She opened her eyes to see him looking down at her—well, he was judging her lips, but when they curved up a bit, he lifted his gaze to meet her eyes and saw she was watching him.
“What?” she asked.
He couldn’t say it. David Patterson, who had no trouble interesting women in kisses and so much more, couldn’t say it.
“Don’t…tell…me. You want a good-night kiss,” she said, but he wasn’t certain whether she was offering or…not.
Not about to lose the opportunity, he placed his hand under her chin, lifted her face, and waited only the briefest period for her to pull away if she wasn’t in the mood for this. When she didn’t, he leaned down and kissed her mouth.
Soft, sweet, tasting of pineapple rum, nectar from the jaguar goddess herself.
He meant to go lightly, cautiously, sweetly. First kiss, first date—if he counted eating dinner with her at the romantically lit dining hall and running as jaguars in the jungle, and her licking his nose and later his leg as a jaguar as their first date. But she curled her fingers in his hair, pressed her hot little body against his, and kissed him back as if they had been dating for a good long while! As if she wanted him like he wanted her.
Now this was more like it. He moved his hand to her back and caressed her as their tongues mated. She nibbled on his lower lip, swept her warm, soft mouth across his cheek, and tugged tenderly on his earlobe with her teeth. He was burning up with desire.
He was ready to race back to his bedroom and grab one of his condoms when she kissed his forehead, pushed him gently away, and said, “’Night, tiger.” She turned her back to him.
His motor was rumbling like a big cat in heaven. “Hot damn, woman,” he said softly, still in the throes of passion, needing to douse the flame that was burning brightly. He throbbed with need.
She chuckled.
He lay on the bed, his arms folded beneath his head, and stared up at the canopy over the mattress. He smiled. If this was only the beginning, they definitely needed the air-conditioned bungalow for however long they were going to be here. A ceiling fan wasn’t going to do it.
Chapter 8
Tammy knew she shouldn’t have encouraged David by kissing him back.
But she was furious that her brothers and his would warn him about her! Sure, she dated human types. That’s because most of the jaguar shifters she’d met were either Enforcers or JAG agents, and they thought they were hot stuff. She liked dating humans—for a short while, nothing long-term—who weren’t as arrogant.
As for other jaguar shifters? The ones she met outside of the job were usually trouble. The type she had to haul in for causing problems for their kind. Perps were definitely not dating material.
She had to admit she really liked David, despite him being a JAG agent. He was different from the others she knew. Maybe because he seemed genuinely interested in helping the teens and the missing cat. He’d understood her need for privacy earlier and given it to her. He had been protective when she’d run off into the jungle and caring enough to wash her.
She appreciated his concern about her going on the zip line when he had to suspect she wasn’t fond of heights. And even that he’d upgrade their place using his own money. That he believed she would make more headway with the teens than he would. That showed he thought she was a valuable member of the team.
And she loved how they could discuss the situation with each other, a meeting of the minds, and brainstorm a bit, unlike working with partners on some of her former missions who either didn’t share with her or dictated and expected her to follow along. She couldn’t say enough about how much David’s approach meant to her.
Still, she felt reluctant to tell him about her father’s affair. She loved her parents, but knowing this about her father and having nobody to share her secret with was eating her inside out.
The ceiling fan whirred as it whirled around and around. But she couldn’t get cool. Not after that kiss. Not with David’s sculpted body radiating so much heat. Not with the mosquito mesh surrounding the bed.
She threw off the bedcover, realizing she must have jerked it off David, too. She glanced at him. He smiled knowingly at her.
Moving to the bungalow was going to be the right move.
She thought again about the lipstick on the tree. She hadn’t realized the teens had taken it. Was anything else missing from her toiletry bag? When she’d looked to see what was gone, she’d only glanced at her clothes in the drawers. And when she dried her hair, she still hadn’t thought anything about it.
She let out her breath in annoyance and got out of bed.
“What’s wrong?” David asked immediately.
“Nothing that important. I’m checking to see if the kids took anything else of mine besides the lipstick. I hadn’t examined the bag that it was in.”
The mattress creaked as he left the bed. She glanced over her shoulder at him. “You don’t have to come with me.”
“I never checked my razor kit, either.”
She noted the sexy shadow of stubble just beginning to appear along his angular jaw. “Surely they wouldn’t steal your razor. They probably aren’t shaving much yet. Then again, who would think they would steal my lipstick?”
“I doubt they would have taken my razor,” he said as he followed her into the bathroom. “But I won’t be able to sleep if I’m wondering whether they absconded with anything else.” He unzipped his shaving kit and poked around inside it.
“Missing anything?” she asked. “Doesn’t look like anything else of mine is gone.” She was relieved about that.
“My bottle of aftershave lotion. Wild Earth Essence—the fragrance of Indonesian sandalwood combined with patchouli.”
She had to admit she would like smelling the aftershave on him, though only if he applied a hint of it—much more, and her sensitive sense of smell couldn’t handle it. “The hippies wore patchouli—the odor of pot, sex, and forest. It’s from the mint family,” she said, recalling having read that somewhere.
