The Wallflower

by Dana Marie Bell

  “If I was a vampire, yes, it would.” Max grinned, his eyes glinting oddly in the moonlight.

  “Oh. So I’m going to start baying at the moon, then.” She nodded sagely.

  “No, baby, you’re going to purr,” he purred, licking his mark with a rough, raspy tongue.

  Emma shivered. “You know, this has to be the oddest way a man’s tried to get in my pants in ages.”

  He snarled warningly, the sound oddly cat-like and strangely familiar. “Didn’t we say we wouldn’t discuss you and other men?”

  “Max, you’re not making any sense. Now, let me call Simon and we can discuss getting your Thorazine prescription renewed…”

  Max strangled a laugh, lifting his head from her neck. “Look at my eyes, Emma.”

  She looked. Then she blinked. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out. His eyes had turned to pure molten gold, shining in the moonlight with an eerie luminescence that one only saw in the eyes of…cats.

  “Contact lenses?” she asked weakly.

  He shook his head and blinked, his eyes that quickly turning back to sunshine blue.

  “You’re a, what? Werecat?”

  “Puma, actually.”

  “Puma,” she repeated weakly, dropping back to lean against the Durango’s door. “And you bit me, so now I’m going to roar at the full moon?”

  He sighed. “Actually, Puma’s can’t roar, we’re missing the necessary parts. Specialized larynx and hyoid apparatus, to be precise. And we can change at will, we aren’t ruled by the moon.”

  “Oh.” Emma’s head was reeling. “Can you show me?”

  Max frowned. “Show you?”

  “Yeah.” Emma straightened up, half terrified and half excited at the prospect of seeing him change. She waved her hand at him commandingly. “Change. Become a cat.”

  “Now?”

  “Yeah, now! What, you need to wait for the full moon? I thought you said you could change at will?”

  “Emma—”

  “I mean, why tell me this at all if you weren’t willing to, I dunno, prove it or something?”

  “Emma—”

  He was starting to sound all snarly again. “So c’mon, Lion-O, hop to it.” She clapped, loud and sharp. “Chop-chop!”

  “Emma!”

  “What?”

  “Have you ever seen a cougar in Levi’s?”

  “No.”

  “Neither have I.” He looked like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh or yowl.

  “You mean you’d have to…” Emma eyed his jeans speculatively.

  “Yes.”

  “Oh.”

  “And if my ass is naked, baby, you’d better believe yours will be too.”

  Emma put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Isn’t this why you brought me all the way out here, to show me your Incredible Cougar Act?”

  “Puma.”

  “Whatever.”

  “No.”

  “Then why?”

  “I figured if you screamed no one would hear you.”

  Emma blinked. “Gee, Max, you’re all heart.” He had the grace to blush. “So, because you bit me, and released your enzyme thingy in me, I’m going to change into a puma?”

  Max nodded.

  “Does it hurt?”

  Max shook his head. His eyes had glued themselves to her neck, the hunger in them getting stronger by the second.

  “When?”

  “When what?” he asked absently, his hand drifting down to her arm before moving to stroke the bite mark.

  “When will I change, Max?”

  “I changed within the first forty-eight hours after I got bit.”

  Emma gasped in sympathetic horror. “Is that why you left and never came back, Max? Because you got bit?”

  “No, I was bit because I was next in line to be Alpha.”

  Emma shook her head. “Okay, now I’m totally confused. Maybe I’ve got food poisoning from my seafood alfredo and I’m actually in the hospital having hallucinations and heaving into a bucket,” she muttered.

  Max laughed as he focused once again on her face. “Want me to prove you’re wide awake?” One hand snaked out, gently cupping her breast. His thumb raked across her nipple, shooting sparks straight down to her clit.

  “Oh boy,” Emma whispered. “Okay, I’m awake.” She pulled reluctantly away from his caressing hand, determined to focus on the whole Emma-as-a-cat thing. With growing confusion, she rubbed at her forehead. “Can you please explain before my brain explodes?”

