by Ashley Shay
As she rounded the corner of the hallway, away from the lustful eyes of Tomcat Whatever, she took a deep breath and clenched her fists, wishing she could enjoy the feel of something in her hand, a paddle, a flogger, a baton, anything to take the edge off. She could handle the sexual release herself later in the shower, but the need for control was something she couldn’t emulate without a partner. The tension was becoming unbearable. She wondered how Tomcat Whatever would react if she got her flogger from her room, turned back around, and paddled his ass for staring at hers.
She laughed. “Dios mío. I need a good fuck.”
She paused outside Carly’s door and heard the hushed whispers from inside then the sound of Tyler’s laughter. She was very happy her old cougar friends were finding happiness again. Jillian had been her best friend, and only female friend, for most of her adult life, and her loss had been devastating, but Rosa also knew people had to move past grief. She’d missed Jillian every day of the past year, and some days, the ache of loss almost brought her to her knees.
But lately…
Lately, Rosa thought she might be able to think of Jillian with more laughter than tears, more smiles than sorrow. She wondered if the woman beyond that door had anything to do with that. Things were definitely looking up, and when this new crisis had passed, she intended to make up for lost time. She’d visit Lisa, buy some brand-new leather, and find someone at Clandestine to dominate into submission, someone risky and new. She really needed a challenge.
She flipped her hair over her shoulder and felt the silky strands brush against her bare back. The movement caught the eye of the man stationed at her door. Another big, tall, and dark Tomcat. She licked her lips because this one looked ultrayummy. He remained perfectly still, a large block of granite, but his deep-blue gaze drifted down the length of her body, and Rosa felt her pussy clench. Not many men made her pussy clench. She had too much control for that.
“Do I know you?” she asked.
“Tomcat 6, ma’am.”
“No, really, you look very familiar. Do I know you?”
“I don’t leave the compound very often, but I was assigned to watch you today in Catamount, ma’am.”
“Ah, sí.” She gave him a cool once-over, studying him from head to foot. “You look a bit different tonight.”
“No sunglasses, ma’am.”
“Very true,” she murmured. “You have incredible eyes.”
“Ma’am?” He kept his face very still, but she saw a spark flare in those incredible eyes. A little flash of silver sparkled in the deep sapphire.
“Nothing important,” she said softly. “You’re a panther.”
“Yes, ma’am. Most of us are.”
“The Tomcats, you mean?”
He gave a curt nod. She moved an inch closer, catching his clean, earthy scent. He was incredibly arousing. She wanted to wrap her body around his…after she spanked him and he knelt before her in submission of course. The mere idea of it made her sway toward him. Her muscles twitched and rippled, wanting to shift so they could stretch and wind and curl. Her tongue came out without permission to scent the air around them, searching for just a tiny taste of the pheromones he released. Even though he was standing still, his masculine scent filled the hallway and wrapped around her enticingly.
She couldn’t resist. She put her hand on his hard, muscled chest, feeling his heartbeat through the regulation black polo shirt he wore. Tomcats in black shirts, all other security personnel in yellow ones. Cougar liked to keep them separate. Tomcats had passed rigorous training and generally had a military background. The beat never increased slightly. It remained steady. She lifted her face.
“Do you know what I am?” she asked softly, her gaze roaming across his face.
“A black mamba, ma’am.”
The steady beat of his heart drummed against her fingertips. Still no change. No reaction beyond the flare of that silver glint as he stared steadily into her eyes.
“You know your shifters, Tomcat 6.”
“Part of the job, ma’am.” A slight smile tugged at his lips. “Though I was also married to a black mamba for a while, ma’am.” His smile widened. “As you can imagine, it didn’t end well.”
“I’m not surprised. We’re notoriously unpredictable, but I like a challenge.” Rosa slid her fingers down the length of his hard, ribbed stomach to graze down his regulation black pants. He never consciously moved a muscle, but she did feel an unconscious twitch beneath the fabric. That was very encouraging indeed.
“I like a challenge too.” At that moment, he lifted a hand and pressed against his earpiece. “Yes, sir.” He listened for a moment. “I understand, sir. Will do.”
