Secured Heart (Timberon Cat Book 1)

by Hines, Yvette

  “Is that guy why you are keeping me at arm’s length?” He hitched his head toward the door as he stood by the living room window.

  It didn’t have to be said who Kal was talking about.

  “Yes and no.” She passed him the water and went and sat down on her couch. It had been a long night and her feet—and mind—were both tired.

  He arched an eyebrow and drank his water.

  All his silent macho attitude was beginning to grate on her nerves. “Look, Kal, it has been years since I’ve seen you. Years.” She threw up a hand. “Hell, we were friends then. Just friends. You made sure I understood tha-t.” She swallowed down more wine trying to cover up her emotions.

  Moving closer to her, he sat down on the center cushion as he set his empty glass on a coaster on the coffee table. “Back then it was important for me to keep you at a distance.”

  “It doesn’t matter. We are friends. Have always been friends. Maybe that should be how it stays.” She stared down into her wine. It broke her heart.

  “The hell it should.” His words were calm, blunt, lacking in vehemence but not intensity.

  “What is the difference between now and when we were in college? You have a lack of women chasing you?” Her glass clinked against the wood of the table as she set it down.

  “No.” He didn’t even crack a smile.

  She figured that meant that he wasn’t settling for her and in some weird way that made her feel good and warm inside. Maybe it was because in college she always felt like he would never consider her or look in her direction with anything other than fondness until he’d screwed every co-ed at the university. So, knowing that he was sniffing around her when he could be with someone else did make her a little giddy. A little.

  This wasn’t college and she wasn’t a silly little girl anymore, waiting on a man’s crumbs.

  “Well, it doesn’t matter. This…” she pointed from him to her. “Is not going to happen.”

  Never taking his gaze off her, he leaned back against the couch appearing comfortable. “Talk to me, mate.” He covered one of her hands resting in her lap.

  Unable to keep from staring, she glanced down at their hands, different in their complexions and size. As a small-framed woman, her hand seemed dwarfed by his larger one. He had a wide hand, with blunt nails and a few faded scars from God only knew what. She knew that he’d provided defense in Afghanistan for a couple years, but she was sure there was a lot more story and history there. With Kal, there always was.

  She had to push away the security and joy she experienced in his touch. Not wanting to be rude and because she did miss her friend, she didn’t pull her hand away. Instead she suffered through his touch.

  Glancing up at him, she said, “Don’t call me that.”

  “Mate?” He linked his fingers with hers.

  Too late to pull away now without making a big production of it. “Yes. Mate. That’s not me.”

  His chuckle was low, it rumbled. “Oh, but you are.”

  Shifting so that her back was in the corner of her couch she stared at him. “I don’t plan to debate this with you.”

  “Then tell me about this Ben guy. Where did you meet him?”

  “At a coffee shop, believe it or not. It was one of those days where everyone in the world gets up for coffee. I was standing in a long line and made a comment about something that was going on during the state election. Ben responded with an opposite opinion. I didn’t know he was behind me. I turned and asked him about his thoughts on the subject. An hour later we both had our drinks, his an herbal tea and mine—”

  “Caramel espresso, heavy cream.”

  Slowly she closed her gaping mouth. “That’s right.”

  A crooked smile tilted his lips as he brushed the back of her hand with his thumb. “During midterms and finals you wanted to study at my apartment because of my espresso machine.”

  She scrunched the bridge of her nose. “Oh, gracious…”

  “Oh, there’s more.” He teased as he released her hand and turned his body so that he was fully facing her. His knee was bent, almost touching her hip and he rested his arm along the back of the couch.

  “I don’t think I want to know. It’s probably embarrassing.” She rolled her top lip in and bit into it, holding back her mirth.

  He shrugged. “Only if you consider dragging your friend out into the cold, in the middle of the night to find a store open that sold caramel sauce and heavy cream because I was out and you were going nuts about your Econ exam.”

  Laughing loud and hard, she buried her face in her hands. “Oh, no. I remember that.” She lowered her hands. “That was after I discovered your secret and you kept apologizing for drinking all the cream. ‘Cats like cream, Lana. You just can’t keep leaving it around.’”

  Chuckling, he confessed, “Well we do.”

  She pointed at his glass on the table. “Maybe I should have brought you milk instead.”

  “Later.” He grasped a lock of her hair and played with it. “I miss laughing with you. Being with you.”

  The mood around them became serious again.

  She glanced away from his amazing amber eyes and stared down at her fingers brushing along the hem of her dress. “I’ve missed you, too, Kal. However, I don’t think that means we should take this to the next level.”

  “Do you love him?”

