He brushed the hair from her face. "You're beautiful. This face. A man would fall forever for this face alone. Put it with your body and he's lost."
There was nothing lost about him. Nothing at all. He was still very much in charge. Still very much the dominant male. He didn't move off her, his body still locked in hers. She braced herself for that flash of pain when he withdrew, moving subtly to let him know it was time. He just smiled down at her, and that took her breath.
She'd tried not to look at him as a whole. He had a purely masculine body. There wasn't a soft spot anywhere. And then there were his eyes. So beautiful, all that blue-green in a sea of crystal. She had deliberately not focused on his face. She didn't want to see him as a man. A shifter, mate of her female, that was fine, but if she looked at his face, she'd have to see him.
He was beautiful in a masculine way. Okay, gorgeous. Hot. Everything women dreamt of in a man. That made her self-conscious of her too-wide hips, full breasts and wild, too-thick dark hair. She cleared her throat, trying to think what to say to make him leave.
"Don't," he ordered softly. "I see it on your face. This is normal for a shifter. You probably had no idea about your female. Most don't. But she's beautiful and healthy, just like you. She'll be this way for the next week. You can give me your number . . ."
She shook her head. Emphatically. "No." She said it for good measure. "I'll keep her in. I told you."
The gentle smile disappeared, replaced by a short shake of his head. His eyes went to that piercing, scary stare his leopard had. "My leopard will hunt yours. You have to allow them to be together."
She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. Her teeth felt sharper than usual. The bite stung, but only because he'd already marked her there and she'd just aggravated the small injury.
He immediately bent his head and licked at the small red drop and then caught her lower lip between his teeth. He tugged and then let her loose, his tongue soothing the ache. "This is mine. I don't want you biting it."
"You did," she pointed out.
"I can. You can't. Now give me your number. The sun is coming up, and you're naked out here. I don't want any others to find you. There would be a fight, Sonia. The leopards would fight to the death over a female. My male will never give yours up."
She tried not to panic. She couldn't begin a relationship with a man. Then again, he wasn't claiming her. He wasn't saying he wouldn't give her up. He said his leopard. She touched her tongue nervously to the indentation, where she still felt his teeth. "I don't know much about shifters. I'm learning as I go along, so I'll have to accept your word on that. I'll meet you here tonight. I think I'll sleep most of the day, so I don't know what time, but I'll come."
"Give me your word."
"I just did." She pushed at his shoulders. "I have to go. Really. I have to get back."
"To what?" He shifted his weight and began to withdraw.
Her breath caught in her throat. The pain was exquisite. The pleasure almost intolerable. Streaks of fire raced up her spine. Why did it have to be so good with him? She knew his brand was stamped into her bones. He did own her body and she could--and would--deny it, but she knew better.
"Seriously, move." She pushed harder.
He laughed softly and took her mouth. To her horror, she kissed him back immediately. His tongue did a lazy exploration, sliding along hers, coaxing her response until her tongue tangled with his in a bizarre dance that told her more than words could have, that he knew he was in there deep.
When he lifted his head, he moved off her. She rolled away from him, coming to her knees. Her body protested. Ached everywhere. Every muscle. Every cell. But it was a good kind of ache, sated. Satisfied. She could breathe on her own again. She didn't need mouth-to-mouth from a stranger.
"Don't follow me." She yanked on her jeans, heedless of his seed spilling down her leg. "We didn't use a condom. Do you realize that?"
"Yep."
He didn't sound in the least upset, and she paused in the act of pulling on her shirt to glare at him over her shoulder. "Don't smirk. Think of the consequences." She jerked the shirt over her head and reached for her boots.
"I have. Condoms and other forms of birth control don't work on shifters. Either you'll get pregnant or you won't. Believe me, baby, you're pretty damn fertile."
She could hate him. She really could. But there was his body. He hadn't even attempted to cover up and just looking at him made her body come alive. She felt the burn starting all over.