“I never thought of it that way, but you’re right.”
She frowned at him, not meaning to, but still… “So you wear it to attract human women?” Here she was defending herself against her brother’s claim that she only dated humans. Did David?
“I haven’t dated a human since last year. Bad mistake.”
“What happened?”
“I learned not to date a woman who had a former boyfriend who wasn’t ready to let her go.”
She waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t, though she was dying to know what had happened. Not that it should matter, but it piqued her curiosity. Would Maya know? Maybe David’s brother had told Maya and Tammy could ask her. “I don’t remember you wearing it earlier before you took your shower.” She zipped up her toiletry bag.
“I didn’t need to. I wasn’t planning on being with any human woman,” he reiterated and smiled a little as if he thought she might care. “In truth, the fragrance also attracts jaguars and other kinds of big cats.”
“Get out of here.” She didn’t believe it, yet he looked so sincere.
“Yeah, really. Zoos spray the fragrance in the big cats’ enclosures. The cats need to smell new odors, like they do when they’re in the wild. The fresh scents enrich their lives. Some of the perfumes and colognes are a real turn-on for the big cats. Researchers have used the fragrances at camera traps in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala to gather a more precise estimate of how many jaguars actually live there. The cats love it and rub their cheeks against it. Sometimes they even wrap their forelegs around a tree, rubbing up and down it, collecting the scent, and leaving their own.”
“Huh. How did I miss that bit of information?” Sounded like something she should have read. Sometimes her brothers joked about how she knew so much about the most trivial things. She slipped past David to return to bed. “Why would the boy
s take your aftershave?”
“Looking to hook up with some hot human girls? Or maybe some female jaguar shifters.”
“They better watch out or they might end up with jaguars in estrus that don’t shift,” Tammy said.
David laughed. The sound was too deep, and the way the tips of his ears reddened, she wondered if he had experienced such a thing.
“Has it happened to you?”
He laughed again, but he wasn’t telling.
She couldn’t imagine facing a full-grown, all-jaguar male that wanted to mate with her. “Too bad the boys already wasted the half-dozen condoms they took from your box. If they do hook up with some girls, they goofed.”
“Maybe I miscounted. Maybe they took more than that.”
“How many were in the box?” She climbed into bed, never having imagined she’d be having this discussion with her JAG partner on a mission. Or that she’d be sharing a bed with him. Or that she’d kiss him good night.
“One hundred.” He closed the mesh curtain around them and settled in next to her. “I admit I guessed at how many were gone.”
She mulled that over, not believing he would get such a big box. That had to mean he had sex a lot, was bragging if anyone should see his jumbo box, or was the kind of guy who bought in large quantities, like her dad did. Even so, why did David bring the whole box of condoms instead of packing just a few? To keep them pristine? Or because he thought he’d get really lucky?
“Do you…always buy goods in bulk?”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, the suspense killing her. He smiled at her as if he knew just what she was trying to learn. “Always. Saves money.”
She closed her eyes and sighed. Maybe David was just like her dad. Her mother said she tried to leave Dad home when she went grocery shopping because he always bought the largest quantity he could. He explained that they’d saved money and trips to the store that way.
Her mother would grumble about the items going beyond their expiration date well before they were used up. When her brothers were still living at home, it wasn’t so bad. But now that she and her brothers were living on their own, her mother was about to have a conniption because Dad kept buying in the same huge volume.
“The problem with getting items in bulk is that they expire before you can use them.”
David cleared his throat. “They’re brand-new. They have a couple of years or more before they expire.”
She felt her whole body burning up. She wasn’t talking about his condoms!
“Okay, the truth is that when you tore off and left me at the jailhouse, I was in a hell of a hurry to get back to my apartment and throw some stuff together. I didn’t have time to tear open the new box and grab just a few,” he said.
She smiled at the reference to her leaving him behind, just imagining him in a rush like that. In a hurry, and if she bought things in large quantities herself, she probably would have done the same thing—if she had been a guy. She had to give him high marks for practicing safe sex, but most of all, she appreciated the fact that he hadn’t acted all macho and pretended he was just oversexed.
Thunder boomed nearby, and flashes of lightning lit up the window and the bedroom. The muggy heat made her want to strip to bare skin, if not for the hot and sexy half-naked man lying next to her. The circulating fan wasn’t penetrating the mesh curtains sufficiently to cool her down.
Maybe she shouldn’t have invited him into her bed. She sighed. Maybe she should move to the bunk bed and get naked.
She didn’t know which was worse—being way too cold or being way too hot. She’d never get to sleep at this rate. She let out her breath.
“What?” David asked.
“I’m hot.”
He chuckled. “You sure are.”
***
Waking early the next morning, David was instantly aware of two things: Tammy was gone, and the shower was running outside. First thought that popped into his head—she couldn’t be in jaguar form or the door would be wide open. Unless she shifted outside. And he didn’t think she would have. Not when she was worried about getting naked if the kids were watching. Hell, she wouldn’t even shift in front of him. Second thought was that she was in human form, totally nude.
