Under the Panther's Protection [Black Panthers 3]

by Leah Brooke

  Joshua’s lips curved at the corner in what she suspected to be some semblance of a smile. “They appreciate what you did for their m—for Glenna, and they don’t want to leave you in a place like that. They just want to help.”

  “I appreciate that, but I don’t need their help.”

  Joshua raised a brow, his eyes going hard and cold. “Apparently, you do. You live in a refrigerator with no food.”

  Although he spoke the truth, Fiona bristled in embarrassment. “That’s none of your business.”

  “It is my business, and so are you, at least until I get you back to the farm. Leland and Joe didn’t want to argue with you or force you into their car because they didn’t want to upset your sister, but they sure as hell weren’t going to leave you there to live in conditions like that.”

  Realizing that she didn’t have a chance of winning, and impressed by her sister’s lovers, Fiona lifted her chin. “Fine. It’ll give me a chance to see Glenna before I move on.”

  “Good.” Joshua took a deep breath and let it out slowly, his cock jumping against her thigh. “So, we’ve got everything sorted out? You’re not going to give me any more trouble?”

  Fiona shrugged. “That depends on you.”

  Joshua’s cock jumped again, his hand clenching around her thigh. “I’m not doing a damned thing to you.”

  “And you won’t, despite the fact that you have an erection. Keep it in check, big guy, and you and I will get along just fine.”

  Joshua cursed and set her back on her seat. “You’re a beautiful woman, and I’m a man. Besides, what the hell did you expect after wiggling all over my lap?”

  “You’re blaming me?”

  Ignoring that, he reached over and grabbed her seat belt, snapping it into place. “The door’s locked, and the safety’s on. It won’t open until I unlock it, which I have no intention of doing until we get to the restaurant. So behave. I’m hungry, and I know you are.”

  Crossing her arms over her chest, Fiona looked straight ahead, irritated at herself for missing his warmth. “You kidnap people often?”

  Joshua slid his seat back into place and shifted back into drive, glancing at her before he pulled onto the road again. “Not exactly.”

  He glanced at her again, his expression unreadable. “We’ve rescued people who have been kidnapped.”

  Confused, Fiona frowned. “Wait a minute. When my sister said that you helped people, I thought that meant you guys were like firemen or something.”

  “Or something.”

  “Tell me more.”

  “No.”

  They rode in silence for several minutes before he spoke again. “There’s a restaurant.”

  Fiona looked were he pointed, her stomach sinking. “That’s a steakhouse. Can’t you find a diner somewhere?”

  She couldn’t afford to eat in a steakhouse. Hell, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had anything resembling meat.

  She’d cooked whatever she’d managed to buy for Glenna.

  He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “You got something against steak?”

  “Only the price. Look, I’ve got about seventeen dollars on me, and—”

  Pulling into the parking lot with a squeal of tires, Joshua cursed under his breath. “I’m paying for it. Not you. Christ. What the hell kind of men have you gone out with?”

  “One. The only man I ever dated cheated on me, and I haven’t bothered since. Men are worthless and full of shit and aren’t worth the effort. Besides, this isn’t a date.”

  Joshua parked and turned the engine off, turning to her. “He was an idiot. You’re better off without him. All men aren’t like that, and even though this isn’t a date, I wouldn’t let you pay for your meal. Try it and you’ll just end up embarrassed.”

  Fiona snorted, wishing she had a comb. “I can imagine. And men are like that. My sister showed up at my door after your two friends made it clear they didn’t want her.”

  Joshua sighed and turned to stare out the windshield. “That was a misunderstanding. They’ve spent the time since she left going out of their minds looking for her. They love her and raced to her as soon as they found out where she was.” Turning, he inclined his head. “You’re the one who made sure you both stayed hidden, aren’t you?”

  Fiona shrugged, warming under his appreciative look. “She didn’t want to be found so I made sure they couldn’t find her. How the hell did they find her, anyway?”

  “One of the guys who stole her purse figured out who she was and that there was a reward out for her. He called to collect.” He smiled, making her heart skip a beat. “Probably didn’t want to tangle with us and anxious to do something to get into our good graces.”

  Fiona wondered if lack of food had scrambled her brain. “Why would he want to get into your good graces? How the hell does he even know Leland and Joe?”

  Joshua shrugged. “Reputation.” He unlocked their doors and opened his. “People who’ve heard of us don’t want to tangle with us. Come on. We both need to eat.”

  He came around before she could even get out, his hands closing on her waist to help her down. “I’ll order for you. I’m not going to deal with you fainting again because you ordered a damned salad. Can you walk in those stupid boots? They’re men’s boots and too big for you.” His eyes narrowed again. “I assumed they were yours to fit over those thick socks, but was I wrong? Do they belong to another man?”

  “It’s none of your business.”

  Gripping her forearms, he picked her up and set her on the hood of the SUV, pushing her knees aside with his body to stand between them. “It is my fucking business, and if you have half a brain in your head, you won’t play games with me.”

  His arrogance pissed her off. His words alarmed her.