“Problem?” Rosa asked.
The smile tugged at his mouth again. He had a very luscious mouth. “Just a ruckus at the stable. Nothing we can’t handle, ma’am.”
“I’ll bet.” She twisted her doorknob and, as she opened the door, slid against him, feeling the heat of his body blaze against hers. “I’ll feel much safer tonight knowing you’re outside my room while I lie in bed.”
“I’ll bet you can handle yourself, ma’am.”
“Sí, but sometimes it’s nice to be handled as well.”
He gave her that little smile again. “If you have any trouble, ma’am”—he dropped his eyes to brush against the swell of her breasts—“while you’re lying in bed, or need anything at all, just give a shout.”
She stepped inside. “I’ll do that.”
When she’d closed the door behind her, she leaned back against it with her eyes closed. What a fabulous hunk of panther. She’d always known the Tomcats were perfect specimens of healthy male, but she’d never actually talked with one before except to say please or thank you. Tyler really discouraged any of them from fraternizing with his security team because, as Tyler often said, everything was “my house, my rules.” She tried to toe the line when she could since she went over it so many times without even thinking.
The pheromones the man had given off were positively intoxicating. She’d wanted to run her tongue all over that tall, hunky frame. It had been extremely hard to ward off the shift because every muscle in her body wanted to make contact with every one of his. Her snake had wanted to wrap around his body, but the woman just wanted to fuck. She’d never fucked a panther before, and he was one hell of an attractive specimen.
Her eyes flew open.
“Fuck.”
She’d seen those mesmerizing sapphire eyes at Clandestine before, hidden behind a black mask. All the Doms and Dommes wore masks to heighten the intensity of the situation. She herself wore a scarlet mask because red was the signature color of her leather.
“He’s a fucking Dom.” Rosa slid down the door to land on her butt. “I’ve just been teasing the biggest fucking Dom in Cougar’s club outside of Cougar himself.”
When his laughter drifted though the closed door, she let her head fall back against the wood.
“Fuck.”
Chapter Sixteen
Shane let his cougar sniff the fence line. The cougar buried his nose into the dirt then scratched at the tufts of grass. Something wasn’t right. A strange aroma clung to the earth and hung in the air. Like the smells left in the aftermath of a storm, something or someone had left a trace behind, though it was so faint the cougar had a hard time deciphering what it could be. The animal lifted his face to smell the air.
Beside him, another cougar gave one more mighty sniff then stood on his hind legs. The darkness shimmered with a golden glow, and suddenly Dusty stood before him.
“Damn, we can’t find anything, but my cougar definitely senses something.”
Lifting on hind legs, Shane willed his cougar into submission and, within a moment, shook off the effects of the change and walked toward his brother. “We can’t find anything either. But something was here. That’s a given.”
He heard the soft neigh of a horse then the sound of splashing as hooves tromped through the creek. It soun
ded like two horses. He stared across the clearing until Gingersnap and Onyx came into view. Cougar and David dismounted, looping the reins over a small brush. David stood back to give them privacy as Cougar moved toward them.
“Anything?” Cougar asked.
“Nada,” Shane said. “Though something was here.”
Cougar glanced at Dusty, who confirmed Shane’s assessment with a nod.
Shane glanced up at the night sky. “My cougar kept sniffing the air, trying to reach higher.”
Cougar glanced up as well, seemingly searching for shadows in the darkness. “That seems consistent with what we felt at the house.”
Shane listened intently as Cougar told about the weird vibe he and Carly had gotten in the gardens. When Cougar finished, Shane said, “Some kind of bird?”
“But nothing can get in here,” Dusty said. “The ward makes sure of that, doesn’t it? I mean, didn’t we just pay a hundred grand for some sort of serpent spell?”
“Yeah,” Cougar said, “but I’m afraid nature puts limitations on us. We’re a working ranch. We have animals moving throughout the compound, and the ecology of the area alone dictates—”
“Jeez, Cougar, I don’t want a fucking lecture,” Dusty said. “Plain and simple please. What gets in?”
