Freakn' Shifters Bundle (3-in-1) (46 page)

“He won’t come back.” Sheng stated it with a little too much pleasure.

Men and their pride. Her lip curled. “Oh yes, he will, because you’re going to apologize.”

“Am not.”

Jiao planted her hands on her hips. “Are too.”

“Forget it. Not happening.”

And that quickly, she snapped. Her body twisted and reshaped as she leapt at Sheng, her nightgown fluttering to the floor. Taken by surprise, she hit Sheng hard and took him down. He recovered quickly, his own cat springing forth until they tussled on the floor in a snarling, spitting, furry tangle.

Hair flew – probably in a direct beeline to that stupid velvet covered chair. Claws raked – and turned the maple hardwood floors into a distressed version. Teeth tugged, not hard enough to cause true damage, but she got her point across. Despite Sheng’s larger size, Jiao used her annoyance and his inability to harm her against him. While she didn’t manage to pin him, she did get her sharp teeth around his tail. Or as she well knew, his personal Achilles tendon.

He yowled.

She growled and shook her prize.

He tugged lightly hoping to get free.

Her teeth sank in deeper.

Beaten, he lay down on the floor and sighed, his spotted fur rippling.

Releasing his tail, she pranced around the room in victory.
I won!
Sheng would call. And she’d get to see the handyman again. In person. Not in her dreams or fantasies – and probably wearing more clothes than she’d imagined him in. A shame. But hey, at least if Sheng finally hired him, she’d get her gym. But that came second on the pleasure scale as far as her cat was concerned.

Excitement made her race around the room. She couldn’t wait to see if Chris still affected her. If what she’d sensed with him before would happen again, or if was an anomaly. If he did make her cat, mind, and body, go haywire again, then what? She’d deal with that hurdle when she encountered it, whether Sheng approved or not.

I didn’t escape one cage to live in another.
It was time to stop hiding from the world. Time to let herself live – and maybe even love.

On four feet he chased the scent. Sweet. Exotic. It promised so many things. Fun things. Naked and sweaty things.

Chris never quite got a glimpse of the one he followed, but she also did nothing to hide her trail. The minx! She wanted him to catch her. Taunted his canine side to hunt her feline one.

Eager to end the teasing pursuit, he quickened his pace, leaping through the foliage, taking care to move as soundlessly as possible through the fallen leaves. He didn’t quite succeed, the crinkle of his passage loud in the still night.

She moved much more quietly, slinking and springing with a grace only cats could manage, the signs of her passage seen only in the tremble of branches and the foliage that still clung stubbornly to almost barren branches. Even without the faint physical evidence, he would have tracked her by scent alone. Despite the incongruity of a wolf lusting after a feline, her delectable aroma called him.

Trotting out into a clearing, a very empty clearing, Chris whipped his head from side to side, muzzle held high as he sniffed the air. Where had she gone? As if washed away by a heavy rain, the perfume he followed disappeared. Dissipated into thin air along with her.

Nose to the ground, he weaved through the grass, searching for a trace. Needing to find a clue. Needing to find her.

A whisper of sound and the change in air pressure warned him. He managed to partially turn, but didn’t move out of the way. She hit him and they tumbled, bodies rolling through the long, dry grass and fallen leaves. They landed in a heap of limbs. She batted him playfully and he nuzzled her. But cats and dogs couldn’t mix, in their animal form at least.

Shifting shapes, he enjoyed a brief sensation of silky fur against his skin before she too morphed into her human form. Skin to skin, he could have drooled in pleasure. Even better, he ended up on his back with her straddling him – naked.

Sweet, freakn’ hell. If Chris still wore his tail, he would have wagged it.

Lips curved in a teasing smile, she regarded him with dark eyes. Her long dark hair hung over her shoulders, a tempting curtain over her breasts. But he could imagine them; small handfuls, high and perky topped with succulent berries. Lower, her smooth skin tempted as far as he could see. He longed to see all of her. To know if she shaved like a human girl, or, like most shifters, kept the fur between her legs. Short of craning, he could only see her smooth belly with its dimpled naval.

