by E A Price
“Just wait until you mate,” Antonio said warningly.
Brodie shrugged and wandered back to the restaurant kitchen, disappointing a lot of female diners.
Antonio caught Hester’s eye, and she gave him a cocky grin. Yeah, he was whipped all right.
Twenty-Six
It was a pity the day had to end, but Antonio was needed back in the leap, and so, reluctantly they drove home.
Hester really enjoyed her day, and even gave Antonio a kiss goodbye. Nothing like the smacker she planted on him earlier in the restaurant when those complete and utter bitches were looking at him, but he seemed very pleased with it
The day had been more enjoyable than anything she could ever remember. Both she and her cheetah were at peace, their legs tired enough to out wobble jelly, and that was just the feeling she liked.
She could almost forget the way she was brought here to the jaguar leap, and the fact that someone definitely did not want her to stay there and was looking for a permanent solution to her presence. Almost.
The weather was still beautiful, so after a brief shower – sand really does get everywhere – she stepped out into the garden for a little more sunbathing.
Her skin looked particularly golden already, but she enjoyed lounging in the sun. Sprawling on a rock somewhere would be even better, but that was just the cat in her talking.
Hester spread a blanket on the ground and lay down on her front, skimming through a dog-eared paperback she found in the house. Judging by its usage and how old it was, she guessed it had seen many a woman through her own kidnapping. The thought raised an unexpected smile from her and a yip from her cheetah.
The women here were happy. Strangely, the two women who seemed least happy were from the handful of those actually born here. Part of her would never get on board with kidnapping, but on a day like this, she was struggling to think of reasons why she wanted to go home.
Her mother… ugh. Yes, a part of her missed her, though a teeny-tiny part was also enjoying a little separation. But her mother could visit her if she stayed. Knowing her mother, she’d try to move in.
Staying here would also solve the whole mating issue she had with her cheetah coalition. Time was running out for her to find a mate or be given one. Wasn’t Antonio a better prospect than any cheetah? Who was she kidding? Antonio was better than any male she’d ever met. It may be the stupid, soppy, cheetah inside her, but he called to her. She wanted him like she had no other. Why wouldn’t she? He was sexy and funny and in possession of an absolutely drool-worthy body. She certainly wouldn’t mind waking up to him every morning. Or waking up sprawled over him every morning.
The shopping said the materialistic voice inside her. Yes, the shops in Los Lobos were amazing, but it wasn’t like she went shopping every day of the week – her bank balance and limited closet space wouldn’t allow it. If she did want to go shopping, surely she could go down to Los Lobos with a few of the other women and make a day of it. Or if she were feeling cruel, she could take Antonio and make him stand outside the dressing room holding her purse.
Well, okay, so that wasn’t much of an issue, but what about her job – she could hardly commute. Yes, but did it really make her happy? She was good at it, even if she did say so herself, but wasn’t it also frustrating and annoying at times. Besides, couldn’t she find a job within the leap? They didn’t have a lawyer, she could advise them on issues to do with the law and contracts. She could muddle her way through that, and it would leave her lots of free time.
To have cubs supplied her cheetah.
Wait, what? No, no, no, no – no!
She was not interested in cubs. Never had been. That is to say… she always thought she would have one or hell, even two someday. But that day had always been way, way off. Though, she was twenty-nine – nearly thirty. Perhaps she ought to start thinking about them now.
Hester growled inwardly and tossed the paperback away. She flopped onto her back and threw an arm over her eyes.
She thought of the cub, Marco, climbing all over her, snuggling into her chest. His hair had smelled marvelous, and she hadn’t even balked when he had given her a snotty, sloppy kiss when his chuckling mother pried him away for naptime.
The image of a small boy with Antonio’s warm brown eyes and her blonde hair was definitely appealing. She was considering this when a couple of voices cut through her thoughts.
“Keep your voice down, you stupid girl!” hissed Marta.
