by Elisabeth Naughton, Cynthia Eden, Katie Reus, Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright, Joan Swan
But he couldn’t take it anymore. He wouldn’t let her erect these walls between them. Not after what they’d been through together. More than anything he was worried about her. Especially when he’d heard the faint jingle of her cell phone inside a few minutes ago. The house was just too damn quiet for her to be in there and simply ignoring him.
Withdrawing his SIG, he crept silently through her dark kitchen. A single light above the sink area was the only source of light. As he continued sweeping the house, his alarm grew. Once he’d cleared the living room and guest bathroom, he headed down her hallway.
He froze when he heard a squeaking sound coming from her bedroom. Increasing his pace he hurried down the rest of the hallway and stopped only when he reached the partially open door.
Easing it open with his foot, he took a step inside. For a moment, time seemed to stand still. Lizzy stood near her bathroom door wearing a bra and panties and carrying a glass of water. When she saw him she let out an ear piercing scream.
He immediately tucked his weapon into the back of his pants and held up his hands. “It’s just me!”
Lizzy’s hand flew to her chest and she slammed the glass down on the antique desk next to the door. “What the hell are you doing here? Are you trying to scare me to death?”
“I’m sorry. I called and rang the doorbell and…” Now he felt like a fucking stalker. After everything she’d been through he’d just been worried. Not that she’d be suicidal or anything, but shit, he’d been concerned. “I’m sorry, Lizzy.”
She dropped her hand and took a tentative step forward. The light from the bathroom shone around her, illuminating her long, lithe frame. “How’d you get in?”
“I was worried about you so, I, uh, picked the lock to your backdoor.” He swallowed hard, fighting back the guilt inside him.
Instead of reaming him out, she just stared at him for a long moment. “Benny came by today.”
She knew. Thank God. “I just found out last night from Grant. I tried calling, but…” She hadn’t answered, something they both already knew. “How are you?” It’d been hell to watch her grieve at the funeral and not be able to tell her Benny was alive.
Shaking her head, she walked to the end of her bed and sank down on the edge of the mattress. “I have no idea. I…” Her voice cracked and she wrapped her arms around herself in a protective gesture.
Screw it. He crossed the distance between them and gathered her in his arms. To his relief, she didn’t pull away. She molded to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and plastering herself against his body.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so distant this week. I didn’t know how to talk to you,” she whispered against his neck.
The feel of her hot breath sent a shiver through him. Wanting to feel all of her against him, he picked her up and stretched her out on the bed. After quickly divesting his weapon on the nightstand and taking off his shoes, he slid in next to her and held her tight.
“I’m not walking away from you, Lizzy. I’m glad your brother is alive but even if he’d died, this thing between us…I don’t want anyone else and I’m tired of fighting it. You’re stubborn and sexy and you’re it for me,” he murmured against the top of her head.
He felt her smile against his chest. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah, really.”
Her smile grew wider. “Good. I know I’ve been a jerk the last week, but…I just didn’t know how to deal with anything. I felt guilty that I was alive and Benny wasn’t, like it was somehow my fault. That maybe if I’d been at the marina things would have ended differently. I was hurting and knew I’d take all my anger out on you. I didn’t want to bring you down with me.”
“I want for better or worse from you, Lizzy. You can bring me down all you want.” He slid a hand down her back, snagging the back of her bra as he moved south.
She shuddered against him, arching her back into his chest as she lifted her head. With the dim light from the bathroom illuminating the room, it was hard to see much, but her eyes were filled with heat. “For better or worse, huh?” she whispered, her voice unsure.
He nodded. “This week without you has been hell. I love you, Lizzy and I won’t let you walk away from me.”
“Won’t?” She lifted a dark eyebrow as she shifted her body so that she fully straddled him. Looking down at him, she reached behind her back and unhooked her bra.
As it slid down her arms, displaying her breasts, his brain short circuited for a moment. Eventually he found his voice. “You’re mine,” he growled, unable to keep the hunger out of his voice.
She leaned down until their noses almost touched. “I love you too, Porter.”
His mouth was on hers before she could say another word. In a few quick moves he had her pinned beneath him as he took her mouth in a frenzied kiss. Heat built inside him like a raging inferno as she grappled with his shirt and he struggled to get his pants off.
After being deprived of her sweet body for a week he knew this first time between them would be fast and hard. But he’d take it slow the second time around. And there would definitely be a second time tonight. Maybe a third.
Lizzy had gotten under his skin in the best way and just the thought of being inside her again was making him a little bit crazy. Even when he knew this was the first night of many. Because he’d been serious about for better or worse.
He wanted the whole package from her. Marriage, a house, kids, everything. The woman was absolute grace under fire and her loyalty to her brother was simply amazing. He knew she’d make a perfect life partner. And that’s what he wanted. Lizzy as his partner for life—through the good and the bad times.
