ROMANCE: SHIFTER: Shifter to the Max Collection (Dragon, Bear, Wolf and Panther Shifter Romances) (Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection)

by C. J. Ayers

  His handsome face leaned closer into hers, and Felicia felt the crush of his lips against hers. The kiss sent a rush of heat flooding through her, and she found herself melting into him as her body flagrantly disobeyed her head.

  He released her other wrist, and her hands fell down to press uncertainly against his collarbone. He interpreted her hesitance as invitation, and his own hand came up to bury his strong fingers into her hair, teasing the fiery red free of its elastic restraint. Her hair cascaded down one shoulder as he pressed her back into the wall, his lips working hers open, the tongue that had already tasted her skin now delving deeply into her mouth.

  Felicia moaned, and her inadvertent cue of lust caused his fingers to increase their pressure on her scalp in response. She felt the push of his chest against her own, and was immediately reminded of her wardrobe mishap from earlier; her blouse gaping at the neck, causing more of her cleavage to be on show than she was comfortable with. Their proximity pushed the swell of her breasts up between them, and she thought she could feel another button working itself loose.

  His lips left hers with a wet, heady gasp, and he then lowered his mouth to the the base of her neck, just below where he had released her hair; his tongue, lips, the sharp graze of his teeth, alighted on a sensitive spot which threatened to melt Felicia completely. She gasped and clung onto his shoulders, arching herself into him instinctively. She felt something hard and warm stirring between them, and recalled too late that the man wasn’t wearing any clothes.

  “Stop,” she gasped. And then, more forcefully, “stop it!” The hands on his chest shoved at him roughly, and he pulled away.

  His dark and handsome features were drawn together in an expression of confusion and, swimming below the surface, agitated lust and longing. Felicia realized that she had just used the same tone with him that she would have used if one of the cats had been trying to dominate her space.

  “Stop?” he repeated incredulously, “why?”

  Felicia pushed the hair off her neck, trying to summon some mental capacity back from the pool of desire in the pit of her stomach. It was incredibly difficult with the man before her still naked and rock-hard against her; his intimidating lack of self-consciousness about his state was making her grasp for reason and logic in regards to her situation difficult.

  “Yes, stop it. I’m not…I’m not going to be seduced by a stranger, a shape shifter or whatever you are, inside the enclosure where I work.”

  “I’m no stranger, Felicia,” he all but purred, “and I’m many things, but I am also just a man, and I want you. I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you, standing over my broken body, tears in your eyes.”

  He dipped his head to return to kissing her neck once more, but Felicia thrust him away with finality while she still had the capability to do so. Being seduced against a wall by a gorgeous man was an overwhelming, tempting offer, but she knew she couldn’t - she felt strangely betrayed by the panther she’d loved so much becoming a man. As nonsensical as it was, Felicia felt like she’d lost Shadow, and now a stranger was in his place, and she wasn’t sure yet how she felt about that.

  “I’m probably going to regret saying this, but,” Felicia sucked in a breath and stared hard at him, “I think you should come home with me. We run the risk of being seen out here, and I could lose my job.” She groaned and put her head in her hands, “How are we going to explain this to the media? We’ve been promoting your reveal constantly all week – how on earth are we going to cover up the fact that you’re gone?!” Her head started spinning wildly.

  “Felicia, you know I can’t stay here.” His hand’s squeezed her shoulders tenderly, and she nodded: of course he couldn’t. It wasn’t an option.

  She just wasn’t sure she was liking the other option.

  Felicia finally convinced him to wrap the towel around his waist. It was far too small, and hung off his hips lewdly, but there was nothing more to be done about it until they got back to her apartment. Felicia guided him through the back entrance of the enclosure and took him to her car.

  They drove through the dark city in silence.

  Chapter ten

  At the sight of the other female, Shelia had ducked down behind the wall of the enclosure, yanking Derek down with her. It was too risky acting now, with an audience.

