by Elle Thorne
She was still reeling from the idea that her tormentor was dead. She wasn’t one to wish death on anyone, but now she was free of Bruno’s attacks and advances.
She ran toward her mother. “Mama.”
Mama glanced at her. “You worried me when you weren’t home last night.”
“I’m sorry, Mama. I had to run an errand.”
“Did that errand involve your sister being dropped off or lost?”
“No, Mama.” Ana’s face burned. Some kind of caretaker of her family she turned out to be. “I’m sorry. Isabel is—”
Federico stepped forward. “Your younger daughter is a guest at our villa, Signora.” He held out his hand. “Federico Tiero. I’m a friend of Isabel and Ana’s.”
“Young man,” Mama began.
Oh no. Ana knew that tone all too well.
“I may be old, but I’m not deaf, blind, nor senile.”
“Yes, Signora.” Federico backed up, giving Ana a glance. A look of chagrin was on his face.
“Step forward.” Mama pointed at Tino.
Tino approached her as she indicated for the housekeeper to wheel her closer. “You’re the one who has been making things fall from the walls.”
“I have.”
“And you’re the one that talks to my daughter through the walls, when she takes on her tigress’s form.”
Ana gasped.
Tino nodded, confusion on his face.
Mama smiled. “You two are not the only ones who can shift. I have much better function of my legs in my tigress form. By the way, listening in isn’t difficult.”
“Yes, Signora,” Tino said.
Mama turned to Federico. “Did I hear you correctly? That worthless bull is dead?”
“He is.” Federico nodded.
“Good riddance. He’s been drugging me, you know. Sedatives, to keep me from acting out, as he put it. He said if I didn’t take it, he’d make life a living hell for Ana.”
“Oh, Mama.” Ana rushed to her mother, lowered herself and put her forehead against her mother’s. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. Your father wasn’t well. He made a bad decision. I quit taking the drugs that Bruno left for me long ago, but I had to fake it, until I could come up with a plan.” Mama looked at Tino, then Esmerelda, then Federico. “This worked out better than any plan I could have come up with.”
Ana kissed her mother’s cheek then pulled away. “I’m afraid I’ve been a disappointment.”
“No such thing,” Mama assured her. “Now tell me what your sister is really doing.”
Esmerelda stepped forward. “She’s collateral. For me. So that I would return.”
“Then let’s go get my daughter.”
Ana stared at her mother. This was the mother she grew up with. This wasn’t the shell of a woman who’d become a widow, and it wasn’t the woman who’d yielded to Bruno’s bullying.
She let a tiny smile appear on her face. She was so proud of her mama.
“Cristiano,” Mama said. “I expect you’d like to accompany us to the Tiero household?”
“Indeed.
“Federico. You’ll have your men take care of Bruno’s body, since he was felled by yours? And have two of them go to the Shifter Council to explain what has happened here so that my family has no problems with legalities. I’m sure it’s safe to say that my daughter has regained her father’s stolen fortune now, as Bruno’s widow.”
“Let us go out the back,” Ana said. She had no will to see Bruno’s body.
“I’ll have the vehicles brought around.” Federico indicated to one of the shifters with a wave.
Chapter Twenty
“I’m staying.” Isabel planted her hands on her hips.
“What do you mean you’re staying?” Mama indicated for one of the Tiero security team to push her closer to Isabel.
They’d taken the drive, and now were in the driveway of the Tiero villa. Giovanni Tiero stood behind Isabel.
Ana still found him as scary and as fierce as she had the first time she met him. How could Isabel want to stay here?
“It’s not open to discussion. Please send my things.”
Giovanni stepped forward. “Signora Valenti. I admired your husband. I hope you’d consider being our guest for dinner this evening. Perhaps spending a few days of relaxation. Federico told me what happened at your home. My security team will handle the cleanup and are visiting with the Council per your request. My home could be a good place to rest for a few days, until everything is settled.”
Mama’s eyes narrowed. “Perhaps a short visit. Maybe a day or two. Then I have to get back to Rome and sell that godforsaken villa that held all of us prisoner. Or maybe I’ll have it razed and build something better on it.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The shifters had all dined together, then gone to their separate quarters, in different wings, and different floors.
Ana’s room was next to Tino’s connected by a door.
It wasn’t long after she’d gone to her room, changed into a nightgown, when there’d been a knock on their mutual door.
She’d opened it to Tino’s smiling face.
Why does it feel like I’ve always had him in my life? Like we’ve always been close.
“Capriana,” he murmured.
She fell into his arms as if she’d done it a million times before, resting her head on his muscular chest.
“Bellisima, you are my love.” His breath tickled the hair at her temples.
“And you mine. And I’ve known it since I met you, though I’ve denied it to myself.”
Hours later, after they’d talked, and talked, relishing the ability to speak to each other while gazing into one another’s eyes, Tino ran his fingertips over Ana’s flesh. Goose bumps rose from the trails of his touch. Would this ever change? Would there ever come a time when his touch didn’t affect her so?