“Normal animals can come and go without triggering anything.”
“Okay, what about shifters?”
“Nothing that shifts can come through the perimeter, but things can fly over. It’s very hard to control airspace.”
“Okay,” Shane said, “so it could have been a large avian shifter. Maybe just passing through.”
“Possibly. Though I don’t think we’d have this residual signature for a flyover. The system is designed to prevent—” He snapped his mouth closed when Dusty held up his hand. “An avian shifter flying over wouldn’t leave a signature trail. It dissipates too rapidly in the air. It would have had to touch the ground.”
“But there’s nothing here,” Shane said, spreading his hands. Damn, for all Cougar’s hard work, how could there be a glitch like this?
“So far, no one’s found anything on the grounds either,” Cougar said.
Dusty shrugged. “Maybe the shifter landed, innocently enough, then realized he was in protected space and hightailed it out.”
Cougar nodded. “That’s possible, but we can’t count on it.”
“Maybe our cougars are just overly sensitized right now, with Carly being here and all,” Shane said. “I mean we’re newly mated.” He stared pointedly at Cougar. “Most of us anyway.”
“Back off,” Cougar growled. “Yes, you could be oversensitized, but if that’s the case, why are we all standing on this hilltop?”
* * * *
From the balcony, Carly watched the men return empty-handed. She could tell by the looks on their faces they had found nothing. With the start of such a wonderful evening, catching fireflies with Suzie, and getting Cougar involved, she couldn’t bear to see them so reserved now. Opening the door to her room, she stepped out into the hallway.
“Maybe it’s a good thing you found nothing,” she encouraged as they trudged toward their respective rooms. “It could have been something totally unimportant that set off our internal alarms.”
Tyler reached out one hand to cup her face, and they all hesitated at her door. “You could be right,” he agreed. “Let’s hope so.”
“I’m really not sleepy you know,” Carly said pointedly. “In fact, I’m restless. For some reason, I have this need to be outside under the moonlight. Isn’t it a perfect night?”
Shane glanced at Tyler. “You really want to go to bed, Ty?”
Tyler looked back at Carly. “Would you like to model some of those new clothes you got for us, darlin’? In all the excitement around here, we didn’t get to see any of them. I could sure use a little fashion show out at the gazebo tonight, and I bet the boys wouldn’t mind watchin’ too.”
Carly clapped her hands together. “I’d love to try on my new things. I didn’t get a chance to try all of them on after the jackal…after…”
“Shh, it’s okay, baby, don’t think about it.” Shane leaned in to give her a quick kiss. “Give me a handful of those clothes and I’ll carry them out for you.”
“Me too,” Dusty volunteered. “I can’t wait to see you in these, darlin’. I’ve been dreamin’ about seeing you in rumba panties ever since you told me.”
Carly laughed with anticipation and heaped the men’s arms full of brightly colored, soft fabrics. She couldn’t wait to strut her stuff for their admiring eyes. The gazebo had a dressing room attached for pool guests, and she would make do with that for her impromptu fashion show.
Carly selected a few choice pieces of clothing to try on while the men settled around the room with their bottles of Shiner beer. Silver moonbeams lit the screened-in gazebo with a nearly magical quality, falling mutedly on the center of the floor where a large round seating pit waited with lots of room for snuggling and sharing space together. She wondered if the brothers had built it that way on purpose and decided they probably had.
In the dressing room, she quickly selected Dusty’s red rumba panties along with a red-and-black tank that scooped so low her nipples were covered by nothing more than lace and a promise. She turned this way and that in the mirror, amazed at herself. Did she really have all those attributes in Washington, DC, and do nothing with them? She’d admired other women that had the nerve to wear flirty outfits and show off their curves. But she had always felt herself a mouse, a drab, uninteresting woman that blended nicely and had enough social skills to keep from becoming a complete wallflower. However, that was another life and another time. She was Carly Barnes now, and Carly was not a wallflower.
“How about a beer for me?” she asked when she returned to the room.
