Quinlan: Foster’s Pride – Lion Shapeshifter Romance (Foster's Pride Book 3) Kathi Barton (early reader chapter books TXT) 📖

he’d rolled to his back, and she was atop him. His soft snores didn’t bother her so much as how he was holding her like he was afraid she was going to get away. Moving enough, so his hands dropped from her sides, Rogue rolled off Quin to the side of the bed to look at him.

Christ, he was hers, her mind and body thought. Her heart was so full she wasn’t sure she could have had a single other thing touch it. As he turned and looked at her, his eyes the most beautiful shade of gold she’d ever seen, he took her hand to his mouth and kissed it.

“I’m broken.” Rogue laughed. “That was far and away the most mind-blowing sex ever had by two people in the world. I don’t think I can do that often. Unless, of course, you liked it so much you’d like me to do it every time. I’d suffer through it. Just for you.”

“You’re a goof.” He rolled to his side, so he was facing her. “I’m starving. I mean, like I could eat a cow right now, and I’d not have enough.”

“I know.” He got up, his naked body covered in little bite marks she’d given him. Tiny bruises that were only just making an appearance. “I hope you like fruit. That’s about all we have. Also, some of what appears to be chocolate cake in this thing. I’m not a big fan of chocolate, but I will share it with you.”

They feasted on the things in the basket. In addition to the cake, which turned out to be white with chocolate frosting, there were small cans of sardines and crackers to eat them on. A roll of summer sausage and some dried fruits. Feeding one another each thing they found, the two of them sipped the champagne. It was the best meal she’d ever had, Rogue told Quin.

“I have to admit, I’ve never had better myself. But it’s not going to be enough.” He wiggled his brows at her. “However, I’m a little sore. How about we get dressed, go into town, and find us a sinfully expensive seafood place and have a nice dinner? Then walk around on the beach?”

“Heaven.”

They ended up getting ice cream first, as their table was going to be a little while. The ice cream was hand-dipped, and they made pigs of themselves as they each ate a single cone. Dinner, too, was delicious. Even when she declared herself full, Rogue managed to eat dessert, having another dish of ice cream with bourbon poured over it and flamed.

The walk back to the beach house was with the two of them touching and talking about how much they loved one another. Before they were even in the house, Quin took her again, filling her up, making her scream several times as he pressed her against the front door.

Never had anyone made her feel this way. More than just loved, but also in love. Going to bed with him, they held each other tightly. Quin told her over and over how much he needed her, how much he loved her. Rogue said the same to him. She had no idea how she was going to return home. Return back to where she would have to deal with the life and death of her job. For the first time in her career, Rogue no longer wanted to work. She wanted to spend every waking moment with him.

~*~

They were enjoying the beach, lying in the sun, watching the shrimping boats pull in their catches when he turned to Rogue. He asked her about saving Loman’s life. She eyed him with one eye open and then turned back to looking out over the sea.

“I asked him about it. Twice. But he never told me. He said he wanted you to tell it. You would tell it the correct way.” She snorted. “He also told me you shook the shit out of him to get him on the right track to keeping his grades up as well.”

“He wasn’t doing well in his classes. We shared a couple of them, and I’d watch him fuck off while he was in the room. The professors knew who he was and what he was, so they rarely bothered with telling him to drop the class if he wasn’t going to work hard.” Quin said that didn’t sound like life or death. “It wasn’t. Not then. But I’d had enough after…. One night, just after class, a bunch of us were walking back to the dorm. It had been a particularly brutal day, with most of us having second thoughts about what we were doing there. I saw a group of people running past us, but like I said, we were all pretty beaten up by class and didn’t follow them.”

He picked up several shells and laid them aside. Now that she was telling him, Quin wasn’t so sure he wanted to know. Even finding out that Loman hadn’t given college his best bothered him a great deal.

“There were five of them beating the shit out of Loman. Cass was there too, but he was already bleeding from a head wound and was unconscious. The men had tied them both up with silver chains. That was my first clue that they knew the Foster brothers weren’t human. The second one was that they made sure they were kept down so they’d not be able to shift and kill them.” He told her they’d have not been able to shift without losing a paw or something worse. “I think I knew that on some level, but not at that time. I was terrified out of my mind for them. Don’t get me wrong, I think Loman deserved what he got for fucking around in class, but this was more personal. It wasn’t until later that I found out they thought Loman and Cass had raped one of the men’s sister. Or something along those lines. Whatever