“I assure you I am not running off,” he said in smooth tones. “There has been a slight problem at home. The sooner I deal with it, the sooner I can return.”
Christopher hadn’t lived as long as he had and developed an underworld empire without a cunning intelligence and the ability to read people.
“Hmm. Now why do I sense that this slight problem is far more serious than you’re willing to admit?” the older man demanded.
Despite his casual air, Joshua was already counting the cost of failure.
“As I said, I will handle it,” he promised, backing his way off the terrace.
“Be sure that you do. I’m at the end of my patience, Joshua,” Christopher snapped. “Bad things are likely to happen if I’m disappointed again.”
“I understand,” Joshua muttered, turning on his heel to hurry toward the waiting car.
Shit.
As much as he hated acting on impulse, he had no choice but to meet with the Pantera without organizing a proper plan. And worse, he was going to have to pray that he could kill two birds with one stone.
* * * *
Bianca didn’t know where she was going.
Not until she entered the penthouse suite and crossed to stare out the glass wall.
This time she didn’t bother to wonder why she wasn’t making more of an effort to flee from her captor. Not when she knew deep inside that he had answers she needed to hear.
After all, she would be a liar if she didn’t admit that she always knew there was something different about her. Not only her ability to feel emotions, but the knowledge that she could hear better and see better, and even smell better than any of her trained guards.
And there was that restless sense that a part of her was…waiting. She didn’t know what she was waiting for, but she recognized immediately it had something to do with Kayden.
That didn’t mean, however, that she was ready to be reasonable.
Not when her entire world was being turned upside down.
Spinning around, she pressed her back against the smoky glass, her heart forgetting to beat as she watched Kayden prowl toward her. God almighty. He was so gorgeous. His lean, perfect features. His smoldering cognac eyes. His hair that her fingers itched to run through.
And that musky scent. It was seeping into her like the finest aphrodisiac, making her think of soft sheets and his hard body sliding over her naked flesh.
“Stay back,” she warned.
He came to an instant halt, his hands lifting in a gesture of peace.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You said that before and then you threaten to do all sorts of bad things when you want to order me around,” she reminded him.
Guilt flared through his eyes. “I didn’t know.”
“Know what?” she demanded.
“That you were one of us.”
She shook her head. “I’m not.” The denial sounded hollow, even to herself. “And it shouldn’t matter anyway. I wouldn’t want you hurt just because you’re a Pantera.”
He studied her in silence for a long, nerve-wracking moment.
“I recently discovered that my parents were killed by humans, and not in a plane accident as I originally thought,” he abruptly admitted. “It’s been difficult to adjust to the revelation.”
A renegade of sympathy flared through her. It was obvious that he’d loved his parents very much.
“I’m sorry for your loss, I really am,” she said. “But that doesn’t give you the right to act like a––”
“A jackass?” he suggested when words failed her.
“Yes.”
He stepped toward her, an expression that was impossible to read on his beautiful male features.
“Can we talk?”
“Talk about what?”
“You know.”
She hunched her shoulder. “Why are you doing this?”
“Asking you to talk?”
She glared at him with impatience. “Trying to confuse me.”
“How could I do that?” He took another step forward. And then another.
She shivered. She tried to tell herself it was fear. Standing so close to him, there was a lethal edge to him that had nothing to do with his hard muscles and silky smooth movements. But fear didn’t explain the curl of excitement through the pit of her stomach or the ache between her legs.
“Kidnapping me,” she tried to bluff. “Taking me to this place. Claiming I’m not who I think I am.”
His eyes darkened as if he could actually sense the arousal that was shuddering through her.
“Who do you think you are?” he asked, moving until his body was brushing against her, his hands cupping her shoulders.
“Nobody,” she breathed, lost in the fierce glow of his eyes. “I’m nobody.”
“A lie,” he growled, burying his face in her neck. “I can’t sense your cat, but I can tell that you have our blood.”
She shivered, her mind clouding with a need that was swiftly becoming unbearable.
“That’s impossible.”
His lips skimmed down her throat, creating a path of erotic destruction. “I would have agreed with you just a few months ago. Either you were born a Pantera or a human.”
Her hands lifted, laying against his chest. But she didn’t push him away as she should have. Instead her head tilted back, offering him even greater access to her tender flesh.
“What changed?”
A low growl rumbled through the air. “Men like your father.”
Her fingers curled, her nails digging into the soft fabric of his sweater. Her knees were weak, her heart lodged in her throat.
His lips felt hot enough to sear her skin, his sexual energy a vibrant, tangible force that sizzled through the air.
“I don’t understand,” she muttered. “What does my father have to do with this?”
The heat in the air was abruptly threaded with fury.
“Benson Enterprises has been kidnapping and experimenting with my people,” he snarled, his lips nuzzling her frantic pulse that pounded at the base of her neck. “We don’t know for how long, but we know without a doubt that there are humans who’ve been injected with Pantera blood as well as their DNA.”
