A Cougar's Claim (Charmed in Vegas Book 7)

by Jennifer James

  “What does Jase always do?”

  “Oh hell.” Kit couldn’t show emotion. “How much?”

  “More than you probably have. Convince her to take a deal from me. I could buy out her debt to Mancini, but she’d never forgive me. It’s the only way you both get out of this alive.”

  “So fucking complicated.” He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. There was nothing simple about Rhiannon. Never had been. That was part of what had attracted him to her in the first place. The whole complicated mess of her and her rigid, close minded father. “Leave her alone, dragon. I’ll get the money.”

  Starting down the hall, Kit scrubbed his palm across the nape of his neck. “Dragons. I’d rather swallow a day old fur ball scraped off the bottom of my boot than spend even another minute with a gold hoarding, scaly assed, dragon.”

  “I heard that. I should have eaten you,” Inila shouted. The crackle of burning carpet fibers rose. Moments later the shriek of the smoke alarm started, and water poured from the sprinklers in a deluge. “Better get your ass down to the elevators. Rhiannon’s stuck a few floors down.”

  “I’ll shove my claws up your ass, dragon.”

  Faint female screams sliced the air, and left bloody rents in the fabric of space.

  “Rhiannon,” he breathed. Why was she so scared? Nothing too terrible could happen in an elevator.

  Right?

  Chapter Four

  “I’m not going to puke, I’m not going to scream...anymore...I’m going to try not to let my knees shake and I won’t crawl up this wall....” Rhiannon whisper sang, half under her breath. She did her damnedest to watch the creature across from her without making eye contact.

  The man had thrown himself into the corner when the fire alarms started blaring and the elevator came to a shuddering halt. Not long after, his eyes rolled back in his head and water poured from him.

  From everywhere.

  Skin, eyes, nose, ears, fingers—water ran in a speedy, continuous flow. The liquid itself was frigid and briny and creeping up her legs. Pretty soon it’d be flowing over her thighs.

  Rhiannon checked the control panel’s weight limit stamp—one thousand eight hundred fifty pounds.

  How many gallons was that? How much did a gallon of water weigh? Why hadn’t she paid better attention in physics class?

  “Because physics sucked and there was that super cute boy that sat in front of me. Denny or Danny or something and oh-my-God he smelled so good, like like like manliness. I should have had sex with him that time he took me out on a—”A scream shot from her throat with the force of an air cannon. “Don’t eat me. Please, please don’t eat me.”

  She scrabbled and tried to climb up on the tiny railing that ran around three walls. Anything to get away from the man shifting a few feet away into a huge, toothy, blue-black eyed shark.

  “No, no, no! Stop it. Stop it right now. This is not going to be a clip on Shark Week. Someone get me the hell out of here now! Help me damn you!” The shifter convulsed, trapped between forms. With arms and hands shortening into fins, and his face elongating, triangular notched teeth protruding from his lipless mouth, he flopped around, tangled in his clothing.

  She clawed at the elevator doors, trying to force them open. Surely the water should leak out through the seams. If even a small amount was escaping, it wasn’t fast enough to relieve the rising magical tide around her.

  The man choked, hurled himself at the walls, Rhiannon screamed, and the entire elevator car groaned and shook on the cables holding it suspended in between floors.

  “Just fucking stop that! Stop changing right now. Do you hear me? You dick head you’re going to kill us both!”

  This morning almost topped her scale of worst days ever—spot number one was reserved for the morning after she’d given Kit her virginity and he’d ditched her.

  “Hey! Hey! Hey shark. You think getting stuck in here is the worst thing that could happen to you? Imagine randomly running into your ex and not only does he look so amazing women five states away are spontaneously ovulating—but, get this—he kisses like a god. His kisses could freeze an Eskimo’s panties because she’d be so wet from nothing but his lips that when she went outside...pffwwhp. Icicle underwear.”

  The half-shark man flailed around, breathing in a weird wheezing gurgle.

  “Are you dying? What’s wrong with you?”

  The shifter collapsed on top of her, submerging her beneath the rising water. Water rushed into her open mouth, choking her, and sliding down into her lungs.

