by Bianca D'Arc
His chest rumbled again and he realized he was purring.
Sweet Mother in heaven, he was purring in human form.
Patty didn’t seem to realize the importance of it, but Mario thought he finally understood the old jaguar clan legends about how a person recognized their true mate. Purring in human form was the big one. It was the sign that told him for certain that Patty was the woman he’d been searching for all his life, though he hadn’t been trying all that hard until just recently.
He’d enjoyed roaming the world, having adventures, as cats often did, but lately he’d been feeling a yearning to settle down in one place and find a soft female to stroke him in all the right ways. Like Patty was doing right now.
The moment boggled his mind. She was sucking him into oblivion during one of the most profound revelations he’d ever experienced. He wasn’t sure he would survive the double dose of pleasure and overwhelming satisfaction.
He tugged at her shoulders, not wanting this to come to a head before he’d given her a taste of the passion she’d been giving him. Luckily, she went along with his unspoken direction and licked her way off his cock, pushing up on her hands as she crawled over him on the wide couch.
Her mouth met his and he moved slowly, bringing them both to a sitting position so that he could lift her more easily into his arms. He never broke their deep kiss, even as he walked with her into the bedroom near the front of the house. He wanted a bed for what he planned next.
Patty’s head was spinning as Mario kissed her. She had the sensation of movement and air against her skin, but she wasn’t really sure where he was taking her until she felt the soft fabric of sheets against her hands as he put her down on the bed. He didn’t stop kissing her, even as he removed her clothing at a record pace.
She was desperate for him. Eager to be as naked as he was, his hard body driving into her softness. She’d never wanted a man more than she wanted Mario in this moment.
She slid her fingers over his body, learning the slopes and valleys of his muscles. He was gorgeous, and in superb physical condition, but it was the way he treated her—with respect and even admiration—that really flipped her switch.
There was one problem though. Her clothes weren’t disappearing fast enough. He was working hard at it, but she wanted to help. The sooner the fabric was out of the way, the sooner she could get what she wanted most in all the world at that very moment: him.
Her hands tangled with his until between them, they’d managed to remove her dress. She’d worn a lacy pink set of matching bra and panties from an upscale lingerie shop that she’d bought because she liked frilly things, but never really got to wear. She was glad she’d had the pretty undies in her closet for this occasion.
And it seemed Mario liked them too. He sat back and just looked at her, his eyes flaring emerald in the low light of the bedroom.
“You’re gorgeous, querida.” The sexy rumble of his voice washed over her senses. “If I’d known you were hiding this pretty pink confection under your clothing, I probably would never have made it through dinner.”
She liked the honest admiration in his eyes. She knew he meant every word and the feminine part of her that had always longed to hear such things from a lover was flattered.
His hands traced gently over her skin, making her body tingle in all the right ways. He outlined her waist, then surprised her by going directly for her panties. As he lowered the fabric, he also lowered his head, kissing his way down from her belly button to the apex of her thighs.
She was shivering when he sat back on his haunches and used the flimsy fabric of her panties to raise her legs. He slid the panties off completely, then took hold of her ankles and spread her legs wide.
And then he just sat there, looking at her, grinning.
“I want to remember this,” he said just as she was starting to wonder what was going on. “I want to remember every detail of our first night together.”
He ran his fingers down her calves, then behind her knees and up the insides of her thighs. She was practically trembling as he spread her wide and then dipped to lick at her clit.
The texture of his tongue was a little different. Maybe a little rougher, but absolutely perfect. She squirmed under his ministrations, but he held her firmly in place while he brought her to a fast climax. Only after she’d quieted a little did he raise his head.
“That is the first of many,” he promised her, purring in a way that made her insides turn to jelly.
“I want you inside me for the next one, lover,” she told him, able to form words and sentences again.
“As my lady commands.” He tilted his head slightly in an old world gesture, though his lips smiled and his eyes held deviltry.
“Really?” She smiled too, enjoying this little game. She’d never really been able to play with a man like this. Usually it was wham, bam, don’t hurt me ma’am, but Mario showed absolutely no fear of her or her bear. She liked that. A lot.
“Truly,” he whispered, kissing the inside of her knee. “Whatever you want, you shall have.” He kissed her other knee. “Especially since it’s what I want too.”
She laughed out loud at his audacity as he climbed over her, holding himself propped up on one arm while his other hand played with the front closure of her frilly pink bra. She’d never laughed in bed with a man before, and she found she liked that a lot too.
The bulging muscles in his left arm were rock solid as he held himself perfectly still above her, his right hand rubbing little circles over the skin between her breasts, where the catch lay. Was he going to unhook it? Could he manage it with one hand? If she was a betting woman, she’d say a Latin lover like Mario Brandon would be able to undo the complicated hook with his teeth if he wanted to. He’d probably had a lot of practice.
For just a moment the she-bear wanted to growl and claw at any woman he’d been with before, but then it let go of the jealousy stirred up by her human side. The bear had no need for jealousy. She knew she was superior to all other females and the bear lived in the moment. It didn’t really care what had come before.
