“From being tempted to just reach over and take it from you. I’d never do that, but damn—it looks, smells, so good. And I can’t stop thinking about what it would feel like on my tongue. What it must taste like.”
She looked down at her plate then back over at him. “Can’t you go out there and get some?”
“What I want isn’t out there,” he said softly. “We can just sit here and talk for now. It’ll help me tune out the sounds of them doing it, which isn’t helping me to keep my mind from going places.”
Sofia blinked a few times, feeling her body go tingly as she realized the true source of his stress. “You’re not really talking about being hungry, are you?”
He opened his eyes and grinned at her, the spark of play on his face again. His voice was deep and husky when he responded. “I am hungry. Just not for food.”
She held back a smile. “You’re awful, Mr. Dawson,” she muttered. He was so bluntly honest, it was almost a fault. Sofia admired that about him. But she held her ground. With slow, deliberate bites and sips, she devoured the modest meal, hoping like hell it would help appease her bigger, much more demanding appetite for the man who brought it to her.
Chapter Six
Nathan watched with intrigue and amusement as he trailed Sofia through the thick brush. They’d packed up a couple days worth of food and supplies and crept out of the cave just before dawn, without alerting any of the others of the departure for their private trip.
They’d spent all of the day before just working on getting Sofia to learn to consciously make herself change to and from cat form. It wasn’t until nightfall that she could shift at all. When she finally did it, they’d cheered at her accomplishment.
But apparently it was a premature celebration. For the fourth time within a span of about fifty minutes, she was in cat form. Her ginger-colored coat of fur glistened in the sun—wet with her attempts to keep herself cool with her tongue—and her tail dragged along the ground, exemplifying her exhaustion. He counted the seconds of duration of this shift, and once again Sofia morphed involuntarily from mountain lion to woozy, naked, lovely human before he reached minute five. Unprepared to be back on two legs already, she immediately began to topple over. Before she took a nasty fall, Nathan leapt forward to catch her.
“Whoa there,” he said as she crashed into his chest. He wrapped one arm around her bare back to hold her up against him. His body and senses sprang to life the moment they made contact with hers. He briefly grazed his nose against the top of her head and inhaled her aroma deeply. They’d spent a lovely night together in a tent under the stars, talking about the Pride and life as part-cat, part-human beings, but Nathan didn’t know how much longer he could remain obedient around this woman.
She stayed there for a moment and whimpered with her face buried into the side of his neck. That distressed sound of hers, which was something between a whine and a groan, shot sparks of lust through him. The vibration of her voice and her warm breath on his neck only served to further turn him on. “Argh! I don’t know why that keeps happening,” she cried, at the same time he was growling with frustration.
“It’s okay, you’ll get it.” With his free hand he stroked her hair. “When you’re shifted, are you focusing on being the cat or returning human?”
“Being a cat,” she said. “It’s not as awkward having you gawk at my bare ass when I’m furry.”
Nathan chuckled. Sofia impressed him. He’d expected her to be more squeamish about running buck naked on a mountain in broad daylight, and even less enthusiastic about trying to master transforming into a wild animal. But all the qualms she’d initially had about these things evaporated relatively soon after she actually gave them a try.
“Your fault for having such a cute ass,” he said while looking down her back and admiring it from above. He slid his hands along her torso and sides, stopping at her waist, his fingers resting just above where the curve of her bottom began. Licking his lips, he squeezed her hips, wanting to pull her pelvis closer to his and grope her, but he worried about how she’d react. It was obvious from the day they’d met that she was a free sexual spirit, but this was a lot for her to take in, and he wanted her to feel comfortable. Supported. He just had to rein the cougar in long enough for Sofia to be ready to be pounced on.
She looked up at him, a sexy smile on her face. “You’re distracting me. That’s probably why I can’t do this.” She pulled away and gave him a mock punch then winced and rubbed at her arm. “Oh my god, everything hurts so much.”
“Yes, I bet it does,” Nathan said, rubbing her shoulders. That’s enough shifting for a while, your body needs a break. Let’s eat and rest up.” He handed her the rookie-shifter dress. She took it and stood right in front of him as she lifted it above her head. Her full breasts rose high when she moved her arms, exaggerating the small of her waist and the curve of her hips.
Nathan swallowed hard. “Um, do you want me to turn my head or something while you dress?”
“What’s the point?” she snorted as she adjusted the dress around her fleshy thighs. “You’ve already seen plenty of me, both in the nude and in Cat.”
Not to mention, touched you intimately and nearly came in your hand. He worked to push away the memory but already his dick began to twitch a little. Sofia was bold and seemed comfortable with herself, and with him. He liked that. A lot.
He grabbed the picnic basket with their lunch in it and sat down on the grass, leaning against the bark of a tree. “I’m surprised you’re taking all of this so well,” he remarked. “For someone who doesn’t do nature, you’re handling being naked on a mountain out in broad daylight quite well.”
“I know, I never would have guessed it either.” She sat down perpendicular to him, also leaning against the same tree. “But it feels so…freeing to be out here.”
“Yes, it is. I love nature.”
“Then why live in New York City?”
