The Man Within (Feline Breeds Book 2)

by Lora Leigh

  This morning he was dressed in jeans that conformed to every muscle in his long legs and emphasized his tight, hard stomach. A black T-shirt was tucked into the waistband that was cinched with a plain, leather belt. On that belt he wore a holstered gun with such casual confidence that it seemed to be an extension of his body.

  “He’s going to call me a kitten one time too many,” Sherra muttered with low violence from beside Roni as she stared down at her coffee cup.

  The interactions among the small Pride of Feline Breeds fascinated Roni. They were completely loyal to each other and the other Breeds who had slowly been making their way to the estate set up for them. Like a large, extended family. They fussed and grumbled with each other, but they fought tenaciously for each other as well.

  “Kane, as always, your entrances leave much to be desired,” Merinus sighed as Callan chuckled in amusement.

  Merinus watched her brother and the slender Feline female, Sherra, with wary concern.

  “He takes some getting used to,” Taber told Roni as she glanced over at the tall, eagle-eyed man holding several reports in his hand as he poured his own coffee.

  Kane was dangerous. There was no other word for it. His eyes were deep pools of blue ice, suspicious and surging with an inner energy that made Roni nervous.

  Evidently, it made Sherra nervous as well. She shifted in her seat, casting the man a look of simmering anger.

  “Merinus, keep your ass in the house. Period. You and Ms. Andrews. I don’t know how the hell those snipers got into the compound, and the remaining one isn’t ready to play with us yet.” A cruel slash of a smile curved his lips as he leaned back against the counter, lifting the coffee cup for a tentative sip. It assured those watching that soon, the sniper left alive would be more than happy to play whatever game Kane suggested. She would have shivered at the thought if the situation weren’t so dangerous.

  “So, what have you managed to find out?” Callan asked quietly as he leaned back in his chair at the head of the table and watched the other man intently. “Other than the fact that our new friend is temporarily anti-social.”

  Kane grunted, scratching his cheek absently with the hand that still held several wrinkled pages of paper.

  “There’s a possibility this isn’t a Council job.” His voice turned decidedly more dangerous. “I’m not sure who is behind it yet, but we’re getting close. From what I’ve managed to gather, it’s leaning closer to a small, select group who believe the world is better off without your particular brand of genetics mixing into the soup pot.”

  Roni glanced at the expressions of the Breeds gathered around the large kitchen table. Their expressions varied between contempt and anger.

  “Hmm, wonder if they have nice, accessible daughters.” Roni’s eyes widened as she looked down the table at Tanner. The sexual threat inherent in his voice had surprised her.

  He was a Bengal Breed, Taber had told her, and he looked it.

  His thick, long black hair was lit with several shades of gold and framed his dark, intent face. He looked like a fallen angel, oozing sex appeal and lusty excesses. His amber gaze glittered angrily beneath his long sooty lashes as his eyes narrowed dangerously.

  Roni had known Tanner as long as she had Taber, and the young man, though friendly and flirtatious, had always held that cutting edge of perilous intent. As though he saw into the soul and often judged it harshly.

  “Tanner.” Callan grumbled a hard-edged warning.

  “Come on, Cal, I could mix the soup up for them right good,” the younger man snorted. “I won’t hurt anyone.”

  “We don’t have time for cat fights,” Kane snapped.

  He was rewarded by more than one growl and several animalistic snarls in response. The grin that crossed his lips was amused and easy, despite the threats that lay thick and unvoiced in the sound.

  “Get to the point, Kane,” Callan told him softly, but the very silkiness of his warning told Roni much more. The older Feline Breed was growing tired of the little digs Merinus’s brother was directing their way.

  The sniping didn’t make sense. The easy familiarity she had seen him display with the Breeds on other occasions had suggested he both respected and cared for the members of Callan’s pride. Yet his actions now hinted at a deeper tension.