Flattening her hands on his chest, she leaned forward. “Caught you,” she murmured, a mirthful lilt in her claim.

“Did you?” he queried back as he placed his hands on her hips. The feel of her flesh, warm and pliant under his fingers, made his simmering hunger flare, and his cock grew hard where it butted up against her ass. Oh how he longed to bury it inside her. To fill her with his essence. Watch her face as he stroked her to ecstasy. Claim her as his.

Why wait?

Quicker than she could reply, or taunt him more, Chris flipped them, cradling her body as he turned so she didn’t hit the ground hard. He rested atop her, pinning her with his weight. Not that she did anything to protest his maneuver. Laughter spilled forth and her sharp white teeth gleamed in the moonlight while her eyes crinkled at the corners.

“I do believe you’ve turned the tables. But what do you intend to do now, sir wolf?”

Do? Why only what he’d dreamt of since first meeting her. As a cloud passed over the moon, plunging them into deep darkness, he lowered his head, intent on capturing her mouth and finally tasting the lips of the woman who haunted his every waking thought and dream since the day he’d met her.

Before they could touch, sharp claws raked his back and a heavy body tumbled him aside. Rolling to his feet, four of them as he changed back to his wolf, he wasn’t quite quick enough to avoid another swipe of claws. Lucky him, he faced a very angry cat, a male cat who took offense at Chris seducing his woman. Couldn’t really blame him, but it didn’t mean Chris would roll over and bare his belly. Not if he wanted to win the woman who haunted him. He assessed his opponent, the little he could see.

Dark as the night cloaking him, only the glowing eyes and the scent of pissed feline helped him gauge where the enemy stood. The one thing that stood between him and his mate. Between Chris and …

“Hey, numb nuts, wake up!”

The rough shaking and name calling by his brother, Stu, yanked Chris from his dream into reality. “Screw off, jerk face,” he mumbled, still groggy from sleep.

“I get better results when I screw on. And I wouldn’t talk about faces. You look like you hit the front end of a truck and lost.”

Patting his visage, Chris frowned. “What are you talking about? I don’t feel anything wrong.” The damage from the lacrosse ball to his face a few days ago was already gone. Thank God for his enhanced healing ability, an awesome shifter trait.

“Unlucky bastard. That’s just your natural look I guess.”

The punch he aimed his brother’s way missed, unfortunately. But Stu achieved his aim. Chris, willing or not, was awake. “Any reason you woke me? Or did you just miss my witty conversation?”

“I have a better time talking with Naomi’s babies.”

“Probably because you’re just about their age level,” Chris retorted.

“Nothing wrong with being young at heart.”

“Is that the line you use when you tell girls you still live at home?”

Stu’s reply involved yanking the covers off and letting Chris, who slept in the buff, shiver, not from cold so much as the loss of his cozy dream. “If you’re done being a douche bag, go away.”

“I will, but the real reason I came up was to mention you have a phone call.”

“And you couldn’t take a message?”

“Do I look like your secretary? Besides, dude insisted on talking to you. Said it was important.”

“Did he give you a name?” Chris asked as he rolled out of bed and yanked on some track pants left in a muddle on the floor. Screw the shirt. He’d hit the basement gym for a few minutes after he got rid of whoever was on the phone.

“No. But he’s got a heavy duty accent. You know the kind most often heard in a corner store.”

“Don’t let mom hear you telling racist jokes. You know how she feels about them.”

Flicking a worried look at the door, Stu didn’t reply.

Chris snickered. “Look at the big bad wolf. Scared of his mama. I should tell.”

“If you do, I’ll tell dad about the television you put on layaway.”

“I wish I was adopted,” Chris growled. He’d thought his recent purchase a secret. He needed something to cheer him up when flashes of the Asian woman kept haunting him. How he’d explain an enormous, big screen TV to his dad when it showed up at the house he’d yet to figure out but surely something would come to mind. He hoped.

