by Susan Arden
“And you wonder who she is, don’t you?” He inhaled, his face tightly drawn with his features hardening as each moment went by. “Shannon.”
She couldn’t help but flinch. The raspy tone of his voice made her gasp. Was this the reason he’d kept apart from women?
“My sister. What a handful back then,” he said, gazing away from her as soon as their eyes met. “Are you hungry? You should be, after the energy we expended downtown. First, let’s eat and then to bed.” His voice sent a heat wave across her skin and spiked her hunger for him. The thought of food, not so much.
“She’s very beautiful. Are you close?”
A muscle twitched at the corner of his jaw; his eyes once again took on a pained expression. “We were. Once. This isn’t a story told in a few sentences. Later. Not now.”
“Of course.” She’d entertained enough edgy clients to know when to shift gears. This seemed like his Achilles heel. She had no right to poke around in his wound. “Your home is beyond belief. Do you return here each evening?”
He smiled at her, the warmth returning to his eyes. “As often as I can, but that’s not enough.”
It must have taken at least an hour by car to reach his home. From what she gathered, he worked non-stop as owner and head partner in Matrix Design, and she was still rattled by her surprise at finding he owned part of the Den.
She didn’t want to think what that meant since he’d served as her stud, and his leopard sexuality would demand he act, not sit on the sidelines. She’d already known before tonight that he owned several restaurants, businesses related to retail design, a public relations firm, and many real estate holdings in Colorado, California, and Arizona. It was all too complicated, coupled with his responsibilities to the justice council. She cast a fleeting glance back up at his sister’s portrait, taking in the young woman’s proud, haughty stare that more than likely had taken generations of alpha leopard mating to perfect.
“I wish I had a reason to force my hand but time waits for no man — or leopard. Sleeping at my apartment is easier. But enough about me. Come here, Diana.” He held out his hand to her and she crossed the floor. He wrapped her shoulder under his arm, pinning her close with his hand hooked around her waist. With his other hand he lifted her chin, his thumb tracing her jaw while gazing into her eyes. Her skin flashed heat under his amber perusal. Up close in this lighting, his eyes weren’t simply golden. Ice blue splinters in a sunburst pattern were distributed through his irises.
“Let me have you any way I desire during your stay with me.” His sensuous tone aroused her as though warm oil was being drizzled over her naked flesh. “Give in to me without reservation, holding nothing back. Without hesitation. I’ll protect you, and you’ll be with me during this cycle. And the next, and the next. You are the woman I’d treasure. The leopardess I’d come to at night. As often as I could. Anything you desire will be yours.”
But he hadn’t said the words she wanted to hear: I’d come back here to see you every night, or you’d come into town to be with me. He wanted to put her up, a cosseted erotic novelty, a stop along his varied route. She wondered uneasily, how many points did his route have? “Shawn, it’s impossible to answer you if you keep posing questions with your cock rubbing up against me.”
“What is it that you desire? I thought it was to learn how to deal with your nature. I’ll give you that and more. Much more.”
“You’re using my state against me. You can’t keep changing the game plan.”
“Why not stay here beyond this cycle? Don’t you already work flextime? I’ll build you a studio right here, anything you desire. I want you safe. Protected. Not gallivanting around Denver. You know as well as I do, running wild has to stop. Things will have to change.” His voice ramped up; a controlled roar if ever she’d heard one.
“Wait … are you saying I’d not work at Matrix anymore?”
“No. Just that we’ll extend Matrix to a satellite office here. I’ve always wanted the freedom to work from home a few days.”
She hadn’t been off the mark. A few days. He’d be free and she’d be … what? Captive on a mountain with a stern-looking driver. “I appreciate the offer and your wish to look out for me. You must give me time to think. Let me get past this heat to answer you with my head, not simply through a haze of lust. Perhaps by then you might want to rethink your feelings.”
