by KH LeMoyne
She took a step closer to him. “But you’re going to change for me.”
“Totally different situation. You’re my life,” he said as he turned and skimmed his jeans down his legs before she objected again. He felt more than heard her intake of breath and his beast pushed for control.
Releasing the beast took no effort. But a slow nonthreatening shift, one intended to seduce his mate, required finesse. Through give and take, with the pull of the beast constantly straining beneath his flesh to burst free, he conceded control inch by delicate inch. Fur rippled across his skin as bones elongated and thickened. Years of cohabitation between man and beast should have led to peaceful coexistence, but he’d shifted infrequently due to the unfamiliar locations where the WITSEC team had placed his family. They didn’t need more exposure from a reckless adventure accidently seen by some stranger. Tempered by his age, the beast remained settled, seeking satisfaction in the comfort of the pride instead of the call of the wild.
But even with control and man-beast agreement, a slow shift was like fighting to grasp hot taffy. It slid farther out of his reach the tighter he clenched. The result was a gradual morphing, revealing one side of his psyche dissolving into the other. Not that he’d show any external sign of the effort it cost him.
He turned, capturing the last seconds his human eyes connected with hers as his world dimmed, witnessing her awestruck expression. Pride pulsed through him.
Vivid colors muted: the russet color of Dani’s sweater, the startling cloudy gray of her eyes, the translucent blonde of her hair. All turned a washed-out shade of their original colors.
As if to echo the thought, his beast let loose a soft growl. At the wide-eyed shock on Dani’s face, he sank to the floor and watched her from beneath the tufts of fur around his face.
She licked her lips and blinked, seeming to come back to normal subspace. The scent of her fear immediately dissipated. It wasn’t an invitation, but he used the opportunity to do something his beast had never done. He sank to the floor and crawled on his belly. Advancing toward her, he stopped as she took a tentative step back.
Head raised, he waited for another sign.
Biting her lip, she shifted back to her original position with a slight nod of her head. “Chisholm.”
He rose, padding slowly across the floor, exaggerating his stride to give her time to adjust. With several feet still to go, he turned with his back to her and planted his haunches. He glanced at her over his shoulder.
Breath almost nonexistent, she stared at him, not blinking. “Okay, big boy. Just remember, you promised me a soft, cuddly cat. No biting.”
He lifted his tail and flicked the furry tuft at the end against her leg.
She jumped. Then she laughed with the smallest smile.
He brushed her again, this time back and forth.
Her hand inched close enough to touch him. The fine hairs she stroked over his shoulder sent longing sizzling through his body.
“It’s amazing. You’re—very big.”
Waiting a few seconds, certain her heartbeat and breathing had returned to normal, he slowly stood. With as much caution as he could muster, given his size and the diminished space between them, he turned and bowed his head toward her leg, rubbing his forehead against her. He followed one gentle nudge with a second, then sat and looked at her.
Emboldened, she lifted her fingertips and brushed his ear. When he dipped his head closer, she stroked through the fur there. His rumbles, soft, long purrs, echoed around them. He edged himself closer until his shoulder braced against her belly, and he leaned into her caress.
“So soft, and I can’t believe this is you. I’m dreaming, right?”
Turning his head, he licked her wrist. She froze in place, and he dropped back to the floor in disappointment. Too much. Too soon. But the taste of her controlled him. The scent and flavor calmed him in a way nothing could, short of massive tranquilizers.
“Chisholm.” He heard her hard swallow. “Come back to me. Now?”
The break in her voice undid him, forcing his change in a split second instead of the graceful minutes he’d planned to acclimate her. Standing before her, he disregarded his nakedness and swept her into his arms, processing a silent sigh of relief when she clasped him tight. “I’m here, Dani. Always, right here.”
“Can you hear me when you’re shifted?” she muttered into his chest.
“Every word. You can command anything of me, and I have no choice but to obey.”
