Bengal's Quest

by Lora Leigh

  have to trust him to own him. Mating Heat went both ways. He may own her body, but she would own his as well. Trust wasn’t required.

  This Bengal was hers.

  The sound that escaped her throat wasn’t helpless longing this time. The tigress was awake. Determined, fierce, she would mark this Breed as hers, just as he’d marked her.

  Where it counted.

  • CHAPTER 13 •

  Ahh, there she was, the tigress she kept hidden, kept locked away so deep, so tight, that even the scent of her was often impossible to detect.

  That primal, perfect tigress that a monster had come to life to protect.

  The growl that fell from her lips was one of sensual daring, the look in her hammered gold eyes a challenge he intended to accept. And right there, along the side of her face, two shadowed marks just beneath the skin darkening with a golden hue. They weren’t black as his were, but a rich, Bengal gold, gleaming with wild promise.

  The sight of them made him harder, sent the erotic hunger digging into his already taut testicles.

  “How perfect.” His voice was deeper than he liked, evidence that his own animal instincts were raging out of control.

  Lifting his hand, he smoothed the pad of his thumb over one subtle stripe.

  She was absolutely perfect, but he’d always known she would be.

  “Kiss me or kill me, but do one or the other immediately,” she snapped up at him, her gaze gleaming with the challenge in her voice. “You’re wasting my time.”

  Wasting her time, was he?

  He’d warned her what would happen if he dared to kiss her. There would be no turning back.

  “Foreplay?” he drawled.

  “Foreplay? For a kiss? Get real, Bengal. And make up your mind, I don’t have all day.” Her gaze was on his lips, the scent of her arousal filling his brain, making him high on the unique scent, the evidence that she hungered just as he did.

  Sliding his hand to the back of her neck, his fingers cupping the fragile stem, he didn’t stop to think. Burying his hand in her hair and clenching the strands, he pulled her head back, his lips lowering, his control shot.

  The taste of her exploded in his senses. Honeyed female, sweet soft need and innocence.

  Parting her lips for him, she met him, lip to lip, her tongue rubbing against his as it penetrated her lips, her body arching, reaching for him.

  Silken flesh pressed against him, hard-tipped nipples and swollen breasts separated from his flesh by fragile lace.

  Before he could stop himself, he sliced through the back of the bra with sharp claws, pulling it from her and tossing the remnants to the floor.

  Churning, white-hot need shot through his senses. Slanting his lips over hers, he took the kiss, controlled it, his tongue teasing hers until she clamped on it with her lips, her tongue stroking over it, her mouth suckling it.

  His cock jerked in demand. Pressing against the zipper of his pants, fully engorged and throbbing with the blood rushing through it, it flexed with the furious need to bury itself inside her. Releasing the material and shedding his pants was torture. He couldn’t get them off fast enough.

  An unbidden growl rumbled in his chest as he finally kicked free of both his boots and the denim, allowing him to lift her to him, before turning and carrying her to the bed.

  Never had he ached like this. Never had the need for sex taken him by the balls so quickly and with such disastrous loss of control.

  A sweet, wicked heat lashed at his chest as he dropped her to the bed. Looking down, a smile tugged at his lips at the sight of the three thin scratches she’d raked into the middle of his chest.

  Running two fingers over the blood welling on his chest, he lifted them before lowering them to her lips to smear the scarlet dampness over the swollen curves. As they touched the kiss-swollen flesh her tongue flicked over them instead.

  The feel of damp warmth licking over his fingertips sent a surge of lust-filled pleasure arrowing straight to his balls. They clenched, need exploding through his senses and stealing more of his control.

  Pure wild hunger was overwhelming him, but just behind those animal urges he knew what waited.

  “Am I still wasting your time?” Gripping her ankles and pulling them apart, his gaze centered between her thighs with aching hunger.

  A heavy layer of slick damp heat covered the bare curves. Peeking from between the plump folds her clit gleamed wetly, swollen with her need. Tempting him to taste it.

  “You’re not doing anything,” she whispered. “Do you need help? A few suggestions, perhaps? I’m sure I have some books with pictures if you need ideas.”

  She didn’t wait for his permission, didn’t wait for suggestions. But then, his little cat had never been one to be guided easily. Sitting up abruptly, with one delicate, claw-tipped hand she gripped the base of his cock, and a second later her tongue swiped over the engorged, throbbing crest in one long, slow lick.

  Gripping the hair at the back of her head again and clenching, he held her in place, her lips within a breath of flesh far too sensitive as he stared down at her.

  Innocence gleamed in her eyes, in the flush on her face, but hunger was quickly overshadowing it.

  “Taking something else from me?” she asked, her eyes narrowing, some inner anger he’d sensed before shadowing her scent.

