She glared into the dark, fiercely male face that had haunted her dreams far more nights than she wanted to admit.
“You broke my heart.”
He grimaced before he was rubbing his thumb over her lower lip.
“That was never my intention.”
She knocked away his hand. She couldn’t think when he was touching her.
“Of course it was,” she hissed. “You walked away from me while I was trying to confess my love and had another female in your arms mere minutes later.” She gripped the arms of the chair as pain lanced through her heart. Twenty years might have passed, but the wound had never healed. “And then, to top it off, you disappeared the next morning for over a year. No goodbye. No note. No calls. Only a male who deliberately wanted to hurt a female would do something like that.”
With a stubborn insistence he returned his hand to her face, his fingers tracing the line of her jaw.
“Girl,” he said, his voice thick.
“What?”
“You weren’t a fully-grown female. You were a girl who was barely out of puberty,” he insisted.
Her eyes narrowed. The…jackass.
If he was going to make up excuses for ripping out her heart and stomping on it, at least he could try to be creative.
“Screw you.”
The rich scent of musk filled the air, the dangerous power of Hakan’s cat shimmering in his eyes. Slowly he leaned forward, his lips lightly brushing over hers.
More a promise than a threat.
For now.
“Oh, there’s going to be some screwing,” he warned her softly. “But not until we get this mess straightened out.”
CHAPTER 3
Hakan watched with a sense of satisfaction as a flush stained her ivory cheeks.
Good.
He’d always known he was taking the risk of destroying her love for him. And if he’d been the sort of Pantera who had complete control over his animal side he would never have shoved her away. But he was who he was, and the only way to protect her had been to build impenetrable barriers.
Now he felt a soul-deep surge of relief as he caught sight of the pained longing that smoldered deep in her eyes.
She might be pissed as hell. And she might even think she hated him.
But at least she wasn’t indifferent.
And that’s all that mattered.
She frowned as his fingers lightly trailed down the length of her neck, trying to pretend she wasn’t trembling with the same need that held him in thrall.
“Shouldn’t you be out there keeping watch?” she demanded in husky tones.
“No one can enter the house without setting off the alarm,” he assured her. “Not even another Pantera.”
His fingers followed the neckline of her blouse before he grabbed it with both hands and ripped it in two.
“Hakan,” she gasped, her eyes wide with disbelief as he tossed aside the destroyed fabric.
He’d always done his best to restrain his primitive side. Now he allowed the urges of his animal side to take the lead.
She might as well see the truth of the male she was about to mate.
And they were going to mate.
Period. End of story.
“Yes?” he murmured, grasping the lacy bra to dispose of it with equal ease.
He sucked in a deep, appreciative breath as her small, rounded breasts were exposed.
Holy hell. They were perfect. The precise size to fit in his palms, and tipped with nipples the shade of primroses.
“You’re ruining my clothes,” she choked out.
Shrugging, Hakan gently cupped her breasts in his hands, his thumbs teasing the tips of her nipples until they hardened into sweet nubs that begged to be tasted.
“They were headed for the trash,” he muttered. His pretty little Geek was a true clothes fanatic. Which was why he’d added a walk-in closet to the house he was building in an isolated section of the Wildlands. She would never wear anything that had been soiled by three days locked in a basement. “Besides, you like it,” he murmured.
“Bullshit,” she rasped, her voice shaky.
He leaned forward, planting a lingering kiss between her breasts.
“Then why is your heart racing?”
“Because you’re being an annoying ass.”
He nuzzled a path of kisses over the upper curve of her breast, his fingers toying with her tender nipple.
“Do you know why I was standing outside your house that night you realized that I was your mate?” he demanded.
“I…” She clenched her jaw, blatantly trying to resist his ruthless seduction. “Does it matter?”
He pulled back, studying her pale face. “Look at me, Payton.”
There was a long pause as she kept her gaze averted. Then, realizing that he was prepared to wait the rest of the night, she tilted back her head.
“Fine,” she snapped. “Why were you standing out there?”
“Because I’d seen you out partying with those young males and I needed to know you made it home safely.”
She stiffened at his soft words. “I already have a father. I don’t need another one.”
Hakan gave a sharp bark of laughter. The night he’d returned from his travels to see her surrounded by a group of adolescent males who were all sniffing around her was seared forever in his mind.
His cat had nearly gone insane with the need to mark her, to prove to everyone that she belonged to him, and that any touching from another male would lead to a slow, painful death.
“Believe me, my feelings weren’t fatherly.” His voice was harsh. “The minute I caught sight of you dressed in those short-shorts and tank top I knew I had to get away from you.”
“That’s why you crawled into bed with Jessa?”
He shook his head, holding her accusing glare. “No, Jessa and I have been friends for a very long time.”
She studied him for a long moment, clearly finding it hard to believe he hadn’t bedded the beautiful Hunter.
“Nothing else?”
His fingers skimmed down to span her narrow waist. He swallowed a low growl of pleasure. She fit so perfect in his hands.
