Hot Licks (21 page)

“Well damn. I miss all the fun.”

Gwen looked up at him with a frown. “Where were you?”

“A date.”

“Not with Beth?”

When he didn’t answer she said, “One day you’re going to sleep with the wrong guest.”

He scratched his chin. “I don’t do it while they’re an actual guest. Besides, I agreed to meet with Beth only to make sure she understood it was over between us. But, well.”

“But one thing led to another?” She shot him an amused look, the normalcy of the conversation in the midst of such bizarre circumstances not lost on her.

His eyes flashed to her neck, lighting with what might be male approval. “Guys don’t say no to sex.”

“It’s spelled en oh. No.” Melinda’s voice came from his other side. Unlike Gwen, she was actually dressed. She wore a light weight lounge set, cute baby blue flip-flops with little white flowers and carried an umbrella over her head.

She bypassed her son and moved next to Gwen, raising her arm to accommodate Gwen’s additional height under the umbrella’s covering “So?”

Thinking the older woman wanted an explanation, Gwen summed up the last ten minutes.

“Ah. Actually, I was more concerned about what you think.” Gwen turned quizzical eyes on Melinda. “Huh?”

Waving a hand delicately in the air in front of them, Melinda said, “About Rome. You. Us.”

Gwen was still confused and repeated, “Huh?”

Melinda heaved out a sigh. “Oh dear. Rome never did tell you, did he?”

“Hmm.” Gwen turned back to stare out over the lawn.

Dark shapes took form as the men returned. “Not a single word.”

For some reason Porter seemed to find that hilarious.

After a moment of stunned silence he began to laugh. And laugh. “I knew you were made of awesome,” he managed to say when he drew in a breath. Wiping tears from eyes once again lingering on Rome’s bite mark, he added, “Welcome to the zoo, sis.”

Gwen would have rolled her eyes, but they were riveted on the single black jaguar stalking towards her. Her heart kicked into high gear as he neared, her breath catching in her throat when he came to a halt right in front of her. Then he opened his enormous mouth, showing off those deadly sharp teeth, and let out a rumbling growl.

“What?” She asked. “What I do?”

“He got away,” Scott groused. “He had a boat waiting in that far cove, behind some rocks. They were already moving off when the vamp made the jump. Rome would have jumped too, except Andreas swiped at him. Probably would’ve gotten chewed up by the propeller if he hadn’t.”

Gwen’s gut clenched at that gruesome thought. She looked over at Andreas, figuring the jaguar sitting at Melinda’s side rather then the one sprawled on the grass was the head of the family. Then she glared at Rome.

“Idiot.” He butted his wet, furry head against her leg, hard and let out a sub-vocal roar.

“He wants you back in the house, dear.” Melinda told her kindly, then ruined it with a snicker. “He doesn’t approve of your attire.”

Gwen looked down at herself. Both the panties and tank were dark-colored and the rain hadn’t been strong enough to mold them to her body. “Can he understand what I say?” She asked of no one in particular.

“Yes,” Porter’s reply held amused anticipation.

“Well then,” Gwen scowled down at the black jaguar who was looking up at her through slitted eyes full of predatory possession. “I’m as covered as I was in my bathing suit. So chill.”

Dismissing Rome, Gwen turned her attention to Scott.

“Do you think they’ll try again, knowing who, or what I guess I should say, lives here?”

Scott shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans, the gesture causing the muscles in his arms bunch, the ripples of supple strength to pull across his chest. The sight made Gwen wonder if all shifters were built for power and endurance. “Greed, either real or misguided, will outweigh any trepidation. They’ll just come up with another plan of attack.”

“So we’ll have to be ready for anything,” Porter commented dryly, his mirth dissolving under the weight of an uncertain future. “Maybe it’s time to get Del back home.”

“Why not just make some public statement that Morgan’s treasure doesn’t exist? We’ll stop talking about it to the guests and after awhile, it will all go away.” Gwen suggested.

“No.” Melinda’s tone was firm. “This is my home and I will not pander to a bunch of hooligans, and I definitely won’t stop encouraging the dreams of the children that come here.” Well. That nipped that idea in the bud.