Injected with the blood of a puma-shifter? Or more disturbing, given their DNA? She struggled to think through the haze of sensual pleasure that was fogging her mind.
“And you think that’s what has been done to me?”
He licked a rough tongue along the line of her collarbone.
“Yes.”
Oh, lord. Pleasure jolted through her. “What would that mean?”
“It’s hard to say for certain, but you would more than likely have a few of our gifts.”
“I would surely know if I have a cat inside me?” she demanded.
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” he informed her, lifting his head to study her pale face with a brooding gaze. “But you wouldn’t know for sure until I take you home. It takes the magic of the Wildlands to allow us to shift.”
Bianca frowned. Until now, she’d been more bemused than terrified. It was possible that she hadn’t fully absorbed what he was implying. Or maybe she was just happy to have an explanation for the oddities that had plagued her over the years.
But the thought of leaving everything she knew and being taken to Kayden’s home was…
Well, she wasn’t entirely sure. She just knew the intensity of her reaction was unnerving.
“I’m not going to the Wildlands,” she protested. “You can’t make me.”
He grimaced, as if her words had actually struck a nerve.
“No. I won’t make you, princess,” he swore in low, husky tones. “You should feel free to do whatever you want.”
Illogically, his promise didn’t ease her strange emotions. Instead, she found herself feeling something perilously close to disappointment.
As if she wanted him to insist she had to travel with him to the Wildlands.
/>
“I can return to my father?” she pressed.
His eyes darkened. “Is that what you want?”
No…
The word whispered through her very soul.
It might be disloyal to the man who’d raised her, but she didn’t want to return to her isolated home to face a future of loneliness. Not when the alternative offered the potential to be close to Kayden.
Still, she had to be reasonable.
“I have to have my treatments,” she said, unable to hide her regret.
His brows snapped together. “No.”
“What?”
“We don’t have human diseases,” he told her. “You have too much Pantera blood to ever have had cancer.”
She made a strangled sound as the world once again shifted beneath her feet. Her entire life had revolved around her disease and depending on her father to keep death at bay.
If he’d lied…
She gave a slow shake of her head. “Enough, Kayden,” she rasped.
“You’re right,” he agreed with a rueful grimace, leaning down to brush a soft kiss over her lips. “It’s late, princess. Why don’t we sleep on it, and you can decide tomorrow what you want to do?”
Her mouth tingled, the taste of him lingering with a decadent promise of pleasure.
Swaying toward him, Bianca was caught off guard when he abruptly dropped his arms and stepped back, his lean features impossible to read.
“Where are you going?” she asked as he turned to head across the sitting room.
“I need a shower.” He paused at the door leading to the short hall. “You can take the master suite. I’ll use the guest room.”
Bianca bit her bottom lip, feeling as if a part of her was missing as Kayden disappeared from view.
It didn’t matter that he’d kidnapped her. Or turned her world upside down. Or even that she barely knew him.
She’d lived in isolation for the past twenty-two years, allowing her father to have complete control over her life. He’d used her love, her gratitude, and her sense of duty to keep her caged.
Now she could physically feel his chains on her breaking away.
It was glorious.
But it wasn’t enough.
There were still a thousand unanswered questions, including what Kayden wanted with her father, but suddenly none of it mattered.
Nope.
Tonight she had one goal. Period.
Chapter Five
Bianca hurried toward the guest bedroom, entering just in time to hear the shower switch on.
She paused, glancing around the room handsomely decorated in shades of gray and black. Then, with quick movements, she tugged off her clothes.
Entering the large bathroom, she crossed the mosaic-tiled floor to enter the shower stall that was large enough to fit a football team.
The air was filled with a humid steam that was mixed with the scent of bath gel and warm male skin. It wrapped around her like a welcoming blanket. Bianca trembled, her nipples beading in anticipation as Kayden turned to regard her with a wary gaze.
“Bianca.” He reached to shut off the water. “Is something wrong?”
She shook her head, determinedly advancing even as he backed against the wall. In the muted light, his skin shimmered like bronze, his dark hair slicked from his beautiful face. This was a first for her. Nerves hummed through her, like an electric current. She couldn’t believe her own daring. It was completely out of character for her. But tonight she wasn’t going to give in to her inner fears. She was going to be bold. Daring.
“I want to be with you.”
A groan was ripped from his throat, his eyes squeezing shut, as if in pain. “Let me dry off and I’ll join you in the sitting room.”
She gave another shake of her head. Then, moving until their bodies were just inches apart, she reached up to smooth her hands over his broad chest. She groaned, savoring the sensation of his muscles clenching beneath her bold caress.
“I like it better here.”
His eyes opened, his fingers wrapping around her wrists, although he made no effort to pull her hands away.
