“I’m not here to come between you two, you know, if that’s what those are for.” Crouching low, he cupped her face between his hands and used his thumbs to swipe the remaining trails of moisture off her face.
“Promise?” she asked, and at his nod, she let out a long drawn breath. It brought with it her unique essence and Sasha closed his eyes briefly, let her go, and stood up.
“I promise, but we do have to discuss this and I’d rather not do it in front of him.”
He forced himself to turn his back on her and exit the room, not at all sure she would follow him. It would be a matter of seconds to return and to simply fling her over his shoulder and take her with him, but, dammit, as appealing as that thought was, he wanted her to come to him of her own free will.
He’d made it halfway down the stairs before he heard her move, and he grinned to himself. Oh he would have such fun taming his kitten. His fingers itched to put her over his knee and to spank some of that inherent independence out of her, but if he tried anything like that right now, she’d no doubt have his balls.
Heading for her living room, he cursed the fates under his breath when he realized that he stood in the exact same spot he’d first seen her. She’d covered the bullet hole in her floor boards with a colorful rug, but this was the spot, all right. Only this time when her light floral scent hit his nostrils and he turned around, he wasn’t staring down the barrel of her gun but into the expressive eyes of a very worried woman.
Arms wrapped round herself in a clearly protective manner, Macey nibbled her plump bottom lip with her teeth and Sasha pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, anything to keep his hands off of her. Plus, it had the added advantage to be able to adjust his hard-as-rock cock somewhat.
Her breathing hitched when she noticed, and she took a tentative step into the room and closed the door behind her. He had to grin at the way her gaze immediately strayed to his groin before she wrenched it upward to meet his eyes.
“Okay, talk, but I tell you now, I won’t sleep with you.”
Sasha’s cock jerked at the erotic images that immediately bombarded his brain, and he shook his head and flashed her a crooked smile. He knew damn well that his panther showed in his eyes, but he couldn’t bring himself to care about that right now.
“Well, darling, there would be no sleeping involved, that’s for sure.”
“Oh, you…” Macey rolled her eyes, and then sat down heavily on the settee. Feet tucked under her bum, she grasped a cushion, and he was half expecting her to fling that at him. Instead, she hugged it to herself and glared at him.
“If you can’t be serious, then you know where the door is. You know, the one you insisted I needed, and the one even you will not be able to kick in.”
She stuck her nose up in the air and scooted backward as far as she could when Sasha sat down next to her.
“I won’t have to kick it in if I have the key, now, will I, darling?” he asked, and this time she did throw a cushion at his head. He deflected the move easily enough and laughed when she all but growled the next words at him.
“So, you’re a liar as well as an overbearing, dominant playboy, then.”
His panther roared and she looked worried for all of one nanosecond, and then pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.
“And you can stop the caveman growling act. It doesn’t impress me. I mean, really, does that work on the usual bimbos you hang out with?”
“Who’s to say they’re bimbos?” Sasha had to goad her a little. “After all, right now, I’m here with you, and I don’t think anyone could accuse you of being a bimbo, kitten.”
“Oh, you.” Another cushion came flying his way, and she shrieked when he caught it and threw it back at her. It hit her right on the nose and she threw it away from her in disgust.
“You’re not with me, as you damn well know,” she said, but the wobble in her voice gave her away. “You’re only here because you want Kenny, and you can’t have him. So, you’ve finally decided to play Daddy, is that it? I won’t let you mess him about, and I won’t let you take him away.”
She gulped when Sasha’s panther roared and he sprang to his feet and started to pace the room.
“Damn you, woman. Have I given you even the slightest indication that I want to take him away from you?”
“No doubt a son would cramp your style too much.”
Sasha ground to a halt in front of her and she blinked rapidly when he leaned down. Hands either side of her shoulders, he crowded her back against the settee and she pushed back as far she could to get away from him, which wasn’t very far at all.
“Let me get one thing very clear, Macey. Up until the moment I found Kenny walking across the main road in the dead of night, I had no idea I had a son. I would never abandon my own flesh and blood. I may have been a complete and utter bastard back then, but I would have held up my side. I. Did. Not. Know.”
He roared his frustration when she made no other reaction, other than to stare up at him, and resumed his pacing. It was that, or either shake some sense into her or kiss her, and neither of those options would go down very well right now.
“I’m not holding you responsible for the fact that my son was left to fend for himself that night, due to your poor choice of babysitter, so do me the same courtesy, will you? And while we’re on the subject of my dubious past, where the hell is Kenny’s mother, and who are you running from?”
Chapter Seven
Her sharp intake of breath and the way her eyes filled with tears made him feel like a complete and utter bastard, but they also told him that his gut instinct was correct. She was running from someone. His inner animal snarled in disgust, and Sasha had a devil of a time reining his panther back in again. Macey looked freaked enough without him shifting right now. Then again, it was probably the most expedient way to explain who he was and also for her to make sense of Kenny’s odd behavior.
“I’m not running from anyone.” She didn’t look at him when she said that, and Sasha sat down right next to her and grasped her chin. The contact calmed his volatile beast, but it had the opposite effect on Macey. Her heart rate sped up, and she tried to push him away. His skin itched and burned where her hands rested on his chest, and she didn’t seem to be able to drag her gaze away from that place of contact.
