“I know, I’m sorry,” she said, biting the corner of her lip in that sexy way she did whenever she was conflicted. God, he wanted her so bad it hurt. She gripped him in her fist for a moment but then she let go and gently pushed him off her lap. “I should put on some clothes.”
“Right,” he mumbled. He sat upright, allowing her to get to her feet. He turned his head the other way while she was getting dressed and tried to think about puppies and kittens to calm himself down. Kittens. If he knocked Karabi up, would they have babies or kittens? Then the thought of the process of knocking her up excited him even more. So much for his usual standby of baby animals to calm himself down. He tried thinking about dead puppies and kittens instead.
“Got anything for me to put on?” he asked.
“I’ve got your clothes from Friday night in that closet over there. But first we need to think this through. We can’t just open the door and walk you out of here. Non-shifters don’t know about us. What if someone sees and asks why you are here instead of in your office? How will you explain why you’re wearing the same clothes you did to the ball?”
Alex mulled this over for a minute. “Can you get the tiger out of here?”
“Not easily. They would expect me to put you in the den with the other tigers, not walk you out of here.”
“Where do they think the tiger came from?”
“Some exotic dealer, breeder or smuggler.”
“Okay—what if my ‘owner’ came by to retrieve me?”
“Maybe. But we’d have to be careful not to get this ‘owner’ in serious trouble for illegal animal trafficking.”
“This is crazy.” Alex shook his head. “I don’t even know why this is happening. Explain it to me again please—why am I a tiger?”
“You’re a Werecat. A human-cat shape-shifter.”
“But why?”
“You were born this way,” Karabi said. “When’s your birthday?”
“July thirty-first.”
“You’re a Leo. Mine’s August ninth. And chances are, at least one of your parents was a shifter.”
“How long does this last?”
“Does what last?”
“This being a Werecat thing.”
“It’s not a thing. It’s what you are.”
Alex shook his head. “No. I can’t be a tiger-man-thing. I’m a businessman, a professional. I can’t be a fucking Were anything.”
“Sorry, but that’s what you are.”
“But it doesn’t make sense.” Alex ran a hand through his hair. “Gah, I’m not even that much of a cat person.”
Karabi laughed. “Well, you are quite literally a ‘cat person’ now.”
“This is just crazy.”
“Yeah, I imagine this is all rather alarming for you.”
“So how did I get in here? Why am I injured?”
“You don’t remember anything that happened on Friday night?”
He turned to look at Karabi. “Oh I remember everything. The elevator ride up. You and me in that window box thing…”
“I’m talking about after that,” she said. Her face looked as aroused by the intimate memory as he was feeling.
“I remember experiencing my body and senses changing, right before I was going to come. I left the building and transformed. My memory is a little fuzzy after that but I think I was running around, confused. Then there were wolf-men attacking you.”
“Werewolves,” Karabi said.
“Okay, so there really are Werewolves too?” Alex shook his head and rubbed at his forehead. All of this was simply nuts. “Why were they after you?”
“I honestly do not know,” she said. “That was my first time encountering Werewolves.”
“Hopefully it was the last time for both of us. I don’t like them one bit.”
“That was apparent,” Karabi said. “You really hurt one of them. But that’s how you got injured, and I had you brought here to get medical attention.”
“Ah, I see.” Then Alex remembered he was still naked. “So what do I do now?”
“Do you think you can shift back to a tiger?” Karabi asked.
Alex winced. “I have no idea how I did it the first time. I’d been stuck like that for three damn days.”
“Well, you can’t stay in here like this. Anyone else who comes in here will be looking for a tiger.”
“I don’t even want to try to shape-shift into that animal again. Besides, I need to get back to work.”
“What if you suddenly shift again while in the middle of a meeting? It happens when you’re first starting out. You need to master shifting first.”
“Shit.”
“Maybe you should call in sick.”
“I’m still a contractor. I don’t have any sick days.”
“Then tell them you have food poisoning, and that due to the vomiting and diarrhea you’d think it best if you work from home for a couple of days. I already laid the groundwork for that story, so it should be pretty plausible.” She grabbed his clothes out of the closet and tossed them to him. “Your phone’s still in your pocket.”
“Thanks.” Alex got dressed and dialed Kevin’s number. He put on his best sick voice and told Kevin he hoped to be back in the office by Wednesday. He looked at Karabi, who nodded in affirmation that Wednesday was a good choice. “Now. How are we getting me home?”
“I’m thinking,” Karabi said. “We need a plan to sneak you out of here.”
“Great,” Alex mumbled.
His whole worldwas in complete chaos. He’d just found out he was some kind of freaky shape-shifter, the woman he was falling in love with was part cheetah and now he was putting his chances of making this job permanent at risk. Plus he had to sneak out of his own place of work.
Alex sighed as he began putting on his boxer briefs. What the hell else could possibly go wrong?
Chapter Seven
“Wait, don’t put on your clothes just yet,” Karabi said. “I’ve got a plan.”
Alex halted with his underwear halfway up his legs. “Already?”
“Yup,” she said. Then she told him her plan for his escape.
