Brooke, Leah - Panthers' Prey [Black Panthers 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Leah Brooke

“James, I don’t know what to say.”

  “There’s nothing to say. Just listen.”

  Releasing her, he straightened. With a sigh, he scrubbed a hand over his face and blew out another breath, staring at the shower wall.

  “Here we were, racing to get to you, only to find someone in the process of killing you. I struck without even thinking about it. I didn’t care if I killed him or not. I only wanted to get him to stop hurting you. My mind went completely blank except for one thing—the instinct to protect my mate at all costs. If I hadn’t gotten to you a step before Marc, he would have done the same thing.”

  He rinsed them both and with a snap of his wrist, turned off the water, his voice low and kept at a monotone the entire time.

  “The walk home lasted forever. Here I was walking through the woods with a man who’s been like a brother to me ever since I can remember, and all I wanted to do was fight him and rip you from his arms.”

  Snapping a towel from the nearby towel bar, he wrapped it around her and lifted her chin.

  “And then I saw his face. Jesus!”

  Turning away, he reached for another towel and wrapped it around his waist before getting out of the shower and reaching back for her.

  “While we got you out of your wet and muddy clothes, we checked you over for injuries. We couldn’t stop shaking. Neither one of us knew what the fuck was going on. After we finished getting you settled, I left. I stayed away from you that night. I was so wound up I shifted and ran through the woods. I finally stopped and sat there for hours wondering what the hell had happened. But, I knew. Deep down, I already knew. When Leland arrived, he only confirmed what I already knew in my soul was true.”

  Bailey’s pulse tripped. Stopped. Raced.

  Her heart filled, swelling with a joy so powerful it stole her breath. Shaking her head, she searched his eyes, the knowledge of how deeply he could hurt her nearly choking her.

  “I don’t understand. None of this makes any sense.”

  James smiled, a mixture of amusement and sadness. “Well, since none of us had ever found a mate, it didn’t make sense to us either. It turns out Leland and another member of our pack—family—had found theirs and fought it. They rejected her and she left.”

  The tortured look in his eyes pulled at her as he ran a finger down her jaw.

  “They’ve been searching for her ever since. They feel like part of them is missing. But they discovered it too late. They can’t find any trace of her.”

  A sense of inevitability closed in on her. The feeling that she was about to choose a path that would decide her destiny loomed large. The fact that all of her instincts screamed at her that happiness lay just at her fingertips didn’t ease her fears at all.

  Although she’d learned long ago to trust her instincts, she didn’t trust theirs and feared that they’d chosen her for all the wrong reasons and one day would regret their decision.

  A rejection she knew would devastate her.

  In an attempt at nonchalance, she shrugged, swallowing the lump that threatened to choke her.

  “You can’t pick someone just because you think they smell good.”

  His smile made her heart race. “I wouldn’t choose a mate on that alone. I prefer to think I decide my own fate as much as the next person. I figure it’s like pheromones. It got me hooked, but it’s not what keeps me there. The more time I spend with you and the more I get to know you, the more I want to be with you. That’s what allowed me to accept that you really are my mate. As soon as I came to grips with it, some of the desperation eased.”

  “What do you mean by that? Are you saying you don’t want me anymore?” She looked down meaningfully to where his towel tented.

  Shaking his head, he grinned.

  “It means, honey, that whenever you resist what we have between us, or I do, I want to take you so much that my fucking brain doesn’t even work. Instinct takes over, and I need to claim my mate—you—and earn your surrender.”

  Smiling, he circled her nipple through the towel.

  “If you hadn’t already accepted the fact that you’re my mate, you would be going through the same frustration you go through with Marc. You can never get completely satisfied, can you, Bailey? Marc’s never fully satisfied either. No matter how many times he comes, he can’t get relief. Neither one of you will until you learn to accept the truth.”

  No matter how much she wanted this, she didn’t see how a relationship with two men could work, especially two men who swore to be shape-shifters. Shaking her head, she looked away.