She pulled back enough to look at him with one brow raised. “Right.” She licked her lips and met his gaze. “I think I could only do that with you. And Maggie. Be so close during the shift, I mean.”
Puzzled, he considered her expression. “But you watched the others shift.”
She shook her head. “It was different. You were right there next to me, and they were all the way across the yard. I found it extraordinary, but I don’t know them. I didn’t feel…comfort.”
Comfort? No, she didn’t trust them. Well, trust was an issue to combat over time. At least her fear with him had lingered for only several seconds. With her in his arms, he smelled only Dani and desire.
Desire? Desire!
As if she’d read his thoughts, she nodded again. “You’re a little huge, but if I call the shots—”
“Exactly right. I will never do anything but protect you.” And love you. Pinpricks tickled in his gut; nice, firm, life-affirming pricks of a lion’s pleasure. But this wasn’t the time for confession. Even if she cared for him, the only emotions he counted on were his own. For him, their bonds were clear and permanent, with Dani complementing his needs in ways no one else could. Some shifters craved a raw animal-on-animal exchange from a shifter mate. He felt no such pull. Mamie’s preference for control of her partners held no appeal to him either.
Uninterested in animalistic fervor or control, his beast craved sensual pleasure. Sight. Sound. Taste. Tease. And the slow build of emotions. And joy. His desires revolved around the soft flesh and sweet scent of this one woman. His longings for her culminated in a relentless compulsion in his brain to claim her and a demanding throb in his loins. He couldn’t hide either, holding her so close to him.
Lips pressed against hers, he watched her for a response. “Dani, I need to taste you.”
Chisholm’s request—no, demand—shot electricity spiraling from her nipples to the moist heat at the junction of her thighs. The release of heat between them was going to happen. No more stalling. No more excuses. And no lame pulling back on her part. Mate or not, she was going to experience all of Chisholm Barduc today and free herself with him as she’d never done with any other man.
On second thought, a little restraint seemed wise. He might have an edge over her and total wildness was still beyond her comfort zone.
She’d survived the introduction to his enormous warm cat. With muscles that boasted pure power, his head would have reached her shoulder if he’d stood to full height. Hers to command. But no amount of preparation had readied her for the several-hundred-pound lion who stared at her through reassuringly familiar eyes. Shifted back to human, the solid mountain of muscle plastered against her body left no doubt of an equally formidable man.
Good. The gleaming promise in his eyes had beguiled her from the first kiss. With her ability to command him, she might just turn the tables and surprise him.
Her earlier glimpse of his well-muscled back and firm flanks had worked its own magic. One she suspected he’d planned—successfully. But nothing compared to the hard warmth of his chest beneath her hands, the fine blond hairs tingling her palms. Flushed and breathless, she found herself swimming in a sensual sea of lust. He shifted her closer, his muscles pressing the length of her body. She bent her head, hiding a smile. Chisholm and his lion shared healthy attributes.
Determined to push past her reluctance of the last few days, she stood on tiptoe and returned his kiss with all the pent-up frustration she’d battled since they’d met. Whatev
er became of them, this moment at least felt right.
Chisholm’s palms slid beneath her sweater, skimming along her back. He groaned into her kiss, his tongue sweeping in and teasing. She followed, then pulled away for a moment to tease him back.
But he was one step ahead of her as her sweater swept over her head and disappeared somewhere toward the couch. She grasped his shoulders in surprise as he lifted her and planted her bottom on his workbench, the wood warm beneath her pants.
“Look out the window over my shoulder and don’t move until I say.”
Bossy lion. She was about to unleash her own orders when his lips touched her skin. Oh my. Dani caught her breath, tunneling her fingers in his hair as he kissed slowly from her jaw down to her shoulder. In a blazing mix of kisses, soft nibbles, and heated licks, he left her anticipating the next sensation.
“Still looking?” His whisper feathered tiny shocks above her bra. Cool air covered her skin.
