Collared for a Night (Crimson Romance) (26 page)

“This is exactly what you need. Isn’t it?” He fucked her, riding Diana hard, moving into and out of her in a sex-sprint, pounding a rhythm into her body. With every slam of his hips, she moaned. He was riding her in a relentless, forceful rhythm that had her gasping with every breath.

“Just like that. Shawn, you feel incredible,” she whispered, her eyelids fluttering. Diana looked overwhelmed as if caught on a tide of ecstasy that he delivered. This was their bliss.

His balls tightened in the familiar way that sent a tingling slither up his spine. “Baby, I’m going to come. Are you near?”

“Close. Very close.” She pressed back onto the table, thrumming her finger in a pattern around her clit, then she opened her mouth and his name spilled from her lips. “Shawn, that’s it. Oh, God … ”

“Baby, come all around me. You feel fucking fantastic.”

His back arched, and the spray of semen leaving his body made him shudder. At the same time he clutched her waist, slamming into her, delivering his cock as far as he could go. Her pussy clenched around him, holding him tight, and he continued to pound into her. Another jet of semen left him, and his mind blanked.

Forget the gym. This had been an aerobic workout. Sweat droplets ran down his face and splattered on the table. Her skin had the faint speckling pattern and glowed golden. Leopardess eyes stared back at him for several moments, until she blinked. He picked her up and took her to the sofa, her legs still straddled around his waist. For a long moment he held onto her, not bothering to say a word. They sat there, silent and suffused in pleasure. She pressed her cheek against his shoulder, sighing softly.

“I love you,” he growled, wanting to forget the dinner and make love to her all night. He wanted to see his cum running out of her, down her pussy, after he’d finally mated with her. Then she’d be his, without question.

“God, I can’t wait until I can fill you so full of my semen that it will run down your legs. Possess you and release inside you.”

“Are you certain your bonds with Mia are truly severed?” She stared at him with unblinking, human eyes.

“Absolutely. No question as to that part of my life being over. Thank God.”

He and Mia had had sex, but nothing like this. With Diana, there was a deep, unwavering hunger that until now, he’d never understood or even known existed. With other women and shifters, sex was an orchestrated event. Controlled. A physical release.

With Mia it had been destined for failure. He could see how far off the mark he’d been in selecting a mate without this connection. What the hell had he been thinking? Mia was anything but a true leopardess. Back then, Mia been adamant in her refusal to shift. She abhorred being part leopard. Everything had to be structured, purposeful, and he’d only witnessed her shift a couple of times. She wasn’t anything like Diana.

“Kitten, that
woman
isn’t proud of her heritage. I love how you own your leopardess nature. It’s one of the reasons why I love you. All of you.”

She stiffened, the tension hiking in her body. “Sometimes, when I’m unable to control that side of me, it feels anything other than attractive. Especially when you’re not only head of Matrix, but working on a council that expects shifters to restrain themselves. I just wish I wasn’t always on edge … feeling as though any second I was about to shift without warning. I know I’ve changed, but I still feel out of control.”

“You’re utterly intoxicating to me.”

How could she not know her charm?
An alpha leopardess such as Diana was a rare specimen of utter beauty from nose to tail. Her power, grace, and stamina combined into a relentless effervescence and had gotten under his skin with one taste. No healer would bring him back if something happened between Diana and him. She may feel the pressure of being in a relationship at this second, with his ex breathing down her neck. But this was temporary, and he’d make damned certain this situation was never repeated.

Exhaling the oxygen from his lungs, he contemplated his own state as he caressed Diana’s silky skin, and was assured more than ever that he’d burn, incinerate, if she left him. There’d be nothing left to save.

Chapter 17

Seeing Shawn’s ex-girlfriend or ex-fiancée or ex-whatever hadn’t been the worst; not by a long shot. It was the expression on his face that had nearly broken her heart in two. Wasn’t that what she had feared all along? Pasteurized milk would have lasted longer than this relationship.

The novel weight of the beautiful ring on her finger kept stabbing her memory, so cutting that she wanted to remove it and give it back to Shawn. The irony of having started out with a band of metal and now, again, caught tightly by another band, imprisoned by her own desire, wasn’t lost on her. No matter what Shawn said, the fact that she continued to feel less than in control of herself had her reeling.

