Matt's Game (Shifter Fever Book 3) Read online

  Inka shifted in his arms and reached for the bar soap on the porcelain ledge. She shoved it between their two stomachs.

  “That’s the best I can do.”

  He laughed again. And this one was heartier and louder. The bath was fortifying him. “Are you this tired because of what we just did? Or did you not have dinner?”

  She lifted her head and grinned. “I think it’s cuz of the forty thousand orgasms. But you never know, I did only have one dinner.”

  “Let’s get washed up and then fix that, Mariposa. I have some pizza in the fridge.”

  That got her going. Inka grabbed the loofah off the rug and thoroughly sudsed them both down. It was a true testament to what they’d just done that neither of them rose up for round two. The sex they’d just had had pretty much been round 1-8 all rolled into one.

  They made their way to the kitchen, stark naked and still warm as hell from the bath. Inka knew she didn’t have to lean across the counter to give Matt bites of her pizza. But hell, it was the little pleasures in life that were so worth chasing.

  Matt, knowing her, knew that the bites of her food she was sharing were tantamount to a bouquet of flowers or a love note. He didn’t quite get a bite for every one of hers. But it was close.

  When they’d polished off the pizza and a glass of OJ each, Matt came around the corner of the counter and fully leaned into her.

  “You got a toothbrush in that bag?” He nodded toward the overnight bag that sat in the corner.

  She nodded.

  “Good,” he dropped his head for a kiss, tasted pizza and orange juice and it made him smile. “Because I want you to sleep over.”

  “Alright!” she grinned up at him.

  “In my bed.”

  Her smile fell just a little bit. “Sometimes I have nightmares in a bed.”

  “Sometimes you have nightmares on the couch, too.”

  Well that was true. “But…”

  “Inks,” he cut in when she trailed off. “Nightmares suck. I definitely don’t want you to have one. But if you do have one, I’ll wake up and roll over and do this.”

  He bent down, tossed a hand around her chest, and nestled his nose into her ear, breathing as loud as she had before.

  She smiled, twisting her head around and knocking his nose with hers. “What if it’s really bad and I scream?”

  “Well, then I’ll do this until you feel better.”

  He kissed her sweetly, with a minimum of heat. Just enough lip to tell her he was there. That he wasn’t going anywhere.

  “And in the morning,” he continued. “I’ll make you breakfast.”

  Inka scratched at her head for a minute and then gave up, tossing her hands in the air. “Alright, let’s give it a shot.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Turns out that sleeping in the bed went so well that they did it again the next night. She was a bed hog. And Matt could only shake his head when, on Tuesday morning, he woke up shivering in his own bed, with one leg off the mattress so he wouldn’t fall. Inka, meanwhile, was sprawled like a princess, the blanket and the sheet completely cocooned around her.

  He stretched, staying where he was. He wasn’t usually this early of a riser, but he knew Inka was. She’d be stirring any second. And then she’d come fully awake and realize that she’d basically shoved him straight out of bed again. He wondered if she’d apologize the same way she had yesterday morning. All sleepy smiles and covers over top of them, she’d taken him in and set them both up for a really great day.

  And just like that, Matt’s morning wood went from persistent to raging. He let out a long breath and tapped his knuckles against his sternum. He fought the urge to clear his throat. He was a scientist. He knew all about hormones and pheromones and the urge to mate. He knew all the ways your body tricked you into getting closer to a new person.

  He’d agreed to do what his mother had asked. To at least look for a woman to spend his life with. But as Matt looked over at sleeping Inka, with her hair in a rat’s nest and all wrapped up in his blankets, he had to admit to himself that he never actually thought he’d find one.

  Forever was a sweet thought, he’d always felt that way. But it was a fiction. Something that people who were scared of being lonely told themselves when they met someone who made them less lonely. Humans didn’t mate for life. Some animals did. Their brains were built that way. They’d evolved into it because nature had determined they had a better chance at survival in a pair than on their own. Simple as that. People looked at swans and saw romance. Matt looked at swans and saw evolution.