  She had watched as Caleb’s naked form had stood in all its glory at the top of the hill, almost celestial in his beauty. She should have acted then, but she’d felt the arrows of a bitter hate rip through her heart as he had embraced the redhead woman, as if his very life had depended on it. The ripe acid of jealously permeated her mouth.

  The one night that she’d had the pleasure of Caleb’s lips, body, and skilled hands on her had been one where he had been distracted, ambivalent; he had left as soon as they’d finished and went to have a shower, washing their shared night of passion from his body. The way he had behaved with that red-headed woman was vastly different. As if she were his oxygen.

  Shelia and Derek stealthy followed the pair to the car, keeping their distance. As the motor started, Sheila changed into her panther form and tracked them through the city. With every pace, with every breath she took, every pant she exhaled, she vowed revenge on Caleb and his harlot.

  Back at her apartment, the man shed the towel and roamed her small living space as Felicia made herself busy in the kitchen. When a glance over her shoulder in his direction revealed that he was naked once more, and under much more revealing lighting, Felicia quickly crossed from the stovetop to the refrigerator and pulled the door open. She removed a bottle of white wine and hurriedly uncorked it. She raised the bottle to her lips without giving a thought to procuring a glass.

  “What’s you name? I – I keep wanting to call you Shadow, but you’re not…him, are you?” Her enquiry was tentative; she was half reluctant to hear the answer.

  “Caleb. Caleb Hunter,” he responded with a smirk. Felicia nodded in response, not returning his smile. The next moment his eyebrows shot up as he caught sight of a piece of paper on the kitchen table. “You drew me?”

  Felicia flushed with embarrassment, she’d realized too late what he was looking at, and wanted to walk over and rip the picture out of his hands. She took another sip of wine. “Yes. Yes, I did. You’re…I mean, you were…special to me,” she admitted clumsily. “You know that, I almost got mauled by the felines in your enclosure trying to spend time with you. I was so…unprofessional,” she finished, awkwardly. Her eyes fell on him across the room, and he met her gaze levelly. She quickly turned away again, grabbing the wine bottle from the counter and taking another gulp.

  “I was really starting to become fond of you,” she continued, breaking the tense silence. She could feel the sting of the wine on her lips and taste its nectar on her tongue – it burned through her veins slowly, sensuously, but it was nothing compared to the affect of his kisses earlier. “You made it so easy. I knew you were different from the others: intelligent, self-possessed, sentient – you were so beautiful to me…”

  She didn’t finish the sentence before she felt a pair of hands alight on her shoulders. She’d not heard him approach, he moved soundlessly as if he were still in cat form.

  “And now?” Caleb’s hot breath caressed her ear. Her hand moved upwards, up the front of her still half-open shirt to hesitantly touch his.

  “I don’t know you. I want to get to know you,” she said with sudden conviction. “I want to know everything about you – you’re more fascinating that I ever could have imagined, I - ”

  Caleb turned her in his arms and swept her mouth up sweetly in his. This time, Felicia didn’t deliberate about what she wanted. Their entire evening together up until this point had been something out of a dream; didn’t she owe it to herself to see it through to its conclusion?

  Yearning hit her, and she let her body and mind submit to its desires. She wove her arms around his neck, feeling the taught muscle of his shoulders, the softness of his hair. The broad palms of his h
ands slid slowly down the curves of her waist, skating across her rib cage before settling on her hips. He kissed her in fleeting dips this time, making her pursue him, his body urging hers to press and strain desperately against him in a bid for more.

  She felt that she was in the arms of a skilled lover, the most ardent she’d ever known – his obvious lust and his pure animal instinct made her feel entirely base and wanton against him.

  Caleb pulled away from her eventually with a small gasp; both of them were panting, and his compelling eyes were drawn downward by the rapid rise and fall of her chest. He raised a hand from her waist to hook a finger into the front of her blouse and unfasten the next button. Felicia trembled with anticipation beneath him; she felt the gentle stoke of his fingertip along her cleavage, and felt it equally when the button at last gave way, exposing the black curve of her bra. He unbuttoned the next in line, and then the next, slowly and leisurely, until her shirt hung open between them. Then he ducked and kissed the exposed hill of her breast.

