Secured Heart (Timberon Cat Book 1)

by Hines, Yvette

  Secured Heart

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Secured Heart

  Yvette Hines

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission by the author.

  Secured Heart

  Copyright © 2015, Yvette Hines

  Cover Artist: Covers by K Designs

  Editor: Bernadette Schane

  Beta Readers: Lonnie H.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to eStore and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Author’s Note

  Hello Readers. Some of you may recall that Secured Heart was originally in the Just One Bite contest at All Romance eBooks. This story at only 3k at the time, because of contest rules, came in third place among 36 other stories. Well, all rights have been returned to me and I have taken the time to increase this story and modified it significantly. It is now longer and hotter. So, the story that started the Timberon Series is back. Hope you enjoy it and the others in the series, On the Prowl, Rescued Mate, and coming soon, Stalking Nayla.

  Best Regards,

  Yvette

  Chapter One

  Strolling around the room one more time to check with his men and ensure everyone was in place and everything was secure before he left, Kal stepped to Dwayne, the man in charge for the evening.

  “Okay, Dwayne, everything appears to be under control. I’m heading out.” Normally, he wouldn’t have come at all with Dwayne leading the team for the night, but this project was a big one. The success of tonight’s event would mean more contracts of this caliber. Tyler, Bridge and Anderson law office was the largest firm in the city. They handled all the high-profile white-collar crimes around the state. Having Mayor Davy present was an extra bonus. The fact that he’d snagged this contract was proof that his company was succeeding in a major way. In the next few weeks, he would be hiring four more security people to add to his team of twelve.

  “Got it, boss man. Everything will be fine.” Dwayne, his good friend and fellow pride member, had left his job as athletics coordinator at a local recreation center to work with him. He was a six-three, dark-skinned black man who was as wide as he was tall.

  Patting Dwayne on the shoulder, Kal confirmed, “I know you got it all under control. I don’t doubt it for a moment.” Glancing around, he whispered, “I just came here to show my face.”

  “And what a lovely mug it is.” Dwayne’s bantering tone matched Kal’s as he added, “A face only relatives and pride members could love.”

  Chuckling, Kal nodded.

  Kal and Dwayne’s families had lived in Albuquerque most of their lives, only five hours from the Amofeli sect in in Timberon. Dwayne’s family members were unattached shifters. For years Kal’s elders had attempted to convince the family to join with Timberon Amofeli pride, but Dwayne’s father had declined. When he and Dwayne went to college his best friend joined the pride.

  “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow at the offi--”

  “Sorry I’m late, everyone.” Burt Tyler, the lead partner who had started the law firm twenty-seven years ago with his father, came in with a petite black woman.

  Presently, she was about five-eight in her three-inch heels and her skin was a soft brown with red undertones, like Georgia clay. She was perfection, every feature designed by the Creator to attract and hold a gaze, in its flawless symmetry. Her long ebony hair cascaded down around her shoulders in layers, tempting a man to bury his hands in it.

  Kal’s hands itched to do just that as the desire he once believed dormant flared up as hot and scalding as ever. A joyously sweet and erotically intoxicating combination of osmanthus and vanilla rum reached him from across the room.

  He watched her smile as she worked the room beside the stout lawyer who was barely an inch taller than her. Her short black dress haltered around her neck, conservatively revealing the swell of her breasts. The garment hugged her slim form and ended mid-thigh, giving the illusion that her toned legs went on and on. Lana Greisen.

  Fuck. What the hell was she doing here? With him? Kal took a step along the outside perimeter hall.

  “Kal?”

  He heard his name but disregarded it…kept moving. The hairs on the nape of his neck rose and his scalp tingled seeing another man touch her. He had to remind himself that this was not the time or place. His business was at stake if he did something foolish like shift and take out the town’s leading lawyer. It was hard to tamp down the urge to swipe the older man’s head off with his claws. If he used his concealment trait, it would be impossible for them to pin it on him.

  “Man, this may be a good time for you to head out.” Dwayne, who knew what Lana had once meant to him, must have clearly sensed his intent.

  Kal took another step.

  His friend grabbed his arm keeping him from following the couple. Raising an eyebrow, Dwayne spoke firmly. “As you planned.”

  Glancing first at his arm and then up at his friend, Kal stifled the hiss rising in his throat. He knew Dwayne was right. This contract was too damn important to Elite Expert Security. Even knowing that, he couldn’t walk away.

  “I’ll be fine. In a few minutes I’ll go.”

  Dwayne let go of his arm, but the second eyebrow arching high spoke volumes. “Well, at least get your hair under control. You look feral.”

  With a broad, cocky smile, Kal finger-combed his hair back into place. Evidently, more than just the hair on his neck had risen when he saw his mate with someone else.