  “Jonathon Friedelinde was Alpha before me. His daughter didn’t show Alpha tendencies, so a competition was held to determine who was strong enough to be the next Alpha. Simon and I overheard Marie and some of her friends whispering about the competition and we both entered, not knowing what the hell we were getting into, or what the prize was. Jonathon forgot to make the contest Puma only, which I pointed out to him with great, annoying frequency until he relented and let us in.” Max shrugged. “I came in first, Simon came in second. What really bothered some people was the fact that Simon and I were both still human when we won, against some who’d been Pumas since childhood.”

  “So you knew about the Pumas even before you entered the contest?”

  “I was friends with Marie for years, saw her change once.”

  Emma stared at him in growing horror, thinking of all the ways a Puma could rip into a man. “You could have been killed!”

  Max seemed completely unconcerned. “If it had been a duel to the death, yeah, we both would have died. Instead it was a test of endurance, intelligence and cunning, and probably the most fun either of us has ever had. And sometimes I think the only reason we won was because no one was allowed to shift.”

  “What was the test, paintball? Capture the flag?”

  Max grinned. “Something like that, but a lot more complicated.” Max reached out and wrapped his hand around the nape of her neck, seemingly unable to go for any length of time without touching her somehow. The gesture was surprisingly comforting. “Jonathon bit us both that night, to our surprise. I was twenty, Simon nineteen.”

  She reached up and gently stroked his cheek. “And confused as all hell, I’ll bet.”

  He leaned into her caress, his eyes closing in pleasure. “We got used to it, and as soon as Jonathon stepped down I came home and named Simon my Beta.”

  “Beta?”

  “Mm-hmm, my second-in-command.”

  “You said I’m your mate,” Emma whispered as Max pulled her into his arms.

  “My Curana.”

  “Your who-wadda?”

  She could feel Max’s laughter rumbling through his chest. “My Curana. Mate to the Alpha. It’s supposedly a name derived from the Portuguese word for cougar.”

  “Oh.”

  Emma allowed Max to pull her head gently to his chest. She snuggled into his warmth, inhaling his unique scent, oddly comforted by his presence. “So,” he rumbled, “we’ve done the dinner and fight.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Come home with me, little Curana. I want to make love to you. I want to be inside you the next time you come.”

  Emma shivered as she heard the low, rumbling purr emanating from him. “Max?”

  “Hmm?” His hand started to stroke up and down her back, gently nudging her towards the SUV.

  “Will I have to use a litter box?”

  “Emma!”

  Chapter Four

  Max took his time driving her home. He wanted to savor having her next to him for as long as possible. “Do you open tomorrow, or does Becky?”

  Emma turned towards him. She’d been far away, and he’d left her to her thoughts. After all, he’d dumped a remarkable amount of information on her in a short amount of time, and she’d handled it remarkably well. He was so proud of her he was ready to burst with it.

  “Actually, I close tomorrow and Becky opens. Becks closes Saturday.”

  Max smiled in pure anticipation. “Good. We can ta
ke our time tonight. Adrian’s got the early morning, I have late shift.”

  Her shiver of response was enough to send heat flooding his system.

  “Emma?”

  “Hmm?”

  He was truly curious about her responses, so he asked, “You took everything I told you really well.”

  “I’ve never understood the woe-is-me thing. I mean, the hottest guy in town just told me he wants me badly enough to bite me and make me like him, and now he wants to drag me home and ravish me. I’m going to, what, run screaming into the night? Oh, no! I’m a Puma now! My life is over! Sob!” Emma rolled her eyes. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s still freaking me out a bit, and it’s probably going to cost me a fortune in bikini waxing, but it’s not the end of my world.”

  Max nearly ran off the road. “You get a bikini wax?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “Hell yes.”

  Her laughter filled up all the empty places inside him he hadn’t even known were there.

  “If Simon and Becky get together, does that mean he’ll bite her?”