  Simple as that.

  He tapped his fingers on his chest again.

  Simple as that.

  He groaned and rolled out of bed. Who was he trying to kid?

  He didn’t look into the bedroom after he’d brushed his teeth and passed by on his way to the kitchen. He didn’t need to look in there when he already knew his heart was going to stall the second he saw that curvy blonde weirdo dominating his bed.

  He put water on to boil for coffee and grabbed eggs out of the refrigerator. He wasn’t freaking out. No. He was just surprised at the intensity of his own feelings. As a scientist, he’d always considered himself to be fairly levelheaded when it came to matters of the heart. He’d been interested in women, of course, and he’d had some really great times with them. But he’d always kept his head on straight. Because he was a logical, rational man.

  Matt lowered his head to the counter as he waited for the water to boil. What an idiot he’d been.

  He could see now that he’d never been smarter than love. He’d just never been in love before.

  Because that was obviously what this feeling was. Not the lust. Not the curiosity. Not the thrill. But the low level, full-bodied rightness that had fallen right over him after he’d told her he had feelings for her. He–he couldn’t explain it. And that irritated him. But he was smart enough to let the feelings come. There was no use fighting his own heart. Especially not when it had a cat sweatshirt and messy hair and said all the sweetest, weirdest stuff. Yeah. That was like trying to stop a tidal wave with his bare hands. All he could really do was bring the surfboard and hope for the best.

  He jumped a little when two warm hands slid around his stomach and her smooth cheek pressed against his back.

  “I did it again.” He could hear the frown in her voice. “I hogged the whole bed.”

  “Está bien, mariposa.”

  “No, it’s not okay. Because I got all hoggy and then you had such a bad night’s sleep you had to come out here and lay your forehead down on the counter. And so here’s my idea. Milla has a camping sleeping bag and tonight, you’re just going to zip me all the way up in it so that I can’t steal the covers and whenever I roll over just roll me right back.”

  Matt laughed and turned in the circle of her arms. She’d teased the rat’s nest into a bun that tilted to the side and slid into his old Northwestern sweatshirt. His largest, knobbiest, ugliest wool socks were currently pulled all the way up to her knees. And her green greens were sleepy and wide all at once.

  How could softness be so piercing at the same time?

  “I wasn’t laying my head on the counter because I slept poorly. Actually I slept really well.” He traced both of her ears under his thumbs and then let his hands slowly slick down her body. If she hadn’t been in his arms he would have been drawing a perfect hourglass.

  “Then why?”

  He reached back and pulled the boiling water off the stove, poured it into the coffee press. He dragged out a bowl to scramble the eggs in.

  “Because I was overwhelmed.”

  She stepped up to the counter and started cracking eggs into the bowl. She used twice as many as Matt would have, but hey, this was Inka. “Because of work?”

  “Because of you.”

  She frowned again before she attempted to turn it into a little smile. It damn near broke his heart. “I hear that a lot actually. People back home, not my family, but the
people in our town, have no idea what to do with me. It’s never bothered me that much, I guess. But if I’m doing something that’s too much, or annoying, you can tell me—mmmf.”

  She cut off when Matt pulled her around and lowered his mouth to hers. “God, no. That’s not what I was saying at all.” He kissed her again for good measure. “You don’t annoy me, Inks. You thrill me. Delight me. Make me want.” More kisses until he decided to hell with it and just lifted her to the counter. “And I’m not used to any of that. Shit. I’m barely used to not being lonely all the time.”

  “You were lonely before me?” Her legs clasped around his waist and she grabbed onto his shoulders.

  “I don’t know if I even realized it. But I think I was desperately lonely before you. And then I met you and it was like. Wow. Just wow.”

  “That’s how I feel, too!” She was practically vibrating with happiness. “Wow. The perfect word for it.”