  ~YH~

  “Excuse me for a moment, Mr. Tyler, Mayor Davy. I’m going to powder my nose and check on a few things.” Lana smiled at her boss and the people gathering around the two influential men. It had been an hour since they’d arrived and she’d smiled and chatted like a good girl. She hated being in the spotlight. She preferred to hang out in the background coordinating things and people.

  “Don’t worry, Lana, everything is going perfectly tonight.” Mr. Tyler reached out and squeezed her hand. “Of course, I didn’t expect otherwise. Relax.”

  Allowing a small laugh to grace her lips, she commented, “Now, you know it’s my nature to worry over things. That’s why you keep me around.”

  “It’s true,” he said to the small group as he sipped his bourbon. “Not much gets past our Lana. She’s sharp.”

  Lana walked away enjoying the pride in her boss’s words. Meandering through the crowd, she touched base with a few people, ensuring everything was going well.

  Stepping down a hallway, she nodded at one of the security men and continued on toward the bathroom. There were several patio doors open wide allowing a soft late spring breeze to waft through the rooms. The official start of summer would be upon them in a few days. Taking a deep breath along the way, she enjoyed the solitude of the area. Most people were congregated in the large ballroom and used the bathroom closer to the front, so this trek gave her privacy and a moment to herself.

&n
bsp; She was only a few steps from the bathroom, past the last set of French doors, when someone grabbed her arm and dragged her out onto the terrace. Before she could scream, her back was against the cool stucco wall and Kal Walters stood before her, his arms caging her in.

  “What the hell are you doing here with Tyler, Lana?” he demanded.

  Shock kept her speechless for a few moments. However, it didn’t stop the heat from curling low in her belly. It had been more than four years since she’d seen Kal. He looked good, real good in his button-down shirt and slacks. His chestnut-brown hair fell onto his forehead, emphasizing his golden amber cat eyes. He’d always stayed fit, his Amofeli genetics keeping his body honed to perfection. Kal had broad shoulders that made a woman want to curl up against them. She had done so many times in the past during late-night study sessions.

  “It’s none of your business, Kal.” Placing her hands against his chest she tried to push him away. He was as unmovable as a Mack truck.

  He glanced down at her hands, then up to her face. “You get enough of Paul Stellar? Now you’re on to the next old man?”

  Gritting her teeth, she forced out, “For your information, I couldn’t go through with it.” Paul Stellar had been the CEO of Turner Corporation, one of the biggest Midwest shipping companies involved in everything that came through the Gulf, and its owner had been more than twenty years her senior. As an intern, she’d been young and stupid and had allowed him to wine and dine her one summer. Way more sophisticated than she, he’d convinced her that he was falling for her and couldn’t live without her. If she’d done her research, instead of dropping out of the University of New Mexico her junior year, throwing away the academic scholarship she’d worked so hard to gain, and heading to the first justice of the peace Paul took her, she’d have known it was Stellar’s M.O. Young naïve girls were his thing. He’d promise them the world at his side, marry them, then dump them when they’d outlived their usefulness and he was off to the next perky thing. Coming from a low-income family, she’d snapped onto his bait without caring what her friends said. What Kal had tried to tell her.

  “What?” His eyes widened with shock.

  “That’s right, nosey. I got cold feet. I stood there in my expensive white skirt suit he’d had tailor-made for me. None of my family or friends around, just strangers waiting for their own chance before the judge.”

  Kal’s eyes darkened with some emotions.

  Too afraid to analyze what he was thinking about her, she continued. “For a few weeks he tried to get me to do it. Hired a wedding planner and was willing to pay for a big event. I-I couldn’t. I chose a date a year out. Stellar got pissed. Next thing I know he tossed me over for some twenty-year-old three months later. He made sure I got a copy of their wedding picture in the mail.” She shifted her gaze past his shoulders, taking in the night lights of Albuquerque, not wanting to see the pity she was sure would be in his eyes. I’d been a fool.

  When he didn’t respond, she asked, “What? No ‘I told you so’?”

  “Well, I did.” He teased as he brushed her hair over her shoulder.

  Rolling her eyes, she tried not to think about the light shivers racing along her spine at his gentle touch.

  “So, you missed your chance with Stellar. Have you set your mark on Tyler as a husband?”

  Shoving hard this time, she stepped away from him and faced the railing. “Stuff it, Kal. You don’t know anything. I’m not some whore for hire.”

  “Not saying you are. Just telling you what it looks like.” He growled low, his lips pressed against her ear.

  Why did it matter to him?

