by C J Cade
Letting go of Roxie, he bent and palmed the laser.
She snarled at the attendants, and they cowered in the shrubbery. "M-make her go away first, p-please," one of them begged.
"Not until the ship guards arrive."
Which they did immediately after he spoke, thank God.
In short order, they had Lessurat sedated and cocooned in a medcart, ready to be whisked away.
Her attendants were herded off to spend time in the ship's brig, and the captain of the guard was bowing to Chaz, his gaze politely averted from Roxie, who prowled restlessly in the shrubbery, her gaze on Chaz.
"I'm extremely sorry, sir. Our fault for allowing you to ascend un-guarded. I accept all blame."
Chaz nodded curtly. "I'll want a complete report on what happens to Lessurat. I'm prepared to testify that she cannot be allowed to go free any longer."
"I completely agree, sir. And we have holovid evidence to support her immediate incarceration. Being who she is, it will no doubt be a sanatorium instead of a prison planet, but you, ah, and your lady will be safe from her. Now, please allow my guards to scan your suite and ascertain it is safe for you to enter."
Chaz nodded again, already walking toward the arboretum, and the Tygress prowling its confines.
She glowered at him. "Go away. I don't want you."
He narrowed his eyes at her, his jaw set.
"Sorry, my Rouge," he said implacably. "I am your only choice."
"You lie," she hissed, her eyes narrowing to slits, shooting sparks at him. "I am not your anything. And this ship is full of males who would fight to fuck a tiger female in heat!"
"Yes, and they would suffer for it," he growled through his teeth. "If you think I'm going to stand aside and let another man take my place, think again."
She screamed, the sound rising to a register of fury that nearly deafened him, but at the same time excited him unbearably. His nipples tightened, his balls drew up tight, his cock flexing eagerly.
"I'm leaving," she snarled. But as she moved to dash past him, he grabbed her arm. She used her own momentum to attack, bringing him down in the soft moss under the foliage, which rustled wildly as they fell through the branches.
Her scent, sweet and musky and delicate, filled his nostrils. His cock hardened to the point of pain.
"Ah, sir, madame, your suite is safe to occupy," the guard captain called from outside the arboretum. "And we will need you to vacate this one. Best to be sequestered when you get on with things, hmm?"
"We're going," Chaz called back.
"Rouge, get off me, before I have to hurt you," he warned. "You're not leaving, not like this."
She leaned close, her lips nearly brushing him, her heat and nearness so intoxicating his eyes nearly rolled back in his head.
"Do you think you could hurt me?" she asked him, in that rough velvet purr that rasped every nerve ending in his body and stiffened them to full, roaring arousal.
"I know I could. I'm a Tyger male, and you're so much smaller, softer, even in shift. But I sure as hells don't want to."
With a growl of displeasure, she slashed his shirt open with her claws, then curled her lip at him, her golden eyes full of fury.
"Well, you won't have to worry about hurting me, Chaz. You've already done your worst to me. Now get out!"
"No, Rouge. You can't stay alone. You'll go mad."
Her big eyes looked vulnerable for a moment, but then she slitted them and drew back her lips, showing him her enhanced fangs. "Then I won't stay here. I'll find a male.'
"The hells you will," he snarled. "I'm here, and I want you. And I know you want me. Stay with me. I'll guide you through your shift, I'll make it good for you, I swear it. Just let me have you, sweetheart."
She snarled, the fierce, defiant snarl of an angry Tyger female. 'I won't have to go anywhere. I'll call other males to me."
"You will not!" he roared, on his feet and looming over her. She slashed his clothing again, this time his pants. Chaz raised a brow. "If you want me to strip, puss, all you have to do is ask."
She let out another scream, and he knew immediately he'd pushed her too far.
Thus, when she raced from the room, he followed her. She dashed into his suite, and signaled the door to close, but he slid through it after her, and then he played dirty.
He hit the signature-controlled lock, that only the occupant or a guard could open.
She screamed again, and white-hot pain slashed across his cheek. Immediately she shook her head, her gaze tormented. "Sorry."