  She tugged him a little closer and Matt grunted when her bare pussy pressed against his lower stomach. He’d come to discover that she didn’t sleep in any underwear.

  The discovery was too much for just his belly to enjoy. Matt slipped one of his hands up from her ankle to her thigh. When he found her where she needed him most, he didn’t waste any time. Matt plunged his middle finger into her as deep as he could go.

  “More,” she whispered, her head falling back, the sweatshirt swallowing her up.

  Matt reached forward with his free hand and yanked the clothing off of her so that she was naked on the counter, just socks on. But he kinda liked that.

  He swirled his finger inside her, slow and thorough.

  “Fast, Matt. I want fast everything,” she whispered against his lips.

  “Anything,” he told her and he realized how true it was. “I would give you absolutely anything.”

  They grappled with one another. Sweaty and slipping, she pushed his pajama pants down few inches, popped his cock free.

  She was strong and fast, and Matt had barely registered that she was moving before she was on her knees in front of him, shoving him a foot or two back from the counter.

  His hands fisted on the countertop as Inka kissed the head of his cock. Her eyes found his and she kissed at him again. This time there was just the hint of tongue and Matt groaned, widening his stance. He tried to hold still, to give her all the time she wanted to explore him, but it was excruciatingly pleasurable.

  He bared his teeth and breathed hard when her tongue painted a meandering trail down the vein pulsing along the side. She kissed her way back up and sucked in just the head. She popped it out of her mouth and nudged him with her nose, rubbed her cheek along the length of him.

  He’d never been loved like this before. He’d had okay head and good head, fast head and slow head. But never like this. She was winding him up, pulling him under, ravishing him in that loose, free-spirited way of hers and it was driving him insane. One of her hands tugged and massaged him underneath while she did everything, literally everything, besides swallow him down. He held perfectly, painfully still, and felt like he was watching a shooting star slow-burn across the night sky. A lunar eclipse. A glimpse of a rare and exotic bird. Watching her go down on him was like seeing a flower bloom before his very eyes.

  And then, when he thought he might pass out, when his left knee shook under the pressure of it all, she took him in. In one, perfect swallow, Inka took him all the way to the back of her throat. And then with a lazy swallow, she took him down even further.

  “Fuck,” Matt growled, involuntarily jutting forward just a touch. She came up off him a little, but not much, before she was swallowing him again, her hand working and working him underneath. His life passed before his eyes while she sucked him down. He wasn’t going to last much longer, not under these circumstances. Unwilling to shoot before she did, he performed the Herculean task of pulling out of her mouth.

  “Jesus, fuck,” he stumbled backwards, his eyes seeing spots. “What the hell did you just do to me?”

  She grinned happily, sexily, from where she still knelt on the floor. And Matt lost it. He picked her up by the shoulders, spun her around and planted her hands on the counter.

  Inka pushed her ass toward him and shivered when his tongue licked over her earlobe. Their heavy breaths dissolved into a cloud of cursing revelry when he pushed inside her. Vaguely, he was aware that he was fucking her, again, without a condom, but her ass was pressed against him and he could barely think straight.

  “Condom, baby,” was the best he could do.

  “Who cares,” she groaned and pushed back on him.

  It was dumb as hell, but he couldn’t care less. Come what may with Inka. He knew where he stood. And it was alongside her, for as long as she would let him. He surged into her, losing himself in the plush heaven of her hips.

  He ran a hand up the curve of her back and pumped himself into her. Matt dropped one hand in between her legs and played with her, squeezing his eyes shut when she tightened in response. He worked her clit in tight circles that in no way corresponded with his strokes into her and it wasn’t long before she was calling his name.

  When he was certain she was almost there, her tightening, shivering body telling him so, she reached back and grabbed his free hand. Matt grunted when she dropped his hand into her hair and showed him exactly how hard to tug. Just enough to have her head tipping back toward him. He grunted again and nearly lost it.