He shrugged. “Born and raised there. It’s where my family and friends are, you know?”
“Does your family know? Are they shifters too?”
“They’re not shifters. The running joke is that I was adopted but I don’t know—it just might be true. I tried to talk about it with my father when I was sixteen. Even showed him when he didn’t believe me.” Nathan let out a long, deep sigh at the painful memory.
“What happened?” she asked when he didn’t continue after a moment.
“He freaked out. Made me promise never to tell my mother. He kept it to himself but that didn’t turn out too well. He tried to make himself forget with rum. Lots of rum. He died when I was nineteen, drunk at the wheel of a car.”
“I’m so sorry, Nathan.” Sofia gently placed her hand on top of his.
Without turning his head to meet her eyes, he flashed a weak smile at her. “It’s okay, it was a long time ago. And it taught me to keep my issues to myself, and I don’t reveal or discuss being a shifter to non-Weres. I recommend you do the same.”
“That should be pretty easy for me,” she said. “There isn’t really anyone I’m all that close to. Not even relatives.”
“Where are your folks?”
“My mother died giving birth to me, and my father bolted soon after. I was raised by my abuela, who lost her battle with cancer a few years ago. I don’t really have anyone else.”
He gave her hand an empathetic squeeze.
They sat there like that for a long while, asking each other questions from time to time but mostly appreciating each other’s presence in silence. Nathan couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed someone’s company like this. He feared that if he wasn’t careful, he could completely fall for Sofia.
What was wrong with him? Nathan didn’t fall in love. Nathan didn’t sit around holding hands. He needed to shake this feeling off. He started removing his clothes. “Gonna shift. I’m feeling like doing some running.”
“I’ll join you. I think I’m ready to try again,” she said, also undressing
.
He waited for her to change then he transformed as well. They looked at each other as mountain lions and then he took off, slowly at first, giving her a chance to match him at a nice trot before increasingly picking up the pace. Several minutes went by and she was still in mountain lion form. Then several more minutes went by and she still held the shift. So Nathan kicked it up a notch and went into full animal sprint. Sofia lagged behind for a while, but she worked her feline muscles and gradually mastered the terrain, decreasing the ground between them as she continued to maintain the shift.
Soon she was keeping up with him with little trouble and before long they were racing through the trees together, side by side, the earth under their paws, the wind in their faces, the sound of forest life in their ears and the sun upon their fur coats.
Nathan never had the pleasure of running with anyone in this manner. Someone he was attracted to as both man and cougar, as lover and friend, as mentor and equal. She had no preconceived expectations of him like other queens, nor presented any limitations on him as other humans. She was open and curious and genuinely interested in getting to know him, all of him. Not just the man and not just the cougar. It was nice to run out in the open like this, in the wild, with Sofia.
He swiped a paw playfully at her, she roared and gave him a threatening swipe back. He changed his gait and pouncedon her. Then took her to the ground with him so he could show her who the dominant one was. But to his surprise, she continued the movement, causing them to flip over once with her landing on top and him on his back.
Purring, she sat on him, her butt on his belly and her tail swishing between his legs. He’d thought her pheromones had hit max levels before, but right now she was completely off the charts. She was practically dousing him with it, and he was soaking it up, purring, wriggling on his back and flopping his tail. It’s just play, he told himself. Keep cool! But when she licked the fur on the side of his neck, the contact of her tongue sent Nathan into a frenzy of want. Of need. He began to convulse and he roared violently as he felt his control slipping away, and his paws began to morph back into hands and feet against his will.
Now he was the one involuntarily shifting. Again.
What in the cat hell was this female doing to him?
* * * * *
Sofia mewed in surprise to suddenly find Nathan as a man underneath her. Hard and warm and naked and gorgeous.
Maldito caliente—the things she wanted to do to this man!
But the moment her mind went there, she felt the pull, a tug at her heart, her soul. She shuddered all over and then the next thing she knew, she was shifting back to human form as well, against her will.
She was straddling him, with her knees on the ground on either side of his waist and her palms near his shoulders. She was instantly and innately aware that they were both naked in this intimate position. Her breasts swung freely above him, just inches from his face, and she could feel his pubic hair against her bottom.
Even though she was in human form, she continued to purr steadily.
Nathan stared up at her, the expression on his face something between a gape and a laugh. “Okay then,” he said, his voice raspy with his bemusement. “This is interesting.”
She considered getting up but her body wouldn’t move, unwilling to relinquish being this close to him. “I think it’s you,” she said softly as the realization became clear. “It’s you that’s making me change against my will.”
He furrowed his brows. “Me? What do you mean?”
“Well, I feel something strange happen whenever I’m a cat and you’re a human, or when I’m a human and you’re a cat. It’s hard to explain but it’s like… Well, it’s like…”
“Like you can’t control yourself?”
“Something like that, I guess. But when you and I were both in cat form at the same time, I didn’t feel it. That was the longest I’ve remained shifted yet, and I didn’t even have to think about it too much.”
He cocked his head. “Are you thinking anything whenever that happens? Of doing anything? Or anyone?”
The playful glint in his eyes gave it away that he’d already had a good idea, but she answered anyway. “Straddling you like this,” she admitted.
