“This is beautiful,” Tatum said.
Jericho shrugged. “It’s home for now,” he said as he led her to a table in a coved off area lit with candles. Sitting on the table were tall goblets filled with red wine and two pizza boxes. She laughed.
“I thought you were grilling?”
“I ran out of propane and didn’t have time to run into town and get more, so I ordered pizza. It’s cheese. I hope this is okay?”
“I love it, thanks.”
Jericho pulled out Tatum’s chair, waited for her to take a seat then went for the cart on wheels. He rolled it next to the table before he sat across from her.
“So how long have you lived here?” she asked as Jericho took a large slice and put it on her plate. The smell of tomato sauce and cheese set her mouth to water.
“Close to six years, but I can’t really say I’ve ever spent a lot of time here until recently.”
Jericho took a slice from the pizza box, folded it into and devoured it in two bites. “If you’d rather, I can cook your soy burger inside.”
“No. This is fine, really.”
“Okay,” he said. “He reached for a small drawer on the serving table, pulled it out and grabbed a spoon, then the pasta bowl. He scooped a mound out and put it on his plate, then served Tatum. “The pasta salad smells delicious.”
“Thanks. It’s my mother’s recipe,” she said. “You said you hadn’t spent a lot of time here. Do you travel?”
“Some,” he said. “I had a…” He hesitated a moment. “I needed to meet someone in New York right before you moved in, and that was probably my last trip.”
“Why your last?”
“I’ve decided I needed to stick closer to home,” he said then quickly changed the subject. “Have you ever had a Gray’s Papaya? I love their hot dogs.”
“No. I can’t say that I have. Isn’t that place in New York?”
“Yep. They are beyond good, maybe almost as good as good sex.”
She laughed. “I’m not sure I’ve heard that about a hotdog before.”
“So what’s your favorite color?” Jericho asked.
Tatum chuckled. “Are you serious?”
“Dead serious.”
“Um, okay. I guess blue.”
“Blue,” he said and ran his hands down the front of his shirt, which happened to be the color in question.
“What is your favorite color?”
“Green, just like the color of your eyes.”
“Sure,” she said, smiling.
“You don’t believe me?”
“I believe you believe that for the moment.”
“Well, you’re wrong,” he said as he bent another slice of pizza in half and ate it.
“You know, I’ve never seen anyone eat pizza with quite the expertise as you do.”
“Years and years of practice, Ms. Neill.”
“Do you list that particular skill on your resume?”
“Nope. I have other skills.”
“Oh yeah, like what?”
Jericho scooted his chair back, stood, then tipped back the chair and balanced it on two legs. When he let go, it stayed there. Teetering mid-air without touching it. “Impressive, right?”
“Very impressive. Are you some sort of magician slash stunt man?”
Jericho put his chair on all four legs and took his seat. “Not really.”
“What do you do for a living?”
“I suppose you would call me a bounty hunter,” he said.
“You hunt down criminals?”
“Something like that.” Tatum noticed he said that to her a lot, but what she really became aware of was the way he looked at her. It made her legs tremble. Everything in the world narrowed down to them.
“I would like to ask you something extremely important and entirely personal.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” Jericho said.
“Well ask,” she said.
“I believe I should have access to something which for most women is sacred and not easily given up.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “Oh you do, do you?”
“I do,” he said, assured.
“So what is it?”
“Your favorite ice cream flavor.”
That was so not the question she was expecting. She giggled. “Okay, I’m sure that’s not real personal, Jericho. It’s not like you are asking my weight, my age, or what size underwear I wear.” Then she froze. He gave her a bad boy smile. “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough,” she blurted out. “That’s my favorite.”
“Nice…” Jericho said appreciatively as if they were talking dirty.
“Since we are asking questions, how tall are you?”
“I’m six-foot-five,” he said. She grinned. “Why are you smiling like that?”
“Because I guessed right.”
“So you were thinking about me then, I knew it,” he mumbled then took a sip of his wine.
“Maybe,” she said in return before she took a bite of her pizza.
“How’s the pizza?”
She swallowed. “It’s really good. Where did you get it?”
“A little hole in the wall that delivers.”
Tatum felt something soft swipe across her ankle. She looked down to see a fluffy grey and white kitten rubbing against her. She smiled. “You have a kitten. Oh, he’s so cute.”
“He’s a she. She showed up here, and I fed her, and now I have a house guest.”
“Awe,” Tatum cooed. “Hi, pretty girl.” She bent down to pick up the kitten and give it a snuggle. She looked at Jericho. “Have you named her yet?”
“No.”
“You should name her Cutie Pie,” she said and rubbed the tip of her nose into the kitten’s furry neck before placing the little fur ball on the paver of the patio. She laughed as the kitten scampered off, chasing after a leaf that blew past her.
“I like your laugh,” Jericho said.
Tatum blushed. “Thank you.”
Jericho got up from the table in a fluid fast motion. He walked toward Tatum, swiftly, pulled her up from the chair and took her into his arms. He brought her small frame into his rock hard body. She barely had time to gasp before he kissed her. It was a bruising kiss. He tasted of spice, and wine, and something inherently wild.
