by Bianca D'Arc
The tiger royals didn’t stay the night because, as Mark expected, they were on a tight schedule. Even stopping at the island for a few hours had set them behind, but if Mitch was to be believed—and Mark did believe him—the possibility of forming an alliance with the jaguar Clan was as important to Mitch as it was to Mark. The groundwork had been laid, and Mark expected good things to come of this first meeting. In fact, they’d already scheduled time to get together for a more in-depth discussion of business interests next week, when Mitch and Gina planned to be back in New York.
Tomorrow, he would go back with Shelly and arrange a meeting with her father, the elusive William Howell the Fourth. Before that, though, they had another night here on the island to enjoy.
This time, they ate dinner with the Clan. Everyone was welcoming and jovial. Those who had seen the tigers had been uniformly impressed by them, and word had gotten around that they had all parted on good terms. Things were looking up, and everyone knew it.
That, plus the Clan’s reaction to Shelly—which was more positive than Mark could have hoped for—made for a raucous meal shared among friends. Mark and Shelly might be sitting in places of honor in the room—Mark couldn’t quite get his people to give up that tradition—but the camaraderie was strong between them all. Mark wasn’t one to stand on ceremony. He didn’t style himself a monarch. He was just an Alpha who happened to have a lot more authority and recognition in the human world than most. That was all. He was responsible for his people, and he liked it that way.
He also liked the way they accepted Shelly. Though she was human, they didn’t treat her any differently. They welcomed her as if she was already one of the family. It was his deepest desire to make her that in truth. As far as he was concerned, he was already committed. He just needed her to agree to be his mate. That was all that was needed among shifters, but he’d go further and take all the steps necessary to bind them legally together—in her world, and in his.
Besides, the society pages would pay well for pictures of their wedding. One of his people routinely brokered deals with various newspapers to get them secret photos. The photos weren’t all that secret, but a calculated way for Mark to earn a little extra money for the Clan by bartering some of his unexpected celebrity.
He didn’t really understand why ordinary humans wanted to follow his comings and goings so closely, but if people would pay him—through back channels, of course—for images of his public life, he didn’t mind feeding the beast from time to time. Sometimes, he wondered what they’d pay if they knew he was a jaguar at heart, but shifters lived in secret for safety. It hadn’t always been that way, but in this modern age, it was better to be prudent than dead.
At least by supplying the photos, he already knew what was in them. And the market for paparazzi was quelled. If the papers could get images of Mark anytime they wanted from an inside source, they wouldn’t pay top dollar to stalkers with cameras. Win-win, as Shelly would have put it.
Conversation was lively, both at dinner and after. Mark and Shelly sat with a number of his closest friends, enjoying dessert and coffee for a couple of hours, until he noticed Shelly politely trying to hide a yawn. He didn’t want her to be too tired. He had big plans for that night—the last they’d share on the island for a while.
He whisked her away from the gathering as nonchalantly as he could, taking her to his suite, not her guest room. When she didn’t protest, he smiled. Oh, yes, he and his mate were definitely on the same page.
Shelly felt all tingly when Mark took her by the hand and led her up to what had to be his room in the mansion. It wasn’t the biggest, nor the most luxurious. Actually, it was about the same as the guest room they’d given her down the hall, but it definitely had Mark’s personal stamp on it.
He’d lifted her into his arms and carried her over the threshold, eliciting a gasp as he caught her off guard. The man made her breathless a lot—in a really good way.
There were mementoes of his youth displayed in a corner cabinet and photos of him and his friends hanging on the walls. The furniture was solid wood and sturdy. Oak, stained and polished to a loving luster. The fabrics were dark blues and hunter green with golden accents here and there. It almost had the look of a color scheme developed by a professional decorator, but she suspected Mark had chosen everything in here for himself. She got a quick look around the room before he started kissing her, and then, all thought fled as he lowered her to the big bed with the soft bedspread.
His kisses drugged her into wholehearted compliance with his every wish. The fact that he followed even her slightest direction made her happy too. When she tugged at his shirt, a moment later, it was gone, and she could place her hand directly on his solid, muscular chest. Mmm. He was a deliciously built specimen of manhood…shifter-hood…whatever. He was just lovely, whatever he was. The specifics didn’t matter. He was her lover, and that was all there was to it.
When her hands went to his waistband, he lifted away momentarily, and when he came back, he was bare to her touch. Yes. Exactly what she wanted. She let herself explore, her hands finding all sorts of interesting things that had been hidden beneath his clothing. Especially a hard rod of iron covered in velvet heat that she wanted deep inside her as soon as they could manage.
While he’d undressed for her, he’d also been undressing her. She was as naked as he when he swept the bedspread aside, placing her squarely in the center of the enormous bed. This bed had been built with someone Mark’s size in mind, but it dwarfed Shelly a bit. No matter. There would be plenty of room for both of them to be comfortable, which was the important thing.