  “Point is,” Kane set his coffee down and glanced down at the papers he held, “several radical members of previous race groups have decided to band together. They call themselves Liberators. Their main agenda is the death of any and all genetically altered humans. They don’t have a lot of money backing them, but they have firepower and several ex-military members. Looks like it’s hunting season, boys and girls. And guess who’s the catch of the day?”

  Silence reigned for long, tension-filled moments.

  “We expected this.” Despite his words, Callan’s voice was weary, saddened. “How close are we to finishing the security measures?”

  “Close.” Kane shrugged. “But no system is perfect, Callan. We have a lot of ground to cover and our perimeters are being tested from every angle. They’re quiet for the most part, not tipping their hands, but they’re watching. And rumor has it they’re attempting to put a spy in place.”

  Roni stiffened, her fists clenching in her lap as she fought to deny her own suspicions now.

  “So catch him,” Sherra snapped as she glanced over at Kane. “What are you here for, anyway? You socialize in the house more than you actually get any work done.”

  “At least I’m willing to be sociable.” His smile was tight, hard. “Unlike some of us in this house, I can actually manage to remain civil for more than five minutes at a time.”

  “Oh, really?” she drawled sarcastically. “Funny, I hadn’t noticed amid all the little snipes and half-veiled insults. Forgive me, Kane. I’m certain you’re doing your best.”

  His eyes narrowed. The scene playing out before Roni’s fascinated gaze was better than any soap opera ever invented.

  “Keep pushing me, Sherra, and you might not like the consequences.”

  Undercurrents of emotion thickened between the two of them.

  “I don’t like you . . . period.” She rose to her feet, glancing at Callan. “When you have real answers, Cal, let me know. All he has is his damned conspiracy theories and I’ve grown tired of them.”

  She swept out of the room, her head held high, a mane of long, incredibly thick blonde hair swaying past her shoulders and catching the light as she passed through the doorway.

  “One of these days . . . ” Kane muttered.

  “Leave her alone, Kane.” Merinus’s voice was flat and hard now. “You’re pushing too hard.”

  Her brother shot her a surprised look.

  “I’ll push harder before it’s over with,” he snapped, clearly believing that she was withholding the truth from him. “And you can watch it, or you can tell me what the hell the deal is. Your choice, Merri. Either way, I’ll get the answers I want.”

  “Enough already,” Callan ordered, his frustration level evidently reaching its breaking point as he stood to his feet and faced the other man. “Deal with your personal life off my time, Kane.” Then he turned to the youngest of the Breed males. “Tanner, go into town tonight. See what you can find out from those sources you have in place. I want to know who and what is involved in all this.”

  “I’d start asking our new visitor first.” The rough, grumbling voice that entered the fray came from the kitchen doorway.

  Roni recognized the Breed from the night before. Merc, she thought they had called him. He stared at them with placid, deep brown eyes, but nothing could hide the aura of death surrounding him.

  “Meaning?” Callan asked him softly.

  “Meaning, I caught him trying to sneak around the weapons shed earlier. When I put a stop to that, one of the men assigned to watch him caught him trying to break into the communications offices. That boy has the Grim Reaper sittin’ on his shoulder, Callan. And I’m of a mind to set that dark d
emon free.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “I want you to make Reginald leave now.” Roni turned to face Taber as they entered the sheltered garden area outside the kitchen.

  It was the only outside area Taber and the others would allow the women to go to when the house became too stifling. It was a large courtyard, but stretching overhead, from wall to wall, were thick wooden beams holding a multitude of sheltering vines. Even in the full heat of the day it was a cool escape from the tension slowly filling the house.

  She moved deeper into the small grotto, brushing against the thick, sheltering shrubs and low growing trees that had been placed around a central fountain.

  A variety of flowering bushes filled the air with the heady scent of their blooms. The fountain splashed playfully, infusing the area with moisture, lending to it an air of sensuality and relaxation. An atmosphere she fought desperately as she tried to convince Taber to have her father escorted from the estate.