Without thinking she tilted her head and gave him her mouth. His tongue tangled with hers. Probing. Swirling. Jericho set her body on fire.
“I want you,” Jericho growled as his lips left hers. The sound of his gravelly voice excited her. She felt it stir deep down inside her belly. Tatum slipped the thin dress strap from her arm. Jericho kissed her bared shoulder then slid the strap back into place. “I want you to trust me.”
“I do,” Tatum said, almost panting in need.
“I want you to know me and to want me without fear.”
Tatum looked up at him from beneath her long lashes, confused. “I do want you, and I don’t fear you, Jericho.”
Jericho let loose of her. She felt the cooling night air caress her skin. He circled her body like some sort of predator, then tugged her back into his chest. She felt his strength. The warmth. His total possession.
“I want you to trust my touch. Never fear it,” he murmured against the curve of her shoulder. She felt his hot breath gust across her neck, causing her to tingle with that same sensation she’d felt from his touch before. She wanted this man more than she ever wanted anything. Jericho brushed his hand over her flesh and swept her hair back. He placed his lips to the hollow beneath her ear. “You are so beautiful, but I want more than this.” He lightly traced his hand down the front of her throat, holding it gently there for just one moment, then slid both of his hands down her breasts. Her nipples peaked, and heat surged through her body. His right hand slipped under her skirt. He palmed her bare thigh. She shook when Jericho slid his hand up.
“I-I—” she muttered almost incoherently, her head spinning.
His thumb brushed across the lace front of h
er panties. She quivered beneath his touch.
“I will never hurt you,” he whispered. She believed him. “When was the last time?”
“The last time for what?”
“The last time you were made love to?”
“I…”
“That’s what I thought,” he said.
“I want to be the man who makes love to you.”
“How did you know I wanted this?”
“Instinct,” he whispered.
“But I—”
“You feel it, too, Tatum. How good we could be together.”
Jericho’s fingers dipped inside her panties. He danced two digits up the fold of her and groaned a low erotic sound into her ear. The sound vibrated through her until it found the spot he was touching. He circled his finger around her pert clit. She moved against his hand. When he inserted a finger into her warmth, her bottom lip slipped between her teeth.
“Ah…” she moaned. She knew he felt how wet she was for him.
Jericho stopped his finger action. Cupped her possessively. Nipped at her neck. Fire blazed beneath her skin, and her body ached for Jericho. Slowly, he shimmied his hand down her thigh and turned Tatum around so she could see him. He inserted his glistening fingers into his mouth and tasted her nectar while he looked into her eyes. His pupils pulsed. He groaned. She thought he was going to kiss her when he leaned down, but Jericho stopped inches from her mouth.
“The next time I touch you like that, it will be because you have come to me, knowing all, and wanting what I offer.”
Tatum shivered then blinked as if she had been in an erotic trance. She didn’t know what had happened, why he stopped, why he was being so cryptic, or why she felt like she was having an out of body experience, but she had never been so totally turned on or baffled. Retreat seemed the best option at the moment.
“Okay,” she said in a breathy voice. “I’m going to go now.”
****
Once Tatum was safely inside her home, Jericho growled. His body hurt; his balls were pulled up tight, and his temples throbbed. He pictured her plump lips and how they glistened after he kissed her. He loved how she shivered in his arms. The smell of her desire had called to him. Jericho had found pleasure coursing through his veins at how quickly her sex moistened for him. The warmth and tightness of her. He savored her taste on his tongue. Purity. She was untouched by man. He would be her first. His life mate would be only his, and that gave him a feeling of satisfaction he’d never experienced before.
Powerful need surged through him. His incisors dropped. His muscles bulged. Tearing his shirt from over his head, he made a beeline for the forest. Only a few feet inside the tree line, he broke out into a full-on sprint. Trees shot past him. He leapt over a cropping of ferns, zigzagged around some rotten stumps, then shifted on the fly.
A roar tore from Jericho’s burning throat as he ran, filling the night with the sound of his frustration for the mate he hadn’t yet claimed.
Soon, he thought as his massive paws hit the ground in a thundering gallop. He was going to do whatever it took to have her, and he wouldn’t allow anyone, man or beast, to get in his way.
Chapter Three
Tatum leaned forward and sniffed at the huge bouquet of white roses that were sitting on her desk. She knew she’d been smiling like an idiot when the delivery guy walked into her office and asked her to sign for them. He hadn’t been gone but a second when she’d plucked the small note card from the holder to see they were indeed from Jericho.
For you, my lady. Just because.
Jericho
“Nice flowers,” Natalia, a co-worker said, bringing Tatum out of her thoughts of Jericho and into the present moment. “So who are they from?”
“My neighbor.”
“Oooh. A little hot guy next door, action. Spill, and don’t leave out all the juicy stuff.”
“There’s not a whole lot to spill.”
“A guy doesn’t send a bouquet of a couple dozen roses—”
“Four,” Tatum said. “He sent four dozen.”
“Okay. I stand corrected, Ms. Mathematician.” Natalia waved her hand. “A guy doesn’t send four dozen roses to someone he’s not doing the horizontal mambo with.”