“You won’t deny me tonight. This is mine,” he snarled, his mouth taking possession of her lips. His tongue moved apart her mouth, seeking her out.
She moaned under his assault, snaking her arms around his neck. His breath and words dispelled her resistance and coaxed her into agreeing to each and every one of his suggestions. Had he not been holding her, her knee joints would have unhinged and she’d have plopped to the floor at his feet. And that’s what she feared. Him towering over her, wielding all the power, and she would be nothing but a glorified employee — with benefits — unable to resist him.
All he’d have to do was roar a command and her leopardess self would come bounding.
He bit down on her bottom lip. “I’ll do anything to get you to agree. I want you. I act from what I feel. You in my household waiting for me is what I desire. You’ll be safe and we can make love all the time.”
Waiting. Is that what he really desired? She’d pegged him correctly.
Diana slowly looked around. The irony of Shawn having delivered her from a locked metal collar bolted to the wall of a stud room to standing in his home, another form of imprisonment — albeit, a gilded comfy cage — struck her. It was difficult to determine the reality of anything that happened during the evening for her or him. Only distance and the ability to ponder objectively might enable her to make a sound decision, but linear thinking wasn’t available right then and there.
“I don’t know if that would be the best choice for me.” She drew in a serrated breath. There could be many people tucked away inside this home for all she knew about him. The home wasn’t simply large, it was sprawling.
They moved through another room with more sofas and tables, then down a hall past a dining room with a table that easily seated twenty people. He was so seamless at Matrix. Not once did he flaunt his lifestyle or his level of wealth.
Her heart thudded. Holy Mary, Shawn would hear her heartbeat with his leopard perception. Predator to prey. She listened to the silence of their passage; she could hear his pulse race but with a familiar tempo that her leopardess perception recognized as encouraging. He was attracted to her. That was truth. For all her trepidation, she must now question her own wishes, and how to structure and build her life now that her walls had been breached by him. Shawn had given her a gift by turning her darkness inside out.
Yet with his gift, he’d made her aware of a fragility that had never existed. With Cole she had never felt this powerlessness.
Shawn made her want things she’d learned as a girl to put aside and forget. Her family would have looked at him with greedy eyes. Her heart saw a man who held her fixed in his gaze for the moment. The future was as uncertain as ever, yet she wasn’t alone any more. To never have known this type of shifter existed would have saved her from heartbreak. Now, that was too late.
A flock of fleeting thoughts teased her, then darted away. His strange, inordinate interest in her. If she refused him, he might fire her, leaving her without a reference and alone. Or worse, take him up on his offer and she’d be tainted professionally for sleeping her way to the top. Both choices had bad endings. Doubt stabbed her own heart double-time.
“Don’t look so worried. Nothing need be decided upon this second. I want you, Diana. I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to convince you this could work out splendidly.”
“And you don’t fear the issues? What if this is all hormones? Nothing but a sex-crazed phase?”
Go back to her old life. Emotional hues of despair, sorrow, had changed to bright-warm-clear skies of not being alone. Say no and go back to a dismal existence. Diana shook h
er head. The soft echoes of the home and her thoughts converged.
She was haunted by confusion and realized that it might take an exorcism of emotions to clear away the detritus of her spirit. Her best game plan involved passive resistance in the form of completely noncommittal responses. She tried to change the subject in lieu of giving in to the man who asked too much. He opened doors into far too many areas within her, and now this request shook her to the bone. Following him, she was nearly lost, unable to find either the way in or the way out.
“Because it’s not.”
She refused to give in. “This house is unbelievable. I imagine balls, dinner parties, a time when salons were held. How many rooms are there?”
“Last count, eight bedrooms and thirteen baths. Two living rooms and all the other usual areas. I’ve a few that remain empty. I stalled and didn’t want to commit until the moment was right. I thought the right feminine touch would come in handy.”
She sharply inhaled. Did her sensei read minds and the future? Was he such an expert player that he’d infer what she wanted to hear? No lies, only suggestions. She nervously laughed. “Understandable. I imagine furniture shopping could get mind-numbing after, say, the ninth room.”