"I'm fine, tyger-lily." He grabbed her waist and pulled her to him, all that silky, plush heat against his hardness. He flexed his hips, rubbing his erection against her mons. "Please, let me fuck you. Let me make you cum, let me give you what you gave me."
She was panting now, her breasts quivering against him, her hard nipples stroking him through his shirt, and rubbing herself on him, a mewl of need in her throat.
"Yesss," she agreed, and his heart contracted, because it was a defeated sound.
Bending, he swept her up in his arms and bore her to the perfumed cloister of his arboretum. Then he laid her on the moss, and yanked his clothing off, and came down over her. She reached up for him, and he came into her in one smooth thrust.
Her pussy clasped him immediately, and she mewled, a high sweet sound as she came immediately.
He groaned in pained delight, and began to thrust, hard and fast. "That was only the first time for you, my Rouge. I'm going to make you cum so many times you can't remember what it was like not to be satisfied by me."
"Yes, Charlie," she purred, already moving under him again. "Yesss."
And he did.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Much later, Roxie lay draped on her shift mate in a torpor of satisfaction.
Finally, the madness that had driven her was sated... for the time being. Chaz had urged her to surrender to the madness driving her, to let it take her. He'd repeated over and over, that he had her safe, that he would be there to hold her, and to sate the lust overpowering her body.
"I thought I was going mad," she whispered, her face snuggled against the curve of his throat.
He paused in his slow stroking of her tumbled hair. "Haven't shifted many times yet?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"Oh, sweetheart," he murmured, gathering her even closer, his arms warm and strong. "Why?"
"I took the hormones to delay it," she said. "I... there was no one I wanted in the small town I'm from."
"That's so hard to believe," he murmured. "You're so beautiful, and sexy, and sweet and funny."
She shrugged, sorry she'd said anything.
"Were you shy?" he asked.
"Yes. And... the local males--those my age--made fun of me."
"What?" he demanded, rigid under her. "Why the hells would they do that?"
"Because of someone like you," she whispered.
He pressed his lips to her hair. "Tell me, please."
"A singer visited our town, during the summer solstice celebration. I... idolized him, like many of the other girls. So I went to ask him if I could have my vid taken with him. He made fun of me, in front of everyone. He called me a plump little pussy who should chase my own tail till I grew up and slimmed down. Everyone laughed and laughed. And the others my age didn't let me forget it."
"Oh, quark," he gritted. "I'd like to slash his face open, and then bust his jaw."
"I learned later that he had a problem with illegals. He was under the influence that day. Also, his performance was terrible."
Chaz chuckled. "I'll bet." Then he felt a sick punch of guilt. "Oh, sweetheart, I could have been that guy. Being a celebrity carries a high responsibility, and it was one that I didn't want to pick up for a time after I became famous."
He frowned at the foliage overhead. "Ironic, I cleaned up my own behavior, and that's when your holovid story hit."
She popped up onto her elbow, her tail lashing uneasily behind her
. "Chaz... Charlie. I have never forgiven myself for falling for my cousin's story. I was so stupid."
He slipped an arm behind his head and smiled up at her. "Yeah, you were gullible. But, it's definitely time to let it go. Because even though you weren't right about that, I did other things I was never held accountable for, because of my fame."
"But you weren't cruel to your fans, to females," she said slowly, searching his gaze with her own.
"I hope not," he said. "But there were a few weeks at a time that are just a blur, if you know what I mean. So it's entirely possible. Illegals and alcohol overuse can have a very crappy effect on behavior."
"But I allowed another celebrity's behavior to influence the way I saw you," she said, her tail lashing faster. "That was also very wrong."
He shrugged. "Probably explains why your alley-bred cousin chose you to get at me. She knew you'd believe her."
She nodded. "Are you certain you forgive me for that?"
He cupped her face in his hand. "If you can forgive me for siccing my lawyers on you, and allowing you to be driven from your home. I'm so, so sorry for that, Roxie. And I will make it up to you."