  She put her hands back on the counter and Matt did exactly like she’d asked him. He gave her hair a tug and she moaned. Hard. The movement arched her back even harder and Matt hissed air through his teeth.

  He said words that he’d never remember. He wasn’t sure if they were English or Spanish. He yanked her hair again and this time she went off. She moaned long and low, her hands in fists and her feet all the way up on her toes. Her pussy clamped and clamped around him as he rode her through it. The second her body went loose, Matt pulled out of her and jerked himself against her back, his body tensing and spiraling and coming everywhere. He was all over her back in lines and puddles and most of it pooled into the ravine of her spine.

  She shivered under it. “Oh, Matt,” she whispered, looking over her shoulder as he continued to tremble and huff.

  Matt lunged forward, flipping her around and popping her back onto the counter, facing him and spread.

  He was the one on his knees then, spreading her open with his fingers and being very okay with the fact that they were both going to be late for work.

  ***

  Inka had an especially good day. She was making all the clients laugh and blush and she’d already sold twice as much lingerie as she usually did. She hummed a song with no tune as she unpacked a new shipment. She loved the softness of each item, the bright colors. She definitely felt that lingerie had more potential than any other kind of clothing. Other than maybe prom dresses.

  She was just setting out some sets of lavender netted teddies when the door to the shop slammed open and someone hit his head on the low hanging bell. She was grinning before she even saw him.

  “Inka!” Excitement was written all over Matt’s face as he skidded to a stop in front of her. His hair was wind tousled, his coat unbuttoned, he had a grease smear across his white T-shirt and he wore her gray, knitted mittens. He opened his mouth, about to tell her what he’d sprinted over here to tell her, when his eyes dropped to the lingerie in her hands. His face got smoky and distracted. He pointed. “Yes. To whatever the hell that is. Yes.”

  She laughed and tossed it down onto the display table. “I already bought one. Something about it just seemed so… hopeful,” she decided.

  “Hopeful isn’t exactly the word I would use to describe that sex thingy but sure. I guess I can see that.”

  She folded the next one. “Is that what you ran over here to talk about? Sex thingies?”

  “Right! God. No, Inka, you’ll never guess.”

  “What?” She’d never seen him quite like this befo
re. With his hair sticking everywhere and his mittens on her shoulders, he looked just like that 13-year-old boy in Galicia, feverishly writing observations in a drugstore notebook.

  “It works. The frequency tool. I fine-tuned some parts of it and gave three different trial runs. Three! And all three times it worked. The computer program picked up the perfect frequency, but I didn’t even notice. I wasn’t even looking at the screen because I created one. A real one. Right there in my apartment.”

  “A what?” Her blood had run cold.

  “A window! Just like I told you about. There it was. The edges and everything. And it was just like I remembered. It was just the sky on the other side of the window, I assume, because I was in a high-rise that doesn’t correspond in the other world. But Inka, you should have seen it. It was incredible! Inka? Inka!”

  His arms came around her waist and he lifted her right up off the floor. Inka could hear her manager calling her name and in less than five seconds, Matt had her lying on the floor of the back room, shoving a glass of water into her hands.

  “Are you alright? What is it?”

  “Is it still open?” She knew her fingers must be hurting his arm where she clutched him but she couldn’t help it.

  “What?”

  “The window. Is it still open?”

  He shook his head as if he were desperately trying to understand. “No. I closed it. The frequency tool can open and close. I closed it.”

  “Are you positive?”

  “Yes.” He held her eyes with his and Inka felt some of her raw, pumping fear slip away. “Inka, what the hell is going on?”

  She sat up and gulped the water glass dry. She shoved it back into his hand and half a second later he was back at her side with more. She gulped that, too. Her forehead hit her knees as she curled up, her hands over the back of her head. “Oh God. I have so much to tell you, Matty.”

  “I’m listening.”

  She lifted her head. “Not now. I have to finish up work. Later. I’ll explain it all later.”