it because this was the end of our date and the Olive Garden had been sweet and nice. I inhaled deeply knowing the infamous good-night kiss was coming and decided it might not be such a bad idea. Maybe if Daniel kissed me the other two kisses I’d had recently would be washed from my memory.

“Right, I’ll just relax,” I whispered against his lips.

My eyes closed because I think I may have threatened them and my lips parted because Daniel’s were parted when they touched them. So the first kiss was moist but a little off, as I didn’t feel any stir of emotion. Daniel held my neck a little tighter and came closer once more. This time his tongue was out for greeting, barging in without an invite. I accepted and waited. I didn’t gag like I wanted and I didn’t push him away because I needed this to get better. I really, really needed kissing Daniel of the nice Olive Garden date, to get better. Please.

It didn’t.

The scent, however, intensified, to the extent I would have sworn that Brayden was in this car with us. He wasn’t, thank God, but still. So I did push Daniel away this time. I shook my head and was about to say something but thought my actions might speak a bit louder. I was out of the car in the next five seconds, running up the front steps of the dorm like a scared kid. Once inside and the security door closed behind me, the cursing began.

I wasn’t a scared kid. I wasn’t a coward. And I damn sure wasn’t a prude. I’d had sex and been kissed before so going on a date and doing the good-night-kiss thing was not new to me. And it shouldn’t have been awkward with a guy I’d met months ago. But it was and I was so pissed I pushed past whoever the girls were standing near the elevators but not stepping inside when the door opened.

I went into my room yanking my jacket off, tossing it on the floor somewhere in the vicinity of the coatrack. Then I plopped onto my bed, stomach first, and when Cora sat up and looked like she was going to say something, I flipped her the finger and dared her to speak one freakin’ word!

Brayden

Kyra straddled me in the truck. The steering wheel was most likely biting into her ass, but she didn’t seem to mind as she pressed her crotch closer to my totally uninterested dick.

“God, I wanted you all night,” she was saying, her hands rubbing down the back of my head then going to her blouse. “Didn’t you want me?”

So, I’m a guy, I breathe in and out, I get up every morning to a hard-on that I have to wish away so I can take a piss. I’m also a Shadow Shifter, which basically means all these male human hormones are magnified by maybe a trillion. All this adds up to me being ready to fuck at the drop of a dime.

Normally.

Tonight, even though Kyra was wearing the shortest skirt ever and no panties and was at this very moment unbuttoning her blouse, showing me her melon-sized tits that all but fell out of her bra, I was barely getting aroused. I mean, I saw what was before me, scented the smell of aroused female, and now that she’d flipped down the front of her bra, saw the blushing pink nipples of her breasts, all receiving a lukewarm reception on my part.

“Yeah, I wanted you too,” I said although the words didn’t actually ring true. The reality was Lidia didn’t want me in her life, at least not in that way. At least not tonight.

She was content with us being friends but nothing more. She wanted a life in the human world while I had my feet firmly planted in the shifter world. Could I have gotten it wrong all along? Could my habit of knowing everything, as my brothers always accused, have been out of context all along? I didn’t believe so and yet, look where I was and who I was with.

“Then kiss me, babe. Kiss me and touch me and make me feel good,” Kyra continued.

Yeah, that’s what I needed to do. I needed to touch, to feel, to forget, and so I did. I cupped her breasts, letting the soft feel of flesh send false signs of contentment to my mind. I leaned forward and kissed her, mainly to keep her from talking again because I was tired of her high-pitched voice. Her tongue did the dance with mine and I tried like hell to keep my eyes closed but they wouldn’t listen to reason.

I opened them to see Kyra’s face, her eyes closed, head moving with the sounds she made as the kiss continued.

“Come on, Bray, I can’t wait. I need you inside me now,” she insisted, taking her mouth away from mine. “I need to finish this.”

I moved a hand down the flat skin of her stomach and farther until it was under her skirt, feeling the moistness of her pussy. She was so ready and hey, what do you know, my guy had decided to at least wake up. So the kiss deepened and one of her hands slipped between us to unzip my pants. This was going to happen. I was going to fuck her right here in the parking lot of O’Shea’s Bar & Grille and dammit I was going to enjoy it. I had to or risk losing my mind over the female I really wanted. So yes, I was doing this, right here and right fucking now, I was doing this with Kyra.

Then I made a mistake.

I inhaled deeply as my tongue scraped along the line of her jaw and dammit, just like that, it was done. I jerked back like Kyra had slapped me instead of running her fingers over the tip of my now freed cock.

“You like that, huh?” she asked playfully. “Well, let me show you what else I can do,” she continued, pulling on my erection, trying to get it into her hot little core as fast as she could. “Let me show you why they sent me.”

My teeth clenched as my hands fastened on her waist. In the next instant I’d lifted her off my lap and set her on the passenger seat. Stunned silence filled the cab of the truck just before the undeniable click of the locks disengaging.

“Not tonight,” I told her without even looking her way, without giving a second thought to the things she’d said.