Picking her up by the waist, he pushed away from the truck and cracked the back door open. Setting her on the tan leather bench, he climbed in after her, slamming and locking the door behind him. Ciara scooted back to make room for him, but his hands wrapped around her ankles, and he pulled her forward and onto her back. Rising up over her, he stared down at her, and the desire showing on her face, in her eyes turned him on even more.
“I can’t wait to taste you, baby,” he growled. Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight as she mewled at his words. Making short use of the button and zipper of her jean shorts, he pulled them down her toned legs, over her tennis shoes and tossed them on the floor of his truck. Her arousal filled his nostrils and made him heady with desire and need. Leaning over, he placed a rough kiss on her lips before kissing his way down her neck and over the swell of her still clothed breasts. Sliding her tank top up just a bit, he covered her belly with kisses and swipes of his tongue.
“Nate,” she cried. His hand pulled one of her legs off the bench, opening her wider so he could fit himself between her legs. Hovering over her pussy, he breathed in the scent of her, the tangy citrus smell mixed with her arousal. He lowered his face between her legs and kissed her sex through her red lacy panties. Her hips bucked off the seat. Pinning her legs down with his forearms, he hooked a finger under her panties and pulled them aside.
“Fuck,” he said, breathing harshly. Short blonde hairs covered her pussy lips, which were pink and plump from her excitement. The blonde hairs glistened with her juices. “This pretty little pussy is mine,” he said with a growl. His fingers separated her lips as he bent forward and allowed his tongue to swipe the length of her pussy from bottom to top, grazing over her clit just briefly. Ciara’s entire body practically came off the bench.
“Oh God,” she sobbed as his tongue continued to swipe between her folds and over her clit. Her spicy flavor burst in his mouth, and Nate was sure he’d explode in his pants any second just from tasting her. He’d never tasted anything like her. She was perfect. His tongue moved lower and teased the entrance to her pussy. “Please,” she said.
“What do you want, baby?” he asked between licks. Licking up her folds again, his mouth covered her clit and sucked hard.
“Oh fuck, Nate,” she cried out. Her body tensed under him. “I need a part of you inside me. Please.” Her words drove him crazy. He wanted to unleash his cock and sink into her hot body, but he promised to bring her to orgasm with his tongue, and he had every intention of keeping his promise. He’d have to wait to feel her wrapped around his cock.
He lowered his mouth once again and drove his tongue as deep as he possibly could inside her cunt. To his surprise, she tasted even sweeter on the inside, and he moaned against her pussy. Flattening his tongue, he swiped it up her folds to her clit where he circled it and then laved it with his tongue. Ciara’s body writhed underneath him.
Nate’s hand slipped between Ciara’s legs. As his mouth captured her bundle of nerves, he thrust his middle finger inside her cunt. Holy fuck! Her pussy clamped down on his finger and her hips tried to rise off the bench, but he kept her pinned. Sucking on her clit, he slid another finger inside her pussy, curling it in search of that spot he knew would cause her to lose her mind. He knew when he found it because her entire body went rigid just before she exploded around him.
“Nate,” she screamed. Her body trembled beneath him, and her juices flowed onto his fingers and hand as he continued to lick and circle her clit. Tremors ripped through her until he finally felt her go limp. Her breathing evened. Slipping his fingers out of her, he climbed up her body and lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed her gently despite the hunger that burned inside of him.
“That was fucking amazing, Ciara,” he whispered against her mouth. Her tongue flicked out to taste herself on his lips, and he moaned in desperation. “I can’t wait to do it again.” He said those last seven words with such force so as to emphasize that what had just transpired between them wasn’t an anomaly. No, Nate had every intention of spending a great quantity of time between her sweet thighs. He planned to make her his in every way imaginable.
“You’re amazing.” She giggled, wrapping her hand behind his neck and pulling him down for another kiss. “Can I help you?” she asked, rubbing her hand along his hard length.