That brought a nice visual to mind. He wanted to ensure that the person showering outside really was Tammy. At least that’s what he told himself.
He climbed out of bed, peeked out the glass door, and his jaw dropped.
Facing the jungle, her back to him, she was wearing a barely there string bikini. Turn around, he silently pleaded with her. He wanted to see the whole tamale. Although the backside was giving him heart palpitations. Toned ass, tanned, long legged, sweet. Actually, anything but sweet. A hot-pink metallic number that made his mouth water. Forget breakfast.
He was tempted to keep watching when she turned off the water, but he didn’t want her to think he might be as bad as the boys.
Hell, he was looking out for her welfare. Just like any good fellow agent who was serving as her partner on a mission. He folded his arms and waited, observing. Besides, she was wearing a bathing suit. Not exactly fully clothed for the general public, as far as he was concerned, but she wasn’t naked.
With her back still to him, she wrapped the towel around her bikini-clad body. He groaned with regret. When she turned around, she saw him peering out the glass door with a full-blown arousal pressing against his boxers. She had the nerve to smile.
Tammy had thought that if she took a shower before David woke, he wouldn’t catch her at it. Glad she hadn’t given David a full show, she figured it served him right to be observing her while she showered.
“Tongue’s hanging out,” she said as he opened the door for her and she moved past him.
“Hope you used all the warm water. Cold’s about all I can handle for now,” he said as he headed outside to wash.
After he showered, they went to the lodge, and he made arrangements at the front desk to rent the bungalow instead of the cabana. She hated to admit that she’d been worried it might already be rented. She was ready to enjoy air-conditioning at night after they spent their days in the jungle.
She must have looked concerned. He smiled down at her as they left the lodge and headed to the dining room. “No worries. It’s ours for a week, if we need it for that long. They’re cleaning it and said we could move in later this afternoon after the zip-line expedition.”
“Good.” She didn’t want to shower in her swimsuit the whole time they were here.
As they entered the dining hall, his phone rang, the ringtone playing “What’s New, Pussycat” by Tom Jones and making Tammy smile. When she had the chance, she had to get a cute ringtone for her phone like that.
“It’s the boss.” He answered it. “Yeah, we’re working well as a team. I think we might have to make this more permanent.”
They took a seat at a table as she cast David a look that said this was not going to be anything more than a temporary arrangement.
He winked at her and looked down at the menu as she ordered from hers. He motioned to the waitress that he wanted the same meal that Tammy was getting. The waitress left to put in their orders.
“Yeah, boss.” David filled Martin in on the condom exhibition, looked up, and smiled at Tammy.
She felt her cheeks warm.
“Zip-lining right after we grab breakfast.” David looked at her again, his green eyes twinkling. “I’ll tell her. Talk to you when we have any news on our end. Out here.”
“Well?” she asked.
“Martin said he can’t wait to have the boys working for him. It’ll be a real treat.”
“Yeah, until they steal his condoms.”
David chuckled. “Okay, so the news is that the boys aren’t working alone.”
“Great. There are more of them down here?”
&nbs
p; “Not sure. But Martin had a couple of agents watching two other twin male teens, Peter and Hans Fenton. They’re jaguar shifters, same age as the twins, and they have a similar home life. Dad is an engineer; mom works as a nurse. Neither is home to watch the boys. One of Martin’s men overheard a phone conversation that one of the teens was having at the mall, mentioning something about a jaguar stolen from a zoo.
“Since the Oregon Zoo seems to be the only one missing a big cat, it’s got to be the same case. The kids must be acquainted with each other, and they all know something about the cat. Before Martin could give the go-ahead to take the boys into custody to question them, they disappeared.”
“Huh, great. And they’re where now?”
“No idea.”
“So kind of like where we are with the two teens we’re looking into.”
“Seems like it. Bright kids. Willful and creative.”
“And the cat?” She still worried about the safety of the jaguar.
“I still think she’s safe, or the boys wouldn’t be leading us on like they are.”
She sighed, never thinking that finding the missing zoo cat would be this difficult. Her phone rang, and she glanced at the caller ID. Henry Thompson.
Recalling that he was the man from the Oregon Zoo who had been trying to chase down his missing jaguar, and that she’d given him her number in case he had any further word about the cat, she answered the call. “Hi, this is Tammy Anderson. How can I help you?”
“Have…have you learned anything about the cat?”
“We’re working on some leads. Nothing substantial yet. Anything on your end?”
“We’ve got extra security on the wolf exhibits. Never thought we’d have to do the same with the jaguar’s enclosure. We’ve analyzed all the videos posted everywhere and haven’t seen anyone who looked particularly suspicious. But it had been wet and misty for several days, so most people were wearing hooded rain jackets or carrying umbrellas. Typical Oregon weather, you know.”
“What about…male teens. A group of two to four who were alone at the zoo, no adults with them?”