Confused by his reaction, Axel narrowed his gaze and looked around him. Everything seemed as peaceful as always. Max had gone into hiding. There was just him and Dr. Jennings. He sensed no strange energies lurking anywhere.
Soon he glanced back her way. His cat locked onto Dr. Jennings like she was a deer he was tracking. What was going on with his animal side?
“No. Fuck, no. Keep the hell away from me, Axel.” Sugar put a good ten feet between them again. “The artifact is messing with me. It’s not… I’m not safe to be around.”
Pheromone response ninety-five point four and rising. Male arousal imminent.
“Holy shit. I don’t fucking believe this,” Sugar shouted, running a hand through her hair. “I can’t let this happen. I want it to happen, but not like this. He has to want me, Artifact, not some amped-up pheromone version of me. Turn it off. I mean it. Turn it off—now.”
Axel growled again. Inside him, his panther swished its tail in anticipation of pouncing. He looked around for his cat’s target while he tried to reason with the insane Dr. Jennings. “What is the artifact doing to you? Explain it to me.”
Sugar held up a hand. “It’s okay. It’s nothing dangerous to anyone but me. However, I can’t let this happen. I just can’t. A rational woman has to draw a line at ancient artifacts meddling in what’s none of their freaking business.”
His patience with her ended abruptly. “Do you know how insane you sound?” Axel demanded.
Sugar nodded. “Yes. My daddy always said that all smart people get a little insane now and again. God, I miss that man. Maybe he could tell me how to handle this thing and keep it from meddling in my life.”
Not knowing anything else to do, Sugar took off running in her super speed way. She tore through the woods along the same path she’d chased Max earlier. Passing by the bench this time, she suddenly heard rushing water in the distance.
Water would help. It would reduce the effects—maybe wash off the pheromones she was oozing uncontrollably.
Axel wasn’t worried a bit when Dr. Jennings bolted into his woods. It wasn’t like the archaeologist was the first human female who’d ever played chase with him here.
The wind brought her scent back to him as she made her escape. What was odd was that he felt his human form fading with every whiff. His cat seemed to think the crazy Dr. Jennings was his toy that was getting away.
Barely realizing he’d shifted into panther form, Axel took off through the trees after her.
If a chase was what it took to talk sensibly to the female, so be it. He and his cat both liked a good run.
10
Sugar braked at the edge of a lake fed by a beautiful waterfall. “Wow. This is gorgeous,” she murmured.
But there was no time to enjoy it.
She started to pull the shirt over her head and then realized the pheromones were likely on her clothes as well. She wasn’t a scientist, but she was pretty sure she remembered that from biology class.
Sugar yanked her shirt back down and yelled. “Listen up, Artifact. You and I are going to have to come to an understanding about my body. I don’t mind you using me to kill bad guys, but I will seduce men in my own damn time. I do not need your help. Don’t ever mess with my pheromones again.”
Pheromone response one hundred percent. Male arousal imminent. Prepare for merging.
“What in the hell do you know about merging?” Sugar hissed in anger. “One day I hope I’m going to laugh about this because it sure as shit isn’t funny right now.”
Sugar backed up and was running forward to leap into the water when a giant weight hit her from behind. The cat's massive size propelled them both halfway across the lake’s surface. They landed in a big splash that threw water high in the air.
Sugar broke the surface with a gasp seconds later only to get drowned again by the splashed water falling from the sky back into the lake.
“Not funny,” she yelled around her choking on lake water. “That was not funny at all, Axel.”
Axel surfaced beneath her in human form and came up with his arms around her. “Are you harmed?” he asked in a panic, staring at her in alarm. What in the world had gotten into his cat? He couldn’t stop it from attacking her.
She glared at Axel’s face and mouth which were mere inches from hers. Sugar wanted to kiss him so badly her teeth hurt, but she’d be damned if she settled for a pity fuck. That wasn’t her style.
“Bad kitty,” she said meanly, shoving him away from her with both her fists. With the artifact making her stronger, she sent Axel plowing backward through the water.
Stunned, Axel stared in shock as he treaded water in human form. “You hit me.”
Sugar smacked the water with her hand and sent a good amount of it splashing directly into his already dripping face. “I hit you because your unruly cat side knocked me into the fucking lake.”
“You were getting ready to dive into the water anyway. I saw you running toward it.”
Sugar began swimming toward the shore. “Because I was trying to save you.”
“Save me? From what… or who?” Axel asked, swimming after her. He glanced around for potential threats and saw none. She was making no sense.
“Save you from me, you idiot. The artifact is trickier than you know,” Sugar said as she climbed out.
Her shoes and clothes were dripping. She lifted her arm and smelled it—then remembered you couldn’t smell your own pheromones. But she did smell lake water. The stench of it made her calmer.
She stomped to Axel, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him closer. He still smelled good to her, but she wasn’t insanely ready to jump him anymore. At least their swim in the cold lake had worked to lower her responses to him.
Sugar looked up into Axel’s completely confused gaze, then turned, and stomped off.
“Wait,” Axel called out. “What just happened?”