“This was for you,” he whispered against her mouth. A groan left him at the warmth of her hand cupping him.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive, baby.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand free from between them. He kissed her palm.
“You’re amazing, Nate Thorne,” she said. “I gotta get back in there before my uncle sends out a search party.” Nate chuckled. He didn’t know how Jack would feel about his feelings for Ciara, but he didn’t want to get caught mauling her in the back of his truck … just yet.
Sitting up, he grabbed her shorts off the floor of his truck and handed them to her. She shimmied into the shorts, wrapped her hair back in a quick ponytail and planted a loud kiss on his lips before she popped the truck door open and jumped to the ground.
“I look forward to seeing you again very soon, Nate,” she said, winking at him before turning around and sashaying back in the direction of the Watering Hole. Before opening the front door, she turned her head back in his direction and smiled a devastating smile. Then she disappeared inside. Fuck! I’ll be wrapped around her little finger in no time!
Shutting the back door of his truck and climbing over the seat to get behind the wheel, Nate knew what he had to do. He had so much pent up energy, sexual and otherwise, that he needed to run. He needed to shift. When he got like this, wound so tight, he’d learned that turning into his panther form and running the land cleared his head and released his tension. Pulling out of the Watering Hole parking lot, he headed to his property, one hundred and fifty acres of Florida flatlands.
Parking his car in front of his ranch house, Nate popped down from his truck and tucked the keys in the little secret compartment under the body of his truck. He focused on the change, and his body tingled from head to toe and his vision blurred, familiar sensations that occurred right before his body transformed into the hard, lithe body of a Florida panther. Once transformed, he threw his head back, and a growl ripped through him just before he took off running through the brush.
Chapter Four
“What’s up with you tonight, darlin’?” Jack asked. Since her time with Nate in the back of his truck, she had poured several wrong drinks and had been caught more than once staring off into space when someone was talking to her. “You seem a little out of it.”
“I think I’m just exhausted,” Ciara said, trying to disguise the fact that she could not stop thinking about Nate Thorne. Everything about him affected her. The way his golden eyes stared at her as if memorizing every inch of her. The way he inhaled in her presence as if committing her scent to memory. The way he touched her as if she were the most important person on the planet. She had slept very little last night. Thoughts of him consumed her. She could still feel his hands on her body.
“That Nate Thorne really got to you, didn’t he?” Jack asked. Ciara lifted her head from stocking the cooler with more beer bottles to look at her uncle with surprise.
“Come again?” she said.
“I saw the way the two of you were looking at each other yesterday,” Jack said, with a smile. “I might be old, but I’m not that old. I know when two people have the hots for each other.”
“The ‘hots for each other’?” Ciara said with a giggle. “You are definitely showing your age, Uncle Jack.” She continued stocking the cooler. The crowd at the bar was relatively thin on this Saturday night because of a Tim McGraw concert in Tampa, but she and Jack had kept busy.
“He’s a good guy, Ciara,” Jack said, nonchalantly. “He’s had it rough. His mother passed away a couple years ago from cancer. She’d battled the disease for a good year before succumbing, and Nate took time off from the fire department t
o care for her. She was the only family he had. He took her death pretty hard and has been quite the loner lately. You ignited something in him. I noticed it the second you walked into the bar yesterday. There was a spark in his eyes. I’ve never seen it there before.”
“Why are you telling me this, Uncle Jack?” Ciara asked, standing up straight and turning to face her uncle. Her heart constricted at the idea of Nate being all alone in the world.
“Because you’re a good girl and have had a rough go of things yourself. Might do you some good to find a guy that will take care of you instead of taking advantage of you,” he said sincerely.
Tears prickled behind her eyes. If it weren’t for the love of her Uncle Jack, Ciara didn’t know where she’d be. He was her mother’s brother, and once her mother passed in a horrible car accident, he’d done everything in his power to keep her connected to her mother’s spirit and money. Even from the distance of several hours away, he sent her money as the trustee of her mother’s estate, called to check on her weekly and encouraged her regularly to move further south and make a life for herself in Panther Ridge. He had offered her an escape from her father and stepbrother and their milking her for all the money her mother left her.