“I’m not human, princess,” he rasped. “And my cat wants you with a hunger that I’m finding hard to leash.”
“Why would you leash it?” she asked, tantalized by the thought of his inner puma.
His eyes glowed, accentuating his warning that he possessed an animal just beneath the surface. Bianca shivered, knowing it was the cat that was studying her with a hunter’s gaze.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” he demanded, his expression twisting with extreme torment.
She leaned forward, pressing a path of kisses over the slick skin of his chest. His taste was hot and wild and addictive.
Yum.
“I know.”
“You can’t,” he breathed, his voice rough as his intoxicating musk filled the air.
Bianca felt something stir deep inside her. Was there an animal prowling just below her skin?
The notion was as intriguing as it was unsettling.
“Why can’t I?” she demanded. “I’m a grown woman. If I want to spend the night with a man, I will.”
Unexpectedly, Kayden stiffened, as if her words had somehow offended him.
“Is that what I am?” he growled. “Just another man?”
She pulled back, baffled by his sudden anger. “What does that mean?”
He released a sigh, as if regretting his harsh words. “I realize it will sound crazy to you, but my cat is convinced that this is much more than a Vegas quickie.”
Oh. Relief surged through her. He felt the same sense of destiny that she did.
Amazing.
She went on her tiptoes to brush her lips along the line of his stubborn jaw.
“I don’t think it’s crazy,” she said in a husky voice. “I think this is one of the most special moments of my life.”
She felt him shudder, his muscles clenched tight.
“How special?” he demanded.
Her lips twitched at the sheer male need to be told he was unique.
“Super special,” she readily admitted, nipping the lobe of his ear. “Even if I don’t know why you’re so angry with my father.”
Kayden swooped his head down, kissing her with an intensity that sent lightning bolts of need sizzling through her body. She gasped, clutching at his shoulders as her toes curled in the warm water pooling at their feet.
“I don’t want to discuss Joshua Ford,” he commanded against her lips. “Not tonight.”
She caught the sensuous fullness of his lower lip between her teeth, chuckling with pleasure when he groaned in helpless need.
“What do you want to discuss?” she asked softly.
He made a sound of frustration, his eyes glowing with the power of his cat in the billowing steam.
“Bianca, you haven’t had time to fully process everything that’s happened,” he said, the words clearly being forced past his lips. “Once you’ve had time to––”
“I told you that I know what I want,” she interrupted, arching herself against his naked body. Her heart skipped a beat at the feel of his hard cock pressed against her lower stomach.
Her mouth went dry. He was so large. Not only long, but thick.
And hot.
As if it was designed to brand her, marking her as his possession.
“Why don’t you believe me?” she demanded.
His hands gripped her hips, his fingers digging into her flesh as if he were caught between the urge to yank her closer and shove her away.
“I want this to be perfect,” he breathed. “I don’t want you waking up and regretting spending the night in my arms.”
She allowed her fingers to skim over his shoulders and then up the curve of his throat. Her touch was tentative. It felt incredibly intimate to touch his neck, as if he was allowing her an opportunity that he rarely offered to anyone else.
“There won’t be any regrets.”
He te
nsed, his eyes dark with pain. “You can’t be sure of that. I still haven’t told you everything.”
She studied his taut expression.
He wasn’t confessing anything she didn’t already suspect. She knew damned well that he was hiding things from her. But right now, she couldn’t make herself care.
Not when her entire body felt as if it was on fire.
She threaded her fingers through his damp hair. It was something she’d longed to do since she first caught sight of him. Then she deliberately rubbed the tight buds of her breasts against his chest, groaning at the tiny darts of sensation that arrowed straight between her legs.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Kayden swore, his fingers biting into the flesh of her ass.
“You might not be so dismissive when you discover the truth.”
“Maybe not,” she slowly agreed. “But…”
He frowned as she struggled to find the words to express the need aching deep inside her.
“But what?”
“I’ve spent twenty-two years being locked away and told it was for my own good,” she confessed. “I don’t won’t to waste another second just because it might hurt me later.”
His lips parted. He was going to continue to argue. She could feel it.
Framing his face in her hands, she tugged his head down to press her lips to his in a kiss of flagrant yearning.
Kayden went rigid and Bianca’s heart began to sink. So much for her stumbling attempt at seduction.
Then, just as she was about to pull back in embarrassment, Kayden’s arms lashed around her body and he hauled her off her feet so he could deepen the kiss with a stark urgency.
A combustion of heat blasted through her as his tongue skillfully parted her lips and dipped inside. She groaned. This was what she used to lay in her bed and fantasize about.
The hungry crush of his lips. The persistent stroke of his rough tongue. The arms that were wrapped around her as if he never intended to let her go.
Not about to allow him to have second thoughts, Bianca jumped up and circled her legs around his waist. They moaned in unison as her clit rubbed against his fully erect shaft.
Oh yeah. That’s precisely what she needed.