by Ally Summers
She shrugged. “Have a good trip?”
“We’re going to talk when I get back. A long talk,” I threatened.
“Oh, yeah, we should do that,” she taunted me.
Where in the hell did this panther come from? Why did she think she could run the show? Call the shots? I was tired of it.
“Tessa, sooner or later you’re going to regret this. All of this. This time we could be spending together. Time we could be getting to know each other. You could be going on this road trip with me today.”
She spun to face me, tossing a wrench on the floor. “Just because you’ve managed to brainwash my mother and half the widows of this town doesn’t mean I’m going to bow down to your charm and your sex appeal.”
“I have sex appeal now?” I smirked.
She blushed. “That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m saying you can’t sweet talk me into this deal.”
“Then what can I do?” I swept my hand around her lower back and drew her toward me.
I heard the gasp and saw the flicker in her eyes.
“Not this.” She breathed. But she didn’t wiggle. She didn’t try to pry herself out of my arms. Her eyes locked on mine.
This close to her I could hear her heartbeat. I could see the lust in her eyes. I could smell her skin. I dipped to kiss her lips and before I knew it I had her wrapped in my arms. The kisses were like wildfire spreading from her mouth to her neck to her throat as I moved down her body. I lifted her to the hood of the car and she wrapped her legs around my waist.
If she doubted whether I wanted her before there was no guessing it now. I was hard against my jeans and felt the sweet heat between her legs. I pulled her hair, pressing my mouth harder on hers. I couldn’t get enough. Taste enough. Drink enough. I wanted every ounce of her.
“Tessa,” I whispered, feeling the heat wrapping around us both.
Her hands were everywhere, groping my backside, sliding along my spine, pressing my chest.
I couldn’t break away from her if I wanted to. She was my mate. The woman made for my body. I nipped at her ear and drew a long purr from her chest. Damn, she was fucking sexy.
“Don’t you have to leave?” she asked.
I nodded, licking her throat and diving between her breasts.
She laid back on the hood of the car, offering herself to me. I squeezed her breasts roughly. They were perfect mounds, soft and sweet.
“God, you’re incredible. Every fucking inch of you,” I growled.
Her chest heaved with giant breaths. “Go. You should go.”
“Now?” I finally had her in my arms, and under my body. Driving to North Carolina was the last place my mind was. I could call Drew. Back out at the last minute.
She nodded emphatically. “Go.” She sat forward on her elbows as I dropped to kiss her again. This time I was tender and gentle, savoring the taste of her lips. If I had to get back in my Jeep I needed something to remember on that long drive.
Her hands flattened against my cheekbones. “We can talk when you get back,” she whispered.
“You want to talk?” I questioned her.
“Yes.” It was the first time she answered without attitude. She was sincere.
I grinned. “I’ll come straight here. I promise.”
She scooted herself off the car and straightened her shirt. I could see the business look glaze over her eyes. The hot passionate sex panther had been buried back inside. But that was ok, because for a few minutes I had seen it. I had felt it. And it was enough to know my mate would be here waiting for me when I got back.
8
Tessa
The taillights on his rusty Jeep rounded the corner and I let out an audible sigh. It might have echoed off the walls of the shop. Shit. That was the hottest and most insane kiss I’d ever had.
I quickly grabbed a shammy and wiped clean the hood of the Robins’ car. I couldn’t let a family of four drive off with my hand and ass imprints on their car.
What was going on? Josh waltzed in with a good-bye and instead of being ecstatic, all I could think about was a way to keep him in town. I wanted to kiss him and claw him. I wanted to make him stay.
I scowled, polishing harder on the station wagon. I’d make the entire car shine if that’s what it took to erase what happened on the hood.
Two hours later I stood back and looked at my work. I doubted the Robins’ car had ever been this spotless.
“Tessa, wow the car looks amazing.” Susan Robins walked up behind me. “But you know the kids are just going to draw on it with sidewalk chalk.” She laughed.
She seemed like the kind of cool mom who took kid mishaps in stride. I didn’t know if I had that in me. I liked order in my life. I liked my spotless office and that everything in the shop had a place. I never had to search for tools. They were always exactly where they were supposed to be.
I handed her the keys. I needed that car out of here. Every time I looked at it, I thought about the kiss again. The way Josh’s lips felt. How much he wanted me.
“Oh, that’s fine. They can draw away. I had a few oil splatters and I wanted to make sure it got a little extra TLC for you.” I smiled, lying through my teeth.
The mom followed me to the office to pay the bill.
“So, I hear there’s a new man in your life?” She scribbled in her checkbook, hovered over my desk.
I refrained the groan. Did everyone in this damn town know about Josh?
“I wouldn’t say that exactly.” I took a seat and waited for her to finish writing in her checkbook.
“Maybe I’ll get to meet him sometime if it works out.” She winked.
“Maybe.”
I took the check and locked it in my cash box. I’d settle the payments after I closed the shop. A night of bookkeeping was in order after how I almost lost myself to my panther this afternoon. Numbers. I’d focus on numbers and spreadsheets and all the mundane tasks that were required to keep this business afloat. I had to finish transferring my accounting system. It was the perfect mind-numbing task to cool the heat between my legs.
