Cat O' Nines: Cat's Claws

by Lia Connor

  The mocha-colored male made a “harrumph” noise and scowled at his friend.

  “Don’t mind him. He gets cranky when it’s this hot.” The tawny one extended his hand to Gabriella. “I’m Derek. He’s Benjamin.”

  Gabriella laughed. “Interesting names for men like you.”

  “You expected something showier?”

  “I did, yes.”

  “You’d be right. It’s just easier to say ‘Derek’ than it is to say ‘Ixpapalotl’.” He pursed his lips briefly around the neck of his bottle, the blatantly sensual move speeding up Gabriella’s heartbeat. “A lot easier to scream ‘Derek’ when you’re coming, too.”

  “Derek!” Benjamin growled.

  Derek ignored him. “I can smell you,” he purred. “You’re like one of our women, all heat and juice. Aching to get fucked.”

  “Sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

  “When I see a sure thing.”

  “You think I’m a whore?” This, Gabriella didn’t think was nearly as funny. She wasn’t a prude by any means, no matter what Lucia said; it was more that she had some common sense when it came to men and picked her partners carefully.

  Usually.

  “Not a whore,” Derek said, considering her. “You’re a lady all the way. A ripe, lush woman who knows what she wants.”

  “She smells nervous to me,” Benjamin said, sounding as if this was a warning. Hmm. So maybe they’d tried to pick up human women before, and maybe it hadn’t worked out so well? Gabriella couldn’t say she was surprised. Women would either be curious about the Catkind or terrified of them.

  “Nervous doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere.” Gabriella thrust her breasts forward, glad she’d worn the lacy black strapless bra that night. Lifted and supported, her tits were fit to tempt the most discriminating man, or so she liked to tell herself. “If you need anything -- anything -- all you have to do is ask. I’ll be here like that.” She snapped her fingers and pouted her lips at Derek. He seemed like the most likely candidate.

  Hell, she might have tried to take Mr. Sexy-Mouth Talker for a ride even if Lucia hadn’t snarled her up in a bet.

  “Trust me, I’ll ask for something as soon as I can get Benjamin here to chill out.” Derek raised his bottle to her. “Talk to you soon, cutie.”

  Gabriella took a moment to enjoy her swell of pride and the rising heat in her cunt, growing damp at the thought of rolling in a bed with Derek.

  And hey, if Benjamin wanted to play, she’d be fine with that. She’d like to tease the soberness right out of him. With a sensual mouth like his, Benjamin would make one hell of a lover.

  Gabriella winked at the two and walked away, swinging her hips.

  * * *

  Derek waited until the hot ticket he’d set his sights on walked out of earshot before turning back to Benjamin. He damn near wiggled on his barstool from glee. “She’s the one, Benjie. I know it right here.” He thumped his chest. “Didn’t I tell you so? I felt it as soon as we walked in the bar. That sexy black Latina is our mate.”

  “Maybe so.”

  Benjamin fingered the bar, noticing, Derek knew, the care that their mate put into its upkeep. Derek stifled a groan, imagining the rough touch of Benjamin’s claw put to better use, tormenting his balls. He loved the way the man could turn him on like a light switch.

  “You still need to treat her like a lady.”

  “I am. I’m treating her like a lady I want to taste. Like a lady I want to make feel sexier than she ever has before.”

  “And you really think she’s our…” Benjamin hesitated. “Our mate? Really? We’ve been looking for a long time, Derek.”

  “You’re telling me you didn’t feel it? Didn’t smell her scent and the way it mixed just right with ours?”

  Benjamin looked away. Derek huffed. His male mate could be one stubborn bastard, and he had ideas about acting like the Catkind Lord he’d once been.

  Not any more. Derek relished the old memories of telling the Pride to piss off. Anything for his main man, eh? And that meant showing Benjamin how important it was to find their lady.

  “All I’m saying is that you should show her some manners,” Benjamin grumbled. “Don’t treat her like the village lay.”

  “Cross my heart.” Derek extended a claw and drew it in an X over his chest. “Have I ever led you wrong?”

