A Tiger's Bounty

by Terry Bolryder

  Amber considered her options. Play dead, though it seemed unlikely he would fall for it. Run for the door, though she probably wouldn’t get farther than the bedroom door. Or face the music and own up to whatever shenanigans she was responsible for.

  “Playing dead isn’t going to help you,” said the voice, though she couldn’t tell if it was annoyed or amused.

  All her life, Amber had tried to do the right thing, and now was hardly the time to change that.

  She pulled the sheets from over her head and was greeted by a pair of the thickest, most muscular thighs she’d ever seen covered in a pair of blue jeans that seemed barely able to contain them. Her eyes trailed up the ridiculously huge male body before her, wanting to linger but trying not to. He was shirtless and had gorgeous tanned skin, an ideal row of chiseled abs, bulging, defined pecs, and broad shoulders with large, toned arms.

  Who the heck was this Adonis, and how had she ended up at his place?

  She looked higher and saw a pair of deep, orange eyes looking down at her, the color of a summer sunset. His features were chiseled and strong, a straight nose and long, hard jaw. Intense brows and dark hair that fell around his face, contrasting his tanned skin and incredible eyes.

  The man grinned amusedly at her and plopped a plate on the end table. The plate was loaded with hash browns, eggs, and bacon, and Amber felt herself salivate at the smell of it, coupled with the sight of so much man before her.

  “Eat this. It’ll take the edge off of that headache you have. I’ll be in the other room if you need anything,” he said, then turned to walk out, greeting her with the sight of his ripped back muscles and tight ass.

  All of a sudden, Amber was full of questions and needing answers. She sat up, grabbed the plate and utensils he’d put down, and stood to follow him. She passed a small mirror on the way out and did a quick once-over to see how she looked.

  Hair mussed, makeup smudged from sleep, and tired lines under her eyes. But it would have to do.

  She left the bedroom and was greeted by a large living space that was as equally ill-decorated as the bedroom had been. A worn leather couch in front of a TV, a small dining table in the kitchen connected to the living room, and a few stools around a bar, one in which the stranger was currently seated, glancing at a laptop and polishing off a plate of what had probably contained his breakfast.

  The minimalism of the place gave Amber the impression this man didn’t entertain guests often, and he probably didn’t spend much of his own time at home either.

  The man glanced at her and appraised her slowly, sending a shiver down Amber’s spine, then smiled ever so slightly.

  “Sleeping Beauty has emerged. Care to join me?” he asked, pulling out a stool on the side of the bar across from him and then sitting back down.

  Amber couldn’t help but be flattered by the insinuation that she was beautiful, but she tried to keep her focus on the man’s gorgeous face instead of letting her eyes wander down to his jaw-dropping pecs.

  She came forward and sat on the chair, putting down her plate and utensils while the man poured her a glass of orange juice to go with her meal.

  “Sorry for the no-shirt. I don’t like to wear a lot around the house, so I figured I’d meet you halfway and at least wear pants.”

  Amber had no complaints. In fact, it made her curious to know what he looked like in even less.

  “My name’s Jace. And you are?” he asked, offering his hand across the small bar where they were seated. She shook it, loving the slight roughness and feeling an almost primal sort of electricity passing between them as they touched.

  “Amber. How did…? I mean, who are…?” Amber wanted to ask questions immediately, but she had no clue where to start. Her hunger, coupled with the sight of the hottest man she’d ever met in person, mixed with her confusion and lack of memory from last night and short-circuited her brain.

  “You eat. I’ll talk,” he said, half reassuring, half commanding.

  Amber did so, enjoying the delicious bacon and perfectly seasoned eggs and hash browns. Whoever said men couldn’t cook clearly hadn’t met this man before.

  “So I know your name. That’s a good start,” he said with a grin. “Based on the look you gave me earlier, I’d wager you still don’t remember last night.”

  Amber shook her head while taking a bite of fluffy scrambled eggs.

  “Okay. So to fill you in, last night I found you downtown, in a building on twelfth Street. From what I could figure out, you’d been drugged but hadn’t suffered anything else. You didn’t have your wallet or any other sort of identification, so I brought you here to my place,” he said analytically, as if describing a crime scene.

  So much of what he said still didn’t make sense. Why would she be down on twelfth Street? That part of town made her rundown university apartment seem like an expensive hotel, and she never went there. Not even in broad daylight.

  “Did you by chance go out by yourself or with friends last night?” he asked.

  While Amber was mid-bite, memories from last night started seeping into her mind. Her friends wanting to go out. Them going to a cheap bar on the east side. Her friends ditching her when a couple of cute boys asked them if they wanted to go to a club on the other side of town. Then someone approaching her at the bar.

  “I’m starting to remember. We went out last night, my friends and I. Some guy came up to us and asked if we wanted to go clubbing, and my friends left without me.”

  “Great friends,” Jace said sarcastically, then took a sip of orange juice.

  “Yeah, well, they aren’t the best. But they get more attention, obviously, than a girl like me.”

  “What do you mean by that?” he asked seriously.

  “You know. Like me…” Amber didn’t want to have to spell out the fact that she was chubby and, to date, men hadn’t paid much attention to her, in spite of her best efforts.