“We haven’t been horizontal,” Tatum said, rolling her eyes.
“Well he wants you to be. That bunch of sexy stems is telling you he’s interested in getting freaky. Vertical, horizontal, including other kinky positions,” Natalia said with a wide grin plastered across the angular features of her face.
“Sometimes I’m sure he’s interested, but…”
“But what?”
“He backs off.”
“Are you giving him all the right signals or sending mixed ones?”
“I don’t think I’m sending mixed signals.”
“Perhaps he’s one of those nice guy types. I’ve heard they exist. I’ve just never ran into one in the wild.”
Tatum snorted. “He’s nice. But, I’m going to go with he’s an intense guy.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No, but sometimes he’s cryptic.”
“A little mystery is good.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t really answer a whole lot of my questions.”
“Do you like him?” Natalia asked. “That is the question you should be pondering.”
“I know I like him. That’s not the problem. To look at him makes me weak in the knees.”
“So what is the problem?”
Tatum shook her head. “There’s something curious about him. I get the feeling he’s hiding something from me.”
“Like what?”
Tatum shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Do you want my advice?”
“I imagine I’m going to hear it whether I want to or not.”
Natalia chuckled. “Sometimes an earth shattering orgasm is the answer to all your unanswered questions. I say let the hot, mysterious, neighbor dude rock your world. If you still have questions after that, ask them. Some guys get chatty in bed. If he tells you he’s a closet cross-dresser then bail, or not. You might be into that, who knows, but at least you’ll be satisfied and hopefully those curiosities about him will be, too.”
“I can’t jump the guy’s bones to satisfy a curiosity.”
“Then do it because you’re horny.”
“Jeez, Natalia.”
“What?” she asked as if she were the innocent party in their conversation.
“You act as if I should attack him.”
“That’s one tactic, or you could go with getting naked, standing in front of your window with the lights on, then calling him on the phone.”
“Oh my God,” Tatum said.
“When he answers, tell him to take a look out his window. When you see him looking at you, tell him you have an itch and you were wondering if he would come on over, spread your thighs, and scratch it.”
Tatum burst into laughter. “Has that worked for you?”
Natalia held her hand out, pretended to study her nails, then swiped them across her shoulder as if she were drying them off. “Worked like a charm. How do you think I hooked up with Lawrence?”
****
Jericho’s lip curled up over his teeth. He smelled the stench as soon as he dismounted from his bike and removed his helmet. Even though he had marked Tatum’s property, claiming it as his territory, the weres had clearly been there that morning. Sniffing the air, he followed their smell. He circled Tatum’s house. When he came to the front door, he caught her sweet scent as it trailed down the sidewalk and continued past his house.
He wanted to kick his own ass for thinking marking his territory would stop them. He hadn’t gotten back from his trip into town to watch her get on the bus. His sojourn to the florists to send Tatum flowers along with his weekly stop at the butcher to pick up raw meat had taken him all morning, and the damn weres had taken advantage of his temporary absence. The muscle in his jaw worked. Their disgusting odor overpowered Tatum
’s delicate aroma. Those bastard werewolves took human form, dared to cross the boundary and had tracked his mate’s movements.
Panic struck Jericho as he realized the weres’ smell stopped at the small covered pavilion on the corner before it vanished. At least two of them had boarded the bus Tatum took to work. Growling low in his throat, he turned on his heel and headed for the woods like a man possessed. He had to get to the university. To Tatum.
I’ll rip them to shreds, he thought, right before he shifted into his tiger.
Chapter Four
Tatum noticed the weather had changed from a warmish feel to a much cooler one as she left her office. It wasn’t quite five o’clock, but fall had arrived a few days ago and already the sun was disappearing over the horizon. She studied the colors of orange and yellow that streaked across the sky until a sound disturbed her. If she wasn’t mistaken, it sounded as if a small child was crying.
With her eyes narrowing, Tatum turned and stared into the wooded spot nestled beyond the few cars still left in the admin parking area. Most everyone had left earlier that day for an away basketball game, leaving the campus somewhat abandoned. She listened intently as she scanned the tree line. The sound was coming from the vicinity of those trees, she was sure.
“Hello,” she called out, thinking someone must be with that child. She took a few steps closer to the sound. When Tatum walked to the edge where the concrete met nothing but greenery, the sound seemed to move. “Is anyone there?” She stepped into the trees. A movement, not too far in front of her, caught her attention. With disbelief she thought she saw Jericho leaping over a rock. She blinked, unsure. “Jericho? Is that you?”
More movement took place ahead of her. She started to follow the swaying ferns, came upon a foot trail, and took it. It soon became evident that taking the trail was a really bad idea when it stopped and she found herself much deeper in the woods than she wanted to go. She hadn’t heard the crying sound, or anything for that matter, except her own footsteps.
Something rustled in the canopy of leaves. Tatum quickly looked up, but didn’t see anything. Movement to her right fluttered in her peripheral vision. She spun around after hearing a scurrying sound in the thick underbrush behind her. She should run back the way she came, but on this terrain she’d probably fall and break her neck.
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