  Seriously? Drowning in an elevator and then eaten by a shark shifter? All of a sudden finding Jase and kicking the crap out of him until he told her what he’d done with her money didn’t matter all that much.

  The shifter slid to the side and Rhiannon scrabbled to her feet, the water now up to her waist. Coughing and doubled over, she tried not to fall as the elevator swayed anew.

  Her bag. Where was her bag? She scrambled to locate her water logged duffle, managing to snatch the long white strap. Somehow it was floating on top of the water, only partly sunk.

  “Jaws, I swear to God you need to calm the fuck down. If you bite me I will rip your fin off and eat it.” Rhiannon unzipped her bag and shook her taser free of the tangled costumes and make-up.

  The shark shifter flailed, still transforming, but almost too large to fit long ways on his side of the elevator.

  Banging thumps emanated from the ceiling. She glanced up, searching for an access door or even a hole being punched through the sheet metal. “Help! Hurry the fuck up before I drown or get eaten.”

  The elevator listed to the side, and the shifter’s arms and legs disappeared into his long, silver grey body. Now fully changed, his body curled around two sides of the elevator, and his fin brushed her calf.

  “Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh holy fuck,” Rhiannon jumped away from the fin, the shark wriggled, trying to swim around the edge of the elevator, the single eye she could see reflecting her image back to her.

  She shuffled to the center of the floor, the taser aimed at the shark. “I will shoot you if you come anywhere near me with those teeth.”

  All her ex boyfriends had understood her when she spoke to them when they were shifted, and she hoped like hell this dude did as well.

  Water reached her sternum. The squeal of wrenched metal reached her ears, and a pair of boots dropped through the opening in the ceiling.

  “Wait! Don’t—”

  The idiot didn’t listen, and dropped down, landing directly on the shark’s face. The shark tried to jerk away, but managed to get its teeth caught on the would-be rescuer’s pant leg.

  “Damn it Kit. Why didn’t you listen and stay on the roof?” Rhiannon stomped her foot. What was his damage? All he had to do was look down in the elevator before he launched himself in but nooo.

  “I’m trying to save you.” Kit punched the shark in the head, plumes of salt water spraying all over the walls—and Rhiannon. The elevator vibrated and rattled on the cables, and fell about a foot. The water sloshed wildly.

  The shark had no room to swim away with Kit standing right in front of him, and swung his head from side to side. Rhiannon didn’t know if the shark was trying to bite Kit or get away from him.

  Male shifters—total and complete drama queens.

  Getting to her feet, she aimed the taser at the other two occupants of the elevator and hoped she hit the shark. Kit would get a nice dose of electricity himself since he had his hands on the shark, but she’d be fine. Tasers worked in some weird way. Being in water while the weapon discharged wouldn’t hurt her at all. Zapping the shit out of them wouldn’t hurt them that much—they were shifters after all, and only the cops had tasers that could take down a shifter.

  “Punching the shark isn’t making me feel better you idiot. Now the whole elevator is bouncing around.”

  A kiss would make her feel better. Not that she’d tell him that.

  She really shouldn’t shoot the
m with the weapon. But they were being stupid as hell. A mean-spirited sense of satisfaction filled her.

  The shark had just changed shape in the middle of an elevator in the desert. And Kit thought he was doing her a favor by jumping blind into this stupid cube of death and picking a fight with a shark who could bite his arm off.

  “You two need a time out.” The electrodes shot across the confined space and embedded in Kit’s back.

  He convulsed and a strangled coughing sound filled the car as he collapsed under the water. The shark’s tail slammed the wall of the elevator.

  “Uh oh.” Her stomach in knots and half paralyzed by shock, Rhiannon dropped her taser “Holy shit. I didn’t think it’d actually knock him out. Shit. Shit.” Wading through the rising water, she struggled to grip under Kit’s arms and get his head above water. The muscles and height that made him a lethally sexy man turned him into a big, fleshy brick in the water. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that fat helps you float?”

  Kit groaned. She stuffed the urge to apologize to him down next to the urge to kiss him over and over until he woke up.