She rotated her engagement ring around her finger as her stomach continued to clench. If only she could be the perfect mate for someone such as Shawn. He was so in control of himself with his iron will. He deserved a stately mate, a woman to be by his side in the world of business and politics who wouldn’t go over the edge at the snap of a twig … or appearance of an old lover.

She gazed at her reflection in the mirror, wishing she’d listened to her own argument that Shawn was temporary. He was too caught by his own lust to see her clearly, as he admitted. He wasn’t thinking straight. How long it would last, she didn’t know. Her options were to stay or return to Denver; to break it off or … what? Leave Matrix, move, and do what she’d done before, which amounted to the primal reaction of running and hiding.

She struggled to keep the tears at bay, taking a slow breath. Her heart whispered hope. If this were a choice, why couldn’t she choose another option? She wasn’t the same leopardess as when she left home. Not the same as when Cole had died. Not even the same shifter as a month ago. To leave Shawn and never experience the pleasure of him … Her claws threatened to spring free of her fingertips.

That option didn’t dampen her desire, though, or diminish what the leopardess inside her craved. A silent roar reverberated inside her mind, aching for the chance to seize this opportunity. Ever since she’d stayed her ground with the bear, the idea of backing down and walking away tasted bitter. Too bitter to swallow. Not when it was Shawn’s well-being at stake.

Diana’s mind and heart raced, recalling Mia’s scent and demeanor. The woman gave good face, but that was it. At first, the scent of Shawn on her skin tore at Diana, prickling a sense of jealousy. Well, if Cole was here and they’d somehow broken up, her scent would be on him, as his would be on her. Shawn never mentioned if she still carried a tinge of another male’s mark. Her mate’s death would have changed her own scent when she licked his broken body. Perhaps that’s why it was her instinct to bathe him, clean his fur, and why she’d felt an insane need driving her to find another mate so soon. Nature’s way wasn’t always kind or generous; the fittest survived. It was the only law of the jungle — concrete or vegetative. Right now, that’s what this matter boiled down to: who was most fit.

She inhaled, gazing into the mirror, and refrained from acting on the desire to gauge her surroundings. Another deep breath and her heartbeat didn’t seem as wild.

Was she willing to stand and fight for what was hers, or give in to a woman who, by her very nature, would destroy whatever she touched? The flaming heat and ensuing color rising along her cheekbones, her neck, and over her chest would betray her.

No signs of blotchy patches on her skin. Not yet, at least. Peering at her reflection, she contemplated the rate at which her skin mottled; a sure sign rosettes were on the way. If she gave in to unrestrained temptation.

Tonight, arriving in a slinky cocktail dress required that she pull her instincts back into the realm of cool observation. Had she a tail, it would snap every now and again, demonstrating a lay-in-wait attitude. Now wasn’t the time to be careless. High atop a Las Vegas hotel situated in a Sky Loft or down on the Strip, were no different than traversing mountainous terrain near Denver. She’d been taught well by Shawn and Tristen. Last week, she’d practiced new skills in letting prey come to her. Not the other way around. Tonight, she’d be shrewd for Shawn’s sake.

Exiting the bathroom, she found him sitting on the bed. He stood as she entered, dressed in a dark suit, bringing out the color of his eyes. His shirt was unbuttoned at the throat and his cuffs twinkled with a hint of platinum links. A gift she’d had made for him as a small token for what he’d endowed her with over the last few weeks.

“Come here and let me look at you,” he said. “You’re too gorgeous for words.”

“You clean up well yourself,” she said, lifting her chin and staring into his striking eyes.

He took her by the shoulders, drawing her to him. He rubbed his cheek against the side of her face, firmly pressing and stimulating her glands, and marking her almost primitively. In turn, she pressed her cheek to his face, and stroked his skin. The sensation was exquisite, a release that bordered on a mini-orgasm, and bathed her bloodstream with a rush of hormones. Instead of intoxicating excitement, this ritual sated her, prepared her, and if they continued, both of them would be pushing the need to mate.

“This feels so good. Shawn, not much more.”