  Years ago in college, she’d thought she had a chance with him. That Kal may be the one. One night she’d gone to his apartment and had seen a large cat looking like a North American Lynx leap out of his window and head toward the Sandia Mountains. She’d paced his living room waiting for his return. When he did, he explained to her all about his kind and how the Amofeli, shifter cats, mated for life.

  She’d wanted to be his soul mate. That wasn’t the case. Even after he’d explained his secret, he still continued with his old ways. In college he’d picked off every easy bimbo and party girl who shook her big breasts in his face.

  “Just leave it alone, Kal.” Her throat tightened with emotion and she took a deep breath to calm herself. Seeing him was bringing up old hurts and pains, most of them she’d brought on herself. Stellar had seen the vulnerability she had because of Kal, the older man had stepped in and given her the attention she craved from someone else. She’d used the business mogul as he had attempted to use her. “You didn’t care enough years ago when I needed a friend and you hopped on the first plane to Afghanistan to make your fortune like so many civilians who wanted big pay.” She glanced at him, then looked away again. “I needed you then and you stayed away for years.”

  ~YH~

  Kal could hear the pain in her voice. He knew back then it had been wrong to leave without talking to her. After college he’d gotten a job with his criminal justice degree, but had heard about the opportunity to work in the Middle East doing base and facility security, earning up to seventy thousand a year. He’d applied, gotten the position and was gone before the ink had dried on his resignation. The mountainous region had allowed his cat a lot of area to play. The stint over in the desert wasn’t easy, was dangerous to say the least, even for him, but he needed something that would keep his mind off the one person he couldn’t have. When he returned, he’d started his security business with Dwayne. Even though his rash decision had paid off, he’d only taken the chance to get out of the city. A city that enjoyed plastering pictures and gossip about Paul Stellar’s business and his new plaything. It wasn’t Lana by Stellar’s side and he didn’t know where she was or what had happened to her marriage.

  Yeah, he’d royally fucked up with her in college. He’d known he cared about her. That his emotions and connection to her ran deeper than for any other woman he’d allowed in his life. However, he’d taken their friendship for granted as he screwed his way through his undergrad years with every available piece of ass. He’d barely learned to control his shifting when his mating gene had erupted to full capacity making his sexual urges indiscriminate. However, he knew enough to keep clear of Lana on the worst days. By the time he’d gotten his cat under control, stopped tomcatting around and gone after Lana, his mate, it was too late. She’d met Paul Stellar at a function put on by the dean.

  He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Staring at her, he watched the wind lift her hair away from her body.

  “Do you need me now?” he asked.

  Turning her back on him, she stepped away from the rail. “I have a job to do. I don’t have time fo--”

  Grabbing her by the waist, he pulled her body against his. “Answer me, Lana,” he commanded. “Do. You. Need. Me. Now?” He bit out each word slowly. The question was about more than a friendship, but about desires as well.

  His cat was so in tune with her that he could feel the quivering breath she took. The intimate contact didn’t allow them to hide anything. He was sure she could feel his body’s response to her as well. His cock was pressing into her back, insistent.

  She turned as her mahogany-brown eyes darkened and he could see her need clearly, before she licked her lips and shifted her gaze away. “Ye— No. I don’t know.”

  “What’s Tyler to you?” He had to know. If this man was her next meal ticket, he wanted to know, had to know who his competition was. This time he couldn’t walk away from her. He refused to walk away from her.

  “He’s my boss. I went back to school and became a paralegal and worked my way up to his assistant. I not only help with cases, but I organize the firm’s important functions, like this--”

  Seizing her mouth, he kissed her deeply. He didn’t need to hear anything else. Slipping his tongue into her mouth, he tasted her. It wasn’t enough. A few steps forward brought them against the wall. Lana kissed him just as passionately i
n return, her hands fisting in his hair. The clatter of her small purse striking the cement floor didn’t stop them.

  He broke the kiss. “I’ve waited years. Denied myself what I wanted. You, Lana.”

  Panting, she declared, “I want you, Kal.”

  “I know this isn’t the time or place, but I swear if you try and stop me, I’ll fuck you so hard you’ll scream and everyone down that hall will hear you.”

  “Don’t stop.”

  Enough said.

  Kissing her again, he deepened it this time. He wanted more from her, needed to taste her very soul through the kiss, know if what he felt for her was echoed in her heart. Her whimpers vibrated along the inside of his mouth and he groaned. Slipping a hand up to the center of her back, he held her tighter. He enjoyed the feel of her soft, full breasts crushing against his chest. The feeling evoked a memory of them in college. Freshman week pool party, the first time he’d seen her. She’d stood beside a lounger and pulled her short sundress over her head. A mismatched lime green and orange bathing suit cupped her body in all the right places.