"It's my fault you were out there alone," Brandt said. He allowed his gaze to drift over her, a slow, lazy inspection of her lush curves. "I'm not blaming you for being afraid. I blame myself for leaving you alone when I knew you were close to the change." He moved to stand beside her while she sat at the water's edge. His fingers tangled in her hair, rubbing in the silky strands. "I didn't mean to snap at you, Maggie. The Han Vol Dan is a frightening experience even for those of us who know what to expect. I'm proud of you that you went through it alone and still had the courage to come back to me." It humbled him as nothing else could have.
Brandt knew he looked stiff and grim and aloof, but fear for her was still an ugly presence in his heart, and he couldn't seem to calm the demons raging in him. He had wanted to break James's neck, and the thought of the man roaming freely, presenting a threat to Maggie, made him resent his decision to allow James to escape the jungle justice.
His hand trembled as he reached down and simply pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it on top of his own. "We can change easily and naturally, fast and on the run if there is need. It's only another form, not a change of character." Her skin gleamed at him, as smooth as silk. She was utterly beautiful to him, as exotic as any of the creatures in his care. "I'm going to show you, Maggie."
His hands were on the waistband of his jeans and her heart pounded as she heard the rasp of the zipper. She tilted her head to get a better view as he pushed the jeans away from his body without a semblance of modesty. He was ferociously aroused, thick and hard and tempting beyond her ability to resist. She instantly forgot she was tired.
"I love looking at you." The words slipped out of their own accord. Honest. Simple. Life in the rain forest.
For the first time he seemed to relax, some of the tension seeping out of him. "It's a good thing, honey, because I'm very partial to looking at you." He stepped away from her. "I think about the leopard in my mind first, Maggie, before I actually start the change. It takes practice, but you'll be able to do it."
She was sweating. Just looking at him and hearing the sensual note in his voice was making her ache in the most wonderful places. He robbed her of air even in wide-open spaces.
Brandt reached down, locked his fingers around her wrist, and effortlessly pulled her to her feet. "Watch, Maggie." He held his arm away from her while the fur raced over his skin.
Maggie had eyes for other things. She allowed her palm to slide up his thigh, to cup his heavy sac, to linger playfully along his erection.
"I'm showing you something important here," he said, trying to sound stern.
"And I'm looking," she answered truthfully.
"You're doing more than looking." His breath caught in his lungs as her fingers danced, closed tightly around him, slid, and caressed.
She arched an eyebrow at him, her smile teasing. "Poor baby. And you were feeling all mean and bad, too. I'm soothing you. You should thank me."
"Mean and bad?" he echoed, every muscle in his body taut with need.
"Snarly. You were snarling. You know, curling your lip and exposing your teeth." She went up on her toes, pressed her breasts against his chest to nibble at his lip. "You have wonderful teeth, by the way." Her tongue slid tantalizingly over his lips. She pushed away from him when he reached for her.
Laughing, Maggie wiggled out of her jeans. Instead of turning back to him, she jumped straight into the water.
9
The water was cool, bringing instant relief to Maggie's body. It was a perfect temperature in the sultry heat of the morning. She ducked beneath the surface, wanting to feel clean, wanting the thick mass of her hair wet and cool for a change. Most of all, she wanted Brandt to play with her. The hard edge to his mouth, the glittering menace in his eyes were intimidating. She had made a monumental decision, her entire life changing in the blink of an eye, and she needed comfort. They both did.
Brandt watched Maggie's body move through the water, cutting cleanly, a flash of her smooth, inviting buttocks, a kick of her feet. Her head came up out of the water, long hair shaking off droplets of water in every direction. She looked like a water nymph, ethereal, desirable. A mermaid with blazing hair and inviting skin.
She was life itself, family--she was worth all the long hours, all the danger and tedium of his job. She was why he did it, why he wanted the environment saved, why wildlife was so important. One woman with more courage than good sense, willing to take him on instinct. Willing to forgive the trap he set for her, to look beyond it to a life with him.
Brandt sighed and slipped into the water to rinse the sweat from his skin. She had another life. One in a city, one she had lived for years before he had come along. He swam swiftly, furiously across the pool to the other side, coming up behind the waterfall and off to the side of it. He heaved his weight onto the small shelf he knew was there, fitting his hips onto the smooth rock, his legs dangling down. Water lapped at his thighs and groin, soothing waves when his mind was roaring a protest.
"Maggie." He waited until she stood up in the shallows, the water lovingly ringing her hips, droplets running off her breasts and down her beautiful belly to her navel. "This isn't right. What I've done isn't right. It's been all about me, what I need, what I want, not about you and what you want or need."
Her green gaze slid over him speculatively, heightening his awareness. Maggie had a sensual, sultry quality that left him hard and hungry and so edgy he sometimes wanted to leap upon her and devour her on the spot. She tilted her head to one side, twisted the length of her hair as she looked at him. "Is that what you think, Brandt?"