Her lashes swept down, and her tongue darted out to lick her lower lip. "Really? I can think of a way."
And just like that he was aroused again. "Anything, my Rouge. Anything, any time, anywhere. I'm your tyger."
Later, when they floated in the pool, side by side, their hands clasped, Chaz asked, his voice quiet, "So, what did you think of my song?"
"I loved it," she said, turning over in the water to look at him in surprise. "But you must know how good it is."
Strangely, he flushed, a wash of red over his chiseled cheekbones. "Thanks. But I meant, what did you think of the lyrics?"
"I loved them too," she said, a wistful feeling washing through her.
She looked away, watching her claws draw little arrows through the water.
"Rouge," he said. Water swirled as he moved to face her. He tipped her face gently up to his, and she caught her breath at the light in his eyes. "I wrote that song yesterday. After we parted. After I was such a pile of canine crap to you. I spent hours thinking, and regretting, and wishing I could go back and redo that last hour with you."
Something delicate began to unfurl in her chest, something with fluttering wings. It felt like hope.
"You did? Really?" she murmured.
His face contracted, and he tipped his forehead to hers, his hands tightening on her head, cradling it.
"Oh, God, yes. You have to know why I did it. It's still my fault, but..." He explained his talk with his agent, and the shock of finding out who she really was. "You've changed--a lot. I didn't recognize that plump little crusader with fire in her eyes. Finding out my sweet, fiery shift mate was the same female... I was blind-sided. And like the idiot male I am, I roared without thinking first.
"So you won't really take the holovid public?" she asked.
He reared back, looking at her as if she'd clawed him. "No! I would never."
She returned the look with interest, flexing her claws, her tail lashing in the water behind her. "Well, you threatened to. How was I to know?"
His gaze softened, and he pulled her close again, reaching behind her to stroke her tail, and let it wrap around his hand. It felt like a sexual caress, and just like that she wanted more, she wanted him under her. "You couldn't have known, you're right. But now, do you think you can trust me enough to know I would never hurt you--not on purpose?"
She mrrowled, and lifted her legs to curl them around his lean hips, his cock trapped between them. "I might...if you let me have you again."
He backed toward the lip of the pool, carrying her with him. "Like I said, tygress mine--any way you want it. If its mine, you've got it."
"Oh, the part I want is definitely yours," she purred, and attacked him.
He fell onto his back beside the pool, grinning up at her as she pounced on him. Then she slid down over his cock, taking him deep inside her, and he groaned. "Oh, yesss. So good, I could die a happy tyger, right now."
She bent over him, and licked the corner of his mouth, then nuzzled his ear as she began to ride him. "I won't kill you...I need you alive."
"Oh, I'm definitely alive," he told her, his hands coming up to grip her ass and squeeze as he bucked up under her. "I've never felt this alive, my Rouge."
This time, as she lay purring with satisfaction on his chest, she heard music begin to swell in the background. She opened her eyes, and listened. It was Chaz singing, this time without Lorena McKitt.
He turned his head to her ear, and wrapped his arms around her. "Listen well, my Rouge. I wrote this for you--for us."
When the song was over, she gave him a look full of wonder, her heart swelling until she felt that if she let go of him, she might well float away.
"Charlie... do you really mean it?" she whispered.
He smiled up at her, his tyger eyes full of tenderness. "Yes, my Rouge, my Roxie. I mean every word. I know we don't know each other well, but I want us together, so we have time to learn everything about each other. I want to know your favorite food, your favorite color, your best memory and your worst. I want to dress you in silk every day, and take you everywhere you've dreamed of going. I want to take you home to Bryght, and show you off--make everyone there know you belong there as much as anyone. And that they should treat you with the honor you deserve."
Roxie let out a sob, and collapsed on him, hiding her face in his throat. "Oh, Charlie."
He wrapped his arms around her again, and she felt him stiffen inside her once again. "Is that a yes, at least for now?"
She couldn't help herself, she had to move on him, riding him. The Tyger that miraculously seemed to want to belong to her.