  But the fierce anger and hurt in his eyes had her rushing to reassure him without knowing why. “No. They’re mine. They’re the only ones I could find in the second-hand store besides the ones we got for Glenna. I told you that I don’t trust men.”

  With his hands fisted on either side of her hips, he leaned forward and blew out a breath, smiling faintly. “Sorry that I scared you. I would never hurt you. Just don’t…”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. I find I’m very possessive of you, and I sure as hell have no right to be.”

  “You’re right. You have no right to be.” She looked up at him, once again stunned by his size. “How tall are you anyway?”

  “Six-ten.” He closed his hands on her waist and set her on her feet, and with a hand at her back, he guided her toward the entrance, his nostrils flaring. “How the hell can they stand it?”

  “What?”

  “Never mind.”

  Sitting next to her in the booth, Joshua watched her plow into her steak with all the enthusiasm of a teenage boy.

  Pleased to see that she had more color and that her movements had become less lethargic, he couldn’t help but notice that she carefully avoided touching him.

  It irritated him until he realized that she kept glancing at him, her flush deepening with each furtive look.

  “Your friends better treat my sister right.”

  Remembering the mood on the farm from the time Glenna disappeared until the time they learned where to find her, Joshua smiled. “They were livid when she left and haven’t slept a night through since. When they heard where she was, they couldn’t move fast enough. Something tells me that your sister is getting everything she needs and more. Leland and Joe are probably tripping over themselves to make her comfortable and happy.”

  He frowned when he realized that he was doing the same thing.

  Setting her silverware aside, she turned to him, laying a hand on his forearm, sucking in a breath before hurriedly releasing it. “How are they going to handle sharing her?”

  The warmth of her touch still lingered, much warmer than it should have been, also leaving behind a need for more.

  Unable to resist touching
her, he reached out to rub her back in an instinctive need to both touch and reassure her. “Believe me, both Leland and Joe consider her theirs. They’re relieved—more than relieved—to have her back again, and neither one of them is about to give her up.”

  Both surprising and delighting him, Fiona leaned into his touch with a sigh. “I wish I could believe that. I’m so scared they’re going to hurt her.”

  Something of his outrage must have shown because she hurriedly waved a hand. “I don’t mean physically. I’m just afraid that they’re going to blame her for loving both of them.”

  He ran a hand over her hair, his fist closing in the strands of silk as a surge of possessiveness threatened his control. “When we get there, you can see for yourself.”

  He suddenly dreaded their arrival at the farm, wanting to spend more time with her.

  And scared to death that one of his pack mates would claim to be her mate, as well.

  It had happened to Leland and Joe, and their need to share her had been inevitable.

  Joshua couldn’t be that magnanimous.

  He would kill any man who dared to touch her.

  Her scent wrapped around him—drugging him until he actually felt dizzy.

  She filled an emptiness inside him that he hadn’t known existed.

  She’d shaken him to his core, and it pissed him off.

  With the hand at her back, he urged her closer, trying to remember everything he’d heard about her.

  Next to nothing.

  Leaning close, he breathed in her scent, his cock aching with his need to take her. “Why did you leave Ethanville?”

  She sat up suddenly as if she’d realized that she’d begun to lower her head to his chest. Blinking as if coming out of a trance, she turned away. “I transferred and took a better job.”

  Joshua stabbed a bite of steak and froze, turning to look at her.

  Lie.

  Her lie infuriated him, which made no sense at all.

  He’d been lied to many times in his lifetime but had never felt such an inexplicable rage at being lied to.

  What confused him even more that he actually felt her lie.

  It fueled his sense of possessiveness toward her to the point that he wanted to shake her and demand that she tell him the truth.

  She was his, and he’d be damned if he let her get away with lying to him.

  Swallowing heavily, he took several breaths in an effort to cool his temper, realizing that, for the first time in his life, he found it difficult.

  “Why?”

  She swallowed her bite of steak and reached for her water. “Why what?”

  He couldn’t stop glancing at her breasts, his mouth watering to taste her nipples, which poked at the front of her shirt as if to tease him.

  Gritting his teeth, he cut into his steak again, with more force than necessary. “Why the hell did you leave to take a job in Ohio?”

  “I told you. Better job. More money. Nothing else to it.”

  His stomach tightened at the second lie.

  The temptation to yank her against him and demand that she tell him the truth hit him hard that he fisted his hands at his sides to keep from doing it. “There’s more. Tell me.”

  She blinked at his menacing tone, her cheeks flushing again, the scent of her arousal driving him out of his mind. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Another lie.

  His cock jumped, lengthening and thickening as he imagined fucking the truth out of her.

  Deciding that backing off made more sense than pursuing the subject in public, he reached for his iced tea. “So what happened? It’s obvious that job didn’t last.”

  Her lips thinned, the anger emanating from her fueling his own. “When I got there, I found out that the hotel was already set to close.”

  That much was true.

  “Why didn’t anyone tell you?”

  She shrugged, poking at her baked potato. “I have no idea.”

  Another lie.

  Each lie strengthened his resolve to get the truth out of her—by whatever means possible.

