Her Panther Protector [The Protectors 5] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Doris O'Connor

  When her heartbeat resembled something more akin to a normal pattern and she could actually form the words to speak her thoughts, Macey had to ask. “Mrs. H? She’s the village elder, right? I saw a picture of her in the online newspaper.”

  Sasha’s smile deepened and he nodded his approval.

  “You’ve been doing your research.”

  Macey shrugged her shoulders, and then fixed her gaze on a spot on the wall where Kenny had pulled the wallpaper off. She would need to fix that before it tore more, and she’d have to re-do the whole wall.

  “All too little too late, it seems, or I never would have bought this place.”

  Sasha growled low in his throat and every feminine cell in Macey’s body sighed in submission at that animalistic rumble. The vibrations shook the bed and centered in her clit, and Macey took a hasty gulp of her tea to mask her body’s reaction. Insane, that’s what this was. She ought to be horrified, not so turned-on that she wanted to jump the man in front of her.

  “Meaning?” he asked, and Macey did her best to let her shoulders do a nonchalant shrug. Unfortunately, her body didn’t seem inclined to follow the commands of her befuddled brain and all she achieved was sloshing hot tea over her fingers as she tilted her cup inadvertently.

  Macey yelped, and Sasha pulled the mug out of her hand. When he inspected her fingers and took each one in his mouth to suck the left over tea off them, Macey lost the ability to think at all. Her mouth fell open and she was pretty sure she moaned her way through that.

  When he finally released her hand, she was breathing heavily and didn’t hear a word of what he said to her.

  “What?” she asked, and amusement lit up his face. He looked more like the old, cocky Sasha now, and that helped to clear her mush-for-brains somewhat.

  “I said you will live. No harm done, kitten.”

  Macey frowned as the flash of blue lace caught her attention again, and she yanked the sheet back under her chin.

  “You had no right,” she said, and Sasha smirked.

  “You were out cold, darling, and I figured you’d be more comfortable out of it. I could pretend I didn’t look, but that would be a lie. You have an amazing rack.”

  He handed her the mug back when she was going to give him a dressing-down, and something about the way he studied her made her protest die. It wasn’t the lecherous look she was expecting to see. Oh, his eyes flashed in lust, for sure, but there was also concern and affection, and a much deeper emotion that made her heart turn over in her chest and sent thrills of excitement through her veins. He looked like a man who truly cared about her, and while that had to be wishful thinking on her part, she couldn’t help but respond to it anyway, especially when he traced the line of her jaw with one long index finger, and murmured his next words.

  “I never want to lie to you, Macey.”

  Chapter Eight

  Macey drew a shuddering breath into her lungs and shook her head at him, and his gut twisted in on itself. She didn’t believe him, and her next words confirmed that.

  “I wish I could believe that, but you’ve been lying to me since the moment we met.”

  His panther roared his displeasure at her halting words, and Sasha pulled back. Taking a deep breath in, he slowly unfurled the tight fists his fingers had formed. While he was furious at her calling him a liar, another part of him filled with pride at the way she lifted her chin and stared him down.

  She’d barely recovered from seeing him shift. Nonetheless, here she was, human and fragile, yet standing her ground.

  “And you haven’t been doing that exact same thing to me, kitten?” he asked, more than satisfied by the way her breathing sped up and heat stained her cheeks. Unless he was very much mistaken, hearing him call her kitten had the same effect on her as her earlier calling him Sir had on him. If they ever got past this impasse, they could have so much fun exploring that dynamic.

  “I haven’t…I mean…I…” Her words trailed off and she couldn’t quite look at him.

  “Really?” He dropped his voice and goose bumps popped out over her arms. “Then tell me why a nurse knows how to use a handgun, and why you’re looking after your nephew. Where is his mother?”

  “She’s dead, okay?” Macey shouted the words at him, and when he made a move toward her, she scooted off the other side of the bed and turned her back on him. “Don’t, just don’t. If you touch me now, I’ll lose the plot completely. I tell you what you want to know, just, for the love of god, don’t.”