“If you only knew what you did to me. I love you. You are mine. It’s only a matter of setting the date, baby. I’m ready right now.”

The words she ached to tell him swelled in her chest. She fought bringing up the subject of just what type of shifter he’d be better suited to find. After nibbling on the corner of her mouth, she decided at least one of them should strive to be transparent.

“Are you? Or are you uncertain and need to find your footing? You always told me to play my edge. How certain are you that Mia or someone just as sophisticated isn’t an edge that will keep coming back to haunt you? My God, you’re so generous to everyone and I don’t want to be a place where you get stuck.”

He kissed her temple, whispering, “Oh, I’m stuck on you in all the right ways.” Shawn pulled back and met her gaze. “Mia means nothing to me. There’s no way to compare what I feel for you to a mistake. And I don’t know what you mean by
sophisticated.
You are that and more. Put that idea outside your circle of concerns. She and Frazier may be up to something, but nothing that need concern us. What we need to do is to get going.” He smacked her bottom, squeezing her ass cheek in his hand.

Of course his sentiment was perfect, as were his words. It was his nature to be munificent. He was selling himself to her and she wished with all her heart that he realized, before it was too late, just what he was doing. She wanted to believe him because he sounded so certain; but what one believed was subject to change, and that lesson she’d also learned.

God help Mia if she tried something. Diana vowed to herself that this time she wasn’t about to run away or turn the other cheek. She squeezed Shawn, wanting him to know he might consider her his to claim, and that was true. Her chest tightened. He was the perfect mate. The leopardess in her rioted to submit to him, let him claim her as he desired. Something inside her unclenched, and her heart burst apart, filling her with a dizzying love. Just as the first time he’d said it had rocked her world, the realization that she was desperately in love with him bubbled inside her. If that were the case, then, he was hers. Even if this ended tomorrow, at this moment, rightfully in all ways, he was hers, and she wasn’t about to let some fur-biting tramp with a closet of expensive clothes hurt her mate.

“I’m more than ready,” she said.

• • •

The car pulled up to the restaurant and Shawn clasped her hand. “Let’s have a good time. We’ll celebrate you and me, baby.”

She smiled back at him, caught in his enthusiasm. “I brought my dancing shoes.”

His eyes slid lazily down her legs, and he inhaled. “Baby, those shoes say many things. Dancing isn’t what comes to mind.”

She held back from laughing. Slingbacks with six-inch-heels weren’t exactly Ginger Rogers’s knockoffs, or the reason behind prompting her selection. These little gems were worn to excite him, and his reaction sent a jolt of satisfaction into her core.

Alpha leopardess or not, the woman inside her rejoiced in scoring one for the home team. The dress was something she’d accepted from him. A slit going mid thigh-high required just the right accessories. Baring her body was one thing she did for him in private; dressing up to titillate was new ground for her. She found Shawn alluring and empowering in the way he continued to touch her, stroke her, and growl promises of what he planned on doing when they returned. Oh yeah, she was pleased with his reaction.

They were escorted inside and while surveying the room, she noticed the presence of the Matrix staff as well as countless unknown faces. She observed Shawn’s ease in dealing with the restaurant staff. Not unlike how he operated at every moment: distinguished, and so sure of himself. He stepped away from her to speak with Tristen.

Out of the shadows, Mia came sauntering over. Diana casually glanced to the maître d’s desk where Shawn had been standing and he was gone. Every hair on her body bristled. She shifted her gaze back to Mia, lifted her chin, and held the woman’s mocking glare. The conversation from the other room receded, but she was aware that all eyes were on them, and she tried to maintain an air of placid coolness as her insides tightened.

“My, my, look what we have here. The honored guest, and you’re all alone. Good thing I just arrived to keep you company. Dearest Diana, lurking in doorways isn’t always a good sign. Didn’t your family teach you any manners?”

The tips of Diana’s fingers and toes flexed to the point of pain. Her muscles contracted and she pulled in a steady column of air to calm her mind.
Remember, she’s here to undo you. Keep steady.

“The woman from the rehearsal? Are you working here as well?” Diana’s question struck home, the direct hit revealed in the widening of Mia’s eyes.