“Thanks again, Tessa. You’re a gem.” She walked to her car and drove the station wagon into the sun where the rays bounced off the new wax job. I was glad that reminder was gone, but the real one couldn’t be erased.
It was the connection I had to Josh. The feeling that had started to root itself in my essence. He had awakened something in my panther she’d never felt before, and I knew no amount of scrubbing, waxing, or counting numbers was going to put her back to sleep.
In the two days Josh was gone I managed to flip flop between my panther duty and my responsibilities as a woman running a business. I sat behind my white desk and made a list of pros and cons.
On one side of the column I thought about what I had been taught as a panther. My mate would arrive before my twenty-second birthday and we would marry. It was supposed to be cataclysmic. It was the moment most girls dreamed of. They waited for their white knight to ride up and sweep them off their feet, giving them a fairytale wedding. Giving them a family. Giving them a bond that would complete their duty as a panther.
I scowled at the fairytale side of the list and started making my notes on the cons of accepting Josh. I’d have to give up my family lands. I’d have to give up the shop. I’d have to give up me. I wasn’t sure that I could be the panther he wanted.
I balled up the lists and tossed them in the trash.
It was pointless. All of this was pointless.
I jumped to my feet when I heard the door creak open. I had closed the shop hours ago. No one should be walking through that door.
And then I saw him. The green, gleaming eyes. The gorgeous smile. The broad shoulders. And he was wearing a tux, the tie draped around his neck. Holy shit. Why was he dressed like that? His top few buttons were open and I could see the strong muscles of his chest.
“Hey, gorgeous.” He stood in the doorway, and I had to stop myself from leaping over the desk.
“
H-hey,” I whispered. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I told you I’d come here first thing when I got back in town.”
I nodded, agreeing, but the words wouldn’t come. Two days away. He had been gone two full days. Two days I had spent pretending I didn’t care. Two days I used to clean tools, and add extra cars to my schedule. Two nights emptying shows off my DVR. Two nights pouring over new financial software. Anything I could do to forget that Josh had left Four Corners.
I slowly walked around my desk. “How was your trip?” I asked.
If I kept one hand on the desk, it would keep me planted to this spot.
He grinned. “Wish you could have been with me.”
There was that damn flutter in my ribs. I closed my eyes telling my panther to shut up.
“Really? And the tux?”
He took one step toward me and I could smell the cologne coming off his neck. It was making me drunk with want. How could one guy smell so intoxicatingly delicious? I was starting to spiral. I held the side of the desk with a death grip.
“Part of why I was in Mill Valley.” He shed the jacket and threw it over the back of one of the chairs I used for customers. “I didn’t want to stop to change. I wanted to get back here and have that conversation you promised me. I drove as fast as I could.”
It was a mistake to stare at his neck. It was a golden bronze and I could see the pulse quicken under his skin. I remembered kissing it. Rubbing my hands along the back of his neck. My blood thickened in my veins.
There was a chance he was reacting the same way I was to being in the same room together again. If I held on any tighter I might claw through the edge of my desk. Shit.
“Tessa?” I saw the glimmer in his eyes as he rolled the cuffs of his white shirt.
Were guys supposed to look this damn hot in half a tux? My mouth was watering.
“Y-yes?” I was coming undone. I was losing restraint. My eyes followed the lines of his jaw to his mouth. To those edible lips I had sucked.
I realized what two days away had done. It hadn’t silenced my panther, it had starved her lust for him. She was hungry for another taste, and I couldn’t deny it.
9
Josh
The air had changed between us. I had walked through the shop door expecting Tessa to have a new resolve against me. After all, she had two days to build up a new wall. Build her strength against the kiss we had shared on the hood of that car.
The fact was it was all I could think about. I knew I was in Mill Valley for Drew, but the entire trip I was distracted. Tessa had gotten under my skin and invaded my soul. I wanted her. I wanted her to evoke our bond. But it had to come from her. I couldn’t coerce her into our relationship. I wanted her to want me like I wanted her.
I had decided on the drive back to Four Corners I would wait. I’d give her time. I’d give her space. I’d give her whatever in the hell she wanted until she wanted to be my wife. I didn’t want her any other way. And that’s what I had to tell her.
I smiled at her. “Something wrong?” She was visibly shaking.
“No.” She shook her head, but I didn’t believe her. I saw the way she looked at me. I saw her eyes raking over my body.
“Did I miss anything while I was gone?” I took another step, leaving a foot of air between us.
Her breath hitched, and her eyes landed on my lips. It was the only cue I needed.
My lips crashed into hers as I pulled her into my arms. I needed her mouth and her tongue. I needed every inch of skin I could touch. I grasped at her ass, sliding my hands under her shirt. She moaned and fired back wildly twisting and swirling her tongue in my mouth.
Her hair fell around us both as our mouths moved with hungry force. I growled when I heard the buttons pop from my shirt and scatter on the floor. Her hands shoved the shirt off my arms.