  “No. I can’t just accept it.”

  James rubbed his body against hers, his hard cock pressing against her belly.

  “Well then, I guess that’s going to make tonight a lot more interesting.”

  His seductive tone and the anticipation lighting his eyes sent shards of white-hot heat straight to her slit. Alarmed at her immediate willingness to give in to it, she pushed at him again.

  “Get away from me. How the hell can you just accept something like that?”

  Taking her hands in one of his, he raised them above her head and used his own body to press hers against the bathroom wall. With an ease that both thrilled and frustrated her, he rendered her struggles useless, his gaze falling to her heaving breasts before holding hers again.

  “I look at it this way. I want you. You want me. If nature wants me to take a path I’m already anxious to take, why should I fight it? You’re the most desirable woman I’ve ever known. You intrigue me more every day, and I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my life learning everything there is to know about you. Why would I fight something I want so badly?”

  Sucking in a breath at the feel of the lines of his hard body against hers, she fought the urge to rub against him.

  “That’s so…so primitive.” She loved it. He made her feel all woman, warm, soft, vulnerable, but at the same time overflowing with a feminine power that made her head swim.

  His face hardened, and it took a tremendous amount of effort not to let her alarm show.

  “Marc and I are primitive on many levels, my mate, something you’re just going to have to accept.” He whipped the towel off of her and tossed it aside. Before she could move, he lifted her high in his arms and strode to the bed, tossing her onto the center of it.

  She bounced once and would have scrambled away, but he dropped on top of her, effectively pinning her to the mattress. Her soft curves molded themselves to his much harder lines, yielding as much as the rest of her did.

  James chuckled, nuzzling her neck.

  “Now, let’s see how long you can resist what both of us want, my beautiful and hardheaded mate.”

  The feel of all the lines and angles of his hard, leanly muscled body against hers had her squirming beneath him in an attempt to get his rigid length inside of her. God, she wanted him.

  “That’s it, honey. Keep trying to deny what your body’s already accepted.”

  Sliding a finger deep into her pussy, he held her gaze, a small smile playing at his lips.

  “Yeah, that’s it. This tight little pussy’s clamping down on my fingers like it needs to be filled. You’re already soaking wet. You need my cock inside you, don’t you, Bailey?”

  Stiffening at his arrogance, she closed her thighs on his hand.

  “Fuck you. Get off of me.”

  To her surprise, James did just that, rolling to the side. He waved an arm, grinning when she scrambled from the bed.

  “Sure thing, sweetheart. You’ll be back.”

  “Kiss my ass.”

  She didn’t know how he did it, but she found herself on the bed, facedown before she could blink.

  “Damn it, James, I…oh! What are you doing?”

  Fisting her hands in the bedding, she squeezed her eyes closed as the warmth of his lips moved over her bottom.

  “I’m doing what you asked me to do, my mate.”

  “Stop calling me that!”

  “No.”


  Spreading her bottom cheeks, he ran his tongue over her puckered opening, chuckling when she cried out and lifted to him.

  “You’re going to give me this ass before we’re through here tonight. Not only that, you’re going to beg me to take it.”

  Angry at herself and alarmed at her body’s response to his decadent touch, she clawed at the bedding in an effort to get away. Her bottom hole tingled, needing attention.

  “Never.”

  Ignoring that, he released her, smiling as she scrambled away, his eyes hooded as he followed her movements around the room.

  “Oh, yes, my mate, you will. Tonight I won’t accept anything less than your complete and unconditional surrender.”

  Propping himself against the headboard with several pillows, he folded his hands behind his head, his eyes following her movements.

  “Is it really so difficult to accept, Bailey? Chemistry plays a big part in attraction, honey. For us, it’s just stronger than most.”