“She’s like a sister to me,” he said, struggling to concentrate.
He logically understood the need to convince Payton that he’d merely been protecting her, but his body had waited far too long.
The need to possess her was a searing fire that threatened to consume him.
Payton pressed her lips together. “I saw her throw herself into your arms.”
“She was trying to make her latest boyfriend jealous.” He gave a lift of one shoulder. “It was unfortunate timing. Nothing else.”
She hesitated, unable to miss the sincerity in his voice. Then slowly her brows drew together as she regarded him with an agonized disbelief.
“You knew what I believed,” she accused, her voice shaking with a furious distress. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
He swallowed a sigh. Damn. He hadn’t actually considered the fact that learning he hadn’t been unfaithful would be as painful as her initial fear he’d taken another female to his bed.
“Because I no longer had the strength to resist my desire to possess you,” he confessed.
Her jaw tightened. “I made it humiliatingly clear I wanted to be possessed.”
“You were too young.” His gaze swept over her heart-shaped face, lingering on the lush curve of her mouth. The thought of those lips on his body had tormented him for two decades. “And still so terrifyingly fragile.”
“Just because I’m not a monstrous brute like you doesn’t mean I’m weak,” she informed him.
“I don’t mean size.” His gaze compulsively lowered to her bared breasts, his fingers lightly tracing the curve of her waist. “You were just starting your studies and finding your place with your friends. If I had taken you as my mate you would never have become the female you are today.”
She grabbed his wrists, but she
made no effort to pull away his hands.
Thank the Goddess.
It was going to take a long time for him to recover from his horror when he’d heard she was missing. He needed the physical contact to assure his cat she was alive and well.
“So it was for my own good?” she asked.
“For both of us,” he insisted. “You might not have noticed, but I can be a little—”
“Arrogant? Pig-headed? Annoying as hell?” she interrupted with an overly sweet smile.
“Dominating,” he corrected, his fingers skimming upward. “Even though I loved you, I would have demanded your complete surrender. And you were too eager to please me to stand against my overbearing nature.”
Her pulse fluttered as he cupped her soft breasts, her nails digging into the flesh of his inner wrist.
“I’m not that eager girl anymore.”
“Exactly.” His cock hardened at the tiny pinpricks of pain. The intoxicating scent of her arousal was filling the air, making it almost impossible to focus. “You know who you are and what you want. Most importantly, you’re more than capable of telling me exactly what’s on your mind. You won’t suppress your own needs in an effort to fulfill mine.”
She shivered as his thumbs teased at her tender nipples, her eyes dark with desire.
“Stop that,” she growled. “There’s not going to be any fulfilling of needs.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, my dear.” Enough. Not giving her time to react, he slid his arms around her and scooped her out of the chair. Then, straightening, he crossed the library to the chaise longue that was tucked in a shadowed alcove. “I’ve waited an eternity for you.” Laying her on the brocade cushions, Hakan stared down at her with a predatory hunger. “Tonight you become mine.”
***
“You actually expect me to forgive you?” Payton demanded, her heart thundering as he slowly lowered his large form to kneel beside the chaise longue.
He looked big and dangerous and sexy as hell.
Shivering, she tried to ignore the sizzling anticipation that scorched through her as he tugged off her shoes and tossed them aside.
She wanted to be mad.
To remember all the reasons she shouldn’t want this.
He’d hurt her, crushed her youthful dreams…allowed her to believe he’d been unfaithful.
So why was she trembling with a need that she couldn’t control?
“Of course you’ll forgive me,” he murmured, leaning down to remove the gun holstered at her ankle before he was efficiently unzipping her slacks and sliding them off her body.
“Why should I?”
He smiled as he ripped off her tiny thong, leaving her completely naked.
“Because you know I was right,” he assured her, allowing his hand to trail up her leg and over the curve of her hip.
“You always think you’re right,” she said, her voice husky with desire.
“True,” he admitted, leaning down to replace his fingers with the destructive touch of his lips. “But you know you wouldn’t be this bold, confident female you are today if I’d taken you twenty years ago.”
She shuddered, her eyes squeezing shut as she savored the sensation of his mouth skimming over the soft swell of her stomach before heading slowly upward. He licked the bottom curve of her breast, then the acutely sensitive tip.
The pleasure exploded through her even as she grudgingly accepted that he might have a point.
Although she’d felt like a female when her cat had chosen Hakan as a mate, she could look back and see that she’d still been incredibly young. And it was true she would have done anything to please him.
Even if it meant denying her own wants and needs.
“You could have talked to me,” she said. “You didn’t have to be so cruel.”
His fingers threaded through her coppery curls, arching her neck and at the same time holding her in place.
“Would you have listened?” he breathed, nibbling a path of kisses along the vulnerable curve of her throat. “Or would you have pressed me to complete the mating?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“You would have teased and tempted and I would have been far too weak to resist you.” His fingers tightened in her curls, his free hand palming her breast as she arched toward him in silent invitation. Lightning bolts of bliss raced through her, a damp heat blooming between her legs. “I had to put a barrier between us.”