  She laid her palm against her abdomen, trying to still the nerves that roiled within her stomach. The severe heat that had afflicted her over the past days was steadily easing. She was pregnant and she knew it.

  “Roni, let us do our job,” Taber told her softly as she turned back to him, watching her with a warmth, a caring she couldn’t face yet.

  “And what exactly is your job?” she asked him bitterly. “Standing around waiting on someone to kill you? Waiting for Reginald to do whatever he came here to do?”

  “My job is to contain any threat to this estate.” His voice was pitched low, but she heard the rough grumble that echoed in his chest. “Do you think I can’t protect you?”

  Roni rolled her eyes in frustration. “It has nothing to do with my faith in you and everything to do with what I know Reginald is capable of.” Her hand sliced through the air between them as she went nose to nose with him.

  She could feel the fear building in her, feel the sick, awful sensation in the pit of her stomach that warned her that Reginald was scheming at his worse. It had been in his gaze, in the calculating demand as he was pulled from the house the night before. He was neck-deep in trouble and determined to pull her into it as well.

  “You forget, I know him just as well as you do, Roni,” he reminded her carefully. “I know what he’s capable of.”

  She hated that restrained sound to his voice. As though he was choosing each word, each move with her. As though he only gave her the parts of himself that he wanted her to see.

  “Why give him the chance, Taber?” She wanted to scream at him, but she kept her voice to a careful hiss as she paced farther along the courtyard. “Why? The risk is too great.”

  “What can he do?” Taber asked her logically. She hated logic. She hated his logic. So cool and confident. “We need to know who hired him and what he wants. If we run him off, we may not know until it’s too late to contain the threat. We can’t risk that.”

  “You’re risking your life instead.” She shook her head, pushing her trembling hands into the pockets of her jeans as she sat down on one of the wide stone benches at the farthest edge of the courtyard.

  “My life is at risk every day, baby.” He sighed roughly as he sat down beside her, pulling her into his arms. “You think I don’t know what you’re fighting so hard? That I don’t know you’re carrying my child, Roni? That I couldn’t sense the change in your body as it happened?”

  She stiffened in his arms, wondering how he could be so certain when she only suspected it. “You can’t be certain of that.”

  “Merinus went out of heat when she conceived. The desperate need isn’t driving you insane now. It’s easing.” He nuzzled her neck, his warm breath blowing across her skin with such pleasure she shivered.

  “That doesn’t mean anything.” She tried to shrug him away, to keep her mind from becoming clouded with need as another, more intense heat began to fill her. “Just because Merinus is pregnant doesn’t mean I am.”

  The natural desire was something she thought she would never feel again.

  Something she could have done without. She could have denied the hold Taber had on her so much easier if he didn’t make her crazy to fuck him with just the feel of his breath on her neck.

  She arched involuntarily into the caress, her breath catching on a sigh of longing. The shaded grotto-like atmosphere suddenly turned heated, too moist, sensitizing her, sucking her into the earthy lust that always shook her at the mere sight of him.

  He chuckled. The sound was low, heated, as he lifted her against him, turning her until she sat draped across his lap.

  “Let me up.” She struggled against him, but knew her heart wasn’t in being released.

  His arms held her easily as he looked at her, his eyes narrowing, becoming darker, more intense. Roni shivered under the look. “I still want to fuck you crazy. Right here, Roni,” he whispered wickedly as his hand slid up her thigh, beneath her soft cotton shirt then curled around the curve of her breast.

  Roni felt her nipples peak in throbbing expectation. They throbbed, ached for his touch, his mouth, anticipating the feel of his tongue rasping over them erotically. Her womb clenched in need, her pussy weeping, preparing for the invasion that every cell of her body screamed out for.

  “Someone will see us.” She fought not to pant. “Besides, we were arguing . . . ”

  “You were arguing. I was disagreeing,” he pointed out, his voice less than patient as he pushed her shirt over the full mounds of her breasts. “And I have finished disagreeing and will now begin feasting.”