When she was done explaining it to him he eyed her with a mixture of awe and amusement. “Wow, you’re quick with escape plans. You do this kind of thing often?”
She smirked. “No, I already had three days to think about how the hell I was going to get you out of here if that tiger really was you.”
“Still, I’m impressed,” he said. “There’s just one problem with your plan. It requires me to shift a few times. But I don’t have a handle on this whole shifting business just yet.”
“Okay, so let’s try to get that down right now.”
“Right.” He stood and she couldn’t help but visually admire him. “It’s not right that I’m still naked and you’re not,” he said.
She smirked. “You’re the one who needs to change forms back and forth, not me. Now try to transform.”
“How do I do that?”
“Think ‘cat’.”
Karabi watched while Alex squeezed his eyes tight and pinched his lips together. The expression on his face made her giggle.
“What’s funny?” he asked.
“You look like you’re trying to take a poop.”
“I’m trying to concentrate.”
“You’re making it harder than it needs to be. Just let it come naturally. Feel the cat within you.”
He closed his eyes again and took long, deep breaths, opening and closing his hands in and out of fists. But several minutes went by and he didn’t transform.
“This isn’t working,” he grumbled.
“Are you trying to imagine yourself as the Cat? Can you see yourself looking from behind the eyes of the tiger?”
“Yes, I’m doing that. Nothing’s happening. I don’t even know why this approach would work anyway, since that’s definitely not what I was thinking about the one and only time I did change to the tiger.”
“That night of the masqu
erade,” Karabi said, nodding thoughtfully. “What were you thinking when that started to happen?”
Alex tilted his head down and raised his brows at her mischievously. “About not coming in your hand.”
Karabi’s face grew hot and there was a tingle of excitement between her legs as she again vividly recalled the moments on The Ledge just before Alex dashed off. “Any idea what about that interaction would have made you go Cat?”
He rubbed his chin. “I don’t know. I mean, the whole thing was reallyfucking hot. A little scary because we were so high up. Exciting because we were right there, in a public building, and we could have been caught at any moment. But I didn’t care, because I really wanted you. I mean, really wanted you.”
“Hmm.” Karabi considered this. She knew the feeling he was talking about. Wild. Frisky. Daring. Bold. Mischievous. Everything a cat was. She’d felt these things whenever she was with Alex too. In fact she was feeling them right now. But they didn’t make her want to shift. She reflected back on her own early transformations. When Karabi was first learning to shift she was an awkward teenager going through puberty. She’d been informed of what she was and had been prepared for her Cat’s arrival, and when the time had come for her she had weeks to master shifting. But Alex didn’t have that kind of luxury. He needed to fully acquaint himself with shape-shifting right now, or at least partially. The next work shift would be starting within an hour and she had to act on the plan soon, otherwise they were going to be trouble.
There was only one thing Karabi could come up with that would deliver quick results. It’d triggered Alex to shift to tiger in the first place and apparently encouraged his return to human.
She took him by the hand and led him over to the table. He looked at her in confusion but complied.
“Kiss me,” Karabi commanded.
Alex’s left brow shot up. “I’m not sure this is the right—”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down toward her and shushed him with her mouth. It didn’t take long for him to fall into the groove. Within seconds they were locked in a passionate embrace, sucking each other’s faces, drinking each other’s kisses until both were sloppy drunk with lust. They went on like that for a full minute before she pulled away from him, her lips full and tingly.
He looked down at her with half-lidded eyes. “That was nice,” he said as she got up from the table, then turned him around and made him sit up on it instead. “Maybe if we keep that up, I’ll be distracted enough to—ah!”
Karabi pulled off her pants and panties and mounted his bare lap. She didn’t take him inside her, just had him pressed up against her so he could feel her sex against his. She crushed her breasts against his chest and stared into his eyes as she pumped her hips, humping him, egging him on.
“Karabi…” He said her name with a moan. She put her finger to his mouth to shush him and continued to rub her slit up and down the length of him. He was so hard, so smooth, so thick and long. Karabi dipped her hips down and around in a circle, rubbing him between her labia and against her clit at the same time. Her breath came out in short pants. He gripped her bottom, squeezing it, while she grinded upon him.
“Let me fuck you,” he said in a strained whisper.
“No,” she said. “You don’t get to come.”
“You’re so hot and wet. If I don’t come, I’ll go crazy.” His voice was a gravelly plea.
“Go crazy,” she said. “Get wild. Let the tiger loose.”
“This is torture. I don’t know if this is going to work for me.”
It’s working for me,Karabi thought as she pressed even harder against Alex, moving faster, increasing the friction. Soon she was shaking, her pussy contracting and her body convulsing with her orgasm. It was only a mild one but it was good. She’d needed the release.
Apparently it was what Alex needed too. “Ah!” His exclamation turned into a roar and soon he was shifting. By the time Karabi’s orgasm subsided she was lying on top of a huge tiger whose erection was thumping against her ass.
Karabi grinned. “Good job. You ought to know, however, that slapping me with that while we’re in mismatched forms is highly inappropriate.”
Alex moved his tail and swatted it repeatedly against the side of her thigh.