"I'm leaving now." There was no retort she could think of to wipe his male-superior-amused smirk from his face. In any case, she had to get out of there before she jumped him again.
"See you tonight."
She didn't deign to reply, but she knew he would see her. She'd be back, because now she was addicted to him. She kept her back to him as she began the long walk of shame home.
2
SONIA groaned and buried her face in the pillow. The nagging alarm wouldn't stop, and she couldn't reach it because she'd already thrown it across the room. The pillow did nothing to muffle the sound. Why couldn't she have gotten one of those soothing alarms? The kind that woke one up gently? The clock blasted its horn-blowing, nerve-jangling message again, and she rolled over and threw the pillow at it. The pillow hit the wall and fell--right beside the shrieking alarm.
She groaned again and forced her body into a sitting position. It wasn't easy. Every muscle hurt. Every muscle. She felt as if she'd been run over by a truck.
"You so deserve this, Sonia," she chastised aloud. She dropped her throbbing head into her hands and sat on the edge of the bed, legs dangling over the side, and rocked to try to ease the soreness, the aches and the embarrassment of her awful, no, terrible behavior.
She forced her body to move, mostly because the alarm was driving her crazy, making her head, already pounding, hurt more. With every step, deep inside, she felt the delicious soreness, her inner muscles protesting. It didn't matter how many hot baths she'd taken, her body still ached with every movement.
It hadn't mattered how many times she'd promised herself she wouldn't go back because it was humiliating that she couldn't stop herself, but she'd returned every night for seven nights. They hadn't talked, they just stayed up all night, just like their leopards, all over each other. The rougher, the better--it had assuaged the horrible need that just wouldn't let up. It had driven her night and day, so much so that she'd been tempted to get his number just so he'd meet her there during the day. She wasn't going to admit to him she was that far gone.
Fortunately, her female's heat had begun to subside and Sonia had managed to breathe. She didn't tell Joshua. She knew he would insist on her number. She knew he thought he would eventually wear her down, or she wouldn't be able to do without his sex. Instead, she'd walked away early in the morning, just as the sun rose, just as she always did, and left him, knowing she wouldn't go back.
It was day three without him. She'd slept nearly thirty straight hours and then slept on and off for the next day and night. She couldn't remember why she'd set her alarm, but it had been important.
"The walk of shame," she muttered aloud. It was funny when she'd thought about that phrase, or envisioned talking about it with girlfriends. Not so funny when one actually had to walk the walk--and she'd done it seven nights in a row. Was that a record? Could she get in the walk of shame hall of fame? Probably.
She didn't know his last name. She'd never seen him before that first night, so if she was lucky he wasn't from around her neighborhood or town. She hoped to hell she'd never see him again. She closed her eyes for a moment, wishing she could take back the week. Maybe if she had girlfriends she'd be able to find some humor in the situation. She'd own her walk of shame, but right now, all she could think about was the utter humiliation of what she'd done--and how spectacular it had been.
"Okay. There. I admitted it." She turned off the alarm, thankful the thing wasn't blaring at her so accusingly. She could judg
e herself--and she did--harshly. It wasn't Joshua's fault that she'd been in heat right along with her leopard--that she'd used him ruthlessly.
Her lip stung, and she touched it with the tip of her tongue. He'd been equally as ruthless. He'd ruled her their half of the night. She found it strange that the leopards had given them so much time together.
Gatita? Why did you shift every night halfway through the night?
My mate insisted.
Her heart thudded. She pressed her hand over it. If Gatita's mate had insisted, that meant Joshua had insisted. Joshua had absolute control over his leopard even when the female's heat was driving all of them. She touched her lip with her finger. It was slightly swollen. She didn't remember this time how that mark had gotten on her, but he liked to use his teeth, and he'd been wild and she'd been out of control.
The man knew how to kiss. Seriously. She'd thought she knew what kissing was until he'd kissed her. She'd gone up in flames. Both had. She'd been married, had had an experienced husband, but not once had she ever had an orgasm. She'd thought she couldn't--that she just wasn't that into sex.