Where had she gotten such confidence, this self-assured woman who was looking at him with amusement when he was trying to be noble? She was in the middle of the rain forest, had just gone through the Han Vol Dan alone. She had committed her life to her mate, accepted her heritage, embraced it even. Where did she get such courage? Brandt could only stare at her, the beautiful, sensual picture she made standing hip deep in the clear pool.
"I think you haven't heard everything, Maggie," he said quietly. "Our people don't always choose to live here. We're a small band, very small, older couples mainly and Drake, Conner, Joshua, and James. One female, young Shilo, not quite old enough and without a mate. No others. Most of our kind are long gone or living and working in the cities. They rarely, if ever, shift shape, and some do not have their mates."
She flung her hair back over her shoulder and slowly lowered her body beneath the surface of the water until her breasts floated, a temptation of lush, creamy flesh. She swam closer to him. "I had the impression there weren't many of you left."
He blinked, tore his fascinated gaze away from the perfection of her feminine body. "Us. Many of us left," he corrected. "The point is, you had a life somewhere else. You can still have that life."
Maggie stopped swimming, stilled there in the pool with the water cascading behind her and mist falling softly across the surface. "What are you saying?" Her voice was tight, the joy fading from her face, from her eyes.
"I'm saying, if you prefer to live in the city, we can go there. I expected you to give up your life for me and that was wrong. I love the rain forest and everything in it. But I watched what you did for the bear. You worked so fast, with no hesitation. You're so skilled, Maggie. You have no idea, you take it for granted, but you were amazing."
The tension drained from her body and she swam through deeper water to him, nudging his thighs open so she could hook her arms over his legs to stay afloat. Her hair fanned out around her head like silk on the surface of the water. She rested her chin up high on his thigh, deliberately close to the junction of his legs so that her hair teased at the insides of his legs. So that her mouth was tantalizingly close. So that when she breathed, he held his breath.
"So much the better for my work here," she answered, and nuzzled his leg. Her teeth teased his skin while her gaze grew hot watching the effect on his body. He thickened, hardened, reaching for her with male ardor. "I love
it here, Brandt. And I trained with the idea of working in the wilds." Her tongue collected drops of water from the crease of his legs. She smiled when he shivered, when his hands came down to fist in her hair. Her tongue went on a little foray, exploring, teasing, testing her power over him.
"I mean it, Maggie. I'll try living in the city if you want me to. I want you to be happy." His entire body seemed to be suspended. Waiting. Every nerve ending was alive. Screaming. Centered in one place.
Her arms slid to his waist, her body wedging closer as she shifted slightly. "I'm happy right here, Brandt. Incredibly happy."
Her mouth closed around him as tight as a fist. Hot. Moist. Sucking hard, her tongue doing some kind of dance to drive him mad. His head fell back and his world narrowed. Time stood still while the mist came down and the prisms of color floated in the air behind his eyes, in his blood. His fists tightened, bunching in her hair, and he held her to him. A growl of pleasure escaped from the back of his throat. Leaves wavered in the breeze. The waterfall thundered into the pool.
Life gave gifts sometimes. He had been given one to treasure. Brandt tugged on her, not wanting to lose control, wanting to be inside of her, sharing the same skin. "Come here, baby." He reached for her, hooking beneath her arms and pulling her straight up out of the water with his enormous strength.
Maggie was shocked by how casually he revealed his hidden strength. He lifted her as if she weighed no more than a feather. She stood with a foot on either side of his hips while he pressed his hand to her, his fingers testing her desire.
"I want you," she assured him, her hands on his head to steady herself. He was making certain her body would accept his comfortably. She should have known he would. That was Brandt, seeing to her needs. Her wants. He thought himself so selfish, when he had given her life. Maggie allowed his hands to invade her body, her mind, to drug her bloodstream and fill her full of sheer pleasure. She pulsed with it, rocked with it, pushing against his hand, her body drenched in liquid heat.
As she began to settle onto his lap, taking him into her body, inch by slow inch so that he filled her, stretched her, completed her, she leaned close to find his mouth with hers. No one could kiss like Brandt. No one could melt her the way he did. She was lost in the heat of his mouth, in the strength of his body, in the way he built the fire between them.
The rain started, a fine drizzle to add to the mist of the waterfall. Maggie began to ride, rocking her hips, sliding him in and out of her sheath like a sword, clenching her muscles, holding him tightly in her fiery center. His hands were at her breasts, his mouth devouring hers, then her throat. He bent her backward, his marauding mouth latching on to her breast, his hand urging her to ride harder, faster. The friction was all-consuming, robbing her of breath, of sanity.
The rain tried to find their rhythm, coming down faster and harder, but they became frenzied, wild, bucking together in a firestorm of passion. Drops fell on sensitized skin, creating the illusion of tongues sliding over their heated bodies. The passion grew, an inferno out of control. The release was shattering, a fire consuming them, an explosion of senses.