  His hold tightened, teeth clenching, he pushed her head forward and gave her what she was evidently determined to have.

  Take it from her? He’d wanted to ease her into this, not force anything from her or allow his genetics to control her. But he could sense her, the animal fully merged with her, demanding and determined.

  His Breed.

  She was more than he’d ever imagined she would be.

  And she was his.

  “Giving you all of it,” he snarled. “All of me, Cat. Let’s see if you can handle it.”

  Penetrating the lush heat of her mouth, watching her lips close around him with obvious hunger nearly stole reason. So many nights he’d awakened, sweat drenching his body, from the erotic dreams of her and she was here now.

  Tentative at first, tasting him, testing her hunger, the sweet heat of her mouth began drawing on him. Sucking delicately, then with erotic confidence. As the reins holding back his lust began to fray, she sucked at the flesh stretching her lips and filling her mouth.

  Restraining the shallow thrusts between her lips, Graeme couldn’t help but allow himself to revel in this intimate acceptance.

  Sweet, wet heat surrounded the brutal sensitivity of the crest, working over it as hungry flicks of her tongue lashed at it. Pleasure tightened through his system, drawing his testicles tighter, his cock throbbing with the rising need for release.

  Every second he watched her, her lashes lowered with drowsy eroticism over her hammered gold eyes, her lips drawing on him, tongue flicking against the underside of his cock, pushed him closer. Pushed him toward that edge of oblivion—

  “Enough.” Forcing her head back, her lips from the engorged flesh filling it, nearly killed him.

  Perhaps he’d be amused later at the threatening little growl that fell from her lips, the sharp little nails that pricked at his thighs. But right now, it wasn’t amusement driving him. It was pure, unbridled hunger for his mate.

  Securing her hands quickly once again and drawing them from him, Graeme pushed her back to the bed, holding her wrists to the mattress as he lay over her.

  Years of madness, due to the separation from his mate and the animal genetics’ insistence that he remedy the situation. Years of crazed determination to find her, to shield her from the danger of the Genetics Council. And so many years of regret, guilt, and the loss of the only person he’d ever allowed himself to care for.

  The bond created here, the need that would be created, the hunger that would never die, would ensure he never lost her again. She could never walk away from him and she would come to trust that he could never walk away from her either.

  “Look
how beautiful you are,” he whispered, still amazed at the perfection of her.

  Her eyes were like hammered gold now, gleaming between her lashes as she stared up at him, seductive and demanding.

  “How slow you are.” Slender thighs parted, knees bending as her feet braced against the mattress.

  Pushing between the silken limbs, unable, unwilling to wait any longer, he used his free hand to grip the heavy weight of his erection and pressed it between the heated, swollen folds of her sex.

  He had to clench his teeth to hold back his snarl of pure, primitive pleasure.

  This was unlike anything he’d ever known before, unlike anything he’d imagined possessing her would be like.

  • • •

  Pleasure was racing through her, tearing at the determined shield she’d placed between her and the remnants of a bond she’d believed no longer existed.

  The warming heat moving through her body threatened that shield.

  As Graeme moved between her thighs, his hard, muscular body coming over her, she knew she’d made a grave error. The width of his cock parted the folds between her thighs, stroking over slick flesh as it began pressing inside her.

  The need for this was unlike anything she’d ever known or imagined. Her fingers curled, the little sharp claws that tipped them burying in the quilt beneath her as she felt the entrance to her vagina begin stretching, burning as the width of his cock began penetrating her.

  Shards of pulsing, desperate need for each sensation overwhelmed her, and an overriding hunger for another of those deep, spice-infused kisses only added to the needs rising with sharp, desperate force through her body.

  “Kiss me.” She couldn’t bear the hunger for it.

  Staring up at him, she was restrained by the powerful fingers holding her wrists above her head as the heavy crest of his erection began impaling her with a pleasure-pain that tore past the fierce hold she had on her senses.

  A groan, part growl, was a harsh sound of male pleasure and need as his lips covered hers. His tongue pressed between her lips, that elusive taste of spice filling her, mixing with the heated hint of cinnamon she’d already tasted and combining to create a desperate hunger she feared was closer to an addiction.

  The warmth of his body shielded her, the heat of his erection worked slowly inside her, stretching her, stoking the most incredible sensations through her inner flesh and sensitized bud of her clit.

  The swollen bundle of nerves at the apex of intimate flesh throbbed and pulsed with a need she hadn’t expected. With each advance of the thick length of hard flesh pressing inside her, each blistering stretch of the narrow channel he was taking, sizzling bands of sensual tension tightened around the aching bud.

  She couldn’t bear it. The pleasure and the pain, the heated sensuality of his lips moving against hers, his tongue tasting her as she tasted him. And she needed so much more.