Sasha ran his hand up the back of her head until he could grasp her hair, and tugged her head up while maintaining his hold on her chin. It gave her no choice but to look at him, and Macey’s eyes widened as her body responded to his proximity. It would be so easy to claim her full lips and to scramble her brain until she told him everything he needed to know, but that wouldn’t be fair.
Instead, Sasha allowed his claws to run out slightly, and Macey winced as they pierced her skin. Fear replaced her earlier arousal and Sasha growled his next words.
“Whoever it is won’t be a match for me and the others. You’re protected here, both of you, but I need you to be honest with me, kitten.”
His balls drew tight when Macey licked her lips, and her fingers curled into the fabric of his T-shirt as though she wanted to pull him closer to her.
“Why do you keep calling me that?” she whispered, and he smiled and tipped her head sideways to enable him to inhale against her neck. His jaw ached with the need to sink his canines into the soft flesh and to show her exactly what she meant to him, to mark her as his, so that everyone knew she was protected, but he couldn’t, or rather wouldn’t do that without her consent. To do so would make him the utter bastard she thought him to be. So, to appease his panting animal, he licked along her skin instead, and then slowly released her.
It took a few stunned seconds of silence where only Macey’s harsh breaths sounded in the room before she seemed to realize that she could move and she untangled her hands out of his shirt. The most delightful blush spread over her exposed skin, and she shook her head and murmured to herself under her breath. Sasha hid his smile at the words she clearly didn’t think he would hea
r. Thanks to his shifter hearing, however, he heard them loud and clear.
Get a grip, Macey, what’s wrong with you? He’s only a man.
“It’s insane, isn’t it?” he said, and her head snapped up and she regarded him warily. With her knees drawn up to her chest, the white-knuckled grip she had on her legs spoke of her agitation loud and clear, and to give her some breathing space, Sasha scooted backward until he sat as far away from her as he could.
“What is?” she asked, and her blush deepened when he smiled and gestured between them.
“The pull between us. I know you feel it, and sometime soon, when you’re ready to act on that, we’ll explore this some more, but right now, I want answers.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She flung the words at him, but the wobble in her voice and the way her breathing hitched gave her away, as did the way she flinched when he shook his head.
“Don’t lie to me, girl, or all bets are off. My palms are itching to spank your luscious ass until you give me the answers I seek and you stop fighting us. I’m not known for my patience, and you really don’t want to find out what I do to punish sassy subs.”
Macey stared at him, and he waited for the outburst that he was sure would follow that statement of his, and when it didn’t come, the dominant in him rose to the surface.
“Maybe that’s what you need me to do, though?” Macey shook her head, but her increased color and sweet scent gave her away.
“You wouldn’t dare. I’m not that sort of a girl.”
Sasha laughed and she glanced up at him briefly before she went back to perusing his chest as though it held the answers to the Holy Grail.
“I would very much dare, kitten, and to answer your earlier question, I call you that because you remind me of a kitten. All spit and snarl, and sharp claws, but underneath all that there is a little girl in need of taking care of. Am I right or am I right?”
Macey didn’t answer him, but she didn’t contradict him either, and he let that statement sit in the room between them until she finally looked at him.
“And I suppose you’d be the man to do that for me?” Doubt flittered across her face, and when he nodded, she gave a sharp, humorless laugh. It made him want to reach across, pull her on his lap, and simply hold her, and no one was more surprised at that reaction than he was.
“I would be if you’d let me.”
A strangled groan escaped his girl, and his chest tightened when she angrily swiped renewed tears off her face.
“Bullshit. I learned long ago that men can’t be trusted. You’re better off on your own. I watched my mother and sister destroy themselves chasing after men, always hoping that this latest conquest would be the one.” She mimed quotation marks with her fingers and rolled her eyes.
“That’s stuff for romance novels only. Men only ever want one thing, and newsflash, most of them aren’t particularly good at that, either. So”—she threw him a mutinous look—”I might want you in a carnal sense, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up my control to you or anyone. I don’t know you and I don’t trust you, and besides, I have Kenny to consider. You have no idea what that boy has been through, and —”
“Then tell me,” Sasha interrupted her. “That boy, as you put it, is my son, and believe me, I’m mightily pissed that I missed the first three years of his life. I sense they haven’t been easy ones and that makes me want to kill whoever is responsible for that, and whoever the asshole is you’re running away from. I can’t undo what’s done, but I can make sure that Kenny has a secure future.”
Macey gasped and shook her head.
“So you do want to take him away from me,” she said, and Sasha lost the will to fight his beast.
* * * *
Macey had no idea what happened. One minute Sasha was sitting there, the next, the air shimmered and he leapt off the settee. He grew in front of her eyes, and any protest Macey might have made died on her tongue when his eyes bled to catlike slits. Claws sprouted from the ends of his fingers, and he pulled his clothes off of him in angry, jerky moves that looked all too familiar. Her stomach hollowed out when it dawned on her what she was witnessing. Kenny did the same thing when he became far too agitated, but in his case, that’s all he did. It sure explained the shredded pjs, but Sasha wasn’t asleep. No, he was very much awake, as was she, and she had nowhere to run. Macey could do nothing else but watch in stunned fascination as the hunk of a man in front of her shifted into the stuff of nightmares.