Sometimes Patty wished she could be more like her animal spirit in that regard. She tried to be philosophical. All that experimentation on his part had led to this. Those other women had been training wheels. Now he was at the point where he knew how to ride and she was going to be the beneficiary of it…if he ever got moving and stopped playing around.
“Patience, mi osito.” He smiled at her and she realized he’d been watching her face. She wasn’t very good at dissembling, so he’d probably recognized a bit of impatience in her expression.
She decided to go on the offensive. Reaching downward, she took his hard cock in her hands and rubbed him against the soft skin inside her thigh. He wasn’t quite where she wanted him yet, but she had hope that he would get the hint in the next few minutes. She couldn’t hold out much longer than that.
“Don’t make me wait,” she whispered, trying her best to entice him.
He groaned and she grinned. It was working. Somewhat.
“Woman, you are going to be the death of me.” He didn’t sound all that worried. In fact, he sounded more amused than annoyed to her ears.
But he finally took the hint and unclasped her bra—yes, with two fingers working the catch expertly. He peeled the cups away from her ample breasts with his fingers, followed close behind by his tongue. First one nipple, then the other was laved, sucked and nipped lightly, drawn out to a hard point that made her squirm with yearning for more.
Her arousal was at a fever pitch when he finally lifted up enough to reposition his cock at her entrance. And then…he pushed inward.
He wasn’t a small man. Quite the contrary. He had to push in by slow degrees, that sexy purr coming from his chest in increasing ferocity as he joined their bodies for the first time.
Patty wrapped her legs around him once he was fully seated. She wasn’t about to let him go too far now that she had him exactly where she most wa
nted him. He filled her completely, as if he’d been made to complete the empty spots inside her.
It was a silly thought. A romantic thought that she probably should’ve left behind in her youth, but somehow it felt right. Mario felt right. Perfect, in fact.
And then he began to move and all hell broke loose in the most glorious way imaginable.
He stroked hard and soft, fast and slow, gauging her responses and appearing to learn what she liked best. He was, hands down, the most considerate lover she’d ever had. The few others she’d been with over the years were nothing compared to this.
His dick had this way of hitting just the right spot inside her. As he struck a rhythm, hard and fast, she began to cry out with each strong pulse. And then she was swept up in the tidal wave of sensation brought on by his tender loving. She very much feared she’d screamed his name as she came in the brightest burst of ecstasy she’d ever experienced.
But it didn’t really matter. She was floating on a cloud of rapturous bliss so intense, she blacked out for a moment.
Mario would have worried about Patty had he not just felt the earth move himself. He rolled off her when he was finally able to move again, gathering her close in his arms as she began to come back to the world of consciousness. Her body was still trembling with little aftershocks of pleasure and she smiled up at him with a dreamy expression he would remember to the end of his days.
“That was amazing,” she whispered, nothing but absolute honesty in her eyes. He liked that she always spoke her mind. He liked that she was truthful and steadfast. He just plain liked everything about her.
Which was good, considering he’d just found his mate.
Chapter Nine
Patty came awake the next morning at an unfamiliar noise in the distance. She stretched, still half asleep, when the noise came again, waking her more fully.
The bed was rumpled and she grinned when she recalled exactly how it had gotten that way. Mario wasn’t in the room. She listened closely, but she couldn’t hear him anywhere in the house. He was a cat, of course, so he might just be too quiet for her to hear, but she got the feeling he wasn’t in the house. It had an empty feel to her that she couldn’t quite define in words.
She threw the covers off as the sound came again. It was a loud clunk. As if someone was throwing furniture around next door.
In the house Maryann and Greg had been in until yesterday.
Shit.
It sure sounded like someone was ransacking the place to her sharp shifter hearing. No time to dress. Patty grabbed a sheet off the bed and wrapped it around herself like a loose toga as she headed for the door.
Within a minute she was out in Mario’s backyard, peering over the fence through the thick bushes. And there he was. Mario was wearing a pair of jeans, his feet and sexy chest bare. He must’ve just thrown on his jeans when the sounds next door woke him. As an ex-soldier and cat shifter, he probably slept a lot lighter than she and her bear half, which really liked to sleep.
Mario was sneaking around, silent as the cat that shared his soul, peering in the windows, spying on the men she could see only as shadows moving around inside the house. Even as she watched, Mario deliberately rapped his knuckles against the side of the house, just once.
Was he trying to force a confrontation with the guys inside? Did he not realize these guys were probably drug dealers, or worse, thugs who worked for drug dealers, who could be armed? Then again, as an ex-mercenary, Mario was probably familiar with more forms of firearms and explosives than she’d ever even seen.
But he wasn’t carrying that she could see. He was wearing jeans and nothing else. And he was going to take on at least two thugs who were, in all likelihood, armed to the teeth.
Crazy cat.
Even as she watched, the two guys burst out of the house, and sure enough, they were leading with big, black, nasty handguns.
Patty had seen enough. She threw off her sheet and shifted into bear form. If those hoodlums thought they were going to hurt her cat, they had another think coming.