Complete Booklist
Romantic Suspense Books
Running From the Past
Everything to Lose
Dangerous Deception
Dangerous Secrets
Killer Secrets
Deadly Obsession
Danger in Paradise
His Secret Past
Red Stone Security Series (romantic suspense)
No One to Trust
Danger Next Door
Fatal Deception
Miami, Mistletoe & Murder
His to Protect
Breaking Her Rules
Paranormal Romance
Destined Mate
Protector’s Mate
A Jaguar’s Kiss
Tempting the Jaguar
Enemy Mine
Heart of the Jaguar
Moon Shifter Series (paranormal romance)
Alpha Instinct
Lover’s Instinct
Primal Possession
Mating Instinct (March 2013)
About the Author
Katie Reus is the USA Today bestselling author of the Red Stone Security series, the Moon Shifter series and the upcoming Deadly Ops series. She fell in love with romance at a young age thanks to books she pilfered from her mom’s stash. Years later she loves reading romance almost as much as she loves writing it.
However, she didn’t always know she wanted to be a writer. After changing majors many times, she finally graduated summa cum laude with a degree in psychology. Not long after that she discovered a new love. Writing. She now spends her days writing dark paranormal romance and sexy romantic suspense. For more information on Katie please visit her website. Also find her on twitter @katiereus or visit her facebook fanpage.
RAPHAEL/PARISH
BAYOU HEAT
BY
ALEXANDRA IVY
& LAURA WRIGHT
RAPHAEL
BY ALEXANDRA IVY
Copyright © 2012 by Alexandra Ivy & Laura Wright
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced in any fashion without the express, written consent of the copyright holder.
Bayou Heat is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed herein are fictitious and are not based on any real persons living or dead.
Legend of the Pantera
To most people the Pantera, a mystical race of puma shifters who live in the depths of the Louisiana swamps, have become little more than a legend.
It was rumored that in the ancient past twin sisters, born of magic, had created a sacred land and claimed it as their own. From that land came creatures who were neither human or animal, but a mixture of the two.
They became faster and stronger than normal humans. Their senses were hyper-acute. And when surrounded by the magic of the Wildlands they were capable of shifting into pumas.
It was also whispered that they possessed other gifts. Telepathy, witchcraft, immortality and the ability to produce a musk that could enthrall mere mortals.
Mothers warned young girls never to roam alone near the swamps, convinced that they would be snatched by the Pantera, while young men were trained to avoid hunting anywhere near the protected Wildlands.
Not that the warnings were always successful.
What girl didn’t dream of being seduced by a gorgeous, mysterious stranger? And what young man didn’t want to try his skill against the most lethal predators?
As the years passed, however, the sightings of the Pantera became so rare that the rumors faded to myths.
Most believed the species had become extinct.
Sadly, they weren’t entirely mistaken…
Chapter One
SLUT. Whore.
Worthless piece of white trash.
The words were still ringing in Ashe Pascal’s ears as the door to the trailer slammed behind her.
She grimaced as she gathered her clothes that littered the front porch and headed for her piece-of-shit clunker that was parked near the curb.
For once the drunken insults flung by her mother managed to hit a nerve.
Not that she was a whore. It wasn’t like she’d gotten paid for spreading her legs, was it?
Hell no, she’d spread them for free.
Or at least she assumed she had.
How else could she be pregnant? Immaculate conceptions might happen in the good book, but in the bayous of southern Louisiana women got knocked-up the good old-fashioned way.
A damned shame she couldn’t remember what happened.
If she had to pay the piper she should at least have enjoyed the dance.
With a shake of her head, she yanked open the door of her car and tossed her clothes on the cracked leather seat before climbing behind the driver’s wheel.
Shoving her key into the ignition, she breathed out a sigh of relief as the engine rattled to weary life. The way her pissy luck was running she’d expected the battery to be dead. Again.
She supposed there was an irony in the fact that she’d promised herself that she would start looking for a new car just as soon as she’d paid off her mother’s latest bar tab. She’d even driven to the bar to tell the owner that she was done being her mother’s personal banker.
And that’s when the trouble had started.
Barely aware that she’d shoved her car in gear, Ashe absently drove through the small town that hovered on the edge of the bayou, pulling to a halt across the street from the only bar in town.
The two story wooden building with a tin roof had at one time been painted a cheery yellow, but over the years it’d faded to a miserable mustard, with heavy green shutters that could offer protection during hurricane season. The entire structure was built on heavy stilts to keep the main floor off the ground. A necessary precaution in this area. The danger of flooding was a hundred percent, which no doubt explained why less than a few hundred people lived in the town.
