He scoffed.
“If I leave with him things are going to get complicated. I’m a broke kid just out of college. I can’t afford to fly back and forth to Mexico to split my time between the two of you. You’re going to have to fund my travel if you want me around. And then you’re also going to have to find me—which will be hard. I’ll be a big cat running wild in the jungle.”
Max placed his forehead in his hand. “Oh, God.”
“When Votan gets here I’m going to convince him to stay. For that to happen, for things not to get completely screwed up, you need to be willing to accept him. Not just as the second mate to your wife—but as someone who will be living in your home.”
He lifted his head to eye her. “You’ll be my wife instead of his?”
She turned up her palms. “It’s your household. It’s only right that you get the husband title.”
Max stared at her a moment. Then one side of his mouth pulled up in an exhausted smile. “Even if I agreed it wouldn’t matter. You obviously don’t know Votan. He’s not going to live here, and he’s not going to share you.” He turned away to sneer. “I bet he’ll try to kill me.”
This caused a thud in Michelle’s belly. “That seems a little extreme. I mean, we’re all rational people, aren’t we?”
“Votan’s not. He dove into his stream and let his god essence consume him. He doesn’t have a human side anymore.”
Her lips parted. She couldn’t believe one of their kind had managed it. Every time she entered the stream she felt like she was going to explode.
Michelle shook her head slowly then looked at Max. “How do you know him so well?”
“I went to Yucatan for a pilgrimage—and a bit of business. He attacked me in the spirit world. He said I was a disgrace to the B’alam. He wouldn’t listen to reason. He was right and I was wrong—that’s all there was to it to him. The bastard sunk his teeth into my throat. I had to vanish, and then get out of Mexico.”
She groaned and pushed her fingers into her hair. “It sounds like I’m going to have to let him take me.”
His eyes darted toward her. “Absolutely not. You’re my mate. I’m not about to let that muscle-bound savage steal you from me.”
“You’re not willing to give me up and neither is he.” She looked at him with pain building in her chest. “There has to be a compromise. You’re the rational one, right? You have to help me push for it. There can’t be a war between the two of you. No one will win—least of all me.” A tear trailed down one side of her cheek and her words became choked. “I’m meant to love both of you.”
He stared at her a moment, reflecting her pain in a grimace. “Love. That’s where it’s headed between us. I swear I feel it right now, but I don’t trust it. It’s just the magic of the spirit-bonding. But I think it will turn real eventually. Don’t you?”
“I know it will,” she said with quiet conviction.
“I don’t want you to be miserable. I’m not completely without empathy.”
She waited. Hope was brimming in her chest, but she didn’t dare believe it yet.
He placed both his hands on the table and took a long cathartic breath. “It has to be here. In my city. My house. Where I work and where I’ve built an empire. If I have to share you, it’s going to be in my domain.”
Michelle allowed herself a tearful smile.
He frowned. “This will be an ordeal.”
She reached over to take his hand, luxuriating in the tingly thrum of their connection once again. “I’ll make it work. We’re already halfway there.”
Max fixed on her. The eyes gazing at her now were no longer fretting over their dire situation. They dipped down her throat to the rounds of her breasts. Michelle heard him breathing through his nostrils.
And then it was as if she became a different person, no longer the boring girl from a tiny southwestern town, but the sultry spirit-bonded mate of the man before her. The man who could satisfy her body. His aura crackled that message to her. It made her breath quicken.
She let her shawl fall off her back. Then she brought up her delicate fingers to the strap of her chemise and pulled it off her shoulder. Her full round breast, tipped with a jutting coral nipple, was exposed to Max’s hungry eyes.
He made a sound like a breathy snarl. Suddenly his large arms closed on her. Her body collided into his and her lips were crushed in a searing kiss.
Yes…please!