Blinking, she tried to focus on the scraggly tree outside. But who cared about trees. She managed a small whimper and clutched him closer as his tongue swirled intricate designs over her breast. Gold hovered like mist around them, brightening as he sucked first one nipple and spiking as he captured the next. Silly colors, but such wonderful sensations and all the while her fingers gripped his shoulders, silently begging for more. Not failing her request, Chisholm played over her skin as if she were the instrument for his sounds. The low, seductive strum of chords knotted her desire tighter with each touch.
The rich hues of his sunlight colors reassured her of his enjoyment. But it was the way he lingered, teasing, that assured her of his worship.
Her back made contact with the workbench’s wooden surface and she roused from her haze. “It’s hard to focus on the window this way.” Even to her own ears, her voice held a throaty, seductive quality and he purred louder as if in response.
“Look for the owls in the rafters,” he said with a deep murmur that tickled along her rib cage.
Owls? She glanced up. Hand-sized carved owls, suspended from the rafters, spun and danced above them. Chisholm licked a heated path to her belly and she closed her eyes against the aerial ballet. “Don’t you think—”
“Don’t think. Just feel while I taste.”
She sighed and shivered as the tingling trail he created left a tiny line of chills down her skin. He blew heat over his work and her muscles contracted throughout her body in pleasure. “I want to taste, too.”
His chuckle vibrated against her stomach. “When I’m done.”
Lazy and hot, his exploration continued. She suspected done wouldn’t be today, if ever. Instead, she’d die here in luxurious contentment, killed slowly and surrounded by gold and—purrs. Each tone he issued vibrated with a special tickle deep inside of her. But if this pleasure killed her, she’d come back to haunt him so he could do it again.
With one quick pop and zip, he swept her pants from her hips. She struggled to her elbows, prepared to pursue some delectable torture of her own. The sight of herself spread before him, his hands bracing apart her inner thighs and his lips at the inside of her knee, froze her just as he nipped her skin.
Tiny shock waves catapulted along her nerves. With a tight cry, she rolled her head back and lowered her eyelids as he kissed and nipped a decadent path toward her hip bone. Her body trembled beneath his assault. Her breath caught, waiting.
Then he shoved aside the lace panties she had worn just in case and covered her with his mouth.
The light squeal might have been hers, but she’d lost all frames of reference. All that registered was his tongue toying with her flesh as his fingers slid inside her. Her stomach clenched on the brink of climax. She held her breath as he brought her to a blinding orgasm and arched against him with a scream as the quick lightning strike of its peak robbed her of breath.
Gasping for air, she reached for him, digging her fingers into his shoulders in an unsuccessful attempt to move him higher. A low growl vibrated from his shoulders to her thighs.
“Chisholm. Please.”
“Not yet.” He returned to licking along her folds, his motion inside of her slow and gentle.
She wanted him hard and full where those fingers were, but, unable to budge him, she’d settle for this. If settling involved the heat that built again over his skin. When she finally exploded from this, there wouldn’t be anything left of her.
Higher and higher, the electric pitch swirled beneath her flesh. Need burned, and a craving she’d never experienced slammed into her, holding her tight in its throes and pushing her mercilessly higher and higher. Nothing mattered but his touch, his purr ratcheting her stimulation to a point where she needed release or she was going to pass out from lack of oxygen. She lifted her hips for more, but he kept to his maddeningly steady pace.
Determined to force the issue, she clenched her fingers tight in his hair. “Chisholm, please!”
He pulled away.
Damn him.
Then a blast of heat blew across her clit, and she exploded into stars and sun flares. She cried his name and there he was, holding her tight, his golden brightness lighting her world as he kissed his way to the tiny dip between her breasts. Amber, lit with bronze, shown from his eyes and his mouth turned upward in a wicked smile that promised more torment.
And despite her sexual epiphany, she wanted more. She wanted the hard full length rocking against her abdomen buried deep inside her. Instead, he rose and kissed her, her scent lingering on him. She opened for him and tasted, wiggling until his erection lay hot and hard between her thighs. But it wasn’t where either one of them would find any satisfaction.