Three sets of glittering green eyes stared at her through the silver light. “Damn,” Dusty said softly. “You can have anything you want, baby. Just name it.”
“Oh hell yeah,” Shane agreed. “Carly, you take my breath away, honey. Turn around here. Let me see that cute ass in those flirty ruffles.”
Carly did a pirouette in front of the men, and Tyler handed her a beer he’d already twisted the lid from. “Oh God, I needed this, baby. You’re a sight for sore eyes. I think we’ll just buy you the whole fucking store so you can wear clothes like this all the time.”
Carly leaned forward to give him a kiss. “That wouldn’t be appropriate for a nanny, now would it?”
“We need to think about hiring someone else,” Tyler said. “You’re gonna be way too busy to run after Suzie all day. You’ll need some help.”
Dusty ran his hands over her hips and pulled her close for a kiss. “You feel so good. So soft. I want to bury myself in you, Carly, and make you—”
“In a while, Dusty.” Carly twined her tongue with his, tasting the beer on his mouth and the need in his heart. “Let me relax you first.”
Shane gave a deep chuckle that rumbled from his chest. “Sweetheart, I can’t see myself relaxing while you’re trying on these clothes. They just aren’t cut to make a man relax.”
Carly went to Shane and sat on his lap, giving him a spontaneous little lap dance. “I didn’t mean I wanted you to go to sleep. I just want to get you ready for me.”
Tyler groaned into his beer. “Carly, honey, if we get any more ready, we’ll be tearing those clothes off and taking you right here. Right now. So I suggest if you want us to see a couple more outfits you should probably go try them on. Right away.”
“Patience is a virtue.”
“Patience is highly overrated,” Tyler said. “Now get that gorgeous little ass in gear and show me what else I bought today.”
“Yes, alpha!” Carly called over her shoulder as she paraded back to the dressing room, making sure to add a little wiggle in her walk.
When Carly returned, the men had all shifted positions to the soft cushions of the seating pit. With their tawny hair and gold
en skin, they looked gorgeous sprawled out on the buff-colored leather like models on the front of romance novels. She’d read them voraciously for years, wonderful stories filled with manly men taming the West, exploring new horizons, and sailing into adventures Carly could only dream about. She’d fantasized about finding a man like that, someone who would shower her with love and affection while he rocked her world and conquered his own. Now, as she gazed into three sets of shimmering green eyes gleaming with an almost savage passion, she nearly lost her breath. The sight thrilled her more than she could have imagined reading those pages filled with love and sexual promise. Her heart sang with love, and her body almost vibrated with the need to be taken. Like a scene in a romance novel, she completely and irrevocably understood that these men belonged to her in every way a man could belong to a woman.
All three of them. How lucky could one woman get?
Carly noticed there were no shirts or boots in view. The men were wearing nothing but jeans. Tyler had his pants unbuttoned and partially unzipped. His abs seemed to bunch and twist in anticipation of their upcoming workout, and the sight of his raw power made Carly lick her dry lips. Her alpha male. Her mate.
He stood up to meet her, his eyelids half lowered as he looked down the cleavage of the red silk corset she wore. He skimmed one of his fingers between her breasts and followed the low dip of the fabric as it caressed the pale contour of her nipple.
“You are the most beautiful woman in the world tonight, Carly Barnes.”
“Any night,” Dusty said.
Their voices floated around her like a magic spell, filling her thoughts with desire and causing a warm, moist pressure to begin throbbing between her legs.
“I want to feel you wrapped around me, Carly, taking my cock into that beautiful pussy of yours and shoving yourself against me until I’m totally yours with nothing left to give.”
“I want that too, more than anything.” Carly looked up into his eyes, seeing something otherworldly shimmering in their green depths.
The glimmer of something beyond human should have frightened her, at least a little, but it didn’t. Like a torrential downpour that couldn’t be contained, it burst through the floodgates of her control, filling her with a heart-pounding lust and sending a monstrous and voracious craving careening through every molecule of her body. She leaned toward him, inhaling the scent that hovered in the air, the scent of enthralled and sexually aroused males.