She clung to him. The electricity between them was so strong it made her legs falter. Their spirits were already melded. Now it felt as if their bodies finally caught up to the truth. He coursed his hands over her scalp and back while his tongue slid against hers. Michelle kissed with a passion she’d never unleashed before. Her mouth was desperate for him. Slippery tongues wrangled together in the heat of their sealed lips. Both her nipples hardened—the one that was free, and stimulated by the friction of his hard skin, and the one that was still hidden by thin fabric.
He broke their mouths just long enough to pull of her top. Then he kissed again, while both hands fondled her breasts. Michelle’s sex felt so tight that she winced. The tingly nipple-play was making her arousal almost uncomfortable. She clenched her thighs, getting a pleasurable throb, but no satisfaction. Would it be rude to ask him to hurry up and fuck her?
Max moved his lips down to her throat, and then further, to suckled each fiercely erect nipple. She emitted soft sounds with her breaths, an attempt to convey her desperation. His hand slipped down over her tender belly, lighting it with tingles, and then breached the waistband of her shorts. Strong thick fingers pried into her moistened cleft.
“Ngh!” She had to grasp his shoulders to keep her footing.
He curled his fingers against the opening of her sex and rubbed.
Michelle got a surge of erotic pleasure that reverberated through her entire pelvis, ending with a clenching of her anus. She parted her thighs to free the movement of his hand. His palm was crushing against her sensitive clit, but the pressure at her entrance felt even more sublime. This is where the tightness needed to be relieved.
She needed him to enter her.
Without thinking she groped at his pants and pulled them down enough to reveal his erect shaft. Max grunted. He looked so hard the vein along the side of his cock was punctuated. She seized him in her fist and started masturbating him—sloppily, jerking as fast as she could.
Max snarled and his hand wrenched away from her sex. He yanked her shorts down to the floor and made her step out of them. Michelle felt her face grow hot from her nakedness. Her skin lit up with goose bumps from the eroticism of her exposure. She was painfully aware of how her tits poked outward with rock-hard pebbles topping each one.
Max pulled off his pants. His legs were as muscular as his torso. Michelle’s eyes were led to his cock. It was a formidable length and girth, not large enough to be intimidating, but he seemed to have gargantuan testicles. She had the urge to weigh each one in her palms.
He grabbed the back of her thigh and lifted her leg high enough for it to be folded toward her breast. Then he steered her calf until her heel rested on his shoulder. She clung to his shoulders once more to keep herself balanced. He had her scissored open, and her pussy stretched between her splayed legs. Michelle gaped at him with her chest heaving in breath.
His cock pressed right against her hole without his hand needed to steer it. She dug her nails into his shoulders.
“Yes!”
He pressed in, popping the head of his cock past her wall, then easing in the rest of his heated length.
Michelle felt herself throbbing inside. Her body yielded to his girth, pulsating as she was opened. Her core felt hot. It was as though she were melting, and her stomach muscles began to quiver. The one leg remaining below her buckled. She had to clutch his muscular frame with all the faltering strength left in her.
“Urgh…Ixchel.”
She looked at him. The muscles in his neck were straining. He met her eyes with a fie
ry gaze. They’d melded as their spirits demanded. She knew he was as overwhelmed as she.
“Feels so good.”
“Urgh!” He began thrusting upwards into her. The position he’d put her in made his cock beat right against her pulsing g-spot. He jabbed hard, grunting with each stroke. Michelle panted with the beats into her. Her hands roamed over his shoulders, seeking an anchor in her onslaught of riotous pleasure. Max’s rhythm persisted, with hard thrusts that made her breasts bounce. When she locked her gaze to his eyes she saw animalistic fervor. She kissed him, and he desperately sealed their lips. This lasted only a moment; his focus was once again consumed by the thrusting of his cock.