“Why would you lie to me?” wailed the other – Valentina, sounding weepier than Hester imagined possible.
Hester looked around, wondering where they were. Not in the garden. They must have been on the other side of the fence. On one side of the garden, there was a fence that separated the garden from the daycare. It was one of the only areas in the compound that actually had a solid fence, and was most likely there to stop the young cubs from wandering away. Given Marco’s propensity for getting wherever he wanted to go, Hester considered the fence was a wise move. Hester had been deeply surprised to learn that Valentina actually worked at the leap daycare. She certainly didn’t sense a nurturing vibe from the young jaguar, but then that was a vibe that Hester had always thought she lacked as well. But when Marco had looked up at her with those doe eyes…
“We will talk about this when we get home.”
“You said Antonio was just playing hard to get!”
“You idiot, look where we are, any of those fucking human girls or that horrible cheetah may hear us,” snapped Marta.
Hester pursed her lips as her cheetah harrumphed, considering it was perhaps too late to get up and announce her presence. Plus she really wanted to eavesdrop. She wasn’t even going to pretend she wasn’t doing it – she had little shame about some things.
Apparently, and Hester was glad about this, Valentina couldn’t wait to talk.
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into it. Antonio barely even likes me! I almost gave him my virginity because you told me I had no choice!”
“How was I to know that cheetah bitch already had her claws in him?”
“I told you I didn’t want to mate Antonio and you made me…”
“You will mate who you’re told to!” growled Marta.
“I made a complete fool out of myself!” Valentina whimpered reproachfully. “I was naked in his bed for heaven's sake! I’m surprised the whole leap isn’t laughing at me.”
“It wouldn’t have been an issue for me,” sneered Marta. “I can get any male I want.”
Hester shoved a fist in her mouth to stop the loud scoff that wanted to escape. Thankfully, Valentina scoffed for her, but quickly hushed at the crisp slapping sound. Valentina gasped as Marta snarled in warning.
Hester was virtually on tenterhooks, but the live action soap opera was cut short as she heard Sadie call out hello from inside the house. The two female jaguars also heard and hustled away, leaving Hester to wonder at what she heard.
Marta had pushed Valentina into trying to seduce Antonio. But why? And what kind of mother would do that? A shifter mother she thought sourly. Well, her mother wasn’t like that, but she knew of other shifter mothers who were. No, hers just set her up on hideous blind dates.
If Marta really were ambitious about her place in the leap, she would try and screw her way to the top. But Roberto still wasn’t ready to mate again, and so Marta was trying to push her daughter onto Antonio – thinking he will take over from his uncle as prime. Alphas usually ran in families.
Her cheetah huffed. It made her feel sympathetic toward Valentina, and she hated that. Being reasonable and kind were not Hester’s go-to moves, and it annoyed the hell out of her to know that the woman she had so ardently been trying to hate might actually be a semi-decent young woman. Ugh – being hateful was so much easier!
*
Hester tried the paperback again, but her thoughts were consumed by Antonio, then Valentina, then Antonio naked, then Marta and then Antonio covered in whipped cream. The latte
r was obviously down to her imagination, but when the occasion called for it, her imagination could be pretty licentious.
Eventually, she gave in. The sun was setting and the night slowly creeping towards them anyway. Soon, she would be expected for dinner at Antonio’s house again. It was another opportunity to sample some of Maria’s cooking, as well as seeing Antonio. The cooking was the most important thing, but she did like spending time with him. Even though it still annoyed her a little to admit it.
She made her way back to her room, saying hello to the other ladies, Laurel and Sadie, on the way. Laurel looked a lot more chipper, and yes, she was eating chocolate again. Chocolate was a way of life.
As Hester walked up the stairs, she decided she would wear a skirt with an elastic waist for dinner – that way she could eat several helpings of dessert. She virtually licked her lips at the thought of whatever sweet treat Maria will have concocted. Then, that reminded her of Antonio covered in whipped cream. Hmmm, maybe if dessert was served on Antonio’s chest. That would be sweet.
