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“I’m so sorry I hurt you, but I have never needed you this much before. I swear to you I’ll make it better for you next time, but I need to come inside of you.” When he moved again, it was slow and easy. “I’ll make it up to you, baby.”
She felt her body adjust to his. His cock was thicker than she was used to from him, but he wasn’t hurting her anymore. She rolled her hips up to take more of him when he licked along her throat. Every part of her body, including she was sure her hair, felt it. Moving her head for him, she felt his teeth as they grazed along her skin. Digging her nails into his back to encourage him to do it, she felt his teeth at her ear lobe. All the while, he was moving in and out of her slowly, steadily.
“You’re going to come when I bite you. Come very hard. I can hardly wait to taste you. Lick my tongue into your pussy and drink you.” Her hands moved to his chest, and she flicked her nail over his nipple. “Christ, do that again.”
She did and drew blood. But instead of feeling bad for hurting him, she found that she wanted to taste him. Lifting her head, she licked the droplet and then covered her mouth over the tiny wound and suckled.
Her climax tore through her, but before she could throw back her head and scream with it, Jeremiah held her to his chest and took her hard. Then he sank his teeth into her neck.
The climax screamed through her body, taking her up and over a crest so high she saw stars behind her closed lids. Even as he lapped at her skin and her his, he pounded into her, over and over. Then he stiffened and lifted his head. As he snarled, she looked up and saw her blood on his chin, his teeth longer than before stained with it. She took his injured nipple again in her mouth and bit him as hard as she could and cried out when her mouth filled with his blood. As she swallowed, she knew that something had happened, something neither of them had expected. As the darkness took her, she thought he told her he loved her.
When she woke, she was alone in the big bed. Not that she cared right now. Even if he had been in bed with her, she would have begged him not to move. Her pores hurt she was so sore, but she could feel a smile on her face that she knew was because of him. Sitting up, she finally made her way to the shower and turned it on to the hottest setting.
She knew that Jeremiah had been in the shower recently. As the floor was still damp, and the hot water came out of the shower head faster than before. After getting dressed, she left their bedroom and had a funny thought. She wondered if they had made the camper rock and would have to ask him about it.
Not only was Jeremiah not in the kitchen, but he didn’t seem to be anywhere in the camper. Reaching out to him, he asked her to come to the lions’ cage with him and she made her way there. After a few minutes, she was standing in front of one of the larger cages and was surprised to smell blood. It wasn’t until she saw the little cub that she took a deep breath.
“Oh, she’s beautiful. Look at her tiny paws.” She asked permission to hold the cub and the momma, not a shifter, but her mate nodded her approval. “Oh, you’re a good momma, Tawny. She’s so fat and healthy.”
“They want us to take her under our wings when we leave here.” She was only half listening to Jeremiah. “Honey, she can’t keep her.” That got her attention.
“Why?” She looked from Leo, her mate who was human right now, to the momma. “I don’t understand. Why can’t she keep her with her?”
“This isn’t a good place to raise a child. Especially a shifter cub. For the first year, she’ll have no control over shifting, and they’re afraid that she’ll shift around humans, and that would be really bad.” She could see that but wasn’t happy about separating a mom and her child. “Honey, she’ll come with us. The baby won’t be alone. The two of them will be with the leap on our lands, and we’ll raise her to be a human. Along with the other shifters in the leap.”
“But she’ll come with us, Tawny, I mean. She’ll be there with us, too.” He hesitated just long enough that she was worried. “Tell me. I need to know what you’re dancing around.”
“Tawny is twenty-three years old. She was actually thought to be too old to have a child. As you can imagine, it’s been hard on her.” She asked him to tell her again. “Tawny is dying. The birth took too much out of her, and with her age, it was too much on her heart. That’s why she wants us to take care that her cub is well-versed in being a shifter.”
“No. No, I won’t have it.” The big lioness put her large paw on her hands while she still held her child. “No, Tawny. You can’t die. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to this circus. You’ve been here forever. I won’t allow you to die.”
That got a laugh, sort of a snort from the lioness. When she lifted her head, Lexy could see how much that little movement cost her. Putting her forehead on hers, scratching her behind the ears as she cried. Lexy assured her that she would watch her child like her own. And that she was ever so proud that she let her and Jeremiah be a part of her life.
It was, she thought, the hardest thing she’d ever done. Telling Tawny that she’d only allow her to die if she waited until they got her home again. Shaking her head, feeling her pain all the way to her heart, Tawny laid back on the fresh hay that was in her pen and closed her eyes. In no time at all, she was gone.
Joel came with the rest of the family to pick her up. She’d be buried on the land that was used for the leap, and a lovely headstone would tell all that came upon it how Tawny had been a showgirl and that she’d been all over the world dancing into the hearts of all the people that had met her. Without mentioning the child, the headstone would only say that she was the best there was, too.
When she was gone, her child in the arms of one of the leap ladies, she was loaded onto the private jet that would take her back to Ohio. Lexy sat and cried for over an hour at the loss of one so wonderful. The two of them had performed together over the last few years, and she was glad for the photos that had been taken so that she’d be able to remember their time together.
By the next night, they were setting up in another town. The tent was put up, and things went on like the death had never occurred. It hurt her so much that she wanted to scream at the laughing people that a good-hearted cat had passed on. Jeremiah stood under the lights before the show and cleared his throat.
“Today, we lost a great member of our cast. Tawny passed away earlier this morning and has been taken back to her home. She will be greatly missed.” He asked for a moment to reflect on her passing, and there wasn’t a dry eye on the tent. After that, the lions that were left, most of them shifters, bowed down to the audience before the show went on. Those words, the show must go on, meant more to her in that moment than they had ever meant before.
The next day, the local paper ran a full-page article about the loss and people from all over the world sent their condolences. Some even sent money for the burial and headstone. So much love and support that she was sure that she would remember this forever. She knew that she would Tawny.
The flowers too that came were used in the shows. They also were able to give away some of the planters. There wasn’t any way that they’d be able to keep them as they traveled. Also, a few of the larger donations sent vouchers for trees to be planted in her memory. Lexy thought that that had been the best gifts. She could see herself taking the little cub to visit the trees and then talk about her mom.
The fruit was enjoyed by everyone in the circus. Some of the larger animals got a good portion of the fruits with their nightly meals. She came upon Leo washing one of the hippos that was a shifter too, and him talking to him. Lexy didn’t have long to think about if Leo knew that he was talking to another shifter like himself.
“Ben, you know that I don’t mind giving you a bath right now, but you have to know that I’m not all here tonight. Why did you think that you needed a nice cleanup right now?” He must have answered him because Leo laughed. “All right. I guess I can see that, too. Wouldn’t want your pretty face all messing with tear stains. Yes, I can see that. You’re a good friend, you know. And probably just what I needed about now. I’m surely going to miss my missus.”
Several years ago, about a decade now, Ben had found his mate. But the issue was, she’d been married to someone else at the time, and he stepped back. It was a small wonder that he knew just what to do for Leo. Giving the big animal a scrub-up, what he called it, got both of them out of their funk.
Even though they were of different species, they were men who had lost a great deal. Lexy backed out of the tent they were in and set off to find her own mate. She wanted a hug in the worst sort of way.
Chapter 8
Joel watched the people as they made their way into the larger-than-life tent. But it was the children that he loved watching the most. The excitement on their little faces. The way they held onto their program. Even the few with balloons, shaped into odd shapes of animals, were going to be treasured items for a long time. And even though he was taking tickets right now, he still felt like he was a part of the expectations of every person. A real live clown taking tickets from them.