  Ah-ha, exactly as he’d hoped, the severe line of Benjamin’s lips softened, begging for a kiss that Derek was happy to deliver. “Follow my lead,” he murmured as he pulled reluctantly away from the malty taste of Mocteczuma on Benjamin’s mouth. “And I swear I’ll be good. But I will make love to her, tonight if I can, and so will you. Don’t tell me you don’t want to hit that.” He waved after their mate and her heart-shaped ass displayed so sensually in her tight jeans. “Perfecto.”

  “Okay, I’m in.” Benjamin stole kiss from Derek in return. “But we all know who the real slut around here is.”

  Derek preened. He put the tomcat into “catting around” and never thought twice. Who wanted to waste time wringing their hands when they could enjoy a fast, hot screw?

  Of course, the rest of the Catkind didn’t think so. They didn’t like the notion of two of their young soldiers mating with each other and they’d string both Derek and Benjamin up if they knew either had decided to tangle with a human.

  So screw them. They had no right to say what he or Benjamin could or couldn’t do, and as far as Derek was concerned, that meant they could enjoy each other and life and look outside the Catkind for their third if they wanted to.

  Damn good thing, too. This Gabriella, she was the one they needed. Wanted. Derek had started dreaming about what she’d look like naked underneath him, those amazing breasts bared for him to suck while Benjamin ate her pussy.

  If Benjamin could loosen up. He was tense as a gilded idol, his long black jaguar’s tail wrapped three times around the leg of the barstool.

  Derek sighed. “How did I end up with you?” he gibed, sneaking his hand under the bar to rest on his male mate’s groin. Oh, hey, very nice. He loved the feel of a hot, hard cock under his palm, especially Benjamin’s. He’d known from the first time they touched that the rules could go to hell. They were meant for something more.

  Benjamin’s expression didn’t change where it could be seen, but under cover of the shadows, he raised his hips to hump Derek’s hand. “Better deliver on what you’re promising.”

  “Until you can’t take any more,” Derek vowed, letting his eyelids droop to half mast. “All. Night. Long.”

  Benjamin’s eyes flashed green, their ovoid pupil elongating. Derek wanted to have him right then and there. “With her,” Derek goaded. “You’ll see, lover.”

  * * *

  Gabriella had no clue what the two were talking about, but she recognized the telltale signs of horny men. Looked like they weren’t that different from humans, not where it mattered.

  Suited her fine.

  She caught a glimpse of Lucia peeking through the tiny hatch that led from the kitchen to the bar, mostly used for passing plates of nachos and cups of salsa verde to the barmaids, and smirked. Time to take the next step.

  She slinked back over to Derek and Benjamin, the excitement and heat throbbing in her pussy and tingling in her nipples increasing at the sight of Derek’s lazy, sexy smile and the warming approval in Benjamin’s pretty green eyes. Ooh, his pupils had changed. They were oval like a cat’s. Didn’t throw her, though.

  Picking up a glass to polish, she said, offhandedly, “So are you two passing through town?”

  She knew Derek saw right through her blatant ploy. “We’re staying the night, at least.”

  “Oh, really? Where?”

  “A couple of towns over, in high-falutin’ land.”

  “Shut up, Derek,” Benjamin warned him. “We have a room at the Madrid Villa,” Benjamin put in, naming the most expensive and luxurious hotel the nearby big, rich town, Santa Carla, had to offer. Gabriella’s eyes widened.
She’d heard the wild stories about all the wealth the Catkind had gathered over millennia. Were they true?

  “Nice place. Big beds. There’s plenty of room to share if anyone’s interested.”

  Okay, blatant for blatant. Gabriella could work with what she’d been given. “Anyone in mind?”

  “I think you know,” Derek informed her. Ooh, Dios, she could feel his hot, downy hands on her breasts right now. Her damp pussy burned for the thrust of his finger and the rasp of his tongue. So maybe she was easy for him. Who could blame her?

  “When do you get off?” Benjamin asked, surprising Gabriella a little. She still couldn’t read him, but hey, if he showed an interest too, she’d enjoy the two for one bargain. The long, tall, strong Catkind promised hidden power in his coiled muscles and he had such a gentleman’s way about him. “You could come visit with us.”

  This just got better and better. “Are you going to make it worth my while?”

  “Damn right.” Derek stood, kicking the barstool back. He took Gabriella’s chin between his fingers and lifted her lips for a kiss. She moaned at the touch of his tongue, as rough and as nimble as she could possibly have hoped for. She sensed the warm, light pressure of a long-fingered hand on her forearm and knew that, n his way, Benjamin was getting in on the act.

