What was bothering Connor so much about her visiting with Maya further? Kat didn’t plan to start any kind of a relationship with him, despite how much she admired him for all that he had done for her. Or that she loved the way he cared about his sister. That he’d hunt for them and clean and… well, if she was looking to settle down, she wouldn’t have looked any further.
But as far as going to their home, she just planned to visit with Maya.
Maya didn’t say a word. Kat didn’t want to get between the two, but she hoped Maya would stand up to her brother. No one had any right to tell her who she could and couldn’t visit with. That tugged deep at the heart of Kat’s own dark past.
“Maya, damn it, you know I’m right,” Connor said finally.
Kat could envision him pacing across the jungle, waiting for Maya to capitulate. And Maya standing her ground, undaunted. But then she finally spoke.
“I think…” Maya said slowly with a hint of a smile in her voice, “it might be too late.”
Chapter 8
In the thick of the jungle, all of the animal noises ceased to exist as Connor stared incredulously at Maya, his worst fear realized. But he had never seen any bite marks. And he had looked.
“You didn’t turn her,” he said shortly, his anger sifting to the surface.
“It’s too late,” she said quietly. “Too late, Connor, and she has to stay with us now.” This time she sounded almost contrite.
But knowing how much his sister would want this, he thought she was probably damned pleased with herself.
“Hell, Maya.” He paced in front of her, then turned and scowled at her. “I haven’t smelled a change in her. She doesn’t act any differently.”
Maya gave a little one-shoulder shrug, but the expression on her face and the light tone of her voice said she wasn’t as sure as she was trying to sound.
“Where did you bite her?” he growled, hoping that if Maya had tried to turn Kat, she hadn’t been successful.
“I didn’t bite her.”
He stared at her hard. He knew he hadn’t seen any bite marks. But if she hadn’t bitten Kat…
Maya swallowed reflexively and folded her arms, her chin going up in a defensive way. “I scratched her.”
His mouth gaped for a split second. Scratches. He had seen a pale line of scratch marks on Kat’s leg when he had tried to wash her back the one time. He had thought she had gotten them from the wicked thorns of a jungle plant. But still, scratching Kat couldn’t have turned her, could it?
“I can’t believe this.” He stalked back toward the hut, intending to examine Kat, question her, see if anything was different about her. He had been trying to keep his distance from her. From her feminine allure. From the scent of her. From wanting to know anything more than necessary about her. But no more. He had to learn the truth—and fast.
Maya ran after him. “We can’t let her go, Connor. She has to be your mate. I want her for my sister.”
It finally sank in. Maya wanted family. Connor felt miserable then. She hadn’t done it just so he could have a mate and then she would find one. She wanted more of a family. Always had. But it didn’t change the trouble that could arise from Maya’s impulsiveness.
“What if she’s changed and she doesn’t want to have anything more to do with us?” he growled over his shoulder.
Maya looked dejected. He hated to be the one to give her the news, but what if Kat had been changed and she hated them for it? They had no idea what would happen next. She could be so depressed about it. She might even be suicidal!
And what if she didn’t want him for a mate? What if they didn’t suit each other at all?
“We have to keep her,” Maya pleaded. “We have to make sure that she’ll be all right. She can’t be on her own.”
Oh, yeah, he knew that. He could just see them having to build a wild-cat pen for her and keep her padlocked in it every time she shifted. Keeping her secured in a room in the house every time she came back to her human self. They had no idea what they were in for. Or how she would react to it. They wouldn’t be able to let her out of their sight.
He still had high hopes that she hadn’t been turned. He truly didn’t think scratch marks would do it. He thought back to Kat’s fever. What if Maya had brought the sickness on when she clawed Kat?
He let out his breath hard. He knew Maya hadn’t meant anything bad by it, knew she had really liked Kat from the beginning. And cats didn’t just like anyone. He had to admit he was already thinking of Kat as family. She didn’t have any of her own. But if she had been turned, she didn’t have a choice. She would be part of their family, like it or not. He couldn’t let her loose on the unsuspecting population.
“What are you going to do, Connor?” Maya asked, her voice ragged with worry.
“Discover the truth.” What else could he do?
They had been about a half mile away from the hut to ensure privacy while they talked, although a few hundred feet would have been good enough, as noisy as the jungle was and as thick as the vegetation was. Now he rushed back on the narrow muddy trail that led to their place to check on Kat.
“When did you scratch her?” he asked, thinking that if it had been days ago, she would have changed by now, but if it was more recent, maybe not.
Maya didn’t say anything, and he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Maya?”
“Before she got the fever.” Tears flooded her eyes.
“Hell, Maya.” He didn’t say anything more than that. He could tell his sister felt doubly responsible for Kat, and now he realized why Maya had felt so morbidly worried Kat might die. Not only might she have turned her, but she might have killed her in the process. He wanted to reassure Maya that everything would be all right. That life would go on as it had before, but it wouldn’t. And they both knew it.
“She cares about the jaguars. It’ll be all right,” his sister said, sounding as though she was trying to reassure herself as much as she was him.
“Observing one and being one are not the same, Maya.”