The tightness of her sex had been penetrated, and yet still felt taut around him. Every powerful stroke mashed her g-spot while pushing through stretched lips. She began to purr with heat inside. The vigor of this had her grimacing. Prickly preorgasmic thrums were tensing the muscles of her sex. Her stomach clenched, and then she whimpered. Powerful spasms seized the organ buffeting into her. She clung to Max’s shoulders with trembling arms. Her insides convulsed with toe-curling ecstasy that made blood rush to her temples. He continued thrusting and her body kept spasming. She couldn’t help but cry out with her neck craned back. Heated pleasure made her clit twinge and the whole of her body tingled.
“Hurgh!” Max’s neck muscles were now articulated and reddened.
She could feel his cock pulsating. He continued grunting and his thrusts grew stilted. He clutched her a little too hard, with all his muscles straining. A soft sound of built-up pressure came from his nostrils while his cock continued to squeeze inside her.
Then he gasped. He let her heel off his shoulder for her foot to once again connect to the floor. He joined their mouths tenderly while threading his fingers through her hair. Michelle met his kiss, beautifully sated and feeling weak.
Their embrace continued long moments, her soft flesh against his hardened muscles, and with abating heat in both their loins. When he broke he gave her a look of drunken contentment.
Michelle let herself draw a deep breath. Finally—she felt at peace.
She didn’t let the echo of the other man, the need that was still tearing at her heart, infiltrate the moment. For now she demanded nothing but contentment.
Max continued soothing her hair. “I want to take another quick shower and a nap—not necessarily in that order. But I’ll regret it tremendously if I neglect my work.”
She smiled softly. “I’ll help you with your work. Then we can shower together.”
He dove toward her to press their lips together. When he parted there was scarcely an inch between their mouths. “I feel so lucky to have you. I didn’t…when it all started. But now I feel blessed.”
She caressed the side of his face while letting the sweet sentiment permeate her. “Mmm.” She laughed through her nostrils softly. “Work.”
Max nodded with a grin. “Yes.” He took her hand in his and led her from the kitchen.
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Chapter 5
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Max took his jaguar form in the living room. Michelle did the same, with little thought. However, once she was on all fours beside him she became stricken. Max froze before her. She knew the feeling overwhelming her was mutual.
As cats their bond was harrowingly familiar. She felt a connection that spanned centuries, and one so comfortable that no spoken language was needed for them to communicate. In this form she knew everything about Max. No human baggage encumbered either of them. He was her mate, her defender, the guardian of her territory. She felt like she’d had lifetimes running beside him, hunting, wrestling, tumbling together down grassy hills.
Michelle rubbed her furry face beneath his chin. It was a greeting she knew she’d established with him lifetimes ago. Unlocking the deep soul memory made joy course through her chest.
Max licked her cheek and then nuzzled her nose. Michelle felt as though she was beaming. In this form she loved him. It was clear and palpable. Nothing she could learn about Max the man could shatter what she felt now. She understood the depth of their spirit-bond beyond the lust that had overcome her human form.
This is awesome.
Max hopped onto the couch and turned his head upside-down in a playful way to beckon her. She cuddled against him, blinking slowly as their warm bodies mingled. For a while they licked and snuggled each other. She knew they’d taken the forms for work, but the loving resonance felt too good not to savor.
Without either giving any signal, they both lowered their heads. Michelle rested her face on his large clawed paws. Their legs and tails were entwined. They fell asleep in a heap of furred warmth.
Michelle saw Max’s stream just a short leap from her own in the spirit world. Something made her look up before she headed for it. In the black void outside the streams she saw the white fuzzy line of another stream 300 feet above hers.
Votan.
He would probably be there tomorrow. She boxed her ears. It’ll be fine. You have a plan. She put all her focus back into the task at hand.
She burst into Max’s stream with an explosion of smoky white magic. Her beloved was already fighting something terrifying. Michelle cringed. This had to be one of the snoutless crocodiles he mentioned. She had no idea it stood up on two legs. Max looked as small as an ocelot where he clung to its back. He gnawed and tore with all his ferocity as the hideous black thing flailed with its short arms.
He’s going to fight this? Wouldn’t it be better just to give up on this stock?