I pressed her backward on her desk, climbing on top, looking down at her like the prey I had finally captured. But, it wasn’t a hunt. I looked into my mate’s eyes and felt undeniable devotion to her. I wanted to show her how I felt. The fever blazing in my blood was mine to share with her. I wanted to give her every pleasure she wanted.
I nipped at her lower lip, as she purred under me. “Should I leave for another two days?” I teased.
I pinned her wrists to the clean white desk. Her dark hair splayed around her.
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
“For now, I’m not going anywhere.” I reached below her navel and unbuckled her belt before sliding my hand between the denim and her skin.
She arched as my fingers lingered between her legs. I never took my eyes off her as I felt the warmth of her slick skin. She rocked into my fingers, slowly at first then quickening her rhythm as I pushed my fingers inside her.
“Oh, God,” she moaned. I toyed at her entrance, reveling in the wetness. Loving how her hips moved for me. I was so fucking turned on from the purrs coming from her lips.
I watched, my heart pounding out of my chest as my mate came for me. She came hard and fast. Her hands gripping the desk. Her breath erratic. Her eyes glimmering with green glitter.
I leaned down to kiss her as the orgasm slowed through her body.
“You are one fucking sexy panther,” I growled.
There was a look of satisfaction on her face. Her eyes flared. “Take me upstairs.”
I didn’t think I was the man who would take commands from my mate, but this one I couldn’t refuse. I lifted her in my arms and climbed the staircase to her apartment.
I kicked the door open. “Where’s your room?” I asked.
“Through that door,” she answered.
I found my way in the dark. My eyes adjusted to the dim light.
I sat on the bed edge of the bed, pulling her on top of me. I aligned her legs over my hips. She purred, pressing her palms against my chest.
I looked into her eyes. I didn’t know what changed in two days. And I didn’t give a damn what it was.
10
Tessa
I straddled Josh, rocking my hips against him. I looked into his eyes, radiating with lust and want. I tugged on the edges of my shirt and pulled it over my head.
He smiled. “Damn, baby.”
He unclasped my bra and let the straps fall over my shoulders. He sat forward, admiring my breasts before laying a kiss on my nipple. It instantly hardened to a tight perk and he pulled it into his mouth, growling with pleasure.
I leaned into him, feeling the heat of his mouth. The flicking of his tongue. I ran my hands through his hair and let the feelings wash through my body. It was electric heat as he sucked and kissed at one breast and then switched to the other. I gasped as he blew a warm breath over the sensitive skin before taking it in his mouth.
My panther wanted to be unleashed. She was awake and alive. I could feel it all the way to my toes. Josh had brought her out of a slumber I had trapped her in for too long.
The two days had done nothing but make me miss him. Make me want him more. Make me want this moment.
“Ohh,” I moaned as his hands dug into my sides, sliding toward my waist.
I wanted to give his body the same kind of pleasure he gave mine. We could talk later about what all of this meant. Right now, I could say more with my touch then with my words.
I slinked to the floor, unbuckling his tux pants and dragging them over his legs. My palms smoothed over his thighs until I had the band of his boxer briefs, then I ripped them in half, freeing his cock. Holy shit. It was built like the rest of him. Perfect, strong, and solid.
I moved over him, licking from the base to the tip.
“Fuck, Tessa,” he growled.
I didn’t hold back. I didn’t play timid or shy. I wanted Josh to know that the kiss he gave me on the hood of that car had done something to me. It had done something to my panther. It had changed everything between us. I was no longer playing games or hiding behind walls. I wanted him.
As he tangled his hands in my hair and I brought
him to the brink of ecstasy I was satisfied. He bucked his hips, growling with animal fierceness as I licked my lips.
He propped up on his elbows, smiling at me. “I had no idea you were so naughty.” He winked.
I crawled toward him, kissing his stomach, kissing the ridges where his muscles met. Taking my time to inhale his body. He was gorgeous and sexy as hell. And all he wanted was me.
“You’re going to kill me, Tessa.” His hands gripped the sides of my face and he brought me down for a crushing kiss.
“I don’t want to kill you,” I whispered. “Anymore.”
“I can see that,” he teased.
I let him thread our fingers together. It felt close and intimate having our palms flatten together this way.
“Should we talk?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, I think more of this and maybe talk over breakfast.”
He brushed his lips over mine. “I don’t know if I can control myself.”
I sat back to study him. I wanted him too. All of him. All of us. The bond. It was as if I would crawl out of my skin if I couldn’t have him.
“What do we do?” I traced a line against his washboard stomach. “Give in?”
His eyes darted back and forth. “That’s against our laws.”
“It’s a ridiculous law,” I whispered, kissing his neck, licking behind his ear, biting his lip.
“Agreed, but there’s an order. You know that.” He tried to sit up, but I shoved him back on my bed.
“I know what I want.” I felt sudden power and strength. Sudden control I didn’t realize I had this entire time.
This man was my mate. Betrothed to me at birth. Sent to find me and make me his. But maybe I had been fighting against the wrong law. Maybe I could decide the laws that made me his. Maybe I was the one who could determine our timeline.
Josh rolled me over so he was hovering over top of me. He pinned my wrists over my head and kissed my breasts again. I writhed under him. He knew how easily my body responded to him.