“Awww, Uncle Jack,” she said, walking over to him and giving him a hug. “I don’t deserve you.” He squeezed her tightly.
“You deserve better than me and your father and stepbrother,” he said. “You deserved your mother, God rest her soul. Take the rest of the night off. And if you wander down Old Mill Road to the Thorne ranch, I’m sure you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for.” He winked at her and sauntered down the bar refilling drinks for a few patrons. “Go on now,” he said, waving his hand as if dismissing her.
“Thank you, Uncle Jack,” she said, rushing over to him and planting a big kiss on his cheek. Grabbing her brown bag from the cupboard, she skipped out from behind the bar and headed for the door.
“Ciara,” Darrin yelled. She stopped halfway through the front door and turned to look at him, as he wandered over in her direction. His blondish hair was unruly on his head, and his hazel eyes spiked with interest. He was a good looking man, but he was no Nate Thorne.
“What’s up, Darrin?” she asked, anxiously. She was eager to get to Nate’s.
“Where you headed?” Darrin asked. He held the cue stick in his hand, bumping her outside the bar to continue their conversation.
“Home,” she said. “I’m exhausted, and Uncle Jack gave me the rest of the night off to relax.”
“You want company?” he asked. His eyes lit up at the prospect.
“Darrin, you’re a sweet guy. Really. But I’m not really on the market for a boyfriend.” She smiled up at him, but his smile faded into a grimace.
“Is Nate Thorne the issue?” he asked coldly. The hair on the back of Ciara’s neck stood on end. The way he made the comment bothered her as if Darrin had something against Nate … something personal.
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” Ciara said, pulling the hair tie from her hair and letting her blonde waves fall all around her. His bloodshot eyes struggled to focus, and Ciara guessed he had probably had one too many beers tonight.
“I saw the two of you leaning into each other, whispering at the bar yesterday. And I saw you pop out of the back of his truck last night,” he said with disdain.
“Are you spying on me, Darrin?” she asked, still getting the prickles on the back of her neck.
“Naw. I had just gone outside for some fresh air and saw you bounce down from his truck,” he said. “You only just met him, Ciara. You know nothing about him. He’s not who you think he is. He fucks them and leaves them. He’ll do the same to you. I’ve been trying to get you to go out with me for two weeks now, and you won’t give me the time of day, but you’ll fuck Thorne.”
“What I do is my own business, Darrin. And who I do it with even more so,” Ciara said, the anger rising in her voice. It pissed her off that he kept a watch on her and thought he could intimidate her into sleeping with him.
“Eventually, you’ll figure out you don’t want him. Just because he’s got some money in that land he owns doesn’t mean he has anything else to offer. He may have refused to sell his land to my family right now, but everyone had a price. You’ll want me then, Ciara.” He tossed the cue stick on the ground, grabbed her shoulders and backed her up against the side of the Watering Hole.
“Darrin, don’t do this,” she said. “I like you. You’re a great guy. You’re drunk right now, and you’ll regret doing anything in the morning.”
“Ha! I’d never regret fucking you, Ciara,” he said, lowering his head and pressing his lips against hers. His breath reeked of stale beer and peanuts, and it caused Ciara’s stomach to turn. Placing her hands against his chest, she tried to push him away, but he was bigger and stronger than she was. He grasped both her hands in his and pulled them above her head, pinning them there. Tears stung her eyes, and a sob escaped her.
Then she heard a sound she’d never heard before, a growl from the wooded area twenty feet away, and it scared the shit out of her. It sounded like a tiger or some kind of wild cat. She’d heard of bobcats traipsing around the woods, and there were still a small number of Florida panthers in existence, but she’d never seen either in her life.
