by Tami Lund
He covered the bottle with the towel and popped the cork, filling the glasses before wrapping the cloth around the bottle and placing it on the coffee table. He offered her one of the glasses and then sat next to her. He radiated heat, although he didn’t look remotely feverish or ill.
He looked like sex and candy walking. Or sitting.
“To accidental meetings,” he murmured, lifting his glass and inviting her to toast.
“Here, here,” Rachel replied, touching the rim of his glass with her own before lifting it to her lips and taking a hefty swallow. She coughed as the fizzy liquid slid down her throat.
Josh chuckled and then sipped from his own glass. “Slow down,” he suggested. “We have all night.”
“We—we do?” Her insides twisted and melted. She squeezed her thighs together as heat gathered at their apex.
He draped his arm across the back of the couch and smiled. “Well, the champagne won’t last that long, I suppose.”
She crossed her legs. The dress rode up, revealing the golden heels. Josh’s gaze shifted. “You look radiant, by the way. I don’t think I’ve said that out loud yet.”
“Um... Thanks.” Why the hell was she so flustered? She’d done this a dozen times before—seduced a man purely for her own benefit. And Josh was making it so damn easy.
So why did she feel so nervous? And even a little bit guilty. It was messing with her game. Normally, Rachel could do something like this with aplomb. Just turn off the emotion and do what she needed to do. Granted, she’d never quite been in this type of situation before, but seducing a hot guy in order to avoid being killed seemed like it should be a hell of a lot easier than seducing a geeky businessman in order to convince him to buy her a laptop.
“So that panther,” she blurted. “That was a heck of a prank. I mean, where did your cousin get a panther, anyway? And one that was obviously trained, since it didn’t attack anyone. And you know what else was weird about it? None of the guests really seemed shocked. In fact, they were petting it, and laughing, and...” She trailed off as she realized she was babbling. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. And you’re right, the guests at that party are used to it, unfortunately. He has a habit of making appearances like that on a regular basis.” He toed off his shoes, loosened his tie and draped his arm across the back of the couch again. She felt his fingers brush her neck, and then they began twisting a lock of hair that had fallen out of her updo. She touched her hair, wondering if it looked okay.
“You’re beautiful,” he commented, as if he knew precisely what she was thinking.
She smiled and took another slug of champagne. This one went down smoother than the last. “This is delicious.”
He leaned forward and topped off both glasses before sitting back again and resuming toying with her hair.
“Which charity does that event support?” she asked, trying desperately to find something to calm her nerves. Josh exuded so much raw power and sexuality, she was more than half-tempted to climb into his lap and get busy doing what she had been assigned to do tonight. But that seemed so crass before making small talk first. Especially with someone like Josh Tigre.
He was a leader. She had no idea of what, but based on what she’d seen tonight, he was clearly powerful and probably highly influential. The man who’d given her this assignment had instructed her to “distract him,” and then he’d glanced pointedly at her breasts. She hadn’t needed him to make himself any clearer. Now she couldn’t help but wonder why. What did Josh have that this other man wanted? He himself had struck her as awfully powerful, in his own right. Was it a case of someone who could never have enough control?
While Rachel had previously seduced men for her own gain, it had always been for something small, like dinner at a new restaurant or a dress she’d had her eye on but could never afford on her own. And each time, she’d hated herself afterward, even if the man being seduced had reassured her he hadn’t minded. Although she wasn’t a drug addict like her mother had been, each time she gave in to the urge to seduce another mark, she’d wondered if it wasn’t her mother’s influence, encouraging her to strive to gain whatever she’d wanted at the time, through any means necessary. It had been that fear that had caused her to try to go straight shortly before Jeremy had flirted with her at the hotel. She should have listened to her inner good girl. Look where the bad girl had gotten her.
Lounging on the couch, wearing a sexy-as-hell dress, with an Adonis clearly interested in something more, drinking sparkling wine she knew damn well cost more than she made working an entire weekend at the hotel. Where was the negative in all this?
Had she not been coerced, she would never have agreed to sleep with him, despite Josh’s ridiculously good looks and—so far—charming personality. This wasn’t the woman she wanted to be. She wanted to figure out how to make her own way in the world. One of these days, so she vowed at least once a week, she would move beyond her pitiful life, make that difference she always craved but was never able to accomplish.
In the meantime, she had no choice but to see tonight through to the end. And she was admittedly looking forward to what was inevitably going to happen before the night was through.
One last time, she promised herself, just before Josh answered her question.
“A community center of sorts. The funds raised pay for the upkeep on the building, the staff’s salaries, whatever other expenses are involved with attempting to keep kids out of trouble.”
“That’s very noble.”
He shrugged. “It was my parents’ pet project. They both died about a year and a half ago, and this was already in the works, so I saw it through to tonight, in their honor.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss. What happened? That is—if you want to talk about it?”
“Car accident. February, last year. The roads were slippery. A semi lost control and slammed into their car. They both died at the scene.”