She'd had so many orgasms with Joshua she'd lost count. Night after night, they'd burned together. Who knew? Joshua had taken her in so many ways. He'd demanded so much of her, and she'd given him everything he'd demanded. She'd wanted him to rule her body. She'd given herself to him. It had been the most amazing, beautiful, savagely wild experience of her life, and it had to stop. She couldn't let it go any further. She hissed a small reprimand to herself for even thinking about him and his spectacular ownership of her body as she made her way to the bathroom.
There were only three rooms properly renovated in the beautiful plantation home she'd bought. It was run-down, out of date and yet beautiful to her. Her bedroom, the master bath and the kitchen were the only rooms entirely finished, and she was grateful she'd started with her bathroom.
The water was hot and soothing. She had a huge bathtub, separate from the very large shower. She had a thing for water, and so did Gatita. She worried that Gatita would try to swim in the canals or the river. Alligators were everywhere around them, and she'd tried to warn her cat, but Gatita had sniffed at her, acting as if she needed no warnings.
When do we go running with our mates again?
The hot water was working its magic, clearing her head, but the cat's question brought her up short. Her female was no longer in heat, but Sonia couldn't say the same thing. The terrible burning drive was gone, but the need for him was still there. She had to work to keep from thinking about him or having silly girlish fantasies.
"What do you mean? I'm not mates with the man. Your heat is over. We aren't going to see them again."
There was a long silence. Sonia stopped massaging the conditioner into her hair and just stood there. Waiting.
He said you were his man's mate.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her heart clenched at the idea. "He was wrong. I don't even know him. We had sex. You know it was driven by your heat."
Our heat, Gatita corrected. We both were in need. I know you're still in need. When you are lying on the bed thinking of him, you . . .
"I know what I do," Sonia broke in, not that it worked. Not that anything she did worked. "I can't help it. You don't have the same drive as humans."
Again, there was silence while Sonia rinsed herself off. She slowed when she reached the junction between her legs. She was still feeling him. How could she not think about him and the things he'd done to her body?
I think of my mate. I think of being with him that way and still want him.
That was a revelation. "I read about leopards when you showed yourself. After you saved me. I was so scared, and I couldn't find anything on shifters that wasn't science fiction. Leopards go into heat, and after they don't stay with their mates. The males don't help raise the babies, so I thought it was the same. Isn't it?" She began toweling herself off.
I don't know about the others like me, but I want to be with him. I want to stay close to him. I want you close to his man.
"That isn't going to happen. I'm sorry, Gatita. I had no idea you would feel that way. I can't be with another man, you know that. It's too dangerous for us and for him. We came here because of the swamp. It's a lot like the Florida swamp, a place for you to run free . . . I can't just take you anywhere, you know that. This was the best place I could think of."
I know it is dangerous. I didn't think you were protecting the man. He seemed strong. The man calls my mate Shadow. He likes his name and likes his man. He says his man is very strong and dangerous. Maybe we should try it. I am not like an animal leopard any more than you are like a regular human. We're both different, and he is too.
Sonia had to agree with her leopard there. Joshua was different. He was much more dominant than a regular human male, and who wanted that for a boyfriend? He talked to her as if she belonged to him--that it was a forgone conclusion that she would come when he called her. She'd been smart enough never to bring her cell phone or give out her last name or her number.
A small shiver crept down her spine. In fantasies, relationships like that worked, but in reality, dominant men were a pain in the neck. She knew from experience. It didn't matter that her body craved him and she was fairly certain his name was carved deep inside her body; she wasn't making another mistake.
"I'm sorry, Gatita, I have to keep both of us safe. A man like that is not good for me. You know what happened . . ."
The man you chose did not do that. It was the others. He wouldn't have given you up, but he was not your mate. You know he wasn't. There was no reprimand in Gatita's voice. You have been with your mate and it was . . . different.
