Page 34 of Arctic Panda's Secret Mate
But the only thing Tristan really cared about was the double bed, which looked rumpled and inviting. Several of the missing couch cushions were leaning against the wall, as if Haisley had been trying to block out the sounds from the dining room.
“It’s not much—!” Haisley said, her voice rising at the end in surprise as Tristan gathered her up into his arms to carry her to the bed. He kicked the door shut behind them, which was louder than he meant it to be, but they’d already been far from quiet. He wondered briefly if they had made more noise than he could explain away to the others the next day, but then he was laying Haisley on the bed and pulling her pants off.
“Condom!” she told him with an imperious point, and Tristan paused to find it at the bottom of the drawer in her bedside table and pull it on, pausing to take off his glasses, as well, so that he could kiss her without banging her in the face with them.
The rest of their clothing didn’t last long, and Tristan wondered how lucky one man could be. She was so soft and pliable and perfect against him, her hands tangling in her hair and caressing his arms and sides. He forced himself to go slowly, to appreciate all of the curves and sweet skin and soft noises she made, touching her gently, drawing her up to little crests of pleasure and kissing her down the other side.
He let his cock, hard now, and full of yearning, tease her and taunt her, but he waited to enter her until she was wet and begging, clawing at his arms and murmuring little half-sentences of need and entreaty. “Yes! Please! Oh, please! Will you—? That, yes—! Please?—!”
Then they were moving together, and he was burieddeep inside of her, trying his best not to lose what was left of his control as he brought her higher yet and then back down. He kept himself from coming by sheer willpower, and when she had whimpered out her release, drew her over on top of him, nearly falling off the bed when he misjudged its width.
Shifter reflexes kept him from sliding off or dropping Haisley, and when she had recovered a little, she rode him slowly, savoring him just like he was relishing her.
When she came again, he could watch all her muscles in her core tighten, and feel her strokes grow erratic, only her breasts free as she gave a muffled noise of triumph. Tristan held her hips and took her harder as the pleasure broke over her, and finally came himself, growling and clutching at her desperately.
They lay together afterward, laughing and panting and touching each other slowly.
“Merry Christmas!” Haisley giggled. “I must have been very good this year.”
Tristan realized very abruptly that he didn’t have a gift for her. She’d spent all of that time helping him make gifts for the staff of Shifting Sands, and there were packages under the tree withhisname, but his mate wasn’t going to get a single thing.
Oh, nooooo!his bear said, quite sure this was a tragedy.There is no bambooooo!
30
TRISTAN
Tristan stood in front of the garage side door, not entirely sure how the place worked. Was he supposed to make a wish out loud? Or was thinking it enough? Did he have to have a clear prize in mind? What would Haisley even want?
“I need a Christmas gift for Haisley,” he finally said, putting his hand on the door handle.
It stuck just long enough that he thought it was locked and then the latch moved under his hand and the door swung open.
Tristan went in, and his glasses fogged immediately. It was like shopping, only worse, because he didn’t know what he was looking for, and nothing was for sale anyway. Haisley wouldn’t want an antique file, or a bent bicycle wheel. She didn’t need a bird cage or a 2x4 or a handful of concrete anchors. The garage looked less hospitable than ever, and Tristan was pretty sure that some of the overhead lights had burnt out since he was there with Haisley. He should have brought a flashlight.
He wandered the stacks in growing frustration, andwhen he tripped over a concrete curb that was lying across the only clear walking way, he crashed into a stacked tool box that tipped threateningly. Something fell off the top and rattled across the floor to come to a stop at his feet.
Tristan crouched down and picked it up.
It was a key.
In fact, it was a rather ordinary key, with a leather strap on it that said ALASKA MOUNTAIN CHALET, each letter stamped in separately. The kerning was terrible.
Tristan replaced the key on the top of the tool box, which seemed incredibly sturdy on second inspection. He wasn’t sure how it had tipped. And it didn’t help his quest.
He should make Haisley something beautiful. A flower.
Bamboo?his bear suggested helpfully.Bamboo flower?
“You have a one-track mind,” Tristan said out loud. But a flower was something he could work with. Maybe he could make something out of metal. He didn’t think he was much of an artist, but he’d seen some videos on lapping petals of soft copper sheet. Hadn’t there been some copper sheets in the toolbox where Haisley had found the pom poms and pipe cleaners? There were certainly some lengths of random electrical wire he could strip for a stem.
He squeezed through the garage back to that toolbox and opened all of the drawers. There were no copper sheets, though there were several boxes of hooks and one drawer was completely full of hangers for some reason. When he shut the last drawer, he heard something fall off the top of the toolbox, and when he went to pick it up, he was somehow not surprised to find a key on the floor.
If it was not the same exact key that he’d found halfway across the garage, it was a convincing replica, with identical crappy kerning on the leather band.
“What does this even mean?” Tristan asked out loud. “Does it unlock something?”
He found a locked cabinet, but the key didn’t even fit into it, let alone turn. Tristan put the key into his pocket thoughtfully, and went to gather up supplies to try to make some kind of posy. If he couldn’t find copper sheets, could he hammer down some wire? There was an anvil under a stack of insulation, and a dozen hammers hung above the workbench.