  Chewing his bite of steak, he purposely kept his gaze averted, intrigued by his ability to know when she spoke the truth without looking at her.

  It would be a wonderful advantage for a man to have with his mate, and he wondered if Leland and Joe had discovered it with their own mate.

  He found himself attuned to Fiona in a way that had nothing to do with his experience or the instincts he’d relied on his entire life.

  With her, there was a connection.

  Hell.

  For the first time in his adult life, he felt a sense of vulnerability.

  She could hurt him.

  He knew it as well as he knew his own name.

  The animal inside him would die to keep her safe.

  The beast inside him would kill for her without hesitation.

  For his own sanity, he had to keep distance between them while, inside, his instincts demanded that he take her and make it clear that she belonged to him.

  Hell, he was losing his fucking mind.

  Taking a steadying breath, he glanced at her again, frowning when he realized that she’d stopped eating. “Eat.”

  “Stop telling me what to do, damn it!”

  Fiona reached for her glass again, needing to ease her dry throat.

  The sexual tension between her and Joshua had been growing since he’d pulled her from her seat to his lap and had become so intense that she had trouble sitting still.

  Each time they touched, or she looked at him, the feeling got stronger.

  Her panties had already become damp, her clit tingling.

  Her insides clenched from her abdomen to her slit, the hunger for him unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.

  She’d had one lover, and even when she’d been aroused, it had never been anything remotely resembling what she felt now.

  Joshua raised a brow, bending close and flattening his hand on her thigh. “You’re lying to me, and it pisses me off.”

  Sucking in a breath, she struggled for composure. “My life is none of your business.”

  His slow smile actually sent a chill down her spine while the intensity in his gaze warmed her everywhere else. “You’re wrong about that. I won’t put up with your lies.” His hand moved slightly, his fingers lightly tracing her slit. “You’re also aroused, which makes you irritable.”

  Her cheeks burned, but she forced herself to remain cool, confident that he couldn’t possibly know something so intimate, especially since he barely knew her. “No, Joshua, I’m not. Get over yourself.”

  With a low, deep chuckle, Joshua glanced at her breasts. “You’re aroused. I’m also aroused, something you already noticed. I see no need to lie about it. Your lies are just getting you deeper and deeper into trouble and fueling my need to fuck the truth out of you.”

  Fiona blinked, stunned that his words pulled her deeper into the sexual web he’d woven around her.

  She should have been outraged.

  She should have been insulted.

  Instead, she experienced a warm rush at the realization that such a masculine and sexy man could be disconcerted by his need for her.

  It was a heady feeling, one that created a bond of intimacy with him and made her feel wanted in a way that she’d never been wanted before.

  The carnal need had a primitive edge that had no comparison to lukewarm sex of her past.

  Intrigued by it, she turned toward him, laying a hand on his bicep, amazed that her hand barely covered the top of it. “Do you really feel that way?”

  He covered her hand with his much larger one, holding her gaze and increasing the sense of intimacy. “Yes. I don’t lie. Don’t look at me like that unless you want to be fucked.”

  Realizing that she’d never wanted anything more in her life than to be taken by him, Fiona pulled her hand free and reached for her glass of water again. “I don’t want sex ever again, so if that’s what
you think you’re getting from me, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

  Glancing at him again, she couldn’t help but smile as he finished the huge meal in front of him. “What makes you think I’m lying?”

  Joshua pushed his plate aside and turned to her, bracing an arm on the back of the booth and toying with the ends of her hair. “I can feel it.”

  Smiling at her look of disbelief, he shook his head. “Don’t ask me to explain it because I can’t.”

  Looking into his eyes, Fiona shivered when, between one heartbeat and the next, it was as if a shutter came down, and the warmth that had been in them disappeared.

  “Can’t—or won’t?”

  “Won’t.” Lifting her chin, he ran his thumb over her bottom lip, making it tingle. “If you realized that your job wasn’t going anywhere, why didn’t you come back home to your sister? Why did you stay away?”

  Pulling away, she licked her lip, but it only intensified the sensation. “None of your business.”

  With a curse, Joshua tossed several bills on the table and gripped her arm, pulling her from the booth. “Let’s go.”

  “Good. The faster we get to Glenna, the better.”

  When they reached the SUV, Joshua opened the door and lifted her onto her seat, but instead of closing it again, he stood between her legs before she could turn.

  “Hey!”

  Ducking his head, he bent her back and leaned over her. A hand at her lower back pulled her close while a hand at the back of her neck protected her from the center console. “Tell me the truth.”

  Fiona wrapped her legs around his hips in an instinctive need to get closer, the warmth of his breath on her lips urging her to wrap her hands around the back of his neck, sinking her fingers into his overlong hair. “It’s not important.”

  Joshua brushed his lips over hers. “Something’s wrong. It made you angry when I asked. I want to know.” Pressing his lips against hers, he parted her lips and took her mouth in a deep, possessive kiss that made her dizzy.

  As soon as his tongue slid against hers, she sighed and opened to him, fire racing through her.

  She couldn’t fight such an intoxicating need, the taste and scent of him drawing her in deeper.