  Blistering waves of ecstatic pleasure rushed through her, increasing the sensual hunger she was helpless against.

  Tearing his lips from hers with a growl, Graeme buried his lips at her neck, his breathing harsh and heavy as he gripped her hip with his free hand and paused. The blunt crest of his cock throbbed inside her, the heavy pulse stroking nerve endings that had never felt the intimate invasion she was experiencing now.

  Releasing her hands, he seemed to have no complaints when she gripped his shoulders, the hardened, sharpened nails that tipped her fingers pricking his flesh. A rumble of pleasure vibrated against her breasts, the sound sending a hard strike of pleasure to bury at her womb, the sharp sensation jerking her against him.

  “Hold on, little cat,” he groaned, his hand tightening on her hip. “Just hold on to me.”

  Her only warning was the tightening of his hips and the hard thighs she gripped with her knees. A heartbeat later he drew back, the heavy crest stroking sensitive flesh until it paused at the entrance. Before she could draw a breath or prepare herself, a strong thrust of his hips buried the iron-hard length of his cock partway inside her. The thin barrier of sexual innocence gave way, her inner flesh clasping the fierce heat desperately before he drew back once again.

  Each heavy thrust of his hips buried his throbbing erection deeper inside her, stoked the flames whipping through her senses and licking over her flesh.

  Turning her lips to the hard column of his neck as she clung to him, Cat let the pleasure have her. There was no fighting it, no denying the hunger that had built over the years for this touch, for this Breed.

  For this.

  The heavy weight of iron-hard male flesh was buried to the hilt inside her, overfilling the intimate channel and electrifying sensitive nerve endings already overly stimulated.

  Graeme didn’t stop with just the possession. Nipping at her shoulder, he began moving, retreating before forging inside her once again.

  Oh God, the pleasure . . . she had to get closer, had to have more. Involuntary ripples of reaction tightened her vagina on the invading length as chaotic flashes of sensation tore through her body.

  Like electricity. It sizzled over her skin, the friction of his body against her, one hand stroking up her side to her breast, his thumb and finger finding the hard tip and creating such brutal lashes of sensation that the last fragile hold she had on any emotional defense against him disintegrated.

  With each thrust of his cock inside her, each growl of pleasure at her neck, ecstasy tightened through her. Just the touch of his skin against hers was pure, undiluted pleasure. His lips at her neck, the taste of his flesh as her lips parted at his hard shoulder . . . She was burning around him, her senses were flying higher by the second, the lashing intensity of each hard thrust of cock stoking a conflagration building in her senses.

  “That’s it, little cat,” he snarled at her shoulder, sharp teeth raking against her flesh, adding to the brutal chaos throwing her into rapture. “Tighten on me like that. Ah hell, Cat, fucking you is so good. So damned good.”

  She was lifting to him involuntarily, so desperate for more sensation, for added friction, for that boundary between reality and ecstasy to disintegrate and send her flying into the maelstrom awaiting her.

  She could feel it swirling around her, coming closer, increasing the tension tightening through her body. Pulsing static flared out in front of the building storm, electrifying her nerve endings, dragging a shocking cry from her lips as his thrusts increased.

  His flesh was stretching hers, pounding into her with increasingly quickened lunges that stoked the building storm, stroked over rapidly sensitizing flesh, burying to the hilt harder, faster. His fingers plumped her nipple, tightened on it, rasped over it. His teeth raked her neck as each impalement pounding inside her rasped her clit, stroked it, harder, faster . . .

  The storm of sensation gathered, tightened . . .

  The explosion tore through her with unexpected power and destruction.

  She felt his teeth pierce the skin at her shoulder, a harsh snarl sounding at his chest, as hers pierced his shoulder, drawing blood as she held on tight, her tongue licking and stroking around the bite as whimpering, muffled cries were torn from her by the brutal, breath-stealing detonations of pure ecstasy that continued to tear through her body.

  Graeme’s release was only seconds behind hers, as was the most shocking, impossibly deeper orgasm that resulted from it.

  She felt the additional erection as it extended from beneath the head of his cock and locked into a shallow crevice just behind her clitoris. The thumb-sized extension filled that hidden place inside her, found nerve endings so sensitive that the resulting force of the orgasm that gripped her locked her vagina around his cock as tiny spasms of reaction rippled through it.

  She felt his release then. An eruption of heat jetting from the blunt crest as well as a sudden, burning pulse of sensation behind her clit.

  It was impossible to process what was happening, what her body was experiencing or what his was doing. She was aware of his teeth gripping her shoulder, but her
s were locked in his tough flesh as well. She was aware of the whimpers falling from her lips, her claws digging into the hard muscles of his back, her knees gripping his hips as her hips jerked against him with the violent shock of each striking flash of ecstasy.

  He claimed her, but she claimed him as well.