Mary was coming out of the bathroom as she approached her bedroom. The small woman smiled at her. She was swamped in a large robe and had a towel wrapped around her head.
Mary scratched her neck and snaked a finger under her towel to get at her scalp. “I hope you don’t mind; I ran out of shampoo, so I used yours.”
“Oh, help yourself,” said Hester.
She had dozens of bottles at home. Every Christmas and birthday she was given massive amounts of shower gels, soaps, conditioners, and shampoos. Either she smelled bad all the time, and people were trying to tell her something, or she was really hard to buy for.
“It just smelled so lovely,” said Mary, pushing another couple of fingers under the towel while taking on a look of concentration.
“Yeah, it’s vanilla and jasmine. Are you okay?”
“My head itches.”
“Lord, maybe you’re allergic to the shampoo.”
Mary groaned and pulled the towel off her head and started rubbing her scalp furiously.
Hester took her elbow and dragged her back into the bathroom, and grabbed the showerhead. She pushed Mary to sit down on the toilet, turned the water to cold and started dousing her head. Mary squealed at the coldness, but Hester held her firmly and kept up the spray.
Naturally, her squeal attracted the attention of Tomas. The sound of his giant boots thundered on the stairs as he sprinted towards them.
“What are you doing?” he snarled at Hester as he burst in. He looked about ready to murder her, and her cheetah gave a warning snarl.
“My head,” whimpered Mary, reaching out a hand in his direction.
Tomas virtually melted and knelt in front of her, clasping her tiny hand in his.
“What is going on?”
“Mary borrowed my shampoo, and it looks like she’s having an allergic reaction,” explained Hester quickly.
“I’m not allergic to anything usually,” said Mary with chattering teeth.
Tomas pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it. “It will be okay,” he rumbled.
Hester turned the shower off and ran her fingers through Mary’s hair, peering at her scalp, and it did look pink and painful.
“Does that feel a little better?”
Mary nodded.
“You’re so brave,” crooned Tomas.
Hester rolled her eyes. She had an allergic reaction; she wasn’t offering to run off and fight a dragon. But she kept her cynical thoughts to herself. He was a young shifter in love, and they were more than a little volatile when roused.
Tomas looked up at Hester with an accusing look, as if it was her fault Mary happened to be allergic to the shampoo. See – volatile.
“Tomas,” she sighed, “why don’t you go get the leap healer to see if he can give her anything.”
He started to grumble before Mary let out a little eep of pain as she tried to touch her head.
“I’ll be right back,” he promised, giving her hand another kiss and charging out of the room full throttle, almost knocking down Laurel and Sadie who had come to find out what the fuss was about.
Hester quickly filled them in while Mary tried to give them a smile. It was slightly pitiful.
“C’mon, sweetie,” said Sadie, pulling Mary to her feet. “Let’s get you dressed. We’ll see what this healer person says, but I do have three types of hypoallergenic creams you can borrow…”
Laurel grabbed some towels and helped Hester mop up some of the water.
“Poor Mary.”
“I know,” murmured Hester absently. She was focusing on her bottle of shampoo.
Hester and Mary were sharing a bathroom, while Laurel and Sadie shared the other. Given Sadie’s multitude of beauty products spread all over the other bathroom, Hester considered she had the better end of the deal. She picked up her shampoo bottle and peered at it. The color of the shampoo looked slightly… off.
She uncapped the lid and sniffed. Her cheetah growled. Silver.
Holy mother! Some inept son of a bitch was still trying to freaking well poison her!
Twenty-Seven
Antonio stuck to her like glue after that, and when his eyes weren’t on her, they were looking around at his fellow leap mates with unabashed suspicion.
Logically, it had to be a shifter who poisoned her. How else would they have known which shampoo to poison? They could scent the vanilla and jasmine on her. It was just dumb luck that Mary used it before she did.