  Her brows drew tight. “Ben? No. After Paul Stellar and losing my scholarship and my best friend, I kept my distance from men. Didn’t date. Then Ben happened and it was just so easy and comfortable I let it become serious. My fault entirely. All these years I used him just as Stellar used me. Instead of a cute young thing on my arm, I wanted companionship. Six years is a long time to be alone.”

  “But you broke it off?” His hand moved deeper into her hair, stroking along the waves her curling iron had created with an occasional brush of her scalp.

  She wanted to purr, having someone play in her hair was one of her joys. “Over two months ago. However, I’ve given in too often when he wanted to talk when I should have cut it off permanently. Ben is a nice, sweet man, but a few months back he went away to Greece to study some lost writings of Socrates or someone that were discovered. During those three weeks he was away I didn’t hear from him. I didn’t miss him either.” She glanced over at the man beside her and kept her thoughts to herself.

  The ones where she would confess to Kal how much she had missed and longed for him every day of the six years they had been apart. She wanted to tell him things that were funny that happened or curl against his chest and weep when sad events came around. But he hadn’t been there.

  “That’s telling if your life didn’t miss a step without him in it.”

  “I thought the same thing. When he called me from the airport on his way home, bubbling with excitement about his studies, I was happy for him. However my heart was filled with guilt because I realized in his tone how much he had missed me and I hadn’t given him more than a passing thought if someone asked where he was. It wasn’t fair to hold him in a loveless relationship.”

  “You did the right thing.” He took hold of one of her hands and held it on his knee.

  “At the wrong time. Ben believes that I was hurt he left or that he stayed away too long and that is why I ended it. So, the last few weeks have just been filled with him making irrational promises in hopes I will get back with him. Then tonight…” she shook her head recalling Ben down on his knee proposing.

  “You want me to meet with him and make it clear you’re mine?”

  “What?” She pulled her hand away. “No and no. I told you, Kal, I keep making wrong choices when it comes to men.”

  “And I keep telling you that you’re my mate.”

  Shoving a hand through her hair, she blurted out. “What is it with you? Just find someone else.”

  Grasping her hand again, he tugged on it until she glanced at him. “It doesn’t work that way.”

  She held his gaze, not knowing wh
at to say or ask.

  “Are you ready to listen? Hear how this is for me and my kind?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t let her hand go, so she reached out with her free one and picked up her wine, finishing the second half of it before returning it to the table. “Give it to me.”

  “It’s not a death sentence.” He chuckled.

  “I’m not saying it is. It’s just…” Just what? She looked at him, and like always a simple glance at him made her heart feel almost too big for her chest. “Sorry. Tell me about the Amofeli mating.”

  He arched a brow at her.

  Gulping, she realized the impression of her words. “You know what I mean.”

  “I do.” Lowering his arm from the back of the couch, he cupped her hand in both of his. “My kind of people mate for life.”

  The feel of his warmth surrounding her made her shiver. “That’s an interesting concept.” Her parents had divorced when she was a teenager. As soon as she and her sister had graduated from high school her mother had moved to Europe for ‘her own life’ and their father had married, gotten ill and passed away shortly after the divorce. So, she and Tresa didn’t have much of an example of forever.

  “More than that. You know we are only male, only ever breed males too. So, we learn from a young age to recognize our mates.”

  “And you see something in me?” Shaking her head. “If I’m the one, why didn’t you see it in college?”

  “I did. Really my cat did.” He turned her hand over and caressed her from wrist to fingertips, but he never took his gaze from her. “It just wasn’t the right time.”

  “Because of all the wild oats that needed to be sown?” His touch was driving her insane and stirring her body. Removing her hand she balled it into a fist and squeezed it with her other hand in an attempt to stop the tingling that was moving from her fingers to her core and causing her heart rate to increase and her sex to bloom with desire.

  “Yes.” He offered no other explanation, just that one word.

  “Okay.” She scooted to the edge of the couch and stared down at the carpet before her bare feet. “Thanks for the honesty…I guess.”

  “Mate, you would not have wanted me then. Trust me. When an Amofeli reaches maturity their mating hormone is intense and all consuming. A single human female would not be able to withstand the level of his need. That’s why we change partners frequently and regularly through the first few years until it calms down. It makes us irrational.”

  “You were suspended for two weeks our sophomore year.” She glanced over her shoulder at him.

  He at least had the sense to appear ashamed. Lowering his head, his voice took on a remorseful tone—steady but melodic. “I was caught having sex with the Dean’s work-study student in his office. I don’t know who screamed the loudest Tina Lewis or Dean Maddow.” Looking up at her, his amber eyes were shadowed. “Indiscriminate and illogical.”

  “Yeah, that was pretty foolish.”

  He slipped his hands around her waist and dragged her back into his arms. “I would have never subjected you to my behavior then.” Cupping her cheek, he went on. “My cat knew you were mine the first time I approached you by the pool. I just wanted to fuck you.”