Body throbbing, one part satiated and two parts still needy, she struggled for sanity. “Condoms?” Her voice cracked, but she didn’t care.
Teasing against her lips, he shook his head and leaned away. With regret that there wouldn’t be anymore, she pulled him closer for another kiss.
“Do you trust me, Dani?” He ran his fingers across her brow, and even that little touch delivered a slight tremor.
“Always.” For she did. Even if this were the last day he existed in her life, she would trust him with everything he offered.
“You aren’t ovulating. We don’t need protection.”
What? Okay, that—
His eyes burned like bright gold coals. Not the scary fire of molten metal but beautiful sunrise pools of emotion. “How?” She couldn’t manage full sentences, but this was important. She would have tossed any other man aside as a callous, self-serving asshole for disregarding precautions and left in an instant. But Chisholm was—well, hers. Her lion, at least. He wouldn’t lie to her.
“Hormones. I can scent…and taste them.” He kissed the corner of her eye, then her cheekbone, and finally the sensitive skin beneath her ear. “You aren’t fertile right now.”
Meaning she couldn’t get pregnant? Dani paused, staring into his eyes. She’d been safe and good, obedient all her life. Everything he wanted for them wasn’t hers to deliver, but surely this small exchange of trust would count for something. She wanted him so much. The light in his eyes said he wanted her even more and needed her trust.
Heavens, this must be what drove teenagers to obey their primal brains and make stupid decisions. However, they weren’t teenagers, and perhaps she was ready for a bit of reckless stupidity as long as it was with Chisholm. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. And shifters,” he rubbed her hair along his cheek, “don’t contract or pass on human diseases. It’s a metabolism thing.”
“You swear.”
“On my life.”
Without further debate with the logic center of her brain, she shifted her hips and captured his erection in her fist. She allowed herself a few long pulls along his length to enjoy the feel of him. Or maybe just to watch his eyelids drop and his nostrils flare as he moved in her hold. Mesmerized by the muscles tensing in his neck, she licked there, delivering the same slow rhythm he’d imposed on her. His throat t
ightened with new sounds.
What a sweet growl.
As she positioned him at her entrance, he cupped her face, searching her expression. “Are you sure? Look me in the eyes and promise me this is what you want.”
She tried to edge him closer, but he’d pinned her hips with his, resting his forehead against hers. “Just give me the words.”
With a quick turn of her head, she managed to catch his earlobe between her teeth. Not a hard bite, just enough to catch him off guard and allow her a lick. “Now, Chisholm. Or I swear you won’t live to regret it.”
His slow purr and wicked laughter combined, echoing around them. Then he sank deep inside her. He slowed his withdrawal and delicious reentry.
“Faster.”
“Next time.”
“Now.” She struggled to speed his thrusts until he latched onto her nipple and sucked in rhythm with his cock. Holding on against the quakes building inside her again, she bucked in a futile attempt to set the pace. But his grip on her hip held firm as he continued, the position just right, but the pace maddening. The fever built with his movements, holding her over a precipice until the final crest sent her tumbling.
Complete and satisfied, she crushed him to her and closed her eyes. His kisses intruded on her pillowy existence. Blinking back to life, she registered him still hard, lodged deep inside her and grinning.
“It’s next time, Dani.”
“No…I can’t.” The heated blush flooding her cheeks gave her away. She couldn’t image another climax, but if she kept her eyes focused on his and let his wonderful purr vibrate against her skin, well…
“Yes, you can.” The tension lines in his face sharpened as he held back his own climax and continued thrusting. “You were made for me. We will free your passionate animal once and for all.”
Then she’d never leave him. “Devious.” She licked her lips and cupped his jaw, stroking as she clenched tighter around him. His purrs grew louder as he lifted her legs over his arms and curled over her. He moved inside her, finding a new position that shut down all her thoughts.