Sugar stopped and turned. “You’re a geek. I know because I saw all kinds of technology in your house. What in Hells Bells is the opposite of activate?”
Axel laughed at the question. The woman sounded certifiable every time she spoke this afternoon—or maybe she actually was crazy. He was still trying to decide.
“Deactivate?” Axel offered.
“Oh, Fuckin-A. Of course. Why couldn’t I have thought of that ten damn minutes ago?” Sugar demanded, fisting her hands on her hips. “Deactivate. Thanks. I’ve got this now.”
She turned and started walking. “Okay, Artifact. Deactivate seduction protocol. Decrease pheromones.”
Command acknowledged. Seduction protocol ceased. Pheromone level normal in two minutes three seconds.
Sugar laughed at the artifact’s instant compliance. “I’m going to have to learn geek speak before you kill me with kindness.”
She began walking again and then suddenly Axel’s hand was on her shoulder turning her toward him. “What now?” she demanded, her head hurting from her cold dip in the water.
“I have to do this. I have to know. Don’t kill me over it.”
“Over what?” Sugar asked.
His lips suddenly sliding across hers were cool and welcome. Her temper instantly deflated at how nice they felt. Then heat surged through her when his tongue entered her mouth. She moaned in gratitude at the invasion.
His practiced tongue twisted itself around hers, and Sugar felt her body respond with a billion points of arousal. Axel’s kiss stripped away her defenses. Her head spun with lust, and at the same time, the traumatizing memories of that day in the cave.
It had taken months to recall the details, but it was an experience she was never going to forget. The artifact had changed her physically and her life hadn’t been the same since.
Sugar tore away from Axel’s demanding kiss. After what had just happened with pheromone thing, how could she ever again be sure about why a man wanted her? She obviously couldn’t. That doubt doubled for Axel who’d shown zero physical interest until today.
She escaped from his ar
ms and looked up at him. She shook her head at her bad, damn luck.
“I think I was ready to jump you the first time I saw you. I’m not sending mixed signals on purpose—not in the typical sense. It’s just that I can’t tell who you think you’re kissing or why you’re even bothering. I’ll gladly start paying your fee, Bad Panther, but not until I can find an answer to that question that I can live with.”
“What are you talking about? Dr. Jennings?” Axel called to stop her from walking away.
Sugar looked back. “The artifact played with my body chemistry and made me irresistible to you. That’s why you wanted to kiss me. I’m sure it can make me irresistible to any male. When I’m back to normal, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, try using my name when you say you want to kiss me. I’m never, ever sleeping with a guy who calls me doctor all the time, not even to pay a damn debt. See you later, Axel.”
Axel smelled her on his sheets and couldn’t bring himself to change them. He wanted to smell like her himself. It would be an honor to wear her scent. His cat was brooding about it worse than he was.
Instead of making it happen though, he lay in his bed pondering why Dr. Jennings had insisted on sleeping in the cabin. He lay there also wondering how he could have so quickly gone from thinking she was too plain to bed to thinking he had to have her or die.
He’d gone for a long run after she’d left him by the lake hoping to tire his mind, but that hadn’t helped rid him of his obsession. Her passionate kiss had been as surprising as everything else about the woman had been so far.
Dr. Jennings simply wasn’t like any other female… and not only because of the artifact.
Oh, he’d finally figured out what she’d been trying to tell him on his soggy walk back to the house alone. If she hadn’t argued with the artifact about returning her body chemistry to normal, she’d have been in his bed and under him. Or on top of him. Or bent over in front of him.
Not because her pheromones would have driven him to take her, but because they would have encouraged her to take advantage of him when she didn’t think it was fair.
The foolish woman didn’t understand how Lyran feline males worked… and he’d always felt more Lyran than human. His sexual urges weren’t dependent on the pheromones she’d exuded even though she had smelled good enough to eat under their influence.
No, it was her absolute integrity about being herself and doing what was right that drew him.
He wanted to make that honorable female inside her scream in pleasure and he no longer cared how plain she was. She was a beautiful challenge—perhaps the first genuinely challenging female he’d ever met. Her eyes questioned him. Her mind was a mystery. He wanted to know her in any way she’d let him.
Truth was, he’d never in his life desired a female so strongly. But Dr. Jennings was incredibly dangerous and she had morals that seemed to rule all her actions. All of that made her seduction a very complicated business indeed.
When Max yipped in his doorway, Axel bolted upright in bed. The wolf never came into his house. Something must really be wrong. “What is it, Max?”
She’s crying, Axel. You made her cry. Go fix things between you two.
Lecture delivered, Max turned and loped off. Any other time, Axel would have scoffed and punished Max for breaking his rules. Now he was glad Max was helping keep an eye on his unpredictable guest.
He was at long last starting to see why the sentient blade would have chosen her. Dr. Jennings was passionate and caring and trying to spare him all the trouble she could.
Who’d ever done that for him? No one. Not even his family cared that much.
Frowning about his urge to rush to her side and make sure she was okay, Axel slid from the bed and pulled on the sweats he’d exercised in and a pair of sandals he usually only wore in the sauna. He didn’t want to take the time to find proper clothing.