  He wanted to take her in his arms so badly every fiber of his body hurt, but Sasha ignored his whining inner animal and somehow managed to get the words past the huge lump of emotion in his throat. Not for the woman he couldn’t even remember, but for the little guy who slept in the next room, and for the grief that poured off Macey right now.

  “I won’t, kitten, but, please turn around and look at me.”

  Macey’s shoulders shook as though she was crying, and sure enough, when she did turn round, moisture slid down her face. She made no move to wipe the tears away and Sasha’s heart broke for her.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “She overdosed.” At his sharp intake of breath, Macey smiled grimly and started to pace. “At least that’s what the police said.”

  “You don’t believe she did?”

  Macey shook her head and stopped dead.

  “No, she wouldn’t. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Fiona was no angel— far from it—and when you and she must have done the horizontal shimmy, she was high most of the time, but she changed when she had Kenny.”

  Sasha huffed in relief and the tight ball of agony that was his guts untangled slightly. Knowing his son had been loved by his mother meant a lot.

  “I mean, I couldn’t believe it when she turned up pregnant on my doorstep. Even though we were twins, we weren’t close. Fiona always seemed to think I judged her. I didn’t, not really, but I was ten minutes older, and I always made it my job to look after her when we were growing up. Well, someone had to. Mum was certainly not up for the job. Fiona rebelled from an early age, so I had to be the responsible one. Yeah, go me.”

  She glanced at him and, at his encouraging nod, finally stopped pacing, and when he patted the space next to him on the bed, she sat down with a sigh. Sasha, too, sat down, close enough to, but not touching her. It was enough to be here with her, for her to open up and explain some of the mysteries of how Kenny came to be in the first place.

  “I haven’t got any siblings,” he said, “but I can imagine I’d have felt the same way in the circumstances.”

  Macey pursed her lips as though she didn’t believe him, and he ran a hand over his face. It sure was exhausting this battling against her misconceptions, but he had to get through to her.

  “Let me guess, spoilt only child who got away with anything?”

  Sasha shook his head, and even to his own ears, his laugh sounded bitter.

  “Hardly. Yes, my parents were well-off and respected members of the community, and they loved me, but they managed to get themselves killed in a car accident when I was fourteen.”

  “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed…” Sasha growled at Macey’s gentle voice and the hesitant brush of her fingers over his arm, as though she wanted to give him some reassurance. His skin burned at the touch and he inhaled sharply and forced himself not to shake her hand off. He didn’t want her pity.

  “It’s okay. That all happened a long time ago, and—”

  “Bull, of course it matters.” Her nails dug into his arm as she tightened her hold on him, and his beast all but rolled over in happiness. She almost sounded as though she cared about him, or at least the young and confused teenager he had been back then.

  “Losing someone you love is never okay, no matter how old you are, or the circumstances in which it happens. I mean, my mother was a useless twat, but she was still my mother and when she died, I still mourned her.”

  Sasha had to laugh at her use of words, and a s
hiver went through her when he put his large hand over hers on his arm. The connection between them shimmered and arched in almost visible electricity, and Sasha shut his eyes and let his senses take over. Macey felt it, too. It was there in her sharp intake of breath, the way her breathing sped up, and she instinctively leaned in closer until the side of her breast touched his shoulder.

  “Insane, this is just…” She didn’t seem capable of finishing that sentence, but when Sasha put his arm around her back to pull her closer into his side, she didn’t resist that contact and his beast purred when she snuggled in with a sigh and rested her head on his shoulder.

  “I still won’t sleep with you,” she said, and Sasha laughed. She slapped his chest, and her breathing hitched when he caught her hand and, lifting it up to his lips, turned it over so that he could drop a series of kisses on her palm. When she didn’t protest, he kissed his way slowly up her slender arm, lingering on her pulse points, satisfied to see her heart rate increase.

  “Sasha, please, we can’t.”