  When Derek let her go, Gabriella was breathing quickly. She licked her lips, slightly swollen from the force of Derek’s kiss.

  Before she could say anything, Derek produced one of the Madrid’s key cards from the front pocket of his jeans. Oh, my. Gabriella liked what she saw pressing against his zipper, the outline of a long, stunning cock she ached to trace and lick.

  Derek probably knew it, too. He blew her a kiss as he handed the thin rectangle of plastic over. “So, are you in? Not gonna be a fraidy-cat, are you?” His smirk told Gabriella he’d chosen the phrase on purpose.

  She loved this Catkind man’s brash nerve. Gabriella took the key card and tucked it in her cleavage. “I don’t get off until 4 a.m., but I guess I could delegate clean-up and till counting to my brother Tony. That’d get me there a little earlier.”

  “We don’t mind staying up late.” Benjamin lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them. “We’ll wait up for you, beautiful. Agreed?”

  “Trust me,” Gabriella murmured, thrilling to the dreams filling her thoughts, “there’s no way I’d miss this.”

  Chapter Three

  “Until later, Angel,” Derek called back, savoring one last look at the dark-eyed, dark-skinned beauty he planned to claim in every possible way. Her lips, red with no help from any paint, curved in a wide smile over her white teeth. He blew her a kiss.

  God love her, she turned to “catch” the kiss on the smooth curve of her cheek.

  Nothing got Derek hotter than a deep-hued lady. He burned hot and fast at the sight of her mocha skin contrasted to his own paleness when their arms and legs tangled together, straining for more depth to his kiss, a deeper thrust of his ready cock in her pussy, and his finger circling the rosy bud hidden between the cheeks of her ass. There wasn’t a single part of a woman he didn’t go nuts for and he did his best to let them know exactly how much they did for him. His cock and his tongue were theirs while they let him lavish them with all he had to give.

  The same applied to Benjamin. To look at the long, tall drink of water, Derek knew men and women alike, Catkind or not, would seriously doubt Benjamin could ever bend far enough to kiss a lady’s hand, much less approach her with sex on his mind.

  Those fools hadn’t seen Benjamin when he let his hair down, his long legs drawn up to his chest, ass held open in his urgent hands; they hadn’t heard the way he roared, deep and throaty as a lion, when Derek tongued his hole or fucked him with his fingers.

  And the sounds Benjamin made when Derek plunged into his tight ass… God, yes. Derek kissed his fingertips and flaunted them at Benjamin, who’d been quiet since well before they’d left Gatos. Too quiet to Derek, who knew the signs.

  He swung around to walk backwards, hands stuffed in his pockets, gibing at his serious lover with the mockery in his grin. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”

  “Why go for subtlety when you can use the A-bomb approach?” Benjamin commented, dry as dust.

  “Fuck subtlety.” Derek considered for a moment. “Nah. I’d rather fuck you.”

  “Charming as ever.”

  “Since when does charming have a single damn thing to do with sex?” Derek demanded. “Are you huffing estrogen again?”

  Benjamin dealt Derek a severe frown. “Do you want me to whip out my dick so you can bite me?”

  “Ooh, nasty. Do it.”

  Benjamin groped his cock and waggled his tongue. “Like this?”

  “Nice,” Derek approved with a leer. He loved to egg Benjamin on when his male mate was in this mood, begging to be aroused out of a snit. He rolled his pelvis and not so incidentally displaying the erection he’d sprouted the instant he’d first inhaled the rich, ripe womanly scent of the female mate they were destined to share. Their third. She’d affected Benjamin as much as she had Derek, for damn sure. Benjamin’s hard-on kind of gave him away.

  On the other hand, if the boner he sported was all for Derek, Derek wouldn’t complain until after he’d fucked his male mate into jelly -- or gotten fucked. Either choice sounded good.

  Benjamin toyed with the tab on his zipper. “You’re serious? You’d go right here, right now?”

  “Damn right I would.” Derek licked his lips, already able to taste the salt and musk of Benjamin’s hardened dick. He palmed his own cock and squeezed, stifling a curse at how good the harsh grip felt. “Say the word, Benjie. I’m all yours.”

