Peter leaned back in his chair, relaxed as though he could be content in any setting. He cocked his head as he observed her in the way Kat did with animals in the field. It should've made her uncomfortable.
It didn't. She found herself wanting to give him a show worth seeing, but she didn't quite have the nerve to act on the impulse. So instead, she crossed her legs, gritting her teeth against the sensation the movement caused. Definitely not a normal reaction.
"So what brings you to the fine Fancy Pines Hotel of Jersey?" Kat would make with the small talk. Usually, she would require dinner and a few dates before considering sex with anyone; however, it'd been a while since her last boyfriend. She wondered if the powerful arousal was because she really, really needed something to take the edge off not only the day but the past year as well. Would sleeping with a stranger really be so bad in the long run?
I can't believe I am even thinking about this. At all.
Peter was so handsome she could ogle him for hours. His silky, dark hair wasn't too long, yet it wasn't short. Long enough he could probably tie it back if he wanted, but not enough to make him resemble an escapee from an eighties rock band. His olive complexion and accent seemed exotic despite the casual, down-to-earth attire. Kat's inner harlot screamed at her to stop analyzing things and toss the man on the bed before she chickened out or said something geeky and scared him away.
"Just passing through town. Thought I'd stay awhile, and it appears I made a good decision." There were crinkles around his eyes when he smiled, hinting that he must love to smile and laugh. It made him all the more attractive. "And with a celebrity at that."
"I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm a celebrity. There are maybe two households who actually know my name: my parents' and my grandparents'. But enough about me..." She trailed off as he stretched his arms over his head. His shirt rode up and revealed a set of washboard abs and a dark happy trail; her gaze couldn't go any farther due to his pants, and the table hid any evidence of said happiness. Stupid table. She licked her lips.
Then Kat hopped up, pacing and twisting her fingers together for something to do with them that didn't involve fondling strangers. Realizing she probably appeared unhinged, she jammed both hands into her pockets. She glanced out the corner of her eye toward Peter, hoping distance between them would help. He raised his eyebrows as he tracked her movement, and she decided he must wonder why she was acting so spastic.
A sudden thought struck her, and she went for it. Anything to break the increasingly awkward silence. "Are you thirsty? I can pour you a glass of wine. Unfortunately, it's a little warm since there isn't a fridge here." She retrieved the bottle and two of plastic cups the hotel had supplied. She returned and set the bottle on the table and began to unwrap the cups.
Peter stood up so fast his chair toppled over, crashing against the heating unit under the window with a loud crack. He stared at her and back to the bottle of wine. His jaw was clenched, and he lost all the laid-back, casual happiness he'd previously displayed. As she was about to ask if he was okay, he smiled at her. It wasn't a full smile like earlier though. It was forced. "Sorry about that. I..." He picked up his chair and then paused after he righted it. He seemed to be concentrating on something as though it were more important than breathing. It was rather strange. Maybe Rick was right to be wary of Peter.
Just my luck that the hot man would be a loony.
"Have you ever had the feeling you forgot to do something?" he asked at last.
"Yeah. All the time." Kat set the cups down, one with the wrapper half-ripped open, and wondered if she should maybe open the door and step outside into public view.
"I didn't mean to startle you, but I have this terrible feeling about something. Maybe we can catch up later or...something."
That was a lot of "somethings." He was lying, but Kat plastered a smile on her face.
"Sure, I'd like that."
He muttered a farewell, stalked past her, and out the door. Kat peeked out through the curtains and watched him go into the room next door to hers. At least he hadn't been lying about staying at the hotel. For some reason she half-expected him to take off in the opposite direction.
She was ever skeptical, paranoid, and still horny as hell.
Chapter 4
Pan latched the door of the hotel room he "acquired" next to the female's, knowing she'd been spying on him as he mystically unlocked the door. Once more, being a god had perks. Luckily the room was vacant, or it could have been awkward. He'd taken one look at the Greek label on the wine bottle and memories flooded him like an open spigot. Still, he wouldn't have needed to read the label to know it came from Greek vineyards; it had been opened, and he could smell the tang of the vintage when she set the bottle on the table.
It couldn't possibly be the same wine he thought it was, but he knew it had been. It was too much of a coincidence. Someone had known he'd recognize it. Knew he'd remember the taste of it as if he only just taken a sip of the sweet but bitter liquid the day before. He had tasted wine of that making many times. Long before the birth of Christ. Before the Romans built their empire.
Someone knew who he was, but the important question was who? Was his remarkably beautiful woman out to do him harm in some way? Or was she a pawn in a bigger scheme?
Too good to be true. This is why I avoid redheads.
Pan's moment of panic in her room had alarmed Katerina, and he could have kicked himself. His human manifestation had been perilously close to slipping in front of her. Safe without humans around to witness the change, he let it fall away finally, leaving him in the form he was cursed to endure. His thick horns weighed heavily against the sides of his head. He glanced down at his deformed feet. They were nightmarish, demonic even. His ankles and lower calves had a thick pelt of fur, the same dark brown as the hair on his head. It thinned out until it was the normal amount of human hair across his thighs. His hooves were the same jet black as his horns, split down the middle.
