Unable to resist the magnetic pull she felt towards him.
She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, trying to shut out everything that had happened tonight. It didn’t help. She moved her focus to the world outside the small villa. Lush nature enclosed the cream stone building, thick vegetation that had called to her when she had been outside with Kyter. The trees were tall, the ground around them dense with scrub. There was a wilderness to this place and a sense of danger in the air, emanating from the looming threat of the active volcano.
The nature around her soothed her but didn’t chase away her thoughts of Kyter.
She had detected no lie in the things he had told her tonight. He had spoken to her with his heart in his eyes, all of his emotions on show for her, nothing hidden from her this time. No ulterior motives. No plans to take anything from her. No desire to enslave her with a mate bond.
It had left her feeling that he wouldn’t betray her.
His honesty had touched her because she had sensed a sliver of his fear as it had laced his earthy scent. It had taken a lot of strength and courage for him to tell her everything he had, confessing that he found her looks appealing, and that he desired her. It hadn’t been a game. Not a ploy. It had come from his heart, and it had spoken to hers.
She pressed a hand between her bare breasts and lowered her head, allowing the water to spray off the back of her head and run through her hair.
He had made it clear that he was attracted to her and had been from before he had even realised there was a bond between them.
She had felt the same way and still did.
She had learned much about him tonight. The time they had spent together in harmony, working with each other and not against each other, made her feel closer to him. He was handsome, had a sense of humour and honour, and was charming in his own way when he wasn’t following his instincts.
When an elf male found his mate, it affected him deeply, controlling his behaviour and turning him possessive, protective and dangerous. It appeared cat shifters suffered a similar transformation. She wanted to believe Kyter and believe that he had been a victim of the bombardment of emotions triggered by discovering his mate and had lost his head as a result. She wanted to believe that the male she had been with tonight was the real Kyter, back in control of himself, because she had liked that male.
She turned to face the spray of water, tipping her head up towards it and letting it beat over her face. It felt good to shower after exploring the dusty temple.
Kyter moved around in the next room, stealing her focus.
When she had run into the bathroom and locked the door, he had politely knocked and asked whether she was alright. She had read between the lines to what he had wanted to ask, sensing his uneasiness. He had wanted to ask whether she was going to teleport and leave him.
He wanted her to stay with him.
She wanted it too, but she feared it at the same time. She wasn’t sure whether she was strong enough to resist him if she stayed with him, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave either. Not only because she knew it would hurt him if she disappeared. It would hurt her too in a way. She had the terrible feeling she might miss the irritating jaguar shifter.
She also had the feeling that he would be angry with her and would go out to the temple without her. If he found the artefact during that time, their deal would be void. He might take it out of spite to make her pay for leaving him. She would pay and it would be the ultimate price. She would lose her head.
Iolanthe told herself that the artefact was the only reason she had chosen to stay. It had nothing to do with wanting to be around Kyter.
He moved closer to her and she paused, breathing quietly but unsure why she felt the ridiculous need to attempt to conceal herself. He knew she was in the shower. Her cheeks burned. Was that why he was prowling around the next room?
He could hear the change in how the water fell as she cleaned herself and moved beneath the jet of the shower. He had to know that she was naked in the cramped bathroom, wet all over.
The image of Kyter in her place burst into her mind, a delicious vision of him arching his head back beneath the spray, the warm water bouncing off his shoulders and chest as he ran his hands through his hair. It ran down his chest, trickling over honed muscles that she itched to stroke and caress, to explore at her leisure.
Her belly heated, her hunger swift to rise after spending the night with him at the temple, seeing him half-dressed, his powerful body on display. His confession about how he was having trouble keeping his hands off her didn’t help matters, and neither did the things he had said to her, calling her beautiful with an earnest look in his golden eyes.
She muttered a curse directed at him and tried to ignore the ache between her thighs.
He moved away but then stalked closer again, commanding her focus, refusing to let her go. He had done the same thing all night, whether he had realised it or not. He had driven her mad, constantly pulling her focus away from her work and dragging her eyes back to him.
The moon had hid nothing from view as he had worked, his magnificent body shifting with sensual grace. The way he had looked at her at times, his wide dark pupils speaking of hunger and need, passion she had felt in him, had kept firing her up. Did he know what he was doing to her, wreaking havoc on her control?
She was too hot around him.
Whenever she looked at him, she caught a tangled replay of the savage and graceful way he had fought the demon, how handsome he was when he was relaxed around her, and how wicked he had been in her dream. Every replay had ended the same—on the heated kiss they had shared in Herculaneum.
She knew he wanted to kiss her again. It was there in his eyes whenever he looked at her, and in the way he forced himself to pace away when it became too much for him and he was verging on going through with it. She had almost screamed at him tonight, had nearly crumbled and asked him to surrender to that need and kiss her. She needed it too.
Gods help her but she needed it.
