by Cynthia Eden
Oh, wow.
“Got away.” Dark and rumbling. Still more beast than man.
Her gaze snapped back to his face. To those electric eyes. She held out her towel, licked her lips and swore she tasted him. “Was it…him?”
Stupid question. Who the hell else would have decided to come in her house at close to three a.m.?
Erin cleared her throat. She’d finally managed to stop the beeping of the security system, but she couldn’t get the image of Jude’s shift out of her mind.
A tiger. A white, beautiful, scary-as-hell tiger.
She hadn’t guessed, hadn’t even considered…
A white tiger.
Different shifters had different reputations in the Other world. You knew not to trust a hyena or a coyote. Those bastards would turn on anyone.
Wolves—dangerous. Sometimes psychotic. Great killers.
Bears were pretty easygoing, unless you got between them and a meal.
But white tigers were the rarest of the shifter breeds. Bloodthirsty. Relentless. Incredibly powerful.
Perfect. Yes, the more she thought about it, the more perfect Jude became for her.
He can match me. I won’t hurt him.
Maybe she should be afraid. When she’d seen him in tiger form, perhaps she should have been scared. He could rip her body open with a swipe of his claws. Use those razor-sharp teeth on her.
But she wasn’t afraid.
Seeing his power and his strength—no, she didn’t fear him at all.
But she did want him.
Jude kicked the door closed. Water dripped from his hair and trailed over his face. “Yeah, I caught his stench.” He flipped the locks into place.
Her breath jerked out. If he’d caught the scent, it had only been because the bastard out there let him catch the smell. She knew the other shifter could manage to control his scent. He’d sure masked the scent before.
But for the stalker to come after her like this…two nights in a row. He’d never come after her so quickly before. Not back to back.
“He got away, this time.”
He was good at getting away, every time. “Did you see him?”
A shake of his head sent water droplets flying. “He was too fast. Don’t know what beast that asshole carries, but he’s fast.”
And strong.
And out there, waiting in the darkness. Planning his next move.
Why wouldn’t he just leave her alone?
“You’re mine, Erin. Blood, bones, and beast—all mine.” Words he’d spoken to her that terrible night. Growled in the darkness.
Erin shook her head, trying to drive the voice from her mind.
“You okay?”
She licked her lips. Stared at him. You’re mine. The asshole’s voice rang in her head.
His? The hell she was.
The towel dangled in her hand.
Blue eyes glowing with need swept over her body. Jude wanted her.
She wanted him. Why fight it anymore? She wouldn’t hurt him.
He couldn’t hurt her.
Her heart shoved against her chest. She dropped the towel and went straight to him.
“Erin, what are you—”
She stood up on her toes and grabbed the back of his head, sinking her fingers into that wet mane and pulling his mouth down to hers. Then she kissed him. Mouth open, tongue seeking, hunger pounding through her.
His cock pushed against her. The rain hadn’t done a thing to cool his arousal. The ridge was long and thick, straining, and she rubbed against him.
Tonight, she’d get wild.
A growl rumbled in his throat. His tongue swiped against hers, and his hands wrapped around her. Big and strong.
Her nipples tightened into stiff points. Her panties grew damp. And Erin knew she needed a bed.
With an effort, Erin managed to tear her mouth from his. Hard to do, because the guy’s tongue was freaking magic. “Come upstairs with me.” She didn’t want to take him down there. Not with the memory of blood just a few feet away.
Upstairs. Safety.
And a big bed they could wreck.
They would wreck.
The beast stared out from his eyes. “Don’t tease me, sweetheart. I’m not the kind of guy you can screw around with.”
He was exactly the kind of guy she wanted to screw around with. Erin caught his hands. “I want these on me, everywhere.”
Mine.
Hell, no. Not that sick bastard’s. Her body was her own, and tonight, she’d give it to Jude, and she’d take the pleasure he gave her.
I can’t hurt him. A reassurance that played again. He’s strong.
Not human.
Tiger.
“Come upstairs,” she repeated, her voice soft. She took his right hand and trailed the fingers between her breasts. “Come to bed with me.”
She felt the tension in his hand. The leashed strength. “I can’t…do soft and easy. Not tonight, not after a shift.”
The beast still coursed through him.
Erin smiled. The beast within was exactly what she wanted. “Good.” She turned from him and stalked toward the stairs. Silence thickened the air behind her.
“One minute you’re telling me to keep my hands off, now you—”
She jerked off her camisole and tossed it behind her, not bothering to look back. Can’t. “Now I want them on me.”
The wood of the stairs seemed cold beneath her feet. Clad only in a pair of white bikini panties, Erin climbed the steps. Almost to the top. He hadn’t moved. He wanted her, she’d felt his lust rising against her, but he hadn’t moved.
I need you. Tonight, she needed him more than she’d ever needed another.
Erin glanced down. Her claws were out, sharpened points. She could smell the scent of her own arousal in the air and knew he had to catch the scent, too. For a male shifter, the fragrance of a female shifter’s need was rumored to be nearly impossible to resist. While she wasn’t fully a shifter, she’d still thought—
The stairs shook when Jude raced up them.