“What the fuck was that?” Darrin said, lifting his head from Ciara. He turned his head to the left at the same time Ciara did only to see a very large tan panther spring from the wooded area and dart towards them. “Holy shit!” Darrin pushed back from the wall leaving Ciara completely exposed to the wild animal. The panther looked at her thoroughly before putting its entire focus on Darrin.
Those eyes! So familiar! How can an animal’s eyes look so familiar?
The panther pounced on Darrin, who lost his balance on the gravel parking lot and fell backward. The panther stood on his chest, bearing all its weight on Darrin and growling and snarling in his face. Shrill sounds came from Darrin, and people started exiting the bar to see what was going on. Some of the women screamed at the sight of Darrin underneath the large wild panther. One of the men grabbed the cue stick off the ground and started poking towards the panther trying to shoo it away. The panther gave one last growl, which made Ciara shiver, then leapt off Darrin, clawing his forearm in the process before springing into the wooded area.
“You all right, Ciara?” Jack asked, running to her side.
“I think so,” Ciara said, shaking her head. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. “That fucking panther saved me.”
“What are you talking about?” Jack asked. He brushed Ciara’s hair out of her face, looking for scratches. Seeing none, a look of relief washed over his features.
“Darrin had me pinned against the wall on the side of the building, Uncle Jack,” she said, trying to push the anger forward instead of crying.
“What?”
“That panther jumped from the woods just in time,” she said, pushing herself off the wall of the building. Darrin still sat on the gravel parking lot, surrounded by several people. Someone had gotten him some towels to deal with the minor bleeding from the panther scratches. As she walked towards him, he looked up at her.
“That thing almost killed me,” Darrin said sharply. He wrapped the towel around his forearm and attempted to get up off the ground. Ciara pushed her foot against his chest and knocked him on his ass again. “What the fuck?”
“Don’t you ever come near me again,” Ciara said, bending over so that her face was inches away from his. “In fact, it may be wise if you stay away from the Watering Hole for a while.”
“What the hell is going on?” Keith Johnson said, coming to his brother’s defense.
“Your brother had me pinned against the wall and was trying to force himself on me before that panther took his ass out,” Ciara said. “And if he ever tries something like that again, I’ll cut his balls off.” Darrin sat dumbfounded on the ground as she spun and walked away.
&nbs
p; “All right everyone,” Jack said. “Party’s over. I’m closing the bar down a little early. Grab your stuff and head on out of here.” Jack walked over to Ciara and put his arm around her shoulder, giving her a squeeze. Ciara leaned into to her uncle, allowing his presence to warm her and make her feel safe. Her mind wandered back to the events that had just occurred and the strange feeling of familiarity she’d had at seeing that panther. But that makes no sense!
Chapter Five
Adrenaline coursed through Nate’s body. He had wandered through the woods in his panther form towards the Watering Hole in hopes of getting a glimpse of Ciara. His body had craved her. He’d needed to be near her. The little taste of her from last night had seeped into his veins, into his soul. The desire to claim her as his mate was stronger than ever. It consumed him. He hadn’t expected to find her being mauled by Darrin Johnson, but when that sob escaped her, Nate saw nothing but red.
Never in his entire life as a panther shifter had he attacked a person. Sure, he’d hunted white tail deer and wild boar. But he’d never fathomed attacking a person unless he felt his life was threatened, or as he’d just come to find out, if someone threatened a person he cared about.
Staring down into Darrin’s face, Nate had to fight the urge not to bite his carotid. There was no love lost between him and Darrin. They had been acquaintances for quite some time, both growing up in Panther Ridge. But the Johnsons desired part of his property for extension of their tomato farm, and Nate refused to sell it to them. Darrin’s father had been pissed because growing onto Nate’s property was the only direction in which they could expand as their property ran into the river on the other side. But Nate didn’t have it in his heart to sell the land his mother had bought with the inheritance from his Pa.
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