She twisted her mouth into a scowl. “Now you’re thumping me with two of your Cat appendages. So wrong.” She tried to get up but Alex crossed his huge paws behind her back, holding her to him, and gave the side of her face two long, tender licks with his big, rough tongue.
Karabi felt her own Cat stirring inside her. She squealed and squirmed, swatting at his nose. “Stop it, Alex, let me go!”
He released her and she slid off him and got to her feet. She scrunched up her nose at him. “Werecat rule number three, or something like that—there is no hanky-panky in mismatched forms!”
The tiger playfully slapped his paws in the air at her. Karabi laughed. “I’m not too fond of rules, either,” she said. “Now, try to change back to human.” Tiger Alex made a sound very similar to a whine. She scratched him under the chin. “Come on, you can do it,” she said. But when a few minutes went by and she still had a purring striped beast on the table, she had to get creative again. She unbuttoned her shirt and lifted up her bra, letting her boobs plop out. She jiggled them in front of Alex. “Become human for me, and I’ll let you play with them.”
Within seconds he was a man again, sitting up on the table and reaching for her breasts. She swatted playfully at his hands and laughed. “Well, then. It’s quite clear what motivates you, isn’t it? The man and the Cat!”
Alex shrugged. “I never said I was a complicated guy. Now give me my reward.” He reached out and grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward him, when there was a knock at the door. They both jumped in alarm.
“Quick, turn back into the tiger. No one can see you like this.” She hurriedly jumped into her panties and pants, and buttoned back up her shirt.
“Gah, I still need more practice!”
“Better consider this the test, and do your best. Think about how you felt when you just shifted. Think about how much you want to come, but you can’t.”
“Well, that’ll be easy enough to do. All right then. Here goes.” Within a few seconds Alex transformed back into the tiger, then nodded at her before pretending to sleep.
Karabi beamed at him proudly, then scooped up his clothes and shoes and stuffed them into a duffel bag before running to unblock the door.
When she opened it, zoological veterinary technician Frank Smith looked at her and then into the room with wide eyes. “Everything okay in here?”
Karabi nodded, combing at her hair with her fingers. “Everything’s fine. The tiger woke up to eat a little bit ago, but then got pretty rambunctious. I gave him another mild sedative, so he’s good now.”
“Good,” Frank said. “So none of the other zoos or institutions on our list have lost a tiger, and no one is reporting any missing exotic animal fitting this description. Looks like we just got ourselves a new addition.”
“Good thing we just got an influx of funds, then,” Karabi said.
“Indeed,” Frank continued. “I’ve got orders to put him in the den with the other tigers to see how he gets along. We could use a male for breeding, and this one’s got quite the strong sperm count.”
Karabi eyed Cat Alex and smirked. Why am I not surprised? she thought.
* * * * *
Alex drew back his ears and slightly opened his eyes so he could look up at the man who’d just entered the room. It was so odd to have to look up at people—Alex was used to being the one looking down at almost everyone. Sperm count! What does this guy know about what’s happening in my testes?
“How do you know about this male’s virility?” Karabi asked the very question on his mind.
“I got a sample and tested it myself last night while you were sleeping in the chair over there,” he said.
Alex cringed. Ugh! What the he
ll? He was further grossed out when he found himself considering licking his own testicles. Karabi threw a quick glance his way and he caught the silent amusement in her eyes.
“I see,” she said.
Frank picked up the chart on the tiger and turned over the page, frowning. “You didn’t put anything down on here about the wounds that were inflicted upon him.”
“I didn’t get a chance to update the paperwork, but the wounds appear canine,” Karabi said. “Probably some dog or another wild or exotic animal.”
“But his blood tests are clean?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’d like to put him in the tiger den now, to get him acclimated with the habitat and the tigresses in there. With your permission to do so, of course.”
“Sure,” Karabi said, biting the corner of her lip. “I’ll do that once his sedative wears off.”
Frank shook his head. “It’d be better to move him now while he’s partially under than when he’s up and angry, right? Plus, your shift is over, why don’t you go on and get some rest? You haven’t gone home in days.”
“No, I’m fine. Really.”
“I insist,” Frank said.
Karabi sighed and nodded. “Okay, let me say goodbye and get my things,” she said. “I’m falling in love with this one!” She approached the table and bent down over Alex, wrapping her arms around him with her face close to his ear as if embracing him.
“We’ve got to enact the plan now,” she whispered ever so low but his ears picked up the words clearly.
Shit,Alex thought. I’m not sure I’m ready yet! He shook his head and whimpered a little.
She rubbed the back of his neck and whispered again, almost as if she heard his thoughts. “I know we didn’t get to practice a couple of times, but we don’t have much choice. You can do this.” She patted him on his butt, right by the tail. He thumped it at her.
Karabi stood and turned back to Frank. “Need my help getting him into the den?”
“No, I just sent a text to John and David asking them to come in here. You go and enjoy your time off, Miss Minstry.”
She nodded and grabbed her purse, coat, laptop bag and the duffel bag stuffed with Alex’s clothes. “All right, I’m heading out of here,” she said. “Make sure you take good care of my new tiger friend.” She eyed Alex and nodded before turning to leave.
Cat on the Fence Page 7