  Felicia moaned softly and arched against him. This was not what she’d had intended to happen when she’d invited the shifter back to her place. She had meant to feed him, clothe him and send him back into the world…not to let herself be provocatively undressed and slowly ravished by him.

  She could tell by his careful treatment of the proceedings that he had been thinking about this for a very long time. If only she had known the intentions of the majestic predator she had spent so much time with, she might have stood a chance of resisting his advances – now she could do nothing but give herself over to the promise of illicit pleasure his lips spoke against her skin.

  “Spend one night with me” he murmured into her cleavage, as he kissed down the dip between her breasts. Felicia found she could formulate no proper response; all she could do was nod once, yes, and Caleb slid her shirt off her shoulders.

  Caleb yanked her against his scalding hot body, pulling one of her legs up to straddle his hip. Felicia tipped her head back as he put an end to his teasing nips and kissed her as forcefully as he had in the enclosure. His tongue swept her mouth hungrily, and she met his desires with her own; she swallowed his groan when she tugged Caleb’s lower lip between her teeth.

  “My bedroom,” she managed to gasp out once they had broken apart for air. Caleb lifted her against him until she had both feet off the floor, her legs wrapped around his hips as she straddled his growing erection. Her apartment was small enough that he was able to navigate the two of them into the back bedroom easily, without having ever been there before; he did an admirable job considering Felicia never stopped kissing him long enough to allow him to glance up properly.

  Chapter eleven

  The bedroom was dark, and Caleb didn’t bother turning on the lights. Felicia realized that he could see her perfectly fine, but that she would have to navigate his body by feel.

  He deposited her on her mattress, under the spill of the moonlight and hung back in the shadows; she lifted herself on to her elbows, watching, as Caleb came closer and began to trail kisses along her bared stomach. He carefully undid the front of her pants; then, he hooked her underwear in his fingers and glided the remaining garments off her trembling body, barely breaking contact where his mouth pressed against her flesh.

  Her breathing was coming in sharp bursts now, and Felicia tried valiantly to calm herself – but when Caleb lowered his head between her thighs, she felt all control slip away. She moaned explosively, seizing his dark hair in her fingers, but he didn’t pull up to gauge her response; he had heard everything he needed to in that one sweet, accidental sound.

  The tongue that has so rapturously explored her mouth now explored elsewhere; the hands on her thighs pulled them apart to allow himself better access, and Felicia threw her head back.

  “Oh,” she gasped. She could feel perspiration already beading between her breasts as a trembling anticipation took over her body. Caleb tongued along her outer passage, and a tantalising pleasure like she had never known raced through her, culminating in a thrill down her spine that raised goose bumps all over her milk-white skin. Her fingers clenched his scalp, and she could feel Caleb practically purring at the pressure.

  When he was satisfied that she was ready to receive him, drawing gasp after gasp until Felicia though her body would combust and she couldn’t take any more, Caleb mounted the bed and pulled her up against him. He turned her around, and Felicia exhaled a short, sharp breath as she settled backwards on his lap; she could feel his rigid erection pressing against her slick entrance. She raised herself up obligingly, and Caleb guided her back down, penetrating and then burying himself to the hilt within her.

  The angle he achieved with her astride his lap was intense. Felicia rocked back with an ecstatic moan, turning her head to look over her shoulder at the strong body beneath her, and then down at the capable hands cupping her breasts.

  Caleb’s fingers then moved downward to clench the soft flesh of her thighs, and he held her still as they both adjusted to the intensity of their union. Then, slowly, agonisingly, he lifted her off him in the same moment Felicia raised herself up and arched her back. He thrust up as she bought herself back down again.