Growling deep in her throat, she bounded over the fence, snagging the top of the overgrown shrubs with her back feet, but she didn’t really care. The gunmen looked at her, distracted, and Mario moved faster than she’d ever seen anyone move—and that included the Abrams brothers—and shifted into his cat form, his jeans landing in a pile behind him as he leapt on the gunmen.
He swiped at them with his paws, keeping his claws hidden, packing a punch with his furry forelegs that took both men out with quick, precise blows to the head. He knocked one on the temple and one got it in the back of the head, but the result was the same. Both men went down, out cold.
Without breaking stride, the cat landed on his four paws and slunk toward her, slowly. Deliberately. He didn’t look pleased, but then, neither was she. Her heart was still racing, fear for him having dictated her movements without conscious thought for the past minute or two.
Seeing the bad guys on the ground, calmer thought was beginning to return. She had underestimated him. She’d seen firsthand now that the cat had mad skills. He had known exactly what he’d been doing before she interfered.
Then again, she’d provided a timely distraction. It probably would’ve been harder for him to sneak up on the guys without her intervention. She had nothing to feel sorry about. She’d helped. Hadn’t she?
And, oh, good lord in heaven, his cat was gorgeous. Gigantic. Sleek. Sexy. And just…beautiful.
He stalked toward her and she found herself wanting to rub up against him to see if the texture of his fur was as soft as it looked.
His cat form was massive. He was even a little bigger than she was in shifted form, if she wasn’t mistaken. He was sleek and spotted, his fur shining in the sun, rippling over his fit, muscular form. Oh, yeah. He was stunning. And dominant in a way that didn’t threaten her bear, which was something she hadn’t ever encountered in another Alpha male.
He padded silently up to her and walked around her slowly, as if he had all the time in the world. She sniffed at him and eventually he returned the favor, moving closer until their fur brushed up against each other along their flanks. Little sparkles of magical energy passed between them before settling down to a pleasant tingle.
Their beasts were learning each other and seemed—incredibly—compatible. Oh, my.
The giant jaguar prodded her with his nose, rubbing along her flank, seeming to indicate that he wanted her to head back over the fence. Well, she wouldn’t be sent home that easily. She could help. She was a police officer, after all.
Mario morphed back into his human form when she refused to move, and bent to pick up his discarded jeans. Not that she minded his nakedness. He was even sexier in his skin than he was in his fur.
“I’m going to tie these two idiots up, though they’ll be out for an hour or two, then I’ll meet you back at my place,” he said, a tiny bit of frustration in his voice—probably because she’d resisted his unspoken command to go home.
She watched him tug on his jeans as he spoke, though she wasn’t impressed with his words. Was he sending her away where it was safe? Did he not realize just who and what she was? She sat back on her haunches and just looked at him.
“Ah, querida, I believe we have much to discuss. That’s why I wish you to go back home and get comfortable while I tend to the unpleasant work of securing the prisoners.” He dared to touch her, stroking her face and rubbing behind her ears as if he wasn’t scared of her bear.
And he wasn’t.
He wasn’t scared of her giant grizzly bear. When almost every other male in all of Grayslake showed fear when she was in her fur. If she’d been in human form, she would have wept. She’d finally met an eligible man who wasn’t intimidated by her size or her strength in bear form.
The bear moved into his caress, enjoying the touch. It was a novel sensation. Only her family ever dared touch her in her shifted form, and the bear was soaking in this male’s attention.
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��You are beautiful, mi osito,” his voice dropped to a more intimate tone as he stepped closer. “Stunning, fierce, and very much mine, I believe.” Green flared in his eyes and she wanted to roar her agreement, but he stepped back, breaking the spell of the moment. “Go home now. Wait for me. I won’t be long and then, we must talk. I believe I can help your sister out of this mess, but I need all the facts.”
Now that sounded…interesting. She wondered how much he already knew, or guessed. Mario was a man of the world who had probably seen a lot more than she ever would. If anyone could help her get Maryann out of her current predicament, without involving law enforcement or official channels, it was probably Mario.
She nipped at him playfully, using no force at all, to indicate her agreement and stood. She jumped over the fence—perhaps not as gracefully as a cat, but she made it into his yard in a single bound. She looked over her shoulder to find him watching her with a strange expression in his glowing, emerald eyes and a sexy smile on his lips. He looked…like he approved of every inch of her. Like he found her bear beautiful.
The bear preened, flouncing her furry butt as she walked back into his house via the backdoor she had left open.
Mario found Patty sitting on the sofa, a mug of coffee in her hand, when he returned to his place a few minutes later. He had two wallets and two cell phones in his hands, which he let drop onto the coffee table as he took a seat on the couch, right next to her. He’d stashed the weapons he’d taken off the men in the kitchen on his way in. Much as he wanted to, he didn’t take her into his arms. Instead, he turned to face her. It was time for some answers.
“They’re Mexican,” he stated. “Hired muscle, probably. I’m guessing they work for a drug cartel. Tell me what you know about this, and don’t leave anything out, okay?” Now he would learn if she truly trusted him.