“Surprisingly, when it’s your own, it does get old rather fast. Paint chips and textiles took me down. I cried uncle after a year.”
“You’ve only been here a year?” She didn’t want to think back twelve months. Her life had been utter hell.
“The land has been in the family for generations. I marked the foundation years ago and then it sat. I’ve enjoyed being footloose and fancy free, enjoying the perks until that lifestyle suddenly was no longer appealing. Anyway, we’re here now. Enough to keep us satisfied. If not, we’ll get whatever you desire.”
“For now, I think if I could get some clothing, I’d be set.” She refused to think about this tantalizing offer he tossed about so glibly. The odd truth — that he wasn’t bonded to a mate — had her wondering. More than likely, half of the available shifters in Denver, even the United States, considered him an eligible bachelor. Toss in available women who didn’t know he was a wereleopard, and the numbers went exponential.
An alpha such as Shawn would bond to an alpha shifter. Those shifters didn’t put up with other females mating with her consort, just as this man wouldn’t permit his bonded mate to copulate with another male. This cycle must have gotten to his brain as well. What in God’s name was he really asking her? In her world, this meant ties and lineage if she was an alpha.
It was one thing to run away from home with her childhood sweetheart. It was a very different thing to mate with a clan alpha. From what she could tell, he was childless; that was one scent impossible to mask. Based on his sexual prowess, Shawn’s all-too-powerful more-orgasms would result in a brood of cubs. The thought of having not just one child but several to care for hit her full-force. Her career would be effectively over.
This was crazy, to take his asking her to live with him as anything more than a temporary arrangement. She nibbled her fingernail, imagining how beautiful his children would be. During a heat cycle, this was not helpful thinking!
The room blazed hotter, her skin shrunk, and she pulled at her neckline. Think, she told herself. Nothing to get boxed in over. This wasn’t a life sentence. She was free to march out the door. Fin would take her home. She was here of her own accord. Her erratic thoughts were just the product of her heat cycle.
“Would you care for something to drink?” he asked.
“Yes, please,” she said, shaky and acutely aware she needed to gather her wits. One step at a time. Easy as pie.
He pushed a swinging door and they entered into a huge kitchen that more than likely was the size of one of his restaurants. “A full gourmet kitchen. I believe you mentioned you loved cooking when we first met.”
“Your memory serves you well.” She stopped talking. Good God, it was the largest kitchen in a private home she’d ever seen. “I’ve got one word: luxe. This kitchen is out of control.”
Intriguing how he’d combined different textures to create a modern, warm atmosphere. Natural stones and woods. Industrial stainless. Hand-blown glass. From the intricate tiled floors to the smooth granite counters, unending horizontal surfaces begged her gaze to continue skirting the room, only hesitating to note the polished white cabinets, ultra-modern chic lighting, and the several sinks. Over the island were gleaming copper pans hanging from an ornate wrought-iron rack attached to a ceiling higher than those at his club. She followed him as he stood and pulled the handle on a veneered Sub-Zero. Escaping mists from the freezer surrounded them in a chilling cloud as he removed a bottle of vodka.
“Here, please put this on the counter,” he said, opening the refrigerator where he pulled out a wrapped tray. She set the bottle down. “Let me help,” she said, reaching for the refrigerator door handle.
“Thanks. I hope you enjoy smoked salmon. I remember you eating some at that breakfast during the holidays.”
She peeked at him from under her lowered lashes. “How did you even remember that day? You were surrounded by your clients.”
“Most of us generally live in contradiction. We ignore what’s important and attend to the details that are meaningless without context. I’ve always leaned into the light where you’re concerned.”
“Leaned into the light?” she asked, uncertain what he meant.
“Paid attention to you,” he murmured, a hot glow emanating from his eyes.