A smile curved her lips.
Erin reached the landing. Her bedroom waited. Inside, the lamp on the nightstand poured out soft light. Her curtains were drawn over the windows. The bed sheets were rumpled.
She took one more step forward.
Jude pounced.
His arms caught her, lifting her off her feet, and spinning her around. His eyes, blazing, too brilliant, trapped her. His mouth took hers.
Yes.
Fear wasn’t in her mind, not then. No memories. No nightmares. Just him.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and felt that thick cock push against the crotch of her panties. He had to feel the wet touch of the silk, and she wanted him to know how much she ached.
Four steps, and they fell onto the bed. Kissing, touching, stroking.
She loved his mouth. Her tongue swiped over the sexy scar that drove her crazy.
His fingers curled over her breasts and Erin nearly shot off the bed. Her nipples were so sensitive, desperate for more.
His head lifted and, past those delicious lips, she could see the glinting edge of his teeth.
A faint memory stirred in her mind. Fear whispered to her.
No.
She rolled with him, twisting so that she was on top and in control.
Jude can handle me.
The tip of her nails—claws—raked down his chest. Over the firm, brown nipples. Down those sculpted muscles. He sucked in a sharp breath when she reached his abs.
Erin licked her lips and eased back. Her legs straddled his thighs, such hard and strong thighs, and a quiver stirred in her belly. Her hands shook when she reached for his cock, the length standing up, veins bulging the sides. Thicker than her wrist. Long enough to give her one hell of a ride.
Beautiful.
Her fingers closed around him. Pumped. Stroked. She’d like to taste him. Like to lick from root to tip and see just how long his control would last with her.
His hands locked around her waist and he shot up. His mouth closed over her right breast. Sucking, licking, tasting. Her head fell back on a moan.
“Jude!”
The edge of his teeth pressed against her flesh.
Shouldn’t enjoy that, shouldn’t like it so much.
Her sex trembled.
Empty. Need him inside.
Only the thin fabric of her panties was between them.
She leaned toward him and put her mouth on his throat. She teased him with her lips—and then gave him her own bite.
Every muscle in his body stiffened. Not a growl in his throat this time. Hell, that was more a roar from the tiger.
In half a second, Erin found herself on her back again, looking up at him. Jude’s face was fierce, etched with savagery and lust.
His claws ripped her panties away and in the next breath, he’d shoved open her thighs.
Fury. Strength.
He could handle her. But could she handle him?
“Jude, I…”
She expected the hard thrust of his flesh in her.
But instead he pushed down her body, lifted her hips up and took her with his mouth.
Her heels dug into the mattress. “Jude!” Her claws slashed the sheets.
His tongue swirled over her clit. His lips locked around the center of her need. He sucked. He took.
Tasted.
Then drove that wicked tongue deep inside her.
Her climax erupted, sending spasms through her sex as she came in a fury of pleasure.
“Fucking delicious…nothing like you before…”
She could barely hear his words over her drumming heartbeat.
But she felt him, the wide, round head of his cock, lodging at her straining entrance.
Yes.
The wisps of memory had vanished with those sensual licks. Not like—
“I’m…clean.” The words were deep, guttural. “Can’t catch any…”
She strained against him. Erin wanted that cock in her now. She knew what he was telling her. Shifters couldn’t catch the diseases humans could pass so easily during sex. Yeah, he was clean. “So am I,” she whispered, and dug her heels into his ass as she lifted against him.
And shifters could only produce children with their mates. She didn’t have to worry about that with Jude. Hell, not with anyone but—
He drove into her. Filled every inch of her in a powerful thrust that had her hips arching and her hands flying to wrap around his shoulders.
“Erin…” Gritted from behind clenched teeth. “Are you…”
“Fantastic.” Her hands released the strips of sheets and curled around his shoulders. “Just don’t stop!”
A strangled laugh. “Don’t…worry. Too…good!”
Then it began. Withdraw. Thrust. Withdraw.
Thrust.
Her fingers dug into him, and her legs clenched around his hips. Her strength flowed, full force, as she held tight and arched up to meet him as he plunged in a fast, desperate rhythm.
He didn’t tell her to stop. Didn’t tell her to loosen her grip.
Jude just drove into her. Again and again and her inner muscles stretched for him, eager for more pleasure.
For more of him.
The thud of flesh hitting flesh filled the air. The scent of sex drifted around them. Her bed was sturdy. It didn’t move with the powerful thrusts, but the bed springs squeaked.
She clenched her sex around him, and her breath panted out. “Harder!” Erin wanted so much more.
He could give it to her.
Jude jerked her up, rising on his knees. She stared into his blazing eyes and wondered if her own glowed as bright.
The coil of release began deep within her.
Her mouth opened on a scream.
Flesh so close. Taste. Take.
The thing inside would have her way.
Mine.
His throat was so close. She bit down on him, muffling her scream and tasting his flesh as pleasure ripped through her.