  “You mean the fact that you’re hot as hell?” Jace said, raising an appraising eyebrow.

  Amber felt herself flush, but Jace didn’t appear to notice.

  “What happened after that?” he asked, continuing his previous line of questioning.

  “After that…” Amber trailed off, trying to focus her thoughts on what came after her friends dumped her. “After that, I got a couple drinks to pass the time. Turned down a few douchebags hoping for an easy lay. Then this one guy came up to me. I tried to get rid of him since it was clear he wasn’t very trustworthy, but he was really pushy, wanting me to go somewhere with him.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “Stocky. Shaved head. Wandering eyes. The kind that put you on edge if you ever look directly into them.”

  Jace nodded as if having figured something out, then closed his laptop. “And you don’t remember anything after that?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “He must have drugged you while you were at the bar, then taken you back to his place downtown. Thankfully, nothing happened. It’s just good I intervened when I did,” he said, standing and walking a few paces, looking both relieved and bothered by something else.

  “Should we call the police?” Amber asked, worried this man could come after her again.

  “I’ve already taken care of him. You have nothing to worry about there,” Jace said, folding his arms. But there was something cryptic in the way he said it that made Amber extremely curious.

  “What do you mean?

  “Nothing. It’s all been sorted out with the proper authorities,” he said, sitting back down and tenting his fingers. “So tell me about you. What’s there to know about Amber?” he asked inquisitively.

  Amber wanted further explanation on what he’d just said, since it seemed to reference much more than he was willing to expose, but she let it lie. The last thing she wanted to do was impose on a person that had probably saved her life.

  “Not much. I go to the local university. I’m in my fourth year. Just have one more semester before I’m done. N
ow that school’s in summer term and none of my classes are offered, I’m looking for full-time work. But in this economy, something even half decent is hard to find without a degree,” she said, getting bored by her own story and afraid this hot man was starting to feel the same.

  But to her surprise, he watched intently, as if hanging on her every word.

  “Interesting. So what degree are you working on?”

  “Primary education with an emphasis in working with children who have special needs.”

  “So you want to be a teacher?” he asked.

  “If possible, yes. I love working with kids. I mean, no one’s guaranteed a job around here with the budget cuts lately. But I don’t plan to give up,” she replied, poking at the last bite of food on her plate, trying not to think about the prospect of graduating with the possibility of not having a job after.

  “I imagine you’ll make an amazing teacher,” Jace said confidently.

  “And what’s that based on?” Amber asked, caught off guard.

  “Just a hunch,” he said, smiling to himself, then standing to get her plate and put it in a small sink behind them. After that, he walked into the bedroom and produced her purse. “I think this belongs to you.”

  “My purse. You have it, thank goodness,” Amber replied gratefully, opening it and rifling through the assorted contents.

  “Your wallet isn’t inside. Let’s hope you forgot it at the bar. Though, the man who drugged you might have stolen it.”

  “Where would it be in that case?”

  “Anywhere. In a gutter somewhere probably,” he said frankly.

  Amber released a long sigh. It wasn’t the first time her wallet had been stolen, but it didn’t make having to call to cancel her cards and getting a new ID any easier.

  She closed her purse, and Jace pulled on a T-shirt, a dark gray without any logos or graphics, which seemed to only further accentuate those rippling muscles. Having her wallet stolen was worth it if she got a look at the most perfect body in the world. She closed her eyes and tried her best to commit the sight to memory.

  “I guess I’ll take you home now,” he said, sounding tentative for the first time this morning.

  Amber got it, though, the whole situation was awkward as it was, and the sooner he got rid of her, the sooner he’d be able to go back to doing whatever it was he did.

  “Sure,” Amber replied, giving Jace her address as she followed him out a heavy steel door and up a long staircase that was more reminiscent of a dungeon than any apartment building she’d been in. At the top of the staircase was another door with a row of locks on it, which Jace undid, leading them outside into a quiet alleyway.

  Whoever this man was, privacy and safety were two things that were extremely important to him.

  At the end of the alley was a vehicle with a tarp over it. He pulled off the tarp to reveal a large, black muscle car with windows tinted so dark she couldn’t even make out the color of the interior. Though Amber was no car buff, she could tell the vehicle was modern, powerful, and probably very expensive.

  With a click on his keys, the doors unlocked.

  “Hop in,” Jace said, getting into the driver’s seat. The engine roared to life, rumbling at a low hum.

  As Amber slid in, she noted the backseat was separated from the front by a reinforced cage, the kind of thing you only saw in police vehicles.

  Maybe he was an undercover cop or something like that.

  But nothing about his demeanor said “cop.” Even in the short amount of time she’d spent with him, Amber couldn’t imagine Jace ever working for anyone but himself.

  Jace drove the car down a long alley sandwiched between two large buildings, then exited out onto a city street she finally recognized. The drive to her place was quiet, punctuated only by the muffled sounds of traffic and bustling city around them and the purring of the engine as Jace palmed the wheel and moved through the city as if he knew it like the back of his own hand.

  Amber tried to keep her eyes from wandering over to the view of his muscled forearms working the wheel.

