by E A Price
“Let go.”
“Yeah right, can’t you get a ladder?”
“I don’t need one. Let go, I’ll catch you,” he told her firmly.
“Are you – oof!”
He tugged at her ankle. It was a gentle tug, but it was enough to dislodge her tenuous grip on the window frame, and the next thing she knew she was tangled in his arms. Before she could even snarl, he had her on her feet, and he was pulling his shirt over her head.
His hands gripped her shoulders, for which she was grateful. Without him, she might just turn into a puddle on the ground.
“Okay?” he asked, smiling lightly.
“Fine,” she grumbled. His thumbs started rubbing circles, and she felt a fluttering in her stomach and a rumbling of her beast that definitely should not be happening.
Hester shrugged out of his hold and hissed. “As fine as I can be considering!”
Antonio nodded and stretched his arms over his head, displaying his long, muscled form to perfection. Bastard.
They stared at one another for a few beats, and the atmosphere was almost awkward. Hester was aware that this wasn’t how normal kidnappings went.
“I know this is a difficult situation,” he said, “but I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think…” Hester’s eyes narrowed challengingly. She’d never been one to shy away from males or back down, one of the reasons that so few of the males in her cheetah coalition had ever been interested in her. They liked cute little submissive cheetahs – not bitches.
Antonio had the decency to look uncomfortable, even if it only lasted a second. “But I would think you above all people would understand about tradition.”
Hester thought of her own cheetah coalition and their damned rules. Like the one where it said every mating must produce a cub within at least two years or the mating would be considered void. Yeah, she knew about stupid rules. She knew about the weight of ridiculous traditions and the ingrained need to adhere to them. Honestly, she had no idea why she didn’t just turn around to her coalition prime and give him a perfectly manicured middle finger. Her cat meowed. Okay, maybe she did know – it was because she knew that without the coalition she would be bereft. Shifters naturally craved being around other shifters. But that didn’t mean she had to like all the dumb rules. Especially the one about how she needed to be mated before she turned thirty.
Yes, and time was running out. She needed to search for a mate.
What about the muscled perfection in front of us? Her cheetah was all but winking. He wants to be our mate.
Hester wouldn’t bother denying the attraction. He was hot. Hottest guy she’d ever seen. But he was downright annoying, and she didn’t know if her stubbornness would allow her to get over her hang ups and actually want to be with him. Hester had a lot of pride. Pride that wouldn’t allow her to forgive her high school boyfriend for making out with a cheerleader when he was drunk. Pride that couldn’t get over the fact that her college boyfriend landed the same job she wanted – just because his uncle was a partner in the firm. Pride that stopped her from being friends with the daughter of the woman who slept with her mother’s third husband, even though she and Kayley had grown up together.
Maybe her pride held her back sometimes, but it was part of her and who she was.
“I understand tradition,” she said finally and grudgingly.
Antonio looked almost relieved. “Perhaps you can help the others understand, too.”
“I understand, but I don’t condone it, and I won’t let you manipulate me into forcing those other girls to stay here.”
He gave her a patient smile. “I bet your coalition has some crazy rules, too.”
“No comment,” she growled.
“And because you can scent that people aren’t lying when they tell you they’re happy here…”
Yes, the people here did seem genuinely happy. Though there was kind of a Stepford vibe going on. Her coalition may be sexist in some respects, but it appeared in the leap that all the women were homemakers. She might be wrong about that, and hey, it might be their choice if she was right, but she still got a bad feeling about it.
“No comment,” she repeated.
His expression warmed, and her cheetah panted. “You can see the other human women aren’t forced to stay here, and the cubs are well cared for.”
“Maybe,” she bit out.
“The females we’ve brought here are happy. Maybe, you could be happy, too.”
She pressed her lips together
“You know that by running out of here and going to the cops will bring a heap of trouble down on a lot of innocent people. Surely, you don’t want that.”
Hester’s upper lip curled as irrational anger flashed through her. “Here I was thinking you were trying to sell me on this place. You’re just trying to make sure I don’t get you in trouble.”
Antonio held out his hands in a placating gesture. “Hessie, come on, you know that’s…”
It was too late. She was already overreacting, and nothing could stop her now. He hadn’t said much really for her to take offense at, but she had. She felt an unreasonable amount of hurt at the fact that he was only sweet talking her to make sure she didn’t go to the cops. For a moment, she’d actually believed he was sweet talking her because he wanted her to stay. For a second she got the feeling that she was special; that he had brought her here because she was special. But no, if it didn’t work out with her, he’d just find someone else, and the pain at the thought of that had to be covered by blustering rage.
“You don’t care about me at all! You only care about not getting arrested. It could have been any woman you abducted, couldn’t it? I was just some random woman you found!”
His eyes flashed in matching anger, but she wouldn’t let him get a word in.
“Well, you know what, fine, I won’t go to the cops. Wouldn’t want to take your precious freedom away from you. And you know what? I’ll even stay here for the damn two weeks until I finally get the satisfaction of telling you where to stick your mating claim!”
Antonio sighed, but he didn’t look particularly put out. Talk about throwing gasoline on her fires!