Shirtless still, he prowled through his dark house, his cat vision sharp enough in the dark not to require light.
11
The cabin was empty when Axel got there. He turned toward the path through his woods and listened. It was faint, but he heard her.
She was either talking to herself or the artifact. He couldn’t tell the difference nor even knew if there was one.
His cat wanted out again. He could feel it pushing him for permission, but this time he was not letting it be in control. His mother warned him there would be times in his life when his cat would rebel against obeying his will. That time had started for him the moment he'd laid eyes on Dr. Sugar Jennings.
Sugar. What a silly name for an intelligent woman. She probably had another name—a more suitable one she rarely used. Perhaps he could use it instead. It was hard for him to accept wanting to kiss anyone named Sugar as badly as he did.
Axel turned and started down the path. She’d gone all the way back to the waterfall. Luckily the electronic security fence around his land made it relatively safe for her to go anywhere on his property. Plus, there was always the artifact if she got in trouble.
Still, it bothered him that she was out here when she should be sleeping. What was she obsessing about?
He watched from a distance where he hoped she wasn’t aware. The woman was picking up flat stones and attempting to skim them across the water’s surface.
Giving up stealth, Axel walked up beside her, surveyed the bank, and chose a few stones that would produce better results for what she was trying to do.
“Try these,” he said, holding out the stones in his palm.
The woman looked at him like he was handing her a snake or something equally detestable. He hated snakes and had rid his land of them during the first few years he’d lived on the property.
“These rocks are more aerodynamic. They’ll work best for your purpose,” he offered in explanation.
Sighing, Sugar plucked one of the stones from Axel’s palm. She flicked her wrist and the rock went skipping about twenty times across the lake before it sank. She took the other two from his hand and sent them after the first with similar results.
“Maybe one day you can teach me how to pick the best ones. My father tried to show me. The learning didn’t take. I wasn’t a very good student back then.”
“I notice you talk about your father in the past tense. How old were you when he died?” Axel asked.
“Twenty. I was still in college. Daddy died of a sudden heart attack and all I have are memories of what he tried to share with me. I miss him. I can only imagine what he’d have to say to me if he knew the trouble I’ve gotten myself into. He was an old-school Southern man about parenting. I’d get a tongue lashing and a half.”
“What would he say to you?” Axel asked, fascinated as ever with her stories.
“My daddy would say—Sugar, you’re too damn nosy for your own good. Guess you inherited that from your mother’s side of the family. Now quit your whining and go do what you got to do, girl.”
Axel laughed. It was a rare occurrence for him to find anything funny that someone said. Max was the only other creature who seemed to have the capacity to amuse him. That’s why he’d taken on the task of teaching the alpha wolf to be humble. Max’s parents were going to let the other wolves in their pack fight him until he either died or did something to satisfy them as having learned his lesson. Their process of teaching life lessons was barbaric, but Max wasn’t. Axel secretly hoped the wolf would change things for his kind.
“You have a nice laugh,” Sugar said conversationally. “It’s just as appealing as the rest of you. I can see why you have to kick women out of your life when things are done. They probably wouldn’t leave you otherwise. You’re very easy on the eyes.”
Axel chuckled. “While it’s true I indulge my desires when they hit, I’ve slept with only two of the females I’ve protected. I propagated that story to keep Psych Central from bothering me too much. My first alliance is to my mother and my people. I work for Eva to keep from being bored.”
“Well, your Bad Pant
her rep is holding up soundly there. Eva personally warned me about you.” Sugar turned toward the path. “Thanks for the skipping stones… and the company. Guess I’ll head back now and try to sleep again.”
“Sugar…” Axel said, her name rolling off his tongue easier than he’d ever imagined it would. “I’m not the kind of man who gets attached to females, but I have feelings for you. You’re intelligent, amusing, and maybe the most interesting female I’ve ever met. The fact that you kiss well is a pleasant bonus for a woman who’s made me want her merely by breathing.”
Sugar stopped her walking and sighed. She turned to look at him. “Your lines are weak, but you sure know how to deliver them. I know I’m not the first woman to wet these panties I’m wearing with her arousal because of something you said or did. Guess that’s the downside of being intelligent. I always see the big picture, including the one that tells me you’re one of those guys who uses women.”
“The clothes you’re wearing belong to one of my sisters,” Axel admitted, smirking at her instant glare. “You overthink everything. It’s fun to torment you.”
Sugar snorted. “Yeah, overthinking is another big damn problem with being intelligent. Good-night, Axel.”
“But it’s not a good night. I couldn’t sleep either. That’s why I came out to find you. I’ve declared my feelings to try and make you like me. Must I seduce you as well and take all the responsibility on myself for us having sex? You seemed much braver than that.”
“Ugg—me man, you woman,” Sugar mocked as she laughed at Axel’s audacity. “Normally, I’m much braver about fucking who I want to fuck, but you’re not exactly Mr. Average Joe. And here’s the other thing—I respect you for taking on the task of guarding me, Axel. It makes me question my motives for wanting to sleep with you. I wouldn’t want you to get attached to me either. I have enough to worry about, probably far more than you do.”
Bad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 1) Page 7