  “All yours.” Benjamin’s passion darkened. “So what happens when she joins us? You’re all hers? Do we trade her back and forth?”

  “No! Do you really think I’d do that to you, or to her? Please,” Derek scoffed.

  “Fine.” Benjamin stopped in his tracks, glaring away from Derek. “You’re the boss.”

  He meant the Alpha male of their strange little pack of two, and Derek wasn’t going to correct him there. He would, however, pistol-whip the pissiness out of his male mate if he had to. As soon as he figured out what was going on. It wasn’t like Benjamin had been opposed to finding a female third. He’d cheered Derek on all the way, until tonight.

  So what was it about the delectable Gabriella that blackened his mood?

  Derek sighed. He sucked at heart-to-hearts, but for Benjamin, he could try. “All right. I give. Honest question for your honest answer. What’s wrong?”

  Benjamin ran his hand through his hair and tugged at the tufted tip of his pointed ear. He huffed out a long, cranky breath. “I don’t know,” he said at last. “Gabriella. She doesn’t feel wrong, but when I’m near her, I… hell, I don’t know.”

  “I think that’s called sexual magnetism.”

  “Screw you.”

  “Don’t tell me you don’t want to screw her.”

  Benjamin snorted. “As if I’m that much of a fool. Sitting there in that smoky little bar, I couldn’t think of anything else except hauling her over to straddle my cock so I could take her pussy, no waiting.”

  “Damn,” Derek remarked, impressed. Even he’d had to work like a man possessed to coax Benjamin into his bed the first time. Was it Gabriella’s gender or just something about the black Latina beauty that tripped his male mate’s trigger? “Good thing I don’t get threatened easily. So we’re both hot for her, she’s hot for both of us. I’m not seeing any drawbacks here.”

  “Even the fact that she’s human?”

  Derek rolled his eyes. “We’ve been through this. The Catkind are dying out, Benjie. There aren’t enough women left for the ‘straight and narrow’ guys,” he said, making sarcastic quote marks with his fingers. “Much less the freaks like us who’ve mixed with them for years and oh, the horror, enjoy sex with our own gender. Do you honestly think one of the prized Catkind ladies would come near us
? And if she did, do you think her pride father wouldn’t try to slash us to ribbons?” He reached to cup Benjamin’s hard jaw in his the palm of his hand. “If it was just me, I wouldn’t care. I’m not taking a chance on losing you.”

  Benjamin’s grumpiness eased a tad. “I can watch out for myself,” he protested, although Derek could tell he’d hit home with that one. Benjamin just needed to be needed. To be loved and wanted. That was what had drawn him to the big, dark guy in the first place.

  Well, that and the need to fuck him into the middle of next week. Seriously, the Catkind prince had an ass like a dream, a mouth like a hundred-dollar-hooker, and his cock? Good God.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know, you’re a big, tough man.” Derek batted his eyelashes at Benjamin. “It’s stripping away my masculinity to say this, but let me assure you that even though we both need a female to complete us, and we’re both going to love, lust over, and cherish her -- don’t ask me how I know, I just do -- we won’t let that drive a wedge between us.” He made a clumsy attempt at shaping the statement with his hands, drawing them apart and bringing them back together. “We don’t split into three different parts, jackass. We expand.”

  Benjamin sucked his soft, plump lower lip between his teeth. Derek’s cock throbbed, imagining his male mate’s hot mouth on his shaft. After a long moment in which Derek started to think he’d have to pull out another can of whoop-ass, Benjamin grinned. “You’re such a girl.”

  The tension broke. Derek whooped and pounced Benjamin, knocking him to the hard-packed earth of the Gatos parking lot. With his male mate pinned beneath, Benjamin’s unflagging erection grinding against Derek’s own, he looked better than good enough to eat from the dick up.

  “Love you,” he said, surprising himself. They didn’t say it all that often.

  “Yeah. You too.” Benjamin’s smile lit up. “Want to run?”

  Derek wriggled atop Benjamin, teasing him. “Maybe. Do I get to fuck you when I catch you?”

  “Either that, or I fuck you when I catch you, instead.”

  “You’re so on.” Derek rolled off his mate and sprang to his feet, running in human shape with Benjamin quick off the mark and on his heels until they reached the dark shadows beyond the Gatos lights.