Her body flushed at Gatita's impressions. She was referring to sex. "Sex isn't everything," she whispered, trying to convince herself.
Sonia stared at her reflection in the mirror. She was covered in his marks. They were everywhere. She touched the signs of possession. His brand. Her breasts. The inside of her thighs. Her neck. He'd liked marking her. He'd liked telling her she was his. For seven nights, she'd been his. All his. He'd owned her body and she'd loved every single second of it. He'd made her nights pure paradise.
"Even if it were true," she said to her cat, "he didn't say a thing about permanent. Nor did he ask me out on a date. It was just sex to him. That's a good thing. It would be too dangerous for him to be in our lives."
Do you want to spend the rest of your life alone?
Of course she didn't. She wanted what everyone else had, but she knew better. "I don't have a choice. In any case, I'm not alone. I have you." She was more than grateful for Gatita. Being a shifter presented its own set of problems. She had to ensure her leopard was taken care of at all times, which meant having a place for Gatita to run free without being seen. She'd found this swamp. She loved it. She loved everything about it, even the heat and humidity. She had been lucky enough to find the old plantation house for sale. The real estate agent had advised tearing down the house. She'd spent her time talking about the land and what pieces of property along the river were worth. Although the land was needed for her leopard, Sonia had fallen in love with the house.
Made of cypress, it was a house that wouldn't rot, despite the dampness. There were no hallways. The rooms ran one into the other in a long sprawling wide straight line on both stories. She was going to have to modernize everything, but she was determined to keep the original architecture as intact as possible. The first thing she'd done was rewire the entire house. That hadn't been easy, as electricity wasn't her forte, and it was extremely important to get it right. Her boss had helped by overseeing her work. Her boss and YouTube. The videos had helped teach her things she'd had no idea about.
Sonia snapped her fingers. "I forgot, Gatita. I set the alarm because Jerry wanted me to call him first thing this morning."
You took your vacation. This time there was a reprimand in Gatita's voice. You need to rest. What if you're pregnant?
Sonia
paused in the act of dragging on a pair of her favorite jeans. "Don't even think that. Don't say it. Don't think it. Talk about irresponsible. Sheesh. I'm the first person to think about that, although with him, I'll admit, I didn't. Fortunately, I'm using birth control. I didn't tell him because he was so smug. Let him worry."
It could still happen.
"It had better not. How would I take care of us? Can you see me up on a roof eight months pregnant? I have to work, Gatita. That's how I keep us with a roof over our head and food in our tummy."
Her head came up, her color flushing a dark red. "I didn't think about STDs either. Oh my God, Gatita. I have to go to a clinic and get checked. I'm not only going to the 'walk of shame' hall of fame, I'll be in the 'most irresponsible of all time' hall of fame as well."
Gatita subsided, curling up and closing her eyes, not bothering to answer. Sonia rolled her own eyes. The last three days without her mate, Gatita had been moody as all leopards could be. Sonia was a little moody herself.
She finished dressing and hurried down to the kitchen to fix breakfast. She opted for a smoothie and called her boss while she was drinking it out on the wide, inviting verandah. The verandah went on forever, wrapping around both stories, giving her the best views. That had been the first thing she'd fallen in love with about the house.
"Hey, Jerry," she greeted. "What's up?"
"Need you to come into town and talk as soon as possible."
There was something in his voice that tipped her off that this was a big deal. "Now? Today? You mean during my vacation?"
"You can have two more vacation days," he wheedled, confirming to her that whatever was up was very important to him.
She glanced at the clock. "Be there in twenty."
"Thanks, Sonia."
She loved Jerry Corporon. She'd do practically anything for him, but she didn't need him--or anyone else--to know that. Jerry was sweet, but he took advantage if he could. She wasn't one to say no too often, and he knew that. She wanted the world to think Jerry was just her boss, and she clocked in and clocked out without caring too much about him or the job, but in truth she adored him and loved her job.