Her skin rippled with pleasure. He would have her groveling if she didn’t pace herself. Beginning right this second. She contemplated the small bowls on the tray.
“Everything looks delectable.” She couldn’t say for sure what she’d eaten at the meeting he described, but she vaguely remembered having tasted lox and cream cheese. But the Beluga caviar, Greek olives, pickled beets, and tomato and onions drizzled with balsamic vinegar and oil was certainly appetite inspiring. Everything she’d naturally select was here. Not one item wasn’t something she had come to relish — her ultimate brunch.
Shawn moved away from her, the source of ember-like heat going with him. He opened a cabinet and removed two plates. He set them at the counter before padded leather barstools. She followed his example, placing the tray near the plates.
“What else do we need?”
“Just silverware and glasses. If you turn around and count two cabinets over, you’ll find them. Get the tumblers. Do you mind?” Arrogance as a style looked good on him. The set of his jaw and arch of his brow made the space between her legs ache to be dominated. He moved and opened a drawer, removing flatware.
She opened the cabinet, noticing that the wood smelled of wax and lemons. She gazed across the neat rows of crystal, far different from the jumbled mess in her cabinet of unmatched glasses. She lifted a crystal tumbler. Not the lightweight kind. This one rested heavy in her hand. Waterford, she’d bet on it.
She set one glass down on the counter rather than run the risk of dropping it, and shut the cabinet. She turned just as he opened the bottle of Belvedere vodka.
“How do you feel?” he asked as he watched her from behind half-closed lids.
Jesus, she almost dropped a glass, unnerved by his expression. Was she on the menu and no one had informed her?
“Nervous, but hungry. You were right. I’m starved.”
“Come sit and let’s take care of one hunger, then another. And there’s nothing to be nervous about.”
“Said the spider to the fly,” she murmured.
“Sweetheart, there’s nothing insect-like about you. Delectable, yes; creepy-crawler, impossible. If anything, that mouth of yours is more like a slice of heaven wrapped around me, as is your pussy. Drink with me to how I will fuck you in my bed. The things you’ll learn.” He handed her a drink with barely a finger of vodka. Shawn raised his glass, his gaze locking with hers. “To enlightenment.”
“And easing the pains of hunger. Thank you for taking me on during t
his crisis and clearing my head.”
He smiled across at her. “Diana, I can’t pretend. I desired you the moment we met. I respect you immensely as a graphic artist. For all you’ve been through, you needn’t fear this is one more act of craziness. Not with me.”
They clinked their glasses and he flipped the crystal tumbler back, pouring the entire serving of vodka into his mouth. No wonder he didn’t fill their glasses. He drank Russian style.
She watched him over her rim, the vodka slipping over her tongue. She swallowed the shot of smooth liquor, setting her glass down. Diana stood next to him with his dark good looks as he poured more velvet-tasting liquor to accompany his equally smooth words..
The idea of going clubbing with him, tossing back shots, and listening to music when she was past the haze of a heat would be a treat. He’d be hard to resist while dancing with his hot, hard body bending over her, bending her to his will. He gazed back at her, his face serious, begging the question of why the sudden change in his affect.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“How to finish this meal in a hurry.”
Chapter 8
During their meal, he kept thinking of what her life had been like this past year. With his staff, he kept all his interactions above board so they’d never discussed her life outside Matrix. There was no crossing of lines or muddying the waters at Matrix or at the Den, not after his learning by fire with Mia and Frazier.
“Let me tidy up.” Diana began to stack the plates in the dishwasher. Shawn came up behind her, bracketing her hips between his hands and rubbing his stiffening cock against her tempting ass.
“Don’t worry about all this. Come. It’s time for bed.”
She swayed her bottom against him, and it was either take her here in the kitchen, or get her upstairs. His housekeeper might not know he’d arrived home and wander in without warning. He clenched his jaw, his desire to mount Diana swimming in his mind. “Now,” he snapped, pulling her body back from the counter.