  She tried, she really tried, not to look in his direction, but the sight of him lying back on the bed, his cock standing almost straight up, proved to be too tempting to ignore. Her pussy clenched repeatedly, the need to be filled with his magnificent hard thickness almost overwhelming her.

  Looking away helped a little, but not much.

  “I make my own choices.”

  James laughed softly.

  “Of course you do, but some of them make no sense at all. For example, you can choose to keep pacing back and forth and eyeing my cock, or you can come over here and let me help you with that arousal that has you shaking so hard you can barely walk.”

  “I don’t need your fucking help.”

  “Sure you do. I can smell your arousal from here, a scent that’s driving me slowly out of my mind. You know you need relief, and you know that until you and Marc make your peace with each other, I’m the only one who can give it to you.”

  His expression softened somewhat.

  “Why do the two of you insist on fighting the inevitable?”

  “Because it’s not inevitable!”

  With a sigh, James sat up. “Of course not. Look at Leland and Joe. You and Marc are headed down the same path. The two of you are both going to let something we all want slip through your fingers because you don’t like the fact that you want it so much. That doesn’t make any sense, Bailey.”

  When he put it like that, it didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense, especially when her body was screaming for the release she knew he could give her.

  Still, she couldn’t quell her inward struggle to fight against something that had the potential to change her life so dramatically.

  It took tremendous effort, but she kept her tone even.

  “This mate stuff is a little extreme, don’t you think? What’s wrong with just having an affair or something?”

  James shrugged, his eyes going flat.

  “Not a thing. If you and Marc want to keep going the way you have been, that’s up to you, but I want more than that. I want a relationship with a vibrant and exciting woman, one who excites me, intrigues me, and who falls apart in my arms. I want the woman who purrs when she’s stroked and cuddles against me in the middle of the night. I want a woman who looks to me for protection and for pleasure.”

  The truth of his words struck her hard.

  Feeling extremely vulnerable, she grabbed her robe from where she’d tossed it over the back of a chair and wrapped herself in it. Her nipples pressed against the soft fabric so that each time she moved, it rubbed against them, sending jolts of sensation to her slit and making her clit throb even harder.

  More of her juices coated her thighs, and a fine sheen of perspiration covered her as the warmth inside her continued to grow.

  She needed to come. Badly.

  James lay back against the headboard again, saying nothing, and continued to watch her, his hooded gaze decadent and sexy as it followed her around the room.

  He looked like exactly what he was—a male in his prime, hard and ready and supremely confident that he could satisfy his woman.

  She already knew how strong those arms would feel around her. With his hands behind his head, his magnificent body showed to perfection. The memory of how firm and warm it felt under her hands and against her had her taking a step toward him.

  The knowledge of her inner struggle reflected in his eyes, and she caught herself before she could move any closer.

  Pressing her thighs together, she let her gaze wander over him, down his chest to his thick cock, which appeared to grow harder and thicker each time she looked at it.

  His thighs, corded with muscle, parted a little more as he bent a knee and turned slightly toward her. Hell, even his feet looked sexy.

  God, she wanted him and didn’t know how much longer she could keep her distance when everything inside her screamed for his possession.

  Meeting his gaze again, it thrilled her to see that he didn’t appear as cool and calm as he had a few minutes ago.

  She needed to challenge him, to make him pay for his arrogance in assuming she’d already accepted him as her mate. Dropping her arms to her sides, she pretended not to notice that her robe loosened. It parted several inches, allowing the curve of her breast to show, and as she moved, she could feel the material brush against her thigh and hoped he got a glimpse of her mound as she knelt as gracefully as she could at the foot of the bed.

  “I think you’re wrong about this. I come when I’m with Marc.”

  James nodded, appearing a little distracted when her robe parted even more.

  “Yes, you come, but you’re never fully satisfied. You won’t be until you accept him as your mate. Why don’t you come over here and let me touch you?”

  Bailey couldn’t help but notice that his cock jumped, his growing arousal evident by the tenseness in his body and the hard glitter of need in his eyes.

