Kyle’s mouth twitched. “You wound me.”
“If I have to.” She slipped out the tranq gun and aimed it straight at his chest.
“Fuck.” Kyle dropped to a crouch, hands rising in defense. He backed up slowly. “You’re not serious.”
“Do I look like I’m not serious?” She gestured with the gun. “I can happily load your unconscious carcass into the truck and have you home before breakfast.”
The truth that she really would do it hit him hard—she saw the realization roll across his face. Resignation, and a touch of something else. Admiration? He liked that she’d gotten the jump on him?
Weird cat.
Kyle leaned back on the wall. “I’m an investigator with an underground department of Shifter Intelligence. Most of my work involves media-proofing shifter-caused incidents, but there’s something big we’ve been hearing rumors of for the past year. A new drug that works on the shifter metabolism. Is that enough? Or do you want to know the details about how to use the coffeemaker on the third floor in our secret underground headquarters?”
El stared at him, slightly confused. “A drug that will work on us…how? Tranqs work, what’s the big deal?”
“The drug reportedly affects shifter cells. Makes it so you can’t shift for a prolonged period of time. In high enough doses, we’re afraid it might cause permanent damage.”
Damn, that would be the kind of thing the anti-shifter people would love to get their hands on. The great equalizer. All the other concerns, like getting caught right after a session of virtually public sex, faded into insignificance. She lowered the gun.
“Great. Fabulous. Before we figure out what the hell we’re going to do, let me point out that if you lie to me again, I’ll tie your tail to the bedpost while you sleep, got it?”
“Clear as a bell.”
She tucked the gun into her pants and paced. “Let’s recap, shall we? I’m supposed to be keeping you under surveillance and available until the middle of January so you can give evidence at a trial. You need to find the source of a dangerous drug market. We’re now supposedly engaged and will have to put in social appearances with the leading families of the North American shifters with media hounding our every step while I attempt to keep you out of their range. Did I cover all the important revelations from the past twenty-four hours?”
Kyle sighed. “There’s also my uncle’s unusual behavior, your parent’s freaky change of circumstances and the fact a wolf drooled on you earlier tonight.”
What the…? “Samuel wasn’t involved with this.”
“Oh, and we had the best sex ever out on a balcony about twenty minutes ago.”
“That has nothing to do with—”
“It’s important to get all the information on the table.”
Knocking him out sounded better and better all the time. “The fact we had sex is irrelevant to the situation.”
Kyle strode closer, shaking his head. “Actually, it’s not. That was the main reason I had to propose the engagement. Every shifter in the area knew we’d had sex. Don’t try to tell me your dad wasn’t ready to defend your honor when my uncle spouted off.”
She sighed. “You’re right. Daddy would have got his butt stomped.”
He cupped her face in his hand and warmth from their earlier connection rose to the surface. Her mind might be racing with all the new information, but he stood so close it was all she could do to not let her head drop against his chest and let him support her, hide her away from the chaos.
“Let’s talk about a change of plans. I don’t think we should stay with your parents for the rest of the holidays.” Kyle stroked his thumb over her cheek. “I doubt I’m in peril, but if your chief asked for me to be kept hidden because there’s even a chance someone crazy is looking for me, I don’t want to bring danger to your family. I’d hate to be the cause of your little brothers, or anyone else, getting hurt.
El nodded. “Agreed. I’d suggest my apartment, but it’s not big enough for an extended stay. We’re talking over three more weeks until the trial. And your place is totally out of the question.”
He chuckled. “Well, the boat is out, but that’s not my only place. It’s just a good spot for the latest part of my investigations. We can move into my apartment in Colorado. If we make a big deal of it, that will ensure your family will be safe—all the media will follow us and leave them alone.”
He had another place? In Colorado? Man, must be nice to have that kind of money. The fact of who he was struck her again. What in the world was an heir of one of the ruling families doing living on a dock?