He stiffened against her, his hold grew even harder, and then he erupted inside her, shaking with his own release.
A drumbeat echoed in her ears.
Aftershocks rippled over her body.
Slowly, so slowly, her head lifted and she swiped her tongue over her lips.
And she tasted blood.
Horrified, Erin shoved against him. “Oh, hell, Jude, I didn’t mean—”
He kissed her. Kept his cock buried deep inside and kissed her.
When his head rose, she stared up at him, hoping, scared, and so confused. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
That half smile made her melt. “You didn’t. You couldn’t.” His index finger trailed down her chest. “I could fucking eat you alive, sweetheart.”
Not running away. Not freaking out because she’d gotten a little…overzealous there at the end.
Tiger.
His gaze dropped to her chest. “Such sweet breasts with their pretty pink nipples.” He frowned, his head lowering. “What the hell?”
Her scar.
How had she forgotten? Shit, shit! How had she forgotten that?
She should have turned off the light.
Shifters can see in the dark. She knew that!
His fingers rubbed lightly over the raised flesh just below her left breast.
A claw mark.
Jude withdrew from her, a long, slow glide, and Erin had to bite back the plea for him to stay, to thrust deep again.
Again.
The passion was gone, at least for him. He was looking at her now with intense eyes and a hard face.
Looking at her like she was a victim, dammit.
Not a woman.
Before, she’d been a woman with him.
Now—
Erin spun away from him. She ripped what was left of the sheet loose as she moved, using it to cover her body.
How could I have forgotten? I see the thing every day.
“Who marked you?” Fury there, boiling beneath the surface of his voice.
She rose from the bed, careful not to move too fast. Didn’t want it to look like she was running.
Even if she was.
Erin clenched her thighs, feeling a quiver in her sex.
So good. But good things didn’t last long in her life.
At least Jude hadn’t gone running from her, even when she’d used her claws and teeth.
“Who fucking marked you?”
She turned back to face him.
Jude jumped from the bed, naked and damn sexy still, and grabbed her arms.
The sheet slipped to the floor.
“That bastard did it, didn’t he? You said you’d never seen him, you said he hadn’t got close to you!”
Time for some truth. “I lied.”
At first, the wound had bled like a bitch. She’d left a trail of her blood on the street when she’d fled. But, lucky for her, she could heal without shifting. So her skin had mended, well, as close to mending as it could, and though her bleeding had stopped by the time she’d reached safety, she’d been left with his mark on her flesh. The wound had been too deep and long to heal perfectly.
“What happened?”
From wild sex back to business. Not the way she would have liked to spend the afterglow moments. Erin swallowed. “Not tonight, Jude, okay? I don’t want to talk about this now.” Not while her body still vibrated with the pleasure he’d given her. Not while she could still taste him.
Not while she could almost feel him inside.
She didn’t want to go back to that other night right then.
Not now.
He stared down at her, a muscle flexing along his jaw.
“Not tonight,” she repeated.
Silence. Then, when her heart was squeezing because she didn’t want to go back there, he gave a grim nod. “But we will talk about it, Erin. I’m working this case for you. I need to know everything that’s happened.”
She li
cked her lips. “Tomorrow, okay? Tomorrow.”
His hands dropped. She bent and scooped up the sheet. He’d go back to his room downstairs now, she’d go back to bed and try to sleep, try.
Erin brushed by him. “In the morning, we’ll talk.” A dismissal. Not sexy. Not subtle.
She’d never really been the subtle sort.
She climbed into the bed. Eased onto the mattress and tried not to notice the way his scent surrounded her.
“Scoot over, sweetheart.”
Her breath caught. “You’re not going downstairs?”
Jude shook his head. “Not the way things work. Not for me.”
He eased in beside her and wrapped his arms around her body.
Erin tensed.
“Relax. I’m just going to hold you. Hold you and sleep.”
Sounded good to her.
His right hand curved around her stomach. The fingers drifted lightly over her scar.
“Something you should know.” His voice was soft.
She waited.
“When I find him, I’m gonna kill him.”
If only the bastard out there were easy to kill. If he’d been easy prey, she would have killed him herself, long ago.
It took a while for Erin’s breathing to ease into the slow, natural rhythm of sleep.
Jude held her, keeping his hold nice and easy, and he waited.
And he choked back his rage.
The bastard marked her.
Close enough to mark. Close enough to kill.
Why the hell had Erin kept the truth from him?
She stirred in her sleep, moving lightly, and her nose rubbed against his neck.
In sleep, she was soft and beautiful. Delicate. A woman who needed protection.
In passion, she’d been something else. Oh, still beautiful. With her shining eyes and hungry lips, Erin had been the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
But not delicate. Her hold on him had been too strong, too fierce. And her hunger had been as wild as his own.
The beast in him had been very, very hungry.
For her.
His cock was still erect, still ready—because he wanted more. But when the ghost of fear had appeared in her eyes, he’d known the passion was over. For now.
He’d had her once. He’d have her again. And he’d make sure that fear never showed again.
Jude would stop the asshole out there. No doubt.