Hester pulled the t-shirt over her head and threw it at him. His eyes took on a slightly glazed look as he took her in naked body, and she may have sucked in her stomach. But only a little.
With her head held high, she marched round to the front door of the guest house, ignoring the appreciative whistles she garnered.
It was only when she’d managed to reach her temporary bedroom that she realized what a huge mistake she made. In her ill-conceived fury, she agreed to stay for the entire two weeks. No wonder he hadn’t been put out by what she said. She’d just given him what he wanted.
Hester buried her face in her hands, avoiding listening to the yips of her animal.
Of all the times to have a temper tantrum!
Eight
Antonio was going to let her storm off. Hey, it had been a difficult day. Getting kidnapped, finding out she was going to be mated and dangling from a window naked? She’d been through enough. He wasn’t going to crowd her. Plus the view of her leaving was spectacular.
While she was dangling, he had tried to be a gentleman – he really had. But the lure of that round, peachy behind had been too much, and seeing it walking away from him… it was probably a good thing he wasn’t going to try and walk after her. He was so damn hard at that moment he could barely move.
Course when he heard the whistles of his leap mates, he was forced into action. If those whistles came from his damn brothers…
Rounding the corner of the house, ready to pound some heads, he ran into Valentina.
His jaguar snarled, but Antonio retained enough civility to ask her what the hell she was doing hanging around the guesthouse.
Valentina pouted. “I just wanted to make the new females welcome.”
Sure. Last year, two males had brought females back and Valentina had paid them a little v
isit to inform them of the importance of hierarchy in leaps, and what would happen if either of them tried to take away the position of top female cat. It was lucky the females stayed – Valentina scared the heck out of them. Prime ordered any unmated females to stay away from their guests from that point on. Not that there were many, just Valentina, and a couple of teenage girls who would undoubtedly be snapped up as mates as soon as they were old enough. Course, there were older females like his mother who were technically unmated, but they were widows and would be kind to the new females.
No, the only female threat was Valentina, and the last thing he wanted was a catfight between her and Hester. Or did he want that… No, no he got his libido firmly in check. He bet his cheetah could be fearsome, but he had no desire to see her injured, and seeing Valentina in that way would do nothing for him.
“Stay away from all of them,” ordered Antonio.
Her lips twitched. “You can’t give me orders.”
“Stay. Away,” he ground out, squaring his shoulders.
His eyes flashed, and his jaguar roared. Valentina had the sense to look away from his gaze and half-nodded. However, she wasn’t smart enough to leave it there.
As he brushed past her, she said, “I heard her talking. She’s not going to accept you as a mate.”
His jaguar snarled but Antonio just shrugged. It was early days, but he’d already managed to get her to agree to stay for the whole two weeks – already a small victory. Hester was a passionate female, he just had to direct her passion towards him in a good way – rather than have her be passionate about hating him.
“You’re wasting your time,” sneered Valentina.
Antonio turned back and gave her a look with enough animosity that she immediately dropped her gaze again and scuttled past him, muttering to herself.
“Stay away from the new females,” he rumbled.
Her gait stiffened slightly on hearing those words, but she didn’t respond. His jaguar bared his fangs.
It had always been a source of pain to the females of the leap that they rarely produced daughters, and even rarer were female jaguar daughters. The two teenage leap members were both human. Valentina was the only female jaguar of her generation, as her mother, Marta, had been. The two females boasted of their strong genes, much to the aggravation of the other females who usually miscarried their female babies.
But in spite of this, Antonio couldn’t help but feel a little glad there weren’t more female jaguars like Valentina roaming around.
He glanced up at the house, trying not to think of Hester naked, and left her in peace… for the time being.
Nine
When Hester emerged a few hours later, showered and fully dressed, both her stomach and cheetah were crying out for food.
Okay, so the hunger strike was probably a no-go – she loved food far too much, and the scents coming from the kitchen… gah! Hester had to wipe her mouth before any more drool escaped.
She allowed her stomach to do the thinking for her and followed it to the kitchen where she found the other three women cooking dinner. They greeted her uncertainly, and Hester wondered if they had seen her naked dangling or worse heard her conversation with Antonio.
Sadie was the first to break the awkward silence.
“I thought I’d cook dinner since we don’t seem to be going anywhere.”
Hester eyed her for any malice or recriminations, but there didn’t seem to be any. Sadie shrugged a bare shoulder and went back to her cooking. She had changed into a floaty dress and ballet-style flat shoes. Her make-up was perfect as usual and her hair glossy. She seemed to be able to look lovely without even trying. Hester tried not to hate her on principle.
Laurel had piled her masses of hair on her head and changed into a pair of worn jeans and a vest top. She was chopping vegetables. Mary was still huddled in an oversized cardigan, and unease rolled off her in waves so strong they were making Hester feel a little dizzy. Course that might also be the lack of food.
Hester grunted and slumped into a seat at the kitchen table. She watched Sadie move around the kitchen with confidence. Given that Hester lived on fast food and microwave meals, it was all alien to her.