  Her breathy denial shot straight to his cock, and she screeched when he turned them so that she was laying flat on the bed with him towering over her. Eyes wide and lips trembling, she ran her hands over his chest as he kept his weight off of her with his arms while pressing the lower half of his body against her. His cock jerked against the confines of his jeans, and he allowed himself a few shallow thrusts against her abdomen before he stilled and studied her expression.

  “On the contrary, we should do this now, but I won’t, not until you’re ready and you’re practically begging me for my touch, kitten.”

  Fire flashed in her expressive eyes, and she tried her utmost to push him off her. She yelped when he grasped her wrists and held them high above her head. With his weight pinning her in place, she had nowhere to go, and her hard nipples pressed into his chest.

  “Let me go, you damn arrogant oaf. I don’t want this, you…umpph.”

  Her struggle ceased when he claimed her mouth in a kiss, and his beast panted his approval. All that was Macey exploded on his tongue as he ran his tongue along her lips repeatedly, urging her to open for him. When she did on a moan and her hesitant tongue flicked out to meet his, Sasha lost the fight with himself to go slow. He wanted this woman with every fiber of his being, and whether she believed him or not, she was his.

  He groaned his approval when she kissed him back and opened her legs to enable him to settle himself between her thighs, and pleasure erupted along his nerve endings as he thrust his hips into her groin repeatedly. Macey met every thrust of his with a nudge of her hips, and even through the clothing separating them, he felt the wet heat of her pussy. It called him to taste, to claim what was his, but a small part of him still held back. He needed to know that she truly wanted this, wasn’t just responding to the heat of the moment, because if he saw regret in her eyes, it would damn well kill him.

  Tongues dueling, their kiss turned ever more passionate, and Macey locked her ankles behind his butt and ground her pussy into the hard ridge in his jeans when he stopped moving and reluctantly released her mouth to enable them both to breathe.

  Panting, he studied her expression, satisfied to her see as much in thrall as he was. Face flushed and her lips swollen by his kisses, she looked just like he felt, caught up in the whirlwind of emotion that surrounded them.

  Macey drew a shuddering breath into her lungs, and another, and he grinned at her whispered moan.

  “I don’t beg—ever.”

  “We shall see about that,” Sasha said, and her eyes widened in alarm when he transferred both her wrists into one of his hands, and, lifting off her slightly, cupped her mound with his free hand while rubbing his jaw along the sensitive skin under her ear.

  Her grunt of pleasure told him all he needed to know, and she made no move to stop him when he pulled the waistband of her leggings down and then slid his fingers under the elastic of her panties until he found her slick flesh.

  “Hmm, so wet for me already, kitten, and we’ve barely started. Your mind might struggle with this, but your body knows we belong together.”

  A long, drawn moan escaped his girl when he ran his fingers through her wet slit and then circled her clit. The needy little bundle of nerves contracted under the pad of this thumb and Macey ground her hips against the light contact he maintained.

  Eyes shut, she arched off the bed and shook her head. “No, please, I don’t….Oh god, that feels too good…Don’t stop, please…”

  Sasha caught her incoherent mumble in another searing kiss, and she kissed him back with ever-increasing urgency as he kept up his erotic assault on her pussy lips. Her body started to tremble when he slid first one and then two more fingers into her channel, and found the raised little spot he was looking for. Macey tensed. She would have bowed off the bed completely had it not been for his hold on her wrists, and he pulled back to see his girl fall apart.

  Her internal muscles squeezed around his fingers, and he wished like fuck it was his cock they were milking instead of his digits. He was in serious danger of shooting his own load in his pants like a randy teenager, but the discomfort was worth it to see his mate fall apart. She hovered on the precipice for what seemed like ages, body shaking and breath coming in harsh gasps, and when Sasha bit one of the erect nipples that called him like come play with me beacons, Macey came with a gush of her fluid around his fingers, and a keening cry of completion.