  She gritted her teeth against her own need, adjusting her position to rub her slit against her ankle.

  “I don’t think so. I think you’re full of shit. Get out.”

  Sitting up, he leaned closer, reaching out to tug the sleeve of her robe, his eyes moving over her bared shoulder, a caress she would swear she could feel.

  “No. How long are you going to torture both of us?”

  She reveled in the role of seductress, but had no idea how long she could last. The need inside her burned, making it impossible to sit still. Suddenly, it became imperative that he give in first.

  She leaned a little closer to him, letting her robe fall several more inches, until the edge of it dangled perilously from her left nipple.

  “Is that what I’m doing? Torturing you?”

  Lifting his gaze to hers, James inclined his head, acknowledging the game. His eyes flashed at the challenge, gleaming with the knowledge that he would win.

  “Like I said, you’re torturing both of us.” Shrugging, he held her gaze, his eyes narrowing even more.

  “Not that I object. It heightens the senses, but I would like to know why. Is it for fun? It is because you want to prove to me that you can deny your need? Or because you want to provoke me into taking you? If it’s the first, that’s fine with me. You’re not going to have any luck in the other two. I won’t rape you, no matter how much I want you. I’m here and willing to satisfy your every need whenever you want. All you have to do is beg me to fuck that tight ass and I’ll give you more pleasure than you can stand.”

  Lifting a brow, she let the robe fall a little more, exposing her breast completely.

  “That’s awfully arrogant, don’t you think?”

  She didn’t know where the urge came from, but she ran her fingers over her breast, teasing herself by avoiding her nipple. Of its own accord, her head dropped back, her eyelids becoming heavy. She didn’t dare look away from him, though, not wanting to miss the slightest change in his expression.

  His need for her shone clearly in every look, in every graceful move of his lean, muscular body as he came f
orward, a panther stalking his prey. His eyes hardened, a muscle working in his jaw as he followed the movement of her hand, and when he licked his lips, she shuddered with the need to feel his hot mouth close over her nipple.

  Unable to stand it anymore, she pinched her nipple, throwing her head back and crying out at the tug that went all the way to her clit.

  A low growl came from somewhere deep inside James’s chest, the rumbling sound of it vibrating over her and causing little pinpricks of delight everywhere. Fisting his hands at his sides, he came to his knees and slid closer.

  “Let the robe fall, Bailey. Let me see that gorgeous body.”

  The way he looked at her and the erotic threat in his deep tone made him impossible to resist. The look of hunger in his eyes and the coiled strength in his powerful body, as though he could spring at any moment, added an element of danger to their play, one that she found incredibly exciting.

  To tease both of them, she shrugged her shoulder, letting her robe fall to her waist.

  Her breasts swelled under his gaze, the need inside her growing. Thinking about nothing but relief, she slid her hand down her belly, her breath catching as James licked his lips, his narrowed gaze following the movement.

  He started to reach for her, only to curse and pull his hand back.

  “Spread those thighs and part your folds, honey. Let me see you. Do it now, Bailey.”

  All embarrassment fled under his steely command. Hunger wouldn’t allow her to deny him. With shaking hands, she slowly spread her thighs, shivering with awareness when his gaze caressed her slit.

  Feeling daring, she did something she’d never done before.

  She touched herself in front of a lover.

  Taking a deep breath, she parted her folds and slid her fingers over her clit.

  With a gasp, she let her head fall back, shocked that the slightest swipe of her fingers enflamed her, sending a shock of heat through her, one much sharper and more intense than anytime she’d touched herself in the past.

  Hearing the low, almost continuous growls coming from James, she found herself lost in a world of erotic pleasure, one that she knew she’d visit again and again if she accepted him as her mate.

  She knew her body well and went over almost immediately, a small wave that relieved some of the pressure but that in no way satisfied her. In fact, her orgasm only seemed to make her want more.