“What are you making?” she asked finally.
“Just a stir fry,” replied Sadie. “I’m throwing in all sorts – chicken, potatoes, rice, egg – it’ll be gorgeous. My college roommate was Chinese, and she used to cook this all the time. This is actually a really nice kitchen, very well stocked.”
Hester nodded absently, and silence lapsed again. For some reason, she felt uneasy about what she needed to say next, as if she was letting them down. But it needed to be said.
“I agreed to stay for the two weeks,” she blurted.
Mary seemed to curl up even smaller, and Sadie gave her a wry look.
“We know,” sighed Laurel.
Hester winced. “You heard?”
“Only because you yelled it,” chuckled Sadie.
“Look, I know this isn’t ideal, but what they did to us is one of their crazy-ass traditions, and I don’t think they had much of a choice… it’s hard to explain.”
How could she make a human understand about the traditions of a jaguar leap? It just wasn’t the same for humans. What may seem silly and ridiculous to them were the traditions that had kept shifters alive for hundreds of years while humans tried to hunt them to extinction. Trying to break the need to follow tradition was hard for them. Not impossible, but hard.
“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t excuse what these bozos did to us – I’d much rather be back in Los Lobos sipping a Martini. But if we make a break for it and call the cops, then a lot of people will get arrested, and a lot of innocent kids will lose their parents.”
Damnit! She realized she was doing exactly what Antonio wanted her to – finding a way to keep the other females there. But at least if she did stay for the two weeks she could make sure for herself that the women who came to live there were happy.
“Maybe it won’t be too bad,” said Laurel hesitantly. “I did think I had a connection to Diego when I met him, I just… just didn’t think he’d ever be interested in me.” Her cheeks turned crimson, and she became very interested in the carrot she was chopping. “Maybe we can look on this as an adventure. I’ve read a lot about the mating habits of shifters…”
Hester arched an eyebrow.
“And they are different to humans. I don’t think they mean us any harm.”
Sadie gave an exaggerated eye roll. “You guys are saps.”
“Or a free vacation? When we were given our tour, I saw that there was a hot tub, and it is kind of pretty around here.”
Sadie harrumphed. “I guess. I mean, I haven’t had a vacation in a while. Great, now I sound as crazy as you two.”
“And Lorenzo is pretty cute,” said Laurel.
Sadie flicked her hair nonchalantly, and a small smile played on her lips. “Is he? I hadn’t noticed.”
“Tomas is cute too,” ventured Laurel to the quiet Mary.
The small woman shook her head and like a frightened deer ran out of the room.
“She’s going to get eaten alive,” observed Sadie before adding evilly, “if she’s lucky.”
Laurel stifled a laugh.
“It’s only for two weeks, that’ll fly by,” said Hester, more to herself than anyone else.
The other two both shrugged and started chatting. They weren’t as hard to convince to stay as she imagined, and Mary was just frightened – she’d come round… probably. But then, Hester hadn’t been exactly hard to convince either.
Maybe they were all feeling the pull towards the males. Stupid jaguars.
But no matter what, she was still intending on leaving in two weeks time, and she sure as sugar wasn’t going to take it easy on Antonio.
*
February 15th
To Hester’s surprise, Antonio left her alone for the rest of the day. He didn’t come to the house, didn’t try to inveigle his way i
nto her bed. Her animal sulked a little, but Hester was perfectly content. She went to bed alone, and she was definitely happy about that. Absolutely, one thousand percent, not disappointed in the slightest. At all.
Of course, she should have known his absence wouldn’t last long.
“Wakey, wakey.”
Hester peeled one eyelid open to find an escaped lunatic hovering over her. No, wait, it was just Antonio, but the fact that he was grinning in the early morning could only be explained as lunacy.
“G’ way,” Hester mumbled. She groaned and turned over, trying to forget the nutjob in her bedroom.
For a moment she wondered why she didn’t smell the roasted, fresh beans of her automatic coffee maker, why she didn’t hear the drone of busy traffic and the clatter of heels on hardwood flooring as her neighbors rushed to work. Then she remembered where she was and groaned again. Strangely she didn’t find it odd on waking to find Antonio in her bedroom.
“Come on, Hessie, up and at them.”
“I’ll up and punch you in a second,” she complained from under a pillow.
Antonio chuckled. “Not a morning person, huh?”
Not until after her second cup of coffee - even her cheetah was asleep until that. It was a wonder she ever made it into work on time.
Holy shit! Work!
Hester sprang up so quickly even Antonio seemed taken aback. He eyed her questioningly.
“I’m supposed to be at work today.”
Her bosses would notice her missing, and then they’d investigate. Probably come and rescue her, and if she knew her colleagues, treat Antonio to a taser. She was in two minds as to whether that was a good thing. He deserved it alone for looking far too gorgeous at far too early an hour. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and winced, praying the thing didn’t crack.
Antonio relaxed a little. “Don’t worry; I already told them you were taking a vacation.”
“Oh.” Hester frowned. “When did you do that?”
“Well…”
“When you kidnapped me, right?” she said dully. It always came back to that.