Rachel’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hand. But before she could utter empty words of sympathy, he said, “Yes, it’s terrible. But it happened, and life goes on.”
She cocked her head to the side and sipped the fizzy liquid as she studied him. Although he hid it well, she was pretty sure she detected bitterness, maybe a little hurt, in his voice. It may have been a year and a half ago, but Josh was certainly not over his parents’ death. Rachel, who never knew her father, and whose mother was a crack whore always looking for the next hit, couldn’t relate to such an intense love and loss, although she could certainly sympathize. Sympathizing with people going through hardships was what she did for a living, at least at her weekday job.
“You aren’t planning on supporting the community center after this?” she asked, thinking about his comment regarding the charity being his parents’ pet project.
“I don’t necessarily agree with the exclusivity of the center. There are dozens of perfectly acceptable alternatives all around us, and the money we pour into that center could be used in different ways. Better ways, in my opinion.”
“Maybe your parents believed that center keeps kids out of trouble.”
A scowl marred his features. “No. They just didn’t want them associating with hu—other kids, outside their own circles.” His gaze slanted down to her shoes and he said, “Let’s talk about something else.”
He leaned forward. She knew precisely what he meant to do, and it had nothing at all to do with talking, so she leaned forward too, meeting him halfway.
I shouldn’t be enjoying this so much. He kissed with a tempting mix of dominance and eagerness. His hands slid into her hair, sending the pins holding it up flying, and causing it to curl around her shoulders. He twisted to face her on the couch, and continued to ravish her mouth, while her senses made no attempt whatsoever to try to gain control of the situation. All she could think was, I want this. Oh God, I want this.
One hand untangled from her hair and stroked down her body until he cupped her thigh through h
er dress. He lifted and positioned her so she straddled his lap, the dress riding up her legs, the shoes still on her feet. He finally broke the kiss so he could nibble on her shoulder while he slowly lowered the zipper on the back of her dress. His hand slipped inside and his fingertips brushed across the lace on her panties. She groaned, her head lolling to the side.
It was as if she’d given him some sort of unspoken permission. He became more aggressive, more demanding, more urgent, as he pulled the dress off her shoulders and cupped her breasts, kneading for a moment before reaching around to unclasp her bra. Impatiently, he pulled the contraption off and tossed it away, and she pressed forward into his touch, as his hands came up again to massage the sensitized skin.
She reacted with the same enthusiasm, tugging his tie, pulling at his shirt, fumbling as she tried to unbutton it, pushing it over his broad shoulders and jerking the undershirt up so she could scrape her fingernails across the ridges and sharp planes of his abs.
He laughed as he leaned back so she could unbuckle his pants. “It feels as though we’re both younglings who’ve just discovered sex,” he teased.
“I think it’s just you,” Rachel said as she pushed his pants over his hips. “I don’t usually feel like I’m about to explode if my partner isn’t inside me within the course of ten seconds.”
“It might be fifteen,” Josh said as he tugged his wallet out of a pocket in his pants. He held up the foil square he extracted and said, “I need a few seconds to put this on.”
She pulled it from his hand. “Allow me,” she said, and she painstakingly slowly slid the condom over his erection.
“I can’t take anymore,” he groaned as he pushed her onto her back on the couch.
“I can,” she said as she spread her legs while he settled between them. “I can take a lot more.” She grasped his erection and guided it right where she wanted it to be.
“Or maybe not,” she gasped, arching her back as he worked himself into her. “God, you’re huge!”
Josh pressed deeper, grasping her thighs and lifting her body to allow him more access. “You know how to make a guy feel like the fucking king of the world, don’t you?” he muttered as he pushed.
Just the process of pressing into her was bringing her closer and closer and—“Oh my God!” she cried out as she arched and her orgasm exploded, fireworks shooting off all around her.
Josh pumped hard, riding her through the orgasm, making it last and last and last, until she wasn’t sure her heart could take any more before it decided to explode, too. Just as she was about to cry mercy, his nails dug into her hips and he began surging almost convulsively, until he too climaxed, shouting out his pleasure as he came.
When they both slowly floated back down to earth, they were lying on the couch, body to body, with Josh’s head pillowed on her breasts, while she toyed with his hair and made a halfhearted attempt at trying to fend off the sleep that was fast encroaching. She had done what she was supposed to do, and she should be pushing him out the door. Except it felt so damn comfortable lying like this.
* * * *
The next time she blinked open her eyes, light poured in through the single window in her living room and Josh kneeled over her body, kissing her abdomen while his hands were busy caressing her breasts. The shoes had come off at some point, and her dress was bunched around her waist.
“What a wonderful way to wake up,” she murmured.
He chuckled as he pulled the dress over her hips and legs, until she was free of the garment. “I was beginning to wonder just how far I’d get before you actually responded.”
She squirmed as his lips traveled lower, and she mused over that comment for a minute. She wasn’t usually a deep sleeper. She was a woman living alone in a questionable neighborhood. Normally, every little sound woke her. But last night, she’d slept more soundly than she had in years.