They grew quiet as they drew closer to the hut. He could see Kat peering out one of the windows, looking in the direction they were coming from. Had she heard their conversation?
With all the jungle noises drowning out their voices, she couldn’t have, unless she had been turned.
***
Maya was afraid Connor would scare Kat to death as he charged up the creaky steps to the hut. As soon as Kat had seen them approaching through a speck of clearing in the jungle, she had quickly moved away from the window.
Maya didn’t know if the scent of her brother on his bedsheets had cloaked Kat in the feline scent or not, but Maya was certain she had smelled the scent on Kat. No matter what, Maya had hoped to put enough doubt in Connor’s mind to keep Kat around long enough for Maya to figure out a foolproof way to turn her.
“Time to go to the falls,” Connor said abruptly to Kat as Maya entered the hut. He was headed for Kat like a Panthera onca ready to lunge at its prey. Jaguars were much more a stalk-and-ambush rather than a chase-and-take-down predator, and right now he was stalking Kat as she backed up against his bed.
She eyed him warily, wide-eyed and not entirely sure she liked his aggressive stance, Maya thought. She smiled. Kat was perfect. She wasn’t trying to escape him, but she wasn’t fighting him, either. Which was probably a good sign. Like she was accepting him as her mate. At least Maya could hope so.
“Can you walk?” he asked. But he didn’t give her a chance to answer. He drew so close that he was pressed against her, smelling her, trying to determine if Kat had feline genes now or not.
Kat’s breathing accelerated, and Maya tried to see if Kat was attempting to take in his scent, too, and analyze it. But she couldn’t tell, not as tall and broad-shouldered as Connor was and the way he was blocking Maya’s view.
“I’ll carry you,” he said without waiting for Kat to answer.
“I’m sure—” she began, but he swept her off her b
are feet and whirled around, doing this his way, stifling her objection.
He looked like an alpha jaguar that had selected his mate and was letting her know just how much he was in charge. And Maya loved it. She wasn’t sure Kat did, but she hoped Kat would love him in time.
“How do you feel?” Connor asked Kat as he carefully carried her down the stairs.
“As much as I hate to admit it, weak.”
He let out his breath.
Did he think that if Kat was still too weak from her bout with the fever, she couldn’t be a jaguar-shifter?
Maya sighed. Maybe Kat hadn’t been turned. Maya would have to bite Kat the next time with a small nip to see if that worked.
Chapter 9
The idea of cleaning up was all Kat should have cared about as Connor carried her out of the hut. She had really looked forward to washing in the waterfall ever since Maya had brought it up again. But the conversation that Maya and Connor had had in the jungle kept running through Kat’s thoughts, and she couldn’t quit trying to figure out what they meant by “them.”
“She cares about the jaguars,” Maya had said, but she sounded concerned.
“Observing one and being one are not the same,” Connor had responded angrily.
His response didn’t make any sense at all. Being one, as in being a jaguar? On the one hand, that’s what he had to have meant if he was responding to Maya’s comment. On the other hand, he couldn’t be saying that, so he must have been talking about something entirely different, and Kat had missed some of the conversation. And then they were talking about mates. Mates? If they had been Australian, she could have understood. But they were Texans and a long way from Australia.
The weirdest part? Maya had said she had scratched Kat. When? And why? The jaguar had, sure. But Kat didn’t remember having any other scratches that a woman might have made. Unless her long nails had scratched Kat inadvertently, and that’s what she had been referring to.
“I’m postponing my visit to see Maya in Texas,” Kat said quietly to Connor as he carried her down the steps and made his way along a narrow path through the jungle, the vines and trees and shrubs encroaching on the human-made trail. Although she imagined the jaguars probably also ran along here.
Wearing a backpack, Maya led the way. Neither she nor Connor said a word.
But Kat figured if Connor was that unhappy that she was going to visit with them further, it was best not to bother. She was surprised, though, when he didn’t respond right away and tell her how good an idea that was. Was he having second thoughts about her not visiting? Maybe he thought Maya would be so upset with him that she would be hard to live with if he didn’t let Kat visit.
Kat had never had a brother or sister to grow up with, and she admired the way the two always worked together, teasing each other with a fondness Kat had never seen between siblings. She both admired and envied their relationship.
Connor sighed heavily and looked down at Kat, frowning, his voice deep and committed. “You already agreed to go with us. To stay with us. To visit a while.”
Kat stared at him in astonishment. He hadn’t wanted her there. All along it had been very clear that he hadn’t. Why the change of heart all of a sudden? Still, she felt something more was wrong, and, well, she didn’t know anything about this man and his sister. Really. And the way they had been acting, she decided it was time to forget the whole deal. Although she would have enjoyed seeing their home, nursery, and tropical greenhouse—and observing how the cats thrived there intrigued her.
“I’ll have to take a rain check. I need to apply for a job and figure out where I’m going to go from there. I can visit later,” Kat said evasively.
Maya was listening, barely taking a breath and with her back straightening, waiting to see what Connor would say.
He didn’t hesitate to respond. “You can stay with us while you sort it out. Free room and board.”
He didn’t make it a suggestion. He was telling her what she would do.