They clung to one another for the longest time, simply holding each other. Maggie's head on Brandt's shoulder. His hands stroked caresses down her hair, her back.
"I want you to be certain, Maggie, that I'm what you want. That this is the life you would choose no matter what."
She pulled back to search his expression. Her fingertips traced the lines etched into his face. "I want to be with you here, right here, Brandt," she assured him, kissing his strong jaw. "I'm choosing to be here with you."
He pressed his mouth to hers, his heart still beating too fast, too hard. Something was wrong. It shouldn't have been, but he was uneasy with her decision. Uneasy with the fact that she accepted him when she didn't know what he really was. Who he really was. Maggie saw the man she wanted to see, the poet, the man who brought her flowers. She didn't see the beast raging against the poachers, protecting what should be held intact for the world.
She managed to get unsteadily to her feet, her body throbbing and pulsing with aftershocks, singing with joy. He stood up, too, close to her, so that his body touched hers. Their fingers clung. Maggie leaned into him. "You still have that look. What can I do to make you more certain?"
Brandt swallowed hard. There was nothing she could do. Nothing she could say. He kissed her. Hard. Possessively. He put everything he felt for her into that kiss. Told her everything he couldn't say in words. Poured his heart and soul into the kiss.
The wind shifted and Brandt abruptly lifted his head, scenting the air. At once his expression changed, his lip lifting in a silent snarl. He shoved Maggie away from him so that she stumbled backward and fell into the pool, the water closing over her head. He was already in motion, turning toward the thick bank of ferns, his form shimmering with fur as a leopard exploded out of the foliage and hit him at full speed. It was like getting hit with a battering ram, jarring his insides, bones and muscle and tissue. Losing his footing was not an option--the spotted leopard already had the advantage--so Brandt took the impact, absorbed it in his muscles and sinew, allowed it to rock him, but he leapt in the air, whirling to fight, raking claws laterally as he did so.
The spotted leopard's momentum prevented him from avoiding the claw, and Brandt scored across the eyes and down the slavering muzzle. The cry was half-human, half-beast as James turned and drove in again.
Brandt understood this time he had no choice. James was determined to get rid of Brandt for good. It was kill or be killed, a very real way of life in the rain forest. He spared a thought for Maggie, how she would react, and then he was lost in the fierce battle.
Maggie kicked to the surface, her heart pounding. She dragged herself from the pool. The sounds were terrifying, the noise so loud the forest would carry it throughout the interior. The black panther and the spotted leopard were raking and biting, ramming each other to force the other into submission. She looked around for a weapon, anything she could use to help Brandt. James had caught him off guard, had torn a gaping wound in his side. He was at a disadvantage.
The change started in her mind first. He had told her that. With tears running down her face, she tried to block out the sight and smell of blood, the sight of two powerful males in real combat. She knew the leopard inside and out. She was the leopard. Her fur was reddish with beautiful rosettes, her tail long and tipped red. She heard the noises, the cracks and pops, felt the stretching of her skin and bones.
Maggie lay on the rock, astonished that she had managed to do such a thing. She stretched, snarled to show her canines. The wildness of the battle was already in her, thickening her blood and pumping adrenaline through her. A warning growl escaped her throat as instincts took over. She trusted that part of her, accepted it. Reveled in it. The threat was to her mate. To her family. To everything she cared about.
She leapt on the back of the spotted leopard, sinking her teeth deep into his neck, raking with claws. He shook her off easily, but the distraction was all Brandt needed to gain the advantage. He was on the other cat before it could recover, taking the throat, twisting until the leopard was on his side, the hold impossible to break.
Maggie was already inspecting Brandt's injuries, padding around him on her soft cushioned paws. When he let go, backing away, the spotted leopard didn't rise. Brandt could hear the others coming fast, coming to his aid. It was too late for any of them. He'd had no choice but to make the kill, but it sickened him that he had to do such a thing to one of his own kind. He looked at Maggie bleakly, his head down, his heart filled with sorrow. His sides were heaving as his lungs worked to recover.
Her tongue soothed a rip on his shoulder, lapped at another along his side. She nudged him to his feet, already aware of the others on their way. She was clearly stating her position. His people could deal with the aftermath of jungle justice. Brandt was to go with this mate, allow her to take care of his injuries. Her tongue was busy, and her smaller bo
dy continually urged his toward the forest, away from the sight and smells of his savage way of life. Urged him toward their home.
Maggie had clearly chosen her destiny and Brandt finally accepted she knew what she was doing. His heart overflowing, he went with her, basking in her love and care.
Don't Miss
BURNING WILD
By Christine Feehan
The Newest Book in the Leopard People Series
Available Soon from Jove Books
CHRISTINE FEEHAN
I live in the beautiful mountains of Lake County, California. I have always loved hiking, camping, rafting and being outdoors. I am happily married to a romantic man who often inspires me with his thoughtfulness. Please visit my website at www.christinefeehan.com.
Christine Feehan, The Awakening
(Series: Leopard People # 0.50)
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