She’d felt... safe, she realized. She didn’t think she’d ever feel so protected. The guilt tried to surface, but by that point, Josh’s lips were leading her toward heaven, and her body refused to let her mind have its way, so she gave up the battle and enjoyed the moment.
When it was over and she was sprawled across his chest in a sated, boneless heap, Josh asked if she had the ingredients to make breakfast. “I don’t get to cook very often, but I can make a mean omelet, if you’re interested.”
She placed her palms on his chest and pushed herself up so she could look him in the face. “Are you offering to cook me breakfast?”
“Yes.”
She scrambled off him and grabbed his shirt, pulling it over her shoulders as she hurried toward the kitchen. “I hope to hell I have ingredients for you to cook. And if you do a good job, I might just keep you around.”
Even as she said the words, she cringed on the inside. Keeping him around—wanting to keep him around—wasn’t part of the deal. Whoever the hell wanted to topple Josh off his proverbial throne was someone Rachel hoped to never see again. If that meant not seeing Josh again too, so be it. It was better to be alive, right?
“I meant...”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain.” She watched as he tugged his pants over his hips, and forced herself to swallow the saliva pooling in her mouth. He wasn’t even erect at the moment and he was huge. No wonder she was sore. The man had stretched muscles that didn’t normally see such... impressive activity.
He walked over and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her flush against his overly warm body, so she could feel the way he reacted to her nearness. Again.
Oh my.
“I’d like to take a shower first, if that’s okay? I’d ask you to join me, but I didn’t bring any more condoms.”
“I have condoms.” Was that her voice?
“Well, then. About that shower?”
Chapter 3
The shiny black Ninja motorcycle parked in the circle drive in front of the pretentious mansion Josh had inherited from his parents meant his cousin Matt was there, and reminded him of last night’s near-debacle. While his kind could shift into the form of any warm-blooded creature in the world, the panther was his pack’s favorite.
He knew Matt had thought it funny to shift into a giant black cat and strut through the party, but all he’d done was make Josh’s job harder. Although it had been the catalyst to meeting Rachel.
He thought about the woman whose warmth he’d left thirty minutes prior, and attempted to stem the anger pushing through his system. Unfortunately, thoughts of her only fueled his fury, mostly because they coiled up his insides and made him confused as hell.
A human woman. What the hell was he doing, messing with a human woman? Wait—he knew the answer to that question. He tended to choose human women over his own kind on a regular basis. They were less complicated. The single females in his pack all wanted one thing from him: to be his mate. He was the pack master now, since his father’s untimely death, and as such, it was assumed he would take a mate, whelp a few pups, ensure his family would carry on as the leaders of this pack.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be pack master, nor that he was determined not to take a mate. It went deeper than that. His parents had been healthy, not much past their prime, when they’d died. His father had been a damn good pack master—even if he did hold a little too tightly to the exclusivity line—and Josh had expected to have at least another ten, maybe even twenty years or so before he had to take on that responsibility.
The mating issue was another problem for him, too. His parents had been in love, the kind of bone-deep, intense love that was obvious even to a stranger looking in from the outside. If Josh couldn’t have what his parents had, he didn’t want a mate. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had much luck with the females in his pack. They all came across as pretentious, as wanting the title of pack master’s mate more than wanting him. He hadn’t felt anything outside of straight-up sexual attraction with anyone he’d dated.
Shortly after his parents’ deaths, the females in his pac
k had become more aggressive with their pursuit. The day he’d woken up with a woman in his bed, crouching over his hips, facing away from him, with his dick in her hand, was the last day he’d hooked up with another shifter. Had she been successful, he’d be mated to the woman right now, and hell, he couldn’t even remember her name, let alone whether she was good in bed, or worth spending the rest of his life with.
Shifters mated by having sex shifter-style, and then asking the pack master’s permission. Considering he was the pack master, he supposed he could have declared they were not mated, but how fucking awkward would that have been? It certainly would not have boosted his likability rating within the pack.
Luckily, that wasn’t much of an issue with his pack. Most of them liked and respected him as a leader, largely because his father had been such a good pack master. That was the main reason he hadn’t yet instituted any changes to the pack, even though he wanted to. Getting rid of that stupid shifter-only community center was at the top of his list. The annual cost to keep the thing running, especially when compared to the number of pups who actually used it, was outrageous, especially to a businessman like Josh. But it had been his parents’ pet project, or at least his dad’s, and he hadn’t yet had the heart to do anything to fix the ridiculous and pointless outflow of funds.
His parents had dumped so much money into it, Josh felt ill every time he looked at the books. Shifters from other packs didn’t have private community centers like that, a place where shifter younglings were taught to shun their human counterparts, despite the fact they went to school with them, lived in their neighborhoods, followed their rules, paid their taxes. When he’d been a pup, he’d likened it to a Nazi military training facility. Brainwashing at its finest. His father hadn’t appreciated that particular opinion.
“We have to teach our pups the importance of keeping our heritage a secret,” had been his dad’s defense.