  Huffing with effort, she wheezed, “Shark, it’d really help if you could stop leaking sea water all over in here, ya know?”

  The shark ignored her and kept trying to swim around in the limited space of the elevator.

  “Oh you son of a.... Damn you Kit.” For a second she considered letting him drop below the water. “Aren’t you supposed to be screwing Inila right now?”

  Nothing. Getting more concerned by the second that she’d maybe given him a brain injury or something, Rhiannon pecked his temple. A teeny, tiny brush of her lips. She couldn’t help it. With her lips swollen from the kissing ambush outside the hotel room and her neck a little sore and tingly from beard burn and those love bites he’d given her, her body was almost humming with sexual need for him.

  Besides, he was unconscious. He wouldn’t even notice.

  Kit cracked his eyes open. A smug smile tipped the corners of his lips up. “You shot me.”

  “You deserved it. You ambushed me with your lips.” The water lapped at her chin. “Can you stand?”

  “Yeah. But I’d rather float with your arms around me.”

  “Ugh,” Rhiannon rolled her eyes and released him. Smug asshole. “You were faking!”

  “Maybe.” He stood. “I like it when you touch me. I like it even better when you kiss me.”

  Ooh this man. Staring at the width of his shoulders, his wet shirt plastered to his muscles, she gave herself a big mental slap. Kit was nothing but trouble.

  “Give me a piggy back?” The shark’s fin grazed her leg as he wiggled past. “This is super deep.”

  “If you give me a minute I can pull you out through the top of the car.” He moved away and left her standing on her tip toes.

  If that wasn’t a prime example of every guy in her life ever she didn’t know what was. “Did you not notice that the elevator isn’t exactly stable right now?”

  “All the more reason to get the hell out. Want me to open the doors instead?”

  “Yeah, and drain all the water out and then what happens to that guy over there? Think he’ll be okay without water?”

  Kit sighed and slicked his hair back. “You sure do know how to get yourself into some crazy shit, you know that?”

  She dipped below the water and screamed in frustration. Kit scooped her up and held her to his chest.

  “I didn’t set off the fire alarms and I definitely didn’t know I was on an elevator with a claustrophobic shark shifter. Just put me down.”

  “You just asked me for a piggy back ride. Make up your mind woman.” Gold shimmered over his brown irises and his forehead crinkled.

  “Quit confusing me and maybe I will.”

  “How am I—”

  She slapped her hand over his lips. “Don’t even try it. You think I’d lose my virginity to some random guy? I thought you were the one. My true love. I thought we were mates.” That weird tingle in her chest throbbed hard, a big nasty gonging sensation that made her want to choke. She rubbed the spot with the heel of her hand. Why had he shown up in Vegas now? When she was needy and vulnerable and in so much trouble that a shifter with knight in shining armor complex was exactly what her tormented psyche thought could save her? She needed distance. Miles and miles of it. “And now, here you are again, being all ‘Rawr look at me and all my alpha-hole shifter hotness.’ Just let me down. I don’t want you to hold me like this.”

  Kissing her fingertips, he lowered his forehead until their noses touched. “You weren’t wrong. You’re my mate. I’m yours.”

  “No. I’ve seen shifters with their mates.” The borderline disgusting amount of love a mated couple oozed couldn’t be hidden. “There’s no walking away from that. Last month a man was in the audience at Howler’s and he locked eyes with this shifter across the bar. Got up, didn’t even look back at his date, and just...grabbed his mate. She hadn’t even seen his face, but the second he touched her...you could tell. You could feel it in the air.” Rhiannon sighed, a sound of sadness at what she’d never have and yearning for that kind of connection. “If we were really mates, the magic wouldn’t have let you walk away.”

  “We’re mates. I can feel it,” he insisted.

  “Stop. Just stop saying that. I’ve been lied to enough.”

  Voices filtered through the doors, muffled by the rising water. Still afraid of the shark, but more worried about what’d happen to her heart if she had to stay in the elevator much longer with Kit, she made her way over to the doors.