Gwen felt sharp teeth surround her thigh, not with any real pressure to hurt or puncture, but it definitely got her attention. She looked down at a three-hundred plus pound feline who was through being ignored. “Fine, I’ll go in. But this time we
are
going to talk.”

As Gwen padded up the steps she glanced over her
shoulder to see Rome at the base of the stairs, watching
her every move through a predator’s eyes, narrowed into
slits of concentration. His big, black, fur-covered face
lowered, a strange long,
hungry
growl emerged from his closed mouth. At that moment, he was a dangerous hunter, and she his prey.

Daunted at the sudden shift in his demeanor, her breath caught in her throat, eyes wide with uncertainty. She told herself not to run, that it would only spur him on, but then that mouth opened to reveal razor edged teeth that could easily rip her flesh from her bones. He let out a low roar and bounded for the stairs.

Her feet grew wings.

Heart playing a staccato beat in her head, she raced up the remaining steps and flew down the hall to her room.

She hadn’t closed her door all the way and now only needed to push it open instead of utilizing the key card, which would have done no good as it was still on her dresser.

Even as she went to slam the door closed, Rome’s body thudded against it, and she took off toward the next possible place of safety. She reached out to shut the bedroom door as she crossed the threshold, only to feel his heavy paws land on her shoulders. She let out a squeak of alarm and fell forward, to land half on, half off the bed. When his weight didn’t follow her down, she flipped over on the mattress, feeling the air thicken behind her.

By the time she twisted into a sitting position, Rome had changed back to human form. A sexually aroused one at that. His erection stood out from the nest of dark hair at his groin, straight and proud. A single vein throbbed along its entire length, the engorged tip pointed right at her. Even the spurt of fear wasn’t enough to stop her from licking her lips at the sight.

When she forced her gaze up, it was to see Rome still watching her with dangerous intent. Only there was a smug glint in his eye that made her instantly suspicious. “You were playing with me?”

His lips curved in a wicked grin at the indignant remark. “You were moving too slow.”

Her eyes narrowed as he took a purposeful step toward her. “I’ll show you moving too slow.” She crossed one ankle behind the other over the side of the bed, effectively preventing him from slipping between her thighs.

At his frown she sent him her own smug smile. “Talk first.”

His expression was noticeably unhappy as he came to a halt, lacing his hands on top of his head. Biceps bulged, making her body quiver in feminine appreciation and rising hunger. Desire curled in long flickering flames low in her belly. “First of all, where were you?”

A slight tinge of red colored his cheeks. Fascinating.

“Upstairs to get more condoms.” He looked at his jeans, shredded into tiny bits on the floor of her bedroom. “Which are toast now.”

Condoms? As in plural? They’d never be able to walk again. Ignoring the heat engulfing her at the thought, she moved on to the elephant in the room, asking with calm inquisitiveness, “What are you?”

His eyes were twin beams of caution as he finally formed the words to what she already knew.“My father, brothers and I are shifters. Cat shifters.”

Well duh. Though she did find it interesting how wary he seemed, as if fearful of her reaction to the truth. With each breath he took, his chest expanded, highlighting the strength and agility under all that smooth skin. The muscles in his thighs twitched as he kept himself in check, the blatant display of his arousal unashamedly bare for her viewing pleasure.

It made her feel deliciously wanted. “I could see that for myself.”

He shut his eyes and kept them closed, as if seeing her was too much of a temptation to resist. “I know I should have told you.”

“Yes, you should have.” She reached out to touch him, but he was too far away. She licked her lips as a naughty thought rose.

“My only excuse is that I was sc-shee-it.” His reasoning ended on a drawn-out curse as she wrapped her hand around his erection and slid it along his hard shaft. Dark eyes popped open and he stared down at Gwen who was now on her knees in front of him. “Babe.” He ground out between clenched teeth. “You said you wanted to talk. I’m trying my best here, but you keep that up and there won’t be any talking.”

“There’s nothing preventing you from talking.” She slid her tongue along his hot length.

His whole body shuddered. “Except your lips on my cock.”

“You mean like this?” Opening her mouth, she took the tip of him inside, tasting and loving the richness of his flavor as she swirled her tongue around the plump head.