Of more interest was Stu’s claim the guy on the phone sounded Asian. Could it be?

Heart thumping with excitement, Chris bounded down the stairs to the corded phone in the kitchen. His mother tossed all their wireless home phones out after claiming she was tired of hunting for the damned things throughout the house. Personally, Chris thought she liked the idea of having the phone stuck in the kitchen so she could eavesdrop. His mama made no bones that she liked to know what went on in their lives – and often meddled.

As for his cell phone… It probably died. Again. Stupid thing. Who remembered to charge it nightly? Not him, that was for sure.

Putting the thick plastic receiver to his ear, Chris pulled the handset connected to the base via a springy coil with him as he headed for the coffee maker. “Hello.”

“Mr. Grayson?”

“Yup.” Chris fought the elation bubbling up as he recognized the speaker.

“I’m afraid we might have gotten off on the wrong foot the other day.”

Wrong foot? Understatement of the year. “Yeah. We did.” He wasn’t letting the guy off the hook too easy, even if he salivated at the thought of seeing the woman again.

“I-um-that is. Ow. Damn it all.” The guy let out a curse and the scratchy sound of a hand covering a mouthpiece didn’t completely mute the dull murmur of voices. The douchebag came back. “I’m sorry I acted like an ass.” Oh, how grudgingly he said it.

“That’s okay. It happens to all of us at one point in our lives.” Oh yeah, Chris was the bigger man. “So, was there something I can help you with?”
Say like removing your wife’s clothes and doing really dirty things to her while you’re out somewhere
. Because despite his usual creed that married women or girlfriend were off limits, he felt no compunction about ignoring it in this case. Buddy deserved it. And she deserved better.

“I’d like you to come back and give me a quote on doing the basement renovation.”

Yes!
“No more slammed doors?”

“No,” the Asian dude growled.

“In that case, sure. I’ll swing by after lunch sometime, if that’s okay.”

“Fine. I have the day off, so anytime is good. Bye.” Before the dude hung up, Chris heard him say a terse, “Happy now?”

Well. Well. It seemed his Asian friend wasn’t too keen on calling him back. Of even more interest, it seemed the exotic lady haunting his dreams made him.

I’m coming back to see you, baby.
This time, married or not, Chris intended to figure out if she was his mate because if he had to jack off one more time in the shower, he’d probably kill his brother. Stupid jerk kept knocking right at the crucial moment.

Whistling, he bounded up the stairs and ran into said brother in the hallway.

“What’s got you grinning from ear to ear?” Stu asked blocking him from going into the bathroom.

“None of your business. Now move. I’ve got to get ready for work.”

“Wait second, little bro. Not so fast. You were just talking to that Asian dude on the phone. And now you’re smiling. I get it. Someone’s in love. I’m surprised.  I didn’t take you for a dick lover. Ah well, more ladies for the rest of us.” Stu smirked.

Chris growled. “For the last time, I am not gay. Or have you conveniently ignored the fact I spend more nights out of the house than you?”

“And? It’s not like you’ve ever brought a girl home. I think your stories about spreading the love with the ladies is a cover for an oral appreciation of sausage.”

Oh he did not just say that. “For your information, pencil dick, I was smiling because buddy’s hot wife has a thing for me.”

“Oh my freakn’ god. You’re going to have a threesome.” Stu’s eyes bugged out of his head. “And to think you made fun of Mitchell.”

“I am not having a threesome. No way. No how. Over my dead body.”

“Is that a comment on my lifestyle choice?” growled Mitchell’s familiar voice.

Uh-oh. Chris turned and plastered a bright smile on his face “Mitchell. My favorite brother. I didn’t know you were here.”

“Obviously. I came to grab my bins of winter clothes. But I’m more interested in your views on polygamous relationships.”

“Gee, I’d love to sit and discuss the merits with you, but I really need to shower. And shave. Important meeting with a client you know.” One he preferred not to arrive to sporting a shiner.  Chris healed fast because of his shifter heritage, but not that fast.