Shit. No time to dwell on that. She had to concentrate on the details. “Is your place big enough for a longer stay, and can we defend ourselves easily?”
“Oh yeah.”
She thought quickly. “I need to touch base with my chief first and let him know what the hell has happened. If he agrees to us dropping the part in my orders about keeping you out of the media eye, then your plan will work. We’ll leave Christmas Day after the presents have been opened. I doubt anyone would try to make a move on you before that, and leaving before then would look suspicious. Still, will you do me a favor and stay away from windows? Also, don’t take off without me knowing where you are at all times.”
Kyle slipped his hand around the back of her neck and in a moment of weakness, she let him draw their bodies together for a long hug. She held on to her extreme panic by a very thin thread. It wasn’t worth voicing right now, but Kyle had managed to hit most of her hot buttons with his instantaneous solution.
No matter how logical their masquerade, she didn’t want to be engaged, not even pretending. The mere thought of getting hitched gave her hives. Venturing down the same path as all the other cougar women of her family—screw that. No bloody way would she give up her career to stay home and pop out kittens. The panicked adrenaline rushing her veins was totally irrational. The only thing stopping her from freaking out was the knowledge that a cancellation of their “engagement” would make the current media storm even worse and her assignment impossible. Drugging him and stashing him in a safe house would totally disrupt his investigation.
She couldn’t see an immediate solution—they were trapped in the deception.
Chapter Seven
Kyle sat in the La-Z-Boy, his feet on the raised extension. If there were one thing he’d love to do right now it would be to order El to relax. She paced the condo again and again across the massive width of the floor, her hands flitting over the back of the couch, the walls, the counter tops. She didn’t say a word to him, but her limbs and eyes were never still. It was as if all the energy she wasn’t using to scream at him had to find another outlet.
He sighed heavily. He thought their move to his apartment yesterday had gone relatively well. In fact, he’d had a blast watching the kids unwrap a virtual mountain of presents. They’d all shared a quick lunch before he and El had slipped away from the continuing festivities at the Scott household. There had been masses of kisses and hugs from all the little brothers, a few sly winks from the Doublemint twins and the formal presentation by El’s dad of one of the Scotts’ best jugs of family moonshine for “their personal enjoyment and consumption.”
The glass was etched with Cousin Bubba, 1996. It kinda brought a tear to Kyle’s eye.
El had whitewashed their rapid departure by claiming she and Kyle needed time alone to make plans for the wedding. Not like anything was easy to control in this situation—his aunt and El’s mom were already tag teaming back and forth with a campaign for a massive engagement party and formal announcement. He’d tried to cut them off at the pass, but that was one thing about his aunt. While his Uncle Roy never understood him, Aunt Janet simply never listened.
The phone had rung an hour ago to inform them the party was booked for New Year’s Eve at the Ritz. Five bloody days from now.
That’s when the pacing had begun. Even in her human form, El’s cat was visible. She was graceful and sexy and
she made Kyle’s brain ache. His balls were sore from having to sit without touching her the entire trip to Colorado in the private plane his uncle had insisted on sending. She never relaxed until they’d finally raced through the doors of his apartment and she was sure they were alone.
He trailed his gaze after her, her butt cheeks flexing under the sloppy pair of pajama pants she wore. She took her job damn seriously, and he admired that. He liked a woman with a brain, really he did, but right now it was her body driving him crazy. Her scent blazed a path through his nostrils, around his neck and finished with a flourish by tying a big bow at the base of his cock.
It was unbearable—being in the same room as her when she was pissed off. Because pissed off was one small step away from aroused, and that was what he really wanted.
“Can I get you something, El?”
No answer, just the slap, slap, slap, slap of her bare feet against the hardwood flooring as she paced.
“Pizza last night was good, hey? You want to order Chinese or something tonight?”
Slap, slap, slap.
“What’s on the agenda this morning? I’m going to do more research, but we’ll need some down time as well. What you think? Television? Cards? Tiddlywinks?”