“Oh yeah? Well that explains it.” He smiled and bent his arms to put his hands behind his head. “You want me. We can’t mate in mismatched forms, so your body changes to match mine.”
“Does that always happen to us when we’re attracted to someone?”
“No, it’s something we can usually learn to control. You’re just new to all of this. Although,” he cocked his head, “that doesn’t really explain what’s happening to me.”
“To you?”
“I’ve been involuntarily shifting lately too. When we were on the plane and you almost made me come, I started going Cat. I had to run to the bathroom before there was a mountain lion in the seat next to you.”
“Are you serious?” She laughed.
He nodded. “And just now, when I shifted back—that wasn’t intentional. Before our flight together, this pretty much never happened to me.”
“So you’re having the same problem I am?”
“No, don’t think so. I mastered shifting a long time ago, back when I was a teen. Plus you’re shifting to match me. But I’m shifting when we’re already matched.”
Sofia frowned. “What does that mean? You don’t want me?”
He reached up to put his hands in her hair, twirled his fingers in it. “Believe me, that’s not the case.”
Heat pooled in her belly. There was an ache somewhere deep within her, a sexual itch that she was certain only he could scratch. “Good,” she said, her voice husky and shaky. “Because I want you so bad, it hurts.”
He grabbed her head and pulled it down toward him, their faces just a breath apart. “Then let me kiss it and make it all better.”
Slowly Sofia lowered her face even closer to his. She alternated her gaze between his full, slightly parted lips and those hypnotic dark-green peepers of his. Lining up her mouth with his, she fixated on his eyes as she closed in for the kiss.
The very first touch of their lips was as light as a feather and as sweet as honey. A gentle greeting in the form of a cautiously polite and lingering caress, with their eyes wide open and staring into the other’s.
But then Nathan was dragging her down, pulling her deep into the throes of a vicious kiss and keeping her captive there with his hold on her head. And she was a willing captive. Sofia pressed herself against him, crushing her breasts into his chest, smothering his mouth with hers. He smelled like a mixture of grass and leaves and masculine temptation and tasted like the bittersweet grapes they’d had with their last meal. His breath was hot and heavy and hungry, and Sofia fed it her tongue and passionate sighs.
His lips felt heavenly on her. She shuddered with pleasure, and just when she was growing dizzy and love-drunk from the kisses, he detached his mouth from hers. She whimpered in disappointment, but he quickly apologized with a grunted promise of more as he lifted her forward and maneuvered her so that her bosom hovered just above his face. Nathan cupped her breasts firmly in his big hands and gazed up at her, his expression sultry, before he lifted his lips to her left nipple, taking it hungrily into his mouth. Her breath grew heavy and his actions elicited soft, high-pitched groans from her as he suckled her tit before moving his attention to her right one. He went back and forth between her dangling mounds, lavishing both nipples with his tongue, marking her curves with the caress of his fingers.
Sofia felt him poking against her bottom. Pulling her breasts from his lips, she moved to straddle the rude intruder and leaned all the way down on her elbows. Face-to-face, they stared at each other for a moment, but the look in his eyes was so intense, Sofia squeezed hers closed. He was pressing against her, hard and throbbing, and she moaned anxiously. God, she wanted this man inside her so bad. She worked her hips, grinding her sex against his, intentionally coating him with the heat and
moisture of her excitement, while she sucked on his lips and danced her tongue with his. He was so hard, so thick, she could orgasm just like that if she continued humping him. But when she lifted her lids, she encountered the desperation in Nathan’s eyes, pleading with her to fuck him.
That was a plea Sofia was more than willing to comply with.
“I’m clean. Are you?”
“Yeah, I just tested a couple of weeks ago. It’s a Pride requirement before every retreat.”
“Good,” she rasped. She raised her hips and poised her entrance just over Nathan’s erection, but he suddenly grabbed her by the hips to stop her, his face twisted in conflict.
“But I left my condoms back at the tent, and you’re…ovulating.” His voice was low and strained.
Sofia knew that should have given her pause, but she wasn’t deterred. Why didn’t that scare her?
“I don’t really care,” she confessed. “But we can stop. Do you want to stop?”
He sucked in his bottom lip and pulled downward on her hips, dragging her onto the tip of his penis. “Hell no.”
Even though she was sopping wet and hungry for him, Sofia hadn’t been penetrated in over six months, and her body wasn’t opening easily. She was so tight and he was so thick, she struggled to load him in past the head.
He gripped her by the waist and worked his hips to give her assistance. He bobbed her up and down on his cock, taking her lower and making her slicker with each bounce while ravishing the side of her neck with searing kisses and nibbles. But his length surprised her—he seemed to go on and on, and his girth was almost too much for Sofia to take.
After a few minutes of him prodding her, stretching her, Sofia began whimpering quietly with each push. Nathan responded with a low, charged grunt and gripped her waist tighter, and seemed to grow even more erect. His eagerness coaxed more moisture from her sex, helping him to slip in farther and with ease. When her body could fully oblige, she lifted up one last time, almost completely withdrawing from him, then seated him fully. His cock filled her to the brim and they both cried out.
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