She built an image of it in her mind, reconstructing the moment he had held her pressed against the column, his hard body pinning her there and his hands clutching her backside. He had kissed her as if he hadn’t been able to get enough of her, igniting the same fierce hunger within her. She had been a slave to her desire too, lost in her need and desperate for more of him.
The water from the shower ran over her breasts and she bit back a moan as it touched their sensitive peaks. She breathed harder, trying to ignore the temptation to imagine Kyter with her, slowly caressing her body, satisfying the need building within her. Her senses tracked him and focusing on him only made it harder to resist. She had raised her hands to her breasts before she had realised what she was doing, cupping the mounds and thumbing her pert nipples.
Heat pooled lower and she tilted her head back and bit her tongue to stop a moan from escaping her as she rolled her nipples, sending tingles sweeping outwards from them, cascading over her breasts. The feel of the water skimming down her stomach to her most private place was too much for her. She writhed, rubbing her thighs together, imagining Kyter on his knees before her.
He would slowly part her thighs and would look up at her as he had in her dream, a hungry edge to his gaze as he sought permission. She moaned and lost herself in her fantasy, dropping her hand and slipping her fingers into her folds. He would part those folds and hold her gaze as he lowered his mouth to her and his tongue darted out to taste her. Her fingers circled where his tongue would, stroking the nub as it eagerly ached for more.
The water would sluice off his beautiful tensed back as he knelt before her, one strong hand grasping her thigh and bringing it over his shoulder so he could delve deeper, devouring all of her as he brought her to a shattering climax.
She dropped her fingers lower, a quiet moan escaping her as she probed her moist sheath.
A growl rumbled through the door.
Iolanthe gasped and whirled to face it, her hear
t lodged in her throat and a blush blazing across her cheeks. He knew what she was doing.
“Either you finish now, or you damn well let me in.”
Those words, snarled in a deep voice husky with desire, had her knees weakening beneath her.
His ultimatum hung in the air as she stared at the wooden door, her pulse racing and her desire flaring hotter, rising higher as she considered which path to choose.
Finish now?
Or let him finish for her?
CHAPTER 15
Kyter stood in the pale yellow bedroom outside the wooden door to the bathroom, his hands braced against the frame. He dug his emerging claws into the wood to keep himself rooted to the spot, carving deep grooves into it. His breath sawed from his lungs, each heavy inhalation dragging more of her scent into him.
He could smell it on her and he needed to break down the damn door and put himself out of his misery by seeing her. Naked. Wet. Touching herself. He knew what she was doing. He could hear her breath hitching.
Every little gasp tore at him.
Her breathless moan did him in.
He needed her too, dammit. He had been hungering after a taste of her all night, the memory of their kiss burned on his brain. She couldn’t expect him to bear what she was doing without feeling a deep need to join her, to satisfy his female and take care of her needs. It was too much. He couldn’t take it.
“Either you finish now, or you damn well let me in.”
Those words left his lips on a snarl and he shoved his hands harder against the doorframe, his heart beating frantically against his ribs and his cock aching in the confines of his black combat trousers. He wanted to palm it, to touch himself while she did the same to herself on the other side of the door, in his shower, but more than that, he wanted her to touch him.
He wanted to touch her.
They were attracted to each other. They were both adults. They could do something about their needs together, not separately, shut away from each other. He could make her feel good. She could make him feel as if he had gone to Heaven.
He stared at the panelled door, his breathing coming quicker. She had to let him in. She wasn’t going to let him in. She was going to torture him by making him stand here and feel her desire, her need, while unable to do anything about it and satisfy his need to take care of her.
He wanted to be the one to bring her to climax.
He needed to be the one.
He had messed up, but he had apologised, and he had shown her that he wasn’t going to force a bond on her. They could be together without ending up fighting each other.
They could do things together now.
He could give her the pleasure she needed and the release.
He hung his head and his hands tensed against the doorframe.
She wasn’t going to let him in.
His heart jerked in his chest when the latch on the door slid across and he stared down at the round knob, his mouth going dry. He had to be imagining things. Maybe he had passed out from need and he was dreaming.
Maybe she was going to open the door and tell him she was all done and didn’t need him.
He began to growl but the doorknob turning silenced him.
The door swung open and Kyter snapped his head up, his heart accelerating again when he saw her standing before him, wearing nothing but a long white towel wrapped around her slender frame, her long black hair hanging in tangled damp ribbons around her face and down her chest.
He stared at her.
She advanced on him, a spark of something in her violet eyes as she coolly held his gaze.
“If you were a wolf shifter, I might have expected you to huff, puff and blow the door down.” She stopped before him and trailed a finger over his cheek, across the two days’ worth of stubble on his jaw, and down his neck.
She didn’t take her eyes away from his as she swept her fingers across his shoulder and back again.
“You look hot,” she flicked his collarbone, “under the collar. Why?”
Kyter unleashed a feral growl, grabbed her around her waist and kissed her hard. She pressed her hand to his chest but didn’t push him away. She melted into him and if he had been a wolf shifter, he would have howled out his joy. As it was, he growled it into her mouth and turned with her, pinning her spine to the doorframe and deepening the kiss as she fought him for dominance, rousing his need to be in control and master her.