  The pleasure she felt was explosive, and her expressive moan filled the darkness. She moved herself into position again, eager to establish a rhythm that would allow her to repeat the intense feeling, and Caleb was only too happy to comply. He thrust into her slowly, carrying them both up off the bed, again and again; he bought his lips down and brushed them along her bared shoulder, his fingers dragging the black strap of her bra down, lightly touching his trembling bicep. Her naked breasts were freed into the cold air of the room. Sheer arousal tightened her nipples; his hands travelled up her arms, and then stopped at her nipples, teasing them and gently pulling on them, until Felicia bucked her hips as Caleb held her tightly in his embrace.

  Darkness descended around them, until it felt like the shadows themselves were making love to her. Felicia craned her neck, though the haze of pleasure she could scarcely see what was transpiring between them – all there was left to do was feel. The sensations between them were building, climbing to new and unbearable heights as Caleb sped up his rhythm; soon he was pumping into her, and his every thrust was met with a surprised cry of approval. Caleb filled her up like nothing she’d ever felt, and she suddenly clenched and released unexpectedly, and ultimate pleasure washed over her in unrelenting warm waves; she heard herself call his name as if from a distance, and Caleb gripped her and came groaning in response.

  Felicia collapsed, utterly spent, beside the shadowed figure of Caleb. She turned her head to take in his expression, and found that she was not disappointed: Caleb looked completely content, almost sated, and Felicia felt a secret thrill to think that she’d caused him pleasure to equal her own.

  “Where will you go?” Felicia broke the silence that had descended as they lay there both recovering from their mutual exertion. “I assume you had a life before the car accident, before the zoo…” Before me, was her private addendum, but she didn’t want to say it out loud. Her night with Caleb had been explosive, but it was all it needed to be – one night. She would remember it fondly, and she would miss him, but she would get by without him.

  Felicia turned away from Caleb, she didn’t want him to see her expression. She gripped the pillow beneath her head, and tried to convince herself that her current feelings of attachment would pass, they were just chemicals: human or beast, sex was just a primal, base need and an expression of attraction. Her feelings would fade. She could settle for a one-night stand. She could.

  Then why did her chest feel so tight at the thought of losing him?

  She felt a pair of arms wrap her waist from behind, and Caleb pulled her against him. The solid warmth of his body aligned with her back felt so right, and Felicia couldn’t help but melt into his embrace once again. Her worried thoughts and fluttering pulse calmed somewhat as he stroked her hair back from her temple; she even
smiled a little at the irony of his attentions, remembering how she used to caress him in a similar manner when they were in the enclosure together.

  “I do have a home, yes.” His voice sounded wistful, and his words pierced her heart. What if he had a woman waiting for him? A family even? The realisation of how little she knew him was like a bucket of ice water being poured over her.

  “It will need my attention in the morning. I’ve been away too long,” he continued, and she could tell his mind was far away. The too brief spell of their union had been broken, and though he didn’t let her go, she felt a wave of loneliness wash over her.

  A short while later she could hear the soft sounds of Caleb sleeping. She stared out of the window, still draped in his arms, watching the moonlight break through the black sky and felt desolate. She slept, eventually, but it was with an aching heart.

  Chapter twelve

  Caleb awoke just before dawn. He looked down at the sleeping body next to him, her porcelain white skin looking luminous in the drowsy morning light, and her fiery red hair spread across the bed sheets. Her face looked even more peaceful and beatific in sleep. He felt himself harden at the sight of her, and longed for Felicia to open her eyes, inviting him to continue their pleasures. His musings were interrupted by a noise coming from outside – a low, calling whine that had woken him in the first place.

  He looked out of the window. A prowling black shadow stalked back and forth outside Felicia’s apartment block.

  Caleb hurriedly grabbed another towel from Felicia’s bathroom and made his way outside.

  Caleb? A familiar voice called out to him as he quietly shut the front door behind him. Giving the area a swift glance, Caleb dropped the towel and transformed rapidly, gracefully landing on all fours.