  A primal, instinctive part of her Breed senses opened. A part of her genetics that she hadn’t known existed, a part of the tigress she hadn’t anticipated.

  She may be his mate, but she belonged to no one, especially the Breed male claiming her. She belonged to herself, and he would soon learn there was no turning back, no hiding the strength or the depth of the Breed DNA he’d placed inside her.

  And he would learn there was no dominating her either, until she decided when she was ready for that dominance. When she decided he was worthy of dominating her.

  And he hadn’t quite attained that distinction.

  She was betting he never would.

  • • •

  Evening was gathering when Graeme dragged himself from the bed and called to the kitchens to arrange for dinner to be brought to the house. Thankfully, the little inventions that allowed Lobo his privacy as well as a secure information network made him far more than simply a member of the pack. Devril Black was Lobo’s head of security, but Graeme was security manager, entitling him to preferred treatment. Normally, he enjoyed the perks.

  His customary argument with the chef was halfhearted at best this time though. His agreement that he was antisocial and not worthy of refined company had Reever’s burly Breed chef clearing his throat and promising to get dinner there as quickly as possible.

  Hell.

  He could still feel the effects of taking her.

  Not the physical result of his release, but something that went far deeper. Something he couldn’t quite explain just yet.

  Pulling his pants on, he was pulling the zipper into place when Cat’s eyes opened slowly, the boneless satiation of moments before dispelling as she turned her head to stare at him.

  He watched as she pulled the sheet over her breasts. Her need to hide her nakedness from him made his chest feel heavy, made every instinct he possessed rise in objection.

  He’d known about the barb that would lock him to her at the moment of his release. Just as he’d heard of the extreme tightening and milking motions of the female feline Breeds’ vaginas once the barb extended.

  The physical pleasure and extreme intensity of each physical reaction, he’d expected.

  There were things he hadn’t expected, though.

  “So.” She exhaled carefully before sitting up and propping the pillows behind her before leaning back and watching him suspiciously. “I’ll assume you knew that was going to happen when you came?”

  The distance in her voice was accompanied by the cool consideration in her gaze.

  “Rumors.” He shrugged. “There’s a ban on discussing the true nature of the mating among those who haven’t experienced it yet. There were instances of it in several labs, though, noted by the scientists who discovered the mates.”

  No one had mentioned that moment when two mates could see into each other’s souls, though. That moment when their senses merged so completely that hiding exactly who and what one was, would be impossible.

  Thankfully, Cat hadn’t expected it either. She’d been too busy trying to slam that door shut to peek into the opened soul of the Breed in that second that he’d been laid bare before her.

  “Makes sense.” She nodded. “It could be difficult to explain it if the paparazzi got hold of this information. The vultures would really go crazy then, wouldn’t they?”

  Looking down at her nails, she smoothed her fingers over one, and her appearance might be one of discomfort, but he knew the truth was far different. She wasn’t uncomfortable, she was turned within herself, repairing the break in a shield he hadn’t even known she’d placed between them.

  It would do her no good. She might have overlooked that glimpse into his soul, but he hadn’t overlooked the one his senses sank into for precious seconds.

  If he’d been amazed by the woman, the tigress, she was, then to say he was shocked now was an understatement.

  “So, what do we do now?” The hammered gold had faded away; her eyes were now the soft golden brown they normally were.

  His brow lifted at her question. “What do you want to do?”

  “Leave.” She didn’t even blink when she answered him.

  Damn her. She’d turned into a little smart-ass. No, she’d been a smart-ass as a child when the situation warranted it. It just wasn’t something she’d ever turned on him.

  “Leave,” he suggested softly. “You have about an hour, maybe two before the physical need for my touch, my kiss, begins to build. According to how stubborn you are, you might make it four to six hours before you find yourself unable to resist returning.”

  She nodded slowly.

  Damn. Maybe he should have softened the reply. Then he thought of what he’d glimpsed when he saw inside her and he steeled himself against the thought. There was nothing he could say, no explanations he could make at the moment, that was going to soften the scars she carried.

  Not even the explanations she was so hungry for would ease the pain she was carrying. That would take more than words.

  Turning her gaze back to him, the speculative gleam in her eyes was all the warning he had before she spoke again.

  “And you? How long can you stay away?”

  Graeme snorted at the question. “If I make it five seconds once it starts, then we’ll both be lucky.”

  And that was the damned truth. Now that he’d had her, now that he’d experienced the white-hot fusion of pure pleasure, there was no going back. Hell, he didn’t want to go back. He was kicking his ass for waiting as long as he had.

  “Nice of you to warn me,” she said mockingly, the look in her eyes causing him to stare back at her thoughtfully. “And I have no doubt you knew what was coming, didn’t you, Graeme? I guess I should have known to be on guard for the punch line,