  Sasha swore softy and, releasing her wrists, put his hand over her mouth instead to muffle her scream, mindful of the little guy sleeping next door. He kept up the lazy circles he drew around her now hugely engorged clit until he’d rung the last of her aftershocks out of her body, and Macey grew limp and pliant underneath him.

  “That’s my girl,” he said. “So fucking beautiful.”

  Tears seeped out from under her closed eyelids, and he almost didn’t catch her whispered, “Wow, that was…not fair…I…”

  The sound of the door handle turning followed by the scent of Kenny and his sleep-laden little voice doused Sasha’s own arousal as effectively as a cold fucking shower. Macey, too, froze and made a hasty grab for her covers, when he jumped off her, just in time to face his son.

  * * * *

  “Mama?”

  Barely recovered from the most amazing climax she’d had in a long time, if not ever, that one word, made Macey grab for the covers with a speed that rivaled Sasha’s jumping off her.

  “Yes, baby, I’m here.” She grimaced at the breathiness of her voice, and thanked every deity she had ever heard of that Kenny seemed half-asleep and didn’t seem to find anything amiss. Teddy trailing behind him, he rubbed his eyes, yawned and scooted under the covers with her when Macey held them open for him with a smile.

  “Bad dream, my lovely?” she asked, and he nodded and wrapped his arms around her with a desperation that tugged at her heart. She glanced across at Sasha and the flash of annoyance she’d seen on his face was instantly replaced with worry. Poor guy. At least she’d come, and rather spectacularly at that, but he hadn’t. The long, hard ridge testing the zipper of his jeans had to hurt, and sure enough, when he reached down to adjust himself, he winced in pain.

  Despite the situation, or maybe because of it, Macey’s lips kicked up into a reluctant smile, and Sasha’s eyebrows drew together in a frown, even as his gaze stayed on his son. He took a step toward him, but stopped when she shook her head and gestured to the door.

  He looked all set to argue, but when Kenny whimpered and snuggled in closer, he swore softly under his breath and left the room with one long last look at them both.

  Macey sighed and started humming an old lullaby that she’d discovered long ago, worked at soothing Kenny back to sleep. It broke her heart the way he clung to her, half asleep, half awake, yet still seemingly caught up in whatever nightmare he had this time. If only he would tell her what he dreamt about, though Macey suspected she knew what it was. It was the night his mother had died, and she couldn’t sh
ake the awful suspicion that this little frightened boy had seen it all. She would have to talk to Sasha about that. They’d never finished their discussion, after all.

  God, they had so much to discuss, still, and she really shouldn’t have let him do what he did, but at the time, her body had just taken over. If she was honest with herself, it had just felt right, and so damn pleasurable.

  If she squeezed her thighs together, the leftover tingles hummed through her again, and she shut her eyes and concentrated on Kenny instead. He had to be her first, if not only priority, and not the man who made her body sing. Lord, he’d barely touched her, really, and yet it had been one of the most erotically charged experiences of her life. What would it feel like if he actually sunk that big cock of his inside her and made her his?

  Maybe this was what sex was supposed to be like with the right person. The cynic inside of her, the woman who’d been hurt in the past, scoffed at that notion, but her tender heart that seemed determined to beat in tune with the overbearing, dominant playboy, who no doubt was waiting for her downstairs, sighed in submission.

  If she let her guard down, she could so easily fall in love with that guy. After all, she had fallen head-over-heels in lust the minute she saw him, if she was honest with herself, but love…that was a terrifying thought.

  Macey lost track of time as she sung to Kenny, until his little body finally went limp in her arms and she could leave him on her bed. She pulled a face at her reflection when she spotted it in the bathroom mirror and hastily ran a hairbrush through her short, blonde hair. She did roll her eyes at her actions. After what they had shared already, she highly doubted Sasha would care about her hair’s attempt to imitate a hedgehog, but she had to make herself presentable. Her damp knickers chafed and she chucked them and the ruined leggings into the washing basket, and, wetting a washcloth, freshened up.