“I have a reservation at the resort. I’m sure you and Maya had other plans until I came along. That will give you a chance to do whatever it was that you wanted to do. That will give you time to enjoy the rest of your vacation plans.”
“No,” Connor said flatly.
Her back stiffened.
“Since you never showed up for your reservation, the management at the resort will have given your room to someone else.” He shifted his gaze from watching where he was walking to her again. His golden eyes had taken on a darker cast. From the shadows of the trees or something else? “We didn’t have other plans anyway, so you’ll be welcome company.”
Why was he making this stuff up? No way would he consider her welcome company. Not after what he had said to Maya during what they had assumed was their private conversation.
She didn’t feel she had the strength to argue with him right now. She would politely pretend to acquiesce for now, but she wasn’t stopping off at their place. She wasn’t sure she would make the trip to see them later, either. Let them work out their problems on their own. Or maybe she could correspond with Maya, and when Kat had settled down somewhere, she could ask Maya to visit her instead. Sure. That’s exactly what Kat would do.
When Kat didn’t agree with Connor right away, he said, “We’ll talk about it later.” But he didn’t sound cheerful about the prospect. More grumpily resigned than anything else.
Worse, he didn’t sound like he meant for her to have a choice.
She smiled a little at that. She was the only one who made decisions about what she was going to do with her life. Ever since she was old enough to leave foster care, no one else told her what to do. Well, except for work, but she had been paid to be told what to do. Connor didn’t have any right.
They reached a nearly black, deep pool of water, and she eyed it warily. Except for a tree trunk that had fallen over the width of it, there was no way to cross it. The pond looked like it could be filled with crocodiles or anacondas waiting for the unsuspecting.
The tree trunk was mossy, wet, and slick as Connor carefully carried her over it. He slipped twice, and she clung to him with all her might, although he had instinctively tightened his hold on her. The heat of his body, the feel of his hard muscles, and the way his arms held her so close raised her own thermostat to hotter than blue blazes.
Once they had made it across the tree trunk and Connor’s boots had hit firm ground again, she sighed with heartfelt relief. Connor gave her a conceited smile as if he hadn’t been worried in the least that he would get them safely across.
The path narrowed even further, and she heard the water rushing over the waterfall long before she saw it. The path looked as though they would soon reach a dead end, but the falls beckoned to her from somewhere through the dense foliage, sounding like a river rushing over a mountain. Her concern about where she was going next evaporated as they came to the edge of a pool of water and she finally saw the beauty of the waterfall spilling over ancient rock walls. Nearly every inch of rock was covered in moss and dripping with ferns and vines on three sides, while trees towered high above, making the waterfall like an enchanted, hidden shower spot just for them.
The large pool of water was brown and muddy, but the stream pouring over the top of the rock face from high above looked clean and white. She wanted to shed her clothes at once and stand beneath the falls and scrub her skin and hair clean. She stared at the tropical paradise and was so glad Connor had brought her here now.
“A cave is directly behind the waterfall, and from the back side, the water spilling over the rocks is gentler,” Maya said. “The curtain of falling water is so dense that you can’t see through it. You can either stand up to your thighs in the lake on this side of the falls, or wash up as you stand on a rock ledge behind the falls. We have shampoo that’s biodegradable and body soap.”
“I’ll shower behind the falls,” Kat said. Even though she would probably need the rougher water to feel clean, she wasn’t sure sh
e could withstand the pressure. She really did need to eat more to get her strength back. Standing in the muddy water didn’t appeal to her, either. What if a hungry croc or an anaconda was hidden right beneath the surface?
Carrying her, Connor ducked through the screen of a shower of gentler water to the right of the falls, and then they were behind the falls, the roar of the rushing water nearly deafening. She glanced at the shallow cave. The rock walls were covered in moss, while ferns grew nearer the outer edges where they could reach the light, like lacy green trimming. Inside, it was cooler but just as humid, the air scented with earth and rock, plants and fresh water.
“The rocks are a little slippery,” Connor said next to her ear, making sure she heard him over the noise of the falls before setting her down on her feet.
Trying to keep her balance, she clung to him. His arms wrapped around her protectively, and he seemed concerned for her welfare all over again. And something more. She wasn’t sure what was in his expression. Almost as if he was rethinking his earlier decision to keep his distance from her. His interest in her made her skin flush with heat again. She looked around for Maya, but she hadn’t joined them behind the falls. Where was she?
Then she saw the bottles of shampoo and body soap sitting on a rock ledge. She supposed then that Maya and her brother came here on a regular basis to get clean.
“I can manage,” Kat said, although she didn’t let go of Connor’s waist. She was not sure she could manage alone, as much as she wanted to show her independence and strength—which was normally how she dealt with any situation.
He was still holding her waist with a tight grip to make sure she didn’t fall. “I’ll help, if you don’t mind.” Again, he said the words with authority, as if she had no say.
She assumed that was because he could envision her fighting to prove she could do this on her own when she truly wasn’t able. “Maya—”
“Isn’t strong enough to hold you up if you slip and fall. And the pressure of the falls will tire you. Trust me in this.”