  Her sex throbbed at the sound of his voice, her nipples aching as his head lowered. Roni watched, seeing the sudden sensual fullness of his lips as they opened, his tongue as it curled around the stiff peak first, searing it with a blistering pleasure.

  “Oh God, Taber.” She couldn’t stop her desperate moan as his mouth then covered the engorged tip.

  His tongue swirled with wet heat around the sensitized bud, his mouth drawing on her, cheeks flexing. Roni couldn’t help but watch. It was the most sinfully sensual sight she had ever seen. His dark face flushed with arousal . . . for her. It was for her. His attention solely on the pleasure he took from suckling her nipple, the pleasure he gave was nearly orgasmic.

  His hand held the sensitive flesh, pushing the mound higher, intensifying her sensations as his tongue stroked over the elongated tip. She could feel her juices gathering from within her suddenly clenching vagina then spilling past the narrow channel, coating the rapidly sensitizing lips of her cunt. Her clit ached, pulsed in time to the rhythmic suckling of his mouth.

  He moaned against her, the sound vibrating along nerve endings that screamed out for relief.

  “Delicious.” He lifted his head, her nipple falling from his mouth with a smooth, moist popping sound. “Come here, baby, let me undress you. I’ll show you . . . ”

  “Taber, I need you back in here if you have time.” Callan’s voice called through the courtyard. “We’ll be waiting for you in the office.”

  The intrusion was like a bucket of ice water, sweeping over Roni as she stiffened in Taber’s arms, her eyes widening in alarm. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten about the inhabitants of the house. How easily they could step outside and be witness to the erotic love play behind the shelter of the thickened foliage surrounding them.

  “Dammit, he left me the hell alone while you were in heat,” he muttered. “Now he’ll be interrupting me every damned chance he gets.”

  “What?” She shook her head as she moved quickly from his lap, jerking her shirt back over her breasts. “Why?”

  Taber winced as he stood, the ridge of his erection pressing thick and hard against the front of his jeans.

  “I did it to him.” He shrugged unapologetically. “We all did. Hell, still do if we get the chance. He gets irritated.” There was an almost lighthearted grin on his face that tugged at her heart.

  How often had she seen such a smile on his face? His eyes were almost glowing with humo
r, his lips tipped into a comfortable smile. Boyish.

  Amazement washed over Roni as she realized what was so different about this smile, this look. She had never seen it on his face before, had never known him to relax enough to allow any playfulness out.

  “I wish he had just kicked you, instead of waiting to punish me as well,” she sighed roughly. “Go on, do whatever you were going to do. I want to sit here for a while.” She sat back down on the bench, her knees weak, her heart beating roughly as she stared up at him.

  God help her, he was too handsome for words and she was terrified of losing him again. Maybe this time, permanently.

  “I’ll be back soon.” He knelt in front of her then, his gaze meeting hers as he placed his palm against her lower stomach. “Stay in the house, Roni, until I can get back. Take care of our baby.”

  Static pleasure washed over her body at the sound of his voice. It was husky, deep, caressing her nerve endings like a physical touch. But even more than the husky throb of his words was the unvoiced emotion behind them.

  “You can’t be sure.” She shook her head, confused by the shifting awareness that she felt.

  It wasn’t just the lessening of the unnatural arousal; it was the acceptance within herself. She was learning it wasn’t so much her body that couldn’t stand life without Taber; it was her heart, her soul.

  How bleak and empty her life had been before he made her live again. Made her fight, made her learn to be who she was. In a few short days, he had given her the very things she had longed for the most: his heart to nurture, his soul to protect, his body to enjoy and love to her heart’s content, and a family. With Taber and the child they had created she had all she had ever dreamed of.

  “I can smell the changes in your body,” he whispered. “Just as I could smell your heat, I can smell our child. Do you have any idea the pleasure that brings me, Roni? I, who had nothing, no one to call my own in all the years of my life, now have not only you, but the child we’ve created together.”