Pan could only imagine what Katerina's reaction would have been if he'd allowed the change to come over him in front of her. The fear, the horror, the confusion. The lust he sensed coming off her in waves would have died within seconds. Very few beheld this form and desired him. No, not when he resembled the devil more than a man. A creature, a beast, an abomination. And that was only his satyr form. The other one made things a whole lot worse. His parlor tricks made people cry...and not from joy or admiration.
Katerina. Pan had known Kat was short for something, but he couldn't bring himself to shorten her beautiful name. Shortening it cheapened it. Everything about her deserved to be savored. And someone else knows it too. Why else send her with that wine to bait me?
His jeans were too tight against his arousal, throbbing in need of the woman next door, and he cursed himself because he'd known all he needed to do was make a move to have her. She had been willing, but he'd sat there waiting for her to make a move on him. Pan hadn't been able to help himself. Her desire and confusion were evident, and he wanted to see which won out. It had gone so well until she showed him the wine.
Fool, the wine saved you. The element of surprise is gone, and now it is a matter of finding out what she is up to.
As Pan leaned against the cool, metallic door, he unfastened his pants, gripped his penis, and then stroked it. Katerina had been all but ready to strip naked for him. He'd seen it in her eyes. He could have claimed her mouth with his and had her on the spot. And now there he was, reduced to masturbation because his curse had finally run the course of allowing him any sort of reprieve. She was his undoing. She could be his destruction.
He wanted her anyway.
He handled himself a little tighter, roughly, as he berated his lack of control. The clop of his left hoof hitting the door as his body jerked would have sickened him in the past, but he barely heard it. He'd long come to terms with the fact he would forever be beastly in form—a physical manifestation of the lecherous nature of men.
Gods, he could de
tect her arousal through the thin hotel walls. He jerked again, so close to release. Pan stroked faster with his right hand and braced his left against the wall beside him, adjacent to the door. With a lift of his head, he spotted the air vent that likely connected with the ventilation to her room. Combine it with his enhanced senses and...
A low moan sounded from next door. Was she doing the same as he was, caressing herself while imaging his tongue on her? He closed his eyes, letting his mind paint a picture. Katerina lay on the bed, pants and shoes kicked off and forgotten on the tan carpet below. She had one hand under her shirt, cupping her breast. The other rubbing slow, lazy circles around her clit.
She was a true redhead.
He came, hard. He muted his shout as he spilled over his hand and onto the carpet, which contained gods knew what else from previous patrons of the hotel.
Making his way through the dark room, twin to the one next door, Pan washed off at the sink. He adamantly avoided his reflection. Afterward, he grabbed tissue and cleaned up his mess on the carpet as much as he could, flushing it down the toilet when he finished.
He'd wanted nothing more than to have fucked Katerina the entire night through. Her eyes had begun to dilate as soon as she saw him. He'd watched her gaze peruse over his body multiple times. It was a reaction he'd only seen when he or one of the other Arcadians played their panpipes to entice a woman to want a satyr for sex. But he hadn't been playing, nor had he heard the flutes nearby. Maybe it had to do with the wine. The red hair, the musical laughter, the wine. He'd expected his past to stay where he left it, not to find him again.
Had the wine been any other wine, Pan was sure he would have humored her by accepting a glass as she used hers to lower her inhibitions. They would have spent the night fucking like animals on every available surface of the room. But it hadn't been any other wine, it had been...
He shook his head. Maybe his lust for the woman was distracting him too much to look at the bigger picture. He should be focusing on the mystery of the wine being present there, but he was hardening once more. If he kept it up, he'd have an eternal case of carpel tunnel by the morning. The best thing to do was try to ignore it. Unfortunately, because of the curse, ignoring it wouldn't make it go away. It had never been gone; he'd merely distracted himself so he couldn't think about the need. So, doing it again shouldn't be too difficult.
Pan picked up the remote and flicked the television on, making himself comfortable on the double bed closest to the bathroom. As people on the screen came to life, bickering with each other, his thoughts immediately reverted back to Katerina. He'd nearly revealed the monster beneath the surface. That wouldn't work very well in seducing her—which he still planned to do—unless she was into that sort of thing.
She's not going to open her legs for a man with hooves.
It was no use. How utterly frustrating it was to not be able to refocus his thoughts on anything other than sex. Thirty years of fighting it, lost in one day. Tragic.
He stopped flipping channels when he came to some movie about the Greek gods and Perseus. It was fairly recent, considering the special effects, but way too modernized. At least they had one fact right in the film: Perseus was a selfish prick. Pan turned the television off.