She gave a humorless laugh at the neon sign that blinked in the thickening gloom.
‘The Cougar’s Den’
It sounded like a hang-out for the local football team, or maybe a taxidermist’s shop.
Instead it was filled with a motley crew who she assumed came in from the oil fields, the shrimp boats and the dark shadows of the swamps. And of course, locals like her mother who were so desperate for a drink they were willing to ignore the thick air of aggression that filled the entire building.
The rest of the town avoided the place like the plague.
Including the pack of stray dogs that terrorized the rest of the town.
The Cougar’s Den was a cesspit of danger.
Her grim thoughts were abruptly interrupted as the humid spring breeze swept through her open window, tugging at her long, black curls and caressing her skin that remained a pale ivory no matter how much sun she got. Her eyes, as dark as a midnight sky, narrowed.
There was something in the breeze.
Something beyond the hint of azaleas, and newly bloomed roses from Old Lady La Vaux’s garden, and even the more distant smell of rotting vegetation that wafted from the swamps.
What the hell was that scent?
Not cologne, but…musk.
Yes. That’s what it was. A rich, intoxicating male musk.
Without warning, a flash of memory seared through her brain.
She was in the cramped barroom, trying to ignore the flat, unfriendly glares from the large group of men who were gathered around the pool tables at the back of the darkly paneled room.
One in particular had separated himself from the pack, staring at her as if she were a creature from another planet.
He was big. Six foot two at least. And powerful, with sleek, chiseled muscles beneath his tight white tee and black jeans.
In the dim light he looked like some exotic god.
His shoulder-length hair was thick and shimmered like molten gold in the dim light. His features were lean, stunningly beautiful. And his eyes…
Words couldn’t capture their beauty.
They were the same gold as his hair, but flecked with hints of jade and in the darkness they glowed with an inner light.
Abruptly her memory took a leap forward.
She was no longer in the public room, but lying on a bed in a room upstairs.
It was dark and that aromatic male musk saturated the air.
A low, male voice whispered in her ear.
“You’re so wet, ma chère. Do you want me to lick your cream?”
She groaned, her legs parting as she felt soft kisses blaze a trail down her quivering belly.
“Raphael, please.”
“Tell me what you want.” A command. “Say the words.”
“You.” She clutched the soft quilt beneath her, her body on fire with need. It’d never been this way. Not this raw, frantic hunger that clawed through her with an addictive force. “I want you.”
There was a low chuckle and she gasped at the feel of his hot breath against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.
“Where do you want me?” he teased. “Here?” The stroke of a rough tongue through her wet slit.
Sucking a sharp breath, Ashe shattered the strange vision.
Was the memory real? Or just her mind trying to sugarcoat the hideous truth?
With a low cry, she shoved the car back into gear and stomped her foot down on the accelerator.
There were no answers here.
What she needed was a hot meal and somewhere to sleep for the night.
Tomorrow she would worry about how she was going to take care of a baby when she could barely take care of herself.
* * *
Standing in the shadows beneath the bar, Raphael strained against the large man who kept him from charging after the sorry excuse for a car currently speeding away.
“Release me,” he growled, his eyes glowing with a luminous gold in the darkness.
“Goddammit, Raphael.” Bayon shared Rafael’s golden good looks although his hair was a shade paler and his eyes held more green. He was also built on bulkier lines. “Leash your damned animal and listen to me.”
Raphael battled through the primal instincts that had nothing to do with humanity and everything to do with raw, animal desire.
Holy hell.
Of all the Pantera, he was the one who’d had the best control over his primitive nature.
<
br /> It was the reason he’d been chosen by the elders to become one of the most trusted diplomats for his people, traveling away from the Wildlands to meet in secret with various world leaders. At least that was his public persona. In truth, his primary duty was heading up his peoples’ vast network of spies who infiltrated the various governments and scientific communities.
He could travel for weeks away from the reservation without being debilitated by his need to shift. And more importantly, he’d developed the ability to mimic the humans so he could function in their world.
He was still a feral feline at heart, but a feline with manners.
Now, however, he was at the mercy of savage need that thundered through his body with the force of a tsunami.
“I’m not going to tell you again,” he growled. “Let me go.”
Bayon leaned in until they were nose to nose. The bastard was one of the few who had the cojones to get in Raphael’s grill.
“This has to be a trick,” the younger warrior snapped. “We’ve tried for the past fifty years to discover human women who can carry our seed—”
“You don’t have to remind me of our history.”
And he didn’t. Raphael knew better than anyone the struggles of the Pantera.
It’d started slow.
Fewer and fewer females going into heat. And those who did were unable to carry their babes to full-term.
At first the elders believed that it was the fault of the human contact with the Pantera. They shut off their borders and became increasingly isolated from the world.