She prayed not as she studied his dark golden gaze, his lion flaring up to meet her tigress.
She knew Giovanni didn’t approve of her relationship with Tino.
Gio—as he preferred to be called—was staunch in the old school beliefs that likes should mate with likes. Tigers with tigers, lions with lions and never, ever with humans.
Though Gio didn’t approve, he never said anything. Probably because he didn’t want to upset Isabel. Ana knew her relationship with her sister would be strained because of this. They’d not be able to hang around as much.
Probably wouldn’t anyway, not if she’s going to stay out here and I’m going to Florence. She knew that Tino missed Florence. She’d go there, for a while.
Ana would go where Tino went. She and her tigress were firm on that.
“What are you thinking?” Tino locked eyes with Ana, taking her chin in his hand. Her heartbeat sped, she felt the warmth coming off his body in waves. A heat that carried the scent of him, the sex of him, straight to her senses, her hormones, and her tigress.
Her palms grew sweaty and tiny beads of perspiration sprouted on her hairline, just above her temple. She stared into those dark espresso eyes, glittering with the flames of his lion’s gaze.
His hand traveled from her chin, to her shoulder, to her back, and though he didn’t apply any pressure at all, she found herself pressing closer to Tino.
Her fingers curled into her sweaty palms. She wanted him too fiercely.
* * *
The scent of her was powerful. The heat that rose off her body was sending Tino to the place where he could only think with his lower half. And he was getting harder and harder—stone that wanted nothing more than to take her, claim her. He wanted to brand her body with his, so deeply inside her that she shouted for him.
Quicker than he’d expected her to move, she wound her arms around his neck and brought his head down. Her mouth locked on to his with a ferocity and greediness that tempted his lion. She pulled him in, her tongue entering his mouth, seeking.
Something snapped in Tino. He reached for
her, and before he could stop his lion, unsheathed his claw and shredded her dress, parting it cleanly, so it dropped to the floor.
Ana whispered a moan, but the scent she released was revealing her desire. He lowered his hands, letting them run down the sides of her until he had her waist firmly in his hold.
Her eyes remained locked with his. Her gaze focused on his mouth. He leaned back and appraised her body, those amazing breasts he’d seen once before, just that once, before he’d withheld and respected her. Beautiful thighs held tightly together.
He placed a thumb on her nipple and was rewarded with a tightening of puckered flesh. “I want you. I want to taste you.” He put a hand on the inside of each knee and pressed. “Open your legs for me.”
Her breathing was rapid and erratic. His lion picked up on it. Her pulse beat quickly in his lion’s ear.
With her legs fully spread, he tugged on her panties and with the same claw, split them down the sides. He let go of the material. The white cotton framed her succulent slickness, with its triangle of dark hair.
Her eyes were wide, as if she couldn’t believe this was him, this was her, and that they were here, doing this.
And yet, as unbelievable as she might have found this, her sleek sheath still radiated its heat and sent out her scent, beckoning to him.
Her heart was beating faster and faster in his shifter ears.
“Tino, please…”
He knew she’d never had pleasure from Bruno. Bruno took. Bruno never gave.
Tino spread her lush dark red and dusky pink lips with one hand. “Look at that. How wet you are for me, cara mia.”
He slid a finger into her. She tightened around it, making him wish it was his rod, making his lion roar in his head so loudly that Tino couldn’t see for just a moment, all he could do was close his eyes against the volume.
He pushed his finger in farther and felt her body’s response to him. Moisture, slick and creamy, coated his finger. He pulled it out, just half way, watching how her lips wrapped around it, watched how her body held onto his finger, unwilling to let it go.
Her eyes fluttered, closing, then opening, a glow behind them showed him her tigress, just barely beneath the surface. His lion recognized the tigress, making low chuffing sounds in Tino’s head.
He slipped his finger back in, enjoying the way her body sheathed it. He pushed in and out.
Her body arched forward, hungrily taking more of what he offered, clear to his largest knuckle. He slid another in, relishing the way she stretched to receive him, noting the way her eyes widened as he pushed the thickness in and curled it upward.
Her scent wafted, stronger and sexier than before.
His body strained for her. Tino groaned with need. He pushed back the lump in his throat. He needed to control himself. This was for her, not for him to take what he needed. She’d had enough of that. Way too much of that. He had to give her what he wanted her to have, what she needed.
His other hand crept up from her knee, found her tiny core between her lips, and released it from its hood. He took it between his fingertips, teasing it.
She writhed, her hips moving back and forth. Her muscles flexed drawing him in, taking his fingers in deeper.
He moved his hand with a speed that only a shifter could, so fast it was a blur as he drove his fingers in and out, while his other hand ministered to her sensitive core, pushing her closer and closer to an orgasm.
Ana arched her body. She moaned, a low sound that became a howl, her body tensing, completely taut. With one final jerk, she cried out his name.
He raised his hand to her face, traced his fingers over her lips, coating their glorious fullness with her juices. He licked his fingers clean of her creaminess.
“I savor the moment I can make love to you properly.”
Ana sighed.