There was no choice but to remain near Katerina and wait to see if someone from his past decided to show themselves or make a move against him. Although, his weirdness probably ruined his shot of bedding her with his human glamour. As far as the wine was concerned, if Katerina was planted here to seduce him, the best way to avoid a trap was to not take the bait. Having his wicked satyr way with her was most definitely taking the bait.
"And that is why they call it temptation, my son." His father's voice bombarded his memories. He'd said it the last time Pan saw him, not long after the curse. As much as he hated to take any advice from Hermes, it would be in his best interest to remember that Katerina was a temptation he needed to avoid.
Pan wanted her, but he'd wait until he discovered her true intentions. She was hunting him, well...hunting his other form. He would not walk willingly into a trap.
* * *
"Whatever it was, we never managed to get a look at it. We heard movement, wings flapping as a large animal took flight, and then the trees started to shake. More than likely it was a bird. There's a good chance if there is a big animal in that area, the camera traps will catch something worthwhile. Maybe we will even find some animal tracks to make casts from or other physical evidence. Tomorrow when we pick up the cameras, we'll see. After the encounter yesterday, we didn't want to hang around and endanger ourselves."
Rick shut off the camera and placed it on the extra bed which was covered by the gaudy maroon, gold, and green tribal print comforter. There had to be a secret hotel catalogue for finding the most hideous comforters on the planet. Fugly Hotels Unlimited.
"You're not even going to say anything about it?" Cindy finally pushed, taking the seat opposite of Kat.
"Anything about what?"
"You can sit there, batting your eyelashes and looking as oblivious as the days are long, but you know what?" Cindy crossed her arms and glared at her. "You totally got it on with that guy, didn't you?" She smiled, silently begging for juicy tidbits.
"Please say you didn't jump in bed with some creepy dude you just met," Rick added.
"He wasn't creepy," Kat mumbled. He was a bit creepy, but she didn't want to admit it to Rick. "And no, we didn't hop in the bed, but there were sparks. Definite sparks." Until she scared him away.
At first, she worried he'd been a fruit basket, and she was lucky to have gotten through meeting him without being slobbered on. Then she remembered how badly she wanted him to...okay, not to slobber on her, but to put his mouth on certain areas. His weird reaction had followed the wine's appearance. Perhaps he was in AA and the reminder set something off. That didn't necessarily make him a bad person, but it was a history she would need to know before moving further with him. If that is what she even wanted.
For God's sake, Kat, you're in town for a few weeks. Not the time to shop for dates.
"Why would you say he's creepy?" Kat asked with a frown.
Rick rolled his eyes. "Well, for starters, there was nobody walking over from the store next door when we got here."
"Maybe he hadn't walked out the door yet," Cindy offered as she twisted open a bottle of bright blue nail polish. She'd been sitting Indian-style in the chair, but she shifted to rest one foot at the end. With her chin against her knee, she began beautifying her naked toenails.
Rick countered, "The whole front of the store is glass. There was no one even there, but the clerk who was reading a newspaper behind the counter."
Cindy scoffed. "Seriously, who is that observant?"
"I didn't want to be arrested for carrying a gun into the hotel. I was checking for witnesses."
"Oh, because that doesn't sound sketchy at all. If anyone has anything to be guilty for, obviously it's you since you were, 'checking for witnesses.' Damn, Ricardo!"
"I was still on edge from the weirdness in the woods."
"Of course you were. There was nothing on the footage but moving tree limbs and grass. It was some big, dumb animal you didn't see, or it was the wind. Like I said earlier, you spooked yourselves."
Kat sighed and opened her laptop, removing herself from the married couple's conversation. She'd brought it with her to Rick's room because she didn't trust herself to try to work being next door to the new distraction. She'd never come so hard from masturbation in her life, but the things her fantasy Peter could do with his tongue, his hands, his penis... Her hormones really, really liked good ol' Peter. And they really, really, really wanted to get intimate with Peter's peter.
"You might not have seen him," she cut into the conversation. "Peter was a perfect gentleman. He didn't do anything untoward with me." Except get crazy weird at the last second, but he didn't seem like he'd hurt her.
Rick snorted.
Kat waited for t
he super slow Wi-Fi connection to figure out that it should do something other than nothing. "You're just jealous of all Peter's yummy muscles."
"I have my own muscles."
Cindy snickered. "Had. Then you got married. I mourn their loss every day."
"So that's why you always have flowers in the house?" Kat offered.
Cindy pointed her nail polish applicator at her. "Exactly. I live in the funeral parlor of lost abs." At this, Rick sputtered indignantly.
Kat connected to Google and searched for recent Jersey Devil sightings. There were a few here and there. All varied. "The Jersey Devil was on my roof." Yeah, and you saw him while you were watching Supernatural on television and freaked yourself out. "The Jersey Devil scared my dog, I didn't see it, but poor Sparky was wigging out." Because poor Sparky opened his mouth and told you, "It was him! I saw him, I know it!"
Paranormal Magic (Shades of Prey Book 1) Page 136