She moaned against his lips between kisses and shoved her fingers through his hair, tangling them in it and holding him to her. He grasped her hips, the damp towel stoking his need for her as it struck him that she was naked beneath it.
He lifted his left hand to her breast, tugged the towel into his fist and yanked it off her. He swallowed her startled gasp, pressed his right hand into her lower back and pulled her against him. The heat of her bare body scalded his and he moaned, torn between keeping her pinned against him and pushing her back so he could get a look at her.
He held her closer and broke away from her lips, kissing along her jaw.
She stiffened and her hands shot to his shoulders. They trembled against him.
He stilled, breathing hard against her neck, fighting the urge to do exactly what she feared he was going to do. His fangs lengthened, the need to bite her growing stronger by the second, almost overwhelming him. He mastered it, refusing to be that male. He had said he wouldn’t treat her as other jaguars would and he had meant it.
He pressed a kiss to her throat and she clutched his shoulders.
“I won’t,” he murmured against her soft pale skin, feeling her heat and her rapid pulse on his lips. “I swear it. I won’t bite you.”
She didn’t relax.
She didn’t hit him with a telekinetic blast either, and he took that as a good sign.
Every primal instinct he possessed wanted him to own her, to master her and dominate her.
The tiny piece of brain still operating warned it wouldn’t be a smooth move. His female needed. His objective should have been satisfying that need.
Giving her what she wanted.
He had waited for her to come to him and she had. Now he had to go against all of his instincts and let her take the lead. He needed to let her master him.
It was the only way of satisfying her needs.
He turned with her, so his back was against the doorframe.
“What are you doing?” she whispered, a touch of confusion in her soft voice.
He let her pull back and looked her in the eye. “Going against every instinct I have as a male in my prime. Giving you control.”
Her violet eyes darkened, the hunger and need in them, and the desire he could smell on her combining to leave him feeling that he had made the right decision and he wouldn’t regret it.
She tiptoed, pressed herself back against him, and kissed him, her lips clashing fiercely with his.
“What if… neither of us… have control?” she murmured breathlessly between kisses. “What if… we just agree… not to bite?”
Gods, he could go along with that.
He shoved his fingers into her wet black hair and kissed her hard, tangling his tongue with hers, driven to devour all of her. His mate was perfect.
He groaned when she ran her palms down his body, her hands racing towards the finish line. She made swift work of unbuttoning his trousers and he stilled and groaned as she slid her palm down the length of him.
She whispered something in her strange tongue. He hoped it was complimentary.
He began to open his eyes to look at her as she moved back, breaking free of his hold, and then screwed them shut again and shoved the back of his head hard into the doorframe as she kneeled on the terracotta tiled floor and swept her tongue over the crown of his cock.
He swallowed hard and raised both hands above his head, grasping the frame to stop himself from grabbing hold of her head and keeping her mouth pinned to his length. She was wicked as she caressed him with her tongue, sliding it from base t
o tip, leaving no part of him untouched.
“Iolanthe,” he moaned and she groaned in response and wrapped her lips around the crown, taking him into the wet heat of her mouth. “Gods.”
His hips pressed forwards, his body arching away from the doorframe. He dug his claws into it to stop himself from collapsing to his knees. Her tongue stroked around the head, catching every sensitive spot, leaving him quivering and on the verge of ripping the damned doorframe out of the wall. He groaned and breathed harder, his blood thundering as she kissed down his length. She pushed his trousers down his thighs and ran her hands back up them, and he trembled in response, his breathing harsh in the quiet room.
Her torture only grew more divine, threatening to push him over the edge.
She dropped her mouth and licked his sac at the same time as she cupped it in one hand and stroked beneath it. He jerked forwards and grunted, thrusting at air. He couldn’t take it. She didn’t seem to care. She kept stroking her tongue over him, slowly edging back towards the base of his aching length, her fingers working magic on him. Fuck. He dimly recalled calling her a prude the night they had met.
He couldn’t have been more wrong about her.
He grunted as she kissed up the underside of his cock and wrapped her lips around the head again, sucking him into her moist mouth. She took him into her, until the crown touched the back of her throat and he was on the verge of screaming her name, and then rolled back, pressing her tongue in hard to the vein on the underside.
Kyter lost it.
He tipped his head back and roared, his blood burning at a thousand degrees, triggering all of his male instincts. He needed to be inside her now. He needed to pin her to the bed and take her, making her feel every inch of him, until she cried his name and came on him. He needed to possess her.
He barely leashed that need.
He grabbed the back of her neck, dragged her up to him and kissed her hard, pinning his aching length between them, pressing it into the softness of her belly. She didn’t give him the moment he needed to cool down. She rubbed her stomach against him and tiptoed, bringing him closer to the apex of her thighs and where he wanted to be.
Hunted by a Jaguar Page 15