Slap, slap… A pause as she pivoted at the window. She stared out at the downtown skyline, her arms crossed over her chest. Kyle could have jumped her right there and then…slap, slap. She resumed her pacing.
Frankly, he liked her better when she screamed at him.
Kyle rose to his feet and sauntered straight into the kitchen. He timed it perfectly so he knocked her hard with his shoulder as he passed. He didn’t even attempt to get out of her way.
“Bastard.”
He paused in the middle of opening the fridge. “Oh, you do still know how to talk. I thought maybe the cat got your tongue.”
El gave him the finger.
Kyle hid his grin as he searched through the plastic containers on the shelf. “Where’re the leftovers from last night?”
“The pizza? I ate it for breakfast when you were in the shower.”
Oh fab—just what he needed—a reason to fake a fight. He twirled. “You didn’t. You ate all the pizza? For breakfast? That’s…”
She raised a brow and he reconsidered what to say. He wanted to make her mad. He didn’t want to end up in a full body cast. “That stinks. I planned on having that.”
“Well, I planned on having a normal life, but I got stuck with you, didn’t I?”
Ouch. “You trying to piss me off?”
El stalked toward him. Closer, closer. Even closer. Her scent pooled in his toes after shooting throughout his entire system in less than three seconds. Damn, she made his mouth water…
“Ack.”
She hadn’t stopped, simply reached past him into the fridge to grab the juice container. Her torso pressed him back against the door, random condiments poking him in the back. Kyle couldn’t stop himself, he dipped his head and licked along the tendon on the side of her neck. Hmm, she tasted good.
She froze under his tongue, except for the arm lifting the juice jug. That one moved, straight back into his space. Then, as if struck by a case of palsy, her arm convulsed and he was very wet. Cold. Sticky.
Cougar flavored orange juice. It would never sell.
“Oops.” El backed away and wrinkled her nose at him. “Damn. Guess you’d better go have another shower.”
Kyle hid his smile. “I guess I will, only I’m too hungry to wait.” He reached into the fridge and snagged the coffee cream. He turned as if to get out of her way then snatched her against him, her left arm trapped against his chest, her right held tight in his grip. She struggled, but he’d nabbed her perfectly—good thing too. Her claws were out, and his kitty was ready to use some of that pent up energy.
Fine with him.
She wasn’t wearing a bra under her shirt, and both nipples were rock hard, staring at him like high beams on a fast car. He’d never felt such sympathy for deer before. Unable to look away, mesmerized by the evidence that no matter how pissed she was, she still wanted him.
“Double bastard.”
“No, double cream.”
She stilled and then gasped as the cold liquid struck her collarbone. He poured thin lines, drawing a design on her beautiful skin, the thick cream clinging to the warm surface for a second before sliding lower and smearing with the heat. A line along the right breast, a loop between her cleavage. Over to the other collarbone—by the time he was done there was sticky cream coating all her visible skin, and she hadn’t moved an inch. A trail trickled down the surface of her T-shirt. A single droplet pooled together and clung like a pearly white bead from her rigid nipple.
All the struggle had left her, and when he dragged his gaze back to hers, he swore softly. Her pupils were dilated—huge and hypnotic. Her breath escaped in small pants, the tension in her body no longer that of flight or fight, but fuck me.
“El?” he whispered.
She swallowed hard. “This may be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, after taking the bloody assignment in the first place, but…” She whipped off her T-shirt and exposed those lovely tits, and his body went on high alert. “Come on, kitty cat, enjoy some cream.”
“All the cream I want?” Kyle trailed a finger through the mess on her upper chest, drawing the thick substance farther south.
“All you want.”
Freed by the removal of the confining material, tiny trails of moisture slowly descended, turning her body into an erotic lace design. Kyle hardly knew where to begin.
El took matters into her own hands. She backed them away from the fridge and the cold air blowing down on them. One hop brought her up on the island counter where she arched her back and suddenly his mouth was on her and he’d never enjoyed a bowl of cream more in his life.