“Oh, fuck yeah.” He groaned. “Just like that. But deeper. Take more of me in that sweet mouth.”

She immediately let go with a wet pop and sat back on her haunches, hands on her thighs. “Or I could stop.” Her damp breath brushed over the flared crest.

A muscle twitched in his jaw and he looked from her to his glistening cock and back again. “That’s just mean.”

One side of her mouth lifted to match her raised brow.

“Your choice.”

In answer, he tangled one hand in her hair and nudged her gently forward. “There is no choice.”

She tickled the sensitive underside with the tip of her tongue. “You’d better hurry then. I’m starting to feel awfully needy.”

His nostrils flared wide, eyes growing even darker with hunger. “I know and it’s making me as crazed as your teasing.” He let out a harsh groan when she wrapped her lips completely around him again. His thigh was hard as a rock under her hand, her other one clamped around the base of him as she started to slide her mouth along his length.

“Shit. Uh. The Felixes are cat shifters, jaguars. Only the males have the ability to change form and can do so at any time. We don’t have to rely on the full moon like the wolves.”

She popped him back out to say, “Like Scott.”

Rome swore again. “Yes. But the cat’s aren’t as proliferate as the wolves. We also tend to live in smaller, familial groups rather than in packs. Take off your top. I want to touch your pretty breasts.”

She paused at the order, then decided it was a good one as her breasts were already aching for his touch. No sooner was her top off and her lips back on him then his fingers were playing with the hard tips of her nipples.

“Shifters have mates, women who have the DNA compatible with ours to produce offspring that can shift.

When a shifter meets his mate – ah, hell,” his whole body shuddered under her erotic ministration before he continued. “ – the physical attraction is instantaneous. The first touch leads to something called the mating heat which basically sends their bodies into sexual overdrive, compelling them to couple.”

“Makes them super horny you mean.” Her panties were already damp and her womb contracted with need. Looking up at him, she nipped his inner thigh, her hand gliding with ease over his wet length. Her hips rocked instinctively to gain some relief from the throbbing ache between her thighs. “Crave each other almost beyond reasoning. How long does it last?”

He tipped her head back with a thumb under her chin, his hand still tangled in her hair, saying in a husky promise.

“It will never end between us,
bella
. But the intense heat comes around twice a year. Take off your panties.”

Twice a year? Now she knew how to plan her

vacations, because wow. Intellectual functioning plummeted and she might as well make the best of it.

“Panties. Off. Now.”

As she would right now. With one hand she eagerly complied, not once letting up on her oral exploration of his cock. Her lips increased with sped, working him, sucking more and more of him as the heat of their passion began to surround them like flames. She reached down between her spread knees and touched her swollen clit.

The sound he made was somewhere between a growl and groan. “That’s it. Touch yourself, baby. Stroke your little clit. That’s so fucking hot.”

Her finger moved faster over the hard knot of nerves, making her hips rock and fire burn through her veins. The muscles in her legs clenched and she knew if she kept this up, she was going to come, and she wanted him inside her for that.

But she wanted to hear him say what she meant to him, and what exactly he thought that entitled him to, even more. She remained her hand from between her legs. “So what you’re saying is,” she paused to run her teeth lightly along his erection, making his breath catch on a groan and his body to shudder anew. A pearl-sized bead of liquid landed on her tongue and she swallowed the salty taste.

“I’m your mate and you think you own me, expect me to fall in line with your plans.”

“You
are
mine. My mate,” his voice was so thick as to be almost gone. The grip he had on the back of her head was gentle, yet unbreakable, as was the hand that cupped her face to tilt her eyes to his. “And while I could hope you would fall in line with my plans, I wouldn’t be happy with a doormat. You on the other hand, challenge me and delight me, turn me on and make me laugh. I want you, and will want you, desperately, for all time. And
bella
? I belong to you as well.”

She licked her lips. “Rome, I...”

“Enough.” Impatience rode him hard as he picked her right up off the ground. Surprised at the unexpected and swift move, she wrapped her legs around his waist, evidently where he wanted them because his cock was already nudging her wet entrance. One strong hand held her weight by cupping the rounded curves of her butt. The other he snaked under one of her legs, spreading her wider, and then he was thrusting past the tight ring of her body. “Finally.”