  Max nodded. “If he wants to mate her, he’ll have to bite her. And from what he told me, he wants to mate her.”

  Emma gave him a speculative look out of the corner of her eye. “How many women have you bitten?”

  “As a mate, or to turn?”

  Emma growled, startled at how possessive she felt. “How many mates do you have?”

  “Only one, Curana.” He took his hand off the steering wheel to stroke the back of her neck soothingly.

  Emma still glared at him. “And how many women have you turned?”

  “Two, not counting you.”

  “Oh?”

  Max grinned at her possessive tone. “One as a favor to Jonathon, one because it was the only way I could think of to fix a problem she had. And, no, I can’t explain it further than that; it’s not my secret to tell.”

  “Did you have sex with the women you turned?” His slight wince was all the answer she needed. “Who?”

  “Emma…”

  “Who? Livia.”

  Max sighed. “Livia.”

  Emma groaned. “How did I know you were going to say that?”

  “What can I say? I was young and stupid.”

  “Was she the favor or the problem?”

  “Jonathon asked me to turn her. Maybe he thought, since Marie and I didn’t hit it off, that Livia would turn out to be my mate.”

  “Especially since the two of you were already doing the mattress mambo?”

  Max flushed. “We broke up soon after that.”

  Emma remembered the circumstances of the break up, and winced. “So it had nothing to do with how she insulted me,” she muttered, not thinking about how that would sound.

  “It had everything to do with how she insulted you.” When she looked at him, confused, he smiled. It wasn’t pleasant. “She was very good at hiding how much of a bitch she really is. I broke up with her that night over what she said about you, and what she wanted to do about Becky’s punch stunt.” He shuddered. “She’s been on my tail since I got back into town. So far nothing I’ve done has gotten her to leave me alone.” Max’s smile was cheerful. “But I have the feeling you won’t have that problem.”

  Max turned into his driveway and pressed the button to open the garage door. He lived in a lovely historic house his parents had left to him when they retired to Florida. The home was craftsman in style, built early in the twentieth century, and had been lovingly restored by the entire Cannon family. The dark gray gable roof was set off by rich mahogany brown shingles and bright white trim work, with rich red fieldstone set around the base of the house. The front had that beautiful pillar and post design, with a covered porch that wrapped around to the left side of the house. The elder Cannons had added on a two-car garage and utility room to the right side of the house. They’d made the extension look like just another part of the house by having the garage entrance on the side rather than the front. The windows along the front matched the rest of the house. Emma had never been inside, but she’d always admired it from afar.

  Max pulled into the garage and turned off the Durango. He reached up and pressed a button, closing the garage door behind them. He turned to her with a solemn joy that startled her.

  “Welcome home, Curana.”

  Emma opened her mouth to reply, but he was already getting out of the SUV. She hopped out on her own, ignoring the amused shake of his head. He waited for her to round the hood of the car before opening the door into the utility room.

  She started to step through the door but he startled her. With a swift move he picked her up, ignoring her gasp of surprise. He carried her into the utility room. “Get the door, will you?”

  She reached out with a foot and kicked the door shut.

  He laughed. “The other one.”

  She leaned down and opened the door into the rest of the house.

  He carried her into a kitchen straight out of her fantasies. It was laid out in a u-shape with simple arts and crafts style cherry cabinets with silver handles. Stainless steel appliances gleamed in the gentle light Max had left on, their lines set off by the beautiful black granite countertops. Cherry hardwood covered the floors from the kitchen into the breakfast area off on the right where a round table and four Shaker style chairs sat. The windows in the breakfast nook ran nearly floor to ceiling, with a simple geometric design set into the top panel. He’d painted the walls a rich sage green and the traditional trim around the windows a bright white.