  “Hey! Don’t force the doors open. There’s a shark in here and without the water I’m afraid he’ll suffocate.” Shaking off the melancholy from her encounter with Kit, she laughed. “Never thought I’d say that. Shark in the elevator. I bet they think I’m nuts.”

  Unsure if they’d heard her or not, she did a kind of doggie paddle back to the center and turned her back on Kit. The probes from her taser remained embedded in his flesh and she refused to acknowledge how guilty she felt over zapping him. Holding a grudge wasn’t something she excelled at—but she wasn’t stupid enough to forget how he’d hurt her.

  “Let me boost you out the escape hatch. There’s a ladder on the side of the shaft we can use to climb up to the next floor. This elevator could plummet to the bottom any second and you’ll end up scrambled like the goop in a lava lamp.” His fingers slid over her forearm. She jerked away. “Rhiannon, come on. Being angry with me isn’t worth dying for.”

  “I’m trying to stay alive. Most of my problems in life have come from trusting men like you.” The shark’s fin bumped her leg and she jerked, dipping below the water. So what if he could boost her right up. She didn’t want him to.

  The shark splashed, agitated, and continued to wobble around in a tight circle.

  “Come on, get up. You’re getting tired.” He grabbed for her and caught her this time. Towing her hand up to his shoulder, he caught her legs under the knees and let her scrabble around until she’d wrapped herself around his back, arms and legs draped over him. “What’s that supposed to mean? Men like me?”

  “You know. Bad boys. Shifters who can’t commit because of their pack or their alpha or because they’re hoping to run into their fated mate but they’ll settle for me until they find her. Guys without permanent addresses and aliases. Maybe a warrant or two for bar fights that got out of hand. Piercings and tattoos.”

  He sighed. Grumbled under his breath and snarled at the poor, trapped shark.

  Seconds or perhaps minutes ticked by. The water level stabilized. Kit’s strong, capable hands on her legs and the beat of his heart lulled her into a cocoon of security.

  “Let me get you out of here. There’s no reason to stay in here when I can get you out.” He craned his neck and met her gaze over his shoulder.

  The softness in his eyes damn near shattered her. Touching only led to danger, especially when it came to Kit. “I think I prefer to stay here and let
Toothy eat me. Better him than a big, wet, lying cat.” She released her grip and shoved away from him. “Go ahead and climb on out if that’s what you want. Pussies are pretty notorious for hating water.”

  “Damn it, come here. Now.” Gold flashed across his irises again, and a low warning growl rumbled from his lips.

  “Fuck off.” She spun and stared at the doors. “The fire department will save me. I don’t need you.”

  Fingers slid around her nape and he gripped her, hauled her around so they were face to face. “I need you. So stop giving me so much grief and let me save you.”

  I need you. Damn him. Her resolve tried to melt with his proclamation, but common sense froze her heart. She’d heard those words over and over from every man she’d ever invited into her life. Into her heart and her bed.

  “For what? What do you need me for?” They were empty words, cheap words, wooden words, hollow words. Words with an expiration date.

  “You’re my mate.”

  “Right. How about no. How about fuck you. How about you don’t need me for anything other than some bullshit selfish crap. I don’t need saving.” She swiped under her nose. “Maybe what I need is a nice, safe, human guy to take me to the movies and buy me flowers. Offer me a ring and a house and cute, fat, babies. If I didn’t date shifters, I wouldn’t be in this elevator right now. How about that?”

  She cocked her head to the side, her hair drenched and floating on the top of the water. The shark slammed his dorsal fin into the side of the elevator car. Kit rested his hands on his hips and exhaled through his nose, his teeth gritted and the tendons in his neck taut.

  “I can’t...I don’t...when did you get so damn...I’m no good at this.” He let his arms drop.

  “Duh.”

  The doors crept open a few inches and the water started to stream out. The shark panicked, thrashing, fevered.

  “Stop! Stop! What are you doing? Close the damn doors.” Rhiannon slapped the surface of the water.

  “Vegas fire department ma’am. Is anyone injured?”

  “No. Everyone is okay,” Kit took her hand, his expression apologetic. He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. “I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”