Her scream of terror died in her throat as his body morphed. Black, shiny fur covered smooth muscle, bones cracked and re-arranged, and the ground shook with the force of his animal’s roar that brought with it a heavy dose of his scent. Familiar, yet three times more potent, that dark, spicy aroma wrapped itself around her senses and kept her rooted to the spot. Besides, she was the only person between this thing he was turning into and the peacefully sleeping boy upstairs. She might die trying to defend Kenny, but she had to try, not that she seemed able to move, pinned as she was in the azure gaze of the black panther who now stood in front of her.
Deadly, graceful, and utterly, breathtakingly beautiful, his sleek black fur reflected the overhead lighting, and her mouth went dry when this panther took a step toward her.
Jesus, one of his paws alone was the size of her head, and Macey froze when the cat put said paw on her leg and left it there.
Tingles of recognition danced across her skin, and with it came the certain bone-deep knowledge that this animal wouldn’t hurt her. Macey’s gaze connected with the intelligent blue eyes of this huge cat, and she could see the man lurk behind them.
“Sasha?” She whispered her question, and the animal removed his paw and rested his huge head on her lap instead. “How is this even possible?” Unbidden, her hands strayed into his fur, and she gasped anew at the by-now-familiar bolt of connection. Heat travelled up from the fingertips buried in this animal’s soft pelt, and a deep rumble rose from its huge chest, not unlike the purr a house cat might make, and Macey swallowed a slightly hysterical laugh.
“This is insane.”
Panther Sasha huffed, whether in agreement or annoyance, her befuddled brain couldn’t compute at that moment, and then he stepped away. In the blink of an eye, he was back in his human form, and Macey barely suppressed a groan at the sight of him. Yep, hunk personified, and she allowed her gaze to run over the perfect shape of his tight buttocks as he yanked his jeans back on and then finally turned around. T-shirt bunched in his hands, barefoot, and with the top button of his jeans still undone, he looked tense and unsure. Somehow, that reassured Macey further. If he’d have made some sort of wise crack, she’d probably have lost it completely.
Then again, she would probably wake up in a minute and realize she’d fallen asleep in front of the telly. As the silence stretched to uncomfortable levels between them, it became clear that whatever she had just witnessed had actually happened, and to add to the utter bizarreness of the situation, the distinct howl of a wolf broke the silence in the room.
Sasha growled low in his throat and flipped the finger to whoever or whatever had made that sound that seemed to have come from right outside her living room window, and Macey started to laugh. A rather hysterical laugh, to be sure, but it was either that or scream or cry, and that would only wake up Kenny.
Oh. My. God. Kenny.
Her laughter increased until she could barely breathe, and she was dimly aware of Sasha’s soft curse before the room spun, her throat closed in and everything went hazy. A low rumble eventually broke through Macey’s befuddled brain and, coupled with the thu-thud of a strong heartbeat, pulled her out and away from whatever place she had slipped into. It was warm and cozy here, and she didn’t really want to leave its embrace, but images of little Kenny bombarded her, and she pushed against the wall she was leaning against.
That wall turned out to be Sasha’s broad chest, and she gasped when it dawned on her where she was. Somehow he’d moved them
up her bedroom, and she was draped over his semi-naked body like some sort of wanton offering. She was missing her jumper and trousers and was in the tank top and leggings she wore in bed at night. Heat stained her cheeks when it dawned on her that he must have undressed her, and what exactly the hard ridge under her butt cheeks was.
With a screech of horror, Macey scrambled off the infuriating man’s lap and yanked her bedcovers up to her chin.
“Easy there, kitten, nothing happened. I just figured you would be more comfortable up here, once you came back ‘round.”
Sasha’s deep voice held a soothing lilt, as though he was afraid of her reaction, which was a ridiculous notion. When she dragged her gaze away from the sight of her bra dangling off the bedpost at the bottom off her bed, however, and dared to look up at him, apprehension stained his harsh features. What was more, his dark blue eyes showed nothing but genuine concern for her, and she blinked in surprise when he reached across to the nightstand and produced a steaming cup of tea.
“Here, drink this. I laced it heavily with sugar. According to Mrs. H, it’s one of the best cures for a sudden shock such as the one you’ve had.”
When Macey just blinked at him, a grim smile kicked up the corners of his mouth, that mouth that had been full of razor-sharp teeth not so long ago, because he was a freaking panther. Her inner turmoil must have shown on her face, because Sasha swore again and then took her hand and, curling it around the mug of hot liquid, helped her to lift it to her lips.
“Drink. Trust me, kitten. It will help.”
Macey highly doubted that, but she dutifully sipped the strong and far-too-sweet brew, and strangely enough, it did soothe the churning unease in her stomach somewhat. Then again, it might have been the smile that broke out over Sasha’s features and his murmured, “That’s my good girl,” when she took several more cautious sips that was responsible for that.
Her Panther Protector [The Protectors 5] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 7