He came down over her, but he was lower on the bed than she’d expected. When he lifted one of her feet to his shoulder and began nibbling on the inside of her leg, she giggled. When he moved lower to lick the back of her knee, she trembled in reaction. And when he moved to her thighs, she held her breath.
Was he going to…? Oh, yes. Yes, he was.
She just about lost her mind when his tongue reached out and licked her clit, exploring and laving, arousing and electrifying. Then, his lips moved on her, giving her the most intimate of kisses, his talented tongue invading and retreating, driving her into blissful delirium.
She couldn’t take much of that treatment and shuddered, coming hard against his mouth. She could feel him smile against her most sensitive skin and felt the purr of his satisfaction rumbling through his chest as he rose to settle more fully over her limp body.
She felt boneless. Sated for the moment but still interested in what he had to offer.
When he rolled her onto her side, she went with him, unsure where he was leading but willing to follow. He hadn’t steered her wrong yet, and her famous instincts said she could trust him in all things. All things.
He positioned himself behind her and lifted her top leg back and over his thigh. It was a bit awkward at first, but she was intrigued by what he evidently had in mind.
He slid into her from behind. It was a shallow penetration, but the position made it tighter than she’d expected, and new sensations flooded her body, making it perk up instantly in interest. Forget the lovely climax he’d just given her. She was greedy for more.
As he moved, she adjusted to the odd angles, shifting into each thrust as he supported her, his big hands positioned at her hip and around her midsection. She felt the tempered strength in his fingers, his excitement in the tremble and strain of his muscles. He pushed her ever onward toward another magnificent climax, and she went willingly, wanting him with her, this time, when she blew.
She strained backward against him, and they came together in harsh, fast motions that grew in intensity until the pressure was off the charts. She screamed his name as she climaxed, feeling his fingers dig into her body in a way that might’ve been painful at any other time, but felt amazing in the here and now.
She flew to the moon, but he wasn’t done. He kept moving throughout, pushing her higher, harder, faster, deeper, until she reache
d the nearest star and exploded for a second time. Then, he did something—shifted her leg, or his, or something she couldn’t see behind her back—and she started climbing again. She’d never experienced anything like this before. Multiple orgasms. Two very lame words that stood for one of the most amazing experiences of her life.
Then, Mark moved his hand from her hip down to the apex of her thighs, and she sucked in a breath. His finger zeroed in on her clit, and she went supernova this time, out among the galaxies, firing the stars and suns.
In the real world, sparks flew around them, but she was lost to reality for a few minutes while her spirit flew.
When she came back to earth, she was relieved to note that she hadn’t actually burned anything. Her sparks had been a visual show only. She thought. She blinked her eyes open to find Mark staring at her. He’d positioned them facing each other, both reclining in his big bed, on their sides.
“Did you see the sparks?” she whispered, her brain not really fully functioning just yet.
He brought one of her hands to his lips. “Saw them and felt them. They energized me and gave me strength I didn’t know I had.”
“Really?” she squeaked, surprised.
“Really.” He nodded, sucking one of her fingers into his mouth and making her gasp.
“Did they burn?” Her voice was breathless, but whether from the exertion they’d just completed or the way his tongue was dueling with her finger, she couldn’t tell. Was it possible she could become aroused again so soon? Could he?
She looked downward at his body and realized he could, indeed. Wow. Perhaps that was another benefit of being a shifter. Or maybe that virility was something special to just Mark, himself. Either way, she was a lucky, lucky girl.
“It tickled,” he said, letting go of her finger so he could speak. “I thought, at first, it might cause a fire in the room, but I didn’t really care at that point. As it turned out, the sparks were showy but not damaging. They were sort of little zaps of energy against my skin that sent my arousal higher. Quite the talent there, my little love,” he complimented her, and for some reason, she blushed.
“I didn’t know,” she stammered, embarrassed for some reason.
“I know, querida,” he whispered, drawing her close to kiss her sweetly. “Rest now. I can give you a few minutes before I need you again. You are a fire in my veins that will never be quenched.”
That sounded serious, but she was too confused by everything that had just happened, and still a little muddled from the amazing multiple orgasms she had experienced to really think about it. There would be time to think later. Judging by the way he was stroking her skin…much later.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Shelly was sad to leave the island the next morning. She had only been there for two days, but she felt connected…somehow…to the place. She could very easily be seduced by the setting into doing anything Mark asked, without thinking things all the way through. Thinking over every decision was her thing.
Some people took leaps of faith. Shelly definitely looked a few times and inspected every angle before she leapt anywhere. She had a cautious nature that made her good at her profession, but when faced with a situation like the one she was in right now with Mark, her mind became a muddle of confusion. She needed some space to sit quietly and think things through.
Beautiful as it was, she knew she wouldn’t get the distance or perspective she needed on the island. No, she had to be away from this tropical paradise, back in her own element. In her own house. The space she had claimed just for herself, with all her comfortable objects and possessions around her.