  She gasped at his words.

  Winking, he smiled. “Just being honest. But, I liked you. Thought you were witty, funny and smart.”

  “That’s it?” She couldn’t stop herself from fishing for compliments as she recalled all the pretty sorority girls he banged…that she knew about.

  “And the most beautiful woman in the world.”

  “Keep talking.” She leaned back in his arms.

  He laughed. “You were everything my cat needed and wanted in a mate. I should have stayed completely away from you, but I couldn’t. You brought me solace and made me feel whole when I was around you. So, I allowed you close to me even as I kept you at arm’s length.” He brushed her bottom lip with his thumb. “It was selfish of me. Unfair. But you were my mate.”

  “Your mate.” She repeated. Not because she was convinced about her role in his life in the future but some part of her needed to say it as her brain processed all he told her.

  “Say it again.” His voice took on a husky timbre as his hold tightened around her hips.

  Nervous, by the intense glow in his amber gaze, she licked her lips. “What did I say?”

  “You’re my mate.”

  “I’m your mate.” The words seemed to just slip out. As if she had no control over her body. She felt as if someone had shoved a furnace inside her stomach and she was burning up from the inside out.

  He drew her against him until her breasts were crushed to his chest, then he leaned in and kissed her.

  It wasn’t like the kiss earlier in the night, which was deep. This one was more intense, more commanding, more rough.

  Not that he was hurting her in any way, but he wasn’t giving her any room to doubt how much he wanted her.

  His tongue was in her mouth stroking her all over, causing her to tingle everywhere.

  She’d had good kisses before but none that caused her nipples to tighten with need or her sex to throb with an urgency to be filled. Kal made her respond to him as she hadn’t to any other. She buried her hands in his hair and gripped it tight as she fused her mouth harder to his. As he took from her through the kiss, she gained from him. His passion became her lust.

  Feeding from him, she allowed herself freedom to exhibit her hunger.

  Still not sure if she was his mate, she didn’t care at that moment, she just desired for him to soothe the ache within her. Parting her thighs, she straddled him. She ground her throbbing sex along the swollen, hard impression of his cock.

  Was this what it felt like to lose your mind to lust?

  All of a sudden a sound filled the room, loud, rough and clear—a purr.

  However, the feel of the intense vibrations that came from Kal’s throat and into his mouth caused her mouth to quiver and the pulsating of her body to become shudders. She came, right then against his clothed shaft and her covered sex with nothing but his hands on her ass and a kiss. As the orgasm claimed her, she bucked hard against him.

  Growling, he ripped his lips from hers. “Shit. Oh, my mate, I need to taste you. The rich scent of all the fucking cream flooding your pussy is tearing me up inside.” He brought them to the floor, in the space between the couch and the table.

  No man had ever spoken to her in such a carnal way. His words made more juice flood her panties.

  On the carpet he kissed her lips and squeezed her breasts through her dress. Lowering his mouth, he nipped at her collarbone, licking in the dip at her neck before moving on. When he got to one of her taut nipples and grazed the sensitive tip with the sharp point of his tooth she whimpered and held him closer.

  “Like that do you?” He chuckled. “Wait until I get to the good part.”

  She palmed the back of his neck and took several deep breaths and tried to keep herself level and in this solar system. Kal had erotic skills that were out of this world.

  Maneuvering his big body between her legs, he took hold of her thighs and lifted them high.

  The skirt of her dress fluttered and landed at her waist, leaving the lower part of her body bare, with the exception of her sky blue thong.

  “Scent…drunk…I need…oh, mate…taste.” His voice was rough and his words were coming out choppy. But when he placed his mouth on her sex, panties and all, it was clear what he needed.

  Her.

  No man had ever desired her as much as Kal professed and acted.

  When he began licking and sucking her through the lacy strip of her panties, she moaned and tried to spread her legs to give him more access. However, both the furniture and his firm hold didn’t allow her to move in the narrow space. She wanted to groan in frustration, but her body was taken over by the sensation he was creating.

  He licked the sides of her labia that she figured, by the slick glide of his tongue, must be swollen and
puffing out from her underwear. When he shifted his fondling to her clit, swirling and pressing at it behind the thin material, she trembled. She found it odd that the swath of fabric binding her clit and separating her from his actual caress was adding fuel to her climactic fire. Made his acts seem more forbidden and wild.

  “Let me…take off…panties…Kal.” Begging she squirmed beneath him.

  “No.” He growled. Grabbing her hips his held her tight against his lips. Occasionally teasing her by angling his tongue just beneath the edge of her panty. Or he pulled away completely and nipped at her bare ass with his sharp incisors.