He started with lazy circles to catch the liquid lying along the top of her smooth firm mounds. The next step involved a long continuous drag from the underside of her right breast, looping over the top and finishing with a figure eight around the needy left breast. He lapped, and sucked, and nipped. There wasn’t an inch of skin left untouched, and a great many he had to return to again and again.
It was as if her nipples were taunting him. They stared at him until he dipped his head and suckled, the full circles of her areolas disappearing into tiny dime-sized peaks with pin hard mountain caps that spiked against his tongue and begged to be bitten.
“So good. Yeah, there, that’s the spot. Ohhh…” El purred in contentment as he added his hands to his exploration. His palms soaked in the warmth of her skin as he smoothed over her hips, skimmed up her back. He undid her buttons, and with a flurry of movement, stripped her bare and laid her on the countertop.
He grabbed one leg and kissed her ankle. As he applied small brushes of his tongue all along the inside of her leg until he reached her core, she twitched and shook, and made the most incredible noises.
“Keep this here.” He placed her foot on the counter beside her hip, opening her smooth bare center to his gaze and intimate touch.
She blew out her breath in a long, slow hiss. “Come on, Kyle. You’re going too damn slow.”
He rose over her, ready to be indignant, and found her grinning. “It’s not a contest sweetheart.”
“No, but if you don’t fuck me soon, I’m going to have to rip your clothes off. Get on with it.”
“I’m not done with my cream.” He stayed staring into her face as he trickled his fingertips along the same line his tongue had followed earlier. Without looking, he found her sex and slid a finger easily into her core. “Hmm, so warm, so wet.”
Her eyes widened, and so did her grin. He pumped one finger, then two, and her eyes rolled back in her head. When he added a third, stretching her wide, she licked her lips and hummed.
Kyle turned his attention to his fingers. Watching them disappear in and out of her body fascinated him. Her cream coated his hand, the rush of liquid heavy and
hot on his skin. Her clit looked so lonely he had to go and make it feel better. He planted a single kiss over the apex of her mound, his fingers still buried deep inside and her hips convulsed.
There was so much he wanted to do, but there was no time and no way to do it all simultaneously. He hardened his tongue and swirled it around her needy nub, and her hips bucked again.
“Damn it, am I going to have to tie you down? Stay still.”
Kyle withdrew his fingers, clamped onto her with both hands and dove in for the kill. He ate her hungrily, lapping every bit of cream possible. He feasted on the liquid painted on her thighs, the moisture on her nether lips. One thorough draw after the other in a long line from stem to stern—and he still couldn’t get enough.
He thrust his tongue into her sex as far as it would go, swirling in circles. That triggered a fresh supply of cream as she ground against him. He drew her clit into his mouth, suckling hard. The instant her core fluttered in response he stood, dropped his pants and slid home.
The heat on his aching cock felt incredible. His mind barely registered the flapping of his jeans and belt as he hauled her hips to the edge of the counter and thrust in again, deeper. Filling her completely. Her orgasm must have broke when he penetrated her, because as he remained still the pulse of her muscles around him was so freaky good he didn’t move, simply enjoyed the ride. He slowly rubbed her clit and she bucked, driving him deeper.
Oh yeah, that was the trick. He did it again, increasing the pressure slightly. She gasped and moaned and cried out his name until he couldn’t bear it any longer. He held on to her hips for dear life and rode her hard. Pounding into her, his cock squeezed tight on each plunge, feeling her heat surround him, loving the way she welcomed him in. El wrapped her legs around his waist and for a couple of thrusts it was her in charge, dragging him bodily into her core with her strong leg muscles. Then she lifted her limbs higher to drape them over his shoulders and Kyle saw stars. He’d never been so deep in a woman before. The new angle was so much more intense, and only a few thrusts later he lost control and came, shooting pulse after pulse into her, her happy face smiling up at him as he came so hard his vision blurred.
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