Only then could she find the calm center of the whirlwind she’d been riding since that dinner party where Mark had been targeted for assassination. It seems like months ago now, and it had only been a couple of days. Time was skewed. That was another thing she had to sit down and think about. Everything had happened so fast. She couldn’t keep up.
Once she was home, working in her own studio, in familiar surroundings, she would be able to regain her balance. At least, that was the plan. A small part of her worried that something about this trip, and Mark, had changed her forever. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly what had happened, but she thought she knew when.
It had been when they made love in the caldera of the volcano. Something had definitely happened then. She still wasn’t sure what to call it, or what the implications for the future might be. Mark kept insisting she was somehow magical, but that couldn’t be right. Could it?
“I can’t be seen with you just yet,” Mark explained as they flew back toward her home on the mainland in a different luxury jet from the one they’d arrived in. How many of these things did he own? “We’re going to take extra precautions, just in case.”
She grew concerned at his worried expression. Was there a reason to fear? Or… She hated to think this… But was this the big brush off? Had the playboy billionaire gotten what he wanted and now wasn’t interested anymore?
Shelly had a hard time believing that, but some niggling echo of doubt wouldn’t let the thought go. She hadn’t had a lot of experience with men—and certainly not those in Mark’s circles. She was no supermodel. No foreign beauty who would do anything for a rich man who paid her bills. She was just a good architect from a formerly well-to-do family. Not much of a catch, really, for a man who could have anything—or anyone—he wanted.
Self-doubt was a terrible thing, but Shelly was as susceptible to it as anyone else. Maybe even more, since she and her father had never had a truly close relationship. After her mother died, she had wanted to reach out to him, but he had been dealing with his own grief. Even though her father still lived and they saw each other often at society functions and the obligatory celebrations and holidays, they weren’t really that close. Shelly had tried repeatedly to get to know her dad better, but he was a very controlled sort of man.
She knew he loved her, of course, but he wasn’t excessively demonstrative. They did have a good working relationship, though. He’d often send her invitations—like the one to the dinner where she’d encountered Mark—that he thought would help her network for her architectural business. He thought about her and was helpful, but he wasn’t a doting father by any stretch of the imagination.
It had been hard not to feel rejected on occasion when she’d tried to deepen the relationship and her father had backed off.
Was Mark now rejecting her too? She didn’t want to believe it, but it just might be true.
Oh, Goddess, what was she going to do?
Right then, she realized she was already in way over her head with this man. She’d been so cautious, but it had all been for naught. Mark had cast the spell, and she’d fallen. Head over heels, she’d fallen.
Mark didn’t like the look on Shelly’s face, but he figured she would forgive him once she realized he had other plans in mind to circumvent any possible surveillance. He’d had his people watching her house while they’d been on the island. His people had also been busy installing state-of-the-art security hardware on her land. He held the passwords and all the control. Nobody but he—and a few trusted Clan members—could get to her by conventional means now. Not without tripping an alarm. And Mark had made damned sure it would be jaguars answering that alarm, if it ever came. If not him, personally, then one of his trusted Clan members.
Shelly was one of them now, and jaguars took care of their own. She may not be a shifter, but she was his mate, and after the past two days, the heart of the Clan was well on their way to accepting her. Now if he could just convince her.
“I’ve had some security measures added to your property. Nothing you’ll see—or at least you shouldn’t. It’s all well hidden and camouflaged, and the signals go directly to my people,” he told her. Maybe she’d see his need to protect her as the declaration it really was.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she protested, but her expression had changed from one of doubt and worry to something more thoughtful. Good.
“It’s my pleasure to look after you,” he told her, bringing her hand to his lips because he just couldn’t help himself. He had to touch her. To kiss her. To remind her that she was his. Even if she hadn’t agreed to that just yet. “I’ll come to you tonight, if at all possible. First, I have a few things I need to put in place, but when it’s safe, I will come to you, no matter where you are, no matter the time.”
He kissed her fingertips, one at a time. Those magical little digits that had sparked the heart of a dormant volcano. How she could continue in the belief that she had no magic was incredible to him. How could she not see it?
But the look of doubt had disappeared from her eyes now, which gratified him. He didn’t want her to worry about anything. Especially not his commitment to her. Ever.
He knew, of course, that such things took time among humans. Magical as she was, she still believed she was completely human—and had grown up with human standards. He had to be patient. The Goddess was making him work for this, it was true, but he wouldn’t be any kind of an Alpha if he couldn’t appreciate a challenge.
Mark let Shelly go with great reluctance when they landed on the mainland an hour later. He’d spent the flight talking with her in low, intimate tones, when he would much rather have been doing something a lot more intimate than merely talking. Joining the Mile High Club with her was definitely on his to-do list, but not today. Not in this particular plane, which had no private sleeping compartment.
Another one of their jets did, and he hoped to take her with him some place suitably distant enough that they would have sufficient time to put that big bed to good use. But that was a plan for another day. Today, he had to check in with the security team watching her house and get updates from a number of his subordinates, as well as the Midtown wolf Pack, who had been helping. There was work to do, and plenty of it.