  When they arrived at her apartment building, Jace parked outside in the temporary parking on the street. He then got out and came around to open the door for her.

  “This the right place?”

  “Yup. Home sweet home,” Amber said, getting out of the car and raising a hand to shield her eyes from the rapidly rising sun bearing down on them.

  “Mind if I walk you in?” he asked nonchalantly.

  He has a funny way of getting rid of me, Amber thought. It was like he was almost hesitant to let her go. Quite the opposite of most men she’d come across, who seemed to be devoid of chivalry these days and more than happy to leave her to get a cab or walk home herself.

  “Sure. Thank you,” she replied, leading the way up to the entryway and unlocking the door. Once inside, Jace followed close behind her up the stairs to her apartment on the second floor, the cheapest, tiniest one-person studio she’d been able to afford.

  Amber had tried roommates, but she always wound up with the short end of the stick when it came to cleaning the apartment or paying rent.

  When they got to the door, she fumbled for her keys. Having such a tall, sexy man standing there in the tiny hall just outside her apartment filled her mind with wild ideas. It was as if there were an electric current in the air that passed between them, whether she was looking at him or not.

  It wasn’t fair that this tall, ripped, gorgeous man had come out of nowhere, rescued her, brought her to his place, fed her, and was now acting more attentive than any date she’d ever had in her life. And no matter what his words said, she knew a guy like him would never want a woman like her. If she stayed around him any longer, she knew she’d get her heart broken from starting to hope for things.

  Amber turned around to a pair of dark, orange eyes watching her intently.

  “Thanks again Mr… Jace, for saving me like you did. What do I owe you?” she asked nervously.

  “Nothing,” he responded curtly. “And it’s just Jace.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. You saved my life. You must want something.”

  For a moment, Jace seemed to ponder the thought without giving even the slightest physical indication of what it might be.

  “I think I have something in mind,” he said, raising an eyebrow, his expression swiftly changing from nondescript to heated.

  “What exactly?” Amber replied, feeling incredibly nervous and excited at the same time.

  Jace paused. “A kiss,” he said simply.

  Of all the things to ask for, that was it?

  Was it technically giving someone a kiss if you wanted it too?

  “From what I can tell, you’ve been thinking about it for a while now,” he said.

  Had she been that easy to read? She could feel herself starting to blush at the thought.

  In an instant, Jace’s arms pressed onto the door behind her, caging and surrounding her on all sides, but not touching her. It was thrilling, being encircled by so much muscle, so much man.

  “I promise to make it worth your while,” Jace said, and Amber could swear she saw him lick just the slightest corner of his lips. At this distance, she could pick up his fragrance, spicy and masculine and exotic and heady, like something from the jungles of some far-off land.

  “O-okay,” Amber stuttered, her breath catching in her throat.

  Part of her wanted to invite him into the apartment right now. The other part had its heart broken one too many times, and it told her to run from this man. That he was too perfect for her. That it was all far too good to be true.

  Jace moved closer, so close she could feel the warmth of his breath over her. He stood so impossibly tall, and him leaning over only made Amber feel smaller as his lips came so close to hers they brushed lightly.

  Her entire body waited on the precipice of it all, eager and wanting and undecided all at the same time.

  Amber felt like a sixteen-year-old about to recei
ve her first kiss. Only she’d never felt like this about anyone else before, so that just made her a woman in her mid-twenties who’d never experienced that “first kiss” feeling before.

  Right then, Jace’s lips closed over hers, warm and intense. That same electric intensity she’d felt before was there, only a million times stronger now. It made Amber feel so alive, so wanted by this man.

  His kiss was soft at first, just the lightest amount of pressure. The promise of more. But as he deepened the kiss, Amber felt her body become more and more aroused. She moaned lightly as he pressed a little harder, a little rougher, strength radiating from him as she started to melt in his arms.

  As if reading her thoughts, he laced a hand behind her neck, supporting her and making all the nerves on her skin where he touched cry out in excitement. As he held her, he kissed her even harder, and Amber opened her mouth automatically, just the slightest amount to see if he came in.

  The second she did so, his tongue thrust inside, deft and hot. He stroked with incredible precision, as if he knew exactly where to touch her that would make her the wildest with desire. She draped her arms around him, and he wrapped his free arm around her, pressing her into him, the entire length of his body covered in hard muscle that she could almost taste.

  Amber didn’t know how long the kiss lasted. She only knew when he finally did withdraw, leaving her wet and wanting more, her body rebelled against it. She felt weak in the knees and leaned back on the door behind her just to stay upright.

  “Looks like we’re even now,” Jace said with a smirk. But his eyes showed just the slightest hint of hesitance despite his normally perfect poker face.

  Amber’s mind filled with all kinds of crazy thoughts. Like asking him out. Like saying she wanted to see him again. Anything to keep this from being the last time she saw this mysterious, sexy man.

  But who was she kidding? She didn’t even know his last name. But she didn’t care. It all just felt so right that she couldn’t ignore it.

  “My card is in your purse if you ever need me,” Jace said, turning to walk down the hall, his gaze lingering on her for a prolonged moment before turning fully and heading toward the stairway.