  Without pausing, Max carried her through the kitchen, past the breakfast nook and into the great room. The sage green walls, cherry floors and white trim carried through into this room. A vaulted ceiling with skylights gave the room the feeling of being huge. A large reddish brown leather sofa dominated the great room. It rested on a bold area rug done in a geometric pattern of reds, blacks and greens. It faced a set of built-in cherry cabinets along one wall that doubled as the entertainment center with bookshelves on either side. The fireplace, on the opposite wall, was decorated with the same fieldstone that was outside the house. She caught a glimpse of the huge double doors at the front of the house before Max carried her past the fireplace down a short corridor and through another door.

  A king size cherry wood sleigh bed dominated the room. It was covered in a crazy quilt of geometric designs in bold blues, reds and blacks. He’d painted the walls a warm terra cotta, with framed black and white prints by Escher, whimsical brain twisters that would normally capture her attention but, now, barely registered.

  She could make out the master bathroom through the open doorway, barely. The cabinets in there appeared to match the ones in the kitchen, but the room was dominated by the massive oval tub, surrounded by rich, highly polished tumbled stones inset with black ceramic diamonds. The same tumbled stone was on the floor. The room had been painted a dark red wine color.

  Emma realized Max had stopped moving. Looking up at him, she found him staring down at her with a quizzical look. “Well?”

  Emma blushed. She’d been rubbernecking in Max’s house, trying to take in everything at once. “It’s incredible.”

  He smiled with satisfaction. “If there’s anything you want to change, you’ll have to let me know.” Gently he placed her on the quilt. “This is now as much your house as mine.”

  Emma’s mouth fell open as he toed off his shoes and socks. “You’re kidding me, right?”

  Max began unbuttoning his shirt, diverting her attention from his whole “Mi casa es su casa” attitude. “I was in Simon’s shop when you called about the Madonna, you know.”

  “Oh. Really?” she replied absently. She could barely speak as Max unveiled the finest chest it had ever been her privilege to see. It was lightly sprinkled with light brown hairs, trailing down his stomach to point directly into his pants. Dark brown nipples peeped out from the hair, tempting her into some very sinful thoughts.

  “Yes, I was. And yo
u know what?”

  Emma didn’t know her own name; Max was unbuttoning his jeans. “Um, nope.”

  “You live up to your voice,” Max purred as he slipped his jeans down his legs.

  “Urgh,” Emma choked, “naked.” She could feel her eyes bugging out of her head. Max went commando. A sinful buffet of man-flesh was laid out before her in one single sweep of his hands. She didn’t know whether to sigh or to sob.

  “Yes, I am.” Max laughed huskily. “Now it’s your turn.”

  Emma bit her lip, a sudden attack of shyness nearly paralyzing her. Max didn’t know it yet, but he’d be her first, and from the look on his face she’d better tell him soon.

  “Max?” Emma sat there, her hands clenched in her lap, her gaze riveted to his cock. The thing looked huge, all veined and red, and pointed straight at her. A small drop of liquid seeped from the slit. It twitched a salute to her rapt attention.

  “Yes, Emma?”

  Her gaze lifted to his; unknown to her, they’d turned pure, molten gold. “You remember the talk of other men?”

  He growled low in his throat and crawled onto the bed.

  “Eep,” she whispered, lying down as he prowled up her body.

  “You were saying?” he whispered huskily as he settled his naked body between her thighs. He brushed against her cheek with his lips, a caress so soft she barely felt it. It sent a shiver down her spine. Those same lips continued their incredible journey, trailing down the side of her neck to settle on the bite he’d given her outside the restaurant. Goose bumps raced up and down her arms as he moved his hips in a sinuous motion, brushing his naked cock against her mound.

  “Um, there weren’t,” she squeaked, unconsciously arching up into his body as he scrapped his teeth along his mark.

  “Weren’t what?” he muttered, one hand moving up to start sliding her camisole up her stomach. He paused long enough to caress her there, trailing fire in his wake.

  “Any other men.”

  His hand stopped.

  His mouth stopped.

  His hips stopped. She was really sad when his hips stopped.

  “You’re a virgin?” His voice sounded oddly strangled.