A moan escaped her lips as his teeth nipped the sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder, her cat responding with a snarl of urgency. She needed…more.
Bare skin.
Teeth. Claws.
Reaching up, she grabbed at his T-shirt and jerked it over his head, exposing the beauty of his hard, sculpted chest. Her breath tangled in her throat as she allowed her hand to glide over the heated silk of his skin.
She’d ached to touch him for so long.
“And now?” she asked.
He lifted his head to study her with eyes that glowed with an amber fire.
His expression was no longer aloof. It was possessive. And demanding. And stark with yearning.
“Now I’ll fight to the death to earn back your trust.”
Oh. The bastard. For a male who’d always claimed he was better with his hands than his words, he seemed to know exactly what to say to her.
“Sex isn’t the same as trust,” she muttered.
“I know, but it’s a start to repairing the damage.” He caught the tip of her nipple between his teeth, sending a shockwave of ecstasy through her. He gave a wicked chuckle at her gasp of pleasure. “Besides, if I’m not between your legs and buried deep inside you soon I’m going to explode.”
Yeah, she totally got the whole about-to-explode thing.
Her entire body was clenched tight, aching to be filled by the male who was rising to his feet to strip away the rest of his clothing.
“Were there—”
She forgot how to speak as his jeans dropped to reveal the large thrust of his cock that was fully erect.
Oh. My.
She’d assumed he would be big. He was, after all, a massive Pantera Hunter. But she hadn’t suspected he’d be so thick. Or hard.
Or that the mere sight of his erection would make her pussy clench with anticipation.
“Were there what?” he prompted, once again crouching beside the lounge chair.
She shook her head, abruptly realizing she didn’t want the answer to her impetuous question.
“Nothing.”
Of course he knew what was troubling her. He’d always known what she was thinking.
And feeling.
“My beautiful Payton.” Hakan gently tucked a curl behind her ear, his male musk seeping into her skin and clouding her mind with a glorious sense of euphoria. “There’s been no one else.”
Relief seared through her. “No one?”
“Not since the night you accepted I was your mate.”
He once again lowered his head, closing his lips around her nipple to suck her with an insistent need.
She groaned, her hands gripping his shoulders as the pleasure cascaded through her.
It felt like sensory overload.
The brush of velvet cushions against her back. The heat of male Pantera searing her skin. And the magical feel of his lips as they moved to press over the thundering beat of her heart.
“Oh,” she breathed in wonder.
His hands gripped her legs, tugging them apart as his lips traced the curve of her breast.
“Does that surprise you?”
His fingers slid over her quivering belly, lowering between her spread legs. A groan was ripped from her throat as he found her sensitive clitoris.
She struggled to draw air into her lungs as he trailed a path of kisses from one breast to the other before heading back up her throat.
“I tortured myself with thoughts of you with other women,” she admitted, her hands tracing the bulging muscles of his shoulders.
>
He gave a low growl, allowing his fingers to slide through her slick heat before slowly pressing into her body. Her back bowed in pleasure. Oh…blessed Goddess. He knew precisely how to touch her.
“My cat had already found its partner,” he said, nibbling at the edge of her mouth. “I had no interest in any other female.”
“And the male?”
He pulled back far enough for her to see the fierce sincerity that burned in his amber eyes.
“He was in complete agreement.”
Oh…hell. She dug her nails into his shoulders, feeling the righteous anger she’d clung to for so long beginning to melt.
And her grudge wasn’t the only thing melting, she acknowledged as his fingers pressed deeper into her body, his thumb rubbing against the sweet spot at the top of her clit.
Dammit. She’d wanted this male for what seemed like forever.
Was she going to allow her wounded pride to punish both of them?
Her hands smoothed down the sleek bronzed skin of his chest before lowering to the hard-as-steel six-pack.
Hakan was larger than most Pantera, with a power that made him one of the most lethal Hunters in the Wildlands, but he was careful to leash his strength as he claimed her lips in a kiss that demanded complete surrender.
Need seared through her, scorching away any hope of resistance.
Just a few hours ago she would have sworn that she would rather kiss a gator than crawl into bed with Hakan. Now she was desperate to feel his heavy body pressing her into the chaise longue, thrusting deep inside her as she reached her ultimate bliss.
Lowering her hand, she wrapped her fingers around the wide width of his cock, smiling at his violent shudder.
Ah. She’d never realized the rush of power that came from giving another pleasure.
“I need you, Hakan,” she pleaded in rough tones.
He chuckled, blazing a path of kisses down her throat.
“Soon,” he promised, continuing to press urgent kisses over her breasts and down the quivering plane of her stomach.
She made a sound of surprise when he tugged her until she was on the edge of the chaise longue so he could kneel between her spread legs. Then, holding her startled gaze, he leaned forward to trail his tongue along the tender skin of her inner thigh.