Silently agreeing, Gwen wiggled her hips, meeting his next hard plunge and sending his cock further inside her wet clasp. Her arms went around his neck and she stared into those dark brown eyes, locked on her hers, that seemed to bare his soul. Then he was kissing her, slanting his lips to dominate, to take and to pleasure. His tongue was a possessive brand that he drove into her mouth in sync with the pumping of his hips.

The kiss inflamed her. Wild lust rose like a dark haze and she sucked at him with greed and her own possessiveness. If she belonged to him, then as he said, he equally belonged to her. He would never kiss another woman this way. She would kill them both. With no hesitation.

As if some barrier was ripped down, Gwen felt something snap inside and she was meeting each thrust of his hips with her frantic pace. Her back hit a wall and then they were surging together in a furious coupling. Sensitive nipples rubbed against his hard chest with each powerful lunge. She pulled her mouth free from his to lick and taste the salty flesh of his throat. There, at the base of his neck, in the same place he bit her, she parted her teeth and nipped him.

“Damn it!” Rome shuddered and cursed, and then tilted his head so she could lathe the small wound with her tongue. “Do it again.”

So she did, only she kept her teeth on him longer this time, anchoring herself as his rhythm picked up and he began to pound into her with hard driving thrusts. The pleasure was tearing through her, the vicious need for release scorching her flesh. Sweat ran down between her breasts and gathered on her scalp.

Slipping a hand between their joined bodies, Rome unerringly found the throbbing nerve center of her world.

With his thumb slick with her cream, he rubbed her clit in hard, unrelenting strokes.

Her fingers tightened in his hair as the tension grew and built, and then it too snapped. Her whole body went rigid as she came in a wave of ecstasy that blinded her to everything but this moment of pure bliss. Each powerful thrust of his shaft over the swollen, sensitive inner muscles prolonged her orgasm until Rome let out a roar of victory, spilling his seed deep inside her.

They hadn’t used a condom.

That thought pierced the sated pleasure of her mind only after Rome staggered to the bed and dropped them both on it. He buried his face in her neck, still joined to her in the most intimate of ways.

“Rome.” She said his name on a mixture of

amusement and worry. Amusement because he was doing that purring thing again, the low rumbling in his chest transferring to tickle her own as he lay heavily over her.

Worry because they hadn’t used any contraceptive.

“Hmm.” Not even a twitch.

As she was threading her fingers through his hair, she felt him go still when she said, “We didn’t use a condom.”

After a moment he lifted his head enough to look at her with a guarded expression. “Is that a problem?”

Problem? Hello? “Ah, I’m clean but I’m not on the pill or anything.”

“Yeah, I know.”

She blinked. “You know? How can you know?”

He wrinkled his nose. “Excellent sense of smell. It’s how I knew you were my mate before I even saw you.”

Well that was interesting. “But...”

“But nothing.” He rose on his forearms to look down the length of her body. “I want to see your belly rounded with my child.”

How was a woman supposed to answer that? And while the thought of having his baby filled her with a warm glow, she did have a small concern. “Ah. Since you’re part cat, um, does that mean I’d have kittens?”

His whole body vibrated with laughter. Delighted, he kissed her. “No,
bella
. Shifters aren’t able to change until puberty. Though you might have a multiple birth. Twins do run in our family.”

“Oh.” But having a child to Gwen meant more than a great sex life.

Rome didn’t seem eager to move any time soon. He was threading her long hair through his fingers, stroking, soothing. His breath a whisper as he gently kissed her ear, her neck, her cheek. It made it a little hard to think.

“Rome?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Ah. That’s good.” She placed a hand on his shoulder and when he flicked those eyes on her, she grew suddenly nervous. What if all he felt for her was the whole mate bonding thing? There’s no way she could stay with a man she loved if he didn’t love her back. Couldn’t love her back.

But could she do as her brother once suggested and simply ask?

She drew in a deep breath. “Do you have any other secrets I need to know about before I agree to this relationship?” Evidently not. What a chicken. She almost heard herself clucking in her head.