She forced her paws to sprint toward it and chomped its underbelly. The thing fell on her, but she managed to scramble out from under it. Now they worked together to tear out its throat. It spewed a river of blood while still flailing. They nearly took its whole head off before it died.
‘Fantastic!’ Max said with his spirit voice. ‘Now there’s just the small ones.’
Small ones? There were three black furless demon dogs closing in on them that were as big as her. The fact that she couldn’t be killed in the spirit realm emboldened her. If she was wounded she’d just vanish, and the next time she returned she’d be healed. She leaped at the nearest dog and latched onto its neck. They tumbled while demon gave a hideous scream. She tried to rip out its throat but its hide was too tough. She struggled to suffocate it while the thing bucked and clawed her. It took minutes for its strength to give out, then its yellow glowing eyes dimmed. Max finished off his beast at the same time. The last one they double-teamed.
Michelle stood beside her mate panting with blood dripping from her mouth.
‘Are you alright?’ he said.
‘Just winded.’
A dozen deformed demon monkeys were crawling around the stream.
‘Relax. I’ll finish off these myself. I’m so grateful. If I can keep this stock it will carry most of the others. If you weren’t here I would have abandoned it.’
Michelle watched him kill six of the monkeys before jumping back into the fray. Then his spirit shifted them to another concern of his. There were two of the snoutless crocodiles in the stream.
‘Damn it,’ he said. ‘Forget this one, it’s not worth it. I thought it would be easy since I just cleared it yesterday.’
‘Where the heck are they coming from?’
‘It’s as though someone put a curse on me.’
Michelle bumped him with her nose. ‘We can clean it if you want. They’re big, but they can’t cause much damage.’
He fixed his yellow eyes on her. ‘Really? You’re up for it?’
She made a soft mew. ‘Sure. This is fun.’
Once the area was clean he brought her to three more. Only one had to be abandoned. It held the dark shadow of a behemoth that Max had never encountered before, and was too scared to get close to.
They woke together on the couch. Michelle’s mu
scles were tense, but she wasn’t out of breath the way she had been when she left the stream. Max hopped off the couch and took his human form. He was still naked.
“Michelle.” His eyes were gleaming. “I said our love would become real in time.” He seemed to lose his words a moment. His eyes searched the carpet. “What I felt when I was with you in our true forms. That connection.”
She transformed and stood to wrap her arms around his shoulders. “Like we already knew each other from a hundred lifetimes.”
He closed his eyes and smiled. “Like nothing imaginable. It gets muddied up when we’re human, but as jaguars it’s so clear to me.” He draped his arms around her back. “I want you to know the human me, too. I grew up in Dubuque. My dad was a rancher. My mom sold diet powders. I got interested in finance when I saw how rich the bankers were that my family had to deal with. I wanted to be a millionaire so I could buy the ancient B’alam temple grounds in Yucatan. The jaguar temple grounds. Balek-Balam. South of Chichen Itza.”
“Wow.”
“It should be a World Heritage Site, but no one knows the history of the land. Anyway—I’ve had a lot of girlfriends, intellectual women—often history majors. I always hoped there was someone who I could love enough, who I could trust enough to be real with. But you know how impossible that is.”
She nodded.
“I’m not perfect. I flub on the entertainment expenses on my taxes. I’ve broken up with a girl through text message before.”
She tsked.
“But I’m not a terrible person. And I’ve never felt this way about someone before.” He paused to wet his lips. “I want to marry you. Right away. Tomorrow.”
She smiled. “Of course.” We’ll just save the real wedding for later…because you better believe I want an actual wedding.
He turned from her. “But I have to be in the office to use the console. I need to get rid of that Asia stock the second it climbs three points.” He fumed. “Then there’s some other shuffling I need to do.”
She rubbed his bare shoulders. “It’s okay, Max. I’ll be here waiting.”
“Come with me to work tomorrow.”
Mated to the Jaguars - Paranormal M/F/M Menage Page 3