* * *
They slept next to one another, on her bed in Giovanni Tiero’s villa, and every so often one or the other would wake up and reach for each other, making sure, even in the depths of slumber, that nothing had changed. That they were still together.
The next morning, Tino woke to catch her watching him while he slept.
“Sneaky,” he said with a smile, kissing her tan colored cheek, relishing the pink blush that he knew was because of him. “I was thinking—” He planted a series of kisses on her jawline, traveling up her cheek to that sensitive spot just under her ear. “—I should see my father.”
She raised herself on one elbow. “He’s in isolation.”
Tino frowned. “How do you know this?”
“Giovanni told me, the first night I met him, when I asked for his help.”
“Why is he in isolation?”
“He’s mourning, I think. And hiding.”
“Mourning? Me? Hiding? From me?”
“No.” Ana put her arms around him. Held him tightly. “His witch wife Iniga is dead. And he broke shifter practice by becoming involved with a witch. It seems the council would like to talk to him about that.”
“Shifters are very rigid in their customs.” Tino shook his head. He wasn’t sure he agreed with all the customs and taboos.
“Mostly here in Europe. It’s far more old school here. In other countries, things are different. Many of them are more accepting.”
“Seems I have a lot to learn of shifter ways.”
“You’ll pick it up. In time.”
“I wonder if my father even wants a son,” Tino said.
“Don’t say that. He doesn’t know about you.”
Tino shook his head. “We’ll see. But first, Florence?”
Ana nodded.
Epilogue
Florence.
A few months later.
Ana had come to love it here, though she almost never saw Isabel. And Mama only visited every few months for a few weeks. Mama had set up her own home. She’d done exactly what she’d said she was going to do. She’d demolished the villa that held them prisoner and built a new, modern, whitewashed home that she entertained a few friends in occasionally. She’d even had a cousin move in, so she had more than enough company.
Ana stretched in the bed, enjoying the sun’s rising rays as they warmed her body. She reached out, wrapping her arms around Tino.
His eyes were fixed on her, almost predatory. “I want you.” Tino leaned forward, pulling her panties from her body, leaving her with the nightgown, and nothing more.
With her lips spread wide, the coolness of the night air still lingering was exhilarating on her wet, swollen lips.
Ana enjoyed the way his eyes feasted on her. She’d enjoyed the way his fingers filled her and the way she’d come undone all over his face.
Her body was convulsing inside, knowing how he could make her feel, wanting more.
His face grew closer and closer to her mound. She held her breath in anticipation of his approach. He swiped his tongue over her lips first. Up one side, then up the other, always meeting toward the center, just below the center of her pleasure.
A surge pushed her to another level, making shivers course over her body. Her inner thighs trembled. Each lick he made, each breath he blew on her, all were a caress on her swollen lips. His tongue swiped between her inner folds.
She made fists of her hands, wanting him. Not his tongue. Needing Tino. Needing Tino more than she’d ever needed anything.
He drove his tongue in deeply, his face buried in her, his face touching her while his tongue penetrated, driving in and out.
She arched her back, her hands drove into his flesh as he replaced his tongue with two fingers, not waiting, not gentle, plunging them in as though he knew exactly what she wanted, but wasn’t quite going to deliver it, not without a bit of teasing.
Her world exploded like a million flares had been shot. She shook, and opened her mouth to yell when he raised his head, his fingers moving quickly in and out of her, his mouth landed on hers, claiming her with his tongue while she came undone, becoming nothing more than jelly in his han
ds.
She tasted the heady flavor of her own passion, driving her deeper into the depths of no return. She couldn’t breathe as her body submitted her to the climaxes.
She held on to Tino, screaming into his mouth, begging him for help when the sensations felt like they were more than she could handle.
* * *
Now Tino could make her his.
She wound her arms around his neck.
He pulled his hardness out of his briefs, rubbed her wetness from his fingers all over, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her against his shaft. He wasn’t small, he knew it, and the last thing he wanted was to cause her pain. He guided into her, slowly, not wanting to hurt her.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and grabbed his butt, fingers digging into his flesh.
She stilled, absorbing the pleasure and the pain of their connection, then arched her hips and began a slow rocking.
Tino shredded her nightgown, courtesy of his lion’s claws and freed her breasts. He leaned in, taking a nipple in his mouth, sucking on it, then replaced his mouth with his hands tweaking and teasing.
He bit down on his lip. He was going to lose it. All that time, prisoner behind stone walls. He wasn’t sure how long he could last.
She swayed on him taking him, releasing him over and over, her sleekness enveloping him. He pulled her closer and began to move, increasing the speed.
He felt the tightness of her building orgasm.
Her sheath grabbed him, pulled him deeper.
His control was—
Tino erupted.
He wasn’t sure what happened next, but he thought his lion took control.
He dropped his head and sunk his canines into her, just where her neck met her shoulder.
She screeched, half pleasure and half pain, while he licked the wound clean.
“You…” Ana began.
“What?” The word came out with a groan.
“You bonded us,” she gasped.