She started to purr. "Does this feel like a yes?"
He groaned. "Feels like a tygress yes--and that's the best kind."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Roxie was attending her first event as Chaz’ fiancé—a charity gala in Rawr City, Bryght.
Chaz was across the ballroom of the Tygean Tempest Hotel, chatting with someone.
Seeing him occupied, Roxie had come to the bar, to get a fresh glass of champagne to quell her nerves. Chaz might be used to mingling with the fabulously wealthy and ruthless, but she wasn't--except for him, of course.
The champagne was delicious, delicate and dry with just a hint of sweetness on the tongue.
"Well, well, if it isn't my little cousin," drawled a familiar, grating voice behind Roxie. "I see you actually got Chaz to go on a date with you. How'd you work that?"
Roxie froze, then turned her head and looked over her shoulder at the slim, platinum blonde in a glittering evening gown that revealed more than it covered. Iridium and diamonds dripped from her ears, throat and hands. She was flanked by two more fashionably gowned and coiffed women, both smirking as if in anticipation. Although one was also checking out Roxie’s jewels.
"Hello, Mixi," Roxie said. "You're looking very... glittery."
"Of course," Mixi said. "I married a financier, the owner of a very important diamond import company. I'm sure you've heard of Mawrus Gems."
While Mixi preened, Roxie looked at her own reflection in the mirrors behind the bar, and smiled as well. What the heck, this encounter wasn't nearly as fraught with tension as she'd thought it would be.
It seemed she no longer cared quite so much what Mixi, or anyone else from Rawr City thought of her.
Tonight, she looked her best, in an emerald lii silk gown that was held up by forces unseen. The strapless top highlighted her breasts, then nipped in around her waist before flaring over her full hips to brush the toes of her matching sandals. Created and fitted to her by the famed Serpentian design team of Taara & Daanel, the gown was the prettiest she'd ever owned.
Her hair hung loose around her shoulders, the way Charlie liked it. Smoky eye-makeup highlighted her golden brown eyes, and her lips were wet and red...also the way Charlie liked t
hem.
Satisfied, she turned away from the mirror, and moved to side-step around Mixi. But the other woman blocked her move, casting an assessing look over Roxie from head to toe.
"Well," Mixi said. "Looks like you found another decent job, anyway. Hope you didn't have too much trouble?" She batted her lashes at Roxie in faux sympathy. Her friends tittered into their drinks. "Although I'm sure you got that gown in a consignment shop. Probably third-paw by now, hmm?"
Roxie sighed. All right, they could do this now. "Mixi, after you used me to humiliate Chaz, like the ruthless, amoral bitch that you are, things were indeed tough for me. I had to leave Bryght, and take a job working PR on a cruise ship."
The blonde's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Don't you call me names, Roxie Fellura. Everyone knows what a pathetic loser you are. It's not my fault you rushed off and published everything I told you--in confidence."
Roxie ignored this, as if Mixi hadn't spoken. "But, luckily for me, it was the very ship Chaz had chosen for a relaxing getaway. We met, and mrrowl, that was all it took."
"Oh, right, like I'm supposed to believe you're with him now," Mixi huffed, rolling her eyes. Her friends laughed again, more loudly.
"Oh, you don't have to believe me," Roxie said, smiling at the man who had approached as they spoke, and now stood behind Mixi and her friends, accompanied by an older man with silver hair and a forbidding frown on his face. "But maybe you'll believe my fiancé."
"Your--oh, that's rich," Mixi cried, her voice shrill, her eyes alight in anticipation. "What do you think, ladies? Do we believe her--or is our little journalist making up stories again? You and Chaz, engaged! Ha, ha, ha!" She laughed loudly.
But her friends had already sidled a few steps away, as if to divorce themselves from her physically. They were staring, eyes wide, lips parted.
It was a look Roxie had learned to recognize, and deal with whenever she went out in public with her fiancé.
She shook her head at him, and waited for him to smile ruefully and shrug as if to say, what could he do? Women loved him.