It came close to being her, though. When Hester came back from her day at the beach, she had showered but hadn’t washed her hair. She almost had but decided against it. She was very much resolved to stay and catch the cowardly, low-life son of a bitch, dick-headed jackass who was after her, but even she couldn’t deny a slight tremor over how close she kept coming to danger. Only a slight one, mind - her cheetah wouldn’t allow anything larger.
Mary was itchy, but with a homemade remedy from the leap healer along with some soothing cream from Sadie, she was okay. She just couldn’t stop scratching her head. Tomas had to hold her hands to stop her. In fact, he insisted on holding her hands.
Given what was happening, Hester was a little surprised at how much she enjoyed the next few days. She should have been worried, should have been concerned about the inept poisoner who was clearly after her – and managed to move around the compound easily without leaving a trace – but she actually enjoyed herself. Naturally, she complained a lot about Antonio never leaving her – she had to keep up appearances – but she liked the attention.
Once his fury died down, he was his usual charming self. Maybe a little more watchful, but still funny and sexily tempting as hell. As much as she enjoyed it, the nights were especially difficult knowing that he was sleeping on the other side of a door. Plus, it was a complete drag to have to haul about three pieces of furniture to and fro in front of the door to make sure she didn’t sleep walk and open up said door to demand he ravish her senseless during the night.
Maybe she liked the attention from Antonio because it was so unusual to anything she’d previously had. Okay, her mother’s attention had at times been scary – but she meant with a male. She’d dated men whose various careers were the most important things in their lives – even if said careers were going nowhere. But all she’d ever done was focus on her own career, so she’d thought it was natural to be with males who did the same. Except hers was a career that she didn’t actually like that much.
It was nice to be with a male who wasn’t texting or checking his e-mail throughout every meal they shared. A male who was actually listening to everything she said, instead of just concentrating on what he wanted to say next. With Antonio, she felt like she had his undivided attention, and like she was the most important person in the world. It was one of the things she love… liked about him – really, really liked.
Antonio was probably supposed to be working, but instead he was helping her in the office. After she finished sorting out the paper
work, she had thought about giving the place a scrub. Daniel, on a brief visit, said he would find a leap female to do it, but Antonio snorted and said he could do it himself. Together, they got it done in no time. Daniel hadn’t been around for a few days, and Hester was glad. He was kind of creepy – she kept catching him staring at her. But Antonio seemed to make him uneasy and Roberto had given him plenty of work elsewhere, so he was staying away. Either that or he was afraid they would make him clean something if he returned.
Roberto wasn’t surprised to see Antonio in the office, or that Daniel was absent. Hester filled him in on everything she had done and explained her new filing system. See, this one was based on actual dates and the alphabet – unlike Marta’s half-assed system, which was based on how much or little she disliked the thing to which the paperwork pertained.
Hester tapped her fingers on the desk, still slightly annoyed that the job wasn’t entirely complete – because the paperwork wasn’t complete.
“I couldn’t find some of the land or house deeds that should be here. I have other paperwork about them – like previous rental agreements for the houses, but not the actual deeds. I’ve been meaning to ask Daniel, but I haven’t seen him for the last few days. Here’s the list of what I think is missing.”
Roberto grunted and took the list, giving it a cursory glance. “I will speak to him.” He nodded at her and started turning away, before abruptly stopping and clearing his throat. “Your assistance has been helpful.”
Antonio raised an eyebrow and gave her a comical look. That was about as close as she would get to a thank you from the taciturn prime, and by golly, she would take it!
“You’re welcome,” she said expansively.
He looked at her for a few beats, probably trying to work out if she was being sarcastic, before nodding again and leaving.
“Boy, I hate it when guys get all mushy.”
“Hessie, you got words instead of a double grunt,” chuckled Antonio, “he’s virtually welcoming you to the leap.”